ladydusk Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 This is what I would enjoy right now with some of my BaW friends: Seaside knitting anyone? Crocheters welcome? I'm there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 <snip> For the Woolf pack, Chekhov lovers, & Austenites, come visit Langston & me in the city sometime! (And, Negin, your guy sure is a looker! :w00t: I can see why EH pulled in the ladies.) Is it too funny that when I was (browsing, yes browsing!) at the library this afternoon, I picked up a couple of Langston Hughes' books? What a peculiar party that would be :lol: I love that you picked up some LH, that kind of serendipity has more to it than meets the eye...the intersection of so many lives all in collusion for just that moment when your eyes are scanning the shelves and fall on LH :D It's a Buddhist meditation on interdependence really, if you think about it... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I'm in with tea and chocolate :D What a gorgeous picture! Who is the artist? Jozef Israëls. The never ending winter that my Northeastern and Midwestern friends are facing led me to remember an image of a skater knitting. When I googled to find it, the knitters at seaside appeared. Here is the image I was initially seeking: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Well, as someone who skated six miles on the canal to school in the sub-zero freezing winters I can tell you that knitting and skating wouldn't make good bedfellows. There is the issue of the, you know, hands frozen from exposure and let's not even think about the unpleasant possibility of knitting needles and falling. Otherwise, the picture is loveliness itself with the colors and the glow of health and contentment our fair skater is exuding :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I read The Westing Game when my son was in elementary school--and I loved it. I guess this means I should try Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore? OK Jenn--we have similar tastes in mysteries. Have you read the latter? Give me a few days --- I started Mr. Penumbra while eating lunch today!!! I, however, seem destined to NOT be part of the Wolfpack even though I took the quiz twice. I'm apparently staying in the hammock with a glass of champagne and Chekhov. hrmph! I saw a production of The Three Sisters once, and thought my then 8yo youngest ds summed it up perfectly and succinctly. He turned to me at intermission and said "WHAT is their problem?!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 :smilielol5: Is it necessary to relate personally? Musing myself as well here. There are so many other ways of responding to an author but I think in this day and age the one-dimensional personal holds more and more weight. I find that the place of intersection can sometimes be relating by way of...irritation, aversion, incomprehension, awe...all these are ways in though I don't always necessarily go through the gate. Particularly if 'irritation' is the key needed to turn the lock :lol: but when I do there is often something to be learned, turned over in the hands of the mind, tasted, digested and mulled over. Getting lost in a book is sooooooooo much more fun than plodding through it, I agree. But some of the best books I've read were plodding, trudging journeys, feet heavy and earthbound. And afterwards the mind shedding leaves and sheaves of light... I've been mulling over this, shukriyya... there are many ways in to a book; and sometimes I have to pound at the gate several times before I can so much as cross the threshold; and sometimes irritation is in fact the key. And I enjoy Woolf, in addition to respecting her. I guess it's the soul mate part that's holding me up. I would hope that I would, in fact, relate personally to my soul mate. (There is of course a teeny tiny chance I'm taking a quiz on the internet a bit too seriously!) :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Looks like Shukriyya, Pam and I are in the Woolf pack! Add me as well. I came up as VW three times. This is what I would enjoy right now with some of my BaW friends: Seaside knitting anyone? I love the seaside. Not a knitter, but I'll read aloud to y'all while you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 That pic is *adorable* !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I've been mulling over this, shukriyya... there are many ways in to a book; and sometimes I have to pound at the gate several times before I can so much as cross the threshold; and sometimes irritation is in fact the key. And I enjoy Woolf, in addition to respecting her. I guess it's the soul mate part that's holding me up. I would hope that I would, in fact, relate personally to my soul mate. (There is of course a teeny tiny chance I'm taking a quiz on the internet a bit too seriously!) :glare: Okay, I see. That part didn't actually occur to me which goes to show that I obviously am not taking the quiz seriously enough :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Jane, do I have to know how to knit to join the kniting party by the sea??? I can come & just gab, but unfortunately can't contribute crafty-ness (vs. craftiness ;) ) to the gathering.... I'm not Jenn, but I read Mr. Penumbra's a year or two ago. I remember it being a frivolous, fairly fun read. It's not at all like Dan Brown's books, yet I sort of equate it on a similar level -- something light & interesting enough to be a decent pool or beach read, kwim? Earlier today (prior to your post), I was just thinking that my current book (A Novel Bookstore) reminds me a wee bit of Mr. Penumbra's (but classier & with a French accent). Dan Brown is not my cuppa so I shall await what Jenn has to say. In the meantime, join us on our virtual beach! Give me a few days --- I started Mr. Penumbra while eating lunch today!!! I, however, seem destined to NOT be part of the Wolfpack even though I took the quiz twice. I'm apparently staying in the hammock with a glass of champagne and Chekhov. hrmph! I saw a production of The Three Sisters once, and thought my then 8yo youngest ds summed it up perfectly and succinctly. He turned to me at intermission and said "WHAT is their problem?!" Oh, we'll give you honorary Woolfpack status! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfOneFunOne Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 AMDG Ach. . . Alas, it seems that I can either read or write about reading but not both. I haven't been very faithful about logging in but I wanted to pop in before I log of for lent. I'm positively LOVING reading the Great Books and am up to Plato. I am about half way through The Republic. I live it so far and find it so meaningful in so many ways. Socrates is able to speak about my own goals/reasons for homeschooling and ed philosophies than I ever could. Hated Thucidides. Loved Herodotus. See y all after lent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Pam & shukriyya, i wanted to mention a book I picked up when browsing the library today: A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn. http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perplexed-Novel-Dara-Horn-ebook/dp/B00CF2M964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393985718&sr=1-1&keywords=A+guide+for+the+perplexed The description makes me think it might be of interest to either or both of you. From Booklist: "*Starred Review* Horn follows All Other Nights (2009), about Jewish Americans in the Civil War, with another richly textured blend of history, psychology, religion, and human emotion. Josie Ashkenazi is a brilliant software designer who has created a program that allows its users to record every element of their lives and, thus, to keep the past alive, at least digitally. Her software is called Genizah, after the Cairo Genizah, a repository of ancient Hebrew manuscripts kept in storage for centuries because Jewish law forbids throwing away anything inscribed with the name of God. The Cairo Genizah was discovered in 1896 by Solomon Schechter, whose story is told in alternating chapters with the modern-day account of Josie’s capture by Islamic terrorists in Egypt. But the layers don’t stop there. Josie’s story, including the role of her jealous sister, Judith, parallels the biblical account of Joseph, and interwoven through all these thematic and narrative structures is Maimonides’ A Guide for the Perplexed, a twelfth-century philosophical treatise that has influenced religious scholars for nearly 1,000 years. Yes, the novel is as intricately constructed as Joseph’s coat of many colors, and, yes, it echoes the thematic density of the philosophical work after which it is named, but beneath all that beats the living heart of a very human drama, one that will have readers both caught up in the suspense and moved by the tragic dimensions of the unresolved dilemma at the core of the story. Should we be compelled, as both Schechter and Josie are, to help rescue the “vertiginous bottomless pit of forgotten lives†trapped in the past, or must we face the realization that “the act of reliving the past could consume the future� --Bill Ott" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I forgot you have to be both an Amazon Prime member and a Kindle owner. I wouldn't recommend becoming a Prime member or buying a Kindle just for the lending library. Many thanks for the additional detail, Kathy. If my daughter ever goes the Amazon Prime route, this will be good to know. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Hmph. One of the books I found today at the library was LoterÃa by Mario Alberto Zambrano. The cover seemed enticing & I was thinking that maybe I had heard of the book on some list or review. It was on the 'new books' shelf, but I couldn't tell if it was meant to be YA or a regular adult book. I'm guessing YA as the print is big, not many words are on a page, plus some illustrations are scattered throughout. I sat down to read it tonight & it's my first 1-star book rating this year. The best I can say about it is that the illustrations are ok & it's quick to read. No other substance there, really, imo. Not sure why I actually read it &, even though very little of my time was spent with this book, I regret wasting my time. Not recommended. (Ironically, there are plenty of fawning reviews of this book, including a starred review rating from Booklist on amazon, & interviews with places such as NPR, which I linked above. I really don't get it....) Blah. Don't you hate it when that happens? :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I finished The Angel's Game and am now reading Miss Seeton Draws the Line by Heron Carvic. It is a 60's British cozy with a Miss Marple/Miss Silver- like character. She is a drawing teacher and her particular gift is inadvertantly drawing caricatures of people that show some kind of truth about them when she is trying to draw serious portraits. She considers it rather annoying and wonders if there is something wrong with her, but the police are finding the talent useful. I found the book at the book exchange. It was the only one by this author and I had never heard of him. Apparently he was an actor and played the voice of Gandalf in a BBC production of The Hobbit. My book is obviously not the first in the series, but as usual in these kind of things, they give you glimpses of the past. Now, I would like to know what is wrong with hammocks? Lying in a hammock (alone) with a book sounds heavenly to me, especially if it is tied to two trees. I'll skip the champagne. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Pam & shukriyya, i wanted to mention a book I picked up when browsing the library today: A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn. http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perplexed-Novel-Dara-Horn-ebook/dp/B00CF2M964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393985718&sr=1-1&keywords=A+guide+for+the+perplexed The description makes me think it might be of interest to either or both of you. From Booklist: "*Starred Review* Horn follows All Other Nights (2009), about Jewish Americans in the Civil War, with another richly textured blend of history, psychology, religion, and human emotion. Josie Ashkenazi is a brilliant software designer who has created a program that allows its users to record every element of their lives and, thus, to keep the past alive, at least digitally. Her software is called Genizah, after the Cairo Genizah, a repository of ancient Hebrew manuscripts kept in storage for centuries because Jewish law forbids throwing away anything inscribed with the name of God. The Cairo Genizah was discovered in 1896 by Solomon Schechter, whose story is told in alternating chapters with the modern-day account of Josie’s capture by Islamic terrorists in Egypt. But the layers don’t stop there. Josie’s story, including the role of her jealous sister, Judith, parallels the biblical account of Joseph, and interwoven through all these thematic and narrative structures is Maimonides’ A Guide for the Perplexed, a twelfth-century philosophical treatise that has influenced religious scholars for nearly 1,000 years. Yes, the novel is as intricately constructed as Joseph’s coat of many colors, and, yes, it echoes the thematic density of the philosophical work after which it is named, but beneath all that beats the living heart of a very human drama, one that will have readers both caught up in the suspense and moved by the tragic dimensions of the unresolved dilemma at the core of the story. Should we be compelled, as both Schechter and Josie are, to help rescue the “vertiginous bottomless pit of forgotten lives†trapped in the past, or must we face the realization that “the act of reliving the past could consume the future� --Bill Ott" Thank you, Stacia -- I will look out for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 AMDG Ach. . . Alas, it seems that I can either read or write about reading but not both. I haven't been very faithful about logging in but I wanted to pop in before I log of for lent. I'm positively LOVING reading the Great Books and am up to Plato. I am about half way through The Republic. I live it so far and find it so meaningful in so many ways. Socrates is able to speak about my own goals/reasons for homeschooling and ed philosophies than I ever could. Hated Thucidides. Loved Herodotus. See y all after lent. Just popping in quick to say that my kids and I are tackling the Great Books this year and we are, surprisingly, enjoying them--all of us. We are reading Herodotus now and, oh! I am loving it. I love all of the little stories he tells along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim in Appalachia Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I started another non-fiction book last night. It's called The Long Road Home, by Alesa Teague. Our violin teacher recommend the book. She knows that woman who wrote it. The story is engaging, and since it's Lent, a book about a journey seemed fitting. I wanted to share the book. The writing is not the best; the woman is not a professional writer, but still it's turing out to be a good read. I'm also starting The Return of the Prodigal by Henri Nouwen for Lent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Yesterday I finished Jennifer Ashley's historical romance novella A Mackenzie Family Christmas which was an enjoyable read. (It appears to be free on Kindle.) It was fun to revisit the characters from the other Mackenzie books. Unless you've already read it, I'd recommend starting with book one of the series, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 You got: Oscar Wilde Via Flickr: delanydean You’re a real charmer, and you need someone who can match your charisma and witty banter. Oscar dines at the best clubs with the most interesting people, so he’s also your ticket to a wicked (pun intended) social scene. But beneath that flamboyant exterior is just a little boy desperately craving your love. ETA: I got Thoreau the next time, and I think that's more accurate. :) I'm a little late. Honestly, this is not me at all. :lol: I am sooooo not social or charming. I wonder which choice got me Wilde? I do love him, but he is nothing like me. ;) I gave up on Path of Daggers again. I love WoT but I just can't plod through this book. I can only keep so many hundreds of recurring characters in my head at one time. Maybe when I'm less stressed, I'll give it a go. So I started reading the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Last night I tucked myself into bed with Mary Stewart's, 'This Rough Magic', and pulled the surrounding darkness around me as I settled into the delights of the island of Corfu and Shakespeare and magical dolphins seamlessly cutting through the seas. I haven't done that in ages, read into the night with the house still and quiet, the family tumbling through their own private dreams and turnings while I traveled page after page of a wonderful book. What a breathless series of events leading up to the conclusion and our heroine so cool and collected amidst it all. I'm happily anticipating the arrival of several more Mary Stewart books this week bought with an Amazon credit :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Last night I tucked myself into bed with Mary Stewart's, 'This Rough Magic', and pulled the surrounding darkness around me as I settled into the delights of the island of Corfu and Shakespeare and magical dolphins seamlessly cutting through the seas. I haven't done that in ages, read into the night with the house still and quiet, the family tumbling through their own private dreams and turnings while I traveled page after page of a wonderful book. What a breathless series of events leading up to the conclusion and our heroine so cool and collected amidst it all. I'm happily anticipating the arrival of several more Mary Stewart books this week bought with an Amazon credit :hurray: I feel slightly jealous that I can't read them for the first time. This Rough Magic was magical for me too. Airs Above the Ground was my introduction to Mary Stewart and one of my favorites. Would that be on your list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 The four that are winging their way to me are :: Brother Michael, Nine Coaches Waiting, Wildfire at Midnight and The Ivy Tree. Airs Above the Ground and The Gabriel Hounds as well as a few others are on my tbr list depending on how I get along with the four listed above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I decided to join the Lenten read-along of the Purgatorio section of the Divine Comedy which Rod Dreher is doing on his blog. I figured I could handle a canto a day, but then decided additional Dante-related reading was needed to flesh things out. So I downloaded and started the book Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity by Prue Shaw. Mr. Penumbra's 24hour Book Store should balance all that highfalutin intellectual reading!! And I still have the adventures of Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin to listen to in the car with The Ionian Mission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 The four that are winging their way to me are :: Brother Michael, Nine Coaches Waiting, Wildfire at Midnight and The Ivy Tree. Airs Above the Ground and The Gabriel Hounds as well as a few others are on my tbr list depending on how I get along with the four listed above. I haven't read the first two ... I have an anthology including them and Madam, Will You Talk sitting upstairs on my bookshelf. I think The Ivy Tree was my first Mary Stewart. I've said it before, but This Rough Magic is my favorite. I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it so much :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Lovers of the evocative descriptions of Corfu in Stewart's,'This Rough Magic'...here's a book by Lawrence Durrell (of Alexandria Quartet fame) called Prospero's Cell. It's gone onto my tbr list. From the first paragraph... "Somewhere between Calabria and Corfu the blue really begins. All the way across Italy you find yourself in a landscape severely domesticated--each valley laid out after the architect's pattern, brilliantly lighted, human. But once you strike out from the flat and desolate Calabrian mainland toward the sea, you aware of a change in the heart of things: aware of the horizon beginning to stain at the rim of the world, aware of islands coming out of the darkness to meet you.In the morning you wake to the taste of snow on the air, and climbing the companion ladder, suddenly enter the penumbra of shadow cast by the Albanian mountains--each wearing its cracked crown of snow--desolate and repudiating stone.A peninisula nipped off while red hot and and allowed to cool into an antarctica of lava. You are aware not so much of a landscape coming to meet you invisibly over those blue miles of water as of a climate. You enter Greece as one might enter a dark crystal; the form of things becomes irregular, refracted. Mirages suddenly swallow islands, and wherever you look the trembling curtain of the atmosphere deceives." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. I suspect you'll get some answers soon. I've seen mentions of it by Jane in NC, Eliana, Ali in OR, and prairiegirl to name a few. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. I read it many, many years ago & remember enjoying it. I don't remember lots about the story other than the main gist of it, so I really can't provide more than an "I liked it when I read it, but I really don't remember it." :tongue_smilie: Of course, me enjoying it may scare you away since we seem to have tastes that are poles apart... ;) :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I read it many, many years ago & remember enjoying it. I don't remember lots about the story other than the main gist of it, so I really can't provide more than an "I liked it when I read it, but I really don't remember it." :tongue_smilie: Of course, me enjoying it may scare you away since we seem to have tastes that are poles apart... ;) :lol: Kind of like these two gifs... Pardon my silliness. I'm feeling a little goofy tonight :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. I've read it and liked it very much, now I own it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 It looks like you can get a number of Tey's books possibly free from this site. I read Brat Farrar last year and liked it. I'd like to read some more, but my library hasn't any, this might be my only chance :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. I liked it but I found it confusing. I read it about 3 years ago and I would like to read it again to see if I could straighten things out in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 <snip> Now, I would like to know what is wrong with hammocks? Lying in a hammock (alone) with a book sounds heavenly to me, especially if it is tied to two trees. I'll skip the champagne. I meant to respond to this earlier. Nothing wrong with hammocks at all it's just that after having children something happened to my ability to be suspended in the air without feeling completely and utterly nauseous. Mr. Stevenson describes the idylls of the swing in one of my favorite childhood poems... How do you like to go up in swing, up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing, Ever a child can do. (But not for the adult me anymore going...) Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, River and trees and cattle and all Over the countryside-- Till I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brown-- Up in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Nothing wrong with hammocks at all it's just that after having children something happened to my ability to be suspended in the air without feeling completely and utterly nauseous. Sadly, I'm in the same hammock boat with you. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Sadly, I'm in the same hammock boat with you. Regards, Kareni :seeya: From what I gather there are quite a few of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Hmmmm, I can get motion sickness just by shaking my head, but I seem to have escaped the hammock/swing problem, but I can relate. Maybe a chaise lounge instead? So many more elevated book choices while I'm atill binge reading Stephanie Plum. I'm averaging a book a day so it's good for at least a coulle week's worth. And with all the snow we've been getting here I could use a hammock or chaise lounge outside where there is no snow and the sun is shining. There was talk of knitting by the beach. That's going to be somewhere warm, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I liked it but I found it confusing. I read it about 3 years ago and I would like to read it again to see if I could straighten things out in my mind. This is me too. I felt rather stupid after reading that book, since I was lost much of the time. It looks like you can get a number of Tey's books possibly free from this site. I read Brat Farrar last year and liked it. I'd like to read some more, but my library hasn't any, this might be my only chance :) Josephine Tey was one of my mother's favorite authors, with Brat Farrar being particularly well-loved. I've never read any but the one, and every now and then (especially around her birthday) I feel a little guilty. :rolleyes: So thanks for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Anyone read Josephine Tey's, 'Daughter of Time'? Dh seems to think I would enjoy it. This is probably my favorite of Tey's books--all of which I read ages ago. Daughter of Time is the only one that I have reread. Scotland Yard's Inspector Grant is confined to a hospital bed where he is bored. The mystery in the novel is that of Richard III--was he really a heinous villain? Scholars can argue about whether Tey's fact are correct. I found the book to be fun. Now, I would like to know what is wrong with hammocks? On the topic of hammocks: College Boy attends a residential LAC, which means that everyone not studying abroad lives on campus. He has suspended a hammock from the lifts used to elevate dorm beds and has a sea of books beneath him. He sleeps in his hammock. This is the kid who has spent two months of the last two summers in a tiny tent sleeping on a Thermarest. Clearly he can sleep anywhere. A good skill for an archaeologist, I suppose. My husband and I went to see the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis last night. It fell a little flat for me but we both loved the music. Before the movie started, I had a chance to swing by the main branch of the library that maintains all of the dusty old books in the system. The Moon-Spinners and a collection of Shaw plays came home with me. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I meant to respond to this earlier. Nothing wrong with hammocks at all it's just that after having children something happened to my ability to be suspended in the air without feeling completely and utterly nauseous. Mr. Stevenson describes the idylls of the swing in one of my favorite childhood poems... How do you like to go up in swing, up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing, Ever a child can do. (But not for the adult me anymore going...) Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, River and trees and cattle and all Over the countryside-- Till I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brown-- Up in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down! I understand. I've had vertigo issues before, not fun. That swing poem has always been one of my favorites, too. I always say there are two kinds of playground children, swingers and sliders. I was a swinger. I think Mr. Stevenson must have been one also. :001_smile: Years ago, I wrote my own swinging poem. (The influence is quite obvious.) Paintbox Summer Spun gold sun Sky blue sky No breeze blows I don't care I'm swinging Cotton clouds Leaf green trees Pointed toes Sweep the air I'm swinging Fall and fly Wildly Weee! Coal black crows Sit and stare I'm laughing Silver swing Heavenly high My heart knows God can hear It's singing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 This is probably my favorite of Tey's books--all of which I read ages ago. Daughter of Time is the only one that I have reread. Scotland Yard's Inspector Grant is confined to a hospital bed where he is bored. The mystery in the novel is that of Richard III--was he really a heinous villain? Scholars can argue about whether Tey's fact are correct. I found the book to be fun. On the topic of hammocks: College Boy attends a residential LAC, which means that everyone not studying abroad lives on campus. He has suspended a hammock from the lifts used to elevate dorm beds and has a sea of books beneath him. He sleeps in his hammock. This is the kid who has spent two months of the last two summers in a tiny tent sleeping on a Thermarest. Clearly he can sleep anywhere. A good skill for an archaeologist, I suppose. My husband and I went to see the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis last night. It fell a little flat for me but we both loved the music. Before the movie started, I had a chance to swing by the main branch of the library that maintains all of the dusty old books in the system. The Moon-Spinners and a collection of Shaw plays came home with me. :D ~ Okay, enough recs here for Tey's book to go onto the tbr list. ~ Ah college days and the ability to sleep anywhere...even slumped over the study carrel in the middle of the afternoon in a room full of other 'studiers'... ~ I enjoyed The Moonspinners enough to know that I want to reread it. ~ Shaw takes me waaaay back to my college thespian days when I played Candida for a production of the same :D I understand. I've had vertigo issues before, not fun. That swing poem has always been one of my favorites, too. I always say there are two kinds of playground children, swingers and sliders. I was a swinger. I think Mr. Stevenson must have been one also. :001_smile: Years ago, I wrote my own swinging poem. (The influence is quite obvious.) Paintbox Summer Spun gold sun Sky blue sky No breeze blows I don't care I'm swinging Cotton clouds Leaf green trees Pointed toes Sweep the air I'm swinging Fall and fly Wildly Weee! Coal black crows Sit and stare I'm laughing Silver swing Heavenly high My heart knows God can hear It's singing Loveliness!! Thank you for taking the time to share this :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Pam & shukriyya, i wanted to mention a book I picked up when browsing the library today: A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn. http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perplexed-Novel-Dara-Horn-ebook/dp/B00CF2M964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393985718&sr=1-1&keywords=A+guide+for+the+perplexed The description makes me think it might be of interest to either or both of you. From Booklist: "*Starred Review* Horn follows All Other Nights (2009), about Jewish Americans in the Civil War, with another richly textured blend of history, psychology, religion, and human emotion. Josie Ashkenazi is a brilliant software designer who has created a program that allows its users to record every element of their lives and, thus, to keep the past alive, at least digitally. Her software is called Genizah, after the Cairo Genizah, a repository of ancient Hebrew manuscripts kept in storage for centuries because Jewish law forbids throwing away anything inscribed with the name of God. The Cairo Genizah was discovered in 1896 by Solomon Schechter, whose story is told in alternating chapters with the modern-day account of Josie’s capture by Islamic terrorists in Egypt. But the layers don’t stop there. Josie’s story, including the role of her jealous sister, Judith, parallels the biblical account of Joseph, and interwoven through all these thematic and narrative structures is Maimonides’ A Guide for the Perplexed, a twelfth-century philosophical treatise that has influenced religious scholars for nearly 1,000 years. Yes, the novel is as intricately constructed as Joseph’s coat of many colors, and, yes, it echoes the thematic density of the philosophical work after which it is named, but beneath all that beats the living heart of a very human drama, one that will have readers both caught up in the suspense and moved by the tragic dimensions of the unresolved dilemma at the core of the story. Should we be compelled, as both Schechter and Josie are, to help rescue the “vertiginous bottomless pit of forgotten lives†trapped in the past, or must we face the realization that “the act of reliving the past could consume the future� --Bill Ott" Thanks, Stacia. This looks bizarrely interesting--the title alone inspires the desire to give it a try :lol: And, of course, rabbit trails ensued as I spent some time perusing some of her other work. My literary world is widening at a steady rate thanks to the BaWers :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I love hammocks. I would love to have one suspended in the library/office if we had enough room. I finished Bread Givers last night by Anzia Yezierska. I picked it up in one of my shelf-cleaning rounds. From the foreword it's described as a feminist novel of the immigrant experience. A family of daughters tries to support their father, a learned man of G-d, who is used to being supported. Meanwhile he dictates their lives. Lots of tenements and Old World patriarchy, sisters fighting, the struggle to be who you are. I found it to be really immersive and the dialogue/style was amazingly well done. I loved that part of it, and I really didn't expect to love it. Usually I hate novels where things are so highly dramatic that it seems like everyone is either yelling at each other or in tears. I felt Yezierska did a great job immersing you in the culture and then she subtly contrasted it with the more sedate middle or lower class areas away from the bustling tenements. The 4 to a bed--pushing--shouting culture is tiring, even to the main character, but it also gets under your skin and Sara is obviously lonely when she leaves it. It's that kind of subtle psychology which make this book good, even when you're thinking that the characters are acting out the emotions of a dramatic stage play (a few of Yezierska's books were made into silent movies and before Bread Givers was written she was offered $100,000 to come to California and write movie scripts, much like F Scott Fitzgerald, but she became lonely for her beloved New York and returned soon after). It's still who they are, even though it seems excessive to our middle class eyes. It's an incredibly believable and sad world. I also thought where it ended was interesting, and somewhat ironic. It could definitely be read as culture affirming, even after so much of the book rails against the kind of patriarchal culture which doesn't see women as more than beasts of burden. I'd love to talk more about it but I don't want to ruin it for anyone if they decide to give it a go. Also interesting was that it published in 1925, the same year as The Great Gatsby, but it gives a different view of the American Dream. This one was much more personal and, I think, much more conflicted. Still working on Diane Abu-Jabar's food and family memoir The Language of Baklava. Abu-Jabar is the daughter of a Jordanian (half Bedouin-half Palestinian) and an American woman and grew up in the '60s between those 2 cultures. Very incisive. And she was a sharp child, the kind who gets into everything and gets to know everyone. And then there's the recipes for Lebanese/Jordanian food. Interesting how my reading this week manages to conjure 2 very Scout Finch little girls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I was a swinger. I was chuckling at how this could so easily be misunderstood when taken out of context! Years ago, I wrote my own swinging poem. (The influence is quite obvious.) Paintbox Summer Spun gold sun Sky blue sky No breeze blows I don't care I'm swinging Cotton clouds Leaf green trees Pointed toes Sweep the air I'm swinging Fall and fly Wildly Weee! Coal black crows Sit and stare I'm laughing Silver swing Heavenly high My heart knows God can hear It's singing Very nice! Thanks for sharing your poem. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Last night (well, really very early this morning), I finished Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx. You've heard the term purple prose? This book suffered from it. I read one passage to my husband, and he said that it would be a worthy entry in the The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. I was totally confused when I read the first chapter (seven pages); I'd recommend skipping it and starting with Chapter 2. You can always go back and read the first chapter later. There were a few mistakes of the you're/your variety as well as a couple of laughably wrong word choices. If you should read the book electronically, search for the word 'corroded' to find one such example. (I read the book in paper and can no longer find it to share here.) On the other hand, the story was both entertaining and angst filled; I was in tears more than once. It was an interesting story, and I recommend it. Book blurb: "Through the corridors of the Windy City's criminal courts, single mother Libby Tucker knows exactly how far she'll go to save her cancer-stricken son's life. The undefeated defense attorney is prepared to take her fight all the way to the majors.Circumstances force Libby to plead her case at the cleats of celebrity baseball player Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who discarded her at their college graduation. Libby has worked her backside bare for everything she's attained, while Aidan has been indulged since he slid through the birth canal and landed in a pile of Gold Coast money. But helping Libby and living up to his biological duty could jeopardize the only thing the jock worships: his baseball career.If baseball imitates life, Aidan admits his appears to be silver-plated peanuts, until an unexpected confrontation with the most spectacular prize that's ever poured from a caramel corn box blindsides him. When he learns about his son's desperate need, it pricks open the wound he's carried since he abandoned Libby and the child. All Libby wants is a little anonymous DNA, but Aidan has a magical umpire in his head who knows Libby's a fateball right to the heart. When a six-year-old sage and a hippy priestess step onto the field, there's more to settle between Libby and Aidan than heartache, redemption, and forgiveness." There is a prequel novella available for free on Kindle; I have not read it (though I'd like to) as I don't have an e-reader. Cutters Vs. Jocks, A Prequel Novella to Binding Arbitration The term 'cutters' has nothing to do with self-harming. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I was chuckling at how this could so easily be misunderstood when taken out of context! Yeah. I try not to let things like double meanings bother me, it is so limiting. Besides, knowing myself as I do, even I find it amusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I was listening to The Orphan Master's Son this afternoon when I suddenly realized I missed a big portion of the chapter. Why? A while back I watched an interview online with an audio book narrator. I think she narrates the Outlander books. Anyway, she talked about what it's like to narrate and one of the things she said a narrator needs is lung stamina (not her exact words). She said listeners don't want to hear their narrators take a breath because that would bring them out of the story and back to reality. For some reason I thought of that and found myself listening to the narrator, seeing if I could hear him breathe, and just generally noting his narrating style. I had to back up a bit to hear what I missed while my mind wandered. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I have a hard time with audio books in general. I find my mind actively and regularly wandering in a way it doesn't when I'm reading. If my hands are engaged, for example if I'm knitting, while I'm listening I'm more apt to stay tuned in but overall it seems that listening isn't a great way for me to experience a book right now. That being said I do 'listen' to a ton of audio books with ds during our long commutes, some are listened to over and over. We're currently listening (for the first time) to the second book of Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' series and I'm tuned into that about 75% of the time depending on my level of fatigue and the traffic conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 It was an Amazon day :hurray: Four Mary Stewart titles and SWB's, History of the Ancient World. One of them will be coming to kathak class with me tonight. Out the door we go soon. Time to make car dinner... :driving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Finished Top of the Class. I find that as a homeschool mom I already follow a lot of their "secrets". The book made me think about the amount of complaining I do in front of my kids. Something I will try to reduce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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