PaperbackPirate thinks 50 would be nifty in 2013!

I'm back again to take a shot at my goal of 50 books in one year!

Previous threads in case you're interested:

2012 (43 books): http://www.librarything.com/topic/130229
2011 (43 books): http://www.librarything.com/topic/106808
2010 (42 books): http://www.librarything.com/topic/80797

January-March

1. The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman - finished 1/9
2. The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan - finished 1/11
3. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - finished 1/23
4. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3) by Suzanne Collins - finished 1/31
5. Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong by Steven Brower - finished 2/9
6. Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King - finished 2/23
7. The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth - finished 2/23
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - finished 3/2
9. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris - finished 3/9
10. Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - finished 3/19
11. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - finished 3/27
12. Zarafa by Michael Allin - finished 3/30

April-June

13. The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom - finished 4/12
14. Dead Money by Steve O'Brien - finished 4/21
15. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman - finished 4/21
16. When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris - finished 4/30
17. Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly - finished 5/3
18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - (reread) finished 5/7
19. The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel by Matthew Quick - finished 5/11
20. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King - finished 5/26
21. On the Edge by Jenny Pitman - finished 6/16
22. Ten Thousand Heavens by Chuck Rosenthal - finished 6/19
23. World War Z by Max Brooks - finished 6/28

July-September

24. The Big Book Of Lesbian Horse Stories by Alisa Surkis - finished 7/1
25. Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer For Freedom by Pussy Riot - finished 7/2
26. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - finished 7/11
27. Beat the Reaper: A Novel by Josh Bazell - finished 7/17
28. Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich - finished 7/20
29. If Jack's In Love by Stephen Wetta - finished 7/28
30. Light of the Moon by Luanne Rice - finished 8/15
31. The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant - finished 8/18
32. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish - finished 8/25
33. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - finished 9/7
34. Blaze by Richard Bachman - finished 9/12
35. Andrew's Brain: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow - finished 9/16
36. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - finished 9/25

October-December
37. Beloved by Toni Morrison - finished 10/8
38. Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz - finished 10/12
39. The Walking Dead, Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars by Robert Kirkman - finished 10/13
40. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling - finished 10/22
41. A Good Fall by Ha Jin - finished 11/1
42. The Egyptologist: A Novel by Arthur Phillips - finished 11/9
43. Cell by Stephen King - finished 11/23
44. Plainsong by Kent Haruf - finished 12/3 (reread)
45. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - finished 12/21
46. Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs - finished 12/24
47. Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel - finished 12/24 (a photography book)
48. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris - finished 12/26
49. Hachiko Waits by Leslea Newman - finished 12/27
50. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby - finished 12/30
Yay me!

Hi PaperbackPirate! It's great to see you again in 2013 :-)
Good luck with your new thread and happy reading

We received your lovely card today...thank you....all the best with this year's challenge...looks like you're making good headway already!

Thanks for making the jump over here with me you 2! Hope you both have had a good first month of reading...

1. I really liked The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman. I heard that the graphic novels are different than the show, but this one stays true to the show as far as I can tell. Can't wait to read the next one!

2. I requested this book as an Early Reviewer because I read the author's first book, The Day the Falls Stood Still, a few years ago and loved it. The Painted Girls did not disappoint!

This well-researched historical fiction novel takes place in Paris 1878. It follows the van Goethem sisters as they struggle to survive after their father dies. Luckily the oldest sister, Antoinette, once trained in ballet for the Paris Opera and uses her mischievous ways to get auditions for her little sisters. Little did I know, but they used to pay girls to train for the ballet.

Every other chapter is told from the middle sister, Marie's, point of view, although the story mainly centers around her. She wants nothing more than stability for her family. Marie is a hard worker who loves music and her family, which makes her accessible to almost all of us. One way she makes extra money is by posing for Edgar Degas. He has a smaller role in this story but is still well developed as a character.

This is an excellent sister story, but I also felt the author was making a commentary on our roles in the world. Can you truly pull yourself up by your bootstraps or were you born to your lot in life? Don't tell. I'm not supposed to quote an advanced copy of the book but I feel in sharing this you will understand an underlying theme:
Monsieur Zola's tale is not about getting a washhouse or a chance upon the stage. It is about begin born downtrodden and staying that way. Hard work makes no difference, he is saying. My lot, the lots of those around me, were cast the moment we were born into the gutter to parents who never managed to step outside the gutter themselves.

Read this book and you will be magicked away to a time and place very different from our own. Fortunately the characters will make you feel at home.

P.S. This book counts as my book Published in 2013 for my Eclectic Reader Challenge.

OOOh ! I'm interested in this one...Great review...hmmm....looks like I will have to start with the first book...our library doesn't have Painted Girls yet....

I hope you like The Day the Falls Stood Still! Let me know what you think of it...

3. I really liked reading The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling. I thought it started off slow, but it was a page-turner by the end. It's a very interesting cause and effect story about muggles.

4. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were 2 of my favorite books I read last year. I was so excited to read Mockingjay, the final installment in the series! Now that I have read it I am sad to announce that it fell far short of my expectations.

An abundance of sub plots, mundane details, characters introduced only to be killed off a few pages later, and outright implausibility kept me from enjoying this book. Incidentally the ending I'd been hoping for not only didn't happen, but came to an abrupt, screeching halt. I almost feel like Suzanne Collins died and her husband finished writing the series for her.

Of course if you've read the first two books I recommend you read this one. You have to find out how it all ends, right? I'm honestly hoping you won't be as bitterly disappointed as I am.

P.S. At least this book counts toward my Dystopian genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

5. Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong by Steven Brower has changed my world. The writing is choppy but delivers the facts. The thing that makes this book special is having access to the collages and scrapbook pages Louis Armstrong created himself! Who would have guessed that besides being a genius musician he was also a crafter?!

I wish I could have known that amazing man.

You're kidding me? He did scrapbooking too? How neat is that? Wow...I'll be looking out for that one too.

6. Stephen King continues to surprise me. I read Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales with Stephen King's Dear Constant Readers on here and I'm so glad I did. The short stories vary from The Derringer Gang to cowboys getting captured by vampire nuns. Each story as good as or better than the last, and I'm usually not a huge short story fan. My favorites were probably 1408 and Everything's Eventual.

After reading this I decided there is nothing King cannot write.

7. The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times is a memoir about...A Midwife!...in 1950s London helping women deliver their babies. I learned a lot about the world of healthcare before there was healthcare, a new scientific word to describe part of my lady bits, and also a little about workhouses. For instance, I was not aware that families were separated upon entering workhouses. Sad.

My book club read this book and chose it because most of them watch the show, so I thought I would like it a lot. I'm sorry to say that I just thought it was o.k. I think part of the reason is that I never had kids nor do I want to have kids. To me reading about that stuff was gross, especially the chapter when she talked about smelly vaginas. Vomit. I was also surprised to learn how poor the sanitation system was back then, inspiring some more disgusting descriptions of living conditions. Gag me.

The final chapter was the last bummer for me. So the whole time she's living with these nuns. At the beginning she mentions that she's agnostic, at Christmas she mentions how much she likes the holiday church festivities, and then BAM! Last chapter she's a total convert. It bugged me that the whole story was about midwifery and her friends, but secretly it was just a means for her to prosthelytize.

The stories are interesting and move at a good pace, but I would recommend childless agnostics and atheists stick to James Herriot.

P.S. This book fulfills my memoir requirement for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Here are my 5 favorite books from the first 3 months of the year in the order I read them:

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I had the best quarter I've had in a long time so I have to mention a 6th, but this one was good for the pictures:
Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong by Steven Brower

What were your favorites?

April-June

13. The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom - finished 4/12
14. Dead Money by Steve O'Brien - finished 4/21
15. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman - finished 4/21
16. When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris - finished 4/30
17. Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly - finished 5/3
18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - (reread) finished 5/7
19. The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel by Matthew Quick - finished 5/11
20. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King - finished 5/26
21. On the Edge by Jenny Pitman - finished 6/16
22. Ten Thousand Heavens by Chuck Rosenthal - finished 6/19
23. World War Z by Max Brooks - finished 6/28

Hi PP

Congrats for your reading pace. Here are my five favourites:

Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
Dynamite Fishermen by Preston Fleming
My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates
The Dark Room by Minette Walters
Take Me To The Castle by F C Malby

I wish you happy reading for the next three months :-D

Thank you for sharing your list. I loved We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates, so I think I should try My Sister, My Love too.

I'm tempted by the secret life of bees. What made you choose it as one of your favourites?

I really liked it because of the sisterhood in the story, the time in history when the Civil Rights Movement was making some headway, and also the coming of age aspect. I also liked learning more about bees.

I flew through it.

8. My friend has been telling me to read The Bell Jar for about 12 years, I think pretty much since I first met her. I finally got around to it last month, and I can see why she wanted me to read it.

The story begins with Esther, the main character, living it up on a one month trip she won to New York City for winning a writing contest. It sounds like a dream for anyone, let alone a 20 year old off on her own for the first time. But as her month ends and she heads home her problems with depression begin. I'm a pretty optimistic, glass is half full kind of gal, so it has been difficult for me to relate to or grasp the idea of depression. Sylvia Plath's bell jar analogy somehow totally made it clear to me what dealing with depression must be like.

This book only covers 6 months of her life so I don't feel like I should go into too much of the story in my review. I do recommend you read it if you haven't already, and here's a quote to convince you:
The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way.

P.S. This book counts as my New Adult genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

I like your choice of books. I've been meaning to read the bell jar too. I'm just a little put off that I might find it depressing.

I know what you mean! But it's kind of funny that a book about depression didn't really make me feel depressed. I think it made me anxious though.

9. A little over 2 years ago I decided I had to read a David Sedaris book after hearing Jon Stewart tell NPR that they just brought a tote bag full of David Sedaris books to a knife fight. I finally read one, spurred on by a visit from the author to Gammage Theater.

My book club read Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and I was delighted by how many times it made me actually laugh out loud. What appears to the naked eye as a collection of essays is actually a brilliant telling of everyday life. I couldn't wait to discuss them with my book club but upon meeting with them I discovered only half of the group got him, the other half declaring he was too crude. I racked my brain. Which part was the crude part? "For example," one member shared, "when the stranger asked him to give him his suppository?" Ah yes, that was funny!



Thursday night 2 book club members, my friend Angi, and I went to see David Sedaris read from his new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, and his diary. The first three stories he told were about getting a colonoscopy, a woman who poops in her hand, and his grandmother using a bath towel as toilet paper. Ah yes, the crude thing! I rather enjoyed it, as did my friends, and although we had to wait 3.5 hours to get his autograph it was worth the wait. We got to have a conversation with him, he wrote crass things in our books, and we left satisfied. My only wish is that we were allowed to take pictures!

Yes, read David Sedaris if you like crude humor. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim may be the funniest book I've ever read.

P.S. This books count as my Humor genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge, and Denim in the title also counts as the first color for my Colorful Reading Challenge.

Hi PP! It looks like you're enjoying an amazing time with your book club and also with the authors. Happy reading :-D

Thanks Ameise1! Next up is Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I have high hopes since the movie was such a success.

10. Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the second book in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, which I originally started because they were some of my husband's favorite books when he was in high school. I thought the first one, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, was ok, but this one was a memorable adventure! I now see that some of simplicity in the first book was actually building a foundation for the second book.

The crew starts off on another quest for the Dragonlance in this tale. They aren't together for long before they are split into two groups after a dragon attack. One group continues the mission to find the Dragonlance while the other is left to fight the evil army trying to take over the land. I enjoyed it so much that my husband felt compelled to reread the series so we can read the last one together.

P.S. This books count as my Action Adventure genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

14. Dead Money is a mystery centered around the Kentucky Oaks, the big filly race the day before the Kentucky Derby. Dan Morgan is a lawyer and the owner of Aly Dancer, a filly who has the potential to win it. He receives an offer to buy his filly but the buyer becomes menacing when he refuses to sell. Then his trainer "commits suicide" and Dan has a mystery to solve.

I thought the story was a little choppy in the beginning. One detail that bothered me was when Dan, a man who has owned racehorses for years, asks his friend Lennie to explain the handicapping (betting) system to him. I thought that it was nice of the author to include that information for the reader who doesn't know, but I had a difficult time believing someone who has been around horse racing doesn't understand it. Maybe Mr. O'Brien could have thought of a more creative way to get that information to us.

By the end of the book the story improved and I couldn't wait to see how it ended. A fun book to read around Triple Crown time.

P.S. One of my 2 favorites won the Kentucky Oaks this year, Princess of Sylmar!

11. The Secret Life of Bees is another book I've had for awhile, hadn't read, and then felt sad I waited so long to read it! One thing that kept me from reading it is that I read The Mermaid Chair by the same author with my book club and didn't like it. But every spring we get a ton of bees flying around our Palo Verde, orange, and grapefruit trees and I would think, I should just read it! This spring I finally did.

Lily Owens is a girl who is trying to survive her father in 1964 South Carolina. Her mom died in some shroud of mystery she can't quite put together from her 4 year old memory so she is left with a crappy dad and their sweet, black housekeeper Rosaleen. Rosaleen finds herself in some trouble which forces Lily to run away with her. Lily decides it's a great opportunity to hunt for some information about her mom, so she begins searching for the Black Madonna. What she finds is a strong community of women, and herself.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:
The secret of a good lie is don't overly explain, and throw in one good detail. (Good tip. I'm a terrible liar.)

"She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. 'It comes from years of loving children and husbands,' she'd say."

This is a lovely book about friendship and love sprinkled with Civil Rights. And of course it's also about amazing bees.

Here's a gratuitous bee picture I took in our backyard this spring:


Here is a gratuitous bee painting by Maggie Taylor, called Girl in a Bee Dress:


P.S. This book counts as my Made Into a Movie genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge, although I haven't seen the movie yet.

12. Zarafa by Michael Allin is a non-fiction story about a giraffe gifted from Egypt to France for political purposes. It follows Zarafa on her journey in 1827 by foot and boat to Paris, France while giving some history and political climate of the time.

I enjoyed learning a little more history but I thought it was going to be whisked along with Zarafa on her journey. Instead it felt more like a history book than a novel.

13. The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom is the story of Lavinia, a 7 year old Irish immigrant who loses her family on her journey to America, becoming an indentured servant on a tobacco plantation. The black slaves that work in the kitchen house become her family.

This story was good but not great. I feel like if you're going to write a book about slavery now you need to bring something new to the table. I thought the indentured servant growing up with the slaves was the author's chance to do that, but she fumbled the ball by making Lavinia a weak character as an adult and wrapping up the story a little too neatly for my taste at the end.

15. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman follows the survivors as they continue to find a place to make home in a zombie apocalypse. I like how the graphic novels have a few different characters than the show and how the story has slight variations.

If you're familiar with the show, this volume takes us to the farm and to the prison.

22. As soon as I started reading Ten Thousand Heavens by Chuck Rosenthal I discovered it's told from the horse's perspective. Uh-oh. My last foray with a book told from an animal's perspective (Rose in a Storm) was irritating.

However, as I continued to read on, I discovered that the author utilizes his background in philosophy to deliver some thoughtful gems via horse speak. It's clear that Mr. Rosenthal has spent a fair amount of time around horses and has given some thought to the why behind their instinctive nature. It was entertaining for me to read his take on equine behavior after spending so much time thinking about it myself. Philosophy and behavior aside, it's a touching story of a man whose mission is to rehabilitate a Thoroughbred Arabian mare named Annie using time and love instead of whips and spurs. My feeling is that this the true story of the author's relationship with his mare, Jackie O, but it's called fiction because of the point of view it's told from.

One of my favorite quotes made me think of the Morgan mare I used to ride, Thunder. That horse had spunk! "A horse that wouldn't try to buck you off once in a while was no companion at all."

If you like horse stories you will gallop through this little book of friendship and compassion.

And now for your enjoyment, a gratuitous horse painting (which hangs in our bedroom) by Emily Martin called Judy and the Dream of Horses:

My most favorite book from this quarter was:
The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel by Matthew Quick

But I also loved (listed in the order I read them):
The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman
When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread)
Ten Thousand Heavens by Chuck Rosenthal

What were your 5 favorites?

16. As I read When You Are Engulfed in Flames I thought about what I could say about this hilarious book of essays in my review. The key point I wanted to make is this: David Sedaris has a way of making the everyday things that happen in our lives comical.

Wait! Why is that my prevailing thought? When is the everyday shopping for a human skeleton and then trying to figure out how to gift wrap it? Or finding yourself in your underwear in the waiting room of the doctor's office? David Sedaris has a gift of relating to you through his own bizarre experiences and then making you laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

In St. Louis the bow tie was characterized as "very Charlie McCarthy," while in Chicago a young man defined it as "the pierced eyebrow of the Republican party." This sent the bow tie back into my suitcase, where it begged forgiveness...

It sometimes helps to remind myself that not everyone is like me. Not everyone writes things down in a notebook and then transcribes them into a diary. Fewer still will take that diary, clean it up a bit, and read it in front of an audience.

"Maybe the recorded birds are saying something about free food," he suggested, but to me the message seemed much darker: a call to anarchy, or possibly even murder.

Check it out!

P.S. This book counts as my Book with Fire (or Equivalent) in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

I haven't read any David Sedaris but he is on my to read list after reading David Rakoff. I think they are both similar in style. I have been reading some great books lately. Isn't it wonderful when you find some good ones?

I love the good ones! I'm reading one so good right now I want to call in sick and stay home to read it!

17. Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly is a YA book that I read for Autism Awareness Month (a little behind on my reviews here!). The main character, a 16 year old named Drea, has Asperger's and is adjusting to yet another move to a new town with her impulsive mom at the beginning of the story. Even though Asperger's usually keeps Drea from making friends, her love of making music helps her make immediate friends with her neighbor.

The story was pretty unmemorable but I did pass it on to my friend to give to his daughter who has Asperger's. I felt like the author included little details that would make autistic kids feel like there's someone out there who understands. The author says she has ADD and her brother has Asperger's and she pulled from both of their experiences to write the book.

18. I reread The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald before seeing the movie and loved it just as much the second time around. I also loved the movie because I felt it stayed true to the book.

Then I read some other people's reviews of the movie compared to the book and they all said their problem with the movie is that it didn't show that Nick is gay and in love with Gatsby. WHAT?! Don't know how I read it twice and missed that but sure enough, the proof is there on the last page of chapter 2. Guess I'll have to reread it at least one more time and I will do so gladly. But since my tbr list is a mile long it will probably be a few more years.

19. I loved every minute I spent reading The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick! The story begins with Pat getting rescued from a mental institution by his mom. We see immediately that Pat has some OCD issues (as well as some other issues which brought the psychologist and occupational therapist in my book club to a fascinating argument) and is hell-bent on one thing: winning back the love and respect of his wife. From his parent's basement his life is centered around a schedule he designed which is guaranteed to bring him back together with his true love.

The only thing Pat seems to love as much as his wife is the Philadelphia Eagles. (BOO!) Even though Pat's an Eagles fan I could really relate to the moments he was worshiping the Eagles with his family. Whenever he did the special Eagles cheer with fellow fans I thought about shouting "IN-COM-PLETE!!!" with Broncos fans and the immense satisfaction it gives me. Sports fans will appreciate the comradery forged by the love of a team that Pat experiences throughout the tale.

This book is a real joy. Pat's eternal optimism made me smile from beginning to end. If you're feeling like you have a black cloud following you around, read The Silver Linings Playbook to give you some hope.

P.S. This is the 2nd book I read for my Colorful Reading Challenge. 7 more to go!

P.P.S. Now I can't wait to see the movie!

Books and their movies! I haven't seen the new Gatsby movie yet, but I did reread the book recently and loved it - much more than I did in high school.

I just watched Silver Linings Playbook for the second time. It's a very good movie but I haven't read the book so I don't know how they compare. I'll get to it one of these days. I hope you like the movie as much as the book!

Many people in my book club had seen Silver Linings before reading the book and, of course, liked the book more. They said that the movie has many differences, such as where the movie ends the book goes on for quite a bit more. I can't wait to see it though because I haven't met a person who didn't like the movie yet.

20. I just came off of a strong run of amazing Stephen King books when I read From a Buick 8, so maybe my expectations were a little high. The story is told by a group of police officers, point of view changing chapter by chapter, about their experiences with an "alien" car disguised as a Buick 8 that they took into their possession decades ago.

The story was ho-hum for me. The narrator shift kept me from connecting with any of the characters and the spooky car stories weren't so spooky.

I suggest passing From a Buick 8 up and leaving it in your rear view mirror.

21. I love reading horse stories so I can relive my childhood joy of horseback riding, which is why I picked up On the Edge by Jenny Pitman. Too bad for me there were hardly any descriptions of horseback riding. It was mostly a lame romance story, focusing more on the people in the barn than the horses. The writing wasn't that noteworthy either. I always mark pages with good quotes with a sticky note, and by the time I finished there wasn't even one in this book.

One thing I liked is that it was published in the UK, so some of the horse terminology was different. For example, the author called a "halter" a "head collar." HA!

It wasn't the worst book ever but I suggest you keep on riding and leave this one in the dust.

23. I liked World War Z by Max Brooks because it's a bunch of short stories told from different perspectives tied together by topic and timeline. I felt like I was getting a global perspective on how the Zombie War evolved. I still haven't seen the movie but I hope I get to see it in the theater before it's gone.

24. I came across this book by accident. While mentioning The Big Book of Horse Stories on a thread here on LibraryThing, the touchstones brought up The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories instead. I couldn't wait to read about lesbian horses!

Just kidding! I knew it would be about lesbian ladies, but I couldn't resist the pulp cover on top of the campy title. Once I started reading I realized it really was just a cute book of short stories about girls and their relationships with horses. The fact that they were homosexuals was almost an afterthought in most of the tales. And the few "sex scenes" included were very PG:
Then they were in the bedroom, and Terry showed Ginger that Silky wasn't the only one she could get to the finish line.

The thing that makes this more than just a book of har har moments is the inclusion of some LGBT history, and how the females evolve to become empowered individuals. Horses and girl power all in one!

Horse fans and lesbian lovers will enjoy this book...if you can get your hands on it. It's out of print and the used copies available come at a high price. I used a gift card given to my husband to purchase my volume -- don't tell! But if you read books digitally the ePub version is still in the normal price range.

P.S. This books counts as my LGBT genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Just realized if I read 1 book per week for the rest of the year I can still make my 50 goal...

25. After following the Pussy Riot saga on Twitter for about a year, I was very excited when I saw Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer For Freedom by Pussy Riot on the shelf at my locally owned bookstore. I wanted to read more about the ladies who performed one of my favorite sounding crimes, "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred," a felony in Russia. Translation: they sang a song for 40 seconds on a special altar in the Russian Orthodox Church, in brightly colored clothes and dresses that don't have sleeves!!!

Even though two of the Pussy Rioters are sitting in jail as I type this, found guilty of this crime, they actually don't have any hatred of religion. Their problem is president Putin and his overreaching connection to the Russian Orthodox Church (the church told their parishioners to vote for Putin).

Reading about how they were not allowed time with their lawyers before the trial on top of the fact that they didn't break any laws, only church traditions, shows me how they must have hit the mark. If Putin didn't do anything wrong, their silly antics would have been dealt with a slap on the wrist.

It's funny to me how Pussy Riot has brought Putin to my attention. I didn't know much about him before their punk prayer, but now my ears perk up when I hear his name. War on homosexuality? Ties with Syria? Wow! I'm pretty sure this guy is a jerk!

America may not be perfect but at least we have some freedom, and the right to speak up when we don't.

FREE PUSSY RIOT!

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm kind of vaguely aware of the Pussy Riot stuff but if was pressed to explain what it was all about would fall very short of anything slightly concrete - other than it all sounded like a shocking infringement of civil liberties stuff. I did find it odd listening to the news (I think it was a couple of months ago) when the Russian government acknowledged that homosexuality was illegal but that homosexual athletes shouldn't be frightened to come to the Olympic games or whatever it was that they were hosting in future...their laws wouldn't apply to them. Yeah right. Either you do or you don't have legislation. Madness.

I know, right? I wonder if the athletes are allowed to break any other laws while they are there. ???

In the order I read them, my favorites from this quarter were:

Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer For Freedom by Pussy Riot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
If Jack's In Love by Stephen Wetta
The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant
Blaze by Richard Bachman

What were your favorites?

26. The Reading Globally group on here spent the last quarter reading books from Francophone countries which inspired me to finally get The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver off my shelf. Although Barbara Kingsolver is an American the story takes place in a Francophone country, the Belgian Congo.

Imagine an evangelical Baptist taking his family there in 1959 on a mission to save the heathen Congolese. If you are laughing right now you will like this story. Told from the mother and daughters' points of view and spanning many years, you can imagine that the only people changing in the story are these women. The joke is on the determined Reverend, who doesn't understand why people won't be baptized in the river (alligators eat people), and shouts "Tata Jesus is bangala!" at the end of his sermons (believing he's saying "Jesus is precious and dear" but actually saying "Jesus is the poisonwood tree!").

Some of the fun of reading a Barbara Kingsolver book for me is the history lesson. I was not aware of all the terrible events surrounding the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium.

Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, if not my favorite, so I can't help but recommend this book if you haven't read it already.

27. Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell is the story of Peter Brown, an intern at a Manhattan hospital. It's just another day of making rounds when one of the patients he comes across recognizes him as Pietro Brnwa. That's a problem because that's his real name, and worse off, the name he used when he was a hit man in the mob. The story takes place in 8 hours as he scrambles to hide his true identity and escape the mob again.

From my description it sounds like a typical suspense story, but it's actually filled with a lot of humor. This book has been passed around by everyone in my book club because they all liked it so much. I liked it too but I don't know if I'll read the sequel.

28. I read Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich on a friend's recommendation. She insisted I borrow it because it reminded her of Harry Potter. It was no Harry Potter but it was still fun to read.

This book is actually second in a series but the author filled me in on what I missed from the first book without any issues. This story is about Lizzy Tucker, a pastry chef from Salem, Massachusetts who is partnered with Diesel, a hot magical dude who has to protect her. Their mission is to get the Luxuria Stone, "an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust." However, Dielsel's cousin Gerwulf and a scary lady named Anarchy are also trying to get the stone which causes hijinks on the way.

It was an easy read but a little too easy for my taste. I've already forgotten most of the story.

P.S. This book counts as my Urban Fantasy genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

I read The Poisonwood Bible years ago and loved it. I keep meaning to reread it. It's a real head shaker in so many ways. What people will do...

Hi PP

Here in West Europe we hear and read a lot about Pussy Riot. Unfortunately it's not only Pussy Riot which is under close observation in Russia but also several other parties as Greenpeace and others which have to go under not only a close inspection but also a very hard punishment.

My favourite readings for the last couple of months are:

Annabelle by Nancy Christie short story
First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer
Wild Child by T.C. Boyle read in October - one, I can strongly recommend
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters
Dead Before Dying by Deon Meyer

I wish you happy reading :-D

Hi Joanne! I think it's worth a reread. I imagine I'll pick up on so much more the 2nd time around. It's definitely a head shaker!

Hi Ameise1! Thank you for the added note about Greenpeace. I was not aware of that either. So scary!

Thank you for sharing your list. It reminds me that I need to get The Women by T.C. Boyle out of my tbr pile!

33. I've wanted to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs for a long time just because of the cover. So eery and magical! When I received it as an Early Reviewer I told my book club about it and they wanted to read it too. Score!

Judging the book by the cover, I thought it would be a dark and scary tale. However, it's actually a YA novel that I would label Science Fiction, which sparked a little debate in my book club. One said no, it's fantasy. One thought it could be called Historical Fiction. Whatever you would like to call it, we all agreed it was a good story.

It begins with 16 year old Jacob sharing how he loves his grandfather because of all the great stories and photos he shares with Jacob from when he was a kid at Miss Peregrine's Home. Unfortunately it isn't long before Jacob finds his grandfather dying in the forest. His grandfather's dying words are pretty cryptic, but it becomes clear to Jacob that he needs to go to Wales to see Miss Peregrine's Home. What he discovers there reveals that what he knew of his grandfather was only a fraction of his peculiar life.

My favorite part of the book is how the author used unaltered vintage photographs to illustrate the story. I think of the author as a very creative person to find photos first and then create a story with them. A few times it felt like he was adding a detail just so he could share a photo, but overall the photos were an asset.

I definitely see myself reading the sequel, Hollow City, which comes out in January. All but one member of my book club agreed they would be doing the same. I'll also be loaning this book to my nephew because he's a WWII buff and this book puts a little twist on one of the battles.

35. Andrew's Brain is a quirky story told by an unreliable narrator. Andrew is a cognitive scientist, so if you're a fan of the brain you will like reading all of his brainy thoughts. My favorite was:

How can I think about my brain when it's my brain doing the thinking? So is this brain pretending to be me thinking about it? I can't trust anyone these days, least of all myself. I am a mysteriously generated consciousness, and no comfort to me that it's one of billions.

Still interested?

Andrew's Brain is Andrew talking to his psychiatrist about how he unintentionally brings catastrophe to everyone he's been close to in life. The book is pretty short which was just the right length for me not to lose interest or get frustrated with the style of writing. I liked it more than City of God but not as much as Homer & Langley.

29. If Jack's In Love is a suspenseful coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old boy named Jack, taking place in 1967. Jack has had the fortune to be born a Witcher, the town's least favorite family. His dad is unemployed and his brother is a stoner. No matter how well Jack does in school or behaves himself people only think of him as low-class.

Jack makes an unlikely friend in Mr. Gladstein who has his own label: Jew. Mr. Gladstein relives his own youth as Jack tries to make Myra his girlfriend. Jack desperately wishes Myra could forget which house he lives in and see him for the person he is. The odds are against Jack since his brother has an ongoing grudge match with Myra's brother, which only worsens when her brother goes missing.

I love a good coming-of-age story and this book did not disappoint. It had a pleasing proportion of mystery, young love, drama, humor, heartbreak, and suspense, with a pinch of magic. This is Stephen Wetta's first novel and I hope he writes more!

P.S. This book counts as my Book With an Emotion in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

30. Light of the Moon by Luanne Rice is a nice book because it's so easy to read. It's about a woman who fulfills her mother's dying wish by going to France to see a band of famous wild white horses. It becomes a journey of self-reflection and healing once her life intersects with a single dad who is trying to help his daughter overcome a tragedy.

I loved the descriptions of horses and horseback riding, the pagan saint worship, the romance that wasn't the typical storybook romance, and the vivid imagery used to put the reader in France with the characters. I definitely recommend it if you are looking for something light and unique.

31. Last year I read Wallace: The Underdog Who Conquered a Sport, Saved a Marriage, and Championed Pit Bulls--One Flying Disc at a Time by Jim Gorant and loved it. Since it was one of my favorite books of the year I knew that I had to read The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption too.

My concern before starting was that the stories of how Michael Vick and his friends tortured and mistreated the pit bulls they used for dog fighting would be too much to stomach. Although there are some horrific details about what some of the dogs went through, it is mostly presented in a manner of what evidence the police were able to collect. In addition, the main focus of the story is not on what a horrible human Michael Vick is, but on how the amazing dogs rescued from his home were rehabilitated. In fact, Vick is not mentioned much at all after the first chapters.

I knew from watching shows like The Dog Whisperer and Pit Boss, reading books like Wallace, and meeting many sweet and gentle pit bulls throughout my life that these are dogs with an undeserved bad reputation. This book solidifies that line of thinking. I was surprised when the author shared that in a litter of 12 pit bull puppies you would be lucky if you could train one to be a fighter because it works against years of evolving as pack animals. Even though their purpose was fighting, the dogs taken from Vick did not need to be rehabilitated because they were aggressive; they needed to be socialized and trained to live in a house with a family.

The story follows the dogs from rescue to rehabilitation, but we also get to meet the army of people who work to help dogs like Vick's every day. Difficult to read at times, this book left me with a good feeling knowing that for every bottom feeder like Vick in the world there are 100 good ones.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, my vicious pit bull friends:

Obi (may he rest in peace)

and Emma.
You can stop being scared now.

P.S. This book counts as my Book With Lost or Found in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

P.P.S. I hope the Packers break a sack record today!

Awww, such sweethearts!

Thanks!

32. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral begins with Annie's ashes being delivered to her oldest friend with a request that she spread her ashes in specific places around the country with four of Annie's closest friends. They clear their schedules and get on a plane, leading them to self-discovery, friendship, clarity, and closure. As a bonus, they all wear red Converse the whole time.

"Annie didn't have many rules for the traveling funeral but we know for sure she wanted us to celebrate her life more than to mourn the loss of it..."

Lately I've been trying not to read sappy books where a character dies because - SURPRISE! - they can really get me down. It was nice for a change to read one that was uplifting instead. If you don't like books where everything is wrapped up a little too nicely at the end you won't like it, but if you're looking for something fun and a little thought provoking this is for you.

P.S. This book counts as my Book With a Party or Celebration in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

34. Blaze by Richard Bachman solidified Stephen King as one of my favorite authors. A slow thinking man, Blaze, is befriended by a criminal. When the criminal dies Blaze carries out the "perfect crime" as he believes was his friend's wish, which was to kidnap the child of a rich family. Sweet, sad, and suspenseful.

36. I pulled Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer off my bookshelf after recently listening to an interview with the author on NPR. Even though the book was published over 10 years ago and has been made into a movie, Mr. Krakauer still didn't feel like he got the end of the story correct and continued to research.

The book is the true story of a young man from an upper class family who leaves all his money and most of his possessions behind to get lost in Alaska and live a Jack London fantasy. Very interesting story, especially if at some point you have wanted to get lost in the wilderness but didn't have the courage (or brains?) to do it. Also recommended if you like quotes like this one from Paul Shepherd:

To the desert go prophets and hermits; through deserts go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality.

Hi PP
I can strongly recommend Olive Kitteridge and hope that you'll find the time to read it. It's a lovely book and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Happy reading :-D

Thanks for sharing that interview. I read Into the Wild several years ago and was captivated by the story. I have another of John Krakauer' s books on my list. Maybe I'll get to it next year!

I'm glad you liked the interview. I've read Under the Banner of Heaven and really liked it too. I still have Where Men Win Glory on the shelf.

37. Beloved is the second book I've read by Toni Morrison. For the first half of both books I felt like I had to read each sentence twice to understand what was going on. Although that made me take much longer to read it, I'm thankful I forged ahead and finished this one.

I read Beloved for Banned Books Week. It deals with what life was like for slaves after the Civil War was over but I would call this a ghost story. I'm not sure why it was banned but I think it has to do with the cows.

This quote made me think of my husband and I:
Joyfully embarrassed to be that grown-up and that young at the same time.

I'm not sure if I would read another by Toni Morrison but I'm glad I read this one.

38. I found this book for a bargain at Barnes and Noble and liked the description so in the cart and on the shelf it went. It didn't stay on the shelf as long as most of my books because I quickly realized this is the book the new t.v. series is based on.

Three witches, a mom and her two daughters, are trying to live the life of normal women because they have been banned from using magic. Without telling each other they each have a little slip up. One of the sisters, Freya, makes a special drink while bartending to help out a patron. The other sister, Ingrid, uses a simple spell to help a friend get pregnant. The mom, Joanna, delights a little boy by animating his toys. It's a slippery slope from there.

An easy and fun story to read, Witches of East End left me anticipating the next in the series, Serpent's Kiss.

No shocker, the t.v. show is a lot different from the book but there are some similarities. I like the t.v. show but...the book is better.

P.S. This is the first book I read this year for the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

39. The Walking Dead, Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars by Robert Kirkman is the story of the survivors finding the prison. Like the other issues there are differences from the television version, such as a homosexual couple not featured in the show. Good installment.

Yay! You are officially awesome! Well done. I like all the different reading challenges you do. It really mixes things up and makes them interesting. I might join in some of them if they are on again this year. I know that I want to do one with the Virago group here on Librarything. It's a WW1 theme read. Happy New Year!

May all your wishes come true.

Thanks Alex! This year I'm doing the Eclectic Reader Challenge and the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge again. It really does force me to read outside of my box or read books that have been sitting on my tbr pile for way too long. Good luck and let me know if you join!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Barbara!

Here are my 5 favorites from October-December in the order I read them:

Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (reread)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel (a photography book)
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

What were your 4th quarter favorites?

Here are my favorite books from 2013 in the order I read them:

fiction
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
If Jack's In Love by Stephen Wetta
Light of the Moon by Luanne Rice
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

nonfiction
Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong by Steven Brower
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer For Freedom by Pussy Riot
The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant

What were your favorites?

41. A Good Fall is a collection of short stories about life in America for Chinese immigrants. While the stories revealed to me details of the life of a Chinese immigrant I had not considered before, they did not entertain me. There was a very strange momentum to the stories and they all ended without any real conclusion or revelation.
I read it with my book club and none of them cared for the book either, so I would recommend passing this one by.
P.S. This counts as my Book With Up or Down (or Equivalent) in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

45. Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors and Norwegian Wood did not disappoint me. It is a coming of age story and love story all wrapped up into one.

This book is the namesake of Norwegian Wood by The Beatles so I made a point to listen to the song before I began reading. It really set the tone. Toru is a young man going to college while managing his unrequited love of Naoko. She was his best friend's girlfriend when he committed suicide. While their connection to his friend brings them together it also keeps them apart. And like all of Murakami's books I feel like that's about all I can say without spoiling your own journey if you choose to read this book.

One surprise for me was that it was unlike the other Murakami books I've read so far. There weren't any talking cats or wells with time travel. It was a straightforward story but beautifully told. It's one of my favorite books I read this year so I think you should read it too! There are also a ton of songs from the 60s mentioned, which inspired me to make a killer playlist that coincides with the book.

For your gazing pleasure, artwork inspired by the book:

Norwegian Wood is by 99styler.

Norwegian Wood by Megan Barron.

P.S. This books counts as my Translated Fiction (translated by Jay Rubin) for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

46. I've read one other book by Susan Isaacs and it made it to my favorite list for the year I read it. I've been scooping up her books as I've come across them since and so I had Compromising Positions on hand when I needed a Romantic Suspense book for my Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Judith is a housewife living her plain life when her periodontist gets murdered. Her neighbor and friend is one of the suspects, which inspires her to begin her own investigation. It's a pretty ridiculous story really, as the police begin consulting her and giving her assignments. And she starts a relationship with the detective even though she's married with 2 kids.

About halfway through the book I figured out this book was written a long time ago. The phones have cords, people smoke all the time, someone said something like "women can be lawyers too," and the sexy detective was wearing a sexy, gold turtleneck. After checking the copyright page I confirmed my suspicion: it was first published in 1978 and my copy was republished in 2007. Tricksters!

I probably wouldn't recommend this even if you're just looking for a fluff book. I won't be reading the next in the series.

48. Holidays on Ice is a collection of short stories related to Christmas. My favorite was SantaLand Diaries, where he recounts his time working as Santa's elf in a store. I loved it when Santa made him sing a carol and he chose to sing it like Billie Holiday. I could just hear it in my head which made me laugh out loud.

Some of the other stories I didn't like as much because they were just fiction. Still this book is worth checking out, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed or bitter about the Christmas season.

P.S. This book counts as a Book With Something You'd Find in Your Kitchen in the Title for my What's In a Name Challenge.