Breadfruit

Breadfruit by Célestine Vaite

I've had Breadfruit, and Vaite's other novel, Frangipani, on my wishlist for quite some time. Recently a copy of Breadfruit popped up on BookMooch and I happily mooched it. After it arrived, I wasn't sure if I should read it right away. I knew both books featured the same protagonist, but couldn't figure out whether Breadfruit or Frangipani came first. The text on the Breadfruit's back cover confused me even more with its contradictory statements (Frangipani debuted a new character, Breadfruit won an award before Frangipani was published). Later I visited Fantasticfiction.co.uk, which I usually think of as a pretty reliable site and it told me that Frangipani and Breadfruit were alternate titles of the same book, and listed another novel entitled The Marriage Proposal, providing for it the same synopsis as my copy of Breadfruit.

As my readers will know, one of my biggest pet peeves is the unnecessary retitling of books for different audiences. As this is a perfect example of why publishers should not give books new titles when they are re-released. It creates confusion. In any case, I did a bit more research to confirm my suspicions and then emailed the webmaster of Fantasticfiction.co.uk with corrections for Vaite's author page. In my additional searching I was able to determine that Breadfruit was Vaite's first Matarena Mahi book (first published in 2000, though not released in the US until 2006 it seems).

All of this, of course, is a bit off topic. What I really should be writing about is the book and whether or not I liked it. I did like Breadfruit, but not as much as I thought I would. Vaite's Matarena Mahi books have been compared to Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books and I can see some similarities (exotic location, slow pace, sympathetic female protagonist). Matarena is charming, but at times I found myself wanting to yell out to her (like one does to a movie heroine on the television screen who is about to do just the wrong thing), a reaction that Precious Ramotswe has never elicited in me.

Breadfruit is primarily concerned with the differences between they way men and women think and how they interact with each other. It seems, at least compared to the synopsis for Frangipani and Tiare (in bloom)*, a little less zany than the other Matarena Mahi books, probably because it was the first book and Vaite was still developing both her characters and her sense of comedic timing.

* Again, two titles: Tiare and Tiare in Bloom.

Booking Through Thursday - Gluttony

Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

Yes, yes, yes, and no. We definitely have a book hoarding problem. Whether accumulated through purchase, trade, or BookCrossing, our book collection has exploded in the last five years to the point where we are actively working on paring it down. We've stopped buying books altogether (except as gifts for others) and are making an effort to get books out of the house. Russell sells on half.com, we put books up to trade via BookMooch, and we are creating piles of book we want to either bring to the local used book store or wild release.

Laurie Halse Anderson

One of my friends posted a link to an interesting New York Times blog post on FaceBook yesterday, The Troubling Allure of Eating Disorder Books. It uses Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson's newest YA novel, as a jumping off point.

I haven't read much of Laurie Halse Anderson's work, just Speak last year. I thought it was extremely compelling and wrote about it in this post.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

quick comments on recent reads

The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey

I absolutely love the title of this book. I'm sure that is what drew me to it.
The story of three generations of women, The Mermaids Singing was a nice read, but I have to admit it was a bit forgettable.

Posh by Lucy Jackson

A look into the upper class world of the Griffin School and those associated with it.
I had mixed feelings about this one, feeling about it much like I did about Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. (Note: Lucy Jackson is a pseudonym for "an acclaimed short story writer and novelist")

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Reading this book was a bit of a strange experience for me. I felt like I was rereading a book that I'd read long ago, but that can't be the case as the book was only published in 2006. I'm fairly certain that I did read the opening chapter either when I first received the book or when I saw the book in a book store, but why the rest of the story seemed vaguely familiar, I have no idea.
More after our book club meeting.

a couple vampire books

The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason

When I first started reading this book I described it to a friend as Buffy in 19th-century London. That's not a completely accurate description, but I think it works well enough.

The Rest Falls Away is the first book in a series, the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. I like the concept, but I thought parts of The Rest Falls Away were slow (understandable in the first book of a series in which a good deal of groundwork needs to be laid for forthcoming books) and I'm really not crazy about how it ended (though I understand why Gleason had the book end that way).

It will be interesting to see how Gleason continues the storyline and how certain secondary characters figure into the story arch.


You Suck by Christopher Moore
- read by Susan Bennett

I'd never read Christopher Moore before (I wasn't sure if I'd be able to appreciate his humor), but when I saw an unabridged audio version of You Suck on the shelf during a book outlet closing, I couldn't help myself.

You Suck is definitely not my favorite vampire book by any stretch, but I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. Susan Bennett is a good reader and while I found some of her voices annoying, I know it was intentional as a number of the characters themselves are exceedingly whiny. I really liked some of Moore's zany tertiary characters (like the Emperor of San Francisco), but I found most of the other characters irritating and unsympathetic. Abby is an exception because, while she can be aggravating, her journal entries are extremely funny because she can sometimes be so clueless about what is actually happening around her.

The audio version did have an extra feature that I liked very much. The last few tracks on the last CD contain a short interview with Moore, in which someone from the publisher asks him questions about his work.

Booking Through Thursday - Graphic

Last Saturday (May 2nd) was Free Comic Book Day! In celebration of comics and graphic novels, some suggestions:

- Do you read graphic novels/comics? Why do/don’t you enjoy them?
I do read graphic novels, though not all that often.

- How would you describe the difference between "graphic novel" and "comic"? Is there a difference at all?
My sense has always been that a graphic novel is novel-like narrative told in comic form. Comic strips are what appears in the Sunday newspaper. Comics are the serials that people buy at comic book stores (new issues show up on Wednesdays, I believe). I don't really consider previously published comics collected and republished in a book form a graphic novel, despite the fact that the comic industry tends to refer to these collections as graphic novels.

- Say you have a friend who’s never encountered graphic novels. Recommend some titles you consider landmark/"canonical".

I'd usually say Maus (I recently re-read the books and posted about them), though I've also recommended Ethel & Ernest, Persepolis, and Joann Sfar's books depending on who's asking.

ETA: Lockwood also has a nice graphic novel collection, all housed together and easy to browse. When talking to people on campus about graphic novels, I point them in that direction. I've also been making use of the collection myself. Right now I have Fun Home by Alison Bechdel checked out.

Some literary fiction in translation

A couple reviews in Library Journal this month...

Kahn & Engelmann by Hans Eichner

Published to critical and commercial success in Europe ten years ago, this debut from prominent Canadian Germanist Eichner is now offered as the third title in the "Biblioasis International Translation" series. Narrated by Peter Engelmann, a middle-aged veterinarian working in Haifa, this work is at once the story of a family and a memorial to Viennese Jews. The narrative, the stream-of-consciousness recollections of a man caught between the need to remember and the desire to forget, opens in both 1980 and 1880 and chronicles the Kahn family's move from rural Hungary to Vienna, the narrator's 1938 flight to Belgium and eventual settlement in Israel, and all the family drama in between. The result is a moving book full of humor and humanity.


The Possession by Annie Ernaux

Ernaux's latest book to be translated into English is the story of an all-consuming jealousy, a self-portrait whose spare 64 pages sketch the life cycle of a possession. A woman has left a man "as much out of boredom as from an inability to give up [her] freedom." (9) The relationship may have been forgettable, but the narrator finds the idea of the man being with another woman unbearable, and her life is soon eclipsed by an obsession with that nameless, faceless woman. Occupation, the title of the original French edition, more clearly elucidates this state with its double entendre: the narrator is both engaged and possessed. While actively cultivating the obsession, the narrator is also very much concerned with chronicling it; this work is as much about the act of writing the novella as it is about the six months it recounts.

Maus

Maus, A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Together Maus I and Maus II are both the story of a Holocaust survivor and the story of a writer/artist trying to tell that story.

I'd read the books years ago as a young adult (probably 2 or 3 years after they were first published) and I remembered them, but only vaguely. One of the things I did not remember was the dynamic between Artie and his father. I think in some ways it must have been just as hard for Spiegelman to be honest about his relationship with his father as it was to tell his father's story.

Another thing I didn't remember was how Spiegelman portrayed the other nationalities in the book. I remembered the cats and mice, but not the Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, etc.

The books are poignant and what strikes me the most about them is how honest they are. Honest about the Holocaust and all its atrocities, honest about the father and son relationship, and honest about the author and his own failings.

The Autograph Man

The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
- audio version read by Steven Crossley

Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. His business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them — all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of forties movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.

The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow trappings of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. It offers further proof that Zadie Smith is one of the most staggeringly talented writers of her generation.

My first experience with Zadie Smith was when I picked up a copy of White Teeth soon after it was released as a trade paperback. I couldn't get into the novel at that time so it languished on my shelves and has now disappeared into a box somewhere. I wasn't sure if I'd like The Autograph Man, but I've been reading a good deal of audio books lately so I thought I'd give it a go when I came across an unabridged version.

I found the prologue (and the death of Li-Jin) somewhat disturbing, but I kept going as I had the audio in the car. Smith is unapologetically and brutally honest and while the novel is full of witty light-hearted observations and sometimes zany plot twists one can't help but feel deeply for Alex-Li, who is clearly lost and on the brink.

book clubbing in April

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

It was particularly interesting to read this book after last month's selection, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, as the two are both very similar to and completely different from each other.

Like Curious Incident, The Perks of Being a Wallflower gave us lots to discuss. Chbosky touches on so many issues -- being gay (closeted and uncloseted), sexual abuse, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, abortion -- and he does it in a way that incorporates seamlessly into the overarching story.

Charlie is a sympathetic character and we were surprised to find that the book ended up being a page-turner for us. There is a definitely sense of knowing that something is coming, which both propels the reader and causes him/her to jump to unmerited conclusions along the way.

There were a few things in the book that didn't ring true to me (re. being a teenager), but I was the only one at our meeting who felt that way then again, I'm the youngest and closest to my high school years (a contemporary of Charlie's) so make of that what you will.

Of those who read the book, I was the one who liked it least (which pleasantly surprised me). What impressed me most about our reaction to the book, though, was one person's excitement about passing her copy of the book along to her nephew.

The Rouseabout

The Rouseabout by Rachel Treasure
- audio version read by Miranda Nation

I received a copy of the audio book from someone who lives down under. I have to say that Bolinda does a fantastic job with their audios. The reader is great, the music feature is nice and not overused, and each CD is divided into lots of tracks so that you can easily pick up where you left off.

Kate Webster is a loveable larrikin* who likes to play hard now and worry about the consequences later. She can't help mucking up the opportunities life gives her. Rocked by the death of her mother, she takes on a dare at one of Australia's wildest rural social events - a Bachelors & Spinsters ball - to 'scalp' gorgeous farm boy Nick McDonnell. It's a dare that changes everything. For just as Kate is ready to start her new life, away from her grieving father and the pressures of the family farm, she discovers she is pregnant.

Now, several years later, with toddler Nell by her side, its time for Kate to come home to face the music - and the father of her child.

Set primarily in rural Tasmania, The Rouseabout follows Kate Webster as she finally gets over herself and grows up. That sentence makes it sound like the novel is chick lit, but I can assure you that it is most decidedly not. It is more serious than playful and it deals with some tough issues.

When I first started listening, I really wasn't sure about this book. I couldn't relate to Kate who was drinking and carousing and possibly neglecting her daughter, but once all the subtleties of the story started being revealed I got into it and ended up really enjoying it (and being able to relate to Kate despite the fact that she's not at all like me). Overall I really liked this book. There were certain things that happen in it that I'd have preferred didn't happen,** but I know why Treasure made them happen and understand why they were important to the story and the development of the characters.


* a person given to comical or outlandish behavior, a hoodlum. (This, and Russell reading Reading the OED is making me want to do make something of the idea I've had about periodically featuring interesting words that I come across in my reading on the blog).
** without spoiling anything I can say that I specifically took exception to what happened to Will.

Another Book Meme

1. What author do you own the most books by?
If I exclude series-books, it's certainly Milan Kundera.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Probably the Bible seeing how many copies I've been given over the years.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Um...

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?
It depends. Read from, then the Bible. Read all the way through, maybe Little House on the Prairie. It was a childhood favorite.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
No idea. Probably one of the Babysitters Club books or The Witch of Blackbird Pond, I remember reading that one in 5th grade, or maybe Tituba of Salem Village.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I'm getting better at giving up on books that aren't working for me.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
I love the Stravaganza books. I read one in the past year and the others thirteen or fourteen months ago.
I published a list of the books I liked best from my 2008 reading list in this post. I'm doing a horrible job of keeping track of my 2009 reading list.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I'd offer a choice of two: Zahrah the Windseeker or All We Know of Love by Katie Schneider. I loved both of these books and most people have never even heard of them.

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Milan Kundera, most definitely.

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I'm generally not a fan of adaptations, but maybe The Sixteen Pleasures. The story is interesting and there are some goofy things like the protagonist's alter ego that I think would be easy to portray in film.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The God of Small Things. I don't think there's any way a film (no matter how lush) could do it justice.

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I'm sure I've had some, but I can't think of an example off the top of my head.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Most? I'll openly admit that I read lots of lowbrow stuff. If I had to choose one, I'd say Coming Round the Mountain.

15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Ulysses, ugh.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Russians, probably.

17. Roth or Updike?
Roth.

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Eggers, I guess.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, I suppose. Not really my area.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Austen.

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Hamlet

22. What is your favorite novel?
The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa. (see also question 28)

23. Play?
The Physicists by Duerrenmatt.

24. Short story?
"Encyclopedia of the Dead" by Danil Kis.

25. Epic Poem?
Oh, I don't know. I tend not to read much poetry.

26. Short(er) poem?
Again, I don't know. My favorite poetry books are Aloud and Invitation to the Voyage.

27) Work of non-fiction?
The Big Book of Martyrs. I know that seems like a cheeky answer, but I'm having a hard time with these favorites-questions. Other nonfiction that comes to mind: the OED, Imaginary Homelands,...

28. Who is your favorite writer?
I usually say that Kundera is my favorite writer, but that The Storyteller is my favorite book. Honestly, though, I haven't reevaluated these answers for a few years.

29. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I'm not sure I have an answer for this one. Paul Coelho maybe?

30. What is your desert island book?
The Complete Works of Shakespeare. A desert island book would need to stand up to multiple rereadings and this behemoth would have lots of variety.

31. And ... what are you reading right now?
I'm most actively reading God's Mercy by Kerstin Ekman, but I also have a number of other books in progress including The Autograph Man and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Little Bee

Little Bee is another title that taunted me from the library's recent acquisitions list so it had to be this month's book of the month for the student services blog. I was intrigued by the cover art (and a review that made its way into my inbox via Powell's Books' Review-a-day newsletter), but I was hooked from the first line: "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl."

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

A powerful and moving novel, Little Bee tells the story of two very different women connected by one horrific event.

Narrated in turns by Little Bee, a teenager fleeing Nigeria, and Sarah O'Rourke, a women's magazine editor with a seemingly perfect life in London's suburbs, the novel begins in the middle of the story, slowly revealing its genesis and then tripping towards its conclusion.

Written by Guardian columnist Chris Cleave, Little Bee is political but not overtly so. Full of well-drawn characters, the novel is heartwrenching and profoundly personal. It's also very difficult to write about without giving away too much of the plot, which is the last thing I'd want to do as part of the experience of reading the book is discovering the story through the two narrator's perspectives.

series beginnings

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie doesn't want to believe it when he discovers that he can hear the thoughts of people in photographs. But his horrible aunts are delighted — it means he is one of the chosen, and must change schools and attend the Bloor's Academy for gifted children. Once there, Charlie realizes that some of his classmates have equally mysterious powers. Soon Charlie is involved in uncovering the mysterious past of one of them. With the help of this friend Benjamin and his eccentric, gifted Uncle Paton, they discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead.

The first book in the Children of the Red King series (often unfairly compared to the Harry Potter books), Midnight for Charlie Bone is a strong opener. Yes, there is a special school, but it's for all sorts of gifted students not just those with magical talents (and the talents are really one-of, each person seems to have one distinct magical ability). Yes, there are difficult relatives, but they're magically-endowed and the ones pushing Charlie to go to the special school. Yes, there is an evil force in the world, but it is as yet incompletely defined. Magic is underground, but those with magical abilities coexist with normal people. The great overarching mystery seems to be the genesis of the magical powers, the Red King.

Charlie is sympathetic and his life is full of interesting characters. I'll definitely be reading the other books in the series.

Wolf Girl by Theresa Tomlinson

Cwen, a poor weaver struggling to make a living at Whitby Abbey, is accused of possessing a valuable necklace; if found guilty she could be hanged. Wulfrun, Cwen’s daughter, sets out to prove her mother’s innocence.

Set in turbulent Anglo-Saxon times, this is the story of a resourceful dauntless heroine, determined and clever as the wolf that she is named for. Defying rank and convention, braving wind, weather and marauding armies, Wulfrun shows that courage has its own just reward.

I was so pleased when I realized that this coming-of-age adventure story is the first in a trilogy. I enjoyed reading Wolf Girl very much. While the book is set in the mid 600s, an extremely difficult period to make accessible to young modern readers, Tomlinson is able to make the story both historically accurate and approachable (one of the things she does to make the story more manageable for the reader is to use modern place names and the simplest forms of person names).

Wulfrun is a sympathetic character who I think kids today will be able to relate to. Many of the other characters are complex and fully-drawn. The story is engaging and its resolution leaves the reader hungry for more. I look forward to the follow-up books being published.

New Pathways, take two

I posted about New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi after completing my first project from the bookk two months ago (this post). I mentioned in that post that I'd wanted to try out one of her coriolis patterns.

Bordhi's Coriolis architecture takes its name from the Coriolis effect and features a column of stitches that masks the increases in the arch area and then continues to spiral around the sock.

This week I completed my first coriolis project following the Spiraling Master Coriolis Pattern and using the "master numbers" (numbers based on foot measurements and gauge that are supposed to ensure a perfect fit).* I used A Swell Yarn Shop's Duets Sock Yarn (Original) in the Beau Monde colorway and size US 3 (3.25 mm) double-pointed needles.

I have to admit that I'm not completely sure about the master numbers. They didn't seem to work for me in this pattern. Coming out of the first toe I noticed that they were going to be too big, so I ripped back and proceeded to tweak the numbers as I moved from section to section. I'll admit that I may have been overzealous in my adjusting of the numbers, but the result was a very short sock (this image shows the second sock unstretched next to the first). They fit well, but only because the yarn is very stretchy and I know that I'm going to be wearing holes in the toe.

It seems that I'm not the only one who had problems using the numbers with the coriolis patterns. I won't give up on the master numbers just yet. I'll try them with one of the other architectures before I determine whether they work for me or not.

* Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks in my earlier post didn't utilize the master numbers. I knit two pairs using that pattern.

Booking Through Thursday - Numbers Game

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to...

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
Yes

2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
Let me see... The Autograph Man, Fun Home, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Little Bee, Miss Zukas and the Island Murders, The Rouseabout, Wolf Girl,... I guess that's six... errrr, seven. (And now that I've pulled that list together I can easily update my "currently reading" sidebar)

3. Is this normal for you?
Yep. More or less. I tend to have a number of different books going at the same time, though I try to make sure the stories are dissimilar so I can keep them straight in my head.

4. Where do you keep your current reads?
All over the place. I have a couple on my desk at work, two on the coffee table at home, one in/on my computer (audio), another in the car (audio), and one in my purse

belated book club reports

Just some quick comments on the last two book's the book club discussed

February -
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

It's always interesting to have a nonfiction selection for book club. People who don't normally show up for meetings make an appearance and we end up with a much more diverse group for discussion.

Devil in the White City is a fascinating read. It's about the Chicago Worlds Fair, specifically architect Daniel Burham's part in making it happen, and the notorious serial killer, H.H. Holmes. Larson also weaves into the story of Chicago during 1890s threads (some smaller than others) about Frederick Law Olmstead, Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison, and Susan B. Anthony, among others.

Larson may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew, however. While we liked the juxtaposition of the two main stories, a number of us thought that the book would have been stronger if it had been more focused.

March -
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

A heart-felt and complex coming-of-age story, Curious Incident is narrated by an autistic 15-year-old as if he was writing a murder mystery in which he's the detective.

This book was one of the best books we've read so far in terms of generating discussion. It was also a surprisingly quick read. We all liked it. We thought Christopher was a very sympathetic character and we appreciated seeing the world through his eyes.

The novel is innovative and important and most definitely worthy of the Whitbread Novel Award.

Booking Through Thursday - Library Week

I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

OK, confession time. I actually don't have a library card for the local public library system. That's not to say I don't use libraries. I do have an NYPL card and I frequently check books out of the libraries at the university. I'm also a huge fan of inter-library loan service.

I do like going to bookstores and browsing and was very much in the habit of using the bookstore as a library for a while, but we have definitely been buying less. We've been getting books through BookCrossing and book trading sites like BookMooch. Now I tend to only buy books if I'm planning to keep them permanently or as gifts.

Many of my childhood memories have to do with the library. I wrote about one of them in this post. Personally I like both "sleek, modern, active libraries" and "older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries" for different reasons.

The Orchid Thief

Better late than never... the March book-of-the-month offering:

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

The story of John Laroche, a plant dealer who was arrested in 1994 for poaching orchids from a Florida state park, is the jumping off point for New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief.

Seeking to understand the man behind the headline, Orlean spent two years among Florida's orchid fanciers. The result is an engaging book with a similar feel to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The history and character of Southern Florida are as integral to the story as the feverish nature of botanical collecting and Orlean weaves the threads together with both precision and humor.

The Orchid Thief is indeed as its subtitle suggests "a true story of beauty and obsession."

My favorite line in the book: "The English have especially felonious urges toward orchids." The passage continues "Kew Gardens has to display its orchids behind shatterproof glass and surrounded by surveillance cameras the way Tiffany's displays its jewels. In 1993 a rare six-foot-tall monkey orchid with light pink flowers bloomed near London, and the Naturalists' Trust had to hire two security guards to stand watch and protect the plant from collectors" (156).

The Shadow Speaker

I've had The Shadow Speaker on my wishlist for as long as I've known of its existence as a work-in-progress, basically since I read Zahrah the Windseeker, a novel that I adored. I finally got a copy for Christmas, but I didn't read it right away. I wanted to save it, to savor it.

The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Driven by vengeance. Destined for peace. Niger, West Africa, 2070: After fifteen-year old Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, her world shatters. In an era of mind-blowing technology and seductive magic, Ejii embarks on a mystical journey to track down her father's killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out-and with her own magical powers. But Ejii soon discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a greater purpose. Her people need to be protected from a force seeking to annihilate them. And Ejii may be just the hero to do it. This futuristic, fantastical adventure heralds a bright new talent on the YA fantasy scene.

The Shadow Speaker is set in the same world as Zahrah, but it is decidedly more futuristic. While it is not necessary to read Zahrah to understand The Shadow Speaker, it's fascinating to see how Okorafor-Mbachu fleshes out her setting from one book to the other. In The Shadow Speaker, the world is definitely more fully realized and it is also put in broader context (it is clear in The Shadow Speaker how their world fits in with ours).

While The Shadow Speaker is a good novel, I don't think that it has the same heart as Zahrah (of course, I loved Zahrah so I am a bit biased). It is a bildungsroman that deals with the same issues, but its target audience is a bit older. Highly recommended for the 12-and-up crowd, in any case.

Booking Through Thursday

Last week's question:
We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just... haven’t gotten around to them yet.
What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

What a question. I'm not sure that there is one, true answer to the question. For now, I think I'll say the Canongate Myths books (see this post) that I've been slowly collecting despite the fact that I haven't managed to read any of them yet.

Today's question:
What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?
Or, What book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?

I'm not a huge fan of books being made into movies. So far the only movie version that I've liked better than the book is Bridget Jones's Diary (though, I guess I should admit that I thought the books themselves were a bit too much). I won't watch the Harry Potter movies any more on principle (I stopped after the 3rd). I hate the fact that if you haven't actually read the books you would have literally no idea what was going on because so much of the plot and storyline have been cut out in order to make the films a manageable length.

That being said, I'm usually happy to watch the latest Austen remakes. I think PBS and the BBC do a good job with their classics though the recent Room with a View (see this post) is a notable exception.

I'm pretty sure that I even own a copy of Bride and Prejudice (I love me some Bollywood goodness). That makes me think, though, that in the case of classics I tend to be a bit more open to crazy movie adaptations that I am to novels that try to do something similar. Case in point, The Man who Love Jane Austen, which I read recently and found to be just a bit too farfetched.

flu reading

I've been home sick this week with the flu. The most annoying thing about being sick (besides feeling sick, of course) is that I can't concentrate very well. Luckily I was able to dig up some books that sicky-Karen could read fairly well.

Touch of the Wolf by Susan Krinard

Historical paranormal romance. I won't go into the plot, just provide a starting point: werewolves in the English aristocracy in the late 1800s.

It wasn't too taxing a read, the story (and the romance) was interesting enough to keep me reading despite my flagging concentration, the main characters were multilayered, and the paranormal aspects of it not too over the top.

Touch of the Wolf is the first book in a trilogy and I'd definitely be interested in reading the other two books.

Fiona Buckley's Ursula Blanchard Books

Ursula Blanchard is the bastard daughter of one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting. She manages to rise above her station and marry for love. Married bliss, however, is fleeting and Ursula loses her husband to small pox. She first becomes a loyal lady of the Queen Elizabeth I's Presence Chamber and then a spy for the English crown.

So far this week I've read To Ruin a Queen (#4). I'm reading Queen of Ambition (#5) now and I'm planning on reading A Pawn for the Queen (#6) next.

Ursula is a sympathetic even modern character and that's one of the things that makes these books such fun reads.

playing catch-up

Things have been busy lately. I need to get caught up. I owe a Booking-through-Thursday post and a report on our February book club meeting, not to mention comments on some of the other books I've read so far this year. I'm going to work on that.

Snow in August

Fiction this month for the Student Services blog...

Snow in August by Pete Hamill

Set in post-WWII Brooklyn, Pete Hamill's Snow in August is the story of an Irish-Catholic boy and his unlikely friendship with an elderly rabbi.

11-year-old protagonist Michael Devlin life revolves around comic books, baseball, and his duties as an alter boy at the local church. His worldview begins to change, however, when he witnesses an attack on a local merchant and inadvertently becomes the Shabbos goy* for the local synagogue.

While Snow in August is a bit sentimental and melodramatic, it has heart. Its ending, which is a drastic deviation from the novel's gritty realism, will charm some readers and annoy others. I'd love to write more about it, but it is simply too hard to discuss the ending without spoiling it for those who haven't yet read the book.

* a non-Jew who does work on Sabbath that a Jew cannot do

Catching Up on Booking Through Thursday

From 12 Feb, Authors Talking:
Do you read any author’s blogs? If so, are you looking for information on their next project? On the author personally? Something else?

The only author's blog that I read regularly is Susan Helene Gottfried's West of Mars: The Meet and Greet. If I happen across an author's blog, I'll read a bit of it, but I don't usually go searching for them.

From 19 Feb, Storage:
How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?

Our books are arranged on the shelves to maximize the space (because we have so many books that there are piles all around the apartment). That being said, we have a book case specifically for BookCrossing books and have started segregating our books in the book cases in the bedroom just to make it easier to find what we are looking for.

Today's, Collectibles:
* Hardcover? Or paperback?
* Illustrations? Or just text?
* First editions? Or you don’t care?
* Signed by the author? Or not?

I'm pretty flexible. If I really like a book and think that I'll be reading it again, I'll keep it (I prefer trade paperbacks and hardcover copies and will avoid mass markets whenever possible). I keep my college books that are all marked up with my notes. I buy pristine hardcover copies of books that I love. I don't need first editions or volumes signed by the author, but they are nice to have.

Disgrace

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Disgrace is a difficult book to describe. It was a much quicker read that I expected. It's well-written, spare and taut. Set in contemporary South African, the novel is about disgrace on a number of different levels. The subjects it addresses (including prejudice, rape, the harsh reality of rural life in South Africa) are not easy, but it seems impossible to tear oneself away from the story. Above all, Coetzee is honest and the novel offers no real solutions.

Booking Through Thursday - Too Much Information

Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse - a biography has made you love an author more?

While I have read books/articles about the lives of certain authors, generally I try to avoid doing so. The question gets to the root of my reasoning - I don't want what I know about an author to influence my feelings about his/her books.

Tenderness of Wolves

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

I read this book over the summer, but it seems to me much more of a winter book. Thinking back to an old Booking-through-Thursday question… The Tenderness of Wolves is a book that almost embodies winter for me.

Set in the winter of 1867, it is the story of an isolated community in the Northern Territory (Canada). The Tenderness of Wolves is a murder mystery tempered scope and attention to historical detail. Atmospheric and evocative, The Tenderness of Wolves is also a meditation on "the sickness of long thinking" (154).

A fantastic debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves won the 2006 Costa First Novel Award. This is such a promising start that I can't wait to see what Penney writes in future.

The Conqueror

Another Scandinavian lit review for Library Journal this month...

The Conqueror by Jan Kjaerstad

In The Conqueror, the second novel in the Jonas Wegeland trilogy (after The Seducer), celebrated Norwegian author Jan Kjaerstad offers a dark narrative exploring both the "Norwegian national character" and the human condition.
A scholar has been contracted to write the definitive biography of Wegeland, one of Norway's most famous personages, now infamous after murdering his wife. After two years of research, the scholar is mired in contradictory details and suffering from acute writer's block. That is until a mysterious stranger arrives at his doorstep. What follows is a set of eccentric but intimate stories, ostensibly recalled by the stranger, that woven together -- "the sequence is crucial; only by following it can you hope to understand anything at all [...] just one story out of place and it all falls apart" (64) -- may yield a coherent picture of Wegeland.

Read the full review at Library Journal.

New Pathways for Sock Knitters

New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi

I love knitting socks, but find it difficult to knit ones for myself that fit just right (most sock patterns are written for a much smaller foot than I happen to have). A friend recommended New Pathways for Sock Knitters because of Bordhi's innovative construction ideas and because she offers master patterns that you can customize to fit your foot perfectly.

In addition to the master patterns, Bordhi provides a number of different variations, both practical and whimsical. There's enough in this book to keep any sock knitter busy for quite some time.

I recently knit "Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks" in Handmaiden Casbah (Ravelry project page).* The pattern follows Bordhi's "Sky Sock Architecture" and is knit from the top down with increases over the arch (along the edge of the decorative stitch pattern). It uses a linen-stitch to play up the color changes in hand-painted yarn and has a sexy slit cuff.

The socks were a gift. I trusted the pattern and they ended up fitting perfectly (photo).
A few notes:
-I knit the socks separately but at the same time one section at a time.
- I did one less repeat on the leg, but it still seems very very long (though I guess I’m used to relatively short cuffs).
- I also did the standard toe (pg 129) instead of the star toe (pg 128). I did the star toe on sock #1, but was unhappy with how it looked so I ripped it out.
- Step 4 of the heel turn was unnecessary and unnecessarily confusing.

I'm definitely going to knit myself a pair of these socks in Casbah. I loved everything about the project. I'm really interested in the Coriolis architecture (it has a wonderful spiral feature) so I'll probably attempt one of those patterns on my next foray into sock innovation.

* On US 2.5 / 3.0 mm double-pointed needles in the Autumn colorway

The Rug Merchant

The Rug Merchant by Meg Mullins

Isolated and far from his native Iran, Ushman Khan has worked hard to build a wealthy, reliable clientele for his wares: exquisite hand-woven rugs from his home city of Tabriz. With perfect rectitude, he caters to clients like New York's Upper East Side grand dame Mrs. Roberts, who plies him for stories about his exotic origins and culture to feed her own imagination. But like many immigrants, he's living only half a life. He dreams of the day his beloved wife, Farak, will be able to join him in New York and complete his vision of the American dream. But when she tells him that she is leaving him for another man, Ushman is shattered. He begins to wander aimlessly through the terminals of JFK Airport, imagining a now-impossible reunion with Farak. Unexpectedly, he meets Stella, a Barnard College student who has just bade farewell to her parents en route for an Italian vacation. After Stella, isolated in her own way, finds herself at Ushman's Manhattan store, they embark on an improbable and powerful romance. Together this American girl from the Deep South and the Iranian aesthete form a tender bond that awakens them both to the possibility of joy in a world full of tragedy.

We had the audio version of this novel with us on our last car trip. It's a good character study, but The Rug Merchant is slow and sad and not at all the right kind of book for a long, boring car trip.

Booking Through Thursday - Electronic vs. Paper

In response to "Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature" (Time Magazine article),
Do you have an ebook reader? Do you read ebooks on your computer? Do you hate the very thought? How do you feel about the fact that book publishing is changing and facing much the same existential dilemma as the music industry upon the creation of MP3s?

I do not have an ebook reader. I read books (and articles) on the computer when I have to. I don't hate the thought of reading from the screen, but I do greatly prefer a printed copy. For me reading is at least in part a tactile experience. I like the heft of the book, the feel of its cover, the act of turning its pages.

I understand the direction that publishing is heading right now. But, I really don't think it'll change our buying habits. Russell and I don't buy mp3s. We buy CDs because, at least in part, if our hard drive crashes we'll still have the music on disc.

I like the fact that self-publishing is becoming for viable. Part of that is because I'm friends with an author who has been struggling with the traditional publishing process and, through her, I've really gotten to see just how difficult it is to get published even when you are a good writer with an innovative product.

Then again, because of self-publishing's increased popularity the market will become flooded, possibly making it harder for consumers to find what they want.

There are pros and cons to these new developments, but as Lev Grossman says in "Books Gone Wild," changes are happening and they're neither good nor bad, they just are. And, for better or worse, we readers are along for the ride.

book clubbing in January

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Booker Prize-winning Possession is an academic mystery and a literary love story. It's multilayered, dealing with the Victorian era as much as modern times, and using a variety of different devices to convey the story. As such it was wonderful discussion fodder.

The novel does drag at times (personally I had the most trouble with excerpts from Ash's biographies as well as some of the poems), but it is definitely worth pushing through those sections. The story has some wonderfully unexpected twists at the end.

A couple of our members had difficulty getting through Possession. I recommended watching the movie and that seems to have been a good solution, allowing us all to really get into the discussion at our meeting this afternoon. We talked about possession as a theme in the novel, its portrayal of academia, our reactions to the various characters (we found most of them unsympathetic), the poets Ash and Christabel were modeled after (allegedly Robert Browning and Isabel Rossetti), different aspects of the story, the role of the epigraphs at the beginning of some of the novel's chapters, and the quality of Byatt's poetry, among other things.

One of Possession's greatest strengths is that it forces the reader to spend time on it. It's not a book that you can rush through, but it's also a book that is worth spending time on. Possession is substantive. There's something spiritual about it, one of our members said. The Victorian parts in particular are wonderfully atmospheric.

The Perfect Scent

The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr

As the book's subtitle suggests, The Perfect Scent is the story of "a year inside the perfume industry in Paris and New York". Author Chandler Burr is the scent critic for The New York Times (a scent critic! I'd never heard of such a thing, but of course it makes sense that there are people whose job it is to critique perfume).

In The Perfect Scent, Burr shows readers the perfume industry from the inside. In it, he chronicles the development of two very distinct perfumes--in two different environments--over the course of the year. The first, is Hermés' Un Jardin sur le Nil (I'm so intrigued by this one - I need to get myself to a high-end department store so I can smell it for myself), the second, Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely (which is on the scented bookmark that accompanied my copy of the book).

Honestly I wasn't sure whether I'd like this book. These types of industry profiles can be fascinating or boring. While The Perfect Scent isn't a page turner, it is a very interesting read. Though the narrative is occasionally too personal and his technical explanations are sometimes too detailed, Burr is a very good writer. He knows his subject, he's opinionated (I love his descriptions of "bad" perfumes - actually I like his perfume descriptions in general), and he's passionate about educating consumers.

The Perfect Scent made me want to go smell out a perfume for myself. It confirmed some of my preconceptions about the industry, and dismantled others. Most importantly it intrigued me. It made me think about perfume, which is not something I normally do, and it helped me to understand what's behind a good scent.

Belated Booking Through Thursday - Inspired

I started trying to answer this question Thursday, but I was feeling decidedly uninspired so I gave up pretty quickly.

Since "Inspiration" is (or should) the theme this week... what is your reading inspired by?

This isn't a particularly simple question to answer because I honestly don't spend much time thinking about what inspires me to read. Reading is simply something that I have always done. I was raised by readers and one of my most vivid early memories has to do with visiting the public library.

That being said, the kind of books that are most appealing to me at this moment are upbeat, light-hearted books, those with happy endings, YA novels, and those set far, far away (either in fantastical worlds or just further afield). I assume that this is because during these dark, dreary winter months, I find comfort in escapism and stories that lift my spirits. So I guess that right now my reading is inspired by a quest for comfort.

Hello, Cruel World

Nonfiction for the student services blog this month...

Hello, Cruel World by Kate Bornstein

Subtitled "101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws", Hello, Cruel World is an irreverent guidebook designed to help anyone and everyone navigate the sometimes cruel world in which we live.

With a foreword by Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara and a detailed introduction by Bornstein, a transsexual trailblazer who defies categorization, the book unapologetically provides coping mechanisms (some extremely unorthodox) and encourages readers to follow their "hearts' harmless desires". For Bornstein anything is preferable to suicide: do whatever you need to do to stay alive, just "don't be mean".

Hello, Cruel World is unconventional, eye-opening, and life-affirming. The layout makes it fun to read and because Bornstein makes a point not to exclude anyone, it's a book that can speak to everyone.

Here's one of my favorite blurbs about the book:

I realize Kate Bornstein is trying to save teenagers — the beautiful weirdos on whom the fate of our future rests—but if her book gets into the wrong hands, she might inadvertently save a whole lot of adults too. —Carol Queen

If you can't get your hands on the book right away, you can get your fix at Kate Bornstein's Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws.

Salem Falls

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

In Salem Falls, Picoult takes on the issue of statutory rape aeasoning her narrative with modern-day witch-hunting (hence Salem Falls).

The novel opens with protagonist Jack McBride newly released from prison after serving an eight-month sentence. With no where to go - no life to return to - McBride arbitrarily settles in the small town of Salem Falls, where he hopes to eek out a quiet existence. Just when things are starting to come together for McBride, it becomes known that he's a registered sex offender. The townspeople are up-in-arms. He's threatened, the house he lives in is vandalized, and he's beaten-up by masked thugs. He's then arrested for allegedly raping a teenage girl who lives in the town at which point the story gains momentum.

Salem Falls was a bit predictable (I'd guessed at the final twist fairly early on, but I've also read a lot of Picoult and know how she works), but readable nonetheless. I think I may have to stop reading Picoult though. Her books are compelling, but her worldview is much too bleak.

If You Could See Me Now

I first discovered Cecilia Ahern quite my accident. Her debut novel, PS, I love you, came to me at just the right time. I happened across it in a bookstore and when I read it, it spoke to me and comforted me in a time of need (my cousin had just passed away quite unexpectedly).

I've since reread PS, I love you and read Ahern's second novel Love, Rosie (also published under the titles Rosie Dunn and Where Rainbows End). I didn't find Love, Rosie particularly compelling, which left me wondering whether Ahern would be a one-off author for me, but I kept her other books on my wishlist just in case.

This one arrived in a late birthday package yesterday. I just finished it, though I have to admit that I almost gave up on the first few pages.

If You Could See Me Now* by Cecilia Ahern

If You Could See Me Now is the story of Elizabeth Egan, a woman in her thirties who is struggling with her life despite the facade of perfection she displays for the world, and an imaginary friend named Ivan who comes into her life through her adopted son Luke.

The concept is preposterous, but it does provide a unique twist to a pretty pedestrian subject. Ahern's Elizabeth is sympathetic and while some readers may not be able to relate to her problems in particular, they will be able to relate to her general feeling of being acutely responsible and overwhelmed.

The heart-warming If You Could See Me Now is a quick and read. What I liked best about the novel is Ahern's vision of imaginary friends and their roles in the world.

* This novel has also been published under the title A Silver Lining. Unnecessary re-naming of novels is one of my pet-peeves.

Booking Through Thursday - The Best?

It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but... what were your favorite books from 2008?

Though I addressed this in my recent Books-read-in-2008 posts, I've pulled a single this for this post.

And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (reread)
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Cheney Sisters Trilogy
- The Dark Queen by Susan Carroll
- The Courtesan by Susan Carroll
- The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
Divas Don't Knit by Gil Mcneil
Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes
Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (reread)
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
I am Rembrandt's Daughter by Lynn Cullen
The Illustrated Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte/Dame Darcy
An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
Madame Zee by Pearl Luke
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (reread)
Outlander Saga
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
- Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Stravaganza Books
- City of Masks by Mary Hoffman
- City of Stars by Mary Hoffman
- City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman
- City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman
Study Books
- Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
- Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
- Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Terrier (Beka Cooper) by Tamora Pierce
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal (reread)
Vampire Academy Books
- Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
- Frostbite by Richelle Mead
Witch Child by Celia Rees
Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

Curiosity Killed a Cat Sitter

I read this book back in 2006. When I was putting some reviews up at LibraryThing, I realized that I hadn't posted a review on the blog despite the fact that I mentioned it among the books I liked best from 2006.

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter is the first in a dazzling new series for animal lovers. Dixie Hemingway (no relation to you-know-who) is a professional pet-sitter in Sarasota, Florida. When Dixie goes to feed the cat of a vacationing client and discovers the animal hiding from a very dead intruder, she is led to investigate the whereabouts of her now suspicious-looking client, who has vanished. With a bright future ahead, Clement is a welcome addition to Minotaur's lineup of cozy authors.

I discovered this book through Suzanne Beecher's Read it First Program. Suzanne was promoting the book. She had sample pages for us to read and 25 copies to give away. Here's part of the email I sent her to enter the contest:

I loved reading those pages from Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter all at once.
I'm a cat lover (I have two Siamese snowshoe kitties that are about 1.5 years old) so once I started reading I knew I couldn't fail to like this book, but this is the part that really sold me:
"Cats, on the other hand, try to give you the impression they didn't even know you were gone. 'Oh, were you out?' they'll say, 'I didn't notice.' Then they'll raise their tails to show you their little puckered anuses and walk away."
Something about that just rang so true to me.
Anyway, now that I've read the first 20 pages, I'm intrigued. I really want to learn the protagonist's back-story. I want to know what happened to make Dixie leave her position at the sheriff's office.

Of course, I didn't win one of the copies. However, especially seeing the 5-star reviews on amazon, I was so intrigued by the book that I decided to buy it for myself as a half birthday present.

I must say that I really enjoyed Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter. I read it from start to finish the day it arrived!

The protagonist Dixie is multifaceted and interesting. The other characters, both human and animal, are well-conceived. And, Clement adds a lot of things that make this book more substantive than your run of the mill cozy. I'll be eagerly awaiting the next installment in this series.

I haven't read any of the other books in the series yet (and there are quite a few of them now), but I still hope to do so.

Books Read July-December 2008 (2 of 2)

Continued from yesterday's post:

154. Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall
153. Wolf Star by Tanith Lee
152. Stravaganza: City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman
151. Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee
150. Hello, Cruel World by Kate Bornstein
149. Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
148. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
147. Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
146. The Conqueror by Jan Kjaerstad
145. Divas Don't Knit by Gil Mcneil
144. The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll
143. The Courtesan by Susan Carroll
142. The Dark Queen by Susan Carroll
141. Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
140. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
139. Spice: the History of Temptation by Jack Turner
138. Witch's Business (aka Wilken's Tooth) by Diana Wynne Jones
137. How to be Popular by Meg Cabot
136. Cube Chic by Kelley Moore
135. The Haunted Tea-cosy by Edward Gorey
134. Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
133. Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker
132. 100 Shades of White by Preethi Nair
131. And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander
130. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
129. Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch
128. Bride Finder by Susan Carroll
127. Time and Again by Jack Finney
126. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
125. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
124. The Beach Book, Melcher Media

Books Read July-December 2008 (1 of 2)

At the beginning of July I posted my reading list for the first six months of the year (post 1, post 2).

As promised, here's the first part of list of books read in the second part of 2008. The ones I liked best are italicized.

I'm still planning to do posts on a few of these, so don't be surprised if you seem them mentioned here again.

123. Under My Skin by Sarah Dunant
122. Birth Marks by Sarah Dunant
121. Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
120. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
119. Sunny Chandler's Return by Sandra Brown
118. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
117. Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
116. Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
115. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
114. Hatching Magic by Ann Downer
113. Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki
112. Sorceress by Celia Rees
111. The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless by Ahmet Zappa
110. Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi
109. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
108. Me and Kaminski by Daniel Kehlmann
107. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
106. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
105. City of Shadows by Celia Rees
104. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
103. Austenland by Shannon Hale
102. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
101. The Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock
100. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
99. Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters
98. Carnevale by M. Lovric
97. The Sooterkin by Tom Gilling
96. Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes
95. Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult
94. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Booking Through Thursday - Two questions

Both Christmas and New Years Day fall on Thursdays this year. I skipped my BTT post on the 25th, so I have two questions to answer today...

What are the most "wintery" books you can think of? The ones that almost embody Winter?

Hmmm... the Narnia books, particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because of the White Witch; Smilla's Sense of Snow (though I'm not sure if it is fair for me to include this as I don't think I've ever read the book).

This is actually a difficult question. I can think of dozens of books that I associate with summer, but the other seasons are harder to pinpoint. And, I don't think that books set in winter necessarily embody the season.

So... any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?

I think my reading goals for 2009 will be:
1. to read at least 150 books, closer to 175 would be good, but I need to be realistic. This year I read 154 books (and possibly a few more that I forgot to put on the list). I'll be posting my list in spurts over the next week
2. to move more of my BookCrossing books along, even if that means I decide that I'd really rather not read a particular book before I let it go
3. to read more British authors (this is part of a super-secret project)
4. to read some of books that I've bought to keep in my personal collection, but haven't read yet
5. to not wait until the last minute to read my book club books

Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!
I just started Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a book I've been looking forward to reading. I'm also keen on goal number four listed above.