Book Lovers Club
Comments
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What you have both said about Rochas' book made me go and buy it for my kindle yesterday. Now I have got three books going, at least. It has been a long time since I've done that, I guess my brain IS getting better! Once, about 20 years ago, a friend had come over. They looked at my bed which was covered in books, and asked why I was reading so many books... I said, well this one i am studying, and that one because its making me laugh, and that was because i am trying to learn how to do that, and this one? its just for fun, and that one because it makes me sleepy, so i read that one at night.
the kindle has really helped me pare my library down to the essentials, though if you ask my man, he would tell you I still have too many books... and yes, I love skipping back and forth between them, daily.
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Tomboy, "too many books"??????????? What is this language you speak? Never heard of it.
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Neat!
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Tomboy - too many what??? I must be deaf in that ear since you couldn't mean books.
One of my favorite sayings printed on canvas "book bags" I ordered a few years ago: "She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain." Louisa May Alcott
Have you all seen Owl Square Press? Great posters & bookmarks & bookish gifts. http://owlsquarepress.com/
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Gonna read it too tom
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I know! I can't believe he said it, either! because he reads every night, and has at least 3 book cabinets himself! I will check that link, thanks Minus!
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It's cold outside folks! Although it got up to 4 degrees here.
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👍👍👍
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Go Joan!
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👏👏👏
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VR - thanks for the Joan link.
Ruth - I absolutely LOVE the poster. Maybe I'm still not too old to have a wild heart sometimes? At least in my reading fantasies anyway.
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Ms. Didion = totally cool
I've been giving much thought to the discussion of Sharon Rocha's book. Not so much the book, which I have not read and this sad murder was not on my radar (although I did follow it on the Yahoo news bar from afar) as I've lived out of the US since 1995. What has been flipping over and over in my head was this statement by VR: that most of us truly do not know what our children are really thinking about. And if someone really thinks they are this close with their children....it is nothing more than an illusion....an illusion that makes us feel better, but may not be the true reality. That most of us truly do not know what our children are really thinking about. I'm at that age where I know women who cannot move through the grieving process of losing their mothers, because they were their best friends and others who are therapy over what happened in their childhood/adulthood with their mothers. My mother was not my best friend (I already have a best friend) and she was a strong, influencing mother that I felt close to and loved. I did have secrets and I thought,still do - that was normal. I had my only child late at age 43 (usual now) and although he just turned 16 days before Christmas, I'm aware that when he moves on-moves out and on as an adult in the world, that there will be blank spots knowledge of who and how he conducts himself. So, having said that, I'm intrigued as to what Rocha missed and that tells me I should read the book.
Like many of you, I have a few spinning plates- at least two books being read simultaneously, and have started one that just came out (Jan 5th) titled: Late Fragments: Everything I Want to Tell You (About this Magnificent Life) by Kate Gross. I was lying in the dark reading this (Kindle, when in darkness I read white type/text on black background, easier on the eyes) . The author Kate Gross, is an extraordinary woman. She is a 36 years old and dying from colon cancer. She is a phenomenal writer, her life - all of it is rich and amazing is a deeply wise account of what matters. One of the many tragedies in her story is that Late Fragments will be the only book she writes. Sadly, Kate Gross passed away on Christmas Day (2014) and she headed the charity African Governance Initiative, a charity that provides advice on leadership and political reform in countries including Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
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lilac....I agree that it probably is natural for both children and parents to keep certain intimacies from one another. I guess many of us learn how to navigate boundaries in our children's lives. But what makes Rocha's story so stirring and profound is that she learned after her daughter's violent death that there were more boundaries between them that she never knew had existed. And so, with learning that, she was shattered. Writing her book was not so much a forensic examination of her daughter's tragic demise, but an examination of the "real" life that her daughter was experiencing at the hands of her husband/ murderer. Once Rocha was able to understand her daughter's life and the events leading up to her death, only then was she able to begin the grieving process.
Today, her victim's impact statement is remembered as being among the most heart wrenching. Having found her own personal happiness following divorce from Laci's father, she shouted at Scott Peterson, "Divorce was an option!". She will never understand why her daughter never gave herself that option. Rocha describes a shocking, humiliating event that Laci experienced and can never understand why her daughter at the very least didn't tell any of her loved ones about it. Laci had an older brother whom she adored and a younger half sister. Perhaps if she swallowed her pride and told any one of them what happened, could that have saved her life? Regrets, missed opportunities and a collision course with a psychopath shattered a loving family.
On a lighter note....a little humor...Nathan Pile's hilarious cartoons...NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette. Anyone planning their first adventure to NY should read it twice and memorize it! Should make your visit better for all of us. I hate sounding like a snob..but I'm happy......
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....to see many tourists have gone home! There are always tourists in the city, but during the period from Thanksgiving thru New Years...it is just mad out there on the streets and Pile has done a great job in describing what drives us nuts about city newbies!
And Reasons Why My Kid is Crying is hilarious photos of kids....crying and the more hilarious reasons why they are crying
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Thank you VR for another thought provoking post. I agree, divorce was an option. will consider buying the book, although strange (to me), it's not on Kindle.
I lived in Paris for 9 years and that is another tourist city that has it's foibles for the uninitiated.
Adding to Joan Didion (<--click) discussion and fashion's current obsession with age.
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it is on kindle, I am reading it there now. But for some reason it was hard to find.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias=digital-text&field-keywords=sharon+rocha&sprefix=sharon+roc,aps,999
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Sharon Rocha For Laci: A mothers story of love, loss, and redemption. I don't know why it wouldn't let me make a link that time.
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Here's the hot link, Tomboy. Maybe it was the "find.http" in your sentence? Computers are so picky about URLs!
Currently reading Dean Koontz's second book (from 1974!) After the Last Race. It's about a heist at a thoroughbred race track. Pretty good so far. Also borrowed three more Randy Wayne White / Doc Ford paperbacks so I have a lot of reading to do. Joy! ♥
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Thanks badge!
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(i didn't even notice that!)
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Tomboy....After you finish reading the book, I hope you will post your thoughts.... Not an easy book to read.....
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VR - does your DH read David Morrell? I just finished "The Last Reveille" - originally published in 1977 when he was still a college English professor specializing in American Lit. His books do try to stay true to history. This one is about the Calvary's last stand in Mexico against Pancho Villa in 1916 and how the troops were really training for the future. He chooses a protagonist who is 65 and has fought in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, in Cuba and in the Philippines - now planes overhead. Morrell refers to the events in Mexico in 1916 as a "watershead". Pershing was modernizing the US Military and then led his soldiers to Europe & WWI. Patton was a young Lt. w/Pershing in Mexico, and eventually of course, a monolith in WWII.
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minus....looks like Morrell is quite prolific. That book sounds like something I would be interested in reading! I've read all of Bill O'Reilly's books and love reading about military history. I will look for his books for both him and me! Thank you!
I'm presently reading Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe. It is about the Brussels World Fair. After that, The Rosie Project and then The Rosie Effect. I'm trying to read more fiction.....getting my fix early in the year.....😇
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VR - I really like Morrell although I've never read Rambo. What can I say...
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As you all may remember, I hit the used book stores & grab a bag full of books off the $0.25 to $0.50 shelves. I look for authors I like, but pick up all kinds. Just finished Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz. It was an Oprah's Book Club book, but I hadn't paid attention to that for $.50. I found it hard going. The most interesting thing was a comment by the author in her interview in the back. "I needed to set the story in an era when (x) could do something that she & the community would find shameful, but that would not make her monstrous. It would be possible to create such a situation now,,... but I think that, in general, people today are more forgiving of others and of themselves, which may or may not be good for their psyches, but which definitely weakens dramatic tension." Interesting point that I'm spending some time thinking about.
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In The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross, Bob Howard is an intelligence agent working his way through the ranks of the top secret British government agency known as 'the Laundry. Apparently esoteric mathematical computations that, when carried out, have side effects that leak through a channel underlying the structure of the Cosmos have been causing problems since WW2. In this story, a group of mathematicians, working in a large investment bank on ways to anticipate the stock exchange - stumble on a theorem which changes them into vampires - (but not quite like those in popular literature). Much mayhem ensues. Many fascinating characters, much about working in a bureaucracy and in finance. This is like the 5th in a series and while I usually like to start at the beginning, I tried the latest - and found the backstory pretty well explained. I am going to try the first next to see what that is like.
The Big Fat Surprise Why Butter Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz Everything I thought I knew about a healthy diet is wrong. There is no scientific basis for a low fat, esp low saturated fat diet, the Mediterranean Diet has no scientific basis in historical reality much less in proven health benefits. Total cholesterol is meaningless and looking at only Total LDL (the bad) cholesterol is meaningless, Sugars are the problem and vegetable oils, hydrogenated/trans fats and what is coming next, the toxic byproducts of cooking with poly-unsaturated fats are worse and the additives to our foods which are intended to make up for the taste/texture absence of saturated fats or hydrogenated fats are terrible also. I am not interested in arguing about this, but if you are interested in the subject, I encourage you to read the book.
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Thanks Jelson. Sounds interesting. I never gave up butter for margarine in the first place.
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Good news for one of my most loved foods-cheese!
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