aliciamay's 2014 Challenge progress

Welcome all! I had a blast with my 2013 challenge, so I’m back for a second year. In addition to playing along with the CATs and reading book bullets right away, I will be trying to make a dent in the TBR and my 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.

My 2013 challenge was a pyramid structure and I found I didn’t really like having so few books in the lower categories. This year I will have a seven book minimum in 14 categories, for a goal of 98. (June update: changing to nine book minimum, for a goal of 126 books.) Books many fit into several categories, but I will only be counting them in one. I have listed possible reads in almost all the categories, but these will most definitely be changing once I import books leftover from 2013 and when I get distracted throughout the year.

While I didn’t come up with a clever theme I thought it would be fun to copy the idea of having each category represented by a favorite movie of mine (and now I have to re-watch them all). I hope you enjoy following my progress!

"The Shawshank Redemption" Off the Shelf (6/9)
"Evolution" Sci-fi/Fantasy (5/9)
"Clue" Mysteries (5/9)
"The March of the Penguins" Non-fiction (5/9)
"Bridesmaids" Women Writers (5/9)
"Amélie" Non-American/Non-English (6/9)
"Best in Show" Award Winners (5/9)
"The Bourne Identity" Books in a Series (7/9)
"The Muppet Movie" Road Trip! (5/9)
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Plane Trip! (6/9)
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" New(ish) Releases (7/9)
"The Princess Bride" Recommendations (5/9)
"¡Three Amigos!" Miscellaneous (6/9)
"The Big Lebowski" Favored Authors (5/9)

January CATs
MysteryCAT - Detective Novels
Murder on the Links
Murder in Belleville
The Cuckoo's Calling

RandomCAT - The Janus Rules
Wheelmen

GeoCAT - US/Canada
Mornings on Horseback
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (immigration focus)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Of Mice and Men
The Devil's Highway (immigration focus)
A Painted House

February CATs
MysteryCAT - Series
Hot Six
The Bourne Identity
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

RandomCAT - Kid's Lit
The BFG

GeoCAT - Middle East & N. Africa
The Stranger (Algeria)

March CATs
MysteryCAT - Young adult
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

RandomCAT - Birds of spring
Cat Among the Pigeons

GeoCAT - Mexico, Caribbean, Central America
Haiti Noir
Wide Sargasso Sea (Commonwealth focus)

April CATs
MysteryCAT - Nordic
Cockroaches
The Redbreast

RandomCAT - Poetry
April Twilights
Aimless Love

GeoCAT - Eastern Europe
Everything is Illuminated

May CATs
MysteryCAT - Classic/Golden Age
Poirot Investigates

RandomCAT - Mothers
The Invention of Wings
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

GeoCAT - South Asia
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
The Satanic Verses (India focus)
Burmese Days
A Bend in the River (India focus)
K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain
Interpreter of Maladies (India focus)
The Inheritance of Loss (India focus)

June CATs
MysteryCAT - Police Procedurals
The Devil's Star
The Black Dahlia

RandomCAT - Celebrating the Rose
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Penny Lane rose)
This Is Where I Leave You (Thinking of You rose)
The Art of Fielding (Field Roebuck rose)
A Clockwork Orange (Oranges and Lemons rose)
Pierre et Jean (Pierre de Ronsard rose)
The Devil's Star (Star Performer rose)
The Summer Book (Summer Wine rose)
Cakes and Ale (Cupcake rose)
The Red and the Black (Red Rascal rose)
War Dances (Shadow Dancer rose)

GeoCAT - Islands and Bodies of Water
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Shadow-Line
The Summer Book
Billy Budd, Sailor
Honolulu

 

The Shawshank Redemption is a bit of a stretch for the category, but I had to find a way to use one of my all time favorites – Tim Robbins’ character works for a stint in the prison library and delivers books ‘off the shelf’ to the prisoner’s cells.

Off the Shelf
1) Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson - finished March 29th - 167 pages - 2 stars
2) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - finished May 11th - 550 pages - 3 stars
3) The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad - finished June 8th - 100 pages - 3 stars
4) The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan - finished June 21st - 127 pages - 3 stars
5) The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy - finished June 23rd - 337 pages - 3.5 stars
6) Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner - finished July 6th - 592 pages - 4 stars

Reading:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Possibilities:
Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen
On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
The Joke by Milan Kundera
Dead Babies by Martin Amis
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Marya: A Life by Joyce Carol Oates
Story of O by Pauline Réage
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Far Euphrates by Aryeh Lev Stollman

A comedy starring David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones and Seann William Scott fighting aliens…need I say more why this is a favorite?

Sci-fi/Fantasy
1) She by H. Rider Haggard - finished March 22nd - 317 pages - 3 stars
2) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - finished May 21st - 268 pages - 4 stars
3) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - finished June 2nd - 181 pages - 4 stars
4) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - finished June 8th - 213 pages - 4 stars
5) Ubik by Philip K. Dick - finished June 25th - 240 pages - 3.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Lord of the Rings by J.J.R. Tolkien
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Love, love, love Clue, the movie based on the board game. So many great actors and so quotable. “Is there anybody else in this house, or isn’t there?! Yes or no?!”

Mysteries
1) Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie - finished January 4th - 272 pages - 3.5 stars
2) The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - finished January 26th - 455 pages - 4 stars
3) Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie - finished March 16th - 352 pages - 3 stars
4) Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie - finished May 22nd - 256 pages - 3 stars
5) The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo - finished June 11th - 464 pages - 4.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton
Trent’s Last Case by E.C. Bentley
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

I haven’t watched this nature documentary featuring the oh so adorable Emperor Penguins in a few years. But March of the Penguins had to represent the non-fiction category, if only so I could see the movie poster every time I post.

Non-fiction
1) Wheelmen by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell - finished January 6th - 384 pages - 4 stars
2) Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough - finished January 10th - 480 pages - 2 stars
3) The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea - finished January 21st - 220 pages - 4 stars
4) K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs - finished May 19th - 342 pages - 3 stars
5) Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang - finished May 31st - 544 pages - 3.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
My Life in France by Julia Childs
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Reckless Courage by William Fuller
Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Going Clear by Lawrence Wright
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Irregulars by Jennet Conant
The Man Without A Face by Masha Gessen

Bridesmaids is the hilarious, and slightly raunchy comedy, written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.

Women Writers
1) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - finished February 17th - 328 pages - 3 stars
2) The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - finished March 16th - 512 pages - 4 stars
3) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - finished March 20th - 352 pages - 4.5 stars
4) A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki - finished March 23rd - 432 pages - 4 stars
5) There But For The by Ali Smith - finished April 11th - 256 pages - 3.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Passing by Nella Larsen
The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt
To the North by Elizabeth Bowen
The Bell by Iris Murdoch
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
The Red Room by August Strindberg
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

Amélie is a very sweet, French romantic comedy starring the lovely Audrey Tautou. If I had a romance category, this would probably be my choice for it too. This category is for books originally written in a language other than English, or by a non-American/non-English author.

Non-American/Non-English
1) The Stranger by Albert Camus - finished February 18th - 123 pages - 3.5 stars
2) Nemesis by Jo Nesbo - finished May 20th - 480 pages - 4 stars
3) Yes by Thomas Bernhard - finished May 30th - 135 pages - 3.5 stars
4) Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant - finished June 10th - 150 pages - 3.5 stars
5) The Red and the Black by Stendhal - finished June 19th - 750 pages - 2 stars
6) The Nun by Denis Diderot - finished July 4th - 152 pages - 3 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
The Inferno by Henri Barbusse
Le Pere Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Reveries of the Solitary Walker by J.J. Rousseau
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot
Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
The Joke by Milan Kundera
Nana by Emile Zola

I had to have a Christopher Guest movie represented. Plus I discovered that Best in Show was an Award winning movie itself, winning the American, British and Canadian Comedy Awards.

Award Winners
1) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize 2008) - finished January 17th - 335 pages - 4 stars
2) The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (Booker Prize 2013) - finished April 8th - 834 pages - 4 stars
3) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Pulitzer Prize 2013) - finished April 25th - 771 pages - 3.5 stars
4) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize 2000) - finished May 25th - 198 pages - 4 stars
5) The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Booker Prize 2006) - finished May 26th - 357 pages - 3.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Operation Shylock by Philip Roth (PEN/Faulkner Award 1994)
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (Booker Prize 1993)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize 2012)
A Death in the Family by James Agee (Pulitzer Prize 1958)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (Orange Prize 2004)

I want to start on the Bourne Trilogy this year, so The Bourne Identity movie is the logical representative.

Books in a Series
1) Murder in Belleville by Cara Black - finished January 19th - 368 pages - 3 stars
2) Hot Six by Janet Evanovich - finished February 2nd - 368 pages - 3.5 stars
3) The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum - finished February 23rd - 566 pages - 3.5 stars
4) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - finished February 23rd - 374 pages - 4 stars
5) The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley - finished March 11th - 364 pages - 3.5 stars
6) Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo - finished April 8th - 368 pages - 3 stars
7) The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo - finished April 13th - 576 pages - 4 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
The Coroner’s Lunch by Collin Cotterill
The Secret Place by Tana French
Mercy / The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler Olsen
The Exploits of Juve by Marcel Allain & Pierre Souvestre
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Anatomist’s Apprentice by Tessa Harris
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Rabbit, Run by John Updike

This is a new category for my challenge allowing armchair travel around the United States, and what better movie to represent it than one about Kermit’s epic road trip from Florida to Los Angeles to get into show biz?

Road Trip!

1) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (NV) - finished January 20th - 204 pages - 4 stars
2) A Painted House by John Grisham (AR) - finished January 25th - 384 pages - 3.5 stars
3) The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (SC) - finished May 1st - 373 pages - 2.5 stars
4) The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (WI) - finished June 6th - 544 pages - 3.5 stars
5) Honolulu by Alan Brennert (HI) - finished June 23rd - 464 pages - 3 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (CO)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (MI)
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (NM)
Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (NJ)
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (MD)
English Creek by Ivan Doig (MT)

I remember my mom was none too thrilled when my dad brought home the Indiana Jones trilogy. She thought they were too gory for the young aliciamay…and she was probably right. Now if only I could get a hand on that old timey map that showed Indiana’s hops from country to country to show my progress of books where the setting is in different countries/locales.

Plane Trip!
1) A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (Chechnya) - finished February 1st - 416 pages - 4.5 stars
2) Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat - finished March 31st - 300 pages - 4 stars
3) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Jamaica) - finished April 1st - 190 pages - 4 stars
4) Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (Ukraine) - finished April 15th - 300 pages - 4 stars
5) Burmese Days by George Orwell (Burma) - finished May 12th - 285 pages - 3.5 stars
6) The Names by Don DeLillo (Greece) - finished June 9th - 352 pages - 3 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford (Antarctica)
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (Austria)
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Kenya)

The latest Wes Anderson movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, did not disappoint. Fans will be treated to the normal absurdity and stunning imagery and everyone should appreciate the many, many A-list actors and their stellar performances, as well as an engrossing story.

New(ish) Releases
1) Tenth of December by George Saunders - finished February 11th - 251 pages - 4 stars
2) The Son by Philipp Meyer - finished February 16th - 576 pages - 3.5 stars
3) Doctor Sleep by Stephen King - finished February 28th - 531 pages - 4 stars
4) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - finished March 3rd - 529 pages - 3.5 stars
5) The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri - finished March 5th - 344 pages - 4 stars
6) The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara - finished March 9th - 384 pages - 3 stars
7) The Dinner by Herman Koch - finished March 24th - 304 pages - 4 stars

Reading:
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Possibilities:

I think my husband and I wound up with 3 copies of The Princess Bride as wedding presents (to add to the one we already owned) – a strong recommendation! Don’t be surprised to see some books that you have raved about : )

Recommendations
1) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain - finished February 18th - 307 pages - 3.5 stars
2) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - finished May 4th - 200 pages - 4 stars
3) This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper - finished June 3rd - 352 pages - 4 stars
4) The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - finished June 14th - 166 pages - 3.5 stars
5) War Dances by Sherman Alexie - finished June 27th - 208 pages - 4.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Sacre Blue by Christopher Moore
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The German Lesson by Siegfried Lenz
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene
Code to Zero by Ken Follett

¡Three Amigos! is a western comedy that is also a little bit romance, action, adventure, historical fiction, and musical, so perfect for my Miscellaneous category! When I was a kid my best friend and I could sing and dance along to My Little Buttercup. Now I see from YouTube that many people did the same, but took it to the next level.

Miscellaneous
1) Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence - finished January 3rd - 400 pages - 2 stars
2) Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse - finished February 6th - 284 pages - 3.5 stars
3) Aimless Love by Billy Collins - finished April 28th - 288 pages - 4.5 stars
4) A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul - finished May 16th - 326 pages - 3.5 stars
5) Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham - finished June 16th - 308 pages - 4 stars
6) Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville - finished June 21st - 160 pages - 3 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
Armadale by Wilkie Collins
The Childermass by Wyndham Lewis
Buddha's Little Finger by Victor Pelevin

I wanted to have a category to chip away at some books from my favorite author’s oeuvres. These are books that I will read just because of who wrote them, much like I will watch any of the Coen brothers’ films.

Favored Authors
1) For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway - finished January 14th - 480 pages - 3 stars
2) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - finished January 20th - 112 pages - 5 stars
3) The BFG by Roald Dahl - finished February 9th - 212 pages - 4 stars
4) April Twilights by Willa Cather - finished April 3rd - 52 pages - 3 stars
5) The Professor’s House by Willa Cather - finished April 16th - 300 pages - 3.5 stars

Reading:

Possibilities:
The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta

"What are you afraid of, a fate worse than death?" "No, just death. Isn't that enough?"

"Let us in, let us in!" "Let us out, let us out!"

I could go on and on - Clue is one of my favorite movies!

Those are great ones Little Taiko!

"Uh, is there a little girl's room in the hall?" "Oui oui, Madame." "No, I just want to powder my nose."

"Just checking." "Everything all right?" "Yep. Two corpses. Everything's fine."

Oh I adore the Princess Bride. One of my favourite movies ever. Just love the inventiveness of the book and the visual representation of it. Magic.

Great categories! I have you starred so I can follow your progress and see which books fill in your categories.

Great choices! This reminds me I have to watch Amélie again sometime :) And I hope you like the Bourne trilogy. Identity is the best of the three books.

Clue... Princess Bride... Indiana Jones.... I see some favorites here! Lucky you getting to read the Bourne books for the first time. Lundlum is an author that my sister, dad and I shared reading on vacations, one of the few times our reading interests coincided! The books are very different from the movies, IMO anyways. Enjoy and looking forward to following your challenge!

Great to see you back for another year, I see lots of interesting reads listed under your possibilities and look forward to following your reading.

Great to see you back! Great group of films too. I actually ended up seeing The World's End three times while it was in the theater. The first watch and the re-watch were planned, but the third time was more of a nothing-else-on-that-I-want-to-see. It was just as funny the third time, though! :)

So much love for both "Clue" and "The Princess Bride"! (My favorite line from the former: "Communism was just a red herring!") Oh, and "The Last Crusade," obviously ("Only the penitent man shall pass"). Also, I am planning to read Miss Hargreaves next year too...will look forward to seeing your thoughts!

Thanks for the welcomes everyone!

>Helenliz - Sadly I have never read the book...onto the TBR!

>cbl_tn - Thanks for the star! Next on my LT to-do list is get to everyone's 2014 threads, so I'll be sure to track yours down.

>rabbittprincess - So having movies to match my categories is dangerous for others too : ) That makes sense that The Bourne Identity is the best book, because it was the best movie, IMO.

>lkernagh - I think the Bourne books made it onto my pile because you said they were better than the movies : )

> Thanks DeltaQueen - I need to get over to your 2014 thread too!

> -Eva- I'm already seeing that it is fun to have movies to go with my 2014 challenge so I can hear what others think of them. 3 times for The World's End is impressive. I think I'll need to go see it again when it is at my favorite cheap theater, the one with awesome pizza and beer, as I got mighty thirsty watching all those pints go down.

> christina_reads - I can't resist throwing out another Clue quote..."I'm merely a humble butler." "What exactly do you do?" "I buttle, sir."
Miss Hargreaves is one of Nancy Pearl's under the radar picks that I have been meaning to get to for some time. And now with you planning on reading it too, I really must get to it next year.

And The Muppet Movie is one of my favorites, too. Isn't that where the song, The Rainbow Connection, comes from?

I'm looking forward to another great challenge here.

mamzel - It is! When grabbing the movie poster for this page, I learned that the musical score for The Muppet Movie and The Rainbow Connection specifically were nominated for Academy Awards.

I wish our cheap theater had beer and pizza! If you want drinkies with your movie here, you have to go to the luxury VIP-theaters. :(

That song always brings tears to my eyes since I can't help but remember Jim Henson and his genius that was lost too early.

#29 We have those expensive food/drink theaters here (one actually less than a mile from my house), but I only go when I have a groupon. Thank goodness Portlanders are a wonderful combination of cheap, foodies, and micro-brew fiends so there are better alternatives.

#30 Jim Henson was another great one taken too early. Has anybody read the biography that came out last year, Jim Henson: The Biography? Very tempting to add that to TBR...

I just read some of the reviews for the book and I'll have to avoid it. My eyes can't take the tears that it would evoke, I don't think.

>31 aliciamay: - So jealous that you live in Portland. One of my absolute favorite cities - someday I'm going to run away from home and they'll find me in Portland. Most likely at Powell's...:)

#32 It does look like a tear jerker...I might brave it anyway.

#33 My husband dragged me to Portland eight years ago and as my dad likes to say, it's the second best place I could live (the first being back in Minnesota with them). Powell's is sooooo dangerous. I'd say 75% of the books on my shelf are impulse buys from my trips there because they have EVERYTHING and often times used copies of what you want. I now restrain myself from going frequently. Last time my sister and brother in law were visiting we also had to make a trip to Goodwill so they could get a bag to fly all their books home in.

For those of you who don't know about Powell's here's drool worthy info from their website...Powell's City of Books is a book lover's paradise, the largest used and new bookstore in the world. Located in downtown Portland, Oregon, and occupying an entire city block, the City stocks more than a million new and used books. Nine color coded rooms house over 3,500 different sections, offering something for every interest, including an incredible selection of out-of-print and hard-to-find titles.

Where in Minnesota? Minneapolis is one of my other favorite cities - at least in the summertime. Love the lakes, art, and food.

Great ideas for categories. Trying to catch up on new threads and have found yours. See some books i've really liked when I read them and some that are also on my TBR and will be looking forward to seeing how you like them. Your Powell's sounds like a store I went to in Denver years ago whenI was there on business - The Tattered Cover. It was huge as I recall and I looked forward to being sent there on business so I could visit it.

#35 I grew up in Northern Minnesota, went to college in St. Paul, and now my parents and one sister live near Duluth and that's my base when I go back to visit. I don't even mind Minnesota in the winter - it is cold, but at least it is sunny and I desperately need sun to combat the Pacific NW winter dreariness.

#36 Thanks dudes! I haven't caught up on 2014 threads, but I'll have to keep an eye out for yours. And gotta love the large independent book stores! I'll be sure to check it out if I'm in Denver.

Fun categories! I'm looking forward to your 2014 reading!

The Big Lebowski made me smile.

#38 Thanks japaul!

#39 I am very fond of my challenge this year, because all my categories make me smile. And The Big Lebowski reminds me that I am nearly out of Kahlua : )

This reminds me that I need to watch !Three Amigos! again--and share it with others. No one ever gets my "plethora of pinatas" references. :)

Good movies! I was contemplating doing the same, but then I felt like just movies in general was too broad, that they should be connected in some way, and then it was too constricting and I couldn't come up with something that allowed for all the range I needed, hahaha. I was going to do my TV series with just one decade, or maybe two, but then even that became too much a stretch and I had to open it up, hahaha, oh well! :P

#41 Plethora became one of my favorite words as a result...and now I have that scene in my head : ) "Jeffe, do you know what a plethora is?"

#42 Yeah, I didn't really stretch myself to come up with a way to connect the movies, other than they are my faves. But I'm glad I went with it anyway because it was fun to come up movies for each category and fun to hear people's responses to them. There's still plenty of time for you to add movies/TV too!

Love your theme - and your lists of possibilities! I'll be keeping an eye on your thread.

>43 aliciamay: haha I know what you mean, I might go with them for 2015, hahaha! I think I'm good with my TV picks for this coming year...probably. :P

#1
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Category: Miscellaneous
Pages: 400
My Rating:

For the record I did not intend to start my challenge off with this book...it was just too slow of a read to finish in 2013. Women in Love picks up where The Rainbow left off and follows the romantic lives of Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen. I am now more convinced than ever that Lawrence's popularity is solely based on what was his shocking content. In this day and age the content is rather tame and I don't find a lot of substance to his works. And I have four left to go on the 1001 list...

(edited to add page count which I will be tracking this year)

The only D.H. Lawrence I've read is Lady Chatterly's Lover and I thought it was pretty good. It has some very memorable parts that are probably supposed to be serious (in the love scenes) but are actually pretty funny viewed through today's eyes.

japaul - Glad to hear that about Lady Chatterly. It is one of the four I have remaining and funny love scenes are something to look forward too.

#2
Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
Category: Mysteries
Pages: 272
Mystery CAT: Detective Novels
My Rating:

Another enjoyable Poirot mystery. Poirot is the unassuming omnipotent detective who proves to everyone that he is the bomb when he is able to deduce the guilty party when others, of course, cannot.

#3
Wheelmen by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell
Category: Non-fiction
Pages: 384
Random CAT: The Janus Rules
My Rating:

An astounding look at the history of cycling and doping, Lance Armstrong and his empire, the Tour de France, and the conspiracies surrounding it all. I was a bit taken up with Armstrong when he first began winning the Tours and read his book It’s Not About the Bike, but I was kind of indifferent when the doping scandal started emerging in the U.S. I was trying to read this book with a grain of salt, but I still found myself loathing Armstrong and his actions to get to number one and stay on top. The thing I came to realize is that he was a professional athlete and yet the public puts him (and others) on this high moral pedestal, but readily lambaste athletes like him when they don’t live up to our ridiculous standards. I don’t want that to come across as a ‘poor Lance’ statement, but I don’t know what we can expect when there are so many incentives for athletes to do whatever it takes to win and win in the publicity arena too. That being said, I do hope the sport is cleaned up so we are able to see what some phenomenal people can do without the illegal props. I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interesting in biking, but be wary if Armstrong is a real hero of yours.

Nice review of Wheelmen - I felt the same way you do about Armstrong and have been reluctant to read the book as I just didn't want to hear anymore about the whole sordid saga. While I don't agree with the cheating, it can be said that most of the top people he was beating have also been caught doping. Definitely agree with your statement about wanting the sport to be cleaned up so everybody is competing fairly.

Thanks LittleTaiko. I had no idea how widespread the doping was...take a look at the Wikipedia entries for the Tour de France. There are a lot of blank spots for a lot of years. Jan Ullrich has vocalized how he thinks Armstrong should get his wins back because everyone was doping. Which is funny to me because he holds the number 2 slot for many of the years Armstrong was stripped, but he can't make the argument that he should be number 1 because he was doping too (and was stripped of his titles for the years they could prove).

There was one cyclist (I don't remember his name) that was mentioned in the book that was a rather sad case. He was naturally a phenomenal athlete, all his bio-metrics were better than Floyd Landis' and Armstrong's, but he was still basically given the ultimatum to dope or quit his team. Reason being, if you're that good naturally think how good you can be with EPO and a blood transfusion. As a young athlete new to the pro scene this was really hard for him personally and made even worse to see that it was a common practice among all his idols. That's really the kicker, these cyclists are all genetically a cut above the rest and yet that isn't good enough. Reminds me of the millionaire's retort to the question of, 'How much money is enough?' 'One dollar more than I have.' 'How fast is fast enough?' 'One second faster than I did.'

#4
Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
Category: Non-fiction
Pages: 480
Geo CAT: US & Canada
My Rating:

Sad to say it, but I found this book terribly boring. And the narrator, Nelson Runger, made it worse with his slow cadence and lack of energy. I think McCullough picked the most boring section of Roosevelt’s otherwise interesting life and then went over every documented detail with painstaking care. Here’s what I learned about Roosevelt:
* He came from a god-awfully rich family and his mother was Southerner
* Mornings on Horseback refers to family rides near their summer estate on Long Island when Teddy was a kid, not his Rough Rider days.
* During his childhood the most severe adversity TR had to overcome was asthma.
* He was well traveled as a child, with a long excursion to Europe and a trip on the Nile.
* He was very interested in natural science, liked to shoot every animal in sight and practiced taxidermy.
* His first wife and mother died on the same day.
* Early in his political career TR got fed up with it and threw his money and some time into a ranch in the Dakotas.

There, I just saved you 19 hours of your life. You’re welcome : )

There, I just saved you 19 hours of your life. You’re welcome : ) Thanks, so little time and so much to read, retrospectively the good thing is that you take one for the team, LOL ...

LOL.... and Thanks!

Glad to free up some time for you two...and I won't feel as bad about future book bullets!

I had a busy weekend, but I did manage to finish A Question of Upbringing, the first book of the twelve that make up A Dance to the Music of Time. The book left me hanging so I'm glad I have more to read.

Yesterday I had some time to kill in Tacoma, WA and happened to be near a used bookstore. Just as I was finding my bearings in the floor to ceiling stacks my husband said we had to leave because he was being followed around by a man telling him about his encounter with aliens. Dang aliens...I meant to get pictures of the store and was also interrupted in what could have been a good book haul!

Too bad about the aliens! If you ever see a UFO, you'll have to make sure they know that they owe you a few books!

>57 cbl_tn: Haha...and yeah they do!

#5
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Category: Favored Authors
Pages: 480
My Rating:

Robert Jordan is a Spanish professor in Montana, but also knows a thing or two about dynamite and finds himself on a mission to blow up a bridge, helping the antifascist guerrilla forces in the Spanish Civil War. The book is full of complex characters contemplating the past, the future, or their impending death. The book moves very slow for the first two-thirds and then the pace picks up, as well as the death toll. I can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the other Hemingway’s I have read.

#6
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Category: Award Winners (2008 Pulitzer Prize)
Pages: 335
GeoCAT: US/Canada
My Rating:

I liked this book, but I don't think I got as much out of is as someone would with a Spanish background. This is the story of Oscar, his sister Lola, and their mother Belicia. It takes place both in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, where their mother immigrated to in order to escape a certain death at the hands of Trujillo's sister. The chapters highlight their struggles in both places. My favorite parts of the story took place in the Dominican Republic, where the turbulent history of the Republic played a role and all the characters were affected by the politics, the corruption, and the violence.

It has been a good weekend so far! The sun is actually shining, I finished a book, and hit up the library sale. I showed some restraint, but not too much : ) Here are my buys:

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Unless by Carol Shields

You picked up two of my favorites in those finds by Ishiguro and Marquez! I'll be curious to hear, too, what you think of the Allende and the Mosley...That novel by Mosley wasn't at all my cup of tea, and I've been meaning to read Allende for ages. Regardless, congrats on the great finds!!!

Thanks Jennifer! Glad I got some good ones, but I'm not sure when I will actually get to reading them. I know nothing about the Allende, but I really liked The House of the Spirits so thought it was worth a try. I picked up the Mosley cause I remember reading something good about it around here, so hopefully I like it better than you did.

#7
Murder in Belleville by Cara Black
Category: Books in a Series
Pages: 368
MysteryCAT: The Detective Novel
My Rating:

Before Aimee Leduc knows it, she is no longer looking into her friend's sister's marital problems. She witnesses a car bomb that turns out to be part of an elaborate conspiracy that is tied to Algerian immigration and smuggling. It was an entertaining mystery, but I am not rating this higher because I grew thoroughly annoyed with the product name dropping (Prada this, or Hermes that) and Aimee constantly commenting on how badly she wants a cigarette. I know, rather petty reasons.

#8
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Category: Road Trip!
Pages: 204
GeoCAT: US/Canada
My Rating:

Well that was a rollicking good time. A more absurd and f'ed up story could not be had, but I enjoyed it none the less. Although I never want to stay in a Vegas hotel room. Now I must go look up the 1001 entry to see why the heck it made the list.

#9
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Category: Favored Authors
Pages: 112
GeoCAT: US/Canada
My Rating:

I should have saved Fear and Loathing for after reading this. I knew the story from the movie, but the book was more heartbreaking and beautiful than I could have expected.

I don't think there is anything quite like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but maybe I am not that well read!

I agree. I might pick up another Thompson to see if his other books compare. The other drug addled book that I have read, Junky, just comes off as tragic and the movie The Hangover is comic buffoonery.

#10
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Category: Non-Fiction
Pages: 220
GeoCAT: US/Canada (immigration focus)
My Rating:

This was a tragic look at the struggles faced by immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. In May 2001 a group of at least 26 Mexicans attempted to enter Arizona through the desert on foot. A series of missteps cost at least 14 of the walkers their lives. The book adds a personal story to the plight of immigrants and was well researched, especially considering that so much is still unknown and accounts of those involved are unreliable due to the effects of hyperthermia. Speaking of, the description of the stages of hyperthermia actually made me get up and drink a glass of water. The author did a very good job at looking at this incident through various lenses and emphasizing that immigration is not a black and white issue. The book poses no solutions, but raises some good questions…How could one coyote (a-hole that he was) be solely responsible for the deaths? This incident was tragic because of the number of deaths, but why are the victims treated as heroes and martyrs after the fact? Would all the money that is spent on border protection and treatment of border victims be better spent on a sound immigration program or in the Mexican economy?

Sounds like a good, informative read.

I think Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is my next favourite of his but still not overly OTT!

>69 .Monkey.: It was good and informative. I started reading with the attitude of, 'I've backpacked in the Grand Canyon, how hard could a walk across the border be?' But after reading the details of the border crossing I was astounded that any survived. These men were walking through the desert in 110 degree temps with little food, water, or sleep. And doing it in jeans and sandals. I also had no idea of how border patrol operated, so that was interesting to learn about too.

>70 clfisha: I'll be sure to make that the next book of his that I pick up - thanks for the suggestion!

>66 clfisha: Selected Shorts, a radio program where short stories are read by NYC actors, recently did a program on Hunter S. Thompson & read a couple of chapters from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. One of the readers talked about how several people have tried to imitate Hunter's style, but no one could really capture the essence that made his writing so unique and powerful.

http://www.selectedshorts.org/onair/

>65 aliciamay: Hi Alicia, I read Of Mice and Men 2 or 3 years ago. I was left feeling the same, heartbreaking and beautiful sum it up pretty well ...

Getting caught up here and lovely book haul! Kudos on the Steinbeck read..... I have learned, rather early on, that Steinbeck isn't an author of choice for me.... and I think it was having to read of Mice and Men back in my school days that did it to me! Not something I was into reading back then. ;-)

I don't remember reading Steinbeck in high school and actually started when my kids read him in school. I started with East of Eden which I won at a Bunco game and went from there. When my daughter read Grapes of Wrath, we made a family trip to Salinas, visited the Steinbeck museum and Monterrey. I probably appreciate him more as an adult than I would have as a teen.

Hi electrice, I only wish I had read Of Mice and Men earlier...too bad I was't hanging around this challenge when you had read it.

Hi Lori, the library sale was a win win! Somehow I avoided Steinbeck in high school, which now I'm rather glad about. I was lucky enough to discover him as an adult when I was actually interested. You might try again...you know Of Mice and Men is really short ; )

Hi mamzel, East of Eden was my first too, based on my sister's recommendation, and Grapes of Wrath will be next (although I'll probably wait until next year). Next time I'm in California I really must carve out some time to go to Salinas and the Steinbeck museum.

East of Eden is my absolute favorite Steinbeck book and Grapes of Wrath is definitely one of my least favorite. Just did not like it much at all, at least not the portion I was supposed to like that involved the Joads.

Alicia, just remember that Salinas is much, much less expensive than Monterrey and is only a short car ride away.

>72 ELiz_M: Eliz_M Thanks for sharing that link. I'm really enjoying the listen, especially Alec Baldwin's reading.

>77 LittleTaiko: I'm not surprised to hear that Grapes of Wrath can't top East of Eden or Of Mice and Men. I had to peak, and see you still rated it 3 stars so that won't keep me from reading it.

>78 mamzel: Good to know...so any over nights and most of the eating in Salinas.

I knocked out two more books for the month, here are my thoughts...

#11
A Painted House by John Grisham
Category: Road Trip! (Arkansas)
Pages: 384
GeoCAT: US/Canada
My Rating:

Rather than the typical legal thriller, I was treated to a story told through the eyes of seven year old Luke and a very turbulent fall in 1950s Arkansas. Luke’s family are cotton farmers in bucolic, small town Arkansas struggling to get by. What started off as a mundane, but enjoyable, recounting of their hopes and struggles surrounding the cotton crop soon turns violent and dramatic because of the ‘hill people’ and Mexicans the family hires to help harvest the crop. Luke’s sheltered life is forever altered when he witnesses a series of events that no child should have to deal with.

#12
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
Category: Mysteries
Pages: 455
MysteryCAT: Detective novel
My Rating:

It was a big mistake to start this book when I had other stuff to do over the weekend. Even though this is the first mystery by Rowling and the first book in the series, it was very polished and very engaging. PI Cormoran Strike’s business is struggling with only one case, until a childhood acquaintance hires him to investigate his adopted sister’s alleged suicide. Strike is your typical down and out PI, newly single, living in his office, and unable to escape association with his rock star father who Strike has met twice. To boot he recently served in Afghanistan and returned an amputee. He is assisted by his temp secretary, Robin, who has closeted dreams of being a PI, but her fiancé is pressuring her to get a real job. I’m looking forward to the next installment to see the further development of these characters.

Also over the weekend I played some Bingo...the booking variety of course ; ) I went through what I have read this month and was able to match each book with a space and then planned out the rest for a blackout.



Completed squares:
Free Square
The 2nd Book in a Series – Women in Love
A Book Set on a Different Continent – Murder on the Links
A Book of Non-Fiction – Wheelmen
A Book Heard About Online – Mornings on Horseback
A Book that Became a Movie – For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Book Your Friend Loves – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A Book by a Female Author – Murder in Belleville
A Book Based on a True Story – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Book that is more than 10 Years Old – Of Mice and Men
A Book with a Blue Cover – The Devil’s Highway
A Best Selling Book – A Painted House
A Book with a Mystery – The Cuckoo’s Calling
A Book with a Number in the Title – Hot Six
A Book Written by Someone under 30 – A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
A Book of Short Stories – Tenth of December
A Book with Non-Human Characters – The BFG
A Funny Book – Something Fresh

Remaining squares with the planned reads:
A Forgotten Classic – The Stranger
A Book with More than 500 pages – The Son
A Book with a One Word Title – She
A Book that Scares You – Doctor Sleep
The First Book by a Favorite Author – Patron Saint of Liars
A Book at the Bottom of your TBR Pile – any ‘Off the Shelf’
A Book Published this Year – maybe The Invention of Wings

ETA: updated bingo squares

Wow, great job on the bingo! :D

Joining RP is saying "Wow" on the reading Bingo progress!

Thanks girls! It's proving to be another outlet for my book reading OCD

Your bingo achievement is quite impressive! Good luck on finishing off the card.

You're just the latest to give Cuckoo's Calling a positive review so I'm going to have to cave soon and actually read it.

Nice work on the bingo!

Agreeing completely with your comments on The Cuckoo’s Calling!

Egads! Has it really been over 2 weeks since I was last here? Stupid real life getting in the way again. Even though I've been absent from LT, I have been reading away. Here is what I have read with the briefest of snippets about each book.

#13
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
Category: Plane Trip! (Chechnya)
Pages: 384
Bingo: A Book Written by Someone Under 30
My Rating:

A wonderful, but tragic book focusing on the lives of a few people in Chechnya trying to make it through the war.

#14
Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
Category: Series
Pages: 368
MysteryCAT: Series
Bingo: A Book With a Number in the Title
My Rating:

Another typical Stephanie Plum adventure. Parts with Bob the dog had me laughing out loud. I’m hoping he stays in Stephanie’s life.

#15
Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse
Category: Miscellaneous
Pages: 286
MysteryCAT: Series
Bingo: A Funny Book
My Rating:

A fun romp of a story. I believe this is the first of a series so it looks like I have more to read. What a dilemma ; )

#16
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Category: Favored Authors
Pages: 212
RandomCAT: Kid’s Lit
Bingo: A Book with Non-human characters
My Rating:

A re-read, but I didn’t realize how much I had forgotten about the story. Just as good as I was expecting.

#17
Tenth of December by George Saunders
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 251
Bingo: A Book of Short Stories
My Rating:

This collection of short stories left me wanting more…not ‘I’m going to run out and read all the George Saunders’, but that each story could have gone on and on and I am rather disappointed that they were so short. I know - seems a little unfair of me to ding my rating because of this.

Oh, and I've updated my Bingo info in post 81. Getting closer to that blackout!

Have a good weekend everyone and happy reading!

RL happens. ;-)

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena seems to get rave reviews here on LT. I think I have finally been convinced to seek out a copy.

Looks like a good string of reading! I need to reread The BFG sometime. It was my second-favourite Dahl book, after Matilda.

So happy that you liked A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and The Tenth of Decmber. Both were quite excellent. Now I'm off to add Something Fresh to my wishlist.

Oh I loved Pastoralia by Saunders, think hear its his best if you want to try another. That one is on my list to get next so glad it's good & I do enjoy very short tales!

>90 lkernagh: I seem to be perpetually hoping that next week things will calm down : ) I hope you do pick up A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, just be prepared for some sad and awful bits.

>91 rabbitprincess: And I am due for a reread of Matilda! I'm not sure which Dahl is my favorite...these two are certainly contenders. I think The Twits is up there too.

>92 LittleTaiko: Me too! These have all been books that I read as a result of LT. I'm hoping to squeeze in another Wodehouse this month too. Why does February have to be sooo short.

>93 clfisha: Thanks for the Saunders recommendation. He is quite a good story teller.

I had a nice three day weekend - enjoyable and relaxing but left me feeling guilty. Instead of really studying for a test I have coming up on Thursday or working on the grad school application I gorged myself on the newest season of House of Cards, finished two books, slept a lot, and made bagels.

Speaking of books, knowing my limitations on reviews lately, I'm just going to post the bare bones. Both are Tournament of Books contenders and have been talked about a lot lately.

#18
The Son by Philipp Meyer
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 576
Bingo: A Book with More Than 500 Pages
My Rating:

A multi-generational tale about a family in Texas. The great grandfather is kidnapped by Comanches, the grandfather is a disgrace because he would rather talk to his Mexican neighbors than shoot them, and the granddaughter is a pioneer in the oil business. A good read, but it didn't meet the expectations I had for it.

#19
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Category: Women Writers
Pages: 328
My Rating:

A sweet story about two odd teenagers finding love while dealing with their own challenges at home and school. Reminded me a lot of The Fault in Our Stars, but I liked this one better.

I just finished Eleanor & Park this past weekend and enjoyed it too. Thought the author did a good job of capturing the uncertainty of being a teenager and first love.

It's on my list for the HUB Challenge. It must be really good to outshine John Green!

>96 LittleTaiko: Well said Stacy.

>97 mamzel: I might be one of the only people that doesn't adore John Green, so it didn't take much to outshine him : )

#20
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Category: Non-American/Non-English
Pages: 123
Bingo: A Forgotten Classic
My Rating:

I’m pondering how a book can be simultaneously dull and intense. The story revolves around Meursault and a series of bad/bizarre decisions he makes following the death of his mother. He drifts through time with little emotion shown throughout, which I guess is patently existential. I don’t think I grasped all that Camus was trying to do, but at least I’m not afraid of reading Camus any more.

#21
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Category: Recommendations
Pages: 307
My Rating:

At times very prescient about how society perceives war and the roles filled by soldiers, as well as how soldiers perceive their role and view society once they have been in a war, but I had a hard time getting into this book.

#22
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Category: Series
Pages: 566
Mystery CAT: Series
My Rating:

I can’t say whether I liked the book or the movie better. The book is more complex and…different. I liked Marie better in the book – how she changed from Bourne’s hostage to his accomplice (with the caveat that their interactions were shrouded in 1970s chauvinism) and how she was an asset with her knowledge of international banking. I also liked how in the book there was one villain, Carlos, out to kill Bourne instead of Treadstone sending their top assassins after him. And I had forgotten how much more of an impact there is in reading fight scenes, with every violent detail spelled out, rather than watching the blur of action in the movie. The downfall of the book as compared to the movie was the pacing of the book was a little slow. Still on with the series I go!

#23
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Category: Series
Pages: 374
Mystery CAT: Series
My Rating:

Thanks to this group I was introduced to Flavia de Luce and her charming, crime-solving life in the English countryside. I am showing great restraint in that I haven’t started the next book.

Another Flavia fan! The next one is very good. And if you do audiobooks, they found the perfect reader for the series.

^ good and good! I don't know that I have seen any luke-warm comments about the series, which is impressive considering there are 6 books now. And I'm glad you mentioned the narrator was good - the library has the CDs available so I'll be starting soon...and learn if I've been saying Flavia's name correctly in my head.

Re The Bourne Identity, I liked book-Marie better as well.

The Flavia de Luce series just gets better and better.

#24
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 531
Bingo: Read a Book That Scares You
My Rating:

Doctor Sleep picks up soon after where The Shining left off and then quickly skips forward to when Dan is an adult. He is a raging alcoholic, as drinking is the only thing that dulls his Shining. He finds himself in a small town in Vermont, where he pulls himself together and also begins to get messages from a young girl with a very strong Shine. Meanwhile there is this roving group of vampire-ish people that live off of the humans’ Shine. A face-off is inevitable. This book was all over the map for me; at times I was ready to abandon it and at other times I couldn't stop reading. But in the end I’m really glad I persevered (and it wasn’t even that scary). Maybe there will be a third book someday?

>103 rabbitprincess: I'll be curious to see the role Marie plays in the next books...although I fear the books may kill her off too.

>104 VivienneR: Yay! The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (can he come up with more cumbersome titles?!?) should be waiting for me at the library tomorrow...along with 4 other books : /

February Summary:

I finished 12 books (4,306 pages)! Kind of got side tracked with Bingo and the Tournament of Books (and will continue to be side tracked in March). My categories are getting a little unbalanced and the OCD in me is taking issue with that. My favorite book of the month was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and I didn't read any duds.

Mystery CATs: 3
Random CATs: 1
Geo CATs: 1

Reading goals for March

She – bingo and a book from the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category
Young Torless – bingo and a book from the Off the Shelf category
Life After Life – Tournament of Books (ToB)
The Lowland – ToB
At Night We Walk in Circles – ToB
The People in the Trees – ToB
The Luminaries – ToB
The Dinner – ToB
A Tale for the Time Being – ToB
Love in the Time of Cholera – Random CAT
The Goldfinch – Random CAT and ToB (if my library hold comes through in time)
The Wide Sargasso Sea – Geo CAT
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag – Mystery CAT
Bel Canto – group read
The Patron Saint of Liars – bingo
A Dance to the Music of Time (two books) – 1001 year long group read

Oh dear, that list really got away from me…

Interested by your review of Doctor Sleep as I haven't seen many LT reviews. I have been intending to reread The Shining, a book I read about 15 years ago, before reading Doctor Sleep. Maybe I'll actually get around to it soon!

^ You should be able to get away with just jumping into Doctor Sleep. King does a good job of reiterating any points from The Shining that are pertinent to Doctor Sleep.

I've got Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie lined up to read next. Glad to hear how much you enjoyed it.

Looks like a good list for March!

>109 aliciamay: Good to know that I can skip The Shining reread.

Kudos on your February page count... and book count! ;-)

>110 virginiahomeschooler: I hope you like it too!

>111 rabbitprincess: I am looking forward to my March reading and have already dived in head first.

>112 japaul22: Sometimes my thought is why reread when you can have fresh new books to devour?

>113 lkernagh: Thanks Lori! These challenges and the fact that I am really liking my TBR prospects are really upping the amount of reading I am doing.

I finished Life After Life yesterday. Here are a few thoughts...

#25
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 529
My Rating:

I enjoyed reading this and thought the premise was inventive and clever…but if your story is about being reborn until you get life ‘right’, then how can you have an ambiguous ending? This book screamed for a, ‘they lived happily ever after’ end and an enjoyable ride through the travails Ursula faced in each previous life. My other gripe with the book is that other than Sylvie, the supporting characters seemed really one dimensional. Each section was so focused on Ursula that the other characters got left on the wayside. So to sum up, I was expecting more from this book but enjoyed it none the less.

I'm also trying to work through the rest of the ToB books for March. I'm looking forward to seeing your reviews. By the way, do you know about this LT list?
http://www.librarything.com/list/1085/all/2014-Tournament-of-Books#

Thanks for that link - I didn't know about yet another list ; ) I finished The Lowland yesterday and I think it is my favorite so far...review to come. And I started The People in the Trees today. I need to visit your thread to see your latest reviews.

Did you see the drama around Hill William? I'm not sure what to make of it. I wasn't going to read it anyway since it isn't at the library and I'm feeling cheap and it was a DNF for LittleTaiko. But then it goes on to beat out The Luminaries in the first round! Talk about an upset..

Yes, indeed, today's ToB result was interesting! I'm not totally shocked as I could see what makes Hill William stand out. It's different and fresh, and stirs up one's emotions, in both positive and negative ways. I did like The Luminaries much much better, though! I hope it comes back in the zombie round.

I am looking forward to reading The Luminaries, even though the judge made it sound quite dry - in contrast to everything else I've heard about it. Just about 2 more weeks until my library hold comes through!

Well, If you have seen my review, you know I loved The Luminaries but others haven't been as taken with it. ;-)

Good review of Life After Life. I really got into the story when I read it but I don't remember much of it now.... and I really don't remember most of the supporting characters so your point about them being left on the wayside is makes sense to me.

I couldn't believe the comments the Hill William author made. Irritated me that I actually bought the book. Even more irritated that I disliked it so much.

>120 lkernagh: You are one of the reasons that I will still be reading The Luminaries!

>121 LittleTaiko: I still can't decide if those comments were real or a publicity stunt. Either way, irritating actions, at best.

It has been an interesting tournament this year and I'm still plugging away. I don't know if I am being a finicky reader or what, but I haven't found a 'winner' yet.

#26
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 344
My Rating:

The Lowland is the story of two inseparable brothers in India whose decisions as they grow up place them on wildly different paths for life. One bother goes to the US to pursue his education and the other brother stays in India where he becomes embroiled in the Naxalite protest movement and marries for love (instead of arrangement). I’m a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri. Like in The Namesake, the question of identity plays a central role in the novel and Lahiri shows her talents as a writer and storyteller, but this book has a much more somber tone throughout. This has been my favorite ToB read so far, but I’m kind of thinking it’s because I haven’t read the Tourney favorites yet.

#27
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 384
My Rating:

What the what?!? Reading this was one big play on emotions. The book is a fictionalized memoir of a Nobel winning scientist, Dr. Norton Perina, written in later life when he is imprisoned on charges of sexual abuse. The memoir focuses on Norton’s discovery of a lost tribe and the key to immortality. I found the sections of the book that took place right after the discovery and covered the implications of the discovery to be the best; the rest were either repellent or drudgery.

#28
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
Category: Series
Mystery CAT: Young adult
Pages: 364
My Rating:

I thought the buildup to the actual mystery was too long and did not provide the relevant details or insight needed for the mystery, so I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first. I am still enjoying Flavia’s precociousness and I like the additional snippets about the other recurring characters. I am curious to see if Ophelia will play a larger role soon, beyond the big sister tormentor, as we are getting glimpses that she is smarter and craftier than Flavia gives her credit for.

ETA: Thanks cbl_tn for recommending the audio...the narrator was great and improved on the story!

I agree with you that so far none of the ToB selections have wowed me yet. My favorite so far was Eleanor & Park but I wouldn't think it should be the overall winner. Haven't read all of them and am now moving The People in the Trees off of my wishlist. Doesn't really sound like anything I want to rush out and read right now.

^ Yes, Eleanor & Park was good and I can understand why it beat out The Lowland just because it is more accessible. That's the thing I like about the tournament - sometimes the judges choose a book just because they like it more. And if I had known what The People in the Trees was about I probably wouldn't have read it. I am looking forward to the commentary on it though.

>124 aliciamay: I'm so glad you liked the audio version of Flavia! I think it adds a whole new dimension to the stories.

I admit to enjoying the Flavia series strictly for her precociousness, but I can see where the build up the story can impact enjoyment.... it is supposed to be a mystery, after all!

I really should just take my time and enjoy the story! I think my impatience goes with my current finicky reading mood and maybe soon, it too shall pass.

#29
Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Category: Mysteries
Random CAT: Birds of spring
Pages: 352
My Rating:

Can you call it a Hercule Poirot mystery if he is absent for 2/3rds of the book? This book was a little different of a set-up from other Christies because we knew the motive from the get go and were only left with the question of who, so that was fun, but other than that I didn’t find anything special.

#30
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Category: Women Writers
Pages: 512
My Rating:

I was categorically opposed to reading Elizabeth Gilbert for writing a contrived memoir, but I’m glad I set my prejudice aside. Can’t say anything better than the Tournament judge, about halfway down…

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/2014/the-signature-of-all-things-v-the-dinner....

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had my 6 year Thingaversary on Sunday. This was my first anniversary that I knew I was supposed to buy books, but I still controlled my self and just ordered the 7 ; )

I went through the 1001 list and found books that my library doesn't have, so no best sellers, but I'm looking forward to these arrivals none the less:

Fools of Fortune by William Trevor
To The North by Elizabeth Bowen
Novel With Cocaine by M. Ageyev
The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin
The German Lesson by Siegfried Lenz
Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Now to figure out which categories to shoe-horn them into.

Congrats on your Thingaversary! And nice selections! Thanks for the positive review of Signature of All Things. I really want to read it, and have seen positive reviews from people here I trust, but I still have a bit of a hang up about reading a book by the author if Eat, Pray, Love!

Congrats on the Thingaversary and good haul! Good idea to get books the library doesn't have but that you want to read. Enjoy! :)

Happy Thingversary!

Congratulations on your Thingaversary! I'm enjoying your TOB reviews. I wasn't going to read The Signature of All Things but I've seen so many positive reviews of it that I may change my mind. I'm also sitting on the fence about The People in the Trees.

So, what do you think of the TOB now that the first round is over? Right now it has me rooting for either Eleanor & Park or for Life After Life to make a comeback.

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary! You have a nice selection of books on the way!

>132 japaul22: Thanks! I was very pleasantly surprised by The Signature of All Things and had the same qualms about starting it. Not that the book doesn't have it's flaws, but I enjoyed nearly all the time spent reading it.

>133 rabbitprincess: I am eagerly waiting the arrival of my presents. Ordering books that the library doesn't have is a win-win. I get the books and save the library the hassle/cost of an ILL.

Thanks mamzel!

>135 mathgirl40: Glad you are enjoying my reviews. I was a little late to the TOB party, but have become rather wrapped up in it. In addition to what I said about The Signature of All Things, it is probably going to make it to the semi-finals. And sometimes you just need to read a book to see what the fuss is about ; ) That being said, I would set aside The People in the Trees...an unlikeable/unreliable narrator and a book that managed to make jungle exploration and the discovery of a new tribe of people boring.

>136 LittleTaiko: I am so enjoying this year's Tourney! I must admit that when I first saw the bracket I was disappointed because so many wins seemed stacked to me, but it has proven to be more interesting than that! And I can't see a standout for the winner...sounds like The Goldfinch, but I haven't read that yet (finally #3 in the queue for 3 books!). I will be surprised if Eleanor & Park can beat out The Son, but it is so hard to say. I think Life After Life stands a good chance of being a finalist since it looks like it's coming back in the zombie round. After today's round I am really looking forward to A Tale for the Time Being.

Thanks Virginia!

Thanks cbl! It is quite the array that I came up with : ) Although I am already finding more books I should've ordered. Oh well, I guess I can buy myself some birthday presents in 2 months.

Happy Thingaversary. your book haul looks amazing!

OK, I finally looked up the Tournament of Books. How have I never heard of this before!??? It's so much fun! Are you trying to read all the books? Next year, I'm going to try to remember to get in on the action from the start.

I just started A Tale for the Time Being and am enjoying it.

>142 japaul22: I fully intended to start a TOB thread this year but life got in the way. Maybe next year.

>141 DeltaQueen50: Thanks! And thanks to Better World Books the price wasn't bad.

>142 japaul22: I found out about TOB from the Awards CAT last year. I like the irreverent approach they take to book competitions. I'll be aiming to read 10 of the books. It kind of snuck up on me, so maybe if I get an earlier start next year I'll try to tackle them all.

>143 LittleTaiko: I'll be waiting to hear your thoughts on A Tale for the Time Being. And that's a great idea to set up a thread! Maybe between the two of us we can remember next year.

Belated Happy Thingaversary! I enjoyed The day of the triffids very much and hope you do too when you get around to it!

Thanks paruline! I had heard good things about Wyndham so I'm glad to hear a recommendation for that one in particular. The description of it sounds fantastic and I'm planning to fit it into my sci-fi category this year.

>143 LittleTaiko: and >144 aliciamay:: I'll be keeping an eye out next year. I've been thinking for a couple of years now that I wanted to follow it and read the books, but I always forget until it's too late.

The more the merrier! And then it will be easier to keep track of all the people reading for the Tournament.

Lovely thingaversary book haul and glad to see you are enjoying this year's Tournament of Books... I will admit to not having even looked at the contenders!

Happy Thingversary! Very good haul!

Thanks Lori and Eva!

So a minor bike accident on Friday had me laid up all weekend and Monday and Tuesday. The bright side was that I was able to plow through a few audio books…

#31
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Category: Women Writers
Pages: 352
My Rating:

#32
She by H. Rider Hagard
Category: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Pages: 317
Bingo: Book with a One Word Title
My Rating:

#33
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Category: Women Writers
Pages: 432
My Rating:

#34
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Category: New(ish) Releases
Pages: 304
My Rating:

Ouch! I hope you're feeling better today. Nice work on the audiobooks though :)

The good news was that you had some really good reads to recuperate with!

Thanks RP and mamzel! I am feeling better and was even back to biking today. Since I wasn't hurt too bad I really wasn't put out that I had to stay home from work and read ; )

Glad to see that the biking accident wasn't severe - meaning hospitalization - and that you were able to getting in some great reading time while recuperating! I loved Bel Canto but The Dinner bugged me, because I really didn't like one of the characters, to the point where he started to grate on my nerves. Interesting story concept and I imagine it would be a great book for a book club read and the discussions.

Glad you're feeling better - those bike accidents can be scary. Sounds like you had a good situation though with plenty of reading time. Loved Bel Canto and The Dinner.

Thanks Lori and Stacy. It really was a stupid and minor accident (thank goodness) because I wasn't paying attention and a ginormous pothole had its way with me. The Dinner is quite the contentious book - you either love it or loathe it. I must have been in the mood for a read with despicable characters, because I really loved it. The well drawn characters and how the plot and dysfunction slowly revealed itself was captivating to me.

And a few more books finished in March...

#35
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
Category: Off the Shelf
Pages: 167
Bingo: A Book from the Bottom of Your TBR
My Rating:

I feel like the writing and story got lost in the literary gimmicks (aka: unsuccessful postmodern).

#36
Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat
Category: Plane Trip!
Pages: 300
Geo CAT: Mexico, Caribbean, Central America
My Rating:

Like any compilation of short stories, there are some high and low points to this book, but I appreciated each story for the Haitian perspective the author contributed. Each story also seemed to be influenced by (but didn’t necessarily go overboard with) the folklore and superstition that appears to pervade the history and culture. And there were a few stories dealing with the earthquake, devastation, and aftermath – really eye opening. The anthology and the stories themselves are filled with contrasting emotions, love and hate, corruption and justice, hope and despair, making it a rollercoaster of a read.

March Summary:

March was a pretty good reading month - another 12 books down and 4,357 pages. And I managed to get one book completed for each of my categories. My favorite book was Bel Canto and the dud was Sexing the Cherry.

CATs completed
Mystery CAT: 1
Random CAT: 1
Geo CATs: 2

Reading goals for April
I have a few more Tournament of Books to read that are straggling in from the library and two more Bingo books to go.

The Luminaries – (currently reading) ToB
The Goldfinch – ToB
The Joke – Geo CAT
Everything is Illuminated – Geo CAT
Cockroaches – Mystery CAT
The Redbreast – Mystery CAT
Alias Grace – Atwood April
Wild Swans – group read
April Twilights – bingo & Random CAT
The Invention of Wings – bingo
There But For The – 1001 group read
A Dance to the Music of Time (three books…I keep getting farther behind) – 1001 year long group read
And some more poetry for the Random CAT

#37
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Category: Plane Trip!
Pages: 190
Geo CAT: Mexico, Caribbean, Central America (finished 1 day late)
My Rating:

I really enjoyed this back story of the woman in the attic from Jane Eyre. Learning about Antoinette’s (who Rochester calls Bertha for random reasons) history and tribulations make Jane Eyre more complex. Even without that context, the story of Antoinette and her ‘descent into madness’ can stand on its own.

I got The Luminaries on my Kindle and will save it for this summer. Something good to make the plane rides go faster. I hope you're enjoying it.

I am really liking The Luminaries - the cast of characters is interesting, the author is doing a fantastic job of capturing the era, and there is quite a mystery unfolding too. The draw back for me is that I am listening to it during my commute, so I'm pacing myself when sometimes I just want to keep reading. Kindle reading during a plane trip sounds perfect!

#38
April Twilights by Willa Cather
Category: Favored Authors
Pages: 52
Random CAT: Poetry
My Rating:

A nice collection of poems that was Cather’s first published work. She had some poems dealing with Greek mythology (I think) and others with a European setting, but I found the ‘American’ poems to be much more successful and touching. Like in her later novels, it only takes her a few words to evoke time, place, and heartbreak.

I was wondering how The Luminaries would be as an audiobook. Looking forward to your final assessment of it after you finish it.

I didn't know that Cather wrote poetry. I'll have to look for a sample of her work.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying The Luminaries. It's on my TBR list.

Lori - The narrator, Mark Meadows, is doing a fabulous job. Between his narration and the story the book is definitely holding my interest - which can be a challenge since I'm doing other stuff when listening.

Carrie - I found that there's a whole Cather archive and that is where I found her poem collection, http://cather.unl.edu/0005.html. You can read all the poems at a languid pace in one sitting...The Luminaries on the other hand will be quite the time commitment. But worth it (so far)!

A few short thoughts on my most recent reads…have I mentioned that I’m a fickle reader?

#39
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Category: Award Winners (2 of 7 complete)
Pages: 834
My Rating:

So this book totally engrossed me, and then I finished it and thought that there should’ve been another chapter or four. And at the end the tactic of having each chapter half as long as the previous one detracted from the book…so when the final chapter should have been about 50 pages, it was one page. Also, like others, I didn’t gain anything from the astrology that was so painstakingly researched. I can only assume that astrology is of any interest to you, this book would be off the charts!

Like I said in an earlier post, I really was taken in with the characters, absorbed by the era, and the mystery kept me guessing until the end (and even now I’m still not sure on what really happened). Overall a read I can recommend, but I just wish it had stayed strong throughout.

#40
Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
Category: Books in a Series (6 of 7 complete)
Pages: 368
Mystery CAT: Nordic
My Rating:

I feel like I should’ve liked this book more than I did. I think my main complaints are with the writing. Nesbo seems to alternate between spelling every detail out and making you read between the lines, which is rather jarring when you’re cruising along with the story and then the tone completely switches. Also, the settings and characters seem rather flat; maybe there is something lost in translation. I don’t know if I can explain very well, but if you are setting a book in Thailand I want to be transported to Thailand and I wasn’t. I also don’t feel like I know what drove any of the characters, least of all Harry. But I suppose since this was only book 2 in the series, maybe I will find out what makes him tick - will be reading The Redbreast this month to find out.

I've got Luminaries on my Kindle waiting for my plane trip in June. I can't wait!

Still on the waiting list for The Luminaries - glad to see it's worth the wait.

Good point about the shorter chapters are the end of The Luminaries. That did seem to affect the flow of the story a bit, and I still don't understand the astronomy references but other than that, what a great story! ;-)

Mamzel & Stacy - I hope you two enjoy it when you get to it!

Lori - It was a great story and because it was so great I was overly disappointed by the rushed ending. Oh and your watchmaker analogy from your review was spot on.

>167 aliciamay:
The whole series starts to pick up its pace with Redbreast so I'm glad you're giving it a shot!

^ Boy does it ever! I finished The Redbreast in two days (thoughts to come soon) and am trying to hold off starting the next one.

>173 aliciamay:
Excellent, isn't it! Just a heads-up that The Redbreast, Nemesis, and The Devil's Star form a little mini-trilogy within the larger series.

^Thanks for the tip. I was looking at Nemesis and saw that some of the same characters crop up and I'm wondering how the Waaler situation is going to play out. Guess I'll have to find a way to squeeze in the next two before I forget too much. Drat ; )

#41
There But For The by Ali Smith
Category: Women Writers (5 of 7 complete)
Pages: 256
My Rating:

I think this book is done a disservice by purporting to be about a dinner party guest who locks himself in the spare room for months. Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to be explained. The book is broken down into four sections narrated by people loosely connected to this event and their reactions to it. Some of the sections are stronger than others and the puns got tiresome, but since I knew what to expect, I kind of liked it overall.

I'm three behind on 'reviews', but since I'm working on some chunksters (The Goldfinch and Infinite Jest) and won't be finishing a book anytime soon I'll get to them when I'm motivated.

Hope everyone has a nice, springy weekend!

I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts on The Redbreast. I'd read it some time ago and just recently finished Nemesis, which I enjoyed very much.

^ That does it. Something from my May planned reads is getting bumped for Nemesis.

It sure doesn’t take much to get behind on LT and so much for my leisurely posting of reviews! I had family in town for several days, spring semester is wrapping up with a flurry of tests and projects, and I’m trying to figure out my summer/fall school plans. But I’ve still been squeezing in some reading.

#42
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
Category: Books in a Series (7 of 7 complete)
Pages: 576
Mystery CAT: Nordic
My Rating:

And Nesbo has found his stride with the third installment of the Harry Hole series! This was a fast paced and complicated mystery involving Norwegian Nazis (story lines from both from WWII and the present) and the start of a sub-plot involving The Prince, an evil mastermind. Harry was also hit with tragedy that left him reeling and for the first time in this series I was feeling for Harry too.

#43
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Category: Plane Trip! (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 300
Geo CAT: Eastern Europe
My Rating:

This is the story of a young Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to find the family that saved his grandfather from the Nazis. The book alternates between passages from an old book about the history and life in the family’s village and the story of the translator while he is helping with the search.

I obviously preferred the sections of the book told by the translator Alex; they started off amusing with his bungled English and the antics of the seeing-eye bitch, Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., but we soon find that his family has a significant skeleton in the closet.

#44
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Category: Favored Authors (5 of 7 complete)
Pages: 300
My Rating:

And here I thought Willa Cather was a one trick pony (strong female characters battling life on the prairie). Sadly, I kind of prefer her stories about prairie life to this one about a professor looking back on his life.

#45
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Category: Award Winners – Pulitzer Prize 2013 (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 771
My Rating:

Started out strong, but my frustrations with Theo kept growing. How can a supposedly smart character keep doing such stupid things and being so obtuse? I remember the Tournament of Books judge was jarred by the continual mention of ‘iPod’, but my complaint was with Theo’s incessant question of ‘What?” in nearly every conversation. Couldn’t he think for a second and say something more intelligent than my 5 year old nephew?

#46
Aimless Love by Billy Collins
Category: Miscellaneous (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 288
Random CAT: Poetry
My Rating:

Thanks to the random CAT I found this collection of smart and funny poems. Collins is able to write witty and astute poetry that I was able to appreciate even with my fear of poetry.

Nice batch of reviews! Also, hurray for completed category! :)

Thanks RP. The series category is definitely one I will be going way over my minimums on : )

April Summary:

April was slightly slower book-wise, but I still read 10 books and 3,647 pages. Surprisingly, the star of the month was a poetry collection, Aimless Love.

CATs completed
Mystery CAT: 2
Random CAT: 2
Geo CATs: 1

May Reading Ideas
Looking at my May reading possibilities is a bit staggering and very unrealistic…oh well. A girl can hope : )

Wild Swans – group read & Random CAT
There is No Me without You – Random CAT
Burmese Days – Geo CAT
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Geo CAT
A Bend in the River – Geo CAT
The Interpreter of Maladies – Geo CAT
The Inheritance of Loss – Geo CAT
Max Havelaar – Geo CAT
K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain – Geo CAT
The Satanic Verses – Geo CAT
Poirot Investigates – Mystery CAT
The Name of the Rose – Eco month
Nemesis
Brave New World
Infinite Jest

I finished two books over the last few days…

#47
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Category: Road Trip! – South Carolina (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 373
Bingo: A Book published this year
My Rating:

I probably would’ve given up on this book if it weren’t the last square I needed for Bingo. The story takes place in 19th century Charleston and follows the lives of two young girls; one white and averse to her family’s slave ownership and the other girl is one of the slaves her family owns. The story was predictable, the emotions (when actually shown by the characters) were either contrived or overly dramatic, and again I was frustrated when supposedly smart characters did the dumbest things. The book did get better towards the end, but it was too little too late for me.

#48
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Category: Recommendations (2 of 7 complete)
Pages: 200
Geo CAT: South Asia
My Rating:

Young Pakistani Changez seems to be on track to achieve the American dream. He has recently graduated from Princeton, landed a coveted job in New York, and is dating a smart, connected, and beautiful American girl. And then 9/11 happens and he feels isolated and ostracized in his adopted city. This was a short little book that left a lot unsaid for the reader to ponder, but also shares the Pakistani perspective of trying to live in America after a terrorist attack.

And with that, I have blacked out my BINGO card!



B
A Book with More than 500 pages – The Son
A Book Written by Someone under 30 – A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
A Book with a One Word Title – She
The First Book by a Favorite Author – April Twilights
A Book Your Friend Loves – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I
A Forgotten Classic – The Stranger
A Book with Non-Human Characters – The BFG
A Book of Short Stories – Tenth of December
A Book Heard About Online – Mornings on Horseback
A Book that Scares You – Doctor Sleep
N
A Book that Became a Movie – For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Funny Book – Something Fresh
Free Square
A Best Selling Book – A Painted House
A Book that is more than 10 Years Old – Of Mice and Men
G
A Book Published this Year – The Invention of Wings
A Book by a Female Author – Murder in Belleville
A Book Set on a Different Continent – Murder on the Links
A Book Based on a True Story – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The 2nd Book in a Series – Women in Love
O
A Book with a Number in the Title – Hot Six
A Book with a Mystery – The Cuckoo’s Calling
A Book of Non-Fiction – Wheelmen
A Book at the Bottom of your TBR Pile – Sexing the Cherry
A Book with a Blue Cover – The Devil’s Highway

Kudos on having blacked out your bingo card! I am still trying for a line and it has almost become a game to try see when I finally do complete a line. ;-)

Congrats on the bingo! Interesting to see a negative review for The Invention of Wings - someone in my book club positively raved about the book. Now I'm going to have to read it to see what I think. :)

>185 lkernagh: Thanks Lori! My TBR really clicked with the Bingo card, so it was fun.

>186 LittleTaiko: Thanks Stacy! Another reason why I stuck with The Invention of Wings was because it was so highly rated. I will be interested to see what you think of it.

Alicia - I'm reading Kidd's book Traveling With Pimegranates for the Random Cat this month. So far it's ok, but I'm not that far into it yet.

I always find it interesting when a book highly rated by many people just doesn't "do" it for me. I used to wonder what I was missing. Since I've joined these challenges, I've come to accept that I don't have to like a book just because most people do. Someone else's favorite book might just be the book I've liked the least of ever all time. (Not saying which one, but I've told before). Even now, I've got a book in my TBR that is by an author I've read twice before and "Pearl" ruled both, and yet I feel I should try the one I have left because he's supposed to be a well liked. If we all liked the same book, there'd only be one book to read ;)

Well said dudes. I used to feel bad about giving low ratings, but everyone's tastes are very different and I don't think any book can be universally liked. I am quite impressed you giving that author a third try - very generous of you!

Congratulations on completing your bingo card. I have one square left on this one, "A Funny Book" which will require some planning on my part.

I hope there's a Bingo card next year. I would love to try it. There was just too much RL going on when everyone was starting it this year to take part.

>190 DeltaQueen50: Finding funny books is a bit of a challenge. Luckily the Wodehouse book I picked for the February read made me chuckle a bit.

>191 dudes22: It's not too late to start this year, but I do hope there is another one next year too.

>192 aliciamay: I used my Wodehouse as the short story book. I may read another book of short stories and then use the Wodehouse for my Funny Book.

Congrats on completing your bingo! I might use that or another one to help manage my wildly prolific mystery category next year.

Thanks RP! That would be fun to use the bingo card with the self imposed limits of only using mysteries...or in the vastness of the internet there is probably a specific mystery bingo.

>195 aliciamay: I am actually doing a mystery bingo this year! :) Check it out here!

Ooh, I've now bookmarked that one! Thanks, Christina!

>197 rabbitprincess: You're welcome!

So far behind with reviews AGAIN. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to jotting down some thoughts on these.

#49
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Category: Off the Shelf (2 of 7 complete)
Pages: 550
Geo CAT: South Asia (India focus)
My Rating:

“A hijacked jumbo jet bound for London blows apart high above the English Channel. Two figures, Indian actors of opposing sensibilities, Gibreel and Saladin, fall to Earth, and are washed up on an English beach. Soon curious changes occur -Gibreel seems to have acquired a halo, while Saladin grows hooves and horns at his temples. They are transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is the initial act in an odyssey that merges the actual with the imagined.” While I am now of the opinion that magical realism isn’t for me, I did like how it was used to portray the immigrant’s struggle with identity in their new country.

#50
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Category: Plane Trip! (5 of 7 complete)
Pages: 285
Geo CAT: South Asia
My Rating:

#51
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
Category: Miscellaneous (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 326
Geo CAT: South Asia (India focus)
My Rating:

#52
K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs
Category: Non-Fiction (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 342
Geo CAT: South Asia
My Rating:

#53
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
Category: Non-American/Non-English (2 of 7 complete)
Pages: 480
My Rating:

#54
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Category: Sci-Fi/Fantasy (2 of 7 complete)
Pages: 268
My Rating:

#55
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Category: Mysteries (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 256
Mystery CAT: Golden Age
My Rating:

This book was 11 short cases and I listened to the audio version narrated by David Suchet. It was entertaining, but nothing special. For me, it got a little old how Poirot would solve the cases with the tiniest clues. Also, I didn't care for Suchet's narration. I love him as Poirot in the BBC series, but maybe because this was audio he was overdoing the character here.

#56
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Category: Award Winners (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 198
GeoCAT: South Asia
My Rating:

I don’t think there was a single story in this collection that I didn’t like. I was impressed by the writing and also how Lahiri was able to make each story unique and different. I’m glad I still have Unaccustomed Earth to look forward to.

#57
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Category: Award Winners (5 of 7 complete)
Pages: 357
GeoCAT: South Asia
My Rating:

This novel alternates between the stories of Sai, the granddaughter of a well to do judge in India, and Biju, the son of the judge’s cook who is an illegal immigrant in the U.S. Biju is forced from one job to another, is continually taken advantage of by his employers, lives in squalid conditions, and his father keeps pressuring him to help out Indian friends and neighbors who want to immigrate. Sai is an orphan now being raised in virtual isolation by her grandfather who does not seem to love anyone. She falls in love with her tutor, who later spurns her for the revolutionary movement. The whole book is tragic and it seems that everyone is miserable. The end was rather vague, and I keep writing a happy ending in my head, but I just don’t know how that would be possible.

As an aside, the interesting part about reading so many books set in South Asia or by South Asian writers is learning about the impacts of colonialism. I didn’t realize how pervasive colonialism was in the area and the books I have been reading have been showing the impacts from various perspectives. Fascinating stuff that I hadn’t given much thought to.

>56 aliciamay: - Completely agree with your assessment of Interpreter of Maladies. I found Unaccustomed Earth to be equally enjoyable. Hopefully you have the same experience.

^ Glad to hear that! Although I am going to put off reading Unaccustomed Earth...since after that I don't think I have any more Lahiri to read.

#58
Yes by Thomas Bernhard
Category: Non-American/Non-English (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 135
My Rating:

Let me start off by saying that reading Bernhard is a chore. But oddly enough I enjoyed this little book. The narrator is a severally depressed man who is pulled from his stupor by a new woman in the neighborhood, although she is at least as unstable as he. They take long walks where they discuss music and philosophy, but sadly this is not enough for either of them and *gasp* their story does not end well.

#59
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Category: Non-Fiction (5 of 7 complete)
Pages: 544
Random CAT: Mothers
My Rating:

This is a memoir that looks back on the lives of three women in China during a very tumultuous time in history. The grandmother was a warlord’s concubine, the mother was a communist revolutionary that later falls out of favor with the Communist party, and the daughter grows up in China to discover that Mao isn’t a deity, as she has been taught to believe. I was mesmerized by the sections that focused on the grandmother and mother, but I was put off by the daughter’s/author’s section. I’m not a big fan of memoirs because the author always seems way too self-absorbed (maybe this has something to do with having a whole book about them) and that was the case here, imo. Plus after reading about all that the mother went through especially, the daughter came across as a diva when she lingered on her hardships.

May Summary:

Well, not bad at all. I finished 13 books, most of which were on my May TBR list, and listened to/read 4,314 pages. I had several four star reads, but I think my favorite was Interpreter of Maladies.

CATs completed
Mystery CAT: 1
Random CAT: 2
Geo CATs: 7

June Reading Ideas
One main goal for June is to have 4 books completed from each category. These are the books for that (although I will probably deviate):
The Shadow-Line – Geo CAT
Basket Case
A Clockwork Orange – Random CAT
Devil’s Star – Random CAT, Mystery CAT
The Art of Fielding – Random CAT
There is No Me without You – Random CAT and one that I really need to get back to the friend that loaned it to me

Other than that I have a few other books calling:
The Names – Geo CAT (currently reading)
Max Havelaar – Geo CAT
Cakes and Ale – monthly author read
Radetzky March – 1001 group read
The Black Dahlia – Mystery CAT
Infinite Jest – still begging to be read, but perpetually getting sidelined for shorter books

#60
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Category: Sci-fi /Fantasy (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 181
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
Geo CAT: Islands and Bodies of Water
My Rating:

“A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet sitting by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean), the unremembered past comes flooding back. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie, magical, comforting, wise beyond her years, promised to protect him, no matter what.” Well written, gripping, and entertaining. I can see why Gaiman is such a star around here and if anyone hasn’t read his works, this would be a good one to start with. Oh, and the audio version was narrated by him.

#61
This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Category: Recommendations (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 352
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

This isn’t a book that I can blanketly recommend – highly dysfunctional, marginally Jewish family is forced together when the father dies because his dying wish was they sit Shiva. And several things kept cropping up while reading it that certainly rubbed me the wrong way – obviously a male author writing women how he would like them to be (beautiful, a size 2, and with great skin). But it made me laugh and even though the subject matter was dark, it was the light hearted read I needed.

A good weekend, combined with some quickie reads puts me behind (again)

#62
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Category: Road Trip! (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 544
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

Coming of age baseball story really isn't my thing, so consider 3.5 stars dynamite.

#63
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Category: Sci-fi/Fantasy (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 213
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

The book was a lot more tolerable (violence wise) than the movie thanks to some made up lingo. Also, there is an additional chapter included in this version that the U.S. editor cut from the original release that ends the book on a high note.

#64
The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad
Category: Off the Shelf (3 of 7 complete)
Pages: 100
Geo CAT: Islands and Bodies of Water
My Rating:

I am amazed that Conrad could make a story about an epidemic breaking out on a ship at sea boring.

#65
The Names by Don DeLillo
Category: Plane Trip! (6 of 7 complete)
Pages: 352
My Rating:

Not sure what exactly I read. A corporate risk analyst is visiting his estranged wife and son in Greece where he learns about some savage murders maybe perpetrated by a cult. And that part of the story could have taken about one chapter.

#66
Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant
Category: Non-American/Non-English (4 of 7 complete)
Pages: 150
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

Two brothers already have a strained relationship when the younger brother inherits a large estate from a family friend. The older brother suspects dubious parentage is the reason he was left out of the will, is he correct or just trying to tarnish his brother's good fortune?

I read A Clockwork Orange 3 or 4 years ago. I remember being disturbed by the way that the novel finish. I mean considering that all that violence is like some kind of age-phase, really !? It's trivialization of violence, extremely disturbing, that being said I've never seen the movie ... I'll definitely read it again.

I guess I was too relieved that at least he 'grew out' of the violence to think of it as being trivialized. I was expecting the ambiguous ending from the movie that implied Alex would be an evil person destroying others forever. Maybe Burgess was trying to show that people can change and see the error of their ways through experience and by maturing.

>210 aliciamay: I was relieved also but then I read about his rationalization and simply no. I mean he's not even remorseful for his past actions maybe I've missed something or I was too horrified to be rational about the ending, so a reread is needed.

Nice review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I've not read that one yet, though I've read several of his other books and enjoyed them very much. I'll have to get to this one soon!

Thanks for stopping by mathgirl - and hopefully The Ocean at the End of the Lane is making its way higher on your TBR.

I have been on a roll reading, but have been finding the more I read the less time I spend on LT. Looks like I'll be upping my category minimums to 9 books each : )

#67
The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo
Category: Mysteries (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 464
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
Mystery CAT: Police Procedurals
My Rating:

#68
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Category: Recommendations (4 of 9 complete)
Pages: 166
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
Geo CAT: Islands and Bodies of Water
My Rating:

#69
Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
Category: Miscellaneous (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 308
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

#70
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
Category: Non-American/Non-English (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 750
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

#71
Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
Category: Miscellaneous (6 of 9 complete)
Pages: 160
Geo CAT: Islands and Bodies of Water
My Rating:

#72
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
Category: Off the Shelf (4 of 9 complete)
Pages: 127
My Rating:

#73
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Category: Road Trip! (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 464
Geo CAT: Islands and Bodies of Water
My Rating:

#74
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
Category: Off the Shelf (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 337
Mystery CAT: Police Procedurals
My Rating:

#75
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Category: Sci-fi/Fantasy (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 240
My Rating:

but have been finding the more I read the less time I spend on LT.

Yup. Until someone finds us all a time machine, I think anything that takes up time takes away time that can be spend somewhere else. ;-)

Looks like you have had a good and varied batch of recent reading!

That's some great progress there! And, if someone finds a time machine, I want a ride!

Oh a time machine would be so nice : )

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! It was a long weekend for me due to the 4th of July holiday and I spent three days in the woods. Finished two books for July and realized I was still behind on my June postings…

#76
War Dances by Sherman Alexie
Category: Recommendations (5 of 9 complete)
Pages: 208
Random CAT: Celebrating the Rose
My Rating:

This was a collection of short stories and poetry from a Native American perspective. Some were funny, some sad, all were good.

June Summary:

My best month yet! I finished 17 books and listened to/read 5,116 pages plus I actually made some progress on Infinite Jest! And I was able to get my categories evened out. My two favorite reads this month were The Devil’s Star and War Dances.

CATs completed
Mystery CAT: 2
Random CAT: 10 (some overlap with the other 2 CATs)
Geo CATs: 5

July Reading Ideas
At first I wasn’t thinking I had much in store for reading in July, so I may have gone a little wild with library holds. Here are the books that I am currently reading:
The Silkworm – the 2nd installment of J.K. Rowling’s PI series
The Childermass – for the 1001 group project to collectively read all the list books
Infinite Jest – I’m really motivated to finish this month

And here’s what’s hovering at the top of the TBR pile:
At the Mountains of Madness – Geo CAT
Reading Like a Writer – Random CAT
Lost in a Good Book – Random CAT
Great Expectations – saw that Miss Havisham is a character in Lost in a Good Book, so thought I better read this first
Red Harvest – Mystery CAT
The Postman Always Rings Twice – Mystery CAT
Fear of Flying – an ER book from months ago that I had forgotten about
Sacre Blue
The Killer Angels
Plainsong

And looks like I should start a new thread for the 2nd half of the year...