Sunday Salon: Challenge Completion

I just finished another challenge! I thought that was the last for the year then looked down my sidebar and realised I still have to read a Stephanie Myer book, I have The Host as my read once school finishes.

I managed to read The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea this afternoon, (I should have been studying but couldn't face phonetics!). The book centres around a widow and her only son. The son spies reguarly on his mother as she gets undressed for bed each evening, then one evening she brings home a man and he watches everything, almost as if he was watching a science experiment. The woman falls in love with this sailor, spelling disaster him at the hands of her precocious son.

The book features a nasty scene with a group of boys, a knife and scissors, and a kitten, one I don't think I'll get out of my head for a while.

I certainly wouldn't rave about this book, I've heard loads of positive comments about it and maybe I was expecting too much. It was ok, I'm sure bits of it will stay with me, but I much preferred the romantic Sound of the Waves.

Japanese Challenge completed!!!

What I was meant to read:

Any of Murakami which I haven't read
The Pillow Book by Shonogan
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Mishma

Out by Kirino (Started it and was put off by the violent disposal of the body)

What I actually read:
Goodbye Tsugumi, Yosimoto
Hardboiled/Hardluck, Yoshimoto

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Mishma

My Thoughts: The Gathering by Anne Enright

Lots of reviews of this book say it is too depressing, too miserable. This is a book about a suicide, its hardly likely to be full of happiness and joy.

The book is narrated by a middle aged, middle class woman, with a seemingly perfect life - she's at home looking after the kids, whilst her husbands business is going so well she can buy anything she wants. But she isn't happy.

When her brother commits suicide she starts mulling over events in the past, her past and her families past, as well as the present, her lifeless, loveless marriage. Veronica is from a large family, one where the kids all drag up each other. The mother has too many kids to care about each child individually, and she also has some type of problem, so the family is constantly trying to protect her from the live going on around her. Veronica seems to hate, and yet love her mother, and also blames her father for having to grow up in this overly large family.

After her brother's suicide, Veronica explores a past she would have never known, the meeting of her grandparents, and how that meeting led to the event that she says it the root cause of her brother's death.

This novel is firmly based in the thoughts of the narrator, no great event happens, and you guess early on what childhood event will be revealed. I felt I never knew whether to trust this narrator, at some points she even told you that she couldn't clearly remember events. I also didn't really like her, or any of her family, they all seemed fairly self absorbed, no one really seemed to love anyone else, they all just existed side-by-side.

Saying that I thought it was well written, and a good read.

This was the last book I had to read for the 2008 Man Booker Challenge, this year I read:

1. The Gathering (winner)
2. The Famished Road (winner)
3. Sour Sweet (Short listed 1982)
4. Moon Tiger (winner 1986)
5. Mister Pip (Short listed 2007)
6. The Orchard on Fire (Short listed 1996)

By far my favorite was Mr Pip. In the next year I shall be reading all the of the 2008 shortlist, as well as some previous winners and runners up

Sunday Salon: My Thoughts on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor and Challenge Round Up

This is one of those novels that I've always been aware of but somehow never got around to reading it. I picked it up in a second-hand sale the other day and realised that it would be perfect as the last book for the Southern Challenge.

The novel is about the Logan family, living in Mississippi in the 193o's. Times are hard because of the forthcoming depression, and because of the continuing tension between the black and white communities. The Logan families are one of the few black families with their own land, this is resented by both the black and white families.

The story is centred aroud the four Logan children, having being brought up by indepent parents, who believe evryone should be equal, they have a hard time understanding the unequal society that they are living in. As the novel progresses more and more problems arise between the two communities.

This novel deals with the racism alive in that society, as well as they way the law and politics was shaped to benefit white people.

Obviously as a kids book this was a fairly easy read, and a easy way to spend a windy Sunday afternoon. I'm now of for lasagne, a couple of episodes of 24 and maybe a film for the evening. This week I'm going to finish Theft: A Love Story, Bellefleur and hopefully start Frankie and Stankie. What have you be reading today?

Challenges:

Southern Reading Challenge Book 3 of 3!

Young Adult Reading Challenge Book 7 of 12

Classics Challenge (Kids classic) Book 5 of 6

Unread Authors Challenge Book 3 of 6

20th Century Project (1976) Book 10 of 100

Reading Around the World

If you have read this book, please leave a link to your review, or your comments, I will link in any reviews added.

The Southern Challenge Round-Up

I finished it with 5 days to go, which seemed unlikely this time last week. My intentions (Gone with the Wind, The Awakening, Cold Moutain and The Sound and the Fury), seemed to go amiss during the last few month, with me only managing to read one from the original list. I think I ended up with a good mix though, one classic, one contemporary fiction and a YA classic book (The Secrets We Keep, Gone With the Wind, and Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry). While I enjoyed all of them in their own way Gone With the Wind was by far the best, and a book I definately plan to go back and read again.

Looking forward to next years selection, Maggie!

My Thoughts: The Fragrance of Guava: Conversations with Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Mendoza (and a challange round up).

I saw this book in the library sale and picked it up out of curiosity, it's not the type I would buy in a bookshop, as I don't tend to get past the fiction section, but it was a really good read.

The book is an interview with Gabriel Garcia Marquez by an obviously close and personal friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza. It is clear to see the friendship in the questions Mendoza asks and the way he joins in or finishes Marquez's answers.

The interview covers a whole range of subjects, including Marquez's childhood, life as a struggling writer, politics, personal and literary influences, fame, superstition and obviously his thoughts of the books that he has written.

At only 120 pages this book was a quick read but filled with tons of information, and it has made me want to read more of Marquez's work.

Challenge:

Book 6 of 6 for the What's in a Name? Challenge

The 20th Century Project: Book 9 of 100 (1983)

What's in a Name Challenge

Another challenge completed! For this challenge you had to read 6 books, each books title must relate to a particular topic. Here is what I read:

1. Colour = The Red Queen
2. Animal = Moon Tiger

3. First Name = Elizabeth Costello
4. Place = Breakfast at Tiffany's
5. Weather = Gone with the Wind
6. Flower = The Fragrance of Guava

My favorite book by far was Gone with the Wind, with Breakfast at Tiffany's running up in second place. Moon Tiger was the only book I didn't think was a good read.

July Book Blowout round-up

This challenge has come to an end, (well officially it ends tomorrow but I won't finish Bellefleur tomorrow so its ended for me). I aimed to read 13 books and ended up beating that target by 1 and a half books.

My favorite out of the 13 would be joint between Persepolis and Twilight, there was a few books in there which weren't amazing but it was generally a good month. I liked having a goal for the month, and for once being able to meet it!

Mrs S' questions:

1. Did you discover a new author?

10 out of the 14 where new-to-me authors!
2. Where was the most unusual place you found yourself reading?

I read in all my usual haunts plus the garden as it finally got sunny.
3. Did you read more than usual?

I read more than a normal month as it is now the summer holidays so I have days on end to fill with reading ;-D
4. Did you give up anything in order to read more?

Working on all the stuff I planned to get ahead with for next term
5. If you won the Amazon voucher what would you spend it on?

Books, possibly The Beadle and the Bard pre-order
6. Would you like to see a 2009 Book Blowout?

Yeah, was nice to keep track of what I had read in a month

My What I actually have read list:
I finished The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble 1/2

1. Junky - William Burroughs
2. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
3. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
4. Siddartha, Hesse
5. Persepolis
6. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote
7. Stuart: A Life Backwards, Masters
8. Persepolis, Satrapi
9. The Unabridged Pocket Book of Lightning, Foer
10. The Secrets We Keep, Monroe
11. Mirrormask, Gaiman
12. Journey to the River Sea, Ibbotson
13. Gatty, Crossley-Holland
14. Tomaree, Robson