Category: Random

Top Ten Tuesday: On My Reading Wishlist

Posted January 21, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 0 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Things on My Reading Wishlist. Which is described as “if you could make authors write about these things you would… Could be a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a time period, a certain plot, etc”. I wasn’t really interested in doing that topic so I’ve decided to highjack this topic and tell you which Non-Fiction books are on my wishlist or shelf to read this year.

  •  Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin
  • The Dark Path: A Memoir by David Schickler
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  • Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson by Robert Polito
  • On Literature by Umberto Eco

 

  • Ways of Seeing by John Berger
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  • Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux by Boris Kachka
  • Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum
  • Exquisite Corpse: Surrealism and the Black Dahlia Murder by Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss

Some of these books are already on my self, so I hope to read them soon. Others I’m really excited to read. Feel free to offer me some recommendations on good Non-Fiction to read.


Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Debuts I’m Excited For

Posted January 14, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 7 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Top Ten 2014 Debuts I’m Excited For. This sounds a little similar to 2014 Releases I’m Dying to Read but I will see if I can think of some debut novels I’m excited about.

I don’t pay enough attention to what is being released to know what I want to read. I hope to discover some more from this week’s Top Ten Tuesday.


Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014

Posted January 7, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 6 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014. I don’t really have goals for the year, except for reading ones. Here is what I want to achieve this year.

  • Complete the Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
  • Read more Non-Fiction
  • Read bigger books
  • Take my time with a book in order to read more critically
  • Continue reviewing every book and document my reading journey
  • Be willing to abandon more books
  • Create a better way to track books read
  • Clean up my Edelweiss/Netgalley eARC list
  • Exercise more

Monthly Review – December 2013

Posted December 31, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 2 Comments

and then there were noneThis is the end of 2013 and what a great year we have had. Let’s have a quick look back at the year for the book club on Goodreads and our books of the months. For me some of the highlights included; The Bell Jar, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Lolita, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Fault in our Stars and The Shadow of the Wind. We seem to consistently get great books to read, including this month’s book And Then There Were None. I wasn’t sure what to expect, this was my first Agatha Christie and while I had some issues, I will read her again.

Next month we are reading an espionage novel, which will be Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. I’ve read this novel and really enjoyed it, so I’m excited to see what others think; the movie is pretty great too. I hope everyone had a great holiday period and look forward to the great things to come in 2014. If you’re not aware, the book discussion and everything else will be happening over on the Goodreads forums, so feel free to join in there.

This has also been a great year for this blog too, which spawned last year from the Goodreads book club. I originally hoped this would be a source for all things book club related but turned into a book journal of my life as a literary explorer. I’m glad it did turn into what it is today; I’ve had so much fun book blogging and sharing my bookish thoughts. For my favourite books of 2013, check out the post but I wanted to share some of my favourite posts.

As always this month lead me to discover some great books including The Explorer and The Echo by James Smythe, Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood, Careless People by Sarah Churchwell and a reread of Frankenstein. I thought maybe James Smythe (he made my top books of 2013 list twice) or even Frankenstein would be the highlights of the month but it was actually a non-fiction book; 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s only a collection of letters between a book lover and a second-hand book store but for any book lover, it reads like a love letter to books.

Read More


My Top Five Reads of 2013

Posted December 30, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top 5 / 4 Comments

As 2013 comes to an end, it is time to do that “Best of” post. I know it’s one of those posts you are either sick of or love seeing but I have to share my favourites. It’s been a great year; over 160 books read, some amazing books and some painful ones (see Twilight and New Moon). Like last year I’m going to split my list into “Best of 2013 (released this year)” and all other novels, but as I want to focus more on Non-Fiction too I’m adding “Best Non-Fiction of 2013” to the mix.

Top Five Reads Released in 2013
5. The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth
4. Tenth of December by George Saunders
3. The Explorer by James Smythe
2. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
1. The Machine by James Smythe

Top Five Reads in 2013
5. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
4. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
1. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Top 5 Non-Fiction Reads in 2013
5. The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
4. Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman
3. Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
2. Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering
1. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Now it’s your turn to let me know of your favourite books, the new releases and the older books. It doesn’t matter; just what you discovered and loved.


And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Posted December 29, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Classic, Crime / 2 Comments

And Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieTitle: And Then They Were None (Goodreads)
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: St. Martin's Griffin, 1939
Pages: 264
Genres: Classic, Crime
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: AmazonBook DepositoryKindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Ten people have been invited to have a holiday on Soldier Island; when they arrived they thought they had nothing in common. Soon they find out all of them have become complacent with the death (or deaths) of other human beings. One by one they all die, but who is the one that is there to seek revenge on the others?

And Then There Were None was originally titled Ten Little (I would rather not say) after the British nursery rhyme. The US edition used this title (which is also the last line of the rhyme) as well as changing the song to Ten Little Indians. Once again the novel was revived and now the song title has been changed to Ten Little Soldiers. Apart from the offensive name of the book originally, this novel was wildly successful and introduced a very common crime trope into the world. Ten people trapped in a house on an island trying to work out who is killing them off one by one. I’m sure you can think of many films, shows and books that have paid homage to this theme.

This classic crime novel looks at the idea of administrating justice; who has the right to judge others, and what happens when the law fails. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers and tell you who the killer is but most people would have read this and probably remember who the perpetrator was. The killer believes the others are complacent and in most facts while they deny being guilty publically are living tormented lives. Not everyone, but it was interesting to see that kind of turmoil and I was a little upset to see that wasn’t explored in greater detail. Having said that, I think the torment played out more in the symbolism and motifs. I’m thinking about the dreams and hallucinations (the guilty consciences of the victims are explored here) or the storm; a symbol of violence that cuts them off from the world.

The killer has set out to commit the perfect crime and it looks good on paper but I never really bought into it. While reading this novel I had a feeling that the cosy crime approach is playing against the story. If you think about the mess made from the violent murders, wouldn’t help the police work out what happened in the end? I’m sure they wouldn’t rely on the handwritten accounts, the evidence would be inconsistent. Making this far from a perfect crime (sorry this is hard to explain without spoilers).

This was my first Agatha Christie novel and while I enjoyed it there is one thing that frustrated me. I hate crime novels that hold back important pieces of evidence and expect the reader to work out what happened. I always feel like the author is trying to be smug but really it is just poorly executed writing. It wasn’t so bad in this novel but I get the feeling it is a common occurrence in all her novels and I can’t stand that. You have to make a great protagonist to make up for the withholding of information. It works better as a first person narrative; the unreliable narrator is more likely to forget to tell you important clues.

I will read some more Christie, I hope I’m mistaken about the withholding of clues. And Then There Were None had no real protagonist but maybe a Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple or Tommy and Tuppence mystery hide this a little better. I suspect Murder on the Orient Express will be my next Agatha Christie read but who knows. I prefer my detectives a little more Hard-Boiled so it might be awhile between Christie novels.


What Books Have Been Trending – October-December 2013

Posted December 28, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book Trends / 0 Comments

As 2013 come to a close, it is time once again to check out what has been trending in the past three months. There are always great books out there and I love to just highlight some books that seemed to have been trending in different circles. If you want to look over the book trends for the past year check them out here. Like always, this is not accurate, I had to use my own judgement to culling most books so we can cover more genres.

October

Released in August, it wasn’t till it won the Man Booker that The Luminaries was talked about so much. It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events. A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk.

 

allegiantThe faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

 

goldfinchThe Goldfinch follows a young boy in New York City, who miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and determined to avoid being taken in by the city as an orphan, Theo scrambles between nights in friends’ apartments and on the city streets. He becomes entranced by the one thing that reminds him of his mother, a small, mysteriously captivating painting that soon draws him into the art underworld.

 

mad about the boyBridget Jones is back! Set in the present, Mad About the Boy will explore a different phase in Bridget’s life with an entirely new scenario. Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in—Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching!—middle age.

 
 

longbournIf Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them. Jo Baker’s Longbourn dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realised world that is wholly her own.

 

November

amy tanSpanning fifty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement is a deeply moving narrative of family secrets, the legacy of trauma, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters, that returns readers to the compelling territory Amy Tan so expertly mapped in The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humour, she conjures a story of the inheritance of love, its mysteries and senses, its illusions and truths.

 

the first phone callThe First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. An allegory about the power of belief–and a page-turner that will touch your soul—Mitch Albom’s masterful storytelling has never been so moving and unexpected.

 

bellman and blackBellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who “could go to the good or the bad.” And indeed, although William Bellman’s life at first seems blessed—he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business—one by one, people around him die.

 

pawnPawn is the first book in The Blackcoat Rebellion series; You can be a VII, if you give up everything. For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.

 
 

barracudaHis whole life, Danny Kelly’s only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he’s ever done – every thought, every dream, every action – takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment. A searing and provocative novel by the acclaimed author of the international bestseller The Slap, Barracuda is an unflinching look at modern Australia, at our hopes and dreams, our friendships, and our families.

 

December

want notA compulsively readable, deeply human novel that examines our most basic and unquenchable emotion: want. With his critically acclaimed first novel, Jonathan Miles was widely praised as a comic genius “after something bigger” whose fiction was “not just philosophically but emotionally rewarding”. With a satirist’s eye and a romantic’s heart, Miles captures the morass and comedy of contemporary life in all its excess. Bold, unblinking, unforgettable in its irony and pathos, Want Not is a wicked, bighearted literary novel that confirms the arrival of a major voice in American fiction.

s.One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire. A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown. S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.

these broken starsIt’s a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. A timeless love story, These Broken Stars sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

 

the gods of guiltMickey Haller gets the text, “Call me ASAP – 187,” and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Murder cases have the highest stakes and the biggest paydays, and they always mean Haller has to be at the top of his game. Haunted by the ghosts of his past, Mickey must work tirelessly and bring all his skill to bear on a case that could mean his ultimate redemption or proof of his ultimate guilt. The Gods of Guilt shows once again why “Michael Connelly excels, easily surpassing John Grisham in the building of courtroom suspense”.

 

dangerous womenAll new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by twelve New York Times bestsellers, and seven stories set in the authors’ bestselling continuities—including a new “Outlander” story by Diana Gabaldon, a  tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R. R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones. Also included are original stories of dangerous women–heroines and villains alike–by Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Lawrence Block, and many others.

Now it’s your turn, let me know of the books that you are surprised that didn’t make this list (there were heaps of them). What have you read and enjoyed and what do you expect to trend next year? I hope The Echo by James Smythe, By Blood We Live by Glen Duncan and Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart will all be trending next year but I want to know if you have any predictions?


Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing Me

Posted December 24, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 1 Comment

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing Me. I know I’m getting some books for Christmas but why not mention books I want to get my hands on.

  • & Sons by David Gilbert
  • 501 Must Read Books by Emma Beare
  • 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
  • A Little History of Literature by John Sutherland
  • Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon
  • Ethics, Evil, and Fiction by Colin McGinn
  • Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux by Boris Kachka
  • How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom
  • In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • On Literature by Umberto Eco
  • Paperback Confidential: Crime Writers of the Paperback Era by Brian Ritt
  • Raymond Chandler: A Mysterious Something in the Light by Tom Williams
  • Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis
  • S. by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst
  • Shelley’s Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family by Stephen Hebron
  • Stoner by John Edward Williams
  • The Dark Path: A Memoir by David Schickler
  • The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded by Clifton Fadiman
  • The Parrots by Filippo Bologna
  • The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino

That’s ten books right (and that is just a taste, more here)? I’m surprised how many non-fiction books made my list. Maybe 2014 will be the read of reading non-fiction for me.


Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013

Posted December 17, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 6 Comments

toptentuesday

It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013. This sounds like a great theme; I’ve discovered some great authors and never thought about doing an end of year list of newly discovered authors. I’ve decided to split this list into two; I want to highlight some debut authors as well.

  • Italo Calvino – I feel in love with If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and want to read it again and again. I probably should read some more of Calvino’s books and I’m sure I will but discovering this book was a big highlight of my year.
  • James SmytheThe Machine was such a great book, I had to read more by this author. I’ve since read The Explorer and The Echo, both amazing and I will be a loyal follower of James Smythe from here on out.  A dark literary science fiction author that writes about humanity and deserves more recognition.
  • Sylvia Plath – I can’t believe it took me so long to read The Bell Jar, It was a fascinating books. I am not sure what her other works are like but this one novel was enough to put her on this list.
  • Jane Austen – It has taken me so long to actually read Austen and I’ve only Pride and Prejudice but I’m planning to read the rest.
  • Warren Ellis – now for something a little weird, Ellis writes some really odd crime novels but they were a lot of fun to read. I’m looking forward to the next one; whenever that is.

Debut Authors

  • Anthony MarraA Constellation of Vital Phenomena will definitely be on my “Best of 2013” list, I was very impressed with that novel and continue to sing praises about it.
  • Hannah KentBurial Rites was possibly the best Australian novel I read this year. I was very impressed with the novel and happy with how successful she has been with such a great book.
  • Gabriel Roth – If you haven’t read or heard of The Unknowns, then I suggest you get onto it right now. On the surface it’s a nerdy romance but there is so much more to this novel.
  • Shani Boianjiu – I wasn’t sure what to expect from The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, I’m not normally into NA novels but as soon as I finished this book I turned back to page 1 and started it again.
  • Maggie Shipstead – Something a little different, I call this novel chick lit but it has a male narrator. Seating Arrangements is a fascinating novel and I’m so glad I read it.

I also want to give an honourable mention to Margaret Atwood. She isn’t a new-to-me author but I have newly discovered her brilliance. I will have to go back and re-read The Handmaid’s Tale and see what I think of it. I’m looking forward to seeing what authors make people’s lists this week.


Do You Know About BookBlogging.net?

Posted December 10, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Random / 4 Comments

Book Blogging Community

I’ve only just discovered BookBlogging.net and was wondering if other people know about it or even use it. It could be a handy community if book bloggers around the world get involved. I don’t know much about the site, there is no about page, mission statement or similar so I’m not sure what the goal is and how we can help them achieve it. They call themselves a resource hub, database, and community for book bloggers, so I guess that is what they want to achieve.

I’m still exploring the site but I’ve found an easy way to find other Australian bloggers via member search and there is even an Aussie Book Bloggers group. I’m interested to see how useful the site will be and if you do join please send me a friends request.