Howling Frog Books

I haven't really posted a "Best of 2013 List" because I've done a lot of that in various wrap-up posts.  I'm not sure you really need to hear again how much I loved Anna Karenina .  But I will repeat myself about Dancing Goddesses because I only just read that, so--people!  Dancing Goddesses is fantastic! I just went back and looked at my goals for 2013, and here they are: Work on my Classics Club list .  Check! Keep reading my TBR pile . Check!  Now I have a WHOLE NEW TBR pile of books I got this year and haven't read yet... Work on whittling down my Amazon wishlist of books I want to read . Check!  It's longer than every anyway, but I did get quite a few titles off. NOT count titles .  Check!  I have no idea how many books I read this year, though it's probably fewer than last year because I tackled a bunch of chunksters.  I also do not know the breakdowns between fiction/non-fiction, male/female authors, library/owned books...

Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas , ed. Gwyn Jones I've had this little old collection of sagas sitting on my bookshelf for years--longer than I had realized, in fact, since inside it I found a receipt from Black Oak Books (now sadly closed), dating from 1995.  I probably bought it on a date with the guy who is now my husband.  Like the Tolstoy  book I just read, it's an old hardbound Oxford World Classics title from the 1960s, very small and engaging, but with the price cut out of the book jacket. This is a collection of  eight sagas about Icelandic people--mostly their feuds--and one "saga of times past."  The historical sagas are careful-sounding records that give lots of detail about exactly where farms were and just who owned them, and the stories contained in them all sound like the Hatfields and the McCoys.  A feud will start with something small and escalate very fast, until it all ends in someone's manor going up in flames with everyone...

Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase , by Jonathan Stroud I've been hearing a lot about this new series by Stroud, so I'm glad my mom borrowed a copy for me.  She described it as a middle-grade Ghostbusters , which is about right.  I've never read Stroud before, and this was a really fun read--I can't wait to read more about Lockwood & Co.!  Also, the title-- The Screaming Staircase --is pretty excellent and reminds me of old Three Investigators stories. The story is set in contemporary London,  but a London in a world that experienced a huge upsurge in hauntings, starting about 50 years ago.  Thus technology and society have evolved to deal with the malevolent ghosts that appear every night, and since only talented children can sense the Visitors at all, ghost-hunters are all very young--though usually on teams led by adults. Lucy can hear and see Visitors, but she's a bit down on her luck and is relieved when Lockwood hires her as an assistant...

History of the Britons , by Nennius. I thought I would get a little jump-start on my Arthurian Literature Challenge and take a peek at Nennius.  He was a Welsh 9th-century monk who may or may not have actually written this history, but the history does seem to show that it was written in Wales and not in Anglo-Saxon territory. I was surprised to see how very short this history is.  I was reading it on my tablet so I don't know exactly, but it must only be about 50 pages long.  It's easy to read, and here I was all this time, thinking it would be quite long and difficult. Nennius tries to prove that the Britons are descended from princes of Troy.  Trojan ancestry was the best there was, so everyone wanted to prove that they too had an illustrious ancestor from Troy.  The Britons claimed a prince named Brutus who named the island after himself (dodgy at best, I know, but I love this stuff). The famous mention of Arthur comes about three-quarters of the...

Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy I found this great little book of Tolstoy at work.  It's one of the old Oxford World's Classics titles, back when they were tiny little hardbound volumes (price, 8 s. 6 d. ).  I don't think it exists anymore as an Oxford title--they have probably changed it around quite a bit--but this old book is a collection of 23 short stories or tales. Many of these stories are moral in tone, and offer a philosophy of life that extolls the Russian peasant way of life.  A simple life working the earth, without wealth or luxury, each producing what he needs, is the ideal here, and many of the tales predict dire consequences to people who get too greedy.  Several are retold folktales, or else folktale-like stories.  Some of them are some of Tolstoy's own favorites, such as God Sees the Truth, But Waits, and A Prisoner in the Caucasus, and were written as teaching stories for children. The flavor is overwhelmingly moral, pastoral, and pl...

I'm getting all excited about starting the Arthurian Literature Challenge!  I hope you are too.  One or two people have mentioned that they might like to read some non-fiction analyzing the Arthurian tradition, but aren't sure what a good book would be, so it's time for Howling Frog Library Services to swing into action and offer a few titles.  It's not as easy as I had expected to find books chronicling the development of Arthurian literature, though histories of 5th-century Britain abound (see below).  The titles I have found are quite expensive and mostly owned by universities, so I hope you can  get them through ILL at your friendly neighborhood public libraries.  Oxford and Cambridge have competing companions to Arthurian literature, both of which look quite interesting, so now I want them both.  And King Arthur: Myth-Making and History is another fairly scholarly take on how the idea of Arthur changed over time. Books looking into the hist...

Rose City Reader is continuing to host her European Reading Challenge in 2014.   Same rules as last time, so go check it out. I have been wondering for a few days if I should sign up for this at all, but it is, after all, a freebie for me.  I enjoyed seeing how many different countries I could get, and am currently reading my last title for the 2013 challenge, a collection of Icelandic sagas.  So what the heck, right? I will probably not collect as many titles in 2014, though.  Between all the Arthurian, pre-1440, and Russian literature I have planned, I probably won't be able to fit in a lot of geographical Euro-variety as well.  I will get 5 titles, though, so I am signing up for the Five-Star level of 5+ again.

Winter's Tales, by Isak Dinesen I read this book of short stories slowly, about one per day maybe.  I remember enjoying them very much in college.  Now I think I liked the Seven Gothic Tales a little more, but these were great too.  I will have to read Last Tales to finish out the collections that go together (in my mind, anyway).  I remember one very striking story in that collection. These stories are mostly set in or partially in Denmark.  They are a little simpler and mostly don't have the complicated frames that are so characteristic of Dinesen, and they are (I think) marginally more realistic, but they are still mysterious, Romantic, aristocratic to the point of obsession, and carry that particular Dinesen feeling she does so well.  "Sorrow-Acre" and "Peter and Rosa" were my own favorites, but looking back over the list of stories now, they were all very good. Dinesen always seems to be to be--well, not behind her times exactly, but something...

Merry Christmas everybody--hope yours is full of good books and good company.

Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance , by Elizabeth Wayland Barber One of my all-time favorite books is Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years , by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, a historian who specializes in archaeology, linguistics, and textiles.  It's all about the development of fabric--spinning, weaving, wool and flax, stripes and tweeds, and so on.  When I found out that she has a new book out about European folk magic, dancing, and story, I couldn't wait to read it.  I had a very happy week reading it, I can tell you! It's a huge book that covers a wide swath of Eastern Europe and Russia, so it's hard to summarize, but I will try to sum up: over these areas, historians find many commonalities in folk dancing and belief.  We find a widespread belief in female spirits that have something to do with fertility, with water, and with dance; they are both dangerous and beneficent.  In Russian, they are rusalki; in Greek, nymp...

I know I said I wouldn't join any more challenges, but Deseree at Dusky Literati posted one I just can't ignore.  I can't post the whole thing here, so go take a look.  Deseree says: The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s. At the time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. The Movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great Migration (African American), of which Harlem was the largest. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, in addition, many francophone black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is generally considered to have spanned from about 1919 until the early or mid-1930s. (Source: Wikipedia ) Last year I read quite a few books by author...

The Long Ships , by Frans Bengtsson Folks, this book is fantastic.  Now you know, so you will go out and read it too, right? This is the life story of Red Orm, who is captured as a teenager and ends up joining a Viking raiding ship as an equal.  So his years of adventure begin, pillaging, fighting, being captured as a slave, working as a bodyguard...Orm travels around the Europe of 1000 AD and even meets up with a few eminent people.  I was happy that he spent quite a bit of time at the court of Harald Bluetooth.  Eventually Orm even travels to Kiev. The really wonderful thing about this book is that Frans Bengtsson gives an amazing picture of life a thousand years ago, and he does it amazingly convincingly.  As far as I can tell, Bengtsson really understood how Vikings thought .  (Not that I would know, but he sure is good at conveying that impression and I think he knew his stuff.)  The whole time, I felt convinced that people were really like ...

Uniflame hosted this wonderful challenge so that we would get books off our wishlists.  The goal was 12, and I exceeded that (good thing too, because way more than 12 books made it on to my wishlist this year).   I kept track of 18 books, but a few more than that actually happened, which is all to the good. Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon, by Iosif Shklovsky  Reached, by Ally Condie The Violinist's Thumb, by Sam Kean Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime, by El len Prager   The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller   You Can Understand the Bible, by Peter Kreeft Watching the English, by Kate Fox  Great House, by Nicole Krauss  Norms and Nobility, by David Hicks  Shopping for a Better Country, by Josip Novakovich   A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth     The Lost Wife, by Alyson Richman Bloodlands, by Timothy Snyder  The Agency: A Spy in the House, by Y. S. Lee  The Book of Not, by Tsitsi ...

The Classics Club is holding its 2nd Annual Readathon!  And for once, a readathon will be happening at a time when I actually have a chance of participating.  In fact, I'll need a readathon, with all the events I'm signed up for in January!*  So I am signing up, and I hope you will too. The readathon will be on Saturday, January 4, starting at 8am EST, which is 5am in my time zone.  I think I will probably not get up that early, nor will I stay up until 5am the next day!  But I will try to spend as much time as possible reading. *In January, I have committed myself to the Children's Literature Event , the Vintage SF Not-A-Challenge , the Eugene Onegin readalong , and Long-Awaited Reads Month , plus the CC will be focusing on Shakespeare/Elizabethan England .  It's ridiculous and I can't wait.  I already have a pile of old SF titles and LAR books waiting.

Time for the final Mount TBR post.  Bev says:   Wow. We're almost done with 2013 and it's time to get ready for the Final Mountaineering Checkpoint. Where does the time go? I'm ready to hear how all our mountain-climbing team members have done out there on Pike's Peak, Mt. Ararat, Mt. Everest....whichever peak you've chosen. Checkpoint participation is absolutely voluntary and is not considered necessary for challenge completion. For those who would like to participate in this checkpoint post, I'd like you to at least complete the first of these two things.  And if you feel particularly inspired (or generous about humoring me this holiday season), then please do both. 1. Tell us how many miles you made it up your mountain (# of books read). If you've planted your flag on the peak, then tell us and celebrate (and wave!).  Even if you were especially athletic and have been sitting atop your mountain for months, please check back in and remi...

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis I picked this book up a few years ago; I'm always attracted to medieval texts about saints (or anything else really), but then I don't get around to reading them.  Since I read a biography of Francis earlier this year, I thought I'd read this too.  It took me a while, though; it's written in a semi-Biblical style that makes the going a little slow, and the homilies are a little hard to read patiently. The first half of the book is lots of short chapters about incidents in St. Francis' life, starting of course with his conversion, and then narrating lots of little stories about him and his followers.  The second half is more of a continuous narrative that tells about events from the time that Francis gained his famous stigmata.  He lived with them for a couple of years before dying, and from then on the story is about his canonization and the lives of two famous disciples, Friars Juniper and Giles.  A last section contains ...

Last year, Amanda at Simpler Pastimes and I ran the Children's Literature Event together.  This year, Amanda is doing it on her own , but I'm certainly still participating and I'm excited about Amanda's plans!  She will be hosting a readalong of The Wizard of Oz , which indeed I have not read for years (though when I was a kid, we read the books and didn't watch the movie).  We are also all encouraged to read whatever children's classics we want to read and share our thoughts.  I'm going to read Where the Red Fern Grows , because I have never read it.  We'll see what else happens too--after all, my house is filled with children's books, so that's no problem. Check out Amanda's plans, and grab her gorgeous buttons for your blog.   She is so talented at making beautiful images, and I am always envious of that.  She's got Wizard of Oz font, how cool is that?

Adam at Roof Beam Reader wants to know how we all did with his challenge.   Actually he already knows I finished, but a wrap-up post seems in order, so here we go: I managed to read all 14 titles on my list, 12 picks plus 2 backups. I really enjoyed most of them and was very glad to have read them, with the exception of Last of the Mohicans , my candidate for Unreadable Book of the Year.  Some of them were less fascinating than others, but on the whole I'm happy. Here is the master list: The Souls of Black Folk   (2/ 2 7) The 13th Element (7/12) Last of the Mohicans , by James Fenimore Cooper (4/21) St. Thomas Aquinas/St. Francis of As si si (biography by G. K. Chesterton) (8/5) The Middle Window The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (3/15) The Forgotten Man (7/30) Making Their Own Peace (6/22) The Echoing Green (5/21) The Chemical History of a Candle (3/16) Botchan , by Natsume Soseki (4/25) When Ladies Go A-Thieving (9/19) Meditations (Marcu...

The Decline and Fall of Europe , by Francesco M. Bongiovanni Bongiovanni is convinced that Europe has got some serious problems, in the forms of over-bloated bureaucracy and regulation in the EU, a single currency that is supposed to work for too many different economies, far too much governmental debt/taxation/benefits, cultural reluctance to change, and demographic decline.  He dedicates chapters to each of these issues--and more-- and especially concentrates on explaining complex financial situations to the layperson. Bongiovanni is a believer in the concepts that originally sparked the idea of the European Union:  "[the] unification project launched by eminent and creative thinkers after the Second World War based on the idea that Europeans should find better things to do than to keep slaughtering each other." ...but he believes that Europe has gone off the rails and is headed for trouble. While he would like to see change, and he writes to do what he can to convin...

Participating in Sarah's Back to the Classics Challenge is now a tradition for me, but Sarah is currently too busy with library school and the rest of life to keep hosting, so Karen at Books and Chocolate is taking over!  Yay Karen!  At the official sign-up post (which you should read and join), Karen says:   The challenge will be very similar to the way Sarah created it.  Like last year, there will be six required categories that all participants must complete.  Everyone who reads and reviews six eligible books and writes a wrap-up post will automatically be entered into the drawing for an Amazon gift card for $30 (U.S) or a choice of book(s) from The Book Depository. There will also be five optional categories.  Participants who finish three of those will also get an additional entry into the prize drawing;  those completing all five categories  will get two more entries, for a total of six. I am making one slight change, o...

The Killing Moon, by  N. K. Jemisin I don't really keep up with the SF/F publishing world, so I missed the arrival of N. K. Jemisin on the scene a few years ago.  Luckily for me, Eva recommended her the other day, so I went looking.  I was going to try to get The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms , but my library only owns The Killing Moon , so I got that.  And it is a pretty fantastic book, everybody, so if you are at all interested in fantasy, I recommend it. In the holy city of Gujaareh, peace is the law.  Everyone knows their place in society and does not leave it. Priests use magic drawn from dreams to heal most sicknesses and injuries, and there is no crime, because any kind of crime is punished by death.  The Hetawa, servants of Hananja, don't just heal, they also kill--they offer peace to the dying and enforce death upon the corrupt.  Nijiri is a young acolyte training to be a Gatherer; his mentor is Ehiru.  Ehiru has been assigned to Gath...

Persuasion , by Jane Austen I just love Persuasion. I've read it several times by now, and the mystery I read put me in the mood to read it again, so I did. I love how Anne Elliott is an older heroine , who has learned and matured from her trials . I think she might be the only Austen protagonist who does not go through a moment of humiliating self-discovery (is that right ? Wait, maybe Elinor Dashwood?) that leads to her change and improvement . She has already been there , and instead she 's in a phase of life where she is ready for a life of her own , but she really thinks her chance is over . All she can look forward to is long years of putting up with her father and sister and keeping her opinions to herself. She has had much of her hope and spirit squashed out of her and is now " faded and thin ." When Anne meets up with Captain Wentworth again , nearly 8 years after she...