State of the Blog: Part Three, the Challenges

 

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  2012 is half over, but I've made some progress on the many challenges I joined this year.

This is the last of my three quarterly blog assessment posts.  The first part addressed the book lists.  Part Two dealt with my favorite authors. 

The list of all the challenges I've joined (so far) this year is here.  So far, I've completed four of the 24, made progress on another 16, and haven't started four.


First, the three challenges I am hosting here at Rose City Reader.  There is still plenty of time to sign up! Click on the title to go to the main challenge page.

EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE
(finished, but for one more review)

• High Stakes by Dick Francis (UK; reviewed here)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (Italy; reviewed here) 
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here)
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (France; reviewed here)
  
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway; not reviewed yet) 

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, AMERICAN VERSION

• Tinkers by Paul Harding (National; reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Pulitzer; reviewed here)

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, BRITISH VERSION

• The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here)

  Second, the challenges I've joined:

AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE

I've read a lot of book with my ears -- 25 out of my goal of 40 -- but haven't reviewed very many.

• The Coffee Trader by David Liss   
• High Stakes by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here) 
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here) 
• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas 
• Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James
• Blood Sport  by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie 
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza 
• The Black Tower by P. D. James 
• Driving Force by Dick Francis 
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie  
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here) 
• Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (reviewed here) 
• Dressed for Death by Donna Leon  
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Booker winner; reviewed here)  
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)  
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
• Other People's Children by Joanne Trollope
  
• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman 
  
• Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst 
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 
• Trespass by Rose Tremain
   

BACK TO THE CLASSICS and the CLASSICS CHALLENGES

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (horror; reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (award winner -- Pulitzer; reviewed here)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

BIRTH YEAR READING CHALLENGE

None yet, but I plan to read Graham Greene's The Comedians very soon -- as soon as I can figure out if it was really published in my birth year.

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE FIRST YEARS OF MY LIFE CHALLENGE

None yet.  This is a three-book challenge, so I had better find some overlapping options if I hope to finish.

CHUNKSTER and TEA & BOOKS CHALLENGES

• World Without End by Ken Follett (1,024 pages); reviewed here;
• Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (462 pages), reviewed here

EASTERN EUROPE READING CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here) 

FOODIE'S READING CHALLENGE

• 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 Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here);
• On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry (reviewed here)

GRAHAM GREENE READING CHALLENGE

None yet, but I plan to read The Comedians very soon.

HENRY GREEN WEEK 
(finished)

•  Living (reviewed here)

I LOVE ITALY READING CHALLENGE
(finished) 

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here) 
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here) 
• Dressed for Death by Donna Leon (an extra; not reviewed) 

MEMORABLE MEMOIRS CHALLENGE

• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas 
• 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 Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here)
• Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard

MT. TBR, OFF THE SHELF, and the TBR PILE CHALLENGES

• The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)
• Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (reviewed here)
• A Case of Need by Michael Crichton
• Living by Henry Green (reviewed here)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. by Thomas Cahill (reviewed here)
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here) 
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black (reviewed here)
• World Without End by Ken Follett (reviewed here)   
• The World of Herb Caen by  Barnaby Conrad (reviewed here) 
• The Black Book by Ian Rankin (reviewed here) 
• A Month of Sundays by John Updike (reviewed here) 
• Vie de France by James Haller (reviewed here) 
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Booker winner; reviewed here)
• On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry (reviewed here) 
• A Time of Hope by C. P. Snow (reviewed here) 
• Home Truths by David Lodge (reviewed here) 
• Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (reviewed here) 
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black  
  
• Trespass by Rose Tremain
• Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard

NON-FICTION, NON-MEMOIRS CHALLENGE

• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza  
• The World of Herb Caen by  Barnaby Conrad (reviewed here)On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry, (reviewed here)

SOUTHERN LITERATURE READING CHALLENGE

None so far, but now that it is summer, I am in the mood.

VENICE IN FEBRUARY CHALLENGE 
(finished)

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

VINTAGE MYSTERY CHALLENGE

• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here);
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here);
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie;
• The Rubber Band by Rex Stout (reviewed here);
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie; 

WHAT'S IN A NAME CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here);
• Home Truths by David Lodge (reviewed here);
• A Month of Sundays by John Updike (reviewed here);

Teaser Tuesday: Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau

After the buffalo hunt, the Coeur d'Alene set out for their permanent winter camp in what is now known as Kingston, Idaho. According to the oral record, Circling Raven conducted a medicine dance that year, fulfilling a vision experienced some twenty years prior in which he had been told of Jesus and his resurrection.

-- Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Indian Hymn Singer by Chad S. Hamill, published by OSU Press.

This is a really interesting story about the connections between music, religion, and Native American spirituality.

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Jennifer at Mrs. Q: Book Addict is hosting in July.  Please stop by her fun and pretty blog to see what she has been reading.

It is garage sale season, so I found several books last week:



The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan (even though I saw the movie and hated it, I am a completist when it comes to McEwan; and it goes on my list of Venice books)



Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks (I am always a little behind on my pop culture)



Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (to feed my vintage mystery addiction)



The Patriotic Murders by Agatha Christie (also published as One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and An Overdose of Death)



Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson (got this one for Hubby -- it is right up his alley)

State of the Blog, Part Two: The Authors

 

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  2012 is half over, but I like to think still have time to catch up.

This is the second of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  The first part addressed the book lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My lists of my favorite authors are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into General favorites and Mystery favorites.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.

So far in 2012, I have read the 12 books by my favorite authors. 

GENERAL FAVORITES

Susan Howatch

• Glittering Images (1987) (reviewed here)

David Lodge

• Home Truths (1999) (reviewed here)

C. P. Snow

• A Time of Hope (1949) (reviewed here)

P. G. Wodehouse

• The Pothunters (reviewed here)

MYSTERY FAVORITES

Cara Black

• Murder in Belleville (reviewed here)
  

Dick Francis

• High Stakes (1975) (reviewed here)
• Blood Sport (1967)
• Driving Force (1992)

P. D. James

• Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
• The Black Tower (1975)

Donna Leon

• Dressed for Death 

Ian Rankin

• The Black Book

Book Beginnings: Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau

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.

Leave a link to your post. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Among religious prophetic traditions, found at the roots of many faiths throughout the world, indigenous Plateau prophecy stands out for one reason in particular: its reliance on song to relay its message and bring forth its power.

-- Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Indian Hymn Singer by Chad S. Hamill, published by OSU Press.

This is a really interesting story about the connections between music, religion, and Native American spirituality.

List: National Review's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century

The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century appeared in the May 3, 1999, issue of National Review magazine, in response to the announcement of the Modern Library's Top 100 non-fiction list.

The editors described how they went about creating their list:

We have used a methodology that approaches the scientific. But-certainly beyond, say, the first 40 books-the fact of the books' presence on the list is far more important than their rankings. We offer a comment from a panelist after many of the books; but the panel overall, not the individual quoted, is responsible for the ranking. So, here is our list, for your enjoyment, mortification, and stimulation.

The list of panel members is here.

There is no way I will ever read all the books on this list.  Setting aside that many are out of print or only available in expensive academic editions, some of them just look too overwhelming or deadly dull for me to ever undertake.

If anyone else is working on this list or has reviewed any of the books on it, please leave comments with links to related posts. 

Those few that I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue. 

1. The Second World War, Winston S. Churchill

Richard Brookhiser: "The big story of the century, told by its major hero."

2. The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Richard John Neuhaus: "Marked the absolute final turning point beyond which nobody could deny the evil of the Evil Empire."

3. Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell

Arthur Herman: "Orwell's masterpiece-far superior to Animal Farm and 1984. No education in the meaning of the 20th century is complete without it."

4. The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek

Mark Helprin: "Shatters the myth that the totalitarianisms 'of the Left' and 'of the Right' stem from differing impulses."

5. Collected Essays, George Orwell

Florence King: "Every conservative's favorite liberal and every liberal's favorite conservative. This book has no enemies."

6. The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper

Herman: "The best work on political philosophy in the 20th century. Exposes totalitarianism's roots in Plato, Hegel, and Marx."

7. The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis

Brookhiser: "How modern philosophies drain meaning and the sacred from our lives."

8. Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset

George Gilder: "Prophesied the 20th century's debauchery of democracy and science, the barbarism of the specialist, and the inevitable fatuity of public opinion. Explained the genius of capitalist elites."

9. The Constitution of Liberty, F. A. von Hayek

John O'Sullivan: "A great re-statement for this century of classical liberalism by its greatest modern exponent."

10. Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman

11. Modern Times, Paul Johnson

Herman: "Huge impact outside the academy, dreaded and ignored inside it."

12. Rationalism in Politics, Michael Oakeshott

Herman: "Oakeshott is the 20th century's Edmund Burke."

13. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Joseph A. Schumpeter

Christopher Caldwell: "Locus classicus for the observation that democratic capitalism undermines itself through its very success."

14. Economy and Society, Max Weber

Michael Lind: "Weber made permanent contributions to the understanding of society with his discussions of comparative religion, bureaucracy, charisma, and the distinctions among status, class, and party."

15. The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt

Caldwell: "Through Nazism and Stalinism, looks at almost every pernicious trend in the last century's politics with stunning subtlety."

16. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West

Michael Kelly: "For its writing, not for its historical accuracy."

17. Sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson

Lind: "Darwin put humanity in its proper place in the animal kingdom. Wilson put human society there, too."

18. Centissimus Annus, Pope John Paul II

19. The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn

Neuhaus: "The authoritative refutation of utopianism of the left, right, and points undetermined."

20. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

Helprin: "An innocent's account of the greatest evil imaginable. The most powerful book of the century. Others may not agree. No matter, I cast my lot with this child."

Caldwell: "If one didn't know her fate, one might read it as the reflections of any girl. That one does know her fate makes this as close to a holy book as the century produced."

21. The Great Terror, Robert Conquest

Herman: "Documented for the first time the real record of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. A genuine monument of historical research and reconstruction, a true epic of evil."

22. Chronicles of Wasted Time, Malcolm Muggeridge

Gilder: "The best autobiography, Christian confession, and historic meditation of the century."

23. Relativity, Albert Einstein

Lind: "The most important physicist since Newton."

24. Witness, Whittaker Chambers (reviewed here)

Caldwell: "Confession, history, potboiler -- by a man who writes like the literary giant we would know him as, had not Communism got him first."

25. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn

26. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

Neuhaus: "The most influential book of the most influential Christian apologist of the century."

27. The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet

28. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.

Helprin: "The infinite riches of the world, presented with elegance, confidence, and economy."

29. Up in the Old Hotel, Joseph Mitchell (reviewed here)

30. The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton

John Lukacs: "A great carillonade of Christian verities."

31. Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton

O'Sullivan: "How to look at the Christian tradition with fresh eyes."

32. The Liberal Imagination, Lionel Trilling

Jeffrey Hart: "The popular form of liberalism tends to simplify and caricature when it attempts moral aspiration -- that is, it tends to 'Stalinism.'"

33. The Double Helix, James D. Watson

Herman: "Deeply hated by feminists because Watson dares to suggest that the male-female distinction originated in nature, in the DNA code itself."

34. The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Richard Phillips Feynman

David Gelernter: "Outside of art (or maybe not), physics is mankind's most beautiful achievement; these three volumes are probably the most beautiful ever written about physics."

35. Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, Tom Wolfe

O'Sullivan: "Wolfe is our Juvenal."

36. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, Albert Camus

37. The Unheavenly City, Edward C. Banfield

Neuhaus: "The volume that began the debunking of New Deal socialism and its public-policy consequences."

38. The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud

39. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

40. The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama

41. The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker (discussed here)

42. The Age of Reform, Richard Hofstadter

Herman: "The single best book on American history in this century, bar none."

43. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, John Maynard Keynes

Hart: "Influential in suggesting that the business cycle can be modified by government investment and manipulation of tax rates."

44. God & Man at Yale, William F. Buckley Jr.

Gilder: "Still correct and prophetic. It defines the conservative revolt against socialism and atheism on campus and in the culture, and reconciles the alleged conflict between capitalist and religious conservatives."

45. Selected Essays, T. S. Eliot

Hart: "Shaped the literary taste of the mid-century."

46. Ideas Have Consequences, Richard M. Weaver

47. The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs

48. The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom

49. Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell

50. An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal

51. Three Case Histories, Sigmund Freud

Gelernter: "Beyond question Freud is history's most important philosopher of the mind, and he ranks alongside Eliot as the century's greatest literary critic. Modern intellectual life (left, right, and in-between) would be unthinkable without him."

52. The Struggle for Europe, Chester Wilmot

53. Main Currents in American Thought, Vernon Louis Parrington

King: "An immensely readable history of ideas and men. (Skip the fragmentary third volume-he died before finishing it.)"

54. The Waning of the Middle Ages, Johann Huzinga

Lukacs: "Probably the finest historian who lived in this century."

55. Systematic Theology, Wolfhart Pannenberg

Neuhaus: "The best summary and reflection on Christianity's encounter with the Enlightenment project."

56. The Campaign of the Marne, Sewell Tyng

John Keegan: "A forgotten American's masterly account of the First World War in the West."

57. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein

Hart: "A terse summation of the analytic method of the analytic school in philosophy, and a heroic leap beyond it."

58. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, Bernard Lonergan

Mary Ann Glendon: "The Thomas Aquinas of the 20th century."

59. Being and Time, Martin Heidegger

Hart: "A seminal thinker, notwithstanding his disgraceful error of equating National Socialism with the experience of 'Being.'"

60. Disraeli, Robert Blake

Keegan: "Political biography as it should be written."

61. Democracy and Leadership, Irving Babbitt

King: "A conservative literary critic describes what happens when humanitarianism over takes humanism."

62. The Elements of Style, William Strunk & E. B. White

Abigail Thernstrom: "If only every writer would remember just one of Strunk & White's wonderful injunctions: 'Omit needless words.' Omit needless words."

63. The Machiavellians, James Burnham

O'Sullivan: "Burnham is the greatest political analyst of our century and this is his best book."

64. Reflections of a Russian Statesman, Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev

King: "The 'culture war' as seen by the tutor to the last two czars. A Russian Pat Buchanan."

65. The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin

66. Roll, Jordan, Roll, Eugene D. Genovese

Neuhaus: "The best account of American slavery and the moral and cultural forces that undid it."

67. The ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound

Brookhiser: "An epitome of the aging aesthetic movement that will be forever known as modernism."

68. The Second World War, John Keegan

Hart: "A masterly history in a single volume." 

69. The Making of Homeric Verse, Milman Parry

Lind: "Genuine discoveries in literary study are rare. Parry's discovery of the oral formulaic basis of the Homeric epics, the founding texts of Western literature, was one of them."

70. The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling, Angus Wilson

Keegan: "A life of a great author told through the transmutation of his experience into fictional form."

71. Scrutiny , F. R. Leavis

Hart: "Enormously important in education, especially in England. Leavis understood what one kind of 'living English' is."

72. The Edge of the Sword, Charles de Gaulle

Brookhiser: "A lesser figure than Churchill, but more philosophical (and hence, more problematic)."

73. R. E. Lee, Douglas Southall Freeman

Robert Conquest: "The finest work on the Civil War."

74. Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises

75. The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton

Neuhaus: "A classic conversion story of a modern urban sophisticate."

76. Balzac, Stefan Zweig

King: "On the joys of working one's self to death. The chapter 'Black Coffee' is a masterpiece of imaginative reconstruction."

77. The Good Society, Walter Lippmann

Gilder: "Written during the Great Depression. A corruscating defense of the morality of capitalism."

78. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson

Lind: "For all the excesses of the environmental movement, the realization that human technology can permanently damage the earth's environment marked a great advance in civilization. Carson's book, more than any other, publicized this message."

79. The Christian Tradition, Jaroslav Pelikan

Neuhaus: "The century's most comprehensive account of Christian teaching from the second century on."

80. Strange Defeat, Marc Bloch

Herman: "A great historian's personal account of the fall of France in 1940."

81. Looking Back, Norman Douglas

Conquest: "Fascinating memoirs of a remarkable writer."

82. Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams

83. Poetry and the Age, Randall Jarrell

Caldwell: "The book for showing how 20th- century poets think, what their poetry does, and why it matters."

84. Love in the Western World, Denis De Rougemont

Brookhiser: "What has become of eros over the last seven centuries."

85. The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk

86. Wealth and Poverty, George Gilder

87. Battle Cry of Freedom, James M. McPherson

88. Henry James, Leon Edel

King: "All the James you want without having to read him."

89. Essays of E. B. White, E. B. White

Gelernter: "White is the apotheosis of the American liberal now spurned and detested by the Left (and the cultural mainstream). His mesmerized devotion to the objects of his affection -- his family, the female sex, his farm, the English language, Manhattan, the sea, America, Maine, and freedom, in descending order -- is movingly absolute."

90. Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov

91. The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe

92. Darwin's Black Box, Michael J. Behe

Gilder: "Overthrows Darwin at the end of the 20th century in the same way that quantum theory overthrew Newton at the beginning."

93. The Civil War, Shelby Foote

94. The Way the World Works, Jude Wanniski

Gilder: "The best book on economics. Shows fatuity of still-dominant demand-side model, with its silly preoccupation with accounting trivia, like the federal budget and trade balance and savings rates, in an economy with $40 trillion or so in assets that rise and fall weekly by trillions."

95. To the Finland Station, Edmund Wilson

Herman: "The best single book on Karl Marx and Marx's place in modern history."

96. Civilization, Kenneth Clark

97. The Russian Revolution, Richard Pipes

98. The Idea of History, R. G. Collingwood

99. The Last Lion, William Manchester

100. The Starr Report, Kenneth W. Starr

Hart: "A study in human depravity."

NOTES

Last updated on December 28, 2022.

What Are They Reading? Tresspass

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.

TRESPASS BY ROSE TREMAINE

This is a great, tangled story of grown up, messed up families living in southern France.  None of them are readers.  The French brother and sister barely function, let alone read. The English brother collects antiques,  his sister designs gardens, and her girlfriend paints watercolors, but none of the three read.

So the one book scene really stands out.  Anthony, the Englishman, describes his mother's death of cancer, including the detail of her re-reading favorite book while in the hospital.  The book was Staying On by Paul Scott.

Staying On is the sequel to Scott's Raj Quartet and won the Booker Prize in 1977.  It is the story of a British colonial couple who stays on in the hills of India after India's independence. 

It could be that Anthony's mother read Staying On because she was from South Africa and enjoyed the post-colonial theme of the novel.  But the plot of Staying On also ties in with the "trespass" themes of Tremain's book.  There is a potential, legal trespass involving the boundary lines of the French siblings' property, but there are also trespasses against family ties, emotional bonds, decency, and personal security.

Now I want to read Staying On to see how the book connects with Trespass.  But I am such a completist that I first want to read The Raj Quartet, which is on my TBR shelf.

Teaser Tuesday: Evolutionaries

Evolutionaries know the importance of good planning.  But they also know when to move ahead -- even when the plan is not perfect.

-- Evolutionaries: Transformational Leadership: The Missing Link in Your Organizational Chart, by Randy Harrington and Carmen E Voillequé.

This is a great, hand-on business book for how to lead your organization in these uncertain, fast-changing times.  

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Marie at Burton Book Review is hosting in June.  Please stop by her beautiful blog where she is "Leafing through history one page at a time."

Thanks to Rachelle at my favorite Second Glance Books, I got a stack of books last week, several that I have been looking for for a long time. 



Death at the Chateau Bremont by M. L. Longworth (this was an impulse -- I couldn't resist the cover)



Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (on the Erica Jong list)



Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (Orange Prize winner)



Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald (one of my favorite authors)



English Passengers by Matthew Kneale (Costa Book of the Year winner)



Saint Joan of Arc by V. Sackville-West (on my French Connections list)



Hole in the Sky: A Memoir by William Kittredge (on the list of 20 Greatest Oregon Books)

State of the Blog: Part One, the Lists

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  2012 is half over, but I still have time to catch up if needed.

This is the first of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists.  Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into Prize Winners and "Must Reads" and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post. 

THE PRIZE WINNERS

COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

Books read in 2012: none so far

EDGAR AWARD

Books read in 2012: A Case of Need by Micheal Crichton (as Jeffery Hudson)

JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here)

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

NOBEL LAUREATES

Books read in 2012: none so far

ORANGE PRIZE

Books read in 2012: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

PEN/FAULKNER

Books read in 2012: none so far

PULITZER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: two, both for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version

• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here);
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here)

THE "MUST READS"

1899 TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ALL-TIME TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ANTHONY BURGESS

This list is from 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess, which I reviewed here. 

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

BBC'S BIG READ

Books read in 2012: none so far

BOOK CLUB

Books read in 2012: two

• Half of a Yellow Sun; by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)

COLLEGE BOARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

COOKBOOK LIBRARY

Books read in 2012: none so far

EASTON PRESS

Books read in 2012: Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here)

ERICA JONG

Books read in 20112: none so far

FRENCH CONNECTION

Books read in 2011:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black

LT EARLY REVIEWERS

Books read in 2012: none so far

MLA'S 30

Books read in 202: none so far

MODERN LIBRARY

Books read in 2012: zero (finished this list a couple of years ago).

OBSERVER'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)

OREGON BOOKS

Books read in 2012: none so far

RADCLIFFE'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ROSE CITY READER'S TOP 10

Books read in 2012: none so far. Who knows if the list will change this year.

VENICE BOOKS

This is a new list that I just created in 2011. I made more progress in 2012 when I participated in the Venice in February Challenge.

Books read in 2012:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

WELL-STOCKED BOOKCASE

Books read in 2012: none so far

Favorite Author: Susan Howatch

Susan Howatch (b. 1940) is an English author known for her Sweeping Family Sagas. After her own spiritual epiphany in the 1980s, she turned her talents to writing the same kinds of elaborate, gothic novels, but with a Christian theme and a philosophical bent. 

I read many of her earlier books when I was in high school and loved them, although I can't remember them now. Recently -- and remembering my enjoyment of the historical novels -- I read The High Flyer and was surprised that is was about the Church of England. But I really enjoyed it and decided to compile and read the rest of her "religious" books in order.

If anyone else is reading Howatch's books, please lease comments with links to related posts.

Here are her books in publication order. Those I have read as an adult are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue. My plan is to read all the Starbridge and St. Benet's books and maybe go back and read some of the earlier ones. I recently re-read The Rich are Different when I found an audiobook edition from my library.

The Dark Shore (1965)

The Waiting Sands (1966)

April's Grave (1967)

Call in the Night (1967)

The Shrouded Walls (1968)

The Devil on Lammas Night (1970)

Penmarric (1971)

Cashelmara (1974)

The Rich Are Different (1977)

Sins of the Fathers (1980)

The Wheel of Fortune (1984)

THE STARBRIDGE SERIES

Six books centered on the fictional Anglican diocese of Starbridge. Each book is a stand-alone story, but with overlapping characters.  The series begins in the 1930s and goes through WWII to the 1960s, when the last three books take place.

Glittering Images (1987) (reviewed here)

Glamorous Powers (1988)

Ultimate Prizes (1989)

Scandalous Risks (1990)

Mystical Paths (1992)
 
Absolute Truths (1994)

THE ST. BENET'S TRILOGY

This trilogy takes place in the London of the 1980s and 1990s and focuses on changes in the Church of England during those decades.  Many of the same characters from the Starbridge series are involved, although each book is a stand alone novel.

The Wonder Worker (US title) / A Question of Integrity (UK title) (1997)

The High Flyer (2000)

The Heartbreaker (2004)

NOTES

Some of Susan Howatch's earlier books are hard to find. But five of these gems have been newly released as ebooks by Open Road. 

Last updated on January 3, 2013.