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September 2010 Book Challenge - Page 2

post #21 of 53
9/15/10 at 10:47am
# 142 Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

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post #22 of 53
9/16/10 at 1:14am
70. Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

This book was based on two famous pack-rats, the Collyer brothers, who lived during the 1940's in Manhattan.

71. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Didn't like this one. I expected something different from it. I didn't like the author's personality. She was such a name-dropper all the way through the book.

72. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
This was a young adult book about a post-oil world where teens join together under a boss to scavenge for copper, a very dangerous job.

73. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I didn't like this one as much as the first one. The first half was brilliant and then it dragged a bit. Still a great read anyway and can't wait to get my hands on the next book (I'm 18 of 143 holds at the library)!

74. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

This was fantastic! A ghost story, great for the Fall season. About a ghost who inhabits a young person's body, falls in love with another ghost, all kinds of good stuff. I couldn't put it down. A very easy book to get into.
post #23 of 53
9/16/10 at 8:44pm
Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring

This is just one of those books that feels good to read--enjoyable, moving, characters you fall in love with. Perfect for the beach or curled up on the couch with a cup of tea!
post #24 of 53
9/17/10 at 2:47pm
#143 The Witch of Hebron by James Howard Kunstler
post #25 of 53
9/17/10 at 5:28pm
More than halfway through A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I forgot how much I love Diana Gabaldon's books. About 500 pages left or so. *sigh* I'd love to just sit and read for a few hours, too bad I'm at the office
post #26 of 53
9/19/10 at 10:28am
#144 The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L'Engle
post #27 of 53
9/19/10 at 12:34pm
#145 The Owl and Moon Cafe by Jo-Ann Mapson
#146 Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
post #28 of 53
9/19/10 at 7:58pm
Spent the weekend at the Central Coast Writers' Conference and got to hang out with authors, agents, publishers, poets, etc. What a great time!!!! And now I have a big pile of books to read!
post #29 of 53
9/20/10 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cathe View Post
Spent the weekend at the Central Coast Writers' Conference and got to hang out with authors, agents, publishers, poets, etc. What a great time!!!! And now I have a big pile of books to read!

Fun, Cathe! What was the best part?
post #30 of 53
9/20/10 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cathe View Post
Spent the weekend at the Central Coast Writers' Conference and got to hang out with authors, agents, publishers, poets, etc. What a great time!!!! And now I have a big pile of books to read!
Oooh, sounds cool!!!

What'd you think of this one Bufo? I like the title. #146 Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
post #31 of 53
9/21/10 at 1:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bufomander View Post
Fun, Cathe! What was the best part?
Well, the most fun was not being in charge (I directed the conference for the past 4 years). But other than that -- meeting authors and writers, getting inspired to get my book finished . . . an agent said I could send the full manuscript so I need to get it DONE!

Oh--and a big stack of autographed books to read. I'm halfway thru Kathleen Duey's YA Skin Hunger. It's great!
post #32 of 53
9/22/10 at 7:48pm
#147 The Gendarme by Mark Mustian

Emmett Conn is an elderly man who, at the end of his life, is visited by confusing memories, memories that were lost to him after his injuries as a Turkish soldier in WWI. These memories come back to him piece by brutal piece and involve the (real-life) genocide of Armenian Christians during a forced march to Syria.


Mustian himself has distant Armenian ancestors (who came to the U.S. before the U.S. Civil War). As he learned more about this forced march -- which came about because the Armenians were assumed to be sympathetic toward the Russians (and thus against Turkey) -- the idea for The Gendarme came to be.


While I'm glad that Mustian is bringing these horrible events to light, the book itself didn't draw me in. It may be that I just am not in a place to be able to stomach the kind of brutality that is prevalent throughout the story. I know that others have appreciated this book, so I'm not un-recommending it, but I myself did not love it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fremontmama View Post
What'd you think of this one Bufo? I like the title. #146 Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
I liked it and it was a very quick read. Unfairly, however, I tend to compare all books in this genre to Dan Ariely's work and so I must say it was no Predictably Irrational.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cathe View Post
Well, the most fun was not being in charge (I directed the conference for the past 4 years). But other than that -- meeting authors and writers, getting inspired to get my book finished . . . an agent said I could send the full manuscript so I need to get it DONE!

Oh--and a big stack of autographed books to read. I'm halfway thru Kathleen Duey's YA Skin Hunger. It's great!
I'm glad you had a break from being in charge and I'm so excited about your contact with the agent. You clearly need someone to come and keep you company and bring you tea while you finish your manuscript!
post #33 of 53
9/23/10 at 12:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bufomander View Post

I'm glad you had a break from being in charge and I'm so excited about your contact with the agent. You clearly need someone to come and keep you company and bring you tea while you finish your manuscript!
Are you volunteering?
post #34 of 53
9/23/10 at 12:24am
Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey

Great YA novel from one of the authors I met this weekend (also a National Book Award Finalist). Looking forward to the sequel.
post #35 of 53
9/23/10 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cathe View Post
Are you volunteering?
Absolutely.
post #36 of 53
9/26/10 at 1:05am
I finally finished Jane Eyre (amazing) and Women, Food and God. Not I'm reading Adventures in Gentle Discipline by Hilary Flower. It's a LLL book. It's good so far. I really need it, because my son is entering the toddler phase head-on!
post #37 of 53
9/26/10 at 7:54am
Thread Starter 
Doing some serious catching up here!

#24 The Puppet Masters
by Robert A. Heinlein
>>Not bad, really fun ... I love Science Fiction from the 50s and 60s, it's a blast!

#25 The Body Snatchers
by Jack Finney
>>Another classic! If you've only seen the films and not read the books, you really are missing out.

# 26 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick
>>I'm torn about this one ... yes it is a classic of the cyberpunk and the granddaddy of that genre, but there is just something that rubs me the wrong way about it.

#27 The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House
by Dan Piraro
>>A great satiric-parable by Dan Piraro (creator of the comic Bizarro) that takes a look at the Bush Administration from a decidedly liberal point of view. I read this to my kids at bedtime for at least 2 weeks ... they loved it, and Piraro's artwork is top-notch as usual.

#28 Psycho
by Robert Bloch
>>It may sound weird to say it this way, but this book is a little piece of brain-candy for me. I absolutely love it, and Bloch's ability to continuously ratchet up the tension and suspense (in spite of the fact that everybody and their dog knows the big spoiler) is nothing short of pure genius. A definite Must-Read.

#29 The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
>>The only way to follow up Psycho is with Harris' masterpiece. Harris does in Silence exactly what Bloch does in Psycho: manages to create one of the tensest and most tightly-written little terror tales in spite of the great cultural consciousness having appropriated his characters and tale. Another definite Must-Read.

#30 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
illustrated by Cliff Richards
>>A brilliant adaptation of the smash-hit. This was a really fun way to unwind from what was a really intense third quarter of grad school.

#31 Leviathan (Audio)
by Scott Westerfeld
read by Alan Cumming
>>Loved loved loved this book. Cannot wait for Part 2 to be released next month!

#32 Android Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters
>>Now, P&P&Z was a brilliant book. The next, S&S&SM was okay. P&P&Z's sequel was inane. Now, after reading this entry in Quirk's literary classic mash-up, I think that the genre has run out of steam. P&P&Z worked so well because the inclusion of zombies worked as a commentary of the society of the Bennet's world. It also created some interesting tension by blurring and out-right destroying gender roles and societal conventions. Android falls flat (as did Dawn of the Dreadfuls (and to a lesser extent Sea Monster)) because the inclusion of, in this case aliens and robots did nothing to comment on the issues brought up by the original book. There was no social commentary, there was no satire, no nothing: just a Tolstoy book with aliens and robots for no discernible reason other than camp value, and still it fails on that level too. Don't bother buying this one.

#33 Mythologies
by Roland Barthes
>>I liked this, but then, I'm weird like that. A theory book that explores the idea of mythology and what it means for the modern world. I guess that's why I'm a grad student in a grad program.

#34 The Short Secret Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Audio)
by Stephenie Meyer
read by Emma Galvin
>>While Galvin is a far superior reader to the reader of the rest of the Twilight series, this novella still fell short for me. I suppose I'm not the target audience, so perhaps that is the reason.

#35 America
by Jean Baudrillard
>>Like Barthes' Mythologies this is a theory book that explores the nature of America, her landscape, her culture and her people. It is a kind of postmodern de Tocqueville (but perhaps not so optimistic as de Tocqueville). Again I liked this, but then, I'm weird like that.

#36 The Post-Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
by Jean-François Lyotard
>>Yet more theory. See the Barthes and Baudrillard above.

#37 The Shining
by Stephen King
>>This is, perhaps, my Number One Most Favorite Book of All-Time. It started my serious academic career and is King's absolute best book, in my opinion. If you read no other King, read The Shining ... it is well-worth every second of lost sleep!

#38 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
by Angela Carter
>>A great collection of fairy tales that Carter has re-appropriated and made relevant to a modern audience. Maybe not bedtime story material for the kids, but still...

#39 Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
>>One of the best novels out there to tackle the idea of urban paranoia and city life out there. I love it, and cannot recommend it enough.

#40 Blood and Guts in High School, Plus Two
by Kathy Acker
>>I'm still trying to figure out how I felt about this one. It is one of the strangest books I have read to date and really pushes the postmodern envelope.

#41 Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
by William S. Burroughs
>>I have never done any hallucinogens, but I can imagine that reading Burroughs' book must come awful close to that sensation. This was a really disorienting and strange strange book.

#42 Watchmen
by Alan Moore
illustrated by Dave Gibbons
>>Possibly the greatest graphic novel ever written. 'Nuff said.

#43 Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
>>As a student of literature, this book was brilliant. As a father of two daughters, I wanted to climb into the book and kill Humbert Humbert.

#44 Beloved
by Toni Morrison
>>An amazing book. One of the best Gothic novels I have read in a long time.

#45 Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
by Sandra Cisneros
>>A beautiful collection of poetic and poignant short stories. I highly recommend this one.

and

#46 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
>>This Gothic novel delivers a quick, ice pick jab to the terror center of the brain. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this book academically.


#1 Tales from Outer Suburbia, #2 The Men Who Stare at Goats, #3 Under the Dome (Audio), #4 Benito Cereno, #5 Doctor Who: The Rising Night, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #6 UR (Audio), #7 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, #8 Shutter Island (Audio), #9 Watchmen, #10 The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection (Audio), #11 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #12 Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy, #13 Lovecraft: Tales, #14 Hellboy: Oddest Jobs, #15 Danse Macabre (Audio), #16 Doctor Who: Ghosts of India (Audio) #17 The Iron Man: A Story in Five Nights, #18 The Pop-Up Book of Phobias, #19 The Pop-Up Book of Nightmares, #20 Horns (Audio), #21 Blockade Billy, #22 Titus Andronicus (Bantam Anthology), #23 Doctor Who: Dead Air, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #24 The Puppet Masters, #25 The Body Snatchers, #26 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, #27 The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House, #28 Psycho, #29 The Silence of the Lambs, #30 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel, #31 Leviathan (Audio), #32 Android Karenina, #33 Mythologies, #34 The Short Secret Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Audio), #35 America, #36 The Post-Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, #37 The Shining, #38 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, #39 Rosemary's Baby, #40 Blood and Guts in High School, Plus Two, #41 Naked Lunch: The Restored Text, #42 Watchmen: Redux, #43 Lolita, #44 Beloved, #45 Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, #46 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
post #38 of 53
9/26/10 at 10:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy View Post
#45 Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
by Sandra Cisneros
>>A beautiful collection of poetic and poignant short stories. I highly recommend this one.
good to hear from you, NCD! Sandra Cisneros is one of my favorite authors. those stories are beautiful. Her novel Caramelo is one of my top ten of all time.

i read Peaceful Parents, Peaceful Kids and Kids Are Worth It: Giving your child the gift of inner discipline back-to-back. There were good things in the first one, but both the writing style and presentation of strategies made me enjoy the second one more. I think the first one told me things i already knew, whereas the second gave me tools i can use at home and as a teacher.

lack of compelling novel + temporary job (exhausted) + serious earache has made reading very difficult these last two weeks.
post #39 of 53
9/26/10 at 4:07pm
#148 An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

#149 The Godmother by Carrie Adams

Quote:
Originally Posted by kangamitroo View Post
lack of compelling novel + temporary job (exhausted) + serious earache has made reading very difficult these last two weeks.
post #40 of 53
9/26/10 at 4:08pm
#150 The Billionaire's Curse by Richard Newsome

You may also like:

Sitting or Squatting: What's Really Best in the Bathroom?
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › The Kitchen Sink › Books, Music and Other Media › September 2010 Book Challenge