#boutofbooks Reading List!

The Thirty Nine Steps (Richard Hannay #1)

by John Buchan

 Richard Hannay’s boredom is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. This exciting action-adventure story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic film of the same name. John Buchan (1875-1940) was Governor General of Canada and a popular novelist. Although condemned by some for anti-Semitic dialog in The Thirty-Nine Steps, his character’s sentiments do not represent the view of the author who was identified in Hitler’s Sonderfahndungsliste (special search list) as a “Jewish sympathiser.” (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

 

 

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, Edith GrossmanIn their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again

A Conspiracy of Alchemists (The Chronicles of Light and Shadow #1) by Liesel Schwarz

 LEAVE IT TO CHANCE.

Eleanor “Elle” Chance, that is—a high-flying dirigible pilot with a taste for adventure and the heroine of this edgy new series that transforms elements of urban fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal romance into pure storytelling gold.

It is 1903, and the world is divided between light and shadow. On the side of light is a wondrous science that has transformed everyday life by harnessing magical energies to ingenious new technologies. But each advance of science has come at the expense of shadow—the traditional realm of the supernatural.

Now two ancient powers are preparing to strike back. Blood-sucking immortal Nightwalkers and their spellcasting Alchemist allies have a plan to cover the whole world in shadow. All they require is the sacrifice of a certain young woman whose past conceals a dangerous secret.

But when they come after Elle, they get more than they bargained for. This enterprising young woman, the daughter of a scientific genius, has reserves of bravery and determination that even she scarcely suspects. Now she is about to meet her match in more ways than one: a handsome yet infuriating Warlock named Hugh Marsh, whose agenda is as suspect as his charms are annoyingly irresistible.

 

Room No. 10 (Inspector Winter #7)

by Åke Edwardson

A YOUNG WOMAN IS DISCOVERED hanged in a room in a decrepit hotel, and Gothenburg’s Chief Inspector Erik Winter must try to figure out what happened. As Winter looks around, he realizes that he was in the same hotel room many years earlier, when it was the last known location of a woman who subsequently disappeared and was never found. The two women seem to have nothing in common except for this hotel room, but Winter suspects that there may be other connections. The young woman’s parents are bereft and unable to explain the puzzling contents of a note she left behind. Winter, however, senses that they are holding back some secret that might help him to find her murderer. As he pursues his hunch and digs into the old police report on the woman who disappeared—one of his first cases as a young detective—Winter becomes increasingly convinced that the two cases are somehow related. Room No. 10 is a first-rate thriller, suffused with the gray seaside beauty of Gothenburg and filled with the characters that Åke Edwardson’s readers have come to love: Winter, the veteran detective who veers between pessimism and optimism but never gives up; Bertil Ringmar, the methodical old-timer whose analytical mind keeps everyone focused; hotheaded Fredrik Halders, whose temper sometimes overwhelms his passion for justice; and Aneta Djanali, Halders’s girlfriend, an immigrant from Burkina Faso whose ability to talk to other women can open new leads. As compelling as they are dedicated, they are an unforgettable team determined to find a bizarre killer

 

#boutofbooks 8.0

It's almost that time of year again. It seems the Bout of Books readathon is when I also get most of my blogging done on this website. So I have been stacking up my reads and looking forward to joining in yet again!

Original Link and sign up page
http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/




"The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team"

I will be posting a picture/list of the books I plan on reading as the date is closer, but I hope you will join me. I could use all the cheers I can get, I need to get this sight functioning better and cannot wait to add content!

Kris

Quote of the Week: Love in the Time of Cholera

On Pentecost Sunday, when he lifted the blanket to look at Jeremiah de Saint-Armour's body, Dr. Urbino experienced the revelation of something that had been denied him until then in his most lucid peregrinations as a physician and a believer. After so many years of familiarity with death, after battling it for so long, after so much turning it inside out and upside down, it was as if he had dared to look death in the face for the first time, and it had looked back at him. It was not the fear of death. No: that fear had been inside him for many years, it had lived with him, it had been another shadow cast over his own shadow ever since the night he awoke, shaken by a bad dream, and realized that death was not only a permanent probability, as he had always believed, but an immediate reality. What he had seen that day, however, was the physical presence of something that until that moment had been only an imagined certainty. He was very glad that the instrument used by Divine Providence for that overwhelming revelation had been Jaremiah de Saint-Amour, whom he had always considered a saint unaware of his own state of grace. But when the letter revealed his true identity, his sinister past, his inconceivable powers of deception, he felt that something definitive and irrevocable had occurred in his life. ( Page 39)

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Read

My rating:

3Stars

Monstrous Beauty

by Elizabeth Fama

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

Hardcover, 295 pages

Published September 4th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) 

 

Every once in a while there is a book that comes along that is very well written, researched and has interesting characters. But for some reason it's not something that I connect with very well. 

 

This is one of those books. I found this book takes a very unusual and unique twist on mermaids. It's very much a historical fantasy novel and an immense amount of details and research have gone into getting the time period right. 

 

With not only a combination of the mermaid myths, but also mostly taking place in a time of highly religious pilgrims living in New England. There is rape, death and a form of ghosts that all show up in this novel as the story sequences through tales ranging 100 years and the connections. The connections between the original curse and how it has taken affect on this family throughout the years.

It is something that I would recommend to fans of historical fantasy. Perhaps my only fault at not adoring this book is that I am not a fan of historicals, and was not clear on that fact when I picked up the book that it was going to be one. But complimentary to that fact is that I did finish the book. I loved the ending and the battle that had to happen to break the curse.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Frank - no ordinary sixteen-year-old - lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.

Paperback, 184 pages

Published September 10th 1998 by Simon & Schuster (first published 1984) 

 

Normally with a short book as this one I fly right through. But I took my time reading through this one. 

At first there was a chapter in which our main character Frank takes some of his boredom and anger 

out on some rabbits. By blowing them up. Literally. I am not much of a hunter, I myself only have 

with fish. So I had to step away from the book and come back to it. 

But in my opinion that was the worse part of it for me. By putting that chapter early on in the book it 

prepared me for what might come later. There are some more events in the later parts of the book, but none

that I felt as graphic as reading about the  and process that went through the MC's actions in the

rabbit chapter.  

 I approached the book as a coming of age novel. It really only takes place over a month or so of time. But 

throughout the story Frank tells of us his childhood, his friends, family and experiences he has been through.

I'm not going to lie that it wasn't a difficult read. The characters in the book are pretty broken down by

this point in their lives. 

Frank lives alone with his father. And his older brother Eric is away in a mental hospital. We find out early

on that Eric has escaped and on his way home. That leads to some troubling memories of their pasts, in 

which Eric and his father deal with it in different ways. Every day that Eric gets closer to the house we 

find out more about Frank and his childhood. 

 

Overall the book was difficult for me to just read all the way through. I took it a chapter at a time, let

it soak in. When I finished it I realized that it's amazing how much people can endure in life. Our

different reactions to situations and how far love can go when it comes to family (or not go).  I am 

glad this book came to my attention and it will stick with me for years.

this is not like a lifetime movie story, it's rough, it's borderline horror in places. 

#Readathon Update

I have been in one of those reading moods today where I shift around from book to book.
I started off by picking up The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks

Frank - no ordinary sixteen-year-old - lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly
I only got to page 40 before deciding that I should put it down for a bit when the kid started blowing up rabbits.

Then I moved onto Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt

Introducing Tara Sharp, a fun, feisty, kick-arse crime fighter for fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.

Tara Sharp should be just another unemployable, twenty-something, ex-private schoolgirl . . . but she has the gift - or curse as she sees it - of reading people's auras. The trouble is, auras sometimes tell you things about people they don't want you to know.

When a family friend recommends Mr Hara's Paralanguage School, Tara decides to give it a whirl - and graduates with flying colours. So when Mr Hara picks up passes on a job for a hot-shot lawyer she jumps at the chance despite some of his less-than-salubrious clients.

Tara should know better than to get involved when she learns the job involves mob boss Johnny Vogue. But she's broke and the magic words 'retainer' and 'bonus' have been mentioned. Soon Tara finds herself sucked into an underworld 'situation' that has her running for her life.

Sharp Shooter is a hilarious, action-packed novel and Tara Sharp is Triple F: Funny. Fast. Feisty.

Which at the time of this posting am on page 38. So I am not exactly beating the pack here with my reading today, but the day is not over yet!
Total Pages Read: 78

1001 Books To Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall

About 5 years ago when searching online for the books that you should read during your life time, I came across a listology list of books taken from The 1001 Books To Read Before You Die
I decided to print out this list and read all of the books on in during my lifetime. It only took a couple of books for me to attempt to read through that made me decide that I would not actually be able to make it all the way through this list before I died. In fact 2 of the first 5 books I picked up off the list I couldn't even make it through. They just were not for me.

I soon realized that I did not want to torture myself trying to make it through the whole list, that instead I would pick through only the books that actually sounded like something I would enjoy reading. Because reading, afterall is something that is done for leisure, and pleasure. Therefore should be enjoyed.

5 years later, even after telling myself that I was going to make it through 50 of these books a year. I still have only crossed of about 20 from the whole list. At this point I am happy to get through 3 of them a year. Keeping in mind that for my other "jobs" I review books for websites ranging all types of genre's and age groups. It's not like I don't read as a full time job. But I am just not reading books from this particular list. Therefore it's just a hobby, and thus harder to find time for with all the other reading that I already do.

I tend to fit these other books in during my "down time" (if there is such a thing) like vacation, drive time and right before bed. Leaving me in reality very little time to read them. But have been able to keep more to my ability to read 3 a year.

So far this year I am happy to say I completed
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Little Women by Alcott Louisa May

Books that I was not able to read all the way through:
Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The books above, not sure if I was just not in the mood for or just really not for me. I intend on giving Lot 49 and On the Road another chance, when the time comes.

Is this a list something you would challenge yourself to read? What do you think is a reasonable number to get through in your lifetime?