What are you reading?

My friend Breeni of Breeni Books tagged me for the What are you reading? meme.

I'm supposed to -
Turn to page 123 of the nearest book, go to the fifth sentence and post the next three! Then tag five more people.

I'll cheat and do this for the two books that I'm most actively reading at the moment and not tag five people.

First -

Tobacco particulate thickens the air.
A shelf of books: Auden, Veblen, Spengler, Steinbeck, Dos Passos. Tropic of Cancer, out in plain view, it must have been smuggled.

That's from Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, which I am reading in preparation for our book club discussion on Wednesday.

Second -

I went eagerly into it. Then we took a sharp left, and the road changed, we crunched over dirt. There was a car parked at the end of the lane, and the hard black of a building through the overhanging branches, and we got out and walked towards it, around a corner, and now there was a single bulb above a door.

That's from Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. I got a lovely hardcover copy of this book last weekend for $2 at Russell's new favorite used book store. I'm not supposed to be adding books to Mt. TBR - but I'd heard really good things about this book and the protagonist is a Sikh - so I've decided to read it before it can make it to one of our book cases (so it'll never technically by on Mt. TBR). I'm on page 181 of 900.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

The focus of this short novel is a conversation between a bearded Pakistani man and an American man he has just met, which takes place during the course of one evening in a Lahore café. In his mesmerizing monologue, Changez describes his life: education at Princeton, job at a high-powered finance firm in New York, the love of his life, and what brought him back to Pakistan.

A unique post-9/11 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a page-turner without resorting to plot devices. Well-written and thought-provoking, the novel is more subtle than its title suggests, dealing less with the political, religious, and sociological reasons behind Islamic fundamentalism than with the disillusionment of youth and issues of cultural identity.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Mohsin Hamid grew up in Lahore, Pakistan. His first novel, Moth Smoke, was a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

~ ~ ~

Starting this month I'm going a Book of the Month feature on one of our library blogs to highlight some of our holdings. My plan is to alternate between fiction and nonfiction every month. I think I'll have to be strict about that because otherwise I'd tend to choose fiction much more often than nonfiction.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the first book I chose for this feature mostly because it was featured in Recent Acquisitions on the front page of the library website for the better part of December and that made the book gathering dust on Mt. TBR quite unbearable.

Valentine's Day

I'm really not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, commercial holiday such as it is, but I did manage to share some books this year.


Russell and I weren't going exchange any gifts, but then I decided that I needed to have a sock kit from Wool Girl. So, when he found I book he's wanted for a while -- Perestroika!: Raucous Rebellion in Political Science by Kristen Renwick Monroe -- at a good price on half.com, I got it for him.


My sister, who is not a big reader, and I usually exchange gifts. Since I'm always trying to find a book that'll get her to read, I decided to sneak The Royal Treatment, the first book in the Alaskan Royals series, in with her gift. Eureka! She loved it (we exchanged gifts early). She's already requested the other two books in the series and asked if I thought she'd like other books by MaryJanice Davidson.

more recent reading

Witch Child by Celia Rees
The year is 1659, a time of fear and lies. For Mary Newbury, it is a time of desperation. While she watches, unable to intervene, her wise and beloved grandmother is falsely condemned, tortured, and hanged as a witch. Soon the relentless crowd may turn upon Mary.
When a mysterious stranger offers her a way out--safe passage to America--she knows she must go. But she doesn't know that the turbulent voyage will bring her to yet another society where differences are feared and defiance is deadly. To survive, Mary pretends to be a pious Puritan girl. But when witch frenzy begins to tear apart the community, Mary must finally choose between the precarious safety of her disguise and her own true nature.

The time period and subject matter are both of great interest to me and I thought this book was very well done. I particularly liked the archival aspect of it - the fact that the bulk of the book was Mary's diary that she hid in a quilt and was only discovered 400+ years later.

I found Mary's character quite sympathetic and ended the book hoping that she'd met up with Jaybird and lived happily-ever-after with his tribe. Now that I know there is a sequel (Sorceress), I've put in on my wishlist.

The Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series by Alexander McCall Smith
Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (all published in 2003).

I feel the end to harken back to something I wrote about The Sunday Philosophy Club, the first book in another AMS series:

One thing that occurred to me as I was listening to the book is how different Isabel is from Precious Rambotswe (star of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books). Not that I expected them to be similar, but I found it interesting that while McCall Smith's core audience probably has the least in common with Precious, she may very well be his most sympathetic protagonist (I don't know anything about the 44 Scotland Street series, though, so I could be completely off base).

Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is if anything less sympathetic than Isabel Dalhousie. He's a quirky, clueless, self-important academic who manages to get himself into very Bridget Jones-y situations. I did, however, like the books (though the over-the-top situation in At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances may have put me off reading more books in the series if there were any). They are very tongue-in-cheek and because I know more about German culture than the average American (and more than I probably care to know about academe), I was able to appreciate a lot of what AMS was going with the books.

The highlight of the series, however, has to be the case of mistaken identity in The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. I was so amused (though, again, AMS carried it a bit too far later in the novel).

Booking Through Thursday - But, Enough About Books

What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

I do knit (I started last year), though I try to combine the two hobbies by knitting while listening to audio books and reading knitting books. I adore Ravelry and think it is a fantastic resource.

I'm also into BookCrossing, a book tracking site (here's my bookshelf). I do lots of BookCrossing-related stuff and attend meet-ups in Oakville, ON (monthly) and Rochester, NY (occasionally).

Russell and I play lots of board games, particularly eurogames. We're on Board Game Geek where you can see our game collection (the war games are all Russell's). We also cycle when the weather is good and participate in the Ride for Roswell every year.

I also volunteer for Youth for Understanding, the exchange organization through which I went to Germany when I was in high school. I support international students, do interviews of American students applying to the program and potential host families, and I just became certified to give specialized training to other volunteers.

some recent reading

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, read by Steven Crossley
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book...The Book of Lost Things.

I had heard good things about this book, but didn't remember much about it. Listening to the book, I thought it was very well done, but it was much darker than I expected. I liked how Connolly incorporated fairy tales into the story and gave them a twist to serve his needs though in most cases they ended up darker and more menacing than even the usual not-so-nice versions of fairy tales.

In some ways this book reminded me of Michael Gruber's The Witch's Boy, which I read last year. It is very different, but I loved Gruber's take on the fairy tales.

I though Crossley was a wonderful reader, especially in how he brought the different characters to life through his voice.

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a woman's face in particular. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. As a young girl, she absorbed the searing pain of peer rejection and the paralyzing fear of never being loved.

I picked up Autobiography of a Face and Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty around the same time after hearing that they were both fantastic books and should be read together.

I have yet to read Truth and Beauty, but it seems to me that it is impossible to read Autobiography of a Face and not be curious about Grealy's life beyond the part described in the memoir. In doing that supplemental reading, I discovered the tension between the two books and the fact that Suellen Grealy, Lucy's older sister, came out against Truth and Beauty in The Guardian.

Autobiography of a Face wasn't the easiest to read, but Grealy wrote about her life and struggles eloquently and with great honesty. The saddest part of her story, however, is the cause of her untimely death in 2002.* After I learned about her death, I began to see Grealy as much more of a tragic character than I did when I finished the book.

I'll be reading Truth and Beauty soon. I understand Suellen Grealy's concerns, but I know that each of the books only contains a version of the truth and, for better or for worse, Patchett, by writing Truth and Beauty has brought Grealy and Autobiography of a Face much more exposure than they would have had otherwise.

* Apparently she became addicted to prescription painkillers after her last reconstructive surgery (similar to the brief codeine addiction she describes in the book), which served as a gateway to heroine and her eventual accidental overdose.

Eva's Reading Meme

Dana of the Ace & Hoser Blook tagged me for Eva's Reading Meme.

On so many of these questions, I have the feeling that I'll wish I could go back and change my answers as soon as the post is published.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
The Lord of the Rings, much to the chagrin of both my father and my husband who love the books. To be fair, I did try to read the books after I read and enjoyed The Hobbit, but I just couldn't get into The Fellowship of the Ring. It seemed so dull in comparison that I quickly gave up on the books and haven't given them a second chance.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
A cruise would be fantastic, but maybe high tea instead so I can get rid of them if they start driving me crazy in real life. Now, who to invite...
- Chelle LaFleur, one of Susan Helene Gottfried's characters. She'd be a blast to have around.
- Captain Nemo. Honestly I have no idea why. He probably wouldn't be a fantastic dinner companion, but he's stuck in my head today. Maybe Chelle will give him a talking to.
- Albus Dumbledore. Just to mix things up a bit.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Ooooh... I love the Thursday Next books... poor Granny Next trying to read the ten most boring books ever written.
Anyway, the most boring novel on the planet - The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway? Honestly, I have no idea, but I haven't read The Old Man and the Sea yet and I've heard that it's quite boring.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
In most cases, I've done this with books I have every intention of reading like The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, which I have on my book shelf. My biggest sins in this regard have probably been implying that I've read J.M. Coetzee and (ugh, I cringe just admitting this) Orhan Pamuk (yes, I own most of his novels, I just haven't gotten around to reading them).

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
Jane Eyre. I was certain that I'd read it in high school.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
Here are a couple that I might recommend, based on the VIP:
- 1984 by George Orwell. I know that there are lots of people out there who don't like 1984, but I think it might be the perfect lure for some.
- Zahrah and the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. I adore this book and think that many people will be able to relate to Zahrah.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
This question is soooooo hard. Right now the language I most want to learn in Turkish, but I'm really not sure that Turkish would be the ideal choice for this wish. Maybe Russian?

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Maybe The Invitation to the Voyage: An Illustrated Poem. This is a beautiful book. I have the bi-lingual edition so I can enjoy both the original French and an English translation. And, the book is short so it wouldn't keep me away from new reading for too long.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I'll spin this question a bit and add the BookCrossing community to the blogging community and say that I've rediscovered mysteries since I got involved in BookCrossing and the broader online community of readers.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
My dream library might come along with a book-binding facility. I'd love all my books to be rebound by me in three-quarter leather (similar to a German bookbinding book I rebound during my book conservation apprenticeship).
As for the library itself, it must have comfy chairs with nice reading lamps. Russell wants a good speaker system to pump music in while we are reading and a spiral staircase, so I guess it'll have to have two floors.

As directed, I'll tag four other people to complete this meme:
- Chelle (I'm hoping that Susan at WestofMars will humor me on this one)
- Lotus of Lotus Reads
- Milan (zzz) of While sleepwalking...
- Puss reboots
I wanted to tag Gautami, but I saw her name on the list of people who have already completed the meme.

Booking Through Thursday - Huh?

What's your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody "knows" those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, "Huh? Never heard of it?"

Going back to my first ever post on this blog, you can see that I count a number of books that many people haven't heard of among my favorites (like The Book of Laughter and Forgetting for example).

An unknown book that I frequently recommend to others is Zahrah and the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (read my review here).

Another title that always got the "huh" was Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei, hat zwei Türen, aus einer kam ich rein, aus der anderen ging ich raus by Emine Sevgi Özdamar (I wrote about this book in my bachelor's thesis - yeah, comparative literature!) and I have to say that I was completely shocked when I saw it listed among the 1,001 books you must read before you die. Not because it isn't a fantastic book, but because it's so obscure (the English edition is published by a university press).

book clubbing in January

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult was chosen as a filler when it took longer to set up our voting than we expected. Having read a number of Picoult's other books (Keeping Faith, Mercy, My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Pact, Plain Truth, and The Tenth Circle), I was sure that Vanishing Acts would be good discussion fodder.

The issue at hand in Vanishing Acts is whether it is ever acceptable to kidnap a child.

One thing that we all agreed on is the Picoult tried to cram way too much stuff into this book. The novel could have easily been made into two and there wouldn't be so much to distract from the main story. (Honestly even though Fitz was a main character, he really didn't need to be in the story at all; then there was Ruthann...)

Since Picoult's general modus operandi is to take an issue and blur the lines so much that you really can no longer see it as a black-and-white issue it was interesting that that wasn't the case in this book (at least with the main issue, Andrew's antics in jail are a different matter entirely). As a reader, your support of Andrew and his decision never really wavers throughout the book.

What I found most interesting about my book club discussion is that most members who hadn't read Picoult before were interested in reading her other books, while most of the members who had read her before were ambivalent about reading her in the future.

An Incomplete Revenge

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

"There were ghosts in this village--
ghosts who would allow the neighbors no rest" (4).

Maisie's latest case brings her and assistant Billy Beale to the village of Heronsdene in Kent. Viscount James Compton, the son of Maisie's benefactress, is interested in purchasing land and a brickworks on behalf of the Compton Corporation, but is concerned by a wave of vandalism in the community. He engages Maisie to help determine whether he can make a clean sale.

When two London boys down in the country to pick hops are falsely accused of theft, the village's problems begin to hit closer to home. As with many of her cases, there is more to the problem than meets the eye. This becomes apparent when Maisie is on hand to witness the villagers' reaction to an arson attack:

"There had been no surprise registered, no shock at a tragedy averted by a hair's breath of time. Instead, she had once again seen the emotion she was becoming familiar with in the course of her work in Heronsdene: fear. And something else: resignation, acceptance. As if the events of the evening were expected" (101).

Maisie must dig deep to uncover the roots of the problem and help heal the village of its ailment.

What I like most about this series is that although the books are mystery novels, they are less page-turning whodunits than well-crafted period pieces that happen to be mysteries. Throughout An Incomplete Revenge, Winspear displays her knowledge of the historical backdrop and social milieu of the interwar years.

Maisie is a charming, full-bodied protagonist. She's enchanting and likeable and real. Winspear's gift for characterization extends even to the non-recurring secondary characters. During the investigation, Maisie crosses paths with B.T. Drummond, a female reporter trying to make it in a man's profession, Alfred Sandermere, a landlord more comfortable with feudalism than modern times, and Beulah Webb, a gypsy matriarch with the gift of sight. Each of these characters adds to the story and Winspear seems to take pains to make them more than just stock characters.

An Incomplete Revenge is the fifth installment in Winspear's award-wining series, following Maisie Dobbs (2003), Birds of a Feather (2004), Pardonable Lies (2005), and Messenger of Truth (2006). While each book does stand on its own, those who pick up An Incomplete Revenge may want to read the earlier books simply to spend a little more time with Maisie and to learn more about her backstory.

Read the full review at Front Street Reviews...

travel reading

With all of that airport time last week I managed to get quite a lot of reading done, much more than I expected on a working trip.

Madame Zee by Pearl Luke
This well-researched novel tells the story of Mabel Rowbotham aka Madame Zee, the mistress of cult leader Brother XII, who founded a utopian community on Vancouver Island in the 1920s.

I found this book fascinating. I knew nothing of Brother XII (or Theosophy for that matter) before picking up Madame Zee (which I'm sure gave me a much different reading experience that for those familiar with the cast of characters). What I liked most about the book is that it focuses primarily on Mabel's life before she joined Brother XII, depicting her as a real person and a sympathetic character. Her life and struggles before joining the cult were in many ways much more interesting than the drama-filled years on Vancouver Island.

Madame Zee is well-crafted (though that's to be expected as Luke won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her first novel, Burning Ground). Luke's writing is marvelous and the story is compelling - yes, you want to find out what happens, but you also want to soak up each little detail on the way.

Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton
Another lovely piece of fiction, Endymion Spring is the story of a mysterious book discovered in an Oxford library. I don't want to say too much about the plot because half of the joy of reading this book is in following where the story leads you.

I loved the juxtaposition between the present-day and 1450s and how Skelton used the changes to illustrate different aspects of the book. I also liked the historical tie to Gutenberg and Skelton's use of fantastical elements (I'd never heard of the specific type of dragon that appears in the story) and superstitions (like the play on printer's devil).

My only complaint is that things wrapped up a bit too easily in the end, but that's the way with fiction sometimes.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
I splurged on this book on Monday when I was stuck in JFK. There wasn't a huge book selection in my terminal, but I vaguely remembered hearing something good about The Friday Night Knitting Club so I picked it up.

I thought the book was fine. I liked the story and the various characters in it (some of them make very strange decisions, but I guess that makes them more realistic in some way), but The Friday Night Knitting Club definitely feels like a first novel. It could have been better.

There are some things in the novel that just don't make sense, like the student obsessed with Julia Roberts. It was unnecessary and didn't add anything to the narrative. And, I don't remember Jacob ever giving an explanation of Darwin's name. Not that that's terribly important, but given that Darwin's family was very traditional it seems like a very strange choice for them and because of that an explanation really was in order.

The other thing I didn't particularly like about the book was the pattern in the back. I know that the author and publishers were following along with what's been done with a lot of knitting fiction and I don't have a problem with that, I just think they made a poor choice in pattern. Who needs a super basic scarf pattern? It would have made much more sense to include the pattern for the sweater that all the club ladies were knitting at one point because that is much more connected to the story.

Booking Through Thursday - Let's Review

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you're sure you won't like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

In general I'd say that reviews have some affect on my choice of reading, but not terribly much because what you like and what you don't like is really a matter of taste. A reviewer could say absolutely wonderful things about a book, but I might not enjoy reading it. Similarly, I might love a book that a reviewer thought was horrible.

If I see a negative review of a book I want to read, I'll probably still read the book anyway (unless the review is written by someone whose taste I trust implicitly). If I see a really positive review written of a book I'm not sure about by someone I trust, I'm more likely to pick it up. In a way, letting reviews affect your choice of reading is like getting recommendations from people you know. You are going to check out the books recommended to you by a friend who has similar tastes, where you just might smile and nod at the recommendations of someone else.

future book club selections, 2008-2009

It seems like I've been waiting forever to finalize and post this list, but the wheels of democracy turn slowly...

In any case, it looks like we have a nice variety of books on the schedule and I'm looking forward to discussing them.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
To be discussed: February 27, 2008

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
To be discussed: March 26, 2008

Room with a View by E.M. Forster
To be discussed: April 23, 2008

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
To be discussed: May 28, 2008

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
To be discussed: June 25, 2008

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman
To be discussed: July 23, 2008

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
To be discussed: August 2008, date TBD

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
To be discussed: September 2008, date TBD

Austenland by Shannon Hale
To be discussed: October 2008, date TBD

Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker
To be discussed: November 2008, date TBD

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
To be discussed: December 2008, date TBD

Possession by A.S. Byatt
To be discussed: January 2009, date TBD

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
To be discussed: February 2009, date TBD

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
To be discussed: March 2009, date TBD

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
To be discussed: April 2009, date TBD

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
To be discussed: May 2009, date TBD

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
To be discussed: June 2009, date TBD

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
To be discussed: July 2009, date TBD

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
To be discussed: August 2009, date TBD

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
To be discussed: September 2009, date TBD

Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
To be discussed: October 2009, date TBD

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
To be discussed: November 2009, date TBD

Princess Bride by William Goldman
To be discussed: December 2009, date TBD

The Last Cavalier

Here's a peek at a review that appeared in Library Journal this month. It should have appeared earlier, but the book got lost in the mail and the review got lost in cyberspace.

Dumas's final novel, The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon, was discovered by scholar Claude Schopp around 1990. It was originally published in installments from January to November 1869 in Le Moniteur Universel, a French newspaper in publication between 1789 and 1901. Set in the Age of Napoleon, the novel is historically situated between The Companions of Jehu (which actually begins the story of The Last Cavalier's protagonist) and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Its protagonist is Hector, the young Comte de Sainte-Hermine, who must abandon the woman he loves to avenge the deaths of his father and older brothers for the Royalist cause. Following Hector from France to Burma, the story is vintage Dumas. Though it is incomplete (the scene in progress is completed by Schopp), there is enough adventure and intrigue to satisfy the most demanding reader. In addition, this translation includes an informative essay by Schopp on the history and discovery of the lost novel as well as an appendix containing the first three chapters of another episode.

Read the review at Library Journal or Barnes and Noble under "editorial reviews".

(Belated) Booking Through Thursday - May I introduce...

I've been traveling since Thursday and only just got back (a day later than planned) so this'll be a quickie.

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

I have to say that it varies for me. For example, my love affair with Kundera began in college when my favorite professor taught a class focused exclusively on his writing. Studying comparative literature, you can imagine that I discovered quite a few authors I've come to know and love during college. I received the first Harry Potter book as a gift (before the craze). Other authors have been recommended to me by friends or my parents (both have always saved books for me that they thought I'd like). I've also discovered some fabulous authors through bookcrossing (Paul Auster for one; I can't believe I hadn't read him before).

Since I'm tired from the trip (I spent over 10 hours today in JFK), I'm going to skip question number two.

St. Lucy's Home...

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Reading this book is like dreaming. The stories are unsettling, at once completely realistic and not quite right.

Child protagonists grapple with growing up in a world where sisters disappear into the ocean after tobogganing in gigantic crab shells and grown-ups go to ice discos to grope each other in the anonymity of a blizzard.

In the title story, daughters of werewolves are sent to a finishing school to prepare them for human society. It was my favorite, I think, and I'm almost glad that it was saved for last. My second favorite might be "Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration," in which a child, whose father is a minotaur, recounts her family's trek westward in a covered wagon.

While Russell has a tendency to use SAT-words, this debut is unique and very readable.

2007 books, 100-177

Eere's the last installment... I may have missed a few. I know there's one I definitely missed: The Blacksmith's Daughter by Suzanne Adair. It should have appeared sometime between 120 and 140 (after the earlier book in the series, which appears at 118, and before the end of September).

177. Pardonable Lies by Jaqueline Winspear
176. Birds of Feather by Jaqueline Winspear
175. A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber
174. Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear
173. Zorro by Isabel Allende
172. The Silent Raga by Ameen Merchant
171. The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
170. The Cleopatra Curse by Katherine Roberts
169. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
168. March by Geraldine Brooks
167. Friends, Lovers, and Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
166. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
165. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
164. How I Fell in Love with a Librarian and Lived to Tell about it by Rhett Ellis
163. 2nd Chance by James Patterson
162. Bedtime, Playtime by Black, Kerce, King
161. Murder Most Frothy by Cleo Coyle
160. Latte Trouble by Cleo Coyle
159. 1st to Die by James Patterson
158. Through the Grinder by Cleo Coyle
157. LionBoy by Zizou Corder
156. Piratica by Tanith Lee
155. The Sword in the Grotto by Angie Sage
154. My Haunted House by Angie Sage
153. Coming Round the Mountain by Tabitha Flyte
152. Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen
151. My Father's Secret War by Lucinda Franks
150. Embers by Sandor Marai
149. The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worall
148. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
147. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
146. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill
145. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
144. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill
143. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
142. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
141. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
140. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
139. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
138. A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton
137. A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton
136. Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton
135. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
134. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
133. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
132. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
131. The Spy Wore Red by Aline, Countess of Romanones
130. The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory
129. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
128. The Last Cavalier by Alexandre Dumas
127. Until I Find You by John Irving
126. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
125. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
124. On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle
123. Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton
122. The Royal Treatment by MaryJanice Davidson
121. Kingdom of the Golden Dragon by Isabel Allende
120. Ill Wind by Rachel Caine
119. First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
118. Paper Woman by Suzanne Adair
117. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
116. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
115. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
114. The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman
113. Where Rainbows End by Cecilia Ahern
112. Between Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey
110. The Delilah Complex by M.J. Rose
109. The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi
108. Dark Sister by Graham Joyce
107. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
106. The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
105. The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose
104. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
103. The Boggart by Susan Cooper
102. The Catswold Portal by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
101. Stay Out of the Kitchen! by Mable John and David Ritz

Booking Through Thursday - Anticipation

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you're planning to read in 2008 that you're looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you're waiting to appear in paperback?

Hmm... this is a hard one. I haven't really thought too much about what I'll be reading in 2008. I'm sure I'll read quite a few (my goal is to read 175), but I usually play it by ear (excepting review assignments, of course, which I try to read sooner rather than later; things went to pot in the second half of this year, but I'm getting back on track now).

Well, I'm looking forward to the publication of More Big Girl Knits in April, for the patterns more than anything else.

Of books that are gathering dust around the house, I'm planning on reading some Orhan Pamuk novels (I have The Black Book, My Name is Red, and The White Castle on Mt. TBR), some of the titles from the Myths Series (I have five unread at the moment), and The Illustrated Jane Eyre. I also want to read a good number of the bookcrossing books that are hanging around (at least 50!) so that they can continue their journeys.

I'm also curious about what books we'll be reading for my book club this year (beyond this month's, which has already been assigned). Voting for selections is going on now and I'll be compiling the results into our 2008/2009 reading list mid-month.

2007 books, 51-100

100. The China Garden by Liz Berry
99. The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Henley
98. Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa by Matthew Fort
97. Johnny Voodoo by Dakota Lane
96. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josphine B. by Sandra Gulland
95. Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
94. Scatterlings of Africa by Peter Davies
93. Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa
92. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski
91. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
90. The Storyteller's Beads by Jane Kurtz
89. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
88. The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
87. The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
86. The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares
85. Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
84. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran
83. Physik by Angie Sage
82. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
81. Magnolia Summer by Jaci Burton
80. Silk by Alessandro Baricco
79. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogrides
78. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
77. Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima
76. Light my Fire by Katie MacAlister
75. Kafka's Soup by Mark Crick
74. Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister
73. You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister
72. Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin
71. Snowflake Kittens by Dunn, Gedney, King
70. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
69. Thieves till we die by Stephen Cole
68. Pawmistry: How to Read Your Cat's Paws by Ring and Romhany
67. Shopaholic ties the knot by Sophie Kinsella
66. Flyte by Angie Sage
65. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Audrey Niffenegger
64. Shopaholic takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
63. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
62. All I Need by Sally Painter
61. Magyk by Angie Sage
60. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
59. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
58. Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
57. The Assistant by Robert Walser
56. Kismet: Frost and Fire by Jaci Bufton
55. I think of you by Adhaf Soueif
54. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
53. Don't Think Twice by Wayne Johnson
52. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
51. The Wind's Twelve Corners by Ursula Le Guin

2007 books, 1-50

50. The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen by Mitali Perkins
49. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
48. A Mortal Glamour by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo
47. River Secrets by Shannon Hale
46. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
45. Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith
44. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
43. Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
42. The Merry Xxxmas Book of Erotica, edited by Alison Tyler
41. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith
40. Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
39. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
38. Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
37. Wind Rider by Susan Williams
36. And Baby Makes Two by Judy Sheehan
35. The Chess Machine by Robert Loehr
34. Ecstasia by Francesca Lia Block
33. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
32. The New Moon's Arms by Halo Hopkinson
31. The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber
30. Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese
29. Kabbalah: a love story by Lawrence Kushner
28. Torch by Cheryl Strayed
27. Because she can by Bridie Clark
26. Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
25. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury
24. Oracle Night by Paul Auster
23. The Remembering by John Nelson
22. Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawaii by Glen Grant
21. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
20. Behind the Eyes by Francisco X Stork
19. Winter Moon by Lackey, Lee, Murphy
18. Greed by Elfriede Jelinek
17. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
16. Inside the Walls of Troy by Clemence McLaren
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
14. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
13. Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
12. The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
11. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
10. The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
9. Just One Sip by Katie Macalister, Jennifer Ashley, Minda Webber
8. Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath
7. Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath
6. Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
5. All American Girl by Meg Cabot
4. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
3. Sir Thursday by Garth Nix
2. Hearts of Stone by Kathleen Ernst
1. Violation by Darian North

2007 reading recap

Happy new year!

I gave myself two reading goals for 2007.

The first was to read 175 books (this is down from 200 last year because I didn't want a lot of pressure).

The second was to read 50 books that I've received from other bookcrosssers.

I have to say that I did pretty well. I read a total of 177 books in 2007, 86 of which were bookcrossing books. And, I think I'll try to stick with those same goals for 2008.

The first installment of my books-read list will be appearing today, the rest will come as I have time to pull together all the links. In the meantime, read this post for some of my highlights of 2007.

some recent reading

I really and truly and trying to get back into blogging regularly. As I mentioned in my last post, I'll be posting my lists of books read in 2007 at the beginning of the new year, in the meantime I thought I'd share a bit of what I have been reading lately.

A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber
My mom picked up this book from the take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf at a hotel she stayed out while on vacation in Hawaii. It is the sequel to A Shop on Blossom Street, a book I read and enjoyed before I started knitting. These books are really feel-good reads; things always seem to turn out OK in the end. And, sometimes that's exactly the kind of book you need to read. I have to say that I liked this book even more than the first and I am sure it is because I am a knitter now. The narrative focuses on four women who are all involved in a beginner sock knitting class (I started my first sock only 2 days ago - it's going really well, though I think it'll end up pretty baggy). I found Courtney, the teenager, particularly sympathetic and how she was able to deal with her weight problem inspired me to be better about exercising myself.

How I Fell in Love with a Librarian and Lived to Tell about It by Rhett Ellis
Russell and I happened across this book and were intrigued by the title. Russell read it quite a while ago and was not impressed, but he made me hold on to it to read for myself anyway. I picked it up at one point and gave up pretty quickly, but my second attempt was successful. I didn't really care for the book though. I think the author was trying a little too hard to be quirky and I really disliked the ending: the main characters live happily-ever-after, but there is no real resolution to the issue that was keeping them apart.

Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear
I read and reviewed the 4th book in the series, Messenger of Truth (see review), last year and am finally catching up on the earlier episodes in the series in preparation for book 5. This month I've read Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather, and I'm currently reading Pardonable Lies. I really like Maisie as a character (even though her rise from servitude seems a bit implausible) and her adventures in psychological crime-solving. Winspear does a good job of incorporating period detail and through the novels I've learned a good deal about WWI and post-war Britain.

The Silent Raga by Ameen Merchant
I picked up this debut novel last summer at BookExpo Canada. It tells the story of two sisters and the event that splits their family in two. I liked how Merchant juggles the past and present and keeps the reader guessing about exactly how certain things came to pass until close to the end. I also appreciated how he incorporated aspects of South Indian music into the narrative especially since it is such a big part of Janaki's life and character. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but I will say that the proper Brahmin family disapproving of the marriage of the older sister hit a bit too close to home for me.

Zorro by Isabel Allende
I listened to the unabridged audio version, read by Blair Brown (audio books are great for knitting). I love Allende's writing and young Zorro's story was compelling, though listening to the audio it did seem at times like the book was going on endlessly.

Booking Through Thursday - Highlights

It’s an old question, but a good one... What were your favorite books this year?
List as many as you like - fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks - whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

In the beginning of the new year I'll be posting my list of books read in 2007 and discussing whether I've met my reading goals, but I am more than happy to "talk" about some of my favorite books from the past year right now.

I'll focus on fiction because that's what I read most.

Best fluffy read
The Royal Treatment by MaryJanice Davidson. I thought this was just a cute, fun read. I liked the alternate history aspect of it and that it didn't take itself too seriously.
My second choice would be the Southern Vampire (Sookie Stackhouse) series by Charlaine Harris. So far I've read Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, Dead to the World, and Dead as a Doornail (you can read some comments here). Apparently they are making a television series based on the novels. I'm not sure that I'll want to watch it.

Best new installment in a series
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde, the 5th book in the Thursday Next series. I love how this book illuminates Thursday's character and explains so much about how she acts in the earlier books. Fforde, and his seemingly boundless imagination, never fails to delight me.
Many a reader would choose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling for this honor, but not me (you can read my comments on book 7 here).

Best audio
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani, read by Shohreh Aghdashloo. I loved this book and I thought the audio version was absolutely fantastic (read my review).
My second choice would be The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber, read by Dennis O'Hare. I thought the book was enchanting and probably would have liked it just as much on paper. I have a hardcover copy on my wishlist.

Best adult fiction
I'm not going to try to pick one favorite. Here are some books that stuck out this year:
- Oracle Night by Paul Auster
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Audrey Niffenegger
- Torch by Cheryl Strayed (I read this one for WestofMars' Debut a Debut contest; read my review)

Best young adult fiction
Same as above.
- His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass et al) by Philip Pullman (yes, I hadn't read this series before last March)
- LionBoy by Zizou Corder
- Magyk (Septimus Heap, book 1) by Angie Sage (a great start to the series, the other books thus far haven't been quite as good)

I also wanted to highlight some wonderful authors I discovered in 2007:

• Shannon Hale, author of Goose Girl, Enna Burning, Princess Academy, River Secrets (read my review), Austenland, and The Book of a Thousand Days.


• Nalo Hopkinson, author of Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber, The Salt Roads, The New Moon's Arms (read my review), and numerous works of short fiction.

This was a wonderful question. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to recommend.

Christmas and Boxing Day Books

I received a lovely bunch of books over the past few days. In fact, I feel like I'm swimming in knitting books - not that that's a bad thing ;)

Some wishlist books for Christmas:

• Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson (I've been trying to collect all the books in The Myths series);


• The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years (I think I'm going to use some of my Christmas money to get a subscription to Interweave Knits);


• Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter by Stefanie Japel (I particularly like that this book is supposed to show readers how to customize each project to his/her own unique body);


• Knitspeak: An A to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns by Andrea Berman Price (my friend Janelle told me that this was a must-have);


• One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant (full of patterns that only use one ball/skein of yarn, how very practical); and


• preordered More Big Girl Knits: 25 Designs Full of Color and Texture for Curvy Women by Jillian Moreno (I'm going to be very happy to get this next spring).

Two more knitting books that Russell picked out all on his own:

• Knitting Lingerie Style: More Than 30 Basic and Lingerie-Inspired Designs by Joan McGowan-Michael (doesn't this one looks like a knitting book a man might get his wife?) and


• No Sheep for You: Knit Happy with Cotton, Silk, Linen, Hemp, Bamboo & Other Delights by Amy R. Singer (my dad teased Russell that he only got this one because of the cover).

I also got four books from my Boxing Day exchange partner:

• The 3rd and 4th books in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series: Chill Factor and Windfall (now I need book 2 lol);


• The Royal Pain, the 2nd book in MaryJanice Davidson's Alaskan Royals series (I thought the first book was cute and have had a hard time getting my hands on the other books in the series); and


• The Love Season by Elin Hilderbrand.

Wishing you all the very best this holiday season...

Booking Through Thursday - And, the Nominees Are...

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
3. And, do "best of" lists influence your reading?

This post is a day late because when I started to answer this week's questions yesterday I realized that I haven't really read enough 2007 titles to answer the first two questions properly. I've decided to stick with number three.

"Best of" lists don't influence my reading too much. I do like to look at them to see what books made the cut and sometimes I do get ideas from them, but lists ("best of" or not) definitely don't dictate my reading schedule. That seems like such a short answer, but there it is.

Happy holidays, everyone!

book clubbing in December

Because the Libraries' holiday party was scheduled for today, our book club meeting was rescheduled for Thursday of last week. Voting for our 2008 and 2009 selections is going on right now - so exciting - so expect that list to be posted sometime in the middle of next month (the results of our last round of voting are listed in this post).

In any case, our selection for this month was Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

Persepolis is Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

I was excited to read the book because I've had Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (rescued from the bargain bin at a local independent bookstore) on my shelves for a while without a good excuse to pick up the first book.

Persepolis was a relatively quick read, but one that bears re-reading. I really appreciated how Satrapi's drawing style complimented the subject matter (expressive, but spare so as to not overwhelm the actual story she was telling). Probably my favorite part of the book was Marji's relationship with God and how it is depicted.

For some of the people in our book club, this was their first experience with graphic novels. A librarian who specializes in graphic novels was in attendance so he ended up leading the discussion. And, while there is much to discuss in the book itself, we ended up talking mostly about graphic novels in general.

Booking Through Thursday - Catalog

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like LibraryThing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or... do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))
If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

Yes, I use LibraryThing.



It really is a fun thing to do, "cataloging" your books (especially since you don't actually have to remember your MARC codes to do it). My LT library is definitely still a work in progress. I add new books as they come in, but I haven't been able to get the base collection completely entered yet.

Russell's started entering his books as well. He has his own LT library and gets a huge kick out of being the only person to own a particular book.

Scholastic warehouse sale

So, yesterday after work I got wrangled into going to the Scholastic warehouse sale. I didn't want to go. Last time I went I spent lots of money and our place is overflowing with books as it is. But, I did end up going and I was actually very good. I only bought five books (strangely enough they had computer games, though, and I ended up buying three of those for Russell).

The Artemis Fowl Files by Eoin Colfer.
I've actually read this book (a library copy), but I picked it up in order to complete our collection of Artemis Fowl books.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale.
After reviewing River Secrets, I really wanted to read more of Hale's fiction so I was tickled to be able to pick up this book yesterday.

The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu.
This book, the first installment in a new fantasy series (the Cronus Chronicles), looked so good I just had to pick it up. It was my impulse buy.

Skippyjon Jones by Judith B. Schachner.
With Simi and Maaji at home I couldn't pass up this story of a Siamese kitten with an overactive imagination. I keep seeing it featured (accompanied by a cute plush) in the children's catalogs we've been receiving lately.

Stravaganza: City of Masks, the first book in a YA trilogy by Mary Hoffman.
I've heard good things about this series (good enough to get the books on my BookCrossing wishlist) so I picked up this book just before I reached the check-out counter.

Booking Through Thursday - OOP

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again?

At first I was racking my mind trying to come up with something to write in response to this week's question - then a lightbulb went off. There is indeed one out-of-print book that I've been trying to get my hands on for quite some time - Arlo and Janis: Bop 'Til You Drop (currently available used for $195). I wouldn't consider it a favorite, but it is definitely a title I wish was still in print.

book clubbing in November

It's the end of November, I can hardly believe it. Where has this year gone?

Like I mentioned yesterday, my book club met on Wednesday. This time we discussed The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, a book inspired by the W.B. Yeats poem of the same title. Of course, I left my copy of the book at work so I don't have it with me to reference as I write this post (but, c'est la vie).

I first heard of The Stolen Child when a read my friend Janelle's review of the book. A number of us wanted to read the book, but I scheduled it far in advance in hopes that it'd be more readily available after it came out in paperback. Because of that time lag, I didn't remember much about the book. In fact, I didn't remember the most important thing about the book, which is that the faeries/hobgoblins/changelings in the story are creatures who were originally human children (in all the other changeling stories I've read -- most recently The Moorchild by Eloise Mcgraw -- the human children are stolen by beings of a completely distinct fantastical race). That twist on the changeling myth gives the novel much more weight. [I got pulled away to watch a movie on TCM]

In any case, my response to the book fell pretty much in line with the response of my other book club members. I (we) found the book compelling, but quite disturbing at times (it's hard to discuss details without including spoilers). The book was a challenging read, but definitely worth it (though I probably would not recommend it to parents of young children). There is so much detail, that the novel makes great discussion fodder for a book club. My one criticism of the book is that there are some completely unnecessary coincidences (two big ones), which made (at least for me) the story a little less believable.

Booking Through Thurday - Rolling (and apologies)

Yes, I haven't been posting. Things have been crazy here with catching up after jury duty and the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm sorry for neglecting the blog. I really am going to try to get back on track. Tomorrow I'll have the monthly book club report (we met yesterday) and with any luck I'll be able to eek out another post over the weekend. Thanks for being patient with me.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?
I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that... Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors...

Yes, I guess this does happen to me sometimes. In fact I have been know to read a bunch of books from a series in a row (though not from beginning to end, or at least not that I remember). Other times I get in the mood for a type of book: I'll feel an urge to read only mysteries for a week or two or have a real hankering for historical fiction (though I won't usually restrict myself to a particular time period). Usually, though, I try to mix it up. I do read a lot (last year I hit 200) so I find that when I read a bunch of the same kind of books in a row they tend to run together in my mind and I can have a hard time making distinctions between them.

Booking Through Thursday - Preservatives

Re. writing notes in our books: Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

When I was in college, I took great joy in underlining and jotting notes in the margins of my books, but I don't really do that much anymore. Now (when I'm reading a book to review) I tend to take notes on a pad of paper and sometimes use little Post-it flags to mark particular words or lines.

While my college books were not disposable (I always planned to keep them all in my library), they were to some extent "working" copies. My highlighting and note-taking were part of my close reading of the texts and preparation for class discussions.

jury duty

Yes, that's why I haven't been posting lately. I just haven't had much time to be on the computer (and I've been too worn out do much more than catch up on email when I have snuck onto the computer at home). The trial I'm on should be done by next Thursday so things should get back to normal at the end of next week.