Category: Reading

Reading the Best Novel Hugo Nominees for 2016

For the last few years, I’ve paid a supporting membership in Worldcon so that I could nominate and vote in the Hugo Awards.  This year, I actually get to attend Worldcon, since it’s hosted in Kansas City, Missouri this August.   The cost of actually attending MidAmeriCon was quite a bit steeper than the supporting membership, but I’m hoping it will be worth it.  I haven’t attended an SF con since DragonCon five years ago.  So I’m do for some geeky fun.

Best Novel (3695 nominating ballots) (for the rest of the categories, click here)

  • Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
  • The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)
  • The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
  • Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

I need to read four of the above five nominees before the end of July (when voting closes).  I read Ancillary Mercy by Leckie almost the moment is was released (I pre-ordered the ebook).  I’m currently listening to Uprooted by Novik.   I have Aeronaut’s Windlass and Seveneves queued up for listening and Fifth Season is waiting for me to crack open the book if my ears get tired.

You can check my reading progress right here on my blog via the “Currently Reading” widget found in the right-hand pane of this page.

Leckie has set a high bar with her Ancillary trilogy, but only time will tell if Breq will retain my vote.

Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Elva (4 stars)

Excellent book review posted on my uncle’s blog:

Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Marta Elva Four Stars “Tragedy of condemning children to the consequences of their parents’ deeds.” Compelling and heart breaking. An already-fragile family rips apart in the border-straddling communities of El Paso and Cuidad Juarez, isolating its youngest member at a vulnerable time of her life. Inez’s sad tale of paradise […]

via Book Review: American Tumbleweeds by Marta Elva (Four Stars) — As a Matter of Fancy

Abstract Art Juxtaposed With Muralist Book Discussion

Tour for FYI Book Group Saturday 3/19/2016
FYI book group given tour of relevant art by Nelson-Atkins Curator of Modern Art, Jan Schall, Ph.D.

I received an invitation from Kaite Stover, Director of Reader Services for the Kansas City Public Library, a few weeks ago, asking me if I would like to read The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro (also author of The Art Forger) and attend the discussion to be held at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Saturday, March 19th.  I readily agreed because the book sounded interesting and there was the added bonus of a special tour of the Contemporary Art gallery conducted by the curator, Jan Schall, Ph.D. Continue reading “Abstract Art Juxtaposed With Muralist Book Discussion”

In Search Of: An Austen Audiobook

I’m starting a new blog post series today.  I hope to help people navigate the local library’s online catalog and successfully find the items they want to read, listen or watch. For purposes of this blog, I define “Local Library” as the Lansing Community Library, one of the many regional libraries participating in the NExpress regional shared catalog of the Northeast Kansas Library System.

I’m calling this series “In Search Of: ” as a practical guide to finding materials I want to check out.  This series will contain real world examples taken directly from my everyday routine life.  If you have a question, situation or scenario that you struggled with, please post a comment or email me the particulars and I’ll be glad to assist or connect you with the correct library resource personnel.

What I’m Searching For and Why

Today’s conundrum brings us to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.  Next month, my Local Library’s adult book group will be reading and discussing this classic.  My preferred format for reading these days is to listen to audiobooks from my smartphone through my Bluetooth headset while commuting to work.  My two hour daily commute would otherwise be wasted time when I could have been reading!

The challenge with a book like Sense and Sensibility comes from its classic status.  All libraries will have multiple editions, in print, ebook and audiobook formats.  In this case, there are also videos thrown into the mix because Sense and Sensibility has been adapted for television and film many times.  So, when I first search at the NExpress online catalog, I know my results are going to be many and I will need to filter them down to get to the format I prefer.

NOTE: You should already have a NExpress library card and PIN (issued by your Local Library) and have successfully logged into your NExpress account.  This allows you to place a hold on any item you find in your catalog search results and have it delivered to your Local Library and held at the front desk for your pickup. Continue reading “In Search Of: An Austen Audiobook”

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

GoodReads did something interesting today that I’m going to share here.  They created a nifty page that summarizes my ‘year in books’ for 2015.  Here’s the link to what they came up with:

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

But since I stop actually rating books on GoodReads a couple of years ago, the results of somewhat skewed.

To see what I loved in 2015, try this link:

Books I Loved Reading in 2015

To see the books I liked, follow this link:

Books I Liked Reading in 2015

To see the meh and other underwhelming reads, follow these links:

Meh

Disliked or Abandoned

I had to halve my Reading Challenge this year.  Normally I read close to or over one hundred books in a year.  Due to work pressures and family health issues, I had to severely curtail my reading time.  And, these days, I hardly actually read a print edition or even an ebook.  The only time I have to ‘read’ is while commuting (about 90 minutes per weekday) so most of my reading has been audiobooks.  Consequently, I also have not written many book reviews this year.  I just never seem to find the time.  I may write up some mini-reviews, especially on those fiction titles that were released this year and are still making the rounds.

I may finish one or two more books yet before 2015 ends.  I do not plan to change drastically my reading habits for 2016.  Work projects should ease up by February so I may actually get more reading done.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and hope your stockings are stuffed with books.

 

Lansing Community Library Snack & Chat Tonight

http://www.lansing.ks.us/CivicAlerts/#1331_SingleEntryView

The Lansing Community Library is hosting its first “Snack and Chat” on Tues., Nov.3 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Library, 730 1st Terr. This new quarterly event gives community members an opportunity to meet with the Library Board and Director. Patrons can share thoughts, suggestions and ideas.

For more information, contact Lansing Community Library Director Terri Wojtalewicz at 913-727-2929 or by email at twojo@lansing.ks.us.

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I made chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread.

Hope to see you there.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Local Book Club Begins With Banned Book

Last month, my local library, the Lansing Community Library, sponsored a new adult book club.  About half a dozen people met initially to get to know each other, make book recommendations, decide on when to meet and what book to read first.  Since “Banned Book Week” occurs annually at the end of September, at our request, Director, Teri Wojtalewicz, recited a list published by the ALA of the top 100 banned books.  We determined that Sophie’s Choice by William Styron was a book that most of us had not read yet and thus became our first “Book of the Month” read.

On the second Thursday of October, we met again and gathered in a few new readers.  We had a lively discussion, as can be expected from a book that is challenged frequently for some of its content.  Those who had read it in their 20s and re-read it for the group felt like they were reading a different book from what they remembered.  I’ve had that same experience many times when returning to books I read from much earlier in my life.

Other readers mentioned and appreciated the use of music for the emotional apexes and nadirs Sophie experienced.  Another recurring comment involved the writing style of the author (or Stingo, whose life seemed to somewhat mirror the author’s protagonist), which involved the use of large unfamiliar words and incredibly long sentences.  Since I was/am reading the ebook edition, I took occasional advantage of the built-in dictionary available at the touch of a finger.

Continue reading “Local Book Club Begins With Banned Book”

C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937

A world for children: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: or There and Back Again (London: Allen and Unwin, 1937) The publishers claim that The Hobbit, though very unlike Alice, resembles it in being the work of a professor at play. A more important truth is that both belong to a very small class of… Read More »

Source: C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937

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A small early birthday gift to myself on the 78th anniversary of this review, originally published in the Times Literary Supplement (2 October 1937), 714.

Book Review: Clash of Eagles by Smale (3.5 stars)

Clash of Eagles

by Alan Smale

3.5 to 4 stars

Good but not great.

As other reviewer(s) have noted, this ends up being a one-man show almost exclusively – Marcellinus, the Praetor of the XXXIII Legion, marching west across the Appallacians towards the mighty Mississippi years before Horace Greeley penned the phrase “Go West, young man.”  The Romans, and their Norse scouts, encounter various Native Americans with startlingly advanced technology for a stone-age culture lacking even the wheel*.

Marcellinus is the only truly fleshed out character.  All others – Romans, Norsemen, Native Americans – are barely cardboard cutouts in comparison.  Some of the Cahokians, in the latter half of the book, get more interesting, but not by much.

Continue reading “Book Review: Clash of Eagles by Smale (3.5 stars)”

Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)

Testament of Youth

by Vera Brittain

4 out of 5 stars

Read in January/February 2015

Synopsis (via GoodReads):

In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life—and that of her whole generation—had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era. Testament of Youth is Brittain’s account of how she lost the man she loved, nursed the wounded, survived those agonizing years, and emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time. It still retains the power to shock, move, and enthrall readers today.

My Thoughts:

I heard about this book during the inaugural discussion of The Things They Carried by O’Brien last fall.  The professor leading the discussion listed it as one of the better memoirs written post-conflict (didn’t matter what conflict).  Continue reading “Book Review: Testament of Youth by Brittain (4 stars)”