2015 TBR Pile Challenge Complete!

Adam, the Roof Beam Reader hosted the TBR Pile Challenge again this year and despite the craziness of the past few months, I actually completed it! Here's the link to my original post.
The goal was to read 12 books from your “to be read” pile within 12 months. Each of the 12 books must have been on your bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. Caveat: Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books end up in the “can’t get through” pile. 

There were two on my main list that I didn't get to, but I read both of my alternates. I found a new favorite, A Girl of the Limberlost, tried Haruki Murakami for the first time, and read a good book set in my home state, The Circus in Winter. It was definitely a successful challenge.

Here’s my list:

1) Gulliver's Travels (Done)
    by Jonathan Swift 
2) A Girl of the Limberlost (Done)
    by Gene Stratton-Porter 

3) The Ghost Map (Done)
    by Steven Johnson 

4) Tess of the D'urbervilles (Done)
    by Thomas Hardy 

5) Asterios Polyp (Done)
    by David Mazzucchelli 

6) Master and Commander (Done)
    by Patrick O'Brian 

7) Kafka on the Shore (Done)
    by Haruki Murakami 

8) The Night Watch (Done)
   by Sarah Waters 

9) Light in August  
    by William Faulkner 

10) The Circus in Winter (Done)
    by Cathy Day 

11) Inherit the Wind (Done)
    by Jerome Lawrence 

12) On the Beach  
    by Nevil Shute
ALTERNATES:

1) A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Done)
     by Laurie R. King   

2) A Quiet Storm (Done)

     by Rachel Howzell Hall

Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind
by Jerome Lawrence
★★★★☆

This play was a loose retelling of the real Scopes Monkey Trial. Two lawyers pitted themselves against each other to battle religious freedom and the role it plays in our educational system. A young teacher is arrested for teaching evolution in his classroom. His small town is up in arms over the matter and a pious lawyer, Brady, comes into town to rail on behalf of the injustice done to good Christians. The other lawyer, Drummond, is a soft-spoken man who has come to defend the teacher. Throw in the teacher’s girlfriend, who happens to be the town preacher’s daughter and you’ve got quite a mess.

This is definitely a fictionalized version of the real events, but it’s close enough to give us a peak into the fall reach the case had at the time. One of the most important characters, in my opinion, is the cynical reporter E. K. Hornbeck, who acts as the lens through which we see the trial unfold.  His quick wit and sharp barbs provide humor, but he lacks the empathy of characters like Drummond.

The real crux of the play hinges on man’s ability to think for himself and form his own conclusions. That message is beautifully stated.

BOTTOM LINE: The play is excellent, the movie is excellent, and I can’t wait to see this one performed as a live play one day.

“Lady, when you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight."

“I’m sorry if I offend you. But I don’t swear just for the hell of it. You see, I figure language is a poor enough means of communication as it is. So we ought to use all the words we’ve got. Besides, there are damned few words that everybody understands.” 

Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame 
An Irreverent Escapade 
by Patrick Dennis 
★★★☆ 

This classic defies just about any conventional assumptions that most classics bring to mind.  The book is episodic. It starts with Patrick, a 10-year-old boy who is orphaned and about to move in with his eccentric aunt. Each chapter tells a new story about their adventures, tracing his upbringing all the way through college. 

Auntie Mame is narcissistic and dramatic, but it makes for entertaining disasters. It reminded me a bit of all the predicaments that Wooster gets into in the Jeeves books. She constantly comes up with new schemes and then finds herself in trouble. There’s one section, Southern Belle, where she ends up on horseback chasing after a fox. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. 

Other episode feature a less flattering view of her as she flirts with younger men or exploits people who offer her a favor. She’s one of the most extreme characters I’ve come across. She won’t ever be tamed and any day with her is sure to defy expectations. 

BOTTOM LINE: I enjoyed it, but never felt completely sucked into her world. While Wooster is a loveable screw-up, Mame makes decisions based solely on whatever she desires in that moment. Usually those decisions put her nephew in a tricky position. That grew a bit tiresome as the book went on, just as being friends with a real person like Auntie Mame surely would.   

"My dear, a rich vocabulary is the true hallmark of every intellectual person. Here now -" she burrowed into the mess on her bedside table and brought forth another pad and pencil - "every time I say a word, or you hear a word, but you don't understand, you write it down and I'll tell you what it means. Then you memorize it and soon you'll have a decent vocabulary. Oh, the adventure," she cried ecstatically, "of molding a new little new life!" She made another sweeping gesture that somehow went wrong because she knocked over the coffee pot and I immediately wrote down six new words which Auntie Mame said to scratch out and forget about. 

“She was built along the lines of a General Electric refrigerator and looked like a cross between Caligula and a cockatoo.” 

Funny Sidenote: Apparently Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the same playwrights behind “Inherit the Wind”, wrote the successful play version of Auntie Mame.

2015 TBR Pile Challenge

The Roof Beam Reader (Adam) is once again hosting the TBR Pile Challenge. I am pretty picky about what challenges I participate in, but I love this one because it encourages me to read books I already own. 

The Goal: To finally read 12 books from your “to be read” pile (within 12 months).

Specifics: Each of these 12 books must have been on your bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. Caveat: Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books end up in the “can’t get through” pile.

Here’s my list for 2015:

1) Gulliver's Travels (Done)
    by Jonathan Swift

2) A Girl of the Limberlost (Done)
    by Gene Stratton-Porter

3) The Ghost Map (Done)
    by Steven Johnson

4) Tess of the D'urbervilles (Done)
    by Thomas Hardy

5) Asterios Polyp (Done)
    by David Mazzucchelli

6) Master and Commander (Done)
    by Patrick O'Brian

7) Kafka on the Shore (Done)
    by Haruki Murakami

8) The Night Watch (Done)
   by Sarah Waters

9) Light in August  
    by William Faulkner

10) The Circus in Winter (Done)
    by Cathy Day

11) Inherit the Wind (Done)
    by Jerome Lawrence

12) On the Beach  
    by Nevil Shute

ALTERNATES:

1) A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Done)
     by Laurie R. King  
2) A Quiet Storm (Done)

     by Rachel Howzell Hall