I won an award!

  What a pleasant surprise this morning to see that I received this One Lovely Blog Award from Judith at leeswammes.  The rules for accepting this award are: 

     1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

     2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.

     3. Contact those blog owners and let them know that they’ve been chosen.

  Wow, I'm not sure I can come up with 15 bloggers but here is my list to whom I am paying it forward: 

• Sophisticated Dorkiness
• English Major's Junk Food
• My Reader's Block
• Curled up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea
• Coffee and a Book Chick
• BookNAround

  Please check out these interesting blogs if you haven't already done so!

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse

  The premise of A Novel Bookstore is a book-lover's dream -- two bibliophiles decide to establish a bookstore in Paris that sells only "good" novels as selected by a secret committee of eight literary figures.  It is a great success -- book lovers flock to The Good Novel to find quality literature that is seemingly lacking in other bookstores.  However, someone has it in for the venture; writing op-ed pieces denouncing the store's elitist attitude, exposing the owners' secret and not-so-secret pasts.  Three of the committee members are then attacked, and the fate of the bookstore is called into question.

  Unfortunately, the mystery of the attacks (and a weak romance) doesn't do much for the story, which otherwise is a great celebration of books and reading and their positive effects:

You have just confirmed to me that one of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking.

  The city of Paris also shines in this novel, and if I didn't already have an intense desire to make a return visit, I would definitely have it after reading this. 

  I have to say that I am a big fan of the book's publisher, Europa Editions.  This is the third book I have read from their catalog (The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Gourmet Rhapsody, both by Muriel Barbery, are the others) and I have several others on my to-read pile.  I love that they are providing American readers with European literature in translation.  It would be great to be able to read these books in their original languages, but Europa Editions provides us with an acceptable alternative.

(ps I've purchased their books on my own)

Top Ten Tuesday -- Favorite Authors

  Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created  at The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's question is to list your top 10 favorite authors.
  
  My top 10, in no particular order, along with my favorite work of each, are:

• Margaret Atwood  (The Handmaid's Tale)
• Jennifer Weiner    (Good in Bed)
• Andrea Levy         (Small Island)
• Rohinton Mistry    (A Fine Balance)
• Bill Bryson           (Neither Here nor There:  Travels in Europe)
• Sophie Kinsella    (Twenties Girl)
• A.J. Jacobs       (The Guinea Pig Diaries)
• Khaled Hosseini  (The Kite Runner)
• Nick Hornby    (How to be Good)
• Kate Atkinson  (Case Histories)

  The list seems to change periodically, though, as I discover new and new-to-me writers.

It's Monday -- What are You Reading?

 

  It's Monday - What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at bookjourney to allow us to share with others in the book-loving cyberworld what is on our reading plates.

  This week, the only book I finished was A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse.  I abandoned Freedom after 20 pages because it just wasn't doing anything for me.

  Books in progress:

• Emma by Jane Austen
• Mary Tudor:  Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock
• Parrot & Olivier in America by Peter Carey

  The latter part of the week was slightly tumultuous for me.  An employee's domestic situation brought itself into my workplace and somehow my office (and a few others) was targeted.  I arrived at work on Thursday to find that my desk had been trashed with equipment overturned and just about everything else scattered on the floor.  Thankfully nobody was physically injured and the property damage was minimal, but it was still a scary situation -- you know it wasn't something personally directed at you, but it feels that way nonetheless.  Hopefully this week will be less dramatic.

October's Reading List

    For Reading Groups:
                 Emma by Jane Austen
                 Where Men Win Glory:  The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer (I've already read this, so I'm not sure if I will re-read)
                 The Island at the Center of the World by Russel Shorto

    Other:
                 Anton Chekhov:  Early Short Stories 1883-1888 (I received a book for review called Celebrity Chekhov by Ben Greenman and since I've not read any Chekhov stories I thought I'd better start with them)
                 Parrot & Olivier in America by Peter Carey
                 The Debba by Avner Mandelman

   I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but I'm really going to try hard to not buy books this month.  I don't know when I'll have time to finish all of the books I already own, so I need to seriously work down that pile first.  People -- hold me accountable!
   

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  This week's beginning comes from A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse:

One could hardly say that Paul Neon's disappearance caused a stir in the canton of Biot, where he had apparently settled for good, nor in Les Crets, the scrawny village where he inhabited the very last house.

  This sentence provides a mysterious beginning to the book:  why wouldn't his disappearance cause a stir?  Who is Paul Neon?  It also sets the scene - for the moment in the French countryside.  It doesn't give any indication, though, why the novel might have been given its title -- another mystery (for now).

Ulysses Wednesday #16

Welcome to Ulysses Wednesday, where I track my progress reading James Joyce's tale of a day in the life of Leopold Bloom.


Status:  I AM FINISHED!  (Sound the chorus)


  Yep I am done!  I finished Molly's chapter/episode in one (long) sitting and though it was challenging I have to say that this part was the most interesting to me.  Molly is a saucy one, and in talking about her various conquests it was difficult to determine who it was she was talking about -- Bloom, Boylan, or someone else.  I would have liked to read more about Molly, as she was definitely a character

  Overall I can't say that I loved Ulysses, or even liked it very much.  It is not a novel that one can simply pick up and read whenever there are a few spare minutes (though apparently it was a popular read for train commuters);  it requires concentration, not to keep up with the plot (which I don't think exists), but rather to keep up with Joyce's style changes and his use of language.  If anyone is stupid  brave enough to try this novel, I'd recommend that you find an annotated edition -- my copy was not and I know I could have benefited from some background information.

  So I'm going to take a break from the weightier classics for now, but in November I will probably begin reading War & Peace which my classics reading group will be discussing in January.  Have any of you read this one?  Am I giving myself enough time to read it?  I haven't decided if I will blog about my progress through this one -- if I do, will anyone join me?

  And by the way, thank you to everyone who have left encouraging comments throughout my slog through Ulysses.  I was doing this for my own satisfaction (ultimately, though, not enjoyment) but it was nice to see that there were people paying attention along the way.