True Confession: Polar Book Club Failure

I hang my head in shame and announce something that should be obvious by now: I did not read Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, the Polar Book Club book this past winter.

I tried. In fact, I am still trying to read it, a few sideways glances at a time.

It is perhaps the least enjoyable book I have encountered this year.

It was weird, which I normally do not mind (and, truth be told, tend to prefer). 

It was tedious reading, scattered, unfocused storytelling. 

It also put children in adult situations. Okay, let's not be coy: a pre-teen boy was having all the sex he could muster. I cannot tolerate gratuitous sexualization of children in books, and since the story ambled along in a scattershot way, I did not see the value in that portrayal of a child. 

Finally, it was not the story I expected to read. I thought I was getting a love story that stretched across time.  Instead, I managed to get quite a ways into the story without a glimmer of such romance (but plenty of sex).

I read a few pages every once in a while, hoping it gets somewhere good. However, I think I am formally and publicly surrendering. It's not the book I want to read, so I won't.

Have you read it? Have you tried? Let me know!

Summer Reading: It May Last into Winter!

So, did you read a lot this summer? I know of a few readers who did, and it will earn them a book of their own!

One of the most enjoyable parts of the summer reading club is coming up with new books to read. I invited my buds to join the club for summer reading, and two readers took me up on it.

Both Karen and Stacy  tantalized me with their amazing reading lists. I think I found a few more tomes to add to my (growing) "to be read" list and was pleased to see an unexpected name among the authors. (Oh, there were more than a few favorites in there, too. I know how to pick them — friends and books.)

Karen read the following, for a total of 20 tomes:

1. The Bone Chamber, Robin Burcell
2. Misery, Stephen King
3. Coming Home, Mariah Stewart
4. Desperation, Stephen King
5. Feels Like Family, Sherryl Woods
6. The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Spear
7. Escape from Andersonville, Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan
8. The MacGregors-Alan Grant, Nora Roberts
9. The Walking Dead:Rise of the Governor, Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga
10. The Hazards of Hunting a Duke, Julia London
11. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
12. The Help, Kathryn Stockett 
13. Stoker's Manuscript, Royce Prouty
14. Sixth Sense, Ramona Stewart
15. The Eye of the Tiger, Wilbur Smith
16. True Believer, Nicholas Sparks
17. The Trap, Tabitha King
18. Soldier Dogs, Maria Goodavage
19. Global Warning: Are we on the Brink of World War III? Tim Lahay and Ed Hindson
20. Supervolcano:Eruption, Harry Turtledove

Stacy is "claiming a total of 40," which include:

• Frozen, The Kraken King part 1, novellas by Meljean Brook
• Magic Breaks by Illona Andrews
• Warlord, Warprize, Warcry by Elizabeth Vaughan
• From the Dark Hunter series by Sherrlyn Kenyon: Fantasy Lover, Night Pleasures, Night Embrace, Dance with the Devil, Kiss of the Night, Night Play, Seize the Night, Sins of the Night, Unleash the Night, Devil May Cry, Upon the Midnight Clear, Acheron, One Silent Night, Bad Moon Rising, Time Untime and Styxx.
• Once Burned by Jeanine Frost
• Demon Bound by Meljean Brook
• The King, Lover at Last, Lover Avhenged and Lover Reborn by JR Ward
• The Winter King by CL Wilson
• Body Guard by Jenifer Ashley
• Archangel's Legion by Nalini Singh
• Bound by the Vampire Queen by Joey W Hill
• The Little Prince
• Le Petit Prince
• A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
• Macrieve by Kresley Cole
• Thankful in Death, Concealed in Death and Festive in Death by JD Robb
• Hiawatha by Longfellow 

Stacy also donated 40 used books to the public library in honor of her summer read.

Both readers will receive a copy of the book of their choice.

Speaking of books, who's in for a winter reading club? Let's choose a book to read it during the chilly winter months. (Just one because I know you're busy, and you'll have a few months to fit it in!)

Do you have any particular titles in mind? Do tell!

Happy Solstice! Happy Yule!

Fire and Ice 

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

by Robert Frost

 

Poem courtesy poets.org
Image courtesy Perpetual Inspiration

Poetry Wednesday: Toward the Winter Solstice

Toward the Winter Solstice

Although the roof is just a story high,
It dizzies me a little to look down.
I lariat-twirl the rope of Christmas lights
And cast it to the weeping birch's crown;
A dowel into which I've screwed a hook
Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine
The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs
Will accent the tree's elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause
And call up commendations or critiques.
I make adjustments. Though a potpourri
Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,
We all are conscious of the time of year;
We all enjoy its colorful displays
And keep some festival that mitigates
The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Some say that L.A. doesn't suit the Yule,
But UPS vans now like magi make
Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves
Are gaily resurrected in their wake;
The desert lifts a full moon from the east
And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,
And valets at chic restaurants will soon
Be tending flocks of cars and SUV's.

And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk
The fan palms scattered all across town stand
More calmly prominent, and this place seems
A vast oasis in the Holy Land.
This house might be a caravansary,
The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead
Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces
And ceintures of green, yellow , blue, and red.

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem
Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;
It's comforting to look up from this roof
And feel that, while all changes, nothing's lost,
To recollect that in antiquity
The winter solstice fell in Capricorn
And that, in the Orion Nebula,
From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

by Timothy Steele

"Toward the Winter Solstice" from Toward the Winter Solstice. © Swallow Press, 2005. 

Courtesy of poets.org