Book Nook Cafe discussion

Here is a folder for you to list the books you read last month.

Please provide:
~ A GoodRead link
~ A few sentences telling us how you felt about the book.
~ How would you rate the book

Here are the books I read November 2012


Hitler
A.N. Wilson
Non-fiction
Rate: 5/5
Well crafted succinct bio. This is not your typical history or academic book. I think because of that I found it very engaging and hard to put down. The book providing details and insight that one wouldn't expect in such a short bio. Lost one star only because I wish it had photos and a better bibliography.



World War II~R.G. Grant
Non fiction
Rated 5+/5
It was excellent! The book is a photographic account of WWII. The photos are terrific. Next to each photo is a brief paragraph the helps put the war in context. The book also has time-lines, maps and charts to fully explain the war in all its various theaters. It is amazing how much is covered in 200 pages.

The book also comes with a short DVD that gives you a quick overview of the war. It's probably best to view the DVD before you read the book for a quick refresher.

I think if you have any interest in WWII, you will want to read this book and probably have it for your personal library. The book sells for under $20 but is priceless in the way it explains a very complex subject.

Amelia Earhart: Legendary Aviator (Signature Lives: Modern America series)
Brenda Haugen
non fiction
Rate: 4/5
I love the Signature Lives series. It's a YA series of bios. Each one is around 200 pages. They are succinct and have terrific photos as well as other useful features.
- World Events Timeline
- Personal Timeline
- Source Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index
- Further Reading
- Relevant Web sites at www.FactHound.com

The Age of Miracles
Karen Thompson Walker
Rate 4/5
fiction
The earth’s rotation begins to slow. The days and nights lengthen. The future for mankind is bleak. This poignant story is told through the eyes a young girl looking back to when she was in sixth grade. The writing is excellent. The book drew me in from the first page. I thought this was going to be a 5 star book. Unfortunately, the plot slows down much like the earths rotation. Perhaps the pacing was intended to mimic the events. Personally I think she needed just a tad of Stephen King in her to spice it up a bit. But that would have been a different book. A good epigraph for the novel could have been taken from the famous T. S. Elliot poem, “This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.” This is the author’s first outing, and I do think she is one to watch. I still would recommend the novel. It is a cut above the rest. However, I took points off for lost potential.

Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit
Betsy Harvey Kraft
Rate 5/5
Non-fiction
This over-sized YA hardcover book was excellent. I think it would appeal to young and old alike. I took my time reading it and took a lot of notes. The writing was good and the book had some terrific photos. TR was really an amazing man. And his extraordinary life makes for some fascinating reading. Bully!

Summer of My German Soldier
Bette Greene
Fiction - YA
Rate 4/5
This was the first time I read this modern young adult classic. I thought it was quite good. This poignant story is set in Arkansas during WWII. It’s about of a young lonely Jewish girl, Patty, who is physically abused by her father and emotionally abused by her mother. Nothing much happens in this small town until one day some German POW’s are brought to a prison camp there. One of them escapes and Patty hides him. At times the story is a bit far fetched, but it is a YA book. I can see why it is an assigned novel in school. It has a lot of interesting avenues for discussion. I didn’t expect some of the plot twists and therefore I gave it 4 stars.

Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes
Fiction
Rate 3/5
The book was written in 1960s, so it’s a bit dated. It’s considered a modern classic and is assigned to students. I sure hope we don’t treat mentally challenge individuals the way it’s portrayed in the novel anymore or call them “morons” and “retarded”.

The story is about a young child who was abused by his ignorant mother for being mentally challenged. We learn most of that in flashbacks. Now in his 30’s, Charley works cleaning the bathrooms and workplace at a bakery. He is made fun of by his co-workers because he is mentally challenged. Though he seems to think they are his friends. Charley agrees to have an experimental operation that will make him a genius. The thinking is he needs to be fixed. When in reality it is society that needs fixing. For a time the operation is a success. However, he’s not a very likeable genius. Though given his background one can understand his anger. But that made it hard for me make the emotional connection with the character that the author was seeking.

The book, at little over 300 pages, felt too long and dragged on to its predictable end. I understand the book also has a short story version. I think that would have been better. I requested the classic 1968 movie, titled Charly, staring Cliff Robertson from the library. I have a feeling it will be better than the novel.

I saw the movie based on the book today. It's title is Charly and stars Montgomery Clift. It was also a bit slow and dated. The acting by Clift is very good. I preferred the book.

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Jon Ronson
Nonfiction
Rating 4/5
This was a fascinating and compelling book. The style is breezy and sometimes even humorous. The author doesn’t take himself too seriously. It's not a heavy academic tome.
The author gives a brief overview of what is a psychopath and how psychiatrists determine who is a psychopath. He then interviews a few people that may or may not fit the criteria. Then he delves into the question, has the profession gone too far with the diagnosis? He also briefly discusses the link between big pharma and psychiatry. He covers a lot of ground in a scattershot way. But I couldn't put the book down.

All in all, a nice reading month as we go into the homestretch and close out 2012.

The Age of Miracles sounds interesting, so will add it to my list. Thanks Alias.

November 2012
A Storm of Swords -George RR Martin (1128 pages)
I'm trying to save the Game of Thrones books instead of breezing through them as quickly as I want to. This starts out dull for the first few hundred pages (like most of them) but I loved it most of all by the end of it.

The Pale King -David Foster Wallace (549 pages)
DFW's unfinished novel. I can see the beginnings of the same greatness that I loved in Infinite Jest, and I could see even more of those raw vignettes of very real characters, but it was still very much a draft.

Dark Banquet: The Curious Lives of Blood Feeding Creatures -Bill Schutt (336 pages)
Got it for 25 cents and Borders. It was interesting, but one could obviously tell that the author was a lot more interested in vampire bats and bed bugs than he was in leeches or chiggers. Additionally, the book didn't even mention mosquitos (because they do not subsist solely on blood).

Daytripper -Fabio Moon (256 pages)
Beautiful graphic novel. Toes the line perfectly between realism and escapism while beautifully depicting a man's life and making each of us question when our lives really began.

White Teeth. Humorous portrayal of life in the London suburbs. Intertwines the story of two families as they assimilate into London. Social and political issues explored against the ethnicity of the family. 4/5
Vinegar Hill. Set in the 70's. James loses his job which necessitates his moving his family back to his parent's home. It is not a loving, cozy home. Ellen struggles to maintain some semblance of normal for her family but it is an uphill battle. She is forced to a decision. Rather bleak 3/5
In the Woods. Three children fail to return to their homes on the outskirts of Dublin. Eventually, one child is found clinging to a tree with blood on his person. He is unable to remember anything. Interestingly, this child becomes a detective and years later is called to investigate a murder in those same woods. Will he also then solve his own mystery? 5/5
Lord Jim Audioversion. another of Conrad's dark stories. Jim survives a sea tragedy which haunts and taints him for life. In an attempt to flee his past he accepts a position on a distant island. Fate has plans for Jim that may not match his own. 3/5
The White Darkness. Under the tutelage of her Uncle Victor Sym has an obsession with the Antarctica. After her father's death she creates an imaginary relationship with an explorer who has long been dead. Uncle Victor decides to take her to the Antarctica. the trip turns into a struggle for survival that challenges all of Sym's beliefs. another dark and somewhat disturbing tale. 3/5
The Sense of an EndingWhat we tell of ourselves and our past is often colored by memory. Memory is flawed. Tony Webster's recall of his high school years and friends has some surprises hidden within the truths. Booker award 2011 4/5
The Buddha in the AtticThe story of eight women brought to the States as picture brides. Pen Faulkner Award 2012 4/4
The Master and Margarita. The devil visits Moscow and raises all kind of hell. Stalinist Moscow in satire. Audioversion. LOVED IT. 5/5
A Gate at the StairsCollege student accepts position as a nanny for a couple with some oddities. Those oddities hide a secret which impacts many. 2/5
Ulysses. OK I am acknowledging defeat. I tried, really tried. Even with spark notes I got about half way but had enough. 1/5 and abandoned
PeonyPeony is a bondswoman in a Jewish home in China. There are few Jews in China and the struggle to maintain their religion is failing. A story of Jews in China and their assimilation with Peony as witness and game player 4/5
Jazz. Toni Morrison writes as only Toni can. 4/5
Homer & LangleyReclusive brothers who lived in New York. Homer is blind and Langley is more than eccentric. Fictionalized account of their life. My first Doctorow and will not be my last. 4/5

Stephanie wrote: The Pale King -David Foster Wallace (549 pages)
DFW's unfinished novel. I can see the beginnings of the same greatness that I loved in Infinite Jest, and I could see even more of those raw vignettes of very real characters, but it was still very much a draft.
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Nice month, Stephanie.

I sometimes think about reading Infinite Jest, but at 1000+ pages I can't make my self do it. Congrats to you for tackling it. I know he was a very good friend of
Jonathan Franzen. I know people feel strongly about Franzen one way or another. Me, I'm a fan.

Wow! You had some reading month, Denise.

White Teethis a favorite of mine. Loved it. Hated the TV adaption. I jumped ship on that after a half hour.

Vinegar Hill I read that when Oprah selected it. As you noted it's bleak, but I thought well done. I don't recall much except I thought the writing was very good. Also is this the book where the guy keeps toothpaste near his bed, so he doesn't have bad breath? It's only one line in the book, if I have the right book.

I don't blame you one bit on Ulysses. I think you deserve a star for even attempting it.

Homer & Langley I liked this one and I'm glad you did, too. The writing was great and the story quite interesting. It was my first by this author as well.

Alias Reader - Sounds like you had a good reading month. Can't believe it's December already. I'm kind of jealous you've read so many non-fiction books! The ones I've tried have been hard to finish.

Denise - Both The Buddha in the Attic and The Master and Margarita sound very interesting. Will have to check them out.

Stephanie - Will have to check out Daytripper. It looks gorgeous.

I started several books this month but only finished these two.

The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee
4 stars
This was about three generations of a family in Vancouver's Chinatown. I've been meaning to read more about Vancouver since I visited earlier this year but I was also wary of reading this particular book because I thought I knew what it was going to say about the Chinese Canadian experience in Vancouver.

I was pleasantly surprised and found the book compelling and moving. I gave it four stars although there were parts I didn't enjoy, (view spoiler)[e.g., the episodic nature mostly worked but there were times when it didn't feel like the whole book tied together especially with the third generation; one of the characters has sex with dubious consent bordering on rape (hide spoiler)]. I also agree with one review I've read (http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/...) that it's not mining new "narrative territory" but I didn't find the book cliched or stereotypical. I also agree with the review that there doesn't seem to be any reconciliation between the "East" and "West". I would read more of the author's books in future.

A Christmas Homecoming: A Novel by Anne Perry
2.5 stars
The December selection for my book club; set in 1897, it's about a group of actors putting on an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, written by the daughter of a wealthy patron at his home in Whitby, England around Christmas. One night, a guest is killed and the wife of one of the actors (whose son-in-law is a policeman) investigates. The book was an easy read but the murder mystery was not particularly compelling; it felt like the author was tying it up so there could be some kind of heart-warming Christmas ending. This might be partly because the author uses characters from her other books and is assuming familiarity with them. I did enjoy the discussions about the technical aspects of putting on a play (e.g., adding/cutting scenes to adjust characterization and audience perceptions, to keep story flow, to make use of a limited number of actors, etc.) and about the story they're trying to tell (e.g., good vs. evil, how people invite evil in, etc.). There were also aspects about people, particularly women of the time, finding happiness and satisfaction (or not) in the roles available; I found these heavy-handed and projecting modern ideas on a past time period.

Sumofparts wrote: "Alias Reader - Sounds like you had a good reading month. Can't believe it's December already. I'm kind of jealous you've read so many non-fiction books! The ones I've tried have been hard to finish..."
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Thank you, Sum. To be fair, most of the NF were short books.

I enjoyed reading your reviews. Thanks for sharing with the group !

Also thank you for the link to Quill and Quire. It looks like a good book site.

Whew. You people were READING in November!! I so agree with Alias re: The Age of Miracles. A good idea squandered. I found a few that I'll put on my list among the others. I was a slacker this month. Here's my list:
The Beautiful Mystery You have to like the detective to really enjoy a series like this. Gamache is OK, and the information about Gregorian chants was wonderful, but this series is not going to make my list of must-reads.

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece The story of a boy who has lost his sister in the terrorist attack in London and what happens to his family. Interesting, but as I said in my review, it's no Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

The Yellow Birds A stunning book about the Iraq war. The writing is incredibly rich, the emotions are harrowing, and I thought the ending was unexpected and interesting. Highly recommend this one.

The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth I got interested in the health of presidents when I read somebody (forgive my senior brain, I forget who) mentioned Destiny of the Republic last month, which I also read. Both were very interesting, but I had a quibble with the former. The author dared to dismiss Garfield as an ineffectual president without a word of explanation and I didn't like that.

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East Super memoir by the foremost foreign correspondent of his time. His use of language is singular- one favorite line had to do with the oil-rich "....places such as Dubai where women outfit shrieking kids in Versace and all mirrored surfaces are strictly self-reflecting." He's got one of those gems on almost every page. And the story of his family is absorbing. Sometimes he bogs down in the personalities of his Lebanese neighbors, but I loved his passion for Marjayoun and his parents' legacy. Good book.

Thanks for sharing your reads with us, Michele.

I just purchased The President is a Sick Man. Glad you found it interesting. I also read and enjoyed Destiny of the Republic.

Re: Yellow Birds. I've been thinking of putting it on my TBR list. I've hesitated because generally I don't like to read books with a lot of violence. It's made a lot of Best of lists.

It is violent. It's not a feel good story at all, and it took me a few chapters to be comfortable with the writing style --lots of description that seems indulgent at first, but slowly picks up speed till it takes your breath away. The effect was kind of like the way Black Swan (the movie) snuck up on me. I hope you're all going to see Lincoln. I would love to see him handle Mitch McConnell!

Michele

Michele; If your interest in health is not limited to presidents you may enjoy Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: The Medical Lives of Famous Writers.

Sumofparts wrote: "I started several books this month but only finished these two..."

Based on your review, I've put "The End of East" on my to-read list. Thanks for the heads-up about the book!

I think I added Yellow Bird to my TBR when I first came out, sounds interesting.

Here's what I read in November.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress I was looking forward to reading this little book with its lovely cover, however I was disappointed. It's a sort of Romeo and Juliet storyline set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Cute, but that's all. 2 stars.

Anna Karenina I had been putting off this monster-sized book for far too long. I loved it and will absolutely go one to read more of the Russian classics. I did skip paragraphs that I felt were too heavy on detail. I wonder about the title because Anna is just one of many (more interesting)characters and there is much detail about Russia at the time. 4 stars.

Wanting Intersecting storylines of a stolen aboriginal girl in 1840s Tasmania and Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. I listened on audio and had trouble keeping up with the detail. I really should read this one but I enjoyed what I did take in. 3 stars.

Three Day Road Two native American friends fight in WW1 bringing exceptional skills to the field. 3 stars.

The Power and the Glory The whiskey-priest is pursued by police in the 1930s suppression of catholisism in Sth Mexico. Interesting. My first Greene novel. 3 stars.

Genghis: Lords of the Bow Genghis Khan with the Uighur tribes invades Yenking (now Beijing) after breaking through the Great Wall. Fascinating, swashbuckling stuff. This is the second of the series I have read. The open steppes and plains of Mongolia and Nth Asia have fascinated me since I read The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia when I was in yr8. It's on my travel list, along with about twenty other destinations(!!). 4 stars.

Thanks for sharing your monthly reads with us, Lesley.

I read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress a few years ago. I, too, was looking forward to it and found it a big disappointment.

Denise wrote: "Michele; If your interest in health is not limited to presidents you may enjoy Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: The Medical Lives of Famous Writers."

Thanks so much for the recommendation. Will def read this one.
Michele

My reads for November were as follows:

The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court by Bob Woodward: I've often cited Woodward's and Bernstein's All the President's Men as an influential factor in my decision to become a journalist. So when I found out that Woodward will be speaking at our local university in March, I decided it was finally time to read another one of his books. I selected this one because I had thoroughly enjoyed The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, which is about the Supreme Court circa 1991-2007. I thought it would be interesting to read about another period of the Court’s history. This book covers the Supreme Court sessions from 1969 to 1975 (the early years of the Burger Court), and encompasses a number of landmark decisions (busing, obscenity, abortion, the death penalty, and — especially —Watergate). While I did learn a lot about the legal decisions that impact our lives to this day, I also found the “behind-the-scenes” look at the lives of the individual justices to be pleasantly and unexpectedly entertaining. Who disliked whom, who was considered “lazy,” which justice was thought to be intellectually deficient and in over his head, which justice was considered to be quite the ladies’ man … in some parts, it was gossipy and catty and just plain fun. Which you totally wouldn’t expect —making it all the more amusing. 4/5 stars

Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son by Anne Lamott: When her own son becomes a dad at the age of 19, Lamott keeps a journal about the first year of her grandson’s life. I found her to be controlling, overbearing, irritable, self-absorbed, and quite honestly annoying. Lamott's role in the story seems to be to complain: Her son and girlfriend are at her house too much; they aren't over to her house enough; the girlfriend has the audacity to leave California periodically to—gasp!—visit her own family in Chicago; the girlfriend isn't doing anything right as a mother, and why won’t she just take Lamott’s advice already? At times it is actually painful to read how much of a control freak Lamott is when it comes to her grandson. It made me feel glad that she wasn’t the grandmother of my kids. 1.5/5 stars

The Little Bride by Anna Solomon: When a 16-year-old girl journeys from Odessa to America as a mail-order bride in 1889, she finds that her dreams of a handsome husband and prosperous life do not match her reality. Her husband turns out to be twice her age, rigidly Orthodox, and living in a one-room sod hut in South Dakota with his two teenage sons. The story is based on the historical period when Jewish pioneers in the 1800s were sent out to the West to homestead, inspired by the vision of creating “a new Palestine.” As I enjoy history and historical fiction, I wanted to like this book. In the end, though, I found myself rather bored by it. 2/5 stars

Gossip by Beth Gutcheon: At first glance, this book might appear to be basic chick-lit fluff. However, I found that it reminded me of The Group by Mary McCarthy. The book is about the lives of several women who meet at boarding school when they are teens. The story follows two of them (both socialites in NYC) who are not friends who but are linked together by a third (a poor scholarship student who becomes friends with both and serves the function as narrator/observer of their lives). It might just be me, but I get annoyed by the literary device of having the narrator be a character who interacts with every one of the other characters so as to be able to report on their actions and conversations—but doesn’t ever get fully or emotionally involved in said actions or decisions. I mean, would you really just sit back and watch the people you care about commit immoral or potentially dangerous or criminal acts and just go home and never say anything to anyone who might be impacted by said acts? Even when the ramifications of those acts start to unravel in horrible ways? I guess I just find it all too unreal for my tastes. In the end, however, I gave the book 3/5 stars because it did hold my attention to the very end, and because I did not see the surprise end coming.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: Because I was so enthralled by Gone Girl, I went out and purchased this book, which was Flynn’s debut novel. A psychological thriller, the book follows the story of a troubled newspaper reporter who is sent to her home town to get the inside scoop on the murders of two preteen girls who were both strangled and had their teeth removed. As you follow her quest to obtain as much information as possible about the crimes, you learn much more than you bargained for, because her small hometown is filled to the brim with dark secrets –not the least of them being the twisted dynamics inside her own family. This book was deeply disturbing and dark and actually made me uneasy. 3/5 stars

The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar: Another winner by Umrigar. It’s about four women who meet as university students, and drift apart after graduation. Years later, one discovers that she is dying and wants to see her old friends one more time. At first glance, it sounds like a sappy chick-lit story that has been done before. In Umrigar’s deft hands, however, the book is instead an exploration of the economic, religious, gender, and generational divides of modern-day India. 4/5 stars

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo: A disturbing and compelling non-fiction account of a slum outside of Mumbai. Boo did a great deal of research over the course of years, including interviews as well as research in public documents. The conditions are appalling, and the account speaks to the significant contrasts with the poor among us, but also the parallels. It’s not an easy book to read—mostly because you read the entire thing knowing that happy endings are not likely for anybody. 4/5 stars

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman: On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay 21-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. This book is a series of 68 poems about his death, written from various points of views, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him as he was dying, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. It’s moving and powerful and I cried throughout the entire book. 5/5 stars

The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin: It wasn't planned, but I somehow managed to bookend my month with books about the inner working of the Supreme Court. This one pretty much picks up where Toobin’s earlier book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court leaves off, and deals with the ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration. Included are the controversial legal decisions of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare.”) I liked it, but I thought “The Nine” was better. Maybe it’s because I recently lived through the events and I was just too tired of the incessant coverage of them. 3/5 stars

That is quite a month you had, Amy. Some seriously heavy books there.

I've read most of the non-fiction books by Lamott. However, not that one you posted about. I have to say I usually like them.

I think Sam and Amy are no longer together.
Here is an article that mentions that as well as her "control issues". I haven't read the book, but she usually writes with humor. Maybe she was just joking and it didn't come off that way?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/06/living/...

I always look forward to reading this thread each month.

Anyone else want to share?

Thank you to everyone for sharing the titles you read last month. Such interesting reading, leading me to add MORE books to my TBR. Did i write thanks? Hmmm...maybe i should change that? Nope, i am glad to know of the books, even if i never get around to reading them.

Most of my November was spent working my way through three 600+ page books, none of which i completed that month. Here are the one i did finish, although not a long one at all.

Just Kids, written by Patti Smith. I knew her as a singer, although nothing specific, at that. And i knew next to nothing about artist/photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The book is really more a memoir about him, although she sums up parts of her own life.

That's it. BUT (spoiler), December's list is gonna be a whopper, as far as length of books completed. :-)

Madrano wrote: "Most of my November was spent working my way through three 600+ page books, none of which i completed that month...."

That's how my December is going to be. I've been chipping away at a 962-page book that I started on Dec. 1, I think it was. I'm hoping to finish it before the end of the month, but with all the holiday preparations, that might be a stretch.

Amy, we'll just be so proud of ourselves, the rest of the board won't be able to stand us. ;-) Good luck to you.