Books – Page 14 – Gemma D. Alexander

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books in translation, Christoph Ransmayr, Simon Pare

Atlas of an Anxious Man

Is it an atlas of the man himself, or an atlas of the world as seen by the anxious man? Is the anxious man author Christoph Ransmayr, and why is he anxious? Atlas of an Anxious Man does not concern itself with the answers to such questions. This unusual piece of travel writing does not double as personal memoir or destination porn; we never learn what kind of trip the narrator is taking, and rarely discover why he has selected these particular destinations, what he is doing there, or who his traveling companions are. Read More

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Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, reviews, Right Sort of Books

A Brief Wondrous Read – Oscar Wao

Since I started hanging out with writers, I’ve discovered that I don’t read the Right Sort of Books. Even though I read all the time, and don’t spend too much time in the genre ghettos, I never seem to have read the authors that everyone is buzzing about, or the ones that get included in MFA curricula, or the ones that authors cite as influences in interviews, or any of the books in those online “how well-read are you” quizzes. Sometimes I’m left wondering, “Well, what have I read?”

Once I took an online quiz about modern Japanese authors, and got a whopping six out of ten – a record for me in online book quizzes. I mentioned it to another writer friend, “I guess what I have been reading is modern Japanese fiction,” I said with some relief (after all, what an impressive niche, right?)

“Ooh,” she responded excitedly, “What did you think about the new Ishiguro?”

“I haven’t read it.” Read More

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book haul, books, bookstores, Elliott Bay Book Company, Independent Bookstore Day

Independent Bookstore Day

Some people think I’m awful because I never remember birthdays, and holidays like Mother’s Day register more as minor annoyances than celebrations. But I’m not completely unsentimental. Sometimes I get quite excited over minor holidays. Like Independent Bookstore Day. Of course, I can never remember when it’s coming up, but even caught by surprise, I try to make the day special. Read More

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birthday parties, Dean Hale, Princess in Black, Shannon Hale

A Martial Arts Tea Party

My daughter turned seven in December, and of course, she wanted a party. She didn’t want too many people; she’s a fairly quiet, shy girl of the fairy princess variety and the thought of inviting the whole class was as overwhelming to her as to us. So a tea party seemed just the thing. We called a local tea house famed for offering its guests tiaras and discovered our imaginations stretched further than our budget. My requirement that the whole house be clean before we host a party at home was met with a declaration to call the whole thing off. Then we thought of the dojo. My husband teaches at a martial arts school mere blocks from the tea house; the birthday girl was taking her yellow belt test days before the party, and The Princess in Black is her favorite book. Thus was born the Princess in Black Martial Arts Tea Party. Read More

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Goodreads, reading, reading challenge

2015 Reading Challenge

Last year I set a reading challenge on Goodreads. I think it was for 35 books, but I hit the goal in September and raised the bar to 50.

Not to fifty!

I read a lot of middle grade and romance books, which tend to be short, so it inflates my count. At the end of the year, Goodreads made this cute little report on my reading habits that I thought would be fun to share here on the blog. After a bit of futzing around, I’ve given up on trying to keep the cute formatting. Sorry about that. I tried to make up for it by inserting links to related blog posts. Anyway, here’s what I read last year.

TOTALS

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