The Fill in the Gaps: 100 project

Moonrat's update

2012-01-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hi, folks! I haven't posted an update in a long time, but I'm still working pretty hard on my list.

I realize I have read the following since I last posted:

East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Farming of Bones, Edwidge Danticat
The Known World, Michael Chabon
Werewolves in Their Youth, Michael Chabon

I've also read significant portions of David Copperfield and Moby Dick, but these are both titles I am working through slowly when I'm in the right mood.

I've also started trying to read a lot of classic crime fiction. It's a second (and less well-structured) reading project. Anyway--if you're a crime fiction reader, let me know some of your favorites. I'm very curious.

Michelle(TBA)--My 100

2012-01-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Michelle. Since we have several Michelles already, I'll be know as Michelle(TBA). My main book blog is The True Book Addict (hence the TBA = True Book Addict), on which my primary focus is historical fiction. I also have a horror/speculative fiction review blog, Castle Macabre. I track all my reading challenges, including perpetual challenges and long term challenges like this, at my challenge blog, Challenges of The True Book Addict. My list comes from my 3000+ home library, of which many of the 2000+ fiction books have been languishing--unloved--for years. LOL! These are books I've been wanting to read for a long time. There are also some more recent acquisitions which are books I purchased because I'd really been wanting to read them (but aren't they all that for us, truth be told).

These are listed in alphabetical order by author's name, but will not be read in this order. Goal date is January 17, 2017.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks
The Last Days of Pompeii by Edgar George Bulwer-Lytton
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
The Love Knot by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell
Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Passage by Justin Cronin
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Queenmaker by India Edghill
Under the Snow by Kerstin Ekman
Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
In the Woods by Tana French
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Grendel by John Gardner
Helen of Troy by Margaret George
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Roots by Alex Haley
Forever by Pete Hamill
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
Lord of the Dead by Tom Holland
The Society of S by Susan Hubbard
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ahab's Wife, or the Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund
Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
The Covenant by James Michener
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch
The Eight by Katherine Neville
Anno-Dracula by Kim Newman
The Red Church by Scott Nicholson
The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice
Christ the Lord by Anne Rice
Angel Time by Anne Rice
A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Terror by Dan Simmons
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
The Seventh Scroll by Wilbur Smith
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
The Passion of Artemesia by Susan Vreeland
The Religion by Tim Willocks
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

2012-01-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

A wonderful opening pulled me straight into the 1920s. And straight into London's theatreland.

It was beautifully written and it was clear that Josephine Tey, already a successful playwright, knew and loved the world she was writing about. And that she understood the importance of the big picture, of the small things, and of the psychology of her characters.

And in the very first chapter there was the crime. Such an elegant, clever scenario:

" 'Chap fainted,' said someone. No one moved for a moment or two. Minding one's own business in a crowd today is as much an instinct of self-preservation as a chameleon's versatility. Perhaps someone would claim the chap. But no one did; and so a man with more social instinct or more self-importance than the rest moved forward to help the collapsed one. He was about to bend over the limp heap when he stopped as if stung and recoiled hastily. A woman shrieked three times horribly; and the pushing, heaving queue froze suddenly to immobility.

In the clear white light of the naked electric in the roof, a man's body, left alone by the instinctive withdrawal of the others, lay revealed in every detail. And rising slant-wise from the grey tweed of his coat was a little silver thing that winked wickedly in the baleful light.

It was the handle of a dagger."

An audacious murder, in the middle of a queue of people, all pressing forward, eager to see the final performance of popular musical.

The investigation fell to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard. A detective without the gimmicks, or idiosyncracies of many of his contemporaries, but with a great deal of intelligence and charm, I soon suspected that his creator was a little in love with him ... quite understandably ...

There was little physical evidence, little witness evidence, but a careful, methodical investigation began, and in time the dead man was identified, his life examined, and suspects identified.

Often the story was quiet, but it was always engaging.

The characters were so well drawn, and they always offered me a question to ponder.

There were some great moments and some lovely diversions: a trip to the Highlands of Scotland in pursuit of a fleeing suspect stood out for me.

And the writing was wonderful. Josephine Tey wrote such lovely prose, balancing rich descriptions and perfectly observed dialogue, with intelligence and wit always threaded through.

Elements of the modern police procedural can be seen, but this is very much a book of its time. The language, the world it describes tie it to the 1920s, and references to the Great War emphasise its lasting impact on a generation.

I was caught up in that world, and with Inspector Grant and his investigation.

The resolution owed as much to luck - or maybe policeman's instinct - as solid police work.

I didn't mind that, but it did confirm my feeling that this was a good book rather that a great book.

And certainly more than good enough to make sure that I will read my way through the rest of the series ...

Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See

2011-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

I'm sad that I didn't read this book sooner. It was a bittersweet tale of two women and their friendship over the course of their lives. See does a marvelous job, not only painting the picture of the time period these women lived in but creating characters that I as a reader cared about. From the first few pages I was drawn into Lily and Snow Flower's lives. I enjoyed all the detail that See provides about their day to day lives. The information about how a family in rural China might have lived day to day was fascinating to me. I did sadden me to hear how women were treated and how under valued women were seen. Overall, a wonderful story about women and their friendship.

REVIEW - NOW YOU SEE HIM

2011-12-15T07:30:00.000-08:00

This book has been on my shelves for a long time. I finally got around to reading it. I really liked this book. It's also a first time author for me. I'll be reading this author again, I really liked the style of his writing. You can see my full review at my place, Just Books.

Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice

2011-11-29T18:54:00.001-08:00

I'm a big fan of vampires. Yes even before Twilight and the current glut of vampire books. But I'd never read Interview With The Vampire. Perhaps it was the hype, perhaps it was the fact I'd read countless other vampire books but Interview With The Vampire wasn't my favorite.
Louis tells the story of how he became a vampire, his time spent with Lestat, how they found Claudia, and how Louis and Claudia learned about other vampires. Since Louis is telling his story after it's all happened, he's able to add details and explain how things turned out. I kind of wish that after he started telling the story we were transported back to where Louis' story began. For me the story dragged. I couldn't get into Louis' story. I didn't care about any of the characters that much.
Overall I was unimpressed with Interview With The Vampire. It'll take a lot for me to continue with The Vampire Chronicles series.

REVIEW - THE RECKONING

2011-11-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Number 67 of 100 done. This book was a little disappointing.

This 3rd book in the Darkest Powers series returns you to the safe house where Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori are hiding from the Edison Group. The pace was fast, and the plot's twists left me guessing who to trust and very surprised when the answers were revealed. This book did not provide the ending to the trilogy that I had wanted. It left me with lots of questions and no answers. But the romance between Chloe and Derek was answered. Do Chloe, Derek, Simon and Tori get away and into safe hands? You'll have to read the book to find out.

REVIEW - NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND

2011-11-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is book 65 of 100.

"Notes From A Small Island" by Bill Bryson
Product Description
After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson-bestsellingauthor of The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to returnto the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so it was clear that my people needed me.") But before departing, he set out ona grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home.
Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.
Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (May 1, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380727501
ISBN-13: 978-0380727506

MY THOUGHTS: This was a very interesting book. The author takes you on a walking trip around England, some places you've heard of and are very famous, and some places you've never heard of. All along giving you his version of what it's like traveling and trying to find good places to sleep and eat. I really liked this book, it was funny at times and kind of sad at times. But really an enjoyable book to read.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

2011-10-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Book Description:

Gregor is stuck watching his two year old sister, Boots and his grandma for the summer. During the laundry session, his sister looses her ball in the grate and they both get sucked into the Underland. The Underland is filled with giant bugs, spiders, and rats. He just wants to get back home, but discovers two things. The first is that a prophecy foretells a role for him in the future of the humans living in the Underland. And second, the mystery of his father's disappearance is uncovered. The quest all unfolds as the mysterious prophecy plays out.

My Thoughts:

This book started a bit slow for me. I really didn't get into it until about the fourth chapter or so. It did pick up though, and I did enjoy it overall. I really appreciated the research on the different animals used to create their characters and attitudes. I was inclined to go and read about rats and their teeth, to find out if the fact was true or not. I think it is a great book for boys because of the quest and adventure. They would love that part for sure.

Wuthering Heights (audio)~ Emily Bronte

2011-10-12T08:15:00.001-07:00

My plan was to post this on or near Halloween as it is a horrific ghost tale of sorts. But life is crazy now so it’s probably best to get this live. This is a copy of the post from my blog – edited for Fill in the Gaps.

Reviewed by Shellie: Wuthering Heights ~ by Emily Brontë

A classic masterpiece that is an incredible work of horrific and tragic fiction. It is a shocking “page turner” that I could not put down.

About: A tale of a haunting, either imaginary or not. It’s also a story of love and a loss so obsessive that it creates a monster from a man, mangling him into a cruel character that manipulates those around him for revenge, power, and pleasure. His anger seethes into the lives of family and those who he should love and cherish. Sadly, due to the constraints of the time, those around him cannot escape his internal conflict, external tortures, and schemes.

The story unfolds within and around two houses or manors in the late 1700s/early 1800s, in the English countryside. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are the names of the houses where the story takes place, among the rock strewn landscape of the bleak, damp and beautiful Yorkshire Moors.

The story is told from the perspective of a new border (Lockwood) who arrives to rent Thrushcross Grange in an effort to escape city life in London. Hoping for idyllic countryside and folk, he finds things are not at all as he had wished or imagined. He is appalled yet intrigued as to the reasons why there is such lack of normal civility at Wuthering Heights, so he consults the household’s servant, Nelly Dean. Through a series of conversations she tells him the horrible and convoluted tale. As they progress, Nelly’s strong character and moral sensibilities come through as she passes along the tragedy of the young Heathcliff and Catherine, spanning their childhood and beyond.

Thoughts: John (my partner) is from North Yorkshire, growing up only several miles from where the Bronte’s lived, wrote, and died. So naturally I have visited the area frequently over the years. When visiting one can see the landscape is rocky and harsh with its boggy, peaty waters running through its craggy hills. It is generally damp and cold with summers that can be lovely and warm but only for a moment. This description of the moors is also a metaphor used throughout the novel; it mirrors a conflicted passion between the main characters.

It is accepted that life there was harsh 200 years ago, and still is for farmers working there today. They are known to be surly and cranky, so Heathcliff's temperament was no surprise, yet his extreme cruelty was. He is a character who is sadistic and that overshadows most of the other well fleshed out figures – even the wild, strong-willed, yet spoiled Catherine. I was shocked, thinking the book was categorized as a romance and it that would be light. Boy was I wrong.

You may think that through my description above that I did not particularly like Wuthering Heights. I loved it and think it is an incredible surprise of a horror story. It’s a harshly “romantic” tale and an enduring historical classic. It has a wonderful and deeply conflicted character with a chafing angst. It deserves a 4.5 stars and gets a big “Wow” in my humble opinion.

The version I listened to is included below, as is a paperback I used as reference – the Yorkshire accent is difficult even today, let alone 200 years ago when the book was set and written. Even John as a native Yorkshire-man had difficulty translating it for me. The best part of the particular version I listened to is that the narrator has a “proper” Yorkshire accent and sounds just like my sister in law (a native). It gives the reading an authentic feel.

Audio: Naxos AudioBooks; Unabridged; 11-CD Set; read by Janet McTeer and David Timson; 13 hours, 9 minutes; May 15, 2007;

Paperback: Signet Classic; introduction by Alice Hoffman; copy shown above also includes an afterword by Juliet Barker; 352 pages; March 1, 2011;

And now for some visuals - all are near Skipton, an ancient market town in the English North Yorkshire Dales and just a few miles away from where Bronte lived.

These were taken by John and myself in July several years ago:

You can see the rocky hills although most of the heather has been cleared for the cattle.

Here are portioned off areas used for sheep grazing. I would estimate the temperature was in the high 60s on the days these shots were taken, which is warm for the locals. Be forewarned that it can change in minutes to a windy rain-soaked downpour, yes even in July. And in winter it is much colder and often icy, with occasional snow.

Author Bio: Emily Jane Brontë was born July 30, 1818, at Thornton in Yorkshire, the fifth of six children. Both of Emily's parents had literary leanings. Her mother died of cancer shortly after Emily's third birthday. Her primary residence and the rectory where she lived now serves as a Bronte Museum. Emily's only close friends were her brother Branwell and her sisters Charlotte and Anne. She died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848 at the age of thirty, and never knew the success of her only novel Wuthering Heights - which was published a year before her death. She was purported to be a reserved, courageous woman with a commanding will and manner.

Wuthering Heights was first published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. It met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.

Bio information was taken from Wikipedia.

On one trip to England I read a short bio on the family from one of the books in the cottage where we stayed since their home was very near to the area we stayed. From what I read their lives were short and tragic. So very sad. I imagine the area was very bleak in those times. It still often is.

In summary – it is a perfect read for the “scary season” especially for those who are a bit more literary and classics minded and is highly recommended in this audio version.

REVIEW - THE UNDOMESTIC GODDESS

2011-10-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

"The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella
Product Description(Amazon.com)
Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She’s made a mistake so huge, it’ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer—and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope—and finds love—is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back?
Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Dell (October 30, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044024238X
ISBN-13: 978-0440242383

MY THOUGHTS: This is the first book from this author that I've read. I liked a review I read somewhere and thought I would try it out. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was. I have to admit I skipped through chapters. This book is kind of not realistic. It leads you to believe that Samantha became a great chief in a very short time. It fell apart at the end. I didn't particularly like the characters in this book. It was readable and that's all I can say about it.

My full review is at Just Books.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

2011-10-02T22:55:00.001-07:00

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Book Description: Tree-ear is an orphan living with a crippled man under a bridge in Korea during the twelfth-century. This bridge is near the village of Ch'ulp'o, known for its remarkable pottery, the delicate celadon ware. Tree-ear has a passion to make his own pot someday. This passion leads him to secretly watch Min, the master potter work. Due to circumstances, Tree-ear becomes a worker for the elderly master. He learns much of the trade, but will Min teach him the art of spinning the wheel?

My Thoughts: It's a Newberry winner for a reason. It is very good coming of age story where Tree-ear is put onto situations where he must decide to do what is right, or what is easier. I enjoyed the Korean culture that was brought out through the relationships of the characters in the book.

An example of the glaze color of Celadon.

The Hours By Michael Cunningham

2011-09-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Since I read Mrs Dalloway a few weeks ago I decided it was time to read The Hours. I wasn't sure I was going to like it but I really enjoyed it.
The Hours is the story of three women-Virginia Woolf, Clarrisa Vaughn, and Laura Brown. Virginia is recovering and writing Mrs Dalloway. Clarrisa is getting ready to throw a party for her friend, Richard, a poet who is receiving an award. Laura is a pregnant stay at home mom who is reading Mrs Dalloway. The story is quite simple. Each woman is going through her day, interacting with spouses, friends, and neighbors. Each woman lives a quiet life but they all have this inner turmoil, this longing for something else. It's quite beautiful how each story unfolds and each woman is revealed.
I have never seen the movie but I want to now that I finished the book. It's an elegant story and an enjoyable read.

The BFG by Roald Dahl

2011-09-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

The BFG by Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

Book Description: Sophie, a little orphan girl, is captured by a giant. Not just any giant, but the Big Friendly Giant, which is very fortunate for her. He does NOT eat human beans like the other giants that live near him. Together they come up with a plan that involves the Queen of England to stop the other nine giants from eating humans.

My Take: LOVED it! Great story that keeps you wondering. What I liked the best was the wonderful words that Mr. Dahl makes up for the giant to speak. They are just fun to pronounce and hear out loud. Definitely, a good book to read out loud to your children or a classroom!

Just Left of Imagination Avenue: #YAScramble!! "Want to get away? Powerful Settings...

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Just Left of Imagination Avenue: #YAScramble!! "Want to get away? Powerful Settings...: (what a cool 50th post this makes!) #YASCRAMBLE GUYS! Here's what you do: 1) Visit the first blog (based on list below). 2) Read the gues...

Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire A. Nivola

2011-09-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire A. Nivola

Fun picture book about the story of Wangari Maathai, first woman from Africa to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. As a child she remembers her home in Kenya with many farms and villages where people ate the food they grew. She was able to attend college in the US, where she studied biology in hopes to return to Kenya with her new knowledge. In those five years, though, Kenya had changed dramatically. The trees had been cut down for more plantation fields, which led to various problems. Wangari Maathai taught the women to grow trees from seeds. This turned out to be the best thing for the people of Kenya.

My thoughts:

I thought the book was really good for younger children to learn about a person out making a difference in her home country. The pictures are colorful.

whoops, further updates

2011-09-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

Upon perusal of my list, I realize I have also finished the following and forgotten to blog about them:

TROPIC OF CANCER, Henry Miller (blech, basically)

BAD BEHAVIOR, Mary Gaitskill (liked it ok; got me reading more short stories; didn't totally fall in love)

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE, Raymond Carver (again, enjoyed; more short stories please; revealed Gordon Lish editorial style to me, which has been very educational)

CHARMING BILLY, Alice McDermott (lovely writing, but I found it a bit inaccessible)

THE SUN ALSO RISES, Ernest Hemingway (yep, definitely a fan)

THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES, Haruki Murakami (glad I've got a Murakami under my belt now, but I just don't think I'm a fan of his)

I also started Charles Dickens's DAVID COPPERFIELD, but kind of put it aside after 30% (on Kindle). I'm just starting Edward P Jones's THE KNOWN WORLD now.

Wahoo. Almost halfway through.

ENDER'S GAME, by Orson Scott Card

2011-09-04T22:04:00.001-07:00

Yay! After a long hiatus (uh, someone fell into an epic fantasy binge-reading hole), I'm making Gaps progress again. Here's my review for Ender's Game. I'd love to discuss with anyone else who's read it.

REVIEW - CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS - Judi Barrett

2011-09-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to read this book for ages. I read a review somewhere and it sounded so cute. Grandpa, a dog and pancakes starts all this. Grandpa is fixing pancakes and the dog comes running through the room, upsetting Grandpa. The pancake fly's through the air and lands on his head. Later that night, at bedtime, Grandpa tells them a tall tale about Chewandswallow. It doesn't rain or snow, it comes down as food. But one day the weather gets really strange and starts sending enormous amounts of food and the food is larger. All the people make a boat out of the peanut butter sandwiches and sail away to another town.
This book has some wonderful drawings done by Ron Barriett. Children would love this book as it's full of imagination. If you have children you should read this book to them. It wonderful!

My full review at Just Books.

Review: Women In Love - D.H. Lawrence

2011-08-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia: Women in Love, published in 1920, is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions associated with the author. The emotional relationships thus established are given further depth and tension by an intense psychological and physihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcal attraction between Gerald and Rupert. The novel ranges over the whole of British society before the time of the First World War and eventually ends high up in the snows of the Tyrolean Alps.

My Thoughts:

I can't say that I enjoyed the story of Women in Love. It strikes me as too prosaic. Nothing in the plot or in the relationships was interesting enough (to me) to warrant an entire novel on the subject.

(I'm willing to concede that I formed this opinion based on a lack of understanding because I haven't read the precursor, The Rainbow. But I'm not willing, at this point, to read that to see if it changes my opinion.)

At times the dialogue made me want to wing the book across the room. It seemed the characters spoke in soliloquies rather than to each other. They would drone on and on, frequently, using language quite unbelievable for casual discourse.

However, I did enjoy Lawrence's choice of language, mainly in his descriptive passages. He has a rare talent for choosing words which provide an underlying feel or emotion to the scene, quite capturing the mood with what's happening among the characters. My only beef is that he used these precise, emotive words over and over again in the scenes. I found myself thinking, "Enough already! I get it!" many times throughout the course of the book.

Also, according to Wikipedia: As with most of Lawrence's works, Women in Love caused controversy over its sexual subject matter. One early reviewer said of it, "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here is dirt in heaps — festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven."

By today's standards Women in Love is tame, very tame, with much of the sexual tension couched in suggestion and innuendo. And it's these precise suggestions that Lawrence's language evokes. I can understand how the review came to his opinion.

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

2011-08-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

Book Description: Young Fu and his mother are forced by a famine to leave their small village in the mountains to move to the big city of Chungking. Young Fu is bound for seven years as an apprentice to the copper-smith, Tang. Young Fu learns more from his kind master than just the skills required of a copper-smith. From each adventure that Young Fu finds himself in, he begins to make his own opinions about the western world and life in general. Set in the 1920's, China is slowly changing as a country and Young Fu changes with it, from a boy into a man.

My Thoughts: Having lived near the Yangtze River for a few years I was intrigued by the descriptions made about the junks that traveled to and from Shanghai. What I really liked was the way that Elizabeth Foreman Lewis intertwined the old superstitions of Young Fu's mother and his newer ways of thinking. For example, she was highly fearful of foreigners, but Young Fu found them to not be scary and a few to be very helpful and caring. I enjoyed reading this story, though fictional, about this era right before China's revolution began. Elizabeth had lived in Chungking during this time, so the descriptions of the streets and surroundings made for a fun, run down memory-lane read for me (even if it was a different era, somethings I found still the same...)

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

2011-08-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Mrs Dalloway seems like a book I should have read in one of my high school English classes. Since my teacher didn't get the memo, I read it now (some 15 years after high school). I thought I would like Mrs Dalloway since it's very stream of consciousness (no, it is stream of consciousness). And I tend to think and tell stories in the same manner. Sadly, another classic I didn't fall in love with. I did enjoy the writing. It was very beautiful but I couldn't always understand what was going on. I'm glad to have read it so I can read The Hours, also on my Fill In The Gaps list.

Review: A Widow for One Year - John Irving

2011-08-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

A Widow for One Year is a story about Ruth Cole, told in three parts. For the first part of the book, she’s only four years old. In the second, she’s in her 30's, a successful writer. In the last part of the book, she is 41, widowed, and the mother of a one year old.

The story is both tragic and farcical. When it opens, her two older brothers have both perished in a car accident. (Something Ruth doesn’t have the capacity to understand, and her mother doesn’t have the capacity deal with .) Ruth’s the third child, made by parents trying to keep it together. The book opens with Ruth’s mother having sex with her 16-year-old baby sitter, Eddie, and Ruth walking in on them.

Ruth’s mother eventually leaves. (Eddie never gets over his infatuation, even though later in life he falls in love with Ruth.) Both Ruth and Eddie wait nearly 40 years for Ruth’s mother to return.

There’s a lot of drama in this book: Ruth is raped by her father’s friend, her father commits suicide over it, Ruth is widowed shortly after being married (foreshadowed by the curse of another widow) and later she witnesses the murder of a prostitute in Amsterdam.

There should have been enough “story” here to keep anyone interested, but I found the book plodding and dull. It was like the events were told so matter of factly, that they didn’t mean anything. It’s as though Irving didn’t care enough to tell it well.

It was a quick read, nonetheless, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

2011-08-08T01:33:00.000-07:00

So after a very long break, and an even longer amount of procrastinating, I decided to pick my next book using the scientific method of a random number generator. And the first book the computer picked was this one.

I'm enjoying it. At least I think I am. It's the most difficult book I've ever read and I'm not entirely sure why. Is it because my knowledge of India's history is negligible? Is my head just not in the right place? I haven't read any of Salman Rushdie's books until now, and I'm wondering whether I should have picked The Satanic Verses instead?

If anyone has read it I'd love to hear. I'm determined to finish it, no matter what.

REVIEW - THE READER

2011-08-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

"The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink

I was hooked from the beginning of this book. I wanted to find out what happened to Michael and Hanna. Did they stay together? Or was it a doomed romance? It was a short romance for Michael. One day Hanna just disappeared. He kept thinking of her even into college. Then one day while in court as a law student he sees Hanna. She is on trial for murder during the war. But as Michael sits through the court trial he discovers something about Hanna. Should he tell the judge? He is torn by what he knows. He goes to discuss it with his father. But that doesn't help. Does he tell anyone? What happens to Hanna? You'll have to read the book to find out.

You can see my full review at Just Books.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

2011-07-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

I added Slaughterhouse Five to my Fill In The Gaps list because I felt it was one of those books I should have read. I'm glad I read it but I wasn't crazy about it.
The one aspect of Slaughterhouse Five I did enjoy was the time travel. Billy gets unstuck from time and travels through different parts of his life. I felt it was a unique way to experience the characters. I enjoyed the non-linear path the book took. I found it easy to read and amusing at times. Overall a good read but I didn't find it earth-shattering.

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

2011-07-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I became an Annie Dillard fan after reading PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK several years ago. I figure Annie Dillard must be a wonderful writer if she can make me interested in the eating patterns of dragonfly larvae. THE MAYTREES is one of her fictional works. The only other piece of fiction I've read by Ms. Dillard is her historical novel THE LIVING.

THE MAYTREES is centered around its characters and, perhaps almost equally, its setting. The words are beautiful. I'm not smart enough to make sense of them all, but sometimes when reading literary fiction I find I have to step back, ignore the meaning of the words and let them impress me with feelings instead. That's the only way to keep my head above water. But overall, I came away knowing these characters--Maytree, Lou, Deary, and even Reevadare--very well. I won't soon forget them. They almost feel like old--though slightly insane, perhaps--friends. Maytree, especially, was such a well-rounded character. He makes horrible mistakes, but you forgive him just as Lou does. You don't have a choice. You must like the man.

Good book. I'd recommend it if you enjoy literary fiction. If you need tightly-paced plotting to finish a book, however, don't pick it up.

View all my reviews

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

2011-07-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

I choose to read I, Robot because it's a science fiction classic and I'd seen the Will Smith movie. The movie and the book have nothing in common but the name. There's a brief similarity to one story in the book and some of the names are the same.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I tend to shy away from heavy science fiction. Sometimes it's too abstract for me. I, Robot isn't too abstract or too heavy. Instead it focuses on the human elements of the story. How people interacted with robots, how the robots themselves displayed their own humanity.
The premise of the book is a reporter doing a story on Susan Calvin, a roboosychologist, as she approaches retirement. Susan remembers a world without robots and she's been working with robots since the beginning. It's through these stories about different robot types that show robots developing a consciousness time and time again. Some of the stories were funny and some were sad.
Overall I enjoyed I, Robot and would read more of Asimov's books.

Review: Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

2011-07-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

I finished Anna Karenina yesterday.

I'm glad I read it (so I can say that I have) and I'm glad it's over. I think Russian authors desire to make their readers suffer as much as the characters in their books. :)

The fact is, it's an interesting story (mostly about Anna's infidelity - although there are many other social issues hinted at) but there's just too much of it for me. Tolstoy (in my opinion) tends to belabor the point of many things, and I wish he would have done this a little less.

Anna Karenina is really two stories in one, Anna's story and her brother Levin's story... Tolstoy could have written two (or maybe even three) novels instead of shoving all the stories of these relations (and others) into one. Although, each of their stories is tied into the theme of each of them searching for happiness in life. I'm not quite certain that anyone finds it, according to Tolstoy.

** Spoiler **
I did feel cheated by Anna's suicide at the end of Book 7. I couldn't help wondering why Tolstoy continued writing after his main character offed herself. And I was disappointed that I had to plod through Book 8 to get to the end. Levin's religious soul-searching in B8 (and his own thoughts of suicide) seemed off-theme to me, and I just wanted it to be over.

I couldn't help but feel that Anna's eventual suicide was her own fault, due in part to her decision not to accept a divorce from her husband. When her feelings changed and she desired the divorce, he refused to give it. That, with her increasing insecurities about Vronksy's feelings for her seemed to put her into a downward spiral that she couldn't escape from.

I was quite annoyed with her dithering,"He loves me, he doesn't love me; he's going to leave me, he's going to stay," litanies. Tolstoy spent a lot of time inside Anna's mind with these back-and-forth thoughts. In many ways, she seemed to be going mad before she finally did herself in. The fact that her reason for doing so was to hurt Vronksy's feelings, rather than to release herself from the pain of the relationship, struck me as rather childish.

** Spoiler Over

Do I recommend it? Hard to say. My answer would depend on what your reasons are for reading it. Is it an enjoyable read? I don't believe it is. Nor is it easy. But it's interesting to read about Russian society at the time. From that perspective, or if you feel like you need to experience a bit of Russian Literature, I say, read on.

~ Kelly

REVIEW

2011-07-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

"Back Roads" by Tawni O' Dell
Product Description(Amazon.com)
Meet Harley Altmyer. His mother's in prison for his father's murder. At nineteen, he's raising his three younger sisters-and he's just developed an obsessive crush on the sexy, melancholic mother of two, living just down the road...
Paperback: 343 pages
Publisher: Unknown (May 31, 2004)
ISBN-10: 1615540849
ISBN-13: 978-1615540846

MY THOUGHTS: I really liked reading this book. But it ended totally different than what I was expecting. Actually the ending was a shocker. But I can't tell about that, it would ruin the surprise. You can read my full review at my book blog, Just Books.

Michelle H's 100 List

2011-07-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

My family just started a book review blog last week and I found this site while looking at another book review blog this week. I decided to go ahead and join the challenge. Since these are supposed to be books that I feel I should read, but haven't gotten around to it yet, I took a lot of my list off AP English reading lists because I feel a lot of those books are important. I like the classics, but just haven't gotten around to many of them. Anyway, our blog is Bookworm Family if anyone wants to check it out.

Here's my list - in alphabetical order by the author's last name. (Goal Date: 07/01/2016)

Author	Title
Albee, Edward	The Zoo Story
Ambrose	To America: Personal Reflections of a Historian
Atwood, Margaret	The Handmaid's Tale
Austen, Jane	Emma
Baldwin, James	Go Tell It on the Mountain
Ball, Edward	Slaves in the Family
Barrie, J. M.	Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Baum, L. Frank	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Beckett, Samuel	Waiting for Godot
Berg, Scott	Lindberg
Blume, Judy	Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Bonham, Frank	Durango Street
Bronte, Charlotte	Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily	Wuthering Heights
Brown, Dee Alexander	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Capote, Truman	Breakfast at Tiffany's
Chaucer	The Canterbury Tales
Chopin, Kate	The Awakening
Clark, Ronald	Einstein: The Life and Times
Conrad, Joseph	Heart of Darkness
Crane, Stephen	The Red Badge of Courage
Dante	Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel	Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel	Robinson Crusoe
Dinesen, Isaak	Out of Africa
Donald, David Herbert	Lincoln
Dostoevsky, Fyodor	Crime and Punishment
Edwards, Kim	The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Faulkner, William	Light in August
Fielding, Henry	Tom Jones
Filipovic, Zlata	Zlata's Diary
Flaubert, Gustave	Madame Bovary
Forster, E. M.	A Passage to India
Franklin, Ben	The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah	Hitler's Willing Executioners
Gordeeva, Ekaterina	My Sergei
Graham, Katherine	A Personal History
Greene, Graham	The Heart of the Matter
Guterson, David	Snow Falling on Cedars
Hardy, Thomas	Far from the Madding Crowd
Hardy, Thomas	Return of the Native
Hardy, Thomas	The Mayor of Casterbridge
Heller, Joseph	Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest	A Farewell to Arms
Hersey, John	Hiroshima
Hosseini, Khaled	The Kite Runner
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki	Farewell to Manzanar
Hughes, Langston	The Best of Simple
Hurston, Zora Neale	Dust Tracks on a Road
Huxley, Aldous	Brave New World
Jones, Edward P.	The Known World
Joyce, James	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz	The Trial
Keller, Helen	The Story of My Life
Keneally, Thomas	Schindler's List
Kennedy, Caroline	Profiles in Courage for Our Time
Kinder, Garry	Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
Kingston, Maxine Hong	Woman Warrior
Kogawa, Joy	Obasan
Kotlowitz, Alex	There Are No Children Here
Lessing, Doris	the Golden Notebook
Lewis, C. S.	The Chronicles of Narnia
Lowenstein, Roger	When Genius Failed
Maclean, Norman	A River Runs Through It
McCullers, Carson	The Member of the Wedding
Melville, Herman	Billy Budd
Milton, John	Paradise Lost
Mitchell, Margaret	Gone With the Wind
Morrison, Toni	Song of Solomon
Naylor, Gloria	The Women of Brewster Place
Nichols, Linda	Handyman
Oher, Michael	I Beat the Odds
Orwell, George	1984
Perry, Marta	Leah's Choice
Perry, Marta	Rachel's Garden
Perry, Marta	Anna's Return
Perry, Marta	Sarah's Gift
Powers, Ron	Flags of our Fathers
Reed, John	Ten Days That Shook the World
Rose, Reginald	Twelve Angry Men
Shirer, William	the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Simpson, Joe	Touching the Void
Sinclair, Upton	The Jungle
Sobel, Dava	Longitude
Solomon, Maynard	Mozart
Sparks, Nicholas	Three Weeks with My Brother
Steinbeck, John	Of Mice and Men
Stoppard, Tom	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Stowe, Harriet Beecher	Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan	Gulliver's Travels
Tolkien, J. R. R.	The Hobbit
Tolkien, J. R. R.	The Lord of the Rings
Tolstoy, Leo	Anna Karenina
Walker, Alice	The Color Purple
Warren, Robert Penn	All the King's Men
Wells, H. G.	The Time Machine
Wharton, Edith	The Agee of Innocence
White, T. H.	The Once and Future King
Wolf, Virginia	Mrs. Dalloway

Digital Library Consortium, Anyone?

2011-06-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

I've 'read' several books lately, mostly because I found my state library's "consortium" which is a different bird than our state library system. It's the "go to" place for all things electronic: audio, video and ebook. They have items in their system that I'm unable to obtain at my local library - and all it takes to borrow is my current library card!

Thus, I've been able to obtain several classics on audio (and many new books, too!) which I've been able to enjoy during my 2+ hour daily commute.

I'm in Maryland, but perhaps other states have them as well? Just thought I'd pass on the tip.

Is everyone gearing up their summer reading? I'm finding that I'm re-ordering my "next to read" list based on the season and where I might be when I'm reading. Does anyone else do that?

BOOK REVIEW

2011-06-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

MY THOUGHTS: What do you do with all your broken things? Throw them away? Do you ever wonder what happens to them? Beware, they may go somewhere else and become a city. This what Un Lun Dun is all about. Imagination, at it's best. Umbrella's are Unbrella's. Milk cartons are pets. Old cars, windows and just about anything you can think of can become something. Where does this happen? In UnLondon of course. And UnLondon is being talked by Smog Monster. There is only one person or maybe two who can save UnLondon. Zanna and Deeba find out what's going on in UnLondon but there are people there who doesn't want Zanna and Deeba there. They send Zanna and Deeba back to London. Zanna's memory of UnLondon is wiped clean but Deeba still remembers and she finds her way back to UnLondon to help. They have to find the UnGun to help the city. They have to get it away from WebMinister Abby and the WebWindows. They then have to figure out how it works. Does Debba save the city? Who'll have to read the book to find out. Really great book. Full of all kinds of adventure and imagination. You can see my full review at my place, Just Books.

I'm back!

2011-06-03T22:56:00.001-07:00

I've put this gap-filling project on hold while I drag myself through the final stages of my degree, but as of next Friday I am all done (I HOPE), so it's time for me to get back into this!

Trouble is, I don't know where to start. My mental state is in no condition to tackle anything too difficult right now (Iliad!), so I wanted to ask you guys - what book should I read next?

Here's where I'm at right now:

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
The Iliyad - Homer
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Power of One - Bryce Courtney
Ulysses - James Joyce
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence
~~Lord of the Flies - William Golding~~
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Boat - Nam Le
My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
Carpentaria - Alexis Wright
Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
Dirt Music - Tim Winton
~~Cloudstreet - Tim Winton~~
1984 - George Orwell
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Middlemarch - George Eliot
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The White Earth - Andrew McGhan
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
~~Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh~~
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Everything I Knew - Peter Goldsworthy
Wanting - Richard Flannagan
A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz
~~Schindlers Ark - Thomas Kennally~~
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
~~The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker~~
The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
~~The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga~~
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
~~Bleak House - Charles Dickens~~
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
~~Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery~~
~~Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez~~
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
The Monkeys Mask - Dorothy Porter
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
~~The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks~~
~~The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas~~
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Watership Down - Richard Adams
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Good Earth - Pearl Buck
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Tbe Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
~~East of Eden - John Steinbeck~~
The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
March - Geraldine Brooks
The Thornbirds - Colleen McCullough
~~The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami~~
Middlesex -Jeffrey Eugenides
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
The House of Spirits - Isabel Allende
Sophie’s Choice - William Styron
~~The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd~~
The Gathering - Anne Enright
Life & Times of Michael K - J M Coetzee
The Sea – John Banville
The Red Queen – Margaret Drabble
The Divine Comedy - Dante
~~The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy~~
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud
The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
Breakfast at Tiffanys - Truman Capote

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

2011-05-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t remember why I put this on my FITG list. Probably because it was on Oprah’s book club list. Anyway, I’d heard good things about the Pilot’s Wife and I’m glad I took the time to read it.
It was a fast read. I read it in a day. It was very engrossing. Kathryn is married to Jack, who’s plane crashes while leaving London. Kathryn has dreaded this day. The story follows Kathryn’s grief and discovery of things Jack kept from her.
Overall I enjoy the characters. Kathryn was very understandable. Julia, Kathryn’s grandmother, was wonderful. I couldn’t make my mind up about Robert of Jack. Both were hiding things from Kathryn so neither of them will really likeable.
This would be a terrific book for a plane ride or a beach read. You won’t want to put it down.

Darlene's List for Project "Fill in the Gaps"

2011-05-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone!

I am so excited to join you all in this fantastic challenge! I recently started a book blog, and I would invite you all to visit me: http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.com/.

I had a really hard time narrowing down my list to just 100. My TBR pile is HUGE! I could have easily just made an entire list of classics that I want to read, but I thought that might be too daunting! I tried to mix it up a bit.

I ended up paring down my list to:

Classics that are on the top of my TBR list.
Popular books that were on bestseller lists.
Recommendations from others.

My lists runs to 105 because I needed to get the entire Outlander series in there, and I could not figure out which five books to eliminate!

If I manage to get through this list, I clearly will need to start another one!

Wish me luck! This list is in no particular order, other than grouping authors/series together. I do not pledge to read them in this order.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 1)
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 2)
The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 3)
The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 4)
Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 5)
The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 6)
Merrick by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 7)
Blood and Gold by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 8)
Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 9)
Blood Canticle by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 10)
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Dracula by Bram Stoker
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Robert Langdon Series, Book 1)
The da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Robert Langdon Series, Book 2)
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Robert Langdon Series, Book 3)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘Tis by Frank McCourt
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, Book 1)
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, Book 2)
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 1)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 2)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 4)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series, Book 7)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Emma by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 1)
The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 2)
The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 3)
The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 4)
The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 5)
The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel (Earth’s Children Series, Book 6)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women Series, Book 1)
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women Series, Book 2)
Joy’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women Series, Book 3)
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 1)
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 2)
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 3)
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 4)
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 5)
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 6)
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 7)
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 8)
The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 9)
On the Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 10)
West from Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House Series, Book 11)
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Lord of the Flies by Sir William Golding
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Series, Book 1)
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Series, Book 2)
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Series, Book 3)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 1)
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 2)
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 3)
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 4)
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 5)
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 6)
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series, Book 7)

Challenge Due Date: May 28, 2016

Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark

2011-05-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

“When I recall what happened to me and what I did in 1949, it strikes me how much easier it is with characters in a novel than in real life. In a novel an author invents characters and arranges them in convenient order. Now that I come to write biographically I have to tell of whatever actually happened and whoever naturally turns up. The story of a life is a very informal party; there are no rules of precedence and hospitality, no invitations.”

So says Fleur Talbot, intrepid heroine and narrator of Muriel Spark’s Loitering With Intent.

She’s a captivating heroine – clever, witty, vivacious and perceptive. You’d love to have her as a friend.

And she’s a book-lover and an aspiring writer.

“I always desired books; nearly all of my bills were for books. I possessed one very rare book which I traded for part of my bill with another bookshop, for I wasn’t a bibliophile of any kind; rare books didn’t interest me for their rarity but their content. I borrowed frequently from the public library, but often I would go into a bookshop and in my longing to possess, let us say, the Collected Poems of Arthur Clough and a new Collected Chaucer, I would get into conversation with the bookseller and run up another bill.”

(It wasn’t this Fleur’s name that inspired mine, but after reading that paragraph I wished that it was!)

The story begins with Fleur living in a bedsit in south-west London and working on her first novel, Warrender Chase. She need a job to get by, and a friend points her in the direction of a job that sounds perfect for her: secretary to the Autobiographical Association.

The Autobiographical Association? It’s the brainchild on the supremely pompous Sir Quentin Oliver; a society that will support and assist people in writing their biographies and preserving them until all of those mentioned are dead so that they can be safely published. Because, of course, they will be of interest to the historians of the future!

It’s a wonderful concept, and it gives Muriel Spark a free rein to create a wonderful gallery of characters. She uses it quite brilliantly!

Fleur gets the job, and so she finds herself writing memoirs – which may be more fiction than fact – by day, and working on her novel. And gradually the boundaries get blurred. Are Fleur’s characters growing to resemble her authors. Or are her authors turning into characters? Just where is the line between fiction and fact?

The story is intricate, clever, and not one that I can easily sum up. Fleur carries you along with her, and it is a wonderful journey.

Loitering With Intent is the kind of book that the more you think the more you realise is there. And it may just be my favourite Muriel Spark – praise indeed!

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

2011-05-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Virago Modern Classic #50

Such a little book. Just 36 pages in my (earlier) Virago Modern Classics edition.

But what those 36 pages hold is extraordinary.

A nameless woman tells her own story. Her words are sparse but her voice comes through clear and direct.

She and her husband have a short-term lease on a large country house. She has recently given birth and appears to be suffering from what we know to be post-natal depression.

But one hundred years ago it was seen rather differently. She want to move freely, and most of all to write. But her husband, a doctor, prescribes complete rest and isolation in an attic room. A room with an iron bedstead, bars on the window and peeling yellow wallpaper.

Why? Because she cannot play the role of submissive role of wife that society – including her friends and family – has cast her in.

She has no outlet for her intellect. No means of expressing her emotions. And minimal human contact.

She becomes obsessed with the room’s hideously patterned yellow wallpaper. At first she simply dislikes it. But she grows to hate it.Then to fear it. And finally she become fascinated, absorbed by the wallpaper and the lives she within and behind it.

It is a stunning portrait of one woman’s descent into madness. And a clear indictment of a particular society’s oppression of women.

So much has been and could be written about The Yellow Wallpaper. But I feel so deeply for its narrator that I cannot write about her words intellectually.

A compelling and deeply unsettling piece of storytelling.

Review: Possession (in audio) ~ by A. S. Byatt

2011-05-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

Review by Shellie: Possession ~ by A.S. Byatt (in audio, performed by Virginia Leishman)

A multilayered award winning tale of interwoven romances. Set in two different centuries and connected ingeniously through letters and journals. It has elements which include faeries, myth, poetry, science, feminism, lgbt, and Victoriana.

Setting: Primarily set in the late 1980s in London we have a variety of academics whose interests lie in a celebrated poet’s life and work - Randolph Henry Ash. He is a source of intense exploration and historical interest for these scholars, as they research his body of work in their highly competitive environment. From their findings on his life during the mid to late 1800’s it appears Ash led a very quiet and uneventful life. But as one researcher finds out via misplaced letters, they are very wrong.

Thus begins the recovery of the missing pieces that will fill in the blanks for this group of academics, who become ever more obsessed as they struggle to be the first to piece together the juicy details that are alluded to in the new findings. As two of the scholars try and answer their questions they find themselves traipsing to various areas in England and France to find the answers.

Sound simple? Not a chance - there is so much more. This convoluted story will take you back to a very different time, but there is also a wealth of incredible subplots and threads.

Thoughts: I started and abandoned Possession several times. Giving up on try number two, I thought the writing to be inaccessible, overly intellectual and boringly academic. Now I am thinking one develops “reading muscles”, and considering my years of hiatus from reading fiction I was out of shape. Having read bits about the book’s elements since, I realized the book fits inside a favorite circle of my interests. I gave it another try in audio.

This unabridged audio version was read by Virginia Leishman, and she moderates her voice for each of the character’s while changing accents - ranging from English to Scottish to American and with a believable voice for changes in gender. Excellently done, my only “complaint” is that the narrator’s voice is so pleasant she lulled me to sleep on various occasions. So listening while tired or sleepy is not recommended.

The novel has some interesting elements and literary techniques interwoven inside it. These include threads about fairies, what appears to be paranormal events, and scientific research – including the collection of insect, plant and sea life (all popular with the gentry during Victorian times). The author also expertly uses several literary devices; for example, the usage of poetry as a preclusion to the chapters called epigraphs. Through this method the author has written and included some complex poetry. Lastly the story is told via letters and journal entries making it epistolary.

Not a fluffy romance, it is a complex, realistic yet sad romance – where real life choices and their consequences are exemplified and I liked that it does not end with everyone living happily ever after. In summary, Possession is out of the ordinary, intellectual and academic – making it a book that not everyone will enjoy. It is also descriptive, metaphorical, dense and an amazing work of fiction. It deserves a rare 5 stars in my opinion.

US|UK|Canada; Duration: 22 hours, 45 minutes Dec 21, 2004; Unabridged; HarperCollins – HarperAudio Awards: Best Audio Books - Library Journal; Man Booker Prize for Fiction -1990.

The comments that I received on Layers of Thought around the review are that some readers are put off by the academic aspects of the book, others said it was their favorite book. I get both completely.

Emily if I make any money from this link I will mail you a book of your choice.

Moonrat this five star is all your fault.

I have a few that are in the review construction stage – one since November of 2010. Yes I am a slug: Lolita, Wuthering Heights, and am currently listening to Dorian Gray. So catching up.

2011-05-03T19:07:00.001-07:00

#68
Title: Hugging the Shore
Author: John Updike
Genre: Non-fiction (814.5)
Challenges: Fill in the Gaps
Rating: B
Published: 1983
Date read: 11/16/09 – 4/30/11
No. of pages - 878

Mostly this tome is a collection of essays, book reviews of books written between the mid-1970’s through the early 1980’s and a Q&A at the end of Updike interviews about his writing and awards he’s won. Not really a book to be read straight through yet that’s what I did with a few breaks while I read other books, listened to cassette tapes and compact discs. For the most part I didn’t recognize many authors because many of them were foreign. There were, however, a number of authors I did recognize or that were referred to. Among these folk are also people referred to like James Garner who was mentioned in the biography of Doris Day by A. E. Hotchner. Garner, when interviewed commented that Day was one of the sexiest screen ladies he’d had the pleasure to be intimate with on-screen.

Other authors I’m familiar with are Mark Twain, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Don DeLillo and Isak Dinesen, Ernest Hemingway and Anne Tyler. Others that I intend to read though maybe not the book Updike reviewed are Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul and Gustave Flaubert. And still other foreign authors like Bertolt Brecht, Milan Kundera and L. E. Sissman.

Updike appears fair in his assessment of author talents or ineptness. He isn’t afraid to call it where it lies. He touts and admonishes, sings praises and pans. Each sentence is one you’ll never read again. And such is the talent of this gifted writer. I plowed each furrow of each review and unearthed more poems, tales and letters from every corner of the world. This isn’t a book for everyone but if you read it, you may find a jewel or two and a better appreciation than I have.

REVIEW - THE AWAKENING

2011-04-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

MY THOUGHTS: This is book 2 of the Darkest Powers series. Chole, David, Simon and Angelica are running for their lives. They live in alleys, abandoned buildings, and anywhere they can find to stay away from Dr. Davidoff, The Edison Group. They want to bring them back to the lab. They have all ready exterminated 2 of their friends with super powers and they don't want to be next. You can see my full review at Just Books.

No Talking by Andrew Clements

2011-03-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

No Talking by Andrew Clements
Description:
The Laketon Elementary school has had a huge problem with the Unshushables, the nickname of the fifth grade class. They have been talkative and loud since first grade. But, what happens when Dave and Lindsey start a No Talking Contest between the girls and the boys? A 2-day contest with a 3-word limit to be used only when an adult asks a question? Whichever side talks less, wins! How do the teachers react? the parents? How about the principal with her red plastic bullhorn?

My Take (warning: spoiler alert!):
This was a great book with a focus on language and how we use it throughout the day. Language can be spoken. It can be gestures or sounds. Language can be mean or kind. And in this book you see the demonstration of the power that words can have. Words can tear down or build up.
I loved that Mr. Clements brought out those elements, not with just the students, but you see what the teachers are all thinking as well. They are clueless about the contest at first, so it is interesting to see their different reactions. Some are ecstatic at first, then frustrated because the kids are only answering with three words. Others love it because they are now quiet and the teacher doesn't have to yell at all. Then there are some that don't like it right from the start. Kind of hard to teach music when they won't sing....
I think this is a great middle grade book that kids will love because the students are doing something that is driving some teachers crazy. It is really well written with some great illustrations to enhance the book. I feel Mark Elliot captured some great expressions of the kids with his drawings.

East of Eden readalong--woops

2011-03-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry I stopped posting, guys. I've been apartment-searching and largely without internet, and I kept forgetting to update while I was at work. SORRY!

Anyway, did everyone keep reading? I finished the book this last weekend--I fell way behind but then caught up. Over all, I liked it, but I didn't love it. But I'm definitely glad I finished it.

Sorry I went AWOL, and I'd love to discuss in greater depth with anyone else who's finished.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

2011-03-24T04:13:00.000-07:00

It feels like I've been reading it for about twenty years, but it's actually only been about three weeks. I need to debrief!

This is the first Murakami book I've read, and definitely won't be the last. But to explain why is difficult. As an experience, this book is like watching a David Lynch film - it makes perfect sense until you try and explain it to someone. It's certainly not for everyone. Plot-wise, not a lot happens (a cat goes missing and turns up again). I found it deeply unsettling to read, especially the part in Mongolia. The copy I read (Vintage) was advertising it as a pair with Alice in Wonderland, which is a fair comaparison. It's like going down the rabbit-hole, but for adults. Except in this case it's a well. And it's infinitely more terrifying.

The Girl She Used To Be By David Cristofano

2011-03-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

I added this on to my Fill In The Gaps list after seeing numerous people talk, no, rave about it. I'm so glad I finally found out what the fuss was all about. This is a fantastic story. I had trouble putting it down. This is the story of Melody. Melody's in the Witness Protection Program. She's been in the program since she was 6. She's about 26 now. Despite this being a short book (only 240ish pages) there's a lot crammed in. We learn about Melody over the course of the book as well as Sean (Mr FBI protector) and Jonathan (has strong Mob ties). And we see Melody grow and change to become who she wants to be. The Girl She Used To Be was wonderful story about finding who you are. Great story, wonderful writing too.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

2011-03-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Frisby is a widowed mouse with four small children. Winter is ending soon and they need to move to their summer home. But, the youngest has pneumonia and can't be moved. What's a mom to do? She searches for help, even from those who are most likely to refuse. But, the rats of NIMH have a grand plan to help her in her dilemma.

I really enjoyed this book. It was written in 1971 and received the Newbery award in 1972.

**Spoiler Alert**

There are themes in this book that will never grow old. Like being kind to everyone, no matter who it is. And that if you are kind to them, most likely they will return that kindness. I know that not everyone is kind back, but the importance of being kind and compassionate is something we all long for. Even the bully craves those things.

As a mother, I could relate to Mrs. Frisby. Her worries, doubts, fears, and determination were all strong and very real. I like that about this book. That as a child I could read it and love the adventure and the mystery as to why the rats are so helpful. But, as an adult I can relate, too!

Can't wait to read this on out loud to my kids!

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

2011-03-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to say about this book. It was a well written book but I didn't care for it. The story follows Yossarian, a bombardier during World War 2. I use follow loosely. The story isn't linear. I had a real hard following what was going on. It was like reading an episode of Hogan's Heroes or Gomer Pyle. Plenty of funny parts, just confusing over all. I talked a few people who stated this was their favorite book of all time and they said I had it right. It's supposed be confusing, ridiculously so. Glad to have this one off my list.

REVIEW - TWO OLD WOMEN

2011-03-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

"Two Old Women" by Velma Wallis

This is another book that has been on list to read for ages. This is a really good book. The writer takes you deep into the heart of Alaska during the bitter cold of Winter. These two women must survive somehow or die. I really liked the characters, Ch'idzigyakk, meaning Chickadee bird, and Sa' meaning Star. They are very determined to live what has happened to them. You can feel the worry, hunger and tiredness that these women go through. I was rooting for them the whole time I read the book. I wanted them to survive. They had to go back to a time when they were young and remember how to survive. Gathering wood, keeping a fire going, and trapping animals for food. They also had to travel a long way until they found the place where the fish was plentiful. Did they survive? What happened to the people that turned them out? You will have to read the book to find out. If you have a chance to read this book, please do. You won't be disappointed. You can see my complete review at Just Books.

East of Eden read-along: p240 - 320

2011-03-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hey, everybody! I'm still chugging along. How's everybody else doing?

Last week was quiet here so I wonder if people are dropping behind (or giving up)--please feel free to leave comments from any point in the book up until now, though, and if you DID give up feel free to share why.

Hope everybody's keeping warm!

REVIEW - TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY

2011-03-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

MY THOUGHTS: I have been trying to get this book from the library for the longest time. Every time I went to get it, it was out. So I finally put it on hold. I started this book yesterday afternoon and finished it this afternoon. It is a very good book and keeps you locked on to what the author is writing. You want to find out why Clay is on the list of 13 people. Did he do something to Hannah? You also want to find out what the 13 reasons are for Hannah to take her own life. This is a very moving book. While I was reading this book I was so hoping that it was a mistake and someone helped Hannah. And the interesting thing is that while Clay was listening to the tapes he recognized all the signs of suicide. But by then it was too late. This book also made me very angry at all the people that added to the reasons for Hannah's suicide. The consequences of what they did took a life. If you haven't read this book, please do. It's very well written and moves along very fast. I highly recommend this book.

You can see my full review at my place, Just Books.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-02-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

I was anxious to read Water for Elephants before the movie came out. I knew once the movie came out I would picture the actors as the characters so I wanted to make up my own mind about them first.
I loved this book. The imaginary was beautiful that I could smell the popcorn on the midway and hear the horse hooves on the dirt. The world Gruen paints both inside the circus world and later with 90-something Jacob in a nursing home is so magical. Jacob is a delightful character. I could really connect with him.
Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob who joined the circus in his 20's. Jacob is adrift and finds distraction, a family and love in the circus. Now I know why people wanted to run away and join the circus. I greatly enjoyed the ride.

REVIEW - THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN

2011-02-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Train - David Baldacci

MY THOUGHTS: This book has been on my TBR list for ages. I'm glad I finally read it. Wonderful book filled with mystery, love, romance, and lots of stories being told by everyone on the train. There is a thief on board who isn't who everyone thinks he is. A masquerading police officer, I didn't see this one coming. And a really big surprise ending that I totally didn't see coming. If you haven't read this book, you really need to. It's written beautifully and will keep you glued to the chair so you can finish it.

East of Eden readalong p 161-240

2011-02-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

As you may have guessed from the fact that I'm posting this a day late (whoops), I fell a little behind on my pages this week. But I'm all caught up now!

How's everyone else doing? Thoughts/feelings/progress?

I find this book very easy and steady to read, and engrossing. I'm definitely enjoying it, although I'm not sure I love it. In many cases I find myself reading the characters as more symbolism than real people. What do you guys think? How allegorical is the book for you, and how much is it a story? Just curious.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

2011-02-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

Goodreads Description:

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever! This stunning debut novel offers refreshingly clear writing and fascinating, original characters.

My Take:

I read somewhere that if you are not into Sci-Fi, you'd probably like this book anyway. It is sort of Sci-Fi, but not really either. It is more of a techy distopian novel with issues that kids can relate and handle. This was my first book by DuPrau and I was pleased with it.
Spoiler Alert: I was surprised with all the religious tones: from the "Builders", to the "coming into the light", and questions about where life comes from. I was thinking it might be a good book to discuss with my children (when they are old enough). And you know that I'm going to be all over that (note to self: buy this book).
During the whole book I felt the need to appreciate the sunshine more. To not take that and fresh vegetables and fruit for granted. The need to be more "green" overwhelmed me. That's not a bad thing at all, eh?
Overall, I liked the book. I wasn't so hooked that I'm longing to read the next one in the series, though. But, a good solid YA book.

Eternal by Cynthia L Smith

2011-02-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

I added Eternal to my Fill In The Gaps after getting it from the library a few times but failing to read it before it had to be back. I didn't want to forget to read it. I also had to keep taking it back because this is the second in the Tantalize series. I finally read the first book, Tantalize (see my thoughts here) so i could read Eternal.
I wasn't crazy about Tantalize but I enjoyed Eternal more. I was also disappointed that I probably could have read Eternal without reading Tantalize. It says the action takes part in the same world but there's no story or character overlap. I heard there is in the third book, Blessed.
Eternal is the story of Miranda and Zachary, her guardian angel. Ok, I love Zachary. Who wouldn't love a hunky angel following them around. But Zachary is funny, sweet and really cares about Miranda. He's everything you want in YA male lead. Miranda starts off kind of weak but grows as the book goes on. I enjoyed the themes of this one more too. Good vs evil. Heaven vs hell. Reminded me of a Supernatural episode (love that show!).
Eternal is certainly not a meaty book but it is a light fun read. I enjoyed the banter. There was plenty of humor in this one. As well as romance. Great second book in the series, left me wanting more.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

2011-02-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

From Goodreads:

Charlotte Bronte's impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine--one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as "the masterwork of great genius," Jane Eyre is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature.

My Take:

I had no idea that I'd like this book as much as I did. I put it on my list to read because I wanted to read more classics. Having just been in the UK this summer, I was reminded of the countryside there, which led to memories of all the adventures we had as a family. Love it when a book brings back good memories.

What I liked was the character Jane, her desire to be moral and true. She was put into some pretty harsh environments and situations and pretty much always did the "right" thing. I'm not sure that I would've done the right thing in a few of those situations, especially at that age. Bronte was brilliant at developing character. They are timeless characters that anyone can relate to. Gotta love that!

East of Eden read-along: p 81-160

2011-02-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! Did you manage the second week's reading?

Thoughts/opinions/reflections/progress reports?

I admit I carried on reading to the end of the chapter, because I was pretty caught up in Samuel's conversation with Lee. Didn't want to interrupt Steinbeck while he was grinding an axe or anything.

East of Eden read-along: p 1-80

2011-02-08T02:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! How was your weekly reading? Please leave notes / comments / progress / questions / observations / thoughts / feelings.

I, for one, made it through the pages and finished the end of the chapter, which is awesome, because it means I'm ahead for next week. Woohoo!

Welcome to the EAST OF EDEN readalong!

2011-02-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

(I'm posting a day late ... sorry about that. Yesterday was busy at work.)

This week we embark on the Gaps reading of EAST OF EDEN, a classic of our time, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, an Oprah pick (what could be more telling!), and a book I somehow have avoided all these years. Upon consideration of its physical presence, which I now hold in my non-typing hand, that might be because it's really heavy. However, together we shall storm against this prosaic deterrent and conquer! (Right?)

According to the ever-informative Wikipedia, EAST OF EDEN was first published in 1952, and the first edition contained one typo. (Gosh, I wish any book I've ever worked on somehow made it to press with only one typo. I think standards are a little different these days.) Steinbeck supposedly originally wrote the novel for his two sons, then 6 and 4. I have scrupulously avoided any descriptions of the plot, but I gather there are heavy themes about the relationship between Cain and Abel hearkening back to the Book of Genesis. Can't wait to see how that all unfolds.

Let's convene here again next Tuesday, February 8th, having read (if you're Abel, teehee) the first 80 pages. In the meantime, please leave your Steinbeck notes in the comments--what else have you read? What's your favorite? Why are you reading EoE? Any interesting stories about his life you might have heard?

Looking forward!

EAST OF EDEN read-along

2011-01-27T05:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!

So recently many of us mentioned interest in an EAST OF EDEN read-along starting in February. Hope everyone who wants feels invited to join.

Here's a guideline schedule, which I've created operating under the previously agreed assumption that most people can manage to read about 80 pages a week (on a good week). Please feel free to read ahead or fall behind; these are just to help.

Tuesday, February 1: Kick-off! (Perhaps a meditation on Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck and our previous associations/experiences with him?)

Tuesday, February 8: pages 1-80

Tuesday, February 15: pages 81-160

Tuesday, February 22: pages 161-240

Tuesday, March 1: pages 241-320

Tuesday, March 8: pages 321-400

Tuesday, March 15: pages 401-480, and perhaps a pre-St Paddy's Day and/or pagan shindig (just thinking out loud here; don't you guys feel like we'll need a mid-book reward?)

Tuesday, March 22: pages 480-540

Tuesday, March 29: pages 540-end, fabulous catharsis of relief and accomplishment

I got my copy of the book last week, and am looking forward to a group read! I haven't done one since 2009, with a very helpful and fun (for me, at least) Gravity's Rainbow read-along. So thanks, everybody who has already spurred me along. I appreciate it! I hope you're excited too.

Finally another down

2011-01-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite films is 'Empire of the Sun' so when I entered this challenge, I made sure to include the book on my list. Based on J.G. Ballard's own childhood, this novel tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. A story of war, starvation and survival.

I found it hard to rate this book and even harder to review it. I found this book an uncomfortable read, not in a 'it made me want to blind myself' but more in a 'got under your skin and stays with you' sort of way. So I suppose I could call it 'profound'. There is no doubt that this book is a mesmorising read, and once I hit my stride, I read the book in a night. It's a strange mixture of autobiography and fiction, which makes you wonder where Jim starts and Ballard begins (thankfully my edition had an essay by Ballard summing up his experience which gives you further insight).

Because of my love for the film, it's hard for me not to compare and contrast. The book is definitely much darker and deeper than the film. Through the language, Ballard portrays subtle nuances about situations and hidden depths to characters (minor oneces especially) which could never translate to screen. We're more connected to the world and to Jim with the book. Jim's hunger, hallucinations and desperation to survive in the cruel world of Shanghai and the camps resonate more, with the language of the book reflecting his state of being.

Yet, although in some aspects I felt closer to the world of Jim via the book, I found the book didn't resonate or have the impact that I felt the film had for me. Perhaps Jim's numbness translated more via the text, but I felt no emotionally connection to the people in Jim's world like I did with the film. In the book, there is just a sort of desperation which in the end isn't as nicely or touchingly resolved/relieved like in the film. There is no happy reunion with his parents only this: "Jim had wanted to explain to his parents everything that he and the doctor had done together, but his mother and father had been through their own war. For all their affection for him, they seemed older and far away".

Ballard is an exceptional writer and the book in itself is excellent, if only for the impact it has on you as a reader. It won't touch the heart like the film does, but certainly this book will resonate with you.

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

2011-01-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Goodreads Description:

The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".

Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter. In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in the Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

My Thoughts:

I have heard of this book for years, but just have never taken the time to read it. So glad that I put it on my list of books to read because it was a great one. The letters are written during WWII when Britain is dealing with the fear of bombs from Germany. Screwtape mentions this in various letters and how it will affect the "Patient" for their benefit or for the "Enemy's" benefit. Even though the setting is historical, the content will always be current. What I liked the most is that it is so deep with gut wrenching quotes that make you stop and think about your own life. (Okay, maybe I don't always like to look at the "yuck" in my life. But, evaluating isn't a bad thing.)

This is definitely a book that I want to read again.

Double Update

2011-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally

I never knew until now that this book was only called Schindler's List in America, but that's besides the point. It's very similar to In Cold Blood in terms of narrative non-fiction. I really enjoyed it, although at times I found it difficult keeping track of who's who. Oskar Schindler really was a morally ambiguous character, but whatever his reasons were for saving Jews were at first, by the end he really worked hard to protect them and what he achieved was pretty incredible.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

If I was writing this when I finished this book, a couple of days ago, I would have said that I didn't like it. But after a couple of days with that book stewing in the back of my mind, I appreciate it a whole lot more. There are parts of that book that are completely terrifying, and I just felt so sorry for Piggy. The only thing that bothered me was the obvious metaphors belting me over the head.

Has anyone read either of these?

PS - I've worked out my next list: my 100 favourites of all time!

new year, new update!!

2011-01-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

Hi, fellow Gaps friends!

So here entereth the 3rd year of the Gaps project for some of us. (Well, sort of--we started in April, but January 1 seems like a nice milestone to observe.)

I'm so impressed with myself that I've stuck with a project this long, and I know I owe a big chunk of my commitment to the fact that there's a community of people helping keep me motivated. So thanks, guys :)

Based on the 75-book, 5-year goal, my hope was to average 15 books a year. And we're on track! I've finished a total of 34 books, although I confess a larger percentage of heavy reading was done in the first year than was done in the second.

Does anyone else fantasize about making a second Gaps list?
Part of my distraction from Gaps in 2010 was my (re)new(ed) interest in the scifi/fantasy genre, and a vague commitment to reading a lot of groundbreakers/classics in that genre. If I get more Gaps reading done, I might even make an sff auxiliary Gaps list. But not until I decide if it's reasonable.

(Any opinions? Emily, I know you did something similar a while ago...)

Actually, I think one phenomenon of the Gaps list is to want to make a second list almost immediately after embarking on reading the first--a number of my friends have had this happen to them. I'm interested if anyone else has had this "problem."

2011 Goals
My first book of 2011 was Jane Austen's Persuasion, which I reviewed here. I've also taken the step of downloading all the remaining public domain (ie free) books on my list onto my Kindle, so maybe I can make a dent in a couple of them without lugging around any of the real fatsos--a girl wants to avoid carpal tunnel if possible (these include Moby Dick, David Copperfield, House of Mirth, Moll Flanders). Other books I am eager to prioritize, based on feedback from friends, include: The French Lieutenant's Woman, White Teeth, Bad Behavior, and Go Tell It on the Mountain.

Read-alongs, anyone?
I have some above-mentioned fatsos, which I always get through better with read-alongs. So if anyone is interested in a read-along on any of the following, let me know!

Moby Dick
Infinite Jest
Wind-Up Bird Chronicles
House of Mirth
David Copperfield
Atlas Shrugged
The Second Sex
The Adventures of Augie March
Finnigan's Wake or Ulysses (kinda dreading them both)
The Brothers Karamozov
War & Peace
East of Eden
The Golden Notebook

So--where does 2011 find you? Are you on track for your own goals? Of the other people who started in mid-2009, I wonder how many people are still with us?

I'd love to hear from anyone!

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

2011-01-11T17:42:00.001-08:00

First, a sidenote: When I was in Barcelona in 2006 I went to check out the Sagrada Familia Basilica. Fun fact: it was designed by Antony Gaudi, began construction in 1882 and has an anticipated completion date of 2026.

I only bring that up because I can kind of understand Ken Follet's obsession with cathedrals. I mean, I was at Sagrada Familia for maybe an hour five years ago and I can still remember those facts. If you haven't read the book, it's set in England in the 12th century, and is basically a story about the building of a cathedral. And lets face it, building a cathedral is no ordinary task. The book is full of detail about how to build a cathedral, should you feel the urge.

The Pillars of the Earth is an entertaining read without being amazing. I was suprised to see how divided people are about it on Goodreads. It seems to be a book you either love or hate, which makes me in the minority, because I have absolutely no strong feelings about it either way. Yes the characters were pretty generic, and I was getting a bit tired by about the 800 page mark (it's an epic tale), but I still enjoyed it.

On a completely unrelated topic, I also read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and I'm annoyed for two reasons: it turns out it wasn't on my list, AND I didn't like it at all. If you've read it can you please explain what the attraction to this story is because I just do not get it.

The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees

2011-01-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

If you can handle language and a little teenage hanky-panky in the backseat of a borrowed car, Coert Voorhees' YA novel The Brothers Torres is an excellent read. To me, an excellent book is one that has well-developed characters, an intriguing plot, and great writing. Voorhees gets top marks in each of these catagories.

I found myself reading it at odd times, picking it up to just read a few more pages while I was waiting for water to boil or the microwave to ding. That's another indication for me that I had my hands on a great book.

I've never been a sophomore boy living in New Mexico, so I can't vouch for authenticity from first-hand experience, but this book felt REAL to me. I don't usually like the use of excessive potty-talk in novels, but I don't think the author could have pulled off an authentic voice without it in this one, to be honest. Main character Frankie had to be a little "bad" because his main objective in life was to prove himself to his wanna-be-gangster older brother. But he's likeable, too. He was a perfect mixture of flawed and adorable. I rooted for him through the entire book.

I was also impressed with Voorhees' minor characters. They were interesting, especially Frankie's glass-eyed friend, Zach. The characters had interesting hobbies, too. Frankie and Zach's friendship was partly built around blowing things up, for instance. I appreciated how original Voorhees was in his development of all his characters. I didn't feel like he relaxed into stereotypes.

And the ending is exactly what you want it to be. Everybody grows. Consequences are real. But it's not a cheeseball ending.

Great book. Two thumbs up for The Brothers Torres.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

2011-01-09T01:53:00.000-08:00

Goodreads Description:
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

I'll be honest, this was a hard book for me to finish. I just wanted it to end. It just kept going and going and going...you get the point. I felt like the plot never really thickened. That the climax could've come much earlier in the story. That the character development never got really deep. I didn't connect with a single one. It was just a strange feeling after reading it. So, later I looked at some of the other reviews. My research led to believing it is either a love or a hate it kind of book. There wasn't much in between.
In light of e-readers, I thought the job of repairing old books was an art that in a few years may just become that. An art.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

2011-01-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

This book sat and waited for me for a very long time. It looked good - and that it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2007 was an excellent sign - and yet I didn't pick it up. I thought that I knew just what it would hold, just what it would be about before I even read it.

The combined forces of my own Clearing The Decks Project and Orange January made me pick up A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers on New Years Day. And I'm very glad.

Yes, the story, the themes were very much as I had expected, but reading brought them into my heart and into my mind.

"Now.
"Beijing time 12 clock midnight.
London time 5 clock afternoon.
But I at neither time zone. I on airplane"

Zhuang Xiaoqiao (called “Z” because people find it difficult to pronounce her name) is a 23-year-old Chinese girl sent to the UK to study English. I wondered if I could cope with Z's fractured English, but that didn't worry me for very long at all.

The picture painted of Z is perfect: she is naive, and eager to learn, she is always watching and thinking. I was charmed, and I wanted to follow her, to walk beside her into her new life.

Her impressions and experiences as she found her feet in London were wonderfully observed, and her use of language illuminated the gulf between Chinese and English in a way that was both beautiful and clever.

I was also struck by the bravery of anyone who travels alone to a country with a very different language that they hardly know. A country so different, so far from home. I'm not sure that I could ever be that brave.

A chance meeting and a linguistic misunderstanding result in Z much older man, a failed artist, a drifter. In time she falls in love with him.

That relationship illustrates wider cultural differences. Attitudes to food, travel, sex, openness, privacy ... so many things that go to the very heart of relationships. So many differences, so many things that Z's dictionary just can't explain.

And it's one thing to identify differences, but quite another thing to understand everything that those differences mean and to learn to live with them.

"But why people need privacy? Why privacy is important? In China, every family live together, grandparents, parents, daughter, son and their relatives too. Eat together and share everything, talk about everything. Privacy make people lonely. Privacy make family fallen apart."

All of the other characters, even her lover, were faintly drawn, emphasising how different and how alone Z was. She clung to her lover and there was no room for others. How I wished she would mix with her fellow students, experience a different life, but no.

I still loved her, but at times she infuriated me.

How much was character and how much was culture? I really couldn't say.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers has is flaws: the use of language is sometimes inconsistent, and the story does drag in places.

But it illuminates some wonderful truths as Z navigates through her relationship.

"People always say it's harder to heal a wounded heart than a wounded body. Bullshit. It's exactly the opposite—a wounded body takes much longer to heal. A wounded heart is nothing but ashes of memories. But the body is everything. The body is blood and veins and cells and nerves. A wounded body is when, after leaving a man you’ve lived with for three years, you curl up on your side of the bed as if there’s still somebody beside you. That is a wounded body: a body that feels connected to someone who is no longer there."

I am so pleased that I have read this book at last: I have met a heroine to cherish, and her has touched my heart and my mind far more that I thought it would.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

2011-01-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

Jellicoe Road was one of those interesting books that doesn't leave you right away. You wake up thinking about it later.

But with that said, I can't wrap my brain around how I truly feel about it.

Great writing. Yes.

Cool setting. Yes.

Confused through most of it. Yes.

Main characters deeply developed. Yes.

Interesting plot. Yes.

Didn't understand who all the secondary characters were or what had happened to them until the very last page. Yes. Literally.

I'm willing to admit my confusion may have been thanks to my own intelligence meter. I probably missed something important or just wasn't sharp enough to catch on. I feel pretty idiotic writing this review because I know most people who have read it adored this book. That's exactly why I stuck with it when after the first few chapters I put it down with the thought, "I am so lost right now it's not even funny."

Still, I can see the beauty in it. And I liked the main character. She was different and interesting.

I gave the book 4-stars on Goodreads and I'd like to read more Melina Marchetta. I was far from hating this book, but I'm not slobbering over it, either. If anyone else has read it, I'd love to hear your opinion.

Shiney's Fill in the Gaps List

2011-01-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

1. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
3. A Separate Peace - John Knowles
4. Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
5. Cheaters - Eric Jerome Dickey
6. Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
7. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
8. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
9. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
10. The Bible - God
11. 1984 - George Orwell
12. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
13. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
14. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
15. The Diary of Anne Frank - Otto Frank
16. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
17. The Lord of the Ring Series - J.R.R. Tolkien
18. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
19. Sherlock Holmes Series - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
20. Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck
21. Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
22. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving
23. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
24. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
25. Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare
26. Gossip Girl Series - Cecily Von Ziegesar
27. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
28. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
30. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
31. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
32. The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss
33. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
34. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
35.Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
36. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
37. Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
38. Dracula - Bram Stoker
39. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
40. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
41. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
42. Insomnia - Stephen King
43.The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon
44. Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Sidney Sheldon
45. Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
46. The Percy Jackson Series - Rick Riordan
47. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Ann Brashares
48. The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson Series - Louise Rennison
49. Coldfire Trilogy - C.S. Friedman
50. Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
51. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
52. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
53. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
54. Marley & Me - John Grogan
55. A Child Called It - David J. Pelzer
56. Men And God - Rex Warner
57. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
58. Gulliver’s Travels - Johnathan Swift
59. The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain
60. Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare
61. The Iliad - Homer
62. The Odyssey - Homer
63. A Midsummer’s Night - William Shakespeare
64. Tame of the Shrew - William Shakespeare
65. Knights of the Round Table - Howard Pyle
66. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
67. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
68. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
69. The Headless Horseman - Washington Irving
70. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Jules Verne
71. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
72. The Millennium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson
73. The Tudors Series - Philippa Gregory
74. The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
75. The Thorn Birds - Collen McCullough
76. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
77. The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh - Alan Alexander Milne
78. The Passage - Justin Cronin
79. Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
80. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
81. Dexter Series - Jeff Lindsay
82. Tigerheart - Peter David
83. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
84. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
85. House of Night Series - P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
86. Sword of Truth Series - Terry Goodkind
87. Thursday Next Series - Jasper Fforde
88. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
89. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
90. The Vampire Diaries Series - L.J. Smith
91. Under the Dome - Stephen King
92. A Southern Vampire Mystery Series - Charlaine Harris
93. The Vampire Chronicles Series - Anne Rice
94. Artemis Fowl Series - Eoin Colfer
95. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
96. Gemma Doyle Trilogy - Libba Bray
97. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
98. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - Gregory Maguire
99. Crank Series - Ellen Hopkins
100. Willow - Julia Hoban

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2010-12-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

This is the second book of the Hunger Games Trilogy. I didn't realize this when I put this on my list, so I read Hunger Games in a day and picked Catching Fire the next day and finished it that night. I was a bit hesitant with this trilogy because of fear of the descriptive writing. But, I was surprised that it wasn't that bad. I mean, there was some pretty gruesome parts, but they were never forced or overboard. It seemed to concentrate more on the relationships and the "Big Picture" problem of the Capitol controlling then the actual "games".

Here is the summary from Goodreads.
"Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. Catching Fire maintains the adrenaline rush of Suzanne Collin's series launch."

Can't wait to get my hands on Mockingjay, the final book of the Hunger Games Trilogy.

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

2010-12-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

I've never seen Girl, Interrupted but it's one of those movies you hear about from time to time. I do enjoy reading the book before I see the movie if I can help it.
Girl, Interrupted is the memoir of Kaysen's time in McLean Hospital, a famous psychiatric hospital. Kaysen's story is interesting. Spoiler alert: I spent a lot of time trying to understand why Kaysen was in the hospital only to figure out at the end that Kaysen herself was never really sure. But Kaysen's writing wasn't as fascinating as her characters. The stories aren't linear and sometimes I had trouble figuring out when something happened as she talks about the time in the hospital, before she was in the hospital and after she was released.
The overall story made me sad. Rather than trying to trying to help these young women, it was acceptable to lock them away. I don't believe anyone was cured according to Kaysen's account, but either learned to suppress those feelings or outgrew them.
Interesting memoir. Despite being a short book (168 pages), it took some time to read and process.

JUNE BUG

2010-12-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

Fill in the Gaps Project

"June Bug" by Chris Fabry
Product Description(Amazon.com)
June Bug believed everything her daddy told her. That is, until she walked into Wal-Mart and saw her face on a list of missing children. The discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself. A modern interpretation of Les Miserables, the story follows a dilapidated RV rambling cross-country with June Bug and her father, a man running from a haunted past. Forces beyond their control draw them back to Dogwood, West Virginia, down a winding path that will change their lives forever.
# Paperback: 336 pages
# Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (July 9, 2009)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1414319568
# ISBN-13: 978-1414319568

MY THOUGHTS: This was a very good book. I loved all the characters. Following June Bugs story to find herself was very enjoyable. As June Bug hunts for all the info she can find, she is also searching for her roots. Where did she come from? Who is her mother? Does she have brothers and sisters?

It's Always Something by Gilda Radner

2010-12-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

I've always loved Gilda Radner. Her time on Saturday Night Live produced some of my favorite sketches. I choose to read her autobiography to learn more about her life. Radner started writing this book after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer so much of the book is about her dealing with the cancer. It was really hard to read at times. I knew the ending to the story but Radner was so upbeat about getting better and living 50 more years that it sometimes was too much.
Radner is not the best writer. Most of the time the stories were more like long letters to a far away friend. I enjoyed some of the stories about her childhood and when she first came to New York, but most of them wound up relating to cancer somehow. It was much more the autobiography of Gilda's struggle with cancer than about Gilda's life. It was a bittersweet story. She was such a bright comedic actress and she left a wonderful legacy with her characters and with Gilda's Club. Her story definitely had me crying at times. Her strength and her commitment to beating cancer so others could too was so touching. I'd recommend this to Gilda fans as well as those who's lives cancer has touched.

CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC - Review

2010-12-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

"Confederates in the Attic" by Tony Horwitz

This book has been on my list of TBR books for ages. I love reading about history, especially the Civil War. I don't really know what the fascination is with the period, but I've always loved reading about it since I was a young girl. Mr. Horwitz did a remarkable job with this book. I found out lots of things I didn't know and lots of things I did know, but needed a refresher on it. Many people think the Civil War was about Slavery. It wasn't. It was about states rights. As Horwitz takes you through the south and you hear what everyone there thinks about the Civil War and some keep it alive and some don't care one way or the other. But some take it to extreme. If you like to read about the Civil War you should really read this book. I highly recommend it. You can see my full review at my book blog, Just Books.

IndianaJane's 100

2010-12-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

My list is mostly books that I think I should read, filled in with a few that have been on my shelves for a while a few that friends have suggested, and a few added by my daughter. I'll change the color of the books as I read them.

Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Zion on the Mississippi by Forster
North and South by Gaskell
Dune by Frank Herbert
Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Law and Gospel by CFW Walther
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Beach Music by Pat Conroy
The Children of Hurin JRR Tolkien
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Frontiersmen by Allen Eckert
The Concept of Woman by Prudence Allen
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Churchill by Paul Johnson
The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
The House on the Strand by Daphne DuMaurier
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
A Life Worth Living by John Holt
Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536 by Reston
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Redwall by Brian Jacques
The Guns of August by Barabara Tuchman
Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Life of Pi by Yann Mertel
Aeneid by Virgil
The Complete Poetry of John Donne
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Dead Souls by Gogol
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
East Lynne by Ellen Wood
Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
The Man Who Was Thursday by GKChesterton
Father Brown by GK Chesterton
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arhtur Conan Doyle
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales
How Greeen Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft
The Histories by Herodotus

Matilda by Roald Dahl

2010-12-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

What a fun read. Right from the start I was hooked. I loved how his voice was directed at the reader. How he sarcastically reflected what many teacher's think about students whose parents dote on them way to much.
Two of my favorite passages are what the narrator would want to write on end-of-term reports to doting parents if he had been a teacher.
"Your son Maximilian", I would write, "is a total wash-out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won't get a job anywhere else."
or
Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, "It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she's learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all."

But, Matilda's parents are not those types of parents. No she has a different type. The type that doesn't think she is anything, when in fact she is brilliant.
Here's an excerpt from the bookcover.
Who put superglue in Dad's hat? Was it really a ghost that made Mom tear out of the house? Matilda is a genius with idiot parents - and she's having a great time driving them crazy. But at school things are different. At school there's Miss Trunchbull, two hundred menacing pounds of kid-hating headmistress. Get rid of the Trunchbull and Matilda would be a hero. But that would take a superhuman genius, wouldn't it?

I liked the book. I found the word choice to be strong, which is always good for vocabulary for upper elementary kids.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

2010-12-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the first half of this book. I don't usually read vampire novels (literary snob that I am), but with Fill-in-the-Gaps Project I've been trying to read outside my comfort zone. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I initially found myself interested in the plot and characters of Vampire Academy (the first book in a series of six). Of course, reading it felt a lot like watching an HBO drama, but there's a time and place for HBO dramas, and I guess I was in the mood to be entertained.

I thought author Richelle Mead's twist on classic vampires was interesting. She has a good group (the Moroi), a bad group (the Strigoi), and then vampire guardians who aren't vampires (the dhampirs). Main character, Rose, is a dhampir. She is best friends with Lissa, a Moroi princess, and works as her protector.

Mead found a pretty sneaky way to show two characters' thoughts and feelings without switching back and forth between points of view. She gave Rose the gift of getting inside Lissa's head and seeing through Lissa's eyes, basically whenever she wanted to. When Rose started doing this all the time, however, the story crumbled for me. I felt like Mead cheated, using Rose's ability to spoon-feed us Lissa's emotions. The end was especially disappointing. There was so much telling about how Lissa was feeling, the conclusion felt scrambled and rushed.

Also, by the end I was totally bored with all the intrigues of the Vampire Academy. There was so much gossip and back-stabbing and not a single character to redeem it.

Needless to say, I've read outside my comfort zone with this one and tried to do so with an open mind, but I won't be continuing with the series. And I haven't checked my FitG list for more vampire novels, but I'm kind of hoping this is the last one I have to read. I've done my due diligence by reading Twilight and this book. Sorry all you vampire fans out there!

Becky's Progress: 44

2010-12-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

These are the books I've read from my list since my last progress post.

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The First Part Last. Angela Johnson.
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
Shamela by Henry Fielding

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

2010-12-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

After a short hiatus to read several non-Fill-in-the-Gaps books I had on my shelf, I jumped back on the bandwagon with the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I laughed out loud many times reading this book. My seven-year-old son wanted to know what I was laughing about, so I ended up reading most of the book aloud to him. He wanted to read the cartoons by himself. And then we had to re-read the really funny parts to my husband when he got home.

Wimpy Kid is an easy read and the MC, Greg, is hilarious. He's so incredibly flawed, but you can't help but laugh at him and love him anyway. Oh dear ... just thinking about some of his exploits still makes me giggle.

This is light reading fare at its lightest, but I'd definitely recommend Wimpy Kid to anyone. And it was fun to have a book on my list I could share with my kids.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2010-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not a fan of horror. At. All. I have learned that I cannot watch or read that genre. I have nightmares for weeks. I still shudder when I think about those movies from the eighties. You know Freddie and Jason. Ugh! I'm a wimp, I know. So, when I heard that this book was about vampires and such I didn't pay attention to it until a friend of mine told me that I could handle it. It wasn't bad in the scary department. So, that is why I put Twilight on my list to read.

Here is Goodread's description of the book:

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife - between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

I liked the book more than I thought I would. I can see why the series has become a huge hit. I was reading it every spare minute I had. But, there was a part that I had to put down the book because it was late at night and my mind does crazy things at that time. I had to do something else to get my mind cleared from the scary thoughts and then go to bed. But, the next day I had the book and continued reading. I'm not sure if I'll read the other books in the series, though. I've heard that the other books are even better, which makes me want to read them. But, I've also heard that they are a bit more graphic, which makes me not want to read them. So, for now I think I'll stick to my 100 list and maybe later I'll change my mind.

Abandoned in 2010

2010-12-08T11:45:00.001-08:00

I posted early on about Acceptable Gaps—now I'm adding to that list of rejections with my list of books I started but abandoned in 2010.

Jose Saramago, Death with Interruptions. This one was on my Gaps list—but the writing style was so unwieldy that I couldn't stick with it. One sentence had 78 commas, and a later sentence had 101 commas—I only made it about 35 pages. I'm sorry, but that's letting the form get in the way of the function.

Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Assignment. Every chapter is a single sentence, running over multiple pages. Oddly more readable than the Saramago, but still difficult. I got through about four chapters. Not on Gaps list.

Mary Roach, Stiff. I got about halfway through, but it just dragged on way too long. It was less entertaining to me than Bonk, which I finished earlier in the year. I have Spook but won't pull that off the shelf for another year or two. Not on Gaps list.

Howard Dully, My Lobotomy. I would rather have a lobotomy than finish this horribly-written book, no matter how compelling the actual story may be. It reads as if it was dictated and transcribed, and this guy talks about every single memory he has of his entire childhood. He lost me for good when he said that he really liked bananas—sometimes he would even take a banana up to his room and eat it there. Seriously? This is the irrelevant minutia you're writing about, in a book about icepick lobotomies?!? Editor, you failed. Not on Gaps list—my book group meets tonight about this, and I'm sorry to not finish a book group pick, but I just couldn't do it. (I learned after putting it down that this guy got his book deal after being featured on NPR—this was better left as a short oral history.)

In defense, I'm not a total flake: I am reading books from my list, and am in the middle of Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan right now.

What books have you abandoned this year, and why?

I'm back with some Calvino

2010-12-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Nonexistent Knight (1959)

And

The Cloven Viscount (1952)

By Italo Calvino (1923-1985)

Finally, I finished a book that’s on my list. Now I know why this list built up on my shelf in the first place. Writers keep writing and publishers keep publishing and some books on my shelf just don’t hold my interest. (Sorry, Don Quixote, but once your story deviates from you as the central figure, it tires me.) After many sidetracks, I managed to pick a book of the shelf that’s on the list, and I stuck with it.

I’ve read Calvino before, first If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler (which a friend recommended and I liked so-so, but enough to try another), then Invisible Cities (which I loved far more).

These are two novellas (I’d call them) collected in one volume. The Nonexistent Knight features a crusading armor powered solely by the will that lives within it and the people affected by this will. Fun story.

Favorite quote (because I an relate to it and because it’s good):

One starts off writing with a certain zest, but a time comes when the pen merely grates in dusty ink, and not a drop of life flows, and all life is outside, outside the window, outside oneself, and it seems that never more can one escape into a page one is writing, open out another world, leap the gap. Maybe it’s better so. Maybe the time when one wrote with delight was neither a miracle nor grace but a sin, of idolatry, of pride.

The Cloven Viscount (does not rhyme with “discount” but you knew that) treats a character split in half by cannon fire, one half turning excessively bad, the other (initially thought lost, sorry to spoil a bit of it as much as the back cover spoils it) excessively good.

Neither story was as light as I had hoped, but both are inventive and playfully thought-provoking, so I consider them both winners.

Still, if you’ve never read Calvino, I’d recommend you start with Invisible Cities.

REVIEW - MARLEY & ME

2010-12-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

MY THOUGHTS: I went into this book knowing full well what was going to happen. But I really enjoyed reading about the Grogan family and all their misadventures with Marley. How could you not love him. He enjoyed life to the fullest, a bit energetic, true, but happy most of the time. I think my favorite "Marley" story is him getting kicked out of Obedience school. And then going back and trying it again and getting is degree and eating it! Whatever you say about Marley he truly loved his family and they loved him very deeply even with all his so called "problems". Now on to the movie. Which I'm sure I'll need some tissues to see this one. You can see my full review at my place, Just Books.

The New Kid at School by Kate McMullan

2010-12-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

I liked this book okay for an early chapter book. I didn't like how the ending left me with more questions. But, I guess that is because it is the first book in a series and if you want to find out the answers you have read the other books.

My nine year old son loved it, so I'd recommend it if you have a young reader at home. But, note that there is a palm reading in the first chapter. It's not huge, but some people are very cautious about these things.

Wiglaf is an odd child in his family. He is little and doesn't like to hurt living things. But, when he is told that he will one day be a hero he leaves home to attend DSA, Dragon Slayers' Academy. He decides that he will slay a dragon and bring back the gold to his family. His first day of school turns out very different than planned. He doesn't just learn about slaying dragons, but he gets the opportunity to fight a real fire breathing dragon.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

2010-12-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is a great "Cinderella" story with a twist. I've always liked the story of Cinderella, I mean, what girl doesn't?
But, I loved how we step back and look at her life before she enters the home of her step-family. And the twist of the enchanted spell given to her at birth.

That obedience spell made me think deeper about the act of obedience verses the attitude of obedience. You can see it played out in Ella so well. She has to obey, but she finds ways to make the act a little bit mischievous or she resents the person making the request.
With raising my own kids, I am aware of the times they are obedient in attitude or not. I want them to obey, not just in their action, but also in their attitude. I don't want them to be resentful because they "have to do" something. Not every child is the same, so this makes parenting even more of a challenge at times, ya think?

Anyway, back to the review. I've not watched the movie, but now want to. I'm sure it's not as good as the book....they never are, are they? But, just the same I think it would be fun to see all the dresses and to watch the story all fold out once again. To see the girl live "happily ever after" with her prince. I'm still a young romantic at heart.

REVIEW - A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

2010-11-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

"A Virtuous Woman" by Kaye Gibbons

I like the way this book is written. Each person, Jack and Ruby, are telling the story. You get different views of each of their lives. How they meet, their life together, and Ruby's illness. You see Ruby has Cancer. So they are telling the story of her life. I would really recommend this book, it's really easy to read. I got hooked as soon as I started reading it. Couldn't put it down. My full review is posted at my place, Just Books.

REVIEW - THE SUMMONING

2010-11-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

"The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong

MY THOUGHTS: This is a new author for me. I read about this book at someone's blog and it sounded really good, so I put it on my TBR list. It is really a good book. It's also a series of books. The Awakening, The Reckoning, The Gathering(2011) are the ones in the series. The Gathering is due out in 2011. Chloe starts seeing strange things and freaks out in school. They sent her to a house for disturbed teens. But something isn't right. Chloe finds out about all the different kids there and their "special" powers. Then all hell breaks loose. Chloe, Rae, Derek, and Simmon are on the run. And do they get caught? Does Chloe find her "special" power and how to use it? You'll have to read the book to find out the answers to these questions. You can view my full review at my place, Just Books.