Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Well - I just lost a long post but I'll try again.
VR - Heilbrun is one of my favorite authors. I really mourned her. She had always planned to die at 70, but stayed until 77. For non fiction read Writing a Woman's Life and The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond 60. I'm going to get her last work When Men Were the Only Models we Had...
Her fiction books with protagonist Kate Fansler, written under the pseudonym of Amanda Cross are wonderful. Kate & her husband live in NYC and she is an English Professor at a university. I have a suspicion you would like them because of all the local references. Even the Lions if I remember. Not to mention the literary references. And they are around 200 pages. Having never lived in NYC, they were evocative of what I thought I missed (true or not). Some of the older books were hard to find but they are now all on my shelf to re-read when time allows.
BTW - Heilbrun had to write under a pseudonym so she wouldn't be fired from the university. She was the first woman ever to be awarded tenure in the English Dept at Columbia.
I'll likely search out some of Brittain's work but I imagine that means the downtown library. (we don't have lions)0 -
Oh VR - thanks for the link. I had of course read Heilbrun's obit, but not seen this article. It is delicious and mournful at the same time.
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Minus....my new year resolution....will seek and peak at Heilbrun! Interesting reference to her relationship with Clifford Fadiman. Came across him after reading his daughter, Anne's writing... Anne Fadiman's book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is among my favorite books. And, more importantly, it cemented my deep, loving, and close relationship with my friend whom I just referenced....She and I could talk for hours about a single book. Last week, we spoke about How the Brain Lost its Mind by Allan H. Ropper, MD. A few months back, I mentioned, here, the book. We loved reading the book so much, we both thought it should be made into a film. It is THAT interesting. By coincidence, I was in a local library and came across a foreign film, Augustine, which further tells the story of a woman who is mentioned in Ropper's book. Of course I saw the film and so did my friend and....then we spoke AGAIN for hours about the book AND film.
Columbia University. Let's just say, I know the place well....and I know a handful of people who either worked or studied there. I am left to wonder how Heilbrun was so stifled there....The environment, IMHO, is so far left...even during the time that she was there, that one would think there would have been room for her to do as well as she pleased....again....sad.
On a much happier note....same friend is coming over and we are going to binge watch Bill Moyer's interviews with Joseph Campbell on The Powers of Myth. Has anyone read his books or watched the series? Spectacular!Even better? Watching with your book loving BFF and then talking about it for hours!
Know what I just realized? Who has time for gossip when you can instead be spending your time either reading or talking about books?
ahhhhh.....
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I haven't thought of Fadiman in years & will take a look. Also the Roper book. To further bolster your reading thoughts, below is a quote from my Christmas letter:
...my latest favorite quote is from Annie Dillard's The Maytrees - although my Mother would have been horrified:
"She…found it prudent not to waste life's few years cultivating and displaying good taste.To whom?She could be reading."
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Happy 2020! Great quote, Minus!
I'm reading A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell. It's the true story of a young woman from a wealthy Baltimore family (with a prosthetic leg) who, during WWII, became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines, and established a vast spy network throughout Nazi-occupied France. It's written in a rather Erik Larson style, so of course I like it!
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I just finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. It is a rather long book, but I really enjoyed it. Great representation of a simpler time, wonderful love story, and a lot of suspense. I haven't read King in a long time, and was glad to see his writing (at least in this book) was less horror and more thoughtful.
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King's heart-stoppingly dramatic novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination - a thousand page tour de force.
Not sure what is up next for me, but my list is long so I'm sure I will find something great!
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Welcome, sierrafhs! I liked The Paris Architect too. Have you read any Erik Larson? His books are of real events, but read like fiction!
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Sierra - welcome. Looking forward to reading with you.
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If you are a WWII fan, check out Larson's In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.
I was got back from a matinee of Little Women, which I highly recommend. My mom used to sit at the top of the steps and read to us kids (in bedrooms on each side of the steps). She'd read books above our reading levels (and always read an extra chapter if we begged.....smart lady). I still have the copy of Little Women (which had been hers as a girl), and how she choked up when she read of Beth's death. She would have loved this movie interpretation; so as you can imagine, thinking of her brought a few extra tears to my eyes!
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Hi Sierra! Welcome!
Ruth...speaking of Larson, again, and again (lol), in mentioning In the Garden of Beasts keeps reminding me of Julia Boyd's Travellers in the Third Reich. Like Larson's book which focuses on the US Diplomat's family's experience in Germany during that seminal year of Hitler's beginning rise of power, Travellers takes us on the foreigners' journey in Germany through the end of the war. The Diplomat's daughter, Martha, has her place in Traveller's as well. What makes Travellers so memorable and worthwhile reading is it gives us first hand accounts from NOT the usual suspects...reporters and politicians. It gives us accounts of average” people, among them, teenagers who were sent there by unsuspecting parents who wanted their children to experience the Germany that they had experienced, which turned out to be a far cry from what their children were experiencing. It tells the story from “average" people perspectives. Devastating in hindsight. And that is what makes the book all the more thrilling and....horrifying. As we both would agree, Larson is great with his investigating and attention to detail, while weaving a story par excellence. Boyd succeeds equally as well...if not better....the details she uncovered came, in places that Larson has never looked....in attics where letters were never read before other than to the recipients. They cast a hue on the troubled period and bring to focus a new way of seeing how easy it was to blindfold guests of the Reich.
and.....let's not forget Larson's Isaac's Storm! I will NEVER, EVER forget reading that book. Years later, as Hurricane Katrina approached, I said to myself, “Hey idiots! Have any of you ever read Isaac's Storm?" Sadly, from hindsight it is both obvious and tragic that no one did!0 -
I will have to check that book out, VR! I had a 90ish friend who grew up in a German speaking settlement in North Dakota. During WWII, he traveled with Patton's army as an interpreter. He told many interesting, and sad, stories of his dealing with the 'ordinary' people of Germany near, and at the end, of the war. His stories about the children, who were innocent victims of the whole thing, were particularly touching. He's passed now, and I wish I would have recorded some of our visits.
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I love books and amazed that I just saw this thread. I go for murder mysteries when I'm not reading things for work. Jo Nesbo is one of my go tos. Tana French is an excellent mystery/thriller writer for those who like good plots. Alex Marwood, Jane Casey, Louise Penny, Jane Harper, Michael Robatham, Mo Hayder and Denise Mina are all good for murder. I also like post apocalyptic science fiction.
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welcome DMR! What a cute doggy! What’s his/her name?
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ruth....speaking of people with stories to tell...while growing up, many of my neighbors were Holocaust survivors....
What I still find fascinating is how so many people were invited to Germany and yet so little of what was occurring leaked out. Larson called out Roosevelt and Wall Street....but those travellers that Boyd writes about, everyday people, though some were of the Society caste, came away entranced by what they saw. That said, there were a few random people who were perplexed... one of Boyd's points was that they needed tourism and the money that it generated to fuel the Nazi economy so the Germans were all in with their hospitality. Imagine that! Hospitality and horror rolled up into one....insane!
http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/authors/julia-boyd/books/travellers-in-the-third-reich
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Thanks voraciousreader - that's Carmen. My velociterrier
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For those of you that like historical fiction and nonfiction, I just finished reading, Before and After by Judy Christie. This title is the true stories of children adopted through the Tennessee Children’s Home Society under the direction of Georgia Tann. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is the historical fiction title based on this agency duringthe late 1930’s. Children were sold to wealthy persons wanting to adopt. Some were even stolen from unsuspecting families down on their luck. It is amazing to read how many children were taken and re-homed with the permission of the crooked government of the time. The nonfiction title deals with the adoptees trying to locate birth families and deal with issues of abandonment. Really heart wrenching.
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sierra - Isaac's Storm was the first Larsen book I read. You have some good reading ahead of you.
I'm still working on what do do with my children's books. I just finished reading Johnny Gruelle's original Raggedy Ann Stories and Raggedy Andy Stories. I actually have a Raggedy Ann doll in my cedar chest from the 1940s. Looks like the books are recommended for ages 5-8 so I'll wait a couple of years before giving them to my niece who just turned 4.
After finishing the Heilbrun, I pulled Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Other Stories off my shelf. It's interesting to read about that generation of feminists. In many cases their only choices had dire consequences.
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ok..just finished reading Lee Smith’s The Plot Against the President. Racing through Dan Bongino’s Exonerated.
In between...reading Pico Iyer’s A Beginner’s Guide to Japan. He is such a wonderful writer. His observations are a close second to Geoff Dyer’s.....My one wish is for a day that I could “see” and write like either of them....one day...that’s all I ask for....
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I am reading Police by Jo Nesbro, the 10th Harry Hole novel. So far Harry has been absent from the story, having retired from police work. But his former friends/associates are trying to enlist his aid in solving a case.
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Rereading Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. She is a research Geobiologist (think Botanist). Whether you are experiencing winter or summer, this is an autobiography of a young scientist's love for roots, leaves, flowers, seeds and so much more, whether they are dormant or in full growth cycle. She writes about how she found a bit of sanctuary in science, a colleague's friendship, and a family life in which her passion blooms. I know I now look at my now dormant garden with a new appreciation.
I particularly loved her quote from Helen Keller: "The more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world.
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reading the above article that references Goodnight Moon being hated by the NYPL's children's librarian and not offered until 1972...I had to laugh. DD also HATES the book! She hates it so much she downright REFUSES to read it to her young son and daughter! Darling grandson used to give it to me to read to him! He would say, “Mommy would 'yove' you to read it to me." And so, of course, I would! I get how she feels! When she was a child, she insisted that I buy her the book, The Jolly Postman. And, I did. And, I hated the book. She STILL owns the book and I still hate it. I only wish my mother had lived closer to us when my daughter was a child so that she could have read the book to her!
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Did not realize that Librarians have a lot of power: From the cited article: "The kiddie classic "Goodnight Moon" would have made the list were it not for former NYPL children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore — who hated the tome so much when it came out in 1947 that it wasn't carried until 1972, the experts said.
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There is a reason that guy wrote the “Go the F*$k to Sleep book. It is pretty hilarious
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Melissa - what a riot. Thanks for the reference.
Now reading Cheek by Jowl, a wonderful collection of essays by Ursula Le Guin, many taken from lectures. They are about children's & YA literature, etc. In the introductory essay she posits what people assume about fantasy: 1) the characters are all white; 2) they live sort of in the middle ages; and 3) they're fighting in a battle between good & evil. Then she proceeds to discuss the errors, cliches, heartbreak, and problems with all those assumptions. There's a long section about the animals in Children's lit, and further on - why kids want fantasy. And how much enjoyment there is for adults re-revisit their childhood books with an entirely different mind-set. Only 145 pages including the bibliography but really worth reading.
Finally got hold of Where the Crawdads Sing. I couldn't put it down and read through till morning on Saturday. Then slept from 7am to 11am.
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ahhh...Magic....Librarians having power? Of course they do! When I request my library purchase a book, I have to submit to a deposition! Where did I find out about the book? Have I previously read anything by the author....and then I have to pray they purchase the book! How many times I pass by the stacks and see such crap and wonder who is purchasing some of the titles.
Melissa.....I can't tell you how many people sent me links to THAT book! I never had that problem! I am usually STILL reading when the kids start snoring! I love reading to little ones! Unless it is The Jolly Postman!
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Minus, I'm jealous. I have resisted buying the Crawdads book but I may have to give in and buy the Kindle version. The library's ebook had 30 some people ahead of me.
I just started another Jo Nesbo novel.
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Crawdads is a stay-up-all-night book, Yes, Carole, you should read it!
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Funny. I could not get into Where the Crawdads Sing. Too much sweating and being barefoot! And I live in the South. LOL! If you liked it, another similar title is Sing Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. Set in South Carolina with three women and their families as main characters.
As a former librarian that did select books, it is not easy to make all the customers happy. Our main rule was the title had to have received a favorable review in an established library magazine. Other than that we bought just about everything a customer requested. I loved Good Night Moon and frequently used it in storytimes. Often the art in children’s books is more important than the words. Moon has such a peaceful feel to it.To me, the fun thing about reading is selecting a title that appeals then talking to others about it. We all like different things about the characters, setting and/or style. I am currently reading Overground Railroad by Candace Taylor. It is a nonfiction title about the Green Book and how it influenced travel by African-Americans. I am not crazy about the author’s writing style, but am enjoying the information presented.
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This group is definitely not going extinct!
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