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May Readings
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MonkeyCatcher
New Member
I really enjoyed it - one of my favourite reads this year. I didn't know much about China and its history before this read (other than the small amount I picked up in The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan), and so it was very interesting to finally learn more about the country with the largest population on Earth! As I have stated somewhere else, it got me really interested in Chinese history and culture - a definite must-readabecedarian said:
Just as a sidetrack - what books do you have under China for your "Around the World" challenge? I would love to add more Chinese literature to my TBR list.
(P.S - I /love/ the new avatar
)
abecedarian
Well-Known Member
MonkeyCatcher said:Just as a sidetrack - what books do you have under China for your "Around the World" challenge? I would love to add more Chinese literature to my TBR list.
(P.S - I /love/ the new avatar
I want to read Wild Swans, but I have in my hands, Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang. At Borders, drooled over Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible, both by Gao Xingjian..For an loner list of possibilities, go to amazon and go through their literature and fiction heading to find the link for world literature. This gets you to a link for Chinese literature, where there are 907 listings. Have fun! I wish there was a similar way to search for nonfiction as well..
Glad you like my avatar..the pic is of a structure at a local amusement park called Joyland. I always loved going there, and when I saw this pic of the old woman who lived in a shoe...I couldn't resist
Anamnesis
Active Member
pwilson said:
I'm not really sure, to be honest. The story had promise, but I was tired of all the varied genres Lethem was trying to explore. One minute we get a coming-of-age story, the next a gritty drama about drug dealers. I would read another book from him, provided it wasn't like The Fortress of Solitude.
jaynebosco
New Member
steffee said:
Oops forgot to post those as well
Will quote the post and put the authors down.
jaynebosco
New Member
jaynebosco said:
Sorry for not posting the author's; didn't notice until somebody brought it to my attention.
Will hopefully remember for next month Dog Handling: a novel - Clare Naylor
Size 12 is not fat - Meg Cabot
Wild grows the heather in Devon - Michael Philips
Towards the sunrise - Judith Pella
Little White Lies - Gemma Towney
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis-a great book about a rascally man who becomes a preacher. This book earned Lewis numerous death threats during his life time, also a great classical movie.
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis-I didn't like this as much as E.G., but it was still good. This one was about a big town woman who marries a small town doctor. The small town is like many of them, little clique social groups, as well as a gossip mill that ios truly fierce. It was an absolute riot to read for me as I live in a small town and saw my very community in the book. Lewis was an author who studied his subjects/topic first hand and then worked on writing about them, he clearly did his homework.
I then started and stopped two other works, though thank goodness I'm out of the funk and currently reading two books.
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis-I didn't like this as much as E.G., but it was still good. This one was about a big town woman who marries a small town doctor. The small town is like many of them, little clique social groups, as well as a gossip mill that ios truly fierce. It was an absolute riot to read for me as I live in a small town and saw my very community in the book. Lewis was an author who studied his subjects/topic first hand and then worked on writing about them, he clearly did his homework.
I then started and stopped two other works, though thank goodness I'm out of the funk and currently reading two books.
KristoCat
New Member
Is it too late for me to put mine in?
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Cell by Stephen King
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Started but didn't finish:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (abandoned)
Does Anything Eat Wasps? by the editors of New Scientist
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Cell by Stephen King
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Started but didn't finish:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (abandoned)
Does Anything Eat Wasps? by the editors of New Scientist
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
mehastings
Active Member
I finally kept track this month, but I forgot to post. I'd say the theme of the month was "light reading". Here goes:
Florence of Arabia - Christopher Buckley
Practical Demonkeeping - Christopher Moore
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore
Eleanor and Harry:The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman - Steve Neal
My Horizontal Life - Chelsea Handler
I also left a couple unfinished:
Odd Girl Out - Rachel Simmons (zzzz....)
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow (forgot it at ILs' house)
Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins (forgot it at ILs' house too)
Florence of Arabia - Christopher Buckley
Practical Demonkeeping - Christopher Moore
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore
Eleanor and Harry:The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman - Steve Neal
My Horizontal Life - Chelsea Handler
I also left a couple unfinished:
Odd Girl Out - Rachel Simmons (zzzz....)
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow (forgot it at ILs' house)
Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins (forgot it at ILs' house too)
MonkeyCatcher
New Member
This one is rapidly moving up my TBR list because of all of the good things I have been hearing about it. What did you think?KristoCat said:
aniela
New Member
Kundera -Life is Elsewhere
Margaret Atwood -The Blind Assassin
Bulgakov -Master and Margarita
Assia Djebar - Loin de Médine- It is a book made of chapters in the form of notes and reflections on the lives of women during the life of Mohammed and shortly after. It is very interesting to see how the writer gets an insight into the thoughts and feelings of women who passed through shattering historical transformations, but who are ignored by the chronicles of the time or to whom there are only a few lines dedicated in the contemporary writings. It is an attempt to change the views on the role of women in Islam, since this aspect has been distorted by the writers of that time.
Assia Djebar -Ombre sultane -It is the story of two women married to the same man. The first one, Isma, a woman who refused to give up her freedom in the pursuit of love in a traditional society, is the first wife of "the Man". But she also has the courage to admit that the love is gone and to regain her freedom from the once loved man. She chooses a second wife for her former husband: Hadjila. Hadjila is raised in the traditional way and the marriage is concluded by her mother (a widow with three children in her care) as a way to get out from poverty and misery. Hadjila is attracted by what she sees as "free" women: women walking alone in town without a veil. while her husband is away from home, she sneaks out the apartment and wanders unveiled through Alger. The description of the stages she has to pass through in order to become comfortable with this freedom of being unveiled and out of the shelter of a masculine presence by her side is very poignant.
The book is placed under the sign of the Scheherazade -and the shadow of her sister, the one who sustains her through the nights in the harem. maintaining life in the realms of imagination with the support of the woman forbidden to the Man.
women are presented as having their own individuality, as complex human beings formed in the open or secret struggle against an unfair tradition under the sign of Man's the supremacy. Women can be unveiled, since behind the veil there are palpitating with life and desires unique human beings, while the man just loses himself in the indistinguishable picture of tradition.
in Assia Djebar's book things are not presented in black and white. Reality is complex and there is not anyone carrying the entire blame. She highlights the importance of religion and the attraction of a tradition and a past that inevitably shaped personalities. Her speech is not directed against a certain religion, but against a pattern of traditional powers that is not characteristic to Islamic societies. Her criticism touches the abuse of roles that can be encountered in all communities, since it is not derived only from religion, but from human vanity, lust for domination, and maybe fear of failure, of admitting our own imperfect humanity.
Margaret Atwood -The Blind Assassin
Bulgakov -Master and Margarita
Assia Djebar - Loin de Médine- It is a book made of chapters in the form of notes and reflections on the lives of women during the life of Mohammed and shortly after. It is very interesting to see how the writer gets an insight into the thoughts and feelings of women who passed through shattering historical transformations, but who are ignored by the chronicles of the time or to whom there are only a few lines dedicated in the contemporary writings. It is an attempt to change the views on the role of women in Islam, since this aspect has been distorted by the writers of that time.
Assia Djebar -Ombre sultane -It is the story of two women married to the same man. The first one, Isma, a woman who refused to give up her freedom in the pursuit of love in a traditional society, is the first wife of "the Man". But she also has the courage to admit that the love is gone and to regain her freedom from the once loved man. She chooses a second wife for her former husband: Hadjila. Hadjila is raised in the traditional way and the marriage is concluded by her mother (a widow with three children in her care) as a way to get out from poverty and misery. Hadjila is attracted by what she sees as "free" women: women walking alone in town without a veil. while her husband is away from home, she sneaks out the apartment and wanders unveiled through Alger. The description of the stages she has to pass through in order to become comfortable with this freedom of being unveiled and out of the shelter of a masculine presence by her side is very poignant.
The book is placed under the sign of the Scheherazade -and the shadow of her sister, the one who sustains her through the nights in the harem. maintaining life in the realms of imagination with the support of the woman forbidden to the Man.
women are presented as having their own individuality, as complex human beings formed in the open or secret struggle against an unfair tradition under the sign of Man's the supremacy. Women can be unveiled, since behind the veil there are palpitating with life and desires unique human beings, while the man just loses himself in the indistinguishable picture of tradition.
in Assia Djebar's book things are not presented in black and white. Reality is complex and there is not anyone carrying the entire blame. She highlights the importance of religion and the attraction of a tradition and a past that inevitably shaped personalities. Her speech is not directed against a certain religion, but against a pattern of traditional powers that is not characteristic to Islamic societies. Her criticism touches the abuse of roles that can be encountered in all communities, since it is not derived only from religion, but from human vanity, lust for domination, and maybe fear of failure, of admitting our own imperfect humanity.
Ahab's Wife - Sena Jeter Naslund
Read it for the book discussion group I go to - it inspired me to read Moby Dick in April (boy, what a mistake that was).
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Would have never picked this one up on my own - my neighbor brought it over for me - I am glad that I read it.
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
A little raunchy, but a good long read with some interesting charaters (which I love). The end left me wanting more, though...
Read it for the book discussion group I go to - it inspired me to read Moby Dick in April (boy, what a mistake that was).
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Would have never picked this one up on my own - my neighbor brought it over for me - I am glad that I read it.
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
A little raunchy, but a good long read with some interesting charaters (which I love). The end left me wanting more, though...
Duh - I forgot:Concetta said:
Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson
Such a cool, interesting book about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane - I loved all the meterorology in it.
Beneath a Marble Sky - John Shors
This is another book I would have never picked up, but someone on this website wrote something interesting about it. I really liked it.
KristoCat
New Member
MonkeyCatcher said:
I enjoyed it. However, please don't start it with extremely high expectations. It's enjoyable and interesting, but I don't think it's a book that I'd read over and over. Gregory Maguire's characters are fairly engaging, but they end up being undermined by their own positive traits. To me that's a little depressing.
However, I liked it enough to pick up the sequel soon after I finished it, called Son of a Witch, which I'm still reading.
Overall, it was a good book, but not mind-blowing or anything.
