tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19712867253573015782024-03-05T18:06:17.994-05:00The Wrinkled Pageink + paper + paint + thread + fabricKirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.comBlogger256125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-29608033022667093362021-01-03T12:10:00.004-05:002021-01-03T12:10:16.113-05:00Books Read in 2020<p> We can all readily agree that 2020 was a strange and awful year in many ways, and one of the surprising ways it affected me was in my reading. I did not realize until my public library closed how deeply dependent on it I am for books! I was so, so grateful when they opened on a limited basis in July, allowing patrons to reserve books online and then pick them up (no contact) at the branch entrance. You can be certain I emailed the library administrator with an email packed full of gratitude for this service. </p><p>So, here in my yearly roundup of books read, you will see many re-reads, as I had to turn back to my own shelves for material. (And this effort only reminded me how grateful I am that I have so many books of my own and--thanks to my husband--a library with shelves handcrafted of repurposed wood!)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqdkjHFRbko8nDbcrg64OiaoHWvmlCieQqD_UPDZtF_-ZxkpRzF_HsQKmmxR7b-r0SLvS3yN6cS23PYbFFaLtlZ2DS1gxF-7nRpmm1P6EBFRda6R4g4NN1-rbi_XEC8bg7ilTKYjJvBOJ/s4032/20201125_153430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="601" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqdkjHFRbko8nDbcrg64OiaoHWvmlCieQqD_UPDZtF_-ZxkpRzF_HsQKmmxR7b-r0SLvS3yN6cS23PYbFFaLtlZ2DS1gxF-7nRpmm1P6EBFRda6R4g4NN1-rbi_XEC8bg7ilTKYjJvBOJ/w472-h601/20201125_153430.jpg" width="472" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(Isn't it lovely?)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, here you go. (Rating follows in parentheses. 10/10 is a perfect score.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jan 8. The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas (9/10)</div>Jan 9. Erosion by Terry Tempest Williams (6/10)<div>Jan 13. Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Every by Gavin Edwards (8/10)</div><div>Jan 16. The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley (10/10)</div><div>Jan 21. The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (7/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jan 26. Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson (9/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jan 28. The Island of Danger by Jordan Gretzner (7/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jan 31. Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool by Clara Parkes (9/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 2. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (10/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 6. Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer (7/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 13. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (9/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 18. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (8/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 24. A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab (8/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 27. The Conscious Closet by Elizabeth Cline (8/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 29. Low Tox Life by Alexx Stuart (9/10)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Feb 29. The Overstory by Richard Powers (10/10)</div><div>Mar 8. The Human Age by Diane Ackerman (8/10)</div><div>Mar 13. Emma by Jane Austen (10/10)</div><div>Mar 18. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (10/10)</div><div>Mar 23. 24 Hours in Ancient Rome: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There by Philip <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Matyszak (6/10)</div><div>Mar 25. Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (10/10)</div><div>Mar 27. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World by Steve Brusatte <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>(10/10)</div><div>Mar 31. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (7/10)</div><div>Apr 2. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (10/10)</div><div>Apr 4. The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant (8/10)</div><div>Apr 7. Pax by Sara Pennypacker (10/10)</div><div>Apr 8. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (9/10)</div><div>Apr 11. Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris (7/10)</div><div>Apr 13. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (9/10)</div><div>Apr 15. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (9/10)</div><div>Apr 16. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (9/10)</div><div>Apr 21. Himself by Jess Kidd (10/10)</div><div>Apr 22. Watership Down by Richard Adams (10/10)</div><div>Apr 27. Dune by Frank Herbert (9/10)</div><div>Apr 30. The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (9/10)</div><div>May 2. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (9/10)</div><div>May 5. The Serpent in the Garden by Judith Merkle Riley (8/10)</div><div>May 8. The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig (7/10)</div><div>May 9. The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart (10/10)</div><div>May 10. The Matchmaker of Perigord by Julia Stuart (8/10)</div><div>May 12. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon (10/10)</div><div>May 17. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (10/10)</div><div>May 19. Longbourn by Jo Baker (10/10)</div><div>May 22. Pegasus by Robin McKinley (7/10)</div><div>May 25. The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (9/10)</div><div>May 29. White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse (10/10)</div><div>May 31. A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley (9/10)</div><div>June 3. In Pursuit of the Green Lion by Judith Merkle Riley (9/10)</div><div>June 5. The Water Devil by Judith Merkle Riley (8/10)</div><div>June 8. The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty (8/10)</div><div>June 12. The Master of All Desires by Judith Merkle Riley (8/10)</div><div>June 14. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (9/10)</div><div>June 15. A Country Road, a Tree by Jo Baker (9/10)</div><div>June 17. Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange by Susanna Clarke (8/10)</div><div>June 22. Avalon by Stephen Lawhead (5/10)</div><div>June 24. The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart (10/10)</div><div>June 26. The Coffee Trader by David Liss (7/10)</div><div>June 29. The Awakening of Miss Prim (8/10)</div><div>July 1. All Other Nights by Dara Horn (7/10)</div><div>July 3. A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn (8/10)</div><div>July 5. The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty (9/10)</div><div>July 9. Eternal Life by Dara Horn (8/10)</div><div>July 10. The World to Come by Dara Horn (10/10)</div><div>July 14. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (8/10)</div><div>July 17. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (7/10)</div><div>July 20. The Last Watchmaker of Cairo by Michael David Lukas (6/10)</div><div>July 21. Silence by Shusaku Endo (9/10)</div><div>July 23. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (10/10)</div><div>July 26. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (10/10)</div><div>July 29. Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10/10)</div><div>Aug 7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (10.10)</div><div>Aug 15. You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy (9/10)</div><div>Aug 17. Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin (8/10)</div><div>Aug 20. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (9/10)</div><div>Aug 23. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (10/10)</div><div>Aug 24. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (9/10)</div><div>Aug 27. White Fragility by Robin Diangelo (8/10)</div><div>Aug 28. Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell (8/10)</div><div>Sep 3. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (7/10)</div><div>Sep 6. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (9/10)</div><div>Sep 12. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (7/10)</div><div>Sep 15. Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (6/10)</div><div>Sep 17. Slade House by David Mitchell (9/10)</div><div>Sep 20. The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri (6/10)</div><div>Sep 23. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (10/10)</div><div>Sep 25. The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley (9/10)</div><div>Sep 28. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (8/10)</div><div>Oct 1. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (10/10)</div><div>Oct 6. The River by Peter Heller (10/10)</div><div>Oct 8. Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession (7/10)</div><div>Oct 10. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (9/10)</div><div>Oct 12. Eat a Peach by David Chang (7/10)</div><div>Oct 15. Crossings by Alex Landragin (9/10)</div><div>Oct 17. The Brief Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons (7/10)</div><div>Oct 19. Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kafar (9/10)</div><div>Oct 22. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (8/10)</div><div>Oct 24. The Journeys of Trees by Zach St. George (7/10)</div><div>Oct 27. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (9/10)</div><div>Oct 30. The Labyrinth of Souls by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (10/10)</div><div>Nov 9. This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell (9/10)</div><div>Nov 13. The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab (8/10)</div><div>Nov 16. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (10/10)</div><div>Nov 18. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia (8/10)</div><div>Nov 21. The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi (9/10)</div><div>Nov 23. Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald (7/10)</div><div>Nov 25. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (10/10)</div><div>Nov 28. Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian Heidicker (7/10)</div><div>Nov 29. The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness (10/10)</div><div>Dec 1. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh (7/10)</div><div>Dec 2. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow (8/10)</div><div>Dec 5. Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg (7/10)</div><div>Dec 5. Network Effect by Martha Wells (9/10)</div><div>Dec 8. Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline (9/10)</div><div>Dec 9. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (7/10)</div><div>Dec 11. Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (10/10)</div><div>Dec 14. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (9/10)</div><div>Dec 15. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (9/10)</div><div>Dec 16. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (8/10)</div><div>Dec 17. Clean by James Hamblin (8/10)</div><div>Dec 21. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (10/10)</div><div>Dec 24. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (10/10)</div><div>Dec 25. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (10/10)</div><div>Dec 27. Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomon (9/10)</div><div>Dec 28. Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd (10/10)</div><div>Dec 30. California by Edan Lepucki (7/10)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b><p><br /></p></div>Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-73281382961242828012020-05-24T08:03:00.001-04:002020-05-24T08:03:12.226-04:00 Book Review: Longbourn by Jo Baker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfApJ-nWmN8nu4w6x0BNssw-FUnc0F6G-wHYoxPUsIGzqvAHpFQmHG6ZKGequPSU-rlYkyK6ni5O_CXm5IFkPyn0NQHVsYXEFloQaZb5OTOWXCcTJDvk3BXS0ZSAU7MReKZnZCGysh8jj9/s1600/20200524_075902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfApJ-nWmN8nu4w6x0BNssw-FUnc0F6G-wHYoxPUsIGzqvAHpFQmHG6ZKGequPSU-rlYkyK6ni5O_CXm5IFkPyn0NQHVsYXEFloQaZb5OTOWXCcTJDvk3BXS0ZSAU7MReKZnZCGysh8jj9/s640/20200524_075902.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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As I was approaching the end of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, I remembered that this book was on my library shelf, and it seemed a natural choice to follow that one. It follows the story of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, but that story is mainly in the background, occasionally affecting the arc of this novel, sometimes more than others. Here, Sarah works with Mrs. Hill and young Polly (and Mr. Hill, the butler, but he is so old he isn't much help) as servants in the Bennet household. It is grueling, endless work, and every party or social event just means more of it. For the servants, the entail is also a looming threat, as it brings the possibility that they will lose their positions and be sent away, parted from each other.<br />
Still, they keep working hard, hoping that their work will be rewarded with security.<br />
When a young man, James Smith, joins them in their work as footman, this all changes. Without being asked and without expecting thanks, he takes on some of Sarah's work, like starting the kitchen fires in the morning and filling the water tank with buckets from the well in the yard. And of course, he takes care of the horses and all of the other heavy work that never seemed to get done before he came.<br />
He will not often meet her eye or talk to her, and she is unwillingly intrigued. He hides secrets, she knows, and he is always so silent. And then she is distracted: Ptolemy Bingley, footman to Mr. Bingley, flirts outrageously with her, and even though Mrs. Hill disapproves, Sarah is just drawn to him, sneaking glances and conversations.<br />
But he leaves when Mr. Bingley goes to London, perhaps never to return. And James remains. As Sarah begins to unravel his secrets, Wickham begins to spend more time with the Bennet family, and he shows up everywhere, in the kitchen and hallways, and it seems he is most drawn to young Polly. Sarah and James both do their best to draw her away, but she is almost like a moth to a flame, flattered by his attention, the pennies he presses into her hand, the promise of sweets.<br />
You can see where the trouble lies: too many secrets, too much hidden, too much to lose. This novel continues several months after the close of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, and in its end, there is also joy, but I think it may be the joy in this book is even sweeter than the joy at the end of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> because it is won through greater hardship and against much greater odds.<br />
Is is a story of faithfulness, of love for the family we have through blood and the family we have because we have chosen them, a story of hardship and courage and desperate strength. Read it if you love <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>; it shines an interesting light on the characters and their story. But also read it if you have never read <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>; it is simply a starkly beautiful book.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-71471047424194622412020-05-19T16:10:00.001-04:002020-05-19T16:10:15.474-04:00Book Review: Pride and Prejudice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently ordered a t-shirt for myself (read: shamelessly falling prey to the advertising on Instagram) that features a reference to <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>. I figured that since I had spent the money (and convinced a fair number of my friends to order matching shirts), it was only right that I read the book another time.<br />
For those of you who have never read <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, I will offer this summary:<br />
Elizabeth Bennet is the second of five daughters. Her mother claims that it is her only aim to see each of her daughters married and married well, and then she can happily withdraw into the background, spending the rest of her days quietly at home. The reader safely assumes that while she does certainly want to see her daughters married, she will spend the rest of her days neither in quiet nor at home, for she craves attention and merriment as much as her flighty, vain youngest daughter, Lydia. Elizabeth's father does nothing to check the willfulness of his younger daughters or the imprudence of his wife, preferring instead to stay isolated in his library or watch their mishaps with a chuckle and shake of his head. Elizabeth's older sister, Jane, is lovely and gentle and sees only the good in everyone. She is Lizzy's only consolation.<br />
The book begins with Mrs Bennet excitedly announcing to her husband that a rich young man has taken tenancy of a grand house nearby, and he is unmarried, so this can only mean that he is hoping to find a wife, and she wants one of her daughters to be that lucky one. She pressures her husband to meet him so that they can begin regular visits, and she pushes her daughters on him, focusing most of her praise on her lovely oldest, Jane.<br />
Mr Bingley is kind and polite, and of course he is interested in Jane, but his sisters are condescending, and his friend, the even richer Mr Darcy, is even more so. Mr Darcy is assumed by most of the people at the first party to be proud, rude, and unfriendly. Even though he is much richer than Mr Bingley, they cannot like him because he is so aloof. Even Lizzy, the heroine, dislikes him after he snubs her.<br />
Events continue, relationships grow and wane, and Lizzy realizes that she was mistaken about many things, including Mr Darcy's true character and her own feelings. It ends happily and everyone gets what they deserve, for the most part, so that is rewarding.<br />
But the rewarding thing about the novel, in my opinion, is the sneaky humor found in the words and actions so many of the characters. The pompous ones are the best source for humor, in my opinion, characters like Mr Collins and Lady Catherine de Burgh. In one memorable scene, Lady Catherine talks about music at length while watching Lizzy play the piano. She claims that she is one of the most talented musicians in all of England...or she would have been, if she had ever learned to play. Seriously? How could Lizzy keep a straight face and keep playing? I couldn't.<br />
Also, although they can be annoying, Mr and Mrs Bennet have their moments. She is just so, so clueless and he is so, so gently cruel to her--and she doesn't ever know. Ever. She just lets it slide past.<br />
And of course, there is the romance of Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. All of us who shelter a romantic heart love to watch as they slide further into love without realizing it, we agonize over their mistakes and hasty words, and we rejoice when they finally get to voice their true feelings.<br />
I enjoyed reading the book again and finding the "headstrong, obstinate girl" line that is featured on my new shirt. I have to say I don't love this Austen novel as much as I love <i>Emma. </i>I can't articulate quite why at this point. I think it has something to do with the sensitivity behind the humor in <i>Emma</i> and the more harmonious family relationships there. I have come to really have problems with Mr and Mrs Bennet, even though they make me laugh sometimes. I just can't enjoy reading about the trouble they create by not doing anything.<br />
Anyway, read this book if you haven't...or haven't in awhile. Watch one of the film adaptations when you finish and see what the director got right.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-48608202839161074162020-05-18T14:38:00.000-04:002020-05-18T14:38:10.225-04:00Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This atmospheric book is set in dark days in Barcelona, primarily in the years during the Civil War (1936-1939) World War II (1939-1945) and the decade following. It begins with young Daniel Sempere, who on his eleventh birthday is taken by his widowed father to a very special place, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where the elderly caretaker, Isaac Montfort, unlocks complicated locks and opens a heavy door to admit the two into a labyrinth of hallways, spiraling staircases, and thousands of shelves full of books. Isaac tells young Daniel he may choose one book to take from the library, and it will be his life's responsibility to care for it and tell others about it, for this place is the place where books the world has forgotten are left to wait for the right reader to bring them back to life by reading them and talking about them.</div>
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Both Daniel's father, the owner of a secondhand bookshop, and Isaac are taken aback when they read the dusty spine of the book Daniel chooses: The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. They trade a glance and nod without speaking as he hugs the book to his chest and leaves. </div>
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This book and the mystery surrounding its author takes Daniel on a dangerous journey into the past, where he learns that some secrets need to be buried and, in the words of Nuria Montfort, "there are worse prisons than words." While Daniel grows up and learns the truth about love and friendship, he digs more deeply into Carax's past, uncovering long-buried secrets about his family, his love and friendships, and his passions. Characters drift in and out of the narrative, offering Daniel clues and further mysteries. Sometimes, one of the characters he meets will launch into a narrative, drawing the focus for the story back into the dusty past with such clarity that there were times I forgot whose story I was following, and it was a very satisfying sort of forgetting.</div>
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This novel is beautiful and dark and sad. There are some flashes of bright humor, mostly due to the preposterous character Fermin Romero de Torres, a con man, a ladies' man, a smooth talker, and a man wanted by the notoriously cruel and diabolical Chief Inspector Javier Fumero, who stalks in and out of the story, variously hunting Daniel, his friends, and Carax himself. We find that Daniel's life has some interesting parallels to Carax's life, and that they are both haunted in similar ways. </div>
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There are some moments that are sad, some gruesome, some hopeful, some despairing, some frightening. If you want a window into these desperate days in mid-twentieth century Barcelona, if you like a mystery, if you appreciate beautiful character development, if you are not afraid of some darkness, read this book. Also, note that Zafon has written a handful of other books, each of which features the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, and there is some slight overlap of characters as well, which I always appreciate.</div>
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I will leave you with these lines from one of the last pages of the book: "Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day."<br />Let us pray that Bea is wrong in her prediction...and prove her wrong by continuing to read good books and read them well. </div>
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-80423972417524010682020-05-15T09:42:00.000-04:002020-05-15T09:42:14.627-04:00Book Review: Two Books by Julia Stuart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Sometimes I enjoy reading multiple books by an author back to back to immerse myself in his or her style. It makes me feel like an insider to recognize syntax patterns, common themes and tropes, commonalities when it comes to figurative language. This week, I read two books by Julia Stuart, a journalist who has--sadly for the book-loving world--only published three novels so far. (Oh wait! I just checked...four! Time for another online book purchase, honey!) I have read these novels (the three I knew about, that is) many times and enjoyed them for their wit, their phenomenal character development, and their celebration of the beautiful value of life in both its high and low moments. </div>
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Review: The Matchmaker of Perigord</div>
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Guillaume Ladoucette has been a barber in his home village of Amour-sur-Belle in southwestern France for all of his life. Even as a toddler, he showed a genius for trimming, pulling his mother's scissors from her mending basket and snipping away at the living room curtains, fashioning the fabric into an exact replica of the elaborate limbs and branches of walnut tree in the front yard. He loves barbering, finding delight in the art of making the hair on his neighbors' heads perfectly suit their personalities and head shapes. </div>
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His perfect contentment, though, is attacked on two fronts: First, his neighbor's chicken (known as the infernal Violetta) keeps sneaking into his house and leaving feathers, droppings, peck marks, tracks, and eggs in the most obscene places, such as his butter dish, his clean laundry, and the seat of his favorite chair. He is both repulsed and terrified of her uncanny ability to break into his carefully chicken-proofed home. Secondly, he has noticed that his customers have begun to frequent scissor-wielding hands that are not his, sporting hairstyles that offend his sense of dignity and rightness. That, and many of his other customers have grown completely bald. </div>
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Faced with what will soon be an empty barbershop, Guillaume decides to close that business and open up a new one: He will be the village matchmaker, even though he has never told the woman he loves that he loves her, quietly continuing to read the letter she sent him 26 years before and carefully oiling the hunting knife she left in his possession--but unable to communicate his own feelings.</div>
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The book follows Guillaume's earnest but unsuccessful attempts to match up the wildly odd inhabitants of his village: a fastidious dentist, a soulful baker, an ambulant fishmonger, a greedy grocer, a beautiful midwife, a postman who can't hold his bladder, and many others. </div>
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It is just pure fun, and I love love love reading it and chuckling about the antics of the characters. Also, Stuart mentions their food and drink often, detailing the dishes of the French countryside in a way that makes me start hunting up my passport and packing my bags while I think I'm still reading. If you enjoy humor, wit, good food and drink, and fantastic character development--along with a tale of steadfast true love, you will enjoy this book.</div>
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Review: The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise<br />
In this novel, Balthazar Jones, Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London, is given the task of preparing the Tower to accept a menagerie of animals that have been given to the queen by various foreign governments. Apparently, the Tower was once the royal menagerie, but then the animals were moved to the London Zoo when it opened. But the zoo had become too crowded, and the queen thought animals at the Tower would draw more visitors there.<br />
Balthazar is skeptical of this plan, especially when the agent informs him that the main reason he has been chosen to prepare for the animals' arrival is that he is the owner of the world's oldest tortoise, Mrs. Cook, who is 108 years old and is, according to the stories, the daughter of a tortoise captured by the famous Captain Cook himself. Balthazar recognizes that this is a doubtful qualification, but he is not one to shirk the command of his monarch.<br />
Balthazar sighs, shrugs, and does what he is asked, but his heart is not in this job, and it hasn't been since the terrible day four years before when his beloved son, Milo, died. Balthazar and his wife, Hebe, have been living as strangers since that day, neither able to talk about it or grieve together, both still wrapped in their shock and the emptiness of loneliness. She goes to her job each day at the London Underground's Lost and Found counter, where she and her co-worker, Valerie Jennings, accept and safeguard lost items, hoping the owners will turn up asking for them. They also spend their time trying to hunt down the owners of the more important, interesting items. Balthazar goes about his job, keeping tiny glass bottles in his pockets, in which he collects rainwater, having learned to identify by smell each different type of rain.<br />
The animals do come to the zoo, eventually. (That is, most of them do: The penguins get lost along the way and have an adventure of their own.) And many of the tower's Yeoman Warders and other residents develop attachments to various animals, delighting in watching them eat and sleep and interact. But while Balthazar grows attached to the animals in his care, he loses his connection to Hebe, for she cannot understand why he hasn't yet wept for Milo.<br />
This book is just beautiful. Even though it is so, so sad to witness the devastation of Balthazar and Hebe's loss, there still beauty in the way they remember their son and the love they had--and still have--for each other. Along the way, the book is also jammed with other delights, with history about the tower and--more memorably--excellent characters, like the priest who designs and builds elaborate devices to rid the chapel of the devious rats that nibble the vestments (and who also has secretly written award-winning erotic novels under a pseudonym, even though he cannot find the courage to tell the woman he loves how he feels) and Valerie Jennings, who works with Hebe and loves to try on the costumes and hats left on the subway, quietly falling in love with the tattooed former sailor who brings far too many things to the lost and found counter.<br />Read this book if you like to smile around a lump in your throat, if you like English history and natural history, if you love reading about characters who are quirky and full of life, with stories to tell and hearts that yearn for love.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-88205738053908713202020-05-06T14:24:00.002-04:002020-05-06T14:24:56.666-04:00Book Review: The Bird King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Andalusia, 1491. A band of soldiers and a novice nun with Inquisitorial authority come to the court of the sultan to offer terms, for it is the Reconquista and Ferdinand and Isabella want a Spain that is wholly Catholic.<br />
Fatima, the sultan's favorite concubine, soon realizes that if these soldiers--and especially this nun, Luz--fully understand the ability of Hassan, the sultan's mapmaker and her best friend, he will be caught and tortured as a sorcerer. For Hassan does not simply make maps; he can make perfectly accurate maps of places he's never been. And even more interesting, he can make maps of places that don't exist...and then, once he has drawn them, they do. (And if someone destroys the map, the place disappears.)<br />
Of course, Luz finds out about Hassan, and it is partly Fatima's fault, for she trusts Luz, who seems so kind and curious at first. When Fatima learns the sultan has agreed to give up Hassan to guarantee the safety of everyone else, Fa runs to Hassan to warn him--just in time.<br />
Hassan draws a trap door in his room and they flee through it (destroying the map showing the trap door as soon as they're through, of course). They do get away, but not without peril or help. A djinn or two, a queen with mysteries behind her eyes, a fisher-monk, a horse named Stupid--all help the friends in some way.<br />
When they reach the sea, Hassan and Fatima realize they don't know where to go. They only wanted to get away, and now that they have, they are lost. So, Hassan draws a beautiful sea chart, showing an island called Qaf, home of the King of Birds, a mythical place they have told each other stories about for years, a game they have played to keep boredom at bay. But, if Hassan draws the map, the place exists. They hope.<br />
Even thought they don't know how to sail, they steal a boat and set out. The way isn't easy, and their pursuit isn't over till the very last page, but Hassan and Fa do find their Qaf and the King of Birds (kind of, but not exactly as they expected) and a somewhat happy ending.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-59315773350292319132020-05-06T14:24:00.001-04:002020-05-06T14:24:35.449-04:00Book Review: The City of Brass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Streetwise Nahri has used her wits to survive on the streets of early eighteenth-century Cairo for all of her life, wanting nothing more than to save up enough money (which she gains mainly through fleecing rich people out of money she figures they don't really need) to move to Istanbul to study real medicine. She doesn't think too much about her inexplicable abilities--that she can fluently speak and understand any language after hearing it just once, that she can sense another's illness and, often, heal it by laying her hands on the spot and thinking intently--and she dismisses the warnings of her only real friend, a Jewish apothecary, that holding a zar--an exorcism--is just not a good idea.<br />
Nahri does it anyway, and after singing songs in every language she can think of to coax the evil spirit out of the girl, she sings a song in a language she has known all her life--but has never heard anyone speak. As she finishes the song, something feels different, and she hears a very angry voice in her head.<br />
But the voice goes silent, and she's so busy collecting her fees that she ignores her uneasy feelings, successfully squashing them until much later, when she leaves a tea house and takes a shortcut home through a sprawling cemetery on the outskirts of the city. There, the angry voice that spoke in her head takes form...out of smoke and ash. She has summoned a djinn with her song, and he is very, very angry about it.<br />
They don't have much time to argue, though, because other spirits Nahri would have said were just fairy tales and ghost stories begin to arrive, and they seem intent only on killing Nahri and the djinn. An ifrit and a whole host of ghouls launch their attack, and Nahri's djinn sends her to find a carpet in a new-looking mausoleum. She does, not even thinking much about why because she's so frantically worried about evading the claws of the hungry. After finding the carpet and fighting off a few ghouls, she drags the carpet outside, where the djinn stands surrounded by very dead ghouls, and she passes out.<br />
She wakes to realize they are miles from Cairo, for the djinn has magicked the carpet. She learns his name is Dara, and he is taking her to Daevabad, the capital city of the daevas, or djinn. Dara is full of mysteries and secrets (and is also, of course, incredibly handsome and arrogant and a marvelous fighter and pretty prejudiced against humans--which makes sense since he has spent the last 1,400 years enslaved to some very awful human beings). Nahri has secrets of her own, and perhaps the biggest one is a secret she has yet to uncover--her own past and origins. For Dara assumes she must have djinn blood of her own, even though she looks fully human, since she can heal herself and others and speak languages so easily. He believes she might be the only survivor of a race of daevas, the Nahid, that were his people's great healers and his own race's patrons, those he swore his life to serve and protect, but that seems impossible because the last two Nahid were brutally murdered about twenty years before.<br />
So, they head to Daevabad, but there are problems brewing there as well, problems Dara knows nothing about, as he's been essentially "lost" as a slave to humans for 1,400 years. They plunge right into the midst of this trouble, causing ripples and currents that threaten to destroy the whole kingdom. Dara has to confront the demons of his past, coming to grips with the horrible things he once did at the demand of the Nahids, still not sure exactly how he was brought back from his slave state and whether he is even fully alive (he doesn't actually breathe or bleed). Nahri has to come to terms with who she is and who she wants to be, figuring out whether she fits in this world she never imagined existed. And the other daevas, including the royal family, are shaken/delighted/outraged by the return of Dara and the appearance of Nahri, as all of their plans are called into question.<br />
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This is a great book with a setting I haven't read much about, so I definitely enjoyed learning more about the mythology, culture, and traditions of this time and place. It's also the first book in a trilogy, so there are two more books to add to the world creation. I have read the second as well (and read this one a couple of times), but the third hasn't yet been published, so I am eager to complete the overall story arc once it comes out at the end of June.<br />
The book alternates between Nahri's chapters and Ali's. Ali is the second son of the king of Daevabad. He is an idealist, a brilliant scholar and highly trained soldier, preparing to serve as the battle commander and chief protector of Muntadhir, his worldly older brother, when he is king. He is even more prejudiced than Dara, if that is possible, and he isn't prepared to like either of them. But he strikes up a close friendship with Nahri, and this friendship leads to all sorts of interesting consequences.<br />
So far, it's a great series, and when I dug around on S.A. Chakraborty's website today, I learned that she's already working on something new that, according to the early review will be a mix of "Sinbad the Sailor and Ocean's 11." What's not to love there?<br />
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-41889696103279558232020-05-03T16:26:00.001-04:002020-05-03T16:26:11.463-04:00Book Review: Dune by Frank Herbert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I guess I had always classed <i>Dune </i>as a "boys' book" in my mind. I don't even know why. I wonder if I had heard something about the setting (desert planet and giant, voracious worms) and figured it wasn't for me. I was surprised a few years ago to hear my niece tell me she was reading it in her high school English class--and enjoying it. But I still wasn't ready then to start reading it myself. It wasn't till this time of quarantine--stuck at home with plenty of books (but all of which are books I've read at least once) (and a library closed for who knows how long) but looking for something new to read--that I read a review by a friend who works at a wonderful bookstore that I decided to give it a go. (By the way, that bookstore is <a href="https://www.brilliant-books.net/">Brilliant Books</a> in Traverse City, MI, and it is a gem. For customer service, it gets a very high ten out of ten. Please, if you need to buy a book, contact them. They even ship for free.) Anyway, as I was saying. I ordered the book and waited eagerly for it to arrive. </div>
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It did not disappoint, and I'm glad I followed my friend's recommendation. (Thanks, Jodie!) Here is my review:</div>
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After reading it, I can see why <i>Dune </i>has been compared to <i>Lord of the Rings. </i>It has a similar sense of scale in terms of universe creation. Herbert plunges the reader right into a universe where factions have arisen, plotted, and grappled for millennia. Multiple worlds, each rich in culture, myth, and ecosystem, feel fully real.</div>
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And in that brew, Paul Atreides, a young boy with emerging powers even he can't fully explain, feels bound to a purpose that terrifies him--a purpose that Herbert hints at but doesn't fully reveal for nearly half of the book. Paul's father, Duke Leto, has been promoted (?) by the emperor to reign over the desert planet of Arrakis, commonly known as Dune. Arrakis is a place where water is so precious, the natives--Fremen--wear stillsuits that capture and recycle ALL of their body's moisture (which is disgusting to imagine, so I tried not to). </div>
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On this planet, spice is mined. Spice: a mind-altering drug, a means for interplanetary travel, and for prolonging life. It is the most precious commodity in their empire, I think, and the one who controls its mining and export controls a vast fortune. The problem: the desert world, already almost inhabitable because there is so little water, is also home to huge sand worms that have many-toothed mouths big enough to swallow a spice mining vessel (with hundreds of men on it) in one gulp. And also, the Fremen can be hostile.</div>
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Paul and his mother, Jessica, have heard intimations that Duke Leto is doomed to die, but there are wheels within wheels in this book and plots within plots within many, many more plots, and they cannot stop him from going. </div>
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The inevitable betrayal and attack leave Duke Leto dead, Paul and Jessica alone in the desert, and Leto's other trusted retainers dead or captured or scattered. Paul and his mother end up joining the Fremen, where their Bene Gesserit training and abilities seem to fulfill ancient Fremen prophecies of a savior figure. While lots of other action unfolds, Paul grows, learns, and falls in love, but he is haunted by his premonitions of himself as leader of a coming bloodbath, determined not to bring this future to pass. </div>
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I thought this book was remarkably rich in world-creation, as I mentioned earlier, full of mysticism, philosophy, and politics. I am eager to read more of this series and have found myself in the days since I finished it still rather immersed in Herbert's universe, even after setting the book down and picking up the next one.</div>
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It was interesting as well that Herbert was able to maintain suspense so well, even with his heavy use of third person omniscient point of view, with direct insight into the thoughts of most of the key characters, even the "bad guys." My only complaint--and it's a minor one--was the character of Paul himself. It irritated me sometimes that he chose to close himself off from everyone. Everything had to be done on his terms, in his time. Yes, he was brilliant and gifted, but why couldn't he ever unburden himself? Why not trust anyone with his doubts and fears? Even though he is definitely unlike--set above--the other characters, why can't he also see the commonalities they share?</div>
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Still, as I said, this is a minor complaint. The novel was very well written, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading this "boys' book." I look forward to reading the rest of the series. </div>
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<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-26264153441506413112020-04-30T13:41:00.000-04:002020-05-03T16:27:37.225-04:00Book Review: Himself by Jess Kid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This novel starts with a murder.<br />
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An unnamed man pretty brutally murders a woman in the forest, then hides her body. When he goes back to finish off her baby, he searches everywhere, but the child is gone.<br />
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26 years later, Mahony strolls into a sleepy Irish village, ready to find some answers. He grew up in a Catholic orphanage and he's had a pretty rough life, but he's a tough guy, and he knows how to handle trouble. Also, he can see ghosts.<br />
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He has come because he received a photo from one of the nuns at the orphanage, a photo of himself as a baby in his young mother's arms. She is beaming and proud. On the back, there is a note: Mahony's actual name is Francis Sweeney, his mother was Orla Sweeney, and nobody in the town liked her.<br />
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Mahony wants to figure out why and also where she is, if she is still alive.<br />
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Some of the townspeople are shocked by him. (He looks like he doesn't wash his hair often, his bell bottom jeans are <i>pretty </i>tight in certain places, and he smiles too widely at the ladies...and there is something familiar about that smile and those eyes.) Some of them fall immediately in love. Some are ambivalent. And a few quietly loathe him.<br />
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The novel follows his quest for answers, in which he gets help from an aging stage actress, his hostess, a bartender, a recluse, and a whole lot of ghosts. And also some frogs. And a ghost-dog.<br />
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This book is just pure fun. It has a very Irish flavor, a good mystery with a surprising revelation at the end, fantastic character development, and a lot of out-loud laughs. And it also has a balance of poignancy--and darkness. Read it. You won't be disappointed.<br />
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Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-41993238780103213412020-04-28T13:19:00.001-04:002020-04-28T13:19:16.338-04:00Book Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I remember watching this movie as a child after my mom had finished reading the book. She loved it and did her best to encourage us to read it. I can't speak for my siblings, but even though I enjoyed the movie, I just wasn't very interested in the book. A bunch of rabbits hopping around, eating clover and occasionally having great adventures or fighting epic battles. Nah.<br />
Since then, I have recommended it occasionally to a student who loves animals, and a few of them have read and enjoyed it, but it was only a few weeks ago, when I was reaching for suggestions for Jared, who had just finished--and greatly enjoyed--<i>Life of Pi</i> that I remembered this book. I described the premise and he seemed interested, so I ordered a copy.<br />
Of course when it arrived, he took one look at the cover and shook his head. He had already decided in the time the book took to be shipped that he was more interested in reading <i>Jurassic Park </i>or <i>The Lost World </i>instead, so I decided to read it myself.<br />
And I am so glad I did.<br />
And here is my review: (Warning. I will cover a fair number of primary plot points.)<br />
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Hazel and Fiver, brothers, lead a group of about ten rabbits away from their home warren because Fiver--who has visions and intuitions that are usually prophetic--has foreseen doom for their home. They warn the chief rabbit, but he dismisses them and tries to arrest them.<br />
The band of runaways has many adventures before establishing a new warren on Watership Down, the safe place Fiver foresaw.<br />
The dig burrows, befriend a mouse and a gull, and then realize that without does, their warren will soon be empty.<br />
The find some--and liberate them--from a nearby farm, but Kehaar, their gull friend, has also brought news of a huge warren some distance away. Hazel sends three rabbits to investigate, and they return days later with shocking news.<br />
Efrafa, the huge warren, is overcrowded and could certainly part with some does, but it is controlled by General Woundwort, a megalomaniac dictator, who will not tolerate the removal of any rabbits--and the delegates themselves barely effect their escape.<br />
Hazel, though, will not give up. The two does rescued from the farm are not enough. He leads a band of rabbits back to Efrafa, where with courage, luck, and cleverness, they do liberate about ten does and escape back to their warren.<br />
But General Woundwort will not give up, and be brings a force to attack the warren on Watership Down. It is only with even MORE courage, luck, and cleverness that Hazel's band defeats Woundwort's. Hooray!<br />
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Okay, I've actually summarized the whole thing, so if you do decide to read it, maybe wait awhile and give yourself time to forget this summary. But you know, even if you have foreknowledge of the basic plot, you can still enjoy the book. Adams describes the English countryside (and every hill, river, farm, and copse he describes actually exists, or it did in 1972) with loving, attentive care. The land is lush with life, with rabbits (and all of the other creatures) going about their lives, hunting for food, looking for safety, struggling to survive. It is obvious that Adams did careful research about rabbit behavior. Even though they talk and have emotions, their actions (and even feelings) seem possible and even likely actions and emotions for rabbits to have. One of my favorite parts in the book was the parts where the rabbits spent time together telling stories, usually focusing on the antics of their hero, El-ahrairah, the wily rabbit king of old, who tricked even the shrewdest out of their lettuce (or other things).<br />
It's a lovely book. I recommend it to anyone looking for a book dense with description, with some action and adventure, with interesting characters. I am going to push Jared harder to read it once he finishes his dinosaur kick.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-18532663777040871442020-04-22T12:03:00.001-04:002020-04-22T12:03:55.213-04:00Book Review: Three by Neil GaimanSometimes, especially when I can't get to the library, I will dedicate myself to a reading run, reading multiple books by the same author. This time, I read three by Neil Gaiman: <i>Neverwhere</i>, <i>Anansi Boys</i>, and <i>American Gods</i>. <i>American Gods</i> is probably Gaiman's most widely-recognized book, but I think I like the others a bit better. <i>American Gods</i> can get pretty disgusting and graphic, and the others have less of that.<br />
First, though, <i>American Gods</i>. In this book, Shadow, the main character is nearing the end of a prison term for assault and robbery. He can't wait to get home to his wife, who is equally eager to have him back home. His cellmate, Low Key Lyesmith (say it out loud; you should recognize his name), turned Shadow on to the writing of Herodotus, and he quotes the Roman now and then in the novel, especially this one: "Count no man happy until he is dead." Hmm.<br />
A few days before his release date, Shadow receives awful news: His wife is dead, car accident, and they release him early to attend the funeral. Shocked, grieving, lost, he agrees to become bodyguard and driver to a mysterious man named Wednesday (do you know the origin of this day's name?), even though he has some reservations about him.<br />
Events unfold. It turns out the old gods (those like Wednesday, Mr Nancy, Kali, and others) were brought to America in the minds and hearts of their worshipers centuries or millennia ago are now preparing for a war against the new American gods (you know, media, technology, credit cards, freeways, etc.).<br />
Of course, there are plots and counter plots and unexpected twists and changes. Shadow meets all sorts of people who are and are not who they claim to be. He is accused of being slow by almost every god you meet, but he's the one who stays true and figures everything out by the end. Unfortunately, this is not a book for the faint of heart. (Honestly, I'm not even sure why I like it so much. It has a LOT of bad language, violence, and other just disgusting stuff. Some of the goddesses do some pretty disgusting things.) But it has a lot to say about loyalty and courage and why America is like it is. And it's just a great story.<br />
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<i>Anansi Boys </i>tells the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, who has tried to get as far as possible from his embarrassing father, even moving to England to distance himself. His father, although Fat Charlie doesn't realize it for awhile, is actually Anansi, the trickster god. Fat Charlie receives word that his father has died, and when he goes back for the funeral, he learns that he actually has a brother, Spider.<br />
Spider seems like Fat Charlie's opposite: cool, composed, careless, a heart breaker and a rule breaker. Spider messes up Fat Charlie's life. But then, the brothers learn some things about themselves and their family.<br />
This book has lots of interesting details about the pantheon of animal gods, some good plain evil acts by the bad guys, humor, witchcraft, ghosts, lots of fun.<br />
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<i>Neverwhere </i>starts with a pretty boring young man who bumbles along after his high-powered girlfriend on their way to dinner with her important boss when a dirty girl stumbles through a wall (or a door, he isn't sure which) that wasn't there before and collapses at their feet. Richard stops to help her but Jessica urges him to keep walking, saying someone else will help. Richard ignores her, scooping up the unconscious girl, and takes her home to tend her wounds. Well, it turns out the girl is from London Below, a world of magic, of darkness, of strange stories, and some very vile men are after her. Her name is Door, and she can find and open any door. That's her power. Richard ends up helping her, getting stuck in London Below, where his life is in danger almost all the time.<br />
I would say this book is the most fun of the three, as it is interesting to consider the ways London Below layers upon and overlaps "the real world." The bad guys, though, are really, really disgusting.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-59992511737619130852020-04-17T09:36:00.001-04:002020-04-17T09:36:28.026-04:00Book Review: The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed<br />
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The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant (Note: I'm in the throes of distance learning and lesson planning, so please forgive the poorly staged photo.)<br />
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In the winter of 1997, logger and wilderness lover Grant Hadwin cut down a one-of-a-kind golden Sitka Spruce on one of the Queen Charlotte islands off the coast of British Columbia. The tree was hundreds of years old, beloved to residents, a draw for tourists, and sacred to the Haida, natives of the islands.<br />
Just before his trial, Hadwin set off alone in a kayak and was never seen again. In this book, the author sets out to explore why Hadwin cut down the tree and what might have happened to him, while also delving into the natural history of the islands and the Pacific Northwest, the history of logging and the devastating environmental impact of wide-scale industrial logging of old growth forests, the sheer courage (and probable borderline insanity, in my thinking) it must have required to be a logger (especially when their only tools were saws and axes), the history of the Haida and other native peoples, dendrology, and so many other fascinating discursions. I learned a lot and was reminded of other factoids I had previously read about in other books.<br />
One good point Vaillant makes is how easy it is for us to romanticize forests from the comfort of our armchairs, thinking of the peace and beauty in their green depths, while actually a forest can be a brutal place where almost every single organism is engaged in a life-or-death struggle every single day, clawing (or branching) its way toward sunlight or rest or the next meal.<br />
My only complaint about this book is that sometimes Vaillant's discursions--while informative--distracted from the overall point of the book: Grant Hadwin's act of shocking destruction and his flight. Also, I was sometimes overwhelmed by the vast cast of characters discussed, ranging from tribal leaders to loggers to scientists to explorers. The list grew so long that I lost my way among the branching stories at times, as one person or another was explained and then brought back into the narrative many pages later by name only without a reminder of his or her place in the broader shape of the book.<br />
Still, those are minor complaints. The book was interesting and compelling, and now, especially after reading Emily St John Mandel's novels, my desire to travel to British Columbia is only strengthened.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-43782533428916475472020-04-09T12:10:00.001-04:002020-04-09T12:10:44.421-04:00Book Review: The Glass Hotel <br />
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The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel<br />
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Like <i>Station Eleven</i>, this book drifts and settles on characters and across years (and places), building and rebuilding a narrative.<br />
At its heart, I think it dwells on this question: How readily will a person cross the line of morality to save himself? Is that line the same for each of us, or does it shift? What burden do we bear for others in making those choices, and how likely then is it that the ghosts of our poor choices will haunt us?<br />
At the center of the characters are a brother and sister, Paul and Vincent, who share a father but have different mothers. They are five years apart and emotionally distant, practically strangers. Paul has grown up with his mother, visiting his father only once a year or so where he lives with Vincent and her mother on a remote island in British Columbia.<br />
As the (primary setting of) the story begins, Vincent's mother has disappeared from her canoe, presumably drowned. This uncertain disappearance casts an early spell. Much of the rest of the book is misted in a similar uncertainty, as both Vincent and Paul make desperate choices to survive--each finding a type of security and even success--but at cost.<br />
Vincent enters a relationship with the ridiculously wealthy Jonathan Alkaitis, who is old enough to be her father. His wealth buys her serenity--of sorts--and she blinds herself to her whispering doubts about the source of his success until it is revealed that he has swindled all of his investors in a decades-long Ponzi scheme. This scheme, when it is uncovered, causes repercussions that stretch long filaments out to touch most of the other characters.<br />
Like <i>Station Eleven</i>, the book caught and held my attention immediately and consistently. The writing is tense and spare, lovely and evocative. The characters are multi-faceted and unpredictable in the best of ways. The movement of the narrative arc between times and places and characters is a little disorienting at first, though. (Confession: I had to sketch out a timeline about forty pages in to keep things straight, but then I found my bearings.)<br />
I guess my only complaint is that much of the narrative centers on Alkaitis, who seems pretty despicable to me. (Actually, now that I think of it, in <i>Station Eleven</i>, much of the narrative focuses on Arthur Leander, whom I also rather dislike.) (Hmm. Why, Emily?) I wanted to read more about Vincent, who was my favorite character. But still, a finely plotted book with lovely characters and themes I will ponder for many days to come. Also: British Columbia (where Vincent grew up and where the Glass Hotel is). I think I need to go there.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-32956100291189557352020-04-02T09:40:00.001-04:002020-04-02T09:40:25.326-04:00Book Review: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
First, before I get into the review, I think it's fair to admit that I have been intrigued by dinosaurs for a long, long time. I remember opening our well-thumbed family atlas to pore over the two-page spread depicting dinosaurs going about their prehistoric business. We watched our VHS tape of <i>The Land Before Time </i>so many times the audio was a little scratchy. </div>
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When I had children of my own, I bought them books about dinosaurs and we read them together. Their obsession surpassed mine, so much so that one of the boys (hopefully respectfully) corrected his kindergarten teacher on her pronunciation of <i>Diplodocus</i>. So, it's not surprising that I would eagerly read this book about dinosaurs. </div>
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The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte<br />
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I first heard about this book when we were in Marquette, MI, and the boys kindly let me browse to my heart's content (okay, even allowing me two visits in one day) at a lovely bookstore called Snowbound Books. There I saw this book in a window display in hardcover, and the bookseller told me she couldn't keep enough copies in stock. They sold like crazy because the book was so interesting, so highly readable. A few weeks ago, before everything shut down so resoundingly in the wake of the coronavirus, I found it again (in paperback this time) at one of my favorite bookstores in Ann Arbor, Nicola's Books.This one had a staff pick shelf tag that read something like: This book makes dinosaurs sound so, so cool. As if they weren't cool enough already.<br />
How could I walk past it without picking up a copy? I was not disappointed. Here is my review, but first a warning: Do not put this book into the hands of a young (or impressionable) dinosaur lover unless you are prepared for him (or her) to abandon a more staid career path (like finance or law or teaching) to become an archaeologist. This book is very, very likely to have such a transformative effect.<br />
Archaeologist and professor Steve Brusatte freely admits that he was very obsessed in his youth. He collected fossils, contacted eminent archaeologists, collected articles about their finds, attended conferences in the hope of meeting them. And he did meet them. And now he's one of them.<br />
He writes in a very exuberant, easy to read style about the various prehistoric eras (the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous) and what lived and thrived in each.<br />
He brings these long-dead times to vivid life, describing creatures such as an enormous carnivorous salamander whose massive jaws snapped shut on its prey "like the lid of a toilet seat," or the towering waves of lava like a "tsunami from hell" that marked the end of the Triassic.<br />
He describes fossil hunters past and present, the excitement of discovery, methods of mapping dinosaur family trees and dating fossils. He even explains the purpose of a T.Rex's tiny arms: They were "accessories to murder," enabling it to hold down its still-moving prey while it got busy chewing on it.<br />
The book is just simply delightful and exciting, making the career of paleontologist even more interesting than I had already thought it to be. You will probably want to buy and read this one. Trust me.<br />
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-28696035400174814872020-03-30T08:26:00.002-04:002020-03-30T08:26:20.171-04:00Book Review: Last Night in Montreal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel</div>
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When she is seven, Lillia's father abducts her--her arms heavily bandaged--from her mother's home. They spend the next nine years traveling across states, changing names sometimes daily.</div>
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At 22, Lillia doesn't know how to live in one places, and she leaves a string of abandoned loves behind her in cities across the United States. When she leaves Eli in Brooklyn, he determines to find her. Eventually, he travels to winter-bound Montreal, where he meets Michaela. She claims to know where Lillia is but will only tell Eli if he tells her about a car accident that happened when Lillia was sixteen. He refuses--daily--for weeks.</div>
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Eli and Michaela continue to meet, sharing every other thought and story but the one the other so desperately wants to hear.</div>
The book flashes from moment to moment, from character to character: Lillia on the road with her father and then on her own, leaving clues in hotel Bibles; Eli tracing her path and searching, increasingly frustrated; Michaela, abandoned by her absent mother and father--the private investigator trailing and then haunted by Lillia, who was badly injured in a car accident when Lillia was sixteen.<br />
It ends tragically, and although the character may not get entirely what they want by the last page, they do find a measure of peace.<br />
Compared to <i>Station Eleven</i>, this book has a much darker, less hopeful tone. Where <i>Station Eleven </i>speaks of hope and the triumph of humanity, this one speaks more of loss and learning to live with that loss. There is still hope here, still great love and compassion and sacrifice, but because of the echoing emptiness from both the setting and some of the characters, I would recommend <i>Station Eleven </i>over <i>Last Night in Montreal</i>. That is not to say it's not a beautiful book or a well written one. It is both. It's just that I can set down <i>Station Eleven </i>with a sigh of peace and small smile of contentment, but I set down <i>Last Night in Montreal </i>with an ache in my throat and a fierce need to hug each of my loved ones for a very long time.<br />
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-76355669962157385282020-03-27T15:15:00.000-04:002020-03-27T15:15:52.892-04:00Book Review: Station Eleven <img height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QIZ0xsIRzsc_H-z-XoI33hLY4xvpC1lqVB-JHZMy6EaA00UC_PoYdZ8zKp-RuAOhUcgCsuM2bQzoCeAQx08hrWjMRQzi3YkU2vsDeWxNPTMFSt4O5z76PGdWo90Ke67c81ytj8px91yV/w352-h625-no/" width="360" /><br />
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel<br />
The novel begins in a theater in Toronto where aging actor Arthur Leander is playing the role of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary is watching from a front-row seat as Arthur flubs a line, stumbles, acts confused, and collapses. A medic-in-training, he recognizes the signs of cardiac arrest and leaps onto the stage and begins CPR. Arthur dies there, amid falling plastic snow, the curtain mercifully drawn, the other actors--including young Kirsten Raymonde--standing in shock and dismay.<br />
That night, as Jeevan wanders home through the snow, his friend calls him from a hospital, telling him that the Georgian Flu that had lately been mentioned in the news is fast on its way to becoming a pandemic. The friend warns Jeevan to get out of town immediately. Instead, Jeevan goes to his wheelchair-bound brother's apartment after stopping at the grocery store for carts full of supplies.<br />
The novel then leaps in time two decades, and we learn that the pandemic was indeed devastating, with a 99.9% worldwide mortality rate. Society fractured and decayed, and most of the survivors live in very small communities, each day a struggle.<br />
Kirsten Raymonde, the young child actor, is now a young woman, and she is part of the Traveling Symphony which migrates back and forth along the shores of Michigan performing orchestral works and Shakespeare's plays. Their motto is lifted from an episode of <i>Star Trek: Voyager</i>: "Because survival is insufficient."<br />
And really, that is one of the keys to this book. In this post-pandemic world, the things that help people grow and survive are the bonds they forge with each other and the beauty they create together. The book is told unfolds in both past and present, weaving the stories of Arthur; his first wife, Miranda; his second wife, Elizabeth; his friend Clark; Jeevan; and Kirsten. We learn who they were and who they are, we mourn what they have lost, and we look with hope at what they create.<br />
Post-apocalyptic stories are often dark, full of violent struggles to survive. Instead, this book is a symphony of praise for the beautiful world we have, the world we take for granted, where we can flip a switch and have light, turn a dial and have heat or cold, touch some buttons and call a friend. We forget to be thankful for that, and in this time of global pandemic, it is good, in my opinion, to dwell on what we have, not what we don't have.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-88039304633179243012020-03-27T14:43:00.000-04:002020-03-27T14:46:27.285-04:00Books Read in 2019The following is the list of the books I read last year, with highly ranked books in bold font:<br />
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<li><b>California by Edan Lapucki (8/10)</b></li>
<li>Food Rules by Michael Pollan (7/10)</li>
<li>Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (8/10)</b></li>
<li>Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (6/10)</li>
<li>The Valley at the Centre of the World by Mallachy Tallack (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Neverhome by Laird Hunt (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Little by Edward Carey (8/10)</b></li>
<li>The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (7/10)</li>
<li>Transcription by Kate Atkinson (6/10)</li>
<li><b>The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (9/10)</b></li>
<li>Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (7/10)</li>
<li>The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean (6/10)</li>
<li><b>Golden Urchin by Madeleine Brent (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (10/10)</b></li>
<li>I Am an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (6/10)</li>
<li>Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates (7/10)</li>
<li><b>How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (9/10)</b></li>
<li>A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball (5/10)</li>
<li><b>Cooked by Michael Pollan (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Wool by Hugh Howey (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The World to Come by Dara Horn (9/10)</b></li>
<li>The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman (6/10)</li>
<li>And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (9/10)</b></li>
<li>The Heaven of Animals by David James Poissant (7/10)</li>
<li>The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (8/10)</b></li>
<li>The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Day of Tears by Julius Lester (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The River by Peter Heller (9/10)</b></li>
<li>If, Then by Kate Hope Day (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Secret Wisdom of Nature by Peter Wohlleben (8/10)</b></li>
<li>A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne Harris (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Bird King by G Willow Wilson (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Humans by Matt Haig (9/10)</b></li>
<li>How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (6/10)</li>
<li>Loteria by Mario Alberto Zambrano (7/10)</li>
<li>The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (7/10)</li>
<li>Minnow by James E. MeTeer (5/10)</li>
<li><b>Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (10/10)</b></li>
<li>Marvel and a Wonder by Joe Meno (7/10)</li>
<li>The Staff by Ron Samul (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland (8/10)</b></li>
<li>Living Well, Spending Less by Ruth Soukup (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (10/10)</b></li>
<li>The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness (5/10)</li>
<li><b>Zero Bomb by M.T. Hill (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Last Tango in Cyberspace by Steven Kotler (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Slade House by David Mitchell (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li>Tears of the Truffle-Pig by Fernando A Flores (5/10)</li>
<li>The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson (6/10)</li>
<li><b>Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (10/10)</b></li>
<li>Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (7/10)</li>
<li>Shift by Hugh Howey (7/10)</li>
<li><b>A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (10/10)</b></li>
<li>Dust by Hugh Howey (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Nest by Kenneth Oppel (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Body Lies by Jo Baker (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Porpoise by Mark Haddon (9/10)</b></li>
<li>Walking on the Ceiling by Aysegul Savas (5/10)</li>
<li><b>What We Eat Now by Bee Wilson (9/10)</b></li>
<li>The Feed by Nick Clark Windo (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman (8/10)</b></li>
<li>The Emerald Storm by William Dietrich (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Birdology by Sy Montgomery (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Another Turn of the Crank by Wendell Berry (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by HG Parry (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Educated by Tara Westover (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higa Shida (9/10)</b></li>
<li>Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty (8/10)</b></li>
<li>Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Philsopher's War by Tom Miller (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Buzz Sting Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World by Jeff Gordon (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects by Edward Posnett (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Family of Origin by CJ Hauser (8/10)</b></li>
<li>The Way through the Woods by Long Litt Woon (7/10)</li>
<li><b>The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer (8/10)</b></li>
<li>Things That Fall from the Sky by Selja Ahava (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl (10/10)</b></li>
<li>How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis (6/10)</li>
<li>Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy by Anne Boyd Rioux (7/10)</li>
<li>Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart (6/10)</li>
<li><b>Have You Eaten Grandma? by Gyles Brandreth (8/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano (9/10)</b></li>
<li>Out of Darkness Shining Light by Petina Gappah (6/10)</li>
<li><b>Stronghold: One Man's Quest to Save the World's Wild Salmon by Tucker Malarkey (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (10/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline K Ogburn (9/10)</b></li>
<li>Disaster's Children by Emma Sloley (4/10)</li>
<li>What We Talk about When We Talk about Books by Leah Price (7/10)</li>
<li>When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley (7/10)</li>
<li><b>Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess (9/10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Art of Frugal Hedonism by Annie Raser Rowland with Adam Grubb (9/10)</b></li>
<li>The Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith (5/10)</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-43444497861082330302018-07-21T19:07:00.001-04:002018-07-21T19:07:21.368-04:00How to Self-Diagnose and Treat (Author) ObsessionFirst, a quick check to tell whether or not you are obsessed with an author:<br />
<br />
1. Do you own more than half of his or her published books? <br />
2. Do you know right now when his or her next book is coming out? <br />
3. Alternately, do you regularly check for updates on his or her Facebook, Instagram, website, or Amazon author page to see whether you can expect a new publication soon?<br />
4. Do you regularly check the shelves of your local bookstore or library for new books (or new editions) you don't already own? (And then buy them?)<br />
5. Do you smirk and then snort in derision when you find that a bookstore you thought was probably janky does not in fact carry any titles by the author you know to be one of the best in the world, thus firmly confirming your earlier opinion of said bookstore?<br />
6. Do you own at least one clothing item that proudly declares your admiration (okay, obsession) for this author?<br />
<br />
If you answered yes to fewer than half of the above questions, you are just mildly affiliated. If you answered yes to more than half of them, you may are likely to be marginally obsessed. If, however, you are like me and can answer yes (with conviction) to all six of the above, then you, my dear, are in excellent company. You have an author obsession, and it is no small accomplishment. As I thought about this post, I realized that I am a promiscuous obsessive, actually, and there are several authors I adore. Here they are, in no particular order:<br />
<br />
<b>David Mitchell</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMEgRrSXSamBs6uWE9v0njxW59c-R-PHEvTx614vvmMyXohVkEA-dOLuG007Y7weDrtbrHsEMvHJ_H8L5QgjG0IzHdpHUnDbtkoJuUHEAj9WJTEGHWZq_lkzR0cy1SDzNBCxSQGlg1LrE/s1600/20180721_182746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMEgRrSXSamBs6uWE9v0njxW59c-R-PHEvTx614vvmMyXohVkEA-dOLuG007Y7weDrtbrHsEMvHJ_H8L5QgjG0IzHdpHUnDbtkoJuUHEAj9WJTEGHWZq_lkzR0cy1SDzNBCxSQGlg1LrE/s640/20180721_182746.jpg" width="640" /></a>Why I love his books:<br />
David Mitchell creates worlds within worlds, and each one of his books is both completely distinct and unique but also interwoven with the other books in small ways (for a great explanation, see <a href="https://lithub.com/the-ever-expanding-world-of-david-mitchell/">this article</a> on LitHub). He's not easy to classify or quantify, either, which may be why I love his work. <u>BlackSwanGreen</u> is a coming of age story set in a small English village in the 1980s. <u>Cloud Atlas</u> is a mind-bending puzzle of a book, both in its structure and its style. It weaves together six stories, moving from a naive traveler on a 19th century Pacific island to a jaded musician in 1930s Belgium to a dogged journalist in 1970s California to a cheating editor in modern day England to a cloned human in near-future Korea to a curious survivor in far-future Hawaii. <u>Bone Clocks</u> also jumps timelines and places, ranging from 1980s to the possible near future, but it has the extra element of soul-sucking near-immortals, a good guys club and a bad guys club, who have been at war for centuries. And <u>The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet</u> is at its most basic level historical fiction, set in Japan in 1799 (for the most part), focusing on traders working at a Dutch trading outpost offshore from Nagasaki. It details the intricate rules and expectations of the Japanese in their trade deals with the west...until it is revealed that a monastery in the mountains has mysterious secrets, and that's when it gets really crazy. And his other books, <u>Number9Dream</u> and <u>Ghostwritten</u>, are excellent as well. Mind blowing, bewildering, excellent.<br />
<br /><b>Emily St. John Mandel</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIQ2pe_YxT1PNE9UfW0_tpGsNNN01hjr-wbjHANCpqQtqB7XEPVqwQJQfICRDXSguZo4SHspMWEJCWUcHbDGdeblgLRUXsSmJMXgzC-aprt39mkkpuwrlDGmOnt4DtbQeuKqszKTrfBPA/s1600/20180721_182706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIQ2pe_YxT1PNE9UfW0_tpGsNNN01hjr-wbjHANCpqQtqB7XEPVqwQJQfICRDXSguZo4SHspMWEJCWUcHbDGdeblgLRUXsSmJMXgzC-aprt39mkkpuwrlDGmOnt4DtbQeuKqszKTrfBPA/s640/20180721_182706.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Why I love her books:<br />
Okay, so, if you haven't read <u>Station Eleven</u> yet, you need to get a copy and read it now. This book floors me every single time I've read it, and I have read it several times now. Yes, it is a post-apocalyptic novel, but it is nothing like any other of that genre I've read. Instead of focusing on the chaos and brutality of mankind in the absence of civilization, it focuses on the beauty of humanity--and reminds us to treasure what we have. In its basic story arc, it follows the path of a group of traveling musicians and performers who circuit the shores of Lake Michigan, taking this line from Star Trek Voyager as their motto: "Because survival is insufficient." But it's not just a story about them. It also, through layered narratives, tells the stories of people who lived and worked and loved in the days before the pandemic. If you don't read any of these other books, read this one. And I just finished reading <u>Last Night in Montreal</u> which is, I believe, her first novel. It's excellent. This one's basic story is this: A girl is abducted from her mother's house by her father in the middle of a winter night, and they spend the next ten years on the run. Now, the girl is a young woman, and she can't stay in one place. She is compelled to keep moving, never to settle. Like in <u>Station Eleven</u>, Mandel doesn't tell a linear story, but she keeps circling back and back and back again on this basic story line, telling it again and again from different angles and characters, eventually revealing the whole, beautiful thing. It's gorgeous. I have also read <u>The Lola Quartet</u>, but only once, and it was a library book, so my only comment is that it was good and I should probably get my own copy.<br />
<br />
<b>J.K. Rowling</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2pws0wuBOD4BwewrkhhoXDVwBIbMgFhfQCR7LdoDn6YB7WfkWQpjuKakzDdM5R-Zi79mxpPHx9le0y4OFx4XmJNhEPdev844RDmFmA6n22sVuuP1widTLq-KSKB4qKTakNx-RHwmqDO5M/s1600/20180721_182606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2pws0wuBOD4BwewrkhhoXDVwBIbMgFhfQCR7LdoDn6YB7WfkWQpjuKakzDdM5R-Zi79mxpPHx9le0y4OFx4XmJNhEPdev844RDmFmA6n22sVuuP1widTLq-KSKB4qKTakNx-RHwmqDO5M/s640/20180721_182606.jpg" width="480" /></a><br />
<br />
Why I love her books:<br />
I mean, do I even need to say it? This one is pretty much a no-brainer. I have read each one of the Harry Potter books so many times, I feel like I know the characters inside and out. Each time I read one of the books, I fall more in love with the characters, the story, the world Rowling created. I feel a deep sense of loss that I will never again get to read the series for the first time. Pick my favorite book? Ask me to tell you which of my children is my favorite. Can't be done.<br />
<br />
<b>Neil Gaiman</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysbEVgdV1oTxm8WxmtT7pi3hjv6_dbZMHwv9ImKk5X9-9kfqRxxgo3cdTH1sTmks7Yo4n0i_JFcZXsfMvkgMnfK7TYMCbqh2DB8AnjuruWXvB1OFFAlV1FxTgXT-3PyDC3Qte9clGsug0/s1600/20180721_182650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysbEVgdV1oTxm8WxmtT7pi3hjv6_dbZMHwv9ImKk5X9-9kfqRxxgo3cdTH1sTmks7Yo4n0i_JFcZXsfMvkgMnfK7TYMCbqh2DB8AnjuruWXvB1OFFAlV1FxTgXT-3PyDC3Qte9clGsug0/s640/20180721_182650.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Why I love his books:<br />
I think Gaiman is an author for certain types of readers and sometimes, I surprise myself with how much I love his books because I don't think the content is really my style. I am convinced, though, that he is very, very smart, and maybe that is why I love his work so much. I think my favorite is <u>Neverwhere</u>, and one of the reasons I love this book is that it has an alternate world just beyond the edges of ours--and sometimes the worlds overlap. I love books like this. This book has a love story and a quest and humor and mystery--and also bad guys who sometimes eat their victims. <u>The Ocean at the End of the Lane</u> is considerably less brutal, as is <u>Stardust</u>, although they both have disgusting moments. Both have sweetness, though, and magic and humor. And if you don't mind a good deal of gore and other graphic content, <u>American Gods</u><b> </b>and <u>Anansi Boys</u> both are excellent. Great stories, vivid characters, and a solid dose of the supernatural. (Note: A couple of my copies of Gaiman's books didn't make this picture because I've lent them out.)<br />
<br />
<b>Julia Stuart</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQj2kGENRvxUY4tzfKBBgEV53wSOTFzxuDlVAJD-1gWANuz8BtIG5wr2eku23U0gu5ncbQv_4AA-0OBngCgpWLtscrynowWskmW25j5OY3qFo3GPOdG0j6g6EjojP5bkwYPeShu7u29L_t/s1600/20180721_182543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQj2kGENRvxUY4tzfKBBgEV53wSOTFzxuDlVAJD-1gWANuz8BtIG5wr2eku23U0gu5ncbQv_4AA-0OBngCgpWLtscrynowWskmW25j5OY3qFo3GPOdG0j6g6EjojP5bkwYPeShu7u29L_t/s640/20180721_182543.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Why I love her books:<br />
Sadly, Stuart has only written three books so far, but I own each of them and have read them multiple times. Each book is brimming over with quirky, dear characters living out their quiet lives. <u>The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise</u> is probably my favorite, even though the back story is so, so sad. Balthazar Jones and his wife live in the Tower of London, where he is a guard. Their young son has recently died, and Balthazar, in his grief, turns to silence. He collects rain in bottles, convinced different rains have different scents. He takes care of the animals at the zoo (temporarily housed at the Tower). He talks to his friends. But he doesn't talk to his wife, and he doesn't talk about his son. Other characters, a priest who writes amorous fiction, his wife's co-worker who likes to wear outlandish costumes at work, and his wife herself are among the cast of outrageous characters who make this novel so, so fascinating. Her other novels <u>The Matchmaker of Perigord</u> and <u>The Pigeon Pie Mystery</u> are similarly populated with interesting, complex, quirky characters. I just love her books and wish she'd write more of them.<br />
<br />
<b>Joanne Harris</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKCPEYpoZC5rQO-FmenI2WfyvrW6XCLjbXA_LC2LPZQ1qCg6vBH122YUdnYka7vbg2quPrJbQDN4GgKaww40E5qjWjq4Aq5v74NX8NW685w37uT_Ps7S9pTdhzNu8mhg3zxV36jtQrj6d/s1600/20180721_182630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKCPEYpoZC5rQO-FmenI2WfyvrW6XCLjbXA_LC2LPZQ1qCg6vBH122YUdnYka7vbg2quPrJbQDN4GgKaww40E5qjWjq4Aq5v74NX8NW685w37uT_Ps7S9pTdhzNu8mhg3zxV36jtQrj6d/s640/20180721_182630.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Why I love her books:<br />
Joanne Harris, like some of the other authors I love, isn't easily classified or contained. Probably her most well-known book<i>, </i><u>Chocolat</u><i>, </i>tells of an unconventional woman who breezes into a sleepy French village on Shrove Tuesday and opens a chocolaterie, much to the dismay of the priest whose parish is just across the square. He believes she is only there to draw his congregation away from their Lenten vows and is operating her shop and simply living in direct opposition to the Church. The book is populated with memorable characters and glossed with delicious descriptions of food and, of course, chocolate. And while Harris has also written two books that are sequels to <u>Chocolat</u>, telling more of Vianne Rocher and her children and their friends (<u>The Girl with No Shadow</u> and <u>Peaches for Father Francis</u>), Harris has also written <u>Holy Fools</u>, a novel set in an abbey in 17th century France; two intense suspense books set at an elite boys' school in modern England, <u>Gentlemen and Players</u> and <u>Different Class;</u> and a couple books set in country villages with long-held dark secrets, <u>Five Quarters of the Orange</u> and <u>Blackberry Wine</u>. Her novels are rich and textured. Great reads.<br />
<br />
<b>Patricia McKillip</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmmJ7vPWeW3FeasrPFd2ag7aNt2OLKW4yPknM5rlZeosFFgnzwVl98hDyoFp4eQfYtDJVsOjQktCj2HDsm2feKbzDQZQfL2rf7jJUGGT0I0vPl7kg_qopnANXthBg_ORp5EjE_cxX5UU1f/s1600/20180721_182812.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmmJ7vPWeW3FeasrPFd2ag7aNt2OLKW4yPknM5rlZeosFFgnzwVl98hDyoFp4eQfYtDJVsOjQktCj2HDsm2feKbzDQZQfL2rf7jJUGGT0I0vPl7kg_qopnANXthBg_ORp5EjE_cxX5UU1f/s640/20180721_182812.jpg" width="480" /></a>Why I love her books: I think I've read everything she's written at least once. McKillip writes gorgeous fantasy, lovely books that rely more on character and setting than on magic. I think my favorite is <u>The Bell at Sealey Head</u>, a book in which most of the characters are firmly prosaic people living on the coast of an almost-English village, where every day at sunset they all hear (and have come to ignore) the mysterious tolling of a bell. They are innkeepers and merchants and fishermen, busy with daily life until one day a stranger comes who begins to dig deeper into the story of the bell, unleashing the long-buried magical world just beyond the edges of their world. Her other books are great, too. I have read and re-read <u>Od Magic</u> (a school for wizards trains those who will both protect the kingdom from invaders and keep any wizards from becoming too powerful until one day...) and <u>The Bards of Bone Plain</u> (which also features a school...hmm...for musicians whose music can sometimes--if they have the gift--summon and weave magic). They are just beautifully crafted books, each of them.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>George Saunders</b><br />
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Why I love his books:<br />
Okay, I have just discovered Saunders. I first heard about <u>Lincoln in the Bardo</u>, and I was so convinced I was going to love it that I put off reading it for months after I bought it so that I could savor it. (Do you do this?) It was definitely worth the wait. Here's the premise: The bardo is like limbo or purgatory, a place where souls wait--sometimes for a very long time--before passing on. In this book, they wait in the cemetery where they have been interred. And these souls form friendships and alliances with each other and have long conversations about their former lives and their present state and what they most miss. They can see living people but cannot interact with them. Into the bardo comes Abraham Lincoln, mourning the death of his beloved son. Of course, Lincoln is not dead, so he isn't really IN the bardo, but the spirits can all see him, and they talk to his son and try to ease him into understanding that he is dead but his father isn't, and his father needs to let him go. But Lincoln cannot. That's a great story, but what makes it even MORE interesting is Saunders's style. He writes in short, short sections--paragraphs, basically--each narrated by an observer. Most of these sections are narrated by the inhabitants of the bardo, but some of the sections tell the story of the boy's illness, death, and funeral from the perspective of friends, family members, and other witnesses to the events. It is so, so interesting. I've never read a book like it. So then, I had to see what else Saunders has written. Just short stories, which I'm not usually a fan of. But I loved <u>Lincoln in the Bardo</u>, so I picked up <u>Tenth of December</u> a little while ago and it is SO STRANGE. Each story is its own package of bizarre. And right now I'm reading <u>In Persuasion Nation</u>. So far, three stories in, equally strange. The stories are funny, but even as I'm laughing, I'm shaking my head in dismay. Saunders is very, very smart. Very satirical. The worlds he's imagining here are so wrong. I hope he's not prophetic. I'm afraid he might be.<br />
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So. What do you think? Are you an author-obsessed reader? Have you read any of the above books? I'd love to hear what you're reading. And of course, I'm happy to talk more about any of these books.<br />
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Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-78347653345553779012018-07-03T11:49:00.002-04:002018-07-03T11:50:57.120-04:00Even a ToothWhen I look back over my life, I can't help but wonder at all the times I've received just the right thing at just the right time. Like the time Clint and I were looking at our stove and thinking it had to be at least twenty years old (or older...it came with the house when we bought it thirteen years ago), thinking we should start setting aside money to replace it, and then Dad texted and asked us whether we needed a practically-new (free) stove because his friend just wanted to get rid of it. And it's beautiful and works so well. Blessings like this, both big and small, fall into our days time and again. And let's not forget the blessings we don't even know about, right? Like the time we leave the house later than expected and thus avoid hitting the deer that crossed the road two minutes ago. Stuff like that.<br />
And of course, we have done nothing to earn or deserve these blessings. We just live, thanking God and praising Him for the way He works in our lives. (And that's grace, isn't it?)<br />
Well, we saw grace in action a few days ago. It started like this:<br />
We were spending some time with the extended family the day after Lauren's wedding, just hanging out in and out of the pool, sitting around and swapping stories, eating leftovers from the wedding. You know. Family time. Good time. Important time.<br />
And as we were driving home, Jared mentioned that he thought he had chipped a tooth while "wrestling" with his older cousin. I told him that he probably didn't chip it. It was probably just a sharp spot. No, he said, he had spit out a piece of tooth in his hand.<br />
How hard did he hit you, I asked.<br />
I can't remember getting hit at all, he said. And we weren't even really wrestling. Just, you know.<br />
We figured it wasn't a big deal. It was probably a baby tooth that would come out soon anyway.<br />
When we got home, he pointed out the tooth. I couldn't see anything. We checked online to see whether he would indeed lose his third molar back, soon learning that this one was an adult tooth. A little niggling worry set in, but nothing much. I still figured it couldn't be that bad.<br />
And we began to pack for a week's vacation in northern Michigan. As we packed, I resolved to call the dentist from the road first thing Monday morning, just to feel safe.<br />
When I called, the dentist asked about sensitivity or pain; Jared reported none. They said it should be fine, then.<br />
But that night, when we looked more closely in his mouth with a flashlight and zoomed-in phone camera, we could see a pretty sizable hole in his molar. Clint talked about caps and crowns and root canals. That niggling worry grew.<br />
I called the dentist back the next day and asked for their earliest appointment for the following week. She had an opening early Monday morning.<br />
Still, Jared had no pain, no sensitivity. He promised to keep his tooth extra clean (he's conscientious like that) and didn't seem worried at all.<br />
The vacation was a blessing, a time of rest and family time and great adventure. He never complained about his tooth, and I stopped worrying.<br />
When we got home, I reminded him of his dentist appointment and had to pry him out of bed hours before he usually gets up in the summer. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, we walked into the dentist's office, where we were the first patients of the day.<br />
They called him back and I sat alone for several minutes. Then, his dentist came back to see me, a smile on her face. She said there had been the beginning of a cavity in that tooth--in that spot--that they'd been keeping an eye on, and that part of his tooth had a weak spot, and he must have been "hit" (if he even was...maybe he was just clenching his teeth) at just the right spot, and it just cracked. But it wasn't a deep hole, and it could be fixed with a simple filling.<br />
Oh, I said, what good news. Can I set up an appointment for the filling today?<br />
No need, she said, my next patient hasn't shown up yet. I can do it right now. It won't take long.<br />
And it didn't. Within half an hour, Jared was back in the waiting room with me, tooth fixed.<br />
The dentist said he had done a remarkable job keeping it clean in the eight days since it cracked; that had kept infection from setting in, which made her repair a very simple one.<br />
God is good, people. Even in small things, His care is evident. I am thankful for this reminder to praise Him in all things.<br />
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Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-45223119087007053342018-07-02T16:57:00.001-04:002018-07-02T16:57:33.072-04:00Books Read in 2017I'll get caught up soon with my lists at this rate! Here are the books I read last year. Again, rating is a 1 for a truly awful book and a 10 for a book of great genius. All books with an 8 or higher are also marked in bold font. Leave a comment if you have a question about any of them!<br />
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<ul>
<li><b>The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Thousands Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10) </b></li>
<li>In a Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (5)</li>
<li><b>Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (10)</b></li>
<li>Coastliners by Joanne Harris (7)</li>
<li>Run by Ann Patchett (6)</li>
<li><b>The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Changling Sea by Patricia McKillip (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry (9)</b></li>
<li>The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (6)</li>
<li>Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert (5)</li>
<li>Hector and the Search for Love by Francois Lelord (5)</li>
<li><b>Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (9)</b></li>
<li>Feed by Matthew Anderson (7)</li>
<li>Timothy: Or, the Notes of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg (2)</li>
<li>The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards (2)</li>
<li>The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (7)</li>
<li>A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab (7)</li>
<li><b>The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy (9)</b></li>
<li>Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (6)</li>
<li>The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl (6)</li>
<li><b>Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Chocolat by Joanne Harris (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (9)</b></li>
<li>A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka (6)</li>
<li>Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (6)</li>
<li><b>Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (9)</b></li>
<li>Mrs. Queen Takes the Train (1)</li>
<li>Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach (7)</li>
<li>Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (6)</li>
<li><b>White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (9)</b></li>
<li><b>MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (9)</b></li>
<li>On Turpentine Lane by Elinor Lipman (5)</li>
<li><b>Different Class by Joanne Harris (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (10)</b></li>
<li>In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl (2) (and oddly, I read it in...2014 or so and liked it)</li>
<li>My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith (7)</li>
<li><b>Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All by Jonas Jonasson (9)</b></li>
<li><b>City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Bear Town by Frederik Backman (8)</b></li>
<li>Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson (7)</li>
<li>Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell (7)</li>
<li><b>The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon (8)</b></li>
<li>The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon (7)</li>
<li>Plague Land by S.D. Sykes (2)</li>
<li><b>The Little French Bistro by Nina George (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe by Romain Puertolas (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuval (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuval (8)</b></li>
<li>Keeper by Kathi Appelt (4)</li>
<li>The Templars' Last Secret by Martin Walker (5)</li>
<li><b>The Rise of the Iron Moon by Stephen Hunt (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson (9)</b></li>
<li>New Boy by Tracy Chevalier (6)</li>
<li><b>The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonah Jonasson (9)</b></li>
<li><b>A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell (10)</b></li>
<li>Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (5)</li>
<li>Paris Wife by Paula McLain (6)</li>
<li><b>Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (10)</b></li>
<li><b>A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (9)</b></li>
<li><b>A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle (9)</b></li>
<li><b>A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (8)</b></li>
<li>When the English Fall by David Williams (5)</li>
<li><b>The Devil's Feast by M.J. Carter (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Waking Land by Callie Bates (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (9)</b></li>
<li><b>BlackSwanGreen by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan (8)</b></li>
<li>Mister Memory by Martin Sedgwick (7)</li>
<li>The Muse by Jessie Burton (7)</li>
<li>Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (4)</li>
<li><b>The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel Wilson (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell (9)</b></li>
<li>First Impressions by Charlie Lovett (6)</li>
<li>The Blind Astronomer's Daughter by John Pipkin (7)</li>
<li><b>Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Dog Stars by Peter Heller (9)</b></li>
<li>At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier (6)</li>
<li>Nora Webster by Colm Toibin (7)</li>
<li>The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Harsuyker (7)</li>
<li><b>The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Painter by Peter Heller (8)</b></li>
<li>Celine by Peter Heller (7)</li>
<li>Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (7) (a history of cooking utensils....)</li>
<li>The History of Bees by Maja Lunde (7)</li>
<li><b>My Abandonment by Peter Rock (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Bats of the Republic by Zachary Dodson Thomas (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart (10)</b></li>
<li>Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse (2)</li>
<li>Sourdough by Robin Sloan (4)</li>
<li>Hanna Who Fell from the Sky by Christopher Meades (4)</li>
<li>The Necklace by Claire McMillan (5)</li>
<li>Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (5)</li>
<li><b>The Reason You're Alive by Matthew Quick (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The After-Room by Maile Meloy (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick (8)</b></li>
<li>Love May Fail by Matthew Quick (7)</li>
<li>The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (7)</li>
<li>The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirahk (7)</li>
<li>IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (7)</li>
<li><b>BlackSwanGreen by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (10)</b></li>
<li>Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Stephenson (4)</li>
<li>Grayson by Lynne Cox (7)</li>
<li><b>The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wollheben (9)</b></li>
</ul>
Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-45395218980923459482018-07-02T16:05:00.003-04:002018-07-02T16:05:45.955-04:00Pages Read in 2016And here are the books I read in 2016. Ratings are in parentheses after the author, with 1 being a complete waste of ink and 10 being amazing.<br />
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<ul>
<li><b>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (10) (read it if you want to pleasurably hurt your brain)</b></li>
<li><b>The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (10)</b></li>
<li>Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence Schoen (7)</li>
<li>The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris (5)</li>
<li><b>The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (8)</b></li>
<li>The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon (7)</li>
<li><b>The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Finollera (10)</b></li>
<li>Lock In by John Scalzi (5)</li>
<li>The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay (6)</li>
<li><b>Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Watkins (9)</b></li>
<li>Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Ed Tarkington (6)</li>
<li>Mrs. Bennett Has Her Say by Jane Juska (4)</li>
<li><b>The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Snuff by Terry Pratchett (9)</b></li>
<li>The Ludwig Conspiracy by Oliver Potzsch (6)</li>
<li>The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne (1)</li>
<li><b>Chocolat by Joanne Harris (10)</b></li>
<li><b>A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan (8) </b></li>
<li><b>Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food by Megan Kimble (8) </b></li>
<li><b>The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart (9)</b></li>
<li>The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tomkins (3)</li>
<li><b>Bell Weather by Dennis Mahoney (8)</b></li>
<li>Rooms by Lauren Oliver (6)</li>
<li><b>Death in the Vines by M. L. Longworth (8)</b></li>
<li>The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai (7)</li>
<li><b>Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Fallen Land by Taylor Brown (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (10)</b></li>
<li>Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me by Mindy Kaling (3)</li>
<li>Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (6)</li>
<li><b>Kingfisher by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li>Jane and the Waterloo Map by Stephanie Barron (7)</li>
<li>Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos (7)</li>
<li><b>The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Be Frank with Me by Julia Johnson (10)</b></li>
<li>The Gardener of Versailles by Alain Baraton (6)</li>
<li><b>Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Quick by Lauren Owen (8)</b></li>
<li>Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez (7)</li>
<li><b>The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip (8)</b></li>
<li>City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte (7)</li>
<li>City of Lost Dreams by Magnus Flyte (7)</li>
<li>The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig (5)</li>
<li><b>Longbourn by Jo Baker (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Pax by Sara Pennypacker (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Britt-Marie Was Here by Frederik Backman (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip (10) (one of my favorite authors; I have read these books many times)</b></li>
<li><b>The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li><b>In the Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Od Magic by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li>The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick (6)</li>
<li><b>A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Harrowing the Dragon by Patricia McKillip (10)</b></li>
<li>The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson (7)</li>
<li>The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (7)</li>
<li><b>Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Deerskin by Robin McKinley (9)</b></li>
<li>The Centurion's Empire by Sean McMullen (1)</li>
<li><b>The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian (8)</b></li>
<li>The Curse of the House of Foskett by M. R. C. Kasasian (7)</li>
<li>Archipelago by Monique Roffey (7)</li>
<li><b>The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Apprentices by Maile Meloy (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonah Jonasson (10)</b></li>
<li>The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (4)</li>
<li>The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni (6)</li>
<li>Time Siege by Wesley Chu (6)</li>
<li>Roses and Rot by Kat Howard (7)</li>
<li>The Hemingway Thief by Shaun Harris (7)</li>
<li>The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson (7)</li>
<li><b>The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel (9)</b></li>
<li>Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling (kind of) (4)</li>
<li>How to Party with an Infant by Kaui Hemmings (7)</li>
<li><b>The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Red Rising by Pierce Brown (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Golden Son by Pierce Brown (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Morning Star by Pierce Brown (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (9)</b></li>
<li>Invincible Summer by Alice Adams (5)</li>
<li><b>Life of Pi by Yann Martel (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell (8)</b></li>
<li><b>A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell (8)</b></li>
<li>Night of the Animals by Bill Broun (7)</li>
<li>It's Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison (4)</li>
<li><b>The Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Light between Oceans by M. L. Stedman (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (10)</b></li>
<li><b>The Grey King by Susan Cooper (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (8)</b></li>
<li><b>American Gods by Neil Gaiman (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (10) (yep, read it again)</b></li>
<li><b>The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (10)</b></li>
<li><b>My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Frederik Backman (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Fenollera (10) (yep, read this one again too)</b></li>
<li><b>What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (9)</b></li>
</ul>
Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-79954130856011409412018-07-02T15:53:00.006-04:002018-07-02T15:53:42.072-04:00Pages Read in 2015In 2015, I read a fair number of great books with a few duds thrown in for flavor. I quit reading the truly awful ones, and I won't even add those to the list, but everything I finished gets a place on the list. On this list, I'll add my own rating in parentheses after each one; a 1 is awful and a 10 is pretty much one of the best books I've ever read. Anything 8 or higher is HIGHLY recommended.<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgamZCevS7v4w7Z_tNXp5cNY-NjmT5DdR24uz1ZJBFJQ61_L8nCYDdwtWYYtiExgV6FPGKy3bglOMW_WecYN8IpNNG_QsIh1OrhVI7fxSwtP68DQKvrhdgojBj0ZzyDPh_20lLLe3AZLv/w847-h635-no/" /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde (1)</li>
<li><b>In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (10) (you MUST read this book)</b></li>
<li>City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (6)</li>
<li>City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (6)</li>
<li><b>All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (9)</b></li>
<li>The Dead in their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (7)</li>
<li>Murder on the Ile Sordou by M. L. Longworth (7)</li>
<li><b>The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale (8)</b></li>
<li>The River Wife by Jonis Agee (6)</li>
<li><b>The Magician's Book by Laura Miller (8)</b></li>
<li>The Cleaner of Chartres by Sally Vickers (7)</li>
<li>Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan (4)</li>
<li>The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal (7)</li>
<li>The Commoner by John Schwartz (7)</li>
<li>Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer (7)</li>
<li>Savage Girl by Jean Zimmerman (5)</li>
<li><b>Butterflies in November by Audur Olafsdottir (9)</b></li>
<li><b>The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (10) (you MUST read this one too)</b></li>
<li><b>All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (10) (READ it)</b></li>
<li>Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2)</li>
<li>Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber (3)</li>
<li>Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris (7)</li>
<li>The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (6)</li>
<li>The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (4)</li>
<li><b>Chocolat by Joanne Harris (10) (I re-read this book every year. That's how much I love it.)</b></li>
<li><b>The One and Only Ivan by Emily Giffin (9)</b></li>
<li>Iceland by Betsy Tobin (5)</li>
<li><b>Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia McKillip (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (10)</b></li>
<li>Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy (5)</li>
<li>The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons (7)</li>
<li>Journal of a UFO Investigator by David Halperin (5)</li>
<li><b>Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (8)</b></li>
<li>The Bookman's Obsession by Charles Lovett (6)</li>
<li><b>The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart (10) (one of my favorite authors)</b></li>
<li>As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley (7)</li>
<li><b>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10) (mind bending and amazing)</b></li>
<li><b>Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver (9) (non-fiction)</b></li>
<li>The Pilgrims by Will Elliott (7)</li>
<li>The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan (7)</li>
<li>Orphan Train by Christina Kline (5)</li>
<li>Story of Land and Sea by Katy Smith (6)</li>
<li>The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (5)</li>
<li><b>When the Doves Disappeared by Sofi Oksanen (8)</b></li>
<li><b>A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (9)</b></li>
<li>Shadow by Will Elliott (5)</li>
<li><b>River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (8)</b></li>
<li>South of Superior by Ellen Airgood (7)</li>
<li>Emma, a Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith (6)</li>
<li>The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (4)</li>
<li><b>Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville (8)</b></li>
<li>When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord (7)</li>
<li>H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (7)</li>
<li>The Strangler Vine by M. J. Carter (6)</li>
<li>We Are Pirates by David Handler (5)</li>
<li>The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo (7)</li>
<li><b>Arcadia by Lauren Groff (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (10) </b></li>
<li><b>The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker (9)</b></li>
<li>Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes (6)</li>
<li><b>boy, snow, bird by Helen Oyeymi (10)</b></li>
<li>The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (7)</li>
<li><b>The Likeness by Tana French (8)</b></li>
<li><b>In the Woods by Tana French (8)</b></li>
<li>Faithful Place by Tana French (6)</li>
<li>Broken Harbor by Tana French (6)</li>
<li>The Secret Place by Tana French (6)</li>
<li>What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (4)</li>
<li>Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey (5)</li>
<li>Winds of Change by Mercedes Lackey (5)</li>
<li>Winds of Fury by Mercedes Lackey (5)</li>
<li>Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill (4)</li>
<li><b>A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Mitchell (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero (10)</b></li>
<li>The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron (7)</li>
<li><b>The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny (8)</b></li>
<li><b>The Chosen by Elizabeth Valente (8)</b></li>
<li><b>Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (8)</b></li>
<li>The Killing Lessons by Saul Black (6)</li>
<li><b>The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (8)</b></li>
<li>The Bees by Laline Paull (7)</li>
<li><b>Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (10) (yes, I read it twice in one year)</b></li>
<li>The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (6)</li>
<li><b>The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (10) (yup, this one too)</b></li>
<li><b>Ship of Theseus by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst (10)</b></li>
<li>First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen (6)</li>
<li><b>The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (9)</b></li>
<li>Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (6)</li>
<li>Early One Morning by Virginia Baily (7)</li>
<li><b>Wool by Hugh Howey (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Stardust by Neil Gaiman (9)</b></li>
<li>The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (5)</li>
<li>The Circle by Dave Eggers (6)</li>
<li>Room by Emma Donoghue (7)</li>
<li>Slade House by David Mitchell (7)</li>
<li>Night by Elie Wiesel (7)</li>
<li><b>The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (9)</b></li>
<li>The Just City by Jo Walton (5)</li>
<li><b>The Martian by Andy Weir (10)</b></li>
<li>Vintage by David Baker (6)</li>
<li><b>Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (10)</b></li>
<li><b>Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (9)</b></li>
<li><b>Bristol House by Beverly Swerling (9)</b></li>
<li>Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (6)</li>
<li><b>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (10) (yep, read this one twice too)</b></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-68016685738959229762016-12-26T12:19:00.002-05:002016-12-26T12:24:03.776-05:00Pages Read in 2014In 2014, I started keeping a list of the books I read, and it's always fun to look back and think about my reading journey. Here I'll just list the books (in order of reading, starting with January) I read that year. Books I would highly recommend are in bold font.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4quDCERkXux0U1ztlgwTpK9LpQziOgZh68nYhd4ysWKwSYlDjXLEMvtZlYDpX28ybMdOVMoc79vxvyL8ZQUu87_Yn0StoQR1ixeGRIDZ6MpvvWTDCxj-La6Rvks0Ck28aICeTJvZoefM_/s1600/20161226_121134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4quDCERkXux0U1ztlgwTpK9LpQziOgZh68nYhd4ysWKwSYlDjXLEMvtZlYDpX28ybMdOVMoc79vxvyL8ZQUu87_Yn0StoQR1ixeGRIDZ6MpvvWTDCxj-La6Rvks0Ck28aICeTJvZoefM_/s640/20161226_121134.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<li><b>Prisoner of Heaven--Carlos Ruis Zafon</b></li>
<li><b>Wildwood--Colin Meloy (illustrated by Carson Ellis)</b></li>
<li><b>Under Wildwood--Colin Meloy illustrated by Carson Ellis)</b></li>
<li>The Snow Child--Eowyn Ivey</li>
<li>The Good Dream--Donna VanLiere</li>
<li><b>The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Neil Gaiman</b></li>
<li>Beauty--Sheri Tepper</li>
<li>Divergent--Veronica Roth</li>
<li>Insurgent--Veronica Roth</li>
<li><b>Peter and the Starcatchers--Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson</b></li>
<li><b>The Bell at Sealey Head--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>The Bards of Bone Plain--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>Alphabet of Thorn--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>Ombria in Shadow--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li>Allegiant--Veronica Roth</li>
<li><b>Tower at Stony Wood--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>Od Magic--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>In the Forests of Serre--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>Winter Rose--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li><b>The Book of Atrix Wolfe--Patricia McKillip</b></li>
<li>Killing Jesus--Bill O'Reilly</li>
<li><b>Chocolat--Joanne Harris</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li><b>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling</b></li>
<li>The House Girl--Tara Conklin</li>
<li>The Kitchen House--Kathleen Grissom</li>
<li>The Secret Lives of Dresses--Erin McKean</li>
<li><b>Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English--Natasha Solomons</b></li>
<li><b>The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise--Julia Stuart</b></li>
<li><b>The Matchmaker of Perigord--Julia Stuart</b></li>
<li><b>The Pigeon Pie Mystery--Julia Stuart</b></li>
<li>The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag--Alan Bradley</li>
<li>Speaking from among the Bones--Alan Bradley</li>
<li>A Red Herring without Mustard--Alan Bradley</li>
<li>Lost Lake--Sarah Addison Allen</li>
<li><b>Longbourn--Jo Baker</b></li>
<li>I Am Malala--Malala Yousafzai</li>
<li><b>Bellman and Black--Diane Setterfield</b></li>
<li>Chateau beyond Time--Michael Tobias</li>
<li>The Magicians--Lev Grossman</li>
<li><b>Under Wildwood--Colin Meloy (illustrated by Carson Ellis)</b></li>
<li><b>Wildwood Imperium--Colin Meloy (illustrated by Carson Ellis)</b></li>
<li>Garden Spells--Sarah Addison Allen</li>
<li>The Passion of the Purple Plumeria--Lauren Willig</li>
<li>The Good Fairies of New York--Martin Millar</li>
<li>Citadel--Kate Mosse</li>
<li><b>The Call--Yannick Murphy</b></li>
<li><b>Kisses from Katie--Katie Davis</b></li>
<li>Rush Home Road--Lori Lansens</li>
<li>The Rathbones--Janice Clark</li>
<li>Unusual Uses for Olive Oil--Alexander McCall Smith</li>
<li>The Fault in our Stars--John Green</li>
<li><b>Seven: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess--Jen Hatmaker</b></li>
<li>Notes from a Small Island--Bill Bryson</li>
<li>Vaclav and Lena--Haley Tanner</li>
<li>Heroes of the Valley--Jonathan Stroud</li>
<li>She Rises--Kate Worsley</li>
<li>Love and Lament--John Thompson</li>
<li><b>One Thousand Gifts--Ann Voskamp</b></li>
<li>Sixpence House--Paul Collins</li>
<li>The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair--Joel Dicker</li>
<li>Murder on the Rue Dumas--M.L. Longworth</li>
<li><b>The Girl with the Glass Feet--Ali Shaw</b></li>
<li><b>The Kings and Queens of Roam--Daniel wallace</b></li>
<li><b>Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore--Robin Sloan</b></li>
<li>Watermark--Vanitha Sankaran</li>
<li>The Story of Forgetting--Stefan Merrill Block</li>
<li><b>Julie and Julia--Julie Powell</b></li>
<li><b>Salmon Fishing in the Yemen--Paul Torday</b></li>
<li>The Invisible Code--Christopher Fowler</li>
<li><b>The Long Way Home--Louise Penny</b></li>
<li><b>Emma--Jane Austen</b></li>
<li><b>Rose Daughter--Robin McKinley</b></li>
<li><b>Possession--A.S. Byatt</b></li>
<li><b>Major Pettigrew's Last Stand--Helen Simonson</b></li>
<li>The House of Hades--Rick Riordan</li>
<li><b>American Gods--Neil Gaiman</b></li>
<li><b>The Apothecary--Maile Meloy</b></li>
<li>A Lesson before Dying--Ernest Gaines</li>
<li>The Poe Shadow--Matthew Pearl</li>
<li>Death in a Scarlet Cloak--David Dickinson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</li>
<li><b>Galapagos--Kurt Vonnegut</b></li>
<li><b>Beautiful Ruins--Jess Walter</b></li>
<li>Lord Edgeware Dies--Agatha Christie</li>
<li>Amy Falls Down--Jincy Willett</li>
<li>The River of No Return--Bee Ridgway</li>
<li>City of Bones--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>City of Ashes--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>City of Glass--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>City of Fallen Angels--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>Clockwork Angel--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>Clockwork Prince--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>Clockwork Princess--Cassandra Clare</li>
<li>The Last Witchfinder--James Morrow</li>
Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971286725357301578.post-1750943884470067762014-08-05T09:41:00.000-04:002014-08-05T09:41:19.730-04:00Book Review: One Thousand GiftsI'm a pretty even-keel sort of girl. I don't get angry often, don't usually raise my voice, and I rarely cry. It's a calm and relatively stress-free life I lead, and I am grateful for that. But on the flip side, I also don't often experience the thrill of belly laughs, tears running down my face in glee, pure joy (unless I'm watching a dear sister slide backwards, fully dressed, helpless to stop her progress, into Lime Lake while her husband stands by doing absolutely nothing because he doesn't want to get his new shoes wet). And although I haven't often felt that incandescent feeling of joy, I want to. I've been in pursuit of it now for years, and that search led me to this book, <u>One Thousand Gifts</u>, by Ann Voskamp.<br />
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<img alt="One Thousand Gifts" src="http://g.christianbook.com/g/cms/9/2679119/572_200One_Thousand_Gifts.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Ann is a farmer's wife, a home-schooling mother of six, and a writer whose prose reads like poetry. She has a gift for finding the beautiful in the common-place, in what others might shrug off as mere part and parcel of everyday life. Ann's life has been one of stunning early loss (her young sister was killed in an accident), mental and spiritual anguish as a result, and finally, a sense of peace won through hard-fought battles with her self. She has found this peace only through daily communion with God. And this is the message that threads through the book.<br />
Here is a transcription of the notes I took as I read:<br />
<br />
- Satan's greatest lie is that God is not good. God is all and only good.<br />
- Mankind's first sin was ingratitude: God had given everything, and we wanted more.<br />
- Sin blinds us to God's goodness.<br />
- <i>Eucharisteo</i>: a Greek word meaning "he gave thanks." This is the foundation of the sacrament of Holy Communion and of this book.<br />
- <i>Eucharisteo</i> comes from the Greek word <i>charis</i>, which means "grace," but it also comes from that word's root, <i>chara</i>, which means "joy."<br />
- We are designed and compelled to give thanks in all things and for all things.<br />
- The act of thanksgiving is integral to faith.<br />
- Ann began keeping a daily gratitude journal, in which she listed the gifts she already has.<br />
- Erasmus said: "A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit." We can overcome a bad habit (complaining, discontent, anxiety) by replacing it with another habit (gratitude, peace, service).<br />
- The importance of naming things goes back to creation. Naming, counting, listing our blessings is a valuable exercise.<br />
- J.R.R. Tolkein: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." Words to live by.<br />
- We stress often because we feel we don't have enough minutes in a day. But giving thanks creates time because the attitude of thanksgiving in all things redeems time we waste in apathy, inattentiveness, and boredom.<br />
- G.K. Chesterton: "Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian."<br />
- All is grace; all is God's plan. Even that which seems bad, ugly, painful. She says: "God is always good, and I am always loved." There is grace in that, and great joy.<br />
- Faith is in the (constant) gaze of the soul: a soul that is always seeking, seeing God in His creation.<br />
- Deeply seeing leads to gratitude, which leads to joy.<br />
- Complaints about setbacks, trials, tribulations: these are actually blasphemy because they doubt God's divine power to work good through all things. <i>This is painful to consider, isn't it?</i><br />
- Joy is always present. We must not turn from it but turn toward it and receive God's ever-present gift.<br />
- G.K. Chesterton: "Our perennial spiritual and psychological task is to look at things familiar until they become unfamiliar again." Recognizing God's gifts to us in the familiar is one of the key steps to the daily practice of gratitude.<br />
- Although dark times may loom heavy over us, we must remember that it is in those troubled times that God is closest.<br />
- We must make ourselves <i>small, must humble ourselves</i> in order to truly stand in awe.<br />
- Anger, pride, fear: these things smother joy.<br />
- We open our hands wide to receive God's grace and joy--and then we <i>keep them open</i> to give it away. If we clench our fists tight around what we've been given, it molders.<br />
- This act of service--of giving and sharing grace--is central to the faith-walk. We cannot just sit back and accept. We must in turn share God's goodness.<br />
<br />
This book was full to the ends of each page with moments that made me think, made me breathe deeply, made me ponder who I am and who I can be. After reading it, I set a blank journal near my Bible, on a table in the dining room. In it, I began a list of things I am grateful for, gifts God has given me <i>this day</i>.<br />
<br />
<img height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiIpW7b-cZZ3aBEfaXB1qftMzxE0CEGL45bIvVdg3z2b7hX_Q0Wxar4MPOnZzmL0P7A2E2kd9_JSg05A8gwiCn3gQz_nNJq4Mk4SThn7i0eLD9YF8gXPDalkDuQQ30dTnA4_GvL0tFv48r/s640/20140805_092854.jpg" width="360" /><br />
<br />
At lunch, with my family gathered around, I read my list, talked about this book, and encouraged Clint and the kids to add to the list. At dinner, I read what had been written: 18 things in one day! We plan to keep adding to the list throughout the year, maybe reaching Ann's goal of one thousand--or maybe surpassing it. It is our first step in a conscious journey toward gratitude for the grace God showers upon us, and in this list and the path it will inevitably take us down, we will all find the joy He longs to give us.<br />
If you long to find joy, to find a spot of peace in your fast-paced life, I urge you to read this book. Also, Ann's <a href="http://www.aholyexperience.com/">blog</a> is a place to find peace, encouragement, and joy. Check her out; check <i>this book </i>out.
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June is a very busy month in our family. Clint and I celebrate our birthdays at the beginning of the month, and then Jared and Lauren celebrate theirs back to back at the end. So, Jared (somehow) has skipped right along to his eighth birthday. </div>
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One of his cuddliest presents was this stuffed doggie (more about him later).<br />
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After presents but before we headed out to the lake for the day, Daddy decided the kids needed to recreate a picture we took of them when we brought Jared home from the hospital. Surprisingly, it was a little more difficult this time around.<br />
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And Lauren turned 19 this year (seriously? how is THAT possible?). Jared was so helpful with her present opening. Just always giving, that kid.<br />
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Lauren's favorite present was SuperBoyfriend, which Dad picked up at a garage sale a few weeks ago. Who knew something like this would become So Important? (And the bonus: SB is fully poseable.)<br />
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But what really surprised us all was the revelation last night that the birthday celebration wasn't over yet. Jared's new doggie was celebrating his birthday TODAY. So, Jared and I spent a few hours last night planning Shorkie's birthday party. Shorkie invited all of his friends. And, happily, they were all able to attend. Even though Grandpa Perry (the platypus) and Grandma Lumberjack (the beaver) are moving to Texas TODAY.<br />
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Shorkie loves his new collar, made and designed by Jared.<br />
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He's also very thankful for the thoughtful card his grandparents made for him. (That's Grandpa Perry and Grandma Lumberjack, of course.) (Oh yeah, and his full name is Shwarcansquater, but that's a bit of a mouthful for some of us.)<br />
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His grandparents also gave him a <i>real</i> dollar bill.<br />
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And he got a new home, which smells a little like cinnamon and apples, for some reason. And also a tennis ball.<br />
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Jared was hoping I'd make Shorkie his own birthday cake, but I told him two cakes in two days is enough. Shorkie can have some of his or Lauren's leftover cake. Apparently Shorkie is allergic to chocolate, though, so he'll have to settle for Lauren's cake.Kirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12392258605290912032noreply@blogger.com2