Saturday Review of Books: July 11, 2009

“I got hold of the book first. I sat in a corner with that novel and could not do anything but wash and dress mechnically, eat what was put in my hand, sleep reluctantly, and read, for two weeks. Next, my sister seized the book and she was tended, as I had been, and relieved of every household task and duty until, sighing, she turned the last page. Then my mother said, “All right, girls, take over. It’s my turn.” And she never moved or spoke to a soul until she had finished it. My father did not care. He was rereading, for the tenth enchanted time, the African journals of Frederick Courteney Selous, the great English hunter, and while we were in medieval Norway, he had been far away in darkest Africa, with all the wild forest around him. That is the kind of family we were.”
~Elizabeth Borton de Trevino on Kristin Lavransdatter

Welcome to this week’s Saturday Review of Books.

Here’s how it usually works. Find a review on your blog posted sometime this week of a book you’re reading or a book you’ve read. 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.

Now post a link here 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.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

1. Emily at Homespun Light (Eyes Like Stars)
2. Florinda – The 3 R’s (Fool, by Christopher Moore)
3. gautami tripathy (A Bird in the House)
4. Bonnie (The Magician’s Nephew)
5. Bonnie (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
6. gautami tripathy (Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks)
7. Bonnie (The Horse and His Boy)
8. Inquirer (The End of the Alphabet)
9. Inquirer (Books for Boys)
10. Seth H. (Catcher in the Wry)
11. SuziQoregon (In the Sanctuary of Outcasts)
12. SuziQoregon (The Chosen One)
13. SuziQoregon (Chamomile Mourning)
14. Reading to Know (A Little House Traveler)
15. Reading to Know (History in the News)
16. Carol (7 Short Reviews)
17. 5M4B (Along Came You)
18. 5M4B (Learn Me Good)
19. 5M4B (Hands of My Father)
20. 5M4B (Pajama School)
21. 5M4B (The Legend of Vinny Whiskers)
22. 5M4B (Sam Stern’s Get Cooking)
23. Library Hospital (Practically Perfect)
24. Library Hospital (Can You Keep a Secret?)
25. Library Hospital (A Bear Called Paddington)
26. teachergirl (Chains)
27. teachergirl (The Goose Girl)
28. Janet (Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder)
29. Framed (If You Could See Me Now)
30. Heather J (The Last Queen)
31. Barbara H (Take One and This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury)
32. 5M4B (Return to Sullivans Island)
33. Beth (Tumtum and Nutmeg:Adventures Beyond Nutmeg Hall)
34. Beth (The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society)
35. pussreboots (Murder Mysteries)
36. pussreboots (Night Watch)
37. pussreboots (The Second Ship)
38. pussreboots (Kittens First Full Moon)
39. pussreboots (Fairy Glade)
40. FleurFisher (The Reunion)
41. FleurFisher (Instructions to Servants)
42. Deanna (Bitten)
43. Deanna (Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter)
44. Deanna (Rivals for the Crown)
45. Janet (The Wizard of Oz)
46. Janet (Technopoly)
47. Sandra (A Mercy by Toni Morrison)
48. Jolanthe {A Dream to Call My Own}
49. Lazygal (Jarrettsville)
50. Lazygal (The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow)
51. Nymeth (A Great and Terrible Beauty)
52. Nymeth (A Separate Peace)
53. Nymeth (Nothing But Ghosts)
54. Nymeth (Salamander Dream)
55. Diary of an Eccentric (Holly’s Inbox)
56. Lynne (TO HELL AND BACK)
57. Lynne (GOOD HOPE ROAD)
58. Dana(Friends, Lovers, Chocolate)
59. melydia (Xenocide)
60. melydia (Children of the Mind)
61. ChristineMM (Robin McGraw’s Complete Makeover Guide)
62. ChristineMM (My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters)
63. ChristineMM (When the Whistle Blows)
64. ChristineMM (It Sucked and Then I Cried)
65. SmallWorld Reads (People of the Book)
66. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (A Mother’s Heart by Jean Fleming)
67. Amy(Talking to the Dead)
68. Amy(Valley of the Shadow)
69. Nicola (Prairie Tale)
70. Nicola (The Neighbor)
71. Nicola (Roadside Crosses)
72. Joy (The Blue Notebook)
73. Seth H. (NLT Study Bible)
74. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (River Rising)
75. Word Lily (The Blue Notebook)
76. Word Lily (A Passion Most Pure)
77. Jen Robinson (First Light)
78. Girl Detective (Infinite Jest, wk2)
79. Girl Detective (Ten-Cent Plague)
80. Girl Detective (Infinite Jest: a quote)
81. Petunia (Doctor Faustus)
82. Memory (The El Dorado Adventure)
83. Memory (Fantasy & Science Fiction, August/September 2009)
84. Memory (Extraordinary Engines)
85. Memory (Beauty)
86. Cam (Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant)
87. Terri B. (Tom’s Midnight Garden”
88. Amber (Baron Thinks Dogs Are People Too!)
89. Amber (That Went Well)
90. Amber (The Trap)
91. Benjie (Finding Grace)
92. Benjie (Laugh and Live Longer)
93. Carrie K. (Book of Unholy Mischief)
94. Carrie K. (Songs of the Humpback Whale)
95. Savvy Verse & Wit (Bloody Good)
96. Savvy Verse & Wit (T4)
97. Savvy Verse & Wit (Hunger Games)
98. Savvy Verse & Wit (correct T4 link)

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

By the way, today (July 11th) is my mom’s birthday. I won’t tell which one, but she’s even older than I am, and I’ve passed the half-century mark. Happy Birthday to the lady who taught me to love books and reading, who read me the story of Joseph from the Bible when I was a preschooler in such a dramatic voice that I still remember it as one of the best stories ever written. I am rich in having a mother who both read and read to me, and who still reads.

Mom’s current reading project: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

11 thoughts on “Saturday Review of Books: July 11, 2009

  1. Woo! My first two review week! Actually I guess I could’ve done three. I’ll settle for two more next week, including quite a negative one. I’m still struggling to come up with nice things to say…

  2. Your quote this week is exquisite! I remember the *day* I read Kristin in a boat, in the tent, in the truck, completely incapable of doing anything else but read. I love the mom’s response about taking her turn.

    What a perfect quote for your mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Sherry’s mom! You did something very right in raising her. Blessings on this day and the year to come.

  3. strangely, my second review got the correct URL but the wrong title. It should be “NLT Study Bible”. Any way to fix it?

  4. Yes, please pass along sincere wishes for a very happy birthday to your mother.

    Special times 🙂

  5. Thanks for publishing. I will blog & tweet it now.

    I shared:

    a memoir of a mom w clinical depression, former Mormon (It Sucked and then I Cried) which was a blog first then made to a book,

    a YA girl book girl aged 17 summer before senior year (My Big Nose…)

    a coming of age 1940s Virginia boy character w trains (When the Whistle Blows)

    and book about women giving themselves makeovers by Robin McGraw.

  6. Good morning, all! I’ve managed to keep up with Infinite Jest at Infinite Summer and feel like it’s coming together about p. 200. Really funny, and really challenging. I also finished a book on the 1950’s comic-book censorship scare; riveting. stuff.

    I have also had trouble with the links, and have trouble with the page loading–there’s so much stuff on it. Perhaps the amount of stuff is interfering with the link mechanism?

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