Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

December 8, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Jim Dale. Listening Library, 1999. 8 hours, 17 minutes. Library copy. Harry Potter’s name is said reverence and excitement because Harry Potter is ‘The Boy Who Lived’. Yet ten-year-old Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is in the magical world his horrid aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, are determined to keep him ignorant of and no idea why attempts to contact him via a letter have the Dursleys in an uproar. On his […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Audiobook, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, Juvenile, Reread, United Kingdom • Tags: J.K. Rowling, Jim Dale

Shenzhen by Guy Delisle

December 6, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Drawn and Quarterly, 2006. Originally published 2000. 148 pgs. Library copy. Once again, Delisle is hired by an animation company to oversee the animation office outsourced to an Asian country. This time, he spends a few months living in an urban city in southern China located near Hong Kong but sealed off from the rest of the country by electric fences and armed guards. Such conditions were unknown to me […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, China, Comics, French, Nonfiction, Translated • Tags: Guy Delisle

King Lear by William Shakespeare

December 5, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Trevor Peacock, Julia Ford, Clive Merrison, and the Arkangel Cast. BBC Audiobooks, 2005. Originally published 1605. 3 hours, 8 minutes. Library copy. The aging King Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters – Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia – in proportion to the amount of love each daughter declares to have for him. Goneril and Regan each made grand pronouncements and declarations of love for their father but Cordelia, the youngest daughter and the […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Classics Club, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Clive Merrison, Julia Ford, Trevor Peacock, William Shakespeare

Pyongyang by Guy Delisle

December 4, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Drawn and Quarterly, 2005. Originally published 2002. 184 pgs. Library copy. North Korea, often referred to in America as part of the “Axis of Evil”, is one of the most secluded, mysterious, and poorest nations in the world. Hired by a French film company to oversee its animation office in North Korea, Delisle spent months living in one of the country’s few hotels and traveling around the city with a […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, Comics, French, Nonfiction, Translated • Tags: Guy Delisle

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 3, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Crib. Harvill Secker, 2008. Originally published 2005. 344 pgs. Library copy. The Reykjavik police, including Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson, are called to a low-income apartment complex to investigate the death of a young boy. Because the young boy does not appear Icelandic, Erlendur and his coworkers, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg, presume Elias is the victim of a race-based hate crime and turn their attention to the gangs of teenagers that […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

The Witches by Roald Dahl

December 2, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Ron Keith. Puffin Audio, 1994. 4 hours, 53 minutes. Library copy. Following the death of his parents in a car crash, Dahl’s unnamed, eight-year-old narrator is sent to live with his grandmother in Norway where he learns that witches are real. In fact, witches are all around us hiding in plain sight – wigs on their bald heads, clawed hands hidden with gloves, and toeless feet jammed into pretty shoes – amongst the public hating […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Audiobook, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, Juvenile, United Kingdom • Tags: Roald Dahl, Ron Keith

A Simple Charity by Rosalind Lauer

December 1, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Ballantine Books, 2014. 352 pgs. Review copy. Twice widowed, Fanny Lapp is busy juggling housework, raising her children and step-children, and assisting the doctor who serves her Amish community with each homebirth. Without a husband and with several small children to care for, the responsibilities for repairing and maintaining her home and barn have fallen to the wayside. The bishop has sent Zed Miller, who recently returned to the community after leaving during his rumspringa, to assist […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Amish, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Rosalind Lauer

The Coke Machine by Michael Blanding

November 30, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by George K. Wilson. Tantor Media, 2010. 13 hours, 3 minutes. Library copy. I am horribly addicted to Coca Cola. I can easily down six or seven cans (or, their equivalent at a restaurant) without batting an eye, which obviously places me in the “heavy user” category by The Coca Cola Company. I have tried many times over the past six years to kick the habit going cold turkey for ten weeks or ten months until […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Audiobook, Food, Nonfiction, North America, South America, United States • Tags: George K. Wilson, Michael Blanding

Jerusalem by Guy Delisle

November 29, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the French. Drawn and Quarterly, 2012. Originally published 2008. 336 pgs. Library copy. Delisle’s book chronicles the year he spent living in the Holy City, specifically the Palestinian area known as East Jerusalem, with his wife and two children after his wife was posted in the West Bank by Doctors Without Borders (referred to by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, and initials, MFA, in the text). His travelogue provides an account of the major […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Comics, French, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Nonfiction, Translated • Tags: Guy Delisle

On the Map by Simon Garfield

November 28, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Gotham, 2012. 464 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks”, Garfield’s book presents the rather fascinating history of cartography in a series of easy-to-digest, short chapters. Following a loose timeline, he focuses on interesting and important aspects of cartography – the library at Alexandria, John Snow’s epidemic map, the marvel that is the map of the London Underground, the controversy behind the Mercator projection – moving the reader from the very […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Cartography, Chunkster, Nonfiction • Tags: Simon Garfield

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

November 27, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Anna Fields. Blackstone Audio, 2005. Originally published 1997. 8 hours, 3 minutes. Library copy. In December 1937 – long before the Second World War began for Americans, Brits, and most Europeans – the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, the capital of China, and committed one of the most brutal massacres in human history. Within weeks of the invasion, the army had not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, Audiobook, China, Japan, Nonfiction • Tags: Anna Fields, Iris Chang

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter

November 26, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Jeremy Davidson. Macmillan Audio, 2009. 14 hours, 19 minutes. Library copy. Subtitled “Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History”, this book traces the effectors of five so-called Monuments Men and one women between D-Day (June 6, 1944) and Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) on May 8, 1945. One of the little known programs of the Nazi regime was to steal, plunder, and amass the great works of art across Europe […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Art, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, France, Germany, Nonfiction, Poland • Tags: Bret Witter, Jeremy Davidson, Robert M. Edsel