Challenge: 50 Books discussion
Finish Line 2012!
>
Susan and Raven's 2012 Reading List
date
newest »
newest »
No 60 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon (audiobook) ***** 2012. This is the THIRD time I have read this book, and on this third read I still discovered things that I missed, or major plot developments that I had forgotten. I love the atmosphere of the book and the writing. There are soooo many characters and even the most minor ones are introduced with long, confusing (to me) names. Now I have to reread The Angel's Game for only the second time, and if my memory retains The Prisoner of Heaven, I think I will be done with this series for a while.TOTAL Pages: 11,446 pages
TOTAL listening time: 343 hours, 23 minutes + 18 hours, 10 minutes = 361 hours, 33 minutes
The Shadow of the Wind is one of my top 10 reads! I loved it. I knew The Angel's Game was the sequel but had no idea it was a trilogy! Very exciting :)
Susan wrote: "No 60 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon (audiobook) ***** 2012. This is the THIRD time I have read this book, and on this third read I still discovered things that I missed, or major pl..."
The Prisoner of Heaven came out not too long ago, and ties everything up -- if you can remember all the facts from the two first books that need tying up. I couldn't -- hence the reread.
No. 61 Arthur & George by Julian Barnes *** After I started reading this, I realized that I had read it before. I only remembered parts as I read them a second time. For me the book started out very strongly comparing and contrasting the lives of the two main characters as they grew up separately. I really enjoyed the descriptions of their lives as they progressed. Only after their stories are well underway do you learn who they are, and realize that this novel is based on a real British court case. Unfortunately, for me, once the trial began, the story became much less interesting. And once one character began to use his influence to help the other, the story really got boring. I find it unfortunate that reality had to intrude into a really nice novel.TOTAL Pages: 11,446 pages + 385 pages = 11,831 pages
TOTAL listening time: 361 hours, 33 minutes
No. 62 -Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain *** I enjoyed this book. However, on page 85 it says that introverted people will already have figured much of this out. It is true, I have.TOTAL Pages: 11,831 pages + 352 pages = 12,183 pages
TOTAL listening time: 361 hours, 33 minutes
No. 63 The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President---and Who Is Behind Them by Bill Press. * This was a waste of time. Who is behind them --- Fox news and people connected with Fox News. Did Bill Press get paid for writing this book? I guess my library paid him. It is amusing since Fox News is the only network that does not deify obama.TOTAL PAGES: 12,183 pages + 320 pages = 12,503 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 361 hours, 33 minutes.
No. 64To the End of the Land by David Grossman *** Dorothy Parker once said, "I hate writing. I love having written." This is a book that I didn't love reading, but I love having read. The discussion in my Institute of Adult Learning Contemporary Literature helped me to realize. There is so much to it, and there are so many things that can be symbols or symbolic, that it is amazing. Reading it, however, was like living someone else's complete life. An Israeli woman has just sent her son off to fight the Palestinians (I am a bit vague as to what war or military campaign this is), and starts on a walking trip through Israel with the father of one of her son in an attempt at magical thinking -- nothing will happen to him if she is not at home to answer the door to receive the bad news. Parts of it, especially stories of her son, are beautiful.TOTAL PAGES: 12,503 pages + 592 pages = 13,095 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 361 hours, 33 minutes.
No. 65 The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (audiobook) ***** Well, I am totally screwed up. I reread TAG because I read The Prisoner of Heaven by the same author which I understood was to tie up the series of three books. The Shadow of the Wind, the first book, had all the loose ends tied up, but when I came to the end of TPOH, I was mystified. The ending of TPOH is completely contrary to events in TAG. All I can come up with is that David Martin is an unreliable narrator -- hell, he's a paranoid schizophrenic who imagined a totally different ending to his life than what really happened. Standing alone, TAG is a mystic, supernatural novel, and I loved it. Combining it with the POH is a crushing blow to me.TOTAL PAGES: 13,095 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 361 hours, 33 minutes + 15 hours, 29 minutes = 377 hours, 2 minutes
No. 66 Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (audiobook)***I got the feeling that just before the book ended the author got the "wrap-it-up" sign from publishers, and she wrote as fast as she could, with as little detail as she could, until got to the end. I can even see the shaky handwriting. Oh, well, all the loose ends were tied up.TOTAL PAGES: 13,095 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 377 hours, 2 minutes + 10 hours, 45 minutes = 387 hours, 27 minutes.
is this the last book? i just finished the Hunger Games and cant figure out which one is next!
No. 67 A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer *** I read this book with my Institute for Adult Learning Contemporary Literature Class. The theme for this semester is Effects of War. This novel deals with the efforts to mass produce penicillin to aid the wounded soldiers in World War II, and the development of other antibiotics. This of course was a good effect of war, but since the U.S. government held the patent on penicillin itself, big business was in a great rush to develop, and secure patents, on antibiotic "cousins." According to the novel, much underhandedness and crime was committed by pharmaceutical companies. The situation in which the novel is set, and the examples of death resulting from the lack of antibiotics, really got me thinking. I did not, and do not, know enough about the effect of this miracle of medicine that was developed only shortly before I was born, and which I have so casually used throughout my lifetime. This is why the book earned three stars from me. As for the rest of the book, the characters, the writing, the plot development, the contrivances of the plot, there was not much to interest me, and I found myself speed-reading through much of the "relationship" parts.TOTAL Pages: 13,095 pages + 530 pages = 13,625 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 387 hours, 27 minutes.
No. 68 I Curse the River of Time by Per Pettersen **** My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...TOTAL Pages: 13,625 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 387 hours, 27 minutes + 5 hours, 56 minutes = 393 hours, 23 minutes
No. 69 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (audiobook) **** I heard so much about this book, but it was not quite what I expected. I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the writing, and, since I listened to it (twice) on audio, I very much enjoyed the narrator, Richard Morant. I particularly enjoyed his observation that the 60's were only the 60's for some people and in some places. That is so true.I have spoilers in my review. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...
TOTAL Pages: 13,625 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 393 hours, 23 minutes + 4 hours, 38 minutes = 398 hours, 1 minute.
No. 70 Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner *** Read for my book club. An American in Tokyo in 1965.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
TOTAL Pages: 13,625 pages + 332 pages = 13,957 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 398 hours, 1 minute.
I have not done much reading lately because I GOT A NEW PUPPY!
YAY!!!!!! i love puppies! whats his/her name and what breed??
His name is Henry, and he is a 2 month old weimaraner. He is my ninth dog and my seventh weimaraner. And, he is CUTE!
How exciting! Nothing makes me happier than the arrival of a new fuzzy baby!! :)Have fun with Henry, and congratulations!!!
No. 71 Some Kind Of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce **** I enjoyed this story that has all the elements of an age-old fairy tale, but told as it would be told in this time.TOTAL Pages: 13,957 pages + 310 pages = 14,267 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 398 hours, 1 minute.
No. 72 The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompkins Walker ***** I enjoyed this book because it made me think. It has an interesting premise -- the life of a young girl who happens to be living during a catastrophic change in the Earth's rotation -- and how this affects the lives of those living through it. Although I naturally disagreed with some of the aspects of life as the author envisioned them (the scientists don't have answers, but they don't even seem to have theories, when you could go on TV today and find hundreds of different theories for every occurrence; would such a major change really have such minimal impact on the lives of Americans over so long a period of time, etc.), it is interesting to see what changes she did come up with. Five stars for getting me thinking.TOTAL PAGES: 14,267 pages + 288 pages = 14,555 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME = 398 hours, 1 minute.
No. 73 Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (audiobook) ** I read this for my Adult Learning Contemporary Literature Class on the topic of the results of war, but missed the discussion. As the old Chinese saying goes: If these girls didn't have bad luck they wouldn't have any luck at all.
TOTAL PAGES: 14,555 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 398 hours, 1 minute + 13 hours, 51 minutes - 411 hours, 52 minutes
No. 74 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ***** I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am not going to attempt to review it.TOTAL Pages: 14,555 pages + 509 pages = 15,064 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 411 hours, 52 minutes
No. 75 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (audiobook)***** This book holds up even after a third reading, which I did for my Contemporary Lit. class.TOTAL PAGES: 15,064 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 411 hours, 52 minutes + 8 hours = 419 hours, 52 minutes
No. 76 The Dog Walker by Corwyn Alvarez ** This was picked to read by a member of my book club. The book is about a mentally-challenged teenager who quits school to start a dog walking business, and meets unusual characters while doing so. The book seemed to me to be a good first draft with potential to be developed into a meaningful book. Problems: the "mentally-challenged" youth seemed way to clever in his responses, thoughts and repartee; many of the unusual characters did not result from his dog walking business, but were known to him before, which begs the question: why the "dog walker"?TOTAL PAGES: 15,064 pages + 232 pages = 15,296 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME; 419 hours, 52 minutes
No. 77 The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story by Joan Wickersham ***** Seven short stories on the subject of love, each entitled The News from Spain. Excellently written, giving much food for thought. One of my favorites of the year.TOTAL PAGES: 15,296 pages + 208 pages = 15,504 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME; 419 hours, 52 minutes
No. 78 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (audiobook) *** I think that if I had read it in print form the detail and repetition would have bored me. As it was, I kept falling asleep during that last two discs and had to replay them over and over. Of course, it may have been the excess tryptophan in my system from all that turkey. So, the idea that I couldn't wait to get to the end was not true for meMy review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
TOTAL PAGES: 15,504 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 419 hours, 52 minutes + 19 hours = 438 hours, 52 minutes.
In trying to figure out why Goodreads and my own count of the books I read this year is different, I found two books that I forgot to put on this list:No. 79 The Paris Wife by Paula McLain **** I reread this for my book club this summer. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
TOTAL PAGES: 15,504 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 438 hours, 52 minutes + 11 hours, 30 minutes = 450 hours, 22 minutes
No. 80 The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (audiobook) ** About being Jewish now, about wanting to be Jewish. I found myself interested in some parts of the plot. As far as the basic question, I find myself to be not antisemetic or prosemetic, but asemetic. It is supposed to be hilarious. I am surprised that it won the Mann Booker prize.
TOTAL PAGES: 15,504 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 450 hours, 22 minutes + 12 hours 37 minutes = 462 hours, 59 minutes
Counting three books that I did not finish, but that Goodreads counts as finished, and one book I have not added to this list yet, there is still a two book discrepancy between my count and Goodreads' count of the books I have read this year. Perhaps Goodreads knows more than I do.
No. 81 Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharrat. **** My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...TOTAL PAGES: 15,504 pages + 288 pages = 15,792 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 462 hours, 59 minutes
No. 82 The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss (audiobook) **** Delightful characters and excellent narrations. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...TOTAL PAGES: 15,792 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 462 hours, 59 minutes + 18 hours, 29 minutes = 481 hours, 28 minutes
No. 83 Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. ** My offline book club is reading The Time Keeper for January 2013, and while waiting for that to come in for me at the library, I decided to read Tuesday, which I had studiously avoided reading before. I know this is supposed to be a teary-eyed, feel good book about old fashioned values, but I have a bone to pick with Morrie.My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
TOTAL Pages: 15,792 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME:481 hours, 28 minutes + 4 hours = 485 hours, 28 minutes
No. 84 The Round House by Louis Erdrich **** A bit less than an amazing read. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
TOTAL PAGES: 15,792 + 336 pages = 16,128 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 485 hours, 28 minutes
On to 2013: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Challenge: 50 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Round House (other topics)Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (other topics)
The Time Keeper (other topics)
The Whiskey Rebels (other topics)
Illuminations (other topics)
More...
TOTAL PAGES: 11,169 pages + 277 pages = 11,446 pages
TOTAL LISTENING TIME: 343 hours, 23 minutes