April 2009 Book Challenge

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Drip drip drop little April showers. : Hard to believe it's already April (almost ... 45 minutes to go in my neck of the woods). Then there's all that stuff about April showers bringing May flowers. We'll see. March has been in like a lion and out like a lion we had a snowstorm blow through at the beginning of the week, so ... so much for May flowers.

Anyway...

Now, repeat after me...

So, just by way of clarification (for comers both new and old), new and improved guidelines for the Book Challenge Thread are as follows:

1) Post the books you read ... or not
2) Post a recommendation ... or not
3) Number your book ... or not
4) Make a goal ... or not
5) Have fun with books (This one, unfortunately, is MANDATORY)


So, with that, avante and a happy reading April to everyone!


2008's Threads can be found HERE
January's Thread can be found HERE
February's Thread can be found HERE
March's Thread can be found HERE

[katmann]

Well, you spelled it right! Way to go!

[PassionateWriter]

for those of you recommending PDJames, where do you recommend starting?

i was in the car for 3 hours yesterday....got through alot of David Sedaris's book. I think perhaps laughing so hard you are a danger to others causes me to rethink my suggestion to listen to him while driving.

[panamama]

happy april everyone!

april reading:
15. The House At Sugar Beach: A Memoir (Helene Cooper)
16. The Audacity of Hope (Barack Obama)
17. Reiki: Hands That Heal (Joyce J. Morris)


jan - mar 2009
1. Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For A More Joyful Christmas (Bill McKibben)
2. Waiting (Ha Jin)
3. The Undomestic Goddess (Sophie Kinsella)
4. Sisterella At The Well: What Happens When a Woman's Well Runs Dry (Kelly Lynn Spencer)
5. Trinidad Noir (Jeanne Mason)
6. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life (Twyla Tharp)
7. How to Read a French Fry: And Other Intriguing Stories of Kitchen Science (Russ Parsons)
8. Homeopathy: How It Really Works (Jay W. Shelton)
9. 72 Hour Hold (BeBe Moore Campbell)
10. Segu (Maryse Conde)
11. Dreams from My Father (Barack Obama)
12. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt)
13. The City of Ember (Jeanne Duprau)
14. Fit and Fabulous in Fifteen Minutes (Teresa Tapp)

[Alyantavid]

I'm in. I've been reading these threads for the last month and got lots of book recommendations and I've actually been making time to read lately.

My goal - one book a week. I can get through them faster but I don't want to go overboard. I went to the library yesterday and got The Memory Keeper's Daughter and The Red Scarf.


March books:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
Revolutionary Road

[Avecilla]

We got hit by the flu last month, so I didn't get much reading done. I did finish a few books at the end of March:

16. In Montgomery (Gwendolyn Brooks)
17. Bridge to Terabithia
18. A Thousand Splendid Suns

[WinterWillow]

These will probably do it for April. The first book is a series and the newest book out

Deadly Desire - Keri Arthur
I Know This Much is True - Wally lamb
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

[cathe]

Happy April everybody!

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

This was kind of a slow book but it grew on me. Parents discover their daughter has Turner's Syndrome (basically she doesn't get puberty and develop). I thought it would be more about the disease and how it affected her but really the story is about the family--their various problems and inability to communicate.

[katmann]

Originally Posted by PassionateWriter

for those of you recommending PDJames, where do you recommend starting?

I liked The Skull Beneath the Skin, but it's the only one I've read. I'd also like some recommendations. I'm not a big mystery buff, but I like the way she writes.

[kangamitroo]

my last book for march was unfinished: the YA novel Schooled by Gordon Korman. the main character had been homeschooled forever and was entering a public high school. it painted him as someone who had been living under a rock, totally naive, and i found this a big turn off. it might have gotten better?

just starting John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan Reed's In Search of Paul.

[cathe]

While I did enjoy reading that book, I was really annoyed at how homeschooling was portrayed . . . give me a break huh!

[fremontmama]

It snowed here today in Seattle, I thought it was a fitting April Fool's Day joke.

I just started Kristin Lavransdattir The Bridal Wreath. Has anyone else read that? I'm finding the translation a little quirky.

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Frankly, the ending confused me just a little bit. I sort of had to read and then stop and think about it and then read and then stop and think about it again. There were some aspects I thought seemed a little predictable or whaddaya call it? a deus ex machina or something? a machine to fix the story? am I totally butchering the terminology?

I can't stop thinking about this, did I get the term right? What exactly is that called?

[cathe]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

It snowed here today in Seattle, I thought it was a fitting April Fool's Day joke.


I can't stop thinking about this, did I get the term right? What exactly is that called?

Not sure - - - NCD do you know?

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

It snowed here today in Seattle, I thought it was a fitting April Fool's Day joke.

I miss those days ... kinda. We were always stranded at the top of Dravus when it snowed, all the hills were too steep in the snow and ice.

Originally Posted by fremontmama

I can't stop thinking about this, did I get the term right? What exactly is that called?

Originally Posted by cathe

Not sure - - - NCD do you know?

If you're talking about deus ex machina then I think you've used it right. It's latin for "god from the machine" and according to my Penguin book of literary terms: "is a plot device in which a surprising or unexpected event occurs in a story's plot, often to resolve flaws or tie up loose ends in the narrative. Neoclassical literary criticism, from Corneille and John Dennis on, took it as a given that one mark of a bad play was the sudden invocation of extraordinary circumstance. Thus, the term deus ex machina has come to mean any inferior plot device that expeditiously solves the conflict of a narrative."

Don't know if that helps...

[cathe]

Thanks NCD -- see you were right Fremontmama. That's exactly what the ending was.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy

I miss those days ... kinda. We were always stranded at the top of Dravus when it snowed, all the hills were too steep in the snow and ice.


If you're talking about deus ex machina then I think you've used it right. It's latin for "god from the machine" and according to my Penguin book of literary terms: "is a plot device in which a surprising or unexpected event occurs in a story's plot, often to resolve flaws or tie up loose ends in the narrative. Neoclassical literary criticism, from Corneille and John Dennis on, took it as a given that one mark of a bad play was the sudden invocation of extraordinary circumstance. Thus, the term deus ex machina has come to mean any inferior plot device that expeditiously solves the conflict of a narrative."

Don't know if that helps...

Originally Posted by cathe

Thanks NCD -- see you were right Fremontmama. That's exactly what the ending was.

Sweet! I thought that's what I meant! Thanks NCD!

And Cathe, glad I wasn't alone in thinking the ending was that way. I still kinda liked it, but did feel it was a little too too.


Oh, and the snow!!! The snow is rough on these hills, NCD, are you talking Dravus in Magnolia? B/c that is one monster hill over there.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Oh, and the snow!!! The snow is rough on these hills, NCD, are you talking Dravus in Magnolia? B/c that is one monster hill over there.

Yup. We had an apartment on 25th Avenue West. Just shy of the top of the hill.

[cathe]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Sweet! I thought that's what I meant! Thanks NCD!

And Cathe, glad I wasn't alone in thinking the ending was that way. I still kinda liked it, but did feel it was a little too too.

Oh I totally loved the book -- the writing was just so delicious . . . and really the old gothic novels I used to read always had those kind of endings. I would definitely still recommend the book.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by cathe

Oh I totally loved the book -- the writing was just so delicious . . . and really the old gothic novels I used to read always had those kind of endings. I would definitely still recommend the book.

Oh yeah, I agree wholeheartedly, I couldnt wait to pass on the book to someone else to read. I meant I still liked the ending even though it did feel a little "manufactured".

[cathe]

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Two sisters Pearl and May were brought up in Shanghai in the 1930's -- they are well off and live a modern, carefree life. When their father gambles away all the family's money, however, the girls are suddenly forced into marriage to two Chinese boys from L.A. to pay off their father's debts. When the Japanese attack, the girls are forced to make their way alone to America and start a new life with their husbands.

Although this is a fascinating historical novel about Chinese immigrants in the mid-1900's, it's also a timeless tale of sisterhood -- the jealousy and the love. I enjoyed this.