Book Lovers Club
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Love that, Ruth. It’s the perfect way to begin 2021. Happy New Year to you and all the other avid readers on this thread!
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Really enjoyed Garth Nix's The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (authorized to kill ...and sell books). First of his that I have read, apparently a prolific fantasy writer. The book takes place in 1983, a young art student, Susan, moves to London intending to search for the dad she has never met in the few months before she starts art school. Her mother appears to be a former hippy who is loving but vague, especially about her daughter's origins. Susan, in rather alarming circumstances, meets a young man Merlin, who with his sister works in their extended family's bookstore and is very much a part of the magical world. Merlin is looking into the strange circumstances surrounding his mother's death several years prior which he belives is connected to Susan's father's disappearance and so they all join forces. I realized while racing through the book that while this book follows the magical booksellers - they work collegially with the police. It is related to a genre of books of which I have been reading three series : Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May series, Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series- both involve odd barely tolerated secret units of the Metropolitan police assigned to unusual cases which ultimately involve the supernatural and historical London and Charles Stross's Laundry series whose protagonist, Bob Howard works for the secret government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond space/time while also battling British bureaucracy.
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Mexican Gothic was pretty good if you like that kind of thing (I do). A woman goes to see what's up with her sister who married into a family that turns out to have a horrible secret to its extended lineage. One Goodreads commenter described it as, "A little bit H. P. Lovecraft, a little bit Alfred Hitchcock, and a lotta bit creepy old house."
Polished off the Reachers and requested three more. Also requested My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me based on the rec from JKL2017, and When the White Pine Was King: A History of Lumberjacks, Log Drives, and Sawdust Cities in Wisconsin by Jerry Apps.
Here's a description from the WI Historical Society - https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/when-the-white-pine-was-king-a-history-of-lumberjacks-log-drives-and-sawdust-cities-in-wisconsin
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badger, such fond memories of my hard-ass 7th grade English teacher, who turned me on to Lovecraft when I know she thought I was bored. She knew my Mom, who was also an English teacher. Quite a character She had inch-long manicured fingernails and would get misbehavers’ attention by rapping them on the top of the head with the tips of her nails. I hear rumors she occasionally drew blood. Most of us loved her. A few did not, and I see adult discussions of her by now-adults as being one who would never get away now with stuff she did then. At least she wasn’t a sophomore high school coach sleeping with (and in fairness marrying) my friends...
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Or my high school government teacher with a prosthetic arm who would hook it to the back of your shirt and walk off, leaving it hanging there, or worse, taking it off and THROWING it at you. Lots of kids loved him, but he terified me so much I got my lowest grade ever in his class
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Melissa - love the stories. My HS sophomore English teacher made us write in a journal for 10 minutes at the beginning of every class. Parents hated him because he had a beard (they wondered what he was hiding). This was the 60's and he read us "beat poetry". But he made reading anything a joy.
VR - thank you, thank you, thank you - for the best possible New Years present - your recommendation to get C.S. Lewis "The Reading Life...The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Other's Eyes." I opened up this small, lovely book on NY Eve and of course was entranced. I had to stop myself from underlining copiously, but I do have lots of yellow sticky notes.
Just one of the quotes I loved: "The first demand any work of any art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out)."
And about all the words that are 'disappearing': "Men do not long continue to think what they have forgotten how to say."
Oh what a joy!! I'm going to order another copy for my DIL.
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Anyone who loves to read will likely love this site. I get it in my Facebook Newsfeed, but am posting the browser link so that those who don’t do Facebook can access it. For me it is like coming upon a little jewel in my day. Musings, literary criticism, philosophy, art, poetry. Lots of big ideas and little things that resonate with me.
https://www.brainpickings.org/
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Minus OMG I am off to get the C.S. Lewis book you noted. Great tip! He's my favorite author hands down and at one point I had read all of his letters. And he wrote to everyone, considering it his duty.
Melissa thanks also for the link. I will look!
My excitement about reading amazes even me sometimes. 🤗📚
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melissa...brainpickings? The.Best! You are not the first to mention the website. I know I have mentioned it before and so have others. That said, from time to time, it bears repeating over and over again. She is brilliant! I get emails from her website twice a week and when they arrive I STOP whatever I am doing to read her postings...that is...unless I am driving or my grandkids need my undivided attention. My best friend turned me on to the website about five or six years ago and have been thankful ever since. We can spend an hour on the phone discussing her latest postings or discussing one of the books she recommends that we have read. And her videos about books....oh....magnificent!
minus....I am so glad you enjoyed reading the C.S. Lewis book. A few days ago, I found myself quoting one of his gems from the book. I got a call from one of my literacy students. As many of you know, I am a literacy volunteer. Anyway....the student was so excited to call and tell she got the most wonderful Christmas present. A journal. Now you might wonder why it was such an amazing, heartfelt gift. Two years ago, this 60 year old woman could not read at all, nor could she write her own name. Working with her over the last two years, including this year since the pandemic began...VR has spent most days on the phone teaching her to read and write. Now, her ability to read and write has been noticed by the people around her, so much so, that one of her beloved friends bought her a journal to write in. I am sure, until now, no one would have thought to give her such a precious gift. The fact that someone recognized that she could write and bought her a journal to write in swelled both our hearts. And now you, Minus have swelled my heart even more!Now...getting back to C.S. Lewis, that same student said to me that she works very hard at learning to read and write. She also said that she is now at the point that she LOVES reading. She said she finds the time every day to read. I told her that she is now part of a wonderful group of people...book lovers! I told her a great philosopher, C.S. Lewis, once said that the difference between those of us who love to read books and those of us who don’t is....the people who don’t like to read will read when there isn’t much else to do, but us book lovers will always look for and find the time to read. Minus....I remembered that quote from A Reader’s Life. My student said she felt good knowing that she is now a member of our group...the book lovers!
Finally, I would like to take C.S. Lewis’s quote a step further. A book lover not only loves finding the time to read...Book lovers love sharing their knowledge of books with others. And, they enjoy hearing about books from others as well. If VR had the choice to hear about someone’s day or about a book that someone enjoyed reading, hands down, VR would rather hear more about the book. A reader’s life is quite simple. The more books the better!
Happy New Year dear book lover friends. I hope everyone finds just enough time to read0 -
Melissa, great stories about your teachers. I can see why they scared children.
I do like the spooky stuff. Used to read Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and Poe. Ran home after school to watch Dark Shadows. These days, I prefer thrillers to gore but will still read anything by Stephen King or his son Joe Hill. Thanks for the link to brainpickings.
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badger...Dark Shadow! I ran home too
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The new Tom Clancy (by Mike Maden) Firing Point was pretty good. The ending was a surprise and I did not guess the identity of the bad guy. The protagonist is packing a suitcase and muses he should adopt the habit of a 'famous fictional character' who buys one set of clothing at a time and discards the old ones. Reacher!
Polished off the new Lincoln Lawyer The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly. An ex-client is found dead in the trunk of Mickey Haller's car. He's arrested for murder and must defend himself from jail. Good read.
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Okay, I love Erik Larson and his infinite detail, but I have been reading ‘“Dead Wake” for days. Torpedo the damn ship already..
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Melissa...I felt that way too while reading the book. HOWEVER....many of the facts will stay with you....If you read a fiction thriller, like a Clancy book afterwards, you will understand the grit and determination of the people on the subs. Keep in mind while reading the book, during WWI, if you were deployed on a submarine, it was more than likely that you would not return to shore. Today, people are more likely to recall the Japanese WWII kamikaze pilots and the 9/11 suicide bombers....but few recall those submarine fighters. They were equally ruthless....Erik Larson breathes life into those frightening warriors.
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I do know a fair amount because my cousin served on a sub and has talked about the history of them, plus my mom and sister were history teachers
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Love Tom Clancy's early novels. In his book Red Storm Rising the ship my husband served on when he was in the Navy is mentioned. I also had a cousin who was a submariner.
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Reading "The Silent Patient: for book club. Aleady creepy and not even 1/4 started. alternating it with "1000 Days in Tuscany" for mental health reasons. 😉
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Reader - my niece said Silent Patient is the best book she's read in a year.
Finished "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott. 1994 - so it's 25 years old but I just discovered it. Not one chapter went by that I didn't laugh out loud. I didn't want it to be over. It perfectly describes so much of what a writer needs & why. Not to mention what readers want from books. Just two quotes:
"...If you are a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how your spend your days - listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you've taken in, all that you've overheard, and you turn it into gold. (Or at least you try.)" ....and on control... "It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right. We're bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they're not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull."
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Minus I finished Silent Patient in 2 sittings. Gripping. could not put it down; then the ending! Really enjoyed it.
I've read lots of Anne Lamott. Also heard her speak a few years ago. Makes you think, laugh, cry. I don't think I've read Bird by Bird though. Need to!
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It's my turn to pick the next selection for my Book Club. I believe I will choose Silent Patient. This will surprise my friends as I don't know if I've ever picked a physcological thriller before!
I finished two books I'd recommend:
If you like history/biography, David Michaelis' Eleanor is a good one volume look at Eleanor Roosevelt's interesting and complicated life from start to finish.
*If you have a weird sense of humor and very much dislike Donald Trump, Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen may be for you. It takes place in Palm Beach during the charity ball season. One of the elderly socialites mysteriously vanishes and the story takes off from there with some interesting twists & turns. A Winter White House, a president & first lady who are modeled directly from the Trumps (and not in a good way), a lady protagonist, some bad guys, a love interest, snobby rich people, a poor immigrant, an eccentric guy who lives in the swamps, and big snakes are all part of the action in this mystery/satire/social commentary.
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Ruth - my DIL's mother just sent me an email with Squeeze Me as a .pdf file. Since I use a desk top set up, it may take me awhile to read.
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Minus, it's hysterical if you are of a certain political persuasion and have a kind of wicked sense of humor. I have to say that since I read it on Kindle, I didn't keep track of where I was in the book & was shocked when I turned the page and it was done! No, I wanted to see what would happen next!!
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Finished When the White Pine Was King yesterday. Very interesting read. I knew the forests of Wisconsin had been decimated for lumber barons' profit but didn't know about the state's attempt to get immigrants to clear and farm the stumpy land (most of which failed because the soil is good for trees but not for crops, and the growing season is short up north). Today, forests make up approx half of Wisconsin's land so the re-forestation and community education efforts paid off. Now I want to read about the Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin. Jerry Apps has written 40+ books, 20 of which have been published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15625
Just got My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me. Looks like a three-hanky book, in a good way.
I'm up to Reacher #18. :-)
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Happy New Year!
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Moth - wonderful resolution. Thanks.
I have 24 books left in the stash I've been hoarding - most from a used bookstore that closed shortly after Covid decended. But my nephew gave me a $50 gift certificate for one of our great Indie book stores - Murder by the Book - and his sister gave me a $50 gift certificate for Amazon. Woo Hoo. More books in my future.
I read an interesting article about The Great Gatsby and the copyright expiring so the book goes into the public domain. So of course I turned to my shelves thinking I should re-read it even though it was never a favorite book. What??? No copy? I only have a book of Fitzgerald's stories. The article also discusses when Jane Eyre went into the public domain. Hmmm, no copy of that either, but I did re-read that in the last 10 years.
The article says "...Next year, William Faulkner's and Ernest Hemingway's first novels will join Gatsby in the public domain." At 25 Hemingway was my favorite. At fifty, I liked Faulkner better. Wonder what I'll decide at 80?
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I reread Gatsby a few years ago, and was again amazed how Fitzgerald could paints a picture with words. Stunning if you haven't read him for awhile.
There's a new book by Michael Farris Smith called Nick. It's a prequel to Gatsby and tells the story of his young friend Nick Carraway. I read a little sample on Amazon and Nick is in the middle of the First World War. I didn't buy it yet. I don't know if I want to mess with Fitzgerald's story in any way.0 -
Read Gatsby in high school. The scenes in the movie of the parties at Gatsby’s mansion were filmed at a mansion called Rosecliff in Newport, RI where lived in my school days. One of the teachers at the high school where I graduated from was an extra in the movie.
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MOmmy...I know a woman who was an extra in The Great Gatsby as well. When they were first scouting for locations to set the film, she was responsible for finding Long Island locations. Years ago, when she was a young girl and many of the Long Island mansions had crumbled, she would get permission (I am not so sure of that) and enter the homes and take things that were abandoned in the closets. When filming started, she told he director she had period dresses and gowns taken from the mansions. She was later told to head to Newport with the gowns. She let the cast wear some of the gowns. She was also invited to wear one and appear as an extra in the film.
minus...years ago, I was at a yard sale and picked up a FIRST PRINTING copy in BEAUTIFUL condition of.....Hemmingway’s....FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. I couldn’t believe when I opened the book and saw it was a first edition. I paid $3. Yay0
