What a month! I was right; school picked up like crazy, and wedding stuff took a lot of my time, but somehow I still managed to read 10 books this month! Yay! I hope I can keep this up.
Other fun things: I finished up the Summer Lovin' Challenge this month, which was a super fun time because I got to re-read some of my favorite books! Thanks to Jules for hosting it, and I hope she hosts another one soon, because I might not ever re-read a book again if she doesn't. :)
I also had my first book club meeting with my Mary and my Amy, and it was pretty good even though we neglected to come up with good questions to discuss about the book, and none of us were sufficiently thrilled with it to have strong opinions about anything. Now we know for next time!
A weird thing: Of the nine fiction books I read, only four of them were genre reads. I'm not used to reading so many books that can't be classified! It makes me twitch a little in my compulsive-organization mind.
Days spent reading: 24
Books read: 10
...in fiction: 9
...in speculative fiction: 2
...in mystery: 1
...in fantasy: 1
...in non-fiction: 1
...in young adult: 4
Series reads: A Wrinkle in Time, The 39 Clues
Favorite book: Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer 10/10 and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart 10/10
Challenges
Summer Lovin' Challenge: +1 books for 10/10 Completed!
RIP Challenge: +2 books for 2/4
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge: +1 books for 5/12
The Baker Street Challenge: +2 books for 2/3
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: +1 books for 9/10
Back to School Challenge: +0 books for 0/4
Critical Monkey Challenge: +0 books for 1/6
Countdown Challenge: +4 books for 4/55
30 September 2009
29 September 2009
The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa (24 September — 26 September)
This was one of those books that I don't really get, but it redeemed itself by being all about math. :) Yay, math!
The unnamed housekeeper of the title tells the story of how she came to work for the unnamed professor, who is an older man who has only 80 minutes of memory for anything that happened after an accident several years previous. The professor, a mathematician, can still play with his numbers, so every time he "meets" the housekeeper he asks for her shoe size and birthday and various other numerical things and finds interesting connections between those numbers and others. The housekeeper and her son (whom the professor nicknames Root for his flat head [like the square root symbol]) become friends with the professor, even if the professor doesn't realize it.
That's really the whole story; there's not much in the way of plot but it is a very interesting character study of a man with little short-term memory and how people around him react to him. The housekeeper at first finds him a little off-putting, but soon learns to like him and even math because a) he's a great teacher and b) he can't get exasperated with you for taking a long time to learn something. And the professors cares very much for Root, as a ten-year-old boy, even though he can't remember him in particular.
And there's math, and you can't go wrong with that! :)
Rating: 7/10
(Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Japan, Countdown Challenge: 2009)
See also:
BookEnds
an adventure in reading
Thoughts of Joy
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
The unnamed housekeeper of the title tells the story of how she came to work for the unnamed professor, who is an older man who has only 80 minutes of memory for anything that happened after an accident several years previous. The professor, a mathematician, can still play with his numbers, so every time he "meets" the housekeeper he asks for her shoe size and birthday and various other numerical things and finds interesting connections between those numbers and others. The housekeeper and her son (whom the professor nicknames Root for his flat head [like the square root symbol]) become friends with the professor, even if the professor doesn't realize it.
That's really the whole story; there's not much in the way of plot but it is a very interesting character study of a man with little short-term memory and how people around him react to him. The housekeeper at first finds him a little off-putting, but soon learns to like him and even math because a) he's a great teacher and b) he can't get exasperated with you for taking a long time to learn something. And the professors cares very much for Root, as a ten-year-old boy, even though he can't remember him in particular.
And there's math, and you can't go wrong with that! :)
Rating: 7/10
(Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Japan, Countdown Challenge: 2009)
See also:
BookEnds
an adventure in reading
Thoughts of Joy
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
28 September 2009
Musing Mondays (28 September)
Today's Musing Mondays question is... "Do you keep a book wishlist, either on paper, Amazon/etc, or via a book database site (Shelfari, GoodReads, LibraryThing)? If yes, do you share this list with others (especially coming up to Christmas)?"
Why, yes! Yes, I do. My GoodReads account serves as a repository for my TBR list, which I guess is my wishlist of books to read, and also for my "to own" list, which includes the books I love and must own. For my dear parents, I put together a Google Document wherein I ask for many things, including books, for my upcoming birthday and also that December gift-giving holiday.
Why, yes! Yes, I do. My GoodReads account serves as a repository for my TBR list, which I guess is my wishlist of books to read, and also for my "to own" list, which includes the books I love and must own. For my dear parents, I put together a Google Document wherein I ask for many things, including books, for my upcoming birthday and also that December gift-giving holiday.
26 September 2009
Links of the Week
What a week! Seven days ago, I went and got married, yay!
This is one of the shoes I wore for the reception; I don't have a really good pic of both of them together. I will have to fix that.
And now this coming week is Banned Books Week, for which I'll be reading a few banned books I've not yet gotten to. On the shelf right now are The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Chocolate War, we'll see what else I have time to finish!
Speaking of... you'd think that book banning would be sooooo fifty years ago, but it's so not. A young adult author gets her visit to a middle school cancelled at the last minute because some parents complained.
And then, of course, some people aren't so excited about Banned Books Week. (via LISNews)
The Sweet Valley twins are hitting the big screen. Speaking of things that should be censored... (via The Book Bench)
This is one of the shoes I wore for the reception; I don't have a really good pic of both of them together. I will have to fix that.
And now this coming week is Banned Books Week, for which I'll be reading a few banned books I've not yet gotten to. On the shelf right now are The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Chocolate War, we'll see what else I have time to finish!
Speaking of... you'd think that book banning would be sooooo fifty years ago, but it's so not. A young adult author gets her visit to a middle school cancelled at the last minute because some parents complained.
And then, of course, some people aren't so excited about Banned Books Week. (via LISNews)
The Sweet Valley twins are hitting the big screen. Speaking of things that should be censored... (via The Book Bench)
24 September 2009
Booking Through Thursday (24 September)
Today's Booking Through Thursday question is... "What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?"
It's not really recent — I read it six months ago! — but the last book I read that was really sad all the way through was The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I was pretty much bawling for the last 50 pages. But it was a good bawling, I think.
It's not really recent — I read it six months ago! — but the last book I read that was really sad all the way through was The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I was pretty much bawling for the last 50 pages. But it was a good bawling, I think.
23 September 2009
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart (22 September — 23 September)
Aaah I love this book!
That's what I wrote as a placeholder for this entry before I started it, but it's so true. This is one of those books that is thoroughly entertaining but sneakily makes you think about societal status quos and your own personal set of norms and it's all sociological and anthropological and fun. Well, if you're into that sort of thing, anyway.
Plot: Frankie Landau-Banks is an average teenager, starting her sophomore year at her not-so-average boarding school in Massachusetts. Things are going really well — she's taking fun classes, she's rooming with a good friend, and the boy she's been crushing on forever (well, teenage forever) totally asked her out! Yay! But she soon realizes that Matthew and his gang aren't really as into her as she is into them. Also they are part of an all-male secret society that Frankie's father was in, and Frankie's not too thrilled about that. She decides to start thwarting some of those aforementioned status quos, and it's pretty awesome.
The book is full of sociological- and psychological-type talk about feminism and classism and ageism and fitting into the society inherent in a New England boarding school. Frankie's not exactly a sympathetic character; she plays the same games that Matthew does and isn't the nicest person. But you can definitely understand why she does what she does, and I at least was totally rooting for her and wishing I had the ovaries (because balls is a masculine construction, as Frankie's sister points out) to pull off some of the pranks she does.
Oh, and there's some bonus Wodehouse love, and you can't beat that.
Rating: 10/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)
See also:
The Bluestocking Society
Persnickety Snark
Book Nut
Library Queue
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
That's what I wrote as a placeholder for this entry before I started it, but it's so true. This is one of those books that is thoroughly entertaining but sneakily makes you think about societal status quos and your own personal set of norms and it's all sociological and anthropological and fun. Well, if you're into that sort of thing, anyway.
Plot: Frankie Landau-Banks is an average teenager, starting her sophomore year at her not-so-average boarding school in Massachusetts. Things are going really well — she's taking fun classes, she's rooming with a good friend, and the boy she's been crushing on forever (well, teenage forever) totally asked her out! Yay! But she soon realizes that Matthew and his gang aren't really as into her as she is into them. Also they are part of an all-male secret society that Frankie's father was in, and Frankie's not too thrilled about that. She decides to start thwarting some of those aforementioned status quos, and it's pretty awesome.
The book is full of sociological- and psychological-type talk about feminism and classism and ageism and fitting into the society inherent in a New England boarding school. Frankie's not exactly a sympathetic character; she plays the same games that Matthew does and isn't the nicest person. But you can definitely understand why she does what she does, and I at least was totally rooting for her and wishing I had the ovaries (because balls is a masculine construction, as Frankie's sister points out) to pull off some of the pranks she does.
Oh, and there's some bonus Wodehouse love, and you can't beat that.
Rating: 10/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)
See also:
The Bluestocking Society
Persnickety Snark
Book Nut
Library Queue
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
22 September 2009
The Enthusiast, by Charlie Haas (14 September — 21 September)
The descriptions I've read of this book are very deceiving. I thought I was looking at a light-hearted romp through the life of a guy working for enthusiast magazines (like Kite Buggy and Crochet Life), but it's really only the second part of that.
We meet Henry Bay as an idealistic kid who wants to become a public-interest lawyer because of his dad, who got laid off when his company's management took all the money and ran. Fun! But he gets to college and starts working for a public-interest lawyer and simply isn't happy, so he takes an offer to come work for Kite Buggy, a magazine he once wrote an article for. But enthusiast magazines aren't exactly stable employment, and Henry ends up moving from magazine to magazine, never settling down, never caring much about settling down, and never really happy. Eventually he does settle down, just in time for his brother, the uptight scientist, to start cutting loose, which really changes Henry's perspective on life.
This book kind of reminded me of On the Road, what with Henry's transient-ness and the whole finding-yourself vibe and the real lack of plot. I was rather enjoying that, but then the part with the brother happened, and some really strange things happened that I'm not sure a) made any sense or b) added to Haas's story, except maybe to say that taking risks is bad? I don't know.
I'm actually really excited that this is the first book for my new book club; I wasn't too sure it was going to be good when I started reading it (and am still not sure!), but it's definitely raised a lot of questions that I'll be glad to get opinions on.
Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009)
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
We meet Henry Bay as an idealistic kid who wants to become a public-interest lawyer because of his dad, who got laid off when his company's management took all the money and ran. Fun! But he gets to college and starts working for a public-interest lawyer and simply isn't happy, so he takes an offer to come work for Kite Buggy, a magazine he once wrote an article for. But enthusiast magazines aren't exactly stable employment, and Henry ends up moving from magazine to magazine, never settling down, never caring much about settling down, and never really happy. Eventually he does settle down, just in time for his brother, the uptight scientist, to start cutting loose, which really changes Henry's perspective on life.
This book kind of reminded me of On the Road, what with Henry's transient-ness and the whole finding-yourself vibe and the real lack of plot. I was rather enjoying that, but then the part with the brother happened, and some really strange things happened that I'm not sure a) made any sense or b) added to Haas's story, except maybe to say that taking risks is bad? I don't know.
I'm actually really excited that this is the first book for my new book club; I wasn't too sure it was going to be good when I started reading it (and am still not sure!), but it's definitely raised a lot of questions that I'll be glad to get opinions on.
Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009)
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
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