Book Lovers Club

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  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited April 2014

    image

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

    Sandra, ThumbsUpNerdy  

  • jelson
    jelson Member Posts: 622
    edited April 2014

    Timbuktu - this thread is NOT for breast cancer books, it is for "pure escapism". There is another discussion board called Recommend your Resources under Day to Day Matters on which there are several lists of books on breast cancer.  Come back here when you just want to immerse yourself in a great book.

    Julie E

  • fgm
    fgm Member Posts: 448
    edited April 2014

    Voracious- I loved the Outside World, too.  I'm looking forward to her new book that you recommended.  If you haven't read these already you may enjoy:  Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman and Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska.

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

    fgm.....when I began visiting this thread, I mentioned some of my favorite books. Among my favorites are those with Jewish themes....mostly non-fiction.  One of the most footnoted non-fiction books that I read is Lis Harris' Holy Days.  Harris was a writer for New Yorker magazine.  Her assignment was to follow an orthodox Jewish family during the High Holidays.  She and New Yorker readers were so interested in what she wrote about, she went on to spend a year within the orthodox community of Brooklyn.  I can't recommend this book enough!

    http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Days-World-Hasidic-Family/dp/0684813661


    http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/24/books/books-of-the-times-101286.html

    Another terrific book is The Rebbe's Army:


    http://www.amazon.com/The-Rebbes-Army-Inside-Chabad-Lubavitch/dp/0805211381


    The Jew Store:

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Jew-Store-Stella-Suberman/dp/1565123301


    And...another author who we mention on this thread frequently, Erik Larson wrote a terrific book, Isaac's Storm about the Galveston Hurricane and includes Galveston's Rabbi Henry Cohen....who later went on to help thousands of Jews through the port of Galveston and see them settle them in the mid-west, west and good ol' Texas!  More about Rabbi Cohen can be learned from "The Galveston Movement."


    http://www.amazon.com/Isaacs-Storm-Deadliest-Hurricane-History/dp/0375708278



    Getting back to Tova Mirvis.....When I met her, she mentioned that she did a lot of her writing in a Starbucks.  In her latest book, she includes a character who does much of her writing in a coffee house....Many of the areas of New York that she mentions, and their back stories, I'm familiar with because architecture is among my many enjoyments in my life, as well as it's history.  Seems she has a love for New York that equals mine and the book is rich with New York historical details.....


    And finally, Unorthodox...I did start the book, but chose not to finish it.  I'm all too familiar with  the good and the bad of "The Inside World." 


    I will look at the second book that you recommended!




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

    And getting back to Loving Frank....which I DIDN'T enjoy reading....This past weekend I FINALLY made my pilgrimage to Frank Lloyd Wright's majestic Fallingwater.  If I never get to visit the Taj Mahal...it's okay because....I've visited heaven on earth when I stepped out of the car and my feet touched the ground at Bear Run.....

  • fgm
    fgm Member Posts: 448
    edited May 2014

    Voracious-thank you for all of your recommendations. I've enjoy Larson's books, too. Here are some other books I've read with Jewish themes.

    Have you read Harry Bernstein's book's, The invisible Wall, The Dream, and The Golden Willow? I liked all of them. 

     Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy is about a young Jewish man who joins the Peace Corp and is sent to inland China. I learned a lot about China. Not sure if I ever want to visit there.

    The Middlesteins by Jami Attenburg.  I met the author and enjoyed listening to her speak

    Good Harbor by Anita Diamant

    Hilda and Pearl by Alice Mattison

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

    voracious,  I read Unorthodox. I think she is a bit unfair and pretty full of herself. I know she's getting a lot of push back , if not downright abuse, from the Hassidic community though. But i read it all with an open mind and if that's how she felt then she has a right to say it.  I do hate fanatics of any kind so I always try to see both sides. 

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

    moon....I saw all of the controversy that her book created...that's why I had to take a peak of her book...

    F.....I enjoyed The Middlesteins.....will have to check out some of the others you recommended....

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

    My weekend is now ruined.  Just started reading The Remedy by Thomas Goetz!  In the introduction he ends by saying, "There is no inevitable path for science; every fact won is hard fought and is self-evident only in retrospect.  On the cold frontiers of science, there is no inevitabilities, no simple answers.  And there are no easy remedies." Nonfiction never sounded more poetic!

    The book is about Robert Koch and Arthur Conan Doyle and the quest to find a cure for tuberculosis.....

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

    oh! The READER'S version of ruined! You had me scared! LOL

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

    Loopy

  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited May 2014

    Voracious, it sounds like the conclusions drawn in The Emperor of All Maladies. I had no idea that breakthroughs in medicine were so hard fought.

  • wren44
    wren44 Member Posts: 7,932
    edited May 2014

    Don't forget how the doctor was treated when he suggested doctors wash hands between cadavers and delivering babies.

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

    wrenn...page 30, 2nd paragraph!  😨

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

    sandra...check out Ignorance: How it Drives Science, by Columbia University professor, Stuart Firestein.  If you don't want to read his sliver gem of a book, check out one of his YouTube lectures.  Science is a very orderly, messy affair.... His focus is on what it is that we can identify as what we DON'T know and it is more interesting and important than what we DO know and THAT is what leads to discovery.  Ignorance catapults discovery!

  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited May 2014

    I will find the book. This is a subject I find quite interesting.

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

    Sandra...listen or read this NPR interview with Dr. Firestein:

    Why Ignorance Trumps Knowledge In Scientific Pursuit....

    http://www.npr.org/2012/06/01/154148658/why-ignorance-trumps-knowledge-in-scientific-pursuit

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

    Hello! I have been in a reading slump (need to finish up with a big project before Friday), but thought you would all appreciate this:

    imageimage

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

    Hi, my computer is being weird. I had a few 'false start/blah' books, and have been finishing up a big project.....so hopefully will have something interesting to report after that. My choice for Book Club is The End of Your Life Book Club, because I thought it would make a great discussion. I bought myself a hard copy and am re-reading it with a yellow marker & sticky notes to mark pages in hand. It is still lovely the second time through.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357
    edited May 2014

    Ruth - The End of Your Life Book Club was wonderful.  I've referred to the lists in the back several times to remember a few more oldies I wanted to find.  And recently - finally - moved it from the living room table to the shelf.  Maybe I should take it back down and put it by my bed to read again.

    I'm reading Baldacci's Zero Day & liking it better than the last one of his I read.  Next up is Daniel Silva's The Engish Girl

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

    Minus...Baldecci and Silva☺....DH loves their books!

  • kathindc
    kathindc Member Posts: 1,667
    edited May 2014

    I have read all of Baldacci's books and highly recommend Wish You Well.  This book and One Summer and The Christmas Train are very different from all of his other books.

  • WaveWhisperer
    WaveWhisperer Member Posts: 557
    edited May 2014

    Kathi, I, too, have read all of Baldacci's books and agree that his non-crime ones were excellent, especially 'Wishing you Well.' I  liked his Camel Club series, but have found his latest few to be my least favorite, including the newest, 'The Target.' International terrorism, assassination attempts, foreign locales... Read more like a Vince Flynn. 

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

    DH enjoyed reading Vince Flynn's books too!  So sad that he passed at such a young age....

    Almost finished reading The Remedy!  Will polish it off before the day is done.  The book is quite detailed. Interesting parts include Lister's discovery of how germs are transmitted.  In a previous book that I read that, Ruth also enjoyed, Destiny of the Republic, Lister makes a brief appearance.  Recall the assassination of President Garfield.  In Destiny of the Republic the story explains how the germ theory was already accepted in Europe before Garfield was shot.  The author and many others believe that Garfield could have survived had the Germ Theory been accepted on this side of the pond and proper protocols been put into place.  So, American physicians came out looking pretty bad in the story of Garfield's asassination.  BUT, now this is a very big BUT,  from the time Lister made his discovery, which we learn in this book in great detail, and UNTIL the proper protocols were implemented in Europe took MANY, MANY YEARS!  The Remedy's author not only makes this point very clear, but he also applies this point to modern medicine as well.  While medical discoveries take a long time to occur, implementation into practice both today and in yesteryears, takes a longer amount of time than anyone could imagine!  Doyle's role in this fabulous book is that he helped both physicians and people understand the role of how modern medicine would begin to play a role in people's lives, not just in crime...

    I see great correlations in this book with Eric Topol, MD's book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine.  These books delve into the culture of medical exploration and how a medical discovery shakes and shifts the established protocols.....This book ushers in the establishment of medicine as we know it looks today.  Topol's book gives us glimpses of what it should look like in decades from now.....

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357
    edited May 2014

    Finally got back to the used/trade book store - my first trip since treatment started a year ago.  Had 5 bags of books to take in.  The books that they didn't want so won't credit my account will go directly to the library.  They won't even come out of the trunk of the car.  Managed to buy 20 books from their "bargain" shelves - $0.25 and $0.50 each.  But also bought the new Harlen Coblen.

    Not related to this thread, but also took 23 bags of clothes to the battered women's thrift store - all too large since chemo.  And bought only two smaller tops at Coldwater Creek in the last gasp before the stores close for good.  One sales person thought the "leftovers" might go to someplace like TJ Maxx when the liquidator takes over.  Sure feels good to be sorting & culling again.

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

    Anyone who had to Migrate to Kobo from Sony having problems transferring their books?

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

    image 

  • sandra4611
    sandra4611 Member Posts: 1,750
    edited May 2014

    Ruth, good one! Doesn't everyone buy a new purse based on whether a book will fit or not?

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

    Love it Ruth. Sandra, yes. Doesn't everybody?