The End of the Affair
by Graham Greene –
1951 / 192 pages
read by Colin Firth 6h 28m
rating – 8.5
Greene writes from a confused Catholic perspective about a man who is having an affair with a woman whose husband is an impotent civil servant. The book is from the perspective of both Maurice Bendrix, as the first person man in love, and Sarah Miles (her diary), the married woman. >>>> MORE >>>>
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas – 1854
Read by John Lee – 47 hours
(Oxford Edition – 1130 pages)
Rating – 10 (they just don’t write them like this anymore)
I enjoyed this book far far more this second round with it than my first time. The characters and story line were clearer. basically it’s a story of revenge which carries the protagonist and his enemies into all manner >>>>MORE>>>>
Care of Wooden Floors
by Will Wiles
2012/299 pages
rating 8
When the unnamed narrator house-sits his friend’s flat in an unnamed Eastern European city he should have known it might be a bit of trouble. The two friends are very different, Oskar, the friend, is a professional and very successful musician who is fastidious in all he does – >>> MORE >>>
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
1968 / 256 pages
audio / Diane Keaton / 6h 53m
rating – 7
I’ve wanted to read this since probably 1968 (when I heard of it) but the book and I were never in the same place at the same time – that’s all I can think. I really wish I had read it at some point in the 1970s >>>> MORE >>>>
The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes
2011 / 165 pages
rating 8.5
Another group is reading this Booker winner so I’ll play and reread it.
I give it that high of a rating because it’s well written for a soap-opera with literary themes.. The theme is … ta-da ta-da … memory and time – Barnes’ old hobby horse. I rather enjoyed it in Flaubert’s Parrot, >>> MORE>>>
NW
by Zadie Smith
2012/416 pages
read by Karen Bryson 10h 58m
rating – 10
So many interconnected characters – all from the same lower class neighborhood of very mixed ethnicities. Leah and Natalie/Keisha have been best friends since a shared traumatic event in their childhoods – Natalie became very successful attorney while Leah didn’t >>>> MORE >>>>
Split Second
by David Baldacci
2003 (1st of series)
audio – Scott Brick / 11h 40m
rating B+
My son recommended this series to me and the first book is a good start for it. Political intrigue is the specialty of Baldacci and in this case the presidential nominee from many years ago comes to haunt the protagonist, Sean King, as a new presidential candidate is kidnapped right under the nose of Michelle Maxwell, the other.
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
1963 / 234 pages
Rating – 9
The Bell Jar is a moderately short novel. It’s based on Plath’s experiences as a student in New York when she was about 20 or so (1953) . She wrote the book about 9 years later and it was published shortly after her death in 1963 at age 31. During her lifetime she was known for her poetry but only one >>>>MORE>>>>
The Book of Evidence
by John Banville
1989 / 219 pages
Rating – 8.5
Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old scientist, seems to bumble through life and now he’s out of luck and out of money and seriously wanted by some really bad guys. Leaving his wife on some island he heads back to Ireland to see if he >>>MORE>>>>
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
2012 / 336 pages
read by Bernadette Dunne/13h 6m
rating – 7.5
I doubt I would ever have read this if it hadn’t been chosen as a reading group selection. I found it to be an adequately well written memoir of a 1885 her trip on the Pacific Crest Trail was an >>> MORE >>>>
The End Of Your Life Book Club
by Will Schwalbe
2012 / 352 pages
read by Jeff Harding 9h 40m
Rating – 8.5
This is basically a book-lover’s memoir of a wonderful woman who read a lot of books and helped a lot of people. Will Schwalbe is the son of Mary Ann and Schwalbe, Harvard professors and generally upper class Boston >>>MORE>>>>
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
1852 / 160 pages
Rating – 9.5
IN 1845 Henry David Thoreau, a bachelor from Concord Massachusetts, went to live as independently as he could in a self-built shelter by a pond with some acreage >>>MORE>>>
And Then You Dye
by Monica Ferris
2012 / 304 pages
read by Susan Boyle 7h. 31m.
Ferris’ 16th novel and I’m all caught up. In this rather traditional “who-done-it” the amateur sleuth Betsy Davenport is doing some investigation into the death of an elderly >>>>MORE>>>>
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1962 / 148 pages
rating – 9
I was spoiled by In the First Circle, also about life in the camps but a specialized scientific camp for that one. That’s why this book is rated a 9.
This story is based on the life of Solzhenitsyn who lived in the camps >>>MORE >>>
The Black Box
by Michael Connelly
2012/416 pages
read by Michael McConnohie 10h. 29m.
rating – B
I don’t know why I read Heronymous Bosch series – I’m used to it, I guess. Bosch is a crank – he’s out for “justice,” but needs to have control of all situations – this does not sit well with his bosses. I suspect >>>MORE>>>>
Whew! I caught up on the Monica Ferris series. Now what?
I read 15 books this month (pretty usual in spite of adding the gym to my schedule). Of those 15, 10 were by women authors (Ferris mostly), 8 of the 15 were crime/mystery novels, 2 were nonfiction (history), 2 classics (Eugene Onegin and the Kalevala) a couple were literary fiction and one was historical fiction.
There was nothing really outstanding this month – Drabble was a new author for me and The Red Queen was quite good but still, only an 8.5.
The best thing about November is that I finished The Kalevala – the Finnish National Epic. It was a wonderful book but always a bit weird – hard – very fantastical. Eugene Onegin and The Worst Hard Time were rereads.
Sweet Tooth and A Thread of Grace were both disappointing compared to what McEwan and Russell have written prior.
Only Holy War by Nigel Cliff was really interesting, fresh, new in non-fiction and it got a bit sloggy with all of da Gama’s adventures described in almost mind-numbing detail.
Here’s to a better December! (see Upcoming) – One more Monica Ferris and I’m looking forward to The Book of Evidence by John Banville. Also, I have the following for January 1st book clubs:
The Secret Keeper: A Novel by Kate Morton
Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont–Elizabeth Taylor
Care of Wooden Floors – Wiles
I might read the Pulitzer winning “What Hath God Wrought” and Jefferson by Meacham. – We’ll see. I’d like to read at least 8 books in order to get to 150 for the year … so they will likely be some audios I have waiting –
All Clear and Blackout by Connie Willis
The Black Box by Michael Connelly
Split Second by David Baldacci –
Oh! – I have Walden to read – it’s on my TBR shelf- (I’ve never read it! – shhhh!)
And I might just finish The Count of Monte Cristo a bit early – that makes 12 for December which is about average – I’ll do this.
(P.S. – one of my goals for 2012 was to read FEWER books but read them better! – I didn’t manage the fewer part – I don’t know about the better. )
Buttons and Bones
by Monica Ferris
2011 / 272 pages
read by Susan Boyce / 6h. 39m.
Rating – B
Jill and her husband find a skeleton under their new lake home and Betsy has to get involved to solve a history dating back to WWII. I had to check that one and yes indeedie – there they were – even several in Minnesota.
Becky's Books - 