TSS: Winners and 2nd Quarter Round-Up

In today’s Sunday Salon I’ve got a mixture of items.

First off, drumroll please! The winner of the 2nd quarter Nordic Challenge is:

Jo V @ Bibliojunkie for her review of The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder

Congratulations!!

Jo V can you please contact me to let me know which of the bundles (classic; children’s; fiction or mystery) you would like. I’ll let you know which books are available for you to choose from. My contact details can be found in the About tab above

Now on to my 2nd Quarter wrap-up:

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April was a very good reading month for me, I managed 11 books. Most of them on my Kindle. A lot of the books were re-reads though.

A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed in 2010)

One Was A Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed in 2010)

To Darkness and To Death  by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed in 2010)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (audiobook)

All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed in 2010)

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed in 2010)

Ett UFO gör entre (A UFO Makes an Entrance) by Jonas Gardell

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal

Damia’s Children by Anne McCaffrey

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May wasn’t quite as good as April, I read 7 books, but considering the fact that May is one of the busier months at work I’m still very happy with my tally.

Lyon’s Pride by Anne McCaffrey

The Tower and The Hive by Anne McCaffrey

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Audiobook)

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Tomorrow Pamplona by Jan Van Mersbergen

Tales from Suburbia by Shaun Tan

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In June my reading numbers went down and since I was off a lot I have no real excuse. My speed is picking up in July so I am feeling better about that though.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (audiobook)

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

God Dies by the Nile by Nawal El Saadawi

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (Audiobook Reviewed in 2010)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (Not reviewed at this time.

With so many re-reads this quarter I have a hard time picking a favourite, but I will say that I HIGHLY recommend Water for Elephants in audio. It rocked my socks!

May and June were also busy months here at Notes from the North with a 30 Day Bookish Challenge to celebrate me turning 30, ArmchairBEA and Audiobook Week. In addition to that I hosted the Peirene Press’s Tomorrow Pamplona Blog Tour with an interview with the books translator Laura Watkinson. I’ve also started to re-read all the Harry Potter books (as you can see above) before the release of the next movie. I have a bunch of posts that will hopefully go up in the next few days (this has been a hectic week here as my sister got married yesterday and I’m working almost full time at my summer job). With the 30 Day feature I really got up my blogging steam but I seem to have lost it in the last week, I would like to write more so I hope to find my mojo once things slow down here a bit. Looking forward to the next quarter (which will mean a lot of changes for me personally but hopefully not disturb the blog to much).

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Narrated by Barbarra Caruso

Category: Classics

Challenges: The Classic Circuit

Synopsis: From Audible.com Lily Bart, a beautiful, intelligent, but penniless young woman, lives on the outskirts of New York's high society, craving the luxurious lifestyle of her wealthy contacts. But while Lily possesses the grace, taste, and morality of the ideal turn-of-the-century lady, her delicate innocence threatens her survival in that very world. As she fights to maintain her newfound place among the aristocracy, Lily struggles mightily against what lurks beneath all the glitter and gold - greed, vulgarity, and ruthless competition. In her brilliantly perceptive novel, The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton, the peerless, Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicler of Old New York, provides yet another heartbreaking glimpse into the world of manners, privilege, betrayal, and shocking falls from grace.

My Thoughts: Unfortunately this is going to be my first abandoned book of the year. I found Lily to be far to annoying for me to be able to finish the book. I listened to it on audio and I missed loads because I got distracted since the book didn’t keep my attention.

The language was beautiful but did at times ramble.  To my mind nothing really happened. Lily was to blame for her predicament in life. She was arrogant and entitled. She had a great deal of distain for all those around her. She was snobbish and plain annoying.

What it did show quite well was how trapped women of Lily’s class were. If they were not independently wealthy they were dependent on a husband or on relatives. They had few chances to earn their own money and they weren’t educated to take care of themselves. This issue is of great interest to me and possibly why I stuck with the book for as long as I did.

The narrator was actually quite good. She managed to capture the tone of Lily and her world very well. There was also none of the annoying music one sometimes gets with audio book.

I really wish I had liked it more than I did. Maybe I will try and read a physical copy of it.

Copyright ©2009-2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Cranford

 Cranford by Elizabeth C. Gaskell

Category: Novel

Synopsis: Cranford is a tale of a group of ladies in the small English town of Cranford. The town of Cranford is run by the women, that is to say, “all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women” (25)

My Thoughts:  I wanted to read Cranford because I recently saw the BBC television series based on the story and loved it. So when the Classic Circuit announced that they were doing Gaskell I jumped on it. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. The first half of the novel felt very disjointed and jumpy. Characters came and went within just a few pages. I never got a sense as to why they were there. This might have been okay if the novel was plot driven, but it isn’t. There isn’t really a plot to it at all.

The second half of the novel is a bit better. There is an inkling of a plot and there are no really new characters added into the mix. The story starts to flow a bit more.

What I did like about the story was the friendship between the women that was presented. The way they actually cared about each other. On the outside they all seemed to be very much concerned with appearances and what was proper, but on the inside they were much more caring, considerate and loyal.

My final verdict (and this pains me greatly) watch the BBC television series, it is MUCH better!

 

Book Review: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation: Super Special #2 by Ann M. Martin

Category: Children (pre-teen)

Synopsis: The girls (and one boy) from the Baby-Sitters Club and several of their young charges head off to Camp Mohawk for two weeks. However the girls soon find out that camp is a lot more than they thought. When they leave they have learned lots about life and love and what you should do when lost in the woods.


My Thoughts: I read this book for The Baby Sitters Club Blog Tour that My Friend Amy is hosting. I always liked the super specials because it allowed me to see the same events through the eyes of several of the girls. And although it has been almost 20 years since last I read this book I still enjoyed the different perspectives. I liked that through the eyes of the different girls different problems were addressed. Several of the girls face not quite fitting in and they solve this in different ways. Now I can appreciate that the book gives young girls several strategies. I also liked that the girls rarely seemed to spend time with each other instead they had to rely on themselves. That might sound strange for a story about friends but I think it is important that they made new friends while still being important to each other.

Amazon has this book marketed to 9-12 year olds and I think that might be about right, although I was ten when I read it the first time and I can remember being a bit put off by all the talk of make up. Wasn't really my scene then (although it really still isn't. My idea of a lot of make-up is adding eye shadow to the mascara :D)

Overall I enjoyed the few hours I spent with this book. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.