MusicMom41's 999 challenge

THESE WERE THE PLANS I WAS CONSIDERING BEFORE THE CHALLENGE ACTUALLY BEGAN. THEY BEAR VERY LITTLE RESEMBLANCE TO WHAT I HAVE ACTUALLY DONE THIS YEAR. THE ACTUAL CATEGORIES AND BOOKS I'M READING FOR THIS CHALLENGE START WITH MESSAGE 51.

I am still fiddling with my categories and lists because I want them to be flexible enough so I don't get frustrated by having to put aside books I want to read because they don't fit or else not completing the challenge because I read too many books that didn't fit! So far this is my plan--all the books I've listed are ones I already own. I will get others for the categories from the library, by buying them, or other books I already own but haven't listed yet. Cross-over categories are mainly for moving a book if I need room in a category; however they might be use in both categories if I need them.

Ideas for 999 challenge

Category 1: Classics & Fiction (Possible cross-over category)

1. Eliot, George: Silas Marner (or Mill on the Floss
2. Huxley, Aldus: Brave New World (Fantasy)
3. Orwell, George: 1984 (Fantasy)
4. Orwell, George: Keep the Aspidistra Flying
5. James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
6. Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
7. Dickens, Charles: The Old Curiosity Shop
8.
9.
Other possibilities:
Orwell, George: Animal Farm (Fantasy)

Category 2: Africa or Global

1. Paton, Alan: Cry, the Beloved Country
2. Kapuscinski, Ryzard: The Shadow of the Sun
3. Butcher, Tim: Blood River
5. Bashir, Halima: Tears of the Desert (memoir)
6. Godwin, Peter: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (memoir)
7. Hochschild, Adam: King Leopold's Ghost
8. Flint, Julie & Alex de Waal: Darfur: A New History of a Long War
9. Achebe, Chinua: Home and Exile READ 2009
Other possibilities:
Veal, Tim: biographies of Livingston & Stanley
McEvedy, Colin: The Penguin Atlas of African History READ 2009
Kruger, Kobie: The Wilderness Family
Gurrah, Abdulrazak: By the Sea (fiction--Zanzibar))

Category 3: Civil War & American History

1. McPhereson, James: The Battle Cry of Freedom READ 2009
2. Shira, Jeff: Gods and Generals
3. Wert, Jeffry D.: The Sword of Lincoln
4. Taylor, Susie King: A Black Woman’s Civil War Memories READ 2009
5. Jones, Jacqueline: Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War
6. Horwitz, Tony: Confederates in the Attic READ 2009
7. Winik, Jay: April 1865: The Month that Saved America
8. Sneden, Robert Knox: Eye of the Storm
9.
Other possibilities:
Grant, U.S.: Personal Memoirs

Category 4: Books about Books (& Authors)

1. Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Literature Like a Professor
2. Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor
3. Adams, Maureen: Shaggy Muses
4. Cheever, Susan: American Bloomsbury
5. Manguel, Alberto: The Library at Night
6. Fadiman, Anne (ed.): Rereadings
7. Hitchens, Christopher: Why Orwell Matters
8. Hornby, Nick: The Polysyllabic Spree READ 2009
9.
Other possibilities:

Category 5: SciFi & Fantasy

1. Bachman, Richard (aka Stephen King): Blaze
2. Scott, Michael: The Magician (Nicholas Flamel series)
3. Heinlein, Robert: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
4. Le Guin, Ursala: The Left Hand of Darkness READ 2009
5. Herbert, Frank: Dune
6. Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana READ 2009
7. McKillip, Patricia: Riddle Master Trilogy
8. Miller, Walter M.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
9. Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles READ 2009
Other possibilities:

Category 6: Mysteries

1. Cook, Glen: Sweet Silver Blues READ 2009
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Other possibilities:

Category 7: Poets and Poetry

1. Oliver, Mary: Long Life
2. Hall, Donald: Unpacking the Boxes (memoir)
3. Oliver, Mary: New and Selected Poems: Volume I
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Other possibilities:

Category 8: Memoir, Biography, Letters, History

1. Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley READ 2009
2. Fadiman, Anne: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
3. Kai, Irene: Golden Mountain
4. Yang, Kao Kalia: The Latehomecomer
5. McCullough, David: Truman
6. Sayers, Dorothy: Letters Volume 2
7. Heyer, Georgette: The Conqueror (fictional biography)
8.
9.
Other possibilities:
Fossey, Dian: Gorillas in the Mist (Africa)
Mowat, Farley: Woman in the Mists (Africa)

Category 9: Because I want to!

1. Bradbury, Ray: Dandelion Wine
2. Bujold, Louise: Cordelia's Honor
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

ETA If anyone has a great suggestion that will fit one of my categories I'd be interested to check it out!

Hi, MusicMom!
I was just saying how to post a new topic on the other thread when I found that you already figured it out! You have lots of interesting books on your lists. I am doing a poetry category for my 888 challenge and just started my last one, Purgatorio. It has been interesting for me to read so much poetry in one year when I ordinarily only read a little of it. I was really glad that I did. Can't wait to hear what you think of your books. :) Happy Reading!
--BJ

Thanks for stopping by, billiejean.

I read quite a bit of poetry which is why I made it a category. I think I may need some respite as I think I've bitten off quite a bit of really serious reading with some of my categories.

I love Dante--I hope you read Inferno before Purgatorio. Which translation are you using. I have four but have only read two of them--I liked Ciardi really well and it has been released again.

I'll be interested to see what your 999 challenge looks like. I think this will be fun.

My translator for Purgatorio is Henry Francis Cary. I don't really know as much as I should about translators. I picked it for the Salvador Dali illustrations. :) I just read Inferno. I am not sure which translation that was, but I think maybe the same (although different illustrator). I read all the notes in the back to pick up the parts I was missing. I don't have a copy of Paradiso yet. Should I get Ciardi?
--BJ

You might want to look at Ciardi and see if you like his style and if you think there are enough notes. But if you were happy with Cary you would probably feel more continuity sticking with the same translator. I find once I get into a "rhythm" with a translator that it's easier not to switch. But if you found the going difficult I would definitely check out another translation.

I would love to see the Dali illustrations! I'm going to have to see if I can find that edition.

Good categories, musicmom41. Bravo for #9 - keeping it fun is important.

Thanks for 'visiting' karenmarie.

#9 came about because as I was looking over my categories it seemed I had a lot of things I wanted to read that would be either long or "dense." Since this challenge will be 81 books it doesn't leave much room for "free choice"--which is the idea of #9. Also I know I'll be tempted by many books that others on Lt are talking about and need a place for them.

As to category 8, I read a slim Penguin Great Ideas books called Why I Write by George Orwell, in which the concluding essay includes his six rules for writers. Other than that, it was just a fun read of some of his published essays.

Thanks Prop2gether--

Before I joined the 999 challenge I had planned to make a project to read as much Orwel--and about Orwell and I could in 2009. So many of his works are being re-published now that it will be easy to get them and I've already started to collect some. I've just added Why I Write to my wish list and will get it to read for the challenge. I've already got a good bit of Orwell scheduled so I will at least get started on my Orwell project next year. I thought about making him a category this year but I already have two very specific categories--Africa and Civil War--and I don't want to feel too constrained next year.

MusicMom41 - I like your SciFi and Fantasy choices - they bring back some nice memories. A couple of other choices with those authors could be The Illustrated Man (Bradbury) and The Lathe of Heaven (LeGuin). Enjoy!

Thanks for the suggestions. This is a category in which I have not much experience beyond the "classics"--Tolkien & Lewis,--and, of course the someday classic Harry Potter series. ;-) Both my sons are big into this category so I'm trying to catch up.

I went through a huge fantasy phase when I was a kid, and they still are good comfort reads for me, even though I've tried to broaden my horizons as I got older. For some epic fantasy, I recommend Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Lately, I've found that I enjoy teen fantasies much more than adults, authors such as Tamora Pierce, Michael Buckley, Holly Black, Jane Yolen, Vivian Van Velde (who's kind of quirky), to name a few.

I'll be watching your memoirs category - that's one of mine, too, and one area in my reading where I definitely need to expand.

BTW, Dandelion Wine by Bradbury isn't sci-fi or fantasy. I think it's the only book he wrote that's not. Actually, it's a coming of age story focusing on the summer in the life of one boy. That said, it's fantastic! It's one of my favorite Bradbury stories, very well written.

#12 nmhale

hmmm? I had it recommended to me as a fantasy novel from someone on LT--unless I misunderstood. It was included with a couple of other Bradbury books when I asked for fantasy recommendations. The tags for it on LT include both fantasy and science fiction and it also was it on a "fantasy" list of suggestions on Amazon when I was researching scifi/fantasy there. However, I went to the book itself and although it talks about a "magical summer" it doesn't sound like a scifi/fantasy book.

I really want to read it--I have never read anything by Bradbury and think I should. I guess I'll have to move it to my "free" category although I hadn't planned to start with anything in that category. And continue my search for scifi/fantasy books that I will want to read. Ronincats was trying to get me to read something by Bujold and my local library has several--although not the one she though I should start with. Ah, the work one has to do to get a good list going! LOL

BTW thanks for stopping by! Which Bradbury would you recommend for scifi/fantasy?

I loved Dandelion Wine as well. I read it one chapter at a time to make it last longer. Just so good, so well done.

I don't know what your mysteries reading has been, but how about some classics and some of my personal favorites for that list?

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Whimsey), Robert Parker (Spenser), Raymond Chandler, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe), Martha Grimes, Elizabeth George (Inspector Lynley series), Caleb Carr's The Alienist, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Earl Stanley Gardner (the Perry Mason books), Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael series, Lindsey Davis's Falco series (set in imperial Rome, and very funny), Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series (also very funny), Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse), Tony Hillerman (Navajo tribal police), Dick Francis (horseracing themes), Dashiell Hammet, Edgar Allan Poe . . .

As a suggustion for books about books (Category 4): The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, such a fun read!

And for category 5: Dune by Frank Herbert. Despite the many sequels, it stands on its own. Great book.

#15 ejj1955

I can see that you are a big mystery fan, also. I've read at least some of most of the authors on your list--I own all of Sayers and read them multiple times; I also own all of Christie and Stout although there are a couple of Christie I haven't read, I'm in the process of reading all of Nero Wolfe in order-- even though much of it is rereads its been quite a while so I'm really enjoying all of them. I plan to have Chandler and Hammett represented in this challenge. I'm still debating about others.

In this challenge I plan to read mysteries I haven't read before and hopefully find some new authors--although I do have some favorites who have books I haven't read yet. I will definitely check out the authors you mentioned that I don't know!

I know about the Spenser series by Parker but have never read any--is there one I should try? Lindsey Davis (Falco) and Donna Andrews (Meg Langslow) I've never heard of. Can you give me titles I should try?

Thanks for all the suggestions!

(edited for spelling)

#16 woordenaar

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know about that book and I have wanted to read something by Nick Hornby because he would be a new author for me. I checked out the reviews and this one sounds fantastic and will accomplish double duty!

#17 ejj1995

My older son has been trying for years to get me to read Dune! I guess this is the time to break down and do it, huh? I think I even own a copy somewhere around here--which is another incentive.

Oops, been a while since I checked my groups. Very curious about Dandelion Wine, huh? It's been a while since I read it, but I'm 99% certain that there's nothing fantasy in it at all. I think it is listed as such simply on the basis of his other works. However, I agree with cmbohn that it's a fantastic book. You really should still read it!

Two of my favorite Bradbury books that are sci-fi are Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

On another topic, I recommended this to someone else here, but here I go again. For books about books, I enjoyed Biblioholism, which is a tongue in cheek look at the addiction of reading, focusing on the addiction element. Quirky fun.

Oh, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 goes without saying, right?

nmhale

I'm looking for a Bradbury fantasy and will check out those. I think I may have Fahrenheit 451 hanging around somewhere if I can dig it out. I may read more than one. I move Dandelion Wine to the "I want to" category--because,,,I want to!

Biblioholism will definitely go on my TBR list--even the reviews had me laughing! There is no doubt I'm a biblioholic--luckily I have a family that sometimes just ties me to a chair in the family room so I will spend time with them!

Yes, I'm in the same place of addiction. I found this comic on-line which is eerily similar to some of the conversations I've had with my husband:

http://wondermark.com/d/442.html

(sorry, don't know how to link here)

nmhale

the link worked fine and the cartoon is priceless! And actually, I think that is why both my sons became avid readers--even the one with learning problems who didn't learn to read until he was 13 years old!

In defense of my husband--he is an enabler. He never slows me down in a book store. When he's with me I always buy more than when I go alone. I'm not sure that's a good thing--but it beats feeling stifled!

It's been a long time since I read Fahrenheit 451. Maybe it's time to read that one again.

I'm married to an enabler too. In truth we probably encourage each other in our book buying and book hoarding habits. Your book choices are great and I've been inspired to add the Ray Bradbury, Orwell, Hornby, Raab and Manguel books to my wish list. I'm even thinking of perhaps a whole category devoted to Ray Bradbury. How does the saying go?... so many books so little...

Tigana is one of my all time favorite books (ok, I have several all time favorites, still...) and I don't, as a rule, like the genre very much. It's fantabulous and I may have to fit it into my rereads category now that you brought it up.

Confederates in the Attic is a good book to fit in with Civil War history as it really shows how the South (where I am!) is still overshadowed by its past and how the tendency to romanticize the pre-war period can be ugly. It's also a deeply humorous book. You'll want to attend a civil war reenactment after you finish it!

RidgewayGirl

Thanks for encouragement on Tigana. I really had a hard time choosing 9 books for that category because I don't read a lot in that genre--which is why I chose it for 999! I'm trying to "stretch my wings."

I lived in Savannah, GA for 25 years before coming to California. Somehow, I never got around to reading Confederates in the Attic so I'm looking forward to it. I know what you mean about how "romantic" Southerners can be about the pre-war period. It's like they think they didn't have any problems until the War. But I loved living there and really put down roots. Like you,, I've moved around a lot and had never stayed so long in one place (before that the longest had bee 6 years!)--I think Savannah will always seem like "home" to me.

I'm getting excited about this challenge and may start over the holidays. I'm excited about other people's lists too, which is a little odd. I'm worried they won't love the books on their list that I love as much as I do.

Anyway, let me know when you start Tigana and I will drop everything and read it at the same time. Just to tempt you--there are musicians in it.

I tried to find my 999 thread on the Group page for 999 because someone told me she couldn't find it--and neither can I. Did we just miss it--or has it gone missing?

ETA Okay--this post did what I was hoping it would do--it brought my thread to the top so now we know it's not missing! Whew! I'm glad I'm no lost--maybe just a little befuddled!

"Next" seems to be broken on the groups pages, so anything that falls below the fold won't show up. I checked the Bug Collectors group, and it seems they're aware of the problem and trying to work on it. It's not limited to the 999 group.

Checked out your SF/F list. The only one I've read is A Canticle for Leibowitz. We read it for classics book group this year. It's 3 stories from 3 different time periods in the same world put together in a single volume. Another novel in the same world came out in the mid- to late-90s, IIRC.

A former museum coworker *loved* Tigana. The memory of that convinced me to purchase Ysabel recently. And at some point I'll probably purchase A Song for Arbonne and Last Light of the Sun (which have BEAUTIFUL covers).

Tried Dune years ago, but I think it was a little too "dense" reading material for the age I was then. Of Heinlein I've only read Stranger in a Strange Land and, recently for classics book group, Have Spacesuit Will Travel. My older sister loved Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea trilogy.

Which ones were you ambivalent about?

#32 Renee

Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (which I will have to buy) Dune and Canticle for Liebowitz were all recommended by my older son--I would have the Heinlein here, too, if he could have found his copy to send home with me--all of these are his. He's MUCH more into fantasy than I am (even though I started him on this trip when he was young!) and I sometimes can't get in the books he recommends.. He also sent Tigana home with me, but that one looks like I will like it.

Riddlemaster Trilogy was highly recomended by either TadAD or ronincats or both (as was Left Hand of Darkness--my son also recommended that and I own it, because i like Ursala Le Guin) But I don't own it and it is awfully long. However i will probably try that one--especially if i can find it in the library.

After Tolkien I've just never been passionate about most of the fantasy I've tried but I really would like to find some to love because when I was younger I read quite a bit of it. Hence the 999 category to try to get back into it! :-)

I star all my personal threads (50 book challenge, 888, etc.) You can find the star at the top of the thread to the right of the thread title. It's very pale until you click on it. Once you've starred a thread, you can always find it by clicking the "my starred" from the threads page. That way you will never lose your own thead, and you can see instantly if someone has left a message there.

33> Have you tried Terry Brooks's Shannara series? Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series? George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series? If I'm asked for suggestions at the bookstore by people who identify themselves as Tolkien fans, those are the authors I generally recommend. I also suggested Guy Gavriel Kay to someone who had already read all those authors.

You probably already know this, but if you like Tolkien, what you like is usually described as "high fantasy." For a list of other potential authors, check out Wikipedia's high fantasy list.

I've read Sword of Shannara, which used to be the first book in that series. Now there's a prequel: First King of Shannara. I have the first Jordan book and the first two Martin books on my TBR mountain range.

Renee

Thanks for the link--I've bookmarked it so I can get suggestions for more later. My son talks about high fantasy and low fantasy--in fact he tags his books that way--but I didn't really understand. I'm still not sure what low fantasy is--but you are right, most of the fantasy I have read over the years is on that list. I noticed Riddle Master of Hed is on that list, so I will keep that one in my category and track down a copy.

I really appreciate your help and feel more confident that category now.

ETA I will probably start with Tigana and I definitely will let you know when I begin--probably right after the Coffee Trader group read.

#34 Nickelini

I don't have trouble finding my thread on my "Talk" section--it was missing from the 999 Challenge Group page when someone else was looking for it. That's why I left the message--to bring it to the top of that page. Evidently there are now so many people who have joined the challenge it doesn't show all of them at once on the group page.

I saw on someone else's thread that you plan to read Battle Cry of Freedom for your Civil War category. Have you read it before? I'm also doing the civil war this year, and have Battle Cry all lined up for a rare re-read in early January. I almost never re-read books. This one I read about 10 years ago as part of an independent study I did on the effects of the war on women in the north and south. It nearly overshadowed the other reading I did then, and I've been wanting to read it again ever since. Looking forward to your comments.

sjmccreary

This will be my first read of Battle Cry and I'm hoping that it will give me a perspective from which I can learn from and evaluate the other books I've chosen. It may also lead me to make some substitutions. I will be starting it probably sometime in January. If you want to discuss it while we are reading it we can do it on this thread. I will be posting which books I'm reading as I start them.

>18 MusicMom41:

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get back to this thread, but in answer to your questions, I guess I'd recommend the first book in any of the series I recommended, as they tend to have some continuing storylines (usually the romantic relationships) that play out over the series. For the Spenser series by Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript is the first, and there are, according to Wiki, 35 more!

The first Marcus Didius Falco novel by Lindsey Davis is The Silver Pigs; the series is set in imperial Rome but the tone reminds me of Raymond Chandler, perhaps--very tongue-in-cheek; Falco describes himself as a scruffy curly-haired lad of the Aventine, but is obviously good-looking, tough, and smart . . . and as described by Davis, it sure doesn't feel like a dead civilization!

The Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews starts with Murder with Peacocks; this is a contemporary series initially set in Virginia and a huge part of the enjoyment is provided by Meg's family and friends, as loony a group as you're likely to find.

I've also just finished Death at Bishop's Keep by Robin Paige (pen name of a husband and wife writing team); this series is set in Victorian England and features an independent American woman who writes "penny dreadfuls," sensational mysteries; she teams up with a British man who is interested in photography and advances in forensics; together they encounter several famous historical persons in each book. The one I read was the first but I liked it well enough to order another four from the series.

eji955

Thanks for all the suggestions--I especially thank you for giving me the title of the first book in each series. That is the way i like to read series. I plan to pick at least one of these series--perhaps Death at Bishop's Keep because I love Victorian England. I'm also planning to read a fantasy book I got for Christmas that takes place partly in Victorian England--To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

Carolyn,

If you ever come across a series and want to know the order of the books, there is a website called fantastic fiction which, once you identify the author, it shows all the titles in the order that they were written. I use it all the time. You can also find a series for a book by the title.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

Cheli

Thanks, Cheli.. I do use that site--a lot! I love series books and am OCD about reading them in order!

I'm almost read for 2009--but have a couple of books to finish before midnight Wednesday! And 3 I've just finished that I haven't reviewed yet--so I will have to get this challenge "in order" on Thursday.--Luckily that is a holiday! I'm on vacation until Jan. 5.

I'm like you, I like to read them in order.

Thanks for reminding me about the one I just finished needs a review.

Wow, what a great list! If I get tired of mine, I may just switch to yours ;-)

One more recommendation for SciFi/Fantasy - Orson Scott Card. I would recommend starting with Ender's Game. I also recommend Pastwatch for a great twist on history and Christopher Columbus.

I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog, it was so funny!

I haven't read Orwell since High School. I am a big fantasy and scifi fan but I definitely put his books in the "boring school books" slot. Maybe I'll give them another try in 2010.

Sounds like you have plenty of Mysteries. I will mention two books that would take you away from your current authors. False Impression by Jeffrey Archer and The Last Secret of the Temple by Paul Sussman. I picked both up in the airport in Dubai for the long flight back home and they kept me engaged.

For Spenser, one of my favorites is Early Autumn. I also enjoyed Cold Service because I really enjoy the books with Hawk in them.

Happy New Year!

Ditto to Orson Scott Card.
Ditto to Spenser books with Hawk in them.

Ditto to Happy New Year!

I'll be interested in what you think about To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's definitely one of my "comfort foods" while I heard someone else say she reads Bellwether every year.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun was a gorgeous book, very poignant. Hope you enjoy it! I met some Zimbabwean refugees at the time I was reading it, so I felt I understood them better.

HannahJo

What a great experience that must have been. Isn't is great when what we are reading "intersects' with Real Life!

The categories in the first message were my planning stages and they are still my main source of what I plan to read. But I need room to make new choices if something "better comes along!" Also, I've discovered it is difficult to edit such a large message when every time you edit you have to redo touchstones that aren't the default ones. So I am going to set up 9 "messages"--1 for each category--and enter the books as I read them. That way I will also have them in the order read. No book will be entered until read. I will post in a message each time I start a book and when a book is finished I will post any comments/review I do in a separate message. These lists will just keep track of titles that are completed.

edited for spelling

Category 1: Classics and Fiction

1. Jerome K. Jerome: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) (2/25/09)
2. Willa Cather: The Old Beauty and Others (2/26/09)
3. Lewis, C.S.: Till We Have Faces (5/27/09)
4. Salinger, J.D.: Franny and Zooey (6/01/09)
5. Franklin, Ariana: Mistress of the Art of Death (6/16/09) (mystery)
6. Stewart, George R.: Earth Abides (7/13/09) (Sci-Fi)
7. Morley, Christopher: Parnassus on Wheels (8/04/09) (Books about Books)
8.
9.

Category : Africa

THIS CATEGORY HAS BEEN DELAYED UNTIL 2010

Category 2: American Civil War

1. Horwitz, Tony: Confederates in the Attic (2/8/09)
2. Taylor, Susie King: A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs (2/9/09)
3. McPherson, James M.: Battle Cry of Freedom (6/21/09)
4. McPherson, James M.: Tried by War (7/19/09)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Category 3. Books about Books (& Authors)

1. Samet, Elizabeth: Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point (1/21/09) ER for LT
2. McGregor, Robert Kuhn: Conundrums for the Long Weekend: England, Dorothy Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey (1/25/09)
3. Hornby, Nick: The Polysyllabic Spree (3/15/09)
4. Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen (4/11/09)
5. Achebe, Chinua: Home and Exile (4/12/09)
6. Morley, Christopher: The Haunted Bookshop (8/17/09
7.
8.
9.

Category 4: Science Fiction

1. Willis, Connie: Doomsday Book (1/6/09)
2. Campbell, Jack: The Lost Fleet: Dauntless (1/11/09)
3. Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles, the 1997 revised and updated version (1/13/09)
4. Stephenson, Neal: The Diamond Age (1/30/09)
5. Le Guin, Ursula: The Left Hand of Darkness (6/28/09)
6. Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog (8/02/09)
7.
8.
9.

Category 5: Fantasy

1. Cook, Glen: Sweet Silver Blues (1/17/09) (could also be Mystery)
2. Connolly, John: The Book of Lost Things (2/6/09)
3. Dahl, Roald: The Witches (2/28/09)
4. Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana (3/16/09)
5. McKinley, Robin: The Blue Sword (3/29/09)
6. Rowling, J.K.: Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
7. Rowling, J.K.: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
8. McKillip, Patricia A.: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
9.

It's only April and I know I will read more books in the SciFi/Fantasy category so I decided to split it into two categories. That way I will do a more balanced selection (I'm rather surprised that the first nine were 4 Science Fiction and 5 Fantasy--I thought I would have much more Fantasy) and hopefully I will learn to tell the two genres apart.

Category 6: Vintage Mysteries

1. Hilton, James: Was It Murder? (2/1/09)
2. Tey, Josephine: A Shilling for Candles (3/19/09)
3. Marsh, Ngaio: Death in Ecstasy (4/17/09)
4. Stout, Rex: And Be a Villain (4/28/09)
5. Marsh, Ngaio: Alleyn and Others—The Collected Short Fiction (4/29/09)
6. Greenberg, Martin H. ed.: Murder British Style (5/22/09)
7. Wallace, Edgar: The Murder Book of J.G. Reeder (6/08/09)
8. Stout, Rex: The Second Confession (8/07/09)
9.

Category 7: Mysteries after 1980

1. Penny, Louise: Still Life (3/22/09)
2. Walsh, Jill Paton: The Wyndham Case (3/27/09)
3. Nabb, Magdalen: Death of an Englishman (3/30/09)
4. McCrumb, Sharyn: Bimbos of the Death Sun (6/02/09)
5. McCrumb, Sharyn: Zombies of the Gene Pool (6/29/09)
6. Bradley, Alan: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (8/14/09
7.
8.
9.

Category 7a: Poets & Poetry

1. Rich, Adrienne: An Atlas of the Difficult World (1/9/09)
2. Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Rebel’s Silhouette (2/15/09)
3. Milosz, Czeslaw: Facing the River (2/28/09)
4. Millay, Edna St. Vincent: Fatal Interview (3/29/09)
5. Teasdale, Sara: Dark of the Moon (4/7/09)
6. Oliver, Mary: Evidence (5/09/09)
7. Forche, Carolyn: The Country Between Us (5/25/09)
8. Alegria, Claribel: Fugues (5/27/09)
9. Oliver, Mary: Owls and Other Fantasies (5/31/09)

Category 7b: Poets and Poetry

1. Bly, Robert: Morning Poems (6/30/09)
2. Collins, Billy: Sailing Alone Around the Room (8/03/09)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Category 8: Biography, Memoir, Letters

1. Douglas, Frederick: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (3/24/09)
2. Woolf, Virginia: Flush: A Biography (4/11/09)
3. Baker, Jean H.: James Buchanan (4/21/09)
4. Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley category (7/16/09)
5. Kraft, Heidi Squier: Rule Number Two (7/21/09)
6.
7.
8.
9.

Category 9: Because I Want To!

1. Dunn, Mark: Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable (1/18/09)
2. Heyer, Georgette: Friday’s Child (3/23/09)
3. Humphreys, Helen: the Frozen Thames (4/29/09)
4. Adams, Scott: Random Acts of Management (5/08/09)
5. Harr, Jonathan: The Lost Painting (6/16/09)
6. Dahl, Roald: Esio Trot (7/01/09)
7. Dahl, Roald: The BFG (7/02/09)
8. McEvedy, Colin: The Penguin Atlas of African History (3/14/09)
9. Tarbell, Ida M.: He Knew Lincoln (8/02/09) (Civil War)

Category X: Newbery Winners

1. Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book (fantasy) (3/02/09)
2. Raskin, Ellen: The Westing Game (mystery) (3/04/09)
3. Konigsburg, E.L.: The View from Saturday (3/07/09)
4. Kadohata, Cynthia: Kira-Kira (3/31/09)
5. McKinley, Robin: The Hero and the Crown (4/08/09)
6. Lowry, Lois: The Giver (6/23/09)
7.
8.
9.

Wow Carolyn...your categories are quite similar to mine. I'm going to be watching closely to see if I want to swap out any of my list for something you have that looks even better. I received Soldier's Heart for Christmas and have moved it up to near the top of the TBR pile. Right now I'm up listening to an audio of Pillars of Fire from my re=read category. I know I loved it when I read it years ago, but boy oh boy had I forgotten a lot. So glad I decided to redo it before reading World without end. Also started the Coffee Trader...we're having a terrible wind storm here right now, so it's too loud to sleep. So shucks, I just have to read. Enjoy your 2009.

tutu

Are you doing the group read on Coffee Trader? It starts Monday--when I get back from my vacation. I hope to have the two I'm starting now done by then--then i will pick another nonfiction book to read while I'm doing the group read.

Yes I'm doing the group read for that, and another group read for an online group here in Maine --the librarians in Portland did a 'Literary Map of Maine' and are doing "Read around Maine" as we choose different books from the map. I may change one of my categories to Read Around Maine, but figure my book club/list category will handle whatever comes up. They are reading Olive Kitteridge, a book I read last year and didn't particularly like, but I decided to re-do to see if other people had a different perspective that would shed new light. I started The Coffee Trader right about midnight. So far it's really good, and I can't wait to start the group read.

if you're interested in peeking here's the link to the Literary Map of Maine

Doomsday Book is really good -- and I generally am not a fan of the genre. So enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Hi MusicMom!

I'm giving the 9-9-9 a try this year. Looks like you've got a great selection of books to start with.

Good luck!

#63 tutu

I love the idea your Maine librarians came up with. There are so many great writers on that list--I had no idea so many of my favorites over the years were from there. E.B. White is so famous he had to be listed twice! He's a favorite of mine! Thanks for the link to the site. I'll be looking on your thread to see what you are reading from Maine--please identify them as you go.

I wish California librarians could come up with something like that, but it would never work. We are essentially 3 states ruled by one legislature and governor: Northern California, Central California--The Valley, and Southern California. Someday we will have our own civil war.

#64 RidgewayGirl

I thought you were a fan--since you encouraged me about Tigana. I plan on reading that one probably in March--it is pretty "thick" and I have a couple of other "biggies" I hope to get done in January and February. I'll let you know before I actually start it if you are still interested.

I'm only just starting Doomsday Book but so far it is very interesting and I'm not tempted to put it down! I'm not an expert on Medieval Times but Willis seems to have researched that period pretty thoroughly which will add interest to the book for me.

#65 tapestry100

Thanks for stopping by. I'm impressed with what you plan to read for your 999 and am looking forward to seeing your comments.

It should be an interesting year for all of us!

Book 1:

Willis, Connie: The Doomsday Book
999 SciFi/Fantasy category

Review is Here at Message 9

edited to add where to find message. I anyone knows how to make the link go to the actual message instead of just the thread I would really appreciate if they would let me know. thanks!

I'm glad you liked The Doomsday Book. I don't generally like SF/Fantasy, but good literature transcends its genre.

Book 2:

Rich, Adrienne: An Atlas of the Difficult World
999 Poets and Poetry category

Review Here Message 39

This time I must have left out a "stop" symbol and the link still won't go to the message. Now the "edit" won't work so I can't change it. Anyway, the "Here" will take you to the thread but you have to scroll down to Message 39--if you are really that anxious to knw what I thought!

I may have to stop trying to make links--I'm getting worse rather than better! Anybody have a suggestion for me? This is frustrating!

First thing I'd check is that there are " marks on *both* sides of the URL. Then I'd check to make sure the end of the link is without the spaces. Are the side angle brackets around both ends of the beginning of the link?

I'm not sure it'll work, but I think to link to a particular message, you'd have to create an anchor for the link within the message you want to link to. I've never tried it here at LT. If you need a tutorial, check here

HTH, Renee

For your Africa and/or memoirs category I'd like to recommend Blue Clay People, which is a memoir of an American aid worker in Liberia. It was really beautiful, informative, and quite moving.

Book 3.

Campbell, Jack: The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
999 SciFi/Fantasy Category

John Wayne in Space! A rip-roaring good read!

Book 4:

Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles (the revised and updated version of 1997)
999 SciFi/Fantasy category

I finished The Martian Chronicles and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. This is my first Ray Bradbury book and I had expected more. I have no problem with the writing--his prose is lovely and his descriptions are excellent. However, I'm not enthralled with his plots or his characters (most of them are pretty "flat"—with a couple of exceptions).

Hi MusicMom! I haven't read The Martian Chronicles yet, although it is old sci-fi, so I'm not too surprised that it wasn't sparkly. Still, I highly recommend Something Wicked This Way Comes and Dandelion Wine. These books don't really have scifi elements, and are excellent stories.

I haven't read Martian Chronicles either. But I would second the recommendation of Something Wicked This Way Comes. Sometimes Stephen King's works like Needful Things, It or The Shining remind me of it. I don't re-read it that often because it still inspires a nightmare or two.

I was first turned on to science fiction when my dad gave me a 3 or 4 book set of Ray Bradbury paperbacks, which included The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and 1 or 2 other books that I can't quite remember. (I have them around here somewhere - have barely started cataloging my paperbacks...!). Anyway, I really enjoyed them, but I probably wasn't even 10 years old. I'm inspired to re-read them now to see if it was just my age.

I read Something Wicked This Way Comes not that long ago, and totally agree with nmhale and VictoriaPL. The TV movie was well-done, if you ever get a chance (or the inclination) to see it.

I avoided SF completely until I read Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog which led me to Doomsday. While I loved TSNOTD, I'm with you; I really like a book that includes an interesting part of history as well. I noticed, too, that you've included Fadiman's book, The Spirit Catches You... That was such an outstanding book! First she made the topic so interesting--a book like that can so often get bogged down in details--but more importantly for me, she laid out a complex story in which the actions of all the major players are understandable, and worth our sympathies. It made for one of the best book group discussions I've ever participated in. Hope you enjoy it as well!

#75 nmhale

If you decide to read The Martian Chronicles I suggest the revised and updated 1997 version. My favorite story is only in that edition and I suspect one or two others I liked might also be only in the new edition--when i was reading they seemed to stand out because they seemed more "polished" both in writing and in plotting, which may mean they, too, were later works.

#78 bonniebooks

I plan to read TSNOTD by Willis this year because it ws given to me as a Christmas present. It wasn't on my planning list because I didn't own it then. Also, thanks for the plug for the Anne Fadiman book. I chose it because I like her writing (especially ex libris!) and because I live near the area where that took place. However, I'm having to make adjustments in that category and I was considering dropping that one because it was sort of a stretch to put it there. I now know I will definitely read it this year--even if I have to move it to the I Want To category.

MusicMom, another yes! to Something Wicked This Way Comes, but also for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for your science fiction category. Heinlein's novel is a little "closer" in that it involves our moon, colonized originally as a penal facility, but having grown way beyond that--how do you revolt for independence when you can't stand on Earth? It was funny and fascinating to read the political machinations--oh and a bit of regular science fiction (because, you know, it's set on the moon).

Also, for your Civil War reading--I'd recommend any of the Shelby Foote's historical narratives, any of the Bruce Catton trilogy, or for fiction purposes, Foote's Shiloh: A Novel which is based on letters from soldiers in that battle, or Keith's Rifles for Watie (which is considered young adult), or Crane's The Red Badge of Courage.

Also for Civil War, something that would overlap with Biographies/Memoirs is Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins. It's fairly short and from an "average" soldier's point of view. A fairly large number of ACW reenactors have this in their libraries.

The Killer Angels is an amazing book by Michael Shaara about the battle of Gettysburg. Beautifully written, with a sympathetic and complex view of both sides from the points of view of assorted leaders. If I remember correctly, it won some big award (the Pulizer, maybe?) and completely deserved it.

Yup. Pulitzer for Michael Shaara's _Killer Angels_ (just want to emphasize which Shaara). Think it was '73.

ETA - 2 years off. It was apparently awarded the 1975 prize. 1973 was when he sold it.

MusicMom41, I don't read a lot of poetry books but recently heard about Poetry as Spritual Practice, which is subtitled: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions. Author is Robert McDowell.

I haven't read it but it sounds intriguing. I'm considering putting it in my catch-all category: Books I Don't Usually Read.

Prop, Ridgeway, and Renee

Thanks for the encouragement and the suggestions.

I've read The Killer Angels several years ago--one of the first CW books I read as an adult.* I think I read Rifles for Watie but I would have to look at it to be sure. I read quite a few YA CW books when I was a YA. I read Red Badge of Courage last year--one of my top 5 reads, and the book that started me checking out the CW thread and finding out about so many other great books and hence the category. Ain't LT great!

I have a memoir type book of a Union Soldier, Eye of the Storm by Private Robert Knox Sneden. I'm definitely going to look for Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins to get the Confederate view from the trenches. Even if I have to bump something else.

* I have a story about Killer Angels.

We were in Delaware visiting friends and Hubby had to go spend a few days in D.C. for a conference. While he was gone I started reading Killer Angels. When my husband arrived back I was reading and right in the middle of the battle at a very crucial moment that would determine the outcome and I didn't put my book down--I was trying to keep everything in my head so I could visualize what was going on. He made some remark about what a nice welcome and I said, "Just a minute, honey. I have to see who wins this battle!" :-) Even I stopped and laughed when I realized what I had just said. I still love that book and after 999 I will probably want to read it again!

#84 lindapanzo

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to look for that book. I do read a lot of poetry and that would be interesting.

#38-39

MM41, are you still planning to start Battle Cry of Freedom in January? Or maybe you already have. I started it last night and got through chapter 3, and am loving it all over again. I'd love to discuss if you are also reading.

sjmccreary

I hope to start Battle Cry of Freedom next week. I'm really bogged down now and have to clear the decks before I start anything major that will take concentration! This will be my first time and I'm a slow reader.

Book 5:

Cook, Glen: Sweet Silver Blues (could also be Fantasy)
999 SciFi/Fantasy category (1/17/09)

Recommended by TadAD because he know I love Nero Wolf. This is my first fantasy/mystery and I loved it! The story was good, the characters interesting, there was humor and tension, and I didn't even mind the vampires!

Book 6:

Dunn, Mark: Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable
999 Want To! category (1/18/09)

This was a quick quirky read filled with humor. Just fun!

#88 Let me know when you get started. I was mistaken when I said chapter 3 - I was only through section 3 of chapter one. I've gotten into chapter 2 now, but it will be several days before I get back to it, so you might catch up pretty quickly.

#90 sjmccreary

I will probably not be until sometime next week. I have a couple of other things I must read first and I'll be out of town next weekend handling a problem at the house we inherited up north. I'll let you when I begin--but I'm rather a slow reader so I might no be able to catch up. However, we can discuss it when I finish. It will be my February CW read.

I'm intrigued by your synopsis of Sweet Silver Blues. I like mysteries and fantasies, and there's vampires, too? :) I might have to check that one out.

nmhale

I think you might like it. I have found that almost anything TadAD recommends in the scifi/fantasy category is good (actually, so far everything he has recommended has been good!). If you like Nero Wolf there will be one character you will get a kick out of.

I just had to say it (I'm feeling a bit ticked off right now) but one excellent book on books I enjoyed was Sara Nelson's book, So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading.

The reason I am ticked off is that Nelson has been laid off today as editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly magazine. (This is according to the NY Times)

She is one of the most passionate proponents of books and reading that I know of. I am appalled by PW's decision.

#94 lindapanzo

So Many Books, So Little Time sounds like a book I would really enjoy. I'm always looking for more inspiration! Thanks. It will probably make me mad about her firing, too.

I know that thousands of job cuts were announced today but Nelson's is the one that makes me the maddest.

I hold out hope that she will do a sequel to her book. Maybe she'll get a nice severance package and spend another year reading and then write a book about it.

Boy, that would be a great way to make "lemonade" out of the lemons life throws at you! I could go for that one myself. ;-)

I made lemonade when I was laid off.... my husband said I didn't have to find a new job so I just "retired". Since then 3½ years ago, I've gotten to read close to 400 books and travel a bunch (with books of course) -- the lemonade has been sweet!

For the books about books, how about the memoir Sixpence House by Paul Collins? He is American, goes to live in Hay-on-Wye (the "town of books") in Wales and works for the eccentric owner of the requisite castle. Collins is a bit over-the-top when he gets to ranting about various British customs and oddities, but mostly the book is a fun read. I made a point of visiting Hay-on-Wye because of the book.

Book 7:

Samet, Elizabeth D.: Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point (ER for LT)

A combination "book about books" and "memoir" about a woman who, after earning her PhD in English at Yale goes to West Point to teach literature. I requested to review this book because I love books about books and I was curious what kind of literature a professor would choose to teach to students who would someday become commanding officers in our armed forces. This book definitely fulfilled that mission and offered much more.

Book 8:

McGregor, Robert Kuhn: Conundrums for the Long Weekend: England, Dorothy Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey

McGregor, a history professor at the University of Illinois, Springfield, collaborated with Ethan Lewis, an English professor at the same institution, to demonstrate how Sayers’ series of mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey portrayed what was happening in Great Britain in the period between the two world wars, often referred to as “The Long Weekend."

This book about teaching literature at West Point sounds wonderful. I will have to track down a copy.

It sounds similar to a book I read a few years ago about teaching literature at the Naval Academy. That one is--Annapolis Autumn: Life, Death, and Literature at the U.S. Naval Academy written by Bruce Fleming

linda

I will have to try to track that one down. I really enjoy Soldier's Heart!

I enjoy reading books about people trying to get through West Point, the Naval Academy, boot camp etc. I've been tagging and discovered that I've read about two dozen such books. Soldier's Heart will make a great addition to that list.

I also enjoy reading about people getting through medical school, internship, residency etc.

I too am going to track down the book Annapolis Autumn - my husband is a graduate, and I grew up down the road from the Academy. We both agree this one is going to the top of both our lists.

I second the suggestion of adding Sixpence House to one of your categories. It's a fun read for anyone who loves books, booksellers or eccentrics living out their dreams.

Your Africa selections look fabulous. I'd like to have a better understanding of contemporary African history and you have lots of titles that sound like they'd fit the bill without being too textbookish. I'm looking forward to your reviews.

In your civil war category, you might consider adding Lincoln's Sword. It is an in-depth study of how Lincoln used writing to shape his thoughts. It tracks versions of the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural to show how he clarified concepts and honed his focus over time. I'm probably making it sound really dull but I found it a fairly quick, fascinating read (although a bit more work than Confederates in the Attic and without the laughs). I felt it gave me a much fuller view of the struggles of communication in a pre-broadcast media era.

#105 tractfox

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already added Sixpence House to my library list and I will check to see if the have Lincoln's Sword. I always felt that his power of persuasion was a big asset for him.

Book 9:

Stephenson, Neal: The Diamond Age
999 SciFi/Fantasy category
PL 499 pages (1/30/09)

I think this book would be classified Science Fiction with elements of Fantasy. The main story involves a very young street urchin girl who accidentally receives a book that is interactive and will teach her many things. This is the part of the book I really enjoyed as she learns not only to cope with the bewildering world but eventually becomes someone who will impact this world. In spite of some of the frustration I felt in trying to unravel all the threads in this very dense story--almost as many threads as on LT :-) —I never lost interest in the book and in some ways enjoyed it. I would rate this 3 ½ stars and recommend it to hard core Science Fiction/Fantasy fans.

Book 10:

Hilton, James: Was It Murder?
999 Mystery category
Library 252 pages (2/1/09)

TheTortoise talked so much about James Hilton last year that I decided I needed to read something by him. A very entertaining Sunday afternoon read and highly recommended for fans of older English mysteries. For me, it was a 4 star read, for others who like this kind of thing it would probably be a 3 star read, so I’ll compromise and give it 3 ½ stars.

I will have to add Was It Murder to my list. I like going back and reading older mysteries.

Last year, I read the three James Anderson mysteries--The Affair of the Blood-Stained Egg Cosy, The Affair of the Mutilated Mink, and the Affair of the 39 Cufflinks. Excellent, fun reads.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor is another old-time mystery author I liked. I read all her Leonidas Witherall books (written as Alice Tilton, I think) which were kind of like slapstick mysteries. However, I still have a lot of the Asey Mayo books left to read (these were all set on Cape Cod).

Book 11:

Connolly, John: The Book of Lost Things
999 SciFi/Fantasy category
Library 339 pages (2/6/09)

I had very mixed feeling about this book. When I started it I had expected a YA book because many people on LT seemed to treat it that way. The story is a coming of age story about a 12 year old boy, David, who must deal with the death of his mother and his father’s remarriage and the birth of a brother. David is an avid reader, a passion he shared with his mother, and he ends up in a fantasy situation based on “fractured fairy tales.” However, this story is very intense and contains quite frightening elements that might not be suitable for younger readers. That said, I enjoyed the book quite a bit, even though I often find “coming of age” stories not my favorite genre. I do love fairy tales, so that aspect of the story appealed to me even though in spite of finding some of the violence disturbing. By the time I got to the end of chapter 31 I was debating whether to give the book 3 ½ stars or 4 stars. Unfortunately there was a chapter 32 which rather ruined the story for me. It won’t for everyone—but I will give a brief hint as to why it did for me.

WARNING—MILD SPOILER AHEAD: The last chapter is rather tacked on, having very little to do with what preceded it, but was quite revealing about the author’s view of life. (IMO) When I finished it the first thing that came to mind was a song that Peggy Lee used to sing called “Is That All There Is?” (I think I have the title correct! The idea is correct, anyway!) It left me feeling flat and wondering if that’s the way Connolly feels why was David’s ordeal an important story to tell?

A reluctant 3 stars because of the first 31 chapters.

Book 12:

Horwitz, Tony: Confederates in the Attic
999 Civil War category
PL 406 pages (2/8/09)

In the late 1990s journalist Tony Horwitz spent over a year touring the South (USA), meeting with many people who celebrated the Confederacy including United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of the Confederacy, and Children of the Confederacy. He spent much time with reenactors, visited many battle sites, museums, and monuments and read much literature about the Civil War. This book gives a fascinating look at the many views held by Southerners, both Black and White, about the Civil War, its aftermath, and even about Civil Rights and the 20th Century battles that have been fought for that. Although his viewpoint is that of a Northerner, he is often moved to compassion and developed some understanding of the Southern viewpoint as well. I read this as my first book in the Civil War category. I think it made a good introduction because he visited so many sites in such a short period of time I have a better idea in my mind the names of events I will be reading about later and a little taste of the history which I will be filling in with more detail as I explore this area more thoroughly. His style is engaging mixing humor as well as pathos into his stories. I suspect someday this book will also be part of the literature of the Civil War, explaining how in the 20th Century, in many ways, the “war” was continuing. Highly recommended. 4 ½ stars

I'm not a big Civil War fan, but Confederates in the Attic looks fascinating! *adds to list*

#112

I hope you enjoy it. It is very good at showing the lingering effects of the CW especially in the South.

A few weeks ago we went to an anniversary reenactment at Cowpens, SC. It was a Revolutionary war battle, but my husband and I got a big kick out of remembering the Civil War reenactors in Confederates in the Attic. Incidentally, my third-grader is studying the Revolutionary War at school and she was enraptured by the experience.

At l least in Revolutionary War reenactments no matter what state you come from to view it, the viewers have a common enemy--unless of course you let a Brit in! ;-) Your daughter will remember that experience all her life!

Yes, but there was no bloating. I confess that I yearn to visit a Civil War reenactment just to see that. Probably wouldn't stay long enough to see the spooning, though. Have I trivialized it all enough?

Book 13:

Taylor, Susie King: A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs
999 Civil War category (or Memoir category) also “Black History Month” read
PL 154 pages (2/10/09)

This is a wonderful memoir written by a Black woman from Savannah, Georgia, who served with the Black regiment that was formed in South Carolina. These Black troops did much to secure the Barrier Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina and gained territory that made Sherman’s march to the sea possible. Her perspective on this aspect of the war is a valuable addition to the literature available from that era. I especially enjoyed this memoir because it takes place in the area of the South in which I lived for nearly 25 years. Its most important aspect, however, is that we see a perspective of the Civil War from the viewpoint of a Black person who had high stakes in the outcome of the conflict. Her observations are perceptive and show an understanding of what is at stake. Extensive additional notes on the information she gives helps to make this account valuable in understanding much about what these Black regiments accomplished and the sacrifices they made. Highly recommended! 4 stars

Women's voices are just not heard enough in history! I'm going to add this to my challenge lists. Thanks!

Book 14:

Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Rebel’s Silhouette (trans. By Agha Shahid Ali)
999 Poetry and Poets category
Library 101 pages (2/15/09)

Faiz was born in 1910 (or 1911 depending on which reference you are reading) in Punjab, he earned degrees in both English and Arabic literature and in WWII served in the Indian Army, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1947 after the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, Faiz chose to live in Pakistan where, in 1951 he was jailed on a charge of planning a Soviet sponsored coup. He spent four years in prison under a sentence of death, mostly in solitary confinement. After his release he held various positions on newspapers, in the Pakistan government—depending who was in power—, won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962 when his poetry was translated into Russian and became a world renowned figure especially in Pakistan, India, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. He died in 1984 in Lahore.

Reading Faiz’s poems would give one no clue to his political views. He is a romantic poet who writes of love, but usually as memory, especially in his “prison” poems. The feelings that resonated with me were his passion for life and his deep feelings about the suffering of his country and its people and his despair about not being able to “make things right.” There was also the feeling of finding strength to keep on trying, as well in the delight with so many of the “little things” in life. Many of his poems would put side by side images of love and peace with images of war and terror. Roses and blood were often used together, for example. In some ways my reading of his poetry this afternoon became entwined with the feeling I have been having about the novel I’ve been reading—life often means having to bear great pain and great responsibility to try for a greater good. One of his most poignant poems concerns a death by torture of a prisoner he knew.

Thanks for your review of the The Book of Lost Things - I think I may give it a try (credit for the first 31 chapters, anyway...). Your Civil War and poetry reading is impressive!

Book 15:

Jerome K. Jerome: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!)
999 Classics category (2/25/09)
PL 250 pages

This book far exceeded my expectations. I chose to read it because it was recommended as a prelude to reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, which is on my 999 list this year. The reviews I read were favorable and I anticipated a few enjoyable hours of light reading. Which, indeed, I experienced—I feel sorry for people who read very quickly, because this was a book I really savored. It’s humor can be compared to Wodehouse; but although Wodehouse makes me smile, I had to be careful where I was when reading Jerome because I would find myself bursting into loud laughter without warning—which earned me some astonished stares a couple of times. A favorite gems of history and philosophy lightly sprinkled by the narrator into this story of 3 young men traveling for two weeks down the Thames from London to Oxford in the 19th century. A lovely nostalgic “travel” book with great descriptions from an earlier era. Highly recommended. 5 stars (but only if you enjoy British humour!)

Book 16:

Willa Cather: The Old Beauty and Others
999 Classics category (2/26/09) Monthly Author Group Read for February
PL 166 pages

These are the last three stories Willa Cather wrote, finishing in 1945. For me they seemed to have a common theme: looking back over life when one comes to nearing the end of one’s own life. In the first story, “The Old Beauty”, a fifty-five year old man catches a glimpse of an older woman with who he had been acquainted when he was a very young man and she was a famous “beauty” in London society. Although the narration is in the third person, we get the story of her life as seen through his eyes as well as how this encounter and the relationship they build from it affects them It is a beautiful and touching story.

The second story in the book is the last story Cather wrote: “The Best Years.” In this story Cather is looking back to the Nebraska farm country where so much of her great work was centered. It is a bittersweet story that describes the life of a school teacher early in the century and includes the changes that happened as the century progressed.

In “Before Breakfast”, the third story, an older man looks back over the life he has led, the choices he made with their consequences and learns to come to terms with how his life came out. This was the shortest story but a fitting ending because this is what we all will at some time go through. Cather was genius to the end with her ability to say so much with such spare but beautiful language.

Highly recommended. 4 stars

Book 17:

17. Milosz, Czeslaw: Facing the River
999 Poetry category (2/28/09)
PL 66 pages

I seem to be having a theme this week. As Willa Cather in her last stories, Milosz in these poems written when was eighty seem to be looking back on many things. Fifty years after he escaped Lithuania he was welcomed back. Many of these poems look back on the Lithuania he knew growing up and fighting in a war for before he fled in 1939, sometimes making comparisons with “then and now.” He has poems that look back on many of the catastrophic events of the 20th century and others that look back on his own life. I was especially moved by his pondering of how and why he became a poet and what it has meant to his life. Here are two favorite quotes on that subject—from different poems:

Quote from “Capri” (remembering his childhood and the things that influenced him)

“Early we receive a call, yet it remains incomprehensible and only late do we discover how obedient we were.”

Quote from “Report” (addressed to “O Most High”—looking back on his life)

“How does it happen then that such low beginnings lead to the splendor of the word?

“I gathered books of poets from various countries, now I sit reading them and am astonished.

“It is sweet to think that I was a companion in an expedition that never ceases, though centuries pass away.”

Last year I read one of the most wonderful anthologies of world poetry I have ever encountered, A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry by Czeslaw Milosz, and decided I wanted to read a volume of his own poetry. This is the one I found and it is equally “luminous.” Highly recommended. 5 stars.

edited to fix html--I was in a hurry to get on the road and get home yesterday!

Book 18:

Dahl, Roald: The Witches
999 SciFi/Fantasy category (2/28/09)
PL 207

This was an enjoyable children’s fantasy with a clever story line. My first thought when I read it was “this certainly isn’t Beatrix Potter!” Although I have known about Roald Dahl for a long time and once rented the DVD of Gene Wilder’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to watch with my family, I have never read him before. I’m trying to decide for what age this is intended. My older grandson, not quite seven, would enjoy the humor and probably the scary bits but it would have to be read to him. I wonder if I wait until he is old enough to read it on his own if he would still enjoy it. Entertaining. 3 stars

Next up for me will be The BFG. I found it this year for twenty-five cents at the used book sale. I got Witches at last year’s sale.

I hope you enjoy The BFG. I read this to my youngest son many years ago and we both loved it. The animated film version is very good too.

No worries, older kids love Dahl too. Librarians I know confirm that his books are still some of the most widely circulated from their collections. I started reading him when I was in grade four and I've never stopped loving his work. My older daughter, who is now twelve, enjoys his books very much and has read most of them three or four times. She particularly loves the BFG. Personally, I've always thought James and the Giant Peach is Dahl's masterpiece.

Roald Dahl has been a huge favorite in our house since the children were very young. We started with The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me and The Fabulous Mr. Fox. Dahl can be blood thirsty and his children do things that a parent would really like their own children not to, but it's so fabulously imaginative. My personal favorite is the story of Esio Trot.

#126-128

Thanks for the encouragement. I will continue to collect them as I find them and take them to my grandsons the next time I go to Chicago!

I used to read a lot of Children's literature and YA all my life until my children grew up and left home. I think it is time to get back into the fray and see what kids are reading now! Both my sons still read a lot of YA for pleasure.

I just discovered all these Dahl books. Had only ever read the Willy Wonka ones. Since we only see our granddaughter a couple times a year, we have started a 'grandparent's book of the month club' and are going to send the sweetheart a book (or probably several books) each month, and then ask for a report (only verbal at this point). She actually sent a note and asked us to send some that she remembered being in our attic (our children's reading nook is up there), so we were thrilled to be able to keep her 'in books.' So if any of you have suggestionss......

edited to apologize for hi=jacking a thread. Should we start a new thread for grandparent suggestions?

Hey--I'm a Grandmother! I'm definitely open to suggestions, so right here is fine with me!

Time to go pick up our unmarried son and start our 6 hour drive home! Hopefully we will be home before "bedtime!" :-)

A bit of a children's lit fan here, so I'm happy to give suggestions, but age, sex and interests will help before I start. No use recommending Goodnight Moon to an eight year old.

My g-dtr is 8 1/2, is in 2nd grade (due to Oct b-day) but reads at 4-5 gr level. Loves animals, dragons, just about anything. She adored the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series, and also likes Junie B. Jones, E.B. White, and gets several nature magazines.

I just realized this was on MusicMom's personal thread, so let's take the recommendations and conversation elsewhere. It's really unfair to bog down her thread. Suggestions, anyone?

134=Nickelini= altho I suggested a new thread for grandparents, MusicMom indicated in 131 that it was OK to have the discusssion here on her thread, since she is also a grandparent, and did not mind chatting here about it.

Thanks for sharing the quote from Milosz's 'Report.' Like you, I have encountered him in anthologies and now, like you, I plan to seek out a volume of just his works.

Reading for March so far. I've added an extra category to my 999 challenge.

Book 19:

Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book
999X Newbery Winners (3/02/09)
Marty’s 311 pages

This is a wonderful story reminiscent of The Jungle Book by Kipling, only this baby is left in the care and protection of ghosts and a special mentor who is neither living or dead, who inhabit the graveyard. The boy is given “Freedom of the Graveyard” so that he needs to learn how to behave like a ghost as well as how to behave as a live human. The Newbery Award Winner this year, the book should appeal to all ages who enjoy fantasy and coming of age novels. There is mystery, suspense, and danger for a young boy who doesn’t always obey the rules. Highly recommended. 4 stars

Book 20:

Raskin, Ellen: The Westing Game
999X Newbery Winners (3/4/09)
Library 182 pages

A group of people are specially selected to live in a brand new condominium type edifice and become involved in trying to solve a murder. They are paired off to work as teams with a large monetary prize offered for the winning team. Each team is given a paper with words on it that are supposed to be part of a clue that will help lead to the solution. Of course, one of these people may be the murderer! This is an intriguing puzzle mystery written for about middle school age, which makes the solution to the first set of clues pretty obvious quite early for adult readers. However, there are enough twists and turns in the story and enough interest in several of the characters to keep the story appealing to the reader. I think I would have really liked this book when I was about nine or ten—my Nancy Drew phase. 3 ½ stars

Book 21:

Konigsburg, E.L.: The View from Saturday
999X Newbery Winners (3/7/09)
Library 163 pages

This story is about a sixth grade Academic Bowl Team of four students and their teacher who defeat older teams. But the heart of the story is learning about these 5 people and their life journeys to this point. It is a very special book if you like reading about life experiences that help shape the person you become. Highly recommended. 4 ½ stars

I also read The Book of Lost Things for this challenge and liked it quite a lot, but I won't be reading more by John Connolly. Another dark fantasy read I have yet to make is Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels which is YA crossover.

I read The Westing Game last year and thought it was clever and different. I'd definitely recommend it to kids who love to read.

Tender Morsels sounds like it would be a good one. I've added it to my list, but it will take a while for me to wok down to it. The YA's I'm reading right now are for my Newbery winners category--I'm using them to take a break from my heavier reading right now when I've got so much in RL to handle I need to relax with my books! :-)

Book 22:

McEvedy, Colin: The Penguin Atlas of African History
999 Africa category (3/14/09)
PL 144 pages

I bought this book when I decided to do an Africa category for the 999 challenge. I had intended to just have it on hand so I could refer to the maps of the period of history on which I was planning to concentrate. However last week when I was looking it over I decided it would be a good idea to read the entire book and I’m really glad I did. First I am astonished how much I enjoyed it. I’ve mentioned before that I have a brain that’s wired differently and one of the challenges this presents is the ability to decipher maps—I find this very difficult to do and it takes me a long time to study a map. Since this book contains 60 full page maps that need to be studied in conjunction with the accompanying text, covering the history of Africa from 175 million years ago when it was part of the Pangaea up to the final end of the colonial period in 1994, it was a little daunting when I started. Once I got started I was so fascinated by the complex history of this continent that although it took me a long time to read and absorb it I enjoyed every minute—and was constantly reading aloud portions of the text to my husband. (He is definitely NOT geographically challenged, so sometimes he could even help me understand things which were causing me problems.)

I now feel I have a good background of knowledge to under gird my further reading in this category and I have a more definite plan of what and when I will read this year because I know that I will continue to read about Africa after the 999 challenge is done. Now, I need to find an atlas that goes up to the present because there have been additional changes in the last 15 years since this atlas was last updated. Poor Africa seems to have been in flux throughout most of its existence! Highly recommended as an overview of the history of the African Continent. 4 ½ stars

Book 23:

Hornby, Nick: The Polysyllabic Spree
999 Books about Books category (3/15/09)
PL 143 pages

This book was just plain fun to read. It is a collection of monthly essays from September 2003 through November 2004 that were originally published in a book review publication called “Believer.” The title of the book is the term he uses when talking about the people who put out the magazine. I picked this book up on a whim because I liked the title and I had never read anything by Nick Hornby even though I have seen him mentioned many times. He starts each month with a list of the books he purchased that month and a list of the books he read. This approach is one of the few things we have in common; that is how I begin each month of my reading journal. Reading the essays is almost like having a conversation about books with him, except he can’t answer my questions or respond to my comments. :-)

Although our reading tastes have only a little overlap (we both love Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, however!) we have a lot in common in how we approach our reading with its joys and frustrations. I plan on keeping this book to reread in a year or two. There are some books he mentions that I might like to give a try when I’m not involved in so many challenges. I’m now reading a lot of books recommended by LTers that I wouldn’t have found on my own and maybe Hornby and I may have more similar tastes than I imagine.

Here are a couple gems of “wisdom” from Hornby:

“I should have read (the book) in a sitting, but I didn’t, and I never gave it a chance to leave its mark. We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they’re badly read, too.” That really spoke to me because of the problems I’ve had finding time to read Tigana.

Commenting on So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid: “Zaid’s finest moment, however, comes in his second paragraph, when he says that ‘the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.’” I didn’t realize how cultured we all are!

If you like to read about books, authors, and reading you should enjoy this book. Highly recommended. 4 stars

>23 MusicMom41:, Wow! You are really motivated!

>24 nmhale:, I just read Housekeeping vs. The Dirt today myself. Here's a comment that he made while discussing A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews: "You may think that you don't want to read about the problems of being brought up Mennonite, but the great thing about books is that you'll read anything that a good writer wants you to read." Isn't that great?!

#140 I love maps - always have - this sounds like a wonderful book.

Book: 24

Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana
999 SciFi/Fantasy category (3/16/09)
Tucker’s 676 pages

When I started the book I knew nothing about it except that TadAD had put it on his top ten all time fantasy list. I didn't even know the significance of the title. So everything was fresh and new to me as I read and I relished every moment I was able to spend reading it--even during a very busy stressful time it became a refuge for me. I was frustrated when I had to put it aside and couldn't wait to get back to it and now I feel a sense of loss because it's done. I don't want to give too much information in a review because I think that was the perfect way to enjoy this story--letting it unfold on its own with no prior knowledge of anything. I'm already planning my reread for next summer, which I think will just as rewarding in a different way--I will notice things I may have missed the first time because now I do know the story and can enjoy its richness on another level.

Tigana sounds great. I have a copy here already as I've seen it on a few all time favourite lists but still haven't got round to reading it. I'll have to prioritise my reading lists once again.

I'm so glad you liked Tigana. I've read it several times and I always love it. It is a perfect book to read when things are stressful.

Book 25:

Tey, Josephine: A Shilling for Candles
999 mystery category (3/19/09)
PL 238 pages


This is the second novel of six in Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant series. A famous actress has taken refuge incognito in a friend’s beach house. She is discovered to have drowned during her early morning swim. It appears to be an accident but the reader is not surprised when there are suspicious circumstances discovered. I enjoyed this book, found it a relaxing, fast read and would recommend it to those who like Golden Age mysteries. 3 ½ stars

Oh, I like that Josephine Tey book. I really hated The Man in the Queue though, the ending was just tacked on and didn't fit the book at all!

I loved The Westing Game when I was a kid. She has written several other kids books, and I have enjoyed all of them. Figgs and Phantoms is probably the easiest of her other books to find. None of the others did as well as The Westing Game.

Thanks for stopping by cmbohn. The Westing Game was recommended to me by Whisper1. She is reading a lot of Newbery winners and I've been picking and choosing the ones she likes!

I thought I'd read all the Josephine Tey books but, apparently, I've missed quite a few of them, including A Shilling for Candles. I'll look forward to reading it, soon.

#150 linda

On my 75 Challenge thread I have a more complete review and also list all the novels Tey wrote.

Alternatively you could go to www.fantasticfiction.co.uk and type find her page which will not only give you the list but will give you information about each book. She wrote 6 Alan Grant novels, 2 other crime novels and 3 other books. I really enjoy her and am glad that her crime novels have been reprinted--finally! :-)

Of the Grant novels, I've read all but A Shilling for Candles and also The Singing Sands. I will put these two on reserve.

Fantasticfiction is very handy. I used to use Willetta Heising's Detecting Women and later, Detecting Men, which were useful but this is easier.

linda

The only Grant novel I have left to read is The Franchise Affair which I don't yet have. I plan to reread To Love and Be Wise because it has been so long since I first read it I've forgotten it.

Of the two "crime novels" I read Miss Pym Disposes fairly recently. I tried to read that book the first time I discovered Tey when I was late teens and just couldn't get into it. When I read it last year I found it fascinating and having a very subtle "moral" which causes one to stop and think. I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it, but if you read it let me know. I'd like to compare notes. I still remember it very well. Brat Farrar is the other Tey crime novel I've never read.

Book 26:

Penny, Louise: Still Life
999 Mystery category (3/22/09)
Library Audio Book 9 ½ hours (reader: Ralph Cosham)

I think I have found a new mystery series to love! Thanks to whomever on LT recommended it—I keep misplacing the scraps of paper I use to keep track of these things. I ordered (I thought) the book from my library to read over last weekend when we were out of town but when I picked it up I found I had accidentally ordered the audio version. As it turns out that was serendipity—we used it as our “travel book” in the car and Hubby loved it, also. That was quite a surprise for me—I will be getting the others in the series on audio because it is something we can enjoy together.

Book 27:

Heyer, Georgette: Friday’s Child
999 Want To category (3/23/09)
PL 480 pages

This is a charming story of how a spoiled young nobleman learns to take on the responsibilities of his station in life. As usual, Heyer has come up with many delightful characters who add depth to the story. This is a pleasant, light read with much humor; one of her more “frothy” novels but a lot of fun. Recommended. 3 ½ stars

Book 28:

Douglas, Frederick: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
999 Biography category (3/24/09)
PL 137 pages

Several members of LT have praised this book and since it seemed it would interesting background for my Civil War category and fit into my Biography category I decided it would be a good addition to my list this year. I will have to join the chorus of those praising this memoir of the years of slavery endured by Fredrick Douglas. His writing style is clear and engaging; he describes the horrors of slavery in a matter of fact manner that somehow makes more of an impact than an impassioned harangue would have; and he is fair in recounting the times that he felt that his masters treated him with fairness or kindness. He emphasizes how dehumanizing slavery is and how most masters used that technique to keep slaves docile. He also illustrates how the culture of slave holding was deleterious to masters as well as to the victims. Intellectually, we all know that the institution of slavery was an abomination. Reading Douglas’ Narrative we learn to understand emotionally just how devastating that system was to both slaves and masters.

The edition I bought was published by the Yale University Press. In addition to the Narrative this edition includes a chronology of Douglas’ life and an extensive Introduction discussing, among other issues, the use of slave narratives by the abolitionists to drum up support for their cause and the difficulties in demonstrating the accuracy of those accounts. Douglas’ Narrative was unique at the time because he dared to name names, give dates, and describe in detail incidences that could be checked, thus putting himself in physical danger of retaliation. My edition also included responses of readers of the day to the Narrative and extensive historical annotations demonstrating the accuracy of his story. Highly recommended as an important document in the history of the USA. 5 stars

Ah Louise Penny....I read or rather listened to Still Life last year when I was quite stricken with arthritis and couldn't hold a book. I agree with you...it's a delight, and I do have her on my read more of list for the future. Glad to find another fan.

And you and Suslyn have convinced me--I've downloaded my first Georgette Heyer and hope to get to it by this weekend. I've not read anything by her,but with all your good recommendations, I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

>155 tututhefirst:
Georgette Heyer is one of my all-time favorites; I reread her books for the sheer pleasure of escaping to that time. They make me smile. Which book did you choose?

#154 A week or so ago when I went to the library to pick up my holds, Still Life was in the stack. My reaction was "Eww" - the cover isn't very appealing and I didn't remember why I ordered it. I'm glad to hear it is good, I'll be sure to read it before I take it back!

Also, I agree with everything you said about the Frederick Douglass book - as short and easy to read as it is, there is no reason that everyone shouldn't be able to read this book once in their lives. Excellent review.

I have never read anything by Georgette Heyer, but I keep seeing rave reviews of her books. I'll have to give her a try. Any suggestions about where to begin?

Well, of course ;-)

Some of my favorites include The Grand Sophy, Black Sheep, The Unknown Ajax, False Colours, or These Old Shades. Most of her books are standalone, but These Old Shades has a couple of sequels.

She also wrote a couple of historicals and some mysteries, but the Regency romances are, IMHO, the best. Very, very funny, and if the slang puts you off at first, don't worry, you'll get used to it.

#155 Tina

It turns out Cheli was the one who recommended it to me! Stasia reminded me on the 75 thread--where the complete review is.

What Heyer are you going to read?

#157 sjm

You can't go wrong with any of the suggestions of ejj1955. The first 3 are particular favorites of mine--probably in order! :-) The first one features a strong minded female lead character, the second one features two strong minded characters--male and female--and the third one features a strong male character. All of the are great fun
.

#158, 160 Thanks, I've made a note of all these titles and will try to get my hands on one soon.

My copy of Josephine Tey's A Shilling for Candles is in from ILL so I'll be reading it in the next week or so.

I am looking forward to that--it's always fun to have a few more left to read after you thought you've exhausted them all.

linda

Isn't that the truth! Especially when a favorite writer will no longer be adding to her/his oeuvre. I'm dragging my heels getting the latest P.D. James mystery. I'm so afraid it will be the last!

157,158,160,161>Count me another Georgette Heyer fan. The Grand Sophy is my absolute favorite of hers. The Talisman Ring is very funny.

I need to figure out which Heyers I own, so I know whether I need to invest in some of the trade paperbacks that Sourcebooks and Harlequin are reprinting. I think Sourcebooks is the company reprinting the mysteries. I've never tried those, but plan to.

#164 Renee

Just go to "search your library" and type in Heyer (use "all fields"--it works better) and it will bring them all up for you. That's how I check all the time to see if I own something!

165> Thanks, but the problem is that I only have 10-15% of my library listed here at LT so far. Unfortunately, I haven't updated my catalog since the end of January. (I have rev date info for my profile and catalog on my profile page, in case anybody who knows it's a WIP is stopping back to see where I am in the task.)

I'm trying to enter titles little by little, but it's a daunting task. I've worked at the same bookstore for 14 years, had a lot of disposable income for a while when I had a second full-time job for four years, and have been a bibliophile (bibliomaniac?) my entire life. I have a lot of books. And no shelves to speak of. :0(

ETA - And did I mention some of my books are still at my parents' house? Pretty sure my Heyers (and a few Cartlands and the majority of my Caroline Courtneys, etc.) are mostly there. Maybe.

>165 MusicMom41:

That only works if you have actually cataloged all your books! I have 5 Heyers cataloged but probably own at least 20 more. Yay!

Book 29:

Walsh, Jill Paton: The Wyndham Case
999 Mystery category (3/27/09)
Library 223

I picked up this book on a whim because I had enjoyed Walsh’s works where she completed two Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane books, one left unfinished by Dorothy Sayers and the other left mostly in outline form: Thrones and Dominions and A Presumption of Death. I had not realized that she had written mysteries of her own until I discovered this one, the first in a series featuring Imogen Quy, the school nurse of St. Agatha’s College, Cambridge University. There are four books in this series, two written before she did the Sayers project and two after. So this book was the first mystery she wrote and I found it interesting. A young and fairly unpopular man studying at St. Agatha’s on a scholarship is found dead under suspicious circumstances in a special library always kept locked. Imogen Quy is called in at the beginning because she is the nurse; she gets involved in the investigation because she is a friend of one of the policemen. I enjoy mysteries with school settings and the many characters are interesting and engaging. There are several threads to the story and even a few surprises. I will continue with the series and recommend this to those who enjoy cozy mysteries. 3 stars

Book 30:

Millay, Edna St. Vincent: Fatal Interview
999 Poets and Poetry category (3/29/09)
PL 52 pages

Opposite the title page Millay gives us the origin of the title of this work

“By our first strange and fatal interview,
By all desires which thereof did ensue” John Donne

A cycle of fifty-two (LII) sonnets, Fatal Interview lets us glimpse the progress of a passionate illicit love affair from the point of view of the woman. We experience the ecstasy of the beginning, the gradual dawning of realization that she loves much more deeply than he, and then the waning of the affair. The order of the sonnets lets us see the confusion and mixed emotions of the narrator as the affair progresses, her doubts and well as her utter devotion. About half way through the cycle I suddenly thought that this is a perfect introduction to the novel I plan to start reading next month, Anna Karenina! Below is the sonnet that triggered that thought:

XXII

Now by this moon, before this moon shall wane
I shall be dead or I shall be with you!
No moral concept can outweigh the pain
Past rack and wheel this absence puts me through;
Faith, honour, pride, endurance, what the tongues
Of tedious men will say, or what the law—
For which of these do I fill up my lungs
With brine and fire at every breath I draw?
Time, and to spare, for patience by and by,
Time to be cold and time to sleep alone;
Let me no more until the hour I die
Defraud my innocent senses of their own.
Before this moon shall darken, say of me:
She’s in her grave, or where she wants to be.

Book 31

McKinley, Robin: The Blue Sword
999 SciFi/Fantasy category (3/29/09)
Borrowed 272 pages

This Newbery Honor Book should appeal to most fantasy lovers and especially to young adults. The characters are interesting and well developed, the mythical kingdom presented in a way that the reader comes to see it as “real” with a history and a presence. Maps would have been useful to help follow the action, but the descriptions were so well done that I could nearly see the map in my head. The heroine of the story must learn “from scratch” about this kingdom and in the process we get to know it very well. I liked it well enough to want to read the prequel, The Hero and the Crown. As a YA book I highly recommend it and give it 4 stars.

I have to stop reading your thread. Every time I do, I end up with another (or more) books that I want to read. Carolyn, do you ever read a bad book?

What a steady stream of great poetry picks! Thanks for sharing the ESM sonnet and your thoughts linking it to Anna K.

#169 Cheli

I'm smiling! I'm a slow reader so I really check out the books I intend to read to be sure I will at least be able to tolerate them. I'm sure I miss a lot of good books that way but I also don't get many clunkers. I really have a problem giving up on a book I've started but I am learning to let go if I feel it is eating up my reading time. Last year I ignored Stasia's advice about a book and wasted a lot of time reading 100 pages before I "threw it across the room" in disgust. Luckily it was a library book!

LT friends have helped a lot because I know from how they react to a book if I will have a chance to like it. I pay attention to them because they are good guides. And now know I can set one aside if I have to. I have one from last year about half read (it's a 900 page book!) and one from this year about half read--but not nearly so chunky--that I own that I may get back to if I have time. They aren't clunkers--I just couldn't stay motivated to finish them at the time. You'll know if I ever finish them because I will "confess all" when I review them! ;-)

#170 tracy

Thanks for stopping by. Poetry is one of my passions and I'm really thrilled when LTers like my poetry posts! :-)

Oh my goodness! You've read a lot of my favorite books so far this year.

I have to recommend a book by Roald Dahl, Someone Like You. It's a collection of short stories for adults and was published in 1953. I checked it out from the library a couple of years ago, so assume you could get it through inter library loan. Anyway, the stories are great. They reminded me a little of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

And thank you so much for the ESVM poem.

Regards, Janiece

#173 janoorani24

I've been debating about reading Something Wicked This Way Comes--the only Bradbury I've read is The Martian Chronicles but I have Dandelion Wine in the queue for this year. If I like Something Wicked I'll try the Dahl book. This is a genre new to me and I'm treading warily! ;-)

Thanks for coming by. I haven't posted the rest of March here yet--it took me hours yesterday to get my 75 Challenge thread sorted out so I didn't get the stuff her. Hopefully later today!

Finishing up the March postings--

Book 32

Nabb, Magdalen: Death of an Englishman
999 Mystery category (3/30/09)
Library 172 pages

This is another new series recommended on LT, I think by Joyce in Panama. The stories are police procedurals that take place in Florence, Italy. In this debut novel the victim is an ex patriot from a prominent family in England so there are also two members of Scotland Yard on hand to help the Italian police and to be sure the family’s honor is protected. It was a little slow for me to get into but soon became interesting enough that I had no trouble sticking with it and considering it definitely a 3 star read and worth continuing the series, even though I was pretty sure I knew the culprit. Then came the ending, the last 40 pages. I was right about who the culprit was, but it had to be intuition rather than deduction because what I thought I had spotted as clues were irrelevant to the story and the motive I had assumed was nonexistent. In the end this book became not a puzzle to be solved but a novel that brought tears to my eyes. Looking back I realized how much I had learned about the characters and their approaches to life. If the quality holds up in the subsequent novels this will be a series to purchase because I will want to reread them. Highly recommended. 4 stars

Book 33

Kadohata, Cynthia: kira-kira
999 Newbery Winner category (3/31/09)
Library 244 pages

This is the story of a Japanese-American family who must move from Iowa to Georgia in order to find work and how they adapt to their new surroundings where they are a very tiny minority. The family is hardworking and struggle together to work for the goal of a house of their own. Being an only child I was especially interested in the relationships between the siblings, especially between the two sisters. There are many subtle “life-lessons” to be found in this novel including how to face tragedy as a family. It was a well written, engaging story. Highly recommended, especially for pre-teens and early teens. 4 stars

Book 34:

Teasdale, Sara: Dark of the Moon
999 Poets and Poetry category (4/07/09)
PL 92 pages

Published in 1926, this is the second to last book of poems Sara Teasdale offered to her readers. The last book was Strange Victory, published in 1933, the year she committed suicide. When I first started reading these poems I couldn’t help comparing them to the Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet cycle I read last month, Fatal Interview. As in the Millay volume, one of Teasdale’s themes is the remembering of a lost love affair. But, unlike Millay, Teasdale does very little to reveal any deep feelings of the narrator, there is rather a melancholy tone, a gentle regret, but no hint of passion or even very deep loss. There is also no hint at all of the lover and what he was like—Teasdale is focused on the narrator—I’m assuming it to be herself. There is also no poetic form to which she adheres as there was in Millay. There is rhyme and some type of form but each poem is free to be as long or as short as the poet wishes. There poems seem to create a curtain between the poet and the reader, almost a filter to hold in any deep feelings and reveal only what you are wiling to show the world, much as you do if talking to a stranger on a plane about some hurt you can’t quite keep inside because that would be safer than talking to someone who knew you. At first I found this off-putting but as I read further I found myself adapting to her style and connecting to her work on its own merits. Recommended; 3 ½ stars

Here are 3 examples to give a taste of her work:
Sand Drift

I thought I should not walk these dunes again,
Nor feel the sting of this wind-bitten sand,
Where the coarse grasses always blow one way,
Bent, as my thoughts are, by an unseen hand.

I have returned; where the last wave rushed up
The wet sand is a mirror for the sky
A bright blue instant, and along its sheen
The nimble sandpipers run twinkling by.

Nothing has changed; with the same hollow thunder
The waves die in their everlasting snow—
Only the place we sat is drifted over,
Lost in the blowing sand, long, long ago.

A Reply

Four people knew the very me,
Four is enough, so let it be;
For the rest I make no chart,
There are no highroads to my heart;
The gates are locked, they will not stir
For any ardent traveler.
I have not been misunderstood,
And on the whole, I life is good—
So waste no sympathy on me
Or any well-meant gallantry;
I have enough to do to muse
On memories I would no lose.

The Old Enemy

Rebellion against death, the old rebellion
Is over; I have nothing left to fight;
Battles have always had their meed of music
But peace is quiet as a windless night.

Therefore I make no songs—I have grown certain
Save when he comes too late, death is a friend,
A shepherd leading home his flock serenely
Under the planet at the evening’s end.

Book 35:

McKinley, Robin: The Hero and the Crown
999 Newbery Winner category (4/8/09)
Borrowed 227 pages

This novel is the prequel to The Blue Sword in which we meet Aerin, the “first” woman to wield the Blue Sword. This story gives a lot of background for the elements of The Blue Sword which bring flashes of recognition when you encounter them, but the story itself stands very well on its own. In my opinion (not shared by many I know who have read both) this is a superior story. It is better written, better plotted and has better characterizations. The details are finer and I was much more involved in Aerin’s fate than I was in Harry’s. Also there was a “proper” ending with detail and not just a “summary” of how people paired off. I think both stories should be read and in the order written, but if you must choose just one I would suggest this one, especially for adults. Highly recommended; 4 ½ stars

Musicmom, what a powerful description you used for describing Teasdale's poetry: like talking to a stranger on a plane ... wow. Such a beautiful way of expressing it. Do you write poetry yourself?

#177

What a nice compliment, Nicole! (I'm blushing!) I used to write poetry when I was younger, but I could never satisfy myself so now I just read it passionately. :-) I almost always have a book of poetry going no matter what else I'm reading.

#175 - Your description of Death of an Englishman looked so good, I've added it to my Wish List. Thanks for such great descriptions. Regards, Jan

Thanks for stopping by Jan. I've been trying to keep up with all the posts but not having time to do a lot of posting myself! And I'm still pretty far behind on the really active threads!

I think you would like Death of an Englishman. Be patient because it takes a while to develop but it is worth it. I'm going to continue this series. I'm excited because there are 13 more so I will have a lot of good reads awaiting my pleasure! Joyce recommended this one and she is usually a great source of great reads. When you read it, let me know if you like it.

Have you started your Dorothy Dunnett category, yet? When life slows down I'd like to read those again.

I know what you mean about trying to keep up.

No, I haven't started my Dunnett category, yet. I want to savor the books when I re-read them, and I've been trying to catch up on some of my non-fiction reading. I haven't read three of the books on my DD list, King Hereafter, The Lymond Poetry, and Operation Nassau. Somehow, I just can't bring myself to read the last of her books, knowing there will never be more.

Hi there! I just recently read The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword myself (sister pass-ons) and I agree with you strongly. Hero and Crown was much better for the reasons you mentioned. I was also a little irked that the characters who played important roles in The Hero played almost no significant roles in TBS. The contrast highlighted how much of a pointless intrusion they had been in the earlier book. For example, Aerin whiffles through the TBS story briefly, like a ghost, without actually functioning as a mentor or believably as a role model. Oh well. Enjoyed them both, just differently.

#182 bk

spoiler alert for Hero and the Crown

When I finished Hero and began mentally tallying all the links between that and Sword it did cross my mind why Aerin couldn't have found an opportunity to help Harry as Luthe had helped her. By the time Harry was living sure Aerin was living her "not really mortal" life. I'm sure McKinley had her reasons and I, too, enjoyed both books.

Book 36:

Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen
999 Books about Books category (4/11/09)
Library 127 pages

“You do not read novels for information, but for enlightenment.” (p. 29)

In this delightful book Fay Weldon writes a series of letters to an imaginary niece, Alice, who is struggling with boredom working on her course in English Literature where she is required to read Jane Austen. These letters cover a wide range of subject about the reading and the writing of literature and also about living as a reader and a writer. Along the way she gives some information about Jane Austen’s life and a very good analysis of her books and why they continue to delight so many readers so long after they were written. I was especially delighted by her discussion of Northanger Abbey—we are of one mind about that novel.

Her range of subject matter is much wider than I can include in this brief review, but I must mention the City of Invention. It is a metaphor for what great writers “build” when they write novels and she uses it for many explanations about good literature. It will color the way I consider every book I read from now on. My only regret is that I don’t own a copy of this book. I know I will want to reread it and I really wanted to underline and make marginal notes when I was reading it this time! Highly recommended. 4 ½ stars

Book 37:

Woolf, Virginia: Flush: A Biography
999 Biography category (4/11/09)
PL 177

This is the story of the romance of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning as seen through the eyes of Elizabeth’s dog, Flush. My public library categorizes this as “Biography” as does the designation on the back of my copy. Virginia Woolf’s notes at the end of the book tells where she found the information she includes which qualifies it as biography. Most importantly, my 999 Biography category needs more help than my 999 Poets & Poetry category! That said, this is a delightful read for a leisurely afternoon. Woolf really understands dogs and Flush is very believable and a well rounded “character.” Highly recommended for those who love dogs and/or Virginia Woolf. 4 stars

Flush is very believable and a well rounded “character.”

I don't know why this struck me as sooo funny, but I'm still laughing! Both books sound good--though I really didn't like Northanger Abbey, so am curious to read what you both think.

Letters to Alice sounds fascinating. There are so many interesting books about Jane Austen, and I never would have known about them without LT.

Great reviews on both 36 and 37. I have always liked Fay Weldon's fiction ... you've piqued my curiousity about the city of invention.

I love Virginia Woolf and sometimes think dogs are smarter than people so Flush, for me, is a "must find soon."

Book 38:

Achebe, Chinua: Home and Exile
999 Africa category (4/12/09)
PL 115 page

I bought this slim book because Chinua Achebe is a favorite author and I wanted to learn more about him. I had planned to put it into my Memoir category. However, although he gives a brief glimpse into his early life as a child in Africa, the main thrust of this book is how literature has impacted western readers’ view of Africa and its people. He makes a strong case for seeing both the nonfiction and the literature written about Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries and even into the 20th century was written by Western authors and was greatly influenced by the desire to justify first the Slave Trade and later the colonization of Africa by Europeans. It has only been since the advent of authors who are African that the “real stories” of Africa can be told.

The style of this book is like a friendly chat with examples offered which made it an enjoyable and quick read. However, it has made an impact on me and I will be rethinking my Africa category and extending it into next year as I now am anxious to discover other African authors, both fiction and nonfiction, to get a better understanding of this fascinating area of our world. Highly recommended. 4 stars

Book 39:

Marsh, Ngaio: Death in Ecstasy
999 Mystery category (4/17/09)
PL 243

On a whim, Roderick Alleyn’s friend, the journalist Nigel Bathgate, braves a howling storm to gate-crash a cultish ceremony at the House of the Sacred Flame, whose sign he has been watching from the window of his flat. There he witnesses a bizarre ceremony which ends in an unexpected death. Rather than calling the Yard, he immediately calls his friend Alleyn and the game is afoot! (Of course, Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn calls the Yard for his crew before he leaves the comfort of his fireside and book to go out into that storm!)

In this fourth book of the series, Marsh is starting to hit her stride as a major player in the Golden Age of detective writers. Her detective is becoming more of a personality by his actions and what he says, rather than by author description, and Bathgate makes a better foil for him than Hastings does for Poirot. At one point, Alleyn refers to Bathgate as his “Watson.” The characters created for this novel are somewhat bizarre but easily distinguishable. Marsh, also seems to be more comfortable with her work now. I'm looking forward to the next one--Vintage Murder.

Book 40:

Baker, Jean H.: James Buchanan
999 Biography category (4/21/09)
PL 172 pages

I picked up this book at the bookstore last week because I had just finished the section in McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom that dealt with the time during Buchanan’s presidency and I wanted to know more about the man. Although I did learn more about his life and his career before he became president I found this biography not to be as helpful as I had hoped it would.

No one is going to dispute that Buchanan was one of the worst—maybe even the worst—president we have had. However, Baker wrote her work as if she were afraid he might rise again and run for public office and she wanted to be very sure that no one would vote for him. Often her language bordered on vitriolic. Sometimes even in areas where he is acknowledged to have been somewhat successful she managed to convey the feeling that it was not because of his ability but either because he was well advised or someone else was incompetent and made him look good. Her descriptions of him would also change according to the point she was trying to make. Before he became president she described him as being indecisive, unable to make up his mind, and relying on others to guide him, especially if he did something right. Later she describes him as “…a strong president intent on having his own way, surrounded by advisers who agreed with him.” It seems if things went well it is because he followed good advice and when things went badly it’s because he wouldn’t take advice. Perhaps that is true. But he had a reputation as a competent office holder for many years before his debacle as president. He must have had some redeeming traits. If McCullough, in his biography of John Adams, errs on the side of being too fond of him, at least he has no hesitation in pointing out his flaws and his mistakes. Baker errs on the side of so detesting Buchanan that she can find nothing about him that she can praise. I would recommend if you want a more balanced view of Buchanan read what McPherson says in Battle Cry of Freedom.

Wow--you've been busy, and I've missed your posts. Terrific review of Teasdale, I must put her on my extended poetry TBR list (can I hope to live to be 125?)..I'd already noticed the Nabb books from Joycepa also, so it's good to see someone else liked them too. As Stasia would say, ' Onto the mountain!

Book 41:

Stout, Rex: And Be a Villain
999 Want To category (4/28/09)
PL 156 pages

Cyril Orchard is poisoned during a radio talk show and New York Police have gotten nowhere in over a week. When Archie convinces his boss that he needs to earn some money after their April tax bill is paid Nero Wolfe comes up with a scheme to get himself hired to solve this tricky murder.

I’ve been reading so many things for my 999 Challenge on Library Thing that I haven’t read any Nero Wolfe this year, so when Stasia talked about reading her first one I decided it was time for me to get back to this project. This was the perfect time because I have been so busy with work I really needed a book that would be relaxing and this one was perfect. This is classic Nero Wolfe with all the elements in place. Very entertaining. 3 ½ stars

Book 42:

Rawling, J.K.: Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
999 Fantasy category (4/28/09)
PL 56 pages

Rawlings does a clever job of giving a thorough account of the history of the development of the popular Wizards’ game of Quidditch. Also included are a summary of the modern rules, some of the strategic ploys, and descriptions of the professional Quidditch teams of Britain and Ireland. Being an avid San Francisco Giants fan my favorite team is the Chudley Cannons, whose “glory days may be considered by many to be over but their devoted fans live in hope of a renaissance.” Their colors are orange and black and they have changed their motto from “We Shall Conquer” to “Let’s all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.” This is a real treat for Harry Potter fans. I was able to buy it from the library for 10 cents!

Book 43:

Marsh, Ngaio: Alleyn and Others—The Collected Short Fiction
999 Want To category (4/29/09)
Library 251 pages

The short fiction includes 4 Alleyn short stories, 5 other stories and a telescript written for a BBC production in 1975 which are all fun to read for Marsh fans. But most delightful were two essays in which Marsh discusses how she developed her two main characters, Roderick Alleyn and Agatha Troy, and a wonderful introduction by the editor of the book, Douglas G. Green. I may be prejudiced about the introduction because he so beautifully illustrates what I have always believed about Ngaio Marsh: her mysteries are much more akin to the mysteries of Dorothy Sayers than to Agatha Christie. Recommended for Ngaio Marsh fans. 3 stars

Book 44:

Humphreys, Helen: the Frozen Thames
999 Want To category (4/29/09)
Library 186 pages

This book was recommended by Whisper1 and I was really interested because until I read Orlando by Virginia Woolf last year I didn’t realize that the Thames River in London had ever frozen. In fact the Thames has frozen 40 times and this small volume contains 40 vignettes about each time it froze. The stories range from humorous to poignant and some are even sad or tragic. Many of them are based on actual occurrences and others are imagined. The writing is beautiful and lyrical. This book was perfect for me during this very busy, stressful time because it was easy to read in “snatches” for relaxation. I used this book instead of a poetry book the last week or so. Highly Recommended. 4 stars

This was a very busy, stressful month for my jobs so a lot of my reading, especially that last two weeks, was light and short.

I haven't read a Rex Stout in a long, long time. I ought to find an older one and read it for my vintage mysteries category.

linda

I highly recommend him if you like detective stories. They are a lot of fun. fantasticfiction.uk.co will give you a list of all his published works with dates of publication and usually a brief summary of the story. Fer-de-Lance which Stasia read is the first one published in 1934. Be a Villain is the the 13th published in 1948.

I enjoyed reading them in order because in the first few books you can see Rex Stout developing his characters--both major and minor ones--and how he twiddles with them. After about five books he's decided what he wants to do.

MusicMom41, I searched my lib and find that I've read 34 Rex Stout books but none since 1996. I'm due.

I can't believe it's been so long.

Carolyn---I have 21 Rex Stouts staring me in the face here---have never read any, but wouldn't you know, we don't seem to own the first. I do think I will try one for my new Mysteries category in the 999 x 2 challenge. I do have And be a villain would it be OK to start with that, or should I go search out the others?

Tina

Long answer:

The Nero Wolf Mysteries don't have to read in any particular order--except for one exception. Stout's last full length Nero Wolfe novel, A Family Affair, published in 1975, should be read last. I would suggest that reading some of the earlier ones first (from the '30's and 40's) gives one a taste of how he gradually changed with the times--somewhat-- in his later ones. Watching the development over the years is what I'm finding interesting about reading them in order.

Over in the Nero Wolf Group I posted my reviews of some of the earlier ones--or you could go to mmy library to see which ones I've already reviewed.

Short answer: And Be a Villain should be fine to start with. As I said, it has most of the main elements that are part of this series.

Thank you - short answer - it's on the TBR Shelf (that's where they move when I get serious enough to retrieve them from the virtual TBR pile.)

I have that Ngaio Marsh collection under another title, and I found it great reading! I don't understand why her books are out of print. To me they are still great reading.

#197 cmbohn

What is the other title? I would like to find a copy for my own and I might be able to find it under an alternate title.

I agree. I want to own them all and they are really hard to find now. Luckily I can get most--but not all--of them from my library system.

The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh. I think I got it used off Amazon. Oh, and the BBC production of them was really well done. I especially liked Inspector Fox.

May has turned out to be tougher than April!

Book 45:

Adams, Scott: Random Acts of Management
999 Want To category (5/08/09)
PL 124 pages

This was given to us by a friend because she said some of the stories we told about the new Center Director where my husband works reminded them of Dilbert’s boss. These strips ranged from mildly funny to ROFL. Judging by what we hear from our friends and what we read in the newspaper it seems that “random acts of management” is the new leadership strategy of many bosses these days! It helps to be able to laugh about it. Recommended for anyone who works for a pointy haired boss or knows someone who does. I suspect that includes just about everyone. Luckily I’m self-employed. 4 stars

Book 46:

Oliver, Mary: Evidence
999 Poets & Poetry category (5/09/09)
PL 74 pages (ER book for March)

Poetry has been a passion of mine all my life and I almost always have a volume of poetry as one of the books I am reading at any given time. Mary Oliver has become a very special poet in my life because with her work I feel I have developed an almost personal connection. I discovered Mary Oliver a few years ago when I picked up her book about poetry called Rules for the Dance. I was so impressed by that book that I started collecting her books of poems and she has become on of my favorite poets. I have found her later books, What Do We Know, Why I Wake Early, and Red Bird, to be especially meaningful to me. From her I have learned how to stop and appreciate the natural world around me and to take time to reflect on it as a way of calming myself and relaxing. I have learned to notice the small details as well and the grandeur in our beautiful planet. She has also shared wisdom that she has learned in her life’s journey that I have found inspiring and comforting.

Her newest volume, Evidence, continues in this tradition and takes us even further into her understanding of life and spirituality. Nothing is too insignificant for her to ignore nor too big for her to tackle. She epitomizes the idea that “the unexamined life is not worth living” and in examining her life she helps us to examine ours. In each of these later volumes of poetry I feel as if she has become more open and revealing of her inner feelings than she was in her earlier works. She shares not only her observations but her own reactions and feeling about these events. Although I will never know her personally, I somehow consider that she is a treasured and wise friend who helps and comforts me in my life’s journey. Just as I spend many hours with friends, I reread Mary Oliver’s books on a regular basis. She always has something “new’ to point out to me. The following poem gives a hint of the pleasures of this book.

Then the Bluebird Sang

Bluebird
slipped a little tremble
out of the triangle
of his mouth

and it hung in the air
until it reached my ear
like a froth or a frill
that Schumann

might have written in a dream.
Dear morning
you come
with so many angels of mercy

so wondrously disguised
in feathers, in leaves,
in the tongues of stones,
in the restless waters,

in the creep and the click
and the rustle
that greet me wherever I go
with their joyful cry; I’m still here, alive!

Book 47:

Greenberg, Martin H. ed.: Murder British Style
999 Mysteries category (5/22/09)
PL 529 pages

This collection of seventeen short stories, one novella and a full length novel by many of the classic mystery writers of late 18th and 19th century Great Britain is a real treat for fans of this genre. There are two stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one featuring Sherlock Holmes and another that is about a vanishing train. Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, G.K. Chesterton and Roald Dahl are also represented. I didn’t realize that Dahl had written any mysteries. One of my favorites was the novella, In the Fog by Richard Harding Davis, which has a very neat twist at the end. This was the only author in the book with whom I was not familiar. The novel, The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr, was a classic locked room tale that was very satisfying and contains a chapter that discusses the different types of locked room stories that have been written. Carr was an expert on this subject and I found that chapter really delightful. Highly recommended. 4 stars

I've enjoyed many of those Martin Harry Greenberg mystery anthologies. I haven't read one in awhile. I ought to scan my shelves and pick one out.

I really enjoy those locked room mysteries from John Dickson Carr as well as those written under his other name, Carter Dickson.

I love mystery anthologies--especially collections of of older and classic authors. I found Greenberg's to be an outstanding one--each story was very interesting and their was great variety. This is the only one of his I own so I will keep an eye out for others.

Finally getting back "on track"--I hope! :-)

Book 48:

Forche, Carolyn: The Country Between Us
999 Poets and Poetry category (5/25/09)
PL 59 pages

Carolyn Forche was a journalist for Amnesty International and a human rights advocate who spent much time in El Salvador in the ‘70s chronicling the war and the struggles of the people there. Her poems often combine seamlessly the personal with the political and need several readings to be able to truly appreciate all she puts into them. This volume won the Lamont Poetry Prize in 1981. Forche is also the editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth-century Poetry of Witness, an anthology of poetry of poems from every war in that century.

Elena, whose husband was a journalist who was critical of the government in Buenos Aires, was a friend of Forche. One evening as the couple came home from a dinner celebrating their wedding anniversary there were government troops waiting for them to gun them down. She was wounded in the mouth and her husband was killed. Elena was scheduled to be executed but there were so many street demonstrations supporting her that she was allowed to go into exile.

IN MEMORY OF ELENA

We spend our morning
in the flower stalls counting
the dark tongues of bells
that hang from ropes waiting
for the silence of the hour.
We find a table, ask for paella,
cold soup and wine, where a calm
light trembles years behind us.

In Buenos Aries only three
years ago, it was the last time his hand
slipped into her dress, with pearls
cooling her throat and bells like
these, chipping at the night—

As she talks, the hollow
clopping of a horse, the sound
of bones touched together.
The paella comes, a bed of rice
and camarones, fingers and shells,
the lips of those whose lips
have been removed, mussels
the soft blue of a leg socket.

This is not paella, this is what
has become of those who remained
In Buenos Aires. This is the ring
of a rifle report on the stones,
her hand over her mouth,
her husband falling against her.

These are the flowers we bought
this morning, the dahlias tossed
on his grave and bells
waiting with their tongues cut out
for this particular silence.

The following poem records a dinner with a high ranking military official in El Salvador in 1978.

THE COLONEL

What you have heard is true. I was in his house. His wife carried
a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went
out for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on the
cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over
the house. On the television was a cop show. It was in English.
Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to
scoop the kneecaps from a man’s legs or cut his hands to lace. On
the windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores. We had
dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for
calling the maid. The maid brought green mangos, salt, a type of
bread. I was asked how I enjoyed the country. There was a brief
commercial in Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was
some talk then of how difficult it had become to govern. The parrot
said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed
himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say
nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries
home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like
dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one
of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water
glass. It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around he said. As
For the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck them-
selves. He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last
of his wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some
of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the
ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.

Book 49:

Lewis, C.S.: Till We Have Faces
999 Classics category (5/27/09)
PL 313 pages

It is difficult to write a review of this book because I think it is imperative that nothing about the plot or the characters ought to be revealed to those who have not yet read it. As I explain below each reader seems to bring something of himself to the story which will be influenced as the story unfolds and winds around. Any knowledge of what will be occurring might disturb this involvement and identification with the story.

When I started the book I knew it was a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth and that C.S. Lewis was a Christian writer and thought that this novel was one of his finest works. It did not take long for me to be so involved in the story that I felt like I experienced it rather than read it. (My biggest frustration was that I had to read it at my busiest time of the year and I resented anything that forced me to have to put the book down and get to work.) The story is complex and compelling, the characters are interesting and well drawn, and the country Lewis created for the story to take place in was fascinating and utterly believable. Needless to say I loved this novel! However, what has struck me most after finishing it is that as I read comments of other readers each person seems to have a unique opinion about what the story really says—or means—and which characters were wise or sensible and which ones needed more sense. This would make a great book for a book group discussion if you could find a group that would love to discuss and be able to “agree to disagree.” Highly recommended. 5 stars

50. Alegria, Claribel: Fugues
999 Poets and Poetry category (5/27/09)
PL 143 pages (Spanish/English side by side)

Alegria was a close friend of Carolyn Forche and was the reason Carolyn was in El Salvador. This volume has her Spanish version of each poem across the page form the translations by D.J. Flakoll. There is a wide variety of styles in this book from poems of only four lines to poems that are four pages. Some are personal; many contain allusions to the war in El Salvador; she uses nature and also mythology as subjects as well. This is a very enjoyable collection.

ACCOUNTING

In the sixty-eight years
I have lived
there are a few electrical instants:
the happiness of my feet
skipping puddles
six hours in Macchu Pichu
the ten minutes necessary
to lose my virginity
the buzzing of the telephone
while awaiting the death of my mother
the hoarse voice
announcing the death
of Monsignor Romero
fifteen minutes in Delft
the first wail of my daughter
I don’t now how many years
dreaming of my people’s liberation
certain immortal deaths
the eyes of the\at starving child
your eyes bathing me with love
one forget-me-not afternoon
and in this sultry hour
the urge to mold myself
into a verse
a shout
a fleck of foam.

ARS POETICA

I,
poet by trade,
condemned so many times
to be a crow,
would never change places
with the Venus de Milo:
while she reigns in the Louvre
and dies of boredom
and collects dust
I discover the sun
each morning
and amid valleys
volcanoes
and debris of war
I catch sight of the promised land.

Book 51:

Oliver, Mary: Owls and Other Fantasies
999 Poets and Poetry category (5/31/09)
PL 74 pages

Most of you who follow my thread regularly have probably figured out that poetry is my “comfort” reading. May was a stressful month and I read four books of poetry. This last one was one of three books by Mary Oliver that I ordered from Amazon and that arrived May 29th. Mary Oliver is my most “comfortable” poet – as I have mentioned before, I think of her as a “friend”. (On June 1st I had to go into Fresno for an appointment so I had lunch at Barnes and Noble and bought a new book of poems by Adrienne Rich—so you will get a little variety next month!) This volume by Oliver has a couple of essays as well as poems; all of them are mostly about different kinds of birds. The second essay, simply called “Bird”, is especially wonderful, but too long to include here. So I’ll share two of my favorite poems:

Yes! No!

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of glass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.

Book 52:

Salinger, J.D.: Franny and Zooey
999 Classics & Fiction category (6/01/05)
Library 201 pages

I read Catcher in the Rye years ago when I was a teenager and was totally underwhelmed. I thought the story was boring and Holden Caulfield didn’t interest me at all. (I think I had just read Jane Eyre and Rochester was my idea of a “hero” for a story.) I realize now I was probably too young—and too naive—to have a clue what Salinger was trying to do. However, the novel left such a bad taste in my mouth that I vowed never to read another Salinger book ever. Luckily for me, this year Eliza (girlunderglass) persuaded me to change my mind.

Franny and Zooey is a wonderful and unique (at least for me) book. The first and shorter part of the novel, “Franny” introduces us to Franny Glass, a college coed who arrives on a train to spend a special football weekend with her Ivy League boyfriend at his school. I went to a small liberal arts college and I remember spending a couple of weekends like that—except I didn’t have to take a train because my school was coed. The second part of the story is called “Zooey” and introduces us to the Glass family and especially Franny’s brother, Zooey who is about 5 years older than she but closest to her because they are the two youngest siblings. This is a character driven novel with essentially no plot. We learn about the characters by their interactions, conversations, and observations made by the “narrator” who is actually a much older brother that we meet at the very beginning of the book. I found the characters wonderful and the conversations fascinating and revealing and the descriptions vivid. Bottom line: I laughed, I cried, and I often stopped to “ponder” about these people. I can hardly wait to find the other stories he’s written about this family. Highly recommended. 4 ½ stars

Book 53:

McCrumb, Sharon: Bimbos of the Death Sun
999 Mysteries category (6-02/09)
Marty’s 228 pages

I learned a valuable lesson. Never judge a book by its cover—or its title. Hubby came back from our son’s Monday night house bringing this book he said Marty had sent to me. Tuesday I had my first completely free day in ages and I planned to read. But I had just finished Franny and Zooey so I couldn’t get into another novel and all I really wanted was something light and mindless—and preferably funny. This one looked perfect in spite of the title and horrible cover (click on the title to see the cover) so I decided to try it. My son knows my reading taste pretty well so if he recommended it I would probably like it (he knows me better that the LT “will you like it?” bar!). Besides, it won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best original paperback mystery in 1988—how bad could it be?

As it turns out it was perfect for my mood. The mystery part was very minor and not very puzzling but the “fantasy con” where it takes place was a hoot. The story is dated because it takes place in the 80’s so the technology is prehistoric as are some of the language and ideas. It helped me that in the 80’s my other son was hugely into Dungeons and Dragons (D&D in the book) and into all kinds of fantasy although he was not old enough for me to let him go to the cons—but he read about them and talked about them, incessantly. The author does a superb job recreating this venue and peopling with really great characters—the good, the bad, and the ugly. I became very fond of some of them as I laughed myself silly. This wouldn’t be for everyone, but I found it an enjoyable afternoon’s read—for readers who aren’t so slow it could be read in a couple of hours.

The kicker is, it was given to Marty a few years ago but he has never read it. He sent it to our house because he had some friends coming over and he didn’t want them to accidentally discover it on his shelves!

I absolutely love this one! An updated version of the same idea was We'll Always Have Parrots, based on a fan convention of a fictional series like Xena or Hercules. Also extremely funny.

"Bimbos..." looked so good I just added it to my wish list. Maybe I can wrap it in a plain brown wrapper when I put it on my bookshelf. Thanks for the great reviews!

Book 54:

Wallace, Edgar: The Murder Book of J.G. Reeder
999 Mysteries category (6/08/09)
PL 109 pages

I got this book a few years ago at our used book sale and never got around to reading it. I picked it this week because it seemed to be a book of eight short stories that would make good bed time reading. That worked for the first 3 stories but then I got so involved that I finished it in one sitting on the fourth afternoon. The last stories seemed to be somewhat related to each other. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to find out if there were any other books featuring this detective and was surprised to find that this book was first published as a novel called The Mind of J.G. Reeder. I also discovered that Edgar Wallace cranked out well over a hundred mysteries, including other ones about J.G. Reeder but they are very hard to find now.

Here is a description of the detective from one of the sites I visited:

“Mr. J G Reeder of the Department of Public Prosecutions, Edgar Wallace's sleuth-whose territory is the London of the 1920s-is an unlikely figure, more bank clerk than detective in appearance, ever wearing his square topped bowler, frock coat, cravat and muffler, Mr. Reeder is usually inseparable from his umbrella. With his thin mournful face many might mistake him for an undertaker, but appearances can be deceiving. It is the mind of Mr. J G Reeder that his greatest asset and that which the criminal fraternity have most to fear. Although-on occasions-he is not averse to substituting his umbrella for a long barreled automatic pistol when the situation demands it!”

I enjoy mysteries from the 20s and 30s so this was a treat for me. I’m trying to be impartial in my rating, but if you are a fan of this genre and period I suggest you try to find this book. 3 stars and recommended for fans.

Just dropping by to say how interesting I find your poetry reviews. Mary Oliver is a favorite of mine, as well; plus I have a couple of TBR Carolyn Forches you have re-triggered my interest in. Oh, yes, and on your say so I gave Bimbos a whirl. Not bad. A friend of mine took me to an SF-Fantasy con once, and I recognized much of what was described.

At first I skipped over your poems. I have such a long-standing aversion to poems (except children's poetry) that I actually shudder when faced with one. I accept it's me. I'm impatient, I don't want to stop to figure out what a poet means. Sometimes the words are too precious, too personal, it's almost embarrassing to read them. But then a few words can catch up a feeling or snag a memory and I'm thrilled for both the writer and me. Loved The Colonel, especially the last two lines. And--ironically--Ars Poetica.

#213 & 214

I'm glad you enjoyed the poems. I find many poets active today manage to write beautifully and clearly so that one isn't trying to puzzle out what is meant but is enjoying the crystallized essence of what the poet has to say. Two of my favorites are Billy Collins and Mary Oliver (several of whose works I've review here this year.)

bonnie--here is a poem by Billy Collins that may speak to how you feel about poems. :-)

Workshop

I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.
It gets me right away because I'm in a workshop now
so immediately the poem has my attention,
like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.

And I like the first couple of stanzas,
the way they establish the mode of self-pointing
that runs through the whole poem
and tells us that words are food thrown down
on the ground for other words to eat.
I can almost taste the tail of the snake
in its own mouth,
if you know what I mean.

But what I'm not sure about is the voice,
which sounds in places very casual, very blue jeans,
but other times seems standoffish,
professorial in the worst sense of the word
like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face.
But maybe that's just what it wants to do.

What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas,
especially the fourth one.
I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges
which gives me a very clear picture.
And I really like how this drawbridge operator
just appears out of the blue
with his feet up on the iron railing
and his fishing pole jigging--I like jigging--
a hook in the slow industrial canal below.
I love slow industrial canal below. All those l's.

Maybe it's just me,
but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.
I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?
And what's an obbligato of snow?
Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.
At that point I'm lost. I need help.

The other thing that throws me off,
and maybe it's just me,
is the way the scene keeps shifting around.
First, we're in this big aerodrome
and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,
which makes me think this could be a dream.
Then he takes us into his garden,
the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,
though that's nice, the coiling hose,
but then I'm not sure where we're supposed to be.
The rain and the mint green light,
that makes it feel outdoors, but what about this wallpaper?
Or is it some kind of indoor cemetery?
There's something about death going on here.

In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here
is really two poems, or three, or four,
or possibly none.

But then there's that last stanza, my favorite.
This is where the poem wins me back,
especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.
I mean we've all seen these images in cartoons before,
but I still love the details he uses
when he's describing where he lives.
The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard,
the bed made out of a curled-back sardine can,
the spool of thread for a table.
I start thinking how hard the mouse had to work
night after night collecting all these things
while the people in the house were fast asleep,
and that gives me a very strong feeling,
a very powerful sense of something.
But I don't know if anyone else was feeling that.
Maybe that was just me.
Maybe that's just the way I read it.

This was originally published in The Art of Drowning but I have it in Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins.

Book 55:

Franklin, Ariana: Mistress of the Art of Death
999 Classics & Fiction category (6/16/09)
PL 400 pages

This novel was very enjoyable on so many levels. The historical aspects were fascinating, especially with the additional information provided by the research of v_b for the Highly Rated Book Group Read. We get a good glimpse into the history and politics of England during the reign of Henry II as well as some of the wider ranging politics and information about the Crusades. The story is riveting and the characters well drawn and interesting and the main character, Adelia was especially appealing. There are also interesting observations about the customs of England at that time both religious and secular. I did have a couple of “quibbles” with the execution of the novel which probably won’t bother most readers but I found disconcerting. However, I enjoyed this first book enough that I will be on the lookout for the sequel. Recommended. 3 ½ stars

Warning: Spoilers (these are my quibbles)

Since this story deals a lot with sexual practices and gender roles I had no problem with the romance that was added to the story, only with the way it was written. I had the feeling that suddenly Ms Franklin developed “genre identity” problems. The way the romance was presented and developed was more “Harlequin Romance” than historical romance. My other quibble was with the ending—perhaps a little too tidy and King Henry II sort of “stepped out of character” as did Adelia, IMO. One other small quibble: sometimes Adelia seemed to have miraculous recuperative powers--able to run about the country very shortly after suffering quite serious injuries.

Book 56:

Harr, Jonathan: The Lost Painting
999 Want To! (6/16/09)
Library Audio

I became interested in this book when it was discussed on one of the threads on LT. I requested it from my library system and when it came I received the audio version rather than the print version. I don’t know if I accidentally requested the wrong version or if they made the mistake but it was serendipitous because hubby and I were taking a mini vacation and we both listened to it on the trip. It was unabridged and well read by Campbell Scott and thoroughly enjoyable—even riveting.

This is the fascinating story of the finding of the lost painting “The Taking of Christ” by the revolutionary painter Caravagio, a master of the Italian Baroque. Although the story is true it reads like an exciting novel and has a large cast of characters. Along the way we meet two graduate students who are trying to track down what happened to the painting, an important Caravagio expert from London who is responsible for authenticating--or not--many of Caravagio’s existing paintings including two copies of “The Taking of Christ”, an expert restorer of paintings and many others involved in the art world. We learn much about tracking the provenance of a painting, authenticating paintings, restoring paintings, art seminars and exhibitions, and about Caravagio, his life and his works. Highly recommended—especially if you are interested in art and art museums. 4 stars.

Book 57:

McPherson, James M.: Battle Cry of Freedom
999 Civil War category (4/2/09 – 6/21/09)
PL 909 pages

Check out TadAD's "hot review" for a really fine assessment of this book! (Sorry--don't know how to make links!)

This book was so comprehensive it's hard to know where to begin. This book covers quite comprehensively the American Civil War from the events of the “pending crisis” –especially during the presidency of James Buchanan—through the war itself to the ending of the war and a discussion of how the war changed the way our government functioned, changed the economy of our country and the economic balance of the North and South. The ramifications of this conflict are still felt in our society today.

I enjoyed the comprehensiveness of it, especially showing how the military aspects, including the battles, related to the political aspects of the war and how the "fortunes" of the war affected each side in turn. I think McPherson's narrative style made this book very accessible to those seriously interested in the Civil War without feeling like it was at all "dumbed down" to appeal to the casual reader. I read this book to get an overview of the Civil War to prepare me for my 999 category. I have a feeling as I read in depth about more limited aspects of the war I will be looking back to see what McPherson had to say about the event! This book will definitely help me in my further reading about the Civil War.

Here’s one of my favorite passages—it made me cry:

At the end of the war General John B. Gordon, at this time commander of Stonewall Jackson's old corps, surrenders to General Joshua L. Chamberlain:

"As Gordon approached …with 'his chin drooped to his breast, downhearted and dejected in appearance,' Chamberlain gave a brief order, and a bugle call rang out. Instantly the Union soldiers shifted from order arms to carry arms, the salute of honor. Hearing the sound General Gordon looked up in surprise, and with sudden realization turned smartly to Chamberlain, dipped his sword in salute, and ordered his own men to carry arms. These enemies in many a bloody battle ended the war not with shame on one side and exultation on the other but with a soldier's 'mutual salutation and farewell.'"

After 800 pages of war, hatred, political shenanigans, inept commanders, bloodshed, and seeing often worse side of humanity with only a few redeeming episodes, what an inspiring and gracious way to handle victory and defeat when a "family" has been fighting. Highly recommended. 5 stars

#219 What a great review, and I agree that TadAD's review is also outstanding. This truly is an outstanding book and should be considered required reading for anyone with an interest in the civil war.

OOO>..book 56 looks really interesting...We are planning a trip to Italy and southern Europe end of august, so this one might be very timely. Besides, we're always looking for audio book leads.

>#57 CAROLYN, Sandy,
I have this on my list fior next year - Civil War category.

I may have to squeeze it in as well.

#222 Cheli

I'll be interested to see what else you read next year in your CW category--I have a feeling I will continue to read in this category after my challenge is done. I'm finding it fascinating and much more involved and far-reaching in its consequences than I ever picked up on in my history classes. Battle Cry is a great place to start because it is so comprehensive it gives a great background for reading in depth.

Book 58:

Lowry, Lois: The Giver
999 Newbery category (6/23/2009)
Borrowed 179 pages

I needed a break from the book I’m reading and this YA novel that one of my students lent me because she wanted to read it and it just filled the bill. It was an easy afternoon read but with an intriguing idea for a future “world” and a story that is well executed and holds your interest. If this had been available when I was teaching in the schools this is a book I would have read and discussed with my students. Highly recommended. 4 ½ stars

Book 59:

Le Guin, Ursula: The Left Hand of Darkness
999 Sci-Fi category (6/28/09)
PL 345 pages

I bought the special 25th anniversary edition when it first came out in 1994 fully intending to read it then. But that was the year of the big “upheaval” when after living 25 years in Savannah hubby was transferred to California. Somehow I never got around to reading it until I saw so many people on LT talking about it the last few months so I searched among the mess that my library has become recently and finally tackled it.

I had a difficult time getting into the story so I had a slow beginning. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t seem to get into a flow with the story. Like Genly Ai I found the inhabitants of Winter to be difficult to understand and the strange words from that world really slowed me down. I did enjoy the interspersed chapters that gave myths and history of this strange world and Genly Ai’s visit to the foretellers I found interesting. About 2/3 of the way through, after reading it for nearly a week, I finally put the book aside in order to finish reading Battle Cry of Freedom and a couple of lighter reads for relaxation.

Last Sunday I finally decided I wanted to finish it so I could move on. The last third went very quickly for me and I finished it in an afternoon (those of you who know me realize that is fast reading for me!). Suddenly I seemed to connect with the two main characters and I really enjoyed the rest of the book. I’m not sure if this part of the book was just more interesting or if my attitude had changed allowing me to appreciate the story. Perhaps, because I gave the story “a rest,” subconsciously I processed what I had read previously and the world didn’t seem as strange to me any more. In the end, it was a satisfying read. Recommended—3 ½ stars

Book 60:

McCrumb, Sharon: Zombies of the Gene Pool
999 Mysteries category (6/29/09)
Library 216 pages

TadAD recommended this to me because I enjoyed Bimbos of the Death Sun earlier this month and this is the sequel. Once again we get some glimpses of science fiction fandom but this time the focus is more on the authors than the fans. Years ago a group of young sci-fi fans with aspirations to become famous authors lived together on a small farm in Tennessee. They decided to bury a time capsule commemorating their time together and including a short story from each author. Unfortunately a few years after they had gone their separate ways the TVA built a dam (I remember the controversy about that project!) and the entire area became covered by the huge lake that resulted. The story takes place many years later when the lake was drained to do repairs on the dam and the opportunity to dig up the capsule arises. Since some of the authors became famous the event becomes a national media story. I actually enjoyed this one more that the first. The characters were very interesting and the “quasi-profound discussions” of early science fiction I were entertaining. The descriptions of the area that had been flooded by the lake were interesting and felt like they had been thoroughly researched. That was one of my favorite aspects. Another enjoyable feature was all the literary phrases from famous works that are used in conversation—and McCrumb didn’t require me to try to dredge up from my murky memory where the quotes came from—that was also included in the conversations. All in all, this was a very entertaining way to spend a free afternoon. Oh, yes, there is also a mystery and this one was not as obvious as the one in Bimbos. Recommended. 3½ stars

Book 61:

Bly, Robert: Morning Poems
999 Poets and Poetry category (6/30/09)
Library 109 pages

Bly set a goal for himself to compose a poem every morning before he started his day and this generous selection of poems on a wide variety of topics using several different styles is the result. There are poems on life and death, childhood and aging, love and friendship, nature and everyday activities. Some are poignant or joyful, contemplative or humorous, straight forward or enigmatic. Most of the poems are relatively short and deserve to or three readings to really appreciate. I borrowed this from the library because of an LT recommendation and I plan to buy my own copy because I know I will want to read this again. Highly recommended. 4 stars

I found it impossible to choose 2 or 3 of my favorites so I chose 3 poems I hope others will enjoy as much as I did. The first two are toward the beginning of the book; the last one is near the end.

Two Ways to Write a Poem

“I am who I am.” I wonder what one has to pay
To say that. I couldn’t do it. For years
I thought, “You are who you are.” But maybe
You weren’t. Maybe you were someone else.

Sam’s friend, who loved poetry, played football
In school even though he didn’t want to.
He got hit. Later he said to me, “I write poems.
I am who I am…but my neck hurts.”

How many times I have begun a poem
Before I knew what the main sounds
Would be. We find out. Toward the end
The poem is just beginning to be who it is.

That’s all right, but there’s another way as well.
One picks the rhyme words, and so the main
Sounds, before one begins. I wonder what
Yeats had to pay in order to do that.

Reading in a Boat

I was glad to be in that boat, floating
Under oak leaves that had been
Carved by crafty light.

How many times during the night
I laughed, because She
Came near, and stayed, or returned.

The boat stopped, and I woke.
But the pages kept turning. I jumped
Back in the book, and caught up.

I was not in pain, not hungry,
Friend, I was alive, sleeping,
And all that time reading a book.

People Like Us

There are more like us. All over the world
There are confused people, who can’t remember
The name of their dog when they wake up, and people
Who love God but can’t remember where

He was when they went to sleep. It’s
All right. The world cleanses this way.
A wrong number occurs to you in the middle
Of the night, you dial it, it rings just in time

To save the house. And the second-story man
Gets the wrong address, where the insomniac lives,
And he’s lonely, and they talk, and the thief
Goes back to college. Even in graduate school

You can wander into the wrong classroom,
And hear great poems lovingly spoken
By the wrong professor. And you find your soul,
And greatness has a defender, and even in death you’re safe.

For James Wright

This completes June for me. I need to do my summary for June for the 75 thread--I'm behind and trying to catch up--before I start posting July. Although I have read 61 books this year in order to be sure all my categories are finished I need to read at least 32 more because some categories have more than nine books in them.

I have had to rearrange some of my categories a little. For those of you who like to see how the entire challenge is progressing, messages 51 through 60 list my categories and what has been read in each one so far. I do have the two July books posted there. The reviews will be posted before the weekend is over (I hope!).

Thanks for stopping by--both lurkers and posters. :-)

Carolyn....#228...as you know I too liked Robert Bly's poems. I smiled when I saw Reading in a Boat. It was also one of my favorites.

Thanks Tina, for reminding who recommended the book! I lost the paper that I made the note on--now I'm going to my library and add you as a tag. With collections I'm getting better at keeping track of where I get my suggestions for reading. This is a book I never would have found without you because I don't generally look for Bly's books. I may have to rethink that prejudice! :-)

I am mostly a lurker, but I do enjoy reading your thread.

#232 cmbohn

Thanks for "showing yourself" --we have a lot of books in common; you are one my "members with my books" list although I'm not on yours. It's nice to know when people are actually reading what we write! I'm a notorious lurker, too, though! :-)

Book 64:

Stewart, George R.: Earth Abides
999 Classics/Fiction category (7/13/09)
Library 345 Pages

It took a long time to come from a "distant" library but I finally read Earth Abides this week. It was appropriate to read now because we are up at our house in Vallejo, which is near San Francisco. It was a little eerie reading this story so close to the area where the story takes place. I can easily visualize the area because I've been there so many times. I was born “in the shadow” of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The book tells about a young man who, after spending several weeks alone in a cabin in the mountains, returns to his home in the East Bay area to discover that most of the human population of the earth has been wiped out by a plague. This is the first post-apocalyptic novel I have ever read and I found it interesting how the author envisioned the future after this catastrophe. It was written 1949 and so to younger readers it would seem dated in some ways but the human reactions and how they dealt with the event could generate a lot of discussion in a book group. I found it fascinating. I'm putting it in my classic category instead of science fiction even though the library doesn't agree with me. I didn't see anything fictional about the science in the book (although my scientist husband would call some of it "fuzzy science!") and it doesn't seem to be fantasy. It's about something that didn't happen, which makes it fiction, but it isn't about something couldn't possibly happen so I don't consider it fantastical. (Now all you Sci-Fi/Fantasy gurus can tell me why I'm wrong! But my Classics category needs more help than my Sci-Fi and Fantasy categories--so you won't change my mind.) :-)

I had another eerie experience reading this book. The nonfiction book I was reading at the same time was Travels with Charley about the 1960 trip Steinbeck took to “explore America.” In Earth Abides the protagonist, Ish, takes a cross country trip to see what has happened in the rest of America after the catastrophe. My mind kept comparing Ish’s journey with Steinbeck’s trip as I read Travels. I seem to frequently have these kinds of coincidences when I read—unusual connections between disparate stories.

Bottom line: An interesting,, thought provoking look at how people might react to a global catastrophe. It would make a good Book Group discussion, imo. Highly Recommended—4 stars

Book 65:

Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley
999 Biography/Memoir category (7/16/09)
PL 214 pages

This is my fourth Steinbeck read and he has become one of my favorite authors. I think he could have made the Yellow Pages into a riveting book if he'd had a mind to. No matter what the subject I find that his prose just seems to move me along like a lovely boat ride on calm water—it just flows.

This book was about a circular trip around the USA, conceived because he wanted to get the feel of what made America a cohesive country and learn about her character. When he finished he decided he really didn’t learn what he thought he would and he was left with more questions than answers. However, I learned a lot reading this book, not the least of which was much about Steinbeck himself as he shares his impressions of the people, places, and events he witnesses. His musings on his experiences were enlightening and reminded me of the saying “the unexamined life is not worth living.” (Wasn’t that Thoreau?) Steinbeck shows us the Good, Bad, Ugly and Beautiful of our country in 1960. This was the America of my youth which made it somewhat of a nostalgic read for me because I have been to many of the places he visited and found his observations striking chords of remembrance for me. One thing that made me smile, as long ago as 1960 Steinbeck was complaining that newspapers were more about giving us opinion than news! It’s only gotten worse!

One of the most riveting and disturbing part of the trip was near the end when he went through the Deep South. This was at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and he gives a very good and balanced picture as an outsider observing what was happening and speaking to some of the people. I moved from California to Savannah, GA about a decade after Travels was written and observed over the next about 25 years the gradual changes that took place in the Civil Rights problems--not enough and not fast enough. However there have been gains made that give me hope for the future--but like Steinbeck it probably won't happen in my lifetime.

The Centennial Edition (2002) contains a final chapter that was left out of the original publication that is really fun.

Bottom line: John Steinbeck’s account of his passage through America is interesting, thought provoking, and in the end, delightful. Highly Recommended—5 stars

Book 66:

Rowling, J.K.: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
999 Fantasy category (07/18/09)
PL 64 pages

This companion volume to Quidditch Through the Ages is another clever and delightful look at the world of Harry Potter. I especially enjoyed the “introductory material” which gave a history of magizoology and how the classifications of “beings” and “beasts” evolved. A young person who read this in elementary school might find biology in high school more comprehensible and interesting with this background. Recommended for die-hard Harry Potter Fans

I just discovered I didn't post the first two books I read in July! That's what happens when you get behind.

Book 62:

Dahl, Roald: Esio Trot
999 Want To! category (7/1/09)
Audio and PL 65 pages

An LT friend sent me four of the shorter Dahl children’s stories on disc so I grabbed one of them to listen to as I drove my long drive into the doctor’s office. It was early in the morning and this charming story, beautifully read by the British actor Geoffrey Palmer, kept me alert and awake for the trip. Mr. Hoppy is in love with Mrs. Silver but hasn’t the courage to tell her. She is concerned about her pet tortoise, Alfie, because he isn’t growing. The story of how Mr. Hoppy solves Mrs. Silver’s problem and so gains the courage to tell her how he feels had me in stitches. Dahl’s quirky story is, as always, delightful with wonderful details and great word play. I enjoyed it so much, when I got home I looked for the used copy I had recently bought from the library and reread it with the wonderful illustrations by Quentin Blake. Recommended for the young and the young at heart-- 3 ½ stars

Book 63:

Dahl, Roald: The BFG
999 Want To! category (7/02/09) (Fantasy)
PL 208 pages

I enjoyed Esio Trot so much I picked up the last Dahl book I’ve been able to find used to purchase and read it, too. (I do have three more stories on the discs the LT friend sent but don’t own those books.) I’ve enjoyed them all, but this one was my favorite and I could imagine myself being entirely enthralled by it if had read it as a child. Not only is the story about Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant delightful but the word play is fabulous and fun—something I have always loved. Some of the ways that Dahl describes people and events often reminds me of Mark Twain’s satiric humor, which may explain why adults can also enjoy his children’s stories. Highly recommended for adults and intelligent children who enjoy quirky, humorous stories with lots of word play--4 stars

I remember reading The BFG to my son and enjoying it as much as he did. The video was delightful too.

Esio Trot? Didn't realize there was a Roald Dahl that I hadn't read! I'll have to rectify that! And who wouldn't love the BFG? He's my absolute favorite giant--and has added important words to my vocabulary.

Esio Trot is my favorite and we've used Mr. Hoppy's language on our pets, to no apparent success. I do like the idea that "poo" is a very powerful word in any language. Dahl so completely understands the minds of children.

Book 68:

Kraft, Heidi Squier: Rule Number Two
999 Biography/Memoir category (7/21/09)
Library 243 pages

Heidi Kraft was a US Navy psychologist happily married to a Marine and raising her 15 month old twins when on short notice she was shipped out to Iraq to be part of a medical support team for combat troops (think M*A*S*H*, only in Iraq). While there she kept a journal to help her keep her sanity and when she came home she used that journal to write this book. The book is written in episodic fashion, giving us an understanding of what life is like for both the Marines and their Navy medical support teams. This style lets us see both the horrific aspects and some of the redeeming episodes that happen in war without overwhelming the reader. Occasionally there is even a little humor. This book is not long and was a fairly quick read for me. As Elie Wiesel does in Night, Kraft gives us enough to understand the horror she lived through without making us numb.

Bottom line: This book is a paean to the human spirit, to the military who serve our country in the combat zones and the people who are there to support them both physically and mentally when they need it. Highly recommended—4 ½ stars

Book 69:

McKillip, Patricia A.: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
999 Fantasy category (7/23/09)
PL 199 pages

This was my first McKillip fantasy and I enjoyed it very much. It brought to mind Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown which I read earlier this year. The writing in this was beautiful and she described her people and places vividly so it was easy to envision what was happening, which for me made it not only pleasurable but also a fairly quick read. I was a little disappointed in the beginning because I had wanted more told about the development of the relationship between Sybel and Tam. (n.b.—this is one of my problems with YA literature; they are often skimpy on the development of characters and relationships in order to get to the “action.”) However, the book made up for that as it followed Sybel’s development after she encounters Coren the second time and in all that follows. The ending is stunning and satisfying, although I had expected one aspect of it. Highly recommended—4 stars

#68--Rule Number Two so glad you enjoyed this Carolyn. I found it one of the most inspiring and well written books of the year. I almost passed on it, thinking it would be depressing, but the ability of human beings to 'make lemonade out of lemons' is so well portrayed by Dr. Kraft. Her adventures in Iraq make great reading, and I finished this book with a profound sense of gratitude to everyone associated with these wonderfully unselfish people.

I've been doing a little reorganizing of my 999 challenge to make it less stressful and more enjoyable. I'm postponing my "Africa" category to next year. I've been concentrating on the "Civil War" category and I've found that one in depth nonfiction area is enough to tackle each year. (My other nonfiction categories, Books about Books, Poets & Poetry, and Biography/Memoir are all areas that I usually read in and that allow a lot of leeway in reading selections.) I've read so much SciFi/Fantasy that I split that into two categories so I still have enough categories.

Although I've read 73 books so far this year, I still have 19 more to read to finish my 999 challenge! I've read more than nine books in some of my categories--I just have no discipline! ;-)

Book 70:

Tarbell, Ida M.: He Knew Lincoln
999 Want To! category (8/02/09) (Civil War
PL 40 pages

For years my husband has talked about this book which he remembered a Jr. High history teacher teaching reading to his class many years ago. Going through some things from his parents’ house I found the book, which was published in 1907. It was given to his grandfather by his grandmother on Valentines Day in 1916. His grandmother was a teacher at the school hubby attended and had lent the book to her teacher friend to share with her classes.

It is a charming story told from the point of view of a young man who knew Lincoln in his hometown because Lincoln would come to the store where the boy worked to buy quinine water. There was a chair there where Lincoln would sit and they would exchange stories and other townspeople would come in and join them. This short story shows how Lincoln could win the hearts of the people and how they believed in him. It is beautifully illustrated, but no indication of who did the drawings.

Book 71:

Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog
999 Fantasy category (8/02/09)
PL 493 pages

One of the benefits I’m reaping from doing an in-depth read in the SciFi/Fantasy genre for 2009 is the discovery of Connie Willis. The first book I read this year was Doomsday Book and it became one of my top ten favorite books of all time. To Say Nothing of the Dog is entirely different in mood and character but just as enjoyable. The one thing they have in common is the use of “the net” at Oxford University but the former story has a serious tone to it while the latter is just a wonderful and sometimes hysterical roller coaster ride. The plot is impossible to describe without giving too much away but it is a comedy of manners that involves chaos theory, literary and historical allusions, mystery references, and a plot that keeps you guessing. And for cat lovers, there is a fabulous cat, too. One of the few books that have made me laugh out loud! Highly recommended—5 stars.

Book 72:

Collins, Billy: Sailing Around the Room
999 Poetry category (8/03/09)
PL 172 pages

This anthology contains a generous selection of poems from four of his books published between 1988 and 1998 plus a group of new poems. Collins uses a wide range of subjects; he seems to be able to write a poem about anything that pops into his mind and many poems reveal his process of thought as he is composing them. Some poems start out about one subject but seem to change direction mid-verse. Once in a while a poem will seem to have a surreal quality. I find his work intriguing and feel he creates a connection between himself and his reader that makes his work seem personal.

In July on my 75 Challenge thread I have been posting some of my favorite poems from this book trying to show how he uses a variety of subjects. Two of my favorite subjects that Collins writes about are art and music. My last two Billy Collins poems (until I get another volume of his poetry!) are examples of his work in these areas.

Candle Hat

In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates;
Cezanne is a pair of eyes swimming in the brushstrokes,
Van Gogh stares out of a halo of swirling darkness,
Rembrandt looks relieved, as if he were taking a breather
from painting The Blinding of Samson.

But in this one Goya stands well back from the mirror
and is seen posed in the clutter of his studio
addressing a canvas tilted back on a tall easel.

He appears to be smiling out at us as if he knew
we would be amused by the extraordinary hat on his head
which is fitted around the brim with candle holders,
a device that allowed him to work into the night.

You can only wonder what it would be like
to be wearing such a chandelier on your head
as if you were a walking dining room or concert hall.

But once you see this hat there is no need to read
any biography of Goya or to memorize his dates.

To understand Goya you only have to imagine him
lighting the candles one by one, then placing
the hat on his head, ready for a night of work.

Imagine him surprising his wife with his new invention,
then laughing like a birthday cake when she saw the glow.
Imagine him flickering through the rooms of his house
with all the shadows flying across the walls.

Imagine a lost traveler knocking on his door
one dark night in the hill country of Spain.
“Come in,” he would say, I was just painting myself,”
as he stood in the doorway holding up the wand of a brush,
illuminated in the blaze of his famous candle hat.

I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey’s Version of “Three Blind Mice”

And I start wondering how they came to be blind.
If it was congenital, they could be brothers and sisters,
and I think of the poor mother
brooding over her sightless young triplets.

Or was it a common accident, all three caught
in a searing explosion, a firework perhaps?
If not,
if each came to his or her blindness separately,

how did they ever manage to find one another?
Would it not be difficult for a blind mouse
to locate even one fellow mouse with vision
let alone two other blind ones?

And how, in their tiny darkness,
could they possibly have run after a farmer’s wife
or anyone else’s wife for that matter?
Not to mention why.

Just so she could cut off their tails
with a carving knife, in the cynic’s answer,
but the thought of them without eyes
and now without tails to trail through the moist grass

or slip around the corner of a baseboard
has the cynic who always lounges within me
up off his couch and at the window
trying to hide the rsing softness that he feels.

By now I am on to dicing an onion
which might account for the wet stinging
in my own eyes, though Freddie Hubbard’s
mournful trumpet on “Blue Moon,”

which happens to be the next cut,
cannot be said to be making matters any better.

Book 73:

Morley, Christopher: Parnassus on Wheels
999 Classics/Fiction category (8/04/09)
Library 190 pages

This is a delightful story of an unmarried woman approaching the age of 40 who has spent most of her adult life keeping house for her brother who instead of staying home to tend the farm goes off on adventures which he turns into best selling books. One day, to prevent her brother from doing so, she buys a large horse and wagon full of books complete with a dog and starts off on an adventure of her own. This takes place in the early 20th century when such actions were unheard of for women and the ensuing contretemps are at times funny and quite delightful. I had very little idea of what this book was about and found myself charmed by the story and looking forward to the sequel, The Haunted Bookshop. 3 ½ stars—recommended.

I'm so glad you enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog. I loaned it to a friend who returned it saying "I don't like time travel books". Oh well, her loss.

Oh my....you've gone and added another to my TBR pile. I've heard of Parnassus on Wheels but like you, had no idea of its contents. Your review indicates it is one I'll like, so onto the pile it goes. Thanks for another good lead.

Book 77:

Bradley, Alan: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
999 Mystery after 1980 category (8/14/09)
Library 374 pages

This is a mystery with roots in the past that both precocious children and adults can enjoy. Eleven year old Flavia de Luce has a passion for chemistry and the means to learn about and exercise that passion. She discovers a crime with roots in her father’s past that she determines to solve. The twists and turns of the plot are interesting, but adding to the delight is Flavia’s discussions of chemistry and I also enjoyed her sister Daphne’s bantering about books. The culprit was not too hard to spot but that didn’t detract from enjoyment of the novel. It did give me food for thought about sisters, though. I was an only child and growing up I passionately wished that I could have had a sister. After reading this book I decided maybe I was lucky! :-D

MM, I picked this one up and want to get to it soon.

I understand that it's supposed to be the first in a series.

I have a younger sister but we're six years apart so we're probably not typical.

linda

The age difference is the same Ophelia is 17, Daphne is 13, and Flavia is 11 -- although I doubt if you will identify yourselves with the characters in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie but I would love the hear what you think of the book--and the sibling relationships.

Book 78:

Morley, Christopher: The Haunted Bookshop
999 Books about Books category (8/17/09)
PL 253 pages

This is the sequel to Parnassus on Wheels which I read earlier this month. Roger and Helen Mifflin are now running a secondhand bookshop in Brooklyn. They call it “haunted” because it is haunted by the ghosts of great authors of the ages. However, suddenly unexplained things begin to happen. The story is set immediately after the end of WWI just before President Wilson is to go to Germany for the treaty talks. Two younger characters are introduced, Titania Chapman who comes to be the new shop assistant and Aubrey Gilbert who comes to the bookshop to try to interest Roger in advertising his business and becomes smitten with Miss Chapman. There is also a mystery of sorts that needs to be figured out and as in Parnassus there is a lot of talk about books. I'm putting this in my Bookks about Books category because that is the part of the novel I enjoyed most. This is a delightful easy read. 3 stars—recommended.

Revised 999 Challenge

I ended up with 11 categories and needing about 25 books to complete the challenge. Since 81 books is the goal and I have already read 78 books this year I decided to rework my categories to make this challenge more manageable. All of my books have been reviewed in the proper months but this challenge thread now will only keep track of the books I read in 9 categories. On 8/22/09 I need 13 books to complete the challenge (I have 2 extra books in the Poetry category which will give me a total of 83 books for the challenge—I may add one or two more poetry books, however!). All books I read will be reviewed on my 75 Challenge thread.

Category 1: Classics & Fiction (completed 9/05/09)

1. Jerome K. Jerome: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) (2/25/09)
2. Willa Cather: The Old Beauty and Others (2/26/09)
3. Lewis, C.S.: Till We Have Faces (5/27/09)
4. Salinger, J.D.: Franny and Zooey (6/01/05)
5. Franklin, Ariana: Mistress of the Art of Death (6/16/09) (Mystery)
6. Stewart, George R.: Earth Abides (7/16/09) (Sci-Fi)
7. Morley, Christopher: Parnassus on Wheels (8/04/09) (Books about Books)
8. Twain, Mark: The Mysterious Stranger & Other Stories (8/30/09)
9. Greene, Graham: Our Man in Havana (9/05/09)
10. Shakespeare, William: The Tempest (9/08/09)

Category 2: Books about Books (& Authors) (completed 9/26/09)

1. Samet, Elizabeth D: Soldier’s Heart (1/22/09) (Memoir)
2. McGregor, Robert Kuhn: Conundrums for the Long Weekend (1/25/09)
3. Hornby, Nick: The Polysyllabic Spree (3/15/09)
4. Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen (4/11/09)
5. Achebe, Chinua: Home and Exile (4/12/09)
6. Morley, Christopher: The Haunted Bookshop (8/17/09)
7. Granger, John: Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures (8/21/09)
8. Woodward, Hobson: A Brave Vessel (9/10/09)
9. Rehak, Melanie: Girl Sleuth—Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her (9/26/09)

Category 3: Science Fiction (completed 9/20/09)

1. Willis, Connie: Doomsday Book (1/5/09)
2. Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles (1/11/09)
3. Campbell, Jack: The Lost Fleet: Dauntless (1/11/09)
4. Stephenson, Neal: The Diamond Age (1/30/09
5. Le Guin, Ursula: The Left Hand of Darkness (6/28/09)
6. Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog (8/02/09)
7. Herbert, Frank: Dune (8/23/09)
8. Heinlein, Robert: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (8/28/09)
9. Bujold, Lois: Shards of Honor (9/20/09)

Category 4: Fantasy (completed 9/29/09)

1. Cook, Glen: Sweet Silver Blues (1/16/09)
2. Connolly, John: The Book of Lost Things (2/6/09
3. Dahl, Roald: The Witches (2/28/09)
4. Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana (3/16/09)
5. McKinley, Robin: The Blue Sword (3/29/09)
6. Rowling, J.K.: Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (4/28/09)
7. Rowling, J.K.: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (07/18/2009)
8. McKillip, Patricia A.: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (7/23/09)
9. Windling, Terri: Wood Wife (9/29/09)

Category 5: Vintage Mysteries (completed 9/12/09)

1. Hilton, James: Was It Murder? (2/1/09)
2. Tey, Josephine: A Shilling for Candles (3/19/09)
3. Marsh, Ngaio: Death in Ecstasy (4/17/09)
4. Stout, Rex: And Be a Villain (4/28/09)
5. Marsh, Ngaio: Alleyn and Others—The Collected Short Fiction (4/29/09)
6. Greenberg, Martin H. ed.: Murder British Style (5/22/09)
7. Wallace, Edgar: The Murder Book of J.G. Reeder (6/08/09)
8. Stout, Rex: The Second Confession (8/07/09)
9. Stout, Rex: In the Best Families (9/12/09)

Category 6: Mysteries after 1980 (completed 9/19/09)

1. Penny, Louise: Still Life (3/22/09)
2. Walsh, Jill Paton: The Wyndham Case (3/27/09)
3. Nabb, Magdalen: Death of an Englishman (3/30/09)
4. McCrumb, Sharyn: Bimbos of the Death Sun (6/02/09)
5. McCrumb, Sharyn: Zombies of the Gene Pool (6/29/09)
6. Bradley, Alan: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (8/14/09)
7. Hart, Carolyn: Death on Demand (8/24/09)
8. Leon, Donna: Death at La Fenice (8/31/09)
9. Andrews, Donna: Murder with Peacocks (9/19/09)

Category 7: Poets and Poetry (completed 5/31/09)

1. Rich, Adrienne: An Atlas of the Difficult World (1/09/09)
2. Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Rebel’s Silhouette (trans. By Agha Shahid Ali) (2/15/09)
3. Milosz, Czeslaw: Facing the River (2/28/09)
4. Millay, Edna St. Vincent: Fatal Interview (3/29/09)
5. Teasdale, Sara: Dark of the Moon (4/7/09)
6. Oliver, Mary: Evidence (5/07/09)
7. Forche, Carolyn: The Country Between Us (5/25/09)
8. Alegria, Claribel: Fugues (5/27/09)
9. Oliver, Mary: Owls and Other Fancies: Poems and Essays (5/31/09)
10. Bly, Robert: Morning Poems (6/30/09)
11. Collins, Billy: Sailing Alone Around the Room (8/03/09)

Category 8: Memoir, Biography, Letters, History (completed 9/10/09)

1. Taylor, Susie King: A Black Woman’s Civil War Memories (memoir) (2/10/09)
2. Douglas, Frederick: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (3/24/09)
3. Woolf, Virginia: Flush: A Biography (4/11/09)
4. Baker, Jean H.: James Buchanan (4/21/09)
5. Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley (7/16/09)
6. Kraft, Heidi Squier: Rule Number Two (7/21/09)
7. Adler, Bill: The Cosby Wit (8/07/09)
8. Holland, Julie: Weekends at Bellevue (Early Review book-9/06/09)
9. Brent, Frances: The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson (9/10/09)

Category 9: Because I want to! (completed 7/02/09)

1. Dunn, Mark: Ella Minnow Pea (1/18/09)
2. Horwitz, Tony: Confederates in the Attic (2/8/09)
3. McEvedy, Colin: The Penguin Atlas of African History (3/14/09)
4. Heyer, Georgette: Friday’s Child (3/23/09)
5. Humphreys, Helen: The Frozen Thames (4/29/09)
6. Adams, Scott: Random Acts of Management (5/08/09)
7. Harr, Jonathan: The Lost Painting (6/16/09)
8. Dahl, Roald: Esio Trot (7/01/09)
9. Dahl, Roald: The BFG (7/02/09)

Just about finished! Does it feel like you're in the home stretch?

Finally! That's why I reworked my categories. I'm hoping to have some "free reading" time at the end of the year and what I have left now doesn't look so daunting. I will continue the categories I eliminated next year. What I have left should be fun and not taxing--with summer over and a very packed few weeks ahead of me for work I'll be a happier camper. :-)

Yeah! I did this too and I feel sooo much better! Have you read The Sparrow? I don't normally read SciFi, but really enjoyed that one. Also liked Kindred. Funny how they both included time-travel, but maybe that's the most common element to SF, I don't know. Happy reading.

P.S. I pulled out a book of poems by Mona Van Duyn to read a few that I had remembered I really liked. Thought about posting one here, but then it's your thread and, you're right, it felt very personal and I got afraid.

bonniebooks

Mary Doria Russell is a new author to me. I recently bought Thread of Grace because of a recommendation on LT but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I've added The Sparrow to my wish list--I plan to continue my scifi/fantasy adventure next year. Kindred is alrady on my wish list. I'm getting quite a list for scifi/fantasy next year! I have really been enjoying exploring it this year.

I do not know the poet Mona Van Duyn and would love to have you share her work here if you feel comfortable. I know poetry is very personal but I really enjoy reading what other people like! :-) I love discovering new poets.

Are you enjoying Dune? I read it for the first time this year and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it.

#261 cmbohn

I just this minute finished it and I did enjoy it. I'll have to think about it before I can write my comments.

I read Dune many years ago, but still remember the following, "Fear is the mind killer." Loved the book, hated the movie.

Van Duyn was our Poet Laureate in the year 1992-1992 and won the Pulitzer for Near Changes which is the book I have.

I plan to get a collection of her poems. I love finding "new to me" poets. I looked her up and she has been writing poetry for many years. I don't even remember seeing her in any of my anthologies. Thanks for mentioning her to me!

Book 79:

Granger, John: Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures
999 Books about Books category (8/21/09)
PL 303 pages

First, I have a confession to make. I am absolutely crazy about the Harry Potter series. As with my children, I may recognize the flaws but I love the books unconditionally and pretty much equally. I bought this book on an impulse. We were on vacation last week and I was looking for something in Barnes & Noble in Fairfield and this book just leapt into my hands. It had been shelved in the wrong section—call it serendipity or call it fate but now it’s mine. Of course I had to read it immediately!

The sub-title is The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures and the first part of the book discusses the wide range of authors and genres that have influenced J.K. Rowling. Chapters three and four discuss Harry Potter as a Boarding School Story (a la Tom Brown’s Schooldays) and as a Gothic romance (a la Wuthering Heights and Dracula). That’s as far as I got the first night I had the book and I went to bed thinking what fun that was but I didn’t really learn anything I hadn’t already figured out myself after reading the novels several times. The next day the first sentence in chapter five said: “We’ve just spent two good-sized chapters demonstrating what you probably would have figured out after five minutes of reflection on the question, ‘What kind of books are the Harry Potter novels?’” I had to laugh out loud!

The last two thirds of the book goes much deeper into the many layers of meaning behind this seemingly simple “children’s series.” Granger discusses the Moral Meaning, the Allegorical Meaning, and the Mythic or Anagogical Meaning of the books, still using well known classic literature examples for comparison. She also discusses the Alchemical meaning, which is why the originally title of the 1st book, The Philosopher’s Stone is significant.

This book has only deepened my appreciation for what J.K. Rowling has achieved. On many issues Rowling and I would not agree but we do share the underlying core values she has portrayed in her books and Granger’s analysis of the series has helped me to better understand why I love these books so much. Highly recommended for Harry Potter fans who want to go “farther up and farther in!” 4 ½ stars

Book 80:

Herbert, Frank: Dune
999 SciFi category (8/23/09)
PL 535 pages

My older son has been trying to get me to read this book for 20 years. I started it twice and just couldn’t seem to get into it so I gave up. After about 15 years of not mentioning it, he again asked me last year to read it and so, with a little help from Stasia who read with me, I finally managed to finish this book. A lot of readers on LT have mentioned how much they love this book, just as my son does, and I can see why. It’s a good story that keeps your interest, many of the characters are very well drawn, multidimensional beings, and there is plenty of action and suspense without being a “space opera.” It gives a lot of food for thought and definitely has a “philosophy” that has a lot of appeal for many readers that it is trying to illustrate. Before I go any further, let me admit that, although I found this novel “tough going” sometimes I really did enjoy it and have a great admiration for what Herbert has accomplished literarily. I’m glad I finally read it.

(Warning: If you really love this novel unconditionally stop here! I don’t want to lose any friends.) :-) Also—mild spoilers ahead.

So why did I find it difficult to read at times? Why, although I was enjoying it, did I find myself unable to really connect with the story or the characters? I felt like I was observing rather than experiencing or feeling the story. Stasia gave me the clue to my reservations about the book when she mentioned that she thought many of the quotes in the book seemed to sound Biblical. Below is the reply I sent to her:

I have noticed that there are a lot of quotes in the book that seem quite "Biblical". I assume they come from the "Orange Catholic Bible"--often referred to as the OC Bible or the OCB in the text of the novel. In the glossary of the book this is the definition of OCB: the "Accumulated Book," the religious text produced by the Commission of Ecumenical Translators. It contains elements of most ancient religions, including the Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism and Buddislamic traditions. Its supreme commandment is considered to be: "Thou shalt not disfigure the soul."

This is an example of the philosophy of the book that makes me edgy. The novel was written in the sixties which was a time in our society when a lot of people started to believe in "everything and nothing"--at least in California, which is where I was then. I found it interesting that Paul did not come into his full power until he took a psychedelic-type drug. Some of the ideas of the Fremen reminded me of what the hippies were preaching back then. I kept wondering what "agenda" Frank Herbert had in writing this book. Did this plant the seeds of the "New Age" movement? I can see where this book would have a huge attraction for someone who was searching for something to "believe in."--and the sixties were definitely one of those times! It was the time of the "Beat" generation and the Viet Nam War. It was the end of the "Ozzie and Harriet" view of family and the age of the communes. It was one of those times when our society drastically changed its direction and never looked back. As with every historical upheaval, there have been many positives in some of those changes, but for some of us a lot was lost, also. I remember my mother sometime bemoaning what was lost as a result of WWII—this book helped me understand better how she felt.

Bottom line: A well written and interesting novel that deserves to be read. My rating does not necessarily reflect the merit of the novel. I do not buy into the author’s philosophy and world view and that influences my reaction. Guardedly recommended—3 ½ stars.

Book 81:

Hart, Carolyn: Death on Demand
999 Mystery after 1980 category (8/24/09)
PL 195 pages

This was a delightful, frothy mystery that takes place on a fictional barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, accessible only by boat. The title comes from the name of the mystery bookstore Annie Laurence has inherited from her uncle and put all of her money into refurbishing. There are several mystery writers who make Broward Island home and they meet Sunday evenings at the shop to visit and discuss there latest ventures. One Saturday Annie has an argument with one of those writers who has announced his intention of exposing everyone’s “dirty laundry” at the next meeting. Of course, at that meeting before he can reveal any horrible secrets he is murdered. I used to live in Savannah and I loved the setting of the book (one character even goes by ferry to Savannah for an errand in finding the solution to the mystery) and was in stitches at the sly allusions of the superiority of Broward Island in comparison with Hilton Head, which I frequently visited while living in Savannah. In addition to loving the setting and the many references to actual mystery authors, I found the characters interesting and the story intriguing. For those reasons, even though I figured out the murderer less than a third of the way through the book, I still had a great time reading the story. This is the first in a series and I have the second one on hand. It is 100 pages longer so maybe in this one Hart will be able to bury her clues a little deeper. Recommended for lovers of cozy mysteries—3 stars

What's on tap?

Since I've read 81 books you would think I would be done with my 999 challenge! Not so. Bad planning or bad choices--I still have 12 books to read to finish the challenge. So I will be picking only books that will fit into my new and improved version (if I hadn't revised it I would have over 20 more books to read!) until the challenge is finished.

I hopefully plan to finish 999 in September. Here’s what needs to be done:

I need 12 more books. Six are planned because they are either in progress or will be due at the library before the end of September. That leaves 6 free choices —which will keep the pressure off!

CATEGORY 1: Classics & Fiction (need 2)

8. Twain, Mark: The Mysterious Stranger & Other Stories
9. Parkin, Gaile: Baking cakes in Kigali (library—due 9/21)

CATEGORY 2: Books about Books & Authors (need 2)

8. Rehak, Melanie: Girl Sleuth—Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her
9. TBC (to be chosen)

CATEGORY 3: Science Fiction (need 2)

8. Heinlein, Robert: Have Space Suit—Will Travel
9. TBC

CATEGORY 4: Fantasy (need one)

9. TBC

CATEGORY 5: Vintage Mysteries (need one)

9. TBC

CATEGORY 6: Mysteries after 1980 (need 2)

8. TBC
9. TBC

CATEGORY 7: Poets and Poetry (COMPLETED 5/31/09 + 2 extra)

CATEGORY 8: Memoir, Biography, Letters, History (need 2)

8. Holland, Julie: Weekends at Bellevue (Early Review book)
9. Brent, Francis: The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson (library—due 9/15)

CATEGORY 9: Because I want to (COMPLETED 7/02/09 + several extra!)
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You got Weekends at Bellevue too, huh? I still need to do my review of it; I'll be interested in hearing what you think about it.

I liked your very astute review of Dune. I read it sometime in the '70's, and remember pretty much skipping huge swaths of the book. I liked the story a lot, but was too impatient with most of the philosophy. I tried to read one of Herbert's sequels to Dune back then, too, but it was really devoted to his philosophy, and I never finished it.

If you haven't already read either of the two following fantasy's, might I suggest them for your fantasy category?

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

#269 bonnie

It came while we were gone for 2 weeks so I just got started on it yesterday. This week and next week are going to be bedlam for me getting prepared for my teaching year and catching up on my music director job so I thought it was appropriate to read about the psychiatric ER at Bellevue--I may be a candidate for admission! So far I'm enjoying it for the most part, although some of the personal revelations go a bit further than "need to know" basis.--I've read about 1/3 of it--at least it's a fast read.

#270 jan

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't read either of them although I've heard of The Mists of Avalon. I'm continuing this category next year and am making list of books to consider--these will go on the list.

Your review of Dune was excellent. Sometimes I think that people whose reaction to a book was mixed can write the best reviews.

I'll second the Mists of Avalon recommendation, although I'll add the caveat that the author is also pushing her personal philosophy pretty hard.

RidgewayGirl

Thanks for the compliment. It's encouraging--I find writing reviews intimidating. I'm no expert!

I read Mary Stewart's trilogy about King Arthur many years ago and remember enjoying it. Crystal Cave I loved and the other two I found enjoyable, but not quite as good. I also read Sword in the Stone by T.H. White--I think shortly before I did the Stewart novels. After that, I felt like I was finished with King Arther and moved on. Maybe it's time to revisit the legend with Mists of Avalon. I've seen it mentioned quite a bit on LT.

Great reviews!!

re 266: I also love the Harry Potter books and, as you did, I picked up on many of the influences and have since discovered other references. I'm adding the Granger book to my wishlist.

Have you read The Little White Horse, said to be J.K. Rowling's favorite childhood book?

re 267: I really, really liked Dune, although I didn't expect to when my son-in-law (a sci-fi fan) handed it to me with the comment that I "must read this book." I find your comments about the influences of the 60s extremely astute and accurate -- I hadn't thought of that before. I was, though, impressed by his environmental philosophies, which were rather "new" at that time; I've read that the book grew out of his participation in saving the sand dunes on the Oregon coast.

I tried the 2nd book in the series, didn't like it at all, and didn't continue the series. BUT a young friend, to whom I had recommended Dune, loaned me House Atreides, written by Frank Herbert's son, and I really enjoyed the back stories and ended up reading all three of the House books (yes, I know, the Dune purists hate these books).

Re The Mists of Avalon: I liked this book, too, although I kept wondering why she had changed some of the traditional legends, which I thought would have fit with her story as well as or even better than the changes. I found the feminine perspective very interesting, but with this book too, I didn't care for the next book in the series (I'm not sure I even finished it).

Now I "have" to read Dune. I'm not much of a sci fi fan but I've long wanted to.

Glad you liked the first Carolyn Hart. I think she got better at hiding things. One of my mysteries in the past week was soooo obvious. I didn't guess, I knew, about 1/4 into it exactly what happened. It was still fun to read though.

Carolyn, I suddenly noticed, again, that you have a books about books category, including a Nancy Drew book.

Have you ever read any Susan Kandel mysteries? Her Cece Caruso series? I've read two of them--they are all mysteries somehow involving old mystery authors. Can't believe I didn't think of these sooner.

I read Christietown and also read I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason. What reminded me is that she's got one involving Nancy Drew, called Not a Girl Detective.

There's also Shamus in the Green Room, about Dashiell Hammet. I think there's also Dial H for Hitchcock.

#275 ivyd

Glad you stopped by! I haven't read Little White Horse yet but it is on my "wish list" as soo as I can find a coy.

I'm going to look in House Atreides--I would really like to know more about those characters, whom I really liked in the novel. One of the things that slowed me down in the first section was that I didn't want to get to the part where the Duke died--that's no spoiler because we are told in the beginning that it is going to happen!

Actually, I didn't equate the environmental issues with the '60's because I went to high school in Oregon in the late fifties and one of my major science projects was on environmental issues. It was interesting to find out that Herbert was involved in that issue in Oregon! Thanks for the information.

#276 linda

Do read Dune--I'd love to hear your opinions about it.

As to the Carolyn Hart series--yes, I knew definitely who the culprit was early on (I won't say why in public--a spoiler) so it says a lot that I still wanted to finish it. I had the same experience with Presumed Innocent where on page 87 I knew exactly who, how and why and if I hadn't had to finish it because it was for a book club I would have quit. I've never read another Turow book.

#277 linda

I was interrupted by a phone call and by the time I got back you had already posted.

I will have to scout out the Susan Kandel mysteries. They sound like something I would really like for light reading. Mysteries have been a favorite genre of mine ever since I met Nancy Drew at age eight!

It's funny how our reading develops. My sister absolutely loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys.

I seemed to have skipped right over them (I think I've told the story about how I was reading Perry Mason books at 8 or 9 and getting tsk, tsk'd by older ladies in the store for picking those books up.)

I ought to make "kids favorites I somehow missed" a category.

I started on Nancy Drew because I had a friend who was a couple of years older than I was and when I had to be in the hospital for an extended stay she gave me her copy of the first Nancy Drew book. I was hooked. I didn't discover Perry Mason until I was around 11 or 12--picked up one of my Dad's--I got hooked on that, too. I'm planning to start the Susan Kandel series with I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason because that is the first one. Maybe I'll get hooked again--I hope! :-)

I was just looking at fantasticfiction. I have, somehow, read the first and the most recent, I think. Probably read Christietown first, liked it, then went back to the first one.

The Hitchcock one, due out in Nov, I think, sounds good. I liked watching those, way back when.

Me-TV, one of those Chicago TV stations that shows old TV shows, runs at least one old Perry Mason every day. Me-2 also runs Boston Blackie movies etc. I love those.

>278 MusicMom41:: I think Oregon has been ahead on a lot of environmental issues. Did you belong to Oregon Green Guard?

>280 lindapanzo: & 281: I've never read the Nancy Drew books, either. The library didn't have them (why, I wonder?), and my parents didn't believe in buying books ("that's what libraries are for"). As soon as I was allowed into the "adult" library at age 12, the first books I read were all the Perry Mason and all the Agatha Christie that they had (which was a lot of them, but not all).

#282 linda

Oh, my gosh! I haven't though about Boston Blackie in years--I was crazy about them when I was young and they were older than I was! I'll have to ask my Chicago son if he has access to them. I was a devoted fan of the Raymond Burr Perry Mason series when it first aired and watched it in reruns in Savannah in the late '80s or early '90s--but I still liked the books better! I haven't read one in yearss--i wonder if I would still like them?

#283 ivyd

I don't remember the Oregon Green Guard ever being mentioned while I was in high school, although when I just now googled it I discovered it was active at that time. I don't remember there being any 4H groups active in my high school, either. But that might just mean I didn't notice them. I was pretty much a math/science nerd who was also very heavily into reading literature, so my friends wouldn't have been in those activities and I was only in Oregon the four years of high school. Astoria, Oregon--famous at that time for it's Naval Base, its Bumblebee canning factory, and its high school basketball team which made it to the state tournament every year I was there (although we never won).

I have a lot of Agatha Christie. I may have them all by now. I've been reading her since I was about 12, too. Both my parents were great readers and they both loved mysteries so I come by my love of them naturally.

ivyd, it's my understanding that libraries were reluctant to stock Nancy Drew books back in the day because their bindings were so flimsy. At least that's what my elementary school librarian told us. Maybe they weren't available in library binding?

>280 lindapanzo:-281, I started in on Perry Mason Mysteries at that age too, but I didn't have to worry about getting "tsked" as I could just borrow them off my older sister's bed. Only read a couple of Nancy Drews as a child, and didn't read most of the childhood classics until I had kids of my own to read to. And Oregon Green Guard? What's that? I grew up in Oregon and have never heard of it.

And re: Astoria--don't forget the rain! In my family, it was famous for always raining whenever we were there.

>185 bonniebooks: Thanks for the information, RidgewayGirl. It makes sense; as I recall, the covers were hard cardboard (I looked at them covetously in the store where my mother bought her art supplies) rather than library bindings.

>184 MusicMom41: In my grade school in the late 1950s, everyone was urged to join Oregon Green Guard. Although it was a state-wide program, it may have gotten particular emphasis in Northeastern Oregon where lumber was the main industry. We also did a comprehensive unit in Jr High School (very early 1960s) on timber conservation, a great deal of which I still remember. I like Astoria, though we usually head further south when we go to the Coast.

I don't think the old ladies objected to me reading Perry Mason. I think they objected to me grabbing Perry Mason's with the lurid covers off the revolving rack at the drugstore.

My mother told them, as she later told the librarian "Linda can read whatever she wants." This was about 1970-1971 or so.

That happened to be Perry Mason and Agatha Christie and not Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, though.

>186 nmhale: Bonnie, it was a "club" for conservation of timber and responsible use of forests. You got a membership card and a pin when you joined. I'm not sure how long it lasted -- I was in grade school in the late 50s, and I don't recall anything about it in Jr or Sr High School (which may be why MusicMom didn't know about it). I was thinking about it the other day -- that it was a good thing, brought an awareness to children about the importance of conserving forests -- so it immediately came to mind again in the previous posts about evironmental issues and Oregon. In what part of Oregon did you live?

I lived in Portland through fifth grade, then moved to Beaverton.

Rain? In Astoria? It only rained 360 days a year. And one winter we actually had snow for a few days.

My Dad was an avid golfer who played every week--rain or shine. They had special waterproof "suits" that were clear plastic fit easily over their other clothes and waterproof shoe and hats. We were the "Astoria Fishermen" and nearly everyone wore the yellow slickers and hats with galoshes.

Luckily Astoria, like San Francisco, is hilly so drainage was no problem and when it rains that much you are prepared for it and so is the city. Northwestern Oregon is one of the greenest places I've ever been--but it comes at a price which when you live there just seems natural. I can see why the Oregon Green Guard would be very active in Eastern Oregon on the other side of the mountains.

#291 bonnie

Beaverton was one of our biggest rivals in basketball--we used to take a HS busload of fans over for the games.
I spent a lot of time in Portland because I had an aunt and her family that lived there--my only cousins on my mom's side of the family.

Thanks for the chance to reminisce!

I should have said I had a Beaverton address, but went to Sunset High School, but if you played Beaverton, you maybe played us too. It is fun, isn't it to think back to the "good ol' years."

What are you reading, ivyd? And where do you live now?

>293 bonniebooks: I still live in Oregon, Bonnie, but for many years now in the Portland area -- quite close to Sunset High School, in fact. If you haven't been in that area for a while, I think you would find it greatly changed from what it was even 10 years ago.

At the moment, I'm trying very hard to finish the 999 by Sept 9 -- I need only 1 Native American book and 2 series books, but am finding myself distracted. After that, I'm not sure, but probably some of the thick books that I've been avoiding in order to complete the 999. Raintree County is near the top of the list.

Carolyn, I, too, did a re-work so that I would get closer to the end on my first 999 challenge. I left my categories alone but moved books around so that now I'm on the last 2!

I adore the Harry Potter books and am going to have to research about the one you mentioned. I had a whole cateory on Harry and finished it in February so a few HP related books will make me happy as I head toward the end of the year. Thanks for let all us HP fans know about this one!

#295 cyderry

This has been a "fuzzy" year for me while doctors tried to find out what was wrong and I had been trying to remember who did the harry Potter category because I want to check it out and get some suggestions. (BTW--they did figure out I have apnea and this month with my new CPAP I'm doing fine!)

You have a chance to finish before 9/9/09! I'm hoping to finish by the end of September. That way I'll have 3 months to be "wild and crazy" with my choices. :-)

I'm off to check out your Harry Potter category. I think you might really enjoy the Granger book--he writes in an easy to understand style but really analyzes the books. I plan to have it by my side when I reread the series next year.

Book 82:

Heinlein, Robert: Have Space Suit—Will Travel
999 SciFi catgory (8/28/09)
PL 249 pages

I found this YA novel, published in 1958, absolutely delightful. I found the two young adventurers, Kip and Peewee, charming and believable and the alien who helps them is, in my limited experience, unique and fascinating. How could I not be enchanted by a being who is called “Mother Thing” and whose language is expressed in music notation? In some ways this is also a coming of age story about Kip who discovers a lot about himself. I did find it amusing that with the existence of spaceships and a lunar base and all the “advanced” science and math they talked about they were using slide rules to make calculations and Kip was always concerned about the decimal point. I remember those days! But even though aspects of the story are dated I think middle school children could still enjoy the book—as long as someone could explain to them what a “slipstick” is and why the decimal point is a problem. :-) Recommended—3 ½ stars

Book 83:

Twain, Mark: The Mysterious Stranger & Other Stories
Classics & Fiction category (8/30/09)
PL 121 pages

Linda (Whisper1) sent me this book because I had never heard of Twain’s novella, The Mysterious Stranger. Of the four stories in the book I had previously read only the first story, The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, a short and humorous folk tale published in 1865. According to the blurb on the back, the stories in this volume were chosen to span Twain’s entire writing career. The second story, The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note, is a light-hearted tale about a destitute young man who is given a bank note he can’t cash so how will he be able to survive? I loved "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg", a masterful story about greed and hypocrisy. The final story, The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916 and reveals how disillusioned Twain had ultimately become with humanity and the universe. It’s a strange but fascinating dark fantasy set in the Middle Ages with a character who is omniscient and a surprising twist at the end. Although I cannot buy Twain’s ending this story gives the reader a lot to ponder. Highly recommended—4 stars

Book 84:

Not part of the challenge. Review posted on my 75 challenge thread.

Book 85:

85. Leon, Donna: Death at La Fenice
999 Mystery after 1980 category (8/31/09)
PL 278 pages

This is the first novel in a mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police force. This is a good introduction to the series with an interesting story and well developed characters that come to life for the reader. The story revolves around the victim, a world renowned music conductor who is murdered between acts of a performance of La Traviata. One of the reasons that this book appealed to me so much was because I spent a week in Venice when I was in college and saw a performance of La Traviata at the opera house while I was there. The atmosphere of the book brought back many memories. I remember vividly walking the winding streets (sometimes getting lost!) and riding gondolas on the canals and as I read I felt almost like I was there once again it seemed so familiar. Highly recommended—4 stars

Book 86:

Greene, Graham: Our Man in Havana
999 Classics & Fiction category (9/05/09) CATEGORY COMPLETED
PL 242 pages

When I was in high school if I finished my homework late at night I sometimes would watch the late night movie on the channel that showed the oldies. One movie that always stayed in my mind as a favorite was Our Man in Havana with Alec Guinness and Burl Ives. I didn’t really remember the plot, just that it was funny and in some ways bizarre. When I saw the book last February at our annual used book sale I knew I would enjoy reading it and I was right. The story is about an English single father with a teenage daughter living in Cuba in the late 1950s, shortly before Castro takes over. He owns an unsuccessful vacuum cleaner sales store and is concerned about making ends meet and being able to give his daughter an education. He is approached by another Englishman and reluctantly lets himself get talked into becoming a very reluctant spy. What follows is a satiric dark comedy that is wonderfully humorous but leaves you with something to think about. Highly recommended—4 stars

Book 87:

Holland, Julie: Weekends at Bellevue (Early Review book)
999 Biography/Memoir category (09/06/09)
PL 308 pages

I requested this Early Review book because I was interested in finding out how Bellevue Hospital worked with psychiatric patients. In that sense I found the book disappointing because the psychiatric ER, or Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), is essentially a “clearing house” of psychotic people who are brought in by the police, sent over from other hospitals or are walk-ins. The job of CPEP is to observe, question and evaluate each patient to decide where the patient will go. In the case of violent offenders they will be sedated and observed before being sent upstairs for treatment or back to jail. Others are given the equivalent of “Band-Aid” treatment and then released. Because of the nature of CPEP the reader is given brief views of many types of psychoses but with no follow-up and no information of what ultimately happens to the person. Dr. Holland tells us that for her this is one of the attractions of the job.

In undergraduate school I did the equivalent of a second major in psychology because I found the subject intriguing, as I still do. A joke that went around that department was that people study to be psychiatrists because they need one. Weekends at Bellevue seems to have been written to support that thesis. In fact, Dr. Holland goes to her psychotherapist to discover why she is antagonistic to many of her patients and even some of her co-workers and gives us an intimate look at some of those sessions.

Dr. Holland has written essentially a memoir of her life and this is the “patient” we get to know best as she works through her own psychological problems. I enjoy memoirs, so that would not have been disappointing if she had used her life as framework for the book. Unfortunately, she tended to use a “shot gun” approach, telling her story in brief, often disconnected, episodes. She finds herself to be a more interesting subject than any of her patients. She comes across as a very self absorbed woman with much of her book giving the impression of a “true confession” narrative. She informs us that many of her problems occur because she is still trying to please her father whom she couldn’t please when she was growing up. She brags about her sexual exploits, at one point saying that in one of her summer residencies she managed to get laid by nearly every intern on the staff. She tells how she flirts not only with the men on the staff and the policemen and ambulance workers that bring in the patients, but often with some of the patients as well. Occasionally she describes incidences in sexual terms even when no actual sex is involved. She admits that when the chips were down she avoided visiting her dearest friend who was dying of cancer. The reader is left with the feeling that this book was written to provide catharsis for the author. She is very good at showing us her darker side and displaying her “faults” but not as good in demonstrating how she has solved these problems. Now that she has left Bellevue one wonders if she will be an effective therapist in her private practice. In the rather rushed ending of the book she states she has overcome many of her problem issues, but she doesn’t now show us how this is so because she doesn’t reveal her behavior in her new position as she did in the earlier sections of the book.

Although I did not have trouble finishing this book I did not find it a compelling read. I was hoping for insight into how patients with severe mental problems were diagnosed and treated. When she was talking about her patients I found it interesting but discouraging that there was so little follow-up after the initial encounter in the ER, even when such a follow-up would have been possible. Dr. Holland preferred to not concern herself with what happened the patients when they left the ER area. She considered this to be a form of self protection and it probably is, but it leaves the reader with a feeling of dissatisfaction. She had an interesting story to tell but too often let her own needs get in the way of presenting it to the reader.

Book 88:

Shakespeare, William: The Tempest
999 Classics category (9/08/09)
PL 85 pages

I consider this play a comedy that is the flip side of tragedy. Shakespeare could have written it either way. It is one of my favorites (or course, that could be said about at least two thirds of the plays her wrote!) and I really enjoyed once again reading about all the antics of the different groups on the island. This is one I have never seen performed and I know I have missed a wonderful treat. “O Brave New World that has such creatures in it!”

This has been called his New World play and I reread it to prepare me for the book: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways who rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Hobson Woodward. That's why I added a 10th book to this category when I frantically trying to finish my 999 challenge before the end of September! :-)

Book 89:

Brent, Frances: The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson
999 Biography/Memoir category (9/10/09) CATEGORY COMPLETED
Library 216 pages

On the cover of the book is the comment by Elie Wiesel: “Frances Brent’s wonderful book movingly allows Lev Aronson’s Lost Cellos to sing again of dark times and profound yearning.”

Frances Brent’s story of Lev Aronson ranges from the pogroms before the Soviet Revolution, the Soviet oppression of Jews and then the treatment of Jews by the Germans during WWII. But it is also the story of how the human spirit struggles against these trials and endeavors to rise above them. It shows the struggle for life even in the most devastating conditions and how we endeavor to go on even when there seems to be no hope.

Frances Brent is a poet and this becomes apparent in the gracefulness of her writing and in the way she presents the story. Lev Aronson was a musician whose destiny for a world class career was derailed by being imprisoned and put to heavy labor by the Nazis. Often it appeared to me that one of the things that helped Lev survive this ordeal was the music that was inside him. His story is a tribute to the impulse for life in the midst of incredible suffering. Highly Recommended---4 ½ stars

Re 301:

I also want to read A Brave Vessel, but I was thinking that I would read that book before re-reading The Tempest! Now I'm reconsidering. Why did you decide to read the play first?

#303 ivyd

It had been quite a while since I read the play so I wanted to refresh my memory before I started A Brave Vessel. If I hadn't already been familiar with the play I probably would have done it the other way around but I thought it would be distracting to try to remember The Tempest while reading the other book. The Tempest is shorter and familiar so will be easier to keep in mind; also easier to do a second reread after I finish Brave Vessel if I need to check again on similarities. (Does that make sense? We've been out all day celebrating hubby's birthday and I'm tired right now.)

Re 304:

I thought it would be distracting to try to remember The Tempest while reading the other book

Good point. It's been quite a while since I read it, too. And, in fact, the last time I read it was in conjunction with wanting to know more about the shipwreck, so I was really excited to hear about A Brave Vessel.

My thought was that it would be more interesting to see how Shakespeare dealt with it in the play, after getting the information about its basis. Now I'm not so sure -- not that it would be much of a hardship to read the play both before and after. I'll be interested in your thoughts about A Brave Vessel, since it looks as though you'll get to it before I do.

Good luck with finishing your 999 Challenge in the 9th month of 2009! It looks like you're very close!

Thanks, ivyd. Now that I'm back at work it will be a challenge to read 5 more books this month, but I think I can do it! I finished one this AM and that finishes another category, too. I started A Brave Vessel a little while ago. It is in my Books about Books category and I need two there. So far it seems it will be an enjoyable and fairly easy read as I'm very fond of Shakespeare and I also like history. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it before we have to leave Tuesday.

Book 90:

Stout, Rex: In the Best Families
999 Vintage Mysteries category (9/12/09)
PL 155 pages

This is one that is difficult to describe without giving too much away. Fantastic fiction describes the set up well: “Mrs. Barry Rackham, arriving at Wolfe's old Brownstone in Manhattan, is like a duchess diving into a hockshop. The woman is neurotic - so neurotic that she'll pay $10,000 to know where her husband's money comes from.” This novel takes a turn that is quite unexpected—even though it has been foreshadowed in previous books. I think it is one of the best in the series. Besides Wolfe and Archie the only other regular character that has a big role in the story is Lily Rowen. If you catch the clue that gives the solution to the murder as I did, don’t forget about it as the story unfolds because there is a lot going on in this story and Stout is a master at diverting your attention. This is number 16 in the series and one of the strongest, IMO. Highly recommended for fans—3 ½ stars

Book 91:

Stout, Rex: Trouble in Triplicate
999 Vintage Mysteries category (9/14/09)
PL 183 pages

Although this category is finished, we spent a lot of time in the car this weekend and this was the book I carried to pass the time. That is also why it is slightly out of order since I posted Book 16 a couple of days ago.

Fantastic fiction give the following summary: “Dazy Perrit was an underworld kingpin until a hail of bullets sent him underground. Ben Jensen was a well connected publisher until a persistent gunman unplugged him. Eugene Poor made novelties like exploding cigars until one of them blew him to bits.All three men had a premonition they would die, and now Nero Wolfe and Archie, his ever-faithful sidekick, must figure out why. It's a deadly equation of murder times three.”

Book number 15 in the Nero Wolfe is the third collection of novellas. Book 9, Black Orchids, and Book 10, Not Quite Dead Enough, each contain two novellas that are related to each other. In this collection there are three novellas whose only connection is that in each one the person who hires or tries to hire Wolfe dies. Although I enjoyed books 9 and 10 well enough I generally prefer the full length novels. In this trilogy (imo) the first story has a neat puzzle and is nearly as good as many of the full length books. I caught the first clue that indicated who the villain was but I missed the previous reference which would have identified to whom the clue referred. Stout graciously gave the reader a second chance at it near the end. The second story was interesting and one of the better of his short pieces but the third story was merely “Okay” and quite easy to figure out. Recommended for fans—3 stars

Book 92:

Woodward, Hobson: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest
999 Books about Books Category (9/17/09)
PL 239 pages

The “hook” that had me running to the bookstore as soon as I read the review of this book in the San Francisco Chronicle was the promise that here we would find out where Shakespeare got his inspiration for his play The Tempest and about the man who actually wrote the account of the events and whose words were often adapted to the play. Woodward, indeed, delivers on that promise, even if some of what he relates is based on speculation. In the first part of the book we learn about William Strachey, a friend of John Donne and a hanger on with a literary crowd in London who has aspirations to become a great author and poet. Having little success and squandering most of his resources he signs on to be part of a large contingent that will sail to Jamestown, Virginia in order to strengthen that colony. He is on the flag ship, Sea Venture, the largest of a fleet of nine vessels and containing the men who will become the new leaders of the struggling community. Unfortunately, the fleet runs into a hurricane and the Sea Venture is run aground on one of the islands of Bermuda. Strachey keeps records of what happens during their sojourn on Bermuda and when they finally manage to escape and travel to Jamestown he becomes the secretary who keeps the records of the events in Jamestown.

The last third of the book Woodward gives a thorough account of the episodes in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, that were undoubtedly inspired by the account of his sojourn that Strachey mailed to England in a letter to a woman he hoped would become his literary patron and sponsor the book about his experiences he hoped to publish . These two portions of the story provide a very interesting account, not only of the history of the castaways on Bermuda and how they survived for so long, but also giving us insight into how Shakespeare was accustomed to adapt material from outside sources to create his dramas that have stood the test of time.

A surprising bonus this book provides is the middle portion of the story. Woodward, using many sources written by several of the colonists during that time, gives us an incredible account of life in Jamestown starting just after the winter called “the starving time” until Strachey leaves to return to England. We see how the colony was governed, what daily life was like, the problems with the natives, and the attempts to expand and create other settlements. Although I had a few quibbles with Woodward’s speculations, especially with his describing Strachey’s reaction to Shakespeare’s play (entirely speculative!) I enjoyed this book immensely. It is not an academic report but written for the entertainment of the average reader. It succeeds admirably in what it set out to do. Highly Recommended—4 stars

Book 93:

Andrews, Donna: Murder with Peacocks
999 Mysteries after 1980 (9/19/09)
Library 332 pages

Richard on LT was touting this series so much on his 75 Challenge thread (and getting them on Hot Review list—so I got a double dose of the reviews!) that I finally broke down this weekend and decided to try the first one. I picked it up at the library Saturday morning when hubby and I started on our long list of errands. He drove and I read. The first 50 pages I was thinking, “Okay, this is cute. I think I’ll probably enjoy this.” By the time we got home I was half way through the book, so as soon as we unloaded the car I plopped myself in my recliner and continued to read. Suddenly I burst out laughing aloud. Hubby asked what I was reading and I read him the funny part—even he chuckled. I then said to him that this book was definitely getting three stars! About an hour—and several guffaws —later hubby said he thought I was enjoying it enough to give it a higher rating, so I said 3 stars for the mystery and extra ½ star for the humor. By the time I finished the book that night hubby insisted I had had too good of a time with the book not to give it at least 4 stars.

This is not generally the type of mystery I enjoy but this was one of the best humorous novels I’ve read in a long time. The mystery was okay—although I knew “who dunnit” early on—but the delightful characters and the humor made me think of Jerome K. Jerome or P.G. Wodehouse at their best. I will definitely be reading the next one in the series! Highly recommended—4 stars

Book 94:

Bujold, Lois: Shards of Honor
999 Science Fiction category (9/20/09)
PL 253 pages

A Harlequin Romance (Stasia and I agreed on this point) disguised as a space opera, I should have read this book when I was 18, except I have never been into Romance novels and I have only just begun reading Science Fiction on a regular basis this year. Also, I’m pretty sure I was well past 18 when this book was written. This is the first book in the omnibus called Cordelia’s Honor. In this first book, Shards of Honor, we meet Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkorsigan who are from competing planets which go to war against each other. There were some interesting aspects about the worlds that Bujold creates and this novel seems to be mainly a set up for the next book, Barrayar, which will continue their story. The second book was written several years after the first and also won the Hugo award. I am looking forward to seeing how Bujold improved in her plotting, writing style, and character development in the later book. I know she is a highly respected Science Fiction author so I will reserve judgment until I read Barrayar. My bonus for reading this book is that my Science Fiction category for the 999 challenge is now finished!

Book 95:

Ogawa, Yoko: The Housekeeper and the Professor (tr. Stephen Snyder)
999 Classics & Fiction category (9/22/09)
Library 180 pages

This is a beautiful, luminous story about a young single mother who becomes the housekeeper for a brilliant mathematician who, because of a brain injury, has a short term memory of only eighty minutes. I read some wonderful reviews on LT about this book so I ordered it from my Valley Cat library system. I had to wait more than two months, but it was worth the wait.

This book resonated with me on many levels. My father was a mathematician, so is my older son and I have always been fascinated by math. I was care giver for my father for several years because he suffered from short term memory loss. I love baseball and there is a lot of baseball in this book—the major league in Japan. And underlying all this are the implied themes of love and family, especially in ways that make you reexamine what it means to be a family and what makes a family.

The math in the book is not only easy to follow, it also becomes something that revelatory about life and the universe. As the housekeeper learns to perceive these relationships it changes her life. This is my favorite quote from the book: “Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it.”

I’m going to want to buy this book because it is one I will definitely read again—and compel my friends to read it. :-) Highly recommended—4 stars

Book 96:

Rehak, Melanie: Girl Sleuth—Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her
999 Book about Books Category (9/26/09)
PL 317 pages

I found this book entertaining and informative. It was a combination social history, an account of the development of group that became a powerful force in children's fiction in the early 20th century, a little bit of biography of the principal people responsible for Nancy Drew’s creation, and a lot about Nancy Drew and her mysteries, including how she was the product of the "rise of feminism" and also partly the impetus. I never realized the influence she had over the views of women from the time of the Depression through the rest of the 20th century. I just remember loving her books.

A personal note: I was a huge Nancy Drew fan from the time I was eight until I was nearly thirteen, reading and rereading the 32 books I had collected during that time. The summer before I was to enter high school my Dad got transferred from California to Oregon and my folks did the packing while I was at summer camp. When we unpacked in Oregon I was horrified to find out Mom had given away my Nancy Drew books because she thought I had outgrown them. At the very end of this book I discovered I wasn’t alone in this tragedy. …as a Washington, D.C., rock band called Tuscadero made clear in a 1995 song called “Nancy Drew.” Its lyrics recounted “horror of discovering your mother threw out your collection of the teenage sleuth’s books.” (p. 310)

Book 97:

Windling, Terri: Wood Wife
999 Fantasy category (9/29/09)
PL 319 pages

I have wanted to read this book ever since I read a review on LT describing it as a book that is about Southwestern myth, folklore and culture, an area in which I have great interest. That description, although not untrue, is only a tip of the iceberg and I was really unprepared for the experience of the book. I am not able to write a “review” of the book because in many ways I am still processing it and will have to reread it. For a great review I suggest you go to TadAD’s review on the home page.

Here are some of the impressions I have about Windling’s novel. I would describe it as a collision of “real life” with the myth and folklore of the American Southwest. In addition to the folklore the story handles well several other passions of mine, including music, poetry, and art. Both the “real” characters and the mythical characters are well developed, interesting and sometimes difficult to tell apart. The descriptions of the landscape are so vivid that the reader is pulled into the “place” as well as into the story. I may never use the expression “Words cannot describe…” again. Teri Windling has proven that, indeed, words can definitely describe so vividly that the reader can actually see it all.

Bottom line: I loved this incredibly fascinating book. It was an almost overwhelming reading experience that will stand up to several rereads because there is so much to explore and revel in. Highly recommended—4 ½ stars.

BTW If you read it you will also learn why this is a great “Halloween read!” :-)

Ridgewaygirl had a great idea for a Recap of her 999 challenge and I’m borrowing it.

The best and worst of each category:

Category 1: Classics & Fiction

Best: Lewis, C.S.: Till We Have Faces
Worst: Willa Cather: The Old Beauty and Others (a good book, just not quite as good as the other eight!)

Category 2:Books about Books (& Authors)

Best: Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen (another difficult choice—this is the one that surprised me the most.)
Worst: Morley, Christopher: The Haunted Bookshop (another good book that was not quite as good as the other eight!)

Category 3: Science Fiction

Best: Willis, Connie: Doomsday Book (just nosed out the other Willis book—will be in my top ten this year)
Worst: Bujold, Lois: Shards of Honor (no contest)

Category 4: Fantasy

Best: Kay, Guy Gavriel: Tigana and Windling, Terri: Wood Wife (no way I could choose—they both blew me away)
Worst: Connolly, John: The Book of Lost Things (not awful—but I liked it the least)

Category 5: Vintage Mysteries

This category is the hardest to choose because I enjoyed them all and nothing “blew me away.”
Best: Tey, Josephine: A Shilling for Candles
Worst: Marsh, Ngaio: Alleyn and Others—The Collected Short Fiction

Category 6: Mysteries after 1980

Best: Penny, Louise: Still Life (one of four that qualified)
Worst: Walsh, Jill Paton: The Wyndham Case (okay—but just average)

Category 7: Poets and Poetry

Best: Oliver, Mary: Evidence (Another difficult choice)
Worst: Teasdale, Sara: Dark of the Moon (liked some of the poems but overall the most uneven and weakest entry in my poetry category)

Category 8: Memoir, Biography

Best: Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley
Worst: Baker, Jean H.: James Buchanan (no contest—most annoying read this year)

Category 9: Because I want to

Best: Horwitz, Tony: Confederates in the Attic (what can I say—I love reading about the South!)
Worst: Adams, Scott: Random Acts of Management (I enjoyed everything on this list—this is the one I would have missed the least)

This completes my 999 Challenge. I have really enjoyed this--even when it got a little stressful. I will continue my reading for the 4th quarter of the year. If you would like to see what I'm reading please join me on my 75 Challenge. Message 160 has Book 98.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/72252

Congratulations, Carolyn!

Thanks, bonnie! I did wonder if anyone was reading my thread. :-)

You do have lots more conversation on your 75-Book challenge, don't you? I was just checking out your Bests and Worsts. I like that. I was so sick and tired of my 999 challenge that I didn't want to spend any more time on mine, but I love hearing everyone else's recaps/summaries.

I have to admit, although I like the ideas of having categories to explore I found the 999 challenge to be somewhat frustrating because it was so restrictive. Next year I plan to stick to my 75 Challenge but I will have some categories to read in--the only parameter will be how many I actually read.

Congrats, Carolyn!
I may have to investigate some of these bests but I think I'll pass on the worsts.

Well done!

Congratulations on completing it!

I'm also surprised by and struggling with the restriction I feel with the 999 challenge. But at the same time, it has held me accountable for some books I am glad I read.

I loved your comment about Tigana - I love all of Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

Now to add Wood Wife to my TBR.

Congratulations....I've really enjoyed 'getting to know you' over the past year, and following your 999 and 75 challenge. Like you, I've found the 999 to be a real challenge, not that I couldn't read that many, I'm 1/2 way thru the second one, but because it was too restrictive trying to cram books into categories, and then having to go back and change categories, etc etc. Next year, I'm just sticking to the 75 (altho I know I'll read many more) so I can have the pleasure of chatting with great folks, and discover MANY MANY new books (that's the category!!) I'd never have read.

Like your book 95-Housekeeper and the Professor as soon as I hit submit, I'm off to find that one! I too suspect I'm going to want to buy it. I have a degree in math, we lived in Japan for almost 5 years and love that culture, and we're dealing with 'memory challenged' people a lot - not in our family thank goodness but in people we visit for our church. I want it. Thanks so much for putting it on my radar screen.

Tina

The Housekeeper and the Professor would have been a contender for best book except it was the 11th book in a category of nine! :-) From what you said I think you will really love this book!

And I forgot to add the absolute clincher...Bob and I are both baseball nuts (he actually played baseball in an elder league AS A CATCHER until he turned 65..knees couldn't take it)..like he went to play in a tournament in Florida in the winter, etc etc etc....so I know I'm going to love this..

Just found it at the library next to my pool...due back next week, so I will be haunting them until it comes in.

Congratulations, MusicMom!

Thanks, ivyd!

Congratulations on finishing. Will you stick around making sage comments in other people's threads?

Thank, RWGirl!

Although I will only be posting on my 75 Challenge thread now (double posting really takes time!) I still have y'all starred and am still interested in what you are reading. So the short answer is "Yes!" :-)

And if I can find you I plan to follow your 101010 read, if you do one.

Congratulations on finally finishing the 999 - it sounds like you were good and ready to be done!

#331 sjmccreary

Let's just say I am feeling a bit more free in making choices on what to read now and the pressure is off for 2009. As richardderus would say even in my 75 Challenge I've finished 98 out of 75 with still a quarter of the year to go! :-)

Congrats, Carolyn. Ahhh, freedom.

For me, it just so happens that almost everything I read (and want to read) fits into the 999 challenge but I understand that isn't true for all.

I guess I was feeling a little bit of both sides - those last few weeks of the 999, I felt pressured to finish by 9/9 and read only 999 books, pushing aside other books I was interested in. So when I finally finished, I was very slow starting the "overtime" challenge I decided to do, because I wanted a chance to catch up on my non-999 reading. But, I really enjoy the books that fit into the challenge, so I think I was just bristling at the structure of "having" to read certain books at certain times.

Did I understand correctly from your post on the 75-books thread that you aren't going to be posting in the 1010 challenge? If so, I'll miss seeing you in the group, but I'll be sure to follow you over there.

I think of my 999 challenge as my main thread so I hope you two will still come over as I aim for finishing 999 x 2.

#335 You can't lose me that easily! I'm still participating in the 999 as I'm finally getting a good (though belated) start on my overtime challenge. Hopefully, MusicMom will not turn her back on us and will still check in here to check our progress.

Congratulations, MusicMom! I love following this thread, and will now catch up with what you are reading on your 75 Book Challenge. I've added many of the books you've reviewed to my wish list.

Linda and sjmccreary

I plan to have categories in 2010 but I found it difficult to post on two threads so I will be posting my reads only on the 75 challenge in 2010--and I will still indicate the categories. Also, I do plan to keep following the threads of those I enjoyed on this 999 thread so I will be looking for your new threads in January and starring them. And you are still starred here for this year--just leave a "trail" if you start a new thread! :-)

Hi, Jan!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you are following me over to the 75 thread! I follow your thread, also. I enjoy seeing what you read and you have added to my TBR. One of my categories next year is going to be "recommended on LT" because that comprises most of my most of my Wishlist this year!

I'm with you, MusicMom! I love the categories that others are creating on the 10-10 challenge, but decided I'm just going to have one thread as well (probably the 75 group). I figure I can still follow people no matter what group they're in and hopefully they'll still keep following me. I like your idea of adding your categories within your 75-thread; I hadn't thought about that.

338-339...good ideas. I'm thinking about joining the 101010, but just to chat. I'll leave links to my reviews there so I don't have to double post, and then I think at the end of the year, I'll take the list of everything I've read, and put them all in categories...I think it will fall out just fine, but for now, like you both, I'd rather stay in one place, post and chat, and the 75 group seems to have most of my 'friends'.

sorry to highjack your thread Caroline. =)

bonnie

Great! If you are on 75 I will have no trouble finding you!

Tina

"I'll take the list of everything I've read, and put them all in categories.." LOL

Why didn't I think of that this year?! It would have made life much easier. :-D