Cait86's 2010 Reading

Hello! I'm Cait, and while I usually post on the 75 Book Challenge Group, the craziness of my real life coupled with the overwhelming amount of posts on that forum has caused me to strike out into new territory.

I read a little bit of everything, from Classics to contemporary, literary to fluff. I love Canadian literature, but I am also branching out in the world, and attempting to read more globally.

In my real life I am a first year teacher of English at a high school in Ontario, Canada. My career is quite demanding right now, which means less time for reading :( But, I do love my job!

Books Read in 2010
1. Emma - Jane Austen
2. Murder in the Dark - Margaret Atwood
3. The Last River Child - Lori Ann Bloomfield - reviewed for Belletrista
4. Innocent World - Ami Sakurai - reviewed for Belletrista
5. The Frozen Thames - Helen Humphreys
6. Fall - Colin McAdam
7. Deep Hollow Creek - Sheila Watson
8. Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller
9. The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
10. Chess Story - Stefan Zweig
11. The Circle Game - Margaret Atwood
12. No One Will See Me Cry - Cristina Rivera-Garza
13. Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie
14. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
15. The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton
16. Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand - Gioconda Belli
17. The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
18. The Rachel Papers - Martin Amis
19. In the City by the Sea - Kamila Shamsie
20. Kartography - Kamila Shamsie
21. A Novel Bookstore - Laurence Cosse
22. The THousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - Daivd Mitchell
23. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas
24. In a Strange Room - Damon Galgut
25. The Long Song - Andrea Levy
26. Sky Burial - Xinran
27. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
28. February - Lisa Moore
29. Revenge - Taslima Nasrin
30. Trespass - Rose Tremain
31. Room - Emma Donoghue
32. The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
33. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
34. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
35. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
36. Been Here a Thousand Years - Mariolina Venezia
37. Miss O'Dell - Chris O'Dell
38. Lucy - Jamaica Kincaid
39. The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
40. Lemon - Cordelia Strube
41. Kilmeny of the Orchard - Lucy Maud Montgomery
42. Jane of Lantern Hill - Lucy Maud Montgomery
43. The Passage - Justin Cronin

Hi, Cait! I'm glad to see you here.

Hi, Cait! Looking forward to hearing about ALL of your reading:-)

Hi Cait! Emma is on my list for this year, too, though none of my reading is, so far, shaping up the way I thought it would. Glad to see you here. I look forward to following your thread.

Thanks for the welcomes everyone! Hopefully I can keep caught up with this group, though there are a lot of prolific readers here!

Another completed book!

Fall by Colin McAdam

McAdam's second novel was shortlisted for this year's Giller Prize, an award that I am attempting to follow. It is the third of the five shortlisted books that I have read, and it is by far my favourite. Reviews here on LT are quite negative, and I totally understand why - I just happen to disagree. Fall is not your typical Giller fair - it is edgy, the language is vulgar, and the subject matter is a pair of hormonal teenaged boys. Alice Munro this is not.

Fall does not refer to the act of falling, but to a girl named Fallon, who is the object of affection of two very different young men. Julius is Fall's boyfriend; Noel is the boy who will never win her heart. The three of them live in the soul-sucking world of an elite boarding school. Noel has always worshipped Fall from afar, but he knows in his soul that they will one day be together. His hopes seem ridiculous until senior year, when he is assigned to room with Julius. As Noel begins to see Julius as a friend, he becomes increasingly obsessed with Fall.

McAdam alternates his narrative between Julius and Noel, using very different styles to characterize his protagonists. Julius, an impulsive, popular, emotional person, tells his story though stream-of-consciousness. The reader has a first-hand look into the mind of an 18 year old boy, complete with swearing, sexual fantasies, and vulgar jokes. Noel, the serious, intellectual, analytical character, has a much more "literary" first-person narrative. Every detail is illuminated - at least every detail as Noel sees it. With Julius, the reader is never quite sure what is going on. With Noel, we know everything.

And so, when McAdam turns his plot on its head, everything the reader thought she knew about Noel and Julius goes straight out the window. The genius of the way the two narratives work together is staggering.

Negative reviews mention the vulgarity of the novel, and Fall's lack of character development. To the first criticism, my reply is that this novel has as its main character three teenagers. If McAdam wasn't vulgar, he would be missing part of what it means to be eighteen. To the second criticism, I would say that Fall is meant to be nothing more that the catalyst that brings this plot to its climax. She is what unites Julius and Noel, but beyond that, her presence is not important. It is Julius and Noel who really matter - and here, we have character development at its fullest.

I fell in love with this book after just the first few pages. McAdam's narrative voices are stunning, and they echo the character traits of his protagonists in a beautiful way. I have no doubt that it will be one of my favourite reads for 2010.

Nice review, Cait. This probably isn't my cup of tea, but I'm glad that you liked it.

BTW, will you be reading some of the Orange Prize and Booker Prize longlisted books this year? I still haven't read The Little Stranger or The Wilderness from last year's list, but I hope to read both books sometime this summer.

>7 Cait86: What an interesting review, Cait. I think sometimes vulgarity is hard to read, especially if it is relentless. It seems you persisted and were rewarded for it. Is this a book your students would likely be interested it; or is it really meant for adults looking back?

#8 - Thanks Darryl! You're right, I don't think this is a book that I would recommend to you, but it suited me. I think the fact that I am not that far from 18, plus the fact that as a teacher I am around teens every day, really helped Fall hit home with me.

I am definitely going to read the Booker Longlist again this year - though I still have quite a few of last year's to read - and maybe the Orange Prize too. I'm heading to London this summer, so maybe I will pick up some of the books while I am there.

#9 - Thanks Lois! I am actually introducing my senior level class to Fall tomorrow. We are just starting a novel unit where we are reading the first chapter of 16 different novels, and analysing them for style, so McAdam's use of stream-of-consciousness is how I am kicking off the unit. It's a risky choice with the language, but my students are quite mature, and I am a big proponent of pushing outside of typical high school texts. I think we are going to discuss it later on as well when we learn about Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory. I think they are really going to like it (hopefully!).

I've added Fall to my wishlist. It sounds interesting all on its own, and it's Canadian.

#11 - Great! If you want to read more CanLit, here is another recommendation (review copied from the Novella Thread):

Yesterday I spent a few hours with Sheila Watson, reading Deep Hollow Creek. Watson is a little-known Canadian author who I was introduced to in a university course on Modern Canadian Literature. Her novel The Double Hook is one of my favourites, and the main text I studied for my Honours Thesis. Watson was not the most profuse of authors, and so these two books, plus a collection of five short stories, make up her entire bibliography. Most sources classify Deep Hollow Creek as a novel, but at just over 100 pages, I think it qualifies for novella status.

Though Deep Hollow Creek was published in 1992, Watson wrote it in the 1930s, following a stint as a teacher in northern British Columbia. She drew heavily on her own experiences; her protagonist, Stella, is teacher to a handful of children in Deep Hollow Creek, BC, a small settlement dominated by the Flowers family. Since Stella is the newcomer in a tight-knit community, she learns the history of her neighbours through the gossipy stories they tell about each other.

Watson's novella definitely falls into Oates' definition in Post #1 - her writing is always more poetic than prosaic. Her sparse style echoes the wild, uncivilized landscape she describes, and the rather lonely lives of her characters. Stella is a literary woman thrust into a land far removed from the university scene, and it is here that she learns the power of language:

If I hadn't come here, she said, I doubt whether I should ever have seen through the shroud of printers' ink, through to the embalmed essence. The word is a flame burning in a dark glass.

I love this image, this weight that Watson gives to words. Neither Deep Hollow Creek nor The Double Hook are long, page-wise, but that is because Watson puts so much power into every word. This is an incredible piece of writing.

>10 Cait86: Kudos to you for such a creative move! I don't think a teacher here in the US could get away with a vulgar text. It seems to take only one vocal parent to put an end to anything edgy like that.

>12 Cait86: yummy-sounding! (especially if it fits the "rapturously extended prose poem" description.

I noticed that fellow Club Read-ers are also blogging about their shorter reading (essays, short stories, etc), which I think is a really great idea. Lately I have been dipping in and out of Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. Rather than read them in order, I am merely sampling whatever happens to catch my fancy.

Last week I read Smith's essay on Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo, "Hepburn and Garbo". I love Hepburn (though not quite as much as Smith), so the first half of this essay served to solidify my already-formed impression of the star of "The Philadelphia Story". Smith writes of Hepburn: "The kind of woman she played, the kind of woman she was, is still the kind of woman I should like to be", and I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree. Garbo, on the other hand, Smith paints as little more than a pretty face. She argues that Garbo was really only meant to be a silent actress, someone who spoke through facial expressions. This half of the essay I found pointless - Smith does not love Garbo, but she does not hate her either: she is merely indifferent. The passion with which Smith wrote about Hepburn is missing, and I am not really sure why she included a discussion of Garbo at all.

The second essay I "sampled" was "That Crafty Feeling", which is an edited version of a lecture Smith gave to Columbia University's Writing Program. Here Smith displays her sarcasm, her ability to recognize her career for what it is, and offers some insight into novel writing. Truth be told, she made me want to go out and write. It's not that I think I am talented enough to write a novel, and I would probably never attempt such a task, but after finishing her essay, I had a fleeting desire to try. I can only imagine the effect her lecture had on a group of would-be authors.

I am generally not an avid follower of Smith's writing - I read On Beauty two summers ago, and while I enjoyed it, I did not think it the stellar piece of fiction the critics did. I have White Teeth on my bookshelf, but have never felt the urge to pick it up. However, I do admire anyone who has the courage to start writing a novel at 21, the success of three published novels by the age of 30, and the humility to criticize her own work. So, I will continue to read Smith's essays, and just might nudge White Teeth a bit further up the TBR.

I'm planning on reading White Teeth this year. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts if you get to it.

#15 - Sounds good - can't wait for the discussion!

There was an excellent review of Changing My Mind in the 11 March edition of The New York Review of Books; unfortunately, the full text of the article is only available to subscribers.

However, the full text of three essays from the book, E.M. Forster, Middle Manager, Two Paths for the Novel and F. Kafka, Everyman were published in previous issues of The New York Review of Books and are available online at its web site: http://www.nybooks.com.

Another book!

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

I've seen the movie adaptation of Notes on a Scandal several times, so I wasn't expecting anything new when I picked up Heller's novel. For the most part, the filmmakers stuck quite closely to the original, and I couldn't help but hear Judy Dench's voice as Barbara, an aging teacher who has an unhealthy obsession with her forty-something co-worker Sheba. Both women work at a school in North London, where the students are rough and unruly. One boy, Steven Connolly, shows an interest in art, Sheba's subject - but really he only has an interest in Sheba. Soon they begin a relationship that far exceeds that of a student and a teacher. Jealous Barbara finds out, and of course their worlds come tumbling down.

Heller is fantastic at creating the character of Barbara, whose voice is a memorable one. She is such a twisted, bitter woman, and any pity I originally felt for her disappeared by the end of the novel. Sheba is entirely unsympathetic, though that may be because I am a teacher myself. Her conduct with a student is disturbing, and her selfishness is all-encompassing. However, since I generally enjoy novels with unlikeable characters, the horrid natures of Barbara and Sheba didn't put me off - they intrigued me.

Notes on a Scandal is certainly worth the read, especially for the slightly psychotic actions of two very interesting women.

#17 - Luckily, I started an online subscription before you had to pay for it, so I ran over and read the review right away. I'm looking forward to her essays on other authors, even though they are authors whom I have never read. Hmmm, maybe I should read some Forster and Kafka? :)

>12 Cait86: I have broken down and ordered Deep Hollow Creek...

#12 & 20 ... Deep Hollow Creek has gone on my wish list too.

Yay!! Sheila Watson deserves more attention :)

I just got back from a mini vacation in Toronto - it is March Break here, so my sister and I went and saw the National Ballet of Canada's production of Swan Lake, stayed overnight at the Sheraton, and spent today shopping. I checked out a great used bookstore called BMV books, and bought:

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid = Michael Ondaatje
The Circle Game - Margaret Atwood (poetry collection)
The Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa
Chess Story - Stefan Zweig

All of these are generally difficult to find at mainstream bookstores, so I was one happy shopper!

The highlight of our trip though was dinner yesterday night at the Hard Rock Cafe. I am a big fan of 60s and 70s Rock, so the memorabilia hanging on the wall was fantastic. Most importantly, my favourite radio station, Q107, is broadcast from the Hard Rock Cafe, and the afternoon/early evening DJ is Kim Mitchell, of Max Webster fame. He was DJing when we walked in, and since we had to wait for a table, my sister and I actually met him!! We chatted for a bit, and he autographed our Dad's album copy of A Million Vacations. He was super friendly! Greatest moment ever :)

Sounds like you had fun! The last Hard Rock Cafe I was in was in Washington DC, I think. It was right across the street from the FBI building:-)

I'm toying with the idea of a vacation also... (maybe a train trip across Canada or a week in Iceland)

my favourite radio station, Q107, is broadcast from the Hard Rock Cafe, and the afternoon/early evening DJ is Kim Mitchell, of Max Webster fame. He was DJing when we walked in, and since we had to wait for a table, my sister and I actually met him!! We chatted for a bit, and he autographed our Dad's album copy of A Million Vacations. He was super friendly! Greatest moment ever :)

Very cool. Kim Mitchell is great. Sounds like fun!

I'm toying with the idea of a vacation also... (maybe a train trip across Canada or a week in Iceland)

Excellent! If you come across Canada, make sure you come all the way to Vancouver! I'd love to show you around. Victoria is also worth seeing, although you'll have to get off the train (actually, if you make it to Vancouver, I'll take you to Victoria).

#24, 26 - Stop off in Ontario too - Toronto is a great city, and I live right on Lake Erie in a cute little beach town (it's definitely not accessible by train though!).

I read Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad on Wednesday - March Break is affording me lots of reading time!

I am a huge Atwood fan, so it would have been quite the fluke if I disliked The Penelopiad. Sure enough, I thought it was a wonderful concept: a retelling of The Odyssey through the eyes of Penelope, Odysseus' wife. While not quite the tour de force that is The Blind Assassin or Alias Grace, The Penelopiad is classic Atwood - sarcastic, thought-provoking, and full of jabs at gender inequality. Interspersed with Penelope's narrative is a "Greek Chorus" of twelve maids who are eventually hanged by Odysseus. The Chorus sections give Atwood the chance to incorporate some poetry, and provides the reader with another female perspective on a traditionally masculine story.

I don't think I would recommend The Penelopiad as someone's first Atwood, but her faithful readers will definitely enjoy it!

I don't think I would recommend The Penelopiad as someone's first Atwood, but her faithful readers will definitely enjoy it!

I agree, unless of course they were really into Greek classics.The Penelopiad is to Margaret Atwood what Flush is to Virginia Woolf: a wonderfully written little gem of a book that gets swept aside by the big guys.

By the way, Cait, if you're ever out this way I'd be thrilled to show you around too.

The train trip we were looking at starts in Ontario and ends in Vancouver. We are really in the early stages of this investigation:-) Thanks for the offers!

>28 Cait86:, 29 I agree also, although I enjoyed The Penelopiad well enough. I think Cannongate asked her to write one of these "myths" and she said no at first, but changed her mind.

#29 - Thanks Joyce, I hope I make it to Vancouver one of these days! A summer 2011 roadtrip might be possible :)

#30 - Sounds like a fantastic train trip Lois - although your other option, a week in Iceland, would be pretty amazing too.

I'm glad you both agree with me on The Penelopiad. I was surprised to learn that it is part of a series of sorts - has anyone read another one of the myth retellings from Cannongate?

Last night I read:

Chess Story - Stefan Zweig

My thanks to Darryl for first mentioning Zweig last year, and to all the LTers who have been giving him rave reviews this year. Chess Story was the kind of five-star read that makes me reconsider my other five-star novels, and whether or not they really deserve that distinction. I was blown away by the depth of this novella - really, I think there was more happening here than in most full-length novels. The characterization was incredible; in just over 80 pages, Zweig creates four complex, memorable people: our unnamed narrator, McConnor, Czentovic, and Dr. B. I was amazed at the details Zweig included, from Czentovic's background to the narrator's obsession with monomaniacs (which really, makes him a monomaniac himself).

The other stunning aspect of Chess Story is the psychological tension that envolopes the reader. From Dr. B's horrifying story to the intense last game of chess, Zweig succeeds in creating an atmosphere of edge-of-your-seat anticipation. Chess Story drags you in immediately, and spits you out 84 pages later with your mind still reeling.

>31 Cait86: I think I have the Victor Pelevin one around here somewhere... Here's the list of them from wikipedia.

>31 Cait86:, I've read and enjoyed Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson

Thanks for the Wikipedia link, Lois - according to it, they are still publishing books in the series, with both Chinua Achebe and A.S. Byatt slated to become contributors. The new Philip Pullman novel, The Good Man Jesus and Christ the Scoundrel (quite the title!), is another upcoming entry.

#34 - Thanks Char - I liked Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and always meant to try more of her works. My local library has a copy too!

12 - Thanks, Cait86, for the recommendation of Deep Hollow Creek. I love The Double Hook - one of the most distinctive and mesmerizingly written books I've ever read. And you're right, Watson's voice is very poetic. Perhaps this has something to do with the relative brevity of her works? I notice that The New Canadian Library is reprinting DHC for August, so I've added it to my wishlist.

Happy birthday, Cait! I hope that you had a great day.

#36 - Hey, cocoafiend, I'm always thrilled to meet someone else who has heard of The Double Hook! I feel like only those of us lucky enough to take courses in Canadian Literature at university have the good fortune to be introduced to Sheila Watson. How did you first come across The Double Hook?

I agree that Watson's brevity has a lot to do with her style. I love her work, but I don't think it would be as effective in a 400-page novel. I like that I can read one of her novels all in one sitting. Breaking it up, reading it over several days, never seems to work for me. I need to injest the entire thing at once - maybe because it requires total immersion into her world, and her way with words.

Cait86, I didn't discover Sheila Watson in a CanLit course. In fact - rather oddly considering that I'm doing my doctorate in English literature at a Canadian university - I've never taken a CanLit course! This is what happens when your first degree is in Women's Studies and second from a British university... The Double Hook was recommended to me by a poet friend very into CanLit. I put it on my candidacy lists because I loved it so much. I do agree, though, outside of Canada and perhaps even Canadian literature courses, Watson is under-read. It's great to see that McClelland & Stewart are committed to reprinting her work.

I agree with you about Watson's brevity. A long novel written in such a style would dissipate its impact. So many of her sentences are also short, and not always sentences in the grammatical sense. I love that bit in the opening of The Double Hook, spare but also lovely: "James walking away. The old lady falling. There under the jaw of the roof. In the vault of the bed loft. Into the shadow of death. Pushed by James's will. By James's hand. By James's words: This is my day. You'll not fish today." Followed immediately by scenes of her fishing... :)

English major, Canadian university, had to take one CanLit course . . . . never heard of Sheila Watson until you educated me, Cait! But I'm excited to get a hold of some of her books and expand my horizons.

Cate, my Sheila Watson arrived today and I've put it in the TBRsoon pile!

#41 - Looking forward to your review, Lois - now the tension starts: what if you don't like it? I always get so nervous when I recommend a book so highly.

#39 - That is a perfect quotation, cocoafiend - it captures Watson's style perfectly. I love the idea of the double hook, that "when you fish for the glory you catch the darkness too... if you hook twice the glory you hook twice the fear". Good and evil never exist in isolation - they require each other.

#40 - Happy to be of service, Joyce - especially since you convinced me to pick up Green Grass, Running Water after your great review last year. I read the first 20 pages of it with one of my classes, and it sparked some excellent discussion. A few hated it, but a few absolutely loved it too.

Today I read Margaret Atwood's The Circle Game. I left some comments, and two sample poems, over on the April poetry thread, if you are interested.

My April reading will probably focus on Atwood, as the 1010 Challenge group is having an "Atwood in April" challenge. I'm no longer a member of that group, but any excuse to devote a month to Margaret is good by me. She is definitely one of my favourite authors, and I have several of her books that I have yet to read.

You don't need to actually belong to the group to jump into the discussion do you? It's not like anyone checks or anything.

Glad you had some fun with Green Grass, Running Water! Next time try Kiss of the Fur Queen--the scene at the ballet is one of my favourites in all literature.

>43 Cait86: (not sure I could devote a month exclusively to any author, even a favorite like Maggie!) I will be very interested in what you chose to read. I hope you will cross-post over on The Atwoodians. Last year I reread Surfacing and The Robber Bride and really enjoyed the rereading experience. Every time we read a book, we are in a different place in our lives and thus bring something different to the reading.

#44 - No, I don't think anyone cares. So far there are quite a few Atwood novels being read - it will be interesting to see everyone's reactions to her writing.

#45 - I started Oryx and Crake today; I will be sure to post over in the Atwoodians group as well.

Today I finished Cristina Rivera-Garza's novel No One Will See Me Cry, which I then reviewed for Belletrista. I will post a link once the next issue goes live!

Reviewing for Belletrista has been quite the experience so far. I am enjoying not only reading works by authors from countries other than Canada, the US, and the UK, but also learning more about different parts of the world - I always find myself researching the history of the country in question, in order to better understand the events of the novel. This time, it was Mexico, a country about which I knew virtually nothing. I'm looking forward to doing further reading by Mexican authors.

I'm still reading Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, but it is a slow process, as I am savouring his use of language. His is not a style that can be taken in large doses - I prefer to just read a few pages at a time.

I had planned on finally finishing Half of a Yellow Sun this weekend, but I forgot it at work. One of my students wants to borrow it, so I need to get through it this week.

Finally, I started my second Atwood of the month, Oryx and Crake.

Generally, I am a "one book at a time" kind of reader, but lately that has not been the case at all!

#31 etc., I've read several of the Canongate myths series. I think The Penelopiad was the first one I read, and I liked it a lot so I excitedly purchased several more, but I found them very patchy.

I read: Victor Pelevin's The Helmet Of Horror (the Minotaur - I liked it, but I'd say it was for Pelevin fans only), Jeanette Winterson's Weight (Atlas) which was a little disappointing, and David Grossman's Lion's Honey (Samson) and Su Tong's Binu and the Great Wall, both of which were pretty poor.

#48 - thanks!

I haven't read much lately, except for the excellent No One Will See Me Cry by Cristina Rivera-Garza. You can read my review, and my interview with Ms. Rivera-Garza, in Issue 5 of Belletrista!

Review: http://belletrista.com/2010/issue5/anth_2.php
Interview: http://belletrista.com/2010/issue5/features_1.php

This has been a busy reading week for me - due to the fact that I have been neglecting the gigantic stack of marking sitting on my desk - so I have three new books to record:

Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie - An incredible book, and exactly the type of novel I love: an emotional story of interconnected families that spans several generations. I'm going to read three more of Shamsie's novels in the next few weeks, and write an article on her for Belletrista - so a link will be forthcoming!

Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris - I generally need to read a Brain Candy book after finishing a major novel, and the Sookie Stackhouse series is one of my guilty pleasures. I have to say that I thought this was the worst of the series, as while the first 3/4 of the book was of Harris' normal quality, the last 1/4 was just awful. Oh well, it gave my brain a break!

The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton - Review in next post

I absolutely loved Burnt Shadows, Cait, so I'm glad to hear that you also liked it. I bought another of her novels last summer, Broken Verses, but I don't have her other ones. I can't wait to read your article!

ETA: I'm surprised that I "only" gave it 4-1/2 stars; I'm adding the extra half star.

The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton

Eleanor Catton's debut novel is proving difficult to review. I have literally started, and erased, ten different opening paragraphs, as if what I want to say about this book is locked in my mind, there only for me. Really, this makes perfect sense, as The Rehearsal is a very introspective novel - it delves deep into the psyches of its characters, and surfaces with very few answers. Catton's style, like the tumbled thoughts running through my head, is non-linear, disjointed, and (here the comparison to my thoughts ends), genius. I finished The Rehearsal with that rare feeling of wanting to begin it again immediately.

The Rehearsal has two main plotlines. First, we have the aftermath of a sex scandal at an all-girls high school, where a teacher was caught having a relationship with a student. While the actual details of this affair are never revealed to the reader, we instead are privy to the minds of several other students at the school - including the younger sister of the abused girl - and the link that brings them together, a nameless saxophone teacher. The other story is of a group of first-year students at a dramatic arts academy near the high school, who are trying to discover what role they occupy in the great production that is life.

These plots merge when the drama students decide to use the sex scandal as inspiration for their year-end performance.

Catton moves between her two plotlines with great skill, using days of the week as titles for the scandal story, and months as titles for the drama story. The trick is in discovering when these plots will meet - for of course, we know they must. At times, the girls at the high school may actually be actors in the academy's play, so that one plotline is really only dramatized by the other. The reader is never sure of what is real and what is an act.

This structure is what makes The Rehearsal so exciting. Catton takes huge stylistic risks, and requires her readers to forge ahead through their confusion, to suspend the desire to know everything that happens, and to accept the uncertainties of her world. We will never know what parts of The Rehearsal are scripted scenes in a play, and what parts are true to life - and I'm sure some readers will hate this, find it pretentious. I, however, was awed by Catton's restraint. Her ability to leave questions unanswered is refreshing, as is her insistance in an active reader - you cannot read this book without giving it your full attention. Hands down, this is the most challenging, thought-provoking novel I have read all year.

5 stars

Fabulous review, Cait! I'm doubly eager to read The Rehearsal now. I have it, and I'll read it for Orange July.

I was also really impressed by The Rehearsal when I read it last year. I was keen to read it after listening to Catton read an extract at our local Writers & Readers Festival.

Someone else here on LT recommended The Rehearsal and I have a copy coming to me. I'm glad you also found it worthwhile.

Cait -

I'm hooked. I loved high school drama club and performance. Sex scandal. Imagine! What a topic to write a screenplay about and then ... act it out on stage. Woot!

Gonna track this one down. Your review and the comments following it convinced me.

I'm almost finished with my first Book Challenge of the Year. Stop by and see some of what I've been reading so far this year, if you would like.

25 Book Challenge for 2010 - http://www.librarything.com/topic/81298

Womansheart - Twenty-five Special Books for Fun, Frolic and possible Brain Food

I loved The Rehearsal. Great book!

Hello, thread visitors! It is great to read your comments on The Rehearsal. I have been promoting it to my friends and colleagues left-right-and-centre this week, and I think they are all getting a little tired of me :)

Darryl, I will let you know how I find Shamsie's other novels - I have In the City by the Sea, Kartography, and Broken Verses. I guess I better get reading!

Good to hear from you Ruth! I will head over to your thread right now.

In reading news, I have just finished Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand by Gioconda Belli. It is a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve - not just their time in Eden, but what happened to them following their expulsion. It was interesting, especially from my non-religious point of view. I will review if for Belletrista, and will post the link eventually.

Looking forward to the review of Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand.

Will keep checking in here for anything you share with us followers, Cait.

R/wh

Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand sounds very intriguing. For some reason (I'm not religious), I find myself drawn to contemporary fiction derived from Bible stories lately. Have you read A Time for Everything by Karl Knausgaard?

#59 - Always good to hear from you Ruth - even if it does take me almost a month to respond!

#60 - A Time for Everything looks interesting; I just went and hunted down your excellent review, you should post it! I really like retellings of all kind, whether Biblical or not, so Belli's novel caught my attention right away.

Today I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, which I first heard about in Belletrista. It was a beautiful, uplifting novel, and a quick read. I'll definitely look for other books by Ogawa.

That said, it was such a sweet, positive novel that I feel like I need something sarcastic and dark next. I love novels that celebrate life, but after a while I need a grittier read too. I recently bought Martin Amis' first novel, The Rachel Papers, so I might give that a try, or Jon McGregor's Even the Dogs, which is getting some Booker Prize buzz.

Cait86,
I lived in Ontario for a few years in different places - 1 year in Toronto. Loved that city. I'm guessing your name Cait is from the Gaelic. I was born in Ireland.

I got to love Canadian poets and fiction writers while I lived there.

How, on earth, are you such a prolific reader while teaching also?

Hi bookmonk888 - thanks for your post :) My reading is actually much less this year, now that I teach, compared to last year, when I was in teachers' college. I'm looking forward to summer, so that I can sit and read all day! I guess I just force myself to make time during the school year.

In other news, I was in Toronto last night to see Steve Miller Band in concert. It was phenomenal! He played for almost two hours, and Colin James was a great opener. He was even invited back on to play with Steve Miller for the first 30 minutes or so, sans practice. Best concert experience to date.

On the book front, I should finish The Rachel Papers today. So far I am really enjoying the narrator - he reminds me a lot of Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate, my favourite movie. He's shallow, a bit lost, and quite the typical nineteen year old.

Oh, and Happy Canada Day to all Canadian Club Readers! Yay for summer!!

#64 (Cait86)

Happy Canada Day to you. I always enjoyed that day when I lived there. Especially when I lived in Windsor, and Detroit and Windsor had their Freedom Festival Week (to include 1st. and 4th. July).

We've so many Canadians living here in Florida, I wonder why there aren't any celebrations.

You didn't tell me if "Cait" means you have some Irish ancestory.

Reading some of Leonard Cohen's poems at the moment. Love them.

P.S. I was once stopped by a TV crew on July 4th in Toronto and asked: "Why do you think Americans are more patriotic than Canadians". I replied: "I don't".

#65 - Hi again! I like your response to the TV crew - though with the riots in Toronto last week because of the G20, patriotism in Canada was at a bit of a low.

I love Cohen's poems too, but not his novels - Beautiful Losers was just horrendous.

Cait is merely short for Caitlin, not Irish. I much prefer the shorter name, and very few people call me Caitlin.

Thanks for dropping by!

Belletrista 6 is live! Here the link to my review of Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: http://belletrista.com/2010/issue6/reviews_5.php

Enjoy the issue - there are some fantastic articles and enough reviews to tempt the pickiest of readers!

#66 (Cait86)

Hope I'm not being arrogant, or trying to upstage you. That's far from my intent. But I did find this quote on Wikipedia. Nice association with the Greek for "pure". It does seem to have a French, Ancient Greek, and Irish evolution.

"Caitlin (English pronunciation: /ˈkeɪtlɪn/, KAYT-lin) is a female name. Along with the many other variants of Katherine, it is generally believed to mean "pure" because of its long association with the Greek adjective katharos (pure), though the name did not evolve from this word.1 The name originated in Ireland as Caitlín ˈkatʲlʲiːnʲ and is the Gaelic variation of the Old French name Cateline katlin, which was derived from Catherine, which was derived from the Ancient Greek Αἰκατερίνη (Aikaterine).2 Catherine is attributed to St. Catherine of Alexandria and the Greek goddess Hecate.3"

Read your review of Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve and you've spurred my interested to add it to my reading list. I had a book of poetry published in Canada called Eden & Other Reservations

#68 - Of course I don't think you are being arrogant! It was interesting to read the etymology of my name. Hope you enjoy the Belli novel.

Book #18: The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis

I have mixed feelings on The Rachel Papers. First, it is the only Martin Amis novel that I have ever read, so I went into it with very little expectations. I knew it was his debut, written when he was quite young, and that Amis admitted to it being semi-autobiographical. So, I guess I expected a realistic portrait of a nineteen year old boy, and that is exactly what I got - a sex-obsessed, sarcastic, self-absorbed narrator. Which was fine, and actually, just what I needed after reading several "life-affirming" novels this year. I am a cheery person, but I like a little realism now and then too.

My problem, which is frequently my problem with novels, was the ending. The Rachel Papers just...ended. I felt no sense of conclusion, and while the narrator, Charles Highway, does come to a bit of a realization near the ending, there was no sense that anything I had just read would alter Charles in any way. It was like he finally learned something, but then Amis forgot all about this lesson and just kept his narrator exactly the same. He will end up making the same mistakes, being the same jerk he always was. Frustrating.

All-in-all, The Rachel Papers was well written and was the realistic dose of sarcasm that I needed, but it was far from the perfectly conceived novel.

3.5 stars

#69 (Cait86)

Thanks for being so gracious. I haven't yet read any of Martin Amis but I have read quite a bit of his father's novels Kingsley Amis. I really liked him.

I was off traveling in England and Ireland for the last few weeks, but I am home now - so time for a reading update:

Book #19: In the City by the Sea by Kamila Shamsie
Book #20: Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

Both for an article for Belletrista, so link to follow in about a month. Shamsie is a wonderful author who really delves into life in Pakistan. Both novels deal with political troubles, but through the eyes of children. Kartography was amazing, one of my favourites for the year.

Book #21: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse

Again, for Belle. Touchstone not working, but again, a recommended novel that contains some beautiful passages about reading fiction.

I am now about 100 pages into Troubles by J. G. Farrell. After that, I'll start on some Booker longlisted novels - most likely The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet first.

Cait - somehow I missed your thread...since about April. Your review of The Rehearsal (post #52) is wonderful. I also enjoyed your other reviews here and on Belletrista.

>73 dchaikin: - Thanks Dan, I'm glad you've rediscovered my thread, though my reviews are few and far between these days. I follow your reading as well, even if I don't often post. I admire your ability to read tomes like Proust and Infinite Jest. I always tell myself that I will read more Classics, but I never do...

Right, a reading update. I've put Troubles aside for now. It just wasn't what I wanted to read right now - my Booker novels were calling. So I moved on to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Honestly, I thought the first section was quite dull, and Jacob is an annoyingly moral character. However, once I made it to the second chunk, the novel really picked up, and I only have about 100 pages to go now. It's a solid historical novel, and Mitchell's prose is certainly beautiful, but I'm not sure it is Booker worthy. I like it, but... it is missing that "something" to make it a major prize winner. Also, I think that after Wolf Hall won last year, the Booker judges won't choose another historical novel. My guess is that something more modern wins this year.

Mitchell's prose is certainly beautiful, but I'm not sure it is Booker worthy

Do you think that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet got nominated for the Booker Prize, because the members of the committee were making up for the novels by Mitchell that were overlooked in previous years? I keep thinking (I *have to* keep thinking or I wouldn't read any more Bookers) that that's what happened when John Banville won for The Sea.

I happened to read The Professor and the Housekeeper on a beautiful sunny, but cool, afternoon, with the smell of honeysuckle and my neighbor's privet hedge wafting in through my open window. It was so peaceful, a perfect little interlude in a busy week. Sigh! I love it when books match up with your life like that.

Anyway, glad to see you're back, but just have to *hate you a little bit* for being able to casually say that you were traveling in England and Ireland for the last few weeks. ;-)

>75 bonniebooks: - Bonnie, while this is my first Mitchell, so I can't comment on how "de Zoet" compares to his other novels, I certainly think that the Booker judges can award prizes based on entire careers, and not just one book. Amsterdam certainly isn't Ian McEwan's best novel, IMHO, nor do I think The English Patient is Ondaatje's best.

I love your description of reading The Housekeeper and the Professor! As for my travels, I'm alright with a little bit of hating, LOL, as I guess that is the price I pay for having the summers off to do whatever I please. The perks of being a teacher! I'm already planning next summer - I think I will stay in North America and roadtrip across Western Canada and the US.

Glad to have you visit my thread :)

(Smiling back!) It's not the time. As a private tutor, my schedule follows the school season as well; it's that I'm cheap! Speaking of which, if you're coming through Seattle, you're welcome to stay with me. I'm a terrible hostess--won't go the Pike Place Market with you--but you can't beat a free bed and a hot shower! And if you come in July, you'll be able to sit by the window and smell the flowers while you're reading a good book too.

That is so generous of you (and I just might take you up on the offer)! Thanks so much!

Good! It's not as generous as you think, I'm hoping to someday zig-zag my way across this country--seeing it for the first time, and all my LT friends as well. ("couch-surfing," ala the LT way!) Then, maybe I'll hop across the sea to visit England and Ireland (Juliet07, beware!)

LOL Well if you ever want to visit small-town Southern Ontario, or the Toronto area, I'm here!

Cait - Let me know if you're coming through Vancouver and I'll make sure you see the best things. I have a very small house, and unfortunately no guest room. But I can help you find a place to stay. Also, you must make sure you go to Vancouver Island (or the Gulf Islands).

>81 Nickelini: Thanks Joyce! I will definitely stay a few days in Vancouver, and would love your help :) I'm very excited to see BC.

Great! Let me know what days you'll be here and I'll make sure I clear some time for you!

Thanks! I should know early next year. I'm an obsessive planner, so my research should be finished around March.

A couple of books to get caught up on:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

August and September will be devoted mostly to Booker novels, and this highly discussed novel is the first. I'm conflicted over how I feel about it, mostly because I hated the main character, Jacob de Zoet. He is an extremely moral man, and I found his thinking process boring and pretentious (hmm, this makes me sound like an awful person, doesn't it?). The secondary characters were much more interesting, as they had both positive and negative characteristics. I think authors can fall into this problem sometimes, making their heros/heroines a bit too perfect. I want real people, and real people are flawed.

So, the first part of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was very slow, mostly because it was narrated by Jacob. The rest of the novel, which alternates between several different narrators, moved much quicker, and I was swept into the story. The main female character, Orito, annoyed me almost as much as Jacob did, but her story was the most engaging, in my opinion. Mitchell then turns away from Orito, and the reader doesn't see her again until near the end. Instead, we move back to Jacob. Again, this part dragged for me, but the chapters narrated by other characters kept my interest.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't find this novel to be anything special, in terms of writing. Most of Mitchell's prose is beautiful, but straight-forward. Then, near the end there was a passage that is one of the most incredible things I have ever read. A man who is about to die makes a list, and this list was gorgeous - an intricate prose-poem with internal rhyme, complex rhythm. It was a glimpse into what Mitchell can really do with words, and I was spellbound. This one paragraph bumps my rating up by a full star.

As a historical novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is quite good, but as a Booker novel, I would only have given it three stars. For me, it didn't have the beauty and complexity of Byatt's The Children's Book or Mawer's The Glass Room, both from last year's nominees. However, that one incredible paragraph was inspiring, and so in the end Mitchell earns four stars from me.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

Another difficult book to review. I flew through The Slap is three days, reading most of it's 500 pages in one sitting. Normally, this would mean that I loved it, and yet somehow, I'm not actually sure if I liked this book at all.

The Slap is told from the perspectives of eight different characters, all of whom were present at a backyard barbeque where an adult man slapped a four year old boy. This boy was not the man's son. The repercussions of this act are extensive - broken friendships, troubled marriages, a court case, etc. The characters all react to the slap in different ways, and there is some interesting debate on who was in the wrong.

The main problem for me, was the horrible characters. They are all complex, well-drawn people, but they are all awful people (what a contrast to Jacob de Zoet!). I shouldn't say all - I liked a few of the eight - but a few I just totally detested. In fact, the first character, Hector, was almost enough to make me drop the novel after the first few pages. Also, the amount of swearing in The Slap was absurd - no one swears that much, especially not in front of children. I cringed every time I had to read the "c-word", which appeared on nearly every page. Sex seemed to be the answer to all problems, and drugs were taken like there was no tomorrow. All-in-all, The Slap paints a very unfavourable picture of middle-class Australia (not that I took it literally).

But, I did find this book engaging, and I would emerge from its pages to discover that I had read huge chunks in no time. I was never bored, never wanted to put it down. I think I would compare reading The Slap to watching one of those awful reality-TV shows like "The Bachelor", or watching a soap opera. You know the people are horrible, you know your brain cells are slowly dying as you watch, but you just can't help yourself.

Three stars for sheer readability, but alas, not a lot of literary merit. Like I said, a tough book to review.

Your comments on the Slap were very similar to mine! I had mixed feelings when I read the book, but looking back now I've decided I didn't like it. But yes, it was very compelling at the time.

I went and read a bunch of other reviews after writing my comments, and realized that we had the same reaction, Joyce! I really like the way you organize your reviews, by the way. Mine are always so jumbled, I should adopt an organizational pattern like you have.

I'm in the middle of The Slap at the moment. I'm enjoying it, in that it's keeping me hooked...but you're right, it's a bit like watching daytime TV (I'll just watch a bit more because I can't believe these people are for real, kind of thing). My feeling on the swearing is that Australians swear more than Brits (that's my impression after several years with an Australian boyfriend), thereby reducing the shock value of the words, but I agree with you about the sex and drugs - either I've led a very sheltered life or middle-class Melbourne is a law unto itself!

I loved your reviews of the Mitchell and Tsiolkas, Cait. I definitely liked the Mitchell more than you did, but your points are definitely valid, and I agree with you for the most part. In retrospect, I wish he had done a bit more with Orito, and I wanted to shake Jacob a couple of times when he took a strong moral stand to his detriment (I'm sure you'll remember where), but I enjoyed his character more than any other in the book.

I'll read the Tsiolkas later this month.

I started the Jacobson earlier this morning (The Finkler Question), and am absolutely loving it so far. It got great reviews in The Guardian and The Observer this weekend, and I posted reviews on the book's home page on LT earlier today.

I'll be interested to get your take on the Galgut; I enjoyed it, but not as much as the Mitchell.

Thanks for those two reviews, Cait! I will also be interested in your take of the Galgut, I've read his previous three books and look forward to this one (oh, but there are sooo many books calling to me!)

>89 rachbxl: Rach, I just finished Peter Temple's Truth, a police procedural set in contemporary Melbourne (it won the Miles Franklin Award) and its portrait of the city is exceedingly bleak . The repartee between the police officers is more than a little crude, reminiscent to what I used to hear working in the field in the 1970s before the education levels of police officers improved (I've heard more uses of the "c" word in his two books than in my entire career working within the field).

I enjoyed reading your comments about Jacob de Zoet. Like kidzdoc, I liked the book much more than you did--I think that I saw Jacob differently--more as a man trying to behave morally (after all, he is from a place and time when religion was a dominant part of a person's life) and he was discovering both his own cowardice and how difficult it can be to figure out what the right thing to do is. I liked that Mitchell managed that difficult juggling act of firmly rooting his characters in their time and place (as opposed to the more common practice of dressing modern people up in old-fashioned clothes and calling it historical fiction) and still making them three dimensional and likeable. And I know exactly which passage you're referring to. I reread it several times and have a post-it sticking out of that page for easy future reference.

The Slap has me intrigued every time I run across a mention. I may have to actually hunt that book down, instead of waiting for it to show up in front of me.

Lots of interesting thoughts on these Booker novels!

>89 rachbxl: - Rachel I just read your comments on The Slap over on your thread, and I totally agree with your observation on the female characters being portrayed in a better light than the male characters. You obviously liked the book better than I did, though!

>90 kidzdoc: - Hi Darryl, I am looking forward to The Finkler Question, based on your review. I enjoyed In a Strange Room, but not as much as I had hoped. I found it a bit disjointed and unrealistic, but I loved the narrative voice and writing style. So far I haven't been thrilled with any of the Booker novels I've read. I'm just starting The Long Song, so we will see how that goes.

>91 avaland: - Lois, your comments on Truth are intreguing - I don't think I've read another novel set in Melbourne, but it would be interesting to see how the city is portrayed by other authors. I wonder if it has this "rougher" image, like Detroit, or Hamilton, Ontario, which is generally portrayed in a negative light.

>92 RidgewayGirl: - Hi RidgewayGirl :) You know, I think I might need to reread The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet at some point. Maybe I was just being too hard on poor Jacob? Hope you get to The Slap at some point!

Right, so my review of In a Strange Room will have to wait a bit, no time now. Have a good day everyone!

Things have been busy lately, hence my non-reviews. I have read a few books though!

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

A good short novel, very sparse prose, which I love, and an interesting meditation on travel, another one of my passions. In the end, really about the random relationships we make and destroy. The narrative was very interesting, because the narrator switches between talking about himself in first-person and in third-person. Takes a bit of getting used to, but really works well to highlight how lost the character is in his life. In the end, I thought the three sections were a bit disjointed, and the last section was much less avant-garde, and much too commercial. 4 stars.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

In university I read a lot of slave narratives, and I've read several novels about slaves (like The Book of Negroes), so I wasn't really looking forward to The Long Song - I figured it would just be more of the same story. In a way, I was right, as most slave narratives follow the same pattern, and the main characters are always the exception to the slave life. They have privileges, or are taught to read, or have enlighted masters - things that didn't really happen. Levy's novel is like this, but the voice of her narrator, July, was so wonderful to read that I didn't care that I was treading in familiar territory. In the end I gave it 4.5 stars!

Sky Burial by Xinran - Read for a Belletrista article, link to follow. A beautiful story about Tibet, one that piqued my interest in Tibetan culture.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - My grade 9 students (our equivalent of freshmen) have a choice of four novels: Speak, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, About a Boy, and The Chrysalids. I'm trying to read them all before starting the unit (except Curious Incident, which I've already read), and this was my first. It's the story of a girl, Melinda, who is ostracized by her friends in her freshmen year because she called the police on a big house party during the summer. What her friends don't know is that Melinda was raped at the party, and dialed 911 for help, not to get her friends in trouble. Melinda hides her assualt from everyone, descends into depression, and slowly works towards getting her life back. A touching read, great for young teens. 4 stars

Cait -- I didn't realize you taught grade 9! My older daughter is starting grade 9 next week. I'm trying to help her expand her book choices--at that age I was reading only adult novels. I guess there wasn't as much YA available in my day (late 70s), but I can't seem to get her out of the YA books. Which is okay, but she gets As in English without trying, so I'd like her to stretch a little more. I just bought The Chrysalids last night and I remember that one being taught when I was in school (although not in any of my classes) and I'll try the others you've listed. Speak sounds really interesting--I've never heard of it. She doesn't like anything that's too brutally real (no death and suffering). Do you have any suggestions?

Hi Joyce - Speak was great, and while the subject matter was tough, it wasn't graphic, and in the end there was a lot of hope. When it comes to YA novels, I know our school board is pushing The Hunger Games trilogy and the Uglies series as books that are engaging and still challenging. I think 14/15 is a tough age, because so many adult books are a little too adult, but YA is often too easy - although YA books have an awful lot of adult content these days too. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series is very good.

For actual adult novels, I think I read classics like To Kill a Mockingbird at that age, as well as The Lovely Bones and The Diary of Anne Frank (I'm glancing through my library, lol). I had several students who read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns last year, and really enjoyed them, but again, they are both a bit disturbing. Jodie Picoult books were really popular too, but I haven't read any of them, so I can't vouch for their content. A few girls read Memoirs of a Geisha too, and Obasan. I also taught All Quiet on the Western Front, but that has some tough scenes in it.

I'll let you know if I think of others!

February - Lisa Moore

Finally, a Booker novel about which I can get excited. I was predisposed to love February, because I love Canadian Lit, especially the sparse prose, grief-filled characters, time-jumping narrative kind, which is exactly what this is. February is set in Newfoundland, and it jumps through the life of Helen O'Mara, whose husband Cal died in the 1982 sinking of the Ocean Ranger, an oil rig. In 2008, Helen is still trying to get over her loss. Alongside Helen's life is the life of her son John, who has just found out that a week-long fling seven months ago is about to turn him into a father.

Moore's prose is gorgeous in a harsh way, much like the Newfoundland landscape she describes. The narrative is non-linear, and the characters flit between reality and dreams, demanding the reader to keep up.

I loved everything about this novel. It's probably a longshot for the Booker shortlist, given the buzz around several of the others on the longlist, but since 2002 is the last time a Canadian won the Booker (Yann Martel's Life of Pi), I think it is about time - and February would be a deserving winner.

5 stars

You've described it so beautifully. I've added it to my wishlist.

Cait --thanks for the tips on books for Nina. Funny you should mention Hunger Games--I bought her the latest installment last week. That night I found her reading the first book and I was surprised but shouldn't have been. She always rereads the whole series before reading the newest of any series. Anyway, she loves those books. And I got her into the Uglies series this summer too after reading an article about YA dystopias in some magazine (New Yorker, I think but I'm not sure). I'll try some of those others, although she refuses to read Anne Frank (too disturbing for her).

Thanks for the great comments on February. I have that one waiting in Mnt TBR, although I don't expect to get to it this year (maybe I'll read it next February!)

I was at the book store and almost bought a used copy of Slap even though I just told Bonnie (the other one, I'm not talking to myself--not this time anyway) that thanks to her review I wasn't going to read it. I've had that book for so long on my wish list, that I can't quite let it go. It's the use of the "C-" word that I really can't stand. I'll probably just put it back on my library request list, since your review makes me want to read it again. Sigh! I'm just so darn wishy-washy!

And thanks for the longer review of Mitchell's book--it doesn't sound like a good one for me. Besides, I still have Cloud Atlas to read.

Joyce - Nina and I share that habit of rereading series each time a new installment comes out - which is partially the reason I have read the Harry Potter series so many times!

Bonnie - It seems like I am the only person who didn't love The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, so if it sounds interesting to you, give it a go. As for The Slap, I can't stop thinking about it, so maybe I liked it better than I initially thought - though it certainly has horrible language in it!

Two new books:

Revenge - Taslima Nasrin

For Belle, so you will all have to wait to read about this interesting short novel set in contemporary Bangladesh.

Trespass - Rose Tremain

I don't think I was the target audience for this novel, which contains a lot of musings on getting old, and what makes a person happy at the end of his/her life. The setting - France - was beautifully described and makes we want to travel, but the characters were all difficult to understand - we just didn't have anything remotely in common.

I've read other novels with older protagonists, and I often like them, so it isn't impossible for a 24 year old to empathize with a senior citizen, but it takes considerable skill on the part of the author, I think. These characters really did not reflect back on their lives, as opposed to say, Hagar in The Stone Angel or Iris in The Blind Assassin, two characters who I could understand and like.

Anyway, if you like novels about cranky, snotty, awful characters who are vindictive in their old age, you might like Trespass. The writing was excellent, so I won't totally write off Rose Tremain - I'll just hope for a novel with more sympathic characters.

"...if you like novels about cranky, snotty, awful characters..."

Uh...no thanks! Thanks for your honest review. :-)

I love 'cranky, snotty, awful characters'. Have one in a novel I'm trying to write. Any other suggestions of such from anyone?

Oh boy, lots to get caught up on. Field trips, drama workshops, literacy team meetings, and school charity initiatives have been my reality lately, and I am exhausted! But, I have read a few novels in the meantime:

Room - Emma Donoghue

A much talked-about book these days, Room was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I am a bit sad it didn't win. I loved the voice of Jack, the five year old who lives with his mother in a small room, and who has no concept of the outside world. Critics have felt that Jack sounds too mature at times, but personally I think a child who has no other children to interact with would have a heightened vocabulary and sentence structure, and Donoghue does a great job showing us how bright Jack is. His Ma is a fantastic character, equal parts bravery and fragility, having been through a hellish kidnapping.

A best-read for the year, 4.5 stars.

The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

The Chrysalids is one of the books my grade 9s can pick for their novel study, and since I hadn't read it in years, I figured I should read along with them. Fortunately, they seem to like it better than I did. In the hands of a stronger author, this 200-page short novel could have been a trilogy of large books. Wyndham packs a lot of ideas in, and never really explores them. The ending is probably one of the worst endings I've ever read, a deus ex machina if I ever saw one. Frankly, I'm not sure why this is a classic, nor am I sure why my school chose to teach this book!

I have two more reviews to do, of the YA books The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, but I'm almost through with the third installment, Mockingjay, so I'll discuss them all together later today.

#104 - Well, if you want awful characters, who can't find much better examples than the people in The Slap, which I read earlier this year.

I almost bought a used copy of Room at Powell's last week. I sure wish I had bought it instead of Elliot Allagash--especially since I came home to find that EA was waiting for me at the library. Wanna trade? ;-)

Well, I just wrote a huge post on The Hunger Games series, only to have it disappear when I hit "Post". So, a very condensed version:

The Hunger Games - 4.5 stars - an excellent example of YA lit with a fiery heroine.

Catching Fire - 4 stars - almost as good as the first, but a bit repetitive.

Mockingjay - 3.5 stars - a disappointing end to the trilogy. Katniss is no longer the strong heroine I wanted her to be, and instead lets others decide her fate for her. She spends much of the book curled up in hidden places, avoiding her problems.

All in all, a better series than most YA, and a better role model for teens, although there is still an annoying love triangle reminiscent of Twilight.

Hi, Cait -

Sad to hear that you had your review disappear when you tried to post it. That happened to me so many times that I have actually established a habit of writing the reviews and doing the editing of them in a small text document, then doing a copy, cut and paste to the main page of the book to post the review and later to add it (or a portion of it) to my thread. It is frustrating to have the entire bit of thinking gone in a click of the mouse or a touch of the keyboard.

I have yet to complete the The Hunger Games series. I read a good amount of YA fiction, but, this one didn't grab me like many of the others do.

It is always good to see what you have been reading in addition to doing all of the activities you do during the rest of your busy life.

Cheers.

>108 Cait86:: I hate that! Before you hit post, just highlight and "copy" (control A, control C) within your posting and you'll have it in case you need it, but can just go on if you don't.

>110 bonniebooks: - Bonnie - will that work on an iMac as well as a PC? That would save me some time.

# - 111 - I don't know what the commands are on your device, but I'm sure you can copy and paste. That's what I do after being burned one too many times.

I have a MacBook, so yes it will. And you don't have to bother doing it offline first and pasting it in--just copy within the message box before you hit "submit."

>112 Nickelini: & 113 - Thank you both. I'm learning more every day!

just copy within the message box before you hit "submit."

Yes, that's what I do too (in case I wasn't clear).

Well I will certainly start copying my posts from now on - at least the longer ones.

I finally finished a book last night. I was in a bit of a reading slump and was unable to find the time to pick up a book. Yesterday, however, I got passed that and read my book for the next issue of Belletrista: Been Here a Thousand Years by Mariolina Venezia. After a slow beginning it was very good, a solid 4 star read. I'll link to my review in about a month, but for now I will say that Venezia captures small-town Italy very well, and reading it made me change my travel plans for next summer.

Up next will be a little non-fiction (a huge change for me) with the guilty pleasure read Miss O'Dell by Chris O'Dell, a woman who started working at Apple Records in the late 60s. It's poorly written but compulsively good, and I can't put it down. For anyone who ever wished they knew John, Paul, George, and Ringo personally, this is the best kind of escapist reading.

I'm also almost finished Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, but I left it at work this weekend, so I will try to read the rest of it this week. I like it, but I don't love it. Kincaid's writing is very plain and straight-forward, but Lucy is an interesting narrator and I enjoy her cynicism.

I have a plan for the rest of the year. Once I have finished the two books I am currently reading, I would like to move on to:

Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
The Bad Girl – Mario Vargas Llosa
The Night Watch – Sarah Waters
The Line – Olga Grushin
Lemon – Cordelia Strube

I'm not very good at following plans, but I'm going to try my best at sticking to these five books. Visitation is for Belle, and I am very excited about it; The Bad Girl will be my first novel by MVL, and I'm eager to try out his works after hearing several Club Readers rave about him. The Line I started last month and was distracted, so I want to return to it, and Lemon was longlisted for the Giller this year (plus it fits the colour challenge here at Club Read). The Night Watch will be my second Waters - I loved The Little Stranger last year and meant to read more of her stuff this year. Since it is almost December, I figured I better get crackin'!

There. Since I have reasons to read all of these books, maybe I will actually follow through with this plan! With two weeks off at Christmas, I usually get a lot of reading done, so I think this is plausible.

Anyone else have reading "plans" for the rest of 2010?

Hi Cait! Yes, to answer your question. My main goal to is finish the remaining books in my 101010 challenge (10 books in 10 different categories in 2010), which I've posted on message #1 of my latest thread. I have 7 books to go, and I'll probably read these books:

A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews (currently reading)
Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
Job by Joseph Roth
Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
Light in August by William Faulkner

I also have two remaining LibraryThing Early Reviewer books that I've received this year to finish:

Where We Know: New Orleans As Home by David Rutledge (currently reading)
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu

I have a plan for the next couple of weeks at least!

Arrival of the Snake Woman by Olive Senior for Belletrista
Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago for real-life book club
Hackney, That Rose Red Empire by Iain Sinclair for the Club Read colour challenge

Then I'm investigating graphic novels - Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan and Aya by Marguerite Abouet, for example.

I'm hoping to take 2 weeks off at Christmas so am also planning my reading for then - lots of nice light stuff like Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and P G Wodehouse I think.

Hmmmm, I'm possibly a little bit obsessed with planning and lists!

Alas, no plan. In a bit of a reading funk.

I've got a bit of a plan (though it probably needs one of those car commercial disclaimers):

Finishing:
The Brother Karamazov

Next:
The Scarlet Letter, White Teeth, and Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle for the color challenge
Where We Know: New Orleans As Home for ER
The Glass Room, O Pioneers!, and Bright-Sided

#120 - Lois, I hope you resurface from your reading funk soon!

#118, 119, 121 - Thanks for sharing your plans - I love reading other people's llists almost as much as I love making my own :) Char, for graphic novels I really enjoyed Maus by Art Spiegelman and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - both great, though tough topics.

I've finished both Miss O'Dell by Chris O'Dell and Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. Neither was a favourite for the year, although Miss O'Dell was the light reading that I really needed at the time. Now I am moving on to Sarah Waters' The Night Watch.

>122 Cait86: thanks, I think I have.

A stand-out book for the year:

The Night Watch - Sarah Waters

The Night Watch, Waters' fourth novel, was her first departure from the Victorian era. Set in 1940s London, it is the stories of five entwined characters, Viv, Helen, Kay, Julia, and Duncan. Viv and Helen work together in a dating service, finding new relationships for people whose marriages did not survive the war. Helen lives with Julia, and their relationship is not exactly smooth. Duncan, Viv's younger brother, has recently finished a prison sentence, and now takes care of an older man whose doctor practices in the same building as Kay's apartment. The reader initially gets very little backstory on these characters; instead, we are thrown right into their day-to-day lives, with no idea how they are all connected.

The narrative, rather than following a normal pattern, moves backward from 1947 to 1944, and finally to 1941. The first section ends rather inconclusively, and we never return to 1947 to discover if these characters solve their problems. Instead we travel back into their pasts to see how they have become the people we have grown to know. I loved this structure, this slow unravelling of the tangled web these characters had created.

Waters' writing is extremely descriptive; her novels are rich in detail, both in the setting and the societal customs of the time period. She obviously does extensive research before writing a novel, and it pays off - The Night Watch is extraordinary. Generally I find longer novels difficult, because they inevitably contain slow, poorly written scenes. It is seldom that I read a tome where every page is worth reading (unlike, say, a 200-page novel, where every word counts) - even some of my favourite long novels, like The Lord of the Rings or The Stand, have slow sections that I skim over. Not so with The Night Watch. Its 500 pages flew by, and each page added something to the narrative - I wouldn't edit anything out.

My one caveat to a glowing review - two scenes in this novel were gruesome, to the point that they made me physically queasy. They were important for character and plot development, but my easily-sickened self could not handle the vivid descriptions of blood. So, if you are like me and hate the sight of blood, parts of The Night Watch might not sit so well with you. Beyond this, however, The Night Watch was a nearly perfect novel, and I will certainly put it in the reread pile.

4.5 stars

Another best-read for the year:

Lemon by Cordelia Strube

Lemon is not your average teenager - she hates parties and other social functions, spends her time volunteering in the children's cancer ward of the hospital, reads constantly, and criticizes everyone and everything. Pegged by publishers as a modern Catcher in the Rye for girls, Lemon is hilarious, heart-breaking, crude, and hands down one of the best books I have read this year.

Lemon was Longlisted for the Giller Prize this year, and while I severly dislike Catcher in the Rye, the first few pages of Strube's novel convinced me that it was a must-read. Lemon's voice flies off the page like daggers poking holes in the false nature of the people around her. She is disgusted by her teachers, her parents, her firends, her enemies. The only person she likes is a six-year-old named Kadylak who is dying from cancer.

Lemon's attitude makes sense - she was adopted as a baby by a couple who later divorced, moved in with her adoptive dad and his new wife, watched that marriage fall apart, and is now, at sixteen, being contacted by her birth mother. Lemon's best friend, Rossi, wants desperately to be popular, and so she has sex with every boy who looks at her - something Lemon cannot understand ever wanting to do. Add to that an awful part-time job scooping ice cream, and Lemon has a lot to complain about.

Of course, drama ensues, and some seriously traumatic events occur. Through it all Lemon maintains her wit and sarcasm, even when seeing things no teenager should experience. Along with this wit comes quite a bit of swearing and other offensive language, so if you are sensitive to that, Lemon would not be for you. For me, Lemon was a wonderful book - unique in narration, laugh-out-loud funny, and touching.

5 stars

Ooh, that's definitely one for my wish list. Thanks, Cait!

#126 - I would be interested to hear your take on it Darryl - it's not a book that I would normally "see" you as reading, but at the same time, it was really, really good. Have you read Catcher in the Rye? I can't help making comparisons between the two.

Another Book:

Kilmeny of the Orchard by Lucy Maud Montgomery

My Dad, who is an avid reader of thriller/horror/mystery/sci-fi type novels - basically everything I don't read - convinced me to read Justin Cronin's The Passage. So far, it's actually really good, reminiscent of the few Stephen King novels that I really enjoy, but scary as hell. I was reading it last night until about 10pm, and it freaked me out so much that I had to read something much calmer before going to bed. So, I picked up Kilmeny of the Orchard, a very short novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I'm a big fan of LMM, especially the Anne and Emily novels, but I've never read much of her other stuff. Last year I found a bunch of her books at a used bookstore, and they've been sitting on my shelves ever since. Kilmeny of the Orchard is only about 140 pages, and so I finished it in one sitting, and was able to sleep.

Basically, Kilmeny of the Orchard is a love story. Eric Marshall, a well-to-do man of 24, is filling in for a sick friend as the teacher in a small town on PEI. He meets Kilmeny, a beautiful girl who is mute, and instantly falls in love. Kilmeny returns his love, but won't marry him, because she thinks he deserves a wife who can speak. Eric sets about trying to restore her vocal capacities, so that they can marry, and of course everyone lives happily ever after.

Kilmeny of the Orchard is actually much darker than most of LMM's novels. It contains adultery, an attempted murder, and some nasty characters. At it's heart though, was a sweet love story between two perfectly nice characters. It didn't live up to the Anne novels, which I still reread on a regular basis, but it was a nice way to pass a couple of hours.

3.5 stars

Jane of Lantern Hill by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Another book read in the midst of The Passage. This one is the story of Jane Stuart, a girl living in Toronto with her angry grandmother and popular, unhappy mother. Jane belives her father is dead, until a nasty girl at school tells her that he is alive, living in Prince Edward Island. Jane is upset, as this same girl tells her that her parents don't live together because her father did not want children. One day Jane's father sends her a letter, requesting that mousy, unconfident Jane spend the summer with him in PEI. Jane unhappily goes, instantly falls in love with her dad and the Island, and becomes a confident, cheery girl.

Jane is quite different than Anne or Emily, LMM's other famous heroines, because her dearest desire is to keep house for her dad. Jane loves to cook and clean, and has no ambitious plans for college. However, she possesses the fantastic imagination of all LMM's characters, and her story of becoming a happier person, and attempt to bring her parents back together, is touching.

4 stars

125 - Sounds great...added to the wishlist.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage, one of 2010's big sellers, is the type of book I don't normally read. It's very long, it's a thriller, it's quite scary, and it has elements of science fiction - all things I tend to stay away from. So when my Dad asked me to read it, I was hesitant. He had really enjoyed it, though, and so I gave it a try. In the end, I'm glad I did.

The Passage opens with the story of a little girl, Amy, and her mother, a poor girl who has to become a prostitute in order to support her daughter. Bad events occur, and Amy is left at a convent under the care of Sister Lacey, who feels that there is something special about this six year old child. Elsewhere, a scientific expedition into Bolivia goes horribly wrong, and the word "vampire" is whispered about. Back in the US, survivors from Bolivia become scientific experiments, and two federal agents are sent across the country to recruit men on Death Row - men with nothing to lose. These prisoners become part of the experiments, and Amy, alone in the world, is targeted to be the next trial subject. She is captured, the other subjects break out and take over, and Amy is recused by one of the federal agents, Wolgast, who does his best to keep her alive in a world where these "vampires" are taking over - and this is all in just the first 200 pages.

Flash forward about 92 years, and the reader finds a Colony of about 90 people living in California. They believe that they are all that is left in the world, and they spend their days warding off the vampires, which they call "smokes". We meet Peter, Alicia, Sara, and Michael, who become the main characters in what feels like a completely different book with no connection to the first 200 pages - and then Amy returns. From there, the reader takes a trip across the US, learns more about Cronin's version of vampires, and reaches an ending that frustratingly sets up the next book in a trilogy - as apparently 760 pages was not enough to tell all Cronin wants to tell.

Other reviews have commented that the first section of The Passage is much stronger than the rest of the book, but here I disagree. The first 200 pages were slow going, and it wasn't until we made the time jump that I was pulled into Cronin's world. I think it comes down to the characters - I disliked Wolgast and Sister Lacey, but quickly cared about Peter, Alicia, Michael, and Sara. As well, the first section was quite fractured, with the narrative jumping around between characters, while the rest of the novel was a more conventional journey.

Cronin's writing is verbose - there is a reason this book is 760 pages. The story is large, yes, but his tendency to enumerate every. single. detail. makes the book that much longer. That said, his writing is very atmospheric, and there were parts where I was actually scared.

In the end, I really enjoyed The Passage, and I'll definitely read the next book when it is published. It wasn't a perfect read, and I'm not sure I'm any more likely to pick up a sci-fi thriller, but I'm glad I read it.

4.5 stars (when rated against other books in the same genre, not books in general)

Cait -

It has been nice to see your recent posts and reviews here with school being on holidays right now.

I added Lemon immediately and ordered it from AmazonUSA. It sounds like a book that I will really enjoy. It should arrive just after the new year. Thanks for the review that introduced it to me.

Hope that the New Year brings you many good experiences, close friendship, connection, prosperity, and moments of insight, happiness and intimacy.

Happy New Year! At 43 books, I am finished for 2010.

My new Club Read 2011 thread is here.