My Thoughts: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Another 1001 book ticked off the list. This tiny book, only 147 pages tells of one day in the life of a Russian prisoner. One good day in his life.
The prisoners are subjected to working outside for 11 hours a day at -11 degrees, the men have little to keep them warm and have to strive to keep every morsel of food and clothing to themselves.
The men work together like a family, constantly trying to scrape something extra for themselves at the risk of being put in confinment.
Challenges:
999 (1001)
Nobel Prize
Olympic Challenge: Russia
A-Z (Title)
1% Well Read Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
Through the Decades (1960s)
Lost in Translation
Guardian 1000 novels

Short Story Weekend: Godmother Death by Jane Yolen

My first short story read for Carl's Once Upon a Time III challenge.

You think you know this story. You do not.

You think it comes from Ireland, from Norway, from Spain. It does not. You have heard it in Hebrew, in Swedish, in German. You have read it in French, in Italian, in Greek.

It is not a story, though many mouths have made it that way.

It is true.

How do I know? Death, herself told me. She told me in that whispery voice she saves for special tellings. She brushed her thick black hair away from that white forehead, and told me.

I have no reason to disbelieve her. Death does not know how to lie. She has no need to.

Death is tapped on the shoulder one day and asked to be the Godmother to a peasant child just about to be born. Shocked at the request she complies and promises to look after her godson when he becomes a man.
Despite his peasant background Death transforms the young man into a world famous doctor, a doctor who knows just who will die and who will not. For years this is successful until the doctor is rushed to the side of a beautiful dieing princess, struck by her beauty he tries to trick Death.

This story can be found on the wonderful Endicott Website here

Once Upon a Time III (March 21st - June 20th)

This is a challenge I knew I'd be signing up to, Carl is hosting the Once Upon a Time III challenge, last year I came back to my blog too late to participate although I really wanted to.

Carl gives a number of options, I'm going for Quest the First, which is to read 5 books from either the fantasy, folklore, fairytale or myth genre. I'm also going to participate in the Short Story Weekends. I will also try and read Midsummer Nights Dream in June as this was the first Shakespeare play I ever read, at aged 11, I loved it but have never read it since.


This is my pool, I'd love to read them all and hopefully the easter break will give me a chance. And it would wipe a large lump off of my tbr pile.
Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey
Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire
The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke
The Court of the Air, Stephen Hunt
The Wild Wood, Charles de Lint
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, Angela Carter
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
Night's at the Circus, Angela Carter


I look forward to reading everyone's posts.

The Sunday Salon: National Poetry Month - Get ready for April

April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate or even discover poems. I've enjoyed poetry for along time, but as it's often hard to read and 'get' immediately I tend to shy away from it. I thought that this would be a great time to push myself to reach out for a poetry collection or anthology and I was looking for other people to join me.

Whether you create one post with your favourite poem in it or review a collection or anthology it would be great to see people over the blogging world participating. And there will be no stuffiness, yes the Romantics are considered amazing but that doesn't mean a fun nursery rhyme or lyrics for a song should be discredited.

I'm planning on reading Rilke's On Love and and Other Difficulties, a mix of prose and poetry. I may even find some poetry which links into the Once Upon a Time III challenge

My Thoughts: The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland

I'm bogged down in Bookring reads at the moment, you sign up to read a book in the space of four weeks and don't see a bookring book for ages and then 6 appear at once, hopefully they'll fit into challenges so I don't get too far behind.

The Gum Thief, will be my second Canadian read for the Canadian Reading challenge, this would be great but the challenge finishes in July and I'm so unlikely to even make it halfway!

I read Microserf's last year so I was ready for the quirky style of this novel. Roger, a wannabe novelist, divorcee and all roud depressed guy works at Staples and spends his time drinking out in the loading bay and most importantly writing his diary. Bethany his co-worker finds his diary and starts to read, then realises that he often writes his diary entries as if he is her writing a diary. After this discovery she starts adding letters to the diary and the two form a friendship on paper. The novel is told mainly through these letters and the odd notes sent by other people in their world.
Alongside this we also have instalments of Roger's first attempt at a novel, Glove Pond , a random story about an alcoholic couple who are in a major crisis with their lives, and also Bethany's attempts to write a descriptive piece of the life of a piece of toast. Yes I said it was quirky and I meant it.

This was a nice easy read for the weekend, and while it was mainly humourous their were lots of insights into the dark side of the characters lives.

Challenges:
A-Z (Title)
Orbis Terratum (Extra list)
The 2nd Canadian Reading Challenge
What's in a Name? (Profession)

My Thoughts: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave

I've been listening to this audiobook on my iPod for the last month, this is my first full length audiobook, I'm finally catching up with technology! I'll have a Kindle in about 20years time.

The title of Narrative ...... speaks for itself. The book starts from Frederick's young life when he explains how slave owners separated children from their mothers in order to stop bonding among slaves. As he grows older and is placed in different slave owners homes, he chances to have a mistress who had never owned a slave before. She teaches him the rudiments of reading, before being discovered and being informed that slaves should be left illiterate. However her lessons had stuck and Fredrick teaches himself gradually how to become a more accomplished reader and then how to write.
As he moves to different slave ownerd he is mistreated and whipped untill one day he holds his own, this event then changes the whole off his life and his views on his oppressors until he finally finds a way to escape and live the life of a free man in New York.

Challenges:
999 (Non-fiction)
A-Z (Title)
The Well Seasoned Reader
In Their Shoes

Sunday Salon: The End of the World Challenge

Becky is hosting The End of the World Reading Challenge II over at her site, the challenge started on March 10th and runs till October 9th.
The Rules - copied from her page:

Read at least four books about "the end of the world." This includes both apocalyptic fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. There is quite a bit of overlap with dystopic fiction as well. The point being something--be it coming from within or without, natural or unnatural--has changed civilization, society, humanity to such a degree that it radically differs from "life as we now know it." (Aliens, evil governments, war, plague, natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, depletion of resources, genetic manipulation, etc.) Here is a wikipedia article on the subject. Also see here. These changes can be small-but-still-significant or huge-and-life-threatening.

Books can be classified as children's, young adult, and adult. (Not many children's books go there. But many teen books do. And they're great.)

Graphic novels can count for this challenge.

Audio books allowed.

Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

You may have one reread that counts toward the challenge. But most should be new-to-you. (Exception: If you read it several years ago, and you can honestly swear that you don't remember anything about it...then I won't stop you from counting it towards the challenge. I know I've forgotten books I read a decade ago.)

I tried resisting this one, but realsied that a lot of books I'm already needing to read could be incorporated - I tend to find if books overlap I get there much faster.
I come up with 6 books, not sure if I'll read them all:
Z for Zachariah (I've been meaning to read this for ages).
On the Road, McCarthy
Do Androids Dream of Sheep? A 1001 book
Uglies, Scott Westerfield - will be reading for Becky's mini-challenge
Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut - A 1001 book
We, Zamyatin - 1001 book