Book a Week in 2013 - week twenty one

[mlbuchina]

Have any of you listened to SWB's lectures on writing? In one of them, she talks about giving one of her sons the book The Once and Future King. She was all excited about it, and couldn't wait to be able to talk to him about it. When he was finished with it, she asked him how he liked it, and all he could answer was, "It was... Um... It was..." She knew she would not be talking with him about it as it hit him on THAT level.

 

This is how I feel about Warm Bodies. I cannot explain why I love this book, and I know it is a "light-weight" that could never be considered "classic" literature. Don't care. LOVE this book. It was... Um... It was...

[mumto2]

 

 

My favorite so far was The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.

 

I just started The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani yesterday. Not sure what to expect there. Anyone read it?

 

Kathy

 

I finished "The Secret Keeper" late last night. I loved it.:) Absolutely fabulous. I suspect I have you to thank for the recommendation.

[mumto2]

 

I didn't know she had died. She was such a lovely person. I will definately read her book.

 

 

I've finished, I think, 27 books now. I finished reading A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes by Annette Funicello. She was amazing. So sweet. She didn't have an unkind word to say about anyone, not even her ex-husband. If someone hadn't been nice to her or she didn't get along with them, she always had a reason and it certainly wasn't their fault. I read Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd earlier in the year and those two books are in such contrast to each other. As nice and sweet Annette was, Cybill was nasty and conniving (and rather proud of it). The world lost a special lady last month when Annette died.

 

Now I'm reading Witch, a true crime book. We're in the middle of moving so I'm not reading anything taxing right now lol

[Violet Crown]

A random browsing in our library discard store drew me away from Pindar again (easily done, I'm afraid), and to

 

13. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

 

I went inside and looked at some ship's lanterns that were for sale next to the door. Then a salesman came up to me and said in a pleasant voice, 'Can I help you?'

 

'Yes,' I said. 'I'm curious about the trout stream you have for sale. Can you tell me something about it? How are you selling it?'

 

'We're selling it by the foot length. You can buy as little as you want or you can buy all we've got left. A man came in here this morning and bought 563 feet. He's going to give it to his niece for a birthday present,' the salesman said.

 

--------------------

 

A beautiful and strange book. Back to Pindar.

[Jane in NC]

A random browsing in our library discard store drew me away from Pindar again (easily done, I'm afraid), and to

 

13. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

 

I went inside and looked at some ship's lanterns that were for sale next to the door. Then a salesman came up to me and said in a pleasant voice, 'Can I help you?'

 

'Yes,' I said. 'I'm curious about the trout stream you have for sale. Can you tell me something about it? How are you selling it?'

 

'We're selling it by the foot length. You can buy as little as you want or you can buy all we've got left. A man came in here this morning and bought 563 feet. He's going to give it to his niece for a birthday present,' the salesman said.

 

--------------------

 

A beautiful and strange book. Back to Pindar.

 

A blast from the past! I read this book in high school when I went on a Brautigan kick. Wondering what I would think now....

[Robin M]

Hey, has anyone on here seen The Great Gatsby movie yet?

 

I went to see it tonight. I both liked it & didn't like it. (The book is better.) Overall, I thought the acting was well-done & really solid; great job by the actors. A couple of scenes were really great (Gatsby fixing up Nick's house in prep of meeting Daisy again; the scene where Tom & Gatsby square off over Daisy -- Joel Edgerton & Leonardo DiCaprio played off each other beautifully in that scene). Carey Mulligan did well, but I feel like she wasn't the right choice for the role. Maybe she was too plain? It was a little hard to believe that all of Gatsby's aspirations & works would have been focused on her. She just wasn't the grandiose southern belle like I think she should have/would have been.

 

Liked some of the way the story was portrayed, yet there were other things that were not done so well &/or they bugged me (like Gatsby standing on the end of his pier physically reaching toward the green light -- that was overkill, imo; didn't like the look of the industrial area of town & the way that most every character from that section looked dirty all the time; didn't like that Nick was institutionalized while telling his story). The sets & costuming were over-the-top (to be expected) in places, too garish in others, & some obviously CGI-effects were distracting (hazy at the edges -- I suppose it's to give an edge of unreality to the scene). I went w/ my mom & a friend of mine (who works in film & tv, so it's always fun to get her take on movies because she notices the really tiny details like scene cuts & of course the CGI effects, lol... which she didn't care for either).

 

Funnily enough, my teenaged nephew had seen it & was also on the fence -- thought it was so-so. His biggest complaint, though, seemed to be the rap music (& he loves rap). I thought I would find the music distracting, but I found that part to be perfectly ok for the movie (& so did my mom & friend). Funny that the 'modern' music in parts bothered the teen, but not us old(er) folks. :lol:

 

 

 

So, I guess I'm on the fence on this one. Parts were great. Other parts were not. I'm glad I saw it, but I think the book is much better.

 

Since I didn't particularly like the book, I really don't have any desire to see the movie. I'll probably check it out when it comes to cable just for curiosity sake.

 

I finally finished reading 1Q84. I find that I liked it, but thought that the ending was so simplistic compared to the build up of the rest of the book. Also, there were a lot of unanswered questions. Makes me almost wish for a Book 4.

 

Having read 1q84, it makes me want to read more of his books. Have added the Windup Bird Chronicle to my wishlist.

 

:party: I am halfway done! Just finished book 26 this weekend! Here's the list for the year:

 

My favorite so far was The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.

Yeah! I have Distant Hours in the stacks. Will be reading it sooner than later.

 

 

Started Reading:

The Infernal Devices #3: The Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (American author, DD class 800)

I'm flying tomorrow and you just gave me an excellent idea for airplane book - Have City of Glass in the stacks. Thanks!

 

I've finished, I think, 27 books now. I finished reading A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes by Annette Funicello. She was amazing. So sweet. She didn't have an unkind word to say about anyone, not even her ex-husband. If someone hadn't been nice to her or she didn't get along with them, she always had a reason and it certainly wasn't their fault. I read Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd earlier in the year and those two books are in such contrast to each other. As nice and sweet Annette was, Cybill was nasty and conniving (and rather proud of it). The world lost a special lady last month when Annette died.

 

Now I'm reading Witch, a true crime book. We're in the middle of moving so I'm not reading anything taxing right now lol

Yeah on being half way there.

 

As for the movie Great Gatsby it'll be awhile before I see it. We always wait until the movie is out on dvd and watch at home. I've found I don't like going to movie theaters anymore. It's too loud, too cold, too sticky, people who insist on talking during the movie, and too expensive. I like being able to cuddle on my couch with my blanket and hot tea. :lol:

I'm totally the same way.

 

 

The Elegance of the Hedgehog was one of the best books I read in 2009. Here's but one reason why:

 

p. 53

I have read so many books.

 

And yet, like most autodidacts, I am never quite sure of what I have gained from them. There are days when I feel I have been able to grasp all there is to know in one single gaze, as if invisible branches suddenly spring out of nowhere, weaving together all the disparate strands of my reading -- and then suddenly the meaning escapes, the essence evaporates, and no matter how often I reread the same lines, they seem to flee ever further with each subsequent reading, and I see myself as some mad old fool who thinks her stomach is full because she's been attentively reading the menu. Apparently this combination of ability and blindness is a symptom exclusive to the autodidact. Deprived of the steady guiding hand that any good education provides, the autodidact possesses nonetheless the gift of freedom and conciseness of thought; where official discourse would put up barriers and prohibit adventure.

 

Great quote and makes me want to read the book now, when before I didn't. Adding to my wishlist.

[Robin M]

I'm taking off for Texas for my nephew's graduation and will be online sporadically. Sunday is travel home day. Will try to post new thread Saturday night and if one of you early birds could bump it on Sunday, would appreciate it. Trying to figure out which book going to take for airplane book - thinking City of Glass and Congo.

 

TTFN!

[Lady Florida.]

I'm still floundering and trying to find something to read or listen to. My library audio book of Nicholas Nickleby ended so it disappeared from my phone. I read A Death in Norfolk - the last so far in the Captain Lacey series. For the first time in a long time, I'll be waiting for the next book in a series.

 

In the meantime I'm trying to read:

The Sun Also Rises

Othello

The Killings at Badger's Drift (Inspector Barnaby)

The Chemist - a novella about a prohibition era chemist, forced by the government to make poison that will be put in moonshine

Don Quixote

The Castle of Otranto

 

None of them are holding my attention lately. It's making me crazy because I always have to have something to read, and right now I can't find anything I want to read.

 

 

I haven't quite finished Bitch in a Bonnet simply because the last Austen book he covers is Mansfield Par, and well, yuck!

 

 

I almost wish Mansfield Park wasn't the last book he covered, because up until then I was really enjoying Bitch in a Bonnet. I didn't check, but it seemed like he spent more time on that book too. Ugh. I still liked it, and will probably read his next one when it comes out. I believe he's still covering Emma on his blog.

 

I agree that it's a distraction. Realistically, I think 3D is the rage among movie-making companies because they then charge more per ticket -- a clever way to increase box office take.

 

 

I don't think there's much they can do to entice people to theaters anymore. As tv's get larger and home theater systems get better, movie companies and theaters are trying hard to keep people coming. There will always be people who like the experience, or can't wait for the dvd/streaming version, but they have to find ways of keeping everyone else. I don't know what they'll do when the cost of 3-D tv gets more affordable. I neither like nor dislike 3-D, but I don't think it's special. I don't feel the need to see a movie gun pointing at me, or characters dancing right in front of me. If you tell me a good story, the special effects will not matter. I'm probably in the minority there. I often hear people describe a movie by saying how great the special effects were.

 

I finished Wool Omnibus this week.

 

The story continues in the next installment, Shift. There are three in that set, and they finish telling the backstory of the Silos. There is going to be one last book to complete the series, but I don't remember the name, or when it will be published. I have enjoyed the series. They are interesting and quick reading.

 

 

I read that last year and enjoyed it. I didn't realize the next part was out, though I haven't actually looked for it.

[aggieamy]

Still not having much time to read but enjoying reading about what everyone is reading.

 

I am not going to see Gatsby at the theater because I loved the book and I know it would take away from that.

 

You know when you have those kind of weeks where there's just a bunch of stuff going on & it gets in the way of your reading? Well, that's the kind of week I seem to be having lately.

 

So, I'm still working on:

 

Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner

 

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

 

The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose

 

 

Me too, Stacia. Me too.

[mumto2]

I finished #80 "Six Years" by Harlan Coben. It was a great suspense novel. I could not put it down. I finished it in less then a day. This story was this author at his best. It starts with the main character accidentally reading the obituary for the husband of the woman he has always loved......the twists and turns the author takes from there were not at all predictable and made for a wonderful read!

[Pawz4me]

I haven't had a lot of time for reading in the past couple of weeks, either. I just started working on #22 She's Come Undone and #23 The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap. I'm not far enough along in either to decide how I like them.

[Hoot]

Today I finally finished Dolphin Mysteries: Unlocking the Secrets of Communication by Kathleen M. Dudzinski and Toni Frohoff. I am absolutely fascinated by animal behavior and communication, so this was an excellent read. There was just enough scientific explanation to keep someone who is not a total newbie to the field interested, but not so much that only a Marine Biologist could understand it. The dual author voices wavered between helpful in seeing both sides of an issue to downright irritating that they were both saying the same thing. This was another pre-read for DS14's Marine Biology class next summer.

 

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. Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea With Ocean Experts by Ellen J. Prager

31. Dolphin Mysteries: Unlocking the Secrets of Communication by Kathleen M. Dudzinski & Toni Frohoff

[Stacia]

I finished Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being today.

 

This novel is wholly original, yet it also reminded me of two of my favorite books in the recent past -- Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.

 

"1Q84" and "A Tale for the Time Being" both examine the realm of the other -- alternate realities, quantum theories, lives that are opposite but yet the same.

 

Two quotes from "Cloud Atlas" fit right in with Ozeki's lovely novel:

 

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.â€

 

and

 

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?â€

 

Ozeki's novel stands with these other masterpieces, yet stands alone too. Together. Apart. It is the same. (A statement you can surely appreciate if you have read this novel.)

 

Nao is a charming, heartwarming, & heartbreaking narrator. Not since Lisbeth Salander ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") have I so enjoyed a character. Nao is so real, so fresh, someone I wish I knew. Jiko is yet another fabulous woman in this novel, another person I wish I could know. Ruth is more stand-offish, yet she's integral to the story, to the raveling & unraveling of the pacing, the time, the tempo of the story....

 

With deceptively understated simplicity (it's really just a teen girl's diary we're reading, after all), Ozeki manages to gift you, the reader, with a mind-expanding array of topics, ranging from love, home, bullying, suicide, war, the recent Japanese tsunami, to Zen, quantum physics, and the shifting realities between author & reader. This novel will break your heart & will make it grow too (along with your mind).

 

Highly recommended.

[Chocolate Rose]

I'm halfway through N0S4A2 by Joe Hill. Good, good, good. Also listening to audiobook Rising Tides by Nora Roberts

 

 

I just want to thank you for telling us about this author. I LOVE his dad's writing and hate the long wait between new books. I just finished J Hill's Heart Shaped Box and totally enjoyed it. He probably doesn't like hearing this, but his writing is a LOT like his dad's writing. It just sucks you in from the very first page and you don't want to put it down until you get to the end and then you're disappointed that it's ended. I'm so glad to hear that you're liking N0S4A2 I put it in my Amazon cart, but it isn't available until October. Luckily his dad's next book will be released on June 4, so it should give me my fix for a while.

[Jane in NC]

Since Robin has gone fishing, I will take the liberty of adding the link to the new Book a Week thread.

[Butter]

I'm up to 28 or 29 books. I finished Witch, a true crime book about woman in Las Vegas who is in jail for killing her mom and leaving her to rot in a garbage can in a storage place. Now I'm reading An Abundance of Katherines by Jon Green.