A Fraction of a Whole, Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Title)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Book)

My Thoughts: A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Author)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Books)

The Sunday Salon: A mix of book stuff

I've only read one short story today (reviewed below), I read quite a lot yesterday and had some work to o today. One of my friends cooked a good ole Sunday Lunch plus Strawberries and cream which we devoured while watching Batman: The Dark Knight. He probably regrets watching that film with me as I kept getting confuse the whole way through: definately needs a rewatch. Oh, and was anyone else freaked out by the Joker keep poking his tongue out? I swear it'll haunt my sleep tonight

Short Story Sunday: 'Aristotle's Lantern' from The Secrets of the Fire King by Kim Edwards.
Anna's boyfriend suddenly calls her up and asks her to drop everything and join him on his travels just of the shore of Singapore. On her final day in the tropical paradise their is an accident during a diving trip in which she saves another mans life. This 'accident' turns out to be a test to see if she should be welcomed into a secret hidden community. I can't say much more without giving away what happens but you should go check out the story. It wasn't so much the story that grabbed me but the descriptions of the area created startling images in my head, I wanted to looking up at the phosphorescence and illuminated fish.

I also had a stack of books coming into my house this week, some through the post and several from the library.
Through the post:





The Golden Apples of the Sun, Ray Bradbury
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Julian Barnes
Budding Prospects, TC Boyle
Blindness, Jose Saramago
The Lost Dog, Michelle de Krester
All of these were recieved through bookcossing.com

My Library Loot: This weeks library loot can be found here







Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book that Defines the World, Henry Hitchings
The Hard Facts of the Grimm Fairy Tales, Maria Tatar(I have Nymeth t blame for these two)
The Gurnsey Literay and Potato Peel Pie Society, Shaffer
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
all fighting in the 'who can have the longest name for a book comp'
One Thousand and One Nights Vol 1, Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok
Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill

I may have to take another break from the net just to catch up! All of the books fit for at least one challenge. Half-term is in one week so it looks like my week off school will be sat behind a stack of books ;D (And not the ones I claim to spend the holidays marking).
Hopefully the sky might remember we are nearing summer and kill off the grey windy dreary days we seem to have been stuck with forever.
Hope you all had a good weekend

My Thought: Mendel's Daughter by Martin Lemelman

Well I haven't posted in a while, I'm in the middle of reading 3 books and listening to 2 audiobooks and not getting anywhere, this is mainly due to revision. I sat my exam yesterday (blah!) so now I can try and catch up with everything I need to read - I have a stack of library books and bookcrossing bookrings that have to be read asap, plus lots of challenges that need tackling.
Today I thought I'd tick a library book off the list, so I started with this Graphic Novel Memoir, which is a subgenre I've discovered in the last year and really enjoyed.

Mendel's Daughter is written and illustrated by Martin Lemelman. When his mother was nearing the end of her life he asked her to talk about her experiences of life as a Jewish person during the war, he recorded her thoughts. He created this graphic novel using those thoughts, his illustrations and family photographs.
The mother's tale is intimate and allows the reader to get a glimse at life at this time. The illustrations are lovingly produced and the use of family photographs is a touching addition. I tried to find some images from the book to share but no luck, you'll just have to go borrow a copy from the library ;)
Challenges:
A-Z (Title)
In Their Shoes 4/4
Orbis Terrarum (Poland) 10/12
999 (Non-Fiction) 33/81
Non-Fiction Five 1/5
Graphic Novel Challenge 7/12

My Thoughts: The Giver by Lois Lowry

I wouldn't normally ahve picked this book up as the cover and size of the font suggest that it is for children of around the age of 8-9, I prefer books aimed at older teens for my YA selection, so I'm glad this come up as a goodreads monthly read.
The novel is based in what appears to be a utopian world, there is no pain, class or races, no hunger, jealousy or need. Yet when you delve deeper you also discover that there is no free will, love or truth.
The novel features Jonas a young boy who is assigned the job of the Reciever of Memories. He is trained by the old Reciever who passes on memories of what the people of the community used to experience. It is only with these memories that you truly realise what this community has lost - great things like love, freedom and playing in the snow and also the things we'd like to abolish from the world like war, hunger and loss. Jonas' job is to keep these memories so no-oe else in the community has to experience pain, but you also wonder if it is so the community remains easy to control.

This is a great read for both adults and those over 11 (there are some big issues to deal with), and highly recommended, it's a book that will certainly leave you thinking.
Challenges:
2009 YA Challenge
999 (YA)
A-Z (Authors)

My Thoughts: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Today was a bank holiday in England so rather than doing the planned list of things that are desperately calling my name, I curled up and read this in its entirety.

The Blood of Flowers is written in the first person, the young girl tells the tale of her teenage years living in 17th Century Iran.
The book opens with the fortelling of a bad year brought by the arrival of a comet to the skies. The comet's fate leaves her father dead, and her and her mother fated to live a poor relatives in an unknown city in that vital year that she should be marrying.
After moving to the city of Isfahan the girl ad her mother are fated to servitude and compliance at the hands of distant rich relatives. Whilst their the girl is able to work on her skills as a carpet maker under the guidance of her uncle, the Shah's main carpet maker.
Being headstrong and defiant she upsets the rich relatives and has no choice but to have a sigheh - a 3 month long marriage - to a rich man. A man that helps her discover a world she never knew.
She then has to make that fatal decision stay with the rich man and gain his favours to keep her and her mother from poverty's grip or chance life as a carpet maker.
This tale is gripping and is interspresed with Iranian fables, told to explain the fates, would be good as a holiday read. My only problem with the novel was that the young girl was far too modern, she stood up to men, was defiant and bold all things which surely in 17th Century Iran wouldn't have been allowed, and would have been stopped by her parets long before she got to the age of 14.

Challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
Olympic Challenge
Chunkster Challenge

Southern Reading Challenge 2009

Maggie is hosting the Southern Reading Challenge again, yay! I think this was one of the first challenges I participated in when I started blogging and I enjoyed it loads so I had to sign up again, even though I'm bogged down in challenges.

My three potential reads:
Mudbound - a book I can't wait to get to
Cold Mountain - been on the tbr pile for a long time
The Sound and the Fury - which I think was on my list last year and never got read.