2013 European Reading Challenge: Review Page

2013 European Reading Challenge

January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED, WRAP UP POSTS GO HERE.

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

When you review a book for the 2013 European Reading Challenge, please add it to this list using the linky widget below.  Please link to your review post, NOT the main page of your blog.

NOTE: There is overlap in January 2013 between the last month of the 2012 challenge and the first month of the 2013 challenge. If you participated both years, only count books read in January in one of the years, not both.

Please put your name or the name of your blog, the name of the book you reviewed, and the country of the book or author. For example: Rose City Reader, Doctor Zhivago, Russia.

Books Read in 2012

This is the list of the 94 books I read in 2012, in the order that I read them, with links to the 52 reviews I wrote.

2012 was the first year in quite a while that I didn't read at least 100 books. I blame Whittaker Chambers, whose dense, 800+ page Witness sucked up a lot of reading time.  But the lower total was also intentional.  I made a reading resolution to concentrate on Witness and some other longer books and not pay attention to the number of books I read.

There is not much rhyme or reason to whether I review a book or not. Some of my favorite books go without a review.

I rate a book a 3 if I liked it but wouldn't think of recommending it and a 4 if I would recommend it to anyone. Lots of books get 3.5, which means that I liked it and would recommend it to people who like that genre or type of book.  For a full explanation of my rating system, see here.

If you have reviewed any of the books I reviewed, and you would like your review listed on mine, please leave a comment on my review post for that book with a link to your review and I will add it.

2012 BOOKS

The Coffee Trader by David Liss (3.5/5)

Tinkers by Paul Hardin (2.5/5) (reviewed here)

High Stakes by Dick Francis (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (4/5) (reviewed here)

A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (3/5)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (4/5) (reviewed here)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (4/5) (reviewed here)

The Rubber Band by Rex Stout (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas (3.5/5)

Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James (3.5/5)

Living by Henry Green (2.5/5) (reviewed here)

Blood Sport by Dick Francis (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (3/5) (reviewed here)

The Innocents Abroad, Volume I, by Mark Twain (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Serenissima by Erica Jong (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (3.5/5)

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

The Pothunters by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5) (reviewed here)

What's So Great about Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza (4/5)

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Murder in Belleville by Cara Black (3/5) (reviewed here)

The Black Tower by P. D. James (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Driving Force by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

World Without End by Ken Follett (3/5) (reviewed here)

The World of Herb Caen: San Francisco 1938-1997 by Barnaby Conrad (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

The Black Book by Ian Rankin (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

A Month of Sundays by John Updike (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (4/5) (reviewed here)

Dressed for Death by Donna Leon (3.5/5)

Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valley by James Haller (3/5) (reviewed here)

Out Stealing Horses by Per Patterson (3/5)

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (4/5) (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 Ariane Batterberry (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

A Time of Hope by C. P. Snow (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (3.5/5)

Home Truths by David Lodge (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope (3.5/5)

Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

The Hapless Valet by Lenhardt Stevens (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman (3/5)

Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (3.5/5)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Trespass by Rose Tremain (3.5/5)

Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard (3/5) (reviewed here)

The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (4.5/5) (reviewed here)

Starvation Lake by Brian Gruley (3/5)

Paradise Postponed by John Mortimer (3/5) (reviewed here)

Silver Swan by Benjamin Black (3.5/5)

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

The Edge by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by William Zinsser (3.5/5)

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly (3.5/5)

Witness by Whittaker Chambers (3/5) (reviewed here)

Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (3/5) (reviewed here)

Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope (3/5)

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (3.5/5) (reviewed here)


The Comedians by Graham Greene (3.5/5) (reviewed here)
 
Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom (2.5/5) (reviewed here)

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely (3/5)

Ring for Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (3.5/5)

The Folks That Live on the Hill by Kingsley Amis (3.5/5)

Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh (3.5/5)

Venetian Mask by Mickey Friedman (3/5)

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates by Michael Bond (3/5) (reviewed here)

The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (3/5) (reviewed here)

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler (3/5)

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester (3.5/5)

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (3/5) (reviewed here)

The Imperfectionists by Tm Rachman (3.5/5)

The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille (3.5/5)

Evolutionaries: Transformational Leadership: The Missing Link in Your Organizational Chart by Carmen E Voillequé and Randy Harrington (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (3/5) (reviewed here)

Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes (3.5/5)

May We Borrow Your Husband? & Other Comedies of the Sexual Life by Graham Greene (4/5) (reviewed here)

Fortune's Deadly Descent by Audrey Braun (3.5/5) (reviewed here)

Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James (3.5/5)

Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott (3.5/5)

The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (4/5) (reviewed here)

The Book & the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch (4/5) (reviewed here)

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell (3.5/5)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni (3.5/5)

The Children of Men by P. D. James (3.5/5)

About Face by Donna Leon (3/5)

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (3/5)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)

Friends and Lovers by Helen MacInnes (3/5)

See's Famous Old Time Candies: A Sweet Story by Margaret Moos Pick (3/5)

State of the Blog: Part One, the Lists

One of my blog New Year's resolutions is to abandon a couple of my routine posts and concentrate more on reviews. The biggest "tradition" I am going to give up are these State of the Blog posts.  I've used these quarterly blog assessment posts to keep track of the progress I've made on my various lists -- Prize Winners and Must Reads, Favorite Authors, and Challenges.  They have been useful for me because they make me update my lists, but they are not particularly interesting posts.


So I am going to do one final set of State of the Blog posts to wrap up my 2012 reading.  Then I will think of some other way to stay organized and keep my lists updated. 

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 in 2012.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are divided between 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.

I only listed a list below if I read a book from it in 2012.


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

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); and
• The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (reviewed here; read for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version).

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Books read in 2012 (both for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version):

• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here); and
• Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (reviewed here). 

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Books read in 2012: three (two for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version):

• The Spectator Bird, by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here);
• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here); and
• The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here)

NOBEL LAUREATES

Books read in 2012: two

• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here); and
• Doctor Zhivagoby Boris Pasternak (reviewed here)

ORANGE PRIZE

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

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); and
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here)

THE "MUST READS"

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).

BOOK CLUB

Books read in 2012: four

• Tinkers by Paul Harding (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here);
• Half of a Yellow Sun; by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here); and
• The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman 

COLLEGE BOARD

Books read in 2012: Doctor Zhivagoby Boris Pasternak (reviewed here)

EASTON PRESS

Books read in 2012: three

•  Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here);
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson (reviewed here); and
  
• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (not reviewed yet)

ERICA JONG

Books read in 2012: The Children of Men by P.D. James

FRENCH CONNECTION

Books read in 2012: three

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black (reviewed here); and
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller (reviewed here) 

NATIONAL REVIEW

Books read in 2012: Witness, Whittaker Chambers (reviewed here)

OBSERVER'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: two

• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here); and
• Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (reviewed here). 

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: four

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here); 
• Dressed for Death by Donna Leon; and 
• About Face by Donna Leon.

WELL-STOCKED BOOKCASE

Books read in 2012: one, The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here)

Book Beginnings: We the Enemy

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, ETC:If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

The young woman laughed and swung the child back and forth.

-- We the Enemy by Ray Rhamey.  This is a sadly timely story because it was a school shooting several years ago in California that inspired Rhamey to write the book.  He wrote it to address the issue of gun violence.

I met Ray when we were on a panel together at the Wordstock book festival.  He is a writer and editor and has a very fun blog called Flogging the Quill, where he offers to critique the first page of someone's manuscript, with readers' comments and votes on whether they would read past the first page.

My Star Rating System

My book rating system is pretty little loosey goosey.  I don't include star ratings on my reviews, only on my annual list of books read that year.  This means that I sit down at the end of the year and decide how many stars to give each book, even books that I read months and months ago.  Under this system, a book may do better or worse, depending on how it has lingered in my mind since I read it.

This is a subjective rating system, based on my likes and dislikes, although my subjective judgment usually correlates to objective criteria. That is, if a book is poorly written, has clunky dialog, flat characters, or plot flaws, I am probably not going to like it and will give it a low rating. On the other hand, if a book is technically good and I enjoy it, I will give it a high rating.

These subjective and objective notions meet in a muddled middle in my 3/5 rating. I give a lot of books 3/5, either because I was entertained and glad to have read them, but did not think they were all that well-written, or because I thought the book was excellent from an objective standpoint, but I did not care for it personally (most Henry James novels come to mind). 

I also rate a lot of books 3.5/5, which means that I liked it and would recommend it to certain people who I think would enjoy it, usually because they like that genre or type of book, but I would not make a general recommendation.

Otherwise, half a point added means my judgment is on the borderline.

With those general ideas in mind:

• 5/5 means it is an all-time favorite, but I rarely give anything five stars; 

• 4/5 means I liked it and either would recommend it generally, or at least think it worthy of general recommendation, even if no one takes me up on it; 

• 3/5 means either that I enjoyed it for what it was or think it is a "good" book, but would probably not recommend it; 

• 2/5 means I did not like it; and 

• 1/5 means I really, really disliked it. 

No rating does not mean 0/5. It just means that I read the book too long ago to remember it enough to rate it, I am not qualified to rate it (poetry, for instance) or I simply forgot to rate it.

What Are They Reading? Cutting for Stone

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.

CUTTING FOR STONE BY ABRAHAM VERGHESE

My book club read Cutting for Stone a while back but I didn't get to it because I knew I was going to miss that meeting. Everyone loved it and now that I am reading it, I can understand why -- it is such an engrossing story about medicine and doctors and Africa and twins and religion and so much more.

There is a part where the narrator and his twin brother are still tiny, preemie babies and the brother suffers from "apnea of prematurity" that causes him to stop breathing when he sleeps.  The two doctors take turns watching him in the night so they can jiggle him when he stops breathing so that he starts again.

To stay  awake, the doctors read through a set of classic novels, starting with Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Reading the same book gives them something to talk about besides their work and the fate of the baby twins.  They always had a bantering, flirtatious relationship, so it is easy to guess where all that book talk led to . . .  

New Year's Teaser Tuesday: See's Old Time Candies

See's trademark buttercream tastes great for a very good reason. Sugar, cream, and other ingredients are caramelized at 248°F in Paul Bunyan-sized copper kettles over a gas flame.

--See's Famous Old Time Candies: A Sweet Story by Margaret Moos Pick.

Reading this book makes me want to postpone any New Year's resolutions that require me to stop eating candy. I think I'll celebrate every one of the 12 days of Christmas and only start my resolutions after January 5.

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

Happy New Year!

Mailbox New Year's Eve

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 event (details here).

Suko's Notebook is hosting in December, including this last MM of 2012.  Please visit her lovely and thoughtful blog.

Santa brought several books to our house last week. The funniest was in Hubby's stocking:



I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano (who must have ghost written it for our two tabbies).

The rest were books for me that I wanted or my husband knew I would like:



Stalking Nabokov by Brian Boyd, who wrote a two-volume biography of Nabakov.  These are essays he's written since then.



Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier. This looks fascinating. And I once met Kirkpatrick in the AEI lunchroom so we have that close, personal connection.  (Insert sarcastic emoticon here.)



STET, Damnit!: The Misanthrope's Corner 1991 to 2002 and Deja Reviews: Florence King All Over Again: Selections from National Review and The American Spectator by Florence King. I always enjoyed her columns.




Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason by Christina Shelton. This caught my eye when I was reading Witness earlier this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Happy 2013 reading!

Review: The Honourable Schoolboy

John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a long, slow slog through a lexicon of Cold War spy jargon. The sequel, The Honourable Schoolboy, is ten times more enjoyable. For one thing, the plot to atmosphere ratio is weighted to the plot side. Instead of being almost all atmosphere, there is an exciting espionage story involving drug runners, Hong Kong tycoons, glamorous ex-patriots, and the political legerdemain of wrapping up the Vietnam War.

It starts with a long but vivid section describing how the entire British international intelligence network had to be dismantled in the aftermath of routing out the mole in Tinker, Tailor. Then it really picks up and gets delightfully complicated when George Smiley sends a semi-retired operative to Hong Kong to find one Chinese informant buried in the rubble of the earlier undercover operations.

What atmosphere there is is pitch perfect. Le Carré frames the story as one of British Secret Service lore, expressed by the omniscient narrator with an ideal balance of admiration and world-weary cynicism.

OTHER REVIEWS

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy here on Rose City Reader

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on chaotic compendiums

The Honourable Schoolboy on chaotic compendiums

Smiley's People on chaotic compendiums

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold on chaotic compendiums

If you would like your review of this or any other John le Carré book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Honourable Schoolboy won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and counts as one of my Black choices for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge.  It also counts as one of the books for the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges, since it has been on my TBR shelf since 1983.

Book Beginnings: See's Famous Old Time Candies

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, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

When Charles A. See founded his candy company in 1921, he didn't need to invent a grandmotherly figure to represent See's Candies, as many companies did at the time.

--See's Famous Old Time Candies: A Sweet Story by Margaret Moos Pick. See's Candies are a big Christmas tradition with me. The dark chocolate peppermint patties are my favorite, but I love all of them. And don't even get me started on the peanut brittle!

So this is the perfect book for me this holiday weekend. 

Merry Christmas!

1 Day to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday Early: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Because Christmas is tomorrow, I am putting my Teaser Tuesday post up today.

For half an hour I sat with straining ears.  The suddenly another sound became audible -- a very gentle, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping constantly from a kettle.

-- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, from the story, The Speckled Band.

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

2 Days to Christmas!

Weekend Christmas Cooking & Recipe Request

There is just enough time today to make my favorite Christmas cookie -- Candied Ginger Cardamom Bars. This is the one I love to eat Christmas morning with a gallon of Irish Breakfast tea. It is like a dense, sticky, gingery, spicy shortbread.  Jingle my bells!

REQUEST: Also, I am looking for a recipe for a crumb-topped coffee cake that uses berries in it. I have some frozen blackberries left over from summer and have it fixed in my head to use them in a coffee cake for Christmas morning. Any ideas? Please pass them on. 

I got this cookie recipe from a friend who had copied it out of the December 2002 issue of Bon Appétit, from the Entertaining Made Easy column.  It pops up online with a google search (doesn't everything?) but not from the Bon Appétit website.

CANDIED GINGER CARDAMOM BARS

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 ½ large egg, beaten to blend
1+ cups finely chopped crystallized ginger (about 7 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9 x 12-inch baking pan with nonstick spray. Blend flour, sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until coarse meal forms. Add 2 tablespoons beaten egg; blend until moist crumbs form. Add ginger. Using on/off turns, process until moist clumps form.

Press dough evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Brush remaining beaten egg over dough. Using small sharp knife, score top of dough with diagonal lines spaced 1 inch apart. Repeat in opposite direction, forming lattice pattern.

Bake until pastry is golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely in pan. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Cut pastry square into 3 long rectangles. Cut each rectangle crosswise into 8 rectangular bars, making 24 bars total.

NOTE: I realize that I bought some kind of chewy ginger from Trader Joes that isn't "crystallized" or candied.  So I am just going to add a little sugar to the recipe and hope it turns out.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

3 Days to Christmas!

4 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginnings: Cutting for Stone

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, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother's womb, my brother, Shiva,  and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954.

-- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. This was my book club book recently, but I didn't read it because I knew I was going to miss that meeting. I heard later that everyone loved it. I just started it, but it seems like it is going to be quite an interesting story.

5 Days to Christmas!

Review: The Book and the Brotherhood

Iris Murdoch’s 1987 novel, The Book and the Brotherhood, is subtitled “A Story about Love and Friendship and Marxism,” which pretty much sums up the themes of her 23rd novel but only hints at the scope and complexity of the story.

The book begins when a group of longtime friends meet at an Oxford ball only to have their sentimental reunion jarred by the reappearance of their charismatic former leader, David Crimond. Years earlier, as young, liberal university students, the group had agreed to fund Crimond's writing of a book on their political philosophy. The book never materialized and the brotherhood never came to much. Now Crimond is back and bent on rekindling his affair with one of the women.

The story swirls around this original group of friends, pulling in siblings and other relatives, lovers, and hangers on. Lots of things happen with these people, from ice skating parties to suicide pacts, in between which they ponder and discuss the moral vacuum of Marxism, the possibility of religion without a personal God, the Platonic ideal, abortion, real estate, marriage, and parrots.

Murdoch is at the top of her game with this novel. She is droll in the telling, but forgiving with her characters, never sarcastic, and comfortable with moral ambiguity as she tells their stories without drawing conclusions or passing judgment. There is no pat ending and the various storylines demand further contemplation long after the cover closes.

OTHER REVIEWS

The Book and the Brotherhood on Hannah Stoneham's Book Blog
The Book and the Brotherhood on Musings
The Sea, the Sea on Rose City Reader

If you would like your review of this or any other iris Murdoch book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

NOTES

The Book and the Brotherhood was 602 pages long, so counts as one of my 551 - 750 page books for the Chunkster Challenge. It also counts for the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf challenges.

6 Days to Christmas!

7 Days to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: About Face

Brunetti and Cataldo, as often happened in the city, had never been introduced to one another, although Brunetti knew the general outline of his history. The family had come from Friuli, Brunetti thought, some time early in the last century, had prospered during the Fascist era, and had become even richer during the great boom of the sixties.

-- About Face by Donna Leon. Published in 2010, this is the 18th mystery in Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series, set in Venice. I was reading them in order, but they really didn't seem to need to go in order, so I skipped ahead when I found this audio version at my library. 

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

8 Days to Christmas!

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 event (details here).

Suko's Notebook is hosting in December.  Please visit her lovely and thoughtful blog. 

I've had a couple of empty mailboxes lately, so I was pleased to swing by Booktique when I was in Lake Oswego last week. I picked up a short stack of fun paperbacks:



Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy



A Sight for Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell



Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers



3 Comedies : The Circle, Our Betters, The Constant Wife by W. Somerset Maugham



The Venetian Affair by Helen Macinnes

9 Days to Christmas!

Review: Fortune's Deadly Descent

 


Audrey Braun’s first thriller, A Small Fortune, was an unputdownable race through the jungles of Mexico to the the high-finance world of Swiss industrialists. In the rollicking sequel, Fortune's Deadly Descent, heroine Celia Hagen is back on the run, this time trying to find her kidnapped son while keeping one step ahead of the bad guys, the cops, and her possibly unfaithful husband who she is in no mood to talk to.

The action starts when Celia’s young son Benny disappears after their train breaks down in the South of France. Interpol suspects Celia, but could Benny have been stolen by Gypsies? Or is her evil ex-husband, imprisoned though he may be, behind it all?

Fortune’s Deadly Descent is just as exciting as A Small Fortune, right to the finale. Braun has an eye for detail and makes the most out of the French village setting. She also balances the action with the honest emotions of a distraught mother.

Read both of Celia’s adventures. And look forward to the third book in the trilogy!

OTHER REVIEWS

Mysterious Reviews
The Washington Post

NOTES

Braun is the pen name of novelist Deborah Reed, author of Carry Yourself Back to Me, a Best Book of 2011 Amazon Editors' Pick..

My Rose City Reader review of A Small Fortune
My Rose City Reader review of Carry Yourself Back to Me
My Rose City Reader interview of Audry Braun
The Deborah Reed/Audry Braun website
 

10 Days to Christmas!

11 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginnings: The Children of Men

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

Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days.

-- The Children of Men by P. D. James.

I put off reading this because I thought it would be too sci-fi for me. It isn't. It is alternate history or dystopian, but not really sci-fi. It is terrific! It is about England in 2021, 25 years after the entire human race became infertile and the last babies in the world were born.