2024 AW Reading Challenge!

[Sheik13_Loz]

Finished 41. Setting Sail - Daughter of the Deep - Rick Riordan.
Very fun! Read it in a couple days because the pacing felt quick and hard to put down, making me always want to know what's next.
I enjoyed the cast a lot and the twists.

 

[mrsmig]

Last night I finished my Coming to a theater near you selection, Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind. It's about a family of four who've rented a secluded upscale vacation home near Long Island's north shore. When the home's owners, G.W. and Ruth (who happen to be an older black couple) show up unexpectedly, with vague stories of something gone wrong in the outside world, tension rises.

The book got a lot of negative reviews on Amazon, mostly because the story doesn't resolve, and I wasn't crazy about the Netflix version, but I genuinely liked the book. Alam shifts POV often and without warning, but I was never confused about whose head I was in. Although I got a little squicked out by the frequent descriptions of bodily smells and exudate, they added to the overall sense of unease. The book lacks the big, showy scenes in the Netflix version (a ship coming ashore, a plane crash, a GREAT sequence involving Tesla vehicles), but is quietly ominous instead.

In both versions, there's some racial tension between the well-to-do owners and the vacationing family, but in the book it's understated. In the Netflix version, Ruth has been replaced with the couple's angry daughter. Not only does this give the racial tension too much weight, it erases the older woman from the narrative (so what else is new, Hollywood?).

Next up is The Starless Sea.

4. Verboten: A banned book. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sanchez FINISHED
5. Elementally, my dear Watson: A book whose title contains one of the chemical elements. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead FINISHED
6. Coming to a theater near you: A book made into a major motion picture or TV series. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam FINISHED
14. You might also like...: A book recommended by an automated bot. Kitchens of the Great Midwest, by J. Ryan Stradal FINISHED
20. Subterranean homesick blues: A book taking place at least partly below ground. The Starless Sea, by Erin Morganstern
24. War is hell: A book about war, on the lines or the home front, fiction or nonfiction. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson
25. What’s your sign?: A book by an author who shares your astrological sign. A Stroke of the Pen, by Terry Pratchett FINISHED
32. A real scream: A horror novel. The Insatiable Volt Sisters, by Rachel Eve Moulton FINISHED
35. The butler might have done it: A mystery. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie FINISHED
44. Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for. Hidden Mountains, by Michael Wejchert FINISHED
47. Top of the Heap: A book on any Top Whatever list. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
48. Laughing Matters: A humorous or satirical book. Alexandra Petri's U.S. History: Important American Documents, by Alexandra Petri FINISHED

 

[Chris P]

War is indeed hell, and Marc Leepson's Desperate Engagement follows Confederate general Jubal Early on his invasion of Maryland in July 1864, the last time the South sent a force of any size into Union territory. The battles of Monocacy and Fort Stevens were insignificant actions by Civil War standards--only about 2000 casualties on each side--but had not every single factor lined up perfectly for the Union the entire course of the war could have gone differently, with consequences to this day. Early and his 16,000 men succeeded in marching north from the Confederate army's main body near Petersburg, Virginia into Maryland completely undetected. A minor general named Lew Wallace (later author of the biblical epic Ben Hur) on a rumor-based hunch and without orders, sent a small force to the western edge of his territory, the Monocacy River, in case the rumors were true. They were, and what followed was the day-long Battle of Monocacy. The Union was defeated near sunset, but had delayed the Confederates in time for word to get to Lincoln and Grant that Early was marching toward Washington, DC. The city's ring of forts was immaculately constructed, but were manned by only recuperating hospital patients well enough to take up arms, and literally federal civilian employees pressed into service. Grant rushed up the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps by steamship, although that meant significantly weakening him as he faced Robert E. Lee (which was in fact part of Lee's plan). The first of the Confederate pickets arrived at Fort Stevens just hours before the Sixth Corps did, and the invaders laughed as the bureaucrats clumsily fired the cannons into open fields and random farmhouses. Early, although he could actually see the dome of the US Capitol building, chose not to attack the city because his men had marched 35 miles in 24 hours after a day-long battle and amid the intense heat and choking dust of July. By the time his men would have been in formation, the troops Grant had sent had taken up position, and in more numbers than Early had in fighting condition. Had the Union army been delayed by even a few hours, or the battle of Monocacy two days before concluded a few hours earlier, Early and his men would have been able to enter DC unopposed, looted the US treasury and military stockpiles, scattered the Union military command, and--perhaps more importantly--humiliated Lincoln just four months before the 1864 election, possibly throwing the presidency to a pro-South Peace Democrat, and most importantly giving France and Britain the reason they needed to recognize the Confederate States of America (and provide financial and military aid). Spoiler: It didn't happen that way, and not even the best historians can describe with any certainty how history would have been different if it had.

The writing is a fairly standard if competent military history, sometimes more concerned with who commanded which unit than with what went on, and padding out to its fairly slim 230 pages with brief bios of just about everyone, and sometimes a page or so with different eyewitness accounts that all relay about the same information. Still, it's a good bit of history and told engagingly enough. Could use more maps, though! Every history book needs more maps!!!


1. In a dry and dusty land: A book taking place in a desert. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
2. Flights of fancy: A book in which airplanes figure prominently. The Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
5. Elementally, my dear Watson: A book whose title contains one of the chemical elements. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
12. Down on the farm: A book featuring farmers, agriculture, or taking place in an agrarian setting. Cider House Rules – John Irving
13. Ballot boxing: A book centering on a political campaign. The Manchurian Candidate – Richard Condon
17. Old world charm: A book taking place in or about Europe. The Expats – Chris Pavone
21. Enabled: A book with a differently abled main character (blind, deaf, physically impaired, etc.). All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr.
24. War is hell: A book about war, on the lines or the home front, fiction or nonfiction. Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C. – Marc Leepson
28. I know exactly where that is!: A book taking place in a location you know well. DC Noir 2 – George Pelecanos (editor)
31. Back in the day: A historical fiction of any genre. Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward.
37. Ye olde booke shoppe: A book written before 1800. The Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings - Abul-Ghassem Ferdowsi
44. Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

 

[Bone2pick]

@Chris P I’m familiar with that campaign, though I haven’t read anything strictly focused on it. The Civil War is my favorite historical period to study. Rather than pick up Desperate Engagement, I’ll probably just procure a biography of Early and hope that it will adequately cover his Maryland offensive.

 

[Chris P]

@Chris P I’m familiar with that campaign, though I haven’t read anything strictly focused on it. The Civil War is my favorite historical period to study. Rather than pick up Desperate Engagement, I’ll probably just procure a biography of Early and hope that it will adequately cover his Maryland offensive.

Early's autobiography is in the public domain and available free online. The best online version is on Open Library. Hathitrust.org and Google Books have pdfs available too. I've read the Fort Stevens part of this one, but I've not read his other ones.

 

[Bone2pick]

Dearly Departed:
Finished The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. (2.5 stars)

Eight books down, four to go.

 

[Sheik13_Loz]

Found out 28. I Know Exactly Where That Is - The Fragile Threads of Power - V. E. Schwab
is part of a sequel series, so i swapped it for 35. The butler might have done it -The Cat Who Went Up the Creek - Lilian Jackson Braun
Was all right. The cats were fun. And the narrative and characters were interesting, but I felt like the plot was wandering and I wasn't sure what the point of a chapter was sometimes.

 

[oneblindmouse]

Dearly departed: I finished Manolita’s Three Weddings by Almudena Grandes.

In this, the third book of her series Episodes of an Interminable War, Grandes submerges us in a post-war Madrid full of characters who defy Franco’s brutal regime. Through the entwined lives of courageous people like Manolita, an adolescent involved in a Communist Party conspiracy, or Eladia, a dancer in love with Manolita’s brother, Grandes pays tribute to the suffering, resilience, and solidarity of the hundreds of thousands of republicans incarcerated in Franco’s jails and forced-labour camps, and their families. The secondary stories add to the complexity of life in a very dark period of Spain’s recent history, by exploring subjects like being gay in a repressive Catholic society, or what it takes to become a police informant, or how republican prisoners were “redeemed” by the forced labour of their children whom the victors sought to brainwash.

Although the book is lengthy, and at times the multiplicity of stories can be overwhelming, especially as the narrative jumps frustratingly backwards and forwards in time, Grandes’ rich panoply of characters and her profound understanding of Spanish history makes the book well worth reading.

• Down on the farm: White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America by Fintan O’Toole
• You might also like: A Burnt-out Case by Graham Greene
• The butler might have done it: A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory
• Counting your chickens: The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason
• War is hell: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
• Dearly departed: Las 3 bodas de Manolita [Manolita’s 3 Weddings] by Almudena Grandes
• Top of the heap: La Corte del Califa: cuatro años en la Córdoba de los Omeyas [The Caliph’s Court: four years in Umayyad Cordoba] by Eduardo Manzano Moreno
• Pixies, dryads, and elves, Oh my!: Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Run for the border: Conquistadores: A New History by Fernando Cervantes
• Different ways of seeing it: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• Setting sail: The Edge of the World: How the North Sea made us who we are by Michael Pye
• Old world charm: Marie Antoinette: the journey by Antonia Fraser

 

[Chris P]

I'll be making a swap here. I just can't go any farther in The Shahnameh: The Epic of Kings. The translation is just too stilted (it's a Persian epic about Zoroastrian-era kings, so why does the translator insist on making it sound like the Old Testament?), the stories not memorable, and life's too short.

So, I'll replace it with Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Because I am the product of my culture, I have to force myself not to say it's by Willem Dafoe, and pronounce it Cru-soe and not Ca-roo-soe like the Gilligan's Island theme song. I have some unlearning to do!

 

[Bone2pick]

A real scream:
Finished Pet Sematary by Stephen King. (4 stars)

Nine books down, three to go.

 

[Sheik13_Loz]

Finished 9. Different ways of seeing it - The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan.
Lots of fun, enjoyed the humour and characters, and the twists in the story had neat foreshadowing.

 

[Chris P]

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is the next off my list. You already know a little to all of the story already: Crusoe thumbs his nose at his father's advice to stay home, only to suffer one misfortune after another that sees him shipwrecked off the coast of England, then enslaved in Morocco, the taken aboard a Portuguese slaver to Brazil, where the settles into a sugar and tobacco plantation before yet again taking a chance at easy money, which sees his ship abandoned in a storm and he the only survivor on an island off the coast of Venezuela near Trinidad, in the middle 1600s when few ships ventured in that vicinity. Crusoe salvages what he can, and settles into a life of farming and hunting on the island, until a mysterious footprint--not his--appears on the sand. He later learns that mainland Native American tribes occasionally use the island for cannibalistic rituals. Aghast, after over twenty years of solitude (oh, and this book is only 1/5 as good as Gabriel Garcia Marquez!) he rescues a native he dubs Friday, who he teaches to speak English (Crusoe doesn't deign to learn Friday's language) and Christianity (of the good and respectable Protestant kind, dontchaknow). Learning there are Spaniards held by Friday's home village, Crusoe abandons his thoughts of "live and let live" regarding Indigenous practices and launches into a plan and rescue his fellow White men, Papists though they might be. But, the good old English come to the rescue, as they are wont to do, so Crusoe shrugs off his Spanish brethren with an audible "meh" and scarpers off back to England to retrieve his rightful riches.

As you might have guessed from my plot summary, I thought 300 years had been kind to the book (despite the tedious depth of Crusoe's description of making canoes and growing barley) until the arrival of Friday. Before this, there is a lot of introspection about the folly of not following sound advice and rushing off half-cocked. After this it got fairly silly and ridiculous in what were surely prejudices and swashbuckling fantasies of the time, but that have become "me no goodee at White man talk" tropes. Defoe also seems to have a paranoia about people being eaten, be that by cannibals or wolves and bears. I also had to laugh at a few of the plot holes. Crusoe has no cord for candle wicks, despite gleaning his wrecked ship for everything he could carry, which would have surely included ropes. Also, Crusoe goes on about how he doesn't have a pot to cook in, although the ship surely had a kitchen with pots and pans, not to mention knives, he would have salvaged. He has nothing with which to weave baskets to carry all the GRAPES he collects, which apparently don't grow on VINES in the Caribbean (and no, Mr Defoe, there are no penguins there either). Okay, it's late, I'm tired, I might not be respecting my fellow writer to the utmost degree.


1. In a dry and dusty land: A book taking place in a desert. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
2. Flights of fancy: A book in which airplanes figure prominently. The Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
5. Elementally, my dear Watson: A book whose title contains one of the chemical elements. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
12. Down on the farm: A book featuring farmers, agriculture, or taking place in an agrarian setting. Cider House Rules – John Irving
13. Ballot boxing: A book centering on a political campaign. The Manchurian Candidate – Richard Condon
17. Old world charm: A book taking place in or about Europe. The Expats – Chris Pavone
21. Enabled: A book with a differently abled main character (blind, deaf, physically impaired, etc.). All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr.
24. War is hell: A book about war, on the lines or the home front, fiction or nonfiction. Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C. – Marc Leepson
28. I know exactly where that is!: A book taking place in a location you know well. DC Noir 2 – George Pelecanos (editor)
31. Back in the day: A historical fiction of any genre. Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward.
37. Ye olde booke shoppe: A book written before 1800. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
44. Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

 

[oneblindmouse]

Old World Charm. I finished Marie Antoinette: the journey by Antonia Fraser.
I was rather dreading this book, for its length and density, but it turned out to be absolutely riveting and a much easier read than anticipated.

Though vilified during her life and since her barbarous execution two hundred years ago, Marie Antoinette was in reality a victim and political scapegoat, and much of what we have heard about her is in fact misogynistic and xenophobic slander, lies, and character assassination. This Austrian archduchess who became Queen of France is best known for words she never said, such as “Let them eat cake!”, and things she never did, such as overspending to the point of bankrupting France, thereby plunging it into revolution, or being the hidden power behind her weak and indecisive husband, Louis XVI.

Fraser tells Marie Antoinett’s story chronologically, without her eventual fate overshadowing every prior moment of her life. However, due to her focus on Marie Antoinette’s humanity - her attempts to fulfil the diplomatic demands of her brother the Holy Roman Emperor, her struggle to comply with the intricacies of French court etiquette, her stoicism when facing tragedy and a terrible fate – a lot of historical context gets lost. But it’s still a very interesting read.

• Down on the farm: White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America by Fintan O’Toole
• You might also like: A Burnt-out Case by Graham Greene
• The butler might have done it: A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory
• Counting your chickens: The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason
• War is hell: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
• Dearly departed: Las 3 bodas de Manolita [Manolita’s 3 Weddings] by Almudena Grandes
• Top of the heap: La Corte del Califa: cuatro años en la Córdoba de los Omeyas [The Caliph’s Court: four years in Umayyad Cordoba] by Eduardo Manzano Moreno
• Pixies, dryads, and elves, Oh my!: Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Run for the border: Conquistadores: A New History by Fernando Cervantes
• Different ways of seeing it: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• Setting sail: The Edge of the World: How the North Sea made us who we are by Michael Pye
• Old world charm: Marie Antoinette: the journey by Antonia Fraser

 

[Nastya]

1. In a dry and dusty land: An Ember in the Ashes
4. Verboten: Lord of the Flies
6. Coming to a theater near you: Divergent
7. Armchair voyages: Daughters of a Dead Empire
9. Different Ways of Seeing It: King of Scars
10. I spy: Girl in the Blue Coat
17. Old world charm: The Consequence of Anna
18. Counting your chickens: Six of Crows
23. Take note: Ruthless Vows
24. War is hell: War and Peace
28. I know exactly where that is!: The Space Between Here and Now
30. Pixies and Dryads and Elves, oh my!: Silver in the Bone
35. The butler might have done it: Murder on the Orient Express

 

[Brightdreamer]

...
9. Different Ways of Seeing It: King of Scars
...
18. Counting your chickens: Six of Crows

You might want to slot a little time in for Crooked Kingdom between SoC and KoS; there's a cliffhanger at the end of SoC that you will need to resolve...

Interesting list!

 

[Nastya]

You might want to slot a little time in for Crooked Kingdom between SoC and KoS; there's a cliffhanger at the end of SoC that you will need to resolve...

Interesting list!

I’ve already read the entirety of the SoC and KoS series a couple of times, but thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Brightdreamer]

I’ve already read the entirety of the SoC and KoS series a couple of times, but thanks for the suggestion!

Apologies... I thought you were posting your "I am going to read this" list, not the "already read this" list.

 

[Nastya]

Apologies... I thought you were posting your "I am going to read this" list, not the "already read this" list.

To clear up confusion: some of the books on this list are books I’ve already read, I just feel like re-reading them. A vast majority are books that I have not read. Apologies for being a bit vague

 

[Cobalt Jade]

GRAPES he collects, which apparently don't grow on VINES in the Caribbean (and no, Mr Defoe, there are no penguins there either). Okay, it's late, I'm tired, I might not be respecting my fellow writer to the utmost degree.

Is it OK to disrespect a fellow writer if they're dead...?

oneblindmouse, I'm a big fan of the Frasier book too. It sold me on her as a writer. The movie was a different beast. I liked it, but it used the book as a fairly scanty scaffold for a lot of weird, yet delightful, riffing.

 

[mrsmig]

I finally finished my Subterranean homesick blues selection, Erin Morganstern's The Starless Sea. It's a looong book, beautifully written, but with a big, confusing cast, a number of intertwined plot lines and a stately pace that I confess made me lose interest more than a few times. The imagery is gorgeous and the characters mysterious and I should have been drawn in more, but I wasn't.

Both my remaining books are literally demons: Demon Copperhead and The Demon of Unrest. Both are in excess of 500 pages, which is not what I want right now. I've put The Demon of Unrest on hold at my library, where I'm at the bottom of a list of nearly 300 people waiting for it. Demon Copperhead is available now, but I think I'm going to read some short stories and give my brain a rest before I start it.

4. Verboten: A banned book. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sanchez FINISHED
5. Elementally, my dear Watson: A book whose title contains one of the chemical elements. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead FINISHED
6. Coming to a theater near you: A book made into a major motion picture or TV series. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam FINISHED
14. You might also like...: A book recommended by an automated bot. Kitchens of the Great Midwest, by J. Ryan Stradal FINISHED
20. Subterranean homesick blues: A book taking place at least partly below ground. The Starless Sea, by Erin Morganstern FINISHED
24. War is hell: A book about war, on the lines or the home front, fiction or nonfiction. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson
25. What’s your sign?: A book by an author who shares your astrological sign. A Stroke of the Pen, by Terry Pratchett FINISHED
32. A real scream: A horror novel. The Insatiable Volt Sisters, by Rachel Eve Moulton FINISHED
35. The butler might have done it: A mystery. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie FINISHED
44. Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for. Hidden Mountains, by Michael Wejchert FINISHED
47. Top of the Heap: A book on any Top Whatever list. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
48. Laughing Matters: A humorous or satirical book. Alexandra Petri's U.S. History: Important American Documents, by Alexandra Petri FINISHED

 

[Chris P]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has been on my list for waaaaaay longer than it took to read it (which isn't hard--it's a super short book!). Santiago, but referred to almost exclusively as "the boy" throughout the book, is a young shepherd in Spain when a recurring dream of the Egyptian Pyramids and an encounter with a mysterious, mystical fellow claiming to be a king sends him on a journey to see his treasure across the Strait in North Africa. Encountering thieves, warring nomadic tribes, and temptations to give up his quest, Santiago is helped by a series of mystics, including a 200-year-old alchemist who teach him the ways of the spiritual world of the desert, the animals, and the wind.

Perhaps it was the translation, but I found the voice a bit too juvenile. However, I loved the mysticism and philosophy! I was at one point a much more avid dreamer than I am now, and I miss it. This book helped re-awaken that, or at least feel nostalgia for that time. But, good reminder to keep my eyes open for whatever is next on this journey of life.


1. In a dry and dusty land: A book taking place in a desert. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
2. Flights of fancy: A book in which airplanes figure prominently. The Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
5. Elementally, my dear Watson: A book whose title contains one of the chemical elements. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
12. Down on the farm: A book featuring farmers, agriculture, or taking place in an agrarian setting. Cider House Rules – John Irving
13. Ballot boxing: A book centering on a political campaign. The Manchurian Candidate – Richard Condon
17. Old world charm: A book taking place in or about Europe. The Expats – Chris Pavone
21. Enabled: A book with a differently abled main character (blind, deaf, physically impaired, etc.). All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr.
24. War is hell: A book about war, on the lines or the home front, fiction or nonfiction. Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C. – Marc Leepson
28. I know exactly where that is!: A book taking place in a location you know well. DC Noir 2 – George Pelecanos (editor)
31. Back in the day: A historical fiction of any genre. Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward.
37. Ye olde booke shoppe: A book written before 1800. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
44. Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

 

[oneblindmouse]

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

This book is about the power of stories and the joy of reading, but also about hope, resilience, survival, and the end of civilizations. However, for such a lengthy book there is too much description, and too little plot. There is also too much foreshadowing of one particular event, whilst a dramatic and fundamental revelation (that I did NOT see coming), was unexplained and dismissed.

The chapters alternate between five narrators in different centuries and continents, ranging from fifteenth-century Constantinople to twentieth-century Idaho to a spaceship at some point in the future. Though they are all different, the cast of dreamers and misfits all share the loss of one or both parents. And they are all introduced to and impacted by an ancient text: an imaginary story by Antonius Diogenes (who actually did exist in the first century C.E.), which tells of a shepherd’s search for a magical, heavenly place in the sky, the Cloud Cuckoo Land of the title. However, I found it confusing and hard to keep up with the various stories.

With only one book remaining to complete my challenge, I’ve decided to swap Conquistadores: A New History by Fernando Cervantes, with The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, as I’m going through a Graham Greene phase, and this novel fits the Run for the Border category, as well as being Greene’s most acclaimed work.

So my challenge stands as follows:

• Down on the farm: White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America by Fintan O’Toole
• You might also like: A Burnt-out Case by Graham Greene
• The butler might have done it: A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory
• Counting your chickens: The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason
• War is hell: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
• Dearly departed: Las 3 bodas de Manolita [Manolita’s 3 Weddings] by Almudena Grandes
• Top of the heap: La Corte del Califa: cuatro años en la Córdoba de los Omeyas [The Caliph’s Court: four years in Umayyad Cordoba] by Eduardo Manzano Moreno
• Pixies, dryads, and elves, Oh my!: Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Run for the border: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Different ways of seeing it: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• Setting sail: The Edge of the World: How the North Sea made us who we are by Michael Pye
• Old world charm: Marie Antoinette: the journey by Antonia Fraser

 

[Chris P]

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

This book is about the power of stories and the joy of reading, but also about hope, resilience, survival, and the end of civilizations. However, for such a lengthy book there is too much description, and too little plot. There is also too much foreshadowing of one particular event, whilst a dramatic and fundamental revelation (that I did NOT see coming), was unexplained and dismissed.

The chapters alternate between five narrators in different centuries and continents, ranging from fifteenth-century Constantinople to twentieth-century Idaho to a spaceship at some point in the future. Though they are all different, the cast of dreamers and misfits all share the loss of one or both parents. And they are all introduced to and impacted by an ancient text: an imaginary story by Antonius Diogenes (who actually did exist in the first century C.E.), which tells of a shepherd’s search for a magical, heavenly place in the sky, the Cloud Cuckoo Land of the title. However, I found it confusing and hard to keep up with the various stories.

With only one book remaining to complete my challenge, I’ve decided to swap Conquistadores: A New History by Fernando Cervantes, with The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, as I’m going through a Graham Greene phase, and this novel fits the Run for the Border category, as well as being Greene’s most acclaimed work.

So my challenge stands as follows:

• Down on the farm: White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America by Fintan O’Toole
• You might also like: A Burnt-out Case by Graham Greene
• The butler might have done it: A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory
• Counting your chickens: The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason
• War is hell: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
• Dearly departed: Las 3 bodas de Manolita [Manolita’s 3 Weddings] by Almudena Grandes
• Top of the heap: La Corte del Califa: cuatro años en la Córdoba de los Omeyas [The Caliph’s Court: four years in Umayyad Cordoba] by Eduardo Manzano Moreno
• Pixies, dryads, and elves, Oh my!: Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Run for the border: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Different ways of seeing it: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• Setting sail: The Edge of the World: How the North Sea made us who we are by Michael Pye
• Old world charm: Marie Antoinette: the journey by Antonia Fraser

Thanks for the review of Cloud Coocoo Land! I loved All The Light We Cannot See, and his short stories. But, I really am getting tired of multiple POV stories, which seems to be the fad right now, even if the set up of the plot sounds like my mind of thing.

Also, I'm halfway through Greene's The Quiet American right now and enjoying it.

 

[oneblindmouse]

Thanks for the review of Cloud Coocoo Land! I loved All The Light We Cannot See, and his short stories. But, I really am getting tired of multiple POV stories, which seems to be the fad right now, even if the set up of the plot sounds like my mind of thing.

Also, I'm halfway through Greene's The Quiet American right now and enjoying it.

Oooh! I've got The Quiet American on my TBR shortlist. Looking forward to reading it. Can't get enough of Graham Greene right now. Just finished his Monsignor Quixote, which I really enjoyed as I could really relate to 1980's Spain, where it is set. It's very reminiscent of Guareschi's Don Camilo series, where a Catholic village priest is best friends / rival with the Communist mayor.

 

[oneblindmouse]

Thanks for the review of Cloud Coocoo Land! I loved All The Light We Cannot See, and his short stories. But, I really am getting tired of multiple POV stories, which seems to be the fad right now, even if the set up of the plot sounds like my mind of thing.

Also, I'm halfway through Greene's The Quiet American right now and enjoying it.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is the first book I read by Anthony Doerr. Not overly impressed, I have to say, but I'm still curious about All the Light I cannot See, as I have sight issues myself and am curious to see how he explores them.