Kiwi_Jim's 75 Book Challenge 2014

So this is my first ever 75 book challenge.

I read nearly everything but have a predetermination towards fiction addiction.
I like...
Classics
Modern Literature
SciFi
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Thrillers
Horror
Black Comedy
Mystery

When I'm not reading books I'm baking, drawing, or playing sport.

Favourite books from 2013.

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
A Tiger in Eden by Chris Flynn
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
Brilliance by Anthony McCarten
Bring Up The Bodies by Hillary Mantel

I'm looking forward to this years reading. Not sure I'll make 75. Might have bitten off more than I can chew....

So Far This year......

Choose Me by Kay Langdale
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Watcher In The Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Brief And Wonderous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Sound Of Waves by Yukio Mishima
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Snows Of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Candide by Voltaire
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
Why We Took The Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf
The Humans by Matt Haig
The Clown by Heinrich Böll
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Sexing The Cherry by Jeanette Winterspoon
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Vango by Timothée de Fombelle
The Circle by Dave Eggers
The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
The Merman by Carl Johan Vallgren
The Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
The Call Of The Wild by Jack London
The Gospel Of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
In Times of Fading Light by Eugen Ruge
Horns by Joe Hill
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

#1 Choose Me by Kay Langdale
A gut wrenching heart warmer. It finds a young 9 year old boy, orphaned when his mother dies of a drug overdose. A social worker is trying her best to find him a 'Forever Family', but it proves difficult as many of the adults have baggage of their own. The thing I liked the best about this book was the dramatic irony employed around what the boy (Billy) thought about things, what he said to the adults around him, and how they interpreted what he said.
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#2 The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A short novella about a family who find a very large pearl which seems at first a blessing and ends up being a curse. It is basically talking on the old theme of money corrupting. I enjoyed it. But I enjoyed Of Mice and Men more.
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Hi Jim :) I enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, Of Mice and Men, and A Visit from the Goon Squad too. I haven't actually read The Pearl in several years, but I also remember feeling that Of Mice and Men was a far more powerful story. Have gun with your reading this year!

Welcome from another Jim! Nice start to the year.

Ok, you got me within your first 4 faves from last year.

The Old Man and The Sea- I loved, Steppenwolf (yet to read but I guess I should given the odds are stacked in my favour), On The Road - I loved, Sense of an Ending- I loved.

Biting off more than you can chew is highly recommended around here, so welcome from a fellow NZer!
Edited to add.....from your profile I see you are German? Or a Kiwi in Germany? Or a German in Germany who likes Kiwis?

You have a fabulous list of 2013 favourite books! I love the diversity - some Classics, some contemporary, even some YA. I loved The Fault in Our Stars too.

Hi Paige, I got turned onto The Fault in Our Stars from a work friend, and really loved it. The main character reminds me of my step mum who is also a real battler. She's got MS and where a lot of people would crumble or wallow in self pity, she seems to get tougher and tougher, she manages to find a way to get the most out of life too, fighting to not let her disease become who she is. Whenever I find myself with some bad luck to deal with I just have to think of her strength and it makes me feel like I can cope. Visit From The Goon Squad was a good one. I felt it got better the more you read. I think the future it envisages is not to far off either. In terms of Steinbeck have you read Grapes of Wrath? I just bought it and am looking forward to reading it soon. :)

Hi Jim, Thanks!

Hi Megan, Definitely read Steppenwolf. It was a revelation for me. Sounds like you have a similar taste in books. Do you have any recommendations? And yes I'm a Kiwi. A JAFFA to be precise. (Hopefully thats not a mark against me.) I'm living in Germany at the moment though. Been living here around 3 1/2 years.

Hi Cait, Touche. Your lists are also as diverse. I pretty much read anything and everything. I'm lucky to have some cool people pointing me to some great books. So feel welcome to do some pointing if you want? :)

Hi, Jim, and welcome! Great list of favorites from last year!

Do I have any recommendations? Do I ever...I will have to get back to you with them after I have perused your shelves, and gotten this toddler off my lap...made dinner and done a few hundred quick things as well.
I don't mind if you are a JAFA, some of my best friends are (and family members too if I am honest). :)

Hi Amber, Thanks. What were your favourites?

@ Megan - It sounds as though you have quite the handful to do. But if you do manage it, I'll read it. :) As to my shelves most of whats on here is what I've bought here in Germany and a few that I have remembered from home.(This may be a book crime, but all the books I've adopted prior to coming to Germany, save the few I brought with me, are in cardboard boxes in my parents garage in Napier.)

#3 The Watcher in The Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A mysterious story shrouded in magical realism and driven by the readers anxiety and curiosity. It is much in the vein of other stories by Zafón and I would recommend it to those that enjoyed such. I would also recommend it to those that read and enjoyed Gaiman's The Ocean at The End of The Lane. It follows a family who after tragedy make a new start on an idyllic island. The mother takes a job working for a somewhat hermitic eccentric old toymaker, whose residence inspires wonder and creepiness in equal measure. And I'd rather not say more, as I'm not keen on knowing too much about a book before reading it myself, and I'd not like to spoil it for someone else.
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#4 Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Written in the eloquent witty style of a gentleman in the 19th century. First published in 1889 it was at it's best for me describing in hilariously dry humour men working at a particular task. In this way, it's interesting to note that men have not changed much in 125 years! The quote from the book that they wisely chose to print as the blurb on the back cover instantly drew me to the book and pushed me to read it.

"Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing."
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Three Men in a Boat is such a delightful book.

>Vonnegut, Thompson and Gaiman are three of my favorite authors, so I was excited to see them on your Best Of list.

Hi Lori, completely agree. Have you read Three Men on the Bummel? I have it sitting here and wonder if it is as good...

Hi Amber, I've only read two Vonnegut books and both this year. Loved both of them. This is embarrassing but for the longest time the title of Slaughterhouse Five put me off. I'm glad I finally read it. Whats more is that he has written a lot of books! I'm keen to read more. Do you have any suggestions?

#5 The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
Ignoring the flimsy science behind the premise (It WAS written in 1896!) and concentrating on the story and the ideas, this book was a pleasure. I can only imagine how shocking this must have been at the time of publication. It is of course a flight of fancy and a science fiction story at its simplest and yet it has symbolic application to humanity in general, much in the same way as Orwell's Animal Farm. Where Orwell talks of politics, Well's talks of the nature of man. What is this battle between our instinct and our laws. Indeed why would we need them(laws) if it weren't for this struggle in some of us.
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So as I said I like to bake... These are Speculaas/Spekulatius and are Dutch in origin. I picked up the cookie mold in an Amsterdam second hand flea market on a weekend trip there.

Hello Jim - welcome to the group! I love those cookies - and what a fabulous mould. Some great reading already - reminds me that I have Three Men in a Boat on my shelves somewhere.....What is a JAFFA? I am sure you will enjoy The Grapes of Wrath - his masterpiece in my opinion. You might care to follow that up with The Worst Hard Time - a non-fiction about the great depression and dustbowl.

Hi Prue,

Thank you.

JAFA EXPLANATION
New Zealand has a small population around 4.5mil last time I checked.(It grows fast.) About a third live in Auckland. (1.4mil) The rest of the country tend to think of us as arrogant, stuck up, latte drinking, metropolitan idiots with no clue as to the real world of things, who annoy by invading normally tranquil calm spots in times of holidays, making them busy hectic places and causing lots of problems. Thus JAFA, which I like to think of as Just Another Friendly Aucklander, has a somewhat different definition for other Kiwi's.

Now I'm looking forward to Grapes of Wrath with even more eagerness! Thank you for the tip I shall add it to my small but growing wishlist. :)

#6 Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Wow. So I just finished my 3rd Hemingway. His word packs a punch. He is so warm and gentle to read and yet your brain still gets slapped into gear. His characters are great, flawed and believable. The story evocative and atmospheric, but more about the journey than the destination. If anyone who reads this is a film buff and has seen 'Francis Ha', this gives that same feeling of characters who at first seem strange compelling figures to marvel at for their looseness and lust of life, and end up exposing that energy as nervous possibly tenuous or fragile.

I would recommend to fan's of On The Road & Farewell to Arms alike.
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>14 Kiwi_Jim:: well, I haven't read a Vonnegut that I didn't love, so I'd say try any of them!

Also, Spekulatius are my absolute favorites! Yum!!

#7 Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
A story about a boys struggle towards enlightenment based in india in the time of the Buddha. This story is also a universal one about the search for ones place in the world, the search for peace, for knowledge, for god, for love, for passion. But mainly it is about the search for meaning in ones life. A thoroughly enjoyable read, even for one such as me, who does not consider himself a spiritual person, I found the themes very relatable, the characters strange and interesting, the story one that is both everyones and no ones.
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Hello just another friendly Aucklander.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
The Plague by Albert Camus
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Here are a few recs, based on LTs theory on what you should borrow from me, I loved them all, anyway :)

>20 scaifea:: Just bought Cat's Cradle and am looking forward to reading it!!! I'm about to fly 28 hours back to NZ for a holiday and am struggling to decide what books to take with me, but this one will be with me for sure.

Spekulatius is amazing. Have you heard about spekulatius spread for toast? It is amazing!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kIoJWLkdL.jpg

>22 LovingLit:: Awesome! Thank you! :) Might see if I can get my hands on one for my flight!

>22 LovingLit:: So, I was out with a friend today and she said Cannery Row was her favourite Steinbeck and one of her all-time favourite books, as it is a little more cheerful and she wanted to be friends with all the characters. So after this enthusiasm and your list... I went and bought it! So will be reading it(most probably) on my long haul flight!

Books for the NZ trip....
Cannery Row
Cat's Cradle
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
And I guess I'll dig out some of my books that are stacked in boxes in my folks garage!

I grew up on a Dutch island and I love spekulaas, but I'd never heard of spekulaas spread. Can you buy it on Amazon?

I had the opportunity to visit NZ a couple of years ago and I love your beautiful country!

>23 Kiwi_Jim: & 27: Yes!! I just recently discovered this amazing stuff at the grocery shop, also by Lotus, but with a different name over here: http://www.amazon.com/Biscoff-Spread-14-1oz-Pack-2/dp/B004QKPCYE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U...

Cool, Amber. I'm ordering some!

>25 Kiwi_Jim:/26 Great news of snagging yourself a Steinbeck. I was awed by him when I first read him/ My first was The Pearl. I guess he is considered bleak, but I think of that more as 'realistic'.
How did the long haul flight go?

So sorry guys for being a ghost. The 6 and a half week holiday back home was awesome but I didn't really touch a computer the whole time. Didn't read too much either - Which is not what I expected. I did however visit vineyards doing wine tasting, had BBQ's on the beach, visited all the family I've been missing, ate too much, drank too much, got too much sun, and had just the right amount of fun!

>27 arubabookwoman: I think 28 scaifea covered that. :) Thanks, I think NZ is beautiful too. But I find everywhere I go there are beautiful places. I especially like european city's like Prague, Bruges, Amsterdam etc.. they have an ageless magic that our city's could only dream of.

>30 LovingLit: The long haul flight home was OK the flight there was terrible. The timing of it (8pm Frankfurt > 2am Dubai 5 hour stop over 7am Back on a plane > 1pm Melbourne > 4:30pm NZ) meant we couldn't sleep when we wanted to and were really over tired for the longest leg. I didn't want to get back on a plane at Melbourne. Even though it was only 3 and a bit hours to Auckland It felt an age. I just read Cannery Row and loved it. It is, from what little I've read of his, a much sunnier tone than that of The Pearl or Of Mice and Men.

#8 The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz
Based half in the Dominican Republic and half in the US, the story focuses on Oscar an overweight socially awkward dude with no luck in the lady department. Something he and the characters in the book think is very un DR. It is a colourful and interesting read. I learnt a lot about the DR. The characters are strong and interesting and you really root for them whilst reading. Just a good story really.
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#9 The Sound of Waves By Yukio Mishima
Apt, elegant and simple. A pure embodiment of what it is to fall in love for the first time. A timeless story told in almost Steinbeck fashion.
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#10 Cannery Row By John Steinbeck
So far my favourite Steinbeck. It's classic Steinbeck with all the brutal realism and believable characters, yet this one has a slightly happier tone. Like Johnny Depps 'Jack Sparrow', this story is serious one moment, melancholy the next and then jovial and up to hi-jinx. His characters are strange folk. Lovable outsiders who stick together and pull together with all those human traits we hold so high. The camaraderie is high in this one.
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Great to see you made it back OK! In spite of the rigmaroles on travel.
Cannery row does have a lot of high-jinx, doesn't it :)

Thanks. Although being back my German is terrible and by the looks of things my english is suffering too! (Can't even spell!)

Welcome back!

Thanks Amber! :)

#11 The Snows of Kilimanjaro By Ernest Hemingway
So I picked this up completely ignorant of the fact that it was a short story collection. At first I was very disappointed with my mistake, but the fact that Hemingway writes so well, that the character from one story often popped up in another, that it shows snippets/hints of other Hemingway stories and that like all Hemingway it is in part autobiographical, made me come to thoroughly enjoy it.
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A day with the dogs down at the river while I was back home. :)

#12 Candide By Voltaire
Interesting. Funnier than my preconceptions allowed. I found it a bit languid and arduous about 2/3 of the way through though, as Voltaire rams his point home over and over, but I guess that's the point. Shortly after finishing it I felt happy purely that it was over. However, since then I have often thought on the book and it's undercurrent of philosophical debate, and found myself describing ideas from the book to people. So it got me thinking/engaging in the ideas and that's what a novel like this is supposed to do, right? So I would say it's successful, even if it's not at all times enjoyable.
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A moody early morning walk in Napier when I was back home.

>41 Kiwi_Jim: I felt much the same way about Candide when I read it. Good to know I'm not alone there. :)

Lovely photos, too - thanks for sharing!

#13 The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
An idea that is so new and unusual... that the use of language itself is the cause of a disease that quickly becomes an epidemic. This is a disaster book with a cerebral twist. At it's best you are enthralled and horrified by this idea that communication and understanding of each other's thoughts could have even remotest possibility of making us sick. At it's worst you continue to grapple with this strange unique idea to the point where your suspension of disbelief keeps kicking up a fuss. The story centers around a family unit of three, and at times it seems to be an allegory to both what it means to be a parent, and perhaps what it feels like to be a struggling parent who has lost their connection, channels of communication to their teenage child. I found it hard at first but once one bludgeons the idea into their brains and beats the disbelief into submission (I felt somewhat similar about The City & The City) I found it a rewarding and interesting read. Whist it is always a challenge to read something where your imagination has to work doubly hard as it has to work from scratch, it is also rewarded with the stimulation that new ideas bring.
***1/2

Easter time fun!!

Oh, I love the Minion egg! They're all fantastic, though - very cool!

Thanks! They weren't all painted by me! The minion isn't mine. I painted R2D2, the rocket, and the owl with the yellow eyes....

#14 Why We Took The Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf
A fun easy book that makes you want to embrace the fun and easygoing you. It's aimed at teenage readers I think but I still very much enjoyed it. It's about fitting in and standing out, about friendship, about breaking rules, being adventurous and finding yourself.
****

#14 The Humans by Matt Haig
A book for fans of 3rd Rock From The Sun, K-Pax. Whilst at first you are not sure whether it fits into one or the other of these formats(Is he an alien or is he delusional), the question keeps you interested. After a while the author points you to frame he wants you to look through, so that the book is not two dimensional. Once this question is more or less solved, you are into the book and it becomes so much more than 3rd Rock or K-Pax, so much more than the funniness created when an outsider looking in exposes the more funny human traits and eccentricities(3rd Rock), so much more than teaching us about hope(K-Pax). It is equal parts funny & wise, entertainment & life philosophy. It is more than it's genre, it will make you laugh, sigh and think, at the same time there is a plot that turns you along with enough action and drama to get you to the point where you've finished it, and wish you could read part 2, not for closure, but just because its so well written you wish for more. You don't want it to stop.
****1/2

>44 Kiwi_Jim: wow, that cover is incredible. It looks like it is actually cut-paper!

>46 Kiwi_Jim: uh oh, my nearly 3 year old recognised R2D2 from your painted eggs up there! Does that mean I get to go to the Star Wars movie marathon coming up??

It's an amazing cover, it's what drew me to pick up the book in the first place. :)

And most definitely. You should take the first three words out of that last sentence and swap the question mark for an exclamation mark! :)

#15 The Clown by Heinrich Böll
This was an interesting read as it's based in Bonn, the city where I'm working at the moment. Some of the atmosphere he describes in the book I can really relate to. The book is a dark account of a non conformist Clown's doomed relationship with a conservative catholic girl. The protagonist is painted as a flawed individual an outcast of his rich family, and an outsider to the all powerful catholicism in Bonn, but a person with high moral principles, one who is both real and like able. It captures the feeling of lost love in a beautiful range of shades.
***1/2

#16 Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Murakami is always enjoyable. Absolutely loved this. Murakami just seems to have a way with adding the absurd to the real and making it believable. It's as though he can enter our subconscious and talk directly with our dreams. As usual he evokes a strong aura, an ambiance, a mood. You just can't put your finger on it. This book contains unicorns, obscure future technology, philosophy, primordial monsters, shadowy corporations, mystery, dreamscape and adventure. I would say It I one of my favourite Murakami books.
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#17 Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Having only read The Road by Kerouac thus far I found it a shock to see how strong the changes in him were, from crazy romantic to extreme crazy cynic. Still crazy, not much fun. Reading this I couldn't help but dislike him. It really documents how depression, and paranoia, work hand in hand with vanity and thinking of yourself as the center of the world. It was really sad to see an older Kerouac trying so hard to capture the feeling he had in earlier times by doing the same things, and yet constantly missing the mark due to a gaping lack in himself.
***

#18 Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterspoon
Poetic, Surreal, Dreamlike, a dirty fractured looking glass in to a modern folklore. Fantastic.
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#19 Neuromancer by William Gibson
This took me a while to get into, but once in I was totally immersed in Gibson's created world. I felt like I was in cyberspace reading his book! I really can't believe how visionary he was. It's up there with Dune & Embassytown for me.
****

Sunday Baking....


Home-Made Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce (Great with ice cream!!)


Home-Made Yoyo Biscuits

Those look yummy!

They taste pretty yummy too! :) They have a custard buttercream filling that is to die for.

>58 Kiwi_Jim: Whoa. Okay, I'm gonna need directions to your house, and some elastic-waist pants... :)

I'm really bad at giving directions so I made you a map, so you will have no trouble to find my place now....

Ha! Excellent!!

#20 Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
Told with razor sharp black wit, Mother Night is a cynical story about an American spy, who to do his job properly ends up becoming a propagandist for Nazi Germany and therefore one on a list of top war criminals.
****1/2

#21 The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly
A grim and Grimm-ish fable told of a boy who loves reading and ends up entering a strange dangerous fairytale land.
***

#22 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Drudgery but intelligent drudgery. The story of a woman who has fallen in love with a romantic ideal one that will never become reality. This idealism drives her to destroy all the possible ways she may have actually found happiness. The reason I found this hard going wasn't the fact that the theme was dark and that the character was headed on an ever downward slope - Which can be depressing! - It was more that I didn't really like the protagonist, she stood for me as a symbol of everything that is wrong with so many people. People who place their needs on a pedestal and forget everyone else's.
Well written but I'll never read it again.
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#23 The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
A beautiful book. Poetic. Words that you lovingly imbibe and disseminate throughout your consciousness. Loosely based on a japanese myth about an injured crane who is helped by a man, this story is that story but also many others. It is about love and passion, art, happiness and forgiveness. Read in a day and a half was definitely one of the most enjoyable reads this year - I couldn't put it down. :)
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#24 A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin
I enjoyed this even though I've watched the series first.(Something I'd usually never do.) There were a few extra details, and it was a different experience. It felt long though. As though Mr Martin used twice as many words as he needed. Though this may be unfair, as I did know what was going to happen next. And it is his attention to details which make it an all immersing work.
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#25 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Having visited Prague since i've been here in Germany, and seen where he wrote a lot of his works, It really is remarkable how creative and visionary he was. Maybe less really is more and deprivation is really a wellspring of inspiration and imagination. I loved this story by him. Having just read a book of 800 odd pages, it was refreshing to read something where the author used his pen sparingly and precisely to say exactly what was needed when it was needed to describe a creepy, atmospheric, psychological horror/tragedy.
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#26 Vango by Timothée de Fombelle
Written in a way that makes it feel like set pieces for a film or play it's scope is grand and scenes tactile. It's somewhere between, adventure, war, super hero, mystery, romance and historical fiction. Set between WWI and WWII, jumping between Scotland, Germany, Italy, Russia and France, involving zeplins, Nazi's, secret agents, an invisible monastery, a scottish heiress, fast cars, parkour(or at least remarkable climbing skills), a mysterious boy, and a french inspector, it really is unlike anything I've read this year. Very enjoyable. Can't wait for the second half of the story.
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