Books

Themed Reading Challenge

June 23, 2009 by Sue 3 Comments

I’ve finished my second reading challenge of the year with a month to spare.

Themed Reading Challenge runs 1 Feb-31 July 2009

4 books with the same theme; from your TBR pile; my theme is books with a musical instrument as a major plot device

The Piano Tuner, by Daniel Mason: This novel was very slow-moving, but not in a negative way. It is a character development novel and just took its own sweet time unfolding the character. The story was intriguing: in 1886 an English piano tuner receives a commission from the War Office to tune a miltary officer’s piano in Burma. The novel shows how Edgar Drake, the tuner, is changed during his fascinating journey to Burma and his stay in the jungle. He is an Everyman thrust into an alien environment and how he reacts to his situation is the real thrust of the story. The author also includes some interesting history of the area and Anglo-Burmese relations, and technical descriptions of pianos and the art of tuning. The ending had some twists and turns and the novel did not end the way I expected. It is a good book, but the reader has to be willing to go along for the ride.

The Soloist, by Mark Salzman: I really liked this book. I was drawn to it originally at the thrift store because it had a musical title and a picture of a cello on the cover. The description sounded good, so I picked it up. It turned out to be a quiet book that was immensely touching. It has three strands that are all woven together to form the full picture of a man coming to grips with his past and present and weaving them together to face his future. It is written in first person and vignettes of Renne’s past as a child prodigy are interspersed with his present as a cello teacher of another prodigy and his involvement as a juror on a murder trial. All these stories combine to help him re-invent himself as a man and as a musician and it was an interesting journey. His descriptions of music and playing an instrument were deep and profound and I really enjoyed his wisdom and view of music.

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett: This was a great book that explored the relationships between hostages and their captors. The plan goes wrong and the terrorists are faced with a house full of hostages and their experience together is the theme. It shows what people are willing to do and to forget in order to survive. It also shows the resiliency of the human soul. Gen, the Japanese linguist who becomes the translator, is the filter through which we see everyone else’s dreams and desires. I liked the way music and singing became the moving passion that unites them.

The Singing Stones, by Phyllis Whitney: Ah, Phyllis Whitney. Her novels are one of life’s simple pleasures: romantic mystery sans blood, gore, sex, and language. What better for some mind-candy fun? Yes, her novels are somewhat formulaic, but part of the fun is always the setting. Her novels are set in interesting locales that often become a character themselves. I like books with a strong setting; I guess that’s how I get to travel, so I’ve been all over the world with Phyllis. The stones that sing are an integral part of the story and since my theme is musical instruments, it fit right in for this challenge.

Numbers Challenge-completed

May 2, 2009 by Sue Leave a Comment

I finished my first 2009 Reading Challenge which is: Numbers Challenge runs 1 Jan-1 Aug 2009: 5 books whose titles have a number in them

Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices, Jodi Picoult-This was my second Picoult novel and I like her. This one is told by five people which is why it’s a “Novel in Five Voices”. One of the interesting things is that one character tells the story backwards so you find out the outcome of the events in the novel at the beginning and then see the events unfold through the other character’s eyes. This was confusing at first and about a third of the way through I had to go back and re-read the first couple chapters so that I had it all straight in my mind. But I liked seeing how each voice perceived the events in their own way. The themes of the book include child abuse, forgiveness, and the different facets of love. It also includes whales, apples, and a cross-country road trip. This book does have a language alert and a couple of tastefully written love scenes.

Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn-This books isn’t great literature but a fast read and an interesting one, at that. It focuses on a Chinese girl sold by her father to a bandit, who then sells her to a brothel, which then sells her to a broker smuggling women into America illegally. She is auctioned to a saloonkeeper in Idaho and then lost in a card game. Her desire to escape slavery and make a life for herself in the American West is absorbing. I realized that what I’ve read of Chinese in the West has been almost completely about men who came here to build the railroad or the mines, and there weren’t many women. This woman’s story of her survival opened some new insights to me about life in the West. It’s a novel but based on a real woman’s life in Idaho. Her photographs in the book were fun to see and her life is inspiring.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini-This book was gripping and relentless. These Afghan women endured war and brutality for years and yet still seemed to retain a portion of humanity. There were many plot twists that I did not see coming and some hit me like a ton of bricks. It was fascinating to read about events in the headlines from the “other” point of view and see how the Afghan people suffered under each regime and yet kept trying to survive. This is a must-read.

Five Quarters of the Orange, Joanne Harris-This book had an interesting narrative style. Framboise, the main character and story-teller, is a widow who has moved back to her childhood home and is trying to come to grips with events that happened during the German Occupation. So the story moves back and forth between the present and the war as she slowly reveals the events of that time. But the events are intertwined with the consequences of those events in the present and the past and present weave together. She foreshadows some things so the reader has an idea of what happened but it’s very unclear until the end. The story also includes lots of recipes and food allusions. Interesting story of how daughters come to understand their mothers as they grow older.

Standing on the Promises, Book 1: One More River to Cross, Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray-This book had some interesting characters and stories and I had fun reading it, but it’s not on the level of the Gerald Lund historical novels. I got a little tired of the entire narrative being in the vernacular and found it a little affected. The research was sound and I always appreciate good research. I’ll read the rest of the series, but I think it’s a one-time read for me.

Success: the Book Awards II

February 28, 2009 by Sue 1 Comment

I have finished the first official reading challenge that I signed up to complete: the Book Awards II Reading Challenge. Here are my reviews for the books I read:

Stones for Ibarra, by Harriet Doerr, National Book Award: I really enjoyed this book. It is set in a small village in Mexico and the main characters are 2 North Americans who move there to run an old family mine. The emotional journey taken by the couple, especially the wife, is fascinating to watch, as she admits the beauty of the place while denying some of the essential aspects that make it beautiful. I love “story within a story” books and this one has it. We learn about many of the denizens of the village, although some of the images are clouded by the wife’s viewpoint and sometimes it’s unclear how much is true and how much is her perception. We also learn about the couple and the secret they share that colors and hangs over the entire book.

1776, David McCullough, American Compass Best Book of 2005: I really enjoyed this book. Besides learning some cool Revolutionary War stuff, it was a very enjoyable read. The style was easy to read and follow. This was my first McCullough book and it’s easy to see why it has become such a bestseller. Definitely recommend.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde, Alex Award: This book was so imaginative and at times hilarious. This is one quirky author and I totally fell in love with this book. I am definitely going to read more Thursday Next books because this one was so fun.

My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult, Alex Award: This was a great book except for the gratuitous use of the “f” word throughout. I’m not a big fan of reading profanity so I found it quite jarring and definitely unnecessary. Other than that, the book was sooo interesting. The topic was a girl genetically engineered to be the perfect donor for her older sister who has a rare form of leukemia. But the book was really about the dynamics of family relationships and how they deteriorate in the face of continual crisis. The narrator changed with each chapter and sometimes the narrator carried the story forward and other times the narrator gave us the backstory. It was fun to hear from all the main characters except the sick daughter who is the focus of the entire family’s existence. I was also on the edge of my couch waiting to learn the truth about so many little mysteries. Why does the lawyer have a service dog? Who is the arsonist? Why is the daughter really bringing the lawsuit against her parents? The ending was a huge surprise that caught me off-guard, but it was satisfying in its own way.

The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler, National Book Critics’ Circle Award: The point of this book is the emotional journey taken by the main character and it was more enjoyable than I imagined. At first, the character is amusing, but not that sympathetic, but he grew on me. I cheered for him by the end and then watched the movie on Netflix.

Rifles for Watie, Harold Keith, Newbery Award: This is a Newbery Award winner and an interesting story. It told about the little-known campaign in Indian Territory, modern-day Oklahoma, and some of the details were fascinating. I also liked the way the main character, Jeff, grew from a boy anxious to fight into a man able to see both sides of the conflict and understand both.

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse, Newbery Award: I enjoyed the prose style and the sparse writing style. The author made you wait to find out the details of the story and it was an interesting story. Worth reading and another on my Newbery list.

The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg, Newbery Award: Such a nice book. This is a story-within-a-story, which I like. I’m not sure why that appeals to me, but whatever. This is the story of a group of 6th graders on a Knowledge Bowl team. The real story is that each one tells his or her journey to that point in first person, and the journeys are so interesting. It is also a story of friendship and the group dynamics of how a friendship develops. The characters are very deep and intriguing for 6th graders. I really liked this book.

Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, Newbery Award: I didn’t think I was going to get into this book from the jacket blurb, but it turned out to be an engaging story. The intertwining of Sal’s and Phoebe’s stories was clever and the way Sal found her own truth through telling Phoebe’s story was authentic. We often don’t understand our own story until we observe another’s life and watch their struggles. This was a good book with some plot twists at the end that left me satisfied.
The messages left anonymously on the front porch were great:
“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.”
“Everyone has his own agenda.”
“In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?”
“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”

The Giver, Lois Lowry, Newbery Award: This book was awesome, just as everyone has told me. What an interesting concept to live in such a structured world-totally makes you think about perceptions of emotions and their worth. I loved this book.