re-posting deborah's suggestion:

"deborah, who is wonder how others are doing with their DLs. Should we start another thread or just comment here? "
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For those that are new to DL's, they are Determination lists that we make up in January. It is a list of books that we would like to read in the coming year. It is a good way to generate book discussions and also get a book buddy to read the book with. On GR you can also make a DL shelf. Some make a list of 12 books others think 17 is THE correct number. :)

You can use what ever criteria you would like to make your list. It's up to you. Some use books that they already own, others add BFB (big tomes) that they never seem to get to. This year I made a list of classic books that I haven't read.

I'll take you up on a separate thread, Deborah. Maybe that will get me to read a DL. I've only read one so far. :( We posted our DL's on AOL back in January, so that is another reason to have a thread here on GR.

My 2009 DL is:

Too Late the Phalarope

Founding Brothers The Revolutionary Generation (read)

Travels with Charley In Search of America

Brave New World

On the Beach

Ethan Frome

The Scarlet Letter

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Up from Slavery

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Franny and Zooey

Teresa of Avila An Extraordinary Life

I have some nerve asking for a DL thread! It was only after Alias started one that i remembered i didn't exactly make one. Instead i'm Determined to read books from my own shelves. For Literature i'm reading alphabetically, from both ends. To wit--i finished the top shelf of my bookcase when i read the following:

Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore

Then i moved to the last shelf where the Z's & other end-of-the-alphabet authors are stored. From that i've only read Nana by Emile Zola. Next is The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Yonge.

I think i also had other, none-classics listed but durn if i can find it. Coincidence? hmmmm....

ANYway, thanks for the thread, Alias.

deborah

I found something like a NF DL, so will share those.

Cicero by Anthony Everitt.

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Fagan

By Barry Strauss. The Battle of Salamis and
The Trojan War

The Mirror of the Gods by Malcom Bull The Mirror of the Gods How the Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Third Domain by Tim Friend

Third Domain The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology

And, finally, the autobiographies of Edith Wharton (A Backward Glance) and Zora Neal Hurston (Dust Tracks on a Road).

OF THOSE I've only read Cicero

deborah

My 2009 Determination List
1. Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. Historical mystery.
2. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Fiction.
4. The Chinese in America by Iris Chang. Nonfiction.
5. Savage Beauty by Nancy Mitford. Biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
6. The Working Poor by David A. Shipler. Nonfiction.
7. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. Fiction.
9. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. Fiction.
12. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Fiction.
14. The Darling by Russell Banks. Fiction.
16. In This Rain by S. J. Rozan. Fiction.


Already Read
3. The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa. Fiction.
8. Tapestries by Ken Nguyen. Memoir.
11. The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder. Nonfiction.
15. Triangle by Katharine Weber. Fiction.
17. Wild Girl by Jim Fergus. Fiction.

Did Not Finish
13. Living by Fiction by Annie Dillard. Nonfiction.

Currently Reading
10. Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. Nonfiction.

I'm further behind than usual with my DList reading so I have a bad feeling about getting finished, or even close to it, this year.

Alias, am I right that you've read The God of Small Things? The more I look at it, the less I think I'll like it. My DList was filled with "peruse 'em or lose 'em" books this year and it may well be one that I "lose."

Jan O'Cat

Jan, it seems to me you've made quite a dent in your list & i congratulate you! Re. the Nanking book, which i see you didn't much like, had you read about the war crimes previously? Last year i read , from which i learned much. Horrible. I don't think i could pick up a novel about it.

I've probably already mentioned this but when you get around to reading the following, i hope you'll give a shout, as i would like to read them too.

Savage Beauty The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

The House of Mirth (A rereading for me.)

The Portrait of a Lady (Another reread.)

(ALL OF WHICH I own, so wouldn't need much warning.)

The Darling A Novel

I'm currently reading Banks's The Reserve and liking the portrayal. A spontaneous group reading on this site has begun for this book, too, at this link, if anyone is interested in joining. http://books.hyperboards.com/index.php?a...

deborah

I loved The Darling and despised the main character. It is a rare author who can accomplish this. Banks did the same with The Reserve.

One of my favorite authors, Ron Rash, was unable to do this same thing for me in his latest book Serena.....a despicable woman and a book I was not crazy about.

I am trying my best to focus on my DL this year. Of course it might be cheating but I put some of the books on my list that have already been chosen by my F2F book club which gives them a greater chance of being read.

1. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Anne Dillard
2. The Spirit Catches You & You Fall Down Anne Fadiman
3. Kafka On the Shore Haruki Murakami
4. Boss Tweed Kenneth Ackerman
7. Mockingbird Charles Shields
12. Mistress of the Art of Death Ariana Franklin
13. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski
14. Working Studs Terkel
15. Lincoln's Melancholy Joshua Wolf Shenk
16. In Command of History: Churchill David Reynolds
17. The Informant Kurt Eichenwald

Already read:
5. 1776 David McCullough
6. World Without End Follett (almost finished)
8. Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin
9. The Abstinence Teacher Tom Perrotta
10. Peony in Love Lisa See
11. Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's Charles Cerami

Barbara

JanOMalleycat wrote: "My 2009 Determination List
1. Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. Historical mystery.
2. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Fiction.
4. The Chinese in America by..."

Jan -
What do you think about "Founding Brothers" ?

Barbara

Barbara listed:
"5. 1776 David McCullough
6. World Without End Follett (almost finished)
8. Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin "

Barbara, if you were going just by page count, this could've been your DList in its entirety! Surely if you added up the page count of these three it would total a number divisible by 17. ;-)

Jan O'Cat

JanOMalleycat wrote: ".."Alias, am I right that you've read The God of Small Things? The more I look at it, the less I think I'll like it. My DList was filled with "peruse 'em or lose 'em" books this year and it may well be one that I "lose.
-------------------------

Yes, I have it on my TBR stacks. I even have a special guide they put out with the book.

Maybe you can spare it from the purge?

When I did nominate it in a prior year, it did get a few votes. So there is still hope that we can read it with a few others here. That always makes for better reading. It's a book many say they really enjoyed.

There are almost 900 reviews on Amazon. Most are positive. But there are 100 1 stars. Maybe it is a love it or hate it type book.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Small-Things-N...

Barbara asked: "What do you think about "Founding Brothers" ? "

Barbara, I'm enjoying it a lot now that I have time to read it (I started it way back when it was the group's monthly read). It's quite readable history and I'm finding out little tidbits about well-known guys like Jefferson, plus quite a bit more than "tidbits" about others. I intend to go back and read everyone's comments when I'm finished.

I knew little about Madison. He seems to have been a retiring guy, so maybe that was his intention, but I had no idea of his role as a background mover and shaker.

I also knew little about Washington. I'm reading his section right now. I knew so little about him that I didn't have half an idea of how revered he was in his time. Yes, I knew all of the turned down the proffered emperorship stuff and all of that, but I think it was filed with the cherry tree legend in my mind. Ellis humanizes Washington quite a bit.

The colonial era was never an interest for me, so the book is full of insights. All of those guys just seemed like the portraits on the dollar bills for me, so reading about the ins and outs of the important decisions of the new republic is educational and I'm pleased that Ellis makes it so readable.

Jan O'Cat

Deborah asked: "Re. the Nanking book, which i see you didn't much like, had you read about the war crimes previously? Last year i read The Rape of Nanking The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, from which i learned much. "

Deborah, I thought The Devil of Nanking was some kind of historical fiction about Nanking during the wars but it's not. It's mostly a truly hideous modern day thriller which strives to go over the top in terms of weirdness, gruesomeness, and violence. As I remember it now, I wonder how or why I managed to finish the book. I just looked at some of the readers' reviews here at Goodreads and, to my astonishment, most of them appear to be 4 stars or better. Takes all kinds, I guess.

The references to Nanking come from the diaries of an older gentleman who is a character. His past story was the most interesting in the book, though his part in the modern day story was as repellent as the others'.

I have The Rape of Nanking here and I suppose it could become one of my DList for next year. LOL! That is, if I read the other of Chang's books that's on my current DList.

Jan O'Cat

JanOMalleycat wrote: "Barbara listed:
"5. 1776 David McCullough
6. World Without End Follett (almost finished)
8. Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin "

Barbara, if you were going just by page count, this could've been..."

I had thought about that. LOL Perhaps that explains why all three of them were on my list for a couple of years. I was REALLY Determined to read them this year. Of course the fact that I wasn't working this winter helped.

Barbara

Barbara

Isn't our GoodReads "to-read" shelf the same thing as a "Determination List"?

Here is mine:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/124...

Not really, JoAnn. Our "To Read" shelf is books that are in the line-up definitely coming up to the plate soon. For myself, I only list a handful of books, usually ones that I have on request at the library.

DL is a list that we make in January of books we would like to read in the coming year. We use the list to generate discussion and maybe to find a book buddy to read the book with. We also use the list to give us a push to read that certain book, that we always wanted to read, but never really get to. It really is just a fun thing we do to get us talking and thinking about books.

Alias Reader wrote: "Not really, JoAnn. Our "To Read" shelf is books that are in the line-up definitely coming up to the plate soon. .."

Well, I do not have a separate determination list....some of those books on my "to-read" shelf are books I own and have had around/wanted to read for quite a while. In fact, a few have been on it since last summer! I just keep adding to the list. If I made a separate list in January, it would be outdated by February! LOL

JanOMalleycat wrote: "Barbara asked: "What do you think about "Founding Brothers" ? "

Barbara, I'm enjoying it a lot now that I have time to read it (I started it way back when it was the group's monthly read). It's qu..."

Ooh, maybe I should pick it up before I have to take it back to the library. I was feeling bad that I hadn't read it with the group, but if Jan can read it now so can I!

Carol said: "I was feeling bad that I hadn't read it with the group, but if Jan can read it now so can I! "

:::flipping pages:::
Yes, Carol, it appears that according to article 596, section 1b, subsection 257d, you CAN read the April selection in June as long as I am reading it too.

Try it, you'll like it! (The introduction/prologue [can't remember what it's called:] is quite a bit drier and denser than the rest of the book and I'll bet you could easily skip it.)

Jan O'Cat