In a list kind of mood

I guess I feel like making lists today. I spent the girls' naptime looking through my last three issues of Bookmarks Magazine and made a list of the books that sounded interesting to me.

Fun story: From the time I learned to write, I made lists. Lists of EVERYTHING. Completely random things, I don't even know what were on my lists. My mom had a friend, she always said I was going to be a writer because I loved making lists. Not sure blogging counts as writing, but I have always enjoyed it. And I still make lists today. I have a little notebook that I have around all the time to jot things down when they come to me (groceries, household tasks, errands, books to read, etc.). And I'm constantly losing it and and asking my husband if he's seen my notebook. He makes fun of me, when I'm just walking around the house looking for something, he says, "Are you looking for your notebook?" That's how much I lose it. Anyway, here's to making lists...

The Pirates! in an adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe
The Torment of Others (part of the Tony Hill mystery series) by Val McDermid
The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole by Stephanie Doyon (this was on the Tournament of Books list last year)
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (Allison has reviewed this series before)
It's Superman by Tom DeHaven
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits
The Mephisto Club (Jane Rizzoli/Maura Iles mystery series) by Tess Gerritsen
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh
Philosopy Made Simple by Robert Hellenga

Sidenote: Robert Hellenga is an English professor at Knox College (my alma mater). He also wrote The Sixteen Pleasures which was a well-received book. I never had a class with him but always heard wonderful things about him. I also haven't read his books yet, but hope to.

PS. I added a couple new blogs to the blog list in the side bar. If there are any other book blogs you love to read, please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

We read this book for my book club this month. I would categorize it as fluff. It was mildly entertaining. The book is about an Amazing Race type reality show and focuses on the different pairs of people. The chapters flip-flop from the different characters' points of view. The story follows them through the show and how each of them deals with the situation of being on a reality show. The book stays on the surface and is not deep at all. I felt sort of weird about reading about a reality show. I felt like I should be watching it on television. Almost like the book itself was a reality show about a reality show because you got to see behind the scenes, the host, and the producers viewpoints as well as the main characters. Overall, I just thought the book was okay, even for fluff. Not sure I could say it was a complete waste of time, but I don't think I would recommend it. There are many other books out there worth reading before this one.

The book club was mixed about it. Most felt the way I did, some liked it just because it was an easy read. Apparently they have read some difficult books in the past, so it was a nice change of pace to read something more light-hearted.

Next month's book is Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle, which I'm really looking forward to reading. I've had it on my bookshelf for a couple years and now I finally have the opportunity to sit down and read it.

Tournament of Books 2007

Since it's almost March Madness, I thought I would check and see if this year's books were listed for the Tournament of Books yet. And they were.

Here's the list for 2007:
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
Arthur and George, Julian Barnes
Brookland, Emily Barton
English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee
The Lay of the Land, Richard Ford
Pride of Baghdad, Niko Henrichon, Brian K. Vaughan
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Peter Orner
The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
Firmin, Sam Savage
Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
Alentejo Blue, Monica Ali
Apex Hides the Hurt, Colson Whitehead

I won't be providing commentary this year, but may throw in an update every now and then. I haven't read any of the books on the list. Not sure any of them are really my kind of books, I'll have to look them up and see. Please post a comment if you've read any of these and what you thought of it.

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

I could go on and on about how amazing Kate Atkinson is, but I'll spare you :) She may be my favorite living writer. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year, and is fantastic. Her first three novels all deal with family dysfunction in various ways, but Atkinson is a masterful storyteller with a gift for creating believable, rich characters, so these are not insubstantial, derivative Oprah books. Atkinson is also wickedly funny. Her short story collection, Not the End of the World, is disturbing and gripping, and despite the title, is about the end of the world. Her fourth novel, Case Histories, introduced private investigator and ex-cop Jackson Brodie, who is involved in three separate cases that aren't exactly connected, but touch each other. This was her first "hit" novel, and I wasn't sure how I felt about my favorite literary novelist turning to the detective genre. However, this isn't your grandmother's detective novel. Atkinson takes her keen insight into the human condition and applies it to the genre, rather than allowing the genre to constrict her storytelling. The relationships between the characters are satisfying and well-developed. Her latest novel, One Good Turn, brings Jackson back as one of several witnesses to a road rage incident. Atkinson takes the events of a few days and shows them from the points of view of the different characters, who are all connected in some way. I had trouble putting it down. You don't need to have read Case Histories to enjoy One Good Turn, but I highly recommend both.

Reviews...

I read about half of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. I couldn't finish it, at least not right now. Not because it was poorly written or anything. I just got bored and had other books I'd rather be reading right now. The book is a memoir of his childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950's. It's a nice look at the 50's and I might assume the 1960's but I didn't get that far. And it's fun to read about what life was like then. But I think this book might appeal more to the previous generation of Baby Boomers who actually did grow up during that time. I did enjoy the tidbits from various newspaper clippings that he put at the beginning of each chapter. They were very entertaining.

I just finished Booked to Die, the first in the Cliff Janeway series by John Dunning. I already posted that my mom thought these were good mysteries, but I wanted to elaborate. I really enjoyed this book a lot. Janeway starts out as a cop who is interested in the book business as a hobby. A bookscout gets murdered and he is on the case. However, before he can solve it, he gets himself into a bit of hot water by beating up a suspect. He decides maybe its time to leave the police force and he opens up a bookshop. There are a couple more murders that he knows are somehow connected to the first one. Even though he's no longer a cop, he investigates and goes on to solve the crime. This book flows very well and I didn't figure out who did it until the reveal. I actually got hooked on the book in the introduction. Dunning talks about how he got the book published and how surprised/humbled he was by its great success. He also gives his impression of the current bookselling world. I found it all very interesting. I look forward to the next one when I get a chance to read it.

Now onto Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst for my book club this month. :-)

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Holly did a great review on this book earlier, and I finally pulled it out of my to-read pile, dusted it off, and breezed through it.

This is part coming-of-age story, part mystery, part magical realism. It starts with Daniel, age 10, who discovers the book The Shadow of the Wind by a mysterious author, Julian Carax, and loves the novel. When he looks for other Carax books, he learns that someone has been collecting all the copies and burning them. He becomes obsessed with finding out everything about Carax. The story is as much about Carax as Daniel, whose lives have odd parallels, and the characters are well-drawn and the suspense masterful. This is a flawed but beautiful book. I'm not sure how much is the author and how much is the translator, but you could easily remove a third of the similes and a quarter of the adjectives with no ill effect, and probably shorten the book by 100 pages. There's also a part near the end of the book that changes points of view for nearly 100 pages (a sort of book-within-a-book), which is jarring. Those pages are compelling, to be sure, and I'm certain that's why the author couldn't part with them, but they took me out of the story that was already in process. I think a more brutal editor would have served this book well. That said, I enjoyed this book. The mystery was satisfying and involving and the characters intriguing. It managed to be witty in places and sometimes bitterly sad. A lovely book, and a fairly quick read for 500 pages.

This is Zafon's first adult novel (his previous novels are young adult, and I don't believe are available in English), and I would certainly read his second.

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz, and more....

I haven't posted lately, but I've been reading lots: There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz; The Grizzly Maze by Nick Jans; Julie & Julia by Julie Powell; and We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case by Jury Members, Frank Swertlow, and Lyndon Stambler--just to name a few. I seem to be on a bit of a non-fiction kick, as I look back.

There Are No Children Here should be required high school, if not junior high, reading. I grew up not too far from Chicago, and my father once drove us into one of the projects on accident. I can't remember wanting to get out of any other place more than I did that one! This book gives true insight into what it is like to actually live in one of those projects and to try to eke a childhood and/or family life out of that bleak existence. My biggest surprise was that, in all the poverty of the Henry Horner Homes, the mother of the children featured in this book continued to have hopes of a better life for her children. Her younger boys Pharoah and Lafayette are wise beyond their years, but the essence of their childhood lives on.

I was fascinated by Timothy Treadwell's death a couple of years ago and saw the movie pieced together from the footage he shot in Alaska. The Grizzly Maze is a nonjudgmental look at Treadwell's life based upon interviews with his supporters and his detractors alike. I still don't know what to make of him, but I know a lot more about bears now! I hope never to encounter any of the black bears that live in the mountains near my home. I must say I'm a lot less inclined to explore those mountains now.

Julie & Julia came out of a year long cooking/blogging experiment by Julie Powell. Approaching 30 years old, she looks for a project to focus upon and decides to work her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year's time. I can't say it was a great book and certainly didn't capture great food in the manner of Ruth Reichl, but it was a decent way to pass the time on the train to and from work.

Like many people, I avidly followed the Laci Peterson story and her husband's trial. I hoped this book would reveal greater detail about the evidence and the thought processes of the jurors. I was disappointed that it seemed mostly to focus upon the personal dynamics of the jury and the opinions of individual jury members. I'm sorry to say that We, the Jury may also be the worst written book I've ever read. Better books about the trial are A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation by Catherine Crier, and Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson Is Guilty by Anne Bird.

Harry Potter Release Date!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released July 21. Let the pre-ordering begin!

Murder on a Hot Tin Roof by Amanda Matesky

Since there are other mystery fans around here, I thought I'd mention this book, the fourth in the series. The first is Murderers Prefer Blondes. The protagonist is Paige Turner, who works for Daring Detective magazine in New York in the 1950s. She is underpaid and stuck with chores like making the coffee ("woman's work," don't you know), but she has the opportunity to do some investigating of her own when murder crosses her path. The time period really distinguishes this series from other cozy mysteries, which are almost all set in the present day. There are fun references to the McCarthy hearings, Marilyn Monroe movies, beat poetry, you name it--everything you learned about in history class about the 50s. My only complaint (if it can even be called a complaint) is that some of the elements seem like stock 1950s necessities (like her Jewish sidekick who sprinkles her speech with both Yiddish and rhyming slang of the "it's a plan, Stan" variety and has a boyfriend who's a Beat poet and frequents jazz clubs) that she's trying to cram in. But the atmosphere is fun, and the mysteries are well-developed and interesting, plus Paige herself is an enjoyable heroine.

In the fourth book, Paige tackles the world of Broadway theater when an actor friend is murdered. This book also brings in the homosexual community that thrived underground in New York. I actually guessed the murderer and the motive, which is unusual for me, but there were enough elements to the mystery that I wasn't positive until the end. If you're looking for another cozy mystery series to dive into, I would recommend this one.

Welcome to Higby by Mark Dunn

Holly had recommended Ella Minnow Pea to me, and I loved it, so I was delighted that Mark Dunn had a couple other novels. Welcome to Higby is a much different kind of book. It's more of a traditional novel, and its only "gimmick," if it can be called one, is the interconnectedness of the characters, which sometimes translates to parallels between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. Higby, Mississippi is a small southern town whose quirky inhabitants have quite an eventful Labor Day weekend. Relationships fall apart and develop, injuries are sustained, faith is lost and found, and one character is kidnapped by a Christian vegan cult. It's an extremely quick read, and a fun one. It was actually the perfect follow-up to the denser, more dramatic The Thirteenth Tale.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Short review: This book was good!
Long review: Vida Winter, an aging author, has a mysterious history. She's given dozens of interviews, all revealing conflicting (though equally invented) life stories for herself. One of her works was called The Thirteen Tales, although as it contains only twelve tales, subsequent editions leave out the "thirteen" from the title. Naturally, everyone wonders about the missing story. Margaret Lea dabbles in biography. She and her father run a bookshop, and she's more at home with books than people, so she's unsure when Vida Winter summons her--Ms. Winter is ready to tell her real story, and she has chosen Margaret to do it. The atmosphere of the novel is reminiscent of Jane Eyre. I don't think this is an accident, and that novel is referenced periodically. Of course, Margaret has secrets of her own that play into the story as she unravels the tangled thread of Vida Winter's life. The writing is beautiful, the characters rich and intriguing, and the plot is elegant and complex. I highly recommend it.

The Shadow of the Wind

This was my first book club book. I actually finished it before the meeting! :-) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon takes place during World War II in Barcelona. The main character, Daniel is ten when the book starts and it follows him until he's 17. He and his father have a bookstore and much of the book centers around books, and loving books. At the heart of the story is the mystery surrounding the author of Daniel's most beloved book. Daniel searches for years to find out any and all information about the author and his other books which all seemed to disappear from existence.

I enjoyed the book overall. The first third or so was a little slow because I kept waiting to get to the mystery of it. It pulled me into the story and by the second half of the book, I was reading as fast as I could to find out what happened to all the characters. I was mostly annoyed by the character of Fermin who plays one of Daniel's best friends and coworkers. His language is very wordy, flowy, and over the top. That was part of his character, but it annoyed me.

I would say if you have the time, like to read books about books, and enjoy mysteries, this might be interesting to you!

Not sure what I'll read next. I received some books for Christmas that I'm looking forward to getting to:

The Adventures of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (author of Devil in the White City)
Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich
Booked to Die by John Dunning

And I just picked up Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich today. I'm thinking I might go for the Bill Bryson book next.

Update on new Harry Potter

I visited Barnes and Noble today and they had a sign to "reserve your copy of the new Harry Potter book today"! This puzzled me. If there's no release date, why bother starting to reserve books? I inquired at the desk if a release date had been announced. They said no. Then the gentlemen went on to say slyly, "The new movie comes out this summer."

I said, "ooh, that would be a nice tie-in wouldn't it?"

He smiled. Then I said, "Well the others seemed to be released in the summer."

He said, "Yes, and there are rumors of 7/7/07, because its the seventh book."

"Ahhh, that would make sense. Thanks." I went on to reserve my copy.

You heard it here first folks! I predict 7/7/07!

New Harry Potter title announced

Perhaps this is old news for those of you that actually read the newspaper, watch CNN, or check out news websites. However, since I live in a little bubble world, I just found out about this today when I was browsing around the Barnes and Noble website.

The new, and *sob* final, Harry Potter title will be entitled: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No release date is set yet. (Updates to follow)

The fifth film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" will be out in July 2007.

Passing along a review...

Awhile back I posted a few books from my Bookmarks Magazine that sounded interesting to me. One of them was the Cliff Janeway series by John Dunning. "Booked to Die" is the first in the series about "a tough, book-loving homicide detective". Based on my recommendation, my mom read the whole series. She said the first three books were good and interesting. They talked quite a bit about the technical side of book collecting. And although the last couple were still good, there weren't quite as good because they weren't focused as much on the book part of the series.

I haven't read any of these yet, but hope to start the first one sometime in the near future. It's on my must-read list. :-)

I'm about 50 pages into The Shadow of the Wind and am enjoying it so far. I'll post a full review when I'm finished!

Hopefully, coming soon to a blog near you!

A post from Holly!! My thanks to Allison and Kirsten for keeping this blog going in my non-reading stage. :-) We are moved into our new house and I am in the process of unpacking. Sadly, Andrew shoved all my book boxes to the basement. I'm not really sure what he thinks will come of them down there. Since, well, I have a plan for them, of course, to go on nice newly purchased bookshelves in our bedroom once we buy nice new bedroom furniture. Um, who knows when that will be. So here's hoping that someone paid attention to my amazon wishlist and maybe I'll get some fun books for Christmas.

But in the meantime, I shall be writing a review in the next month at least! I know you are all on the edges of your seats! I joined a book club! A real live book club! I've wanted to do this for years and just haven't had the right opportunity. My good friend Claire, who happens to live around here, has been going to a book club for about 5 or 6 years now, and she asked if I wanted to join. So I'll hopefully be attending their January meeting. The book is The Shadow of the Wind by Caros Ruiz Zafon. It received great reviews on both the Barnes and Noble and Amazon websites. I'll let you all know what I think!

So mysterious!

I have been reading, just not posting much about it. I've mostly been on a mystery kick:

Jane Austen mysteries by Stephanie Barron. Since posting a review of the first, I've read #2 (Jane and the Man of the Cloth) and #3 (Jane and the Wandering Eye) and they did not disappoint. There's something a little poignant in knowing Jane Austen's biography when reading these--I know how many years she has left to live, and I know the outcome of her romantic entanglements. But somehow, this doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the stories, which is a credit to Barron.

The Flaming Luau of Death by Jerrilyn Farmer. This is the most recent (out in paperback, anyway...I don't buy mysteries in hardback) in her series about Madeline Bean, a party planner in LA. She has two fun assistants, and her parties always end one way...with police tape and a chalk outline. Seriously, who would hire this woman to plan a party after a half dozen or so The first in Sympathy for the Devil. I rather like these, and this latest was very enjoyable.

Re-reading the Diane Mott Davidson series. The first is Catering to Nobody. These are about Goldy, a caterer with a son who goes from around 10 years old into his teenaged years. She gets married during the course of the series. Each book includes a handful of recipes, some of which are really excellent. I have mixed feelings about these. I always enjoy them, but there are little annoyances. For example, in every book she has Goldy look in the mirror and describe herself, which is a pretty lame device. In every book, she brings up the thumb that her ex-husband broke in three places. Arch (her son) can be a real pain in the patoot, but she puts up with his moodiness and flat-out jerky behavior. She uses adjectives like there might be a shortage soon. And a lot of her causes of death are really convoluted, on par with the terrorist plot in Snakes on a Plane for sheer plausibility. That said, I like them anyway. Maybe I cut her some slack because I *adore* her recipe for Grand Marnier Cranberry Muffins, but I like Goldy, and the investigations are always interesting. So if you're looking for a new series to try, give the first book a read and see how much these things bother you. I can obviously get past them, since I'm re-reading the series for the umpteenth time.

That's it for now!

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I just finished this book, and I have to say I don't think it lived up to its reviews. (Sorry, Holly!) It never drew me in, and I had to make myself finish it. The characters were all extremely sad and self-centered, which made the whole book feel one-dimensional. I also found it completely unrealistic since societal attitudes about Down's syndrome had already begun changing in the 1960s.

Feed your habit...

I just found this cool site where you can trade your used books for other ones. I think the only cost is $3.99 for shipping the books you select to your home. There's no charge to mail your used books to others. Here's the site: http://www.bookins.com

A Little Too Mysterious

I finished Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris a few days ago, but hadn't really known what to say about it. It's the first in a series in which the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice solve mysteries. I thought the premise sounded cute for a cozy mystery series, and I really wasn't expecting great literature or anything, just an entertaining mystery novel. It started out pretty well. The Darcys find Caroline Bingley wandering in a disreputable street, acting very strangely, and other odd happenings follow. There were some rather over-the-top characters, but I was willing to look past that. The writing was fine, but suffered in comparison to Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries. It was a quick read and very light. But then she brought in this occult element that just didn't really fit. I've read mysteries that successfully bring in the otherworldly, but it really didn't have a place in a continuation of a Jane Austen book. And frankly, the solution was pretty...lame. So, I'm not sure yet if I'll read the next in the series. For now, I'm reading the second book in the Barrons series and really enjoying it.