Top Reads for July

I am happy with my July reads, a book from the darkest corner of my TBR pile, another I received as a gift, a trio of Asian mysteries and more!  I am still working on The 11 in 11 Category Challenge : Soffitta1's 11 in 11.   I've got more books on my top reads than in previous, this is a nod to my 1001 Challenge and also to the fact that I was doing a summer camp and needed some "switch-off" reads for the evenings.  I am pleased to say that there were no bad apples this time, which probably accounts for so many "top reads"!



I read three page-turners, whilst they aren't the highest rated books, they all entertained me.  First up was Water for Elephants, which I received this as a RABCK, as it was on my wishlist and couldn't resist getting stuck in immediately. I haven't seen the film, and didn't know much about it before starting, all the better.  The book has two timelines, a man in an old folks' home is reliving his past, a very colourful past. Jacob worked on a circus as a young man, and here the story of his life on the road and his love, Marlena.  A good love story told against a rather unusual backdrop, though I felt it could have done with some tweaking to make it great.  Next was The Winter Ghosts, a real page turner, I sat down in a cafe to read " just a few more chapters" and ended up finishing the book!   I was already familiar with Mosse's work, having read Labyrinth a few years ago. The Winter Ghosts also takes place in the same area of France, the Languedoc region, famous for the Cathars. Starting in the inter war period, a young man walks into a shop with a piece of parchment with an almost forgotten language written on it, he then tells the story of how he came into possession of it.  I enjoyed the dual time period of the book, and Mosse certainly knows how to draw in her audience and paint a beautiful scene. Perfect after a long day at summer camp, it is the kind of book that sucks you, entertains you, but ultimately won't remain with you for long.   The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, another of my long term TBR books. I really enjoyed Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which is why I picked this up.   Wilberforce is a wine-lover, though that term doesn't really get close to how he really feels about the drink, he "inherited" a great wine cellar when he bought up a dying friend's collection. He justifies his drinking, claiming not to be an alcoholic as he only drinks great wine, not just any bottle.   The style of the book is unusual, with Wilberforce narrating his story, each part starts a year before the previous, so while you know how it will end, only slowly do you find why.   I would recommend the book, for the literary style and also a, sometimes painful and often sad, intimate portrayal of a man's self-destruction.

I kept up with my 52x 1001 books in 2011 Challenge, this months offereing differed wildly.  I had put off reading The Age of Innocence, putting it down and picking up again and again, over a period of 3 years!  It is a tale of clandestine love in the upper echelons of society in New York in the 1870s.  Archer is torn between love and desire on one side and social duty on the other.  Very good, not only because of a well-told romance, but also as a window into the society of the time.  The Trial, another book on my radar since studying some Kafka at uni, was a good, thought-provoking read. I did have a severe case of deja vu with the priest's description of the door keeper, but as none of the rest of the book seemed familiar, I think I had studied that section as part of background reading. Strange, but fitting I suppose!  A lighter entry from the list was Fantomas.  I knew nothing of this, being sent it through the 1001-Library. It was great fun, a mystery about famed mysterious criminal, Fantomas, and Juve, the detective determined to catch him. Three seemingly unlinked crimes, 2 rather gruesome, are connected by Juve and he sets off to find evidence. There are better books in the genre, but apparently this book was the inspiration for those which followed.

I got stuck into Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri series, reading the first three in July.  It is an unusual series, from the setting in Laos, a little known country, to its main characters.  The first in the Dr. Siri series, The Coroner's Lunch, introduces us to Dr. Siri, a reluctant coroner in '70s Laos.  Siri is a great character, he is a grumpy 70 year old,  a party member, though he admits to joining up for a woman, his wife.  He doesn't suffers fools gladly, and he, and his unusual team made up of a rotund nurse and a young man with mild Down's Syndrome, solve a series of unusual murders.  In the first book, the bodies of an official's wife and 3 Vietnamese torture victims cause the doctor to look more closely, especially when it becomes clear he is not wanted on either case.  In the second book, Thirty-three Teeth, there is a bigger nod to the supernatural.  Here Siri has two missions, first to discover how to open a box with a royal seal and second, to capture the creature terrorising Ventiene.  The third installment, Disco for the Departed pulls you straight into a strange mystery, this time an arm is found sticking out of a concrete path. Siri and Dtui are called to investigate.  It is always good to come across an interesting new series.  The only snag is I have book 6, but not book 4 or 5. I may crack my buying moratorium, as it means I can read book 6 which is on my TBR pile. That means it isn't really buying new books, doesn't it?

Wildcard of the month must go to The Ministry of Fear. Not what I thought it would be from the title - another wartime thriller. It is set in WW2, but is a a psychological thriller. Arthur Rowe is a man with a guilty conscience, he killed his ill wife, deemed a mercy killing, but he can't get past it. He goes to a fair, and on a whim goes to have his fortune read, accidentally giving the code phrase to the fortune-teller. He leaves with a cake, the weight of which was revealed to him by the fortune-teller, wondering why the fair organisers don't want to give it to him.  Good thriller, unexpectedly so from the cover.

UK 1001-Library VBB Round 4

Back to popular demand (and my own voracious appetite for 1001 books), Round 4 has begun.  The box currently contains 21 books.  Here's hoping that people find some good books!

1. All Quiet on the Western Front

2. farewell my lovely
3. Out of Africa (Penguin Modern Classics)
4. Les enfants terribles
5. Everything You Need 
6. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
7.Brideshead Revisited:(Penguin Modern Classics)
8. Sons and Lovers
9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: And What Alice Found There (Oxford World's Classics)
10. The Sea, the Sea
11. Catch-22  
12. White Teeth
13. The Scarlet Letter (Arcturus Classics)
14. Foe (Essential Penguin)
15. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China  
16. The House of Mirth 
17. Slaughterhouse-Five
18. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

19. Atonement

20.The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts 
21. The Crow Road

1001 VBB Round 3 Completed

Another successful round completed, with 34 books changing hands.


1.  The Big Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Mystery (Penguin Fiction) 
2. Sputnik Sweetheart  
3.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
4.  Schindler's List
5.  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 
6. Waterland
7. Ravishing of Lol Stein 
8. Troubles
9. Invisible Man
10. Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Mystery)
11. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 
12. Rites of Passage
13. The Green Man (Vintage Classic)  
14. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories (World's Classics)
15. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (King Penguin)
16.  The Maltese Falcon (Crime Masterworks) 
17. A Prayer for Owen Meany 
18. Things Fall Apart
19. The Master
20. Mother's Milk   
21. Diary of a Nobody (Wordsworth Classics) 
22. The Cement Garden (Different picture)    
23. All Quiet on the Western Front 
24. Casino Royale (Penguin Viking Lit Fiction) 
25. Looking for the Possible Dance 
26. Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)
27. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics)
28. A Boy's Own Story 
29. Ivanhoe (BBC)
30. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin Popular Classics) 
31. Pippi Longstocking
32. The Time Machine (Everyman Paperback Classics) 
33. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 
34. Platero and I

11 in 11 Step Challenge

 I finished the 11 in 11 Category Challenge and was busy reading some bonus books, until I decided to jump into a second challenge.  So here it is, Soffitta1's 11 in 11 Step Challenge, 11 categories but this time, the first category is 11 books, the second 10, etc.  Here are my initial categories, but I am sure they will change and be moved around.

 

11x 1001 Books


1. Agnes Grey ** Group Read
2. The Diary of a Nobody
3. Suite Francaise **Group Read

 

10x Asian Books



I usually read a lot of books set in Asia or by Asian writers, hopefully some from my huge TBR pile.
1. [Lord Jim]

9x Spanish Speaking World


1. Dreaming in Cuban

8x British


1. Where have all the Boys Gone
2. Dinner for Two

7x In Spanish


TBR
1. Muerte de Tinta

6x History

5x It's a sign!



Books that I pick up because of a connection, authors that crop up in conversation or by word of mouth.

1. Santaland Diaries I heard a bit of an interview with the author on BBC Radio 4 Extra and, a couple of days later, a colleague gave me this book.

4x Mystery

3x Short Stories

2x Children's Books

I am going to be working on a summer camp, so will be reading with my students. And, I am a big kid at heart ;)

 

 

1x Tome

A big, fat, scary book.

Top Reads in March

I am still busy with my 11 in 11 Challenge on Librarything, so was pleased to slot all my books into categories there.  All four of my top reads were 1001 Books, all from the 1001-Library.  All were very different.  One Spanish classic about a donkey, a modern reality from Pakistan, India in the 1970s and 80s and an Irish book based on a real crime.

The first top read was Platero and I, another book received through the 1001-Library.  This is a Spanish classic, indeed it is still read today by high school students in Spain. 
The musings of a man in Andalucia directed towards his donkey, Platero.  Platero becomes more than a donkey, he is a companion who recognises that he is different to other donkeys, and shows very human emotions.  I loved the chapter when he joins in a race with the children, he so wants to be part of the family, more than just a pet.  It is clear that he was, from the author's tone and the final chapters, and chapter XXXV. The Leech, where it is Platero who is afflicted by this pest.
The book follows the seasons, from spring to winter, and also the life of Platero.  Jimenez gives us snapshots of Andalusian life, from the flora and fauna to the different people, from his own memories to traditions. 
The style is very simple, a conversational tone, but blink and you might miss the accuracy of his description of life at the time.  There is also social commentary, as in chapter XXIV. Don José, the Curate, a man who is rather ungodly in the field, but assumes his religious role with his "work clothes".  Another example is the sad chapter XLVI. The Consumptive Girl.
As I have said, this is a simply written book, but one of many layers.  This would appeal to those wanting to know more about Spain, to those who like a poetic narrative style, and anyone who has ever known a donkey.  The drawings are also beautiful.

The second was The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  I bumped this up my list when I saw it on World Book Night's list of 25 books, and I'm glad I did.
An American in Lahore is offered assistance by a local. A well-spoken, obviously well-educated, and despite his appearance (in traditional Pakistani clothes and with a beard), an America-phile.
What follows is the stoy if how he went to the States and reutned. His story is not so unusual, a gifted students wins a scholarship to the prestigious university of Princeton, gets a good job on graduation, but somehow it all goes wrong and he returns to his native Pakistan. He tells his personal history, of a love affari with Erica, his job, as well as of life as a Pakistani living in a Pre and Post- 9/11 New York.
He narrates this to his rather silent comparison, indeed the only response we hear are from the other man is the narrator commentating on his interjections. From these comments, Hashid shares with us the tradition of taking tea, the experience of sitting at a streetside cafe, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Lahore. The technique is very well-used, and the narrator's descriptions are vivid, making it wasy for the reader to picture the scene in their mind's eye. The first person narrative also helps to build the underlying tension of the novel, a growing sense of disquiet.
Through this book, I was reminded of how life changed on that fateful day in 2001. Forever our lives would be split into two periods, Pre 9/11 and Post 9/11. It also underlined how the attacks had, indeed have, far reaching consequences - from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to the 7/7 bombings in London, from extra security checks at airports and borders to the suspicion of a darker skinned man sitting opposite you on the tube with a rucksack on his knee.
Life IS complicated, what makes The Reluctant Fundamentalist so readable, so good, is that the narrator is not the caricature of a religious fanatic or an insular man. No, he is an educated man from an educated family, not who you would expect to turn their back on the West. You may ask, however, who turned their back first? Unfortunately our Post 9/11 world deals in absolutes, if you are not 100% with us, then you must be against us.
The book was on the 2008 1001 List, but removed in 2010, what a pity.  This would be a great book group read, as there are so many things to discuss. I am passing on this copy, but will get my own to reread in the future.

The third was A Fine Balance.  Have I really had this for 3 years? Eek!  I've had this for a while, it has been staring at me reproachfully as I picked up its slimmer neighbours to read. At Christmas, I had a reshuffle of my shelves, putting all the 1001 books to the front, and decided to bring this to Spain to read.
Mistry gives us a portrait of India in the time of a nationally declared State Emergency, although he does move back and forward in time to complete the story. He does this through the eyes of four main characters, four strangers brought together by fate.
Maneck is a young student from a mountain hill town, unhappy away from his home, where he would help his parents in their shop, he wants to move out of the halls of accommodation. He takes a room in Dina Dalal's house, Auntie Dina was one his mother's classmates at school. On the train, as he goes for his first meeting with Dina, he meets two tailors (Ishvar and Om), coincidentally also heading for the same address for a job interview.
Mistry moves around in time to tell their stories, we start with their meeting, then we got back one by one to see how the character made it to that point. Dina is a widow, struggling to make ends meet, trying to keep herself without resorting to her brother's charity. Her promising start was derailed with the death of her parents, leaving her in the cars of her older brother who doesn't understand his headstrong sister and punishes her dissent. A glimmer of hope came in the form of her husband, but he too was taken away. Through another classmate, she receives Maneck as a lodger and hires the two tailors to sew for her. She is kind at heart, but so conscious about how people will perceive her actions, often making her misunderstood. She is also rather naive, unable to see the problems of the others.
Ishvar and Om are two tailors who have come to the city to make money, as their trade is slowly being killed off by the lower standard readymade clothes. They are very close, having gone through many trials together, especially those caused by throwing off the shackles of their caste, which cured leather and is considered as very low, and training to be tailors, the legacy of Ishvar's father.
Maneck is the glue that binds this strange group, young like Om, from the same social class as Dina, he tries to bring them closer. He hopes to recreate a happy home life, like the one he feels he was sent away from.
The action moves in time and space, very different locations, which help to flesh out the narrative. Maneck comes from an idyllic mountain town, one which is being ravaged by modernity, the tailors from a village still in the grip of a feudal society, one where their familiy's attempt to step out of their alloted place proves fatal. The tailors are apprenticed to Muslim tailor in a town, but again modernity strikes, and the ready made garments render them out of work. Most of the action takes place in the city, Bombay as it was, in the city, on the streets and also in the precarious shanty towns roundabout.
Mistry brings together many aspects of life at that time, the most prevalent being that of the poor. Ishvar and Om are punished many times for their situation, as if it were of their own making. The police harrass them, pick them up to fill quotas for yet another government scheme or even to pad out rallies in support of the Prime Minister herself.
Another theme is corruption - the landlords, the lawyers, the police, even the PM. Connections are what matter, and what connections to the poor have? Well, here we have the Beggar Master, a man who watches over his grotesque band. He is an example of the ambiguity of life in India, for, while the Beggar Master does look after his charges, it is clear that some owe their disabilities to him. In their move to the city, the tailors end up as friends of some of these beggars, who help them on the street.
What makes the book so tragic is that everytime you think the four will make it, they are dragged back down. I'd recommend this to people who have read Q & A and what a deeper, more realistic read, as well as people interested in India. Don't be put off its size, and don't let it sit on your shelf for years like me!  
The last, also a 1001 Book, was In the Forest . Last year I read another of O'Brien's books, August is a Wicked Month, and was happy to get my hands on more of her books.
The author takes real events from the '90s and weaves her own narrative. The result is a compelling, yet unnerving book.
O'Kane is a disturbed young man, in and out of state institutions and recently released from prison in England. His return to his native Ireland sparks a seemingly inevitable downaward spiral of fear and violence. As a young boy, he committed a murder and is sent to a brutal, priest-run institution where he is abused by both the other boys and priests.
Newcomers Elie and her son Maddie unwittingly put themselves in his path by moving into a house in the woods which O'Kane had previously occupied. Elie is viewed with some suspicion, an outsider, unmarried mother, an affair with a younger man, a Buddhist.
It is easy to think of O'Kane as a monster, the Kinderschreck as he is named by a man early in the bok, but as his own brother says, he is a monster made. Can a child born of violence avoid being violent? Even towards those who try and help him? I don't think O'Brien is to gain sympathy for her own devil, but it does explain the fear and shame of the villagers in their dealings with him. It is this fear and shame which prevents them from shopping the situation from escalating.
This was one of those books that you want to read, but yet, I kept putting it down, just for a few minutes, ever hopeful to see some light at the end of the long dark tunnel. The book is compelling, sucking you are in. The switch of narrators helps to keep up the tension and also reveal the plot slowly. Highly recommended.  

February's Top Reads

I haven't really posted many of my reviews, this is because I do them in batches.  Sometimes, I am on the ball and write reviews for all the books I have read, even if it is a short one-liner.  Other times, I get slack, and then, a month later, I can't muster up more than "I enjoyed this" or "a good read".  This year I am trying to do better, I have attempted to write a review for all the books I have read for the 11 in 11 Category Challenge on Librarything.  I don't think I read any real clunkers in February, indeed I could have chosen more books to add to the Top Reads list, but I felt I should limit myself to 4 - one for every week.  Rather than put all my reviews up here, I'd rather add the ones I recommend, so here are February 2011's:

The first is Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past.  I was lent this by a friend and fellow Hispanophile. 

The subtitle of the book, Travels through a country's past is very apt. Tremlett, a British journalist living in Spain, takes us on a journey around Modern Spain, looking at the effect of the country's past on its present.
Living in Spain, it is easy to forget that Spain suffered for many years of the previous century under the dictatorship of el Caudillo, Franco. There are visual reminders of him, especially in and near my current home town of Avila, a bust in the old town covered in red paint and his mausoleum. Despite living in democracy, the shadow of Franco's legacy looms over everyday life, in the form of some of his ministers who changed shirts as the regime itself was swept aside to a sometimes expressed nostalgia for the boom times at the end his dictatorship, especially in today's economic crisis.
By travelling around Spain, Tremlett probes into the history behind Modern Spain. Each chapter takes a different aspect, from the dictator himself to an economic boom caused by sun and skimpy swimwear, and from the country's Moorish heritage to the modern northern European invaders living on Spain's coast.
I was especially drawn in by the three chapters on the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia, three regions with their own languages, history and culture, which have very different relationships with Madrid, and differ wildly from the stereotypical image of Spain – bullfighting, sangria, Don Quijote and Flamenco (the latter covered in its own chapter). For me, it was fascinating, not only to find out more about the regions, but also Tremlett's own analysis of how and why these relationships with Madrid do differ.
As the reader, what is most important is that the book was written by a writer, who despite being a foreigner, or even because he is, who manages to ask difficult questions, and get people to open up to him. What is also clear is Tremlett's affinity with Spain, which makes the book even more readable. His personal anecdotes, such as the birth of his 2 children in Spanish hospitals, makes the reader feel a closer connection with the material. While I read this book from beginning to end, it would be possible to dip into the chapters which you are more interested in. Highly recommended for people interested in Spain.

From Librarything's Early Reviewers Programme, The House of the Mosque is my second recommendation.  The book follows the story of an extended family living in a mosque in Iran. Starting in the 1950s, the family's fortunes are intertwined with the changing religious and political scene in Iran, to such an extent that the family itself is driven apart.
The family in the mosque are a mixed bunch. First there is the Iman Alsaberi, a weak man obsessed with hygiene and rather negligent of his family. The household is kept together by Aqa Jaan, who also keeps the records of the mosque, as previous generations have done. Their brother Muezzin, a blindman, calls the people to prayer.
Times are changing, with the death of Alsaberi comes a vaccum, into which a new Iman steps, one that will change the path of the mosque. Aqa Jaan tries to keep everything together, but the political turmoil makes it harder and harder.
As an introduction to Iran, this is a good read, but will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to the family. The author has taken care to show the reader the conflict and destruction brought upon the family, but at the same time showing, for me, a rather little-known side to life in Iran.

The third is the short, but thought-provoking The Pigeon.  I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Perfume a few years ago, so was eager to find more by this German author.
The Pigeon is a day in the life of a 50-something-year-old man. His monotonous existance, one of his own choosing and making, is thrown out of kilter by the appearance of a pigeon outside his room. The pigeon disrupts his routine, causing him to consider leaving his sanctuary forever.
The author seems to invite the reader to work why the man has this absurd reaction. How can a loner be so touched by the intrusion of a bird? Perhaps the bird is the straw that breaks the camel's back, forcing him to come to terms with his own past, the difficulties he has overcome are alluded to or briefly described throughout the book.
For me, the pigeon forces him to stop sleepwalking through his life, to actually look at those around him.
A quick read, but one that'll stop and make you think.

And finally, last but not least, Effi Briest .  A book my brother has been telling me to read for years!

Written in 1894, Effi Briest is the story of a girl from a good family who makes a "good match" with an older, well-established man, Instetten.  As with Madame Bovary, the sense of impending doom is that from the start, Effie and Instetten are unable to stray from their preordained path, despite not wanting to follow it.
Effie moves from the nursery into an engagement almost immediately, leaving barely any time to adjust from schoolgirl and daughter to adult and wife.  Perhaps more disturbing for the modern reader is the fact that Instetten was linked with Effie's mother, ndeed it is remarked that they would have been better suited, as both are more serious and rather proper, unlike her often inappropriate husband and lively daughter.  Actually, probably because I only recently read it, Effie reminded me of the heroines of The Mysteries of Udolpho and Northanger Abbey.  She is naive, affected by the possibility of the supernatural, such as the story of the Chinaman and the dancing shoes.  She is, on the other hand, a good person, but easily led.
Not wanting to give anything away, I would say it is clear right from the start that Effie is ill-fated.  In fact, we see her own reactions to similar events earlier on in the action.  Who is to blame for her downfall?  Is it Effie, a mere slip of a girl married off to a much older man, shipped off far from home?  Is it her husband, an upstanding Prussian official, but a man who can be cold and leaves his young wife alone?  Or is it, as they themselves ask, the fault of her parents?  All of these options could be argued for successfully, but I wonder whether it is the unbending moral code of the time which is being critisised?  A marriage arranged as a contract between two families of high-standing was hardly unusual.  The response of the characters to the unfolding drama, although absurd and very sad, also falls within the expected social protocol of the day.
As the blurb on the back cover says, Madame Bovary does indeed come to mind.  As with Madame Bovary, the reader does sympathise with the tragic heroine.  I did, however, feel glad to see the Instetten's own thoughts in the latter section, making the story more rounded and more ambigious.
A well-written novel, and one which gives a good glimpse into 19th Century society.

Librarything's Early Reviewer Programme

What a lucky girl I am!  I have been putting my hat in the ring for Early Reviewer books to review for a while, but this is the first time I have been successful three months in a go!  LibraryThing has been running this programme for a few years now and get some really interesting books.


From the September 2010 batch, I received  Pereira Maintains.  I read the previous translation a few years ago, but since then I have lived in Portugal and so the book has a different relevance to me.  This makes it hard to compare the books, as I am not the same reader.
The book takes place in 1938, Portugal is suffering under the dictatorship of Salazar, Spain is in the midst of a civil war and the Nazis are on the rise.  Pereira is a journalist, someone who should know the real news stories, but he is like many people living under a regime, scared to put his head above the parapit to ask questions.  This all changes one day when he reads an article about death, the article affects him so much that he has to find the author and meet him.  It is his meeting with Monteiro Rossi, a young dissident, which starts him on a new path, one on which he begins to question the world around him.
The book put me in mind of the famous poem, "they came first for the Communists ..."  As many others have done before and since him, Pereira could have continued on his path of ignorance, hiding in his translations of French literature.  Monteiro Rossi is young, passionate and the son Pereira never had, I think this is what inspires Pereira to rebel.
Tabucchi really captures 1930s Lisbon and life under Salazar, this is a well-deserved entry on the 1001 list.

Next up was Drive-by Saviours, from the October 2010 batch. I put my name forward for it because of the parallel stories in the blurb - frustrated social worker Mark in Toronto and OCD sufferer Buni in Indonesia.  Their meeting half way through the book changes their lives.

The action alternates chapter by chapter between telling the life story of Buni and Mark on the cusp of a crisis.  They are very different men from very different countries and having led very different lives.
Buni, somewhat of a child genius, is from Rilaka, a small Indonesian island and helps him father fish.  Buni finally gets his chance to go to school through one of Suharto's schemes, but it involves him having to relocate to Makassar along with many other young Indonesians.  Unfortunately, school doesn't live up to his expectations, and Buni is soon bored and looking for alternatives.  He makes friends with 2 beggars and gives them money in exchange for telling him stories.  As Buni grows up, he becomes more and more disenchanted with life under the regime, his suffering from OCD becomes more acute, as a kind of coping mechanism.
Mark is working as a social worker in Toronto, but it is not working out.  During a power outage, he experiences a sense of camaraderie which he tries recapture later in the book.  His growing frustration grows, causing problems with his work and relationship with Sarah, his girlfriend.  On meeting Buni, Mark thinks he finds what he has been missing, and soon develops a relationship with him, one which will help him to reconnect with his estranged sister.  I didn't really like Mark, I found him to be very selfish and he seemed to blame everyone else for his problems, but the character was well-written.

Last, but not least, was  The House of the Mosque, from the November 2010 batch.  The book follows the story of an extended family living in a mosque in Iran. Starting in the 1950s, the family's fortunes are intertwined with the changing religious and political scene in Iran, to such an extent that the family itself is driven apart.
The family in the mosque are a mixed bunch. First there is the Iman Alsaberi, a weak man obsessed with hygiene and rather negligent of his family. The household is kept together by Aqa Jaan, who also keeps the records of the mosque, as previous generations have done. Their brother Muezzin, a blindman, calls the people to prayer.
Times are changing, with the death of Alsaberi comes a vaccum, into which a new Iman steps, one that will change the path of the mosque. Aqa Jaan tries to keep everything together, but the political turmoil makes it harder and harder.
As an introduction to Iran, this is a good read, but will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to the family. The author has taken care to show the reader the conflict and destruction brought upon the family, but at the same time showing, for me, a rather little-known side to life in Iran.

11 in 11 Category Challenge - The First Quarter

The first 31 books of my 11 in 11 Category Challenge . As with last year, I am speeding through the first lot of books, this is because I am at my parents' house with a huge number of books to choose from.  From previous experience, the second half of the year is always harder as I look for books to complete categories.

Category 1:  Latin America

1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts
2. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord ** 1001 Book
3. Malinche

Category 2: 1001 Books

1. The Idiot
2. Of Mice and Men
3. Schooling
4. Pereira Maintains

Category 3: History  (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

1. The Help
2. The Bamboo Palace

3. Ivanhoe

Category 5: Asia

1. The Good Earth

2. The Inheritance of Loss ** 1001 Book

3. Eating Chinese Food Naked

Category 7: German Speaking World

1. Dragon Rider
2. Candide *1001 Book, main character from Westfalen.

Category 8: Film & Adaptations

1. The French Lieutentant's Woman ** 1001 Book
2. Bleak House ** 1001 Book
3. Wicked
4. Crash ** 1001 Book
5. The Notebook
6. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Stories ** 1001 Book
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland **1001 Book
8. The Time Machine **1001 Book

Category 9: Links

 

1. Son of a Witch part of Wicked series
2. A Lion among Men part of Wicked series

 

Category 10: Travel

1. Three moons in Vietnam

Category 11: British Authors

1. It Could Happen to You
2. Cold Comfort Farm **1001 Book
3. I was Jane Austen's Best Friend
4. Mrs Fry's Diary 

Some of the books may end up in different categories, especially as I am trying to read as many 1001 books as possible this year (15 read so far).  I am also trying to read books I already own, I have a veritable Andean mountain of books to read in my room.  Some have been there for years, not because I don't want to reason, but because, for some reason or another, I keep overlooking them.  One such book was Schooling, as well as  Louis de Bernières' Latin American Trilogy.

Top reads so far include:

French Lieutenant's woman, I just couldn't put this one down.

I also really liked The Help, a look at life in America's South as the Civil Rights Movement hots up.

The Good Earth, a book that had been on my wishlist, didn't disappoint.

Cold Comfort Farm was hilarious, I can't believe that I had never come across it before.
Pereira Maintains , interestingly I have read another translation of this book, but it was before I lived in Portugal, so this one struck me more.  Through meeting a young dissident, Pereira decides to challenge Salazar's regime.

Duffers - 

Bleak House, I found this hard to get into and to get through. I was also disappointed by Malinche, which was not up to the standard of Laura Esquivel's 1001 Book, Like Water for Chocolate .