Below are the books I have read in July-December 2012. The most recently read books are on top of the list, to which I am sorta regularly adding items. Some titles are not counted because they are children's books or something like that but I'm adding them to the list, numberless, for the sake of memory/description.
(Also: on the pages
linked above are the books I am reading and hope to finish, the
books I hope to not have to finish, thank you, and the ones I hope
to start. There's also a list of stuff I've taken in from other media.)
27/53. The BFG by Roald Dahl.
Reread in December.
When an orphan named Sophie is kidnapped by a giant with enormous ears and a tendency to make up words, she expects to be eaten right away. This doesn't happen. If you didn't read this, well, there's still a chance to make up for that lost childhood.
Quote: " 'Bonecrunching Giant says Turks is tasting oh ever so much juicier
and more scrumdiddlyuptious! Bonecruncher says Turkish humans has a
glamourly flavour. He says Turks from Turkey is tasting of turkey.' "
26/52. Logan's Story by Ann M. Martin.
Read in December.
You know you want to know all about that one boy in the Babysitter's Club, Mary Anne's "steady boyfriend" with the Kentucky accent. He's such a good feminist, but still makes time to play football.
and Baby-sitters' Christmas Chiller
Read in December.
IT'S A SUPER MYSTERY! And SEASONALLY APPROPRIATE! The Babysitters are terrified (but not terrified enough, in my opinion) when somebody starts breaking into houses in Kristy's neighborhood and leaving messages of "Naughty" or "Nice" in various locations-- and robbing the "Naughty" families. Misadventures and holiday cheer ensue. Side stories include the appearance (mysterious, naturally) of an amnesiac pregnant woman (whom everyone calls "Mary," ha.) in the town.
25/51. Everyday Saints by Archimandrite Tikhon, translated by Julian Henry Lowenfeld.
Read in December.
2012's Bestseller in Russia, and no wonder why: this is a superbly readable, thankfully fat volume of little stories about Russian clergy and regular people dealing with matters of faith. Not strictly spiritual, more "fun" than the work of St. Theophan the Recluse, for instance, but still inspiring to Orthodox Christians and others. This is the book's website; it has excerpts (yay), reviews, ways to buy the book, and so on.
24/50. Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, Fr. Thaddeus book
Read in November or so.
Fr. Thaddeus was a monk in Serbia to whom people often came for advice. Since he lived from 1914 to 2002, the advice sounds like it could be given today, and because it is based on Biblical truths and the works of the holy fathers of the Orthodox Church, it actually can be. There's a short biography of Fr. Thaddeus, followed by solid advice organized by topic, so it's readable in bits and pieces, or all at once. Website!
Lent to me by a friend; will be reread.
23/49. The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir
Read in November.
For school, good stuff. Read some biography materials about her and part of The Second Sex a while back and have been interested in this lady's work and life since. Here, de Beavoir fills in the blanks of (her friend/partner) Jean Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness and other ethical work. Basically, she provides some hope for the hopeless existentialist.
22/48. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Read in Nov. and Dec.
This was SO GOOD, but now what do I do with my life?
21/47. Song of Solomon from the Orthodox Study Bible (love the footnotes)
Read in Nov.?
Romantic poetry? Metaphor for Christ and the Church? Either way, beautiful, short book in Old Testament. One of three works of Definitely Solomon, other two being Ecclesiastes (see #19/45) and Proverbs.
20/46. Existentialism book for school. Done. Uh, I'll get the title when I'm back on campus.
Read in Sept. through Nov.?
This paperback textbook is full of important chunks of primary texts on existentialism. My professor told us not to read the little bios/primary text explanations that preceded the primary texts themselves, but I did, and now I know where he got all his lecture material.
19/45. Ecclesiastes
Read in October.
For everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and you'll find out what season when you read Ecclesiastes. Kidding, you won't, but you will have a nice time meditating on why there is still something to live for despite there being vanity in all things.
18/44. that one Calligraphy book with the good pictures
Read and sometimes copied (with a calligraphy marker) in October.
I took out another book about handwriting, see #11/37 below, but while it told the history of some styles of calligraphy and handwriting it didn't really have good examples of the alphabet or of short texts to copy. This book did, and I'd love to give you the title, but a certain library won't let me see my patron history online, so I'll have to go back to the stacks before I can provide more info here. Also, Gothic and Unctial style calligraphy is really fun to write in/draw.
17/43. Poems to Live by in Uncertain Times, edited by Joan Murray
Read in October.
Stumbled across the poetry section in the small local library and was tempted by this because (a) boy am I ever an uncertain person and (b) I opened it to a random page and the poem that happened to be there struck a good balance between being emotional and... sophisticated? well-written? thought-inducing? Anyways, this book is often to my taste, and reading it was a calming experience. Oh, and this book came out a year after 9/11, after the editor read a poem on the radio and received such a positive responses, of letters and questions, that she decided to publish some poems from her binder that fit the situation at hand-- that of mourning, fear, and the desperate need for inner hope. A couple of lines:
"You will forget
The pouring pain of a thorn prick
With a load on the head.
If you stay in comfort too long"
-from "You Will Forget" by Chenjerai Hove.
"Pay heed to my protest
For you are not a God friendly to dictators
neither are you a partisan of their politics
nor are you influenced by their propaganda
neither are you in league with the gangster"
-from "Psalm 5" by Ernesto Cardenal.
16/42. New York, New York! (Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #6) by Ann M. Martin
Read in October.
Yes, this is a children's book, but it's also a Super Special, so I am counting it, okay? In this magnificent volume, the entire Babysitter's Club (well, Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Mary Anne, Mallory, Jessi, and Dawn) receive an invitation from Stacey, whose father lives in New York City, to stay over for two whole weeks and to see the city and to have sightseeing adventures! So they do! Well, four of the girls stay over at the large apartment where one of Stacey's rich friends lives (I knew there had to be a catch with the housing situation, somewhere) but yes, they all fit, and a couple of them end up babysitting (of course) some charming British children, and somebody (I am about to give a spoiler but I'm not saying about whom) has her first kiss, and the story had some predictable endings for me but I still enjoyed it and I am glad I picked this up off the free shelf of the library, because it will be repeated easy/pleasure reading in the future I am sure.
15/41. Social backgrounds of English literature by Ralph Philip Boas and Barbara M. Hahn
Read in September and October.
Wonderful book of history of England with focus on what happened to influence literature. Not sure what age group this is for but I suppose anyone from third grade up could enjoy this lively writing. Picked it up in the basement of the town library and couldn't resist. From the time of Old English to Medieval times, the Rennaisance, the 1700s and 1800s, and then ""Our Own Time" (through the end of the 1910s!), the authors tell all about what people did in the towns and countrysides of England, what wars happened why (this bit was very helpful for my poor knowledge of history), about the various regions of England, sketches of the characters of several historic figures and authors, and the like. I seriously want to find out what else, if anything, was written by Boas and/or Hahn.
Little excerpt from the first chapter, "Geographical Backgrounds":
"The Moors are often overgrown peat-fields. Their cultivation is difficult and without reward; but game, wild fowl, and herds of sheep flourish in such areas. The people are sturdy and frugal, but inclined to gloom. They are, in the nature of things, not travelers. They live to themselves, and die to themselves, holding little communication with the outside world."
Awesome.
14/40. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Read in September
5th grade level children's novel read for book club with old friends. Had slightly difficult time finding it because student librarian at my college was sure I was talking about the graphic novel based on the anime film. Found it at last in the children's section at the town library. Plot: (spoiler warning) Sophie, the oldest of three sisters in a fairyland knows she is doomed to a dull life because she is not the youngest sister, the one who usually ends up with adventures and a prince. But then she gets caught in a disagreement between a witch and a warlock and is transformed into an old woman. Fortunately, this transformation causes Sophie to lose her resignation and self-consciousness, and she goes out to seek the moving castle of the warlock with the hopes of transforming herself back and finding her fortune. Story moves very quickly, with plot twists left and right, including a sudden time/dimension jump into the 1980's which none of the characters seem sufficiently surprised or impressed by. And there's a benevolent fire demon. I have no idea how the discussion of our book club is going to go, but I anticipate it eagerly.
13/39. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Read in September.
In which Gretchen Rubin takes a year to become more happy, using a chart with checkmarks and a variety of behavioral foci varying by month. She tries to "be Gretchen" and does end up happier in the end, or so she claims. No more opinions or spoilers because am giving this book to somebody soon...
12/38. Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel by Milorad Pavic. (female version.)
Read August-September.
Wow, this book. Let me make this easier on myself and quote a sentence from an Amazon review: "Written in Serbo-Croatian, first published in Yugoslavia, already a
bestseller in Germany and France, this whimsical "lexicon" can be read
on many levels." Yes, it is a dictionary, though how factual it is I cannot say. It has three sections, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim dictionaries of the Khazars, and entries talk about people like a lute player with extra fingers and Princess Ateh, who sits in on a meeting where the new religion of her people, the Khazars, is to be decided. Each religion's dictionary claims that its religion won the debate. There's not much of a story until late in the book, and I thought I saw the small points of various entries coming together in one plot momentarily, but I lost sight of it. This is either because I took a little break midway through the book, or because I haven't read the male version of the book (which differs by but a few all-important lines) yet. Good read which required a deeper level of concentration.
11/37. Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey
Read in September.
I have a long-standing interest in handwriting and graphology (pseudoscience or not), and so I was looking forwards to reading this but there was more info than I'd expected on people who invented/adjusted forms of handwriting (like Copperplate and the Palmer method and Italic writing) and fewer details about letters, or about variations in styles. So if someone's looking for biographical and historical information, this might be their book. But I didn't like the style of the writing here and finished the book only longing for more pictures/scans of writing from different times (so that I can copy it!). Also, graphology section very introductory but for this type of book that's okay.
10/36. Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys by (you guessed it) Dave Barry
Read in September.
I have been a fan of Dave Barry's humor writing since about fifth grade and yep, judging from this book I still find him funny. Need to know the difference between a guy and a man? (Hint: man : guy :: Germany : Italy.) If you are a woman, do you need to know how to get inside a guy's head? Or do you just need a laugh? Dave Barry. This book.
9/35. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball
Read in Aug./Sept.
Gift from couple that own the farm I just finished interning at. It's the true story of how a young woman from New York met a farmer, fell in love, moved to the countryside, and changed her entire way of life. Sometimes it is a reflective, emotional sort of read but at other times, as Kimball describes the passing of her first year full-time at Essex Farm with her now-husband, the paragraphs and chapters are dense with useful information (e.g. there is so much I didn't know about compost!). I have plans to force at least one friend to read The Dirty Life.
8/34. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Read in August.
Memoir/essays/autobiography/humor by Mindy Kaling who writes, sometimes directs, produces I think, and acts (as Kelly Kapoor) for The Office. I like her character and I liked the episodes she wrote and directed for The Office (not that there are many episodes of this show that I don't like) so I was interested in writing the tale of another comic I admired, and in enjoying, in the Kelly Kapoor-voiced narration of my mind, her writing style. In that sense this book was satisfactory enough, though I did not like that one of the first chapters was about body issues (really, all female writers lately? Though if you're thinking about it a lot, you might as well write about it in your own sorta memoir...) and I don't like that the book ends so soon (this may be a compliment), because I want to hear more. Was worth a read.
7/33. Facts About the Moon by Dorianne Laux
Read in August.
Book of poetry, not long, given me by penpal who recommended it. He told me about Dorianne Laux's work, her believable, down to earth, feminine point of view. Here is a short bio of her online. The poetry I found touching but not, to me, powerful-- yet. I think it may have been my state of mind at the time of reading the poems actually and I intend to revisit them soon. The descriptions seemed familiar, and the writing somehow very American.
6/32. Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
Read in July/August.
Lent by a friend; book of short stories and a novella, I think, if that's what Ehrengard is. Have you seen the movie Out of Africa, or read the book? They are about Karen Blixen (well, she wrote the book), though the world portrayed in them is so different from that in these stories-- they take place in Scandinavian or other European locales, sometimes in the desert, but always in places that seem exotic to me. I wonder if the tales were intended to be that way. There are stories of love but also of manipulation and coldheartedness, and the style of the writing, its particular density, took a little while for me to get into but once I did the book became a total page-turner. One of the stories is "Babette's Feast", which reads so cinematically that it is no wonder at all that it was made into a movie. This might be better reading for winter.
5/31. Kindling the Divine Spark by St. Theophan the Recluse
Read in July.
Subtitle which describes this book perfectly: Teachings on How to Preserve Spiritual Zeal. This slim volume by one of my favorite Orthodox Christian writers is a trove of reinvigorating advice for any person looking to keep up enthusiasm in spiritual life. Each chapter is a sermon, and yes, the sermons were written to be given before nuns, but the suggestions made can easily be adapted for use by a layperson. Example: "Remember how your soul was burning then, how you were thinking that, having entered the convent, you would only pray, that you would be in a state of prayer in your cell, in church, spending time thinking of God, in soul-profiting conversations, or in reading spiritual books..." (p. 20-21) No, I do not live in a convent, but I do remember times when, after confession or after talking with my Orthodox friends and being inspired by how they keep the fast or help others, I wanted to live a better life, pray, keep an elevated state of mind. And so this book is helpful. There are stories of saints (who better can show how from varied circumstances a person can find a way to God?) and metaphors (like the dove that shows what one's feelings must be when standing in church or at prayer) as well as the standard explanation-of-Bible sermons. And all of this is not too long to read, and is even better taken in during many sittings! To be reread, part by part, when needed.
4/30. Habibi by Craig Thompson
Read in July.
A book recommended and sent to me by my penpal, who described it thus: "It starts with a child being sold into a marriage, and it gets worse from there." But he also remarked on what a touching story it was, and how I wouldn't be able to put the book down. I couldn't. Habibi is a graphic novel about two orphans growing up in a Middle Eastern country, "Wanatolia," that is filled with so many cultural influences that I couldn't quite place it. Even as slaves are sold and an emperor keeps a harem guarded by eunuchs and a chief dwarf, modern industry builds a city and an enormous dam nearby— and creates slums and piles of refuse enormous enough to bury boats, buildings, and people. The surroundings are rough towards our protagonists, and the events in their lives are hard to bear and nearly impossible to imagine experiencing first-hand, but love and a collection of stories from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism keep hopes up for readers and characters alike. Something else I really like about the book is the deep connection of illustration style and story content, which has to do with Arabic script, the meaning of numbers, and the shapes of stars and body parts. There are events of sexual violence, just plain violence, and other not-for-kids things in this book (you have been warned). See the Amazon page and "Click to LOOK INSIDE!" to view the art in the first few pages, and to possibly be hooked into reading this amazing graphic novel.
Two in the Wilderness, by Mary Wolfe Thompson
Read 7/17
(Not numbered because this and #2/28 below are children's books)
When their father claims a land grant in the New Hampshire wilderness, twelve year old Tabby and her ten year old brother Zeke join him in walking for days through the woods to reach the homestead. Then, while their Pa travels back to their mother and three younger siblings to prepare for the entire family to move out of town, Tabby and Zeke are left to fend for themselves for a couple of months in a new log cabin! Each day they set snares to catch partridges and rabbits, cook a small amount of cornmeal, and scare crows away from their growing corn. Encounters with a bear, a groundhog, a panther (called "painter," as in the Daniel Boone book, #2/28 below), and a circle of howling wolves keep their summer exciting as it stretches on. The only possibly non-P.C. moments occur when they meet a couple of Native Americans near the end of the book, but even the use of the word "squaw" to describe Tabby is forgivable considering this book's 1967 publication. All in all, an exciting little read about a common childhood dream: complete independence from the world of adults.
3/29. The Pushcart Book of Short Stories, edited by Bill Henderson
Read January-July
Collection of 44 short stories averaging around 16 pages each. Have been reading the America's Best and PEN/O. Henry Prize short story collections since high school, as well as other collections and series, and it's interesting to see how the character of the stories changes based on the editor, prize, purpose of collection. For instance, the America's Best series (it comes out annually) has a different guest editor every year, and I've noticed that many of these guests, who are authors in their own right, pick stories rather similar to their own in style. Sometimes the styles of the stories vary, but some detail or theme will keep recurring: Joyce Carol Oates picked stories that leaned toward being more violent and cold, if I recall correctly, and Barbara Kingsolver's year contained more... outdoorsy or ethics-based stories, I think. It's hard to describe the nature of what she picked but I can say honestly that hers was my favorite collection, but also she is one of my favorite authors. Just a matter of subtle tastes or something I guess.
But the Pushcart book! I really liked this one as soon as I started reading it, partly because one didn't know what to expect from any of the stories, and yet they were all very readable. The Pushcart Prize is given to writers for independent publications. The thickness of this volume must have called for more variety than that afforded by America's Best in its yearly volumes, but a need for equally high quality among the stories did not result in blandness. This book did not give me the feeling, as I read it, that students in the sort of public school I went to would be made to read the stories collected here in the eleventh grade. I enjoyed, also, that this book lasted me this long, especially since sometimes I pick up a book of short stories that has too many first sentences that don't welcome me into the rest of the stories they're part of, and thus I've ended up having to carry two or three books just to keep entertained for an afternoon at a coffee shop (don't worry, I wasn't holding up business).
Specific stories that I remember:
-The one about the Russian old man, an engineer of sorts, who in his dying days gets his hands on some uranium and tries to sell it. I felt so much familiarity and identification with the old man as the tale went on that the shocking ending took me a couple of readings to believe.
-The one about the woman who was a lighthouse caretaker. The images of the lonely northern island stay with me.
-"Four Stories" by Lydia Davis. This is the shortest story of the book and it is made of four even shorter stories, or essays or monologues, as the title indicates. Each little story was intriguing and I want to learn more about what happened in each one, and how it relates to the other three. Is there a secret?
2/28. The Story of Daniel Boone by William O. Steele
Read 7/14
Children's book from 1953; hilariously, amazingly not politically correct, though I'm not saying that it's non-P.C. to be a hunter who talks Southern. I'm more referring to the parts about "whipping the Injuns good and proper". Anyways... Daniel Boone grows up in a large Quaker family in rural PA in the 1700s, longing and longing for a rifle to do some hunting with. He gets in a fight with another kid and bloodies his nose in the first chapter. All he eats in the whole book is meat, corn, and the coveted salt that his family is always trading for; not a mention of vegetables (I imagine that some kids would enjoy this detail). As soon as he is old enough, Boone climbs over the mountains to hunt deer and bears, encounters Indians with scalps tied to their belts, and begins a lifetime of adventures. He is captured by the "red men", escapes, fights in the Revolutionary War, starts his own town in "Kentuck," has a family, and is adopted by an Indian chief (wait, what?). In many places the story moves so fast that I almost lose track of what's going on, but that's the problem with condensing history into an easily readable form for third graders or whoever. Am interested in seeing a different version of this story, either more P.C. (not necessarily) or written for my age group ("grown-up")
1/27. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Reread in July.
This is the book I read most recently in the Jan.-June list below, so scroll down for a description. I reread this book and made notes, underlines, and the like (doodles) this time, so as to better be able to find certain passages later and to be able to recall thoughts I had about certain parts of the book, in later readings. Yep, counting it twice this year, but sometimes I count multiple kids' books as one so this list should even out numerically.
Here's Mr. Joel Miller's post about why writing in books is a good idea.
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