legxleg 2009 reading

I did the 50 group challenge last year, which was a lot of fun, but since I did more than 50 I guess I'll try 75 now. But really, I'm not as concerned with the number of books as I am with just enjoying the books I read. I'll be back in January to start listing my books!

ETA: After poking around this group I figured out how to make a ticker (I believe I used The Tortoise's instructions), so I'll have that as well:

Great! I've been following your thread on the 50 book group because we have a lot of books in common--now we'll be in the same group. Welcome!

Thank you! I'll keep an eye out for your thread too; it'll be nice to follow the reading of someone with similar tastes.

>1 legxleg: leg, I think your ticker would look prettier if you chose something a bit flowerlike and spring-looking to go with your flutterby!

- TT

>4 TheTortoise: oh dear, is this the polite way to say the colors completely clash? I had suspected that might be the case; I've a fairly awful eye for color. I'll go about tweaking it. Thanks for the input :-)

ETA: Well, purple ought to match purple, right? Of course now it might be too busy...but if I think about this too much I'll drive myself crazy.

>5 legxleg: Yeah, I see what you mean! Still, nice try!

- TT

I like your purple butterfly and purple flowers!

thank you, LisaMorr! My dubious artistic sensibilities and I appreciate it :-)

The first book of the year is Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card.
I hadn't intended to read this one since I felt the Ender series has gone pretty far down hill, but I saw it on the shelf at the library and thought, why not, and picked it up anyway. In part this was because I'd read that the book also followed the character of Virlomi, who was one of the few characters I still liked; unfortunately, she wasn't in the book as much as I'd hoped. I thought some of Card's 'having babies is the most important thing a person can possibly do' didactic stuff was pretty over-the-top and maudlin; I like babies as much as the next girl (well, depending on who the next girl is), but honestly, it felt like every other character was instructing me, the reader, on the importance of having children. Also, I think I've come to an age where the 'young teenagers and children completely outsmart all the adults who were so dumb as to underestimate them' plots lose some of the wish-fulfillment fun for me. The recurring sentiment that 14 to 16 year-old girls are at the perfect age for having children, so we must send them to various outer-space colonies to reproduce for the sake of the human race, was just creepy to me. And the various allusions to the Ender book that Card put out for Christmas last year, which (I imagine) were intended to convince the reader that the Christmas book was in some way an important part of the Ender story instead of what I thought it was, a blatant attempt to cash in on the Christmas season, were pretty amusing to me. Anyway, the Ender series continues to lose its charms for me, but if I'm being honest, if Card wrote another Ender book I'd probably still check it out from the library. I loved Ender's Game so much when I was a kid that I can't really avoid seeing what happens with the series, even if I wind up ranting about it. At least I'm now checking these books out from the library and not buying them; progress!

>9 legxleg:: Based on that review, I'm still glad I stopped at Xenocide. Nothing is enticing me back...I'll just re-read Ender's Game if I need a fix of Card.

No, I don't think my review would encourage anyone to pick up the series again. :-) Although I will say that I enjoyed some of the later Shadow books, following Peter, Petra and Bean on Earth, because Peter and Petra were some of the more interesting characters to me in Ender's Game (I could take or leave Bean).

I read the first book in the Ender's series last year, Ender's Game, and truly enjoyed it, but I think I am just going to stop there. If the series goes downhill, why waste my time?

Well, I more or less enjoyed them up through Shadow Puppets, I think. However, I'll admit that my continued affection for the characters and world of Ender's Game kept me involved even when I might not have been otherwise. I think that Speaker for the Dead is still worth reading, though - there's some interesting philosophy (for lack of a better word) and Card invents a pretty intriguing and unique alien culture. But I probably wouldn't recommend getting sucked into the Shadow books, since I think he set up an interesting conflict and then didn't finish it out in a satisfying way (imo, at least), which is just frustrating.

>12 alcottacre:: Stasia, I found Speaker for the Dead could go either way...I'm not sorry I read it but I wouldn't have missed it if I hadn't. I definitely wouldn't go farther.

Book #2 is The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. I actually bought this awhile ago after I heard about it on NPR, and thought it sounded fascinating. The Hemingses of Monticello is a nonfiction book about the family of Sally Hemings, the slave who was the mistress of Thomas Jefferson. It's a very long book, or at least it felt that way (I always take longer to read nonfiction; I only really made a push to read it last year), but still extremely interesting. In its meandering way it talks about the Hemings family itself, slavery in general, and a number of other side topics, such as the small pox vaccine (Jefferson paid through the nose to have Sally Hemings inoculated by the very best administrators of the small pox vaccine in France). There is also a lot of conjecture, but the author does a pretty good job of making it clear when she is guessing at people's motivations, or even at actual events due to the lack of extant sources, as opposed to when she is relating historical fact.

A large portion of the book is devoted to the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and I was surprised at just how complex it seems to be; I had no idea that when Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson first became romantically involved (for lack of a better phrase), Sally Hemings was, to a certain extent, free. Hemings was brought to France to be a maid for Jefferson's daughters, and at that time according to French law any slave who came to France was free. All she had to do was file a petition, and since the statute freeing slaves had attorney fee-shifting there were tons of lawyers dying to take these cases (there was actually a lot of interesting legal stuff in the book; I could tell Gordon-Reed was a law professor). In fact, when Jefferson was preparing to return to Virginia, Hemings told him that she didn't want to go with him, and would stay in France where she was free; in the end he begged and pleaded with her, promising to free any children she might have (she was pregnant at the time) if she would return with him, and she agreed. Sorry to go on, but I was just so shocked to read that; I really had absolutely no idea the situation was so complicated. Other notable portions of the book, to me at least, were those about the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings's brothers (or black brothers I should say; she was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife).

I suppose my complaint would be that I felt Gordon-Reed sometimes stated what I thought of as 'no brainers', when they don't need exhaustive justification, and a lot of the time it's not something you can prove, it's just common knowledge (eg, paragraphs or sentences along the lines of 'men are attracted to beautiful young women', 'mothers love their children', 'daughters do not have sexual relations with their fathers, but wives do' - the last one especially, I couldn't help feeling while I was reading this 'just who do you think you need to convince of this?'). Still, it wasn't a huge detraction for me.

Anyway, I thought the book was really interesting, and recommend it to anyone who might be considering reading it.

#15 Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been looking for literature on Sally Hemings for a long time and I don't know how I missed The Hemingses of Monticello and I really liked your review of it. This book is not going on my wish list, I'm buying it tomorrow!

#15 legxleg: It does look really interesting and I will definitely look for it. Thanks for the great review and recommendation!

#16 - I'm so glad that I helped you find a book about Sally Hemings! I hope you enjoy The Hemingses of Monticello as much as I did. I know the author also wrote a book called Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, but I haven't read it so couldn't tell you whether it would be better to read than The Hemingses of Monticello.

#17 - I'm glad you enjoyed the review; it definitely is an intriguing book.

#18 Hi legxleg--I just got back from two different book stores looking for The Hemingses of Monticello or Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings but they weren't in stock. So I will have to order one or the other and delay my reading. I am not a patient person! Oh well....

#19 - Oh, I'm sorry, that's so frustrating! I recently saw The Hemingses of Monticello on the display table of my local Borders, so I'm surprised that it's so hard to track down; I suppose it's tough to predict what certain stores will have in stock. Good luck finding it!

Book 3 is Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac. I know it's a classic, and great literature and all that, but I didn't much care for it. It's not that I actively disliked, but it didn't interest me much either. I think maybe all the pathos was just too over-the-top for my tastes? I mean, Goriot was certainly mistreated, but I don't think I felt as badly as I was meant to. About midway through there was this scene where Eugene tells Goriot that one of his (Goriot's) daughters wept on Eugene's shirt, and Goriot then asks if he can have the shirt! I'm sorry, I couldn't help laughing; at that point Goriot became just such an absurd character to me that I couldn't properly empathize. Probably the only part I found interesting was where one character tempted another (I know that's vague; I'm trying to avoid spoiling things for people who might want to read it). I'm sure I don't understand what's really going on in this book, or I'd like it better, but I'm not particularly inspired to go out and try and understand it either. *shrugs*

Book 4 is Archangel by Sharon Shinn, which is in a rather different vein being sci-fi/romance. I like Sharon Shinn a lot; she's not going to redefine her genre or anything, but I've enjoyed everything I've read by her. And she wrote Jenna Starborn, which is basically Jane Eyre In Space, thus endearing herself to me greatly. Anyway, Archangel is the first of her Samaria books, which might be her most well-known; the whole world of Samaria is based somewhat on ancient Israel/Biblical times, I think, with place names like 'Gaza' and 'Jordana'. In Samaria, angels live among people, and every year the Archangel and his wife, a non-angel woman called the angelica, have to lead everyone singing for their god, who they call Jovah. Gabriel is about to become Archangel, and so he asks the oracle on Mt. Sinai to help him find the person destined to be his wife/the angelica. The chosen girl is Rachel, who is not really keen on the whole idea. I had thought that the story would stick to the romance between Gabriel and Rachel, but it actually branched out to encompass the power struggle between Gabriel and the incumbent archangel, Raphael, as well as a deep schism among people in Samaria - have and have-nots, as well as people who believe in Jovah and those who do not. Although the story is self-contained, there are hints at some intriguing ideas the rest of the series could explore, and I've already ordered the next book from the library. I'm also wondering if the next books will explain why this is sci-fi and not fantasy - so far the only things that appear more sci-fi than fantasy are random 'interface screens' the oracles use to communicate with Jovah. Anyway, I thought it was a fun book and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Yes, before the series is over, it will explain why the Archangel series is sf rather than fantasy. A good series to read overall. My favorite book of Shinn's is Wrapt in Crystal, which I've mentioned elsewhere, a tight sf mystery, very well done.

I have The Hemingses of Monticello on my wishlist, and I'm hoping that one of my local libraries will get it in soon so that I don't have to shell out for a copy.

Archangel sounds very good! The only Sharon Shinn I've ever read was Mystic and Rider, which I was not impressed with. It was the first of a series and I never picked up the rest.

Jenna Starborn sounds interesting to me. I'm adding it to my wish list.

I really like your thread legxleg. You seem to read some interesting books. I'll be stopping by often!

In general, I have liked Shinn's science fiction better than her fantasy. The former were her earlier work--she's now well into the fantasy series that starts with Mystic and Rider and like Marcia, I think that series is okay but nothing special. Lorie, if you are a Jane Eyre fan, you should love Jenna Starborn. What's up next, legxleg?

#22/#25 - I haven't read Wrapt in Crystal yet, but I'll definitely put it on my TBR list. I bought a bunch of Shinn books from bookcloseouts.com a bit ago, and I'm slowly but happily making my way through them. I've got a bunch to go, and of course there are still more to read (like Wrapt in Crystal). The only Shinn fantasy I've read so far is General Winston's Daughter, a book about colonialism in a fantasy world with a run-of-the-mill romance plot but with an interesting fantasy culture (imo). I also read some of The Truth-Tellers Tale YA series (actually, I started with the second book, and haven't read the first yet) which I thought were fun, but not as good as her other books; maybe the Mystic and Rider series is more like that one. In which case, I think I'll leave it for last!

As for what's up next, well, I read multiple books at once. My new library book is Ella Minnow Pea, which I've read good things about around LT. I'm listening to Jane Eyre on audio-book since I actually haven't read it since high school; instead I've been watching the BBC miniseries compulsively. And my treadmill-book is Rose Daughter, which I got from the SantaThing exchange, but which I'm not all that far into since I absolutely hate exercise.

#23 - I haven't read Mystic and Rider, actually. I'm thinking I shouldn't have made sweeping statements about how I've enjoyed all the Shinn books I've read when I've read so few of them! Also, I know what you mean about waiting for books at the library; I intended to get The Hemingses of Monticello from the library because big hard-back books can be really expensive, but I was 300-something on the hold list and I just got too impatient and splurged (which is funny since it took me about four months to read it).

#24 - I hope you do stop by often! Jenna Starborn is a lot of fun; Shinn follows Jane Eyre pretty closely, and the sci-fi tropes she sticks in are clever and fun. Of course, talking about Jenna Starborn reminds me of an embarrassing moment in a horrific job interview (it had gone well off the rails already; this was just the finishing touch of an awful half-hour) where I admitted to the interviewers that reading was my hobby. The interviews, after incredulously asking didn't I get enough of books from law school?, asked the last book I'd read. I was too flustered to think back to an interview-appropriate answer and had to answer Jenna Starborn, which I then had to explain was like Jane Eyre in space. Their expressions were pretty priceless. I was horribly embarrassed for about an hour and then thought it was hilarious, and now I've learned my lesson and try and remember a more literary or mainstream book I've read recently before going into an interview.

Hee, a friend of mine once stated in an interview that her favorite book was The Virgin Suicides. She got some crazy looks and didn't get called back.

#26 and 27 Thats hysterical! While I have mentioned in interviews that I'm a reader, I've never been asked about books I've read. Now I'll be prepared, just in case they do!

oh, gosh, I just had a very strong emotional reaction to the idea that one might fudge about what book they are reading in an interview. Part of me goes, "well, if they don't want to know you, they should not ask". sigh

Maybe you need to find interviews with people who have your taste in books; on the other hand, maybe it is not big deal.

I was an interview where I was asked that question, and the last book I had read was Lipstick Jihad, and that's what I said. I thought about it later, and in a follow-up email I mentioned that I had recently read Freakonomics with a comment that you can say make the numbers say anything.....

They did offer me the job (but I didn't end up taking it). Not sure if my reading choices had anything to do with it....!

Classes have started, and I'm afraid I've been neglecting this thread. I hope no one feels annoyed I haven't responded! #27 and #30, your interview-book-stories were fun; I'll have to remember your story, Lisa, for how to work reading mentions in successfully!

#29 - I can understand feeling bad about 'fudging' reading choices; the whole interview process is so tricky. I've actually heard that I shouldn't mention I like reading at all, because it makes me sound like a nerd who wouldn't be good at rainmaking, but I don't do that because I figure I would wind up being hired into a place that wouldn't suit me at all. I figure as long as I'm talking about books I really have read recently, as opposed to pretending I'm reading War and Peace or something, I'm okay. I figure everyone's got different comfort levels with these things.

And now for books!

Book 5 is Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. I've seen it recced around LT a lot lately, and it was a good book; for the few who might not have read about it before, it's a an epistolary novel taking place on a fictional island where the man who invented 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' is revered. When the letters of the sentence start falling off a statue, those letters are banned. I really enjoyed the imaginative way people got around using banned letters. I particularly enjoyed realizing that 'Ella Minnow Pea', one of the characters' name, is 'LMNOP'. I'm pretty slow on the uptake of those sorts of things, so I was excited to figure it out.

Book 6 is 1066 And All That by Walter Carruthers Sellar, a humorous history of England. I didn't know enough about English history to get most of the jokes, but those I did get where very fun.

Received today my copy of The Hemingses of Monticello. It looks like a long interesting read and I will be starting it soon (I need to finish The Coffee Trader and I am Legend first). I also read non-fiction more slowly than fiction, so it will take me awhile to finish 662 pages but I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again for the recommendation legxleg.

#31: I read Ella Minnow Pea a few days ago (I had to pry it away from Catey) and at some parts of it I was just laughing out loud. I am glad you enjoyed it!

Re: Orson Scott Card -- Don't miss his book Pastwatch. I find it quite remarkable. (you're saying, 'i know, i know ... you write that everywhere!)

Fun thread -- thx.

#32 - I hope that you enjoy The Hemingses of Monticello as much as I did!

#33 - yeah, Ella Minnow Pea was a lot of fun. I'm so glad I'm here on LT so I could hear about it!

#34 - I think I actually picked up Pastwatch at a library sale a few years ago; I'll have to take a look and see where I put it. Thanks for the rec!

>35 legxleg: Yay! Finalement *she crosses her fingers and prays Leg doesn't hate it.*

Book 7 is Eve by Elissa Elliot. I got this one for an ARC, and I'm glad that I wrote my review right after reading it because now, a week later, I can barely remember it at all. I liked it well enough, and I found the building sense that Adam and Eve's family was about to disintegrate was interesting. I was also pretty unnerved by the total lack of incest taboo. Anyway, it was good but not memorable for me.

Book 8 is The Tain translatted by Ciaran Carson. I think I saw someone else mention this on their thread (I am terrible at remembering where i read about things), and I'd always meant to read it, so I grabbed it from the library. It was very interesting, and much more readable than the other translations I'd attempted to read before (of course, I'm a bit older now as well). I also thought that the footnotes were helpful, especially because they explained background mythology stories about more minor characters. Anyway, it was interesting but gory, and now I'll see if the Decemberists single 'The Tain' makes any more sense when I listen to it.

Book 9 is Forever Princess by Meg Cabot. I will admit it, I love Meg Cabot, and I've been reading the Princess Diaries series since they came out who-knows-how-long-ago. I'm fond of Mia, even when she acts too dense for life, and I was really happy to see how her story wound up. Cabot kept it interesting and funny all the way to the end, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Book 10 is Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, and my second 1001 book of the year. This one follows a number of the 'bright young things' of England between the world wars (I think) as they rush head-long and irresponsibly into whatever fun they can find, with absurd, destructive, and strangely hilarious results. This had a strange and absurd ending, but one that made sense to me, unlike the end of A Handful of Dust.

How nicely you put all that -- thx!

I've got Eve by Elissa Elliot in my TBR pile. I wanted it once I saw it as an ER offering. It sounds like the idea of the story is better than the actual story.

#37: I am adding Vile Bodies to Continent TBR. Thanks for the recommendation.

#38 - I'm glad you enjoyed it

# 39 - I think I have to agree. I was really excited to read it when I got it from ER, and I enjoyed it well enough I suppose, but nothing really stuck with me, and sometimes it even felt a little bit of a chore. I wondered if I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't feel like I needed to read it and get out a review for other people. I think I'm going to stop requesting ER books for a little bit; it's no fun when reading becomes an obligation! Watch, I'll keep this resolution until I come across one that looks really good :-)

#40 - I hope you enjoy Vile Bodies; Evelyn Waugh is really strangely funny.

And now to new books this week:

Book 11 is Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper. I really enjoyed this one; I got it from the library because the excerpt I read on the NPR website was so engaging (it was about rock fans destroying disco records at a baseball game). The engaging and accessible tone continued the whole way through, so I was never bored. I also particularly enjoyed it because it took a number of things that I remembered just by virtue of being a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s, and put them together into a comprehensive picture. It's a lot of fun to find out the 'whole story' of things I remember the periphery of.

Book 12 is Jovah's Angel by Sharon Shinn, the sequel to Archangel. I think I might have actually enjoyed this more than Archangel. In this book the archangel Delilah is injured in a storm, and cannot perform her duties, so a quiet, unassuming, and bookish angel named Alleluia is named archangel in he place. In addition to the personal and romantic struggles (of course Alleluia has to find her angelico just as Gabriel had to find his angelica), there is a greater conflict of science (Samaria is entering an industrial age) and faith that played out in a really interesting way. A lot of the times when I read sci-fi or fantasy books that take on moral dilemmas that we face in the world today, I feel that the author is trying to dictate an Answer to the reader, and get frustrated. I felt that in Jovah's Angel Shinn did a good job exploring various sides of the issues, and even having certain characters come to terms with them, but leaving the questions open-ended enough that the reader doesn't feel like the author's views are being shoved down his/her throat.

Book 13 is The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt. I actually haven't read Possession, Byatt's more well-known book, because a friend who read it had a very lukewarm reaction. However, I think I'll have to look around for Possession, because I really enjoyed The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. It's a collection of five fairy stories, although the last (and title) story is the longest by far. I thought Byatt did a fantastic job of getting the fairy tale tone down. The longest story, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, was the story of a narratologist (and how much do I love the idea of narratologists?) attending a conference about women in stories in Turkey. A good portion of the story is actually spent with the characters telling older stories to each other - a story from the Arabian Nights, another from Chaucer - but I wasn't frustrated. The story struck me as less about the adventures of the narratologist, and more an exploration of stories themselves. I truly enjoyed this book. And did take some to figure out how I would craft my wishes if I ever found a djinn; it doesn't hurt to be prepared :-P.

I am lucky; I had a very good reading week!

I've had The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye on my wish list for quite awhile now but have been unable to find it either new or used. Maybe it's time to order it on-line along with Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn which I am also having trouble finding.

I like your thread and have it starred legxleg. You read a lot of books that I find very interesting.

So glad you had a good week's reads -- that is satisfying. The angel book sounds interesting...

#42 - it is tough to find books sometimes. I had to order The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye from another library system; I'm very glad that my library allows us to order books from other library systems in the state and state universities. My current problem is that I'm looking for The Victorian Chaise-Lounge - I can only find one copy in the entire state, and it's so old I'm nervous about even ordering it! I really should be lucky I can find it at all, I suppose. I'm much too cheap to buy all my books.

#43 - the angel book is interesting; I think that one (Jovah's Angel) was the best one in the initial trilogy (imo). I'll explain more when I write my review of the third book. But the trilogy itself is well worth reading!

Book 14 is The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn. This is the last of the main Samaria books - there are two more, but they go back and fill in some stories earlier in the timeline. This book jumps forward another hundred years or so, and a cult of people called the Jacobites has built up around the big secret discovered in book 2 (don't worry, I won't give away what the secret is), and are being pretty much exterminated by the current archangel, Bael. Tamar, one of the Jacobites on the run, and Jared, an angel that is not on board with Bael's extermination policies, decide to search for the Alleluia Files, a definitive record of what Alleluia learned in the last book.
It was all right, but I didn't enjoy it as well as I did the first two. In part I think this is because the main action was the characters trying to discover the big secret the reader already learned in Jovah's Angel. The suspense just wasn't there for me when I already knew the answer. I enjoyed Tamar as a character, but another one of the protagonists, Lucinda, was pretty boring for me (I don't know why; she could be fighting pirates and I would just think 'can we get back to Tamar mucking out horse stalls again already?'), which made certain sections drag. However, I am glad I finished the main trilogy, and have every intention of reading the other Samaria books - it might take awhile, though. I have a stack of library books up to my knee waiting for me.

Book 15 is Escape by Carolyn Jessop, the autobiographical story of a woman who escaped from Warren Jeff's polygamous community. It was a little difficult for me to get into at first because I felt the writing was not all that great - which is surprising, considering she has a ghostwriter credited right on the front of the book. However, the story itself is gripping enough to make quite an impression in spite of the defects in the writing itself. I was particularly shocked by the terrible things the state allowed her husband to do to her children during visitation periods, even after she had escaped. It's not the best book I've read on the subject, but the first-person perspective is unique, and I had never read anything like the portion about adjusting to the non-polygamous world; I wish that section had been a bit more developed, honestly.

I agree with you about Escape, which I read last year. The adjustment to non-polygamous life was certainly the best part. I also would have liked to learn more about her youngest boy's medical condition. Have you read a lot about polygamous communities? What other books on the subject would you recommend?

#46 - I haven't really read a whole lot about polygamous communities - just two books, but I enjoyed them both. The first book I ever read on the subject was Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, which I thought was very well done. The portions on the abuse people in the compound endure was horrifying, so I would warn people to steel themselves for that before jumping in, but it was very informative. The other book I've read on the subject is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. It's rather different, being fictional, but it's split between a fictional autobiography by Brigham Young's 19th wife, and the story of a man who was kicked out of a polygamous compound when he was younger and learns that his mother is accused of killing his father. The 'history' of that one needs to be taken with the grain of salt of understanding that it's fictional, but the story was good nonetheless. If anyone else has recommendations, I would like to hear them!

I read (and loved) Under the Banner of Heaven. The 19th Wife is definitely going on my pile!

I haven't read too much else on the subject, but I would certainly like to read more. Several years ago I read Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer, which was a decent memoir, about on par with Carolyn Jessop's, although better written technically. Last year when perusing my university library catalog, I picked up Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society by Irwin Altman and Joseph Ginat, which is very different, in that it is a nonjudgmental, anthropological survey of contemporary polygamous families in Utah. It focuses more on the everyday minute details of how polygamous families live and deal with economic, sexual, and family issues. It's basically an ethnography and pretty dry if you're not an anthropology fan.

I've also read both Under the Banner of Heaven and The 19th Wife and enjoyed them. I was particularly interested in the historical aspect of The 19th Wife and want to investigate the true history a little more.

Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society sounds very interesting. I'm adding to my wish list again.

#48 - thanks for the recommendation, allthesedarnbooks! They both sound interesting. I've never read an ethnography before, but I'm going to put Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society on my TBR list anyway; I figure it's worth giving a try and seeing whether I can manage it. Thanks again for telling me about it!

As for my reading, Book 16 is The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig. It's the latest in the Pink Carnation trilogy, a sort of trashy romance series about spies with flowery names (a la the Scarlet Pimpernel) in England that are being researched by a grad student in modern-day England. In this book Charlotte, a friend of one of the stars of previous books, is swept away when her very very distant cousin Robert returns from India, but Robert's reasons for returning (hunting down a man who he believes killed his mentor in India) don't include romance. It was silly but still a lot of fun. The web of flowery spies was less involved than in previous books, and thus easier to follow.

Book 17 is The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is very hit or miss for me; I'm afraid this one was a bit of a miss. This book is told by Iris, who posthumously published a novel by her younger sister Laura, which eventually rocketed to a cult status. Iris talks about her life as an elderly woman, remembers her life (especially her relationship with Laura), and interspersed between the reflection and reminiscing are chapters of Laura's book (also called The Blind Assassin). At first the story-within-the-story (Laura's The Blind Assassin) interested me, and Iris's chapters were a bit of a slog, but eventually the whole thing felt like a bit of a slog. The twist at the end was interesting, but I suppose I felt a little underwhelmed. Of course, considering my statistical record up til now, I should really enjoy the next Atwood I read.

Ethnography isn't the right word, exactly. It's just more of an academic report than a popular or literary book.

I enjoyed The Blind Assassin, but it's not my favorite. Have you read The Penelopiad yet?

#51 - Yes, I have read the The Penolopiad. It's one of the Atwood books that I enjoyed. I thought the idea was interesting, and actually really enjoyed the writing itself.

I agree with you on Blind Assassin, especially regarding Iris's later chapters. Though I really enjoyed Cat's Eye and Handmaid's Tale, Blind Assassin made me uninterested in reading anything more from her.

>52 legxleg:, Oh, good, The Penelopiad was one of my favorite books last year! I'm trying to think of what other Atwood books I really liked. Handmaid's Tale, obvs, Alias Grace, and The Robber Bride come to mind.

Bonniebooks and Allthesedarnbooks, thank you for the Atwood recommendations. I've read Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye, but not Alias Grace or The Robber Bride, so I'll have to look into those. Thanks again!

As for my reading, this week has been a bit busy.

Book 18 is Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni, which I saw in the early reviewer books awhile ago and thought looked really interesting. I wasn't disappointed. It's a memoir-type book about a reporter for Time magazine who lives in and reports from Tehran. While there she falls in love with an Iranian man, and they get married. The book concentrated much more on daily life in Iran, and the steps one must take to get married. The part on the fancy wedding planners made me laugh. She also reports on the rise of Ahmadinejad for Time, and she talks a lot in the book about the circumstances that lead to his being elected. And of course her profession lead to a certain amount of danger. This was a very interesting book, and I've already checked her first book, Lipstick Jihad, out of the library.

Book 19 is Who Controls The Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu. This was a book recommended by my internet law professor, and I am glad I read it. The authors talk about the initial belief that the internet would break down national borders, and exist outside of any country's sovereignty or control. They then go on to thoroughly burst that bubble, and explain why people don't really want the internet to operate outside of their country's jurisdiction anyway. The section on the control of the internet in China was particularly interesting/chilling, although I think it might have been changed somewhat in the newer edition, which I couldn't get my hands on. Anyway, it was a fairly short and readable book on a very interesting subject.

Book 20 is The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson, another one I originally saw on the Early Reviewer book list. I thought that it was interesting and even a bit funny. I didn't know much about the whys of Pluto's 'demotion', and the outrage it evoked throughout the country amazed me. My main complaint, however, is that I got the feeling the author didn't expect the reader to read the whole book, and so he kept repeating himself, I suppose to make sure people got his main points. Just about every picture caption was drawn almost exactly from the text, which wasn't a real problem for me - I just stopped reading the captions - but once and awhile the actual text would repeat itself. I thought this was extremely odd. I still enjoyed the book, though, and was especially amused by the letters from children demanding Pluto be reinstated. Very cute.

Book 21 is In the Serpent's Coils by Tiffany Trent. I had heard this series compared to Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series, only set in the US immediately after the Civil War, and thought I would check it out. The comparison seems apt to me - Corinne's parents die and her unaffectionate uncle sends her off to a reformatory school for girls, where she finds that fairies may or may not be terrorizing the girls. The book didn't really grab me though. I felt that we didn't really get much of a sense of the girls aside from Corinne. There were too many of them, so when something happened to a girl I often couldn't even remember which one she was, much less be upset about it. However, I can see how some fans of the Libba Bray books would like this series - I just don't think I'll be reading the rest of it.

And Book 22 is The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, an extremely odd book, and much longer than Ishiguro's usual fare. Mr Ryder, a pianist, shows up at an unnamed European city for a recital, and finds that his arrival is much more highly anticipated that he expected. The city seems obsessed with art, and as he wanders around he is asked to do all sorts of things, some of which he succeeds in doing and some of which he does not. He also seems to just remember lots of things as he goes - that he is romantically involved with a woman there, that they have a son, etc. It was all a bit surreal. I'm afraid I didn't quite understand what was going on, but I did enjoy the writing. I suppose I'll have to put this one in with A Pale View of the Hills - interesting, but a bit over my head.

Ooh, Honeymoon in Tehran sounds excellent! Onto the pile it goes!

Me too - I read Lipstick Jihah and really enjoyed it, and it sounds like her follow-up is a good one.

Also adding Honeymoon in Tehran as well as Who Controls the Internet? on Continent TBR. Thanks for the reviews and recommendations!

I'm so glad that people want to read Honeymoon in Tehran; it was one of my favorite books this month, I think. Oh and alcottacre, Who Controls the Internet? is very interesting, and not all that long. I hope you enjoy it.

And for the rest of my February reading:

Book 23 was Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni, which I really enjoyed. It was a little funny reading them 'backwards', since Honeymoon in Tehran came out after Lipstick Jihad, but I still found both books interesting, informative, and entertaining. Although I did have nightmares about being forced to put my foot into a bucket of cockroaches after I read about that rumored/urban legend punishment for women who wore capri pants.

Book 24 is Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks. This was another memoir-type story. Geraldine Brooks, another reporter, finds a box of letters from childhood pen pals in her childhood home after her father dies. The first part of the book is Brooks remembering her childhood and the important roles her pen pals played in her life growing up. The second part is Brooks deciding to try and track down her pen pals to see what they are up to, going to America, the Middle East, and France. This was another one that I really enjoyed, and flew through much quicker than I intended.

Book 25, my last book of Febrary, is Rumpsringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman. I didn't find this as interesting as the other books I read this week. It is a nonfiction book about rumspringa, the Amish practice where young people are able to 'run around' and are not subject to the strict rules of behavior, dress, etc. At the end of the rumspringa period, the young people decide whether they want to join the church or go live in the outside world. It started off well, with interviews of various young people on rumspringa, and what they think their decision will be. It went on to discuss Amish culture in general, with chapters on education, women's roles, shunning, drug use, etc. The reason the book didn't really capture my attention was that there was a lot of discussion of adolescent psychology in general, which really does not interest me. But someone who is intrigued by that sort of thing might find the book very interesting.
I've been having some trouble getting the touchstone for that last book to work where I want it, so here is the touchstone for Rumspringa

#59: Foreign Correspondence was the first Geraldine Brooks book I ever read. I actually discovered it through reading one of her husband Tony Horwitz' books. He is a favorite author of mine.

Thank you for mentioning Tony Horwitz, alcottacre. When I clicked on the touchstone, I saw that he wrote A Voyage Long and Strange, which I really enjoyed last year. I'll have to look for more by him.

As for my reading for this week, book 26 is Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, another stop in what I have come to think of as a quest to read a ridiculous number of books with 'princess' in the title. This is a YA retelling of the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The protagonist is Galen, a young man who was pretty much born and raised on the battle field, and once the war is over finds work as a gardner for the royal family. There he learns about the twelve princesses who are cursed to dance at night, and of course decides he has to save them. One of the twists is that Galen is an accomplished knitter, a skill he learned clothing himself while at war. So basically the soldier-hero is saving the day with knitting; it's unusual, and I like it. The author also includes instructions on how to make Galen's knit-creations, which I thought was a cute add-on. It's not my favorite retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses (that honor goes to Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, which is absolutely fantastic), but I enjoyed it.

Book 27 is The Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It's pretty much The graphic novel. I actually started it awhile ago, but abandoned it because I didn't like the art (apologies to anyone who is a fan of the illustrator; I'm sure it's very good, it just really wasn't my cup of tea), but with the movie coming out I decided to give it another chance. Once I got really grabbed by the plot, the art stopped bothering me as much. It's a very interesting story - in an alternate version of America, masked heroes were commonplace before the government forced them to retire. Now one of them has been killed, and the others are left to wonder why, and what it means for the others. I thought it was a good twist to see the heroes at the end of their careers as opposed to the beginning. Once the story grabbed me I was hooked, and not even pictures of a raft made of corpses (no really, at that point if I hadn't been hooked I'd have put it down) could get me to stop reading. I enjoyed the graphic novel, and can't wait to see how it compares to the movie.

Book 28 is Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. In this version of the future, mankind has created a machine with which they can watch the past. A number of people who use the machine start to wonder if by interfering with Columbus's 'discovery' of the Americas they could alter history for the better, and avoid the ecological disaster they are currently living with. I thought the idea of a pastwatch machine was fantastic, and very much wish I had one to play with. The speculation of what would have happened if Columbus hadn't sailed West was very interesting to me, although I have no idea how much of the hypothesis is educated and how much is pure guess. Still, it was a very interesting book.

Book 29 is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's basically Battle Royale in North America. Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living in Panem, a dystopic future government consisting of a capital and twelve districts. Every year kids between 12 and 18 all put their names into a drawing, and a boy and girl are chosen from each district to participate in the 'hunger games', a Battle Royale style televised 'game' where the players all try and kill each other, and the last one standing wins fame and fortune. Katniss's little sister is chosen, so Katniss volunteers to take her place. I liked the character of Katniss, and the complicated dynamic between her and Peeta, the boy tribute from their district, was quite good. The addition of 'sponsors', ordinary viewers who can pay money to have gifts sent down to the players of their choice, was a good one. The aspect of Katniss and the others needing not only to survive, but to impress the viewers so they could get life-saving gifts made the whole thing slightly more twisted. I was surprised by how quickly and thoroughly I was hooked. I flew through it, and will definitely read the next book when it comes out.

Nice reviews, legxleg. I've got The Hunger Games in my TBR pile. My daughter has already read it and liked it. From your review it sounds like it's going to be a series.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus sounds very interesting. I've never read anything by Orson Scott Card, but I've wanted to. It sounds like this would be a good one to start with. Another book on the wish list.

Pastwatch was an interesting one, lorie. I was a little skeptical of how things unfurled very quickly at the end, but it was still entertaining. You'll have to let me know what you thought :-)

This week was a pretty busy one for reading.

Book 30 is Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert. This memoir-type book about life as a public librarian was very interesting, especially since I wanted to be a librarian when I was younger. The stories did a good job of alternating between funny and sad, and I have newfound sympathy for librarians who participate in the summer reading program. As a side note, Borchert seems to really love the word 'palaver'. I think I read it more times in this one book than I have in every other book I've ever read combined. Not that I'm complaining, mind; I thought it was funny.

Book 31 is Little Bee by Chris Cleave. The summary of the book has this big paragraph about how we shouldn't tell anyone what it's about since that will ruin the magic, which strikes me as a little silly. But out of deference I'll be especially wary of spoilers. Little Bee is a refugee from Nigeria who has just been released from the detention center in England. She goes looking for a British couple she met on a beach in Nigeria as they are the only British people she knows. I'll stop there, and just say that it actually was quite good, and extremely sad (well, 'refugee' should tell you that much). There were a few funny moments as well, but mainly it was sad.

Book 32 is Duchessina: A Novel of Catherine de'Medici by Carolyn Meyer, a YA historical fiction novel. Apparently it's part of a series called the 'Young Royals' that I'm not familiar with. This one was, obviously, about Catherine de'Medici, and had a particular emphasis on her childhood. It was a decent enough book, but didn't blow me away. I find that a common tactic authors use when writing historical fiction about women who have been historically vilified is to make the woman a totally innocent victim of suspicious circumstances that others who dislike her use to smear her reputation ("I don't know *why* he died! I don't know the first thing about poison! La la la why are people looking at me funny?" OK I'm exaggerating the book was better than that). Anyway, that seems a fair way to tell the story, but I personally prefer it when the woman did some of the bad things attributed to her for reasons of her own. I suppose I just like an anti-heroine.

Book 33 is Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, which I've seen recommended all over the place lately. I have to completely agree with the good buzz. This is a science fiction book set in the near future when historians actually go back in time to observe. Kivrin wants to go to the Middle Ages, even though that era is widely considered too dangerous to visit. She does eventually get her way, but inevitably Things Go Wrong. The book is divided between Kivrin in the Middle Ages and Mr. Dunworthy, her teacher in the present/future who is desperate to help her. I found myself equally invested in the past and present/future timelines, which is difficult to pull off. The beginning was a little redundant ('Kivrin is in danger! No she's fine! No she's in danger!'), but it still sucked me in completely and I was absolutely riveted to the last couple hundred pages. I absolutely recommend it.

Book 34 is D.A. by Connie Willis, which I picked up because I wanted more by the same author as Doomsday Book and it happened to be at the library. It's a YA novella/short story about a high school aged girl who is shanghaied into joining an elite space program that everyone is dying to get into - except her. The story was interesting enough, but honestly I don't think I'll remember it in a few months. Maybe I ought to stick to Willis's full length books.

Book 35 is Postcards from Tomorrow Square by James Fallows. This book was a collection of essays about modern China that had been previously published in The Atlantic. I don't read The Atlantic so they were all new to me and very interesting. I think my favorite essay was about the Chinese version of The Apprentice, where instead of competing for a job with Donald Trump (or a similar Chinese figure) the contestants are trying to get seed money to start their own company. The judges are real (and high profile) investors who are providing the prize money, and will have a real share in the winner's business. I wish I could see that here instead of the Celebrity Apprentice (no offense to those who like it; it's just not for me). I was also interested in the section on the Great Firewall of China, especially after reading about it in Who Controls The Internet?. Unlike the authors of Who Controls The Internet?, who insist that China is current proof that it is possible to regionally control the internet, Fallows explains that actually, getting around the Great Firewall is pretty easy and not even all that expensive. The trick of the Chinese government is to make getting through the firewall just troublesome enough that people won't bother with it.

Book 36 is A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith, a fun YA fantasy book. Princess Rhis is invited on a trip to a neighboring kingdom, where the neighboring prince will meet all eligible girls and hopefully pick a bride. While there, the mean-but-gorgeous Princess Iardith is abducted, so Rhis and her friends go off to save her. It's a bit predictable, and one part was such an obvious knock off of Lord of the Rings that I wanted to laugh. Still, it was a fun book to read and I enjoyed myself. Rhis was likable, and the secondary characters were quite good as well. Even if the author did have the poor judgment to name one of them 'Shera', which made me completely incapable of taking her seriously.

Wow, you're moving right along towards your goal of 100 books this year, and will probably surpass it. And you've added quite a few to my TBR pile!

I read Doomsday Book earlier this year and also enjoyed it.

I finished The Hemingses of Monticello after seeing it on your thread. A good read but definitely longer than it needed to be, and very speculative.

I've got two more books waiting for me that are a result of your thread, Jenna Starborn, which I'm waiting to arrive in the mail at any time, and Pastwatch which I picked up at a used bookstore yesterday.

Thanks for adding to my reading enjoyment!

And now you're going to make it a busy week for the rest of us! ;-) I've already read Doomsday, but I've got to read Free for All... and Postcards From Tomorrow Square. They both sound better than much of the stack that I've got waiting for me. Sigh!

P.S. To Say Nothing of the Dog has always been a favorite of mine, but you might want to try Bellwether since it combines Willis and librarians.

Better yet, try BOTH To Say Nothing of the Dog and Bellwether. The first uses the same time travel setup as Doomsday Book but travels to Victorian times and is a comedy romance. The latter is a great albeit indirect sendup of modern bureaucracy as well as modern science and a romance as well. Also, in Willis' book of short stories called Fire Watch, the title story also uses the time travel technology seen in DB and TSNOTD and is very worthwhile. Finally, if you like Victorian comedy, reading Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome before reading TSNOTD adds greatly to the pleasure, even though you can enjoy the latter without it.

#64, loriephillips, I'm so glad you liked The Hemingses of Monticello, although I agree with you it really was too long, and there was a lot of speculation. I hope that you enjoy Jenna Starborn and Pastwatch!

#65, bonniebooks, Free for All... and Postcards from Tomorrow Square are both really interesting. Although I hope your current stack turns out to be interesting as well! Before I started using LT I never read nonfiction (except for school of course), and now I'm surprised by how often I am enjoying it! Also, I will have to look for those Willis books you mentioned. The one about Willis and librarians sounds especially interesting!

#66 ronincats
OK I think I'm just going to have to write all these Willis down (and the preferred order); no way I'll remember them all! Which is a good thing, of course; I love 'discovering' new authors. Thank you so much, both ronincats and bonniebooks for the recommendations!

Book 37 is Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. Horwitz travels around the South talking about the Civil War with various people, examining the ways in which it still affects people's lives. It was a very interesting book, and more than a little bit disturbing. I think Horwitz tried to portray people who yearn for the Confederacy in a sympathetic light, but for every person who insists it's about states' rights or honoring your ancestors there is another who seems to be just plain racist. If nothing else the book has convinced me that the Civil War is still a very complicated and loaded topic. All that said, my favorite part was actually one of the lighter chapters, about the obsession with Gone With The Wind, including an interview with a professional Scarlet O'Hara impersonator.

Book 38 Race Across Alaska: First Woman to Win Iditarod Tells Her Story by Libby Riddles and Tim Jones. I thought the subject matter of this book was fascinating, but the book itself was pretty dry. I can't say I recommend it. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is a much better book about racing in the Iditarod, although his goals was basically to finish, not to win.

Book 39 is Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer. Heyer is really hilarious. Lord Sheringham proposes to the beautiful Isabella, is rejected, and vows to marry the next girl he sees. This happens to be Hero Wantage, a girl who has adored him since they were kids. I must admit that I have a soft spot for the 'fake marriage' silly romance trope, and Heyer did it very well. A lot of fun.

Book 40 is Possession by A.S. Byatt. I'm afraid I didn't like this book as well as The Djinn in the Nightngale's Eye, but I think that's probably my fault. The book follows Roland and Maude, two scholars who discover that the Victorian poets they are studying engaged in a passionate correspondence that sheds new light on their lives and poetry. A good portion of the book includes the poetry of the Victorians, and I'm afraid poetry has never been my forte. I'm sure it's a very lovely book for those who are more inclined to it.

#68: I have never heard of The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by Byatt, so I am going to have to look for that one. I did read and enjoy Possession. Thanks for the mention of the other book.

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye is a collection of fairy tales, one of which was actually included in Possession. I thought it was great, and it's actually what convinced me to read Possession.

#70: Cool!

I've had The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye on my wish list for a long time but can never find it in book stores. I think I'll just order it on line. I enjoyed Possession all though it's kind of slow at times.

Book 41 is Etta by Gerald Kolpan, a historical fiction novel I saw on the Early Reviewers list about Etta Place, a female bandit in the Wild Bunch of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fame. The book was all right, and certainly exciting, but I have to admit that Etta crossed paths with a few too many important historical figures for my taste. I prefer historical fiction where the characters are involved in their own drama/lives, and don't play important roles in the lives of well-known historical figures unless it makes sense. For instance, in Etta it makes sense that Etta has all sorts of interaction with outlaws, but she also had a lot of dealings with various Roosevelts (I'll remain vague to avoid spoiling others too much), and I felt that was stretching it a bit. But for other people who aren't bothered by that, Etta might be a lot of fun.

Book 42 is Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud, the author of the Bartimaeus trilogy (which I love). I didn't like this one as much as Bartimaeus, but that doesn't mean it was bad by any means. Halli is a boy living in the Valley, where people believe that if you travel outside of the cairns that ring the Valley you will be eaten by Trows, monsters that live underground. The society of the Valley is peaceful, but Halli loves hearing the stories of the Heroes, the founders who fought back the Trows. The legends are interspersed throughout the book, and I actually enjoyed them. Stroud did a good job with them, and they reminded me of some of the violence in The Tain that was so absurdly over-the-top that it was actually funny. Anyway, after awhile Halli meets a girl named Aud and discovers that each 'House' in the Valley has a different version of the legends that casts their own Founder in the best light. Aud insists that none of the legends are true, there are no Trows outside the Valley, and they should leave. I'll stop from telling the whole story, but it was actually quite good. It starts off a little bit slowly though.

Book 43 is Bellwether by Connie Willis, which I enjoyed thoroughly. The protagonist is a a statistician studying fads, in particular the cause of the trend for bobbed hair. She works for an organization called HiTek that is in love with staff meetings, stupid acronyms, and elaborate funding forms. The interdepartmental assistant, Flip, is aggressively incompetent causing all sorts of problems for everyone. It was very funny, and I especially enjoyed the running gag (if that's even the right word) of the fad of persecuting smokers. It was very different from The Doomsday Book, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

Book 44 is Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome, which was another very funny story about three Victorian men who go on a boating trip with less-than-optimal results. The plot was pretty superfluous, but the asides were hilarious. And of course I'm now reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, and I do appreciate being told to read Three Men In A Boat first.

Book 45 is Q&A by Vikas Swarup, the book that Slumdog Millionaire was based on. I thought I would give it a try, but did not expect to really like it; I was wrong. It's quite different from the movie, and in some ways darker, but it didn't feel dreary and hard to trudge through the way some books that talk about the hardships of life can be. I was actually engaged from the beginning, and would recommend it.

I just finished Three Men in a Boat this weekend. There were parts of it that made me laugh out loud. I'll be reading To Say Nothing of the Dog hopefully sometime in April. I'll be looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Regarding Book #41 and your comment about historical fiction, I could not agree with you more. If you want to know about Teddy Roosevelt, read a non-fiction book about him, not historical fiction. Too often when an author drags a real person into his/her HF book, it comes across as way too clumsy. I don't think that historical fiction requires the presence of the famous people of the day in order to be good.

It will be interesting to see how you rate Willis's books. I read them in the exact opposite order, and because of that To Say Nothing of the Dog is still my favorite. (The time travel explanations and mess-ups got a little old in the succeeding books.) It will be interesting if your order of reading impacts you as well.

#74 - I noticed that you had just read Three Men in a Boat. I'm glad that you find it so funny too. I'm only a little ways into To Say Nothing of the Dog, but the formatting parodies Three Men in a Boat with the little descriptions of what happens at the start of each chapter, and the first sentence is similar as well. I'm glad I'm reading them close to each other.

#75 - I agree. I think that historical fiction about a real historical figure can be good if well researched and done right, but sometimes I come across books where the author's protagonist goes around shaking hands with so many historical figures that it almost feels like name dropping. Of course, my big caveat is that I loved Anne Rinaldi books as a kid, and those are almost always about a young girl with some connection to a real historical figure. But in general, I think you and I are on the same page.

#76 - I'll let you know once I've finished To Say Nothing of the Dog. I can see how order might effect how much you like a book; after the first time you read explanations/exposition, it can get redundant.

Book 46 is To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Wills, another one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm trying to decide if I like it better than Doomsday Book or not, and I can't really decide; they seem so different. I really love To Say Nothing of the Dog's humor, and the little romance aspect, and the allusions to Three Men in a Boat (thank you LT-ers for telling me to read it first!). But at the same time, I felt like Doomsday Book's drama made me more invested; I raced through the last fifty pages or so, desperate to find out what happened. Even though there were some big potential consequences in To Say Nothing of the Dog, I didn't feel that same sense of urgency. That said, I can see how the beginning of Doomsday Book would drag on reread (there is slippage! There isn't slippage! No wait there *is* slippage! Not...?). So basically I cannot make up my mind! If anyone is wondering which to read first, I would just say it depends on if you are in the mood for humor or drama.

Book 47 is Graceling by Kritin Cashore, a YA fantasy book. It takes place in a fantasy world where there are Gracelings, individuals with eyes of different colors who have are preternaturally good at one skill. I'm not quite sure where I stand on this one (I apologize for being so indecisive today!). At the beginning I felt like the protagonist was a bit much. Katsa has amazing Graced fighting skills (she can take on ten men at once without a scratch!), seems to be all but impervious to cold and fatigue, has a band of loyal friends, and also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous (not that she ever noticed, of course). That said, the book did a good job of creating a situation where her skills were, for the most part, neutralized. The romance aspect was all right, although not the best I've read. The world-building was interesting, and the villain was truly scary. I've read a lot of people comparing it to Tamora Pierce's books, what with the YA fantasy setting with a badass female heroine, and I think that's fair. If I had read Graceling at the time I read the Alanna books, or vice versa, I might have had similar reactions; as it is, I read the Alanna books when I was younger and really did not care if Alanna had purple eyes, a magical cat, extraordinary magic powers, and amazing fighting prowess. And of course now I still love those books, if only because I'm sentimentally attached (on a related note, Pierce is doing a book signing at a local bookstore, and a friend and I are going even if we are probably too old. I just hope we don't look too out of place! And that it's not rude to bring an old book or two). At any rate, although I have some reservations about Katsa's character, by the middle of the book I was hooked and wanted to find out how it ended. In some ways that's the most important measure.

Book 48 is The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. The structure was very interesting; the whole book is told to 'you', an American traveller the narrator meets in Lahore. There's a duel narrative of what happened to the narrator in the past, and what is happening to the narrator and 'you' in the present. The book ends abruptly and doesn't really answer a lot of questions, and even though I know that it was a choice but the author it still drove me nuts. Still, it's an interesting book, and I'd recommend it if you aren't the sort to be bothered by an ending left extremely vague.

I keep seeing this advice about reading Three Men In A Boat before To Say Nothing Of The Dog -is it really vital to do so? TSNotD is on my short list for acquisitions and I was hoping to read it soon. What do you think?

No, it's not vital; some of the jokes are funnier when you've read Three Men In A Boat, the book is alluded to on a number of occasions, and the way the chapters are laid out as well as the first sentence also mimic Three Men in a Boat. However, not having read it won't affect your ability to understand what's going on or enjoy the To Say Nothing of the Dog. The plot is completely independent. I hope you enjoy To Say Nothing of the Dog, whether you read Three Men In A Boat first or not!

Well, this list has been going around so I think I'll do it too. According to the BBC, most people have only read 6 of the books below. Most people are not on LT. Bold the books you've read, italicize the ones you start but don't finish.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (and I am excited for her next book!)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (It does strike me as a bit odd to include both The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe *and* The Chronicles of Narnia)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (although I love the first sentence, I just can't seem to get through the whole thing!)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton-partial
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So that comes to 41 read, 10 started. I am pretty embarrassed that I've never read a single thing by Dickens. I think if I ever played that game where you name embarrassing Important Books you haven't read, Dickens would be my ace.

>80 legxleg:, I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog without having read Three Men in a Boat, but your comments make me want to read the latter eventually.

>81 legxleg:, Only 6? Hard to believe, huh? Thanks for making me feel so well-read!

#78: All 3 of those books are on my Continent TBR. Thanks for the reviews!

Book 49 is I Didn't Do It For You: How The World Betrayed A Small African Nation by Michela Wrong. This is a nonfiction book about the more recent history of Eritrea, a small African country near Ethiopia. I'll admit that I didn't know a thing about Eritrea before I read this book, so I found it extremely informative. Wrong's writing style was engaging and held my interest, which can sometimes be a chore in nonfiction books. As I said, I didn't know a thing about Eritrea before I read this book, so I'm in no position to say what bias Wrong approached the subject from, but I found her version of events compelling and heartbreaking. Eritrea has pretty much been betrayed by country after country. The title comes from a popular story that illustrated the relationship of Eritrea with the rest of the world. After the British captured Eritrea from Italy during WWII, an Eritrean woman was loudly rejoicing because she thought this meant her lot might improve. A British officer turned to her and snapped, 'I didn't do it for you, expletive' (sorry for the edit, I know it takes away some of the punch of the line, but I don't know who's reading and I don't want to accidentally introduce that kind of language to a kid). Anyway, that anecdote, whether apocryphal or not, pretty much sums up the history of Eritrea; traded from one country to another, and never given the aid they are promised. Even the UN looked the other way when Eritrea was being swallowed up by Ethiopia. A very sad but well-written and informational book; I recommend it.

Book 50 is The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman, a YA dystopia. I was really impressed by this book. After the earth was flooded (possibly from global warming), the Earth Mother 'ceiled' the remaining islands of land to protect humanity from the dangers of weather, and instituted your usual range of dystopic rules for everyone's safety. When the book begins Honor and her parents have just moved from the wilder Northern islands to a more central area. Honor, a young girl, is sent to school where she quickly assimilates and becomes ashamed of her parents' refusal to follow the rules Earth Mother set out. I think the conflict between the true believer child and her 'unpredictable' parents was well-done and intriguing. I also thought the details of the dystopia were intriguing. For instance, there are several occasions where the reader can see that Earth Mother has rewritten things like The Pledge of Allegiance or the Lord's Prayer to be about her. I also appreciated details like Honor's horror at discovering the original, non-Earth-Mother approved ending of Bridge to Terebithia (don't worry, I won't give away what that is). This is another one that I absolutely recommend.

Book 51 is I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. Nerdy Dennis uses his valedictorian's speech at graduation to take the opportunity to say everything he held back during high school, including profess his love for Beth Cooper. This triggers a crazy night for him, which involves spending time with Beth Cooper herself, crashing parties, drinking, and running from Beth Cooper's very angry military boyfriend (just because he's killed one person, he thinks he can kill whoever he wants, Beth explains). It's a very funny book, and also very teenage boy (obsession with the female anatomy, kind of crude). Since the narrator *is* a teenage boy, this makes sense, but I've got to admit, the mind of the teenage boy is not a place I am particularly eager to go. I was also annoyed at Dennis's cruel judgment of the only girl in his class that's actually interested in him; the key to pulling off the nerdy boy as hero is making the reader sympathize with him. I was on his side up until that point. Anyway, the book is genuinely funny, but a bit too teenage boy for my taste, as I said.

Book 52 is A Comrade Lost And Found: A Beijing Story by Jan Wong. During the Cultural Revolution, Jan Wong had the opportunity to study at Beijing University, where she bought into the Maoist ideology and zealotry completely. When another classmate asked whether Jan would be able to help her go to America, she was shocked that this student would think of betraying Communist China like that, and reported her. The girl was expelled, and Jan promptly forgot about her until years later when she read about the incident in her old diaries. Wracked with guilt, Jan decides to return to Beijing in the hopes of finding this girl and apologizing. Her search is also the opportunity for Jan to write about modern Beijing as a whole, especially the mutual voluntary amnesia about the Cultural Revolution. Another very interesting book.

Book 53 is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen). For those who haven't heard the hype about this book, it's basically what it sounds like - the plot of Pride and Prejudice with a zombie epidemic thrown in the mix. Netherfield Park is let at last because its previous owners were unfortunately devoured by the undead. When zombies invade the ball where the Lizzie and Darcy meet, the Bennet girls handily form the 'pentagram of death' to defend the ball. Also, there are ninjas. Although it is very funny, the book is more than 300 pages long, and I don't think the gag was quite good enough to sustain a story that long. That said, the 'reader's guide' at the back was hilarious - there's even a question on what vomit represents. I think it ought to have been edited down, but it got some good laughs out of me.

Hi legxleg. Just de-lurking to say that the number of books you've read so far this year is phenomenal. You will surpass your goal well before the end of the year at this rate. Great job! I'm adding Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the TBR list. Sounds like a nice "fluffy" read. Gotta have a fluffy read once in awhile and this one sounds like a hoot!

#84: Book 49 is already on the Continent, but I am adding books 50 and 52 to it, as well. Thanks once again for the reviews!

Hi your reviews have me de-lurking too. Book 52 sounds really interesting thanks!

The Other Side of the Island sounds really good and it's the kind of book I probably wouldn't have found on my own as I don't read a lot of YA. Thank you for putting it on my wishlist!

Yikes, I've been overwhelmed with exams lately and have really neglected LibraryThing. I'm sorry to anyone who has been following this thread! Things have calmed down a little bit now, so I'll see if I can't get caught up.

First off, thanks so much Lorie for the words of encouragement. And Pride and Prejudice and Zombies really is a fun 'mindless' read; I hope you enjoy it.

Alcottacre, all the books that you mentioned adding or being on Continent TBR are really great. I hope that you enjoy them when you get a chance to read them (I know that it can take awhile to get to all the books on the Continent).

Clfisha, thanks for de-lurking! A Comrade Lost and Found really is interesting, and I hope you enjoy it if you read it.

girlunderglass, The Other Side of the Island strikes me as one of those books that doesn't necessarily have to be YA; the protagonist is a young girl, but the themes are fairly universal. I'm glad I brought it to your attention :-)

All right, where did I leave off on listing the books. Book 54 is a reread of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and holds up very well on reread. It's a companion-of-sorts to Gaiman's American Gods, but I don't think you really need to read American Gods to enjoy Anansi Boys. Fat Charlie attends the funeral of his father, Anansi, and learns that he has a brother, Spider. When Spider comes to visit he turns Fat Charlie's world upside down. One of the things I enjoy about this book is the way that it mixes humor with serious drama. I definitely recommend it.

Book 55 is Emma by Jane Austen. This is the last of the main Austen canon that I hadn't read, and I've got to say it's probably my least favorite. I hope I don't offend anyone who loves it, but I couldn't stand Mr Kinghtley. All that lecturing! However, it did leave me wanting to watch Clueless again, so something good came out of it.

Book 56 is Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I liked it well enough, but not as much as I'd hoped. The plot seems like it would be perfect for me; the whole idea of reading aloud and bringing characters from the book into our world is great. But for some reason the book had difficulty holding my interest, and finishing the series is not near the top of my to-do list. Maybe finals put me in a bad mood for reading? I don't know.

Book 57 is City of Glass, the last of the trilogy by Cassandra Clare. I basically read it to finish out the series. I enjoyed it more than the second book, and it was a decent ending with some twists I didn't see coming, but it didn't really blow me away.

Book 58 is Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi, the author of Perseoplis. Like Persepolis, Embroideries is a memoir-esque graphic novel. The premise is that Satrapi, her grandmother, and other female friend and relatives are talking about sex and romance over tea. Satrapi continues in her ability to mix serious concepts and humor. Embroideries was a quick, enjoyable read.

59 is Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman, a YA book about Vinny, the son of a mob boss who resents his father's job and its effect on his daily life. There is some very good Korman humor, but all in all it didn't impress me as much as some of his other books (Born to Rock) did.

60 is The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, a YA adventure book about a deaf girl named Symone who is obsessed with Antarctic exploration. One day her uncle takes her off to Antarctica, the adventure of a lifetime. However, she begins to suspect that something's not quite right. This was a very interesting one. I liked the character of Symone, and I thought the author did a good job of letting the reader piece the situation together. However, I must say, the plot requires some major suspension of disbelief.

Book 61 is Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiongo. The book is a satire about an imaginary African country with a dictatorial ruler. It was very funny and sharp, and I absolutely recommend it. That said, I probably should have timed my reading of it better than I did; even thought it's satire, it deals with some fairly heavy themes, and was possibly not the best choice for finals pleasure reading. It was still a very good book, though!

Book 62 is Being Nikki by Meg Cabot, and much more indicative of my usual reading during finals. Sometimes you are tired and just want brain candy! Being Nikki is the sequel to Airhead, and follows Emerson-turn-Nikki as she tries to adjust to her new lifestyle. This series has more of an action-adventure vibe than Cabot's usual stuff (although of course there are still plenty of opportunities for Nikki to make out with cute boys). It's a bit soapy, but the second third or so of the book definitely held my interest, and it ended in a cliffhanger.

Book 63 is The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, the last book in his Percy Jackson series. It was a good cap to the series, and did a great job of encompassing pretty much everyone we care about in the showdown between the gods and Titans. From the way it ended, it looks like there might be another series set in the same world, and I certainly hope that's the case! And that it involves Clarisse and Chris, some of my favorite secondary-characters.

Book 64 is a comic book, Unmanned, the first in the Y Last Man series. I'm not really a huge comic book reader, but this one really captured my interest. Some virus has killed of every man or male animal on earth - except for the protagonist Yorick and his pet helper-monkey (actually, the monkey I could really do without). The aftermath of the virus was really fascinating, and Yorick is sympathetic. I've already ordered the next volume from the library, and can't wait to see what happens next.

Phew, finally caught up. The touchstones seem to be a little funky; sorry about that. I'll try not to get so behind again; updating the list took longer than I thought!

Glad to have you back; finals can be a bear! (Conversely, I'm SO glad I teach my college course in the fall and not the spring!)

It looks like you've had some good reading. I love Anansi Boys, and seem to get more out of it with each reading. Emma isn't my favorite Austen either, but it does have its moments. My biggest problem with Inkheart (I loved the concept) is that the heroine makes the stupidest decisions--it quite took me out of the story. I'm waiting for the paperbacks on the Percy Jackson series so have only read the first three, but have been reading the hype on the fifth book--I'm glad to hear it is a worthy finale and am looking forward to it in due time.

#89: The White Darkness looks very good! I am adding it to the Continent.

Glad to see you enjoyed Wizard of the Crow. I also liked it when I read it earlier this year - it is on my list of memorable reads for the year!

#90 Ronincats, thanks for the welcome back; I'm so glad I'll never have to deal with finals again! (Unless you count the Bar...let's not think about that). Anansi Boys really is great; I remember that the first time I read it I was in such a funk, and it snapped me right out of it. And it did the trick again this time. I still can't quite place what I didn't like about Inkheart, although what you mentioned is a good point...I agree, the concept is first-rate, but I guess I never really felt connected to the characters? And the Percy Jackson series is a lot of fun, so I hope you enjoy the last book when you get to it. You have a lot of restraint waiting for paperback; I can never quite manage that!

#91 alcottacre - I think I actually came across Wizard of the Crow on your thread, so thank you for pointing me towards a great book! As for The White Darkness it is definitely interesting, and gets bonus points for a couple of survival tips on what to do if you are stuck in the Antarctic. I have a bit of an interest in stories that take place in cold extremes; I think I've actually been taking down some titles from your thread for that as well. When people say this group exponentially expands your TBR list, they really aren't kidding!

#92: When people say this group exponentially expands your TBR list, they really aren't kidding!

Most decidedly not!

65 is Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman. This was a very interesting YA fantasy book. Eon is really Eona, a crippled girl who has disguised herself as a boy so she can attempt to become the apprentice dragoneye who shares their life force with one of the 12 dragons (one for each sign of the Chinese Zodiac) and thus controls the dragon's power. The fantasy world, inspired by a hodgepodge of cultures with an emphasis on the Far East, is an interesting one, and once it gets going the plot is nerve-wracking. I was very worried that Eon would do something stupid, or go too far. Also, the book had a main character who was transsexual, which I don't believe I've seen in YA fiction before, who in addition to be an compelling character in her own right served as an interesting counterpoint to Eon's disguise. The book was very good overall, but I will say that the characterization of the 'master' who trained Eon and set her disguise in place was troubling. Eon feels a lot of affection and respect for him, and it seems the reader is supposed to feel the same way, but his actions just don't merit it; he beats Eon, he's cruel (imo), and although he has some good points he just doesn't deserve the devotion that the reader is invited to feel. However, aside from that the book was very interesting and I am eagerly looking forward to the sequel. Oh, and before I forget, I was also surprised to see that the book is actually included in the fantasy/scifi section of Bookmarks magazine, a magazine that compiles book reviews among other things, even though Bookmarks doesn't usually review YA books. I can't help but wonder if that signifies something about the book, Bookmarks, or nothing at all.

Book 66 is Y the Last Man: Cycles, the next in the Y the Last Man series. I didn't like this one as well as the first one, in part because one of the tropes (for lack of a better word) that I absolutely hate is when the hero says he is utterly devoted to one girl, is on a quest to find her, etc, etc, and then winds up becoming romantically involved with someone else a week after he vows his undying love (insisting that he *really* loves The Girl all the time). I mean, unless the 'hero' is a hormonal teenager who changes his mind constantly, it's just silly.

Book 67 is Newes From the Dead by Mary Hooper, a YA historical fiction novel based on a true story. Anne Green was a servant in the house of the nobility in the 1600s who was hanged, and whose body was given over to some doctors and medical students who wanted to perform a dissection. Just as they start, however, they discover that Anne is showing some signs of life. The story is split between the POV of one of the medical students, and of Anne herself, lying supposedly dead but conscious and remembering what happened to lead up to her execution. Anne's sections were a little creepy, but made her very sympathetic. The doctor's sections included interesting tidbits about dissections back in the 1600s, although only one of the group of medical students/doctors had a memorable character. It was interesting, but I don't know if the book will stay with me for very long.

Book 68 is Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce, the newest in the Beka Cooper series, which follows a woman police officer in the earlier days of the fantasy world of Tortall, where a number of Pierce's books take place. I will admit, I didn't approach Bloodhound with very high expectations since I hadn't really enjoyed the first Beka Cooper book that much. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The mystery of counterfeiters was more interesting to me than the mystery in the first book, and I was pleased to see Beka making real and consequential mistakes (Pierce sometimes makes her heroines a little too good at everything). I didn't mind that Beka left her city early on to go undercover elsewhere since I had never grown attached to the secondary characters of Book 1, especially since I found the new characters she encountered to be a lot more interesting. One of the bonuses of Pierce writing an early story of Tortall is that the reader can see the early development of the sexist philosophy that plagues her characters later on.

Book 69 is Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, a memoir of the author's experiences as a liberal Catholic (and for a certain period of time a priest) through some interesting times, including Vatican II, the Vietnam War, and the priest sex abuse scandal. I felt that Carroll's writing was a little inaccessible, especially in the beginning, since he had a tendency to use a lot of jargon. Parts that particularly interested me were his analysis of potential anti-Semitism in the Gospels, and the role of women in the Church. Other parts, like a lengthy discussion of What Original Sin Means To Him didn't quite hold my interest. Still, overall it was a fairly interesting book.

Book 70 is Y the Last Man: One Small Step, another of the comics. This one was fairly interesting, but the bonus section in the back about a theatre troupe putting on a show to challenge the audience and address the death of all the men was laughably bad. It reminded me of something the Deep, Artistic Kid would make up in high school. However, the little snippets of how the world is adapting and reacting to the death of the men continue to be interesting.

Book 71 is Animal's People by Indra Sinha, the story of a boy named Animal who was damaged in an accident at a plant run by an American company (or the Kampani as they refer to it) that has left his back twisted so that he must walk on all fours. The town has been trying to sue the Kampani for the deaths the accident caused and the continued suffering and sickness caused by the poison that contaminated their environment during the accident. However, the Kampani insists that the Indian courts do not have jurisdiction over an American corporation, so the attempt is seen as hopeless. Animal is friends with some of the leaders of the movement to hold the Kampani legally accountable, so he is able to tell talk about them as well as their suspicious reaction to an American doctor who shows up in the town, intending to treat the victims. The story is an interesting one in concept, but the book didn't really grab me. Also, the narrator was constantly crude, I suppose in an attempt to live down to his name, and I guess I must be quite prudish because I often found myself rolling my eyes and skimming through his rants about his desire to have sex with just about every woman who crosses his path.

At any rate, I had a fairly productive reading week, the result of the break between finals and bar prep. And happy mother's day to all the LTers who are moms!

#94 Wow, you have had a productive week of reading. You're going to surpass your goal of 100 books for the year at this rate. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn looks interesting. I've never read anything by Tamora Pierce but I need to as so many here on LT recommend her, but I'm not sure what book to start with.

I am adding a couple of the books from your last week's reading to the Continent. Thanks for the recommendations!

Thanks Lorie, I've enjoyed my reading this year and I hope I do surpass my goal! As for Tamora Pierce, she's one of my favorites from back when I was a kid. She's got two main types of books, the Tortall books set in a feudal-esque fantasy world, and the Circle of Magic books, about apprentice mage-types learning to control their powers. I'm more familiar with the Tortall ones, and usually I'd recommend reading the Alanna books first (begins with Alanna: The First Adventure) because they were the first ones written, but as much as I love them I must admit that they are maybe on the weaker side as far as Pierce's perennial problem of making her heroines too amazing. If you ask me, the best book series is The Protector of the Small (or the Kel books), beginning with First Test, about the first girl to openly try and become a knight (in the Alanna books, Alanna disguises herself as a boy to gain a knighthood). You can understand the Kel books perfectly well without having read the Alanna series, but if you go back and read the Alanna books after the Kel books you will have some of the plots spoiled because several characters from the Alanna books (and the Daine books as well) appear in Protector of the Small. If you like animals, you might also consider starting with the Daine series, beginning with Wild Magic, about a girl who speaks to animals, with the same caveat about spoiling plots in the Alanna books. Whew, I hope that wasn't too long and confusing!

#96 Alcottacre - your welcome! Thanks for dropping by :-)

#97 Well, it looks like I need to start with the Alanna books and then read EVERYTHING else. I can do that. :o) They all sound good! I'm excited about starting a new series, and young adult books are almost always extremely absorbing. You sure add a lot to my TBR pile! Thanks!

Book 72 is What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. This was a YA historical fiction book set in the US after WWII. The protagonist is a girl named Evie whose stepfather has just returned from the war. When the family goes to spend some time in Florida, Evie comes into the maturity that is brought about by realizing that the people who love you might not be as wonderful as you had once thought. One of the things I really loved in this book was the atmosphere. Blundell did a great job of making Evie's voice evoke the time when the book was set, from slang to thought process, and I was very impressed.

Book 73 is Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers, another YA book, this time contemporary, from the point of view of Parker, a very troubled teenager. One of the big mysteries of the book is what prompted Parker to derail so completely, going from a popular honors student to a suicidal mess in danger of not graduating. I was actually surprised at the 'answer'; although I had a basic idea of what had happened, the particulars shocked me somewhat. It was also interesting, if depressing, to see the way that she manipulates the people around her, and how those people can't seem to just stay away from her no matter how many times she snaps at them.

Book 74 is Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea - finally, an adult novel! The protagonists of this novel live in a small Mexican town where all the able-bodied men have left to find work in the US, leaving the town lonely and vulnerable to thugs from drug cartels. Nayeli, who has not heard from her father since he sent her a postcard from a small Illinois town years ago, decides to strike out North with her friends in search of some men to bring back (especially her father), a la The Magnificent Seven. The book did a good job of mixing poignancy and humor, and I also liked the sense that bringing back these men isn't really about protecting the town from the thugs, it's about bringing a full community back together. The author used an interesting mix of English and Spanish in the dialogue that I thought was neat, but I speak a (very) little Spanish, and usually got an idea of what they are saying; people who don't speak any Spanish might get a little bit frustrated.

Book 75 is The the Last Man: Safeword. Man, it seems like the farther I get in the series the less I like it; this time, a good portion of the comic was devoted to a gratuitous and stupid (imo) scenario where Yorick is taken captive by a dominatrix who ties him up, whips him, and demands that he tell her about his earliest sexual experiences. I basically got the feeling that someone wanted to draw a dominatrix, and I had to sit through it until the story could get back on track. What a waste of time. I still want to see how all this is resolved, so I'll keep up with the series, but this book really tried my patience.

Book 76 is A Fine Brush on Ivory by Richard Jenkyns, a book exploring the themes of Jane Austen's work (mainly Emma, Mansfield Park, and Sense & Sensibility). I've been reading about this on LT quite a bit, and told myself I wouldn't read it til I'd read Emma; now that that's done, I checked it out from the library. Since Emma and Mansfield Park are probably my least favorite of the Austen canon, I appreciated the new perspective. The book had some interesting insights, and was a fun one to read.

Book 77 is English by Wang Gung, about a boy's relationship with his English teacher in a small town in Western China during the Cultural Revolution (I'm sorry, I can't seem to find the right book in the touchstone list!). I can't say I really recommend this book; it was interesting, but I don't know as I actually enjoyed it. It reminded me of a couple of different books I'd read; the homoerotic friendship between the narrator, Love, and his teacher (whose name has unfortunately been translated as Second Prize Wang; unless the joke was intended, the translator really missed the mark, imo) reminded me a little bit of Kokoro. I also saw evidence of the everyday brutality and lack of sensitivity that the North Korean memoir Aquariums of Pyongyang said that Communism breeds. On the whole, I think I had difficult with the book because I think the reader was meant to sympathize with the teacher - the plight of an intellectual during the Cultural Revolution, etc etc - but I simply didn't. Still, it might be an interesting book for people interested in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Book 78 was Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It's such a high school staple, I've been feeling a little embarrassed that I never read it. Although it was a bit tough for me to get in the right frame of mind for the dialogue, which is written to recreate the sound of the speech instead (for instance, 'Ah' instead of 'I'). However, it was an interesting book, and I can see why it such a beloved classic for so many people.

Book 79 is barely a book; Xenia: A Hoard of Lost Words, Eighteenth-Century Street Lingo, and A Few Completely Confabulated Terms Collected and Exemplified by Coleman Barks. It's basically what it sounds like; a short little lexicon of interesting and lesser-known words.

And lastly, I'm going to have to change my profile because I am officially no longer a procrastinating law student; I'm now a procrastinating JD. :-)

Congratulations! My son's girlfriend just graduated as well.

Edited to add: Congratulations, too, on meeting/surpassing your 75-Book challenge. Combined with law school? Amazing!

Congratulations on passing 75 books and especially on graduating!

Congratulations on reaching 75 books!!

Congrats on the graduation and on reaching 75 books!

My newspaper had a long review of Into the Beautiful North yesterday, and I thought it sounded like the most intriguing book! You can see that review at http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/17/lz1v17women181348-searching-f...

Congrats! You made it!

Congratulations on graduating and reading 79 books so far this year! Good job!

I read and enjoyed A Fine Brush on Ivory for the very same reasons you stated. I've never read Their Eyes Were Watching God but plan to sometime. I'm reluctant for some reason and need to get over it!

Thank you to everyone for all the congratulations! LTers are so nice :-) Oh, and also, thanks ronincats for the link to the review of Into the Beautiful North; it was really interesting.

here to add my belated congratulations. I will echo bonniebooks and say that 79 books AND law school is truly impressive - good for you!

Thanks for the belated congratulations, girlunderglass! And I hope you'll forgive my belated thanks; this week has been pretty busy, but I appreciate your well wishes :-)

Book 80 is Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour. The main plot is a romance between Sara and Dara, two young people who cannot meet due to Iran's rules about the mingling of sexes, and who communicate by writing a code into library books that they borrow. However, that plot is really just a vehicle for the narrator/author to talk about the difficulties of living, and more to the point writing, in a society as authoritarian and restricted as Iran. The author uses an interesting device to illustrate this; the story that would pass muster with the censors is told in ordinary font, with words that the censor would eliminate crossed out, while the sections of the book that the author knows the censor would never approve of are told in bold. Because the book was more the narrator reflecting on authoritarian society and censorship than plot, it was rather slow going and it took me awhile to get through. Still, it was an interesting concept, and I have been meaning to read more books in translation.

Book 81 is Y The Last Man: The Ring of Truth. I think the series is improving as they are getting back to the main plot - what caused the men to die, how to fix it, etc.

Book 82 is Silver Phoneix by Cindy Pon. I really wanted to like this one; it's a YA fantasy set in a world inspired by ancient China, and follows Ai Ling, a young woman who strikes out alone to find and rescue her father. The world was interesting, the plot was fast-paced, but I just couldn't get into it. There were several points where I wanted to abandon the book. Still, others have really enjoyed it, so if you are thinking about reading it I'd suggest looking at another opinion than mine.

Book 83 is The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough. I read about this one on another LTers thread (I can never remember what I read where; but if you mentioned it in yours, feel free to assume I got the idea from you!), which warned that it could probably be considered blaspheme from a P&P-lovers standpoint, but was entertaining nonetheless. I think I agree. Mr Darcy is fairly villainous, and Lizzy is described as 'mousy' and holding her tongue to keep the peace, which struck me as not at all like the Lizzy I know. But I went into the book expecting the huge changes in the characters I love, and I enjoyed it as a fluffy, entertaining book. Probably what I found more problematic for my enjoyment was that Mary Bennet had turned into a beauty to rival Elizabeth at 38 (with violet eyes no less!), attracting men without even trying. Still, I flew through the book and found it immensely entertaining (as did my friends when I summarized it for them).

Book 84 is Y The Las Man: Girl on Girl, this time including pirates and some explanation of what is happening in Australia. There are still some fairly gratuitous scenes (one character is a woman who, apparently, cannot find a bikini top big enough for her), but I appreciated that we got some more descriptions of how the world is coping with its new male-less state, which is my favorite part of the series anyway.

Hi legxleg--your thoughts about The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett match my own. The blossoming of Mary was quite the surprise! I was entertained by the book, but it's not at all like P&P! I just got a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I don't expect much from it either, except to be entertained.

I agree, I think that's the way to approach these sorts of books; fun, shallow entertainment. After all, no one is going to really match P&P, so we might as well all enjoy the crazy published fanfic.

A very good fantasy set in ancient China is Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. The book is terrific and I highly recommend it!

Thanks for the recommendation, alcottacre! I'm going to put it on The List right now.

I love that book, Stasia (message 112). The two sequels are not quite as exquisite as that one, but quite enjoyable. I always hated that he wasn't able to finish the series as he once planned.

#114: I agree, Roni - it is too bad that Hughart could not complete the series.

#113: I hope you enjoy it!

Book 85 is Lost Boy by Brent W Jeffs with Maia Szalavitz, a memoir by a boy who left the FLDS (polygamous Mormon fundamentalists) sect. Brent Jeffs was a relative of Warren Jeffs, and considered 'royalty' within the FLDS, but was still thrown out when Warren Jeffs became the 'Prophet'. This was the first book I'd read about the FLDS from a man's perspective, and he explicitly debunked the notion that men in the FLDS living with a 'harem' have a good deal. The most troubling portion of the book was Brent Jeffs coming to terms with being sexually abused by Warren Jeffs at a young age. This was a difficult book to read, and I have to admit when he talked about the first time Warren Jeffs raped him, I had to put the book down for a little bit. It's just a horrible thing to read about. It was a moving book, however, and a perspective on the FLDS that I hadn't read before.

Book 86 was A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson, a light and funny romance set after the Russian Revolution (I decided to go for something happy with absolutely no child abuse). Anna Grazinsky is a countess in Russia, but when her family flees to England in the wake of the revolution they find themselves penniless. Anna decides that she needs to get work, and as the only work available is that of a servant in a fancy English home, off she goes. Rupert never imagined that he would inherit his family estate, but is determined to obey the wishes of his deceased older brother to try and keep from selling it if at all possible. When he meets and becomes engaged to Muriel, an heiress more than happy to pay off the estate's debts, he thinks all his problems are solved. Of course, when he returns home to meet Anna, the new housemaid, things get more complicated for him. The reader knows from the moment Rupert mentions Muriel's interest in eugenics that she isn't all she's cracked up to be. The book was very funny and sweet; probably my only complaint was that Muriel was painted with too broad of a brush, and they threw some of the (in my opinion) good changes she tried to make (stopping Rupert's old uncle from groping the housemaids, for instance) in with the terrible things she does. Recommended.

Book 87 is Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, another very funny book. John Boot is sent off as a war correspondent to the fictional African Republic of Ishmaelia, in spite of the fact that he has no idea who is even fighting there (and when he asks, he is told 'the Patriots and the Traitors', but no one can tell him which side is which - that, after all, is a question of Policy). He bumbles around humorously, meeting with a cast of war reporters who basically make everything up (another favorite anecdote was about an ace correspondent who accidently slept through his stop on the train and went to the wrong country, but did not let the fact that there was no war keep him from his dramatic dispatches. Soon enough, his reporting was so convincing that a war started after all). Another hilarious book from Evelyn Waugh.

#117: I am adding A Countess Below Stairs to the Continent - I have read a couple of Ibbotson's books in the past year and enjoyed them and this one sounds good, too.

Scoop is already on the Continent. Have you read Waugh's The Loved One? It pokes fun at the funeral home industry and is funny as well. You might give it a try if you've not already read it.

I haven't read The Loved One, but it sounds interesting. I'll put it on the list. Thanks for the recommendation!

As for A Countess Below Stairs, it was a gift from a friend of mine who loves Ibbotson. She'd been telling me to read it for years and I'm glad I finally did! I hope you enjoy it too.

Book 88 is Johnny One-Eye by Jerome Charyn, a historical fiction novel set in the Revolutionary War, starring a one-eyed double (triple?) agent who was raised in a whore house and educated at an elite college. The novel has a very distinct voice, as does Johnny, which was enjoyable. Johnny has significant contact with George Washington and Benedict Arnold, and it is interesting to see the characters from his point of view (Washington loves to play cards to the point that the British organize a Robin Hood-esque competition to see who is the best at it hoping to draw him out, Benedict Arnold has Johnny write his love letters for him). It was an interesting book, although I must admit my mind wandered for reasons I really can't explain; I have no serious problems with the book, but I can't say I really enjoyed it either.

Book 89 is Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, a historical fiction book about Ann Boleyn that I can say I really enjoyed. I felt that Ann was a very human character, and a believable mix between ambitious/vengeful and loving or swept up in circumstances she can't really control. I tend to dislike the Ann Boleyn books that portray her as an utter victim (the king says he loves me! And when I refuse him, he says I am just being coy! And now I am to be queen? Oh my, how confusing!), but of course portraying her as completely heartless snake, while at least more interesting, isn't all that much better as far as realistic characterization. I think Barnes walked the line of Ann's motivations very well, and I so enjoyed it that I've ordered another one of her books from the library (My Lady of Cleves).

Book 90 is False Colors by Alex Beecroft, a romance following two sailors set in, according to the blurb on the back, the Georgian Age of Sale. It was a fun book and a quick read, although I must say that I wish I'd come up with some bingo card of romance tropes or cliches because it seemed like the author was trying to hit as many as possible; I lost count of the number of times one of the pair was enslaved or grievously injured for the other to nurse back to health. But still, it was light and entertaining.

Book 91 is The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer, a lovely YA book I'm afraid I somehow missed when I was an actual young adult. The book is set in a future Zimbabwe where there are genetically engineered monkeys that talk, robot Dobermans, and gangs of people who mine landfills for plastic.
The sheltered children of the powerful General Matsika sneak off so that they can earn the exploration Scout badge, and (just as their father had warned them when he forbid them to go out into the city) are kidnapped. In their adventures the children are held captive in a number of fascinating places, and I absolutely loved learning about the different aspects of this world and seeing how the children would escape. The downside for me, actually, is the portion of the book following the titular characters; General Matsika hires some private investigators called the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm after their unique characteristics (the Ear can hear extraordinarily well, just as the Eye can see, and the Arm has a mix of powers that I think I'd better not spoil). I actually found them a little boring; after I'd read a very interesting chapter about the children using their own wits to escape a bad situation, I got annoyed at watching the PIs show up too late again, and again, and again. I just want to follow the children! Still, it was a wonderful book that I highly recommend.

#20: I have several of Nancy Farmer's books on Planet TBR, but not that one, so I will give it a shot. Johnny One Eye looks good as well, so I will seek that one out, too. Thanks for the recommendations.

I read The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm to my son and loved it!

Alcottacre, I absolutely recommend giving The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm a shot. Johnny One Eye is interested as well, and the review I read in the NY Times is extremely positive.

bonniebooks, I'm glad your son loved The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm so much! A friend of mine gave it to me since she loved it so much when she was a kid, and I'm so glad she did :-)

Just to mention that The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm was the first of Farmer's 3 Newbery Honor books.

P.S. I meant to look for Lost Boy at the bookstore today, but got distracted by The Help (fantastic so far, btw). I've got so many books on my Wish List that if I don't have it with me, I can't remember any titles. Thanks for the review and reminding me again I want to read this.

I'm another fan of Nancy Farmer, I read The Ear, the Eye and the Arm last year after repeatedly seeing it on lots of recommended reading lists. I've just finished listening to her The Land of Silver Apples which is a great epic fantasy for children and sequel to The Sea of Trolls.

Wow, Nancy Farm certainly has LT fans! Judging by The Ear, the Eye and the Arm I can see why; I'll have to keep an eye out for the others mentioned. And I'm very sorry I didn't respond to everyone's comments earlier; I really appreciate them.

This week, book 92 was The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith, the sequel to Child 44, which I enjoyed last year. The Secret Speech was just as engaging. The fall out of Kruschev's 'secret speech' denouncing Stalinism (which I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even know about before I read this) triggers a (now officially condoned) violent backlash against people who had been enforcers under Stalin's regime, including Leo, who has to deal with individuals he betrayed as dissidents early in his career. With the added bonus of crime lords, gulags, and a Hungarian revolution, The Secret Speech had me all but glued to the page. However, a big problem for me was that I didn't remember everything from Child 44, especially the deaths of two people that feature extremely heavily in the emotional motives of main characters in The Secret Speech. I think I need to start summarizing endings of series-books for myself; I can't believe my memory has gotten so bad, even for books that I enjoyed!

Book 93 was Y the Last man: Paper Dolls, yet another in the comic book series. Honestly, I kind of feel like I'm reading these to get to the end just so I can say that I finished it, even though they aren't really impressing me any more - 7 down, 3 to go, seems silly to stop now when reading a comic takes so little time.

Book 94 was My Lady of Cleves by Margeret Campbell Barnes, the author of Brief Gaudy Hour, this time about Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife, referred to by Henry rather infamously as 'the Flanders mare'. The marriage is, of course, a bad one, with Henry's eye straying almost immediately to a young lady-in-waiting, Katherine Howard, who becomes his fifth wife. Anne is portrayed as a solid, sensible woman who has the good sense to make a divorce easy for Henry, thus avoiding some of the awful fates of his other wives. I particularly liked the relationship between Anne and Hans Holbein, the artist that painting the portrait of Anne that made Henry decide to marry her in the first place. Another good book by Margaret Campbell Barnes, it's too bad her books are so hard to find; I had to special order both of them from other library systems.

Book 95 is actually an audiobook of Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden, a YA book about teenagers in Australia who go camping in a secluded area, and discover that their home has been invaded. It was a good car-book; fast-paced, not too hard to follow, and a good reader. However, I think the author took it a bit too serious, and was prone to boring, over-long philosophizing (what is evil? I think people create evil. Animals aren't evil; animals don't invade each others countries and blah blah) that is really just not as enlightening and he seems to think it is; I was tempted to fast forward. Also, it bothered me that the *whole book* the kids never found out who had invaded them, or even made guesses! This is the first in a series, and I might read the rest of it, but it looks like it's 7 books long and it's not on the top of my TBR list.

Book 96 is Feed by MT Anderson, a book that has been on my TBR list for awhile. I was truly impressed; the narrator is Titus, a teenaged boy living in a scifi dystopia where everyone has a 'feed' in their head, a machine attached to their brains that seems to give them instant and continuous internet access. It took me a little while to get used to the slang and style, but once I did I was hooked. The book struck me as one that raised a lot of questions and I wish I'd read when I was a kid in school; I would have had a lot more fun doing homework about it than The Hatchet (my middle school nemesis). Actually, considering the amount of profanity in the book, it's probably meant more for high schoolers; still, a very interesting book to read. I can see why it gets so much praise.

Book 97 is The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, a YA fantasy book about brothers facing down magicians and demons. It was a fun, quick read, with some pretty funny dialogue. I actually think part of the reason I enjoyed it was because it reminded me so heavily of a TV show I like. That said, while I'm pretty sure I'll read the sequel when it comes out, it's a good thing I wrote up a little journal entry for myself of what happened in the end because I don't think I'll remember it by next year.

Last month I heard MT Anderson read the first chapter of Feed to a high school audience - a real treat. I read it last year and agree that it raises a lot of questions - it was definitely a hit with the audience. I'm almost halfway through The Secret Speech and enjoying it so far.

I am really looking forward to receiving The Secret Speech since all the reviews I have seen have been good, and of course, I loved Child 44.

I am adding the Barnes book to Planet TBR. The Marsden book is already there and I own Feed but have not yet read it.

How lucky, avatiakh! I'm jealous :-) I'm glad you're enjoying The Secret Speech as well.

The Secret Speech is definitely enjoyable, alcottacre, and I hope you like it as much as I did. I think I might have been a little hard on the Marsden book because the little author bio they read at the very end (this recording included everything, even the dedication) said something along the lines of 'John Marsden is arguably the most well-known writer for young adults in the world' and I just had to guffaw. The authors probably don't even write those bios, but I can't help having a bad image of him as a pretentious jerk. I'm sure I'm being very unfair.

If he is arguably the most well-known writer for young adults in the world, we can just argue the other way :)

Book 98 is The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose, which I picked up because I kept seeing it pop up on the radio and elsewhere, and figured I ought to find out what the fuss was. Roose is an Oberlin-raised Brown-educated Quaker who decides, instead of going to another country for a semester abroad, to enroll in Liberty University, a fundamentalist stronghold run by Jerry Falwell. The book was actually more readable and fun than I thought it would be; Roose's attempts to evangelize during spring break made me laugh. There were serious parts as well, as Roose worked to wrap his mind around the aspects of life at Liberty that he enjoyed (some of the students became close friends, he came to enjoy prayer times) as well as the troubling parts (rampant homophobia, including a conversation where one of his roommates talked about bashing in the heads of gay people, as well as issues faced by a friend who was a black student). Overall, I thought it was an interesting window into a place I know nothing about.

Book 99 is The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. I had read beforehand that the book didn't really squarely fit into any genre, and I think I'm on board with that assessment. Becky is a Mormon housewife from Utah who writes screenplays for a hobby. She miraculously winds up selling one of them (without an agent even), and in the process of signing a contract runs into Felix, her movie star crush. Next thing Becky knows, she and Felix are close friends, making up new words to describe the intimacy of their relationship, and butting up against the 'can a woman really be just close friends with a (straight) man?' issue. The book was entertaining, but I didn't love it the way I did Austenland. I had a little trouble reconciling the mix of realistic life and the fantastical, wish-fulfillment parts of the book (I mean, who doesn't dream of hanging out with a hot movie star and selling screen plays on their first try?). Still, an interesting book; I'd say get it from the library rather than buy it.

Book 100 is Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, which I've had on my shelf forever but finally picked up to read because there was a group read going on at LT. It was all right, but I've got to admit, I wasn't blown away. There were definitely some parts that blindsided me (which is good), and I thought the aspect of the book concerning the tensions surrounding Jews in the middle ages was interesting, but I wasn't wild about the ultimate disposition of the heroine (sorry to be so painfully vague, I'm just trying to avoid spoilers!). The bad guy was horrifying though, points for that I suppose.

Book 101 is Y the Last Man: Kimono Dragons, another in the Y The Last Man comic series. This volume is set primarily in Japan, and I'm sorry to be such a bore, but at one point the main characters are watching a Noh play, and the inner-Japanese major in me got pretty annoyed. I mean, come on, even now Noh is performed *entirely* by men, and it's an art that takes a lifetime to perfect. If all the men suddenly dropped dead, even if some women did decide to try and dust off the masks and carry on, there wouldn't be anyone with the slightest bit of training to teach them! OK, rant over. :-)

Well, you just cruised past 100 there, but I noticed! :-) Thanks for the heads-up on book 99--it made me laugh! I'll have to try Austenland first. And it's not "boring" to be honest in your reviews.

Congratulations on making it to 100!

Wow, 101 books so far this year. Good job!

Thank you for the congratulations! And bonniebooks (#133), The Actor and the Housewife is not boring, and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't love it as much as Austenland, a very fun book about a woman with a Mr. Darcy obsession who is sent on a trip to an Austen-themed resort (for lack of a better word; everyone dresses up regency and is romanced by various men) that I highly recommend.

Book 102 is Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada. I've been on the library wait-list for this one so long I forgot I'd even ordered it, but it was worth the wait. The book follows the lives of a few Germans during WWII who try and resist the Nazi regime in whatever little ways they can. It concentrates on the Quangles, a married couple who begin writing subversive postcards and dropping them around Berlin in the hopes of causing further dissent. The afterward describes the book as celebrating the banality of good as opposed to the often-condemned banality of evil, and I think it's a fairly apt description. The subversive activity of these characters isn't all that likely to bring down the regime, but the characters take immense risks anyway simply because it's what they feel they need to do to be able to look themselves in the mirror. I highly recommend the book.

Book 103 is A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. This one has a pretty strong following if you look at its page, but I'm afraid I just don't get it. It begins with a woman named Jean Plaget inheriting a great deal of money, and explaining to the lawyer who holds it in trust for her about her difficult experiences in Malaysia during WWII, and her desire to return to Malaysia to try and repay the people who had helped her by digging a well in their village. Through some plot machination I don't want to spoil, she winds up in Australia and seeing if she can't build a life for herself there. I found the beginning of the book where Jean recalls the war to be interesting, but after that I'm afraid I found it a little bit dull. Also, the book definitely shows its age through its Anglo-bias. There's a lot of nonsense about the 'inscrutable Japanese mind', and at one point a Malaysian person Jean is talking to during the war basically wishes that the British will win the war so they can come back and rule Malaysia again (people loved British colonial rule! Didn't you know?). Between that sort of thing and being more or less bored throughout the second half of the book, I'm afraid it really just didn't live up to my expectations.

Luckily book 104 was Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is another one I loved. I'm a fan of Isiguro, and he didn't disappoint with this collection of short stories centering around music or musicians. There was even a story that had me laughing, which is not something I usually associate with Ishiguro. I don't really want to give anything away, so I'll just say that I think it was worth ordering.

Book 105 is The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, another collection of short stories. I was very impressed by Half of the Yellow Sun by the same author, and this was another good one. The stories are a mix of those set in Nigeria, and those about Nigerian immigrants in America, as well as one interesting story about a number of African authors at some sort of pan-African writers' workshop. Another one I can happily recommend.

Book 106 is the next Y The Last Man comic, called Motherland.

Book 107 is The Dead of Night by John Marsden, which is the second book in the Tomorrow, When The War Began series. It's not really as good as the first, and I don't know if I'll continue with the series.

The Thing Around Your Neck sounds really interesting (I love short stories). And I like your review of A Town Called Alice. I haven't read any Nevil Shute besides On The Beach, and have been wondering what to expect.

Also, I second the idea that Nocturnes is really worth ordering!

>137 legxleg:: That's too bad about A Town Like Alice. I enjoyed that book a lot. I agree it's dated, but I can overlook those kinds of prejudices when I go into the story knowing about them...just artifacts of the times.

Have you tried any other Shute? He has several good ones, though perhaps he's just not an author for you.

jfetting, The Thing Around Your Neck was very good. Usually when I read a book of short stories there's always one or two that I finish thinking 'I could've skipped that', and in The Thing Around Your Neck there weren't any that I remembered thinking were skip-able. As for Nevil Shute, the only book I've read is A Town Called Alice, so I wouldn't be able to give you an idea of what to expect on anything else. Was On The Beach any good?

TadAD, I think my approach to older books with less-than-PC parts is that if the book is good, the inherent prejudices bother me less, but if I'm not enjoying the book, the prejudices dominate more in my mind. I think if the book had just been about Jean's experiences in the war, I might have enjoyed it more, but after she got to Australia I began to quickly lose interest, and my mind kept slipping back to the parts of the book betraying the prejudices of the time. I haven't tried any other Shute, so maybe I'm being hasty; if you have any recommendations, I'll put them on The TBR List, although I must admit they probably wouldn't go on the top. But I'm glad that you and so many others like A Town Like Alice, even if it wasn't my cup of tea.

>140 legxleg:: I think On the Beach was very good. I've heard a number of good comments from people in this group on Pied Piper, though I haven't read it. There are some real Shute fans here—I can't remember who off the top of my head...Stasia?...Prop2gether?—anyway, maybe they will post.

I loved On the Beach - it's one of the books I think everyone should read, especially politicians who have their fingers on the trigger.

On the Beach is one of Shute's best, and it's been made into an excellent film (Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire) and a couple of mini-series (I just picked up the Armand Assante version recently). It's a doomsday novel where doom started with a bomb in the Middle East. Sound vaguely familiar? Or possible? It is a very scary story on several levels, and extremely touching as well.

Pied Piper is a WWII novel about a crotchety old man who ends up herding several children through war zones. It, too, has an excellent film version starring Monty Woolley (the original cranky old man!) in the lead.

And finally, there was an great mini-series of A Town Like Alice made in 1981 with Bryan Brown and Helen Morse. It is more PC than the book, but it is extremely graphic about the ordeals of the prisoners. I have not seen the 1956 film with Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, but its ImDB rating is just slightly lower than the mini-series, which is extremely high (over 8 I believe on a 10-point scale). I did read the book after seeing the mini-series and was willing to allow the non-PC views because they were appropriate to the story.

Thank you everyone for the Shute recommendations! I'll put On the Beach and Pied Piper on the List. They do seem interesting, and I really shouldn't dismiss an author based on one book. Thanks again :-)

I'll second the recommendation for The Thing around your neck, I really enjoyed it.

I am one of the Shute fans. For me, On the Beach is hands down, his best, but I am with Tad on A Town Like Alice. I enjoyed it as well. I also liked Pied Piper. I do hope you will give him a second try.

Edited to correct Touchstone

Book 108 is Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro by Brian W Shaffer. Like most lit crit, there were moments where I thought the analysis went a bit too far, but on the whole I felt that it was a good little book (a little over 100 pages) with a chapter dedicated to each of Ishiguro's books as of its publication (it goes through The Unconsoled). I thought the chapter on A Pale View of the Hills was especially helpful since that book has always confused me, and I feel like I do understand it better after reading the chapter in this book dedicated to it.

Book 109 is It's Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower by Michela Wrong, which I read because I felt her book about Eritrea, I Didn't Do It For You, was so good. This one was also interesting, but a bit different as it centered around a particular man who she harbored while he fled from the Kenyan government as opposed to the history of a country in general (although she did work in a lot of Kenyan history, which was v interesting). I will say that one question that kept nagging me was why John Githongo, the whistleblower in the title, didn't write this story himself. He was, she tells us, a journalist in his own right, which means I would think he'd be capable. I thought perhaps he hoped the story would gain more credibility if told by a neutral third party, but as a friend who helped to hide him from the Kenyan authorities who were after him Wrong is hardly disinterested.

Book 110 is The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis (for some reason the touchstone won't work out right), a collection of short stories. I had absolutely no idea how long it was until I picked up the 700 page hardback from the library and gaped. Needless to say, I've been working on it for awhile. I've been a fan of Willis since reading Doomsday Book earlier this year after hearing so much buzz around LT, and she continues to impress. I think my favorite was 'The Soul Selects Her Own Society...', a mock academic paper hypothesizing that Emily Dickinson propelled a Wellsian alien invasion, complete with very funny footnotes. However, there were a lot of good ones, including 'Fire Watch', which is set in the time-travelling future of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog (and Mr Dunworthy makes an appearance!). A ton of fun.

Book 111 is Song Yet Sung by James McBride, a historical fiction set in slave-holding Maryland with a fantastical element - the protagonist is a slave woman who dreams the future. I listened to this one during my commute, and while the story was quite good I was really impressed by the woman who read it. An all around first rate audio production.

Book 112 is Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, another historical fiction, this time about two sisters who immigrate to the US at the beginning of WWII. It's an eye-opening book for people who might not be aware about the US's immigration policies towards people who came from China, and emotionally heartwrenching as well. However, I do feel obliged to include a spoiler that at one point there is a gruesome rape scene that left me highly disturbed and wishing someone had warned me what I was getting into. The book itself is still quite good, and I look forward to the sequel.

Book 113 is The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater, which is, as the title indicates, the events of Pride and Prejudice as told through Mr. Darcy's diary. It took a little while for it to hit its stride, but once it did I was happily engaged in Darcy's point of view. I was also amused by the abridgment and notation by and 'editor'. I didn't like it quite as well as the An Assembly Such as This series, but I will say that one place where The Private Diary of Mr Darcy comes out ahead is that it doesn't retread Darcy and Elizabeth's 'on-screen' interactions; at points in An Assembly Such as This I found myself skimming the scenes that were rehashes of P&P.

#147: Some great recent reads! Have you read McBride's The Color of Water? It is nonfiction and a terrific book.

I have, and I agree it's really great. It's part of why I picked up Song Yet Sung in the first place.

I put Song Yet Sung on Planet TBR. I hope I enjoy it as much as you did.

Book 114 is Bewowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits by Jack Murnighan. The purpose of the book is to portray literature as fun, sexy, or action-packed as opposed to the stuffy books you had to read for school. The author has a serious bone to pick with how literature is taught (namely, he thinks all the fun is leached out in the name of being Serious). I think the idea is a good one, but while I was reading I couldn't get the image of Murnighan's teenaged children (hypothetical teenaged children - the author's note doesn't mention if he has kids) grimacing and thinking 'oh dad *please* stop talking.' I mean, he refers to Ophelia as Hamlet's 'sugar' and says that Menelaus and his 'homeboys' went to get Helen back. While I did severely disagree with Murnighan on his assessment of books I have read (especially Pride & Prejudice), that is to be expected. Less expected is that even though the book insists it's trying to make 'ordinary' people *want* to read literature, it sure killed my desire to do so...a friend of mine has been telling me to try and read The Fairie Queen, but after reading this book's chapter on it I feel confident that I never ever want to! My poor friend is a little frustrated. Anyway, it is an interesting book, and certainly a conversation starter.

Book 115 is the last of the Y The Last Man comic books, Whys and Wherefores. It was an interesting wrap-up to the series, I will say that.

Book 116 is All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis. I liked it considerably more than the other novella of hers that I read, D.A., but not as much as her novels. The aliens have landed, but all they do is sit and glare at everyone. The protagonist is a young woman who is a member of the team sent to communicate with the aliens. Unfortunately the team, a pretty hilarious hodgepodge of scientists, ministers, and who knows what else that each wants to advance his own pet theory, doesn't seem to be making much headway. The novella is a good blend of humor and sweetness.

Book 117 is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I've been meaning to read it for awhile, and it's an Orange book (I can't remember if it was short-list or long-list), so I thought Orange July was a good opportunity to finally read it. It was very good, although I don't think I liked it quite as much as Half of a Yellow Sun. The protagonist is Kambili, a young girl in Nigeria whose father is a well-known Catholic man, highly respected in the community for his piety and charity. However, his domestic life is quite different from his public image. I thought the book was a rather chilling but intriguing portrayal of the results of abuse.

Lastly, Book 118 is When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, another Orange book. A family of Japanese-Americans are interned during WWII. The style of the book is a bit disjointed (purposefully so), and the protagonists are never named; it's always 'the mother' or 'the girl'. It was an unusual book, but interesting.

What a lot of fun books you have been reading! My next YA read is vintage, Mystery of the Green Cat.

I have When the Emperor Was Divine home from the library now. I hope I enjoy it as much as you seemed to.

Thanks for stopping by, jadebird! I've never read Mystery of the Green Cat, but I hope you enjoy it!

I hope you like When the Emperor Was Divine, alcottacre. I've had it on my shelves for awhile now, and I was glad to finally read it!

Hi legxleg , would you recommend Y the Last Man series overall? I have seen many mixed reviews and I am not sure whether I want to start it.

Honestly, I don't think I would. Please take all this with a grain of salt as I'm not a big comic-reader, and someone more used to the style and conventions might have a different opinion. I think the concept is fascinating and it starts out very well, and I'm glad that I finished it out just so I know the ending, but there was a lot of extraneous nonsense in the middle. I think the plot became overly complicated, with so many storylines (I'm still not quite clear on what was going on with original-Beth) and a couple of truly soap-opera-worthy plot contortions. Also, at the risk of sounding like an utter prude, there was a lot of gratuitous nudity that made me hope the librarians didn't open it when putting it on the reserve shelf for me. There was an entire volume that was pretty much an extended bondage scene for what was (imo) a very flimsy 'plot' excuse, and a lot of eye-roll-worthy scenes (for instance, a female ninja type doing some sort of practice routine topless; come on, people, the sports bra exists for a reason). I really enjoyed the first volume because the concept was fascinating, but as the overall concept took a back seat to the plot itself, I enjoyed it less and less. While there are definitely high points, overall I think I could've stopped after the first volume and just read a plot summary or something to find out how it ended.

I'm sorry for such a long answer; I guess I'd say read the first one, but not necessarily the rest.

No thank you, that was great. Unfortunately it did confirm a few a few things but will see if I can borrow the 1st one.

I am not a prude either but I am definitely a bit sensitive over how women are portrayed in comics, so some of nude stuff would just irritate me!

>151 legxleg:: Every time I hear about "Y" I find myself whining in ambivalence. :-)

The problem is that my library doesn't carry it and I'm not sure I want to spend the money on it. Maybe I should go to B&N and sit and try it.

I've variously heard it described as a "teenage boy's wet dream" and "a militant feminist's wet dream". I sincerely doubt it can be both!

Both of those descriptions actually deterred me. While I'm able to understand the "gratuitous nudity" mindset of the former, I usually find those types of things become boring in, oh, say, a page. I'm unable to understand the "no men on the planet would be good" mindset of the latter.

The concept isn't novel--Weston did it, Wyndham sort of did it, and there was a short story by I-Can't-Remember-Who that was also very close.

But then there's all those people who swear it's one of the great graphic novel series.

Aaarggh!

:-D

I suppose it's more accurate to say that the concept was novel to me; I hadn't read it before. At times I could see the 'teenage boy's wet dream' aspect, which is one of the things that had me rolling my eyes, but I just kept trying to tell myself that pretty much all American comics are geared at teenage boys so I should just deal (and of course, I'm sure that comic fans would be able to immediately come up with a dozen exceptions, so I apologize for my sweeping generalization). To be fair, I did get the sense that the author/illustrator/somebody was *trying* to portray strong women, and was on some counts successful. It was just broken up with 'yes, but we're losing the teenage boys! Quick, pointless nudity!'

However, I didn't personally see the 'militant feminist's wet dream' angle. There were some scary militant characters, but they were firmly in the 'bad guy' category, even if there were some bids for sympathy. For me, the most interesting part was seeing how people adapted, and the general feeling I got from the series was less 'who needs men?', and more 'people can adapt to anything if they need to.' However, if there are books/stories/what have you that deal with the concept more successfully, it's probably better to read them! TadAD, you mentioned some names, can you recall titles?

The only one I can think of is one TadAd mentions the John Wyndham novella Consider Her Ways it was odd but interesting. I would recommend it but then I am a fan of his.

I read a few graphic novels and I am not that impressed with the portrayal of women, mostly because whilst they tend to be strong modern women in character the art renders them eye candy. It really stood out in the last comic I picked up, great variety of men and two beautiful women in tight clothes.. Still at least it isn't as bad as the computer games industry! Sorry went of into a rant then. ahem.

>159 legxleg:: legxleg

deal with the concept more successfully

I didn't mean to imply that "Y" did not deal with the concept successfully. If I gave that impression, I'm sorry. I was just whining! ;-) I haven't read them. I probably should just stop waffling and try one so that I can have an opinion rather than just reacting to other people's opinions.

I loved your comment: but we're losing the teenage boys! Quick, pointless nudity!.

Claire mentioned the Wyndham.

For the life of me, I can remember neither title nor author of the short story—I probably read it 30-35 years ago. It was about two or three men who were the only survivors of a plague that killed about half the women and virtually all the men...some weakness in the Y chromosome making them more vulnerable. They were basically treated like favored pets...given all luxuries as long as they performed their nightly tasks of keeping the human race going. At the time I thought it interesting because it posed the question of whether a life of pampered ease was worth virtual slavery.

Now that I think about it, the Susan Weston book was not exactly the same theme...the men weren't all dead, they were just all sterile. I think it was called Children of the Light. There was also a similar short story...again, no recollection of the author or title, just a memory that the one fertile man's wife took the "forsaking all others" part of the marriage vows very seriously, causing a problem.

If the titles are important, a post over on "Name That Book" would probably come up with them in short order.

#160, clfisha - oh, go ahead, rant away. And thank you for letting me know the title of the novella!

#161, TadAD - oh, I didn't mean to come off as critical. I think I was probably just reading my own wish the series had executed the concept better into your statements, and turning them into recommendations for other books that do a better job of it. Thank you for title you remembered; I'm sure that should tide me over for a good long while (especially considering the state of my TBR list), and if I get more curious, I will head over to 'Name That Book'. Thanks!

Only one book this week as the Bar is fairly soon. Book 119 is The Stranger by Max Frei. I'd read about this book somewhere on the internet, a fantasy novel that sold a couple million copies in Russia (where it was originally published), and was eager to see what the fuss was. I'm afraid I still don't understand the fuss; I thought it was pretty mediocre. Max is loser who would rather sleep than be awake when he is suddenly transported to Echo, and quickly becomes Sir Max, a powerful public figure, with interesting friends, a boss who doesn't mind in the least if he comes late to work, and magic powers. As you can imagine, this is a pretty obvious wish-fulfillment novel, in my opinion - the author sharing the protagonist's name doesn't exactly dispel the notion. I don't have a problem with some fun wish-fulfillment, but Max never seems to be in danger. His job involves hunting down dangerous murderers or magicians, but he never does it alone - his powerful mentor watches over him, or if the mentor can't be there, Max can carry a dangerous assassin type in his pocket, so Max's only job will be to draw the bad guy out and then pull the killer out of his pocket to do the dirty work. And then be praised. There is seemingly nothing a bad guy might do that can't be fixed, so I am never worried about Max or his friends.

The characters were funny, and the world was definitely imaginative (for instance, the assassin has the official title of the Master Who Snuffs Out Unnecessary Lives). However, I felt the book lacked overall structure. It was more or less episodic - bad guy introduced, protagonists defeat it, end chapter. I hadn't been overly worried because one of the authors Frei was compared to on the dust jacket was Susannah Clarke, and I remember the feeling of 'this is nice and a little episodic, now what?' when I read her book eventually faded as, towards the end, everything started coming together for a fantastic dramatic climax. I was hoping something similar would happen here, but it just didn't. The last adventure wasn't really any more dramatic or exciting than the first. I suppose if you approach it as a collection of short stories starring the same characters instead of a novel you might be able to enjoy it more.

Good luck with the Bar!

Thank you very much!

Yes, Good luck! My son's girlfriend has been studying hard for it too!

good luck! You'll do great!

Thank you again for the well wishes for the Bar! Bonniebooks, I hope that your son's girlfriend does very well. I have finally taken the exam (I cannot tell you how relieved I am, even if it will be months before I know if I passed), and am horrifically behind on my LT-thread reading, so bear with me while I catch up. :-)

I have been reading more light, fun books since I'm a bit mentally exhausted.

120 is a reread of His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, a lovely alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars with a dragon air force. I know it sounds strange, but the relationship between the dragons and the people who ride them is really wonderfully written, as is the world-building.

121 is Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan, a book about four girls who had been dorm-mates at Smith college, and reunite four years after graduation when one of them gets married. It was a bit too melodramatic at points for me to take it entirely seriously, but I didn't really want a serious book anyway, and it certainly kept my attention.

122 is Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick, which is described as a reading memoir. The author (and a few guest contributors) reminisces about and to a certain extent analyzes favorite books from her young adulthood, which generally sent me into fits of nostalgia (even thinking about Summer of My German Soldier and Jacob Have I Loved still makes me cry). A very fun book.

123 is another reread, The Chessboard Queen by Sharan Newman. Newman's Guinevere trilogy was perhaps my favorite Arthurian-based series when I was younger, and I can't believe it wasn't more popular (the library doesn't even stock the books any more; it's a good thing I loved them so much I bought my own copies!). Guinevere is perhaps a little too much of an ingenue in the earlier parts of the series, but it all comes to a fulfilling conclusion by the end, as far as I'm concerned. The Chessboard Queen is the middle book and tells the story of Lancelot coming to Camelot and Guinevere's being kidnapped by Meleagant (ie, the story told in Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart - I was very pleased to remember The Chessboard Queen when we read the poem in college). The real strength of the series is Newman's fantastical additions to the classic story - Gawain is a particular favorite. He has a mysterious affliction where his strength grows the higher the sun is in the sky, but once the sun sets he falls completely asleep and can't be woken up. Newman adds a new character in Saint Geraldus, a man who is surrounded by mysterious voices that everyone believes to be angel's choirs (Geraldus thinks that angels would probably sing better). Lancelot is a religious ascetic, Arthur struggles with some extremely endearing self-doubt, and honestly, this is one of my childhood favorites, so I'm afraid I can't talk about it without gushing! I'll just stop now and say that even so many years later, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. It's very nice to be able to open a favorite book and feel like you are coming back to an old friend after struggling through a day of exams.

Well, now of course I want to read that Guinevere trilogy, but it isn't avilable anywhere!

I want to read it now, too. Maybe it can be found used on the internet?

What a great lot of books - I plan to eventually read Naomi Novik's books. Shelf Discovery sounds good too, I love these sorts of books. The Sharan Newman books also need investigating.

#169 and 170, Amazon has some pretty reasonably priced used copies of the Guinevere series for sale (one of them is only a penny; of course, they still get you with shipping). My local library system doesn't have copies any more, but some of the other state libraries do, so maybe check your library system as well? If you do manage to track a copy down, I hope you enjoy it. It's so frustrating when older books are hard to find; even when I was a teenager, I had to buy at least one of the trilogy used through the Amazon marketplace.

#171, avatiakh, I was lucky to have a good reading week (or two weeks is more like it). I read all the Naomi Novik books last year and really enjoyed them. Shelf Discovery was a lot of fun, and if you don't want to wait to track down the book you can always look through jezebel.com for the Fine Lines column. Shelf Discovery is based on that column, I think. And of course I am in favor of anyone investigating Sharan Newman's Guinevere books.

found the Guinevere books on half.com, and since I lack all willpower I picked them up. thanks for the rec! I look forward to reading them.

Great, I hope you enjoy them!

I think I might have gone a bit overboard with my reading this week.

Book 124 is Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger. I've been reading a number of reactions to the whole 'whitewashed covers' controversy that happened lately (a YA book starring a dark-skinned girl had a white girl featured on the cover - the author's blog post is here if anyone is curious and hasn't stumbled across it yet: http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/23/aint-that-a-shame/
and http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/08/06/the-new-cover/#comments ), and as a result came across a number of recommendations for YA books starring protagonists of color. I read a couple of those this week, including this book. The protagonist, 'Sammy', is a girl of Indian descent whose mother had a falling out with he own traditional Sikh parents, and as a result Sammy knows next to nothing about her heritage. One day, a man in a turban shows up on her front door calling himself Uncle Sandeep and hoping to reconnect. Sammy decides to learn more about Sikhism, in spite of her mother's misgivings, and also runs across a number of incidents of racism. The book has a good premise, but something felt flat. For instance, when Sammy decides to research Sikhism on the internet, I didn't get a sense of Sammy's reaction to the information; instead it felt like Sammy disappeared in favor of a lesson to the reader. Still, I've seen it highly recommended in a number of other places, so take my indifference with a grain of salt.

Book 125 is Flygirl by Sherri L Smith, a YA historical fiction book about Ida Mae, a light-skinned black girl who wants to join the women's air force in WWII. However, in order to do so, she must pass as white. I thought this book was a wonderful read; Ida Mae was a great character, and enjoyed her friendships with her fellow trainees, her determination to succeed as a pilot, and the complications that come of passing as a white woman, both in her day-to-day life and her relationship with her family. I also loved learning about the WASP, or Women Airforce Service Pilots, program. Although I did feel a bit frustrated at questions that were left unanswered at the end of the book, I still recommend it.

Book 126 is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It follows a teenaged girl who is extremely depressed in the wake of a mysterious trauma at a party the summer before school started. The book was a bit hard to read, just because of the subject matter, but I can see why it is so highly acclaimed.

Book 127 is The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which was my favorite of the week. The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement, and is told from the point of view of three women. Skeeter is a white woman who has returned from college, and wants to be a journalist. Aibileeen is a black woman who is the maid in the home of one of Skeeter's friends, and is regularly horrified by the indifference Skeeter's friend shows towards her own daughter. Minny is also a black woman who works as a maid, but she has difficulty keeping a position because her forthright manner often offends her employers. Skeeter decides that she wants to write a book about the lives of 'the help' in the South, including Aibileen and Minny. I thought the book was fantastic; the characters were enthralling, the plot became extremely suspenseful towards the end, and the depiction of the complicated relationship between white and black people in the South was fascinating to read.

Book 128 was Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played by L. Jon Wertheim. I'm a tennis fan, and was enthralled by the Wimbledon final last year, so I was eager to read this book, which describes that match, as well as Federer and Nadal. The book was about as hyperbolic as the title indicates, and at the beginning I thought it was more than a bit ridiculous (this is an actual quote analyzing Roger Federer's name, page 73 - "Armchair linguists have noted that the name Roger derives from the Germanic words for 'fame' ( hrod ) and 'spear' or 'weapon' ( ger ). 'Feder' means 'feather' in German. The boy, of course, would one day find fame using his spear as a feather." What does that even *mean*?) However, once I got into the book I did enjoy it. It underlined some of the characteristics of Nadal that I really admire, and offered insight into the pro-tennis world. At times I felt it read a little bit like a gossip page ('one onlooker overheard...' 'a certain reporter was told...'), and some of the information was even a bit page-6-worthy (Federer is a high school dropout who doesn't know who Freud is! Nadal 'manscapes'!). However, at its best the book celebrates some fantastic tennis players, and I've passed it on to my mother (also a tennis fan).

Book 129 is White Bread Competition by Jo Ann Yolanda Hernandez, concerning a Latina girl in Texas who wins a tournament to represent her school in the state spelling bee, and becomes the depository of all sorts of hopes and fears. The book branches out to sections for various members of her family, and what the potential spelling bee win represents to them. It was interesting, but ultimately I don't think it will be memorable for me.

Book 130 is Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron, my in-the-car audiobook. It was basically another Holden Caufield-esque teen boy's internal journey; James has been accepted into Brown University, but he doesn't want to go. I alternated between feeling sympathetic towards James and being intensely annoyed by him. I suppose that means that Cameron did a first-rate job of depicting a teenage boy. In all seriousness, I was impressed by the characterization of James; it is better than the other not-quite-Catcher-in-the-Rye books I've read.

Book 131 is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I had been looking forward to this one as I'd heard such good things about it, but it didn't really live up to my expectations. Certain stories made an impression, but as a whole I wasn't blown away.

Book 132 is The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, a YA fantasy book about a girl living in a small town surrounded by 'the forest of hands and teeth', meaning basically a large forest infested by zombies. The post-apocalyptic aspect was interesting to me, but Mary and her romance were rathe over the top in my opinion. I'd recommend it if you really like post-apocalyptic novels or zombie, but not otherwise.

Book 133 is First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins. I know, the title is absolutely atrocious and I never would have picked it up if it weren't mentioned among the recommendations I came across in the 'whitewashing' internet posts. However, it was actually a legitimately entertaining book. Sameera (Sparrow to her friends) is a girl of Pakistani descent who was adopted by a white couple when she was three. Now her father is running for president (on the Republican side, interestingly enough), and she's eager to join him on the campaign trail. However, her father's aids are afraid her 'foreignness' could be a liability for her father, and are quick to create an 'all-American persona' for her and change her name to 'Sammy'. The actual political campaign section was a bit unbelievable (her father's campaign's reaction to finding out that she wants to spend her summer at a small town in Ohio helping her sick grandmother run the family farm is 'no, this is a TERRIBLE idea, you should be shopping at boutiques in LA and acting as much like a tweenybopper as possible'. Yeah, right). However, Sparrow herself is a very endearing character, and I thought the adult campaign managers attempts to articulate 'what young people like' was funny, if unrealistic. I enjoyed the book enough that I've ordered the sequel from the library.

Wow! I've added a ton of your reads to my wishlist--- you're amazing!

What a terrific list of books! Great reading week for you.

I am adding Flygirl to Planet TBR. Several of the others you read are already there.

I'm glad I can help expand your wishlist, allthesedarnbooks! And alcottacre, I'm glad Flygirl has been added to Planet TBR, it was really interesting.

Book 134 is The Snakehad: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe, a nonfiction book that uses the wreck of a ship of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers (the word choice really does seem to depend upon one's point of view) from China to explore the US's asylum policy with regards to China, recent immigration to the US from China in general, and specifically undocumented immigration and its link with various Chinatown gangs. The book was quite interesting and informative.

Book 135 is Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, a historical fiction set in Italy during the Renaissance revolving around the lives of nuns in a convent, especially Serafina, a young woman put into the convent against her will when she falls in love a man her family does not approve of, and Zuana, an older nun who appreciates the convent for the unusual autonomy it grants her, specifically the opportunity to be a sort of doctor. While the book didn't blow me away, it was solid and enjoyable, and I liked the character of Zuana and the peek into the world of the convent.

Book 136 is Kendra by Coe Booth, a YA book about a girl who lives in the projects. Kendra's mother gave birth to her when she was only 14, and proceeded to leave Kendra with her mother (ie Kendra's grandmother) and go on to college and eventually a PhD. While her accomplishments make Kendra's mother remarkable, she is also absent from Kendra's life, and when it becomes clear that even now that her mother has finished her schooling and gotten a job she has no intention of living with Kendra, Kendra begins making some very poor choices, presumably in the hopes of getting her mother's attention. I thought that the relationship between Kendra and her mother was complicated and difficult - in short, a great job by the author - but the book lost major points for me on Kendra's 'romance'.

Book 137 is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, a hold-over from my Orange July pile. I really enjoyed the book; it was by turns funny and serious. Nadezhda's elderly father falls in love with a much younger woman who Nadezhda is convinced is using him to be able to move to the UK, and decides to enlist her estranged sister Vera to try and save their father from his own romantic delusions. First-rate.

Book 138 is Exclusively Chloe by J.A. Yang, a YA book about a young girl of Chinese descent who was adopted by a Hollywood It couple when she was a baby, and now finds herself at sea when her parents get a divorce. I was disappointed; I was hoping for the book to discuss some of the issues that surround these sorts of adoptions (babies as accessories?), but it was basically a generic 'rich girl tries to live as a normal girl and discovers inner riches' type story. Without a particularly memorable protagonist or particularly witty writing, the book generally underwhelmed.

Book 139 is Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie, a graphic novel set in the Ivory Coast in the late 1970s, a boom period of the Ivory Coast's economy. The story follows Aya and her two best friends as they deal with your run-of-the-mill teenage drama (boys, parents, sneaking out past curfew). I thought it was really fun.

Book 140 is First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins, the sequel to First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover (that title *still* makes me cringe) now that Sparrow's father is president. Sparrow continues to be a likable protagonist, and I thought Perkins did a great job of giving Sparrow a romance storyline without having it overwhelm the plot. Again, I thought a few of the real-world details were shaky (the drama at the thought Sparrow would want to go to regular school as opposed to being homeschooled was a bit much, in my opinion), but I'm reading this for the character of Sparrow, not real insight into the White House, so I wasn't too bothered.

Book 141 is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, my first from the 09 Man Booker long list. I thought it was a solid, enjoyable book about a girl who immigrates from Ireland to the US in the 1950s. My one real complaint would be that I felt she was given so much help from a certain priest, and I thought his rationale for doing so was a bit thin. I would definitely recommend it, even if I'm not jumping up and down over it.

#180: I am adding The Snakehead to Planet TBR. It looks very good.

Regarding Brooklyn: I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did Toibin's The Master. I really think Brooklyn suffers in comparison.

I hope you enjoy The Snakehead! I'd never read The Master or anything else by Toibin before, but I enjoyed Brooklyn well enough. I guess that means I have something else to add to my TBR list!

The Snakehead sounds really interesting!

I enjoyed it; I hope you have a chance to read it too (I know that TBR lists can be overwhelming; I pretty much despair when I think of all the different books I want to read)

I only read one book this week, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, but I loved it. Dr Faraday becomes involved with the aristocratic family living in Hundreds Hall, a crumbling mansion that the family cannot afford any more but refuses to give up, and it appears that something might be haunting Hundreds. The book managed to walk the line between fantasy and reality, and was wonderfully creepy. I was lukewarm about Fingersmith, but I wholeheartedly recommend The Little Stranger.

I'm glad to hear that you liked The Little Stranger. I'll be reading it early next month, as it is on the current Booker Prize longlist.

I look forward to your reaction to it, and I hope you like it as much as I did!

Book 143 is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. The protagonist, Quentin, is a nerdy high schooler obsessed with Fillory, a fantasy book series that seems to be a kiddie Chronicles of Narnia. When his Princeton interview does not go according to plan, he winds up taking an exam for admissions to a magical college. What with Fillory and the magic school, the book is compared to Narnia and Harry Potter, and appears to be a conscious reaction to Narnia at the very least (complete with ersatz-Aslan, Pevansies, Wood Between the Worlds). The author pretty clearly intends to write his book as these YA classics 'for grown-ups', and there are certainly more adult elements (they are college students, after all, not children, and so there is more sex, drugs, and violence - well, sex and drugs certainly, I think you could argue about violence). I actually enjoyed some of the more modern thought processes of Quentin - for instance, when he was trying to figure out the magical college's reputation since he didn't want to be stuck with magical community college if he could get into the magical Ivy League. So very much an American high school kid who is aiming for Princeton.

I mention earlier that Fillory struck me as a kiddie-Narnia, even though the author intends it to be a more 'adult' Narnia, because of the plot of one of the Fillory books the protagonist outlines at one point. It goes along the lines of Mr Hotspot the Leopard can't sleep because of a mysterious ticking, the Chatwins (Fillory's Pevansies) discover the ticking, bury the clock deeper, and Mr Hotspots has a party to thank them. I couldn't help but roll my eyes; I'm a huge Narnia dork (which is why I read this book in the first place), and probably the *least* significant thing the children ever did was sail to the very end of the world. There would be nothing as lame as 'helping Mr Hotspots get to sleep', please. And when Quentin and his friends discuss going to Fillory, they talk about how it's this peaceful and wonderful place they don't want to corrupt with weapons, while the Narnia books were pretty violent (I've been slowly re-reading The Last Battle and have lost count of the number of times the Unicorn rives (or threatens to rive) someone through with his horn. When I first read it, it was quite a shock for my little-girl self who had always imagined Unicorns as super-pets with decorative horns and manes for braiding). I mention this because I felt like the portion of the book where the author subverts the fuzzy-wuzzy nature of the Fillory books, obviously intending it to comment on the Narnia books as well, it was a bit of a cheat. However, if you take it on its own and not as a commentary on the Narnia books (which I admit I am probably too possessive of), it's quite interesting.

I suppose the other aspect of the book that is more 'adult' is that it's so pessimistic. A pretty well beloved aspect of both Narnia and the HP books is 'protagonist gets pulled out of boring real life to awesome magical world with purpose, excitement, and loyal band of True Friends'. It's all inherently optimistic. The Magicians seems inherently pessimistic; Quentin's group of friends is not all that great, his life doesn't become wonderful even when everything is going his way, and if he's an inherently miserable person in the real world that won't go away just because of magic.

I feel like I've written much too much, and said almost nothing, probably because I can't make up my mind whether I like the book or not. I'll settle for it was definitely interesting, and if it caused me to have this much of a reaction I suppose it can be counted a successful reading experience.

Book 144 is The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, since I find that my childhood Narnia infatuation comes in waves, and right now I'm in the middle of another one. I listened to a book on tape of it, and it was wonderful. I had forgotten just how funny CS Lewis could be!

I was really glad to read your review of The Magicians since I just got back from the bookstore where I bought a copy. It looks like an interesting read. Hopefully I can get to it soon.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to read The Magicians, given that the premise is right up my alley. I liked your review, although I'm still torn. But probably yes.

Lorie, I'm glad my review was so timely! I look forward to hearing (or reading, I should say) your reaction, whenever you manage to get to it.

Jfetting, I wish my review was more definitively a 'yes, read it' or 'no, do not'. I'd say, as it's up your alley, give it a shot. It wasn't fantastic, but there were not real problems with it. And of course everyone reacts differently to books.

Book 145 is a reread, or more accurately a re-listen - Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I loved it when I read it for class back in college, and a friend recently got to see a performance of it in England and enthused about it to me so much I decided to listen to the recording of it I had squirreled away awhile ago. A fantastic play - if you ever have a chance to see it, do.

146 is The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, another historical fiction, this time set during the War of the Roses. It's not as good as The Other Boleyn Girl, but about par for her other stuff. I didn't know anything about the War of the Roses, so it was an interesting era to read about. Also, Gregory worked in some supernatural elements as well.

147 is The Last Battle by CS Lewis. I know that the Narnia books have their problems as far as race and gender goes, but man if I don't still adore them anyway.

148 is The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim, a really neat historical fiction book about an aristocratic Korean family set during the annexation of Korea by Japan through the end of WWII. I knew a bit about the annexation of Korea from Japanese History classes in college, but since it was Japanese History we learned about it from a Japanese perspective (the reasoning, political and international fallout, etc), and actually hadn't learned much at all about the Korean experience except for 'they didn't like it (duh)'. So I enjoyed the book for the historical aspect, and also felt that the family drama and character of Nanjin were quite compelling. Also, Nanjin's family is quite religious, so there is quite a bit of Christianity that pervades the book. Some people consider that a plus and others a minus (and some don't care), so be aware, although I think it is quite well integrated as part of character.

Book 149 is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the sequel to The Hunger Games. I almost wish I'd never heard of the series until it was finished; I think the wait for the next book will be miserable! I feel like I can't say much about the plot without spoiling, so I'll just say that it was thrilling, and just like with The Hunger Games I flew through it so quickly I was practically inhaling it. Very good.

Book 150 is Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander, the latest of the Lady Emily Ashton mystery series (for all your Victorian lady detective needs). I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. I suppose the start is part of it - the series has never been particularly subtle, but this one started with Emily and her new husband meeting a man on the train who, in the span of their first conversation, shares a tragic and deeply personal story that *no one would ever tell someone they had just met*. It drove me nuts! Also, even though the change of scenery to the twilight of the Ottoman Empire was a good move to add variety, Alexander was walking a pretty fine line between making the setting exciting and new and falling into the trap of sort of fetishizing it, and I'm not really sure how well she succeeded. That said, Emily is still an enjoyable character, and her new internal drama was quite interesting to me (I don't want to give away too much), although I hope Alexander just leaves things as they were when the book ends (I feel fairly confident she will not).

Book 151 is Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X Stork, a YA book about Marcelo, a boy on the high functioning end of the autism scale who describes his condition as being more like Asperger's than anything else but not quite that. Marcelo's father, a high-powered attorney, wants Marcelo to interact with the 'real' world as opposed to the school for children with disabilities (for lack of a better description) Marcelo attends. Marcelo and his father strike a deal - Marcelo (who is 17) works at his father's law firm for the summer, and plays by the rules of the 'real' world, and Marcelo's father will allow him to choose whether to attend public school or his special school (as opposed to simply forcing Marcelo into public school). Marcelo adapting to the rules of the 'real' world was a compelling story, and I enjoyed it until we got near the end, where I felt the plot really fell apart and ceased to make any logical sense. Also, I felt the 'bad guys' were maybe a little too bad, without a single even neutral characteristic.

Book 152 is An Elegy for Easterly by Patina Gappah, a collection of short stories set in or around Zimbabwe. The writing was uniformly very good.

The Calligrapher's Daughter and An Elegy for Easterly look good to me. On to Planet TBR they go. Thanks for the recommendations!

I'm glad I could recommend them to you, and I hope you enjoy them!

Book 153 is The Devil's Company by David Liss, a historical fiction thriller where a man is coerced into infiltrating the East India Company. I enjoyed it quite a lot, even though I didn't realize until the very end that it was the last in a series. Oops? I should really pay more attention. However, it was still enjoyable, so kudos to the author.

Book 154 is A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, about a little girl in Lebanon growing up in the wake of the Israel-Palestine conflict and its effect on Lebanon. I didn't care for it, and I'm having difficulty putting my finger on why; I think that this might have been one of those books that is so concerned with being Important that it loses me entirely. I just didn't particularly care about any of the characters.

Book 155 is Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Jun'ichi Watanabe, a historical fiction about Ginko Ogino, the first (licensed) woman doctor in Japan. It's set during the Meiji era (or 1800s if you want to go by centuries), when Japan had finally officially opened its ports to the West and was beginning to modernize. Ginko is the daughter of a 'good' family, but when she is still a new wife her husband gives her gonorrhea, and the treatment she receives at the hospital is so horrible that she vows to become a doctor herself to make sure that women are treated better. Ginko is an interesting character, determined and ambitious but at the same time somewhat close-minded and very harsh. I did also feel the style of the book was more crammed-with-facts than I usually enjoy in my historical fiction, but it was still a very interesting book.

#195: The other 2 titles thus far in the Benjamin Weaver series are A Conspiracy of Paper and A Spectacle of Corruption, in case you wanted to read them as well. The only reason I know is that I currently have the first one on the way from PBS in an effort to read the entire series.

On book 155, I wonder if the reason it has the 'crammed with facts' aspect is because most Westerners are not all that familiar with Japanese history and/or culture?

Edited to try and fix touchy Touchstones which do not seem to want to be fixed!

Thanks for letting me know the other titles in the Benjamin Weaver, alcottacre! Since I've started at the end, maybe I'll read the whole series backwards...

As for Book 155 (Beyond the Blossoming Fields), it was originally written in Japanese for a Japanese audience, so the intended audience would be familiar with Japanese history and culture. I probably should've mentioned that right off. Actually, I was half-wondering if my reaction to the style was partially a translation problem, and the difficulty of translating tone or voice, the sorts of things that, for me, make historical fiction really come alive (and I apologize for the cliche!). I suppose it might all come down to integration of the historical and fiction, which is something I often have difficulty with . Sometimes I felt the tone was a little dry such that I felt like I was being fed facts, like in a history book, as opposed to reading a story, and that tone was what made me feel it was 'crammed with facts'. I hope that makes my reaction a little clearer (to myself as well as others).

Oh, but if you or anyone else is curious about the book, I'd direct them to this review on a book blog I read, which is what prompted me to look for the book in the first place. The blogger loved it:

http://www.inspringitisthedawn.com/2009/08/beyond-blossoming-fields.html

Beyond the Blossoming Fields sounds worth a shot, in spite of your problems with it. I like historical fiction, and I love medical stories, and I want to read more books in translation... I shall add it to the wishlist!

#197: Thanks for the additional info and the link.

#198, allthesedarnbooks, I hope you do read and enjoy Beyond the Blossoming Fields. Really, it was a very interesting book, and I'd hate for my slight problem to overshadow that.

#199, alcottacre, no problem. The book blog is an interesting one :-)

For anyone who thought they wanted to read Beyond the Blossoming Fields, the blogger I linked above is giving away a copy of it.

http://www.inspringitisthedawn.com/2009/09/bbaw-giveaway-1.html

Book 156 is Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, a YA book set in a boarding school in Australia. I've heard a lot of good things about this book, and I'll agree that it was certainly interesting. However, it was also a bit confusing and difficult to get into - a lot of flashing between the present and the past, with different characters. The protagonist is a girl who attends Jellicoe, which seems to be some sort of boarding school for troubled youth, who is desperate to find her mother. To add to her problems, she has been named the leader of the school in this ongoing (and byzantine) territory war between the school, the townies, and the Cadets (who I guess are students in a military school nearby). It was neat to see how all the fragments of story came together, and I also enjoyed the strange history of Jellicoe and the territory wars, with places named things like The Prayer Tree. However, it's a book where you really have to pay attention to get what's going on.

Book 157 is In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, which I really enjoyed. It's the story of the Mirabel sisters, who opposed the dictator Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Four of them were murdered, and one is left to tell the story (this isn't a spoiler; it's in the first chapter). I thought the book had some wonderful storytelling, and did a good job giving all the sisters different personalities and voices. I definitely recommend it.

Book 158 is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This was a really fascinating book. I do feel that I ought to include a warning that the first five chapters or so discuss rape a lot, and readers who are sensitive about the topic might want to skip those chapters - I don't think the book needs necessarily to be read in order, and it would be a shame for people to be turned off by the first few chapters and miss all the ideas Kristof and WuDunn have to help women in the developing world, and the amazing stories of some quite strong women. Some concepts I found particularly interesting were the returns that could be had by educating women around the world, as well as the authors' pointing out that the left and right are getting so wrapped up in fighting about things like condoms and whether prostitution is inherently oppressive that they miss opportunities to work together and make enormous strides on problems that everyone can agree on - sex trafficking and maternal mortality, for instance. I highly recommend this book, if only so more people can be amused by the range of blurbers on the back (seriously, how many books are recommended by Greg Mortenson, Anne Rice, and Angelina Jolie. It's like a six-degrees-of-blurb-separation gold mine).

In the Time of the Butterflies and Half the Sky sound great! They're both going on the neverending wishlist. :)

I hope you enjoy them! :-)

Ditto what Marcia said!

Well then I'll ditto my wishes that you enjoy the books :-)

Book 159 is Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund, a silly but fun chicklit book about a college student who is one of the first women tapped for that fun old trope, a super secret society that runs the world.

Book 160 is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, a fantastic dystopic novel set in the very near future. Society has fallen into chaos, and gated communities have become walled communities because the world outside the walls is just plain hellish. Lauren Olamina is the oldest daughter of the minister in one of these walled communities, and she knows that their walls aren't going to be able to keep the rest of the world out forever. As she prepares for the inevitable day when she will need to go outside, she begins writing down her thoughts on the world around them, which take shape as the beginnings of a new religion. I don't think I've ever read a bad Octavia Butler book, and this is no exception. I'm reading the sequel now, and it's also first-rate.

Book 161 is The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris, which is a reread of a book I enjoyed when I was younger. It's the second in a series of irreverent and funny YA retellings of Arthurian legend, mainly following Sir Gawain and his squire Terence. This particular book retells the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, and it's a lot of fun.

My computer was a bit slow loading, so I think I'm going to break into a second thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/74396&newpost=1#lastmsg

Hope to see you there!