nomadreader

This weekend, as I was putting away our Christmas decorations in the basement, I stumbled across a pile of books I'd forgotten about. Really, I am always stumbling upon piles of forgotten books, but this particular pile I hadn't seen since before we moved into our house five and a half years ago. On top was my college textbook for Art History 101 and 102: I don't think I've seen this book since 2008. This beautiful, 1000+-page book was a resource throughout my art history major. It wasn't a textbook we had to read cover to cover, so when we were assigned sections, I read them. They complemented the lectures and were great to refresh my memory. I decided to bring it upstairs and started flipping through it. I wondered, how many pages would I have to read each day to read this book by January 1, 2020? 3-4. I can read three or four pages of an art history textbook each day, I thought. Then I turned to the first page and discovered it was already page 15. How fort...

I like making lists, which, at least among my bookternet communities of readers, writers and librarians, is not at all unusual. Lately, however, I've realized that I don't enjoy crossing things off lists as much as others seems to. It seems, odd, right? Isn't the point of lists to finish them? Either I truly don't enjoy reaching goals or I have become a realist. Here's my secret: I don't think I've ever actually finished reading an entire list of books I've made. I am one book away from finishing the 2012 Orange Prize  (now Women's Prize) longlist (including the short list and winner.) But I'm also working on reading every book ever longlisted, shortlisted, and winners. (And by working, I mean I have many lists, one listing the ones I most want to read, one listing them in order from shortest to longest--achieve more faster!, one listing winners, one listing the one I most want to read for each year of the Prize, etc.) I've similarly attempte...

Yesterday, I wrote about Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge and looked at how I would have down if I attempted the challenge in 2014 . Today I'm highlighting possibilities for my reading in 2015 to help prioritize. I've found the Goodreads forums helpful in some cases. Many of these titles can count for more than one category, but I will commit to counting each book for only one category. A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25. White Teeth  by Zadie Smith has been on my TBR since it came out Sense and Sensibility  by Jane Austen Purple Hibiscus  by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65. God Help the Child  by Toni Morrison Lila  by Marilynne Robinson Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932  by Francine Prose A collection of short stories. American Innovations  by Rivka Galchen Bark  by Lorrie Moore Can't and Won't  by Lydia Davis Before You Suffocate Yo...

When I first started blogging about books, I became somewhat obsessed with reading challenges. Over the years, I've phased out formal challenges, but I'm still grateful to them for making me more mindful of my reading goals. This year, Book Riot is hosting a Read Harder challenge . It features 24 tasks to encourage people to read outside of their comfort zone. As I looked over the list, I thought most would be pretty easy to check off my list, so I decided to look more carefully at my 2014 reading and see how close I came to accomplishing this challenge without trying. Tomorrow I'll share some of my picks for 2015, particularly in the areas I didn't read this year. A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25. I know of at least one: Halfway Home by Christine Mari Inzer. I don't pay too much attention to the age of writers, but it's something I'll start tracking better. A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65. Lord...

I read Heart Sick on the recommendation of Stephen King, with whom I don't always agree. He had these two novels as one slot in his Top 10 of 2008. I'm also intrigued by female serial killers, especially given their statistical rareness. Heart Sick introduces readers to brilliant and beautiful serial killer Gretchen Lowell. Gretchen managed to kill 200 people, mostly in Portland, itself almost a character in these books. She posed as a psychologist helping the task force, and she managed to kidnap and torture Det . Archie Sheridan, the task force leader. Mysteriously, Gretchen held Archie for ten days but did not kill him. In fact, she called 911 to turn herself in. Archie is physically, emotionally and psychologically scarred from the encounter; Gretchen is in prison. Quirky reporter Susan is doing a profile piece on Archie for the Portland newspaper. Archie and Susan both offer first-person narratives. These damaged characters are emotionally compelling, and although there ar...

Beat the Reaper is one hell of a gritty, engrossing, hilarious, but at times disturbing, mystery novel. I winced more than once at it's graphic depictions of death and medical procedures, but my heart also warmed to the unlikely hero, Peter Brown. Peter Brown is a resident at the worst hospital in Manhattan. He's in the witness protection program because he used to be a hit-person in the mob. The story takes off quickly: someone comes into the hospital and recognizes Peter. The patient assumes Peter there to kill him; Peter assumes his cover is blown, and the patient is there as a rouse to kill him. For the rest of the novel, Bazell alternates chapters between the present day drama and the story of how Peter became involved with the mob. Bazell somehow managed to have simultaneous cliffhangers. Throughout the entire book, I was thrilled with the story unfolding in the chapter I was reading and impatiently waiting to return to the other time of the story. Even though a few sc...

Likely to Die is the second Alexandra Cooper book. The story picks up six months after the first book, Final Jeopardy . All of the familiar cast of characters return. The main case in this novel is the murder of a prominent neurosurgeon, Gemma Dogen at a major New York City hospital. As always, Alexandra is busy with many cases at the same time; it's the reality of an ADA. It's wonderful and refreshing to see these characters grow across each book. I first read Likely to Die six years ago, and although I remembered some things about this case, I was once again surprised by the mystery. It's turning out to be a blessing I read these novels in a only a few days. Over the years, I forget what happens, and I can relive these adventures over and over again. As always, I recommend starting with the first book in the series, Final Jeopardy , and reading them in order. I'm still eagerly awaiting Tuesday for the release of Lethal Legacy ! Rating: 3 stars (out of four) - love...

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain is a dense and fascinating graphic memoir. Peter Sis recounts his childhood in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the 1960's through elaborate illustrations and carefully chosen words. There are two two-page spreads that include excerpts from his boyhood diary. Although it is a memoir, Sis tells a more universal story of life in Prague and the Eastern bloc during this time as well. It's a fascinating and riveting look into the historical period. This book is dense with historical information, and Sis deftly uses pictures to tell the story of his boyhood. The illustrations in this book use color in a highly emotive way to enhance the story. Because the book is so honest, the depictions of this complex time may not be understandable to very young children. Rating: 4 stars (out of 4) - life- changingly good Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Support Your Local Library

The Pout-Pout Fish takes place in an underwater world of diverse, bright colorful fish and sea creatures. The pout-pout fish is convinced his face forms a permanent pout, and there is nothing he can do to change it. His underwater friends take turns trying to change his mind and get him to turn the frown upside down. None of the pout-pout fish's friends have any luck cheering him up, but when a new, beautiful silver fish comes to visit, she plants a kiss on the pout-pout fish's lips, and he suddenly realizes he's a kiss-kiss fish with cheer to spread. The illustrations in this book are colorful and interesting. This story of friendship and G-rated love is ideal for story time because there is so much repetition of the poetic lines. Rating: 2 stars (out of 4) - liked it Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Support Your Local Library

Knuffle Bunny Too is a sequel to 2004's delightful Knuffle Bunny . Trixie is now in pre -kindergarten, and she talks a lot. For show and tell, Trixie brings her beloved Knuffle Bunny to school, but she soon discovers Sonja also brought a knuffle bunny. Again, Mo Willems infuses the book with funny moments, but the story is still simple and touching. This books is more advanced than Knuffle Bunny , but the pictures are still incredibly captivating. I would gladly hang the two-page spread of Washington Square Park on my living room wall; it truly is a work of art. Rating: 4 stars (out of 4) - life- changingly good (or the book everyone I know who has children will be receiving for the next holiday) Reading Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Support Your Local Library

Knuffle Bunny is the story of Trixie, a child too young to talk yet. Trixie and her father go to the laundromat in their Brooklyn neighborhood one day, and Trixie accidentally washes her treasured stuffed animal, Knuffle Bunny. The story is simple, but it's both funny and sweet. As good as the story is, the illustrations are better. Mo Willems draws the colorful characters atop black and white photographs of Brooklyn. The pictures are utterly captivating and Willems infuses Trixie's gibberish with unique phrases children will delight in repeating. Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 4) - really loved it Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Support Local Library

The W ednesday Wars is set in Long Island in 1967. Holling Hoodhood narrates the tales of his seventh grade years, with each chapter covering a different month of school. The crux of the story includes the Wednesday afternoons he spends alone with his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Baker. Holling is convinced Mrs. Baker hates him. Holling is the only Presbyterian boy in his class; the rest of the class is split evenly between Catholics and Jews. All of the other students leave school early on Wednesdays to attend church. Mrs. Baker must find activities to occupy Holling's time. The first few weeks, Holling does cleaning projects, but soon Mrs. Baker has the idea for them to start reading Shakespeare together. This book manages to include an incredible amount of Shakespeare, and Schmidt does an excellent job of making Shakespeare relevant, even to the readers who have not yet read his plays. Holling's relationship with his parents and sister is tumultuous at times, but there is a sense...

Flotsam tells the story of a young boy’s day at the ocean. The story is told entirely through pictures. Despite the lack of words, the story is as vast as its depictions of the ocean. Flotsam means something that floats, according to the book jacket. While this young boy enjoys a day at the beach, the reader sees he has brought microscope and a magnifying glass with him. He is curious about the world, and he studies the details of several animals. The real adventure begins when the boy discovers a camera. Until this point, the story could easily be classified as contemporary realism, but the images on the film depict such things as sea creatures sitting on living room furniture. Still, the boy is transported through this fanciful realm of the underwater. Through his powers of observation and with his scientific tools, he is able to learn about the unknown lives of sea creatures. He also discovers photographs of past finders of the camera. The pictures tell this story, but each page ha...

First the Egg exemplifies the reasons the ALA awards Caldecott honors on picture books for the pictures: pictures may tell stories more powerfully than words alone. The story is simple and succinct, but the pictures tell the story. This picture book is nonfiction, and it is informative, but its information more powerfully told through the pictures. The backdrop of the pages are paintings. Through the colors of these paintings and the cutouts of the pages, Seeger makes the connection between eggs and chickens, tadpoles and frogs, seem even more literal. The first page, for example shows a cutout of an egg. When the reader turns the page, it becomes clear the egg was part of the chicken, and the cutout now uses the yellow from the underneath page to form the body of the baby chicken. This theme of continuity and connectedness continues throughout the short book. The pictures in this story are sure to delight and amaze young readers, but the pictures and visual displays are cool enough t...

(Note: I'm taking Children's Literature this semester, so I'll be including the reviews I do for class here as well.) Different Like Coco is a delightful biography of Coco Chanel, the famous fashion designer. The book traces Chanel's life from birth, through the death of her mother when Coco was twelve. Coco had to move to an orphanage, where she learned to sew. Women were only allowed a few jobs in the early 1900s, and luckily for Chanel, tailoring was one of them. She soon began making her own clothes. While this books tells the inspiring tale of Coco Chanel, who surpassed many obstacles because of her gender and financial status, the overarching theme of the book is that Coco Chanel was always different, and people always liked her. In addition to being a good biography, the book also covers history, including World War I, nicely. Although it deals with some difficult topics quite honestly, Matthews manages to maintain a hopeful theme. There is enough history includ...

I'm ridiculously excited for Linda Fairstein's new book, Lethal Legacy , to come out February 10. I've had it on request at the library since it was cataloged in July. I first discovered Fairstein in January of 2003, when The Bone Vault . I read so many great reviews of it, I was eager to start the series from the beginning. I was spoiled then, to have so many of her mysteries to devour in such a short time. After reading her second novel, I even wrote Ms. Fairstein a letter, something I rarely do, and a few weeks later I got back a handwritten note from her and a copy of her third book, Cold Hit . This thoughtful interaction only increased my esteem of Linda Fairstein . Clearly, I'm a fan, but Lethal Legacy is set at the New York Public Library! For me, it's kismet. My impatience for February 10 led me to start rereading all of the Alexandra Cooper novels. I won't finish them all before Lethal Legacy , but it's so much fun to reread favorite books. Fin...

I'm a huge fan of Paula Marantz Cohen. I stumbled upon her first novel, Jane Austen in Boca , while browsing in the library, and I've been a fan ever since. For some reason, I missed the publication of her second novel, Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan , even though I read her most recent one, Jane Austen in Scarsdale : Or Love, Death, and the SATs . Although it's hard to name a favorite, Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan is certainly in contention. It's the story of Carla, a stay-at-home busy planning her daughter's bat mitzvah, volunteering all over town, helping her husband with his struggling medical practice, and figuring out how to calm down her misbehaving ten-year-old son. To make matters more interesting, her mother, Jessie Kaplan , who lives with Carla and her family, suddenly remembers she was the Dark Lady, Shakespeare's mysterious girlfriend in a past life. The plot is somewhat preposterous at first glance, but Paula Marantz Cohen's deft storytelling ...

I'm signing up for the 2009 Historical Fiction Challenge . To complete, I'll read three historical fiction books in three months from January 1, 2009 - March 31, 2009. Historical fiction will be counted as anything set or written prior to World War II. I already have three historical fiction novels on my list for the next few months, so it will be easy to add this challenge.

The Diversity Rocks! challenge has options for everyone to pick a level of reading. The purpose of the challenge is to ensure ethnic and racial diversity in our reading choices. I'm opting for level 3: challenge addict, and I pledge to read at least 12 books in 2009. I'll pick my books as I go, but I've been attempting to read more foreign fiction, and this challenge will provide even more incentive.

For my sanity, I've created this master list to track my progress. A link to this post will appear at the top of the "reading challenges" toolbar on the right. 100+ Books (31 of 100+ read) 2009 Pub Challenge (9 of 9 read) - finished! Art History (0 of 6 read) Diversity Rocks! (0 of 12 read) Read Your Name (6 of 11 read) Support Your Local Library (25 of 25 read) - finished! What's In a Name (2 of 6 read) Young Adult (9 of 12 read)