ReneeMarie's 1010

Joining in spite of my performance in the last two challenges....

Will add titles to the appropriate category as they are read, will not shoot for any goal other than to populate each category with at least one title, and will also make it easy for myself by having categories that everything fits in. Yup, I'm a wimp.


A. That's Classic
B. It's an Old World After All
C. What Might Have Been
D. What We Are and Where We Live
E. Why We Are
F. What We Did and How We Did It
G. Who Did It
H. Lookin' for a Little Romance
I. Other Genres, Other Rooms
J. The Kitchen Sink

That's Classic
titles read for classics book group

1. Botchan by Natsume Soseki (172pp; 23 January 2010)


2. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (35pp; 23 February 2010)


3. 
   

It's an Old World After All
titles read for the book group of the museum where I work

1. Stories of the Badger State by Reuben Gold Thwaites (245pp; 26 February 2010)


2. 
   

What Might Have Been
historical fiction

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (550pp; 24 March 2010)


2. Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss (289pp; 2 May 2010)


3. Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (283pp; 10 May 2010)


4. Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride (266pp; 25 May 2010)


5. 
   

What We Are and Where We Live
genetics, cognitive science, evolution, cosmology

1. 
   

Why We Are
psychology, sociology, sexuality, cultural studies

1. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (303pp; 18 May 2010)


2. 
   

What We Did and How We Did It
history, law, technology

1. 
   

Who Did It
diaries, letters, biographies, and autobiographies

1. My Childhood, Youth and Exile by Alexander Herzen (271pp; 11 April 2010)


2. A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel (275pp; 13 May 2010)


3. She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel (15 May 2010)


4. Do-Over! by Robin Hemley (316pp; 31 May 2010)


5. Mom by Dave Isay (181pp; 11 June 2010)


6. 
   

Lookin' for a Little Romance
mostly historical

1. My Forever Love by Marsha Canham (362pp; 10 February 2010)


2. 
   

Other Genres, Other Rooms
mystery and science fiction/fantasy, of course

1. Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean (300pp; 18 March 2010)


2. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (370pp; 20 March 2010)


3. 
   

The Kitchen Sink
books about housekeeping -- well, maybe, but really everything else that doesn't fit anywhere else

1. This Book Is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson (272pp; 3 March 2010)


2. 
   

For my classics category, so far I've read Botchan and Carmilla. Two swings, and two misses.

With Botchan, the story of a young man who goes to work at a rural school but doesn't really want to be a teacher, the difficulty may be cultural/lingual: apparently it's a book that relies on puns and wordplay that don't translate well. And without that, when you don't like the main character's character, there's not much left.

As far as Carmilla goes, it was a vampire story that was only 35 pages long and I kept wishing it was shorter. As a story, with what we expect from a story these days, it's a failure. The POV character does nothing to advance the story and solve her own problems. And the antagonist isn't ultimately much of a threat. Lots of telling. I had heard good things of Le Fanu, but Carmilla doesn't bear them out.

On the other hand, I'm in the middle of American Notes for General Circulation by Dickens for the next classics book group, and am enjoying it. Apparently this work engendered a bit of ill will toward Dickens in Americans of the time. No sign of why from the text itself, yet. Have to finish it by Friday, although I probably won't be able to get to book group this month.

Stories of the Badger State is a racist little tome that may have actually been fairly liberal for the time, written in the early 20th century. I had to get it via interlibrary loan from a library that catalogs it in the juvenile books. It's a fairly slim book, but the vocabulary doesn't put me in mind of a children's book.

This is a history of events in Wisconsin from the fur trade era to the early 20th century. The author, a noted historian of the place and time, chose the bits he found most interesting and important. A couple of details were new and thought-provoking to some small extent, but they were overpowered by attitudes and comments that raised my ire.

This book was not and would not have been my choice to read. Seeing it as an example of attitudes of the time is not sufficient reason to choose it for a professional book group. Not recommended.

For April historical fiction book group I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's a book that has enjoyed a lot of hype, the story of a girl in WWII Germany, a Jewish man kept in her basement, books, and Death.

This, like The Other Boleyn Girl read last year for the same group, was NOT a book I looked forward to. In spite of myself, however, I found myself drawn into the story, liking Liesel, liking her foster parents, and crying over the events of the novel.

The POV and design of the book are unusual, the ending a bit ambiguous, but all in all I do recommend it.

My Forever Love by Marsha Canham was okay, but nothing wonderful. It's the story of a disgraced Templar who rescues the runaway, attempted murderess wife of a nasty man who backs John against Richard in England.

Was looking for something easy and quick to read on the bus one day, so I picked it out of the pile. I'll try another of Canham's books. I acquired several, including Pale Moon Rider, after hearing really good things about PMR. This was my first Canham read, as far as I remember.

The two historical mysteries I read, Bellfield Hall and Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, were both enjoyable. I would gladly read more mysteries in either series. I recommend both.

Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean is set in the same basic world of which Jane Austen wrote: people of good but not great birth, on a country estate, all concerned with contracting advantageous marriages. The "detective" is Dido Kent, aunt to a newly engaged woman whose fiance has just privately cried off. Dido is brought in to comfort her niece and asked to find out the truth of why he has turned away from the niece. The mystery in this one, I thought, was a bit more twisty and interesting than the mystery in the next book.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley is set in just-post-WWII England. A motherless pre-teen girl with a talent for chemistry navigates life with a distant father and two sisters with whom she has somewhat of a Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote relationship. She worries about her father and a damaged veteran who is part of their household, so she sets out to try to find out who the body in their garden was and who killed him.

This Book Is Overdue looks at how librarians can use technology to ameliorate world problems, take their reference work to their customers rather than waiting for the customers to come to them, and can survive the situations the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act thrusts on them.

Most interesting were the discussions of Second Life and the lies the government was able to tell which the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act helped them nearly get away with. There are a couple of titles in the bibliography that I would also like to pursue, although not necessarily to purchase.

The freakiest thing: I had already heard of one of the librarians profiled in the book because a woman I used to work with at a museum now works with her at a library. It's a small world, after all.

And now I'm caught up, at least with my own thread, and should go read. Or at least go to bed.

So, how are you doing on this challenge for real? I know you've been reading like crazy in the last 3 months. Update us on your reads, please!