Challenge: 50 Books discussion

1) Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt (read)
This was a pretty heavy read to start the year. It's probably best for those who are poetry junkies, as I found myself skipping over those parts. Overall, not a bad read.

2) Beloved by Toni Morrison (read)
I have officially added a new book to the "Books That Make me Reconsider my Love for Reading" list:
--Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
--Beloved by Toni Morrison
Yep. It was that bad.

3) Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (read)
If somebody was to ask me right now what my favourite book is, I'd probably reply with this Polish classic. A book hasn't made me cry since Where the Red Fern Grows, but I bawled my head off during Quo Vadis.

4) Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (read)
Welp that was quick! (Less than a day.) A good, quick, entertaining read. I definitely took something from it, too, which is not always the case. Next...

Good thing I loaded up at Half Price Books before the ice hit. I've been enjoying beautiful snowfall, a big stack of books, and homemade chais for 5 days now. Life in Oklahoma is sweet.

5) The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (read)
I didn't think I was going to like this but... I love it! I've been really really REALLY busy recently so I haven't quite finished yet, but it's a great read. It's the second why-missionaries-suck book I've read this month, but that's nobody's fault but my own.

02.20.10. Finished tonight. I loved loved loved it, although it is something I would only recommend to certain friends.

I'd recommend The Secret Life Of Bees. It's the only one of the three I've read, though.

Susanna wrote: "I'd recommend The Secret Life Of Bees. It's the only one of the three I've read, though."

Thanks for the suggestion! I think I'll try that next. At the urging of a teacher, I'm giving The Poisonwood Bible a chance right now.

6) The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church by Andrew Farley (reading)
I've appreciated the cross for awhile, but the more I read this book, the more beautiful Calvary (the same Calvary I've known since I was 13) becomes to me. I typically really dislike books of this nature, but The Naked Gospel has a new perspective about the Old Covenant and that every Christian should explore.

7) A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (read)

(note to self: I've decided that from here on out, each book will get its own post to ease the update process!)

02.20.10 So far, this is wildly hilarious.

03.01.10 4 stars. Would probably be 3 if I didn't find the word "wanker" so freakin' funny.

8) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (read)

03.06.10 This is March's Book Club selection at my school. There are 4 reasons why I almost didn't check it out:
1) The last book I tackled for book club was a YA book called Vampirates (Justin Somper) Oh how I wish I could tell you I was joking. After suffering through that fine piece of literature, I resigned to using my reading time more wisely i.e. not in conjunction with the school's book club. (Obviously the sting from Somper's masterpiece has worn off in the last 6 months and I've changed my mind.)
2) I don't typically like YA literature. At all.
3) I heard the ending is rather unpleasant.
4) I know this sounds awful. But I'm gonna say it anyway--sue me! I don't like reading about the Holocaust. This does not make me heartless; this makes me a person who ignores grief and pain and sorrow at all reasonable costs. When books make me confront it, I usually go into emotional hibernation.

But, against all aforementioned odds, this book is a true winner. I only have less than 100 pages left, and even though my heart breaks more with every page, I can't help but wish the book wasn't so close to the end.

03.07.10 Well, that was a 5 star read! What next, what next...

9) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (read)

03.12.10 So I picked up Middlesex... and put it back down. I'm sure it's a great read, I'm just not in the mood for it right this minute. Then, a new but good friend recommended this to me. We have really different reading styles (she really loves LOTR, Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. and I just can't get into the fantasy/magical realm) so I wasn't sure what I'd find within this book. So far, soooooo good. Why don't more authors utilize visual aids?!

I'm a little bit of a pickle, though, because I have read Snow Falling on Cedars by the Monday after next and :
1) I don't want to read it. That's first and foremost.
2) I'm going to be running a kids' camp all week at some low income apartments in Arlington, TX (this means little to no reading time throughout the day and much exhaustion throughout the night...which also means little to no reading time.)
3) I can't read in the car on the way there. If I do, I will barf. A lot. That's just the way moving vehicles and books are for me. (Maybe I can audiobook it?)

Also, I should be on book 14ish to be on track with this 50 Books Challenge business. Oh well; I'm sure I'll catch way up this summer!

"3) I can't read in the car on the way there. If I do, I will barf. A lot. That's just the way moving vehicles and books are for me. (Maybe I can audiobook it?)" (last post)

I'm the same way, Alex, and have found that on long trips the audio books work very well...I just have to pull over when I want to change the cassette, as I drive alone a lot.

"4) I know this sounds awful. But I'm gonna say it anyway--sue me! I don't like reading about the Holocaust. This does not make me heartless; this makes me a person who ignores grief and pain and sorrow at all reasonable costs. When books make me confront it, I usually go into emotional hibernation." Previous to last post)

Again, I'm the same way...I listen to NPR and love that they have 'full coverage' of everything going on in the world, but I have to back off and quit listening to all the horrible statistice in the world every so often for a few days, it just gets to be too much of a drain. Then I search for an uplifting movie or book, eiter a 'cozy' mystery or romantic comedy...then when I'm able, perhaps I can tackle it, even if it means only reading a little every day and putting it down. A good friend of mine showed me the movie 'The Color Purple' in short spurts which he mixed up because he was afraid that it would upset me because of a couple of the issues in the story...so I actually did see all the movie, just not all at once. I really loved him for doing it that way.

Carol wrote: ""3) I can't read in the car on the way there. If I do, I will barf. A lot. That's just the way moving vehicles and books are for me. (Maybe I can audiobook it?)" (last post)

I'm the same way, A..."

So glad to find I'm not the only one with a limit to the amount of raw sadness I can be exposed to in any given time!!

10) Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (read)

Holy CRAP I feel like this book took a couple years off my life. It wouldn't have been THAT bad if I was reading it under different circumstances. But mix an incredibly tedious and dull author with an incredibly exhausted and on-edge reader, and bad things are bound to ensue.

Seriously. I found myself skipping 2 and 3 pages at a time of nothing but descriptive yapping. I guess it's not the book's fault that I am driven by dialogue, but whatever.

Anyway. I read this while sharing a 2-bedroom apartment with 22 other people. Reading conditions were less than favorable, but still: I would've put this book down if it wasn't required reading.

Alex wrote: "8) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (read)

03.06.10 This is March's Book Club selection at my school. There are 4 reasons why I almost didn't check it out:
1) The last b..."

Alex, I loved this post!!! I also wavered before opening this book for almost the exact same reasons...most notably, because it was a holocaust book which I normally shy away from due to the fact that you know it will be heartwrenching. Like you, I loved it. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorites!

I'm happy for your good fortune!

Had to give up on several books in a row. There were such yawnfests!

11) I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali (read)
Read it all on the flight from Denver to OKC. Touching story, but the book itself was just okay.

12) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (read)
5 star. Loved it.

13) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (read)
It was an "eh" for me. 3 stars.

14) Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson (read)
I looooooooved Three Cups of Tea. I'm expecting that, as I read this book, I'm again going to experience that "I need to sell everything I own and serve the women of the world" feeling again.
05.10.10 Yep, I loved it. Every bit as beautiful and inspiring as the first. I almost cried at the end. I never cry during books. Definitely something I recommend to anybody with a soul.

**) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (gave up)

05.10.10 I read about this book in How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines and it sounded really engaging. This is the first time I've put Thomas C. Foster's literary tastes to the test, so I'll be anxious to see if this novel holds water.

7/27/10 I spilled water all over this sometime back, but I'm pretty okay with it. It was quite a yawn-fest! Maybe I'll look for a new copy at Half Price Books, maybe not. I don't think Mr. Forster and I have very similar reading taste.

I haven't updated in sooooo long! I hope I can kind-of remember the books that have been keeping me oh-so-busy!

In zero particular order...

15) The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
BLAH BLAH BLAH! I just wanted her to watch some Jerry Springer and get over herself. The eldest narrator, that is. Actually... the younger narrator could take some loosening up, too.

16) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Definitely my least favourite of his. None of the twists had me on the edge of my seat. I found myself thinking, "Who cares?"

17) Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof
It was very informative! But, unlike Greg Mortenson's books, it didn't stir up any passion. Maybe because, somewhere in the novel, the two authors flat-out tell you the formula (step 1: personal anecdote, step 2: a bunch of facts, step 3: how/where to help) they are using to generate dough for their cause?

18) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
This was so incredibly epic! Really. I think it should count for two books it was so long! I do think I'll start the "sequel" soon, though, so all of the events/characters will be fresh.

19) Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (read)
This was really, really beautiful. Usually I glaze over depictions of nature; a tree is a tree is a tree, right? But in this novel, the contrast between the serenity of the French countryside and the chaos of the German occupation is striking.

I'm reallllly gonna need to pick up my pace (and/or start reading shorter books!) if I plan on making it to 50 this year without reading a book a day in December.

20) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (read)
Let's just say, this book grew on me. If I read books twice, I would read this again, and probably like it even more. But, alas, I prefer not to reread--there is so much literature in the world!--so it remains a 3 star book for me.

21) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (reading)

Alex wrote: "19) Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (read)
This was really, really beautiful. Usually I glaze over depictions of nature; a tree is a tree is a tree, right? But in th..."

Thanks for your review! I have been meaning to read Suite Française - it sounds excellent.

I have forgotten so many!... although I'm still nowhere close to 50. Nuts!
I guess here's to trying to recount a few!

22) Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley (read)

23) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (read)

24) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (read)

25) The Giver by Lois Lowry (read)
One of my favourites of the year!

26) Atonement by Ian McEwan (read)
Why have I never read this before?? SOOOO wonderful!

There have been a few more that I've forgotten over the last several months... I'll be thinking! However, it's looking like I've epically failed this challenge. Dang you, college!

27) Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall (read)
Just okay.

So... I didn't make it to 50. Better luck next year!