Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Here is a good quote for us, from Hai Gaon in the 11th century:
"To three Possessions
Thou Shouldst Look,
Aquire a field, a friend, a book."
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More good recommendations to add to my list. Thanks!
Has anyone read Sergei Lukyanenko's Watch series? I ran into the 4th one today at the library, the first one was checked out, and I have a stack of books to read, so I wasn't in a hurry but I was intrigued. Let me know if you liked or didn't like it.
Ruth, you might like this: I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx. Funny man!
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I'm reading Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas and I can't put it down. Warning though - it is a LONG book
My book club is also reading West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
Here is a review by Ernest Hemingway in a letter to his editor! Probably among the top 3 books I've ever read:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book."--Ernest Hemingway
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I read West with the Night a long time ago. I will have to dust it off and reread it!!! Groucho Marx has it right about television!0
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West with the Night - one of my all time favourites - read it 15 years ago and still on my bookshelf (I like to give books away but keep my favourites with me forever). The Guernsey book (sorry couldn't remember the title) was loaned to me by a friend two years ago when I was in the midst of everything and it was a great read. Lately I'm hooked on what the world likes to call "procedurals" I call murder mysteries - anything by Michael Connolly although his last book 9 Dragons wasn't his best. Also anything by George Pelecanos. Years ago I read all the Agatha Christies - they're a fun read.
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I just finished reading a book called Freedom by Jonathan Franzen....really good. At one point I was in a book group and we read his other book The Corrections so I was anxious to read this one. Our book group fell by the wayside, got to the point where all we did was get together to eat and drink, which I had no objection to, but then everyone just got too busy. I read Reliable Wife and The Piano Teacher when I was on vacation earlier this year...picked both of them up in the airport bookstore and liked both of them. I love reading and found I did not have time for it so now I make time....alas housework is suffering, but as Scarlett said I will think about that tomorrow. One of my favorites which I am sure most of you have read is Water for Elephants.
Mentioning Ernest Hemmingway.....my friend who lives in NO in the quarter is actually in an apartment that he supposedly lived in at one time. Someone mentioned Elizabeth George.....I loved her stuff .
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Helen MacInnes wrote a wealth of great mysteries and I spent a long, long time reading them all. Here are a few:(disregard the rest of the stuff, I just copied and pasted)
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Just finished " Sarah's Key"
by Tatiana de Rosnay...
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I forgot about this one book I read called The Middle Place...it was on sale at Joseph Beth Bookstore's sidewalk sale and I picked out about 5 not even knowing what they were about. This one is actually written by a woman who had breast cancer but it's not just about her breast cancer, it's also about her relationship with her father. It was actually a very good book, made me laugh as well as cry.
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I am so happy to find this thread! I've just skimmed back through the pages and found I've read most of what's been listed, and I've been reminded of some of the better ones. I think I would put THE LOVELY BONES, on a favorites list, and, more recently, THE HELP. Otter, thanks for reminding me of THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. I'm surprised no one listed the PREY Series by John Sandford, or anything by Nelson DeMille (He's a Long Island favorite!), especially PLUM ISLAND. Some of the best have been debut novels, first time authors. I will check my library card reading history and list some here.
Be well, read well.
Maria
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Just found this thread and love it! I too have read many of them. Now have to get busy downloading a few others mentioned to my Kindle to be ready for read during my next treatment session! Thanks ladies.
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Oh yes, the Prey series with Lucas Davenport, very good!
There was a series written by John D. MacDonald with leading man Travis McGee, that I was not allowed to read as a child. They've been re-issued as mass market paperbacks and I've now read them all. I can see why my parents liked them, and why they didn't want me to read them.
Salvage consultant. Recoverer of misplaced goods. Ladies' man. Cynical knight errant. Colorful TRAVIS MCGEE docks his yacht, The Busted Flush, a 52-foot barge type houseboat with twin diesels, at the Fort Lauderdale marina, and takes his retirement on the installment plan. It's all financed by his job as a "salvage consultant." What he actually does is recover missing or stolen goods for half their value. Along the way, he invariably fixes a broken heart or two. He's big on therapeutic sex, is our boy, Trav. From his debut in 1964 with The Deep Blue Goodbye, to his final appearance in 1984's The Lonely Silver Rain, he appeared in twenty-one novels, each with a color in the title, and remains one of the best, and most beloved private eyes of all time (even if he wasn't licensed, and at times acted more like Robin Hood than Philip Marlowe, that's what he was).
The Deep Blue Goodbye (1964) A Purple Place for Dying (1964) The Quick Red Fox (1964)Nightmare in Pink (1964) A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965) Darker Than Amber (1966) One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966) Pale Gray for Guilt (1968)The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968) The Long Lavender Look (1970) A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)Dress Her in Indigo (1971) The Scarlet Ruse (1973)The Turquoise Lament (1973) The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974)The Empty Copper Sea (1978)The Green Ripper (1979)Free Fall in Crimson (1981)Cinnamon Skin (1982)The Lonely Silver Rain (1984)0 -
Badger, I read them all, many,many moons ago
and still think they were so much fun
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PS, don't you just love Travis?!
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sure do!
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Yes, the Lucas Davenport/Prey series are great and I always look forward to the new one. The John D MacDonald books are wonderful, too. I think Travis was the original "leading man" in a series. My dad read them when I was young, too, and I remember sneaking them when he was done. Thanks for the complete listing, Badger. I think I may have missed a few.
I just finished "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I was prepared to like it as much as I did. It was outside my usual realm of reading and wasn't sure but I had 2 good readers tell me to read it. I think it may be a young adult book but it was well written and a good (but wrenching) story. It is the first in a trilogy.
Marybe - I just picked up the Middle Place at my used bookstore and read the back. When I saw the character had BC, I put it back. After reading your review, I may go back and see if it's still there. I recently read couple of books that had characters who found "lumps" as ancillary storylines. I guess, I'm trying to avoid those books for now.
Gina
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Me and my sisters used to take my Dad's Harold Robbins' books when he was done. We learned an awful lot...
Some of my favorites from my library reading history:
BEL CANTO, by Ann Patchett
THE BOOK OF RUTH, by Jane Hamilton
A MAP OF THE WORLD, also by Jane Hamilton
THE BRIGHT FOREVER, by Lee Martin
AS HOT AS IT WAS, YOU OUGHT TO THANK ME, by Nanci Kincaid
CONFESSIONS OF A BIGAMIST, by Kate Lehrer
YOU REMIND ME OF ME, by Dan Choan
IF I AM MISSING OR DEAD (A SISTER'S STORY OF LOVE, MURDER & LIBERATION), by Janine Latus [autobiographical]
Several selections by Sue Miller, Alice Hoffman, Anna Quindlen
Be well,
Maria
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I thought 'The Hunger Games' was too, too sad!
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Maria - I love Sue Miller.
This summer, I really enjoyed "discovering" Dennis Lehane - "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island" along with his private eye series (Gennaro/Kenzie) - I think "A Drink Before the War" is the first. Best to read them in order. A new one comes out next week - a follow-up to "Gone Baby Gone."
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Mystic River I liked a lot; and the movie with Sean Penn was very good too.0
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Really? A new Lehane coming out? I read years ago he decided never to return to the Gennaro/Kenzie characters. I loved those books.
I dropped off Olive Kitteredge at my mom's and got the Guernsey book in return. I'm enjoying it.
Has anyone mentioned Out stealing horses? Very poignant.
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Yep - Moonlight Mile comes out Nov. 2. Amanda McCready from Gone Baby Gone is 16 and missing again, and her aunt once again appeals to Gennaro and Kenzie to help find her.
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Hey Gina, I have all the Travis McGee books (got 'em on the 4 for 3 deal at Amazon) so let me know if you'd like to borrow any.
I just finished Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton - very entertaining. Always liked his books. The Great Train Robbery is one of my all-time favorites.
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OK - I have to weigh in, although I haven't read through all 10 pages of posts yet. A long-time bookworm, I have over 10,000 books and have so many favorite authors and books I'll just have to post a few at a time. If you like satire, you must read the Terry Pratchett Discworld books - all his books are good but he has a nice young adult series on a young girl - start with The Wee Free Men. These are "fantasy" books. Ditto to whomever mentioned the Thomas Perry Jane Whitefield novels - excellent adventures - very cathartic for all that suppressed anger about injustices we might have. As mentioned, Sue Monk Kidd has a marvelous voice in her books. In non-fiction - Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone (poignant and funny biography of this food writer) is absolutely wonderful, as are all her books; Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King was very nice; and if you've never read Anthony Boudain's Kitchen Confidential, you really should (he's got a big ego but informative and fun read). Oliver Sacks is a fine writer - just intriguing as hell - I read Uncle Tungsten while recuperating from surgery - it is a biography and science book in one. That's all I will impose on ya'll for now, but I'll be checking out the books mentioned that I don't have. I love to find good writers I don't know about. Thanks!0
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Hey all - we subscribe to the newspaper and on Sundays I like to read the bestsellers list. I haven't read this book by David Sedaris but love the title: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.
Description: The humorist looks at human nature through stories with animals as characters.
This could either be totally great or totally lame. Anyone read it yet?
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I heard Sedaris read from it before it was published. It's funny. Lots of innuendo,
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I've read Ruth Reichl's Garlic and sapphires, which is fun, but not the other you mentioned, bookart. In Garlic, she writes about being an "undercover" food critic in New York.
I'm in the midst of a great novel. Commuters, by Emily Gray Tedrowe. A 78 year old widow marries an elderly, wealthy widower, and all sorts of family drama develops. I catalogue fiction for my library, and intriguing books cross my desk. Much of the popular stuff is on hold for patrons, so I get to discover hidden gems.
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badger: I look forward to that list every Sunday morning, too. I make sure to read the comics first, then the news, and I save that for last, along with a fresh cup of coffe. Just one of my happy little routines.
Can anyone recommend any fiction book(s) that are more mature than the typical high school setting of the Young Adult lists, but not quite fully adult. I have a niece now in her 2nd yr of college and I'm searching along the lines of Sarah Dessen, just a wee bit more mature, and preferably not a series.
Thanks.
Maria
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Here are a few of my favorites: some may have been mentioned previously.
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
Blindness, Jose Saramago
Bel Canto, and others by Ann Patchett
The Sparrow, and Children of God, Mary Doria Russell
A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Anita Shreve's books
A Fine Balance, and Such a Long Journey, by Rohinton Mistry
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Little Friend, Donna Tart
Did anyone mention The Help
The Rooftops of Tehran
Thanks, everyone, for other suggestions.
Lane
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I have been enjoying Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series (Still Life, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder, The Brutal Telling, and Bury Your Dead). They're set in Quebec, some in Quebec City, but most in a tiny town nestled in the hills and not on any maps. Lovely writing and vivid characters.
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