Not for me
Definitely not for mebooks general
« Previous Entries Sunday, July 13th, 2008Reading Japanese Literature (TSS)
Dolce Bellezza is hosting a second Japanese literature challenge from July 30, 2008 through January 30, 2009. I enjoyed the first challenge immensely as all three of the books I read were excellent! Bellezza gives some great ideas for books to read at her site. Just click on the icon for more information.
I’m not sure what I’m reading yet, but I know I’ll be participating. The most likely authors will be Shusaku Endo, Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, or Nobel prize winners Kawabata or Oe. If you’re participating also, check out my reviews from the first challenge. I read some great books!
Popularity: 12% [?]
Thursday, July 10th, 2008Review: Unaccustomed Earth
Although I haven’t yet read Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize winning Interpreter of Maladies, after reading Unaccustomed Earth, I can understand why the committee was so impressed with her writing. Her stories of the Bengali immigrant experience were very well developed, and they had closure to them, something I’ve noticed is often times lacking in modern short stories. All the characters in the book have similar backgrounds — high intelligence and high potential — yet each story was unique. Each character was struggling with his or her own set of issues, most of them due to the individuals’ adjustment, or lack thereof, of living in a culture so different from their own or that of their parents.
Themes explored include family, loyalty, duty, and honor. Relationships encountered were father and daughter, husband and wife, brother and sister, roommate to roommate, and childhood friend to childhood friend. Birth, life, marriage, children, divorce, and death. These few stories covered a wide range of experiences of the Bengali immigrant living in America and illustrated well how being Bengali shaped the characters’ choices.
Highly recommended. I will definitely be reading Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake at a later date.
2008, 333 pp.
Rating: 
Popularity: 20% [?]
Sunday, July 6th, 2008Semi-Annual Report (Sunday Salon)
61 books read, all of which can be seen HERE
17170 pages read
Average number of pages per book: 281
21 female authors
30 male authors
46 new authors
11 books in translation
6 languages in translation: japanese (3), hungarian (3), french (2), icelandic (1), german (1), italian (1)
The best books of the first half of the year (not in any order except first two):
Maus I 
by Art Spiegelman (1986, 161 pp.)
Maus II by Art Spiegelman (1991, 127 pp.)
Strangers by Taichi Yamada (1987 [2003 in U.S.], 203 pp.)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (2003, 226 pp.)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (1998, 341 pp.)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Silence by Shusaku Endo (1966, 201 pages)
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1968, 236 pp.)
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood (1988, 462 pp.)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (1908, 369 pp.)
The Sister by Poppy Adams (2008, 275 pp.)
Kaddish for a Child not Born by Imre Kertesz (1990, 95 pp.)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (2007, 533 pp.)
The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy (1966, 146 pp.)
Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case by Mordecai Richler (1995, 144 pp.)
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (2008, 333 pp.)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (2005, 198 pp.)
Popularity: 27% [?]
Thursday, July 3rd, 20081001 List: additions to the list
The 1001 List has been updated to include more international writers. Pages Turned posted the new additions, which I’ve listed below. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read and italicized the ones I’m interested in reading. I’m trying to decide which list I’ll use for the 1% challenge, and I think it’s going to be the original list. I’ll probably base my decision on the number of books I want to read in the additions versus the subtractions. I’ll post a list of the subtractions shortly.
Titles already read: 5
Titles interested in reading: 24
: Pre 1800 :
0002 : The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter . Anonymous *
0003 : The Tale of Genji . Murasaki Shikibu *
0004 : Romance of the Three Kingdoms . Luó Guànzhong *
0005 : The Water Margin . Shi Nai’an & Luó Guànzhong *
0007 : Tirant lo Blanc . Joanot Martorell *
0008 : La Celestina . Fernando de Rojas *
0009 : Amadis of Gaul . Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo *
0010 : The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes . Anonymous *
0012 : The Lusiad . Luís Vaz de Camões *
0013 : Monkey: A Journey to the West . Wú Chéng’en *
0015 : Thomas of Reading . Thomas Deloney *
0017 : The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda . Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra *
0018 : The Conquest of New Spain . Bernal Díaz del Castillo *
0019 : The Adventurous Simplicissimus . Hans von Grimmelshausen *
0051 : Anton Reiser . Karl Philipp Moritz *
0054 : A Dream of Red Mansions . Cao Xueqin *
0061 : Jacques the Fatalist . Denis Diderot *
: 1800s :
0065 : Henry of Ofterdingen . Novalis *
0066 : Rameau’s Nephew . Denis Diderot *
0068 : Michael Kohlhaas . Heinrich von Kleist *
0077 : The Life and the Opinions of the Tombcat Murr . E.T.A. Hoffmann *
0084 : Eugene Onegin . Alexander Pushkin *
0089 : The Lion of Flanders . Hendrick Conscience *
0092 : Camera Obscura . Hildebrand *
0093 : A Hero of Our Times . Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov *
0098 : Facundo . Domingo Faustino Sarmiento *
0099 : The Devil’s Pool . George Sand *
0113 : Green Henry . Gottfried Keller *
0116 : Indian Summer . Adalbert Stifter *
0132 : Last Chronicle of Barset . Anthony Trollope *
0149 : The Enchanted Wanderer . Nicolai Leskov *
0151 : Pepita Jimenéz . Juan Valera *
0152 : The Crime of Father Amado . José Maria Eça de Queirós *
0155 : Martín Fierro . José Hernández *
0167 : The Regent’s Wife . Clarín Leopoldo Alas *
0173 : The Quest . Frederik van Eeden *
0175 : The Manors of Ulloa . Emilia Pardo Bazán *
0178 : Under the Yoke . Ivan Vazov *
0179 : The Child of Pleasure . Gabriele D’Annunzio *
0180 : Eline Vere . Louis Couperus *
0184 : Thaïs . Anatole France *
0187 : Down There . Joris-Karl Huysmans *
0194 : The Viceroys . Federico De Roberto *
0202 : Compassion . Benito Pérez Galdós *
0203 : Pharaoh . Boleslaw Prus *
0206 : As a Man Grows Older . Italo Svevo *
0207 : Dom Casmurro . Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis *
0210 : Eclipse of the Crescent Moon . Géza Gárdonyi *
: 1900s :
0212 : Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem . Emilio Salgari *
0214 : None but the Brave . Arthur Schnitzler *
0223 : The Call of the Wild . Jack London *
0224 : Memoirs of my Nervous Illness . Daniel P. Schreber *
0225 : The Way of All Flesh . Samuel Butler *
0230 : Solitude . Víctor Català *
0241 : The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge . Rainer Maria Rilke *
0250 : Platero and I . Juan Ramón Jiménez *
0258 : Rashomon . Akutagawa Ryunosuke *
0261 : The Underdogs . Mariano Azuela *
0262 : Pallieter . Felix Timmermans *
0263 : Home and the World . Rabindranath Tagore *
0267 : The Storm of Steel . Ernst Jünger *
0272 : Life of Christ . Giovanni Papini *
0275 : Claudine’s House . Colette *
0277 : The Forest of the Hanged . Liviu Rebreanu *
0288 : The New World . Heruy Wäldä-Sellassé *
0295 : Chaka the Zulu . Thomas Mofolo *
0299 : Under Satan’s Sun . Geroges Bernanos *
0301 : Alberta and Jacob . Cora Sandel *
0306 : The Case of Sergeant Grischa . Arnold Zweig *
0326 : I Thought of Daisy . Edmund Wilson *
0329 : Look Homeward, Angel . Thomas Wolfe *
0333 : Monica . Saunders Lewis *
0334 : Insatiability . Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz *
0339 : The Return of Philip Latinowicz . Miroslav Krleza *
0341 : The Forbidden Realm . J.J. Slauerhoff *
0344 : Vipers’ Tangle . François Mauriac *
0346 : Cheese . Willem Elsschot *
0347 : Man’s Fate . André Malraux *
0359 : On the Heights of Despair . Emil Cioran *
0360 : The Bells of Basel . Louis Aragon *
0370 : War with the Newts . Karel Capek *
0376 : Rickshaw Boy . Lao She *
0379 : Ferdydurke . Witold Gombrowicz *
0380 : The Blind Owl . Sadegh Hedayat *
0388 : Alamut . Vladimir Bartol *
0392 : On the Edge of Reason . Miroslav Krleza *
0403 : The Man Who Loved Children . Christina Stead *
0404 : Broad and Alien is the World . Ciro Alegría *
0406 : The Harvesters . Cesare Pavese *
0410 : Chess Story . Stefan Zweig *
0412 : Joseph and His Brothers . Thomas Mann *
0417 : Pippi Longstocking . Astrid Lindgren *
0424 : Bosnian Chronicle . Ivo Andric *
0425 : The Tin Flute . Gabrielle Roy *
0426 : Andrea . Carmen Laforet *
0427 : The Death of Virgil . Hermann Broch *
0429 : Zorba the Greek . Nikos Kazantzakis *
0431 : House in the Uplands . Erskine Caldwell *
0438 : Midaq Alley . Naguib Mahfouz *
0439 : Froth on the Daydream . Boris Vian *
0440 : Journey to the Alcarria . Camilo José Cela *
0441 : Ashes and Diamonds . Jerzy Andrzejewski *
0445 : In the Heart of the Seas . Shmuel Yosef Agnon *
0446 : This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman . Tadeusz Borowski *
0457 : A Town Like Alice . Nevil Shute *
0463 : The Guiltless . Hermann Broch *
0464 : Barabbas . Pär Lagerkvist *
0474 : The Hive . Camilo José Cela *
0479 : Excellent Women . Barbara Pym *
0480 : A Thousand Cranes . Yasunari Kawabata *
0485 : The Lost Steps . Alejo Carpentier *
0486 : The Hothouse . Wolfgang Koeppen *
0489 : The Dark Child . Camara Laye *
0490 : A Day in Spring . Ciril Kosmac *
0495 : The Mandarins . Simone de Beauvoir *
0497 : Death in Rome . Wolfgang Koeppen *
0498 : The Sound of Waves . Yukio Mishima *
0499 : The Unknown Soldier . Väinö Linna *
0503 : The Burning Plain . Juan Rulfo *
0506 : The Tree of Man . Patrick White *
0508 : The Devil to Pay in the Backlands . João Guimarães Rosa *
0517 : The Glass Bees . Ernst Jünger *
0521 : The Manila Rope . Veijo Meri *
0522 : The Deadbeats . Ward Ruyslinck *
0528 : The Birds . Tarjei Vesaas *
0532 : Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon . Jorge Amado *
0536 : The Guide . R.K. Narayan *
0538 : Deep Rivers . José María Arguedas *
0542 : Down Second Avenue . Ezekiel Mphahlele *
0551 : The Magician of Lublin . Isaac Bashevis Singer *
0552 : Halftime . Martin Walser *
0554 : Bebo’s Girl . Carlo Cassola *
0555 : God’s Bit of Wood . Ousmane Sembène *
0556 : The Shipyard . Juan Carlos Onetti *
0563 : No One Writes to the Colonel . Gabriel García Márquez *
0565 : Memoirs of a Peasant Boy . Xosé Neira Vilas *
0569 : Time of Silence . Luis Martín-Santos *
0574 : The Death of Artemio Cruz . Carlos Fuentes *
0575 : The Time of the Hero . Mario Vargas Llosa *
0576 : The Garden of the Finzi-Continis . Giorgio Bassani *
0578 : The Third Wedding . Costas Taktsis *
0579 : Dog Years . Günter Grass *
0591 : Three Trapped Tigers . Guillermo Cabrera Infante *
0594 : Back to Oegstgeest . Jan Wolkers *
0595 : Closely Watched Trains . Bohumil Hrabal *
0597 : Garden, Ashes . Danilo Kis *
0601 : Death and the Dervish . Mesa Selimovic *
0602 : Silence . Shusaku Endo *
0603 : To Each His Own . Leonardo Sciascia *
0606 : Marks of Identity . Juan Goytisolo *
0612 : Miramar . Naguib Mahfouz *
0613 : Z . Vassilis Vassilikos *
0615 : The Manor . Isaac Bashevis Singer *
0618 : Day of the Dolphin . Robert Merle *
0621 : The Cathedral . Oles Honchar *
0637 : Jacob the Liar . Jurek Becker *
0643 : The Case Worker . György Konrád *
0644 : Moscow Stations . Venedikt Yerofeev *
0645 : Heartbreak Tango . Manuel Puig *
0646 : Seasons of Migrations to the North . Tayeb Salih *
0647 : Here’s to You, Jesusa! . Elena Poniatowska *
0648 : Fifth Business . Robertson Davies *
0649 : Play It As It Lays . Joan Didion *
0651 : A World for Julius . Alfredo Bryce Echenique *
0656 : Cataract . Mykhaylo Osadchyl *
0660 : Lives of Girls & Women . Alice Munro *
0666 : The Twilight Years . Sawako Ariyoshi *
0667 : The Optimist’s Daughter . Eudora Welty *
0676 : The Dispossessed . Ursula K. Le Guin *
0677 : The Diviners . Margaret Laurence *
0681 : The Port . Antun Soljan *
0683 : The Commandant . Jessica Anderson *
0684 : The Year of the Hare . Arto Paasilinna *
0686 : Woman at Point Zero . Nawal El Saadawi *
0695 : Blaming . Elizabeth Taylor *
0699 : Kiss of the Spider Woman . Manuel Puig *
0700 : Almost Transparent Blue . Ryu Murakami *
0702 : The Engineer of the Human Soul . Josef Skvorecky *
0703 : Quartet in Autumn . Barbara Pym *
0706 : The Wars . Timothy Findley *
0710 : The Beggar Maid . Alice Munro *
0711 : Requiem for a Dream . Hubert Selby Jr. *
0715 : The Back Room . Carmen Martín Gaite *
0720 : So Long a Letter . Mariama Bâ *
0723 : A Dry White Season . André Brink *
0725 : Fool’s Gold . Maro Douka *
0727 : Southern Seas . Manuel Vásquez Montalbán *
0729 : Clear Light of Day . Anita Desai *
0732 : Smell of Sadness . Alfred Kossmann *
0733 : Broken April . Ismail Kadare *
0737 : The House with the Blind Glass Windows . Herbjørg Wassmo *
0738 : Leaden Wings . Zhang Jie *
0739 : The War at the End of the World . Mario Vargas Llosa *
0742 : Couples, Passerby . Botho Strauss *
0752 : The Book of Disquiet . Fernando Pessoa *
0753 : Baltasar and Blimunda . José Saramago *
0759 : The Christmas Oratorio . Göran Tunström *
0760 : Fado Alexandrino . António Lobo Antunes *
0761 : The Witness . Juan José Saer *
0765 : Professor Martens’ Departure . Jaan Kross *
0767 : Larva: Midsummer Night’s Babel . Julián Ríos *
0771 : Democracy . Joan Didion *
0779 : The Young Man . Botho Strauss *
0780 : Love Medicine . Louise Erdrich *
0782 : Half of Man is Woman . Zhang Xianliang *
0787 : Blood Meridian . Cormac McCarthy *
0789 : Simon and the Oaks . Marianne Fredriksson *
0791 : Annie John . Jamaica Kincaid *
0794 : Ancestral Voices . Etienne van Heerden *
0795 : The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman . Andrzej Szczypiorski *
0800 : Memory of Fire . Eduardo Galeano *
0806 : Ballad for Georg Henig . Viktor Pasokov *
0810 : Of Love and Shadows . Isabel Allende *
0812 : All Souls . Javier Marías *
0814 : Black Box . Amos Oz *
0819 : Kitchen . Banana Yoshimoto *
0823 : The First Garden . Anne Hébert *
0824 : The Last World . Christoph Ransmayr *
0829 : Paradise of the Blind . Duong Thu Huong *
0831 : Gimmick! . Joost Zwagerman *
0832 : Obabakoak . Bernardo Atzaga *
0833 : Inland . Gerald Murnane *
0838 : The Great Indian Novel . Shashi Tharoor *
0846 : The Shadow Lines . Amitav Ghosh *
0853 : The Daughter . Pavlos Matesis *
0856 : The Laws . Connie Palman *
0857 : Faceless Killers . Henning Mankell *
0858 : Astradeni . Eugenia Fakinou *
0865 : Memoirs of Rain . Sunetra Gupta *
0869 : The Dumas Club . Arturo Pérez-Reverte *
0875 : All the Pretty Horses . Cormac McCarthy *
0876 : The Triple Mirror of the Self . Zulfikar Ghose *
0877 : Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture . Apostolos Doxiadis *
0880 : Before Night Falls . Reinaldo Arenas *
0882 : The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll . Álvaro Mutis *
0883 : Remembering Babylon . David Malouf *
0884 : The Holder of the World . Bharati Mukherjee *
0890 : The Twins . Tessa de Loo *
0894 : Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light . Ivan Klima *
0897 : Deep River . Shusaku Endo *
0904 : Our Lady of the Assassins . Fernando Vallejo *
0907 : Troubling Love . Elena Ferrante *
0908 : The Late-Night News . Petros Markaris *
0913 : Santa Evita . Tomás Martínez *
0923 : A Light Comedy . Eduardo Mendoza *
0924 : Fall on Your Knees . Ann-Marie MacDonald *
0927 : Margot and the Angels . Kristien Hemmerechts *
0929 : Money to Burn . Ricardo Piglia *
0938 : The Heretic . Miguel Deliber *
0941 : Dirty Havana Trilogy . Pedro Juan Gutiérrez *
0942 : Savage Detectives . Roberto Bolaño *
0945 : Pavel’s Letters . Monika Moron *
0946 : In Search of Klingsor . Jorge Volpi *
0947 : The Museum of Unconditional Surrender . Dubravka Ugresic *
0948 : Fear and Trembling . Amélie Nothomb
: 2000s :
0949 : Bartleby and Co. . Enrique Vila-Matas *
0958 : The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . Michael Chabon *
0960 : I’m Not Scared . Niccolò Ammaniti *
0961 : Soldiers of Salamis . Javier Cercas *
0967 : Snow . Orhan Pamuk *
0972 : The Namesake . Jhumpa Lahiri *
0973 : Vernon God Little . DBC Pierre *
0974 : The Successor . Ismail Kadare *
0975 : Lady Number Thirteen . José Carlos Somoza *
0978 : A Tale of Love and Darkness . Amos Oz *
0979 : Your Face Tomorrow . Javier Marías *
0981 : The Swarm . Frank Schätzing *
0982 : Suite Française . Irène Némirovsky *
0985 : The Book about Blanche and Marie . Per Olov Enquist *
0986 : Small Island . Andrea Levy *
0987 : 2666 . Roberto Bolaño *
0988 : The Line of Beauty . Alan Hollinghurst *
0989 : The Accidental . Ali Smith *
0991 : A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian . Marina Lewycka *
0992 : Measuring the World . Daniel Kehlmann *
0993 : Mother’s Milk . Edward S. Aubyn *
0994 : Carry Me Down . M.J. Hyland *
0995 : Against the Day . Thomas Pynchon *
0996 : The Inheritance of Loss . Kiran Desai *
0997 : The Kindly Ones . Jonathan Littell *
0998 : Half of a Yellow Sun . Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie *
0999 : The Reluctant Fundamentalist . Mohsin Hamid *
1000 : Falling Man . Don DeLillo *
1001 : Animal’s People . Indra Sinha *
Popularity: 32% [?]
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008Oranges in July
Jill from The Magic Lasso is prompting others to read as many books in July as we can that have been longlisted, shortlisted, or won by the Orange Prize. I hope to read at least the first two titles on the list. I’m also interested in reading the other titles in the next year or so. A group of us are reading Oranges at the Orange Prize Project as well. Check it out!
- What Was Lost
- The Poisonwood Bible
- The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney
- Unless, by Carol Shields
- Larry’s Party, by Carol Shields
- Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
- The Dream Life of Sukhanov
- The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
- Fall On Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai
- Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
- The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly
Popularity: 22% [?]
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008July Book Blowout
Mrs. S is hosting a challenge to read as many books as possible during July.
Click on the button for more info.
She’s also written a meme to get us started:
1. Describe yourself in one sentence
I’m a wife, a mother to two wonderful teenage boys, and an avid book lover.
2. What book will you start the challenge with?
Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger
3. Where is your favourite place to read?
I like to read outside by the pool, in bed, and on my comfy leather couch.
4. What is your favourite book of all time?
Probably Jane Eyre and/or Persuasion
5. Remind us all of your challenge target
I’m going to say 10 because even though some months I’ve been reading over that, I’m going to be working full-time soon and won’t have as much time to read as I used to.
My books for the challenge (I’m going for 10):
- Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger (2008, 320 pp.)
- The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton (2008, 256 pp.)
- The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle (2007, 336 pp.)
- The Photograph by Penelope Lively (2003, 231 pp.)
- What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (2008 in the U.S.)
Some titles I’m thinking about:
- The White Mary
- The Poisonwood Bible
Popularity: 21% [?]
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008Orbis Terrarum Complete!
Thank you, B&B Ex Libris for hosting this challenge! The goal was to read 9 different books, written by 9 different authors, from 9 different countries.
My favorites from this challenge were Kaddish for a Child not Born and The Cellist of Sarajevo. My least favorite titles were On Chesil Beach and Lolita.
The books I read:
- Kaddish for a Child not Born by Imre Kertesz (Hungarian author)
- The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway (Canadian author) - Things Fall Apart by Achebe (Nigerian author)
- Silk
by Alessandro Baricco (Italian author) - On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan (UK author) - Snow by Maxence Fermine (French author)
- The Castle by Franz Kafka (Czech author)
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (Irish author)
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Russian author)
Popularity: 12% [?]
Monday, June 30th, 2008Canadian Challenge Complete!
I did it! This challenge was one of the most difficult to complete, but I feel such a sense of accomplishment for doing so. I read some great books along the way and will definitely participate in the second Canadian Challenge. Hosted by John at The Book Mine Set, the goal of this challenge was to read 13 books written by or about Canadians.
I read 2 books originally in French, and 12 different authors. Ten of the books were written by female authors. My favorites of the bunch were Cat’s Eye, The Road Past Altamont, Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case, and The Penelopiad. My least favorite by far was Bear by Marian Engel.
I’d really like to encourage participants of the next challenge to read Mad Shadows and The Road Past Altamont, the two French titles. Though obscure, Mad Shadows had a Wuthering Heights feel to it and The Road Past Altamont felt like a cross between Cather and Montgomery. Also, the Jacob Two-Two series is one to look into if you like children’s books. I loved Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case. And of course, it goes without saying that most books by Atwood would be great choices as well.
Thanks, John, for a wonderful challenge, and I look forward to the coming year of more Canadian books.
- Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais
- The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
- Sitting Practice by Caroline Adderson
- Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
- Kanada by Eva Wiseman
- The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
- The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case by Mordecai Richler
- Bear by Marian Engel
- The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Popularity: 14% [?]
Monday, June 30th, 2008Banned Book Challenge Complete!
I chose my books from this list: Pelham Public Library’s List of Banned Books 2008
I committed to 8 titles. Here were the books I read:
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
- The Chocolate War by Cormier
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Popularity: 11% [?]
Sunday, June 29th, 2008Review: Bear by Marian Engel
Ummm…..no. No, no, no, no, no. I don’t think I can recommend this title. That this book won the Governor General’s Award flabbergasts me. A librarian and a bear get kinky on a small Canadian island. That’s all you really need to know to realize why I didn’t like this book.
1976 Governor General’s Award
1976, 141 pp.
Rating: 
Popularity: 22% [?]
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