April 2010 Reading Wrap-Up

Apr 302010

So I’m fairly proud of my reading this month for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I read 22 books this month, which is more than I have ever read in a month except when I have participated in a Readathon. Although there was a Readathon this month, I wasn’t able to participate. Yes, four of the books from this month were audios, but that still leaves 18 paper books read in one month, which is really huge for me – especially because I’m also in the middle of readalongs of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and “Wolf Hall” which aren’t finished so aren’t included here. That (not counting the unfinished readalongs) was a total of 5,412 pages and just over 1.5 days of audio.

The other thing I’m proud of, is how many of the books I read already have reviews posted.Eight of the 22 still need reviews, but 3 of those are audios (which I’m terrible at reviewing) and 3 are already scheduled for dates in May.

After my list of what I read this month, you’ll find a list of the other reviews and posts I posted this month.

What I Read:

Fiction
Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Young Adult/Middle Grades Fiction
The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart

Historical Fiction
Pearl of China by Anchee Min
Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees
Claude and Camille by Stephanie Cowell (review scheduled for May 3rd)
Within the Hollow Crown by Margaret Campbell Barnes
The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran
The Blue Orchard by Jackson Taylor (review scheduled for May 4th)

Nonfiction
Sisters in War by Christina Asquith
A Parisienne in Chicago by Mary Beth Raycraft (translator)
College in a Nutskull by Anders Henriksson (editor) (review pending)
Eat Nap Play by Robyn Spizman and Evelyn Sacks
The Good Night, Sleep Tight Workbook by Kim West (review scheduled for May 19th)
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (review pending)

Audio
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (review pending)
My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme (review pending)
Paper Towns by John Green
Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck (review pending)

Pick of the Month:

In “The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott,” author Kelly O’Connor McNees theorizes about a secret love for the beloved author Louisa May Alcott, and I loved it.

What I Posted:

Guest Posts and Discussions
Oh, D.E.A.R.
“Discovering Madame Grandin’s Chicago” - guest post by Mary Beth Raycraft, translator of A Parisienne in Chicago

Fiction
The Anthologist by Nicholas Baker
31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
Genesis by Bernard Beckett
The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry – Book Review

Apr 292010

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

Zee makes her living as a psychiatrist in Boston, but she has her own demons to deal with. When Zee was young, her bipolar mother committed suicide and Zee was the one who found her. When one of Zee’s patients, Lily Braedon, who reminded Zee so much of her own mother, jumps off of a bridge after being involved in an abusive affair, Zee is determined to get to the bottom of what happened. To complicate things, Zee’s father Finch is deteriorating rapidly. Finch has Parkinson’s, but he is starting to lapse into Alzheimer’s. After Finch kicks out his longterm partner Melville, Zee is left as Finch’s sole caregiver at the same time she is trying to discover what happened to Lily and reconcile her own past.

I really enjoyed Barry’s debut work, “The Lace Reader.” It was one of the first books I got really excited about when I started blogging. “The Map of True Places,” like “The Lace Reader” is set in Salem and had the same atmosphere. I don’t think that “The Map of True Places” had the same immediacy and sense of mystery that “The Lace Reader” had, however, I also think it was a more complex book in many ways. I loved the literary connection with Finch’s past as a literature professor and Zee’s mother’s obsession with fables.

Although somewhat less dramatic than “The Lace Reader,” I thought that “The Map of True Places” was a lovely book and I loved the story of Zee’s discovery of herself and her family’s history. Recommended.

Available May 4, 2010

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Paper Towns by John Green – Audiobook Review

Apr 282010

Paper Towns by John Green

When Quentin was in grade school, he and his next-door neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman come across a dead body in the park near their houses. That was one of the last times he actually hung out with Margo. He became a huge dork, basically a band geek that couldn’t play an instrument, and Margo became, well, Margo. Roth. Spiegelman. The be all and end all of high school girls. Also a bit of an adventure junkie. Suddenly, just weeks before the end of their senior year, Margo shows up at Quentin’s window and his life will never be the same again.

Okay, Love.

Seriously, why oh why did I wait so long to actually read anything John Green?

The story was super entertaining, if not entirely plausible. The characters were lots of fun, although I sort of wanted to smack Quentin’s friend Ben for repeatedly referring to women as ‘honey bunnies.’ Amazingly, Quentin’s parents didn’t even suffer from disappearing/evil/overly clueless parent syndrome so prevalent in young adult fiction – although there was one point where I was surprised that nobody’s parents had tried to call them.

And then there’s the audio component. The narrator was really great, he did a good job with using different enough voices that I could tell them apart but not so different that he was trying too hard. The only thing that really bothered me was that at the end of each disc there was a little message to put in the next disc and the beginning of each disc replayed the last couple sentences from the previous disc. Super obnoxious when you’re listening on your iPod.

So, again, overall, love! I will be reading me some more John Green, and I’d highly recommend this for a fun read.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead – Book Review

Apr 272010

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Benji and his brother Reggie are so close in age that, at one time, they considered themselves virtual twins. Every summer they leave their elite prep school where they are some of the only African-American students and summer in Sag Harbor, the largely African-American beach community abutting The Hamptons.

And honestly, there’s not a whole lot more to the plot than that. “Sag Harbor” is a semi-autobiographical novel depicting Benji’s summer of 1985 when he was about 15. He and his friends have some fun – including doing incredibly stupid things like a BB gun fight – work, pine after girls, and generally act like largely unsupervised teenage boys. At the same time, Benji is dealing with the reality of his father’s abusive alcoholism and the fact that not so deep down he’s a big nerd and everyone at his school knows it, thanks to the fact that he talks too loudly about Dungeons and Dragons.

Overall I really just wasn’t feeling this book. For one thing, I wasn’t invested enough in Benji to really care about his summer adventures. For another thing, there were a lot of retrospective remarks from Benji’s adult self who is narrating the story that were never really followed up on, like this example on page 158:

We always fought for real. Only the nature of the fight changed. It always will. As time went on, we learned to arm ourselves in different ways. Some of us with real guns, some of us with more ephemeral weapons, an idea or improbably plan or some sort of formulation about how best to move through the world.

There was just far too much of that sort of thing for my taste, particularly when I wasn’t invested in the book in the first place. The whole thing seemed somewhat over-written for me, surprising for such a short novel. I did, however, really appreciate what Whitehead had to say, through Benji, about the tension between the dominant white middle-class culture that Benji lived in physically and the black culture that he was told or felt that he should fit into.

All in all, not a bad novel by any means, but one that, 90% of the time, didn’t really hold my attention.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book passed on to me by a friend.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Tudor Tuesday – Wolf Hall Section 3

Apr 272010

More in our ongoing Twitter discussion of Wolf Hall (#WHall) for those of you who are interested. Discussion of Section 3 didn’t get too lively, but Erin has an adorable new puppy and I’m uni-tasking this week, so I don’t think either of us had a lot of Twitter time in the middle of the day. In case you missed it, we have revised our discussion schedule and will be discussing a new section every Monday for the next 3 weeks until we finish the book (just before BEA)

Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan – Book Review

Apr 262010

Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan

Best friends since they were very young, Ali and Cora have shared a lot together. Nothing, though, can top the fact that they share a daughter. Ali always wanted to have a child. She knew that, for her, life would be incomplete without motherhood. Unfortunately, Ali discovered that she was unable to have children on her own, even with fertility treatments. Her only choices became adoption or IVF. Carefree Cora never felt the maternal instinct herself, but she did love her friend dearly. Almost on a whim, Cora offered to donate eggs so that Ali and her husband could have a child, and the result is Letty, their miracle baby, one of the first children born from IVF.

Fast forward to the present day, Letty is a very sulky 15 year old and, although Ali and Cora are still great friends, they talk only occasionally and see one another even less frequently. For the first time ever, Cora comes back into town without calling Ali ahead of time, so their relationship when they meet again is somewhat strained with Ali wondering what is wrong and whether Cora is mad at her for something. Cora, however, is not angry, but afraid. Things have changed for her, and she fears telling Ali about her new circumstances may change their relationship forever.

I really enjoyed “Between Friends.” I loved the exploration of the bonds of friendship and motherhood. Ali clearly was Letty’s mother, even though they were not biologically related. She carried Letty in her womb, nursed her, raised her. Cora’s relationship, however, was somewhat more precarious. Although Cora provided the biological material necessary for Letty’s life to begin, she had never been around much during Letty’s childhood, instead following her job all over the world. At the same time, Cora and Letty had so many similarities both physically and in temperament.

Kiernan did a fantastic job bringing these three women to life; each of the three was allowed to tell a part of the story from her point of view, and all had unique voices and personalities. She also has a great deal of skill in bringing in tragedy or sadness where appropriate without making the whole thing devolve into pure melodrama, which I appreciate. I like reading women’s fiction, but I don’t want to read something that is excessively emotionally manipulative. This subject matter could easily have gone down that road, but Kiernan masterfully kept the whole thing in this side of good taste.

I will definitely be reading more of Kiernan’s work. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher at the request of the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

TSS: One Thing at a Time

Apr 252010

Good morning, friends!

I have been feeling a lot of frustration lately with what feels like an inability to get things done. Twitter is certainly a contributing factor when it sucks me into things, but I think there’s more than that, I can’t get things done even when I do ignore Twitter. For instance, I’ll try to write a post and then click over to my email and get caught up in that for awhile, or to LibraryThing and read through a couple of discussions, then I’ll realize that I’m *way* behind on my Google Reader, so I’ll click over there and read a few posts, back to my email…next thing I know 2 hours have passed and I’ve read email but not answered any, I still haven’t made any significant progress in my Google Reader, and my post is only half written. Substitute writing a post for cleaning the kitchen and putting away other random things for those other tasks and you see my lack of productivity offline as well.

This. Is. Not. Working.

I was talking about my frustrations with Nicole this week (surprisingly, not on Twitter), and she agreed to try a uni-tasking experiment with me this week. We are going to do our best to work on doing One Thing At A Time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to listen to audiobooks while I clean and I may leave uninteresting TV on sometimes as background noise, but if I am writing a post, I am going to write a post. If I am working on email, I’m going to work on email. If I’m picking up the house, I’m going to pick up the house. This may mean that you see me on Twitter less often, but hopefully it will give me more quality time to devote to everything, so maybe I’ll finally actually make it around to your blogs!

Starting tomorrow morning, I’m going to limit the number of browser windows I have open to 3. If I need to open another window for what I’m doing, something else (email, Twitter) will have to be closed entirely. My other tools this week will be Todoist.com, where I’ll be keeping my to-do list and the chronograph/countdown timer app I put on my Blackberry. Wish me luck! I’ll try to update you on my progress next Sunday.

In slightly more reading related news, I finished 6 books this week.

Before you get too excited, though, just three were actually novels:

I also finished two audiobooks:

And one 100 page workbook on sleep (and I didn’t read the parts that didn’t pertain to Daniel), because we’ll be trying some new stuff in that arena too.

Did you read anything good this week?

Genesis by Bernard Beckett – Book Review

Apr 232010

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

I picked up this book because it was making the rounds with some of my blogging friends, but they were all very mysterious about it! And with good reason, really. It is such a short book with so much packed into it, that I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to write a plot description without giving everything away, so I’m going to let you read the publisher’s description of this one, although only the first half of it, because I think the second half gives away too much:

Set on a remote island in a post-apocalyptic, plague-ridden world, this electrifying novel is destined to become a modern classic.

Anax thinks she knows her history. She’d better. She’s now facing three Examiners, and her grueling all-day Examination has just begun. If she passes, she’ll be admitted into the Academy—the elite governing institution of her utopian society.

But Anax is about to discover that for all her learning, the history she’s been taught isn’t the whole story. And that the Academy isn’t what she believes it to be.

I’ve got to say, at the beginning of Genesis I had no idea whatsoever what was going on. Zero, zip, nada. In a good way, though. I felt that Beckett plopped me down in the middle of a very real situation and led me through the discovery of what exactly was happening in this world. I loved that journey of discovery through Anax’s examination. What lost me a bit was the ending. This is a mild spoiler, but there is a bit of a twist ending and, honestly, I figured out what most of it was going to be a little more than half way through the book, which left me feeling sort of disappointed at the end.

I think this is a very good and interesting book overall that raises some really interesting questions. It would be a really great book club book, because there are so many questions raised by this book. Recommended.

Buy this book from:

Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran – Book Review

Apr 222010

Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran

Auda’s birth is a difficult one. Eventually the midwife is faced with the choice of either saving Elena (possibly), or her baby. In a somewhat graphic middle ages c-section, Auda is born and Elena dies. Not everyone is sure that the choice was the right one, however, as Auda is albino. A superstitious midwife’s assistant grabs baby Auda and runs to the river with her, slicing out her tongue and throwing it into the waters so she can no longer tell the devil’s lies.

Luckily for Auda, her father and older sister accept her for who she is. By the time she is reaching adulthood, though, things are becoming dangerous in southern France as the Inquisition is raging, hunting out the heretical Good Men. A father who is a papermaker in a time of parchment and a daughter who is a mute albino are bound to draw attention from the Inquisitors, so Auda’s father arranges for her the protection of the Vicomte’s household. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to protect someone considered so different.

Auda was a fantastic character. She had great depth and really came to life. I kept finding myself forgetting that she was mute and albino, not because Sankaran wrote anything that didn’t work with the continuity of the store, but because Auda was simply Auda, not her disabilities. Sure, when she walked through the market place or couldn’t communicate with people who couldn’t read her notes and didn’t understand her signing I would remember her lack of a tongue.

I loved the details about paper making and how controversial paper was, but I think that “Watermark” could have been a tighter novel if more about the Good Men was mentioned earlier in the book. They had so much to do with the climax of the action, but they seemed less than totally important during the first half of the novel. This resulted in the ending having a bit of a rushed feeling, because the Good Men swept into the plot and were central, then the book ended.

Despite having somewhat of a rushed ending, I think that “Watermark” is worth reading for the strength of Sankaran’s main character Auda, as well as for the details of paper making in France in the middle ages. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour. Check out some of the other tour hosts for more reviews. Links go to the host’s site, not to their specific review.

Monday, April 5th: Bibliofreak

Wednesday, April 7th: Savvy Verse & Wit

Thursday, April 8th: Serendipitous Reading

Monday, April 12th: Wordsmithonia

Tuesday, April 13th: Book Nerd Extraordinaire

Wednesday, April 14th: Rundpinne

Monday, April 19th: Raging Bibliomania

Wednesday, April 21st: Thoughts From an Evil Overlord

Thursday, April 22nd: Devourer of Books

Monday, April 26th: Café of Dreams

Tuesday, April 27th: Starting Fresh

Wednesday, April 28th: A Few More Pages

Thursday, April 29th: Reading, Writing, and Retirement

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this TLC book tour.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Founding by Cynthia Harrod Eagles – Book Review

Apr 212010

The Founding by Cynthia Harrod Eagles

Eleanor is an orphan, but she’s a gentlewoman, the ward of Lord Beaufort and companion to his wife. With no dowry, she doesn’t really expect to ever marry. Edward Morland, however, sees an advantage in Eleanor. Morland is no more than a wealthy sheep farmer, but his son Richard is somewhat educated and he wants to bring social cache into their family to mix with their riches and create a powerful family dynasty. Although Eleanor was chosen for her connections and the fact that her lack of dowry makes her attainable for a sheep farmer, but Edward could not have chosen a better bride for his son. Not only is Eleanor very fertile, bringing numerous healthy children into the family, but she is also incredibly strong-willed and savvy. It is her influence, more than anything else, that continues to catapult the family’s fortunes during the tumult of England during the War of the Roses.

The Morland Dynasty series is one I’ve been hearing about for years now, so I was quite excited about reading “The Founding,” which is the first book in the series. I was also a bit hesitant, however. What is my expectations were too high? At 500+ pages that would be a lot of disappointment. Luckily, “The Founding” absolutely lived up to the hype for me. From what I know about this series, it is set against hundreds of years of English history. I enjoy these sorts of books, but sometimes it seems that they simply try too hard to insinuate the main characters into every monumental event covered. I did not find that to be the case with “The Founding,” the events seemed to occur naturally, although when the characters did not experience the events first hand they occasionally had to engage in some slightly unnatural expositions.

I’m really not sure whether or not to be happy about discovering the Morland Dynasty series. On one hand, great new way to experience English history; on the other hand, huge series of big fat novels when I already have more I want to read than I could ever get to.

The Morland Dynasty series could be very hazardous to your TBR piles, but if you’re up to the challenge and a fan of English historical fiction then I would certainly recommend this series, I will definitely be reading more.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from Danielle at Sourcebooks.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

April 2010 Reading Wrap-Up

What I Read:

Pick of the Month:

What I Posted:

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Paper Towns by John Green – Audiobook Review

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead – Book Review

This review was done with a book passed on to me by a friend.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Tudor Tuesday – Wolf Hall Section 3

Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher at the request of the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

TSS: One Thing at a Time

Genesis by Bernard Beckett – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this TLC book tour.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Founding by Cynthia Harrod Eagles – Book Review

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What I Read:

Pick of the Month:

What I Posted:

This review was done with a book received from the publisher. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book passed on to me by a friend. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher at the request of the author. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the library. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this TLC book tour. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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Sponsors:

Shelf Awareness for Readers eNewsletter

Recognition

Regular Features/Special Events

Check Me Out

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book passed on to me by a friend.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher at the request of the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this TLC book tour.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.