Book a Week 2016 - BW34: Mini challenge - pick a book with color in the title

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday dear hearts!  This is the beginning of week 34 in our quest to read 52 books. Welcome back to all our readers, to those just joining in and all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is also below in my signature

 

52 Books blog - 52 Books Bingo Mini Challenge: Pick a book with color in the title

 

Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks ~ Plutarch

 

 

 

Time to add a bit of color to our reading lives - a dash of vermilion, a pinch of amber, a rainbow of blues and greens, a dab of sienna or a splotch of tangerine. Find a book with color in the title. Let your imagination run wild and paint your day!

 

 

 

 

 

*****************************************************

 

History of the Renaissance World - Chapters 59 and 60

 

*****************************************************

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

Link to week 33 

 

[Robin M]

I'm deep into Diana Gabaldon's 4th  Book - Drums of Autumn.

 

Taking a break with M.L. Buchman's delta force novel Heart Strike which I'm reading on my iphone since my ipad is still out of service.  I attempted to repair it and it pooped out after 30 seconds of turning on. Discovered I managed to snip one of the ribbon cables attached to the new glass and consequently broke the new glass getting it back off to find my mistake.   :svengo:  At least I know how to replace ipad front panel assembly now.     :tongue_smilie:

 

 

[Robin M]

Hey, it's been proven we are all going to live longer because reading is beneficial:

 

"Although books can expose people to new people and places, whether books also have health benefits beyond other types of reading materials is not known. This study examined whether those who read books have a survival advantage over those who do not read books and over those who read other types of materials, and if so, whether cognition mediates this book reading effect. The cohort consisted of 3635 participants in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study who provided information about their reading patterns at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models were based on survival information up to 12 years after baseline. A dose-response survival advantage was found for book reading after adjusting for relevant covariates including age, sex, race, education, comorbidities, self-rated health, wealth, marital status, and depression. Book reading contributed to a survival advantage that was significantly greater than that observed for reading newspapers or magazines . Compared to non-book readers, book readers had a 23-month survival advantage at the point of 80% survival in the unadjusted model. A survival advantage persisted after adjustment for all covariates,  indicating book readers experienced a 20% reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow up compared to non-book readers. Cognition mediated the book reading-survival advantage. These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them."

 

 

 

 

[Loesje22000]

Night Blue:

 

 

A novel about 'Delft Blue' painters

[Violet Crown]

This week I finished Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, which I have to confess was disappointing. Part of that is only that I happen not to enjoy romances so much, but am rather interested in labor issues: the novel could definitely have used less mooning and more industrial action. But I found the writing monotonous and the pacing dreadful. A little Wikipedia research indicates that Dickens, her editor, shared that view, finding the novel "dreary"; and that some of the pacing problem came from Gaskell's difficulties in writing for a serial format.

 

After passing on the book, I asked myself: Violet, for your fifty-second book of the year, what is on your TBR shelf that is utterly unlike both a Victorian social-problem romance and a sixteenth-century Italian spiritual treatise? And so I read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson's classic certainly doesn't have any pacing problems, moving as it does at a hundred miles per hour on acid through the California desert. And it frankly explains a lot about my parents, which comment I will now leave alone. Recommended for those with a high tolerance for profanity and lurid descriptions of drug use. I thought I might quote the famous "wave" speech, Thompson's favorite excerpt; but instead, the opening paragraphs, which give a very good idea of the book and Thompson's "gonzo journalism" prose.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…†And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?â€

 

Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. “What the hell are you yelling about?†he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. “Never mind,†I said. “It’s your turn to drive.†I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

Now back to the Palliser novels, with The Prime Minister next up. I figure a series of six 700+ page novels should count for the Epic bingo square.

 

Edit: Italian, not Spanish.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Violet Crown

[Ethel Mertz]

Great challenge (the book and the iPad)! I just requested A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

 

Last week I read the last Miss Julia book, Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, another Leslie Meier mystery, and The Witch of Hebron (World Made By Hand, #2) by James Howard Kunstler. The latter was a tough read, with more violence in it than I am comfortable. I nearly gave up on it, but I got hooked on the characters. It was good enough that I just requested the 3rd in the series.

 

Besides the Kunstler and Dorris books, I am reading yet another Leslie Meier mystery (to relax my brain a bit) and House-Bound by Winifred Peck.

[Jane in NC]

Happy Sunday my bookish friends! Here is to our long lives!

 

The Olympics have been a distraction this week so I have not read as much in the evenings as I usually do. 

 

Maja Haderlap's Angel of Oblivion is an amazing statement on the weight of history.  Haderlap is from Carinthia, a region of Austria that is home to a Slovenian minority that suffered greatly after the Anschloss.  The girl who is telling her story in Angel was not alive during WWII.  Yet the war touches her through the family members who survived it.  Consider the fate of a neighbor who returns to his farm to find that the Nazis butchered the rest of his family and burned down his home.  Or the nightmares of man who, as a child, was beaten by Nazis to learn the location of parents or uncles who had joined the partisans.  Or that of a grandmother who is shipped off to the Ravensburg Concentration Camp and is only alive through a twist of fate and the assistance of other incarcerated women.

 

Supposing you are such a child whose family and neighbors are haunted by the past.  What language do you speak? That of your country (German since you are a resident of Austria) or Slovenian, the language of the resistance.  The former is your ticket outside of the rural community.  The latter is the language of familial pride. 

 

Beautiful writing although this is a book I need to close fairly often to process all within.

 

I am still reading George Watsky's fun essays in How to Ruin Everything.

 

And I'm still a few chapters behind in HoRW.

[Jane in NC]

Great challenge (the book and the iPad)! I just requested A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

 

Last week I read the last Miss Julia book, Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, another Leslie Meier mystery, and The Witch of Hebron (World Made By Hand, #2) by James Howard Kunstler. The latter was a tough read, with more violence in it than I am comfortable. I nearly gave up on it, but I got hooked on the characters. It was good enough that I just requested the 3rd in the series.

 

Besides the Kunstler and Dorris books, I am reading yet another Leslie Meier mystery (to relax my brain a bit) and House-Bound by Winifred Peck.

 

Delighted to see the bold!  Let me know what you think.

 

[Kareni]

Great challenge (the book and the iPad)! I just requested A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

 

I think you should get double credit, Ethel, for choosing a book with two colors.  (I now await the person who is going to read something with red, white, and blue in the title.)

 

**

 

Thinking of last week's writing theme, Robin:  a friend who writes recommends this book

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer  by Peter Turchi

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Loesje22000]

This week I finished Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, which I have to confess was disappointing. Part of that is only that I happen not to enjoy romances so much, but am rather interested in labor issues: the novel could definitely have used less mooning and more industrial action. But I found the writing monotonous and the pacing dreadful. A little Wikipedia research indicates that Dickens, her editor, shared that view, finding the novel "dreary"; and that some of the pacing problem came from Gaskell's difficulties in writing for a serial format.

 

 

 

I thought the romance was too predictable to be entertaining, and the action did not give the same feeling/spirit to me as it did in Shirley (Bronte).

I did not know the North and South was written in a serial format.

[Ali in OR]

I've been reading a couple of mysteries on my kindle this week--I had purchased a couple of 3-mystery volumes of the Captain Lacey series before our trip in July and I still have a couple to go. I was supposed to be reading Caleb's Crossing but my dd has been annotating it with little sticky notes and somehow it didn't feel right to put that up on the magazine rack on my treadmill (can picture notes going flying!). But I think I will try to start that today. Only book finished was The Sudbury School Murders and I don't know the name of the one I'm in the middle of (and can't easily see it since it's part of a 3-mystery volume).

 

I'm right around the 52 book mark. I think I will be taking a break from whole books and doing some short stories instead. I would like to schedule some into dd's school year, but I need to read some to find out what will fit us best! The girls and I picked up Pride and Prejudice again--we got off track this summer between vacation, soccer tournaments, and the Olympics. Last night we read the chapter where Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle visit Pemberley and run into Mr. Darcy (my favorite)! We've got to finish so we can watch the BBC series before school starts. And I want to watch the Ken Burns Civil War series with them--good thing the Olympics are about over.

[mumto2]

I am still listening to the first Master and Commander having passed the halfway point this afternoon. I am reading some cozy mysteries with Donna Andrews on the top of my pile because Dh was able to pick up a stack of them this week from a library that we have a card for but is over an hour away.

 

I am also finishing To Darkness and to Death which is my next Rev. Clare Ferguson series book. A bit disappointed because I thought it would be the book the romantic element moved ahead. So I ended up reading the blurbs for each book on Goodreads to find out when something was going to happen and have now had way too many spoilers. Big mistake!

 

I also checked out a color book that was on my wish list, Deborah Crombie's Leave the Grave Green. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211143.Leave_the_Grave_Green

[Negin]

I read Eva Luna - 4 Stars - Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors and I’m having fun re-reading some of her books. It took me a little longer to complete this one. I mean that in a good way. Her writing is so beautiful and so rich, that I often found myself re-reading paragraphs. I love the depth and richness of all the characters.

 

A quote that I loved:

“The house was a vast labyrinth of books. Volumes were stacked from floor to ceiling on every wall, dark, crackling, redolent of leather bindings, smooth to the touch, with their gold titles and translucent gilt-edged pages and delicate typography.â€

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

 

[Stacia]

After passing on the book, I asked myself: Violet, for your fifty-second book of the year, what is on your TBR shelf that is utterly unlike both a Victorian social-problem romance and a sixteenth-century Italian spiritual treatise? And so I read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson's classic certainly doesn't have any pacing problems, moving as it does at a hundred miles per hour on acid through the California desert. And it frankly explains a lot about my parents, which comment I will now leave alone. Recommended for those with a high tolerance for profanity and lurid descriptions of drug use. I thought I might quote the famous "wave" speech, Thompson's favorite excerpt; but instead, the opening paragraphs, which give a very good idea of the book and Thompson's "gonzo journalism" prose.

 

:lol:

 

I read that quite a few years ago & loved it. As you say, there are no pacing problems. Also agree that you need a high tolerance for profanity & descriptions of drug use.

 

After such high-octane pacing & action, I ultimately found the ending portions of the book to be quite bittersweet & sad.

 

[Kareni]

I picked up a slew of books from the city next door's library hold shelf on Friday (in this case slew = 14) to add to the five books I'd collected the day before from my local library.  Can you say bounty?!

 

Over the past few days, I've read five books ~

 

All the Time in the World: A Novel by Caroline Angell.  I very much enjoyed this book even though it did make me cry; I recommend it.    

 

“An extraordinary book. Caroline Angell is wise beyond her years in rendering the heartache of grief, and all the different kinds of love we are capable of feeling. I was haunted by All the Time in the World long after finishing the last page. It reads like the work of a mature writer at the height of her powers, not a debut novel. I can’t wait to see what Ms. Angell will write next.â€â€•Alice LaPlante, New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind

 

“In All the Time in the World, Caroline Angell explores the different ways in which people find their way through grief, and she does it bravely and masterfully. A heart wrenching yet life affirming novel. What a debut!â€â€•Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle

 

"An unforgettable debut about a young woman's choice between the future she's always imagined and the people she's come to love.

 

Charlotte, a gifted and superbly trained young musician, has been blindsided by a shocking betrayal in her promising career when she takes a babysitting job with the McLeans, a glamorous Upper East Side Manhattan family. At first, the nanny gig is just a way of tiding herself over until she has licked her wounds and figured out her next move as a composer in New York. But, as it turns out, Charlotte is naturally good with children and becomes as deeply fond of the two little boys as they are of her. When an unthinkable tragedy leaves the McLeans bereft, Charlotte is not the only one who realizes that she's the key to holding little George and Matty's world together. Suddenly, in addition to life's usual puzzles, such as sorting out which suitor is her best match, she finds herself with an impossible choice between her life-long dreams and the torn-apart family she's come to love. By turns hilarious, sexy, and wise, Caroline Angell's remarkable and generous debut is the story of a young woman's discovery of the things that matter most."

 

**

How Not to Fall (The Belhaven Series) by Emily Foster was another enjoyable book. I was surprised though to get to the end and learn that the story continues in a second volume.  Sadly, I will need to wait until December at which point I may well have forgotten half of the storyline.  The author blurb states, "Emily Foster is a professional sex educator with a Ph.D. and a New York Times bestselling nonfiction sex science book (under a different name) to her credit."  The book contains adult content.

 

"Data, research, scientific formulae--Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that's all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he'd turn her down?

Very high, as it happens. Something to do with that whole student/teacher/ethics thing. But in a few weeks, Annie will graduate. As soon as she does, the unlikely friendship that's developing between them can turn physical--just until Annie leaves for graduate school. Yet nothing could have prepared either Annie or Charles for chemistry like this, or for what happens when a simple exercise in mutual pleasure turns into something as exhilarating and infernally complicated as love."

 

**

 

I quite enjoyed What Remains by Garrett Leigh.  In this story, Jodi awakens from a coma after being hit by a car and does not remember anything from the past five years including his entire relationship with Rupert.  (Adult content)

 

"Web designer Jodi Peters is a solitary creature. Lunch twice a week with his ex-girlfriend-turned-BFF and the occasional messy venture to a dodgy gay bar is all the company he needs, right?

Then one night he stumbles across newly divorced firefighter Rupert O’Neil. Rupert is lost and lonely, but just about the sweetest bloke Jodi has ever known. Add in the heady current between them, and Jodi can’t help falling hard in love. He offers Rupert a home within the walls of his cosy Tottenham flat—a sanctuary to nurture their own brand of family—and for four blissful years, life is never sweeter.

Until a cruel twist of fate snatches it all away. A moment of distraction leaves Jodi fighting for a life he can’t remember and shatters Rupert’s heart. Jodi doesn’t know him—or want to. With little left of the man he adores, Rupert must cling to what remains of his shaky faith and pray that Jodi can learn to love him again."

 

**

 

Rival Forces: A K-9 Rescue Novel by D. D. Ayres was an enjoyable romantic suspense novel.

 

"When it comes to training K-9 patrol dogs, Yardley Summers always trusts her instincts. But when it comes to dating men, she keeps her heart on a very short leash. Mostly, she’s too busy with her four-legged trainees at Harmonie Kennels to commit to a relationship. Only two men have managed to distract her: a handsome Doctors Without Borders physician who’s suddenly gone missing―and the red-hot dog trainer from her past who’s suddenly back in her life…

Now a K-9 rescue team leader, Kye McGarren has never forgotten the days he trained at Yardley’s camp―or the nights he spent in her arms. When he hears that Yardley is on a mission to find the missing doctor, Kye is determined to keep her out of danger. With his K-9 partner by his side, he joins Yardley on a death-defying mission―one that reignites their mutual passion. Will Kye be able to rescue his romantic rival…without losing the woman he loves?"

 

**

Sacked (A Gridiron Novel)  by Jen Frederick was an enjoyable new adult novel.  (Adult content)

 

"What he wants he gets... Knox Masters is a quarterback's worst nightmare. Warrior. Champion. And...virgin. Knox knows what he wants--and he gets it. All American Football player? Check. NFL pros scouting him? Check. Now, he's set his sight on two things. The national title. And Ellie Campbell. Sure, she's the sister of his fellow teammate, but that's not going to stop him. Especially not when he’s convinced Ellie is the one. ...but he's never met her before. But Ellie isn't as sure. She's trying to start a new life and she's not interested in a relationship...with anyone. Beside it's not just her cardinal rule of never dating her brother's teammates that keeps her away, but Ellie has a dark secret that would jeopardize everything Knox is pursuing. Knox has no intention of losing. Ellie has no intention of giving in."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Not much reading this week. Just too busy. In my downtime, my brain cells have gone into full shutdown mode, so reading has pretty much been a no-go for me. Probably will try to finish The Pope's Daughter this week, but may set aside The Book of Disquiet for a time in my life that is less hectic & challenging.

 

Instead of reading, I spent a tiny bit of time cleaning off my bookshelves (an urge I feel every now & then), returning my entire pile of library books, etc.... Sometimes that helps me feel more settled for reading when I do get the time & focus to do so.

[Onceuponatime]

Last week I read Uncoffin'd Clay by Gladys Mitchell. It was so-so.

 

Right now I'm about halfway through The Invisible Library byGenevieve Cogman. (I have to try novels about libraries.)It took me a couple of chapters to get immersed, because of the "young adult" feel to the writing, but I am enjoying the story and wondering how it will end. Since it appears to have sequels, I hope the author doesn't leave too much hanging.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Onceuponatime

[Lady Florida.]

Taking a break with M.L. Buchman's delta force novel Heart Strike which I'm reading on my iphone since my ipad is still out of service.  I attempted to repair it and it pooped out after 30 seconds of turning on. Discovered I managed to snip one of the ribbon cables attached to the new glass and consequently broke the new glass getting it back off to find my mistake.   :svengo:  At least I know how to replace ipad front panel assembly now.     :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh no! Well you did learn something from it, but what a tough lesson. :(

 

Time to add a bit of color to our reading lives - a dash of vermilion, a pinch of amber, a rainbow of blues and greens, a dab of sienna or a splotch of tangerine. Find a book with color in the title. Let your imagination run wild and paint your day!

 

These are all on my Goodreads to-read list, though I doubt I'll get to any of them this week.

 

Silver Like Dust: One Family's Story of America's Japanese Internment

 

Girl in a Blue Dress - I've had this on my list for several years but just never seem to get around to seriously tracking down a copy. It's a fictionalized account of the marriage of Charles and Catherine Dickens.

 

Devil and the Bluebird - which I added after it was mentioned here on the threads.

 

 

I didn't think I wanted to read No Country for Old Men either, after seeing the movie and reading The Road.  But I"m really glad I did, the writing was just stunning.

 

 

Noooo! Don't tell me that and make my TBR list even longer. ;) I might have to download the Kindle sample and see what I think.

 

I'm thinking I need to go on a stellar author fast.  Just read really, really, really amazingly well-written books.  So I'm open to suggestions: what is the best-written book (or top 3, or top 5) that you've ever read?  Any subject, any genre, just fantastic writing.  

 

I guess I'll need to repost this tomorrow on the new thread - on vacation, I've totally lost track of the days! But I'm all ears . . .

 

You might end up reposting this, but I went ahead and quoted from last week's thread. I said just this week that I have trouble with lists that have a finite number. Here's a link to my Top 100 list on Goodreads.  I haven't gone too far back to add books I've read before, unless they came to mind when I first made the list. It only has 33 so far, so you don't have to wade through too many. Just pick some. And then try more. :)

 

 

I received a library notice the other day that Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, another BaW recommendation, arrived for me. They didn't have it as an ebook and I wasn't willing to spend $12 for the Kindle version so I placed a hold a physical copy. I noticed just a short time ago it will go back if I don't pick it up by tomorrow. The library closes at 5 today so I know I won't make it. I'll need to remember to swing by and pick it up tomorrow.

[Jane in NC]

Thanks for the reminder, Kathy. 

 

Favorite authors of mine for Rose to consider (in no particular order):  George Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Barbara Pym, Wieslaw Mysliwski, P.G. Wodehouse, Somerset Maugham, Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Fielding.  

 

For some amazing series to get lost in:  try Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond books or her House of Niccolo series.  Or consider Susan Howatch's Starbridge novels, a series recommended by Susan Wise Bauer!  Cracking good stories with writing that will not disappoint.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Jane in NC

[Kareni]

Here's an interesting post.  Do read the comments.

 

The Problem with Female Protagonists by Jo Eberhardt

 

From the article: 

 

"A few months ago, I read a fascinating article on the Stuff You Missed in History Class blog. After receiving innumerable complaints about their podcast which boiled down to either “you talk about women too much†or “you only talk about womenâ€, Tracy Wilson went back over the episodes they’d produced and put together graphs showing the breakdown between episodes focused on men, women, and ungendered events. You can see the results here. But, unsurprisingly, (spoiler alert!) they showed that stories about women made up roughly 30% of their content...."

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

 

 

Thinking of last week's writing theme, Robin:  a friend who writes recommends this book

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer  by Peter Turchi

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Yes, it is excellent. I read it last year for writing class.  It's one of those that is so full of information,  needs to be revisited time and again!  Thanks!

[-M-]

Ooooo, might A Study in Scarlet (finished last week) satisfy the mini-challenge, or should I go find another book? *smile*

 

As I suspected, the past week was all about getting our daughters settled in their new university residence hall. (I posted our move-in story in the college board thread.) In other words, I don't have many book notes this week. When I've had a few moments, I have been pushing my way through Eileen, another Man Booker Prize longlisted book that was already on my shelves. Meh. Not as good as My Name Is Lucy Barton.

[Carol in Cal.]

"The Scarlet Pimpernel"

"The Color Purple"

"Black Like Me"

"The Bluest Eye"

"How Green Was My Valley" and "Green, Green, My Valley Now"

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

"Orange is the New Black" (book is pretty good, less sensational than the show)

 

 

Older kids:

"The Red Velvet Room"

"Blue Willow"

[Chrysalis Academy]

Great challenge (the book and the iPad)! I just requested A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

 

Last week I read the last Miss Julia book, Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, another Leslie Meier mystery, and The Witch of Hebron (World Made By Hand, #2) by James Howard Kunstler. The latter was a tough read, with more violence in it than I am comfortable. I nearly gave up on it, but I got hooked on the characters. It was good enough that I just requested the 3rd in the series.

 

Besides the Kunstler and Dorris books, I am reading yet another Leslie Meier mystery (to relax my brain a bit) and House-Bound by Winifred Peck.

 

Ahh, you are braver than I am - I bailed on The Witch of Hebron very quickly.  I can do violence, but not when it involves animals or children. I will be interested to hear what you think of the rest of the series, I am somewhat sad to have given it up.  I read a related nonfiction book that makes me want to hightail it to the Yukon Territory - American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival.  It's a history of 20th century climate refugees and some predictions and suggestions for the future. Sobering, recommended for anyone who lives in North America.  

 

 

 

 

I'm right around the 52 book mark. I think I will be taking a break from whole books and doing some short stories instead. I would like to schedule some into dd's school year, but I need to read some to find out what will fit us best! The girls and I picked up Pride and Prejudice again--we got off track this summer between vacation, soccer tournaments, and the Olympics. Last night we read the chapter where Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle visit Pemberley and run into Mr. Darcy (my favorite)! We've got to finish so we can watch the BBC series before school starts. And I want to watch the Ken Burns Civil War series with them--good thing the Olympics are about over.

 

I'm also planning on adding some short stories to our English class this year, so if you read any especially good ones for that purpose, do let me know!

 

 

I started to read Kristin Lavransdatter, but I'm just not in the right headspace for it at the moment. I think it will be a winter book. I'm still working on The Beak of the Finch, and I started two wonderfully written books - The Remains of the Day and The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit.  I'm a little worried I'm going to run out of books before I make it home!  And no color-in-the-title books along on the trip.  Aw, snap, I do love a reading challenge!  ;)  :D

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

Here's an interesting post.  Do read the comments.

 

The Problem with Female Protagonists by Jo Eberhardt

 

From the article: 

 

"A few months ago, I read a fascinating article on the Stuff You Missed in History Class blog. After receiving innumerable complaints about their podcast which boiled down to either “you talk about women too much†or “you only talk about womenâ€, Tracy Wilson went back over the episodes they’d produced and put together graphs showing the breakdown between episodes focused on men, women, and ungendered events. You can see the results here. But, unsurprisingly, (spoiler alert!) they showed that stories about women made up roughly 30% of their content...."

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

That was extremely interesting, and rather disturbing. I feel like I read a lot of books with female protagonists, and that my girls do too.  Maybe I should actually count . . . 

[idnib]

After passing on the book, I asked myself: Violet, for your fifty-second book of the year, what is on your TBR shelf that is utterly unlike both a Victorian social-problem romance and a sixteenth-century Italian spiritual treatise? And so I read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson's classic certainly doesn't have any pacing problems, moving as it does at a hundred miles per hour on acid through the California desert. And it frankly explains a lot about my parents, which comment I will now leave alone. Recommended for those with a high tolerance for profanity and lurid descriptions of drug use.

 

 

:laugh:  We have that book around here somewhere, along with Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 which is probably also intense. I can't say I've read either, but I did see the movie with Johnny Depp and can say that's the last time I liked him in anything. Benicio del Toro, on the other hand, continues to impress.

 

I could have sworn A Clockwork Orange was on the shelves but I may have donated it. Checking my books for colors, I have 3 books which follow the pattern of "The <color> <noun>": The Yellow Wallpaper, The Scarlet Letter, and The Silver Chair. My choice for the challenge will be The Hunt for Red October. It's an interesting copy because it's a first edition, published by the United States Naval Institute, which helped make it popular. They don't publish a lot of fiction.

 

I've been chipping away at Hawaii and have added The Elementals and Countdown City, the sequel to The Last Policeman.

Edited August 22, 2016 by idnib

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

 

For some amazing series to get lost in:  try Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond books or her House of Niccolo series.  Or consider Susan Howatch's Starbridge novels, a series recommended by Susan Wise Bauer!  Cracking good stories with writing that will not disappoint.

 

both of these authors are new to me, I will check them out! thanks!

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

 

 

 

Noooo! Don't tell me that and make my TBR list even longer. ;) I might have to download the Kindle sample and see what I think.

 

 

You might end up reposting this, but I went ahead and quoted from last week's thread. I said just this week that I have trouble with lists that have a finite number. Here's a link to my Top 100 list on Goodreads.  I haven't gone too far back to add books I've read before, unless they came to mind when I first made the list. It only has 33 so far, so you don't have to wade through too many. Just pick some. And then try more. :)

 

 

 

 

All right, you can't possibly blame *me* for expanding your TR list, after pointing me at this!!!   ;) Thank you.  :)

[Violet Crown]

More color-title books:

 

Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Balzac, The Black Sheep

Stendhal, The Red and the Black

J. Frank Dobie, Apache Gold & Yaqui Silver

James, The Golden Bowl

 

And since it turns out I had a color title on my TBR shelf, I set Trollope aside for a moment to read Elaine Dundy's 1958 novel The Dud Avocado.

[Violet Crown]

:laugh: We have that book around here somewhere, along with Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 which is probably also intense. I can't say I've read either, but I did see the movie with Johnny Depp and can say that's the last time I liked him in anything. Benicio del Toro, on the other hand, continues to impress.

 

I liked Johnny Depp in the animated, underrated children's movie Rango, where he plays an anthropomorphic chameleon living in the California desert amidst Raoul Duke's other LSD hallucinations. (In case viewers miss the multiple references, the entire opening scene is lifted straight from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.)

[Just Robyn]

Man, I am having a very deja vu experience.  A week or two ago I read No Country for Old Men, which was the most amazingly written terrible book I've ever read, and immediately wanted to read everything Cormac McCarthy has written. Now I'm having the same experience with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.  It's awful, but it's stunningly amazing storytelling.  Reading like a writer, I want more.  As a human being, it's rather awful.

 

I'm thinking I need to go on a stellar author fast.  Just read really, really, really amazingly well-written books.  So I'm open to suggestions: what is the best-written book (or top 3, or top 5) that you've ever read?  Any subject, any genre, just fantastic writing.  

 

I guess I'll need to repost this tomorrow on the new thread - on vacation, I've totally lost track of the days! But I'm all ears . . . 

 

The first person that came to mind is Virginia Woolf - both Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.

 

Also, I loved the prose style in Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and I remember being impressed by Chandler's Farewell My Lovely.

 

 

 

I finished listening to Palahniuk's Survivor. If you've read any books by him, you can probably guess at the style/structure of this one - kind of a mosaic of lists and regular narrative. There were some plot or character choices that I thought were odd or unlikely, but the story moves so fast (especially since I was listening to the audiobook) that I just accepted it and didn't bother to dwell on it. Great ending.

 

I also finished Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing, which was fun and irreverent, light and humorous. My only complaint is that towards the end it started to feel like there was too much unnecessary s*x - just there for the sake of saying something a little crude or shocking or whatever she was going for - honest yet pointless? It didn't feel like all of it was really part of the story. Also, it seemed to me that the author mixed memoir in with novel, but I can't prove that (and haven't looked on the Internet in any attempt to do so). It just sounded like straight memoir at parts, but that didn't hurt the book, imo.

 

I started listening to the fourth Harry Dresden book, Summer Knight. It's been maybe a couple of years since I read books 1-3, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Old story points are reviewed as needed. I also started reading a book of prose poems, Salt Water Amnesia by Jeffrey Skinner (I posted one of his prose poems last year, about the guy zipping his dad up in a bear suit and dropping him off somewhere.) and I got a teeny tiny start on Dune because my irl reading buddy has been wanting to read that with me for some time, and I've been putting it off for some time, and I was like, "Let's just do this and get it over with."

[Violet Crown]

Robin, thank you so much for this color challenge, because I was simply not getting around to reading The Dud Avocado, and now I'm so glad I am. It's light and fun, and Dundy's writing is a pleasure. Here's a bit from her narrator's experience as an American living in Paris:

 

I arrived alone at the Ritz, only to discover all over again what a difficult thing this was to do. I tended to lose my balance at the exact moment that the doorman opened the cab door and stood by in his respectful attitude of "waiting." I have even been known to fall out of the cab by reaching and pushing against the handle at the same tie that he did. But this time, however, I had disciplined myself to remain quite, quite still, sitting on my hands until the door was opened for me.Then, burrowing into my handbag, which suddenly looked like the Black Hole of Calcutta, to find the fare, I discovered that I needed a light. A light was switched on. I needed more than a light, I needed a match or a flashlight or special glasses, for I simply couldn't find my change purse, and when I did (lipstick rolling on the floor, compact open and everything spilled--passport, mirror, the works) I couldn't find the right change. We were now all three of us, driver, doorman and I, waiting to see what I was going to do next. I took out some bills, counted them three times in the dark until I was absolutely certain that I had double the amount necessary, and then pressed it on the driver, eagerly apologizing for overtipping. Overcome with shyness I nodded briefly in the direction of the doorman and raced him to the entrance. I just won.

 

 

[Jane in NC]

Dorothy Parker was born on this day in 1893.  What a wit! Reviewing a novel in the pages of the New Yorker, she wrote:

 

 

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

 

If you'd like to hear her voice, there are several recordings available on Youtube:

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

For those Audible.com members among us - Today is the last day to buy 2 books for one credit. The list of available books contains quite a few well known authors. Kate Morton, Neil Gaiman, all of the Neapolitan novels, Sue Grafton, JD Robb, and more. I think I'll also post this on the main Chat Board. I know there are Audible members there who aren't here.

 

Link

[Just Robyn]

I'm right around the 52 book mark. I think I will be taking a break from whole books and doing some short stories instead. I would like to schedule some into dd's school year, but I need to read some to find out what will fit us best! 

 

 

 

I'm also planning on adding some short stories to our English class this year, so if you read any especially good ones for that purpose, do let me know!

 

At Half-Price Books I came upon The Seagull Reader, 2nd Edition. Looking through the table of contents I recognized several really great short stories that I've read for MOOCs or in writing books that include literature, and the others I've heard of or were at least by authors I recognized. Anyway, it looks like a really great anthology, and a used copy is pretty inexpensive at Amazon. I imagine other readers contain a lot of the same stuff, but I just thought I'd mention this one. I think I'm going to go back and buy it. It had nice pages, not too dry, but deceptively thin.

 

Somebody posted the Table of Contents in their review.

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by crstarlette

[Ali in OR]

At Half-Price Books I came upon The Seagull Reader, 2nd Edition. Looking through the table of contents I recognized several really great short stories that I've read for MOOCs or in writing books that include literature, and the others I've heard of or were at least by authors I recognized. Anyway, it looks like a really great anthology, and a used copy is pretty inexpensive at Amazon. I imagine other readers contain a lot of the same stuff, but I just thought I'd mention this one. I think I'm going to go back and buy it. It had nice pages, not too dry, but deceptively thin.

 

Somebody posted the Table of Contents in their review.

I'm also planning on adding some short stories to our English class this year, so if you read any especially good ones for that purpose, do let me know!

 

Thanks--that's helpful to have the list of stories in the review. I recently ordered a different compilation and I have 3 others around the house already, so it's good to see which ones are repeated. I need to just get reading, but have to finish two books in progress first.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished The Remains of the Day. I'm not quite sure exactly how I feel about it yet.  It was superbly written, and Stevens is the ultimate unreliable narrator.  His level of self-delusion, his lack of self-awareness was so severe it almost warrants a diagnosis of some kind.  I almost thought at first that I was reading satire, there was such a disconnect between his self-perception and the reality that was revealed by the narration of the actual events and conversation.  He made me cringe every time he spoke, practically - I wanted to smack him upside the head, or just cover my eyes and shake my head.  I can't think of a character in literature who is equally deluded about himself and his effect on others. He is truly a Tragic figure, in the sense of having a fatal flaw that he is unable to overcome, or even see.  He almost reminded me of Oedipus.

 

Such a well-written book, but such a difficult, difficult character.  I don't find my overwhelming reaction to him pity, though.  I guess I feel more frustrated with him than anything. He's a product of his time and place - his literal place, as in social status - for sure, but I found myself annoyed by his utter inability to transcend his own circumstances and felt that the sad and lonely place he finds himself in, for the remains of his day, is largely self-inflicted.

 

Not a very sympathetic reading of this character, is it? 

[Stacia]

Dorothy Parker was born on this day in 1893.  What a wit! Reviewing a novel in the pages of the New Yorker, she wrote:

 

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

 

Somehow that quote made me think of this scene from Silver Linings Playbook. Our anti-Hemingway BaWers might especially get a chuckle!

 

(ETA: Found a film clip that edits the profanity & doesn't show it in the title.)

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Stacia

[Stacia]

I decided to scrap everything I was reading or trying to read.

 

Instead I scoured my bookshelves to find a book for Robin's challenge this week. I found Scarlet Sister Mary (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1929) by Julia Peterkin. Thanks, Jane, for sending this to me awhile back. I'm enjoying the little bit I've read so far as I lived part of my childhood in the lowcountry of SC & that's where my sister lives & I visit as often as I can.

 

Scarlet Sister Mary is set among the Gullah people of the Low Country in South Carolina. The date is never clearly established, but appears to be around the beginning of the twentieth century. The title character, Mary, was an orphan on an abandoned plantation who was raised by Auntie Maum Hannah and her crippled son Budda Ben. The description of Mary as "Scarlet Sister" reflects the basic conflict in the novel as Mary is torn between her desire to be a member in good standing in the church and a desire to live a life of sin and pleasure.

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Stacia

[Chrysalis Academy]

Stacia, are you abandoning The Pope's Daughter? I wondered what you thought of it, but didn't catch if you finished it or not.

[Kareni]

I finished two books both of which I enjoyed ~

 

The first is a fantasy which has something of a fairy tale feel.  This book has some violence, but otherwise it would be suitable for all readers.  I've read several contemporary books by this author, but this is the first I've read by her in this genre:

 

The Bird and the Sword  by Amy Harmon

 

"Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.

 

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

 

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?"

 

 

and the second book is the historical romance:

 

Marrying Winterborne  by Lisa Kleypas.  This book is second in a series; however, it stands alone well.

 

"A ruthless tycoon

 

Savage ambition has brought common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success. In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants. And from the moment he meets the shy, aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, he is determined to possess her. If he must take her virtue to ensure she marries him, so much the better . . .

 

A sheltered beauty

 

Helen has had little contact with the glittering, cynical world of London society. Yet Rhys’s determined seduction awakens an intense mutual passion. Helen’s gentle upbringing belies a stubborn conviction that only she can tame her unruly husband. As Rhys’s enemies conspire against them, Helen must trust him with her darkest secret. The risks are unthinkable . . . the reward, a lifetime of incomparable bliss. And it all begins with…

 

Marrying Mr. Winterborne"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

I looked through my basket of library books last night searching for a book with a color in its title.  I came across Silence Is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher and read about a third of it (plus the end) before putting it aside.  It was an intriguing young adult story but didn't succeed in grabbing me at the time.  I did, however, successfully complete Trader Joe's most recent Fearless Flyer!

 

"My name is Tess Turner--at least, that's what I've always been told.

 

I have a voice but it isn't mine. It used to say things so I'd fit in, to please my parents, to please my teachers. It used to tell the universe I was something I wasn't. It lied.

 

It never occurred to me that everyone else was lying too.

 

Fifteen-year-old Tess doesn't mean to become mute. At first, she's just too shocked to speak. And who wouldn't be? Discovering your whole life has been a lie because your dad isn't your real father is a pretty big deal. Terrified of the truth, Tess retreats into silence.

 

Reeling from her family's betrayal, Tess sets out to discover the identity of her real father. He could be anyone--even the familiar-looking teacher at her school. Tess continues to investigate, uncovering a secret that could ruin multiple lives. It all may be too much for Tess to handle, but how can she ask for help when she's forgotten how to use her voice?

 

In a brilliant study of identity, betrayal, and complex family dynamics, award-winning author Annabel Pitcher explores the importance of communication, even when we're faced with unspeakable truths."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

I finished The Remains of the Day. I'm not quite sure exactly how I feel about it yet.  It was superbly written, and Stevens is the ultimate unreliable narrator.  His level of self-delusion, his lack of self-awareness was so severe it almost warrants a diagnosis of some kind.  I almost thought at first that I was reading satire, there was such a disconnect between his self-perception and the reality that was revealed by the narration of the actual events and conversation.  He made me cringe every time he spoke, practically - I wanted to smack him upside the head, or just cover my eyes and shake my head.  I can't think of a character in literature who is equally deluded about himself and his effect on others. He is truly a Tragic figure, in the sense of having a fatal flaw that he is unable to overcome, or even see.  He almost reminded me of Oedipus.

 

Such a well-written book, but such a difficult, difficult character.  I don't find my overwhelming reaction to him pity, though.  I guess I feel more frustrated with him than anything. He's a product of his time and place - his literal place, as in social status - for sure, but I found myself annoyed by his utter inability to transcend his own circumstances and felt that the sad and lonely place he finds himself in, for the remains of his day, is largely self-inflicted.

 

Not a very sympathetic reading of this character, is it? 

 

Stevens, to me, is clearly on the spectrum -- high functioning autism or aspergers.  I don't think that was the author's intent, but to me it was so obvious, and it made him, again for me, a very sympathetic character. (Perhaps it takes loving an Aspie in real life to truly embrace his character?)  He copes well in his world because it is rule bound by tradition. He has a specific role to play and he does it exceptionally well. But the poor guy does not know how to handle change, and his post WWII world has turned life in service completely upside down. I felt he grew quite a bit in taking that daring drive, though.  He will never quite understand his loneliness, but he will do his duty til the end and take satisfaction in that.

 

To say he is a tragic figure and has a fatal flaw is to judge him against a neuro-typical character. I don't see him as flawed, but as someone who is bewildered by the world, who had a safe and regimented life but is valiantly trying to adapt to changing circumstances.  

[aggieamy]

After passing on the book, I asked myself: Violet, for your fifty-second book of the year, what is on your TBR shelf that is utterly unlike both a Victorian social-problem romance and a sixteenth-century Italian spiritual treatise? And so I read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson's classic certainly doesn't have any pacing problems, moving as it does at a hundred miles per hour on acid through the California desert. And it frankly explains a lot about my parents, which comment I will now leave alone. Recommended for those with a high tolerance for profanity and lurid descriptions of drug use. I thought I might quote the famous "wave" speech, Thompson's favorite excerpt; but instead, the opening paragraphs, which give a very good idea of the book and Thompson's "gonzo journalism" prose.

 

 

I had to do a double take because Fear and Loathing doesn't sound like a VC book at all!  Has your username been hacked?  :laugh:

Not much reading this week. Just too busy. In my downtime, my brain cells have gone into full shutdown mode, so reading has pretty much been a no-go for me. Probably will try to finish The Pope's Daughter this week, but may set aside The Book of Disquiet for a time in my life that is less hectic & challenging.

 

Instead of reading, I spent a tiny bit of time cleaning off my bookshelves (an urge I feel every now & then), returning my entire pile of library books, etc.... Sometimes that helps me feel more settled for reading when I do get the time & focus to do so.

 

I have had to do that before with library books.  It is freeing because then you don't have to look at books you want to read and feel guilty about not having time.  Hope life calms down and you get more time for reading soon!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think you're right, Jenn, and you put your finger on my ambivalence about Stevens, so I really appreciate your point! I was conflating my two ways of reading him, which is why I was feeling confused about how to feel about him.  I see him as being on the spectrum, too - while I was reading, I was thinking, boy, if there is ever an example of a character who lacks a Theory of Mind, it's him.  That reading makes me feel a lot of sympathy. It's when I read him as neurotypical, as you say, that I feel like he has this tragic, fatal flaw. Thanks for helping me to clarify what was so confusing about him! 

 

I don't have a family member with Asperger's, but I can imagine that you can feel sympathy, empathy, and understanding for the lack of ability to see another's point of view, and at the very same time, feel exasperated with the consequences.  Loving exasperation, but exasperation none the less.  I can see Stevens in that way, too.

[fastweedpuller]

What a week, hope you are all enjoying your last summer days, Northerners. 

 

I thought I would have finished Seveneves by now but dang it's 800-odd pages, so it's like 2 books, and all that tech detail! may as well call it 3 books and not shoot myself because I can't finish it in a week.  I was looking for some nontraditional fiction and I got it.  Perhaps I will finish that last 100 pages this evening.

 

Science fiction.  hmm.  I would say I've read a fair share but it's not a genre that grabs and sustains me.  As a youngster--and I assume I am not alone in this group--I read Dune and Fahrenheit 451, Hitchhiker's Guide and some Star Wars stuff, Brave New World and 1984.  Because that's what was out there, early 80sish.  I alternated scifi with horror if I recall my free-reads in high school.  But I found Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies to be just as...horrific and grabby as anything Stephen King was offering at the time.  And then I read Slaughterhouse-Five and found an author I could like and like still...but yeah. SF isn't my fave.  But this year alone I have read 3? books in this category:  this one, Ready Player One and 1Q84.  If I look back further they keep popping up.  So why do I say I don't like the stuff?  I mean, Margaret Atwood!  Madeline L'Engle! 

 

Could it be that I just avoid books that go serial?  I never made it past Dune 1 or HHGttG1. 

 

So it got me curious enough to do a little background checking, and wowza the Hugo awards fiasco! was not on my radar at all.  But now it is.  (Seveneves was nominated but did not win; Ancillary Justice did, anyone read that?)  Here's an interesting article about the conspiracy:  How the Hugo Awards got Hijacked by Trumpian-style Social-Justice Warriors because ick how is it politics infects everything? insert sad emoji

 

ok back to work!  enjoy your day!

[aggieamy]

Chysalis Academy - I'm thinking I need to go on a stellar author fast.  Just read really, really, really amazingly well-written books.  So I'm open to suggestions: what is the best-written book (or top 3, or top 5) that you've ever read?  Any subject, any genre, just fantastic writing.  
 
I guess I'll need to repost this tomorrow on the new thread - on vacation, I've totally lost track of the days! But I'm all ears . . .

 

 

A few quick recommendations from great books I've read this year.  They will be an eclectic bunch since that seems to be what I've got going right now.

 

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott

Very Good, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoki Ogawa

 

Also... Georgette Heyer. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by aggieamy

[Stacia]

Rose, I did abandon The Pope's Daughter. It was chatty & fine but I am just not in the mood for Borgia shenanigans right now. May try it again down the road.

[Stacia]

I read The Remains of the Day years ago. I do not remember seeing Stevens as unsympathetic at all. I just saw him as a relatively tradition-bound person who cannot think outside the box. And with his trip, he was thinking outside the box (at least for him).

 

I read it before I really knew anything about being on the spectrum, so that angle never entered my mind.

 

Maybe it's my family or the area where I live, but I know plenty of people who are like Stevens in that they stick to one way, something traditional, & can't really understand others who are not the same way. I guess I'm saying that because he seemed like a normal person/character to me -- a human with good traits alongside flaws.

[Stacia]

It's so funny to see books classified as sci-fi that I would have not thought about that way, lol. (Slaughterhouse-Five and 1Q84 for example.)

 

I guess I rarely think of books I'm reading as falling into that category.