Posts by jenp27

May 11

Guest Post & Giveaway: Being Mortal by Gawande

Welcome to our first guest review & Giveaway (scroll to the bottom for details on giveaway)! Periodically, we will feature guest reviews and we will try to pick reviews for books and genres we don’t typically feature on our blog. For these posts, we will be picking books that our guest contributors have rated as among their favorites. We hope you that you enjoy these reviews and they lead you to pick up something new that you could also love.

Starting us off with a non-fiction pick is Anita. I’ll hand it over to Anita, who will introduce herself and will provide her review of Being Mortal by Gawande.

Anita: I’d like to say reading is my passion, but if I were to be totally honest, I think interacting with other readers is as wonderful as reading the books themselves. To that end, seven years ago, I founded Play Book Tag. PBT is a group on Shelfari.com where talking about books goes on 24×7! My favorite books are most definitely literary fiction, but I punctuate that with quite a bit of non-fiction where my taste runs to tales of outdoor adventure. I’m the proud mom of two sons, one in college and one almost in college, and a cockapoo, Teddy. In real life, I have two part time jobs, and do lots of philanthropic work as part of the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle, an organization with which I’m really proud to be affiliated.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Published in: 2014
Reviewed by: Anita
Rating: 5 stars + a favorite
Find it here:Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Anita’s Review:

Everyone who is going to die someday should read this book.

Dr. Gawande has written an excellent book that both informs (which I expected) and moves (didn’t expect this) the reader.

By explaining how the current medical system understands and handles death and weaving in anecdotes of real people facing their mortality, he writes a book that is very engaging, but also very important. No one really likes to think about the end, but eventually such thinking is forced upon you – – whether you are facing the demise of a parent or a scary diagnosis. My impression is that this book would be best read before encountering the worst, as it provides both solace and pragmatic advice.

Gawande asks his readers, “ . . .what if the sick and aged are already being sacrified – victims of our refusal to accept the inexorability of our life cycle? What if there are better approaches, right in front of our eyes, waiting to be recognized?”

There is no challenge of aging that Gawande doesn’t touch upon with care and sensitivity. The difficulty of leaving one’s home to live in institutional care. What makes life worth living? Dying with dignity and with less suffering. Reading about such subjects could be boring and/or completely depressing, but this book is none of those. It increased my empathy tenfold. It’s not a mere self-help book where you are advised on options available to you. It’s a book that moves you to look at death in another way. A way that’s more accepting. And a way that the medical professions whole raison d’etre strives against with all its might.

People with serious illness have priorities besides simply prolonging their lives. Surveys find that their top concerns include avoiding suffering, strengthening relationships with family and friends, being mentally aware, not being a burden on others, and achieving a sense that their life is complete. Our system of technological medical care has utterly failed to meet these needs . . .

Medicine, in its efforts to prolong life, ignores the real need of people to die on their own terms. This book takes a first important step toward empowering people at the end of life by shining a light on what actually happens versus what could happen.

We are all going to die, and death is just flat out scary. Like every other rite of passage, it deserves to be considered. It deserves to be discussed. This book is the conversation starter that might just help the end be a little less frightening, a lot less painful, and way more peaceful.

Talk about a book that should be on 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die. This might be just the one book that you really, really should.

You can also watch a t.v. special based on this book at PBS here: Being Mortal

Want a chance to win a kindle copy of this book? One lucky, randomly selected reader will win a copy of this book. To enter simply comment on this post to let us know you want to enter the raffle. The winner will be selected on May 13 @noon EST and will be announced at the bottom of this page.

Want to try this book for yourself? Find it here:Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

UPDATE: The winner of the free copy is Tessa! Congrats. We host lots of giveaways so stay tuned for more prizes and giveaways in future posts.

May 9

1001 Book Review: The 39 Steps by Buchan

The 39 Steps by John Buchan
First Published in: 1915
Reviewed by: Jen and Book Worm
Find it/buy it here (free on kindle): The Thirty-Nine Steps

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Richard Hannay’s boredom with London society is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer from South Africa is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. When a neighbor is killed in his flat, Richard, suspected, decodes the journal, runs to the wilds of his native Scotland in disguises and local dialects, evades Germans and officials.

Book Worm’s Review
Rating: ★★★

Credited as one of the earliest spy novels and set in 1914 before the outbreak of WWI this is the story of Robert Hannay. Hannay, who recently moved to London from Rhodesia is finding life rather dull until the mysterious Scudder turns up on his doorstep and tells him about a German conspiracy to assassinate a key public figure.

When Hannay comes home to find Scudder murdered in his flat, he realizes he is being set up for murder. Instead of trying to explain things to the police and clear his name, he decides to continue Scudder’s work and escapes London for the wilds of Scotland.

Told entirely in the first person, this is a fast-moving adventure story. The only problem is that Hannay is unbelievable as a character. He is too skilled at everything. Nothing fazes him and he is a one man spy network. While this makes for an exciting read, you do need to suspend your disbelief and just go along for the ride.

Jen’s Review
Rating: ★★★

The 39 Steps is a fast-paced and entertaining, but completely unbelievable man-on-the-run, spy novel. Richard Hannay is bored with society life and is saved from his boredom just in the nick of time by a stranger who turns up in his apartment only to trigger a series of increasingly unbelievable events.

In many ways, Hannay is the like the movie version of James Bond (the book version of Bond being much more believable), but without all the spy training — he just happens to be naturally brilliant at handling explosives, disguising himself, decoding military secrets. Mix in a little Sherlock Holmes and you have Richard Hannay. Reading this book, you can’t help but see how it would translate into a great movie. In fact, several film translations exist, including a 1935 Hitchcock version.

The writing style is rather sparse and typical of the dime novel genre. Buchan worked for the British War Propaganda Bureau and this book, originally published as a magazine serial, was highly popular among men in the trenches during WWI. The Guardian listed 39-Steps as one of the 100 Best novels and Boxall considers it to be one of the 1001 books to read before you die. It’s a relatively short and entertaining read — if you don’t require realistic scenarios in your novels. It’s worth reading simply because of its contribution to the genre.

Want to try it for yourself? Find it (for free on Amazon) here: The Thirty-Nine Steps

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?

May 8

9 Comments

Read Around the World: India

The next stop on our world tour of reading is India! This month, we have a special guest contributor: Aarti. Aarti is from Pune, India and will be sharing some fun facts about her country, Indian literature, and her personal recommendations for books to help immerse you in your “travels.” Book Worm and I will chime in with our pick of the month and our reviews for that book.

May 4

1001 Book Review: The Victim by Saul Bellow

the victim

After reading and hating Henderson the Rain King, I approached The Victim with a sense of dread. I read this book as part of a reading challenge. Henderson the Rain King is one of those books that made me mad. I resented the author for putting me through that awful experience and desperately wanted the lion to just go ahead and eat Henderson, so I could be put out of my misery. I know lots of people love Bellow but he strikes me as a pretentious author who enjoys battering readers over the head with his philosophical musings.

So I approached The Victim with a sense of apprehension and resentment for the fact that I had pulled this particular author for one of my challenge books. Expectations, whether they be negative or positive, influence how we evaluate books. So, when I didn’t hate this one, I was pleasantly surprised and almost wanted to write a glowing 5-star review. However, had I not been basing my rating on my prior experience, this would not be a 5-star rating for me. So in an effort to be somewhat more objective, I settled on a 3-star rating.

Here’s my review:
Read more

May 2

Mother’s Day: Gifts for the Mom who loves to read

May 10th is Mother’s Day for those of us who live in the U.S. Need some inspiration for the mother in your life? Below we’ve compiled a list of recommended gifts with a range to cover all budgets.

May 1

9 Comments

Love it or Hate it: Gone With the Wind by Mitchell

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. Well, welcome to the Love it or Hate it post category! 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 The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and for the first time we ended up with a tie. Many thanks to Nicole D and Charisma for their wonderful reviews.

This month we will be discussing: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The names of our two contributors will be revealed after voting closes! Please make sure to vote for this month’s book even if you haven’t read the book! The poll is at the bottom of this post.

Synopsis (modified from Amazon.com): Widely considered The Great American Novel, and often remembered for its epic film version, Gone With the Wind explores the depth of human passions with an intensity as bold as its setting in the red hills of Georgia. It vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

This is the tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War forever change her way of life. A sweeping story of tangled passion and courage.
Read more

Apr 30

2 Comments

Independent Bookstore Day: May 2nd

May 2nd is Independent Bookstore Day! I love visiting independent bookstores. To me, there’s no comparison between a neighborhood bookstore where the owners know your tastes and the big impersonal box stores. And while Amazon is convenient, I much prefer exploring (and financially supporting) the nooks and crannies of my favorite indie book store.

In honor of Independent Bookstore Day, I’ve decided to: a) read and review My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop edited by Ronald Rice; and b) highlight a few events happening around the world celebrating this day. Will you be supporting your local bookstore this May 2nd?

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop. Edited by Ronald Rice and Booksellers Across America.
Published in: 2012
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating: 3.5 stars
Find it/buy it here:My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop

My Bookstore is a collection of short essays written by a over 70 writers As the title of this collection describes, each author dedicates his or her chapter to a bookstore they love. Contributors include Isabel Allende, Timothy Egan, Dave Eggers, Louise Erdrich, John Grisham, Ann Hood, Chuck Palahniuk, Tom Robbins, and Abraham Verghese.

I picked up a copy of this book for $1 at my local library and wasn’t expecting too much. Surprisingly, it was quite engaging and interesting. I enjoyed reading about some of the personal stories these authors shared about their favorite stores. Some of these independent bookstores really play huge roles in their communities: sponsoring writing workshops and classes, author presentations and signings, running first edition websites that ship across the country, and so on. The book features bookstores all across the United States.

Events on May 2nd

Over 400 bookstores in the U.S. will be participating in International Bookstores Day on May 2nd. To find a bookstore near you, check out the following website: http://indiebookstoreday.com. Below are some highlights across the country.

California:
Booksmith in San Francisco is transforming their store into a Mad Tea Party. Art by Sean Chiki, activities, music, and tea leaf readings.

Chicago:
12 Chicago-area bookstores are teaming up to provide book activities, author visits, raffles, special sales, booked goods, and refreshments. Also lucky customers will have a chance to travel from store to store collecting illustrated pages from an unreleased Stuart Dybek story. Those who visit all 12 stores will be able to collect a completed version of the story. It was illustrated by Dmitry Samarov specifically for this event. A schedule of events can be found here.

Massachusetts:
Porter Square Books in Cambridge will host bookstore scavenger hunts, demonstrations, and offer special limited-edition posters, books and broadsides.

New York City
New York bookstores will be hosting trivia events, giveaways, author interviews, and more. See the full list of participating bookstores here. The day will conclude with an After Party at Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO at 9pm.

North Carolina:
Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill: Author Jeremy Hawkins will be leading a writing workshop and craft talk for writers of all levels.

Washington (Seattle):
17 Seattle-area independent bookstores will be hosing the Indie bookstore challenge. Customers can pick up a bookstore passport from any participating store then have it stamped at all the 17 stores in order to win a year-long 25% discount at all participating stores. Other prizes including gift certificates, signed books, and more will be handed out. More information about this event can be fount on their Facebook page: here

Do you have a favorite indie bookstore? Tell us why it is so special.

Apr 29

4 Comments

1001 Book Review: Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light

Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light by Ivan Klima
First Published in: 1994
Original Language: Czech
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating: 4 stars
Find it here: Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light: A Novel

I read Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light about a month ago but have delayed in writing this review because I found the book rather complicated and it required some reflection on my part. The story is set in Czechoslovakia during and after the velvet revolution of 1989. The protagonist, Pavel, is a middle-aged camera man who is living with his girlfriend, her son, and her ex-husband. As a young man, Pavel tried to escape his repressive regime but when we meet him, he is working for a state-run television network producing state sponsored propaganda news. In his spare time Pavel dreams about the movies he wants to make. The novel alternates between sections of Pavel’s real life and his life as imagined by the movies he wants to make.

I don’t want to say too much more about the plot so you can enjoy it for yourself. This was a pretty dark and bleak read but with humor injected throughout. There is a touch of surrealism throughout the book which makes it a more interesting read. Klima does a wonderful job capturing the atmosphere of ordinary people living in a repressive regime while at the same time blurring lines between the reality and fiction. I do have to admit that I was really confused for the majority of the book. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way in that I realized how the book was structured. This was a problem for me since the character names overlapped between versions with facts changing throughout. Even after realizing that parts of the book were Pavel’s imagined film, the boundaries were never crystal clear and had me questioning which events were real and which were imagined.

Another interesting element about this book was that it covered a period of transition between the old and new regime and it highlighted the feeling of being stuck between two different eras. His characters are trapped in a system that only allows for self-defeat. At one point the protagonist states:

The system never allowed you to win, and so it saved you from defeat as well.

Characters feel impotent and turn to dreams and fantasy in order to imagine how their lives could have been different.

Despite it’s rather complicated message, plot, and structure, it is a book that is easy to read and doesn’t feel overly dense (unlike many other Eastern European classics). I highly recommend this book, particularly for those readers who enjoy fiction with ties to political realities.

Additional quotes

A picture was a motionless record of motion. An arrested representation of life. A picture was the kiss of death pretending to possess immutability.

You can rule with a firm hand, or you can rule through consensus. Those with neither the strength nor the courage for firmness take refuge in the belief that they can remain somewhere in between. But that is an illusion.

Life is waiting for the light, not for the dark,’ she said. ‘My Indian teacher told me that. He was blind.’

It was like a spider’s web with a lot of spiders in it, not just one. They lay in wait for you at every corner of the web. Once you got caught in it you couldn’t get free. And they didn’t suck your blood right away, they’d just very slowly wind you into their web.

Want to try it for yourself? Find it here: Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light: A Novel

Apr 27

3 Comments

Spring Cleaning Challenge Update

A little over a month into the challenge and as a group, you’ve all read 4o books. New followers and readers, there’s still lots of time to join in the challenge! A little less than two months to go and reading even one book will count for the prize draw. Find the instructions in the challenge tab.

It’s a tough race for first place between Tracy and Kate. Remember that the first place reader gets a prize but the grand prize will be drawn randomly from everyone who reads at least one book. The more books you read, the more entries you get for the grand prize draw. Below are our current standings. Participants: let me know if you notice any errors in your scores.

Kate – 10
Tracy – 9
Becky – 4
Ellen – 3
Nicole D – 3
Anita -2
Andrea – 2
Lynsey – 2
Sushicat – 2
Brandy – 1
Tessa – 1
Tricia – 1

What do you think of the challenge thus far? Have you been surprised by any books (pleasantly or unpleasantly)?

Please take the time to read the reviews of books read thus far (since last update). You might find something you’d like to read.

Apr 26

1 Comment

Book Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Published in: 2014
Reviewed by Jen
Rating: 3.5 stars
Find it here: Station Eleven: A novel

A flu pandemic called the Georgia flu has killed off 99.9% of human population. Those who remain have had to learn to survive in a world without any modern day comforts. Apocalyptical and post-apocalyptic novels seem to be all the rage and Station Eleven is no exception. St. John Mandel’s fourth novel made many “best of” lists for 2014 and it was a National Book Award Nominee for fiction in 2014. The novel spans many years and weaves in various time points together from pre-apocalypse events to 20 years post-collapse.

This was an entertaining but not particularly novel idea for a book. I found the twists and turns fairly predictable although I did like how the author connected the various elements of the story together in the end. I have read a fair amount of post-apocalyptic novels and found Station Eleven to be a bit too optimistic and sugar-coated to be believable (or as believable as possible for these kinds of scenarios). Although there was mention of an “evil” prophet and some mild violence, there was no sense of real struggle or adversity that came through in Mandel’s version of the end of days (or beginning of days). Starvation, poverty, and violence were mentioned but often in mild or offhanded ways. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Walking Dead (and granted there are no zombies in Station Eleven), but it all felt just a little too rosy.

Those looking to this book for a good old apocalyptic novel will be disappointed. However, this book will appeal to many who don’t typically read this genre. It’s not really a book about world collapse, it’s a book about human connections, memory, and loss and there are true moments of beauty in storytelling related to these themes.

Have you read Station Eleven? What did you think? What are your recommendations for this genre?

Want to try it yourself? Find it here: Station Eleven: A novel