The Sunday Salon: Another Poor Reading Week...

Yet another week when my reading has slowed down considerably, I finally finished Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende and I read my first Graphic Novel and that was it! A very poor show. It managed to be a majorly busy week at school, I had to write a report for each child in my form group plus insert grades and feedback on every child I teach, thats a good 120 kids, all in the space of a week, plus teach the kids. I also was out 3 evenings in a row so I was rushing in and then out again.
I did however manage to complete this weeks Weekly Geeks in which we had to post pictures of our fav places to read etc, I took a slightly different slant on it too most people and posted pics of the different types of places I had visited in my reading that week, everything from the slums of Bombay, a Caribbean Island, California in the Gold rush and Georgia.

Well I'm off to try and catch up on some of that missed reading, I have an afternoon with a couple of Chapters of Gone With The Wind and I reckon I'll finish A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd which has been excellent so far

My Thoughts: Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende

This is my second Isabel Allende novel and I will certinly be going back for more. It wasn't what I was expecting as I had been led to believe that all of her work was magical realism but this one certainly wasn't, but it was still a great read.

The novel is set in Chile in the 1840's. A young British family bring up their 'adopted' child Eliza into the colonialist culture of the area. Their is much discrepancy about Eliza's parentage and she is even left unsure about her national heritage. Like many children belonging to rich families she is expected to follow all the rules and customs of her class yet she is largely left to be brought up by the sevants in the kitchen. The novel follows Eliza through her childhood till she meets her first love. He promptly leaves her, leaving for the Gold Ruch in California and she follows him, leaving the world of riches for a place of prostitutes, slaves, murder and poverty.

Allende created a novel which caused you to consider human greed, racism and the treatment of woman in a variety of cultures. The novel had some fantastic scenes spanning from England, Chile, California and over to China. Each character was well rounded and believeable. The only thing I would say is that it could have done with being just a little shorter.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Read for my Around the World Challenge and the 20th Century Project.

Chech out Adventures in Readings review of this book here

My Thoughts: The Sandman: Dream Country, Neil Gaiman

My first Graphic Novel ever! And my first read for the Graphic Novel Challenge. I picked a Neil Gaiman as I am interested in reading more of his work since reading some of his short stories that he has posted on his blog, see here for my mini review, I also have my first Neil Gaiman novel arriving in the next week so I'll be able to compare his style in that.

Now, not having a clue about Graphic novels I ordered The Sandman: Dream Country from the library, recognising the title Sandman and not realising at all that this was in the middle of a series, having enjoyed it I will now look for the first volume and maybe work my way through all of them.

This book was composed of 4 stories: Calliope, A Dream of a Thousand Cats, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Facade. I loved reading the first 3 in particular A Midsummer Nights Dream, in which the theatre troop is taken by Will Shakespeare to perform his famous play on the Downs in Sussex, to a rather unusual audience. The illustations where fantastic and I really loved the scene when the 'Longman' of the Sussex Downs opens up to reveal the audience.

I also really loved the idea of the cats in A Dream of a Thousand Cats attempting to change the universe with their dreams, something people aim to do all the time.

The fourth story was the only one that reall didn't hold my attention, it was a bit too sci-fi for my tastes.

I'll certainly be reading more graphic novels in the future.

Part of my 20th Century Challenge

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Another Project!!! The Orange Project Prize

Yet another project! I keep saying I'll stop. This project aims to read all the winners and short list for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize for new writers. If your interested in joining or reading people's reviews for these books visit The Orange Prize Project. I have highlighted the books which I have read already in Orange, as you can see I have given many of them a high rating - I hope this is a good sign!
The Orange Broadband Prize for New Writers
2008 Short List
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna
The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg
2007 Winner
The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
shortlist
Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan***
Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki

2006 winner
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
shortlist
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

2005 winner
26a by Diana Evans*****
shortlist
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff*****
The Orange Prize For Fiction
2008 Short List
Nancy Huston Fault Lines
Sadie Jones The Outcast
Charlotte Mendelson When We Were Bad
Heather O’Neill Lullabies for Little Criminals
Rose Tremain The Road Home
Patricia Wood Lottery

2007 winner
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun ****
shortlist
Rachel Cusk Arlington Park
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss ***
Xiaolu Guo A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Jane Harris The Observations
Anne Tyler Digging to America

2006 winner
Zadie Smith On Beauty ****
shortlist
Nicole Krauss The History of Love *****
Hilary Mantel Beyond Black
Ali Smith The Accidental ** 1/2
Carrie Tiffany Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
Sarah Waters The Night Watch *****

2005 winner
Lionel Shriver We Need to Talk About Kevin *****
shortlist
Jane Gardam Old Filth
Sheri Holman The Mammoth Cheese
Maile Meloy Liars and Saints
Marina Lewycka A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian ****

2004 winner
Andrea Levy Small Island
shortlist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus*****
Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake*****
Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire
Gillian Slovo Ice Road
Rose Tremain The Colour

2003 winner
Valerie Martin Property
shortlist
Anne Donovan Buddha Da
Shena Mackay Heligoland
Carol Shields Unless***
Zadie Smith The Autograph Man***
Donna Tartt The Little Friend*****

2002 winner
Ann Patchett Bel Canto
shortlist
Anna Burns No Bones
Helen Dunmore The Siege
Maggie Gee The White Family
Chloe Hooper A Child's Book of True Crime
Sarah Waters Fingersmith*****

2001 winner
Kate Grenville The Idea of Perfection
shortlist
Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin*****
Jill Dawson Fred & Edie
Ali Smith Hotel World
Rosina Lippi Homestead
Jane Smiley Horse Heaven

2000 winner
Linda Grant When I Lived in Modern Times
shortlist
Judy Budnitz If I Told You Once
Elizabeth Strout Amy and Isabelle
Eilis Ni Dhuibhne The Dancers Dancing
Zadie Smith White Teeth*****

1999 winner
Suzanne Berne A Crime in the Neighbourhood
shortlist
Jane Hamilton The Short History of a Prince
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible
Toni Morrison Paradise
Julia Blackburn The Leper's Companions
Marilyn Bowering Visible Worlds

1998 winner
Carol Shields Larry's Party
shortlist
Kirsten Bakis Lives of the Monster Dogs
Pauline Melville The Ventriloquist's Tale
Ann Patchett The Magician's Assistant
Deirdre Purcell Love Like Hate Adore
Anita Shreve The Weight of Water

1997 winner
Anne Michaels Fugitive Pieces
shortlist
Margaret Atwood Alias Grace
Deirdre Madden One by One in the Darkness
Jane Mendelsohn I Was Amelia Earhart
E Annie Proulx Accordion Crimes
Manda Scott Hen's Teeth

1996 winner
Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter
shortlist
Julia Blackburn The Book of Colour
Pagan Kennedy Spinsters
Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses
Anne Tyler Ladder of Years
Marianne Wiggins Eveless Eden

New Free Literary Magazine

This is just a real quick message, I recieved an email from Penguin today about a new literary magazine that is going to be published each month, called The Five Dials. It'll features short stories, reviews poems and drawings. And it's FREE, they send a pfd of it to your email each month. I took a look and it looks good but I think I'll be needing to print it out to read it. If anyone is interested go here

Poem of the Week and Weekly Geek Photo Journal - Thursday

Thursday

I feel like I'm not getting much reading done this week, have hardly made any progress with either of the books I'm reading as my evenings have been fairly full. So today we are journeying with a poem again. And this time we are split between a Caribbean Island and dreary London.

I've included a copy of the poem below to make this also squish in with my poem of the week. I love the way this poem shows how home stays with you no matter where you end up in the world.

Island Man

Morning

and island man wakes upto the sound of blue surf

in his head

the steady breaking and wombing

wild seabirds

and fishermen pushing out to

the sun surfacing defiantly

from the east

of his small emerald island

he always comes back groggily groggily

Comes back to sands

of a grey metallic soar

to surge of wheels

to dull North Circular roar

muffling muffling

his crumpled pillow waves

island man heaves himself

Another London day

Booking Through Thursday: Reading Groups

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (ot, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?
Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

I have only belonged to one face-to-face reading group in which books were read on a monthly basis. It was the only bookgroup avaliable which wasn't full up or run at a ridiculous time (like 3 in the afternoon!). Unfortunately it didn't have many members and I was the youngest by a good 30-35 years. The books were supposed to be picked each month from suggestions by everyone but the woman who started the group seemed to hold that power. She only picked books that were best sellers or Richard and Judy reads, and she picked the books in line with the ones she was reading with other reading groups.

I thought it was good discussing the books, if people had actually made the effort to read them, one lady just seemed to come for the company and never appeared to read a book and another one had never finish it so we wouldn't be allowed to talk about the end of the book. I did feel that I had to read the books regardless of whether I was enjoying it or not so I could contribute.

I would have stayed in the group if the chosen books were more to my taste.

I also used to complete the monthly read on BookGroupOnline but recently people seem to be voting for the book with only a few people who had voted making the effort to read it. For instance I have this months rread, The Squire by William Golding, it wouldn't be my choice but I'm willing to read it, I posted to ask if anyone else was reading it and noone responded, so now I'm reluctant to start.

I do also belong to a BookCrossing group, we do not have a monthly read but we meet each month to swap books, have a chat and discuss the books we are swapping and books that we are currently reading. I find that this group works really well and I have read some books that I would never hae thought to pick up.