Book a Week 2015 - BW36: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[Stacia]

Finished Andrew Miller's historical fiction novel "Pure" today. It can be enjoyed as a piece of historical fiction, as well as as for its depths & layers concerning the many winds of change in pre-revolutionary France. Quite excellent & recommended, especially for fans of historical fiction.

[Stacia]

I thought Packing for Mars was fascinating when I read it a few years back.... It didn't make me feel claustrophobic, but then again, I always dreamed of being an astronaut when I was a kid. I loved learning that meals for early space missions were designed by Army veterinarians, lol. I guess that was appropriate in a way since astronauts are under as much scrutiny & monitoring as zoo animals.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm reading Packing for Mars to dd at the moment! (Except for the not so PG rated bits. :huh:  )

[Onceuponatime]

I could not be an astronaut. I am firmly attached to this earth, relatively fresh air, open spaces, and the color green.

 

Rosie, what does your dd think so far?

[Shawneinfl]

Finally finished a book!  :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett which also redeemed my dry spell of reading clunkers. I'm thinking of giving Bel Canto another try now. The first time I only made it through a few chapters.

[shukriyya]

Finally finished a book!  :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett which also redeemed my dry spell of reading clunkers. I'm thinking of giving Bel Canto another try now. The first time I only made it through a few chapters.

 

Ha, I loved Bel Canto but couldn't get into State of Wonder.

[Stacia]

Another Bel Canto lover here...

[Rosie_0801]

Rosie, what does your dd think so far?

 

I think it is a bit too detailed so as to be a bit tedious for her. She is interested in some of the generalities and mostly thinks there's a lot of gross stuff involved.

 

 

I'm  :party:

I finally, after about 8 or 9 months, finished The Kosher Kitchen: A Practical Guide, Rabbi Binyomin Forst! I don't understand how all Jews haven't become vegan to treat their food anxiety. I don't know how they don't all have food anxiety.  :ohmy: 

[mumto2]

I finished The Rookhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook?from_search=true&search_version=serviceand really liked it. Unless I up my reading game significantly it will be on my best of 2015 list. It is a fun book with an ending that definitely turns it into the first in a series.

 

This morning I discovered that one of my libraries which had been closed for a remodel (so automatic unlimited renewals) had reopened and was having a party today. Great except my books are due Friday and won't renew online anymore. I won't be able to go in and return the huge stack we are done with until next week. I was contemplating out loud how inconvenient my phone call would be to renew with a librarians help....dh popped up with "They won't be busy, who attends a reopening party at a library". He was shocked when I said I would....

[Jane in NC]

I finished Imperium the other day and have been stumped regarding what to say about it.  What an odd little book!  There is the storyline of the fanatical "cocovore" who sails off to the South Seas. The telling of the tale is equally odd with not just ironic and often catty foreshadowing but it is also filled with colliding tidbits of fact and fiction that on the surface have nothing to do with the plot itself.

 

Here is the NYT review of the book.

 

Now that I am finished with the book, I can't say that I recommend it.  Yet I would love to know what others think of it. 

[Shawneinfl]

I finished Imperium the other day and have been stumped regarding what to say about it.  What an odd little book!  There is the storyline of the fanatical "cocovore" who sails off to the South Seas. The telling of the tale is equally odd with not just ironic and often catty foreshadowing but it is also filled with colliding tidbits of fact and fiction that on the surface have nothing to do with the plot itself.

 

Here is the NYT review of the book.

 

Now that I am finished with the book, I can't say that I recommend it.  Yet I would love to know what others think of it. 

 

Wow Jane. I read the review, if only to find out what a cocovore was. What a strange book. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it past the first chapter but I'm glad there are adventurous souls like you to do the heavy literary lifting for me.

[Kareni]

Today is the final day of my sister and brother-in-law's visit.  Three days go awfully quickly.

 

I managed to squeeze in a late night re-read of Thea Harrison's novella The Wicked (Elder Races).  I enjoyed it once more.

 

"For a librarian with a focus on rare magic books, Olivia’s new job is a dream come true. She has been hired as part of a team to help manage the safe transportation of the collection of books owned by the Vampyre sorceress Carling Severan. The fact that the library is located on a mysterious island in an Other land only heightens the adventure.

 

Head of security for the expedition, Sebastian Hale is tired of his rootless life of adventure and finds himself attracted to the calm, beautiful librarian. But he is living a personal nightmare. He has been hit with a curse that is slowly taking away his sight, and he doesn’t know if he will survive the results.

 

But the powerful feelings growing between them, along with Sebastian’s inner turmoil, take a backseat when they learn there is a traitor lurking among their expedition team. With Elder Races politics and a priceless library on the line, they’ll have to rely on each other to survive the experience."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pam in CT]

Finally finished a book!  :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett which also redeemed my dry spell of reading clunkers. I'm thinking of giving Bel Canto another try now. The first time I only made it through a few chapters.

:party: re: redemption of dry spell of clunkers.  So you ended up liking State of Wonder?  I loved the first half and then it just seemed to get weirder and weirder... Bel Canto OTOH, which I read first, I liked very much.

 

 

I'm  :party:

I finally, after about 8 or 9 months, finished The Kosher Kitchen: A Practical Guide, Rabbi Binyomin Forst! I don't understand how all Jews haven't become vegan to treat their food anxiety. I don't know how they don't all have food anxiety.  :ohmy: 

:lol:

 

I would estimate that at least half of the Reform rabbis I know have given up meat (some of them do eat fish, which as you now know can swing both ways) for this very reason -- on the one hand, they want to respect the tradition, but on the other, they just can't deal.

[Violet Crown]

Reading updates:

 

1. My dear friend who poured years of your life into writing this (very competently written) novel (which is actually set in the modern South; it only starts out in the Old South; my bad) of 600+ pages ... I'm so sorry, I can't go on. It adheres to Mansfield Park a little too faithfully, and I didn't like MP the first time round. Though I thought having the female protagonist be actually disabled instead of just debilitatingly shy was an actual improvement on the original.

 

2. I am a little hurt that nobody identified the passage from Piers Plowman I excerpted. Come, it's not too difficult! Here's the giveaway verses:

 

Ther ne was raton (rat) in al the route, for al the reaume (realm) of France,

That dorste (durst) have bounden the belle aboute the cattes nekke,

 

It's going faster as my Chaucer-skillz come back. But I need peace and quiet ("Mommmmmmmy...") to stay in the Zone.

 

3. So now I have turned to Lermontov for Potentially Interrupted reading time. Thanks Jane, and the picture on the cover makes me laugh happily every time I look at it.

 

4. Scottish novels. http://the-toast.net/2015/06/04/every-scottish-novel-ever/

It's so true. I especially like #5, which gathers in modern Scottish literature. In fact I think I have that very book waiting in my TBR pile. Dh says it covers Lanark pretty well, too.

 

And I've actually seen the painting of the Highlander featured on the web page, in a little museum that is pretty much the only thing worth going to see in the city of Dundee. Dundee is like the Waco of Scotland.

[Violet Crown]

I finally, after about 8 or 9 months, finished The Kosher Kitchen: A Practical Guide, Rabbi Binyomin Forst! I don't understand how all Jews haven't become vegan to treat their food anxiety. I don't know how they don't all have food anxiety. :ohmy:

One of my favorite memories of Child Food Pickiness is of a very young man who, displeased with the unpeeled boiled egg I was offering him for a snack when he knew perfectly well there were granola bars in my cupboard, announced that he wouldn't eat it because it might not be a hen's egg. Because not all eggs are okay, and how did he know it wasn't from an ostrich or something? I assured him it was from a Good Ol Texas hen, but he was adamant, and it turned out that nowhere on the carton did it actually say the eggs were from hens. He was triumphant and I caved and gave him the granola bar.

[Lady Florida.]

I don't want to give spoilers for those who haven't yet read or finished Bel Canto. I read it about 7 or 8 years ago for book club. I liked it until...I didn't. I wasn't happy with the denouement. 

[Stacia]

I don't want to give spoilers for those who haven't yet read or finished Bel Canto. I read it about 7 or 8 years ago for book club. I liked it until...I didn't. I wasn't happy with the denouement.

I'll agree. The final part was... Different? Not expected? Not liked?

 

Still, though, I loved the rest of the book enough to overlook the aberration.

[idnib]

I think you'd enjoy Travesties more if you see/read TIOBE first.  Travesties is the Ulysses riffing one, Arcadia is my favorite Stoppard, but unconnected to JJ.  

 

I just finished TIOBE. I had no idea it was so hilarious!

[Stacia]

VC, Belling the cat?

[Violet Crown]

VC, Belling the cat?

Ding ding ding ding ding

 

Yes!

[Butter]

I read The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale.  It's not really a book, but a short story.  It was okay.  Mostly it was boring and slow.

 

Now I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.  That was my great-grandfather's favorite book (I knew him very well since he lived next door and died when I was 8 - he was 97!).  My mom loves it, too, and told me to read it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Finished listening to Krakatoa.  Loved it! Thanks for the rec, Jenn.

 

I don't think my dd will like it at this point, she doesn't like the death-and-destruction stuff, but it makes me sad, because it's such a brilliant interconnection of geology, evolutionary theory, island biogeography, Dutch colonial/Indonesian history, and more. Exactly what I'm looking for in a living book, something that pulls all these seemingly disparate fields together.

 

Anybody got suggestions of favorite books of this type, minus the tidal waves, drowning, and other mayhem?  No infectious diseases either, another topic that I (weirdly) enjoy reading about.

[idnib]

Finished listening to Krakatoa.  Loved it! Thanks for the rec, Jenn.

 

I don't think my dd will like it at this point, she doesn't like the death-and-destruction stuff, but it makes me sad, because it's such a brilliant interconnection of geology, evolutionary theory, island biogeography, Dutch colonial/Indonesian history, and more. Exactly what I'm looking for in a living book, something that pulls all these seemingly disparate fields together.

 

Anybody got suggestions of favorite books of this type, minus the tidal waves, drowning, and other mayhem?  No infectious diseases either, another topic that I (weirdly) enjoy reading about.

 

Thanks for the review. I was thinking about using it as a living book for DS this year as part of our Earth science studies. DS is sensitive about some things and not others. How gory was it?

 

(And in my research I saw an old post from you about the Scientists in the Field series. Thank you!)

 

Can you be more specific about other books you're looking for? Other books about natural disasters, volcanoes, this specific eruption, excellent blending of history and science, etc?

[shukriyya]

Finished listening to Krakatoa.  Loved it! Thanks for the rec, Jenn.

 

I don't think my dd will like it at this point, she doesn't like the death-and-destruction stuff, but it makes me sad, because it's such a brilliant interconnection of geology, evolutionary theory, island biogeography, Dutch colonial/Indonesian history, and more. Exactly what I'm looking for in a living book, something that pulls all these seemingly disparate fields together.

 

Anybody got suggestions of favorite books of this type, minus the tidal waves, drowning, and other mayhem?  No infectious diseases either, another topic that I (weirdly) enjoy reading about.

 

What about Twenty-One Balloons? Ds read this last year and really enjoyed it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks for the review. I was thinking about using it as a living book for DS this year as part of our Earth science studies. DS is sensitive about some things and not others. How gory was it?

 

(And in my research I saw an old post from you about the Scientists in the Field series. Thank you!)

 

Can you be more specific about other books you're looking for? Other books about natural disasters, volcanoes, this specific eruption, excellent blending of history and science, etc?

 

Right, here I am crossing my wires and assuming you guys all know what we are studying this year!  Sorry. We're doing Science Literacy/History of Science for a blended science/history double credit, and for lit we are reading sci fi/fantasy that examines scientific themes.  We're using Joy of Science, 12 Essential Scientific Concepts, Redefining Reality TC courses as a spine.  And so we're doing a combination of fiction and nonfiction really great readable books - some she is reading independently, some I'm doing as read alouds.  I'm looking for really compelling, readable, interesting books about any science, but ideally books that integrate or meld the sciences.  That's what I liked so much about Krakatoa.  We're planning to read aloud Voyage of the Beagle, Origin of Species, and Beak of the Finch, and she will read Henrietta Lacks, The Double Helix, Remarkable Creatures, and things like that.  I don't really need more, our list is pretty extensive, but I was looking for a good book that covered earth sciences, ecology, etc.  But any science, really.

 

What I thought she wouldn't like about Krakatoa: the whole end-of-the-world thing - the idea that a natural disaster could destroy local civilization. We live right along the San Andreas fault, and it has been a source of past anxiety.  The book wasn't graphic, but it did describe the tidal waves, the loss of life, as well as a kind of gruesome revolt that happened after the eruption.  I think she'd find those aspects disturbing, but the good bits almost outweigh that . . . 

 

 

What about Twenty-One Balloons? Ds read this last year and really enjoyed it.

 

 

We've done this as a read aloud, and loved it!  Such a fun book.

[Shawneinfl]

I must have started reading Krakatoa right around the same time as Bel Canto since both went unfinished. Well there's another one to add to the "try, try again" list.

[Stacia]

Cripes! Did someone give him a fig-paste sandwich? A brilliant study of the poisons Agatha Christie used to kill off characters

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-3229892/Cripes-Did-fig-paste-sandwich-brilliant-study-poisons-Agatha-Christie-used-kill-characters.html#ixzz3lOVm4EcE

[idnib]

Right, here I am crossing my wires and assuming you guys all know what we are studying this year!  Sorry. We're doing Science Literacy/History of Science for a blended science/history double credit, and for lit we are reading sci fi/fantasy that examines scientific themes.  We're using Joy of Science, 12 Essential Scientific Concepts, Redefining Reality TC courses as a spine.  And so we're doing a combination of fiction and nonfiction really great readable books - some she is reading independently, some I'm doing as read alouds.  I'm looking for really compelling, readable, interesting books about any science, but ideally books that integrate or meld the sciences.  That's what I liked so much about Krakatoa.  We're planning to read aloud Voyage of the Beagle, Origin of Species, and Beak of the Finch, and she will read Henrietta Lacks, The Double Helix, Remarkable Creatures, and things like that.  I don't really need more, our list is pretty extensive, but I was looking for a good book that covered earth sciences, ecology, etc.  But any science, really.

 

Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History by Gould

 

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Gould

 

The Disappearing Spoon by Kean

 

The Violinist's Thumb by Kean

[KathyBC]

:party: re: redemption of dry spell of clunkers.  So you ended up liking State of Wonder?  I loved the first half and then it just seemed to get weirder and weirder... Bel Canto OTOH, which I read first, I liked very much.

 

 

 

I enjoyed both, but actually liked State of Wonder a bit better. Though you're right, it got stranger and stranger. Come to think of it, Bel Canto wasn't the happiest ending, either.

[Kareni]

We said goodbye to my sister and brother-in-law last night as they're flying off this morning.  We had three very enjoyable days together, and the time flew by.  We played tour guide as it was their first time in our state; however, they treated us royally by treating us to all lunches and dinners out.  It was a great visit.

 

***

 

Last night I finished Jaci Burton's contemporary romance All Wound Up.  While it's the tenth book in a series, the book stands alone well.  It was a pleasant read with some adult content, and it starts in an entertaining fashion.

 

"Tucker Cassidy is going through a slump—both with his curveball and in his dating life. After having a painful altercation involving his ex-girlfriend’s knee, the professional baseball player is convinced things couldn’t get worse…until a gorgeous doctor comes to the rescue at his most embarrassing moment.
 
As the daughter of the owner of the St. Louis Rivers major league baseball team, Dr. Aubry Ross has been around jocks all her life. She knows the ins and outs of all their games, and she isn’t interested in playing.
 
When Tucker repeatedly lands in the hospital where she’s working, Aubry starts to think he’s getting injured just to see her. Tucker is both funny and sexy, and Aubry is pleasantly surprised to discover he actually respects her job.
 
But when her father disapproves of their relationship, will Tucker let threats of a trade get in the way of a game-changing love?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Free ebooks right now:

 

The God of Small Things (nook)

Wicked (nook & kindle)

Twelve Years a Slave (nook)

[Chrysalis Academy]

I just finished Memoirs of a Porcupine, another gift from Stacia.  That was an odd little book. I'm not sure how to classify it - allegory? fable? it felt like Magical Realism to me although I have to confess I have a hard time actually defining that genre.  I haven't read a lot of books by African authors.  I really loved Things Fall Apart and Cry the Beloved Country, but expecting any similarity between books based on a particular continent of origin is like expecting Mikhail Bulgakov to read like Salman Rushdie.  Hmm, actually those two are a little similar, LOL.  Ok, so it's like expecting Flannery O'Connor to read like Margaret Atwood.  Or something.

 

Magical realism really isn't my thing, but I love fantasy, epics, and good sci fi.  What's that about? Anyone want to help me out with a good definition? All I can seem to come up with are examples - kind of like pornography, I know it when I see it, but I can't say what it is.  Shannon was asking me the other day, and I was trying to explain, but my definitions all sounded like regular fantasy, and she hasn't read any of the authors I mentioned so that didn't help.

[Violet Crown]

From A Hero of our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov:

 

----------

 

Throughout the evening I tried to interrupt their conversation several times on purpose, but she met my remarks rather dryly, and finally, with feigned annoyance, I moved away. The princess was triumphant; Grushnitsky was, too. Triumph, my friends, hurry, because you won't triumph for long! How shall I go about this? I have a presentiment.... Whenever I have met a woman, I have always been able to guess unerringly whether she was going to love me or not.

 

The rest of the evening I spent at Vera's side and spoke to my heart's content about the old days! Why she loves me so--honestly, I don't know! Especially since this is the one woman who has understood me completely, with all my petty weaknesses and wicked passions. Can evil really be so attractive?

 

I walked out with Grushnitsky; on the street he linked arms with me and after a long silence said:

 

"Well, what do you think?"

 

"You're a fool," I was about to reply, but I restrained myself and merely shrugged my shoulders.

 

------------------

 

There's a certain resemblance to Fathers and Sons (Turgenev, twenty years later) in the "What's wrong with young people these days and their nihilistic lack of morals?" theme; but since Lermontov was only 25 when he wrote it, it feels more like an exploration of the Romanticism of one's own lost generation.

 

Through Passus 5 in Piers Plowman. Fun bit: the seven deadly sins, allegorically presented as Lenten penitents, make their confessions in this part, and Sloth memorably confesses to not quite having the Paternoster by heart but knowing the Robin Hood songs very well (according to the notes, this is the first vernacular reference to the Robin Hood ballads). Hard to blame him.

[shukriyya]

I just finished Memoirs of a Porcupine, another gift from Stacia.  That was an odd little book. I'm not sure how to classify it - allegory? fable? it felt like Magical Realism to me although I have to confess I have a hard time actually defining that genre.  I haven't read a lot of books by African authors.  I really loved Things Fall Apart and Cry the Beloved Country, but expecting any similarity between books based on a particular continent of origin is like expecting Mikhail Bulgakov to read like Salman Rushdie.  Hmm, actually those two are a little similar, LOL.  Ok, so it's like expecting Flannery O'Connor to read like Margaret Atwood.  Or something.

 

Magical realism really isn't my thing, but I love fantasy, epics, and good sci fi.  What's that about? Anyone want to help me out with a good definition? All I can seem to come up with are examples - kind of like pornography, I know it when I see it, but I can't say what it is.  Shannon was asking me the other day, and I was trying to explain, but my definitions all sounded like regular fantasy, and she hasn't read any of the authors I mentioned so that didn't help.

 

I believe we had rather an ongoing discussion on this very subject last year. Kareni, we need your retrieval powers.  :rolleyes:

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I believe we had rather an ongoing discussion on this very subject last year. Kareni, we need your retrieval powers.  :rolleyes:

 

 

Ah, I'd love to take a peek at that! Anybody remember around what week?

[mumto2]

Ah, I'd love to take a peek at that! Anybody remember around what week?

I think we had another discussion later in the year but our Murikami read always ends up discussing magical realism. These were done in January of 2014 and 2015. Hopefully Kareni can be more specific.

[Kareni]

Sadly, my searching skills are not up to this particular challenge, and I am striking out.  It's clear that, as a group, we mention magical realism frequently, and thus it's difficult to find the discussion in question.

 

 

I finished two books yesterday (well, one in the wee hours of this morning) ~

 

Taking the Heat a fun contemporary romance by Victoria Dahl

 

"All revved up for bright lights and steamy nights, writer Veronica Chandler chased her dreams to New York City. When she hit a dead end, reality sent her back home to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Saving her pride and her new gig—writing a relationship advice column!—requires some faking. No one can know the truth about her big-city flop or her nonexistent sex life. But the town's irresistibly rugged librarian is determined to figure her out…and give her hands-on lessons in every wicked thing she wants to know.

 

Gabe MacKenzie's heart might be in Wyoming, but secretly his future's tied up in his family's Manhattan legacy. Getting down and dirty with Veronica is supposed to give him a few memorable nights—not complicate his plans. But the thing about heat this scorching is there's just no going back…and it might be too hot for either of them to take."

 

 

AND Christina Lauren's contemporary romance Beautiful Secret (The Beautiful Series)

 

(Significant adult content)

 

"When Ruby Miller’s boss announces he’s sending her on an extended business trip to New York City, she’s shocked. As one of the best and brightest young engineers in London, she knows she’s professionally up to the task. The part that’s throwing her is where she’ll be spending a month up close and personal working alongside—and staying in a hotel with—Niall Stella, her firm’s top urban planning executive and The Hottest Man Alive. Despite her ongoing crush, Ruby is certain Niall barely knows she’s alive…until their flirty overnight flight makes him sit up and take notice.

Not one for letting loose and breaking rules, recently divorced Niall would describe himself as hopeless when it comes to women. But even he knows outgoing California-girl Ruby is a breath of fresh air. Once she makes it her mission to help the sexy Brit loosen his tie, there’s no turning back. Thousands of miles from London, it’s easy for the lovers to play pretend. But when the trip is over, will the relationship they’ve built up fall down?"

 

I enjoyed these both.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[idnib]

Ah, I'd love to take a peek at that! Anybody remember around what week?

 

Is it Week 20? (start with Eliana's post #104)

[Chrysalis Academy]

I thought this site had an interesting discussion of Magical Realism:

 

http://road-signs.org/What-Is-Magical-Realism-Magical-Realism-Examples

 

"Magical Realism happens when a highly realistic setting is invaded by the supernatural as a matter-of-fact. The reader accepts 'the reality' of 'the magical.'"

 

It seems to me that it is the intrusion of the magical into an otherwise realistic/real world setting, and its experience by "normal" not otherwise special/magical people that distinguishes MR from other kinds of magical/fantasy stories set in "the real world" like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.  Thoughts?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Is it Week 20? (start with Eliana's post #104)

 

Ok, yeah, that was a great discussion! Very helpful. I liked Jenn's explanation of the built-world vs. real-world-with-weird-stuff-happening angle.  I think it's what I was reaching for in my real people experiencing unreal/magical events comment above.

[JennW in SoCal]

Ok, yeah, that was a great discussion! Very helpful. I liked Jenn's explanation of the built-world vs. real-world-with-weird-stuff-happening angle.  I think it's what I was reaching for in my real people experiencing unreal/magical events comment above.

 

Wait, what? I said something smart? Better go check out that thread...

[Stacia]

Rose, re: Memoirs of a Porcupine...

 

Not sure how I would categorize it, maybe a mix of folktale & magical realism. But, for the setting/area/group, having an animal double is normal/an initiation rite, so it seems much more like a folktale variation to me.

[Robin M]

One of my favorite memories of Child Food Pickiness is of a very young man who, displeased with the unpeeled boiled egg I was offering him for a snack when he knew perfectly well there were granola bars in my cupboard, announced that he wouldn't eat it because it might not be a hen's egg. Because not all eggs are okay, and how did he know it wasn't from an ostrich or something? I assured him it was from a Good Ol Texas hen, but he was adamant, and it turned out that nowhere on the carton did it actually say the eggs were from hens. He was triumphant and I caved and gave him the granola bar.

:lol:     

 

 

 

This was a grinding teeth week getting back into lessons.  The start of 10th grade with a teenager who thinks he knows it all, but doesn't.  It's been a week of negotiation, figuring out what's going to work..or not.  Loving IEW and Teaching the Classics.  Tripped my husband out completely last night discussing assonance and alliteration. He swore we never learned that eons ago in high school.   I showed him the  elements of fiction triangle, which I explained in today's terms was the Frietag Triangle, but he could care less about the name. He was absolutely sure back in the 70's, the exposition was called something else because it was just too sexy a name.   :lol:    And of course, his riff on assonance,  :smilielol5:     He took the book, disappeared out onto the patio with his cell phone to call our friend J (who is 10 years older and knows it all)  to discuss it.   He's so funny.

 

I changed my mind again with history and decided to go back to Human Odyssey so Volume 2 is on the way.  The History of Art is way too up there for me and James, so got  ART Talk, Map Art Lab (so cool) and Exploring Visual Design.  Lots of projects to do, so we'll see how that works for my sensory sensitive kiddo.  

 

And I'm absolutely insane because having just finished the 14 month study of La Plante's humongous tome,  Making of a story, dove back into it again in a another class. I'm now cheating on Swann's Way    :001_tt2:  (and this will make Angel happy) with Jordan's Wheel of time #4 - The Shadow Rising.   :thumbup:

[Jane in NC]

Flemish mystery From Bruges with Love by Pieter Aspe (translated by Brian Doyle) takes a turn for the gruesome.  Beware my gentle reader friends!  Aspe also murders his readers with an abuse of metaphors and similes, but that is another story.

 

This mystery reader is tire of current trends, i.e. mysteries that either drip with saccharine or with blood.  Give me complexity without cute last minute tricks to resolve the case and let's skip over details of perversion.  Please.

 

Yes, this is a reprise of a chorus I have sung before.  Sorry to bore you but this reader is Annoyed.

[Chrysalis Academy]

.  

 

And I'm absolutely insane because having just finished the 14 month study of La Plante's humongous tome,  Making of a story, dove back into it again in a another class. I'm now cheating on Swann's Way    :001_tt2:  (and this will make Angel happy) with Jordan's Wheel of time #4 - The Shadow Rising.   :thumbup:

 

This was my return-to-multiple-times comfort series of my 20s and 30s!  Every time a new book would be published I'd go back and read the whole series, so the early books I've read multiple times.  It's been a few years. I do have some critiques of how he has his female characters relate to one another, especially his obsession with corporal punishment, but overall it was a series I've loved over many, many years. Shannon keeps asking when she gets to read it.  Next summer, I think - if she starts it during the school year I'll never get her to read another assigned book!  :lol:

[JennW in SoCal]

Flemish mystery From Bruges with Love by Pieter Aspe (translated by Brian Doyle) takes a turn for the gruesome.  Beware my gentle reader friends!  Aspe also murders his readers with an abuse of metaphors and similes, but that is another story.

 

This mystery reader is tire of current trends, i.e. mysteries that either drip with saccharine or with blood.  Give me complexity without cute last minute tricks to resolve the case and let's skip over details of perversion.  Please.

 

Yes, this is a reprise of a chorus I have sung before.  Sorry to bore you but this reader is Annoyed.

 

Jane, did I learn about the Icelandic series by Arnaldur Indridadson from you? What I loved about the one I read recently was that it was smart and complex without either saccharine or twisted gore. It took me back to how I felt when first reading the DI Banks series.  Give Indridadson a try if you haven't yet. The Shetland mysteries are also good -- a little more atmospheric and gentle but still very smart.

 

I haven't put myself on the hold list for Peter Robinson's newest -- the last 2 were such disappointments. 

[shukriyya]

Re Magical Realism...my recollection is that it came up several times for a week or so over the course of the year. I remember because one of my 5/5s was Magical Realism and it was then that I realized it was/is probably my favorite genre. A lot of us read The Golem and the Jinni and The Night Circus both of which fall into this category. And a lot of us read Haruki Murakami, myself excluded as i could never find my way into his books. There were some interesting links during our Magical Realism convos, too.

[Robin M]

Here's some info on magical realism - a 1955 essay by Angel Flores where the term first appeared in his discussion of Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction. It's a pdf file. 

 

Book lust lists several books I hadn't heard of

 

Cloudstreet - Tim Winston

Illumination Night - Alice Hoffman

Imagining Argentina - Lawrence Thornton

Reservation Blues - Sherman Alexie

So Far From God - Ana Castillo

Texaco - Patrick Chamoiseaus

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter

Immortality - Milan Kundera

 

I haven't checked them out yet, so have fun and let me know what you think.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Here's some info on magical realism - a 1955 essay by Angel Flores where the term first appeared in his discussion of Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction. It's a pdf file. 

 

Book lust lists several books I hadn't heard of

 

Cloudstreet - Tim Winston

Illumination Night - Alice Hoffman

Imagining Argentina - Lawrence Thornton

Reservation Blues - Sherman Alexie

So Far From God - Ana Castillo

Texaco - Patrick Chamoiseaus

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter

Immortality - Milan Kundera

 

I haven't checked them out yet, so have fun and let me know what you think.

 

This seems like a better list than the one on the page I linked - it had all the usual suspects, but then it also had Matilda by Roald Dahl, which I don't think counts, and it also had Paddington.  Paddington?  I probably haven't read that since I was a kid, but I can't imagine what makes it special from other kid's books with talking animals.  James and the Giant Peach, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane - those are children's books I can see straying into the MR category, but Paddington? I don't get it.

 

I felt like Inigo Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[Pam in CT]

Is it Week 20? (start with Eliana's post #104)

You rock!  Well done.