Decembre 2009 Book Challenge - Page 3

[Manonash]

May I join too? I am hoping to read a lot more in the coming year. I've read through the thread and written down so many titles! I already have a bookshelf full of gleanings from Half-Price books . I'll just add some of your titles to the growing list -- it's kinda fun never being caught up.

I've become someone who likes to read quite a bit, but in high school, I hated reading. I liked the idea, but every time I would start to read I would fall asleep. Turns out I needed glasses and didn't find out until I was in college. By then, I had already decided I hated reading. When I met my hubby, he liked to read and loaned me a couple of books I thought sounded interesting. Then I realized I did like reading if I had books that *I* wanted to read and not ones decided on by teachers. Now I love it and go through periods of wanting to do nothing but just sit and read.

I'm almost finished with Around the House: Reflections of Life Under a Roof by David Owen. I'm really enjoying it. Quoting the Jacket description:

" Twelve years ago, David Owen and his family moved from an apartment in New York City to a two-hundred-year-old house in a small town in rural Connecticut. Life under a leaky roof has not only made Owen handy with a reciprocating saw but has shown him why it isn't necessarily foolish to keep a broken refrigerator in the bathroom...."

It's broken down into seasons and small chapters about life and living in an old house and doing the repairing and renovating on his own. There are also things thrown in about teaching children about money and where babies come from.

Shonda

[jadedqueen123]

Just wrapped up "Bright From the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3"~by Jill Stamm.

Amazon description:
Should you really read to your baby? Can teaching a baby sign language boost IQ? Should you pipe classical music into the nursery? Dr. Stamm translates the latest neuroscience findings into clear explanations and practical suggestions, demonstrating the importance of the simple ways you interact with your child every day. It isn’t the right “edu-tainment” that nurtures an infant’s brain. It is as simple as Attention, Bonding, and Communication, and it’s within every parent’s ability to provide. Practical games and tips for each developmental age group will show you not only what the latest findings are but, more importantly, tell you what to do with them.

I liked this book and it had a lot of good games/tips that I will be employing with my DD, although many of them are things we already are doing/have done. I also appreciated that there was emphasis on the fact that children develop at different rates and due to different personalities what works for learning for one may not work for another. All in all a good read and I would recommend it highly!

Edit to add: Also loved that everything she tells you to do is FREE!

[fremontmama]

Welcome Manonash! So glad you have rediscovered reading!

Jadedqueen, I LOVED the Book of Lost Things. I can't wait to read another of his books.

#84 Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge

Quick little read about a woman rediscovering herself after a long marriage, long time at her teaching job and her daughter has left the nest. She discovers her husband has been cheating on her, and she leaves her responsible life in a tiny town in Oregon, and comes to work at a coffee shop in Fremont in Seattle. Kinda fun, nothing too earth shattering. Always fun to read about my neighborhood.

#85 Brush With Death by Hailey Lind

A pulp murder mystery with the caption "An Art Lover's Mystery". Kinda fun story about a faux mural painting/painting restoration artist that has a grandfather that is a notorious art forger. She gets wrapped up a switcheroo of a very valuable Raphael painting and a murder, etc. Pretty fun.

[jadedqueen123]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Jadedqueen, I LOVED the Book of Lost Things. I can't wait to read another of his books.

Hey Fremontmama! I loved this book! He is a fantastic writer! I could totally picture many of the scenes he described perfectly. I too am excited to check out more of his books, in fact, time to log onto the library sight and see what else they have!

Now I am reading 'Life's That Way, a memoir'~by Jim Beaver. Amazon description....Beaver, an actor, playwright and film historian, collects a series of riveting, heartfelt e-mails chronicling the courageous cancer battle of his beloved wife, Cecily, from her diagnosis of lung cancer to her death in little over a year. Unafraid to examine their life together and his acting career as a performer on two popular TV dramas, the role of Ellsworth on Deadwood and Bobby Singer on Supernatural, he kept family and friends informed with his nightly online messages of Cecily's deteriorating status and the bittersweet childhood of their autistic daughter, Maddie. The revealing e-mails depict the somber travail of Beaver on the horrific death watch of his wife, and detail the roller-coaster ride of emotion from hoping for a speedy halt to the disease's onslaught to experiencing the dark abyss of loss. After the death of his father during this time, he writes: This year of writing has freed me from the shackles I don't know I could have borne otherwise. While this cancer memoir often chills the reader to the core with pain and frustration, it offers countless reasons to cheer Beaver as a remarkable man, a loving husband and a responsible single parent.

[cathe]

How to Say Goodbye In Robot by Natalie Standiford

This YA novel was about a teen at yet another new school thanks to her father's job as a professor. Her mom is suffering from depression and the girl makes friends with a strange boy (Ghost Boy) who seems to be pretty depressed as well. THey bond over late night talk radio and she tries to help him.

This was a slower, more thoughtful book. It was pretty good.

[Bufomander]

#133 A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein
one of those books that starts at the end of it all and then goes back to start telling the reader what led to that point. main character is a father, doctor, husband. A patient dies from a disease he failed to diagnose. His son has dropped out of college and begins to spend a lot of time with the 30-yo daughter of his best friend. This concerns the father, partially because of the age gap but largely because of something that happened in her past..

[jadedqueen123]

Just finished 'Life's That Way, A Memoir'~by Jim Beaver

This was such a great read. Heart-wrenching, hysterical, compassionate, and transcendent. A great book for anyone who has ever experienced a loss, which I believe all of us have.

[Peppermint Poppies]

Sold by Patricia McCormick
The story of Lakshmi, a young teenager from a very poor family in Nepal, who is sold by her father to Happiness House brothel. This was a very simply written book, as it was written in first person by Lakshmi, a naive and almost illiterate young girl. Very powerful, upsetting, but with a message of hope at the conclusion.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
This is the first book in the Sevenwaters trilogy. I read the sequel to the series a few weeks ago, and a few people on this thread mentioned how much they enjoyed the trilogy itself, so I went straight to the library to borrow them out. I wasn't disappointed. This was a lovely read ... another medieval/quest/fantasy/romance .... perfect for late night nursing sessions.

[Bufomander]

#134 The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill
The second in the Simon Serrailler mystery season. I'm bummed that our library doesn't have the third!

[Jenifer76]

A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

Brit Paul West escapes his homeland to take a job in Paris marketing English tearooms to the French. Over a year's cycle he discovers that the French way of doing business thrives on maneuvering nimbly through a minefield of unique, demanding personalities. An inveterate womanizer, he finds plenty of skirts to chase and conquer. After a comic search for an apartment, he settles in the city's trendy Marais district. Urban stress in general, combined with a need to escape the upstairs family whose every move reverberates to distraction, forces West to escape to a Norman getaway featuring all the bucolic charms and a cast of neighbors and townspeople to rival Peter Mayle's Provencal rustics. West disdains French food for its love of organ meats and its fascination with revoltingly smelly cheeses.

Crass and immature at times, this is still a good read. I have to assume Clarke's portrayals of the French attitude about ... well, everything ... are exaggerated.

[cathe]

Blue Place Special by Michelle D. Kwasney

This book told three different stories in three different time periods about teenage girls. One overweight and left out and with an alcoholic mother meets a boy who sees past all that and really likes her, another girl has a mom addicted to pain pills and gets raped the mom's boyfriend and ends up pregnant, the third was an overachiever type with a good relationship with her mother but her boyfriend is too possessive. I enjoyed all three stories and the way they came together. Very good book.

[mammastar2]

#75 - Atonement by Ian McEwan

I could not put this down and I can't stop thinking about it afterwards! Wow. This has so many layers, as it explores the reverberations of a crime and a lie for decades afterwards. I was interested to read reviews of it after I finished the book and find that some reviewers had such a different take from me about what to 'take away' from the novel - but there's a lot there to grapple with. Am very glad to have read this one.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

#69 Gerald's Game
by Stephen King

My review can be found HERE


#1 The King in Yellow, #2 Ghost Story, #3 Twilight (Audio), #4 Nice Work, #5 The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged, #6 Collected Poems 1909-1962 (T.S. Eliot), #7 New Moon (Audio), #8 Selected Poems (William Carlos Williams), #9 The Pearl, #10 The Blackwater Lightship, #11 100 Selected Poems (e.e. cummings), #12 The Grapes of Wrath, #13 Eclipse (Audio), #14 A Bit on the Side, #15 East of Eden, #16 As I Lay Dying: Redux, #17 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!, #18 Breaking Dawn (Audio), #19 A Streetcar Named Desire: 25th Anniversary Edition, #20 The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories with a Brief Preface by the Author, #21 New British Poetry, #22 Brick Lane, #23 Maps for Lost Lovers, #24 The Silence of the Lambs (Audio): Redux, #25 Pride and Prejudice, #26 Poe: A Life Cut Short, #27 Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, #28 The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obession in the Amazon (Audio), #29 Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, #30 The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Russia, #31 Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible (Audio), #32 The Composer is Dead, #33 Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook, #34 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories, #35 The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, #36 The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists, #37 The Road, #38 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, #39 How to Draw Washington's Sights and Symbols, #40 My Hippie Grandmother, #41 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV, #42 My Favorite Horror Story, #43 Darwin Slept Here: Discovery, Adventure, and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin's South America, #44 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, #45 Dead Until Dark, #46 Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils, #47 'salem's Lot (Audio): Redux, #48 How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion (Audio), #49 Darwinia: A Novel of a very Different Twentieth Century, #50 Why Did It Have to be Snakes?: From Science to the Supernatural, the Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones, #51 Road Rage: Two Novellas (Audio), #52 The Science of Stephen King: From Carrie to Cell, the Terrifying Truth Behind the Horror Master's Fiction, #53 Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island (Audio), #54 Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, #55 Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, #56 Doctor Who: Pest Control, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #57 The Hunger and Other Stories: A Collection of Violent Entertainments, #58 The Spellman Files, #59 All the King's Men (Audio), #60 Doctor Who: Forever Autumn (Audio), #61 The Peshawar Lancers, #62 Doctor Who: The Nemonite Invasion, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #63 An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition, More Than 1,000 Terms, #64 Star Wars: Death Troopers, #65 The Last Town on Earth (Audio), #66 The Lost Symbol, #67 Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned (Audio), #68 Rose Madder, #69 Gerald's Game

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

#70 The Terror (Audio)
by Dan Simmons
read by John Lee

My review can be found HERE


#1 The King in Yellow, #2 Ghost Story, #3 Twilight (Audio), #4 Nice Work, #5 The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged, #6 Collected Poems 1909-1962 (T.S. Eliot), #7 New Moon (Audio), #8 Selected Poems (William Carlos Williams), #9 The Pearl, #10 The Blackwater Lightship, #11 100 Selected Poems (e.e. cummings), #12 The Grapes of Wrath, #13 Eclipse (Audio), #14 A Bit on the Side, #15 East of Eden, #16 As I Lay Dying: Redux, #17 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!, #18 Breaking Dawn (Audio), #19 A Streetcar Named Desire: 25th Anniversary Edition, #20 The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories with a Brief Preface by the Author, #21 New British Poetry, #22 Brick Lane, #23 Maps for Lost Lovers, #24 The Silence of the Lambs (Audio): Redux, #25 Pride and Prejudice, #26 Poe: A Life Cut Short, #27 Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, #28 The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obession in the Amazon (Audio), #29 Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, #30 The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Russia, #31 Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible (Audio), #32 The Composer is Dead, #33 Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook, #34 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories, #35 The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, #36 The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists, #37 The Road, #38 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, #39 How to Draw Washington's Sights and Symbols, #40 My Hippie Grandmother, #41 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV, #42 My Favorite Horror Story, #43 Darwin Slept Here: Discovery, Adventure, and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin's South America, #44 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, #45 Dead Until Dark, #46 Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils, #47 'salem's Lot (Audio): Redux, #48 How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion (Audio), #49 Darwinia: A Novel of a very Different Twentieth Century, #50 Why Did It Have to be Snakes?: From Science to the Supernatural, the Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones, #51 Road Rage: Two Novellas (Audio), #52 The Science of Stephen King: From Carrie to Cell, the Terrifying Truth Behind the Horror Master's Fiction, #53 Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island (Audio), #54 Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, #55 Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, #56 Doctor Who: Pest Control, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #57 The Hunger and Other Stories: A Collection of Violent Entertainments, #58 The Spellman Files, #59 All the King's Men (Audio), #60 Doctor Who: Forever Autumn (Audio), #61 The Peshawar Lancers, #62 Doctor Who: The Nemonite Invasion, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #63 An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition, More Than 1,000 Terms, #64 Star Wars: Death Troopers, #65 The Last Town on Earth (Audio), #66 The Lost Symbol, #67 Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned (Audio), #68 Rose Madder, #69 Gerald's Game, #70 The Terror (Audio)

[Jenifer76]

Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay

Battling feelings of loss and apathy in the wake of a painful divorce, novelist Jeanette struggles to complete a book about the long-term relationship between Clara Schumann, a celebrated pianist and the wife of the composer Robert Schumann, and her husband's protÉgÉ, the handsome young composer Johannes Brahms. Although this legendary love triangle has been studied exhaustively, Jeanette—herself a gifted pianist—wonders about the enduring nature of Clara and Johannes's lifelong attachment. Were they just "best friends," as both steadfastly claimed? Or was the relationship complicated by desires that may or may not have been consummated?

Through a chance encounter, Jeanette meets Hart, a mysterious, worldly entrepreneur who is a native of Clara's birthplace, Leipzig, Germany. Hart's casual help with translations quickly blossoms into something more. There are things about men and women, he insists, that do not change. The two embark on a whirlwind emotional journey that leads Jeanette across Germany and Switzerland to a crossroads similar to that faced by Clara Schumann—also a mother, also an artist—more than a century earlier.

I enjoyed the parallel between the main character's life and that of Clara Schumann. The author did a good job of balancing two two stories. I found the random emails two be a little odd -- especially the joke ones. I am not entirely sure of Ansay's intention in placing them in the book.

[Bufomander]

#135 Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
I'm just finishing this up. published posthumously and translated from the German. Primo Levi called it "The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis". Based on a true story/Gestapo file. The author himself has some interesting life circumstanes.

From Amazon:

This disturbing novel, written in 24 days by a German writer who died in 1947, is inspired by the true story of Otto and Elise Hampel, who scattered postcards advocating civil disobedience throughout war-time Nazi-controlled Berlin. Their fictional counterparts, Otto and Anna Quangel, distribute cards during the war bearing antifascist exhortations and daydream that their work is being passed from person to person, stirring rebellion, but, in fact, almost every card is immediately turned over to authorities. Fallada aptly depicts the paralyzing fear that dominated Hitler's Germany, when decisions that previously would have seemed insignificant—whether to utter a complaint or mourn one's deceased child publicly—can lead to torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo. From the Quangels to a postal worker who quits the Nazi party when she learns that her son committed atrocities and a prison chaplain who smuggles messages to inmates, resistance is measured in subtle but dangerous individual stands. This isn't a novel about bold cells of defiant guerrillas but about a world in which heroism is defined as personal refusal to be corrupted

[kbond]

Wow! I haven't been able to squeeze a few moments to come here for a while. Some really great recommendations and welcome to all the newcomers.

The reason I haven't been able to update lately is because I was in a mad rush to finish law school, and I DID IT! As of yesterday, I am done!! (except for the bar)

But, now, on to the books.

#88 The Magicians by Lev Grossman
I really enjoyed this book. It's sorta of a modern-day, grown up cross between Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. Although, I kinda hesitate to put it like that because it's really nothing like Harry Potter at all except for the boarding school, teaching kids magic part.

#89 This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
This was an okay book. It takes place as a dysfunctional family sits shiva for their dead father. The humor is biting and very sarcastic, but still funny. The situations are completely improbable.

#90 Strange Brew, edited by P.N. Elrod
A collection of urban fantasy short stories by some of the big names in the genre. It was a solid collection that's had me adding new authors to my watch list.

#91 Dead Men's Boots (Felix Castor #3) by Mike Carey
Another solid contribution to the series.

#92 Everything Matters!: A Novel by Ron Currie Jr
I have mixed feelings about this novel. The premise is that Junior has known since the day he was born exactly when a comet was going to hit the Earth and kill everyone. What does he do with this knowledge? How does he live?

So, I liked the premise. The execution was a little weird, and I still can't decide if it adds or detracts from the book.

#93 Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress
I loved this book, which I found a little bit odd. Generally, I think that Kress has wonderful ideas but a hard time writing good characters. Not so in this book. Good characters and great premise!

The premise is this. The aliens arrive calling themselves The Atoners. They set up on the Moon, and place an ad on the Internet asking for humans who want to be Witnesses to apply. All they're saying is that they've committed some horrible crime against humanity thousands of years ago, and now, they want to show humanity about it as part of their atonement. They need the Witnesses to go out to other planets to see the crime and report back.

#94 Elfland by Freda Warrington
Another one that I absolutely loved. This is her first book published in the US, but apparently, she's had 18 published in the UK. This is a coming of age story, a faiere story, and dealing with your fears stories.

#95 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I picked this up based on a recommendation from these threads. It was a good book. I'm still mulling over if I think it was excellent or not.

#96 The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum
A collection of critical essays on the notion of fat in American society. Good introduction to the concepts of HAES.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by kbond

The reason I haven't been able to update lately is because I was in a mad rush to finish law school, and I DID IT! As of yesterday, I am done!! (except for the bar)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I look forward to the day when I can say the same, that I'm done with school. It's a long way off, I've only just finished my first quarter of my Masters' program, but I look forward to it all the same.

Originally Posted by kbond

#90 Strange Brew, edited by P.N. Elrod
A collection of urban fantasy short stories by some of the big names in the genre. It was a solid collection that's had me adding new authors to my watch list.


#94 Elfland by Freda Warrington
Another one that I absolutely loved. This is her first book published in the US, but apparently, she's had 18 published in the UK. This is a coming of age story, a faiere story, and dealing with your fears stories.

I'll have to look for these, they sound fascinating.

[Jenifer76]

Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy

I really enjoyed this book. It opened my eyes up to some areas on my own parenting where I need to relax. I didn't agree with everything she said (I still don't think I could handle my nine-year-old on the subway alone) BUT she brings up a lot of great points. (And backs them up with statistics.)

[cathe]

Congratulations KBond!