The Book Zombie

The Sunday Salon - My Week So Far...

This will be my very first time participating in The Sunday Salon, so I'd like to start out simple with some stats on my reading so far this year.
Books Read - 56
Total Pages - 15856
Average Books Per Month - 9
Male Authors - 41
Female Authors - 15

So that's not looking too bad overall - I really do need to get in some more female authors though. With 56 books read I am now 75% of the way to completing my 75 Book Challenge over on LibraryThing.

As for posting reviews, I did get 3 done and blogged Songs For The Missing by Stewart O'Nan, Candy Girl by Diablo Cody and The Game by Teresa Toten. In the coming week I will be blogging about Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst, Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and Meeting Evil by Thomas Berger. (fingers crossed lest I procrastinate)

A quick list of what I am currently reading:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Isabel Burning by Donna Lynch

Blankety Blank by D. Harlan Wilson

The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan

Too Beautiful For You by Rod Liddle

And the perfect way to end my first Sunday Salon (although my TBR stack is starting to tremble quite precariously) Here are the books I scavenged on my weekly trek through the bookshops. I decided to go book shopping without a list or a plan in mind, so my finds are a mish-mash of books recommended to me and blind buys.

From the giant Chapters/Indigo store I got ...

Another stop I made was at The Dartmouth Book Exchange one of my many favourite used bookshops. Here's what I picked up there ...

And finally while shopping for laundry detergent at the local drugstore, I couldn't resist picking up these three books ...

So if anything I have a whole summers worth of reading from one day of shopping, now I just have to stay away from the library so I can get a good start on these books first :/

Happy reading everyone!!

For anyone who wants to join in on The Sunday Salon click here for information on how to sign up and take part in the fun!

Weekly Geeks #11

The assignment for Weekly Geeks #11 is to lend a hand in

getting some reviews done and some books out of the way. Dewey has a stack of books to be reviewed and less than two weeks before moving. Here's where the Weekly Geeks come in - We need to choose one of the books listed and submit 3 questions for Dewey to answer. Then Dewey will post a review and set the book free to go on its way. Some of the books will be returned to the library and some will be put into giveaways. Great idea this week Dewey!

The book I have chosen is When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris. Much like his other novels When You Are Engulfed In Flames is a collection of essays concerning his daily life. I am a huge fan of his dark humour and have been anxious to read this latest work from Sedaris.

Here are my three questions for Dewey:
1. David Sedaris gleams much of the inspiration for his writing from his family and friends, some anecdotes are less than complimentary and fall into that category of "please don't mention this again". Personally how would you feel if a family member used your embarrassing tales or eccentricities as the basis of their writing?

2. Time magazine named David Sedaris as the Humorist Of The Year, in your opinion is Sedaris a valid choice for this award? Is the fact that his humour comes from everyday thoughts and occurrences a prime basis for this success?

3. In 2007, Sedaris became the focus of much publicity for admitting to exaggerating his non-fiction essays. However many people came to his defense stating that many non-fiction writers embellish the truth (including world famous comedian Bill Cosby) in order to connect more vividly with their audience. Do you believe that non-fiction writers have that right to exaggerate their writing in order to enhance their work? Or should they be considered fiction writers instead?

Anyone who has read the works of David Sedaris, please feel free to leave comments or opinions.
If you haven't already signed up for the Weekly Geeks head over to Dewey's Blog and take part in the fun! Every week is a different more original theme and the greatest fun is in seeing all of the various opinions from the other participants.

Review – The Game by Teresa Toten

Synopsis

Dani Webster had played The Game with her sister, Kelly, for as long as she could remember, but now it is a hazy memory as Dani looks up from the floor of the isolation room at Riverwood Clinic. She remember the vodka and pills. Slowly Dani emerges from the painful effects of substance abuse, and begins to adapt to life at Riverwood, a psychiatric treatment facility for "teens with problems." Teens like her roommate, Scratch, an admitted self-mutilator. Or Scratch's friend, Kevin, whose family can't accept his homosexuality. As she recovers from her physical trauma, Dani must confront a deeper emotional trauma. There's the cool aloofness of her mother. Her father's abusive perfectionism. Kelly's refusal to answer her letters. Fragmented memories of the last Game. She can't fit all of the pieces together. The Game is an extraordinary story of betrayal, anger, guilt, confusion and dread and their brutal effects on the mind. It is also a tribute to the healing effects of compassion and friendship, and to the strength we can summon, even in our weakest moments.

Review

The Game is the captivating story of how a teenage girl deals with the dysfunctions and consequences of living with an abusive father, a mother who doesn't want to face reality and a little sister she has vowed to protect. For as long as Dani can remember, she has felt extreme pressure to live up to the unreachable standards of her father. Her life has been dedicated to trying to achieve just a nod of recognition from him, but more often than not, what she receives instead is condemnation and punishment. For Dani, these are just the facts of life and she readily accepts them, what she is not willing to accept is the possibility of her little sister Kelly living this way also.

In order to protect and shield Kelly from the horrors of their home, Dani creates a role playing game that quickly evolves into a alternate world for the sisters. When things get too tough for them, they escape to a neighbourhood ravine to do battle with an evil being bent on destroying all that is good. However as Dani grows older The Game is no longer enough to distract her and she turns to drugs as a new escape, while still trying to hold The Game together for Kelly.

But somewhere along the way things went wrong. Kelly realizes this when she wakes up in Riverwood Clinic with her memories scrambled and her body falling apart due to the effects of alcohol and drugs. Worried about Kelly being alone at home, Dani concludes that she must get out of Riverwood and back home as quickly as possible. Through her journey Dani gathers around her a tribe of friends who will ultimately help her on her way to becoming whole again.

The Game is both heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal doses, as Dani's emotions are so vividly narrated throughout. This is a novel that showcases the true strength of adolescence in overcoming the obstacles of pain, loss and addiction. Dani is a heroine worthy applause for her self-redemption and renewal. Beautifully but simply written, The Game speaks to the reader and tells a story that cannot fail to spark a flame of hope into a roaring fire of encouragement.

Published by Red Deer Press

Friday Fill-Ins #80

1. Oh I can't wait until I have a bigger house with more room for bookshelves.

2. A couple cartons of milk is the first thing I see when I open my refigerator.

3. I never leave home without my giant purse that holds everything.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be sweet & sour sauce because my personality is just like it.

5. People who let their kids run wild in public is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before going to bed was that the fishtank needed to be cleaned.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to good book and a hot bath, tomorrow my plans include going to see Hellboy 2 and Sunday, I want to relax and catch up on my reading, maybe take the dogs for a hike.

Post courtesy of

Review - Candy Girl: A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper

Synopsis
Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV's The Late Show to be the pick of "Dave's Book Club 2006," Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn't take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill.

This is Diablo's captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen's clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer's keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband.

Review
Candy Girl – A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper is a hilarious romp through the world of amateur exotic dancing. One day while walking past a local strip club, Cody Diablo wonders what it would be like to become a stripper. Most people would think about this and then continue on their way, however Cody Diablo does more than just daydream – she signs up for the clubs amateur night! From there on out exotic dancing becomes a mission for Cody, a mission she is determined will be a success. Through her narration we experience all that comes along with the stripper's lifestyle, including buying the right clothes, getting along with unfriendly Russian girls and learning the secrets to pole-dancing.

Although Candy Girl seems at first glance to be just another book about stripping, it is much more than that. This memoir takes the "exotic" out of exotic dancing. Cody Diablo is a normal, everyday girl. She does not look like Barbie and her life outside of dancing is just like everyone else's. She relates information about her husband and stepdaughter, how much she dislikes her boring day job and just how badly your feet hurt and your legs bruise after shaking your thing all day. Cody Diablo is laugh out loud funny and very down to earth which makes this memoir a fantastically fun read.

After writing Candy Girl, Cody Diablo went on to write the Academy Award winning screenplay Juno. A pilot TV program and various other screenplays she has written are also in production for the future. Despite Cody Diablo's rather dubious choice to become a stripper, she has proven herself to be a very successful and talented writer, who has earned her place in the spotlight.

Published by Gotham Press

Wednesday Weirdness #11

Five Answers For Five Questions

Five things you always have in your refrigerator:
1.) Apple Juice
2.) Cheese
3.) Yogurt
4.) Salsa
5.) Broccoli

Five actresses/actors that you think are over-rated:
1.) Brad Pitt
2.) Tom Cruise
3.) Nicole Kidman
4.) Kirsten Dunst
5.) Jack Black

Five things around the house that you hate doing:
1.) Dusting
2.) Sweeping
3.) Doing Laundry
4.) Folding Laundry
5.) Putting Away Laundry

Five of your favorite movies:
1.) Anything Kevin Smith
2.) Donnie Darko
3.) Royal Tennenbaums
4.) Monty Pythons Holy Grail
5.) Heathers

Five stores you would love to win a $2,000 gift card to:
1.) Chapters/Indigo
2.) Body Shop
3.) BestBuy
4.) Athletes World
5.) Grocery Store

Tuesday Thingers

Here is this week's Tuesday Thingers courtesy of The Boston Bibliophile

Since we're past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you're going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?

We don't have any big vacation plans for the summer. My husband takes the boys to Montreal during the winter to see the NHL games and we take many small weekend trips year-round so it's no big deal to me.

Usually during the summer I enjoy weekend getaways to hunt out used book shops I've never been to. The weekends we spend at the cottage I also hunt for out of print books at yard sales.

My reading habits are really unstructured in the summertime, I read whatever strikes me as interesting, often reading 4 or 5 books at the same time - that's my idea of a lazy summer. So unless I have an ARC to review, anything goes!

Review – Songs For The Missing by Stewart O’Nan

Coming October 2008

Synopsis

An enthralling portrait of one family in the aftermath of a daughter's disappearance

"It was the summer of her Chevette, of J.P. and letting her hair grow." It was also the summer when, without warning, popular high school student Kim Larsen disappeared from her small Midwestern town. Her loving parents, her introverted sister, her friends and boyfriend, must now do everything they can to find her. As desperate search parties give way to pleading television appearances, and private investigations yield to personal revelations, we see one town's intimate struggle to maintain hope, and finally, to live with the unknown.

Stewart O'Nan's new novel begins with the suspense and pacing of a thriller and soon deepens into an affecting family drama of loss. On the heels of his critically acclaimed and nationally bestselling Last Night at the Lobster, Songs for the Missing is an honest, heartfelt account of one family's attempt to find their child. With a soulful empathy for these ordinary heroes, O'Nan draws us into the world of this small Midwestern town and allows us to feel a part of this family.

Review

Have you ever wondered what you would do if your child, sibling, lover, friend or neighbour went missing?

Songs For The Missing is the latest novel from, multiple award-winning writer, Stewart O'Nan. In this novel, you will find out exactly how a small town in Midwestern USA deals with the disappearance of a local high school girl. Kim Larsen begins the narrative while going through her daily life. This sets up a very good look at the relationships she has with family and friends and gives us a glimpse into her hopes and ambitions for the future. But suddenly with no forewarning, Kim simply vanishes.

From here on out the book is told from the perspectives of certain family members and friends. From the viewpoint of her parents, we come to understand how they feel while learning and undergoing the various ways to handle a missing child. Particularly interesting is the encounters they have with local police and FBI officials, both parents must reluctantly put their trust into these people to guide them while also trying to have faith that officials are doing as much as they can possibly do. From organizing search parties, printing posters and contacting online organizations, these parents give a detailed plan that would be valuable to any parent going through this themselves.

However, as upsetting as Kim's disappearance may be to her parents, her younger sister Lindsay appears to be the emotional center of the book. Although the two sisters are not all that close it becomes clear in Lindsay's narration that her older sister is the hero she strives to emulate. Throughout the novel Lindsay's guilt, love and bitterness towards her sister are revealed. Although Songs For The Missing is about a missing girl, it is obvious that this is merely a plot line devised to showcase Lindsay and how her life must change and evolve while suffering the loss and unknowable circumstances of her older sister.

To fulfill the thriller aspect of the novel, O'Nan has thrown in some sketchy characters to build suspicion and a secret between Kim and her friends that is not revealed when she is initially reported missing, but that builds tension between the characters throughout the story.

Songs For The Missing is a emotionally charged story that anyone can relate to which creates a wonderful drama, however the mystery portion seems to falter towards the ending. From the climax, the plot needed to have gradually wound down, tying up the loose ends in a neater way to add a more powerful ending. Overall a very good read, that has prompted me to search out previous works by Stewart O'Nan.

Author Website - Stewart O'Nan

Weekly Geeks #10

This week’s Weekly Geeks theme is to talk about the magazines we read. I read tons of magazines. Every room in my house, my car, my purse and my husbands car contains a pile of magazines. The reason I like them so much is because you will always find a situation where you dont have the peace needed to read or you are (gasp) without a book - doctors office, lunch break, traffic standstill etc. My reading choices in magazines is as eclectic as my book reading, here are just some of the ones I read regularly (between books and magazines its a wonder my house doesnt fall down around me).

News - Current Events - General

Chatelaine - Bookmarks - Adbusters - Newsweek

NY Times - MacLeans - Wired

Magazines Featuring Genre Fiction/Non-Fiction

Apex - Hitchcock - Cemetery Dance- Cryptic

Dark Wisdom - Doorways - Black Wisdom

Horror Entertainment/Industry Magazines

HorrorHound - City Slab - Rue Morgue

Gorezone - Fangoria

Friday Fill-Ins #79

1. Holidays in the summer are great things to look forward to during the year.

2. Steak and corn on the cob are my favorite things to grill.

3.My thoughts are all over the place.

4. Going book shopping is what I'm most looking forward to this weekend!

5. My favorite book so far this summer is The End Of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

6. A tall glass of pineapple juice is the best way to begin a day.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to cruising the book shops and working on some reveiws, tomorrow my plans include maybe taking a drive to the valley (Annapolis Valley, NS) and Sunday, I want to do some cleaning and try to organize my TBR stack!

Post courtesy of

Entertainment Weekly New Classics: Books

Entertainment Weekly recently released this list of "The 100 Best Reads From 1983 to 2008" I've gone through the list and highlighted in red the novels I have read, sadly this only adds up to 24/100 books. I really want to give all the books on this list a read at some time in the future (even considered giving myself a one year challenge) but I've already got too much on the go now, so maybe I'll wait until it's feasible to call these "classics" without feeling ancient.

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)

3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)

4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)

5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)

7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)

8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)

9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)

12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)

13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)

14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)

15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)

16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)

17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)

18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)

19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)

20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)

21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)

22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)

24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)

25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)

26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)

28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)

29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)

30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)

31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)

32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)

33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)

34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)

35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)

36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)

37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)

38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)

39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)

41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)

42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)

43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)

44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)

45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)

46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)

47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)

48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)

49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)

50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)

52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)

53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)

56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)

57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)

58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)

59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)

60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)

61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)

62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)

63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)

64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)

66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)

67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)

68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)

69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)

71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)

72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)

73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)

74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)

75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)

76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)

77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)

81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)

82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)

83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)

84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)

87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)

88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)

89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)

90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)

91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)

92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)

93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)

94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)

96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

97. Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson (1992)

98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)

99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)

100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Posted Jun 17, 2008 Published in issue #999-1000 Jun 27, 2008

Tuesday Thingers

Courtesy of The Boston Bibliophile here is the Tuesday Thingers for this week.

The Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you own, italicize what you’ve read. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!

1. Harry Potter and The Sorceror’s stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (29,939)
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (28,728)
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (27,926)
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (27,643)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (27,641)
7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266)
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (20,485)
10. 1984 by George Orwell (19,735)
11. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (19,583)
12. The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082) ***
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586)
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)
15. The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)***
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)
18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)
19. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
20. Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091) ***
21. Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089)
22. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)*****
23. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)***
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)
25. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)
26. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)
27. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)
28. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)
29. The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
30. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)
31. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)***
32. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
33. The return of the king by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)
34. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)***
35. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)****
36. The chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)
37. The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)***
38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435) ***
39. The lovely bones by Alice Sebold (10,125)**
40. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
41. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (9,827)
42. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman (9,745)
43. Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
44. Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)
45. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (9,598)***
46. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (9,593)
47. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
48. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
49. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)****
50. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (9,336)
51. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)****
52. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)
53. The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
54. The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
55. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (9,080)
56. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (9,027)
57. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (8,960)*****
58. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)
59. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)*****
60. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - (8,764)
61. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421)
62. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (8,417)
63. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
64. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (8,255)
65. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214)
66. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)
67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169) ***
68. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
69. The complete works by William Shakespeare (8,096)*****
70. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (7,843)
71. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
72. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
73. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (7,808)****
74. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (7,807)
75. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (7,793)
76. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)
78. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (7,598)***
79. The Elements of Style by William Strunk (7,569)
80. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)
81. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (7,534)
82. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (7,530)
83. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
84. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)
85. Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)***
86. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
87. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)*****
88. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)
89. The amber spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)
90. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (6,933)
91. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (6,901)
92. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
93. Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)
94. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)
95. Persuasion by Jane Austen (6,862)
96. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)***
97. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
98. Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)***
99. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)***
100. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

Review - Loose Girl: A Memoir Of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen

Synopsis
For everyone who was that girl.For everyone who knew that girl.For everyone who wondered who that girl was. Kerry Cohen is eleven years old when she recognizes the power of her body in the leer of a grown man. Her parents are recently divorced and it doesn't take long before their lassitude and Kerry's desire to stand out--to be memorable in some way--combine to lead her down a path she knows she shouldn't take. Kerry wanted attention. She wanted love. But not really understanding what love was, not really knowing how to get it, she reached for sex instead. Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction--not just to sex, but to male attention--Loose Girl is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning. It didn't matter who he was. It was their movement that mattered, their being together. And for a while, that was enough. From the early rush of exploration to the day she learned to quiet the desperation and allow herself to love and be loved, Kerry's story is never less than riveting. In rich and immediate detail, Loose Girl re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment, when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something, but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness. Kerry Cohen's journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is a cautionary tale and a revelation for girls young and old. The unforgettable memoir of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, Loose Girl will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love.

Review
Loose Girl is a memoir concerning the addiction to, and use of, sexuality as a power hold over men in an attempt to feel self-worth. Kerry Cohens novel is well written in a practical sense, however the plot and characters are too mechanical. She comes across as a typical stereo-type of the desperate teenage girl seeking love and attention, but this fails to induce any kind of empathy. This memoir reads like a mundane diary or a day by day itinerary of one night stands, overly repetitive descriptions of the emptiness she trys to fill does not provide sufficient emotional connections to the character. I believe the concept of this novel would have been more effective had she included more of her present life. The ending was too anti-climatic and leaves the reader wondering whether she will stick by her new fiancee or just fall back into her old routine. (Although reading the author bio provides the information that she is married with children, the book would have been much stronger with a detailed epilogue.)

Author Website - Kerry Cohen

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge eh?

What – The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge eh?
Who – Hosted by John Mutford
Where – 2nd Canadian Book Challenge Page eh?
When – July 1 2008 through July 1 2009
How – Read 13 Canadian books (by Canadians or about Canadians).
Why – Cause Canucks rock ;)

My Challenge Progress

Click here for all the details.

The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
Watching July by Christine Hart
The Green Beauty Guide by Julie Gabriel
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Game by Teresa Toten
The Retreat by David Bergen
Rotten Apple by Rebecca Eckler
The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper
Fruit by Brian Francis
Mercy Among The Children by David Adams Richards
The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Angora Napkin by Troy Little
Lost At Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley

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Tuesday Thingers

Review – Songs For The Missing by Stewart O’Nan

Weekly Geeks #10

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Tuesday Thingers

Review - Loose Girl: A Memoir Of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge eh?

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