- Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
- Death Without Company by Craig Johnson
- A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
- Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
- The Lost Landscape by Joyce Carol Oates
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
- Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
- The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
- The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
- Missing Person by Patrick Modiano
- Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano
- The Secret Place by Tana French
- A Single Eye by Susan Dunlap
- The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
- True Story By Michel Finkel
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
- The Children Act by Ian McEwan
- Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates
- Gone by Lisa Gardner
- The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
- Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka
- Weaving a Family by Barbara Katz Rothman
- Wetlands by Charlotte Roche
- Some Girls, My Life In A Harem, by Jillian Lauren
- Russka by Edward Rutherfurd
- The Book of Night Women by Marlan James
- The Victim by Paul Cleave
- The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
- I Refuse by Per Petterson
- Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates
- The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates
- Dreamland by Sam Quinones
- The Slap by Christo Tsiolkas
- Obsidian & Blood by Aliette De Bodard
- The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
- Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
- The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
- The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant
- Dragon Hunter by Charles Gallenkamp
- Walking Home by Simon Armitage
- The Jugglers Children by Carolyn Abraham
- Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
- The Lost Island by Preston and Child
- Poppet by Mo Hayden
- Hanging Hill by Mo Hayden
- Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little
- Gone by Mo Hayden
- The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd
- Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
- The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Book List 2015- 56 Books
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
The Goldfinch
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
At 771 pages, The Goldfinch is definitely in the chunky category. I'm sure many of the Chunky participants have already discussed this book, since it was a choice for a read-a-long. I couldn't get in on that but I did manage to get a copy from the library, so I lucked out. I've read both of Donna Tartt's previous books and found them interesting, imaginative, and lengthy. The Goldfinch is every bit in that same vein. Briefly, the story concerns Theo Decker, a mildly troubled youth who has been abandoned along with his mother by his alcoholic father. Theo and his mother are visiting an unspecified museum one morning, basically killing time until their appointment with Theo's elite school to find out if he's going to be expelled, when a bomb is exploded. Theo's mother is killed and Theo is wounded but not as badly as many others. He and his mother are separated at the time of the blast but Theo is mesmerized by a dying elderly man who directs Theo to take the painting The Goldfinch out of the museum. This act sets the whole novel into motion. Theo becomes almost possessed by the painting and it gives meaning to his life during a deeply troubled period. His father's whereabouts are unknown and Theo informally goes to live with the affluent family of a school friend. At the same time he establishes a connection with the elderly man's family which includes a half-sister and business partnerr in the antiques trade. Theo's father subsequently returns and whisks him off to Las Vegas where he lives a depraved life, neglected by his father, and drawn into drug abuse along with another troubled youth, Boris, who becomes an important character.
There's a lot more to the story but the main part revolves around the twists and turns of Theo's life and the fate of the painting. Some people I've talked to said the book should have been 100 pages shorter and I agree there are descriptive passages that probably should have been deleted. The writing is good but so much description and reflection detract from the plot, and the plot is intriguing and the characters are unusual. I also like the change in locales, Las Vegas versus New York, gives the author a chance to dig into regional contemporary America.. I enjoyed her musings on art and its importance in people's lives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it in just a few days.
At 771 pages, The Goldfinch is definitely in the chunky category. I'm sure many of the Chunky participants have already discussed this book, since it was a choice for a read-a-long. I couldn't get in on that but I did manage to get a copy from the library, so I lucked out. I've read both of Donna Tartt's previous books and found them interesting, imaginative, and lengthy. The Goldfinch is every bit in that same vein. Briefly, the story concerns Theo Decker, a mildly troubled youth who has been abandoned along with his mother by his alcoholic father. Theo and his mother are visiting an unspecified museum one morning, basically killing time until their appointment with Theo's elite school to find out if he's going to be expelled, when a bomb is exploded. Theo's mother is killed and Theo is wounded but not as badly as many others. He and his mother are separated at the time of the blast but Theo is mesmerized by a dying elderly man who directs Theo to take the painting The Goldfinch out of the museum. This act sets the whole novel into motion. Theo becomes almost possessed by the painting and it gives meaning to his life during a deeply troubled period. His father's whereabouts are unknown and Theo informally goes to live with the affluent family of a school friend. At the same time he establishes a connection with the elderly man's family which includes a half-sister and business partnerr in the antiques trade. Theo's father subsequently returns and whisks him off to Las Vegas where he lives a depraved life, neglected by his father, and drawn into drug abuse along with another troubled youth, Boris, who becomes an important character.
There's a lot more to the story but the main part revolves around the twists and turns of Theo's life and the fate of the painting. Some people I've talked to said the book should have been 100 pages shorter and I agree there are descriptive passages that probably should have been deleted. The writing is good but so much description and reflection detract from the plot, and the plot is intriguing and the characters are unusual. I also like the change in locales, Las Vegas versus New York, gives the author a chance to dig into regional contemporary America.. I enjoyed her musings on art and its importance in people's lives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it in just a few days.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
My Heart Laid Bare by Joyce Carol Oates
My Heart Laid Bare by Joyce Carol Oates 531 pg.
This is one of five gothic novels that Oates wrote around the same time but then were published at various later times. This was published in 1998 and tells the story of Abraham Licht, who makes his living as a confidence man. His several children start out adoring him but eventually are destroyed or driven away. He views his children as extensions of himself and insists upon using them in whatever way will maximize profit in his various scams. The oldest son Thurston almost hangs for murder, the second son Harwood is murdered and in a gruesome way, his daughter embarks on a love affair with her adopted brother and he is banished as a result and she forced into a lackluster marriage. The younger children fare somewhat better, Darian becomes a tortured avant-garde musician and Esther trains as a nurse and joins the suffragettes. Yet all must leave their father or be destroyed in turn as he descends into madness as the culmination of his criminal life.
It's a strange and haunting book with an implication of a criminal ancestor who haunts a mysterious and forbidding marsh.
This is one of five gothic novels that Oates wrote around the same time but then were published at various later times. This was published in 1998 and tells the story of Abraham Licht, who makes his living as a confidence man. His several children start out adoring him but eventually are destroyed or driven away. He views his children as extensions of himself and insists upon using them in whatever way will maximize profit in his various scams. The oldest son Thurston almost hangs for murder, the second son Harwood is murdered and in a gruesome way, his daughter embarks on a love affair with her adopted brother and he is banished as a result and she forced into a lackluster marriage. The younger children fare somewhat better, Darian becomes a tortured avant-garde musician and Esther trains as a nurse and joins the suffragettes. Yet all must leave their father or be destroyed in turn as he descends into madness as the culmination of his criminal life.
It's a strange and haunting book with an implication of a criminal ancestor who haunts a mysterious and forbidding marsh.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
This is I believe my 5th book for the Chunky Challenge. I hadn't read any Neil Gaiman books before but he's so popular and this book in particular, that I thought I'd better read it. I found it a very original book with an interesting premise. The premise being that if gods are real then the ancient gods are still among us but neglected. An important corollary to this premise is that the old gods of the ancient world were brought to America by immigrants who still believed in them at the time they arrived. So now there are gods established in America and by gods here I mean Norse gods, Egyptian gods, Greek gods, fairies, and other pre-Christian deities. But as America has changed over the last 200 years or so, the old gods have become forgotten and degraded, more like someone who's down on their luck. So Gaiman has fashioned a world where the once powerful gods live in the seedy underbelly of America. They live in out of the way places, performing unpleasant jobs or existing on limited means as well as criminal activity.
The book revolves around Shadow, aptly named because he's a shadowy character. He's in prison and due to be released soon when he's told his wife has been killed in a car accident. On a plane to the funeral he meets Mr. Wednesday who, after a strange series of events, hires him to do whatever Mr. Wednesday needs. The clue to Mr. Wednesday's identity is of course that Wednesday is his day so he's Odin. This association with Mr. W. leads Shadow through a series of experiences, meeting gods and sort of knowing about them but not really, that make up the bulk of the story. I can't even begin to relate details because there's too much and it's too complicated but in the end Shadow has to stop a war between the old gods and those things that represent modern America that has been engineered by Mr. W. to feed him power.
Gaiman is British but living in America now and a large part of the book is a reflection of his particular take on America. He seems fascinated by the obscure, bizarre, repulsive and crazy aspects of American culture. It's interesting for me to speculate if that's how America is seen when viewed through the eyes of a outsider.. A lot of the things he seems enamored of seem to me a joke or something to roll one's eyes about. Of course, undoubtedly that's the point! Another part to the book that's worth reflecting on is the nature of worship. The ancient gods demanded horrible sacrifices and so how would that look in twenty-first America? One way it could appear would be as horrific crime or just general degradation of the human being. It's interesting and creepy to think about just as this is an interesting and creepy book.
The book revolves around Shadow, aptly named because he's a shadowy character. He's in prison and due to be released soon when he's told his wife has been killed in a car accident. On a plane to the funeral he meets Mr. Wednesday who, after a strange series of events, hires him to do whatever Mr. Wednesday needs. The clue to Mr. Wednesday's identity is of course that Wednesday is his day so he's Odin. This association with Mr. W. leads Shadow through a series of experiences, meeting gods and sort of knowing about them but not really, that make up the bulk of the story. I can't even begin to relate details because there's too much and it's too complicated but in the end Shadow has to stop a war between the old gods and those things that represent modern America that has been engineered by Mr. W. to feed him power.
Gaiman is British but living in America now and a large part of the book is a reflection of his particular take on America. He seems fascinated by the obscure, bizarre, repulsive and crazy aspects of American culture. It's interesting for me to speculate if that's how America is seen when viewed through the eyes of a outsider.. A lot of the things he seems enamored of seem to me a joke or something to roll one's eyes about. Of course, undoubtedly that's the point! Another part to the book that's worth reflecting on is the nature of worship. The ancient gods demanded horrible sacrifices and so how would that look in twenty-first America? One way it could appear would be as horrific crime or just general degradation of the human being. It's interesting and creepy to think about just as this is an interesting and creepy book.
Monday, May 12, 2014
River of Smoke
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh 515 pg,
River of Smoke is the second book in this series by Amitav Ghosh about the opium wars in China. When I say it's about the opium wars, that's a very broad interpretation because it's also about many other things but that's what ties the disparate elements together. Just as in Sea of Poppies, there's a large cast of characters, some are returning from Sea of Poppies, but others are inroduced here. One of the main characters here, Master Barry, is the father of a relatively minor character of Sea of Poppies Master Barry is representative of the Indian merchants who became wealthy from the opium trade but did not occupy the same social position as the British merchants who were involved in the opium trade. Through this character, Ghosh is able to explore that class of people and the foreign enclave they were allowed to have in Canton. The history of this period in very interesting and Ghosh uses real people and their own writings to capture the conflict between the merchants who are smuggling opium, their supporters, and the Chinese government of the Manchus. It made me want to read more about Guangzhou (Canton) because I've been there and we have family ties to Guangzhou.
At the same time, the author explores horticulture and the immense number of plants that were introduced to the world from China. He also describes the intense cultivation of gardens and plants that went on in China at that time and describes Hong Kong when it was just a relatively wild place where ships filled with contraband opium would harbor until they could go up the Pearl River . River of Smoke is both the Pearl River because that's how the opium is coming into China and opium itself because people drift away on a river of opium smoke that releases them from their cares momentarily.
The shipwreck that ends Sea of Poppies is the beginning of River of Smoke but is dropped relatively soon and then picked up again at the end of the book so it's a little confusing and I know that some people were disappointed that this book was not a direct continuation of River of Smoke and we don't find out the fate of many characters but there is another book planned that hopefully ties the loose ends together better. I enjoyed the book particularly the historical aspects of it and recommend it to any general reader.
Friday, March 14, 2014
The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt
The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt 879 pg.
This is my third book for Chunkster Challenge and it is a chunky at 879 pages but it covers an immense amount of ground. I'm a big fan of Possession and so when I saw this new book (2009) I just had to read it immediately. It's a sweeping tale, covering the end of the Victorian age, thru the Edwardian, and up to the First World War. The starting point is the finding of a young boy hiding in the storage rooms of the forerunner to the Royal Victoria and Albert Museum. He's escaped from the Potteries, where porcelain is made under horrible working conditions. He's taken to a director of the museum where he meets Olive Wellwood, a sucessful children's book author. She takes him home with her to Todefright, the home in the country of her large family. Because the boy, Philip, has ambition to make pots, he ends up being taken to Purchase House, the home of a well known but difficult potter. It seems at first that Olive or Philip must be main characters and they are, but different characters dominate in their respective parts of the book. It ends up being a large number of characters, more than I can discuss. Byatt weaves together the stories of several families who become interdependent and through those stories she tells many other stories that reflect the times during which these people live. So, the Arts and Crafts Movement is discussed in detail as well as the art of pottery, social justice movements, socialism, anarchism, communism, the women's suffrage movement, German puppetry, English and German folk tales, children's literature, and the Great War. There is a tremendous amount of research on display here and overall I liked it but at times it can be distracting from the characters. Byatt sometimes almost forgets her characters in all the discussions but not quite. So along the way there are also various family secrets revealed as well as plot twists and turns. The book ends with the bloodbath of the first world war and many of the charming children who have grown up in the book, become cannon fodder for the war. I found that very touching and I think Byatt handled familiar material and made it fresh and wounding again. Overall, I enjoyed the book although I didn't enjoy every single thing about it.
This is my third book for Chunkster Challenge and it is a chunky at 879 pages but it covers an immense amount of ground. I'm a big fan of Possession and so when I saw this new book (2009) I just had to read it immediately. It's a sweeping tale, covering the end of the Victorian age, thru the Edwardian, and up to the First World War. The starting point is the finding of a young boy hiding in the storage rooms of the forerunner to the Royal Victoria and Albert Museum. He's escaped from the Potteries, where porcelain is made under horrible working conditions. He's taken to a director of the museum where he meets Olive Wellwood, a sucessful children's book author. She takes him home with her to Todefright, the home in the country of her large family. Because the boy, Philip, has ambition to make pots, he ends up being taken to Purchase House, the home of a well known but difficult potter. It seems at first that Olive or Philip must be main characters and they are, but different characters dominate in their respective parts of the book. It ends up being a large number of characters, more than I can discuss. Byatt weaves together the stories of several families who become interdependent and through those stories she tells many other stories that reflect the times during which these people live. So, the Arts and Crafts Movement is discussed in detail as well as the art of pottery, social justice movements, socialism, anarchism, communism, the women's suffrage movement, German puppetry, English and German folk tales, children's literature, and the Great War. There is a tremendous amount of research on display here and overall I liked it but at times it can be distracting from the characters. Byatt sometimes almost forgets her characters in all the discussions but not quite. So along the way there are also various family secrets revealed as well as plot twists and turns. The book ends with the bloodbath of the first world war and many of the charming children who have grown up in the book, become cannon fodder for the war. I found that very touching and I think Byatt handled familiar material and made it fresh and wounding again. Overall, I enjoyed the book although I didn't enjoy every single thing about it.
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