Book Lovers Club
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The Forgotten Garden is high on my TBR (to be read) list! And I hear A Summons to Memphis is outstanding. Better add that one to my Kindle!
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My Book Club friends who hav e-readers just told me they can't get Summons on their Nooks and Kindles. ??? I guess they will have to go out and buy 'real' books. ( I, being old fashioned & still liking an actual book in my hand, am being rather amused by that.)
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ruthbru I felt that way myself before I got my Kindle, and now, my Kindle is my book no matter I am reading. It's much lighter to hold when you are reading War and Peace in bed!! And yes, all book are not available on e-readers. It's at the discretion of either the author or the publisher.0
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Just finished The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalain. Wow! What a book. At the end, it has you wondering what is real and what is not. Basically, it's about a young social worker who becomes obsessed with the photo collection of one of her now deceased homeless clients.
I also read Sarah's Key a couple of weeks ago-I've seen that recommended by a few people on here. Sad.
I love books! I have such a hard time deciding what I want to read next. I want to read them all!
Mary
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Mary- I LOVED The Double Bind. I finished it and almost felt like I needed to start reading it again immediately. It is definitely in my top 5 favorites!! I also really liked Sarah's Key. Someone else mentioned it earlier another great read The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafon, his other book Angels Game was great too.0
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I'm currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. I'm pretty sure I read it when it first came out in 2002, but I saw a copy at Goodwill and couldn't resist. It's about a prostitute in Victorian England.
Goodwill is one of my favorite sources for books. There's one near me that gets its donations from a fairly wealthy neighborhood, so they have lots of current books.
Laurie08-I had to go back and reread lots of parts of The Double Bind just to figure out what was what. Have you read Transister Radio? It's by the same author. It's about a woman who falls in love with a man just as he is making the decision to have sex change surgery. Really makes you think about what love really is.
Mary
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I read the Crimson Petal too. Very fasinating writing style. One review I read said it was 'Dickens with the sex thrown in'. Made me very glad not to live in Victorian times!!!
Wenweb, I imagine I will be eventually dragged kicking and screaming into the Kindle age and then like it (as is my reaction to most things involving technologoy). A friend who loves hers says she still finds out how many pages a book has before starting it because she has a hard time gauging how long a book is when she e-reads (with big fonts
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Mary- I've also read the Crimson Petal and The White, it took a bit to get into it, and I won't say a word about the ending. Let us know when your done though! I have read most of Bohjalains books, I love his writing, I think there only is one Ihave missed from his earlier years, which now that I mention it, I should get on that!
Ruthbru- Ahh the kindle question. I will soon let you know what I think. I am very skeptical about it but my husband just got one for me for Valentines Day. But I have a few library books to get through before I can try it out. I like having the book in my hand as well. Although after reading Ken Folletts new book of 985 pages, my hands were starting to ache. However I am kind of cheap and hate to give up my free books from the library. His argument is that I often have to wait two weeks for the inter library loans to come in. Mine was that I planned ahead and it was free. So in about a month (lol I said I planned ahead!) I'll try the kindle out:)
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I think I've just found my home thread here on BC.org.
Mary
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Books and book lovers are fun!!!!!!
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There are some great things about having a Kindle. There is no planning ahead to make sure that you have your next book lined up and in the house {other than which book you will read}, you can get a Kindle book 24/7. Also, you can get a sample of a book (it's usually the first chapter or so depending how long the chapters are), and my favorite thing is the built-in dictionary. I'm usually too lazy to get the dictionary and take the time to look up a word while reading, but it's so easy with the Kindle. Now, when reading other things, I want what I call my "easy button"!! That said, it can get expensive reading on the Kindle if you usually get books from the library-which I still do from time to time. Then, I don't feel guilty if I choose not to finish it.
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I'm reading two books right now; have three more thick ones stacked up and just ordered Mark Twain and Cleopatra......I have books lined up for about a year!!!!!!
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I really liked Sara's Key and also read one called Gone for Good that was one that kept me reading whenever I got a chance. Know I have mentioned it before, but Cutting for Stone was also an excellent book in my opinion. And the one about the pit bull, One Good Dog was good also. Now I have just started one called Hannah's Dream which I only bought because it was cheap and honestly have not read enough to know if I like it or not. Maybe I need to read about Mark Twain since I have discovered I really like his quotes.
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The New York Times has given Jeff Greenfield's new book a very good review.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/books/01book.html?ref=books
I read his previous fiction book, written back in 1995, The People's Choice...about a contested Presidential Election....hmmmm....that sounds familiar...Didn't that happen 5 years after he wrote the book??!!
This new book, Then Everything Changed, is filled with historical "what if's." Sounds so provocative and enlightening.
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That sounds very good!
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I just finished Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry, the same author as A Fine Balance. I really liked the book, I think I may have even liked it more than A Fine Balance. All about family obligations and I think what is forbidden. Now I am going to start Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, I think I got the suggestion from this thread? If not the librarian is slipping me random books which she is known to do!0
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Hannah's Dream turned out to be a good book....lots of quirky characters and I am always a sap for stories with an animal. This weekend I am supposed to get The Help from my friend's daughter.
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Laurie08 When do you have time for all of the reading you do??
The Help was a great book.
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I agree The Help was fantastic, one of my all time favorites. I'll put Hannah's Dream on my list, thank you!
wenweb- Where do I find time? I am a stay at home Mom who is blessed with an afternoon two hour nap time, it's heaven, I lay next to the fire and read in the beautiful silence in my house. (While the cracker crumbs lay around me and the laundry is screaming.) I also am used to not sleeping much at night, I have a 1 and 3 year old, I read for about 2 hours every night before I go to bed. One hour by the fire, another in the bed. For me reading gives me so much peace, it's not my life, it's quiet and creates no noise. Since I was a little girl my Mom and I had a rule, a book a week. Now that my books have gotten longer I ok with it taking two weeks. But I enjoy turning the tv off and moving into the other world of the pages. If it;s not a good book I fall asleep though
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Laurie, I also prefer books to tv. Hannah's Dream was an easy read and I really liked it, but it's not a great book....a great book at least in my opinion was Cutting for Stone...read that one. I just got an email today saying that tomorrow at Borders they are starting 50% off. Are all of them closing?
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Not all Borders are closing, just some; those that are closing are in receivership?, I think, so their stock must be sold to pay Borders' debts, as ordered by bankruptcy court. Good deals to be had.
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Now here's one advantage of the Kindle...sometimes the classics are FREE! I'm in the middle of "Custom of the Country" by Edit Wharton. The main character is Undine Spragg...an absolutely despicable social climber in New York in the early 20th century.
Patty
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A few interesting Edith Wharton facts: in 1921 she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her book 'The Age Of Innocence', which also deals with New York Society of the time. Also, her maiden name was Jones and the phrase 'keeping up with the Jones' refers to HER family!
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and I just finished 'Summons'; very thought-provoking and I think it will make a good discussion.
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I am almost finished HANDLE WITH CARE by Jodi Picoult.She is a good writer with an interesting style but often her book themes seem depressing.I think alot of us Cancer survivors do not need anything depressing added to our lives.Ruth I have my eye on the Cleopatra book as well.Also will be picking up Fall of the Giants by Follet.
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I'm almost finished with Fall of the Giants and as I love Follet's books this one is great! Also reading the latest in Elizabeth's George's murder mysteries - love this whole series.
I'm so interested in your discussion of the Kindle or not. I almost bought one for my own Christmas present but then my sisters said they both started having problems with theirs. And both had the same problem of them not turning off and losing all the battery power then as they both keep several books going at a time like I do it lost all their places in the books! Anyone else have this problem?
Anyway, made me think I should wait. Would love to try an ipad but too expensive for me right now. My old book club that I can't ever make the meetings anymore read Cleopatra - from what I could tell from their notes many were disappointed in it.
I'm still on the library list for The Help - thinking I need just to go buy it. Love all these suggestions - great thread !!!
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I had that problem with my Kindle till I changed the type of cover that I used. I don't know if your sisters use covers, but the kind that clip into the side of the Kindle have some sort of effect on the battery. Once I ditched that cover and got one that the Kindle just slips into, held my elastic at the corners, I've had no problems. I had to do a lot of research to figure this out. But I hear that Kindle's customer servie is fabulous, and they'll send you a new Kindle if you have problems.
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I'm wondering if anyone else uses an e-reader for library downloads... input, please? I'm still not sold on e-readers, although I'm very tempted. But I don't need something that increases my consumerism much so I really want to be able to use my library with an e-reader (I love libraries anyway).
My gripe with Kindle is that all our local libraries have many of their e-books available as ePub files, which Kindle doesn't support. I know Amazon is in the business to sell books and all that, so I guess they want to minimize library use, but other e-readers do support ePub files. Unless Kindle changes that (and it seems unlikely from all I've read), I won't buy a Kindle.
I like the B&N e-reader (Nook) except for the glare factor. They do support the ePub files. But, again, the glare factor is enough to keep me away. I read outside some times and don't want the frustration.
Any book that is in the public domain (and how that happens varies with when the book was written, the copyright laws, etc.) are free, so that part isn't exclusive to Kindle. Many of the older classics are in the public domain -- check out things like Project Gutenberg for a list -- but think Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Dumas, Mark Twain, HG Wells, etc. Great fun! The free books (and the library part) are the main thing that attracts me to an e-reader. When I find one that fits what I want, I'll probably jump on it.
Anyone using anything other than a Kindle and downloading library books? Things you like/don't like about your e-reader?
I know I can download the free books to my laptop, but reading from my laptop just doesn't appeal.
mum, I agree about the Jodi Picoult books, I can only take one every so often because although they are usually well-written and interesting, they can be sad. I don't need a lot of that from my entertainment, although it has its place.
Ruth, interesting stuff about Edith Wharton! I just picked up The Age of Innocence at the library last week, love having a little insight into the author.
Laurie, enjoy all that reading time... it's been a favorite pass time of mine since I learned how to read!
I haven't read anything great lately (except The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, which I heard about here) but hope my latest pile yields some winners. I picked up a few recently that were so bad that I couldn't get past the first chapter.
That's what I get for not sitting down in the library and doing some advance reading -- and for forgetting my list from this thread! Happy reading, everyone!
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I just found this thread. I've already placed a hold on some of the suggested books through the library.
Naturegrrl, I have a Nook. DH got it for me for Christmas - he has a kindle which I got him for Christmas! I really like my Nook, I haven't noticed a glare and I took it on vacation to the Dominican republic and read on the beach and by the pool without difficulty. I just began downloading epub books from the library and although it took my DIL and a minor meltdown on my part to figure everything out at first, now that the library and adobe digital reader is set up on my computer, it's relatively easy to download my books from the library.
I love the e-reader because it's light, it remembers the page I'm on and I can change the font for my age challenged eyes! I like the nook because of the ability to download from the library. My DH likes his kindle too but he can't download from the library yet. (I hear rumor he'll be able to in the future).
Hope this helps.
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Suzette, thanks for the input -- it does help! I may have to go look at Nooks again
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