A Book Every TWO Weeks - An Inventory of 2013

It's certainly been a slower year for reading (26 this year, compared to last years 52!). To finish the year off I thought I'd share with you a wonderful memoir called "The End of Your Life Book Club" which was required reading for the Oakville Public Library book club this year.

The story is simple. It is about a son that takes you through the last couple of years of his mothers' life. She is dying of pancreatic cancer. They are both avid readers and many of their conversations revolve around the books they're reading. These converstaions provide mini-reviews of numerous books, with over 100 mentioned in the memoir. If anything I have an much longer "must read" list now. What stuck with me was the phrase that "every book you read changes your life" and I agree that this is so true. How could I not love a book that's so in love with books?



I also wanted to share with you the other books I've read over the last several months...an inventory of sorts. See the images below. As I get settled into my new position (I thought 6 months would be enough to "get settled"!) let's hope I have more time for a few more books and also continue the almost-daily workouts.

Signing off for 2013.

A wonderful non-fiction account of WWII fighter pilot that went down over Japan.

Book 3 in the series. I was a little disappointed in it, as I has such high hopes.

Very violent and hard for me to get through. Great writing, just a very sad story.

An eye-opening story of a young man that was born in a North Korea prison camp and escaped to tell his story. You will never think about North Korea in the same way again.

Book 3 in the series. An enjoyable read during the trip to Bahamas.

I liked this series much more than I anticipated. I'm glad I didn't read it when it was first published, as I'd have to wait even longer for book #3 to be published.

A typical Jodi Picoult novel. Heart-wrenching and a few tears.

A beach book for the Bahams trip. Entertainment-only.

I enjoyed this, but I felt a little water-logged. This is the fourth book in the last 18 months that took place entirely on the sea (Unbroken, The Cat's Table, and Jamrach's Menagerie).

Another beach book during our Bahamas trip. Light hearted and an easy read.

A little dark, but enjoyed the premise of the book.

Oakville Public Library Evening for Book Lovers 2013

Here's this years list....

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
End of your life book club by Will Schwalbe
The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The dinner by Herman Foch
Minaret by Leila Aboulela
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
The lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
A long, long way by Sebastian Barry
Some kind of fairy tale by Graham Joyce
De Niro's game by Rawi Hage
When she woke by Hillary Jordan
Above all things by Tanis Rideout
The secret rooms by Catherine Bailey
Life after life by Kate Atkinson
Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden
The Burgess boys by Elizabeth Strout
The age of miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
The painted girls by Cath Marie Buchanan
My dear I wanted to tell you by Louisa Young

Explaining the lapse...a new job

Well, I've been a little busy of late! I took a management job with the Health Department back in June which has been eating into my reading time. I've missed my books. Over the summer I read two novels: Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. Perfect summer reading! I'm really enjoying young adult fiction and recently found out a colleague is a writer of it.

I also just finished "The Discovery of Wtiches" by Deborah Harkness and with a cliff hanger like that one, I instantly got my hands on part two, "Shadow of Night" that I'm starting to read this evening.

Hopefully this means I'm back into my books!

Look again

The three books I took to Florida were done on Thursday, so on Friday I picked this paperback up at Target. It was a quick read. A good story and definitely heart-wrenching, but a little unbelievable at times. It's "fiction", so I guess unbelievable is excusable. I'm not sure I'd recommend this, but I'm willing to try reading another book by this author.

Our trip to Florida

Once again our trip to Florida produces some fruitful reading. Three books this time! Little Bee was an exceptional read and I highly recommend it.

Goodbye to a friend

I forgot how much I love reading Meave Binchy! Reading this brought back memories of 20 years ago when I picked up one of her first books (Circle of Friends) in a bookstore in Auckland, New Zealand, and ended up reading it while lounging in the hayfield on the dairy farm I was living on. I've read every one of her books since then and enjoyed each one. Sadly, this is her last, as she died last July at the age of 72. What will I take as reading material when I make that trip to Ireland in a few years? This one would have been perfect.

 

 

 

A couple of Oakville Library picks

My book club choice this month is "Eleven" by Mark Watson. It had some great characters - very likeable ones - and was an easy read. At only 278 pages, also a short read.It's been compared to "One Day" and has an interesting theme realted to "six degrees of separation" or the "butterfly effect". I wasn't so fond of the ending though. I was looking for it to be packaged up all nicely and there were too many loose ends. I also hate movies like this. If you're ok with that type of ending, then go for it...otherwise you've been warned. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the book club thinks when we discuss it in a couple of weeks.

I'm just starting to read the Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tabor which was recommended at the Oakville Public Library "An Evening for Book Lovers". It takes place in Southern California and has a strong message about social and racial conflict. The reviews appear to be mixed, so we'll see how it plays out.

New year....new goals

I've had a few people comment to me that they`re still checking my blog to see what I'm reading these days. My reading has slowed down now that my goal of 52 books in 52 weeks has been accomplished. I'm working on improving myself in other ways right now...including increasing my physical activity, sleeping more, and even getting laser eye surgery back in January.

I listened to Gone Girl on CD while my eyes were healing from surgery for a couple of weeks in January. I discovered I hate audiobooks...far too slow paced and time consuming.

Everybody has Everything was an awesome book. A Toronto author with references to many places in the city. It was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize last year. The Child Left Behind had great writing but was long...probably a couple hundred of pages longer than it should have been. Now I'm reading some *fluff* another one of Emily Giffin`s books (I've read tham all), called Where We Belong.

 

 

 

 

Books for 2013

Here are some of the books I didn't get to in 2012 that I hope I find time for in 2013. Any thoughts on these choices?

• House on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet
• Rules of Civility
• Bel Canto
• The Book of Negroes
• The High Road
• Up and Down
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
• The Poisonwood Bible
• Prep: A Novel
• The Dovekeepers
• The Virgin Cure
• The Casual Vacancy
• The Taliban Cricket Club
• Unbroken - A World War II Story of Survival
• A Discovery of Witches
• The third book in the 'Divergent' series (when it's released in the fall)