Hi everyone! Linda (Whisper) invited me to take on this challenge because as a member of the 50 book challenge, I have gotten to know her and other 75 book challenge members on their threads. I'll say right from the start I'm not going to reach 75 books but I will definitely read more than 50 and Linda was so gracious and I do enjoy the threads so here is my list:

1. The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett ****
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson *****
3. Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout ****
4. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston *****
5. Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett ****
6. The Road Home by Rose Tremain ****
7. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell *****
8. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ****
9. The Custodian of Paradise by Wayne Johnston***
10. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse ****
11. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan ****
12. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon ****
13. Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout ****
14 -16. The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies *****
17. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery *****
18. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson ****
19. Deaf Sentence by David Lodge ****
20. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick ****
21. Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich *****
22. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill **1/2
23. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith ****
24. Small Island by Andrea Levy *****
25. City of Thieves by David Benioff ****
26. Shadow Country by Peter Matthiesson *****
27. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie ****
28. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville *****
29. A Death in the Family by James Agee ****
30. Telex From Cuba by Rachel Kushner ****
31. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson *****
32. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri ****
33. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo ****
34. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay ***
35. The Help by Kathryn Stockett *****
36. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin ****
37. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan ****1/2
38. The Day the Falls Stoof Still by Kathy Marie Buchanan ****
39. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ****1/2
40. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon ****1/2
41. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov ****
42. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov ****1/2
43. The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan ****1/2
44. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers *****

That brings me just about up to date and I'm almost to the end of #45. I've been fortunate in that since I've joined LT I've gotten so many good reading suggestions that I don't have many books that I've rated less than 3 stars. Not that many years ago I had many, many 1 and 2 star reads. I love LT.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2009, 9:10pm.

Yay! You made it!
Welcome - you're going to love it here.

Angela

Welcome! Now it is official.

Welcome aboard! I like what you've read so far this year, so I'm starring your thread, brenzi.

Your list reminds me that I really need to start reading some of the Andrea Barrett books I've picked up over the years.

That's a great reading list, Brenzi.

Thank you everyone for your kind words I'm happy to be on board.

Welcome to the group! Some terrific reads in your list. I cannot wait to see what you read over the remainder of the year.

Finished Still Alice by Lisa Genova and I'll write my review later tonight. Started on Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and it's proving to be an addictive read so far.

welcome to the group and hope your stay here is wonderful - so wonderful in fact, that you will never want to leave again! :)

Brenzi

I recently read Still Alice. It was the book selected for my book club. The librarian who is a friend and led the discussion also included an alzheimers specialist.

I'm interested in learning your opinions.

Welcome to the 75ers.

I am interested in your reading list - the Eggers book has me very interested although I have not yet been able to snag it at my library.

Welcome to the group - good to see someone else has read Say you're one of them, I heard the author speak at our Writers and Readers Festival which inspired me to read the book.

I will be interested in seeing your thoughts on Black Swan Green. I had it on my list to read this year, but so far have not gotten to it.

>12 I had never read anything by Eggers before but this book was stunning in the way it exposed more of the ineptness in the way Katrina was bungled. I hope you're able to get it. And thank you for welcoming me to the group.

>13 I loved Say You're One of Them but what a gut wrenching read, don't you agree?

>14 I'm about halfway through Black Swan Green and loving it.

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2009, 9:50am.

#45 Still Alice by Lisa Genova

From my review:

At the age of fifty, Alice Howland is at the pinnacle of her career. She has been a psychology professor, a Ph.D, a noted author, an accomplished researcher and a respected speaker. For the past 25 years, her career in the Harvard community has been a source of pride for her and her family. How ironic then, that this gifted, intelligent woman, whose intellectual capabilities have secured her identity in her professional community, should suddenly find herself unable to remember the simplest details, disoriented in a onetime very familiar location and missing important engagements because she simply forgot. This happens often enough for Alice to seek a medical opinion and, after many tests and examinations, the diagnosis is frightening: early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more at http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi...

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2009, 11:10am.

Great review, brenzi! I'm adding this to my wish list.

Brenzi..I agree with Darryl, your review is great. I've given it a thumbs up.

Also, I've added Say You're One of Them to my tbr list.

Hi Brenzi! I've got you starred now. Nice to have a new friend. I have read some of the books on your list this year and look forward to trying out a few of your other ones. Nice review...what an awful prospect to face! :(

Hi, Brenzi! I have you starred now, too. Still Alice was already on my wish list, or I would have added it after your great review!

I must say, though, books like this are scary for me, because my Dad and three of his seven sisters suffer(ed) from Alzheimers.

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2009, 8:59am.

Hi Brenzi and welcome! Any friend of Linda is a friend of mine.
There is no way on this green earth that I am going to make 75 books this year but I stumbled upon this thread and met many terrific people.
Got ya starred.

> Hi Berly, Thanks for visiting. Yes it is an awful prospect.

>Thank you tymfos and both of my parents suffered from Alzheimers' but not the early onset kind, fortunately.

>Thanks for the welcome Carmenere. I've found everyone here to be very friendly too.

Congratulations on the Hot Review for Still Alice, Brenzi. I've added that to my wishlist .. my grandmother had Alzheimer's as does a friend's mom. I've always wondered who was more scared, the family watching their loved ones suffer from the disease, or the victims, realizing that their minds were starting to give out on them.

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2009, 10:46am.

Still Alice is powerful in that it focuses on the person suffering from Alzheimer's. So many books are written from the perspective of the caregiver.

Thanks for visiting cameling and Linda. Still Alice was one of the most pwerful books I've read and will stay with me a long time.

Calling all Barbara Kingsolver fans. WalMart, Amazon and Target are in a price war. Kingsolver's yet to be released book, The Lacuna, as well as 9 other books that would need to be pre-ordered, are on sale for $9. At walmart.com that includes free shipping! This is only good as a pre-order so act soon.

brenzi...You have just give a bag of candy to all of us chocolate lovers...off to Walmart.com I go for a sweet fix.

brenzi... big big hug for that tip! Off to Amazon I go ... I just hope I leave without too much damage to my shopping cart

Where is that darn credit card?

Welcome Brenzi--I'm looking forward to following your reads for the rest of the year. David Mitchell is one of my favorite authors, so I'll be interested in your review of Black Swan Green.

If you're interested in another book written from the pov of an Alzheimer's victim, I read The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey earlier this year, which was very good.

Message edited by its author, Oct 25, 2009, 8:19pm.

Thank you so much for the welcome, arubabookwoman. I enjoyed Black Swan Green (my review will be done tonight I hope) and have Cloud Atlas on my TBR. I will keep The Wilderness in mind. Thanks for the suggestion.

Cloud Atlas is one of my desert island books. It's very different from Black Swan Green, though.

I read Cloud Atlas earlier this year and liked it a lot, Brenda. I hope you do, too, when you get around to it.

#46 Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

From my review:

The town of Black Swan Green in 1982 provides the setting for David Mitchell’s adolescent coming of age story that might just be autobiographical. Jason Taylor is thirteen years old and serves as narrator of the story that describes one year in his life, a year full of possibilities and loaded with teenage angst as well.

Read more here: http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi...

Great review. I gave it a thumbs up!

Really enjoyed your review of Still Alice. Good job.

brenzi

Congratulations on yet another hot review -- listed on today's home page!

Thank you and thank you.

Well my local library had their annual book sale anjd I made a small haul. I picked up:

Good Faith by Jane Smiley

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

Runaway by Alice Munro

What Maisie Knows by Henry James

A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

Vanished by Mary McGarry Morris

The same day I got two Paperback Swap books:

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov and

Lush Life by Richard Price

Every one of them in new or nearly new condition.

It feels so good to get them all set in their neat little places among my book shelves. Ahhhhh. So good.

Message edited by its author, Oct 28, 2009, 10:49am.

wow brenzi what a haul! I just finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and it made me put every other Eggers on my wish list. Lush Life was fun to read.

Yes I recently read Eggers' Zeitoun, a fabulous read so I was happy to find this one.

Gotta love those library sales. Ours was last week and I am still smiling over my latest acquisitions. Twenty-some books for around $40. Even my CPA husband couldn't compain about that!

I am just jealous that A) you have book shelves and B) you had room to shelve them!! Happy reading.

Brenzi

I'm anxious to learn your opinions on the Eggers book when you are finished. I remember that you read Zeiton and had positive comments

#47 - Lark & Termite by Jayne Ann Phillips

#48 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

#49 - now reading The Housekeeper and the Professor

My 50th book will be...wait for it....The Cellist of Sarajevo that I decided a long time ago would be saved for this special achievement. I know, I know, most people have already read it, but I haven't.

(Touchstones not working)

Message edited by its author, Oct 30, 2009, 4:13pm.

I've got The Cellist of Sarajevo on my TBR pile just waiting to be picked up and read so I look forward to reading your review once you complete this book.

Don't give too much away - I haven't read it yet either!

congratulations on reading 49 -- soon to be 50 books!

I loved The Cellist of Sarajevo when I read it earlier this year. I hope you like it, too.

#49 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

From my review:

In The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa uses mathematics and baseball as metaphors for life and, in so doing, has written a very imaginative and charming novel. The housekeeper is a single mother, living in Japan in the early 1990’s, when she is assigned to the brilliant mathematics professor. She is his tenth housekeeper, the previous nine having been unable to deal with his special requirements. Ever since the Professor suffered a head injury in a car accident many years previously, his memory ends in 1975 and his short term memory only lasts eighty minutes.

Read more here:

http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi...

#50: I already have that one in the BlackHole. One of these centuries I will actually get to it!

I've heard such wonderful things about your #49. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Finished The Cellist of Sarajevo and will write my review later today; started The Lacuna, the new Barbara Kingsolver novel.

I love your review of The Housekeeper and the Professor. I think that one's going on my list!

ETA to add:

Oops! It's already on the list! Well, I guess I'll have to move it UP on the list!

Message edited by its author, Nov 8, 2009, 2:21pm.

The Housekeeper and the Professor is on my tbr list noted that Darryl (Kidzdoc) recommended it. How I wish I had more time to read. There are so many great books out there that have been recommended. I still have books on the tbr pile from our 2008 challenge group....

Brenzi...loved your review as well!

Just got back from a quick trip to visit family in Colorado, and there sat my little box from B&N with The Lacuna waiting patiently for me. I have a few library books to read first, darn it. I'll be interested to see what you think about it.

Donna
I understand about the imperative of reading library books. I have many waiting right now.

This one is already on my list and like tymfos, after reading your review, I think I'm going to have to move it up the list so I read it sooner rather than later.

>53 - I'll be looking forward to your thoughts on The Lacuna. Kingsolver is a favorite of mine. I'm meeting my mom and dad for shopping in Chicago this coming weekend, and I'll bet my mom or I one will end up with that one.

>56 and 59 I've been anxiously awaiting The Lacuna since I heard Kingsolver was publishing her first novel in nine years. I've loved everything she's writeen, esp. The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven and The Poisonwood Bible. I'm just getting into it but I'll say it is set in Mexico 1929-30 and I believe it will span many decades and cover a lot of historical events from those years.

>54, 55, 58 The Housekeeper and the Professor is a quiet gem. I think you'll enjoy it.

Message edited by its author, Nov 8, 2009, 9:23pm.

# 50 The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

From my review:

Told by four distinct voices, “The Cellist of Sarajevo,” by Steven Galloway describes in chilling detail the grizzly circumstances surrounding the 1991-1993 Siege of Sarajevo and the toll it took on its citizens. Spare and haunting in its prose, this novel grabs you by the throat almost immediately with its quiet intensity, and is very hard to put down until you’ve digested the final sentences.

Read more here.

Touchstones not working.

Message edited by its author, Nov 9, 2009, 10:53am.

Great review. I gave it a thumbs up.

What a wonderful review. I thumbs upped it. It's already on my wishlist, and I hope to get a copy soon.

Ditto what Caroline/Cameling said!

Thumbs up from me, too, and I do plan to read that one!

boo hoo, I don't get to read this one any time soon. My daughter has me on a book diet! I'm not allowed to mooch, borrow, or buy any more books until I finish 3 I already have...

Congratulations on your Hot Review, brenzi.

Just calling in to say hi. I'm way behind on all the threads so I missed your comment back to me about Uwem Akpan's Say you're one of them.
This was one of the most powerful (yes, and gutwrenching) books I read this year, and the author is the most gracious, sincere gentleman, a Jesuit priest who believed so strongly that these stories had to be told and had to be told from the child's perspective. He spoke at our local writers & readers festival as he was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize which was announced at the event. I was totally impressed by him and his book. Did you note that it has been picked as an Oprah book?
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/bo...

I was able to get this book at my library. I have three weeks to read it...I'll start after I finish Wolf Hall.

>68 Yes I did hear that Oprah picked it up. The thing about that book is that the stories keep reverberating back to me even many months after I read it. I agree, very powerful.

>69 Wolf Hall is up next for me (it's actually waiting for me at the library) when I finish The Lacuna which I'm loving.

I finished Wolf Hall last night. It is very good!

Brenzi

Last night I read the first chapter of Say You're One of Them. OH, my, it is so sad.

I finished The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver and will write my review shortly. It was a wonderful read.

From my review:

Barbara Kingsolver has not published a novel in over nine years, but with her newest offering, The Lacuna, her fans will happily see that the wait was well worth it. She has written a cracker jack of a story, spanning the North American continent over thirty years, and covering American geography, politics and history in a way that only Kingsolver can. She adroitly exposes a time in our history of which no American can be proud, and looks provocatively at art and the artist from numerous angles.

Read more here.

Great review, Brenda. I will be looking for the book.

Hey, congrats, you have a hot review!

Hi Brenzi-- The Cellist of Sarajevo is nearing the top of my pile and I love Kingsolver, so I will have to find that one, too. :)

Brenzi - I bought The Lacuna this weekend, and now that I've read your review, I'm looking even more forward to reading it. Great review!

Message edited by its author, Nov 17, 2009, 8:53pm.

I agree with Amy. It sounds like a winner!

Thank you everyone. I just heard that Barbara Kingsolver will be on NPR tomorrow discussing the book :-)

>78 porch reader, I hope you enjoy it too.

>77 You have a treat waiting for you with those two, Berly.

The 2009 National Book Awards were presented last night and the fiction winner was Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Why doesn't it surprise me that my library system only has one copy and I'm #19 on the list?

Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2009, 2:16pm.

#81 At least your system has a copy! :)

I have Colum McCann's Dancer: A Novel on my TBR list, but I've only read This Side of Brightness and Fishing the Sloe-Black River. He visited my college when I was a senior, and was very pleasant - and the stories he shared about his research were fascinating!

I hope the list moves quickly - I'd love to hear what you think of Let the Great World Spin!

>81: I fared a little better with Let the Great World Spin. I am No. 7, and our library has four copies. My problem is that I have 10 books on hold now and I'm afraid they will all come in quick succession. I may have to use that marvelous little feature called "freeze" which holds my place in line until I am ready for the book.

Bonnie, don't you know that delayed gratification is character building? :-)
Knowing you, there are some great books in your life patiently standing by while you are waiting.

Good luck with finding a copy, tymfos. And, thank you Luxx, for sharing your personal experience with the author. I find I am more engaged with a book if I have met the author.

#82: My local library does not appear to have ever heard of Colum McCann, so I can empathize entirely!

#85 I'm hoping that the National Book Award will carry some clout in suggesting that the library might want the book . . .

#86: Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

>84 "don't you know that delayed gratification is character building?"

I have heard that Donna but don't you ever hear about a book and have to have it right NOW even though the TBR pile is towering over you as you try to wend your way through the house? It's ridiculous, I know. Tell me I'm not the only one who does this!

don't you ever hear about a book and have to have it right NOW even though the TBR pile is towering over you as you try to wend your way through the house? It's ridiculous, I know. Tell me I'm not the only one who does this!

Oh, I wouldn't know anybody like that . . .

*sitting in the hulking, looming shadow of TBR mountain and ordering yet another book*

ETA to add description "hulking, looming" in order to portray clearer image of my book-buying folly!

Message edited by its author, Nov 20, 2009, 8:27pm.

I have no idea what you are talking about...seriously, no really! Why are you laughing at me? Well, of all the nerve. ;)

#89: I refuse to comment, lol.

I have got The Lacuna on order, so nothing to add to my TBR pile this week from here. whew!

I'm still waiting for my copy of Wolf Hall from the library. I considered buying a copy, but given the number of books I still have waiting to be read, I think I can wait a little longer for my library copy. I saw a copy of it here in Australia and in paperback, it was $69 ! That's just crazy.

>89, 90, 91 Whew!! Validation. Thank God. I'm OK. I'm OK.

>92 $69 for a paperback!!! I don't think so.

Yeah, I've been really shocked at the book prices here. They really weren't that expensive 2 years ago when I was here and went home with an armload of books. A friend who lives here said that they've raised the prices of many things, including books.

>93 Brenda, if you're not OK, then a LOT of us aren't OK. Thank YOU for the validation!

I....think....I can.......almost...see..........the end .......of Wolf Hall. I don't remember when I've taken this long to finish a book. Sooo dense, but sooo good.

That one is still on my list, but I promised myself I'd clear out some of my recent purchases before picking it up.

I'm anxious to learn your impressions re. Wolf Hall.

Did you have a good holiday?