The Reader's Room

May 20

Spring Cleaning Challenge Update

It’s time for an update on our Spring Cleaning Challenge! New followers and readers, there’s still lots of time to join in the fun for the chance to win some fun book prizes! Find the instructions for the challenge here. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, you have one more month left to rack up your points. Remember the more you read, the more you stack the odds in your favor.

It’s a tough race for first place between Tracy and Kate although in the last 2-3 weeks, Kate has pulled ahead slightly — although we may have slowed her down with her latest book pick. Will she make it through her current book? And, how will the battle for 3rd play out? Will Ellen keep her slim lead for third?

IMPORTANT INFO: I will be away traveling to Prague next week (May 24-31) so will have limited access to my email. If you finish a book while I’m away, just respond with a comment on the main challenge post (here) saying you are done with the book and my co-blogger, Book Worm will make sure to get you your next book assignment. I’ll check the reviews when I get back.

Final day to submit a review will be June 20th at midnight EST (or before I wake up on the 21st). We will announce the winners on the first day of summer!

Current Standings: tbr
Kate – 15
Tracy – 13
Ellen – 5
Andrea – 4
Becky – 4
Lynsey – 4
Nicole D – 4
Sushicat – 4
Anita -2
Brandy – 1
Charisma -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. I’ve included hyperlinks to the book titles if anything strikes your fancy. You can also find all the books in our Amazon store here – under the spring challenge tab.

May 18

3 Comments

1001 Book Review: The Sea by John Banville

The Sea by John Bangle
Awards: Booker Prize 2005
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Find it here:The Sea

Every once in a while you encounter a book with writing so beautiful that it makes you never want to return to the world of “ordinary” writing. The Sea was one of those books.

The Sea is a seemingly simple, but in essence rather complicated novel about loss, grief, memory, and regret. The protagonist is an aging man who, after losing his wife to cancer, rents a room at a boardinghouse that played a significant role in his childhood. Banville takes his time in letting the reader discover what happened to Banville during his childhood. He glides back and forth in time, weaving in two significant life events. The reliability of the narrator is brought into question as memory is unreliable and impacted by the experience of loss and grief.

I make myself think of her, I do it as an exercise. She is lodged in me like a knife and yet I am beginning to forget her. Already the image of her that I hold in my head is fraying, bits of pigments, flakes of gold leaf, are chipping off. Will the entire canvas be empty one day? I have come to realize how little I knew her, I mean how shallowly I knew her, how ineptly. I do not blame myself for this. Perhaps I should. Was I too lazy, too inattentive, too self-absorbed? Yes, all of those things, and yet I cannot think it is a matter of blame, this forgetting, this not-having-known. I fancy, rather, that I expected too much, in the way of knowing. I know so little of myself, how should I think to know another?

This was my first introduction to Banville’s writing and it blew me away. I loved the beautiful prose and exquisitely crafted sentences. The story is slow and at times meandering and directionless. The narrator skips around in time and the shifts in time make it difficult to follow. I can see why some people were bored (as indicated by goodreads reviews for this book) by the slow pace of the book and the confusing shifts in time, but I found the writing so beautiful and captivating that I remained engaged throughout. As a psychologist, I was also captivated by the way the author made memories blend to provide a more complete understanding of the narrator’s “current” emotional state. The Sea is a psychologically and emotionally complex book that is brought to greater heights by the truly gorgeous albeit highly dense writing.

The book is not for everyone. There is no fast-moving plot and the language and sentence construction is complex. I admittedly had to pull out the dictionary on several occasions. Serious, literary fiction readers will appreciate this book for the beauty and complexity of the writing. That is not to say that the casual reader won’t enjoy this book, but that it is a book that requires a certain degree of investment – a willingness to dig a little deeper below the surface of plot line and think more deeply about the themes and issues raised by the author. Banville also references numerous literary works (both directly and indirectly) and while you can still appreciate the book without this background knowledge, the book is more enjoyable if you are able to recognize these references. I highly recommend this book!

Quotes I enjoyed:

Happiness was different in childhood. It was so much then a matter simply of accumulation, of taking things – new experiences, new emotions – and applying them like so many polished tiles to what would someday be the marvelously finished pavilion of the self.

Yes, this is what I thought adulthood would be, a kind of long Indian summer, a state of tranquility, of calm incuriousness, with nothing left of the barely bearable raw immediacy of childhood, all the things solved that had puzzled me when I was small, all mysteries settled, all questions answered, and the moments dripping away, unnoticed almost, drip by golden drip, toward the final, almost unnoticed, quietus.”

Life, authentic life, is supposed to be all struggle, unflagging action and affirmation, the will butting its blunt head against the world’s wall, suchlike, but when I look back I see that the greater part of my energies was always given over to the simple search for shelter, for comfort, for, yes, I admit it, for coziness. This is a surprising, not to say shocking, realization. Before, I saw myself as something of a buccaneer, facing all-comers with a cutlass in my teeth, but now I am compelled to acknowledge that this was a delusion. To be concealed, protected, guarded, that is all I have ever truly ever wanted, to burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there, hidden from the sky’s indifferent gaze and the air’s harsh damagings. That is why the past is just such a retreat for me, I go there eagerly, rubbing my hands and shaking off the cold present and the colder future. And yet, what existence, really, does it have, the past? After all, it is only what the present was, once, the present that is gone, no more than that. And yet.”

There are times, they occur with increasing frequency nowadays, when I seem to know nothing, when everything I know seems to have fallen out of my mind like a shower of rain, and I am gripped for a moment in paralyzed dismay, waiting for it all to come back but with no certainty that it will.

Want to try it out for yourself? You can find it here:The Sea

In 2013 the book was made into a movie. You can see the trailer below.

We want to hear from you! Have you seen the movie or read the book? What did you think?

May 17

3 Comments

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Published in: 2008
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating:4 stars
Find it here:The Cellist of Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo was inspired by events during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. When a mortar round kills twenty-two people waiting in line for bread, a cellist in the symphony orchestra engages in an act of defiance against the perpetrators: he vows to play Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor every day for 22 days to honor the victims. This moment sets the backdrop for a novel in which Galloway weaves the primary stories of three people living in Sarajevo at the time of the siege. Arrow is a woman whose decision to accept an assignment as a sniper killing soldiers starts to change her in numerous ways, questioning her ultimate humanity. Kegan is a young family man whose frequent trips to gather clean water for his family puts him in harm’s way on a regular basis. Degan is an older man with a wife and child who moved to Italy before the city was closed off. He encounters an old friend who forces him to question his life before the war.
Read more

May 15

Featured Author: Philip Roth

American author, Philip Roth seems to be an author that people either love or hate. My feelings are more mixed. I disliked Portnoy’s complaint, liked American Pastoral, and loved Nemesis. Read more

May 13

1001 Book Review: The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Little
Published in: 2006
Original Language: French
Awards: Prix Goncourt 2006
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating:★★★
Find it here: The Kindly Ones

Amazon Synopsis: Dr Max Aue is a family man and owner of a lace factory in post-war France. He is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a former SS intelligence officer and cold-blooded assassin. He was an observer and then a participant in Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, he was present at the siege of Stalingrad, at the death camps, and finally caught up in the overthrow of the Nazis and the nightmarish fall of Berlin.

His world was peopled by Eichmann, Himmler, Göring, Speer and, of course, Hitler himself.

Max is looking back at his life with cool-eyed precision; he is speaking out now to set the record straight. Read more

May 11

17 Comments

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 6

Non 1001 Book Review: One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night Christopher Brookmyre

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre
Published in: 1999
Page Count: 384
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: 3.5 stars
Find/Buy it here:One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night

Synopsis from Amazon: Like a highball mix of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Brookmyre hits you hard and fast. Now Brookmyre is back with his most lethal book yet: One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. Gavin Hutchinson had it all planned out. A unique “floating holiday experience” on a converted North Sea oil rig, a haven for tourists who want a vacation but without the hassle of actually going anywhere. And what better way to test out his venture than to host a fifteenth-year high school reunion, the biggest social event of his life, except no one remembers who Gavin is. That, and his wife has discovered his philandering ways and plans to leave him with a very public announcement in front of his assembled guests. Throw in a band of mercenaries who crash the party even though they aren’t on the guest list, and you have a wicked farce of a thriller from one of the most original voices in mystery fiction.

Review: I chose to read this book because according to this website, it’s one of the top 10 Scottish novels. While it was not a 5 star read, it was definitely entertaining and well worth reading, especially if you have a dark sense of humour.

This is a story about a school reunion on of all places an oil rig that has been converted into a holiday complex (can you imagine being stuck with former school mates in a hotel with no escape?). Unfortunately sinister plans are afoot and it turns out a reunion in “paradise” is anything but predictable.

I really enjoyed this story, the humour is dark and made me chuckle several times, the writing is fast paced and the story line compelling, which made it an easy read.

Despite really enjoying it, I am only giving it 3 stars as I felt there was nothing spectacular about it. An enjoyable and humorous read but not great literature.”

My favourite quotes;

“It’s so exclusive, big man. So’s scrotes like you an’ myself cannae get near the fuckin’ thing. Like wan o’ thae wee islands, whit dae ye cry them? There’s hunners o’ them. The Endives.

“Maldives, ya fuckin’ eejit. Endives are in salad”

“So that would be thousands of islands then?”

“Aye very fuckin’ funny, Eddie”

“George Eliot? That’s the one whose husband jumped oot the windae on their weddin’ night. She must have threatened tae read him her new book”

“nor were the locals going to flog the Jocks much paella until they’d sussed a way to batter and deep-fry the stuff”

Want to try it for yourself? Find it here: One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night

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