November 2009 Book Challenge - Page 3

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by cathe

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I had a little trouble getting into this but ended up liking it a lot.

Oh, glad you liked it. I'll have to get to that one. I'm waiting b/c the line at the library is HUUUUUUGE!

Originally Posted by mammastar2

#66 - Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn

Usually I don't care for 'parenting' books - too over-simplistic and filled with bullet points and scripts, not my thing. I'd read The Homework Myth and thought it was interesting but not all that deep, and I was already familiar with the ideas in Unconditional Parenting, so I thought I'd just skim it. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I understand some readers are frustrated that he doesn't just provide a recipe or a formula for dealing with challenging situations, but what I appreciated was the care with which he thinks about how parents interact with their children and where it fits within wider societal values. It actually made me wish I'd read it with a group, as I think I'd really enjoy discussing some of the ideas (like applying an economic exchange model to human relationships) with others.

That would be a fun book club read. He has some really interesting ideas.

#77 The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris

(released in Europe under the title The Lollipop Shoes)

The sequel to Chocolat. Much juicier and more substantial. I think Chocolat is only 150 pages or so, this one is 350 or so. We follow Vianne and Anouk to Paris. Vianne is again working in a chocolate shop, but has tried to blend in instead of stand out and has denied her magical side. She has another daughter now named Rosette. Another woman comes into their life who seems good, but the story gets juicy here. Love her books, they are a surefire good read.

[mammastar2]

#67 - The Weight of a Mustard Seed: The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny by Wendell Steavenson

This was a very thought-provoking read, by a freelance journalist (a woman), who interviews relatives and other connections of General Kamal Sachet, who was one of Saddam Hussein's most respected generals, as she tries to answer the "how/why" of complicity with Hussein's tyranny. In the end, really, she can't answer the questions that she raises, but I think the book is more powerful because of that. I appreciated her decision to focus on the regime's actors - not the crazy psychopathic ones, for the most part, but the ones who were just doing their job, particularly in the military. The ability to take pride in doing your job well, even when you have a personal distaste for what the job requires, was taken to a horrible degree, and she explores it complexities, and how hard it is to truly discover what personal responsibility and motives people bore after the fact.

Some things that I learned about that will stick with me included:

- Saddam's pattern of brutally punishing his soldiers and operatives, then suddenly redeeming them and restoring them to their positions, with the result that they would be terrified of ever setting a foot wrong again

- the development of the practice of raping and brutalizing a wife or daughter of an official, and taping it, then using it to keep him in check (for fear of harm to the family's honor).

Good God.

[Jenifer76]

Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason by Joyce Atkinson

This tantalizing "found" journal of a troubled young wife and mother combines the diary of Amy Mason, correspondence, clippings from newspaper accounts and remnants of the 19th-century novel Amy used instead of a blank notebook to frame the story of her disintegrating marriage. Amy's husband, Robert, moves to Boston to head a new cardiology institute, but Amy and her two small children remain behind in Houston, planning to follow later. As the relocation process drags on, Robert throws himself into his new responsibilities and Amy fights a deepening depression. She finds a new friend in her Houston real estate agent, Vanessa Garamond, but the beautiful Vanessa provokes Amy's suspicions with an unannounced trip to Boston. Sisters Kristine and Joyce Atkinson only hint at the occurrence of a crime, and readers will have to draw their own conclusions from the open-ended assemblage of visual and textual clues.

A short read -- the plot was fairly predictable. I liked the use of a scrapbook/journal to present the story.

[cathe]

Good Book by David Plotz

Well--I've been waiting for this ever since NCD posted his review way back I don't know how many months ago. My dh and I both devoured this funny and thought-provoking book about a Jewish man who read his way through every word of the old testament in a year.

[jadedqueen123]

Hi, new here to the book thread but I am a library addict so thought maybe I could find some new books to read and share some of the one's I have read so far this month.

I just finished Plain Song by Kent Haruf. Great book. Apparently Obama read it. I really enjoyed it.

Also read The Indifferent Stars Above, a Harrowing Tale of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown. I liked it, it was a bit better than most of the Donner books I have read. I enjoy at least one non-fiction book a month.

Currently working on Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell. Will let you know what I think when I am done with it.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by cathe

Good Book by David Plotz

Well--I've been waiting for this ever since NCD posted his review way back I don't know how many months ago. My dh and I both devoured this funny and thought-provoking book about a Jewish man who read his way through every word of the old testament in a year.

Glad you liked it

[Peppermint Poppies]

Oh goodness, I didn't know there was a thread like this on MDC!! This might become my new favourite home

I won't start numbering yet, maybe at the beginning of next year.

Good To A Fault by Marina Endicott
A story about a single, childless woman who has a car accident in which other car, which was the home of a family of 6, was totalled. To try to atone, she invites the family to live with her, and becomes a pseudo-mother to the three children when their mother is diagnosed with leukaemia and remains in hospital.

It was a good book, slow but in a nice, meandering kind of way. It wasn't the sort of book that you just couldn't put down, but on the other hand, I would have been disappointed not to have finished it. Welll characterised, nice subplots, and absolutely gorgeous cover and endpapers (which, embarrasingly, is the reason I bought it from the bookshop. I am a huge fan of judging books by their covers).

[klosmom]

The Hidden Girl

This Book Is absouloutly AMAZING it about the struggles a jewish girl goes through after her mom is killled.Sorta like "The diary of ann frank" But this little girl is only 5 when she goes into hidding.
-Klosmom's Daughter.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by Peppermint Poppies

Oh goodness, I didn't know there was a thread like this on MDC!! This might become my new favourite home

Welcome!

[Bufomander]

#121 Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
#122 Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix

A new series by the author of the Shadow Children series. Definitely written for about 4th grade, but I really enjoy her writing and plot ideas. A plane suddenly appears on the runway -- wasn't expected, didn't show up on air traffic. Cockpit dark, seats all full -- of babies. The second one involves time travel and the little princes who disappeared from the Tower in the 15th century.

#123 The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets by Nancy Springer
another chapter book about Enola Holmes, Sherlock's sister.

#124 Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
I've managed to avoid reading the Twilight series -- they just don't tempt me at all. This one was on my Amazon recommendations and so I got it from the library. I've heard rumblings that some people think the Twilight series is a terrible model for young women vis a vis dangerous relationships/men. Reading this book, I could see how that could be true. Fallen angels/Nephilim figure into the plot.

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by Peppermint Poppies

I am a huge fan of judging books by their covers.

Me too. Welcome!

[kbond]

#81 How I Live Now by Meg Rossoff
This was a YA book that was generally difficult to follow. There is no context given for the sudden war that breaks out, how it resolves, or anything. Instead, we just have a snapshot of the protagonist living through it. I really didn't like this one.

#82 Things I Learned About My Dad in Therapy ed. by Heather Armstrong
I enjoy reading Armstrong's blog so I thought that I'd give this a whirl, and it was funny and light reading. Most of the essays were good; none were really great.

#83 The Devil You Know (Felix Castor #1) by Mike Carey
Someone who had read the Dresden Files recommended this series to me, and I can see why. Similar genre and feel, but this is not a knock-off and stands on its own as well. Very enjoyable.

#84 Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo
Light, chick-lit of the grad student about to discover important treasure trove her field variety. Entertaining.

#85 Vicious Circle (Felix Castor #2) by Mike Carey
See above. Just as good as the first.

#86 Strange Piece of Paradise: A Return to the American West To Investigate my Attempted Murder And Solve The Riddle of Myself by Terri Jentz
I got this recommendation of this list, and, for the most part, I enjoyed this book. I'm not a huge True Crime fan, but this book was still engrossing. It could have been about 100 pages shorter--the author tends to ramble.

[cathe]

A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian

This was about a Indian doctor man living in the US who goes back to India for a visit and is coerced into an arranged marraige. When he returns to the US with his bride, he pretty much ignores her and tries to carry on with his old life and old girlfriend.

This was okay -- a little too romance novel for me but it moved along.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by kaliki_kila

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peppermint Poppies View Post
I am a huge fan of judging books by their covers.

Me too. Welcome!

Ditto on both accounts for me too

[kaliki_kila]

96. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Tatiana falls in love with a soldier she meets on the street but she finds out that he is her sister's boyfriend and they try to carry on their relationship anyway. WWII rages on around them and their family struggles to survive on their rations of a small piece of bread each day. The story is set in Russia and there is all kinds of tension about being outwardly loyal to the country's socialist ideas all while privately entertaining ideas of privacy and owning personal property.

This is probably one of my favorite books I read this year. Which is embarrassing cause it's kind of trashy, but it has a lot to offer besides that. The book is huge but I took it everywhere with me anyway because I could not put it down.

[Jenifer76]

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating--and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him--against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

My husband grew up near Niagara Falls on the U.S. side so I have an attraction to stories about the Falls. I found the information about the river and the Falls very interesting. The ending was a little predictable for a love story but I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to read it.

[kangamitroo]

The Writing on my Forehead by Nafisa Haji

i think this was a case of waiting so long to read it that i had built up expectations. it was ok, but something was missing. it had a suspenseful opening, but something in the narrative style felt....lethargic to me. also, a supporting character was more interesting to me than the narrator.

from HarperCollins: "Saira Qader broke the boundaries between her family's traditions and her desire for independence. A free-spirited and rebellious Muslim-American of Indo-Pakistani descent, she rejected the constricting notions of family, duty, obligation, and fate, choosing instead to become a journalist, the world her home. Five years later, tragedy strikes, throwing Saira's life into turmoil. Now the woman who chased the world to uncover the details of other lives must confront the truths of her own."

[Jenifer76]

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado

As head of her celebrity sister’s production company, Gesine Bullock-Prado had a closet full of designer clothes and the ear of all the influential studio heads, but she was miserable. The only solace she found was in her secret hobby: baking. With every sugary, buttery confection to emerge from her oven, Gesine took one step away from her glittery, empty existence—and one step closer to her true destiny. Before long, she and her husband left the trappings of their Hollywood lifestyle behind, ending up in Vermont, where they started the gem known as Gesine Confectionary. And they never looked back. Confections of a Closet Master Baker follows Gesine's journey from sugar-obsessed child to miserable, awkward Hollywood insider to reluctant master baker. Chock-full of eccentric characters, beautifully detailed descriptions of her baking process, ceaselessly funny renditions of Hollywood nonsense, and recipes, the ingredients of her story will appeal to anyone who has ever considered leaving the life they know and completely starting over.

For someone who wanted to leave behind the Hollywood lifestyle and being known just for her famous sister. Bullock-Prado spends an inordinate amount of time mentioning and/or complaining about those topics in her book. It detracts from an otherwise lovely memoir of cooking and family. I especially enjoyed reading about her mother and grandmother -- and the relationship she shared with them through the context of food.

[Daffodil]

#20 - The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

What an oddly satisfying little book! Very soothing and peaceful, in a bittersweet way. The narrator goes to stay in a small town on the Maine coast and gets to know and love some of the people there. Absolutely nothing happens for most of the book, except that she meets some people and listens to their stories. (The best was an old sea captain's story about a mysterious land in the far north.) Toward the end, something small and yet momentous finally happens.

[kofduke]

Darwinia, Wilson

I totally agree with NCD's review last month -- fascinating concept, well-written, but goes kind of off in the middle...