16 posts tagged “book project”
Finished Foot Free and Fancy Loose by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. (This is the sequel to Bass Ackwards and Belly Up.)
Super fun book (I think I liked it more than the first one) and I hope there will be more in the series, but I think it may just be a two-part thing.
Anyway, to be vague ('cause I hope you read these and I don't want to spoil them) this is the end of the Year of Dreams that Harper, Sophie, Becca and Kate embarked on and they're basically all succeeding at what they set out to accomplish (note: this does not necessarily mean that everything ends well...and it doesn't mean that it doesn't.)
Anyway, really fun and it makes me miss my friends from high school.
Finished The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue for the 2nds Challenge.
This is historical fiction about a scandalous divorce case in 1800s England. There are three alternating narrators, the married couple (Helen and Harry) and Helen's friend Emily (nicknamed Fido, unfortunately).
This is based on a true story and is during a time in England where divorces were really uncommon and so any divorce became sort of a big deal, and this one was an especially big deal because Helen cheated on her husband with a couple of different guys. Also it's interesting because it was expected that he'd get custody of their two daughters; the thought back then was that (as explained in the novel, and I'm paraphrasing) children are a sort of gift to the wife from the husband and that if she proves herself unworthy as a wife/mother, he can take them back.
Anyway, this was really interesting and I'm glad my life calmed down enough for me to get to finish it. :)
Finished Knit Two by Kate Jacobs. This is for the Read Your Name Challenge (the "K" in "Kelly").
This is the sequel to the Friday Night Knitting Club, and I think I preferred it to the original. It's set five years or so after the first one. (Dakota is now in college.)
Most of the club members are facing challenges (Darwin wants a family; Lucie is dealing with the demands of single motherhood and having to figure out what to do with her own mother, who seems to be suffering from some sort of dementia; Catherine is trying to find love--there are more but I don't want to spoil anything).
This is a fun, easy read.
Finished Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. This is the last book I have to read for the Rescue Project. :) So that's two challenges down (I finished From the Stacks last month) and 18 to go. Wish me luck next year. :)
Apparently I came late to this party because I'm pretty sure every reader I know has read this. In case you haven't, it's about a young girl named Chiyo who eventually grows up to become a famous geisha, Sayuri. I don't want to ruin anything, so if you haven't read this (and haven't seen the movie), you definitely should. It's definitely one of those things where the glamour you may associate with being a geisha really isn't there.
And it made me very grateful to be living in the time I do live in. :)
But wow, so, so good. :)
I don't know if I'll be finishing Poisonwood Bible by the end of the year, but it's what I'm starting next. :)
Finished Angels Flight by Michael Connelly. I read it for the Genre Challenge as my "detective fiction" option. This is one of the Harry Bosch novels that I've missed.
This one centers on a double murder--a woman who seems to be an accidental victim, basically for being in the wrong place, and a prominent lawyer who has made a name for himself suing the LAPD. The police think the murder is connected to the "black warrior" case, which involves a man who was tortured by police for allegedly killing a 12-year-old girl. (It's called the "black warrior" case because that's the kind of pencil that was jabbed in the man's ear, causing him to lose some of his hearing.)
Harry Bosch is in charge of the case and, as always, proceeds to annoy one of his superiors by refusing to follow the party line.
Another solid offering by Michael Connelly. :) If you like mysteries and don't read him, you should start.
Finished Testimony by Anita Shreve--so good! I haven't read any of her others books, so I can't compare but I do want to read more of hers. This is part of the genre challenge and I chose this for realistic fiction.
The plot seems like something that we'd read about in the paper or see on TV. There's this private school in Vermont (Avery Academy) and five students are involved in a sex tape (one works the camera and then three boys have varying degrees of sex with a girl). The story is told from different points of view (each student speaks, plus parents, a police officer, a law professor, the headmaster, etc.) and the reader needs to piece together what really happened, and which of the narrators are reliable.
Beyond the "high school students in sex tape" ick factor, there's also this: the boys range in age from 17-19; the girl is 14. Also, apparently in Vermont, there isn't statutory rape. They just term it a sexual assault, regardless of the younger person's willingness (which is disputed between narrators).
I highly recommend this.
Finished my first book challenge read just now--A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I didn't like it but I didn't hate it. I'm pretty sure I won't be reading it again and I actually am planning on palming it off on Katie the next time I see her.
We'll see.
It's about a guy who adopts his younger brother after his parents die. I'm not sure if it's on purpose, but he seems very preoccupied with people thinking he's the smartest, funniest, best guy ever.
I'm reading Testimony (by Anita Shreve) next for the Genre Challenge. It's my realistic fiction.
I'm glad some of these started in November.
Finished Wake by Lisa McMann. This, like the one before it, had an excellent plot idea that wasn't carried out as well as I had hoped. This one has a teenage girl who gets sucked into people's dreams. For example, say you're in high school and you fall asleep in class. If she's in the class too, she sees your dream. So she's seen those dreams where people are naked. Or falling. Or having a sex dream. And then she starts to see a disturbing, recurring dream...
But yeah. I enjoyed it but it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be.
Meanwhile, in light of my comment conversation with Janie yesterday, I think I'm going to start getting back to the spirit of the book project, which is to start reading some of the awesome books I have that I haven't read yet. So for the next few weeks (until I go on vacation) I am going to tackle some of the classic books I have. I started The Great Gatsby (I read this in high school but I don't remember it at all and I suspect I only skimmed it) last night, and I have Pride and Prejudice (see note for Gatsby), Little Women, Sense and Sensibility, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Rebecca, Love in the Time of Cholera, Lolita and The Catcher in the Rye. I haven't read any of those others. I don't know how many I'll get through pre-vacation, and I have the books I'm planning on bringing back to Maryland packed already (although if I finish Little Women, I will bring March). And the week after I get back, the new Jane Green and Marian Keyes books will be coming out, so I will probably only be reading the classics for the next three weeks. So honestly, worst case scenario, I should at least be able to read three of them. And hopefully more. I don't know which I'll read after Pride and Prejudice, but I'm open to suggestions. (Your choices are the other books listed.)
I don't have anything I'm expecting to be super hard. I don't have War and Peace or Crime and Punishment or whatever.
Finished The Other Boleyn Girl, which I totally loved. I started The Boleyn Inheritance and that's really good too (so far). It's got three narrators (Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard--two more of Henry's wives--and Jane Boleyn). I don't prefer it to Boleyn Girl but it's interesting.
I have to say, so far I'm not a huge fan of Jane Boleyn. I can discuss why but it's a potential spoiler although I guess this is all history, so maybe not.
Meanwhile, I'm very tired. I do get tomorrow as a comp day for working Friday, and I think my day will be spent sleeping as much as possible.
I think Boleyn Girl was #21, but I'll have to doublecheck that.
So I went on a book binge today. I went in for one book and impulse-bought four more. Oh, book project. You will kill me.
I got:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi
Now keep in mind that the new Stephen King (Duma Key) and Marcus Sakey (At the City's Edge) novels came today. Keep in mind, too, that I am moving in a little over a week--and actually, I'm getting the keys tomorrow, so I can start moving little stuff then--and that I have Saw IV coming in the mail (hopefully tomorrow but certainly by Friday).
Oh, impulse--you will kill me.
