"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." (Francis Bacon)

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Booked by 3 December: My Answers

Time for my answers.
  1. Have you read any of the top 10 or any from the 100 Notable Books list? I put comments after each title.
  2. Are any of these books on your To Be Read list? Noted after the titles.
  3. Is there any book listed you think shouldn't be a Notable Book or one that you think should have made the cut? I tend to be behind in my reading, and most of the books I read this year were published in previous years, so, no, none I can think of.

ABSURDISTAN
By Gary Shteyngart. Random House.
Don't know it.

THE COLLECTED STORIES OF AMY HEMPEL
Scribner
I don't usually read stories, preferring novels.

THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN
By Claire Messud. Alfred A. Knopf
I'm not sure about this one. The review was interesting.

THE LAY OF THE LAND
By Richard Ford. Alfred A. Knopf
Don't know it.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS
By Marisha Pessl. Viking
This is on my to be read list. As usual, I'm waiting for the trade or mass market pb.

NONFICTION

FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH
A Memoir.
By Danielle Trussoni. Henry Holt & Company
Don't know it, but the title is interesting.

THE LOOMING TOWER
Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
By Lawrence Wright. Alfred A. Knopf
No. I'm freaked out enough about this and don't need to add to my paranoia.

MAYFLOWER
A Story of Courage, Community, and War.
By Nathaniel Philbrick. Viking
Definitely on my to read list. It got great reviews, and the article in Newsweek was most favorable.

THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
A Natural History of Four Meals.
By Michael Pollan. The Penguin Press
Intriguing, but not what I usually read.

THE PLACES IN BETWEEN
By Rory Stewart. Harvest/Harcourt
Don't know it.

Of the 100 Notable titles, I want to read the following:

BROOKLAND. By Emily Barton. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) A tale of 18th-century sisters, one with a dream to bridge the East River.

EVERYMAN. By Philip Roth. (Houghton Mifflin, $24.) A nameless protagonist grapples with aging, physical decline and impending death in this slender, elegant novel.

JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. By Julie Phillips. (St. Martin's, $27.95.) A biography of the complex woman who, as James Tiptree Jr., found in science fiction the perfect genre for telling her own story.

A few of the others sound interesting, so I might pick them up too, once the pbs are published.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Shelly, I'm so glad that you like the title of my book. It comes from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," a line that Alice says as she's tumbling down the rabbit hole.

    all my best,
    Danielle Trussoni, author of "Falling Through the Earth."

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  2. I read Mayflower. Don't read it if you think it will be about the voyage and voyagers of the titular ship. It isn't. I thought it would be and was very disappointed. It's more about the settling of those Pilgrims, primarily King Philip's war, and the succeeding generations of the men and women who came over on the Mayflower. It's very scholarly and not very narrative, but I am a habitual book-finisher, so I read the whole thing, disappointed or not. I like that period of history and teach American Lit, so it wasn't a waste of my time, but I feel the title was extremely misleading.

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  3. Hi, Nance,
    I know what Mayflower is. Newsweek did an article on it and I was intrigued. I just got my copy from Quality Paperback Book Club. I'm looking forward to learning some things we weren't taught in school.

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