Book Lovers Club
Comments
-
Agree! have read all of Wallace Stegner's books. Found earliest ones the best, but all worth reading. Also have read and enjoyed all of Richard Russo's books. For recent books, still recommending 'The Goldfinch' and 'life after Life. "
0 -
half hour of Donna Tartt talking about the Goldfinch at Waterstones
0 -
Thanks Jelson for the post about Donna Tartt. I'm currently reading "The Goldfinch" on my kindle. I always like to know what an author looks like while reading a book. That's the one thing I don't like about reading on a reader, you don't know really know. Seeing them on YouTube is even better!!
0 -
I read Still Alice and thought it was well written. I have another of her books, Left Neglected, on my kindle but haven't read it yet. My kindle is currently in Cuba with a friend! She was very limited in the luggage she could take, was worried about taking books and their internet is lacking so it seemed like the perfect solution.
I just finished The Language of Flowers. I really liked the story, the characters, the writing style. Even though I'm not a gardener or particularly interested in flowers, I enjoyed reading about the messages they send. I definitely pass it on.
Not sure what I'll start next. We're in for more terrible weather -20 windchills so I know I'll be staying inside!
Gina
0 -
I finished The Language of Flowers by Diffenbaugh (sp?) while on a cruise last week. It held my interest until the very end. Surprising, crushingly indicative of adults with attachment disorder, with plenty of twists and turns.
0 -
I liked Flowers too. I have been reading some local history....probably only interesting if you live around here!
0 -
I'm starting Once We Were Brothers and next on the docket is A Good American. Thoughts on either of these two titles?
0 -
Swimmom2, I read A Good American last month and I enjoyed it. It was good, but not great read.
0 -
I don't see too many people here who read older books. I haunt the used book stores & rarely buy hardbacks anymore - too heavy to hold in bed. Also I go to the library & just sweep books off the shelf into my bag. So - I'm usually reading books way behind many of you.
Just finished two that a friend gave me for Christmas. First was Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner. Good story about a family that is kidnapped. I really didn't know who'd done it until the very end. Also read Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter. I hadn't read her in awhile & didn't know she died in 2012. An easy read for lots of long days sitting in doc offices & waiting for tests.
Has anyone read The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly? It's another one highly recommended by the Mother & Son "end of your life reading club". Sounds kind of brutal - the setting is a tortured political prisoner in Burma - but all their other book recommends said something I needed to hear.
0 -
MinusTwo, Sounds like you read all sorts of books. I like that. I like historical novels, history and biography. My book club is reading "David Copperfield" right now, but I'm having a hard time getting into it. I've read about 25%. I've read a lot of Maeve Binchey. Her style and subjects are so easy. I'm usually lost for a while, which is really nice when my mind tends to wonder back to my Dx.
0 -
Danish: Yup - I read everything. Some years ago I told the owner of a used book store that I read everything but Westerns. He pleaded w/me to take 2 Louis L'Amour books free of charge & read them. So I discovered that westerns can be good too. Don't know why I used to feel that way since I loved the old western radio shows as a kid.
This afternoon I finished a book called Texas Women. It's a wonderful compilation of 13 profiles that ran in past issues of the Texas Monthly magazine about women who are not only 'fascinating in their own right but representative of women who have contributed to the character & uniqueness of Texas'. Some profiles were Heloise (and her mother), Molly Ivins, Candy Barr (the 50's stripper), Laura Bush, Janis Joplin, Barbara Jordan, etc. Really a good read.
Now I've started The Uncompromising Diary of Sallie McNeil, 1858 - 1867. This young lady actually went away to college - as did her sisters & not just the brothers. Very rare at that time. It looks like her diary will cover the civil war too. The interesting part is she's writing only for herself & never expected to have the notebooks read so she's very honest how she feels about friends & family & the nation, etc.
0 -
Has anyone read yet "The Invention of Wings" by Sue Monk Kidd? I see it on the shelf of the library where I work, but want patrons to have first crack at it. I loved "The Secret Life of Bees."
I just finished a new Susan Wilson book, "A Man of His Own." A good one if you like "dog" stories.
Jane
0 -
Sweetcorn, "A Man of His Own" was very good. Thoroughly enjoyed "The Secret Life of Bees". I have "The Invention of Wings" but have not started it yet as I think it may be along the lines of Monk's "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter", which I found very theological.
0 -
3 very differerent books:
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley yes, there are actual factual, insightful, historical looks at the Supreme Court, but this was funny and that is what I was looking for. When an embattled president whose nominees with impeccable credentials keep getting voted down, chooses to nominate a reality tv judge, (think Judge Judy but younger and prettier) all hell breaks loose. I enjoyed Buckley's Boomsday and was not disappointed.
The Water Room by Christopher Fowler the second in his Bryant and Mays series about 80 something year old heads of the peculiar crimes unit in London. So detectives, supernatural and humor.
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny one backstory is about the last of Dionne-like quintuplets and then of course all the shenanigans going on in the Surete. Was so spellbound, I had taken when I got my bloods drawn and then just sat there for more than an hour to finish it, intending to return it to the library - but was just too emotionally-spent and walked directly home instead!!! that to me is a sign of a good read.
0 -
Abigail Adams by Woody Holton.....very good!
0 -
I read that the new Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings, is # 3 in a "series". Did anyone else find that?
0 -
Sue Monk Kidd's 'Invention of Wings' is NOT part of a series and it's not theological. It's a story, based on a real person, of a Charleston girl who realizes the evils of slavery and fights her whole life against slavery, putting her at odds with her family and city. Complementing her story is the story of a young slave girl 'given' to her on her 11th birthday. The book was compelling and extremely interesting.
0 -
Jelson, you should read all of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels, if you liked one. I've read them all. Not all have such interesting back stories, but you come to feel like all the characters are friends and neighbors.
0 -
I agree with you Wavewhisperer, although I suppose each book could stand alone, because Penny does provide background, the reader would miss much if they hadn't already read each of the Inspector Gamache books in the series in order. I mean - so much would be lost if you didn't know the history of Jean Guy, Ruth and Rosie at the end of How the Light Gets In!!! I love the way the characters have grown and changed. I mean, what is going to happen with Peter and Clara? Is he just too messed up for there to be any hope for their marriage, will Clara have found and come to cherish her independence? The next book in the series is coming out in August!!!
0 -
I've been on the list at the library for The Invention of Wings forever...and today it came in! I want to dive it but still haven't finished The Book Thief or The Emperor of All Maladies. Had to turn in Rachel Maddow's Drift today even though I wasn't finished with it either.
That's what I get for having too many books within reach and no self control.MinusTwo, the 3rd in a series comment you read about might be instead that this is Sue Monk Kidd's third book of fiction, behind The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair. There are also four nonfiction works by this author.
0 -
I just finished a fantastic book--The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes. It is two love stories, one in 1917 France and one in modern day London, with a portrait that connects them. It is a page turner with several plot twists.
0 -
Sandra - you may be right. I've only read The Secret Life of Bees.
0 -
Sandra, I think I have library envy! I love that picture.
Have any of you ever read much of Pearl Buck? I loved the books about her mother and father and also the book about Korea.
She wrote several books for children that were interesting.
0 -
Jelson, you're right about the order of Louise Penny's books. I knew from one of the first I read that Jean Guy ended up with you-know-who, but I didn't fully understand how they got together and didn't fully understand his anger/love relationship with Gamache until I read other books. I'd like to see Clara come into her own as both an artist and independent woman.
0 -
At the rate I read, I'm a loyal library patron. Couldn't afford my book habit if I had to buy them all.
Loved The Secret Life of Bees and will check out The Mermaid Chair.
8th on the reserve list for Goldfinch and 2nd for The Gods of Guilt.
Maeve BInchy's books were always soothing and so very easy to read.
Keep up the recommendations! Supreme Courtship sounds like a fun read.
0 -
Danishgirl, I was introduced to Pearl S Buck two years ago when my book club decided to read The Good Earth. Let me tell you, that book was practically life changing for all of us in the group! I never would have chosen a book about Chinese peasants but it lead me into a whole new world and enriched my life. I went on to read Lisa See's Snowflower and the Secret Fan and again had one of those earthquake moments. WOW.
0 -
Has anyone read Hystera by Leora Skolkin Smith? It was #1 on kindle for a while.
0 -
I loved Sunflower and the Secret Fan. I googled The Emperor of All Maladies and found out that Ken Burns is making a TV documentary about it. It should be out in the Spring of 2015.
emperorofallmaladies.org
0 -
Fgm, I'm excited to hear the news about The Emperor of All Maladies. Thanks! As for Snowflower, it opened my eyes to many things and drew me to our art museum to see a Chinese exhibition. I even found a place in China to order real fans and got them for all my book club friends. I've gone on to read all of Lisa See's other books (all fine) as well as other books about immigrants from other places to this country. On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was one of those. From there, I researched and found out we had "immigrant holding pens" for people with Japanese ancestry all over the country during WWII. Shocking.
0 -
0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPgPixshbXo
