Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Minus- I've read the same Hardy as you, but not for years. He is difficult, but I found him historically enlightening. However, I trust Ruth enough and have too many unopened books on my night table to fall in this trap, haha
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I trust Ruth too and I'll take a pass on Native. And not likely to re-read any Hardy any time soon.
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on the other hand I never tire of Henry James. He's the only one I can return to for multiple readings. I always get something new
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OK Katy. I'll put James back on my list. I haven't read him since college.
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I think most people think A Portrait Of A Lady and The Turn Of The Screw when they think James. He wrote about 35 novels though (and lots of short stories) and I find some of his lesser known works very aporochable in a sort of Edith Wharton/Balzac way. If you haven't read these, here'rs a short list of some I like best:
The Ambassadors
The Golden Bowl
The Wings Of The Dove
Washington Square
The American
The Bostonians
He writes with seemingly equal ease of Eastern Seaboard wealth and times as of expatriates, the English in Italy, and other topics, blending social, romantic, and historical elements nicely. As you can tell, I'm a big fan.
Also, some ofthe above have been very successfully transferred to the big screen, but as small tasteful films.
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Thanks Katy.
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Someone recommended A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman,,, and I loved it! It was such a sweet story. Completely different than my usual murder mystery reads. He has a new book out called My Grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry,, and I just finished it. It is wonderful. I highly recommend both of these books.
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Had a lovely Thanksgiving reading one of Philip Craig's Martha's Vineyard mysteries. This one was a 1991 book, Death in Vineyard Waters. I've never been there but I like one review of the series that says "Craig vividly portrays the island mystique". The hero, JW Jackson, is a 30ish ex-Boston cop who left due to line of duty disablities & now fishes & cooks & gets involved in mysteries. I originally came upon Craig after I discovered William Tapply's lawyer/detective Brady Coyne, set in Boston. Regretfully Tapply died in 2009, but the two authors were friends & they actually collaborated on 3 books that featured both protagonists.
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That is very cool that they collaborated - I like it when characters have lives of their own.0
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Good one Ruth.
Finished A.J. Byatt's book of short stories Sugar. Some I really liked & some I skipped. Now reading Faulkner's Sanctuary.
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VR - time for some non fiction book reports. I miss hearing what you & your Mother & your DH are reading. I did buy Skyfaring:A Journey with a Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker for my son for Christmas. Lots of interesting actual flying experiences but also philosophy. "A poetic & nuanced exploration of the human experience of flight..."
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Racing through Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War by Susan Southard. Hard to put down. What those people went thru,,,
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minus....DH is reading David Baldacci's new book, The Guilty.
DM is catching up on her newspapers and Vanity Fair magazines. That said, last week my library had a discussion about the novel Florence Gordon, a book, both my mom and I enjoyed reading months ago. Mom's memory continues to be foggy, but she perked up when I mentioned the book discussion to her! Great literature it is not! BUT, it tells a great story. The author wanted to have a character who was less than loveable and doesn't change. Most of the discussion readers enjoyed the book, but couldn't stand Florence. So I guess the author did a great job in forming the character. However, I felt more charitable towards the character because I saw shared qualities in myself AND my mother. Both mom and I agreed, as she said, "most definitely" that there are lots of people like Florence and that is OK! Perhaps you or some of our other book lovers would like to read the book and chime in.... On a very coincidental note, our extended family celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday in my home. My brother remarked that it didn't matter to him what day we celebrated Thanksgiving. What mattered to him was that we were all together celebrating being together. My brother then said that he could never understand how some families were more rigid and filled with expectations. THAT was exactly what Florence Gordon was about! She was rewriting her own rules! When I was at the book discussion, I had said exactly the same thing as my brother! I mentioned that Thanksgiving day wasn't a big deal in my family while growing up! My maternal family was Canadian and they celebrated Thanksgiving in October. Most Thanksgiving Days, mom worked. She was a director of nursing at the local city hospital. If we wanted to celebrate, we either had dinner in the hospital cafeteria, or, we went to one of our dad's relatives' homes. Was Florence or my mom or for that matter, me, a bad person because we don't stand on ceremony? Oh....I forgot to tell you.....the book opens with Florence leaving a surprise birthday party that her family and friends planned for her....Can't get worse than that! But the book group just couldn't get past that. I just didn't find that so awful of her! Oh well......back to non fiction!
The flying book looks wonderful! The younger DS is an aerospace engineer, so I get to hear stories about the wonders of flight. What I've discovered about the people who call the sky their second home, is that they look at earth so differently. Whether it be their fascination with the sky or the abilities of man, they certainly are made of a special cloth. That said, when I fly now, I have more confidence in the aircraft and never take for granted the experience of being able to be among the clouds!
On that note,I just started reading Failure, Why Science is So Successful. I read the previous book, Ignorance, What Drives Science. The author, Dr. Stuart Firestein is a professor at Columbia and his classes are always packed! He has done a TED talk too. I think he is brilliant!
I'm looking at two oversized books as well. One, New York The View From Above and two, Layton's Legacy. Recently, The Frick Museum showed Layton's masterpiece, Flaming June. It isn't often when a painting grabs my attention. I guess living in New York, I get to see lots of masterpieces and after a while, the masterpieces become a blur. But Flaming June.....OMG! What a painting. No picture can ever do it justice. Layton! What an artist!!!!!
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Great article! Would love to see it in person. Glad you got to,VR, thanks!
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Voracious Reader, just finished Baldacci's latest. When your husband is through, ask him what he thought and whether he saw the ending coming.. But don't say anything while he's still reading...
Also finished John Grisham's, and didn't like it..
Finished the latest Preston & Child and was w---a--y out there.
An English major, I loved Thomas Hardy and Henry James. Need to go back and read for pleasure..
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What is Visible - a novel by Kimberly Elkins based on the life of Laura Bridgeman (1829-1889), the first deaf and blind person to learn language and who blazed the trail for Helen Keller. A fever at age 2 deprived her of sight, hearing, taste and smell. She was left only with the sense of touch. At the age of 7 she was taken to the Perkins Institute in Boston -where she lived for the remainder of her life. She communicated by signing a hand alphabet into her "listener's" palm. Amazing that an individual celebrated around the world for her intellect, in whose image dolls were created, and to whom notables such as Charles Dickens and US Presidents and their families paid their respects along with hundreds of others has been so very much forgotten. Not only do you learn about Laura - you learn about many notables of the time- famous abolitionists who were in the social circle of Samuel Gridley Howe, director of Perkins and his wife (suffragist, poet and philosopher in her own right) Julia Ward Howe, soclal mores, the competition among Baptists, Congregationalists and Unitarians for the souls of Bostonians and Sandwich Islanders. Well written and riveting!!
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oy vey! Wrong Leighton! I'm reading Layton's Legacy! The other Leighton painted Flaming June! I am way too busy! But that painting, Flaming June is just sooo amazing! When you see it in person, the water glistens and looks like it is moving. Her transparent orange gown reminds me of a winter sun setting a brilliant orange over the landscape....but what really is remarkable is how you can see the detail of her toes as the gown flows over them. No doubt that Vermeer is a master of light,but Leighton? So is he!!!!
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wave...I will report back to you once he finishes reading the book!
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Oooooh . . . just found this excellent thread
I just finished reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and loved it. It's about childhood trauma and how it causes us to lead our lives. Psychologically interesting. Much of the story takes place in NYC.
I'm now reading H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald about how a woman handles her grief through learning about the handling of a goshawk. Beautifully written. Non-fiction.
Thanks to everyone for listing their favourite reads
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Welcome, lifelover!
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Another welcome to lifelover. It's always great to hear what everyone is reading. I need to put down the books & catch up with the magazines again.
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Minus-
How about donating the books to a children's hospital? It is so nice to be able to check-out books for the patients-of all ages.
Am still lurking.
susan
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Susan - good thought. My gyn is associated with Texas Children's Hospital.
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okay....to add to my confusion, Layton loved Leighton's art work and purchased At the Fountain. Now I'm going to head to Milwaukee to see At The Fountain, so I can compare it with Flaming June.
I read Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From. It is filled with interesting essays about the global effect on novel writing. Actually, it is about a lot more ideas, some simple and some very complicated. One of the essays concerns translating books into English as well as translating English novels into other languages. Another essay concerns the influence that English novels have on Europeans. Why Europeans read English novels seems to be different from why Americans read American novels. Hmmmmm....
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Hi Voracious,
Is that the same Tim Parks that wrote Teach Us To Sit Still? An excellent book. One that I think I could read once a month to remind me to calm myself.
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lifelover....yep! Looks like I'm going to have to read that book too! Thanks for calling that book to my attention!
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The Paris Review archives are now on line and FREE. Check out their author interviews..... http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews Oh VR?! Geoff Dyer is there.
Also I just finished Nina Stibbe's Man at the Helm - a story set in Britain in the 1970's when a wealthy family breaks up and the young mother - former party girl, and 3 children move to a small visit where they are shunned. The two girls, 9 and 11 set out to find a husband for their mother who spends her time writing terrible plays, drinking and pill-popping. Told from the perspective of the 9 year old - it is a brave and funny tale.
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VR- thanks for that tip! I did not know of Tim Parks. Did a little research and I think he's just my cup of tea. Treated myself and dipped into my credit at Powell's I got for the review of the Lost Raviolis of Hoboken. I ordered the book you just read, on one his Italian neighbors, and the one about the trains. Italy is very interesting to me, historically. I almost pulled the trigger on the Medici banking one but guess iI will see how Mr. Parks and I get along first.
The gift of a new favored author is no insignificant gift. Thank you!
(And to you lifelover !)
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