UPDATE: Summer Challenges Completed

I seem to by cycling with the reading challenges this year. I try a few, then get carried away and suddenly I'm stressing, and I know, they should be just fun, but, I really like to finish a list, and cross it off. And I'm picking books I want to read, so I'm not torturing myself here. I found June got a little crazy, with the Spring Reading Thing, Once Upon a Time and the Chunkster all finishing around the same time. So, to reward myself, I signed up for a bunch of summer ones, but a little more carefully. Here's what I have recently finished:

The Summer Reading Challenge, Round 2
1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

2. Good Intentions by Joy Fielding

3. The Translator by Leila Aboulela

4. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

All good reads, but the best was, Arthur & George.



Aah, mysteries. I couldn't pass up this challenge: read 6 new to you mystery authors. I could have done this one with already-read authors, because this just adds to my never ending list of books to read.
1. Murder on a Girl's Night Out by Anne George
2. The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson
3. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
4. Restless by William Boyd (not a series)
5. Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris
6. Killer Swell by Jeff Shelby

All perfect little mysteries. I'll read more in each series, but I particularly liked Shakespeare's Landlord.


Then, was Joy's Nonfiction Challenge. I need this challenge more often, because I don't read as much nonfiction as I could, and I always enjoy when I do. Bring on more, Joy.
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Zlato's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I liked all of these in different ways, and would recommend any of them.

This was my favorite challenge, because it really exposed me to some authors and novels I would never have read. I didn't even realize it could be called a genre, or style. Maggie did a lot of prep work before this one started, and she got me intrigued. I still resisted, but finally succumbed, reading:

1. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind: Ann B. Ross
2. Murder on a Girl's Night Out: Anne George
3. A Confederacy of Dunces: John Kennedy Toule
and for extra credit, because it got really hot here:
4. Quite a Year for Plums: Bailey White
5. Shakespeare's Landlord: Charlaine Harris
What perfect books for the lazy, hazy days of summer.


These challenges are so much fun. I'm reading good books I might never have found, meeting interesting people who also love books, and just having a lot of fun. What are you waiting for? Go try one. This group has a list of all challenges ongoing, and lets readers talk about the challenges they are doing, and completing. Or, this blog lists most ongoing challenges and links to them. Wendy (caribousmom) has been great to keep us all organized. I think she likes lists even more than me!

BOOK: Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

I am so glad I just finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. At times I felt I was reading Arthur Conan Doyle's biography, and the line between fiction and nonfiction has become very blurred for me. Much of what I read will become my belief about Doyle, even though I know it shouldn't. Barnes writes in a note at the end of the book that quotes and excerpts from newspapers are all factual.

This is the story of two men, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, one a famous writer, and one a quiet solicitor wrongly accused of a crime. I found the prose compelling and enthralling as I read the life story of both men, and how they eventually met, and how their stories became entwined. Doyle comes off as priggish and arrogant as his character, Sherlock Holmes. Edalji, son of a Parsee Vicor, is very British as well, with his stiff upper lip and resignation to his fate.
Barnes is very ambitious with his story, and I quite enjoyed it. It felt a little weak at the end, as he tried to connect the ideas of faith, and spiritism and the characters. It was rushed in content and yet slow at the same time. However, overall, a great read, with meticulous details and a wonderful telling of an obscure event in British history. Barnes is now two for two with me, having read and enjoyed A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters.

from the Guardian (UK) " Arthur & George is Julian Barnes's inventive account of a true and important miscarriage of justice... What Barnes adds to the tale--it was cause celebre of its day--is imagination, insight, passion, and of course his beautiful writing."

BOOK: Good Intentions by Joy Fielding

I finished Good Intentions by Joy Fielding last night. I haven't read a good paperback novel in a while and I raced through it, even though I found the men infuriating, which was probably the point. I'm not sure what genre to call this book, it is almost a chick-lit type of book - woman happy in her life, husband is an ass, she eventually wakes up to this fact. The characters were a little predictable, but I still wanted to find out what was going to happen and the plot flew along.

Lynn is getting her life together after her husband had left her and their two children. Renee (rhymes with Beanie) is her lawyer, with her handsome, rich psychiatrist husband. Both are about to have a disturbing summer. Lynn gets a phone call from Marc, the ex-husband of the wife her husband left her for. She finds herself attracted to him which of course could get messy. Renee's manipulative teenage step-daughter is arriving for the summer, as is her suicidal sister. Both women are successful in their careers, and yet put up with domineering, bully husbands. Renee's was especially annoying to me, but I was pretty sure the outcome, so I kept reading.

This was a great, fast read. Nothing too deep; it would be a perfect beach read, and it is set in Florida, so the heat of the sun at the beach would be make you feel you were right there, watching the show.

There was a great Canadian reference to Wayne and Shuster and their famous Julius Caesar skit. We were just talking about that at work last week:" I said, Julie, don't go."

BOOK: The Translator by Leila Aboulela

The Translator is a simple love story, about finding faith and about the life of an exile. Sammar is a Sudanese widow living and translating in Scotland. She begins coming out of a four year mourning period due to the attention of Rae, an expert on Islam and the Middle East. Sammar has been, I hesitate to say living, but going through the motions in Scotland while her aunt/mother-in-law raises her son in Sudan. Rae begins to bring her back to life and Sammar begins to come alive. Her faith in Islam is a stumbling block and the book details her awakening as she returns to Sudan, but she doesn't fit in there either.

I felt so much sympathy for Sammar as she tries to fit in everywhere - she never fit in to Scotland, and her return to Sudan is rough as they see her as an outsider. The writing was lovely and the two countries are wonderfully described. This is a gentle story, more of a character study, but the settings are important too. I prefer a little more story, less lyrical writing, but I enjoyed the book each time I picked it up, and I really enjoyed Sammar and would have liked to know her. She was a strong woman, but her life is so different from mine, in so many respects. I would like to read more about Islam and I enjoyed how her faith guided all her decisions.

BOOK: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

So many reasons to read this book: booklogged sent it to me, it is on the banned book reading list, katrina just read it, and I picked it for the Summer Reading Challenge Round 2. And it was a great read. I heard it was a tearjerker, and I usually cry quite easily in books so I was surprised that nary a tear fell. Still an excellent read and well worth the story.

Charley is a mentally retarded aldult chosen for experimental surgery to make him a genius. Previously only experimented on animals, Algernon the mouse was the most successful trial. Against the ethics of science today, the surgery is done on Charley without seeing how Algernon ends up, or what the long term effects of the operation are. Charley becomes smarter, intellectually very quickly and the book is about how he has to grow emotionally as well. As he deals with his past life, the reader is left to wonder how much better off he was after the surgery. Algernon begins to fail and Charley is left to see his future.

So many issues are brought up I can see why this is a high school novel. I read it very quickly and would recommend it. As Charley begins to see his life with his increased intelligence, your heart just breaks for him. Banned, I imagine, due to Charley's increased sexual awareness and the references to his affairs.

CHALLENGE: Summer Reading Challenge 2

Like a hole in the head. It is getting to where I am only reading books I put on a challenge. I'm not going to get too ambitious here, I am learning. This Summer Reading Challenge 2 runs from June 1 to August 1, 2007. Not a long time, so I don't want to commit to very much. But there are a few other books calling to me, such as:

1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (which I WON from booklogged, and katrina just raved about, and I can't wait to read. It's a tearjerker. I love tearjerkers)
2. Good Intentions by Joy Fielding This is a new-to-me author that I'd like to try
3. The Translator by Leila Aboulela This is a NYT Notable book from 2006, and a Reading Across Borders pick of mine
4. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Another NYT Notable Book

Aaaand, I'd better stop. This is plenty for two months, but books I know I want to get to, and if I put it down like this, I know I'll get to them.