Skip to main content

Unwittingly, I've joined a challenge.

The detailed rules can be found on Bottle of Shine's blog; the challenge is called 342,745 Ways to Herd Cats.

So here's my list of ten books:
1. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield--destined to be a classic, about the mysterious life of a famous author.
2. The Sunne in Splendour, by Sharon Kay Penman--historical fiction about the life of Richard III. It's a long book, but absolutely fascinating.
3. The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox--again, historical fiction, set in Victorian London.
4. The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton--upstairs-downstairs historical fiction about the mysterious death of an author, told from the point of view of a servant in the household.
5. Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella--chick lit, essentially; hillariously funny novel about a woman who loves to shop. First in a series.
6. Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott--historical nonfiction about two sisters who ran a brothel in Chicago in the 1890s.
7. I Was Told There'd Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley--essays by a twenty-something sometime-contributor to the Vollage Voice.
8. Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster--hysterically funny collection of essays.
9. The Pursuit of Love/ Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford--a classic comedy about upper class English life.
10. Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor--historical fiction about the court of Charles II.

My books to read:

1. Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers--complete
2. 740 Park, by Michael Gross
3, Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak
4. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

Comments

Cheryl said…
I thought about joining this challenge and may still do so but so busy with reviewing book.

Hey who can complain when you are reading. LOL
Hello, fellow Weekly Geek! I love Shopaholic and the 13th Tale, too!
Teddy Rose said…
I loved Sunne in Splendour! I also loved Here Be Dragons and hope to read the entire series.
Susan O'Bryant said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Susan O'Bryant said…
Okay, I feel dumb. Here's what I meant to say in my earlier comment!

Hello! I grabbed one of your recommendations for my Herding Cats challenge - "Bitter is the New Black". My cousin also said she enjoyed this book, so I'm eager to find out if I will as well.

Have a great day! :)

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...