Book Lovers Club
Comments
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kathec, Rohinton Mistry is the author or "A Fine Balance". I loved the book. It was what originally brought me to this thread; one of the other lovely ladies wanted to discuss the book. Mistry does have another book, haven't ready it though.0 -
o, thanks wenweb! i will have to look him up on amazon, to see.0 -
Jenny Lawson's Lets Pretend This Never Happened ( A Mostly True Memoir) - a bc friend had encouraged me to read this because it was so funny and indeed it is. Jenny Lawson grew up in west Texas - and her father was a taxidermist and whatever else it took - she grew up with wild and domestic animals and road kill. She always felt different (imagine high school) and ultimately was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and then rheumatoid arthritis. She just powers through incredibly embarrassing situations, sad and scary situations. She becomes a blogger (the bloggess) and both she and her husband work from home - with much yelling and hilarity ensuing. No adultery or actual sex but I don't think I have ever read a book using the term "vagina"!! as much as this. Prepared to be shocked and to laugh a lot.0 -
Just finished A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert. Great read. It's an "impeccably researched novel" based on Rose Wilder Lane's unpublished diaries & letters about the hidden collaboration between Rose and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, that produced the 8 "Little House" books. So many resonant threads about mother/daughter issues. And I learned things about the depression years that I never imagined, not to mention writers & the publishing industry. Somehow I always pictured my mother sitting w/her parents around the radio listening to Roosevelt, but she had finished college & left her home state to work and then married to my Dad in 1932.0 -
Jelson, Sounds good. Reminds me of Catherine Gildiner's "Too Close to the Fall's", which I found laugh out loud funny, as the author describes the dysfunctional family she came from. She was diagnosed with being too energetic in the early 1950's (what we now call ADHD), and was put to work at age 4 in her father's drug store to keep her out of her mother's hair. I've put your suggestion on my to "read list". Thanks!!0 -
I read "Let's pretend this never happened....,too. I thought it was really funny, especially some of her family adventures and of course, the taxidermy!
All my library book holds occurred at once and I think it may be ambitious to read them all before they're due. I've got: The Silent Wife, In the Garden of Beasts, Devil in the White City and Blue Plate Special.
The weather was awful today so I started Blue Plate Special and so far I like it. I've had so many people recommend the Erik Larsen books so I'm looking forward to reading them.
Gina0 -
Had a few hours to waste so I dove into reading Pulp Fiction... The Complete Story of Quentin Tarantino's Masterpiece. Great book filled with so many details about the movie and Tarantino's life. Since watching Resevoir Dogs, I always thought he was a genius. According to the author, he really is a genius. Was tested TWICE during his childhood because he measured in at 160 and the school thought the first time was an error.
Also read the truly funky Hidden Treasures... What Museum Can't or Won't Show You.
Now I'm digging into the latest Ann Rule gory true crime book, Practice to Deceive.
Got a new reading lamp by Verilux and I'm on a tear! I can now easily read another 50 more pages a day while using this lamp!
Gina... Hope you enjoy those Larson books!0 -
wenweb, thanks for the Catherine Gildiner tip, I just read about her on my library's website and am reserving Too Close to the Falls. did you know she wrote one after that?
Jelson0 -
Minus, I'll have to get Wilder Rose. I read a bio on LI WILDER a long time ago. and found out some things. So this should be good especially since I like S Wittig Albert..0 -
Jelson, yes, I know there's a sequel, and I've read it. The first one is funnier (in my opinion) and there are references in the sequel to the first. Either way, enjoy!!0 -
Oh, I classified "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" as disturbingly funny. Thoroughly enjoyed "In the Garden of Beasts" which my husband had read and recommended.0 -
kathindc, disturbingly funny as in "Running with Scissors" funny?0 -
"disturbingly funny" like anything by Tim Dorsey? or is an important reason for "disturbing" that both Running with Scissors and Lets Pretend.... are memoirs?0 -
Disturbing because of some of the things she and her sister were put through and yet she could write about it with humor.0 -
then- disturbing because it was true - and I agree - that was what made Lets Pretend disturbingly funny. I laughed but was upset at the same time.0 -
another +1 for Golfdfinch, I can't put it down!!
thanks for the Wilder Rose recommendation. I love to the little house books when I was a child I would be very interested in this
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I've been reading a couple of nonfiction books. The Man Who Ate Everything has been sitting on my shelf for years and I recommended it to my book club. Not what I thought it would be. Jeffrey Steingarten is food critic for Vogue. The book delves into scientific research about food. It's a little dated.
The 2nd book is The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by S Mukherjee. I'm finding it very interesting. The book is a history of surgery, anesthesia, etc. The problem is I'm reading it on my Kindle and every time I scroll to the next page it boots me to the note page....very frustrating.0 -
Just read the cuckoo's calling by Robert Galbraith (actually a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling). I really liked it, it's definitely an adult book with a lot of swearing, smoking and drinking going on. A down-on-his-luck private detective (who reminded me of Peter Falk on the TV series Columbo) and his new secretary, hired from a temporary agency, are hired to try to solve the mystery of a beautiful, but troubled, young model's suicide....or was it murder? The plot catches you right away & keeps you guessing all the way through.
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Finished W is for Wasted, which was just OK. The characters are shop-worn and I didn't like how the story was told, with a series of flashbacks. Would've been hard to read during chemo when I couldn't keep track of the plot from one page to the next.
Now I have The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood. Looking forward to a good mystery/suspense read.
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Working on the Erik Larson books, just finished In the Garden of Beasts. I can see why his books are so highly regarded. The level of detail, the enormous amount of research and his writing style are impeccable. I just started Devil in the White City.
I also finished Blue Plate Special. I thought it would be more like Ruth Reichel's books but it wasn't. The author had a very odd upbringing and unconventional adult life. It was readable and I liked the rest of the title is An Autobiography of my Appetites.
Gina0 -
Gina- Devil in the White City is one of my favorite books. It's 2 stories in one. Hope you enjoy it.0 -
Just finished Beautiful Fools by R. Clifton Spargo. It is a novel about the last attempt at a reconciliation trip that Scott and Zelda took together before his, then her, early deaths. It was well written & I think portrayed the characters correctly....which made it depressing; as they lived so carelessly. They had everything & threw it all away. (Not a good book to read if you are feeling down at all!)
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The Wicked Girls was such a good read! Two women haven't seen each other since they were 11-yr-olds accused of murder. They meet again by chance 25 years later when a serial killer stalks the town where one lives and the other comes to report on the crimes. Their lives have taken different paths and the contrasts are stark. Very suspenseful and I never saw the plot twist coming at the end.
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Happy Thanksgiving! I finished The Devil in the White City this morning and I'm still thinking about it! It was excellent, especially the weaving of the two story lines together. I am certainly an Erik Larson fan now.
Badger - I'm going to request The Wicked Girls from the library right now!
Gina0 -
The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects is a terrific book. Summing up the book in the end, what's also fascinating is what they chose to leave out. Also interesting is not only the history of the objects, but how the objects made their way to the museum.
Gina...Yay!!! Welcome to Larson's fan club!0 -
Gina, hope you like The Wicked Girls. The author is a British journalist writing under a pseudonym so there's lots of British slang and refs to pop culture. Took a bit of getting used to but didn't detract too much.
My DH got into a box of old paperbacks last night and dredged up the 1983 DelRey reprint of Isaac Asimov's 1951 classic book Foundation so will be diving into that soon. First things first, however, there's leftover pumpkin pie in the fridge that's calling my name... ♥
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I just finished a great book--The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman. Some parts are terribly sad due to vivid descriptions of the Holocaust, but it was a worthwhile read.0 -
Just read Five Days In November by Clint Hill. Hill was Jackie Kennedy's secret service agent, and the man who jumped on the car and used his body as a shield on the way to Parkland Hospital. He never talked about his experiences until a year or so ago, he published the book Mrs. Kennedy and Me. This book, of course, covers the events around the assassination of President Kennedy. Hill (who is a North Dakota native.....my state), has a remarkable memory, probably because of his training, and the book is written in the present tense, so it feels like it is happening right now. Very riveting if you are interested in that part of history, and you also see the tough job that the secret service has, and how dedicated they are to their jobs.
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I read Mrs. Kennedy and Me last summer, and enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation on Clint Hill's new book, I didn't realize that he had written another one.0 -
thanks for the recommendation to read Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner. Fascinating, funny and very well written. On to The Telling Room - by Michael Paterniti about a piece of cheese in Spain?0
