blythe025's 1010 Challenge - Yay!

Okay, so I still have 33 more books to read for my 999 Challenge. My sense of inner integrity will not allow me to begin reading books for this challenge until I complete that one, but I'm so excited (I've been thinking about this since last January) that I have to at least post my categories.

1. The Living Dead (10/10 Completed)
Mostly zombies, but may also include vampires.

2. Books About Books and Writing (10/10 Completed)
Fairly self-explanatory, though it could include either fiction or nonfiction.

3. Fairy Tales/Folklore (10/10 Completed)
Includes nonfiction criticism, retellings, as well as the original tales themselves.

4. Edwidge Danticat and Haiti (10/10 Completed)
Books written by the fabulous Edwige Danticat (I may reread the two I've got), as well as separate books about Haiti as supplementary material.

5. About Women/Feminism (10/10 Completed)
Works can be either fiction or nonfiction that feature strong women and/or feminist slants.

6. Pop Culture Phenomenon (10/10 Completed)
Mostly nonfiction works discussing pop culture, though fiction books that are heavy in pop culture references will also be included (if you have recommendations for these, I would love to hear).

7. Arm Chair Travels (10/10 Completed)
Travel narratives in fiction or memoirs.

8. From My Bookshelf (10/10 Completed)
I have a tendency to jump at the new and shiny in bookstores and the library, rather than reading the stacks already on my shelves. This is meant to rectify that.

9. From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books (10/10 Completed)
There are actually 200 books, since there is also the publicly voted list (with some overlaps). I'm working off the list from 2009, which is posted on my blog.

10. Miscellany (10/10 Completed)
The catch-all category, which will probably be the first to be filled.

The Living Dead -- DONE!

Completed:
1. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols, by Michael P. Spradlin (****)
2. Walking Dead, by C.E. Murphy (****)
3. The Restless Dead, edited by Deborah Noyes (****)
4. FEED, by Mira Grant (****1/2)
5. The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan (****)
6. Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, by S.G. Browne (****)
7. Chasing the Dragon, by Nicholas Kaufmann (****1/2)
8. The Walking Dead: The Heart's Desire, by Robert Kirkman (*****)
9. The Walking Dead: The Best Defense, by Robert Kirkman (*****)
10. The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life, by Robert Kirkman (*****)

Possible Candidates:
Patient Zero, by Jonathan Maberry
Monster Island, by David Wellington

Books About Books and Writing -- DONE!

Completed:
1. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, by David Hajdu (****1/2)
2. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi (*****)
3. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (*****)
4. Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke (*****)
5. New Directions in Altered Books, by Gabe Cyr (*****)
6. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (****1/2)
7. The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende (****)
8. Talking Back to Poems: A Working Guide for the Aspiring Poet, by Daniel Alderson (***)
9. Forces of Imagination: Writing on Writing, by Barbara Guest (****)
10. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece, edited by Jennifer Crusie (****)

Possible Candidates:
The Book Without Words: A Fable of Medieval Magic, by Avi
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Fairy Tales/Folklore -- DONE!

Completed:
1. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (****1/2)
2. Matchless, by Gregory Maguire (****)
3. Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (****)
4. Transformations, by Anne Sexton (****1/2)
5. Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce (****1/2)
6. Ash, by Malinda Lo (*****)
7. Fables: The Good Prince, by Bill Willingham (*****)
8. Fables: War and Pieces, by Bill Willingham (****1/2)
9. Fables: The Dark Ages, by Bill Willingham (****1/2)
10. The Red Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang (****)

Possible Candidates:
Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George
The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives, by Sheldon Cashdan

Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

Completed:
1. The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat (***1/2)
2. The Farming of Bones, by Danticat (****)
3. Anacaona, Golden Flower (The Royal Diaries), by Danticat (***1/2)
4. Brother, I'm Dying, by Danticat (****1/2)
5. The Company of Heaven: Stories from Haiti, by Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell (***1/2)
6. After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti, by Danticat (****1/2)
7. Behind the Mountains, by Danticat (****)
8. Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabel Allende (****1/2)
9. Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti, by Frances Temple (****)
10. Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Danticat (****1/2)

Possible Candidates
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, by Zora Neale Hurston

About Women/Feminism

Completed:
1. My Little Red Book, edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (*****)
2. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (****1/2)
3. Eating in the Underworld (poetry), by Rachel Zucker (****1/2)
4. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (****1/2)
5. Pride and Predjudice, by Jane Austin (****1/2)
6. The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho (****1/2)
7. Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy (****)
8. Girl, Interupted, by Susanna Kaysen (****1/2)
9. Morning in the Burned House (poetry), by Margaret Atwood (*****)
10. The Penelopeia, by Jane Rawlings (***1/2)

Pop Culture Phenomenon -- DONE!

Completed:
1. Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (****)
2. Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons, by David Dark (***)
3. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, by Chuck Klosterman (****)
4. So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld (****)
5. Feed, by M.T. Anderson (****)
6. Gothic and Lolita Bible (v. 3) (****)
7. Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, by Reinhard Kleist (****1/2)
8. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life Vol 1, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)
9. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)
10. Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)

Possible Candidates:
6398641::Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture, by Damon Brown

Arm Chair Travels -- DONE!

Completed:
1. This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, by Jim Rossignol (***1/2)
2. Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, by Belle Yang (****)
3. French Milk, by Lucy Knisley (****1/2)
4. Half Life, by Roopa Farooki (*****)
5. Cures Include Travel (poetry), by Susan Rich (*****)
6. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, by Lola Shoneyin (***1/2)
7. Essential Do's and Taboos: The Complete Guide to International Business and Leisure Travel, by Roger E. Axtell (****)
8. A Concise History of Germany A Concise History of Germany (Cambridge Concise Histories) , Second Edition, by Mary Fulbrook (****)
9. Top Ten Berlin, by Juergen Scheunemann and Dorling Kindersley (****)
10. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle (****)

Possible Candidates
In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road, by Allan Weisbecker
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria, by Eve Brown-Waite

From My Bookshelf

Completed:
1. Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld (****)
2. Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire (****)
3. The Haunted House (poetry), by Marissa Crawford (*****)
4. Silver Kiss, by Naomi Clark (****1/2)
5. Richard Hittleman's Yoga: 28 Day Exercise Plan, by Richard Hirrleman (*****)
6. The Children of Men, by P.D. James (****)
7. A Local Habitation, by Seanan McGuire (****)
8. The Pleasure Seekers, by Tishani Doshi (*****)
9. Flight of Shadows, by Sigmund Brouwer (***)
10. Damsel under Stress, by Shanna Swendson (****)

Possible Candidates
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.), by Michael Chabon
The Fourth World, by Dennis Danvers
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, by Melissa Bank
Dispossessed, by Ursula k. Le Guin

From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books -- DONE!

Completed:
1. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (****)
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (***)
3. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner (***1/2)
4. A Farewell to Arms (audio book), by Ernest Hemingway (****)
5. Moonheart, by Charles De Lint (*****)
6. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf (****1/2)
7. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway (***)
8. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (****)
9. Under the Volcano (audio book), by Malcolm Lowry (****)
10. Yarrow, by Charles De Lint (****1/2)

Possible Candidates:
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham
At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft

Miscellany -- DONE!

Completed:
1. Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (*****)
2. Paper Towns, by John Green (*****)
3. Kith, by Holly Black (***1/2)
4. A Little White Shadow (poetry), by Mary Rueffle (****)
5. The Ghost Trio (poetry), by Linda Bierds (****1/2)
6. The Mall of Cthulhu, by Seamus Cooper (****)
7. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (*****)
8. The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart, by Mathias Malzieu (****1/2)
9. Post Meridian (poetry), by Mary Rueffle (****)
10. Kind (Good Neighbors), by Holly Black (****)

Possible Candidates
As my mood grabs me.

Hi, love the pictures & categories. Although I will be especially interested in the Edwidge Danticat one as I tried After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel this year and really enjoyed it.

Cool! I have that one on my list to read, too, so I'm glad it's good. :)

This will surely be an interesting thread to follow! Danticat is a completely new name to me, but I'm looking forward to learing more. Some really intriguing titles in your zombie category (a genre of which I'm fairly unfamiliar. I'm putting Boneshaker on my wishlist immediately!), and I'll also be interested in your feminism category.

For pop culture, check out Please kill me by Legs McNeil about the early punk scene. For fiction, I remember Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay as a really good read, if you haven't read that already. Or check out basically anything by Alan Moore - his graphic novels are always oozing with refereces to just about anything high or low. For this category, perhaps the Top ten books could be a fun choice - about police work in a comic style metropolis where EVERYBODY has super powers.

I'm reading A history of reading for this challenge too! Probably in february or so.

Just looked at your profile, and realise you've already have most of what I suggested in your library already. Oh well.

Just out of curiosity, where is that gorgeous library in message 10?

A couple suggestions for your books about books IF you haven't read them already
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Shadow of the Wind by, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Is the bookshelf in message 9 your own? If it is, I would like to compliment it on its tidiness and for the way you do not have rows of books in front of stacks of books. If you would like to keep it that way, I suggest not reading any of the threads here.

Have you read The Professor and the Madman? It's on my challenge and I thought it might fit your category 2.

GingerbreadMan, the oral history of punk looks very interesting and I will definitely put that on my list as a consideration. I hadn't thought of the Alan Moore books as potential for that category, but I will duly note it and consider other similar kinds of works. Oh, and the library in #10 is the Ames Free Library in North Easton, MA. I found the picture in the Wikipedia commons.

susiesharp, thank you for the recs!

RidgewayGirl, I wish I could say the bookshelf was mine, but no. I put that one up as a temporary filler until I took a picture of my own bookshelf, but I haven't got around to it. My bookshelf looks a lot more like what you have described. :)

KAzevedo, I did read the Professor and the Madman. It was a good one. Very interesting to see where a lot of the English language got defined. :)

With a minor in Math, and working in the banking industry, I would think that my math skills would still be sharp, but maybe not.

I see 10 categories. All of them say "0/9" (i.e. 0 of 9 completed).

The progress bar shows 0 of 100. Last time I looked, 10 * 9 is only 90. Am I missing where the other 10 books are coming from?

Oh, ThrillerFan, thank you. The math anomaly you see here can be easily explained: I am a dork.

I was still in 999 Challenge mode with its 9 books in 9 categories and just posted the wrong count. There are supposed to be 10 books read in each category.

My brain. Sometimes it doesn't work so well. :D

#21

LOL...For me, I'll be lucky if I can complete my 3 books in each of the 10 categories. Started November 1st, going through October 31st, and in 45 days, I'm just starting the 4th book. Luckily enough, the one I'm on is only 245 pages long. :-)

1. Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld (****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

In an alternate history, the European powers are separated into Darwinists and Clankers. Darwinists (represented by England, France, and Russia) have developed the ability to genetically engineer creatures to suit any purpose. Clankers (represented by Germany and Austria-Hungary) have developed highly complicated and advanced, steam-powered war machines. When an Austrian diplomat is killed, the world finds itself on the brink of war. Alex, a Clanker, and Dylan, a Darwinist and girl disguised as a boy, soon find themselves wrapped up in the middle of an escalating political conflict.

I really enjoyed this book, which is told from the point of view of two very different young people, both of whom must hide their true identities for very different reasons. My only disappointment with this book was realizing that it is part of a series, which means that I will have to wait for the next book in order to finish reading the story.

Thanks for the review of Leviathan. It went on my TBR list last week and now after your review I'm even more anxious to read it!

>24 VictoriaPL:
You're welcome. I forgot to mention. It also has gorgeous illustrations throughout, which is another plus. :)

Sounds great! Onto my list it goes also!

2. The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat (***1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

"Your father was the hunter," he confesses, "he was not the prey." Thus, the "dew breaker" as he was called confesses to his daughter his past as a prison guard adn torturer in Haiti. The following chapters center about the father, some from the point of view of his family and some of his former victims.

It's not my favorite of Danticat's books. The individual stories that make up each chapter are just a little too disconnected for me. I couldn't always see the connection between the characters, except that they are all tied to Haiti and often the brutality encountered there. However, Danticat draws all the richness the human experience out of her clean and simple lines, and each chapter taken on it's own offers real world characters who experience sorrow, love, regret, and redemption.

* * * *
Currently reading: Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small and There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Which Danticatt is your favourite? I really enjoyed After the Dance and was thinking of trying Krik Krak but my library is very lacking!

Krik? Krak! is definitely my favorite. It was the first book I read of hers and the one that drew me into her writing. Other than The Dew Breaker I have only read Breath Eyes Memory, which is also very good.

I'm looking forward to reading After the Dance and to reading her other works to see if I have a new favorite. I'm also thinking of rereading Krik? Krak!, because it was that good.

3. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols, by Michael P. Spradlin (****)
Category: The Living Dead

Just as the title says, this is a collection of carols for the undead and lovers of the undead. The title alone caused me to laugh out loud, but the book itself was even more fun. The instant reaction, of my friends and family, as well as myself, upon picking up this book was to either break into song, or to try to get someone else to break into song.

Each zombie carol lets you know which accompanying song it's meant to be in the tune of. For example, "Zombie Yells" is sung with the tune of "Jingle Bells" and so forth. It was fairly easy to pick up and keep the correct tune. Though there were definitely some lines that were forced to fit the tune and rhyme scheme, so that the line didn't make sense or the singer had to stumble a bit, but for the most Spradlin did a good job of matching the correct lines to the song.

I really only wish that I had received this gift before Christmas so that I could have initiated some zombie caroling on the holiday itself.

I saw this in Borders over the holidays and wondered about it. There was much head shaking involved. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

>31 VictoriaPL:
Head shaking is certainly appropriate in response to this book, because it's totally ridiculous. However, it is also hilarious and fun. :)

Going to star your thread - I have an overlap with two of your categories (books and women) and I'm interested to see what you think about the books you read! BTW, I loved People of the Book. While I don't have a travel category, an awful lot of my books are set in countries outside the USA!

4. Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (*****)
Category: Miscellany

Stiches tells a haunting story of abuse, the most horrifying of which is his parents refusal to tell him that he had throat cancer, even after he woke up from surgery at fourteen incapable of speaking.

The art in this graphic novel is some of the most beautiful I've seen. The use of gray-toned water color to shade and add depth to the vivid drawings gives the characters and world a kind of ghostly, insubstantial quality, which seems to me to be the nature of memory. This is a book I'm definitely going to have to own, if just for the opportunity to gaze at the art again and again.

* * * *
Currently reading: There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and Bone Crossed, by Patricia Briggs.

5. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (****1/2)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

Modern settings and dark undertones make for fascinating collection of what the editors dub scary fairy tales. Some examples of the tales: A family is forced to hole up and hide from strange disease infects the city. A woman encounters a friend who has married Poseidon's son. A family migrates to the country in an attempt to escape the collapse of society.

What seems to make them fairy tales or folk lore as opposed to simply fantasy and science fiction stories is the tone of the writing combined with the use of modern day archetypes. For example, in the title story the classic witch is transformed into a jealous neighbor who tries to get rid of her friend's baby.

The first few stories didn't quite grab me, but the later stories (the Allegories and Fairy Tales) seemed to have more depth to them, and I was completely fascinated by them.

* * * *
Currently reading: Bone Crossed, by Patricia Briggs and listening to Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, on audio book.

6. Matchless, by Gregory Maguire (****)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

Matchless isn't so much of a retelling, as an expansion of the Hans Christian Anderson tale "The Little Match Girl," interweaving Frederik, a boy who steals fish from seagulls for his and his mother's dinners, into the narrative. While I've always loved "The Little Match Girl," I admit that the story is quite bleak. Maguire's expansion of the story gives a sense that life may still be hard, but it goes on with joy and hope.

* * * *
Currently reading: I misplaced my copy of Bone Crossed, by Patricia Briggs, so now I'm reading Walking Dead, by C.E. Murphy and listening to Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, on audio book.

Thanks for the review of Matchless. "The Little Match Girl" always stuck with me, so I look forward to reading Maguire's expanded version.

You're welcome, Tanglewood. I'm glad that it caught your interest. :)

7. Walking Dead, by C.E. Murphy (****)
Category: The Living Dead

Walking Dead is the fourth book in The Walker Papers series. Joanne Walker has settled more comfortably into her powers as a shaman, but she's still learning, which becomes abundantly clear, when the ghosts and zombies begin to make their appearance in Seattle.

It was wonderfully comforting to be able to return to this series after so many year, especially with the bonus of being able to see Joanne in a stronger place than she was in the last book. The character has grown and so has Murphy as a writer. She does an excellent job of balancing back story with the new information presented in the current plot. She does a good job of presenting a mystery, and then slowly unraveling the details as Joanne discovers them (though I did guess the villain right at the beginning).

All in all this was an excellent addition to the series. It has me excited all over again, and I look forward to when Demon Hunts comes out later this year.

* * * *
Currently reading: This Gaming Life, by Jim Rossingnol and listening to Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, on audio book.

8. Catch-22 (audio book), by Joseph Heller (****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Catch-22 centers around a bombardier, named Yossarian, who has decided that he is going to live forever or die trying. He is perceived as insane by just about everyone, though his insanity is a clear sign that he is the only sane man in the outfit. The book weaves through the lives and stories of the various men and commanders in Yossarian's squad during the later stages of World War II. Throughout is the kind of bureaucratic illogic (what I've been calling Alice in Wonderland logic), which is able to trap the men with it's various catch-22s.

I was not impressed with the first half of the book. The fragmented storylines, jumping from one character to the next, and the constant address of frayed logic, failed to pull me in. While I could acknowledge that the writing was excellent and the characters quirky and unique, I didn't quite care about them as people (much in the same way I couldn't see the character in Wonderland as people). There was a disconnect for me and I was quite downcast to see that there was so much more of this long book left to read with what I expected would be much of the same.

I couldn't be more happy that I trudge along and kept reading. The characters slowly grew and evolved, and I found myself liking them more and more. I began to really feel for Yossarian and how trapped he is within the military system with no apparent means of escape. By the time I finished the book with it's incredible ending, I was quite in love with the book and I could see why so many others have loved it, too.

* * * *
Currently reading: This Gaming Life, by Jim Rossingnol and My Little Red Book, edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

9. Kith, by Holly Black (***1/2)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

Kith is the second book in The Good Neighbors graphic novel series. It's a modern day version of fairy lore, incorporating classic fairy tropes into an urban setting. Rue Silver is the main character, who finds out that her mother is actually a fairy who has been taken back to the fairy realm and her grandfather is planning to take over her city, and it's up to her to stop him.

The art fluctuates from being just okay to rather nice, but what makes me really enjoy it is Rue's self questioning and wondering where her true nature lies. Is she human? Or is she fairy?

10. My Little Red Book, edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (*****)
Category: About Women/Feminism

This is a collection of first-period stories, written by women of all ages from around the world. They are artists, writers, professionals, doctors, and students. Many of these stories have similar themes, for example:
*The author thought she were dying.
*The author was excited about becoming a woman.
*The author got their period in a public situation and bled through her clothes.
*The author didn't know anything about periods until it happened.
And so on.

And yet, despite these similarities than run through, each story maintains a sense of unique experience particular to that author. The story may be universal, but the experience is deeply personal. As I continued to read through these stories, and even as I saw more of the similarities that tied them together, I became more and more fascinated with these people who all experienced a similar event in their own way.

In many ways, I think this is a vital and necessary book, normalizing an experience that is often treated as a secret shame, even today. We need to be more open about these kind of things, to bring them out in the open, to facilitate discussion, and this book does that in a classy and tactful way.

* * * *
Currently reading: This Gaming Life, by Jim Rossingnol and Paper Towns, by John Green

11. This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, by Jim Rossignol (***1/2)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

The title of this book, This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, is both apt and deceiving. While there is some traveling going on, and there are three specific cities spoken of, mostly this book is about video games and their culture. While I was expecting a more travel based narrative, Rossignol's commentary and experiences in the gaming world turned out to be quite interesting.

The essays within this book represent the author's own ambivalence feeling about the gaming. Not about the value of video games, because Rossignol is quite sure that video games are valuable, but as to what form that value is meant to take. One the one hand, he feels that games serve a vital purpose of being entertaining, and that the dispelling of boredom alone is valuable enough. On the other hand, he equally excited about the ways that games can be more.

In terms of physical travel, he takes us to two cities (beyond his home in London, which is the third city). In Seoul, South Korea, we are introduced a unique bubble of gaming culture, in which social interaction takes the place of vivid graphics in terms of importance. In Reykjavik, Iceland, he attends a conference for a game called EVE Online, in which a complex form or freedom and free reign is built into the design itself, so that in many ways users are the co-creators of the game.

Whether he was talking about the cities he's visiting or the gaming culture he loves, Rossignol kept me interested. While I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in games and gamming, I would hesitate to suggest it to those interested in a traveling experience, as I think they would be put off by the mixed focus of the book.

* * * *
Currently reading: Paper Towns, by John Green.

12. Paper Towns, by John Green (*****)
Category: Miscellany

I don't know how to summarize this one without ripping off the back cover, so I'll just quote it instead:"Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life -- dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge -- he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues -- and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew."

I was compelled to keep reading this book. The mystery of Margo was powerful incentive for me, as well as Green's captivating writing style. As Quentin follows the clues she left behind, we share his experience of not only discovering her, but his realization that everyone in his life is more than how we perceive them. Every character in this book comes across as a flesh and blood human being. All around a fabulous book that I would definitely be willing to read again.

* * * *
Currently reading: Going Bovine, by Libba Bray and listening on audio book to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce.

13. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (***)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Book

In youth, Stephen begins to experience doubts about god and the church, as well as his faith in the way he perceives the world. Finally as a young man, he solidifies his beliefs in the world and moves toward creating his life as an artist.

There is some really beautiful writing in this book, and I most enjoyed those sequences when he's walking through whatever town he's living in at that time and his emotions are fluctuating as he experiences the world around him. However, there are also long bouts of sermonizing and lecturing, discussing things in a purely theoretical manor, which really dragged on the story. I lost a lot of interest through those passages. While I definitely can't claim that this is a great book, I saw enough beauty throughout much of it to make it through to the end.

* * * *
Currently reading: Going Bovine, by Libba Bray.

14. Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

Cameron Smith is a slacker, stoner who get the unfortunate privilege of being one of the few people in the world to get diagnosed with the human version of mad cow disease. Things get really interesting, however, when a punk angel tells him that he must go on a journey (along with a neurotic midget and a garden gnome that might be the Viking god Baldur) to save the universe, and if he's lucky, find a cure in the process.

I picked up this book, partly due to the cow wielding a garden gnome on the cover, and partly due to my previous enjoyment of Libba Bray's Victorian fantasy trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing). It was great seeing Bray break away from the seriousness that inhabited her Gemma Doyle books. This book is a weird and deliriously fun travelogue through a pop culture landscape both real and imagined. And yet, there's an subtle underlying poignancy that sort of brings the book home and anchors the zany oddness of it all.

15. The Sound and the Fury (audio book), by William Faulkner (***)
Category: From the Modern Library's Top 100 Books

The story of a family told from the points of view of three disturbed brothers. One is mentally disabled, one is neurotic and depressed, the last is just a dick. There's a sister in there, but she doesn't get a voice of her own, rather her story has to be pieced together out of the first person ramblings of her brothers (a part of me wants to believe that the author did this symbolically, as a way to show how women often didn't have voices in that time period).

I wanted to like this book, because the writing is great and there were certainly sections of it that I enjoyed. I listened to it on audio book, which probably was a big reason why I was able to get all the way through it, because the narrator's acting helped me to determine when time periods were being switched at random (which happened a lot, especially in Quentin's section). Even with the excellent audio reading, there were still parts that were very confusing, and in the end there is no real resolution in this book. Normally this is not a problem for me, however, as a whole the book is so bleak that I can't really say it's enjoyable. Though I can see why others might like it on a purely style and literary level.

16. Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons, by David Dark (***)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

The first thing you realize when reading this book, is that David Dark presents an alternative meaning of apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic in this case does not necessarily mean books that represent the end of the world. Instead it represents works (books, movies, music) and ideas that deconstruct and tear down our perceptions of the society (the machine) in which we live, so that we can reach a greater and deeper understanding of our self and the world, thus breaking free in a greater spiritual and emotional awareness.

He suggests that as well as the Revelations of the Bible, the literature of Flannery O'Connor, the music of Radiohead and Beck, the episodes of the Simpsons, and the movies of the Coen brothers all represent this kind of apocalyptic questioning. He says the works of the artists here mentioned represent versions of our reality that can seem mocking or bleak, but that really represent a form of hope and salvation for those who are willing to push past the norms as society insists we perceive them, in order to be jolted awake.

I think Dark has some very interesting points to make throughout the book, however, I couldn't quite help but feel that there was some sort of a disconnect in his logic. The redefining of apocalyptic, for one, is difficult to take in, and creates a confusing form of terminology to work around.

Another problem for me was the way in which he seemed to suggest that this kind of apocalyptic, questioning literature is inherently Judeo-Christian. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, it leaves out whole cultures and religions that have their own apocalyptic forms of societal questioning. It also becomes problematic, in that he mostly bypasses the fact that Judeo-Christian culture is as much wrapped up and contributing to the machine of society (that he seems so set against) as any of the consumerism and commercial brainwashing that he mentions in the book.

I want to say that he didn't quite take it far enough, almost as though he shied away from really delving fully into his subject due to the risk of dirtying his own belief system. And thus, he really missed out on giving the reader a real and true ah-ha moment. The kind of moment that I tend to look for in a book like this.

17. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

The day's minutia leading up to a party thrown by Mrs. Dalloway is explored. Woolf flits in and out of the thoughts of Clarissa Dalloway and the various people who surround her, one character's thoughts flowing and overlapping with the next.

Woolf's writing is (not surprisingly) complex. It is not for sleepy reading, requiring that the reader sit up and pay attention to her lines, which are often lyrical and confounding. Once I was able to get into the rhythm of her writing, I was able to be carried along by it. This book has many levels to it, and therefore is definitely the kind of book I will be picking up again and again to see what I can discover with each new reading.

18. Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (****)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty is interwoven with the Holocaust. Becca has heard her grandmother (Gemma) tell the tale of Sleeping Beauty her whole life. Gemma has always been a mystery to her and her whole family. No one is sure that Gemma is even her grandmother's realy name. The only clue is the fairy tale, and when her grandmother dies, it is that tale that leads Becca to search for the truth.

This is a hard mix to try and pull off, but Yolen does it deftly. I was carried along by Rebecca's search to learn about her grandmother. Seeking out family history is a twisted labyrinth and when you get to center, you don't always like what you find. Really a wonderfully told story, and one of the most interesting and sad and creative retellings I've read.

19. The Farming of Bones, by Danticat (****)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

Amabelle is a Haitian orphan working as a maid, living in the town of Alegría in the Dominican Republic. Her lover Sebastian works as a cutter in the cane fields, a profession known as the farming of bones. Amabelle mostly naively ignores the signs of unrest around her

This is the Danticat I know and love, her writing evocative and sensual. Amabelle is a bit naive and distant from reality, but that quickly changes when reality bursts into her life with savage brutality and she is forced to flee the country that she has long considered her home. This is a beautiful and sad novel, based on events from real history. Really a lovely book.

* * * *
Currently reading: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi

I saw a few people doing this (janoorani24 is one), so I'm going to go ahead and steal the idea, too.

1st Quarter Report (Jan-March - 17 books total):

Genre

Nonfiction: Literary/Cultural Criticism- 1; Memoir - 3
Fiction: General - 3
Fiction: Classics - 3
Fiction: SF/Fantasy/ Horror - 7
Fiction: Historical Fiction - 0
Fiction: Mysteries/Thrillers - 0

Total
Nonfiction: 4; Fiction: 13

Best in Jan.:
Fiction: Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld
Nonfiction: Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small

Best in Feb:
Fiction: Paper Towns, by John Green
Nonfiction: My Little Red Book, edited by Rachel Kauder Nelebuff

Best in Mar.:
Fiction: Mrs. Dalloway, by Virgina Woolf (tough call though, because Going Bovine, by Libba Bray, is also excellent)
Nonfiction: None

Books Read in 2010
* memorable reads: books that cause me to think and sometimes influence my world view, or that were just plain wonderful

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols, by Michael P. Spradlin (****)
Walking Dead, by C.E. Murphy (****)
* There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (****1/2)
Matchless, by Gregory Maguire (****)
The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat (***1/2)
* My Little Red Book, edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (*****)
* Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (****1/2)
* Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (****)
Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons, by David Dark (***)
This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, by Jim Rossignol (***1/2)
* Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld (****)
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (****)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (***)
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner (***1/2)
* Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (*****)
* Paper Towns, by John Green (*****)
Kith, by Holly Black (***1/2)

20. Transformations, by Anne Sexton (****1/2)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

Anne Sexton retells seventeen Grimm fair tales. Essentially, each story is the same, except they are not. Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger and wakes up 100 years later with a Prince's kiss. Red meets a wolf who cross dresses in her Grandmother's cloths and then gobbles her up, only to be released later by a passing hunter. And so on.

What makes each retelling unique to Sexton are two things. First, each poem/tale is first introduced with a kind of preface, the author's poetic commentary that introduces the tale she's about to retell. Secondly, she uses modern flare to the metaphor used to describe and detail the tales. The thirteenth witch in "Birar Rose" (Sleeping Beauty) has "eyes burnt by cigarettes" and her "uterus is an empty tea cup". Snow White has "china-blue doll eyes" and Cinderella "walked around looking like Al Jolson."

The lines are simple and clean, plain lines, like the original tales she's retelling, but reading them you find there's something more, as though you've just spotted something out of the corner of your eye while walking in the woods. It's wonderful, and I want to keep it always, so that I can come back to it again and again.

* * *
I am currently reading Reading Lolita in Tehran and Rosemary and Rue.

21. Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, by Belle Yang (****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

Belle Yang flees an abusive boyfriend turned violent stalker and returns to the home of her traditional Chinese parents. There she begins to heal herself and find her own voice by recording her father's ancestral tales, which involve sibling conflicts and the rise of communism.

I am fond of the graphic novel/memoir genre, and Yang works will with the form. I was a little slow getting into this, but as the two intertwined stories progress, I became deeply engrossed. The characters come through the simple artwork full of life and vigor. I found myself fascinated by the subtle way Yang evoked culture and shared the intersecting family dynamics that can create conflict. No one is vilified; no one is idolized. People are a complicated mix. Reading this memoir, I felt a sense of familiarity with the family as whole, and compassion for every single family member. This is subtly moving book that I would certainly recommend to others.

22. A Little White Shadow, by Mary Rueffle (****)
Category: Miscellany

I found this unique little book, while I was scanning the poetry section of the library. The book was so small and so cute, with its plain clean cover, that I just had to take it with me.

Inside, A Little White Shadow is something of a mystery. In the tradition of found poetry, Rueffle has taken a document, called "A Little White Shadow" (which was apparently created in honor of a children's shelter in the late 1800s), and has whited out all of the text, except for a few phrases on each page. (It's not really clear whether the original text was in fact original, or if it was fabricated, but in the end it doesn't really matter.) The entire book is a single poem, created from the clips and phrases that have survived the whiting out.

Typically a found poem will use only words from an original document, which are then rearranged and collaged onto a new clean sheet of paper. By leaving the original text, Rueffle creates an entirely different feeling. We know the text is absent, and we feel its absence floating in our mind as we read what's left behind. The absence of the whited out text is a physical part of the poem. Some letters and words peek through like ghosts themselves.

The words that we can read manage to flow from one slightly disjointed image and thought to the next. There are genuinely beautiful lines that come through with a word at the top of the page joining and combining with a phrase at the bottom through the act of reading (we the readers are the glue that holds it together), and it's beautiful. Sometimes words and phrases on the page can be read in different ways, sometimes it's crystal clear. This book offers multi-levels of interpretation and meaning, and by not including any explanation, Rueffle leaves the reader to discover those meanings on their own.

I am deeply fascinated by this book. It's one of those creative choices on the part of a poet that I consider brilliant, almost genius. It's the kind of beauty that makes me jealous to have not thought of it myself, knowing that no replication can achieve the same. I only wish I didn't have to send it back to the library.

A vivid and beautiful description! Could you give us a few quotes, to get an idea of what it might sound like?

I don't have the book in front of me at the moment. When I get home tonight, I'll pull it out and pick a few of my favorite moments in the book.

In the meantime, you can go to On her website. She has scans of other books, which she has performed the same whiting out to create poetry. She calls the form "erasure poetry". You can also see where she has added collage to some of the works. It's all very cool, and very interesting way of looking at things.

23. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America (audio book), by David Hajdu (****1/2)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

This book covers the history, development, and controversies that surrounded the comic book industry from its inception in Sunday newspapers at the beginning of the century to its "golden age" in the late forties/early fifties through to it's near collapse at the end of the fifties.

This was a fascinating book, one that I thought did a fabulous job of capturing the rapture of the artists, writers, and publishers and contrasting that with the fervor of those wishing to put at end to the threat of the ten-cent menace as they saw it. I was shocked to learn just how intense was the hatred of comic books. The hearing for banning comic books were right up there in interest with McCarthy's communist hunts, not to mention the numerous book burnings that occurred.

Hajdu quoted directly from those involved on both sides of the controversies. That combined with his excellent descriptions of the people, events, and comics involved really made the time and the passions come to life for me.

24. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi (*****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

While living in Tehran under the suffocating rules and regulations of the government, Azar Nafisi selected seven of her female students to participate in a secret class in which they would read banned books. A dangerous act under the regime. Through literature, the women find a way to express their own sorrows and frustrations facing the country in which they live.

I loved the way Nafisi wove together personal memoir with literary criticism. Her passion for books comes through one every page and her love for "her girls," whom she learns from as much as she teaches, is also crystal clear. She manages to show how books of imagination became a salve for them, a way out of the mundane terrors of their everyday lives. Moving and lyrical and sorrowful and wise, this is a lovely, lovely book.

25. Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire (****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

October (Toby) Daye has it rough. The world of fairy still lives, hiding along side the human world. As a changeling (half human, half fairy), she is second-class and hated by most pure blood fairies. A brutal betrayal strips her of any desire to be a par of the fairy world, and she's living in avoidance of everyone and everything she once knew. Things get really rough when the Countess Winterrose is murdered. Before she dies, she curses Toby, pulling her back into the fairy world and forcing Toby to find her murders.

Seanan is brutal to her main character. Toby more often gets her ass kicked than kicks ass. However that does not diminish her awesome. Toby has enough sass and self conviction to burn. Every time she's knocked down, she recovers and keeps going. Nothing diminishes her drive.

There are certainly abundant flaws, but this is really a fun, snappy read, and from what I've heard the subsequent books in the series just get better from here.

* * *
Currently Reading: Half Life, by Roopa Farooki, and listening to People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks, on audio book.

26. French Milk, by Lucy Knisley (****1/2)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

This is a charming little travelogue of the author's time spent in Paris with her mother. Together they rented an apartment and shared experiences, visiting art museums and enjoying French Food. I enjoyed Knisley's art as much as her writing. A quick, fun read, and definitely one that I'm going to take notes from, just in case I get to Paris someday.

27. People of the Book (audio book), by Geraldine Brooks (*****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

Dr. Hanna Heath is a passionate preserver of books. She loves to work with dusty tomes, repairing their structure so that their knowledge will carry on into the future. A new peace in Sarajevo, reveals a survivor of the chaos, a fifteenth century Jewish manuscript. The Haggadah is famous for the incredible beauty of its illuminations, and more so, because at the time it was made, the Jewish community traditionally banned such art from their works. As Hanna works on the book, she discovers small artifacts, a fragment of butterfly wing, a strand of white hair, a wine stain, which begin to unravel the mystery of the Haggadah.

Brooks weaves between Hanna's present journey's in researching and working on the book, with the historical people and settings that were involved in creating the book and keeping it safe. There's a clean lyrical quality to Brooks' writing that brings these characters, which span nations and centuries, to life. I was thrilled with this book, right up through the end, and it was definitely one of my favorite reads this year.

Nice review, blythe! You have made me want to read it.

Thanks! I hope you like it as much as I did. :)

28. Half Life, by Roopa Farooki (*****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

This was an Early Reviewer book.

"It's time to stop fighting, and go home," reads Aruna, so she walks out the front door, barely stopping to dress, put on shoes, and grab her purse. She heads immediately to the London airport and catches a flight to Singapore to face her past.

There is a simplicity to the story and the style of this book. The writing is very lyrical, but it doesn't try to hard, instead the use of metaphor pulls you down into the room to sit beside each character as you read. She handles several challenging subjects, the kind of things that could jerk you out of the story with disgust in the hands of another writer. However, Farooki manages to approach the subject with a sense of loving forgiveness for her characters. She presents a world in which life is both brutal and beautiful, and even though perfect resolution is not always found, there is hope and the possibility of joy.

29. Anacaona, Golden Flower (The Royal Diaries), by Danticat (***1/2)

The Royal Diaries is a series of books presenting the imagined diaries of various princesses. In this case, it is the tale of Anacaona, a Taíno cacique (chief), who is also a warrior, a poet, a leader, and a diplomat.

While learning about this woman was certainly fascinating, the book was very tame. This is to be expected since the desired audience is younger preteen girls -- my sister was a big fan of the series when she was in Junior High -- and I probably would not have picked it up were it not written by Edwidge Danticat.

She does what she can with diary format (difficult as the Taíno had no written language). The writing was clean and precise, but unfortunately, also had that educational, now-you-are-learning-something-about-history-in-story-format feel to it, which is hard to avoid in books like this. Not a bad book for girls interested in princesses, and it definitely sparked enough of my interest in Anacaona that I would be willing to go learn more about her (which I suppose is partly the point).

@62 Loved the sound of that! Very crisp little review too. Gave it a thumbs up.

Ah, thanks. :)

30. A Farewell to Arms (audio book), by Ernest Hemingway (****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Set in World War II, this novel centers around Lieutenant Henry, an American ambulance driver, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. After meeting in Italy, the two fall in love and try to assemble a relationship during war.

I was warned that Hemingway was bleak, and without giving anything away, I came to the conclusion by the end of this book, that yes, he is bleak. This book brought me to tears. However, I love Hemingway's clean, sparse writing, as well as his looping, realistic dialogue. It is vivid and moving. Both Catherine and Henry are wonderful characters, and despite the bleak nature of the book and its view of the world, I would read it again in an instant, because it was so, so beautiful.

31. The Ghost Trio (poetry), by Linda Bierds (****1/2)
Category: Miscellany

After my second read through of this collection of poems, I love it more than ever. Bierds weaves together lyrical tales from historical characters both real and imagined (mostly from the 1800s. Common threads include various artists and philosophers and scientists, such as Charles Darwin (Charles and his family come up often).

As example here are a few of my favorite lines from "Hunter":

And could the uncle distinguish, his father is asking,
the drops of the storm from the drops
of the river? Just then with his face
half hidden, half blossoming?

And could Charles distinguish, there in the wing chair,
grief from the story of grief? Or fear? Or love
from the story of love? ...

32. The Restless Dead, edited by Deborah Noyes (****)
Category: The Living Dead

This anthology of presents ten short stories by young adult authors, involving zombies, vampires, ghosts, and all other restless dead not so easily defined.

The collection as a whole is quite good, as the writers selected really know their craft. There are two traditional ghost stories in the book ("The House and the Locket" and "No Visible Power"), which are well written and developed, but are also rather generic and predictable for my tastes (maybe I've just grown out of ghost stories). My favorites are below.

-- I read "The Wrong Grave" in Kelly Link's collection of stories, Pretty Monsters. The tale of a boy who accidentally digs up the wrong grave was just as creepy and humorous the second time around.
-- In "Kissing Dead Boys," Annette Curtis Klause presents a story steeped in the dangerous and addictive lust of vampires.
-- "The Necromancers," by Herbie Brennan, is a darkly comic tale of two brothers who raise the dead with unexpected results.
-- As an author Libba Bray continues to surprise me, and her story "Bad Things" was gave me genuine chills. It's a terrifying and disturbing story of two brothers with images that haunt me well after the story is over.
-- Holly Black's "The Poison Eaters" is a dark fairytale of murder and political intrigue.
-- "Honey in the Wound," by Nancy Etchemendy , is a more traditional zombie tale (of the voodoo-ish variety).

33. The Haunted House (poetry), by Marissa Crawford (*****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

Marissa Crawford presents a collection of prose poems deeply imbued with adolescent girlhood. There's a the same sense mixed of delight and unease and wonder when reading the women of Marissa's poetry, as there would be in encountering a ghost for the first time. Pop culture slips into the poetry as easily as references to Emily Dickenson, who is really a pop culture princess and awkward adolescent herself.

I was continually surprised reading through these poems, first picking them at random, and then starting from the beginning and reading through to the end. The poetry here incorporates simple sentences piled on top of one another into a complex web, which shows how nothing ever goes away, but continues to haunt us. I really, really love this book, and love that I own it and can return to it again and again.

As a final note, I should point out that I am potentially biased here, because I know Marissa personally. We used to work together. Though I'm not prone to raving about something just because my friend did it, I'm mentioning it nevertheless. So, if you don't trust my opinion, you can always read
this review over at the Examiner.com - San Francisco.

34. Cures Include Travel (poetry), by Susan Rich (*****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

As I was looking through the poetry section of the library, I couldn't help but pick up Susan Rich's collection of travel poems. I love this book, which tales from her travels both of the physical world and of the heart. At times she her writing is humorous or moving or sexy, and at times all three at once. Coming back to these poems was like coming back to an old friend.

35. Moonheart, by Charles De Lint (*****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

When Sara Kendal and her uncle Jamie find a medicine bag full of an odd assortment of trinkets, including a bone disk, a gold ring, and other oddities, they find themselves being drawn into a a strange other world. They soon learn that there are dangers along with the wonder, including an ancient evil. Along with a litany of fascinating characters, including a an ex-biker, a folk singing magician, a anchient druid, a straight-laced cop, they fight for their lives.

My write up sounds uber-dramatic, but that's only because its difficult to encompass a book like there, which has a multitude of complex characters, each with their own desires whose goals criss-cross and interlace with all the others. I only felt lost a couple of times in the beginning as De Lint shifts between multiple points of view, and I had to remember who was who doing what. But as I settled into this epic story of love and magic and old evils, all that smoothed out and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's an excellent example of why De Lint is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

36. Eating in the Underworld (poetry), by Rachel Zucker (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

The story of Persephone is retold in this collection of poems. Instead of being kidnapped and dragged down the underworld by Hades, Persephone makes the conscious choice to make the journey, a kind of coming of age rebellion, as a daughter goes forth to claim and shape her own life as a woman and as Queen of the underworld.

Each poem is a snippet from a diary or note and letter in deceptively simple lines, revealing the struggle when a mother tried to possess her daughter, the sensual mysteries of falling in love, and the eerie beauty of the underworld.

I have a couple of Charles de Lint books on my tbr pile and was planning to include one in this years challenge but it didn't really fit in my categories. Maybe I can now add it back in as a recommendation. Thanks for your write-up.

You're welcome, and I do definitely recommend it. :)

I've worked my way through 150 pages of Ulysses and I'm giving up on it. It was just too much like a chore, and there are so many other books that I would love to focus my energy on, so that's that.

Obviously since I didn't finish, so it's not going to end up in my count.

Currently, I'm reading The Mall of Cthulhu and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.

Nice contrast :)

I read Ulysses many years ago, and it was only on my fourth attempt when something in it suddenly clicked with me. It then felt like a fairly engrossing read. As chores go though: reading Ulysses without really feeling like it would qualify pretty high up on the suck list, methinks.

Yeah. Maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind, as noted in the contrast with my other current reads. :)

I started skimming Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs in the bookstore once when it had recently come out, and really enjoyed it -- now it's sitting on my shelf since it was cheap one day. Though it's not one that I really really want to return to, I was fascinated, especially by the description of the popularity of the Sims computer "game".

@81
I'm almost done with Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. So far it's been an entertaining read. He's definitely cynical, and sometimes I completely disagree, but overall it's a great collection of essays.

37. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, by Chuck Klosterman (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

This series of essays attempts to discuss the vital truths of today's society using pop culture as its vehicle of reference. Via Saved by the Bell, The Sims, various iconic musicians, MTV's The Real World, the post apocalyptic book series Left Behind, movies such as Vanilla Sky and The Matrix, and many other pop culture he discusses life, the universe, and everything.

Klosterman can tend toward the more pessimistic view of humanity, and there are multiple occasions where I disagreed with him outright. At other times, he opened me up to new ways of seeing the world and the movies/ TV/books/music I love. This book is often times amusing, and even occasionally hilarious, so I was able readily enjoyed the ride whether I was in agreement with him or not.

38. The Mall of Cthulhu, by Seamus Cooper (****)
Category: Miscellany

Ted, a barista at a local coffee shop, stumbles across a Lovecraftian cult bent on raising the long sleeping Cthulhu. Along with Laura, a FBI agent and friend, he'll face off against the cultist and try to save the world.

I am a fan of bad puns and Cthulhu-based stories (though I have yet to read At the Mountains of Madness), so I had to pick up this book as soon as I saw it on the library shelf.

It was slow getting into it, mostly because I had a hard time getting to like the characters. Ted, being a snot-nosed whiner content to throw constant pity parties, and Laura, who was brunt and closed off and kind of rude. Also, the fact that Ted manages to unlock most of the clues, despite the fact that Laura is an FBI agent and should know how to do this kind of thing.

However, the writing is tongue-in-cheek and strong throughout. And as the characters got more and more entangled in the events of the story, they began to grow on me. Eventually, I came to like them quite a lot, and was able to excuse some of their excesses (they had after all been through hell before the events of this book take place). It ended up being a fun and enjoyable read. In fact, I found myself hoping that Cooper plans to write a sequel, just so that I could see where the characters went from here.

39. Silver Kiss, by Naomi Clark (****1/2)
Category: From My Bookshelf

After many years as a lone wolf, Ayla decides to return home and rejoin her Pack. Her return seems to be going well at first, but then her partner, Shannon, signs onto a missing persons case and Ayla can't help but get involved. As a feral wolf, a violent anti-werewolf group, a new designer drug, and Pack politics complicate things further, Ayla begins to question whether coming home was a good idea after all.

The concept of Pack as a social construct has been interesting to me. It resembles a large extended family full of its own rules, gossip, and internal conflicts. Coming home to that kind of structure can be rough, and Naomi does an excellent job of showing the awkwardness and the internal struggle between the need for independence and the obligations of belonging to the group.

The slowest part of this book for me was the first few pages. The getting-ready is just not a strong opener for me. I mean I get why it's there, introducing the characters, setting up the world, letting you in on her doubts and insecurities, and so on. However, it's kind of dull as far as intro, and I think things could have started off right at the ceremony, but that's me.

Right after that, however, I quickly settled into the story. Naomi has a crisp, clean prose style that makes this world seem vivid and real, as though I could just head on down the highway and meet up with Ayla and her friends. It was easy to care about them, easy to want to get to know them, so that when the dangers start to stack up, I wanted to keep reading to not only what was going to happen, but to make sure they were all okay.

Each plot point seemed to hit the right note at the right time, allowing the story to unravel at a comfortable pace. Ayla was given room to actually think about her actions and the dangers involved, so that their choices, for good or ill, had greater impact when made.

This books totally absorbed me, and I started to get annoyed when anything -- ya know, like work, family, chores, eating, going pee -- got in the way of my finishing. It was a great read, and I would definitely recommend it.

74, 76> Years ago a particular Charles de Lint novel was recommended to me. I read it and really enjoyed it: consider reading The Little Country sooner rather than later.

@86
Thank you! I really appreciate the suggestion. That will definitely go to the top of my list. :)

40. Brother, I'm Dying (audio book), by Edwidge Danticat (****1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

When Danticat was a little girl, her parents moved to New York to begin shaping a new life for their family, while she and her brother were left in the care of her Uncle in Haiti. Danticat weaves a touching narrative with this memoir about two of the most important men in her life. It's beautifully written and very moving.

41. Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce (****1/2)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

Once upon a time, Scarlett saved her younger sister Rosie from a Fenris, a werewolf that killed her grandmother and left her scarred. Now, as young women they hunt the Fenris, donning red capes and sweet smiles to lure them out. Scarlett and Rosie share a deep bond, as though each has two halves of the same heart, but that bond becomes threatened as Rosie begins to learn that there is a life beyond the horrors of hunting Fenris.

This is an incredibly creative use of the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairytale, taking the bare bones of the story and many of its tropes and then shaping en entirely new world and mythology around it. Pearce switches back and forth from each of the sisters' point of view, giving them each a voice and room to grow. They are both vivid characters, struggling to survive and do good in the dangerous world in which they live.

Also, the romance in this book is done just right, making the sweetness of the intimacy between the two characters develop naturally, without all the swooning over looks that some authors get into (which is all well and good, but can get old after a while). This book was a fun read, which got my heart pounding in excitement at more than one point while reading it.

I love fantasy books that are based on fairy tales, so I will be on the look-out for Sisters Red. Thanks.

You're welcome. :)

@88 &89 Both books sound fascinating, I only wish my library held more by Danticat!

@92
Every library needs more Danticat. :)

42. So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

Hunter is a cool hunter, someone who goes out into the world tracking and cataloging cool in all its forms and passing the world along to corporations and advertising agencies. When he meets a Jen, an Innovator (someone who invents the new coolest thing instead of following it as Trendsetters do), his well ordered life (in reality and idea) begins to get complicated. When a marketing manager from a big name client goes missing, Hunter and Jen discover the coolest shoes they've ever seen, an ad campaign for a company that may or may not exist, and a conspiracy that could mean the end of the cult of cool.

While many of the characters can seem somewhat one note, Hunter and Jen are well realized. I understood their passion for cool, and their desire not just to solve the mystery of the missing marketing manager, but to find the cool and to hold on to it for all its worth. This was a fun, fun read, laced with pop culture references, filled with adventure and tons of humor.

2nd Quarter Report (April-June - 25 books total):

Genre

Nonfiction: Literary/Cultural Criticism- 2; Memoir - 4
Poetry: 6
Fiction: General - 4
Fiction: Classics - 1
Fiction: SF/Fantasy/ Horror - 6
Fiction: Historical Fiction - 1
Fiction: Mysteries/Thrillers - 1

Total
Nonfiction: 6; Fiction: 13; Poetry: 6

Best in Apr.:
Fiction: The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat
Nonfiction: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi
Poetry: A Little White Shadow, by Mary Ruefle

Best in May:
Fiction: People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
Nonfiction: None read
Poetry: Cures Include Travel, by Susan Rich (though The Haunted House, by Marisa Crawford is equally wonderful)

Best in June:
Fiction: Silver Kiss, by Naomi Clark
Nonfiction: Brother, I'm Dying By Edwidge Danticat
Poetry: None read

Books Read in 2010
* memorable reads: books that cause me to think and sometimes influence my world view, or that were just plain wonderful

* Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (****)
* The Farming of Bones, by Danticat (****)
* Transformations (poetry), by Anne Sexton (****1/2)
Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale (memoir), by Belle Yang (****)
** A Little White Shadow (poetry), by Mary Rueffle (****)
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America (audio book), by David Hajdu (****1/2)
** Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi (*****)
Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire (****)
* French Milk (memoir), by Lucy Knisley (****1/2)
* People of the Book (audio book), by Geraldine Brooks (*****)
Half Life, by Roopa Farooki (*****)
Anacaona, Golden Flower (The Royal Diaries), by Danticat (***1/2)
* A Farewell to Arms (audio book), by Ernest Hemingway (****)
The Ghost Trio (poetry), by Linda Bierds (****1/2)
The Restless Dead, edited by Deborah Noyes (****)
** The Haunted House (poetry), by Marissa Crawford (*****)
* Cures Include Travel (poetry), by Susan Rich (*****)
* Moonheart, by Charles De Lint (*****)
* Eating in the Underworld (poetry), by Rachel Zucker (****1/2)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, by Chuck Klosterman (****)
The Mall of Cthulhu, by Seamus Cooper (****)
* Silver Kiss, by Naomi Clark (****1/2)
* Brother, I'm Dying (audio book & memoir), by Edwidge Danticat (****1/2)
* Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce (****1/2)
So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld (****)

* * *
1st Quarter Report is in Message 52. (I don't know how to link to a specific message.)

43. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (*****)
Category: Miscellany

This is a delightful little fable about a little prince, who lives on a planet no bigger than a house, upon which grows a very proud flower. The Little Prince leaves his little planet and meets all sorts of characters who teach him all sorts of things (mostly that grown ups are rather silly).

I've heard lots of people raving about how wonderful this book is, and I'm pleased to say they're right. I would read it again and again and read it to my children, as well. And, I hope I always am able to see an elephant in a snakes belly.

Currently reading: The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin

They recently released a pop-up version of The Little Prince that is just gorgeous. It sticks strictly to the original illustrations. There are things that move with little tabs too. Very charming.

OOOOH! I bet it's wonderful. I'll have to go check that out. :)

44. Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke (*****)

It's hard to talk about plot points in the the third book in the Inkheart trilogy without spoilers. The basic premise of the series is that Mortimer, a book binder, has the ability to read object and people out of books. By the third book many horrible and wonderful things have happened, and characters have traveled in to books as well as out of them.

In Inkdeath, events are darker than ever, the book is intricate and complex with the plot driven by the network of desires and fears and actions taken by all the characters, from Mortimer to his daughter Meggie to Orpheus the con man to the Adderhead in the castle of night. Everyone is plotting and planning: the good to stop the villains, and the villains to destroy the good. And by jumping between various character points of view, Funke allows the reader to know all the interconnections that the characters themselves can't possibly see.

Every one of the characters are complex and fascinating, including the villains who are delightfully villainous -- dark, evil, and bluntly terrifying. Each character feels like they could walk right off the page and into real life, which the nature of this tale almost makes you believe that it could actually happen.

The Inkheart trilogy, and Inkdeath in particular, questions the nature of reality. If you can travel to a world made of words, what then are we made of. Perhaps all reality is made of words and written down in a book somewhere. Or perhaps writers are not really the creators of such worlds, but merely the recorders of it.

I don't remember the last trilogy I read that worked so well as a whole. Each book weaves into the next and the last book cycles back to the first with connected characters and themes. I read all these books through the library, but I'm definitely going to have to add the entire set to my collection. They are fantastic, and at the top of my favorites list.

Brilliant review, making me for the first time really eager to check out Inkheart! Also, I keep seeing interesting reviews for books by Scott Westerfeld. Will need to make some room for his work in 2011!

I hope you enjoy Inkheart as much as I did. :)

45. FEED, by Mira Grant (****1//2)
Category: The Living Dead

Twenty years after the Rising, zombies have become a matter of fact. The danger exists in every facet of life, but is carefully managed by constant, government controlled quarantine and sterilization procedures.

Georgia and Shaun Mason are two bloggers who go out into restricted areas to poke at zombies and get the news, which they bring back to their blogs. They seek the truth, as well as to increase the ranking of their blogging network. They soon have ample opportunity for both when they are assigned to follow the presidential campaign of an idealistic Senator. They also find a dangerous conspiracy, and figuring out the truth may just get them killed.

While I thoroughly enjoy just a good old classic zombie story, I love it when an author presents a unique perspective on the genre. Mirra Grant (a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire) presents richly detailed world building with an emphasis on accurate virology that most writers ignore. The political atmosphere is thick with intrigue and secrecy and denials, and Georgia and Shaun have to wade their way through it to the truth.

The main focus of FEED is the dangerous political mystery and espionage that the Masons uncover, but there is enough violence and gore and zombie survival to keep most zombie lovers happy. Between the tension of the conspiracy and the horror of zombies (of many species) tearing apart the living, FEED kept my heart pumping and my interest high. A really great, great book.

46. Feed, by M.T. Anderson (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

While I read this for my Pop Culture category, it turned out to be more about consumerism. Though it's close enough for my tastes.

In the future, just about everyone is plugged into the Feed with a complex computer chip implanted into their brain. Mega corporations control the feed and the system, spewing a constant stream of commercials, tv shows, and music into the users mind, aimed at enhancing the their entertainment and shopping experiences.

Titus is comfortable in the feed, until he meets Violet, a girl who makes a plan to resist the influence of the feed, who wants to think about the what's going on in the world, and where all these products actually come from.

Feed is both a satire and a dystopia. It is a satire in the sense that it mocks its easy spending money to make up for emotional gaps, a concept especially rampant in the U.S. In many ways, it openly funny. It is a dystopia, because there is nothing appealing about this world in which the entire populace is placated with purchasing power. In fact, it's quite tragic. And while not openly hostile, the corporations might just abandon you, which is just a slower form of destruction. There is a threat, but it's not evident when you are wrapped up in the play and pleasure of the feed. And like most dystopias, what little hope there is does not exist for humanity as a whole (the system being too large, to powerful to topple), but instead that hope lies in individuals -- in their own power to resist in what small ways they can, and to find freedom within their own hearts.

Enjoyable as this was to read, a large part of what makes Feed great is the way in which it made me question my assumptions about the world in which I live.

47. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

Genly Ai is an emissary from a galaxy collective to Winter, a planet in which there is no gender division, the people are essentially androgynous (or perhaps asexual) except for specific times when they are in kemmer and take on one or another gender for the purpose of sex. While navigating the complicated and dangerous political workings of Winter, Genly must learn to let go of his assumptions surrounding gender roles if he hopes to survive.

While this story was written in 1969, the need to reconsider our assumptions about gender identity is far from outdated. True, a lot has changed since that time. Women have more options; becoming a housewife is a choice instead of the standard, and so on. However, gender roles and definitions of what constitutes proper female vs. male behavior are still prevalent. There is not a perfect equality (and the reality is that there might not be such a thing). Books like The Left of Darkness allows us to look at our present assumptions of how things are and how we think things should be, and question them. This is a very good thing.

Beyond the intellectual aspects of this book, the plot of political intrigue and the danger of trying to present new ideas to a society you don't fully understand is fascinating. Combine that with the sheer survival aspects of a world that is always in Winter and it's fantastic. Genly is an interesting character, and his growth and change in thinking is subtle, but clear by the end. This is a plainly enjoyable read, and one I would recommend picking up if you're looking for some classic scifi.

48. The Company of Heaven: Stories from Haiti, by Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell (***1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

The pieces in this collection are more portraits than stories, each one presenting days, weeks, or years in the life of someone in Haiti, from a woman trying to survive a refugee boat ride to the U.S. to magic makers to to a chapel observing its inhabitants.

While the writing is lovingly descriptive, I did not really become absorbed by these stories. Some even bored me slightly. However, I did really enjoy a few stories, such as: "Dogs" about a woman who fills her house with stray dogs, because they are more honest creatures than most of humanity; "Grande Jesula Gets a Visit" about Jesula, a Mother of Spirits, full a snarky attitude and wild joy; and "At the Gate" in which a man sets up a make shift school in front of an insane asylum and sees philosophers and teachers in all the people around him. In fact, I would say that those three stories are fantastic, and worth reading again.

Everything else in the book didn't quite grab me the same way; they weren't bad, just not interesting to me.

There's a few authors that I keep meaning to check out but have not got round to doing so and Ursula K. Le Guin is one of those. Thanks for your review and onto the wishlist it goes.

49. Gothic and Lolita Bible (v. 3) (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

Volume three of this mook (a cross between a magazine and a book) offers up more gothic and lolita culture, from how to make cute dresses to interviews with designers and bands. I read this one just for the shear fun of it, and that's exactly what I got. :)

50. The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan (****)
Category: The Living Dead

Set many years after The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead-Tossed Waves continues with Mary's daughter Gabry. Gabry is comfortable in her little seaside town, protected the Mudos (undead) that hunger for human flesh outside of the walls. She isn't quite sure she believes her mother's stories about growing up in the forest of hands and teeth with all its mysteries and secrets. But when she follows her friends on a dare over the wall, the ensuing events leads her to begin looking to the forest as a means of both truth and possible salvation.

I loved the first book, and while it didn't dazzle me as much, The Dead-Tossed Waves was also a great read. Ryan creates a complex world, full of its own rules and beliefs that range from strange to noble to horrifying. Her romantic relationships tend toward complex tangles and triangles, but that's to be expected as both books are more about growing up and finding one's self than about love.

51. Richard Hittleman's Yoga: 28 Day Exercise Plan, by Richard Hittleman (*****)

While it took my considerably longer than 28 days, I worked my way through the entire book and found the entire program fantastic. I've improved a lot since I started with this, and I always feel great after doing it. I just need to make sure that I keep it up!

52. New Direction in Altered Books, by Gabe Cyr (*****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

As a lover of collage art, I've become fascinated with the idea of painting, editing, tearing up, and in general altering books. It's taken me a while to get used to the idea, as I have treated books as sacred. I still feel that they are sacred, but have come to see that that sancitity has can take a different shape.

New Directions in Altered Books was really inspiring, so much so that I bought some cheep used books from the library book sale for the purpose of making art. There are some fabulous examples shown, along with some sample projects and ideas for collaborative projects. It's a really great book for anyone interested in launching into this kind of art form.

53. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf ****1/2)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

On its most simplest level, To the Lighthouse deals with the kind of meandering hours spent at a summer house on an island and the desire to make an excursion to the lightouse. The story meanders in an out of the concerns and dreams and hopes of the people there, pivoting aroung the central focus of Mrs. Ramsay, who holds everything together. One of my favorite moments is the dinner scene, in which Woolf graceful shifts from one character's point of view to the next, revieling the tapestry of human emotion (in one instance, three character simultaneously think themselves unique in how alone they feel). It's a beautiful book and I can see why it's on the Modern Library's list of 100 Best Books.

54. Ash, by Malinda Lo (*****)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

When Ash's father dies, she is forced to live with her cruel stepmother and two stepsisters. Ash is put to work as a servant.But in the woods she meets two people who present offers of comfort. Sidhean, a fairy, offers the longing desire for the beauty of fairyland. Kisia, the king's huntress, opens her up to the possibilty of love.

This is a beautiful reimagining of Cinderella, and Lo's story and world is so well woven that she not only retells the story of Cinderella, but turns it on its head and makes it fully her own.

55. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, by Lola Shoneyin (***1/2)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

When Baba Segi brings home his fourth wife, Bolanle, an educated woman, he is completely unaware of the conflict this would create in his home. Two of the other wives are convinced that Bolanle is a witch, trying to disrupt their home, and vow to everything they can to get rid of her, while the last wife is too timid to do anything about it. But Bolanle has secrets of her own, which threaten to draw out the secrets of all the women in the home.

While Shoneyin's writing vividly describes these people and their lives, I have mixed feelings about this book. A full and complete portrait is drawn of each woman, and yet the story still seems to come off as an innocent women walking into a nest of vipers. The women are nasty and cruel, which is fine, as I have no doubt that this kind of behavior happens. I can see this story as though it happened in real live. It's as thought I could travel to Africa and perhaps meet just these people.

And yet, I was slightly disappointed by how things turned out. No one seemed to learn anything, except perhaps Bonlanle, but even then I'm not quite sure how she came to do so. How did what happened bring her to the conclusions she comes to? I wanted something more to happen, something more to develop from what unfolds, and yet, what happened seems the only natural course for things to turn out. So, yeah, I guess all I can say is that I'm torn.

56. Essential Do's and Taboos: The Complete Guide to International Business and Leisure Travel, by Roger E. Axtell (****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

Information on the different ways misunderstandings can occur when interacting with different cultures, from hand gestures to speaking in English euphemisms to etiquette. Anecdotes help to keep things interesting in what would otherwise be a very dry book. It definitely brought to attention things I might not have thought of while traveling.

For example, the book says that the English language has thousands of euphemisms for going to the bathroom ("bathroom" being one of them), which can create confusion when your traveling. It suggests using "toilet" as the term of choice to avoid any confusion. Something I learned to be true, when I asked where the "restroom" was in Germany, only to be met with a blank stare.
*

57. A Concise History of Germany A Concise History of Germany (Cambridge Concise Histories) , Second Edition, by Mary Fulbrook (****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

Just as the title says, this book presents a very short generalized history of Germany. Things are most confusing from the middle ages up through the 1800s, though this is because of the sheer fluctuation of the country, the lack of clear centralized government, and the constant changes going on, rather than a judgment on the author's capabilities. I also appreciated that Fulbrook attempted to stay neutral as possible, pointing out how easy it is to oversimplifications and stating various viewpoints on the matter as much as possible.
*

58. Top Ten Berlin, by Juergen Scheunemann and Dorling Kindersley (****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

I flipped through and read just about every page of this guidebook both before my trip and during. The use of top ten lists and the suggested day trips were quite helpful and easy to read, and I agreed with most of their suggestions. What the book cannot help you with is the underground culture that is rampant in Berlin, from artist squats to reclaimed abandoned buildings, which is a vital part of the city's pulse (though I can't blame them too much for that, because underground culture is a constantly shifting landscape).

59. The Children of Men, by P.D. James (****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

In the year 2021, men have become sterile, and the world collapses into a sense of hopelessness with the British government promising at best a chance to live in comfort while living out their last days. Historian Theodore Faron is content with this comfort, letting his life fall into a routine without passion, but when one of his former students approaches him for help, he soon finds himself drawn into a scheme to overthrow the government and discovers a secret that may save the human race.

I picked up this book, because I loved the movie so much. They are both (movie and book) somewhat bleak in the way they reveal the carelessness, desperation, and violence that occurs when people are stripped of all hope. The sense of hope is more tentative in the book, and even when I put it down, I didn't feel all that great about the potential of human race, but I suppose that commentary is part of the point.

As a whole, this was an engaging book, which started slow, but drew you with the detailed world that is created, with the intrigue of this radical group, and with the emotional and spiritual evolution of Theo.

60. A Local Habitation, by Seanan McGuire (****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

Book 2 of the October Daye series, in which Toby Daye faces various political intrigues and baddies of the complex fairy realms that overlay the San Francisco Bay Area. In this book, her liege Duke Sylvester sends her on an errand to check in on his niece in Fresno, a land at the center of a sticky political situation. When she gets there, she finds a greater problem than an uncommunicative niece, however, as slew of bodies starts to pile up.

McGuire's sense of plot and style has improved this time around and the mystery propels along at a good clip. As I remember I only felt that Toby was being dense at one moment, when she conveniently forgets a very important clue. But it's a good fun read and McGuires characters are fun and vivid. I'm looking forward to see what occurs in Book 3.

I've long had The Children of men on my mental TBR, as a lover of dystopian fiction. But I've never really had a feeling for what it's like. Your review has really triggered my interest. Thanks!

Glad to be of help!

61. Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, by Reinhard Kleist (****1/2)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

Biographical graphic novel about the life of Johnny Case. Most of the story is told from the point of view of an inmate in Folsom Prison, who eagerly relates what he knows about Cash's lonely drug filled life to one of his buddies as they eagerly await Cash's concert to be held there.

Not much new information was revealed to me with this, but I enjoyed the style of the whole thing, including the dark shadowy artwork. I especially liked how certain songs were pulled out and presented as vignettes, illustrated as individual stories.

62. Pride and Predjudice, by Jane Austin (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

This is my second read of this classic, and it was just as engaging the second time around. I love how strong Elizabeth is throughout this book and how she playfully speaks her mind, even though she is from time to time mistaken.

63. The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart (audio book), by Mathias Malzieu (****1/2)
Category: Miscellany

Born on the coldest night on Earth, Jack's frozen heart is replaced with a cuckoo clock that helps to keep him alive. It ticks oddly from his chest and when he's excited it lets out a loud cuckoo noise. Dr. Madeleine, his foster mother, warns him that his cuckoo heart is too fragile for him to handle the turmoils of love, and that he should avoid it at all costs. But he sees a pretty little dancing girl who bumps into things, he can't help but fall for her. Thus begins a journey that take him to Paris, where he meets a mad clockmaker/magician on to Spain in search of his love.

This is a supremely sweet fairytale. The writing is textural and vivid and the world in which little Jack inhabits comes to life as he describes it from his uniquely romantical point of view. It's often sorrowful, but is really so charming and beautiful that I love it completely.

64. The Sun Also Rises (audio book), by Ernest Hemingway (***)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

The narrator Jake Barnes, an American expatriate living in Paris, describes his love for Brett, a woman who has many admirers and men who love her.

This is not my favorite of Hemingway's works. While the writing is poetic and the characters interesting, the meandering plot moving from one party to the next, from drunken dinners in Paris to drunken nights in Spain during the bull fights just didn't appeal to me. It's one of those stories that doesn't have much actually happening. Rather it has the appearance of things happening, but the people don't change. They move from one location and kind of night out to the next and all the characters go through the same motions wherever they go.

The travelogue nature of some of the book did hold my interest, but in some parts, especially the beginning, I was slightly bored by it all.

65. The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

Athena is many things to many people, a witch, a mystic, a bank worker, a dancer, a crazy woman, a mother, a gypsy ... The picture of Athena unfolds in this novel, told by the people who knew her, who hated her and loved her. It's a beautiful story, invoking the goddess and ripe with the potential of female power, both spiritual, magical, and mundane.

66. After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti, by Danticat (****1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

Edwidge Danticat takes us to the streets of Jacmel and through the wild, brightly colored, irreverent ceremony of carnival. Mixed folk lore, history, and historical analysis with personal memoir, Danticat's journey through Jacmel, before and after carnival, is delightful, and makes me long for a trip to Haiti.

67. Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, by S.G. Browne (****)
Category: The Living Dead

In this darkly comic take on the zombie story, Browne presents a world in which the dead arise, but instead of being brainless shuffling corpses, they are actually intelligent and only ocasionally shuffling corpses. After a car crash in which both he and his wife die, Andy finds himself embalmed and shuffling away from the mortuary on a distortedly broken ankle. His afterlife is immediately beset with problems, as he is now considered a worthless subhuman with out any of the basic rights that the living enjoy.

Andy spends his time watching reruns in his parent's basement (with the door locked, because they are embarrassed of him), being shouted at and pelted with food when he walks down the street, trying to keep from falling apart by getting his fix of formaldehyde, and once a week going to Undead Anonomous meetings with others who are in his same situation. His daily depression is compounded by the fact that he cannot even speak of his problems to his therapist. Things begin to turn around for him, however, when he falls for another zombie who sucks on lipstick and makeup to get her fix of formaldehyde.

I love the dark humor and the clever writing style. You are made to wholy sympathise with the zombies and their plight to the point that humans, also known as breathers, seem to be one dimensional. Every breather is so disgusted with zombies that they are cruel and viscious to them. In a way this was necessary to your sympathy for the zombies, but it also made the world seem somewhat flat. For it seems to me, that if zombies were real there would be a certain number of people who would want to help them out and be kind to them, even if the majority of the population was as hateful as they were in the book.

But this is a minor foible and Breathers is a great zombie love story, or zombie revolution story (depending on your point of view), and a fun read.

68. Chasing the Dragon, by Nicholas Kaufmann (****1/2)
Category: The Living Dead

The legend goes that Saint George fought and killed the dragon, but the legend is wrong. Saint George failed and the dragon still walks the earth, feeding and killing and raising the dead for her own personal army. The charge of battling the dragon has passed down through the family line all the way to Georgia, who is torn up by her own internal demons, dealing with her addiction to heroine. While she hunts the dragon, the dragon also hunts her.

This is a good old fashioned horror story, the kind that pulls no punches and incorporates perfect amounts of blood and guts, while presenting a character who is believable. I love Georgia, because while she has been broken down by her life and her addiction, she perseveres and finds the strength to keep fighting.

I have no idea whether I will pull off my 2010 Challenge, as I'm rather behind on reading, but I'm definitely thinking about what categories to read next year.

I really like doing specific categories, but when I do it is often a challenge to finish them, so I'm wondering if maybe I should consider doing some more general categories. Will think about that one a little longer.

Possible categories for 2011:
- Steampunk
- Comics/Graphic Novels
- Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse
- Books about Books
- Wild West
- Scripture/Philosophy (the Bible, Koran, Nietzsche, etc.)
- a specific scifi/fantasy genre (sword and sorcery, alternate history, space operas, or the like)
- Alchemy (in fiction and in history)**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Flamel#References
- Arthurian

Most Likely
- Hello, I Love You (read one book by and author and need to read more)
- Put the Pen to the Paper (books on writing and/or making art - project category)
- The Universe in Verse (Poetry)
- It's a Smoldering World After All (Apocalypse and Post Apocalypse)
- Spurs, Bustles, and the Steam Engine
Books on the Wild West, Victorian Era, and Steampunk. Both fiction and nonfiction.
- The Playground Books for children and young adults.
- Unicorns from Space! (fantasy and science fiction)
- Pretty, pret - graphic novels and comics
- From my Bookshelf
- From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books
- Miscellany (catch all)

General Fiction category?
Nonfiction Category?

69. Brideshead Revisited (audio book), by Evelyn Waugh (****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Upon finding himself stationed at Brideshead during the second world ward, Charles Rider begins to remember how his life has weaved in and out of the Marchmain family who once lived there. Charles was best friends with Sebastian Marchmain in university and visited with this wealthy and dysfunctional Marchmain family at Brideshead.

This book is rather tragic as it mainly deals with the fall of the old aristocracy with the Marchmains as the representative family. Sorrow upon sorrow seems to be heaped upon them, and Charles shares in it due to his close connection with the family.

It's a wee slow in some areas, but it's also rather beautiful in the way of nostalgia. The book in a way serves the same function as Charles' paintings of old houses, manners, and castles, as a kind of relic to a way of life that doesn't quite exist in the same way any more, while also creating deep characters that for one reason or another will not allow themselves to be happy.

70. Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy (****)
Category: About Women/Feminism

After smashing her niece's pimp in the face with a bottle, Connie Ramos is declared violently insane. Trapped in the terrible tedium of the asylum ward, Connie, as a receiver, is able to escapes via her connection with Luciente to the year 2137. She sees first hand a utopian society, in which division of gender and race is nonexistent and people live in peace and connection with the earth and its animals. Meanwhile, in her own time, the doctors have signed her up for a dangerous experiment that could sever her from herself forever.

Connie is clearly sane, much more so than the many people on the outside, from the doctors (who see themselves as heroic gods) to her niece (who lets herself be beaten, abused and used over and over again) to her brother (who wishes to control everyone and everything around him). However, it's never really clear whether this utopia she visits is a real place or not. Piercy presents the time traveling in such a straightforward manner and the future in such rich detail, that one at first takes it for granted that its real, just as Connie does.

Real or not real doesn't really matter, however, for this vision of the future presents Connie with a different way of seeing not only the world around her, but also herself full of struggles and suffering. It also gives her the strength to fight back.

Ack! Hit by 2 Book Bullets this time, they both sound wonderful. Great reviews too, I tend to ramble and get lost in my thoughts when I write them up.

Looking over your potential 1111 categories, I think we'll share at least a few of them. Some great reading is to be had, for sure!

@127 How does it compare to the brilliant TV series based on it?

@129 Haha. Book bullets. I like that.

I'm so undecided on my 2011 categories, but as you say, there is always great reading to be had. :)

.

@130 You know, I've never seen the TV series. I will definitely have to check it out. Is it BBC?

@131 It's BBC, yes. It frequently turns up as a top candidate when there's talk about the best TV series ever.

71. Fables: The Good Prince, by Bill Willingham (*****)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

In this series, the Fables, people, beings, and creatures that we know from storybooks and fairytales, have made a home in our world, after escaping persecution and death when they fled from their homelands.

In this tenth volume of the graphic series, Ambrose, the frog prince and the kind-hearted janitor, goes on a quest back to the homelands to set up his own kingdom. His journey leads him down into the witching well, from which no one has returned, and along a road of many trials.

This is probably one of my favorites of the Fables storylines. It's a true heroes tale, along the lines of classic Arthurian romances, such as those featuring Sir Galahad or Sir Gawain of the round table. It's an soothing epic, a perfect calm before the storm that will arrive in then few books to series.

72. The Walking Dead: The Heart's Desire, by Robert Kirkman (*****)
73. The Walking Dead: The Best Defense, by Robert Kirkman (*****)
74. The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life, by Robert Kirkman (*****)
Category: The Living Dead

Rick and fellow survivors find refuge behind prison fences and begin the process of starting their lives anew in a zombie infested world. However, they will have to face a new human threat that is far more deadly than the zombies surrounding them.

This graphic novel series is continually well written and drawn. The story centers around the people with the undead, though a constant threat, as more a part of the background setting. I'm looking forward to continuing with the series.

* * * *
And with the completion of these three books, I have now finished the Living Dead category. :D

75. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (****1/2)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

Thursday Next is a SpecOps 27 agent, who unexpectedly finds herself on the hunt for Acheron Hades, the world's third most dangerous villian. When a stakeout with SpecOps 5, who purpose is secret and shady, goes terribly wrong, Thursday gets blamed for the mishap and is told to back off. Instead she decides to go after him herself.

The world in which Thursday lives is a delightful cornucopia of oddities, including time travel (her father has a face that can stop a clock), genetically cloned dodos as pets, a 130-year war in the Crimea, the forces of darkness, literary terrorists, and book worms that can actually take you inside a book.

The Eyre Affair is just damn fun. Hades is a righteously badass villian, totally in love with the idea of being evil, and Thursday is just strong and smart enough to stand up to him. I would definitely recommend this book, and I look forward to continuing on with the series.

76. Fables: War and Pieces, by Bill Willingham (****1/2)
77. Fables: The Dark Ages, by Bill Willingham (****1/2)

In this series, the Fables, people, beings, and creatures that we know from storybooks and fairytales, have made a home in our world, after escaping persecution and death when they fled from their homelands.

In Volume 11 and 12, the final battle with the adversary is fought and won. But the conseuence of this victory is the resurection of a deep, darker danger that could destroy Fabletown and the Fables.

Very good books, as we see one story arc come to end and and another open. I'm very curious to see where the story goes from here.

78. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)
79. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)
80. Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, by Brian Lee O'Malley (****)
Category: Pop Culture Phenomenon

Scott Pilgrim is a basist in a garage band, shares and apartment (and bed) with his gay roommate, and is dating a high school girl. Everything seems to be going fine in his underachieving life until he started having strange dreams of a girl on roller blades. Things get really weird when he meets this girl, named Ramona, and starts dating her. Things get even weirder when the League of Ramona's Evil Ex-Boyfriends begins to show up one-by-one to challenge Scott to epic battles if he wants to keep dating her.

The Scott Pilgrim books are chock full of awesome. Scott is a clueless, adorable, and endearing jerk. Ramona is no nonsense and very mysterious. And all the friends are equally quirky and fun.

The books don't refer to pop culture as much as they live in a pop culture reality. The storyline plays out like a video game with each evil exboyfriend representing a boss fight, and the characters sometimes make self referential comments about this being a book. No one ever seems bothered that a guy might gain super telekinesis powers by becoming a vegan or any of the other odd things that happen as Scott stumbles through his life and from one epic battle to the next. This series is totally fun.

I'm definitely going to have to watch the movie now.

@137 Have heard about the movie, and knew it was based on a comic. But not much more than that. Very cool getting an image like this. Will need to look this up, I think!

@138
They are very fun books and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. :)

Belated catching up on threads and it's nice to see another Walking Dead fan, have you caught the new TV series? I think I am too attached to the comic but it seems to well done. Talking about zombies Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S.G. Browne sounds like a lot of fun.

@137 Have been thinking of trying the Scott pilgrim books after I enjoyed the film, so it's great to see a thumbs up.

Hey, clfisha,

I do watch the TV series and it is very well down, but I'm feeling kind of ambivalent about it. They've added a lot of random characters, which I'm not sure I like. It seems like not enough time is spent getting to know the characters or something. I just don't feel all that bad when someone dies.

The cinematography is gorgeous, though, and the zombie make up and costuming are spot on.

81. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle (****)
Category: Arm Chair Travels

A historical novel in poems, this book follows the Cuba's three wars for independence in the late 1800s. All peasants are rounded up into reconcentration camps to prevent them helping the anti-Spanish rebels. Meanwhile hidden in a cave in the forest, Rosa uses herbs and plants to heal those who come to her, whether they are former slaves, injured farmers, or Spanish soldiers. She cares not for color or station, if you come to her she will offer her healing.

This is a young adult book and the poems are simple and straight forward, so simple and straightforward that sometimes they read more like prose than poetry. But there is often beauty in these words, just as Rosa manages to look around her and still see beauty and hope in her war shredded Cuba.

82. Girl, Interupted, by Susanna Kaysen (****1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

After one three hour interview with a psychiatrist, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is hospitalized in 1967. It's a time when just being different and living outside societies preconceived notions can earn you the label of crazy. Susanna stays within the hospital for two years of her life and she describes her experience with crisp clarity.

My immediate notion after reading this book was to compare it to the movie, which has more drama and a more direct and straightforward story arc, but lacks the disjointed beauty of the book and Susanna's often slyly humorous observations. The memoir is compose of short vignettes, which introduce the various people she meets, and is interjected with original documents from her records, along with observations on insanity and the entire psychiatric system. It's really a beautiful book that not only looks at the nature of mind, but how insanity was (and perhaps is) determined as much by gender as by one's actual mental state.

83. The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende (****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

Bastian is a fat, ordinary boy, who is always picked on by his fellow students and ignored by his father. Escaping a band of bullies, Bastian slams into a books store. Inside is a grumpy old man is reading a strange book with two snakes curling around each other eating each other's tails -- The Neverending Story. Drawn to the book, Bastian steals it when the man's back is turned. He runs to the attic of his school and begins reading. As he follows a young hunter's journey to save the Childlike Empress, Bastian is surprised to discover that he is drawn more and more into book itself, into a world that is very much real.

I always loved the movie as a kid and I still love it now. I wanted to hang out with Atreyu, the hunter, and ride Falcor, the Luck Dragon. I wanted to visit this dangerous beautiful world in which a childlike empress was in charge of everything. I even liked the subpar sequel with the super cute Jonathan Brandis as lead.

As is to be expected the book has far more subtlety and depth than the movie. Though I was surprised to find that both movies were adapted from the book with the end of the first movie being the midpoint of the book.

The childlike empress is much so much more in the book, closer to the spiritual soul of Fantastica. She loves everyone and everything equally, including those considered evil by other, because all has a purpose and a place to her. Atreyu is even more steadfast and brave, and Falcor is beautiful and far less creepy.

Bastian's journey throughout The Neverending Story becomes more of a spiritual quest in the book than the simplified adventure that the movies (especially the sequel) present. He does have many grand adventures, but as he looses his memory, he loses a part of himself. He rises and falls, does grand deeds and fails, and in the end he must find his way back home.

This is really a brilliant story, and I wish I had had the chance to read it before seeing the movies that affected me so much and left such an imprint on my mind. I still the love the movies for what they are and as a part of my childhood nostalgia, but the book is amazing. I almost wish it really was never ending.

I'm so glad you enjoyed The Neverending Story. I enjoyed it as well but wasn't able to articulate it as thoughtfully as you did. Have you read anything else by Ende?

I have not read anything else by him, though I'm very interested in reading more of his work. I just got a suggestion to read his collection of stories, Mirror in the Mirror, and I'm excited to try that out.

My husband and I loved reading The Night of Wishes out loud to each other. It was so much fun.

84. Under the Volcano (audio book), by Malcolm Lowry (****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Living in Quauhnahuac, Mexico as a drunkard, Geoffry Fermin, former British consul, is surprised by the sudden arrival of his estranged wife, Yvonne, on the Day of the Dead. She's come back to him in the hope of pulling him back to her, of freeing him from that which has him trapped in a daze of liquor, of whisking him off, taking him away from Mexico to some other place, any other place, where they might once again be together and happy. But things are complicated with the inclusion of Hugh, the consuls' brother, and Jacques, the consul's old friend, both of whom who are equally wrapped up in an emotional tangle with Yvonne and Geoffry.

Under the Mountain is a richly textured novel. Mexico is made both beautiful and terrifying in the way the author slips from the streaming consciousness of one character to another. Each character is a little lost and each is trying desperately to hang on to some home they are sure they've lost. They keep telling themselves, if only, if only, if only. Yet, the fact that they cannot speak so openly with each other, and if they do speak, it becomes lost in the chaos of the day and forgotten, means that their chance for hope is fleeting.

Yvonne is both straightforward and subtle, trying to open up forgiveness to Geoffry, trying to make him see that she loves him, that she will not abandon him again, that she will not become a shrew intent on restraining him. Meanwhile Geoffry, who has hoped so long for her return, seems trapped in a spiral of despair. It's like he's stuck on a carousel, and he can see her waiting, but it just keeps going around and around and he is too terrified to simply jump off.

The writing in this book is deeply beautiful and it carried me through to the end, though I must admit that in terms of pure story standpoint, I was deeply disappointed by the ending, having been brought around to love all of these characters so much, I had hoped for more.

@144 I consider myself lucky that I read it at 13. With each reread, new layers of meaning were added, from a straight adventure story when I was younger, to meditations on being true to oneself later on. This has remained a favorite throughout the years and my copy has followed me all my adult life.

@149
That's awesome. I love those books you hold on to from when you were a kid. :)

85. The Red Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang (****)
Category: Fairy Tales/Folklore

A classic collection of fairy tales and folklore from various parts of Europe, including such well known tales as "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "Rapunzel", as well as many, many more that are not nearly so well known.

Several well known authors, including Neil Gaiman, have cited this book as a source of inspiration. So, I had to read it as see what it was all about. And certainly, several of the tales were rather incredible. I loved the tone and slightly altered telling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," for example, and it was fun to read all the tales that I'd never heard of before.

The sheer size of the book almost works against it however, and I wouldn't recommend reading it from beginning to end, unless you want the tropes of the fairy tale hammered into your head. Reading it straight through, as I did, took on a level of redundancy. There are variations in every tale, of course, but the actions are often the same. Hero/heroin must face three test, is helped by magical being and ends up marrying a prince/princess. There are many other tropes. Hero is told not to do something, he does and is told he will never see his bride again, until he makes up for it. Pretty daughter is good and kind receives rewards, ugly daughter is lazy so is punished, but when pretty daughter marries the king, ugly daughter tricks her and tries to take her place. Etc.

I love fairy tales enough to work my way through it, and this really is an excellent and thorough collection, but it would have been better to read it in bits one tale when ever the mood took me, rather than ploughing straight through.

I'm so close to finishing this challenge and yet so far away. 15 books to go, so if I read 45 a week, I'll get there. It's a bit high for me, but within the realm of possibility.

ETA: Whoops! I meant 4 a week. Heh.

I have found finishing 100 books this year to be quite an endurance test for me! You have made amazing progress with your 1010 Challenge to get where you are. Good luck with the last three weeks!

"45 a week" sounds a bit high too me :)

@153, Thanks! It is quite the endurance test, isn't it.

@154. LOL! Whoops! Yeah, I meant 4. :)

86. The Pleasure Seekers, by Tishani Doshi (*****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

This was an ER book.

When Babo leaves Madras, India to study in London, he finds only loneliness and cold, that is until he meets Sian. When he meets her, he immediately falls in love with a ba-da-boom boom boom of his heart. Though his strict Jain parents are horrified by his new love, they are willing to make a compromise. If Babo and Sian wish to marry, they must live with his parents in Madras for two years -- after which point, they can live where they please.

So, Sian leaves Britain's shores and flies to India, where she learns how to properly wear a sari, how to behave as a good India wife should, and how to temper the isolation and loneliness of living in a new country. Babo and Sian are an island unto themselves and their love is passionate and forgiving.

But this story is not just about Babo and Sian. It is about the nature of family (both in Madras and Wales), and how each individual member stands both rooted in its foundations and as a solitary pillar in the world. Each family member, from the great grandmother (who accepts the purity of Babo's love for Sian without question) to Babo's brother (who is somewhat lost in his position as second son), is opened like a fruit, with their soul, ripe with love and loneliness barred for the reader to see.

Tishani Doshi's prose is like crystal, clear and deeply resonate. This novel, evocative, sweetly painful, and compassionate, is one of my favorites of the year.

87. Morning in the Burned House (poetry), by Margaret Atwood (*****)
Category: About Women/Feminism

My second read of Atwood's lovely collection of poetry ingrained them even more into my imagination. Her poetry creates a mythology of the everyday and brings a feel of reality to mythological tales, often speaking from the point of view of a previously silent woman. This is a beautiful collection, which I will be adding to my personal book shelf as soon as I can.

I didn't realize Atwood did poetry! I suspect it's time I read something of hers other than A Handmaid's Tale (which of course I read back in high school, many years ago and with much less maturity). I will definitely thumb through if I see her poetry.

She has several books of poetry out, and I've read and enjoyed a few of them. I hope you do, too. :)

88. Talking Back to Poems: A Working Guide for the Aspiring Poet, by Daniel Alderson (***)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

Reading poetry is a vital part of writing poetry. Alderson takes it a step further, however, by suggesting that poets not only read poetry, but respond to it, to talk back to poetry with poems of their own. Part I presents four short sections that briefly introduce the aspects of Sound, Image, Form, and Meaning in poetry, while Part II follows with a collection of poems, each followed with instructions to copy the poem by hand, note down what you notice about the poem, and then a prompt for writing your own poem in response to it.

There is a long history of poets writing in response to poets, and I've even written a few poetic responses myself. However I was not very impressed with the prompts in this book as Alderson presents them. His idea of talking back to poems is far too much like mimicry to me. In the examples of his students' writing that he includes in the book, the students (using their own themes and ideas) echo almost exactly the form and flow of the poem being responded to. This is far too restrictive for me, especially when it comes to mimicking strict forms, such as sonnets that have tight rhyme schemes. This restriction of form often has the tendency of causing me to freeze up when I'm writing rather than opening up and becoming loose as one would hope.

My experience with writing in response to poetry involves not mimicry, but a playful dialogue. The few poetic responses I've written have little relation to the original poem (one example is here), but is rather reacts to the subject matter of the poem in kind of debate. Of course, this is not the only way to go about this, and Alderman's way of talking back to poetry is equally valid. Just as there are many poets who comfortably play in rhyme and strict forms, which I do not.

The practice of handwriting out a poets previous work also did not appeal to me. Though I understand his reasoning for having a writer first copy the poem by hand (in order to get a feel for the rhythms and voice of the poem), I did not feel that it helped me gain any greater sense of the poem. Rather, I found that reading the poem out loud was a much better way to get a feel for the rhythm and sound of the poem.

I'm sure that there are many poets out there who would find this book very valuable, however I am not one of them. Of the 20 or 30 poetry prompts in the book, I found myself interested in responding to only a handful of them. And when I did respond, I often found myself jumping outside of the prompts and guidelines and responding to the poems as I damn well felt like it, which is really how it should be.

Hey there! Glad to see that you loved your ER book - it happens to me too rarely. ;) I love that you read poetry. I hardly ever read it myself, despite the fact that every time I do pick up a book I enjoy it so much. It seems like Atwood is one of your faves for poetry - do you have any other recs? I used to read a lot of Frost, Plath, and Thomas Hardy, but it has been years since then.

Yeah, I'd say I feel only so-so about the ER books more than half the time. Only rarely is there one I like, let alone love.

I love reading poetry. My all time favorite is Pablo Neruda, though I also love Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood. Any poetry by them tends to be wonderful.

I'm also just starting to read more Walt Whitman, e. e. cummings, Ezra Pound, and H. D.

Other poetry books I've loved are:
The Haunted House, by Marissa Crawford
Cures Include Travel, by Susana Rich
The Usable Field, by Jane Mead
Book of Haikus, by Jack Kerouac
The Ghost Trio, by Linda Bierds
Transformations, by Anne Sexton
You Never Know, by Ron Padgett

89. Forces of Imagination: Writing on Writing, by Barbara Guest (****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

This fascinating collection of essays by poet Barbara Guest looks at nature of art and poetry and discusses the idea of imagination in a poets life and work. Her style essays are often poetry in and of themselves, delving into strong form and powerful language to convey her ideas. This is a book that should really be read multiple times and discussed among a group, as her thoughts are open to multiple interpretations.

90. Behind the Mountains, by Danticat (***1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

Celiane lives in the Haitian mountains with her mother and brother while her father works in New York, sending money and recordings of his voice home to his family when he can. After surving a bombing at and being witness to increasing violence in Port-au-Prince surrounding the 2000 elections, Celiene and her family holes up into her aunt's house for safety to afraid to go outside and hoping that her father will be able to send for her soon.

This is not my favorite of Danticat's work. It's good, but I feel that Danticat doesn't work well in the diary format. Also, since I've read several of her books, I feel that she's stuck in this story of a child coming from Haiti to the U.S. I know that she is drawing from her own life with this storyline. However, I also feel that she's already told this story and told it better with Breath, Eyes, Memory, which was much more richly textured.

91. Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabel Allende (****1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Tete is purchased as a young girl by Toulouse Valmorain's as a gift for his new wife and works as a domestic slave within the household. A series of events binds both Valmorain and Tete together, and carries them from war the war torn Saint-Domingue to Cuba and finally to Louisianna. All the while Tete longs and plots for her freedom, taking and holding on tightly to what joys, hope, and passions she can obtain as a slave.

The scope of this novel is huge, switching back and forth between third person POV and Tete's own POV. Allende is thorough in her history (however accurate), describing in detail the brutal rebellion of slaves on the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue and how the island, later known as Haiti, became the first free black country in the Carribean. From there, she weaves her story briefly through the Cuban landscape, where white refugees are forced to flee, and finally land in Louisianna, where she presents a very different world than that of Saint-Domingue.

Tete has a subdued quality throughout the book. All her life she has had to suppress her own emotions in the face of her own reality, filled with horrors, so it is no surprise that when she tells her tone seems nearly disinterested almost flat. But she is not a woman without passions, which have lain in the quiet depths of her heart. Her battles have been quiet subterfuges and she has had to face her life with simultaneous complacency and secret resistance.

The people who swim around Tete, such as Valmorain and his mad wife or the doctor who often visits to the plantation, are each treated with tenderness and respect. Allende works hard to leave judgment out and to let the reader observe and judge each character on their own terms.

Thick with history and folklore, The Island Beneath the Sea is a wonderful read.

92. Kind (Good Neighbors), by Holly Black (****)
Category: Miscellany

Finishing up the The Good Neighbors trilogy, Kind makes it all the more clear that our kindly neighborhood fairies are not so good or kind. Now that Rue's city is trapped in the fairy world, things have not calmed down -- her boyfriend is still being eaten alive by water sprites, her father is on the crazy train, and groups of humans and fairies are at war with one another.

While this entire series is very short and could have done with some expansion of plot and characterization, it's still quite good and an enjoyable tale of the fairy world.

93. Post Meridian (poetry), by Mary Rueffle (****)

I picked up this book of poetry, because I read and loved A Little White Shadow, in which she took an old Victorian manuscript and whited out text to create what she calls erasure (or whiteout) poetry. It was a fascinating way to approach found poetry, which has inspired me to play with the form in my own writing.

Post Meridian is a collection wholly original poetry. It is sometimes heavy as tree branches bowed under the weight of snow, though it is also often playful. Mocking in a kindly way. Poking fun at the ghosts and shadows and day to day terrors that we often take far too seriously.

I enjoyed this book of poetry, though at times there was a disjointed quality, one line encapsulating a thought process that collapses upon another. Sometimes this made it difficult to take the whole poem in as a whole. Though each line in and of itself would be captivating, the entirety of the work assembled could occasionally be somewhat baffling.

Not that poetry has to have clear meaning -- being multilayered as a puzzle box is part of the enjoyment of reading poetry, though I admit that my own enjoyment comes from discovering how each piece fits into the next. The resulting imagery and meaning as perceived by me allows me to (perhaps delusionally) believe that I have tapped into the secret key of the poem and discovered a truth denied to others. Egotistical? Maybe. But I doubt I'm alone in this experience.

The poetry in Post Meridian, however, often denied me this. The pieces did not always neatly fit, and I sometimes felt as though I were standing on the edge of the poem rather than being let in to its secret chambers -- a confounding experience, but not necessarily negative. Perhaps these poems open more wholly to others; perhaps I need merely return to them at another time when I can look at them from an altered perspective. Either way, this is an enjoyable collection of poems that I would definitely recommend.

94. Flight of Shadows, by Sigmund Brouwer (***)
Category: From My Bookshelf

This is an ER book.

Following the water wars of the future, the U.S. has severed itself into a drastic cast system. Influentials live the lives of the elite behind tall city walls, while Industrials, marked with facial tattoos, lived like indentured slaves with no rights and are allowed only into the cities only to serve during the day and excised to the shanty towns outside the walls at night. Illegals are on the lowest rung, living outside the system entirely and subject to the whims of ragged, violent gangs.

Caitlin Brown, having escaped from a strict religious community wishes to live as an Invisible, hiding the deformity on her back and blending in unseen into the background of this world. She doesn't know that she is being hunted, both by a black-ops government agency and a brutal bounty hunter with a grudge. In order to escape, she may have to rely on the help of Razor, a "sharp, fast, and dangerous" Illegal, who she's not sure if she can even trust.

The idea of this book sounds great, what with genetic manipulation and a dangerous dystopian society, but the construction is not that great. The scenes shift back and forth rapidly between multiple characters, I presume with the intention of heightening tension, but it doesn't leave enough time to get a feel for a character before the scene shifts. It comes across as disjointed at times, and it was not until far into the book that I began to know enough about the characters to have at least the smallest inkling of compassion for them.

The writing itself sometimes even gets in the way of the enjoyment, especially in the first several chapters, where sentences shift from being long and unweildy to being short and choppy. At times the sentence structure was so jarring as to be distracting, though the writing smoothed out some later on.

The book is not all bad, though. While the beginning is definitely a bot rough going, the story does pick up as the pieces begin to fall into place and we can see the whole picture. Also, Razor is definitely a boon, a character who has managed to carve a place for himself in this world and is clever enough to deny the layers of class. He can move effortlessly between the classes, and while Caitlin can't be sure he's trustworthy (nor can we), the mystery of who he is and how he can do what he does is certainly part of his attraction.

It's not my favorite book of all time, and it's not the first I would think of recommending to someone, but it's not terrible either. It's not filled with deep resonating substance, but I came around to mildly enjoying it by the end. So if the storyline appeals to you and your just interested in a little dystopian action, you might enjoy it.

95. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece, edited by Jennifer Crusie (****)
Category: Books About Books and Writing

A collection of essays (and handful of short stories) from chick-lit and modern literary authors assesses the classic Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice. It's a fun light-hearted criticism of the book, addressing it from a modern perspective, even going so far as to imagine what it might be like if Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters had to deal with cell phones or if the book was actually a reality TV show. Some of the essays are better than others, but most of them were easy reads with enough I-hadn't-thought-about-it-that-way throughout to hold my interest.

*

ETA: This concludes another category. Whoohoo!

96. Damsel under Stress, by Shanna Swendson (****)
Category: From My Bookshelf

In book three of the Enchanted, Inc. series Katie Chandler is finally getting what she desires. Owen Phillips, the hottie wizard (and possibly perfect man) at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. has asked her out -- except Katie now has to deal with a meddling fairy godmother, their enemies are up to something, and every date they go on goes horribly, horribly wrong.

This book, like the previous two before it, is extremely funny and cute. It's intelligent and fun chick-lit with a likable heroine, who can stand on her own two feet and doesn't want to bother with being a damsel in distress (she'll save herself, if she can, thank you very much). Now that I finished this book, I'm itching to read the fourth. I can't wait to see what happens next to all of the characters, and I hope she gets enough sales to publish the fifth and six books in the series.

97. Yarrow, by Charles De Lint (****1/2)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

"Cat Midhir had made a reputation as the author of popular fantasy novels. But the secret that her fans didn't know was that her Otherworld was no fantasy. Then one night a thief stole her dreams. Since then, Cat has been unable to enter the Otherworld. Since then, she's been trapped in the everyday. And the Others are coming to find her..." Yarrow and De Lint's work in general. His brand of urban fantasy is ... compassionate, I guess, and all too real. It feels like I could at any moment step into that Otherworld. But this is a wonderful story, beautiful and frightening, and if you haven't read any De Lint yet, you really should.

I am now three books away from completing the challenge and I have three days left in the year. Tick tock.

I may just be able to do this, if I can find that damn library book that seems to have gone missing.

I don't know about you, but it drives me crazy when books 'disappear'. Good luck with your last three books!

Thanks! I'm hoping to find the book this afternoon with a more thorough search.

Any luck on finding the book? Just recently "lost" a book myself, it made me totally insane, so I feel ya! I've never read De Lint - would Yarrow be a good place to start?

You can do it, only 3 more books! I'm almost finished with my last book for this challenge too, and once it's done tonight I can't wait to have a WHOLE DAY of "free reading"!

I did find the book and I'm reading it now.

Yarrow would be a good place to start, though my introduction to De Lint was Dreams Underfoot, which is a collection of interwoven short stories set in the imaginary city of Newford. Dreams Underfoot is fantastic and I would recommend that one, too, as an excellent place to start.

98. The Penelopeia, by Jane Rawlings (***1/2)
Category: About Women/Feminism

When Odyseus returns home from his long journeys, he finds that his wife Penelope has not only been steadfast in her defense of her home, but that she has managed to keep secret the birth of Odyseus' twin daughters -- a secret kept to spare them from the suitors ravaging their home.

But the gods are not done with this noble family yet, as it has been decried that Penelope and her two lovely daughters must travel to Pythia to visit the oracle and on from there to visit Helen so that her daughters may learn her secrets of healing.

Rawlings writes this continuation of The Odessy in the epic poetic style of Homer, mimicking the tone and voice of her favorite translation of the work. She accomplishes this quite well, for except for the fact that her poem is in first person, it sounds almost exactly like the Odessy as I remember reading it years ago.

I was slightly bored by it at time, though, because much of the epic poem is spent in convincing Odyseus to allow them to leave and in the sharing of only mildly interesting tales. It takes quite a while for Penelope to even get on the ship, let alone begin her adventures. Further, her adventures, being those of a woman are much tamer than her husbands. There is very little reason for her to use her cunning, which she clearly has as seen in the Odessy. The most exciting moments are those that came more than half way through the book, when she is taken up by the great Amazon warrior women who wish her to join their ranks. My interest was only roused then, and was diminished when she left their ranks.

In some ways Rawlings had to cheat to make this story happen, had to invent and secret in aspects of the story that were not in the Odessy in order to make it work. And even, the restrictions of women according to the time and culture in her characters lived meant that she could have gone further with this story, to delve deeply into strength and potential of women as I had hoped. Any attempt to have women go off on adventures on their own in ancient Greece, unless their were Amazons or in some other way free from men and the burdens of reputation, ultimately results in a story that sounds forced. Or perhaps it can be done, but it came out sounding forced here, despite Rawlings best efforts. In the end I was a bit disappointed with this tale.

So I'm about halfway through the last two books I need to read for this challenge. I'll finish at least one today, the other will be finished tomorrow, which is close enough for me to be able to say that I'll have finished the challenge.

Now... off to reading!!

Wow! Congratulations.

99. Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti, by Frances Temple (***1/2)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

In a time when Haiti in the process of political change, Djo has been brutally attacked and beaten and lies close to death. Jeremie, a young woman from a local convent school, has been assigned to come sit with him and record his tale, so that it will not be lost. As he tells her his story -- how he became one of "Titid's Boys", became a car washer, and was dragged off to the Dominican Republic to cut cane -- an affection and friendship grows between them.

This is the kind of book I would have read in school, serving as kind of educational tool to show what live might have been like for young people in a country torn apart be violence and how they choose to wake up and take a stand in what ways they can. It is a good story with good writing, however, the association I had with school reading took away some of the enjoyment. I kept feeling like I was supposed to learn something from this, as though I might have to write an essay about it later, rather than getting wrapped up and passionate about the storyline. But this probably has more to do with my own bias rather than any flaws in the book.

*

100. Breath, Eyes, Memory (audio book), by Danticat (****)
Category: Edwidge Danticat and Haiti

For years Sophie Cacao has lived with her aunt Atie, while her mother has been away in New York working to send money back to her family in Haiti. To Sophie, her mother is a stranger, and she is heart broken when her mother sends for her and she must leave her Tante Atie and travel to New York. When she arrives there, Sophie learns that there are deep secrets and painful past horrors that her mother has carried with her all the way from Haiti, and it will only be by returning to Haiti that Sophie will be able to begin heal the long history of her family's wounds.

This is one of Danticat's earlier works, and reading it again reminds me why I came to love her writing. In this earlier work, there is a deeper feeling of truth to her writing. He prose is clear and poetic, and she pulls no punches as she lays out before us her characters lives, all their pleasure, all their pain. It's a beautiful book, for all the brutality -- not just from the macoutes, but from each other -- that these women must survive and eventually come to terms with.

*

And so, completing these two books means I am officially done with the 1010 Challenge. Woo!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

Congrats on completing the challenge!

Yay! Congrats on finishing!

Congratulations!

Congratulations! Onwards and upwards!

Congratulations! Wahoo!

Thanks guys! :D

Congrats!