Two Read-A-Thons and a Final Challenge for 2011

When you think you can quietly (or not so quietly) enjoy Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas, and Christmas, there come the book bloggers with some more events to keep you busy.

Two read-a-thons and a getting ready for 2012 event. Maybe you want to join in! I do.

Thankfully Reading Weekend

Spend your Thanksgiving weekend (or if you don’t do Thanksgiving: it’s this coming weekend) reading!

There are no real rules: just to read as much as you can during Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There will be mini-challenges and giveaways.

You can sign up at Jenn’s Book Shelves HERE. Over 60 people already did! Hope to see you there!

Belated Readathon

The Belated Readathon is organised by Dead White Guys and The Souls of Thought and is “For Those Who Forgot About the Last One or Were Out of Town or Slept Through it or Whatever.”

The read-a-thon runs from 7am Saturday December 3rd until 7 am Sunday December 4th. A real 24 hour read-a-thon. So read into the early hours and join the other participants HERE.

Get Read-y for 2012

Not a read-a-thon, but a final challenge to get as many books off your shelves as possible, before the new year starts.

This is organised by Loving Books and runs for the whole of December, with weekly check-ins and a giveaway.

The goal is to reduce your to-be-read pile, and especially any review books that you haven’t got round to so you can start 2012 with a more manageable pile of books.

More information HERE and sign up on the Mr Linky on December 1st.

Will you find the time to participate?

Book Review: Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

I read this book for the Book Bloggers Abroad Challenge. This writer was suggested by Mystica from Sri Lanka in her guest post on my blog.

I know Ondaatje’s most famous book is The English Patient but I thought I’ll go for a different book (I think I saw the movie of The English Patient). Unfortunately, the book has nothing to do with Sri Lanka. Even so, it was a good read.

Divisadero: What it is about

Divisadero is about a family made up of a father, his daughter Anna, an adopted daughter Claire, and a farm hand, Coop. They live in Northern California.

One day, the relations between the family members are completely disturbed after a drama takes place at Coop’s cabin. Coop runs off while Anna is taken away by her father (and then runs off too).

Years later we find Coop and Anna back in completely different lives. Coop is a poker player while Anna is living in France researching the life of a deceased writer. Only Claire is still living near her father.

In France, Anna meets a gypsy who lives in a nearby field. He tells her the story of how he ended up where he is now. It turns out he knew the writer the Anna is researching. The last part of the book is about the life of the writer.

In the US, Coop and Claire meet by coincidence but the result of their meeting is very different from what they expected at first.

Divisadero: What I thought

The book was very well written but the first part went very slow for me. I wasn’t sure I was gong to like it, especially when Coop was in focus for a long chapter. I wasn’t interested in his life as a poker player. I was happy to see the book move on to Anna in France.

I really enjoyed the story of Anna in France. It felt quite idyllic: she lives in an historic farm house, meets a gypsy and researches the papers of a former writer.

According to other reviewers, there is a parallel between the life of the writer that Anna is researching and Anna’s family at home. I am too shallow a reader to notice this but it didn’t matter. The story was a good one anyway.

Book Bloggers Abroad Recap

Book Bloggers Abroad is over! Over the last half year, 26 book bloggers have shared their experience of reading and blogging in the country they live in. We have got to know them a bit better and also learned something of their country.

The feature has been very popular and many people are sorry to see it has now finished. But all good things must come to an end, and it’s better to end on a high!

Here’s a recap of what you’ve been seeing the last 26 Thursdays:

We went to every continent (except Antarctica) and visited 17 countries. 5 countries were visited more than once (but always with a totally new story). Most people were natives to their country but in a few cases we had people that had moved to the country from elsewhere.

The continents

AUSTRALIA (3): we visited Australia twice – Rachel of And the plot thickens… and Amanda of Desert Book Chick; New Zealand – Cat of Tell Me A Story.

EUROPE (8): we visited Germany – Rikki of The Bookkeeper; the UK trice - Jane of For Books ‘ Sake, Carly of Writing From The Tub, and Jackie of Farm Lane Books Blog; France - Charlotte of The Book on the Hill; The Netherlands – Gnoe of Graasland; Finland - Milka of Read.Read.Read; Belgium – Alexandra of The Sleepless Reader

ASIA (6): Indonesia - Novroz of Novroz’ Favorite Things; Sri Lanka – Mystica of Musings from Sri Lanka; Malaysia - Kah Woei of The Books of My Life; India twice – Misha of My Love Affair With Books and Tes of Tes at Home; Philippines - Chachic of Chachic’s Book Nook; and Japan – Nat of In Spring It Is The Dawn.

AFRICA (1): Ghana – Kinna of Kinna Reads.

NORTH AMERICA (7): USA five times – Belezza of Dolce Bellezza, Mari of Bookworm with a View, Esme of Chocolate and Croissants, Cathy of Kittling: Books, Colleen of Col Reads; Canada twice - Lisa of Star Metal Oak Book Blog and Lydia of The Literary Lollipop.

SOUTH AMERICA (1): Brazil – Larissa of Larissa’s Life

I’m very grateful for all you bloggers participating: thank you very much. I think lots of people have found new blogs and new blogging friends through Book Bloggers Abroad and that is very nice.

What’s Next?

If you like, join me in the Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge. Every week over the last 6 months, the featured book blogger left some recommendations about authors from their country. I’m planning to read some of those. If you want to find some new authors from all over the world: join me!

And the new weekly feature on Thursdays is going to be the Back of the Book competition. Each week, I will show you the back cover of a book and you’ll have to guess which book it is. You are invited to send in your own pictures of back covers! Hope you’ll join me in this crazy competition.

My Plans for the Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge

Book Bloggers Abroad is the popular weekly series where a book blogger tells us about their country and about blogging and finding the books they want to read.

Every guest poster left some suggestions of authors from their own country and it’s time to start reading some of them!

The launch post for the Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge is HERE. Sign up if you want to join in and read authors from all over the world!

I signed up for the Experienced Traveler level (10 books) and here is what I’m planning to read. My list is based on what I can borrow/reserve from the library. They are all writers that are new to me.

1. Australia: Solomon’s Song by Bryce Courtenay (or another book by this writer).
2. Germany:  The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers.
3. USA: The Blue Notebook by James Levine.
4. Sri Lanka: Any book by Michael Ondaatje.
5. New Zealand: A book with stories by Katherine Mansfield.
6. Canada: Flashforward by Robert J Sawyer.
7. India: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
8. Canada: Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler.
9. Finland: Purge by Sofi Oksanen (also for Nordic Challenge)
10. Belgium: The Invisible Frontier by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters.

I’ll cross them off as I go along. This is my own challenge and therefore the one I HAVE to finish (such a pressure!).

Let me know if you’re joining in and if you’ve written a post about it just like this one, put the link in the comments of the original post about the Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge HERE.

Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge

Book Bloggers Abroad is the popular weekly series where a book blogger tells us about their country and about blogging and finding the books they want to read.

From January 2011 I will no longer run this feature. It has been running for about 6 months and participants are now harder to get hold of. Also, isn’t it best to stop while it’s so popular rather than waiting for it to die down?

I will start one or two new events and also, I will be running the Book Bloggers Abroad 2011 Challenge. Maybe just for myself, but maybe there are people around who would like to join in.

If you do like to join in, leave a comment with a link to your own post about this challenge (if you are writing one). Tell me how many you hope to read.

How does it work?

Below I’ve listed all the guest posters of Book Bloggers Abroad and the author(s) and book(s) they recommended. Choose one book from each guest post. As some countries appear more than once, you can read more than one book for that country (but a maximum of one from each guest post). I’ve highlighted some books and authors, just so you can get a quick overview, but of course you can read any of the other books and authors recommended.

If only one particular book is recommended, you can replace it with another book by that author if you prefer. If you can’t find the recommended author(s) in your library/book shop feel free to replace with another author from the same country (but only do this if you have to).

I suggest trying to read 5 books as a minimum (Reluctant Traveler), 10 as an intermediary option (Experienced Traveler) and aim for 15 if you want to be an Ultimate Traveler. I’m going for 10 myself.

The challenge will run for the whole of 2011.

You can combine with other challenges to your heart’s content!

Recommendations

1. Rachel from Australia

The Book Thief by the Australian writer Marcus Zusak. This is a wonderful book about Nazi Germany and a little girl who loves books. Although, if you are looking for a book not only by an Australian writer but Australian “themed” I would go for something by Bryce Courtenay.

2. Rikki from Germany

One book in specific [I'd like to recommend] is by Walter Moers and is called “The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear“. It’s highly imaginative and fun. It is a book you either love or hate.

3. Bellezza from USA

E. B. White’s Charlottte’s Web, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, and Madeleine L’Engle’s novels, such as The Love Letters, are my favorite.

4. Jane from the UK

The national author I’d like to recommend is Dodie Smith, the author behind the children’s classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians. I love her debut novel, I Capture The Castle, about a young girl and her family who live in a decaying English castle during the 1930s, and I re-read it whenever I have chance. And although it might lose me any literary cool cred, I have a huge soft spot for the Harry Potter series too. Crime noir queen Cathi Unsworth is one of my favourite current authors, and her most recent novel Bad Penny Blues provides a fascinating insight into what London was like during the swinging sixties!

5. Novroz from Indonesia

Two years ago, I fell in love with this awesome Indonesian writer, he is Andrea Hirata. He writes books based on his past and it is written beautifully. His book called Rainbow Troops has already been translated to English.

6. Amanda from Australia

An Australian author that I recommend is Adrian Hyland. He’s a crime writer who write thrillers set in the Australian Outback. They are most authentic fictional representations of the Outback I’ve ever encountered. If you want to learn about Aboriginal life in the 21st Century, Hyland’s books area  must read. His books are: Diamond Dove and Gunshot Road.

7. Charlotte from France

I recommend The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which is a classic here and totally deserves its success around the world!

8. Mari from USA

I would pick The Poisonwood Bible (by Barbara Kingsolver), The Blue Notebook (James Levine) and both novels by Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Her Fearful Symmetry). They are not new titles but each book is different, well written and unlike anything else I have read.

9. Mystica from Sri Lanka

“Roma Tearne, Michelle de Kretser, Michael Ondaatje, Ashok Ferrey, Romesh Gunasekera. V.V. Ganeshanathan are a few that come to mind. Some of them are of Sri Lankan origin.”

10. Kinna from Ghana

I recommend books by Ama Ata Aidoo, Nii Ayikwei Parkes and Ayi Kwei Armah.  For those who are interested in crime fiction, I recommend Yaba Badoe’s True Murder and Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey.

11. Gnoe from the Netherlands

A Dutch book I can recommend is Nooit meer slapen (Beyond Sleep) by the late W.F. Hermans. The novel is about a young geographer on summer expedition in the nightless wilds of Lapland, dying to impress his mother by becoming famous in proving that the region’s lakes were created by meteorites. The oppressive atmosphere of this story is haunting and lingers on a long time after!

12. Carol from New Zealand

New Zealand has some first rate children’s authors so, for those fellow bloggers with children, one of our family’s top favourites are the wonderful Hairy Maclary books by Lynley Dodd. For adult reading – have you read Katherine Mansfield’s short stories? Wonderful.

13. Kah Woei from Malaysia

The books I love and enjoye are actually folk tales written in our national language, Bahasa Malaysia, such as Hikayat Sang Kancil (Tales of Sang Kancil) , Hang Tuah (The adventures of Hang Tuah), Puteri Gunung Ledang (Legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang) and so on which are mostly written for children.

14. Lisa from Canada

I have two authors to recommend. For urban fantasy fans, Kelley Armstrong writes some great novels in her Women of the Otherworld series beginning with Bitten. For those who are interested in science fiction I can recommend Robert J. Sawyer, author of FlashForward and a book I particularly liked, WWW: WAKE.

15. Carly from England

I’d say Louise Rennison and Sarra Manning. Louise Rennison of course for the brilliant Georgia Nicholson series that I loved in my teen years and Sarra Manning for the HUNDREDS of excellent books she’s written. My favourites of Manning’s are the Diary of a Crush series that were given away with J17 magazine years ago – I loved them so much! Both brilliant writers that are definitely worth checking out.

16. Misha from India

Some Indian authors I would suggest are Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry, Anita Desai and Kiran Desai.

17. Esme from USA

One of my favorite Canadian authors is Mordecai Richler. He grew up in Montreal, which is where all his books take place.  My favorite is The Apprentice of Duddy Kravitz. Of course I also have to mention Lucy Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.  I am a huge fan of Daniel Silva, his books are very well researched and always have a bibliography that leads me to other books. Michelle Moran is another favorite. [Esme lives in USA but comes from Canada]

18. Milka from Finland

There is one book I really want to recommend to everyone; ‘Purge’ by Sofi Oksanen. A couple of years ago Oksanen won the Finlandia book prize, the most valuable book prize in Finland, with Purge. It is definitely one of those books you just can’t put down.

19. Chachic from the Philippines

I would like to recommend Tall Story by Candy Gourlay, because I read a lot of YA books and this is the first YA book by a Filipino author that I’ve read and it’s really good.

20. Cathy from the USA

I’m going to choose Jon Talton. His David Mapstone mystery series, which begins with Concrete Desert, is set right here in Phoenix. The stories and characters are excellent, and Talton gets Phoenix and its history just right.

21. Larissa from Brazil

I’d like to recommend a Brazilian author to you, but the only one I know that has been translated into different languages is Paulo Coelho. A lot of people love him, but I’ve never read any of his books, so I really don’t know.

22. Alexandra from Belgium

My recommendation: the series Les Cités Obscures (in English, Cities of the Fantastic, available on Amazon) by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters. Visually they are right up my alley and the stories are fascinating.

23. Jackie from the UK

The Lake District holds a special place in my heart and so I particularly enjoy books written by Sarah Hall. I would especially recommend her book Haweswater.

24. Tes from India (Thailand recommendations)

I’d like to suggest books that are very dear to me by authors from Thailand. One is Look Isan or The Child of the Northeast by Kaboon Boonthavee. It’s the heartfelt story of the people living in Northeast Thailand, where I come from. It’s so close to heart and it actually a S.E.A. Write Award-winning book.

The second book is the book from the reading lists in my high school which I never forgot to love, The happiness of Krati by Ngarmpun Vejjajiva, the stories of a little girl who lived with her grandparents and the sorrow and happiness viewpoint of this small girl. This book is also a S.E.A Write Award-winning book.

25. Colleen from USA

I recommend Carl Hiaassen, Christopher Buckley and Dave Barry, all of whom have made me laugh until I cried at various times, to truly experience the snarky side of American intellectualism. Buckley’s Boomsday was a favorite.

26. Lydia from Canada

A local Ottawa writer I enjoy is Alan Cumyn. His novel Losing It is absolutely hilarious. He was writer-in-residence for a period of time at the University of Ottawa, my old academic stomping grounds.

Will you be joining in?