Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

1001 Book Review: The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad

The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad
First Published in: 1915
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: ★★★
Find/Buy it here (for free):The Shadow Line (Illustrated)

Synopsis from Amazon: Written in 1915, The Shadow-Line is based upon events and experiences from twenty-seven years earlier to which Conrad returned obsessively in his fiction. A young sea captain’s first command brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain.

This is indeed a work full of ‘sudden passions’, in which Conrad is able to show how the full intensity of existence can be experienced by the man who, in the words of the older Captain Giles, is prepared to ‘stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience’. A subtle and penetrating analysis of the nature of manhood, The Shadow-Line investigates varieties of masculinity and desire in a subtext that counterpoints the tale’s seemingly conventional surface.

Book Worm’s Review

This is a novella told from the point of view of an older man looking back at a pivotal moment in his left when he crossed the shadow line between youth and adulthood.

The day he decides to quit his position as a first mate on a ship in the Orient and to return to England, he learns he is considered to be the only man able to captain a ship whose Captain recently died. Unable to resist, the young man travels to join his new crew only to discover that things are not what they seem.

His first voyage is marred with set backs: the crew suffer from Malaria, there is no wind to travel, and his first mate appears to be under the delusion that the previous captain had tried to kill them all.

The novel was first published in 1915 as a serial in New York’s Metropolitan Magazine.

Having previously read Heart of Darkness I was expecting this to be a struggle to read. However, it was a solid straightforward narrative with light-hearted moments as well as tension. What really came across was how the unnamed narrator still felt guilty for events he had no control over.

To Kill a Mocking Bird

Apologies for the late post but I couldn’t go a whole day and ignore what is perhaps some of the biggest book news in a long time. I have very few 5 star reads on my shelf because I’m very picky about books and I’m stingy with my 5 star ratings. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee gets one of my elusive 5 star ratings. I’ve read the book multiple times and reread the book again last year and loved it again.

So, Harper Lee’s publisher just announced that they will be publishing a sequel to the famous book. The sequel takes place 20 years after the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. Read the full story on the New York Times here. Sequels always make me nervous especially when the original was so fabulous.

What do you think? Will you be reading it?

Upcoming Content

Upcoming content:
We’ve finally gotten organized and are posting a list of what will be our regular content for this blog. We know you don’t want your inboxes cluttered with posts so the plan is to post approximately 2-3 times a week. Check out our regular segments below and let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to read about here. Recurring content will be tagged by title of the segment to make it easier for you to search content.

Love it or Hate it!
Scheduled Post: 1st of every month

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 new Love it or Hate it post category! Each month, we’ll pick one book to review. Two contributors will battle it out to convince you to pick it up or throw it out.

You, the reader will be able to vote on whether you loved or hated the book or, if you haven’t yet read the book, whether you feel driven to pick it up and read it lock it away in the dusty “never to be read” shelves.

Coming soon, on February 1, 2015: Atonement by Ian McEwan. And, for our very first Love it or Hate it, the first person to comment on that post with a “I want it” will win a used (but in mint condition) copy of the book.

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Twitter for Book Lovers

I have to admit that I’m a lousy twitter user. I barely tweet or retweet anything and sometimes months will pass before I even look at my account. But as I sit at home semi-delirious watching Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang for the millionth time (my 4 year old’s favorite movie and my husband and I are both too sick fight the screen time battle), I’ve decided to take a look at it again.

There are a lot of great twitter accounts for book lovers. Below are a few that I like.

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Challenges

Coming Soon…

Keep checking the Challenges tab for updates. Over the course of the year, i’ll be posting some challenges and/or games for my readers. Occasional prizes will be available for some of these challenges.

Until then, feel free to post any ideas for challenges that you would like to see here.

Welcome!

Welcome to my book blog! I hope you join me as I make my way through Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read Before you Die list. My goal for 2015 is to read 125 books. I have a variety of other personal reading challenges that I’ll write about later. Although one main focus is the 1001 book list, I do plan to read a mix of other books too. I’ve found that Boxall’s list consists of a lot of very depressing books so for my own mental health, I like to sprinkle in a lot of other types of  books into the mix.

This is my first attempt at a blog and I have some ideas for how it will ultimately look but i’m looking for your feedback on what sorts of things you’d like to see here. So far, I’m envisioning the following types of posts.

1. Book reviews
2. Guest blogs (I read mostly literary fiction and many are 1001 books. So, I’ll be asking trusted sources to contribute an occasional post that would cover other sorts of books that may be underrepresented in my reviews — science fiction, etc)
3. Book-worthy news (to include lists published elsewhere, book awards, etc)
4. Children’s corner: I’d like to have a page for reviews of books that I read with my 4 year old daughter including her “review.”
5. Random book-related posts (silly things like my thoughts on wine – book pairings, etc).
6. Challenges: I’m thinking I can post challenges to other readers. Maybe even a monthly book that we can all read together and discuss.

I’m thinking that ultimately several of these types of posts would be done on a schedule. For example, a monthly children’s corner post, a monthly guest blog, and a weekly book review. Then the random posts would be probably posted when I have something to write about.

I’d love to get all your thoughts on what type of things you’d like to see in a book blog. Which potential topics (listed above do you like? Not like? would like to see?). Please send me your comments and feedback so I can work on getting this up and running in a way that works best!