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Personal Challenges - 2015
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Kiwi’s 2015 reading chronicles
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Camille
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May 26, 2015 10:53AM
Aww, I love James and the Giant Peach!
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me too Camille! I love Roald Dahl imagination, such a pleasure to read. My favourite remains the BFG with Danny the Champion of the World a close second. I haven't read Matilda yet, I'm saving it for a rainy day (or a reading slump)
Finished My Sister's Keeper, my first book by Jodi Picoult, and it won't be my last! 4 1/2 stars rounded to 5. It was also my first Bingo for the Summer Bingo Challenge. Yay!my review:
When I choose this book to read I expected it to be emotionally manipulative, but this book surprised me, I found it very moving and the sentimentality just right. It is very rare for me to feel for all the characters in a book, often I root only for my favourites, but Jodi Picoult make me care for all of them. The book isn’t perfect, the ending was a bit too convenient for me, but even that part was handled pretty well.
A beautiful read which challenges your assumptions and puts moral choices into question. What would you do?
Currently reading The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking and finding it really interesting.
Prey, only 2 stars, disappointed by it but happy to have completed the second bingo. off to plan next month reads...Roll on June!
ETA:
The reading plan for June includes:
The Ghost Brigades (favourite author)
Half a King (guilty pleasure)
Niccolò Rising (history)
Someone Knows My Name (monthly genre)
Ordinary Grace (reading for pleasure group read)
A biography for the monthly non-fiction and another book for my hoader’s list.
Mod
I'm stupidly happy to see Scalzi get favourite author status, lol
Renee, I have high expectations for the book as it is very much loved and has being highly recommended to me, I have requested the audio version from my library too.Karen, I have you to thank for introducing Scalzi to me :)
Finished The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, my review:Interesting and thought provoking book. It deals much more with human psychology (touching on philosophy and religion) than self help. Burkeman explores a new approach to happiness called “negative path” which leads to some counterintuitive insights such as setting goals can lead to catastrophic consequences, seeking security to failures and the effort to try to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. Well worth a read.
Favourite quotes:
Faced with the anxiety of not knowing what the future holds, we invest ever more fiercely in our preferred vision of that future – not because it will help us achieve it, but because it helps rid us of feelings of uncertainty in the present.
Insecurity is the essential nature of reality – and all our distress arises from trying to scramble to solid ground that doesn’t actually exist.
Perfectionism, at bottom, is a fear-driven striving to avoid the experience of failure at all costs. At its extremes, it is an exhausting and permanently stressful way to live.
The real revelation of the ‘negative path’ was not so much the path as the destination. Embracing negativity as a technique, in the end, only really makes sense if the happiness you’re aiming for is one that can accommodate negative as well as positive emotions.
Currently reading The Ghost Brigades
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, 3 1/2 stars rounded to 3True rating 3 ½ stars. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed by this book. It is beautifully written and the story has many interesting elements in it, but in the end it didn’t satisfy. I loved the descriptions of the small town residents, which were very well drawn, the close relationships between the brothers, the tense family atmosphere in the aftermaths of the murder.
I agree that the conclusion was predictable (I saw the solution to the mystery coming about half way through the book). This is not necessarily a given criticism, original doesn’t automatically make a good book, but personally from the premises of the first part the book, I was expecting more. Reading this book made me want to read William Kent Krueger again (so I’ve added Iron Lake to my TBR), but not enough for rating it 4 stars.
Favourite quote:
He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He simply lay flat on the trestle and looked at me with eyes as brown and old and worn down as two stones that had tumbled along the glacial river over ten thousand years ago, a river that had been given the same name as he: Warren.
Also reading Vita di Leonardo for this month NF challenge, so far just an OK read.
Niccolo rising audio has arrived finally, but I won't be able to pick it up till the weekend, so I'll probably start another book to read until then
Finished The Book of Negroes, it didn't start well for me (too many clichés) but ended up really liking this book and even feeling deeply moved in the last chapters. 4 solid stars from me.Regretfully, I decided to abandon Niccolo Rising, my reasons:
Alas DNF after about third of the book, a number of elements led me to put it aside.
To me, the humour in the first chapters was overdone to the point of resembling a farce. I found myself confused by the myriad of characters and frustrated in trying to keep them straight in my mind. I had to pause several times and go back to check where I encountered that character and how it was related to the other main characters in the story (there is a scary long character list at the beginning of the book so this aspect was certainly not unexpected). The events taking place are not well explained and the conversations often include subtle statements; it is only pages later that you will realise what happened or the meaning of the earlier words.
Dorothy Dunnett writes well but for me was not the easiest of reads. From the number of her fans and the raving reviews on GR, I am positive it is worth making a bit of extra effort with Dunnett’s work but, at the moment, I can’t resist the lure of other books waiting for me. I might attempt to read this book again in the future; at least now I know that I will need to set aside plenty of time and find the patience that this book requires.
Last night, I had trouble sleeping and so I picked up Lakota Woman, I only read the first chapter but what an opening, WOW!
Finished The Stranger a good mystery, but I think it's not the best of Coben's novels.Completed a couple of biographies, Vita di Leonardo and Lakota Woman, 3 stars and 4 stars respectively. The latter book is one that will remain with me, not because of the writing style, but its contents. Below is my review:
I learned a lot about Native American culture and traditions from this book and about the AIM (American Indian Movement) in the 70s. Mary Crow Dog explains in detail the rituals and ceremonies of the Sioux, the spiritual values of their people, their stories and legends, medicine remedies etc. Her story is simply (but effectively) told. One might question whether her retelling of the events at Wounded Knee is entirely objective but one thing is clear: Mary Crow Dog’s anger and reasons are understandable, her wounds are painful and the resentment runs deep.
Favourite quotes:
I was then white outside and red inside, just the opposite of an apple.
My best friend was Annie Mae Aquash, a young, strong hearted woman from the Micmac Tribe with beautiful chil dren. It is not always wise for an Indian woman to come on too strong. Annie Mae was found dead in the snow at the bottom of a ravine on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The police said that she had died of exposure, but there was a .38caliber slug in her head. The FBI cut off her hands and sent them to Washington for fingerprint identification, hands that had helped my baby come into the world.
I did not mind their being afraid of us. It was better than being given a quarter and asked to pose smilingly for their cameras
Supposedly you drink to forget. The trouble is you don't forget, you remember-all the old insults and hatreds, real and imagined. As a result there are always fights. One of the nicest, gentlest men I knew killed his wife in a drunken rage. One uncle had both his eyes put out while he was lying senseless. My sister-in-law Delphine's husband lost one eye. She herself was beaten to death by a drunken tribal police man. Such things are not even considered worth an investigation.
Currently reading Lock In, a sci-fi mystery and another biography of a local new zealander: Elizabeth Yates: The First Lady Mayor in the British Empire.
overdue update on my recent reads:Lock In by John Scalzi ****
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi **** (novella)
Elizabeth Yates: The First Lady Mayor in the British Empire by Judith Devaliant **
(Not in GR) Untold stories of Onehunga by Norine Borchard (Vol 1 + Vol 2)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ***
with Wolf Hall I completed another couple of challenges (history and Original Bingo)!
Currently reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the book contains an important message on the Native American situation and I chose the book for that reason, unfortunately was only an OK read for me (my review).Currently reading Half a King (from one of my favourite authors) and Augustus.
Update:Half a King, 5 stars (no surprises here :)
Augustus, 1 and half stars (huge disappointment)
The Left Hand of Darkness, only 2 stars unfortunately
and finally a gem: Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky , 4 1/2 rounded to 5 stars, my review below:
4 ½ stars rounded to 5
I have never came across the Strugatsky brothers until I saw this book mentioned in a group read. Since then, I learned that it is one of the must-read books in Soviet-era Russian sci-fi genre and has been included in the Bloomsbury's 100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novels. What a find!
First contact is a common theme in science fiction. Typically, the interaction with aliens brings humankind either great cultural exchanges and technological advances or an invasion with catastrophic consequences.
In this novel, the aliens came, saw and … left. The visitors do not even meet with us but leave some discarded objects behind. The function and working principles of these detritus and cast-offs cannot be fathomed by human scientists, but the visitors junk is highly valued and put to use as perpetual batteries, medical devices etc. The task of retrieving the alien litter is highly dangerous as the people who are involved in it are contaminated (the parallel to Chernobyl can be useful) so a restriction zone is established to keep away any wannabe relict treasure hunters (the Stalkers). The effects of the contamination can be immediate (crippling or even death) or affect the next generation (genetic mutation in the stalkers’ children).
The book follows Redric Schuhart (‘Red’) a stalker who leads hazardous expeditions in the 'Zone' for the high rewards of selling the retrieved artefacts on the black market. The tone of the book is very atmospheric, dark and gloomy, with violence and heavy drinking. The progressive degradation of the person, family and the society in general transpires from this novel. Red’s dark grim introspection is in the tradition of some masters of Russian literature (e.g. Dostoyevsky). Many intense moments keep the reader on the edge of their seats.
What I most liked about the book is the theme of incommunicability between the aliens and human race. A conversation in the middle of the book explores the possibilities of the aliens’ intentions. Were the visitors simply uninterested in us? Are we so small and insignificant? Is there a more hopeful/alarming explanation: they left only to come back later?
Highly recommended to all sci-fi fans.
Currently reading Brown Girl Dreaming while planning next month reads
Roadside Picnic certainly sounds interesting but also seems like something I have to be in the mood for. Doesn't sound like it's light entertainment!Looking forward to hearing your reaction to Brown Girl Dreaming. It seems to be well liked but I always like to hear the opinions of people whose tastes reflect mine
Karen, Roadside picnic is quite dark, I hope you'll like it if you decide to read it.I'm liking Brown Girl Dreaming and I'm taking my time with it. I can't to read poetry for long sessions at a time.
ETA: how your wee girl doing? and importantly how's mum doing?
Half way of 2015 and is time for a recap and a tidy up of the first posts in this thread. I am really happy with the reading progress this year, so far I completed 11 yearly challenges and two BINGO blackouts. Yay!On TBR slimming front: of the 361 books listed at the beginning of the year only 177 remain, I read 75 of them (16 of which 500+ pages), the rest I removed because I am no longer interested in them. My TBR list is still long (currently standing at 313), but it is full of recently added books that I’m really looking forward to reading.
My July plan includes:
• New to me author: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (currently reading)
• Sci-fi: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
• Children/YA: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• A book from my waiting on the shelves list (as motivation I stopped buying new books until I finish the Hoarder’s challenge Haha)
• Monthly genre (Manga/Graphic Novels &/OR Humor): Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Through the Woods or The Arrival and at least one Humour book.
• Monthly Non-fiction(Nature/Animals): All Creatures Great and Small or A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
July has a number of GR group reads that interest me:
• A Man Called Ove (ABB group read)
• All the Light We Cannot See(book vipers group read) - alternatively there’s The Nightingale read-along
• Big Little Lies (Novel Books & Reading Challenges group read)
I know that it will be difficult to read them all so I will pick from these options depending on the spur of the moment and on time constraints.
WOW! Kiwi, you've done a remarkable job with your TBR challenge so for this year. Great work! I hope you enjoy Big Little Lies. I read it this week and really enjoyed it. Let me know what you think of it!
Thanks Kassandra, seeing the TBR number go down it's really a great feeling !I'm looking forward to Big Little Lies, it's a popular book.
Congratulations are in order too for your reading progress, you go girl!
Thank you! I'm happy to be getting back in my reading groove.
Great reading progress Kiwi! I like your reading schedule for July, especially All Creatures. That is a comfort book for me. I've read the series a couple of times. Lovely characters! Now I'm going to go back and snoop through some of your books. :D
Kiwi wrote: "ETA: how your wee girl doing? and importantly how's mum doing?"Thanks for asking Kiwi :)
She's doing well, putting on the pounds and showing off new skills of which my favorite must be the smiles! Thankfully she's not a difficult baby at all. She is also sleeping longer at nights which makes me VERY happy. Still learning as I go but getting more rest makes it easier :)
Side Note: I bought Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to read to her, but my 4-year old niece loves it and has me reading it on repeat. Not only does she join in on her favorite parts and point out all the things of interest in the illustration, but today as I was reading I heard her 1-year old sister echoing my "Boom boom!" Great feeling to have them engaged by a book.
That's good to hear Melissa, I haven't read All Creatures yet, I'm told that is a funny book too.I like to browse other readers bookshelves, feel free to snoop mine, hope you find something interesting!
Thanks, Kiwi, I have found some interesting reads!
Owww Karen, I'm so jealous of your little one. Seriously green with envy for the warm cuddles!My eldest daughter just turned 16 and I'm wondering what happened?
Enjoy her as much as you can!
I love books with onomatopoeic words, so fun to read! love also action songs with the littlies...
Finished The Forgotten Garden and Speak, enjoyed reading both (for different reasons). 4 stars eachCurrently reading A Man Called Ove, Finally!
Finished A Man Called Ove and reached my page count challenge (40,428/40,000) for the year, I'm chuffed about that!I thought that A Man Called Ove was wonderful, below is my review:
This book did not start well for me, as many readers have noted Ove’s antics at the beginning of the book are pretty annoying. I can see quite a bit of Ove in me and this contributed to my feelings of irritation towards Ove’s portrayal. The characters begin like caricatures, where human defects are stretched to grotesque effect, beside the cranky Ove there’s the bossy Parvaneh, the overly passive Patrick, the mangy cat etc.
I believe this aspect is a deliberate move by the author. As the story goes on and the more is revealed about Ove’s past the more I felt the book opening up and the beginning of an emotional connection with the main character.
Sonja is the love of Ove’s life and they spend over 40 years together despite them being described as night and day, and they are clearly yin and yang. Sonja is the patient wife, the sunny side and better half of the couple. I particularly liked how, in the book, she becomes Ove’s conscience; even in her absence, he checks his actions based on what she would have thought about them.
By the end of the book I felt for Ove and understood how his losses (view spoiler) play a part in his becoming the grumpy, righteous and angry man that he is.
Interactions with others are always problematic. I smiled but also cringed at Ove’s caustic remarks and antisocial behaviour (view spoiler) and at the same time I cheered for the man unafraid to stand up for what he think is right (view spoiler).
One wonders if the soul necessarily builds a hard shell to protect its tenderness against life’s disappointments and sorrows. Certainly, Ove did not start this way, as a young man he was well-intentioned and even naïve (view spoiler).
While some people are immediately privy to Ove’s soft interior (view spoiler), most people are not. Actions speak louder than words however, the people around Ove can see through his abrasive exterior and be grateful for his courage and selflessness.
Ove’s transformation in the eyes of the reader is not unexpected, it may even be a cliché, but I personally found the bitter-sweet story very touching and even moving at the end.
In “A man called Ove” I found my kind of humour, it made me giggle quite a few times (and belly laugh during the driving lesson) and not many books have done that. Oh, and I loved the cat.
A well deserved 4 stars from me.
Favourite quotes:
Many people find it difficult living with someone who likes to be alone. It grates on those who can’t handle it themselves.
Men like Ove and Rune were from a generation in which one was what one did, not what one talked about.
“What sort of love is it if you hand someone over when it gets difficult?”
People had always said that Ove was “bitter.” But he wasn’t bloody bitter. He just didn’t go around grinning the whole time.
Wonderful review! I felt the same way.
Ok, I might have a bit of a problem: I have become a reading BINGO addict.After finishing my last bingo, I felt I was missing some of the fun picking up my next reads, so I’ve started to create my own BINGO square. I’m not exactly highly skilled at graphic design so the process was taking a bit of time and then while searching the net for ideas I stumbled upon an already made square, how could I say no? :P
Voila' my third bingo !
You crack me up Kiwi! I was just thinking to myself that I only have 2 books left before my blackout and boy, I'm really going to miss BINGO!!! I think I'm going to have a skulk around the net as well and take a look for some more...although the one that you posted looks very promising indeed. I might just "borrow" that one, if you don't mind :)
sure, Kassandra, feel free to use it, it is much more fun comparing reads for the squares. The square was created for a NZ high school for boys (I think that they used pizza as a reward for completing it, which I think is genius for teen boys). It is great that they have included a female heroine and books by female author.
There is a square for a book by a NZ author, you can pick an author that is local to you. Have fun!
Finally an update on my recent reads:I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, 2 stars
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, 3 stars
All Creatures Great and Small, loved it! 5 stars
Altered Carbon, 2 stars
Through the Woods, 2 stars
Eldest, 3 stars
Currently reading: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail and All the Light We Cannot See
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, 2 stars.A lot more informative but less entertaining than my earlier read by Bill Bryson (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid), still a good read if you are interested in nature books.
All the Light We Cannot See, 3 1/2 stars rounded to 3.
There are wonderful reviews on GR that eloquently list all the book good points, nothing for me to add. As a minor criticism, I will add I felt that although the language was beautiful towards the end of the book it dragged on a bit in places, almost over flowery. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
I actually have All the Light We Cannot See on hold. Glad to see that you liked it enough.
I did like it overall and I loved some parts. I definitely can see why it is a very popular book. My 3 stars rating may seems a bit unfair, I tend to round upwards only when the author is unknown or I think the book deserves to be better known.
There is quite a hype associated with All the light we cannot (especially since it won the Pulitzer prize this year) so I think my leaving off a 1/2 star does not affect its ratings much.
I do hope you'll get it soon and you'll like it!
Howl's Moving Castle: An unusual and imaginative fairy tale with wonderful characters. A charming read. 3 starsI read this as part of my TBR favourites but also doubles as a bingo square: a movie that’s been made into a movie. I need to find the movie now.
Also finished a brilliant read by by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies, 5 stars, my review:
This book is a window into school mum cliques, parents’ hierarchies and social circles. Moriarty carefully describes the women’s inner lives beyond the playground dynamics and politics common in any primary school. Spot on character development even of the minor characters through snippets of conversations, gossip and catty remarks. The story has a brilliant pace, a true pace turner for me. The format of the book is also unusual, in a murder mystery the perpetrator is normally the unknown but in this book you don’t even know who the victim is.
I liked the Australian setting, so familiar for who, like me, lives just across the ditch. I guess Big little lies can be categorised as chick lit but is not the fluffy and insipid type. It would be a great bookclub pick, so much to talk about but also a perfect beach read. Loved it!
I read The Husband's Secret by the same author, and rated it a respectable 3 stars, but I absolutely loved Big Little Lies, I thought it far superior.
Two good reads that I enjoyed. I was especially surprised by Big Little Lies. I didn't think I would like it when I read it.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it too Chase :)
Great review Kiwi! I loved Big Little Lies as well. I think I've worked through most of her stuff now and that is the one that stays with me.
Kassandra, do you think any other books of hers are as good?
I've enjoyed all of her books but no, I haven't enjoyed anything else the way I enjoyed Big Little Lies. The Last Anniversary was my least favourite of hers. There was a good mystery in it but it was really buried beneath a plot that dragged and characters that I didn't particularly like.
Thanks for the info Kassandra, we have similar tastes so I'll give The Last Anniversary a pass :)
I think that's a good decision. On to better things!
July is proving to be one of my most successful reading months so far, with another couple of 4 stars reads. The Boleyn Inheritance:
Novel set in Henry VIII court focusing on the aging monarch relationships. Three women POVs: Anne of Cleaves (4th wife only for 6 months), Katherine Howard (15 y.o. and 5th wife) and Jane Boleyn (lady-in-waiting and Anne Boleyn’s sister in law) in the usual diary format.
A very enjoyable read, a bit repetitive and not as good as The other Boleyn girl. 3 ½ stars rounded up
The Emperor's Blades:
After reading The Emperor’s Blades I believe I can safely add Brian Staveley to my short list of favourite fantasy authors. This novel develops along three story lines following the three children of the Malkeenian emperor. Kaden, the heir, training with an oriental style religious order, Valyn, the second son, training as an elite air force soldier, Adare, a daughter and the eldest, already risen in the empire hierarchy to the post of minister of finance. A conspiracy, that has already killed the emperor, now threatens all three.
The book is a page-turner with a satisfying twist at its end. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. Full 4 stars.
Currently reading The Reptile Room, the second book in A Series of Unfortunate Events and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.Very different but equally enjoyable
Congrats on having such a great month Kiwi! You've read some really interesting titles.
I have to agree Kiwi -I thought The Emperor's Blades was great! I preordered the sequel as soon as I was done, will read it soon.
Thanks Kassandra, you're too kind :)
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Goldfinch (other topics)Bootlegger's Daughter (other topics)
The Grownup (other topics)
The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History (other topics)
The Gospel of Loki (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Simon Schama (other topics)Mike Wallace (other topics)
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Barry S. Strauss (other topics)
