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Book a Week in 2013 - Week thirty-three


Robin M
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I'm listening to Bob Newhart read his book, I Shouldn't be Doing This. I love him. I think I kept dh from falling asleep with all my "silent" laughing. 

 

I'll have to look for that one too because I'm a big Bob Newhart fan.

 

(It was such fun to see him again when he did a cameo in "Horrible Bosses" a couple of years ago.)

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Middle Girl, having gotten halfway through the more age-appropriate The World's Social Structures, took my copy of Utopia when I finished and has read it straight through. She's now convinced that a classless, moneyless, communist planned society is the way to go. I think next she needs to read some selections from Marx and Engels, to be followed maybe by some Solzhenitsyn. Seriously, any other reading suggestions for a middle-schooler who now knows exactly how the world ought to be? I don't have any background in economics or political philosophy myself, beyond casual reading.

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Middle Girl, having gotten halfway through the more age-appropriate The World's Social Structures, took my copy of Utopia when I finished and has read it straight through. She's now convinced that a classless, moneyless, communist planned society is the way to go. I think next she needs to read some selections from Marx and Engels, to be followed maybe by some Solzhenitsyn. Seriously, any other reading suggestions for a middle-schooler who now knows exactly how the world ought to be? I don't have any background in economics or political philosophy myself, beyond casual reading.

 

I don't know either. But one book I have on my to-read list is a very recent one: The Man Who Quit Money. It's just so outside of the norm (esp. American norm) for today that I thought it could make for some fascinating reading. (But I suspect it would be singing to the choir for your dd.) Not sure that's helpful but I'll toss the idea out there for you....

 

ETA: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a wonderful little book that tells a bit about 2 teen boys stuck in Mao's 'reeducation' programs. Maybe one to add to the list...?

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I don't know either. But one book I have on my to-read list is a very recent one: The Man Who Quit Money. It's just so outside of the norm (esp. American norm) for today that I thought it could make for some fascinating reading. (But I suspect it would be singing to the choir for your dd.) Not sure that's helpful but I'll toss the idea out there for you....

 

ETA: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a wonderful little book that tells a bit about 2 teen boys stuck in Mao's 'reeducation' programs. Maybe one to add to the list...?

Okay, our library has Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, and the used book store has The Man Who Quit Money. The reviews of the latter compare it to Walden, which we have somewhere around here and might be a good reading choice.

 

Thanks!

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I'm listening to Bob Newhart read his book, I Shouldn't be Doing This. I love him. I think I kept dh from falling asleep with all my "silent" laughing. 

 

I *heart* Bob Newhart - I'm reserving this from my library right now!

 

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley  - This book was recommended to me by my 9 year old and I loved it.  I found the first 50 pages slow to catch me but then I was hooked.  Robin McKinley can create a world of fantasy in a way that most wish they could. 

 

In Progress:

 

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery (read aloud)

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

At BertramĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Hotel by Agatha Christie

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse (audiobook)

 

2013 finished books:

 

57. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley  (****)

56. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (****)

55. Decorating is Fun by Dorothy Draper (****)

54. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (****)

53. The MidwifeĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Apprentice by Karen Cushman (****)

52. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (** **)

51. Entertaining is Fun: How to be a Popular Hostess by Dorothy Draper  (*****)

50. The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (audiobook) (***)

 

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I finished my first ever audio book (I have tried and tried to listen to an audio book and have never finished one), The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann.  Dd and I have been downloading free audio books from the Sync website over the summer and this was one of the free ones.  It reminded me a little of the one Artemis Fowl book I read.  A little.  It's about fairies and humans and changelings in England.  The fairies are not beautiful nice fairies but Spiderwick fairies, lol, so it was a bit dark.  Not too bad of a story, I lose a little bit listening so it might have been better if I read it.  There must be a sequel in the making because there was no resolution, a bit of an abrupt ending.  

 

But I listened to an audio book  :hurray:

 

That is my 9th book of the year since I'm still reading Robert Jordan.

 

Do you think you'll do another audiobook?

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I finished the next in the Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs. "Hunting Ground" was a very easy read but I put it aside a couple of months ago after the first chapter. I guess it was fortunate someone else put a hold on it and forced me to finish it!

 

I feel a bit quilty because I am now reading Stacia's find "Angelmaker" by Nick Harkaway. I was waiting for Stacia to get her copy first but the library wants this one back too. It has been interesting so far but the part I just finished (20% in) is so cool. I have to ask if Stacia made it to the part with the Hive?

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I feel a bit quilty because I am now reading Stacia's find "Angelmaker" by Nick Harkaway. I was waiting for Stacia to get her copy first but the library wants this one back too. It has been interesting so far but the part I just finished (20% in) is so cool. I have to ask if Stacia made it to the part with the Hive?

 

Ah, don't feel guily! Glad to hear you're liking it so far.

 

As far as the hive -- do you mean the part in the remote location w/ the old man & that hive??? Yes, that was just where I stopped when I ended up returning it. What a cool visual he created w/ that scene!

 

Oh, and elderly (she'd kill me for saying that ;) ) Edie Banister & her dog just crack me up.

 

 

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Saw this on Facebook.  Not sure I believe it.  One of the comments I found quite amusing:  "apparently the most common kleptos are murakami fans"

 

Hmmm. That's interesting. I started poking around & reading a little bit about book thefts. They tend to vary by region & by whether or not it's a bookstore or library, at least as far as I can surmise from the various articles I skimmed.

 

The wikipedia entry at least confirms some of the photo you posted, esp. the Bukowski & Murakami parts. (Side note to self -- may have to read some Bukowski as I've never read his work.)

 

This is an interesting & fun article about book theft from stores. I love the part about Jeffrey Eugenides & Paul Auster being at a literary conference & 'arguing' about whose books were more-often stolen. :laugh:  (I've read one book by each of those authors & I'd definitely prefer Eugenides myself, lol.)

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Even though I've got a couple of books going right now, I've gone & started another... Edgar Allan Poe's (only) novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. I'm reading it because there is a recent book out (Pym) that is part satire, part homage to Poe's novel & Pym was recommended to me on Goodreads. Since I had never read Poe's novel, I decided I should do that before reading Pym.

 

amazon description of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe:

Poe found the germ of the story he would develop into "Arthur Gordon Pym" in 1836 in a newspaper account of the shipwreck and subsequent rescue of the two men on board. Published in 1838, this rousing sea adventure follows New England boy, Pym, who stows away on a whaling ship with its captain's son, Augustus. The two boys repeatedly find themselves on the brink of death or discovery and witness many terrifying events, including mutiny, cannibalism, and frantic pursuits. Poe imbued this deliberately popular tale with such allegorical richness, biblical imagery, and psychological insights that the tale has come to influence writers as various as Melville, James, Verne and Nabokov.

amazon description of Pym by Mat Johnson:

Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes has just made a startling discovery: the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that confirms the reality of Edgar Allan PoeĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s strange and only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Determined to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew of six to follow PymĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s trail to the South Pole, armed with little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes. Thus begins an epic journey by an unlikely band of adventurers under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literatureĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s great mysteries.

I started Poe's novel late last night & (not surprisingly?) had all kinds of weird, dark dreams. :ohmy: Even though the book is fairly fast-paced & adventure-filled, Poe knows how to bring out the underlying dread & creepy side of things (& I don't think I'm even to the creepy parts of the book yet). I feel like I may have already jumped into my October 'spooky' reading a bit early this year....

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Ah, don't feel guily! Glad to hear you're liking it so far.

 

As far as the hive -- do you mean the part in the remote location w/ the old man & that hive??? Yes, that was just where I stopped when I ended up returning it. What a cool visual he created w/ that scene!

 

Oh, and elderly (she'd kill me for saying that ;) ) Edie Banister & her dog just crack me up.

That's the scene. One of my favorite ones in a very long time. You will enjoy the history of Edie Banister when you get to it. I am only up to age 19 or so but great background history.

 

I hope your book arrives soon. :)

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Aargh Stacia stop adding books to my list....

Hey, wait a minute.... Isn't Poe a bit of a young whippersnapper for you??? I mean, he'd only be 204 now. You like all those older guys most of the time.

 

Look at you checking out all these young dudes. LOL. ;) :001_tt1:

 

(Are you going all literary cougar on us, woman????)

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Hey, wait a minute.... Isn't Poe a bit of a young whippersnapper for you??? I mean, he'd only be 204 now. You like all those older guys most of the time.

 

Look at you checking out all these young dudes. LOL. ;) :001_tt1:

 

ibg4ymgvywButP.jpg

 

(Are you going all literary cougar on us, woman????)

 

Violet Crown - Looks like Stacia is on to your cradle robbing ways.  :)

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Today I finished Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone.  I wanted to like this book, I really did.  I think though, that I expected something very different than what it delivered, which may be more my fault than the book's.  While I loved the idea of Deconstructing Penguins, it felt to me like this book club and its resulting book was more about a person in the know teasing the "right" answers out of a group of kids and parents than about the mutual discovery of personal and societal truths.  I wanted the process to be more organic - a free-flow of thoughts and ideas between parents and children - rather than something that only looked and felt organic on the surface but was really just a leader driving the discussions toward something specific.  It felt too much like some of my high school literature classes in which our analysis had to be right instead of personal and thought-provoking.  I much, much preferred How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

 

Completed So Far

1. Best Friends by Samantha Glen
2. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
3. The Gift of Pets: Stories Only a Vet Could Tell by Bruce Coston
4. Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess
5. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine
6. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim
7. Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
8. The Odyssey by Homer (Fagles translation)
9. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
10. The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings
11. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
12. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
13. Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson
14. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
15. The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie
16. Kisses From Katie by Katie Katie Davis
17. Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan
18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. Zoo by James Patterson
20. St. Lucy's School for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
21. Russian Tortoises in Captivity by Jerry D. Fife
22. Leopard Geckos for Dummies by Liz Palika
23. The 8th Confession by James Patterson
24. Leopard Geckos: Caring for Your New Pet by Casey Watkins
25. The Ultimate Guide to Leopard Geckos by Phoenix Hayes Simmons
26. 9th Judgement by James Patterson
27. 10th Anniversary by James Patterson
28. 11th Hour by James Patterson
29. 12th of Never by James Patterson

30. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner
31. Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea With Ocean Experts by Ellen J. Prager
32. Dolphin Mysteries: Unlocking the Secrets of Communication by Kathleen M. Dudzinski & Toni Frohoff
33. The Greeening by S. Brubaker
34. No Touch Monkey! by Ayun Halliday
35. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

36. Beating Dyspraxia with a Hop, Skip, and a Jump by Geoff Platt

37. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

38. Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

39. The Stranger by Albert Camus

40. Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare

41. Shakespeare: The World a Stage by Bill Bryson

42. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

43. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

44. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

45. Brain Power: Improve Your Mind as You Age by Michael J. Gelb and Kelly Howell

46. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

47. Animal Farm by George Orwell

48. Carrie by Stephen King

49. Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

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Hmph. It's true that dh is a younger man... By six days. :D

 

Are we doing Hot Writers now? Hang on....

 

 

:lol:

 

Robin, since you do a different theme each week, I nominate Violet Crown's idea of Hot Writer week. :thumbup: :smilielol5: (Oh, and, Robin, you could use that reading/book posterboy you posted a few weeks back too. ;) )

 

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I have a contribution to the hot writers thread:

 

I know I've said this before but if I wasn't married and if he hadn't been dead for 60 years then I'd totally be all over James Herriot.  It might be a bit awkward though with him being an English countryside vet and me being allergic to everything with fur.  And I can't find any pictures of him younger than 70 but I assume he was cute young guy at some point.

 

And then there's Jim Trelease.  Never seen a picture of him but boy we could talk books for hours over tea I bet.  Also awkard because he's 80 and still alive and married. 

 

I hope he never finds this thread and neither does my DH. 

 

 

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Hello everyone!

 

I have not started reading the Henry IV plays but do I receive extra credit for visiting Henry IV and Joan Navarre's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral earlier in the week? I also tromped through Ashdown Forest, home of Winnie the Pooh!

But did you play pooh sticks? Totally jealous, sounds lovely. :)

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Finished A Question of Identity by Susan Hill (love this series).  Now on to The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.  (Tana French says this book "scared the bejasus out of me" so I was sold.  Also, I think this weather is reminding me of fall so much that I'm ready to start my creepy reads which I usually go for in October!  lol)

 

Also on my nightstand from the library:

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Innocent Spy by Laura Wilson (historical police procedural)

Seduction by M.J. Rose (historical suspense with, hopefully, some juicy parts, lol)

Fever by Mary Beth Keane (a novel about Typhoid Mary)

The Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick (novel based on historical reformer Dorothea Dix who fights for "the least of these", the mentally ill, in spite of the culture and time's pressures for her to get married and settle down)

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (not sure I'll like this one...didn't care for her The Jane Austen Book Club much.  This one is a family drama.)

 

I am waiting for The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett because I've heard only glowing reviews!

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Even though I've got a couple of books going right now, I've gone & started another... Edgar Allan Poe's (only) novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. I'm reading it because there is a recent book out (Pym) that is part satire, part homage to Poe's novel & Pym was recommended to me on Goodreads. Since I had never read Poe's novel, I decided I should do that before reading Pym.

 

 

n1032.jpg   mac11_books02.jpg

 

Poe's book sounds like a perfect autumn or winter read (you know, the kind of book a Southern California gal curls up with when the temperature dips below 65).  

 

Hello everyone!

 

I have not started reading the Henry IV plays but do I receive extra credit for visiting Henry IV and Joan Navarre's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral earlier in the week? I also tromped through Ashdown Forest, home of Winnie the Pooh!

 

I've always wanted to play Pooh Sticks in the Ashdown Forest!  Sounds like you are having a wonderful time across the pond.

 

Are we doing Hot Writers now? Hang on....

 

Y'all crack me up!!

 

Dashing dead authors turn up as characters in novels sometimes, whether historical fiction (Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron, one of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries) or for me recently, in science fiction where the poet Keats features prominently in the novels Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion.  

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I finished Fall of Hyperion earlier this week.  It wasn't quite as perfect as Hyperion, but it still was an excellent, thought provoking, and just plain crazy page turner.  The reader for the audio version of the 2nd book was especially excellent.  If you 

 

I needed a palate cleansing read -- a literary saltine -- after the insanity of future armageddon/time travel/artificial intelligence/John Keats that is the Hyperion world, so I started If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name, a memoir about living in small town Alaska.  The author, Heather Lende writes obituaries and a social column for the local town newspaper, and clearly loves her adopted home town and its quirky residents and the life and death reality of living just off the edge of civilization.    You can get a taste of her writing, of this town and of the book, through her blog.

 

Not content to just have one book going, again after the all consuming sci-fi madness of the last 2 weeks, I've got a collection of short stories and novellas by Peter Robinson (the DCI Banks author), and I'll be listening Moving Pictures, a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel as I make my long commute to and from one more weekend of Sound of Music gigs.

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Today I finished Carrie by Stephen King.  I remember having watched the movie when I was a kid, but I don't think I've ever read the book before now.  I wanted to read it because it is coming out soon as a musical at my local theater.  The story itself was good, but I can't say that I was all that impressed with the writing or style.  It seemed very jumbled and undeveloped.

 

 

I watched that movie when it was new in the theatre when I was in grade 11! I didn't become a Sissy Spacek fan until a bit later, though. I don't like horror movies as a rule, but I was in high school at the time, so did watch a few, I guess.

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I read mostly free books and library loans this last week while waiting for my new gift card to arrive with the exception of Home to Whiskey Creek, which is book 4 in the series.  I'm still waiting for someone to read the new Kitty Norville book before I spend the money, hint, hint.  I am also working through Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.  It will be interesting to compare it to the new Bart Erhman book due out next spring. (I have no idea how the color came out different in the titles.)

 

 

Week 32

Home to Whiskey Creek (Book 4) by Brenda Novak. 

A Forbidden Affair by Yvonne Lindsay. 
Rogue (Exceptional Series #2) by Jess Petosa. 
The Job Offer by Eleanor Webb. 

Rainwater Kisses by Krista Lakes. 
The Honeymoon for One by Chris Keniston. 

 

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Finished

 

25. Jean Genet, Funeral Rites

 

I hadn't read any Genet since reading Our Lady of the Flowers in college, and it was rewarding to come at him with greater maturity. Funeral Rites is a difficult book. The narrator, named Jean Genet (but not the author), attends the funeral of his young lover, Jean, a partisan fighter killed just before the liberation of Paris, then visits his house. In working out his grief, he creates in his imagination a kaleidoscope of events - chiefly sexual or violent, or both - involving Jean, his mother, his half-brother, the family's housemaid, a young German deserter taken in by Jean's mother, and a teenage collaborator he glimpses in a newsreel and christens Riton. In narrating these events, Genet (the narrator) imagines himself as the various characters, often shifting between the first and third person pronouns without warning, and sometimes maintaining the first-person stance while shifting between characters; though without confusing the reader. Lyrical descriptions, painfully beautiful meditations on grief, and explicitly pornographic or disturbingly violent scenes fade in and out over the course of the book, which has no chapter separations.

 

Very powerful; but a book which I would hesitate to recommend to anyone who would have difficulty with the content. I won't include an excerpt, as all the snippets I thought I wanted to share were not publishable on the forum here.

 

Not a "hot writer"; but Genet had a rough life, and gets a sympathy vote.

jean-genet.jpg

 

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Kilts, schmilts. The main board can have their little diversions while the real action is hidden here on the book-a-week thread as we may be starting down the road to Racy Readers week... :w00t:

 

:D

 

ETA: Was it just an accident or more of a Freudian "slip" that I just spilled about half of my ice water on myself as I wrote this post? :lol:

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Hello everyone!

 

I have not started reading the Henry IV plays but do I receive extra credit for visiting Henry IV and Joan Navarre's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral earlier in the week? I also tromped through Ashdown Forest, home of Winnie the Pooh!

For real extra credit, you have to make your pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral and recite the General Prologue at St Thos. Becket's altar: "Whan that Aprille with hir shoures sote/ The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote...."

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I bet Jane Austen has a very low rate of theft.

 

Well, I don't know about *that*....

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9391959-jane-austen-stole-my-boyfriend

 

:tongue_smilie:

 

I much, much preferred How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

 

A friend let me borrow this & I have it sitting here to read (someday)....

 

I actually chuckled when I got to Burkowski. I was not surprised. 

 

Have you read any of his books? If so, is there a particular one you recommend?

 

Hello everyone!

 

I have not started reading the Henry IV plays but do I receive extra credit for visiting Henry IV and Joan Navarre's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral earlier in the week? I also tromped through Ashdown Forest, home of Winnie the Pooh!

 

Sounds wonderful. And, your 'extra credit' seems like it should be more along the lines of a 'get out of jail free' card.

 

Enjoy your trip & keep us posted on all the great places & people....

 

I am reminded that I have to finish reading the Narrative of Gordon Pym. I started it months ago and got distracted.

 

So far, this book seems like a mix of Treasure Island and A High Wind in Jamaica mixed (but overall, I like Gordon Pym better). I just got to a point w/ a typical (?) Poe type twist on things. And based on general summaries I've read, I think I'll be entering the land of the weird in this story pretty soon....

 

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

...

I am waiting for The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett because I've heard only glowing reviews!

 

Would love to read your reviews on both of these after you read them!

 

25. Jean Genet, Funeral Rites

 

I hadn't read any Genet since reading Our Lady of the Flowers in college, and it was rewarding to come at him with greater maturity. Funeral Rites is a difficult book. The narrator, named Jean Genet (but not the author), attends the funeral of his young lover, Jean, a partisan fighter killed just before the liberation of Paris, then visits his house. In working out his grief, he creates in his imagination a kaleidoscope of events - chiefly sexual or violent, or both - involving Jean, his mother, his half-brother, the family's housemaid, a young German deserter taken in by Jean's mother, and a teenage collaborator he glimpses in a newsreel and christens Riton. In narrating these events, Genet (the narrator) imagines himself as the various characters, often shifting between the first and third person pronouns without warning, and sometimes maintaining the first-person stance while shifting between characters; though without confusing the reader. Lyrical descriptions, painfully beautiful meditations on grief, and explicitly pornographic or disturbingly violent scenes fade in and out over the course of the book, which has no chapter separations.

 

Very powerful; but a book which I would hesitate to recommend to anyone who would have difficulty with the content. I won't include an excerpt, as all the snippets I thought I wanted to share were not publishable on the forum here.

 

Sounds quite fascinating. I may have to look into it.

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For real extra credit, you have to make your pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral and recite the General Prologue at St Thos. Becket's altar: "Whan that Aprille with hir shoures sote/ The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote...."

 

And, your 'extra credit' seems like it should be more along the lines of a 'get out of jail free' card.

 

Well, Jane, based on the responses, I think Violet Crown is the tough professor & I'm just the nutty professor. (Although I might suggest reading Murder in the Cathedral while in Canterbury....)

 

:biggrinjester:

 

P.S. Are you going to try to make a Beefeater laugh while you're across the pond?

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So far, this book seems like a mix of Treasure Island and A High Wind in Jamaica mixed (but overall, I like Gordon Pym better). I just got to a point w/ a typical (?) Poe type twist on things. And based on general summaries I've read, I think I'll be entering the land of the weird in this story pretty soon....

 

 

Better than A High Wind in Jamaica? And Treasure Island? Now I feel I must read it.
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Well, Jane, based on the responses, I think Violet Crown is the tough professor & I'm just the nutty professor. (Although I might suggest reading Murder in the Cathedral while in Canterbury....)

 

 

I'm just jealous. I bet it wasn't any 105 degrees in Canterbury. And my next exciting trip is to San Antonio. Yee-ha.
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Better than A High Wind in Jamaica? And Treasure Island? Now I feel I must read it.

 

A High Wind in Jamaica was quite good, but also quite disturbing. Poe sort-of fits into that, but his is a different style of 'disturbing' (at least so far).

 

Frankly, when I read Treasure Island a few years ago, I didn't really care for it. I didn't really know the story ahead of time & I was disappointed at how brutal it really was. (Yeah, yeah, I know it's about pirates.... but... still!)

 

I'm still only on page 115 or so (just chapter 8), so I'll have to see where Poe takes me from here.

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I finished The Cuckoo's Calling, J.K. Rowling's book that she wrote as Robert Galbraith. It was nothing special, but was a decent detective mystery. After the first few chapters I was no longer even thinking about the author. I just got involved in the story.

I have another Agatha Christie book from the library, The Body in the Library, which I'll probably start tonight. I also want to reread both The Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men, because they're the first two on ds' list for English this year. If I'm going to expect him to discuss them or write about them, I need them to be fresh in my mind, and I don't want the Spark Notes version.
 

Today I finished Carrie by Stephen King.  I remember having watched the movie when I was a kid, but I don't think I've ever read the book before now.  <snip>  The story itself was good, but I can't say that I was all that impressed with the writing or style.  It seemed very jumbled and undeveloped.


I discovered Stephen King in the 80's, and devoured his novels back then. While I liked Carrie, it wasn't one of my favorites. I re-read it last year, and really didn't care for it. Ds read it and thought it was weird. He couldn't understand why it was considered a horror story. I guess when you compare it to horror stories that his generation knows, he's right. I did a bit of searching and found out that even King isn't too fond of it. He says his inexperience as a writer shows in that book. I think it was his first one published.
 
Other than Rose Madder, which was a book club book a few years ago, and On Writing, I haven't read anything of his written after the 1980's.
 

I'm listening to Bob Newhart read his book, I Shouldn't be Doing This. I love him. I think I kept dh from falling asleep with all my "silent" laughing.


I love him! My library doesn't have the audiobook, but they do have it on CD. I can imagine that listening to Newhart read it would be much funnier that reading it in print.
 
 

Aargh Stacia stop adding books to my list....


She has a tendency to do that, doesn't she? :)

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A High Wind in Jamaica was quite good, but also quite disturbing. Poe sort-of fits into that, but his is a different style of 'disturbing' (at least so far).

 

Frankly, when I read Treasure Island a few years ago, I didn't really care for it. I didn't really know the story ahead of time & I was disappointed at how brutal it really was. (Yeah, yeah, I know it's about pirates.... but... still!)

 

I'm still only on page 115 or so (just chapter 8), so I'll have to see where Poe takes me from here.

Treasure Island is best read aloud to a breathlessly engaged ten-year-old who begs for Just One More Chapter. Probably the only way to read it, really.
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I'm just jealous. I bet it wasn't any 105 degrees in Canterbury. And my next exciting trip is to San Antonio. Yee-ha.

 

You could ride a bull or something, right? That's a Texas type thing, isn't it? Your reading assignment could be Midnight Cowboy. LOL. (I have no idea whether or not that's actually an apt recommendation as I've never read the book nor seen the movie.)

 

Wow. 105. I feel sorry for you. We've actually had wonderful, bearable weather the past couple of days (in the high 60s/low 70s). It's such a change because normally we'd be in the 90s right now.

 

Maybe we should all hop on a plane & go find Jane.

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