japaul22's 2014 Reading, part 2

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japaul22's 2014 Reading, part 2

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1japaul22
Redigeret: jun 30, 2014, 12:32 pm

Welcome to part 2 of my 2014 reading!

Hi everyone! I'm Jennifer and I'm back for my third year in Club Read. I'm a professional musician and mother of two little boys (ages 4 and 10 months).

I read primarily classics or current literary fiction and I gravitate towards women authors. I also read the occasional mystery and try to keep up with nonfiction reading, mainly biographies and American/European history, though I failed miserably at getting to it last year.

Last year I did almost no planned reading and just went with what I was feeling at the moment. It was just what I needed and I enjoyed it, but this year I have planned things a bit more. Of course, that may not work out and that's fine by me.

Looking forward to a great year of reading!

3japaul22
Redigeret: jul 5, 2014, 9:36 pm

Books Read in 2014

January: 4085 pages read, average book length 511 pages
1. Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman, 4 stars
2. Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary, 4 stars
3. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner, 4.5 stars
4. Masterminds and Wingmen by Rosalind Wiseman, 2 stars
5. Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 3.5 stars
6. The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes, 3.5 stars
7. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, 5 stars
8. The Pentrals by Crystal Mack, 4 stars

February: 2548 pages read, average book length 364 pages
9. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, 4.5 stars
10. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, 2.5 stars
11. Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James, 3 stars
12. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, 4 stars
13. The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley, 4.5 stars
14. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, 4 stars
15. The Real Charlotte by Somerville and Ross, 4 stars

March: 540 pages read, average book length 270 pages
16. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, 4 stars
17. Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson, 5 stars

April: 2302 pages read, average book length 460 pages
18. Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman, 4 stars
19. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey, 4.5 stars
20. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, 3.5 stars
21. Revelation by C.J. Sansom, 3.5 stars
22. Miss Mapp byE.F. Benson

May: 3476 pages read, average book length 579 pages
23. Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman
24. The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker, 4 stars
25. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, 4 stars
26. The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, 5 stars
27. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery, 5 stars (reread)
28. The Planet in a Pebble by Jan Zalasiewicz, 3.5 stars

June: 2645 pages read, average book length 378 pages
29. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 4 stars
30. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer, 3.5 stars
31. Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel, 5 stars
32. Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall, 4 stars
33. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, 3.5 stars
34. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, 3.5 stars
35. Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling, 4 stars

1st half of the year: 15,596 pages read, average book length 446 pages, 86 pages per day

4japaul22
Redigeret: jul 28, 2015, 8:48 am

Books read in 2014 Part 2

July: 1891 pages read, average book length 378 pages
36. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun, 3.5 stars
37. Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone, 3.5 stars
38. The Bees by Laline Paull, 3 stars
39. Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition by Jane Austen annotated by Patricia Meyer Spacks, 5 stars
40. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore, 5 stars

August: 3406 pages read, average book length 378 pages
41. The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, 4 stars
42. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym, 4.5 stars
43. The Secret River by Kate Grenville, 4 stars
44. La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas, 2.5 stars
45. True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, 3.5 stars
46. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, 4 stars
47. Lucia in London by E.F. Benson, 3.5 stars
48. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 4 stars
49. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, 5 stars

September: 2403 pages read, average book length 343 pages; one audiobook at 36 min
50. The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, 4 stars
51. Alberta and Freedom by Cora Sandel, 3.5 stars
52. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, 3.5 stars
53. The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, 3 stars - audiobook, 36 min.
54. My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead, 4 stars
55. Heartstone by C.J. Sansom, 4.5 stars
56. Jane Austen Cover to Cover by Margaret C. Sullivan, 5 stars
57. The Secret Place by Tana French, 4.5 stars

October: 2801 pages read, average book length 467; 4 audiobooks for 18.5 hours
58. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 4 stars - audiobook, 3h59m, read by Nadia May
59. Misericordia or Compassion by Benito Perez Galdos, 3.5 stars
60. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, 4 stars - audiobook, 2h56m, read by Martin Jarvis
61. Paradise of the Blind by Doung Thu Huong, 3.5 stars
62. A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman, 4.5 stars
63. Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, 4 stars - audiobook, 7h27m, read by Wanda McCaddon
64. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman, 4 stars
65. The Waves by Virginia Woolf, 5 stars
66. Evelina by Frances Burney, 4.5 stars
67. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, 2 stars - audiobook, 3h59m, read by Tony Jay

November: 2342 pages read, average book length 390 pages; 2 audiobooks for 12h35m
68. A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow, 4.5 stars
69. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, 4 star
70. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman, 5 stars
71. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton, 4 stars
72. The Quiet American by Graham Greene, 2.5 stars, audiobook, 6h41m, read by Joseph Porter
73. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor, 4 stars
74. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 3 stars - audiobook, 5h54m, read by Christopher Hurt
75. Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt, 3.5 stars

December: 2183 pages read, average book length 336 pages; 2 audiobooks for 6h12m
76. Thank you, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, audiobook by LA Theatre Works, 1h30m
77. In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides, 5 stars
78. Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson, 4 stars
79. Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear, 4 stars
80. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, 3.5 stars, audiobook, 4h42m, read by Satya Babha
81. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, 4 stars
abandoned - The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter, 165 pages
82. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, 4 stars
83. Lila by Marilynne Robinson, 5 stars
84. A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, 3 stars

15,026 pages read in the second half of the year; average book length 385 pages; 82 pages per day

5japaul22
Redigeret: nov 22, 2014, 7:40 am

Group Reads
Bleak House with January 2014 category challenge group read
The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton with 2014 category challenge, 1st quarter
Bel Canto with March 2014 category challenge group read
Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone with 2014 category challenge, 3rd quarter (July-Sep)
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann with Author Theme Reads

Planned Reads
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
The Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsen
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

Books I'm considering to close out the year:
As I've just about finished all of my reading goals, these will all be for fun and mainly off my shelf/kindle (hopefully)
finish Mapp and Lucia series (3) kindle
Being Wrong
The World Before Us
Lila
Before I Go to Sleep
The Lacuna
Signature of All Things
Josephine Tey on my shelf
Barbara Pym on my shelf
The Great Influenza
The Heart of the Sea
various library books that come available from my hold list

TBR shelves at the start of 2014*
Fiction: 54
Nonfiction: 11
Kindle: 46

*numbers do not include about 15 of my husband's books that I may read some day

6mabith
jun 30, 2014, 1:01 pm

Just making a comment so the thread will pop up in my main list.

7japaul22
jul 1, 2014, 8:55 pm

I successfully read all books off my shelf in June and knocked out 7 books! I've added so many books to my TBR shelf that reading 7 books didn't really make a dent, but it still felt good.

8japaul22
jul 1, 2014, 9:23 pm

#36 Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
This is a Norwegian novel that takes place in the back country where the main character, Isak, carves a farm out of the wilds of Norway with his bare hands. He literally uses his muscle and animal strength to muscle a life out of a rather uninhabitable place. Others slowly follow, but none are as successful as Isak. He marries a woman named Inger who has the slight physical disfigurement of something described as a hare lip. It seems that she is willing to stay with Isak at first because she wouldn't be accepted anywhere else, but Inger and Isak end up sharing their life together in a meaningful way and I would say love each other as well. Isak certainly loves Inger. They have two sons who grow into different men - one craving a city life but finding many obstacles and one embracing the running of his father's farm. By the end of the novel, Isak has neighbors who have followed his trail-blazing, copper mining has come to the area, and Isak owns a mowing machine.

While I appreciated this book and am glad I read it, I'm not sure I really liked it. Something about the language really grated on me. Hamsun writes in brief grunts and I couldn't decide if it was intentional, to reflect the almost animal state of the back country people, or if it was bad transition, or just his style. The dialogue was really ridiculous. It seemed that no one listened or understood anyone else and it really reminded me of the stereotypical cave man grunting. If that was intentional, I think it did a disservice to the people that Hamsun was trying to portray. I was also really disturbed by a part of the novel that explored infanticide. Two different mothers in the book kill their new-born babies. It was for very different reasons with very different legal consequences, but I wasn't really sure what the point of it was and I found it really disturbing.

This is a book that I will rate as middle of the road considering that it won the author the Nobel prize for literature and is highly respected - I just didn't see it. But it is also a book that I won't be surprised if I think much more highly of at the end of the year than I do now.

Original Publication Date: 1917
Author’s nationality: Norwegian
Original language: Norwegian
Length: 324 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased

9lauralkeet
jul 2, 2014, 5:46 am

>7 japaul22: well done! I'm thinking about culling my tbr shelf because I think there are some books there that I'm not as interested in reading anymore.

10NanaCC
jul 2, 2014, 6:04 am

>7 japaul22: I know that I should do the same, but probably won't. I have a couple of requests in at the library, but I should make an effort not to buy anything new for the next few months. I check those darn daily deals for Kindle every day. You would think I was lacking in books to read.

11japaul22
jul 2, 2014, 11:33 am

>9 lauralkeet:, >10 NanaCC: It actually was pretty easy to read off my shelf. I'm pretty picky about books I buy, so I really do want to read everything I have! I'm thinking about having 2 months next year where I read exclusively off the shelf. And I did enjoy every book I read in June.

12baswood
jul 2, 2014, 2:16 pm

Interesting review of Growth of the Soil

13rebeccanyc
jul 2, 2014, 2:51 pm

>9 lauralkeet: >10 NanaCC: >11 japaul22: TBR shelf???? I have multiple TBR shelves!!! But I do have one shelf for books I think I'm going to want to read in the near future, and I did edit it about two weeks ago.

14lauralkeet
jul 2, 2014, 3:56 pm

>13 rebeccanyc: I wasn't counting my Virago bookcase ...

15japaul22
jul 8, 2014, 9:33 am

I always loving hearing about everyone's groaning TBR bookshelves/cases! Before joining LT, I had one bookcase of books total and never had more than 5 books unread. Now, I'm proud to say I have many bookcases (a whole wall in our living room) and about a quarter of that space is unread books. There are several contributing factors to this explosion - one is that we bought a much bigger house 2 years ago, two is that my husband got a really good job and our budget increased, and three is of course the LT influence!

16japaul22
jul 8, 2014, 9:48 am

#37 Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone
Goldstone's book explores mid-13th century European politics through a family of four daughters of Provence, all of whom ended up being Queens. This was quite a feat for one family who didn't have particularly large inheritances to dole out to suitors. The oldest sister, Marguerite, paves the way by marrying Louis IX, future King of France. Next, Eleanor marries Henry III, King of England. Sanchia marries King Henry's brother, Richard of Cornwall who eventually becomes King of the Romans (Germany). Beatrice, the youngest sister, marries Charles of Anjou, Louis IX's younger brother. Charles later wins the kingship of Sicily.

Just how much did these women influence the politics of the time? I would say quite a bit based on Goldstone's writing and other books I've read on the time period. I think the general impression that many people have of women sitting quietly on the sidelines trying to have babies is proven wrong with only a little digging. These women used their family influence and banded together to put their family members in positions of power and influence. Eleanor, particularly, managed to infiltrate English politics with family members of her choosing. This ended up back firing on her when Simon de Montfort wrested power from the King, but it still was an impressive run of power. Sanchia was the least politically active of the sisters, but even she significantly helped Richard's play for power in Germany. Beatrice bucked the trend of family helping each other out in her quest for Queenship for herself.

This time period is very interesting to me and I enjoyed this book. It read easily, almost like historical fiction, which I both liked and disliked. I can't argue with a book that makes centuries old politics entertaining, but I felt that it may have benefited from a slightly more scholarly tone and a bit more detail. Overall, though, a lot of fun to read.

Original Publication Date: 2007
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 325 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased

17baswood
jul 8, 2014, 10:03 am

It's the bit about reading like historical fiction that makes me hesitate in getting Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe. Thanks for an excellent review.

18japaul22
jul 8, 2014, 10:30 am

It's an interesting dilemma, because I shouldn't complain about nonfiction being entertaining and fun to read, but it made me question if a little more detail might have added to the book. It certainly seems well-researched and Gladstone includes quotes from contemporary chroniclers of the time (Matthew Paris is one often used) that really added to the book for me. So, it would be worth reading if the material isn't covered in another book you're intending to read.

19NanaCC
jul 8, 2014, 10:47 am

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe sounds quite interesting. I will add it to a list of books to explore.

20SassyLassy
jul 8, 2014, 10:59 am

I've been toying with the idea of this book for awhile. It looks really interesting, but as bas says, It's the bit about reading like historical fiction that makes me hesitate in getting Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe.. Then I think how reading some historical fiction has actually got me reading history, so your review has tipped me to the read it side.

21japaul22
jul 8, 2014, 12:28 pm

>20 SassyLassy: I think that for most people (I include myself) the readability will only help the book. I also LOVE historical fiction, so it is a complement from me. In fact, I've read Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh trilogy which covers the same time period and I wonder if the background I got from that made the book a little easier for me to read. Maybe already knowing a little about all the main people in the book made it less confusing than it might be to someone else. I read this as part of a group read in the 2014 category challenge group. The group isn't discussing until September, but I'll update with how everyone else in the group felt about the book after we've discussed a little.

22japaul22
jul 13, 2014, 7:21 pm

#38 The Bees by Laline Paull
The Bees is just what the title says it is - a book about bees. But who knew how well the dramatic life of a honeybee would translate to a novel that reads like dystopian fiction? This was a really creative idea. The book follows the life of Flora 717, a sanitation bee who is born with skills beyond what is expected of her kin. She gets to work with the eggs, meet the Queen bee, forage for nectar, and read the stories of her hive. She battles wasps, flies, and spiders. The book is filled with the "hive mind" and the instinctual life of bees which was so interesting and a bit creepy.

Unfortunately, I don't think the writing and flow of the novel quite measured up to the creative story line. I got a little tired of it in the middle and started thinking it might have packed a bigger punch as a short story. However, this kind of dystopian novel is not usually my cup of tea, so if it sounds interesting to you, I wouldn't let my reservations dissuade you. I'd give the book 5 stars for creativity, but 2 stars for execution. I'd recommend it to see for yourself.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 352 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle

23japaul22
jul 17, 2014, 7:32 am

#39 Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition by Jane Austen, annotated by Patricia Meyer Spacks

I have been insanely stressed out by life and work lately and for an antidote to stress I always turn to the comfort of Jane Austen. I chose to reread Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition for this comfort read. Recently, I purchased all five of the published Harvard/Belknap Press editions of annotated Austen works (the completist in me NEEDS them to also published Mansfield Park!!). These are beautiful collectors items. They are large and heavy - definitely not portable - but I highly recommend them to any Austen lover. The annotation was excellent. There were notes on cultural and societal trends of the time, but also, and more interesting to me, analysis of the text throughout and an excellent forward. The annotations are printed down the sides of each large page and there are many beautiful pictures included.

Sense and Sensibility is not my favorite Austen novel. For me, it suffers from weak male characters who I don't really see as great matches for either heroine, though I suppose that was the point. But it leads to interesting thoughts about character and balance in personality and, as all her novels do, gives a lot of insight into the options available to women in Austen's class living in the early 1800s. Money, or the lack thereof, is pervasive in this book which also brings it down to earth a little more than some of the other novels. There isn't the fairy tale ending of finding both love and money as in Pride and Prejudice.

I'm looking forward to reading the other annotated editions that I have on the shelf. They have different annotators, so I'll be curious to see if they all measure up to Spacks.

Original Publication Date: 1811, 2013 for this edition
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 448 pages
Rating: 5 stars for the edition (I usually give the book 4.5, just when comparing to other Austen novels)
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased - Harvard/Belknap Press edition

24baswood
jul 17, 2014, 12:16 pm

The annotated edition of Sense and Sensibility sounds gorgeous.

25japaul22
jul 19, 2014, 1:03 pm

Just wanted to do an update on my TBR shelf. I know that many of you were concerned that I owned I shockingly low number of unread books. ;-)

I've been working on cleaning up my LT catalog, entering all the books I own on my shelves and my kindle and also cleaning up and standardizing my tag system.

At the beginning of 2014, I counted 65 books on my shelves that I hadn't read and 46 on my kindle.

Now, only a little over half way through 2014, I have 97 TBR books on the shelf, and 29 on my kindle. This is despite reading lots of books off the shelf. I've been better about not buying lots of books for my kindle and never reading them and have also been mainly doing library check outs for my e-reading which is why that number is lower. I'm pretty proud of the increase in physical books on the shelf, though!

26Poquette
jul 19, 2014, 2:19 pm

I too have a lot of unread books, which I am trying to tackle this year. In spite of my best efforts, I continue to add more to the stack. I wonder why this is, but then I realize that I am operating under the theory that if I don't buy the book now, I'll forget about it. We don't want that to happen, do we? ;-)

27japaul22
jul 25, 2014, 9:12 pm

#40 Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
This is a wonderful biography of Jane Franklin who lived from 1712 to 1794 in Boston. She was married at 15 to a man who turned out to never amount to much and had 12 children, and outlived all but one of them. She was taught to read and write and loved reading, searching out books wherever she could get them, for her whole life. She lived through the Revolution and helped to raise her grandchildren and great grandchildren. And, oh yeah, she was the sister of Benjamin Franklin.

Jane and Benjamin were close though the ended up in very different walks of life. Lepore uses Benjamin Franklin's life to contrast with Jane's. They wrote each other letters throughout their adult lives; most of Franklin's to Jane survive, very few of Jane's to him (or anyone) survive.

I found this an interesting look at the life of a woman, a reader, in the 18th century. It's also an interesting discussion of what is important in history - the large personalities, like Franklin, or the every day people, like Jane Franklin. Lepore makes a good argument that Jane Franklin's history can be every bit as interesting and important to the knowledge of where our country has been. I have to say that she also did a fantastic job in this book of not letting Benjamin Franklin overwhelm his sister's voice. Even with the scanty source material, I felt like I had a good picture of Jane Franklin - her sorrows, her political views, and her sense of humor - by the time I was finished reading.

Loved this book - highly recommended.

Original Publication Date: 2013
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 442 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased

28karspeak
jul 26, 2014, 4:34 am

>27 japaul22: Looks great!

29baswood
jul 26, 2014, 5:43 am

Excellent review of Book of Ages: The Life and Opinion of Jane Franklin. It seems that you were in tune with Jane Franklin's voice and it is some achievement by Jill Lepore to amplify that voice so well..

30NanaCC
jul 26, 2014, 6:51 am

>27 japaul22: Great review of Book of Ages. Some of the women from that time period had interesting lives. Have you ever read anything about Abigail Adams?

31mabith
jul 26, 2014, 10:45 am

So glad to hear the Jill Lepore book is that good! It's been tentatively on my list, but I think I needed to hear something positive on LT. That type of book can so easily go either way.

32rebeccanyc
jul 26, 2014, 2:06 pm

I love Jill Lepore but haven't read this one yet. Thanks for your review.

33japaul22
jul 26, 2014, 7:45 pm

>29 baswood: Barry - it was impressive that she got me so interested in such an ordinary life.

>30 NanaCC: Colleen - What was interesting to me was that Jane Franklin's life wasn't actually all that interesting and there wasn't much source info on her. Part of Lepore's point was that even ordinary people should be part of history. Lepore uses a mix of scholarly detail and narrative writing to paint the picture of Jane's life and personality. It was very effective for me. As far as Abigail Adams, I read one biography of her that I didn't think was very good and I've read quite a bit about John Adams which usually features her as well. I'm always looking for a good biography of her, though she and Jane Franklin seem to have been very different people.

>31 mabith: I'm also curious to see what other LTers think of it.

>32 rebeccanyc: I've never read Lepore before. Do you have certain books that are your favorites of hers?

34NanaCC
jul 26, 2014, 11:04 pm

Most of what I've read about Abigail Adams was in books about her husband., so not surprising that the source material for Lepore's book about Jane Franklin was limited. I think that the lives of women of all walks of life during that time period make for interesting reading. I'm glad you enjoyed the book, and I think I'll look for it later this year.

35mabith
jul 27, 2014, 12:46 am

I've got Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon on my to-read list, which looks really interesting.
The prizewinning historian Michael O’Brien reconstructs for the first time Louisa Adams’s extraordinary passage. An evocative history of the experience of travel in the days of carriages and kings, Mrs. Adams in Winter offers a moving portrait of a lady, her difficult marriage, and her conflicted sense of what it meant to be a woman caught between worlds.

36lauralkeet
jul 27, 2014, 6:36 am

Interesting review of the Jane Franklin bio. I like the idea of learning about lesser-known figures, and can imagine the difficulty of finding source material. But it's interesting to learn about the lives of everyday people, not just those who had a more visible impact on society.

37japaul22
jul 27, 2014, 7:16 am

>34 NanaCC: The Abigail Adams book I read was Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. I remember not being very impressed. I have been dipping in and out of The Letters of John and Abigail Adams for years and that gives a better picture of her life.

>35 mabith: Looks like a book that is right up my alley. Thanks!

>36 lauralkeet: Although her source material was limited, she still managed to use what she had very fully. And the text of the book was only 267 pages, the remaining of the 442 page book was all notes and info on how she gathered info. It was almost as interesting as the text.

38rebeccanyc
jul 27, 2014, 7:18 am

>33 japaul22: Lepore has written both straight history and essay-type books. For her histories, I enjoyed New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan and I have her The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity on my TBR. For other books, I loved The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History, which skewers the "history" used by Tea Partiers to advance their cause. But I also enjoyed The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death and The Story of America: Essays on Origins, both of which thematically collect and extend a lot of her essays originally published in The New Yorker.

39japaul22
jul 27, 2014, 8:18 pm

>38 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca!

40japaul22
aug 2, 2014, 11:02 am

#41 The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien
This was a pleasant surprise. I started collecting books from a publisher called Virago Modern Classics who publish underappreciated books written by women. I bought this book not knowing anything about it except that it was a Virago with the classic green cover. When I read the book description, I was skeptical. Kate O'Brien was an Irish author in the mid 1900s and this book takes place in a convent. It explores the lives of two different people, the Reverend Mother, Helen, and Anna, a young girl growing up as a student at the convent school. I don't have a whole lot of interest in nuns or Catholicism so I wasn't sure this would be the book for me. Actually, though, this book explored the lives of these two, their troubled home lives, the conflicts between Irish and English nuns, politics of the church, and death with beautiful language and subtlety.

As a side note, this edition has a few long passages written in`French with no translation provided. I found that my limited high school French plus the context of the book were enough for me to understand the content, but you'd need some French or the patience to do a little translating for those passages.

Original Publication Date: 1941
Author’s nationality: Irish
Original language: English
Length: 285 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased used on ebay (VMC edition)

41lauralkeet
aug 2, 2014, 3:53 pm

I've been pleasantly surprised by a lot of Viragos. It's funny how a plot you think you aren't interested in can actually turn out to be pretty good!

42japaul22
aug 3, 2014, 1:09 pm

#42 Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
I love Pym's books. They just fit a certain mood. This is another quiet book about a friendship between Jane, a 40 year old clergyman's wife, and Prudence, a 29 year old woman in the midst of romances but not yet married. I particularly loved Jane - she was absent-minded in an amusing but believable way and just not quite what you expect a clergyman's wife to be in these books. Highly enjoyable.

Original Publication Date: 1953
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 222 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased/ off the shelf

43Rebeki
aug 7, 2014, 5:53 am

>42 japaul22: I love Barbara Pym too and was also particularly fond of Jane (and Nicholas). I've forgotten a lot of what happened, but I remember something about animal-shaped soaps really tickling me...

44japaul22
aug 8, 2014, 11:10 am

>43 Rebeki: Yes, the animal soaps were Nicholas's thing. I liked that it made you see that he had a quirky side too, not just Jane.

45japaul22
aug 8, 2014, 11:25 am

#43 The Secret River by Kate Grenville
This is an excellent historical fiction novel about life in the early colonies of Australia, or New South Wales as it was called at the time. The book follows the life of William Thornhill who grows up in utter poverty in London at the end of the 18th century. He falls in love with and marries Sal, whose father works on the Thames and apprentices William as a waterman. Things start to turn the corner for William and he sees a way that his life could turn out ok. Unfortunately circumstances change and he ends up in Newgate for stealing, condemned to death. He is granted life, but shipped with his wife and son to Australia. This first part of the book was familiar and nothing new to me - I've read many historical fiction novels about the poor and down-trodden in London - but the life the family leads in New South Wales was a different story.

Thornhill fairly quickly buys his pardon and gets enough cash working on the water to have some options. The one he chooses is to break into the uncharted forest with his young family, staking his claim on a hundred acres of land with no regard for the native blacks who already live there. The struggle between him, the other white settlers, and the natives is dark and brutal. I certainly wasn't rooting for Thornhill or the other settlers. Grenville does a convincing job of portraying the mindset of Thornhill, how he could think it was his right to claim this land, without beating the reader over the head with "deep messages". I thought she also kept an eye on how his time in poverty and as a prisoner affected his need to own land and kept him always wanting more. The book is told from the perspective of the white settlers, but she manages to still show how well the native society functioned, even though it was so different from the white society and the settlers really didn't understand or value it at all.

Overall, I thought Grenville handled this time period with a lot of insight and depth. Though the subject matter was hard to read about, I highly recommend this book.

Original Publication Date: 2005
Author’s nationality: Australian
Original language: English
Length: 334 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library sale

46lauralkeet
aug 8, 2014, 4:51 pm

I loved The Secret River! Have you read The Idea of Perfection? It's one of my absolute all-time favorite books, a rare 5-star read.

47japaul22
aug 8, 2014, 5:47 pm

>46 lauralkeet: I've not read it, but I loved Grenville's writing, so on the wish list it goes!

48lauralkeet
aug 9, 2014, 7:22 pm

>47 japaul22: hurray! I hope you enjoy it. I read it several years ago and have been foisting on people ever since. :)

49japaul22
aug 9, 2014, 10:15 pm

#44 La Regenta or "The Regent's Wife" by Leopoldo Alas
I came upon this book while trying to help the 1001 books to read before you die group to complete the list as a group. This was one of the books no one had claimed as read. When I looked into it, I found that it was a Spanish classic published in 1884 that is billed as the Spanish "Madame Bovary". Some of my favorite books are from this era - Anna Karenina, Middlemarch, Germinal, Madame Bovary, etc. so I thought this would be right up my alley. It was also translated by John Rutherford whose translations I've appreciated in the past. What I found, though, was a book that I adored at moments and hated to the point of dreading to pick it up and doing some skimming at other times.

The fictional setting of Vetusta, Spain is beautiful and the language drew me in for the first pages. And then the multitude of characters with multitudes of names for each person began. I've read lots of Russian literature where each person's name takes on different variations, but that was nothing compared to this. Also, Alas introduces many characters up front before they are part of the story, and I always have a hard time with that. In a book with dozens of main characters, I keep them straight best if they are introduced as they become part of the story. So I started off kind of confused, but I figured I had all 800 pages of the book to figure it out.

The premise was both familiar interesting. Ana is a young woman married to a quirky and bumbling older man who is bored. She is looking for fulfillment outside of her marriage and is torn between two men. One is the canon theologian, Don Fermin, who is her Catholic priest and confessor. The other is Don Alvaro, Mesia, who is the town's "Don Juan" - attractive, out-going, and a womanizer. Both men want Ana - Don Fermin being unable to differentiate between his love for Ana's pure religious soul and her beauty and Mesia seeing her mainly as a conquest, but a very desirable one as she seems so unattainable.

Ana herself is torn as well. There is a part of her that desires health, happiness, and nature that she envisions with Don Alvaro, but for the majority of the book she is having what I would describe as religious ecstasies where she gets so wrapped up in religious fervor that she makes herself physically ill. Don Fermin eats this up and loves her all the more for her purity of spirit. There is a lot of exploration of how he feels that he possesses her soul as her spiritual adviser. I read this on my kindle, so I can tell you that 85% of the way into this 800 page novel Ana finally consummates her relationship with Mesia. To be honest, I could not quite decipher what happens at the end in a scene between Don Fermin and Ana. Alas leaves this scene very vague.

So overall, I'm not sure what to say. Most of the time reading this I didn't enjoy it much. There were so many diversions into religious philosophy, many digressions, and also time shifts that didn't make much sense. The action is delayed so long that it became almost meaningless to me. But, then again, there are passages of beautiful writing and insights and I think there is definitely something there worth the time.

If you're a fan of literature from this era or of Spanish literature I'd love to hear some other thoughts on the book so it might be worth a try, but overall I'd have to say pass on this classic.

Original Publication Date: 1884
Author’s nationality: Spanish
Original language: Spanish
Length: 800 pages
Rating: 2.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased for kindle

50japaul22
aug 10, 2014, 9:03 am

As an interesting note, I gather this is considered a staple of Spanish literature from the limited research I've done, but it's very rarely read in English. I think it was first translated in 1985 by Penguin Classics. I think mine is the first review in English on the LT book page.

51baswood
aug 10, 2014, 10:40 am

Well done for reading La Regenta. You should at least get a mention in dispatches from the 1001 books to read before you die group.

52Poquette
aug 10, 2014, 5:18 pm

Sorry La Regenta was sort of a drag. And it was so long, too! A major investment in time. :-

53rebeccanyc
aug 11, 2014, 7:47 am

Interesting review and better you than me, although in general I like 19th century novels. I've always wondered how books get on that 1001 list.

54lauralkeet
aug 11, 2014, 9:31 am

I like the idea of the 1001 group trying to complete the list as a group. Individually it's quite daunting. I tracked my reading vs. the 1001 list for a while several years back, but found it frustrating that new lists were published every couple of years. How do you know which list to use? And it was really annoying when books I read from a previous list were dropped. I eventually despaired of tracking my progress. The list is still an interesting source of "what to read" inspiration, though.

55japaul22
aug 11, 2014, 11:16 am

I feel a little guilty panning a classic - I gather it's quite well-regarded in Spain, but I just couldn't connect with it.

>54 lauralkeet: Most people who track their 1001 books reading use the combined lists - that's every book that has been on the list at any point. I think the total now is 1305 books. As a group, we've read 1268 books - only 37 to go! I have no aspiration to read all 1305 books, but I would like to get to 500. Right now I'm only at 187! I've found some very good books though, that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise. It's also a good group of people and we've had some good group reads. But yes, there are some duds on the list, some questionable inclusions, and it's a little overwhelming!

56lauralkeet
aug 11, 2014, 1:36 pm

>55 japaul22: combined lists -- that makes a lot of sense. When I was doing this (around 2007-2008), there was someone who maintained a spreadsheet on the web, available for download. I suspect he/she has upgraded it over the years.

57japaul22
aug 11, 2014, 2:22 pm

>56 lauralkeet: Yep and there's even an app that I have on my iPhone!

58lauralkeet
aug 11, 2014, 4:42 pm

>57 japaul22: oh that's tempting ... I see it's $4.99 in the iTunes AppStore. Thinking ...

59rebeccanyc
aug 11, 2014, 5:27 pm

My issue with the 1001 books idea is that there are so many books I already own and haven't read and so many books I keep on finding in bookstores that I don't need any other source adding to the piles!

60mabith
aug 11, 2014, 5:39 pm

Plus there are just as many amazing newer books as there are classics. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not reading more acknowledged classics, I feel like I'm reading future classics and without the "classic" label you read them differently, maybe more openly. I always find it interesting to talk to people about their reactions to reading a book when it was newer, before the author was known or before the book was plastered on every third high school summer reading and 100 Best Novels list.

61japaul22
aug 11, 2014, 6:38 pm

>59 rebeccanyc: and >60 mabith: I agree with both of you. I read about 20 books off of the 1001 books to read before you die list a year. That's less than a third of my average reading for the year. The list has some good world literature choices (though it is not surprisingly weighted towards British and American authors). It also does include new books since there is an updated list every couple of years. And I'm a classics lover so I don't mind that there are a lot of classics on the list.

Rebecca, I know what you mean about having too many books to read, though. One of the reasons I joined LT was that I was kind of at a loss for what to read next. Now I have quite the opposite problem!!

62lauralkeet
aug 11, 2014, 9:22 pm

>61 japaul22: One of the reasons I joined LT was that I was kind of at a loss for what to read next. Now I have quite the opposite problem!!
Me too! Pre-LT, I was really at a loss, frequently disappointed by the limitations of the NYT bestseller list, Oprah's Book Club, and the "3 for 2" tables at Barnes & Noble & Borders. Not any more! It's a good problem to have isn't it?!

63rebeccanyc
aug 12, 2014, 7:40 am

LT has only made my "problem" worse!

64japaul22
aug 12, 2014, 1:56 pm

#45 True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
As I was reading this book, I kept coming back to one word - enigmatic. Jansson's story of a brother and sister, Mats and Katri, inserting themselves into the home of Anna Aemelin is never straight forward. Even the narrator shifts from third person to first person from Katri's point of view throughout the novel. The setting is part of the story here - the small town is blanketed with snow and it's dark most of the day and night in this northern town. Katri wants something from Anna, but Anna is not just a victim here. She has her own needs and wants that she subtly takes from Katri and Mats.

I liked this book with it's interesting characters and relationships, but something about the enigmatic quality kept me at arm's length. I found it a good book, but not a great one.

Original Publication Date: 1982
Author’s nationality: Swedish/Finnish
Original language: Swedish
Length: 181 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased, NYRB edition

65NanaCC
aug 12, 2014, 6:52 pm

I keep hearing good things about The True Deceiver. You have pushed me to add it to my wishlist.

66japaul22
aug 12, 2014, 7:56 pm

Colleen, I think you'd like it and it's definitely worth the time.

67japaul22
aug 17, 2014, 6:38 am

#46 Maise Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
I’ve been doing some comfort reading after finishing La Regenta and thought I’d try a new mystery series. Since the Maisie Dobbs series also takes place during WWI, I thought it would fit with my reading this year nicely. The first book in this series has a mystery, but it is secondary to Maisie’s war experience as a nurse and her love of an army doctor, Simon. The book explores some of the aftermath of the war for the soldiers and women who participated as it takes place in 1929 with an extended flashback section that takes place before and during the war.

I really liked this initial book in the series – definitely enough to give the next book a try. I don’t feel I can make a judgment on the series as a whole, though, until I read a few more as I loved the WWI back story and assume subsequent books will be more mystery, less history. I did like some of Maisie’s methods though – especially her understanding of body language. Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying some more of this series.

Original Publication Date: 2003
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 292 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library sale

#47 Lucia in London by E.F. Benson
Another fun and charming installment in the Mapp and Lucia series. I love these slightly inane but lovable characters. Nothing much happens, but it’s just lots of fun. I’m very ready to see what happens when Mapp and Lucia meet in the next book.

Original Publication Date: 1927
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 240 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle

68RidgewayGirl
aug 17, 2014, 7:19 am

I have had Maisie Dobbs on my TBR for an embarrassingly long time. You'd made it sound like I should pull it out soon.

69mabith
aug 17, 2014, 9:26 am

I always feel like I should read Maisie Dobbs but it came out (and got popular) when I was working at a bookstore and I've ended up with a weird "Nope nope nope" attitude towards books that fit that. I guess because I had to talk about them and listen to customers gab about them for so long.

70VivienneR
aug 18, 2014, 1:28 pm

>67 japaul22: You are in for a treat: I think the best of E.F Benson comes after Mapp and Lucia meet, although I loved the entire series.

71Nickelini
aug 18, 2014, 11:51 pm

Way back in post #23 you said: (the completist in me NEEDS them to also published Mansfield Park!!).

Okay, you can breathe: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/austen/

They say it's coming autumn 2015, and will be edited by Deidre Lynch, who is an Austen scholar who I've enjoyed so far. Really looking forward to it!

72japaul22
aug 19, 2014, 8:22 am

>71 Nickelini: Oh, thank goodness!! Thanks for letting me know - it will be bought immediately upon publication! :-)

73japaul22
aug 22, 2014, 12:44 pm

#48 The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
Excellent! I loved this first in a mystery series by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. I resisted, but after seeing so many positive reviews here, I decided to give it a try. Good mystery, good characters, good writing . . . what's not to like. I'll definitely be reading the next book as well.

Original Publication Date: 2013
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 561 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle from library

74NanaCC
aug 22, 2014, 12:52 pm

>73 japaul22: I think the second is even better than the first. :)

75lauralkeet
aug 23, 2014, 5:28 am

So do I!!

76japaul22
aug 23, 2014, 6:57 am

>74 NanaCC: and >75 lauralkeet: Great! The very positive reviews for The Silkworm are what convinced me to read the first in the series. I have The Silkworm on my kindle for when I'm ready for another mystery.

But first, I am enjoying Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, a little over half way through.

77japaul22
Redigeret: okt 5, 2014, 8:15 pm

I got challenged on Facebook to share the top ten books that have stuck through me over the years. I thought I might as well share my choices here as well. All of these books pushed my reading in a different direction in some way and I've read them all at least twice. Anyone else care to share theirs? The hardest part is limiting yourself to ten!

Emma by Jane Austen
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
John Adams by David McCollough
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

78mabith
aug 25, 2014, 12:06 pm

Ooh, I did this a while back.

1. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
2. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
3. We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse by James Hillman and Michael Venture
4. Honey and Salt by Carl Sandburg
5. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
6. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
7. Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg
8. The West Virginia Mine Wars by David Alan Corbin
9. The Tempest by William Shakespeare
10. Alan Mendelsohn: Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater

Interesting for me to see the Sigrid Undset book. I have the massive Master of Hestviken series (in one volume) sitting around, it was discarded from my dad's library and he brought it to me. It's rather intimidating sitting on the shelf.

79japaul22
aug 25, 2014, 12:47 pm

>78 mabith: Thanks for sharing your list - I love seeing these! Many books on your list that I haven't read so I'll have to do some research on them and get reading.

80japaul22
aug 25, 2014, 12:49 pm

>78 mabith: Oh, and I have not read any of Sigrid Undset's works except for the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, but it is fantastic. Long if you read all three at once, but packed with details of medieval Norse life and a good family epic at the same time.

81mabith
aug 25, 2014, 5:58 pm

It sounds excellent! My library has it, so I'll have to grab in when I'm up for a long read. Sounds like just the thing I'd love.

82rebeccanyc
aug 25, 2014, 6:43 pm

I loved Kristin Lavransdatter but it is important to get the recent Tiina Nunnally translation -- it is the only one that is complete.

83baswood
aug 25, 2014, 7:15 pm

My top ten changes all the time but here it is off the top of my head at this moment in time:

The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
Othello William Shakespeare
The Plumed Serpent D H Lawrence
The Vivisector Patrick White
The Stranger Albert Camus
The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance Robert M Pirsig
Desert Marsh and Mountain: The World of a Nomad Wilfred Thesiger
Perdido Street Station China Mieville
Catch 22 Joseph Heller

84japaul22
aug 25, 2014, 8:10 pm

Barry, that's a great list! It reminds me that I need to read some Patrick White.

85japaul22
aug 26, 2014, 12:20 pm

#49 Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann translated by John E. Woods
Buddenbrooks was written by Thomas Mann when he was only 25 years old, but this reads as the work of a much older and more experienced writer. Buddenbrooks explores four generations of the Buddenbrooks family, a family that has everything going for it at the beginning of the book and declines through the 731 pages of this novel. The 19th century German family experiences business set backs, divorces, ill health, and death, all of which contribute to their demise. The family values itself very highly and refuses initially to see the problems occurring, instead relying on their pride in family to carry them along.

I loved this book. The detail of characterization and the exploration of family history were fantastic. I also loved the themes of entitlement vs. work ethic - sometimes both hard work and a sense of entitlement being balanced in one character, sometimes in contrasting characters. I haven't read much German literature, but I've read a lot of family epics from this general era. This differed in the specifics of money that were always present and the decline of all parts of the family - no one in the family is really successful here. Despite the decline of the family, and the multiple deaths (which by the way are written very convincingly - hit a little too close to home for me), it isn't an unrelentingly dark novel. I found it very readable and captivating. Definitely a 5 star read.

Original Publication Date: 1900
Author’s nationality: German
Original language: English
Length: 731 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased

86Poquette
aug 26, 2014, 2:43 pm

Having read Magic Mountain a couple of years ago, I am eager to read more of Thomas Mann. I appreciate your review of Buddenbrooks.

87Poquette
aug 26, 2014, 3:41 pm

>77 japaul22: I had to give my top ten reading experiences some thought, and I cannot resist contributing my list as well. I have added the years in which they were first read:

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (read 2014)
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville (2012)
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius (2010)
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1995)
Son of the Morning by Joyce Carol Oates (1978)
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (1976)
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (1970)
In Quest of the Perfect Book by Willliam Dana Orcutt (1967)
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (1964)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1950s, again in 2012)

88rebeccanyc
aug 27, 2014, 7:39 am

>85 japaul22: I loved Buddenbrooks too and was amazed that he had such insight into much older people at the age of 25.

89RidgewayGirl
Redigeret: aug 27, 2014, 8:10 am

Ok, here are mine. They are a much less elevated group, as a whole, that the rest of your lists.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (The best Bronte's best book)
Queenpin by Megan Abbott
Garnethill by Denise Mina (these two books taught me that noir is not a man's game)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (is there a more perfect book?)
The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (both my teenage self and my current self will love this book forever)
Keep the Apidistra Flying by George Orwell
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (if I had to have just one favorite, it would be this)

90japaul22
aug 27, 2014, 11:18 am

>87 Poquette: and >89 RidgewayGirl: Great lists! Suzanne, the only book I've read on your list is Moby Dick! I'll have to remedy that! Kay - I'm interested in many of the books on your list. I've never enjoyed Hemingway, but I've never read A Moveable Feast either. Maybe if I give him another shot, I'll pick that next.

>86 Poquette: And how was reading The Magic Mountain? I found Buddenbrooks surprisingly readable, but I get the feeling that's not the case with his other books.

>88 rebeccanyc: I really can't figure out how he had the life experience to write Buddenbrooks so convincingly at such a young age!

91japaul22
aug 27, 2014, 11:45 am

Looking at all of these lists reminds me again how many great books are out there. It's amazing to me that even the people whose reading tastes I consider closest to my own have a tiny percentage of books that overlap between our libraries. I didn't look completely thoroughly, but I don't think there is any overlap between the 5 lists shared here.

92Poquette
Redigeret: aug 27, 2014, 3:16 pm

>90 japaul22: And how was reading The Magic Mountain?

It was delightful. I actually participated in a group read in the Salon. A well-footnoted text would be helpful if you can find one. It is not difficult, but Mann's ironic viewpoint and all the philosophical ruminations bear some explanation. Give it a try!

>91 japaul22: Each of us must be influenced somehow by our life experience even in the books that are most memorable. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I was reading each of the books on my list, which is why I can date the reading so precisely.

93japaul22
sep 1, 2014, 12:55 pm

#50 The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
The Blazing World is one of the 2014 Booker prize nominees that jumped out at me as something I would like to read. The premise is that a woman artist, Harriet "Harry" Burden, in her 60s who feels that her artwork has been under-appreciated because of her gender, creates 3 works of art and finds a different man to claim each of the exhibits as his own. After all three are exhibited and critiqued she plans to reveal herself as the artist behind them. Unfortunately, the last artist she chooses betrays her and refuses to admit that the work was hers. Many people believe him and the whole project is ruined for her.

The book is put together with different voices in Harriet's life trying to tell her story after her death. We get points of view from both of Harry's adult children, her second husband, her best friend, art critics, and others. This is very effective as a major theme of the book is perception. You see from the various points of view all of the ways the events are perceived. Also, Harriet leaves behind extensive journals where she discusses her life, her artwork, and her reading - she is esoteric, conceited, and vulnerable all at once. She reads philosophy and quotes it extensively. Luckily, the fictional editor of the book provides footnotes for the references Harriet makes.

You would assume from the description that a major theme of this book is going to be sexism in the art world. This is part of the book, certainly, but it is approached more as Harriet's perception of sexism. I would say that the theme is closer to exploring how the artist is part of the work of art. As such, gender, sexual orientation, race, and personality of the artist all factor in to a work of art. Part of Harriet's experiment with her art work was to demonstrate this, though I'm not sure if she intended that from the start. This theme really got me thinking about how much the name attached to a work of art influences my experience of the art itself. I think it's a great degree, personally.

Hustvedt does a great job of humanizing these philosophical themes, though. In fact, in some ways, when I finished this book I felt it was more about aging, death, and relationships with the art world as a back drop. As often happens with books with multiple narrators, there were some that I liked more than others and times where I felt the book got a bit bogged down and lost its focus. Overall, though, I thought this was a smart book with some important themes that manages to keep a human touch. That's not an easy balance to manage and why I think this was a worthy Booker nomination.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 351 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library book

94baswood
sep 1, 2014, 2:06 pm

I enjoyed your review of The Blazing World and was almost tempted until you said it was a smart book

95japaul22
sep 2, 2014, 7:48 pm

>94 baswood: Barry, it was smart, but I didn't find it pretentious if that's what worries you.

96Poquette
sep 2, 2014, 11:02 pm

I could have sworn I posted a response to your review of The Blazing World! Guess I forgot to save it. Oh well. But I did add it to my September wish list. Your review is very interesting!

97dchaikin
Redigeret: sep 3, 2014, 12:49 am

Enjoyed your review, even if my first thought is why I should care about these kind of philosophical questions...that's not to say I shouldn't care, only that I might need some convincing.

Pondering ten books that had a lasting affect...these might not all be good books.

1. 1984 - which I read before I kept any lists
2. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - first of The Wheel of Time Series, read in 1991
3. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, read in 1995
4. Crime and Punishment read in 2003
5. Goodbye to a River by John Graves, read in 2005
6. The New New Journalism a book of interviews of nonfiction writers by Robert Boynton, read in 2005
7. Aracoeli by Elsa Morante, read in 2009
8. Infinite Jest read in 2010
9. The Prospector by J. M. G. Le Clezio, read in 2010
10. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin, read in 2010

Was tempted to add many others. The last two books seem more flippant additions than the rest. Guess it's just a list of the moment.

98japaul22
sep 3, 2014, 6:26 am

>96 Poquette: Thanks, Suzanne. I'll be interested to see what other LTers think of it as well.

>97 dchaikin: As far as why to care about the philosophical questions, for me it's all tied up with being a performing musician. The importance of who is behind a work of art is masked in the world of a classical musician because when we audition for an organization the decision on who to hire is made completely blind (with a few exceptions here or there at the very end when down to 2-3 people). We audition for a panel from behind a screen, even lying down carpets to mask the click of feminine high heels. Most musicians are hired without ever being seen - no gender, ethnicity, etc. can be judged by sight. Obviously, this only works for musicians auditioning to play in a group - soloists are a different story. But art and identity is an interesting topic to me and I like that this was in the visual art world. I get kind of "judge-y" about books that try to describe the music world, so this was just far enough removed to get some of the themes without my personal baggage!

>97 dchaikin: ALso, great list! I think these are best without too much thought. I keep meaning to read some Le Clezio.

99dchaikin
sep 3, 2014, 7:23 am

Great answer! That is a perspective I hadn't considered.

100SassyLassy
sep 3, 2014, 10:00 am

>98 japaul22: Fascinating addition to your review of The Blazing World. I've been avoiding current Booker titles for some time now, but this sounds like an interesting one.
I have to say though, that I am considering the various meanings of smart in a new way!

101baswood
sep 3, 2014, 12:49 pm

>98 japaul22: Wow! I did not know that about classical music auditions.

102Poquette
sep 3, 2014, 3:33 pm

>98 japaul22: . . . for me it's all tied up with being a performing musician.

Perhaps you have already said and I missed it, but what instrument do you play?

103japaul22
sep 3, 2014, 4:50 pm

>101 baswood: Barry, here's an article, if you're interested, that takes a close look at the orchestral audition process (the same process I went through for the Marine Band). It captures the process pretty well.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/06/boston-symphony-orchestra-audition/

>102 Poquette: Suzanne, I play the french horn with "The President's Own" US Marine Band.

104mabith
sep 3, 2014, 5:23 pm

Why is the audition process different for soloists?

105japaul22
sep 3, 2014, 8:12 pm

>104 mabith: Well, soloists don't really audition at all. Most soloists start their career by winning a major competition which usually comes with solo opportunities with major (and minor) orchestras. Then depending on how they do and how they are marketed, their career either flourishes or not. Competitions are not done with a blind process to my knowledge. I suppose that acknowledges that stage presence is a large part of a soloist's marketability and talent.

106mabith
sep 3, 2014, 8:22 pm

Ah, gotcha. Nice to know more about the music I consume most!

107japaul22
sep 3, 2014, 8:26 pm

>106 mabith: No problem - happy to help!

108japaul22
Redigeret: sep 4, 2014, 9:46 pm

#51 Alberta and Freedom by Cora Sandel
After loving the first book (Alberta and Jacob)in this semi-autobiographical trilogy by Norwegian Nobel prize winner, Cora Sandel, I have to say I was a bit disappointed in this book. I still loved the writing and thought that Sandel does a fantastic job creating a sense of place, this time Paris as a struggling young adult. But while I found Alberta's shyness and lack of direction understandable and sort of endearing when she was 17, I had less patience for it when she's in her early 20s. Alberta is in Paris now, just kind of hanging around. She's barely working - just writing an article here and there - and subsisting in mice-infested apartments with little to no food to eat. And she just can't seem to get her act together to even attempt a career.

I will finish the trilogy, but I wasn't thrilled with this book. The writing is great enough, though, to keep me going. I also think I read that she goes back to Norway in the third book and one of my favorite things about the first book in the series was the excellent description of Norway.

Original Publication Date: 1931
Author’s nationality: Norwegian
Original language: Norwegian
Length: 241 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased

109japaul22
sep 7, 2014, 9:16 pm

#52 Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Swimming Home was an odd reading experience for me. It takes place over one week in France as Jozef and Isabel take their 14 year old daughter, Nina, and their friends Laura and Mitchell to a vacation home. Their marriage is already rocky and when they arrive at the vacation home to find the beautiful, naked, and crazy Kitty swimming in the pool you know things are not going to turn out well.

The writing in this book is good - kind of dreamy but still powerful descriptions - but I felt that there were so many loose ends still when the book ended that I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Some of the characters (especially Laura and Mitchell) seemed superfluous, as if Levy started the book thinking they'd be important and then just changed directions. But she did succeed in entangling the lives and thoughts of Jozef, Kitty, and Nina with a lot of artistry. I wonder if the book would have been better either as a short story or as a longer novel.

Original Publication Date: 2012
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 176 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle library book

110japaul22
Redigeret: sep 15, 2014, 6:26 pm

#53 The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield

This is a short story that I listened to as an audiobook, a medium I'm pretty new to and still experimenting with. It's an interesting story about a garden party that is about to happen when the family finds out that the father of a poor neighboring family has been killed in an accident. The family reacts differently to the news - Laura wanting to cancel the party and the rest feeling that she is overreacting.

I found it good but probably not very memorable.

Original Publication Date: 1922
Author’s nationality: British (New Zealand)
Original language: English
Length: audiobook, 36 min
Rating: 3 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: audio library book

111japaul22
sep 19, 2014, 2:36 pm

#54 My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
I'm still not sure exactly what this books was - memoir, literary analysis, biography of George Eliot? - but in the end it really didn't matter. This book was like having a conversation with a good friend about a book you both love. Rebecca Mead analyzes her favorite book, Middlemarch, through several techniques: using traditional literary analysis, exploring the work by discovering George Eliot's life and influences, and connecting the book to Mead's own life experiences.

This was a really interesting mix of analysis and the tone hit the perfect mix of scholarly and conversational. It could easily have gotten a pretentious feel, but luckily didn't. I loved revisiting Middlemarch (one of my favorites) through Rebecca Mead's eyes.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: British (transplanted to NYC)
Original language: English
Length: 306 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle library book

112dchaikin
sep 19, 2014, 8:19 pm

>110 japaul22: - I think I've read this story. I think How to Read Literature like a professor has it and then gives two difference analyses. I remember liking that story anyway.

>111 japaul22: - one if these days I will read Middlemarch and then I'll need to keep this in mind.

113lauralkeet
sep 20, 2014, 6:03 am

>111 japaul22: I was intrigued by that book when it first came out, and then kind of forgot about it. But lately I've seen a few more reviews, and it's piqued my interest again.

114japaul22
sep 20, 2014, 9:13 pm

>112 dchaikin: Middlemarch is a time commitment but it is so worth it! One of my favorites!

>113 lauralkeet: I think that if you like Middlemarch and talking about books, you'll like it!

115japaul22
sep 20, 2014, 9:20 pm

#55 Heartstone by C.J. Sansom
This is the 5th book in the Matthew Shardlake mystery series set in Tudor England. Lawyer Matthew Shardlake gets mixed up with the Court of Wards, one of the most corrupt branches of law, at the behest of Queen Catharine Parr. The Court of Wards controls wealthy orphans who are purchased by guardians. I loved the historical aspects of the law that were explored here. There are several intersecting mysteries, some of which have more plausible outcomes than others, but I loved the historical setting of this one. It's set in one of the wars with France in 1544-46. It also includes the sinking of the Mary Rose, one of England's war ships.

As always with these books, I think the historical fiction aspect is stronger than the actual mystery, and despite reservations about some of the conclusions to the mysteries, I really love this series. I hope there end up being more!

Original Publication Date: 2011
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 642 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased for kindle

116baswood
sep 21, 2014, 1:45 am

>155 mabith: I shall be reading this too, as you say Sansom is excellent on the historical aspects of these novels and his characterisation can be pretty good as well.

117lauralkeet
sep 21, 2014, 6:27 am

>114 japaul22: if you like Middlemarch and talking about books, you'll like it! yes on both counts -- sounds like a winner!
>115 japaul22: Although I didn't like this last book in the series as much as the others, I was still sad to be coming to the end of it. I think I heard somewhere he's planning more. Fingers crossed!

118japaul22
sep 21, 2014, 2:02 pm

#56 Jane Austen Cover to Cover by Margaret C. Sullivan
I loved browsing through this illustrated coffee table book that shows highlights of publications of Jane Austen's work from when they first were printed until the modern day. I say browsing, because you could certainly read it that way, but I actually read it cover to cover. The author gives information on publishing techniques, some light literary criticism, and history of how Jane Austen's works have been received in different eras. Interspersed are quotes from all the novels.

The main show, of course, is the pictures of the covers 100s of different publications with commentary on how the cover was chosen and how it reflects the times it was published in. Some of the commentary gets delightfully snarky - oh those 1960s and 1970s publications! - and I found it really entertaining. She also covers translations of Austen's work and a little about the movies and television productions that have been made.

The only problem with this book is that now I want to collect ALL of these editions - especially the cheesy ones!

Nickelini - special mention to you because I thought of you a lot while I was reading this book since it combines cover analysis and Jane Austen!

This was a book that I received through the Early Reviewers program.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 223 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: owned, Early Reviewers program

119avidmom
sep 21, 2014, 2:07 pm

>118 japaul22: Sounds wonderful!!!

120NanaCC
sep 21, 2014, 3:08 pm

>115 japaul22: I just read an early review of Sansom's next Shardlake book #6. It is scheduled to release in February 2015, and is called Lamentation. I also have wondered whether Shardlake's meeting the very young Elizabeth in Heartstone would lead to a new storyline.

121lauralkeet
sep 21, 2014, 5:35 pm

>120 NanaCC: ooh ooh ooh! That's exciting. Thanks for the news!

122japaul22
sep 21, 2014, 7:20 pm

>120 NanaCC: That is great news! I'll be sure to read it. I also noticed his meeting with the future Queen Elizabeth.

123japaul22
sep 26, 2014, 2:45 pm

#57 The Secret Place by Tana French
Loved it! In this mystery, Tana French explores the lives and friendships of teenage girls with a lot of insight and expertise. I liked the mystery, liked the characters, and loved the writing. Hope she keeps up the series.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: Irish
Original language: English
Length: 464 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased for kindle

124NanaCC
sep 26, 2014, 2:58 pm

>123 japaul22: I also loved The Secret Place, Jennifer. This series has been very good. I think the writing is smart, and the plots are intriguing. It is always interesting to see which character from a previous book becomes the main character in the current one. Now we have to wait for the next one. (Not that I have any shortage of books to keep me going.)

125lauralkeet
sep 27, 2014, 5:46 am

I'm nearly finished with French's The Likeness (second in the series). I'll definitely keep going.

126NanaCC
sep 27, 2014, 7:38 am

>125 lauralkeet: I think that The Likeness was my least favorite of the series. I enjoyed it, but found some of it a little too unbelievable.

127japaul22
sep 27, 2014, 7:45 am

I've really liked all of her books, and actually The Likeness was a favorite of mine. I think I'm in the minority that Faithful Place was not my favorite since that's the one I hear most often. Of course, like all of us, I really hope she comes back to Rob and Cassie at some point!

128RidgewayGirl
sep 27, 2014, 7:50 am

The Likeness was my favorite, although Broken Harbour is a close second.

129NanaCC
sep 27, 2014, 7:56 am

>127 japaul22: I did like The Likeness, Jennifer. (that sentence sounds awful) There were just parts of it that I found so unlikely. I haven't read Donna Tartt's The Secret History, but I've heard a few people mention that they thought the plot was too similar.

As far as favorites, I've always said that Faithful Place was my favorite, but the latest one sure gave it a run for the money. And yes, Cassie & Rob. I loved those characters. I think it is hard to pick a favorite. I've said before that her books are much more than a good mystery.

130lauralkeet
sep 27, 2014, 10:31 am

I agree The Likeness has some far-fetched aspects to it, and I was also struck by similarities to The Secret History. Glad I'm not alone in that. Despite the flaws, it's been a fun read.

131japaul22
okt 1, 2014, 8:08 pm

I read The Secret History after reading The Likeness, and I was also struck by the similarities.

132japaul22
okt 1, 2014, 8:19 pm

#58 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
audiobook, 3h59m, read by Nadia May

My second audiobook try for the year. First a review of the book, which I loved. This is the story of Miss Jean Brodie, a progressive teacher at a traditional school for girls in the 1930s. Her class is identified as the "Brodie set" and defined by their teacher's progressive attitude towards what is important in education - more of a real life approach vs. book learning. Miss Brodie always says she's "in her prime" and the girls try desperately to figure out what that means throughout the book. In their early years, there's innocent discussions of sex and Miss Brodie's love life and as the girls grow into their teenage years their understanding grows and their own experiences widen. I thought the book was an amusing and entertaining look at the teacher/student relationship and had some great personalities - especially Miss Jean Brodie. I'll definitely look for more books by Muriel Spark.

As far as the audiobook experience, I thought this reader, Nadia May, was great. I think I could get the hang of listening to audiobooks, but it's definitely a different way of experiencing a book. In some ways, I think I get a bit more out of it because hearing the words can make them stick, especially with the inflection a good reader brings. But I don't like not being able to flip back to reread passages or double check something I don't quite remember. I also have to really try to not tune out the words. I'm so used to tuning out extraneous noise (having kids, playing in a band!) that I have to work at not spacing out. I think I'll keep trying it occasionally though. I especially like it when I'm busy and don't have as much time to sit and read as I'd like.

Original Publication Date: 1961
Author’s nationality: Scottish
Original language: English
Length: 3h59m
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library audiobook

133dchaikin
Redigeret: okt 2, 2014, 12:10 am

I listened to the first half of The Guns of August read by Nadia May. She is an excellent reader for books with formal language. Glad you're trying out audio. I only started last year and now I always have something going. It's a different experience, but still a very rewarding one.

134RidgewayGirl
okt 2, 2014, 2:17 am

I think the tuning out of audiobooks is why I have a hard time with them. I can do non-fiction, when doing something that doesn't fully engage my brain, like housework, driving or walking somewhere, but I'll still miss segments.

135mabith
okt 2, 2014, 9:25 am

Perhaps this is why audiobooks are so easy to me, I have a very very difficult time tuning out any noise (the exception being if I'm reading print and very engaged). It's to the extent where I really can't tune out anything barring serious white noise (desk/floor fan noise, highway noise, ocean, etc...).

136NanaCC
okt 2, 2014, 9:47 am

When I was working, my job left me little time to read. The long commute was perfect for audio books, so that was my book of choice. Unlike Kay, I do better with fiction. I find that with non-fiction books, there are always too may parts where I want to look things up, or go back and make sure I caught something. Now that I'm retired, I still listen to audio books on car trips, and while I'm cleaning the house, knitting or walking, but they take much longer than they used to.

137japaul22
okt 2, 2014, 9:53 am

Interested to hear about everyone's experiences with audiobooks. I think I'll keep it up periodically, especially when I'm too busy to sit and read much. I think I'll get better at listening to them with a little practice.

138japaul22
Redigeret: okt 2, 2014, 1:59 pm

#59 Misericordia or Compassion by Benito Perez Galdos
This is an odd but touching Spanish Realist novel from 1897 that looks at the plight of the poor. Benina is the main character and is the loyal servant of a Dona Paca who has squandered her money and now lives in utter poverty. Benina remains loyal to her and takes care of her by begging on the streets and also keeping her spirits up. In order to not shame Dona Paca, Benina lies about where the money comes from, inventing the story that she has a job working for a Priest, Don Remualdo. Benina takes in several other people, seemingly a magnet for the unfortunate. Every pesata she comes upon is used to make others happy, though she does always reserve a small percentage for her personal stash. Towards the end of the book, the fictional Don Remualdo actually shows up at Dona Paca's home and shares that she has inherited an annuity from a distant relative. Dona Paca immediately falls into her old spending ways and also throws Benina aside.

The book explores poverty, compassion, and loyalty through some great characters. I did feel that I would have gotten more out of it if I had a better background in Spanish culture and history. Also, I get the feeling that the dialects the different characters use were important in the original Spanish and probably didn't translate very well. I did enjoy it overall, though.

Original Publication Date: 1897
Author’s nationality: Spanish
Original language: Spanish
Length: 250 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle purchase

139dchaikin
okt 3, 2014, 12:54 am

Intrigued. This seems both a bit obscure and different than your usual reading.

140japaul22
okt 3, 2014, 6:31 am

>139 dchaikin: good observation, Dan! I read Misericordia for a group challenge in the 1001 books to read before you die group. We're collectively trying to read every book off the list, and this was one that no one in the group had read.

141dchaikin
okt 3, 2014, 12:30 pm

That makes sense. Steven is doing some of those too, but with him the books don't seem different than his regular reading.

142avidmom
okt 3, 2014, 6:36 pm

>132 japaul22: The only real luck I've ever had with audio is last summer, when I had some bizarre illness that put me in bed for more than a week and it was a treat to be "read to." The other times I've tried, though, I find myself zoning "in and out" or in the case of one audiobook I tried, the music in the background annoyed me so much I had to quit!

I would be interested in reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, but Misericordia sounds depressing. Is it?

143japaul22
okt 3, 2014, 7:55 pm

>142 avidmom: I would definitely not like an audiobook with music in the background! As far as Misericordia, I wouldn't say it was depressing. Benina, in particular, has a good sense of humor and just takes life as it comes without letting it get her down. It was more that it just felt so far outside my normal reading that I didn't have the background to really appreciate it. I think it's probably better appreciated by someone who knows the Spanish cannon of literature a little better. I think that Galdos's novel, Fortunata and Jacinta is his best known work. I will probably read that some day.

144japaul22
okt 7, 2014, 10:02 am

#60 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
audiobook read by Martin Jarvis

Another audio book and this one worked really well. The horror story aspect of this book made it fun to listen to - kind of like sitting around a campfire hearing a ghost story. I also liked this reader, Martin Jarvis.

As for the book, what can I say? Though the "science" behind the transformation of Dr. Jekyll is very 1800s, the tale itself is a lot of fun - well-paced and suspenseful - even if you know the ending from the beginning. I enjoyed it!

Original Publication Date: 1886
Author’s nationality: Scottish
Original language: English
Length: audiobook, 2h56m
Rating: 4 stars for both the book and the reading
Format/Where I acquired the book: audiobook from the library

145StevenTX
okt 7, 2014, 2:07 pm

>141 dchaikin: Yes, that's me, mired in obscurity :-)

>144 japaul22: I've read this twice in recent years, and appreciated it even more the second time. I've noted that many prominent writers of the early 20th century point to Stevenson as a major influence though we now mostly think of him as a writer of adventure stories. Did you get a sense, as I did, that Mr. Hyde's principal "depravity" was homosexuality?

146Nickelini
okt 7, 2014, 2:54 pm

Did you get a sense, as I did, that Mr. Hyde's principal "depravity" was homosexuality?

Steven -- I studied Jekyl and Hyde at university as a mature student and had a fabulous professor. She taught it as "A narrative of the closet," and that is the only way I can see the story now. The younger students in the class were not as easily convinced. We also considered it as a novel about addiction (drugs & alcohol), and that one they were able to get their heads around.

147japaul22
okt 7, 2014, 8:10 pm

>145 StevenTX: That didn't occur to me, Steven, but I suppose I could see it - all that Victorian era sexual repression and such! Now that I have it in mind, I bet on a second reading it would fit. To me I was struck more by the role of the potion, kind of as Nickelini suggested, as an addiction. Also the obvious good vs. evil - but wondering just how "good" was Dr. Jekyll and how "evil" was Mr. Hyde.

There's a lot to think about in this short book.

148japaul22
okt 8, 2014, 10:12 am

And now I'm listening to nonfiction audiobook, Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady, that takes place during the Victorian era. The author is talking about sexuality in the victorian era and one of the men in the book (well, really boy, he's only 15 when this starts being a "problem") is seeking a cure to control his excessive masturbation. "Excessive" in this case in twice daily and then he starts having wet dreams and feels that his urges are starting to control him. He tries all kinds of medical cures (that sound painful) and I had to giggle when he finally figures out that frequent sex with prostitutes "cures" him of his masturbation problem!

I point this out to say that Mr. Hyde's evil doesn't even have to be as dramatic (in Victorian terms) as homosexuality. It could be as simple as any sexual urge.

149baswood
okt 8, 2014, 2:36 pm

This thread is the place to come for sexual urges.

I am looking forward to reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde soon.

150japaul22
okt 10, 2014, 3:19 pm

#61 Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong
This is a first person narration by a young Vietnamese girl, Hang, living in the 1980s who is an "exported worker" to a Russian textile factory. She is called by her Uncle, who used to be a local leader in the Vietnamese communist party, to visit him. On her train ride there, she revisits her life in flashbacks. She remembers her relationship with her mother from childhood through the present. Her mother (the sister of the uncle I mentioned) had a relationship with a young man who was not approved of by her communist brother and they were never married, though he is Hang's father. She also has an Aunt Tam, her father's sister, who is single and lavishes all of her earnings on Hang, the only descendant of her family.

Apparently, Huong's books were all banned in Vietnam for their political content and were first translated into English in 1993. Huong was even imprisoned in the 1990s for her outspokenness. Because I knew these things before reading the book, I was expecting it to be more politically damning than it was (I was thinking of Wild Swans by Jung Chang). Instead, I found this to be a book about the life of one typical family. It was definitely impacted by political upheaval and that comes through, but it wasn't the focus of the book. I actually found more insight into the daily life of the Vietnamese through the excellent descriptions of food and cultural celebrations and traditions.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, though it wasn't quite as memorable or radical as I hoped it might be.

Original Publication Date: 1988 in Vietnamese, 1993 in English
Author’s nationality: Vietnamese
Original language: Vietnamese
Length: 270 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library book

151rebeccanyc
okt 12, 2014, 12:47 pm

that books sounds interesting. The only book by a Vietnamese author I've ever read is The Sorrow of War.

152japaul22
okt 13, 2014, 1:22 pm

#62 A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman
This is the last in the series of books describing the Angevin/Plantagenet dynasty, from King Stephen and Queen Maud through Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and ending with Richard the Lionheart's death and King John's ascension to the throne.

I love all of Penman's books, but this was a favorite among all of them. This book explores Richard's life after the Crusade to the the Holy Land. He is taken prisoner by the German Holy Roman Emperor and this imprisonment colors the rest of his life. This book still has many battles, but statecraft is also an integral part. Richard's speech to the Imperial Diet to affect his release is impressive and his work at getting back his empire from Philippe, King of France, is a combination of warfare and intelligence. I also loved the side story of his sister, Joanna, and her marriage to Raimond, Count of Toulouse. It was a sad book because pretty much every dies (Eleanor's long life means that she witnesses the deaths of almost all of her 10 children), but I still loved this series.

I hope that Penman starts a new series as I find her books a great combination of well researched history and fantastic characterization. I'm sad to be done reading these!

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 688 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle library book

153mabith
okt 13, 2014, 6:02 pm

I keep meaning to read something by Penman, but the audio editions of the books I've seen are sooo long and I'm not sure I'm quite interested enough to spend that on historical fiction (versus straight history).

154japaul22
okt 13, 2014, 7:16 pm

>153 mabith: You're right, her books are really long. Most are 600-900 big pages with tiny type. I find her books read fairly quickly though - her writing is really easy to process, but that doesn't help with an audiobook! I tend to like long books and I particularly like Penman's brand of historical fiction, though. I find her books very well researched and accurate (plus she's really honest in her afterward about anything she did make up or if she fudged a date or location to help the story). I've read quite a bit of nonfiction and what I like about historical fiction is that I get a lot of the same information, but in a format that is both more readable and more memorable. Reading both nonfiction and historical fiction from the same era really helps me remember the facts.

155mabith
Redigeret: okt 13, 2014, 8:21 pm

Reading it in print it doesn't feel so long, but yeah, so many hours... The Sunne in Splendour is around 45 hours! The others are more like 27, so I'll try a sample and see if they have slow readers. With the e-lent books from the library you can change the speed, which has been so handy. There are some really slow readers out there, and otherwise I'd just have skipped those books. I love to pair historical fiction and history reading too. That's what I rank as great historical fiction really, when it makes me immediately find non-fiction books about the subject/time period. I have Lisa See to thank for me suddenly reading so much about Mao's China last year!

156japaul22
Redigeret: okt 16, 2014, 3:25 pm

#63 Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale
audiobook read by Wanda McCaddon

My first foray into nonfiction audiobooks was a success. I knew of Kate Summerscale from her book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. This book is about a Victorian woman, Isabella Robinson, and how her private diary was used by her husband to prosecute a divorce.

The Robinsons, Henry and Isabella, are an upper middle class family. Isabella meets Edward Lane and writes in her diary about how attracted she is to him. They take evening walks together and have several encounters that are vaguely but romantically described and may imply that they actually have sex. Or maybe not. But probably.

So when Isabella gets sick, her husband Henry reads the diary and then decides to use it to attain a divorce. In the end, the divorce is not granted (well, not this trial of it - they later get a divorce based on a subsequent affair) but the book becomes about so much more than this one couple's experience. Summerscale uses their loveless marriage to explore women's issues such as the comical beliefs (at least from this remove) around sexual appetites and what they mean - usually that if you have any interest in sex you're insane or have some sort of uterine disease. This is certainly the belief about women, but extends to men at least a bit as well. Summerscale also details the changing divorce laws. The Robinsons were one of the first couples heard in a new divorce court which loosened the rules for granting a divorce and made it much less expensive. By the way, no one cared that Henry had been cheating on Isabella for basically their whole marriage, even fathering several illegitimate children. Also, much of the diary was published in the newspapers leading to discussions of journaling in the Victorian era, both in fiction and in the life of everyday women. Imagine, though, having your private journal which may or may not have been entirely true but certainly involved real people that you saw on a daily basis published for all to see. Isabella used her diary as her defense though. Instead of trying to prove that she didn't have an affair, she tried to claim insanity through her diary. Her sexual yearnings were proof in the Victorian era that she was insane.

Overall, I found this book very entertaining but it made me glad I wasn't a Victorian era woman.

Original Publication Date: 2012
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 7h27m
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library audio book

157Poquette
okt 16, 2014, 5:50 pm

>156 japaul22: . . . if you have any interest in sex you're insane or have some sort of uterine disease

That's very funny! I wonder what Mme. de Rênal and Mlle. Mathilde's excuses were (in The Red and the Black)!

What an interesting — maybe I should say dreadful — situation for Mrs. Robinson. Therein lie the makings of a novel! Enjoyed your comments.

158japaul22
okt 16, 2014, 7:58 pm

>157 Poquette: Summerscale does reference novels of the time, primarily Madame Bovary of course, when talking about the bored housewife phenomenon. She also referenced novels that use journals as a basis, like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The Woman in White. I liked those touches since it's an era in literature that I'm pretty familiar with.

159Poquette
okt 16, 2014, 8:43 pm

Re the bored housewife phenomenon, for various reasons I am not particularly attracted to that subgenre, so I am completely ignorant although I did read Madame Bovary once upon a time. The idea is certainly intriguing, though.

160mabith
okt 16, 2014, 9:19 pm

Glad to hear a positive review, from someone I trust, of Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace! It was on my list and then some review made me hesitate and now it's climbing to the top again (plus my library has the audiobook in their e-lending section).

161japaul22
okt 17, 2014, 1:52 pm

mabith - I hope you try it and like it. I thought it was really interesting and worked well as an audiobook.

162japaul22
okt 17, 2014, 2:05 pm

#64 A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman
I've been reading this book off and on for the last two months, and I can safely say that Tuchman thoroughly presents the 14th century through great research and a readable writing style. As in most very long nonfiction books, I must admit that there were sections that I personally found kind of boring, but most likely everyone who reads this will find something to love and something to skim and it will probably be different for everyone.

Tuchman covers a lot in this book. My favorite parts were actually the more general sections where she talks about everyday life for varying classes of people. I also like where she wrote about the Black Death and its effects on population and the mindset of the people. I was interested in reading about the schism in the church, with one Pope in Rome and one Pope in Avignon. I was also interested in the general information about warfare and chivalry (the Hundred Years War between France and England takes place during this time plus some Crusades), though I get bored reading about specific battles and sieges. I also thought it was great that she chose one nobleman, Enguerrand VII de Coucy, to follow throughout the book. Enguerrand was integral in the politics and warfare of the era and was well respected as a intelligent, moderating force amidst a lot of craziness. Actually, literal craziness, as several of the Kings of France were mad in the 14th century.

As always with books that cover these sorts of events, I personally am not very interested in reading about battles or in really understanding the politics of the day in any depth. But that's just my personal taste. This book is both broad and focused and I think that everyone will find something in it to satisfy themself.

Original Publication Date: 1978
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 784 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased, off the shelf

163mabith
okt 17, 2014, 6:03 pm

Glad you enjoyed A Distant Mirror in general! Have you read Ian Mortimer's A Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England? They're really great for the daily life stuff, just really neat, and I think the Medieval one was especially great.

164japaul22
okt 17, 2014, 6:51 pm

It was a memorable reading experience for sure. I think the books you recommended sound great - on the wish list they go!

165Poquette
okt 19, 2014, 6:01 pm

You captured the essence of A Distant Mirror very well! I read it many years ago and had a similar reaction to yours. In general, though, I liked it for what I learned. It was quite revealing for me as I was totally ignorant of the period.

166japaul22
Redigeret: okt 21, 2014, 10:40 am

#65 The Waves by Virginia Woolf
In The Waves, Virginia Woolf has created a masterpiece. From the elegant prose to the innovative structure (yes, innovative even at a distance of almost 85 years) to the philosophy life and death, this book is a revelation. I found it both unsettling and oddly comforting.

Woolf uses the friendship of six people, three men and three women, to discover both the living world and death. The book is written in an almost poetic style, sticking largely to interior speak. There is very little direct interaction between the friends. There are nine sections, presented chronologically that range from early childhood through school, middle age, and the end of life. The writing is odd – it’s hard to figure out if you’re supposed to believe these people are really thinking these poetic words or is it almost what the brain sees and processes before we’d actually put language to it? In the end it doesn’t matter because it’s beautiful and different and therefore more impactful.

I read the paperback book with a pencil in hand – underlining passages, writing questions, and making connections – something I’ve not done since college but that made a big difference in my reading. This is a book that deserves to be analyzed and I intend to do some research on it after I let it settle and form some of my own opinions. It is also a book to be reread and I’m sure it will mean something different to me over the decades to come.

On a personal note, many of you know that my dad died very quickly and unexpectedly this year way too young – only 63. I think this book meant something much different to me after that experience than it would have before. The whole last section of Bernard’s musing on his life and inevitable death really struck me as a gradual personal acceptance of death and separation from earthly matters. That is, until the last paragraph.

I’m obviously pretty blown away by this book. It’s been a while since I read something both challenging to read and personal at the same time. I think it’s impressive that Woolf was able to do both – stretch a reader’s boundaries in language and form but still make a personal book that can be deeply connected to.

Fascinating.

Original Publication Date: 1931
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 297 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: paperback, purchased

167baswood
okt 21, 2014, 12:44 pm

Enjoyed your review of The Waves and how the book seemed to speak to you. Great literature can do that. It is a long time since I read The Waves and so it is time for a re-read.

I really enjoyed A Distant Mirror and agree that Tuchman managed to make her book appeal to a wider readership than those just wanting information about the 14th century.

168avidmom
okt 22, 2014, 12:08 pm

> Lovely review of The Waves that's made even better with the way you said it affected you on such a personal level. I was so impressed with Mrs. Dalloway, my first Woolf. The Waves will probably be my second.

I read the paperback book with a pencil in hand – underlining passages, writing questions, and making connections

My son's AP literature teacher actually makes an assignment out of annotating a book. It went against my religion at first. Write in a book! Not ok - unless it's the Bible. Maybe that stems from most of my books coming from the library. Now I find myself doing it more and more. (A blue hiliter was used quite a bit yesterday on my current read.) Ironically, I think those notes that others make in the margins of pre-owned books is what makes buying used books so much fun. (And sometimes incredibly helpful!)

169rebeccanyc
okt 22, 2014, 4:10 pm

>162 japaul22: I've had A Distant Mirror on my TBR for decades and tell myself every year that this is the year I'll read it. Thanks for reminding me about it and maybe this year . . .

170mabith
okt 23, 2014, 9:21 am

>168 avidmom: I'm the same with writing in books. Seems like sacrilege for me but it's what I love in my used books! My dad was a librarian from my birth until just recently though, and while we got lots of free books from discards and sales through his libraries, we were very much a library family not a book-buying family.

171japaul22
okt 24, 2014, 3:04 pm

>168 avidmom: I would consider reading To the Lighthouse before The Waves, just because it's a bit more accessible but kind of leads to the style of The Waves. And that's neat about your son's assignment to annotate a book.

>168 avidmom:, >170 mabith: I really haven't written in a book for a long time. I don't think every book needs it, but it was very satisfying in this case. I have a kindle and I constantly highlight and add notes in it, but on a paper book it does feel kind of wrong to me usually.

172japaul22
okt 24, 2014, 3:13 pm

#66 Evelina by Frances Burney
I loved this! Many Austen fans will probably recognize Fanny Burney's name as often suggested as a precursor to and influence on Jane Austen's writing. That's the reason I picked up this book and I found tons of obvious influences on Jane Austen in plot, characters, and style. I was really excited to find that I liked the book on it's own merit just as much as for the glimpse into Austen's influences.

This is the story of Evelina, a girl who was raised by the kindly Rev. Villars after her mother dies in childbirth and her father refuses to claim her as his own. She goes to London with some family friends after being brought up in the country and there every man she meets seems to fall in love with the beautiful and good Evelina. Evelina has a bit of the naivety of a Catherine Morland - she's always getting into situations that she doesn't know how to handle. There is a wide cast of characters - some legitimately funny, some annoying, some stuck up, some very proper. There are misunderstandings that lead to most of the drama and some of these go on a bit too long (Austen was a much better editor!), but I had a lot of fun reading this.

I definitely recommend that any Austen fan give this book a try. I'm not saying it's as good as Austen, but it was fascinating to read a book that I imagine Austen loved. And I really enjoyed it in it's own right as well.

Original Publication Date: 1778
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 512 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle

173mabith
okt 24, 2014, 7:22 pm

>171 japaul22: That's my favorite thing about e-books, making sooo many notes. Now I'm starting to use a lot more post-its in my paper books.

174japaul22
okt 24, 2014, 7:54 pm

>173 mabith: I've experimented with post-it notes but I can never seem to remember to have them nearby. Plus my kids love to stick them all over when they find them and then I don't have any left. But it's a good idea!

175mabith
okt 24, 2014, 7:58 pm

Ha, I've been taping the little packs of post-it flags on the end tables by my couch and bed. There are no children to get into them though (well, a niece and nephew, but since I'm an aunty and not a parent they actually listen when I say not to touch something!).

176baswood
okt 25, 2014, 12:02 pm

Enjoyed your review of Evelina

177Poquette
okt 25, 2014, 5:48 pm

>171 japaul22: I really haven't written in a book for a long time.

I finally got over that when I realized the resale value of most of my books is not great. And since I don't plan on disposing of them anytime soon, I feel free. I only use pencil so it can be erased if need be, but I underline and make notes like mad in my reading copies of books. And I agree with others, the note-making facility in Kindle is wonderful!

178edwinbcn
okt 25, 2014, 8:49 pm

I checked and realized that I did not have Evelina or anything else by Frances Burney. I will definitely go out and get it, as I am sure I will enjoy reading Evelina. Great review.

179japaul22
okt 26, 2014, 4:09 pm

#67 The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
audiobook, 3h59m, read by Tony Jay

This was really silly. It's an example of an early gothic novel so I suppose if you're really into the genre it might be interesting, but I was not into it. The only thing it had going for it was that it's really short, as opposed to The Mysteries of Udolpho which I didn't even finish reading. I sometimes like modern day gothic books, but the originals are not for me!

Original Publication Date: 1764
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 3h59m
Rating: 2 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: audio book from the library

180Nickelini
okt 26, 2014, 7:43 pm

but the originals are not for me!

I'm with you on that. My copy of Castle of Otranto had some fun illustrations and I ripped up my copy to use in an art project.

181edwinbcn
okt 27, 2014, 6:15 pm

Very silly, indeed. Both the Gothic style and "Italianate" style elements in later works also usually do not work very well for me.

182baswood
okt 27, 2014, 6:26 pm

183japaul22
okt 27, 2014, 6:59 pm

>180 Nickelini: sounds like a perfect use for that book!

>181 edwinbcn: Glad I'm not the only one who isn't a fan!

>182 baswood: Nice, Barry. That was much more enjoyable!

184japaul22
nov 2, 2014, 7:52 am

#68 A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow
With A Royal Experiment, Janice Hadlow has written a scholarly and readable book of social history revolving around the family life of King George III. To me, as an American, King George III is known as the King during the American Revolution - unfairly taxing us and then presiding over a (thankfully) horribly run war. Hadlow almost ignores the politics of the time and instead has written a tightly focused book about George's family values and his vision for the moral compass that the royal family should provide to the people of England.

George's wife, Charlotte, is at the center of this book focused on family. George and Charlotte made the best of their arranged marriage from the start. George treating Charlotte with kindness and respect, never following the family tradition of multiple mistresses and infidelities, though also tacitly insisting upon Charlotte’s submission to his vision of family life. Charlotte made the best of this and seemed to be on board with his vision. George III thought that this dedicated family life was what the public needed to see to continue support of the royalty, and he seems to have been right. George was an involved and caring father when his children were young, often getting down on the floor to play with their fifteen (yes, fifteen) children. Charlotte subscribed to the thinking on education and child-rearing of the day, at least when her children were young, providing them with progressive governesses who used the newest teaching methods and gave plenty of time for exercise and play. These were based on the influential writings of Rousseau.

This seemingly idyllic childhood did not last into a contented adulthood, though. The sons did not follow their father’s moral compass, having many liaisons with women. Some of this may have resulted from George’s treatment of his sons, packing all of them off to foreign courts or military jobs, many before they were ready. His first-born and heir, he kept close but gave him no role or responsibility. He led a life full of women, gambling, and drinking, probably initially from boredom.

As bad as the brothers had it, the sisters’ adult lives were very sad. They were kept by George almost as pets, to keep him content and happy. Especially once George’s madness started, they were trapped in a closed circle where they had almost no outside visitors and no prospects of marriage. After George and Charlotte’s efforts to create a new vision of happy royal marriage, they did not give their daughters any opportunity to create family lives for themselves as adults. A few managed to get married in their 40s, when their father was incapacitated and unable to oppose, but none had living children of their own.

George’s recurring madness, a disease still not understood, had profound effects on his family. Charlotte in particular carried on George’s wishes, thwarting her daughters’ marriage plans and earning their bitterness. They seemed to respect her, but find little in her to love. They closed their family circle even more tightly when George became ill, and I am sure being shut up together for decades did not help their relationship.

This is Janice Hadlow’s first book and I was so impressed with both the scholarship and the writing. This is a period that I find fascinating and I loved that she was able to create a social history that revolved around royalty, staying focused on her theme and not making unneeded tangents into political details of the day. On a personal note, it just happened that this tied in to some of my recent fiction reading, which was a bonus. Fanny Burney, author of Evelina that I just read, features prominently in this book. She was a part of the Queen’s circle for years, living with the family and journaling her experiences. She came to love the Queen despite the repressive closed circle and her view of the Queen opened up a side of Charlotte’s personality that may have otherwise been hard to know. Also, Horace Walpole was an advisor to King George so it was interesting to see his name having just read The Castle of Otranto.

I found this book very readable and actually read it straight through, ignoring the fiction I am reading. I almost never do that with nonfiction. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this period of 18th century history.

This is a book I received through the Early Reviewers program.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 682 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: ER book

185NanaCC
nov 2, 2014, 11:19 am

>184 japaul22: I am intrigued by your review of A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III . Onto the wishlist.

186baswood
nov 2, 2014, 11:31 am

Excellent review of A Royal Experiment. I learnt much from your review.

187Poquette
nov 2, 2014, 4:55 pm

>184 japaul22: I share your interest in the period of George III and was fascinated with your excellent review! Making a note of A Royal Experiment.

188japaul22
nov 7, 2014, 6:35 am

#69 The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The New York Trilogy is a collection of novellas originally published separately and later collected into this one volume. All three can stand on their own, but they definitely share themes and the last story sort of ties in to the first two. These are all hard to describe. In a simple way, they are detective stories, but they are also much more than that. There is something modern in the writing style of all three, though I don't know the correct literary terms to describe his brand of modernism. The primary link between the three novellas to me was that the main detective becomes obsessed with the case, actually the person, that he is working on. Auster also inserts himself into his writing, but from a distance. In the first novella, he actually uses his name, has a Scandinavian wife, and is a writer. All true. It's not the important part of the book, but it lends to this modern fiction feel in a weird way. There are many questions of identity that lead to madness and confusion over what is true.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in detective stories who likes a modern twist. I've had a hard time describing them, but I imagine that the layered themes and interconnections within the detective framework would appeal to many readers.

Original Publication Date: 1985-6 for individual novellas, 1987 for the collection
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 371 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library sale

189rebeccanyc
nov 7, 2014, 11:07 am

I keep thinking I should try Auster again, but I was turned off by his first novel which I read back in the 80s when it came out (and was highly touted) and I haven't read anything else by him since.

190edwinbcn
nov 7, 2014, 12:49 pm

Wasn't The New York Trilogy his first novel (three)?; anyway, I think Auster's work up until 1999 was great, and after Timbuktu started sagging.

191rebeccanyc
nov 7, 2014, 1:18 pm

I just forgot the name of the first novel, but I think you're right, that it became part of the NY trilogy.

192japaul22
nov 7, 2014, 1:25 pm

The names of the novellas in The New York Trilogy are City of Glass, Ghosts, and the Locked Room.

193RidgewayGirl
nov 7, 2014, 2:07 pm

I have The New York Trilogy and I've had it for an embarrassingly long time. You've made it sound intriguing -- I'll have to read it soon.

194dchaikin
nov 7, 2014, 3:34 pm

>166 japaul22: - this is a wow. Terrific and inspiring review of Woolf.

If the Hadlow shows up in my libraries audio collection, I would really like to try it

I'm Obviously catching up. Lots of good stuff here. Intrigued Paul Auster's New York trilogy.

195Poquette
nov 7, 2014, 8:57 pm

I read The New York Trilogy a couple of years ago and was fascinated by its uniqueness. At that time I was just beginning to dip my toe in the waters of postmodernism, and Auster is part of that wildly divergent milieu. The thing about postmodernism is that almost every writer has his own approach to stretching the outside limits of fiction. I am glad you weren't completely turned off with your first go at it.

If you take the time to look into the history of postmodernism and some of its more prominent adherents, you will find that the field is very rich indeed. There are some writers who will appeal to you and some won't. I have had that experience myself. I just finished Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, which I was really looking forward to reading as it had been recommended by many people who know of my predilection for the type of thing that Schulz wrote, and while I loved his lyrical writing style, I ended up not particularly liking his stories very much. So bottom line, it still comes down to personal taste.

196japaul22
nov 8, 2014, 8:09 am

>193 RidgewayGirl: Kay, I think you would probably like The New York Trilogy, especially with your interest in well written detective/mystery books.

>194 dchaikin: THanks for catching up! I'm still thinking about The Waves and I think the Hadlow would be great on audio if it becomes available.

>195 Poquette: thanks for the info on The New York Trilogy. I knew I was reading something "modern", but it didn't strike me as way out of the box. I'm definitely willing to try more. I think, for me, it helped that this was based in a genre of detective fiction that I'm fairly familiar with.

198rebeccanyc
nov 8, 2014, 8:18 am

Great haul! I'm a big fan of Dead Souls and enjoyed Silence and Will in the World. I haven't read The Great Influenza but I was really impressed by Barry's book about the 1927 Mississippi flood and its impact on the US, Rising Tide.

199dchaikin
nov 8, 2014, 8:58 am

How fun! Great variety of interesting books. I still think about The Known World which I read years ago. I read an interview of Edward P. Jones in The Paris Review earlier this year, and he is quite a curious character. Also, I recently bought Silence.

200mabith
nov 8, 2014, 11:46 am

Ooh, wonderful haul. Quite a few of those are on my wishlist.

201japaul22
Redigeret: nov 9, 2014, 12:26 pm



So here are my new bookshelves in our reading/piano room. I'm really excited about them! It's definitely a work in progress and there's one glaring problem - I obviously need more books to fill them!

202rebeccanyc
nov 9, 2014, 12:58 pm

Lovely bookcases . . . and what a great problem to have!

203mabith
nov 9, 2014, 2:03 pm

I'm very envious of the "empty space on the bookshelf" issue! If only!

204baswood
nov 9, 2014, 4:41 pm

room for wall to wall books - perfect

205lauralkeet
nov 10, 2014, 8:28 am

Oh that's a lovely space!!

206dchaikin
nov 10, 2014, 11:18 am

I'm jealous of your empty space. Looks beautiful.

207VivienneR
nov 10, 2014, 1:46 pm

Beautiful bookcases! You've done a great job and the fun is just beginning.

208japaul22
nov 10, 2014, 5:26 pm

Thanks, everyone! I'm having lots of fun organizing and planning how to fill them.

209japaul22
Redigeret: nov 11, 2014, 10:28 am

#70 Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Thanks to all of the LT readers who brought this to my attention - I know this is a favorite for many around here and now it is for me as well. This is a slim book of personal essays on the love of reading, words, and books. Every book lover should read (and own) this book. There are eighteen essays included. I loved "Marrying Libraries" about the merging of Fadiman and her husband's books; "The Joy of Sesquipedalians" about the love of obscure words; "Never do that to a book" about the differences in how readers treat their books; "Inset a Carrot" about compulsive proofreading; "My Ancestral Castles" about family inheritances of books and love of reading; and "Secondhand Prose" about the magic of used books.

Fadiman beautifully weaves personal family experience as the daughter of book lovers, wife of a writer and book lover, and mother of children who she hopes will continue their love of books, together with history and anecdotes in these essays.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves to love books.

Original Publication Date: 1998 for the collection
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 162 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: purchased paperback

210lesmel
nov 11, 2014, 12:00 pm

>209 japaul22: Ok. Ok. Twist my arm. Make me put it on my TBR, why don't you. *grins*

211mabith
nov 11, 2014, 12:50 pm

See, these are the things that will push me past my obsession with yearly "read" total being divisible by 52! I do want to get to Ex Libris this year. Sounds like a simply perfect read.

212rebeccanyc
nov 11, 2014, 1:04 pm

I've said it many times, but I absolutely adore Ex Libris. In fact, I keep extra copies to give to other book lovers. You make me want to reread it pronto.

213Poquette
nov 12, 2014, 3:38 pm

Somehow I thought I had Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, but I must be confusing it with something else. Anyway, I have now added it to my wish list.

214japaul22
nov 12, 2014, 8:15 pm

#71 The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
In this book, Wharton explores the world of a discontented, bored woman who always wants more than she has. Undine Spragg is born in the small town of Apex, but has her parents wrapped around her finger enough to make them move to a fashionable New York hotel. She uses her father's dwindling funds and her beauty to break in to New York society, marrying Ralph Marvell, a member of one of New York's elite families. Unfortunately, on their honeymoon they find out how ill suited they are to each other. Undine wants to be in the most exciting society and Ralph wants quiet to write and be with Undine. Undine gets pregnant and they go back to New York. What follows is a string of divorces, marriages, and horrible people acting horribly. Undine always thinks she knows what she wants and then finds "the grass is greener" somewhere else as soon as she gets it. She is a really terrible person; always demanding, never giving, and totally clueless about herself or others.

So why did I love this book, even though I was unable to sympathize with the central character at all? Wharton has a great way with words. She has a large vocabulary and I always learn some new words, but she manages to not sound pretentious. I also think her characters are believable, at least a few of them in every book. We all know the type of Undine Spragg - always reaching for higher society and getting into crushing debt along the way without even caring, and using people as she goes. It's a familiar story in these days of excess.

This is the third book I've read by Wharton and again I liked it very much. I'll definitely keep reading her novels.

Original Publication Date: 1913
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 480 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle

215NanaCC
nov 12, 2014, 9:15 pm

>214 japaul22: The Custom of the Country is my favorite Wharton so far. Undine is a character I loved to hate.

216dchaikin
nov 13, 2014, 1:19 am

It's always good to come across another Ex Libris review. Also enjoyed your comments on Wharton.

217japaul22
nov 13, 2014, 6:43 am

>215 NanaCC: I remember that yours was a review that put this book on my radar. I've seen several good reviews of it since yours and finally got around to reading it. Have you read House of Mirth and Age of Innocence? I loved the former and liked the latter, though to be fair, I read Age of Innocence when I was young and may love it even more now than I did then.

>216 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan.

218NanaCC
nov 13, 2014, 7:26 am

>217 japaul22: I did read both of those books. House of Mirth was an audio book, and I listened to it so long ago that I don't remember too much about it. I know that I enjoyed it, and keep meaning to read a print copy at some point. I also enjoyed The Age of Innocence which I read last year.

219lauralkeet
nov 13, 2014, 9:14 am

>215 NanaCC: ditto -- my favorite Wharton!

220japaul22
nov 13, 2014, 6:34 pm

#72 The Quiet American by Graham Greene
I know this book is liked by many around here, but I just didn't enjoy it. It is a look at Vietnam in the 1950s, with different factions competing for political power and plenty of foreign journalists around to muddy the waters. The book is told from Fowler's point of view, a British journalist. While exploring the war and politics, there is also a central story of Fowler and Pyle's (an youthful, naive American) competition for a young Vietnamese girl, Phuong. We find out at the beginning that Pyle has been murdered and Fowler's memories gradually uncover his story.

While I appreciated how politics and anti-war philosophy were woven together with a personal story, I just really didn't like the characters and hated the whole love triangle aspect. I found Pyle unbelievable and one-dimensional and Phuong, as well, had no personality and seemed like a stereotype.

To be fair, this was the first audiobook I've listened to where I really hated the reader, Joseph Porter, and that definitely colored my view of the book. I will definitely not listen to another audiobook read by him - he had a horrible natural speaking voice and then he tried to do American accents and French accents and it was just terrible.

There are many readers around here who I respect who have a great liking for this novel, so don't let my experience put you off, but I really can't say I enjoyed this book. I am still willing to try other Graham Greene novels at some point, though.

Original Publication Date: 1955
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 6h41m
Rating: 2.5 stars for the book, 1 star for the reader
Format/Where I acquired the book: library audiobook

221baswood
nov 13, 2014, 6:43 pm

perhaps Joseph Porter didn't like the book either.

222rebeccanyc
nov 14, 2014, 6:53 am

I thought Phuong was one-dimensional too, and Pyle stereotyped, but I did enjoy the book more than you did. If you do want to try more Greene, I thought The Power and the Glory was a better book.

223japaul22
nov 14, 2014, 7:07 am

>221 baswood: he certainly didn't do it any favors!

>222 rebeccanyc: thanks for the tip! I will try more Greene, after a break!

224dchaikin
nov 14, 2014, 10:31 am

The wrong reader kills audiobooks. Too bad. I wonder what you would have thought with a different narrator.

225japaul22
nov 14, 2014, 11:04 am

>224 dchaikin: I do too. Next time I'll know to just skip the audiobook if I really hate the narrator. I didn't like him right at the beginning, but I thought I might get used to his style. Now I know to go with my initial reaction!

226mabith
nov 14, 2014, 1:14 pm

When it's a bad reader it's always best just to put it away and read it in print instead, especially for fiction. Even with non-fiction it can really kill it, but the danger is much greater with a novel.

It's largely why I don't use LibriVox that much. There are some amusing girls' adventure series from the early 20th century that I'd love to listen to, but often they seem to have elderly women as readers and it just doesn't work.

227SassyLassy
nov 14, 2014, 3:15 pm

>220 japaul22: While I don't use audio books unless I'm on a really long distance car trip, and so don't have much experience with them, it strikes me that the authors of books written before the advent of books on tape and their successors may not have anticipated the aural reception mode, and so may not have written in a manner conducive to listening. They rely entirely to much on the reader's input to have other intervenors. Books from the nineteenth century and earlier on the other hand, often sound well in audio format, possibly because so many of them were read aloud to family. Having said all that, Greene's novels often translate brilliantly into film. The Quiet American is one such work.

I would agree with Rebecca about trying The Power and the Glory

228avidmom
nov 15, 2014, 12:04 pm

>201 japaul22: That is gorgeous! Reading/piano room. *swoon*

229japaul22
nov 18, 2014, 12:43 pm

#73 Felicia's Journey by William Trevor
I read my first book by William Trevor back in May of this year, when I picked up and loved The Story of Lucy Gault. I immediately bought a few more of Trevor's books and I picked up Felicia's Journey hoping I'd love it as much. While I didn't think it was quite as perfect as The Story of Lucy Gault, I still found the writing beautiful and characters deeply drawn. Trevor's writing has an old-fashioned feel in the very best sense of the phrase. When I picked this up I knew nothing about it - not even the genre - and I think that's the way to read it, so I'm not going to give any plot details away. I think that on the whole, the plot here actually was a little weak, but the writing is so great that it didn't even bother me.

So there's my cryptic review. Sorry for the lack of info, but I loved seeing these characters unfold and wondering if what I thought was going on was really going on.

Original Publication Date: 1994
Author’s nationality: Irish
Original language: English
Length: 217 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: owned/purchased

230japaul22
nov 21, 2014, 2:27 pm

#74 The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Another audiobook, this time with a reader I like, Christopher Hurt. As soon as I started listening to this I remembered that I had read it, but it was still fun to listen to it again. I particularly like the comparisons of how the Martians viewed humans to how humans view animals. Overall, considering when it was written, I think it was done well, but it's not really my thing, so I'm still only giving it three stars.

Original Publication Date: 1897
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 5h54m
Rating: 3 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: library audiobook

231japaul22
nov 22, 2014, 9:13 pm

#75 Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
Greenblatt has written a biography of Shakespeare, a man of whom there is little known besides his work, by using his plays to delve into his psyche. This is an interesting and appealing idea, but for me it didn't work very well. In some ways I found the book very interesting. I learned a lot about the general time period - education, religion for the common person, the life of actors/playwrights, etc. - and I enjoyed that. There is also a lot of analysis of the plays spattered throughout the book that I found interesting and entertaining. The problem for me was that I didn't really buy that you can analyze Shakespeare's plays to discover his personality or decipher his life decisions. It seems to me that Shakespeare wrote on so many topics from so many different points of view, that you could find multiple examples to back up any personality trait or life decision that Shakespeare made. In the end, I felt that it could have been true, but maybe not, and I don't feel that I have a clearer picture of Shakespeare than I started with after finishing this book.

I also think this book was a little above my knowledge level of Shakespeare. I think it will mean more to someone very familiar with his plays. I would say I'm only conversant about roughly 6 or 7 of his plays. To someone who has a deeper knowledge of his work, this book would probably be more meaningful and interesting.

I don't want to come off too negative here, because I actually did like this even though I wasn't totally convinced by the premise. There is still a lot of good information and it opens up some curiosity about what Shakespeare might have been like and what his motivations were. Shakespeare buffs should definitely give this a try.

Original Publication Date: 2004
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 430 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: hardcover/purchased at library sale

232dchaikin
nov 22, 2014, 10:26 pm

Wasn't there a radio broadcast of War of the worlds that some listeners thought was real? It is that just my imagination? It sounds fun on audio.

Sorry you didn't get more out if Will in the World - I was thinking of tryibg that some time.

233lesmel
nov 23, 2014, 7:07 am

>232 dchaikin: It was an adaptation by Orson Welles on Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed Halloween night 1938.

234japaul22
nov 23, 2014, 7:58 am

>232 dchaikin: Yep, >232 dchaikin: is correct. Even the original was fun to listen to on audio, though. I'm just not that in to the science fiction genre. Even so, it was still fun. I also think that you should definitely try Will in the World if you're interested. It was just a little above my knowledge of Shakespeare. I think I remember seeing that Rebecca liked it. And it did make me want to read or see more Shakespeare.

235lesmel
nov 23, 2014, 9:10 am

>234 japaul22: The Orson Welles reading is on YouTube, oddly enough.

236dchaikin
nov 23, 2014, 9:26 am

>233 lesmel:,>234 japaul22: - thanks for the history lesson. Spent some time on wikipedia this am.

237RidgewayGirl
nov 23, 2014, 2:56 pm

I was lucky enough to have lived for most of a year in Warwick, which was close to Stratford-upon-Avon. We rented a cottage (actually a row house) built at the same time as the Shakespeare houses, so it was fun to go on a tour and learn about the place we were living, which was very atmospheric and lovely, but badly laid out and highly impractical. But the neighbor had a glorious wisteria growing over her door.

238Rebeki
nov 24, 2014, 9:19 am

Hi Jennifer, going back quite a bit, I'm pleased to see such an enthusiastic review for Evelina, since I have it on my shelves waiting to be read. Ditto for The Custom of the Country.

I've heard nothing good about The Castle of Otranto, but I may end up reading it one day, as Horace Walpole's house, which I believe was supposed to have inspired the novel, is not too far from where I live and a visit to it would be more fun if I'd read the book, I think...

I love the picture in >201 japaul22: and also wish I had the problem of empty shelves!

239valkyrdeath
nov 24, 2014, 9:00 pm

I was looking at Will in the World recently and trying to decide whether to read it, but I didn't know it was trying to infer information about him from the plays. Judging from your review, it sounds like I might not know enough about them.

I've discovered recently that some threads I was sure I'd starred ages ago actually weren't starred after all, so hopefully commenting here will prevent me losing track again!

240valkyrdeath
Redigeret: nov 24, 2014, 9:00 pm

Denne meddelelse er blevet slettet af dens forfatter.

241japaul22
nov 25, 2014, 8:50 am

>239 valkyrdeath: glad you found me again! It's so easy to lose track of people around here! As far as Greenblatt inferring info about Shakespeare from the plays, I felt that the author played a little bit of the "what came first - the chicken or the egg" game. Sometimes he would take Shakespeare's possible experiences, based on events he may have witnessed or taken part in, and find confirmation in the plays. And sometimes he'd go the other way and find a trend in plays from a certain time period and try to connect those themes to an event in Shakespeare's life. It was interesting, and I suppose all scholarship on Shakespeare has to have an element of guesswork in it, but it seemed a bit ambiguous to me. I'd be interested to hear your take on the book if you end up reading it.

242NanaCC
nov 25, 2014, 2:45 pm

>239 valkyrdeath: I think I've found that sometimes if I'm using my phone to go through the posts in LT, I accidently unstar a thread because the screen is so small. I hate when that happens.

243Poquette
nov 25, 2014, 3:31 pm

Appreciate your thought-provoking take on Will in the World. I read Greenblatt's The Swerve and while I enjoyed the book I didn't care for the way he organized the information. I felt he made the story unnecessarily complicated in what seemed like an attempt to make history read like a novel. I guess what I am trying to say is that he seems to enjoy creating a construct and then tries to make the information fit. Eventually I would like to read Will in the World because it will be interesting to see what he has to say. He is definitely an engaging writer.

244rebeccanyc
nov 25, 2014, 3:42 pm

When I read Will in the World, I definitely had mixed feelings about the hypothetical nature of some of the "biography" -- and it sounds like you did too.

245japaul22
dec 3, 2014, 9:03 am

#76 Thank you, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
audiobook by LA Theatre Works, 1h30m

This was my first introduction to Bertie Wooster and Jeeves and it was a lot of fun. I can definitely see myself reading or listening to more of these when I need some British humor. The audio book was done as a staged reading, with different actors for each part. It worked very well.

Original Publication Date: 1934
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 1h30m
Rating: 3.5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: audio book from the library

246NanaCC
dec 3, 2014, 9:38 am

I have two of the Wooster and Jeeves audio books on my iPod. The Code of the Woosters and The Mating Season. They are narrated by Jonathan Cecil, and are an enjoyable listen. I think I will try to find the theater version of Thank You, Jeeves. It sounds like fun.

247japaul22
dec 3, 2014, 10:33 am

>246 NanaCC: Just so you know, Colleen, the woman on the Thank you, Jeeves recording had kind of an annoying voice to me, but I was able to overlook it and still enjoy!

248japaul22
dec 3, 2014, 10:47 am

#77 In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette by Hampton Sides

I LOVE these polar exploration books! This is a new book that describes the attempt by De Long and a crew of about 30 men who try to reach the North Pole by boat in the 1880s. De Long was backed by Gordon Bennett, the wealthy and eccentric owner of the New York Herald who is a story in himself. They were operating on the popular assumption that warm water currents running from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic would create a passageway through the ice and lead into open waters of the Polar Sea. Obviously, we know now, thanks to their unsuccessful voyage, that this is not possible.

De Long's crew is filled with memorable and admirable men (and only a few "problem children") who fight through some extremely tough conditions. I don't want to give away the course of their travels because that's most of the fun of reading this book. I will say though, that there are adventures on sea, ice pack, and land. As always with polar exploration books, the conditions these men endure are unbelievable and admittedly their preparation was not good, though considering the information at hand I think they did what they could.

Hampton Sides does a great job of keeping the story moving along and especially of describing the geography and terrain. John Muir makes an appearance as part of a team sent to try to locate the Jeannette. I love reading about these remote areas of the earth and definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves the polar exploration books. It's not quite as good as The Last Place on Earth or Endurance, but it gets 5 stars from me none the less for keeping me riveted to the very last page.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 480 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle book from library

250baswood
dec 5, 2014, 6:20 pm

Enjoyed your review of In the Kingdom of Ice

251japaul22
dec 5, 2014, 9:29 pm

#78 Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
I've been looking forward to the big meeting of Mapp and Lucia and I wasn't disappointed. These books are just fun - ridiculous - but fun. I especially liked the contrast between Major Benjy and Georgie. Hilarious.

When is that new BBC series coming out in the US? I'm ready!

Original Publication Date: 1931
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 277 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle, owned

252Poquette
dec 6, 2014, 3:56 pm

>248 japaul22: Your enthusiasm for the polar exploration genre is contagious! I am so tempted, but so many other books are staring me in the face just now!

>251 japaul22: I hope the new BBC Mapp and Lucia is as good as the old one, and I too look forward to seeing it but with some trepidation. I am one of those if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it types. When perfection is already before you, how can it be topped? But on the other hand, I can hear a voice in my head saying "O ye of little imagination!" I hope we in the U.S. eventually have an opportunity to see whether perfection was indeed topped.

253rebeccanyc
dec 6, 2014, 5:41 pm

>249 japaul22: I'm a fan of books about polar exploration too -- thanks for letting us know about this book.

254japaul22
dec 8, 2014, 1:16 pm

In the spirit of welcoming the new year fresh, I'm considering joining a trend I've seen on a few LT threads and donating a few books off of my TBR shelf to the library. There are a few books sitting there that just seem like "old news" at this point and I'm not sure I really need to keep them. But, I can't get rid of a book I haven't read without asking first if anyone around here thinks it is worth keeping and maybe getting to at some point. These are the books on the chopping block.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul

So I'm looking for "yes, that was terrible, get rid of it" or "keep it, it's worth seeing what you think".

I do have the shelf space, so this isn't desperate yet . . .

255mabith
dec 8, 2014, 1:30 pm

For me The Tiger's Wife was disappointing and not really enjoyable. Not awful, but way overhyped. If you like magical realism I have a feeling fans of that would like it more (I'm not a big fan, myself though, so it's just a guess).

256rebeccanyc
dec 9, 2014, 7:36 am

For what it's worth, I read an excerpt from On Chesil Beach in the New Yorker and decided the book wasn't for me.

257japaul22
dec 9, 2014, 9:12 am

>255 mabith: Thanks! Magical realism is not really my thing, though I do like Garcia Marquez, I think despite the magical realism factor. I can't imagine that Tea Obrecht is in the same league.

>256 rebeccanyc: On Chesil Beach has gotten several differing opinions (I posted this on my 2014 category challenge as well), so I think it will stay on the shelf for now.

258japaul22
dec 9, 2014, 12:57 pm

#79 Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
To continue my lighter reading in the crazy month of December, I read the second book in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series. This series is set in post-WWI England which is probably what I like best about it. I also like the characters and the mysteries are ok, though not very hard to figure out, at least in these first two. I'll definitely continue with the series when I need something lighter.

Original Publication Date: 2004
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 336 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle, library book

259japaul22
dec 12, 2014, 12:16 pm

#80 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
audiobook, 4h42m, read by Satya Babha

This short novel is present as a monologue. Changez, a Pakistani, relates his time in America to an American visiting Lahore while they sit at a cafe. He tells of his time as a student at Princeton and his high-powered job in NYC after graduation. He also tells intimate details of his love life with an American woman named Erica, still suffering from the grief of losing her childhood friend and boyfriend. Changez's story takes place surrounding 9/11 and we hear about his growing disillusionment with America and his homesickness for his Pakistan.

The monologue aspect of the novel annoyed me in some ways. Changez is supposedly having a conversation with this American, but the only way the American's comments are recorded are through Changez's reactions to them. The ending is also extremely ambiguous and ends abruptly. I also thought the relationship between Erica and Changez was kind of annoying and almost disruptive to what I thought was the main point - one Pakistani's experience living in NYC during and after 9/11.

However, listening to this on audio really saved the book for me. The reader, Satya Bhabha, was excellent and made the monologue format work for me where I'm not sure it would have in print. This is the first example in my limited audiobook experience of a book that I'm fairly certain I liked more in audio than I would have as a physical book.

Original Publication Date: 2007
Author’s nationality: Pakistani
Original language: English (I think?)
Length: 191 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars for the book, 5 stars for the audio
Format/Where I acquired the book: audiobook, library

260japaul22
dec 13, 2014, 8:25 pm

#81 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Reading this book produced many conflicting reactions for me. I was predisposed to like it after loving Smiley's book, The Greenlanders. I knew this would be very different but I immediately found that I still loved her writing style. Her language is restrained but beautiful at the same time and descriptive without being flowery. The premise of this novel is sort of a King Lear retelling. An Iowa farmer who has amassed 1000 acres of farm land decides to divide the farm between his three daughters during his lifetime. His youngest daughter rejects the idea and he, in turn, cuts her out of the deal. At the same time this is happening, a neighboring farmer's son who disappeared to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam war returns to the town. He comes with ideas of organic farming and ends up shaking up his own family (in a prodigal son sort of way) and also shaking up several marriages in the neighboring farms.

Up to this point, I was very interested and engaged, but though I knew everything was going down hill, I was not prepared for the nasty turn that some (actually most) of the characters would take. A little over half way through the book, I was so sickened by the characters who were either despicable people or horribly damaged people that I did not want to pick up the book. I really don't like reading books where everyone is miserable and also are bad people. But I kept going and in the end I'm glad I finished it. There isn't much redemption for any of the characters and there's no way to wrap up neatly what happens in this book, but I appreciated the writing and character development (even though I didn't like the characters) and it did leave me thinking. It's certainly a memorable book, though it's not really leaving me wanting to rush out and read more of Jane Smiley's work.

I'm edging on the high side with my star rating because I think that down the road my opinion will improve. We shall see.

Original Publication Date: 1991
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 371 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: off the shelf

261baswood
dec 14, 2014, 10:32 am

Interesting review of A Thousand Acres perhaps it might suit you more to re-read it now that you know how horribly the people behave.

262japaul22
dec 14, 2014, 11:32 am

>261 baswood: I don't think I could handle reading it again right now! I am thinking about reading (or listening on audio) to King Lear, though (the play the novel is based on). I know the story, but I can't recall if I've actually ever read the play.

263rebeccanyc
Redigeret: dec 14, 2014, 5:17 pm

i haven't read A Thousand Acres although I adored The Greenlanders which inexplicably I never read until a year or so ago and like a lot of other books by Smiley (although I also dislike a lot of books by her -- she's a very variable writer, I find).

264japaul22
dec 15, 2014, 1:39 pm

I've decided to abandon The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter. This was an ER book, so I read 165 of the 350 pages, almost half, but I just can't waste any more of my hard-earned reading time! Hunter has too many stories lines going on - a present-day archivist, Jane, who flashes back to the time she was babysitting and lost the child in the woods. Then Jane is also working on discovering more about a woman from a 1880s mental institution who disappeared in the same woods. But tied up in that story is the man and his family who started the museum she was working at before it closed. Oh, and the man whose child she lost writes a book and lectures at the closing museum and she slaps him even though he doesn't even remember her. Sound confusing and melodramatic? Yep. And then, to top it off, the story is narrated by a group of ghosts/spirits who don't know who they are or why they are there except that I guess they think Jane can help them somehow. Sometimes they try to be funny which does not work.

I need to be more careful in selecting ER books.

265mabith
dec 15, 2014, 3:21 pm

Novels on ER always make me nervous, unless I know the author already, of course. I tend to avoid them and anything published by Palgrave Macmillan (who don't seem to value good editors).

266lauralkeet
Redigeret: dec 15, 2014, 4:46 pm

>264 japaul22: I don't blame you for abandoning that one! And I also think you've read enough of it to write an honest review and fulfill your ER "obligation".

267SassyLassy
Redigeret: dec 18, 2014, 11:55 am

>260 japaul22: Greenlanders is one of my great favourites, so like you, I was well predisposed to A Thousand Acres. I found I had almost exactly the same reaction as you did. That was about ten years ago. I read King Lear this past winter, so I may skim Smiley's book again with that more recent reading in mind.

>263 rebeccanyc: I agree about Smiley's variability. It always makes approaching a new book of hers a gamble.

268dchaikin
dec 18, 2014, 1:41 pm

Enjoyed your last several December reviews. I'm intrigued by the Jame Smiley. And Glad you managed to give up on the Hunter book. It's not always easy to give up on a book, regardless of how much we don't want or need to read it.

I liked the Hampton Sides book I listened to (forgot the title just now. It was about Kit Carson, but the title doesn't mention this), so nice to know about his arctic book.

269japaul22
dec 18, 2014, 1:53 pm

>265 mabith: You're right. As I look back over the 20-some ER books I've won, I haven't really loved any of the novels. I have had some good success with the nonfiction books though.

>266 lauralkeet: Yep, I thought reading half of it (and I skipped to the end and read the last chapter) was more than enough to review it.

>267 SassyLassy: That's interesting that we had such a similar reading experience! I'm actually listening to an audio version of King Lear now. I'm not sure if I'd ever read it before. The story is very familiar, but that might just be general cultural knowledge rather than from ever having read the play.

>268 dchaikin: Thanks, I imagine Hampton Sides's books would work well on audio.

270japaul22
dec 18, 2014, 5:40 pm

#82 In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

Philbrick tells the tale of the encounter that started it all for Herman Melville and Moby Dick, but actually the sinking of the Essex by an 85 foot sperm whale is not necessarily the focus of this book. Philbrick also details life on Nantucket, the center of whaling for America. This was kind of odd to me to begin with since the boats go all the way around the tip of South America to get to the Pacific, where most of the sperm whales could be found. He also gruesomely lays out just how these men went about killing and butchering the sperm whales for their oil. And if that isn't enough to kill your appetite, just wait until the men in their small whale boats trying to sail through the vast Pacific with little to no navigational equipment start eating each other. Yep.

This book is a page turner as most of these adventure/disaster stories are, but I didn't find as much in it to admire as some other books of this type that I've read. I didn't find the sailors as compelling or their leadership much to admire. I also could not believe that all of the survivors ended up going back out as sailors (almost all on whalers) almost immediately upon their return.

This was a fun page turner, but I think there are books with more substance in the genre. Still recommended, nonetheless.

Original Publication Date: 2000
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 293 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: off the shelf/library sale

271japaul22
Redigeret: jan 4, 2015, 12:46 pm

#83 Lila by Marilynne Robinson
No review for this one because I'm sick and have too much going on, but this is another beautiful book by Marilynne Robinson. If you've loved her other books, you'll love this too.

Original Publication Date: 2014
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 261 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Format/Where I acquired the book: kindle, purchased

272NanaCC
dec 26, 2014, 12:48 pm

I have Gilead on my TBR. Maybe I will finally get to it.

I'm sorry you are sick. I hope you had a good holiday.

273japaul22
dec 26, 2014, 2:35 pm

Colleen, you really should try Gilead. I absolutely love Robinson's books and I think you would too!

Yesterday was pretty rough. I had a fever all day and spent most of Christmas in bed. Luckily my husband's parents and his brother and brother's spouse were here, so my kids had plenty of fun with their Gma and Gpa and Uncles. I feel much better today - just a hacking cough!

274mabith
dec 26, 2014, 3:29 pm

Sick on Christmas is always hard, even with the extra family help! Hope your cough goes speedily.

275RidgewayGirl
dec 28, 2014, 12:00 pm

Get better! I saw a preview for the film version of In the Heart of the Sea and I am ready to go see it.

276japaul22
dec 29, 2014, 9:01 am

>274 mabith:, >275 RidgewayGirl: Thanks! I'm feeling better, though still kind of run down.

Kay, I didn't know there was a movie coming out. Sounds great!

277japaul22
Redigeret: jan 4, 2015, 1:04 pm

I think I'm ready to wrap up my 2014 reading. I have one book in progress that I might finish (A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey) but it won't make my best or worst of lists.

I'm happy with my reading of women authors (62%) and the amount of nonfiction I read, especially since the nonfiction was some of my favorite reading this year. This is the first year I tracked page count. I was interested to see my average book length was 414 pages - I do like longer books! I also did not use my star ratings to create this list. Some of the books in my "best" lists got 4 or even 3.5 stars (Growth of the Soil), but as I looked back on my year of reading they were books I found very memorable and thought-provoking, so on the list they go!

Year-end stats:
Books read: 83
30,622 pages read this year; 86 pages per day; average book length 414 pages
# of different authors: 74
Male/female ratio: 28/46, 62% women authors
New-to-me authors: 55
Nonfiction/fiction: 18/65
Format: audio - 9, kindle–owned - 18, kindle-library – 8, books off the shelf – 45, library books - 4

Books by decade of publication:
1720s 1
1760s 1
1770s 1
1810s 1
1840s 1
1850s 1
1870s 1
1880s 2
1890s 3
1900s 1
1910s 2
1920s 6
1930s 5
1940s 3
1950s 3
1960s 2
1970s 2
1980s 6
1990s 4
2000s 16
2010s 12
2014 10

Best fiction:
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley
Mapp and Lucia series
Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor

Best new releases:
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt

Best Classics:
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
Evelina by Frances Burney

Rereads that I loved again:
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Sense and Sensibility: an annotated Edition by Jane Austen and Patricia Meyer Spacks

Proud I read these challenging (and long) books:
Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman
Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

Best mysteries:
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
Maisie Dobbs series (read books 1 and 2)
The Secret Place by Tana French

Best nonfiction:
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
Book of Ages: The Life and Times of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow

Best disaster book:
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides

Books about books:
My Life in MIddlmarch by Rebecca Mead
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

Best audiobook:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Sad to see end:
Sharon Kay Penman series – I’ve finished all her historical fiction

Outside of comfort zone but appreciated:
Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary (elephants, elephants, and more elephants)
Land of Spices by Kate O’brien (I loved a book about nuns???)

Book I’m most likely to reread again and again
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Ahhhh – best “comfort read”:
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

Worsts:
Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The Quiet American by Graham Greene

So bad it was abandoned:
The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter

278japaul22
dec 29, 2014, 9:14 am

My new 2015 thread is here.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/184927

279rebeccanyc
dec 29, 2014, 11:06 am

>277 japaul22: I also loved The Greenlanders, Buddenbrooks, and Life and Fate, and I love Jill Lepore too. I think I liked The Quiet American more than you did.

280dchaikin
dec 29, 2014, 11:23 am

>271 japaul22: - sorry you were not feeling well, but this is enough of a recommendation.

>270 japaul22: - I own In the Heart of the Sea, but acquired shortly after reading Moby Dick and after i had lost that momentum. So, haven't read it yet...sigh

>277 japaul22: - very impressed by the 86 pages per day. Not an easy thing to maintain through the year. Interesting list. The Margaret Fuller bio appeals.

281mabith
dec 29, 2014, 12:45 pm

Now I really want to see my ratio of male and female writers, but it seems very tedious to do. Did you calculate it by hand or is there a handier magic website way of doing it?

Can't wait to see your 2015 reading!

282japaul22
dec 30, 2014, 1:50 pm

>279 rebeccanyc: Yes, I really didn't like The Quiet American, but it will not deter me from trying some of his other books.

>280 dchaikin: I found In the Heart of the Sea a pretty easy book to read. I think it would work really well on audio if you find it that way (I read a paper copy). I was surprised that I averaged 86 pages a day. I'm not quite sure how I found time to do that!

>281 mabith: I calculated the male/female ration by hand. I keep a list of titles that I read at the top of my thread, so all I had to do was go through and count one or the other and subtract from my count of how many different authors I read. It didn't take that long - but I don't read as many books as you!

283mabith
dec 30, 2014, 2:33 pm

I think it's mostly that I'm lazy! I did go count and I'm at 59/41, in favor of men. Since I read without thinking about that at all, it's not terrible. As the year went on though, the ratios in each separate month began to favor women. I have a feeling that increase will continue in 2015.

284japaul22
dec 31, 2014, 7:48 am

#84 A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey
So I did finish one more book, but this is definitely the last of the year. Normally I love Tey's Golden Age mysteries, but this one was a little weak. The mystery was kind of unsatisfying and there was more 1920s slang than I remember in her other books. Still fun for fans of her work, but don't start here!

285NanaCC
dec 31, 2014, 9:12 am

Great reading year. Happy New Year!

286Poquette
dec 31, 2014, 4:45 pm

Yes, Have a Happy New Year!

I enjoyed your reading stats and was reminded that many are now on my wish list thanks to you!

287VivienneR
jan 1, 2015, 2:17 am

Happy New Year, I enjoyed following your reading.