Taggart - Louis L'Amour

Here's a book I read just for the Read Outside Your Comfort Zone Challenge. I was lucky and found a few westerns on the free book exchange shelves at the office, and I'll be honest, I chose the book with the fewest pages. This book wasn't bad, I can see why he is a best-selling author - this would be a good book for someone who is not a big reader. Like the characters in the book, it carefully rode through my mind and left no real trail behind it. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it was going to be, but it wasn't a book I am likely to read again or think much about now that I've finished it. I enjoyed it for what it was and it satisfied my needs for both the challenge and as a reader.

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch - Alison Arngrim

This was an enjoyable, fast read. Like most people of my age, I watched Little House on the Prairie as a kid, and it was interesting to read about what things were like on the set. Apparently Alison Arngrim does standup comedy, and now I think I'd like to see her show.

Blue Boy - Rakesh Satyal

I stumbled on this book while making yet another trip to Borders and thought it looked intriguing, and I was right. This was a well-written coming-of-age story about the titular boy. I enjoyed the narrator and in some ways could identify with his feelings of being alone in the world and not fitting in anywhere. There were some very funny moments, balancing the sad and bittersweet moments. It was interesting to be able to learn about Indian culture as well, although all the talk of curry and saag and paneer and etc. made me crave murag makhni and saag wala gosht. I would love to read more about the title character, which is the mark of a good book in my mind. Recommended.

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

This graphic novel made a strong impression on me - I really felt that the art style enhanced the story, and in fact I would not want to read an all-prose, novel version of the events depicted - I think this format told the story in a very powerful way. Now I just wish I had the second book so I could continue my reading right away. I keep thinking about the events depicted and the characters and they are really alive in my mind. Highly recommended!

Book Blogger Hop/Follow Friday

Another Friday means more blog hopping/following goodness! If you're a first time visitor, welcome! My reviews are deliberately short because I try to avoid spoilers and giving away too much about the books I read whenever I can. I love to read and will read anything interesting and I'm always looking for recommendations of good books! If you've visited here before, welcome back and thanks for stopping by! :)










This week's question is perfect for me!

“What are you most looking forward to this fall/autumn season – A particular book release? Halloween? The leaves changing color? Cooler temperatures? A vacation? (If your next season is other than fall/autumn, tell us about it and what you are most looking forward to in your part of the world!)”

My response: ALL OF THE ABOVE!! As I have mentioned before many times, in fact in the last post I made, autumn (fall) is my very favorite season. I truly love everything about it! I love the cooler temperatures (summer is too hot for me), I love wearing sweaters and jackets and the beautiful mittens/gloves my pal E.D. has made me, I love the beautiful fall colors, I love to see the trees with their incredible red, yellow, orange, and gold leaves. I am a little bit obsessed with pumpkins and I love going to an actual pumpkin patch to pick some out for jack-o-lanterns around Halloween, and I adore Halloween (although I don't usually dress up and go out, which is sad because every year I want to!). I'm also a little obsessed with acorns and they are all over the place in fall and that makes me really happy. My favorite national holiday is Thanksgiving and that's coming up soon now. I'm also planning a vacation for later this fall, but I don't want to talk about it in case I jinx it, as the planning has been going very slowly :)

In a book-related fall happening, I can't wait to get a real copy of Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman on September 6 (just a few days away!). I LOVED this book when I found it on NetGalley and I'm dying to get a real copy so I can read it again. If you are a fan of the paranormal you might love this book too, you should check it out!







This week's question:

If you could change the ending of any book (or series), which book would you choose? Why and to what?

My spoiler-free response: I'd change the ending of The Kite Runner - not so much what happens, but I'd cut the book short. I think the book goes on a bit too long and it would work better as an ending if it were cut shorter. I wouldn't make the ending "happier," just stop the story at what I think is a more natural point.

August - This Month in Reading

At the end of July, I set a goal for August to try to read at least one book for each of the remaining challenges I signed up for, including catching up on the War and Peace Challenge, and I banned myself from the library. I did manage to stay away from the library, so that was good, but on the other hand I took a few trips to Borders and came home with discounted books, so.... I still have a growing TBR pile - ouch! I think I am an incurable bookaholic! 

I did manage to catch up on the following challenges: the TBR Pile, Forgotten Treasures, Buck Stops Here, GLBT Reading, and Haruki Murakami Challenges. Hooray! I did not manage to read a book for the Read Outside Your Comfort Zone or Color Coded Reading Challenges, nor did I get caught up with War and Peace. All in all I only read 13 books this month, which was much lower than I wanted. 

So for September, I would like to again read at least one book for each challenge (and maybe 2 for the challenges I missed this month), and get caught up with War and Peace. I'd also like to stay away from the library; I have SO MANY books now waiting to be read I really need to read them instead of bringing even more books into the house. It's getting really crazy here - books are invading every room, which is not a bad thing, but they all want to be read and I only have so much time. I will also keep track in this post again, that worked really well last month. 

Before I go, 2 exciting things are happening tomorrow:

1) AUTUMN OFFICIALLY BEGINS (in my mind; I consider September 1 the first day of autumn/fall), so my favorite season is finally here, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

2) Those Across the River is officially available in less than 5 days (Sept. 6)! I can hardly wait to get my hands on a real copy of this book. 

How was your reading this summer? 

READING CHALLENGES FOR 2011 - 1 book for each (except where noted)

The Forgotten Treasures Challenge - 1 book read as of 9/9/2011
The Buck Stops Here Challenge - 1 book read as of 9/9/2011
War and Peace One Chapter a Day (catch up)
Read Outside Your Comfort Zone Challenge (2 books) - 1 book read as of 9/9/2011
The Color Coded Reading Challenge (2 books) - 1 book read as of 9/23/2011
GLBT Reading Challenge - 1 book read as of 9/7/2011
Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge
The TBR Pile Challenge (2 books) - 1 book read as of 9/23/2011 - 2 books read as of 9/25/2011

The Secret of Platform 13 - Eva Ibbotson

I enjoyed this book aimed at kids. I figured out something important early on, but it didn't dampen my enjoyment. I think I would have loved this book if I had read it for the first time as a kid myself.

The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami's writing is surreal in general, a skillful mix of the ordinary and the fantastical. His characters can be doing quite ordinary things, such as making spaghetti (a frequent activity) or reading the newspaper and then an element of the surreal intrudes. This is sometimes more of a feeling that you get from the story rather than something surreal that happens in the story, but there is always something there under the surface that stays in your mind and that you want to keep thinking about. 

This is one of the first books by Murakami I ever read, and some of the stories have stayed with me for years now (I won't say how many years). In fact, I originally got this collection of short stories, a genre I don't usually like, at the library, but I liked it so much I bought myself a copy, and then a few years ago gave it away to an acquaintance from another country who teaches English, who has a hard time getting good books in English. Since then I've been without my own copy until one of the stories, "Sleep," kept coming to mind and I really wanted to reread it. It didn't disappoint. It's funny about the stories - some have really stayed with me and others didn't, so it was as if I'd never read them. Since I was younger when I first read the entire collection, it will be interesting to see which stories stay closer to my mind now that I am older. 

One thing I would love to discuss with others is the repetition of a character name between a few of the stories. I feel like it is intentional, and yet I don't necessarily feel like it matches up with some of the other details, so maybe it doesn't mean anything. 

I know that I said I wanted to read previously unread Murakami books for the challenge, but since I had read several stories in this book already I figured I'd finish it up. I'll still try to read three that I haven't already read - I snagged a copy of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman at Borders too, so that'll be coming up on the queue! 

The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare

I found this book on the Library Sale shelves and it seemed familiar - I felt like I'd either read it a long time ago and didn't really remember it, or that I'd heard of it from some award list somewhere (it actually won the Newberry Medal in 1959) and I should read it, etc. In any case, for 50 cents, how bad could it be? In addition, I am a sucker for certain types of period cover art, and this particular paperback was published in 1971 and I liked the cover (an example of my cover is shown below in a blog first - assuming I can make this work).

Woo hoo, it works! Cool!

Overall this was an entertaining book, but I found the 1971-era description of the story printed on the back cover to be a little more melodramatic and overdone compared to the contents. However, this is typical of that time period and did not dampen my enjoyment of the story or of the book. It was a perfect read for this morning while waiting for the electricity to come back on after Hurricane Irene passed by here last night and blew it off, apparently. The book did, however, add another nail into the coffin of my opinion of the Puritans, whom I think are some of the most humorless and pitiable people ever to exist on this planet. It must have been truly awful to have encountered some of these people back then, when any small misfortune, no matter how petty, was blamed on "witchcraft," no one was allowed to have anything reasonably nice, or to have any fun - what a sad way to live. It did make the main character very sympathetic, however, and it's an entertaining story. Recommended.

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is a writer I've been meaning to read for ages, and now that I have finally read one of his books I am glad it's not too late to read more. I knew nothing about this book before I read it, and it was absolutely not what I expected at all. I found the story fascinating and the writing style perfectly suited to the story being told. I would love to be able to talk about this book with a good book club or in a college level class, as I suspect if I read it again after some time has passed I'd pick up on things I had previously missed each time I reread the book. Highly recommended.