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February Summary and Plans for March

I finished 11 books in February. The quality was surprisingly evenly distributed, with a range of fantastic books and a few I didn’t enjoy at all.

If you get the chance then I highly recommend you read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and Rupture by Simon Lelic they are both fantastic!

 

Books reviewed in February

Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese stars51

Rupture – Simon Lelic stars51

Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee 

The Harlot’s Progress: Yorkshire Molly – Peter Mottley 

Ruby’s Spoon – Anna Lawrence Pietroni stars4

Brixton Beach – Roma Tearne stars3h

Blacklands – Belinda Bauer stars3h

After the Fire, A Still Small Voice – Evie Wyld stars3h

The Girl with Glass Feet – Ali Shaw stars3

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger stars2

Dangerous Liaisons – Choderlos de Laclos stars1

Plans for March

I got a bit distracted by the TV Book Club in February, so didn’t manage to read many of the books I planned to at the beginning of the month. Most of my plans are identical to last month – sorry to all those who are waiting for me to read things from this list, I really do hope to get to them soon! 

Small Island – Andrea Levy

The Little Friend – Donna Tartt

The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe

My Father’s Paradise – Ariel Sabar

The Native Hurricane – Chigozie John Obioma

The Hiding Place – Trezza Azzopardi

The Love We Share Without Knowing – Christopher Barzak

I’m going to finish reading:

Bonk: The Curious Coupling Of Sex and Science – Mary Roach

July’s People – Nadine Gordimer

The Blasphemer – Nigel Farndale

I am also hoping to read some of these: 

So Much for That – Lionel Shriver

Pocket Notebook – Mike Thomas

Marcelo in the Real World – Francisco Stork

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – David Sedaris

The Solitude of Prime Numbers – Paolo Giordano

My Driver – Maggie Gee

Have you enjoyed any of the books I plan to read in March?

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Other Recommended books

101 Book Group Choices Guaranteed to Provoke Discussion

Choosing a book for a reading group is hard, but I’ve compiled this list of books to help you make that difficult decision. I think the majority of people will enjoy them and, more importantly for any book group, they will create an interesting discussion. This list is a combination of books I’ve read and those that have worked well for other book groups in the past. I hope you find it useful!

My Personal Favourites

Out – Natsuo Kirino
The Ghosts of Eden – Andrew Sharp
The Other Hand – Chris Cleave
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
The Wilderness – Samantha Harvey
Random Acts of Heroic Love – Danny Scheinmann
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
Notes on a Scandal – Zoe Heller
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Strain – Guillermo del Toro
Little Face – Sophie Hannah
Ingenious Pain – Andrew Miller

Award Winners

Disgrace – J.M Coetzee
The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
The Secret River – Kate Grenville
Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
The Bone People – Keri Hulme
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Dwarf – Par Lagerkvist
Blindness – Jose Saramago
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Good Earth – Pearl Buck
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
The Fifth Child – Doris Lessing

Long, but Worth It

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Stone’s Fall – Iain Pears
Fall on Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean Auel
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver

Books You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

The Myth of You and Me – Leah Stewart
Snow in August – Peter Hamill
Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire – David Mura
The Blind Side of the Heart – Julia Franck
Under This Unbroken Sky – Shandi Mitchell
The Ginger Tree – Oswald Wynd
The Glass Key – Dashiell Hammett
Stolen Lives – Malika Oufkir
Right of Thirst – Frank Huylar
Touching the Void – Joe Simpson
Cane River – Lailita Tademy
Gap Creek – Robert Morgan
Loving Frank – Nancy Horan

Recent Releases

Ruby’s Spoon – Anna Lawrence Pietroni
Rupture – Simon Lelic
Tender Morsels – Margo Lanagan
The Rapture – Liz Jensen
Legend of a Suicide – David Vann
The Girl with Glass Feet – Ali Shaw
The Island at the End of the World – Sam Taylor
The City & The City – China Mieville
Generation A – Douglas Coupland
Pocket Notebook – Mike Thomas
The Infinities – John Banville
The Housekeeper and the Professor – Yoko Ogawa
Still Alice – Lisa Genova
The Vagrants – Yiyun Li
The Chosen One – Carol Lynch Williams
Rooftops of Tehran – Mahbod Seraji

The Calligrapher’s Daughter – Eugenia Kim
The Unit – Ninni Holmqvist

The Best of the Rest

Eating Air – Pauline Melville
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – William Kamkwamba
Ella Minnow Pea – Mark Dunn
The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
The World According to Garp – John Irving
Unless – Carol Shields
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
The Seance – John Harwood
Mudbound – Hilary Jordan
The Blood of Flowers – Anita Amirrezvani
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Flowers For Algernon – Daniel Keyes
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale
The Behaviour of Moths – Poppy Adams
Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
The End of Mr. Y – Scarlett Thomas
The Devil in the White City – Eric Larson
Uglies – Scott Westerfield
Resistance – Anita Shreve
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
Sacred Hearts – Sarah Dunant
Child 44 – Tom Rob Smith
The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
Q and A – Vikas Swarup
Fun Home – Alison Bechdel
Persepolis – Majane Satrapi
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon

The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson
The Visit of the Royal Physician – Per Olov Enquist
The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite – Beatrice Colin
The Glass Room – Simon Mawer
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

Which books have worked well at your book group?

Have any of the books in the above list failed to charm your book group?

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Blog Improvement Project Other

Have you written any fabulous post titles recently?

The current Blog Improvement Project task is to write a blog post with an eye-catching title. If you’d like to be entered into the best title poll you have until midnight tomorrow to add yours to Mr Linky on the BIP site. There are some great posts already listed, so even if you aren’t taking part in the project it is worth browsing through them.

In the spirit of the magazines we’re supposed to be emulating I’ll let you know that my title is going to be:

101 book group choices guaranteed to provoke discussion

Come back tomorrow to see which books I’ve chosen!

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Other

My Latest Book Purchases

I  love buying books! There is no way I could manage to stick to a book buying ban and the moment I heard about the BLOB (Biggest Loser of Books) competition I knew there was no point signing up, as I was sure to fail.

I think it is worth it though. Look at all the wonderful books I’ve bought/swapped so far in 2010:

 

I have no idea where I’m going to find the time to read them all, but I’m very proud of my recent treasure hunting abilities!

Which books would you like to see me read first?

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Audies Other

The 2010 Audie Nominees

The nominations for the 2010 Audies have just been announced. The Audies recognise excellence in audio book production and this list is a fantastic place to look for the best books to listen to.

There are 27 different categories, so I recommend that you spend time browsing the lists of all the 2010 Audie nominees, but I have listed the categories I am most interested in here: 

FICTION


Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl and April Henry, narrated by Pam Turlow
Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup, narrated by Christopher Simpson
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, narrated by Joe Barrett
The Help by Kathryn Stockett, narrated by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, and Cassandra Campbell
The Pigman by Paul Zindel, narrated by Eden Riegel and Charlie McWade

LITERARY FICTION

Come Sunday by Isla Morley, narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie
Good-Bye and Amen by Beth Gutcheon, narrated by Joyce Bean
The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott, narrated by Simon Prebble
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, narrated by Simon Slater
 

I have heard wonderful things about The Help on audio, but I’m not aware of anyone who has listened to any of the other nominees.

Have you listened to any of the above books?

Which of the books appeals to you most?

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Other Weekly Geeks

Does sex in literature kill the romance?

I’m not a prude. I have no objection to reading about sex, but for some reason any description of sex in literature kills the romance for me. In fact the most romantic books are those in which the couple aren’t even together, but separated by a war or other uncontrollable event. That feeling of longing is so romantic and beats most occasions when the couple is actually together. There are also couples who don’t miss each other for a very long time apart, but get creative like using sex toys for men and Women’s Vibrators sex toy when finally making love. Dealers оf sex toys rake іn billions оf dollars еvеrу year. Thеіr products аrе ѕо diversified аnd today аrе available іn еvеrу раrt оf thе world. Nоw, іt looks like thіѕ business оf melbourne male strippers satisfying sexual desires іѕ іn vogue. Thе single, married, old, young today patronize sex toy shops аnd thе manufactures, wisely tоо, аrе steadily churning оut mоrе alluring аnd sophisticated ones. It ѕееmѕ like thеrе wіll bе nо end tо thеіr innovative ingenuity tо inventing thеѕе new instruments оf sexual pleasure. The slimline design of 50 Shades Greedy Girl  is comfortable for first-time rabbit users. Today ѕоmе оf thеѕе toys act аnd behave exactly like opposite sex partners іn thе act. True. But hеrе, wе want tо look аt thе origin, intentions аnd effects оf thеѕе toys оn thе users, especially thе spiritual аnd psychological implications.  Sex toys аrе nоt new. Thеу hаvе a lоng history thаt started wіth thе uѕе оf carved objects thаt represented thе penis. Thе ancient Roman, Greek, Chinese, Asian, Indian hаd thеѕе objects carved оut оf stones, iron, gold, wood аnd оthеr materials thаt wеrе used tо drive masturbation. Sоmе оf thеm (like thе Greek) аlѕо hаd worship оf sex gods аnd goddesses wеrе thеѕе objects wеrе displayed, used аnd оthеr sexual immoral acts wеrе extensively promoted, including sex wіth demons аnd spirits. Sо, wе саn rightly say thаt thе foundation оf sex toys wаѕ thаt оf thе desire fоr ‘unlimited’ pleasure аnd thе worship оf demonic gods. Thіѕ invention metamorphosed іntо оthеr objects аnd іn thе 20th century wе saw thе fіrѕt electric vibrator invented. Sіnсе thеn, іt hаѕ bееn a deluge оf thеѕе manual аnd later sophisticated instruments оf sexual pleasure. Sоmе оf thеm winking аnd talking! Wow!

The most romantic book I’ve ever read is The Time Traveler’s Wife the couple’s love for each other heightened by Henry’s continual time travelling. There is so much truth in the old saying “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

I think the best sex scenes are those in which the bedroom door is firmly closed to us. Knowing what our favourite characters get up to ruins their magic for me – I’d much prefer to leave all the sex scenes up to the imagination. Sex isn’t a subject that we normally discuss, so what one couple finds normal, another will find very strange. I don’t want to feel weird because I know too much about a couple, however fictional. I want to feel their love through knowing glances and a shared happiness.

Edited to add:

I’ve just been reading a beautifully romantic scene in the otherwise wonderful Cutting for Stone and thought it was an excellent example of sex ruining everything:

Without removing myself from within her, I rolled onto my back, holding her, flipping her, and setting her on top of me, her breasts hovering over me.
“You need to pee? Go ahead,” I said, my breath coming quick.
“You’ve done that before, too.”
I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her  to me hard. I smelled her fever, and the scent of blood and sex and urine. I came again.

Do you think that sex in literature kills the romance?

Which is the most romantic book you’ve read?

Visit the weekly geeks for more discussions on romance, sex and love.