50 Book Challenge for 2011

[Belowen]

Finished number twelve, now onto number thirteen...

01: American Subversive by David Goodwillie
02: The Collector by John Fowles
03: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
04: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
05: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
06: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
07: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
08: The Forest Of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan
09: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
10: The Odyssey by Homer
11: The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
12: The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
13: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Question for the group: What has been the best book you've read so far this year?

For me it would have to be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. That book still lingers in my mind to this day, and I don't think I've ever had such a strong emotional reaction to the ending of a story as I did when I'd finished The Book Thief. Such a beautiful story, and such incredible characters. I was blown away.

 

[Alvedansen]

^have fun with that one, it's a quick read. i couldn't put it down. it wouldn't surprise me to see you in this thread having finished it within 24 hours

01. John Steinbeck - The grapes of wrath
02. Richard Matheson - I am legend
03. Joyce Carol Oates - Big mouth & Ugly girl
04. Ken Follett - The pillars of the earth
05. Haruki Murakami - Afterdark
06. Gayle Forman - If I stay
07. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
08. Patti Smith - Just kids
09. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
10. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The lightning thief

now onto the sea of monsters

 

[ChrissyM]

Question for the group: What has been the best book you've read so far this year?

For me it would have to be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. That book still lingers in my mind to this day, and I don't think I've ever had such a strong emotional reaction to the ending of a story as I did when I'd finished The Book Thief. Such a beautiful story, and such incredible characters. I was blown away.

I think for me so far the best book I've read this year has probably been Just Kids by Patti Smith.
She writes beautifully and did a great job of sort of transporting you to her world by giving an intimate view of her relationship with robert mapplethorpe and of new york at that time
I was really pleasantly surprised by it, especially since i hadn't read any of her work before and haven't been overly exposed to her music...
truly didn't expect to be as drawn in as i was

really looking forward to reading the book thief though
hoping it will be one of the next couple books i read

 

[lucy92]

"just kids" is on my list to read also. patti is working on a sequel to it (i think its going to be more about her marriage to fred sonic smith). she's also almost done with a detective book.

the last book i read was "sarah's key" by tatiana de rosney this week. the writing was a little predictable. it is being turned into a movie kristen scott thomas.

 

[saann]

I was the same Belowen after I read The book thief, it really is one of my all-time favorite books! But out of the ones I've read this year I think it's between 'the Great Gatsby' and 'for one more day'. Something about the last one has just stuck with me. I can't get it out of my head.

I thought 'the Lovely Bones', 'the Gargoyle' and 'Never let me go' were beautifully written as well. I think I like sad books for some reason..

On to my list, I'm two-timing my book right now. I have to read a few classics for a course I've just started taking so I'm reading two books at the moment:
1. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
2. Never let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
3. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
4. the Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Pop Co - Scarlett Thomas
6. jPod - Douglas Coupland
7. Freakonomics - Stephen D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
8. The bell jar - Sylvia Plath
9. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
10. for one more day - Mitch Albom
11. Prayers for Rain - Dennis Lehane
12. The Sunset Limited - Cormac McCarthy
13. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

 

[ChrissyM]

^^i think sad books can sometimes just be more memorable because they tug at our heartstrings in a different way...

i feel like you remember the things that provoke a reaction..
especially if you shed some tears (rather than being provoked to a laugh, which for some reason is more forgettable... maybe it's more easily achieved and more superficial?)

 

[miss_catherine]

I don't know if that's entirely true. Those books that really and consistently make you laugh can be quite memorable. I'm thinking her of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated which I really loved. It had some sadder, poignant moments too, but I really think that if there hadn't been those laugh out loud moments it wouldn't have been as good a book.

 

[Dora]

Finished "Taj-A story of Mughal India" by Timeri N. Murari

I so want to visit Taj MAHAL!!!!!!!

 

[kate_is_goddess]

I don't know if that's entirely true. Those books that really and consistently make you laugh can be quite memorable. I'm thinking her of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated which I really loved. It had some sadder, poignant moments too, but I really think that if there hadn't been those laugh out loud moments it wouldn't have been as good a book.

Oh yes, I love that one! You have to check out "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" as well (if you haven't already) - it's both really funny and sad, such a good book!

 

[lucy92]

i am now starting mildred pierce by james cain. i need to finish it before the movie with kate winslet is out.

 

[Susann]

finished nr.4: L'Homme à l'envers by Fred Vargas

 

[ChrissyM]

I don't know if that's entirely true. Those books that really and consistently make you laugh can be quite memorable. I'm thinking her of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated which I really loved. It had some sadder, poignant moments too, but I really think that if there hadn't been those laugh out loud moments it wouldn't have been as good a book.

i would agree that the laughter it invokes can definitely make this book memorable, but i think it's also the juxtaposition with the sad stuff... i LOVE the movie version..
the humor there is really memorable..

also, i agree with kate_is_goddess about extremely loud and incredibly close...
definitely worth reading, and as a book i actually liked it better than everything is illuminated

 

[wild roses]

I've finished reading several books since I was last in here. My updated list:

1. Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery
2. The Chimes by Charles Dickens
3. High Spirited Women of the West by Anne Seagraves
4. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. Short Fiction of Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary Wilkins Freeman edited by Barbara H. Solomon
6. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel
7. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek
8. Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot by Jay Mulvaney
9. Anne of Windy Willows by L. M. Montgomery
10. Villette by Charlotte Bronte.
11. Peony in Love by Lisa See

PIL should have been good, but it wasn't. It's one of show-rather-tell written novels. Also, the heroines seems never to evolve. Although she ~tells~ us she has matured, I found her to be the same old, pining, jumping to conclusions and making realizations after it is was too late, 16 year old self throughout the entire novel. Also, the plot is very predictable (and it shouldn't have been, given that it's based on historical fact).

Right now, I'm reading: Reading Jackie, a book on Onassis' editing career, a biography on the Cushing sisters and The Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes.

 

[Nemova]

1. Satori in Paris - Jack Kerouac
2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
3. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein
4. Faust - Goethe

Reading "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" was, for a number of reasons, a bumpy ride, but it was well worth it. I's a highly narcissistic exercise of self-appraisal for the author for the most part but I was later rewarded for not giving up, when Stein describes her World War I years helping soldiers around France (along with her longtime companion Alice B. Toklas). I recommend this book to anyone except for those who dislike Gertrude Stein (it may cause those to dislike her even more).

 

[Dora]

Finished: La piel del tambor of Arturo Pérez-Reverte

 

[Dora]

finished: Paul et Virginie - Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

 

[miss_catherine]

I haven't read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close yet but I bought a secondhand copy of it several months ago and have plans to read it at some point very soon. It sounds excellent and your recommendations make me even more eager to read it. Ta, lovelies!

 

[Annu]

14. The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh of H.E. Bates
I only remembered the first episode of the show, but books (all three stories in same book) was pretty funny. I miss summer.

Question for the group: What has been the best book you've read so far this year?

Consolation by Anna Gavalda. One of my favorites ever But Marilyn's My Story was pretty good too.

 

[Alvedansen]

01. John Steinbeck - The grapes of wrath
02. Richard Matheson - I am legend
03. Joyce Carol Oates - Big mouth & Ugly girl
04. Ken Follett - The pillars of the earth
05. Haruki Murakami - Afterdark
06. Gayle Forman - If I stay
07. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
08. Patti Smith - Just kids
09. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
10. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The lightning thief
11. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The sea of monsters

now reading the next in the series, The titan's curse

 

[Annu]

15. Unaccustomed earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lovely collection of short stories about educated Indians, the mostly located in America. Amazingly written, I have to check her other books too.