What are You Reading...

Sheila at Book Journey hosts this weekly event where we celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.

I always feel, at this time of year, that when I'm done with classes I'll have heaps of time to complete my household tasks. HUH! double HUH!. Not so.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are my cleaning days.  Well last Monday, I went to get my eyebrows done and my hair colored so that was that, and Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday I spent at the seniors home with my mom doing a used book sale.  While the sale was a huge success, it was a lot of work and not my housework, so now I have piles of stuff sitting around that needs clearing up.   (along with leftovers from the sale).  So this week I'm not going anywhere, and I'm cleaning and baking.  I'll be stopping to read of coarse.

Last week I finished (reluctantly, I just didn't want this book to end.) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I think I may have to go and re-read this one.  This is a 5out of 5 star for me. I chose this book for my Take Another Chance Challenge, so glad I did.  Although I had read many a review, I really didn't expect to enjoy reading the book so much.  I love reading books that are a series of letters.  My boys always say this is a federal offense, BAH! Reading someone else's mail that is.  BAH I say.  I have a whole box of my mother's letters that I must someday organize, but in the mean time I'll enjoy everyone else's publications.  What's up for the rest of my reading week, well I have the remainder of the list for this challenge.  I believe up next should be the Yiddish Policeman's Union.
Let's hope I don't get too involved and burn my cookies.

Innocence of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton.

100 Best Book, Innocence of Father Brown, Chesterton, G.K. This was my #3 in the Take Another Chance Challenge.    When I first joined the challenge I thought I'd need to have some familiar territory to tread upon, thus this choice was made. 

 C
Thanks to Jenners for hosting this challenge.

I have to add a P.S. to this post.  I read about a TBR challenge to clear our book shelves and can't remember where and if I linked in with Mr. Linky, if anyone knows please let me know.  Thanks.  My first book is off the shelf and in the mail. 

Take another Chance Challenge...

I don't know where the year has gone?  I committed myself to a number of reading challenges, in addition to personal challenges with my artistic endeavours.  For the most part it's been a happy ride.  The problem being, I just love to read reviews other bloggers post and I immediately think "I must read that".  Well that obsession has taken me away from my commitments to some degree, and enjoyable detour I might add.  Today whilst waiting for yet another bus I finished  The Prince of Mist, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It was a short read, what I think intrigued me most was the first page where the author talks about the rights to his book being "trapped" in legalities.  Of course then I had to read it to see if it was the contents that put it into the trap.  I don't think so.  I enjoyed the characters, the innocents, and the quick relationships kids make at the beach.  Reminded me of the times my sister Barb and I spent at our Godparents home in the summers, very near to the beach, we had those kinds of quick friendships so in that sense the story was one I could relate to, and then the spooky stuff well that was a good RIP mystery if you like that kinda stuff. Jenners rates these kinds of books with a scare-o-meter.  I'd have to say on a scale of 1-10 it was a mere 5, not too spooky but...  So if this is your type of book, a little spooky, a little innocent, and easy to read... go for it.

  

Thanks to Myriam for suggesting this author, I'm still looking for the book she loved by him, perhaps it too is "trapped". This book completes my Take another chance challenge #5.

book photo from book I own.

Take Another Chance Challenge #8, King Rat/ Pied Piper of Hamelin

This Read was part of my Take Another Chance Challenge.
Challenge 8: Real and Inspired (worth 2 entries)
Many authors or books inspire others to pay homage to them by writing another book inspired by the original work. For this challenge, read both an original work and a book inspired by that original work. Write about both books in one post. Note: This might require some research on your part and requires reading two books so it worth 2 entries.

Examples: Christopher Moore's Fool is based on Shakespeare's play King Lear so I plan on reading both King Lear and Fool. Another example is Jane Austen, who inspired the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. For this challenge, you might read both Pride and Prejudice and the zombie version. (There are tons of other Austen-inspired books out there too.) Another idea would be a graphic novel version of a "standard" novel. The only real requirement is that the "inspired by" book must clearly state what original work inspired it.

My choice for this challenge was "The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Browning. I've always been intrigued by this and so here it is.


I then read this Young Adult Version of the old tale. After Hamelin, by Bill Richardson, this was book nominated for I believe the Silver Birch Award, I hope it won. It was great.
And the big guns, King Rat, China Meilville.

My Thoughts:

HOLY SMOKE, definitely not for the faint of heart. Speaking of hearts, mine was jumping out of my chest as I finished this book last night into the wee hours. I had to watch the Olympic re-runs for a an hour or so after I finished just to calm down. I could not put it down, even though in my mind I was thinking this is impossible, I DON'T KNOW, about that now. This was incredible. I will not be learning to play the flute.

This completes my #8 Challenge for the Take Another Chance Challenge. Be sure to stop by the host blog and see what everyonelse is reading and reviewing.

2010 Reading Resolutions Challenge Update

Jenny Loves to Read posted an update on our New Years Resolution. I'm thrilled with my progress in my reading challenges, I've done a little of everything. About the only challenge that is coming slowly is the 345 challenge. I think the most enjoyable part is the fact that my young son is so enjoying discussing these books with me, and in awe that his mother reads. Don't know who he thought taught him, and enforced Silent Sunday's.* All my godchildren are readers as well, and I'm working on their offspring. The only challenge I'm not doing well with is my walking, I've been ill and just haven't kept up with the 2 miles a day challenge. But, you know the old saying, "no matter how long winter is, Spring is sure to follow,". Check out everyone else's progress and post about yours at Jenny Loves to Read.
* Silent Sunday's are Sundays that we unplugged all devices, including I Pod, computers, T.V., Gameboys etc. And READ. My husband, their father, often worked nights and Sunday's were always a challenge to keep quiet. I got the idea from a favorite movie. The Trouble with Angels.

The Birth House

Take Another Chance Challenge

Challenge 9: Same Word, Different Book (worth 2 entries)
Find two books that have the same word in the title. Read both books and write about them. (Worth 2 entries because you have to read two books).

Example: If you pick the word "Love," you could read any two books that both have Love in the title. To help you find books that have the same word, you could go to Amazon.com, type a word into the Search box and see what books come up with that word.

The word I chose is HOUSE. Oddly enough the subject matter I chose in both these books is similar.




My thoughts;

I loved it. The characters are very real. I think it took me quite into the middle of the book to sort of predict who Dora would end up with. I loved that this was a story of a Canadian experience,with real time included in the time line, (I really need to read more Canadian Authors, since I'm the mother of one) I know the research must have been extensive, certainly it was believable. Two thumbs up for this read.

Take Another Chance Challenge and Awesome Author Challenge

I've completed my first book of the the Take Another Chance Challenge. Hosted by Find Your Next Book Here. Below is the criteria for my choice. I happened to use my A-Z Wednesday group for the blogroll and found my choice on Everything Distils into Reading

Challenge 2: Blogroll Roulette (worth 1 entry)
Find a blogroll at either your book blog or a book blog you like that has at least 15 book blogs on it. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1 for the min. and 15 for the max. and then hit generate. Then find the blog that is that number on the blogroll you selected. (For example, if you get 10 at Random.org, then count down the list of blogs until you get to the tenth one). Go to that blog and pick a book to read from the books that they have reviewed on their blog. Read it and write a post about it. Be sure to link to the blog post you picked the book from!

I too had thought I read this book before, but this time around I found new meaning in it. I believe I've even seen the movie at some point, that will be confirmed when I receive it from my local library, it will be Friday's Movie on Friday night at the movies.
It was a lengthy read, good thing trains were not on time this week. I found the different characters a little difficult to understand at first, but soon remembered my character study. It's most certainly a look at India's relationship with the British, I need now to understand that part of history better, so the search for that information will be on. And India's geography is such a mystery to me as well. So while this was an excellent read, I have questions. Is that a sign of a good book, I think so. I recommend it highly.

Cover: was not too exciting, if I judged the book by it's cover, I probably would not pick it up.
Plot: was intriguing
Characters: very good, for the main characters, the minor characters I had difficulty keeping straight.
Writing Style: wordy

I also had this book on my Awesome Author List

The Awesomeness of this author, yes I would certainly read his other works after this book. I'm amazed at his achievements in his time and given his life as the son of a widow. She must have had bags of money. Aren't I awful.