What Are You Reading the Week of 11 April 2015?

Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a painfully broken foot so I don't have the patience right now to do literary research to head this topic, but I thought I'd go ahead and get it started anyway. Please forgive if I've stepped on toes.

Still reading A Cruel Wind by Glen Cook and The One That Got Away by Simon Wood.

I just finished Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, a graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist, Roz Chast and really loved it. I suspect not everyone's cup of tea, but having been through that time of life with my grandmother, I felt there was an honesty one does not often see.

I also finished ER book A Solemn Pleasure by Melissa Pritchard and it was not really my thing, but she is a fine writer, just for whatever reason, I could NOT get into her style, topics, writing. It was incredibly hard to keep going ...

I have spent the weekend immersed in Death Without Company by Craig Johnson. The world of Walt Longmire is a great adventure. So much so that it is taking me away from other duties and chores. But reading is such a grand adventure.

I finished Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and was surprised at how much I liked that book. I have generally avoided what I consider to be classics because I find them incredibly boring, but this one, if a little overwrought at times, was a good read.

Been away on vacation, so haven't had time to read, but I am now finishing up Lucky Us, which I am not enthralled by, but is more than somewhat entertaining. Next up is Station Eleven which I've heard good things about.

#3: I read Rebecca a few months ago and absolutely loved it.

I'm still reading (and really enjoying) Tana French's The Likeness.

I just began reading Joe Hill's Horns, which is scary and funny all mixed up. It's promising to be a strange and enjoyable book.

Feel better!

I will start reading Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides in earnest today. This is a book for my real life book discussion group.

>7 cdyankeefan: Thank you. I've progressed to hobbling without assistance. Did you know office chairs can double as wheelchairs? You should see me scooting around the place. :D

During my week's vacation in New Orleans (although, as you'd imagine, mostly on the plane rides to and fro), I finished Time of Hope, the first book in C.P. Snow's long novel cycle, "Strangers and Brothers." I will post a review on my 50-Book Challenge thread in a day or so, for anyone interested. Short take: not always wholly absorbing, but mostly so, and very much enjoyable enough for me to continue on with the next novel sometime soon.

In honor of the newly launched baseball season, I am flying through Jimmy Breslin's immensely enjoyable Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, his story of the 1962 New York Mets, the team's first, woeful season when they lost a major league record 120 games. Breslin also writes of the machinations and personalities involved in bringing National League baseball back to New York City several years after the Dodgers and Giants had abandoned their fans and gone off to California. The book was written and published immediately after that '62 season had ended.

I am reading The Love of a Good Woman, short stories by Alice Munro and Making Comics by Scott McCloud. Both are awesome.

Having a great time reading Nina Stibbe's Man at the Helm. I loved her first book, the memoir Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life and it turns out she's just as good writing fiction.

I'm back to reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. Some parts are great and some parts put me to sleep.

I'm still reading Mary Doria Russell's Epitaph, which is great. My walking around book is Ivan Doig's This House of Sky and on audio, Another Man's Moccasins. Coincidentally, all are westerns.

I'm reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex which is the true story that inspired Melville's Moby Dick. Since I tackled Moby Dick last summer, I am finding this very interesting. I have also just started the galley of Let Me Die in His Footsteps. I'm only two chapters in but she has my attention. I am working away at the audio of The Life of Elizabeth I. It is super interesting but very dense with information so I just listen to a small bit everyday.

#14 coppers - I am really looking forward to Epitaph. I read Doc a few years ago when it came out and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Nice to know you are enjoying it.

>16 Iudita: It's as wonderful as Doc - you're going to love it!

I am sure you're doing a fine job scooting!

I finished happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center which I loved-I love her books. Then I started The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by A and a Filipacchi which is very good so far

Almost finished with My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers by Helen Morrison and just started Damaged by Cathy Glass which so far is good.

Finished The One That Got Away by Simon Wood and started Without Trace by Katherine John.

Finished reading The Toolbox for Building a Great Family Dog by Terry Ryan and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
and listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and Naked by David Sedaris.
Started Winter of the Wolf Moon by Steve Hamilton and Do-Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First-Class Life by Pat Miller.

Finished The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

Now tucking into The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and having a re-read of Insurgent by Veronica Roth as we went to watch the film a couple of weeks ago and there were a few bits that we didn't 'remember' happening (some of them that would be because they didn't!)

Enjoying The Round House by Louise Erdrich and Death by Water by Kerry Greenwood.

Just finished it myself (Man at the Helm) and found it funny, charming with some underlying serious bits; I liked it even more than her memoir.

Just finishing A Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Then I am going to read The Nice and The Good by Iris Murdoch

I started Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous and The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

I started Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous and The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

At the request of @coppers, author bio from belated weekly thread:
From Wikipedia:
"Beverly Cleary (born April 12, 1916) is an American author of more than 30 books for young adults and children. One of America's most successful writers of children's literature, she has sold 91 million copies of her books worldwide. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice ("Beezus") Quimby, her sister Ramona Quimby, and Ralph S. Mouse. She won the 1981 National Book Award for Ramona and Her Mother and the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw.

For her lifetime contributions to American literature Cleary has received the National Medal of Arts, recognition as a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the children's librarians.

Born Beverly Atlee Bunn in McMinnville, Oregon, Cleary was an only child. Until she was old enough to attend school, Cleary lived on a farm in Yamhill, a town so small that it had no library. Still, Beverly learned to love books, due largely to her mother's arrangement with the Oregon State Library to have books sent to Yamhill.

When Cleary was six years old, her family left the farm and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she attended elementary and high school. She blamed her struggles with reading in this new school setting partly on her dissatisfaction with the books she was required to read, and partly on an unpleasant first grade teacher. After six years of living on a farm in the country, city life in Portland took a toll on her health, and she was frequently ill, which provided a further setback to her schoolwork and reading skills.

In the second grade, Cleary studied under her favorite teacher, and by the third grade, had greatly improved her reading ability and found new joy in books. She read The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, and became a frequent visitor to the library. Her favorite book as a young girl was Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin.

A grammar school librarian was largely responsible for developing her love of reading, and encouraged Cleary to check out books about subjects to which she could relate. The librarian not only encouraged her to read, but also to write her own books, and instilled in her the belief that she, too, could write for children some day.

In 1934, at age 18, Cleary moved to Ontario, California to attend Chaffey College, where she earned an Associate of Arts degree. She worked as a substitute librarian at the Ontario City Library, and went on to attend the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating with a B.A. in English in 1938 from Berkeley, she studied at the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned a degree in library science in 1939.

During the Great Depression, Cleary was a member of the University of California Student Cooperative Association (UCSCA), which was established to offset the expense of attending college at Berkeley. Students lived in housing cooperatives, where they worked in exchange for lower rent. Cleary lived at Stebbins Hall, the first all-women's co-op created in the association, and referred to her time there as "two of the most interesting years of my life". One afternoon, during a break from her chores, she found herself having a sandwich with a young gentleman named Clarence Cleary, her future husband.

Beverly and Clarence married in 1940 and they moved to neighboring Oakland, California. They eloped because her parents, who were Presbyterians, did not approve of her union with the Roman Catholic Cleary, even after it had occurred. The Clearys had two children, Marrienne Elizabeth and Malcolm James, twins, born in 1955. Clarence Cleary died in 2004. Beverly Cleary currently, as of 2015, lives in Carmel, California.
Career

Cleary's library science degree allowed her to work with young children at all socioeconomic levels, and she was able to develop relationships with them. Her first full-time job as a librarian was in Yakima, Washington, where she met many children who were searching for the same books that she had always hoped to find as a child herself. Cleary sympathized with children who felt that there were no books written about children like themselves. Their pleas convinced her to help provide young readers with stories to which they could relate.

One example was her first book, Henry Huggins, which was published in 1950. It was about a boy, his dog and their friends, all of whom lived on Klickitat Street in Portland (a street only a few blocks from where Cleary grew up as a child). According to Cleary, Henry Huggins and his friends represented all the children she grew up with, as well as those who sat before her during library story hours.

As she crafted her first book, she recalled advice from her mother and incorporated her beliefs that the best writing was simple and filled with humor. She also remembered advice from a college professor who emphasized writing about universal human experience. Beezus and Ramona, Cleary's first book to center a story on the Quimby sisters, was published in 1955, although Beezus and Ramona made frequent appearances in the Henry Huggins series as supporting characters.

Working with children as a librarian opened new doors for Cleary. She wanted to write books for children, but was unsure if she had the necessary experience to write what she wanted. A publisher wanted her to write a book about a kindergarten student. Cleary felt that she could not write about this, because she had not attended kindergarten, but later changed her mind after the birth of her twins. She learned to add a little wit and charm to her writing for children, with the hope that it would spark an interest in reading among her students and encourage them to read more books like it. She is an international favorite among children's authors.

She has also written two autobiographies, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.
Critical reception

Pat Pflieger, professor of children's literature at West Chester University commented: "Cleary's books have lasted because she understands her audience. She knows they're sometimes confused or frightened by the world around them, and that they feel deeply about things that adults can dismiss." Eliza Dresang, Beverly Cleary Professor in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington Information School notes: "Those books don't seem so radical now, but they were when she was writing them." She suggests that the areas they cover are portrayed with honesty and accuracy. Twentieth-Century Children's Writers says "Beverly Cleary's impact as a children's writer cannot be overestimated." It goes on to cite "her extraordinary talent in creating memorable young characters whose exuberant spirit and zest for life attract young and old readers alike."
Honors and legacy

In 1975 Cleary became the fifth winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association for "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature", a lifetime award conferred 19 times as of 2013. She was U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984. In April 2000 she was named Library of Congress Living Legend in the Writers and Artists category for her significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.

Cleary's books have been published in 20 different languages and have been recognized by many awards and honors. She has won the Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw (1984); Newbery Honors for Ramona and Her Father (1978); and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1982); the 1981 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for Ramona and Her Mother; a William Allen White Children's Book award for Socks (1973); the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1980); and the Children's Book Council's Every Child Award (1985). Cleary's books have been read on PBS and ABC-TV."

If Beverly Cleary wasn't part of your or your children's childhood, who was a favorite children's book author?

What are you reading this week?

I didn't read Beverly Cleary but millions of children did. My favorite was anybody who wrote a book. We had a limited library in our classrooms but when you got to fifth and sixth grade you got to read the books on the William Allen White Book Award list. I remember reading and loving Shadow of a Bull and Witch of Blackbird Pond. I did simply adore Walter Farley and read every book by him that I could. I also liked the Trixie Beldon books.

Ditching Station Eleven which got boring after the first 10%. Just downloaded The Good Girl by Mary Kubica.

>30 benitastrnad: Oh, my word. I read and collected all the Trixie Belden books back in the day. I also had the Donna Parker books. Gosh, I haven't thought about them in years.

Reading Astonishing Splashes of Colour and don't particularly like any of the main characters...but the plot is interesting enough to keep me going.

>29 MDGentleReader: Oh, I loved loved loved the Ramona books when I was a kid. Thanks for the bio! It makes me want to read The Girl from Yamhill and the Beverly Cleary books I never got to as a child.

I'm currently reading Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman, and About This Life by Barry Lopez. I started listening to Born Standing Up written and narrated by Steve Martin yesterday too.

And in case you're wondering, yes I usually do have more than one book going at a time, but no I'm usually not this scattered. I usually keep it to three at most: one fiction, one nonfiction and one audio. I'm sure I have a very good rationalization for why I started each, but the only one I really should've been reading on a deadline was Master and Commander, which I'm more than halfway through but unfortunately have no hope of finishing by tomorrow!

Love Beverly Cleary!!!!

Finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. I think it is a very good book for anyone to read who is just beginning to think about issues of the elderly and the end of life. It is tasteful and thoughtful.

I also finished the absolutely wonderful eleventh installment of the Maisie Dobbs series, A Dangerous Place.

Next up to read is Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima.
Next up for listening is The Old Maid by Edith Wharton.

The Cleary books are so amazing, I am thrilled that I get to read them aloud to my kids now as an excuse to read them!!

Currently reading Trinity, I know this much is true and The Promise of Joy

>29 MDGentleReader: Thank you for the interesting bio. I read the Ramona books, but not all of them, and not with much interest. Laura Ingalls Wilder was my favourite author when I was a child, and I also loved the Anne of Green Gables stories, and the Little Women books.

I just finished reading Horns by Joe Hill. It took me forever to finish, as I really didn't enjoy it, and only picked it up reluctantly. Now I'm going to read a Henning Mankell book that I just bought last week, The Man Who Smiled. I can always count on Mr. Mankell to write a good story, and I need that after Horns.

As a little girl I adored Ellen Tebbits and Otis Spofford who were more my age at the time than Ramona. As a teenager I loved Fifteen.

I feel I've been a Beverly Cleary fan all my life. Just a few years ago I discovered two I'd missed, Dear Mr. Henshaw and its sequel Striker both on audio, read by George Guidall. More layered and socially relevant than the others, I know I appreciated them more as an adult than I might have when I was younger.

Finally closing in on the end of Me and Lee and looking forward to something that lets me suspend my disbelief instead of exerting it to near exhaustion.

Just finished the poignant Edith Wharton novella, The Old Maid.

Next up to listen to is The Martian by Andy Weir.

Finished a Kindle book The Last Days of Dogtown byAnita Diamant I got a third of the way through it and wasnt sure it was going to be my kind of book. So glad I finished it. Started The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing and really having a hard time going further. I will push further hoping for a finish like Dogtown.

Finished Winter of the Wolf Moon by Steve Hamilton and Do-Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First-Class Life by Pat Miller.

Started What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank.

Finished Without Trace and started Midnight Murders by Katherine John.

Finished The Wise Man's Fear on Wednesday evening; excellent second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy.

Started The Most Beautiful Book in the World, Letter to a Future Lover, and Harvest Poems. Still reading Notes from a Blue Bike.

The She Wolf (Accursed Kings #5) by Maurice Druon
This novel is longer than the previous 4 novels in the series.

I finished A. S. Byatt's The Children's Book which I found fascinating and beautifully written. I'm so interested in the period it covers (1895-1919) -- art, literature, history, culture. It brought back so many memories of other books I've read -- so many connections -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Penelope Fitzgerald's biography of artist Edward Burne-Jones, Sebastian Barry's A Long, Long Way, Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room -- and the life and poetry of Edward Thomas and so many others. There were too many characters -- I should have taken better notes -- but I grew to care about them all, even if I did get them mixed up sometimes. If it wasn't 900 pages long, I might consider rereading it again soon. Instead, my arthritic hands immediately sought out a 144-page book from the TBR pile: Penelope Fitzgerald's Human Voices, complete with a cover note of praise by A. S. Byatt, by the way.

I've made a start on Lexicon (a LT BB) after finally slogging my way to the end of Me and Lee. The latter was my first foray into the realm of conspiracy literature, and I think it's going to hold me for a while. Right now I can't even remember what prompted me to pick it up.

>46 mollygrace: I really like the Pre-Raphaelites too. Have you read Mortal Love, by Elizabeth Hand?

>46 mollygrace: I read Penelope Fitzgerald's Human Voices a couple of months ago and some of the characters are still rolling around in my head. What a great writer!

I finished a LTER, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History. This was a very well written and enjoyable account of rain, from too much to too little, those who tried to conjure it up to those who measure and forecast it, those who protect us from it with buildings and clothing to those who write about it. Through biography and travel loge the science was made easy to assimilate and entertaining.

>47 Meredy: I haven't read Mortal Love but I shall add it to the wish list. Thank you for the recommendation.

>48 NarratorLady: I am enjoying Human Voices. I admire Fitzgerald's writing so much -- she assumes you have a brain and doesn't insult your intelligence by explaining every little thing. Of course, sometimes that means you have to work a little harder for understanding, but it's so nice to exercise those "muscles".

>51 mollygrace: It's the only book (at least, the only one since childhood) that I've had to reread at once. I mean that the instant I finished the last page, I turned right back to the beginning and started it over again. I also subsequently bought it in hardcover and transferred all my penciled notes from the paperback before giving it to a friend.

It isn't the most excellent book I've ever read, though I don't know what is, but it does have something special.

I love how so many years later she was able to distill her wartime experience at the BBC into that funny, poignant, powerful, so intelligent little book. Distillation takes time, gives you perspective, I suppose -- and allows the experience of all those years in between to help shape it . . . like vintage wine, like Giacometti's elongated human forms.

Later: Using the word "distillation" reminded me of something. It took me awhile to remember but I'm so glad I did. It sent me back to Primo Levi's The Periodic Table -- each story a masterpiece of distillation, I believe: his memories of life as a chemistry student and later as a working chemist against the background of life between the wars and after. Here's the passage, from "Potassium":

"Distilling is beautiful. First of all, it is a slow, philosophic, and silent occupation, which keeps you busy but gives you time to think of other things, somewhat like riding a bike. Then, because it involves a metamorphosis from liquid to vapor (invisible), and from this once again to liquid; but in this double journey, up and down, purity is attained, an ambiguous and fascinating condition, which starts with chemistry and goes very far. And finally, when you set about distilling, you acquire the consciousness of repeating a ritual consecrated by the centuries, almost a religious act, in which from the imperfect material you obtain the essence . . . the spirit . . . "

>53 mollygrace: Sorry, sloppy pronoun reference. I was referring to Mortal Love.

> 54 I figured that out eventually, but I'd already typed the message so I let it stay. Thanks.