Book Lovers Club
Comments
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VR - missing you. What are you reading? What is your Mother reading? What is your DH reading?
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Just finished "The Girl on the Train". I enjoyed it, sort of. It was a fast read and jumped perspectives which did manage to keep it interesting.
I like and have read twice "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It is a historical fiction novel and it really is a lovely read and is uplifting and heart warming in its display of courage,loyalty and strength. It's also kind of neat how the novel came to be the author passed on after she finished but before she was able to address some pretty major edits required by the publisher so her neice took on the completion. The story is told entirely through penned letters - I thought it was a neat way to tell a story.
It really like and have read multiple times each of "Guns,Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond, "Into Thin Air" by John Krackeau , "Deep Survival" by Lawerence Gonzales and "Word Freak" (about the world of high stakes scrabble) by Stefan Fatsis. These are all journalistic non-fiction narratives. I've liked reading each of them because I get to jump into an interesting and informative read about topics I'd never known much about before. These really are my favorite types of books so if any of you like these and have recommendations for others that are similar I'd like to read them.
Of course I really did just spend the summer throwing back James Patterson novels like they were glasses of iced tea so really I'd like reading all kinds of recommendations.
Btw - Glennie19. How do you like X (Sue Grafton)? People I know who like some of the same fiction like her work but I've yet to read any.
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Jbeans - thanks for the recommends. Loved Guernsey Literary... Enjoyed Girl on the Train but most of my friends gave up. I've liked all of Krakauer's books. I haven't read a Patterson in awhile. Probably since other people started writing w/him. I like Sue Grafton. Fun, easy reads - but do start with "A". If you like Lisa Scottoline, Marsha Muller or Sara Paretsky, all writing about great female protagonists, your in for some good times..
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minus! Thanks for asking! Mom has been ill these last few weeks and is on the mend! Insists on catching up on reading her Vanity Fair magazines! I have a funny story about her and the magazine. Back in the day, I got her a subscription to the magazine and she has been addicted to reading it for decades! She loves it so much that I wrote to the magazine's publisher, the legendary S.I. Newhouse and told him not to change ANYTHING with the magazine! I told him that when my mom and I start arguing, I change the subject quickly by asking her what she is reading in Vanity Fair! He wrote back to me and said he would keep me in mind if he thought of any changes!💞
That said, I have her watching Mads Mikkelsen movies....again! The nice thing about her memory being slightly cloudy is that she gets to enjoy films more than once...they become, as she says, "vaguely familiar.". Ahhhh... how I would enjoy watching a film with Mads Mikkelsen...again and again!😇😇😇😇😁😁😁😁
DH is still reading the final Vince Flynn book. Hasn't read Dead Wake yet. Will probably read it shortly after the next Baldacci book is published in mid November.
http://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Will-Robie-David-Bald...
What am I reading? No one would be interested in what I've been reading lately! Still enjoying The Microbe Hunters. I love it because each chapter gives you a glimpse into the lives and discoveries of....Microbe Hunters. The book is a classic that should be still in libraries despite being written in 1923! I actually bought the book!
I'm also reading newly designated Nobel prize winner Angus Deaton's book, The Great Escape Health Wealth and the Origins of Inequity. I thought it was going to be hard to read and understand, however, I find it very readable and enjoyable.
I'm also reading a GREAT paperback. Behind Every Great Man. I learned an interesting back story about James Bond creator, Ian Flemming and about his wife and mistress.
For the second time, I've taken out of the library a book about the Degenerate Art exhibit that I saw a year ago. The print is ruining my eyes!
http://www.amazon.com/Degenerate-Art-Attack-Modern...
Here is another book that I recently enjoyed:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Mansion-Cooper-Hewitt-S...
Oh... One last book that I'm reading...it is Encyclopedia of Pregnancy and Baby Care.
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Encyclopedia-Pregn...
Why? DD is pregnant so I'm trying to catch up on the subject matter. You would think women have been giving birth FOREVER, so there shouldn't be much to learn about pregnancy nowadays....However, what I'm learning is I would NEVER want to get pregnant now or ever again! Whew! So much testing and imaging! Yikes! My mom's nursing specialty back in the day was labor and delivery and I've had a few kids. So, I'm pretty knowledgeable about giving birth, or so I thought....
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MinusTwo - I've never read any ofScottoline, Muller, or Paretsky but tomorrow when I bring Girl on the Train back to the library I will have a look and check out one of their titles. Thanks! Always love to find new authors I may like.
Yes, Grafton- I will have to start at A but I have a feeling that if I do get on those it will need to be next summer.
Thanks again.
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Dear book friends: I know you don't know me well. But I have been trying for months to do something about the toxic cosmetics given away in the Look Good Feel Better program. I had an op-ed I wrote get published this morning in Truthout.
Would you take a minute to read and share? It's hard to fight big business. And the ACS is hiding behind them when they should be looking out for us.
Thanks. Once you click on the link, if you feel moved to share, it us easy to do. Just follow the icons, for FB etc.
Katy
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33442-americ...
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Way to go Katy
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Katy - Great article. Yes I'll forward. Somehow I never got to the LookGood seminar and was disappointed that I missed the "free stuff" and the bonding. Now I'm glad I missed it.
VR - glad to hear what you're reading. Even if I might not rush out & get them, I really am interested. I probably read fiction 10 to 1, but I do have a list of non-fiction books and will add the Deaton book. Interesting about your Mother re-watching programs. I love the "slightly cloudy" description. Such a gentle description. And pregnancy, the antithesis of aging. My niece & nephew are actively competing to see who can have the most babies first. I'm astonished at the changes in neo-natal & baby care. My OB told me NOT to quit smoking when I got pregnant since it was not a good time to be stressed out. And I can't figure out how I survived riding a bike w/o a helmet, eating hot dogs with red dye #x, roller skating on cracked sidewalks with metal skates, etc.
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Katy- wow, what a beautifully written article. I am sharing it right now.
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Katy, brilliant article and forwarding it along and so get your passion. Look Good Feel Better are over here as well and I've not attended a class, mainly because I did not have chemo. I mounted a online campaign a few years back: Lucy Activewear and we managed to get Lucy to stop pinkwashing.
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I just finished A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. I think someone on here recommended it. I absolutely loved it. It is the sweetest story.
The book before that was Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (AKA JK Rowling) . An excellent series,, this is book 3. Highly recommended.
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Girl on the Train was a great read, I thought
Im still on Linwood Barclay books now have
No Time for Goodbye
Do we have any Stephen King fans here? Ive not read his books
in years?
Sierra
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rhey're all readable though I've not read his latest. love the bits where info is imbedded in lost pet notices. the gunslinger is a wonderful saga though no giving up the end
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Just finished reading Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong 1993. Wow - what a powerful presentation of World War One, the Somme attack, trench warfare, etc. The reviews were right: "engrossing, moving, unforgettable, poignant, sleep-disturbing... a mesmerizing story of love and war...the accumulation of detail, and it's tone of emotional restraint...transformed it into something of exquisite pathos." Not sure how I missed Faulks & he's been writing all along - even a new book in 2015. I will be looking for his other books.
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i loved Birdsong AND the BBC mini series adaptation! I read the book following reading Geoff Dyer's The Missing of the Somme. Some how, I hadn't been too familiar with The Great War, so those books were so fascinating.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdsong_(TV_serial)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Missing-Somme-Geoff-Dyer...
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i have not been reading books lately. Even romances. Just not able to concentrate. No reason why, just can't. Sigh. Maybe I'm just tired ; I started 2 more exercise class days and it wipes me out. LOL
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Moonflw912- I hope your exercise classes begin to give you energy instead of sap it. In the meantime, I just finished Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy, a posthumously released book of short stories which seem to have been written in the 1990's/early 2000's. Although loosely connected to Chestnut Street (the characters live there, lived there or visit there) each story stands on its own and each is easy to finish in one sitting. For me, who has loved Binchey, it is probably the last of her works I will read and was like the finale of a fireworks display where the rockets are not the high fliers but the ground displays - rapidly set off, pow pow pow, very satisfying. Short stories, whether this collection or another might be just the ticket for you.
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Ruth - that's great. Thanks for posting.
VR - I agree. Many of my HS teachers were WWII vets so I'm intimately familiar with that war, but WWI was just sort of back there. I was fascinated. I'll look for Dyer's book.
I have a trip planned to the indie bookstore. I have a nephew who won't quite be one for his first Christmas and a niece who will only be 3 months. I plan to get books for both of them. They may find that boring over the years, but both of the mothers will read to the kiddos. I like the idea of being the Auntie who sends books.
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I love that picture, Ruth!! Excellent!!
Minustwo: YES,, be the auntie who sends books!!! I have that job too.
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I am the Grandma who sends books! :-) I recently found out that my Granddaughter just finished 'The Wizard of Oz' and loved it (She was Dorothy for Halloween :-)), so I just bought two very nice editions of two of the other Oz books, complete with the illustrations some in color. One of the two is the "Patchwork Girl of Oz" which was my favorite as a child! Can't wait to give them to her...
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Octo - good call on the Oz books.
Just bought both babies a book for Christmas. One is an 8 mo old boy. The other a 2 mo old girl. I bought Pat the Bunny for both of them.
Moving along w/my old book reading. Enjoyed The Spy Game by Georginia Harding. "On a freezing January morning in 1961, eight year old Anna's mother disappears into the fog..." Was she a Russian spy who defected during the cold war?
Now reading The Rector of Justin, a 1964 book by Louis Auchincloss. It's the story of the founder & headmaster of a New England Episcopal boy's school. Character development & events from the 1870's through WWII. Lots of interesting religious & philosophical issues in probing the minds of the characters.
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Octo- Yes! Great choices and you and Minus are the best Aunties/Grammas ever! I was gifted a lot of books growing up and I know it had a profound effect on my life. 100% positive. How many things can you say that about?
I loved Alice In Wonderland. It wasn't until years later that I realized it wasn't completely a childrens' book, haha! Read it as an adult, but loved it both ways! Another great classic, especially if one want a tiny Anglophyllic exposure, is The Wind In The Willows. Great cast of characters, all animals.
Autumn seems to have perpetrated a desire to cook, and read cooking books and books about food in general. I just finished Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year. It was especially good in the beginning, talking about how sometimes cooking can be a kind of meditation. She has written many books, but this one was a cathartic recap of the devastating and completely surprising (to her) close of Gourmet Magazine, while she was editor, after decades of publication. I found much of her shock and painful experiences resonated with how I've felt in this last year, starting with my cancer dx last December.
Now I'm reading chef Dan Barber's The Third Plate. He is a leader in the sustainable food movement, and bravely trying new things while continually questioning his own practices. I saw him on a Ted Talk about how he fell in love with a fish, and I fell in love with him! He's a great storyteller, and conveys a lot of very interesting information about history, social customs, farming, the restaurant biz, and people in general. And he does it without (much) judgement and guilt, or making me feel bad about what I do or eat. Instead he tells inspiring stories about problems, and how they get solved. All of this is still happening on a micro level, and it will take much to apply the solutions described on a macro level to solve the world's food problems. But in the meantime, it's very good entertainment!
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One of my very favorite college classes was "Literature for Children". It was great to read or re-read all those wonderful stories as an almost adult. Then I read them to my son and I've since re-read most of them again while trying to decide what to keep & what to move out. I will have no grandchildren so this is a truly HORRIBLE task. I'd love to pass them along to nieces & nephews, but most of the younger generation insists on having everything NEW!!! No avocado green fridges wanted, or books that have notes from other generations. Sigh.
I've spend some time recently re-reading Robert Frost poetry. After my New England trip, I needed to refresh my mind about mending stone walls, and snowy woods, and which road I took & why.
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been looking at the rector of justin on amazon books preview. the author wrote a whole lot of novels. if our counties library system has some-all of them I think I;ve found a new fave author
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Minus- I feel you on the sadness of not being able to pass the books on. The nieces and nephews might change their minds later? I actually prefer to hold a book in my hands that I know has been on someone else's. I like the little notes in the margins. I often speculate on the "life" an old book has led. Oh well.
And Frost is rich. And healing, I think. I might have to dig some of him out. Thanks for the reminder. There is always a reason for the road traveled. Sometimes it's good to be reminded.
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My Book Club just read Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native. Yikes! Was that ever hard to get through. Pages and pages of description with no action. The 'Native' doesn't even return until many chapters in. I finally had to read the Sparks synopsis before I could wade back in and finish it. (Everyone, including two high school English teachers, had a tough time with it....except the lady who picked it, she had read it years ago and still liked it.....I need to go read something light and mindless next!).
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Just read Elizabeth George's new Lynley novel and the latest Jack Reacher. Page-turners, both of them.
Minustwo: Is there a way you can donate the books to under-priviledged kids? Or does your local library collect books for resale? Our Friends of the Library association has a HUGE used book sale twice a year which generates a ton of money for the library system here. Could be an option for you. Many kids out there would appreciate a used book to read, when they have none. Sad that no one in the family wants them.
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yes Glennie, I do donate books to the local library for their sales. And I've given some children's books to a family in the neighborhood who is struggling w/4 kids. My problem is I don't want to get rid of the children's books. I guess my son would accuse me of liking him better when he was little. I like him fine at 46, but his childhood was such fun. Even though they're not having children I keep thinking he or my DIL will want to revisit these treasured books one day. Probably not. I'm just too sentimental.
Looking forward to the new Lynley & Reacher novels.
Ruth - I've read Tess & Jude & Far From the Madding Crowd & the Mayor of Casterbridge, but don't think I've tackled the Native - even tho Wiki says it became one of his most popular novels. Philip Larkin, the poet, said about Hardy's work: What is the intensely maturing experience of which Hardy's modern man is most sensible? In my view it is suffering, or sadness, and extended consideration of the centrality of suffering in Hardy's work...
Mindlessly reading a 2011 JA Jance novel Fatal Error. It 's one of the Ali Reynolds' stories.
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ARGH! I was the one suffering reading it!!!! Most of the suffering in this book was caused by the people themselves, because they did not communicate with each other. I wanted to knock the whole lot of them upside the head!!!!!
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