Earlier this week I braved the cold with the kids in tow to the university library I work at. As a staff member I enjoy extended checkout times and since this is the last week before the library shuts down for winter holiday I knew I needed to get there this week. I limited myself to five books; two of the books were only available in large print. I checked them out because I really want to read them, but I don't know if the print will prove annoying. I was surprised that we even had large print books because we've never collected them before now; being on maternity leave had me totally out of the loop.I'm still sticking with my goal of finishing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and North and South; this library loot haul is for my new reading year. Later this month I'll post more on the 2011 challenges I'm joining, but for now I will list what challenges each book fulfills.
- First off is Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a Hercule Poirot novel involving a heiress murdered by poisoned coffee. This mystery novel is for the Vintage Mystery challenge.
- I was so excited to find a copy of Phillipa Gregory's The Red Queen, the follow up novel to last year's The White Queen, of course it concerns my current historical obsession: The War of the Roses. This novel will count for Chivalrous Deeds Historical Challenge.
- Next is another book I nabbed in large print as I was so excited, Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. This is a novelization of the friendship between Alice Liddell and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). I'm always interested in different takes on authors and sometimes the conjecture of novels proves interesting. This book will be for the New Authors Challenge.
- Room by Emma Donoghue has been all the buzz on book blogs. Nominated for the Man Booker prize and based on a true story; this book is narrated from a child's perspective and a child narrating a horrific situation. I think it will be interesting, but sometimes books with rape/sexual abuse really bother me (i.e nightmares) so I may or may not finish it. We'll see how the subject manner is handled. Of course, this is for the Man Booker Challenge.
- Finally, a selection for the Man Booker Challenge and the TBR Challenge: A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. I've checked this out several times and I've never gotten around to reading it. I can't tell you why! I adore Byatt and I'm eagerly anticipating this read.
I have all 5 books stacked up and ready to go; I'm planning on kicking off the New Year diving into this stack of reads!
14 comments:
Congrats! Sounds like some good books!
I loved the Byatt book. It is long and leisurely--and stays with you a long time. Hope you enjoy it. I found it a little hard to get into at first and would suggest that you start it when you have at least a full hour to commit to it.
I just finished Alice, I Have Been (review will be posted next week) and found it to be one of the most haunting and disturbing books ever. But in that way that I'm so glad I read and finished it, but man did I want to massage my brain to relieve it of it's torment.
Yay! I'm reading Room right now, so hopefully we'll have some overlap. I'm not as far as you are in North and South, but I can't wait to hear what you think of it! I'm loving it so far...
What a great set of books. I'm having a similar relationship with my copy of The Children's Book, but I have heard so much good that I really must read it soon. And thank you for reminding me of Alice I have Been. I liked the look of it but didn't add it to any of my wishlists and so it had drifted off my radar.
I need a long and leisurely novel; one I can crawl into and breathe for a few hours.
I'm loving North and South as well; it feels like Zola meets Austen.
I can't wait to read your review, Christina! I'm contemplating buying a copy because I really think the large print edition is going to drive me batty. Is it worth a purchase?
Hi nerdybookgirl! :)
I clicked over via the Library Loot link at Marg's blog.
I read Room a few months ago and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected based on the nature of the story's premise. Because the story is told from the young boy's perspective, the horrors of the situation aren't as graphic or as disturbing as you fear imagining. Obviously, we can fill in the blanks, so to speak, but overall the unique and innocent perspective helps keep the tone more upbeat and forward moving. I hope you like it.
Enjoy your books!
Alice I Have Been sounds fantastic. Enjoy!
I haven't been to the 'brary to check anything out in ages! I come here to work (it's where I am right now), but fun reading has been on the downturn. However, I hope to kick some readerly ass over my short break.
I've seen Room around so often that I think I'm going to leave it for a year and come back to that one...
I just discovered your blog today and am enjoying reading around on it. Can't wait to hear what you think about ROOM. I wasn't planning on reading it either--I usually avoid books about kids and animals--but then the bookstore where I work hosted Emma Donoghue and I was so intrigued by her and how she talked about her intention for writing the book that I gave it a shot and devoured it in one night (and I'm not a particularly fast reader).
That's awesome that you got to hear Emma Donoghue speak. I love author talks. Thanks for stopping by to visit!
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