Age-Appropriate ; Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015

Age-Appropriate (from Booking Through Thursday)

Do you read books “meant” for other age groups? Adult books when you were a child; Young-Adult books now that you’re grown; Picture books just for kicks … You know … books not “meant” for you. Or do you pretty much stick to what’s written for people your age?

As an adult, I read whatever interests me, regardless of target audience.  If a picture book has an interesting title, appealing illustration, or a great story, I will read it.  I have read juvenile fiction and Young Adult titles.  Basically, I will read anything that appeals to me for whatever reason it does so.


In other news,  I have set my goal for the 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge.  I decided to keep it at the same goal as last year (50) with the great hope that I will fly past it now that my reader's block has passed.

Read on,
Paula

Year-end book review 2014

1.  Best book(s) I read in 2014: "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin

2.  Most disappointing book of 2014: "The Art of Sleeping Alone" by Sophie Fontanel

3.  Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2014: "Redshirts" by John Scalzi

4.  Books I recommended most to people in 2014: "No Relation" by Terry Fallis

5.  Best series I discovered in 2014: The 'Measure of Devotion' series by Caethes Faron

6.  Favourite new author(s) of 2014: None this year

7.  Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2014: All three books in the 'Measure of Devotion' series by Caethes Faron

8.  Book I most anticipated in 2014: "No Relation" by Terry Fallis

9.  Favourite cover of a book I read in 2014: "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin

10. Most memorable character in 2014: Earnest Hemmingway from "No Relation" by Terry Fallis

11. Most beautifully written book of 2014: None this year

12. Best book that was out of my comfort zone or was a new genre for me in 2014: "Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking" by Benjamin Perrin

13. Book that had the greatest impact on me in 2014: "Do Less: A Minimalist Guide to a Simplified, Organized, and Happy Life" by Rachel Jonat

14. Book I can't believe I waited until 2014 to FINALLY read: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving

15. Book I read in 2014 that would most likely be reread in 2015: "The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality" by Julie Sondra Decker

16. Book that had a scene in it that had me reeling and dying to talk to someone about it? (A WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc.  No spoilers!): "Flee, Fly, Flown" by Janet Hepburn

Some fun stats:
Books completed: 54
Books by male authors: 19
Books by female authors: 35
Fiction: 29
Non-fiction: 25
Children's books: 3
YA books: 0
E-books: 24
Did not finish (DNF): 3
Re-reads: 1
Translated books: 2 (one Swedish, one French)
Big fat books (more than 500 pages): 0

Doing this year-end recap made it completely clear how much my reader's block affected my reading.  There are questions I just can't answer.  That hurts, actually.  It makes me wish for a 2015 with much more reading that I did in 2014.  I still haven't decided whether or not to participate in the 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge.  I want to because it keeps track of my books for the year for me and their data makes it easier to fill in my recap.  Unfortunately, they don't provide as much data (book length, overall page total, etc.) as they used to.  And although I want to read more than 50 books in 2015, I do not like failing at a challenge and don't want to have to edit my goal down from my original (something I had to do this year).  I can always join it at a later date so I will continue to mull it over for now.

Here's to a merry book-filled year!

Read on,
Paula

"101 Letters To A Prime Minister" by Yann Martel

Synopsis: 
From the author of "Life of Pi" comes a literary correspondence — recommendations to Canada’s Prime Minister of great short books that will inspire and delight book lovers and book club readers across our nation.

Every two weeks from April 16th, 2007 to February 28, 2011, Yann Martel mailed Stephen Harper a book along with a letter. These insightful, provocative letters detailed what he hoped the Prime Minister may take from the books — by such writers as Jane Austen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Stephen Galloway — are collected here together. The one-sided correspondence (Mr. Harper’s office only replied seven times) becomes a meditation on reading and writing and the necessity to allow ourselves to expand stillness in our lives, even if we’re not head of government.

Review:
-I found these letters to be presumptive literary snobbery.  I believe these letters were not written FOR Stephen Harper even though they were addressed TO Stephen Harper; I believe they were written specifically to be published as a book.  This becomes more apparent when Martel sends Harper a copy of the book in which the first 55 letters were published.  Martel also published the letters on a now-defunct website (formerly www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca).  And Martel wonders why Stephen Harper never replied in person to any of these letters?!

-Almost every letter, I feel, has some sort of slight or subtle insult at the Canadian government.  This is more overt in the letters that mention $45 million in cuts to arts funding in 2008.  To me, these letters are political whining disguised as literary criticism.

-I enjoyed Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" when I studied it in high school.  Of all of the reviews and criticisms I've heard or read about it, Martel's is the first to call it a Christian allegory.

-Sometimes a photograph of a group of people is just a photograph of a group of people and not some intentional representation of a book's title (get over yourself, Martel!)

-Of the 1o7 actual books that were sent to Harper, I have read only 11.  Perhaps my reading tastes not aligning with Martel's is also a reason that I did not like the book as much as I was hoping.

-I read this book because I liked Martel's "Life of Pi" and am always looking for interesting reading material.  I wanted to finish it because it's a book about books that I may or may not have read.  I got 294 pages in (of 426) before I just couldn't take any more of (my perception of?) Martel's tone and I had already been mentally cheering myself on just to keep going.  However, I have far too many other books I want to read to bother forcing myself to finish this one.

Read on,
Paula

Goodreads Reading Challenge

I completed my Goodreads reading challenge today!  Luckily the year is not over yet and I plan to read more during my holidays.  Because of my reader's block earlier this year, my Goodreads reading challenge was set at a measly 50 books, compared to the 130 I read last year.  I haven't decided yet whether or not I will participate in the challenge again next year.  There are two articles from BookRiot: one for participating and one against participating in the challenge.  Both have very valid points.  I, too, feel pressure when I'm behind or when I fail to reach my goal (only 130 of 150 last year).  My original goal for this year was again 150 but the longer my reader's block lingered the less achievable that goal seemed to be.  So I lowered it to a more manageable 50 and even then I've only just managed to complete it.  Also, I made a point of reading less Amazon ebooks.  Since most of the ones I read last year were more like short stories than actual novels, it didn't seem right to count them towards my reading challenge even if I was actually reading.  I guess it's all about our own self-imposed rules or lack thereof.  As Jessica Pryde wrote in her article about NOT participating: "The challenge was exacerbated by the guilt that I had so many books in the house, both paper and electronic, and felt that I needed to push through them".  I have this problem, too.  I recently culled my library of titles I knew I would never read.  And yet I still have hundreds of books I do want to read.  I have even more ebooks stored away to work my way through.  I have plenty of reading material and not enough time.  Between my reader's block and becoming a pet owner for the first time, I feel like my reading time is even rarer than it was before.  I lament how little reading I have done this year.  Even though I have read some great books.

Read on,
Paula

On being a book lover

I love books.  I love reading books; I love reading books about books.  I love talking about books.  I love pictures of books; I love quotes about books and reading.  I am a book lover.

Later today (probably) I will finish reading "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman.  I started it yesterday.  It is a short (162 pages) collection of essays about being a reader and writer.  The best part so far was finding the term 'persistent intellectual curiosity'.  Finally, I have found the words to describe my constant mental state.  I also love the essay on proofreading; I am happy to know that I am not the only one who has no way to shut that part of my brain off.  It's not that I consciously seek out errors but that my brain seems hardwired to find them anyway.

Yesterday, I travelled to Toronto for the Mythbusters Behind The Myths Tour.  I had dinner across the street from the Sony Centre at the Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill.  I ate my dinner while reading "Ex Libris" at a booth with a book-themed wallpaper.  I just HAD to take a picture of it.

Finding new-to-me titles to add to my TBR is one of my favourite activities (even if I will never read them all).  For me, books I want to read take on a certain aura or personality based on my expectations of the content.  I build up anticipation of reading a book based on these expectations.  Inevitably I will be wrong about how the content and I will mesh but not always for the worse.  Most of the time I will very much enjoy a book even though my interpretation of the blurb (aka the publisher's interpretation of the content) will be vastly different from the actual content of the book.  There are times when this results in a book and I parting ways before I have completed reading it.  But I think that is the nature of a reader.

Read on,
Paula

Halloween reading

I don't like to be scared.  I am not a fan of horror movies or scary anything.  And yet, listening to the latest episode of The Readers podcast has induced me to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and "Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle for Halloween.  Since "Hound of the Baskervilles" is a part of the complete Sherlock Holmes book that I'm reading, I will be making progress on that too.  And the only version I know of Sleepy Hollow is the animated Disney version that I haven't seen in ages so I have forgotten how it ends.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
Wow!  The most drastic difference between the original text and the animated Disney version is that Ichabod Crane doesn't get nearly enough description in the movie.  In the text, Crane is useful and agreeable and surrounded by a bevy of females drawn to his "gentlemanlike personage" and his intelligence.  He believed in witchcraft and superstitions but was easily spooked.  I listened to the Overdue podcast episode about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and was happy to discover that I am not the only person who found the actual text of this story to be disappointing and so not scary at all.  Basically it is a story of a love triangle that ends with a prank.


Hound of the Baskervilles:
Yet another story that disappoints if you're looking for a spooky read.  I guess I am too preoccupied with trying to solve the mystery to be susceptible to vague supposition.  Also, it is debated throughout the plot as to whether or not the hound is real or supernatural or whether it exists at all.  Aside from that, I did enjoy reading it.  There is just enough suspense to keep you reading.  This is a Watson-focused story where Holmes doesn't show up until close to the end of the story.  It has a number of side plots that eventually each get tied up until you all you have left is the main mystery.  The Book Fight podcast episode about "Hound of the Baskervilles" discusses a lot of ideas that I had myself about the pompous nature of Holmes and how looks down on Watson (Succinctly stated as 'Mike wants to know: Is Sherlock Holmes supposed to be a giant dick? Why does Watson keep working for him?')

Overall, it was enjoyable reading but not nearly as spooky or scary as implied by the various television/movie adaptations.

Have you read either of these stories?  How spooky or non-spooky did you find them?

Read on,
Paula

"Flee, Fly, Flown" by Janet Hepburn

Synopsis:
When Lillian and Audrey hatch a plot to escape from Tranquil Meadows Nursing Home, "borrow" a car, and spend their hastily planned vacation time driving to destinations west, they aren't fully aware of the challenges they will face. All they know is that the warm days of August call to them, and the need to escape the daily routines and humiliations of nursing home life has become overwhelming. 
 Flushed with the success of their escape plan, they set out on their journey having forgotten that their memory problems might make driving and following directions difficult. Their trip is almost over before it begins, until they meet up with the unsuspecting Rayne, a young man also heading west in hope of reconciling with his family. 
As Lillian and Audrey try to take back the control that time and dementia has taken from them, Rayne realizes the truth of their situation. But it's too late - he has fallen under the spell of these two funny, brave women and is willing to be a part of their adventure, wherever it leads them.

Review:
The story is told from Lillian's point of view and she has Alzheimer's Disease.  I am lucky never to have had anyone in my family with this disease so I can't verify the validity of the author's portrayal of it.  But if this accurately describes what Alzheimer's Disease is like, I hope I never get it.  I also hope I live a long, active life.  Being young, I can't predict what my future holds but this book has made me think about what kind of old age I would like to have and how I will treat my mother as she ages.

I consider this book to be the Canadian female version of Jonas Jonasson's "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" because it's another book about elderly people escaping their nursing home/retirement home/whatever politically correct euphemism you want to use.  It just doesn't have as much suspense and historical events.  "Flee, Fly, Flown" focuses more on the personal lives of the main characters.  Some readers might find the plot somewhat far-fetched simply because it runs primarily on circumstance.

"Flee, Fly, Flown" is one of the titles nominated for the 2014 Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.  It is the only title on the shortlist that was/is of any interest to me and I am glad I read it.  It gets my vote!

Read on,
Paula

Another Terry Fallis visit

I attended another Terry Fallis author talk.  It reinforced what a great speaker and how naturally humorous he is.  Having read his novel "No Relation" earlier this year, it was nice to get the rehashed version during his talk.  Listening to him read a scene from the novel also reinforced that authors are the best people to read their own works because they have a unique personal insight and so can bring more life to it than anyone else possibly could.  I mentioned in my review about wanting to listen to the podcast versions he has made of all his books but I have not previously done that.

During his talk, he also gave an overview of Ernest Hemingway's life.  I am not overly familiar with Hemingway aside from reading "The Old Man and the Sea" in high school.  If the ending hadn't been so defeatingly depressing, I would have liked the book a whole lot more.  So it was surprising to learn that his later years were overshadowed by depression and illness that affected his ability to write.  This has revived my own interest in writing, even if it is just for myself.  Terry Fallis said he didn't write his first novel until he was 45 so it's not too late for me if I decide to try it.

Terry also gave us an overview of the novel he is still in the process of writing now.  This is the second time that the brief synopsis of his upcoming novel has had me eagerly awaiting its publication.  It happened that way with "No Relation" and now again with "Poles Apart", the working title.

There was a book signing at the end of the talk and my friend bought a copy to get signed.  I told him that because of the James Moriarty storyline, I visited the Toronto Reference Library just to see the Sherlock Holmes collection they have.  I had not heard of it until I read about it in "No Relation".

It was a bookishly inspiring night for me and I am so glad I went.  Terry says that his new book should be out sometime in the fall of 2015.  Just in time for the Word on the Street festival??  If so, perhaps we will see him there.

Read on,

Paula

Book bingo update

Well, it is officially autumn now so I thought I would let you know the results of my summer Book Bingo.  I am happy to say that I did get a Bingo!  I happened to read one book that qualified for four squares in a row.

"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson:

• By an author of a different gender
• Translation
• Borrowed from the library
• By an author of a different culture

And I am halfway through the complete Sherlock Holmes collection but I have finished "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four", and the twelve stories in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  I counted that for the 'A classic that you should have read in school'.  If I had read a cozy mystery, I would have had two bingos on the same card.  I liked doing the bingo and would be interested in doing it again next year.  This year I read what I wanted and hoped it would fit something on the bingo card.  Next year I would like to try finding titles that specifically fit the bingo card.

Did you get a bingo?

Read on,
Paula

Ah, the golden days of autumn

Whether it is a biological urge due to the shortening of days or a societal rule about the season, I find autumn to be the time of year when I just want to cook.  All the time.  I am now aware of a desire to experiment with international foods and ingredients I have never tasted before.  In general, I love seeking out new recipes to try.  Whenever we get a new cookbook at work, I am flipping through it to see if it is worth taking home for a better, more in-depth look.

I recently took home "Aida Mollenkamp's Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cook" by Aida Mollenkamp.  Part reference book and part cookbook, I am finding I am taking a long time to read it because it has so much information in it.  What I have read I have thoroughly enjoyed and will most likely end up buying my own copy.  I am planning a reorganization of my kitchen storage of pots, pans, and food storage containers.  And this book is great for motivation.  The more I read, the more time I want to spend in my kitchen.

As it is autumn, I am also thinking of trying new autumnal foods that I haven't tried before.  Luckily, when I flipped through Aida's recipes, the book fell open to her recipe for Roasted Squash Pasta With Sage Brown Butter.  Two ingredients I've never cooked with before: butternut squash and sage.  The recipe sounds tasty and easy enough for me.  Although I haven't finished the book yet, I would recommend it to people who like to cook (no matter the skill level).

Read/cook on,

Paula