Weekly Geeks 2009.26: Where in the World Have You Been?

For Weekly Geeks this week, we are asked to think about the places books have taken us. Fun fun assignment I'm thinking.... except for one thing... I just know I'm not going to remember all the places I've traveled through books, and it's going to make me crazy! But... I'll try my best.


China

The Good Earth
Sun Flower and the Secret Fan

India

A Fine Balance
The Far Pavilions

Russia

Anna Karinina
Fathers and Sons

Afghanistan

The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Egypt

The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Germany

The Book Thief
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Ireland

Circle of Friends
Quentins

Italy

Galileo's Daughter
Angels and Demons

Scotland

Outlander

Holland

Girl With a Pearl Earring
Diary of Anne Frank

Africa

Cry the Beloved Country
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Romania

The Historian
Dracula

France

The Scarlet Pimpernel
Les Miserables

Greece

Pompeii
Nights of Rain and Stars

Australia

The Moon Below
Magic or Madness

Mexico

All the Pretty Horses
100 Years of Solitude

Canada

Anne of Green Gables
The Blind Assassin

USA and England

tons and tons and tons!

Okay, well. Not too bad, but I know I've had to have read something about Japan, and South America! So which ones did I forget?




create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Booking Through Thursday: Unread

Booking Through Thursday

An idea I got from The Toddled Dredge (via K for Kat). Here’s what she said:
“So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’

Several times I've posted the picture of the shelf by my bed that holds most of my TBR books waiting to be read. So instead of posting that again, I'll attempt to write a little list of what's currently on that shelf:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Fablehaven #3 by Brandon Mull

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

Marley and Me by John Grogan

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vvonnecut

Oil by Upton Sinclair

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

The House of the Spirts by Isabel Allende

Hide and Seek by Wilkie Collins

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks

Clapton by Eric Clapton

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Peony in Love by Lisa See

Okay, okay. I'll quit now! But as you can see, I don't really need to be buying more, checking out more, or listening to any of you suggesting more! But what's the fun in that? You know I'll never stop doing any of those things, so on with the huge TBR!

Blog Post Bingo Take Two

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness is having another round of Blog Post Bingo as part of her wonderful Blog Improvement Project. Last time I had a blast with this, and even won the $10 Amazon gift certificate! So, of course, I'm doing it again. Here's the list of posts I will try to fit in during the next couple of weeks, as explained by Kim:

A Link Post – share link (or series of links) your readers might find interesting
A Short Post – less than 200 words
A List Post – simple as it sounds, a list of some sort
An Opinion Post – take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it
A Poll or Question Post – post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback
A How-To Post – You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it
A Long Post – more than 700 words
A Review Post – self-explanatory, I think :)
A Definition Post – show your expertise about a topic related to your blog
NEW: A Personal Post – something that’s going on in your life, related to your normal blog topic or not
NEW: A Resource Post – you know a lot about something, share the sites/books/tutorials you go to on that topic. This is similar to a link post, except these links should be related in some way and be useful for other people who want to know about the topic.
FREE SPACE – a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts)

Wish me luck! And if you have any suggestions for me for a certain kind of post, please speak up and let me know!

Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

Book: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: A-

For: Fun

I'm not sure where I was when this book, and it's series, made their debut... worrying about other things I guess. But lately, I've sure been hearing a lot about them, so better late than never I say.

This is one of those fantasy series with an immense background history, a whole new world of people, places and problems. Because of that, there was a lot of set up going on and it took me awhile to get into it. Even though this is a YA book, much of this background and names and such were quite complicated for me and made my head spin. But I imagine it's like most fantasy books where once you get going, it all comes together and makes perfect sense.

Basically, it's about this young boy who is destined to save the world. He doesn't know it yet, of course. He thinks he's just an orphan with not much knowledge about his family. He's been raised by someone he thinks is his aunt, but come to find out, she's not at all who she appears to be.

This book actually ends just as things get going, and he starts figuring out that there's much more to his life than he thought. I look forward to continuing with the series.

The author of this series recently died and I love this overview of his work done here by Heather J. I also love the contagious enthusiasm my friend Julie shows for this series.

Some other reviews and tributes:

Adventures in Reading

Fantasy Book Critic

Jandy's Reading Room

Random Reading

Review: And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

Review: And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

Genre: Romantic mystery with an historical feel

Rating: B+

For: F2F Book club

For our summer project, my F2F book club decided to read a series of some sort. Awhile back, I asked for suggestions here on the blog and got a bunch of great responses. So anyway, we settled on the Lady Emily Ashton series, one that I'd never heard of, but which sounded quite intriguing.

So I got this, the first one of the series, read a week or so ago, and liked it okay. It didn't blow me away or anything, and I'm not running for book 2, but will read it if I can get to it!

It's about this young girl widow. Her husband dies shortly after they get married, and she hardly knows him. In this book, she learns about him and all the crazy things he was up to. When he was alive, she didn't think much of him, but after he dies and she starts learning about him, she falls in love with him a bit too late! Luckily, he has a nice friend who is very much alive and helps her solve this mystery that her husband was all mixed in.

The book is fun because it takes place in England in the late 1800's and revolves all around art and it's interesting aura. My only problem with the book was that I wanted a little less plot, and a little more character development. Or something. Actually, it's one of those things I can't quite put my finger on as to why I don't give it an A rating. But still, it was fun!

Other Reviews:

What Kate's Reading

Dear Author

Angieville

Library Queue

The Sunday Salon: So Far This Year

Welcome to July and the 2nd half of the year! Here's a six month wrap up of my reading this year.

This year so far:

I've read 40 books.

27 of those have been YA books.

Most of those have NOT been challenge books, but have been "for fun" or spur of the moment books.

None of them have been NF books.

It appears I'm going down the very same path I have the last few years! Surprise surprise.

If I made a Top Ten of the year so far, here's what would make the cut:

Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

The Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Just One Wish by Janette Rallison

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton

Last year at this time:

I had read 53 books. I was in the process of discovering Jessica Day George, J. Scott Savage and Janette Rallison. I was currently reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. I had just finished An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and The Last Lecture by Randy Paush, both of which ended up on the Top Ten list of the year. I was blogging about Favorite Literary Couples, which has continued to be one of my most popular posts since!

My ongoing goals for the rest of this year:

Read more classics.

Finish War and Peace.

Read more NF.

Read some Printz winners/honors.

Work on the TBR at my house and not add to it!

HEY! Did you know I'm trying to create a library corner at my house? Yes, I've cleared out the barbie house, the Xbox junk and other toys, and made a corner in the basement where the plan is to put some more book shelves. Next on the list, paint. Then the shelves after that. I hope it turns out how I envision it. We'll see. I'll post pictures when there's something picture worthy to post!

And so far today, I've read absolutely nothing! So, I guess that means it's time to get off and get reading.

Review: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Book: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Genre: Literary Fiction

Rating: A+

For: Fun

I've been wanting to read this book for quite some time, despite the fact that it's an "Oprah" book. I'd heard all the rave reviews and all the buzz and talk last year. But it's such a BIG book! And then there were those few reviews were people were saying, "But it's boring!!" And so when I got it for birthday many months ago, I didn't pick it up right away. I was scared basically. I wanted to really like it, but I was worried I wouldn't.

Well, this past month I started feeling guilty about ignoring it for so long, so I decided to make it be my treadmill book. From the very first chapter I was hooked! Why in the world did I wait so long to read this one!! Anyway, I left it on the treadmill for awhile figuring the book waiting for me was good motivation to walk. But last weekend, as I mentioned before, I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to just read it and finish it.

Yet, it's one of those books that, for me anyway, I didn't want to end, but I couldn't stop reading it either. So it was a bittersweet weekend. Wow, I loved it

As many of you know, it's based on the story of Hamlet, which, if you're like me, won't mean much since I'd totally forgotten the details of Hamlet. It's the story of a 14 year old boy, Edgar. From the time he is born, he isn't able to cry or talk. His voice does not work. So he learns sign, and observes the world. He lives on a farm with his parents who raise a special breed of dog called Sawtelle dogs. There are wonderful descriptions about the dogs and how aware they are of what's going on around them, and how in tune they are with their humans. People pay big bucks for their dogs.

So Edgar's life is quite happy with his mom, his dad and all the dogs. Then one day, his wayward uncle shows up and lives with them for a time. Things start getting a bit heated between the uncle and his dad. Life starts becoming a little more stressful and not going so smooth. So then, if you know the story of Hamlet you know what to expect, but if you don't, I'm not going to spell it all out! Just read the book!

I know some people have a hard time with the book because of the long descriptions, but this is one reason why I loved it. The barn, the dogs, what's going on in Edgar's mind, the forest, the storms, the light.... everything! I loved it. It was like I was totally there.

I also fell in love with all the characters, dogs included. (And I'm not at all a dog kind of person.) There were many deeply moving scenes that brought me to tears several times. I have a feeling this one will be one I'll want to re-read over the years to come.

I didn't watch any of the stuff about this book during it's Oprah stint. But just today, I discovered all that is still online if you are interested. I love hearing this soft spoken author explain how things came about. Also, here's the main site for the book. And I love what Stephen King has to say about it: "I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. In the end, this isn't a novel about dogs or heartland America, it's a novel about the human heart and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate.... I don't reread many books because life is too short. I will be re-reading this one."

Other Reviews:

Words N' Wags

I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book

The Magic Lasso

Worducopia

The Dashner Dude