Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Badger - thanks for the Spencer continuation tip. I hadn't read any since he died.
I think Stephen White is fantastic and have collected all of his books. I keep two copies of his first in the series, Privileged Information from 1991 so that I still have a copy if I loan it out and it doesn't come home. For anyone who likes Jonathan Kellerman's psychologist hero Alex Delaware, there is somewhat of a parallel with psychologist Alan Gregory and his police friend. I like White's books better. Maybe because they're set in Boulder, CO and most of the settings are in the Rocky Mountains.
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Badger, I'm glad that worked out for you!
I'm reading my way thru Stephen White, in between other books. Currently I'm reading Phenomenal by Leigh Ann Henion, which was recommended on here,,(makes me want to go and see all those things!!) and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo,, which I believe was recommended here also.There was a LONG wait for Tidying Up at the library,, and since I just finished remodeling my bathroom, and now getting ready to tile the walk-in closet,, I'm really in a tidying up mood. So I bought the book to learn her technique. It's weird, since I started reading it,, I am finding her mentioned all over the place. She was mentioned in my local paper today, in an article on tiny houses.
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Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng starts out with these sentences: "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." The story of a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child and her parents are trying to live their own dreams through her. A really gripping novel about family, life, love, and loss. I read it in one sitting.
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If you want something fun, The Marriage Book: Centuries of Advice, Inspiration, and Cautionary Tales from Adam and Eve to Zoloft by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Ader
The Marriage Book has entries from ancient history and modern politics, poetry and pamphlets, plays and songs, newspaper ads and postcards. It goes in A to Z order; exploring topics from Adam and Eve to Anniversaries, Fidelity to Freedom, Separations to Sex. Quotes from novelists, clergymen, sex experts, presidents, Liz and Dick, Ralph and Alice, Casanova, and Stephen King to name a few.
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Minus, the CO location is what made me take it. They're up around Rabbit Ears Pass and I've hiked there.
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as I've mentioned before, I've had great problems concentrating on reading during surgery recovery and chemo. All that time I could have been devouring books!
I've been loving the recommendations here and am proud to say I'm halfway through the Kent Haruf book recommended here. I'm hoping to finish today, since it was a waiting list book, borrowed from another library. I don't know, maybe it was that fire lit under me that got me reading with more diligence. Either way, I'm finding I'm getting more accomplished than with some books I'd selected for myself.
So this morning I ordered the first Stephen White book, thanks to you, Minus, Badger and Glennie. I have this odd feeling I've read him before. But enough brain cells have been compromised by my age and now bc that it will probably all seem fresh to me! Haha. Thanks again for all of the great book talk here, I enjoy it so much. I hope one day to contribute something. Right now I'm just a hanger- on. But loving it.
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jackie...I'm glad to hear that you are able to get through reading the Kent Harug book. What I found appealing is how the book was constructed using short quotes among the characters. There was little colorful prose. The taunt dialogue allowed the reader to use their own intellect and emotion to drive the characters inner feelings. Watching the film, Plainsong, drove home the same feelings. The characters said little, but you could nonetheless feel their emotions.
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perhaps so appealing because so unlike me. With everything out there on my sleeve, like a sartorial bumper sticker.
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My turn came up for The Girl on the Train !! Just picked it up from the library.Jackbirdie,, glad the reading is going well!
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I loved it when he said "this boy needs a dog
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Loved All the Light We Cannot See. It's right up there with The Book Thief and Once We Were Brothers. Have read all of Baldacci's, Grishom's and Silva's books. I do feel Silva has gotten into a rut. When he describes his main characters, you can tell he is doing a copy and paste as the wording seldom varies. His early books were much better. I must say, i am all over the place with the authors I like - Mitch Albiom, Sue Monk Kidd, JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts), CJ Box (most are about a Wyoming game warden - has a few stand alones), Kathy Reichs. You ladies and my book club have introduced me to a few authors I don't think I would have picked up. Must say, your choices are better than my book club's.
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just thought I'd check in with a couple of bits of great news
1) actually FINISHED the Haruf book. Really liked it and it was spot on for my current needs.
2) started a McCullough book I'd missed (thought I'd read him all) called Brave Companions. Also a good fit for my limited concentration right now. It's a compilation of previously published articles, speeches, and other pieces, many relating to additional side stories to his books that he was either asked to write more about, or simply found he couldn't stop himself from researching a dangling mystery.....I actually got tears reading his Introduction, which sometimes I even skip (afraid of spoilers for one reason). I know that must seem so corny, but it was such a personal story in itself, about how he became a writer, and why, and the writing was gorgeous. I also probably cried because I had a big deal in my life that had me quite emotional up through today. They say a picture's worth 1,000 words. So
3) see below:
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Yea Katy!!!!!!
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Jackbirdie - Congrats!! That's a wonderful milestone to celebrate.
Reading Robert Gailbraith The Cuckoo's Calling. I'm not even to page 100 yet after several days. I think the book's going to be good, but I just can seem to make any progress. Weird since I often read a book a day.
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YAY Katy!!!! Woo-hoo!!!
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YAY Katy congrats! Brave Companions sounded familiar so went to the bookcase and sure enough, there it was, a Bday gift from an old BF. Wow. Must admit I haven't read it but will now.
Currently reading The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley. It's a love story with a time-travel twist. Eva Ward returns to her childhood home on the Cornish coast, seeking happiness. There she finds mysterious voices and hidden pathways and a hunky man who's not of her time. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, a loaner from my mom LOL.
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Yay!!!! For finishing chemo! And another Yay for finishing the Haruf book!!!!
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Glad for you, Katy!!! I think I lost the thread that first mentioned the Haruf book you were reading. I just finished "Our Souls at Night," by Kent Haruf. It was a sweet story. I was sad to read at the end of the book that it was Haruf's last, that he had died. Made me sad. The one I read before that, a summer chick-lit book by Erin Hildebrand, noted at the end of that book that she wrote it while battling breast cancer. I'm going to stop reading the author's notes!
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News flash for fans of Robert B. Parker - not only is Ace Atkins writing Spenser books, Michael Brandman is writing Jesse Stone books! I picked up the first two: Killing the Blues (2011) and Fool Me Twice (2012). Not sure if there are more but will be checking. Has anyone read his books featuring Sunny Randall?
Enjoyed The Rose Garden, it kept my interest all the way through with no sex and a great twist at the end.
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Justmaximom, you'll enjoy those two books by Bruce Cameron. They are very sweet, yet sad.
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I needed something cheery after my week of sorting photos of people who are all gone, so went to a movie this afternoon after water aerobics, something I usually only do once a year. Saw "Spy" with Melissa McCarthy. Funny parody of James Bond films but the women are in charge in this CIA spoof. I laughed so hard I used up all my napkins on tears running down my face & almost wet my pants. Warning - not for children. Lots of language & extremely suggestive word play. But really funny if you don't mind that & it provided just the silly mood I needed.
Now back to my reading.
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I haven't contributed much lately but I've been reading all of your recommendations~~I've most recently read:
The Orphan Train,
The Girl on the Train,
Field of Prey,
And The Mountains Echoed,
Liane Moriarty - Big, Little Lies, Three Wishes
I have read many your favorite authors that have been mentioned, Stephen White, Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais, Silva, Vince Flynn, Lee Child.
I'm just about to start All the Light We Cannot See and next is Everything I Never Told You.
Thanks for all your great book ideas.
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Reading The Girl on the Train now.
I saw SPY too. It was hysterical!!! There are a lot of F bombs and suggestive talk,, so agree,, not for kids,,, but hysterical adult humor.
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The Girl On the Train is our next Book Club book so I will be starting it soon.
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reporting on Pym by Mat Johnson which I felt compelled to precede with Edgar Allan Poe's the Narrative of A Gordon Pym since Pym is based on the assumption that A. Gordon Pym's narrative was true!
A comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness in Antarctica by an unlikely band of African American adventurers. A recently fired professor (who refused to join the college's diversity committee), the protagonist, Jaynes is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe's only novel ; when he discovers a crude slave narrative that seems to confirm the reality of Poe's fiction, he resolves to seek out Tsalal, imagining it to be a key to his personal and professional salvation.What he finds is the ultimate "whiteness" of a civilization of rather crude totally white ice beings who enslave him and his friends. His best friend, an unemployed us driver from Detroit has come on the journey because he believes that his favorite artist is in Antarctica - armed with prints of his paintings and a supply of Little Debbie snacks, he does find his idol. The artist's body of work being based on that of Thomas Kincaid - and he has had constructed an artificial biosphere which encloses replica of the settings of his kitchy paintings where he lives with his wife (who does all the work). Very nutty, much to think about.
Without conscious plan, I have read two books in a row in which dogs tell all or part of the story. The latest in Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series - Paw and Order which takes place in DC. In some of the books Chet (the dog) has some hair raising close calls - but in this one, not so much - and I was glad of that. Next was City Dog by Alison Pace a sweet romance about a divorced childrens book author whose muse, Carlie, her West Highland White Terrier is the lead character of the books. Carlie becomes the star of a cable tv show and you get to meet all these odd characters. The book is very much about living single in NYC - upper and lower east side. Very enjoyable. And it is actually fun to compare the ways Quinn and Pace imagine how dogs think.
None of the above have much in the way of sex
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better even than the albert payson terhune collie books I read as a child, is the absolutely wonderful novel the hero is almondine, & a tribe of dogs bred for beauty & intelligence. can't remember the suthor of title but almondine might ge ty ou there
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we don't talk much about short stories here....so I thought I would share one or two of my favorites...
http://www.annexed.net/box/augustheat/index.htmlI was introduced to August Heat when I was in high school and never again came across it until the Internet was born. On the first day of August Heat, I continue to be creeped out by thoughts of this suspenseful short story...
Anyone else care to share a short story......
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I think I might have already shared this Isaac Asimov short story....The Fun They Had...
http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/funtheyhad.html
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Presently reading...Facing the Modern The portrait in Vienna 1900. What more can I say?
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dog stories (cont.) then there's olaf stapledon's serius. this is a tragic story about a herd dog, a large border collie perhaps, could speak human language & even write with great difficulty. spoiler alert; this is a novel about predudice, serius was in love with his owner & she with him. it was never established if they were lovers but the townspeople assume they were & were outraged with likely consequences
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