arbjrm's 2008 challenge

Hi,

I was going to post in the 50 book challenge group but may be more on track for 75--at least that will be more of a challenge. I'm reading mostly newer books this year, both fiction and non-fiction, taking recommendations from the newsletters of two local bookstores and making selections from the new arrivals shelves at our public library.

This first group is roughly in the order read, as I wasn't tracking that early in the year.

1.. Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder
An illuminating and inspiring story about Dr Paul Farmer, who has worked in Haiti for many years to improve health and living conditions.

2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Liked it a lot, nothing to add to all the praise.

3. The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan
A novelist with a sideline as a thief writes/solves his own mystery. Good.

4. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
I recommend this book to anyone interested in cross-cultural communication, both in relationships and language. The young woman narrates the progress of the relationship and her understanding of the culture with a gradually increasing proficiency in English. I didn't expect it to work, but although I read the book practically straight through, found it believable and touching.

5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Nothing really to add to all the positive talk except that I did keep wanting to get back to the older woman's story.

6. An Arsonist's Guide To Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
What a great title. The protagonist is a bit whiny and hard to believe at times and the story wears thin, but there is some sly, amusing commentary on modern suburban life.

7. Purgatorio by Ariel Dorfman
A two-act play. A man and a woman confronting their past relationship and life through an interrogation in purgatory. Grim, grim, grim.

8. Twilight by Brendan DuBois
Told from the point of view of a Canadian journalist accompanying a UN war-crimes investigation team on an unusual assignment, pretty good. Better not to know any more if you are going to read it.

9. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
Amusing story, good cautionary tale about genetic engineering. Features a group of six human-avian children ages 6-14.

10. Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever by James Patterson
Not nearly as tightly plotted as the first one, and didn't cover all the characters as well.

Welcome to the group and good luck on your challenge. We will look forward to your posts here.

Can anyone tell me why all the Touchstones didn't work in my first message? I used all the brackets as specified but a few items didn't work at all and two show same or slightly different titles by different authors.

This next group takes me through first week of April.

11. The Double Bind (Vintage Contemporaries) by Chris Bohjalian
Got off to a very slow start (or I guess did), felt more like a report than a novel, remained tedious, and I didn't feel the payoff was worth it.

12. The Appeal by John Grisham
A change of pace. Good commentary on how judges are bought but the story kind of dies after the first half.

13. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
The subtitle is 'The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions', and it's about behavioral economics, a field that seeks to explain seemingly irrational actions such as splurging on a meal but cutting coupons to save .25 on a can of soup. While it does provide good information (and clues you in to how marketing decisions are made), I didn't feel that the whole thing was pulled together very well, and I wonder about sweeping conclusions based on testing of only university students.

14. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
First of a mystery series, takes place in Brazil. A Federal Chief Inspector is sent to Sao Paolo to investigate the murder of a bishop. The story gets complicated and violent. Weaves in a lot of information about modern-day Brazil: police corruption, poverty, landlessness, religion (never thought I'd read about liberation theology in a mystery novel). Good characters, compelling reading, looking forward to the next one, due in January.

15. The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver
First time I've read anything by him and I probably won't read another. Very gruesome crime descriptions didn't add anything.

16. The Translator by Leila Aboulela
Another meeting of cultures, this time with an eloquent, literary narrator. I didn't care that much about the characters though. I was actually looking for the same title by Daoud Hari when I found this one. I bought a copy of that one and will be reading it soon.

17. The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine by Anne Harrington
A well-organized and well-writtten book that divides mind-body medicine into six categories and traces the development of each, connecting the whole. Explores historical, cultural, religious, political influences, with an emphasis on narratives.

18. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Beautifully written, almost distractingly so, and a good story.

19. Flawed by Jo Bannister
A Brodie Farrell mystery, first I've read in the series. Good characters.

The rest of April, read on vacation:

20. It's Not About the Money:Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance by Brent Kessel
This book discusses how our ideas and attitudes toward money are formed, defines eight archtypes that describe ways of handling personal finances ('The Guardian', 'The Pleasure Seeker', etc.), and suggests how to achieve a balanced approach to finances. For me, it was way too detailed, but there is a lot of practical information about investing.

21. Death Comes for the Fat Man (Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries) by Reginald Hill
Another good Dalziel and Pascoe mystery.

22. Disaster! The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 by Dan Kurzman
Account by a journalist who weaves together the stories of many people from all walks of life. Interesting.

23. Courting Trouble by Lisa Scottoline
Wouldn't recommend this one. Contrived, kind of a silly story.

24. Criminal Justice by Barbara Parker
Decent story.

Touchstones are notoriously fickle!!!! you likely didn't do anything wrong.

May so far, back home:

25. The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd
Disappointing. Not plausible, not well written.

26. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
Plot is getting unnecessarily convoluted, feels to me like it's just to keep the series going and not for the story's sake. Some characters hardly appear. Too many mentions of the kids' blog, how many hits it's getting, and encouraging young readers to go online--isn't the whole idea to get them reading?

27. Eight o'clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantánamo Bay by Clive Stafford Smith
Disturbing account from an attorney representing prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay.

28. Not Me: A Novel by Michael Lavigne
Good but the present day story felt incomplete. Best not to know anything about it if you are going to read it.

29. Shimura Trouble (Rei Shimura Mysteries) by Sujata Massey
This is one of my favorite series, and this is a particularly good one. Rei is in Hawaii dealing with a new branch of the family. Good sense of place and good story based on land ownership.

30. Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong
Fifth book in the Inspector Chen Cao series, first I've read. Very good story and characters, learn about Chinese policework, politics, literature and poetry. Will defintely return to the earlier ones.

If a touchstone point to the wrong work or author when composing or editing a message, look to the right and click on other. LT will show all the options it found in the touchstone search. If you click on the correct entry, your touchstone will be linked correctly.

On the subject of fickle touchstones: pop open another window, search for the book by title or author, etc, then copy the title. Paste the title into the message edit window (still using single brackets). This seems to fix ~50% of the touchstones that don't work for me.

Thank you both for posting. drneutron, both of your suggestions were helpful, and with a little coaxing, all but two of my books are now correctly linked. arb

Any time! 8^}

31. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle: The Story of an African Childhood by Robyn Scott
An intriguing, engaging account of life in Botswana in 1980s-1990s. Very informative about southern Africa and about growing up in an unconventional family.

32. Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison
Mention of Botswana reminded me that I read this book early in the year. A newcomer's experiences with African wildlife and tourism, not gripping writing but an open and amusing account.

33. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
A good crime/mystery set in Baltimore. The story, which takes place from 1975 to 2005, is told from various points of view.

Help! The three touchstones in my last message have replaced all the others. Any ideas on how to get them back?

Check to see if there's an open bracket in #10. That's the only thing I can think might be wrong...

Actually, when they did the big update about a week ago, the "Touchstone Works" lists ended up dropping all those that were done before that update (in all the talk threads). I haven't gotten any word from anyone yet as to whether they're going to reappear.

In my own thread, I went back and edited all my earlier messages. It didn't take much time, because the touchstones were still there--I just needed to click OK to have them reappear in the works list.

Hi

I note you read Whatever You Do; Don't Run. I finished this book a few weeks ago and thought it was witty and funny. I especially appreciated the authors willingness to admit he made some stupid mistakes when he first started as a guide.

whisper1, thanks for posting. I also appreciated Allison's candidness. He's a LT author.

A few more for the list:

34. The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
I reread this one in April while on vacation, after finding it on one of the kids' bookshelves. I'd remembered it as my favorite book from childhood and still liked it, of course, although what I'd always remembered as the primary storyline (the A-to-Z restaurants) did not turn out to be as important, at least not the way I thought it was.

35. Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh

36. The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English by Bill Walsh
I really enjoyed both of Bill Walsh's books on English grammar and usage. They are not meant to be comprehensive guides to either one, but provide a lot of useful and entertaining commentary on how language evolves and how to identify and resolve common problems. "Comma" is geared towards copyediting and print (especially newspaper) issues, while "Elephant" deals with more general style concerns.

37. Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs--Even If You're Right by June Casagrande
This book presents 101 examples of English usage, says whether each is right, wrong, or somewhere in between, and explains why, using a variety of sources. I didn't like the author's cutesy style but did gain more perspective on a few current language uses/misuses.

One thing I can tell you is that reading these books makes it very hard to write even a few sentences without thinking you're making all kinds of errors!

38. The Translator by Daoud Hari

39. Tales from the Town of Widows By James Cañón

40. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

What did you think of Year of Wonders? It is on my TBR list.

Hi alcottacre,

I liked Year of Wonders a lot. I often have trouble getting engrossed in historical novels, but not this one. It really drew me into its world--a 17th-century English village in the throes of the plague. The writing is lovely. Only occasionally did I think 'ok, here comes the research on ...,' and even then, the information was always interesting. Some reviewers complain that the narrator is out-of-sync with the time of the novel, that she is too wise/independent/whatever, or that the story is contrived, but I was willing to take her on her own terms and go along on her journey.

Will be interested to hear what you think!

41. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

42. So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger

43. Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories by Elizabeth Strout

#18: I, too, liked Year of Wonders a lot. I really did not worry about the narrator being too wise/independent/whatever - I figure these women have existed throughout history, just most of the time they are not given voice. The novel did wind down for me a bit toward the end, but all in all, I would recommend it.

Book #43, I read an Elizabeth Strout sometime back, Amy and Isabelle; a sort of a mother/daughter family memoir. As I recall, it was a bit frightening in the depiction of the characters, but in a good way. Is this the first novel ofhers that you've read and how did you find it?

Yes, Olive Kitteridge is the first book by E. Stout that I have read. It definitely is a 'warts and all' portrayal, but I wouldn't call it frightening. Pretty stark and emphasizing people's grief and regrets, I guess, with some glimmers of optimism and redemption.

It takes place in a small town on the Maine coast, and is a series of short stories that all have to do with the title character. And a character she is--large physically and in a dramatic sense, by the end I could picture her striding into a room--and I wouldn't want to give away anything else about her.

Olive may be the primary or secondary character in a story, passing through, or only mentioned, so you get numerous perspectives on her character and you see her in context of her family and surroundings. There are other recurring characters, particularly her husband and son, whom you also get to know well.

All in all I liked it and felt the structure worked, except maybe for the necessary repetition to make the stories able to stand alone.

When I said frightening, I didn't mean in the jump out of a dark corner sense. Amy and Isabelle follows the struggles of a mother and daughter trying to make it alone in a small town. Isabelle, the mother, is often hard and even a little bit jealous of her daughter. The give and take between the two sometimes seemed so mean spirited. The frightening part for me was the reality with which Strout displayed human choices and the fragile human ego.

Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories sounds good and sounds like it may have some of the same raw insight into human interaction that made for a good read in Amy and Isabelle.

44. Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season by Nick Heil

45. Lush Life: A Novel by Richard Price
46. Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler

47. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

48. Netherland: A Novel by Joseph O'Neill

49. Mental Sharpening Stones: Manage the Cognitive Challenges of Multiple Sclerosis by Jeffrey N. Gingold

50. The Garden of Last Days: A Novel by Andre Dubus III

51. The End of Manners: A Novel by Francesca Marciano

52. Sweet and Low by Rich Cohen

53. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

54. Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama

55. A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

56. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

57. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong

58. Panic in Level 4 by Richard Preston

Hi
A friend recommended Playing for Pizza. Did you enjoy this book?

I haven't read any of Grishman's books in awhile.

I noticed that you read Dark Summit. I just finished reading The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest and you might be interested in that one if the subject interests you.

Hi whisper1, sorry for the delay in responding. 'Playing for Pizza' was recommended to me for something different, and also as an untypical Grisham book. That it was--it's about American football in Italy. It's a fair story about culture clash, teamwork, finding what matters, with lavish descriptions of food and lots of football play-by-play. Quick to read, I didn't find it great but it was ok.

alcottacre, thanks for the recommendation. 'The Climb' was mentioned in 'Dark Summit' as good to read for another point of view to 'Into Thin Air', probably the best-known book about the 1996 Everest deaths. Will it be covered in your next posting?

#29 arbjrm: I do not review books - I can never think of what to say, I just know whether I like them or not - but yes, I did list The Climb in my latest posting. Having read both Into Thin Air and The Climb, I will say that Krakauer's book was easier to read, but I enjoyed the perspective of Boukreev's book too. He writes as the professional guide, Krakauer writes as the professional writer.

59. Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler
60. Netherland: A Novel by Joseph O'Neill
60. Jonah and Otto by Robert Holman
Replacing Netherland, already listed as #48.
61. One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers by Andrew Hodges
62. The Killing Circle: A Novel by Andrew Pyper
63. Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting! by Sandra Tsing Loh
64. Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner
65. Black and White and Dead All Over John Darnton
66. Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea
67. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
68. The Resurrectionist by Jack O'Connell
69. A Loyal Character Dancer by Xiaolong Qiu

Edited to replace duplicate at #60.

Oh my--look how close you are to the 75 mark! Be sure to post when you meet it. Lots of interesting books this year. Thanks for the company.

How did you like Netherland? I gave it to my sister as a present and wondered if I should have kept it for myself. :-)

How is A Loyal Character Dancer? I read Death of a Red Heroine by the same author and enjoyed it.

Is Reading the OED a fun book? The title reminds me of the book A.J. Jacobs put out about his quest to read through the Encyclopedia Brittanica, The Know-It-All.

Thank you all for posting.

TadAD, I liked Netherland at first but found it tedious after a while. Repetitive, and I didn't find the story of the narrator or his friend that compelling. I have seen it on some 'year's best' lists for 2008.

Alcottacre, I think you'll like A Loyal Character Dancer. It was just as interesting as the first book and a little more streamlined. The first book I read in the Inspector Chen series was the most recent (the sixth?) and I went back to start at the beginning. As for Reading the OED, it is fun to read but I found the author a little too taken with himself.

70. Borderlands (Inspector Devlin Mystery 1) by Brian Mcgilloway
71. Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
72. Frozen Sun by Stan Jones
73. Secondhand World by Katherine Min
74. Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan
75. In the Heat by Ian Vasquez
76. The Full Matilda by David Haynes
77. Borkmann's Point: an Inspector Van Veeteren mystery by Håkan Nesser
78. In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld
79. The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh
80. Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous
81. Night Time by Selma Dimitrijevic
82. Silence by Thomas Perry
83. The Shadow Walker by Michael Walters
84. The Assassin: a Novel by Stephen Coonts
85. Life in the Balance by Thomas Graboys
86. Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
87. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

congratulations on reaching 75!

Woo Hoo!!

And welcome to the 75 club!!!

You made it--congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching........87!

- TT

Congratulations!

Thank you all.

Here are three more for 2008. I also made a replacement in message #31 as I had Netherland listed twice.

88. Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq by Farnaz Fassihi
89. Love-Lies-Bleeding by Don DeLillo
90. The Genius by Jesse Kellerman