02 December 2014

Last Month in Review: November 2014


My reading tends to dwindle toward the end of the year, but a mini vacation in November, paired with some good audio books, kept my reading stats from looking bad. I'm pretty close to achieving my Goodreads goal for the year, which is just as well since working a retail job in December doesn't lead to lots of quiet reading moments!

In chronological order, here are the books I read last month:

1. The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant.  Since I actually started this book in September and read it bit-by-bit through all of October, it hardly seems fair that it counts toward my November stats.  But I finished it on the first day of the month, so I'm counting it!  Good book, coming out in February.

2. Black River by S. M. Hulse.  This may be the best book I read in November. Mostly quiet with some sinister undertones.  The story reminded me quite a bit of the works of both Kent Haruf (RIP) and Larry Watson.

3. God Loves Haiti by Dimity Elias Leger.  Debut novel, well done, about the terrible earthquake in Haiti.  The author is a Haitian writer-turned-hipster-editor of a major NYC literary magazine.

4. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, read by Dan O'Grady.  Though I've read the book quite a few times by now, I'd never listened to it.  When the audio version became available for only $14.99, I decided to pick it up to add to my collection.  The reader is Australian and he does a good job, but I was very curious to note that, unlike my reading experiences, I didn't laugh out loud while listening.  Here's my original review.

5. Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman.  I enjoyed this short story collection, where the author tells a story of real women from history who were well known in their day but mostly forgotten about now.  Like most collections, this one was a bit uneven, but I really enjoyed it.  She's a good writer, and I kept smiling to read about the real-life Dolly Wilde after participating in the Caitlin Moran readalong this summer, where the main character assumed the name of Dolly Wilde for her alter ego.

6. The Martian by Andy Weir.  I probably never would have read this book, if it weren't for Sarah and Ally.  But they convinced me to try it, and though I did a good bit of skimming over the science bits, it made for a good story.  I'm glad I read it, and I have moderate hopes that the movie will capture the essence of the book.

7. The Half Brother by Holly LeCraw. This book is my jam, y'all.  I'm a total sucker for the prep school setting, and the writing is quite good.  Our narrator isn't 100% reliable here, and the author lays down  wallop in the middle and again at the end. I won't put any spoilers here, but I will say that I'm a disturbed enough reader that I would have preferred a different ending.

8. The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James.  Hmmm...okay, this book is ALSO my jam, y'all.  Tania James convincingly writes a close third person from an elephant's POV.  She also managed to humanize a character I never would have believed possible: an elephant poacher.  Not saying I sympathized with his choices -- not one whit -- but to humanize him at all was almost miraculous.

9. There's Something I Want You To Do by Charles Baxter.  There's some pretty amazing writing happening in this short story collection, but I'm afraid that the content didn't do much for me.  Me, I prefer my short stories to feel complete and not to feel, when I come to the last page, that some pages have fallen out of my book.  If you're a fan of the "snapshot"style of short story, these could be right up your alley.

10. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Read by Barbara Rosenblatt and Cassandra Morris.  Despite having read this book several years ago and loved it, and despite having two good readers, this reading experience somewhat disappointed me.  Just goes to show that timing can be everything when it comes to reading. Ms Rosenblatt in particular was quite good, with an excellent French accent and a voice that reminded me of a cross between Colleeen Dewhurst and one of the Redgrave ladies.

My stats rather interest me this month.  I think it's the first time all year that I've read equal numbers of male and female authors (I usually skew pretty heavily female).  And though there is only one writer of color on my list, 40% of the books qualify for the "diversify your life" shelf I've created on Goodreads.  This can be writers *or* primary characters who are non white, or LGBT, or differently abled, etc.

What about y'all?  What was good for you in November?  What was a dud?

18 comments:

  1. I reaaaally want to read the Almost Famous Women book, it sounds fascinating! And I still need to grab a physical copy of The Martian since I didn't care for the audiobook reader.

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    1. A bad reader can totally ruin a good book. Too bad! Almost Famous Women was a lot of fun.

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    2. I actually went back and listened to The Martian again the other day when I went for my run, and it took awhile but the reader has grown on me. I'm glad I gave it a second chance.

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  2. I finally read The Martian! I quite enjoyed it. Not only that, I passed it to a high schooler who then passed it on to all of his friends, raving about how great it was. I also sent it on a plane ride with my husband who lunched with a guy who'd read it. Hubs then found his dad reading his copy. Fun stuff! (I do hope the movie works. Have you seen Interstellar? Reading The Martian and imagining the movie is much more... amusing after Interstellar.)

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    1. It sounds like you and your circle enjoyed it a bit more than I did, but I did like it. And no, haven't seen Interstellar yet, but I really would like to!

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  3. Yay, The Martian!! Glad you liked it.

    I really want to try Almost Famous Women. Short stories aren't usually my thing, but the premise is so tempting.

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    1. These were interesting because of the conceit of the collection.

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  4. Yay, The Martian!! Glad you liked it.

    I really want to try Almost Famous Women. Short stories aren't usually my thing, but the premise is so tempting.

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    1. Yeah, it was a good read. A few too many near-disasters for my personal preference (by the middle of the book I was more, like, ho-hum. He's about to die-but-not-quite again), but a solid book.

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  5. I LOVED The Rosie Project, but don't do well with audiobooks (I'm a terrible listener, ha - I should work on that)

    You mentioned Almost Famous Women on my blog about Shirley Jackson, so I'm curious to see what other stories are in the collection!

    I want to read The Martian so bad but I'm (im)patiently awaiting to get it from my library.

    Looking forward to reading The Half Brother next year. Thanks for sharing your list!

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    1. I went back and read The Lottery after you shared the link with me. Since I read the retelling of it, I think the impact was lost on me. It might be heresy, but I preferred the retelling of it. :-)

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  6. I love that you write little snippets so far ahead of time because you give me a good idea of what to grab ;) I've been eyeing Black River for SO LONG but just haven't been sure...you totally sold me. I'm taking Almost Famous Women on a trip with me this weekend - it seemed like a good one to jump in and out of and now you have me pretty excited about the Dolly Wilde story

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    1. Black River totally worked for me. And she writes about music so very beautifully. Hope you have fun on your trip. The Dolly Wilde story wasn't fabulous in and of itself, but mostly because, thanks to Caitlin Moran, I knew who she was.

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  7. I guess I'd heard of The Martian adaptation but if so I'd totally forgotten. Thank YOU Emily for cluing me in on this book to movie adaptation. I checked the cast: Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean and Kristen Wiigs!?! Oh my, what a cast. High hopes for the movie version? Me too!

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    1. Moderate hopes for a good book adaptation are actually relatively high. I usually have no hope for a good book adaptaion at all!

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  8. OOPS! Not high hopes, moderate hopes! thanks again, I gave you the deserved credit in my post on the book to movie adaptation: http://goo.gl/TiBmO5

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  9. Yay to being on track for your reading goal!! and going towards your diversity goal. I like the idea of looking for characters that not white in addition to authors. I maaaay need to steal that for my own stats at some point...

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    1. It seems fair, right? I mean, assuming the characters aren't just used as 2-d bad stereotypes of something.

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