What Are They Reading? The Book and the Brotherhood

Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read.  It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time.  But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story. 

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button.  If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.

THE BOOK AND THE BROTHERHOOD BY IRIS MURDOCH

The Book and the Brotherhood is one of Murdoch's later novels and I've read mixed things about it, so I was slow to pick it up. But I am now completely absorbed by the story and would like to curl up with it just like the characters who go off to a country house for a "Reading Party" weekend.  They all bring books and spend a few snowy days reading, eating, drinking, and talking.  Heaven.

The hostess for the Reading Party chooses Daniel Deronda by George Eliot as her weekend book.  It is Eliot's last novel and, according to wikipedia, is a "mixture of social satire and moral searching, along with a sympathetic rendering of Jewish proto-Zionist and Kabbalistic ideas."

Leave it to Iris Murdoch to chose such a well-packed novel for one of her characters!  I'm not sure how closely Eliot's novel ties in with The Book and the Brotherhood, although Murdoch's novel involves quite a bit of social satire and a lot of moral searching.  There are no "proto-Zionist" or "Kabbalistic" ideas, but there are pages of philosophizing (it is Murdoch, after all) about marriage, friendship, university education, wealth, and Marxism.

Teaser Tuesday: Personal History

A month later, a seismic Watergate event occurred -- the turning point, the pivotal moment. In the course of his testimony before the Senate investigating committee, Alexander Butterfield, another Haldeman aide, revealed that there was a voice-activated recording system in the White House. 

-- Personal History by Katharine Graham.  The TBR Pile Challenge gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finally read this.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

2012 Foodie Reading Challenge: Wrap Up

FINISHED

Margot and Joyfully Retired hosting the second Foodies Reading Challenge in 2012 and, once again, it was one of my favorite challenges of the year.

I signed up at the "Pastry Chef" level to read 4 - 8 food-related books. I have read five, so have completed the challenge, but I hope to get at least one more in before the end of the year.  I particularly enjoy reading food books during the Christmas season.

CHALLENGE BOOKS

On the Town in New York by Michael & Ariane Batterberry (reviewed here)

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)

Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller (reviewed here)

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller (reviewed here)

Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates by Michael Bond (reviewed here)

All were enjoyable and I'm glad I read them. My favorite was Extra Virginity because I learned so much about olive oil and actually changed what I look for in a good oil and how I buy it.

LOOKING AHEAD

I certainly hope Margot hosts this challenge in 2013. I am cutting back, but the Foodie Challenge is too good to skip.

There are still several possibilities on my TBR shelves, including:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher

The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons

Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Looking Ahead: 2013 Challenges

It's that time of year when book bloggers start to think about next year's challenges. As if we all didn't have a million other things to think about during the holidays!

As much as I love book challenges and am tempted to join all of them that catch my fancy, I admit I took on too many in 2012. I am going to scale back in 2013, both for hosting and participating. I also have an idea for a personal challenge that I am keen on trying.

HOSTING

I am definitely going to host the European Reading Challenge again in 2013. The 2012 challenge runs through January 31, 2013. The 2013 challenge will start January 1, 2013. Check back here for the 2013 challenge page, coming soon, to sign up.

I'm going to take a break on the Battle of the Prizes Challenges, both the American and British versions. I've hosted both for a couple of years now, and I think they need a rest. They may revive in future years, but we'll go fallow for 2013.

PARTICIPATING

There are a handful of challenges that dovetail so nicely with my own reading habits, and that I get such a kick out of, that I can't pass them up. So, assuming the hosts are game for another year, I am going to sign up for the 2013 versions of the Chunkster Challenge, the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges, the Foodie Reading Challenge, and the Vintage Mystery Challenge.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE

According to my LibraryThing tags, there are 1,421 books on my TBR shelves. Even though I read good number of books every year, I never seem to make visual progress through my TBR books.

So I have latched onto the idea that I want to read all the books on at least one shelf. I want to see a gap grow on the shelf as I finish book after book. I have a wall of TBR books and I am going to pick one shelf from it at random on December 1 and then plan on reading all the books from that shelf in 2013.

The one limitation is that I am only going to read one book by each author on that shelf. So if I hit a series or patch of books by the same author, I am going to skip all but one of them.

There is no theme to this challenge other than an idiosyncratic, spacial one. But it will tie in with the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges.

Book Beginnings: Personal History

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

My parents' paths first crossed in a museum on 23rd Street in New York.

-- Personal History by Katharine Graham.

That is a disappointingly prosaic opening line for a Pulitzer-winning autobiography of the fascinating woman who ran the Washington Post through so many turbulent years.  But her story picks up soon enough.