June 2010 Book Challenge Thread

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Can we just all agree to make June stretch out for as long as possible? I'm not ready for the year to be June already. I'm not and no one can make me!

Okay, now that that is out of my system...

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, allons-y and a happy reading June to everyone!

2009's Thread 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
April's Thread can be found HERE
May's Thread can be found HERE

[cathe]

Dracula, My Love by Syrie James

This book is based on the novel Dracula told from Mina Harker's point of view. Supposedly, she didn't tell the whole truth in the original novel--she was not as repulsed by Dracula as she said she was. The writing was good but this was a bit to much of a steamy romance novel for me.

[konamama]

back again - reading 4 books right now - need to just start finishing one at a time and get on with it already :-)

[fremontmama]

#30 No Lifeguard On Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel by Janice Dickinson

Janice Dickinson recounts her life, lots of crazy stories including Studio 54 in its heyday, screwing every famous person famous for screwing i.e. Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, etc etc. and all the gory details of 70's and 80's excess. Pure junk food reading at its best.

#31 Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko

As a palate cleanser.....Boutenko writes about life in her family as strict raw food eaters and transitioning to daily green smoothie drinkers also. She explains why she thinks it's good for us, compares the typical human diet to the typical chimpanzee diet, etc. Pretty interesting. I won't be going raw anytime soon, but I think I can do a green smoothie on a regular basis.

#32 Just Kids by Patti Smith

I really enjoyed this recounting of Smith's early life with Robert Mapplethorpe. She has a wonderfully poetic writing style and the era she describes in NYC sounds so alive. Really fun read.

#32 Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama by Tim Wise

Fascinating! For someone who thought they had an inkling of racism, this was eye-opening. I'd recommend it to everyone. It would be a good classroom discussion book.

#33 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Having read a handful of Picoult books, by now, I feel like I've figured out her formula and I've lost interest. Good filler if I'm looking for a book to fill the gaps between books.

#34 Secret Son by Laila Lalami

I picked this up b/c it's a Seattle Public Library Seattle Reads pick. My book club also chose it. I'm looking forward to the discussion, there is a lot to analyze and delve into. The plot line was a little unexpected for me, and I enjoyed not being able to predict where the story was going.

#35 Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Loved it. Recommending it to everyone. A nice juicy almost 1000 page read, the kind you don't want to end. I was surprised it was an autobiography, b/c the story is so amazing, it's sort of hard to believe that someone who has been through all of that is also such a wonderful writer. The author escapes prison in Australia and ends up in India. He lives an interesting life there, living in the slums, hooking up with the mafia, etc. It was a wild ride. I heard the movie rights have been sold to Johnny Depp, I'm not sure a movie will be able to do the story justice.

[*bejeweled*]

The Garden of Eden by Hemingway

This is one of my all time favorite books about an American couple in Europe on a long honeymoon. I'm currently rereading it.

[Teensy]

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

I finished this book yesterday and can't stop thinking about it. The chapters address different issues such as the sex trade and FGM, but the chapter on maternal mortality has really gotten me thinking and wanting to help make sure women around the world receive the medical care and support they need.

The book is definitely a reminder of how fortunate I am to have the resources I do (even something as simple as ionized salt, which I can't say I've spend much time thinking about).

Highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to make a positive change for women (and men!) around the world.

[kangamitroo]

in the May thread Bufomander had posted: "#93 An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This one was fun. YA. I'm enough of a goof that I like footnotes in fiction books."
& i had to say, me too about the being a goof & enjoying the footnotes. i'll have to check this one out.

read Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. i almost did not finish because it was wearing me out: the poor girl working with her mom in a sweatshop, living in a cruddy apartment, in debt to greedy family, feeling trapped, no social life. on the other hand, i'm so glad she wrote this book, because there are people living like this and maybe some sympathy/change could be incited?

[cathe]

Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

I realized about halfway through that I'd read this before but I enjoyed it the second time as well. This is about a women unable to get close to anyone. She gets struck by lightning and has a relationship with another lightning strike survivor. Very good book.

[Bufomander]

#95

I wasn't sure what I would think about Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendships, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska (by Heather Lende). I believe I checked it out after it was recommended in a newsletter from our local bookstore. I definitely enjoyed it and I'm glad I chose it to start the challenge. It was good enough stuff that I want to share a few excerpts and ideas verbatim.

It is often said that there are no atheists in foxholes. It seems to me that shelled bunkers would be full of skeptics. In the middle of a war it must be harder, not easier, to believe in a good God. If it were up to me, I'd change that line to there are no atheists in delivery rooms or adoption agencies, but maybe that's because I have given birth to four children and have adopted one. (p.5)

Lende was run over by a truck while biking in April 2005. I didn't know this about her when I picked up this book. A year ago, I was hit by a car while crossing the street and, while my injuries were nothing compared to Lende's, there was much with which I could identify. As I am approaching the one-year mark (June 23) it was a good time for me to be reading this book.

I . . . realized that most of us have been hit by a proverbial truck at least once and that, as broadsides go, mine may have been one of the easier to recover from because it was so literal and so public, compared to breast cancer or a messy divorce. (p.8)

Speaking of grocery lists her mother left before her death:

Maybe it is wishful thinking, or maybe I didn't have enough for lunch and am light-headed, but what I hear her notes, and thus her, is this: eat dessert, be sure there's coffee for the morning, write things down so you don't forget them, and don't waste paper . . . a person could do worse than to live by those words . . . (p 101-102)

The back cover describes Lende's writing as "part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott". The comparison resonates with me, at least the Anne Lamott part -- Reading what Lende has to say about faith makes me want to do an about-face and embrace Christianity once more. She makes me proud of my (fellow?) Christians.

Maybe what humans lack in understanding we make up for with faith. I do know deep down that there is something good about this world -- and that something is love. You don't have to be a Christian to know that's why we keep picking each other up every time we fall down. You just have to be human. I hope that someday I'll really love my neighbors, especially the difficult ones . . . In the meantime, I'll keep going to my church, because I know what our vicar, Jan would say about this. It's the same message she preached on "Love Your Neighbor Sunday," and the same one she reiterates in one form or another every Sunday. We are called by Jesus to be good to all people, even those we don't think we like, much less love . . . This, and only this, will ever shake up the world enough to change it." (p. 160-161)

As I've been recovering from my accident, I've been very conscious of not referring to my injured arm, shoulder, and neck as my "bad arm" etc., but rather as my injured arm, my healing neck, my tender shoulder, etc. It was validating to hear Lende's physical therapist reiterate this idea.

"She . . . wouldn't let me call it my 'bad leg.' She said if I started doing that, it would never heal."

All in all, just some good stuff about community, about faith, about healing, about small town life, about life in Alaska.

[Bufomander]

#96 I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

[TEAK's Mom]

Originally Posted by Bufomander

#95

I wasn't sure what I would think about Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendships, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska (by Heather Lende). I believe I checked it out after it was recommended in a newsletter from our local bookstore. I definitely enjoyed it and I'm glad I chose it to start the challenge. It was good enough stuff that I want to share a few excerpts and ideas verbatim.

Heather really is that cool. Have you read her other book, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name?

[Bufomander]

#97 Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
MPH never disappoints.

Originally Posted by TEAK's Mom

Heather really is that cool. Have you read her other book, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name?

No, but after this I definitely want to. And I love it that you are on a first name basis with her!

[TEAK's Mom]

The entire state of Alaska is a very small town.

[Bufomander]

#98 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
a re-read, but on audio-book this time.

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by TEAK's Mom

The entire state of Alaska is a very small town.

Awesome. I have a friend who spent all the summers of her childhood near Larsen Bay (on Bear Island).

[mammastar2]

Originally Posted by Bufomander

#98 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
a re-read, but on audio-book this time.

I read that for the first time last year and loved it!

#30 - The Private Patient by P.D. James

This is a very recent Adam Dalgliesh novel by James. I enjoyed it, ish. It took far too long to get going, and felt rather affected, I thought.

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

I read that for the first time last year and loved it!

#30 - The Private Patient by P.D. James

This is a very recent Adam Dalgliesh novel by James. I enjoyed it, ish. It took far too long to get going, and felt rather affected, I thought.

That one was on my Amazon recs, which is why I started reading the series -- still working my way toward this one-- a good reminder that I need to figure out where I'm at in the series.

[nancy926]

Hunger, by Michael Grant - This is the sequel to Gone, set in a California town in which everyone over the age of 14 disappears one afternoon. In the sequel, food is scarce, and there's something evil underground trying to come alive. Many kids have powers of some kind - one can move faster than the eye can see, one can suspend gravity, etc. - and so there's also a divide between the "normals" and the "freaks."

I thought this was okay - about 100 pages too long, though. And while the characters are strongly written so that it's very possible to tell all 15 or so main characters apart, I started to wonder what they were thinking (beyond the 2 or 3 that Grant most focuses on) - you don't get inside their heads much. I also began to wonder if he were writing in hopes of having a movie made from his books... they would almost be better as movies. (I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not!)

[grapejuicemama]

#35 Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Loved it. Recommending it to everyone. A nice juicy almost 1000 page read, the kind you don't want to end. I was surprised it was an autobiography, b/c the story is so amazing, it's sort of hard to believe that someone who has been through all of that is also such a wonderful writer. The author escapes prison in Australia and ends up in India. He lives an interesting life there, living in the slums, hooking up with the mafia, etc. It was a wild ride. I heard the movie rights have been sold to Johnny Depp, I'm not sure a movie will be able to do the story justice.[/QUOTE]

So glad you read this! I read it a few years ago and recommended it to everyone I came across, but didn't have many takers. It's an excellent book~one I'm thinking about reading again once I'm over the fluff phase I'm in right now.

I think it's been stop and go for the movie production. We'll see what happens, but there's a LOT of story to cram into a two hour movie.

[cathe]

Sounds like a good book for summer. I will see if my library has it.