April books

Okay, I was forgetting we're all in different time zones! Here I go with mine then:

1 On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman
2 Rope (drama) by Patrick Hamilton
3 The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt (I actually abandoned this one part way through)
4 How Novels Work - John Mullan
5 The Memoirs of Cleopatra - Margaret George
6 The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan (reread)
7 Animal's People - Indra Sinha
8 The Haunted Hotel - Wilkie Collins
9 Darkmans - Nicola Barker
10 Being Emily - Anne Donovan (ER copy)
11 The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson
12 Affluenza - Oliver James

It's quite hard to pick a favourite again this month.

The Court of the Air I got bored with in about 40 pages and couldn't bear the thought of slogging through the rest of it (though I'm willing to accept I may just not have been in the mood for it). That was definitely the low point of the month.

High points have included On Royalty, The Memoirs of Cleopatra ( can't recommend Elizabeth George highly enough for anyone who likes great big, fat, historical novels based on real people. My absolute favourite of hers is Mary, Called Magdalene but she rarely sets a foot wrong whoever she's writing about).

Then there was the fun of revisiting The Feminine Mystique. For anyone not of my generation, this was one of the formative feminist texts of the 60s (though it was the 70s when I read it - I'm not THAT old!) and I am always amazed at how relevant many of these books still are today. Of course, things have moved on a bit (I hope) since then and I'm sure the modern reader will find a few laughs there too but in an age where feminism seems to mean having the right to wear a push-up bra I can't help feeling books like Friedan's, Greer's etc should be required reading.

Animal's People is a book about life in Bhopal since the night when Union Carbide so kindly released toxic gasses throughout the city, killing thousands and poisoning the land and the people for incalculable years to come. This is definitely a book that should be well read all over the world and lessons learnt from it. Assuming the book is properly researched (I haven't been able to find any major flaws yet) the continued self-preservation of the company is staggering. The book isn't just a political diatribe but a darn good novel too and I'd recommend it very highly.

The Haunted Hotel was quite a little find for me, as I'd never read this little Wilkie Collins ghost story. It's not a very big book and I enjoyed every word.

Affluenza was another unexpected delight. Non-fiction, and about the many ways in which aspiration to wealth can never co-exist with real happiness. There are even a lot of tips on how you can change your own lifestyle and outlook to create a happier life for yourself.

So my favourite of all? Animal's People came close but I think I'm going to hand the gong this month to Darkmans. This is a book I'm finding pretty much impossible to describe, to be honest. The lives of Barker's thoroughly engaging 21st century Kent characters are touched by the spirit of a medieval court jester. Nothing I can say about this book will give you the slightest idea really, about what is going on here; it is one of those books that you just have to read and then, I would say, reread at least once. All I can say is that I was enthralled, even though I had no idea where I was going half the time, and that the story and the characters have stayed with me ever since. It's a book that I didn't even know I was going to nominate as my read of the month until I sat down to do this. Maybe that medieval jester is leaning over my shoulder right now. I will definitely be looking out more of this writer's work.

I have two resolutions for next month. I'm definitely going to try and review a bit more of what I read (it occurs to me that that's practically what I've been doing here so I might do a bit of cutting and pasting too). I also plan to chuck in one re-read every month too from now on. I'm such a fiend for buying new books that I never have time to re-read all the ones I intend to so I plan to see if I can change that.

Looking forward to hearing all your nominations too.

Alrighty... I love this time of the month where we all get to share. However, I must throw out a disclaimer before revealing my rather embarrassing list. Though I don't particularly feel like I need to defend myself, I will because I wish my list were longer. April and May are my last two months of college, thus throwing me into a quarter-life crisis at 22 about which direction to take my life... you know, that old song and dance. So here is my list, and I promise that the next one will hopefully be a bit more impressive.

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden
King Lear, by William Shakespeare
Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film, by Annalee Ward
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

Lear was a reread for a class... I probably would have chosen it as my favorite for this month if it had been my first read-through. That being said, Memoirs takes my top spot for this month. It was such a beautiful and enchanting story.

Sloth - I saw your post about the movie. After I finished reading the book, I rented it to watch again and didn't like it nearly as much as I had before I read the book. So I don't blame you at all. Truth be told, the first time I tried to watch it after reading, I fell asleep...

Next month should be a better month (at least I'm hoping). I've already gotten halfway through a Jean Plaidy book about Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. Absolutely love it. And then next up is Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White, which I am really excited about reading. So May is already looking up!

Good grief! What has happened to this page? That nearly frightened me to death!

Anyway - great to have you back, Hol. If there's one time in the world when someone has an excuse for not reading too much it's definitely exam time. You are hereby forgiven (at least, I'm assuming that your last months include exams). Anyway, you still managed to pick some goodies. Lear is one of my favourite of Shakespeare's and you all know I love 'Geisha'. I've never read Cold Mountain or (as far as I know) anything by the same author so you'll have to tell me what you thought of it.

And re those 'what am I going to do with my life' thoughts- don't forget, the most important thing to think of when mapping out the years ahead is to make sure that whatever you do will leave plenty of time for reading. Good luck with that!

ETA That's weird (in case you were wondering about what it was that scared me at the beginning). When I came onto this page it had enormous great headings to every post. They've gone now. Did I imagine them?

Hey y'all! (I'm feeling very southern today). I enjoyed reading your posts.

Here's the April List:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
The Dechronization of Sam Magruder by George Gaylord Simpson
Swan Song by Edmund Crispin
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Silhouette in Scarlet by Elizabeth Peters
The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes

And the winner is..... hands down, without a doubt..... The Glass Castle.

But first, Silhouette in Scarlet was very disappointing. I like the Amelia Peabody series, but won't read another Vicky Bliss book. Disjointed, cutesie, shallow. I kept asking myself WHY any of these people did the things they did. And, I didn't like Vicky Bliss at all.

I'm going to re-read Edmund Crispin this year - well, several are reads, but most re-reads. He's one of those authors you can't read too many of too close together, so I'm going to back off for 2-3 weeks or so. They're very clever and well-thought mysteries and his depiction of 30s and 40s British society is wonderful to read. Several laugh out loud moments in each.

I loved the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The book ended with me happily imagining their lives in the 50s and 60s and etc. I liked the characters immensely. Well written, full of lovely detail about New York, comics, WWII, etc.

I started The Assault on Reason in January and finally, finally finished it. I so wish Bush had not stolen the election from Al Gore in 2000. We wouldn't be in IRAQ and we would have had 8 years of this thoughtful, intelligent, good man as President. His ideas about democracy and the criteria for it's success are based on participation by the people, and his discussion of how we've been disenfranchised because of TV and "marketing" (my word) are interesting. Good, good book. Makes me want to get out there and DO something.

The Dechronization of Sam Magruder is a book I'd never heard of. I bought it at the Friends of the Pittsboro Library spring sale and loved it. It was clever, interesting, and had a Forward by Arthur C. Clarke and afterward by Stephen Jay Gould - impressive names. Sam Magruder travels back 80 million years, survives, writes on stone tablets which he places in a position to optimize being found as archaeological artifacts. They are, and the book goes on from there.

Let's see. What else? Bridget Jones's Diary. Fun, irreverent, clever. I almost liked the movie better, strangely enough. Perhaps because I like Hugh Grant and Colin Firth so much. But, I saw the movie first, too, so that must be part of it.

As much as I loved and cherished The Glass Castle I disliked The Mistress's Daughter. Both are memoirs of women and the defining crises of their young lives. Jeannette Walls wrote the perfect book in my opinion. Nothing seemed out of place or strident or corny or disruptive of the smooth flow of her narrative. Her childhood was horrible by most standards but she turned out quite well, thank you, and I respect her for her book and her life. On the other hand, A.M. Homes had a good home with loving adoptive parents. Admittedly, she didn't seek out her biological mother, but you can read all the way through the book about how being adopted blighted her life and made an empty spot in her that I don't think is fixed even now. The book was self-pitying and disjointed. That's one of my criteria about any book I read - does it flow smoothly or is it choppy and uneven? This book started with meeting the mother then the father, going through the horrors of having biological parents she didn't like or respect. Then, the mother dies. Guilt, whining, lots of description of her mother's apartment, calls her mother "dead Ellen" which put shivers up my spine. After that she rambles on about all the genealogical research she did on the Internet (like I cared), then zoomed over to talking about her adoptive mother's mother, then spent a teenie bit about having her daughter. What was the purpose of this book? The first few chapters were good (which is what I read in the bookstore and bought the book based on) but after that, bleh.

I'm currently reading the autobiography of Agatha Christie and Beowulf. For book club I must read Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Plus, I'll read some mystery and/or romance fluff.

This is fun! Sorry for prosing on so long. Hope I don't bore you all to death.

karen - No need to apologize for long posts! That tends to happen when people get together to talk about something they all love. Really enjoyed reading yours and want to check out The Glass Castle now. :) Also, I read The Merry Wives of Windsor for my Advanced Shakespeare class in January. Enjoy, Falstaff is quite a treat!

Sloth - Cold Mountain is the only Frazier I have read. I did like it. A lot actually. But it was a very difficult book to read. I adored the film adaptation and thought that I would eat the book up quickly. This was nowhere near the case. It takes a while to read (although I admit, my current state of being probably helped to contribute to the amount of time I spent on it), but Frazier makes you savor each page. It focuses on everything around the characters: history, nature, general conditions. It's very descriptive and well done. I'd recommend it.

#5 Tell me a bit more of what it's about Hol, you've really got me interested now!

#4 More of the long posts please! I love reading what other people think of books or I would never have started this thread. There's nothing more disappointing to me than seeing there is a new post from a favourite person on a favourite thread, only to find a quick two-word response to something. Keep 'em coming, that's what I say! Karen - I've hardly heard of any of your books apart from the Al Gore one. Is it a Brits v Yanks thing, or are they from a particular genre that I don't go for? I usually find I've at least HEARD of the books people are talking about. You're not making them all up just to frustrate me, are you?

Booksloth, I wouldn't do that to you! Besides, they wouldn't catalog properly if they weren't real. And, as I've said in quite a few posts in quite a few threads in quite a few groups, I only have books that I own in my catalog. (I have another username, kairfa, for my wishlist and other non-owned stuff).

Two of the authors are mystery writers. Do you read mysteries? Maybe that's the disconnect. I "lerve" mysteries.

Edmund Crispin is a British Author and composer, real name Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978). He wrote murder mysteries, with Oxford Professor of Literature Gervase Fen the sleuth on the cases. Wrote 11 books, 2 of them short stories. I'm going to (re-)read all 11 this year for my 888 challenge.

Elizabeth Peters writes the Amelia Peabody Series, 18 books spanning the years 1884 - 1920s (wonder how Tut's tomb/Howard Carter are dealt with, come to think of it!). I have read several of them and liked the first 4 or 5. The first one is Crocodile on the Sandbank. Series starts in the 1880s and has an Egyptian flair (and most of them occur in Egypt although Amelia, her husband, and her son, are British). I actually got bored about book 5 or so. I was going to say that I would eventually read them all, but 18!!! Maybe I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Helen Fielding is also British. Haven't you seen the movie Bridget Jones's Diary with Rene Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth? One of the funniest movies I've ever seen. The sequel is hilarious, too. Plus Grant and Firth are on my "they can eat crackers in my bed anytime they want" list. Heartthrobs. (Grant in Sense and Sensibility was a bit squishy, admittedly, but Firth as Darcy was sooo wonderful!)

The rest are American. Didn't make them up. I hadn't heard of A.M. Homes or George Simpson Gaylord (most famous paleontologist of the 20th century!!!) before buying the books. My sister gave me Kavalier & Clay - it's a Pulitzer Prize Winner. Check Chabon out. He's written 4 or 5 books now. I've listened to The Yiddish Policemen's Union and it was fantastic.

Picked The Glass Castle because a friend at work recommended it to me - it's my book for bookclub, which is meeting on May 4th. I hadn't heard of Jeannette Walls because I only watch Jeopardy on TV (and series on DVD like BSG), but apparently she's quite well known on MSNBC.

Whew! Here I go again. Must get back to work. This LT is sooo addictive.

Okay.. I almost didn't even place this in here because I have had such a pathetic reading month. At my work everyone but me has been sick so I have been picking up all of the slack. The paychecks are good but I have little time to read. I chime in with a measly 3 books this month. I have two more that are not finished yet so they will appear in the May list.

Less Than Zero ~ Bret Easton Ellis
Interview With The Vampire ~ Anne Rice
A Home at the End of the World ~ Michael Cunningham

I picked Less Than Zero because I think I wanted to compare it to the last book of his that I read. If you didn't like American Psycho then you would not like this one either....

Interview= Because my husband told me about reading it way back when it first came out and so I figured that I would have to as well. I did like the book, but I think I would have had a much stronger opinion of it had I not seen the movie a million times.

A Home at the End of the World= I actually liked this book. I really could not stand The Hours so I figured that I was in for a bad time when I started this book. Generally if I find that I cannot stand a book it's hard for me to give the author another try. In this case I was glad that I did. All in all, of my measly three books, I would vote for Interview....

#7 I believe you now! You wouldn't have made all that stuff up too! Helen Fielding was the other one I'd heard of - I saw the movie (once it came to TV) and read the book (stuck away in a Greek village with 2 English books on sale in the local shop (the other one was Zorba the Greek which I already owned) and having run out of all my other holiday books) Must admit, I didn't like either very much, though they passed a few hours and didn't do any lasting harm. I've also read 2 other books by A M Homes and wouldn't bother with a third. I may well try some of your other stuff though.

#8 Bit of a fan of 'Vampire' (though I never managed to get through any of her other vampire books). I think it's a lovely, lyrical and, in parts, quite erotic read. I gave up on Brett after American Psycho which I thought was revolting (measured, objective critique there) but I didn't really 'get' A Home at the End of the World at all. I think it may have been the kind of book that bathes you in its atmosphere and you either love that or hate it. It did very little for me but I was glad I'd read it. Quite enjoyed The Hours.

You all make me feel quite guilty when you've been working or studying like mad and then I look at my reading list and discover that all I've done all month is read! I will just make clear again that I'm disabled and at home all day so it's not just pure laziness! Though partly, it is!

CarlaR and Booksloth! We don't allow guilt in this group. We all read what we can read. One book or one hundred books. This isn't a contest. This is our personal hobby that we're lucky enough to share with each other.

CarlaR - Your work-related woes remind me of two years ago at this time when I was working 12-14 hour days 6-7 days a week from January - June! During that time I had carpal tunnel surgery AND my father passed away. Bad beginning of 2006. Not much being read then, I assure you.

I remember Interview as being a long, involved, intricate read. I read The Vampire Lestat, but couldn't get into Queen of the Damned. I haven't read a "serious" vampire book for a while, but do like what I've just learned is "urban fantasy" (Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Lilith Saintcrow, etc.) There's even a group for it of the same name. Fluff stuff that's fun to read.

Gotta go. Daughter's done with homework and husband, daughter, and I are going to watch the season two opener of BSG. We've watched seasons 1-3 already, but are going back. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait for season four until it comes out on DVD, I think.

There you go again. I don't even know what you're watching on TV/Cinema/wherever it is you're watching this stuff! Funnily enough, I'd forgotten Lestat, and you and I seem to have got to exactly the same place with Anne rice. It was about a quarter of the way through Queen of the Damned that I realised everything had gone horribly downhill.

Sorry about the oblique reference. Battlestar Galactica. On DVD. It's a remake of a 1970s TV series. i didn't watch the original. This is "science fiction" but the story is intriguing and the acting is outstanding. 12 planet federation, the machines made to be servants to the humans evolve and destroy mankind. Except that there are 50000 people who were on spaceships that escaped the annihilation and are on a quest to find Earth. We watch one or two episodes a night on nights that homework doesn't take precedence.

Time to start my morning - pancakes and bacon for the daughter for breakfast! We have to leave in 50 minutes. She has to be at school by 7 a.m. this morning for Jazz Ensemble practice. Long day. Bye for now.

Aha! Yes, I do know about Battlestar Galactica (though I haven't watched it). Just didn't pick up on the initials.

My little brother (by little I mean 20) loves Battlestar Galactica. Alas, I too, have never seen it.

And I agree, no guilt allowed. Besides, Carla, if it makes you feel better... I only had four on my list this month. I've always wanted to read "Interview" but was always kind of afraid to for some reason. Is it better than the movie?

ETA: I forgot that Sloth, you asked about Cold Mountain. It takes place during The Civil War and just follows Inman and Ada, two lovers, through their struggle during the years. Inman has illegally ditched out on the war and fights to find his way home to Ada at Cold Mountain. Ada, a fashionable city girl, has to figure out a way to survive on her own through hard labor. That description makes it sound like such a shallow story, but is in fact quite meaty. I think I enjoy thinking back on the book more than I actually enjoyed reading it. I will say it's not for everyone, but if you like descriptive-ness then Frazier is your guy.

That's such a weird phenomenon! I've read a number of books I feel like that about - maybe I wasn't in the right mood, I don't know, but I've rather rushed them thinking they're an average, but not thrilling read, then they come back and haunt me for ages. I definitely do it with films even more so (The Deer Hunter was a particular one). Thanks for the info Hol, I may try it sometime (another foot on Mt TBR) but it's definitely one for the Social History group. (As is The Pillars of the Earth, which I'm reading right now and you will be hearing about at length once I get to the end).

Karen.. I know it's a hobby and not a contest:) It's just that at the beginning of the year I was knocking out a lot of books and now... well. I equate reading with the amount of relaxation I am getting. Lately I have been too busy to really relax which is why I have not had reading time.

Hollister.. I wouldn't say that the book is better than the movie, but then again I think they did an excellent job with the movie. They didn't change it up too much for the movie. This was the first Anne Rice that I have read and I do think that she has the ability to keep you interested in the book. I might read some of the other Vampire Chronicles when I feel up to it.