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November’s reading plans

At the moment I’m reading ‘Bitter Fruit’ by Achmat Dangor. It has a very similar style to ‘Purple Hibiscus’. I’m about half way through it, and really enjoying it.

 

Then I plan to read ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick. I ordered it last week, and when it turned up I was very impressed. It has to be one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. It has gold page edges, and the illustrations are stunning. I can’t wait to read it!

 

I think I’ll then read ‘Amsterdam’ by Ian McEwan, as I have lots his of books in my too read pile, and so far I haven’t read any!

 

I’ll finish off the month with my book club read, which this month is ‘Whit’ by Iain Banks. This isn’t something I’d ever chose to read, and I have to admit that I’m not looking forward to it, but hopefully it will be much better than I’m expecting.

 

Happy reading everyone!

 

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Book Awards Reading Challenge

To try to find more great authors, I’ve decide to take part in the ‘Book awards reading challenge’

 

Rules:

Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.

You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.

 

The first 6 books I’m going to read are:

1.       The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood (Winner of Booker Prize, 2000) completed 29th October 2008

2.      Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson (Winner of IMPAC Dublin Prize, 2007) completed 20th November 2008

 3.    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Micheal Chabon (Winner of Pulitzer Prize, 2001) completed 27th November 2008

4.      The Fingersmith – Sarah Waters (Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction) completed 14th December 2008

5.      We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver  (Winner of Orange Prize, 2005) completed 14th January 2009

6.     Blindness – Jose Saramago (Nobel Prize, 1998) completed 5th March 2009

7.     Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Winner of Orange Prize, 2007)

8.     The Secret River – Kate Grenville (Winner of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, 2006) 

9.     Theory of War – John Brady (Winner of Costa/Whitbread Award, 1993) 

10.   Peace Like a River – Leif Enger (Alex Award, 2002) 

I’ll do a bit more research into other prizes, and come up with the remaining book soon.
 
 
 

 

 

 

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The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson

‘The Arcanum’ tells the true story of the invention of European porcelain.  At first I found it very interesting, but I didn’t like the non-fiction writing style – it was like reading a text book. I like to see some emotion in the characters I’m reading about. I got bored by the continual facts and figures, so didn’t make it to the end. It would have made a great basis for a historical fiction novel – I’m hoping someone else picks up and the story, and adds some life to it. 

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Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palahniuk

I liked the look of this book, and so had a look at the reviews for it on Amazon. Everyone was raving about it, so I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. It was really weird. The writing style grated on me, and I couldn’t really follow it. I gave up very early on – I have so many things I really want to read now that I no longer have time to persevere with unpromising books.

stars1

 

 

 

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October’s reading plans

My first task this month is to finish reading ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry. I am really enjoying reading it, but at over 600 pages of tiny text, it may take me a while.

I’d also like to read ‘Purple Hibiscus’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as I’ve heard so many good things about her books.

I’m then going to read ‘Flying to Nowhere’ by John Fuller. This was nominated for the Booker prize in 1983, so will put me another step closer to reading all the Booker nominees and winners. It is also a very short book, which is the main reason it has crept to the top of my reading pile this month!

My Amazon sellers book club suggestion for this month is ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. I’m supposed to finish reading this by the end of October, but I have just ‘mooched’ it via www.bookmooch.com from someone in America, so it may be a while before it arrives!

In the meantime I’ll keep copying some reviews of my favourite 2008 reads onto this blog. Thanks for reading!

Jackie

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The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

‘The Red Tent’ is loosely based on the events that take place in the old testament of the Bible. It tells the story of Dinah’s life, and gives an insight into what life was like for women in this period of history.I was quite disappointed with this book. It is supposed to be a classic – it is still in the top 4000 Amazon bestseller list 10 years after being published. I can’t understand why people are continuing to buy, and recommend this book to other people.

It was OK, but it lacked substance, and read a bit more like a diary than a novel. It was easy to read, but I got a bit bored with the continual births and long lists of who had which children. There was a good story buried in there somewhere, but it was underneath too much mundane information. There were too many characters to be able to empathize with them properly, and I’m not sure where the “Oldest love story never told” is?

I recommend you put this book to the bottom of your reading pile, and leave it there!

3 out of 5.