Challenge 9: A Book With A Colour In The Title

Donna's book: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities from the Presidential Campaign Trail" by Charles Osgood (Hachette Books, 2008)

OK, I admit that I might have cheated slightly with the theme for this challenge, but white is definitely a colour!  Given the upcoming presidential election, and all the hatred that it seems to have generated, I thought that something that put the humour back into American elections might be just the tonic!

Comments:

This was such a disappointment.  It felt like Osgood got bored half way through writing this and lost interest.  There are some funny quotes but many of them needed more context or explanation to show why they'd been included.  There was a very basic summary of the themes for each election that provided a reasonably good overview but, as I often say to students, this reads more like a final draft than the finished product.

Challenge 9: A Book With A Colour In The Title

Ida's book: "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf, 2006)

Since reading Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminist" for a reading group at my university, I wanted to read more of her writing and this book fit the bill perfectly. It's not what I would normally go for, but that's quite exiting and I can't wait to see what world the book (and author) will show me.

Comments:

Having never read anything about Nigeria or Biafra, this was an eye-opening reading experience for me! Sometimes I felt the book proceeded too slowly, but still I couldn't leave it for too long I simply had to know what would happen to the characters. It's such an amazing book I can't really do it justice, but I will definitely read more from Adichie. 

Challenge 8: A Book At The Bottom Of Your "To Be Read" Pile

Donna's Book: "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels Through my Childhood" by Bill Bryson (Transworld, 2010)

I confess.  I just want to read some more Bryson.  But I got this book back in 2010 when it first came out and I've never got around to reading it, so I think it fits well enough into this challenge.  Bill Bryson writes with both intelligence and humour, and he is the perfect antidote to the madness-that-is-end-of-year-marking!

Comments:

I finished reading this ages ago, but the end-of-year-marking madness, and then the trying-to-write-as-much-as-possible-for-the-new-book-over-the-summer madness rather took over!  As always, Bill is wonderful and I recommend this to anyone who wants a nostalgic, humorous and insightful look back at the 1950s.  In telling the story of his own growing up, he also tells the story of the way that America 'grew up.'  As such, I realised that while I was reading this, I was actually 'at work.'  This will be added to the list of recommended reading for my students who study cultural changes in the US during the Cold War.  I recommend it to you too!

Challenge 8: A Book At The Bottom Of Your "To Be Read" Pile

Ida's book: "Did She Kill Him? A Victorian Tale Of Deception, Adultery, And Arsenic" by Kate Colquhoun (The Overlook Press, 2014).

I bought this book last year in the local Oxfam charity shop and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. I don't really have any expectations of what it'll be like, so this is something of a leap of faith (as it was when I bought it on a whim) but I'm ready for a (possibly) murderous woman from the Victorian era, so bring it on!

Comments:
Okay, so this book became a bit of an obsession for me, which I hadn't actually expected! First of all, it's set in Liverpool which was nice because I knew the places described in the book. It also managed to paint a picture of the Victorian era, by piecing together letters, transcripts and the like (always in italics so you knew these were the 'facts' as they were written down in the 1880s). Finally, the fate of this young woman, Florence Maybrick just kept me coming back for more and I was genuinely angry at the shoddy police work done at the time and the incompetent judge. These books about murder cases are curious things, as it would be quite easy to just look up whether she was sentenced or not, but I managed to steel myself and read through the book without looking up the case, which really is the only way of reading this kind of book, constantly asking yourself - yeah, but did she do it? Amazing book about a time when arsenic was simply everywhere and a the worst a woman could do was to have an affair.

Challenge 7: A Book By An Author You Love

Ida's book: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury, 1997)

So I'm well aware this challenge simply states "a book by an author you love" and not "a book you've read before" but I see no problem in re-reading and re-discovering old favourites, so that's what I'm doing this month. The first book came out in Denmark when I was 10 or 11 so it was the perfect age for me and I just fell in love with the whole concept. It's also a relatively short and easy read and I have multiple essays to write over the next month and a half so I needed something that I could properly relax with and I knew this book would be lovely to re-read.

Comments:

No surprises here, except that it was so lovely to rediscover Harry's world, and J.K. Rowling's wonderful writing. Quidditch was, and remains, the only sport I could ever get into.

Challenge 7: A Book By An Author You Love

Donna's Book: "The Road to Little Dribbling" by Bill Bryson (Transworld Publishers, 2015)

It wasn't hard for me to pick a book for this challenge.  I've always loved Bill Bryson's books and I've got about three that I haven't read so this challenge is the ideal opportunity to finally getting aroud to reading at least one of them!  I have to confess that I've already read the first few pages, and I laughed out loud at every single one of them.  I'm really looking forward to the next month!

Comments:

Because of the annual madness-that-is-end-of-year-marking, I had a feeling that I'd get a bit behind with the reading challenge, but that just means that I had longer to be entertained by Bill Bryson.  I'd post my favourite quotes from the book here, but that would mean that I'd had to type out virtually the whole book!  (And besides the time that would take, there is a teensy problem with copyright infringement if I do that.)  Suffice to say that I laughed out loud at virtually every page.  Mr Bryson has not lost his keen observational skills, or his comic touch in describing what he's seen and done.  This is brilliant from start to finish.  Do yourself a favour.  Read this book!!

Challenge 6: A Book By An Author You've Never Read Before

Ida's book: "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson (Sort of Books, 2003 (org. 1974))

Although I've seen countless Moomin cartoons on the telly I've never actually read anything by Tove Jansson. One of my friends recommended me this though, so I'm gonna give it a go. I have absolutely no expectations for this book, but the cover is very nice, and someone who came up with the Moomins can't be a bad writer!

Comments:

For some reason I found it very difficult to finish this book, hence the belated post here. There is no overarching narrative, the chapters seem like they're dipping into the rich stories of summers spent on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. The young girl can be quite annoying at times but is also incredibly well-written and totally believable, as is her relationship with her grandmother who's sarcasm, wit and wisdom kept me reading the book, she really was the star of the story.