Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Oh my is it really that time again already.
Great pick Lauren

Let's see what you guys are thinking of reading for June
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/w...

Great pic, Lauren.

Here are mine choices:

The Book Thief
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Frozen Assets
The Shadow of the Wind

Think I'm going to start with some of the TBR's I have on my shelf already:
Night
A Novel Bookstore
Peony in Love
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Jar City

The Book Thief is amazing. :)

I'll be reading The Blood of Flowers.

I enjoyed the book thief, but I didn't think it was soo amazing (but I think i'm one of the few...lol!)

I narrowed it down to the ones below and my library has all of them, so it will probably be based on what is available:
Purple Hibiscus
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Baking Cakes in Kigali
News of a Kidnapping
The Dogs of Riga
The Map of Love
The Farming of Bones

and they are all set in countries that I haven't hit for my around the world challenge yet (now to see which ones I can fit into my other big challenge that starts in june)

Dee wrote: "I enjoyed the book thief, but I didn't think it was soo amazing (but I think i'm one of the few...lol!)

I narrowed it down to the ones below and my library has all of them, so it will probably be ..."

I Loved The Cellist of Sarajevo! Hope you enjoy it too!

Awesome shelf choice! I've started, but have had to set aside Les Misérables so it will be a perfect time for me to pick it back up to finish! I'd also like to read Anna Karenina. Shogun's been on my TBR list forever, so in my dream world I'd get to it too!

Having a look at my TBR and the books I already own, I've shortlisted the following...

One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Alchemist

I just looked at my TBR list and found that I have these options:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Alchemist
The Book Thief
Les Misérables
The Shadow of the Wind
Memoirs of a Geisha
A Novel Bookstore
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Snow Flower and the Secret FanCutting for Stone

And that is just from the first 2 pages of the list!
Oh, my! The problem will not be to find a book but rather to choose which book!

Since Les Miserables and Memoirs of a Geisha have been on my TBR list for a while, maybe I can start by working on them.

Dee wrote: "I enjoyed the book thief, but I didn't think it was soo amazing (but I think i'm one of the few...lol!)"

You know what they say about different strokes! :) A coworker of mine can't get into it and I told her to chuck it if she's not enjoying it. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy!

Oh I have The Alchemist on audiobook! Maybe I should try to fit that in too!

I liked it, I just didn't love it (does that make sense?) - maybe because to me he attempted to non-demonize the german people during the holocaust and the fact that a lot of them knew what was going on and did nothing...there is that one scene that really po'd me

D.G. ~Saucy Vixen~ wrote: "Dee wrote: "I enjoyed the book thief, but I didn't think it was soo amazing (but I think i'm one of the few...lol!)"

You know what they say about different strokes! :) A coworker of mine can't get..."

I'm going to use this as a push to finally read The Name of the Rose, which I've been meaning to read since it was published. You know, in the 1980s.

Lyn M wrote: "Great pic, Lauren.

Here are mine choices:

The Book Thief
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Frozen Assets
The Shadow of the Wind"

Sis- I lOVED The Book Thief and I also really liked The Shadow of the Wind (I thought the ending was a little weak, you'll have to tell me what you think).

Going to the library today to see what I can find. I have a looooong list to look for!

Dee wrote: "maybe because to me he attempted to non-demonize the german people during the holocaust and the fact that a lot of them knew what was going on and did nothing...there is that one scene that really po'd me "

I actually liked that about the book. After all, we cannot say that 100% of the German people knew what was going on or that even if they knew, they were in a position to do anything. The whole German population will probably carry that stain for the rest of history but even if half the people knew and did nothing, I don't know that it's fair to blame the other half.

I think most of us would like to think that we would do something if we had a chance to stop something like that but I wonder how many people would truly choose torture or death for themselves and their families to save others. I think most people could choose to sacrifice themselves but their children is another kettle of fish entirely.

trying to write this without spoilers...lol! the one scene that made it clear that people knew, is the one that irked me...we'll never know how much of the population knew or didn't know...but how do you explain people disappearing and never coming back...they had to know something was going on, even if they didn't know what exactly

Yes, but my point is what could they have done about it? Go to the Police and complain? Even the Jewish people didn't know what was going to happen to them, that's why they left with so little resistance. And the authorities could have said all sorts of things about what they were doing with the Jews (sending them to Poland, the Sahara, Alaska, whatever) and nobody would have known differently.

After all, the US did the same thing to Japanese Americans during WWII (sent them to concentration camps) and most likely nobody from the general population complained or even cared. We could have been murdering them left and right and nobody would have known anything.

i know and that area of history is so understudied it isn't even funny...you can say the same with putting the native americans on reservations...

So true!

Talking about the Japanese "internment" (that's how they call it, LOL, not concentration camps), have you read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet? It's very good.

I haven't but its on the list

D.G. ~Saucy Vixen~ wrote: "So true!

Talking about the Japanese "internment" (that's how they call it, LOL, not concentration camps), have you read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet? It's very good."

Love, love, LOVE Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet!!! I had no idea the US had done that until I read the book. (History has never been my strong point!)

there is actually a danielle steel that I read as a teen which taught me about it (whoever said you didn't learn anything from romances!) - I think it was Silent Honor

Dee wrote: "(whoever said you didn't learn anything from romances!)"

LOLOLOL, Dee! Best line I've heard today!

I really want a t-shirt that says that...or everything I learnt in life I learnt from reading romance...hehe!

LOL, that's even better!

maybe we can do it through cafepress...anyone interested?? lol!

Dee wrote: "there is actually a danielle steel that I read as a teen which taught me about it (whoever said you didn't learn anything from romances!) - I think it was Silent Honor"

I read that one, too, Dee and thought it was great. I have actually been to Manzanar to get a feel for where they were and all.

Okay...further proof that this group is awesome...you guys have gotten me to add a Danielle Steel book to my TBR! Next time we get a "romancy" shelf I AM READY!

I posted this in the wrong thread the first time so here are my possibilities.

Okay here are some I will be choosing from depending on what I decide on for other challenges:

Like Water for Chocolate
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Inheritance of Loss
Reading Lolita in Tehran
A Fine Balance
The Twentieth Wife
The Cellist of Sarajevo
and many more I'm sure....

I will be reading :
Children of the alley - Naguib Mahfouz
and
The Trial - Franz Kafka

And it so happens, that I am reading a Dickens and The Pillars of the Earth, but I will not finish them in time for the challenge... :)

Julia wrote: "I selected A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, read it and didn't like it. So, now I'mm choosing something else. Maybe, The Cellist of Sarajevo"

I thought The Cellist of Sarajevo was incredible. It would be a good choice IMHO.

This is a good shelf - plenty of variety but not too daunting. I'm currently looking at -
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Winter in Madrid
Seeing
Of Love and Other Demons
Interpreter of Maladies
Empress Orchid
News of a Kidnapping
The Indian in the Cupboard
Othello
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Caddie Woodlawn
and
The Tale of Genji

I am looking at -
The Shadow of the Wind
Daughter of Fortune (I have yet to read any of hers)
The Phantom of the Opera (finally)

I wanted to list Baltasar and Blimunda but it is on the world-literature shelf not the world-lit shelf, sigh, maybe next time.

I would also like to read some Jorge Luis Borges and some Paulo Coelho if I can find some.

Okay I FINALLY got to the library yesterday and here is what I picked up for World Lit:

Dubliners by James Joyce (which also counts as short stories, yay!)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (which I couldn't find on the shelf, but someone else counted it so I am too!)
and I broke down and bought my first book of the year (everyone gasps) The Housekeeper and the Professor which I have started and looks to be a 5* read!!!!!

THe rest of the books I was looking at all turned out to be very heavy reads, not what I am in the mood for during the first month of my summer vacation. I checked out a bunch of fun reads instead...a pope murder mystery/thriller and a Domminick Dunne. YAY, summer!

the housekeeper and the professor is cute...it sort of reminded me of 50 first dates with adam sandler for the amnesia story line...but his memory is even shorter

Lynne wrote: "Okay I FINALLY got to the library yesterday and here is what I picked up for World Lit:

Dubliners by James Joyce (which also counts as short stories, yay!)
[book:Hotel o..."

What Dominick Dunne did you get? I thought you had read them all. Lol

KarenF wrote: "I'm going to use this as a push to finally read The Name of the Rose, which I've been meaning to read since it was published. You know, in the 1980s."

Karen,
I did the same thing just a few months ago, when medieval came around. And I'm really glad I did. Hope you enjoy it. It took me a bit to get into, and sometimes I could've done without Eco's long-winded descriptions of things, but in spite of that, I really loved it.

nsfancy wrote: "I am looking at -
The Shadow of the Wind
Daughter of Fortune (I have yet to read any of hers)
The Phantom of the Opera (finally)

I wanted to list [book:Balt..."

A number of Borges' short stories are available free digitally, if you have an ereader or are willing to read at your computer. And I highly recommend anything you can get by him. He's one of the few authors whose works I go back to re-read again and again.

nsfancy wrote: "I am looking at -
The Shadow of the Wind
Daughter of Fortune (I have yet to read any of hers)
The Phantom of the Opera (finally)

I wanted to list Balt..."</i>

For Coelho, I recommend [book:The Zahir

Here are some I'm considering:

Echoes from the Dead
The Handmaid's Tale
The Shadow of the Wind
The Invisible Bridge
The Complete Persepolis
The Angel's Game
The Zookeeper's Wife

Amy wrote: "Here are some I'm considering:

Echoes from the Dead
The Handmaid's Tale
The Shadow of the Wind
The Invisible Bridge
[book:The Complete Persep..."

That's great list. I've read all but the first one (which is now on my TBR list, thank you), and they are all very good.

Thanks, Lynn. Can't wait to get started!

I forgot to put The Bridge of San Luis Rey on my list the other day because I left it at school.

Lyn M wrote: "Lynne wrote: "Okay I FINALLY got to the library yesterday and here is what I picked up for World Lit:

Dubliners by James Joyce (which also counts as short stories, yay!)..."

I found Too Much Money: A Novel at the library and when I read the dust cover it didn't sound familiar. Maybe once I get into it I will realize that I have read it before, but I hope not.

Amy wrote: "Here are some I'm considering:

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story"

LOL. I just finished telling my husband that I seem to be drawn to WIFE stories as I have these books:

The Pilot's Wife
The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder and Survival in the Amazon
Pilate's Wife

and have on my TBR
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Paris Wife
The Pony Wife
The Tiger's Wife
The Traitor's Wife

and now The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story!

What I already own and PROBABLY should read:
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Anna Karenina
Don Quixote

Otherwise:
The House of the Spirits

Really...that's all I can come up with right now! I'll probably think of others later.

I'll try and read some of these:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

This month was a hard one to narrow down what I wanted to read. I have come up with this list that I'll pick from:

Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Jane Eyre
Life of Pi
Like Water for Chocolate
War and Peace

These have been on my list forever and think this is the perfect time to finally read them.

Lynne wrote: "Lyn M wrote: "Lynne wrote: "Okay I FINALLY got to the library yesterday and here is what I picked up for World Lit:

Dubliners by James Joyce (which also counts as short ..."

Nope, you haven't that is the newest one. Came out after he died in December 2009, I think. I have it, but havn't read it yet, which is why you haven't gotten it yet, lol.