A book with one-word title

Title: Night

Author: Elie Wiesel

Publication date: 1958 

For many years, I'd convinced myself I had read Night. A copy of it was on my family bookshelf for decades. I now know I hadn't read it. One does not forget the story.

Elie Wiesel's Night is his memoir of survival in the face of unbelievable torture and the absence of humanity in the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald.

I was particularly touched by the author's contemplation of faith. How could someone forced to witness death at the hands of such terror not question the existence of God? Even one so close to God as the young Wiesel, who was 15 when his imprisonment began.

His memory of others' experiences is astounding. He bears witness to his neighbors', fellow prisoners' and family members' fears and expectations with shocking clarity. Here he recounts another assessment of Hitler:

"'I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.'"

It is a heartbreaking story. I am glad it is required reading in so many classrooms today. There are far too many who continue to deny the Holocaust. As Wiesel says, "To forget the dead would not only be dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."

Four stars (only because I wanted to know more about his sisters' survival but perhaps this was not their story but their brother's and father's)

Next challenge: A book based entirely on its cover

A book written by someone under 30

A book written by someone under 30

Title: Tales from the Jazz Age
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publication date: 1922

F. Scott Fitzgerald was only 26 when Tales from the Jazz Age was published. The Great Gatsby remains my favorite novel so selecting one of his books for this challenge seemed apropos.

This collection of 11 Fitzgerald short stories is best known for its inclusion of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which inspired the Brad Pitt (see how I referenced Brad Pitt in a blog post about a book?!) film of the same name.

What I love about Fitzgerald is his craft. So often a sentence or passage is so perfectly composed I find myself re-reading it just to wish I could somehow write that well.

She had never felt her own softness so much nor so enjoyed the whiteness of her own arms. "I smell sweet," she said to herself simply, and then came another thought -- "I'm made for love."

For the most part, I found reading this collection a bit of a chore. There were highlights among the stories. I particularly enjoyed May Day and O Russet Witch!

Three stars

Next challenge: A book with a one word title.

A book you can read in a day

A book you can read in a day

Title: The Alchemist
Author: Paulo Coelho
Publication date: 1993

This is yet another book that I started without knowing what to expect. I hadn't even read the description when I set about to read it.

The Alchemist is a modern-day parable. The story begins in Spain and the protagonist crosses much of northern Africa on his attempt to find a great treasure. Along his journey, he comes in contact with a series of people who either put barriers in his way or help him in his quest.

Few characters within The Alchemist have names. The lead character is referred to simply as "the boy" despite the fact that he is of marriageable age throughout the entire story. Other characters are the Englishman, the candy seller and the alchemist. For some reason, this really bugged me.

The language of book is often beautiful particularly when you consider it was translated from another language (Portuguese? Spanish?) originally.

Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate only on the present, you'll be a happy man. 

I'm not certain what all the buzz has been about this book. In fact, I fell asleep while reading it twice.

Two stars

Next challenge: TBD

A book set in high school

A book set in high school

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: The inimitable John Green
Publication date: 2005

First I need to establish that John Green is a genius. The Fault in our Stars is perfection. An Abundance of Katherines, in some ways, is better than TFIOS (that's right, I said it.) Looking for Alaska is the third of Green's books that I've read in the last 12 months. If it had been written by any other author I would probably have rated it higher but Green is competing against Green in my esteem and that's a tough match up.

I plan to read all of Green's work but when I found Looking for Alaska on a banned books list, I got a little righteous and had to buy it and read it immediately.

Here's some advice to the parents out there: If you want to know what is going on in the minds of your teenage children, read John Green. This man captures adolescence with complete authenticity. The good, the bad and the sad.

"But while you were looking out the window, you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life, of being truly present. Be present in this class. And then, when it's over, be present out there," he said nodding toward the lake and beyond.

At a small co-ed boarding school in Alabama, Miles Halter is hoping to turn his invisible existence at his home high school into a bright future. Almost immediately upon arriving for his junior year, Miles discovers something he lacked previously: a friend. And so begins the story of a cast of misfits, who somehow fit together.

Miles' roommate, The Colonel, introduces him to Alaska (and this is where I find out the book isn't about the Last Frontier) who, in turn, introduces him to Takumi. They form an immediate unit but the nucleus of the group is Alaska as the three boys are drawn to her beauty, her brain and her wit (well, and her cigarette stash to be fair).

The group engages in a series of pranks but remain committed to their studies and pull in top grades. And then tragedy. The students turn away from one another and then back to one another as they search for answers to questions 16-year-olds shouldn't have to ask.

Green dives head first into the trials of adolescence: smoking, drinking, sexing and studying. Throughout it all, he tells a story about friendship and forgiveness.

Three stars

Next challenge: A book you can read in a day

A book with a number in the title

A book with a number in the title

Title: One Plus One
Author: Jojo Moyes
Publication date: 2014

Last year, I read Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret and quickly followed it up with her Big Little Lies. I loved both. Jojo Moyes' writing reminds me a bit of Moriarty's in that I am completely consumed by the story and adore the characters (well, except those that I deplore).

It's no wonder then that I found myself reading a second Moyes' book, in fact her latest release, just a few weeks after finishing Me Before You. Again, I was drawn into this book and its charming characters much as I was drawn into the other books noted in this post.

One Plus One is a story about family. And, in this case, demonstrates that it doesn't take a blood relationship to make a family.

When we meet Jess Thomas she is a single mother to a teenage son, Nicky, and a 10-year-old daughter Tanzie. Jess is not a complainer but it is quickly evident that she's doing everything she can to just hold it together. While her husband, who moved to his mother's home a few hours away during a bout of depression two years earlier, is "getting back on his feet", she is working two job as a house cleaner and as a waitress in the local pub.

Imagine Jess' surprise when she answers a phone call to find one of her daughter's teachers explaining that Tanzie is a math prodigy. He wants Tanzie to attend a nearby private school but that costs money Jess doesn't have.

Through an unusual set of circumstances, the Thomases find themselves on a journey to Scotland so Tanzie can turn her skill in "maths" (note the Britishism) into prize money for her new school. Their chauffer for the trip is one of Jess' cleaning clients, a wealthy businessman who is trying to escape from his own life.

The story that unfolds is best left to Moyes to tell but is certainly worth reading.

I'll certainly read more of Jojo Moyes' writing. I just hope that the next book of hers I read doesn't have the formulaic rich man rescued by the down-on-her-luck local girl. My only criticism of this book is that it seems to follow the same set up as Me Before You.

Four stars (I should probably give it three stars but I really enjoyed it this much so the hell with it.)

Next challenge: A book based entirely on its cover -- time for my book club's next pick.

A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet

A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet

Title: True to Form
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Publication Date: 2002

In the 1990s, I had a part-time job at a bookstore. One of the perks was being able to borrow any hardcover book you wanted. It was my own lending library. It is through this experience that I discovered Elizabeth Berg and also the reason why I don't own my favorite of her books (Talk Before Sleep), which I borrowed from the store.

From that experience and that first book, I began a decades-long appreciation and love for Berg's characters and her books. This challenge allowed me to revisit Berg and reacquaint myself with her beloved character Katie Nash. True to Form has been on my TBR shelf for at least 10 years. Having read it, I'm not sure why I delayed so long.

True to Form is Berg's third book about Katie Nash though I found it to stand on its own quite well. I have vague memories the other stories (Durable Goods, Joy School) yet I appreciated and loved this story without needing to re-read those.

When the story picks up, Katie is living in Missouri with her Army dad and stepmother. We follow Katie across the summer of her sophomore year of high school as she works two jobs secured for her by her father and spends time with her best friend and corresponds with a friend she left behind in Texas, her father's previous assignment.

Katie has a secret. She wants to be a writer. And not just any kind of writer: a poet. Berg captures Katie's yearning to be a writer as well as her talent beautifully. Just as I love John Green's ability to write dialogue among teens, Berg nails the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl.

This is among one of my favorite passages, picked in honor of my Must Love Dogs book club:

I walk far out in the fields, then let the dogs loose. They get busy right away, sniffing everything, running around. I wonder what they smell. You can tell the scents are all different. Sometimes they just take a little whiff and keep on running; other times they stop dead in their tracks and sniff forever. And sometimes they sniff very delicately, their lips drawn back a bit, as though they're saying, Ewww, this smells awful, let me smell it some more.

Though it took me 10 years to return to Elizabeth Berg, I know it won't be 10 years before I read another of her books. And just think, I have a decade of her writing to choose from.

Five stars (Really)

Next challenge: I don't know what challenge it'll be but I know I'm reading One by One by Jojo Moyes. Come back to find out which of the remaining 41 challenges it accomplishes.