Shauna's (Madhatter22's) 2012 75 Books Challenge

In 2012 I'm trying to read at least 75 books and 75 short stories, to force myself through reading slumps by any means necessary, and to try very, very hard to have more books exiting my bookcases than entering them.





DECEMBER
75. Below Stairs - Margaret Powell borrowed
74. Job Hopper - Ayun Halliday Off the shelf!
73. Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple borrowed
72. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (keeping)
71. Gunn's Golden Rules - Tim Gunn Off the shelf!
NOVEMBER
70. Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo borrowed
69. Sula - Toni Morrison Off the shelf!
68. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett Off the shelf!
67. Lost at Sea - Jon Ronson borrowed
66. March - Geraldine Brooks Off the shelf!
65. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman On AND off the shelf in 2012
64. Stuck in the Middle with You: a Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders - Jennifer Finney Boylan On AND off the shelf in 2012
OCTOBER
63. Life After Death - Damien Echols borrowed
62. What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman Off the shelf!
61. Mile 81 - Stephen King borrowed
60. Ur - Stephen King borrowed
59. I Was Told There'd Be Cake - Sloane Crosley On AND off the shelf in 2012
58. Talking Pictures - Ransom Riggs (keeping)
57. Montana 1948 - Larry Watson Off the shelf!
SEPTEMBER
56. The Lover - Marguerite Duras Off the shelf!
55. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith Off the shelf!
54. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline On AND off the shelf in 2012
53. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot On AND off the shelf in 2012
52. The End of Alice - A. M. Homes Off the shelf!
51. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn On AND off the shelf in 2012
AUGUST
50. Season of the Witch - David Talbot borrowed
49. Cakes and Ale - Somerset Maugham On AND off the shelf in 2012
48. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym On AND off the shelf in 2012
47. Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman borrowed
46. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston Off the shelf!
45. The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson Off the shelf!
44. The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson borrowed
43. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? - Lorrie Moore Off the shelf!
42. More Baths Less Talking - Nick Hornby (keeping)
41. A Dance with Dragons - George R. R. Martin borrowed
40. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (keeping)
JULY
39. A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin On AND off the shelf in 2012
38. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin On AND off the shelf in 2012
37. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin On AND off the shelf in 2012
36. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin On AND off the shelf in 2012
35. The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino borrowed
34. Seriously ... I'm Kidding - Ellen DeGeneres borrowed
JUNE
33. Mary Ann in Autumn - Armistead Maupin borrowed
32. Suddenly, A Knock on the Door - Etgar Keret (keeping)
31. Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz & David Hayward on AND off the shelf in 2012
MAY
30 Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - David Sedaris (keeping)
29. In One Person - John Irving borrowed
28. A Widow for One Year - John Irving Off the shelf!
27. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving Off the shelf!
APRIL
26. Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer Off the shelf!
25. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (reread, keeping)
24. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier Off the shelf!
MARCH
23. Happy Accidents - Jane Lynch borrowed
22. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher borrowed
21. Under the Dome - Stephen King Off the shelf!
FEB.
20. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King Off the shelf!
19. The Alice Behind Wonderland - Simon Winchester (keeping)
18. 11/22/63 - Stephen King on AND off the shelf in 2012
17. Hope: A Tragedy - Shalom Auslander borrowed
16. The Night Bookmobile - Audrey Niffenegger (reread, keeping)
15. Blue Nights - Joan Didion borrowed
14. Q: A Novel - Evan Mandery borrowed
13. The Tiger in the Well - Philip Pullman Off the shelf!
JAN.
12. Snail Mail No More - Paula Danziger & Ann M. Martin on AND off the shelf in 2012
11. P.S. Longer Letter Later - Paula Danzinger & Ann M. Martin Off the shelf!
10. The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff Off the shelf!
9. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling borrowed
8. Withering Tights - Louise Rennison Off the shelf!
7. Summer of My German Soldier - Bette Greene Off the shelf!
6. Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns Off the shelf!
5. Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block Off the shelf!
4. The Shadow in the North - Philip Pullman Off the shelf!
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis Off the shelf!
2. I Want Candy - Kim Wong Keltner Off the shelf!
1. Kissing Doorknobs - Terry Spencer Hesser Off the shelf!




"Harrison Bergeron", "Adam", "Who Am I This Time?", "Next Door" and "Miss Temptation" by Kurt Vonnegut; "The Carnival" by Lilli Carre; "What of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" and "Loquat" by Etgar Keret; "Burying Jeremy Green" by Nora Bonner; "The House of Secrets" by Daphne du Maurier; "Pipes", "Missing Kissinger", "Uterus", "The Son of the Head of Mossad", "Plague of the Firstborn", "Siren", "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God" and "Goodman" by Etgar Keret; "The Tell-Tale Heart", The Cask of Amontillado", "The Oval Portrait" and "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe ; "Hassidic Tales, With a Guide to Their Interpretation" by Woody Allen; "What We Talk About When We Talk About Doughnuts" by Michael Gerber & Jonathan Schwarz; "Here's a Really Great Idea" by David Owen; "A Short Autobiography" by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "Thank You for Stopping" by Jack Handey; "Lady with a Lamp", "Banquet of Crow", "Cousin Larry", "The Waltz", "Mrs. Hofstadter on Josephine Street", "Soldiers of the Republic" and "Terrible Day Tomorrow" by Dorothy Parker; "Judge Gladys Parks-Shultz" by Heidi Julavits; "Muzungu" by Namwali Serpell; "Butt and Bhatti" by Mohammed Hanif; "Aunt Liu" by Luo Shu; "Hat Trick" by Etgar Keret; "A Lady's Beaded Bag'' by Tennessee Williams; "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" & "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx; "In Roseau" by Jamaica Kincaid; "My Dead Brother Comes to America" by Alexander Godin; "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" by Pam Houston; "Shearing the Wolf" by O. Henry; "Not a Star" by Nick Hornby; "Straight Flush" by W. Somerset Maugham; "The Cloak" by Isak Dinesen; "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell; "Ceiling" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; "The Last Speaker of the Language" by Carol Anshaw; "Paramour" by Jennifer Haigh; "M&M World" by Kate Walbert; "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" by Nathan Englander;

Welcome back, Shauna! Happy New Year and good luck with your 2012 goals!

I've decided to start 2012 with a YA blowout. I have a ton of it that I haven't been inspired to read, but that I've also been unable to just donate unread. (It's only been a few years since I learned how to get rid of books I have read.)

Most of these books should be pretty fast reads, so I'm hoping to quickly clear a little space and get some momentum going with both my 75 book and "off the shelf" counts.
My plan is to make January as exclusively YA as possible, but we'll see how many I can get through before my brain starts feeling mushy.

>2 alcottacre:: Thanks Stasia, you too! :)

Woo hoo, I love good YA recommendations! Got you starred.

Welcome back!

Good luck this year! :)

Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser

Eleven-year-old Tara is suddenly overwhelmed by OCD and suffers for several years before being accurately diagnosed.

This was fiction, but events were "drawn from" the author's life. I think this could've worked much better as a memoir. The vivid descriptions of the symptoms of Tara's OCD and the devastating effect it has on her and her family made interesting reading, but much of the writing was weak and the dialogue often rang false. (I can't stand wise-beyond-their-years 12-year-olds speaking in the author's voice.)

I Want Candy by Kim Wong Keltner

Fourteen year old good-girl Candace spends her days working in her family's Chinese restaurant and dreaming of escape to a more exciting, (slightly more) bad-girl life.

There was really no reason for this book to be set in 1983, except that's probably when the author was around 14 herself, and she wanted to throw in familiar references. I was that age then too though, so I kind of liked them (10-0-6 toner! Jelly shoes! Martin Kemp! Portrait of a Teenage Runaway!)

I also like reading books set in San Francisco, as I live there.

And Keltner got some things very right - for instance, the way that 14-year-olds can be unbelievably cruel, insecurely jockeying for position among their classmates. Or the way they can so quickly and easily get themselves into situations where they're in over their heads and have absolutely no idea what to do about it. And how at that age you often go along with things against your better judgment because it's easier, or because you just so much want something interesting or different to happen. (Like when you're making out with some guy who bores you or even grosses you out, but it's better than not making out with anyone.)
Oh - and there are some really great ghosts. Why are Chinese ghosts always the scariest?

Overall though, I couldn't quite recommend it. There was something in the writing I didn't like though I'm not sure I can put my finger on what it was. There was some meandering, and some plot outlandishness that didn't mix well with the realistic bits. There was a sense of trying too hard. There were the minute details that were intended to add authenticity but were just boring and unnecessary. And then there was the bewildering number of times that the main character mentions how she likes to masturbate by rubbing up against her stuffed animals. It became so odd I wished I'd been keeping track.

Of course I've just written much more about this book than I usually do without absolutely hating it, so maybe there was something to it.

I think I will pass on both Kissing Doorknobs and I Want Candy. I hope your next read is more to your taste, Shauna!

Hi Shauna! I'm waiting to see which books you'll recommend from the YA blowout. Hopefully you'll like your next reads better.

#8-9: Both of those sound great. I already own Kissing Doorknobs (though I haven't read it yet), and I'll keep a lookout for I Want Candy (I love 80's-themed books).

>12 saraslibrary:: If you're on BookMooch Sara, I have it listed there.

Hi Shauna, will be interested to see what other YA books you manage to get through in January. Happy reading.

#13: I don't think I'm on BookMooch (I know I started an account up with one of those online book swap sites, but I don't remember which), but thanks though! :)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Book 3 of the Narnia Chronicles got off to a good start by having an opening line ("There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.") - that reminded me of a line from my favorite Kurt Vonnegut short story. This was a fun little adventure with more humor to it than I remember the previous two having, and it was darker too - both good things. As with the previous books I could do without many of the Jesus Lion bits, but overall this has been my favorite so far.

I'd recommend to anyone who wanted to read the series that they get editions from before Harper Collins took over publication in 2004. I'm not sure if they made changes to all the books, but for this one they used the original British version, ignoring changes C.S. Lewis made later. The biggest change was in the chapter "The Dark Island" (about an island where all your nightmares come true). The new version told a better, more chilling story, and it'd be worth finding a pre-2004 edition just for that. I picked the series up one at a time at thrift shops, and I'm kinda bummed now that 3 of the 4 I have left to read are Harper/Scholastic editions. I feel like I may be missing something.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite book in the series. I did not realize that there were changes in the books though. My copy of the book looks suspiciously like the one you have pictured, warts and all.

>17 alcottacre:: I can't always find a cover match on classics, but the one pictured is the one I read, so you do have the improved version.

Ah, OK. Thanks for letting me know.

#16-17: I wasn't aware of the little changes in editions. I thought all the publisher had changed was the order of the books. Good to know, thanks! :) And my copy is exactly the same as you guys's.

I didn't realize there were changes in the books either, beyond the order. I'm going to have to grab my parents' copies next time I go visit... they have the editions they read to us as children around somewhere. I always found the Dark Island chapter terrifying. I'd love to compare editions and see what they've done.

The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman

The 2nd book in the Sally Lockhart trilogy is set six years after The Ruby in the Smoke. Sally and her friends are investigating the suspicious collapse of a shipping line that has cost one of her clients her life savings. The mystery deepens as their investigations uncover a complicated web of blackmail, bribery, theft, fraud, secret liaisons and murder.

I love the character of Sally - an intelligent, independent, courageous, late-19th century woman who owns and runs a financial consulting firm, and refuses to marry while the law says anything a woman owns becomes her husband's. She can also be stubborn, rash and unforgiving, and I love that she's given flaws as well.

This series can't touch Pullman's His Dark Materials, but as long as you aren't expecting something on that level, it's very enjoyable - fun, original and with twists I didn't see coming.

22: Well said! It is a rather fun series with more twists to come...can't wait to see what you think of the rest.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

This was a strange little jangly, neon, hallucinatory, beat-poem of a fairy story. Difficult to summarize. As I was reading I couldn't quite decide if I liked the writing. Or the story. It was certainly racking up points for originality. And I did want to know What Happened Next. It was over with before I felt I'd really made up my mind, but I was leaning toward the positive. Worth checking out I'd say.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

It's 1906, and in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, 14-year-old Will Tweedy's grandfather has caused a scandal by marrying a woman half his age (and a Yankee!) just weeks after his wife's death ...

I really enjoyed this. It was funny and touching, and full of engaging characters. I'd recommend it.

(I cheated a little - I'm supposed to be reading all YA this month, and this doesn't qualify. I thought it did - it's been on my YA shelf forever - but by the time I realized it didn't, I was on a train with nothing else to read. Ah well. :)

That looks like a fun read. Have added it to the TBR pile. Thanks.

>22 madhatter22:: How did you feel about the ending of Shadow in the North? I was so angry it put me off reading any more in the series. I figure I'll get back to it one of these days, but I was very bitter about certain things that happened. Otherwise, it was a good, fun read.

>26 dianestm:: Hope you like it as much as I did!

>27 dk_phoenix:: When I'm reading YA, I do appreciate (even more than usual) plot twists I didn't see coming, but yeah, I was upset too. I'll still finish the series, but I understand that bitterness!

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

How did I never know there were German and Italian POW camps in the U.S. during WWII?
So I learned something, anyway.

This is the story of Patty, a 12-year-old Jewish girl whose cold, critical mother and abusive father have so starved her of affection that a little kindness from a German POW makes her willing to risk anything to help him.

There was some potential here but it didn't quite work. The supporting characters were pretty two-dimensional, and the heroine was all over the place - precocious one minute, and behaving like a six year old the next. But maybe that's accurate for a 12 year old. Especially one from a severely dysfunctional family.
Despite this, I liked Patty and would be curious enough about how things turned out for her to pick up the sequel if I came across it.

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

Meh. I wanted to like this, since I find Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series such charming, silly, guilty-pleasure fun. This seemed like it was trying too hard to reboot the first series. The main character (Georgia's younger cousin, Tallulah) is likable enough, but we've already been over all this ground with Georgia. As much as I feel strangely compelled to finish series once started, no matter what I think of them, I don't think I'd bother with book two.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

So I wasn't supposed to read anything except YA this month, but one day at work I picked up a copy of this book, showed it to a co-worker and said I really wanted to read it. She took a closer look and said "Well you can probably have this one because someone spilled coffee on it." Score!
I was going to wait until February to read it, but I started looking at the photos, and then skimming it, and before I knew it I'd read half the book, so I gave in.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was well-written, open, relatable, interesting and very funny. She seems to have a lot in common with Tina Fey - in her career, writing style, personality - so if you liked Bossypants you'd probably like this too. (In fact if you're closer to Mindy's age than Tina's you'll probably like it more.)
Very much recommended to anyone who likes comedic memoirs.

The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff

Creepy cover art, yes? And there was lots of deliciously disturbing imagery inside as well, so points for that, but the story didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Mackie, a mostly human-looking creature, was left in the crib of a stolen child and then raised by that child's parents as their own. Everyone in town knows he's different - one of "them" - but nobody speaks of it. Mackie is sick, and the beings who live underneath the town can help him, but at what price?

There were a lot of good ideas here, but I just didn't think they gelled. I can suspend reality for a good fantasy story, but there were still too many plot holes. The story also didn't flow well - it meandered and was really slow in places and then in other places potentially interesting story lines were rushed through. I also just had a hard time buying most of the characters reactions to what was happening.

If you especially like faerie or changeling stories this might be an appealing addition, but I thought it could've been much better.

P.S. Longer Letter Later by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin

Best friends Elizabeth and Tara*Starr are separated when Tara*Starr moves out of state, but the girls vow to write each other regularly to keep their friendship strong. The book is epistolary, with Martin writing Elizabeth's letters and Danziger writing Tara*Starr's.

I thrifted this book because as a kid I loved Paula Danziger's '70s - early '80s YA (The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, The Pistachio Prescription, etc.) This book was for a younger audience (the main characters are 12) and at first I could really feel that, and was wondering if I'd ever be able to just get rid of books like this without wasting my time reading them. As it went on though, the problems the girls faced were more serious than I'd thought they'd be, and I became more interested in seeing how their lives turned out. (Enough that I somewhat sheepishily Bookmooched the sequel.)

Oy. I caught a bad cold and was down for a week, during which time I had no interest in reading anything other than Entertainment Weekly, and instead spent prime out-sick-from-work-reading-time lying on the couch watching Hoarders and Arrested Development. The past few days I've felt better but can't seem to get back into the groove I had going. I was hoping to clear out another YA or two, but ... we'll see.

Sorry to hear about your cold, but wow! Awesome reads. :) (And you can never beat Arrested Development, imho. ;) I've only read two of the books you mentioned above--Summer of My German Soldier (my sis recommended this one to me, and I really enjoyed it, though I haven't started on the sequel yet) and P.S. Longer Letter Later (the same: I liked it, but I haven't read the sequel yet). I love the cover to The Replacement (reminds me of something The Addams Family would buy for their babies), so I'll have to look for that one. And I'm a really big fan of Louise Rennison, so I'll have to add Withering Tights to my towering Wishlist as well (actually, it's already on my Wishlist). I might skip Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), even though the cover/title made me laugh. Hmm, ok, call that one a maybe.

Anywho, thanks again for the cool rec's! :) And I hope you get to feeling better.

Snail Mail, No More by Paula Danziger & Ann M. Martin

The sequel to P.S. Longer Letter Later has Tara*Starr and Elizabeth continuing their correspondence through email.
I thought this book would pick up a few years later, but it starts right where the first left off. In most sequels I'd count this as a good thing, but in this case I felt like I already knew enough about what was going on with them at this point in their lives.
There was also too much unnatural-sounding exposition to catch the reader up on what had happened in the first books. In fact, I noticed a lot more writing that didn't sound like it would come from a 13 year old this time. I don't know if the first book was more well-written, or if I was just less interested in the story this time.

JANUARY STATS

Books Read: 12 (1 borrowed, 1 mooched, 10 from my shelves)
Short Stories Read: 1
Books Mooched: 5
Books Bought: 1
Books Given Away: 12
Borrowed Books Returned: 1
Damaged Books Thrown Out: 1

Total Books In: 7
Total Books Out: 14
Money Spent: $10.58

Pretty much on goal so far, except that I need to step it up with the short stories. I did buy one book, but I'm going to say it kind of didn't count as I was just replacing my 20+ year old, read-to-death copy of Welcome to the Monkey House. (1988 price: $4.95, 2012 price: $15.)

The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman

It's 1881, and Sally Lockhart has a happy life as a successful financial consultant and mother to 2 year old Harriet. But her world is shattered when a stranger claiming to be her husband and Harriet's father threatens to take away everything she has.

I thought this was the best of the Sally Lockhart trilogy. The story was suspenseful and fast-paced, and the injustices endured by women of this period were more maddeningly illustrated than ever. There was also an ongoing story of the injustices done to London's poor and newly arrived immigrants, and of the socialists who are fighting for change, and who awaken a social conscience in Sally.

Sally is a great heroine. All the people I've heard bemoaning their daughters' adoration of the Twilight series' Bella should throw these books their way. Sally is intelligent, independent, brave, principled and resourceful, while still being written as very human, with flaws that she's willing to admit to and tries to overcome. This was a really fun series that I'm sorry to see come to and end.

All the people I've heard bemoaning their daughters' adoration of the Twilight series' Bella should throw these books their way.

Well said!

Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery

A young man's life is disrupted when he is visited by his future self and told that he must not marry Q, the woman he loves. He is reluctantly convinced, but his life is not improved, and he begins to be visited by other future selves, each of whom insist on a different life change he must make in order to ensure his future happiness.

I have a thing for alternate-timeline stories so I was very intrigued by the premise of this sci-fi romance. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was original and touching and funny and thought-provoking. It tried too hard to be clever at times, but often succeeded. It also meandered in places, and the ending was more abrupt than I would have liked, but overall I enjoyed it.

FEBRUARY STATS

Books Read: 8 (3 borrowed, 1 gift, 4 from my shelves)
Short Stories Read: 4
Books Mooched: 2
Books Bought: 1
Books Given Away: 3
Borrowed Books Returned: 3

Total Books In: 7
Total Books Out: 6
Money Spent: $4.93

Oops. More in than out last month. So many unread books on my shelves and I just want to borrow the shiny new ones.

That's still incredibly good. I don't even want to mention how bad my shopping habits have been, so congrats! :)

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

The fact of the death of Didion's daughter at 39 is sad, of course, but this book about it isn't nearly as affecting or relatable as The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion's book about the death of her husband less than two years before. It's also not as well-written. "Quintana is one of the areas where I have difficulty being direct", Didion writes, and that's obvious here as the unfocused narrative meanders and never seems to catch hold.
There was also an off-putting deluge of name-dropping. The names of celebrities didn't bother me so much - after all, these are the people Didion knows and associates with - but the constant mentions of designer labels and expensive housewares, restaurants and hotels was tiresome.
Still, it's Joan Didion, so the writing itself was beautiful, and the moments when she could cut through the clutter and really talk about her daughter were touching and lovely.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

"What is it we desire from the hours, weeks, lifetimes we devote to books?"

I just love this graphic novel about a woman who comes across a bookmobile that contains nothing more or less than everything she's ever read in her life.

I first read this last year, and my original review is here. Highly recommended for any book lover, especially if you've ever had mixed feelings about the amount of time you've spent reading.

Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander

Well it's not the best sign if after 4 months you can't remember much about a book or what you thought of it.
The odd premise was irresistible to me: A man discovers Anne Frank living in his attic.
It was funny in places, and touching at times, but the narrative was repetitive, and other than the protagonist (sometimes) none of the characters were very engaging.
But high marks for originality!

..... .....

11/22/63, Full Dark, No Stars and Under the Dome by Stephen King

I'm often nervous when I start a Stephen King book, especially a long one. In fact I took a break from him for a while after one too many books that started out so promising, but had anticlimactic endings. These didn't disappoint.

11/22/63 is about a man who finds a portal back to the past, and decides to use it to stop the Kennedy assassination. What makes this time-travel tale different is that the portal only leads to one specific day in 1958, so he has 5 years to kill before he can make his attempt. If he fails, he'll have to go back and live those 5 years over before he can try again; if he succeeds, will the future necessarily be changed for the better?
This was a great story - suspenseful, thought-provoking and heartbreaking. (And it had a very satisfying ending!) I really enjoyed it.

I think I enjoyed Under the Dome even more. This thing was over 1000 pages, but it never once felt like it. It was gripping and fast-paced all the way through.
In this disturbing book, an invisible dome suddenly seals off an entire town. Nobody knows how or why or whether it's permanent. Families are separated, supplies are cut off, the ecosystem is out of whack and people are going crazy with panic. But the most immediate danger to the townspeople comes from the man who wants to seize power within the dome more than he wants to remove it.
I was really concerned with how he was going to wrap this one up, and I wasn't 100% down with the ending, but i thought it worked, and it didn't lessen my enjoyment with the book at all.

Full Dark, No Stars is a collection of four novellas and one short story that are, for the most part, more straight-ahead murder-and-mayhem horror instead of supernatural. These kinds of this-could-actually-happen stories are generally more frightening to me and they all managed that trick of being upsetting and terrifying and fun to read.

Stephen King is on a roll! I hope he can keep it up for the Shining sequel due out next year. That should be interesting.

The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester

I love Alice. Loooove. L.O.V.E. anything to do with Alice or Lewis Carroll. And Simon Winchester is exhaustive in his research. So I was fascinated. Someone with a more casual interested in the subject would probably be less so.
(For example - Winchester spends a great deal of time dissecting every little detail of the photo on the cover of the book. I don't know if most people would need that much detail, but I excitedly went and took down the framed copy I have of that photo on my wall so I could see up close exactly what he was talking about.)
I do think anyone interested in Alice or Carroll or Victorian-era photography would find a lot to like here though. And Winchester's writing is always worth reading.

.....

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher and
Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

In general I'd still rather listen to music and read my books, but I've found that I prefer certain memoirs on cd. Funny memoirs by funny people who can read in a natural, conversational style are much improved by hearing them tell their own jokes. Both of these fit the bill and made two 9-hour road trips seem to go by much faster.

Carrie Fisher recognizes the good fortune in her life, but there's been a lot of bad too, and generally not of the garden-variety type (losing chunks of your memory to electro-shock therapy, having a friend die in your bed, Elizabeth Taylor breaking up your parents' marriage). Her stories are sharp, self-deprecating and hilarious. Wishful Drinking is based on her stage show so her reading is a little stage-y, but it works. Very entertaining.

Happy Accidents has a warmer kind of humor. I want to say it's more personal than Fisher's book, but maybe that's just because the rough spots in Lynch's life - times when she's trying to figure out who she is and what she wants, trying to find happiness in her career and relationships - are more relatable. It was more heartfelt and than I expected, and less funny, though it did make me laugh. I also thought it dragged in spots. It was worth listening to though, and made me an even bigger fan of Lynch's than I already was.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Wealthy, mysterious Max de Winter brings his young bride home to Manderley, where she has to contend with the memory of the first Mrs de Winter and her loyal housekeeper, the menacing Mrs. Danvers.

This book started sooo slowly and the writing was somehow hard to get into the groove of, so I wasn't sure at first if I felt like slogging through. But the writing was beautiful and had a unique, interesting feel to it so I went on, and was soon rewarded.
I ended up loving du Maurier's writing and the story was a fun, tense, creepy, page-turner of a mystery. (Much more than I thought it'd be, having seen the movie. Two entirely different beasts.) Well worth reading.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

After I saw the movie, I wanted to re-read the book. I enjoyed it almost as much the second time. I know so many people who were resistant to reading this trilogy because they "never read YA" and/or because they were expecting something along the lines of Twilight, but I only know one person who gave in and wasn't captivated by it. Addicting.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

This mix of true crime (the story of Dan and Ron Lafferty, who murdered their younger brother's wife and baby daughter) and history (the origins of the LDS church and its fundamentalist offshoots) is well-researched and absorbing, but also a bit scattered - there were so many stories haphazardly stitched together that the threads were hard to follow at times.
I also felt there was a bias here that violence is inherent in the fundamentalist Mormon faith the Laffertys practiced.
Still, the history was fascinating and the book is well-written. Worth reading if the subject interests you or if you like Krakauer's style.

#50 - I was one of those who held out on reading The Hunger Games trilogy, but I read the first one last month and now I'm speeding through the second one. Addicting is a good description!

Hi Shauna! I'm catching up on threads. I'm way behind on your thread.
Summer of my German Soldier was one of my favorite books in junior high. I probably read it at least a dozen times. I haven't thought about that book for years.
Nice reviews of the King books. I haven't read a Stephen King book in at least a decade. These new books all look good. I'l have to add them to the wish list.

Awesome reads so far! :) Makes me want to go find my unread Stephen King books (yes, I still have a few).

..... .....

A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow for One Year and In One Person by John Irving

I was going to hear John Irving speak and thought I should catch up a little, having only ever read two of his books, and both of those (Garp and Hotel New Hampshire) more than 20 (??) years ago. Very glad I did.

An interesting thing about reading three of Irving's books back-to-back: I didn't realize how often he uses and reuses (and reuses) the same themes, characters, symbols.
New England? Check. Authors? Check. Dead/absentee parent? Check. Older woman/younger man? Check. Wrestling? Check.
I think all the books above hit each of those points and I'm sure a few others. That isn't to say I find his books repetitious or all alike - the stories in their entireties are very different. I just enjoyed discovering this sort of "John Irving Checklist".

Owen Meany was wonderful and lived up to every bit of praise I'd ever heard given to it. Funny, heartbreaking, engaging, complex characters, original, engrossing story. And he often writes the kind of sentences and paragraphs that are so brilliant you have to go back and read them over 2 or 3 times before you can move on. I loved it.

My opinion of A Widow for One Year probably suffered a little from my having read it immediately following Owen Meany, but it grew on me more as it soaked in afterwards.
Like most (all?) of Irving's books there's so much going on that it's hard to summarize. This one maybe even more than most, and in a few places it seemed to go off the rails. Still, the characters were memorable if sometimes annoying and unsympathetic, and I really enjoyed the story.

Irving's books are full of characters. They aren't always realistic, they're often symbolic - you know that going in. Still, I had a bit of a problem in this story (In One Person) of a boy-then-man who is trying to figure out/accept his sexuality with how SO many people in his life were dealing with very similar, if not the exact same, issues that he was. It seemed a bit clueless - I imagined someone who's never known anyone who is gay/bi/transgendered thinking "Oh, so that's what they're like." It presented kind of a one-dimensional view.
I really liked a lot of these characters individually, but they were a bit much taken all together. This one had the opposite effect of Widow in that I was less taken with it the more it sat with me. I think some of the issues he brings up are thought-provoking if you've never really thought about gender issues before, but if you have it can be a little old hat.
Even so, you're still getting John Irving's writing, so I found things to like in it. Definitely not the book to start out on, but if you're already a fan (as I very much am after this Irving-a-thon) it's worth checking out.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

I didn't think such a thing could exist - a David Sedaris book that I didn't love! I had high hopes for this little collection of animal fables after hearing the sweet and hilarious title story on NPR, but most of the rest of the stories didn't measure up. Some were sad, which was unexpected, but would've been ok if they were also funnier. Sedaris does sad-but-funny really well. But quite a few I found pointlessly mean-spirited and not really funny at all. And for those stories Olivia-author Ian Falconer's usually very charming illustrations were jarring and sometimes disturbing. (And I'm someone who often finds 'disturbing' a good quality.) If you're a fan you'll find a few gems here, but not as many smiles and laughs as usual.

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz & David Hayward

Siblings Paul & Lacey Hansen find a decapitated body on their property but can't report it to the police without endangering their pot-growing business. A fairly engaging whodunnit ensues. The real hook to the book though, is that the authors take turns writing the chapters, ostensibly making it up as they go along, without either of them having control over what the other writes. Plot lines that one starts can be detoured, characters that one creates can be killed off. After each chapter you see the (actual?) emails the authors wrote to each other, questioning or criticizing the choices the other made in the previous chapter. Whether the emails were genuine or not (or a bit of both?) the sniping emails are witty and entertaining - often more entertaining than what is going on in the story.

My opinion may have suffered from overly high expectations. A promo copy of the book was being passed around my bookstore and everyone who read it loved it and said it was hilarious. I didn't love it as much as everyone else seemed to - I thought the plot meandered too much (which may have been intentional) and I started to get impatient towards the end - but overall it was a quick, fun, mostly enjoyable read.

Suddenly, A Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret

I love Etgar Keret's short stories. They're so bizarre and poetic, darkly funny, touching, and always surprising. Overall, this isn't my favorite of his collections - it seemed somehow a little less cohesive as some others - but I'm such a big fan of his writing that that's not much of a criticism. There's always something I like about every story if only that it's like nothing I've ever read before (which they all are). And there are a bunch of fantastic stories here. (The whole collection is worth buying just for "What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?") Very recommended if you have any love for absurdist humor or magical realism or if you give big points for originality.

Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin

This made me happy. I'd forgotten how much I loved the Tales of the City books until I listened to Michael Tolliver Lives last year, and this was just as good. It seems like such a cheesy sentiment, but it really does feel like catching up with old friends. Some of the Tales books have more outlandish story lines than others, and this was one of those, with a lot of fun twists that I didn't see coming.
I'm not usually into novels on cd, but I enjoyed listening to the last one so much I got this one for the same CA to OR drive. Armistead Maupin reads them himself and does a fantastic job.
Can't wait for the next installment, The Days of Anna Madrigal, due next year.

Seriously ... I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

I thought I'd like this much better. I like Ellen a lot, and even though I don't often listen to books on cd, I've found I quite like listening to comedians read their own memoirs. But this was less memoir and more rambling comedy bits. (Although her standup is very rambling and I've always liked that ... maybe it just wasn't very funny writing.) A a lot of it felt like filler. There was some funny stuff, but mostly I found myself getting impatient for her to finish up whatever she was talking about and get on to the next thing. My mind kept wandering. Disappointing.

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

What a charming, inventive book! I loved it.

Cosimo is a 12 year old Baron in 18th century Italy who pitches a fit one night at being expected to eat snails for supper. He climbs up a tree and tells his family that he's never coming back down again - and he doesn't.

I thought that this already short novel might've been shortened even a bit more as it was a little repetitive it spots - but then that also sort of lent to the fairy tale quality of it. It put me somewhat in mind of Candide, but was really unlike anything I'd ever read before. This was my first Calvino and I'm looking forward to seeing what else is out there.

Great comments about the three John Irving books. I've read Owen Meany and A Widow for One Year, but not the new one. I have noticed his use of repeated themes. I listened to a Nancy Pearl interview of Irving recently, and he talks a lot about that.

The Calvino sounds interesting too! Good reading!

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
(A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons)

I don't read knights-and-ladies-and-dragons fantasy, but I saw the first season of the HBO adaptation and got so into it I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. What happened next was a few weeks of not getting enough sleep because I couldn't put these books down. So good. Soooo good. The story is just ridiculously engrossing. The characters are so engaging and multi-multi-faceted. There's hold-your-breath suspense, twists you'll never see coming. I literally laughed and cried. And gasped. And exclaimed. At one point I was so upset I had to put the book down for a couple of hours. I was completely immersed in this world.
Don't be put off by the fantasy tag if that's not usually your thing. It's much more about the people, the families, the human drama. You'll be so absorbed in their lives that you won't mind the occasional giant or sorceress. And you'll love the dragons.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

How many great books have been lost on kids assigned to read them too early? How many authors written off? A classroom of "advanced" jr. high school kids may be able to understand the vocabulary in 1984 or Tortilla Flat or The Great Gatsby, you may be able to teach them something about the themes and the symbolism, but they're not really going to get it. And how often are they going to go back years later to try again?

Aside from a few short stories, I never read Fitzgerald again after reading Gatsby in the 8th grade. I vaguely remembered the story, especially the few 'exciting' bits having to do with affairs and violence, but I mostly remembered being bored with it. At 13, you can't really understand these characters and their motivations.

Anyway. I'm glad I went back and read it. It's fantastic.

Well I couldn't keep up with posting, but at least I got my 75 read this year. Progress!

Awesome! Glad you made it to 75. :) Are you doing another 75 for next year?

Congrats on 75!