2009 challenge to Read 100 books

[[deleted user]]

151. Andy Behrman: Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania

[Jenny]

83. Star Wars: Tempest by Troy Denning
84. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

[Jenny]

85. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Finally! I've been reading that one since March.

[Petra X]

Shoshanapnw wrote: "I'm sorry you're depressed, Petra. You can shoot me a message if corresponding would be helpful. " Thank you Shoshanaw. Its hard to open up sometimes, though, but I'd like to, I might well try :-)

December
96 Touch Wood, the True Confessions of an Accidental Porn Director (Humour, Business, Sex) 5-star read.

Excellent book, not particularly well-written but it was hilarious and really rang true. It was very far from erotic and the sex was shocking only in that such freaky scenes were treated as commonplace, all part of the day's work.

(For a bit of a juicier - and personal - take on this, see my review of the book).

97 Oro Plata, Costumes of Light by Daniele Carbonel. (Art, photography, bull-fighting) 5-star read

This book, in either the small format or the extra large (I got both!) is a real treat. A proper coffee table book to ooh and ahh over both the fabulous costumes of the matadors and picadors and the photography that brings out the beauty but adds both the drama and violence of the bullfighting culture.

98 Backyard Giants, the Passionate, Heartbreaking and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren (Popculture, gardening) 5-star read

Wonderful book of a group of mostly men (although the world champion is currently a twenty-something woman) who spend half the year expending vast sums of money and effort on growing pumpkins that they hope will reach 1500lb. Beautifully-written book, with photographs Cinderella's coach-size pumpkins. Enlightening, entertaining and a warm look at American culture.

99 Shattered Dreams My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer (Religion, women) 5-star read

I've read a few books on Fundamental Mormonism, but this is definitely the best. The attention to detail, the explaining of the men's attitude - a deeply religious one (most of the time!) and the non-demonisation of the men made it very believable. Its hard for me to accept that a man who has achieved a 'quorum of wives' (7) and the resultant 50+ children - the women are advised to have a baby every year to provide a body for all the souls looking to come to Earth - will be a god and rule his own planet in the next life. Its hard for me to accept that the women are doomed to unremitting hard labour and poverty to support all these children. The author had 13 and lived in conditions that only the extremely poor do in the 20th century. Often no electricity or running water with bare concrete (or dirt) floors. I felt for her and I was glad when she finally left.

100 Playing the Enemy Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin (Politics, South Africa, Rugby, Inspirational) 10-star read

Nelson Mandela is my hero. Rugby is my game (I'm from the South Wales valleys, 'nuff said).

This is the hundredth book, the book that completes the challenge for me to read 100 books in 2009 and quite simply the best book I've read all year. It was absolutely awesome. Mandela's methods, developed over 27 years and six months of imprisonment, for disarming and charming all he met, the hard work he put into it - it certainly wasn't by force of personality alone - are absolutely inspirational

I've just been silently, sneakily chucked out from a private group 'Back in Skinny Jeans' on Goodreads where some member/s don't like non-Americans, non-Republicans, non-Christians and perhaps non-Whites and really wanted me to know their views. I fit it into all those groups, so did Mandala. He would have disarmed them and made them think again, he had a way of bringing out the most decent parts of even despicable people. I may never have his charisma, but following the lessons he developed transforming himself from an advocate of violence to one of peace and reconciliation, I may become just a bit of a better person. That's my aim for 2010.

I urge anyone with any interest in the genius of Mandela, or politics, or rugby, or just fancy a really good read, to get hold of this book. Its one to buy not borrow, you will want to keep it forever.

[[deleted user]]

Petra, congratulations on hitting 100!

I'm around.

152. Henry Nalaielua: No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa

153. Terri Cheney: Manic: A Memoir

I have a goal of catching up all my book reviews before 12/31.

[Petra X]

Shoshanapnw wrote: "Petra, congratulations on hitting 100!

I'm around.

152. Henry Nalaielua: No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa

153. Terri Cheney: Manic: A Memoir

I hav..."

You've read a hell of a lot of books this year! Do you think you read more because of the challenge or would have read this many anyway?

I don't know how many I would normally read - somewhere between 75 and 150 I think, depending on time available - and I definitely felt pressured at times to keep my reading up for the challenge.

[[deleted user]]

It's more than I usually read, but not by a huge amount. I'm actually going pretty slowly (for me) this month and last because my load at work has been so crushing. If I'm lucky I'll have jury duty tomorrow and get to sit and read all day! (Nobody is likely to want me on their jury, since I'm a psychologist who's also an ethicist with a cop father-in-law, and I crossed out the section of the form for marital status and wrote "Since you're you court that granted us domestic partnership, why isn't that one of the relational status choices on this form?")

[Petra X]

Jury duty here is terrible. The same jury sits for two months and is mostly made up of civil servants as no one else can get that length of time off. Because its very difficult to get nationality on this small island, some members of the jury will be related to each other and quite a lot will be related to the defendants or at least know them. So anyone born here has a big chance of being acquitted even when its obvious they are guilty. It isn't the favouritism of being related, its the fear that if you convict, at some point the defendant's family might sit in judgement of one of your's and find them guilty even if they aren't! There aren't enough people to select a jury in the US way.

Hope you get a good day's reading in!

[[deleted user]]

Thanks. Let's see how far I get on this list, which I put together to reflect my mood in relation to getting jury duty again:

Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner & Frank Stack: Our Cancer Year

George W. Staples & Robert H. Cowie: Hawai'i's Invasive Species A Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in the Hawaiian Islands

Oni Vitandham: On the Wings of a White Horse: A Cambodian Princess's Story of Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide

Lisa Law: Sex Work in Southeast Asia: The Place of Desire in a Time of HIV/AIDS

[[deleted user]]

154. Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

155. George W. Staples & Robert H. Cowie: Hawai'i's Invasive Species: A Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in the Hawaiian Islands

156. Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner & Frank Stack: Our Cancer Year

Thanks, jury duty. (They interviewed and rejected me, as I knew they would. Voir dire is for eliminating people like me.)

[Jenny]

86. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

[[deleted user]]

157. Oni Vitandham: On the Wings of a White Horse: A Cambodian Princess's Story of Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide

[Jenny]

87. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
88. The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer

[[deleted user]]

158. Meng-Try Ea and Sorya Sim: Victims and Perpetrators? Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Comrades

[[deleted user]]

159. Arif K. Abukhudairi: Thoughts of the Times Introduction to Arabic Literature

[Schmerguls]

Here are the books I have read so far in 2009:
4521 A Soldier to the Last Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler in Blue and Gray, by Edward G. Longacre (read 1 Jan 2009)
4522 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas a fable, by John Boyne (read 2 Jan 2009)
4523 The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997, by Piers Brendon (read 8 Jan 2009)
4524 Neither Black Nor White Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States, by Carl N. Degler (read 11 Jan 2009) (Pulitzer History prize in 1972)(Bancroft Prize in 1972)
4525 The Called and the Chosen The Diary of Sister Ursula Auberon Enclosed Nun at the Abbaye De La Sainte Croix, Framleghen, by Monica Baldwin (read 12 Jan 2009)
4526 Nixonland The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, by Rick Perlstein (read 20 Jan 2009)
4527 Weimar Germany Promise and Tragedy, by Eric D. Weitz (read 22 Jan 2009)
4528 The Thief of Time, by John Boyne (read 25 Jan 2009)
4529 The Modern Papacy since 1789, by Frank J. Coppa (read 28 Jan 2009)
4530 Courtroom 302 A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse, by Steve Bogira (read 2 Feb 2009)
4531 An Infinity of Little Hours Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order, by Nancy Klein Maguire (read 4 Feb 2009)
4532 The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman (read 6 Feb 2009)
4533 The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson (read 8 Feb 2009)
4534 The Pass, by Thomas Savage (read 9 Feb 2009)
4535 Voyagers to the West A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn with the assistance of Barbara DeWolfe (read 13 Feb 2009) (Pulitzer History prize for 1987)
4536 Speaking for Myself My Life from Liverpool to Downing Street, by Cherie Blair (read 16 Feb 2009)
4537 Empires of the Sea The Siege of Malta, The Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World, by Roger Crowley (read 18 Feb 2009)
4538 Polio An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky (read 21 Feb 2009) (Pulitzer History prize for 2006)
4539 Zlata's Diary A Child's Life in Sarajevo, by Zlata Filipovic translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Christina Pribichevich-Zoric (read 22 Feb 2009)
4540 the Egg Lady and Other Neighbors, by Tricia Currans-Sheehan (read 23 Feb 2009)
4541 the River road, by Tricia Currans-Sheehan (read 24 Feb 2009)
4542 Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky translated by Sandra Smith (read 27 Feb 2009)
4543 The Fate of Their Country Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War, by Michael F. Holt (read 2 Mar 2009)
4544 From Colony to Superpower U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776, by George C. Herring (read 10 Mar 2009)
4545 Winnie-the-Pooh The Color Edition,by A. A. Milne (read 11 Mar 2009)
4546 Samuel Freeman Miller, by Charles Noble Gregory, A.M. LL.D. (read 11 Mar 2009)
4547 A Book of Chores As Remembered by a Former Kid, by Bob Arley (read 12 Mar 2009)
4548 Origins of the Fifth Amendment The Right Against Self-Incrimination, by Leonard W. Levy (read 16 Mar 2009) (Pulitzer History prize in 1969)
4549 The Years of Extermination Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, by Saul Friedlander (read 23 Mar 2009) (Pulitzer Nonfiction prize in 2008)
4550 Kon-Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft, by Thor Heyerdahl translated by F. H. Lyon (read 26 Mar 2009)
4551 Rendezvous With Destiny, by Eric F. Goldman (read 29 Mar 2009) (Bancroft Prize in 1953)
4552 The Appeal, by John Grisham (read 31 Mar 2009)
4553 Chronicle of the Popes The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present, by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart (read 1 Apr 2009)
4554 Faith and Treason The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, by Antonia Fraser (read 5 Apr 2009)
4555 Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank (read 6 Apr 2009)
4556 The Shipwreck of a Nation Germany: An Inside View, by H. Peter Nennhaus (read 8 Apr 2009)
4557 Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat The Dire Warning, by John Lukacs (read 8 Apr 2009)
4558 The Visible Hand The Managerial Revoluiton in American Business, by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (read 13 Apr 2009) (Pulitzer History prize for 1978) (Bancroft Prize for 1977)
4559 Keepers of the Keys A History of the Papacy, by Roger Collins (read 16 Apr 2009)
4560 Manhunt The Twelve-Day Hunt for Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson (read 18 Apr 2009)
4561 The Confessions of Max Tivoli, by Andrew Sean Greer (read 19 Apr 2009)
4562 They Went That-a-way. by Malcolm Forbes with Jeff Bloch (read 21 Apr 2009)
4563 Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (read 23 Apr 2009) (Pulitzer Fiction prize for 2008)
4564 Day, by A. L. Kennedy (read 27 apr 2009) (Costa (formerly Whitbread) Book of the Year for 2008)
4565 The Thurber Carnival, written and illustrated by James Thurber (read 29 Apr 2009)
4566 Words and Rules The Ingredients of Language, by Steven Pinker (read 1 May 2009)
4567 The Flame Trees of Thika Memories of an African Childhood, by Elspeth Huxley (read 4 May 2009)
4568 A Little Learning An Autobiography (The Early Years), by Evelyn Waugh (read 6 May 2009)
4569 The Master A Novel, by Colm Toibin (read 10 May 2009)
4570 119 Years of the Atlantic, Edited by Louise Desaulniers (read 14 May 2009)
4571 The Last of the Southern Girls, by Willie Morris (read 16 May 2009)
4572 Columbine, by Dave Cullen (read 18 May 2009)
4573 Slavery By Another Name The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon (read 20 May 2009) (Pulitzer Nonfiction prize in 2009)
4574 American Lion Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham (read 23 May 2009) (Pulitzer Biography prize in 2009)
4575 Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Famous Slogans and Catchphrases in American History, by Jan R. Van Meter (read 25 May 2009)
4576 The Giver, by Lois Lowry (read 26 May 2009)
4577 Judge Richard S. Arnold A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench, by Polly J. Price (read 29 May 2009)
4578 Imperfect Victories The Legal Tenacity of the Omaha Tribe, 1945-1995, by Mark R. Scherer (read 30 May 2009)
4579 An Easy Burden The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America, by Andrew Young (read 3 Jun 2009)
4580 France and the French A Modern History, by Rod Kedward (read 8 Jun 2009)
4581 The Lost City of Z A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, by David Grann (read 11 Jun 2009)
4582 Two to Six, by James P. Cornelio (read 12 Jun 2009)
4583 Angler The Cheney Vice Presidency, by Barton Gellman (read 15 Jun 2009)

[Schmerguls]

4584 The Greatest Day in History How, on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month, the First World War Finally Came to an End, by Nicholas Best (read 17 Jun 2009)
4585 Under A Flaming Sky The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894, by Daniel James Brown (read 19 Jun 2009)
4586 Judgment Days Lyndon Baines Johnson Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America, by Nick Kotz (read 22 Jun 2009)
4587 Dawn's Early Light, by Elswyth Thane (read 25 Jun 2009)
4588 Thunder Below! The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II, by Eugeme B. Fluckey, Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.) (read 28 Jun 2009)
4589 The Political Crisis of the 1850s, by Michael F. Holt (read 3 Jul 2009)

[Schmerguls]

4590 Twenty Days in May, Vietnam 1968, by John L. Mansfield (read 4 Jul 2009)
4591 Reed City Boy, by Timothy James Bazzett (read 5 Jul 2009)
4592 Soldier Boy At Play in the ASA, by Timothy James Bazzett (read 8 Jul 2009)
4593 Renegade The Making of a President, by Richard Wolffe (read 11 Jul 2009)
4594 Through the Valley Vietnam, 1967-1968, by James F. Humphries (read 14 Jul 2009)
4595 In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, by Alexander McCall Smith (read 17 Jul 2009)
4596 Pinhead A Love Story, by Timothy James Bazzett (read 18 Jul 2009)
4597 The Shack A novel by William P. Young (read 19 Jul 2009)
4598 Childhood Boyhood Youth, by L. N. Tolstoy translated and with an introduction by Rosemary Edmonds (read 22 Jul 2009)
4599 The Wool-Hat Boys Georgia's Populist Party, by Barton C. Shaw (read 23 Jul 2009)
4600 The Wikipedia Revoluiton How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopdia, by Andrew Lih (read 26 Jul 2009)
4601 Growing Up in Iowa Reminiscences of 14 Iowa Authors, Edited by Clarence A. Andrews (read 27 Jul 2009)
4602 Nixon and Mao The Week That Changed the World, by Margaret MacMillan (read 29 Jul 2009)
4603 FDR, by Jean Edward Smith (read 8 Aug 2009)
4604 From the Land and Back, by Curtis K. Stadtfeld (read 9 Aug 2009)
4605 Love, War & Polio The Life and Times of Young Bill Porteous, by Timothy James Bazzett (read 12 Aug 2009)
4606 Shelley A Life Story, by Edmund Blunden (read 15 Aug 2009)
4607 Eugene V. Debs Citizen and Socialist, by Nick Salvatore (read 18 Aug 2009) (Bancroft Prize in 1983)
4608 Turning Point A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age, by Jimmy Carter (read 19 Aug 2009)
4609 The First 125 Years An Illustrated History of The Georgetown University Law Center (read 20 Aug 2009)
4610 Lords of Finance The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed (read 23 Aug 2009)
4611 True Grit a novel by Charles Portis (read 25 Aug 2009)
4612 The Rothschilds A Family Portrait, by Frederic Morton (read 27 Aug 2009)
4613 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis (read 28 Aug 2009)
4614 The Vertigo Years Europe,1900-1914, by Philipp Blom (read 2 Sep 2009)
4615 Sailing Alone Around the World, by Captain Joshua Slocum edited with an introduction and notes by Thomas Philbrick (read 4 Sep 2009)
4616 Growing Up Country Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl, by Carol Bodensteiner (read 5 Sep 2009)
4617 The Pathfinder, by James Fenimore Cooper (read 9 Sep 2009)
4618 The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper (read 13 Sep 2009)
4619 The Prairie, by James Fenimore Cooper (read 16 Sep 2009)
4620 Hindenburg The Wooden Titan, by John W. Wheeler-Bennett (read 20 Sep 2009)
4621 The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (read 26 Sep 2009)
4622 Through German Eyes The British and the Somme 1916, by Christopher Duffy (read 28 Sep 2009)
4623 Scottsboro and Its Legacy The Cases that Challenged American Legal and Social Justice, by James R. Acker (read 29 Sep 2009)
4624 Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (read 1 Oct 2009)
4625 Lying with the Enemy, by Tim Binding (read 4 Oct 2009)
4626 What Happened at Vatican II, by John W. O'Malley (read 6 Oct 2009)
4627 The Ruin of the Roman Empire, by James J. O'Donnell (read 10 Oct 2009)
4628 The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans (read 12 Oct 2009)
4629 The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War, by Jaroslav Hasek, in a new and unabridged translation by Cecil Parrott (read 18 Oct 2009)
4630 The Lost Symbol A Novel, by Dan Brown (read 19 Oct 2009)
4631 Stones for Ibarra, by Harriet Doerr (read 21 Oct 2009)
4632 The Executioners, by John D. MacDonald (read 21 Oct 2009)
4633 The Judas Tree, by A. J. Cronin (read 23 Oct 2009)
4634 My Experiences in the World War Volume I, by John J. Pershing (read 26 Oct 2009)
4635 My Experiences in the World War Volume II, by John J. Pershing (read 28 Oct 2009) (Pulitzer History prize in 1932)
4636 A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (read 30 Oct 2009)
4637 Endgame, 1945 The Missing Final Chapter of World War II, by David Stafford (read 3 Nov 2009)
4638 The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters, by Joseph Stanley Pennell (read 6 Nov 2009)
4639 Louis D. Brandeis A Life, by Melvin I. Urofsky (read 12 Nov 2009)
4640 Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, by Joe Drape (read 14 Nov 2009)
4641 Wolf Hall A Novel, by Hilary Mantel (read 20 Nov 2009) (Booker prize in 2009)
4642 Julian of Norwich Mystic and Theologian, by Grace M. Jantzen (read 21 Nov 2009)
4643 I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, by General James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle with Carroll V. Glines (read 25 Nov 2009)
4644 Homer's Odyssey A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, by Gwen Cooper (read 27 Nov 2009)
4645 the Gashouse Gang How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series--and America's Heart--During the Great Depression, by John Heidenry (read 28 Nov 2009)
4646 Murder at the Vicarage A Miss Marple Mystery, by Agatha Christie (read 29 Nov 2009)
4647 Empire of Liberty A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, by Gordon S. Wood (read 6 Dec 2009)
4648 Harvey Comedy in Three Acts, by Mary Chase (read 6 Dec 2009) (Pulitzer Drama prize in 1945)
4649 Nothing To Fear FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America, by Adam Cohen (read 9 Dec 2009)
4650 A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines (read 10 Dec 2009)
4651 The Coldest Winter America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam (read 15 Dec 2009)
4652 The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller with supplementary accounts by Anne Sullivan, her teacher, and John Albert Macy The Restored Classic 1903-2003 Edited with a new foreword and afterword by Roger Shattuck with Dorothy Herrmann (read 18 Dec 2009)
4653 Let the Great World Spin A Novel, by Colum McCann (read 21 Dec 2009) (National Book Award fiction prize in 2009)
4654 My Germany A Jewish Writer Returns to the World His Parents Escaped, by Lev Raphael (read 23 Dec 2009)

[Petra X]

101 Khayelitsha by Stephen Otter (South Africa, townships, lads' culture)

I had my hopes stacked up high for this book. I'd waited ages for the paperback to come out, had been a fervent ANC supporter and have been to Khayelitsha. I think I was expecting too much.

This is a shallow book by a journalist who moved to Khayelitsha because it offered cheap accommodation and possibly a chance to really 'be' African in the black African sense. It could have been wonderful. What emerged was a story of a camaraderie between men playing pool and drinking a lot. Not much else. There appeared to be no intellectual life, no work (outside of shebeens, stores selling food or second-hand furniture or running a taxi), no education, just drinking and eating, promiscuity and AIDS and crime. Still, it fulfilled the author who felt more truly African there than anywhere else.

I can't say I know Khayelitsha well, but when I was there I saw a lot of very enterprising people with small businesses - one man was making flowers from tin cans that sold in Liberty's in London - another was carving exquisite furniture, a woman was running a breakfast-and-lunch box kitchen for school children. There were schools, clinics, intellectual and musical societies and sports clubs, in short, all the elements of a society that was doing its best to move on up.

I don't know what the word or phrase for it is, but the opposite is when someone black moves entirely into white culture and abandons their own and are then generally sneered at by whites and despised by blacks. (A phenomenon I am not unfamiliar with living as I do in the Caribbean).That's what the author seems to have done in reverse and seems to take his greatest pleasure in being called black 'inside'. It isn't non-racism, its an expression of it that is benign but still, to me, suspect.

I didn't not enjoy the book, but I kept hoping the next chapter would produce the depth and insight into a culture mostly foreign to me, but no, it was another shebeen, another shack, another victory at the pool table, so in the end, I was glad to finish the book.

[[deleted user]]

160. Gregory M. Levin: Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden (Turkmenistan)

[Petra X]

102 Pitcairn Paradise Lost by Kathy Marks (Sexual abuse, Mutiny on the Bounty, tropical "paradise")

I was watching a documentary the other day that contrasted the male-dominated chimps with the matriarchal bonobos and I was struck by just how chimp-like Pitcairn society was.

The physically-strongest men dominate every single thing on the island. Male bonding is very tight. There is universal acknowledgement of the self-appointed leader (often very grudgingly given) and there seems to be an agreement not to express violence towards each other which stops the society from becoming murderous and allows the males to do exactly as they please.

As with chimps, all the females rank below the lowest male. They cannot physically do the male tasks of running the longboats in treacherous seas out to the passing ships to obtain food, mail and all manufactured goods and on- and offload people and this is what life on Pitcairn depends on. This lack of ability to provide for themselves gives the women no choice but to accept their lowly status and all the problems that having no personal power brings including almost ubiquitous domestic violence and sexual attacks.

This book is concerned with the culture of accepted incest, paedophilism, molestation and rape of girls as young as 3, but generally from age 9 from which the mothers, often victims in their own time, are powerless to either prevent or stop for fear that they and their family be ostracised and on an island of less than 50 people, that matters.

The investigation and subsequent trials took 7 years and many millions of pounds. A whole legal apparatus had to be set up on the island. Against that, there were online campaigns to stop the men being convicted saying everything from the girls tempted the men, that they were sexually advanced for their years, that it was island culture and nothing wrong with it to the fact that if the men were imprisoned the island would die as there would be no one to run the longboats and heavy physical work. People all over the world who are generally disgusted with paedophilia and rape felt that an exception should be made for these men, 'romantic' descendants of Fletcher Christian, chief mutineer on the Bounty.

Alongside this the women who had been encouraged to finally report the sexual attacks on them when they were children faced enormous and often exceedingly nasty and spiteful pressure from their families to refuse to give evidence and to drop their charges and most did. Those that didn't, that bravely gave evidence and saw their attackers convicted now have to live with the fact that after all no one really cared about them, not the British who had been shamed into paying attention to this deserted colonial outpost, not their families, some of whom would never speak to them again, not the media who saw them as bringing low the Utopian paradise of a tiny, isolated tropical island, not any one at all.

If they had cared, the men, some charged with multiple gang rapes of prepubescent girls, wouldn't have been given community service, imprisonment within the home or a couple of years behind "bars" only being let out 3 or 4 times a week and to be able to have family parties behind the fence (no bars here) once a week.

The book made me sick. The author did a good job of exposing why everyone should be moved off the island, dispersed into other communities and their wicked, brutish idea of civilization allowed to pass into history with the certainty of no more child abuse. But no, in this day and age of PC concerns, millions upon millions are being spent on this island to bring it up into the 21st century, although it wasn't poor before. But its still being run by the convicted rapists, the women still have no power and I am not convinced that there is any way young girls can be protected in Pitcairn.

[[deleted user]]

Excellent review, Petra.

161. Western Sahara: Thomas Hallowell: Allah's Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara Desert of Morocco

[Schmerguls]

On Emilee's list:

77. Communist Manifesto by Marx (pages 304)

I read The Communist Manifesto when I was in college, but it was a pamphlet and I never even thought about putting it on my list of books read. Since then I have added some mighty small books to my list, e.g., Where the Wild Things Are, but years ago I didn't think of pamphlets as books. There must have been a lot more than The Communist Manifesto in that volume to get it to 304 pages? or am i wrong about the ltngth of The Communist Manifesto?

[[deleted user]]

162. Kevin Kelly: Entertaining Your Indoor Cat: 50 Fun and Inventive Amusements for Your Cat

[Jenny]

89. Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman

[[deleted user]]

163. Michael Chabon: Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure

[[deleted user]]

Schmerguls wrote: "On Emilee's list:

77. Communist Manifesto by Marx (pages 304)

I read The Communist Manifesto when I was in college, but it was a pamphlet and I never even thought about putting it on my list..."

The Communist Manifesto is 48 pages in pamphlet size with no additions: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30...

[[deleted user]]

Shoshanapnw's 2009 year-end statistics

Number of books: 163
Number of pages: 40,762
Mean pages/book: 250.07
Books of the world (first book for the country, and read in 2009): 57 + indigenous Australia

[Wendy]

December Update

116. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
117. Doctor Who Martha in the Mirror by Justin Richards
118. Christmas Jars Reunion by Jason F. Wright
119. The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
120. That Holiday Feeling by various authors
121. Truly, Madly by Heather Webber
122. The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren
123. Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah
124. Home in Time for Christmas by Heather Graham
125. Against All Odds by Irene Hannon
126. The Surrogate by Judith Henry Wall

Happy New Year to everyone. Congratulations to all who met their reading goals this year!

[Christina Stind]

Christina's 2009 year-end statistics:
Number of books: 72
Number of my own books: 38
Number of non-fiction: 7
Number of books by Danish fiction writers: 2

Favourites (top 5):
John Irving: Hotel New Hampshire
David Wroblewski: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace
Stephen King: The Stand
John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath

[Beth]

I finished my 90th book for the year yesterday but my goal had been 100.

[Jenny]

I will finish my 90th book today...I've read 750 of 830 pages so it will go on 2009's shelf.

90. Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Happy New Year everyone! I have enjoyed seeing what people are reading, reading your reviews and watching so many meet their goals in this thread.

[Schmerguls]

I read 136 books in 2009 (96 non-fiction) and 40 fiction),

Total pages: 49,858,or 366.6 per book. (I always exclude the index since I don't read the index.)

There have been six years in my life when I have read more books than I read this year: 1999: 142; 2002: 156; 2003: 169; 2005: 144; 2006: 139; and 2007: 144.

I have kept track of the books I read all my life, but before 1944 i did not record the date I finished a book, but I know there has been no year I read more books than I have read this year except as noted above.

The year since 1944 when I read the least books was 1954, when I read 5.

Now you know that.

[Beth]

136 books is excellent, Schmerguls. I didn't start keeping track of the books I read until 1998 (when I was 34). I wish I had started keeping track when I learned how to read.

[Petra X]

Shoshanapnw wrote: "Shoshanapnw's 2009 year-end statistics

Number of books: 163
Number of pages: 40,762
Mean pages/book: 250.07
Books of the world (first book for the country, and read in 2009): 57 + indigenous Austr..."

That's nearly 112 pages a day, every day. That's a LOT of reading. Much respec' to you. You read such good books I wish you wrote reviews.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks! High praise. I have caught up all my reviews over the holiday.

[Petra X]

Shoshanapnw wrote: "Thanks! High praise. I have caught up all my reviews over the holiday." All of them, wow, very impressed.

[[deleted user]]

No social life.

[Petra X]

Neither me. But a rich interior one! lol

[[deleted user]]

We may comfort ourselves with that.