2011 is halfway over already!

Reading summary

• 36 books read
• 11591 pages read
• 11 Non Fiction
• 25 Fiction
• 1 Young Adult title
• 2 Short Story collections
• 26 Female authors
• 10 Male authors
• 27 were library books
• 9 were books that I own
• 3 were Early Reviewer books that I received for free
• 2 were textbooks for school
• The books I read were set in Rhode Island, New York City (x3), London, England; Iowa, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Canada; Michigan, Japan, Haines, AK; Paris, France; Kansas, Georgia, two magical fictional worlds, Minnesota (x2), Arizona, England, South Carolina, Manitoba, Canada; Pennsylvania (x4), Washington (x3), Wisconsin, Central America, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nunavut, Canada.

June 2011 Where are you Reading challenge.

I made my way through five books in June. I visited Rhode Island, New York City, London, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

The Tuesday Club Murders: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie

The Last Fair Deal Going Down by David Rhodes


Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart

You are Free: Stories by Danzy Senna


I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing by Kyria Abrahams

May 2011 Book Summary

In May I finally had a break from classes and was able to read a bit more. I read six books and visited Quebec, New York City, Michigan, Japan, Haines, AK and Paris, France.

Reviews and ratings can be found on my LibraryThing page.

Surfacing byMargaret Atwood

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

 

Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky


If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska by Heather Lende

A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel by Haruki Murakami
 
The Raising: A Novel by Laura Kasischke

So far, I am at 31 books for the year. I think that with all of the changes happening in my life right now, my book total for the year is going to be pretty low. That's okay though, these are wonderful changes and life is good.

 April was a slow month for me.Much of my reading time was taken over by studying for the science class I was taking. I only read three books. This is a ten year low for me. I'm so ashamed! :(
 
This month I visited Kansas, Georgia and a magical fictional world.
Reviews and ratings can be found on my LibraryThing page.

The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum 

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Praise Jerusalem! by Augusta Trobaugh

Book review

This book is not really about a girl who can speak for the dead. It's about a girl and her twin brother who trick people into thinking that she can speak for the dead. Her method, called spirit knocking, is a little far fetched. In fact, much of this book is quite unrealistic.

In the intro, the author asks for the reader to "suspend disbelief" while reading. I can do that. I love books that require the reader to suspend disbelief. I love getting lost in a world that is different from the one that we live in. I think it's a bad sign when the author has to tell you to do it though. It's like when someone tells a joke, then asks you if you get it. When a book is well written, you just fall into it and believe whatever the author is telling you as fact. The writing here is too immature though. The writer had great ideas and a good story to tell, but it never quite got there. There were pieces of the story that deserved more attention (the tunnel, the connection between the twins) and pieces of the story that get way too much attention (the magician).

Overall, it was still a decent read. The author made me care enough to wanteto see what would happen to the characters in the end.

There were stylistic things that turned me off too. First names were used way too much and the viewpoint seemed to switch a few times, but I did read an uncorrected proof, and I hope that those few things will be rectified before the final copy comes out.

March 2011 Book Summary

 March was a weird month for me book wise. I am counting it as a six book month. Two of the books were textbooks though. I feel like I need to count them because they took up so much of my reading time.

This month I visited Pennsylvania, Washington, and New York through my books. Well, some other places as well, like Alaska, and Jerusalem, but these are the three main states that I listed on my map. 

The Warren Ellis book's setting was a fictional place, so I mapped it in the northern Pacific, just for fun. Since my textbooks don't have a setting, I mapped those in the north Pacific as well, just so they would be listed on my maps page.

Reviews and ratings can be found on my LibraryThing page.

The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork

McKnight's Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation by Darrel Hess

 MP Medical Terminology: Language for Health Care by Nina Thierer

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

Great House by Nicole Krauss

Transmetropolitan Vol. 01: Back on the Street by Warren Ellis

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

 Imagine tasting emotions in every bite if food that you eat. When Rose turns eight, she can suddenly taste the feelings of the people who prepared her food. Her birthday cake is sad and lonely, just like her mother. As the years pass, Rose learns that factory made food is the easiest to tolerate and finds a few chefs at local restaurants who love their lives so much that the food they prepare tastes happy.
What a concept, and since I have loved every other book by Aimee Bender I started this book with high hopes. The book started out great, but began to fall apart towards the middle. I think the author had this idea, but didn't know where to go with it. By the end, the book is disjointed and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl

I like the TV show "Hoarders". Not for the shock value, in fact, I'm turned off by that aspect of the show. What fascinates me is the psychology. It should come as no surprise then that I loved this book. The author looked at hoarding as a mental illness that her mother suffers from.

The book was about the author and her life as well, and did a good job of staying focused on how her mothers hoarding affected her life. Jessie's mom wasn't a hoarder while Jessie was a child, she was just messy. The hoarding didn't really start until the author was an adult. The book showed that hoarding has a major impact on all members in a family, whether they live in the home or not.

  February 2011 Book Summary

I was an utter failure in February. I read only four books! In my defense, I was taking a Medical Terminology class that took up a lot of my reading time, but I still can't believe I only got through four books.

I have visited Minnesota (x2), Arizona, and England.

Reviews and ratings can be found on my LibraryThing page.

Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl

This Glittering World by T. Greenwood

Among Others by Jo Walton

Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen

This Glittering World by T. Greenwood

 
This book was on my list because I had read another book by the author a year or so ago and liked her storytelling. This book was great. I got through it in two sittings, I just couldn't stop. The synopsis doesn't make it sound like a very intriguing story; a white man finds a Native American man nearly dead in his driveway, meets dying guys sister, questions his own relationship, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's been told before. Not like this though. Greenwood's characters are complex, rich and real. The main character Ben isn't the nicest guy. I wouldn't like him, that's for sure, but his feelings are well described and believable. I'll definitely search out more by this author.

 

 Among Others by Jo Walton

This was a fun book. If you are a reader of SF/F, you will love the references.
Mor is a great character, I would read more about her and her family. I wasn't keen on the ending though, too sudden, like the author suddenly realized she should be done with the story.

 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

 The first 190 pages or so were great. I loved the writing and the characters. Then it all fell apart. It has taken me two weeks to get to page 366. I just can't go any further. It's like a chore to read it at night.

 Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War by Deb Olin Unferth

I love reading memoirs, but I struggle with reviewing them. It's hard to give a book a good review if you don't like the author, regardless of how well written the book is. I'll try to be fair.

Once I started this book, I wanted to keep on reading it. The style drew me in and the stories about the author's life were well put together. It flowed nicely.
I didn't like Deb at all though. She struck me as a spoiled child. People with attitudes and personalities like hers are the reason that people in other countries dislike Americans so much.

She wanted a "revolution" so she could have an adventure. She gave little to no thought about the people who were living through it for real. At one point she even said that shortly after leaving the orphanage where she had been working she "forgot all about the kids." That was when I really stopped liking her. I wouldn't read anything else that she writes, her writing ability aside, just because I don't want to give her any of my money.

I should mention that I received this book at no cost because I am a LibraryThing early reviewer.

January Book Summary

I have read 11 books in January. Six have been fiction, five non-fiction.

I have visited South Carolina, Manitoba Canada, Pennsylvania (x2), Washington (x2), Wisconsin, Central America, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nunavut Canada

Reviews and ratings can be found on my LibraryThing page.

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

Finny by Justin Kramon

Be the Change You want to See in the World by Julie Fisher-McGarry

The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen by Teri Edwards and Serena Thompson

Consumption by Kevin Patterson

Nothing Left to Burn by Jay Varner


A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell


The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares


Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War by Deb Olin Unferth

Book Review

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

When my daughter was younger, we read "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" together. It was a cute story and for a YA book, was well written. I didn't pick this book up because I liked the author and the "Sisterhood" series. I picked it up because I read the synopsis and it sounded like it could be a good story. It was only after I checked the book out from the library that I realized it was the same author. Even now, after finishing the book, I find myself thinking that it was a good book coming from a YA author, but if I compare it to adult books, it wasn't that great.

The concept is great, a bit like "The Time Travelers Wife", but instead of traveling through time, Daniel is just reborn again and again. He is different from most because he has the memory, meaning he remembers his past lives. He falls in love in the 500's in Asia Minor and spends his lives searching for his soul mate. Even though her body is different with each incarnation, he can "see" her soul.

Unfortunately, a great concept does not mean a great book. I found the characters shallow. I didn't really like them or think that their actions fit with their personalities. Near the end, the book took a turn that just didn't make sense. I think Brashares tried to leave the story open for a sequel, but these characters hardly held this book together. A sequel would not be a good idea.

Book Review

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

This was a pleasure to read. It was smooth. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but smooth is the best word I can come up with.
The words just flowed together. The relationships were described so naturally and every situation, feeling, and event just fit. Beautiful style.

I don't know if it matters that I guessed the ending about a quarter of the way through the book. It didn't matter to me, this isn't a mystery novel. Even though I was quite sure of the ending, the journey to get there was great.

Book Review

 Nothing Left to Burn buy Jay Varner

It's hard for me to rate a memoir. Am I rating based on the author's writing, how exciting their life is or how much I like them?
I like Jay Varner. He seems like a good guy. His life isn't extraordinary. Yes, his grandfather was a pyromaniac and his father a firefighter.  His father died when he was young. That's not enough to base a book on. The saving grace here is that Jay is a good storyteller. The ordinary childhood that he had was easy to relate to. Grew up in a small town, dad gone a lot for work, parent gets sick.
The best part of this book? It stirred up my own childhood memories and provided me with a nice trip down memory lane.

Book Review #3 of 2011

Finny by Justin Kramon

There was so much hype about how great this book was. Well, it was okay, not great. While the characters were interesting, the writing was immature. One of the first signs of this was the way the names of the characters reflected their behavior. It just seemed too juvenile for an adult novel. The ending was abrupt and too happy, it didn't fit with who the characters had become.
This story could have been better if the author had more experience. I will not be rushing out to pick up his next book.

Book Review #2 - 2011

The Tricking of Freya

The first 20 or so pages of this book didn't grab me at all. In fact, I almost didn't pick it back up. Boy, I am glad I did! I read the rest of the book in one day.
I felt like I was in Iceland. I could envision the landscapes and the people. That's quite a feat, as I know next to nothing about Iceland. The author threw in bits about the Icelandic language that were just fascinating. My husband loves Norse Mythology (he even has an Odin inspired tattoo), so I appreciated the mythology that was touched on as well.
The author described the ups and downs of mental illness to a tee. Her writing overall is beautiful and lyrical. I can't wait to see what Christina Sunley does next!

One more reading challenge for 2011

This one should be easy enough for me. Of the 77 book I read in 2010, 61 of them (79%) came from the library. I love the library. I'm typically there 2-3 times each week. The local branch that I go to is on the way home from work, so it's never out of the way.
When Ashley was little we went to this branch several times a week. We went for story time, crafts, programs and just to check out books. Then, when Ashley was in the later grades of elementary school and in middle school, we didn't go as much. She used her school library and I was happy to buy books rather than rent them. I'm glad that I rediscovered our local library branch and I plan to continue frequenting it.

You can check out the details and sign up here, at Home Girl's Book Blog.


There are four levels:
--The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.
--Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.
--Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.
--Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.

My goal is for 50% of the books that I read to come from the library. I know that is less than what I did in 2010, but I also want to read books that I have already purchased so I can sell them and declutter my bedroom! :)