Cait86's 2010 Reads, Part 1

Hooray for 2010!

Starting January 1, this will be where I post my reads for the year. Since I am now fully employed, rather than in school, my reading has dropped off quite a bit, but I hope to still make it to 75 books. I am also doing the 1010 Challenge, using the step formula. I am going to try to stick to those categories as much as possible, so expect a lot of Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, and Lucy Maud Montgomery, since I have categories dedicated to each of them. Also, I plan on reading at least 10 novels from the 2010 Booker Prize Longlist, which will take up most of the fall.

My last goal, and the least obtainable, is to read the books I own but have never read. The plan is for every 5 books I read off my shelves, I can treat myself to one new book - but that is it! This goal should last... oh, about a week :)




List of books read and reviewed will eventually be here!
1. Emma by Jane Austen - Message 30
2. Murder in the Dark by Margaret Atwood - Message 45
3. The Last River Child by Lori Ann Bloomfield - Message 55

Ha! Ha! Know the feeling. That was the last category completed in my 999 challenge--and only because I cheated!

Starred!

Welcome!

Got ya starred. I am impressed with your goals. Good luck and enjoy full employment!

Glad to see you back Cait!

Hooray, the gang's all here! I can't believe the number of members already - it is still 2009!

I'm soooo excited to start 2010 - so excited, in fact, that I have already planned out my reading for January (hopefully):
Half of a Yellow Sun - for my Reading Globally 1010 Category
Murder in the Dark - for my Atwood 1010 Category
Emma - for my Austen 1010 Category
Wolf Hall - I cannot believe I have not finished this yet!
Plus, I think I have a book coming that I need to review for Belletrista.

I think I can read these five - though January is exam and report card month! LOL

Fingers crossed for your January reading, Cait!

Found you!
Your January reads look great.

Hi! I have your thread starred!

Looking forward to your thread again!!

The Lucy Maud Montgomery category sounds amazing. I was thinking of rereading the Anne books this year myself. Anyway, starred you!

Hallo!

Austen & Atwood 1010 Categories? Now why didn't I think of that?!

Hi Cait - you are starred again!!

Just adding a message to post my:

Top Reads for 2009:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
Black Dogs - Ian McEwan
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
Any Known Blood - Lawrence Hill
Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer
A Perfect Gentle Knight - Kit Pearson
The Giver - Lois Lowry
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
Pictures at a Revolution - Mark Harris
In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
The Children's Book - A. S. Byatt
Too Much Happiness - Alice Munro
The Boy Next Door - Irene Sabatini
I Met the Walrus - Jerry Levitan
The Blythes Are Quoted - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Thanks to everyone for dropping by - I'm glad I won't be posting to silence :)

Hi...you're starred here too.

Just peekin' in. I always have good intentions of getting over here and checking everyone's reading out, but sometimes good intentions is all I have.

Starred! I find it ominous that your reading has dropped off with the student/employment switch- I'm hoping for the opposite effect when I make that transition! Anyway, good new years reading wishes to you!

Starring this for my future reference; I've only read one each of Margaret Atwood's and Cormac McCarthy's work (The Handmaid's Tale and The Road, respectively), so maybe your reviews will help me decide what to read next. :)
Good luck this year!

Gotcha starred for 2010!

My last book of 2009 brought you to mind, my fine Canadian friend. It was a lecture series on reading and writing given by Robertson Davies. It made my favorites for the year. I left a review on my 2009 thread.

Happy New Year.

#17-21 - Glad to see you all here! Consider your threads starred as well :)

#22 - BDB, thanks for dropping by and thinking of me. I am very intrigued by the Davies book, and might have to hunt up a copy for 2010. He is another author that I need to read more of. Thumbs up from me!

Happy New Year everyone! Besides being the first day of 2010, today is also my one year Thingaversary!! I had no idea what I was getting into last year when I joined LT. I stumbled across the site through a mention on a random blog, and never expected it - and all of you - to become such a big part of my life. Here's to another fantastic year filled with books, great conversation, and amazing friends! :)

Happy Anniversary, then.

Glad to see that the McCarthy books made your favorites. My wife and I went to see the movie of The Road. It matches the bleakness of the book but it was difficult to capture the hopeful parts of the book on screen. The times it did, The Man was speaking from McCarthy's book. I think they needed more of that.

Cait - Happy New Year and Happy Thingaversary !

Happy Thingaversary and starred, Cait. Here's to a splendid 2010!

Oh, I can't not wish you a Happy Thingaversary. Many congratulations, and I'm so looking forward to your reads this year.

<makes mental note to check own Thingaversary>

Happy Thingaversary, Cait!

Thanks for the wishes everyone!

Book #1: Emma - Jane Austen

1010 Category #2: Jane Austen (1/2)
Source: My TBR Shelves!
Pages: 453

Emma is the Austen novel that gave me the most trouble. This is my third time attempting it, despite loving Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. The character of Emma is, to me, far less interesting than Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot, and far more annoying. Austen said that when she sat down to write Emma, she wanted to create a heroine that no one but herself would like. After about the first third of this novel, I thought Austen had certainly succeeded. However, Emma began to grow on me, and by the end I was caught up in the romantic dramas of the novel. So, despite a slow start, Emma eventually moved up in the ranks of Austen's novels to surpass both Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey.

4 stars

That is so far my favorite Austen. I just like the main character for all of her prickliness.

Emma is growing up in the book, learning valuable life lessons, so the first time I read it, I found it took a bit of work to get just how she was maturing because I kept getting caught out by the social conventions, the veneer. But once I latched on to kindness and understood that this was one of the main lessons she was learning, I looked for other timeless elements and had a much easier time of it. Each time I've read it, I've got more out of it and like you, Cait, have ended up loving it. It has never surpassed P&P for me, however. ;)

> 30 What a great book to start off the year. Interesting info on Austen's comments re creating Emma. She is unlikeable for sure. I love the storyline and the growth of the character. I've always enjoyed both the book and the A&E miniseries.

found you and starred you!
Happy New Year!

I know alot of people had problems with Emma, she is set aside from Austen's other leads with not having to struggle with money, Emma has an entaty all of her own sharp, stong, only novel Austen felt she could use her heroin's name!

love Emma

I'm glad you enjoyed Emma. It and Pride and Prejudice are my two favorite Austens. I actually love her character and I feel that of all of Austen's heroines (minus those of Sense and Sensibility since I haven't read it), she seems to grow and mature the most.

Happy belated Thingaversary!

Congratulations on making it through a book that has given you problems in the past!

#34, 37, 38 - Thanks!

#31, 32, 33, 35, 36 - So many comments re: Emma! I certainly agree that she matures and changes the most of Austen's heroines. I especially liked the scene when she make amends for hurting Miss Bates - the Emma of the beginning of the novel would not have done that. I also really like Emma's attitude towards marriage; Austen's characters always seem to just want to be married, but Emma does not see it as necessary. Of course, she has the money to remain single, whereas the others do not. However, I always felt Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice sold herself short - marriage might have been very important to women at the time, but Charlotte is much too desperate!

I will definitely reread Emma in a few years, and I'm sure I will see it in an entirely different light - I get something different out of Pride and Prejudice every time.

Oh, and BBGirl, that is a really good point re: the titles of Austen's novels. Emma is the only heroine whose name is the title.

Reading Update - I should be finished Murder in the Dark, an Atwood collection of prose poems, by tomorrow. Look for comments on Wednesday :) As always, thanks for visiting!

> 39 I looked into Murder in the Dark and I'm not much into poetry or short stories. But my daughter is waaaay into poetry, short stories, (she writes both) and loved Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I look forward to your thoughts on this.

I've always been lukewarm on Emma myself. I understand she grows and matures, but I still don't like her. And Mr. Knightley kind of creeps me out. Not sure why, just a feeling I remember having. All that being said, it's far too long since I've read Ms. Austen's oeuvre. I need to get around to rereading her someday!

Looking forward to your review of the Atwood poems! I like poetry and don't read enough of it, and I enjoy Atwood, but I've never read any of her poems. Can't wait to see what you think!

Interesting discussion on Emma - I liked Emma the character because she was a fallible and less upright character than, say, Lizzie.

Of the three, I liked the character in Persuasion the best - perhaps because she is so compassionate with her family and very trod upon. I like to see the underdog win!

Got you starred of course! I haven't read Emma but I'm working through Mansfield Park but not enough to know if I like Ms. Price as a character yet.

Just bumping my thread up to let everyone know that Issue 3 of Belletrista is live! Check out www.belletrista.com and make sure to read two reviews written by yours truly - Scealta and The Blythes Are Quoted.

Also, I totally lied about reviewing Murder in the Dark on Wednesday... it will probably be tomorrow :)

Book #2: Murder in the Dark - Margaret Atwood

1010 Category #8: Margaret Atwood (1/8)
Source: My TBR Shelves!
Pages: 87

I truly love Margaret Atwood - I find her writing to be compelling, imaginative, and complex. She is the master of so many genres, and I enjoy her novels, poetry, and short stories with equal measure. Murder in the Dark is a rather odd collection, genre-wise, as it can be considered an anthology of short stories, or a book of poetry. Personally, I am going to take the middle, non-decisive ground, and call it an offering of prose-poems. Each selection is written in prose, not verse, but they contain a quality of language found only in poetry. Consider this entry, "Mute":

"Whether to speak or not: the question that comes up again when you think you've said too much, again. Another clutch of nouns, a fistful: look how they pick them over, the shopper for words, pinching here and there to see if they're bruised yet. Verbs are no better, they wind them up, let them go, scrabbling over the table, wind them up again too tight and the spring breaks. You can't take another poem of spring, not with the wound-up vowels, not with the bruised word green in it, not yours, not with ants crawling all over it, not this infestation. It's a market, flyspecked; how do you wash a language? There's the beginning of a bad smell, you can hear the growls, something's being eaten, once too often. Your mouth feels rotted.

Why involve yourself? You'd do better to sit off to the side, on the sidewalk under the awning, hands over your mouth, your ears, your eyes, with a cup in front of you into which people will or will not drop pennies. They think you can't talk, they're sorry for you, but. But you're waiting for the word, the one that will finally be right. A compound, the generation of life, mud and light."

Odd, certainly. But brilliant - something I want to read over and over. Murder in the Dark will probably become one of my go-to books, when I need a quick bit of literary inspiration. Each section, like "Mute", offers so much.

However, and this is a big however, there are sections of Murder in the Dark that I will never read again. As much as I love Atwood, it is so obvious that she lived through the intense feminism of the 70s and 80s. Some of her stories contain a bitterness towards men that I find jarring. Now, Murder in the Dark was first published in 1983, and so I can contextualize her feelings, and see how applicable they once were. I just cannot apply these ideas to my own life - growing up in today's society, I am lucky enough to have never felt disadvanged due to my gender. The thing with Atwood's more recent work (like Alias Grace or The Blind Assassin), is that while issues relating to femininity and gender are still present, much of that bitterness is gone. Reading Atwood's earlier writing is always tough for me, because of this difference. Luckily, I can see the hope in Murder in the Dark, as well as the bitterness.

So, in the end, I recommend this work for Atwood's skill with language, but with the warning that it is a bit dated in regards to gender attitudes.

3 stars

Nice review Cait it almost tempts me to add it to my wish list, but you know my feelings for MA. There is no doubt in my mind however, that she is skillfull, imaginative and intellectually stimulating.

What's up for you next?

Thanks Lynda! Murder in the Dark is very short - only 87 pages - so not much of a commitment if you decide to read it :)

I have a few book on the go right now: Half of a Yellow Sun, Wolf Hall, and two for Belletrista - The Last River Child and No One Will See Me Cry. I am hoping to finish one of them this weekend, as I refused to bring home any work!

OK, so Darryl is going to review Jazz albums on his thread, which gave me the idea to review movies - new ones I see at the theatre, or old ones I am only just discovering on DVD. First review can be found in the next message!

Nine

Directed by Rob Marshall
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judy Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie, and Sophia Loren

Nine is the new film by Rob Marshall, director of 2002's Chicago, one of my favourite movie-musicals. Nine is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn is an adaptation of Fellini's film 8 1/2. Daniel Day-Lewis is Guido Contini, a famous Italian film-maker who is unable to make a new film. He is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, largely due to his relationships with women. The talented actresses listed above play the various women in Contini's life - his wife, his muse, his mistress, his confidante, his would-be fling, his first sexual experience, and his mother.

First, the good. Cotillard is brilliant - raw yet controlled, the perfect person to play the wife of a cheater. Her two musicals numbers are the highlight of the movie, and she steals the screen from the rest of the cast. Kidman is also quite good as a famous actress who Contini has placed on a pedestal. Her part originally went to Catherine Zeta-Jones, who left the movie because she was unhappy with her small part. This, I think, was a blessing, as Kidman is much less overt in her acting - Zeta-Jones would have been much too harsh for the role. Kate Hudson and Fergie (of Black-Eyed Peas fame) gave much stronger performances than I had expected, and their songs gave Nine some much needed energy.

Now, the not so good. Day-Lewis was, IMO, totally miscast. Guido Contini is a man with women falling at his feet, and Day-Lewis is almost completely void of sexual appeal. Contini was a whiner, and I hated him from the very beginning. This role called for Antonio Banderas or George Clooney - men with charisma, men who could attract women like Cotillard, Cruz, and Hudson.

The other three women - Cruz, Dench, and Loren - gave passable performances that did not really amount to much. Cruz was quite strong in her acting, but her musical number was terrible, as was Dench's. In fact, as a musical, Nine came up quite short. I am a musical lover, and I expected to come out of the theatre with an urge to buy the soundtrack. Instead, I could barely remember a song worth downloading.

So, Nine really is a mixed bag. Cotillard steals the show, but with a cast this star-studded, I expected far more.

3 stars

Very interesting review on the Atwood, thanks. I read with interest your comments on bitterness and feminism taken too far with consequential male hating (there must be a more sophisticated word for that one). I also hate extremist attitudes.

Nice review of Murder in the Dark, Cait, but I'll look for one of her newer books first. Which would you recommend, The Blind Assassin or something else?

I enjoyed reading your review of Nine Cait and I have to agree with you on the music selections. I had gone to iTunes last week to check out the soundtrack and downloaded Fergie's Quando, Quando, Quando more so because I like Fergie and I like the song but together there sort of lackluster. So goes the rest of the soundtrack IMO.

#50 - Thanks Karen! Luckily Atwood has become far less extemist recently - if all her books were like Murder in the Dark, I don't think I would be much of a fan.

#51 - Darryl, The Blind Assassin is my favourite Atwood so far, but Alias Grace, Cat's Eye, and The Handmaid's Tale are all excellent as well. The Handmaid's Tale is one of Atwood's "speculative fictions" (she refuses to use the term sci-fi), but the rest are just straight fiction.

#53 - Hello again Lynda - you are so good at keeping up on threads!

>45 Cait86:: is that while issues relating to femininity and gender are still present, much of that bitterness is gone.

I love these kinds of discussions. You make me want to go back and read more Atwood and compare. I read Robber Bride last year. A woman was the villain in that book, but none of the men were winners. They seemed very real though. I wonder if you would think she was bitter based on the men she created for that book?

>49 Cait86:: When I saw the ads, I immediately thought, "Huh? DDL didn't seem like he would have the right personality to play this Italian director, but he's such a magnificent actor and I still remember him in the movie The Last of the Mohicans so I can imagine him having some sex appeal. But I know what you mean about Banderas and Clooney; they do have a very overt charisma/charm and they're both classically handsome. Though isn't Daniel Day Lewis playing a man with power and influence? And if he doesn't have money now, he probably used to and is still living as if he did? Wouldn't that be enough? Think of all the beautiful women you've seen both in Hollywood and real life (e.g., finance and government) linked with older, even very homely men.

Book #3: The Last River Child by Lori Ann Bloomfield

Non-1010 Read
Source: Direct from the publisher - no touchstone yet
Pages: 280

Second Story Press sent me this novel to review for Belletrista, and I flew through it today without stopping. Look for a rave review in an upcoming issue!

Hi Bonnie - I love when you drop by, you always say something that makes me think!

I'm going to read The Robber Bride later this year, probably in April, so I will let you know what I think then. The voices in Murder in the Dark reminded me quite a bit of the main character in Surfacing, who certainly did not have much use for men. I don't mind a little criticism, I just don't like the rampant hatred.

As for Day-Lewis, you are totally right about his character being rich and influential. I guess it is understandable that women would find him interesting. While I was watching the movie though, I couldn't help but compare him to Woody Allen - he gave the same type of performance, and while I love Woody Allen's movies, that sort of whiny cynic just did not fit my image of the character. Then again, Woody Allen has been with some pretty impressive women too!

> 45 Thank you for your review of Murder in the Dark. My 18 year-old daughter is very interested in reading some of Atwood's poems and short stories. Is this one you would recommend for her age group or is it too dated and extreme? I value your opinion greatly.

Also, thanks for the review of Nine. I am a musicals fan, but I was suspicious that Hollywood might not hit the mark. I will probably still see it though.

#57 - I think it is great that your daughter is into Atwood! Murder in the Dark was good, but I think The Tent was better - less extreme, and quite experimental. It is her most recent collection too. I also really like a lot of the poems from The Animals in that Country, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, and The Circle Game, which was Atwood's first big success. I haven't read those three in their entirety, just parts, but what I have read, I've enjoyed. I should be reading Wilderness Tips, another short story collection, later this year. I will let you know what I think!

I hope you like Nine more than I did :)

All this talk about Atwood reminds me I needed to move a couple of her books up the wish list a bit. I enjoyed Blind Assassin and wanted to give another a try. I'm thinking of going with The Handmaiden's Tale.

#59 - Great! I'm always glad to push Atwood on other readers ;)

> 58 Thanks for the recs, Cait! We've put The Tent on hold at the library. I'll let you know how my daughter likes it.

Just discovered Atwood last year and I love her. I even liked her Penelopiad.

Got ya starred. And I promise to do more than lurk this year.

OK, fellow readers, I have a question for you all!

First, a preamble: Next semester I am teaching a senior level English class for students going to university next year. It is really very exciting, as first year teachers very rarely get to teach this course. One of the focuses of the course is style, and so rather than do a class novel study, instead students read the first chapter of 15 different novels. Each first chapter gets studied based on style, and there are a lot of little assignments that go with it. Then, for the summative assignment for the course, students each pick one of the 15 novels to read, plus one more novel by the same author. Then, they write a paper focusing on that author's style - is it the same, does it change based on subject matter, how does style interact with plot, etc.

Some of my colleagues taught this unit this semester, and they each chose different novels. One focused on American Lit, because that is his specialty, and not something we do a lot of in Canada, and the other teacher did more of a chronological approach, starting with Austen, Dickens, Melville, Dostoevski, and moving up to present day with McCarthy, Ondaatje, etc.

Personally, I would like to focus on contemporary authors. I think students get enough Classics - we always read Shakespeare, and a lot of older poetry, and in grade 11 they read Frankenstein. Also, I think the best way to hook them into reading is to give them books that they can actually relate to. Plus, for those who enjoy more Classic Lit, it is easy to recommend an author who is modern, but who has an older style (A. S. Byatt and Ian McEwan for example).

So, my question to you: Which 15 authors should I choose? Who do you see as the "big" authors of today? My only qualifiers would be that they still have to be alive, and they have to have written at least 2 novels (not short story collections). Also, I would like to have a mixture of Canadian, American, British, and Global authors - some of my students have probably never read a book from a non Can-Am-Br author.

Any suggestions? I will give my own suggestions in the next post! Thanks!!

OK, so my own picks so far include:

Margaret Atwood
Cormac McCarthy
Ian McEwan
Michael Ondaatje

Other authors I am contemplating include:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Zadie Smith
A. S. Byatt
Thomas King
Jose Saramago

I would include to that list that Cait86 has put together:

Jostein Gaarder
Haruki Murakami
Jumpar Lahiri
Barbara Kingslover

What about Howard Norman or Alice Munro, two Canadians I've grown fond of. Norman's The Bird Artist was one of my favorites last year. I haven't actually read a novel by Munro, but her short stories are marvelous.

I think your students could gain insight into style from Neil Gaiman, too, as he writes for a variety of audiences.

Hilary Mantel
Anita Rau Badami
Alice Munro
Colm Toibin
Neil Gaiman
Virginia Woolf

and yes to Atwood, McCarthy, McEwan, Byatt, King

What a wonderful idea for a course! How about Isabel Allende?

I'll second your nom of Adichie and Saramago...good stuff.

I'll ante up with Ursula K. LeGuin, whose oeuvre includes some classics like The Left Hand of Darkness and A Wizard of Earthsea in dramatically different categories.

Ha Jin--Waiting is his famous work, deservedly and deliciously; but I am utterly, utterly in love with the unnerving and subtle War Trash...a Korean War tale for the lads, one with emotional resonance that will entice the lassies.

Jayne Ann Phillips--Lark and Termite, no matter its popularity, is an amazing book. I argue that Shelter and especially Machine Dreams aren't getting the play they deserve, and the female component of the class would do well to read them (the guys just won't).

Salman Rushdie--Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh. 'Nuff said.

J.M. Coetzee--In the Heart of the Country, Foe, Year of Iron (wrong touchstone,refuses tobe changed for some reason) just for starters, and a white African voice for balance.

I'll cudgel my brain some more and see what else I can suggest.

Salman Rushdie
Khalid Housseni
Isabelle Allende
Toni Morrison
David Mitchell
Zadie Smith
Philip Roth
Doris Lessing
V. S. Naipaul

Kazuo Ishiguro
Umberto Eco
Haruki Murakami
Margaret Atwood
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Paul Auster
Don DeLillo
Toni Morrison
William Gibson

I love the idea of Ursula K. LeGuin. I also know some schools are adding Stephen King's books to their syllabi, so there's an author students might really enjoy.

Ones that come immediately to mind:

Haruki Murakami
Sarah Waters
Jhumpa Lahiri

Great lists of authors. How about Thomas Boyden or Sherman Alexie
ETA...this sounds like an excellent course. Your students should enjoy it and consider themselves very fortunate to have this opportunity.

I took a class in high school that sounds very similar (It was a while ago, but I still remember) - we read long exerpts from Memento Mori and talked about the style. I'd look into it- I remember loving it! :)

John Edgar Wideman (African-American experience)
Percival Everett (African-American experience)
Edwidge Danticat (life in Haiti)
Haruki Murakami
Maxine Hong Kingston (Chinese immigrant experience in America)
Mario Vargas Llosa
Kazuo Ishiguro
Ian McEwan
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ha Jin

(Hmm, why does this look like my "Favorite Authors" list?)

WOW! I knew I could count on the 75ers for some great suggestions :) I had a few of these written down myself, so I am glad they were seconded. I now have a list of 40 authors, and I need 15. LOL Cutting it down should be fun!

I might up it to 16 authors - 4 Canadian, 4 American, 4 British, 4 Global. I would like to do more global, but some of the authors are difficult to find in my neck of the woods. I need to be sure my students can easily access the books. Keep the lists coming, and I will let you know which I am going to choose.

Then, the fun will be in deciding which novels to study for my first chapter selections!

Dennis Lehane for some modern noir. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

What about Alice Hoffman? She's a brilliant stylist, IMO, and I remember really enjoying her books when I was in high school. Besides her adult novels, she's also written some great YA novels, like The Foretelling.

Amy Tan and Isabel Allende would be good choices, too.

some suggestions for the non-US/Canada authors

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Jose Saramago
- Milan Kundera
- Chinua Achebe
- Amos Oz
- Ismail Kadare
- J.M. Coetzee
- V.S. Naipaul
- Doris Lessing
- Haruki Murakami
- Kazuo Ishiguro

Vargas Llosa and Rushdie are fantastic as well. most of their better known novels and where their respective and unique writing styles are more evident, however, might be a bit dense and complex for a short semester's work.

ETA: Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel prize awardee

All I need to know is, how do I enroll for your class?

#81: Yeah, really. I feel positively underread.

Cait, how about sharing the syllabus, class notes, anything? How would you feel about a 47-yo roomie while your class is going on? I am available :)

I'd vote Nadeem Aslam, especially if you're doing opening chapters. The Wasted Vigil has a fab opening. Maps for Lost Lovers is pretty special too.

Audrey Niffenegger
Jodi Picoult

OK, so based on your suggestions, the books on my TBR, and the ease of book purchasing/lending, I have my finalists picked. I decided to go with three American authors, and five Canadian, and I think I am going to write to the Canadian authors and ask them to come in to my class. It's a longshot, I know, but I think I should try.

Canadian:

Margaret Atwood
Thomas King
Michael Ondaatje
Joseph Boyden
Lawrence Hill (since he lives about 5 minutes from my school!)

American:

Toni Morrison
Barbara Kingsolver
Cormac McCarthy

British - I need some help here:

Ian McEwan
Zadie Smith
Colm Toibin
A. S. Byatt
Hilary Mantel
Sarah Waters

I need to cut these six down to four. I definitely want McEwan and Byatt, but I need two more. Thoughts?

Global - I need help here too:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Jose Saramago
Isabel Allende
Ha Jin
Haruki Murakami

Do I choose Ha Jin or Murakami? I haven't read either, so let me know who you like better, and what novel is your fav as well. I wanted to choose one European author, one African, one Asian, and one South American.

Thanks!!

Also, for those of you who enjoy the following authors, let me know which novel you would choose for my class:

Toni Morrison
Barbara Kingsolver

Considering that your audience of readers is a young one, I would choose Zadie Smith and Colm Toibin over Hilary Mantel; I haven't read anything by Sarah Waters yet, so I can't comment on her. I may be in the minority, but I really enjoyed White Teeth. Brooklyn is my favorite Toibin novel.

I'd choose Murakami over Jin, for the same reason. My favorite Murakami novels are The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood. Saramago is from Portugal, so he wouldn't fit in the South American category, whereas MVL (Llosa) is from Peru. I haven't read anything by Allende yet. My favorite Saramago novels are Blindness and The Stone Raft.

I'd back Zadie Smith

I thought Smith and Toibin were the best choices too - Mantel seems to be quite challenging, and I love that Zadie Smith was a successful author at such a young age. I have White Teeth on my TBR for next month, and I enjoyed On Beauty.

I really, really wanted to choose Llosa, but none of his books are available through our public library, or at any of the local bookstores. Allende is from South America - born in Peru, but Chilean in background.

#81, 82 - Lynda, Stasia, you would both be great additions to the class! I'm sure I could find you a place to stay at one of my colleagues' places! Seriously though, I will be reading/rereading whatever books I assign, so I can certainly post any insights and discussions my class has.

That's a shame that MVL's books aren't available to you. I think that The Time of the Hero would be a great read for a young audience.

#91 - On the up side, all this talk has give me a ton of new authors to read! MVL is right up there, as is Ha Jin.

I guess I'd pick Murakami over Ha Jin only because Murakami has more books to choose from in comparison. They're both very good writers though, so perhaps there's a way you could include them both in your course.

I don't have any qualifications when talking about literatuare, but I'm glad you may choose Toibin. I think Brooklyn would be very agreeable to a teenage audience.

I have only read one book by Toni Morrison, but my daughter has Advanced Placement Senior English this year and they read Sula.

>94 profilerSR: Profiler, you read and know what you like and don't like, so you are qualified to talk about literature.

> i'd choose Murakami over Ha Jin for the same reason that darryl mentioned (#87) -- his themes appeal more to younger readers (as well as his use of magical realism). i, too, suggest The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

For Saramago: Blindness and Baltasar and Blimunda

For Allende: The House of the Spirits

For Kingsolver, definitely Poisonwood Bible. A lot there for the style portion of your class.

For Morrison, I'd suggest a less known title, like Jazz.

also, I noticed you didn't have 4 Americans. I thought you'd do well to have someone a little out of the ordinary like Ray Bradbury or Phillip K. Dick. Dick would be cool because so many movies have been made fromhis sotries, and movies that everyone is familiar with. He is a real bastion of modern American Sci/Fi and his style is wonderfully rich and unusual. Try Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or one of the others a movie has been made of.

Can't believe I haven't tracked down your thread until now. You are definitely on my 'must keep up with' list from here on in.

Even though I champion Ha Jin in preference to Murakami, whose work I just don't like, I think the point made is excellent...Murakami is possibly more accessible to a younger audience. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle talks about prostitution, in case your community is prudish; it also appeared on the International Baccalureate Degree program, so that's a counterbalance.

I'd say Poisonwood Bible is the Kingsolver to choose. Certainly I'd advocate Song of Solomon for the Morrison, because it's so beautiful.

Bother - late in on all these discussions!

Very interesting thoughts on Emma - I definitely think that, as you say, you'll get more from it when you come to re-read it. I like Emma herself probably because of her faults - she would be insufferable if she didn't constantly put her foot in it the way she does...

Great review of the Margaret Atwood - I tried to give you a thumbs up, but it's not there!

...also too late for me to nominate authors for your now ;o) but like your selection - the class sounds incredibly interesting - would have loved to do something like that at school. I'd be very interested in which books you end up picking. May I suggest After Dark for Murakami?

Edited to correct "After Dark" touchstone

FYI: Allende is Peruvian/Chilean but lives in California and has for a long time. I would choose The House of Spirits for her though. It is her most well known and is considered the classic. She does have some young adult books that she has written too. She is one of my favorites, and has a lot to choose from for the final project. Good choice.

Seconding (thirding? lost track) The Poisonwood Bible for Kingsolver. By far her best and most stylistically interesting work, and I first encountered it in a 10th/11th grade advanced English class, so it should be about the right level. I'm less familiar with the rest of her bibliography, but I've also read The Bean Trees and it might make a good comparison piece.

Your class sounds wonderful, and all these suggestions are making me feel quite under-read! I'm looking forward to your insights as you read all these books!

What a list! I wish I could take your class, too! Sounds much better than the majority of my college classes.

Say You're One of Them is a stunning new Nigerian book. It's a series of short stories, all from POV of children, but by no means children's literature.

If you go with Toni Morrison, who I love, I wouldn't recommend her latest. Go with one of her earlier books.

Atwood's Oryx and Crake is great and features teen characters. Wouldn't go with her latest, either.

My suggestions are:

Sherman Alexie!
Alice Hoffman!

Good luck with the course. I'm sure you will do a stellar job!

I wish I had had an English teacher like you in High School. This thread is like a refresher course for me in all the authors and books I have loved over the past years. You have some great mentors in this 75-Book Challenge group. Welcome!

P.S. I like the idea of an occasional movie review. With the price of tickets these days, I don't want to see something that I won't absolutely love. I recommend "Sherlock Holmes." It certainly awakened an interest in reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works in me and many others.

Great discussions on the authors. They are all so good, choosing between them seems like a betrayal of the others! I would pick names out of a hat in the class.

The wail you are hearing from Texas is Stasia going 'I want to take your class!'

My daughter is now saying she wishes she could take Cait's class. She says her own teacher is scary and "probes your soul with her eyeballs". I hope your students appreciate you, Cait!!!

#109 Your daughter's description of her teacher is better than most books I've read. Do you have a future outhoress there?

Your class sounds great. I'm pleased that you've included Thomas King--I think a lot of people would be fans if they just read him.

> 110 My daughter would love to write. She writes in her free time and plans to study journalism/creative writing when she goes to college next year. I'll tell her your comment, she'll be pleased!

Kudos also for Thomas King. Good choice.

Yay for King from this quarter as well.

I just had a huge post here, in which I replied to you all, and it disappeared. Grrrr.

So, I really want to thank everyone for their input in my little project, and for all your compliments on my class. I am extremely excited to teach this class, and I have met with some disagreement from a colleague re: my approach, so it is nice to know that all of you readers support my decisions. To placate my colleague, who has quite a bit of pull in my department (and I am not guarenteed a job for next year yet, so playing the game is important, albeit unpleasant), I might add in three or four Classic novelists too. He has a complete distain for contemporary lit, and reveres the traditional Canon....grrrr again. Oh well. My students won't suffer from being exposed to Austen or Steinbeck or Hemingway - it just wasn't the way I wanted to go.

I will post my final list of authors and books some time in the next few weeks, once I meet with the other teachers to plan out the class. Despite my little disagreement, I know it will be a wonderful experience - really, it is much, much more about the students than it is the books!

Sherlyn, tell your daughter I appreciate her comments - she sounds like a great student! Also, I agree with ejj1955 - you are definitely qualified to talk about literature!

On a totally non-teaching related note, I broke down and bought my first new book of the year yesterday. I was trying so hard to hold out, but I was in Chapters because I had some time to kill before meeting a friend for dinner, and I started reading the first chapter of Fall by Colin McAdam, which was shortlisted for the Giller this year. It completely blew me away - very stream-of-consciousness, which I love - and so I had to buy it.

I am vowing to do better than last year though. I went through and added up the number of books I acquired in 2009 - 119.

Of those 119, I only read 43. The remainder of my 101 books read last year were already on my shelf, borrowed from the library, or borrowed from a friend. Really, these stats are not good - at 119 books, that means I basically bought one every three days. Crazytown.

Umm...if you're in Crazytown I don't know where I am (and I probably don't want to know). I bought at least 350 books last year!

#117 and #118

You're a disgrace, both of you. Where is your self restraint???

On the contrary, you should be praising and thanking us for supporting and praising British literature. Which two 75ers read and talked more about the Booker Prize than Cait & I?

#118 - Darryl, I am merely a resident of Crazytown. You are its mayor.

#119 - Hey Jenny, read in the shower lately?

#120 - Excellent point Darryl - when I think of how much money I spent at The Book Depository, I cringe....and am sure to do it again this year!

> 120 And may I add that I am very appreciative of the discussions.

#121: Mayor of Crazytown. Yeah, some friends and family would agree with that.

Right you are about The Book Depository purchases. I have received five books from TBD since yesterday!

My vote on Toni Morrison would be Beloved. I know it's her most famous, but it's also her most powerful, in my opinion. I absolutely loved Paradise, and believe it has many important things to say about race, and about female solidarity, community and identity, but it got a very mixed reception and is regarded as a "difficult" book because of the way Morrison deliberately withholds information about her characters - you have to work very hard as a reader.

>117 Cait86: interested to hear your take on Fall when you finish it! Someone else on the 75ers has read this recently and also thought it was amazing, and I know it won the Quebec Writers' Award last year (2009, that is). Completely by chance, I heard McAdam read from Fall at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year; he was on a double-bill with Ellie Catton, I think because they'd both written stories about schools and teenagers. It was an... interesting... experience.

>121 Cait86:/123 mayor of Crazytown - now I hear Sunny Baudelaire gurgling at Aunt Josephine in A Series of Unfortunate Events.... maybe this is a common North American phrase, but that's the only context in which I've ever come across it!

No comment on book buying, but I don't think I hit 350 last year, and I don't read in the shower. Two things to hang onto.

Hey Cait, your collegue is probably just disappointed he/she didn't think of your idea first! : )

PS: I read in the shower when I'm in a hurry but I'm almost done with a book and I can't wait to finish it. Is there something odd about that? I don't think so.

#123 - The Book Depository is about to make another sale off of me - I really want Conversation in the Cathedral and The Bad Girl, and TBD has better prices than Canada's chain, Chapters, which also charges on shipping.

#124 - Hey Rachael, good to hear from you! Like you, I really only make it onto LT on the weekends, and so I am always massively behind on threads. Thanks for the input re: Toni Morrison, I will probably go with Beloved, as long as I can get my hands on a copy. What was so "interesting" about McAdam? Interesting good, or interesting bad? As for the Crazytown reference, I've never read A Series of Unfortunate Events, but it is an expression that is thrown around a lot at my workplace...

#125 - LOL Lynda, Jenny will be so glad to hear that she is not the only one who reads in the shower. I'm like Rachael though - I don't read in the shower, and I will hang on to that whenever I think about my book buying madness. I think my TBR is actually crowding me out of my own bedroom. :)

#125

Yay, I'm not alone

The ultimate question though............have you read on a horse? (I'm ashamed to admit that I have *bows head in shame*)

I also read in the cinema last week....................while the film was on..........

How on earth does one read in the shower? Or should I ask? I can actually see myself trying it.

And how does one read in a darkened movie theater? Better yet, if one did want to read, why buy a ticket to see a movie???

I formally resign as mayor of Crazytown, and hand over my duties to Jenny.

I can safely say that I've never read in the shower (the bath is another matter) or on the back of a horse (you'd have to get me on one first), but I've definitely read in a cinema - but only before the film starts, I promise Darryl...

I've never tried to add up the number of books I've bought in a year - wondering whether I want to know or not now...

#130

Just wait till I get a horse, I'll come to Cambridge personally to drag you here and make you at least sit on one ;)

And I definitely do NOT want to add up the number of books I acquired last year. My mum and now each got 100ish in 3 days last March!

100ish books in three days? Even my mega-hauls in San Francisco, NYC and London pale in comparison. I officially appoint Jenny Mayor for Life of Crazytown.

#132: Should we take a vote?

I really want to know how one reads in the shower!!! No one has, as yet, explained. I wanna try it!!

#134

http://www.librarything.com/topic/74989#1568871

See post #126 of this thread. It explains it :)

> 135 Thank you, Jenny!! I am going to try it!!

Hello Cait,

I didn't like Emma while I was reading it, but since then, I have realised that I do like the way Jane sketched a non-ideal girl character with Emma, and also watched the movie this last weekend which I believe did bring out the character of Emma if no one else's.

Also, how did you like Dangerous Liaisons? I watched the movie some time back which made me think I should have read the book first.

Just catching up on your thread, it's been awhile. I would have thought more people read in the shower - hmmmm. Whenever I am on a horse, which isn't often, I'm too busy looking at the scenery to read......but I could be thinking about the next book I want to read.

How are the plans for your class going, Cait?

#139

This was non-riding out riding. Just going round and round in a barn to do walking fitness work.....horse too naughty to go out on the VERY dangerous roads round where I was. So tediously boring!

#131 Hmmm - we shall see - I just about managed to go pony trekking without turning into a gibbering wreck when I was in New Zealand - but the pony wasn't very far from the ground and didn't go very fast (even though it did have a habit of jumping over little things when it felt like it) - that was quite a personal achievement for me! ;o)

#137 Which film version of Emma was that PC? My feeling about the most recent version (with Romola Garai) was that they were a little too kind to Emma... ;)

#138 Is that the Glenn Close/John Malkovic version? Fantastic stuff... Thought the book was wonderful too myself...

#141 The one I saw was the one with Gwyneth Paltrow playing Emma, didn't know there was another version starring Romola Garai, while the Emma in the movie wasn't so irritating as in the book, the inherent characteristics did come up clearly enough!

And yes, it was the Glenn Close/John Malkovich version. I have added the book to my TBR pile since watching the movie. It was such a random pick and neither was I expecting anything nor did I know of it being based on the French play, so I was surprised in a most pleasant way :)

#142 Ah - that's my least favourite version (of Emma)! I just thought Mr Knightley was all wrong - mind you, I haven't seen it since it came out in the cinema and I never really trust my memory of film adaptations - they're always so coloured by what I think of the book... Actually, there was yet another one - a BBC version that came out about the same time as the Gwyneth Paltrow one, with Kate Beckinsale as Emma.

Hope you enjoy Liaisons Dangereuses - it was one of my top 5 books of 2009 ;)

I much prefer the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma from A & E. I also prefered the 'Valmont' version of Dangerous Liaisons with Colin Firth. But I'm a Colin Firth fan anyway you take it. I haven't watched either one in a long time.