lkernagh's 1010 Challenge for 2010 - Part 2

As the first thread was getting rather long I though the half-way mark was a good place to start a new thread. For all new comers, the original thread can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/76953#1599647




1. A Trans Canada Journey: - Canadian authors from coast to coast
2. I Don't Remember THAT From History Class: - historical fiction (pre-1945)
3. This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two: - short stories
4. Follow Thy Author: - more books by authors I have recently discovered
5. What a Debut!: - author debut novels
6. They Made a Movie From That...?: - books made into movies
7. Bloody Victorian England: - Victorian murder mysteries
8. The Envelope Please...: - Prize winners and shortlisted
9. Lost in Translation: - foreign language novels translated into English
10. Out of the Mouths of Babes: - books with teens or pre-teens as the primary characters/ narrators

A Trans Canada Journey: - Canadian authors from coast to coast

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini - BC
2. The Incident Report by Martha Baillie - ON
3. Finishing School by Helen Fogwill Porter - NF
4. Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk - AB
5. Cool Water by Dianne Warren - SK

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
6. Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell - NS
7. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay - QC
8. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews - MN
9. A Tangled Web by Lucy Maud Montgomery - PEI
10. Mercy Among Children by David Adams Richards - NB

CATEGORY FINISHED!

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class: - historical fiction (pre-1945)

1. The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
2. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte
3. The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
4. Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge
5. The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
6. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
7. The Chief Factor's Daughter by Vanessa Winn
8. 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
9. The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
10. Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Overflow:
1. The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric
2. Only Call Us Faithful by Marie Jakober
3. Elizabeth: The Golden Age by Tasha Alexander

This Will Just A Take a Minute... or Two: - short stories

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. what the world will look like when all the water leaves us by Laura van den Berg
2. Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine edited by Richard Rosenbaum
3. Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
4. The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards
5. Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
6. If I loved you, I would tell you this by Robin Black
7. Natasha and other stories by David Bezmozgis
8. The Spot; stories by David Means
9. The Beautiful Red by James Cooper
10. Are You Married to a Psychopath? by Nadine Bismuth

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Follow Thy Author: - more books by authors I have recently discovered

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
2. The Sun over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte
3. Rasputin's Daughter by Robert Alexander
4. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
5. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
6. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
7. Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
8. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
9. The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
10. Blindness by Jose Saramago

CATEGORY FINISHED!

What a Debut!: - author debut novels

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles
2. help me, jacques cousteau by Gil Adamson
3. Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
4. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
5. The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming
6. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
7. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

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Books read in second half of 2010:
8. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
9. The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley
10. The Bells by Richard Harvell

CATEGORY FINISHED!

They Made a Movie From That...?: - books made into movies

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
2. Silk by Alessandro Baricco
3. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
4. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

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Books read in second half of 2010:
5. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
6. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Bloody Victorian England: - Victorian murder mysteries

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
2. The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons
3. Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
4. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:

5. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
6. A Rare Interest in Corpses, aka The Companion by Ann Granger
7. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
8. Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner by Amy Myers
9. The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron
10. A Mortal Curiosity by Ann Granger

CATEGORY FINISHED!

The Envelope Please...: - Prize winners and shortlisted

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner
2. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi - 2008 Le Prix Goncourt winner
3. The Gathering by Anne Enright - 2007 Man Booker Prize winner
4. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones - 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
5. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow - 2008 Bellwether Prize Winner
6. Tinkers by Paul Harding - 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner
7. kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould - 2003 Giller Prize shortlist
8. Solo by Rana Dasgupta - 2010 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book
9. A Song for Nettie Johnson by Gloria Sawai - 2002 Governor General Literary Award winner for Fiction
10. Matter With Morris by David Bergen - 2010 Giller Prize shortlist

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Lost in Translation: - foreign language novels translated into English

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. There a Petal Silently Falls by Ch'oe Yun
2. The Perfect Circle by Pascale Quiviger
3. The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić
4. The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy
5. A Dog with No Tail by Hamdi Abu Golayydel
6. Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
7. My Little War by Louis Paul Boon
8. The Club of Angels by Luís Fernando Verissimo

___________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
9. The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre
10. I'jaam by Sinan Antoon

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Overflow:
1. The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago
2. The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Àngels Anglada

Out of the Mouths of Babes: - books with teens or pre-teens as the primary characters/ narrators

Books read in first half of 2010 (previous thread):
1. Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami
2. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
3. Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato
4. When We Get There by Shauna Seliy
5. Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
6. out of my mind by Sharon M. Daper

__________________________

Books read in second half of 2010:
7. Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky
8. Room by Emma Donoghue
9. The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
10. The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

CATEGORY FINISHED!

New thread now ready for the second half of this challenge and the added motivational drive to tackle some of the categories that have been **shamefully** neglected.

Currently reading: The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards. This one looks promising and may help me by:
1) adding another book to my short stories category; and
2) motivate me to take The Memory Keeper's Daughter off my shelf and give it a read.

I just noticed that The Diary of a Nobody was in the movie category. I didn't know that was a movie! Have you seen it? What did you think?

Good luck with the second half of the challenge, I can't wait to see what you read!

Hi cmbohn - The Diary of a Nobody was adapted as a monologue starring the British actor Hugh Bonneville with a 2007 release date. I preferred the book - a movie of someone talking to the screen while either sitting at a desk, standing beside a staircase, looking out a window or painting flower pots on various movie sets lost my interest quite early into the movie. I also tried to watch the movie as soon as I had finished the book which may have increased my disparaging view of the movie.

My local library had both the book and the movie, which is why I picked it up.

Thanks DeltaQueen - I see you have made great progress with your challenge! I will continue to follow your reading too!

We must have different definitions of "shamefully neglected". Looks like pretty even jumping to me!

Book #59 - The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Category: Follow Thy Author

Yes, I am one of the readers that loved The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first book in Bradley's murder mystery series featuring the 11 year old sleuth and chemist extraordinaire, Flavia de Luce. Second book in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag did not disappoint. This is my idea of a cozy mystery - quaint village life, well meaning individualistic characters - okay, maybe not her sisters, but what do you expect from siblings? Flavia does bring things upon herself - and a narrative voice with enough acute observational skills and sarcastic wit to keep me intrigued as to what young Flavia will get up to next as well as trying to solve the 'who-done-it'.

There are enough summaries and reviews out there on LT and beyond regarding this book, so I won't elaborate further. In all, Alan Bradley weaves another fun, excellent book to escape into and I now have to wait impatiently for book three, A Red Herring Without Mustard. *** sighs ***

Rating: 4 Stars

I am just starting The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie, boy, this guy sure comes up with some interesting titles!

Hahaha - That is so true! The is no chance these books will be confused with books of a similar title by a different author.

Book #60 - The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Kim Edwards collection of short stories. What I discovered is that Edwards has a broad scope of story telling that I wouldn't have expected. The 14 stores contained in this collection have a common element of writing style to them - rich, descriptive prose with sentences that flow smoothly into one another, with no ragged edges or jarring dialogue. As for the story topics, they range from modern day family squabbles that impact on social and economic issues, eco-travel future age science, historical fiction, mythical tales and circus life (to name but a few) set in locales around the globe from North America to Europe and Southeast Asia.

I didn't enjoy all of the stories with the same gusto but that is to be expected when such a diverse offering is presented. The anchor stories, "The Great Chain of Being" and "The Story of My Life" are two stories that continue to resonate with me along with "A Gleaming in the Darkness", a story about Madame Curie and her discovery of radium told from the point of view of a cleaning woman of the labs.

In all, I was quite impressed with this book and will probably now move my other Kim Edwards' novel further up my TBR pile.

Rating: 4 Stars

Book #61 - The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Category: The Envelope Please
Alternative category: What a Debut!

First, I am surprised at how quickly I made it through this book. Second, I am not surprised that I am still analyzing the varied social issues the book captures - racial identity, cultural divides, alcoholism, drug abuse, peer pressure, suicide - For such an easy to read story there is a lot to ponder!

Set in the 1980's, the story - more like a collection of multiple narratives - follows Rachel Morse, daughter of an African American G.I. father and her Danish mother, from the streets of Chicago where tragedy has struck her family to Portland Oregon where Rachel goes to live with her paternal grandmother and aunt. Rachel's blue eyes and light skin set her apart from the predominantly black community where her grandmother lives and at odds with the 'white' upbringing her mother had taught her.

As I said, there is a lot going on in this story and Rachel's examinations of 'white' and 'black' and where she fits in are only one piece of the puzzle. The story of Rachel's family, that fateful day in Chicago and society's attitudes are pieced together by the reader as we are presented with commentary from her mom Nella, her dad Roger, and Chicago neighbors Laronne and Brick.

Durrow has crafted a unique, memorable heroine and cast of characters in this amazing debut novel. The fact that The Girl Who Fell From the Sky won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in 2008, a prize awarded to the best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice, doesn't surprise me. The prize, IMO is well deserved.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #62 - The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre
Category: Lost in Translation

LT is such a great place for bringing books to a reader's attention so when I saw The Little Girl and the Cigarette mentioned here in the 1010 Challenge (thank you sanddancer!) I had to track down a copy of the book to read it myself. I am so glad I did.

This dark comedy takes sarcastic swipes at a number of society's institutions - government administration and policy, the legal profession, media, the welfare of children, the war on terrorism and of course, reality TV and the great world wide web. While the book is written as a satire, it captures some events that could potentially occur in today's society. The execution of a convicted killer comes to a screeching halt with the discovery of a legal conflict between a policy banning smoking anywhere in the prison and the prisoner's legislated right to a last cigarette. The book present this legal conundrum, to help set the stage for the absurdities to follow.

When a city administrator is accused of 'crimes against children' because he forgot to secure the lock on the bathroom door before smoking a cigarette in a smoke-free building, one glimpses society truly turned on it's side, with the accused being brought before a tribunal of children, a 'Children's Court', so that the children can try him as a form of therapy to help them get over the heinous crime that, in fact, never happened. It is when terrorists take six hostages and demand a ransom of 500 million dollars to finance the development of 'quality terrorism', and create their own reality tv show in the process that you know you have arrived in looneyland.

I loved this little book. Duteurtre delivers the absurdities of governments and society with intellectual wit and keen observational skills that is reminiscent in some of the works by Jose Sarmango, immediately reminding me of Death with Interruptions. The only part of the book that was a let down for me was the ending and I did drop my rating of the book by half a star because of that.

Rating: 4 Stars

Book #63 - Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two

I came across this collection of short stories on a recent trip to my local library. Hegi's Stones From the River is a book that is languishing in one of my various book piles - confirmed by checking my LT catalog which is much easier than digging through piles of books! - so I thought I would give it a go as I am a little behind in reading short stories for this challenge.

The book starts with the story the collection is named for. I have to say, as I was reading about the seminary student Lenny and his family after his uncle's death the first thought that popped into my mind was a cautious and drawn out "Okay". I have to say that my view of the collection had changed by the third story and I slowed my reading pace so that I could savor the stories. The common theme throughout the 11 stories appears to be an awakening of the lead character to a turning point in their lives - be it taking the first step to mend a family relationship, a career change or the acceptance of death and how to let go of the past.

The descriptions of the various settings are well written, the characters believable - some I could relates to, others were not my cup of tea - but I found that I preferred the shorter stories in the collection, the ones with just enough to tease the reader's awareness to formulate a picture in their mind. The longer stories, well, they felt incomplete as if they were originally planned as novels and stopped short of that lengthy goal.

Overall, the stories did captivate me enough that I might take the time to dig through my piles of books to locate the novel I purchased a few years back that is still unread.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #64 - Tinkers by Paul Harding
Category: ... The Envelope Please
Alternative category: What a Debut!

I had hear such great things about Tinkers here on LT that I looked forward to enjoying a quiet day reading. The story follows the lives of two men, George Washington Crosby and his father Howard. George is an elderly man dying from renal cancer and has come home to live out his final days surrounded by his family. George fades in and out of lucid thought, with rambling memories of his past. These memories tie into stories of his father, Howard and it is by flipping between these two protagonists that the story of their lives unfolds.

Well I enjoyed the writing style, the story as a whole was more beautiful prose than stirring plot or strong, memorable characters. Parts of the story left me a little confused as to what was going on and as for the ending, well, it didn't captivate me. Overall, I thought it was a good book but not one I would re-read.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #65 - The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
Category: Bloody Victorian England
Alternative category: Follow Thy Author

I was feeling under the weather for the last few days and needed a comfort read. Finch's third book in the Charles Lenox series was the perfect comfort read. This time, our gentleman detective, Charles Lenox, is trying to focus on his aspirations to enter Parliament and we find him running as a candidate in a by-election in Northern England where the current member for the area has died. With only two short weeks to campaign in an area that views him as an outsider, Lenox still finds time to get involved in a compelling murder case of two fleet street journalists that were killed at opposite ends of London, 30 minutes apart from each other.

I love the Charles Lenox series and book three continued to kept true to the first two books in the series. The characters are familiar, both friend and foe, and there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep me happily guessing.

A great mystery romp. Now I just need to find out when Finch is coming out with the next book in the series.

Rating: 4 Stars

Am enjoying your reviews, lkernagh!

@26 :: I literally JUST got The Fleet Street Murders in the mail yesterday! I really enjoyed the first two books, and your review has definitely gotten me excited to start this one! :)

Hope you are feeling better, I have those Charles Finch books on my planned library list - will get to them eventually.

mathgirl40 - Thanks!

christina reads - You are in for a treat with book three of the series! Quite fun as far as mysteries go. Enjoy!

DeltaQueen50 - I am feeling better, thanks! Unfortunately well enough to return to work so the reading is once again an evening and weekend thing ;-)

I was happy to discover that book four of the series, A Stranger in Mayfair has an estimated release date in both Canada and the US of this November. I am so excited!

I came across this group of questions on a number of threads and thought it was such a fun idea I have added my answers here:

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
Yes. Will snack on anything but right now I am hooked on naturally smoked dried turkey pepperoni and mini babybel cheese. Usual staples are wine gums or chocloate covered almonds.

What is your favorite drink while reading?
AM - Coffee - love it, need it cannot live without it!
Daytime - decaf tea or fruit juice
PM - white wine

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
Nope.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ear? Laying the book flat open?
Bookmark - although in a pinch I have grabbed a post-it to flag the page

Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Both?
Fiction

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
I prefer to stop at a logical break in the book but as a commuter I have found myself walking and reading from the bus stop to my office. Yes, I do stop reading and pay attention when I am crossing streets!

Are you a person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
I have tossed a book on my desk in disgust but never thrown one across the room - I read a lot of library books and returning a damaged book to my local library just wouldn't do!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
If it really bugs me, yes.

What are you currently reading?
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordana - I am blown away by this one!

What is the last book you bought?
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell - I bought it for the Reading Through Time July group read for the topic 'Freedom' and just realized I have to jump to it if I want to read it this month!

Are you a person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?
Prefer 1 book at a time but will read two if one is a communter book and one is a stay at home book.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?
I like to read for 30 minutes with my morning coffee before i head into the office to start my work day. On weekends, I prefer mid-afternoon as my reding time after all my chores and errands are finished. And we cannot forget the reading in bed before nodding off....

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Stand alones but the 1010 Challenge now has me diving more in to series books **groans** ;-P

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
For comfort reads right now I recommend Sarah Addison Allen, Alan Bradley and Charles Finch but my all time favorite author that I never tire of recommending is Alexandre Dumas - Love his books!

How do you organize your books? By genre, title, author's last name, etc?
LT organizes them, I just stack them in tidy, non-leaning piles.

Book #66 - The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
Category: What a Debut!
Alternative category: Lost in Translation

"A prime number is a lonely thing. It can be divided only by itself or by one; it never truly fits with another."

According to the book cover, Paolo Giordano is the youngest-ever winner of Italy's literary award, the Premio Strega, for his debut novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers. This story follows the troubled lives of two individuals, Mattia and Alice, from childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. Both have suffered childhood tragedies that drive them to forms of self mutilation and isolationist behavior patterns that distance them from family and other individuals. The fact that these two individuals recognize a kindred spirit in each other when they meet gives the story an element of hope for the characters and their self-destructive lives.

This well written story drew me quickly in to the characters and the setting. Giordano knows how to write a story that involves the reader on an emotional level that isn't always pretty and isn't meant to be pretty. At times it was unapologetically jarring to the senses while conveying the subject matter. The writing style and power held consistent throughout the story and, in a small way, I feel as though I learned something while Mattia and Alice struggled to find their way.

A great story I would recommend.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Currently reading The Fleet Street Murders -- you inspired me! :)

Christina: I hope you enjoy The Fleet Street Murders!

Wow! I'm very impressed. I have been reading, but my slow and steady pace may not get me to the prize of 100. However, vacation will be here very very soon, and with two weeks of time off, I'm hoping to make good progress toward meeting my goals!!

Catching up on your thread after my holidays. I've never even heard of The little girl and the cigarette, but it sounds like my cuppa for sure. Gave it a thumbs up, and jot it down on Ye Olde Wishliste.

I walk and read too! :)

lalbro - thanks for stopping by. Still a ways to go to finish this Challenge and I am having a lot of fun in the process!

GingerbreadMan - Glad to learn I am not the only one that reads and walks at the same time! It is amazing how many people steer clear of someone walking on the sidewalk with their nose in a book ;-) Benoit Duteurtre is quite the witty writer. Unfortunately my French is atrocious so I have to rely on English translations to enjoy his works. The only other book of his translated into English that I have been able to locate is the novella Customer Service (touchstones find too many titles, and not the correct one!).

Just stopping in to see what's new! Keep it up!

Book #67 - The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
Category: Follow Thy Author

Last year I picked up St. John Mandel's debut novel, Last Night in Montreal and was impressed with the complexity of her characters, multiple settings and her way of weaving the story in a manner that brings the reader in to analyze the information as the story unfolds. Her second novel, The Singer's Gun, is another strong, introspective novel that has been described by some as a 'inactive action novel'.

The book has all of the prime elements for a suspense novel - illegal dealings, investigative crime units, secrecy, blackmail and foreign rendezvous. Anton Waker is a man with a conscience to do the right thing. Unfortunately, he was born into a family of dealers in stolen goods. Anton attempts to make a clean break of this side of his life by landing a respectable corporate office job with plans to marry Sophie, a girl with no knowledge of his family's shadier side. Things don't work out as Anton plans, not really a surprise, and a snowball of events brings Anton to agree to do one last job for his cousin Aria as she attempts to branch out from dealing in forged passports and social security cards.

If you are looking for your typical action thriller, this isn't one of those. The story is a woven tale of flashbacks and shifting perspectives that slowly brings all the pieces together for the reader. St. John Mandel is a great writer for creating complex characters, conveying a blurring of the lines between right and wrong while giving her stories an air of realism. This is a great action sleeper that keeps the reader intrigued with what is going on with the characters, not the action.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

July Recap
I won’t have any more books to add for June so I thought I would post the recap now.

I thought I was having a rather unproductive reading month what with summer finally arriving and outdoor activities taking precedence, so I was surprised to discover that I still managed to finish 9 books during the month of July. Total # of books read so far is 67. A couple of my categories have been ignored for a few months now…. No motivation to read books specific to a challenge when there are so many other great books out there calling to me!

Favorite book for the month: Tough decision this month with a tie between The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel and The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano, both with 4.5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: After some thought I will have to say the short stories Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi with 3.5 stars. As with most short story collection, some I loved, some were just alright and a couple of the stories left no impression on me.
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni with 2 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 0 for the month - 5/10 completed

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class - Category FINISHED! June

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 2 for the month - 5/10 completed
The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards
Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi

Follow Thy Author - 2 for the month - 9/10 completed
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley
The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

What a Debut! - 1 for the month - 8/10 completed
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano

They Made a Movie From That...? - 0 for the month - 4/10 completed

Bloody Victoria England - 1 for the month - 5/10 completed
The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch

The Envelope Please... - 2 for the month -6/10 completed
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Tinkers by Paul Harding

Lost in Translation - 1 for the month - 9/10 completed
The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 0 for the month - 6/10 completed

ETA: Touchstones not working. Will try later to see if they will load.

Overflow book so it doesn't count towards the 1010 Challenge book count:
The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric

If I hadn't finished my Historical "I Don't Remember That From History Class" category, this ER book would have been a perfect addition. Set at the turn of the 19th century in Italy and Peru, this book fits the bill as a Gothic historical novel, according to the book back cover, for fans of The Thirteenth Tale, The Gargoyle and The Historian. Well, of the three listed, I have only read The Historian, which I did enjoy, but not as much as I enjoyed The Book of Human Skin. This 500 page book was well worth losing myself in over the past four days. Full review of the book can be found on the book page here: http://www.librarything.com/work/9589982/reviews/62904275

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #68 - Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

This story was an interesting snapshot in time, seen through the eyes of eleven-year-old Georgie Mason. It is a hot, dry summer of 1952 in a quiet suburban area of Indianapolis, Indiana. Georgie's family has just moved into the area from the other end of town and Georgie is moping about having to move away from all of her friends, starting a new school in September and upset that her favorite summer pastime, swimming, has been banned by her parents because of the polio outbreak in the state. Georgie has an almost morbid fascination with following the daily news reports of the polio outbreak, but this interest takes on a personal meaning for Georgie when she meets the teenage girl next door, Phyllis Keller. Phyllis has polio and lives at home in an iron lung.

The story is a coming-of-age story of young Georgie trying to understand the disease, treatments, people's perceptions of the disease and how the disease impacts the lives of its sufferers, like Phyllis, and their families and friends. As Georgie's friendship with Phyllis grows, she finds herself grappling with issues that adults have difficulties comprehending.

What I really liked about the story is that Georgie is not presented as overly precocious - she is a believable eleven-year-old, along with her nerdy friend Evelyn, her athletic older brother Emmett, and Phyllis. I found the adults in the book to be lacking in character development. They come off just a little too perfect, a little too condescending, a little too absent-minded, and too two-dimensional for the topic at hand. I don't know how realistic the idea of Phyllis living at home in an iron lung in 1952 is considering most hospitals in the 1950's had limited access to iron lungs for patients unable to breath without mechanical assistance, but it enables the story to play out as it does.

An interesting story about a time period and a disease that for many is only found within the pages of a history book. Unfortunately, this disease has not been fully eradicated, even though it is now rare in the Western some 60 years after the outbreaks in Europe and America. A news report I read today says that Nepal faces a dangerous stage of local transmission of the disease, with vaccines used to eradicate the disease in the past proving ineffective.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #69 - If I loved you, I would tell you this by Robin Black
Category: This will just take a Minute.... or Two

I came across this short story collection listed in the new arrivals at my local library. As I have only made some progress on my short story category for this challenge, I placed a hold and decided to give this one a go.

Let me start off by saying that this is not what I would categorize a light summer reading. I found the stories had a glum, duor feel to them, probably as each story has a character that is either dying, has died, is stricken with cancer or has a medical condition, either from birth or from an accident in their youth. Some of the characters reach a turning point in their lives, after a price has been paid.

That being said, I found Black's writing style fluid, strong and consistent with her characters reach insightful awareness, whether they like it or not. Interesting stories that left me with the occasional pause for thought.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Chasing Orion sounds like one I would enjoy. I had a great uncle who had polio. I'd love to read more about what it was like when the epidemic was going around.

Book #70 - kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould
Category: The Envelope Please...
Alternate category: This Will Just Take a Minute ... or Two

John Gould's short story collection, kilter: 55 fictions was a surprise shortlist for the 2003 Giller Prize, along with fellow contenders Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake) and John Bemrose (The Island Walkers) . While I originally picked up this collection to fit my short stories category, I was blown away by Gould's ability to convey powerful, micro stories that connect with the reader. I say micro stories because these are short, short stories. The majority of the stories are only 3 - 4 pages in length, with some a mere two pages long. His ability to capture the essence of the story so succinctly, and to provide each story with a unique voice made this collection a real treat for me to read. The topics are varied. One of my favorite stories is the suicide note the husband would have left for his wife if he had written one. Another is the conversation of a married couple in bed with the underlying meaning behind each sentence added for hilarious context. The characters of Gould's writing are people you might encounter on the street, at the check-out aisle or sitting in a doctor's office waiting room. Ordinary people having ordinary conversations and ordinary experiences. Under Gould's skillful prose, these ordinary lives become quite exceptional.

Overall, a fantastic collection of short stories from a 'new to me' author that I highly recommend.

Rating: 5 Stars

Book #71 - A Rare Interest in Corpses, aka The Companion by Ann Granger
Category: Bloody Victorian England

I am really enjoying my literary visits to the murderous side of Victorian London, England. This time, another 'new-to-me' series caught my eye at my local library, Ann Granger's Lizzie Martin series. The Companion, book one of the series, starts off with Lizzie's arrival in London from Derbyshire where she has secured a situation as paid companion to Julia Parry, the wife of Lizzie's deceased godfather. Lizzie's predecessor, Madeleine Hexham, had left the position without notice to her employer. When, shortly after Lizzie's arrival, a body found at the new railroad building site of Agar Town is identified as the missing Madeleine Hexham, Lizzie suspicions regarding Madeleine's departure from the Parry household are roused. Scotland Yard Inspector Ben Ross is also determined to get to the bottom of Madeleine's suspicious death, even while people's mouths are clamping shut in his presence.

I really enjoyed this first in the series. While this story has similar makings of an investigative duo as found in other Victorian series I have read so far this challenge, I have to say that my preference, so far in the challenge, is towards Lizzie and Ben. Granger has done an excellent job presenting both characters in a balanced, practical light, making full use of their quick wit and intelligence. It is not a gritty murder mystery, in the true sense. It fits quite nicely into the same category as Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt series or Charles Finch's Charles Lenox series, leaning more towards Finch's Lenox series with comfortable characters and a nice steady build to the murder mystery. As for the portrayal of Victorian England, Granger presents London in keeping with the times and I have to admit that I am really starting to fall in love with that filthy, crowded metropolis full of opportunists from all walks of life!

In summary, another good series to curl up in my favorite armchair for a visit to good old Victorian England!

Rating: 4 Stars

Ooh, this sounds good! Adding A Rare Interest in Corpses to the TBR list now!

46 - I read that one last year and enjoyed it.

>46 lkernagh: That one's been on my wishlist for a couple of years. Sounds like I need to bump it higher on the list. It sounds like a good choice for my Victorian category in my 11 11 challenge.

I picked that one up at random from the library and enjoyed it too. Is it a planned series?

Not sure if A Rare Interest in Corpses was a planned series from the start but it has grown into one. I noticed that book 3 in the series (released July 2010) is now available at my local library so if anything, it has grown into a series! ;-)

Book #72 - Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Category: They Made a Movie out of That?
Alternate Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

What can I say.... I finally caved to see what all the buzz is about Coraline and Neil Gaiman, a 'new to me' author. That and I was in the mood for something out of the ordinary.... ;-P.

The Book:
I am usually not a fan of creepy books but this one, given that is is more of a childrens' book, helped reduce the creepiness for me. That being said, it is still a rather dark story - I mean really, any time there is another world/ dimension/ parallel reality chances are there is some twist of evil involved. Gaiman's story is an interesting twist on the good versus evil plot and yup, I was rooting for Coraline to win over her 'other mother'.

I will be giving more of Gaiman's books a glance the next time I visit the local library.

The Movie:
I curled up this evening and watched the movie, which proved to be a little difficult as I kept critiquing the differences between the movie and the book. Mental note to self: I really should give myself a few days after I finish a book before I watch the movie, then maybe I won't be tempted to pick it a part so much!

I enjoyed both the book and the movie, but for different reasons. I loved the book and how I was able to picture the stroy in my mind so easily based on Gaiman's writing. I loved the extras that they added to the movie, like the amazing gardens in both yards and how the 'other mother' actually fit my mental picture of her from reading the book - I love it when that happens!

I recommend both the book and the movie, but I have to say that of the two, I preferred the book.

Rating: 4 stars.

Just wanted to let you know -- I got A Rare Interest in Corpses in the mail today! Something else to add to my mystery category, either this year or next year. Thanks again for the rec!

>#53 - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! When I first started the Bloody Victorian England category I thought it would be one of the categories that I would have trouble finishing. I have had success over the summer lining up books for this category and now it looks as though I will have no problem finishing the category a head of schedule.

I will continue to post up my comments about the books as I finish them (Nope.... no hints of what is to come)!

i enjoye reading great books about forex markets

Book #73 - Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
Category: Bloody Victorian England

Silent in the Grave starts off as any high society murder mystery novel should - The year is 1886 and Sir Edward Grey, the darling of London society, collapses and dies in his London home in the presence of his wife, Lady Julia Grey, and a roomful of elegant dinner guests. As hereditary illnesses run in Edward's family and he had been sick of late, Lady Julia is prepared to accept his death as being due to his long-standing infirmity. She is shocked when private inquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane informs her that he had been retained by her husband to investigate threatening notes that Sir Edward had been receiving and suggests possible foul play is involved in Sir Edward's death. When she discovers one of the threatening letters herself while cleaning out Edward's study, she becomes determined to discover the truth about her husband's death and to bring the murderer to justice.

I have to say that I found this book to be a bit of a slog to read. I found Lady Julia Grey's character to be highly annoying and at times insipid, and the excessive focus on her character placed all other characters, including Nicholas Brisbane, into the shadows. The book was long winded in conveying the story. Really long winded! The editors could have easily cut 150 pages and still manage to provide a fulsome story for the reader. While there is a mystery to be solved, the book reads more like a Georgette Heyer novel, and one that is weak in the romance department. There were some elements of the story that I really did enjoy - the talking Tower raven and the eccentric characters that comprise Julia's high society family, the Marches. I mean really, you have to love a family that refers to their funeral-loving Aunt Ursula as 'The Ghoul"!

Overall, it was an okay story that was really really slow on the uptake and only seemed to find its pace in the final 100 pages. The murder mystery element of the story, when they finally got around to it, was quite good. Not sure If I will pick up book two in the series Silent in the Sanctuary. If I do, it won't be this year.

Rating: 3 Stars

Book #74 - Natasha and other stories by David Bezmozgis
Category: This will only take a Minute.... or Two
Alternative category: And the Envelope Please

David Gerzmizgis' connected collection of 11 short stories follows the life of young Russian Mark Berman, his parents, family and family friends who fled Russia for Toronto, Canada to chase their dreams. Set in the 1980's and 1990's, the stories read as stories from the author's personal past. Not surprising considering Bezmozgis emigrated with his parents from Latvia to Canada in 1980 when he was a mere boy. The stories of Mark and his experiences are filled with the realism of life lessons - the struggle of a family to get by on little money while learning English, Mark's encounters with other school kids at the Hebrew school where being a Russian Jew wasn't good enough and how a religious controversy can ignite in a Jewish old-people's home with the death of one of the residents.

A great set of short stories about one immigrant's life lessons, poignantly told with wit and feeling.

Rating: 4 Stars

Overflow Book - doesn't count towards the 1010 Challenge book count.
Only Call Us Faithful by Marie Jakober

August was American Civil War theme month on the Reading Through Time Group. Only Call Us Faithful is a great story based on the live of Elizabeth Van Lew, a spinster of breeding in Richmond, Virginia with abolitionist views, was a supporter of the Union and operated a spy ring of loyalists to feed the Union army information during the war. Full review of the book can be found on the book page here: http://www.librarything.com/work/863542/reviews/63764072

Rating: 4.5 Stars

August Recap

August was an okay reading month – I finished 9 books but only 7 count towards this challenge. Total # of books read for the challenge so far is 74. Hopefully, still on track to complete the challenge on time, provided I don’t let non-challenge reading take over all of my time!

Favorite book for the month: kilter: 55 fictions the short story collection by John Gould with 5 stars
Favorite for the Challenge so far: Tie between The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman and kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould, both with 5 stars
Least Favorite book for the month: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn with 3 stars.
Least Favorite for the Challenge so far: Ruby’s Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni with 2 stars

A Trans Canada Journey - 0 for the month - 5/10 completed

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class - Category FINISHED! June

This Will Just Take a Minute... or Two - 2 for the month – 7/10 completed
If I loved you, I would tell you this by Robin Black
Natasha and other stories by David Bezmozgis

Follow Thy Author - 0 for the month - 9/10 completed

What a Debut! - 0 for the month - 8/10 completed

They Made a Movie From That...? - 1 for the month - 5/10 completed
Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Bloody Victoria England - 2 for the month - 7/10 completed
A Rare Interest in Corpses by Ann Granger
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

The Envelope Please... - 1 for the month -7/10 completed
kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould

Lost in Translation - 0 for the month - 9/10 completed

Out of the Mouths of Babes - 1 for the month - 7/10 completed
Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky

Off challenge books read this month (Both would have fit my historical fiction category if it wasn’t already full):
The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric – an LTER book
Only Call Us Faithful by Marie Jakober – for the RTT Challenge

Hopefully, still on track to complete the challenge on time, provided I don’t let non-challenge reading take over all of my time!

You're few books ahead of me, but that's how I feel about it, too. But the books that are calling me are over-reads of some categories, and I'm not sure I have (or want to have) the self-discipline to fill the categories...

Haha, I just realized that you and I are neck and neck! Only 26 books left! :)

#60 ivyd - it's all the potential non-challenge books that might do me in! Only time will tell.

#61 christina - Race ya! Kidding....

Good to know I am holding steady in my reading with both of you. It all seems do-able know!

Book #75 – Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner by Amy Myers
Category: Bloody Victorian England

I am really enjoying my forays into Victorian London. A 'new-to-me' author, Amy Myers, had a new book at my local library that fit my Bloody Victorian England category. Upon discovering that it was book two in a murder mystery series, I was happy to discover that they also had book one: Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner.

Tom Wasp is not a police officer, a 'gentleman' detective or an inquiry agent as per the previous books I have read and enjoyed for this category. Tom Wasp is a poor but honest chimney sweep in London's poverty-stricken East End. He has his letters - can read and write - and has been raised to be God fearing. That being said, he knows that life in the East End is a hard scramble for survival. As a chimney sweep, Tom gets brief glimpses into the homes and lifestyles of the more well to do Londoners and Tom is flattered when a painter in fashionable Chelsea, Valentine Drake, asks Tom to model for a painting with the beautiful Bessie Barton, who models for painters as a way to make ends meet. When Bessie's body is found on the muddy banks of the river Thames a few months later, Tom vows to find her murderer. His investigations, with the help of his 11-year old apprentice Ned, lead Tom down the twisted road of Bessie's hidden past, the mysterious Moonman and her connection to a group of artists, the Angels.

In summary, another good book and look forward to reading book two, Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker in what appears to be a rather new series by Myers. IMO Myers has done a great job communicating the 'atmosphere' of Victorian London through Tom's eyes, creating interesting characters, a good mystery to solve and fantastic insight into London of the time period, including the Thames Tunnel, the Ratcliffe Highway and the Cremorne Gardens. The only part of the book that I started to tire of near the end was the continual use of analogies by the narrator between the investigative process and chimney sweeping. Other than that, I would rank this one up there with the other mystery comfort reads I have been enjoying this year.

Rating: 4 Stars

That sounds like the start of a new series for me. I've added it to my wishlist and will check my library to see if they carry her books.

Hi DeltaQueen - here is hoping your library has it. I was a little surprised to discover a book published back in 2007 on had only 4 members on LT with the book!

Book #76 - The Spot: Stories by David Means
Category: This Will Only Take a Minute ... or Two

I will start off by mentioning that I found this short story collection to be refreshingly unique, gritty and, quite frankly, a bit of a downer. Means is a good story teller. He captures the moment in succinct prose to carry the reader through the story - albeit in a round about manner. All of the 13 stories have a common writing style - bring the reader in at the start in the center of a vortex, swirl outward to provide background and context and then close back where the reader starts, or near enough to the starting point. An interesting full circle approach to story-telling. The stories seem to be set in the upper American Midwest, time period interestingly vague and left up to the reader to pick a time in the past 50 years. The gritty part comes in the subject matter - railway hobos discussing knifing incidents, a crucifixion by teens, armed robberies gone wrong - that, at least for me, shrouded the stories in a blanket representative of a darker, poorer fringe element of society.

I have not read any of Means' previous works, and while I found his writing style to be strong and captivating, the stories came across as snatches of individuals struggling to make ends meet or to understand where life has landed them and I was happy to see the end of these rather grim stories.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #77 - The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley
Category: What a Debut!

I will admit that while Findley is considered one of the icons of Canadian literature, this is the first book of his that I have read. Fittingly, I have started with his debut novel which was first published in 1967.

Set in the summer months of 1964, the story is about a well-to-do family of breeding residing in a wealthy neighborhood in Ontario. 11-year old Hooker Winslow is surrounded by his family, a family that is falling apart at the seams. The fateful summer sees Hooker, the youngest member of the family, struggling to make sense of his family and events that occur around him: his mother Jessica's erratic, reclusive behavior and abandonment of her children and motherhood after giving birth to a stillborn the previous year, his older brother Gilbert's drunken and disorderly behavior after dropping out of prep school, his spinster aunt Rosetta who has taken over running the household and his father Nicholas' continual silence and decision to leave the Winslow household to continue as it is. Surrounded by his cats, Hooker's only human companion is Iris, the family servant that has been with the family for thirty years.

This is a fascinating dark story about a family that implodes in on itself, slowly at first and then with frightening speed as Hooker scrambles to try and understand what is happening to his family. Iris, and at times Gilbert, try to answer Hooker's questions but the truth continues to elude him. Snippets of overheard conversations lead Hooker to jump to conclusions that turn what should have been a summer of carefree fun for a young boy into one of worry, concern and a frightening plunge for young Hooker into the realities of the world around him.

An excellent powerfully told story and one I highly recommend! Now that I have discovered Findley's works, I will be reading more.

Rating: 5 Stars

Overflow Book: - doesn't count towards the 1010 Challenge book count.

I finished Elizabeth: The Golden Age this evening, a book I picked up for the September Royalty Theme read for the Reading Through Time Group.

The book is a novelization of the screenplay by the same name. Suffice to say, it was a quick read, short on historical detail - blame the screen play! - as well as taking certain liberties with historical time lines. The story focuses on Elizabeth I's reign when Spain's King Philip II sent the Spanish Armada in a determination to remove the protestant queen from the throne of England and restore England to Catholicism. The movie/book takes some liberties by inserting Sir Walter Raleigh into the battle with the Spanish Armada and probably other shifts in history that I wasn't really paying attention for.

A good, quick, fun read that skims the surface of the relationship between Elizabeth and her cousin Queen Mary of Scotland, religious turmoil of the time period as well as a romantic dalliance with Sir Walter Raleigh.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

>67 lkernagh: - I just had to go add this to my wishlist after your great review. And - don't you know - I thought a couple others of his looked interesting also.

@67 Did you read The earth hums in B flat? Sounds like there might be a possible resemblance. Thanks for a great review!

>70 GingerbreadMan: - I haven't made it to The Earth Hums in B Flat yet. I hope to try and get to it before year end and your comment has pushed it up the TBR pile!

Book #78 - The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron
Category: Bloody Victorian England

This book nicely 'squeaks' - by just a nose hair mind you! - into my Bloody Victorian England category as it is set in London near the end of 1900: Oscar Wilde has died (November 30, 1900) and our leading character travels to France for the funeral and manages to solve the crime before Christmas arrives. Wikipedia states that the Victorian Era ran until Queen Victoria's death on January 22, 1901 so it just fits the tail end of the era.

Denton, (Yup, a lot of the characters are referred to by last name only in this one) is a famous American author and recent expatriate who has settled in turn-of-century London. He has an interesting past - served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, was a western town marshal for a handful of months, a farmer before that - and is not happy with how his current novel is shaping up. He has a rather crusty, sarcastic butler/man servant Atkins (images of Lugg from Margery Allingham's Campion series immediately come to mind!) and an ever growing pile of debts. His evening is interrupted by a sudden visitor seeking out Denton's help and tells a tale of being pursued by Jack the Ripper. Denton brushes him off as a sensation seeker or just another London nutcase, until a prostitute is found dead. Soon, all Denton can think about is the murder and trying to solve it, especially as the police are willing to just write it off.

This is my favorite murder mystery out of all the books I have read for this category. The story has a nice dark feel to it and Denton's broodingly cynical, and at times downright crusty view of life and the events occurring around him is a nice change from the lighter, more cozy feeling mysteries. Even the female lead, Janet Striker, has a tough edge to her, having served time in prison for murdering her husband (so the story goes) and runs an association that tries to help unfortunate women get off the streets. There is enough action to keep the story moving along at a nice pace, along with the banter between the characters to keep things lively and interesting.

A Victorian murder mystery with some grit and attitude. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series, The Bohemian Girl.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Frightened Man sounds like an interesting one! Adding it to my list of possibilities for next year. :)

Christina - I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did!

Book #79 - Blindness by Jose Saramago
Category: Follow Thy Author CATEGORY FINISHED!

I fell in love the with the story telling skills of Saramago last year when I read his novel Death with Interruptions so when a group read of Blindness was announced I jumped at the chance to dive into another Saramago novel.

Stunningly disturbing, the story starts with an unnamed individual - known through the rest of the story as the 'first blind man' - suddenly going blind while sitting in his car while stopped at a red light. He is assisted home by a good Samaritan and his wife, upon coming home to find her husband blind, takes him to an eye specialist. Over the course of 24 hours, everyone who has come into contact with the blind man goes blind themselves. Panic of a potential epidemic is raised at the government level and measures are quickly taken to quarantine the infected individuals, under military guard.

This story is a fascinating, thought provoking examination of the total breakdown of society and the varied human responses to this breakdown. The characters remain unnamed - names have no importance when one cannot see - but under Saramago's skilled hand they come to life for the reader with vivid clarity. The subject matter is an uncomfortable one in that it has an air of reality to it that is unnerving.

I find Saramago's method of writing - lack of punctuation and sentences and paragraphs that seem to run on with out end - easy to fall into, but it does help if you maintain a quick and steady reading pace and allow the mind to grasp the flow of dialogue for you.

Not an easy subject matter but one that is conveyed in a thought-provoking, eerily realistic manner. A page turner that was impossible to put down and which will stay with me for quite some time.

Rating: 5 Stars

Book #80 - Room by Emma Donoghue
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Alternate Category: ... And the Envelope Please

Room, currently long listed for the Man Booker Prize was a bit of a surprise for me. A surprise that the Man Booker jury panel has chosen an easy to read story - so out side of their usual choices! The narrator of the story is 5 year old Jack. He is your typical sweet, lovable, inquisitive boy living a typical child's life... or is he? Without giving away intrigues of plot, the reader learns early on that Jack's life with his Mom is not what we are originally lead to believe as Jack takes the reader through his typical days. You see, all Jack knows of the world is what he experiences in the eleven by eleven foot Room that is a prison and what has been explained to him by his Mom. It is Jack's curiosity and his unique perspective of Room and the world outside that pulled me in and kept me glued page, after page, after page.

At times shocking, I was really amazed how Donoghue was able to keep true to the voice of young Jack... not an easy task I am sure! The story does touch on the disturbing topic of abduction and deviations from current society's viewpoints on child-rearing but overall I found it to be an easy page turner that has left me continuing to mull over some parts of the book.

Rating: 4 Stars

Book #81 - I'jaam by Sinan Antoon
Category: Lost in Translation

I have to start off by saying that this is an amazing novella I came across while roaming the shelves of my local library the other day. The novella starts off with a very helpful introductory note about the Arabic alphabet and the dots and diacritical marks that are utilized to eliminate ambiguous readings of some letters. The term I'jaam is meant to mean "elucidating" and "clarifying".

The story takes on the form of a recently discovered handwritten manuscript (without the dots) found in the filing cabinet of the political prison - sorry, 'General Security' - of Baghdad. Because the manuscript has no dots, it is sent to a state translator to interpret. The story is the manuscript, as interpreted - with foot notes - by the state translator. It reads like a diary/ memoir of random thoughts of a young college student in Baghdad during the Iran Iraq war. The reader experiences through the student's pen, segregation, the political censorship and propaganda that surrounds the citizens, the undercover guards posing as students and interrupting classes to ensure mass political rallies are activated to fuel support for the war machine and the banning of popular Arabic poets of the era.

While poetically beautiful, the story provides the reader with a stunning insight into the political control, oppression and injustice Iraqi's lived under prior to the American invasion and is prefaced as expressing the voice of those whose voices were robbed by oppression.

A stunning story.

Rating: 5 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Book #82 - The Beautiful Red by James Cooper
Category: This will Just Take a Minute... or Two

I want to start of by saying that as a general rule, I tend to stay away from horror genre, unless the premise of the story is just to intriguing to pass up. Having never been a fan of Stephen King novels and the like, I was surprised to discover that I really enjoyed the stories in Cooper's short story collection.

The book's forward, written by Christopher Fowler, calls this a revival of British horror writing. The 12 stories are all tales of madness and dysfunction, manifested in some form or another. The story 'Albion' had a slight Twilight Zone feel to it that appealed to me and I found the stories 'There's Something Wrong with Pappy', 'The Family Face' and 'Because Your Blood is Darker Than Mine' great stories of suspense and shock.

I did not like 'We Are the Pigs' - to graphic for my tastes - even though it had an interesting premise of sections of the story be interspersed with dialogue between the two fictitious writers that were composing the story. Nothing like reading two writers bickering over descriptive prose for what has the appearance of shaping up to be a slasher story!

'The Hack'- the story of a writer's obsessive round the clock typing having a profound effect on his neighbor - was more of a creepy surreal tale than one of horror and probably my favorite story in the collection.

In summary, great stories to curl up with on a wet, stormy night.

Rating: 4 Stars

I, on the other hand, love a good horror story and The Beautiful Red sounds like it has a number of them. Onto my wishlist it goes!

September Recap

As I am suffering through a nasty headcold that will not go away – Soooo annoying! – this will be a quick recap for the month.

Books read: 10 books – 8 for this challenge

Categories finished: 3 so far
I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
Follow Thy Author
Lost in Translation

Books read for the challenge this month:
The Spot: Stories by David Means
Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner by Amy Myers
The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley
The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Room by Emma Donoghue
I’jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody by Sinan Antoon
The Beautiful Red by James Cooper

Off challenge books read this month:
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn – an LTER book
Elizabeth: The Golden Age by Tasha Alexander – for the RTT Challenge

Book #83 - Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
Category: A Trans Canada Journey

The Great Famine of the 1930's in the then Ukraine was responsible for a wave of immigrants to countries such as Canada, providing these families an offer at a new start on life, away from the suffering they had experienced through drought, starvation and violence as Stalin's first Five Year Plan forced collectivization and exportation of grain from the then prosperous Ukraine.

Under This Unbroken Sky, a debut novel by Nova Scotian author Shandi Mitchell, is the story of one fateful year in 1938 in the lives of Teodor Mykolayenko, his sister Anna Shevchuk and their immediate families, struggling to homestead and make a new life for themselves in rural Alberta. The story has a grim start - Teodor returns to his family after spending a year in prison for the crime of trying to feed his family. During Teodor's year in prison, his wife Maria and their 5 children have been forced to struggle to survive in a one-room shack attached to the small cabin that Anna lives in with her two children. Anna's rogue husband, Stefan, feels that farming is beneath him, has left his wife and children weeks ago and has not returned, driving Anna into a deep depression. Teodor and his wife struggle through the summer to plant a garden and plow the virgin land for wheat to meet the patent requirements for homesteading and to feed the families. Just when things are starting to look up, Anna's wayward husband returns with a self-serving plan that can only have disastrous effects on the families.

The story reads like a sweeping saga of human struggle, family pride and resilience in the face of misfortune. Mitchell's experience as an award-winning director and screenwriter shows here with her ability to present such a vivid, visual experience, built on historical facts. The struggles that immigrant homesteaders faced, and the fact that English speaking immigrants were treated differently is a backdrop for the family difficulties that dog the Mykolayenko's, from trying to sell their garden crops to the grocer in Willow Creek to the grain growers trying to undercut the market value of the wheat.

The story is haunting, bleak and shocking but delivered with a skill that is breathtaking. A stunning page-turner.

Rating: 5 Stars

Thumbs Up for your excellent review! I see you have made the Hot Review List as well. Congrats.

63, 72> Dang. Two more books to track down. They both look really interesting.

As far as why the Amy Myers book isn't owned by more people: it looks like it's published by Five Star, which deals more with libraries than with bookstores, from what I've seen. Probably harder to stumble across it if you have to find it online rather than on store shelves.

Happily, my library has the Tom Wasp novels and the ones written by Kenneth Cameron. Saves me money I don't have.

Catching up on this thread and - dammit - adding more titles to the Wishlist...

Terrific review of Under This Unbroken Sky! I really liked this novel myself.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Under This Unbroken Sky is a novel that will stay with me for some time, and will easily be one of my top five books read in 2010.

Book #84 - Solo by Rana Dasgupta
Category: ... And the Envelope Please

I have to say that Rana Dasgupta's novel Solo is not what I was expecting, and maybe that is a good thing. Winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book, I placed a hold on this book when I found it listed in my local library's new arrivals because 1) I liked the cover art, and 2) it is described as a story that paints a portrait with lyrical brilliance. I am happy to report that I am glad I did place a hold on this unusual story.

The story is narrated by Ulrich, a blind, nearly penniless Bulgarian, a man who is "nearing the end of his life's tenth decade". Ulrich has seen a century of change pass before his eyes - he goes blind late in life - and now spends his days reflecting on his past, both real and imaginary, to see if he has any wisdom to leave behind after all these years. The story is Ulrich's epic journey of examination, divided into two parts. Part 1, the First Movement, focuses on Ulrich's life experiences - a lover of music as a young boy, his passion for Chemistry, his thwarted professional development and the various political and economic upheavals that Bulgaria experienced over the course of the 20th century. Part 2, the Second Movement, focuses on Ulich's daydreams of three young individuals, now Georgian in background, and their experiences in our modern times.

I found Dasgupta's storytelling to be brilliant but I admit to finding the transition from the First Movement to the Second Movement confusing and lacking in explanation. I think I am going to have to agree with the quote by Salman Rushdie on the front cover of the book I read: "A novel of exceptional, astonishing strangeness."

So long as you can get past the fact that the story is one told with a fluidity that appears to lack a fixed purpose, and just enjoy the story for what it is as it unfolds, it is quite an interesting, compelling read.

Rating: 4 Stars

Book #85 - A Song for Nettie Johnson by Gloria Sawai
Category: ... and the Envelope Please

I didn't realize when I picked up this book that it was a collection of nine short stories, six of which are what I would call 'connected stories' focused on the inhabitants of small Stone Creek, Saskatchewan. As winner of the 2002 Governor General Literary Award for Fiction, I was curious to see how A Song for Nettie Johnson, the only short story collection in running for the award, stood up to its contenders, including Carol Shield's Unless, Wayne Johnston's The Navigator of New York and David Bergen's The Case of Lena S.

The first story, A Song for Nettie Johnson, more of a novella at some 90 pages in length, was a fascinating story about small town opinions, self-righteousness, damaged souls and the ability to reach for something, even if it frightens you. It was also a great introduction to the inhabitants of Stone Creek and the next five connected stories. Half way through the book I was happily engrossed in the lives of both the children and the adults as they grappled with issues from alcoholism and religion to death and illness. The storytelling was fresh, inviting and reminded me of the books Olive Kitteridge and Cool Water I had read earlier this year.

The last three stories were not connected to the lives of the inhabitants of Stone Creek, and for me, that is where it all started to fall apart. I enjoyed the story Hosea's Children - a mother's journey to try and find the husband that left her years ago only to reconnect with the daughter that had left earlier that same year - found 'The Dolphins to be alright but nothing special and was left completely baffled by the last story in the collection.

The last three stories are responsible for my downgrading the rating here. If the book had stopped with just the six stories connected to Stone Creek, I would have given the book a much higher rating, and would have understood why it received the award that it did. As it is, I am a little surprised that this won the Governor General's Award and can only chalk it up to an odd year for the jury.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #86 - The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
Category: Out of the Mouthes of Babes

After seeing such positive posts here on LT and nudges regarding the book here within the 1010 Challenge (thanks GingerbreadMan!) I was happy to find the hold I had placed at my local library was ready for pick up over the weekend.

I really enjoyed this story. Young 12 year old -oops, I mean 11 and 1/2 year old! -Gwenni Morgan is a kid after my own heart. While life is not quite as easy and carefree for Gwenni in the small Welsh town, circa 1950's, as we would hope, Gwenni presents a fresh, inquisitive and patently unique view of the people and events surrounding her, even if only to open up the door for more questions.

Part mystery - a neighbor disappears only to be discovered dead floating in the town's reservoir - part coming of age story- friends, the icky discussions of boys and 'the change' - and part examination of family issues and secrets keeps this story rolling along. Strachan manages to maintain an almost whimsical feel to the story, without making light of the issues being presented.

A great debut novel.

Rating: 4 Stars

The Earth Hums In B Flat sounds really good. I've had it on my wish list for awhile - I am definitely going to try and fit it in one of my categories next year.

@89 The victory march continues, it seems :)

The Earth Hums in B Flat is one of my most memorable reads from last year. I love being reminded of it when I see it pop up in various places on LT.

Book #87 - The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
Category: A Trans Canada Journey

I know I have neglected this particular category of my challenge for some time now. Michel Tremblay is a Quebecois writer of considerable talent and I felt he would be a perfect fit as an author to represent Quebec here. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is the first of six novels that comprise Tremblay's Chronicles of the Plateau Mont Royal, a series that is considered by some to represent the Montreal working class neighborhood of Tremblay's childhood.

The story covers the lives of various residents of la rue Mont-Royal over the course of one day - the second day of May in 1942. An interesting neighborhood that includes 7 pregnant women, one of them the 'fat woman' in her 40's that is, shockingly for the social norms of the time period, bearing a child for love. The story doesn't have a main character, it tends to oscillate between the various pregnant women, the neighborhood aging matriarch Victoire, the three generations that live with her, the fates residing in the seemingly vacant house next door, the local shopkeeper and two women of a certain calling. The novel is written as a stream of consciousness with no paragraph breaks, only section breaks, to indicate when the novel shifts character perspective and reminded me immediately of Viginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway in structure and format.

I loved this story, the characters and the mixing of magical realism, historical fiction, divine comedy and interpersonal reflection that Tremblay presents in vivid detail. I cannot write a review that will do this great story justice. I am not even going to try. The novel transported me to a place and time that made me smile and empathize with the characters - male, female, young, old. Even the cat Duplessis and the mystical fates Rose, Mauve, Violet and Florence with their continual knitting and observation of the goings on around them were a treat to experience.

I ended the story with a long sigh mulling over the strength and importance of family, both biological and community.

Love, love, love this one and look forward to continuing with the other books in the Chronicles of the Plateau Mont Royal series.

Rating: 5 Stars

Book #88 - The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
Category: Out of the Mouths of Babes

This book was an interesting metronome reading experience for me - Loving it, only liking it, confused by it, not liking it, back to loving it, seriously not liking it, warming up to it, getting past done with it, etc - to the back to happy 'warm and fuzzy feeling and we are now done' finale. Good grief, I am exhausted just thinking about it!

The story is told through the voice of 12 year old Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet - T.S. to those who know him - genius cartographer extraordinaire and unexpected winner of the prestigious Baird Award sponsored by the Smithsonian. Yah, the Smithsonian didn't know that they have given this award to a ***cough, cough*** 12 year old. Apparently, T.S. had been preparing maps for prestigious scientific journals for some time and his quasi-mentor, Dr. Yorn, put forward T. S.'s portfolio for consideration for the Baird prize.

Long story short, T.S. decides that family life on the ranch in Montana with scientist 'Dr. Clair' Mom, Rancher Dad T.E. and sister teen pop Gracie doesn't appeal to him as much as receiving the Baird award so he decides, spur of the moment like, to make like a hobo and hop on the next freight train heading east with a suitcase full of his cartography tools and approximately a small amount of cash to present himself to the Smithsonian and accept the award. Rather unrealistic adventures abound for T.S. during his travels to Washington D.C. which I won't go into here.

Redeeming qualities of this far-fetched story? Love the family history piece where T.S. reads his mom's notebook about his great, great grandmother Emma, a scientific pioneer of the late 1800's and I have to say that the column notes and illustrations scattered throughout the book added a nice touch as the afterthought inclusions of explanations that can be found in journals or notebooks and yes, the warm and fuzzy ending - no spoilers here - is what gave this story some redeeming qualities to bump up the final rating slightly.

If you are going to think about picking up this unique book I would suggest persevering through the first 100 pages - that was the hardest part for me! - and keep an open mind to the rather unrealistic story as it unfolds - it is fiction after all!

Rating: 3 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Book #89 - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Category: They Made a Movie out of That?

I had this book sitting on my bookshelf for some time now and I have made a promise to myself that I will work through the books I own, at least to some extent, before I go on another major book buying binge. This one jumped out at me as a sacrificial lamb to the cause so I said, "okay, your first.".

The Book:
I really loved this story. The book is well known, at least I think so, so I won't go into great detail here. Basically, Evelyn Couch is a 40-something housewife, circa 1980's, that feels something is wrong with her life/marriage/etc. On a visit to an old folks home with her husband to visit her mother-in-law, Evelyn meets Ninny and strikes up a friendship. Ninny is a born talker, has no family to come and visit her on visiting day and loves to tell a good story. The friendship builds between the two as the weekly visits progress. Each visit Ninny tells Evelyn more stories about growing up and living in small Whistle Stop, Alabama.

There are no main characters, unless we designate the present day characters of Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgoode as our main storytellers. The story has short chapters to accommodate the constant fluctuation between time-lines which made this a great commuting book! Alternating between present day - which for when the book was written was the mid 1980's - to peeks into Whistle Stop's past via "The Weems Weekly", Whistle Stop Alabama's weekly bulletin, and stories told by Ninnie to Evelyn, the reader gets an amazing glimpse into depression-era Alabama, race relations, female relationships, religion, empowerment, all mixed up with a good dash of murder. I loved The Weems Weekly chapters - such fun! My favorite quote from them is:

"By the way, does anyone know how to get rid of dog tracks in cement? If so, call me up or come by the post office and tell me."

This was such a great story, with the perfect balance of humour, southern charm and though-provoking comments. I was sad to see the story end. There were times when I was a little confused as to which decade I was reading about given how much the book shifted back and forth through time, but it didn't stop me enjoying this one.

The Movie:
I did see the movie (circa 1991 starring Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson) when it first came out, so I was over-due to see this one again. Wow, without reading the book I would not have known how many liberties Hollywood had taken with the story to present the movie as they did. I am not saying the movie is bad, I am just saying it was a bit of a shock how severe the editing and creative revisions were. Basically, I think this is one of those experiences where you either watch the movie OR read the book... both are enjoyable but your head might start spinning like mind did if you try to keep track of the differences between the two!

I recommend both the book and the movie, but I have to say that of the two, I preferred the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Hmm. I liked the movie and have watched the video a couple of times, but it's been a long time. Instead of watching the movie again, maybe I ought to try the book instead. I often prefer the book to the movie version of novels.

cbl_tn: I recommend reading the book. Hollywood completely played down the lesbian relationship between Ruth and Idgie (the movie depicted it more as a friendship) and really steered clear of the detailed depiction in the book of race relations in the South from the 1920's through to the 1980's. Understandably, the movie couldn't capture everything in the book, but they did change a lot of the book, including the ending.

Book #90 - Are You Married to a Psychopath? by Nadine Bismuth
Category: This Will Just Take a Minute ... or Two
Alternate category: And the Envelope Please

This collection of short stories was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Fiction (French) in 2009. The 10 stories contained in this small volume have a common theme: A sharp, witty examination of relationships between men and women. No topic is taboo here. Bismuth explores infidelities, insecurities, distrust, meddling friends, families and the entire spectrum of the risky world of the modern dating scene to married life turned upside down - all with the purpose of navigating couple-hood. Each story is fresh and unique and provides a tongue in cheek lament regarding the fate of women trapped in the web of male philanderers - a web that the women of Bismuth's short stories have contributed to the weaving of.

As with all short story collections, some stories were better than others but overall, I found this to be a great sarcastic chick-lit collection that had me chuckling and rolling my eyes at the same time.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

October Recap

With two months still to go and 11 more books still to read to complete this challenge I am confident I will finish by the end of the year – if I can just keep my non-challenge reading under control!

Books read: 10 books – 8 for this challenge

Categories finished: 5 so far
I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
This Will Just Take a Minute … or Two
Follow Thy Author
Lost in Translation
Out of the Mouths of Babes

Books read for the challenge this month:
Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
Solo by Rana Dasgupta
Song for Nettie Johnson by Gloria Sawai
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fanny Flagg
Are You Married to a Psychopath? by Nadine Bismuth

Off challenge books read this month:
A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay – an LTER book
Maps and Shadows: A Novel by Krysia Jopek – an LTER book

>89 lkernagh: - I have this book on my shelf and have been trying to find time to fit it in although it doesn't fit well in any of my categories this year. But I do have a movie category set for next year (actually I think I got the idea from this thread) so I should definitely get to it next year. Glad to hear it's good. I've seen the movie but I usually try to read the book first so the movie doesn't influence my expectations one way or the other.

dudes22 - I would be curious to see the movie adaptation of The Earth Hums in B Flat - I didn't know a movie was made for that one!

Overflow Book: Doesn't count towards the 1010 book count.

The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago

This story, said to be Saramago's last work prior to his death, shows a lighter, more whimsical nature of story-telling compared with some of Saramago's well known works such as Blindness. I think it might also be his only venture into historical fable-telling, but I would need to look into that further first to confirm.

Set in the 16th century (1551 to be exact), this narrative fable tells the story of Portugal King Dom João III's "re-gifting" of the Indian elephant Solomon to his cousin, Archduke Maximilian of Austria and the Archduchess Maria as an unusual wedding present. This story follows the elephant's journey, along with his mahout Subhro from Lisbon to Vienna.

The story is told in Saramago's signature style of minimal punctuation and run-on sentences which some readers may find difficult to follow. Saramago reminds the reader throughout the story that the narrator is from more modern times including well placed glib remarks to entertain and enlighten the reader while our characters find themselves involved with interesting road conditions, and autocratic boss, a request to 'fake' a miracle, and your typical clashes of a military, class and political nature.

Overall, a good story that took a little while to get into and while not up to the strength of writing as Saramago's other works that I have read so far, I still enjoyed it for the tale it is meant to be.

Rating: 4 Stars

I have a pile of books that I want to read that don't fit this challenge so I have had to establish a rule that for every non-challenge book I read, I must read one challenge-related book. So, I have decided the next book will be Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt as a perfect fit for my They Made a Movie out of That? category.

>103 lkernagh: I'm in the same situation, lkernaugh: 10 books remaining in the challenge at the beginning of the month (down to 8 as of last night), and a stack of books that I really want to read but don't fit into my challenge. Since December may be a slow reading month for me, I decided that I needed to read at least 7 of the 10 this month before diving into that tbr stack. The irony for me is that I really do want to read the books that fit the challenge -- they're just not my first choice right now.

relative to my message #100 - I was talking about your book #89 Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe not your message #89. - my bad.

Whew, I thought I had missed a movie opportunity there! No worries and if you do get a chance to read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe I will be interested to learn what you think. Everyone I know has seen the movie, but have not read the book.

It could fit into either my "colors" or "food" category for next year so there's a good chance I might get it read. I think I better go put your username in the book so I remember who wants to know what I think about it.

Book #91 - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Category: They Made a Movie out of That?

This is a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while now. When a friend informed me that the book had been made into a movie back in 1997 it became a 'must read now' book as a perfect fit to one of my unfinished categories for this challenge.

The Book:
I want to move to Savannah after reading this book. No, correction, I want to go and experience the Savannah depicted in this book, because I had to keep reminding myself as I was reading that this is non-fiction. Berendt, our author, tour guide and 'Yankee' visitor/quasi-resident of Savannah, puts to paper an enchanting place that has, through pride, indifference and arrogance, deliberately estranged itself from the outside world. Savannah does not want the world coming to their doorstep and doesn't want the world meddling in their affairs, thank you very much.

While the focus of this book, and most likely the impetus for its writing, stems from the real life events that occurred in the 1980's including the murder trials, four in all, of a respected antique dealer over the killing of a local male prostitute, it is the culture, the heritage, the social and legal politics and the polite Southern manners of the residents of Savannah that make this true crime story so fascinating to read. I read somewhere that the book was described as atmospheric and Southern Gothic in tone. As a town of cotillion balls, society parties, socially acceptable drinking and driving, and gun totting high society figures, both male and female, I will agree with that statement.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 focuses on the author's introduction to Savannah, its history, its architecture and its residents. The residents include: a charismatic, debt-ridden and cheque-bouncing lawyer, a weird bug specialist that the locals fear has a bottle of deadly poison that he will contaminate the water supply with, a black drag queen on hormone treatments, and the 'lady of a thousand songs'.

After laying the ground work with this amazing cast of characters, Part 2 focuses on the murder, the trials and Savannah society's view as it all unfolds around them. And, of course, still more amazing characters! As much as I loved the legal fumbling, I was really drawn in by the people and the descriptions of Savannah.

I could go on forever, but I won't. A great non-fiction story that reads like a page turning work of fiction. Highly recommended!

The Movie:
As luck would have it, my local library has the DVD of the movie (circa 1997 starring, among a cast of many, John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jude Law and Irma P. Hall).

Updated post: Watched the movie this evening. My one sentence take on the movie ...... Well, that is 155 minutes I will never get back. Not impressed. Not one bit. How can Hollywood turn an amazing piece of work into a second-rate piece of drivel and hold their heads high? I am getting tired of the extreme creative license Hollywood takes when they gets their hands on a book for adaptation. This isn't even the book I read. The only redeeming qualities of the movie - and they really are few and far between - are the amazing character portrayals of the drag queen Chablis - which I think was played by the real Lady Chablis of the book - and Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Jim Williams. That is pretty much all that was worth watching.

Summary: Read the book, avoid the movie... I cannot stress this enough.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Great review of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil! I'm going to put this on my wishlist. I saw the movie several years and liked it very much.

>108 lkernagh: I don't know if they still do this or not, but the Trolley tours (Gray Line) used to point out all the places in the book -- or at least the better drivers did. It was well worth the price of the trolley ticket. If you don't think your driver is very good, if you get off and wait on the next trolley, the chances are pretty good that the next one will be more informative!

Hi Lori - Good to know about the Trolley tours. I love it when the tour drivers are uniquely informative about history.

Overflow Book: Doesn't count towards the 1010 book count

The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Àngels Anglada

A beautiful, stirring story about Daniel, a violin maker imprisoned in Auschwitz, and a wager that he build a beautifully- toned violin for the camp Commandant or be handed over to the camp doctor, a torturer, for the doctor's 'experiments'. At a mere 109 pages, the story is about Daniel's strength to retain his dignity and human spirit in the face of confinement, adversity and the evil that comprises that time in history. Reading this story, I was reminded that a love for beauty can be a very powerful thing.

Rating: 4 Stars.

Glad to hear it's good - I have it on my wishlist on BM but the only copy available right now is not in English - *sigh*. Oh well - I still have plenty on the shelves to keep me occupied.

Oh well - I still have plenty on the shelves to keep me occupied.

I can relate that that statement. The copy I read was a library loan - between LibraryThing and my local library's online weekly New Arrivals, my shelves of books at home keeping trying to get my attention, LOL!

As The Violin of Auschwitz was an overflow book, my next book is a 1010 challenge read. I have decided to pick up A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews as a good book representing Manitoba for my A Trans Canada Journey category.

I'll be waiting to find out what you think about A Complicated Kindness. I didn't like it, but many people adored it.

It took many attempts for me to finally finish A Complicated Kindness. Everyone raved about it so I ploughed through so I could see what the hype was about and I still don't know. I really didn't like it but couldn't tell you why exactly.

I know exactly why I didn't like it! But given where we are, I'll wait until she's read it. Then we can have a marvelous conversation.

Lori, most people adored this book. It won awards! Don't let us influence you in any way.

> 116 - 118 - No worries about influencing me with the comments in the posts. ;-) I look forward to the discussion. With the holiday today here in BC - I can never remember which parts of Canada designate today as a statutory holiday and which don't - I am making good progress on the book so should be finished the book and able to post my thoughts in the next couple of days.

It's sadly not a holiday for me in Ontario (although I got my pay cheque a day early so I think banks got it off).

I am now curious to see how you like it lkernagh and really curious to say why you didn't Ridgeway Girl!

Watched the movie adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil this evening. My one sentence take on the movie ...... Well, that is 155 minutes I will never get back. Further comments are posted in message #108 above.

Book #92 - A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
Category: A Trans Canada Journey
Alternate category: ... And the envelope Please

This book has been sitting on my book shelf for some time now, patiently bidding it's time. I am not new to Toew's works, having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Flying Troutmans. A Complicated Kindness, written by the Manitoba author, has seen its share of literary fame, being shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2004 and winning the Governor General Award for fiction that same year.

The narrator is 16 year old Naomi 'Nomi" Nickel, a high school senior struggling to grow up, understand life and what it all means in the small, dead-end southern Manitoba Mennonite community of East Village. You see, East Village and its residents live a strained, conflicted life. On one hand, they are proud of their Mennonite ways, to the point of suffocation and contradiction of what is and is not allowed in from the world surrounding them, while on the other hand, maintain a fully operational museum/"theme park" of their Mennonite heritage for the droves of American tourists coming up to witness this 'quaint, simple life", even if it is completely contrived. Lets be honest. How do you promote a clean, pious background when the town's teenage population appears to be running wild, doing drugs, consuming alcohol and just have dreams of being anywhere but here and the adults are struggling with one might think of as their own internal demons?

The book focuses on Nomi's cynical, sarcastic view of her world, a world her older sister Tash abruptly left one day, three years previously, in a van with her boyfriend. Nomi's mom Trudie made a similar vanishing act months later, leaving 13 year old Nomi and her father Ray to, basically, limp along as best they can. While the members of the community and the school system see signs of a problem, their advice, limited and useless at best, only leads to further displays of outward frustration and rebellion by the troubled teen as she struggles to make sense of what has happened to her family and what the future has in store for her.

I did enjoy this story. Yes, there is a lot of anger, frustration, rebellion and abject complacency displayed by the various characters that could turn people off this one. As well there should be. I would find it suffocating to grow up in a community where my only career goal, if I was to remain there after graduation, was to strive for a job at Happy Family Farms, the local abattoir, chopping the head off of chickens for nine hours a day. Forget moving to the city and coming back to visit, because coming back, or maintaining any ties with the community, including your family, isn't exactly an option. Toews, who also comes from a Mennonite family background where she was raised by pious but loving parents like Nomi's, parents that might also have had comparative liberal views like Nomi's parents, Ray and Trudie, gives Nomi a humorous yet heartbreaking voice.

Toews is good at presenting damaged souls in her stories. Damaged souls that have the strength to preserver, if precariously, in their search for the light and their way forward through the gloom that surrounds them. This is a story that I do recommend.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Hi! You've done some marvelous reading, and I've added to my wishlist a bit visiting your thread!

I agree with you on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil -- definitely read the book and skip the movie!

@122 Sounds very much like something I could enjoy! Looking forward to the upcoming discussion of it's pros and cons!

I thought A Complicated Kindness read less like it was written by a rural Mennonite teenager than like it was written by someone in their thirties writing from Toronto after finishing an MFA. I couldn't find the heart, although it was cleverly written.

125 - I think that was my problem with it. I just didn't find it all that believable (although I really don't know much about Mennonites so it could be entirely true for all I know). I was really hoping to learn something about people I know next to nothing about but something just didn't ring true to me. Dunno - can't really put my finger on it.

Hi tymfos - Thanks for stopping by!

A Complicated Kindness does have its pros and cons. I can see where Nomi comes off as somewhat unbelievable, voicing wisdom older than her mere 16 years, but for me it came across as wisdom an observant individual, even at that age, may be able to deduce by paying close attention to their surroundings. This is apparent in the attention she paid to the interactions between his older sister Tash and their mom Trudie. Not that she understood everything going on there, but what she did see and hear she absorbed like a sponge.

There was a good comment made about this book on a different thread that I will mention here as a con of the story. Trudie's story is one that is lacking in the book. I have to agree with that comment. I was left with a lot of "But I want to know more about .... ". I would have like to see more conveyed about Trudie's story.

Toews does have a knack for creating young, rebellious but lovable characters that are 'old beyond their years' - Thebes in The Flying Troutmans is a perfect example.

I think that also missing was any sense of religious struggle. The power of the religious authorities was clear, but what wasn't was the doctrine that she would have believed in since she was very young. It's a much bigger struggle to move away from salvation than to defy earthly authority.

Book #93 - The Bells by Richard Harvell
Category: What a Debut!

Harvell's debut novel is a beautiful, lyrical story set in 18th century Europe. Moses Froben, born to a mute deaf girl in a small village in the Swiss Alps, has been born with an extraordinary gift to discern sounds. His ears are immune to the deafening toll of the church bells his mother rings. When tragedy strikes home, Moses flees the village and finds himself under the guardianship of two traveling monks, who take him home to the Abbey at St. Gills where his musical talents are discovered.

It quickly becomes apparent that music is the central theme of this story. Harvell draws upon the opera "Orpheus and Eurydice" by the German composer Gluck to weave a tale of drama, romance, adventure, and passion from the remote Swiss Alps to bustling centers of Vienna and Venice. The topic is an interesting one. A number of the famous male opera singers of the time period, including Gaetano Guadigni who is also featured in this story, were castrato singers.

I enjoyed this story. The practice of 'surgically' ensuring that a young male's singing voice remains pure, was interesting to read, and Harvell captured the sacrifice for music, in this case unwillingly, that this entailed. My only complaints about this story is the continual emphasis on the descriptions of sound - that got a little tiring - and that it stops at what would conceivably be the next stage of a fascinating journey through life.

Overall, a good historical novel for anyone with an interest in 18 century Europe, Vienese society of the period, or has an interest in music in general and operas in particular.

Rating: 4 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

I have taken stock of where I am at with this challenge. The only way I will comfortably finish this challenge prior to December 23rd - my personal goal end date - I am going to have to retract the ability to read a non-challenge book for every challenge book I complete.

Hopefully that is the only change I need to make to complete the challenge on time. We shall see if that works or not.

> #129 - Religious struggle for Nomi was lacking in this book. I got the impression that while Nomi expressed concerns that her sister's choices were possibly bad and that she had concerns for her sister's salvation, I just assumed that Nomi had been exposed at such a young age to the dichotomy of the religious teachings and the influences of Trudie, Tash and the outside world that the religious teachings and influences were not as ingrained as one might expect. I felt that her bond to her family was much greater than any bond she may have had to the communities' religious doctrine.

@131 -- I'm in a very similar position, and it's definitely hard to stay focused on the challenge at this point. But take heart -- the end is in sight, and you're almost done! :)

Book #94 - A Tangled Web by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Category: A Trans Canada Journey

While on the hunt to find an author to represent Prince Edward Island, I kept hitting on the same name over and over - Lucy Maud Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame. While I could have revisited the Anne Shirley series, I thought I would pick a different book from the 20 novels Montgomery published. A Tangled Web, first published in 1931, is considered one of the few books published by Montgomery that was written for a predominantly adult audience.

The premise of the story is an interesting one - two families, the Darks and the Penhallows, comprise an extended clan that has seen no fewer than 60 marriages between the two families in three generations. Aunt Becky, the outspoken 85 year old matriarch of the clan, decides to host a levee where she reads her will and announces all bequeathed items to the family members gathered. Well, not all of the items. The name of the family member to inherit the family jewel, an heirloom jug that has been in the family for over 100 years and all of the family members covet, is to remain a secret for one year. When Aunt Becky dies one week after her infamous levee, the clan rises to the challenge, with what appear on the surface to be self serving motives, in their attempt to live up to Aunt Becky's beliefs and win the jug. What ensues is an entertaining glimpse into family rivalry, bickering, love matches family secrets and struggles to abstain from certain vices.

Set on Prince Edward Island in 1926 and 1927, I found this story to be a fun romp through the lives of the Darks and the Penhallows during their year of improvement and self discovery. Montgomery portrays the characters in a manner that is laughably ridiculous while at the same time appealingly charming. Keeping in mind that the story was written some 80 years, with different value systems and beliefs in place, I felt the book still has a lot to offer today's more contemporary reader.

In a nutshell - Quite fun!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I've read a lot of L.M. Montgomery's books, but A Tangled Web is one I haven't read. It sounds like a fun one. I've added it to my wishlist. I've got a family category in my 11 in 11 challenge so there's a good chance I can fit it in there.

>134 lkernagh: I just read The Blue Castle, also intended for an adult audience, to finish out my L.M. Montgomery category for this year. She certainly has a wonderful talent for characterization and pointing out the absurdities of behavior and society. Maybe next year I'll get to A Tangled Web -- it does sound like fun!

ivyd - Your post has made me add The Blue Castle to my reading list for next year's challenge. It is a perfect fit and sounds like a good follow-up after reading A Tangled Web!

Book #95 - Matter With Morris by David Bergen
Category: The Envelope Please

The Matter With Morris was shortlisted for the 2010 Giller Prize. Bergen is a 'new-to-me' author so I thought this would be a good book to pick up. The book can best be summed up with the following quote from page 113:

"I'm looking at myself," Morris said. "It's just not very pretty. I'd be way more content if I didn't always have to take myself with me wherever I go. I'm walking around in a fog, with my hands out, feeling blindly. I stand outside of the action, watching, all alone. I am alone."

Yup. That is pretty much it in a nutshell. I tried but just could not get into this book. The plot of the story - Morris has hit a personal crisis at 51 years of age with the sudden death by friendly fire of his son Martin while serving in Afghanistan, separating from his wife and having a difficult time connecting with his family and work life - had potential. Potential for an interesting story. Unfortunately, that is not what I encountered here. Morris gives up on professional psychiatrists to seek guidance from the philosophical works of Plato - The Republic shows up extensively here - , Socrates and Saul Bellow's Herzog. The book is littered with quotes from these writers. Morris also exhibits a near fascination with all things Jewish, and admits to wishing he was Jewish even though he is of Russian Mennonite background, because he "imagined that this might make him a more interesting person".

For me, this story was nothing more than 254 pages of whining and postulating, presented in such a superficial manner that I felt I might as well have been staring at a store front mannequin for all the feeling and emotion that the story was communicating to me. At the 100 page mark, I had come close to abandoning this one. While the story did improve towards the end, I really have to say that overall it left me feeling flat and in no hurry to rush out and pick up another one of Bergen's novels.

Rating: 2 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

That's too bad! Disappointing books are always a bit sad. At least it was enough to push you over on the category!

So true! I am now busy scrutinizing my book piles for a more promising - and less disappointing - book for my next read!

November Recap

I cannot believe there is only one more month to go!

Books read: 7 books – 5 for this challenge

Categories finished: 7 so far
I Don't Remember THAT From History Class
This Will Just Take a Minute … or Two
Follow Thy Author
What a Debut!
The Envelope Please…
Lost in Translation
Out of the Mouths of Babes

Books read for the challenge this month:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
The Bells by Richard Harvell
A Tangled Web by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Matter With Morris by David Bergen

Off challenge books read this month:
The Elephant’s Journey by Jose Saramago
The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada

5 more books and I am done!

Book #96 - A Mortal Curiosity by Ann Granger
Category: Bloody Victorian England

After finding Matter With Morris to be such a disappointment, I thought I should return to my comfort zone so I took A Mortal Curiosity book two in the Lizzie Martin mystery series, off my bookshelf.

This time, Lizzie's Aunt Parry recommends Lizzie to an acquaintance of hers who happens to be looking for a companion for his young niece, Lucy Craven. Lucy lives with her two elderly maiden aunts in a small village on the south coast of England and is recovering from the recent tragic death of her new born baby, a death Lucy does not accept as having occurred. It isn't long after Lizzie's arrival in New Forest that she starts to question the true meaning as to why she has been sent as a companion to Lucy. When Lizzie discovers Lucy in the garden covered in blood beside the body of the area rat-catcher - Victorian England's answer to pest control - Inspector Ben Ross is sent for the try and solve the mysterious circumstances of this death.

Another good period piece that made for a quick and enjoyable read. Not quite as good as the first one but that won't stop me from picking up the third book in the series - A Better Quality of Murder!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Book #97 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Category: They Made a Movie From That?
Alternate category: What a Debut!

This is a re-read for me. Considering it has been some 25 years since I last read this book as part of my educational curriculum as a youth, it was time for a revisit.

Quick summary: An undisclosed military conflict has resulted in a plane crash that sees a group of male youths (no females) on a uninhabited island with no adults or guidance on how to survive. Survival instincts, inherent in all of us, start to take hold over time, with devastating results.

The Book:
I enjoyed revisiting this harrowing novel that depicts the slow degradation of learned social norms of morality and moral right into a more savage, tribal and instinctual behavior pattern in the absence of established social structure to guide behavior. A book that I think is timeless in its message and suspense and one I will try to remember to revisit in another 25 years!

The Movie

I watched the movie (circa 1990) today, as soon as I finished the book. I cannot shoot down the movie - not outright- but I think it is important to point out that the movie was modernized beyond the scope of the original 1954 publication of the book. The movie still captures the overall premise of the degradation of social norms towards savage, instinctual behavior patterns within an isolated society - but IMO, it really loses the emotional impact the book conveyed. While there are a lot of changes from book to movie, the elements that I find most striking between the two is the fact that the book conveys the impression that the stranded children are unknown to each other- just a random group of English school kids stuck on an ill-fated flight and called to assemble with the blowing of the conch the first time - whereas the movie presents them as fellow American classmates at an undisclosed military academy, known to one another and not scattered around the island unknown to each other. Also, the decline in social norms appears to occur over a very short time period (like a long weekend!) and not the months or years of the book. This is a huge change to the social dynamics presented in the book and is downplayed by the movie. I won't even touch on the accordion they find in the sea tide (Not in the book!)

Overall, love the book as timeless. The movie, still good, needs to viewed with an eye to the context that it is presented in, and not as a direct adaptation of Golding's novel.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book #98 - Mercy Among Children by David Adams Richards
Category: A Trans Canada Journey
Alternate category: And the Envelope Please

I wasn't sure which book to choose to represent New Brunswick to finish my Trans Canada Journey category. I had this one on the reading pile waiting as one of my 'options'. It was a fellow LT reader over in the Canadian Bookworms group who recently read it and found it intriguing which in turn compelled me to pick it up.

Quick summary of the story: Retired police officer Terrieux receives a visitor to his small apartment on the fourth floor of a rooming house in Saint John, New Brunswick. This unknown visitor, 25-year-old Lyle Henderson, has come to tell Terrieux a story, a story he hopes Terrieux will listen to. A story of a harsh, poverty-stricken upbringing in the Stumps - a small rural community on a tract of land in northeastern New Brunswick along the Miramichi River, and a vow that Lyle's father Sydney made to God when Sydney was only 12 years old. A vow that opens Sydney and his family up to years of exploitation and torment by others in the rural community due to Sydney's pacifist behavior and leads his son Lyle to examine his own value and beliefs in a different, more violent light.

I cannot rave enough about this book. I didn't want to rush through this book as it was so emotionally arresting and, well, 'real'. The realism of the characters and the circumstances they find themselves in left me with a lot to think about and digest and really brought home for me the tragedies to story portrays. The characters are complex and as their stories unfold you can see how they are trapped, either by their own making, by history, or by circumstances that appear to be beyond their control, and how intertwined their stories are. The story is full of constraints the characters face: class, education, family history and reputation. The plot and writing style reeled me in with the first 10 pages and kept my attention all the way through.

Overall, a powerfully written story that made it easy for me to connect with the characters on an emotional level. Given the Kleenex I went through over this story - it really was an emotional heavy hitter for me - I recommend it for anyone that is up for a 'realistically presented' tragic tale. David Adams Richards is an author that is on my reading list for next year's challenge.

Rating: 5 Stars

CATEGORY FINISHED!

Woohoo, only 2 books to go! Mercy Among Children sounds good; might have to add it to the TBR.

I have that book! It's been moved a little closer to the top of Mt. TBR.

Glad you enjoyed Lord of the Flies the second time around. That is one of my all time favorite books. I think my love of "survival' books stem from my original reading of Lord of the Flies in high school.

#145 and #146 - David Adams Richards is a new favorite author for me after Mercy Among Children! I find it difficult to keep his name straight - I kept on trying to search for David Richard Adams in my local library catalog and wondered why I wasn't getting any book search results!

#147 - Yup, Lord of the Flies is still a great story!

A trip to my local library resulted in a pleasant surprise and motivation to finish this challenge - A Stranger in Mayfair, book four in the Charles Lennox mystery series was waiting for me on the hold shelf! I am soooooo excited, but I have promised myself that I MUST finish this challenge BEFORE I go back to lovely Victorian England!!!!!! Now, that is motivation!

Book #99 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Category: They Made a Movie From That...?

Before you ask, the answer is Nope.... I had not seen the movie (circa 2007 starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett) before this evening. I don't as a rule go to see movies.... my nose is always stuck in a book ;-) And to add to my shame, I didn't even know that F. Scott Fitzgerald had written the short story/novella that inspired the movie. Yes, I probably do live under a rock......

The Book:
What a quick, fun, witty story! I read it while eating breakfast and had to be careful at time not to choke on my coffee. This light, entertaining story, first published back in 1922 is the story of Benjamin Button, who is born an old man in 1860 Baltimore and proceeds to mysteriously age backwards. The glimpses as to how his family, and society in general, responds to Benjamin's unique condition has a slightly P.G. Wodehouse feel to it - insightful with witticism and human behavior.

The Movie:
After reading the story I was curious to see how Hollywood would take a slim 52 page story and turn it into a rather long 165 minute movie. Well, now I know. All they really borrowed from Fitzgerald is the title, the name of the lead character and his interesting medical condition. Everything else is new and I loved it! After reading and enjoying Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I am a sucker for period pieces of the South - this time New Orleans - so I sat back and enjoyed the setting. At the two hour mark I started to get the 'okay, when are we going to wrap this up?' but beyond that, a good movie after a rather busy work day.

Overall, the story by Fitzgerald is an enjoyable read but this time, I really did enjoy the movie more.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Book #100 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Category: They Made a Movie From That...?

Yes, I decided two months ago that this was going to be the book I would end this challenge with. While I have seen a number of various movie adaptations of the story, I have never read Dickens' classic before now. One of my favorite independent bookstores in town had new Collins Classics (2010 edition) copies of the story and I am glad that I was enticed to purchase a copy.

The Book:
What can I say that everyone else on LT hasn't already said or knows about the story from reading it themselves? A good story that is timeless in its tale and warms the heart and soul better than a warm fire and mulled rum ever could, IMO. I love the quote stated in the preface from the author:

"I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December 1843

Truly, a classic. The edition I purchased also contains a history of the publishing house Collins, now Harper Collins, and its founder, William Collins as well as a section about Charles Dickens' life and the Victorian era. Both of which I found interesting reading!

The Movie:
I have seen so many different adaptations of this story that all I can say is that each has its own merits and I leave everyone to revisit their favorite this holiday season!

Rating: 4 Stars

CATEGORY COMPLETED!

I have now completed the challenge! Whew! I will continue to read books for the remainder of 2010 and will post my reading here as bonus books. I will get around to posting a year end summary of my reading for the challenge, but that probably won't happen for another day or two.

Next up, only because I cannot wait for next year, is A Stranger in Mayfair, the fourth book in the Charles Lennox series by Charles Finch.

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

Hooray! Congratulations on completing your challenge. Now you can relax for 12 days or so and then get ready to start again! Looking forward to following your reading again next year.

Congratulations, time to relax before the New Year and a new challenge!

Congrats on finishing! Enjoy A Stranger in Mayfair -- haven't read that one yet! I also liked your thoughts on A Christmas Carol. The Muppet version is totally my favorite version of the movie. :)

Congratulations!

I'll be waiting to hear about the latest Charles Lenox book! I've read the first 2 and am eager to get to #3.

Congratulations on finishing!

Many congratulations on completing your challenge.

#152 - #158: Thanks everyone! I love how this challenge made me read outside of my usual reading choices. I am really looking forward to starting the 11 in 11 challenge in 11-12 days.

Christina and Ivy: I am currently 100 pages into A Stranger in Mayfair and loving it! I should be finished in the next day or two and will be able to report back with my thoughts!

My 1010 Challenge Stats

Overall, the following Top 10 books were memorable reads that I will re-read (in no particular order):

Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
Mercy Among Children by David Adams Richards
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Best and Worst from each category:
A Trans Canada Journey:
- BEST: Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell - 5 Stars
- WORST: The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini - 3 Stars

I Don't Remember THAT From History Class:
- BEST: The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander - 4.5 Stars
- WORST: The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell - 3 Stars

This Will Just A Take a Minute... or Two:
- BEST: what the world will look like when all the water leaves us by Laura van den Berg - 5 Stars
- WORST: Landscape with Dog and other stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos - 3 Stars

Follow Thy Author:
- BEST: The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys - 4.5 Stars
- WORST: The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte - 3 Stars

What a Debut!:
- BEST: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman - 5 Stars
- WORST: The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw - 3 Stars

They Made a Movie From That...?:
- BEST: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff - 5 Stars
- WORST: The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith - 3 Stars

Bloody Victorian England:
- BEST: The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron - 4.5 Stars
- WORST: The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons - 2.5 Stars

The Envelope Please...:
- BEST: kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould - 5 Stars
- WORST: Matter with Morris by David Bergen - 2 Stars

Lost in Translation:
- BEST: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaetan Soucy - 4.5 Stars
- WORST: The Prefect Circle by Pascale Quiviger - 3 Stars

Out of the Mouths of Babes:
- BEST: Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato - 4.5 Stars
- WORST: Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni - 2 Stars

Overall Average Rating per category:
A Trans Canada Journey: 4.35 Stars
I Don't Remember THAT From History Class: 3.8 Stars
This Will Just A Take a Minute... or Two: 3.7 Stars
Follow Thy Author: 4 Stars
What a Debut!: 4.15 Stars
They Made a Movie From That...?: 4.25 Stars
Bloody Victorian England: 3.75 Stars
The Envelope Please...: 3.8 Stars
Lost in Translation: 4.15 Stars
Out of the Mouths of Babes: 3.75 Stars

Honorable Mention
Loved the following two books that were read after I had completed my historical fiction category:
The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric - 4.5 Stars
Only Call Us Faithful by Marie Jakober - 4.5 Stars

Edited to fix BEST under Debut category

Congratulations on finishing your challenge, and thanks for providing the stats!

Thanks mathgirl! I just realized I had listed the wrong best book for my Debut category, which is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. I tried to used a spreadsheet to organize the stats and I still manage to goof one of them!

Bonus Book: - A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch

Oh, how I do so enjoy the Charles Lenox mystery series! Book 4 in the series, A Stranger in Mayfair opens with Charles Lenox and Lady Jane Grey wrapping up their honeymoon on the continent and returning to London for the start of parliament and Charles's first days in government representing the good people of Stirrington. Charles is surprised to receive a visit from a fellow parliamentarian, Ludovic Starling, who has come to see Lenox in his capacity of an amateur detective to investigate the death of the Starling family footman, who was bludgeoned to death with a brick in the alley near the Starling London mansion.

I have to say I think I found this story more enjoyable than book three, The Fleet Street Murders. The characters have matured into themselves, like a favorite pair of well worn leather gloves. The usual best friends, acquaintances, apprentices and Scotland yard contacts make their stage appearances once again. Finch peppers the mystery with interesting historical facts - the recently finished Parliament Buildings, cholera epidemics and other matters of interest to government at the time as well as literature of the time period, this time Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford - to put the reader comfortably into the time period. I did figure out the 'who dun it' before the ending but that did not detract from my enjoyment of the story.

Problem is, it will be some time before Finch has another installment on the market so I think I need to find another comfort mystery series to dive into to tide me over until then.

Rating: 4 Stars

Bonus Book: - The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

I have been waiting for months.... months I tell you.... for this book. Okay, that might be a bit strong. I added it to my wish list as soon as I knew it was in the works and then forgot about it in the mountain of other books clamoring for my attention. I was so happy to find it ready for pick up earlier this week!

This story is different from Labyrinth and Sepulchre, the other two books by Mosse that I have read. The Winter Ghosts is a beautiful historical tale suited for reading on a cold winter night beside a warm, inviting fire. Set in south west France near the Spanish border between the two World Wars, the story is a narrative tale told by Freddie Watson, who's older brother George was killed in action during World War I. As the neglected child in a family that morns the loss of its first born, years later, in December of 1928, Freddie still grieves the lost of his older brother and his only family bond while traveling through the French Pyrenees. A sudden snowstorm causes him to crash his car and seek shelter in an isolated village, which will prove to be unforgettable... a tale he retells 5 years later to an antiquarian bookseller in Toulouse while seeking the bookseller's expertise to translate an antique document.

Loosely following Mosse's formula of shifting back and forth through time periods, The Winter Ghosts is told with a decidedly male voice that I found to be highly suited to this fireside tale of mystery, ghosts, grief, love, loss and the historical past. Mosse's beautiful story is built upon two sad points in history: the loss of lives during World War I - for this story the focus is on the loss of young men who enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment - and the war of religion in medieval France in the early 14th century.

This is a quick story that could, and probably should, be read in one sitting. I ended up reading it at various stages over two days, which may have distracted me a bit.

Overall, a beautiful, quick reading winter ghost tale.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Well, I am now officially ready for Christmas - with time to spare! - and wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday.

Merry Christmas! Hope yours is very happy.

Very Merry Christmas!

Thanks cbl_tn and cmbohn! Christmas was great this year, no last minute panics, no disasters and quite relaxing for a change! I am not a Boxing Day shopper - hate the crowds and the overall chaos - so I am enjoying the quite time at home to get caught up on LT and my postings.

Bonus Book: - Poison by Sara Poole

I loved this story for what it is - a historical mystery/thriller full of devious individuals, suspect loyalties, action and greed. Oh, the greed! The greed for power and wealth that the time period is famous for! Poole's debut novel is set in the Eternal City of Rome during the summer of 1492, near the beginning of the historical struggle between supporters of the Renaissance and those that supported the Inquisition.

18-year-old Francesca Giordano, the story's protagonist and heroine, is determined to avenge the death of her father, poisoner for Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who was discovered beaten to death in the streets near the Borgia palazzo. First, Francesca must do away with her father's replacement and have Borgia assign her as the family's new poisoner. Francesca's investigations lead her through the streets of Rome, into the Jewish ghetto and the Vatican itself. In a time period where no one trusts anyone, where treachery and deceit thrives on every street, Francesca finds herself involved in a race against time to hunt her father's killer, do her job to protect the Borgia family and assist Rodrigo Borgia with his aspirations to become the next Pope, in view of what is believed to be Pope Innocent VIII's failing health.

This book reminded me in a number of ways Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series, a series I do enjoy reading. Poole has managed to weave an intriguing page-turner built on historical facts regarding the Borgias, the rise of antisemitism in Spain with the edict of Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella and the papal enclave that selected Pope Innocent VIII's successor. The characters are mysterious as to where their loyalties lie - just the way I like them! - and yes, there is enough action to keep the story flowing along at a fair clip. The story has been written with enough hints and innuendos of further stories to come that I can only hope it becomes a series because I would love to read more about the situations Francesca finds herself in.

Overall, a good, page-turning historical thriller that captures the flavour and intrigues of the time period full of interesting historical facts that do not hinder the flow of the action/pace of the story. Great fun!

Rating: 4 Stars

Bonus Book: - Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriett Scott Chessman

What can I say about this book? Chessman has created an amazing fictional glimpse into the life of American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, through the eyes of her older sister and sometimes model Lydia. The story, told in 5 chapters and a mere 163 pages, is a fascinating portrait of Mary, Lydia - who suffered from and died of Bright's Disease - and the time period, both artistic and non-artistic. Each chapter is focused on presenting the setting of each painting Lydia modeled for Mary - a written portrait of a painting in progress.

While this is a work of fiction, Chessman has build upon the facts that Mary Cassatt lived much of her adult life in France - where the book is set - and that she had befriended fellow painter Edgar Degas, who is also portrayed in Chessman's novel. Chessman relied on the paintings Lydia modeled for during her final years, and captures what may have been discussed, witnessed and thought of by Lydia, between September 1878 and Lydia's death on November 7, 1882. Chessman delves into Lydia's worries, her frustrations with her failing health and her thoughts of her family that surround her in their fifth floor apartment in Paris.

I found this to be a poignantly beautiful story that I feel captures the essence of the Impressionist era, life in Paris in the late 1880's and, hopefully, a good characterization of the thoughts and feelings of Lydia Cassett in her final years. A stunning story I highly recommend, for both art lovers and readers that take an interest in the human condition in general. The inclusion of glossy print copies of the paintings within the chapters is a nice touch and I enjoyed examining the paintings as much as I enjoyed reading Chessman's story.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Bonus Book: - L: And Things Come Apart by Ian Orti

I started reading this book unsure of what I was in for. Now that I have finished the story, I am still not quite sure what I just read. An overall feeling that I find a little disconcerting.

The story is focused on Henry. One cannot help but feel sorry for Henry. He is proprietor of a run down cafe - I would love to say dilapidated but it is difficult to imagine patrons frequenting a food establishment/watering hole in such poor condition - who willingly rents the second floor flat over his cafe to a mysterious woman, known only as L, who shows up in the cafe one rainy evening. As you may guess, Henry is an affable guy who treats the maintenance of his cafe with the same carefree manner as he treats his patrons, moving potted plants under leaks instead of repairing them, always willing to provide patrons with a free drink to appease them and to keep the cafe open until the last patron leaves for the night.

L is a mystery. L is a conundrum. A conundrum that Henry silently welcomes into his life. You see, Henry's wife has taken to entertaining her lovers in their home while Henry is at the cafe. Henry knows all about this, in fact he is certain that one if not more than one of the guests at their dinner table during the party at the start of the story is his wife's lover. The story tends to flash between the dinner party and Henry's experiences at the cafe. Things start to get interesting, in a weird sense, when a construction contractor at the cafe talks about the mysterious overnight completion of reno jobs he has started and a painter swears to having witnessed a woolly mammoth - yes, the extinct kind - wandering the streets of town. These stories don't phase Henry, although he does become a little unsettled when the furniture in the cafe appears to develop a mind of its own. That is when the story really takes on a surreal, indefinite quality of what is real and what is just a dream.

Orti's novel is different, I will give it that. I had some difficulty piecing together the story for the first 50 pages or so but after that it all started to fall into place, or at least as well as it could considering I really didn't have a handle on what was going on. It is a sleeper of a dark mystery and while I did end up enjoying it, I can see how some readers may toss the book aside with a "what the .....". It is somewhat experimental.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Edited to try and fix touchstones only to discover I made things worse in the process.

Wow, that sounds pretty exciting! Just one copy on the whole of LT too...

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper sounds intriguing. I seem to be drawn to books about art. Added to the wishlist!

#172 - I think this is a book that you would enjoy! The more I think about it, the more I like the writing style and the story structure.... It is growing on me so I will have to pick up a copy of Orti's other book The Olive and the Dawn to see what I think about it!

#173 - It really is quite a beautiful story. I don't know much about impressionist art but I do like the pictures by Cassatt!

Bonus Book: - Driveby Saviours by Chris Benjamin

This was an LTER book that I needed to get read and reviewed before the year ended. I have copied the review I posted below:

This story is about two imperfect individuals raised worlds apart from one another under different social-economic-political systems that meet in in one of Canada's largest multicultural communities, the city of Toronto. Mark is a social worker, one that does a better job at writing financial grant reports than providing assistance and guidance to immigrants assigned to him. His social life isn't much better. It takes the great North American power black out of 2003 for Mark to start to question his goals, objectives and his overall purpose in life. Bumi is a by-product of World Bank funding that saw Indonesia, under General Suharto and his military regime, remove children from their rural and island families, with no further family contact allowed, and sent to residential schools to learn how to read and write, only to be cut loose at the end of their education into an economy with few to no job prospects, a police force that was virtually omnipotent and harsh punishment for any that read banned books or expressed non-politically approved ideals.

To find out how these two individuals chance to meet and develop a friendship, you will have to read the book. I found the story slow moving at first as Benjamin was establishing his characters. It wasn't until about 200 pages in that the story, for me, really formed cohesion and focus.

The story is intertwined with social commentary of the plight of immigrant workers as well as nations of indigenous people struggling to survive under repressive regimes, but there is also warmth and hope in the story that carries it through. I found the examination of obsessive-compulsive disorder behaviors and possible behavior therapy treatments very interesting reading and helped convey in a lot of ways just how controlling OCD can be for someone that is afflicted with this genetic disorder. Benjamin has created realistic characters and manages to deal with weighty, worldly issues without bogging the story down.

Overall, a good debut novel with soul, substance and hope.

This book was courtesy of the LT Early Reviewer's program.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I think I can squeeze one more book into 2010 before inviting everyone to join me over on my 11 in 11 Challenge thread. It has definitely helped my reading to have the week off from work! Next week, and back to work, will be a little depressing......

Bonus Book: and last book of 2010 - Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas

You know, life can be really difficult at times for most of us. Just imagine how confusing, frustrating and bizarre it can be for a 12-year-old. Herbert Weinberg, our informative narrator and telepathic mind reader ends up spending a rather unusual summer courtesy of his parents, Daniel and Geri. Life for his parents hasn't been the same since 9/11 occurred some seven years ago when the family promptly decamped from New York City to Long Island. When most kids go to summer camp or spend their summer vacation with books, games and whatever hi-jinks they can get up to, Herbert spends his early morning with his father at the town dump searching for discarded smoke detectors. Why, you might ask? To collect the trace radioactive material Americium-241 contained in them. Uh-huh, you say. You see, Daniel has decided that the world just isn't safe and makes a nuclear bomb, which he hides in a garden gnome on the front lawn of their home and then proceeds to declare independence from the United States by the creation of the Kingdom of Wienbergia.

Suffice to say, their Long Island neighbors find this an affront to their neighborhood, the local news can't be bothered to cover it beyond sending their weatherman to try and get an interview with the newly minted King, with the FBI conducting not-so covert investigations into Herbert's family. When Daniel takes the weatherman hostage, the military arrives, along with a pack of hippies, etc seeking to join the Kingdom of Wienbergia.

As you can imagine, this is entertaining satire about nuclear arms, politics and growing up. Through it all, Herbert comes across as the only sane individual surrounded by crazy adults, where the US military shoots a lawn mower, a UN peacekeeper is assigned to leaf patrol within the Kingdom of Wienbergia and a peace treaty is in the works between Wienbergia and the Islamic Republic of Qool Mart Store No. 351, one kilometer down Route 25A from Wienbergia.

I giggled my way through this last book for 2010.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

That is me now finished with my 2010 reading so I am closing up shop under the 1010 Challenge. The fun with books continues in the New Year on my 11 in 11 Challenge thread, which can be found "HERE".

Happy New Year's everyone. May 2011 bring you all even more great books to enjoy!

That was a fun way to finish 2010! Happy new year, and I'm looking forward to following your 2011 thread.