Oct 9
A while back I made a prediction that The Buried Giant would make the Man Booker Longlist. This was based primarily on the buzz surrounding the book because I hadn’t yet read it. Did my opinion change after I read the book? Read the review to find out. Read more
Oct 8
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was announced today at 1:00pm CAT. The Swedish prize was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich. Alexievich is a Belarusian author and investigative journalist who has written many interview-based documentary books depicting life and war in the Soviet Union. Many in the top literary circles were predicting that she would win the award. Congratulations to Ms. Alexievich.
Nominations to the Nobel Prize in Literature are made by a “qualified persons only.” These qualified people include members of the Swedish Academy, Professors of literature and linguistics at universities and college, previous Nobel Laureates in literature, Presidents of literary societies. The process of selection takes a year starting with initial invitation letters to 600-700 individuals. A long list of 10-15 candidates (not revealed to the public) is selected in April then a final list of 5 nominees are selected in May. From June-August the committee members read the works of the final candidates. The names of the nominees are not revealed until 50 years after the prize year.
To check out more information about the prize you can go to their website.
The past 10 winners include:
Patrick Modiano (2014)
Alice Munro (2013)
Mo Yan (2012)
Tomas Tranströmer (2011)
Mario Vargas Llosa (2010)
Herta Müller (2009)
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008)
Doris Lessing (2007)
Orhan Pamuk (2006)
Harold Pinter (2005)
I have not read any of her books but I look forward to doing so. I was hoping for a Murakami win but realized that it was a long shot.
What do you think of this year’s winner? Have you read any of her books? Which were your favorites? Least favorites?
Oct 7
Our next stop in our world tour or reading is England, home to Book Worm and Jen’s childhood home from ages 2-12! Join us as we explore a tiny fraction of what England has to offer in terms of literature and find out which book we selected. This will be one destination where we hope you help us compile a list of favorite authors and novels!
Oct 5
Welcome to the start of our Halloween reading challenge! You can read more about it on our challenge page. Today we announce the first weekly theme. All 4 themes are Halloween focused but designed to be broad enough to let you pick and choose. And the weekly theme is…. Read more
Oct 1
Have you ever noticed how some books seem to drive a wedge between people? You check the reviews and find almost no middle-of-the-road ratings. Instead people either seem to love it or hate it. Welcome to the Love it or Hate it post! Each month, we’ll pick one book to review and two contributors will battle it out to convince you to pick it up or throw it out. Last month we discussed Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. The “Love its” killed it taking over 70% of the vote. Many thanks to our reviewers for their awesome reviews. Michelle was our Love it Reviewer and Lynsey was our Hate it Reviewer.
This month’s selection is also on Boxall’s 1001 List of Books to Read Before you Die and its author is often cited as someone that people either love or hate: The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt. Read the reviews and let us know whether you love it or hate it. Read more
Sep 28
After the intense summer reading challenge we wanted to do something a little more chill for our next one. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays; so what better way to enjoy the season than with some holiday themed reading? We hope you join us for our newest challenge: Tales from the Crypt. Read more
Sep 27
After a LONG few days of seemingly endless tabulation, we have finally calculated the winners of our summer challenge. For those of you unfamiliar with the challenge you can read about it here. Twenty-nine participants read almost 400 books, over 123,000 pages, and “traveled” to over 100 destinations. Participants were given travel passports with 30 destinations. It was up to each participant to pick books to fit their travel destinations. Participants were vying for 4 prizes (most well traveled/read, most true to the spirit of the game, most creative, and a random selection).
For Most True to the Spirit of the Game, Book Worm and I came up with 5 criteria to score each book: 1) author from destination (born, raised, or living); 2) set in or focused on the destination (in other words not just one location mentioned in the book but rather the bulk of the book had to be focused/set in the destination); 3) over 400 pages; 4) either a non-fiction or considered a classic from that country/destination; and 5) general good fit for the destination.
For Most Creative Book Worm and I, along with one other judge, looked at each book-destination pairing and gave 1 point to any book we thought was a creative choice for the destination. Thus any one book could have 0-3 points for creativity.
Keep reading to find out if you won any of the prizes. Read more
Sep 23
It’s official, our summer challenge ended yesterday! Judges will need some time to determine several of the winners. Think you should win? Plead your case and tell us why your choices merit either “most creative” or “most true to the spirit of the game.” Don’t be modest. Stay tuned for the announcement on September 27th. Combined you all read an astonishing 370 books, 123,266 pages, and traveled to all sorts of destinations all around the world (and in some cases outside this world).
In the final week, “Ursula” came out of nowhere and completed all her destinations – joining “Nanny Ogg” as the only two who completed everything. I purposely set the number of destinations at 30 with the assumption that no one would be able to read 30 books in the three months. I was wrong. Charisma also made a last minute push to enter the scoreboard at 5 points (although her son, “Maxibob” earned bragging rights in their home by crushing her). Special mention to “Chili” who read more pages than the leaders but with fewer books.
Congrats to everyone who participated! Now that the competition is over we want to hear from all of you. Did you like the competition? What was your favorite and least favorite read of the challenge? Which was your favorite and least favorite destinations? Did you read any books that you likely would not have read outside this competition?
Here was the final scoreboard:
Frequent Flyers (a.k.a the scoreboard):
Nanny Ogg -33 (pages read: 10,479): Completed 9/21
Ursula – 33 (pages read: 8,826). Completed 9/21
Glo-worm – 29 (pages read: 9,448)
Tracy S – 26 (pages read: 7,362)
Anne Shirley – 26 (pages read: 7,246)
Chili -24 (pages read: 10,508)
Maxibob-24 (pages read 6,346)
LibraryCin – 22 (pages read: 7,006)
Rachel Morgan – 22 (pages read: 6,767)
Jaenelle Angelline-16 (pages read: 5,056)
Sushicat – 15 (pages read: 4,668)
Aarti -15 (pages read: 3,760)
Nicole – 14 (pages read: 5,376)
Second Honeymoon – 13 (pages read: 3,821)
Luna – 13 (pages read: 3,141)
Morgen -10 (pages read: 4,108)
Nia -9 (pages read: 2,646)
Tanya -8 (pages read: 2,303)
Jean Paget – 8 (pages read: 1,638)
John -6 (pages read: 3,070)
Jo March -6 (pages read: 2,887)
Tiger Lily – 6 (pages read: 1,870)
Charisma – 5 (pages read: 1,439)
Emily -5 (pages read: 1,308)
Becky -3 (pages read: 1,150)
Yvonne – 2 (pages read: 541)
Kate T – 2 (pages read: 479)
Missy Bee – 1 (pages read: 336)
We wanted to post this photo that goo-worm sent us that highlights one goal of this competition – to get you to diversify and broaden your reading. She found this book that she had borrowed from her grandfather over a decade ago and finally found a reason to read it.
NOTE: We will be announcing a new Halloween competition at the beginning of October. This competition will last for 1 month and will involve a maximum of 4 books. It’s designed to be a more relaxed challenge and we hope you join us.
Sep 22
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
First published: 2011
Reviewed by: Jen & Book Worm
Find it here: The Marriage Plot
Synopsis (from Amazon): Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce?
It’s the early 1980s. In American colleges, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes—the charismatic and intense Leonard Bankhead, and her old friend the mystically inclined Mitchell Grammaticus. As all three of them face life in the real world they will have to reevaluate everything they have learned. Jeffrey Eugenides creates a new kind of contemporary love story in “his most powerful novel yet” (Newsweek
Jen’s Review: 5 stars
I loved this book for a variety of reasons. It was well-written with a blend of humor, empathy, and psychological insight that I found impressive. What Eugenides has done with this novel is perfectly capture the atmosphere of an Ivy League school and it’s alums in the 1980s. In some ways Eugenides mocks the pretentiousness of the Ivy league college environment and forces his characters to face up to the reality of life outside of books.
“College wasn’t like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity.”
The book is rife with both well-known and obscure literary references. Fiction and literature often blends with the realities of the characters’ lives. Madeline, the protagonist is a romantic with visions of love colored by the books she is studying for her senior thesis. When she leaves the comfort of Brown University, she learns that true love isn’t really the way it is depicted in her books. All the young people featured in the book face similar challenges as they learn to reconcile the ideals of college with the possibilities of the real world. The Marriage Plot is intelligent, fun to read, and covers a variety of themes including relationships, mental illness, and growing up.
“She may have looked normal on the outside, but once you’d seen her handwriting you knew she was deliciously complicated inside.”
Book Worm’s Review: 3 stars
I liked this book, however, unlike Jen, I didn’t love it. I liked the characters, I liked the storyline, and I liked the ending, despite it being a bit abrupt. The writing is solid and there are some serious issues that are handled well and in heartbreaking detail. The 3 central characters learn about themselves, about life in the real world (the world outside of college), and how life is not what you expect it to be especially when it comes to matters of the heart.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a romance story, as well as to those who enjoy classic literature. It is fun playing spot the literary references.
As you can see, I liked the book. So why only 3 stars? As you probably already know, sometimes it’s the timing of when you read a book that influences how you feel about it. I read this during a stressful period – in the midst of a home construction project — the first timing problem. The second timing problem was that I read it straight after reading my favourite book of the year and compared to that I found this average, hence the rating.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Which one of us do you agree with? Have you read any of his other books? Which ones do you recommend?
Want to try it for yourself? You can buy it here: The Marriage Plot
Sep 21
Despite the age old adage not to judge a book by its cover, a good cover is everything in the world of children’s literature. Whether it’s at the library or in the bookstore, first impressions are everything when it comes to picking out that perfect book. So what would a four-year old think about the covers of some of our most well known adult literature? I put it to the test by showing E some classic selections from my bookshelf and asking her to tell me what the stories were about. Here’s what she said… Read more
Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 