Moon & Sixpence; Housekeeper & the Professor; (George)
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112. (George) by E.L. Konigsburg
This is a book I put on my wishlist a long time ago after hearing a school volunteer rave about it.
I started out loving it and ended up liking it.
I loved the idea of a person inside a person and enjoyed that part of the book. Then the psychiatrist labeled it “multiple personalities.” That ruined it for me, made it something undesirable.
I do like Konigsburg. Her characters are always clever.
113. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
The main character of this book, Charles Strickland, was a thoroughly unlikeable fellow. His departure from home left his first wife in despair. He took up with a woman in Paris and destroyed her life. It was only when he went to Tahiti that he found a haven for his art and lifestyle.
That Strickland was based on the artist Gauguin adds to the story.
I didn’t like the character, but I did like the book.
114. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Lots of buzz around the blogosphere about this one. Not the usual hyped book, though. Very quiet story. Very Japanese.
Exactly the book I wanted to read this week after the read-a-thon last weekend.
1 | Comment (0)Read-a-Thon Reads: 17!
96. Good-bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
It’s the gentle story of a man who taught in a British private boys’ school for many decades. I love the way Chips starts out as a very average sort of person and teacher. It’s the experiences of life—the death of his wonderful wife, the tragedies of the war, the days, years spent teaching children—that transform Chips into a thoughtful, clever, and exemplary human being.
97. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Whew! What a ride. What a terrible ride into the lives of three sad, miserable lives. Blanche comes to stay with her sister, Stella, after Blanche’s life deteriorates. Stella has married and is expecting a baby, but her life is anything but cozy and warm. Stella’s husband, Stanley, beats his wife and drinks heavily. Everything in this story echoes, No Way Out, and You are Doomed to Misery.
98. A Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Frankie provides our eyes and ears for A Member of the Wedding and what a view she gives us readers! Frankie is poised on the edge of childhood and adulthood, that awful spot we now call adolescence, but she is not sitting quietly on the edge; she is teetering back and forth between the worlds and it is not a happy place to be. She has lost her connections to her world. There are only two who try to call her back into the world: Berenice, the housekeeper, and her cousin, John Henry. As Frankie questions the world, Berenice is the voice of the grownup world, trying to ease Frankie into the new world. At the same time, John Henry is the voice of Frankie’s childhood, urging her to play, to experience the world, to forget the world of thinking. Frankie’s one hope becomes her desire to escape and join her brother and his new wife after their wedding. Of course, this does not happen and Frankie goes back to her world, but she is not the same person she once was.
What a rich, marvelous book! I could read it all over again and I think I would love it just as much. Frankie’s encounter with the soldier…the monkey and the monkey owner…the Freaks….the noises and the pictures the author draws of this world…a rich, rich story.
99. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Fourth hour, fourth book completed. (Mind you, all my books for the read-a-thon were jump started; I’m not really reading books…I’m finishing them.)
And not just another book completed…another GREAT book completed. I would recommend highly all the books I’ve read today.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’d seen the movie. I’ve read two other Capote books and was wowed by them. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is equally wonderful. The juxtaposition of our narrator and Holly Golightly makes the book. Holly would probably be called manic-depressive today when she was hospitalized but to the narrator and her other admirers she has that rare zest for life that is to wonderous to behold. Others, more thoughtful observers, would also see in Holly the devastation she left in her wake.
A powerful story.
100. Tales of Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
It’s not on anyone’s classics book…yet. But what a fantastic read! Fantastic is a key word, because every story feels like a fantasy, yet terribly real.
Yes, I, who grew up in suburbia when nobody knew it would take over America like a disease, I always thought of suburbia as a strange world but never ventured into the corners of suburbia that Tan takes us to in this book.
The pictures are perfect and the stories so thoughtful I would love to read them again and again.
Another excellent read. Did I ever pick some great reads for the read-a-thon?!
101. Boyology by Sarah Burningham
Boyology was my toughest read of the Read-a-Thon. I’m 52 and I’ve been married almost 31 years, so it was hard to read through page after page of how to flirt and how to kiss. 
I can see it would be very, very useful for a teen girl. And fun.
Another book ready to pass on to a read-a-thon-er….
102. Joey Fly: Private Eye in Creepy Crawly by Aaron Reynolds
Crime Written in a comic book format, this thin book is charactered with insects, arachnids, and worms. The dialogue is clever, filled with bug-populated similes. Will kids get the humor? A bit, I think. Kids will just like the silly detectives trying to solve the mystery of the missing pencil box.
103. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
I liked and disliked this book. Mann has his character, Aschenbach, preach a little more than I like, preaching his thoughts about beauty and writing and control. That’s what I disliked. For the first third of the book, I could barely force myself to keep reading.
Then Aschenbach falls in love and begins to tail the object of his affection all over Venice. The story takes a different turn and the writing moves from a rant about virtue to a real story. Venice is beautifully depicted and Aschenbach becomes a real, brilliant, tortured human being. That’s what I liked.
103. That Night by Alice McDermott
A masterpiece. I wish I’d read this book this morning when I was still able to write coherently instead of midnight when I’m in the last seven hours of a twenty-four hour read-a-thon.
I loved the way the author switches from first person singular narrator to first person plural narrator in the story. I also loved the way the author provides little glimpses of the future for the characters who pop into the narrative. These give the story a big vision both broad and yet full of disappointment.
104. Amelia’s Notebook by Marissa Moss
A little children’s book, written in the form of a notebook. The notebook format is perfect for such a close look inside the life of a child.
105. Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast
Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast is a book of short poems that were originally written on subways all across America. Some of my favorite poems were in this book including This is Just to Say.
106. The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
The Upstairs Room is the fictionalized memoir of a Jewish girl who was kept hidden with her sister in an attic room for over two years during WWII in the Netherlands. Reiss originally wrote the story to explain what had happened to her two daughters. Very sad.
107. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea was possibly the worse choice I’ve ever made for a read-a-thon. The old man spends most of the book fighting the fish, weary, exhausted, tired. I’m not at all interested in fish but Hemingway is a writer I like, spare and lean.
108. The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
The Great Fire is a look at the Chicago Fire. It moved fast and, because of a series of errors, spread over much of the city. Jim Murphy knows how to write nonfiction.
109. Years of Dust by Albert Marrin
Years of Dust examines the Dust Bowl years, the causes, the problems, the way things resolved themselves. It could happen again.
110. The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell
The Black Pearl is the story of a boy who seeks a big pearl and finds it. The boy’s father is lost at sea and the boy feels certain he must set things to rights with the pearl.
111. Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
Afternoon of the Elves is the story of a friendship between Sara-Kate and Hillary. Sara-Kate unexpectedly shows Hillary an elf village in her backyard and Hillary becomes intrigued. The story is quite mysterious. Love the ending.
Eternal Smile; Absolutely Maybe; Hope Was Here; and More
85. The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz
With a copyright date of 1965, this had to be one of the first almost-teenage-girl-with-family-troubles books. This is now an out-and-out genre; I can’t tell you how many of these I saw at the library conference last week. Franny’s problems seem small compared to those of girls nowadays: Franny is worried that her friend won’t like her best and that her dad can’t keep a job (not because he has deeper problems like anger issues or drinking on the job issues…he’s just a bit dreamy). Because of the copyright, I felt pretty confident going in that everything would work out in the end and, of course, everything did. It’s a good solid story, with good solid characters. I wonder what contemporary readers would think of this book.
86. Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee
I dived right into this book at the library conference last week and I couldn’t stop reading. Love Maybe and her mom and her friends. Must find a new teen reader to pass this on to.
Just a little plot info: Maybe is Maybeline, a girl her mother named after her favorite brand of makeup. Her mom is a serial marrier, set to pick up husband number seven. Maybe goes off with friends to California in search of the father she never knew and the one man her mom did not marry.
87. How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth) by Henry Alford
I almost gave up on this book ten times. It is not as advertised. Alford spends much of the book talking about his elderly mother who decides in her eighties to divorce Alford’s stepdad. Here and there, Alford stops to interview elderly people but he obtains very little wisdom. Please. If you say you are going to write a book about the wisdom we can obtain from old people, then you’ve got to seek out wise old people. Disappointing.
88. The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About The Good News? By Peter J. Gomes
Gomes’ message is simple: Why do we spend our time devoting ourselves to Jesus rather than doing what Jesus asked us to do? Gomes emphasizes the transforming nature of Jesus’ words and asks us to act.
89. Happy Birthday to You! By Dr. Seuss
A perfect happy birthday message in a fun Seuss book.
90. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
Three good stories related in a graphic novel format. The graphic novel format seemed very suited to the telling of these quirky stories.
91. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Two sisters and their elderly father collide as they have always collided in the past but with tremendous force and great frequency when the elderly father falls for a young woman who wants to immigrate to England from Ukraine.
The dialogue is clever and fun and painful and the dad’s obsession with tractors is a nice sidebar to the story.
92. Meet Kirsten: An American Girl by Janet Shaw
I’ve always wanted to read an American Girl book. This is my first.
Kirsten is a young Swedish girl whose family is moving to the United States. Kirsten is lonely but soon is befriended by another young Swedish girl who is also moving out West.
The story takes a surprisingly painful twist. American Girl is more realistic than I’d expected. Kirsten is more than just a pretty face.
93. Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
Hope was tiny when she was born and her mom couldn’t cope; Hope’s mom gave Hope to Hope’s aunt to raise. Hope’s aunt, Addie, is a fantastic cook but she and Hope are always moving.
The one thing Hope’s mom gave Hope of use to her was the secrets of waitressing. Hope and Addie suffer at the hands of a con artist and are on the move again, this time to the café of a man with cancer. The man with cancer turns out to be another Atticus Finch, but with political thoughts, and Hope becomes caught up in his campaign for mayor against a villainous long time mayor.
I liked this story more and more with every page I read. The aunt…the mom…the café owner…the cook at the café…Hope herself…all were scrumptious characters.
94. Tomorrow: Adventures in an Uncertain World by Bradley Trevor Greive
You’ve seen this book or at least this kind of book or maybe you’ve seen the Powerpoint of it in your inbox. It’s a collection of wacky photos of animals captioned with truisms about life. Uplifting and thoughtful…just don’t expect profound.
95. A Generous Or+hodoxy by Brian D. McLaren
Here’s the subtitle: Why I am a missional + evangelical + post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic + biblical + charismatic/contemplative + fundamentalist/calvinist + anabaptist/Anglican + Methodist + catholic + green + incarnational + depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished Christian.
And that’s the whole book.
And, I find, me, too.
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