One Book A Week Club 2017

Everything except LibriVox (yes, this is where knitting gets discussed. Now includes non-LV Volunteers Wanted projects)
Availle
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Post by Availle »

I think the thread only seems lonely because many people just update the list in their own posts. Check out the very first page here to see what I mean ;-)
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MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

Availle wrote:I think the thread only seems lonely because many people just update the list in their own posts. Check out the very first page here to see what I mean ;-)
Oh yeah. I see what you mean. My preference is obviously to do a new post each month. I was beginning to feel this forum was like the one where I was one of three members of an online book club - until one of the members dropped out. :D
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
J_N
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Post by J_N »

I prefer to have all my books in one post (which I tend to update once a month)... but I always read the thread when people post something :mrgreen:
Julia - Introverts, unite! Seperately... in your own homes.

Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to. ― Susan Cain

Author death +70 yrs? Legamus!
Peter Why
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Post by Peter Why »

Roger Zelazny's visual guide to Castle Amber - Roger Zelazny, Neil Randall. Hardback, fiction.

I read Roger Zelazny's Amber stories some time ago (and loved his two Dilvish books). I only found a mention of this book recently.

Floor plan with descriptions, of the castle, with some description of the surroundings. There are short descriptions of the major trumps plus monochrome pictures (that definitely don't fit my expectations from reading the books - the faces seem very oddly proportioned, too). The book continues with a few essays on other aspects of Amber. I'm glad to have read it, but probably won't read it again. It's given me the urge to reread the series and, perhaps, get all of Betancourt's extensions to the Amber series.

Peter
Last edited by Peter Why on May 3rd, 2017, 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
"I think, therefore I am, I think." Solomon Cohen, in Terry Pratchett's Dodger
Peter Why
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Post by Peter Why »

I've just read The Way of Wyrd, by Brian Bates. The academic author studied Anglo-Saxon magical manuscripts and extended his researches into shamanism, ancient and modern ... then brought his researches together in this novel. An interesting story describing the arrival of a Christian monk in a pagan part of southern England, and his apprenticeship and initiation into the world of the shaman. Not emotionally involving (probably because the author doesn't seem to be experienced in writing fiction), but a very appealing look into the meditations, visions and rituals of a shaman. I just wish this training was available and legitimate. I'll probably not read the book again, but may follow up with some of the books in the bibiography.

Peter
"I think, therefore I am, I think." Solomon Cohen, in Terry Pratchett's Dodger
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

Here is my list of books completed in April. All in all, a good reading month.

Mrs. Beneker” by Violet Weingarten. Book from library sale. Fictional book taking place in the 1960’s, early 1970’s. Contemporary portrait of an upper middle class woman. Easy reading, very nicely done and enjoyable. Interesting to go back to that era.

"A House to Let" by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell & Adelaide Anne Procter. LibriVox download. Interesting concept of having several well known 19th century writers contribute to a story. Not a complete success, but a nice effort. Story was read by Ruth Golding (RuthieG) who does a superb job, as always.

The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt. Library overdrive e-book. Excellent story. Long book had some great characters and excellent descriptions. (Especially of “Popchik” the dog.)

Notes of a Camp Follower on the Western Front” by E. M. Hornung. LibriVox download. Excellent journal of everyday life near the Front in WWI. After the writer lost his son in the War, he worked as a volunteer at a Y.M.C.A. canteen near the Front. The journal is beautifully read by Clive Catterall.

A Flower of April” from Country Neighbors by Alice Brown. Gutenberg download. This was my “April” titled story for the month. I also read a “March” titled short story by Ms. Brown in March.

The March” by E. L. Doctorow. Book from library sale. This was Doctorow’s novel about Sherman’s March during the end of the Civil War. I liked this book a lot. Doctorow often has an interesting blend of fact and fiction. Lots going on and several interesting characters in this one.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
J_N
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Post by J_N »

I can't remember what the Goldfinch was about, but I distinctly remember disliking it a lot. :wink: I left very little info for my future self on goodreads - apparently I found it an utter drag... it seems this book is a "you either love it or you hate it" kinda book. :D
Julia - Introverts, unite! Seperately... in your own homes.

Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to. ― Susan Cain

Author death +70 yrs? Legamus!
kathrinee
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Post by kathrinee »

My reading so far this year... :)
Kass Morgan: The 100: Homecoming. (2015) Recommended by my voracious reader-niece. :) Apocalytic YA fiction. Compelling enough, but not my favourite of the genre.
JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit. Family read-aloud. Just as enjoyable as I remembered from the first time I read it, 15 years ago or so.
Elin Hilderbrand: The Castaways. (2009). I sort of enjoyed this one, till I got to the end, which felt a bit facile. Easy read, but there is nothing wrong with that!
Roy Jacobsen: De Usynlige. (2013). Beautifully written, sparse. A candidate to re-read.
William Boyd: Reestless. (2006). Spy novel. I enjoyed it, mostly, though this is not my favorite genre.
Louis Lowry: The Giver. (1993). Family read-aloud.
Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. (2007) Funny, sad, honest, and not hard to read. It is easy to understand why it is on lots of reading lists!
Watt Key: Dirt Road Home. YA fiction, but it didn't make much of an impression on me, because I have forgotten what it was about or whether I liked it.
William Gibson: Neuromancer. (1984) Stunning and confusing! Great read :thumbs:
James Joyce: Ulysses. (1922 or so). I love this book -- this time I speed-read it in the process of writing a paper. It was a bit intense to speed-read, but still amazing.
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. Listened to Karen Savage's recording while doing chores and giving my brain a break from grad studies.
Stephenie Meyer: Twilight. (2005) I have mixed feelings about this book.
T.V. Reed: Digitized Lives: Culture, Power and Social Change in the Internet Era. (2014) Good, non-academic but thoughtful introduction to thinking about how we affect technology and how technology affects us.
Sven Birkerts: The Gutenberg Elegies. (1994) "Elegy" is definitely the right word!
William Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew. Feels like it is about parenting as much as about love and relationships. All of these plays I read for a class.
William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Funny-weird.
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. I know it is a tragedy, but it is also actually funny, the first few acts.
William Shakespeare: As You Like it. Nope, didn't like it.
William Shakespeare: Richard II. A surprisingly satisfying read.
William Shakespeare: Part 1, Henry IV. Interesting on power, parenting, friendships.
William Shakespeare: Part 2, Henry IV.
William Shakespeare: Henry V. He did shape up as a king, after all.
William Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice. Ah, it is a wonderful play.
William Shakespeare: Othello. How can we ever prove anything?
William Shakespeare: Macbeth. Hmm. I just read it, really quick.
William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure. Such an interestingly balanced play, not really a comedy or a tragedy.
William Shakespeare: King Lear. All those references to "nature" -- what is the nature of man, anyway.
William Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale. Interestingly topical and fairy tale-like at the same time.
William Shakespeare: The Tempest.
Russ McDonald: The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents (2001). My bedtime reading the last few months. Does a good job of providing context to the bard and the culture, politics, religion of his day.
Kathrine
Piotrek81
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Post by Piotrek81 »

I've just finished reading "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. An s-f novel about an exploration of the mysterious Zone X, a place which came about as a result of an unspecified event. If you liked The Roadside Picnic by the Strugacky brothers, you may see some similarities. At least that was the thought that I had.
The library close to where I live should have volume 2 in stock, so I'm going to check it out soon :)
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thestorygirl
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Post by thestorygirl »

Update:

March:
Why Not You, Why Not Now, by Brig Hart (non-f) :hmm:
101 Secrets for Your Twenties, by Paul Angone (non-f) :D
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell :)
The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz (non-f) :shock:

April:
Simply Tuesday, by Emily P. Freeman (non-f) :9:
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, by J. R. R. Tolkien :help:
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

Like the reviews! :clap:
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
kathrinee
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Post by kathrinee »

The rest of my May reading:

Adam Gidwitz: The Inquisitor's Tale, or, Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (2016). Set in medieval France, this story is about friendship, courage, and belonging. I'd think the target audience is age 8-11 or so. Beautifully illuminated (not in color, though).
Haruki Murakami: Colorless Tsukune Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage (2014). I found this novel very engrossing. Murakami is such a good writer! In one way it reminded me of Middlemarch, on of my all-time favorite books, in that it is all about the consequences of the choices the protagonists make. Friendship, growing up, adulthood, dreams....
Jojo Moyes: Me Before You (2012). An easy read, just right for reading outside in the hammock without having to think too much. It was more satisfying than I feared it would be after 20 pages. It made me laugh out loud a few times, which is pretty rare for a book.
Kathrine
pjcsaville
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Post by pjcsaville »

I have a goal on my goodreads account. But what the heck, I'll join this one too lol
My goal is 100 books this year. The problem is, most of the books I want to read are monsters like War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. I'm trying to read a lot of classics.

So far I've read: (Now don't laugh at some of these. I read to my daughter and I counted some of them toward my goal lol why not right?)

Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Ancient Rome by James De Mille
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Winnie the Pooh #1 by A. A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh: The House at Pooh Corner #2 by A. A. Milne
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Metamorphoses by Ovid
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (what a weird book)
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Odyssey by Homer
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
Pinocchio by C. Collodi
A Madeline Treasury (6 Short Stories) by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Complete Tales (19 Short Stories) by Beatrix Potter


I want to read:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
The Complete Fairytales of Andersen and Grimm
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
Great Expectations & A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (Yes, I haven't read them yet, sadly)
Frankenstein (forget the author)
Ender's Game by O. S. Card (I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVENT READ THIS YET!!!!)
The Necronomicon by H. P. Lovecraft
The Aeneid by Virgil
Heidi by J. Spyri
The Lies of Locke Lamora by S. Lynch
The Night Circus by E. Morgenstern
Treasure Island by R. L. Stevenson
The Secret Garden & A Little Princess by F. H. Burnett
The Swiss Family Robinson by J. D. Wyss
The Little Lame Prince by D. Mulock
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Purgatorio & Paradisio by Dante
Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti
The Golden Goblet by McGraw
The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy by Le Guin
Some Redwall books by Brian Jacques
Some Medieval Stories like the Song of Roland and the Nebelungedlied (spelling?)
Some of Jules Verne's stuff like 20,000 Leagues and the Journey Around the World, etc.
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

A list of my books for May. Some good books in the list. May was a memorable month for me. Not because of my reading, but because before celebrating a milestone birthday I was advised by a friend to "Go out and do something you've never done before..." so I slipped, fell down and broke my ankle! :? I don't think that's what she meant, though. :) Anyway, here's my list:

Maybe the Moon” by Armistead Maupin. Paperback. Excellent novel. Different, thoughtful and entertaining. I liked this book a lot.

A Country Doctor” by Sarah Orne Jewett. LibriVox Recording. I enjoyed this book a lot and liked the author’s writing style. I also thought the narrator (Jeannie) did an excellent job. A feminism sort of book, written in the 1880s.

The Patient’s Eyes” by David Pirie. Hardback. OK book. It started out all right, but it seemed to drag after a while – or maybe the cast on my leg made it seem like everything was dragging. :)

The Enchanted” by Martin Flavin. Hardback. Unusual, fictional book of Spanish orphans in WWII who, through a series of wartime events, end up on a tropical island. Impressive story of survival of children who are growing up, but not completely becoming adults. I liked his style of writing.

May Day Eve” by Algernon Blackwood. Short story from Gutenberg download. Good, spooky type Blackwood story. This was my “May” themed story for the month.

Interview of Bill Hosokawa – October 22, 1991”. From the Archives of the Wyoming Department of State Parks & Cultural Resources. Transcribed and edited by Russ Sherwin, April 6, 2010, Prescott, Arizona. Download from archive.org. This was my “50 States 50 Stories” project for Wyoming. Very interesting, insightful interview of Mr. Hosokawa, retired editor of the Denver Post, who spent several years during WWII in a
Japanese-American internment camp in Wyoming.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
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