Top Ten Books I Want to Read This Autumn

So my participation in Top Ten Tuesday is very random, depending on the appeal of the topic, and this time the topic is pretty appealing (mainly because I love autumn and I love lists), so I decided to do it. The meme is hosted by folks at The Broke and the Bookish, go check 'em out for more information.

 

It was easy to make this list because I am kind of hoping to get a lot of reading done this autumn, and I am already on a good path thanks to RIP VIII event. There is also the 24-hour readathon coming in October, so the reading scene looks pretty shiny indeed.

 

All the books are from my already existing shelves, 'cos that's how I roll (I really like to prioritise the books I already own, which is why I also find these lists and events very helpful).

 

 

 

1. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James -  short, spooky and classic.

2. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - I failed to re-read this during the reading slump I had in summer, and actually this is autumn book instead anyway.

3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - I mentally added this to RIP VIII list because it's appropriate and there's a readalong coming in October, and also it's a small book.

4. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - I actually read a bit of this one recently at the point when I was between the books, and it was really good! Ships that are alive? Crazy. But potentially awesome.

5. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde - I loooove Fforde's Thursday Next books and after having seen a few good things about this book, I just decided to check it out. Curious to see how Fforde writes other things!

6. Dracula by Bram Stoker - it's going to be the Halloween read.

7. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (currently reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) - so yes, this is bad, but I have never read those books. I just finished the first one last night. When I saw the news of the 15th anniversary edition covers in spring, I decided to get the series in autumn because I really love these covers. So I now own the first three books and will get the rest as well.

8. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - just because I want to read it.

9. NW by Zadie Smith - I still have a few Women's Prize books on my shelf, and I want to get done with the shortlist by the end of this year. (Shortlist minus Hilary Mantel's book that is since I just couldn't get into Wolf Hall, at all...)

10. Bullerby lapsed (Barnen i Bullerbyn, The Children of Noisy Village) by Astrid Lindgren - this is the star book of my childhood, probably. Well I had piles of favourites, but the very favourite must come from among Lindgren books, and it's probably this one. And I want to read it again (I think the number of my re-reads of this book must be over 30 by now).

 

Let's break it down:

* 5 Classics Club books

* 3 RIP VIII books

* 3 fantasy books (yay!)

* 1 Women's Prize book

* 1 children's book

All the books I bought today

... or, how I felt like I just robbed a bookshop.

The bookshop near here, which sells used books, had a sale today - lots of books for half price. I bought 11 books, and boyfriend bought 6. For this lovely pile up here I paid 18 euros, which explains how I felt a bit like a criminal - most of these look like new or are in an extremely good condition.

From the top:

* Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger - I don't have Holden-hate in me, and I devoured Salinger's Franny and Zooey, so continuing with his works is a natural progress. Love his Glass family dynamics and characters.
* The Turn of the Screw/Daisy Miller by Henry James - first of them is for my Classics Club list. This book is tiny! Perfect to carry around.
* A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - there has been so much positive fuzz around it lately in the book blogs.
* A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - I haven't read anything by him and probably would never had purchased those books for full price; on the other hand, for 2 euros each, I figured I might look into this phenomenon.
* Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - I haven't read any Cather so far, so I grabbed this slim volume.
* North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - it's a Penguin Classics edition that looks brand new and I've wanted to read it anyway.
* The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
* The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - oh, so long have I wanted to get my hands on this book, and now I did, for a ridiculous sum of money. Lovely edition.
* Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett - I want to read this! Leaving my cover whore out now, I have to say it's the prettiest of all the books I got today.
* Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James - it might just happen that I read this book before Pride and Prejudice :)
* Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - this is a lovely hardcover edition, with illustrations - and it cost me 2 euros. Blasphemy :)

It was a successful day.

Closing the lid of May

May - what an overall successful and pleasant month. So much happened. Spring finally arrived, my Finnish classes ended for this half-a-year, we were reading lots during Bout of Books 7.0, I made some important health-related decisions that should promise for better future. I am happy with you, May!

 

What I read in May 2013:

 

* M. Atwood "The Blind Assassin" (Classics Club big list)

* D.L. Bogdan "The Forgotten Queen" 

* B. Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" (Women's Prize shortlist)

* R. Bradbury "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (Classics Club big list)

* J. Fforde "The Eyre Affair"

* H. Wecker "The Golem and the Djinni"

* G.G. Marquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (Classics Club big list)
 



This is my boyfriend reading one of Martin's books. With
Robert. What lovely emotion on this photo.

Page count: 521 + 315 + 436 + 290 + 373 + 484 + 337 = 2756 pages

I think 7 books is the most I've done during blogging since the beginning of the year, so thanks a lot, Bout of Books!
 

In Classics Club May Meme post I set down the three classics I wanted to read in May. Well, I only read the Atwood book - I didn't really get into Conan Doyle and Dickens at all, so I didn't force them - the better time will come. However, I did read three CC books in May, which I am very happy with. And also enjoyed all of them, so that is a good thing too (I really have to catch up with the reviews, though...)
 

Okay, plans for June (and what a busy month this will be).
 

* Classics Spin #2 Summer Edition - I get to read "Villette" by Charlotte Brontë. I am excited! "Jane Eyre" is such a famous book, but it's also a story a bit overly chewn by the world by now, so I am so so curious to discover the later works of Charlotte. I started the book last night after I finished "One Hundred Years..." (very suitably on the last day of May) and read a few pages; I don't have opinions yet but it's definitely Charlotte's style there.
 

* O from Délaissé is hosting 18th Century English Literature Event for June - even though it will be a super busy month  for me, I wanted to take part because I am scared of the 18th century English lit and I am especially scared of Defoe and "Moll Flanders", which I picked to read. So hoping that reading with the rest of the classics-loving folk will make it easier!
 

* We are going to Prague this month for four days (this is like my dream destination for a city holiday ever). I am slightly obsessed with Prague and I want to read two books around the time of the trip - Magnus Flyte's "City of Dark Magic", which is set in Prague, and re-read Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", one of my favourite books from high-school reading programme (oh yes, we got to read some interesting books there :) ).




Robert got tired :)

It will be also the Midsummer's holidays this month, coinciding with my week-long vacation from work. We will likely be heading to boyfriend's parents' summer cottage in the middle of nowhere - which is actually the most perfect place for reading, ever (the forest, the lake, the nightless nights of Finland - this one day of the year when sun doesn't set).

 

Also, Women's Prize winner for this year will be announced on 5th of June, which is already next week - I really want to know which book wins.

Review: "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver

Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.

 

---

 

Barbara Kingsolver is one of those authors who I really want to like. I haven't read anything else by her, but "Poisonwood Bible" is on my Classics Club list, so I'll get to that sooner or later.

 

Even though I didn't go all fangirl-squeee over "Flight Behavior", I liked several things about this novel, even after having read some rather lukewarm opinions and a few people not even finishing the book.

 

Monarch butterflies. From
here.

Basically, this is a warning book. The climate change is destroying the earth, whether we are willing to admit it or not. Migration of Monarch butterflies has been disturbed and the whole species is in danger of becoming extinct. In the middle of this setting is life of Dellarobia Turnbow and her simple family and their simple town. A lot of focus is put on Dellarobia's marriage and why it is (or is not) working.

 

Kingsolver has degrees in biology and her background as a working scientist shows. But not in a negative way. I think one of the absolute strengths of "Flight Behavior" is the bits that have to do with nature and environment; the descriptive parts are very vivid and I found the whole surroundings super easy to imagine in my head. Characters are alright, I loved Dellarobia's feet-on-the-ground attitude - even though she has not had the easiest life, she is far from naive and has healthy, semi-sarcastic attitude towards her children (which I prefer over the gushing "Children are blossoms of our life!" kind of attitude). In fact, Dellarobia's views on parenthood are far from idyllic:

 

Whose idea was it to keep kids home from school a full week and more after Christmas? Preston was having a rocket-science day, using toys as projectiles and sofa cushions as the landing pad. Cordelia did something she called "farmer" with the Cheerios, planting the entire box like seeds in the living room carpet while Dellarobia was in the bathroom less than five minutes. She could see her future in that carpet, the endless vacuuming, the grit on the soles of everyone's feet. Like a beach vacation minus the beach, and the vacation. /p. 200/

 

The whole text is decorated with modest humour bordering on self-irony. I especially enjoyed the bits that showed conflict between the science and the media, and how media wants everything to be dolled up and cater to the pleasure of the viewers, while there might be nothing beautiful about the situation at hand. (Ovid Byron is the scientist that has come to examine the problem with Monarch butterflies and Tina Ultner is the TV-host that thinks the migrational problems of the butterflies have created a "beautiful scene"):

 

"What scientists disagree on now, Tina, is how to express our shock. The glaciers that keep Asia's watersheds in business are going right away. Maybe one of your interns could Google that for you. The Arctic is genuinely collapsing. Scientists used to call these things the canary in the mine. What they say now is, The canary is dead. We are at the top of Niagara Falls, Tina, in a canoe. There is an image for your viewers. We got here by drifting, but we cannot turn around for a lazy paddle back when you finally stop pissing around. We have arrived at the point of an audible roar. Does it strike you as a good time to debate the existence of falls?" /p. 367/

 

It's patronising and harsh but also hilarious because she totally deserved this.

 

When I finished "Flight Behavior", I was a bit disappointed that I did not form the kind of emotional attachment to it that I had wished for. However, it is one of those books I have started appreciating more after the days pass. It was good to read about a big and important topic - in that sense, it was also an educational novel. Kingsolver is definitely a skilled author, although I can't compare with her previous works. I am hoping that this is not her best book and that I can get even deeper into her text through "Poisonwood Bible" in future.

 

Picture from here.



---

Women's Prize 2013 shortlist.

433 pages

 

 

It's over - Bout of Books 7.0 Wrap-up

Never would have thought I would enjoy a reading event as much as I enjoyed Bout of Books 7.0 readathon.

 

So to wrap it up, what happened during this week:

 

Total books read: 3

Total pages read: 949 (oww... so close!)

The books I finished: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Women'z Prize shortlist), Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (my Classics Club list), The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (simply an awesome book).

Number of challenges I participated: 3

 

How did I do regarding to the goals I set myself before the readathon?

 

Let's see...

 

1. Finish at least two books - check!

2. Read at least two hours a day - I am not even sure why I set this goal as it is basically impossible for me to keep track on reading time. But I'm positive that at least half the days I did read around two hours.

3. Visit at least 5 Bout of Books blogs a day - check. I visited, I commented.

4. Regular daily updates - CHECK. This is what I am really proud of, as doing something regularly can be very challenging for me. However, during the readathon I posted every single morning. (That is almost achievement enough to buy a book as a reward...)

 

It was nice to read the blogs of other participants and see how everyone was doing. It was nice to find comments in my own blog - thank you, people!

 

The next Bout of Books readathon will take place in August and I very much would want to get involved again.

 

As for now, let the normal reading, reviewing and posting schedule to commence - I miss my routine :D

Bout of Books: Wednesday

The third day of readathon was very successful for me - I actually finished a book! Yes, I am done with Barbara Kingsolver (now that may sound a bit wrong, but I don't mean it in any bad way :) ). There are many, many thoughts I have about Flight Behavior, but no idea when I get to write about it, since I have pretty much cancelled all reviews during this week in favour of reading. Anyway, even though this wasn't a life-changing experience for me, this is not the last meeting between me and that particular author, that is for sure.

I am also extremely proud of staying away from "the new shiny book pile" and continuing with my initial readathon books - small step for mankind it may be, but for someone with considerable self-disciplining issues, that is a gigantic leap.

The books I read on Wednesday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
Total pages read: 138 (getting better daily, it seems!)
Total books finished: 1 (!!!!!) (yes, it deserves to be in red and bold)
What do my cats think about the books at hand: Robert finally warmed up to Kingsolver and just after I finished it and put it down next to me on bed, he graced Flight Behavior with his presence and took a nap on it, or well, half the upper body on it. However, Robert was very excited about the Bradbury book, and approved it wholeheartedly:

"I like this book!" I agree with you, little buddy.

Flavour of the day: It was the flavour of the first day reading outside with my boyfriend today, definitely.

I do expect my page count to skyrocket, as Something Wicked This Way Comes is a pocket-size book with big font (gotta love those :p). I also made a deal with myself that if I manage to finish this one also before the weekend, I am allowed to take a sneak peek in The Eyre Affair (positive motivating yay!).

Happy reading day to all the readathon-ers!
 

Bout of Books: Tuesday

Second day survived - woohoo. It was a decent day, although I was being tired and a bit moody and whatnot. Staying away from Twitter definitely increased my page count!
 

The books I read on Monday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver; The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Total pages read today: 102 (whee, progress!)

Total books finished: 0

What do my cats think about the books at hand: Robert warmed up to "Flight Behavior" a bit in the end of the day, insisting to purr on my lap while I was reading. He seemed to think the book makes a sufficient kind of "rubbing-against" material, but that I should definitely finish it already and get to some hardcovers.

Flavour of the day: again my boyfriend stayed in the kitchen in the evening and made drool-worthy wraps with mozzarella, rucola and parma ham... Nom.

Robert seems a bit unsure what to think of this one... (To an extent I agree with him)
 

Okay, it's definitely time to finish at least one book and since I have less than 100 pages of Kingsolver left, I am determined to finish it today. After that it's going to take a lot of self-discipline to steer away from The Eyre Affair and move on with my initial TBR pile. Happy reading day to everyone!

 

 

Bout of Books: Monday

The first day of Bout of Books readathon was a great success, even though I did not finish anything - but I enjoyed it greatly - checking out how others are doing, participating in the Spine Poetry challenge, chatting on Twitter.

 

The books I read on Monday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Total pages read today: 96

Total books finished: 0

What do my cats think about the books at hand: Nothing. It is a softcover with a VERY soft cover, which makes it a bad "rub-my-face-against-while-looking-stupid" book.

Flavour of the day: absolutely delicious dinner made by my lovely (and understanding, thehe) boyfriend.

 

 

 

 

In other news, I received a pack of books - the Lonely Planet Prague travel guide (yess! - not sure it would count as a reading material, though...), The Eyre Affair, City of Dark Magic and Outlander. And I want to read them all. right. now. I am soooo doomed...

Bout of Books goals (and general ramblings)

So when I was picking the books for Bout of Books today (and in my mind earlier this week), I faced this problem again - I don't really have any slim books... Most of the books I own are either classics or fantasy/sci-fi, and they do tend to come in rather voluminous sizes. Even my Women's Prize selections are all around 450 pages! *grumble* And here I was, thinking, for the reading event as such I'd try to pick slimmer volumes.

 

But anyway, one has to do with what one has at hand, and I've put together *drum roll* the Bookpile for the Readathon. It's not my goal to read all those books, but rather it's the books to choose from, and even if I feel reading/starting a different book every day, it's perfectly fine! (No pressure.)

* Ray Bradbury "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - is from my Classics Club list and one of the shorter books I could find from my shelves.

* Robin Hobb "Ship of Magic" - I came to realisation that if I visited for my blog for the first time right now, there would be no way of saying I actually love fantasy literature... And I miss reading it. So I am not hoping to finish this one (unless it is highly addictive), but at least to make a good start into it.

* Gabriel García Márquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (in Estonian - obviously) - I just tossed it in for a good measure to basically be reminded of those Classics Club books I should read more of, plus since I was kind of disappointed with the latest Murakami, I am craving for some magical realism. (It's a re-read.)

* Arthur Conan Doyle "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - this actually counts as a slim volume, since I am not reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes at once, and have been quite up to date with my Baskervilles-readalong so far. I think I will finish it off during the next week.

* Barbara Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" - I started this one yesterday, after yet another failed attempt to get into "A Tale of Two Cities" (I think I'll give up on this one for now and try it again later - I really want to enjoy it and not just force myself to plow through for the sake of it...). I am beginning to see a pattern here - all the slumps can be remedied by Women's Prize books... Not sure I like that trend that much to be honest, but whatever keeps me reading (as long as it's not Dan Brown or 50 Shades :) *)

 

So this is 3 classics, one fantasy and one Women's Prize book, which seems about the kind of balance that I was looking for. (For now, let's not try to think of the books I ordered that will arrive some time in the beginning of the next week...)

 

Other goals for the readathon (slightly modified from this post):

 

* Finish at least two books - with the selection of the books I have, and if I count "The Hound of the Baskervilles" as a separate book, this is perfectly doable. I expect to also finish Bradbury and Kingsolver.

* Read at least two hours a day - like, one hour before bed, and then throughout the day. I have things coming up like seeing a friend, my weekly Finnish class, THE JOB, but if I manage to be dedicated, I predict to get a lot of reading done.

* Visit at least five blogs of the other participants a day - and by that I mean not the blogs of the girls I visit regularly anyway (like Sam, Ellie and Sarah), but new ones. Bookmark those that I would like to examine more thoroughly after the readathon.

* Regular daily updates - boring tidbits like page count, how many books read, did my cats like the books I am currently reading (they measure the likeness by the cover - is it good to rub against or not :p), etc. + an occasional tweet or two (@Rivorniel).

 

Less than a day left now!

* Edit: Just to put it out there - I have no other problems with Dan Brown and E.L. James other than they are just not for me. I read mainly for the pleasure of the beauty of the word, and in that department I find them both lacking, for my taste. (I always thought Dan Brown would probably make a lot better movie industry person than an author :) )  

Brain Food, VI



I haven't written about books I've bought/received for a long while, so there is... horror! two piles to show at once now. Some of those I have even finished already, hehe.

From top to bottom:

 

* Hilary Mantel, "Wolf Hall" - was an impulse buy, but since I'm going through the longlist of this year's Women's Prize, and Mantel is in it with the sequel to the "Wolf Hall", the purchase has worked itself out quite fine.

* Sinclair Lewis, "Arrowsmith" - a Classics Club book that I got to read for the Spin event in March. Finished it, liked it. Might try out some more Lewis in future.

* Scott Addams, "God's Debris" - something that can be called "a mind exercise" by the author of Dilbert. The premise of this slim book seems very intriguing, I love literary mind games. Won it a while back from a giveaway.

* Ken Follett "The Pillars of the Earth" - another brick, which I can't wait to start! It's something about building a cathedral in 12th century and I have faith it's going to be a-we-some.

* B. N. Peacock "A Tainted Dawn" - another piece of historical fiction (I really do intend to make my grand foray into the genre). Travelling by the sea and military conflicts. I won this book.

* Susan Wise Bauer "The Well-Educated Mind" - it's a book that is supposed to help us read and interpret classics. If it will manage to make me ask more questions about books, and seek more answers - good.

Women's Prize 2013 books:

 

* Gillian Flynn "Gone Girl" - read it in a few days, had some issues, but I think it's a good book for people who are after fast-paced writing and story twists. I personally am more focused on the depth and style of writing, which is why plot-based novels ain't quite my thing, but I'm glad I read it (bought it before I knew it was longlisted for WP). But, I don't expect I will try other of Flynn's works any time soon, if at all.

* Elif Shafak "Honour" - set in London, Istanbul and a Kurdish village, I'm looking forward to this one, but I will probably read the other books from this pile first.

* Francesca Segal "The Innocents" - I see family drama. Expecting this one to be a hit or a miss.

* Barbara Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" - I haven't read any Kingsolver and I want to love her, so I am very, very apprehensive towards this book.

* Kate Atkinson "Life After Life" - reading this one now, and loving it so much. Almost don't even want it to end. Fascinatingly structured novel.

* Maria Semple "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" - read it, loved it, need to write about it. The humour! But then again it is no wonder considering that Semple has written for Arrested Development, one of the funniest TV-shows there is :)

Closing the lid of March

We can has some of that? Please???

*punches the writing slump in the face* there...

 

March is almost over, and spring is nowhere to be seen. What gives? I'm so tired all the time that it's not even funny anymore.

 

Just out of curiosity (and possibly in masochistic desire to shock myself) I went through all the Brain Food posts since the beginning of January (added the books I have gotten in the past weeks and have not put into a post yet) to make a little calculation of how many books I have acquired and how many of them I have read.

 

 

Books hoarded - 35 (of which 3 I received for free, 1 is a lent book, and the rest I [or my boyfriend] have paid for).

Books read - 13.

 

I think it could be worse. My Classics Club project includes many of the books that come from my already-earlier-existing library, so I am not reading only the new books. Most books I have bought are classics, plus I am also going through some of the novels longlisted for this year's Women's Prize. It is also noteworthy that the classics I buy are not necessarily meant for reading right away, but they are more like long-time investment.

 

Anyway, back to March.

 

It was surprisingly good reading month, mainly because I managed to balance nicely between the classics and other stuff. I read six books - three classics and three "others":

 

* J. Austen "Persuasion" (for Classics Club)

* G. Flynn "Gone Girl" (from Women's Prize longlist; however, I read it before I knew that it was longlisted)

* E. Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (for Classics Club; for Modern March event)

* S. Lewis "Arrowsmith" (for Classics Club; for Classics Spin event)

* J. Picoult "My Sister's Keeper"

* M. Semple "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" (from Women's Prize longlist)

 

Page count - 236+466+490+450+500+321=2463.

 

In April, I will participate in Zoladdiction event. Although I initially planned to go for two Zolas, I have changed my mind by now and will be reading only "Germinal". I would like to dedicate more time to Women's Prize books - I have Kingsolver's "Flight Behavior" and Segal's "The Innocents" at home, plus this week the boyfriend ordered me Atkinson's "Life After Life" (can't wait to stick my claws into that one!) and Shafak's "Honour". I also can't wait to start Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall".