Book Lovers Club
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non fiction alert....also reserved....The House by the Lake by Harding.....
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Someone today lent me Still Life by Louise Penny! Funny you were mentioning it just yesterday.
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I'm new in the Book Lover's Club, but I'm excited to find you! My most recent enjoyable books were: "The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton. A wonderful WWII yarn which takes place in England, and has enough twists and turns and mystery to keep me enthralled from beginning to end. "Euphoria" by Lily King. It's a fictional story loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead, and her studies of various tribal cultures in New Guinea. It was a fascinating and beautiful book. I am reading "The Falls" right now, by Joyce Carol Oates. Reviews called it one of her best, up there with "We Were The Mulvaneys". Both are pretty old but I stumbled upon them at the library! Some of my other favorites: "The Book Thief," and a lesser known book called "Tully" by Paulina Simmons....one of my all time favorites! "1,000 White Women " and "Ahab's Wife," and "A Secret History'" by Donna Tartt, were memorable. Another beautiful book is "300 Days of Sun," by Deborah Lawrenson. All of Barbara Kingsolver, particularly" Poisonwood Bible," and I'm a big Pat Conroy fan (R.I.P.) I enjoy JoJo Moyes and Liane Moriarity for just escape reading....That's it for now, but I look forward to recommendations on this thread! Thank you!
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welcome Kaneli!
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Voarciousre: Just read reviews of book and although it looks like a series of short stories, perhaps linked, I will give it a try. I reserved audio version from library. In my search for Ari Fliakios who is the reader of The Nix I found a new site for audiobooks - .Audiobooks now
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More welcomes Kaneli. I like anything Joyce Carol Oates has written, and I've like some of the others your reading. I'll look for those i haven't tried.
Trying to catch up on magazines all week. 5 days w/o a book. I'm having withdrawal and will have to set the magazines aside this afternoon.
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Okay, I have a great recommendation for us non-fiction gals (and anyone else who finds a medical mystery intriguing). A true story called Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. Susannah was a 24 year old reporter for the New York TImes when she started exhibiting bizarre & psychotic type symptoms and behaviors. The book is the story of her descent into madness & really because of her family's persistence, her eventful diagnosis with a rare disease & her recovery. Since she has no memory of most of this time; she pieces it together using journals kept by her parents, hospital videos, records and the memories of family, friends & medical personnel. Through her story, she has undoubtedly saved many people from being incorrectly diagnosed with a mental illness (which is why she wrote this book, to help others). Very, very good!
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ruth!!!!!!! Back in the day I recommended the book! I think Charlize Theron liked the book too because she is producing a film based on the book!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_on_Fire_(film)
That said....I was in a similar situation! The DH and I ran around Manhattan looking for a loved one who went missing because their brain was on fire caused by paraneoplastic syndrome.....what.a.mess!
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It must have gone completely past me the first time around. Fascinating, scary; and showing the extreme importance of being your own advocate, or having someone willing to do so if you can't do it yourself. I also love how she has used her own awful experience to help educate others; making something really good come out of something really bad.
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What struck me about her story was her ability to do a forensic investigation of what happened. Our loved one has no idea about what happened to him. Likewise...when he was finally located...many of the police and EMTs who finally were able to get him on the gurney and off to the hospital were bewildered by what was occurring. His rapid descent was extraordinary. The scariest thing about the disorder is that if it is not quickly identified, it can cause permanent brain damage.
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I wonder how many people over the years have been locked up in mental institutions and/or been treated for mental illness when, in fact, their problems stem from a totally different disease!
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By the author of the 'Snow Child' -
https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Edge-World-Novel/dp/...=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EK1960NJB1DF4RRDSF2N
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Enjoyed Still Life by Louise Penny and will be reading more of her books in the future.
Heard the author on public radio and will be looking for Whistlestop. Here's from his website:
From Face the Nation moderator and Slate columnist John Dickerson come the stories behind the stories of the most memorable moments in American presidential campaign history.
The stakes are high. The characters full of striving and ego. Presidential campaigns are a contest for control of power in the most powerful country on earth. The battle of ideas has a clear end, with winners and losers, and along the way there are sharp turning points-primaries, debates, conventions, and scandals that squeeze candidates into emergency action, frantic grasping, and heroic gambles. As Mike Murphy the political strategist put it, "Campaigns are like war without bullets."
Whistlestop tells the human story of nervous gambits hatched in first-floor hotel rooms, failures of will before the microphone, and the cross-country crack-ups of long-planned stratagems. At the bar at the end of a campaign day, these are the stories reporters rehash for themselves and embellish for newcomers. In addition to the familiar tales, Whistlestop also remembers the forgotten stories about the bruising and reckless campaigns of the nineteenth century when the combatants believed the consequences included the fate of the republic itself. Some of the most modern-feeling elements of the American presidential campaign were born before the roads were paved and electric lights lit the convention halls-or there were convention halls at all.
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I will have to look for that one, badger. Another for the history geek is Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford by Clint Hill. Hill was a Secret Service agent. He is originally from a small town in North Dakota (my state), and was the agent who threw himself on top of Mrs. Kennedy as the motorcade sped away in Dallas after JFK was shot. He struggled with 'if only I could have done more' for many years, finally coming to peace with himself after a long struggle. He has written two other books of reflection, Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Days in November. This book is remembrances of his time with the presidents from Eisenhower through Gerald Ford. It is not an in depth analysis of the times, but talks about the character and personality of the five presidents he served.
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deep into Robin Hobb's Farseer and now Tawny Man series - the kind of books that I carry around and immerse myself in whenever I get the chance. However, I try to take breaks and read other things so- I really enjoyed The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion is about a young genetics professor, Don Tillman who is probably on the austism spectrum - he is looking for love, but has never had a second date. He develops a questionnaire to identify his perfect match but ends up coming to the assistance of a young woman who meets none of his criteria and in the process finds himself. It is a very enjoyable read and I look forward to the second installment. Then I picked up Lev Grossman's The Magicians, a coming of age story, but with magic. The protagonist is not very likeable, a young man who is never satisfied or happy - the action was interesting - eh. The most recent book before I again plunged into the world of Fitzchivalry Farseer, was The Mad Woman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell. The last Bronte heir is attending Oxford University - everyone assumes she has inherited a vast store of Bronte memorabilia, but she has not - until someone starts leaving items in her dorm room. I am not a big Bronte fan - but even I found this book very enjoyable - Samantha is a funny and sad young woman and her efforts to figure out what is going on, to grieve for her dad and to develop a relationship with her mom made for a good read.
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Jelson - you are SO good about reporting your reads. I read between 2-5 books a week and have been remiss at posting. I'll try to pull something together.
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Jelson both mom and I read the Rosie books. i understand the the author was asked to make the book humorous. having a family member on the spectrum we found the character unbelievable and we found no humor
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MinusTwo - yes, please write about the books you have read, I know you all are reading!!
VR - whether he had OCD or was a high functioning autistic - maybe that was the problem - labeling his differences as diseases. If you viewed him as someone who was extremely judgemental, rigid and set in his ways who found himself changing - instead?
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the premise of changing? Hmmmmm....no....I think it is too complicated of a disorder to exact enough introspection that would make a person have the desire to want to change. And humor? Sorry. I think the author does a disservice. Just MHO..and VRs mom's opinion too..
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jel....I see the author has a new book out and he discussed how he came up with the Rosie characters and he said that working in IT and being a professor of IT gave him enough ideas. Now I am aware that there are many self described people in IT who claim to be on the autism spectrum....but his character is too clichéd for my taste. And....while some do have tremendous social obstacles....others do not see their behavior negatively. Coming from a family of engineers with none on the spectrum...nor their colleagues...I think the books merely stretch a myth TRYING to use humor to enlighten others about the difficulties aspies might have navigating the bigger world. My family member who is an aspie and isn't among the engineers is quite satisfied with how he is. While his self esteem is high and appears happy...it is the rest of us who tear our hair out of our heads when we attempt at socializing with him.
That said...on occasions...I have had to stop myself from worrying about my fsamily member and the engineer, student friends and colleagues of my engineer son. I have yet to meet any of them who I would suspect is on the spectrum. The book and now the author's comments have really irked me because they promote an unfavorable stereotype that implies needs to be fixed. I have freckles and wouldn't wish to get rid of them nor would I know how to even if I did want to remove them. I think the same is true of most aspies. Unless they are miserable...why do they need to change? So they are potentially more marriageable?unless a person wants to marry why should they change? Let Rosie change herself! And some of the character's musings? Really! My family member is not capable of expressing similar feelings. The wildest thing about my family member is not that he lacks emotion...it is just that he cannot express those feelings in a broad way that most of us do.
Aspie John Elder Robison's newest book touches on this topic. He describes how if a person scrape's their foot...instead of one saying to them, "Dude...are you okay?" Robison' tells us that his way of expressing his FEELINGS is by telling us where we can find a bandage. He tells us that saying the latter is not indicative of having less feelings. He tells us that aspies just express their feelings differently.
So? I do not think the Rosie books do anything to expand our knowledge on what Aspies' lives are really like....nor do I think most need change...
https://www.amazon.com/Switched-Memoir-Change-Emot...=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
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Neurotribes: the legacy of autism and the future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman is a very informative read. I think the term 'neurodiversity' characterizes the reality of human as diverse in so many aspects.
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magic....Neurotribes and Andrew Solomon's Far from the Tree are totally worth reading. Along with Robison's books, one can get a far better understanding of human diversity. I am telling you....those Rosie books just hit a terrible nerve with me. I understand that there is interest in making a movie based on the book...I hope not!
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This is a great read for my book-loving friends from the Politico History Dept.
The Secret Plan to Protect America's Founding Documents During WWII
After Pearl Harbor, a fearful Library of Congress secretly stashed the crown jewels of U.S. history for safekeeping. This was the rescue plan.
By Stephen Puleo – Politico - September 25, 2016
In the early evening of December 26, 1941, Secret Service agent Harry E. Neal stood alone on the platform at Washington's Union Station and watched the train disappear into the darkness. It was 6:50 p.m. and the temperature had slipped into the 30s. For the first time in two days, he breathed a little easier.
Agent Neal and his colleagues had rested little since the attack on Pearl Harbor three weeks earlier. Fears of a German or Japanese attack on Washington had sent American officials scrambling to prevent the potential destruction of their capital city and everything located within its borders. They had collaborated with military and civilian agencies to implement new protocols and procedures to protect the president, safeguard the White House, and defend Washington. Neal had been involved in most of these discussions, but the plan that had brought him to this freezing train platform was something altogether different and slightly mysterious. Orchestrated by the Library of Congress, the logistics of the plan had been solidified only the afternoon before, on Christmas Day. While Washington was consumed with the appearance of English Prime Minister Winston Churchill before Congress, Neal had begun his work day on the 26th with a confidential meeting at the Library of Congress with the librarian, Archibald MacLeish, and his assistant librarian, Verner W. Clapp. Up until now, Neal had been told only that he would be in charge of transferring "priceless historical documents" to a secure, bombproof facility far inland. Now, on the day of departure, he asked MacLeish exactly what documents they were.
After the meeting, with the magnitude of his job clear in his mind, Neal double-checked everything. He drove three different routes between the Library of Congress and Union Station to determine the safest way for the armored truck. He made sure that armed agents would accompany the baggage cart from the station's storage room to the train. And he confirmed that armed agents would meet the train on its arrival to transfer the cargo to its final secure destination.
After blocking the public's access to this track, Neal had insisted on accompanying the four plain-wrapped cases onto the train, supervising their placement into Compartment B in Car A-1, and reviewing the upcoming elements of the plan with his agents and with Clapp, who would travel with the packages. Somehow, all this had proceeded without apparently attracting the attention of the uneasy throngs of travelers that flooded the rest of Union Station on this day after America's "Pearl Harbor Christmas." If it had been up to him, he would have accompanied the documents on their overnight rail journey, but his Secret Service chief ordered him to remain in Washington should other crises arise.
With the train en route, Harry Neal left Union Station and returned to his office in the Treasury Building to provide a telephone update to MacLeish. Neal spotted the envelope that had been delivered earlier by messenger, and, before he called MacLeish, he read the brief, one-page memo from Clapp, dated December 26, 1941, on Library of Congress letterhead. "The following is an itemization of the materials," the memo began. Even knowing what was in the containers, the itemized list still took his breath away. Archibald MacLeish had described them as "the documentary history of freedom in our world." In the dry language of a shipping manifest they were described this way:
• Case 1: Gutenberg Bible (St. Blasius– St. Paul copy), 3 volumes
• Case 2: Articles of Confederation (original engrossed and signed copy), 1 roll
• Case 3: Magna Carta (Lincoln Cathedral copy), one parchment leaf in frame; Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (original, autographed copy, 1 volume); Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (first and second autographed drafts, 1 volume)
• Case 4: Constitution of the United States (original, engrossed and signed copy, five leaves); Declaration of Independence (original, engrossed and signed copy, 1 leaf)
For obvious reasons, MacLeish had worried about the contents of the last container most of all. But the Library of Congress had designated all of the documents as "utterly irreplaceable." The original copy of Britain's sacred Magna Carta (from 1215), was on loan to the Library of Congress after its exhibition at the 1939 New York World's Fair. When war broke out in Europe, the British asked the U.S. to hold onto it for safekeeping. To maintain the secrecy of his mission, MacLeish had informed the British ambassador on the morning of December 26 only that the Library of Congress was moving the Magna Carta out of Washington "to a place of greater security in another part of the country."
That place, Agent Neal knew, was Fort Knox, the United States' recently constructed gold bullion depository, more than 600 miles away in Louisville, Kentucky, far from the coast and virtually impervious to bombing attacks.
It was the beginning of the largest single relocation of priceless documents, books, and artifacts in American history.
Keep reading at: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/world-war-two-protect-national-archives-214257
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Interesting!
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http://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2016/09/library-cake.html check out this library cake!!
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Jel: Now those are some books good enough to eat.
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trying to space out reading the books in the Robin Hobb Tawny Man series - I find I get too immersed!!! so I checked out of the library, Vaseem Khan's The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra a police inspector retires and on the same day a baby elephant is delivered to his apartment complex - a gift from a quirky elderly uncle. Inspector Chopra can't let go of the case of a drowned young man that came to his attention his last day at work, he doesn't believe the death was accidental and he continues to investigate because he believes in justice and investigation is just what he does. There are wonderful sensory descriptions of modern Mumbai, wrongs are righted, justice prevails as much as is possible. Chopra's wife Poppy who is an engaging character herself, also has some chapters and her perspective on a woman's role is modern India is very interesting. It reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's Number 1 Lady Detective Agency books. There is a second book The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown.
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A friend at work lent me Enrique's Journey: The story of a boy's dangerous odyssey to reunite with his mother. Her family was starving so a mom left her four children in Honduras to come to the US to find work. Eleven yrs later, one of them traveled north to find her. It was described to me as a hard read but a good one.
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