October through December reading notes: catching up

I haven't written monthly reading notes since September.  This post covers the books I read from October through the end of the year.  I hope to keep up with reading notes each month in 2015.

Novels:

Night's Child by Maureen Jennings
Vices of My blood by Maureen Jennings
These two books are from the Murdoch Mystery series, which I've written about before.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Not technically a novel, this is the classic collection of semi-autobiographical stories related to O'Brien's experiences as a young American soldier in Vietnam.  I've never felt inclined to read this book, but my 16 year old son read part of it for a class and recommended it.  You should read this book.  A heartbreaking and important glimpse into a time and place in history.

May Contain Nuts: A Novel of Extreme Parenting
by John O'Farrell
I mistakenly thought that  I was writing a satirical novel about modern-day parenting, and so I wanted to read one.  Having already read Tom Perrotta's Little Children several years ago, I searched online for something else and came across this book by a British novelist.  This over-the-top caricature of competitive parenting is pretty funny but tiresome at times.  

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
I'm a huge fan of Victorian-era novels, but I had never read anything by Wilkie Collins.  My friend Celeste suggested I start with this one.  Good advice.  I stayed up way too late a few nights in a row as I read this 600+ pages book compulsively.  Loved it! 
(Side-note:  This is the first full-length book that I've read on a tablet.  Reading a very long book in bed late at night, it was great to have it on the lightweight and bright iPad.)    

*****

 Nonfiction:

Mastering Showing and Telling in Your Fiction
by Marcy Kennedy
This is a short and good read with lots of helpful examples of how to improve storytelling in fiction.  Now I just need to go back to some of my drafts and put the ideas into practice.

Zen Pencils: Cartoon Quotes from Inspirational Folks by Gavin Aung Than
I been following Gavin Aung Than's website Zen Pencils for a while now.  Than adapts inspirational quotes into cartoon stories.  When I heard that a compilation of his cartoons was coming out in book form, I immediately put it on hold at the library.  My sixteen year old son read the book first, as a break from studying for finals.  My other two children and I read it, too.  We all agree - thumbs up!
   
Rebuilt:  Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter
by Michael J. White and Tom Corcoran
I read this for a discussion with my church's Parish Council.  We haven't had the discussion yet, but I'm looking forward to it.  Although not entirely applicable to our parish, because it describes the experiences of a suburban church rather than our very urban church, it was an easy read and thought-provoking in ways.

Two additional nonfiction titles that I started but did not finish:
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey
A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley
I heard about both of these titles on NPR.  Many of the books' ideas really overlapped, such as:
- self-testing on material you want to learn is more effective than highlighting or re-reading
- smaller amounts of spaced studying is more effective than a larger amount of time all at once
- studying the same material in different rooms or environments helps the material stick better
- discussions of how long and short term memory work
I love books about learning and how the brains works, but - unfortunately- I couldn't completely get into either of these.  The writers' styles just didn't click with me, or perhaps I didn't have the concentration for nonfiction at the time I was reading them.

*****

Children 's novels that I read with or to my daughter:

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
Tucker's Countryside by George Selden
I have previously read the classic, award-winning children's book The Cricket in Times Square.  I was inspired to read it again, to my youngest child, after we observed some crickets on a nature walk.  We also read Tucker's Countryside by the same author.  These are heartwarming animal stories with charming characters.  Plus, you may learn a bit about music and life in NYC circa 1960 (when the book was published) from The Cricket in Times Square.  And the conservation message in Tucker's Countryside is even more timely today than when the book was published in 1969.

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
This is a fun and intriguing mystery with some art history (and even math) mixed in.  It got my daughter and me a bit interested in Vermeer and very interested in pentominos.  I'd like to read this book's two sequels, The Wright 3 and The Calder Game.  Balliett has a pretty cool website, too.

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
This book, published in 1963, is about a time-traveling cat.  We thought it was okay, but not great.  Who knew a cat preceded The Time Warp Trio and The Magic Tree House in time-traveling adventures?  Alexander is better known for his classic children's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Prydain, which two of my children read and really enjoyed.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
We loved this book.  I hadn't heard of Eloise Jarvis McGraw until I was homeschooling my children.  When studying Ancient Egypt, we read The Golden Goblet, also by this author and also fantastic.  Both are historical fiction with some mystery mixed in.  As with other "older" children's novels, you'll find the language more sophisticated than children's novels of today, but I think that's a good thing. 

*****

Short stories:
I've read a number of short stories over the past few months.  They are all pretty dark stories (except for "David's Haircut").  Some are stories that are referenced in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, a novel I wrote about in the summer.  Others are stories that my sons read for English class.  I'm listing them by author, alphabetically.  I recommend them all and provide links to where you can read them online if you're interested. 
 
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell  (way before The Hunger Games)
"Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl (He didn't just write children's novels.)
"David's Haircut" by Ken Elkes  (Beautiful!  I want to be able to write a story like this.)
"August Heat" by William Fryer Harvey
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson  (How did I never read this classic story before?)
"The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson  
"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe


*****

Whew!  That was a lot of reading to recap.  This month I'm working on a couple of nonfiction titles, and I'm hoping to read another novel by Wilkie Collins.

What are you reading?