The Classics Spin #4

The recent Classics Club spin games have been huge successes. I sat out round 3, but now it's time for round 4. The rules are the same, only the dates have been changed.

Here's how it works:
- Go to your blog.
- Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club list.
- Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by next Monday. (11/18)
- Monday morning, we’ll announce a number from 1-20. Go to the list of twenty books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce.
- The challenge is to read that book by January 1.

I'm still sticking with a slightly modified version of my original list, but have taken away the especially long, dense choices that I know I will not finish during the holiday season.

Pick Me, Pick Me (books I want to read now)
1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
3. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
4. Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell
5. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Quickies
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
8. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
9. Gigi by Colette
10. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey

Favorite Authors
11. The Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
12. Cranford by Eizabeth Gaskell
13. They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
14. The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck (reread)
15. The Pearl by John Steinbeck (reread)

Some Random Choices 
16. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
17. A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
18. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
19. Sula by Toni Morrison
20. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Here is a link to The Classics Club's announcement post. Let's Spin!

Added 11/19/13: 
The spin number is 10. I'll be reading Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey.

Tuesday Intro: Runaway

Carla heard the car coming before it topped the little rise in the road that around here they call a hill. It's her, she thought. Mrs. Jamieson - Sylvia - home from her holiday in Greece. From the barn door - but far enough inside that she could not readily be seen - she watched the road Mrs. Jamieson would have to drive by on, her place being half a mile farther along the road than Clark and Carla's. 

If it was somebody getting ready to turn in at their gate it would be slowing down by now. But still Carla hoped. Let it not be her.

Runaway
by Alice Munro

Runaway is a collection of eight short stories from recent Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. This intro comes from the first (and title) story. Raising all sorts of questions, it seems to pull the reader in immediately. I suggested the book to my book club and we will discuss it next week. We've never read a short story collection before, so I'm not sure what to expect. Discussion tips and suggestions are welcome!

What do you think of the intro? Does it make you want to read more?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

The Sunday Salon: 11/10/13

Time // 8:30 Sunday morning

Place // my favorite chair

Drinking // black coffee

Reading // Last night I made the decision that reading will be my main activity today... possibly with a football game on in the background. First up will be the local paper and New York Times, followed by If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino.  Our midpoint posting date for #ReadCalvino is coming up on Friday. I'll be out of town, but hope to get my act together and preschedule a post. If not, it will have to wait until Monday.

Our next book club selection is Runaway by Alice Munro and I need to make some progress there, too. The first two stories were very good, so I have high hopes for the next six.

Listening// I finished The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw ... the entire 31 hours and, wow, what an outstanding biography! This will be tough to follow this act, so I'll turn to something entirely different. I'm considering Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. This seems to be universally loved and I've had an audio review copy for quite some time. Since it's on CD, I'll only be listening in the car. Maybe I should add another book to my phone, too...

Watching// Masterpiece Classic's The Paradise, loosely based on Emile Zola's novel The Ladies' Paradise. It fills the Sunday evening void left by Downton Abbey... just under two months until the new season begins!

Making// Pumpkin Oatmeal in the slow cooker! It was good enough to merit its own Weekend Cooking post... stay tuned.

Anticipating// A full house for Thanksgiving, a quick trip to Florida, and the just-announced return of The TBR Triple Dog Dare. Life is good.

What are you up to this Sunday?

This Week on Instagram

#Estellagram Day 1: Orange.

Let's get started! #ReadCalvino #FridayReads

Day 2: Scalloped #estellagram

Day 3 - Dreary. Guess what I'm doing today. #estellagram

Day 4 - Upbeat. Today's mail makes me happy #estellagram

#Estellagram Day 5: Freedom. A great book!

#Estellagram Day 6: toes. Zelda needs her nails trimmed.

And so it begins... #fallisover #winterishere #snow

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
Random House, 2012
256 pages
source: library copy

Audiobook:
narrated by Sunil Malhotra
Random House Audio, 2012
8 hours and 15 minutes
source: purchased with Audible credit

Motivation: book club selection

One sentence summary (from goodreads):
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century’s great, unequal cities.

My thoughts:
Life in the Mumbai slums, or "undercity", is marked by unspeakable poverty, corruption, filth, hopelessness, and often despair. Katherine Boo spent years documenting the lives of several families in the Annawadi slum and, as you would expect,  Behind the Beautiful Forevers is heartbreaking, sobering, and just plain sad.

Raising awareness and increasing understanding are necessary first steps toward solving a problem, and Boo's book deftly accomplishes that. Reading about these "invisible" people provides an important alternate perspective, and I see why the book is appearing on reading lists for AP English classes and incoming first year college students.

Did I enjoy it? Really good narrative nonfiction is always a treat and Behind the Beautiful Forevers is certainly that, but enjoyment doesn't figure into this experience. It's an important, but ultimately depressing book.

Should you read it? Probably, but be prepared.

A couple of quotes:

"As India began to prosper, old ideas about accepting the life assigned by one's caste or one's divinities were yielding to a belief in earthly reinvention. Annawadians now spoke of better lives casually, as if fortune were a cousin arriving on Sunday, as if the future would look nothing like the past."

"Sunil thought that he, too, had a life. A bad life, certainly - the kind that could be ended as Kalu's had been and then forgotten, because it made no difference to the people who lived in the overcity. But something he'd come to realize on the roof, leaning out, thinking about what would happen if he leaned too far, was that a boy's life could still matter to himself."

A note on the audio production:
In an attempt to finish in time for book club, I downloaded the audio and listened on my walks. This was the first time I've encountered Sunil Malhotra and, while he did a perfectly adequate job narrating, it did not add anything to my overall experience. So, read or listen according to your own preferences.

My rating: 

Tuesday Intro: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice - they won't hear you otherwise - "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all the racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone. 

Find the most comfortable position: seated, stretched out, curled up, or lying flat. Flat on your back, on your side, on your stomach. In an easy chair, on the sofa, in the rocker, the deck chair, on the hassock. In the hammock, if you have a hammock. On top of your bed, of course, or in the bed. You can even stand on your hands, head down, in the yoga position. With the book upside down, naturally.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
(1979)

That has to be one of the most unusual openings I've ever come across. After a few chapters, I'd say this is going to be a strange and wonderful reading experience. If you'd like to join us, the #ReadCalvino adventure is just beginning.

What do you think of the opening? Would you keep reading?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

Five Years of Lakeside Musing

image credit

Good morning, friends. It's been a quiet week at Lakeside Musing thanks, in part, to the demise of my trusty laptop. After months of trying to ignore warning signs, the end arrived Monday. Several more days were spent futilely trying to fix it, then shopping for a new laptop (hello, MacBookAir!), and finally, transferring data. Now I am back in business.

While I was away, Lakeside Musing celebrated a milestone anniversary  - five years! It's hard to believe. Things were much different in 2008, both in the book blogging community and in my own life. My oldest daughter was just starting college and, although the twins were still in high school, I had a little extra time on my hands. Drawing inspiration from the book blog pioneers I'd been reading for a year or so, Lakeside Musing was born. The community was small and welcoming, and I soon found my place.

Now, my oldest daughter is living and working in Manhattan (a great place to visit!), the twins are in college (one lives at home), we adopted a greyhound, 'inherited' a condo in Florida, and are trying to figure out how we can actually use it for more than one week in January. Book blogging is different, too. Several friends have closed up shop and, moving forward, the challenge for me is to make blogging continue to fit my lifestyle.

Since I was without a computer much of the week, I had the opportunity to think about time spent online and to plan for the future. It all boils down to this...

Lessons learned from five years of blogging:

1.  I am a reader (albeit a slow one), not a writer.
2.  A hobby should have minimal obligations and deadlines.
3.  No matter how much I think I'm blogging for myself, community really is key.
4.  There's more to life than books.

Moving Forward:

1.  I don't really like writing book reviews, but love talking about books. My review style has changed slightly over the past few months. Abbreviated reviews include basic book facts, my thoughts in one or two short paragraphs, and a rating. This seems less daunting, yet still provides a springboard for conversation as well as a personal reading record.

2.  This is a stress-free blog. I will read what I want, when I want and post accordingly. I will not request books for review, participate in tours, etc. Additionally, I will feel no obligation to review unsolicited review copies.

3.  It's all about community. I love reading your blogs (and commenting as time allows), chatting on twitter, instagram, participating in read-alongs and other events, and responding to your comments here. I will continue to be as engaged as possible.

4.  I'm very glad I chose the name Lakeside Musing five years ago because I can talk about more than books and not feel like I'm veering off topic. Weekend Cooking is the perfect outlet for chronicling my culinary adventures. Estellagram feeds my budding interest in photography, bookish or otherwise. I'm also free to talk about travel, greyhounds, movies, theater, sports, fitness/health... the possibilities are endless. Books, however, will continue to be the main focus.

Finally, I'd like to thank each one of you for your visits, comments, friendship, and support. You have made this all worthwhile.

Here's to the next five years!