95 Books

12. Ohmhole by Tyler Hayden

poetactics — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:47:54 -0600

I have been reading this book for months. Not because it’s long, but it is so heavy I read a few pages and then need days to come back to the text. The book is about a future in which everyone is dying of HIV/AIDS. Everyone. There is a rumour that a sexually transmitted cure exists. The economy functions, barely. Hospices care for the dying, kind of.

Boredom is the enemy. The only escape is a retreat into and out of the body, any body. This novel is grotesque, yes, even in the sense of carnivalesque, because the government puts on a show (to keep calm to keep a semblance of order to spread propaganda to distribute supplies that aren’t always adequate or appropriate). But the novel is also the opposite of grotesque - cold and realistic, sarcastic and unsatirical at the same time. This is how a person deals with illness in a sick society. This is how sense is achieved in nonsense.

The style ofOmholeis repetitive and disjunctive. Lists and numbers, the sterile language of health and unhealth, the plain language of piss and shit, the dirty words of the body, the ugly and gross, are occasionally marred by incredibly beautiful sentences. Temporary lyricism emerges and then is submerged again beneath the muck of living towards death.

This is an amazing take on the dystopian novel. It’s a movement away from the introspective and contemplative narrative. Ohmholeis visceral and horrifying, tragic, unrestrained. It’s exciting, but in a frightening and terrible way. The closest comparison I can think to make is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but Ohmholemore ambiguous: the world is less certain, there is no clear enemy to avoid, no big disaster to point to as the cause. A different kind of suspense because the violence is more drawn out, less immediately fatal. Which I find is ultimately scarier because it seems so much more likely.

Goddamn. Read it. And it just so happens that it’s currently 25% off at the Bookthug website.

~Claire

11. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

poetactics — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:55:43 -0600

I have a huge amount of admiration for Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing. She is one of very few authors I can think of who can write descriptions of political systems without becoming dry. Perhaps it’s because the writing doesn’t feel overly didactic, or perhaps its because Le Guin is so good at detailing a world through a character’s point of view that the introspection works. The subtitle “An Ambiguous Utopia” is perhaps the most descriptive. Although this book is utopic science fiction, even Le Guin’s utopia reflects the nuances of human social systems. There is no perfection; just people.

I was having a conversation about why I didn’t like the one Game of Thrones book that I’ve read - I found it heavy-handed and boring. I started to think of the ways authors build worlds and expose the political machinations of those worlds; what is it about The Dispossessed that works for me when Game of Thrones doesn’t? A cleaner, more direct writing style is part of it. The depth of the characters is another - an epic with a large cast handles characterization very differently than a book that focuses on one character and explores the world through that character’s relationships. I tend to prefer the latter (in any genre). And even though Game of Thrones has more action, The Dispossessed is less predictable. Action doesn’t always create excitement.

~Claire

Upcoming

poetactics — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:00:00 -0600

So March is nearly over and I’m 11 books behind the pace needed to hit 95 books this year. This will change soon, as I’m halfway through an Ursula K. Le Guin novel, three quarters of the way through Tyler Hayden’s Omhole (can’t wait to talk about this book!), just beginning Carla Harryman’s Animal Instincts, and waiting until I finish some of these to get into some Erin Moure and Juliana Spahr.

I tend to go through reading phases that alternate long periods of not doing much with intense bursts. Actually, this pattern only really established itself while I’ve been in graduate school; before that I was nearly always reading. Since I’ve finished, it’s easier to get distracted. I’m constantly close to my computer which offers short distracting texts. I have no deadlines to compel me to finish reading. But I’m getting bored. I’m ready to start reading challenging texts again; I’m done with the brain candy for a bit.*

That said, I might start including reviews of interesting graphic novel and comics collections, because although I won’t count them towards my total books read, some are just so good that they are worth talking about (for instance, I just finished B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs Volume 3, and wow, what amazing storytelling).

*To clarify, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with brain candy. Fun, escapist books are an important part of literature; I don’t think that they are inferior to other types of literature, just different in purpose. I wanted to make that clear because I am aware that there is an impression that anyone coming from academia must have a bias against genre fiction. If you just look at my reading list, you can see I’m not that person. Good and bad writing exist along the entire spectrum of literature; just because something is considered more ‘literary’ does not mean it is inherently better or worse than any other book. But that’s a post for another time.

10. The Crow & 11. The Singing by Alison Croggon

poetactics — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:37:49 -0600

In The Crow, the narrative shifts to Hem, Maedred’s younger brother. The Singing splits the narrative between the two. I thought the split narrative technique was well used; I didn’t find myself favoring one voice over the other as sometimes happens if there is uneven handling of the characters involved. These books provided solid adventure & a satisfying conclusion to the story. I do think that they are more dependent on serial reading than the first two books of the series; I appreciate when an author does not spend too much time repeating the events of earlier novels in order to catch up the reader.

My major issue with these books was that a number of times words were used in slightly awkward ways. For instance, the word “tryst” typically has a connotation of a romantic rendezvous, and yet it was repeatedly used to refer to a meeting between characters who have a father-son type relationship. I found this pretty jarring.

But otherwise, these were decent examples of the fantasy genre: very readable, consistent characterization, a good dash of heroism, and enough uncertainty to keep the momentum.

~Claire

9. The Riddle by Alison Croggon (Pellinor #2)

poetactics — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:58:57 -0700

This is one of the very rare cases where a sequel is far superior to the first book in a series. The characterization is more consistent and the action has better pacing. Definitely a solid fantasy read, and I think it would probably stand without the first book.

These books start with a cute conceit about how they are a translation of an ancient epic text, and I almost wish that the translator were brought more into the text (through footnoting perhaps) to give the entire novel a more unique take on a common theme.

I’ve already started the third book, so I guess I’ll see if the better writing holds.

~Claire

8. The Naming by Alison Croggon (The Books of Pellinor #1)

poetactics — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:45:52 -0700

The Naming is one of those books that starts off weak and gets better about halfway through. I nearly put it down and didn’t come back to it. One of the most irritating things, at least for me, is that the heroine Maerad begins the novel as a slave, but the book goes out of its way to make sure the reader knows she wasn’t raped. Because it is so important that a heroine is virginal, apparently. Now, I want to make it very clear that I don’t condone rape as a plot device, but this “I could have been raped but I wasn’t because the bad guys thought that maybe I would curse them” doesn’t strike me as a whole lot better.

This is a very typical orphan who seems ordinary until someone recognizes that this underfed teenager is The One who will save the world story. It’s nice to have a story where The One is a girl, but there are other books that do this plot line better.

There are some issues with more telling than showing, particularly with Maerad miraculously and instantly overcoming the physical and mental effects from her years of enslavement until it is useful to mention it again.

But by the end of the novel I was curious enough to borrow the second book in the series from the library. Whether that says more about my standards or the book’s appeal is anyone’s guess. What I can say definitively is that this book falls more into the “borrow from the library” than the “I want to own it to read again” category.

~Claire

7. Unnatural Issue by Mercedes Lackey

poetactics — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:50:05 -0700

I don’t have much to say: Mercedes Lackey writes straight-up fantasy stories. She writes about magic in interesting ways—I do think that the way magic works in this Elemental Mastersseries is pretty interesting. Each mage has an elemental type, and controls power by bargaining with (or if evil, compelling) creatures of that element. Different types of mages have different strengths and weaknesses which relate to the way the elements interact with one another.

I like reading these books as mindless relaxation. There are inconsistencies (really, the woman doctor is the first one who leaves the room at the sight of zombies? Really? As a turn of the century doctor, I’d say she’s probably seen just as bad in the operating room. Also, soldiers are going to bother sending a woman who is serving competently as a nurse home because she’s not qualified? I have trouble buying that given that it’s made clear that the person who is sending her home has a shortage of capable people…). The romance plots are predictable because they are typical idealistic fantasy romances.

There were a few moments in this particular book where I thought things were going to get really macabre (necromancy and WWI battlefields? lots of potential there). But the writing never gets scary, and the descriptions are never really gory or gross. So the creepiness really depends on the reader’s imagination; not necessarily a bad thing in a light read.

~Claire

6. Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

poetactics — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:59:21 -0700

I remember reading Cindy Pon’s first book for the 95 books blog two years ago. This is the sequel to that story, a young adult fantasy set in Xia, a fictional version of ancient China. I had some trouble with the beginning of Fury of the Phoenix because I could barely remember the plot of the previous novel. While this book avoids the boring repetition that other fantasy series often employ, I felt a little lost at times. This is definitely a series that needs to be read chronologically, and preferably without too much time in between readings. The action was well paced and the fantasy elements were enjoyable. I thought it was a bit more predictable than the first book and Chen Yong resolved his family troubles too easily—that plot line could have used more tension between secondary characters.

Still, I would highly recommend this book to young adult fiction readers. Cindy Pon writes in a nice clear style that I find very entertaining.

~Claire

Five for 2012

colinmart — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:46:38 -0700

So, I’m doing the 95 books again this year but have switched to Goodreads for the main event to network the reading with some of the others doing the challenge. I’ll post my list here for those not doing Goodreads (I’m still not completely sold on it, myself - not being able to add books that haven’t been read by others on the site is a drawback for an ephemera geek) but the reviews etc. will be posted there.

The first five for the new year:

1. Natalee Caple: How I Came to Haunt My Parents

2. Mario Goloboff, ed. Burning Reason: Literary Victims of the Military Dictatorship 1976-1983.

3. Janet Giltrow et al. Academic Writing, an Introduction

4. Eden Robinson: Monkey Beach

5. Sarah Orne Jewett: The Country of the Pointed Firs.

~ Colin

5. Down and Derby: The insider's guide to roller derby by Alex Cohen & Jennifer Barbee

poetactics — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:50:40 -0700

This book is a very readable introduction to the game of roller derby. It goes over the sport’s history in a fairly comprehensive way, describes how derby works and briefly explains the rules, and then looks at what it takes to play derby, and the various levels of involvement a person can have with the sport. It even has an appendix with brief discussions of depictions of derby in movies and tv shows, which is a useful feature for folks looking for more information. I would have liked a similar appendix for books and magazines, or even a collection of online resources. My favourite element of this book were the interviews with players, refs, and other notable derby personalities. Those interviews really help to put a face on the sport without falling into stereotypes.

This is not the book to turn to for discussions of strategy or an in-depth breakdown of rules. It’s the basics of derby, explained in a fun and straightforward way. I can see myself giving this book to friends & family who ask ‘what exactly is this roller derby thing you’re doing?”

~Claire

4. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

poetactics — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:02:52 -0700

Good Omens is a lot of fun. The apocalypse is coming, and an angel and a demon decide to work together to try and prevent it. There are old prophecies and new teenagers determining the fate of the universe. The humour is tight, the use of irony really well done (and I am someone who feels irony has become cliche, and too often is a kind of shorthand for the author’s intellectual superiority, or the character’s/audience’s stupidity; it can become cruel or heavy handed so quickly. But that doesn’t happen here, so I digress).

I had strong feelings of Identification with Pepper, a young girl who works very hard to make sure the boys her age accept her as equal. There’s a moment where she tries to pretend she doesn’t play with toy horses. She hides her ‘girly’ magazines and shows off her comic books. In fact, I felt a bit indignant on her behalf. I remember slyly listening to the Spice Girls while publicly ridiculing anyone who had anything to do with them. Same thing: a social pressure to choose ‘boy’ things or ‘girl’ things, and a culture that privileges those ‘boy’ things. Anyhow, while Pepper played the token girl in this group of children, I found her really compelling because of these small moments that showed how hard it can be to fill that role, because it made it clear that being the tough girl is a role and that Pepper has more to her than that. It’s awesome that she’s tough. It’s also awesome that she plays with her stable until it’s worn to bits. It’s also awesome that her name is actually Pippin, because I am the kind of person that would totally inflict that name on a child.

I feel like the authors must have had a good time writing it - there’s a sense of wonder and enthusiasm throughout the book - but it is still very well crafted (there are no jarring jumps in style or awkward transitions that collaborations sometimes contain). Actually, there’s something about this book that makes me think “yes, it would be wonderful to sit down and write a book with someone else,” but that might have as much to do with my current lack of productivity which makes writing something other than my poetry project, anything else, seem like a fantastic idea.

I’m already a Neil Gaiman fan, but I haven’t read Terry Pratchett, and now I think I’m missing out.

~Claire

3. Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

poetactics — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:49:40 -0700

I’ve been hearing about Sara Gruen for a while, and I do like horse books, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Riding Lessons seems like the adult version of the young adult series Thoroughbred by Joanna Campbell - terrible things happen, horse must rehabilitate woman, woman must rehabilitate horse, family farm is put at risk, horse-related crime, and some romantic entanglements to work through for some extra drama.

The most interesting thing about this book is the way it deals with disability. The main character, Annemarie, is injured in a riding accident. There’s some talk that she might be paralyzed, but she’s not. Actually she’s mostly okay until her uterus ruptures during birth, but then she’s still okay. Which makes me wonder about the use of debilitating accident as a plot point: it seems cheap. Actually, it reminds me of the new Batgirl, who was shot by the Joker and spent some time in a wheelchair, but her story begins after she has returned to her previous ability level. There are mental repercussions to deal with, but the physical healing happens mostly off-screen, before the story begins. Then there is Annemarie’s father, who has rapidly progressing ALS. I like his character, and the different ways the family deals with his illness seem pretty likely to me. But again, his illness is a plot point, and the story focuses on the ways that Annemarie fails to address her father’s illness until it is too late. While I don’t think (though opinions on this will vary) that the depiction of disability is particularly troublesome—though not likely, Annemarie’s recovery seems plausible to me, and it makes sense that she is still processing the accident years later—it all feels rather cliché. Especially the resolution.

That said, I read the book in one night. It’s a plot-driven (crisis! another crisis! another crisis!) page-turner. Not sure if I’ll bother with the sequel.

~Claire

2. The Widows by Suzette Mayr

poetactics — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:30:59 -0700

This book is awesome. Three elderly women decide to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel (constructed with the aid of modern science!). The Widows shifts through time between the plummeting barrel and the pasts of the three German women who ride in it.

Apart from a somewhat slow beginning, the action is expertly paced. Suzette Mayr fills her books with dark humour, and constructs characters that break through the mundane to touch a supernatural optimism.

I actually laughed out loud when I read:

“Frau Schnadelhuber is addicted to Clotilde, like cigarettes, like gorgonzola. Gorgonzola the most delicious thing on this intensely troubled Earth and life without gorgonzola would be the same as death.” (207)

Because yes. Exactly.

I enjoy that this book is centered around three elderly ladies, survivors of the World Wars even, but contains unapologetic descriptions of both straight and queer sex and sexuality. These are not the chaste and venerated grandparents that our culture prefers to imagine! This is no Viagra ad either, couched in euphemism and focused on male pleasure. These women, told over and over that they’ve aged into obsolescence, respond in the only way that makes any sense. By pulling off a heist, driving across Canada, and plunging over the Falls.

~Claire

#1. Cold Fire by Kate Elliot

poetactics — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:07:11 -0700

Okay! I’m reviving the 95 books blog for 2012. I have no idea how many books I read in 2011, but now I’m done with grad school and I’ve got a job writing for a neurosurgeon. You can expect to see me review:

-fantasy books!
-poetry!
-books written by people i know!
-the occasional science book!

So to start: Cold Fire by Kate Elliot. This is the second book of a fairly enjoyable YA fantasy series set in an alternate history where Northern Europe is still covered in glaciers, the Caribbean was never conquered by Europeans, and where sentient dinosaurs evolved in North America. The story follows Cat, a Phonecian girl caught up in magical intrigue. There’s adventure, there’s fighting, there’s romance. Cold Fire starts off slow—the first chapter is basically a slightly reworded version of the final chapter of the previous book—but picks up the pace soon after that. It’s a quick read and fairly enjoyable. The plot is fairly conventional, and the world not as exceptional as I would have hoped from series descriptions, but it is great to see someone developing an alternative history fantasy series which isn’t medieval and populated by white Europeans. And Cat is a fairly solid heroine - smart and independent. She’s been trained as a spy, and with the exception of her magic sword, her powers are focused on stealth.

A solid read for people who enjoy the YA fantasy genre.

~Claire

Moved to GoodReads

jonathanball — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:48:13 -0600

I’ve become enamored of the GoodReads site, and so have moved my public reading over there, while taking control of my author page. I’ll post here also, but for my mini-reviews and to see where I’m at, visit my GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/583427.Jonathan_Ball

Up to 60 now, which according to GoodReads puts me 18 books ahead of schedule. Here’s the latest round-up:

51. Dog, cock, ape and viper (Rufo Quintavalle)
52. this is not eden (Tracy Hamon)
53. Spawn: Architects of Fear (Todd McFarlane & Arthur Clare / Aleksi Briclot)
54. Interruptions in Glass (Tracy Hamon)
55. The Dainty Monsters (Michael Ondaatje)
56. The Anxiety of Influence (Harold Bloom)
57. Metropolis 16-29 (Robert Fitterman)
58. The Brave Never Write Poetry (Jones)
59. Metropolis XXX (Robert Fitterman)
60. The Hayflick Limit (Matthew Tierney)

31 – 40 of 95 Books

jonathanball — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:35:00 -0600

My next 10 books in the 95 Books Challenge for 2011:

31. The Inquisition Yours (Jen Currin)

I previously read Currin’s Hagiography, and this book is, to me, a great leap forward for Currin. Her surrealistic imagery seems more anchored and necessary — sometimes in Hagiography I found myself wondering if the poems would be substantively different if their images were interchanged. I met Currin while in Ottawa recently and was impressed with her reading from this book, which further confirmed the grounding these poems have in real emotion — too often, similar poets use surrealistic imagery as a way to escape saying anything of note, as a flight into “quirkiness,” but there’s none of that here.

32. The Invention of Honey (Ricardo Sternberg)

33. Abundance (Robert Kroetsch and John Lent)

34. At Alberta (Nathalie Stephens)

35. Moosewood Sandhills (Tim Lilburn)

36. Willard and His Bowling Trophies (Richard Brautigan)

This book really fizzles near the end, as does Brautigan’s The Hawkline Monster. But because it’s Brautigan, the books is full of intelligence, wit, and great writing. Brautigan is the master of simple, stunning, clever sentences that seem to lie flat but upon closer inspection are full of sadness and satire:

The Logan brothers had a good life because they were doing exactly what they wanted to do and they had their bowling trophies to show how good they were at their life. (51)

Where Brautigan shines is in crafting strange, ambivalent images that don’t reveal the author’s own mind, but thrust forward various conflicting options from which the reader must choose. This is difficult to do well, and Brautigan’s genius is in managing to be noncommittal without bleeding his writing of force. Observe how well he sets up the final image here, an image that sets up two different possible and contrasting comparisons:

They always felt sad after making love, but they felt sad most of the time, anyway, so it really didn’t make that much difference, except that they were no warm and touching each other without any clothes on and passion, in its own particular way, had just crossed their bodies like a flight of strange birds or one dark bird flying. (63)

His writing can even be devastating in its simplicity. Here Constance asks Bob for a glass of water, but Bob can’t do anything right, so he brings her a sandwich:

She didn’t know why she was eating the sandwich. Ever since he had brought her the sandwich instead of a glass of water, nothing seemed to make much difference. (74)

And though it all seems silly (the “Willard” of the title is a papier-mache bird presiding over stolen bowling trophies, the loss of which have driven the Logan brothers near-madness and to a life of crime), the books deepens Brautigan’s obsessive engagement with the myth and meaning of America. Here the ghost of Matthew Brady, who after a brief walk-on role flits out of the novel having done nothing, really:

He disappeared back into the swirls of ghostly time, taking with him a photographic impression of Willard and his bowling trophies to be joined visually with the rest of American history because it is very important for Willard and his bowling trophies to be a part of everything that has ever happened to this land of America. (110)

37. The Productive Writer (Sage Cohen)

38. Erewhon (Samuel Butler)

39. Fear Not (Maurice Mierau)

This is an outstanding poetry collection that you should read right now.

40. How Did You Sleep? (Paul Glennon)

Glennon is one of the best fiction writers in this country, although I prefer his The Dodecahedron. Our grandstanding of inferior artists for the benefit of lazy American readers, at the expense of the visibility of truly excellent writers like Glennon (or the previously mentioned Tony Burgess, to name just two examples) is a national shame.

Jonathan Ball's first 30

jonathanball — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:55:00 -0600

The fact is this, suckers — I don’t have time this year to review all of these books in detail. So instead, I’m mostly just going to list books, with maybe a note or two. But I do plan to write longer, more substantial reviews from time to time — maybe late, maybe never, some of these books will get more substantial reviews, which will show up here as they do. At least three of these books will see published reviews later — when they do, I will link to the reviews, as I’ve now linked the title of Ross’s book to my review in theWinnipeg Free Press.

1. Unclutter Your Life in One Week (Erin Rooney Doland)
2. Getting Things Done (David Allen)

What can I say? New Year’s Resolutions….

3. The Disappointment Artist (Jonathan Lethem)
4. Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (bpNichol)
5. Bardy Google (Frank Davey)
6. Consider the Lobster (David Foster Wallace)

Wallace’s essays are stunning, erudite, funny, poignant excursions into topics as diverse as lobster festivals, porn industry awards, Kafka, prescriptive grammar, and sports autobiographies. As hyped as this book is, it exceeds its hype.

7. The Hunt (Jason Dickson)
8. Fish Bones (Gillian Sze)
9. Update (Bill Kennedy & Darren Wershler)
10. Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg (Darren Wershler)

Don’t take my word for it — George Toles, screenwriter or co-screenwriter of many of Maddin’s movies, and Guy Maddin himself, have praised this book in conversation. In fact, Guy told me a story about being embarrassed to be recognized while buying this book from McNally Robinson. (Although he understood he’d probably be sent a copy, he likes to buy books to support writers.)

11. The Lateral (Jake Kennedy)
12. The European Roots of Canadian Identity (Philip Resnick)
13. Emergency Hallelujah (Jason Heroux)
14. Genesis (Bernard Beckett)
15. The Others Raisd in Me (Gregory Betts)
16. The Book Collector (Tim Bowling)
17. Parse (Craig Dworkin)
18. Execution Poems (George Elliott Clarke)
19. The Lost Books of the Odyssey (Zachary Mason)

If you liked Clockfire, and/or Homer’s Odyssey, then I guarantee you will LOVE this book.

20. The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
21. David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence (Bart Beaty)
22. Ravenna Gets (Tony Burgess)
23. People Live Still in Cashtown Corners (Tony Burgess)

If you aren’t reading Tony Burgess, you are missing out on one of Canada’s best authors, period, not to mention some of the most gripping, experimental horror in the genre.

24. Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (Stuart Ross)
25. Literature and Evil (Georges Bataille)
26. Mother Superior (Saleema Nawaz)
27. The Captain Poetry Poems Complete (bpNichol)
28. Atom Egoyan’s The Adjuster (Tom McSorley)
29. A Lover’s Quarrel (Carmine Starnino)
30. Hagiography (Jen Currin)

Handy Mandy's first 15

jonathanball — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:18:17 -0600

1. The Reef (Nora Roberts)

contains a witch, sex,
shark attacks, pirate’s treasure,
romantic drivel

2/5

2. Congo (Michael Crichton)

well researched story
but the character with the
most depth was the ape

4/5

3. Clockfire (Jonathan Ball)

fun yet scary book
my favourite play was one
called ‘acknowledgements’

5/5

4. A Dry Spell (Susie Moloney)

an intelligent
read, characterization
is top notch, encore!

5/5

5. Child of God (Cormac McCarthy)

a disturbing tale
of a sociopathic
corpse-fucking redneck

4/5

6. Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)

a tedious start
a captivating middle
a heartbreaking end

4/5

7. The Almost Moon (Alice Sebold)

the murder of an
old woman who has shit her
pants does not allure

1/5

8. The Pilot’s Wife (Anita Shreve)

a dead pilot with
two wives and a double life
who would have guessed it

3/5

9. Remember Me (Mary Higgins Clark)

secret passageways
and mental illness do not
a good story make

2/5

10. Hidden Riches (Nora Roberts)

can a romance book
be good with a leading man
named jedidiah?

2/5

11. Cities of Refuge (Michael Helm)

it went on and on
this novel really should have
been a novella

3/5

12. Forgotten (Mariah Stewart)

unoriginal
crappy imitation of
silence of the lambs

2/5

13. Puppet Master (Jan Coffey)

a fast-paced thriller
with too many characters
but quite compelling

4/5

14. Body Movers: 3 Men and a Body (Stephanie Bond)

a witless floozy
fancies herself a private
investigator

1/5

15. Betrayal (Karin Alvtegen)

infidelity
leads to getting in bed with
a comatose mom

4/5

— Handy Mandy

2011 Starting Late

jonathanball — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:54:58 -0600

Ryan and I considered shifting the blog to another site, but have been too overwhelmed with work to do so, or to post, although we are still doing the 95 Books thing this year. I just read book 28 this morning. So this post stands as an announcement that the blog will become active again shortly.

In the meantime, I want to know who has been doing or is doing the 95 Books thing this year. Last year I had a hell of a time figuring out what was happening — who was reading, who fell off the wagon, how many people were even involved, and so on. So I want to post a complete list of those who are engaged in the challenge this year. And I want to know who wants to be added to or invited to this site. And please include your name in your posts.

Who out there has been/is taking the 95 Books challenge this year?

Handy Mandy's 2010 reading list

jonathanball — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:14:14 -0700

Only read 50 books, but didn’t begin counting until July, so not a bad pace overall.

1. Walking Shadow (Robert B. Parker)
2. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
3. ‘Tis (Frank McCourt)
4. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
5. SeinLanguage (Jerry Seinfeld)
6. Bootleg (Damon Wayans)
7. Just After Sunset (Stephen King)
8. The Journey Prize Stories 20 [2008]
9. In the Lake of the Woods (Tim O’Brien)
10. Shopgirl (Steve Martin)
11. In the Heat of the Night (John Ball)
12. Cold Case (Steven White)
13. The Colorado Kid (Stephen King)
14. Magic for Beginners (Kelly Link)
15. House-keeping (Marilynne Robinson)
16. The Collector (John Fowles)
17. Making Light of Tragedy (Jessica Grant)
18. The Partner (John Grisham)
19. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
20. The Lair of the White Worm (Bram Stoker)
21. 20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill)
22. Red Harvest (Dashiell Hammett)
23. Season of the Machete (James Patterson)
24. The Killing Circle (Andrew Pyper)
25. Swim the Fly (Don Calame)
26. The Eyes of Darkness (Dean Koontz)
27. Gods Behaving Badly (Marie Phillips)
28. The Wildfire Season (Andrew Pyper)
29. Letters to Wendy’s (Joe Wenderoth)
30. The Judas Strain (James Rollins)
31. I Am Legend (Richard Matheson)
32. Break No Bones (Kathy Reichs)
33. Beautiful Pigs (Andy Case)
34. Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (Dorothy Gilman)
35. Running from the Law (Lisa Scottoline)
36. When the Wind Blows (James Patterson)
37. Still (bpNichol)
38. The Following Story (Cees Nooteboom)
39. Asthmatica (Jon Paul Fiorentino)
40. Stripmalling (Jon Paul Fiorentino)
41. white (rob mclennan)
42. In the Dutch Mountains (Cees Nooteboom)
43. Baldur’s Song: A Saga (David Arnason)
44. The Associate (John Grisham)
45. Cross Country (James Patterson)
46. Relentless (Dean Koontz)
47. Shutter Island (Denis Lehane)
48. Foreign Body (Robin Cook)
49. The Guardians (Andrew Pyper)
50. Crown Fire (David Annandale)