The only "Q" author I have in my collection is
Elizabeth Quinn. I read her book quite some time ago, so don't really remember anything.
For "U" books, if you like mystery, I can recommend
An Unquiet Grave by P.J. Parrish and for regular fiction,
Until I Find You by John Irving.
Like your lists - watchin' your thread! :-D
Thanks for the listing of Q authors, AnnieMod. I've done a bit of investigating and I think I might try to find a work by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Mostly I just think his name is cool... :)
I've been busy, and I've been reading a number of books which weren't on my list (which I am trying to change as little as possible) so I'm hapy to say I finally crossed one off.
I started with a relatively short novel by Japanese author Hitomi Kanehara,
Autofiction. Her first novel won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's top literary award, but I'm not sure if this one garnered the same level of acclaim. It's a semi-autobiographical story which traces backwards through a young woman's life showing her struggles with herself and her interactions with others. It covers similar territory to her first novel, the disaffection of many Japanese youth, but it didn't resonate as strongly with me. I suspect the original Japanese would be more intense as the sort of repetition of phrases which occurred tends to be more powerful in Japanese.
Well, that's 2 'A' books down, now that I've read Jane Austen's seminal work,
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I have to admit I quite enjoyed it in its ridiculousness. I had a few quibbles, mostly with whoever should have been proof reading (it's
koi ponds not coy ponds - unless you're going for a very different meaning...I suppose there were zombies, why not anthropomorphic ponds as well) and the complete lack of knowledge about Japan and China (note to author: Japanese women did not have their feet bound) as well as the most ridiculous phrasing I've ever heard (what is wrong with 'perspiration' if you don't want to use the word sweat? 'Exercise moisture' is just wrong!)
Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the movie to delight in its schlockiness.
Didn't know there's to be a movie. Not sure about that. I did enjoy the book much more than I would have thought--I liked the way the presence of zombies allowed the characters to speak more clearly than they did in the original. My favorite part was the excellent discussion guide included.
I loved the discussion guide! That had me laughing even more than the rest of the book!
I've been going in alphabetical order so far (I suspect that will change now that I'm doing the 1010 Category Challenge and some of the books in that challenge overlap with these) so the next book I read was
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck.
I really knew nothing about the book or the author before I started reading it. I had heard of the title and picked it up at a book fair one day. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, without reservations (which you may have picked up is unusual for me). The story was plainly written - no frills, no fuss - but still managed to be descriptive, evocative and very moving. The tragedies the family suffered, the foreshadowing of things to come and the desperation of Chinese rural life were brought to life brilliantly and it did not surprise me to learn that Pearl Buck had grown up in China and that she spent some years living in a rural area, much like the one in this book.
This is an early success for my ABC challenge, because this is a book which would likely have languished at the bottom of my TBR pile for years to come. Now, I'm off to find more of Buck's work to enjoy!
Yeah! That's one of the great things of this challenge, chipping away at the dusty ole books on the TBR shelves. Glad it's been a success thus far.
I've just crossed
Hiroshima Maidens off the list too. Rather than post my thoughts here, you can have a look at the review I posted if you like (it's the only one for the book so far...)
Great review! Isn't it satisfying to review something that has never been reviewed? Yours was balanced and informative and made me interested in those women.
Thanks RidgewayGirl! I hadn't intended to review it, but when I realised there weren't any reviews, I cut and pasted my impressions from my 1010 Category Challenge thread. I didn't put as much thought into it as I usually would with a review, so I'm glad it's still useful!
Meanwhile, I think I should get a ticker for this challenge, especially since I'm not reading in alphabetical order. I've just finished my 3rd book from my author list (
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan) and I've done 2 from the titles list, so that's 5 out of 52 complete - nearly 10%.
So I'm up to 6/52 now. I shouldn't have read it this week...I vowed I would wait till exams were over, but I couldn't resist cracking open the new Discworld book,
Unseen Academicals.
I have to say I was a little disappointed. The writing wasn't as sharp and witty as I had hoped, and some of the characters occasionally seemed a bit off. I still enjoyed the book, and had a good laugh while reading it, but it certainly won't become one of my favourite Discworld novels. It may just be that I don't have the innate appreciation of football which tends to be assumed by British authors.
On the plus side, it filled one of my title gaps....I didn't have any TBR books starting with 'U'.
#16 I have hesitated in getting
Unseen Academicals because I was worried my loathing of football might get in the way. :) I think I might try a libray copy. Thanks for the review.
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