mrs rochester sets the field

Ok so I might not be so good with technology but I can read with the best of them!

I counted 111 books (from my physical and nook shelf) and decided to be really ambitios and go for 115, but reallistically I'm thinking I'll get to 75 by the end of 2012 so thats where I set my ticker.




I'm in the middle of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery so I'll count it as my first book.

Warm-ups (from starting this thread until January 1st)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Incendiary by Chris Cleave

January
1. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
2. Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi
3. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga
4. Ophelia by Lisa Klein
5. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
6. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
7. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
8. Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks
9. Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Coehlo

February
10. Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos
11. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
13. Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
14. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
15. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
16. In the Woods by Tana French

March
17. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
18. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
19. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
20. Lost In Austen by Emma Campbell Webster
21. The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
22. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips

April
23. My Antonia by Willa Cather

P.S. I'm all about discussion, I'll post whenever I start a new book so feel free to comment anytime!

I have Elegance of the Hedgehog set for 2012. I'm joining the group read in April. Be sure to stop by then and give us your opinion.

I read Elegance of the Hedgehog a couple of years ago - very good!

I just finished it... I can't even begin to describe how much I loved it! I wouldn't recommend it for everybody but it was right up my alley.

Up next, Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

The Elegance of the Hedgehog was one of my SantaThing books. I'm looking forward to reading it!

I just finished Alice I Have Been and man did I love it!

My last "warm-up" book before kicking off the challenge will be Incendiary. I've been putting this one off for a while because I'm nervous about the emotional impact, but I think its important to face reality every once in a while.

One more book and then its BOMBS away!

Ah Incendiary, you were quite a dissapointment...

I knew that it would be depressing but I had hoped that it would also have been inspiring. I expected it to be similar to The Kite Runner in that it would make me contemplate the good and the bad in the world without making me feel completely hopeless but it just depressed me :(

Anyway, I have time to squeeze one more book in before January 1st so I'm going to zip through People of the Book.

I didn't finish People of the Book so I've got my number one :)

1. People of the Book I have mixed feelings about this book. My inner history geek loved it, and I loved that the modern story line became one of the "people of the book." However, I thought that her story was the weakest of all of them and I was disappointed that the book focused on her rather than some of the others.

Up next- Reading Lolita In Tehran

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is one of the first purchases I've made as a result of LT recommendations. I'm thinking it will make a good read-aloud.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is one of my favorite books. I've read a lot of negative reviews of it, most of them because they found the characters unlikeable. I can see why they would feel that way, the characters annoyed me at times too, but I thought it was such a beautiful story. It says a lot about people and the way we all think and percieve the world around us in our own unique way and how we can learn and grow from each other's points of view. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

9: The other day, an article about manuscript fragments found in Afghanistan came across my Twitter feed. I was immediately reminded of People of the Book.

2. Reading Lolita in Tehran I really enjoyed this. I love the idea of comparing experiences to books, I wish that I had read more of the books that were mentioned before reading this. Maybe someday I'll set a goal to read them all and then read this again. I thought that the juxtaposition of her experiences in Iran with her insights into literature were really interesting, it made me want to go back and fall in love with these classics all over again!

Up next- Between the Assassinations

3. Between the Assassinations This was one of those books that needs to sink in and re-read. I can't decide if I liked it as much as The White Tiger, but think I might if I try it again leisurely sometime.

Up next Ophelia

4. Ophelia I enjoyed reading this but I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. I don't want to give anything away but I felt like the third part wasn't entirely consistent with the first two.

Up next The Tiger's Wife

5. The Tiger's Wife At first I thought this book was slow and I was just trudging through it, but I was hooked after the first encounter with "the deathless man." In the end I really loved this book and look forward to picking it up again somewhere down the line.

Up next Cutting For Stone

6. Cutting For Stone This book had just the right mix of different elements. I loved the portrayal of the complexity of family ties in tems of different types of family relationships. Really well written!

Up next The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

7. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane Not quite what I expected, when actual witchcraft become involved I was thrown a little bit. Once I realized that this was not just a historical fiction novel but also a paranormal fiction novel I embraced it and ended up enjoying it.

Up next Nine Parts of Desire

I hope you enjoy Nine Parts of Desire!

I'm enjoying following your thread. You have a very interesting library.

Thanks! Its nice to know that people are reading it, I've seen a few familiar titles in your thread too :)

I've only catalogued about half of my actual library... Most of it is boxed up waiting for more shelf space and I'm waiting until I get a bigger shelf to go through and sort them. Whatever I did catalogue was either read recently or from memory.

I'm an obsessive book buyer but I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books or set foot in a library until I've made a dent in my 100+ unread books. Tracking it here has been a huge help!

8. Nine Parts of Desire This book was truly wonderful. I have a whole new respect for Geraldine Brooks, I can't wait to get my hands on more of her work!

Up next- Veronika Decides to Die

9. Veronika Decides to Die I don't really know what to say about this book, except that I really liked it. For a short book, it pulled together some complex ideas and made them poetic in their own way. I read The Alchemist a few years ago and I wasn't that impressed with it but this one definetly renewed my interest in Paolo Coelho.

Up next- Love Walked In

I'm so glad you enjoyed Nine Parts of Desire! Terrific, isn't it?

I do recommend Foreign Correspondence if you want to read another one by Geraldine Brooks. It's a lovely book, and great on audio, too, if you can find it.

10. Love Walked In I loved the two main characters, but I didn't love the story. I don't know, I just think there was a lot of complexity that could have been developed more. I liked it but I didn't love it.

Up next- Little Women, I've been itching to re-read it for some time :)

p.s. I've already added it to my to-read list Ivy!

11. Little Women I read an abridged version when I was 10, and unabridged when I was a teenager. I hadn't read it in so long that anything that was not included in the movies was practically new to me. I think I could read it every year for the rest of my life and never get tired of it!

Up next- Little Men This will be my first time reading it, I plan to follow up with Jo's Boys which I have also yet to read.

12. Little Men This was written with so much heart and soul, I don't know if I would say that I liked it better than Little Women, but I'm so glad that I finally read it.

Up next- completing the trilogy with Jo's Boys

13. Jo's Boys Everything that it should have been, even Dan's less than happy ending.

Up next- The Color Purple

Now, that was an interesting read. I remember remarking how the narrator's voice changed over the course of the story. Well done.

I loved the Alcott books, too, but that was so long ago, I remember very little.

14. The Color Purple This was fantastic, a little harsh at times but wonderful.

Up next- Three Lives

15. Three Lives Well, thank God THATS over... I understand why its important to literature but I re-he-he-he-healy did not enjoy it! I can't remember the last time it took me almost 10 days to get through 200 pages.

Up next- In the Woods I need some suspense to pick up from that.

I liked In the Woods a lot. It was my first Tana French novel, and I went on to several others, all very good.

16. In the Woods It took me a little while to get into this, but it grabbed me hook, line, and sinker. I wish that we could have found out what happened to Peter and Jamie, but I'm guessing that will come up in sequels.

Up next- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

>33 mrsrochester: Uh-oh, isn't that kind of a spoiler? That question held me right up to the end; I'd have read the book differently if I'd known we weren't going to find out.

>34 Meredy: I guess it is, oops! But I don't know if the question ever does get answered in later books so hopefully I didn't turn anyone off from the series!

17. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan I really enjoyed reading this, but not for the plot or the characters. I loved the richness of the cultural details, I couldn't get enough!

Up next- Rebecca

MrsRochester - I first saw the Hitchcock version of Rebecca before reading the book and really enjoyed both (though I preferred the book version of Max de Winter).

It took me a while to get into it but I'm starting to really like it. I'll have to check out the movie, I love a good Hitchcock!

MrsRochester - it's an *excellent* Hitchcock. All beautiful and moody and broody; plus it has Laurence Olivier! - I hope you enjoy it!

The movie's good, but I agree I like the book better because of Mr. DeWinter. The movie pussed out at the end as far as I'm concerned.

18. Rebecca grrrrrrrr... This book was slow, and then a cliff hanger ending!!! Must find the sequel...

Up next- re-reading The Hunger Games before the movie comes out. I borrowed it the first time around and bought it in December so technically its still a BOMB!

DuMaurier didn't write a sequel. Rebecca was meant to be a standalone work.

Yeah, I looked it up last night, another author wrote a follow up. I doubt I'll read it, I hate when they do that!

19. The Hunger Games I wanted to brush up on it before the movie comes out, I loved it just as much this time around ;)

Up next- Lost in Austen, I'm having a lot of fun with this one!

20. Lost In Austen This was an icredibly fun diversion for any Jane Austen fan! I'm a little depressed that it isn't in the popularity ranks with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as funny as that was I liked this a lot better.

Up next- The Carrie Diaries

21. The Carrie Diaries I had a lot of trouble associating this character with the Carrie Bradshaw I know and love, but in the end I started to see it. Now I kind of want to read the sequel...

Up next- The Egyptologist I saw some discussion on it in another thread and decided to give it another try, about 30 pages in and I can't remember why I put it down the first time!

22. The Egyptologist What a ride! This was the second time I tried reading this. The first time around I wasn't that into it but because I saw some positive discussion in another thread I decided to barrell through this time. I'm so glad I did! I loved the format. Piecing everything together from the limited and sceptical information made me feel like a detective, highly recommend it!

Up next- The Count of Monte Cristo Its been on my TBR for years, I was trying to hold out for a while longer but my curiosity is getting the better of me.

that ackward moment when you realize that you are only reading half of a book...

JUST HAPPENED TO ME!!!

I downloaded the free version of The Count of Monte Cristo on my nook when I first got it. I noticed that it was only 535 pages and that the print version was 1000+, but I assumed that I was reading an abridged version and kept reading. About half way through I realized that I was missing a lot of information so I went back to the cover page and realized that I was almost 300 pages into VOLUME 2!!!

The moral of the story, there's no such thing as a free book :(

Anyway, I won't count this one and I'm moving on to My Antonia

23. My Antonia I see this books merit but I wasn't really interested in it. I had to force myself to pick it up and finish it.

Up next- The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection

I thought My Antonia had an extremely high ratio of pointless tedium per square inch of words. I don't know why it appears on so many "greatest" lists.

haha thats a good way of putting it! I liked the character development of the narrator but the lack of action and the constant love/hate angst between characters was a little annoying.

I took a little bit of a nose dive off the reading wagon this month. I'm enjoying the Wizard of Oz series but in small doses. I'm putting it aside for now and not counting it as a bomb. I finally picked up The Golden Compass and I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, hopefully I'll get back on track in the coming months.