Book Lovers Club
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Thanks to everyone who recommended The Silent Corner; I just finished it & can't wait to begin The Whispering Room. I can't remember why I stopped reading Dean Koontz but I absolutely love Jane Hawk. This thread has become my happy place!
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just put a library reserve on 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less, A Novel by Greer. Anyone read it yet
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Finished “Roots” and now on to “Queen” by Alex Haley
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yay! Mommy! Congrats! And good luck! Keep us posted
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voraciousreader, I’ve read Less and liked it. I was prepared to dislike it for the first chunk, but then it turned away from the predictable route I thought it was taking and I liked it in the end.
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thanks for your insight. i rarely read novels, so I hope I could make it through that first chunk. It’s not a long book and I have to do s9me flying this week, so I migh take it along with me and see how it goes...
Just got the Comey book too....
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VR - the review in the Washington Post is ebullient. OK - 10 cent word - but it talks about how we start out reading & laughing with Dr. Seuss but by high school, novels must be doom & gloom, or at least very serious stuff. Supposedly laugh out loud funny. I'm going to put it on my list but I'll look forward to your review since I know you don't usually read novels.
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minus....ok! Because of you and only YOU...I will persevere...and keep you in mind while I am reading it....
...and a special shout out to Henrietta0 -
Second in library queue for Comey book. Meanwhile, reading an anthology from 2014 called Rogues, with cross-genre stories about scoundrels and scalawags from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Pat Rothfuss, and Gillian Flynn.
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Reading a collection of short mystery stories by women writers. There is a great introduction by Sara Paretsky discussing when women could only write w/o using a 'nom de plume' to get published - George Sand, George Eliot, Acton, Currer & Ellis Bell (the Brontes). She continues about women writing - like Agatha Christie who wrestled artistic control from her publishers in the 20s, but according to Christie's own words, regarded herself as a wife first and a writer second. And moving along to the women who created primarily male heros - Sayers, Tey, etc. And finally, FINALLY, Paretsky, Grafton, Muller, Cross, Kellerman, Maron, etc. - who have created fully realized female protagonists. One tidbit I loved - "In 1878 the U.S. Supreme Court barred women lawyers because of their 'natural timidity & delicacy'." I think these 21 stories will be a lot of fun.
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What's the title of the book, Minus? It sounds fasinating.
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Ruth - it's something I picked up at the used bookstore - A Woman's Eye, introduced & edited by Sara Paretsky and published in 1991. "featuring the finest female sleuths by the best women crime writers ever..." I've only read the first story but really enjoyed it. "Lucky Dip" was by an author I had never heard of - Lisa Cody - about a homeless girl making it on her own.
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Fun read: Flannie Flagg's "Can't wait to get to Heaven"
Good murder mystery: Jane Harper's "The Dry"
Good historical Novel: Lisa See's "The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane"
Recommend all 3.
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I thought this was sweet:
Former President George H.W. Bush paid tribute to his late wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, in a very simple way at her private funeral in Houston on Saturday: he wore socks with books on them, to honor her commitment to family literacy.
Jim McGrath, the spokesperson for the former president's post-White House years, tweeted out a picture of the socks Saturday. The funeral service, which hundreds attended, paid tribute to her life, and their 73-year-marriage. She died at the age of 92 on Tuesday.
Jim McGrath✔@jgm41
To honor his wife of 73 years and her commitment to family literacy, for which she raised over $110 million over the course of over 30 years, @GeorgeHWBush will be wearing a pair of socks festooned with books at today's funeral service for former First Lady Barbara Bush.The late former first lady dedicated many years of her life to promoting literacy, which she saw as a gateway to opportunities and a future. During her husband's time as vice president and later as president, she honed in on literacy as her signature cause, particularly focusing on awareness for early childhood education and literacy for parents. That belief that every man, woman and child should be able to improve their lives through literacy led to the founding of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy in March of 1989. Her daughter Dorothy "Doro" Bush Koch, is the foundation's honorary chair.
"The American dream is about equal opportunity for everyone who works hard. If we don't give everyone the ability to simply read and write, then we aren't giving everyone an equal chance to succeed," the former first lady once said.
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ruth! Damn! I was just about to post the picture of President Bush's socks honoring his beloved Barbara!
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Here's another good read.
Min Jin Lee's "Pachinko". Fiction, Follows 4 generations of Korean family, starting around 1900.
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as a literacy volunteer, I feel honored to help realize her dream. Not only do I enjoy teaching others to read, I love unleashing their love of reading.
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sandi....i put that book in my best friends' hands, who is also oe of my walking companions and she related the story to me. She loved reading the book and I enjoyed, while on our walks, listening to her synopsis of the story....
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We've been travelling a lot lately so I've had lots of time to read (DH is an early-to-bed kind of guy while I'm more of a night owl.) I just finished Katy Tur's Unbelievable (about the Trump presidential campaign). Hard to believe it really happened ... Balanced that with the pleasure of reading The Whispering Room; I'm already on the reserve list for The Crooked Staircase & can't wait to start it! TaRenee, I loved Serafina and the Black Cloak & I'm now extra enthused about returning to the Biltmore! Keep the recommendations coming, book lovers!
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Have you been watching about the new upcoming PBS special?
http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/
I need to spend more time reviewing the 100 best books. I've read the vast majority, but will never read some (like "the Shack). Still there are a number of titles I will look up.
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If it hasn't been suggested yet, A man called Ove is a wonderful, funny book.
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JLK, thx for the heads-up on The Crooked Staircase, the new Jane Hawk. It comes out in May!
Halfway through A Higher Loyalty. Well-written and interesting but not as "sensational" as the media coverage would have one believe. To me, that is a plus. Comey is a reader and mentioned several books I've added to my TBR list.
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Ivan Doig's Whistling Season and Work Song - take place in Montana, the first, before WWI and the second afterwards. The first is about a farming family on the plains, a dad and three sons grieving over the recent death of the mother. The dad finds a housekeeper via a newspaper ad and she and her brother come by train and things begin to change. Much of the story is about their day to day life, the one room school house the boys attend and about their fellow students. The second follows one of the characters who ends up in Butte and gets involve with the copper miners' union. Wonderful characters. Loved these books.
Just finished The Beginning of Everything by Andrea Buchanan. It traces her two year ordeal while she struggles with parenting two children and getting divorced while searching for a diagnosis, then treatment and recovery from a cerebral spinal fluid leak. Seriously difficult to put down. Though not about breast cancer, she deals with extreme chronic headaches, brain fog and that sense of detachment from self that seems to come with prolonged illness. She is also a conservatory trained pianist and this comes into "play" as well.
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Jelson, Everything by Ivan Doig is good. My husband's grandparents homesteaded in that area so it is especially meaningful to us. I thought I had read them all but recently found The Last Bus to Wisdom which is a really fun story, published in 2015.
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Julia-Jazz - I am just glad that I took a car trip to Wyoming last summer, otherwise I wouldn't have any understanding of the immense space and emptiness. Didn't get to Montana, but at least I had a way to imagine the landscape!
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I am currently reading "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montgomery. Can't believe it took me this long to get to it, though I've had it on my kindle forever. Obviously, I am a bit biased (as octogirl) but seriously, this is one of the best pieces of non-fiction writing about animals I've ever read, with both a scientific and a poetic bent. It is wonderful, thought provoking and very, very engaging (just like its namesakes). If you love animals, and especially if you love the oceans and my friends the octopuses, read it!
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Octo, I have learned something new. I always thought your name was short for October!
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I just picked up The Crooked Staircase from the library & I can't wait to start it! What will Jane Hawk face next?
Vampeyes, A Man Called Ove was an incredibly sweet book, wasn't it? It was not at all what I expected but it's one I've recommended many times.
And TaRenee, I enjoyed all the Serafina books & look forward to meeting her again in the Winnie series.
Now a question for all you readers - I'd love to find a series of books for my 10 yo granddaughter that would encourage her to read this summer. Any suggestions?
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re-reading (from years ago) a two-part novel by Connie Willis called Blackout /All Clear that takes place during WW2 in England. And finally watched ”Dunkirk” a couple days ago. Willis writes with such good detail that you feel like you’re there; Dunkirk added graphicvisuals. I can’t even imagine what those people lived through during the war
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Ruth, I thought the ocean in my profile pic was a clue, but maybe I should be more obvious....:-)
My ten year old granddaughter loves the Oz books (as did I!) , and for something a little more contemporary, the Secret Series...
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