Weekend Reading

I have been feeling a little all over the place with my reading of late. I have books everywhere - not unusual for me but it is starting to feel a little chaotic and out of control! What to do??

The two books I have been spending time on this weekend are Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Yes, I decided to go for it and read Twilight - I'm only about 100 pages in and enjoying it so far. I must admit I thought I wasn't going to like it when I first started. Not really sure why - just thought the Edward character was a little false - I know, I know - he's a vampire and extremely mysterious - but still! Anyway, I'm on board with the story at the moment.

My Wuthering Heights reading is going much better than I expected - absolutely loving it! I'm not sure why I couldn't get into this classic the first time I tried it but those reasons seem to have been banished now.

New Classics Challenge

Despite already feeling fairly overloaded with challenge reading - I'm joining another! Joanna at Lost In A Good Story has started the New Classics Challenge. The rules are as follows:

1) Copy the Entertainment Weekly's List of New Classics and bold the titles that you have already read.

2) Choose at least 6 other books from the list , read and review them between 1 August 2008 and 31 January 2009.

3) In January 2009, cast your vote for which one of the 100 books on the list is your favorite (and write a post on why). The winning book will be sent to a lucky winner chosen by the scientific method favored here in the blogosphere, i.e. names in a hat.

The Entertainment Weekly's List of New Classics

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)

3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)

4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)

5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)

7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)

8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)

9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)

12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)

13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)

14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)

15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)

16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)

17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)

18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)

19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)

20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)

21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)

22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)

24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)

25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)

26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)

28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)

29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)

30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)

31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)

32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)

33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)

34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)

35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)

36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)

37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)

38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)

39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)

41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)

42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)

43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)

44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)

45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)

46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)

47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)

48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)

49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)

50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)

52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)

53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)

56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)

57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)

58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)

59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)

60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)

61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)

62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)

63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)

64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)

66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)

67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)

68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)

69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)

71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)

72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)

73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)

74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)

75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)

76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)

77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)

81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)

82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)

83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)

84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)

87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)

88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)

89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)

90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)

91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)

92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)

93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)

94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)

96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)

98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)

99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)

100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

So, I have only read 25 of the 100 - plently to choose from for the challenge! My choices to read for the challenge at the moment will be:

1. Interpreter of The Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

2. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

3. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon

5. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

6. Selected Stories - Alice Munro

Mid Week Reflections

I realised yesterday that I had better get moving on some of my challenge reading so I have started Wuthering Heights. This is a book that I have attempted to read before but I just couldn't get into it. I don't know if I expected it to be more like Jane Eyre but I started reading it last night and I only stopped because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Hopefully that means this time I will make it through - and enjoy it!
My other reading on the go at the moment is Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I do not usually enjoy reading short stories but these are completely amazing - I can't rave about them enough. I started reading this one when I went to Melbourne a few weeks ago and although I just want to fly through the book and consume these wonderful stories I also want to save them up! The constant brilliant book dilemma.

Sepulchre - Kate Mosse

I have put off reading Sepulchre by Kate Mosse for quite a while now. I had read (and quite enjoyed) her previous novel, Labyrinth but for some reason the descriptions and summaries of Sepulchre weren't drawing me in. I finally did give in and purchased the book last week. I was looking for something relatively light and escapist and Sepulchre fit the bill. I really don't want to analyse the book too much - I think that would ruin the experience - but I'm going to compare Sepulchre to a really good (and by good I mean awful!) soap opera.

Sepulchre is told (as is Labyrinth if I remember correctly) from the perspective of two main female characters from two time periods, Leonie from 1891, Paris and Meredith, an American woman in France for work and personal reasons in 2007.

What connects the two characters across the time spans is a deck of tarot cards - which we are supposed to believe possess magical/mystical powers not wholly understood or controlled.

I found both female characters mildly annoying and always predictable and the plot childish and unbelievable - and yet I read this 730 page novel in under a week - I couldn't get enough!

I think what this is saying to me is that Sepulchre is a book I needed at this particular time - not a great book for me by any stretch of the imagination - but a definitely a great break from reality.

Should I or Shouldn't I?

I have been debating with myself for a while now over whether I should read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer or not???

As I have mentioned before I am not a huge fan of fantasy fiction although there have been some exceptions to that rule (The Jane Eyre Affair being the latest). I seem to have a bias towards fantasy novels that are somehow set in the "real" world - Neil Gaiman novels are a favourite and I love the Harry Potter series.

So, can anybody help out so I can finally make a decision??

Reading Spaces

We had one of our bookclub gatherings yesterday and one of my friends was asking me about my favourite space/place to read. She was saying she just wasn't able to get comfortable and read in bed and she really liked to read outside in her backyard in the sun - but given the winter weather we are currently having in New South Wales that isn't really an option at the moment.

I do like to read in bed but I also like to sleep in bed so I find that unless I am VERY alert I tend to nod off and the reading falls by the wayside. I do have a comfy reading area set up in our lounge room with a cosy chair, reading table and lamp. Will post photos of this another day. I have been inspired by an Australian woman who has set up a business designing special spaces for people based on their particular work/hobby/inspirational needs. The website is http://www.aplaceforspace.com.au/ and I have borrowed the image in this post from there - this looks like a lovely reading space to me.

The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields is a book I was reading for both the Orbis Terrarum and the 1% Well-Read Challenges.

I must confess that I have in fact read the book before - as a part of a university english course over 10 years ago. I remember enjoying the book when I read it then but I think I possibly enjoyed (and appreciated) it more this time around.

The Stone Diaries tells the story of Daisy Goodwill - an "ordinary" woman with a seemingly "ordinary" life - but Carol Shields has a way of making the ordinary seem really extraordinary. The books follows Daisy's life from birth in a rural Canadian town in 1905 through her life, two marriages, 3 children and various homes. Sounds ordinary doesn't it?? I think this book is anything but ordinary. At times I don't really connect with the person Daisy is - perhaps it's a time/distance thing - but I want to keep reading her story. I'm connected to what is happening to her.

The book is written in a unique style, narrative interwoven with letters, newspaper clippings, diary entries and lists. These are techniques I really enjoy in novels - it opens up the story for me and brings in various perspectives which wouldn't come across in a one person narrative.

Carol Shields is an amazing author, I would recommend all of her books to people looking for seemingly everyday stories made extraordinary.