ROOTilicious Reads (karspeak)

I really enjoyed this group last year! My goal is 20 for this year. Happy reading to all!

Welcome back and good luck! :)

Good to see you again, Karen.

Glad to see you're here again!

Hi karspeak. Good luck with your challenge.

>2 rabbitprincess:, 3, 4 & 5--Thanks, all! I look forward to following your threads this year!

1. Speaking From Among the Bones (LT Rec)

Finally, a book read! And a very fun one, too. This was my first Flavia de Luce novel (but not the first in the series). This British mystery novel with an extremely precocious 11-year old girl as protagonist is, in a word, delightful. I read it because it was on so many LTers Top Five list for 2013. I was worried it would be too YA, but it felt like an adult novel told through the lens of an 11 year old's perception. It was brilliantly done, and the writing/tone was absolutely pitch-perfect throughout.

Welcome back and congrats on your first book. My sister bought it for her library (she's a librarian) and strongly recommended that to me. I thought it was hilarious.

Congrats on the first ROOT, Karen. Don't forget to update your ticker!

MissWatson, I'm glad you enjoyed it, too!
Connie, thanks for the reminder about the ticker!

>6 karspeak:: Yay! That one was my favourite in the series. Glad you enjoyed it.

:)

2. Midnight Riot (LT rec)
Well, this was a very fun read, as well!! As one reviewer put it, it's CSI crossed with Harry Potter (plus lots of London flavor thrown in). And the writing was very clever but concise. Fun!

More yay! I love the Peter Grant series. Nightingale cracks me up.

>6 karspeak: hmm hmm, *cough* Canadian mystery.

>13 rabbitprincess:--I love how deadpan Peter is. Any other fabulous series I am missing?!

>14 ipsoivan:--OH! Thanks for setting me straight!!

3. Code Name Verity (LT Rec--#7 from Top Five Books of 2013)
Wow, this was SO good, such a page turner! It's about 2 young women who become friends in Britain during WWII. One becomes a pilot, and one becomes a secret agent, and things happen... I had avoided reading this despite the glowing reviews because it is listed as a "teen and YA novel." But I really enjoyed it and didn't find it juvenile in the slightest.

Karspeak - so glad you enjoyed Code Name Verity - it was one of my absolute favorites of last year.

I think I talked several women in my book club tonight into reading it, I look forward to hearing how they liked it!

>15 karspeak: we Canadians are very eager to claim Breadley!

>19 ipsoivan:--No doubt!!

4. The Rosie Project (LT Rec--#23 from Top Five Books of 2013)
This is a story of a man with Aspergers and his search for a wife. Along the way he ends up learning a lot about himself, his relationships, and lots of social rules he has never picked up on before. This is a light and engaging story that is fun to read, although it is a bit Hollywood-ized. I stayed up late to finish this one (and all of the other books so far this year--I am on a roll!).

Darn, two more boks to put on my wishlist, but the Rosie Project sounds really beautiful and the Peter Grant series seems to be very interesting. I'm excited to see how they connected magic, police and modern world.

5. Life After Life (LT rec)
I will write a blurb about this book in the next few days, just wanted to post it for the January group total.

So, Life After Life. This was supposedly LTers overall fave read last year. I had mixed feelings on it, although I did enjoy it overall. The depictions of living in London during WWII were fantastic, and all of the times that the main character's life started over/repeated resulted in stronger characterizations of her and her family. And I like the idea of how very minor decisions or incidents can drastically alter the course of one's life. But it also dragged on for me quite a bit, and the plot didn't quite make sense to me, including the ending. But I enjoyed it.

6. The Year of the Flood (LT rec)
This is the second novel in Margaret Atwood's enviro-dystopic trilogy. I actually didn't care for the first book Oryx and Crake, but so many LTers spoke highly of the second book that I thought I would give it a go. And I really enjoyed it. I found the characters in this book much more likable and less negative, which allowed me to enjoy Atwood's environmental plotting and future world-building more. Which really is SO well done. I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy!

7. Sold (Book Club)
This was a quick read, and it was exactly what I thought it would be--a sad, first-person fictional account of a girl being sold into the sex trade in Calcutta. In Half the Sky I had already read similar true accounts, so I didn't see the point (for me) in reading it. But at least it was quick and well-written.

You have been doing some serious reading, of serious things! Way to go!

I'm glad the second book in Atwood's series was better than the first. It would have been disappointing to have had to drag through it.

>25 Merryann:--I'm reading the final book in the trilogy now, Merryann, I'm curious to see what happens!

8. The Sorcerer's Apprentices: a Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adria's el bulli
For hard-core foodies only, I wish this had been shortened quite a bit! My husband loved it, though.

How's the final book? Still reading it?

>27 Merryann: I just finished it yesterday!

9. MaddAddam
Hmm, I didn't care much for this final book in the Oryx and Crake trilogy. The plot dragged and not much actually happened. But some of Atwood's ideas in this series were downright brilliant, so this trilogy was still worth a read for me.

Since I have already accomplished almost half of my challenge, I have decided to make it more, um, challenging. The last half of my ROOTS challenge will only count books that are from the bottom third of my TBR list. Duh duh DUH...

10. On the Beach (LT rec)
This is a post-apocalyptic (in this case post-nuclear) novel published in 1957. I thought it well conveyed the plausibility of a worldwide nuclear disaster, and I'm sure the novel hit very close to home with the Cold War audience. But I wasn't convinced by the characters' reactions to their impending doom. They all seemed a bit too calm about it. The scientific/plot aspects succeeded more than the humanity aspects. But I'm still glad I read it.

Wow, I will be following this extra extra challenge, Karen!

Sorry that it's been a month since we talked about it, but how was the last book in the Atwood trilogy? Did it make up for the blah-ish second book?

>32 Merryann: The middle book was my favorite by far. The last book didn't have enough plot development for my taste, but it did wrap the series up. I can't drive by a fast food restaurant now without thinking of Atwood's futuristic-but-still-based-in-present-reality descriptions of fast-food chains in her series:).

Thanks. I think if I read them, I'll just get them from the library.

>30 karspeak: On the Beach really hit me hard. It unsettled me more the closer I got to the end, and when I finished it took a couple of days to recover. But I agree, it was well worth reading.

>35 rabbitprincess: I love it when a book gets to me! I would like to see a book published that is similar to On the Beach except with global climate change being the massive oops instead of nuclear warfare. Lots of current post-apocalyptic books include many climate change themes, but none that I know of have focused on it exclusively and had characters play out the effects. Not that nukes aren't still a significant threat, but it seems like global climate change is the sword over our heads right now...

That would be an interesting book! In the meantime, have you read A Scientific Romance? It's about a guy who time travels 500 years into the future, and the Earth presented in the book shows what might happen to us with global warming. It's a bit dated technologically, because it was written and set around the turn of the millennium (mainly, the time traveller uses a laptop and CD-ROMs!), but is pretty good anyway.

>37 rabbitprincess: Ooh, I'll check it out, thanks for the rec!

11. The Autistic Brain
I read Temple Grandin's book Thinking in Pictures years ago, and I was excited to hear about this, her latest book, which discusses the current science (as of a year ago) behind autism. Temple Grandin is a well-known author who has autism, but it was her intelligence and scientific mindset and background that made this book such a good read for me. Recommended if you want to have a better scientific understanding of autism and have only read experiential accounts thus far. I don't think I gained much applicable new information (I work with many children on the spectrum). But I really enjoyed it, and it did crystallize some concepts for me.

12. Lexicon (LT rec)
I so enjoyed this book, on so many levels. I like that it is a good, well-written novel with fun and original ideas interwoven skillfully with the plot. Below is part of the product description from Amazon, which maybe explains it better:
Max Barry’s Lexicon is that rare thing: a thriller as high-octane as they come, driven by a brilliant and original plot that connects very modern questions of privacy and data collection to centuries-old ideas about the power of language.

13. French Kids Eat Everything
This NF book was quite good. It was interesting to watch the author and her children adjust to and eventually embrace the French cultural rules about food, then re-adjust when they moved back to Canada. It was well-written, and it also had a lot of French cultural insights (since a love of food is such an integral part of their culture). I would particularly recommend this to parents of young children or soon-to-be parents.

You are doing great, Karen! You are more than halfway your goal!

>42 connie53: Thanks!!

14. The Rook (LT rec)
This novel set in London involves a supernatural, secret branch of the British government. It reminded me very much of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement from the Harry Potter series, but for adults. The whimsical and self-deprecatory humor throughout also reminded me a lot of the Harry Potter books. It felt a bit long (it's 512 pages), but it was an entertaining read.

If The Rook isn't already on my TBR, it is now thanks to your review! Good to know about the length.

>45 rabbitprincess: Enjoy!

I also wanted to mention AmazonSmile. It has your same account settings and info as Amazon, but a small percentage of the cost of your order is donated by Amazon to a charity of your choice. I thought some other LTers might want to know about it. If we are spending so much money on books, we might as well have some of it go to charity!!

I've been very intrigued by The Rook - and I recently read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch about a supernatural branch of the police (interesting concept - I'm a little iffy on the execution of that one, though), so moving this one up on the TBR mountain

>48 Caramellunacy: I read Aaronovitch's Midnight Riot and enjoyed it, but it and The Rook are quite different. They are both light reads, though. They were fun, but I'm not sure how well I'll remember either one a year from now...

Oh, I see that Rivers of London and Midnight Riot are the same book--British versus American title.

>47 karspeak:. Thanks for that post. I'd read about this in another post somewhere and already forgotten about it, shame on me. Now, I'll remember.

>51 Merryann: I keep remembering then forgetting again! New habits take a while to form, I guess...

I finished 2 ROOTs for June, which I will post about once I am back from vacation: Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare and The Windup Girl.

15. The Windup Girl (Hugo and Nebula winner)
This is an eco-post apocalyptic novel set in Bangkok. The envisioned future world seemed particularly creative to me, but the plot/characters didn't blow me away as much, perhaps because I didn't really connect with/like any of the characters?

16. Why Big, Fierce Animals are Rare (Amazon or LT rec?)
This was very good, definitely recommended if you enjoy reading about biology or ecology. The author tackles a different question in each chapter, such as why aren't there more species on the earth, or why aren't there more large predators. I found his answers and musings informative and clear. And the author didn't get bogged down by minutiae. It is an older book, but that doesn't diminish the author's insights.

My first Root for July:

17. Brat Farrar (LT rec)
An enjoyable mystery/suspense classic.

18. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Very fun. This is like a mix between Ready Player One and The DaVinci Code, with a dash of Cryptonomicon and Hitchiker's Guide for good measure. Light, fun, entertaining, well done.

>54 karspeak: Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare What a great sounding book! Another one for the wishlist!

>57 Merryann: Excellent, enjoy!

Only 2 ROOTs for me for July, but I'm working on one for August.

Great job on rooting. I have added Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore to my wish list.

>59 Tess_W: Thanks!

>59 Tess_W: And you did a good thing by adding that book to the wish list, Tess. I liked it a lot too!

19. Night Film (LT rec)
This was a clever suspense novel that was fun but, at 640 pages, too loooong. I finally started skimming parts so that I could finish it and figure out how it ended. The feel to this was modern Alfred Hitchcock, with lots of psychological twists and turns, and various paradigm shifts, all with a noir feel to it. I was worried that this would turn into a horror book, but it veered away from that. I found the main character unbelievable (really, an experienced investigative journalist can't get rid of some pesky kids who want to join the case?), but, all in all, a clever book.

I didn't have any ROOTs for August, and this is my first for September.

You're close enough to your goal to allow for some slack!

>63 MissWatson: I've got a few serious NF ROOTs lined up which should make it a bit more challenging;).

20. Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time
The author of this NF book is a Washington Post journalist and mother of two school aged kids and a wife. She realized that she was going a million miles an hour to juggle everything and still not getting it all done. So, she decided to try to find a better way to live and balance family and work, and she wrote a book about it. The first two parts, "Work" and "Love," felt very similar to me to Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. These parts discussed such issues as how the workplace is still biased against women with children, how most marriages are still quite unequal in the division of childrearing and housework, and how some countries, such as Denmark, are doing really well at addressing these issues. The third part of the book, "Play," was my favorite. The author discussed the value and scarcity of leisure, how women have always had the least leisure time, how to seek out leisure pursuits, how to be a bit less technologically plugged in, how to chunk your time instead of multitasking to be more productive, how to use small bits of time to calm yourself so you are not as harried, and so forth. I recommend this book for women who constantly feel too busy or overwhelmed by their never-ending to-do lists. It's geared more toward working mothers, but the last section, especially, would apply to anyone.

>Hmm, just placed a hold for that at the library. Can you tell I'm feeling overwhelmed?

>66 ipsoivan: ;)

21. The Noonday Demon
This exhaustive (400+ pgs) NF book on depression was clearly a labor of love by the author, who is remarkably intelligent, articulate, and caring. It won a very well-deserved National Book Award. I was amazed at the breadth of the author's research. Highly recommended if you want to learn more about depression.

That makes 3 ROOTs for me for Sept. I want to read or at least peruse the oldest 4 books on my TBR list before the end of the year!

You can do that, I'm sure of it. 3 more months to go!

>70 connie53: It's a good way to force myself to read some heavy NF:).