All About Books discussion

You can list here what you plan on reading this month.

Here is what I plan on reading:

Fiction:
1. Gioconda 4 stars
2. Salt to the Sea
3. Life is Elsewhere 2 stars
4. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man 2 stars read

Non-fiction:
5. Crazy Brave 2 stars read
6. The Fall of the House of Wilde: Oscar Wilde and His Family
7. Becoming Faulkner: The Art and Life of William Faulkner
8. Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall 4 stars read
9. Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital 3 stars read
10. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World 2 stars read
11.Hitler 4 stars read
12.Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto
13. At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jaspers, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and others 4 stars read
14.Lab Girl 2 stars read
15First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill.
16.1776

Not sure if I can read all of these since my kids and grandchildren will be visiting. What I don't read this month I will read next month. I am kind of fed up with fiction so have chosen predominantly non-fiction.

Sticking in these two freebies from Audible, so I have something to listen to until family arrives for Xmas:

The Most Wonderful Tales of the Year: Holiday Memories Written and Performed by Our Favorite Narrators 2 stars read
The Chimes 2 stars read

Chrissie, that list looks immense and full of interesting books!

I have one major plan for December and that's to finish War and Peace as I've neglected it throughout November to make room for other things.

Pink, it is immense; I didn't realize it was getting so big. Maybe these books will last me for two months, not just one? I also forgot about Christmas... which means less reading time. Yet there is none I can imagine removing, except maybe the first two which I got on special deals at Audible. I don't care about the order, but these are the books I plan on reading next.

Read-a-Longs:
Dante's Paradise
Christine
Ink and Bone

Catch-Up (mostly new releases on hold lists from nov):
Chaos
Archangel's Heart
Shadowed Souls
The Bone Collection: Four Novellas
Curse on the Land

New releases:
Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis
Blood Vow

TBR:
Origin in Death
The Castle in Transylvania

Wow, dec looks busy. (Assuming any of the holds actually come in...)

Chrissie, well it doesn't matter if they take longer, it's good to have an exciting list to look forward to :)

Pink, exactly!

Here's my December reading list:
Holidays on Ice
A Christmas Wedding
Lost December
Christmas in Paris
The Christmas Day Kitten
Corpus Christmas
An Angel for Christmas

There are more, but those are the Christmas titles..

Well I have begun Hitler two days before the beginning of the month. I am bit daunted with it having more than 1,000 pages. Even with a little head-start I am sure the majority of it will be read in December. I thought it was better to list here rather than in November. I am thinking my head should clearer now rather than closer to Xmas.

Chrissie, Hitler looks extremely interesting. I'll be curious to hear what you think of it, once you finish it. I read a book by Ian Kershaw a long time ago... I see now that Goodreads lists it as an Italian edition of Hitler, but I believe it's an abridged one, since it only has 340 pages. However, I found it really interesting and well-written. I might have to look into the unabridged edition one day.

I've just noticed that there is a new Italian edition, out on 13th October 2016. It has 1,727 pages. Perhaps it has a long foreword or something...

My reading plans for December:

The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
I milanesi ammazzano al sabato by Giorgio Scerbanenco (a mystery, no English edition)
Teatro by Barbara Nativi (a collection of plays, no English edition)

I might read:

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 3
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 4

Still trying to finish (perhaps I'll even finish them by the end of November, who knows?):

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume II
The Odyssey

Marina wrote: "I've just noticed that there is a new Italian edition, out on 13th October 2016. It has 1,727 pages. Perhaps it has a long foreword or something..."

The author has put together his two books Hitler, Vol 1: 1889-1936 Hubris and Hitler, Vol 2: 1936-1945 Nemesis. In the introduction which I am currently reading he speaks of the alterations. Basically he is removing copious notes and has shortened a little bit on the general societal situation. He assures that the book is otherwise the same. I am happy that it is the author who has had control of the changes made. He emphasizes that the original two volumes will stay in print so the notes are accessible there.

That's interesting, Chrissie, thanks. You're absolutely right, it's a good thing that it was the author himself who had control of the changes made.

Hopefully, December will see a return to reading for me. I have just purchased both these novels. A puny list that I hope to add to as the month progresses.

Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

Chrissie, I have The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45 by Ian Kershaw on my shelf, so I'll be interested to hear how you like his writing style. I've heard good things about Hitler especially in how it portrays his younger years, not moulding events to fit with what he later became.

Pink, look here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... at my message 3434. I am definitely enjoying the book. So far at least. I have finished up his Vienna years, he left for Munich in 1913, and the discussion has been when and how and where his antisemitism arose. You sit and hear how the author thinks through the different alternatives. VERY clear reasoning; reasoning that makes sense.

i am going to go check out the other book you name. Thank you.

I'm trying to be realistic about what I will read in December. We shall see!

Firstly, I need to finish City of Lions.

Then
Requiem for a Nun, to finish off my 2016 challenge

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man for the group classic read in this group

Far Away and Long Ago by William Henry Hudson. How many months have I intended to read this, and not got round to it? Many, many!

Everybody's Fool, which I'm looking forward to curling up and reading on these winter nights ahead.

Chrissie, I just read your comment on the other thread, it sounds very promising so far, which makes me pleased for you and bodes well for the book I have.

Pink, nice when you have a good book.

Well, I will be finishing up some books from November first:
Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard
Silence
and in audio, The Mists of Avalon

New (to me) in December will be:
Poems by Giorgos Seferis
Death on an Autumn River by I.J. Parker
Phèdre by Jean Racine

and perhaps The Plague by Albert Camus & The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes

Otherwise, I will have to see what appeals to me at the moment.

well a week in my list is here:

but as always it is subject to change based on whim

Finish:
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

Fiction:
Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Non Fiction:
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
The Magnolia Story by Chip Gaines

AAB Group Read:
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson

On going Real Live Book Club:
Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples

I've started Ove, but I don't think I will finish any others. This may be my last of the year... we shall see...

Due to the small list I made, for once I have finished it! I would like to try to read one more by our seasonal author H.G. Wells before the end of the month -- probably Tono-Bungay.

I'm doing OK. I never thought I could read all on my list. Boy, Kundera is always over- the-top, or let's just say different. I am reading now Life is Elsewhere.

Well I have read Snowflower and the Secret Fan and am reading Encounter at Farpoint both of which were challenge books and part of my plan for December.
However I have just received Not My Father's Son so the rest of my December plan has flown out of the window as that book pushes its way to the top of the queue.

Esther, the Alan Cumming book was an eye-opener.

After barely having read a word for a month, I've finally started reading War and Peace again. I'm half way through and I've actually swapped to the audiobook to help me get through it by the end of the year. I'll be happy to make this my last book for 2016!

Esther, so why are you dying to read Not My Father's Son? When people say things I sit over here trying to figure out what lies behind the words. Is it because it is inspiring to read about someone who from the worst of situations rose so high?

Pink and Bette, should I read it? I don't look at TV........so I have a huge hole.

I really enjoyed Not my Father's son. I don't know much of Alan Cumming's work, but I know his face from little bits of film and tv. I particularly appreciated that he narrated his own book, I think this always helps with autobiographies. It's quite grim reading about his family circumstances and relationship with his Father, which is the main focus of this book, but nothing too harrowing. It's also relatively short and quick to get through.

I'll be reading A Dog named Joe by Vincent Price..a copy signed personally by Victoria Price and maybe some random audiobook.

Pink wrote: "I really enjoyed Not my Father's son. I don't know much of Alan Cumming's work, but I know his face from little bits of film and tv. I particularly appreciated that he narrated his own book, I thin..."

Thanks, Pink.

Chrissie, it is a memoir, the focus being Cumming's relationship with his father. You like biographies so you'll probably like this. You might have seen Cumming in The Good Wife tv series.

Bette, I never look at TV, but I am considering the book. Thank you for your help.

Chrissie wrote: "Esther, so why are you dying to read Not My Father's Son? When people say things I sit over here trying to figure out what lies behind the words. Is it because it is inspiring to re..."
The reason is that for years I have seen Alan Cumming on chat shows and in comic bit parts in film and TV and I thought he was reasonably amusing but a lightweight.
And then I saw him in The Good Wife and he was amazing. I became more interested in him as a person and heard that his memoir, unlike so many celebrity memoirs, was really well written.

Esther, thank you for explaining. What I was dreaming up in my head was wrong. I am glad I asked and got it straight. Thank you.

I'll be finishing up Crossing the Horizon: A Novel and listening to The Little Paris Bookshop. Then finishing Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself on audio hopefully also. I'll start Sisters One, Two, Three also maybe.

I've finished December with my only read of the month, War and Peace. I'm glad to have finished and on the whole I really enjoyed it.

I might now squeeze in How Proust Can Change Your Life to get me in the mood for next years buddy read!

Whoo hoo! I got all my dec books read with time for more!

Time to try and get another book or 2 from the remains of my 2016 list read, or from the 2017 list.

Well I finished a few I had not planned on, but it was a good reading month.