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2Donna828
I love the Orange Prize. In fact, I love it so much that I've read most of the winners!
I'm going to start 2012 by reading One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden. It was on the Orange Shortlist in 1997. I hadn't even heard of it until I read through all the choices and thought *aha* the perfect way to begin a new year by reading a book with "one" in the title!
I know nothing about it other than it was an Orange runner-up and is set in Ireland. Two very good reasons to read it.
3Donna828
Orange Books Read in 2011...
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Orange Books Read in 2012...
January:
One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden. 3.9 Stars
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. 4.5*
February:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2012 longlist)
April:
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (2012 longlist)
July:
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (2006 shortlist)
4mrstreme
Welcome, Donna! I love your photos and Rossetti quote! I hope you enjoy Orange January! =)
5mks27
Hi Donna, I hope you enjoy One by One in the Darkness. I have not heard of it at all! Looking forward to your thoughts.
6lauralkeet
Donna, One by One in the Darkness is one I became interested in after reading Molly Fox's Birthday. I could swear my library had it, but turns out they don't. So I'll get to it someday. I eagerly await your thoughts!
7Soupdragon
I think I already said it on your 75 thread but I'll also be interested in your thoughts on One by One! It was one of my Orange January reads last year.
8L-Anne
Happy New Year and Happy Orange January to you! I've never heard of One by One, or its author so look forward to your thoughts.
9Donna828
Thanks for the warm welcome, Jill.
Hello to Michelle, Laura, Dee, and Louanne. I really enjoyed One by One in the Darkness. I took a chance on an unknown book and wasn't disappointed - although the Orange committee rarely lets me down! It had a slow beginning, but I loved the lyrical writing so that didn't bother me one bit.
Hello to Michelle, Laura, Dee, and Louanne. I really enjoyed One by One in the Darkness. I took a chance on an unknown book and wasn't disappointed - although the Orange committee rarely lets me down! It had a slow beginning, but I loved the lyrical writing so that didn't bother me one bit.
10Donna828
"Home was a huge sky; it was flat fields of poor land fringed with hawthorn and alder. It was birds in flight, it was columns of midges like smoke in a summer dusk. It was grey water; it was a mad wind; it was a solid stone house where the silence was uncanny."
Book No. 1: One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden. 3.9 stars.
The political Troubles (a euphemism for civil war) and the personal troubles of one close-knit Irish family are the backbone of this lyrical novel set in Northern Ireland in 1994. The chapters alternate between the present time when the Quinn family was trying to reconcile themselves to their patriarch's senseless death and the earlier memories of the 25 years of random violence that shaped the lives of the three Quinn sisters: Helen, Cate, and Sally.
The author made me care about this family and helped me understand the ramifications of daily life in troubled times. There were notable brief glimpses into history such as protest marches that turned into riots; however, the significance of family ties between the sisters whose "idea of home was something they lived so completely that they would ave been at a loss to define it" allowed me to grasp the pain and sacrifice that underlies historical events.
This book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 1997 and, in my opinion, deserves more recognition for a quiet well-told story about a tumultuous time.
11mrstreme
Deirdre Madden has such a quiet way about her writing, it seems. I will have to check this one out. Thanks for the review! =)
12lauralkeet
Great review, Donna. I'm really intrigued by this one.
13Soupdragon
Great review, Donna. One by One really is a quietly powerful one, isn't it? I get the impression you appreciated the writing style more quickly than I did. I remember thinking the writing was pretty average to start with until Madden started pulling those quiet emotional punches!
14L-Anne
Great review Donna! Only a few days back on LT, but I have the feeling my TBR is about to explode!
15Donna828
Hey to Jill, Laura, Dee, and Louanne. I wish I hadn't taken One by One back to the library so I could share a few more passages from it. I loved Madden's lyrical writing and will be reading more books by her.
I'll be getting to Oryx and Crake (SL 2004) after my upcoming quick trip to Denver. I'm really looking forward to this one by Margaret Atwood. I've liked everything I've read by her to varying degrees. I like that she never writes the same book twice. ;-)
O&C is a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm trying to stretch as a reader this year. This one ought to do it!
I'll be getting to Oryx and Crake (SL 2004) after my upcoming quick trip to Denver. I'm really looking forward to this one by Margaret Atwood. I've liked everything I've read by her to varying degrees. I like that she never writes the same book twice. ;-)
O&C is a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm trying to stretch as a reader this year. This one ought to do it!
16vancouverdeb
Wow, One by One sound fascinating. Onto the wish list for me. Thanks Donna..
17lauralkeet
Oryx and Crake is outside my comfort zone too Donna. I'm also going to read it this month, but probably not for another week. I'm traveling on business next week, my copy is a used hardcover, and I'd prefer to bring a couple smaller books and my Kindle with me.
18Donna828
Hi there, Deb and Laura. Thanks for visiting.
Laura, I hope you end up liking Oryx and Crake as much as I did. My comfort zone is getting bigger. I don't want to rehash it too much because it's so easy to give away spoilers. Here is what I said about it on my 75-Book Challenge thread.
This book is so quotable. I'll put a few more of my favorite quotes here that I didn't put on my thread.
Snowman's myth about the creation of The Children of this scary new world: "Crake made the bones of the children of Crake out of the coral on the beach, and then he made their flesh out of a mango. But the Children of Oryx hatched out of an egg, a giant egg laid by Oryx herself. Actually she laid two eggs: one full of animals and birds and fish, and the other one full of words. But the egg full of words hatched first, and the Children of Crake had already been created by then, and they'd eaten up all the words because they were hungry, and so there were no words left over when the second egg hatched out. And that is why the animals can't talk. (96)
And then there are these two quotes about the world Snowman has inherited from Crake:
"Snowman opens his eyes, shuts them, opens them, keeps them open. He's had a terrible night. He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that wil destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo." (148)
"Crake never remembered his dreams. It's Snowman that remembers them instead. Worse than remembers: he's immersed in them, he's wading through them, he's stuck in them. Every moment he's lived in the past few months was dreamed first by Crake. No wonder Crake screamed so much." (218)
Laura, I hope you end up liking Oryx and Crake as much as I did. My comfort zone is getting bigger. I don't want to rehash it too much because it's so easy to give away spoilers. Here is what I said about it on my 75-Book Challenge thread.
This book is so quotable. I'll put a few more of my favorite quotes here that I didn't put on my thread.
Snowman's myth about the creation of The Children of this scary new world: "Crake made the bones of the children of Crake out of the coral on the beach, and then he made their flesh out of a mango. But the Children of Oryx hatched out of an egg, a giant egg laid by Oryx herself. Actually she laid two eggs: one full of animals and birds and fish, and the other one full of words. But the egg full of words hatched first, and the Children of Crake had already been created by then, and they'd eaten up all the words because they were hungry, and so there were no words left over when the second egg hatched out. And that is why the animals can't talk. (96)
And then there are these two quotes about the world Snowman has inherited from Crake:
"Snowman opens his eyes, shuts them, opens them, keeps them open. He's had a terrible night. He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that wil destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo." (148)
"Crake never remembered his dreams. It's Snowman that remembers them instead. Worse than remembers: he's immersed in them, he's wading through them, he's stuck in them. Every moment he's lived in the past few months was dreamed first by Crake. No wonder Crake screamed so much." (218)
19Nickelini
Yea, another Oryx and Crake fan! It's not my favourite Atwood, but I still thought it was great. I've lent out my copy quite a few times and it always comes back with high praise, although most people say it takes them a bit to figure out what is going on.
20Donna828
I'm back for Orange July. I just finished The Night Watch and, once again fell under the spell of Sarah Water's writing. Not quite up to Fingersmith standards, but quite interesting nonetheless.
Not everyone reads my thread so I'll repost my comments here:
“The mood of the place began to grow jolly. It was a sort of exhilaration, at having survived, got through, taken on another raid and beaten it. Everyone was streaked with blood and dust, impossibly weary from wading through rubble, from stooping and lifting, from driving through the dark; but they turned the ghastly things they’d seen and done into jokes.” (217)
Book No. 58: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. 3.75 stars.
Well, I read my first Hot July book. I will say this book was “smoking” in a few places. There was more sex than I usually care to read about, but it was for the most part integral to the story so I was okay with it. ;-)
For me, the real strength of this book is in the writing. Waters describes the WWII air raid warnings in London so explicitly, it’s almost as if she were an eye witness. The above quote is a description of a group of paramedics after their shift is over. She cleverly used Kay, an ambulance driver, as a means to describe the carnage and chaos that followed the bombing. Waters closely follows several other characters before, during, and after the war in reverse fashion. It sounds a bit odd, but it worked for me!
My biggest problem is that I listened to the first 200 or so pages on my recent trip to and from Kansas City, and I somehow missed the transition in dates making me very confused when I picked up the story in print form. Once I figured out that we were traveling backward in time, I had a laugh at myself and went with the flow of the story. The end of the book (or was it the beginning?) was a bit of a let-down for me, but the sublime writing made the trip a worthwhile journey.
Edit | More
Not everyone reads my thread so I'll repost my comments here:
“The mood of the place began to grow jolly. It was a sort of exhilaration, at having survived, got through, taken on another raid and beaten it. Everyone was streaked with blood and dust, impossibly weary from wading through rubble, from stooping and lifting, from driving through the dark; but they turned the ghastly things they’d seen and done into jokes.” (217)
Book No. 58: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. 3.75 stars.
Well, I read my first Hot July book. I will say this book was “smoking” in a few places. There was more sex than I usually care to read about, but it was for the most part integral to the story so I was okay with it. ;-)
For me, the real strength of this book is in the writing. Waters describes the WWII air raid warnings in London so explicitly, it’s almost as if she were an eye witness. The above quote is a description of a group of paramedics after their shift is over. She cleverly used Kay, an ambulance driver, as a means to describe the carnage and chaos that followed the bombing. Waters closely follows several other characters before, during, and after the war in reverse fashion. It sounds a bit odd, but it worked for me!
My biggest problem is that I listened to the first 200 or so pages on my recent trip to and from Kansas City, and I somehow missed the transition in dates making me very confused when I picked up the story in print form. Once I figured out that we were traveling backward in time, I had a laugh at myself and went with the flow of the story. The end of the book (or was it the beginning?) was a bit of a let-down for me, but the sublime writing made the trip a worthwhile journey.
Edit | More
21Donna828
Looking back over my book list for 2012, I noticed two other Orange books. These have been duly added to Message 3:
I read The Night Circus in February. Unfortunately, I liked the cover better than the book. I think the 'romantic' parts sounded stilted to me, but then I'm not much of a romance reader. Fantasy either for that matter. 3 stars.
I fared much better with Gillespie and I which I read in April. Jane Harris's writing grabbed me and I found her unreliable narrator, Harriet Baxter, very memorable. I'll definitely read more Harris books. 4 stars.
I read The Night Circus in February. Unfortunately, I liked the cover better than the book. I think the 'romantic' parts sounded stilted to me, but then I'm not much of a romance reader. Fantasy either for that matter. 3 stars.
I fared much better with Gillespie and I which I read in April. Jane Harris's writing grabbed me and I found her unreliable narrator, Harriet Baxter, very memorable. I'll definitely read more Harris books. 4 stars.
22Soupdragon
Oh, I loved The Night Watch but it does have an unusual structure doen't it? I think I would have got confused if I'd listened to it.
I keep seeing The Night Circus in my local library but think I'm going to have to be in the right mood before I try it.
I keep seeing The Night Circus in my local library but think I'm going to have to be in the right mood before I try it.
23mrstreme
I, too, was a little put off by the romantic aspects of The Night Circus, but it was an interesting story nonetheless. And I loved Gillespie and I! =)
