4 posts tagged “2007 tbr challenge”

"Aaron Matthews is a man with a gift: he can talk anyone into doing almost anything.  As a psychologist he used that talent to help people.  Now he's using it against one man in a deadly scheme of revenge.  With former trial lawyer Tate Collier as his target, the brilliant, ruthless Matthews knows the easiest way to destroy his adversary is to strike at the point of least resistance, which for Collier is his teenage daughter, Megan.

"In this spine-tingling novel of psychological manipulation, Deaver creates a thrilling battle of words and wits that will leave you speechless."

My comments:

Finished this in a 24-hour period.  For me, this is rare, meaning this is a quick, easy read. 

Not the best by Deaver I've read, but the storyline kept me turning pages, and it satisfied my need for some suspense thriller brain candy.

with your crooked heart - by Helen Dunmore

• Started Jan 9/07, finished Jan 15/07
• Genre:  literary thriller (? see my comments)
  
• Rating:  8.5/10

• 3rd book finished in 2007
• Book #1 for 2007 TBR Challenge

Synopsis: 
(Modified a bit from the back of the book, to remove a bit that I find to be too revealing.)

"Paul and Johnnie were born twelve years apart, in a one-bedroom flat in Barking.  Paul deals in the development of contaminated land; self-destructive, seductive Johnnie deals in crime.  Their ascent to money and power looks easy from a distance, but it burns those who get too close. 

"When Paul marries Louise, Johnnie is part of the contract, while their daughter, Anna, is tangled in it from birth.  This has been Louise's story, too, an almost Dickensian one, and she's going to tell it in all its crookedness, force, and tenderness."

My comments:

This was my second read by this author.  First was A Spell of Winter, which I loved. 

Dunmore's writing is a pleasure to read.  Lyrical and heady, I just can't help but feel that every single word on the page imbues more meaning than I can possibly even grasp.  Granted, there are other books/authors I've said this about, but the thing about Dunmore is that she also weaves an interesting plot to carry you along.

Speaking of which, I categorised this book as a "literary thriller" - I went searching online for someone else's categorisation, since "literary fiction" is the tag I generally stick to anything with above-average writing that's outside of a stereotypical genre, and I'd like to get more specific.  I'm not sure I'd personally consider this a "thriller" as compared to Dean Koontz or Jeffery Deaver, or even "thrilling" in any way other than that the writing brings pleasurable surprise.

Curious narration, switching from first to second to third person point of view.  I'm sure if I had more functioning brain cells, I could write a bit about this, but since I don't even have the energy to try, I'll stop there.  It makes for interesting reading, though, and if I had read this with a group, I'd surely want to discuss it

Great passage:

"Anna looks up at the sky for a long time.  Its chill reaches for her through the glass, and she'd like to lean her cheek against it, but the sill is too high.  She makes a circle of her forefinger and thumb, and looks through it.  There is the sky, looking quite different now, framed, mysterious, with the black fingers of the branches walking across it like writing which Anna can't read.  A message.  Something is about to happen.  Anna takes hold of the window-sill with both hands, tips her head back, and waits."

Well, with less than two days left before the start of 2007, I thought I'd repost about the reading challenge I joined.  It's being hosted by Jenn and has grown by leaps and bounds since I last wrote about it.

I've actually stuck with my original list... not so much because I'm confident in my choices, but because it's been so busy that I haven't had much time to rethink it.  I did find out yesterday that we can have a small 'alternates' list though, so I'm going to take advantage of that and throw in a few extras.

1. The Pianoman's Daughter by Timothy Findley
2. Itsuka by Joy Kogawa
   
3. Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
4. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey [finished Mar 13]
   
5. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
6. With Your Crooked Heart by Helen Dunmore [finished Jan 15]
   
7. The Silver Metal Lover by Tannith Lee
8. Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore
9. Speaking in Tongues by Jeffery Deaver [finished Jan 16]
   
10. Testament by Nino Ricci
11. Family News by Joan Barfoot
12. Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama

And my alternates:

1. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman [finished Mar 31]
2. Open by Lisa Moore
3. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
4. Plainsong by Kent Haruf [finished Feb 16]
   
5. Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray [finished Feb 20]

Good luck to everyone participating!!

I've decided to take part in my first online reading challenge!  Apparently, these are very common in the blogging world, at least in the reading blog circles, but this is the first I've heard of it.  This one was put forth by my online friend, Mizbooks, who I met many years ago on one book discussion mailing list or another.

Her guidelines for the challenge are simple, and read as follows:

** Pick 12 books - one for each month of 2007 - that you've been wanting to read (have been on your "To Be Read" list) for 6 months or longer, but haven't gotten around to.
** Then, starting January 1, 2007, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31, 2007.

Given that we just bought our fourth and final IKEA billy bookcase to complete a wall of bookshelves in the nook off the living room, given that the top half of all four of these shelves are now filled (and I mean filled - no nice little staggering of books with space for knick knacks and photos, no small groups placed horizontally for a change in flow... I mean books crammed in from one side to the other, in depths of two rows per shelf, meaning they're hanging off the edges, uneven... ugly from a decorator's eye, but oh, so wonderful for me), given that 99% of them are TBR books, and given that Greg is "this" far from collecting up every single one of those books (plus the ones still in boxes, the ones that didn't even fit on the shelves) and driving them to Goodwill...

Yes, given all of that, I thought this might be a good challenge for me to try.  Twelve books will hardly make a dent, but it's something.

I'm certain that my list of 12 books is going to change a few times before Jan 1st arrives, but for now, here's mylist of 12 books that I'll be happy to clear from my TBR shelf in 2007:

1. The Pianoman's Daughter by Timothy Findley
2. Itsuka by Joy Kogawa
   
3. Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
4. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
5. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
6. With Your Crooked Heart by Helen Dunmore
7. The Silver Metal Lover by Tannith Lee
8. Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore
9. Speaking in Tongues by Jeffery Deaver
10. Testament by Nino Ricci
11. Family News by Joan Barfoot
12. Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama

Okay, so I'm 6 weeks ahead of myself, but here's to some good reading in 2007.