October 2010 Book Challenge - Page 2

[Ambishop19]

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

I really enjoyed this book. It's long (675 pages), and I do think she could have cut out a lot and kept the story whole, but she's the author, you know? It just lagged a bit at the end.

What I loved about it, though, was that it brought me back to my college studies. I was an English Lit major, and this novel is set in the late 1800s- early 1900s in England. It's ths tory of intertwined intellectual families (some of them were pretty messed up). It had mention of the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, etc) and therefore had mention of historical events like plays, protests, etc.

[kangamitroo]

not quite finished, but i'm enjoying Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home.

"Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali—whose name is a feminization of the word 'struggle'— soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence—until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas."


i still have Knots by Nuruddin Farah on the bedside table and might try again....but it's one of those novels that describes opening the toothpaste, squeezing a bit on the brush, and scrubbing the teeth with careful concentric circles. i thought i would lose my mind in the details.

[Ambishop19]

Two quick YF reads:

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler- Really enjoyable read about learning not to care what others think

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford- Just okay. She's a decent writer so I'll give her other book a shot too.

Hey, do we have a Mothering group on Goodreads or anything? It might be fun to do an online book club.

[raksmama]

the Onion Girl by Charles de Lint. is part of the Newford series.
http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/onion-desc01.htm

Very deep and thought provoking and not as light of a read as most of the other urban fantasy out there, but really worth reading.

[cathe]

Disappearing Ingenue by Melissa Pritchard

A book of short stories all about the same character taking her from girlhood through adulthood. Good, if you like short stories.

[Ambishop19]

1984 by George Orwell- I knew the story and I've seen the play, but I'm so glad I've finally read the book. I loved it! I've always felt guilty that I had never read it since I was an English Lit major in college.

[cathe]

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Jacob Reckless has spent more of his life in Mirrorworld where fairies, goyl, unicorns, and other fairy tale creatures abound. When his younger brother Will follows him in, however, he becomes cursed to become one of the angry, stone goyls. Jacob and Will's girlfriend Clara try to undo the curse before it is too late. Recommended for sixth grade and up.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Accidentally posted this in September (wasn't paying attention), so here we are in the right place now:

#47 Dracula
by Bram Stoker
>>The granddaddy of them all. Yes, the language may be a little antiquated by today's standards, but really, this book delivers more chills per page than just about any other I've come across!


#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, #47 Dracula

[cathe]

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy

Accidentally posted this in September (wasn't paying attention), so here we are in the right place now:

#47 Dracula
by Bram Stoker
>>The granddaddy of them all. Yes, the language may be a little antiquated by today's standards, but really, this book delivers more chills per page than just about any other I've come across!

I LOVE that book.

[cathe]

Two short but very disturbing books:

Nothing by Janne Teller

This is supposed to be a book for 12 and up but it's pretty heavy and disturbing. It's by a Danish author and translated into English. A 13-year-old boy decides life has no meaning so what is the point of school, work, dating, or anything. A group of his classmates want to prove him wrong so they start the "heap of meaning" in which each of them must add their most meaningful possession. Each kid chooses something for someone else to add and the choices get more horrible as the book goes on. I could see this book opening quite a discussion with teens.

A Special Place by Peter Straub

Uncle Till takes his nephew Keith under his wing . . . unfortunately the uncle is a cold-blooded sociopath. God was this creepy.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by cathe

Two short but very disturbing books:

Nothing by Janne Teller

This is supposed to be a book for 12 and up but it's pretty heavy and disturbing. It's by a Danish author and translated into English. A 13-year-old boy decides life has no meaning so what is the point of school, work, dating, or anything. A group of his classmates want to prove him wrong so they start the "heap of meaning" in which each of them must add their most meaningful possession. Each kid chooses something for someone else to add and the choices get more horrible as the book goes on. I could see this book opening quite a discussion with teens.

A Special Place by Peter Straub

Uncle Till takes his nephew Keith under his wing . . . unfortunately the uncle is a cold-blooded sociopath. God was this creepy.

I'll have to keep an eye open for both of these, especially Nothing, that one sounds fascinating!

[cathe]

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy

I'll have to keep an eye open for both of these, especially Nothing, that one sounds fascinating!

Yeah, I thought of you for both of them.

[raksmama]

Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles De Lint
http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/tapping-desc01.htm
Is a collection of short stories from De Lint’s Newford Series.(Urban Fantasy or Magical Realism)
Like a lot of his short stories, there are some I really like and some I don’t. I am a diehard De Lint fan however, so I read all his Newford series books because many of the characters in his short stories appear again in his novels. The more background stories I have about all the characters, the more I enjoy the actual novels.
A Circle of Cats by Charles De Lint
http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/circle-desc01.htm
Is a picture book for children. Thought DS 12 might like it, but it is definitely more for younger girls although I enjoyed the story.

[kaliki_kila]

Sorry, I have a lot of books to post because I haven't posted them yet.

76. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
She wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring and this is her latest. It's based on a true story of two women who collected some of the first dinosaur fossils that were studied.

77. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
I marked this all over the sticky notes and I need to get my own copy because this is from the library.

C.S. Lewis' personality completely resonates with me... the way he describes his enjoyment of being alone: "entering into a deeper solitude than I had ever known." How he describes participating in school sports: "to exchange work... for work." How he describes reading a good book: "I suppose I reached as much happiness as is ever to be reached on earth." His discovery of beauty and magic in the most everyday things: "a farmyard in its mid-morning solitude, and perhaps a grey cat squeezing its way under a barn door, or a bent old woman with a wrinkled, motherly face coming back with an empty bucket from the pigsty."

I really don't think you can fully understand the Narnia books unless you have read this book. He talks about his lifelong interest in fantasy and what it means to him. It really was more than just an idle interest for him... it helped him find the meaning of life.

78. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
About a doctor who makes house visits to an old, crumbling mansion and some eerie things happen. It could have been a good book and there were so many opportunities for the author to put in a cool twist in at the end, but the book was so straightforward as to be boring.

79. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Bartlett
I liked some of the information on collecting rare books. I didn't think the man who stole all the books was particularly interesting although he seemed pretty full of himself.

80. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

81. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I didn't like the end to the series. Seemed like she wrote it in a hurry or didn't have any particular ending in mind when she began writing the first book. I could tell early on which guy Katniss would pick.

82. Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
I read this because the movie is coming out soon. They are changing a lot of the story around in the movie and I can kind of see why. The storyline is all over the place in the book and might not translate into a good movie.

83. Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons
I loved this. It was a lot like Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. It's about a German/Jewish refugee who wants to be a true Englishman and he tries to do everything the proper way. He wants to join a golf course, but none of the clubs will take him and so he attempts to build his own course. The writing is terrific. The book dips into some magical realism which might not have been a good idea. I think it would have been better without the blatant magic - just hinting about magic in the woods and the local legends is enough.

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by cathe

Two short but very disturbing books:

Nothing by Janne Teller

This is supposed to be a book for 12 and up but it's pretty heavy and disturbing. It's by a Danish author and translated into English. A 13-year-old boy decides life has no meaning so what is the point of school, work, dating, or anything. A group of his classmates want to prove him wrong so they start the "heap of meaning" in which each of them must add their most meaningful possession. Each kid chooses something for someone else to add and the choices get more horrible as the book goes on. I could see this book opening quite a discussion with teens.

A Special Place by Peter Straub

Uncle Till takes his nephew Keith under his wing . . . unfortunately the uncle is a cold-blooded sociopath. God was this creepy.

I went to put these two on hold and then decided that maybe I have enough darkness in my life right now.

[cathe]

They are definitely dark . . . . you need to be in the right mood. My 6th grade daughter just read Nothing . . . we had a good conversation about it.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by Ambishop19

Hey, do we have a Mothering group on Goodreads or anything? It might be fun to do an online book club.

We do have one It hasn't been updated in awhile.



http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...DC_Book_Mavens

[fremontmama]

I'm way behind on posting my books. And I'm not here to catch up

I have a hankering to read something that's scary since it's Halloween season, and even though I promised myself I wouldn't read anything but what's in my pile in the closet. (only about 30 or so more books left on that...maybe?)

Anyway, I was thinking of The Shining or Something Wicked This Way Comes, or hmmmm, not sure what else.....


Nothing sounds interesting Cathe....although yes Bufo, maybe a little too dark for right now. It's dark enough in Seattle these days
And I love Cornelia Funke. She does some of my favorite children's books.

Kaliki, I love Tracy Chevalier. Did you like her new one?

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

I'm way behind on posting my books. And I'm not here to catch up

I have a hankering to read something that's scary since it's Halloween season, and even though I promised myself I wouldn't read anything but what's in my pile in the closet. (only about 30 or so more books left on that...maybe?)

Anyway, I was thinking of The Shining or Something Wicked This Way Comes, or hmmmm, not sure what else.....


Nothing sounds interesting Cathe....although yes Bufo, maybe a little too dark for right now. It's dark enough in Seattle these days
And I love Cornelia Funke. She does some of my favorite children's books.

Kaliki, I love Tracy Chevalier. Did you like her new one?

Yeah, I did like it. It was not such an engrossing book where you get lost in a fictional world, but the stuff on fossil collecting was interesting to me. For a creepy Halloween book, have you read Shirley Jackson yet? I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year around this time and loved it.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Anyway, I was thinking of The Shining or Something Wicked This Way Comes, or hmmmm, not sure what else.....

Let me give it some thought and I'm sure I can come up with a list of recommendations for you.