Book Lovers Club
Comments
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Ruth - finally reading Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser - the details of the life of Laura Ingalls WIlder. It's marvelous. Thanks for recommending.
VR - if you're checking in - how are the lions? Thinking of your DH as one of my friends just discovered Lee Child. She borrowed the first 6 books from me last week and is roaring through them, one after another. (hmmm, pun not intended).
Really enjoyed The End of the Novel of Love by VIvian Gornick. ...("she examines various connections between love and literature..."..."one is reassured that the conversation between life and literature is mutually sustaining as well as mutually corrective...") Interesting and perceptive discussions/analysis/essays of lots of old authors (Kate Chopin, Jean Rhys, Willa Cather, John Cheever). Surprising how current many of the points are right now.
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Reading, reading, reading. I sure miss sharing books with everyone who used to post here.
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Interesting - my current post did not bump this to the top of my favorites. Trying again. I HATE what has happened to this previously wonderful site.
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I just finished Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor. She tells the story of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of the women in the book. At the end of Fitzgerald's book, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his swimming pool, seemingly the victim in a murder/suicide when the body of a local mechanic is found nearby. In this book, a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women who were involved in his life fall under suspicion. The story told in their alternating voices. It was so good that once I finished the book, I went back & reread Gatsby, watched the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Great Gatsby, and snippets of the Robert Redford Gatsby movie (from 1974). I definitely recommend it!
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Interesting recommendation Ruth. Thanks for posting. I really miss everyone's recommendations
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Me too!
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I'm reading an oldie - Graham Green's Third Man. I'm going back & reading some of Louise Penny Inspector Gamache novels that I missed. The latest I finished was The Cruelest Month. Really liked Lauren Groff's "Matrix - fascinating although I do understand that not everyone will be enchanted with the lives & happenings of 12th century nuns. And I've been reading some compilations of essays/thoughts. I was captured by Madelaine L'Engle Herself - Reflections on a Writing Life - ."hundreds of this celebrated author's most illuminating statements about writing, creativity, and the artistic life.." Lots of yellow sticky notes. And an even older group of essays by Joan Didion "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" ..."an essential portrait of America during the sixties." And I'm still catching up with Vivian Gornick after discovering her a couple of years ago. I think my favorite was Fierce Attachments that I read last year about her relationship with her Mother. Just finished Approaching Eye Level a collection of personal essays that "finds a quintessentially contemporary woman - urban, single, feminist - trying to observe herself and the world without sentiment, cynicism or nostalgia". Probably next up just for pure escape - a C.J Box or a Harlen Coben novel.
So many books...so little time. Yeah, I know it's not original.
And I'm always so glad that I subscribe to The Atlantic magazine. I stop whatever else I'm reading when that arrives. I also enjoy my subscription to Harpers. I've been trying to keep track of how many "new" words I see - and even as a former English teacher & rabid reader, there are +/- 4 or 5 every month.
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So sorry to see this thread fade away....
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I am reading (probably re-reading) a PD James novel. It's vaguely familiar but I don't remember who the villain is. The setting is on the coast and a nuclear plant figures into the plot. I'll look closer at the title tonight when I read on my Kindle.
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We just read Pretty Little Fools by Jillian Cantor for my Book Club. It sees the story in The Great Gatsby from the point of view of the women in the book. In the book, Gatsby isn't killed by the jealous husband, but by one of the women. I thought it was very interesting concept (although it viewed off from Gatsby in some important ways). What it made me do was re-read the original book, watch the Leonardo DiCaprio version of the movie & clips from the 1974 Robert Redford version. So, it got me back to Fitzgerald and reminded me of what an amazing writer he was. He was an artist who painted with words.
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Ruth - agree about Fitzgerald. Carole - PD James is always good.
I'm working my way through the 6 or 7 last Louise Penny "Inspector Gamache" books that I'd either missed, or read a copy that was due back at the library in a hurry. So nice to take my time and ruminate about all the amazing wisdom she produces.
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Devices and Desires is the title of the PD James novel.
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Just finished "The Great Reckoning" - Louise Penny. Next up is "Glass Houses". A friend just finished "Defending Jacob" for her book club and saiw it was really worth reading if you like legal books - like Scott Turow.
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Minus, I enjoyed all of those books (especially anything Louise Penny writes). I look forward to hearing your reaction to Defending Jacob; it has an unexpected ending. Ruth, I just finished reading Beautiful Little Fools. It was an interesting expansion of the original book, wasn't it?0 -
Defending Jacob is really good!
I thought Pretty Little Fools was a very interesting idea. IlI started thinking of other books and how you could take a minor character (or major character whose personality wasn't well developed) and how you could rewrite/expand the plot and get a whole different perspective on it. After reading Fools, I did reread Gatsby and found a couple places where Fools contradicted.
*Jordan was playing golf that summer. She is complimented several times on tournaments people had actually watched.
*In Gatsby, Daisy is as careless about the hurt she causes as Tom. In fact, the was one of the main points. They went about doing what they wanted and left others to clean up their messes.
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I definitely need to get Defending Jacob. I understand from a good friend that if I like Scott Turow I will really like it. She too has refrained from telling me the ending & spoiling it.
Interesting about Gatsby. I re-read about 5 years ago. This year I've read a few books from the Hogarth Shakespeare series - contemporary re-writes of his plays. So for I've liked Margaret Atwood - The Hag Seed (the Tempest), and Anne Tyler - Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew). Purchased but yet to read Jo Nesbo - Macbeth and Tracy Chevalier - New Boy (Othello)
Another contemporary re-write that I've enjoyed was Rachael Hawkins - The Wife Upstairs (Jane Eyre)
Edited to say that I really miss VR. Hope the lions at the library are OK.
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I just read The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman in Moscow). I LOVED it! Set in 1954 and covering just 10 days, it is a 'coming of age' novel told from multiple points of view. Funny, witty, poignant and heartbreaking; it's all there.
*I miss VR too & hope she will check in at some point!
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Thanks for the recommend Ruth. I'll add it to my list.
I just read Down Range, the first book by a new author - Taylor Moore. It was recommended if you like C.J. Box or Craig Johnson. Combines a classic western with a modern thriller. Military action with western issues. "A man defending his own in the best tradition of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Good read and I think VR's DH would love it.
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I'll jot down that title and author, Minus. It sounds like I would like reading it. However, I will have to wait until the book is available in ebook at my library. By then I will probably have lost the written note!
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Carole - LOL - I only buy books in paperback - so when I make a list of new books I want, I've lost it by the time the paper versions come out. The exception is the quarterly Library sale. Great deals - hardbacks for $2-$3. I believe Moore has a 2nd book coming out, so maybe you won't have to wait too long for the 1st one.
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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (author of Little Fires Everywhere) is very, very good! The story has a Orwell's 1984 feeling about it. A family is separated by a nationalistic movement (that hits a little to close to home in today's atmosphere). A mom mysteriously disappears. Her young son learns why and sets out to find her, helped by heroes in unexpected places.
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Thanks Ruth. I was hoping this would be one worth reading.
I'm reading Jo Nesbo's "Macbeth" - part of the Hogarth Shakespeare 'reimagined' series. I never really cared for Nesbo and am finding this heavy going. But I'm not giving up.
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Happy Holidays, fellow book lovers! We are looking forward to having 13 in cold Virginia for Christmas, including my DGD’s new boyfriend. I haven’t met him but would like to have some gifts under the tree for him. DGD tells me he loves history and enjoys biographies, especially “quirky” ones (think Che Guevara). Any recommendations? TIA!
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Just finished reading Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus) and loved it! It’s funny and feminist and full of unique characters. If you’re looking for pure escapism, this book is for you!
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I just finished Lessons in Chemistry too and second the recommendation. I laughed out loud quite a few times & also yelled, "Oh No!" so loud several times that I alarmed my dog!).
I also have come across a delightful series: Being A Jane Austen Mystery by Stephanie Barron. I came across one of the books in a bookstore & enjoyed it so much that I downloaded 4 more of the series (of 15) on my Kindle. If I enjoy them as much as I did the first one, I will read all of them. They take people in her life and places she really went and create a mystery that Jane solves. Book One is Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor.
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Reading instead of doing what I should. My excuse is trying to get a tooth extraction to heal so nothing too strenuous. 6 books this week. None new. I hit the public library sale in March so most of these are hardback for $2.00. Tana French "The Searcher"; J.A. Jance "Hand of Evil; David Baldacci "Hour Games"; Jan Karon " A New Song" (one of the Mitford series I'd missed); Sara Paretsky "Guardian Angel"; Amanda Cross "An Imperfect Spy".
If you ever find any of the old Amanda Cross books, do pick them up. That is the pen name of Carolyn Heilbrun, who died some years ago.
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I love your recent choices, Minus, especially your endorsement of Ananda Cross. After my last knee replacement, my BFF brought me every single Amanda Cross (in paperback) and I used them to distract myselffrom the discomfort of recovery and rehab. I would read them when I couldn’t sleep and loved being able to enjoy her stories in the order she’d written them. I then passed them on to another friend; sooner or later we will have the entire world reading her books!
And Ruth, don’t we all wish we had a dog like Six Thirty!0 -
Six Thirty was so awesome. I pictured him as a little terrier until they described him later on in the book.
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jkl - I have the entire Amanda Cross series in paper back and I will read them again. Have you read Heilbrun's non-fiction? Writing a Woman's Life, Reinventing Womanhood; The Last Gift of Time:Life Beyond Sixty.
One of the mistakes I made some years back was getting rid of the entire collection of John Mac Donald Travis Mc Gee series books (all had a color in the title). I also somehow gave away the early Scott Turow books & am trying to find them at used book stores. OK - I likely would never have read all the Shakespeare plays again, or Canterbury Tales in the original old English, but there are authors/books I remember fondly and would like to re-read 20,30,40 years down the road.
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I jotted down Amanda Cross and will look for her books in Kindle ebooks at the library.
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