Saturday Review of Books: June 25, 2011

“Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever.”~George Orwell

Mr. Orwell, author of the classic novels 1984 and Animal Farm, in addition to several volumes of essays and nonfiction, was born on June 25, 1903. He eventually added the following ideas and terms to our collective wisdom:

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

Big Brother is watching you.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.

SatReviewbuttonIf you’re not familiar with and linking to and perusing the Saturday Review of Books here at Semicolon, you’re missing out. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. Beckie@ByTheBook (The Confessions of Catherine de Medici)
2. Beckie@ByTheBook (Darkness Follows)
3. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (The Penderwicks at Point Mouette)
4. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (All of Baby, Nose to Toes)
5. Amy Reads (On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe)
6. Amy Reads (Rape New York by Jana Leo)
7. Amy Reads (Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis)
8. Diary of an Eccentric (War & Watermelon)
9. Diary of an Eccentric (Forgetting English)
10. Diary of an Eccentric (Mr. Darcy Goes Overboard)
11. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Neffenegger
12. Becky (Tombstones and Banana Trees)
13. Becky (Mirror Ball)
14. Becky (Pompeii City on Fire)
15. Becky (Saint Training)
16. Becky (Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator by Mo Willems)
17. Becky (If Rocks Could Sing)
18. Becky (Squish Super Amoeba)
19. Becky (Babymouse Mad Scientist)
20. Becky (Press Here)
21. Becky (Back to School With Betsy)
22. Laura (The Secret Knowledge by David Mamet)
23. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (The Ranger)
24. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Mostly Harmless)
25. Collateral Bloggage (Final Jeopardy)
26. Glynn (Nightmare)
27. Cindy Swanson (The Private Patient)
28. FleurFisher (22 Britannia Road)
29. FleurFisher (The Best of Everything)
30. FleurFisher (Poker Face)
31. europeanne (3 books)
32. Graham @ My Book Year (A Visit from the Goon Squad)
33. Janet (The Westing Game)
34. Brooke (The Red Queen)
35. Brooke (The Dawn of Illumination)
36. Brooke (Beastly)
37. jama’s alphabet soup (Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender)
38. jama’s alphabet soup (Vegetable Picture Boosk)
39. DebD (In Siberia)
40. Word Lily (False Witness)
41. Alice@Supratentorial(The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks)
42. SmallWorld Reads (The Postmistress)
43. MK {Abomination & Barbie Dolls}
44. Hope (more on WWII Diary)
45. Bluerose’s Heart(Hourglass)
46. A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust (Divergent)
47. BookBelle (Rain Village)
48. Becky (Nemesis by Agatha Christie)
49. Becky (Small acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan)
50. Becky (William’s Midsummer Dreams by Zilpha Keatley Snyder)
51. Becky (Miles from Ordinary)
52. Becky (Front and Center)
53. Becky (Rumpelstiltskin Problem)
54. Becky (Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic)
55. Summer @ The Brothers H (The Hunger Games)
56. bekahcubed (Firegirl)
57. Brandy @ Afterthoughts (Poetic Knowledge)
58. dawn (A Mother’s Rule of Life)
59. Becky (Am I Really a Christian?)
60. Marijo Taverne
61. Yvann @ Reading, Fuelled By Tea (Snapshot)
62. SenoraG (Peter and the Vampires)
63. Gina @ Bookscount(Joe is Online)

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7 thoughts on “Saturday Review of Books: June 25, 2011

  1. Thanks as always for hosting this! I have to say that I love the quote you chose this week, hilarious and apt. Always especially hard with those books that are just meh!

  2. It’s been a long time since I’ve linked or read reviews. It’s so nice to catch up on what everyone else is reading this summer!

  3. Ah, I see I neglected to include the title of the book I reviewed in parentheses after noting my name. Oops! I reviewd “The Uncommon Reader” by Alan Bennett. Thank you for hosting this. I just started my book blog.

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