Book Lovers Club
Comments
-
Yes, I read Dreamland. I stay confused about why these opioids are prescribed so heavily. I was given a prescription when my port was installed. I never used any. Today my husband filled a prescription for hydrocodone due to a toothache. He even told the endodontist we already had painkillers. Just having these drugs makes me nervous! I totally blame the drug industry.
0 -
JCS, the reason for over prescribed opioids is greed, pure and simple. Doctors are wooed to push the drugs by big pharma and they both benefit financially. It’s tragic. We cautioned our son, in his 20s, about taking pain medicine when he got his wisdom teeth out and he thought we were making much ado about nothing. “You don’t understand,” we said, “that’s exactly how so much addiction starts.”
0 -
geoff dyer’s latest book Broadsword Calling Danny Boy is out!! OMG! OMG! My chest hurts from laughing so hard.
IMHO..... The. Best. Writer.
0 -
Above column about the latest Lee Child book AND some other Jack Reacher stories. I loved reading the comments!
DH just reminded me again (as does the above column), of Reacher’s penchant to bring just one set of clothes....
So now DH tells VR, “And do you know what he does with them?”
VR, “He throws them out?”
DH, “No. At night he puts them between the mattress and box spring so they will be pressed in the morning.”
VR, “Oh, that makes a lot of sense.”
VR just handed DH Geoff Dyer’s new book...
0 -
Just finished reading The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin. Very well written family saga. Many flashbacks, but they add to the breadth of the story. I would highly recommend if you like character driven, word music type novels.
Currently reading Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken. A bit strange, but another character rich, historical novel.
Looking for a good nonfiction next.
0 -
https://www.amazon.com/March-1917-Brink-War-Revolution/dp/0393292088
Great non fiction book!
Another one....
And see this documentary!
0 -
Thanks! I will check into the books. They look very interesting. I missed the movie when it was here. A friend saw it and saidit was great.
0 -
VR - thanks for the Lee Child article. I've passed along to several friends. Liked the comment that you have to write a million words before you're any good.
I'll check the others tomorrow.
I'm re-reading Carol Shields "Unless". Trying to decide which "old" books need to leave my shelves.
0 -
Finished the glass castle by Jeannette Walls. Excellent book (non-fiction) about growing up poor, being homeless, rising above it all. She is an excellent writer, I think she wrote some fiction which I am going to look for. Not sure what is up next for me, probably fiction. But this is the best book I have read in a long while.
0 -
pat, I read the glass castle and loved it as well. It was made into a movie that was pretty good, too.
0 -
from the notes at the end of Geoff Dyer’s “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy”
“....It doesn’t matter what you read when you’re twelve or thirteen; getting into the habit of reading anything—of losing oneself in a book—-is what’s important. There’s actually no need to reread MacLean because he and Where Eagles Dare are apart of who I am. This book, therefore, is a chapter from an autobiography.”
I often think that who I am is shaped by the books I have read, only seconded by those people whom I love and have loved me. I agree wholeheartedly with Dyer. If I ever had to write my life story, the chapters would be filled with the names of those people and the titles of books...with a dash of films and paintings too. I guess that’s also why I love reading Dyer’s books. He mentions books, films and paintings I have enjoyed. And his books sometimes takes me places where I will never visit, (e.g. where Gauguin painted his primitive works or, where in Dyer’s case, NOT be able to see the Northern Lights, but not for lack of trying. Or Sommes.)
I use to wonder what was sadder....the person who doesn’t know how to read or the person who does know how to read but doesn’t. Being a literacy volunteer and a grandmother, I now know the answer. The latter. Because, the person who doesn’t know how to read knows they don’t and usually WANTS TO. And that isn’t sad at all because once they want to, with the right help, most can! And then, like Dyer said, once you lose yourself in reading, that is what is important and if I might add, it will then nourish the soul.....
0 -
VR, this is beautifully written! It’s how I feel about books and reading as well. As Hermione Granger says in one of the Harry Potter books, “when in doubt, go to the library.” The key to encouraging kids to be lifelong readers is to let them read what they’re interested in. Eventually, they WILL outgrow the Babysitters Club, comic books and the Hardy Boys. I’m about to start reading a Jodi Picoult book called (I think) “Small Things” for my book group.
0 -
I'm intentionally shaped by the books I've read. From a young age, I loved to read. But in my early 20's, I had an epiphany realizing I could read self-help books, apply some of the tips and suggestions to my own situations and my life could actually improve! It t was the dawning of a new day for me. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, when I reached adulthood, I often felt like I'd missed out on learning huge chunks of valuable knowledge. Kind of like that feeling, “I wasn't at school the day they taught that!"
One of the earliest books I remember reading along those lines of self discovery in the 1980's was Suzanne Sommers' “Keeping Secrets" about being an adult child of an alcoholic. It wasn't like I was a Three's Company fan, but I knew her stardom and was shocked to read of how someone of such fame and beauty grew up in a family where the alcoholic father created such a tumultuous family environment. She mentioned another book called “A Time to Heal" and reading it, I learned further insightful Information on how to recover from a childhood overshadowed by a parent's alcoholism.
I continue to read this genre of books on matters that apply to me like money management, prosperity, marriage, parenting, surviving cancer, perseverence and much more.
Back in the 80’s, I referred to these kinds of books as my surrogate mother, disseminating useful knowledge I thirsted for which my mom, through her dysfuntion, was unable to provide.
0 -
I just finished Night School, a Reacher book, and I don't recommend it. The plot was not one of the author's best. My dh had already read the book (or listened to the audio book) and he agreed with me that the book was "slow."
0 -
btw, if you liked the book The Glass Castle, you may also like autobiography Educated by Tara Westover. She grew up in the mountains of Idaho with survivalist parents, an extremely dysfunctional family, was homeschooled and managed to make her way out, eventually to Harvard.
0 -
I'm waiting for Educated to come out in paperback - but it's still on the best seller lists.
0 -
Agree. I loved bith Glass Castle and Educated
0 -
Re-reading a Lolly Winston book called Good Grief that my DIL sent to me in 2004. I think it will make the cut to stay on the shelves another 10 years. About a 36 year old woman who's husband died of cancer. She desperately wants to be a "good widow" (think Jackie Kennedy) but is continually blindsided by grief. Some laugh-out-loud humor and some heartbreaking realities. I found the writing very true to life.
0 -
Just finished The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. It is a NYTimes young adult bestseller about a 16 year old Black girl balancing life between attending a wealthy white school and living in a poor Black community. She struggles to find her voice when violence rains down. Angie Thomas writes with compassion, humor and fully developed characters. The movie is also very well done. Thomas has a new book On the Come Up that is likewise very well received but have not read it yet.
0 -
Just finished What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman. 2 young girls disappear from a shopping mall, and years later one of them resurfaces. I quite liked it, kept me guessing with a few plot twists.
Divine, thanks for the educated recommendation - I'm putting it on my list! I never saw the movie the glass wall, but after reading the book I would like to.
Green - I read small great things by jodi Picoult - I really liked it. Makes you think about racism in a different way. Next up for me is another Picoult book, the storyteller.
0 -
Pat, I enjoyed What the Dead Know. Just finished a David Rosenfelt novel (not Andy Carpenter) that was interesting at first, but then got less interesting. I started a Charles Todd, always reliable. Has anyone else read the Ian Rutledge novels, set immediately after WWI? I find them good reading. The "author" is a mother-son duo who live in the US. Aunt-nephew? They always use English settings mostly outside London.
0 -
Hello all!
Just finished reading The Night Tiger by Yangtze Choo. It is a mystery set in Malaysia during the last years of the British Empire. Much discussion of local culture and superstition including man-eating tigers. Good characters and plot twists.
Soon to start Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. A memoir of finding out your father is not your blood father. Sounds interesting and has gotten good reviews.
Withall this rain, reading has been my go to activity!
0 -
I've been vacationing so have been reading a lot of lighter fare. I have nothing to recommend because all my choices have been so-so. I better go back to my non-fiction!
0 -
Finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann yesterday. I really knew nothing about this period in history. I thought it was well written, non-fiction that read like fiction.
So at 10pm I headed for bed with a book I've been saving since Christmas - intending to read just a chapter. Books for Living:Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflection & Embracing Life by Will Schwalbe. Oh no - I could NOT put it down. Truly was still reading at 5am. I have yellow sticky notes on tons of pages, pencil marks everywhere and "X"s by those books I need to read or re-read on the comprehensive list in the back. At least 20 things I'd like to share but here are just a couple: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one." (George R Martin) And from Schwalbe's introduction: "What are you reading?" isn't a simple questions when asked with genuine curiosity; it's really a way of asking, "Who are you now and who are you becoming?" Thank heaven's he admits to books everywhere in his house - overflowing the shelves & tables and stacked on the floor. I don't feel so guilty now that I can't purge my books since I only have one stack on the floor (but oh the tables...). At 1am I got up to look for "Stuart Little", but then I remembered it was my baby brother's book & I never had a copy. At 3am I was looking for "Gift from the Sea", one of my Mother's favorite books - but it's gone. At 4am I moved my old copy of The Bhagavad Gita further towards the top of the re-read pile and was glad I had recently re-read "Lord of the Flies". The depth & breadth of his reading is amazing, as are his thoughts about what he had read. I highly recommend this book, as well as his previous book The End of Your Life Book Club.
0 -
Minus, I loved Killers of the Flower Moon. I agree that it read like nonfiction. Books for Living is going on my ever-expanding To Be Read list.
0 -
minus....My Stuart Little story. Was reading to my younger son while Al Gore was Vice President. I helped him write a letter to the VP asking if there was a family connection to E.B. White since the little boy's name in the book was Albert Gore. A few weeks later came a handwritten letter from the VP. He said, he didn't think so.
Younger son took the letter and book to school and it was such an occasion that his story landed in the local paper!
0 -
Voracious, wow, what a terrific story about your son, Stuart Little and V.P. Al Gore!
Minus, Books for Living sounds like something I'd like to read. I was able to place a digital hold on it at the library and look forward to reading it when it becomes available to me.
I know there are quite a few people who love owning their books. I'm a library gal. One favorite childhood memory is of my mother piling all us kids into the car and driving us “in to town" every two weeks in the summer to get books at the library. And our library was one of the first ever built by Andrew Carnegie, so it's got beautiful architecture and character. The kids'library had a separate entrance from the main one, a narrow path of large stone steps, trees and shrubs on either side, taking you down to the basement. It was quite magical.
Nowadays, I now get my books at one of the library branches which is on the next block from where I live. Its part of a library consortium across southeastern Ohio, and any book in their system can be brought to my local library and picked up, plus the digital loans can be read on my Kindle app. I appreciate the thriftiness of it.
0 -
Love the anecdote about Al Gore's handwritten letter to a little boy.
Goodness, Minus! And you "lost an hour" last night! You are truly a readaholic.
My youthful access to books during the summer was the Bookmobile that came to our rural neighborhood every two weeks, as I recall. I don't think it was weekly. My brother and I had to walk "up the road" to where the Bookmobile parked. We pulled a wagon because we checked out our maximum number of books that amounted to too much to carry. During those days two of my favorite authors were Grace Livingston Hill and Emily Loring. My very favorite book was Gone With the Wind.
During school session I checked books out of the school library.
Many of you read more serious books than I do now. I read for entertainment but I do like a well-written book. As an English major in college and graduate school, I read acclaimed works of fiction and books of poetry and always enjoyed the class discussions. Now I avoid books I might find depressing. I will never forget how betrayed I felt when I came to the end of Portnoy's Complaint. The author had suspended my belief and made me vulnerable and ended the book with tragedy. I actually grieved for the characters.
0 -
Carole, nice bookmobile story of your youth! Ah, the good old days.
Gone With The Wind was also one of my all time favorite books which I remember reading in 8th grade, proudly carrying that hardback book around in school—I believe my copy had 864 pages—to show how “smart" I was to be reading such a huge book.
Ever since being diagnosed with breast cancer, it's been so difficult for me to read fiction. I used to love it. I don't consider all non-fiction to be serious. An all time favorite book I love is Tine Fey's “Bossy Pants". Absolute Perfection and so funny all the way through! I also loved Whitney Cumming's book, “I'm Fine...And Other Lies" which was equally entertaining and incredibly insightful. I read lighter non fiction like the history of ABBA or Aerosmith or some tell-alls by rock band groupies. A book about Johnny Carson written by one of his lawyers was fascinating.
Another line of books I got smitten with: books about the White House and First Ladies. Books about their Christmas themes, one written by the staff who've served under numerous presidencies, one written by the White House chief floral designer, one by a White House doctor to three presidents. I've also read numerous books about many individual First Ladies.
0 -
DivineMrsM- I don't often read non-fiction but have read some of the books written about First Ladies, etc. Have you read the book written by Rosalyn Carter? I can't remember the name of it, but it was a wonderful book.
Now you make me want to read Gone With the Wind again! Also love Thorn Birds, and I've read that one about 6 times!
0
