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
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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.

Waiting on Wednesday July 15

Hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

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

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

Hardcover:240 pages
Publisher: Unbridled Books (September 8, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1932961836
ISBN-13: 978-1932961836

Product description:

Jonas is isolated in an apartment near the Brooklyn Bridge, and on a devastatingly confused path toward violence. His parents and his girlfriend have just 31 hours to reach him. A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother's blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn't know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won't answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas's absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters.

About the Author: 31 Hours is Masha Hamilton's fourth novel, following the acclaimed The Camel Bookmobile. She is also a journalist who has reported most recently from Afghanistan, and from the Middle East, Russia and Africa. She lives in Brooklyn.

I read and reviewed The Camel Bookmobile, which I enjoyed immensely. I am also a reader for the Camel Book Drive in the The Year of Readers 2009 charity effort.

Watch for my review of 31 Hours in September.

Which upcoming book are you waiting for?

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.

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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

Themed Reading Challenge Completed

February 1 to July 31, 2009

A six month challenge to help readers clear books from their to-be-read stacks which center around a common theme or themes.

Read 4 to 6 books linked by theme.

Hosted by Wendy at Caribousmom.

My theme is Music, in the title or as part of the story. My list of potential reads with completed books highlighted or linked to reviews:

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
The Piano Lesson by Katharine Weber
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee (recommended by Kaye at Pudgy Penguin Perusals)

Books completed:

The Cellist of Sarajevo***** by Steven Galloway
The Spanish Bow***** by Andromeda Romano-Lax
The Music Teacher**** by Barbara Hall
The Accordionist's Son**** by Bernardo Atxaga

I'm going to wrap it up with four read as I have so many other reading challenges to give attention to. I clearly have enough books to do the same theme again. Thank you Wendy, I didn't get any reviews written because of illness but it was fun reading them.

Completed June 5, 2009.

Ex-Cottagers in Love by J. M. Kearns - Review

Review

Ex-Cottagers in Love by J. M. Kearns (2008)

Fiction, 380 pgs. Paperback, Key Porter Press

This is a guest review written by Claire of kiss a cloud.

Ex-Cottagers in Love is a touching story about emotional attachments--to family, the past, childhood places, newfound loves.

Dave, in mid-life, is working as a paralegal in L.A., but his dream career, really, is to be a musician/songwriter. He works the music on the side, waiting for his "big break." He is dating his dream girl, and everything in his life is just as it should be.

Until he gets an invitation from his sister in Canada to spend a week's vacation in Muskoka to relive old times. Their family used to own a cottage by the lake where they spent their summers in. That cottage was recently sold, and Dave's sister is trying to gain back the sense of place they used to have when they were younger by renting a place right across their old cottage. Excited at the chance, Dave brings his girlfriend Maggie along.

While there, however, Dave's idea of a relaxing vacation turns into a painful and desperate trip into nostalgia. Suddenly, he expects Maggie to completely understand his feelings about summer vacations in cottage country, and despises her when she deviates from what he expects. He begins to yearn for the old days, and ponders on what it all means: his current life, his job, his relationships. He plunges into full-blown soul-searching.

When I began this book, I didn't expect to see much depth, but I was pleasantly surprised that, not only was the protagonist not shallow, the writing was actually very good.
What I loved from the start was the feeling of summer that I got. How could one not love reading about summers by the lake?

But it wasn't all about summer and cottage country. Dave had to go back to his reality in L.A. His family moved on. Along the way, we are given glimpses into the lives of members of two other generations: Dave's aging father, and his teenage nephew. The struggles each of the three characters faces intersect with one another and we are pulled into their affairs as a family, and as individuals finding their own place in this world.

The themes are familiar. The fragility of life. The inability to articulate our feelings. Self-absorption into our own dramas that we forget to pay attention to others who matter. And that, sometimes, things are a little too late.

The book also made me thoughtful: How important are memories in our lives, and are they worth that importance we give them over loved ones that are living, breathing beings, hovering in the midst of the present, the now?

There were many things in the book that moved me. And I was so glad that this turned out to be something with more substance than I initially expected. It was a delight to read, bittersweet and hopeful, like how life is. Thank you, Mr. Kearns, for this endearing book.

Two of my favourite passages:

One of the most fun things you can do is to lie on the bottom of a canoe. I did it once in the daytime. I had my life preserver on, and my mom was in the canoe. It's way more dangerous at night, like this. It's like having no sense of balance. The stars don't tell you when you're tipping and when you're not, so you feel like you're tipping all the time.

The conversation continued. My diaphragm humming with pleasure, I watched as he just kept getting things right. We had never had a chat so leisurely, so steady, so intimate. It was as if we had climbed a mountain in a freezing rain, to find at the top a sunny meadow.

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J. M. Kearns has also written these non-fiction books:

Why Mr. Right Can't Find You: The Surprising Answers that Will Change Your Life (January 2008)

Better Love Next Time: How the Relationship that Didn't Last Can Guide You to the One that Will (January 2009)

Key Porter Presshttp://www.keyporter.com/BookDetail.aspx?ISBN=1554700000

J.M Kearns Home Page:http://www.jmkearns.com/

Thank you Claire. Please visit Claire at kiss a cloud, it's a lovely book blog with insightful reviews of literary fiction.

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Literary fiction, Hardcover, 464 pages

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2006)

Lots of suspense with well-developed characters. A man suffers Capgras syndrome after an accident. His brain cannot match his visual and intellectual identifications with his emotional ones. He insists that the woman who claims to be his sister is an impostor. She consults a national expert on neurology to solve this dilemma, while the accident victim continues to reject her and waits for his "real sister" to show up. His sister is the only family he has. The clinical details are fascinating and Powers makes them as easy to understand as Oliver Sacks would. Local bird sanctuaries also figure prominently in the story and have much to tell us. Powers writes beautifully. I defy anyone to read the first few paragraphs here and not want to read this book. An excellent story. This novel is a National Book Award winner and a Pultzer Prize finalist. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Fiction, Paperback 180 pgs.

Harper Collins

This was my first novel by Helen Humphreys. I have read her previous book, The Frozen Thames, which deserves its place as a #1 national bestseller in non-fiction. This woman certainly knows her history.

In deceptively simple language Humphreys here portrays the night of November 14, 1940 and the bombing of Coventry , England during World War Two. Harriet has been a widow since the First World War. Through her eyes we experience unending hours of destruction and terror, but there is kindness and love too. She starts out on fire watch on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, which does not survive, and ends up with Maeve who searches for her son throughout the city that is burning and reduced to rubble.

This is a novel with heart, a story of shared tragedy. So much is lost to the people of Coventry, life will never be the same for any of them. Humphreys' writing is beautiful, as when Maeve, rushing home from the bomb shelter hoping to find her son there, sees tin soldiers in formation on his bedroom windowsill and realizes that they are young Jeremy's " last station of childhood ". He had tried to enlist but was turned down because he is colour blind. He was on fire watch with Harriet and they spent some hours helping with the injured where they could and dodging falling incendiaries and collapsing buildings in an attempt to get home.

The details of the history are accurate and the novel ends with an epilogue about the dedication of the newly rebuilt cathedral some twenty years after the war. I wanted to begin reading this book again as soon as I'd finished it, not something that usually happens with me. I will be rereading it to enjoy the way language is used in the story, and I look forward to reading her other novels. A very satisfying read that I can recommend to everyone. Five stars.

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Thank you to Deanna at Harper Collins Canada for providing me with a review copy.

Other Harper Collins books I have enjoyed recently:

Breath**** by Tim Winton (Australia)
Day**** by A.L.Kennedy(UK)
Broken Colors**** by Michele Zackheim (US)
Skeletons at the Feast**** by Chris Bohjaian (US)
Atmospheric Disturbances**** by Rivka Galchen
The Letter Opener***+ by Kyo Maclear
The Line Painter**** by Claire Cameron
Run by Ann Patchett****
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett****
The Yiddish Policemen's Union**** by Michael Chabon

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Review and Giveaway

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Fiction, paperback, 165 pgs. 2008

Plain View Press


This is a story told through letters between two women. From 1963 to 1989 they are friends, keeping diaries and writing letters, sharing everything through three decades of growth and change. The book begins with the loss of one of them, Katherine, tragically. Her friend Laura comes into possession of all their correspondence in a box that Katherine had kept, along with her diaries. Katherine had problems her friends and family could not seem to share or understand and the details of her death are baffling to everyone.

Laura, depite problems in her own marriage and a mother suffering from dementia who calls her constantly in a state of confusion, is determined to take a few days away. She's compelled to sort and read all the letters between them to find out what she may have overlooked. Did she miss Katherine's pain and turmoil or was it there between the lines? Might Laura have foreseen some things and helped her friend more? Or was she too busy living the high life to pay attention to what her friend was saying. It's natural to wonder. So through Laura we read the letters together, in the order that they were written, starting in grade school through high school and the college years. They wrote to each other even when together in school or the same town. Then on to new adventures in living, loving, and loss.

Katherine was the straighter arrow of the two. It was Lauren who took risks with drugs, sex, drinking and partying. She thought she might be the one to run into trouble but never Katharine, who wouldn't even try drugs. And while she knew K. had lived with abusive and alcoholic parents, she never saw the depth of her friends sadness. She discovers through the letters that things were happening to Katherine that she never fully realized. If Katharine ended up depressed and under treatment toward the end it seems she had reason. Passionate or tender, poignant or sometimes dark, the story of their lives unfolds for us, letter by letter. The novel is rich with details and Overman's writing sets the mood perfectly. Highly recommended.

Linda Rader Overman's web page: Letters Between Us.

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I will be giving my gently read copy of Letters Between Us to one of my readers.

To enter do as many of the following as you like. Three chances to win.

1) Tell us the best book of epistolary fiction, a story told entirely or for the most part through personal letters, that you've ever read, for one entry.

2) Sign up to subscribe or follow my blog, Fresh Ink Books, and I'll give you an entry.

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

Entry is open to everyone until midnight Sunday, January 25, 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, January 26 , 2009.

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.

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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?

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek

Review

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek

Fiction, Hardcover, 298 pgs.

Algonquin Books (August 2008)


I expected to relate to this story but was unsure about how much I'd enjoy the telling of it. Like Ellie I was once an eleven year old girl with overwhelming responsibilities and an unpredictable parent who needed more help than I could offer. But I really loved this book. The voice of this girl rang true for me, with all her hopes and fears. Children as protagonists or narrators in adult novels don't always impress me as real. Ellie was exactly right.
This book will sit proudly on my shelf with Ellen Foster and Me & Emma, the two other books whose little girls have stuck me as totally believable. While Ellen Foster is older and more precocious, and Carrie is younger and more confused, eleven year old Ellie in Tomato Girl is a very normal girl. But she is helpless from a combination of neglect and more responsibility than most adults can cope with. In fact it is her own father who saddles her with taking care of an unstable mother, something he himself cannot always handle appropriately. Ellie just wants to be part of a normal family and is never quite sure of herself.
Tomato girl is a touching story, about adults distracted by their own problems and desires while a young girl grows up trying to navigate the convoluted and unpredictable ways of adult behaviour. Sad in places, but uplifting too, it is a delightful story and one that I will read again. One of my favourite novels of the past year. Five stars. I recommend it highly.

Jayne Pupek's website

Algonquin Books

Thank you to Jayne for the lovely review copy she sent me.

Tomato Girl will be counted toward my LibraryThing Author Challenge 2009.

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.

Art History Reading Challenge

Read 6 books about art, fiction or non-fiction in any genre, in 2009.

Full details here http://www.arthistoryreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/

I will read 6 of these books from my stacks. Completed books are highlighted or linked to reviews.

The Madonnas of Lenningrad***** by Debra Dean

The Museum Guard**** by Howard Norman

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

The Art Instinct by Dennis Dutton
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
The Portrait by Iain Pears

The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears
The Lost Van Gogh by A. J. Zerries
The Music Lesson by Katharine Weber
The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey
Waking Raphael by Leslie Forbes
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Reading recommendations or comments on these titles are always welcomed. If you've written a review of any of these books, leave a link, I'd love to read it and post the link here.

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.

Short Story Reading Challenge Completed

Short story collections read during this reading challenge:

Dictation: A Quartet**** by Cynthia Ozick

Months and Seaons**** by Christopher Meeks

Down to an Endless Sea***+ by Mathias Freese

Arsenic Soup for Lovers*** by Georgia Post

Nothing to be Frightened Of**** by Julian Barnes

The View from the Seventh Layer**** by Kevin Brockmeier

Thank you to authors Christopher Meeks, Mathias B. Freese, and Georgia Post for the review copies they sent.

Highlighted titles are linked to my review.

Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

Harper Perennial 2008

An excellent story about a family who suffered an unresolved loss of a child some years before and how each copes with it over time. The son has joined a strict Orthodox group in Israel and his sister is sent to try and bring him home for a family funeral. Their mother is considering an intervention for him as she views his actions as the equivalent of belonging to a cult. It's well-written, with empathy and humour. Four and a half stars. Highly recommended.

I received my copy from Jennifer at Book Club Girl and participated in her interview with Diana on Blog Talk Radio on November 20. Jennifer is a good interviewer. I recommend listening to the broadcast after reading the novel as there is an inadvertent spoiler in it.

Diana herself is a gracious and easy going author. She recently wote a guest post here at Melody's Reading Corner that's quite humourous. She also thanked me just for mentioning her book as one I intended to read for Jewish Book Month. I wish every book I read was as good as Who By Fire. I can't recommend it enough.

Boston Bibliophile has also posted a very nice and more comprehensive review of the book here that may interest you.

Feel free to leave comments or links to comments or reviews about Who By Fire and I will add them to the body of this post.

What have you read that's really good in literary fiction?

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

Review of A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

Fiction, paperback, 202 pgs.

Houghton Mifflin Company, September 2008

Set in Nairobi, Kenya, this delightful story captures us with its warm humour, beautiful scenery and sightings of many of its one thousand species of birds. Rose Mbikwa leads a bird watching group on a walk every week for the East Africa Ornithological Society. She's a Scottish widow and Mr. Malik, also widowed, is secretly in love with her and has gone on these walks to enjoy her company for three years now. Just as he's working up the courage to ask her to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the really big social event of the year, his old school nemesis, playboy Harry Kahn, breezes into town announcing that he intends to ask her. Their conversation is witnessed by everyone at the gentlemens' Asadi Club and a way to determine who has the right to ask her is decided. Whoever identifies the most bird species in a week's time can ask her to the Ball.

Mr. Malik, sixty, is described in birders terms as "small, dumpy brown-skinned, nondescrepit; distinguishing feature: hairstyle owes more to artifice than nature" (he has a comb-over). Harry Kahn, playboy, is identified by "brown skin, white hair, white teeth and a tendency to dress in white; distinguishing characteristics: highly ornamented, noted for flamboyant mating display." Harry proceeds by hiring people and vehicles (not strictly according to the rules) as if on a great hunt to chalk up the most birds. Mr. Malik goes about things more quietly and has a few adventures and mishaps along the way but we are rooting for him.The birding details are fascinating as are the detailed pencilled drawings by the author that acompany each chapter heading. But the story also shows some of the corruption in the government and the dangers of being mugged in the everday life of the city. It's a good story, told by a somewhat cheeky narrator, laugh out loud funny in places and well worth reading. I enjoyed it very much. Four stars out of five.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Company for the review copy.

"Nicholas Drayson was born in England and has lived in Australia since 1982, where he studied zoology and a Ph.D. in 19th century Australian natural history writing. He has worked as a journalist in the UK, Kenya and Australia, writing for publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Australian Geographic. From 1998 to 2001 he wrote for the National Museum of Australia. His first novel, Confessing a Murder, was published in 2002, his latest is A Guide to the Birds of East Africa. He was recently the winner of the inaugural WILDCARE Tasmania Nature Writing Prize."

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Review and Giveaway

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Fiction, Paperback, 291 pgs. (2008)

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Author's site:

http://www.joshuahenkin.com/author/

From the cover:

" Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new Millenium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone-to do it when you're young-and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age."

Matrimony's strengths are twofold. Exceptionally smooth prose makes it an effortless and enjoyable reading experience. And emotional honesty offers us a wholly believable and satifying story. We follow a young Julian and Mia through their college years and an early marriage, to career choices and changes, the loss of a parent, and lingering doubts about Julian's ability to become the writer he wants to be. Their closest friends, Carter and Pilar, share those times with them and life moves forward as they spend some years both studying and teaching in different college towns. We watch them mature, gaining new insights about each other as parents age, friends split up, illness threatens, and an old secret causes a deep wound.

The author is clearly perceptive about the intricacies of relationships and of matrimony. We may see this as the story of a young couple's marital course but it is more. For there are in fact several marriages here when we take into account both Julian and Mia's friends as well as their respective parents. While our main interest follows them, each couple's relationship is unique and working itself out in its own ways too and we are privy to all of it. This is a quiet but solid story, driven by well-developed, complex characters whose lives we are seriously interested in. It's about life, long love, and friendship, and it's one story you don't want to miss out on. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Joshua Henkin has generously offered a signed copy of Matrimony to be given to one of my readers. It will come directly from the author.

1)To enter, comment on some aspect of the story that interests you. Tell us why you want to read it. Or, tell us how long you've been married or give us some advice on what you think contributes to a good marriage.
2)For a second entry, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to it in your comment. If you don't have a blog, email 4 friends telling them about this giveaway copying me at sfuhringer(at) sympatico(dot) ca.

You must leave an email address if you're entering the giveaway and don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight, Wednesday October 29, 2008.

Winner to be announced on Thursday October 30, 2008.