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Book a Week in 2015 - BW8


Robin M
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Popping in for a minute before getting back to work... holidays, wedding planning, medical stuff, a possible (wonderful!) major change, anatomy and physiology study, other school work... I'm tired, so tired, but for (mostly) good reasons.

 

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Walpurgis Night - Jane, have you seen/read this play? It has that grim Stalin-era edge to it, and reminds me a bit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Good to see you here Eliana. You have been missed.

 

 

Not at all familiar - who is the author?

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I just finished the first book in what appears to be a fun historical series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnationhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84351.The_Secret_History_of_the_Pink_Carnation. Someone here read the series about a year ago and it went on my list. Finally had a chance to read it. :)

 

Kareni and Amy, were you reading these?

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I just finished the first book in what appears to be a fun historical series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnationhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84351.The_Secret_History_of_the_Pink_Carnation. Someone here read the series about a year ago and it went on my list. Finally had a chance to read it. :)

 

Kareni and Amy, were you reading these?

 

It wasn't me, but I've heard good things about the series and have the first book lurking in one of my many piles.  It's good to hear a first hand review.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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This evening I finished Tammara Webber's Breakable (Contours of the Heart) which is the companion book to Easy (Contours of the Heart) which I mentioned earlier.  Easy is told from the perspective of the heroine while Breakable is told from the perspective of the hero.  Writing companion books seems to be a recent trend in the new adult genre; this pair was well done since Breakable covered much of the hero's adolescence which (not surprisingly) was not covered in Easy.

 

"As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise—until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.
"

 

Trigger alert: rape and physical violence.

 

I see that the author has a new book in this series coming out in April.  I hope to have the chance to read it.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I finished Northanger Abbey today and it was as deliciously snarky and satirical as I remember it. Although I have to say that I find the beginning the strongest. The ending is sort of abrupt and the middle a bit middling.

 

I think I've said it before but this is my favourite Austen and it is one I like to start my students off with simply because I think it is easy for them to understand it. Catherine is silly in a way teenagers, with the right guidance, can understand and relate to. It is easy to show students how Austen, like grown-ups today, criticises the choices of entertainment of the young, at the same time as she says that we all need to be silly at times. In addition, she isn't afraid to criticize adults as vain and silly too. I also feel that Catherine's parents lack of understanding at the end is something the teens can really relate to. I also like it because there is a very good movie version of it, that stays quite faithful to the book.

 

It's my favorite too. The word might not have been coined (invented?) until after her death, but Jane Austen certainly knew how to write snark. I think your description of the book is spot on. Austen even acknowledges that she rushed the ending. The following is on one of the last few pages:

 

"I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to perfect felicity."

 

I never knew there was a movie version. Will have to take a look later.

 

:eek:  No show of hands here!!  Though maybe, MAYBE, if we had passes I would feel that way.  Well, probably not.   :D   We have passes to our local amusement park, and I don't ever take a book.  And it's not because I ride - nope I   :ack2:  I can't concentrate with all the noise and bustle, AND, confession, I'm too nosy  :lol:   I prefer to watch people and enjoy the kids enthusiasm.  

 

We are, this weekend, hopefully finalizing our plans for our second trip to Universal in May.  We can't wait!  I loved soaking it all in the first time we went and can't wait to see Diagon Alley.  

 

Have fun, even if you do read!!  Oh, and have a Butterbeer for me  :cheers2:

 

I do enjoy going, but we've had passes for more than 2 years, so I can quickly get through all I want to see. The kids want to ride the roller coasters over and over, so they're not done as early as I am. Even when dh comes with us, he and I both bring our Kindles. We ride all we want to, then find a place to relax. We alternate reading with people-watching.

 

Have fun on your visit!

 

And I agree, concentration can be hard. I can only plan on reading a book that doesn't take any mental work. 

 

 

 

Eliana:  :hurray:   I am very behind on Ulysses - enjoying it when I can find times where my brain in is the right space to connect with it, but there haven't been enough of those lately.

 

 

Like this. Never try to read Ulysses at a theme park. ;)

 

I don't know what happened to the quote from Eliana, but I tried to fix it.

 

Last night after I got home, I started North and South, which is the March read for a goodreads group. I also downloaded both Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. I haven't decided which one to read yet, and might read both. I also borrowed To the Lighthouse and will at least try to read it. I reserve the right to give up though. 

 

 

:grouphug: NoseinaBook  :grouphug:

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I'm in the against camp - though not very intensely.  Hemingway's prose is just, for me, hollow.  Not spare, but empty.  Lacking connection, character, all the aspects of story I read for.  I don't hate it - it doesn't rouse enough emotion for that.  I just don't connect with it.

 

I'm probably just (still) not old enough for it!  Maybe someday (in the magical, mythical future in which I become a Murakami fan and love magical realism) I will be able to appreciate his writing...  but in the meantime, hearing reports from those who do helps me remember that the flaw is in me not the books!

 

 

 

 

 

I find his characters to be very flat. Actually his writing as a whole is flat. There is nothing in it that I an connect with either. And I'll be 60 this year, but am still apparently not old enough to properly appreciate one-dimensional characters. ;)

 

More on bookmarks:

 

Those who choose not to use bookmarks when reading library books but instead fold corners of pages drive me crazy!  If you want to do this to your own books, fine.  But why do people do this with publicly owned books?

 

I finally got the first Inspector Rutledge book (Charles Todd) from the library.  In addition to appearing that someone spilled their soup in the book, the pages are completely mutilated by folds.  I'm doing my best to ignore anything beyond the words.

 

While I have no qualms about folding the pages of my own books, I would never think it's okay to dog-ear in a book that doesn't belong to me. Whether it's a library book or one I borrowed from a friend or family member, it's not my book to do as I please with it.

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I just finished the first book in what appears to be a fun historical series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnationhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84351.The_Secret_History_of_the_Pink_Carnation. Someone here read the series about a year ago and it went on my list. Finally had a chance to read it. :)

 

Kareni and Amy, were you reading these?

 

Not yet but it's now on my to-read list!

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I finished listening to The Shadow in the North by Phillip Pullman.  I have very, very mixed feelings about this one after thoroughly enjoying The Ruby in the Smoke.  Same great characters, another great villain, exciting plot, but Pullman pulled a couple of moves I was very unhappy with.  He killed off a main character, which left me fairly unmoved, but he also killed the protagonist's dog, and in such a graphic and brutal way.  I saw it coming, and was thinking "oh no you don't" but, he did.  It was pretty relentless. I was sobbing.  

 

I have zero tolerance for books or movies with suffering/dying animals.  Unless they are science documentaries. I don't know why, I read too many horse and dog books as a kid, I think. It's only gotten worse as I've gotten older.  Anyway, for me at least it was an egregious scene that really, really diminished my enjoyment of the book.  Wah.

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Just checking in. We're so tired from packing that I've not read much.

 

We're reading Circe in the Ulysses goodreads group. Until now I've really enjoyed Ulysses overall but this chapter makes me feel ill. I have the same sense of unease when I read Alice in Wonderland which is why I don't like that book either.  In Circe everyone is drunk so perhaps it's meant to feel this way. It's an easy read but I have no idea what some of this stuff is. It's written like a play and everyone and everything seems to be talking. Yes, even the doorhandle, apparently.

 

 

STEPHEN

Cardinal sin. Monks of the screw.

(His Eminence Simon Stephen Cardinal Dedalus, Primate of all Ireland, appears in the doorway, dressed in red soutane, sandals and socks. Seven dwarf simian acolytes, also in red, cardinal sins, uphold his train, peeping under it. He wears a battered silk hat sideways on his head. His thumbs are stuck in his armpits and his palms outspread. Round his neck hangs a rosary of corks ending on his breast in a corkscrew cross. Releasing his thumbs, he invokes grace from on high with large wave gestures and proclaims with bloated pomp.)

THE CARDINAL

 

Conservio lies captured 
He lies in the lowest dungeon 
With manacles and chains around his limbs 
Weighing upwards of three tons. 

(He looks at all for a moment, his right eye closed tight, his left cheek puffed out. Then, unable to repress his merriment, he rocks to and fro, arms akimbo, and sings with broad rollicking humour.)

O, the poor little fellow 
Hihihihihis legs they were yellow 
He was plump, fat and heavy and brisk as a snake 
But some bloody savage 
To graize his white cabbage 
He murdered Nell Flaherty's duckloving drake. 

(A multitude of midges swarms white over his robe. He scratches himself with crossed arms at his ribs, grimacing, and exclaims.)


I'm suffering the agony of the damned. By the hoky fiddle, thanks be to Jesus those funny little chaps are not unanimous. If they were they'd walk me off the face of the bloody globe.

(His head aslant he blesses curtly with fore and middle fingers, imparts the Easter kiss and doubleshuffles off comically, swaying his hat from side to side, shrinking quickly to the size of his trainbearers. The dwarf acolytes, giggling, peeping, nudging, oglingEasterkissing, zigzag behind him. His voice is heard mellow from afar, merciful male, melodious.)

Shall carry my heart to thee, 
Shall carry my heart to thee, 
And the breath of the balmy night 
Shall carry my heart to thee!

(The trick doorhandle turns.)

THE DOORHANDLE

Theeee.

 

 

5 hours of this. What?!

 

--

 

In other news, I am still enjoying Annihilation, which is very creepy. I can't think of another book quite like it. The characters don't even have names, just roles ("the psychologist") that they play in this expedition to "Area X." If anyone remembers the 90s video game Myst, it's sort of like that but even creepier.

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It's things like this that make me escape to Fluff.  It's heartbreaking and a little scary.  Between ISIS and the assassination in Russia I have been quite worried and saddened by the evil being done in the world.  

 

And I really don't want to end up at war again.   :crying:

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