Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Jelson, that was me. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a book everyone in my family read since we are originally from Buffalo. There is a sequel. Happy reading.
I'm currently reading Wally Lamb's most recent book. "We are Water". It's classic Lamb about family, and draws you in from the beginning with his interesting and (often) complicated characters. He gets into such detail that I find myself daydreaming while reading while I wonder, how does he think of all this stuff??0 -
I just saw the movie, The Book Thief, and thought it followed the book very well. The actors and settings were just how I pictured them in my mind as I read the book.0 -
Just finished Maeve Binchy's last novel A Week in Winter. I don't know why, but I get totally immersed in her books, can't put them down, stay up late, zzzzip right through them. She wasn't the greatest writer, but damn, I have loved reading her books, thinking about her characters and enjoying how they popped up in little "cameos" in subsequent books. I also like they way she usually wrapped things up at the end, so unrealistic, but sure wish life was really like that sometimes.0 -
Jelson, I like Maeve Binchy too and read A Week in Winter on an airplane last year. Picked it up at the airport bookstore in the half-price section. Had it done by the time we landed. I've read most of her books and will miss her.
For those of you who fly, look for the Read and Return program. You buy a book at a participating airport store and get half the price back when you return it to another participating airport store. They turn around and sell the returned books at half price. You can't return those for money but it's a great way to pick up something to read.
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I just reread Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities. WOW! If you haven't read it for a number of years (decades in my case), check it out. Amazing writing, I felt like I was right there.
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Just finished State of the Onion by Hyzy for book club. It was a fast read. I could see a Lifetime movie made from it.0 -
fgm - Doesn't she write the White House Chef mysteries? I read one sitting in the chemo chair and it was fun for my state of mind. I'll have to find more.0 -
Minus-yes she does. perfect light read mysteries.0 -
in one of my last posts I mentioned starting a book about a piece of cheese - it is called The Telling Room by Michael Paterniti. you learn alot about post-Franco Spain, the Castille area of Spain, and of course about cheese making. I have been slogging through it, no fault of the book. Took a break and whipped through the last book in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series (true blood) - nice wrap up and just yesterday, the 6th book in Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series - The Dead in their Vaulted Arches. This could actually have been a satisfying end to the series - but I have been reading an advanced proof which has additional information like: there is a movie deal! and Bradley has signed up for 4 more books in the series (yippeee!) - hopefully we see how Flavia manages her teen years.
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I just found this thread the other day and already have written down four full pages of book recommendations. Thanks! I've belonged to a book club for six years and have read some good books, some awful ones, and a few truly life-altering books. We keep a notebook and write down observations during the read, phrases we particularly like or words we had to look up. We are all ages but either have lived in a foreign country, traveled overseas extensively, or were born in another country. When a book is a translation from another language, somebody in the group can read it in the original language and we discuss how things were translated. The women in my book club don't always agree about the value of a book. and sometimes we dislike something so much we don't finish it. There is no pressure one way or the other. If we are too busy, we sometimes don't even try to read that month's choice. Anything goes. We just enjoy getting together. Most of the time we like the same kinds of books. Here are some of those special life altering books that had such a profound impact on all of us. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck,To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
There were so many others we all liked; Atonement by Ian McEwan, The Paris Wife, Sarah's Key, The Swan Thieves - oh my, the list goes on and on and includes many of the same books I found recommended on this thread. I liked The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but not everyone did. I did not like Margaret Atwood's books but was in the minority. I didn't like Gone Girl and could never get into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in spite of trying twice. We liked The Light At The End of the Ocean this month and I've just gotten The Book Thief for our January meeting.
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Sandra....Welcome! I hope you're not getting eye strain or writer's cramp from reading this thread!
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Welcome sandra!!
Some of your favorite books are my favorite's too!!
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Sandra: Thanks for joining in. I've been missing the posts and am only reading fluff myself as I go through this latest chemo.
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Minus just wanted to say I couldn't even read a book during chemo. I couldn't concentrate at all. And before that I would usually read a book a day. Good luck.
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Sandra I don't come to this thread enough, as my have to do list is longer than my like to do list, but I do agree with you on the didn't get into list. I found Atwood's books to be disturbing, so I am so glad that you made some suggestions. I hope they have them here in town. Thanks!
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Sandra, I've read every book you mentioned and put many of them--Shadow of the Wind, Paris Wife, Good Earth, To Killa Mockingbird, Snowflower and Sevret Fan -- among my most favorites. Keep sharing your choices, and I'll try to wrack my meager brain for possible titles for you. This is a great thread. Books have gotten me through many rough times.
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How cool to find people who have the same books on their favorites list! That's got to be unusual. So happy I found all of you and this wonderful thread.
Moon, I couldn't read after my BMX. It was so strange. I'd brought 3 light-reading short books to the hospital but never opened any of them, even two weeks later.
My reading habits change from time to time, depending on what's happening around me. My son suffers from depression and a year or so ago my book club wanted to read The Kite Runner just at the time he was having an especially bad episode. I just couldn't. I needed to stick to something that wasn't depressing. Doesn't have to be fluffy romances (no thanks) but sometimes what I read has to help me escape my life and maybe even laugh.
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Sandra, if you like non-fiction at all, the bio of Catherine the Great was superb. I recently read "Goldfinch," which is getting a lot of praise, and enjoyed that a lot. From some years ago, "Snow Falling on Cedars" also was excellent.
A love of reading was the greatest gift my mother passed on to me, and I'm proud to say I passed it on to my daughter, and now she has done the same for her young son, in 1st grade but reading on 3rd grade level. With a book, you're never alone.
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Just finished reading, The Inheritor's Poison. It's all about arsenic poisoning and gives us a glimpse of what forensic medicine was like in England in 1833.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Inheritors-Powder-Cautionary-Betrayal/dp/0297867423
Mom is enjoying Bill Bryson's Summer. I loved the book and she loves it even more than I do because it focuses on events that occurred in 1927. She was only 2 years old back then, but recalls many of the events of the day.
Skimmed through Pollack's Unthinkable which concludes with how The United States should deal with Iran.
http://www.amazon.com/Unthinkable-Iran-Bomb-American-Strategy/dp/1476733929
While the book was packed with details, I still think last year's The Twilight War
http://www.amazon.com/dp/014312367X
was more fascinating. The Twilight War discusses the complex relationship that The United States has had with Iran during the last 40 years. More importantly, it discusses the complex relationship that other nations have with Iran. I think the book should be required reading for EVERYONE. It reads like fiction. It's written in a very engaging way. I don't throw out the word "masterpiece" often. But The Twilight War is, IMHO, a masterpiece.
Debating whether or not to read Ridley's The Heir Apparent.
Wishing everyone a happy holidays!
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Hi Sandra, I, too, have read all the books you noted and liked them. I had started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and then was diagnosed the first time. I never went back to it. Everyone tells them that I quit just at the time it picks up. I did see the movie. BTW, I lived in San Antonio from 1979-1988 and loved it, especially the weather and food!
I recently finished "The Other Queen" by Philppa Gregory. It's about Mary Queen of Scots and her exile in England. It wasn't great. I have read several others of hers that I enjoyed more. I just started "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver.
We are going on vacation in early January and I have several books on my Kindle that I've been waiting to read. Will report back. I agree the love of reading is the greatest gift. My dad passed it on to me and my siblings and now my nieces and nephews are all good readers, too.
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I wish to add, one of the reasons why I'm debating whether or not to read The Heir Apparent is because, several years ago, I saw the Masterpiece Theatre series, Edward the King.
http://www.amazon.com/Edward-King-Annette-Crosbie/dp/B0000D0YWD
It was a very long series, but nonetheless, EXCELLENT! Thanks to his reign, we now recall that brief period that occurred during the beginning of the last century, The Edwardian Period. Recall that the period occurred shortly before The Great War. Edward's relationship with his crazed cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is fascinating. Wilhelm was married to Edward's sister.....
Oy.....so many great books to read......Speaking of Goldfinch....so many friends have recommended the book and it appears on so many best books of 2013 lists....gotta get my hands on that book too!
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Voracious, One Summer and The Bully Pulpit (Doris Kearns Goodwin) and in my 'on deck circle'. Right now I am reading a fascinating little book called, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis. He takes six incidences from the lives of the leaders of the Revolution & fleshes them out, adds the background music, shows how their actions still affect us today, all in an extremely interesting and story telling manner (the Hamilton/Burr duel, the partnership of John & Abagail Adams are two of the stories). As I read it, I am doing something I haven't done in a very long time, I got out a yellow marker & am underlining passages! Luckily I got the 'real' book for this one (it comes in paperback so wasn't more expensive).
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Ruth....I got The Bully Pulpit and chose not to read it...print was too small. I have a Nexus 7 and might download books to read...if the print is too small in the hard version of the book....
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I bought the 'real' book because I am a Theodore Roosevelt nut AND I love Goodwin's work, so I knew I would want to page back & forth, mark it up and keep it.
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Ruth....my favorite author, Geoff Dyer, talks about his books and how he can't part with them because they are all marked up.....
I never mark up books because they're all loaned from the library...
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Yeah, the library might frown on that! If a book is meaningful to you and belongs to you though; and you underline & jot notes, it can make the book really a treasure. I have my mom's marked up Bible & a couple other of her books & her musing mean so much to me.
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I'm not sure sure that the library would mind if someone marked up a book. The ones I get are always marked up with food
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Sad to think future generations will have no connection to "hard" books...and if they discover "marked" books.... they're not going to even know how to read the cursive writing...
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Began reading Jesmyn Ward's The Men We Reaped. Going to put off doing things today! The book is magnificent.
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I can't help but think that one day libraries will go the way of one room school houses and old fire stations, being turned into homes (cool ones), but leaving generations not knowing what a real library was like.
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