Janoorani24's 2010 50 Book Challenge

Well,
It's time to start a new thread for 2010. I only finished 58 books in 2009, though I am close to finishing three that I'm currently reading, so I'm sticking with 50 books again this year.

#1 - The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior by Paul Strathern
Completed 4 Jan 10
3 Stars

The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior by Paul Strathern is a history of the period in the early 1500s when the lives of Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia intersected. Leonardo worked as Borgia’s chief military engineer during the same period that Machiavelli was Florence’s envoy to the Borgia court.

The book provides mini-biographies of the three main players as well as other minor players in European history of the period as a back-story to the central theme of intersecting lives. This is what makes the book worth reading. The “intersecting lives” theme is too speculative and takes away from the historical facts in the book. The speculation about possible meetings between Machiavelli and Da Vinci were the weakest parts of the book. There is no doubt that Machiavelli’s observations of Borgia influenced the development of his political philosophy, but imagining what Da Vinci and Machiavelli might have talked about during a possible final meeting in 1516 and other such speculative descriptions detracted from the value of the book.

The first hundred or so pages held my interest very well, but then the narrative started to get bogged down in detail and several instances of speculation about possible meetings. The last 50 pages or so again held my interest, especially the section on Da Vinci’s last few years.

The biographical details about the three main players and how their associations with each other led to some of the later decisions made by Da Vinci and Machiavelli make this an interesting history. There is little to no description of how Machiavelli and Da Vinci influenced Borgia, but overall, I like the book enough to give it 3 stars.

#2 - The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
Audio Book Narrated by Fareed Zakaria
Completed 11 Jan 10
4 Stars

Excellent book on the political and economic world today. The preface to the paperback edition provides a nice update to the hardcover edition, as well as to the audio version. I enjoyed the audio version so much that I bought the paperback so that I could easily refer back to parts of the book. I especially enjoyed the parts on Chinese and Indian history and the six guidelines for America to pursue.

Book #3 - Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves
Date Started: 4 Jan 2010
Date Completed 17 Jan 2010
Number of pages: 209
Price: $14.85
Non-fiction
3.5 stars

This was for one of my book clubs, and I wasn't expecting to like it, but it was a surprisingly good book by the guy who does those cheesy travel shows on PBS. I agreed with most of his ideas that travel should be for more than just to spend money at Disney World. It should enrich your life and be a learning experience about others peoples' ideas, values and beliefs. The only chapter I didn't enjoy was the one on El Salvador. The ones I enjoyed the most were on Morocco, Turkey, and Iran. I also liked the final chapter where Steves talks about what one can do with the knowledge of the world one gains through travel.

Book #4 - Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Date Started: 17 Jan 2010
Date Completed 24 Jan 2010
Number of pages: 193
Library Book
Fiction
3.5 stars

This short book contains some lovely writing. Bynum really nailed the character of Ms. Hempel. Perfect pitch, but too short. In fact, the whole book reads like a series of connected short stories. This is really the only major flaw; otherwise the book is beautifully written. Ms. Hempel is a 7th grade school teacher. The stories revolve between her evolution as a teacher and childhood flashbacks. Heartbreaking scenes with her kids and her Dad, but vague. I'm really not a contemporary fiction fan, and most of what I read is for book discussions. But I love to pick up books that look interesting while browsing the library shelves. This was a very good choice.

Book #5 - Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Date Started: 24 Jan 10
Date Completed: 25 Jan 2010
Number of pages: 117
Fiction
4 stars

This was delightful. It was really more of a children's book than young adult, which is what I had expected, but it still held my attention. The story is written in the style of a Norse myth, and stays pretty true to the style without being too prosy. I loved Odd, and hope Gaiman will write more about him in the future. Odd is the name of a crippled Viking boy who battles the Frost Giant who has taken over Asgard.

Book #6 - Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore by Wendy Moore
Dated Started: 15 Oct 2009
Date Completed: 26 Jan 2010
Number of pages: 400
Non-fiction
4.5 stars

This is the amazing story of a wealthy widow who was tricked into marrying an Irish fortune hunter in Georgian England. Mary Eleanor Bowes was an heiress (at one time one of the wealthiest individuals in Europe) who was widowed when her first husband, the Earl of Strathmore died in 1776. She was about to get married to a long-time lover when she was duped into marrying Andrew Stoney through the artifice of a “mortal wound” suffered in a duel fought for Mary’s honor.

Thus begins the horrific tale of eight years of the violent abuse and captivity of Mary Eleanor by a brutish psychopath. Stoney (who changed his name to Bowes after his marriage) was almost unbelievably cruel and depraved. He threatened Mary’s life repeatedly with both pistols and knives and beat her on a regular basis. There was almost no recourse for wives in this era to win freedom from abusive husbands. Divorce was almost unheard of (especially for a female plaintiff), and extremely difficult to obtain; taking years of suits through various ecclesiastical courts before being (rarely) granted.

Mary Eleanor was extremely charming and intelligent and won over the hearts of many supporters to her cause. First and foremost among these was a remarkable servant, Mary Morgan whom Bowes (Stoney) had hired to watch over Mary Eleanor. Morgan turned out not to be the usual servant Bowes hired (there were a succession of women he had hired over the years, seduced or raped, and then fired). Morgan was able to fight off Bowes, and helped Mary Eleanor to escape. Then she helped Mary Eleanor to find a solicitor to take her case and supported her in secret lodgings. Mary Eleanor also had the unwavering support of numerous other servants and tenants who risked their livelihoods, and very lives, in their loyalty to her.

At one point, Bowes discovers where Mary Eleanor is hiding and has her kidnapped in broad daylight. He forces her on a grueling journey to Scotland, and attempts to get her to Ireland. Amazingly, her supporters rescue her, though it takes her many months to recover from the ordeal. As the title suggests, she does win her divorce, but the story of her courage and that of her supporters as better than anything I’ve read in fiction. In fact, William Makepeace Thackeray was inspired to write his first significant novel, The Luck of Barry Lyndon, after being told Mary Eleanor’s tale by one of her grandchildren.

The author is a skilled researcher, but has still managed to write a compellingly readable book. The notes and bibliography are very thorough. I learned a lot about not only marriage and divorce in Georgian England, but also about duels, abortifacients, laudanum dosage, botany, etc. The only other biographical history I have enjoyed nearly as much was Mrs. Jordan’s Profession by Claire Tomalin. I highly recommend this book.

Blatantly stealing MusicMom41's Talley Idea:

Book Talley for January:

Books Acquired 14 (0 read)
Books Read PL 1 (Pages: 193)
Books Read non PL 4 (Pages: 1182)
Audio Books heard 1 (8 ½ hours)
Audios Acquired 0

Total
5 books, 1375 pages and 1 audio book
2 fiction; 4 nonfiction

Genre Summary:

Nonfiction:
3 books and 1 audio

Fiction:
Novels: 1
Fantasy: 1

Best in Jan.:

Fiction: Gaiman, Neil: Odd and the Frost Giants
Nonfiction: Moore, Wendy: Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore

Plans for February:

Callanan, Liam: The Cloud Atlas (library book started 1/26)
Herodotus: The Histories (finish introductory material and start book one for LT group read)
Winchester, Simon: Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (library book started 1/27)
Hardy, Thomas: The Mayor of Casterbridge (for book discussion on 17 February)
Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall (for book discussion 8 March)

The biggest challenge will be finishing Wolf Hall by 8 March, and working on the Herodotus (I'm already a month behind on the group read).

Book #7 - The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan
Dated Started: 26 Jan 2010
Date Completed: 7 Feb 2010
Number of pages: 357
Fiction
4 stars

I was very pleased with this book. I picked it up randomly from the library mostly because it is set in Alaska. I lived in Alaska for a couple of years in the early 80s, and like to read books set there. It's hard to believe this wasn't written by a native, and that it's a first novel. It's the story of a priest's experience as a soldier stationed in Anchorage (at Ft Richardson) during WWII. The priest narrates the story to his friend (an Alaskan native shaman) as he lays dying in a hospice in Bethel, Alaska. So it's really two stories -- that of the present day priest, and the priest as a young man. He relates the history of his love for a native Alaskan girl, his completely mad CO, and the balloon bombs that are set loose by the Japanese near the end of the war. The language is exquisite, and the view of Alaska is authentic, though the end seemed a little rushed. The definition of what a cloud atlas is comes toward the end of the book, and I won't define it here because it would spoil the story, but I believe this author is someone to watch for, though he seems to have only written one other book.

Book #8 - The Bride of the Wilderness by Charles McCarry
Dated Started: 12 Jan 2010
Date Completed: 12 Feb 2010
Audio Book: 22 hours
Fiction
2.5 stars

All the reviews I've read of this book raved about it, but I simply can't agree. I downloaded it to my iPod because I got tired of trying to find it in print, and I liked the other two books by McCarry that I've read (Old Boys and Tears of Autumn). This book is simply not up to McCarry's other writing. It's like he read a few histories about colonial America and late 17th century England, and drew up a list of facts to write his story around. It drags on and on and on. There really isn't a good story here at all, just a series of events (many are completely improbable) that happen to the main characters who are ancestors of the Paul Christopher character in McCarry's espionage novels. None of the characters are particularly likable or life-like. The book reminds me of Ken Follett's horrible historical novels set in the Middle Ages. I know I am also in the minority of people in my opinion of Follett's historical novels, but it's interesting that I think both Follett and McCarry are fantastic espionage novelists (Follett's Eye of the Needle is one of my favorites), but I'm just not impressed with their excursions into historical fiction.

Since this was an audio book, I should note that the narrator, Pam Ward was pretty good. She won't go down as one of my favorite narrators, but she did all right for a book that must have been extremely boring to read, especially since it was a little over 22 hours long.

If you like Ken Follett's books, you may like this. If you love Charles McCarry's espionage books, you might want to slog through this as a fan (that's why I stuck with it to the bitter end), otherwise, I'd save whatever limited amount of time you have to read for something better.

Book #9 - The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Dated Started: 5 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 17 Feb 2010
Library Book
Fiction
4 stars

This is the story of Michael Henchard’s life in rural England at the start of the 19th century. Casterbridge was Hardy’s ninth novel, and shows the maturity of a seasoned novelist. Hardy trained to be an architect, and became a novelist gradually through self-education; he didn’t become published until he was in his 30s.

Casterbridge opens with a scene at an agricultural fair where Michael Henchard, his wife, Susan and baby daughter have stopped to rest while on a journey to find work. Henchard is a farm laborer and the family is very poor. In a fit of impulsive anger and drunkenness, Henchard sells his wife to a passing sailor. Wife-selling was a method among the poor of getting a divorce in rural England, but had become very uncommon by the early 19th century, and had actually been declared illegal as a means of divorce in the 18th century. Henchard’s wife was uneducated and so believed that the sale was binding. When Henchard came to his senses the next day, he tried unsuccessfully to find the sailor and his wife. By Chapter Three, about 18 years have passed and Henchard is a successful corn merchant and Mayor of the town of Casterbridge. Susan and her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane are destitute; the sailor being thought lost at sea, and come to Casterbridge to seek out Henchard.

Michael Henchard is a passionate, impulsive man. He loves intensely, but is quick to anger, and this leads to many problems in his life. Early on in the story, he develops strong and instant liking for a younger man, Farfrae, and hires him to be the manager of his business. Unfortunately this means the manager he had hired by letter, and who arrives a day later is turned aside, which has serious consequences later in the story. This is the same day that he discovers Susan and Elizabeth-Jane have come to Casterbridge to find him. Henchard stages a marriage with Susan so the townsfolk won’t know that she is actually his wife, and to protect Susan and Elizabeth-Jane’s reputations. Again, this leads to the unfortunate recanting of another marriage proposal Henchard had made to a woman on the isle of Jersey whom he had compromised in an affair before the return of Susan. This woman, Lucetta, arrives in Casterbridge after Susan’s death and falls in love with Farfrae, who had been paying court to Elizabeth-Jane. Subsequent tragedy ensues for all concerned.

Henchard’s passions and impulsive anger lead him to make many mistakes, both in his business dealings and his personal affairs. All of these mistakes bring him low in life, and he loses his business, his house and all those he loved.

Hardy’s telling of the story is beautifully done, with great poetry of language and use of scenic descriptions. He uses a lot of allusions to classical characters, and historic events that went over my head, but probably made sense to readers of his time. The edition I read was an Everyman’s Library edition, and contained no footnotes to help with these obscure references and with the language of the time. I read an annotated edition of Far From the Madding Crowd a couple of years ago, and wish I had had the same type of edition for this book. Even so, I greatly enjoyed the book and give it four stars.

Book #10 - Hot Money by Dick Francis
Audio Book Narrated by Tony Britton
Dated Started: 5 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 17 Feb 2010
11 hours
Fiction
4 stars

I started listening to this only a few days before the death of Dick Francis last week, so it was a bittersweet listen. I re-read Dick Francis novels on a fairly regular basis, and believe I own most of them. They are always great "escape" books for me -- they are easy to breeze through, have engaging plots and characters, and there are so many of them, that I rarely remember the endings, so usually have fun figuring out the mystery. This book is a little different from most. It's much more of a character study and doesn't include the extreme survival conditions that some of Francis' characters often find themselves in.

Ian's estranged and extremely wealthy father reconnects with him one day. It turns out someone is trying to kill him, and he thinks it's possibly one of his many other children, or one of his three ex-wives. Ian sets out to protect his father and discover who the potential murderer is. There are lots of details of horse-racing and race horse buying, bomb-making, and the usual great research that goes into a Dick Francis book. This is one of my favorites.

A note on the audio book -- absolutely fantastic reading by Tony Britton. I would highly recommend any other audio book read by him.

Continuing to blatantly steal MusicMom41's Talley Idea:

Book Talley for February:

Books Acquired 11 (0 read)
Books Read Public Library 2 (Pages: 719)
Books Read non PL 0 (Pages: )
Audio Books heard 2 (33 hours)
Audios Acquired 2

Total
4 books, 719 pages and 2 audio books
4 fiction; 0 nonfiction

Genre Summary:

Nonfiction:
0

Fiction:
Novels: 2
Thriller: 1
Classic: 1

Best in Jan.:

Fiction: Hardy, Thomas: The Mayor of Casterbridge
Nonfiction: None Completed

Plans for March:

Herodotus: The Histories (finish introductory material and start book one for LT group read)
Winchester, Simon: Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (library book started 1/27)
Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall (for book discussion 8 March)
Donaldson, Stephen R.: The Wounded Land started 17 Feb)
Gaiman, Neil: American Gods started 25 Feb
Zusak, Markus: I Am the Messenger started 2 Feb

The biggest challenge will be finishing Wolf Hall by 8 March, and working on the Herodotus (I'm already two months behind on the group read).

Book #11 - Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire by Simon Winchester
Dated Started: 27 Jan 2010
Date Completed: 10 Mar 2010
Library Book
Non-Fiction
4.5 stars

This is the fascinating narrative of Winchester's travels to the remnants of the British Empire in the early 1980s. He traveled to every then-remaining British Colony with the exception of the Pitcairn Islands (though he says he has visited twice since he wrote the original book in the forward to the 2004 edition), British Antarctica and St. George Island. He provides a brief history of each colony, a nice narrative of the visit itself, and insight into the colonist's lives. He was actually in the Falkland Islands at the start of the war with Argentina, and was subsequently imprisoned in Argentina as a suspected spy (I'd love to read his book about that experience - Prison Diary: Argentina). My only problem with the book was his pessimism about British handling of these last remnants of her great Empire. I would expect more of her, and wish the forward to the new edition would have discussed this more. He did at least mention that the loyal citizens of St. Helena now enjoy almost complete rights as citizens of Great Britain (along with Gibralter and the Falklands), but it seems that most of the remaining colonies are still in a state of exclusion from the rights of full citizenship. Highly recommended.

Wedlock sounds great! I have Cloud Atlas on my tbr pile too.

Book #12 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Dated Started: 19 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 23 Mar 2010
Fiction
4.5 stars

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel was the winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, so I knew chances were good that I would like the book, since I’ve enjoyed other Booker short-listed and prize winning books I’ve read in the past.

Wolf Hall is a historical novel set in early 16th century England during the reign of Henry VIII. Instead of another retelling of Henry and Anne Boleyn’s story with the two monarchs as the main characters, this is the story of the rise to power of one of Henry’s greatest advisers, Thomas Cromwell.

Mantel depicts Cromwell as a powerful, yet sensitive man who rises from obscure beginnings to work tirelessly for an England free from control by the Pope in Rome. Little is known of Cromwell’s early life since he was not noble-born and details of commoners’ lives during this period are rare. Mantel manages to bring credibility to Cromwell’s history without being too speculative. Unlike most historical novels, this novel doesn’t contain completely fictional characters to round out a story about non-fictional characters. All of the characters really existed in history, though of course, their daily thoughts and actions are fictional. Mantel apparently spent years researching and writing the book, but still manages to make a very readable account of Cromwell’s life and the life of England. Her characters’ dialogue is at times humorous, and almost contemporary, but they still remain firmly in their own time. She doesn’t talk down to her readers, and expects them to catch her mentions of Luca Pacioli, Thomas More’s Utopia, Cesare Borgia, etc without explaining them. This aspect of her writing reminded me of my favorite writer, Dorothy Dunnett.

Dorothy Dunnett was, in my opinion, the greatest historical novelist ever. Her two great series were set at around the same time as Mantel’s novel (the Lymond series were set in the mid-sixteenth century, and the Niccolo series were set in the late fifteenth century). If I could ask Mantel one question, it would be whether or not Dunnett influences her writing. I see hints of both Nicolas Vander Poele and Francis Crawford in her Cromwell character. Dunnett’s masterpiece, King Hereafter, was set in early eleventh century Scotland and Scandinavia and is a fictionalized account of the historical Macbeth. It paints Macbeth in a much more sympathetic light than Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Mantel’s Cromwell is also much more sympathetic than he is portrayed by Shakespeare.

I go on about Dorothy Dunnett primarily because I compare all historical fiction to hers. She was a consummate story-teller who based her novels on decades of extensive research into the eras she set her stories in. Mantel has also used extensive research in the writing of Wolf Hall, but her story isn’t quite as good. This could be because she only used historical figures as her characters, and it’s harder to make a good story out of lives based on fact. It’s harder to feel the level of love for Cromwell (in spite of his good qualities) that I have for Francis Crawford of Lymond. Since Francis was completely made up, it was easier for Dunnett to create a mesmerizing story of his life. What Mantel does with great skill is show us an England that the history books don’t do justice to, with it’s sights, smells, fears, and faith. When I think of the English break with the Catholic Church, I think of it as a clean-cut act agreed upon by all. Mantel shows the agony and fears this break caused for many, if not most Englishmen at the time. She shows that this was a long process, and not an overnight success story. I am very happy to know that she plans a sequel to this book. I want to get to know Thomas Cromwell and his family better, though I do know that there is not happy ending to this story. I give Wolf Hall 4.5 stars, though it came very close to being my first five star book of the year.

Book #13 - The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson
Dated Started: 17 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 28 Mar 2010
Fiction
2.5 stars

This is an unrelentingly bleak and dismal fantasy quest story in which not much happens, but just about every gloomy and despairing adjective in the English language is used repeatedly, and the characters are repeatedly subjected to great horrors and almost die more than once.

I first read both of the Covenant Chronicles in the eighties when living in Alaska. I was an immature reader and thought these were good at the time. Re-reading the first book of the second series (there are two series of three books each) showed me the error of my ways. This is a depressing book, and I don't know when, if ever I might re-read the others. The author's overuse of archaic adjectives is really annoying, and his obvious copying of themes from the Lord of the Rings is almost unforgivable (why didn't I see that the first time through)? Not recommended.

You're off to a great start! I have The Cloud Atlas in my TBR pile as well -- I think the same one you have (Callanan). I "discovered" Neil Gaiman last year with The Graveyard Book, which I loved. Odd and the Frost Giants sounds terrific.

Book #14 - Truly, Madly by Heather Webber
Dated Started: 28 Mar 2010
Date Completed: 29 Mar 2010
Fiction
3.5 stars

This was an Early Reviewers book and not the type of book I normally read. Romantic mysteries aren’t usually my thing, but this was a surprisingly enjoyable read. The book is the first in what I hope will be a series about Lucy Valentine who is the last of a long line of matchmakers. Unfortunately, Lucy lost her matchmaking gift at the age of fourteen, and has to make do with the lesser gift of the ability to find lost objects.

Lucy’s father runs a successful matchmaking business, and leaves Lucy in charge for a couple of weeks when he has to go out of town. Lucy meets the upstairs private investigator, and together they solve an old murder, and Lucy finds a lost child.

I enjoyed all of the characters in the book, especially Lucy and Sean (the PI, and romantic male lead). There is also the ditzy grandmother, the two best friends, the police detective, and the faithful family retainer). I don’t read a lot of romance novels, so I’m sure they are all pretty clichéd, but they were nice people who I wouldn’t mind getting to know better.

The book’s plot is pretty predictable, and the mystery at the end is resolved a little too conveniently, but it’s a quick read, and I didn’t have time to get annoyed at the lack of depth. I read it through in one sitting. It reminded me a little of Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding, which was another book I enjoyed a few years ago.

Truly, Madly was a nice break from my usual reading, and I would read other books with these characters.

#18 - Thanks!

Book #15 - American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Dated Started: 24 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 30 Mar 2010
Audio Book Narrated by George Guidall - approximately 20 hours
Fiction
4 stars

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is one of the most original novels I’ve read in a long time. It tells the story of forgotten gods brought to America in immigrants’ beliefs over many centuries. The story is told through the picaresque experiences of the main character Shadow, who is just getting out of prison at the beginning of the book, though there are digressions throughout the book that are told from other points of view.

Early on a mysterious old man named Wednesday hires Shadow. It seems a storm is coming and Shadow is hired to protect Wednesday, avatar of Odin, the All-father. The coming storm is to be an epic battle between the old gods and the new. The old gods are all the old world gods from Europe, Africa and Asia. The new gods are all the modern gods like media, technology and transportation.

The book is full of amazing characters. The portrayal of the gods as normal, yet shady and/or shabby people like butchers, undertakers, grifters, and hookers is fascinating. Gaiman uses his gods as metaphors for American beliefs, hopes, and sorrows. None of the gods are happy – many are pretty psychotic. Shadow and a couple of the gods turn out to be good, but most of the characters are ambivalent – not really bad or good.

While I do believe this is a great book, it can also be very disturbing. It is very gory in places, it’s much more sexually explicit than I like in a novel, and it does drag in a couple of places. I missed some of the gods who weren’t included and had not heard of many of the gods who were included. The greatest god turns out to be the Land itself, and Shadow is a tragic hero.

American Gods is an odyssey through modern America. The immigrants stories interspersed throughout the story are very sad. I wish I could have gotten to know Shadow better, but it’s typical of Gaiman to leave you guessing about some of his characters. I recommend this book for adult fans of Gaiman’s books, as well as for people who like a little fantasy in their reading, though this is very realistic, gritty fantasy. I listened to this as an audio book performed by George Guidall. Guidall is an excellent narrator for this book, and the there was an added bonus of an interview with Neil Gaiman at the end.

Continuing to blatantly steal MusicMom41's Talley Idea:

Book Talley for March:

Books Acquired 12 (0 read)
Books Read Public Library 1 (Pages: 385)
Books Read non PL 3 (Pages: 1198)
Audio Books heard 1 (20+ hours)
Audios Acquired 3

Total
4 books, 1583 pages and 1 audio books
4 fiction; 1 nonfiction

Genre Summary:

Nonfiction:
1

Fiction:
Novels: 1
Romance: 1
Fantasy: 2

Best in March:

Fiction: Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
Nonfiction: Simon Winchester: Outposts:Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

Plans for April:

Herodotus: The Histories (finish Books One - Three for LT group read)
Markus Zusak: I Am the Messenger - started 2 Feb
Charles R. Morris: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown - Started 11 Mar
Shannon Drake: The Queen's Lady - started 29 Mar
Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - started 1 April (for Book Discussion on 12 April
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Infidel - haven't started (for book discussion on 21 April)

The biggest challenge will be starting and finishing Infidel by the 21st and working on the Herodotus.

1st Quarter Report:

Genre

Nonfiction: History - 2; Political Science - 1; Memoir - 2
Fiction: General - 1
Fiction: Classics - 1
Fiction: SF/Fantasy - 3
Fiction: Historical Fiction - 3
Fiction: Mysteries/Thrillers - 2

Total
Nonfiction: 5; Fiction: 10

Public Library pages YTD 1297
Other pages YTD 4412
Total pages YTD 5709

Best in Jan.:
Fiction: Neil Gaiman: Odd and the Frost Giants
Nonfiction: Wendy Moore : Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore

Best in Feb:
Fiction: Thomas Hardy : The Mayor of Casterbridge
Nonfiction: None

Best in Mar.:
Fiction: Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
Nonfiction: Simon Winchester : Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

Books Read in 2010
* memorable reads: books that cause me to think and sometimes influence my world view

- The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior by Paul Strathern (1/4)
- * The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria (1/11)
- * Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves (1/16)
- Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (1/24)
- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (1/25)
- * Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore by Wendy Moore (1/26)
- The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan (2/7)
- Bride of the Wilderness by Charles McCarry (2/12)
- * The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (2/17)
- Hot Money by Dick Francis (2/23)
- * Outposts:Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire by Simon Winchester (3/10)
- * Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (3/23)
- The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson (3/28)
- Truly, Madly by Heather Webber (3/29)
- * American Gods by Neil Gaiman (3/30)

Book #16 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Dated Started: 30 Mar 2010
Date Completed: 6 Apr 2010
644 pages
Fiction
4.5 stars

This book is being discussed by one of my book clubs later this month, and one of the members loaned me their copy of the audio book. I found that I wanted to be able to read the text because of needing to go back a few pages every now and then to check on something that had gone by too quickly on the CD, so I bought a cheap paperback copy a couple of days after starting the book. The beginning of the book was a little slow, but by the middle of it, I was so caught up that I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. to finish it. The story is a mystery set in Sweden featuring a journalist recently convicted of libel and a young private investigator who has serious issues of her own.

The journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, is hired by a retired industrialist to delve into the mystery surrounding the disappearance and probable murder of his great-niece 40 years previously. At first there seem to be two stories with the character of Lisbeth Salander running as a separate plot. Salander is the young tattooed and pierced private investigator of the title. She is a brilliant computer hacker who is socially inept and reclusive. Her story eventually intertwines with Blomkvist’s and by the time the two were working together, I was completely hooked and couldn’t put the book down.

The characters of Blomkvist and Salander pair perfectly together. The minor characters in the book are well drawn and even characters that only take up a couple of pages of the book are believable and very individual.

The plot in this book is very tight. I believe any choppiness in the scene transitions might be put down to the fact that this book wasn’t written in English. Who knows how much better they might flow in Swedish? However, that being said, I believe that the translation here is very good. The parts of the book I listened to with Simon Vance as the narrator were also well done. I think this book compares very well with works by Elizabeth George and P. D. James.

I wasn’t expecting to like this book, mostly because I tend to suspect best sellers, but I was carried away by the unique characters, and a plot that, once it hooks you, doesn’t let you go.

Book #17 - The Poets' The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family by John Lithgow
Dated Started: 5 Apr 2010
Date Completed: 8 Apr 2010
Audio Book - 6.5 hours
Poetry (with Non-fiction Biography)
4.5 stars

This is a review of the audio book, narrated by John Lithgow, with several different readers, to include Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Kathy Bates, and Sam Waterston reading the poems. John Lithgow chose the poems and wrote the introductions to each of them. He includes 50 poems by poets such as William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, Marianne Moore, and Hart Crane, and provides a brief biography of each poet as well as comments about their styles and why the poems affected him.

I highly recommend this book in audio format. Almost all of the poems are well selected, and the readings are outstanding. This is one you could listen to over and over again, and not get tired of. The only poets I didn’t enjoy were Whitman and Gertrude Stein. I’ve never liked Whitman, and though I had never read a Stein poem before, the example given here (something she wrote and dedicated to Picasso) doesn’t incline me to want to read any others of hers. I really enjoyed the selection by Hart Crane (To Brooklyn Bridge) – I don’t remember ever reading any of his poems before. Other memorable readings: Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, The Tyger by William Blake, if everything happens that can’t be done by E. E. Cummings, and There is No Frigate Like a Bookby Emily Dickinson. Two of my favorite poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Marianne Moore are included, but neither of Lithgow’s selected poems were favorites of mine. In fact one of my quibbles with the book is that, while all the other poets get two poems read, Millay only gets one! The other major quibble I have is that Robert Service wasn’t included. The poems are arranged alphabetically by the authors’ last names, and I waited for most of the book to hear some fabulous voice read The Cremation of Sam McGee only to be disappointed by the questionable choice of Gertrude Stein. Of course, I do realize that Lithgow couldn’t include everyone, but I don’t understand why he included her.

Overall, though, a wonderful book!

Book #18 - I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusack
Dated Started: 2 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 13 Apr 2010
368 pages
Fiction
5 stars (first five star book of the year!)

This was one of the best books I’ve read in the past 12 months. Markus Zusack also wrote The Book Thief, which is another favorite of mine. In I Am the Messenger Zusack tells a coming of age story about a young man who drives a taxi for a living in an unnamed Australian city.

The beginning of the book finds the main character, Ed, and three of his friends on the floor of a bank during a hold-up by an armed robber. Ed and his friends are all unmotivated, but essentially good young people in their late teens. They are wandering aimlessly from childhood to adulthood without any clear goals or desire to do anything other than work in dead end jobs and play cards with each other on a regular basis. When Ed confronts and disarms the bank robber, he becomes a momentary hero in the eyes of his community, and sets in motion the events leading him up to becoming the messenger. He starts receiving messages from a mysterious stranger, and has to figure out what they mean and how to help the people the messages send him to.

Ed seems to be a pretty ordinary nineteen year old and Zusack is great at building his world from that of ordinary to extraordinary. The other characters in the book are simply lovely. Ed’s friends are following a loser track, but their quirks and revealed truths make them come alive. The minor characters, from Ed’s Ma, to the thugs who deliver a couple of the messages, to the people Ed helps are all fully drawn – you feel they could walk off the page and into your world with no difficulty.

Zusack’s use of language is beautiful. Here’s a passage where Ed is talking directly to the reader, “But you’re far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it’s here. It’s now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn… The scattered stars shower down like icicles tonight, but nothing soothes me. Nothing allows me an escape.” Here is one more passage I liked, “An expression of surprise falls from her face, though she’s trying to keep it. It breaks off and she seems to catch it and fidget with it in her hands.” There’s another place where Ed talks about the color of mint ice cream on a girl’s lips. I could just picture it, and almost taste the ice cream.

The moral of the story is that even ordinary people can make differences in peoples’ lives, but this simple truism is delivered in such an original way that I feel this is a book that I’ll re-read with great pleasure. Ed could have ignored the messages and gone on with his mediocre life, but he didn’t and the world is a better place with stories like this in it.

Darn, another one to add to my list and I like mint ice cream. Now I have to go to the grocery store.

Book #19 - Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Dated Started: 7 Feb 2010
Date Completed: 18 Apr 2010
353 pages
Non-Fiction
4 stars

Hirsi Ali's autobiography of childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya is an eye-opening account of the reality of Islam's subjugation of women.

Book #20 - Longshot by Dick Francis
Date Started: 9 April 2010
Date Completed: 23 April 2010
Audio Book Narrated by Tony Britton - 11 hours 13 minutes
Fiction
4 stars

This review is for the audio edition narrated by Tony Britton.

John Kendall is a travel writer specializing in survival manuals who has quit his day job to write novels. His first novel has been accepted for publication, but his advance is being rapidly depleted when he is offered the job of writing a biography for a famous racehorse trainer. The job has the added advantage of free room and board at the training stables somewhere in Berkshire. He is quickly accepted by the family of the trainer, Tremaine Vickers, and is even offered an opportunity of riding some of the horses on training runs. Not long after he has started to settle in, a missing stable girl’s body is found in woods not far from the stables. The Detective Inspector (Britton is excellent with this character’s voice) assigned to the case considers John enough of an outsider to be able to supply clues to the potential murderers’ characters and possible motives. However, John’s speculations about who the murderer could be land him in a couple of harrowing survival scenarios.

I have loved Dick Francis’s thrillers since I discovered them in about 1987, and have always known they follow a certain well-worn (and for me well-loved) track. The things that keep them from becoming redundant and boring are the characters and settings. I hadn’t ever really read them as anything other than sheer entertainment; however, I also read Hot Money earlier this year, and I was surprised on listening to Longshot at the similarity in underlying themes between these two stories. Both are more character driven than some of Francis’s other stories, and both have a similar ending. Hot Money was published in 1987, and also contains a character who must discover who in a family is a murderer. The endings of both books are ambiguous and leave one wanting to read more about the characters’ subsequent lives.

This is one of Francis’s better works. His characters are likable, the plot moves along quickly, and the research into various survival skills is meticulous. I especially enjoyed the dialogue about midway through between John Kendall and a fictional well-known author who complains that John is too young to have the experience necessary to write great books. John replies that he writes to “entertain.” One imagines Francis having similar conversations throughout his long career, with a similar response.

The audio production was done in about 1995, and I downloaded it from audible.com. The sound quality wasn’t very good in parts, but I loved Tony Britton’s narration of Hot Money, and purposely chose this audio version over the one with Kenneth Branagh. It was a great listening experience, and I recommend the book, either audio or print, to lovers of a good yarn.

Book #21 - The Queen's Lady by Shannon Drake
Dated Started: 29 Mar 2010
Date Completed: 23 Apr 2010
379 pages
Fiction
2.5 stars

A mediocre historical romance set during the time of Mary, Queen of Scot's first few years back in Scotland following the death of her husband, the King of France. The main character is a fictional lady-in-waiting who has improbable adventures and lives happily ever after. Unremarkable writing and plotting.

Book #22 - The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
Date Started - 23 Apr 2010
Date Completed - 30 Apr 2010
Audio Book - 7 hours, 41 minutes
Narrated by: William Dufris
Fiction
3.5 stars

First published in 1957, this is one of Asimov's early robot books and the second to feature Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw. This book is set primarily on the planet Solaria in the far distant future of mankind. The inhabitants of Solaria live solitarily on large estates and eschew face-to-face contact with other humans. Bailey and Olivaw are called in to solve an unusual murder. One of the interesting aspects of the book are the attitudes towards robots, especially given that this was written at the start of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Recommended if you like classic science fiction and Asimov in particular.

Book Talley for April:

Books Acquired 24 (1 read)
Books Read Public Library 1 (Pages: 353)
Books Read non PL 3 (Pages: 1391)
Audio Books heard 3 (25.5 hours)
Audios Acquired 2

Total
7 books, 1744 pages and 3 audio books
5 fiction; 2 nonfiction

Genre Summary:

Nonfiction:
1 - Autobiography
1 - Poetry + Biography

Fiction:
Novels: 1
Historical Romance: 1
Mystery/Thriller: 2
Science Fiction: 1

Best in March:

Fiction: Markus Zusack: I Am the Messenger
Nonfiction: John Lithgow: The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family

Plans for May:

Herodotus: The Histories (finish Books One - Four for LT group read)
Charles R. Morris: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown - Started 11 Mar
Jonathan Raban: Bad Land: An American Romance - Started 26 April for book discussion on 12 May
Eviatar Zerubavel: The Seven Day Circle - library book
Donna Leon: Death at La Fenice - library book
Allen Kurzwell: The Grand Complication - library book
Helen Simonson: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - audio book - Started 1 May
Julia Child: My Life in France - Started 14 April

The biggest challenge will be starting and finishing 3 library books!

Book #23 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Date Started - 1 May 2010
Date Completed - 17 May 2010
Audio Book - 13 hours, 8 minutes
Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
Fiction
5 stars

This novel wrapped around me like a warm and cuddly blanket. It tells the story of Major Pettigrew (retired) who is mourning the death of his brother Bertie and discovers that many of his beliefs about family and tradition need to be updated. It's a warm love story between improbable soul mates. The honorable and chivalrous Major Pettigrew saves the day. I might have only given this four stars if I had read the print version because the ending is a little pat, but the narration by Peter Altschuler is marvelous and bumped this one up to become my second five star book of the year.

Book #24 - Second Wind by Dick Francis
Date Started - 18 May 2010
Date Completed - 26 May 2010
Audio Book - 7 hours, 45 minutes
Narrated by: Michael Page
Fiction
4 stars

I read this book when it first came out, and really enjoyed it then. Listening to it as an audio book was just as enjoyable. Michael Page doesn't have quite the voice range of Tony Britton (the narrator of other Dick Francis audio books I've listened to), but he was easy to listen to and added to the story. This novel features horses in only a very minor way, but has a great main character, a BBC weather forecaster who gets into loads of trouble after the plane he is in crashes after flying through the eye of a hurricane. Francis worked with a real BBC weather man in doing research for the book, and the facts one can glean about weather forecasting, hurricanes and surviving a crash on a desert island are an added bonus to the mystery. In fact, the mystery in this Francis novel is a little hard to fathom, and is one of the weaker plots for a Dick Francis book. It had something to do with selling nuclear bomb-making material, and really didn't make much sense. I'm still giving this one four stars, because I liked all the side stories, and the flying through a hurricane part, and all the minor characters.

Book Talley for May:

Books Acquired: 6 (0 read)
Books Read Public Library 1 (Audio Book: 7 hours 45 minutes)
Books Read non PL 0 (Pages: 0)
Audio Books heard 2 (20 hours, 53 minutes)
Audios Acquired: 1

Total
0 books, 0 pages and 2 audio books
2 fiction; 0 nonfiction

Genre Summary:

Nonfiction:

Fiction:
Novels: 1
Mystery/Thriller: 1

Best in May:

Fiction: Helen Simonson: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Nonfiction: Non completed

Plans for June:

Herodotus: The Histories (finish Books One - Five for LT group read)
Charles R. Morris: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown - Started 11 Mar
Jonathan Raban: Bad Land: An American Romance - Started 26 April
Eviatar Zerubavel: The Seven Day Circle - library book
Donna Leon: Death at La Fenice - library book
Allen Kurzwell: The Grand Complication - library book
Julia Child: My Life in France - Started 14 April
Sarah Blake: The Postmistress - Started 11 May
Richard P. Feynman: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" - Started 27 May
Stieg Larsson: The Girl Who Played with Fire - for book discussion on 14 June

The biggest challenge will be just finishing more than two books!

Well, life has certainly been getting in the way off me keeping up with LibraryThing, but then it has also been getting in the way of my reading. I'll try to catch up:

Book #25 - "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" by Richard P. Feynman
Date Started - 27 May 2010
Date Completed - 15 Jun 2010
Audio Book - 11 hours, 27 minutes
Narrated by: Raymond Todd
Non-fiction
3.5 stars

Here's the description from the back of the book:

"Richard Feynman, who won the Novel Prize in physics, was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists and thrived on outrageous adventure."

Feynman's descriptions of his life-long curiosity and desire to try new things are very inspiring. I had read this book in print many years ago, but it made more of an impression on me this time through. He basically spent his life being what he wasn't. He was best known as a physicist, but he also played bongos, was a pretty good artist, and was quite the ladies man. Because this is more of a memoir constructed as a set of different stories in a loose chronological order, listening to it was a bit choppy at times, but overall, the narration was good and I enjoyed the book. I was inspired enough by Feynman's curiosity to try new things, that I've decided to pursue a life-long ambition and am learning to ride a motorcycle!

I'm having so much trouble making time for reading this year. It's more than halfway done, and I'm only halfway through 50 books! Here is one I finished in June and am just now having the time to enter:

Book #26 - The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil
Date Started - 3 May 2010
Date Completed - 25 Jun 2010
Fiction
3 stars

I was attracted to this book because the main character is a librarian, but Mr. Kurzwell managed to make him a very strange character -- not like any librarian I've ever known. For one thing, he carries around a notebook chained to his jacket in which he records all of his thoughts (organized into his own cataloging system). The librarian is hired by an even stranger bibliophile to do some moonlighting as a researcher into the past life of an 18th century collector who created a Cabinet of Curiosities. A missing object from the cabinet turns out to be a rare watch created for Marie Antoinette. The search for the watch and the story about the relationship between the librarian and his employer are very convoluted. The ending left me flat, and overall, the author seems a little too pleased with his clever story.

Book #27 - The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Date Started: Sometime in early June
Date Completed: 1 July 10
Fiction
3.5 stars

This was the second Stieg Larsson book of the three he completed before his untimely death. Lisbeth Salander is a much more central character this time around, though she still needs to be saved in the end by the inadequate hero, Mikael Blomkvist. Parts of this one dragged more for me than the first one did, and I thought parts of it were a little too preachy. Still a great series, and will definitely read the final one when I have time.

Book #28 - Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
Date Started: 1 Jul 10
Date Completed: 11 Aug 10
Fiction
3.5 stars

I've heard good things about Donna Leon's detective series set in Venice, Italy for several years, but wanted to start with the first one before I read any of her newer ones. I checked this one out from the library and started it while on vacation in July. What with learning how to ride a motorcycle and trying to keep caught up on housework, I've hardly had any time to read lately, so I didn't finish this one until yesterday.

As this is the first in the series, the author spends a lot of time introducing the main character, Guido Brunetti, the vice-commissario of police in Venice. Time is also spent developing minor characters such as Brunetti's boss and family. This is done very smoothly and doesn't detract from the story, which is an investigation into the apparent murder by cyanide poisoning of a famous conductor during the performance of La Traviata at the Venice opera house (La Fenice). Brunetti's method (at least in this first book) is to delve into the background of the victim in order to discover what might cause someone to do murder.

I liked the mystery -- it played out well. There were enough hints to keep me guessing, and I wasn't able to figure it out until close to the end of the book. None of the clues were dead-ends or traps for the reader. The setting, Venice, was very well-described. I've only been to Venice once, but I could still picture the alleys, the boats, the little bars, and the people.

I will read more of the Donna Leon books in the future, and highly recommend this one.