What Are You Reading the Week of 28 February 2015?

Information from Wikipedia:
"Mem Fox, AM (born Merrion Frances Partridge on 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox is semi-retired and lives in Adelaide.

Career In 1981, while working in drama, Fox decided to retrain in literacy studies. She said: "Literacy has become the great focus of my life — it’s my passion, my battle and my mission and my exhaustion." She has published books on literacy aimed at children, their parents, teachers and educators. She held the position of Associate Professor, Literacy Studies, in the School of Education at Flinders University until her retirement in 1996. Since her retirement from teaching, Fox travels around the world visiting many countries and doing presentations and speaking on children's books and literacy issues.

Possum Magic Main article: Possum Magic
Fox wrote her first draft for the internationally acclaimed Possum Magic in 1978 during a course in children’s literature at Flinders University. Nine publishers rejected the draft over a five-year period. When it was accepted by Omnibus Books in Adelaide they asked Fox to reduce the 4½ page book, then entitled Hush the Invisible Mouse, by two thirds and to change the mice to Australian animals to place emphasis on her Australian theme. Possum Magic is now one of the most recognised picture books in Australia and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

The two main characters in Possum Magic are Grandma Poss and Hush. Hush has been made invisible by her Grandma to protect her from the dangers of the Australian bush. The story details the duo's adventures as they tour Australia searching for the secret to Hush's visibility. It is a rhythmical story of Australia's varied landscapes and the animals that live in them.

Guess What? The book Guess What? appears as number sixty-sixth on the American list of the 100 most challenged books 1990 to 2000. Groups and agencies can challenge a book to prevent it from being available to be read by the general public.

Personal life Fox was born Merrion Frances Partridge in Melbourne, Australia but grew up in Southern Rhodesia. Her parents were missionaries and she attended Hope Fountain mission school, near Bulawayo. When she was eighteen, she went to England where she was accepted into an English Drama school.

In 1969, she married Malcolm Fox, a teacher. The following year they returned to Australia and in 1971 she gave birth to her only child Chloë Fox, a former ALP member of the South Australian Parliament.

She dislikes her given name, and adopted the shortened form "Mem" at around the age of 13. She has never taken the step of legally changing her name, so remains "Merrion" for official purposes.

Opinion on childcare Fox attracted controversy in 2008 after claiming entrusting very young children to childcare is child abuse."

Almost left off the last statement in the article, but it is true that she made that statement. To which I say "Ms. Fox, your privilege is showing". Single parents, parents living below the poverty line might have trouble feeding and housing their children if they did not place their children in childcare while earning money for those necessities. In her defense, she lives in Australia and feels that the state should manage things so that that all infants are with a parent rather than in daycare. Still.

What are you reading this week that ushers February out the door?

Thank you for the wonderful start MDGentleReader ~ a fascinating woman I had never heard of.

I am about 150 pages into the Dutch contemporary literary tome Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda. I'm finding it a fascinating yet disquieting look at this group of folks/family. I think where this author really shines is his examination and portrayal of varying degrees of mental health, or lack thereof. He REALLY nails the unpleasant and curious things we all do and say; and how they affect lives around us. That said, some of it is a little far-fetched, but it has not failed to intrigue me. And it's hard to put down.

I like Mem Fox and my favorite is Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild.

I finished reading Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman for our Hillerman/Johnson group read and loved this novel. It was first published in 1973 and it is just as good today as it was back in the day. There is so much in this novel about Zuni and Navajo religion and culture and it comes with a fine mystery as well. Good reading.

I started Wonder. This is a book I need to read for a class, and so far it is a good one.

Well now I have to get a copy of Guess What to find out why a little picture book is so challenged. Child care is child abuse? How sadly some authors can disappoint us.
In the car I'm listening to Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security by Sarah Chayes and am wondering why people who wage war seem unable to see the largert picture of the countries they fight.
On Kindle I just started Dust Tracks On A Road by Zora Neal Hurston. I've had some trouble with her in the past regarding the very complicated relationship between a woman and her abuser in Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Maya Angelou says this autobiography is kind of written to appease white folk. Lordy, lordy, are we that unaware of the world?
On iPhone I'm listening to The Distance which is a very creepy espionage thriller due back in 3 days, so I have to listen fast.
And on paper I'm still reading Honeydew which is also due back soon and needs to be read double fast.
Oh, and I finished Foundation. Asimov rules.

>4 benitastrnad: thanks for your comments on Dance Hall of the Dead as I've only started this series and am excited to go on to Book 2.

I'm 20% plus into Henry and Clara and am enjoying it so far.

I am about halfway through The Prestige but must put that aside for now to read Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World, a library book which somebody has else has reserved.

Halfway through Innocent Blood by J Rollins and R Cantrell. I have to say this series has really drawn me in. Action, history, mystery... and vampires.. (who'da thought it? ) :)

I finished reading the phenomenal short story collection, Dans la nuit Mozambique. If you read French, be sure to read these stories!

Next up is the drama, The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kalidasa.

Starting How to Catch a Prince by Rachel Hauck
#3 in her "Royal Weddings" series

I'm reading The Invasion of the Tearling, an ARC a friend recently gave to me. It's good, but unlike the first book in the trilogy, I'm having a harder time settling into this book. Not sure if it's the disruptions of life currently going on - 7th snow day in two weeks, possibly buying a new house, taxes...you know, LIFE! - or the less-than-action-packed beginning, but I hope some sustained reading time this weekend will help.

I am finally finishing The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic. It is good enough for me to finish but that's about all. I'm not sure what is next but am thinking it may be A Prayer for Owen Meany.

>12 hazel1123: I loved A Prayer for Owen Meany when I read it years ago.

I finished Dear American Airlines. What a waste of time.

Now I am reading In the Garden of Beasts.

>1 MDGentleReader: What are you reading this week that ushers February out the door?
I’ll read pretty much anything to usher February out the door...

I finished and reviewed Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science, an ER. I started The Dinosaur Feather, a bit of a break while I hopefully catch up with the backlog of reviews.

I'm exactly halfway through The Halder War Diary. I was much too busy to read much this week, and this book is slow going anyway. It's basically a collection of meeting notes by the Chief of the German General Staff. Sometimes the notes are very detailed. At other times they are cryptic and incomplete. I found myself sitting in Applebee's last Sunday reading about the invasion of France, and wishing that I had a large map of Northern France and the Low Countries because I couldn't visualize the spatial relations of the various troop movements.

Still in a bit of a reading slump so still working on The Potter's Field and The Very Best of Charles de Lint.

>14 qebo: :-)

A general service announcement: reviews by @richardderus can be found again in the usual places. Prepare to be enlightened and entertained.

Laughing at 14/Gebo - Agreed, I'll read anything too as long as February leaves and March says hello. It was -14 today (Chicago area) and we were noticing how Fairbanks, Alaska was 18 to the positive. Oy.

#15> Fred, for an extremely detailed account of the invasion of France, I recommend The Ides of May: the Defeat of France, May-June, 1940 by John Williams.

And speaking of diaries, I just finished The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943: the Complete, Unabridged Diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1936-1943. I found it very interesting, if not exactly compelling reading. Ciano was Mussolini's son-in-law, as well as his foreign minister, so the level of his access to the Duce was complete. It was the day-to-day layering of events, sometimes repetitive but always intriguing, that really paint a picture of Mussolini's political corruption and willful disregard for the facts. How this guy ever got into such a position of power is unclear to me. Guess I need to read more about that period of Italian history. Anyway, as usual I have a more in-depth review on the book's work page and on my own 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me is Carlos Santana's autobiography, The Universal Tone, which I have just started.

That'll be three straight books of 500+ pages: We, the Drowned, at around 760, the Ciano Diaries, at 584, and this Santana bio, which checks in at 516. So much for my 50-Book Challenge this year!

I'm reading Graham Greene's novella Under the Garden, which was published as part of the "Penguin 60s" series in London about 20 years ago. I came across the book a few days ago at the back of an office cupboard when I was looking for different novel. I guess after two decades, it's time to take it off the TBR pile!

I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I've owned it for a couple of years, but put off reading it - I don't know why, but I'm enjoying it with a full heart.

The only thing that I don't like about the book is that Claire kept complaining/stating that she can't understand what people are saying because they're speaking Gaelic. In a two-page span, she mentioned her lack of comprehension five separate times. I keep thinking to myself (and saying out loud) "learn Gaelic, Claire!", with increasing frustration. I'm glad that she's beginning to pick it up, because she was driving me mad!

Most current of the current lot: We Need New Names, a novel by NoViolet Bulawayo. Just finished a very interesting nonfiction ER, Finding Zero, by Amir D. Aczel.

Just started Penelope Fitzgerald's The Golden Child, her first published book. It's billed as a "museum murder mystery" and I'm looking forward to it.

Waiting in the wings: The Rosie Effect.

>22 ahef1963: I'm glad I'm not the only one who talks out loud to protagonists and authors. For me it's the same as watching a horror film and screaming at the television "Watch out, he's behind the door."

For the most part, I'm reading two books that are worthy of all my reading time, Erik Larson's Dead Wake and Craig Johnson's Death Without Company.

I finished and enjoyed Trollope's third Palliser novel, The Eustace Diamonds. Lizzie Eustace is an absolute wretch, as the characters in the novel reminded me again and again.

Now I'm reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews.

I am reading River of Stars and I love the writing. I am also reading The Girl in the Red Coat which I am feeling a bit lukewarm about. The story is okay but it has a child narrator which I have never been fond of.

I finished Bonita Avenue with much angst. The last 1/4 or so of that novel is just TERRIBLE. It was a rapid descent into gratuitous violence (often for no earthly reason whatsoever), shock value (the porn industry in L.A.) and just really far-fetched nonsense. It kind of reminded me of how The Kite Runner was such a strong start 3/4, then that ending, was all Hollywood-action-violence blah blah ... Oh well, what a disappointment. But it happens.

Now on to the awesome short stories of Charles Baxter in his new one There's Something I Want You To Do. The first three are great, so hoping it continues.

Now reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith for my local reading group. Still dipping into The Andy Warhol Diaries.

I'm reading A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and am struggling a bit with The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara. I've just started listening to Anybody out there? by Marian Keyes read by Caroline Lennon.

Finished the absolutely lovely The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kalidasa.

Next up a short story collection , Mateo Falcone et autres nouvelles byn Prosper Merimee.

I started Wonder by R. J. Palacio and did so with some trepidation. I don't usually like chlldren's books that feature what I call "the-disease-of-the-month" topics. Those are books where at least one of the characters has some exotic disease for which there is no cure and all of the other characters learn to love that person. I figured that this one would follow that same formula. It does. But it is engaging and structured somewhat differently in that it is written from different points of view, so even though it is not exactly bowling me over it is a good-enough book to read.

Finished the short story collection Mateo Falcone et autres nouvelles. Two of the four short stories were very good.

Up next to read is The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead.

Thanks for setting this up, MDG. I liked Claire of the Sea Light, and Dinner with Buddha. I'm nearing the end of David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster and reading a Phryne Fisher mystery, Away with the Fairies.

Finished two books this weekend after a slower than usual few weeks: The Power of Habit and Fangirl. Now onto How to Build a Girl.

I finished A. S. Byatt's Angels & Insects -- I loved both novellas.

Right now I'm rereading Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop and after that I'll be reading a mystery, Wycliffe in Paul's Court by W. J. Burley.

I started Claire of the Sea Light and so far so good!

I just finished Outlander a couple of hours ago. I have no idea what I'll be reading next. After the romance, the great sex scenes, the fighting, the close calls, and my new-found passion for Jamie Fraser, I can't think of anything to follow it up with. My TBR pile looks very dull all of a sudden.

My first graders always love Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox! Thanks for sharing!

I am reading The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli for my book club. It's good but I don't think I'm going to finish in time. Off to read...

I finished There's Something I Want You To Do, a new volume of short stories by Charles Baxter and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now reading a bit out of the last two Tin House issues ... fell behind. Also, reading Eudora Welty Thirteen Stories, which is enjoyable, if not a little weird.

And will go peruse the library new fiction and non fiction stacks today to see what grabs me.

So far this week I finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and Eventide by Kent Haruf. His last book Our Souls at Night will be released in May. Now I am reading The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman which I am enoying immensely.

>42 MsMaryAnn: I'm a fan of Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells and Haruf. What a shame he passed away. I'm looking forward to Our Souls at Night. If you liked Eventide, IMO Benediction is even better.

I finished Consider the Lobster and started Jamaica Inn for the British author challenge.

Finished the absolutely brilliant The Intuitionist. I must read more by this author!

Next up is Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall.

Finished Breathless: A Novel by Dean Koontz, To Be the Poet by Maxine Hong Kingston, and A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton and listening to Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far) by Dave Barry.
Started reading Wildlife in America: Updated, Revised Edition by Peter Matthiessen, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai and listening to The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

I'm spending most of my reading time on Der Rote Ritter (The Red Knight) by Adolf Muschg, a Swiss author. It is an inventive retelling of the search for the Holy Grail as told by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the early 13th century in Parzival. Muschg adds details of historical courtly life that were not originally included in the medieval Arthurian romances, such as the table manners expected of medieval nobility, which today would be considered disgusting. Muschg weaves these seamlessly into the narrative. What most intrigues me, however, is when Muschg turns courtly traditions n their heads. One tradition is that a newly married noble pair gives gifts to the guests at their wedding, so that all the guests leave contented and happy. In Muschg's narrative, the noble knights, who attend as guests, grab all the gold they can and then sneak off as "Pluenderer und Strachdiebe" (99) (plunderers and highwaymen).
I am also reading The Speech of the Grail by Linda Sussman, which posits Wolfram's Parzival as a process of initiation toward speech, because it is not through an act of prowess that Parzival must seek to attain the grail, but through speech.
Also still reading The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

I started Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral which looks like another engrossing read by Mary Doria Russell. This is the first time I've started a book on its release date since Harry Potter.

#39
You could read the next one in the series. Dragonfly in Amber. It is a goodie. Just like the first one was.

>47 Citizenjoyce: Ooooh, look forward to hearing more about Epitaph and have just put it on my Wishlist. Sounds like my kind of book.

Am thoroughly enjoying Henry and Clara as I enter the second half of the book.

>48 benitastrnad: I have decided not to read any more of the Outlander series. I like where the book ended, everything happy, and have mentally added "and they all lived happily ever after". If I read more of the series, I'm sure Jamie Fraser is going to die in a bloody battle at some point, and I'm not okay with that. It's best that I stop now!

Have just begun Lars Kepler's The Sandman. Swedish crime novels are good for reading on snowy days.

Finished the very nice memoir, Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening : How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart.

Next up is The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder.

>51 hemlokgang: I am glad to hear you liked Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening. I am going to read in later in the year for a RL book club.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is also on my wish list.

I have a couple used copies of The Bridge of San Luis Rey (one is quite old), if anyone would like them, please PM me and I'll send them along free via US media mail. I am a huge believer in paying books forward, so I don't want anything in return. I rarely keep any of my books (except a small spiritual, art and writing books, lending libraries).

I am reading The Art of Joyful Living by Swami Rama (on recommendation of my teacher for yoga-teacher training) and it's excellent. If you like a very no-nonsense, straightforward approach to self improvement, this might be up your alley.

>35 jnwelch:, >38 Copperskye:

I thoroughly enjoyed Claire of the Sea Light, more than most readers did, I think.

Last night I finished an odd little book, Bones & All, a novel about people in modern America who are natural born cannibals. Especially interesting that it was written by a vegan.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day. Lovely book about courage and honesty - especially with oneself, the hardest kind, I think. The right book at the right time, although I suspect this is one that will always be the right book at any time for me :-). Very glad this was off my own bookshelves.

Another right book at the right time, but in an enitrely different category The Cat Sitter's Nine Lives. A tiny, fluffy bit of a cozy mystery. Will consider others in the series when/if I am in the mood for this kind of book.

Frederica, one of my favorites by Georgette Heyer. Happy sigh.

Rushed to the tragic conclusion of Henry and Clara which I enjoyed very much.

Will have time to just start a chapter or two of A Memoir of Jane Austin later on. Looking forward to it!

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is marvelous. It is as relevant in its material now as it was in 1927. Great read. Sorry it took so long to get around to reading Wilder!

Next up is an Early Reviewer edition of Get In Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link.

I've finished A Study in Scarlet and Anybody out there? and moved onto Wuthering Heights and 61 hours and Fergus Crane.

I finished All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews and haven't decided yet what I think of it. Now I'm reading Roz Chast's graphic memoir Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?.

I picked We Need New Names, a novel by NoViolet Bulawayo, off the "recent returns" shelf at the library and just finished it. Review is yet to come, but I gave it four stars.

At the far end of elsewhere, I've completed Book I of Middlemarch, attempting to join in a group read, and am about to start Emily St. John Mandel's The Singer's Gun.

>60 Meredy: I'll be interested in your thoughts on The Singer's Gun. I've owned it for quite a while but haven't read it yet.

I finished Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge today. What a wonderful mash up of memoir and environmental essays.

I bought Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro and Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die : Musings from the Road by Willie Nelson from a library. They aren't discards; no marks, the Ishiguro looks read once or maybe twice, the Nelson looks new.

>62 fyrfly: Probably donations. I imagine that's where many (most, I hope) of my library donations end up. When I've finished a book that I don't want to keep, it still looks new, and many of those do go to the library donation box. (If I do want to keep it, it typically has penciled notes in, on, and around it.)

>63 Meredy: Yes, that's what I figured, too. The library I usually go to has mostly discards, not that it matters if I want the book and can carry it. The one I went to tonight is having a book sale this weekend, but I can't go.

And I just realized that I posted this in the wrong thread. :-( Oops!

Just finishing Me and Kaminski then on to Measuring the World both by Daniel Kehlmann.

Finished Lars Kepler's The Sandman just now. (No touchstone for this novel.) I've been in bed all day, with double pneumonia, a broken bone in my foot, and a knee so painful that I can't walk, or move around in bed much, either. It's going to need surgery. Yes, I am feeling sorry for myself, but I've been able to read all day between naps, so it's not all bad!

Probably going to start another book by Kepler after work tomorrow. I have The Fire Witness on hand, and would like to continue enjoying the investigations of the fictional Finnish detective, Joona Linda.

I'm enjoying the latest St. Mary's book in Jodi Taylor's series, No Time Like the Past, and also have started the foreboding Jamaica Inn.

>66 ahef1963: Sore knee, broken foot and double pneumonia. OK, you've got your year's worth of ills out of the way in one fell swoop. Get better fast, and know you'll be healthy the rest of the year.

I have started ER Shadows Over Paradise :) will review when I have finished... but so far I am really enjoying it!

Actually managed to finish a book this week. Not been in the mood to read. Finished The Potter's Field and started The Summer of the Danes.

>70 seitherin: I liked The Summer of the Danes very much even though it places relatively little emphasis on the mystery aspect. It has a lot of atmosphere.

I finished Roz Chast's graphic memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?. It was terrific and reminded me of my life with my parents as they aged (a little too much actually).

Now I'm reading another memoir, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald.

#50
So far there are 6 maybe 7 books in the Outlander series so you don't have to worry about the hero dying off anytime too soon. And remember this isn't 7,000-different-ways-to-kill,-maim,-and-torture-your-heroes. A series of books otherwise known as The Song of Fire and Ice or Game of Thrones. Gabaldon likes her hero just as much as we do.

>72 brenzi: Oh, H is For Hawk! Can't wait to hear what you think of it, brenzi. (Can't remember whether we use real names in this thread). I believe that one's in my future. It sure sounds good.

The Roz Chast is outstanding, isn't it? I had the same reminder feeling re my late mother.

The reviews of H is for Hawk were very positive so I too have that one on my list of potential purchases.

Finished listening to The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and started listening to Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith by Joe Perry with David Ritz.

Although I read both of Eugenides' other books, I don't know if I would have finished this one in print. It's long and I didn't like the female character. Some of it's okay, and since I was doing other things while listening, I finished it. The Joe Perry book has started out better that expected. So far, so good. The tracks are very long compared to others I've listened to. An entire disc has only 3 or 4 tracks, nowhere to stop unless you want to listen to 15 or 20 minutes over again.

It's been sitting on my shelf for ages, and I'm finally going to tackled Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

>71 Meredy: I honestly don't remember anything about The Summer of the Danes unlike the rest of the Brother Cadfael books I've reread so far. Nothing is jogging anything in my leaky brain.

I just started Early Warning, the second book in Jane Smiley's The Last Hundred Years trilogy. Even though it hasn't been long since I read the first, Some Luck, I had to keep re-reading the first few pages because there were so many characters I couldn't keep them straight. I had to refer to the genealogy chart often, and that chart told me at least one thing I didn't want to know yet.

Started Push by Sapphire at work yesterday, came home and read it until it was finished. Beautiful book. It was hard to handle in so many ways, such trauma the girl suffered, but the hope in it, and the determination of the main character left me in tears.

Reading Lars Kepler's The Fire Witness at the moment. I'm enjoying it so far.

>68 Citizenjoyce: Thanks for your get well wishes.

>66 ahef1963: Whew, that is a lot to go wrong all at once! I hope you heal quickly.

I finally finished Roman Holiday and Rosemary, both had been sitting neglected in my Kindle app. I recommend them both - if they sound at all like your cuppa. If not, plenty of other wonderful books out there to read.

Also re-read GOne-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away Lake.Enjoyed them even more this time than I did the first time.

>61 Copperskye: I've finished it and given it a handsome four stars. The author is only in her mid-thirties. I can hardly wait to see what she's doing in another five or ten years. She's good.

She must be irritated by the number of people who insist on referring to her as "St. John Mandel." The first thing on her website's bio page, in large bold print at the top, is the statement: "St. John's my middle name. The books go under M. "

>84 Meredy: Thank you Meredy! Sounds good!

>84 Meredy: I took a book bullet when I read various comments and your review for Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. Science fiction is not a genre I am drawn to but I am so glad I read this book. I agree with you, Mandel is an author to keep on your radar. Like you, I will probably back track and read her previous novels.