Dogmatix's List 2007

[dogmatix]

Well my New Year's resolution is to keep a reading list for the first time in my life. Since I've still got about 150 pages to go I'll start with my current read:

1. The Instance of the Fingerpost, by Ian Pears.

[Sugar]

And congratulations on being the first 2007 list! :smile2:

[dogmatix]

Finished Instance of the Fingerpost. Reveiwed in a separate thread.

Started and finished:

2. A Legend of Wolf Song - George Stone today.

Review will be posted

[dogmatix]

I posted a review of A Legend of Wolf Song - George Stone

Started yesterday

3. Firmin - Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, Sam Savage

Review to follow

[dogmatix]

Finished up Firmin and posted review

Next up:

4. The Flanders Panel - Arturo Perez Reverte :readingtwo:

[dogmatix]

Finished up The Flander's Panel - posting review now.

[dogmatix]

5. The Grey King - Susan Cooper

I've got one day to tuck something in. Last year I bought a nice hardcover set of a series of children's book which I loved as a kid and I can now afford to own http://thefalloutshelt.eamped.com/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif The Dark is Rising (series) - Susan Cooper and I've been reading them in snatches. Today I'll be reading The Grey King the fourth book in the series. I'll not be posting a review on this one book but this is a lovely childrens series and I do recommend it if you've got kids in your life. The entire series is 1. Over Sea, Under Stone 2. The Dark is Rising 3. Greenwich 4. The Grey King 5. Silver on the Tree. If you're not familiar the stories they revolve around Grail Legend and the adventures of the Drew Children and their mysterious Uncle Merriman Lyon. The books reference some very ancient Welsh legends and older English legends in them that I had to research a bit as they were so foreign to me. Well written and recommended as a series for children.

'Nuf said. http://thefalloutshelt.eamped.com/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Louiseog]

I'm sure I've read them, sound great! Off to investigate

[dogmatix]

6. The Comfort of Strangers - Ian McEwan (review posted)

[dogmatix]

Started

7. Darwin and the Barnacle (The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough) - Rebecca Stott

First non fiction work this year.

[dogmatix]

Finished Darwin and the Barnacle (Review posted)

8. Metamorphosis: Franz Kafka

[dogmatix]

Finished Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
(review posted)
Started

9. Perfume - Patrick Suskind

AND

10. The Half Brother - Lars Saabye Chrinstensen

[dogmatix]

10. The Half Brother - Lars Saabye Christensen is now finished. It was a BOTM at another forum I vist and I've spent a lot of time discussing so I'll not post a review here, except to say this is a sweeping and beautiful epic in the style of Irving and a definite STRONG recommendation. It won the Nordic Prize for Literature.

He's the review from Amazon:
Epic yet startlingly contemporary, this massive novel charts 50 years in the life of an unconventional Oslo family, lighted by gleams of the frozen north and the glow of movie screens. Narrator Barnum, an award-winning screenwriter, retraces his family's history, which begins with the rape of his mother, Vera, as a young girl at the end of World War II. From this crime, Barnum's half-brother, Fred, is conceived. Fred is angry, prone to mood swings and outbursts of verbal cruelty. But he is also street-smart, self-reliant and fiercely—if erratically—protective of Barnum, a small, sensitive boy who never grows to full height. The boys live with Vera and an extended family of spirited, loving women, including the Old One, Barnum's great grandmother (a former silent movie actress), and his beer-drinking grandmother, Boletta. Barnum's father is Arnold Nilsen, an itinerant con man, who woos and marries Vera. When Barnum is almost grown up, unpredictable Fred goes to sea and disappears, leaving Barnum angry and confused. Barnum finds companionship and love through his relationships with friends Peder and Vivian, eventually marrying Vivian, but their connection unravels, particularly with Vivian's pregnancy—a pregnancy that torments Barnum, who is secretly infertile. Barnum's conflicted, complicated love for his brother anchors the novel, but Christensen tenderly explores all sorts of human connection, examining the emotions aroused by absence and persistence, and the complex nature of family and forgiveness. Like Péter Nádas's Book of Memories and Péter Esterházy's Celestial Harmonies, this is a challenging, marvelously rich novel steeped in European history and charged by present-day anxieties.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559707151/ref=dp_proddesc_1/002-0363238-1076008?ie=UTF8&n=283155) edition.

[dogmatix]

9. I'm back to Perfume - Patrick Suskind now and hope to finish it this weekend.

next up: 11. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

[dogmatix]

Finished Perfume - review posted

11. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

[dogmatix]

Finished
To the Lighthouse - Woolf
Far to much of a classic to review.:blush: But I will say Lovely!!!!
Recommended.

Next up:
12. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl

[Liz]

Have you read his first one, The Dante Club?

[dogmatix]

Ooh no! Do you recommend? Do tell!

[Liz]

Oh, well no, I haven't read it myself and I don't know of anyone who has.
Sorry :blush:
I was just wondering if you had because I have been thinking about giving it a go.
But let us know what you think of The Poe Shadow.

[dogmatix]

Will do!

[dogmatix]

Well I misplaced The Poe Shadow somewhere in this house and I had some free time to read today so I started

14. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

I'll get back to The Poe Sadow when I find it:irked: