75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Hello - just joined this group today and here is what I have read since January 1st:
1. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
2. Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (this year's Newbery winner - WOO HOO!!!!!)
5. Toys Go Out and Toys Dance Party by Emily Jenkins (two books actually but short easy kids chapter books, so I am only counting as one - these are FUN - if you like the Toy Story movvie, read these!!!)
6. The Reader by Bernard Schlink
7. Fidali's Way by George Mastras (GREAT BOOK!)
8. Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat the Touched the World by Vicky Myron ( a feel good book, made me laugh and cry!

Since it is already the middle of February and I only have 8 books so far, I'd better get busy!!
Susan

Finished today!
9. The Uglies by Scott Wester feld
A pretty good YA sci-fi - future dystopia where everybody is surgically altered to be "pretty" when they are 16.

10. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I found this book very satisfying, although the reviews are mixed (people either loved or hated it.) Gilbert's memoir of a year divided between Italy, India and Bali, where she basically eats her way through Italy, attends to her spiritual needs in India, and learns to balance prayer and pleasure in Bali.

Susan, thanks for your comments about Eat, Pray, Love. It's definitely a book that is often talked about. I've not felt the tug to pick it up, but it does sound rather interesting.

#11. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee - A beautifully written period piece with parallel stories, one in 1952, the other during World War II in 1942. Each story concerns a love affair, but rather than being a romance, the love affairs are just the device the author uses to describe what kinds of choices are made during war and how people live with those choices in its aftermath.

#12 - The Underneath by Kathi Appelt - a juvenile book, finalist for the National Book Award and a Newbery honor book. I loved the prose and story, but feel it is just too dark for a children's book. Would love to hear comments from anyone whose child has read this.

#13 Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke - Here are my comments that I just posted with the book:
A satisfying end to a fantastic trilogy! I do have to say, though, that my favorite of the three is still the first, Inkheart. Maybe I prefer the book characters coming to life in the real world to the real characters transported to Inkworld, or maybe two LONG books of them being in Inkworld was just a little too much. I was disappointed in Meggie's role in book three. In juvenile fiction, the child/young adult should be the central protaganist. In this book, the adults were the main players. All in all, though, this is a series I would recommend (I'm an elementary school librarian, but two of our teacher aides just read these and raved about them.) and will retain a favored place on my bookshelves.

#14. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld - 2nd book of the Uglies series (YA) - a futuristic dystopian society where everyone is surgically altered to be "pretty" when they turn 16. I thought the first half was a little slow, but there was a lot of action in the second half, with an ending that has me wanting to read the third in the series.

#15. Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell - Historical fiction set in post World War I Cairo. Liked it quite a bit - 4 stars.

#16. The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
A gem of a book that I never would have heard of if not for a recommendation somewhere on this site. A widow travels to China to investigate a paternity claim lodged against her dead husband. As she is a writer for a gourmet magazine, she accepts an assignment to do a story on a chef while she is there. The descriptions of the intricacies of Chinese cuisine and the importance of food in the culture was fascinating and the story of the characters enjoyable. What we get in Chinese restaurants in the United States bears little resemblance to the food described in this book. Now I want to go to China! 4 stars!!!

#17 - The Daemon by Daniel Suarez
A high tech thriller about a dead computer genius who leaves behing a "daemon" - which is a computer program that is activated by some other event - in this case it scans newspaper stories. Online gamers will probably love this one as a key part of the action takes part in virtual reality. This was quite a page turner, but in the end, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to accept the story. It is set up for a sequel and I find myself without any desire to pursue the story any further. But it was an exciting read - 3 stars.

#18 - Specials by Scott Westerfeld - Enjoyed this third of what I thought was a trilogy and now find out there is a 4th called Extras. Well - even though I liked all three quite a bit, I think I'm done with this series for now. Maybe in the future, I'll pick up the 4th. (4 stars)

#19 The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin -
I was surprised at how much I liked this - I didn't think I would be able to accept a woman forensic doctor in the 12th century, but, as implausible as it seems, the story was compelling enough for me to suspend my disbelief. A good solid historical mystery! 4 stars

#20 - The Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card.
As the only other book I have read by Card is the highly acclaimed science fiction Ender's Game, I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. I guess it would be categorized as a supernatural thriller, but most of it is a pretty heart-warming story of a young family dealing with the problems all young families face. However, it starts off with an ominous preface and one of the problems the family has is a young son with imaginary friends (and, by the way, young boys have been disappearing in the town - not a spoiler to say that these two things must be related). The ending is a two hanky one and I have to admit I blubblered quite a bit. My main reservation about this book is the amount of space given to the family's Mormon beliefs. I know the characters were modeled after Card's own family and can appreciate the importance of their religion to them, but I listened to this on cd; it was 16 hours long and could have easily been shorter without a lot of the relgious passages. (When you read a book , you can skim this kind of stuff, but on cd you have to listen to every word.) I found it to be a little heavy-handed and preachy. I gave it three stars, and would have given it four except for the above.

#21. Contagious by Scott Sigler - Pretty good sci fi/horror thriller and a sequel to "Infected." A fast read and a page-turner.

#22. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - a 'prequel" to Jane Eyre, the story of the first Mrs. Rochester who ends up as the mad woman in the attic. Can't decide how to rate this - superbly written and a compelling look at postcolonial Jamaica. I liked it, but wasn't really drawn in to it.

Susan wrote: "#22. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - a 'prequel" to Jane Eyre, the story of the first Mrs. Rochester who ends up as the mad woman in the attic. Can't decide how to rate this - superbly written an..."

I found it an odd story to read too but it was intriging to read.

#23. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfielr.

I just finished this and am so sad that it is at an end. It has all the elements of a great Gothic novel - dark houses, strange families, the moors, mysterious events. And it a wonderful homage to art of storytelling, as it involves a young woman commissioned to write the biography of a famous reclusive author, Vida Winter. As the pages turn, Ms. Winter's story unfolds bit by bit. I couldn't wait to get to the end and now I wished I would have read it slower and savored it a little more. Quite a coincidence that I picked this to read right after "Wide Sargasso Sea", not knowing how many Jane Eyre references were in it. A hearty 5 stars!!!

Wow, 13th Tale sounds quite interesting!

#24 - Step on a Crack by James Patterson -
I had out-of-town company who left this book behind so I picked it up as a quick read. An ok suspense-thriller about a takeover of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York during the funeral of a former first lady, so of course the place was chock full of celebrities. 3 stars

#25. The Little Book by Selden Edwards
I love time travel books (The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and Time and Again by Jack Finney among my favorites) and I couldn't wait for this one after reading some fantastic reviews. I was disappointed in it. Taking place in 1897 Vienna, I found the main character's extended conversations with Freud to be tedious. There were some parts of the story that really grabbed me - especially the main character's more personal relationships in Vienna and there were a few things in the plot that really surprised me(don't want to put any spoilers here). So I'm giving it a very weak 3 stars.

#26. The Fledgling by Octavia Butler (audio book)
A vry different type of vampire book - the vampires are actually another race, called Ina, who live in caring, symbiotic relationships with consenting humans. The Ina feed off the humans, and the humans' life spans are greatly lengthened. A sequel to this would have been good, but, unfortunately, Octavia Butler died in 2006. 4 stars

#27. City of Thieves by David Benioff

LOVED this book!!! A looter and deserter facing execution during the seige of Leningrad are given a chance for freedom - find a dozen eggs for the wedding cake of the commander's daughter (this during a time when everyone is starving to death. It takes quite a storyteller to graphically describe the horrors of war and still make me laugh at loud at these two characters (neither were real criminals - the deserter had temporarily left his unit seeking a little romance and the looter had gone out after curfew when a dead German paratrooper fell into his street). This book will not be everyone's cup of tea - a lot brutality (things were pretty grim during the seige of Leningrad) and pretty coarse language. A resounding 5 stars from me!!!!!

#28 Wastelands; Stories of the Apocalypse - edited by John Joseph Adams. Short story collection with lots of great authors - Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Octavia Bulter, Orson Scott Card and more. As you would expect in a short story collection, I loved some and wasn't so crazy about others. Post-apocalyptic is a favorite genre of mine. 4 stars.

Hmmmm . . . sounds very interesting. For some reason, I enjoy this type of reading for plane trips. Go figure.

#29. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - Funny, funny parody of the rural Thomas Hardy type novel. 4 stars.(very good movie adaptation of this also!)

#30. One Second After by William Forstchen - Chilling and realistic postapocalyptic story of the aftermath of an attack on the US. Nuclear explosions in the atmosphere cause no blast damage or radiation, but generate EMPs (electro magnetic pulse)which knock out anything electrical or computerized, including all recent cars that have computer chips. With no communication, financial system, or transportation, society falls apart pretty fast. 4 stars.

#31. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirosky - (this was a monthly read on another group). Stunning book - takes place during the World War II German occupation of France and was actually written as the occupation took place. The author was a Jewish convert to Catholicism and was shipped to a concentration camp in 1942, where she died. Only two of the projected 5 sections of the book were written. The book deals more with the complexity of French behavior and reactions to the occupation than with the Germans. 4 stars, close to 5.

I love your book choices and have added quite a few to my ever-growing TBR shelf. Thanks!

Meghan wrote: "I love your book choices and have added quite a few to my ever-growing TBR shelf. Thanks!"

Thanks for your comment Meghan. I looked at your bookshelves and it appears we have similar reading tastes.

#31. Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman - A darkly atmospheric mystery with an Adirondack lake setting in the dead of winter. A woman returns to her former girls' boarding school to teach Latin. When she was a student, her two roommates both committed suicide. It appears that those events are being reenacted with present students. The answer to the mystery is apparent to the reader well before the protagonist figures it out, which is a little frustrating (like in the horror movies where you want to yell at the person not to go in the basement), but I still thought it was a great read. 4 stars.

#32.
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina Nahai. I haven't read much magical realism and I am really quite taken with this one. Set in the a Jewish ghetto in Iran and then later in Los Angeles, Lili tells the story of her mother, Roxanna the Angel, born to bad luck, who "had been so light and delicate, so undisturbed by the rules of gravity and the drudgery of human existence, she had grown wings, one night when the darkness was the color of her dreams, and flown into the star-studded night of Iran that claimed her." And Lili did not see her mother again for 13 years. The imagery in this book is so beautiful - I read through it quickly for the story but would like to go back through it more slowly just to savor the language. Somewhere between 4 and 5 stars!

#33
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
GREAT YA fantasy!!! Katsa is one of the rare group "Graced" from birth with an extraordinary skill - only her skill is that she can kill with her bare hands. When we meet her, she is a pawn of the king, who uses her to strong-arm (or worse) her enemies. She is able to declare her independence and discover that her "grace" is actually much more. It is face-paced, good adventure and terrific characters. Hope there is a sequel! 5 stars

#34
Case Histories A Novel by Kate Atkinson -
Really enjoyed this. Jackson Brodie, a former police inspector turned private investigator, is working on three "cold"cases - a three year old girl who disappeared in the middle of the night, a young woman brutally murdered by an unknown man who enters her workplace, and a young mother suffering from postpartum depression who imbeds an axe in her husband's head. Brodie gets drawn into the lives of these three families and all their grief and loss. He comes across as just a good and decent human being. Also, one with a wry and funny sense of humor. 4 stars

#35
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (audio book)
A pretty good YA adventure set in a alternative universe Victorian time period. The main character is a cabin boy on a airship, giant dirigibles commonly used for global travel. There are pirates, shipwrecks, exotic animals never before seen and a little romance. 4 stars

#36. So Brave, Young and Handsome A Novel by Leif Enger.

I loved this book! It's 1915 - Monte Becket, a postal worker who wrote a surprise best-selling Western, can't seem to find another book to write, despite his promise to write 1000 words a day. One day he spies Glendon Hale rowing down the river standing up. The two men strike up a friendship and Hale asks him to travel with him to find the wife he left many years ago so he can apologize to her. We discover that Hale is an old outlaw and an ex-Pinkerton detective is hot on this trail. There's a lot in this - humor, tragedy, redemption, hope. I feel as if I travelled through the novel with the two of them. It is leisurely paced (but not slow) and populated with great characters. 5 stars.

#37.
Hard Truth by Nevada Barr.

One of her Anna Pigeon, park ranger, books, this one set in the Rocky Mountains. I have enjoyed this series in the past, but this one is not one of my favorites - featured a serial murderer and was a little too gruesome for what I expected.

#38. Duma Key by Stephen King.

Pretty good, liked the characters, but think I am just not into horror type books these days. 3 stars from me but can see where others would rate it higher.

#39. Looking for Alaska by John Green. \
A worthy winner of the Printz Award (for excellence in young adultliterature.) A teen-age boy in boarding school relates this story in terms of "days before" and "days after" and it doesn't take much to figure out the traumatic event that everything dates back to. Great coming-of-age story. 4 stars.

#40.
Abide with Me A Novel by Elizabeth Strout.
Touching story of a young minister struggling with his two small daughters and his vocation after the loss of his wife to cancer. His congregation isn't much help to him as he tries to adjust. A good character study, slice-of-life type story rather that one that is plot driven. 4 stars.

#41. Serena A Novel by Ron Rash.

A powerful and dark book, a story of unbridled ambition and greed. I usually don't like books if I can't feel any empathy with the main character, and I have seldom encountered as unsympathetic soul as the titled character. Various reviews call this a modern Macbeth or compare it to a Greek tragedy )complete with one of the lumber crews acting as a Greek chorus). The story is set against the background of the fight to establish the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in the face of oppoisiton by the lumber companies, who are stripping the land bare. Serena and her husband run a lumber company and she is completely ruthless in her pursuits, culminating in her attempts to have her husband's illegitmate son (just a toddler) murdered because she herself is unable to bear children. I'm not sure if Serena is insane, evil or both, but she is certainly unforgettable. 5 stars

#42. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.
Her second book to feature ex-police detective Jackson Brodie. Not near as good as the first, Case Histories, but still a good story. While the story stands on its own, I would strongly recommend reading Case Histories first, as it gives you a lot of background. I may have not even liked this if I hadn't read the first and already liked the character of Jackson Brodie. 3 stars

#43. The Compound by Stephanie A. Stuve-Bodeen (audio book)
Suspenseful YA book featuring Eli,a teen-age boy whose billionaire genuis father is obsessed with the prospect of nuclesar war. The father builds a huge underground compound, designed to sustain them for 15 years, then one night herds the family done there because of an impending nuclear attack (but grandma, the twin brother and the dog get left outside). Six years later, the father's behavior is getting increasingly bizarre and leads Eli to question their whole existence in the compound. Some parts were pretty imnplausible, but it still sustained my interest. 3 stars.

#44. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Very different type of story - badly burned man is visited in the hospital by a mental patient who claims they were lovers in medieval times. She gradually tells him the stories of their past together. The stories were fascinating and I was totally engrossed in the book. All the way through I thought I would give it four or five stars. But when all was revealed, there were many things about the book that just didn't gel for me. (don't want to put any spoilers here). 3 stars.

#45.
Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton
Pleasant and short cozy mystery, with a light touch of the supernatural and a little romance thrown in. I enjoyed it, but not enough to rush our for another one in the series. A nice change of pace - 3 stars.

I've been out of town, so I've got a few to add (spent quite a bit of time driving and managed to get some audio books in.)
#46. The Eye of Jade A Mei Wang Mystery by Diane Wei Liang (audio book)
Not much of a mystery - just ok.

#47. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
I was really touched by this book. The cellist (of the title) plays the same adagio every day for 22 days in the same spot to commemorate 22 people killed by a mortar as they waited in line for bread. The book follows the lives of three other people, all struggling to retain their humanity in the face of the inhumanity of war. This one will stay with me for awhile. 5 stars from me

#48. Jesus, Interrupted Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible by Bart Erhman
Very readable & interesting look at biblical scholarship concerning contradictions in the New Testament and the early history of the Christian church.

#49. Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz (audio book)
Not one of my favorites but it held my interest in driving from Tennessee to Chicago.

#50 Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (audio book)
And this one got me from Chicago back to Tennessee. First book to feature Andy Carpenter, a wise-cracking defense attorney who takes on a death row appeal. The overwhelming evidence of the guilt of his client seems a little too pat and he sets out to prove his client was framed. Enjoyable and easy listening.

Even though this is the 75 challenge, I really want to hit 100 - it's good to pass the 50 mark!

#51 - Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
Up to about page 98, I wasn't sure I was going to like this one. A Cary Grant look-a-like walks into the cafe and romance is immediately in the air, especially as Cordelia, the main character, adores old movies (The Philadelphia Story in particular). But the title doesn't refer to him, but to his 11 year old daughter, abandoned by her mentally ill mother. The relationship between Clare and Cordelia is indeed heart-warming and I went from luke-warm to "I REALLY like this book." 4 stars

#52. Lottery by Patricia Wood
Read this for our local book club and it was well-like by just about everybody. Story of a 31 year old man with an IQ of 76, raised by his grandmother and ignored by the rest of his family until he wins 12 million dollars in the state lottery. A big-hearted story with great characters. 4 stars.

#53. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
I always enjoy spending some time with Sookie Stackhouse. I do have to say, though, after 9 books, I am getting antsy for some resolution in Sookie's lovelife. Still - devoured this in one evening and look forward to the next one. 4 stars.

#54. Whistling in the Dark by Leslie Kagen
This was ok - set in the 1950's in Milwaukee, a 10 year old girl and her 9 year old sister are largely left to their own devices when their mother has a lengthy hospitalization, their stepfather is drunk most of the time and the older sister has a boyfriend. And a child molester/murderer is at large. 3 stars

#55. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - Powerful YA story set in the very near future where "techno-geeks" in San Francisco resist a govenment that has truly turned into "Big Brother" after a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge. Patriot Act 2 has allowed electronic surveillance of everything and everybody and First Amendment rights are trashed. My only criticism - while I love the theme of the danger of sacrificing our liberty for perceived security, I thought Doctorow hit the reader over the head with it a little too much. 4.5 stars

#56. The King of Lies by John Hart
When Jackson Workman Pickens is accused of the murder of his tyrannical father, he sets out to find the real murderer, hoping against hope that it wasn't his sister. Some reviewer calls Hart a combination of John Grisham and Pat Conroy, which sums it up pretty well - a mystery with a Southern lawyer with a dysfunctional family. Strong, taut plot and good characters. I'm looking forward to reading more by John Hart.

#57. The Guernsey Literary Society and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer.
Charming epistolary novel set in the immediate aftermath of World War II when an author strikes up a correspondence with the above named literary society in Guernsey. I didn't realize the Channel Islands were occupied during World War II. I loved the characters on the island and the stories of how they coped duing the war. The descriptions of Guernsey make me want to start planning a trip. I loved the first two thirds of the book but the last third (concentrating more on the romantic travails of Juliet, the author) was just a little too cutesy for me. So I end up with 3 stars even though I would have given it 4 or 5 if not for the above.

(#58 would have been The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Was listening to it and my mp3 player died about half way though :( I have a new one ordered - this was a download through our public library and I probably will have to get on a waiting list to get it again.)

Susan, rats! Too bad the MP3 died . . .