Paruline's taking-it-easy 2013 challenge

Hi everyone! Welcome to my thread!

I'm taking it easy this year. As long as I have one book in each category, I'll consider my challenge a success. I'm hoping to read between 40 and 50 books between today (December 13th) and the end of 2013. I'm going to focus again this year on the 1001 books to read before you die list but I'm also going to make an attempt to read all these book bullets.

My ratings are entirely subjective and are mostly based on how much I enjoy a book:

1 star : read more than half but could not finished
2 stars : did not like it, had trouble finishing
3 stars : liked some things, disliked others. An ok read
4 stars : liked the book a lot, but doubtful if I'm ever going to reread
4.5 stars : liked it so much it's staying in my personal library and am probably going to reread
5 stars : A big emotional experience for me. A personal favorite

I've been having a hard time choosing a theme and finally settled on my childhood favorite books.

Anne of Green Gables: Canadian authors
Little House on the Prairie: American authors
Le petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas): French authors
Olivier Rameau: Fantasy and science-fiction
The Neverending Story: series
Sans famille (Nobody's boy): Children's book
Mémoires d'un âne (Memoirs of a donkey): unfinished books
Mon bel oranger (My sweet-orange tree): Spanish literature
Les Schtroumpfs (The smurfs): literary works or prize winners
L'étalon noir (The black stallion): books with an animal in the title
Fantômette (Fantomette): women authors
Julie des loups (Julie of the wolves): exotic places

And a whatever-I-want-to-read category

Anne of Green Gables - If a fictional character could be my best friend, I would probably choose Anne (with an 'e'). This category will be for Canadian authors or for books with a canadian setting.

3 read
The lost garden
Surfacing
The shipping news

Little house on the prairie - I loved this series as a child: the frontier, the pioneers helping each other, cows going through the house's roof! This category will be for American authors.

5 read
Push
The history of love
The lost city of Z
The optimist's daughter
The bluest eye

Le petit Nicolas - These books (there are several) kind of revolutionized children literature when they were published, at least in France. For the first time, the story was told from the point of view of the child and not from an adult's perspective. And what a voice Nicolas has! Hilarious, enthusiastic, imaginative tellings of such events as the class picture being taken, a soccer game, summer vacations. And really, it's too bad the adults always seem so tired! This category will be for French authors.

5 read
Therese Raquin
Alan's war
Le démon des glaces
Les racines du ciel
Reveries of the solitary walker

Olivier Rameau - What impressed me with these graphic novels when I was a child was the sheer exuberance of the drawings. Each frame is crammed with a colorful, richly-imagined world. And who wouldn't love to live in Rêverose, the dwelling place of poets and dreamers away from the Real-world-where-it's-boring? This category will be for sci-fi and fantasy.

5 read

A wrinkle in time
Le mur invisible (The wall)
Earth abides
The Hunger Games
Ender's game

The Neverending story - I read the book before seeing the movie and it's been a favorite ever since. This category will be for series.

3 read

Parable of the sower
The adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Corto Maltèse en Sibérie

Nobody's boy (Sans famille) - This is my 10-years-old self: Whatdoyoumean, you can be sold to a traveling musician, and then your dogs DIE and then you get buried alive in a mine, and then you buy a cow? A bit long-winded but with a lot of heart and compassion for the plight of the poor. This category will be for children books.

4 read
Black Beauty
The illustrated mum
De cape et de crocs
The eyes of the Amaryllis

Memoirs of a donkey (Mémoires d'un âne) - The memoirs of Cadichon the donkey with a succession of masters, some good, some bad. I read almost all of the Comtesse de Ségur's books and this one was maybe my favorite. Quite dated now, with corporal punishment galore, and moustach-twirling villains. This category will be for unfinished books or books I've been meaning to read for at least three years.

4 read
Smilla's sense of snow
The time traveler's wife
Remarkable creatures
If this is a man

My sweet-orange tree (Mon bel oranger) - This book has all the sadness and made me cry all the tears. This was my first big emotional experience while reading. This category will be for Spanish literature.

2 read
The cubs (Les chiots)
The Violin of Auschwitz

Les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs) - My parents encouraged us to read this series because they believed that it builds vocabulary; the reader has to replace the correct noun, verb or adjective based on context every time the Smurfs speak 'smurf'. This category will be for literary works and prize winners.

3 read
Essex County
The complete Maus
Salvage the bones

The Black Stallion (L'étalon noir) - Such a lovely story about the friendship between a boy and a horse. This category will be for books with an animal in the title.

3 read

The birds of Costa Rica
The wind-up bird chronicle
War horse

Fantomette - Fantomette, I loved you so. Ordinary girl by day, vigilante by night. You fought crime not with superpowers but by being smart and strong. And you knew all the languages. And you read Victor Hugo. Be my best friend? This category will be for women authors.

7 read
Agnes Grey
The thirteenth tale
North and South
Black Water
Adam Bede
Don't move
The diaries of Jane Somers

Julie of the wolves (Julie des loups) - I was fascinated by this story when I first read it. A girl my age, fleeing a bad marriage, and surviving in the Arctic by being adopted by a pack of wolves. This category will be for books with exotic settings.

5 read
Possessing the secret of joy
The home and the world
Memoirs of a geisha
A guide to the birds of East Africa
Democracy

Wathever-I-want-to-read category

5 read

David Copperfield
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
A distant neighborhood
Empire of the sun
Adèle et la bête

I like how everyone is having a relaxed attitude in this category. Everyone is guaranteed to succeed this way! I love your Memoirs of a Donkey for unfinished books.

I will also be taking a more relaxed approach to my 2013 reading. I have stuffed mine with fun, comfort reads. I like your childhood favorites theme!

Thanks Mamzel and Ikernagh. I'm going to flesh this thread a little bit more next week. In the meantime, I'm keeping busy with Christmas preparations and family events.

That's a lovely theme for a challenge!! Looking forward to seeing what you fill the categories with!

I love your categories! Makes me want to go back and reread a few of my old favorites.

Thanks Antqueen! I'm slowly adding pictures and descriptions to my categories.

<3 Falkor.

Me too!

I'm done prettying (is that a word) my category posts! Scroll up to see the pictures and my memories of each book.

Beautifully done! I might be hard pressed to remember 13 books from my childhood. From my kids' childhoods, no problem!

I loved scrolling through your childhood favorites, some I know quite well and others I didn't know at all. I would like Anne to be my best friend as well. :)

Very nicely put together challenge. I'll look forward to seeing how it gets filled up.

24- Hi mamzel, I don't remember either that many of the books I read before I was ten.

25- Which ones from my favorites did you read? I don't know how Fantomette or The Black Stallion would hold up if I reread them now but most of the other ones still interested me in my adult years.

26- Thanks Wolfy!

Hi Paruline. I have read all the Anne books, and all the Little House books as well. The Black Stallion was a favorite, and I know The Neverending Story through my daughter as it was one of her favorites. I actually have been gathering the Anne books back together again as I think I am due for a re-read of those great books!

Hi Paruline. Nice challenge set up. Looking forward to your reads. How many languages can you read?

Hi VioletBramble. I'm French Canadian and learned English in my teens. When it comes to other languages, I usually read the French translation. I'm also slowly learning Spanish - it's been an ongoing project for the last two years - but I'm still far from being able to read it.

Holiday time was busy, busy! But I'm back and trying to catch up on everyone's thread. I've also managed to read a couple of books:

Les chiots (The cubs): Short story about a boy castrated by a dog and how it affects his life in a very macho society. The writing was constantly flipping between first person plural and third person plural, often several times in the same sentence. Eventually, I decided not to care about who was telling the story and that made the experience more enjoyable. 3,5/5

Thérèse Raquin: This book has all the clichés but it invented them, so there. Infidelity leading to murder leading to insanity. 4/5

Push: A 16 years-old, sexually and physically abused by her parents, finds relief and self-acceptance by writing her life story. Very grim. 3,5/5

The lost garden: What a find! During WWII, an insecure woman blossoms and matures by taking care of a secret garden. Luscious writing. 4,5/5

Push is one I want to read, but every time I think of picking it up, I get flashes from the film preview in my head and then I get a stomachache and put it back down again. Some day...

The movie actually follows the book pretty well. There is a somewhat-hopeful ending though, if that helps.

Yes, "somewhat-hopeful ending" absolutely helps, but I'll need to be in the right mood, I think - whatever that "right" mood may prove to be. :)

Do I remember right - that her language and grammar improve as her situation improves? Or am I confusing it with another book?

Hi, paruline! It's fun that our themes are the same, but that all the books except Anne of Green Gables are different! The only other one on your list that I've read is The Black Stallion, and that wasn't until I read it to/with my younger daughter, when she wanted more books about horses after we finished Black Beauty. We both loved it. And my older daughter loved Julie of the Wolves, but somehow I've never gotten around to reading it.

I was especially excited about My Sweet-Orange Tree on your list. My 8-year-old granddaughter attends a Spanish immersion school, and I just ordered the Spanish language version of it. I couldn't find any information about reading level, so it may be beyond her ability -- her English reading level is far beyond her Spanish -- but she can take it to school and have her teacher evaluate it. If it's too difficult now, perhaps it will work in a year or two, and it sounds as though the story might be better when she's a bit older, anyway. I wish I'd found an English version as well (so I can read it), but I could only find English translations at upwards of $150!

mamzel - yes, you're remembering correctly. At first she spells fahver for father and maff for math. And this is the first line from her writing diary: li Mg o mi m (translation: Little Mongo on my mind).

Hi ivyd! There were so many candidates, it was hard to choose.

Glad you loved The Black Stallion. There's a whole series and I think I read every one; my parents bought us books as rewards for good grades and I always chose these.

As for My sweet-orange tree, your granddaughter might be too young, there are some difficult themes - I read it when I was eleven. But I think it will be a great reading experience for her whenever she gets around to it.

@ 38 -- Books as rewards for good grades? Sounds like the best idea ever!

I have great parents!

39 & 40. My parents never gave presents for grades (not as big a deal here as in the states, and you didn't get them until 8th grade anyway) but I did get books as pity gifts when ill or injured and for milestones.

It seems that I'm spending more time reading threads on LT than reading books. My new strategy will therefore be: from now on, I'll read my starred threads daily. Other threads will be read when they reach 40 unread posts. I only hope this will get me off the computer!

> 42 - It is so easy to fall into reading LT threads and finding no time for actual reading. Sounds like you have a good plan on how to balance the two. I have started to assign myself only so much time on line.... I have 8 more minutes before I get off this morning!

Yep, just keeping in line with the 'taking-it-easy' part of my challenge :-)

5- Agnes Grey

Finally read Anne Brontë! A gentle story about a governess trying to educate bratty children. Nothing much seems to happen but I kept turning the pages.

4/5

6- Essex County

Four stories about life, loss and loneliness (and of course, hockey) in Essex County. The connections between the characters become clearer as the stories unfold. Not much dialogue - a lot of things shown, not told.

4/5

7- Possessing the secret of joy

An honest and sensitive look into the effects of female genital mutilation on women, their family and their communities. A must read for everyone.

4/5

8- Smilla's sense of snow

Sigh, maybe I'm just not used to reading mysteries. The murder of a boy is somehow connected to international heroin trade and parasitic meteorites. I'm still not sure how it all fits together.

OTOH, Smilla was a great character, and I really liked reading about her thoughts on ice and snow and about her childhood memories of Greenland.

3.5/5

Reading goals for February:

Finish Black Beauty
Finish Roots of heaven
A wrinkle in time
A guide to the birds of East Africa
War horse

Well, we'll see how that goes.

49. Looking forward to reading your thought on War Horse as I might read that in March if time permits.

Will do!

I have Smilla's Sense of Snow in a box somewhere. If I make it through everything else I've pulled to read this month, I'll probably try to join those of you who read it this month.

9- Black Beauty

I really enjoyed this classic tale of the life of a horse, told from his perspective. There is some gentle moralizing throughout - basically be kind and mindful of people and animals - but it didn't bother me at all. I might have already read it when I was young because some parts seemed awfully familiar, but other parts not at all, so who knows?

4/5

I've been pretty much MIA on LibraryThing these past few weeks. Real life has been busy, busy: we're putting up our house for sale and looking for another one. Plus I've booked a trip for Costa Rica next month and I'm trying to learn to recognize the 850 species of birds that I might encounter.

I hope the moving is for a good reason. Have a great time in Costa Rica! *jealous*

Well, we've been kind of looking at bigger houses and last week we found one that we like very much. But that means we'll have to sell the one we have now.

Costa Rica has been a dream of mine for years. 30+ species of hummingbirds. Squeeee! I can't wait!

Enjoy Costa Rica! That should be a fun trip -- good luck with all your pre-vacation cramming!

Thanks!

10- The illustrated mum

Dolphin thinks she has the greatest mom. She tells marvelous stories, is covered in tattoos, and sometimes bakes cake (and only cake) for dinner. And really, it's not so bad when she doesn't come home at night or forgets to pay the bills. Or is it?

That was a wonderful story. You feel so much for Dol and her sister, and also for their mom.

4⁄5

The link doesn't work. :( You've teased me -- I wanted to find out more about this story!

I think I fixed it. Try again?

Fixed! Thanks! :) That looks like an interesting kids' book.

Returning the visit. I like the sound of The Lost Garden. The description sounds a bit like The Secret Garden but I imagine it's probably quite different since the main characters are adults rather than children.

You seemed to like Agnes Grey better than I did. I'll try The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at some point.

Smilla's Sense of Snow is on my list of books to read "some day". It's not high on the list, though, since it seems like a lot of LTers are lukewarm about it.

62- Hope you like it!

63- Hi Carrie! I recommend The lost garden if you can get your hands on it. It's more about love, longing and loss than The secret garden but yes, there are parallels. Also, the main character mentions To the lighthouse several times and now I'm thinking I need to make that my next Woolf.

Agnes Grey had a quiet charm for me; more reminiscent of an Austen (minus the comedy) than the other Brontës I read. I'm now looking forward to The tenant of Wildfell Hall.

I hope you enjoy Smilla's sense of snow more than I did when you get to it. The buildup was kind of disappointing for me.

11- A wrinkle in time

I've got to say I was disappointed in this one. I never connected with the characters, the story jumped all over the place, and basically, meh. The only interesting bit for me was the planet where everybody had to conform - pretty creepy.

2,5/5

12- A guide to the birds of East Africa

Mr. Malik has been secretly in love with Mrs. Mbikwa for years and just when he worked up the courage to ask her out, in comes the flashy Harry Khan ready to sweep her off her feet. A friendly competition begins between the two men: the one who sees the most bird species in a week will be the first to ask Mrs. Mbikwa to the annual ball.

I'm usually wary of stories where a woman is a prize but it works here, mainly because the prize is not Mrs. Mbikwa but the opportunity of asking first. She decides with whom she wants to go. I couldn't help but root for Mr. Malik, a decent man, whose past and personality are revealed throughout the week. The competition is also used as an excuse to learn about Kenya, its natural history and politics in an entertaining way.

Pet peeve: my copy has an hummingbird on the cover. Hummingbirds are only found in the Americas. This is the equivalent of putting an ostrich on the cover of a book with an American setting. Get it right, cover people!

4/5

Your review has reminded me that I've had my eye on A Guide to the Birds of East Africa for a while. I need to bump it up in my list!

I think you'll like it.

Nice review. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa is one of the books I'm going to try to squeeze in between the more planned reads. It looks like a quick read.
I'm considering Smilla's Sense of Snow for a future challenge. Someone recommended it to me as a non-Christmas book set at Christmas time.

Sorry to see A Wrinkle in Time was a disappointment. I have to admit I haven't read it yet myself, although I do understand some of the story from having read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

Oh hello, long-neglected thread. I missed you.

Goals for April:

- Write my reviews for The birds of Costa Rica, Maus, Le démon des glaces, Corto Maltese en Sibérie, and Adèle et la bête;
- Finish Roots of heaven (now at 50%);
- Finish David Copperfield (now at 30%);
- Read The Robber Bride for Atwood in April;
- Read War Horse and The eyes of the Amaryllis before they're due back at the library;
- Plan the next few months of reading to rebalance my skewed male/female authors' ratio.

13- The birds of Costa Rica



Look at me, putting cover pictures on my thread! I feel so tech-savy!

How to you review a field guide? Well, I guess about the same way you review a cookbook. And since this one was tested in the field, I can weight on what worked for me and what didn't.

Pros:
- Descriptive text helped to focus on important field marks
- Up to date information on status and range
- Sturdy cover
- Nice illustrations
- Maps on the same page as the illustrations

Cons:
- Maps were very small
- Colours were not always true to life (usually brighter in the book)
- Organization was sometimes puzzling
- I wish the authors used the Peterson method

Overall, a solid field guide and very useful for identifying birds in the field.

4,5∕5

14- The Complete Maus



I'm glad I finally read this classic graphic novel. Very creative and disturbing at the same time.

My only nitpick was that the author was so angry about not being able to learn about his mother's experiences of the war but he seemed completely uninterested in asking the other women survivors in his life.

4∕5

15- Adèle et la bête



Jacques Tardi is a talented illustrator but I'm afraid I did not like the story at all. A monster terrorizes Paris, something, something, the end. Convoluted, illogical, an abrupt nonsensical ending and an unlikable heroine.

2.5∕5

16- Le démon des glaces



This might be literally the biggest book I ever held in my hand; it's huge! And here Jacques Tardi's artwork really shined in great black and white plates.



Ah yes, the story. A young student in medicine tries to solve the mystery of disappearing ships in the Arctic and how it all relates to his favorite, eccentric, uncle.

4∕5

17- Corto Maltese en Sibérie



Corto Maltese is asked by a secret chinese society to steal the imperial gold transported by an armored train right after the Russian Revolution. While attempting to do so, he will be witness to historical events and meet historical figures, including Koltchak, Semenov, Ungern-Sternberg and the colonel Tchang Tso-lin.

The historical events raised my rating of this standard adventure graphic novel a notch.

3.5∕5

Hooray for such a colorful thread! I've had The Complete Maus on my wishlist for such a long time, I really need to get to it!

@74 I tried to watch the film The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. I have to say I turned it off after 10mins, a very silly mummy scene and heroine exuding no charm. Mind you I can't speak French so maybe it was the subtitles :)
The Arctic Marauder looks good!

@ 77 Doooooo iiiiiiiiit! It's quite short.

@ 78 yes quite a silly story line in Adèle et la bête also. I forgot to mention that The Arctic Marauder is very steampunk; don't know if this will be an added incentive or not.

Hurray for covers!

18- War Horse



A farm horse is sold to the British army during WW1, charges with the cavalry, is captured by the Germans, is used to carry the dead and injured before finding itself in No man's land.

Nice historical fiction for the 9-13 age group.

3.5∕5

19- The eyes of the Amaryllis



A young girl is asked to help her grandmother find a 'sign' from a shipwreck that happened long ago.

I almost abandoned it after the first few pages because I found the grandmother character nasty. I did not get involved in the farfetched story and only finished it because it was so short.

2∕5

I sort of agree with you about Eyes of the Amaryllis I read it last year. I thought the first chapter was way creepy and that the Grandmother was awful because she was willing to use her grandchild to get what she wanted.

And don't start me on her relationship with her son! Ugh!

20- Surfacing



A young woman works through the grief of loosing her parents and of a failed relationship by deconstructing herself in the Canadian bush.

I really liked this early Atwood, except that the ending felt rushed.

4/5

21- David Copperfield



Peggotty! Betsey Trotwood! Traddles! His hair! Dora! The friendly waiter! Miss Dartle! Steerforth! Miss Mowcher! That storm! The descriptions of love! And grief! And drunkenness! I need more exclamation points!!!!!

4/5

Don't forget Mr. Micawber, one of my favorite Dickens characters! And the odious Uriah Heep!

I know! But they are so well known already I thought I would highlight my other favourite bits.

They're all so memorable. Of course, David Copperfield is one of my all-time favorites.

Seriously, I haven't read David Copperfield but you exclamation point frenzied review really caught my attention! ;-)
Sounds like a great read!

Three words: Barkis is willing.

@ 91 :-)

22- Remarkable Creatures



Good historical fiction about two early women fossil hunters. Very well done.

4/5

23- Black Water



A drowning young woman remembers her life and the events that led to her predicament in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Steven King, you never wrote anything so dreadful and horrifying.

3.5/5

24- Don't move



A middle-aged man fights the bourgeois ennui of his perfect life by becoming fascinated by a poor, vulgar, unattractive woman. He remembers all this while his daughter is undergoing brain surgery.

The first chapter was original and interesting. As for the rest of this predictable story, yawn.

3/5

25- The time traveler's wife



From her perspective, they met when she was six and he was in his thirties. From his perspective, he met her when he was 28 and she was 20. That's what time travel does to your relationships.

What could have been a confusing mess turned out to be surprisingly easy to follow. Very well done, although there were some loose ends to a few of the side stories.

4/5

26- Chroniques de l'oiseau a ressort (The wind-up bird chronicle)



A young unemployed man whose wife has left him finds that the boundaries between fantasy and reality are not as rigid as he once thought.

Lots of weirdness but also lots of fun. My first but certainly not my last Murakami.

4/5

27- North and South



What started as a typical Victorian novel became an exploration of the question: should obedience to authority take precedence over rebellion from injustice? Is it ever dishonorable to follow your conscience?

Margaret ponders these questions when her father, a pastor, leaves the Church, when her brother participates in a mutiny in the Navy, and when she befriends both a factory owner and a strike leader.

Still actual after all these years.

4/5

28- Memoirs of a geisha



Very interesting historical fiction about the training and life of a geisha just before and after WW2. The love story felt a little contrived though.

4/5

Great batch of reading, Paruline! I also found The Time Traveler's Wife an easier story to follow that I was expecting.

Yep, haven't read any duds in a while.

Shh! Don't let the book fairies here you or they'll slip you a clunker.

Did I say I wasn't reading any duds? I meant they were all boring and badly written. Hear that, book fairies?

Lovely to see you today for tea! Et merci pour la conversation en français! :D

And note to self, read Le petit Nicolas.

Same here rabbitprincess! I'll post the pictures soon. And give me a heads up when you go to the National Archives book sale.

Wow, look at that, they managed to change LT in the three hours we were off line.

Quite a dramatic change indeed!

This afternoon, rabbitprincess, mysterymax and me had a mini meetup. The meetup was held at the Chateau Laurier at tea time.

We first had a lovely fruit salad.

The rolling tea-cart with the gigantic hot water dispenser came next. Rabbitprincess had the Maple tea, while mysterymax and myself had the Rose and Cherry tea.

Book lovers around the table.

Rabbitprincess and I then headed to the Chapters next door where we showed great restraint. She bought two books and I came home with four.

Ooh, that fruit salad picture turned out really nice! Great colours :) Thanks for bringing the camera!!

It's so fun to have an LT meet-up! Glad yours went well.

Goals for July:

- Write my reviews for Memoirs of a geisha and Adam Bede done!;
- Finish Roots of heaven (was put on hold at the 50% mark) done!;
- Finish The bluest eye before it's due back at the library done!;
- Participate in the July's female (sci-fi and fantasy) month. I've got The Hunger Games, Die Wand (The Wall) and The parable of the sower all lined up.

Quite envious of that tea-cart. And the sandwiches. And the scones. Hmm, I wonder how the idea of having high tea instead of a BBQ tomorrow will be received?? :)

>115 -Eva-:: One spoonful of tea per person, one for the pot, one for the harbour?! ;) Gives a new meaning to the Boston Tea Party...

How positively proper! Discussing books over tea at a linen-covered table. Nice!

@ 115, I'm craving them right now!

@116 Ha!

@ 117 Yes, I kept wanting to raise my little finger everytime I took a sip.

Looks like a lovely meetup in very civilized surroundings. I lived in Ottawa many years ago and although I attended a meeting at the Chateau Laurier once, I always wanted to go there for a meal, now of course afternoon tea sounds appealing.

How charming to have a place like that to go to for afternoon tea. If you came to where I live, we'd have to go out for gigantic breaded tenderloin sandwiches.

The tea and the setting are lovely. It looks like you three had a fun day.

Beth, that's exactly what I do when I'm in your neighborhood! I can't get breaded tenderloin here. Or frozen custard.

@ 119, it *was* lovely!

@ 120, Googling breaded tenderloin sandwiches right now!

@ 121, we did, and it was great to put some faces and voices on usernames.

29- Adam Bede



A couple behaves 'immorally', the woman is shunned, jailed, exiled, and dies while the man keeps his friends, his property, his liberty but feels so *unhappy* about the situation, dontchaknow.

Sigh, how many more of these 1001 books are there with this same plot (*eyes suspiciously Tess of the D'Urbervilles*) ?

Ugh! And I couldn't stand Dinah, who was supposed to be this ideal woman we would all want to emulate. I felt she was condescending, self-righteous and annoying.

3/5

Sigh, how many more of these 1001 books are there with this same plot

If a lot, or even a fair number, it makes me wonder about the variety of books they examined to come up with the list.... hoepfully not too many but, jst in case' ...... ;-)

Ew, sounds kind of like He Knew He Was Right. Stupid titular "he". Even Trollope disliked the character.

(on the plus side, I'm now moving Tess really, really far down the priority list...)

Well, I just realized it's been almost a month since I posted anything. At first, I was enjoying thoroughly July's female sci-fi and fantasy month but I was very lazy in posting reviews.

Then we went to Montreal and Quebec city for our vacation and so LT took a bit of a back seat.

And THEN my husband went to the emergency room for severe abdominal cramps ten days ago and got diagnosed with a congenital malformation of the gut called a intestinal malrotation (Wikipedia has a good article). This results in the small bowel and the appendix being on the wrong side of the abdomen and increases the risk of twisting (which was causing the abdominal pain). Cue in a major emergency operation to put everything back in its proper place, and me juggling three small children, my job and hospital visits.

The husband is doing well even though he is still weak. He's now out of the hospital but needs two months of complete rest to recuperate. I'm still reading in my spare time (Ha!) but I expect RL to keep me a bit from LT in the next few weeks.

Oh dear! Hope everything settles down for all of you for the rest of the year.

Wow, sounds like your month has been eventful.... and not always in a good way! Very happy to see that your husband is recuperating and I echo bucketyell in hoping that things settle down for you.

Sorry you've had such a rough time, but glad to hear that hubby's on the mend. Wiith three children, a recuperating husband and a job I imagine spare time will be very hard to find!

Yikes! Poor husband! Hope he feels better soon. Sending good thoughts to all of you!

Thanks everyone for the good wishes.

For the statistics buffs out there, the congenital anomaly my husband has is present in 1 in 5000 people. Of those with the anomaly, 1 in 6000 will develop a complication. I knew my husband was 1 in a million, but I didn't know he was 1 in 30 millions ;-)

Go buy a 649 ticket :)

30- The bluest eye

A young African-American girl internalizes society's idea of beauty and ends up wishing to have blue eyes. She gets her wish but pays a terrible price.

Not a pleasant read, but I'm glad I read it.

3/5

31- Les racines du ciel (Roots of heaven)

Very well crafted story about a man who wants to save elephants and how his ideals are used by others to further their own agendas.

I ended up exhausted by this book and, by the end, did not care what happened.

3/5

32- The Hunger Games

If you can get past the fact that this is a book about children killing each other for a reality show, it's a page turner.

4/5

33- Die Wand (The Wall)

This was truly a gem of a book: wonderful story about the coping mechanisms the last woman on Earth uses to move on and to make a life for herself. Written as a 'report' three years after an invisible wall cuts her off from the rest of humanity, it's full of quiet observations about her daily life and survival efforts. I might not have agreed with all of her choices, but the first-rate writing made me *understand* her.

4,5/5

34- The optimist's daughter

I gave this book 3,5 stars so I must have enjoyed it. But a few weeks after reading it, I hardly remember anything about it. A woman mourns her father while her mother-in-law is being a pain.

3,5/5

35- Parable of the sower

I have to say that I really enjoyed my July female sci-fi and fantasy choices. During a period of societal upheaval brought about by climate change, political dysfunction and despair-inducing poverty, a young woman tries to survive, build communities, and prepare and adapt to change. This page-turner will make you think.

4,5/5

36- Earth abides

Classic post-apocalyptic story about Ish who, after a worldwide plague, attempts (unsuccessfully) to rebuild with other survivors the world he knew and loved.

4/5

37- Ender's game

At first glance, this is a book about a school where gifted children are trained to be the future commanders in a war against alien invaders. But the more I read, the more I realized it's actually a very long argument in favour of preemptive strikes.

Four stars for a really good yarn, 2 stars for advocating a position I find morally repugnant.

3/5

#132, Or maybe HE should buy one!

->126 paruline:
Ouch, that sounds extraordinarily painful - hope he recuperates soon, for his sake and yours! :)

Ouch sounds awful

On the reading front am looking forward to seeing what you think of die wand

Oh I hope he recovers soon & you are coping ok!

133-140, Phew! Got caught up with all my reviews. *scurries off to read some threads*

38- Une journée d'Ivan Denissovitch (One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich)

Today was a pretty good day for Ivan. In a gulag. In winter.

But it was mostly good in what doesn't happen: he doesn't get sicker, he's not sent to detention, he doesn't work in the coldest part of camp, he doesn't die.

4∕5

Yay, four-star read! Happy Thanksgiving :)

You too RP! What gorgeous weather we're having.

39- Empire of the sun

Now that was an interesting tale about a little known corner of WWII : a japanese internment camp for civilians near Shanghai. Partly autobiographical, this is the story of Jim, who spends his childhood in the camp. Even though he understands the Japanese soldiers and has a knack for getting food and protection from them, the privations and horrors he experiences bring him to the limits of (in)sanity.

3.5∕5

40- Reveries of a solitary walker



There is no doubt that Rousseau was a brilliant thinker. He influenced all aspects of western thoughts and civilization: politics, science, religion, education, philosophy, the arts, you name it.

But this! This was just sad. The paranoid ramblings of an old, bitter, delusional mind. This was full of 'woe is me', 'I'm so unhappy', 'there is no one more miserable than me', 'everyone is against me', 'my enemies are plotting their revenge'. If people were nice to him, it's because they were hypocrites, laughing at him behind his back. If they were indifferent, how dare they disregard his precious company. And if they were critical, they were his mortal enemies.

It became a joke between me and my husband, when I would, very rarely, exclaim: 'I found an interesting sentence ∕ thought!'.

Well, there were some nice descriptions of his island retreat and his hobby of gathering and identifying plants. The sentences were nicely laid out and written clearly. It was rather short.

2∕5

41- The violin of Auschwitz



I feel bad giving such a low rating to a concentration camp story, but I just never got involved in this story of a luthier making a violin for the camp commander. His life then depends on producing a masterpiece.

2.5∕5

42- De cape et de crocs, tome 1: Le secret du Janissaire



This was just so. much. fun. This graphic novel follows the swashbuckling adventures of a fox and a wolf and is chocked full of literary references. I noticed allusions to The Three Musketeers, Moliere, Cyrano de Bergerac, Don Quixote, Moby Dick, La Fontaine.

4∕5

43- Salvage the bones



Ten days in the life of Esch, an African-American pregnant teenager, and of her brothers. The two eldest brothers desperately want to escape poverty, one by trying to win a basketball scholarship and the other by raising a litter of puppies for dog fighting.

I enjoyed the matter-of-fact descriptions of poverty, the love these siblings showed towards one another, and the rich inner life of the main character.

Oh, by the way, the ten days cover the period before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

3.5∕5

44- The thirteenth tale



mium, mium, gothic, mium, reading, mium, mystery, mium, one-more-page, mium. Aaaahhh, delicious!

4.5∕5

45- The history of love



Alma was named after a book her recently-deceased father gave to her mother.

A long time ago, Leo wrote a book for the woman he loved. Now he is old, waiting to die.

An interesting book about loss, grief, and love in all its manifestations.

4∕5

46- A distant neighborhood



While visiting the grave of his mother, a 48 years-old man inexplicably finds himself back in time. With his teenager's body but his adult thoughts and memories, he will attempt to understand the dynamics of his parents' marriage and prevent his father from leaving his family.

In turn tender, moving, funny and tragic. Recommended for graphic novels' fans or anybody that would like to dip their toe in the genre.

4∕5

47- Alan's war



A biography in graphic novel format about a young man who joins the army during WWII and his experiences of the war. Enjoyable.

4∕5

Looking forward to seeing what you thought of The violin of Auschwitz and The Thirteenth Tale!
..... I should also add The History of Love since I have that one waiting for my on my TBR pile. ;-)

And I'll be patiently waiting to hear your thoughts on Reveries of a Solitary Walker. I've had bad luck with Rousseau and I'm trying to work up the motivation to read that one this year.

ETA: Looks like you're done, or nearly done with your challenge. Nice work!

There you are Aliciamay, I finally put up my review! I don't think it will motivate you though ;-)

Hi Ikernagh, my reviews for The violin of Auschwitz, The thirteenth tale and The history of love are up.

I see I was more taken with The violin of Auschwitz than you were based on my star rating but I would have to try and track down my review to see why I liked it.... I have hard time remembering the story now, even with the helpful hints in your review.

Still not sure if I want to move forward my read of The History of Love but I see that we are in agreement about The Thirteenth Tale... I keep waiting for Setterfield to write another book!

Lori -- SHE DID! Bellman & Black is coming out in a couple weeks, I believe.

#150 Drat! At least there are some redeeming qualities - I didn't know Rousseau could do short : )

Hee hee, I like your review of Thirteenth Tale. Love books like that, where you just devour them in one sitting :)

> 163 - No, REALLY?!

*scurries off to check*

Yipee!.... and apparently, it is already out in Canada. How the *bleep* did I miss that one?! Happily, my local library has three copies in circulation.... I am 17 in the hold list. ;-)

Oh, I missed that Diane Setterfield finally has a second book out too, I'm adding to my wishlist while doing a happy dance!

Unfortunately, it's not yet available at my local library. Soon I hope!

# 164, I think it's short because he died while writing it.

#165, yes, and that book was quite the treat. I think it helps if, like me, you have a fondness for Jane Eyre and other gothic fiction.

48- Si c'est un homme (If this is a man/Survival in Auschwitz)



A clinical, almost scientific, exploration of the human spirit, how to conserve it and how to destroy it, from the experiences of an Auschwitz survivor.

4∕5

49- The lost city of Z



Percy Fawcett was a 19th-century explorer of the Amazon jungle. After several expeditions, he became convinced that he would find a great, lost civilization in the region between Bolivia and Brazil. And promptly vanished with his two companions.

This is the story of this man, his obsessive quest but, mostly, it's about the Amazon jungle.

3.5∕5

50- La maison et le monde (The home and the world)



What a delightful surprise! Two men, with opposing philosophies, try to win a woman's heart, which may or may not represent India.

The three main characters take turn narrating events, each from their point of view. And at the end, when you feel you have a good grasp of their personalities, Tagore surprises you:

*SPOILERS*

It's the fire-breathing Sandip that flees in the face of danger, while the gentle Nikhil rushes in to help the weak.

*END SPOILERS*

I am not doing this book justice. Go read it. But read it slowly. The book deserves it.

4.5∕5

Survival in Auschwitz has been on Mt. TBR a while now - I've been waiting for a strong mood, but that might never come, so I should just get going.

I've earmarked The Lost City of Z for the South America GeoCAT next year and am looking forward to it! Apparently it is also being developed into a movie, which should be interesting.

PS I hope you didn't get blown away today! It was so windy! We had a tree branch come down at the bus stop in front of our building. It squished the newspaper boxes :S

Hope you got through the wind storm ok, I just saw on the news how Eastern Canada had winds gusting up to 90 mph. One woman died when a tree came down on her car.

- Hi Eva! It was the same for me, If this is a man has been forever on my TBR but I decided that 2013 would be the year I read it.

- RP, The lost city of Z was fascinating! I hope you enjoy it.

And yes, that was quite the windy day, wasn't it? Being the intrepid federal workers that we are, my husband and I took our usual lunchtime walk around the block. Even though we were walking right beside one another, we had to raise our voice quite a bit to have a conversation. I don't think the wind reached 90 mph though!

I went to college at a school that was on Long Island Sound and we sometimes got some serious wind. I would have to wait for a taller student and walk behind him to get anywhere.

Ha ha! That's a great story!

51- The shipping news



After the death of his wife, a man starts afresh by bringing his family to Newfoundland. Here he'll find strong communities, harsh weather and his place in the world.

Noteworthy, in my mind, for being a 1001 list book with a happy ending.

3.5∕5

Proulx has such great language - I find that listening to her books on audio really brings that out.

Yes, I'm going to be on the look out for more of her books.

@ 180 -- A 1001 list book with a happy ending? That does sound noteworthy...and also like something I might want to read. :)

I know! And not an ambiguous happy ending either! In a 20th-century book!

Hi Paruline, it's been a while since my last check of your thread. Lots of interesting reading.
Quartier Lointain is an all time favorite of mine, glad that you liked it. De Cape et de Crocs is fun, nest-ce pas ? I have 8 of the comics so far, I must read it again and soon, I have forgotten so many things about it but not how much fun it was ...
David Copperfield is going on the BB. Adèle et la bête : well, the film even without subtitle was not any better ;)

Salut electrice! Yes, both Quartier lointain and De cape et de crocs were great. David Copperfield is long but worth it.

Looking back through my thread, I realize that I read lots of graphic novels this year. Since they are mostly comfort reads in stressful times, what does that say about 2013? Mmmmm....

It means that 2014 will hopefully be less stressful !?

Fingers crossed :-)

52- The adventures of Sherlock Holmes



I've been dipping into Sherlock's adventures for the last few weeks. I feel it's the best way to tackle these short stories so they don't blend too much one into another in my mind.

I read the New Annotated version which had very useful notes and pictures about fashion, history and transportation.

3.5∕5

I do want the annotated version SO MUCH! Christmas wishlist, I think...

Yes, for a fan of Sherlock Holmes, that would be a great gift!

53- The diaries of Jane Somers



There are books that entertain. Others that articulate your thoughts better than you ever could. And others that reach into your soul and make you want to become a better person.

I place The diaries of Jane Somers in all of these categories. This year's first 5 stars!

5∕5

Oh.... the 5 star rating has caught my attention! Looks like I need to think about reading some Lessing.

54- Democracy

Can't really say I enjoyed this one. The wife of a career politician runs away with an adventurer after her sister is killed, with the last days of the Vietnam war as a background.

Very meta, with the author inserting herself in the text, but at the same time the writing was so detached that the motivation of the characters became a mystery. That could have been a statement about women being removed from positions of power, but it actually removed any interest I had about the story.

2/5

Great news! Dany Laferriere was just elected to the Académie française, becoming the first Canadian, the first Quebecer and the first Haitian to win the honour! He will take the second seat, which has been warmed in the past by such illustrious behinds as those of Montesquieu and Alexandre Dumas fils.

And with the review of Democracy, I consider my challenge complete!

Finals statistics and challenge recap will follow shortly, but I'll be moving to my 2014 challenge thread. Hope to see you there!

Congratulations! A nice Christmas present for yourself ;) Merry Christmas!

Congratulations, paruline, and Merry Christmas!

CHALLENGE RECAP!

Total books read: 54

Favorite books: The diaries of Jane Somers, The Parable of the Sower, Le mur invisible (The wall), The lost garden, The thirteenth tale, The birds of Costa Rica

Least favorite books: The eyes of the Amaryllis, Reveries of the solitary walker, Democracy

Abandoned books: none

Favorite categories: none, every category had great reads and some duds

New authors: 48 (I'm very pleased with that number)

Women authors: 27 (Yeah, parity!)

Men authors: 27

Random thoughts:

I really, REALLY, enjoyed June and July female sci-fi and fantasy reads. I'm already looking forward to reading more in 2014.

Lots of graphic novels, which upped the number of male authors I read.

I focused a bit more on LT rec and book bullets this year, and I've got to say there were some really nice surprises in there. You guys have good taste!

Thanks everyone for reading my rambling thoughts and hope to see you in the 2014 challenge!

Happy New Year!