janemarieprice reads in 2015

Hi all. I was active in ClubRead for several years some time back (as janepriceestrada). Life and work have conspired to both reduce my reading and severely reduce my internet usage. I’ve recently gotten some unexpected time off so will be reading a ton and am going to try to use that time to get back into LT. I can’t particularly track my reading so far this year but am just going to jump in where I am now.

Currently Reading:

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
Wolf Wing by Tanith Lee
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Read in 2015:

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Secret Lives of Dogs by Jana Murphy
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Snakecharm by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Why Buildings Stand Up by Mario Salvadori
Falcondance by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Wolfcry by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Wyvernhail by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Why Buildings Fall Down by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori
Structural Systems Study Guide by Kaplan Architecture Education
Wolf Star by Tanith Lee
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
Birds of Central Park
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman
Wolf Queen by Tanith Lee

It's always nice to get back to reading!

Welcome back Jane, it's nice to hear from you and get a reading update.

Hi Jane

Welcome back!

Thanks all! It is good to be back and have lots of reading time.

On that note, here’s my first review of the year:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

This had a lot of good aspects of a nice non-academic nonfiction work – interesting topic, readable, not repetitive. So generally I enjoyed it, but somehow I didn’t love it. I think part of it are the constant off-topic asides which I think are an effort to lessen the morbidity of the subject but maybe are just Roach’s style. I can see the appeal, but they wearied me. But other than that, I can’t really put my finger on why this didn’t grab me more. This all sounds more negative than I feel about it thought, and overall I would recommend it.

Of note is that this was a bad timing read for me. I was about halfway through when I was hospitalized so once I was out this read sort of increased my thoughts on mortality, etc. But I wasn’t really loving it before so I hesitate to blame my middling reaction entirely on that.

Another side note is often when I finish something I read the intro, acknowledgements, etc. just out of curiosity (not sure if anyone else does this), and noticed that one of my clients was the editor for this book which is kinda cool.

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

My dear sister got me this to read in the hospital and although I only got through one chapter there, I quite enjoyed this one. Natalia’s grandfather has just died in a remote village (presumable in Yugoslavia?) while she is also journeying to a remote village. We follow her story while being presented with fables her grandfather told her which illuminate his life as well as the lives of ancillary characters. The language is beautiful – particularly for a debut novel – and there’s a magical realism bent to the novel that I enjoyed. I see a lot of somewhat negative reviews about the story line being confusing, but I found it to just be a little loose in the narrative but strong on language and atmosphere.

The Tiger's Wife has been on my wishlist since 2011! It's such a lovely title. I'm glad your review reminded me of it. It sounds like a book I could like. Which is probably what I thought in 2011...

>8 FlorenceArt: I'd highly recommend it.

The Secret Lives of Dogs by Jana Murphy

Now this was the perfect hospital read. Short chapters with amusing anecdotes. Nothing any dog owner wouldn’t already know but it helped pass some amusing hours with my parents laughing about various quirks of our dogs over the years.

What's up with the hospital? Glad you're home. And Stiff has to go down as about the worst book ever to read in a hospital- particularly if you're the patient!

10 - Well hopefully my experience will help some people out there. I had an ovarian cyst rupture that bled into my abdomen. I had very bad pain in the night which then spread to cramping in my shoulders and back. I thought it was muscle spasms and was trying to wait until the clinic opens in the morning rather than going to ER but the pain was too bad. So by the time I got to ER I was in shock and had to be rushed into the surgery where they removed 1.5L of blood. But because of the shock and fluid dump in the ER I had fluid in my lungs so was in ICU for 3 days after surgery and then the hospital for another day and half. I'm really glad to be home now and recovering but it's 6 weeks out of work and slower than I would have thought. So...

thank you, thank you, thank you blood donors!
and ladies if you have severe abdominal pain please go to the ER!

Wow, Jane! Glad you're OK now. I once had an ovarian cyst that my gyn removed laporascopically but I was thinking if I ever had another one, I would wait and see. Thanks for the warning not to do so.

>11 janemarieprice: That is very scary! I'm glad you're on the road to recovery.

That's crazy scary. So glad you are recovering.

Wow! That IS scary. Glad you are all right now!

It's great to see you back here, Jane, although I'm very sorry that part of the reason is your ruptured hemorrhagic ovarian cyst. I hope that you're doing well!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. My goal is to get to most of my outstanding reviews here before the new year.

Birds of Central Park

I spent some time with this book this afternoon and it’s quite beautiful and I plan to continue dipping into it. Organized by season (which is helpful for me and my backyard bird watching), the photography is beautiful. My only complaint would be that I wish there was a checklist at the back.

Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather

This was a strange read about a Virginia family - the slave owning wife, her unobjecting husband, the family slaves, and their daughter who has become an abolitionist. I’ve loved the other Cather’s I’ve read, and this one flew by spending several late nights reading ‘just one more chapter’. But there was something that felt a little simplified about the characters and their reactions. I recommend it, but feel like I’d need a second reading to really fully grasp everything that was going on.

>18 janemarieprice: oh, how interesting. I just read about this in Toni Morrison's essay collection Playing in the Dark. Needless to say, it was not a glowing review. Morrison more or less blasts Cather for what the book reveals about her own feelings about race and it's use in literature (and, her finger is surely pointed at all white Americans, not just Cather). I had never heard of the book before that essay.

My goal is to finish up reviews of my second half of the year reading at least by the end of January! There’s a lot to catch up on though. To that end I’m going to try to plow through a few today in between bouts of cooking.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

I read this back in September and liked it well enough at the time, but now that more time has passed I like it even more. An unnamed narrator describes life in a large-ish ad agency around the time of the dot-com bubble bursting. Wonderful descriptions of office politics, relationships, and hardship as the economy starts to implode. I like the pacing where things start off funny and irreverent and develop into something more serious though still humorous. I will say at the time I read it, I was looking for something fun, but it hit a little too close to home. Recommended though for anyone who's worked in an office environment or likes humorous literature.

The Shapeshifters: The Kiesha'ra of the Den of Shadows by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

I quite enjoyed this fantasy series set in a vague world where people can shapeshift to their alternate form. These are quite short - almost novellas - that I would characterize as YA but a mature YA. Overall quick, entertaining reads that kept me up reading late.

Hawksong
I picked up Hawksong on the street one day and raced through it in a day. A bitter and bloody feud has existed for generations among Hawks and Serpentine shapeshifters. Two new rulers make a daring compromise. I found the characters and world building had great depth given the brevity of the book.

Snakecharm
The second book follows the tenuous peace between the Hawks and Serpents as well as new threats from the outside. This was my least favorite of the series. I just felt the plot a little loose.

Falcondance
I quite liked the next installment where we get to visit the Falcon land which was very surreal seeming. The main character here was a little less rounded out than the previous though.

Wolfcry
A very strong follow up to Falcondance, I really liked Oliza’s character and her development even though she was a little oblivious at times though aren’t we all at that age (and perhaps all our ages). The various adventures in this book were also page turning and interesting.

Wyvernhail
The final book of the series was interesting - more of a fatalistic, the fate of the world is in your hands type story. The main character Hai was possibly my favorite of the series so far, and her disjointed movement between present and futures possible was handled very skillfully.

*pokes head into the kitchen*

What are you making, Jane?

>22 kidzdoc: I went to a potluck dinner with a couple friends for New Years - highly recommended by the way as New Years has to be one of the worst holidays so this was nice and fun. I made:

Sausage and Cheese Dip
Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Chocolate Tart with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

I'm working my way slowly over to CR2016 so will have some pics and stuff for Club Cucina soon! Just trying to finish up my last reviews for 2015 over here. Or maybe I should just move the whole operation now since 2015 was a crap year anyway. :)

>23 janemarieprice: Sounds yummy! I look forward to seeing your photos and recipes in La Cucina, and your book reviews, of course.

I made gumbo for the first time on NYE, and I posted a photo of it and the recipe in La Cucina and in my new 2016 thread.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Utter drek. I’ve been in the mood for lighter reading lately as I’m having trouble with both focus and memory. This fit the bill in that sense as it was so bad I didn’t care if I forgot long sections of it. The basic plot - a man orders a mail order bride and shocker! turns out she’s not who she says she is - had potential, but it was just one cliched plot point after another by cardboard characters. I mean seriously I can’t even get a good black widow chick, just a whiny “but I love him…” brat. Ugh.

>24 kidzdoc: That's great! I'll pop over there to see. How'd it come out you think?

>26 janemarieprice: My family loved it, and I was pleased with it as well. I was afraid of burning the roux, since it was the first time I made it, and although I stopped cooking it when it achieved a milk chocolate color I think it would have tasted even better if I had cooked it for another 30-60 seconds. We had it again for dinner last night, and it tasted even better.

I read these two in preparation for taking the structures exam of my licensing tests. They were OK, helpful for my purposes, but more suited to a nonprofessional.

Why Buildings Stand Up by Mario Salvadori
This is a good basic overview of structural principles and how they work. The writing style grated on me a bit, but I got used to it after a while. I’d recommend for anyone who has a basic interest in learning about structures and how they work. His cheerleading of specific technologies as the be all end all ages the book unfortunately as his predictions have not borne out.

Why Buildings Fall Down by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori
The second volume is perhaps a bit more interesting for the lay reader, but I found it a little too repetitive. The few major disasters I already knew about and why they happened so that left a lot of smaller scale or less know collapses with similar reasons for failure. Still had some useful background for my studying though.

>27 kidzdoc: That's good! Yeah burning a roux is really, really bad. You can never get the smell to go away. :)

>25 janemarieprice: I didn't have the nerve to call A Reliable Wife utter drek, but it surely was!

I still have a few outstanding reviews but am officially moving on to 2016.

2016 thread here