Tracy's comments (member since Sep 05, 2008)

Tracy's comments from the 50 Books A Year group.

Tracy wrote: My Favorites for 2009
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates

Favorites from 2008
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset

"Le Triangle Secret." Not sure if the series is available in English, but it is a very popular bande-dessinee in France. It's sort of a take-off on the Freemasons craze started by the Da Vinci Code.

Diana Barry, the best friend and "kindred spirit" of Anne Shirley in "Anne of Green Gables." Anne's loyal and lovely pal, who tells her that "being smart is better than being pretty."

Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner) and The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

42 for me!

From childhood: "Where the Red Fern Grows"

Recently: "On Chesil Beach"

Some of my very favorites:

Sigrid Undset (Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy)
Robertson Davies (Cornish, Deptford, and Salterton Trilogies)
Naguib Mahfouz (Cairo Trilogy)
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials Trilogy)
Joan Aiken (Wolves Chronicles)

Richard, your numbers 1 & 11 are on my to-read list... I just need to get motivated. Quite impressive, the titles you've already read!

JANUARY

1. Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross, by Sigrid Undset (Norway)
2. Sorry, by Gail Jones (Australia)
3. Under the Glacier, by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)
4. Castle Barebane, by Joan Aiken (UK)*
5. A Shabby Genteel Story, by William Makepeace Thackeray (UK)
6. Wedding Song, by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
7. Savage Grace, by Natalie Robins

FEBRUARY

8. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
9. The Making of a Marchionness, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. A Lady of Quality, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
11. His Grace of Osmonde, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
12. The Shuttle, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
13. The Tales of Ivan Belkin, by Alexander Pushkin (Russia)
14. Athena, by John Banville (Ireland)

MARCH
15. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, by Vladimir Nabokov

APRIL
16. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner

MAY
17. As I lay Dying, by William Faulkner
18. Connaissez-Vous Maronne?, par Daniel Boulanger (France)

JUNE
19. Les Rivieres Pourpres, par Jean-Christophe Grange (France)
20. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

JULY
21. This is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel Levitin
22. Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks
23. What Happens in London, by Julia Quinn
24. A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray
25. The Nine: The Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin
26. The Rebel Angels, by Libba Bray

AUGUST
27. The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray
28. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
29. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

SEPTEMBER

30. Gone, by Michael Grant
31. Hunger, by Michael Grant
32. Best American Travel Writing, 2009, edited by Simon Winchester

OCTOBER

33. The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
34. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

NOVEMBER

35. Best American Travel Writing, 2008, edited by Anthony Bourdain
36. Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami
37. In the Presence of the Enemy, by Elizabeth George

DECEMBER

38. Good Morning, Midnight, by Jean Rhys
39. The Last September, by Elizabeth Bowen


asterisks indicate rereads

Didn't reach 50 in 2008 but kudos to those who did!

Perhaps the house in the center of a maze in Toltz's Booker shortlister, "A Fraction of the Whole." Or perhaps the building that contains a school for teens with psychic abilities in Lois Duncan's "Down a Dark Hall."

1. Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
2. L'Empire des Loups, Jean Christophe Grange (France)
3. La Ligne Noire, Jean Christophe Grange
4. La Femme Rompue, Simone de Beauvoir (France)
5. L'Amant, Marguerite Duras (France)
6. The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan (UK)
7. The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan
8. The Innocent, Ian McEwan
9. Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
10. Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
11. Atonement, Ian McEwan
12. Saturday, Ian McEwan,
13. On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
14. Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
15. The Daydreamer, Ian McEwan
16. In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan
17. First Love, Last Rites, Ian McEwan
18. The Child in Time, Ian McEwan
19. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (Iran/France)
20. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (UK)
21. Cairo Modern, Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
22. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft (UK)
23. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (India)
24. A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz (Australia)
25. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery (France)
26. Go Saddle the Sea, Joan Aiken (UK)
27. Bridle the Wind, Joan Aiken
28. Teeth of the Gale, Joan Aiken
29. Midwinter Nightingale, Joan Aiken
30 The Witch of Clatteringshaws, Joan Aiken
31. The Way to Write for Children, Joan Aiken
32. Epitaph of a Small Winner, Joachim Machado de Assis (Brazil)
33. Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey (Australia)
34. The Pyramid, Ismail Kadare (Albania)
35. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
36. Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
37. Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath, Sigrid Undset (Norway)
38. Kristin Lavransdater II: The Wife, Sigrid Undset

(rereads)
39. ***The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins (UK)
40. ***A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett (UK)
41. ***Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett
42. ***The Five-Minute Marriage, Joan Aiken
43. ***Midnight is a Place, Joan Aiken
44. ***Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh (UK)

Count Fosco in The Woman in White. Such a unique character-- a charming animal lover who is also a master of veiled threats and supremely menacing.

Awesome

"Atonement" and "Saturday" Ian McEwan (one of my new favorite authors-- read ALL of his novels this year)
"Persepolis" Marjane Satrapi
"Kristin Lavransdatter" Sigrid Undset

Not so much...

"The Lovely Bones" Alice Sebold
"Drowning Ruth" Christina Schwarz
"The Elegance of the Hedghog" Muriel Barbery

Balram, the chauffeur protagonist in "The White Tiger" and Becky Sharp of "Vanity Fair." Both are opportunists who succeed at their game while showing glimmers of the morality that they have left behind.

Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice) and Will Ladislaw (Middlemarch). Am I the only one convinced that Eliza Bennett is just a little too clever for the likes of Mr Darcy?

Just about any of the main characters in Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go." Particularly Kath, Tommy, and Ruth. I understand that their upbringing and socialization led to them being emotionally and socially trapped, but couldn't they have broken free, or at least considered the possibility? Especially when certain shocking truths are revealed to Kath and Tommy. It's difficult to understand how all the literature being read at the cottages (if it was indeed being read and not spuriously claimed) did not engender more existential thinking or feelings of rebellion.

Oh, and the narrators from "The Book of Evidence" (John Banville) and "Lolita" (Nabokov)-- after they've taken a dose of sodium pentathol... as if that would help...

And I agree with Kelly regarding Dorothea and Mr. Causabon. I guess it goes to show how much we can delude ourselves!

Best Books:

Atonement, Ian McEwan
Saturday, Ian McEwan

I have read all of Ian McEwan's books in 2008 (all 14!) and these two are by far the most ambitious and thought-provoking. I think the second tier would be On Chesil Beach, Enduring Love, and First Love, Last Rites.

Ian McEwan is not as well-known in the states as in England, so many have asked me what led to my time investment in McEwan.

My answer is this: I think he uses his novels as a springboard to discuss literature, music, and science in interesting ways. Yes, like many novelists who've written a number of novels, he revisits pet themes. But in contrast to authors who say their piece in their first couple of novels and then taper off, McEwan continues refine his voice, so that his most recent novels-- in building on his prior works and echoing their ideas-- are the most ambitious and rewarding ones to date.

"Atonement" is a luminous meditation on writing and the creative impulse, and examines the idea of the unreliable narrator, and what might well be termed the unreliable perspective.

As I wrote in another post on goodreads, not since "The French Lieutenant's Woman" have I been so blown away by an ending. It forced me to reconsider EVERYTHING that came before in the novel.

Worst:
The Alchemist, Coelho
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks

OK, so I didn't read these books in 2008, but they had to go on my list because I despise them so.

I find it frightening that sentimental, treacly fable-telling, in which the keys to life's mysteries are represented by trivial and manipulative plot devices, has become so popular.

This one is easy. I'd create a soundtrack for the trashiest and most memorable of my (pre-) teen reads: VC Andrews's "My Sweet Audrina."

The publication of Andrews's only standalone book coincided with the release Cyndi Lauper's hit "All through the night," and to this day, when that song comes on the radio, I think of Audrina Adare.

In addition to Cyndi's trademark otherworldly voice, which inhabits a high register in the song's chorus, some of the lyrics have an ironic resonance in light of the novel: "we have no past, we will not reach back, keep with me forward all through the night." Take that, Arden!

That's an easy one. I would change the ending to The Amber Spyglass, the final installment of Philip Pullman's amazing His Dark Materials trilogy. It's hard to swallow Will and Lyra living apart, sitting on the same bench in different worlds, remembering their love and shared history.

Instead, I'd have them marry and live in one of the infinite Oxfords, or in Cittagaze where they could help rebuild the city.

Yes, Dini, Timmy from the Famous Five series was the best. A great judge of character, a loyal friend to George, he most certainly was part of the gang-- the kids even shared their ices with him!

And how about Ms. Coulter's monkey daemon in the His Dark Materials trilogy? Obviously not a friend to Lyra, but so chilling in its vicious behavior.