kc's books for 2011

25 is about my speed (2 books a month), so hope I can do this.

3 Jan 2011 -- Book 1 is finished--The Help by K. Stockett--started out strong for me, but by the last 100 pages it was like a Southern yarn gone on so long, you forgot what it was about in the first place. I think it could have been tightened up some at the end. But some great language, insights.

Update: I like the idea of keeping a list on the first post, too:

1. The Help, Stockett*
2. The Charming Quirks of Others, McCall Smith
3. Jewish Life and American Culture, Barack Fishman
4. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis*
5. Testimonies, O'Brian
6. Flight from Famine, MacKay
7. The Lost Art of Gratitude, McCall Smith
8. Persuasion, Austen
9. A Hope in the Unseen, Suskind
10. In Time and Eternity:a Jewish Reader, ed. Glatzer
11. A Room with A View, Forster
12. Comedy in a Minor Key, Keilson*
13. The Storyteller, Vargas Llosa*
14. Neverwhere, Gaiman
15. Man and Superman, Shaw*
16. War and Peace, Tolstoy*
17. Chicago From the Sky: A Region Transformed, Okrent
18. The Three Weissmanns of Westport, Schine
19. Shaking the Family Tree, Jackson
20. The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois
21. The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff, Epstein
22. The Coroner's Lunch, Cotterill
23. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide, Epstein
24. Opposite the Cross Keys, Haymon
25. I Boschi Del Maine, Thoreau
26. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll
27. Democracy in America, (Volume 1), De Tocqueville*
28. The Warden, Trollope
29. Barchester Towers, Trollope*
30. Things Fall Apart, Achebe
31. Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Ellan Poe, Poe
32. Dr. Thorne, Trollope
33. Ill Fares the Land, Judt
34. Villette, Bronte*
35. Living a Life That Matters, Kushner
36. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot*
37. The Bay of Angels, Brookner
38. Chocolat, Joanne Harris
39. Ex Libris, Fadiman
40. She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith and The School for Scandal, Sheridan

*These books have stayed with me so far; I think I was most surprised at how much I enjoyed Main Street.

And here's my progress---I'm hoping I can read 40 books in 2011:

11 Jan 2011--Book 2--The Charming Quirks of Others, by Alexander McCall Smith. This book was indeed charming. McCall Smith is obviously in love with Edinburgh and shares that in this series. I love the way he has Isabel pause and daydream and ponder questions in the middle of something else, or even in the middle of a conversation. I have tried reading his other series, but I find they just don't keep my interest. This one seems to always pose new problems and questions. And is full of love.

17 Jan 2011--Book 3--Jewish Life and American Culture by Sylvia Barack Fishman. Rather dry, tedious & repetitive, as these types of sociological studies are. But some interesting observations on survey data in the 1990s on Jewish trends and American culture.

26 Jan 2011--Book 4--Main Street, Sinclair Lewis. Read this for a book club--I probably would never have picked it up on my own, but it was a great book. A very accurate (yet conflicted) picture of small-town life in rural Minnesota before WWI.
31 Jan 2011--Book 5--Testimonies, Patrick O'Brian. Like a Welsh epic poem. Lovely writing, tortured souls, but the end left me wanting.

03 Feb 2011--Book 6--Flight from Famine: The Coming of the Irish to Canada. I started reading this book back in September. I could only read small parts of it at a time--the details of the misery of the Famine were overwhelming. The books starts around 1825 and covers the various waves of Irish immigrants who came to Canada, with lots of specific and anecdotal stories of families. Being of Irish descent, I felt it important to understand the what my ancestors went through. Many who came to Canada eventually settled in the US, as my ancestors did. Author Donald MacKay provides some of the economic and political manueverings that led to the famine, but dedicates most of the pages to the stories of the immigrants. I think I would have liked a little more analysis along with the detail, but it is still a powerful book.

I've decided to read a few letters each day from Jane Austen's Letters, edited by Deirdre LeFaye. This edition is meticulously annotated, including postmark & provenance, and the letters are arranged chronologically. Austen's humor is always front & center: From Letter 6, 15-16 Sept, 1796: "Mr. Richard Harvey's match is put off, till he has got a Better Christian name, of which he has great Hopes. Mr. Children's two Sons are both going to be married, John & George. They are to have one wife between them; a Miss Holwell, who belongs to the Black Hole at Calcutta."

11 Feb 2011--Book 7--The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith. This series just is kind, gentle, loving, and I enjoy reading the ethical musings of Isabel. Almost every page has a thoughtful comment or observation on human nature; the story is secondary. This book actually comes before The Charming Quirks of Others, but it didn't matter too much.

Wish me luck--I am going to attempt War and Peace. If I acutally finish, do I get to count it as multiple books? :)

I have another friend who is attempting War and Peace at the moment and she says it's not actually as hard going as people think it's going to be. She's reading it as part of a book club, so they have set themselves a certain number of pages to read each week, so maybe that helps. I have yet to read it myself as I always perceived it as daunting, so I definitely wish you luck and I will wait until both of you finish to decide whether or not it is worth starting!

Have a great weekend, G.

Thanks for the encouragement, G. I have "crashed" the 75 Book Challenge, where they are reading W & P as a Group Read, and they're reading about 100 pages a week. I'm only 200 pages behind the pace at this point :)

But it is much easier to read than I thought. You just need a scorecard with all the players, and I've downloaded a cheat sheet of important events for the time period for Russia & France, since my knowledge of the Napoleonic Era is next to nil. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Took a break from War and Peace to re-read Jane Austen's Persuasion (Book 8) for a book club. I've read it several times, and this time I read the Norton Critical Edition, reading the critical essays first. It was well worth the effort, to follow the change in Anne, in Austen's perception of society and the navy, the "ethics" of being persuaded, and other trends in the novel. I love this book almost as much as P & P. And most of the book club enjoyed the book, except for the English lit professor (she didn't like Anne--thought she was too "perfect" and she suggested that Austen was being "satirical" because she was too good.) This puts me at Book 8, finished on 22 Feb 2011.

Oh I really would love to re-read Persuasion! Maybe soon. I hope you get through War and Peace ok, maybe you'll inspire me to do the same if you come out the other side ok!
Are you still enjoying Austen's letters? It's something I'm interested in but I'm worried I'll read a couple and then lose interest, as I'm not very good at reading one book and having another on the side..

The letters are easy to read a little at a time. It's like reading anybody's letters or email (!)--you can read a letter or two, and then read a couple the next day--you don't really need to keep a "thread". They can get boring, though, especially about people you don't know. I am reading the Deirdre LeFaye edition, which has a detailed list of people in Austen's life, so this helps, plus footnotes. It's a nice diversion, when I want to read a few minutes before bed, but don't want to invest a chunk of time.

War and Peace requires chunks, otherwise you lose the momentum. Amazingly, I am enjoying the battle scenes more than the "homefront" scenes--either the translation is better, or Tolstoy is better--the writing seems to flow in these chapters better than the "parlor" conversations.

And yes, re-read Persuasion! It's really a short book, and will go much faster than you think--only took me a few evenings to read the novel, a few more to read the critical material.

I took a seminar on Jane Austen and we used the same edition of Austen's letters that you're reading. I thought they were really interesting tools to work with when considering her novels in historical/social context, but like you a bit hard to keep moving through when you don't know any of the people.

Pride and Prejudice is definitely my favorite too, but I really did like Persuasion also. I definitely liked Anne better than Emma and WAY better than Fanny from Mansfield Park.

I haven't attempted War and Peace yet. Probably later when the kids are older and I'm not prone to so many interruptions. Love Jane Austen!

That Flight from Famine book sounds interesting, although like you said very depressing. My ancestors left Ireland then and went to Scotland and then onto America. I happened to watch Who Do you Think you Are? when Rosie O'Donnell was on. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but I'm glad I saw it. I learned alot about the potato famine and the poor houses that people had to work in. It was heartbreaking!

Darn! I missed that episode, and I'm a big genealogy nut. But the book was hard to get through, just too depressing (and repetitive). My ancestor's family's passage was actually paid to leave by the landowner--Lord Fitzwilliam--he wanted to get the Irish off his land in County Wicklow so badly. Most of the people from his estates ended up in the same general vicinity of northern Ontario. McKay mentions Lord Fitzwilliam in his book, and that this practice was not uncommon.

By the way, War and Peace is just flying by (believe or not!). The first couple of parts (maybe 100+ pages) were slow, but things are speeding up and I'm almost half-way through. There are so many stories and concepts to follow, that I think one needs to read it several times, just to understand the magnitude of it. But I am definitely glad I am reading it, and with the reading group, the goal is to read about 100 pages a week, so that is reasonable. But it would be hard to do with kids--I totally understand. When my kids were little, the best I could do was read a lot of parenting books--I couldn't concentrate on much else.

I think you can check the website and watch the past episodes. I missed this past week's episode.

sounds like you know alot about your family. I don't know all of that info. All of my research has been conducted so far via internet, so info is limited. I'm hoping that I can focus more on my research when I finsih school.

I can't wait to start War and Peace. I've heard awesome things about it. I have a teenager and four younger ones. Most of my reading now is homeschooling books and historical fiction. I get very little time to read for pleasure, so I try to do some fun reading.

Take care!

19 Mar 2011--Book 9--A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind. Read this book for group discussion at work (community college). I was constantly annoyed by the point of view--the author is always inside someone's head, instead of 3rd person or journalist. He intentionally did it this way, but I kept wondering if it was authentic. Anyway, the struggle of the student, Cedric Jennings, is compelling, and tells how very difficult it is to live in 2 different worlds: inner-city struggles and mainstream society.

20 Mar 2011--Book10--In Time and Eternity:A Jewish Reader. Various exceprts from Talmud, Mishnah and other Jewish scholars pre-19th cent.

31 Mar 2011--Book 11--A Room with a View by E M Forster. This was for my book club. I missed the discussion because I was on vacation, but I wish I knew what others thought of this book. I know I SHOULD like it, since it is right up my alley (British book of manners, a la Austen, Trollope, etc.), but I just can't warm to Forster. I don't get him. Plus, it really reads more like a play rather than a book. Everything we really know about the characters (to me) came from the dialogue.

1 Apr 2011--Book 12--Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson. I picked up this little book at my library. It was written in 1946, but only recently translated into English. Keilson, born in Germany, joined the Dutch resistance in WWII. The story is about an elderly couple who have hidden a Jew in their house, but he gets ill and dies. The "comedy" is how they will get rid of the body. It's a fascinating look at the Dutch character during this time. A little confusing at first, because it switches back from past to present to past, etc. Provides a look at the average citizen who has a moral conscience, but must act in a circumspect way--a point of view we aren't often presented.

Comedy in a Minor Key sounds really interesting. I think I may have to go in search of that one at the library.

27 Apr 2011--Book 13--The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa. I read this in English translated from the Spanish. I tend not to read fantasy/myth fiction, but this was for a book club, and I'm not sorry I read it. It took a bit to understand, and I even had to re-read a chapter, but it did generate some great discussion in our group. It is basically about a tribe in the Amazon jungle of Peru, and how a modern man of Lima becomes entranced with the tribe and eventually becomes "The Storyteller" of the tribe. The writing got you into the time and place immediately, and if you can get through the tribal sections, you will enjoy it.

6 May 2011--Book 14--Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. A struggle to finish. Conceptually, has points to make, but too much flash & dash & blood & guts for me.

12 May 2011--Book 15--Man and Superman by G. B. Shaw. Shaw's first major "idea" play, with way too many ideas to relate here, unless you got a couple of days. Gets very wordy, and at times found my mind wandering. At other points he is very right on the money, and way ahead of his time. Still trying to pull the whole Don Juan in Hell scene together with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni....see what I mean? I better stop now...

10 Jun 2011--Book 16--although it feels like 4 books--Tolstoy's War and Peace. I'm glad I made the effort to read this book, but I couldn't have done it without participating in a "group read" on LT. I would have stopped reading half-way through, but I muddled along because of the interesting comments by others. It is a period of history & culture I knew little about (the Napoleonic wars), so I learned a lot. I was afraid I would be bored in the battle scenes, but they kept my interest (for the most part). Tolstoy makes us think about war and history and our lives in the midst of it all.

13 Jun 2011--Book 17--Essentially a coffee-table picture book, "Chicago From the Sky: A Region Transformed" by Lawrence Okrent has chosen "before & after" photos that are fascinating. The author took photos from the air from about 1985 to 2010, and compares the same views of Chicago from different years, pointing out the urban development and architectural changes. He focuses mostly on downtown, but does have some shots of outlying areas. Makes you look & think about the buildings and green spaces in a different way.

13 Jun 2011--Book 18--The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Catherine Schine is a modern take on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It's funny, but sometimes a little too shrill for my taste. I just never enjoyed the characters like I do in Austen. But the author was inventive and fun in how she "modernized" the story line. It was a light & quick read after War and Peace that's for sure.

18 Jun 2011--Book 19--Shaking The Family Tree by Buzzy Jackson. Thanks to Michelle (aka homeschoolmom) for recommending this book. It's got me fired up to do more research, especially to think about making my first trip to the FHL Library in Salt Lake City.

ohhh, a trip to Salt Lake? I would LOVE to come!! I'd probably just stand there and drool! LOL I'm thinking of hitting the national conference next year in Ohio. Even if I don't make that, I'll make the Southern CA one. I'm excited about it!

I'll have to try The three Weissmanns of Westport....sounds interesting!

From the reviews I've read, seems that people either love or hate The Three Weissmanns of Westport (kinda like Fanny Price in Mansfield Park). At first you don't like the characters all that much, but they were more sympathetic toward the end. I think my favorite Jane Austen "homage" was The Jane Austen Book Club, and I even liked the movie better than the book.

22 Jun 2011--Book 20--The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois. The book is a collection of essays that was published in 1903. I was impressed by DuBois' lyrical and descriptive writing style. His perceptions are spot-on, even for today. He was the first black man to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard, and studied with William James. This is an American classic that I should have read years ago.

24 Jun 2011--Book 21--The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff by Joseph Epstein. A book of short stories by Epstein, in which the main character is always a Jewish man of a certain advanced age, and mostly centered on the North side of Chicago. Somewhere in the middle of the stories I wasn't sure if I could distinguish one from the next, but the last few stories in the book were the best. The last one, "Kuperman Awaits Ecstasy", made me cry, completely by surprise.

23 Jul 2011--Book 22--The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. (A whole month since I've finished a book--yikes!--been busy with family, but the heat has got me slowing down and back to reading.) This mystery has an unusual setting--Laos, 1976. Completely different for me.

OK, I'm going to try this ticker thing and see if it works--if so, I'll put it in my first post:




Woo-hoo--it worked!

3 Aug 2011--Book 23--Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide by Joseph Epstein. For my book club, we're reading Democracy in America by Tocqueville. After wading through about 100 pages, it seemed like a good idea to read a short biography of Tocqueville, and Epstein's 200-page book fit the bill. We get a real sense of the man's ideas and spirit, without going into a ton of detail. I think I can tackle the major work now.

9 Aug 2011--Book 24--Opposite the Cross Keys by S T Haymon. This was a wonderful little book. Haymon, known mostly as a mystery writer, was born in 1918 in Norwich, England, and this is a "memory of childhood." She is a gifted writer, and describes events in her childhood that let you know she is wiser now, but keeps the innocent point of view of a young girl. She describes the differences between well-to-do and poor, from the eyes of a child. I had read one of her mysteries, but wasn't impressed. This book, however, is a gem.

Sounds interesting!

14 Aug 2011--Book 25--I Boschi Del Maine. Ktaadn (The Maine Woods-Ktaadn) by Henry David Thoreau. I read this little book, which has both the Italian and the English (side by side) of Thoreau's first essay in "The Maine Woods". No, I don't read Italian---this was a project of my son & his wife, who did the translation from English into Italian. I read the English side, and I'm rather impressed that they tackled it--lots of 19thc terms I wasn't familiar with, as well as logging, hunting and obscure flora & fauna that had to be translated. Thoreau details his journey in 1846 to the summit of Mt. Ktaadn, in Maine. Especially interesting were Thoreau's observations at the end of the work on how vast and still untamed America was in 1846.

Now that I've hit 25, I guess it's all gravy from here on!

Well done for hitting 25!

Thanks! and I figure War & Peace is equivalent to 3 books, at least :) Right now I'm plodding through Democracy in America by Tocqueville; serves me right for joining a "Great Books" book club...but next month's selection is easier--Through the Lookingglass.

Great job!! Hitting 25 so early on is great!! I did too and wonder if I can hit 50!! We'll see!

I'm aiming for 40, which would be the most books ever in one year.

31 Aug 2011--Book 26--Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll. Never read these, but they are so much a part of our culture that I'm sorry I hadn't done so earlier. I recognized this quote, but am not sure why:
"The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--"

I believe that bit of verse has made in into several movie adaptions.

09 Sep 2011--Book 27--finally finished Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. I must qualify that I've just finished Volume I (360 pages) and that's as far as I'm going, for right now anyway. Feels like I've been reading it for years, instead of the 8 weeks it took to get through.

But it's probably one of those books every American should read, if you can plow through it. His admiration of American-style democracy, and the participation of every American in the process is well worth the effort. Actually, the translation is very smooth--hardly ever feels clumsy.

I particularly enjoyed the last chapter, in which de Tocqueville presents an honest and candid assessment of the attitudes of race in America (white, black and Native American). He painstakingly analyzes the large gaps (social, economic, political) between the North and South (this is 1831). He also sees into the 20th century, by predicting that America and Russia will become the 2 major powers of the world.

11 Sep 2011--Book 28--The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Not sure what took me so long to come to Trollope, but I loved this little book and look forward to the entire Barchestshire series. I especially liked how he made fun of Dickens--"Mr. Popular Sentiment".

21 Sep 2011--Book 29--Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. Loved it--can't believe how funny it is, and how the simple doings of a small village can keep my interest. Need to take a break from this series for a few other books on my shelf, but I will definitely be back.

26 Sep 2011--Book 30--Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. A powerful little book, about a tragic hero in a tribal Nigerian village. And about the clash between native villagers and the white men who come to colonize them.

30 Oct 2011--Book 31--I've been reading several books at once, and not getting too far in any of them. Finally finished Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Ellan Poe. I found Poe's stories uneven--some are really chilling and others just put me to sleep. Nearly every story is told from the first person, which also got tiresome.

9 Nov 2011--Book 32--Dr. Thorne by Anthony Trollope. I really enjoyed this book, even though it seems like the standard love story and triumph over money & rank. Long before the book is over, you really do know what's going to happen, and yet I kept reading, to see how the characters react/respond. I'm moving right into the next book in the series, Framley Parsonage.

26 Nov 2011--Book 33--Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt. An impassioned little book about our society and a call for an economic policy that benefits all people.

7 Dec 2011--Book 34--Villette by Charlotte Bronte. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, once I found an edition (Oxford or Penguin) with translations of the French (mostly dialogue). This was Bronte's last book, and many parts are based on her own life. It is not as sweepingly romantic as Jane Eyre , but it is deeper in feeling and more reflective, although one can read it just for the story.

11 Dec 2011--Book 35--Living a Life that Matters by Harold S. Kushner. Kushner has a very accessible writing style, and it flows easily from important topics to insightful anecdotes. But this felt like 8 sermons in search of a book. Mind you, they were 8 wonderful sermons, and he made me think and reflect on my behavior, my attitudes, my intentions. But I was hoping for more focused concepts and ideas.

18 Dec 2011--Book 36--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Great book, and made the science accessible. I liked the way the author went back and forth between the Lacks' family story and the story of HeLa cells in the scientific community. I also liked the way the author for the most part stayed out of the story, even though she is a large part of why this story is being told.

21 Dec 2011--Book 37--The Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner. I haven't read Brookner in quite a few years. She examines the private lives of her characters almost like a scientist or a jewelry appraiser. The prose is very exact, never wishy-washy. But all of the books are essentially the same--the somewhat proud, alone, but not altogether lonely, female.

30 Dec 2011--Book 38--Chocolat by Joanne Harris. Senses--especially smells and tastes, are what drive this book. An enjoyable read.
Now--2 days left to reach my goal of 40....they'll have to be really short books...

30 Dec 2011--Book 39--Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. A must-read for booklovers. Fadiman loves books, especially used ones. Her essays on books and reading were funny and smart. I could read this little book over & over--only took me a few hours.

I borrowed this from the library, but I think I'll buy my own copy.

31 Dec 2011--"Book" 40--actually it was 2 little Dover editions of the plays She Stoops to Conquer by Goldsmith and The School for Scandal by Sheridan. Total of the 2 books was a little over 130 pages, so I'm counting them as 1 book. I'm glad I read them; they were a lot funnier than I expected.

So I've reached my goal for 2011 right at the wire!