Nessa's Reading Room

Book Review – Infinity: Chronicles of Nick

2010-09-24T18:58:00.000-04:00

Infinity: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of my most favorite authors. I have read ALL of her books and can’t wait for the next one to come out.

She is a series author and has created several fantastic worlds. She lists them in reading order so it’s easy to keep track of where you are in each series. Her Dark-Hunters series is my favorite and the most popular. Infinity is the latest in this series.

These books are great for both men and women. They are packed with history, myth, fantasy, sex, evil, love, war, and searing inter-personal and internal conflicts.

Start at the beginning and enjoy hours and hours of non-stop fun.

From the website:

The world of the Dark-Hunters is unlike anything you've every seen before. It's dark. It's gritty. It's dangerous...

And it's a whole lot of fun.

My name is Nick Gautier and this is the story of my life.

First off, get the name right. It's pronounced Go-shay not Go-tee-ay or Goat-chay (that has an extra H in it and as my mom says we're so poor we couldn't afford the extra letter). I'm not some fancy French fashion designer. I'm just a regular kid... well as regular as someone with a stripper for a mother and a career felon for a father can be.

But as my mom so often says friends are what God gives us to make up for the families we're born into. And my mother, in spite of her occupation is a lady and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. Consider this your notice. You respect Cherise Gautier or I'll learn you better.

I give all of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books 5 out of 5 butterflies. They are well written, interwoven and mega-fun.

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

Book Review – The Jesus Dynasty

2010-09-05T14:13:00.000-04:00

The Jesus Dynasty by James Tabor

This book was very readable and fascinating. It proposes some very plausible explanations for the “historical” Jesus.

It does say that Christianity as we mostly know it today is based on visions by Paul that are not rooted in actual history so if you are not interested in hearing this, I’d suggest you not read the book.

If you want to read a well-researched alternative view of Jesus, I definitely recommend the book. It is not a Dan Brown, jump-all-over-the-place theory.

From the website (about the author):

James Tabor (Ph.D. 1981, University of Chicago) is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1989. He previously held positions at Notre Dame and the College of William & Mary. His training is as an historian of Christian Origins and Ancient Judaism. Tabor has combined extensive field experience in archaeology in Israel and Jordan with his work on ancient texts, including work at Qumran, Sepphoris, the “Suba” cave, and most recently, Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. He is chief editor of the Original Bible Project, a new scholarly translation of the Bible for the year 2012.

From the website (about the book):

Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity.

In The Jesus Dynasty biblical scholar James Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. Jesus, as we know, was the son of Mary, a young woman who became pregnant before her marriage to a man named Joseph. The gospels tell us that Jesus had four brothers and two sisters, all of whom probably had a different father from him. He joined a messianic movement begun by his relative John the Baptizer, whom he regarded as his teacher and as a great prophet. John and Jesus together filled the roles of the Two Messiahs who were expected at the time, John as a priestly descendant of Aaron and Jesus as a royal descendant of David. Together they preached the coming of the Kingdom of God.

I give this book 5 out of 5 butterflies. Well written, easy to understand and thoughtful.

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

Book review – Breaking Dawn

2010-08-29T09:25:00.000-04:00

Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer

If you are a huge fan of this franchise, you might not want to read any further because I am not.

I finally finished the 4th book of the Twilight Saga. I made myself read the books because my daughter and then several people I know, became major fans of the books and movies. And you can’t take that away from Stephenie Meyer.

But I just don’t know why. The writing is ok but not spectacular. The story is predictable and most of the characters (especially the main ones) are quite boring, simplistic and inconsistent in annoying ways.

I want my vampires to be packed with suppressed passion and my werewolves to be bursting with unsuppressed passion and the people attracted to them agonizingly conflicted about wanting them. But I didn’t get any of that. The evil in the books is so sanitized. The final battle is blah. There’s no really conflict in any of it.

This quote from Publishers Weekly says it best:

Essentially, everyone gets everything they want, even if their desires necessitate an about-face in characterization or the messy introduction of some back story. Nobody has to renounce anything or suffer more than temporarily--in other words, grandeur is out. This isn't about happy endings; it's about gratification. A sign of the times?

There’s no blurb about the book on the website without loads of spoilers.

I give the whole series 1 out of 5 butterflies. Read them if you want to know what prompted the phenomenon but this is not Romeo and Juliet.

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

Book Review – The Passion

2010-08-27T10:22:00.001-04:00

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

The Passion won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1987.

I can’t make up my mind about this book. The characters were fascinating in an intellectual way but I didn’t find any of them substantive. They have only stayed with me in a vague sort of way. I found myself adding so much of my own imagination to the story that I felt almost cheated by the writer.

I did keep reading but only because I was waiting for something I never got. I felt it lacked passion. It was well written from a craft stand-point.

It’s not a very long book so if you want to experience some quirky characters, I recommend it. But in the end, I was disappointed with the story as a whole.

From the website:

It was Napoleon who had such a passion for chicken that he kept his chefs working around the clock. What a kitchen that was, with birds in every state of undress... It was my first commission. I started as a neck-wringer..

This is the story of Henri, a young Frenchman sent to fight in the Napoleonic wars. It is the story of Villanelle, a cross-dressing Venetian woman, born with webbed feet.

I give this book 2 out of 5 butterflies because the story left me unfulfilled.

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

BBC Book challenge and Day Zero

2010-08-23T01:00:00.001-04:00

BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Copy this into your NOTES. Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. Tag other "Book Nerds".

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X

Total: 8

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Total: 1

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Total: 3

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy X
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma-Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X

Total: 7

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

Total: 5

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total: 2

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Total: 1

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce X
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Total: 3

80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Total: 2

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total: 1

Final Total: 33

While I have certainly read more than 6 of these books, I am not happy with my total. So, as part of the Day Zero project, I will finish this list by May 19, 2013 (you know, if we make it past December 2012.) I may even read some a second time since it’s been so long for some of them.

Visit my main blog:

The Chrysalis Stage

Book Review - Tsunami Blue

2010-08-21T09:49:00.001-04:00

Tsunami Blue by Gayle Ann Williams

Quilly wrote a review of this book a while back.

It is a first book by Gayle Ann Williams and it won the Dorchester Publishing Award. It is also the first book in an upcoming series, the second book of which has been sold and due out in March 2011.

This was another fast paced read with another very unique heroine. Set in the not-so-distant future, the world has changed due to climatic upheaval. With a unique gift and survivalist training, Tsunami Blue tries to make the world safer for others despite their hatred and fear of her.

I was very impressed by the quality of the story, characters and writing. I am very happy I can look forward to more by this author.

From the website:

NO SAFE HARBOR

With her badass rain boots, her faithful dog, and the ability to predict the monster tsunamis that have reduced the US to a series of islands, Kathryn O’Malley isn’t afraid of much. Cut off from all society, she takes to the airwaves as Tsunami Blue, hoping to save something of humanity as the world around her crumbles. But Blue should be afraid—because her message reaches the wrong ears.

Now she’s the target of ruthless pirates known as Runners who want to use her special talents for their own profiteering—as soon as they can find her. Blue’s only shot at survival lies with the naked stranger who washes up on her rocky beach. A man who might just be working for Runners himself. Torn between suspicion and attraction, the two will have to navigate a surging tide of danger and deceit if they hope to stay alive.

I give this book 4 out of 5 butterflies because the ending is a tad lukewarm.

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

Book Review - The Girl

2010-08-20T09:37:00.001-04:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

You should know up front that the author, Stieg Larsson, is dead. I tell you this because he meant to write a series of ten books and there are only three in print. He almost finished a fourth, but because of Swedish laws, it apparently will not be published. We’ll have to wait and see.

It is obvious that these books are meant to be series but don’t let that stop you from reading these books. They are loads of fun and very interesting. I don’t know much about

Sweden

, so I learned a bit about their government and history and now I need to learn more.

The books are fast paced, loaded with interwoven plots and story lines, filled with conspiracies and the characters are different. Parts are briefly very graphic but not gratuitous.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – plot summary (from the website):

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Vanger’s great-niece Harriet. Henrik suspects that someone in his family, the powerful Vanger clan, murdered Harriet over forty years ago.

Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.

Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family.

The Girl Who Played with Fire – plot summary (from the website):

Lisbeth Salander is wanted for a triple murder. All three victims are connected to a trafficking exposé about to be published in Mikael Blomqvist’s magazine Millenium, and Lisbeth’s fingerprints are on the weapon.

Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.

When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest – plot summary (from the website):

Two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.

In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.

In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.

Here’s the hype from Google products:

All across America, readers are talking about Stieg Larsson's best-selling novels, set in Sweden and featuring Lisbeth Salander "one of the most original and memorable heroines to surface in a recent thriller" (The New York Times) The trilogy is an international sensation that will grab you and keep you "reading with eyes wide open" (San Francisco Chronicle) "[It] is intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a breakneck pace and verve" (The Independent, U.K.), but "be warned: the trilogy is seriously addictive." (The Guardian,

U.K.

) "Believe the hype . . . It's gripping stuff." (People) "Stieg Larsson clearly loved his brave misfit Lisbeth. And so will you." (

USA

Today) "Larsson has bottled lightning." (Los Angeles Times) … "Unique and fascinating . . . Like a blast of cold, fresh air.” (Chicago Tribune) "Wildly suspenseful . . . Intelligent, ingeniously plotted, utterly engrossing." (The Washington Post) "A gripping, stay-up-all-night read.” (Entertainment Weekly) "Dynamite.” (Variety)

I give these books 4 out of 5 butterflies (I'm going one short only because I want the other 7 books.)

Visit my main blog The Chrysalis Stage

Kindle Reading List

2010-06-16T07:39:00.001-04:00

Here are the 43 books I’ve downloaded to my Kindle since I received it this past Christmas from my husband.

All but three have been read. I have enjoyed them all. The dates listed are download dates. This list does not include the book books I have read or am in the process of reading. I’ll try to do that list, too.

If you are interested in a particular author or book, let me know and I’ll tell you what I think. I’m too far behind to do actual reviews at this point.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (currently reading)
Larsson, Stieg
June 7, 2010

Make That Man Mine
Munro, Shelley
June 6, 2010

Triad of Hope (not read yet)
Laudan, Adelle
March 10, 2010

Moving In
Alice Audrey
March 10, 2010

Shadowlight: A Novel of the Kyndred
Viehl, Lynn
March 10, 2010

Peeping Tom
Munro, Shelley
March 10, 2010

Unlock Your Creativity: 52 Exercises for Writers
Paula Berinstein
February 26, 2010

Writing Dialogue #1-5: A Collection of Articles for Fiction Writers by Writing Show Host Paula Berinstein
Paula Berinstein
February 26, 2010

A Self-Mentoring Checklist for Novelists
Paula Berinstein
February 26, 2010

Writing Fantasy: How to Introduce Your Make-Believe World, with examples from Lewis Carroll and J.R.R. Tolkien
Paula Berinstein
February 26, 2010

Point of View in Fiction
Paula Berinstein
February 26, 2010

Storm Born
Richelle Mead
February 25, 2010

Heat Wave
Castle, Richard
February 3, 2010

American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
February 3, 2010

The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (currently reading)
Tabor, James D.
January 30, 2010

On the Edge
Andrews, Ilona
January 28, 2010

Break No Bones: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
January 28, 2010

Cross Bones
Reichs, Kathy
January 28, 2010

Monday Mourning: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
January 25, 2010

Bare Bones: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
January 25, 2010

Born of Ice
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 20, 2010

Born of Fire
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 20, 2010

Born of Night
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 18, 2010

Bad Moon Rising: A Dark-Hunter Novel
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 16, 2010

Dream Warrior
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 13, 2010

One Silent Night (Dark-Hunter, Book 13)
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
January 13, 2010

A Pirate of Her Own
Macgregor, Kinley
January 9, 2010

Master of Seduction
MacGregor, Kinley,
January 9, 2010

Where's My Hero?
Kleypas, Lisa, Quinn, Julia, Macgregor, Kinley
January 7, 2010

Taming the Scotsman
Macgregor, Kinley
January 7, 2010

The Warrior
Macgregor, Kinley
January 7, 2010

Born in Sin
Macgregor, Kinley
January 3, 2010

Claiming the Highlander
Macgregor, Kinley
January 3, 2010

Master of Desire
Macgregor, Kinley
January 3, 2010

Return of the Warrior
Macgregor, Kinley
January 2, 2010

A Dark Champion
Macgregor, Kinley
January 2, 2010

Knight of Darkness
Macgregor, Kinley
December 31, 2009

Grave Secrets: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
December 31, 2009

Fatal Voyage: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
December 31, 2009

Deadly Decisions: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
December 27, 2009

Death Du Jour: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
December 27, 2009

Deja Dead: A Novel
Reichs, Kathy
December 25, 2009

Sword of Darkness
Macgregor, Kinley
December 25, 2009

Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon - Countdown

2008-01-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

I’m so excited. Dana’s post for her visit to my site on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 is all ready and I think you will enjoy it. Dana talks about how real life impacted the story of Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon.

I found it very interesting because she talks about her writing process and the timeline for finishing her book. I don’t want to give anything away, so be sure to be there or be square, or circular, if you must (I hear my daughter cringing as she shakes her head in disgust at my dorkiness.)

Be sure to visit Dana’s Website.

Tomorrow, Dana will be with my blogging buddy, Kat. Visit them at kat’s random thoughts.

Murder for Hire - Review

2008-01-18T13:34:00.001-05:00

You will have loads of fun reading Dana Fredsti’s book, Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon. I can’t tell you too much because it is a murder mystery, after all. It does have lots of murders and several mysteries going on at the same time. Spoofs abound in the form of hardboiled detective novel language and references which create many of the jokes and comedy throughout. There’s plenty of action and even some sizzling sexual tension.

Dana moves the story along quickly with characters that are realistic and believable. Dana keeps you in the scene with lush, lip-smacking food and wonderful sounding drinks (a few I’m going to try.) She gives you hints of Hollywood and the people who hover around that dreamland looking for reflected fame. She does a great job of keeping her secrets and yet drops some very clever hints all along the way.

Here you can find a SYNOPSIS of the book which explains everything, almost.

Murder for Hire

2008-01-12T18:57:00.000-05:00

I am reading Murder for Hire - The Peruvian Pigeon by Dana Fredsti. Here's her website.

Dana is having a Blog Book Tour and I will be hosting her at The Chrysalis Stage on January 23rd, 2008. This is a first for all of us, so stay tuned. I will post my review when I am done reading.

Dana has worked with tigers, jaguars and leopards. She has also been in the movies, specializing in theatrical sword-fighting.

Still...

2008-01-06T21:57:00.000-05:00

I am still reading Leaves of Grass. I'm taking it slower and trying for one poem for every three or four days to try to get the feel of them. At this rate I should finish in a few years.

I'm still looking for comments on the friggin' bowl. Is there a bowl in any of Whitman's poems, I wonder? I never thought of that until now. I think I'll google that and see. Google is like those cheat sheets you can buy (can't think of the name right now.)

Once I do that I'm going to bed. I'm still tired.

What About the Bowl

2007-11-18T15:49:00.000-05:00

Something about the bowl really annoys me. I can't find anyone that comments on the bowl. I think that what bothers me about the bowl is what bothers me about the stories in general - the sense of the unknown. I think I need more definitive answers in the stories I read.

I found the idea of three slightly connected stories interesting and the plots ideas were different. The semi-ongoing characters interrupted my ability to stay within the stories. The concept in the first half of the last story was the part I found most fascinating, but I became uninterested once the chase scenes began. I identified with the main character in the final story the most and had difficulty believing almost all of the other characters.

Reading Guides

2007-10-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

You can find a Specimen Days reading guide HERE and a second one HERE.

Find a review of Specimen Days HERE.

You can find a reading guide on Leaves of Grass HERE.

If you are interested in being a member of this blog so that you can write your own posts about the books we read, let me know at goldennib at Comcast dot net or in the comments and I will add you.

I have finished Specimen Days and I am now trying to get through Leaves of Grass (first edition – because it’s the shortest.)

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

2007-10-05T11:14:00.000-04:00

I got my copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman yesterday so I can follow Jenn's suggestion and read it along with Specimen Days.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

2007-10-01T15:52:00.000-04:00

Michael Cunningham wrote The Hours. Specimen Days is his second book. Where The Hours highlighted Virginia Wolf, Specimen Days includes Walt Whitman. The novel takes place in New York City and covers three time periods. It has received excellent reviews. I bought my book today at Barnes and Noble. They have it in stock in paperback. I will be reading it through once for pleasure and then reading again for this blog. That should cover the month of October. November is for discussion, although comments along the way will be welcome.

October / November Book

2007-09-30T19:46:00.000-04:00

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Down and Dirty

2007-09-30T19:42:00.000-04:00

Here's the basic ideas I had for the reading group. Let me know what you think and add any ideas you have.

One book every 2 months. We use the first month to read the book, research the stock questions and prepare specific questions. The second month is used to discuss the book and questions.

Everyone submits a question or topic related to the book (or more than one.)

Anyone can play, even anonymously.

All of the questions are posted as separate posts (one every few days so we can concentrate on a question) and everyone answers or responds to the questions in the questions’ comments sections.

Stock questions/research:

Research the author for the following information:
Birth date and place
Death date and place
Parents and their occupations
Siblings, position in family, how did the author get on with his family
Spouse, children and their relationships
Schooling, training, trade, occupations
Places lived
Time period
Politics of the time and of the author
Religion
Influences
Other works

Basic review of the book:
Synopsis
Characters
Place
Time
Themes
Mood
POV
Voice
Style
Language
Did you like the book?
How was this book autobiographical?

Reading Schedule:

Oct/Nov 2007 Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
Dec 2007/Jan 2008 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Feb/Mar 2008 The Works by Max Beerbohm
Apr/May 2008 The Waves by Virginia Woolf