Costa Award Reading Challenge

An ongoing project to read the Costa Prize fiction winners from1971 when the prize (then called the Whitbread) was established to the present. I will be reading all of the fiction and first novel winners and any shortlist nominees that appeal to me. There are no longlists provided for this prize and shortlists contain only four nominees. 

2012 Winners announced Jan.3, 2013:

2012 Costa Novel Award shortlist:

Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies (Winner!)
Stephen May - Life! Death! Prizes!
James Meek - The Heart Broke In
Joff Winterhart - Days of the Bagnold Summer

2012 Costa First Novel Award shortlist

J. W. Ironmonger - The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder
Jess Richards - Snake Ropes
Francesca Segal - The Innocents (Winner!)
Benjamin Wood - The Bellwether Revivals 

Official Costa Award Site
________________________

Costa Novel Award 2011

• Pure**** by Andrew Miller (Winner)
• The Sense of an Ending**** by Julian Barnes
• A Summer of Drowning by John Burnside
• My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young     

Costa First Novel Award 2011

• Tiny Sunbirds Far Away****+ by Christie Watson (Winner)
• City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
• The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
• Pao by Kerry Young

Winners read:

2010 Pure**** by Andrew Miller  
2010 Tiny Sunbirds Far Away****+ by Christie Watson

2010 The Hand That First Held Mine**** by Maggie O'Farrell 
2008 The Secret Scripture***** by Sebastian Barry
2008 The Outcast**** by Sadie Jones
2007 What Was Lost***** by Catherine O'Flynn
2007 Day**** by A L Kennedy
2006 The Tenderness of Wolves****+ by Stef Penney
1985 Hawksmoor***** by Peter Ackroyd (read twice)
1972 The Bird of Night**** by  Susan Hill 

Also read, from the shortlists:

2010 The Sense of an Ending**** by Julian Barnes 
2009 The Elephant Keeper****+by Christpher Nicholson (reviewed)
2009 The Music Room**** by William Fiennes (Biography)
2008 The Other Hand***** by Chris Cleave (Little Bee in US) reviewed
2008 Trauma***** by Patrick McGrath
2008 The Behaviour of Moths**** by Poppy Adams
(The Sister in US)
2007 Death of a Murderer***** by Rupert Thomson  reviewed
1983 Flying to Nowhere**** by John Fuller

On my shelves tbr:

2005 The Silk Factory by Tash Aw
2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
1978 Picture Palace by Paul Theroux
1974 The Sacred & Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

Which have you read and can recommend? Comments, requests for brief reviews or links to reviews are always welcome. 

Also working her way through Costa Book Award winners:
Rose City Reader.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave - Review

The Other Hand in UK

Fiction 266 pages, Hardcover

Doubleday (2009)


Set alternately in Nigeria and a refugee center in England, Little Bee is not an easy story to read but it is one that needed to be written. A young girl and her sister are a target of the violence that comes with the ruthless corruption in Nigeria. Sarah and Andrew, an English couple on holiday happen upon the girls and attempt to save them from their attackers in an incident that is truly shocking. The remainder of the story takes place two years later in an immigration detention center in England when one of those girls, Little Bee, manages to escape and make her way to the couple's address hoping for help to remain in the country. She claims if she's sent back she will be killed, but who believes that about a 14 year old girl?

The issues of immigration, racism, and deportation are complex. As is the question of how far we are willing to go to help someone who is not one of our own, so to speak. And unresolved feelings around the original incident in Nigeria again threaten to tear Sarah and Andrew apart. One of them wants to help her and the other is terrified for reasons of their own and wants nothing to do with her. I devoured the story in one day, I had to know how it turned out.

It's an eye opener regarding immigration centers, the living conditions therein and the length of time people can languish in them, hoping for asylum. It's a terrible but entirely believable story. It is well written, narrated in alternating voices between Little Bee and the wife Sarah. It is also original and unforgettable. For those who asked Little Bee has more than one brutal moment in it. However, nothing in the book is invented or exaggerated beyond what is actually happening to people. My personal take is always that we need to know what's going on in the world and fiction can be an easier introduction to that than other means. Four and a half stars out of five. I recommend it highly.

Thank you to Doubleday for sending me a lovely hardcover true copy of the book and to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.

Also reviewed by Claire at the view from chesil beach
and Bookworm with a View.



Comments, questions, dissenting opinions, requests for reviews, reading recommendations, or links to reviews are always welcomed. I'd love to read them. No Spoilers please.

The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover - Review

The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover

Historical fiction, 227 pages, Paperback

Harper Collins (December 30, 2008)


Abraham is a devout Italian Jew of the sixteenth century. He travels to strange and exotic places as a jewel trader for his uncle's business. No matter how far from the eyes of fellow worshippers or in what circumstances he find himself, he continues his morning prayers and religious rituals. He deals honestly in business and tries to be kind and tolerant even in unusual circumstances. When he reaches the Burmese port city of Pegu in 1598 he expects to remain the man he is. But a shocking stumbling block to his faith will be put squarely in his path and how he handles it will affect his being tolerated in this strange kingdom and how well he will do in business. He struggles fiercely against compromise for some time.

Told entirely through the daily letters home to his beloved cousin Joseph, it is at once an adventure and a compelling story about what is really important to us. How far would we would go to experience and keep true love? When the pressure to follow the local custom of deflowering young brides to bring luck to the families becomes intolerable he reasons with himself "The law and my heart must be one. How could I follow my heart and betray the law and still call myself a Jew? But how could the law demand I betray my heart? I would be lost if I had to do either." The Jewel Trader of Pegu is not about sex as some have imagined. It's about the moral dilemma of a man who wants to do the right thing. The choice Abraham makes will change his life forever.

This is sensitive story telling, often with profound philosophical or spiritual insights into the differences of religion, culture and social customs. Abraham slowly realizes that it's not really his place to judge these people who tattoo their legs with grotesques images, or scar their faces and blacken their teeth. He is surprised to find himself beginning to view their customs and Buddhist thinking in a different light. Though he will be happy to finish his uncle's business and leave for home. Then war, along with looting and reprisals threaten the town. All other foreigners have reasonably fled for home but Abraham has suddenly and unexpectedly found, in a young widow named Mya, a reason for staying and risking everything.

This is one of the best novels I've read this year. A gem of a story, I give it five stars and my highest recommendation.

Jeffrey Hantover's web page

Thank you to Danny Goldstein at Harper Collins for the review copy.

Also reviewed at:

Devourer of Books
Everything Distills into Reading
Bleeding Expresso

I welcome questions, comments, dissenting opinions, or links to your reviews of this or any book discussed on this blog.

Any followers who comment before midnight Monday July 27 qualify to be entered to win my gently read copy of this book. Please indicate that you wish to be entered and that you are a follower.

*Added on July 28: The winner is teabird.

Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

"Read 12, 25, or 50 books from your local library in 2009."

Hosted by J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Books Blog.

I chose to read 50 books from my public library this year.

.

Books are listed as completed with links to those reviewed:

1.The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles
2.The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
3.TThe Rabbi's Cat 2 by Joann Sfor

4.The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

5.The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Ronmano-Lax

6.The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

7.Hannah's Dream by Diane Coplin Hammond

8.The Madonnas of Lenningrad by Debra Dean

9.The Spare Room by Helen Garner

10.Shelter Me by Juliette Fay

11.The Cradle by Patrick Somerville

12.We need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

13.What Happened to Anna k. by Irina Reyn

14.The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio

15.The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

16.The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

17.Leper by Steve Thayer

18.Mad Desire to Dance by Elie Wiesel

19.The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

20.The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams

21.Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

22.The Prospector by J.M.G. Le Clezio

23.Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes by Tamar Yellin

24.The Blue Fox by Sjon

25.To Siberia by Per Petterson

26.Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

27.Disquiet by Julia Leigh

28.A Father's Affair by Karel Von Loon

29.Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

30.Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

31.The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall

32.Asta in the Wings by Jan Elizabeth Watson

33.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

34.The Fat Lady Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay

35.The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

36.The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

37.The Winner of Sorrow by Brian Lynch

38.Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser

39.The Madwoman of Bethlehem by Rosine Nimeh-Mailloux

40.The Snow Geese by William Fiennes

41.Possession by A.S. Byatt

42.The Accordionist's Son by Bernardo Atxaga
43.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44.Wanting by Richard Flanagan
45.Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
46.The Great Lover by Jill Dawson
47.The Pages by Murray Bail
48.The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
49.Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani

50.Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing

Original goal completed July 2, 2009.

Serendipity:

51.The Little Stranger by Sarah
52.The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
53.Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
54.Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Thursday Tea

Thursday Tea is a weekly feature hosted by Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

" To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the willingness to answer some very simple questions: What tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together."

The tea:

Yunnan Black Tea. Described on the packet thus: "Smooth, sweet honey flavour with an elegant flowery aroma. Highly prized by tea connoisseurs."

The book:

The Disappeared by Kim Echlin (2009) 235 pages HC

Set in Montreal and Cambodia during the 1970s, this love story plays out during the post Pol Pot era when Cambodia was getting back on its feet after terrible years of war and brutal oppression. The outside world was just discovering the extent of the deaths from the killing fields and democratic process was being promised but was not being delivered in any serious ways. Anne goes to Cambodia to find her boyfriend Serey after his return to his country and a silence of years that she has never been able to accept or understand. They were in love so what happened to him? Did he find any of his missing family? Is he even alive? Her heart tells her that he would never have deserted her if he could have returned to Canada. She will fight against a uncooperative bureaucracy that has much to hide, with nothing but her persistent love for this man. And she will find him but things do not always turn out quite the way we hope. A haunting tale, The Disappeared "is a remarkable consideration of language, truth, justice, and memory that speaks to the conscience of the world, and to love, even when those we love most are gone."

Do they go together?

A dark tea, Yunnan Black seemes appropriate to this story with its heartbreaking questions, deep loss and shadows of the past.

What are you drinking/reading today?

Previous Posts:

Library Loot

Haiku Friday

Review: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

More Thursday Tea

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Knopf US 2007 (Australia 2005)


This is a guest review written by Colleen of Foreign Circus Library.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Book Thief, a novel I'm afraid a lot of people are missing because it was marketed as a Young Adult book here in the U.S. Set near Munich during WWII, this novel tells the story of a young German girl living with a foster family and trying to cope with the daily realities of the war. She exerts a measure of control over her life by stealing books even though she is illiterate when her story begins. Though marketed as a teen book, I think The Book Thief far transcends that limited label. The message, the sensitivity of the subject matter, and the stunning prose mark this as a powerful novel of the Holocaust. This book is by turns gritty and ugly and redemptive, but is it always real and always gripping.

Populated with strange and wonderful characters, the story itself is narrated by Death, whose reflections lend even greater poignancy to the sad tale that slowly and artfully unfolds through the novel. Death often offers commentary on both the life of the Book Thief and on the war itself in a voice that sent chills down my spine:

An abridged roll call for 1942:
1. The desperate Jews- their spirits on my lap as we sat on the roof, next to the steaming chimneys.
2. The Russian soldiers- taking only small amounts of ammunition, relying on the fallen for the rest of it.
3. The soaked bodies of a French coast- beached on the shingle and sand.

Death views war as a harsh taskmaster, and marvels that humans have so perfected the means for mass killing. While Liesel's story focuses on the realities of the war from a personal perspective, Death's commentary keeps the big picture in focus, and reminds the reader of the context of the tale. I would highly recommend this book to any adult reader.

Other reviews of The Book Thief:

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit
Tricia at Library Queue
Josette at Books Love Me
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Thank you Colleen. I thoroughly enjoyed this book when it came out and would give it five stars myself. I was prepared to reject it as outside my comfort zone when I knew that Death was the narrator of the story. I first heard about it when it won a prize in Australia and was shocked when its US publisher later decided to market it as "Books for Young Readers". It is and was written as adult fiction. It is a book that should not be missed.

Feel free to leave a link if you've reviewed The Book Thief or any comments you may have about it.

My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar

Review and Giveaway

My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar

Non-fiction, Algonquin Books, 334 pgs.

This is a guest post written by Colleen of Foreign Circus Library.

Though Ariel Sabar may regret that his relationship with his father was so contentious, readers have cause to rejoice because that fractured relationship led Sabar to pen this elegant tale of his father's life and language.

Yona Sabar, a Jewish Kurd, grew up speaking Aramaic, an ancient language now all but lost. He is also a celebrated linguist who has worked tirelessly to document his language before it dies. This book traces that effort, weaving a colorful tapestry of Jewish life in Iraq, Kurdish life in Israel, and immigrant life in America.

Though the portions of the book dealing with Ariel himself were less compelling, the tales of Yona's early life in Kurdistan are hypnotic- I had a difficult time putting this book down. The writing is excellent and the character of Yona breathes throughout the book. The book is never technical about linguistics; the story of Yona's work is presented as I believe he experienced it- a treasure hunt generating excitement with each new clue.

Five stars. Highly recommended!

Thank you Colleen, I thought it was an excellent book too. Thank you to Algonquin Books for the ARC they sent. I am offering it to one of my readers. To enter:

1)Tell us the best book of Jewish interest you've read, fiction or non-fiction.

2)Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight Sunday February 8, 2009.Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Winner will be announced on Monday February 9, 2009.

This giveaway is part of the Bloggy Carnival. Check it out for other giveaways.

TSS Books Read This Week

This week's Sunday Salon consists of tag reviews of books read this week:

Hannah's Dream***** by Diane Hammond

I loved this book, based on a true story. Washington state, an old elephant (Hannah) and keeper, been together 41 years; old run down circus/wildlife park created by past eccentric, we get parallel stories of parks origins and eccentric's talks withthe elephant keeper over the years, but now the elephant keeper is ill and must retire; no one know's Hannah and can care for her the way keeper and his wife have. Bossy and rigid park manager, has odd ideas how to attract people to park, but brings in smart young keeper to look after elephant who realizes Hannah is sick and will not survive poor the conditions or the keeper retiring. Plan afoot to transfer her to elephant sanctuary in Tenessee (sanctuary is real, I've seen documentaires on it), boss is kept out of loop deliberately as long as possible. Boom falls, complications, tension, ultimately a happy ending. A heartwarming story, highly recommended.

The Rabbi's Cat 2**** by Joann Sfar (translated from French)

Graphic novel, hard cover, only the second one I've ever read, they are not my cup of tea. The first was The Rabbi's Cat*****, charming and funny, beautifully illustrated by France's top graphics artist, and a good story. This one is the second book. A rabbi and his daughter in Algeria, pre war, the rabbi's cat can speak, argues Torah, points out incongruities in people's behaviour. Two stories here, one about an old man and his old pet lion. Fun to read. Second about racism but I wasn't impressed, arguing got loud and physical (perhaps in attempt to prove author's point ?) despite everyone being of the same religion; author gratuitously threw in the "f" word-once, it spoiled the tone for me. Glad I wasn't reading it with a child on my lap. No faulting the artistry or original story but I am not the one to judge graphic novels.

*Marie at The Boston Bibliophile has a weekly graphic novel review and has read these books. You can find her review of both Rabbi's Cat books here.

The Whirlpool**** by Jane Urquhart (Canada)

Set in 1889 in Niagara Falls, and the story's quirky Victorian characters are each busy with their own obsessions; whether for a woman-from a distance, nature and poetry, war history, details of death-by the undertaker's widow, or Niagara Falls and the lives its whirpool claims. Robert Browning's last days in Venice are also present as brackets (first and last chapters) to the main story. Rich language, fascinating historical details. Highly recommended. I have read four others of her novels:

Away***

The Underpainter****

The Stone Carvers*****

A Map of Glass**** (my favourite)

What are you reading?

TSS Books Read This Week

Today's Sunday Salon includes books read in the first 10 days of 2009, I have given them what I call tag reviews.

1.The Madonnas of Leningrad***** by Debra Dean

I loved it. Russia, 1941, siege of Leningrad, WW II, Hermitage Museum (Catherine the Great's Palace), I've been there; museum workers, evacution of artworks, lots of description of real art pieces, many paintings, conditions of cold, starvation, Germans bombing; Marina (main character), fiance is a soldier at the front; she tries to memorize details of missing paintings; parallel story of them in old age, grown children don't know details of the war, their mother Marina slowly succumbing to Alzheimers and says confusing things that make sense to reader because we know her past, but not to family. Great story, highly recommended.

2.What We All Long**** For by Dionne Brand (full review and giveaway upcoming)

3.The Gravedigger's Daughter**** by Joyce Carol Oates 592 pgs.

A Jewish family escapes Germany to America, 1930's, father beomes town's gravedigger, poverty, anti-Semitism, war, immigrants, Germans, murder leaves youngest child orphaned, town unforgiving, she marries and has a child who is musically talented, dicovers unsavory things about husband and makes her escape, new identity, constant fear and mistrust, until she meets some decent people. She tries to re-establish contacts with Jewish relatives who may have survived the war. A very good story.

4.The Museum Guard**** by Howard Norman

Canada, Nova Scotia, Halifax, 1939, nephew and his colourful uncle are both museum guards, art, paintings, radio broadcasts re Europe gearing up for war, anti-Semitism, nephew's girlfriend beomes obsessed by a Dutch painter and takes on personna of the painter's Jewish wife, insisting on going to Europe. Unusual but very interesting story, recommended.

5.Letters Between Us**** by Linda Rader Overman (full review and giveaway upcoming)

Some weeks won't be this good but it was a nice start to the new year. Any opinions or comments are welcomed. What are you reading today?

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

Review

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

Giller Prize Winner 2008

Fiction, Hardcover, pgs.

Penguin Group Canada, September 2008


This is a guest review, written by Tamara of Books by TJ Baff.

From the Publisher

From internationally acclaimed author Joseph Boyden comes an astonishingly powerful novel of contemporary aboriginal life, full of the dangers and harsh beauty of both forest and city. When beautiful Suzanne Bird disappears, her sister Annie, a loner and hunter, is compelled to search for her, leaving behind their uncle Will, a man haunted by loss. While Annie travels from Toronto to New York, from modelling studios to A-list parties,Will encounters dire troubles at home. Both eventually come to painful discoveries about the inescapable ties of family. Through Black Spruce is an utterly unforgettable consideration of how we discover who we really are. About the Author Joseph Boyden is a Canadian with Irish, Scottish, and Métis roots. Three Day Road has received the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award and has also been shortlisted for the Governor General Award for Fiction and published in 10 languages. He divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana, where he teaches writing at the University of New Orleans.

The novel Through Black Spruce is written by alternating chapters between Annie Bird's story, a somewhat confused loner and niece to, Will Bird, bush pilot, who lies in a coma in a hospital bed. Annie shares her story, while seated at her uncle's bedside, about the search for her sister in the international modelling world, in an effort to interest her uncle enough in the day to day troubles that he will awaken from his coma.

Will's voice comprises the alternate chapters about his recollections of events leading up to the beating that leads him to the coma. Both stories culminate in a shared climax that has it's roots in the same sequence of events.

I loved this book. I found the style of writing easy to read and it flowed. The characters were well developed and through the tale there was shown to be a growth period for both of the main protagonists. The sequence of events leading to the climax made sense and was well planned and executed and the overwhelming theme of family was well described.

I left this book after the closing of the last page feeling as if I had read an authentic tale relating problems experienced by a few aboriginals in their native northlands and how they are fighting the the same fight of drug related gangs and violence that we are further south. Their success in this fight also depends on the few who stand up against this oppression and fight back. A timely tale.

5 out of 5 stars.

<><><><><>

Thank you Tamara. You can see more of Tamara's work at Books by TJ Baff.

This was Joseph Boyden's second novel. Though the story stands alone it does follow the same family as his first, Three Day Road, which I will be reading as part of the Diversity challenge (button in sidebar). Through Black Spruce was a five star read for me too and the Giller Prize for literature was well deserved.

Have you read it, or any other Giller Prize nominees? What other Native North American literature can you recommend?

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pgs.

Hamish Hamilton Canada, March 3, 2009

From the Publisher

"This story of passionate love between a Canadian and her Cambodian lover evokes their tumultuous relationship in a world of colliding values. Set against the backdrop of horrific loss, these two self-exiled lovers struggle to recreate themselves in a world that rejects their hopes. Spare, unrelenting, and moving, The Disappeared is an unforgettable consideration of love, language, justice, and memory set against the backdrop of the killing fields of Pol Pot."

I read Elephant Winter by Kim Echlin, her first novel which I reviewed briefly here, and I loved it. So I just have to read her new book, The Disappeared. It's a more serious subject but I look forward to reading it.

Which books are you waiting for?

Waiting on Wednesday

This week's pre-publication

"can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Breaking Lorca

by Giles Blunt

Publication Date: February 17, 2009

From Random House :

"A literary novel that treads fearlessly into one of recent history’s most shocking moral crucibles. In 1980s El Salvador, a young woman is detained in a government torture squad’s head-quarters, suspected of supporting guerilla forces. There, a bookish new recruit, Victor Peña, is assigned to assist in her interrogation. Before they learn so much as her name – Lorca – the squad relentlessly break her, body and soul. It is a terrifying journey into human cruelty and courage, one which years later – in the pinnacle of cosmopolitan America – still haunts the tormentor as dramatically as it does his victim."

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed every book Giles Blunt has written except his latest "No Such Creature" (April 2008) which I have a copy to read and review for LibraryThing. Breaking Lorca is a departure for Blunt and I always knew he was too good to just keep writing crime mysteries, even award winners as his have been. I can hardly wait.

What are you looking forward to reading?

Africa Reading Challenge 2008

"Read six books that were written by African writers, take place in Africa, or deal significantly with Africans and African issues." Completed December 28, 2008.

Full details from Dave:http://tukopamoja.wordpress.com/africa-reading-challenge/

My projected tbr list from books found in my stacks; those completed are highlighted.

The Curve of the World**** by Marcus Stevens (Congo)

A Burnt Out Case**** by Graham Greene (Congo)

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa**** by Nicholas Drayson (Kenya)(reviewed)

beethoven was one-sixteenth black**** by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)

Diary of a Bad Year***** by J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)

The Camel Bookmobile***** by Masha Hamilton (Kenya)

Twice Born**** by Pauline Gedge (ancient Egypt) (reviewed)

The Blue Door**** by Andre Brink (South Africa)

So Long a Letter, by Mariama Ba (Senegal)

The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari (Sudan)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Congo)

Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway (Mali)

Eight read, not bad, if not the most African of writers and subjects. I will continue the challenge for myself if there is no official project in 2009.

What can you recommend on this theme? Comments and review links of these titles are welcomed. I would love to read them.

What's in a Name? Reading Challenge

January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009

Full details from Annie.

Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a "profession" in its title.

2. A book with a "time of day" in its title.

3. A book with a "relative" in its title.

4. A book with a "body part" in its title.

5. A book with a "building" in its title.

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title.

My projected tbr list: those completed will be highlighted:

1.The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles

2.The Bird of Night by Susan Hill

3.The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

4.Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser

5.The Museum Guard by Howard Norman

6.The Leper by Steve Thayer

1.The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover
2.Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
3.The Accordionist's Son by Bernardo Atxaga
4.
5.
6.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Reading recommendations, comments (no spoilers), and links to your reviews of these titles are welcomed.

Completed May 12, 2009. But I may do another round.

Orange Prize Reading Challenge

An ongoing project to complete all of the Orange Prize winners.

Hosted by Wendy of Caribou's Mom

Orange Prize Fiction shortlist 2012:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Winner)

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright   
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding    
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Longlist 2012

I include those from the shortlists and longlists that I have read. All titles completed are highlighted or linked to reviews. I have starred my top recommendations.

2012 - Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan Shortlist
2012 - Gillespie and I by Jane Harris Longlist
2012 - Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding Shortlist
2012 - The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay Longlist
2012 - Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick Shortlist
2012 - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett Shortlist
2012 - There but for the by Ali Smith Longlist
2011 - The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin Longlist*****
2011 - Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch Longlist
2011 - The London Train by Tessa Hadley Longlist
2011 - Room by Emma Donaghue Shortlist****
2011 - Great House by Nicole Krauss Shortlist

2011 - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver  Winner

2010 - The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters  Shortlist ****  

2010 - The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey Longlist
2010 - This Is How by M. J. Hyland  Longlist 

2010 - After The Fire, A Still Small Voice+ by Evie Wyld****+ (N Shortlist)

2009 - Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden**** Shorlist
2009 - The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey  Shortlist
2009 - The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt  Shortlist
2009 - A Mercy by Toni Morrison Longlist****
2009 - Home by Marilynne Robinson  Winner*****
2009 - The Lost Dog by Michelle de Krester  Longlist****
2008 - The Road Home by Rose Tremain  Winner****
2008 - The Outcast by Sadie Jones  Shortlist
2008 - The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff  Shortlist
2008 - The Gathering by Anne Enright  Longlist (F)
2008 - The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant Longlist
2008 - Sorry by Gail Jones  Longlist*****
2008 - The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer  Longlist
2007 - The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly (N)*****
2007 - The Observations by Joanne Harris  Shortlist****
2007 - Alligator by Lisa Moore  Longlist
2007 - What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn  Longlist*****
2007 - The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney  Longlist
2007 - The Housekeeper by Melanie Wallace  Longlist
2006 - Disobedience by Naomi Alderman  Winner (N)****
2006 - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson  Longlist*****
2006 - The History of Love by Nicole Kraus  Shortlist*****
2006 - Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones Longlist
2005 - The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee  Longlist*****
2005 - We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver  Winner*****
2004 - Gilgamesh by Joan London**** Longlist
2003 - Unless by Carol Shields  Shortlist
2003 - What the Birds See (Of a Boy) by Sonya Harnett  Longlist*****
2003 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold  Longlist
2003 - What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt*** Longlist
2002 -The Siege by Helen Dunmore Shortlist*****
2002 - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett  Winner*****
2002 - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk  Longlist
2001 - The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville  Winner
2001 - Hotel World by Ali Smith  Shortlist
2001 - The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt  Longlist*****
2000 - Charming Billy by Alice McDermott  Longlist*****
2000 - Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina B. Nahai  Longlist
1999 - The Leper's Companions by Julia Blackburn  Shortlist
1998 - The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve  Shortlist*****
1998 - The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart  Longlist
1997 - Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald  Longlist****
1996 - The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald  Longlist

In my stacks waiting trb:

Careless by Deborah Robertson
26a by Diana Evans
Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki 2005 Shortlist N
The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates 2005 Longlist
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Book of Colour by Julia Blackburn
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise by Toni Morrison
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
Love by Toni Morrison-longlist
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
The Orchard by Drusilla Modjeska
Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen

I welcome comments or recommendations on these or any not listed. No spoilers though please. If you've written a review of any Orange Prize nominees, leave me a link. I'd love to read them.

Read The Nobels Challenge

The Nobel Reading Challenge


"The goal is to read 5 books by Nobel literature laureates each year and post your thoughts or reviews."

A complete list of the Nobel Laureates in Literature.

  

Completed this year:

2003 Diary of a Bad Year**** by J. M. Coetzee
2001 A Bend in the River****+ by V. S. Naipaul

Previously read:

2009 The Appointment by Herta Muller
2008 The Interrogation by J. M. G. Le Clezio
2008 The Prospector by J. M. G. Le Clezio
2007 Prisons We Choose to Live Inside by Doris Lessing
2007 The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing  
2007 The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing  
2007 Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing
2006 Snow by Orhan Pamuk
1998 Blindness by Jose Sarmago
1998 The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago
1999 My Century by Gunther Grass
1994 Teach Us How to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburo Oe
1994 A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
1993 A Mercy by Toni Morrison
1993 Beloved by Toni Morrison
1993 Song of Solomon by Toni Morison
1993 Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
1993 Sula by Toni Morrison
1993 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
1991 The Essential Gesture by Nadine Gordimer
1991 beethoven was one-sixteenth black by Nadine Gordimer
1988 Autumn Quail by Naguib Mahfouz
1983 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1982 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1982 One Hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1982 The Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1978 The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1978 A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1978 The Death of Methusaleh and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1978 The Penitent by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1978 Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1978 The Collected Stories by isaac Bashevis Singer
1976 Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
1976 To Jerusalem and Back by Saul Bellow
1972 Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll
1972 What's to Become of the Boy? by Heinrich Boll
1972 Missing Persons and Other Essays by Heinrich Boll
1970 The Gulag Archipelago Vol.1 by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1970 The Gulag Archipelago Vol.2 by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn 

1970 The Gulag Archipelago Vol.3 by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn  
1970 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1968 Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
1965 And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov
1964 Anti-Semite and Jew by Jean Paul Sartre
1964 What Is Literature? by Jean Paul Sartre
1964 War Diaries by Jean Paul Sartre
1962 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1962 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
1962 The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
1962 Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
1957 The Stranger by Albert Camus
1957 The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (read several times)
1957 A Happy Death by Albert Camus
1954 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1954 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
1954 To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
1950 The Principles of Mathematics by Bertrand Russell
1950 The ABCs of Relativity by Bertrand Russell
1950 Why I Am Not a Christan and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell
1950 What I Believe by Bertrand Russell
1950 Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell
1949 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
1949 Light in August by William Faulkner
1948 The Wasteland by T. S Eliot
1948 Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems by T. S. Eliot

1948 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

1947 The Immoralist by Andre Gide
1946 Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
1946 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse 
1946 Narcissus and Goldmund by Harmann Hesse

1946 My Belief: Essays in Life and Art by Hermann Hesse
1938 The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
1938 Sons by Pearl Buck
1938 A House Divided by Pearl Buck
1938 Peony by Pearl Buck
1938 Far Pavilions by Pearl Buck
1930 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (read twice)
1930 Cass Timberlane by Sinclair Lewis
1929 The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (read twice)
1929 Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann
1920 Hunger by Knut Hamsun
1920 The Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

What have you read by a Nobel author that you can recommend? Leave a link if you're doing the challenge too or if you've reviewed any Nobel authors. I'd love to read them.

Only Your Librarian Knows For Sure

Have you ever read a banned book? Sure you have, you probably just didn't know it.

This list of the most banned books crossed my desk two years ago as a book survey. Feel free to try it yourself. All opinions and comments are welcomed.

"If you have read the whole book, bold it. If you have read part of the book, italicize it. If you own it but haven't gotten around to reading it yet, *** it."

1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee***
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Das Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque***
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
61. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
75. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck***
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene***
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner ***
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
98. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines ***
102. Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Émile Zola***
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
111. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
112. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
113. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
114. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle***
115. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

I had no idea. I feel so wicked. Not.