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Personal Reading Goals
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Petra's 100 books in 2009 reading goal
date
newest »
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April 2009
30 Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill (Memoir, aging)
31 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Fiction)
32 Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson (True Crime, reportage)
33 Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (Fiction, saga)
34 Le Bal and Snow in Autumn by Irène Némirovsky (Fiction)
35 Gathering Places ; Balinese Architecture - A Spiritual and Spatial Orientation by Barbara Walker (Architecture, photography, travel)
May 2009
36 Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Fiction)
37 Into the Darklands: Unveiling the Predators Among Us by Nigel Latta (Psychology, true crime)
38 Kangaroo Dreaming ; An Australian Wildlife Odyssey by Edward Kanze (Nature, Australia)
39 Nim Chimpsky ; The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess (Animals, Linguistics)
40 The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction)
41 Drink, Play, ;F*#k A Jilted Man's Quest for Nirvana in Dublin, Vegas, and Bangkok by Andrew Gottlieb (Fiction, parody)
42 From Here to Maternity by Sinead Moriarty (Fiction, chicklit)
43 The Glass Palace ; A Novel by Amitav Ghosh (Fiction, saga)
44 Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult (Fiction)
45 The Silent Gondoliers by William Goldman (Fiction)
June 2009
46 The Baby Merchant by Kit Reed (Goodreads Author) (Fiction)
47 Women in the City of the Dead by Helen Watson (Sociology, Egypt)
48 Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Fiction, Alzheimer's)
49 Academy X ; A Novel by Andrew Trees (Fiction)
50 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (Fiction, holocaust)
51 The Discomfort Zone ; A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen (Memoir)
52 Skin Art by Phillipe de Folco (Photography, tattooing)
53 The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (Fiction)
54 Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, India)
55 Bachelor of Arts by R.K. Narayan (Fiction)
July 2009
56 Anonymous Lawyer ; A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
Petra, I really admire the diversity in your choices of books. You have really inspired me to start thinking outside of the 'aisle' so to speak!Bravo...
Suzanne wrote: "Petra, I really admire the diversity in your choices of books. You have really inspired me to start thinking outside of the 'aisle' so to speak!Bravo..."
Thanks. Having the bookshop, I can buy exactly what I like and call it 'stock' (but then take it home and read it, and no, I never take back books I've read). I've reviewed about 2/3rds of them but getting bored with reviewing right now.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
I've recently got a bit fed-up with books that have disappointing endings - most of Jodi Picoult, both of Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies and The Glass Palace A Novel, and even Narayan's Swami and Friends and Bachelor of Arts. So I was really surprised at the excellent ending of The Dark Room. Narayan can really write characters and I had built up in my mind a full picture of the wife, Savitri, the main character. Nothing she does is a surprise to me, I have every sympathy for her but... I do not know her! The last few paragraphs changed everything I had thought of her, both her place in her society, her religious beliefs and even high-falutin' morals. Such stunning writing!
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan(Fiction, Indian)
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
As always with Narayan, the writing is a joy to read. The prose flows smoothly, the descriptions come to life and dialogue reads as true. I liked the story too (writing about it would spoil it) but the metaphysical aspects were not believable and once I reached that part of the book, it became a bit heavy-going. Some authors, especially South American ones like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Amado, have such a touch writing magical realism that you automatically accept those aspects as credible. Narayan didn't have that ability, and, in an effort to distinguish the dialogue between the living and the dead, he over-wrote the latter's speech which became speech that the character would not have uttered previously when living.
Of the four Narayan books that I've just read in chronological order, this one is by far the fullest, rather than detailing a very small episode in life. However, it is also supposed to be the most autobiographical and given the un-believability of the metaphysical aspects of the story, I can only comment: Really?
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
This little book is full of beautifully-photographed interiors of houses situated by the sea. If you like style books, but not the prices, this book at under $10.00 is definitely one for your bookshelf.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
This book is precious, something special to read. This is the story of a man, Poldek,a victim of the Nazis who was saved by Oskar Schindler and eventually, "California, Beverly Hills" had a very good business in handbags and briefcases. His life's mission was to have a book, then a film, made about his hero and a chance meeting with the Australian-Irish author Thomas Keneally who was looking for a replacement briefcase, brought it about.
Truly its a story of how Poldek introduced Keneally to the great humanitarian Schindler and induced him to write about it. How the two travelled through the US, Europe and Israel putting the book together and how, once it was written, getting it made into a film, a more than decade-long undertaking. As Poldek said right from the beginning, 'An Oscar for Oskar' (with the Booker Prize along the way).
The story of the writing of the book and making of the film is interlayered with Keneally's life in Australia and California and in Eritrea too. The passages where he is both a reporter and later election observer in war-torn Eritrea do have a certain resonance with the main story of the awful inhumanity that was the Holocaust. The book, personalising this period in recent history with names, pictures and the updated, often successful lives of the survivors, makes it more real and more horrific than the pictures of living skeletons and the piles of bodies of the documentaries.
In the book there is a small story of Ralph Fiennes, a fine actor and a man much greater-spirited than myself. Keneally had met him in the bar where the film people were gathered one evening and had signed a book for him. Not knowing that Ralph was pronounced Rafe, he had heard Ray and written the dedication accordingly. Ralph Fiennes said nothing and later, when Keneally found out he went and apologised for his gaucherie. Years ago I had worked briefly for Ralph Fiennes famous explorer cousin, Ralulph Fiennes and when I left he presented me with a book he had signed for me. My name was spelled wrong. I said something...... After all these years, reading the greater generosity of Ralph Fiennes has made me embarrassed all over again.
The book is golden, precious, the five stars I've rated it at need to be golden and twinkling, like beacons in a dark and overcast sky.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (holocaust, history, evil)
I will have to think long and hard about how I am going to review this very unusual book - not just subject matter but the way it is written and laid-out, although it is not in the least bit gimmicky. For now... it was brilliant, it is a lot to think over, it explains, if not excuses, why the Israelis are so very hard on their enemies.
It is perhaps the only book anyone need read to understand the Holocaust and to know that it wasn't over when it was over and that forgiving (and forgetting) one's enemies might be just what they'd been counting on all along.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (holocaust, history, evil)
63 I Remember by Fara Lynn Kransnopolsky (Russia, Jews, history)
The memories of a little Jewish girl growing up in the early years of revolutionary Russia. My family were originally Russian, refugees. I remember my great-grandfather and grandmother very well, so I thought the book would be of interest to me.
The author was the little Jewish girl of the story. Only two facts about Jewish life in revolutionary Russia are mentioned. Firstly, there was a quota for Jewish children in schools and she could only get into a grade two years lower than her age level. Secondly, many Russian Jews supported Germany in WWI saying that it was a cultured country that treated the Jews as everyone else whereas Russia was very difficult for Jews and getting worse. (She doesn't stay so but means with the institution of pograms against them. Pomgroms can be defined as '"riots by an armed mob intoxicated with hatred against helpless people and their property, while the police and the army look on').
The book is very sub-Anne Frank in every way. Its a sketch of a young girl's life in a family without much money and with an absent father. Very little in it is interesting. Perhaps more interesting is that the author, as I read in the preface, despite educational strictures against Jews, graduated in law. She married and emigrated to the US and became a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in Chicago and dance-teacher. I would have liked to have read more about that.
There just isn't enough content in the book to justify a hardback price - or even a paperback one. If you see it on sale for a couple of dollars, it will pass an hour or two for you. But if you are looking for a good book on growing up Jewish in revolutionary Russia, this book wasn't it.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (holocaust, history, evil)
63 I Remember by Fara Lynn Kransnopolsky (Russia, Jews, history)
The memories of a little Jewish girl growing up in the early years of revolutionary Russia. My family were originally Russian, refugees. I remember my great-grandfather and grandmother very well, so I thought the book would be of interest to me.
The author was the little Jewish girl of the story. Only two facts about Jewish life in revolutionary Russia are mentioned. Firstly, there was a quota for Jewish children in schools and she could only get into a grade two years lower than her age level. Secondly, many Russian Jews supported Germany in WWI saying that it was a cultured country that treated the Jews as everyone else whereas Russia was very difficult for Jews and getting worse. (She doesn't stay so but means with the institution of pograms against them. Pomgroms can be defined as '"riots by an armed mob intoxicated with hatred against helpless people and their property, while the police and the army look on').
The book is very sub-Anne Frank in every way. Its a sketch of a young girl's life in a family without much money and with an absent father. Very little in it is interesting. Perhaps more interesting is that the author, as I read in the preface, despite educational strictures against Jews, graduated in law. She married and emigrated to the US and became a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in Chicago and dance-teacher. I would have liked to have read more about that.
There just isn't enough content in the book to justify a hardback price - or even a paperback one. If you see it on sale for a couple of dollars, it will pass an hour or two for you. But if you are looking for a good book on growing up Jewish in revolutionary Russia, this book wasn't it.
Petra, I really enjoy reading your reviews. I have wrote down several I would like to read from your list.
Ann from S.C. wrote: "Petra, I really enjoy reading your reviews. I have wrote down several I would like to read from your list."Thanks Ann. :-)
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (holocaust, history, evil)
63 I Remember by Fara Lynn Kransnopolsky (Russia, Jews, history)
64 Needles A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes by Andie Dominick (Memoir, medical)
This book is exactly what it says it is which is a memoir of growing up with diabetes and is not a memoir in general of Andie Dominick's life, but only where diabetes has touched it. This could have made for a very depressing and disjointed book but the writing is so spot-on - detail where you want it, brevity where an episode is necessarily included but is not interesting in itself that the book is an enjoyable and educational read.
'Educational' because I had thought that diabetes was a matter of insulin injections and balancing the diet. I hadn't really thought it was a tremendously serious systemic disease that needs attention throughout the day, everyday, and will impact just about every aspect of life and can lead to major disabilities and premature death without that constant care. It is to the credit of people with diabetes that they don't foist all that on us and let people happily think they are just like normal but have to stick a needle into themselves a couple of times a day.
I would recommend this book to people who like reading memoirs generally and especially if they like medical stories. No need to have any connection to diabetes to enjoy this beautifully-written book.
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (Holocaust, history, evil)
63 I Remember by Fara Lynn Kransnopolsky (Russia, Jews, history)
64 Needles A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes by Andie Dominick (Memoir, medical)
65 Zelda's Bloopers The Good, the Bad, and the Whatever by Carol Gardner (Humour, dogs)
I don't very often wish for half-stars, but this book falls between 1 star - I didn't like it (I didn't, the text was rubbish) and 2 stars - it was ok (the photography was good).
If you see this book cheap, buy it for a doglover whom you don't love for Christmas, or a gift exchange, or that emergency present you have to have in case someone gives one to you and you hadn't thought of buying them one. Great photography of a dressed-up bulldog or two married with really crap text that isn't in the least bit funny.
There is only one laugh-out-loud picture in the whole book and that is accidental. Two 'in-love' bulldogs, quite naked of clothes, are photographed from the back, full exposure of their assholes beneath their stubby tails. Doesn't say much for my sense of humour, does it?
July 200956 Anonymous Lawyer A Novel by Jeremy Blachman (Legal fiction, humour)
57 The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
58 Bottlemania How Water Went on Sale And Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (popculture, environment, industry)
59 The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan (Fiction, Indian)
60 Seaside Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks (Interior design, architecture, photography)
61 Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally (Memoir, writing, Holocaust)
62 Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel (Holocaust, history, evil)
63 I Remember by Fara Lynn Kransnopolsky (Russia, Jews, history)
64 Needles A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes by Andie Dominick (Memoir, medical)
65 Zelda's Bloopers The Good, the Bad, and the Whatever by Carol Gardner (Humour, dogs)
66 Memoirs of an Arabian Princess of Oman and Zanzibar by Emily Ruete (Memoir, Islam, history, slavery, racism, royalty)
My reading really slowed up as my mum died on Aug. 2nd and I couldn't really get into anything at all for a while. Even now, my thoughts drift off instead of staying concentrated on the book.I like writing reviews but since Goodreads has been forced by Amazon to become what is essentially a shopfront for it, and it alone, no B&N or independent links allowed to be shown on book searches (see the Goodreads blog http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/17...) I don't feel any joy in writing them right now.
I know that everyone has a choice whether or not to buy from Amazon or search for the book elsewhere but if every picture, every title, every author's link is to Amazon, that's facilitating Amazon's business to a great degree. Good reviews that interest people become too much like advertisement copy-writing.
I may continue to write them on Facebook and I may come back to writing them on Goodreads, but not right now.
August 2009
67 Babyface by Jeanne McDermott (Memoir, Apert's Syndrome, baby, birth defects, philosophy)
68 Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology by Paul Broks (neuropsychology, philosophy)
69 The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2 by Jane Poynter (memoir, ecology, science) 5-star book
August 200967 Babyface by Jeanne McDermott (Memoir, Apert's Syndrome, baby, birth defects, philosophy)
68 Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology by Paul Broks (neuropsychology, philosophy)
69 The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2 by Jane Poynter (memoir, ecology, science) 5-star book
70 Brick Lane - Monica Ali (fiction)
71 Bad Science - Ben Goldacre (science, media, health) 10-star book
Not available in the US as books that attack big Pharma, Alternative medicine gurus and sacred cows like the MMR-Autism viral myth get sued just to stop publication even if there is no hope of winning the suit. Not so in the UK! If you are interested in this, you can get it post-free anywhere in the world from www.bookdepository.co.uk. I am probably not supposed to say that since all links to books are supposed to go to Amazon http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/17... since August 15th, but this is an important book and illuminates the part the media plays in the desemmination of truths, half-truths and outright (but very profitable) lies in the medical field and why we are taken in, why the truth is both deliberately and in a very cavalier manner hidden from us by all that stand to make a buck, even peripherally. It also explains, after a fashion, the still-not-properly understood placebo effect and why therapies that can have no possible physical effect whatsoever still work! We are amazing! The book is too.
Suzanne wrote: " You go girl!!!
VERY impressive ..."
Thank you, but what is impressive?
I find your varied choice of topics, your consistency of task, and tenacity, very impressive.
Thank you! This is why I have a bookshop. No money but every book I've ever wanted (including really rare ones, like the Caribbean one below).September 2009
72 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history) 5-star book
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
A slight book, beautifully illustrated and filled with fairly meaningless quotes in interesting typography, all surface, no depth. All in all a very representative book of Warhol.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history) 5-star
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants) 5-star book
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)The poem might not frighten you at all but Basquiat's pictures might. I don't know who wrote the blurb for the book, but the pictures are far from childlike, as anyone who is familiar with Basquiat's art would know. The book is ostensibly a children's book but I bought it as an art book and cannot imagine a child who would actually enjoy these harsh, self-referencing pictures. Basquiat had always lived it up on drugs and alcohol, but limited means bought limited supplies. The bounty that was fame and money from the latest, much-lauded inheritor of Warhol's Factory ethos bought him excess, brought him death.
Its a gentle childlike poem, yes, but its a hell of an art book to own.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
I can see how this book was a successful blog, its more a series of snacks than a grand a la carte meal in a French restaurant. The endless repetition of her hatred for Republicans (if you aren't an American, which I'm not, this doesn't make a lot of sense) and her job (if you've ever been a secretary, which I was, this does) and the use of her favourite words fuck and suck, neither of them used sexually, probably give you the flavour of this slight one-note book. A snarky, sarky, endlessly-whining personality that is amusing to read on a daily blog, gets a bit much in a full-length book. A bit like having to eat all your meals at MacDonalds every day for a week: by Wednesday, you'd long for the week to end.
Julia Child is, for non-Americans, not much more than a name than some people might recognise but the imagined episodes of her life in the book are teasing and delicious, a very unusual woman, far more intersting than the author herself. And in that lies my hope for the author. If she can write this well when not writing about herself, then maybe there will be other, non-autobiographical books to look forward to from her. Meanwhile I look forward to the non-pareil acting of Meryl Streep to illuminate both Julia Child and the film way above the standard of the book.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
77 Coals of Fire by Verna Penn Moll (Technology, Caribbean, Cooking, Anthropology)
This is a wonderful book described the technology of fireplaces for cooking from Siboney Indian times through to present day folk-cooking. Although everyone in the Caribbean now cooks on gas or electric, the few people lucky enough to have a traditional bread oven in the garden do produce superlative bread and cakes. At Carnival time though, out come the coalpots, the kerosene drum barbeques and the latest - cast-off wheels of cars and trucks turned into ovens! The pen and ink illustrations by Joseph Hodge are spot-on. Just the write amount of detail and no romanticised coconut trees waving in the backgrounds. An excellent and informative read.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
77 Coals of Fire by Verna Penn Moll (Technology, Caribbean, Cooking, Anthropology)
78 Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent by David Henry Sterry Goodreads Author (Memoir, sex)
The writing of this book is original and sparkles. Its the only book I've read by a worker in the sex industry that got me inside their head. Its not titillating but doesn't shy away from graphic descriptions. What truly lifts the book is the author's empathy for his clients and the descriptions of some of the most bizarre characters you will ever read about.
I am surprised no one has made a film of it - the story of a middle-class boy, abandoned by his family, at a Catholic college as a heterosexual prostitute who roars around town on a Harley and is rescued, almost, by the love of a good woman is just made for the movies.
Brilliant book. Really a five-star read.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
77 Coals of Fire by Verna Penn Moll (Technology, Caribbean, Cooking, Anthropology)
78 Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent by David Henry Sterry Goodreads Author (Memoir, sex)
79 The Last Jews of Kerala: The 2,000 Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community by Edna Fernandes, (History, religion, anthropology)
I thought that this subject would have benefited by having a non-Jewish author to document the end of a people who had a much-different world experience than any other of these dispersed people. It didn't and obviously her editor wasn't Jewish either. Silly factual errors really rather do spoil a book that has obviously been quite deeply researched.
The premise of the book is that of the several Jewish communities in India, some of which have been there since the time of King Solomon and are documented in the bible, and who have lived entirely peacefully and as equal Indian citizens for thousands of years, are now disappearing because of the racism by the white Jews towards the older community of black Jews in two particular communities - the Jews who live in the state of Kerala.
This part of the book is very interesting. The history of Haile Selassie's visit, the story of the 'kingship' and lands awarded to the Jews, the building of the town by a Rajah, where equidistant from his central palace there were holy buildings of the four religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and the peace with which all four religions coexisted from time immemorial to this day. Apart, that is, from the hiccup when the Portuguese came and conquered Goa after the Inquisition and foisted their particular anti-semitism on the local Jews (including the ones who had fled from the Inquisition) and then the Moors, whose brand of Islam was not the same as the Indian one, and they too were anti-semitic.
The main part of the book concerns the European Jews who fled the Inquisition and settled in India and then rewrote history declaring themselves the original community and that their whiteness proved their religious purity. Religious purity to Hindu India is the be-all and end-all of mortal and immortal life. These Jews tried for five centuries to get rabbis from different countries to lend their stance legitimacy, but failed but still persisted with their devise and revisionist stance. In the end though, they came to see the error of their ways, but by then it was too late. This is all very interesting.
But the whole premise fails because the Jews in these communities are dying and leaving their synagogues as tourist attractions because of the migration to Israel and also by migration to the cities by the young, not for any other reason. It happened in my own community - growing up in the South Wales valleys there were many tiny communities but one by one they have all gone or are dying as the children, myself included, left for the metropolises and Israel. Only the cities have vibrant communities now, in Wales and in India.
The last part of the book concerns the success or otherwise of some of the Kerali Jews who emigrated to Israel. It wasn't well-written, the stories were recited in a somewhat maudlin' fashion and there were factual errors (again!) about the religion. A better editor could have helped Fernandez to write a really cracking book and so perhaps its more the fault of the publishing house than of the author that the book was so flawed. Great cover though, and great cover art is always a plus to me.
September 200972 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
77 Coals of Fire by Verna Penn Moll (Technology, Caribbean, Cooking, Anthropology)
78 Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent by David Henry Sterry Goodreads Author(Memoir, sex)
79 The Last Jews of Kerala: The 2,000 Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community by Edna Fernandes, (History, religion, anthropology)
80 What We Did On Our Holidays by Geoff Nicholson (Fiction, humour) 5-star read.
If you are the sort of person who appreciates the unnecessarily graphic sex and excessive violence that one might experience on a caravan holiday at the English seaside, then you are going to love this black comedy. It makes you want to laugh in a sort of hurhurhur sort of way and snork your coffee through your nose. Dear dear, middleage is a terrible thing!
(Its a mystery to me that anyone could give this book less than 5-stars, but perhaps they have read Diary of a Nobody which apparently spoils this book somewhat if you have.)
I've not been posting - been quite a bit depressed after my mum died and recently I've been very busy buying $8K worth of books for Christmas (that was fun). I think I've forgotten a few books that I read in the UK in Sept. but they couldn't have been very good if I can't recall them now.September 2009
72 Ye Yslands of Enchantment - Norwell Harrigan & Pearl Varlack (Caribbean, history)
73 Style Style Style - Andy Warhol (Art, humour)
74 The Bamboo, Grass & Palm Specialist - David Squire (Plants)
75 Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Maya Angelou & Jean-Michel Basquiat (art, poety)
76 Julia and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (Memoir, cookery, blog)
77 Coals of Fire by Verna Penn Moll (Technology, Caribbean, Cooking, Anthropology)
78 Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent by David Henry Sterry Goodreads Author (Memoir, sex)
79 The Last Jews of Kerala: The 2,000 Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community by Edna Fernandes, (History, religion, anthropology)
80 What We Did On Our Holidays by Geoff Nicholson (Fiction, humour) 5-star read.
October
81 My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar (Biography, History) 5-star read
82 Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica (Memoir, Restaurants)
83 The Food Chain by Geoff Nicholson (Humor, Fiction)
84 Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old Macdonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat by Catherine Friend (Animals, Business) 1-star read
85 My So-Called Normal Life by Erin Zammett (Memoir, Cancer) 1-star read
86 Not in My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy (Pop Culture, UK)
87 Female Ruins by Geoff Nicholson (Fiction)
88 This Year's Model by Carol Alt (Chicklit)
November
89 Looking For Mary by Beverly Donofrio (Memoir, Religion/Cult)
90 My Life in France by Julia Child (Memoir, Cooking) 5-star read
91 Precious by Sapphire (Fiction, Urban Lit) 7-star read (the writing is wonderful)
92 The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure by Adam Leith Gollner (Food, Obsessions, Misc) 5-star read
93 Adventures of a No Name Actor by Marco Perella (Biography, Films)
94 Pop Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones & 'Anonymous' (Pop music, business) 5-star read
95 Still Life with Volkswagens by Geoff Nicholson (Fiction, humour)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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January 2009
1. Flower Confidential; The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers by Amy Stewart (Business, flowers)
2. Alex & Me; How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Dr. Irene M. Pepperburg (Memoir, ethology)
3. Otherwise Normal People ; Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening by Aurelia Scott (Sociology, flowers)
4. Better ; A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande (Medicine)
5. Within These Walls ; Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain by Carroll Pickett (Sociology, religion)
6. Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez (Memoir, foreign culture)
7. Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky (fiction)
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep ; A Medical Mystery by D.T. Max (Neurology)
9. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer (Legal fiction)
10 Alek ; From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel by Alek Wek (Biography)
February 2009
11 My Horizontal Life ; A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler (Memoir, humour)
12 Annie May's Black Book by Debby Holt (Fiction, chicklit)
13 The Dressing Station ; A Surgeon's Chronicle of War and Medicine by Jonathan Kaplan (Memoir, war, medicine)
14 The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes (Memoir, adoption)
15 Nowhere in Africa ; An Autobiographical Novel by Stefanie Zweig (Fictionalised biography, Africa, holocaust)
16 Complications ; A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande (Medicine)
17 Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar ; Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Daniel Klein (Philosophy, humour)
18 Great Big Beautiful Doll ; The Anna Nicole Smith Story by Eric Redding (Exploitative biography)
19 If I Did It ; Confessions of the Killer by O.J. Simpson (True crime)
March 2009
20 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity ; One Season in a Progressive School by Elizabeth Gold (Memoir)
21 Salvation on Sand Mountain ; Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington (Religion)
22 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Prize-winning fiction)
23 ;Call the Midwife ; a True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth (Memoir, modern history)
24 Notes on a Scandal 13258 by Zoe Heller (General fiction)
25 Fragments of Isabella ; A Memoir of Auschwitz by Isabella Leitner (Memoir, holocaust)
26 Seal Doctor by Ken Jones (Animal rescue)
27 No Angel ; My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels by Jay Dobbins (Memoir, True Crime)
28 Rumspringa ; To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Schachtman (Religion)
29 This Child Is Mine ; A Novel by Henry Denker (Legal fiction)