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Archive for November 2nd, 2008
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008Sunday Salon - November 2, 2008
November 2, 2008
Good morning! I have missed the last two Sunday Salons, so this post will hopefully catch me up. Two weeks ago I participated in Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-A-Thon (check out how I did) and raised $235 for charity. Last weekend I attended a fantastic Book Group Expo in San Jose and met some interesting authors, participated in some wonderful panel discussions and spent far too much money on more books. To see photos and read all about it, check out these posts:
Since my last Sunday Salon post I’ve read the following books (click on the book title to read my reviews):
- The Secret River, by Kate Grenville
- The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly
- Testimony, by Anita Shreve
- Tomato Girl, by Jayne Pupek
- Months and Seasons, by Christopher Meeks
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken
- After Dark, by Haruki Murakami
- Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
- The Believers, by Zoe Heller
Yesterday I read straight through a beautiful coffee table book titled: Alpine Americas with essays by Don Mellor and photography by Olaf Soot (read my review).
Today is a rainy, dreary day…perfect weather to stay inside and read. And I think I’ve found the perfect gloomy day book: Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. This book has been on my shelf for awhile now, and I do not know why it has taken me so long to read it. I’m about 70 pages into the novel and completely enthralled. Du Maurier is a atmospheric, Gothic-style writer who writes with tension and suspense. I’m loving this book!
As the days grow shorter and the hours tick down to the end of 2008, I have been thinking about my reading for 2008 and anticipating 2009. This year I have read a lot of Advance Readers Editions and Review Copies of books - and they have been fantastic (for the most part). I am looking forward to doing the same in 2009. But one big change for me will be limiting my time-restricted reading challenges. I joined too many in 2008 and found myself being a bit overwhelmed. In the new year, I intend to focus on my perpetual challenges like the Pulitzer Project, Orange Prize Project, Complete Booker, Read the Nobels, Costa Book Award Challenge, National Book Award Project, 5 Under 35 Challenge, and Reading the World (to read more about these challenges, visit my page about Reading Challenges). There are so many wonderful books out there - I wish I had more time to read them!
What about you? Have you thought about your reading goals and projects for 2009? Are you a goal-setter, or do you like to choose books by mood?
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday of reading!
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008Alpine Americas - Book Review
North to Alaska the land rises gently from the Arctic Ocean and an ice pack that extends over the pole and beyond. South of Patagonia, it plunges into the Drake Passage at Cape Horn. Six hundred miles away is Antarctica. Start at one of these ends of the earth - if only in your mind - and aim for the other along a ten thousand mile line of mountains. You’ll meet in your travels along the ridge all kinds of landscapes, all kinds of animals. You’ll learn the temperaments of all kinds of weather. You’ll meet people so different - and so much alike. Visit the high places, and the rest of the world will be less of a mystery. -From Alpine Americas-
Olaf and Gitta Soot spent 40 years collecting photos of mountains, villages and the people and animals who inhabited them. Their adventures led them to the Western ranges of the Americas and an idea began to formulate - to create a book which celebrated the long and beautiful line of mountain ranges which run from the north to the south poles. They collaborated with Don Mellor (who they had worked with previously when they published Adirondacks Alive, a photo-essay collection of the Adirondacks of New York State) to piece together the jaw-dropping and beautifully written Alpine Americas.
Alpine Americas is a gorgeous “coffee table book” which examines the 10,000 miles of peaks from the Arctic to Patagonia. It is organized by chapters which look at each mountain grouping - beginning with the far North mountains of the Brooks Range along the Northern rim of Alaska, and ending with the ragged Patagonian ranges and fjords. Each chapter describes the unique weather, people and animals of the region and is filled with breathtaking photographs. It is a feast for the eyes.
Those who love the isolation and beauty of the mountains, and specifically those who climb them, will find themselves enthralled by Mellor’s captivating prose and amazed at how the lens of Soot’s camera has captured the majesty of the west’s highest places.
For the real threads that hold this wondrous earth together are those of her own design - the currents of the sea, the jet stream, the great rivers. The real threads are the physical realities that we cannot change but to which we can adjust. And must. The real threads include the squiggly line of mountain peaks that defines the edge of two continents and in so many ways, defines those who explore. -From Alpine Americas-
Alpine Americas is recommended for arm-chair explorers, as well as those who have actually been there. My thanks to Lisa Roe, online publicist, who sent me this gorgeous book.
