52-book challenge: January results

I talked about how I had failed myself in 2012 by only reading 16 books. And then I came across another blogger who attempted the 52 book challenge…which, for those of you who DIDN’T know, is a book a week.

So I’m trying it. And it’s HARD. And admittedly, two of these books I read just before 2013 started, but I decided I needed a buffer zone in case shit hits the fan at some point. Because it will.

Since starting this challenge, I’ve become a completely obsessive reader again. It’s glorious. In fact, when I type “g” in my browser URL bar these days, it takes me to Goodreads immediately instead of Gmail. Awesome.

Here’s what I read from the last week of December until the end of January.

Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking — Aoibheann Sweeney

Quick Summary

Miranda Donnal is an infant when her parents move from New York City to a remote island off the coast of Maine so her father can complete a translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. When her mother takes a boat to town and never returns, Miranda is raised by her reclusive father. After Miranda graduates from high school, her father arranges for her to return to New York to work in the classical-studies library that he helped establish years before her birth. It is here that Miranda begins unraveling the mysteries of her father’s past.

Three-line book review

There’s nothing remarkable about the storyline, and Miranda is an infuriating character, but you can’t help but love her in the end. I didn’t think such socially awkward people existed.

Quote

“It is astonishing, in the end, how difficult it is to know the things you know. What I mean is that all I had discovered was everything I knew all along. I don’t know when we’d ever told each other how much we loved each other, but suddenly I couldn’t see why I had ever doubted it.”

***/****

Buy Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking, feed me.

The Imposter Bride – Nancy Richler

Quick Summary

When a young, enigmatic woman arrives in post-war Montreal, it is immediately clear that she is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters as she disappears, leaving a new husband and baby daughter, and a host of unanswered questions. Who is she really and what happened to the young woman whose identity she has stolen? Why has she left and where did she go?

Three-line book review

Gorgeous, heartbreaking writing, but the plot moves at a snail’s pace. Sometimes you want to shake Lily until she has brain damage. The ending was weird, but satisfying.

****/*****

Buy Imposter Bride, feed me.

Anya – Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Quick Summary

Anya Karinsky’s beautiful life seemed like one long and perfect dream that would spin on forever. But her wonderful world of dances, travel, medical school, and her beloved family ended one day late in the summer of 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland. The bombs that leveled her Warsaw home that day marked the beginning of her soul-stirring odyssey of endurance and escape, through years of horror and Holocaust.

Three-line book review

Can’t say I enjoyed this book. The first two Chapters are devoted to household descriptions alone…and while I understand the premise for all this — to set up everything that was lost — it was extremely hard to get through. And I’ve read a LOT of Holocaust books.

**/*****

Buy Anya, feed me.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? – Mindy Kaling

Quick Summary

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood

Three-line book review

I want Mindy Kaling to be my friend. She’s hilarious, and real. And this book is purely for entertainment value, so pick it up.

****/*****

Buy Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), feed me.

Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi

Quick Summary

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.

Three-line book review

Not the book I thought it’d be. I’d rather read books than read books about reading books, know what I’m sayin’? Don’t read this if you any of the books discussed are on your reading list. Spoiler alert.

Favourite quote

“In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies in the way the author takes control of reality by retelling it in his own way, thus creating a new world. Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.”

***/*****

Read Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, feed me.

Hints to Lady Travellers – Lillias Campbell Davidson

Quick Summary

Combines archive material from a book of the same name first published in 1889 with anecdotes from well-known modern female travelers to offer a fascinating insight into the way that travel has changed for women over the last century

Three-line book review

An amazingly insightful, crazily in-depth guide for travelling women of the Victorian era. Includes such advice as “how to pick a portable bath tub” and “tips for tricycling tours.” And I thought I was a heavy packer.

Favourite quote

On the use of the”eye-stone”…the bone of a fish used to clean your eyeballs during the summer months. “The eye-stone is slightly moistened, the lower eyelid drawn a little down, and it is inserted within. Almost immediately it begins to work its way slowly around the eyeball…” and then apparently falls out of your eyeball with all that summer dust and gunk still attached to it. Um, no thanks.

****/*****

Buy Hints to Lady Travellers: At Home and Abroad, feed me.

Wow, that was a long-winded post. The next one will be much shorter, I swear. My favourite? Mindy Kaling’s book. Her new television series is pretty rad also. No life changing reads in January, sadly. And more than my share of fluff for one month.

What have you been reading?

  • February 07 2013

    Loving that you’re doing this Candice! I too tried to make a resolution to read more although it’s come to a difficult barrier already when the first book I chose to pick up was Tolstoy…… it’s so big! (TWSS) Anyways, keep us informed. Always love reading a good book review and since your last blog post, I’ve picked up Bobbi French’s “Finding me in France”. Yay for Newfoundland women travelling!

    • February 09 2013

      Hahaha, yeah, I’m avoiding that one like the plague. Maybe next year. And I’m so glad I inspired you to read Bobbi French’s book! She’s fantastic.

  • February 07 2013
    Jo Mid

    I love hearing about what others are reading. Thanks for a great post! I read Reading Lolita In Tehran a few years back. At the time I read it we were living in The Netherlands. In Holland there a large muslim population and many of them have come from countries where women are restricted. We had a few Iranian & muslim friends & my husband did quite a lot of travel to muslim countries. It was an eye opener for me on how these women had to live their lives. It was an insight into a culture that I could have never imagined growing up in Labrador.

    • February 09 2013

      I love hearing what others are reading too! I don’t know why, I just keep adding HOARDS of books to my list. Man.

      And you’re right, Lolita at least gave me more appreciation for being HERE. Crazy stuff.

  • February 07 2013

    I read 63 books in 2011 (when I was traveling/working in a Lodge in Canada), and maybe 15 last year. Trying to read more this year too. I recommend ‘The Language of Flowers’ by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, especially if you like the socially awkward hard to love types.

    • February 09 2013

      63!! Gebus. Can’t compete with that. Totally will read The Language of Flowers.

  • February 07 2013

    I love these posts. Books were my first true love.

    I loved Mindy’s book. Really hilarious. Almost as good as Bossypants.

    I have read a ton of books lately. Lately I finished The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner, and right now I am reading Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald. I hve a literary crush on Fitzgerald. Then I am going to read Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald. They are both about the dissolution of their marriage, apparently, so I am looking forward to comparing the two stories. :)

    • February 09 2013

      I love how much people love these books! Honestly, didn’t think I’d get any comments. But I’ve become so book obsessive now I just seek out recommendations constantly, haha. Adding those to my list!

  • February 07 2013

    Yay books! Putting Mindy’s on my list now.

  • February 07 2013

    One of my new year resolutions was inspired by you. Though not 52 books but I resolved to read more, way more than I had managed to in 2012. At the moment it’s- On Writing by Stephen King and I also have one tucked away in my bag which is a lighter one called – The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

    Putting Mindy’s book on my list too. I am curious cause she is of Indian origin and I have seen her work on the telly before.

    Looking forward to your Feb list :)

    • February 09 2013

      You’ll love Mindy! She’s fab! And I’m glad to be an inspiration. ;) Let me know how you like “On Writing.” It’s one of my all-time faves. The book that actually made me respect Stephen King.

  • February 07 2013
    ellen yeomans

    Do you have all your books picked out already? If not, try Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love author). It’s a novel about some lobster wars off the Maine coast. So funny, sometimes steamy, a little weird, and SHORT. You need a bunch o’ short books to pull this off, methinks.

    • February 09 2013

      I am NEVER done with book suggestions! Lobster wars. Hilarious. Totally adding to the list.

  • February 07 2013
    Claire

    I’m also doing the 52 book challenge. January went well – little behind for February sadly. Struggling to focus on one book at a time.

    • February 09 2013

      Ahh, good luck! I’m surprisingly on time this month…I’m shocked.

  • February 07 2013

    I tried to do this last year — I only made it to 30. If you really want to get to 52, make sure you have lots of light, easy reads on the list!

    If you liked Mindy’s book, I recommend Rachel Dratch’s book as well.

    Other light, easy and fun reads:
    –Moonlight in Odessa
    –An Object of Beauty and The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin (LOVE his writing)
    –Maybe Baby (essay collection)
    –Drop Dead Healthy
    –Gone Girl
    –Divergent and its sequel Insurgent
    –Elly in Bloom (written by my cousin Colleen!)

    Books to avoid: The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series. Starting off with them pretty much derailed my efforts from the beginning!

    • February 09 2013

      Dude, if I make it to 30, I will be tickled pink! Haha. Awesome suggestions, totally adding these to my list.

    • February 09 2013

      Also, didn’t know Steve Martin had a book out…cannot WAIT to read that one

  • February 07 2013
    Daryle

    You should read Gone Girl. I just finished it and it is f’ed up! I look forward to February’s list.

  • February 09 2013

    Candice I think it’s great, and hella ambitious you’re doing this challenge. I love reading, and now I have a few more books to add to my reading list. Since University I haven’t done much non-school reading for a while. Last year I read a book for my literary journalism class called Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. It’s a book about running, and it’s got a bit of a travel narrative to it as well. As someone who hates running, I found this book fascincating, almost to the point where I started think, “maybe I should try running.”

    • February 13 2013

      NICE! Maybe that’s what I need to kick my butt into gear…

  • February 10 2013
    Joya

    I want to read the Mindy Kaling book for sure! I recently read Wild (Pacific Crest Trail), Beautiful Ruins (partially set in 1960s Italy) and Where’d You Go Bernadette (set in Seattle and Antartica). I like them all and I’m reading Moveable Feast now for some old-school Paris.

  • February 10 2013
    Joya

    I want to read the Mindy Kaling book for sure! I recently read Wild (Pacific Crest Trail), Beautiful Ruins (partially set in 1960s Italy) and Where’d You Go Bernadette (set in Seattle and Antartica). I like them all and I’m reading Moveable Feast now for some old-school Paris.

  • February 12 2013

    I will have to check these out

  • February 12 2013

    I will have to check these out

  • February 12 2013
    JoAnna

    I’m not a very fast reader but I love to read, so this year I’m trying to read 30 books. I just finished my third one last night – The Grapes of Wrath, which was a beast!

    • February 13 2013

      Oh dear god, yeah, won’t be giving that one a try anytime soon! Ha.

  • February 13 2013

    Ohhh I’ll so be following along as I’m on a 52 week boo challenge as well. Horrah. I’m doing really well so far. I’ve completed 10 books and I’ll be finished my 11th tomorrow. i’m trying to way ahead of my weekly requirement because once I get behind I think I would never catch up!

  • February 13 2013

    Ohhh I’ll so be following along as I’m on a 52 week boo challenge as well. Horrah. I’m doing really well so far. I’ve completed 10 books and I’ll be finished my 11th tomorrow. i’m trying to way ahead of my weekly requirement because once I get behind I think I would never catch up!

    • February 13 2013

      That’s my fear too! I find it’s the case especially when I travel.

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