Non-Fiction Five Challenge Update

UPDATE: I have decided to update one of my picks for this challenge and replace Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama to Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper based on the great review by Lesley in March 2007 at Lesley's Book Nook Blog.

I have decided to participate in Thoughts of Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge taking place from May 1st to September 30th, 2007. The Five Non-Fiction Books I have decided to read are:

1. Sidney Poitier - Measure of a Man [completed June 10th, 2007]

2. Jon Krakauer - Eiger Dreams

3. Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure

4. Sarah Ban Breathnach - Something More - Excavating Your Authentic Self [completed May 5th, 2007]

5. Anderson Cooper - Dispatches from the Edge

I really enjoy reading memoirs however wanted to try to include other types of non-fiction books into the challenge and I think the above is a good mix.

Measure of a Man

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

Finished June 10th, 2007

Rating: 5/10

Non-Fiction Five Challenge Book #2



I was expecting this book to be different then what it was. I guess I should have had a clue based on the subtitle "a spiritual autobiography" that it wasn't going to be a true memoir. The book started out very good as Poitier discusses his childhood in the Bahamas however the book lost me in the middle and end as Poitier talks about a variety of topics and his philosophy on those topics such as religion, racisim and mostly about the art of acting (which didn't really interest me). The book jumps from topic to topic as it is not in chronological order as a typical autobiography.

There were some really interesting stories mentioned however he chose to not go into much detail which was disappointing as I would really have liked to read more of those stories.

I finished the book with a better understanding of his views on various topics however I still feel like I never got to know him by reading this book which was my intent in choosing it.

Although I gave the book a rating of 5/10 as it was average to me, I would recommend it to others who are already familiar with Poitier and are interested in reading more about Poitier's views rather than a biography about his life.

I have never actually seen any movies that Sidney Poitier has starred in so I will have to make a point to rent some of his movies.

Book Awards Reading Challenge

Well I held off for as long as I could in signing up for the Book Awards Reading Challenge however finally cracked yesterday and decided to join after taking a look at different book award lists and realizing that I owned many books that have won awards but hadn't gotten around to reading yet.

The rules are to read any 12 award-winning books from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Examples of book awards are the Pulitzer Prize, Orange Prize, Booker Prize, Newbery Award, etc. The challenge also allows the participants to read any book from an author who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. However, at least SIX of the twelve books must be actual book prize winners. Books may also be cross-posted with other challenges.

There is a blog set up for this challenge at Book Awards Challenge that allows participants to post to or participants can choose instead to post on their own blog.

My tenative list for the challenge is:

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - 1997 Pulitzer (Biography/Autobiography)

B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - 1986 Anthony

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - 1992 Edgar Award (First Novel)

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - 2007 Book Sense (Children's Lit)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - 2001 National Book Award

Eldest by Christopher Paolini - 2006 Quill Awards (Young Adult/Teen)

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - 1997 Commonwealth Writers (First Book)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 2007 Pulitzer (Fiction)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - 1990 Newbery Award

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1962 Nobel Prize

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 2004 Prix Renaudot

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - 2007 Alex Award

The Pact

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Finished June 6th, 2007

Rating: 8/10







From the Publisher
Until the phone calls came at three o''clock on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily is dead—shot with a gun her beloved and devoted Chris pilfered from his father''s cabinet as part of an apparent suicide pact—leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.

Like all Jodi Picoult reads this one too sucked me in and was hard to put down. The effect of suicide on the parents of Emily and Chris was the central theme in the book as each parent handled and reacted to the devastation differently.

Picoult had me guessing until the end as to how Emily died as I was unable to predict the ending. Even though I typically prefer to have some closure at the end of the books and most of my questions answered after finishing a book I ended up with a lot of questions at the end of The Pact and that was okay with me. I still wonder why Emily had this need to commit suicide as it was touched upon but never spelled out for the reader. I wonder why Emily put Chris in such a difficult position if she loved him so much.


SPOILER ALERT
I found myself very angry at Emily for putting Chris in an awful position of asking for help with her suicide and am also frustrated at Chris for not telling anyone about Emily's preoccupation with suicide to try to get her some professional help.

Summer Sisters

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Finished June 2nd, 2007

Rating: 8/10





It has been about 20 years since I last read a Judy Blume novel but do remember that I enjoyed her books when I was younger and I ended up really enjoying this book.

I read this book on my vacation in Hawaii and I have to say that it is a perfect book for a beach read. It is a story that spans over 20 years about 2 girls named Victoria and Caitlin that form a lifelong friendship while spending their summers together at Martha's Vineyard. The book is mostly narrated by Victoria however it also provides short narration from the other characters which I liked as it provided some insight as to how the other characters were feeling although it never did provide a narration by Caitlin which I find interesting since she was the most mysterious character.

I enjoyed this light read and would recommend it to others wanting an easy read about coming of age, friendship and love.

The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries
by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Finished May 31st, 2007

Rating: 7/10



I had previously read Citizen Girl by these authors and hated it but thought I would give them another try with this book as I know a movie is coming out this summer based on the book which doesn't look half bad.

This book was written by two former nannies about you guessed it being a nanny to a particular upper class family in New York. The nanny in the novel is named Nan and she is a nanny to a four year old boy named Grayer, who she has nicknamed Grover. I loved the character of Grayer, what a wonderfully funny little boy as the parts that he was in the book would make me just smile.

I found the storyline to be very similar to The Devil Wears Prada although it was not as funny. It was actually quite sad at times as the father is a workaholic and is having an affair and the mother simply ignores Grayer and is so busy trying to get the father to pay attention to her.

I wish there was more of a confrontation at the end of the book rather than the abrupt ending as I felt like I needed more closure than I received.

It will be interesting to watch the movie to see if they try to spin this as more of a comedy as I really found that the book was more sad than funny.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Finished May 26th, 2007

Rating: 7/10

Decades Challenge Book #4 (1960s)





I had great expectations for this book since it won a Pulitzer and so many people name this book as one of their all-time favourite books, however the book did not live up to my expectations.

SPOILER ALERT

The story as told by a young white girl named Scout tells the tales of growing up in Alabama in the 1930s while surrounded by discrimination. In the book Scout's father Atticus is the defense lawyer for a black man accused of raping a white woman in a time and place when a white woman's word means much more than any evidence to the contrary. The most poignant line from the book for me was: "Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And I though to myself well, we're making a step --it's just a baby-step, but it's a step."

I think the reason for my disappointment could be that sometimes when you expect so much from a book you can't help but be disappointed. Unfortunately the book just did not touch a chord with me as it has with other people so I am thinking that I will have to read reviews on other people's blogs to try to understand why people love this book so much and maybe give it another read in the future and hopefully I will get more out of it the second time around.

Vacation

I have been a bit of a slacker posting on my blog as I have been on vacation for the last two weeks but the good news is that while on vacation I finished 4 books. I see that there have been a couple of new challenges posted and I will have to spend some time tomorrow perusing these challenges in order to see if they are something I am interested in joining although I am not sure if I will have the time right now with some of the other challenges I have going on but we will see.

Decades Challenge

I have signed up for another Challenge over at 3M's Blog. It is a Decades Challenge which runs from January 1st - December 31st, 2007 where you are to read as many books as you want in consecutive decades. I have decided to do 9 decades. The books I have chosen are:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls - 2000s [completed March 17th, 2007]
The Loop by Nicholas Evans - 1990s [completed March 27th, 2007]
Love in the Time of Chloera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 1980s [completed April 14th, 2007]
The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton - 1970s
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - 1960s [completed May 26th, 2007]
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1950s
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - 1940s
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1930s
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster - 1920s [completed June 17th, 2007]

May 2007 Reads

23. Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self by Sarah Ban Breathnach - Rating: 2 [Non-Fiction Five Challenge]

24. Rage by Jonathan Kellerman - Rating: 5

25. 1984 by George Orwell - Rating: 8 [Dystopian Challenge]

26. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Rating: 7 [Decades Challenge]

27. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - Rating: 7

New Authors Read = 2
Male Authors = 2
Female Authors = 3