Category: Everything Else

2000 - 2007 Uncategorized

For One More Day – Mitch Albom

Post author By Jackie
Post date December 14, 2008
5 Comments on For One More Day – Mitch Albom

For One More Day is the story of a man who gets the chance to spend one more day with his mother, who died 8 years earlier.

I was really undecided about how to rate this book. On the one hand it was a quick, easy read. I finished it in more or less one sitting, so it must have been a page turner.

On the other hand I knew exactly what was going to happen from the beginning, and the book felt more like one long lecture on appreciating your mother, than a novel. It was just too sentimental, with no depth or real plot.

Everyone else seems to love this book, so I won’t tell you not to give it a go. It’s short enough for you to give it a try and make up your own mind. I won’t be rushing out to read any of his other books though.

Other Uncategorized

Books Before Blogging

I only started blogging a few months ago, so I am aware that there are a very large number of books that I have read, but not yet reviewed. Over the coming months I am going to write some reviews of books I have previously read, concentrating on those which I have particularly enjoyed, or ones which form part of a challenge (eg. The Complete Booker Challenge)

Writing a review a while after I have finished the book will also give me the opportunity to see if the book has managed to stay in my memory (the sign of a great book!) or whether I have forgotten all about it! It will be interesting to see how it goes!

Other

The Dewey Challenge

“The Dewey Challenge” was set up in honor of Dewey from The Hidden Side of a Leaf who recently passed away.

There are two ways to join this challenge:

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years that Dewey has archives of. You can access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. For instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

2. The other option is to read 5 books that Dewey reviewed. These can be from any year and I’m guessing that each of us has at least 5 books on our TBR list because of Dewey!

I’m going to read 6 books that she reviewed. I seem to have a similar reading taste to her, so I’m sure that whatever I pick from her blog will be a good read.

This is a wonderful tribute to an amazing member of the blogging community, and will mean her blog continues to bring pleasure to us in 2009.

I haven’t decided all the books I’m going to read yet, but I’ll update the list here when I do.

2003 Secret History – Donna Tartt

2004 The Inner Circle – TC Boyle

2005 Property – Valerie Martin

2006 Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

2007 Digging to America – Anne Tyler completed 5th January 2009

2008 Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’ve also read Fun Home – Alison Bechdel completed 7th February 2009

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Friday Finds

Yesterday I came across this list of the top five most reviewed books on Amazon.co.uk:

Five of the Best
The five top-rated Fiction books as reviewed by Amazon.co.uk customers.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – 630 Customer Reviews
Outlander – 341 Customer Reviews
To Kill a Mockingbird – 130 Customer Reviews
Phantom – 107 Customer Reviews
A Fine Balance – 94 Customer Reviews

I wasn’t suprised to see Harry Potter at number one, or To Kill A Mockingbird at number four, and was really happy that my favourite book, A Fine Balance was at number five.

I was suprised that I had never heard of the number two book, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (released as Cross Stich in the UK)

I read some of the reviews, and it did look really interesting, so I’ve ordered a copy. Has anyone else read it? If so, let me know what you thought of it!

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The Pub Reading Challenge

I have decided to take part in the Pub Reading Challenge in 2009 to encourage me to read more recently published books.

The Rules:
Read a minimum of 9 books first published in 2009. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2009, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country

As a bookseller I have thousands of books in my house, so rarely feel the need to go out to get new ones. I took my son to join the local library last week, so joining this challenge will mean I will encourage me to look for books to read too!

Books read so far:

1. The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters

2. The Thing Around Your Neck – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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December’s Reading Plan

At the moment I am reading ‘The Monsters of Templeton’, by Lauren Groff, so far I am really enjoying it. As it is a hardback, that is too heavy to read in the bath, I am also reading ‘The Halo Effect’, by M.J. Rose which is doing a great job of fulfilling the need I had for a murder mystery earlier in the week.

I then plan to read ‘The Fingersmith’, by Sarah Waters, as this month she is the author celebrated by the Orange Prize project.

‘The Fingersmith’ is a very long book, so I’ll take a break in the middle of it to read ‘For One More Day’, by Mitch Albom, which is my reading group’s choice for the month.

If I have any time left over Christmas then I’ll probably read one of the books short listed for the Booker Prize in 2007.

Happy reading everyone!