14 posts tagged “polysyllabic spree”

Books Purchased*:

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction edited by Lex Williford and Michael Martone 

The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley 

The Solitary Vice Against Reading by Mikita Brottman

Not Quite What I Was Planning edited by Smith Magazine

Patience and Fortitude by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor edited by Sally Fitzgerald 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Nine Horses by Billy Collins

Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut edited by William Rodney Allen 

The Best American Short Stories 1998 edited by Garrison Keillor

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins

Stories by T. C. Boyle

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

*There is very little excuse for this beast of a pile. Well, maybe there is. I had a lot of visitors in April, who wanted to go to Strand (who could blame them? I do too). So I went to Strand a lot more than normal, as well as dozens of other bookstores. I got excellent deals on most of the books in the stack, but I still need to go much easier in May. Here's hoping.

Books Read:

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley 

The Gathering by Anne Enright 

Simply Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs 

Patiently Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 

Including Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart 

Heartburn by Nora Ephron 

I am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert 

Alice on Her Way by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Well, despite the fact that I had company visiting 3 out of the 4 weekends in April, I still managed to read a lot. Absolutely nothing else got done this month.
 

So Many Books, So Little Time is a book that many members of Rory's Book Club have read and enjoyed. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read it, because I love books about reading. I found a hardcover at Strand for $6, and once I had it I wanted to read it immediately. It was a good book to read while my family was visiting; it was nice and light and did not require too much concentration. If you like reading about reading as well, it's very likely that you'll also enjoy this one. I related to Sara's thoughts about what reading can do for you, and wrote down many titles that I want to read too.  (See Heartburn below.)

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley has been on the receiving end of an incredible amount of buzz lately. This was a book I picked up because of the wonderful title and cover. Flipping through it and reading the first few pages confirmed that it needed to be purchased, taken to my home, and read immediately. A few links: Sloane's website  is pretty great, and includes dioramas. Amazon's book blog has a Q&A with Sloane. (I Was Told There'd Be Cake does not appear in either of my photos this month because it was so good I lent it to my friend right away.)

I read The Gathering for the first meeting of a book club I joined. We had a very spirited discussion about it. I enjoyed Anne Enright's writing, and way the book was structured was impressive and unique. The the plot is about a family that comes together for a funeral, but to me the book is about memory. The reader is inside the narrator's memory, and she can't quite remember if certain things actually happened, or the exact way that they happened. In other words, exactly like real memory. Also, the memories are not in order, much the way certain memories might come randomly back to you in an emotional situation like a funeral. I enjoyed the writing and the structure more than I enjoyed the actual novel, all together.

I decided I wanted to re-read the Alice books, my favorite series when I was younger. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is still writing the Alice series too, so there are new ones I haven't read yet. I started randomly in the middle, with Simply Alice. I then read Patiently Alice, Including Alice, and Alice on Her Way. You'll see more Alice books on the list next month.

I previously posted about A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart, so I won't go on about them more here.

I read about Heartburn in So Many Book, So Little Time. I've never read any Nora Ephron, and this one sounded amusing. Sara Nelson said she and her friends read it over and over again when it came out in the 80s. It was interesting to read a book for women that was written before the rise of chick lit. And it's so much better than chick lit too. It's hard to find books like this now because the few good ones that come out probably get slapped with pink covers and a single cover illustration that looks exactly like every other cover of all the hundreds of crappy books. In fact, the latest edition of Heartburn is pink with this very type of illustration on it. I'm glad I found a first edition that has the original artwork. (Here are links to images of the first edition, and the current edition.)

I started reading I Am American (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert when it came out back in October 2007. I read most of it, but got distracted and never read the last 50 or so pages. I finished them this month. It's a very funny book, and I highly recommend it to fans of Stephen Colbert. (This book also has a great site.)

As always, my complete Polysyllabic Spree list can be found here.

Books Purchased:

I found some awesome books and book deals this month. I picked up Clemetine's Letter, Armageddon in Retrospect, and Unaccustomed Earth at Strand before they were released for 50% off, and Unaccustomed Earth was signed by Jhumpa. I picked up the Neal Pollack Anthonogy of American Literature at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. It was only $7 and was also signed. I got a cute kid's book I'd never heard of before, Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters, at the Concord Bookshop. The 2004 Best American Non-required Reading was only $3 at the Border's by Emma's town. The remaining book, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, I got at the Chelsea BN before it closed. I've been eying this book since it came out and could not resist it anymore now that it's in paperback.

Books Read:

Peony in Love by Lisa See
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker

In my post about Boston, I did not go into much detail about what I purchased at the wonderful bookstores I visited, or the things I collected in general. In the comments I promised to show what books I purchased in my March Polysyllabic Spree post, but just showing the books was a bit underwhelming. So here's a photo of some of the other great things I collected while I was there:

And here are close ups of some of my favorite things. If you like them too you can click to make them bigger.

Books Purchased:

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall  
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor
Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me edited by Ben Karlin
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Letters of E. B. White edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth

Books Read:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Persuasion by Jane Austen
An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

I've already posted about several of the books on my books read list, but here's a little bit about the ones I haven't.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect is a kid's lit book about a girl named Zoe who desperately wants to play the piano (she has dreams of playing Carnegie Hall) but her dad, who was supposed to be out buying her a piano, comes back with a Perfectone D-60 organ. I loved every second of reading it. All the characters are kooky and lovable, especially Zoe's father and friend Wheeler. It's a quick read, and is heartfelt and fun. I highly recommend it.

Gods Behaving Badly - I saw this book around bookstores and on blogs for a while. I picked it up in the library and read the first chapter and was immediately hooked. It's an original idea for a book, Greek gods are alive and living in London in modern day, trying to sustain their power. Their lives get mixed up with the lives of two mortals, drama and comedy ensue. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is not as good as the first chapter was. It was an entertaining book, but I can't say that I'd recommend reading it over all the thousands of other amazing books out there, even if you're looking for a lighthearted read.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - So many people in Rory's Book Club loved this one that it's been on my TBR list for a long time. I've owned it since September, and finally got a kick in the pants to read it because the author, Lisa See, has an author event on March 3 that I want to attend. I'm so glad I read it, because it's incredible. I learned so much about historic Chinese culture and the footbinding tradition. The characters, setting, and plot are so vivid and lively; I could not put the book down. I'm excited to read Peony in Love, which is a continuation of the story about the live of the two main character's granddaughter.

Persuasion - I have a new reading goal for the year: to read all of Jane Austen's novels, including re-reading the only one I had already read, Pride and Prejudice. I loved Persuasion, and I can't wait to read another Jane Austen. I will post more about my Jane Austen reading goal in another post.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England  - I have heard so much praise for this book. I've been hearing it since September when it was released. I almost bought it in hardcover several times. I'm so glad I didn't. I checked it out from the library, and it might have gone back unread except that I saw it in The Morning News' 2008 Tournament of Books and decided to read it. Well....I did not like it. I'm pondering using the word hate. I'll refrain from that for now though. Here's what I didn't like: Sam Pulsifer. The main character. I can't remember the last time I read a novel with a main character that I found more unrealistic, unbelievable, and annoying. I kept reading in hopes that it would get better; It didn't. The only thing that kept me turning pages was to see what happened, but I really didn't even care. I found some of the pieces of the mystery to be too convenient and contrived. For example (possible spoiler) Sam has never seen much (any) of his parent's handwriting because they write all day at work and therefore don't do so at home, even for things like grocery lists. That is one of the most unbelievable plot hole cover ups I've ever read.

I would have read at least one more book this month, but Arsonist's Guide took me 9 days to get through its measly 300 pages because I didn't want to pick it up while I was at home. I mainly read it on the train, and then forced myself to read the last 100 pages last night so I could finish it for February and take it back.

I should say this: Part of my dislike for Arsonist's Guide may be because I read it right after reading a masterpiece of plot and characters by Jane Austen (Persuasion). It's not easy to follow Austen. But not all of my dislike can be written off by that; I really didn't like it.

Also, I've now read 5 of the 16 books on TMN's 2008 ToB. It's a very fun book tournament, and I recommend checking out each round. It's done bracket style and each judge reads two of the books and picks a winner. Those books move onto the next round, etc. They have very fun judges this year too.

My complete Polysyllabic Spree can be found here.

(Edit: I realized I included a book in the books purchased list and photo that I actually bought in January. Whoops. I've taken it out of the list, but it's still in the photo, because I don't feel like taking another one. All the other books will have to live with the jealousy of The Fun of It getting to appear in two photographs.)

Books Purchased:

The Best American Non-Required Reading 2003 edited by Dave Eggers
Something Happened by Joseph Heller
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Best American Essays 2003 edited by Anne Fadiman
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith
The Fun of It - Stories from The Talk of the Town edited by Lillian Ross

Books Read:

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman
The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)
Beginner's Greek by James Collins
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

I finished the last book (so far) in the Thursday Next series - Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. Now I have to try to wait patiently for Jasper Fforde to write the next one. According to him, there will be at least 3 more. I read Sideways Stories From Wayside School aloud to my brother while I was home for Christmas. That was very fun, I hadn't read any in a while. I may need to read the other two on my own here.

I've already written about how much I enjoyed At Large and at Small, and there's a great interview with Anne Fadiman on Powell's. I also loved The Braindead Megaphone, and there's an incredible interview with him on KCRW's Bookworm, which you can listen to here. He has a great conversation with Michael Silverblatt about writing and editing, and also reads aloud a short essay from the book.

The Uncommon Reader is a short little novella, and highly enjoyable. The story of what happens when the Queen of England discovers books and becomes an avid reader.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Vocies from a Medieval Village was this year's Newbery Medal winner, and I'll write more about it in a future post.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being was 15 pages away from making it into this month's post. But I got really tired and wanted to read the ending when I was actually awake. So the last 15 pages were finished on the train into work on Feb 1.  Oh well, it will help give a good start to February's list.

My complete Polysyllabic Spree can be found here.

Better late than never?

Books Purchased (or in this case, received as gifts!):

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (gift)
Penguin by Design by Phil Baines (gift)
Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by Danielle Wood (gift)
Portraits and Observatios: The Essays of Truman Capote (gift)
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman (gift)
A Good Man is Hard to Find, and other stories by Flannery O'Connor (gift)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (gift)
I Sailed With Magellan by Stuart Dybek (gift)

Books Read (most of my books read this month were library books that had to go back to the library before I left for
vacation, hence the two photos):

Allegra Maud Goldman by Edith Konecky (library)
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (library)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (library)
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis (library)
Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (library)
Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

I was pretty amazed that I managed to not purchase any books for myself this month. In fact I'm downright suspicious, I keep thinking I must have missed something. I loved all the books I received as gifts.

It was a good month for reading as well. I was a little disappointed with Allegra Maud Goldman, but only because my expectations were set way too high. (Nancy Pearl compared Allegra to Haven Kimmel's Zippy, only Jewish and set in the 70s.) Allegra Maud Goldman was a great young adult book, but I've learned I should not begin a book with the hopes of loving it as much as A Girl Named Zippy, that's setting myself up for huge disappointment.

I loved Persepolis and Persepolis 2. These were the first graphic novels I've ever read. I'm excited to see the movie Persepolis, I've heard it's excellent.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was great. I don't think I loved it as much as other people have seemed to, but it was a very enjoyable read. I wish I could think of more to say about it. How about a favorite quote? "That's life for you. All the happiness you gather for yourself, it will sweep away like it's nothing. If you ask me I don't think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That's enough."

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree was excellent. It's a kid's book whose spunky, precocious star reminds me a lot of my favorite literary friends when I was young: Ramona, Veronica the Show-Off, Alice, etc.

Something Rotten made me sob. I wasn't expecting that. It's by far my favorite book in the Thursday Next series, so far. My crying wasn't because it was sad, but because it was so affecting, in a very unusual way. I wish I could say more, but it would spoil it.

There wasn't much time for book buying or reading in November.

Books purchased:

Books read:

My complete Polysyllabic Spree can be found here.

I haven't seen Atonement yet, but I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. To quote from Entertainment Weekly, "Their movie is abundantly attractive, every scene serenely composed, and every character so fair in love and war that, when the lights come up, it's too easy to say, ''That was good and sad and romantic and classy, now what's for dinner?'' Turning the last page of McEwan's book, in contrast, you're more likely to be shaking from direct devastation and intensity of experience." There are very few (if any?) book-into-movie situations where I'd ever recommend seeing the movie first, but this one especially. The ending of the book is incredible and powerful, and having the movie ruin that experience for you would be a calamity.

Probably the same is true for The Kite Runner. The difference for this post, though, is that I'm not planning on seeing The Kite Runner. Maybe I'll change my mind based on reviews and input from others once they see it. For now, I plan on leaving the book free for further independent digestion.

The Principles of Uncertainty is one of my favorite books of the year. It was an unexpected delight; I hadn't been reading her monthly columns for the NY Times online. (This book is the entire collection of columns she's done so far.) It's a very unusual combination of art and writing. Completely whimsical, and absolutely gorgeous. The main tendency of the book is about little things that Maira notices and finds beautiful. An old woman with three large bobby pins in her hair. (Are there three more on the other side?) A sliced egg sandwich, eaten by someone named Sally at a luncheonette counter on a drizzly day in New York City. A woman who used to print photos in her bathtub. Before I read The Principles of Uncertainty I only knew Maira from her (gorgeous) illustrations in The Illustrated Elements of Style. Now I'm a huge Maira fan and have found 3 of her (just as gorgeous) books for children at Strand and added them to my collection. I'm anticipating the return of her column in January.

Oh goodness. September was a crazy book month. I had Birthday Month Mentality, whereby any book is a reasonable present to myself. Then, many people kindly bought some books I've been wanting as presents for me. And I also went to one of the greatest used book stores in the world, The Book Nook, while visiting my relatives in Northern Michigan. The Book Nook is a paperback exchange store, where you can bring in old books you no longer want, and get credit for "new" used books. I took some books in and got $70 in credit, and each paperback I picked out was half the list price, and then deducted from my credit. I got Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Known World, The Secret History, Love in the Time of Cholera, Brick Lane, and How to Travel with a Salmon there, and still have $25 dollars in credit to spend at Christmas.

Books purchased (or received as gifts) this month:

Books read this month:

I'm very happy that I finished The Age of Innocence this month, the first book for my Classics Catch-up Challenge. I cut it close though, I finished it on September 30. 

It's probably hard to read the titles and authors of the books purchased tower, so now would be a good place for the link to my ongoing Polysyllabic Spree page.

Books Purchased:

Books Read:

I did really well with not buying so many truckloads of books this month. Also, of those three books, I've already read two (Clementine and Thunderbolt Kid) so I only added one new book to my heaps of books that need to be read.

Unfortunately, I did not read many books this month. I guess that's due to two incredibly busy weekends, and a new computer. Hopefully September will be better. Also, all the books I read this month were from the library.

My complete Polysyllabic Spree.