Dec 11
In October I received my first Indiespensable box, a book subscription service from Powell’s bookstore. You can read that review here. A few weeks ago my second box arrived and I’m happy to announce that I continue to love the service. Keep reading to see what I got and find out why this box was so great. Read more
Dec 9
Several months ago, Book Worm and I tried to make our way through the 2015 Man Booker Longlist books. Book Worm finished Did You Ever Have a Family a while ago and has been patiently waiting on me so we could post a joint review. Now I’m done. Find out what we both thought about his book and let us know what you thought. Read more
Nov 30
There is no such thing as a universally loved book. Each month, we’ll feature a book from Time Magazine‘s list of the best 100 English language novels of all time. From the mean to the funny, to the downright absurd, we will highlight some of the strange reasons why some people hate these great reads. This month’s book is 1984 by George Orwell. I have to admit that I last read this in high school and it wasn’t my favorite book, but it certainly merited better than some of these 1-star reviews from Amazon. Keep reading to see why some people hate this book. Read more
Nov 27
Looking for the perfect gift for that special book lover in your life? Here are a few ideas.
Oct 24
Oct 21
I have always believed that instilling a love of reading at an early age is fundamental. My husband and I have read at least one book to our daughter every night since she was a few days old. But I have to admit that there have been some books that are so mind-numbingly awful that each time I read them, I feel a part of my brain dying (e.g. some of the fairy tale adaptations for little kids). Even the good books can get tiring after the 100th time. There was a time when the mere mention of Good Night Moon was enough to evoke nightmares (of giant frolicking kittens wearing mittens, chasing a red balloon and eating a bowl of mush).
This brings me to one of my personal favorite children authors, Mo Willems. Mo Willems writes children’s books that in many ways are really for parents. I have yet to get bored of reading any of his books and we own quite of few of them. So this month’s Kid’s Corner is dedicated our favorite Mo Willems book. Find out which one and read E’s review after the jump (spoiler alert – it’s not a pigeon book). Read more
Oct 15
Normally for our featured author post, Book Worm and I feature an author we have both read and then we list our favorite books from that author. This month we thought we’d do something a little different and explore the life and works of the most recent winner of Nobel in Literature: Svetlana Alexievich. Read more
Oct 13
A Brief History of Seven Killings was announced to be the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize. Marlon James gets to take home £50,000 in addition to the prestige of winning the award.
This year’s judges (Michael Wood (chair), Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne) reviewed 156 books under consideration.
The Shortlist was made up of the following books:
Marlon James is the first Jamaican-born author to be shortlisted for the prize, let alone to win the prize. A Brief History of Seven Killings explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s. It is an examination of Jamaica’s troubled and violent history that spans decades and touches upon a variety of characters including drug dealers, journalist, and many others. It was a recipient of the 2015 American Book Award and was named best book of the year by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Time magazine.
Book Worm liked this book and you can read her review of his book here. We both predicted that he would win the prize. My copy is on its way and I plan to read it as soon as it arrives.
You can purchase your copy here: A Brief History of Seven Killings
Have you read the book? What did you think? Was it worthy of winning the prize? Do you plan to read it?
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?
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.
Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 