Becky's Books –

Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
2011 / 384 pages
rating

Break In
by Dick Francis
1985 / 320 pages
read by Simon Prebble 9h.15m
Rating – 6

I do like a good Dick Francis book.  Because Francis was a horse jockey before his injury,  his books are about the horse racing industry in Britain.  Although the protagonists are usually different,   some reappear for several books.  In Break In the first person narrator is Kit Fielding, a jockey, who finds that his brother-in-law, the husband of Kit’s twin sister and a horse owner,  is being conned by a repeat debt offenders.

Another blogger got me thinking about this.  I have a different “best of list for sci-fi” than my normal literary reads.    I don’t read so much sci fi anymore,  but when I was in about the 5th or 6th grade  I read When Worlds Collide and was hooked.  One of my first adult books – maybe my first.  I’d read all the library’s  children’s section sci-fi,  such as it was,  so I ventured into the adult section.    These days I like Connie Willis and a few others as they cross my path.  Here’s my list as it stands now – they’re in order but that gets shaky toward the end of the list:

1. Dune by Frank Herbert (read 2 or 3 times – first in the late 1960s.) >>>> MORE>>>>

Wives and Daughters
by Elizabeth Gaskell
1864-1865 (serial)
narrated by Patience Tomlinson
37h. 35m  (440 pages in the Empire edition)

I’m finished the audio version.   It’s pretty boring until about half way.  After that it’s really rather interesting.  The story is okay,  standard Victorian fiction about love, marriage, class and gender roles,  but with its own internal twists.   I suppose the idea is to make for “uplifting” literature for the female mind.  >>>> MORE >>>>>>

Well – I volunteered today in World Book Night project:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0423/World-Book-Night-coming-your-way-but-no-room-for-Amazon

And I had a really great time!

My chosen book was Zeitoun by Dave Eggars – a book I read a few years ago and really enjoyed.

First I wanted to use Target but they have a policy about no one except from headquarters can be outside their store. (That means only the Salvation Army at Christmas.)  Then I tried a sandwich shop downtown but the owner  was leery because he didn’t know what was in the book – can’t blame him for that.   Then I went over to a local supermarket where I had seen people standing outside passing stuff out before.   They said okay but next time check in advance.  Okay. (Yes, I learned that one.)

So then I’ve got a spot and I found my true huckstering self – WOW! ( I’m impressed with me!) (lol)  A sample of my script:

“Are you a reader?  No, not too much of one? Then this is for you!”   (Show the book.)    “Nope – it’s not political or religious.   I’m with World Book Night (show button) and we’re promoting reading – that’s all.  There’s no cost – it’s free.  I don’t even want your name.   What’s it about? It’s non-fiction,  a true story about a couple who are going to get trapped in New Orleans during Katrina.  He has some business properties, rentals and so on, which he wants to stay and protect.  She has kids and she wants to protect them.  So he stays and she goes.   That’s him on the cover going around his neighborhood to see if he can help.   So the twist is that he’s Syrian and the police are not accommodating.”  (By that time they’re holding the book)  “Here’s a bookmark.  Enjoy!”   And off they go –  both of us happy.

I had a couple serious “no thank you”s,  but that’s it.  I really looked for males,  but in the end there were as many women as men,  I think.  I went at about 11 AM and it only took me about 40 minutes to distribute 20 books.  Well… the  last one I saved for my ex-boss who worked with me in promoting literacy at a local function,  but who is a light (!)  reader himself.  I took it over to the school and we chatted a bit and I went home. – very happy,  satisfied,  hoping this happens again next year.

Bekah

Snowdrops
A.D. Miller
2011 – 272 pages
rating –  9

Okay – I’m rereading this as there is apparently more to it than I got from the first exposure – listening.   The first time I listened to  it as a crime novel and I was disappointed.  However,  in the Booker Prize Reading Group we didn’t all agree with that reading >>>> MORE >>>>

So I’d like to try reading a lot more slowly – read a book twice maybe.  I’m tired of trying to read every book that every group reads and comment intelligently.  I’m not going to drop more than 1 group where I’m not interested anyway.   I’m going to continue reading with the All-Nonfiction group (all books)  and the BookGroup List,  Booker Group,  21st Century and the 20th Century when I’m interested – usually.   I think this might drop my stats from 14 or so a month to 8 or 10 a month.  That’s fine.

What prompted this decision was rereading Snowdrops by A.D. Miller and loving it – realizing that I’d missed most of this subtle romance with Russia stuff on my first reading – I was so busy looking for a thriller plot line.  Rather it’s a very subtle book,  driven by character and setting.   Meanwhile, there’s another book I read a bit too fast,  The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen – I also want to read that again.  (See the blurbs below with links to reviews.) And there’s no time at all for simple self-chosen books like From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll.

Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
2002 –
Rating – 7

I first read this back in 2006 and very much enjoyed it but anymore I’m just not interested in the sexual fantasies of teenage boys.   I’m far more interested in the cat-consciousness of the old man.  I wrote a good piece here and lost it.  Sorry.

The Death of the Heart
by Elizabeth Bowen
1938 – 418 pages
Rating – 9

A sensitive and subtle classic coming-of-age story about Portia Quayne, a 16 year-old girl who has to live with her brother and his wife after both her parents have died.  The siblings share the same father only – he had an affair >>>> MORE >>>> 

A Vine in the Blood
by Leighton Gage
2011 / 289 pages
narrated by Peter Berkrot – 7:44
Rating – 5

I finished this several days ago but forgot to enter it.

The mother of Brazilian soccer star Tico Santos has been kidnapped.  Tico loves his mother very much and her disappearance is a huge personal issue as well as a national emergency,  given the timing – the World Cup opens in just three weeks.  Lots of suspects, intrigue and corruption –  Berkrot does a great job narrating.

The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition
by Stephen King
1990 / 1185 pages
Narrated by Grover Gardner 47h 46m
Rating 6

Yup – I listened to the whole 48 hours worth.

When a super-powerful virus is accidentally released into the world almost the entire US civilization dies and who knows about overseas?   Society collapses but
>>>> MORE >>>> 

Snowdrops
by A.D. Miller
2011 / 272 pages
narrated by  Kevin Howard 6h 12m
rating – ?

I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed this after hearing a couple rather negative reviews.  Part of that may be due to the excellent narration of Kevin Howard.  I don’t know.   I do know  >>>> MORE >>>> 

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
by Alexander McCall Smith
13th in the “Ladies’ #1 Detective Agency” series
4/2012 – 278 pages
narrated by Leslie Lecat
rating – 10  (because I love these books – it’s a soft spot)

Oh I do so love this series.  In this one Mme. Precious Ramotswe and her “assistant” Grace Makutsi encounter difficulties with the orphanage building,  the arrest of Lemmuel,   >>>> MORE >>>>

The Things They Carried
by Tim O’Brian
1990 / 232 pgs
rating  –  ?

I didn’t really go into this book with an open mind.  I don’t like war stories,  I especially don’t like Vietnam stories – probably because it still hurts.  I knew these guys when they left for war and I knew them when they came home – the ones who got home.  >>>>> MORE>>>> 

The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach
2011 / 515 pages
rating 9

This is one lovely and finely crafted  novel – spellbinding might be a good word.   But it’s thematically very complex with themes layered and marbled through the lives of the characters.   I suppose it’s mostly about the stresses >>>>> MORE >>>> 

Washington: A Life
by Ron Chernow
2010 / 928 pages
rating 9.5 (about as high as I’ll give a biography)

The life of George Washington has been mythologized almost to the point of fiction over the centuries and it is really too bad because he really was a >>>> MORE >>>> 

Zuleika Dobson
by Max Beirbohm
1919 / 170 pages
rating – 8   (in large part for originality)

When the Oxford College Warden’s granddaughter comes to visit him at school all the men fall in love with her at first sight.  She is beautiful and has some kind of allure that overwhelms the student population.   She is a magician by trade >>>> MORE >>>>