Book Lovers Club
Comments
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My DH loved The Help. He may not be the best to gouge that by though. Sleepless in Seattle is one of his favorite movies.
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Into Thin Air was a great read.. as well as 'Alive' the story of the soccer(?) team whose plane crashed in the Andes.
Now I am reading Seabiscuit.. pretty good. I always am a couple years behind the reading curve.
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Speaking of books made into films... There was a made for TV movie based on the book Alive. I read the book many years ago. I recall when the incident occurred. Blew me away when years later, my kids read the book in school. My oldest thought the book was "awesome.". Not sure if that's how I would describe it. Into Thin Air became a classic the day it was published. Long live non-fiction!!!
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Just finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. WOW. It is about a Minnesota-based pharmacologist who goes to the Amazon to find out how her office mate had died while on a trip to check up on a rogue researcher. it was just fantastic. The fact that I read while getting venom shots to desensitize me to bee, wasp and hornet stings - and my arm has been itching, probably added to the sense that I too was in the amazonian forests. And her characters, I feel I know them personally.
I highly recommend this book!Julie E
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Julie
I also recently finsished State of Wonder. I enjoyed it immensely. I'm currently listening to Bossypants by Tina Fey on audiobook. (downloaded from my local library) I think its quite funny.
Elizabeth
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Apple, I read another account of the "Allive" incident--the name escapes me, but it was really excellent. I will look up the title.
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"Miracle in the Andes" Parrada
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Elizabeth1959
Does Tina Fey read Bossypants herself? if so, that would be the perfect book to finally try for the first time to get an audio book for my ipod from the library (the alleged reason I asked for an ipod for xmas). I have been downloading comical podcasts from itunes - mostly British topical shows and Ricky Gervais to which I listen and laugh out loud while I deliver neighborhood association newsletters to people's houses. Hmm, what will I do while listening to BossyPants? wallpaper the bathroom!
oh, while I was still reading State of Wonder, I saw a book at the library which I immediately checked out - Mr. Fox - the name of the president of Vogel Corp.
Julie E
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Picking up "State of Wonder" today from the library. VR "If Not Love" by Kay Langdale does not seem to be availbable from my local library system. Looks like it's only sold as a hardcover edition from Amazon's as used. BTW I really enjoy "The Wife". It was a very quick read.0
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Julie
Tina Fey reads the book herself. I do think that adds something to the book. I got a new ipod last christmas. My daughter now has it at college and I have her old one. I may have to treat myself and get something that holds more material.
Elizabeth
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Ok, at the tail end of chemo, here- so, no pun intended- I am reading dog murder mysteries. Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie tales. They are fun, enthralling, easy. I am now going to go back to Cutting from Stone and see how much further I can muddle through that. I have heard that the second half is better than the first.
But, am needing recommendations for more light reading. Not too much thinking, but well written? Any suggestions?
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vtEllen As I mentioned above "The Wife" by Meg Wolitzer, also "This is Where I leave You" by Jonathon Trooper (? spelling). They are both related to divorce, so maybe you are not up for that. Trooper's book was laugh out loud funny,and well written. Wolitzer's very well written.0
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Wenweb!!! You took the wind out of my sail with your recommendations for Vtellen! Your descriptions of the books are spot on. Now if there was some way of getting your hands on If Not Love.... Then you could have recommended the Trifecta!!!! I inter loaned my copy of the book. But since you mentioned that none of the libraries in the system have it, perhaps you can request that your library purchase it. My library buys everything they can get their hands on that I request. I figure I am paying good taxes and always vote yes for the library budget... So I don't feel guilty with all of my requests.
I will tell you why I loved If Not Love. Just like with Meg Wolitzer's The Wife, reading If Not Love reminds me of the proverbial expression, "You can't judge a book by it's cover.". Having read both books has taught me the importance of never judging or wondering why two people are a couple. Even trying to understand couples like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutchner doesn't even register in my mind. When someone asked me my thoughts about the state of their marriage, I laughed it off by saying, "She will find someone younger.". No one knows why certain relationships work and why others don't. These two books deal with that fascination. Tropper's book also attempts to exemplify how relationships within a family work. All three books gave me a wonderful perspective on how NOT to judge relationships.0 -
Light fun reading if your brain is a bit fuzzy -- author Karen White.
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VR I went to my library today, and low and behold they were able to locate one copy of "If Not Love" within our library system. Hopefully I will have it within a week or so. I will give you my impression after I have read it. BTW, your descriptions are much better than mine
In the mean time "State of Wonder". I may end up buying and finishing on my Kindle.
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Just found this thread: it's fantastic--I requested "If Not Love", and "This is Where I Leave You". I'm currently reading a mystery from Reginald Hill--"The Woodcutter", and just finished "Blueprints for Building Better Girls", by Elissa Shappell.
I'm sure this is old news, but I read "Water for Elephants" on a business trip last week, and it was entertaining, although the ending kind of disappointed.
And, I did read "The Emperor of All Maladies"--which is not light reading, and is a biography of cancer, and it was illuminating for me--so little was known for so long.
Sorry it I'm repeating old material, I just joined the thread.
I'm always looking for a recommendation for a good book.
Kira
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Hi Kira! Wow, it sounds like you really belong on this thread!
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kira Welcome aboard. No worries about repetition. There are too many pages to read back on, and it never hurts to read something that might be a reminder of something you forgot about and wanted to read.
I could not get into "Water for Elephants" I had no interest in reading about the descriptions of circus life, so I had difficulty getting into the beginning of it, and I did give it a good 100 pgs. Everyone's tastes are different. Haven't read about anyone finding the end disappointing!!
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hi Kira, welcome!
vtEllen, it's back now but for maybe six months, chemo took my ability to read and remember what happened from one page to the next. Needless to say, anything with a plot was frustrating. One day I was listening to Chapter a Day on public radio and followed right along. The next day, I went to the library for audio books and that worked great. Maybe give that a try?
Did anyone get all the way through the 'Left Behind' series? I read maybe six or seven of them and it seemed they slowed down a lot (stretching the story out to sell more books?). So I quit reading them, but just noticed that our local library has them. Wondering if it's worthwhile to read them to the series conclusion.
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Wenweb, I got it at the library perpetual booksale, and was stuck on a plane, so I got into it, and I found it rose to a crescendo and then just kind of ended suddenly.
I keep meaning to get the Joan Didion book about her daughter's death--Blue Nights.
Seriously, I used to be a great reader, and now I fall asleep to early, and don't give it the time it deserves.
This thread is great!
kira
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Kira... I am anxiously waiting for the publication of Blue Nights. It will be released November 1.
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KIRA!!!
Thank you, I didn't even know that Reginald wrote novels outside of the Pascoe and Dalziel and the Joe Sixsmith series!!! I just now read a description of The Woodcutter on www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ and it almost sounds too suspenseful/creepy Minette Walters for me!! But I will certainly check it and his other books out. I recently finished Midnight Fugue from the Pascoe and Dalziel series - which I enjoyed.
thanks for mentioning the woodcutter
Julie E
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If everyone enjoyed Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You.... Terry McMillian's A Day Late and a Dollar Short is right up there!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122209.A_Day_Late_and_a_Dollar_Short
Wenweb...After you read If Not Love...I DEFINITELY want to know what you think! Honestly, there are two movies that I would love to see made from books (besides Tropper's which is now being made into a screenplay and should probably been spun into a film in the next several years). I would love to see If Not Love made into a film. While reading the book, I would try to imagine which actresses and actors would play each of the characters. The other book that I would love to see in film is Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prizer winning book, The Powerbroker, about the life of Robert Moses. Somehow I always come back to imagining Tommy Lee Jones playing Robert Moses, even though he looks nothing like him....Got to see Robert Caro speak about Robert Moses a few years ago, SRO audience. Breathtaking!
Anna Quindlen wrote a charming little gem, How Reading Changed My Life:
A little blurb from the review:
Amazon.com Review
A recurring theme throughout Anna
Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life is the comforting premise that
readers are never alone. "There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then
there were books," she writes, "a kind of parallel universe in which anything
might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but
never really a stranger. My real, true world." Later, she quotes editor Hazel
Rochman: "Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but,
most important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Indeed, Quindlen's essays are
full of the names of "friends," real or fictional--Anne of Green Gables and
Heidi; Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen, to name just a few--who have comforted,
inspired, educated, and delighted her throughout her life. In four short essays
Quindlen shares her thoughts on the act of reading itself ("It is like the
rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable
pedestrian task that leads to heat and light"); analyzes the difference between
how men and women read ("there are very few books in which male characters, much
less boys, are portrayed as devoted readers"); and cheerfully defends middlebrow
literature:Most of those so-called middlebrow readers would have readily
admitted that the Iliad set a standard that could not be matched by
What Makes Sammy Run? or Exodus. But any reader with common sense
would also understand intuitively, immediately, that such comparisons are false,
that the uses of reading are vast and variegated and that some of them are not
addressed by Homer.The Canon, censorship, and the future of
publishing, not to mention that of reading itself, are all subjects Quindlen
addresses with intelligence and optimism in a book that may not change your
life, but will no doubt remind you of other books that did. --Alix WilberAt the end of the book she lists her "favorite" fiction and non-fiction books....The Powerbroker is among her "favorites" too!!!!
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BTW...I received The Marriage Plot from the library yesterday. Stayed up late reading Death in the City of Light:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11297434-death-in-the-city-of-light
...Got to finish the non-fiction before moving on to the fiction.....
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i wish my house was clean.. i'd be reading.
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My house isn't clean but I read any way!!
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Reading has always been the main reason my house isn't clean!
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The more you read, the less you notice the dust!
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Speaking of cleaning... Jessie Sholl wrote a fascinating book about her mother, a hoarder. Dirty Secrets: A Daughter Comes Clean About her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding.
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I come from a long line of hoarders, although I think we always referred to it as being a packrat which is probably about the same thing. If I were to have someone come in to clean, I would have to clean before she got her and get my little piles organized. I do not have dirt, just lots and lots of clutter.
I got Game of Thrones yesterday as my number finally came up on the list at the library....seems everyone is reading the books now because of the HBO series, which is why I am reading the book now. I loved that tv show. The books are a series and I did not even know about them until I had a patient who was reading this pretty thick book and I asked what it was....think that one was called Songs of Fire and Ice and he told me it was part of a series and asked if I had ever heard of the HBO series Game of Thrones. I went to the library and think I was maybe #500 and something on the list( but there are lots of branches in Cincinnati and they all have copies so it only took a few months to get the book) .....all because people only became aware that the books were out there after the television show. So I am doing this in reverse of my usual order since I always like to read the book first.
I may be one of the few who did not find the movie The Help as good as the book.....thought it was good, but liked the book better. They always have to condense things for a movie. The only actor who lived up to my expectations as to what he looked like in my mind when reading the book, was Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind.
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