Book Lovers Club
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Gonw with the Wind and Thorn Birds are on my favorite book list as well!
Reading The Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
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Love the Tina Fey book. Also Nora Ephron's books. I have my Mother's Gone With the Wind from 1936 when it was first published. The inscription in my Mother's handwriting to HER Mother is: Hope you like this dear. I also read it the first time around junior high - mostly under the covers with a flashlight at night after I was supposed to be asleep.
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I read Gone With the Wind and Rebecca while in middle school. I was definitely too young and naive to understand everything, but still was immersed in the story. Just finished Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. She writes about finding out her father was not her biological father as a result of artificial insemination in the 60’s. Interesting look at how there were no rules for AI then and how the anonymity of the donors was protected no matter what. Am starting Parkland by Dave Cullen. It is about the survivors of the Margery Stoneman Douglas high school shooting. Pretty intense, but hopeful.
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I also read Rebecca, I think it was for a literature class in high school. I remember I loved it, tho I don't recall a whole lot of it now. A mysterious love story I think. It had beautiful descriptive prose that transported me, I could picture the rhododendtons blooming. I never read The Thorn Birds nor did I see the mini series of it, which I believe was quite popular.
JCS, that book Inheritance sounds right up my alley, and I just went on the library website and put my name on the waiting list for it. I'm interested in both geneology and how in today's world, dna testing is altering people's lives. I'm thrilled to read of cold case murders solved through dna sent in to geneology companies. And I watched a series on Netflix, an Australian comedy actually, called Sisters, the premise which is the main character's father was a doctor who inseminated many of his patients with his own sperm without their knowledge of it and how the repercussions of that is playing out once the truth is discovered and the news hit the media. Yes, a comedy! But surely in real life, similar stories upend people's lives. I'm sure it's a mixed bag of positives and negatives.
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Saving the Louisa May Alcott books my hubby got me for Valentine's Day for either the beach or other free time
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I loved Thorn Birds, too. Such interesting book discussions on this thread.
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VR - something to share with Reader's DH...
I was reading reviews about Past Tense, the new Reacher novel by Lee Child and thought this comment from "booklist" was interesting. Got a good chuckle. "As always, the prose is lean and efficient, the action scenes are well designed, and Reacher is as formidable an opponent as one could imagine (just this side of a Transformer)."
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minus...Considering all of the traveling that we do and considering all the balking the DH does at the mention of packing his bags, VR only wishes he would transform himself into Jack Reacher
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LOL - but not Tom Cruise. I boycotted the movie since he definitely does NOT match my understanding of Reacher.
How are those lions?
One of my neighbors has the latest Louise Penny book on request - Kingdom of the Blind. It's been a long time already!!!
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Oh wow VR. Thanks so much. I first saw the library around 1956. Somewhere I think there are pictures of my pre-teen self with the lions. Then I saw it again around 1964. And I took my son to see it around 1983. In my dreams, I'd like a week to just 'live in' and explore the library. Imagine all the books. Heaven!!
Last night I re-read Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964). It's technically a YA book, but a fascinating story of a the 5 years of the Civil War told from a farm in southern IL Everyone goes off to war except the 9 year old, who has to grow up very quickly to run the farm. Some of the brothers join the Union army and one chooses to joint the Confederate army. You can imagine the heartbreak, not to mention the retribution from neighbors who think the family is 'turncoat'. Fascinating to see how they lived and read how the war progressed for just plain folks.
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I finished Watchers of Time by Charles Todd last night. Funny thing is that dh was/is reading an Ian Rutledge story, too. I enjoyed reading Watchers and look forward to starting a new book tonight. I usually download ten books at a time from our parish (county) library. That's the maximum allowed.
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Just finished End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. I loved it! I have read very few of the books they mentioned, but just fell in love with the story and the Mom.I will look for his other book.
I am a library gal too, and mostly an E-reader.
I just started Cane River by Lalita Tademy - only a few pages in but I think I'm hooked.
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pat - so glad you liked "End of your Life Book Club".
I just read The Road from Coorain by Jill Kerr Conway (1989). It's a memoir of Conway's journey from an isolated sheep-farm in Australia to her departure for graduate school in America - where she eventually became president of Smith College. Such a tribute to an intelligent woman learning how to be strong & "coming into herself emotionally & intellectually", and how commitment to a place can both liberate and imprison. I hadn't realized she just died last year.
This is one of the last books my Mother read before her major disabling stroke, and I haven't read it in probably 20 years. My Mother usually marked passages by pressing a thumb nail intention into the margins of the page. Interesting to see how she related to Conway's Mother, who was pretty much stifled from using her education & her brains. Ah the past. If Women went school at all, they were then supposed to get married & have babies & give up their lives for their families. I marked passages with faint, small pencil marks. My marks relate to Conway's getting away from an overbearing Mother who was conditioned to live totally through her children, and the grown children were supposed to live only for the Mother.
I would read "Rebecca" next, but no longer have a copy. Decisions, decisions.
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reading Dreyer's English. Benjamin Dreyer is the Copy Chief at Random House. His English guide is ....hilarious. You can tell from reading the book that this is a man that you want to invite to your next gathering. We could use him here on this thread. He is so well read. Ruth....he mentions examples and, you will love this....Lincoln's Bardo....his examples make you want to read anything and everything and get all of your punctuation, grammar and style correct..
And, he throws in some spellings of people's names....
“PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER
Sixteenth-century Flemish painter, the Matthew McConaughey of his era, as no one can ever quite remember how to spell his name....."
and....here's one word that will keep you all guessing....unless you have already read his book....what is.....
“The only legitimate English word....that includes three consecutive sets of double letters....."
If you all are stumped, I will give some clues.....
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OK - I can' answer because I cheated and asked Doctor Google. Great question.
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hahahahahaha
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minus! Then you should give the clues!
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It was my profession for many years. (OK - not fair) Detail job that used to involve pencils & now usually involves computers. EVERY company has one.
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voracious, I'm still trying to figure out the word.....
MinusTwo, re your comment on the book 'The Road to Coorain': “My marks relate to Conway's getting away from an overbearing Mother who was conditioned to live totally through her children, and the grown children were supposed to live only for the Mother.“
Are you saying this was your experience growing up with your mom (whose intellect and creativity were suppressed by the rigid roles placed on women of her time?) I'm going to see if I can get the book from the library, it sounds quite interesting. On a sort of side note, I read Hillbilly Elegy, the writer describes life in parts of Ohio I'm so familiar with. He writes of his mother's different mental breakdowns and marriages yet doesn't ever make the connection that her issues could be (and in my opinion definitely were) a result of the oppression of women in our male dominated society. The author rose from poverty to graduate from Yale Law school, an exceptional accomplishment I do not minimize, but doesn't seem to understand that being a white male gave him some kind of edge over women and minorities with similar backgrounds to his.
Anyway, my mom also had mental health issues that started in her 40s, and I can see how, once her childbearing days were over (she had 7 children), she struggled to understand what could be next in her life. She had much experience and knowledge, but it wasn't acknowledged. It wasn't till I was older I learned many “housewives" of the 50s had these breakdowns due to oppressive societal norms.
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The word "bookkeeper" came immediately to mind! Is that it?? Or is there another one?
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I just completed Where the Crawdads Sing and really enjoyed it. Thanks to all of you who recommended it
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snicker! DING! DING! DING! We have a winner
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Divine - re: My Mother - sort of. She graduated from college in the very early 30's, where she wrote for the school paper, sang in operas, worked with the ROTC, was on the debating team, was a school "sweetheart", etc. Once she married, her primary mission (as was usual for the time) was supporting my Dad's profession and taking care of their 3 children (not nearly enough for her), and she never worked for a wage. She was intelligent, interesting, involved in life, caring. All her life she gave monthly book reviews, was over involved with her church, "worked" raising money for a major children's hospital, taught random seminars when asked - even a few in colleges although she didn't think she was good enough. She had random college students to dinner every Sunday just because they lived away from home & were stuck with 'dorm' food. Needless to say, the discussions were lively. The young married wives called her constantly for advice. Everyone in the community loved her and depended on her. She taught her children that learning was important, as well as manners, and that we could do ANYTHING. I really believed for a while in the 50's that I could be president (LOL - but you see I'm older than most of you). However... once I finished college I was essentially given 3 choices: come home & get some little job while waiting for marriage; come home & take more classes while waiting for marriage; get married. I wasn't brave enough to make a stand and decamp for Europe or move to NYC. So I chose the latter, and chose someone they didn't really approve of, "and that has made all the difference". Don't get me wrong, My life has been interesting & challenging, I had fulfilling work, fun places to live, lots of adventures (I even got my son on the Goodyear Blimp when he was 4 & up in the railroad control tower to watch the freight trains when the US was sending wheat to Russia), loved working with the Boy Scouts, sang in a couple of noted choirs, and I'm 99% happy. Or maybe better to say that I have few regrets.
But my Mother... Women didn't talk about this stuff then, but it's unlikely that her intelligent brain was ever used to even half capacity, nor was she fulfilled. But I think she believed she should be happy because that's what society at the time said was true. It's likely that all of her children disappointed her in some way (mostly not hewing to her church), and none of us produced the bunches of grandchildren who might have kept her too busy to think. And we all moved at least several states away from there she wanted us all to gather. And my Dad traveled extensively for work so was never home much. I don't think she "brooded", but ...was she happy? She would have been the first person to tell everyone she was, but... in retrospect maybe I see evidence of depression.
I am now reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1971). An intelligent, Quaker 'bluestocking' married an aspiring mine engineer in 1876 and was thrown into the rough life in the West. She wrote novels & was an artist, but always missed her aesthete friends in the East. Her grandson is writing her history and comments "You yearned backward a good part of your life. Even while you paid attention to what you must to today & tomorrow, you heard the receding sound of what you had relinquished."..."She came before the emancipation of women"..."a sort of spirit fresh, independent, adventurous, not really prudish in spite of the gentility. There was an ambitious woman under the Quaker modesty and the genteel conventions."..."The conventions of her time & place never inhibited her, I think because it never occurred to her to rebel against them. The penalties, the neurasthenia and breakdowns of the genteel female, she never experienced either. But the ambitions that gave her purpose and the talents that helped fill a life not otherwise satisfying, she never fully realized or developed."
sorry for the lengthy post. Got carried away.
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MinusTwo, the way you describe the story of your mother is so interesting. So many of us grew up with housewife moms, oblivious to the strict confines they were living in. Seeing their lives in hindsight can be mind boggling and quite sad. When I try to explain to some women my age that our society, country, world, missed out on so much by not allowing women to contribute in ways other than as wife and mother, they just don't get it. They never think about the great composers being all men, the great master painters were all men, how U.S. history classes emphasized the accomplishments of men, etc.
The new Captain Marvel movie came up in conversation this weekend with my 10 year old granddaughter. She had a poster of Captain Marvel, and my husband asked “Why is Captain Marvel now a woman." I said, we need more superhero women. It can't just be the guys out there saving the world." Dh is receptive, especially since he has a granddaughter! It’s a changing world we live in, but as they say,,change is incremental.
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I just finished “The Unwinding of the Miracle" an autobiography by Julie Yip-Williams. It's not for the faint of heart. Here's a description:
“Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia planned by her grandmother, then flees the political upheaval of the late 1970s with her family. Against all odds, she became a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, a life. Then, at the age of thirty-seven, with two little girls still at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. Inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering, it's about how to say goodbye to your children and a life you love. Starting as a need to understand the disease, it has evolved into a powerful story about living - even as Julie puts her affairs in order and prepares to die."
I've read several books by authors diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and found them all incredible. This one is something like a masterpiece.
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Divine...thanks for the reminder about this book. There was a good story about her in the NYTimes about a year ago. I just ordered it.
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Finished re-reading The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (1970). It's part of her King Arthur trilogy. This first one is all about Merlin - where he came from, how he grew up, where he lived, and how he developed (discovered) his powers. It ends with the night King Arthur is conceived. The other two books are on the shelf.
Hooray - finally my turn. A neighbor just brought me Louise Penny's new book, Kingdom of the Blind.
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Minus, I read that nook about Merlin a long time ago and loved it! In the same vein, I quite liked The Once and The Future King by T H White. It’s very unusual, but extremely engaging.
Regarding the word, I was thinking about Mississippi, although it doesn’t fit the description completely.
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Inna - yes I have my Mother's copy of The Once and Future King which is due for re-reading maybe by fall. Fun fact - her hardback printed in1958 has a price of $4.95. It's on a shelf next to Gone with the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Brother's Karamazov. I'm definitely enjoying my re-reading.
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