Kate's comments (member since Dec 21, 2007)

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

Melanie wrote: "Hi Kate,
How was Dark Places? I have that on my TBR list."

Hi Melanie,

I quite liked it. It was very cohesive, better than her first, and very dark, sometimes queasy-making! I had a few questions at the end but overall it was worth reading.

2009 continued:

26) Dark Places - Gillian FLynn (7/20)

27) Finders Keepers - Mark Bowden (8/4)

28) Lucky Girl - Mei-Ling Hopgood (8/9)

29) Look Me in the Eye - John Robison (8/9)

30) The Freddie Stories and Big Ideas - Lynda Barry (8/11)

31) Plainsong - Kent Haruf (8/20)

32) Long Past Stopping - Oran Canfield (8/28)

33) Just In Case - Meg Rosoff (9/3)

34) Joy School - Elizabeth Berg (9/7)

35) I am the Messenger - Markus Zuzak (9/14)

36) A Girl Named Zippy - Haven Kimmel (9/21) (audiobook)

37) Dear Shrink - Helen Cresswell (9/24)

38) Bonk - Mary Roach (9/26)

39) What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell (10/2)

40) Black Swan Green - David Mitchell (10/12)

41) Marcelo in the Real World - Francisco X. Stork (10/20)

42)Pictures of Hollis Woods - Patricia Reilly Giff (10/25)

43) Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (11/4)

44) My Horizontal Life - Chelsea Handler (11/7)

45) Hate List - Jennifer Brown (11/16)

46) The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly (12/5)

47) Freak the Mighty - Rodman Philbrick (12/6)

I really liked it! I was confused most of the way through, yet compelled to read on. Krauss is a talented writer, and I grew attached to a few of the characters. Did your husband like it? I'm mixed on whether to recommend it to friends.

Ok, here starts my 2009 list. Hopefully I'll make it to 50 this time!

1) The History of Love - Nicole Krauss (1/7)

2) The Handmaid and the Carpenter - Elizabeth Berg (1/8)

3) Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder (reread) (1/21)

4) Getting the Girl - Markus Zuzak (1/23)

5) The Burma Chronicles - Guy Delisle (1/25)

6) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See (2/16)

7) Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher (3/7)

8) The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (3/9)

9) Christine Falls - Benjamin Black (3/25)

10) Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson (3/29)

11) Wonderland:A Year in the Life of an American High School - Michael Bamberger (4/2)

12) I'm counting half of Song Man and half of A Year at the Movies as one whole. (4/13)

13) The Invisible Circus - Jennifer Egan (4/18)

14) Everything Bad is Good for You - Steven Johnson (4/24)

15) And Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris (5/5)

16) The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (5/9)

17) The Lightning Thief Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1 - Rick Riordan (5/19)

18) The Sea of Monsters Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 2 - Rick Riordan (5/21)

19) The Lives of Christopher Chant - Diana Wynne Jones (reread 5/24)

20) The Titan's Curse Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 3 - Rick Riordan (5/27)

21) The Battle of the Labyrinth Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 4 - Rick Riordan (6/5)

22) Home Safe - Elizabeth Berg (6/13)

23) Durable Goods - Elizabeth Berg (6/28)

24) The Last Olympian Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 4 - Rick Riordan (7/2)

25) The Killer's Cousin - Nancy Werlin (7/6)

Jessica, I didn't make it either - unless you count started and unfinished ones! Interesting exercise. I'm so gonna make it in 2009!

Cheers,
Kate

Ha ha, the last thing I finished was a graphic novel. Dahl IS a good idea (as always)! I also picked up a few juvenile-level novels.

I still have like 7 books to go by Jan 1 to make it to 50!! Anyone else feeling the heat? Are you giving up, changing your goal, or trying to cram it all in? I think I'm going to have to go with novellas to make it!

34) Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield (9/27)

35) The World I Made for Her - Thomas Moran (10/14)

36) The Rules of Survival - Nancy Werlin (10/18)

37) The Chocolate Connoisseur - Chloe Doutre-Roussel (10/19)

38) The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby (10/20)

39) The Poe Shadow (on audiobook) - Matthew Pearl (11/5)

40) Twilight - Stephanie Meyer (11/9)

41) Never Change - Elizabeth Berg (11/28)

42) It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp - I am counting this as half a book and as the other half, my sister's novel, which, though as yet unpublished, is still a full-length novel and should count for something. In the meantime, this first, important work by Pepe the Prawn will fill in.

43) The Best School Year Ever - Barbara Robinson (12/9)

44) Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud (12/21)

She did write "Attic" and "Truck" but they are not even close to Geek Love.

Isn't Confederates in the Attic amazing?

I think I need to make a spreadsheet of all the books I've bought and why they "don't count". Because it turns out there have been, say, a couple of those.

Most recent purchase that counted: Into Thin Air. I may have missed a few, but who's counting? Apparently not I.

I LOVE Stranger Things Happen!! It's one of the few books I still reread from.

I about spat up reading your commentary on To the White Sea...

I should also track the books I'm buying this year, because I made a resolution that I could only buy one book for every 5 I read. (There are a lot of exceptions to this rule. I can buy reference books and books written by people I know, and I can still aquire FREE books, e.g. via Bookmooch. I don't want to explode!)

BOUGHT books:

1) Chasm - Dorothea Tanning (1/12) Whoops! I owed 3 books when I bought this, so I'm already fucking up. But it was $1, at a library book sale, and I have never seen this book for sale anywhere. I was obsessed with Tanning's paintings for years and had to have this book when I saw it, even if it turns out to suck.

2) Burger Wuss - M.T. Anderson (2/1) It was only $2.98 at Half Price and I had just seen Anderson speak at the library. I really should have bought it there, where he might actually make some money off the purchase, but I did buy 2 copies of Octavian Nothing (for my mom and sister) so I felt I had fulfilled that obligation. Burger Wuss looks funny and like a really quick +1 for my 50books2008 list when I need it. Lately I haven't had much reading time between work, climbing and acquiring a wonderful boyfriend (I read The Keep in one sitting because he's out of town). I am dying to buy books (particularly "The Double" by Jose Saramago and the Dame Darcy-illustrated Jane Eyre) but am not letting myself get more than 1 book in the red, esp while I'm not reading much. Arg!

3) The Bottle Factory Outing - Beryl Bainbridge (2/9) My sister sniped the Half Price copy so when I saw this at Prospero's there was no going back.

4) The Secret Family - David Bodanis (3/25) No one EVER has this book and I loved The Secret House.

5) A book of Louisa May Alcott's more fantastical short fiction, A Whisper in the Dark. Total impulse buy, 3/27.

6) Sister of the Bride, because I was missing in it both senses. I read it in two delectable sittings while ill with some GI bug. Yay!

7) Just ordered the latest in the Me Bigfoot series by Graham Roumieu. 32% off on Amazon preorders!

Wow you decided your 50 in advance?? Color me intimidated.

I can't WAIT for you to read Jonathan Strange!!

1) The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago (1/6)

2) Making Artisan Chocolates - Andrew Garrison Shotts (1/10)

3) The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue (1/12)

4) The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation - M.T. Anderson (1/13)

5) The Diaries of Adam and Eve - Mark Twain (1/16)

6) Master Georgie - Beryl Bainbridge (1/27)

7) The Keep - Jennifer Egan (2/2)

8) What I Was - Meg Rosoff (2/9)

9) Into the Wild - John Krakauer (2/15)

10) The Double - Jose Saramago (2/28)

11) Code Blue: A Katrina Physician's Memoir - Richard E. Deichmann (3/6)

12) Harriet Said... - Beryl Bainbridge (3/11)

13) A Death in Belmont - Sebastian Junger (3/16)

14) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman (3/26)

15) Letters From the Inside - John Marsden (3/27)

16) The Upstairs Room - Johanna Reiss (3/29)

17) The Journey Back - Johanna Reiss (4/2)

18) Sister of the Bride - Beverly Cleary (4/15) (reread, and I don't want any flack for it! I was laid up)

19) A Judgement in Stone - Ruth Rendell (4/16)

20) The Effect of Living Backwards - Heidi Julavits (5/1)

21) So Much to Tell You - John Marsden (5/2)

22) The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud (5/10)

23) Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden (5/12)

24) I am the Cheese - Robert Cormier (5/14)

25) The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (6/6)

26) Elephant Man - Bernard Pomerance (6/12)

27) The Fasting Girl:A True Victorian Medical Mystery - Michelle Stacey (6/27)

28) Winter - John Marsden (6/29)

29) Tunes for Bears to Dance To - Robert Cormier (6/30)

30) Jim the Boy - Tony Earley (7/14)

31) The Blue Star - Tony Earley (7/17)

32) Watson's Apology - Beryl Bainbridge (8/23)

33) Dear Miffy - John Marsden (8/24)