Challenge: 50 Books discussion
Finish Line 2011
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A Microbiologist Reads in 2011
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Leshawn
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Jan 03, 2011 11:03AM
I started the new year by re-reading one of my top 10 favorite reads of 2010.
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1-3-11#1. "Addition" by Toni Jordan. published in 2008.
"Most people miss their whole lives, you know. Listen, life isn't when you are standing on top of a mountain looking at the sunset. Life isn't waiting at the altar or the moment your child is born or that time you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. 10 or 12 grains of sand spread thoughout your entire existence. These are not life. Life is brushing your teeth or making a sandwich or watching the news or waiting for the bus. Or walking. Every day, thousands of tiny events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it.
You could miss your whole life." page 258
What a lovely quote. Thanks for sharing it with us.
It was my pleasure Deb! This quote accurately reflects the major theme of the novel and is one of the many reasons I loved the book!
1-19-11#2 "Skippy Dies" by Paul Murray. published in 2010.
"Well, inside every grass blade there's a grass blade, that's just like burning up with being a grass blade. And inside every tree, there's a tree, and inside every person there's a person, and inside this world that seems so boring and ordinary, if you look hard enough, there's a totally amazing magical beautiful world. And anything you would want to know, or anything you would want to happen, all the answers are right there where you are right now. In your life." page 653
1-27-11#3 "Mini Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella. published in 2010.
"Bartering is certainly one idea to aid the economy. However, I am not sure how practical it would be for the Chancellor to barter 'some old stuff in musuems that we don't need' for 'loads of French cheeses that we could all share out.' I also fear it would be unfeasible to barter 'a minor member of the Royal Family' with the USA, in return for 'enough J.Crew clothes for everyone.'
Nevertheless, I thank you for your continuing interest in our economy." page 162
2-7-11#4 "Suture Self: A Book of Medical Cartoons" by Leo Cullum. published in 2009.
"I'm feeling a tightness in my wallet." page 5
2-14-11#5 "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson. published in 2010.
"Life was a disgrace, an absurd disgrace, to be exceeded in disgracefulness only by death." page 290
3-5-11#6 "Pope Joan"
I left the book at home, so the quote will have to wait!
3-8-11#7 "Twelve Rooms with a View" by Theresa Rebeck
published in 2010.
I left the book in the car, so the quote will follow....
3-15-11#8 "Odd Jobs:Portraits of Unusual Occupations" by Nancy Rica Schiff. published in 2002.
"Though she can't affect how they see, she can improve how they look. " page 86
3-15-11 #9 "Monkey Portraits" by Jill Greenberg. published in 2006.
"For anyone who doubts Darwin(ahem, Mr President), look in the monkey mirror and think again." Introduction
3-21-11#10 "The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith. published in 1998.
"So for many years, nothing happened. It was a good system of government, because most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next." page 20
3-23-11#11 "The Boy Next Door" by Meggin Cabot. published in 2002.
3-25-11#12 "As We Are Now" by May Sarton. published in 1973.
"Let woe in and it's next to impossible to get it out again." page 29
"and, so I am back again, battering my heart against the absence of God." page 78
"My jaw aches from holding a grief back." page 97
3-30-11#13 "One Day" by David Nicholls. published in 2009.
"Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance." page 433
4-5-11I finished my first Audio recording of the year today.
It was Kate Reading reading W. Somerset Maugham's "The Painted Veil" on Blackstone Audio.
It was recorded in 2006 and was on 6 CDs.
4-9-11#14 "Georgia Bottoms" by Mark Childress. published in 2011.
"What she needed right now, more than anything, was the comforting voice of a friend who would tell her she was right, or at least not that wrong." page 98
4-11-11#15 "Once Upon a Time, There was You" by Elizabeth Berg. published in 2011.
4-11-11#16 "Of Thee I Sing" by Barack Obama. Illustrated by Loren Long. published in 2010
4-14-11#17 "Pickles to Pittsburgh" Written and Colored by Judi Barrrett. Drawn by Ron Barrett.
published in 1997.
4-21-11#18 "The Book of Joe" by Jonathan Tropper. published in 2004.
"The day is a run-on Henry James sentence that makes no sense, punctuated by small talk, bathroom breaks and trips to the temperamental coffee machine down the hall. " page 59
"which can feed harmoniously on each other for that rare period of time between childhood and adulthood, before they reach cross-purposes and began mercilessly devouring each other. " page 94
4-23-11#19 "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins. published in 2010.
4-23-11#20 "Regarding the Bees: A Lesson in Letters, On Honey, Dating and Other Sticky Subjects" by Kate Klise
Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise
published in 2007.
4-27-11Second Book on CD.
"My Man Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse. Read by Simon Prebble. 4 CDs. Blackstone Audio. released in 2006.
4-27-11#21 "Bright Lights, Big Ass:A Self-Indulgent, Surly Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why It Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?" by Jen Lancaster.
published in 2007.
"Of course, no movie, how dramatic, is without comic relief. But in the Hollywood version of my life, I'd always be right and everyone around me would be the ones to look foolish. But the unfortunate reality is sometimes the dumbass in the office? Is me." page 147
5-3-11#22 "The Girl Next Door" by Elizabeth Noble. published in 2009.
5-16-11#23 "The Fall and Rise of Regianld Perrin" by David Nobbs. published in 1975.
I'm positive I would have a quote if I had 2 minutes together to do anything but work. Alas, that is not my reality. I will say that I adored this book and can't wait to read the next one!
You have to love dear old Reggie - thanks for the reminder of that fabulous series.
Deb,I am so enthralled! I can't wait to read the next book!
I didn't get where I am today by reading books about Reggie Perrin!
Oh,you are a hoot and a half!Do you want to correspond by Pony Express?
I love writing and receiving letters!
I imagine a letter from you would be a rare and wonderful delight!
If you agree, send me your address and I'll write first!
If not, I will still sing your praises!
Sure, sounds fun - I've sent you a friend request on GR.
5-20-11#24 "If You Were Here" by Jen Lancaster. published in 2011.
I was very excited about Lancaster's first foray into fiction and I was not disappointed!
5-24-11#25 "The Housewife and the Assassin" by Susan Trott.
published in 1979.
I am a big fan of Susan Trott. This is my second of her books and I can't wait to start the next one!
6-5-11Third Book on CD. "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. Read by Joe Barrett. Brilliance Audio. 22 CDs.
Released in 2009.
This was an impressive undertaking and Mr Barrett is to be congratulated!
I always feared the voice a reader would employ for Owen. I didn't want anything to compromise my love for this book. Joe Barrett selected the voice and threw himself into it wholeheartedly for 22 CDs and I respect that.
6-6-11#26 "Barney's Version" by Mordecai Richler. published in 1997.
"Let me tell you something, then. I don't hold with shamans, witch doctors or psychiatrists. Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or even Dickens, understood more about the human condition than ever occurred to any of you. You overrated bunch of charlatans deal with the grammar of human problems, and the writers I've mentioned with the essence." page 394
6-8-11Fourth Book on CD.
"This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper. Recorded in 2009. 9 CDs. Recorded Books. Narrated by Ramon de Ocampo.
I am such a big fan of Jonathan Tropper. And it is nice to listen to a book on CD that you have already read.
6-15-11Fifth Book on CD
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison. Read by Ruby Dee and Toni Morrison.
3 CDs. Random House Audio. Abridged.
"He believed that to name an evil was to neutralize, if not annihilate it."
6-15-11#27 "Sightings" by Susan Trott. published in 1987.
224 pages.
I can't stop reading Susan Trott!
"I like repetition. It enriches the facts. There are always new nuances."
6-19-11#28 "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" by Rob Lowe.
Published in 2011. 308 pages.
"So I came to the realization: Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life." page 303
7-1-11#29 "Definitely Dead" by Charlaine Harris.
published in 2006. 324 pages.
7-7-11Sixth Book on CD
"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk. Read by the Author.
6 CDs. Random House Audio. Unabridged. Recorded in 2004.
I am a tad obsessed with this novel. This is my third complete perusal and the second time it was read to me.
7-11-11#30 "Crucial Conversations" by May Sarton.
Published in 1975. 156 pages.
I am never disappointed when I read May Sarton. I am delighted, inspired and fulfilled.
7-12-11#31 "All Together Dead" by Charlaine Harris.
Published in 2007. 323 pages. #7 in the series.
8-2-11#32 "The Heat of the Day" by Elizabeth Bowen.
Published in 1948. 372 pages.
As engrossing the second time as it was the first.
8-3-11Seventh Book on CD
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison. Read by the Author.
10 CDs. Random House Audio. Unabridged.
8-12-11#33 "Fer-De-Lance" by Rex Stout.
Published in 1934. 285 pages.
My first, but not my last, Nero Wolfe.
8-14-11#34 "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery. Translated from the French by Alison Anderson.
Published in 2006. 325 pages.
Fantastic! One of my top 10 favorite books read this year. I stayed up to 3 AM to finish it.
8-20-11#35 "Glamorous Expectations" by Eliot Schrefer.
Published in 2006. 328 pages.
Purchased while on vacation.
I couldn't stop reading it.
