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Elizabeth's 2009


eschulenburg

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My book rating system:

 

10 - Among the best books I've ever read. This book spoke to me, changed me, and, if it isn't already in my personal collection, I dearly wish it were.

 

9 - I couldn't put this book down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it.

 

8 - Excellent. This is a book I will be recommending to all my friends.

 

7 - It didn't break my heart to return it to the library, but it was still pretty darn good.

 

6 - Pretty good, but had some serious flaws that distracted me from enjoyment.

 

5 - So-so. Some parts of this book were enjoyable, but other parts were a real yawner.

 

4 - Ok. But whatever redeemable aspects there were to this book, they were not fleshed out enough for me to truly enjoy it.

 

3 - There was little to nothing enjoyable about this book. Certainly not one I would recommend to anyone.

 

2 - Don't waste your time. I only finished this one for the pleasure of a good roast in my review.

 

1 - It is a sad commentary on the state of publishing today that a tree actually died to produce this drivel.

 

0 - Among the worst books I've ever laid eyes on. I couldn't even finish it, it was so bad.

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My Reading Challenges, 2009 edition

 

Once again, I have signed myself up for WAY too many challenges. It's like a sickness I can't get rid of. :P Here's my list:

 

Challenges I have OFFICIALLY signed up for:

 

42 Science Fiction Challenge - experience 42 sci-fi books, short stories, movies, TV shows, etc. This challenge runs until December, 2009

A Daring Book Challenge - this challenge is to read books listed in the Recommended Books section of A Daring Book for Girls. This challenge runs until June, 2009.

Book Awards Challenge - this challenge is to read books which have won one of the many book awards given worldwide. This challenge runs until June, 2009.

Book Buddy Blogger Challenge - this is a great challenge, encouraging participants to read books recommended by fellow book bloggers. This challenge runs until December, 2009.

 

Decades '09 - this challenge requires participants to read 9 books in 9 consecutive decades. This challenge runs until December, 2009.

My Year of Reading Dangerously - another unique challenge, which encourages participants to read 12 books they deem "dangerous" - either books which have been banned, books dealing with controversial subject matter, or books they have been afraid to read thus far. This challenge runs until December, 2009.

 

New Authors Challenge - this challenge is all about reading new-to-you authors. This challenge runs until December, 2009.

 

Read Your Own Books Challenge - this challenge is perfect for cleaning out TBR piles - read your own books! This challenge runs until December, 2009.

The Pub Challenge 2009 - this challenge requires participants to read books originally published in 2009. This challenge runs through December, 2009.

Modern Library's 100 Best Novels Challenge - this is a perpetual challenge, encouraging participants to read through the list of the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels. It has no start or end dates.

 

My own personal challenges:

Newberry Award Challenge - in which I challenge myself to read all of the Newberry books

Poet Laureate Challenge - in which I challenge myself to read through all the U.S. Poet Laureates

Reading Around the World Challenge - in which I challenge myself to read novels from all over the world

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Just Finished:

 

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Honk, the Moose by Phil Strong

The Good Master by Kate Seredy (6/27/08, 7/10)

Dobry by Monica Shannon (9/16/08, 7/10)

 

Current:

Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs

 

 

 

Next:

 

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Rivers

Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs

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Joseph Auslander (completed)

 

Allen Tate (completed)

 

Robert Penn Warren (completed)

 

Louise Bogan (completed)

 

Karl Shapiro (completed)

 

Leonie Adams (completed)

 

Elizabeth Bishop (completed)

 

Conrad Aiken (completed)

 

William Carlos Williams (completed)

 

Randall Jarrell (completed)

 

Robert Frost (completed)

 

Richard Eberhart (completed)

 

Louis Untermeyer (completed)

 

Howard Nemerov (completed 7/19/08)

 

Reed Whittemore (completed 9/19/08)

 

Stephen Spender (completed 11/21/08)

 

James Dickey (completed 12/29/08)

 

William Jay Smith (completed 1/15/09)

 

William Stafford (completed 2/10/09)

 

Josephine Jacobsen (completed 3/2/09)

 

Daniel Hoffman

 

Stanley Kunitz

 

Robert Hayden

 

William Meredith

 

Maxine Kumin

 

Anthony Hecht

 

Robert Fitzgerald

 

Gwendolyn Brooks

 

Richard Wilbur

 

Mark Strand

 

Joseph Brodsky

 

Mona Van Duyn

 

Rita Dove

 

Robert Haas

 

Robert Pinsky

 

Billy Collins

 

Louise Gluck

 

Ted Kooser

 

Donald Hall

 

Charles Simic

Edited by eschulenburg
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Afghanistan - A Thousand Splendid Suns by K. Hosseini

 

Andorra - Andorra by P. Cameron

 

Antarctica - Decipher by S. Pavlou

 

Australia - I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Without a Backward Glance by Kate Veitch (8/2/08, 9/10)

 

Austria - Homestead by R. Lippi

 

Belgium - The Sorrow of Belgium by H. Claus

 

Bosnia/Herzegovina - People of the Book by G. Brooks

 

Canada - Barometer Rising by H. MacLennen

 

China - Apologies Forthcoming by Xujun Eberlein (9/21/08, 8/10)

 

Cuba - The Old Man and the Sea by E. Hemmingway

 

Denmark - The Royal Physician's Visit by P.O. Enquist

 

England - The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue

 

Egypt - Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

 

Faroe Islands - Far Afield by S. Kaysen

 

Finland - Cast a Long Shadow by Leena Lander

Lang by Kjell Westo

 

France - The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

 

Gibraltar - Gibraltar by C. Tepley

 

Greece - Apartment in Athens by G. Wescott

 

Hong Kong - The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama

 

Hungary - Embers by S. Marai

 

Iceland - Under the Glacier by H. Laxness

 

India - Beneath a Marble Sky by J. Shors

The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal (9/4/08, 7/10)

 

Iran - The September of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

 

Ireland - The Gathering by Anne Enright

 

Israel - We Just Want to Live Here by Rifa'i and Ainbinder

 

Italy - The Anatomist by F. Andahari

 

Japan - The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

 

Lichtenstein - Ludmilla by P. Gallico

 

Malta - Jukebox Queen of Malta by N. Rinaldi

 

Nigeria - You Must Set Out at Dawn by W. Soyinke

 

Norway - Naive.Super by Erlend Loe

 

Pakistan - The Reluctant Fundamentalist by M. Hamid

 

Papua New Guinea - The White Mary by Kira Salak (7/9/08, 9/10)

 

Portugal - Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

 

Russia - The Madonnas of Lenningrad by D. Dean

 

Rwanda - We Wish to Inform You....by P. Gourevitch

 

Scotland - The Translator by L. Aboulela

 

Sicily - The Marchesa - Simonetta Agnello Hornby (1/09, 5/10)

 

Sierra Leone - A Long Way Gone by I. Beah

 

Spain - Shadow of the Wind by C. R. Zafon

 

Sri Lanka - Reef by R. Gunesekera

 

Sweden - Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi (7/4/08, 7/10)

 

Turkey - The Sultan's Seal by Jenny White

Edited by eschulenburg
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Marjorie Morningstar - Herman Wouk

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

The Giver - Lois Lowry

The Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula K. LeGuin

National Velvet - Enid Bagnold

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

The Illyrian Adventure series - Lloyd Alexander

The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (finished 2008)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (finished 2/16/09, 9/10)

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (Arthur C. Clarke)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Man Booker)

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (Costa/Whitbread)

The In-Between World of Vikram Lal by M.G. Vassanji (Giller)

Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards (Giller)

The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy (Governor General)

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Hugo)

This Blinding Absence of Light by Taher Ben Jelloun (IMPAC Dublin)

The Known World by Edward P. Jones (IMPAC Dublin)

Sacred Country by Rose Tremain (James Tait Black)

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (NBCC)

Atonement by Ian McEwan (NBCC)

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Hugo and Nebula)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie (Orange)

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1 - How I Live Now by Meg Rosof - recommended by Megan of Leafing Through Life

2 - Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins - recommended by Andi of Tripping Toward Lucidity

3 - Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman - recommended by Carey of The Tome Traveller

(in the spirit of full disclosure, I was going to read this book anyway, but since I found a

glowing recommendation for it, now I'm adding it to this challenge!)

4 - Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman - recommended by Alyce of At Home with Books

5 - Matrimony by Joshua Henken - recommended by practically all of the book blogging world

6 - Dakota by Kathleen Norris - recommended by Word Lily

7 - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff - recommended by Stephanie of Open Mind, Insert Book

8 - Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - recommended by Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit

9 - The Almost Archer Sisters by Lisa Gabriele - recommended by Luanne of A Bookworm's

World

10 - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - recommended by Marcia of The

Printed Page

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1910s - Howard's End by E.M. Forster

1920s - Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

1930s - National Velvet by E. Bagnold

1940s - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by B. SMith

1950s - Marjorie Morningstar by H. Wouk

1960s - A Wizard of Earthsea by U. LeGuin

1970s - Bridge to Terabithia by K. Peterson

1980s - Midnight's Children by S. Rushdie

1990s - The Giver by L. Lowry

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Recently Finished:

 

Ulysses by James Joyce (2/8/09, blech)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (technically, I didn't JUST finish this one - I read it a while ago. But after Ulysses, I'm done with Joyce.)

 

Current Selection:

 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

 

Up Next:

 

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

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I'm going to shoot high and say I'd like to try 50 new authors - this might be a bit unreachable, but it will be fun to try!

 

1 - Galaxy Craze (By the Shore)

2 - Kristyn Dunnion (Big Big Sky)

3 - Catherine Banner (The Eyes of a King)

4 - James Michener (Alaska and Journey)

5 - Susanne Dunlap (The Musician's Daughter)

6 - Richard Currey (Fatal Light)

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I'm going to set my goal at 30 books from my own collection, and also stipulate that they are 30 books I've acquired BEFORE 2009 - time to get through some of the backlog!

 

 

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Elizabeth - I'm curious to hear what you thought of the book Andorra by Peter Cameron. I'm doing a global reading challenge & can't find an English book written by an author from Andorra, so have decided to read a book about Andorra instead. This one has had very mixed reviews!

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Yikes! It has been WAY TOO LONG since I've been around here. The last part of 2008 got pretty crazy at my house, so a few things were neglected, but I'm ready to start fresh in 2009. Looks like I have a lot of reading and catching up to do on the forum, so that's where I'll be.

 

Also - thanks so much to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. That was such a fun surprise to find today! I had a great birthday yesterday, and was suitably spoiled by all my loved ones. Thanks!:P

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  • 2 weeks later...

By the Shore by Galazy Craze

 

B&N Synopsis:

 

Published to great international acclaim, Galaxy Craze's best-selling debut, By the Shore, launched a young actress into literary fame. In clear and sparkling prose, her novel evokes a fragile, bittersweet world of youth on the cusp of adulthood and "captures perfectly the hopes and hurts of childhood" (The New York Times Book Review). Twelve-year-old May lives in a less than thriving oceanfront bed-and-breakfast run by her single mother. Her life is filled with the frustrations and promise of youth, complicated by a loving if distracted young mother who strives to care for her two children without forfeiting fun and passion. May puts her faith in the things that elude her - her absent father, the London city life left behind, the acceptance of the popular girls who have boyfriends -- and wonders if her life will ever change. When a kindly writer and his glamorous editor come to lodge in the weeks before Christmas, opportunities are in the air. But then May's playboy father, estranged from the family for years, drops in and threatens to freeze the delicate new possibilities stirring in all their lives.

 

My thoughts:

 

I initially picked up this novel because I am slated to review its successor, Tiger Tiger, for CurledUp.com, and I really, really hate to read the second book before the first. (I know, I'm a little anal about that.) I'd read some pretty wildly disparate reviews of the two books, so I didn't quite know what to expect - I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

By the Shore captures perfectly the voice of its 12-year-old narrator, May. The prose itself is quiet, almost tentative, much like a young girl taking her first steps into adulthood. May is sweet, lovable, funny, wise, bratty - very much what you would expect of a young girl. She is smart beyond her years, due to her mother's somewhat haphazard care, and yet still clings naively to the hope that her father will return and create one big, happy family. Eden, her brother, and Lucy, her mother, are both compelling, and the three characters form the strong backbone of the novel.

 

I was captivated from the first paragraph:

 

"It can be dangerous to live by the shore. In the winter, after a storm, things wash up on it: rusty pieces of sharp metal, glass, jellyfish. You must be careful where you tread. Sometimes I see a lone fish that has suffocated on the shore and think for days that there are fish in the water waiting for it to return. Then I think, There is nowhere to be safe."

 

Something about this earnest, sweet young girl just grabbed me, and I read her story with fascination. Oh, how I wanted her to be happy, and not to learn the hard lessons I could sense would be coming her way.

 

"When they had gone into the house I pushed myself up off the ground and walked over to the tree where Eden had been playing. There were some acorns, leaves in piles, small stones and twigs: a whole world of something I couldn't see anymore. When you are six years old you can sit at the bottom of a tree and everything becomes alive around you. The moss is a soft green carpet, the stone a sofa, the hollows of a tree a house. The wind was a low voice around me. It was getting darker out. The kitchen light was on and I could see the yellow walls and the long shadows made when someone walked past the light. I stared down at the base of the tree, but all I could see was a pile of twigs and leaves, and a few stones. This is how I know I'm getting older: a stick is just a stick."

 

It certainly has is weaknesses - the romance between Lucy and the visiting writer is predictable, May's father is, of course, a huge jerk - but the bond between the three main characters, and the voice of May, made me overlook the problems and fall in love with this novel. I'm so happy I decided to read it, and now can't wait to start the next one!

 

Finished: 1/23/09

Rating: 8/10

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  • 4 weeks later...

Synposis from B&N:

 

Gold fever swept the world in 1897. The chance for untold riches sent thousands of dreamers on a perilous trek toward their fortunes, failures, or deaths. Follow four English aristocrats and their Irish servant as they misguidedly haul their dreams across cruel Canadian terrain toward the Klondike gold fields.

 

 

My thoughts:

 

Journey actually started out as a section of Alaska, and was eventually cut and made into its own novel, so it made sense to me to read them together. This was another completely engrossing novel, and I am happy I read these two back to back. At the end of Journey, Michener discusses why he ultimately decided to take this story out of its original place in the novel Alaska, and it makes sense. However, I found it a very compelling read, having so recently finished the first novel.

 

Because Journey is so much shorter (just over 300 pages), I found it much more difficult to put down. This is not a feel-good novel, as much of what happens to the main characters is quite tragic. I will admit that I am not a fan of Lord Lutton, who would probably be considered the novel's lead - he was extremely pompous an arrogant, and much of the tragedy is a direct result of his inability to admit he made bad decisions. The other characters were much more sympathetic, which made the events even more sad.

 

This novel would be a great introduction to Michener for someone who has considered reading his work, but is intimidated by the length of his other stories. It gives a good example of the writing style, but won't break your shoulder being lugged around in a bag. (Or am I the only one that does that?)

 

At the end of Journey, Michener talks about his three goals in writing these two novels:

 

"I wanted to help the American public to think intelligently about the arctic, where large portions of future international history might well focus; I wanted to remind my readers that Russia had held Alaska for a longer period, 127 years (1741 through 1867 inclusive), than the United States had held it, 122 years (1867 through 1988); and I particularly desired to acquaint Americans with the role that neighboring Canada had played and still does play in Alaskan history."

 

I feel like he accomplished each one of those goals in the two books, and I absolutely have been converted to a Michener lover! I will certainly be reading more of his novels in the future.

 

Finished: 2/14/08

Source: Grandpa W.

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by: Elizabeth

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Synopsis from the publisher:

 

Abel Haggard is an elderly hunchback who haunts the remnants of his familys farm in the encroaching shadow of the Dallas suburbs, adrift in recollections of those he loved and lost long ago. As a young man, he believed himself to be "the one person too many"; now he is all that remains. Hundreds of miles to the south, in Austin, Seth Waller is a teenage "Master of Nothingness" - a prime specimen of that gangly, pimple-rashed, too-smart breed of adolescent that vanishes in a puff of sarcasm at the slightest threat of human contact. When his mother is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimers, Seth sets out on a quest to find her lost relatives and to conduct an "empirical investigation" that will uncover the truth of her genetic history. Though neither knows of the other's existence, Abel and Seth are linked by a dual legacy: the disease that destroys the memories of those they love, and the story of Isidora - an edenic fantasy world free from the sorrows of remembrance, a land without memory where nothing is ever possessed, so nothing can be lost.

 

 

Through the fusion of myth, science, and storytelling, this novel offers a dazzling illumination of the hard-learned truth that only through the loss of what we consider precious can we understand the value of what remains.

 

 

My thoughts:

 

 

This was quite a remarkable debut novel. I'm not sure why I picked it up - probably something about the title struck my fancy - but once I started reading I could barely put it down. There are actually four intersecting narratives in the novel - Seth's story, Abel's story, the story of Isidora, and the story of Seth's mother's genetic history. I realize it sounds complicated, but the pieces fit together beautifully.

 

 

It was really Seth's story that resonated with me so deeply. A young boy, just trying to figure himself out, suddenly has to deal with a mother who is disappearing. He loves her, and doesn't want her to leave, and yet feels guilty because he hates visiting her in the assisted living home, where she sometimes knows who he is, and sometimes can't even remember her own name. Block captures this young man's struggle perfectly, and I was captivated by his story.

 

 

Block also illustrates the devastation of life with early-onset Alzheimers very well. I feel like I am painting this novel as fairly bleak, and while really, really sad things happen, it doesn't feel like a sad novel. It was quite funny in parts, and lovely in others. Mostly just a great read - I recommend it!

 

 

Finished: 2/15/09

Source: Franklin Avenue library

Rating: 8/10

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Synopsis from B&N:

 

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack

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