I was going to insert a photo of Meryl, of course in Sophie's Choice, but it made me too sad. So you get this one, instead.
2012 was the year of my book challenge. It started out being a 52 books in a year Challenge.
But I'd conquered my 52 really early in the year, so it stretched to 80 and then 100 Before you say I have way too much time on my hands...I'm not arguing. My health is really poor and I am on a Disability Pension. I'm also quite agoraphobic so I'm home most of the time. Add to that insomnia (although that is more an explanation for my eleventy-billion pins) and the fact that I don't watch TV, and there you have it. Just getting that out of the way. This is how I choose to spend my time. Some watch TV. Some have girlfriends. I have my books.
Ok. Back to the happy. I read 100 books last year. And, I was happy! It was a pretty mixed bunch, though there wasn't very much non-fiction there. I read a LOT of news web sites, Op-Eds, Newspapers and the like. But I don't read very many non-fiction books (do Biographies and Autobiographies count?). I'm going to try to read some this year, but I read only a couple last year.
I wanted to pick my favourite 10 books. I thought that would be relatively easy. Until I sat and actually looked at my pic folder that has the 2012 book covers in it. Hence, Sophie's Choice.
This year, I read some of the classics I've been meaning to read for years. Some I loved - adored even.
This one, The Handmaid's Tale - I am torn. It was recommended to me by a good friend, a reader as passionate as I, who counts it among her favourites. The book is amazing, you really are transported to another world. I guess it was my first real foray into a Dystopian world. It's beautifully written. I was completely invested in the characters and the story. But I confess, it left me kind of miserable. Still, I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads (every book in this batch got 5 stars).
The Hobbit was an amazing experience for me. I bought a copy for Alexander, not entirely sure he was ready for it. He scares easily and has zero interest {in fact, not zero. There's a negative factor - he is adamantly against them} anything like Harry Potter or the Goosebump Series. Anyway. I have it to him, explaining that I'd first read it when I was just a year or two older than he and that I wanted him to branch out into another genre. Not only did he love it, but he seemed to understand the import- he knew he'd read something kind of life changing and that it had opened up an entirely new genre to him. And that he would remember and revisit this story for his whole life. It made me want to go back and rediscover it myself. I was surprised at just how little I remembered {really all that stuck in my mind was the Unexpected Dinner and Gollum :shudder:}. It was wonderful and has inspired me to revisit the LOTR Trilogy.
The Grapes of Wrath is similarly, not a happy tale, by any means. But oh, it's amazing. Sweeping across the country with this family, especially after researching (because I'm a nerd like that) what was going on in the US at the time, all of the issues behind the writing of this story - it was rich, vivid, heartbreakingly raw and harsh. Amazing though. You come out of The Grapes of Wrath feeling emotionally drained, a little stunned. That can't be a bad thing.
Others, I find myself wondering what the hell the fuss was all about. Streetcar was good, I won't pretend otherwise. But like Handmaid's Tale, I was utterly miserable, most of the time. But without the light at the end of the tunnel, that little moment at the end where you think, Maybe she'll be ok that I got from the Margaret Atwood saga.
I read these in my early-mid teens. They might have been titilating then, but I confess, they bored me to tears this time around. Well, that's not true. I read them, no skimming. And I can see that they are wonderfully written. I just couldn't get in to them this time around. Maybe I was just in the wrong mindset at the time? I had come off Grapes of Wrath, A Streetcar named Desire and A Tree grows in Brooklyn and I don't think these are what I was searching for at the time.
I read a few memoirs and novels of celebrities and some amazing people. Some were amazing. Did you know that Gabby Giffords had an appointment the Monday {2 days after} her shooting with her fertility specialist. They were going to finally start IVF treatments to have a much desired baby. That shooting took 6 lives, but devestated the lives of others. For Gabby and Mark it didn't just mean the loss of her career on The Hill {and his as an astronaut} but also the family they both so wanted.
Some were warm and funny...
Others I really wanted to like, but was left a bit disappointed.
Particularly these two. I adore both Ellen and Tina Fey {especially Tina} but neither of these books was what I had expected. That may be more my issue than theirs, but there you have it.
I revisited an old favourite series, reading the first 7 again {The rest are planned for this year}..Obviously this isn't all of them, buy they remain my favourites in the series.
And of course, made my yearly pilgrimage to Austen's regency years {have just realised I forgot to count either of these in my yearly list. Such is my habit of revisiting my two favourite Austen heroines each year}. Elizabeth is perhaps the Austen woman with whom I can most relate, but Oh, how I adore Captain Wentworth. I not only read Persuasion this year, but I watched two versions of the movie {my favourite one twice in 3 nights!}.
Others tackled difficult subjects and left me not just reeling, but thinking hard.
I fell in love with a couple of new authors. For the first time I discovered wonderful Regency literature that isn't written by my beloved Jane Austen. The first, Jude Morgan is in fact, a man! Thanks to Averil for this wonderful author. I spotted one of his books in the bookstore the other day {with reasonably large print} and I can't wait to settle down in to it.
Already like old friends. A couple of beloved authors were lost this year. Bryce Courtney {I don't love all of his books, but still am kind of spellbound by The Power of One}, Maeve Binchy {Fabulous summer reads} and the one that made me most sad - Nora Ephron. Nora Ephron is amazing. Funny, warm, smart. Kind of who I'd love to be when I grow up. And beloved by all who knew her, it would appear. If you haven't read them, grab either of these and meet her. She wasn't just a writer - she was a director, screenwriter, producer of a couple of my favourite movies ever -When Harry met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle.
I began a series that I never read in my childhood. I am not even sure why not, I think I'd just assumed I wouldn't be interested in the genre. Perhaps the "Witch" in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe put me off (I'm not really into stories with witches etc in them). Anyway, obviously I finally began the Narnia series. So beautiful. I can't wait to share them with Alexander. I debated {and is so like me, over-thought and over-researched} which way to read them. Either in the order that C.S Lewis wrote them {with The Magician's Nephew coming much later, thought it is a prequel, or chronologically. I chose the latter. I hope to finish the series later this year.
Which brings me to a couple of my stand out books this year. Books I read and have just fallen in love with, can't recommend highly enough.
5 Stars from me for Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.
When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?
I don't know what it was, really. But this book gave me a similar warm feeling that I got when I read The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I'm not even sure why, they are quite different. But love it I did, and I felt happy at the close of the book, satisfied and confident in the happiness of Major Pettigrew and his cast of characters.
Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone was an epic, sweeping saga that while at times difficult to read, left me so, so glad that I had. One of the books of the year for me.
A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
There was so much to this book. Starting out by making you feel invested in Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Doctor Thomas Stone and wanting more about them, about their story before Marion and Shiva take over the story, introducing us to Hema and Ghosh, Genet and a family of misfits and locals. And as much as Marion and Shiva themselves, Ethiopia and even Medicine, particularly Surgery play their own roles in this tome.
Get it. Read it. It's an investment of time, no doubt. But it's worth it.
Get it. Read it. It's an investment of time, no doubt. But it's worth it.
Alice Howland - Harvard professor, gifted researcher and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children - sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home. She has taken the route for years, but nothing looks familiar. She is utterly lost. Medical consults reveal early-onset Alzheimer's.
Alice's slowly but inevitably loses memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before. Genova's debut shows the disease progression through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so readers feel what she feels - a slowly building terror.
Alice's slowly but inevitably loses memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before. Genova's debut shows the disease progression through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so readers feel what she feels - a slowly building terror.
Probably the book of the year for me. I had no idea when it began that I was going to be changed so much, affected so deeply by this book. It is difficult, it is at times heart wrenching. But it is a book I believe everybody ought to read. It's an emotional experience, it puts you on a journey of your own and in my opinion, changes you. I remember vividly walking around almost in a state of shock for days after I read this, just so desperate to talk to someone about it. See if it was just me, or if the effect was the same for anyone else. A good friend of mine read it just after I did and she seemed to be affected exactly the same way. I gave it to my father. I warned him that it wasn't going to be an easy read for him. His wife as quite advanced dementia. He read it in hospital when he went back for his second surgery. He says he finished it just moments before the nurses came to get him to wheel him down to surgery. He was crying all the way down, couldn't stop, he said. He just had to tell them about this book, what it meant to him, what it taught him. It's that kind of book.
It teaches you not just about Alzheimers but it tells the story from the perspective of the person with it. It surprises you by who reacts in what way - people you don't expect to be strong are, standing up for her, helping her and the people you think will be her support systems sometimes letting her down.
Obviously, there are more books than these. But that's the gist of my 2012 literary highlights. What did you read? What books are you looking foward to reading this year?
