souloftherose's 2012 Orange reading

In 2010 I read 4 Orange books although I didn't manage to read any of them in January or July!

2010 reads
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In 2011 I made it through 11 Orange books (12 if you include The Invisible Bridge which I couldn't finish)

2011 reads
The Observations by Jane Harris
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Did not finish)
The Night Circus by Erin Mogenstern

2012 reads
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011 longlist)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (1997 shortlist)
Room by Emma Donoghue (2011 shortlist)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2012 longlist)
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (2012 longlist)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

List of Orange books read/to read

Winners
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1997)
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2002)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004)
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2006)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2007)
The Road Home by Rose Tremain (2008)
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (2010)
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (2011)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2012)

Shortlist
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (1997)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1999)
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2001)
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (2002)
The Siege by Helen Dunmore (2002)
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith (2003)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2004)
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2004)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (2005)
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (2006)
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (2006)
The Observations by Jane Harris (2006)
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (2006)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2010)
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (2011)
Great House by Nicole Krauss (2011)
Room by Emma Donoghue (2011)
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (2012)
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (2012)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2012)

Longlist
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chavalier (2000)
Brick Lane by Monica Ali (2004)
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2004)
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (2005)
Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill (2005)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2006)
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (2007)
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas (2008)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2010)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2010)
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (2011) - Did not finish
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)
The Night Circus by Erin Mogenstern (2012)
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (2012)

2012 plans are to make a dent in the Oranges in my TBR pile (although I'm sure I will end up acquiring more along the way).

January plans:

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Siege by Helen Dunmore

Hey, I'm your first visitor! Looking forward to hearing about all your Orangey reading. I've read the top four on your list for January and enjoyed them all hugely.

I have read all of your selections, and I think you have a list of great books! Enjoy!

Glad you're set up, Heather! I've read your January first three and have the last two screaming for attention. Look forward to hearing what you think of the ones I've read. The Road Home may be my all-time favorite, and I'm off to add Alias Grace to my favorites list over on that thread.

Thanks for the encouragement Dee, Jill and Peggy! Embarrassingly, I think Alias Grace was one I planned to read last January...

I read Alias Grace last January !

I've started my first Orange for the month, A Visit from the Goon Squad, and I think I am enjoying it so far. It's reminding me of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell in some ways.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is on my list for this month...I look forward to your comments when you've finished.

Imagine, Heather! I've read something before you!! I enjoyed *Goon Squad* too. Egan is just so very, very clever! I wasn't all that impressed with the power point chapter, but the rest of the book has plenty to offer. I'm glad that you're enjoying it!

I loved The Visit from the Goon Squad. I avoided it initially because I thought it might be over experimental and clever-clever but Peggy's positive comments reassured me. In the end I found it clever in a good way, experimental with soul!

I was nervous about the idea of a powerpoint presentation chapter but ended up appreciating it, maybe because it was the story told by a twelve year old chiild and that's exactly how most of the twelve year olds I know would choose to represent their life story!

This one is sounding quite intriguing now - I don't really know anything about it. But I don't have a copy on my TBR, and I'm trying to concentrate on books I already have, so this one may have to wait a bit...

I hope you enjoy The Siege as much as I did, Heather! It was a fabulous read , and led me onto Helen Dunmore's The Betrayal - which can be read as a stand a lone - but it is somewhat of a sequel to The Siege.

I can't wait to hear what you think of The Visit from the Goon Squad. I've started into a longlisted Orange, The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami. I've read a couple of other books by that author, so I expect to enjoy it.

And my thoughts on Goon Squad:

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5 stars



My first Orange book for the year and what a book!

I think my feelings about the book are actually best summarised but a quote from the wonderful Guardian review.

"Goon Squad is a book about memory and kinship, time and narrative, continuity and disconnection, in which relationships shift and recombine kaleidoscopically. It is neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, but something in between: a series of chapters featuring interlocking characters at different points in their lives, whose individual voices combine to a create a symphonic work that uses its interconnected form to explore ideas about human interconnectedness. This is a difficult book to summarise, but a delight to read, gradually distilling a medley out of its polyphonic, sometimes deliberately cacophonous voices."

If you enjoyed Cloud Atlas or Great House then I'd recommend giving Goon Squad a try.

#10 & 11 I liked the powerpoint chapter in the end. Like the rest of the book, it's grown on me since I've finished it - Goon Squad has become a book that I can't get out of my head!

#12 I know the feeling Genny!

#13 Thanks Deb. I've not heard of The Hero's Walk before so I'll look out for your review when you've finished.

I've been trying to decide on my next Orange book and @letterpress's review of Alias Grace gave me the final push I needed towards that one.

I enjoyed A Visit from the Goon Squad too, especially the Powerpoint chapter! So clever!

I'm hoping to read A Visit from the Goon Squad this month. Thanks for sharing that quote from The Guardian...it makes me even more intrigued about this book.

I've been rubbish at updating this thread....

Further oranges read since my last update:

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - 4.5 stars (I didn't write a review)

Room by Emma Donoghue - 4.5 stars (review failure again)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - 4.25 stars



When Marina Singh's colleague, Anders Eckman, dies whilst investigating the work of a research team out in the Amazon rainforest, Marina is sent out as a replacement to find out what happened to Anders and to report on the progress of the research team. As Marina mourns the death of her colleague and retraces his steps she finds that being in the rainforest changes her more than she would have thought.

Whilst I felt Bel Canto had a fairytale feel to it, State of Wonder is a more dreamlike book. Marina struggles with nightmares as she takes her antimalarial medication (larium) and this blurring of the division between dreams and reality continues throughout the book. I've seen a few criticisms of this book saying that parts of it were unrealistic but I'm not sure Patchett intended it to be realistic. Parts of this book are still a puzzle to me: what did the ending mean and what is the state of wonder the title refers to? In fact, the more I think about this book, the more complex I realise it is and I think it would merit rereading.

Just stopping by to say hi! I saw that you were having trouble writing a review for State of Wonder and I stopped by to sympathize!:) I just LOVED Island of Wings. It's very spare and harsh, but in it's way , a real page turner. It's the story of newly married couple in the 1830's who travel to St. Kilda, an Island in the Hebrides, with population of only Norse sort of people who have no knowledge of Christianity. The husband, a Reverand and a severe and rather unhappy man, attempts to change both the way of life and the beliefs of the " natives" with little success. It's really an excellent book, and I learned so much. It's actually based loosely based on the notes of a Scottish minister. His wife is sympathetic woman who does her best and looses more than one child to the so - called 8 day fever that plagues new borns on the Island of St. Kilda. She is a strong woman, and even her husband, a weak man - well, we get enough insight to his thinking to feel a mix of sympathy and dislike for him.

Anyway, maybe there is a start for me...

As for State of Wonder , I won't be getting to for a while, but I love what you've got to say about State of Wonder. I just picked it up from the bookstore yesterday, and it's got so much buzz that I won't be surprised to see it win, or at the very least,.Thanks for the info on the nightmares from the antimalarial medication - I'm sure your review will help when I attempt to read State of Wonder. Thank!:)

Good review of State of Wonder. I liked the book, but I was mystified by the ending as wel..

#18 Looks like a good review to me! Island of Wings was one of the longlisted titles that already appealed to me so I'm really glad to see you liked it so much. Hopefully I will get to it soon.

#19 Thanks Jill :-)

And a long overdue, very brief review of Gillespie and I which I read last month. I loved it.

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris - 4.5 stars



"It would appear that I am to be the first to write a book on Gillespie. Who, if not me, was dealt that hand?"

In one sense, this should be a more straightforward book to review because I think you get the most out of reading it by knowing as little as possible about what happens! Told by the elderly Harriet, this is the story of Harriet Baxter and her friendship with the Gillespie family in Glasgow in the 1880s. Like Jane Harris' first novel, The Observations, this is another intriguing Victorian tale with an unforgettable main character that draws you into its world. One of those books that made me want to go straight back to the beginning and start again once I'd got to the end.

I started The Song of Achilles yesterday which I'm enjoying so far.

I also started The Song of Achilles yesterday, Heather, although I wasn't supposed to until I got some other stuff out of the way. I was sucked right in, but I didn't read much. That's a very good very brief review: just right, I think!

Resurrecting my long neglected thread here - these were my Orange reads from April and May

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - 5 stars - 2012 winner



I don't think I can really add anything to all the other reviews written by people in the group, so I will just say that Madeline Miller has done a fantastic job with this retelling of the story of Achilles and Patroclus from Homer's The Iliad - it was just beautiful. I haven't read The Iliad before: the nearest I've come is watching Brad Pitt prance around in Troy but this was perfectly accessible despite that. In fact, it has inspired me to try reading The Iliad later this year.

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - 2.5 stars - 2012 shortlist



This did absolutely nothing for me, whatever it was supposed to be about, I just didn't get it.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - 4.1 - 2010 longlist



A gripping and ambiguous ghost story that also touches on class resentment in post-WWII Britain. Sarah Waters' latest novel seems to have received mixed reviews but I really enjoyed this suspenseful, spooky story and the ending was, for me, absolutely spot on. As with the other Sarah Waters' novels I've read so far, I'd like to reread this now that I know how it ends to see what else I would pick up on in a second read.

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding - 3.8 stars - 2012 shortlist



Set in post-WWII Romania, this contender for the 2012 Orange Prize, is a quiet story about two friends who grew up together in a small village. Safta is the daughter of a wealthy family living in a big house with servants and Augustin, born deaf and dumb, is the illegitimate son of their family cook. Separated before the war, Augustin manages to track Safta down to a hospital where she works as a nurse in the city of Iaşi in Romania. The story goes back and forth between the time Augustin and Safta spend together after the war to their childhood and experiences during the war. Augustin has always loved to draw and as the story develops, Harding does a good job of showing what that ability means to him as a way to communicate and make sense of the outside world.

This was a good book but I don't think I was in the right mood to appreciate it as much as it deserved.

Song of Achilles ... sigh ... it's been two weeks and I still can't get that book out of my head. Sooo good.