Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Part Four)

December 30, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — eBook. Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett. Project Gutenberg, 2010. Originally published 1877. 1,441 pgs. Free download. I finished Anna Karenina! I am both elated and relived as I managed to tackle a fear of Russian literature and finish a classic piece of (translated) literature spanning 1,441 pages. What a way to end 2011! This post covers Part Six to the end of the final section, Part Eight, and will include spoilers because I cannot resist discussing the […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, AP Literature, Audiobook, Chunkster, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Readalong, Russia, Russian, Translated • Tags: Leo Tolstoy

Anne Frank by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón

December 29, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Hill and Wang, 2010. 160 pgs. Library copy. Don’t make the same mistake I did; this is not the graphic version of Frank’s diary. Rather the book is a graphic biography starting with her father, Otto, serving in World War II and ending with Otto’s death in Switzerland in 1980. When the book does follow along with the diary, it steps back to provide the broader historical context of what was occurring outside the annex. The illustrations […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Comics, Europe, Genocide, Holocaust, Nonfiction • Tags: Anne Frank, Ernie Colón, Sid Jacobson

Museum of the Missing by Simon Houpt

December 26, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Sterling, 2006. 192 pgs. Library copy. Whereas coffee table books typically focus on a particular artist and the breadth of his/her works, this book focuses on those pieces that have been stolen from museums, action houses, and private homes around the world. The title of this book comes from the mythical museum of all the stolen works of the world known as the “Lost Museum” or the “Museum of the Missing” to those who investigate art theft; […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Art, New England, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Simon Houpt

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

December 24, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — eBook. Top Five Books, 2011. Originally published 1843. 153 pgs. Free download. For those unfamiliar with Dickens’ classic tale, the story focuses on the grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who absolutely abhors Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Marley, who warns Scrooge about the errors of his ways and informs him that he will be visited by the ghost of Christmases Past, the ghost of Christmas Present, and the […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Classics, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Charles Dickens

Answer Them Nothing by Debra Weyermann

December 23, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — eBook. Chicago Review Press, 2011. 304 pgs. Free download. Polygamy and fundamentalist religions are two of my own interests so I had to read it when I found this book available for download from my public library. Having lived in Texas during the YFZ Ranch raid, this book was particularly interesting because of its examination of just how hands-off the police and public officials are when it comes to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, United States • Tags: Debra Weyermann

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Part Two)

December 19, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Simon & Schuster, 2003. 562 pgs. Borrowed from my mom. When I reached the halfway point on Rodham Clinton’s autobiography I thought her husband would be launching his reelection campaign in a few pages. But the book continues on for more than one hundred more pages before Clinton is reelected and, instead, the reader is treated to tales about her whirlwind adventures across the globe with her husband and daughter. The trips including meeting Nelson Mandela, visiting […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Chunkster, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Part Three)

December 17, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — eBook. Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett. Project Gutenberg, 2010. Originally published 1877. 1,441 pgs. Free download. Trying to read Tolstoy’s tome on a bus at 1 a.m. was not my brightest idea and thus I fell off the read-a-long bandwagon back in November at Week Five. When I fall behind, I fall behind. I spent this past weekend catching up and I am now at the start of Part Six, which was supposed to be the check-in […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, AP Literature, Audiobook, Chunkster, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Readalong, Russia, Russian, Translated • Tags: Leo Tolstoy

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

December 16, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — print. Borders Classics, 2004. Originally published 1850. 203 pgs. Purchased. The first time I read Hawthorne’s novel was in ninth grade. It wasn’t assigned reading for my class but rather I was intrigued by another student’s project on the book hanging in my English teacher’s classroom. Hawthorne’s novel was never assigned as required reading and I doubt it will be assigned in any of my classes this or subsequent semesters. The language of this novel makes it difficult […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2011 Reads, AP Literature, Audiobook, Classics, Fiction, New England, North America, Readalong, United States • Tags: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vileisis

December 15, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — eBook. Island Press, 2008. 332 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back”, Vileisis’ book was assigned for a class on the economics of food I took last semester. I finished the first few chapters of the book but other classes and projects overwhelmed me and I set the book aside. It’s one of the few textbooks I have not finished by the deadline and, in […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Food, Nonfiction, North America, Textbook, United States • Tags: Ann Vileisis

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Part One)

December 14, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Simon & Schuster, 2003. 562 pgs. Borrowed from my mom. I wasn’t even a year old when Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States, and I was nine when he left office. My recollection of his presidency, and therefore Hillary Rodham Clinton’s time as First Lady, boils down to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and I even doubt that my memories are from the actual event and not pop culture.  At the halfway point through […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Chunkster, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Darcy’s Voyage by Kara Louise

December 13, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — print. Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010. 503 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Although I do not normally review books I am unable to finish, this is one of those books were I feel like I have to say something. Subtitled “A Tale of Uncharted Love on the Open Seas” and billing itself as a retelling of Austen’s original, Louise’s novel places Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy on the ship Pemberley’s Promise as it sails to the New World. Elizabeth is on […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Abandoned, Austen Inspired, Chunkster, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Kara Louise

Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo (Part Two)

December 12, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Public Affairs, 2011. 303 pgs. Purchased. When I last left off with Banerjee and Duflo’s book the two were finished describing the private lives of the world’s poor and were moving on to Part Two: Institutions. I stopped at this point because the semester was coming to a close and I did not want to mess up the narrative of their research that my professor wanted us to concentrate for the final exam. I immediately jumped back […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Africa, Asia, Economics, Nonfiction, Textbook • Tags: Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo