Tag: biography

Thanks for November List

gr4c5Leave a comment

Here it is. The last six books to read for Year Seven! I have every confidence that I will be adding to this list just a little. As a matter of fact, at the time that I started this blog I only had four books on my November list. I don’t remember the last time I read only four books in a month. So, true to form I added two more.

  1. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  2. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  3. Now Read This by Nancy Pearl
  4. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  5. ADDED: Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris (to continue the Southpaw series)
  6. ADDED: Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis (Early Review book for LibraryThing)

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  8. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  9. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. Billy by Albert French
  17. Bit of Wit, A World of Wisdom by Yehoshua Kurland (Early Review book from LibraryThing)
  18. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  19. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  20. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  21. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  22. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  23. Burning the Days by James Salter
  24. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  25. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  26. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  27. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  28. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  29. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  30. City in the Sky by James Glanz
  31. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  32. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  33. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  34. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  35. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  36. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  37. Diary of a Mad Housewife by Sue Kaufman
  38. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  39. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  40. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  41. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  42. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  43. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  44. Fanny by Edmund White
  45. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  46. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  47. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  48. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  49. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  50. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  51. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  52. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  53. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  54. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  55. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  56. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  57. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  58. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  59. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  60. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  61. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  62. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  63. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  64. Her by Christa Parravani
  65. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  66. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  67. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  68. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  69. Iliad by Homer
  70. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  71. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  72. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  73. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  74. ADDED: Keeping it Civil by Margaret Klaw (Early review book)
  75. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  76. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  77. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  78. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  79. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  80. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  81. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  82. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  83. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  84. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  85. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  86. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  87. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  88. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  89. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  90. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  91. Pick-Up by Charles Willeford (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  92. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  93. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  94. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  95. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  96. Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  97. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  98. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  99. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  100. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  101. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  102. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  103. Star Trap by Simon Brett
  104. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  105. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  106. Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (Part of Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s)
  107. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  108. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  109. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  110. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  111. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  112. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  113. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  114. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  115. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  116. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  117. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  118. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  119. White Devil by John Webster
  120. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  121. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  122. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  123. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  124. Working Poor by David Shipler
  125. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

POETRY COMPLETED:

  1. “Golden Angel Pancake House” by Campbell McGrath
  2. “Lepanto” by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  3. “Listeners” by Walter De La Mare
  4. “Mandalay” by Rudard Kipling
  5. “Road and the End” by Carl Sandburg
  6. “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
  7. “Winter” by Marie Ponsot
  8. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
  9. The Long Hill” by Sarah Teasdale
  10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  3. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin (as previously mentioned)

September Back To School List

gr4c5Leave a comment

I’m a day late with this…

The list is now really getting shorter! Summer is over just like that. And so is Year Seven. Here are the remaining books for October and November. Just two short months to go.

  1. Deafening by Frances Itani – October
  2. Going Wild by Robert Winkler – October
  3. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice – November
  4. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – October
  5. Panther Soup by John Grimlette – November
  6. Southpaw by Mark Harris – October
  7. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner – November
  8. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell – November

ON DECK FOR SEPTEMBER:

  1. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  2. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  3. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  4. ADDED: City in the Sky by James Glanz
  5. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  6. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  7. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

FINISHED:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  3. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  4. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  5. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  6. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  7. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  8. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  9. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  10. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  11. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  12. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  13. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  14. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  15. Billy by Albert French
  16. ADDED: Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  21. Burning the Days by James Salter
  22. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  23. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  24. Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy
  25. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  26. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  27. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  28. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  29. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  30. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  31. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  32. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  33. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  34. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  35. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  36. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  37. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  38. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  39. Fanny by Edmund White
  40. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  41. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  42. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  43. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  44. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  45. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  46. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  47. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  48. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  49. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  50. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  51. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  52. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  53. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  54. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  55. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  56. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  57. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  58. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  59. Her by Christa Parravani
  60. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  61. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  62. Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  63. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  64. Iliad by Homer
  65. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  66. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  67. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  68. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  69. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  70. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  71. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  72. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  73. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  74. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  75. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  76. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  77. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  78. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  79. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  80. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  81. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  82. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  83. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  84. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  85. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  86. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  87. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  88. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  89. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  90. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  91. Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  92. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  93. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  94. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  95. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  96. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  97. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  98. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  99. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  100. True Crime: Real-Life Stories of Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, Grave-Robbing and More edited by Lee Gutkind (Early Review)
  101. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  102. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  103. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  104. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  105. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  106. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  107. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  108. Working Poor by David Shipler
  109. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

POETRY COMPLETED:

  1. “Golden Angel Pancake House” by Campbell McGrath
  2. “Lepanto” by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  3. “Listeners” by Walter De La Mare
  4. “Mandalay” by Rudard Kipling
  5. “Road and the End” by Carl Sandburg
  6. “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
  7. “Winter” by Marie Ponsot
  8. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
  9. The Long Hill” by Sarah Teasdale
  10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell

The August August List

gr4c5Leave a comment

The list is getting shorter and shorter. Hard to believe the year is almost over. Year seven is now three quarters over. Here are the remaining books for September, October and November. Just three short months. I’m sure I will add to this list because it seems entirely too short.

  1. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien – September
  2. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise – September
  3. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford – September
  4. Deafening by Frances Itani – October
  5. Going Wild by Robert Winkler – October
  6. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice – November
  7. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso – September
  8. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – October
  9. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder – September
  10. Panther Soup by John Grimlette – November
  11. Southpaw by Mark Harris – October
  12. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner – November
  13. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell – November
  14. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken – September

ON DECK FOR AUGUST:

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  3. Burning the Days by James Salter
  4. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  5. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  6. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  3. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  4. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  5. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton
  6. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  7. Author, Author by David Lodge
  8. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  9. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  10. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  11. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  12. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  13. Billy by Albert French
  14. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  15. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  16. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  17. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  18. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  19. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  20. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  21. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  22. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  23. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  24. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  25. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  26. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  27. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  28. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  29. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  30. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  31. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  32. Fanny by Edmund White
  33. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  34. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  35. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  36. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  37. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  38. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz
  39. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  40. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  41. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  42. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  43. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  44. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  45. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  46. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  47. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  48. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  49. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  50. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  51. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  52. Her by Christa Parravani
  53. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  54. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  55. ADDED: Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
  56. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  57. Iliad by Homer
  58. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  59. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  60. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  61. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  62. Liar’s Poker:  Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
  63. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  64. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  65. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  66. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  67. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  68. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  69. Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  70. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  71. ADDED: Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  72. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  73. Patrimony: a true story by Philip Roth
  74. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  75. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  76. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  77. Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky
  78. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  79. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  80. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  81. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  82. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham – did not finish
  83. ADDED: Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
  84. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  85. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  86. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  87. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  88. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  89. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  90. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  91. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  92. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  93. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  94. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  95. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  96. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  97. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  98. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  99. Working Poor by David Shipler
  100. Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

POETRY COMPLETED:

  1. “Golden Angel Pancake House” by Campbell McGrath
  2. “Lepanto” by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  3. “Listeners” by Walter De La Mare
  4. “Mandalay” by Rudard Kipling
  5. “Road and the End” by Carl Sandburg
  6. “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
  7. “Winter” by Marie Ponsot
  8. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
  9. The Long Hill” by Sarah Teasdale
  10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard To find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell

Home Before Dark

gr4c5Leave a comment

Cheever, Susan. Home Before Dark: a Biographical Memoir of John Cheever by His Daughter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984.

With this help of her father’s diaries and journals, Susan Cheever is able to put together a personal and detailed biography of her father, famous author John Cheever. Unlike third party (clearly outsider) biographies Susan is able to insert her own recollections and feelings into the memoir. She makes no excuses for the love/hate battle she waged with her dad. As a biographer writing about a loved one it is tempting to gloss over the not so pretty aspects of one’s life but Susan tackles the tough material with grace. She does not shirk from her father’s early failures as a writer not does she make excuses for his volatile marriage and heavy drinking. What she presents is a snapshot of society and her father’s successes and failures in it.

This is the second memoir I have read about fathers this year. I was fascinated with the writers’ retreat where Cheever spent some time. Since it is in Saratoga Springs, a place I have been to before, I had to research a visit.

Quotes I liked, “Places he could enjoy without owning them” (p 32) and “Without a novel, there could be no solid literary reputation” (p 99).

Reason read: Susan Cheever’s birth month is in July (the 31st).

Author fact: Susan has a brother named Ben who also wrote books.

Book trivia: Home Before Dark is only one of Susan’s biographies about her family.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family: Writing Dynasties” (p 4).

O Say Can You Read July List

gr4c52 Comments
  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout – August
  2. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien – September
  3. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech – August
  4. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise – September
  5. Burning the Days by James Salter – August
  6. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford – September
  7. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross – August
  8. Deafening by Frances Itani – October
  9. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby – August
  10. Going Wild by Robert Winkler – October
  11. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice – November
  12. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso – September
  13. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin – August
  14. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin – October
  15. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder – September
  16. Panther Soup by John Grimlette – November
  17. Southpaw by Mark Harris – October
  18. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner – November
  19. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell – November
  20. Wolves of Willough by Chase by Joan Aiken – September

ON DECK FOR JULY:

  1. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  2. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  3. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  4. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  5. Working Poor by David Shipler
  6. ADDED: Ready for a Brand New Beat by Mark Kurlansky

FINISHED:

  1. Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  2. Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  3. Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  4. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year. No, sorry – two years ago)
  5. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  6. Author, Author by David Lodge (audio)
  7. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  8. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  9. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  10. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist (audio)
  11. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  12. Billy by Albert French
  13. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  14. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  15. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  16. Brushed by Feathers by Frances Wood
  17. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  18. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  19. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  20. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  21. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  22. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  23. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  24. Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  25. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  26. Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
  27. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  28. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  29. The Evolution of Jane by Catherine Schine
  30. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  31. Fanny by Edmund White
  32. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
  33. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  34. Flamboya Tree by Clara Olink Kelly
  35. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  36. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Zabat Katz (audio)
  37. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  38. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  39. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  40. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  41. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  42. God: a biography by Jack Miles
  43. Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  44. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  45. Good City edited by Emily Hiestand
  46. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  47. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  48. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  49. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  50. Her by Christa Parravani
  51. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  52. Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes
  53. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  54. Iliad by Homer
  55. Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  56. Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn (for LibraryThing’s Early Review program
  57. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  58. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  59. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  60. The long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
  61. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou for the Early Review Program
  62. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  63. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  64. Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  65. ADDED: The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  66. Outbreak of Love by Martin Boyd
  67. Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
  68. ADDED: Patrimony: a True Story by Philip Roth
  69. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam
  70. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  71. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  72. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  73. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  74. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  75. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  76. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  77. Suzy’s Case by Andy Siegel (as recommended)
  78. Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  79. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  80. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  81. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  82. This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakawila for LibraryThing
  83. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  84. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  85. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  86. When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
  87. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  88. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  89. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  90. ADDED: Year in Provence, a by Peter Mayle

POETRY COMPLETED:

  1. “Golden Angel Pancake House” by Campbell McGrath
  2. “Lepanto” by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  3. “Listeners” by Walter De La Mare
  4. “Mandalay” by Rudard Kipling
  5. “Road and the End” by Carl Sandburg
  6. “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
  7. “Winter” by Marie Ponsot
  8. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
  9. The Long Hill” by Sarah Teasdale
  10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

SHORT STORIES COMPLETED:

  1. “Here’s a Little Something”  by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  2. “Big Me” by Dan Chaon (from Among the Missing)
  3. “Servants of the Map” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servant of the Map)
  4. “The Cure” by Elizabeth Barrett (from Servants of the Map)
  5. “In the Land of Men” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  6. “Goodbye Midwest” by Antonya Nelson (from In the Land of Men)
  7. “Ado” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  8. “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis (from Impossible Things)
  9. “A Tiger-Killer is Hard to Find” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  10. “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” by Ha Jin (from Bridegroom: stories)
  11. “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  12. “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
  13. “A few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” by John Murray (from A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)
  14. “Watson and the Shark” by John Murray (from A few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies)

NEXT YEAR:

  1. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (as previously mentioned)
  2. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

gr4c5Leave a comment

Martin, Gerald. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008.

This is going to sound horrible but I read the biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez before reading a single word written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have a bunch of different books by Garcia Marquez on my challenge list but his biography came up first. It’s sad to say I never read anything of his in high school or even college. You would think, I being a huge John Cusack fan, that I would have at least read Love in the Time of Cholera! (If you have no idea why I made that connection go rent Serendipity or High Fidelity.)

Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite biographies read so far. It has to be the subject matter. Like other biographies that spend an inordinate amount of time setting the stage (political and socially) or produce pages and pages of mini biographies of the subject’s great-great-great grandparents Martin does bog down with those details in the beginning. His focus is not primarily on Gabriel Garcia Marquez but rather the myriad of family members from both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. I got lost trying to keep the just cousins straight. Forget about all the drama that went with them! But, aside from that reading about Marquez’s life was fascinating. Martin took 17 years to research his subject and it shows.
Probably my favorite aspect of the biography is the parallels Martin makes between Marquez’s life and his art. Martin doesn’t miss an opportunity to make note of people in Marquez’s life who eventually became characters in his books later. I have a deeper understanding of where the soul of One Hundred Years of Solitude came from.

Favorite quotes, “A whispy costeno moustache appeared on his adolescent lip and was left to wander where it would” (p 108), and “Acquaintances remember him always drumming his fingers on the table as we waited for his lunch , or on anything else to hand…music always wafting through him” (p 145). Guess my husband has something in common with Gabriel Garcia Marquez…always drumming on something.

Reason read: Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in March.

Book trivia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life includes great photography. GGM’s first year picture was adorable.

Author fact: According to Martin’s Wiki page his biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the first full biography to be published in English. Interesting.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hail, Columbia!” (p 91).

Playing for Keeps

gr4c5Leave a comment

Halberstam, David. Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. New York: Random House, 1999.

There is no doubt in my mind that David Halberstam loved basketball. He may have even loved Michael Jordan even more. The care and consideration he gave both to the sport and to the athlete is exemplary. To be sure, you will also get biographies of the key people surrounding Michael Jordan’s personal life and career path as well. From mama to coaches, from friends to agents, Halberstam details each and everyone one of them. You will learn about Michael Jordan, the driven kid; Michael Jordan, the aggressive ballplayer; Michael Jordan, the savvy salesman and everything else he was in between.
My only complaint – the chronology is a bit disorganized. Because the timeline is interrupted by different basketball games throughout out Jordan’s career Halberstam’s timeline isn’t constructed in such a way that a reader could witness Michael Jordan’s rise to success smoothly. The games lend a certain drama to the biography but the timeline suffers for it.

Reason read: March is the month for Madness; college basketball madness, that is. Only I started reading this early because a friend loaned it to me.

Time for some honesty. I have a pet peeve when it comes to professional athletes and their retirements. The media goes into a frenzy. The bigger the star, the bigger the segment on ESPN. Reporters clamor for a “last” interview. Researchers comb the archives looking for footage of so-and-so’s rookie year. Childhood friends are contacted and the athlete’s mama is always asked to reminisce about the first she noticed star quality and athletic potential. The story will break for days and days and be seen on every channel several times over. It’s as if the retiring athlete hasn’t given up the sport. Instead it’s as if he or she has given up the ghost and died. That is, Until they start playing again. It’s the in and out of retirement I can’t stand. Michael Jordan was one such athlete. He retired more than once and each time the media gave him a send off fit for kings. And not the Sacramento kind.

Book trivia: Playing for Keeps boasts a lot of really cool photos.

Author fact: Halberstam has written on a myriad of subjects. Basketball only scratched the surface of the topics he covered.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “David Halberstam: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).

Resolutions and Pulse Checks

gr4c5Leave a comment

So. January is over. Another month gone by. Another dozen or so books read. I’m frustrating myself because I keep adding books to the list. Like I mentioned earlier these additions come from another list created before this one. *Sigh* I am up to 95 titles (from the 81 I originally started with) and “down” (meaning read) 35. Such an odd exchange, but there it is. Tomorrow I will post the month of January in detail.

  1. Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
  2. ADDED: Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  3. Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
  4. ADDED: Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak
  5. Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
  6. ADDED: Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
  7. Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
  8. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
  9. At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
  10. Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  11. Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
  12. ADDED: Bellwether by Connie Willis
  13. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
  14. Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
  15. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
  16. ADDED: Billy by Albert French
  17. Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
  18. Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
  19. Brush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan
  20. Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
  21. Burning the Days by James Salter
  22. Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
  23. Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  24. Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
  25. Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
  26. Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
  27. ADDED: City of Thieves by David Benioff
  28. Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
  29. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  30. Deafening by Frances Itani
  31. Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
  32. ADDED: Descending the Dragon by Jon Bowermaster
  33. Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
  34. Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
  35. Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
  36. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
  37. Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
  38. Fanny by Edmund White
  39. Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  40. Fixer by Joe Sacco
  41. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  42. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
  43. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
  44. Galton Case by Ross MacDonald
  45. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  46. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
  47. Going Wild by Robert Winkler
  48. Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
  49. ADDED via LibraryThing’s Early Review: Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws
  50. Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
  51. Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
  52. Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
  53. Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
  54. Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  55. ADDED via LibraryThing Early Review: Her by Christa P
  56. Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
  57. House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
  58. House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
  59. ADDED: Idle Days in Patagonia by William Hudson
  60. Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
  61. Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
  62. Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
  63. Lives of the Painters, vol 2, 3 & 4 by Giorgio Vasari
  64. Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
  65. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  66. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
  67. Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
  68. ADDED: Of Human Bondage by William Maugham
  69. Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
  70. Panther Soup by John Grimlette
  71. ADDED: Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam (only because someone gave it to me as a gift and it’s on my list)
  72. Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
  73. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  74. Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
  75. Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
  76. Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
  77. Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
  78. Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
  79. Southpaw by Mark Harris
  80. ADDED: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  81. ADDED: Tatiana by Dorothy Jones
  82. Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
  83. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
  84. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
  85. Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  86. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
  87. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
  88. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
  89. Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
  90. What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
  91. Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
  92. Widow for One Year by John Irving
  93. Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
  94. ADDED: Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan
  95. Working Poor by David Shipler

Lives of the Painters…vol 4

gr4c5Leave a comment

Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol 4. Translated by A.B. Hinds. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1927.

Reason read: Way back in October I started the series in honor of National Art Month. I am finally finished!

One of the coolest features of all four volumes is that if you want to see some of the art describes the  location of where it can be seen is mentioned in the footnotes (or, at least where it was at the time of publication). For example David Ghirlanai’s art can be seen in the Musee de Cluny in Paris. One of the more frustrating features of all four volumes is that Vasari gets sidetracked very easily. He should be talking about one artist but ends up focusing on another. I can’t count how many times he said, “But back to —.” Deja vu. I said this in Vol. 3’s review as well. Vasari inserts himself more in volume 4 than in previous volumes like when talking about his friend Francesco (De’ Salviati or Francesco Rossi) but especially at the end, when he includes his own biography. The final chapter is devoted to himself so that Vasari can speak of his own life and artistic accomplishments. I will admit 100% I ran out of steam before I got to Vasari’s chapter about himself.

Favorite parts & quotes, since he said it so often, “But after this somewhat lengthy digression, which however I do not think out of place, I return to Rustico” (p 37). My favorite artist had to have been Rustico. He was generous and fond of animals, “He so tamed a porcupine that it remained under the table like a dog, and sometimes pricked people’s legs…” (p 32).

Author fact: What I constantly had to keep in mind was that Vasari was writing about his contemporaries. He worked with some of the artists he writes about although he refers to himself in the third person which is a little odd.

Book trivia: In every volume of Lives of the Painters there is an illustration of one of the artists. In volume four it is Michelagnolo’s.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ciao, Italia” (p 46). Can I just say this was a huge pain in the butt. For one thing, Pearl mentions Vasari’s Lives of the Painters… but fails to mention it is four volumes (essentially four books).

Postscript ~ something funny is going on with LibraryThing. My review for Vol. 3 is on the Vol. 4 page and yet it’s like to the review belongs to someone else. At first glance I haven’t written a review and I haven’t until you see it’s the review for Vol. 3. Weird. I’m not sure how to fix that.

Dec ’12 was…

gr4c5Leave a comment

December 2012 was a decidedly difficult month. I don’t mind admitting it was stressful and full of ups and downs. How else can I describe a period of time that contained mad love and the quiet urge to request freedom all at once? A month of feeling like the best thing on Earth and the last person anyone would want to be with? I buried myself in books to compensate for what I wasn’t sure I was feeling. And I won’t even mention the Sandy twins. But wait. I just did.

  • The Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer ~ in honor of all things Hanukkah. This was by far my favorite book of the month.
  • Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner ~ in honor of Iowa becoming a state in December. This was a close second.
  • The Tattered Cloak and Other Novels by Nina Berberlova ~ in honor of the coldest day in Russia being in December. I read a story every night.
  • Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Carol Joyce Oates ~ in honor of Oates being born in December. I was able to read this in one sitting.
  • The Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan ~ in honor of December being one of the best times to visit India
  • Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox ~ in honor of Franking being born in December
  • Billy by Albert French ~ in honor of Mississippi becoming a state in December
  • Apples are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins ~ in honor of Kazakhstan gaining its independence in December.

In an attempt to finish some “series” I read:

  • Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol 3  by Giorgio Vasari (only one more to go after this, yay!)
  • Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

For audio here’s what I listened to:

  • The Galton Case by Ross MacDonald ~ this was laugh-out-loud funny
  • Bellwether by Connie Willis ~ in honor of December being Willis’s birth month

For the Early Review Program with LibraryThing here’s what I read:

  • Drinking with Men: a Memoir by Rosie Schaap

And here’s what I started:

  • Gold Coast Madam by Rose Laws

For fun: Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep.

Rosalind Franklin

gr4c52 Comments

Maddox, Brenda. Rosalind Franklin: the Dark Lady of DNA. New York: Harper Collins, 2002.

One of the very first things I learned about Rosalind Franklin is that she was destined to become a scientist of some sort. How could she not? She came from a long line of scholars. But what she didn’t inherit was the ability to be gracious. From the very beginning Franklin was called obstructive (Nancy Pearl calls her “cranky”) and people couldn’t wait to be rid of her. But, for all that she was brilliant. Brilliant at a time in society when women in general were supposed to be anything but! “…she was spared military service and allowed to remain at university, to her father’s dismay. Yet what exactly she ought to have been doing instead was hard for him to say, as a woman’s place in the war effort had not been defined” (p 71).

Best line, “She knew enough about herself to know that she liked people better when she didn’t have to live with them” (p 75).

Reason read: Rosalind Franklin was born in December 1920. I’m reading her biography in honor of the occasion.

Author fact: Brenda Maddox excels at writing biographies. In addition to Rosalind Franklin she has written about William Butler Yeats and Molly Bloom, just to name a few.

Book trivia: Rosalind Franklin: the Dark Lady of DNA was a story on NPR.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Genuine Genes” (p 96).

Camus, a Romance

gr4c5Leave a comment

Hawes, Elizabeth. Camus, a Romance. New york: Grove Press, 2009.

I think what makes this biography so likeable is that Hawes includes her own memoir at the same time. The reader not only gets a portrait of one of the most influential writers of all time but Hawes displays her own life as well. Or at least she displays her obsession with Camus.
Small complaint. The photography Hawes chose to include of Albert Camus are tiny and interspersed in the text unlike other biographies where the photos are grouped together in large, glossy pages. I don’t know if Hawes didn’t receive permission to enlarge the photographs or what. The small photographs seem stingy for some reason; especially since Hawes admits that in reading Camus’s journal she finds him faceless and unknown. It is in photographs that she is able to tease out the intimacies of his spirit. The reader is not privy to most of the images she describes.
As an aside, a friend brought me three other Camus biographies just so I could see the photos. They were wonderful! It was especially nice to see the ones Hawes described in detail.

Line I heard throughout the book, “I was like an author who had fallen in love with one of his characters” (p 98).

Reason read: Albert Camus was born in October. I would have liked more Camus biographies on my list but this is the only one.

Author fact: I should call this “author rumor” because it’s not fact. In my opinion Hawes is obsessed with Camus. It’s as if, in this book, she is stalking his ghost.

Book trivia: No index.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “North African Notes: Algeria” (p 159).

Lives of the Painters Vol 2

gr4c5Leave a comment

Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol 2. Translated by A.B. Hinds. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1927.

I have to be honest. I was not looking forward to volume two of Vasari’s work. For starters, there were a lot of mistakes in volume one and for another it was a little on the boring side. Okaaaay. It was a lot on the boring side! But I am determined to stick it out and get through all four volumes, even if it kills me. Disclaimer, like with volume one I am skipping any biography that contains an error in volume two.

There is not introduction to the second volume. We just jump right into the biographies, starting with Fra Filippo Lippi, Painter of Florence (?1406 – 1469). Vasari doesn’t waste any time getting to the juicy parts of a painter’s life, “He remained so for two days, but overcome by his amorous and bestial desires, he cut up his sheet with a pair of scissors, and, letting himself down out the window, devoted many days to his pleasures” (p 3). Ooh la la. But, don’t get too excited. There aren’t that many personal facts for the rest of the biographies. Vasari, for the most part, sticks to who painted or sculpted what. One good thing about volume two is that it includes Botticello and Da Vinci, two artists I was looking forward to reading about.

Favorite quote. This is a little lengthy but tell me, does it not inspire you to go look at some art? This is from Antonio Pollajuolo:  “He always copied Nature as closely as possible, and has here represented an archer drawing the bowstring to his breast and bending down to charge it, putting all the force of his body into the action, for we may see the swelling of his veins and muscles and the manner in which he is holding his breath” (p 81).

Book Trivia: There were not as many errors in this volume!

Reason read: A continuation of the series started in honor of Art Month (September).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ciao, Italia” (p 46).

November ’12 is…

gr4c5Leave a comment

November is Thanksgiving. My mom’s birthday. A wedding somewhere out there. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. Soon it will be time to crank up the woodstove. November is also a football game (Go Pats!) and maybe some music. It promises to be a good month for books, too. I have a couple of really short ones to buzz through:

  • Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Vol 2. by Giorgio Vasari ~ continuing the series started in October in honor of art month. As with Vol.1 I won’t read any bio that has a mistake in it.

    • I’m excited about this volume because Da Vinci is in it.

  • The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan ~ a continuation of the series started in October to honor the Amsterdam marathon. This should be a really quick read.
  • Camus: a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes ~ in honor of Albert Camus’s birth month
  • Edward Lear in Albania: journals of a landscape painter by Edward Lear ~ in honor of November being a good time to visit Albania.

    • I guess so.

  • Before the Knife: Memories of an African Childhood by Carolyn Slaughter ~in honor of November being a good time to take a safari in Africa. Truth be told, this won’t inspire me to travel anywhere near the dark continent.

    • I can tell already.

For audio – I’m plan to listen to Martin Gilbert’s biography of Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill, a Life and Dorothy Sayer’s The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.

For the Early Review program on LibraryThing I will finish Clay by Melissa Harrison. I have to admit I’m not wild about the story. I love the way Harrison describes the landscape around her but not a fan of her character development.

What else about November? Can I say I will be thrilled, thrilled to not have to listen to Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren bash each other over the head anymore? As a woman I have never felt more “targeted” than in this particular election. That would go for Obama and Romney as well. Grrrr.

Churchill: a life

gr4c5Leave a comment

Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: a Life, V.1 Read by Christian Rodska. North Kingston: AudioGo. 2011.

I have to admit I enjoyed listening to Churchill: a Life much better than if I had read the print. Christian Rodska’s Churchill imitation is hysterical. I particularly enjoyed the humor Rodska inserted into Gilbert’s prose. There were parts that had me laughing out loud, so much so I had to share them with with my husband, something I almost never do. One small example – when Churchill was young his schoolwork suffered greatly. He was constantly getting in trouble for not being diligent enough. Writing home to “mummy” from boarding school Churchill hoped she would not ruin his summer with a tutor because he promised to be very busy with such things as “butterflying.” It is hard to imagine a great leader such as Winston Churchill worrying about the time he could spend catching butterflies, but then again he was only twelve!
Martin flies through the first part of Churchill’s life with uncomplicated ease. His detailed pauses are like butterflies landing on well timed and important moments like Churchill’s education, his capture and subsequent escape from a Boer prison during the war, and his introduction to the political arena. Using Churchill’s own words his character comes alive. Unfortunately, the biography only covers the years 1874 to 1918.

Reason read: In honor of Churchill’s birth month

Author Fact: Gilbert was knighted by the Queen in 1995.

Book Trivia: This is considered the abbreviated version. As Churchill’s official biographer Gilbert also wrote a much longer, eight-volumed biography, one I won’t be reading!

BookLust Twist: From more Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Winston Churchill” (p 45). Can’t get anymore straightforward than that!