Book a Week in 2015 - Happy New Year

[Angel]

I finished my first book of the year last night.  As You Wish by Cary Elwes was a perfect book to start off the new year!  It was not only humorous but touching as well. I thought he wrote with a captivating voice.  My IRL friend said her dh just listened to it on audio, and it was read by Cary Elwes.  I was thinking last night that I might just pick that up and listen to it again!  He really did a great job of pulling you into the making of the movie, making you feel like you were there and that you were just one of the family.  I would like to share some of my favorite parts, but I don't want to give any spoilers.  Let's just say that I have a new appreciation for some of the movie scenes.  Especially one that involves Andre the Giant and one with Christopher Guest, who played Count Rugen.  I can say that the work that he and Mandy Patinkin did to prepare for the duel at the top of the Cliffs of Insanity was unreal!  That whole scene was done by the two of them in its entirety (well, minus the acrobatic flips on that bar). What an impressive feat!  I can't wait until my family reads this so we can talk about it, though I have to admit to not being able to keep myself from sharing one of my favorite parts.  I rarely read non-fiction, so not only did I start my year with a non-fiction book, but I'm rating it Excellent! A MUST READ for any fan of The Princess Bride.

 

I'm going to go pull The Princess Bride off Skye's shelf to read next as I've never actually read the book  ;)

 

01. As You Wish by Cary Elwes (non-fiction)

[mumto2]

My idea of a good calendar season wise agrees with Angel' s except for me spring needs to last through May. On that happy note Dh brought me home my first daffodils of the season this afternoon. They will sell them really inexpensively through at least March in unopened bundles here of maybe 10 flowers. Think they come from Holland. You put them in water and they open within hours. I love daffodils and dh for buying them for me!

 

Amy, MC Beaton also writes as Marian Chesney. Her historical romances are probably more your cuppa! Personally I prefer Hamish Macbeth to the Agatha's.

[Lady Florida.]

I finished my first book of the year last night.  As You Wish by Cary Elwes was a perfect book to start off the new year!  It was not only humorous but touching as well. I thought he wrote with a captivating voice.  My IRL friend said her dh just listened to it on audio, and it was read by Cary Elwes.  I was thinking last night that I might just pick that up and listen to it again!  He really did a great job of pulling you into the making of the movie, making you feel like you were there and that you were just one of the family

 

Thank you for that review, and the bit about your friend listening to the audio version. I have an audible.com credit and haven't been able to decide how to use it. I just listened to the sample of As You Wish, and I think I know how I'm going to spend that credit. 

[Mnemosyne]

You all write a ridiculous amount. I'll never be able to keep up!

 

Finished my first book of the year - The 10X Rule. Great book, will be on my re-read pile. Also picked up some more books at the library that were on hold, at this rate I'll never get them all read. ;)

[Angel]

Thank you for that review, and the bit about your friend listening to the audio version. I have an audible.com credit and haven't been able to decide how to use it. I just listened to the sample of As You Wish, and I think I know how I'm going to spend that credit. 

 

Great!  I can't wait to hear how you like it!

[Jane in NC]

I was just about to post the link to Journeys on the Silk Road which I downloaded last year but have yet to get to. If you and Jenn (and anyone else for that matter) are interested we could do a little read along at some point.

 

 

I may join you for this read along--depending on when you launch. 

 

[TeacherZee]

Now I want to re-read the Tiffany Aching series. I need to stop reading this thread :D

[Lady Florida.]

Now I want to re-read the Tiffany Aching series. I need to stop reading this thread :D

 

Zee, I just checked your blog. I like the challenges you've set for yourself and will be interested to see what books/authors you choose for some of them.

[TeacherZee]

Zee, I just checked your blog. I like the challenges you've set for yourself and will be interested to see what books/authors you choose for some of them.

I might have to come here for suggestions. I have one more challenge to put up. But today the Je suis Charlie felt more important

[Stacia]

In case you are interested, perhaps an interesting opinion piece from The Economist about Paris today re: the power of words (& art)...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/01/johnson-blasphemy

 

And another piece re: freedom of speech/expression/freedom from censorship (from Bloomberg BusinessWeek):

In Paris attack, clash on whether to limit press freedom

[JustEm]

This week I finished Stephen King's The Stand, which I've wanted go read for a long time but there were always other books I put ahead of it. I also finished Murakami's After Dark. I can see myself going on a Murakami kick. His style off writing is fantastic and the weirdness of the book was just up my alley. Reading reviews that say this was one of his tamer books makes me excited to read another. The next will be Kaftka on the Shore.

 

I'm into chapter 3 of The History of the Medieval World and I know already I'm going to have a hard time getting through it. Not because I'm not enjoying it but because at the end of the first chapter all I wanted to do was dive deeper into Constantine's rule. I love details and this book is going to make me want to godown too many rabbit holes!

 

I'm also dreading through Dr Wright's Kitchen Table Math since I threw out the curriculum and am just building math concepts through games and books.

 

Our read aloud now is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe so that is the last book on my night stand. We'll be reading the entire series which I'm looking forward too. I kind of just want to be done with this one since I've read it so many times. The rest I read as a child but don't remember much about them.

[Stacia]

I also finished Murakami's After Dark. I can see myself going on a Murakami kick. His style off writing is fantastic and the weirdness of the book was just up my alley. Reading reviews that say this was one of his tamer books makes me excited to read another. The next will be Kaftka on the Shore.

 

Since you like 'weird' books ;) , I'd love to hear any suggestions you have. I tend to love surreal, magical realist, meta-fiction type books & am always looking to find new ones/more to explore.

 

Thanks!

 

[aggieamy]

I finished my Agatha Raisin audiobook.  I adored the English countryside setting.  (Mumto - Can I come be your neighbor so we spend the day drinking tea and wearing flowered dresses and solving mysteries?)  The mystery lost a little steam towards the end and once poor Agatha went boy crazy I really lost interest.  

 

 

I just discovered that audible also does Great Courses as audiobooks.  Has anyone listened to any of them?  I have my eye on the writing one and some of the history ones.  Little Miss "Lucky to be alive after rolling her eyes at me" would be really interested in some of the British history topics but I worry they might be too adult for her.  

[Jane in NC]

I finished my Agatha Raisin audiobook.  I adored the English countryside setting.  (Mumto - Can I come be your neighbor so we spend the day drinking tea and wearing flowered dresses and solving mysteries?)  The mystery lost a little steam towards the end and once poor Agatha went boy crazy I really lost interest.  

 

 

I fear that Agatha Raisin gets formulaic quickly.  Sure, they are easy and comfortable reads but hard to distinguish.

 

My real point in commenting is to say that if you are going to visit Mumto2 for tea drinking and detection, I want to come too!  You'll need my cyphering skills, won't you?

 

[shukriyya]

I finished my Agatha Raisin audiobook.  I adored the English countryside setting.  (Mumto - Can I come be your neighbor so we spend the day drinking tea and wearing flowered dresses and solving mysteries?)  The mystery lost a little steam towards the end and once poor Agatha went boy crazy I really lost interest.  

 

 

I just discovered that audible also does Great Courses as audiobooks.  Has anyone listened to any of them?  I have my eye on the writing one and some of the history ones.  Little Miss "Lucky to be alive after rolling her eyes at me" would be really interested in some of the British history topics but I worry they might be too adult for her.  

 

I was thrilled to find Great Courses as audiobooks. I've got several of Professor Elizabeth Vandiver's in my audible queue. They are so much less expensive in this form. After finishing Lavinia last year I was particularly drawn to her course on The Aeneid.

 

[aggieamy]

I fear that Agatha Raisin gets formulaic quickly.  Sure, they are easy and comfortable reads but hard to distinguish.

 

My real point in commenting is to say that if you are going to visit Mumto2 for tea drinking and detection, I want to come too!  You'll need my cyphering skills, won't you?

 

 

You betcha!  We all need to be on the lookout for a handsome Duke for DD too.  Or a time traveler - per her request.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

Also about Jo Walton.

 

So far I prefer her writing when she is writing about books. I have bookmarked her series of blog posts on Tor about rereading the Master and Commander series, and I enjoy reading what she has to say about the title I just finished.  I loved her book What Makes This Book so Great (which is a collection of her blog posts about sci fi and fantasy books).  Her fiction I've read so far, Farthing, Ha'Penny and the third in the series, were just o.k. Pleasant enough but nothing that's made me hurry back to find more.

 

Definitely someone I will read again, but as of yet, not an all-time favorite author.

 

Just picked up What Makes This Book So Great from the library! Yay!

[Dicentra]

 

My husband, kids, mother, and parents-in-law were subjected to a number of rants (complete with pulling out my notes and reading favorite quotes)... I can see that I would still feel just as intensely about it no matter how often I reread them...

 

I think these two should be on the reading lists of every US history student - an important shift in perspective and an illuminating glance at what happened when idealistic plans for the US system met a challenging reality...

 

(My kids are still enormously diverted by the question 'who won the War of 1812' and the range of possible answers depending on perspective... )

 

Marking Vimy down on my TBR list - tell your husband 'thank you'!   (any other favorite history authors?)

 

 

 

I agree - it's vital to get as many different perspectives as one can.  I think no one should be able to give a definitive answer when asked 'Who won the War of 1812?'.  I someone feels they can give a definitive answer, they haven't read enough of the history. ;)

 

Berton also has a history series for younger readers, if anyone is interested.

 

The Battles of the War of 1812

Exploring the Frozen North

Canada Moves West

The Great Klondike Gold Rush

 

I know DH has been working on a set of biographies about P.E. Trudeau by John English (the names escape me).  He says they're OK but not great.  I know he thought Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire was very powerful.  The subtitle is 'The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda' just to give folks a heads-up on the subject matter - it may not be for everyone.

 

He also enjoyed (please, please forgive the language but it truly is the title of the book!) Bastards & Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present by Will Ferguson.  I don't know if this is everyone's cup of tea but it certainly pulls no punches. :)

 

He's out picking up dd from her evening extracurricular activities so I'll ask him about any other suggestions when he gets home.

[Dicentra]

I'm also dreading through Dr Wright's Kitchen Table Math since I threw out the curriculum and am just building math concepts through games and books.

 

 

I know this was probably a typo but I've sometimes found myself "dreading" through certain books - particularly if it was for school, I didn't like the book to begin with, and it was now Sunday night and exactly 12 hours before I had to have the dang thing read for class...  ;) :D

[shukriyya]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through 'Deerskin'. This is a read that is requiring effort on my part to stay with. My mind is wandering, I'm not able to get any traction with the characters, the landscape or the plot. Not enough complexity or ambiguity to work with. The characters are not multi-dimensional enough and the writing is meh. I can appreciate its allegorical nuances which result in characters that read as archetypes rather than fully-fleshed out beings but even with that in mind I'm not loving it. Her book 'Beauty' was also in the current library stack but I've decided to give it a pass. Nevertheless I'll see 'Deerskin' through to its conclusion though it's not making for a very inspiring first read of the year.

In the audiobook realm...I'm listening to a wonderful book which more than makes up for Deerskin called 'What to Remember When Waking' by poet, scholar and zoologist David Whyte. It's marvelous. His voice has a lovely Irish lilt to it and his material is full of poetry and beauty and classical allusions but beautifully shaped and grounded with a reverence for the natural world within and without. His slow, measured way of experiencing the written word has sparked my interest in The Divine Comedy, which he talks about and quotes in a way that makes it accessible and timelessly relevant.

 

Still hemming and hawing over HotMW. I don't imagine I'll enjoy this too much with its male-centric, church-centric, non-indigenous people centric view and yet enjoyment isn't necessarily the point. The point is to get a comprehensive view and in order to do that I'd have to add a lot more to the medieval roster which would then make this a year-long medieval period focus rather than a single book focus. Which could be fun but which could also feel onerous. Or I could just read along knowing I'm getting partial context. Hmm...

[Nan in Mass]

Thank you for saying that. The Floridian is going to speak about her love of Florida now. It has nothing to do with books. Sorry about that. ;)

 

People say we don't have seasons here. We do. You just have to know what to look for. You have to be willing to change your idea of what a season, and seasonal change, should look like.

 

-Smell the citrus blossoms and know that it's spring. The heady, heavy scent is a treat for the senses.

-Enjoy the pink, red, and yellow flowers of the golden rain tree. Notice the deep red leaves of the Florida red maple. Feel the humidity start to drop. You know that fall is in the air.

-Go out in your backyard and pick oranges (or grapefruits, tangerines, tangelos) on a crisp winter morning.

-Watch and feel the awesome power of an approaching thunderstorm on a hot summer afternoon. See the steam rising from the ground when the storm passes.

 

I've also had naturey-pagany types say you can't connect to nature here. Not so. Again it's a matter of mindset and willingness to look. If you look for the kind of nature connections from "up north" you'll always be looking and always be disappointed. If you allow yourself to see the uniqueness of Florida, you just might like it.

 

-Go to the beach and lie on the sand. Listen to the power of the ocean. Feel the salt air on your skin*. Breathe it in.

-Go to the mangroves. Notice the web of life running through its veins. Touch the gnarly bark of the trees. Take a good look at an old cypress tree and know that it was there when ancient peoples roamed the area.

-Mountains are beautiful, but on the plains of Florida you can see forever. We have prairies here. These wide open spaces are just as lovely as any midwestern plains.

 

Okay, I don't love this state or anything, do I? I'm not a native. I "used to know" White Christmases. I don't dream of them.

 

Florida is more than The Mouse House and Miami Vice (or Burn Notice if you want to be a bit more 21st century). The Real Florida is a wonderful place, in spite of the "lack of seasons". Florida can get under your skin and make you never want to leave, but only if you let it.

 

*Salt air it ain't thin. It can stick right to your skin and make you feel fine. Makes you feel fiiine." ~ Jimmy Buffet

 

And now back to BAW. Thank for allowing my tangent.

It isn't,t so much an or as an and. Winter AND snow. I travel to Florida in all seasons and I definitely feel and see that there are seasonal differences. Well, after the first time as an adult lol when I wondered (briefly) why all the trees around the airport were dead. But being used to frozen winters, your winter seems very unstill, very colourful, very warm. It is heaven to play in the surf midwinter, to breathe the moist green air, but I adore watching the world turn black and white, hearing the fire crackle in the quiet house while the wind wuthers outside, hearing the snow hissing or the lake singing as it freezes. The snow mutes sound in a different way than the leaves do. The beech leaves rattle in the wind. It isn't really quieter than summer but it is so much more still and monochromatic. The lake turns from constantly moving and twinkling to frozen. The winter woods is very visually restful compared to the summer woods. No leaves constantly moving. I,m too tired at the moment to do a properly poetic job of describing the differences. I understand why Florida, at least the ocean part, is appealing. I am too boat oriented not to. But I still think I would just get tireder and tireder until I wore out completely, without snow.

 

Jane, I agee. The frozen salt marsh is indeed beautiful.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

This week's thread is overwhelming, but this from Nan and the subsequent responses got me to stop and think a spell.

 

 

I've been pondering this for several minutes now. Is there really a season of stillness, even in this modern age? I think of the beautiful mornings when the world is covered in a fresh blanket of snow, or of an afternoon and evening of watching the big fluffy flakes fall from the sky. But the cozy solitude of it can't last long because you eventually need to scrape the ice off your car's windshields so you can get to a job, the dentist or grocery store. Or the library!

 

The change of seasons here is indeed subtle. I used to really miss autumn, but have learned to appreciate the changes of the season, to notice the different birds and the quality of the light, to love that spring is the coldest period of the year and lasts through most of June. In a sense, my neck of California is always still as we don't get much of either wind or rain. A good, blustery winter storm is downright thrilling in contrast to the constant mellow weather.

The world is literally still, not metaphorically still. The lake is frozen. The leaves are gone. The world is reduced to darks against lights. My life is much stiller in the summer when I am sailing and not as involved with other people and projects, but the world then is constantly moving and very colourful. And in winter, there is the calm before the storm...

 

Nan

[idnib]

What are people's thoughts on reading HotMW if one has never read HotAW? 

[NoseInABook]

Love all of the talk about seasons and weather. I lived in Arizona for the first year of my marriage. My husband and I had both grown up in Michigan and were used to four very distinct seasons. I. Was. Miserable. I look forward to each season with delight and there is beauty in all of them. I was just lamenting to my husband that while we have 4 inches of snow, it's not enough and I was hoping for the 12" that was "threatened". I'm one who wants to enjoy every season to its fullest and then say goodbye in 3 months. Fickle, perhaps..

 

 

Welcome, Maela! I read Cleaning House last year and thought it had a lot of great ideas.

 

BushMommy, I don't have a formal list... I just grab things and look at the stacks of books in person and on my Kindle. Whatever speaks to me at the time is what I pick up.

 

My husband picked up Murakami's The Elephant vanishes for himself because he loves short stories. So even he's getting stuff from this thread when he's not an active member. I have IQ84 here and I'm thinking I'm not even going to start it because I just don't have it in me to read that huge of a book on top of what I'm already reading. Still waiting for Kafka On The Shore and Strange Library to come in.

 

Mommymilkies, that is a fabulous birthday celebration! 

 

[NoseInABook]

Idnib, I didn't read HotAW. I'm jumping in with HotMW. Eventually I'll back track but for now, I'm okay with HotMW.

[NoseInABook]

Ack, double post.

[aggieamy]

I'm going to give up on a book.  (Wow.  I'm sounding like an old book curmudgeon here.)  

 

I've been trying to read Lord Peter Wimsey's Five Red Herrings for the last few weeks and suffering.  All the characters are the same and even have similar names so it's hard to tell anyone apart.  Every time I read a sentence (and there are LOTS) that has a train time table in it my mind reads "la la la la boring boring boring boring" and it remembers nothing.  The plot jumps around so much that it's almost impossible to follow since I can only pick it up to read it for a half an hour every night.  I'm sad about it because I love Lord Peter but he and I just can't go on this adventure together.  

 

 

Stand by because I'm going to start High Rising by Angela Thirkell tonight. I'm pretty excited.  

[Dicentra]

Well, I don't WANT mine in the house, so I've never tried. Into a vehicle takes 2-3 people. One person hoists the front feet on the back of the Tahoe. The other fishes the leash (after the dog flops around in the mud for a few minutes as he's never been ON a leash) through the front of the car and hangs on, dragging said dog so the head is over the middle seat (put down the far back seat). Then person #2 (better yet, have two) hoists the back feet in. Then the 2nd person opens the hatch so the tail can be latched onto whilst you try to close the main door without getting the tail. Person #1 then drives after handing the leash off to person #2, trying to keep the dog from breaking the back window. Repeat after vet visit. 

 

:D  For some reason, mine will get into the back seat of the crew-cab truck (with the seats flipped up) but REFUSE to get into the back of the nice, roomy Honda Pilot.  Two Pyr/Akbash crosses in the back seat of a crew cab - not squished AT ALL. ;)

 

The only reason I worry about needed to get them to come into the house is if one of them is injured when it's 40 below and needs to spend a few days where it's warmer to heal up.  I don't know why I worry about something that hasn't happened and probably won't happen - it's the constructive pessimist in me, I suppose... ;)

[Nan in Mass]

When dh and I moved back to Texas after a few involuntary years away (including two years in upstate New York--brrrrrr), it was in August. On the first day over a hundred degrees, I stood outside, alone under a blinding cloudless sky, air shimmering over the empty street, in the utter stillness, with no noise but the ear-splitting cicada songs beating in my ears. I was overwhelmed by how much I had missed my home, and wanted to cry for happiness.

 

I don't know if it was the same feeling you have with the snow. But I wondered how I had ever gotten by without that summer stillness.

Upstate ny must have seemed very claustrophobic compared with Texas. And dark.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

This is such a lovely question and I thank you for posing it. It's a poem in itself, really, and any finite attempts I might make to answer it will fall short. ..... In Winter one receives the world with a different kind of awareness, spare, vivid, even acute at times. There were moments of glorious cathedral stillness, yes, but also moments of slushy frustration, biting frozen cold, agitated pent-up energy in overheated schoolrooms and houses. .....Color is banished, sound is muffled, warmth has gone south, light sharpens, ..... What I'm trying to say is the capacity to hold this tension of opposites is something I continue to learn, sometimes clumsily, sometimes less so.

 

Stillness feels fairly accessible to me, wintery landscapes are solidly in place within, for better or worse. I don't miss the climate I grew up in one little bit, am so grateful for where I live now. Especially when my brother texts me with things like '-35 tonight, cold warning in effect'. And yet, there is nothing like stepping into the waking world after a heavy falling of snow to smooth rough edges into grace and make all things new. Nothing like the kind of silence in which one needs not be heard.

 

You made a better attempt at explaining winter stillness than I. : ). The sunrises... The ever changing light on snow and ice... The blessed blinding brightness that one craves so much... Orion... Moonlit snow... Yes, that blue... Something inside me relaxes in winter at the same time my body is struggling with the tightness of being slightly too cold most of the time, when it isn't overheating. I guess the stillness lives inside me permanently now, but I still need it outside of me, too. You must be more grown up than me.

 

Nan

[swellmomma]

I finished my first book of the year on Sunday night.  It was called Third Degree by Greg Iles.  I am currently reading Night Road by Kristin Hannah and will likely finish it tonight.  Both are new authors to me, and I will certainly be reading more of their work.  

THird degree occurs over a period of 24 hours.  The author wrote it well enough that I could picture it as being a depiction of a real situation.  Laurel Shields is a mother of 2, 5 weeks prior she ended the affair she was having, however on this day she discovers she is pregnant with her ex-lover's child. As she prepares to leave for work she notices her husband is disheveled, chaotic and has not slept yet.  He is turning their study upside down clearing books from the shelf. SHe goes to work, and midday feels she needs to go home, but when she gets there her husband is still there and a violent stand off begins with her being held hostage and the daring rescue of the small town police force.  It was a book I did not want to put down.

Night road, is another book I have not wanted to put down causing me some lost sleep for 2 nights now as I stay up late reading.  Lexi is a Foster kid who finally learns she has family, a great aunt, that wants to take care of her.  In her new town she becomes best friends with shy Mia, and ultimately falls in love with Mia's twin brother.  THe 3 of them are inseparable until a senior year party just weeks before graduation, when a decision to drive drunk results in a car crash that kills Mia and tears everything apart. At first this book seemed like just another teenaged love story but it has moved me to tears several times as I have read, as the emotions felt by the family as they try to deal with Mia's death and all that follow is so honest.  

01. Third degree by Greg Iles
02. Night Road by Kristin Hannah  

[Nan in Mass]

And that is as far as I,ve read. (Shukriyya,s post, approximately) . Whew this thread is moving fast!

 

Nan

[Lady Florida.]

This week I finished Stephen King's The Stand, which I've wanted go read for a long time but there were always other books I put ahead of it.

 

What did you think of it? I read it many, many years ago and it had always been one of my favorite books. It was also one I always meant to reread. A friend reread it last year and said it seemed really dated. Did you think it was? I wonder if she thought that because she read it long ago like I did, and would I feel the same way if I reread it. I'd be interested in hearing what someone reading it for the first time thought.

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

I just discovered that audible also does Great Courses as audiobooks.  Has anyone listened to any of them?  I have my eye on the writing one and some of the history ones.  Little Miss "Lucky to be alive after rolling her eyes at me" would be really interested in some of the British history topics but I worry they might be too adult for her.  

 

I only learned about this on a recent audible thread here on the chat board. I've never tried any of them but have been thinking about it since I read that thread.

[idnib]

What did you think of it? I read it many, many years ago and it had always been one of my favorite books. It was also one I always meant to reread. A friend reread it last year and said it seemed really dated. Did you think it was? I wonder if she thought that because she read it long ago like I did, and would I feel the same way if I reread it. I'd be interested in hearing what someone reading it for the first time thought.

 

I have it on my list to read too. I read it a long time ago but this time I shelled out for the version in which King re-inserted 400 pages the publishers had originally cut on the advice of their accountants, not their editors.

[JustEm]

Since you like 'weird' books ;) , I'd love to hear any suggestions you have. I tend to love surreal, magical realist, meta-fiction type books & am always looking to find new ones/more to explore.

 

Thanks!

 

I'll have to think of some and get back to you. I've been on a nonfiction kick for a long time so nothing is coming to me right away.

[melmichigan]

Ok, I've finished the first four chapters of HoMW, and as of right now I need help!  It reads like a list of names, with very little information about each person.  If I'm going to slug through the entire book I need additional books to peak my interest.  Is there any way we could start of list of supplementary books?  Maybe some suggestions for interesting rabbit trails from those who have studies Medieval history at this level?  Next year will be my first year with a rhetoric students so I haven't studied Medieval at this level.

 

I did start a timeline like someone mentioned in an attempt to list the major rulers, but there has got to be a way to flush this out and make it more interesting, otherwise I'm doomed.  :auto:

[JustEm]

I know this was probably a typo but I've sometimes found myself "dreading" through certain books - particularly if it was for school, I didn't like the book to begin with, and it was now Sunday night and exactly 12 hours before I had to have the dang thing read for class... ;) :D

He he. Yes a typo but I certainly remember dreading through books in school. I didn't enjoy reading until I was a freshman in college so much of highschool was spent skimming books and rushing to get them done the night before needing to talk about them.

[JustEm]

What did you think of it? I read it many, many years ago and it had always been one of my favorite books. It was also one I always meant to reread. A friend reread it last year and said it seemed really dated. Did you think it was? I wonder if she thought that because she read it long ago like I did, and would I feel the same way if I reread it. I'd be interested in hearing what someone reading it for the first time thought.

 

I have mixed feelings about it. Its broken into 3 parts. I absolutely loved the first 2 parts but really didn't enjoy the third part much. But this is how I often feel about King's books. He can write a fantastic story but always falls short when he's trying to end it.

 

Then I think about the miniseries and really feel that the only part that wasn't depicted properly in it was the beginning when everyone was becoming ill. That part of the book effected me greatly because King can really get down to the core of what disturbs people. It fell short on the screen. But the rest of the story was pretty dead on in the miniseries so I got to a point where I just wanted to watch the miniseries again instead of finishing the book. I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed it if I hadn't seen the miniseries so many times before.

 

I didn't find it dated though.

[Cleopatra]

I finished The Luminaries last night and loved it! I had about half an hour left in the book when it came time for book club, but there were no spoilers by that point. 

 

I should say that our book club is made up of people who were friends first. We've all known each other for more than a few years. Apparently we missed seeing one another over the holidays. We ate, discussed the book (great discussion), and at around 8:30 agreed we should get going. Two hours later we noticed the restaurant employees putting chairs up on the empty tables! I came home and finished reading it. :)

 

So, I've now read 2 books in 2015. The Luminaries and Paragon Walk (historical mystery). I started The Luminaries in 2014 but will count it for this year. 

 

I'm glad to hear that it was such an enjoyable read!  **** mentally moving it up on my booklist *****

 

I'm so envious of your live book group.   The friendship first aspect I'm sure adds another wonderful dimension to your group.  I would love to be part of a live group, but my tastes don't usually run to mainly mainstream fiction which is what most of the groups around here read.  However, I won't give up and keep looking.   Eventually perhaps something will come up.

[Rosie_0801]

Indigenous calendars are fun, particularly if you live somewhere you learn the four seasons of three months each, and reality tells you that's all wrong.

[guilfordlake]

What are people's thoughts on reading HotMW if one has never read HotAW? 

I have not read HotAW.  I tried.  Multiple times. I could not get through it.  I love history, but not ancient history.

 

So far, in reading HotMW, not having read HotAW has not been a problem.  Of course, I'm only 2 chapters into HotMW, so... :)

[Robin M]

Ok, I've finished the first four chapters of HoMW, and as of right now I need help! It reads like a list of names, with very little information about each person. If I'm going to slug through the entire book I need additional books to peak my interest. Is there any way we could start of list of supplementary books? Maybe some suggestions for interesting rabbit trails from those who have studies Medieval history at this level? Next year will be my first year with a rhetoric students so I haven't studied Medieval at this level.

 

I did start a timeline like someone mentioned in an attempt to list the major rulers, but there has got to be a way to flush this out and make it more interesting, otherwise I'm doomed. :auto:

Do you want just non fiction or historical fiction as well? Adult as well as kid and what age? And have you been through the works cited list in the back of the book? May be trying to reinvent the wheel.

[guilfordlake]

I finished my first book of the year on Sunday night.  It was called Third Degree by Greg Iles.  I am currently reading Night Road by Kristin Hannah and will likely finish it tonight.  Both are new authors to me, and I will certainly be reading more of their work.  

 

THird degree occurs over a period of 24 hours.  The author wrote it well enough that I could picture it as being a depiction of a real situation.  Laurel Shields is a mother of 2, 5 weeks prior she ended the affair she was having, however on this day she discovers she is pregnant with her ex-lover's child. As she prepares to leave for work she notices her husband is disheveled, chaotic and has not slept yet.  He is turning their study upside down clearing books from the shelf. SHe goes to work, and midday feels she needs to go home, but when she gets there her husband is still there and a violent stand off begins with her being held hostage and the daring rescue of the small town police force.  It was a book I did not want to put down.

 

Night road, is another book I have not wanted to put down causing me some lost sleep for 2 nights now as I stay up late reading.  Lexi is a Foster kid who finally learns she has family, a great aunt, that wants to take care of her.  In her new town she becomes best friends with shy Mia, and ultimately falls in love with Mia's twin brother.  THe 3 of them are inseparable until a senior year party just weeks before graduation, when a decision to drive drunk results in a car crash that kills Mia and tears everything apart. At first this book seemed like just another teenaged love story but it has moved me to tears several times as I have read, as the emotions felt by the family as they try to deal with Mia's death and all that follow is so honest.  

 

01. Third degree by Greg Iles

02. Night Road by Kristin Hannah  

 

I read several Greg Iles books years ago and really enjoyed them.  His stories have a way of sticking with you.  There's one about old people who feed off the youth of children who live in a NYC apt building.  I don't remember the name of the book but the story line is so vivid in my memory.

[swellmomma]

I read several Greg Iles books years ago and really enjoyed them.  His stories have a way of sticking with you.  There's one about old people who feed off the youth of children who live in a NYC apt building.  I don't remember the name of the book but the story line is so vivid in my memory.

Good to know.  I will have to track some more of his down.

 

SO as predicted I finished Night Road tonight, while soaking in the tub.

 

Beginning book 3 while heading off to bed.  This time I am reading Lighten Up by Loretta LaRoche. SUbtitled: The authentic and fun way to lose your weight and your worries.  It is only 176 pages so it should be a fairly fast read.  

 

I figure I will read a ton now because once my classes start on the 19th  will be going much slower.

[Guest]

How am I to interpret this, I wonder? As a gentle nudge from the universe to put 'Kafka on the Shore' back on my tbr list? As an 'aw shucks' feeling of gratitude towards mumto2 thinking of me while she's out in nature and eating well? As the widening sky of generosity opening and closing beneath my feet at this lovely example of literary interdependence? Hmm, I'll be greedy and take all three interpretations leaving a seat at the table for any others who care to unfold themselves into my awareness.

 

...perhaps another intense reaction from me might encourage you to try it?  ;)

 

I read it the beginning of last year and it was, for me, like being trapped in a nightmare.  Since this was described as having Oedipal elements, the incest wasn't a complete surprise, but the way it was done and the consciousness and the lack of consent, or ability to consent, weren't pieces I could be at peace with.  The super squicky violence involving cats is something I wish I could unread. 

 

...but.  There is more to this book than I could see.  I could sense a transcendence that I could not access... like a Magic Eye picture where the sick-making patterns are something neat if you can just focus your eyes the right way... my 'eyes' just can't do it.  The 'voice' in this one was compelling, and kept me reading (unlike Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which I started

 

 

 

That's the smart thing to do! I'm sitting here thinking, this books must get really good in the last part to even try to redeem putting this kind of stuff in my head. :toetap05:

 

I think it does for some people, but it didn't for me.  More than the hideous cat scene or the maternal incest, the dream that maybe wasn't a dream rape deeply disturbed me and the bits that were supposed to pull everything together and, I think, create a transcendent insight from all the pieces, didn't redeem this for me at all, and I don't think it would have even if it had worked for me...  ymmv  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Fox was just TOO weird.  No ground beneath my feet.  No narrative that I could hang on to, or sufficient consistency in the characters that I felt a pull to invest myself in what happened to them.

 

Yes.  I need to be able to feel the ground, at least occasionally when I read.. and enough narrative consistency that it feels like a story rather than a fever nightmare. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[idnib]

I finished the tidying book, my first completion of 2015. Actually, my first completion in a long time as I often have too many unfinished books.

 

After reading the last page, I turned to my husband and told him that while Marie Kondo has a strange way of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects (my Japanese friend tells me this is very Japanese)  and may be exhibiting some symptoms of mental illness, we should definitely follow her techniques as we declutter for our move. In other words, she is a bit crazy but strangely persuasive. She leaves you with an "Eh, what have I got lose?" type of motivation. Nonetheless, I will not be peeling labels off my deodorant to "reduce visual clutter."

[Guest]

I agree - it's vital to get as many different perspectives as one can.  I think no one should be able to give a definitive answer when asked 'Who won the War of 1812?'.  I someone feels they can give a definitive answer, they haven't read enough of the history. ;)

 

 

:iagree:  

 

 

Berton also has a history series for younger readers, if anyone is interested.

 

We have some of those - I don't love them as much as his grown-up books, but I appreciate having them.

 

 

 

He's out picking up dd from her evening extracurricular activities so I'll ask him about any other suggestions when he gets home.

 

Yes, please!  thank you.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

I am envious of your memory!  Yes, we all read it and discussed it over breakfast.  It was a hit and we were all surprised that nobody had read it before.  All the ladies in my group are (and have always been) prolific readers so I don't know why it hadn't crossed anyone's bookshelf before.  

 

I remembered it because the book was one of my touchstones as a child, but I am always curious how books I can't see objectively look to others!

 

The only Alcott most people seem to encounter is Little Women and, sometimes, its sequels.  ...but those were never my favorites.  Those would be Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, and An Old Fashioned Girl... the latter I connect with Alcott's grown up novel Work which expands on some of the briefly encountered themes in the middle section.

 

I'm going to give up on a book.  (Wow.  I'm sounding like an old book curmudgeon here.)  

 

I've been trying to read Lord Peter Wimsey's Five Red Herrings for the last few weeks and suffering.  All the characters are the same and even have similar names so it's hard to tell anyone apart.  Every time I read a sentence (and there are LOTS) that has a train time table in it my mind reads "la la la la boring boring boring boring" and it remembers nothing.  The plot jumps around so much that it's almost impossible to follow since I can only pick it up to read it for a half an hour every night.  I'm sad about it because I love Lord Peter but he and I just can't go on this adventure together. 

 

It took me a while before I appreciated 5 Red Herrings - it has a very different feel from some of the others and has some drier bits... and I still have to be in the right mood to enjoy it. 

 

Hurrah for setting aside a slog and moving on to something more exciting to you right now!

 

 

When dh and I moved back to Texas after a few involuntary years away (including two years in upstate New York--brrrrrr), it was in August. On the first day over a hundred degrees, I stood outside, alone under a blinding cloudless sky, air shimmering over the empty street, in the utter stillness, with no noise but the ear-splitting cicada songs beating in my ears. I was overwhelmed by how much I had missed my home, and wanted to cry for happiness.

 

I don't know if it was the same feeling you have with the snow. But I wondered how I had ever gotten by without that summer stillness.

 

That's how I felt when I moved back the Pacific Northwest and there were fall rains and the misty, slightly gray days...

 

I feel oppressed and suffocated by brightness and heat, and trapped by snows or cold that goes on for more than a day or two... but the moist winds with the evergreens waving against a blueish-grey sky, the comforting patter of light rain as I curl up with a book before bed... it isn't just 'home' it's respite, a haven, a safe place... and there will be light through the clouds, and sun will sparkle on the water (delight!), but the safe cozy space will always come back before too long...

 

 

Re Jo Walton, I looked her up after you or someone linked her a few days ago and characteristically the only book that appealed is 'Among Others' ;) It's on my tbr list but that doesn't mean much more than intention has been tethered by the click of a key.

 

I don't think even that Walton would be a good fit for you - you might like some aspects of My Real Children, but I think you like more twists and turns and opacity than I do... and Walton doesn't offer that... nor does she have poetic prose.  (I am very fond of her writing style, but the things you don't like in McKinley make me think you could have a similar reaction to Walton.)

 

...our tastes are even more different than I had realized.  ...I use the opening section of McKinley's Spindle's End as part of a short story unit with some of my kids/students.  I think she's a fabulous writer - she isn't Virginia Woolf or Flaubert, but her prose is something I like and admire.  ...and timely reminder to me of how reading is so individual a process, and the reading experience unique for each of us....

[mumto2]

I'm going to give up on a book. (Wow. I'm sounding like an old book curmudgeon here.)

 

I've been trying to read Lord Peter Wimsey's Five Red Herrings for the last few weeks and suffering. All the characters are the same and even have similar names so it's hard to tell anyone apart. Every time I read a sentence (and there are LOTS) that has a train time table in it my mind reads "la la la la boring boring boring boring" and it remembers nothing. The plot jumps around so much that it's almost impossible to follow since I can only pick it up to read it for a half an hour every night. I'm sad about it because I love Lord Peter but he and I just can't go on this adventure together.

 

 

Stand by because I'm going to start High Rising by Angela Thirkell tonight. I'm pretty excited.

I quit Five Red Herrings last January. I doubt tbat I posted about it due to embarrassment. I think it is the only Lord Peter I haven't read. Dd actually told me to quit after she slogged through. She said I wouldn't like it.....