Karen_O -- Making Way for More Books

Actually, buying new books is something I hope to do a great deal less of this year. Sure, I read 56 of my own books last year but I'd be willing to bet I bought far more than that number. (Honestly, I'm afraid to look.)

Last year's goal was 40 and I surpassed that so this year I'll aim for 45 and hope to pass it again!

Good to see you are back, Karen!

Welcome back and good luck!

Happy New Year Karen and good luck with your challenge.

Thanks everyone! You're a very welcoming group.

So, I read more of my own than I thought I would this month since I had a bunch of library holds come in. They were:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel which is going on my lifetime top-ten list!
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes
The First True Lie by Marina Mander

actually, that last one I just started this morning but since it's only 143 pages and the grands will *not* be spending the night, I should finish it easily within the month of January!

I just finished The Round House today, Karen, and I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

Well done Karen! It took me a long time to read Wolf Hall as it wasn't at all what I had expected what with all the hype. And over the years I have read & studied so much about the subject matter. I am glad you enjoyed it so very much. I think Mantel put a great deal of time into her research and lifetime top-ten is waaay up there!
I hope you are able to finish this last one today as you are wanting. I know how those grands eat into one's time. We have two here before & after school every day so I can totally understand. Sure saves the kids a lot in day-care though and gives us time that we enjoy with the grands.
Good luck in February.

One of these days I will get around to Wolf Hall... probably once she finishes with the third book ;)

Most people LOVED Wolf Hall!

Rain, it took me about two weeks to read Wolf Hall and I absolutely had to get it done in that time because it was a book group read. Three of the four of us finished and all loved it. I don't really know what I was expecting but I thought her approach and writing were phenomenal. But I'm in no great hurry to get to part two. I'd just finished Sarum before reading Wolf Hall and I think I can give the English history thing a rest for the time being.

Rabbit, I'm already wondering if I shouldn't have waited to read the first one until all three were available. The third in the trilogy isn't due until sometime in 2015 and I know I'll have forgotten pretty much everything by then!

Caramel, I really , really like The Round House and all the more so because that, too, was a book group read and our discussion of it really brought out some points I would otherwise have missed. One of our members is a retired high school English teacher and she did a good job comparing it to To Kill A Mockingbird which is something that certainly never would have occurred to me.

If you're interested I encourage you -- all of you -- to visit us at http://bookchatcentral.yuku.com/ and choose the Book Bunch Reading Group forum. Our discussion is still stuck to the top in there and we love having new readers join us, even if it's only an occasional thing.

Congrats on the reading. For some reason, I can't/don't read serial book; trilogies, etc. Too much of the same thing!

February was only fair with 3 ROOT books moved out of the living room -- and four new ones coming in yesterday. *sigh*

Those finished were:
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Onward... :)

What did you think of Wuthering Heights? It is my favorite book of all time!

Tess, I'm very sorry to say... it is not mine. Perhaps if I'd read it when I was younger, or if I'd opened it expecting Gothic horror instead of romance, as this discussion suggests : http://www.librarything.com/topic/25435

As it was, I thought all the people unpleasant and instead of finding him romantic, I thought Heathcliffe was evil!

Ahhh, but Heathcliffe was suffering from a broken heart! He only found happiness in death! Heaaaaaaaaathhhhhhhhhcliff! I also have 3 different movie versions. I read the book at least once a year and watch a movie now and then, when I need a good cry.

Tess, have you ever read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier? That's my favorite "sort of" Gothic romance.

Niot a great month for reading my own books; too many of the library's possessions have ended up in my house. How does that keep happening? :)

But I have managed these:

Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman which I could have sworn I'd read years and years ago but, if I did, then my memory's in even worse shape than I thought!

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh which I wish I hadn't wasted my money on. Or my time.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

And to finish out the month:

A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

The orphan train history is something else, isn't it? Did you enjoy that book?

#18-Not read that one, but everybody says I must!

I would not classify Wuthering Heights as a Gothic Romance, at all. Perhaps a Gothic novel. I think the romance is very secondary. How about a psychological thriller?

Tess -- Yes, I can definitely go with Gothic psychological thriller. I was brought down by my own assumptions! This is a case of I should have read more about it before I read it. :)

Merryann, yes, I did like Orphan Train although it's not a genre I usually read much, it gave me a slice of history I'd been completely ignorant of. I didn't know the trains existed!

A couple of women I know have commented on the horrors of the situation without reading the book. Maybe by today's standards but by the standards of the times, many of those kids were probably lots better off, don't you think?

April is turning out to be a great book for reading my own books. So far I've completed:

Work Song
Sweet Thunder (an LTER win for which my review was overdue!)
Mission to Paris
A Man Without Breath
Devotion of Suspect X
the latter two were both for book groups; unheard of for both to choose a mystery in the same month, but I'm not complaining.

And I've have made a good beginning on The Rosie Project.

I won't update tickers until the month is over, however.

Moving right along!

>24 karen_o: Oh yes, I do think so! The more I read about America during that time, the more my opinion of the orphan trains changes from "What a horrible thing to do to children!" to "What a caring thing to do for children!"

It worked out badly for many children, but let's face it: what they had going on was pretty bad, or worse. And it worked out well for at least some.

Also, when I ask myself, "What should have been done instead?" I don't have any good answers. Not for then, and not for now either. I think, "We certainly aren't putting children on trains anymore." And then I think about going to the state fair, walking through the exhibit hall, and there was the foster care agency with a heartbreaking photograph album filled with pictures of children, mostly pre-teen and teenage, who need a home and someone to care about them.

It's just a quieter kind of train, isn't it?

This is one of the biggies in the 'hard thoughts I wrestle with sometimes' category.

>27 Merryann: I'm quite touched by your post Mary Ann. I think things are worse in the US than they are in the Netherlands, but of course there are children here too that need a new home and children that are neglected in some way. But I love your thoughts about the album just being some kind of train! Thank you.

Yes, Merryann, I, too, am touched by your post. I've read a couple of books in the past year or so that are focused on kids aging-out of the foster care system. To have such a tough start to life then essentially be dumped in the gutter... well, better a train to a farm, I think.

I agree with you. And thank you, and you too, Connie. :)

I just read The Day They Gave Babies Away by Dale Eunson. Have you heard of this book? It tells the true story of the twelve year old in 1868 who is faced with the decision of what to do with his five younger brothers and sisters after their parents deaths. An amazing, and oddly beautiful book, and at 44 pages it takes a very short time to read.

I guess I should put this on my thread, but since we were talking about this sort of thing, I thought I'd put it here, too. :)

#31=Merryann...There is also this type of story pre WWII in Germany, it's called the Kindertransport. Jewish families sent their children to England to escape. Some went to wonderful families, some went to good families who tried to convert them, and some went to orphanages where they did not have good lives--but at least that was better than the possible alternative.

Yes, definitely better than the alternative! I've read just a couple of Kindertransport books and have been impressed with how the authors manage to make such a heartbreaking subject readable without being soul-crushing in its sadness.

Now I have a whole new set of reading material to track down! Thanks all! (I think... ;) )

End of the month and time to tally up. I've not adjusted any tickers anywhere (always leave that to the end of the month so I don't confuse myself.) To the books mentioned above, I add:

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (different title showing in the touchstone -- must have been an early working title?)
The Bear by Claire Cameron
Paperboy by Tony Macauley
Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

for a total of 10 ROOTs for the month. Woot!

Really, someday I must do something besides read. :p

Something besides read? What is there?

Shhhh, don't tell anyone but my employer has some ideas; I keep trying to ignore that.

Oh. Employers. Aren't they a nuisance.

Nice, 10 ROOTS! I managed three. The library proved exceptionally tempting this month.

But remember, you're not ONLY reading...you're making the world a smarter and better place by putting all these concepts, stories, words, and ideas into your brain. Everyone, boss included, should thank you for doing so! :)

It's not so much that I haven't been reading my own books this month as that I haven't read much at all! Or certainly not as much as usual. Only 3 ROOT books this month and with the library pile I have sitting here, I don't expect to increase that number before the month is out, so here's my May list:

Cartwheel by Jennifer DuBois
The Spoiler by Annalena McAfee
City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris

I think 3 books a month is great! When I'm working, sometimes I can't even do that!

Thanks, Tess. Usually I manage more but this month, I guess it just wasn't meant to be!

How utterly pathetic -- I read only one ROOT this month! And it wasn't even a very good one!

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman

Don't worry about the number, but sorry you didn't enjoy it.

>45 Tess_W: I agree with Tess! One more ROOT pulled!

You all are so encouraging! That's great!

And July is looking up -- 2 down so far.

The Painter by Peter Heller
The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel

Oh, The Monuments Men! Did you enjoy it?

Congrats! Keep rooting!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Monuments Men. It really brought home the scale of the Nazi's greed, didn't it? I'd read about it some but hearing descriptions of mine after mine, train after train, made me realize the grand scale the all that theft!

Did you see the movie? I don't see many movies and someone told me this wasn't very well reviewed so I wonder what someone who read the book might think of it.

July, July ... where have you gone? August means that summer's nearly over, the grandkids go back to school in a couple of weeks; I don't know how that relates to my reading but it's certainly on my mind this morning. So, from my shelves in July --

the two previously mentioned and

The Plover by Brian Doyle (an LTER book that I really enjoyed)
Dead Simple by Peter James
The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner (another LTER book and my first 5-star read of the year)

So a total of five. Could have been better, could have been worse. Onward!

>50 karen_o: I saw The Monuments Men after reading the book. The movie had a fantastic cast, which was a bit of a double-edged sword as the presence of all that star power was kind of distracting. It was also funny in places and serious in others; it might have been more effective if one tone had been chosen. I did like those funny bits though! That would have been an interesting set to work on.

I saw the Monuments Men and I loved it. The DVD is on sale now and I just purchased it for viewing again! I liked it because it was a piece of history, but with some humor added, not so dry.

I won't watch the movie until I read the book, and I won't read the book until I read 'all those other books that have to be read first', but I'm glad you enjoyed it and I look even more forward to it now!

Hi Karen, just stopping by and waving!

I definitely need to watch Monuments Men but right now my limited viewing time is going to Outlander. Never read the books but I'm enjoying the series. Time travel in the Scottish highlands? Oh, yes!

Can't believe how little reading I accomplished in August. (Didn't I also say that in July?) There were any number of things I started this month and didn't finish; I was determined to read lots about WWI and ended up finishing only one. From my shelves this month:

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

Doubt I'll finish anything else in the next two days so I'm updating the tickers and calling August closed.

Hi Karen! Things going well for me, not getting any reading done, but it's the second week of school and I'm exhausted! Hopefully my body will adjust to getting up @ 5:30 am instead of 10! I was forced to read All Quiet on the Western Front twice and hated it both times! Did you like it? I saw the remake movie with Richard Thomas and it was so-so.

Another fairly poor showing for September:

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

*( I felt like I spent the first half of the month in China, and not happily! I didn't care for either of these books, unfortunately, but both were group reads so...)

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon which knocks two books off my shelf -- one of them paper and the other virtual -- I'd forgotten about the Kindle version purchased in January.
Many, many people had recommended this book to me over the years and I'm sorry I waited so long to read it.

Well, that brings my total to 38 and my goal for the year is 45 -- only 7 to go and 3 months left of the year so I guess that's not really too bad.

You're doing great! :)

Yes, you are doing very great! And the Gabaldon books are awesome.

Thanks to you both!

And, Connie, I'm looking forward to the second in the Outlander series. It's just a matter of when...

Hi Karen, looks as if things are going well. I'm not an Amy Tan fan!

>62 karen_o:... I hope 'when' comes soon ;-))

Connie, so do I! We're taking a beach vacation in two weeks and I may move it way, way up the list. Seems like a great one for the beach.

So, October was a slim month for all kinds of reading but this is what I read:

Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing! by Megan Smolenyak
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck -- I saved the best for last!

Brings my total to 41 so I should easily meet my goal for this year! Yay!

Yay for you!!

November is drawing quickly to a close and I didn't get nearly as much reading done on the beach as I thought I would. In fact -- gulp -- I read only two of my own this month. :(

The Remedy for Love by Bill Roorbach
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Best get busy!

Well you where at a beach! So there is a lot to see on a beach and a lot of sunbathing, so I understand completely.

Better reading times in December!

Three roots for December puts me just one over my goal for the year. I know there's a week left of the month (and the year) but with the pile of library books sitting here I'm certain I won't be adding to the list here so, here's to December:

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
Death in the English Countryside by Sarah Rosett

All very good, each in their own way.

On to 2015!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Karen.

Congratulations on meeting your goal! See you in the 2015 group :)