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Book Lovers Club

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Comments

  • fgm
    fgm Member Posts: 448
    edited January 2014

    Sandra- I'm reading the Emperor of all Maladies, too.  I agree with you, it is fascinating. I'm learning so much

  • bedo
    bedo Member Posts: 1,429
    edited January 2014

    The librarian here in AK found a short story for me that I have been looking for since I was 16. It is out of print but available on amazon!

    http://www.amazon.com/Tracys-Tiger-William-Saroyan/dp/B000E1HGXYight

    I remember being so entranced by this story of a man/boy named Tracy, who went about his business during the day, but at night his heart (Tracy's Tiger) went out roaming for things that the heart desires. At least that's how I remember it.  It was my favorite story ever and I never forgot it. I am ordering it online. It by William Saroyan and I am so excited to get a glimpse into why my 16 year old self so loved it.

    On another note, does anyone have a good suggestion for a book? I have read all of Oliver Sacks, David Sedaris, like non-fiction, but like fiction as long as it is not in a historical setting, like the 1800s

    Thanks! 

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    Hey Bedo in Alaska.  I can't make the link work but if it's Tracey's Tiger it's apparently been made into a musical.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy%27s_Tiger    Haven't thought about Saroyan for years.  I thought you were having too much fun hiking around the countryside to read!!  

    I'm sure Voracious will have some non-fiction refs.  If you read fiction, do you want mysteries or cozies or ???  Since you're in Alaska, have you ever read Dana Stabenow? Try her Kate Shugak series "Kate Shugak is an Aleut who lives on a 160-acre homestead in a generic national Park in Alaska."  Just a bit about the author, "Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage and raised
    on 75-foot fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska. She knew there was a
    warmer, drier job out there somewhere.."

    Hope you're still having more fun than the average bear.  (for anyone old enough to remember Yogi)

  • bedo
    bedo Member Posts: 1,429
    edited January 2014

    Those sound good Minus!

    I haven't been able to read yet but want to fit it into my schedule because I love it so much

    I'll check them out.

    They have a pretty good library here with a fireplace and arm chairs for reading and a view of the mountains

    PS I remember Yogi, I was really little and cozy and mystery are both good. :)

    Have not been to the Aleutian Islands yet, but have worked 4-5 times in Barrow which has a rich Inupiat history and now working in an area with a beautiful Tligit history

  • jelson
    jelson Member Posts: 622
    edited January 2014

    This thread sits for days and then boom - it really takes off. I had to scroll back several pages to see if I had posted anything about Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown. a novel taking
    place in the early 19th century - a chef to the head of a British
    trading company is kidnapped by a lady pirate captain and made to cook. Highly recommend - the cook really changes his entire outlook on life. 

    My sister-in-law mailed me White Heat, the first in a new Edie Kiglatuk series by M.J. McGrath. Edie is a half/Inuit guide in Greenland? so not Alaska, sorry! speaking of Alaska - a place I have always wanted to go to see all that is to be seen and to climb a mountain outside of Haines named after a great great great? uncle - Sol Ripinsky!! Heather Lende the obituary writer for the local Haines paper wrote a wonderful book If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. I heard her read an essay once on NPR

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 3,696
    edited January 2014

    Speaking of favorite short stories...Here's mine by the late, great, Isaac Asimov written in 1951:


    http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html



    I'll try to come back with a few of my favorite non-fiction books soon....Hard to think right now because there are so many of them......

  • moonflwr912
    moonflwr912 Member Posts: 5,938
    edited January 2014

    VR, Lovely little story and so true! And practically here! LOL.  I LOVE Isaac Asimov. Have since I read the I Robot books in Grade School. 

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 3,696
    edited January 2014

    Moonflower...have you been in an elementary school classroom recently??!!  His story is so eerily spot on!!!   Every time I read the story, I can't believe how he saw the future!  Glad you enjoyed it!

  • moonflwr912
    moonflwr912 Member Posts: 5,938
    edited January 2014

    There was a book I read once a long time ago. It was about electronic books. It was a thriller. Someone invented an ereader and was tracked and attacked by Book publishers to prevent it going into production. It ended with them taking the invention to Rolling g Stone magazine to out the info so it couldn't be stopped. LOL 

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    Voracious - great story.  Thanks for posting.  Weird timing since I'm just reading the last two Harry Potter books that I'd never read.  Interesting juxtaposition between the old time school setting and their books that are more like the Asimov story w/characters jumping all over the pages.

  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 471
    edited January 2014

    Moon,  it sounds like an episode from the Twilight Zone Winking

  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 471
    edited January 2014

    Great story VR, thanks for posting it.  It reminds me that I think there will be a day when kids will not know what a real library is.  They will have been turned into houses like one room school houses and old fire stations.  Beautiful and unique, but the intent of their original purpose, gone.

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 3,696
    edited January 2014

    wenweb...We're seeing it with banks too!  First they were huge and magnificent.  Then smaller storefronts... and drive thrus...then ATM machines...and now online banking. My kids now do business with Ally Banking, which is TRULY an online bank which has NO brick and mortar locations.  It's amazing that the only way they will ever experience walking into one of those grand, magnificent banks, that is ....as long as it hasn't been demolished, is for an affair, where the bank has been transformed into an event hall!

    And movie "theaters".....Almost as majestic as a "bank"...don't recall the last time entering one of those either!

    Asimov truly saw the future...and we are now living it! The only thing he got wrong was that it didn't take as much time for the future that he described to get here!

  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 471
    edited January 2014

    VR, how true, good points!!

  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 47,701
    edited January 2014

    I am just finishing One Summer...America 1927 by Bill Bryson. It is narrative non-fiction and weaves together the major players & events taking place in 1937. Very interesting look at a slice of time, and how what happened then still impacts us today.

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 3,696
    edited January 2014

    Ruth...mom and I read the book last month.  We LOVED it!  I happened to be visiting her while she was reading it and she brought the book with her everywhere we went! Bryson writes with such wit!  She'd chuckle all day long!  What she loved was that she grew up knowing that period of time and it brought back such memories.  

  • Danishgirl66
    Danishgirl66 Member Posts: 80
    edited January 2014

    Anyone read End of Your Life Book Club.  It's pretty true interesting story between mother (who is dying of cancer) and son who is a book publisher.  I think it gave them many starting points for discussion during Dr visits,  chemo and other together times.

  • badger
    badger Member Posts: 24,938
    edited January 2014

    Looking for an easy fun read?  I just mentioned this title on another thread and thought it'd be good to post here.  The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio : How my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less.  It's the true story of a woman who entered (and won) contests to support her family.  Nice book.

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 3,696
    edited January 2014

    Badger..I read the book...and saw the movie!!! Terrific!

  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 471
    edited January 2014

    I didn't even know "The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio" was a book until I saw the movie.  I thought it was outstanding.  Great acting job by Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson.

  • fgm
    fgm Member Posts: 448
    edited January 2014

    I agree, I loved The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio book and movie!!!

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    DanishGirl:  I loved the End of Your Life Bookclub - as did everyone I've lent it to.  One comment - I wrote notes to myself - pretty much every page - about books they mention that I wanted to get and read.  There is a book list at the end so I could have saved my "stick notes" & just marked them off in the back.

  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 47,701
    edited January 2014

    Just downloaded it right now....it will have to wait in line behind a couple other books....should it be my recommendation the next time I get to pick a book for my book club?

  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 47,701
    edited January 2014

    image

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    Ruth - I think it would be wonderful for any book club.  However I did tell my BFF to hold off since her husband's 4 years into pancreatic & esophageal cancer - hoping to make 5.  Although they're pragmatic about it, I just didn't think a book about a lady with the same kind of cancer would be good for her right now.  So judge by your compatriots.

    That said - the book isn't really about cancer.  It's about how this Mother & son (and the whole family) get through the long days.  Still, they read books together at the infusion center - for example - and she is dying.  An amazing woman and a wonderful son.

  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 47,701
    edited January 2014

    Thanks, I'll peek through it first.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    Ruth - edited my answer. .  Minus

  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 47,701
    edited January 2014

    I do know what you mean though, before we read 'Still Alice' (a powerful book on the topic of early onset Alzheimer's disease), we first cleared it with our member whose dad had recently lost a long battle with it. She added a lot to our conversation, but not everyone would want to read and discuss a book that hit so close to home.

  • Danishgirl66
    Danishgirl66 Member Posts: 80
    edited January 2014

    Hi Minus two,  Have you read "Crossing to Safety" yet?  It was the the first one mentioned in "End of Your Life Book Club"  I loved that book.  I haven't read any of the others yet, but I also tried to make a list, only to find out there was a list at the end of the book.  I still liked to know what mother and son thought of each book.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,356
    edited January 2014

    DanishGirl - Yes for Crossing.  I've read most of Stegner's books & always like him.  My book is out on loan to a friend or I would list some of the others I've read.  I did go to a used book store and got several from their lists. 

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