Vestafan goes for those stubborn ROOTs

There's more chance of ROOT success this year as I've resolved not to buy any new books until Easter. This doesn't mean I won't allow myself to go for second hand and charity shop 'finds', and borrow new crime from the library, but it does mean I'll be turning to my shelves rather than bookshop shelves for most of my reading. I've got some books I've meant to read for years and will try to read them this year. These include:

Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Walden by H D Thoreau

Along with the three crime novels published by William McIlvanney - Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch and Strange Loyalties, that makes one per month. Given that I'll probably get through some less distinguished volumes as well, I would hope to get through 30 of my own tomes at last in 2016.

Good luck with your ROOT reading!

Happy 2016 ROOTing!
You have a few books on your list that have also been on mine for some time (The Kite Runner, Grapes of Wrath, Luminaries), and some that I've read! (Cloud Atlas was great, though a very dense read and Master and Margarita happens to be one of my favorites!)
Enjoy! :)

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge! I hope you enjoy the Laidlaw books.

Welcome back and happy rooting! I have read The Kite Runner and enjoyed it, but not so much The Grapes of Wrath.

Welcome back and good luck with your ROOTing!

Thank you for your greetings - it's reassuring that I'm not the only person whose book buying has resulted in a challenging TBR pile.

Good to see you back, Sue! Happy ROOTing.

Thank you!

Hi Sue, good to see you here. Cloud Atlas is one of my possible ROOTS for this year. Or maybe The Bone Clocks first?

I've read two ROOTs so far - The Kite Runner and A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I'd put off reading the Hosseini book for ages because I worried it might be too much to deal with, but I'm glad I read it. Occasionally I had to put the book down as the narrator's direct descriptions of his actions are quite shocking - not because of gruesomeness but because of what he is admitting about himself.

The Anne Tyler is a lovely book about the complexities of family life and the narratives that are created within it. I haven't read any of her work for ages but this has reminded me what a good writer she is.

Hi! I was wondering how you were getting along. I think Cloud Atlas will have to wait until slightly later in the year as I've just embarked on The Grapes of Wrath. I'm shocked to see that the name inside is my maiden name and I'm celebrating my Ruby Wedding anniversary this year!

>12 vestafan: So it is an old root!?

Extremely old, and I'm finding it hard to get along with, so I've put it down for the time being to return to later.

I have been aiming to read more of my Persephone book collection and picked up at random Every Eye a short novel by Isobel English. The death of an aunt coincides with a woman's holiday in Ibiza with her younger husband. The novel alternates between the holiday and reminiscences of the woman's past life, particularly her changing relationship with her aunt Cynthia. The writing is perceptive and individual and the final sentence casts much light on what has gone before.

I picked up another Persephone book - Tell It to a Stranger by Elizabeth Berridge, a selection of short stories written during the 1940s. This is a writer I had never heard of before picking this book up, but I would heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys this imprint and its rediscovery of forgotten 20th century authors.

>14 vestafan: I've had to read The Grapes of Wrath for a class I took and I found it to be just awful! Don't blame you for putting it aside!

Being a born completest, I'm now going back to it and will try to slog my way to the end. The impression I get is that seems very much of its time, and although the situation is still worth examining, the approach has lost effectiveness over time. I may be wrong, and will report back when I'm finished.

I've finally finished The Grapes of Wrath - a book I've had for so long that my pre-marriage surname is on the flyleaf and its my ruby wedding this year. It was a bit of a struggle - during the first third I felt that the regular misfortunes of the Joad family bordered on bathos rather than pathos, and I thought some of the female characters are rather stereotypical. However, it is hard to resist Steinbeck's portrayal of social injustice, particularly because similar injustices exist so many years later.

> Hooray for finishing the book, Sue!

>19 vestafan: Wow, that is an impressively deep one upROOTed!

>19 vestafan: I've also read Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men and I did not care for either. However, I gave Steinbeck a third try with East of Eden and it was a winner!

Yes, I read East of Eden many years ago and enjoyed it very much.

Another ROOT rooted out - The Casino by Margaret Bonham, a collection of short stories published by Persephone Books.

Good job, Sue!