Quickie TBR Challenge Update

Of my original reading list for the TBR ’11 challenge, I’ve completed three novels so far. They are:

• Ngugi waThiongo – Wizard of the Crow
• Jean Rhys – Wide Sargasso Sea
• Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Proper reviews are coming soon!

Now Listening…

I went on a music buying frenzy last night…
It all started because I watched the pilot to that new cop procedural Body of Proof with Dana Delaney and there were a song on there that I really liked.  Now I did not know that ABC has what they call a “music lounge” online where they list the soundtracks of various popular shows. It was probably safer that I didn’t, but the cat’s out of the bag now. Anyway, I found what I was looking for and in the mean time found quite a bit more after checking out the selections for Castle. I didn’t buy everything offered, and in fact those lists led me to some other music that I discovered while browsing. So far it’s been enjoyable tunes and music that’s both consistent and very different from my usual tastes. Fun!

Here’s what I got (links included for your audio browsing pleasure):

The Albums:

1. Pink Martini – Sympathique
2. Florence + The Machine – Lungs
3. The Constellations – Southern Gothic
4. Clif Lin – And Your World Will Burn

The Singles:

1. Uncle Lucius – A Million Ways
2. The Seventeens – Anywhere With You
3. Sarah Vaughn – Fever (Adam Freeland Remix)
4. Laura Jane Scott – The Librarian
5. Latch Key Kid - Got to Be
6. Junior Senior – Can I Get Get Get
7. Jules Larson – You Know It’s True
8. Dragonette – Get Lucky
9. Dragonette - I Get Around
10. DJ Dimi – River To Your Soul
11. The Daylights – I Hope This Gets to You
12. Citizen Cope – Healing Hands
13. Carney – Think of You
14. Beautiful Small Machines – Super Conductor
15. Beautiful Small Machines – Counting Back to 1
16. All Night Chemists – Whole Again
17. Actionslacks – We Are Not the Losers (Anymore)
18. Aceyalone – Workin’ Man Blues, feat. Bionik

About the show, Body of Proof:  I liked Delaney’s character, she’s complicated, but there’s also a certain brusqueness about her that, well, has been done. She’s a new addition to the Bones/House/Lie to Me cadre of frustratingly brilliant but loveably flawed protagonists that seem to show up in many shows lately. What I did like about her (and found different from others) is that she’s aware of those flaws through what was probably a pretty brutal experience. Now she finds herself in a position where she is still the “shark in heels” that built her professional reputation while also trying to rebuild that part of her life that reputation helped destroy.  I found her apparent frustration interesting and her observation that “a woman working 18 hours a day is an absentee mother, but a man working 18 hours is providing for his family” was refreshing in a realistically cynical way.  For that, I’ll give the show a chance.

Challenge: Battle of the Prize – British Edition

My second reading challenge of the year is the Battle of the Prize – British Version in which I get to read a handful of novels that have either been awarded the Man Booker Prize (England) or the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Scotland).

Since I’ve read two of the three novels that won both awards, I’m going to take the second option. That is to read two Man Booker winners and two James Tait Black winners.

Here’s my potential selections:

For the Booker:

• A. S. Byatt – Possession
• Paul Scott – Staying On

For the Black:

• Zadie Smith – White Teeth
• Iris Murdoch – The Black Prince

I can’t wait to get started!

Midbook Review: Wizard of the Crow

I’m currently reading Ngugi waThiongo’s Wizard of the Crow, an interesting if weighty tome with a plot so circuitous I haven’t figured out an easy way to summarize it yet. Needless to say it deals with a wizard, and the political machinations of a fictitous African nation, but no crows.

The list! The list!

Okay, I didn’t mean to take this long to get back to you with my TBR reading list, but with my recent MO of months between posts a week is pretty darn good.  So, in no particular order here they are:

1. Christopher Isherwood – The Berlin Stories
2. Ngugi waThiongo – Wizard of the Crow
3. Ivy Compton-Burnett – Manservant and Maidservant
4. William Golding – The Lord of the Flies
5. Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
6. Jean Rhys – Wide Sargasso Sea
7. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
8. Bessie Head – A Question of Power
9. Bruce Chatwin – In Patagonia
10. Nadine Gordimer – July’s People
11. Julian Barnes – Flaubert’s Parrot
12. Beryl Bainbridge – The Birthday Boys

I know we have the choice for alternates, but really all these books must be read this year anyway, so it’s not exactly a TBR challenge as it is an M(ust) BR one!