Never Let Me Go has moved on as did Home Land by Sam Lipsyte. The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova have fallen by the wayside.
I somewhat disagree with The Historian not being moved through to Round 2. I am only half way through the book, but I am really enjoying it. I guess it is somewhat dry and slightly academic (as the judge points out) so it can be a little hard to get through it all. But I tend to glance over paragraphs that get too wordy or boring, looking for the overall picture. I'll give an overall review of it when I finish, if ever. I am currently spending my minimal free time knitting a baby blanket for a friend so reading has taken a backseat.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
ToB Round One continues
History of Love won out over The Time In Between.
Today's matchup was:
VERONICA by MARY GAITSKILL vs.
EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE by JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will be moving onto round two, where it will go up against, History of Love, which ironically is the author's wife's book.
Tomorrow's matchup is:
NEVER LET ME GO by KAZUO ISHIGURO vs.
THE GREATEST MAN IN CEDAR HOLE by STEPHANIE DOYON
Today's matchup was:
VERONICA by MARY GAITSKILL vs.
EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE by JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will be moving onto round two, where it will go up against, History of Love, which ironically is the author's wife's book.
Tomorrow's matchup is:
NEVER LET ME GO by KAZUO ISHIGURO vs.
THE GREATEST MAN IN CEDAR HOLE by STEPHANIE DOYON
Review - The Year of Magical Thinking
My book club book for this month was Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It's a memoir about the year following her husband's death. But it was graceful and thought=provoking rather than Oprah-Book-Tearjerker depressing. I haven't read her previous books, and at first her writing style bugged me, but I couldn't put this book down. It's a quick read at about 225 pages. It really wasn't what I was expecting at all, but it was beautiful and moving, and the phrases and images she echoes throughout the book really resonate, and keep the book from being self-indulgent. It's a surprisingly grounded account of a year Didion acknowledges that she was kind of crazy. I definitely recommend it.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Best Sellers
I recently finished four best sellers. Stephen King's CELL, Robert B. Parker's SEA CHANGE and two by Sarh Dunant, THE BIRTH OF VENUS and IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN.
I don't own a cell phone and neither does Stephen King or so he says. After reading CELL, I'm not certain I really need one. This is King at his usual scary best although I was disappointed w/the ending. Too much left undone.
SEA CHANGE is another good example of Parker's writing. Taut dialog with a sarcastic edge. Tough characters with all too human frailties and a rather shocking denoument. All Parker's books are quick reads that leave you wanting more. He has three detective series going so it seems there promises to be more.
Sarah Dunant's historical novels are extremely well researched w/bibliographies at the end. I guess that means she's a SERIOUS writer. These two books are set in 15th and 16th century Italy, Florence and Venice. You learn that life was very different and very difficult than today's existence. The plots center around events of the times and actual people you learned about in school have roles in the books. For those of you with an interest in Art History, THE BIRTH OF VENUS has an intriguing appearance by Michaelangelo. In THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN gives you insight into the huge amount of time and effort it took to practice the oldest profession. You learn that appearances ARE everything but in the end family values endure.
I don't own a cell phone and neither does Stephen King or so he says. After reading CELL, I'm not certain I really need one. This is King at his usual scary best although I was disappointed w/the ending. Too much left undone.
SEA CHANGE is another good example of Parker's writing. Taut dialog with a sarcastic edge. Tough characters with all too human frailties and a rather shocking denoument. All Parker's books are quick reads that leave you wanting more. He has three detective series going so it seems there promises to be more.
Sarah Dunant's historical novels are extremely well researched w/bibliographies at the end. I guess that means she's a SERIOUS writer. These two books are set in 15th and 16th century Italy, Florence and Venice. You learn that life was very different and very difficult than today's existence. The plots center around events of the times and actual people you learned about in school have roles in the books. For those of you with an interest in Art History, THE BIRTH OF VENUS has an intriguing appearance by Michaelangelo. In THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN gives you insight into the huge amount of time and effort it took to practice the oldest profession. You learn that appearances ARE everything but in the end family values endure.
ToB starts tomorrow!
For those of you who are intrigued, the Tournament of Books begins tomorrow. Each day of the week you can go to the website and they will have a review of each day's matchup. From the ToB website:
"The first of many judgment days is tomorrow (a new judgment published each weekday until the tournament’s done), with judge Choire Sicha deciding between the highly regarded—and highly PR-machine’d—The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Dave Bergen’s stealth bomber, The Time in Between. It’s guaranteed to be a joyful bloodbath. Welcome to the 2006 Tournament of Books."
TOMORROW’S MATCH:
KRAUSS'S THE HISTORY OF LOVE VS. THE TIME IN BETWEEN BY BERGEN
If anyone has read either of these and would like to give your own review. Please post a comment.
"The first of many judgment days is tomorrow (a new judgment published each weekday until the tournament’s done), with judge Choire Sicha deciding between the highly regarded—and highly PR-machine’d—The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Dave Bergen’s stealth bomber, The Time in Between. It’s guaranteed to be a joyful bloodbath. Welcome to the 2006 Tournament of Books."
TOMORROW’S MATCH:
KRAUSS'S THE HISTORY OF LOVE VS. THE TIME IN BETWEEN BY BERGEN
If anyone has read either of these and would like to give your own review. Please post a comment.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Review--The Accidental
The Accidental by Ali Smith is one of the books from the Tournament of Books. I listened to the audiobook of this. I'm not sure if I would have had a different impression from actually reading the book. It has been hyped by several publications and it won the Whitbread award so I was anticipating a very good book. However, I found it to be only an okay book.
An English family is vacationing and a stranger enters their world and possibly changes their lives. The book is written where each chapter is from a different character's point of view. I liked the first half of the book and enjoyed hearing the different characters viewpoints. But I just didn't see where the story was going and I got bored. So I admit, although it is very against my nature to abandon a book, I did not listen to the last four chapters.
I will be curious to see how it does in the bracket and what the judges thought of it. Maybe I'm just not literary-minded enough to have grasped why this is supposed to be such a great book. I did look up other reviews of it and they are pretty mixed. Seems like you either love it or you hate it.
I am currently reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I am not incredibly far into yet, but I am really enjoying it.
An English family is vacationing and a stranger enters their world and possibly changes their lives. The book is written where each chapter is from a different character's point of view. I liked the first half of the book and enjoyed hearing the different characters viewpoints. But I just didn't see where the story was going and I got bored. So I admit, although it is very against my nature to abandon a book, I did not listen to the last four chapters.
I will be curious to see how it does in the bracket and what the judges thought of it. Maybe I'm just not literary-minded enough to have grasped why this is supposed to be such a great book. I did look up other reviews of it and they are pretty mixed. Seems like you either love it or you hate it.
I am currently reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I am not incredibly far into yet, but I am really enjoying it.
Monday, March 06, 2006
ToB Bracket announced!
If you click on the Tournament of Books link in the sidebar, you will see the list of judges and a place to download the tournament bracket. I have to say, I'm really amused by The Morning News writers. I think their explanations of their process are great and they don't take themselves too seriously. Which I love!
Anyway, check out the bracket, I may post a running commentary of the tournament and see if any of you have read some of the books on the list and your opinions of them. And whether or not you agree with the judges choices.
Anyway, check out the bracket, I may post a running commentary of the tournament and see if any of you have read some of the books on the list and your opinions of them. And whether or not you agree with the judges choices.
Review - The Big Over Easy
I finished The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, and I really enjoyed it. If you've read his Thursday Next series, you may find it difficult not to agonize over the connections between The Well of Lost Plots (in which most of these characters make an appearance), but it's an enjoyable debut to his new series, and I'll definitely read the second book, which comes out this summer.
The book opens up in Reading, England, where Mary Mary is assigned to work with Jack Spratt in the Nursery Crime Division, which investigates crimes involving gingerbread houses, giants, and most significantly for this book, the murder of a large egg. Humpty Dumpty has been murdered, and suspects abound. Jack must make his way through a tangled web of corporate greed, ex-wives, and mad scientists to solve the murder. To make things more difficult, Reading is a world where police not only have to solve crimes, they have to make them readable, and Jack has always been an outsider, devoted to justice rather than ratings. Fforde does a great job creating fun characters and an outrageous world for them to play in.
The book opens up in Reading, England, where Mary Mary is assigned to work with Jack Spratt in the Nursery Crime Division, which investigates crimes involving gingerbread houses, giants, and most significantly for this book, the murder of a large egg. Humpty Dumpty has been murdered, and suspects abound. Jack must make his way through a tangled web of corporate greed, ex-wives, and mad scientists to solve the murder. To make things more difficult, Reading is a world where police not only have to solve crimes, they have to make them readable, and Jack has always been an outsider, devoted to justice rather than ratings. Fforde does a great job creating fun characters and an outrageous world for them to play in.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Zooba.com
Has anyone tried this? I recommend it as a way of acquiring books you are interested in but don't have time to read at the moment. It's like Netflix. You keep a running list of books you'd like to read. Each month Zooba will send you the book at the top of your list. You can rearrange, add or delete books from your list whenever you want.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Seven Deadly Wonders
Just finished 7 Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly. WOW! Talk about nonstop action and adventure. The book is a Sinbad, The Sailor movie from my childhood. A team researches the seven ancient wonders of the world and then actually finds them all usually one step ahead of the evil USA and Europe. Yes, the USA and Europe are the BAD GUYS in this story. An interesting twist. Each ancient wonder site is filled w/hazards for those brave enough to try to find the elusive treasure left behind by none other than Alexander the Great.A high adventure read for a blustery winter afternoon.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Book Reviews
I recently finished two very different books, and enjoyed them both.
Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore: I like his writing style and crazy plots with unbelievable characters. They're fun, quick reads as well. This one had a slightly clunkier plot than the last I read - Island of the Sequined Love Nun - but Practical Demonkeeping is also his first novel. The plot is hard to summarize; there's a djinn who's trying to send the demon back to hell, and the demon's keeper, Travis, who tries to confine the demon's eating to criminals. It's crazy and fun.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella: Kinsella also wrote Shoeless Joe, the novel on which the film Field of Dreams is based. If you liked that movie, you would probably enjoy this book. It has many of the elements that made the film wonderful; strong characters, magic, Native American legend, and baseball. It's not an action-packed read, but his storytelling is leisurely and thorough. I very much enjoyed it.
I'm now reading The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. Not sure what I think about it yet.
Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore: I like his writing style and crazy plots with unbelievable characters. They're fun, quick reads as well. This one had a slightly clunkier plot than the last I read - Island of the Sequined Love Nun - but Practical Demonkeeping is also his first novel. The plot is hard to summarize; there's a djinn who's trying to send the demon back to hell, and the demon's keeper, Travis, who tries to confine the demon's eating to criminals. It's crazy and fun.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella: Kinsella also wrote Shoeless Joe, the novel on which the film Field of Dreams is based. If you liked that movie, you would probably enjoy this book. It has many of the elements that made the film wonderful; strong characters, magic, Native American legend, and baseball. It's not an action-packed read, but his storytelling is leisurely and thorough. I very much enjoyed it.
I'm now reading The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. Not sure what I think about it yet.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Recent Reads
I've recently discovered W.E.B.Griffin. He's sort of a political suspense thriller writer like Robert Ludlum. Griffin has two books w/the same character, a young FBI/Homeland Security agent whose name escapes me. The titles are By Order of the President and The Hostage. I found I couldn't put these books down.
Another thriller/suspense author is Greg Iles. I've read The Quiet Game and Turning Angel. These books also share the same characters and are set in Iles' birthplace, Natchez,Mississippi. They are murder mysteries and the evil specter of racism raises its ugly head. After reading these books, I wonder whether Iles truly portrays race relations in Natchez as they are or if he takes literary license.
I just finished Mary, Mary by James Patterson. The most recent novel in his Alex Cross series. Alex is a cop who solves serial murders. I've read every single book in this series. Some are better than others but all keep me enthralled until the last page.
Another thriller/suspense author is Greg Iles. I've read The Quiet Game and Turning Angel. These books also share the same characters and are set in Iles' birthplace, Natchez,Mississippi. They are murder mysteries and the evil specter of racism raises its ugly head. After reading these books, I wonder whether Iles truly portrays race relations in Natchez as they are or if he takes literary license.
I just finished Mary, Mary by James Patterson. The most recent novel in his Alex Cross series. Alex is a cop who solves serial murders. I've read every single book in this series. Some are better than others but all keep me enthralled until the last page.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
"what to read next?"
I thought I would try out the "What should I read next?" website since I'm on vacation and the girls are napping (I'm listening to The Accidental right now as well). I put five titles into the mix: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Lovely Bones, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Known World.
The database spit back three pages of books. Some of them classics like Catch-22, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, 1984, etc. A few others I took note of:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
Ella Minnow Pea sounds interesting to me (and not just because I like the first name) and seems to fall into the same category as Jasper Fforde's books (Allison: you should look this one up!). There seems to be several books about book clubs lately. Besides Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons and The Jane Austen Book Club, there's also The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe. I just think it's interesting this is such a hot topic.
I'd be curious to hear if anyone liked Life of Pi. And Cloud Atlas seems to keep popping up in things I've read. So I might have to add that one to my reading list. A friend of mine enjoyed Practical Magic as well as some others of Alice Hoffman's books.
Kind of a fun website to play around with.
The database spit back three pages of books. Some of them classics like Catch-22, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, 1984, etc. A few others I took note of:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
Ella Minnow Pea sounds interesting to me (and not just because I like the first name) and seems to fall into the same category as Jasper Fforde's books (Allison: you should look this one up!). There seems to be several books about book clubs lately. Besides Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons and The Jane Austen Book Club, there's also The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe. I just think it's interesting this is such a hot topic.
I'd be curious to hear if anyone liked Life of Pi. And Cloud Atlas seems to keep popping up in things I've read. So I might have to add that one to my reading list. A friend of mine enjoyed Practical Magic as well as some others of Alice Hoffman's books.
Kind of a fun website to play around with.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Currently Reading....
Well I keep checking, but the Tournament of Books bracket has not been posted yet. Allison has inspired me to try listening to an audio book since my reading time has been severely shortened due to my two lovely daughters. She let me know about audible.com which is a great site for audio books and she invited me so I got to try out two books for free. I decided I was going to get two of the books on the Tournament list and chose "The Accidental" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".
I've started The Accidental, which has received quite a bit of praise. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Prize last year. I'll post a review when I'm finished with it but I am enjoying it so far. More soon.....
I've started The Accidental, which has received quite a bit of praise. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Prize last year. I'll post a review when I'm finished with it but I am enjoying it so far. More soon.....
Thursday, February 16, 2006
What I'm reading
I finally got all of the books I'm currently reading in one place, so now I can tell everyone what I'm reading. I prefer to read one book at a time, but I currently have five going:
1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. This Day in the Life: Diaries From Women Across America
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events -The Penultimate Peril, Book 12 by Lemony Snicket
4. Salem's Lot by Stephen King
5. I Married My Mother-in-Law and Other Tales Of In-Laws We Can't Live With -- And Can't Live Without
As may be apparent, I have wide ranging tastes and am a fairly voracious reader.
1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. This Day in the Life: Diaries From Women Across America
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events -The Penultimate Peril, Book 12 by Lemony Snicket
4. Salem's Lot by Stephen King
5. I Married My Mother-in-Law and Other Tales Of In-Laws We Can't Live With -- And Can't Live Without
As may be apparent, I have wide ranging tastes and am a fairly voracious reader.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
White Teeth
I finished White Teeth, Zadie Smith's debut novel, yesterday. It was an amazing book. It reaches back in time to reference the character's ancestors, but is based in the melting pot of North London, where the central characters live. Archie (a white Brit) and Samad (a Muslim Bengali immigrant, despairing of his children's assimilation) have a friendship based on their military service together. Archie marries half-Jamaican, recovering Jehovah's Witness Clara and lives near Samad's family. The book takes off from here, exploring the ancestry that defines the characters and the new directions of their offspring. I highly recommend it!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
More on the Tournament of Books
I did a little more research into this, this morning. Last year was the first year for it. They arbitrarily chose 16 books and arranged them in a bracket (a la the NCAA basketball tourney). I'm not sure how books get elminated but last year's finals came down to The Plot Against America by Philip Roth and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas was the winner of "The Rooster" as they call their top prize.
Here is a link to some background information on how the Tournament of Books started and why: First Annual TMN Tournament of Books
This year's Tournament will take place in March. The bracket has not been released yet. I will post a link when the bracket is available. But here are a list of the 16 books in contention:
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Time in Between, by David Bergen
Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, by Stephanie Doyon
Home Land, by Sam Lipsyte
The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
The King of Kings County, by Whitney Terrell
Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
The Accidental, by Ali Smith
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala
Garner, by Kristin Allio
Saturday*, by Ian McEwan
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close*, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Here is a link to some background information on how the Tournament of Books started and why: First Annual TMN Tournament of Books
This year's Tournament will take place in March. The bracket has not been released yet. I will post a link when the bracket is available. But here are a list of the 16 books in contention:
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Time in Between, by David Bergen
Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, by Stephanie Doyon
Home Land, by Sam Lipsyte
The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
The King of Kings County, by Whitney Terrell
Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
The Accidental, by Ali Smith
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala
Garner, by Kristin Allio
Saturday*, by Ian McEwan
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close*, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Murder She Wrote
I just finished the book I was reading Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke. This was a very fluffy mystery, part of a series of books by this author with Hannah Swensen as the main character. I gave my mom this book for Christmas thinking it would just be a fun read for her. The story itself is set in Minnesota which makes me like it from the beginning because I like to read books that take place in places I've lived. The story itself is readable, but predictable and the two main characters of Hannah and her sort of boyfriend, Mike remind me quite a bit of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli (she happens upon a murder and he's a cop, she helps him solve the case). But maybe this is a common theme among fluff mysteries. I haven't branched out tremendously in this genre so I wouldn't really know.
The interesting thing about this book is that the setting is mostly at a community potluck dinner and all of the recipes mentioned in the story are listed in the back of the book. And some of them sound kind of good!
When I'm reading, sometimes there are words that just stand out to me and I say to myself, "Wow, what a great word!" This happened twice in this book. #1 on pg. 55: "Mayor Bascomb's tie was splendiferous." What a great word splendiferous is. And #2 on pg. 68: "Hannah felt a wave of relief sluice down from the top of head to her toes." Sluice is also a fun word.
Anyway, now that I've read two sort of easy reads in a row, I think I should tackle something slightly more literary. I will probably decide between Girl With a Pearl Earring and Kite Runner. I'll read a little from both and see if my interest is peaked in either.
Just curious, what kind of reader are you? Do you juggle more than one book at a time? or do you feel guilty starting a new book if you haven't finished reading your current one?
Personally, I pretty much have to read the current book I'm on. Once I've committed myself to it, I tend to finish it before moving on, even if it takes me weeks or months to get through. Though, I may have to start three or four books before I get to one I'm in the mood to read.
The interesting thing about this book is that the setting is mostly at a community potluck dinner and all of the recipes mentioned in the story are listed in the back of the book. And some of them sound kind of good!
When I'm reading, sometimes there are words that just stand out to me and I say to myself, "Wow, what a great word!" This happened twice in this book. #1 on pg. 55: "Mayor Bascomb's tie was splendiferous." What a great word splendiferous is. And #2 on pg. 68: "Hannah felt a wave of relief sluice down from the top of head to her toes." Sluice is also a fun word.
Anyway, now that I've read two sort of easy reads in a row, I think I should tackle something slightly more literary. I will probably decide between Girl With a Pearl Earring and Kite Runner. I'll read a little from both and see if my interest is peaked in either.
Just curious, what kind of reader are you? Do you juggle more than one book at a time? or do you feel guilty starting a new book if you haven't finished reading your current one?
Personally, I pretty much have to read the current book I'm on. Once I've committed myself to it, I tend to finish it before moving on, even if it takes me weeks or months to get through. Though, I may have to start three or four books before I get to one I'm in the mood to read.
Chiming in
I'm happy to be a part of this group! I wanted to add a suggestion for links: The Whitbread Awards and The National Book Awards for excellent British and American(respectively) contemporary literature suggestions.
I'm reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith (as Holly knows!) and I'm about halfway through. I'll post a review when I'm done (I think it will be glowing!). You've inspired me to start a list of my favorite books/authors. I'm in the midst of that now, along with a list of the books in my must-read piles (arranged by genre : ).
I'm reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith (as Holly knows!) and I'm about halfway through. I'll post a review when I'm done (I think it will be glowing!). You've inspired me to start a list of my favorite books/authors. I'm in the midst of that now, along with a list of the books in my must-read piles (arranged by genre : ).
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