Robin M Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 T'smom: My book 3 for the year is AD 30 by Ted Dekker. It's okay so far. Nt spectacular, though. Love Ted Dekker and books set in that time period so look forward to hearing what you like and dislike about the story. Up to his usual standards or less than RedSquirrel: Hello, I'd like to join you all and give it my best shot. I am still on my first book of the year, but it is David Copperfield. always like to start the year with a classic, but maybe next time I think I'll pick a shorter classic? Welcome!!! I have yet to read David Copperfield because of the length, but one of these days. I usually start my year with a classic. Don't know why I didn't this time. Maybe I end the year with a huge classic and send it out with a bang. Meanwhile, off to peruse my shelves to find a classic for the first quarter. Hmm! Mumto2: have been busy reading the first in a new to me series which I am loving so far. It is a very clever paranormal with a huge book twist called Libriomancerhttp://smartbitchest...iew-by-carries/by Jim Hines. Awesome, thanks for linking. Added to my wishlist. Pam: ... I agree wholly with the bolded... that is for me why I can, myself, read the same book spaced 10+ years apart and have a completely different encounter. The printed text obviously hasn't changed; I have. (And there's no other experience that so sharply draws my awareness of how much and in what directions I've changed.) I think it's also one of the reasons why book groups with people from a wide range of different backgrounds / experiences / worldviews are more interesting... the discussions tend to bring out much more detail of what each reader is bringing to, or pulling out, of the text, than more homogenous group discussions... Lost Surprise: Looking at this I see a few interesting things at work. Intellectually analyzing something to other people (which motivates you to push yourself and really connect and communicate) can push the boundaries of how you understand a story. It makes you think. Debating and sharing (squees and quoting are a part of this) can also re-connect you to the feelings and emotions you have about the story....deepening what was already there. We're social beings. We affect each other by being together. It's fun to wash in the ocean of this thread and feel the undercurrents of different books as they come up and then disappear. I hope I described what you were looking for without being too wordy. :) Well said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 Jennifer: On last week's thread someone mentioned A Walk in the Woods. Read it, loved it, thank you for bringing it to my attention! Glad to hear that since Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is my B book for nonfiction. Hi Alice - glad you dropped out of eavesdropper mode to say hi. Mantel's book of short stories sounds interesting. Will add to my check it out list. I finished Bristol House by Beverly Swerling. The story had two storylines, past and present which somehow fell into a cohesive meld at the end We had the present following a historian and the other in 1530's involving Carthusian monks and persecution of the Jews. Interesting conversations between a priest and rabbi discussing the differences between mysticism vs supernatural vs the preternatural. Lots of twists and turns to the story. Historian Annie Kendall arrives at London’s Bristol House on an assignment to research ancient artifacts from the Holy Land. She’s desperate to escape her troubled past with the help of the shadowy employer who has hired her for an unusual, but well-paid, mission. So Annie is determined to ignore the strange manifestations in her flat—including the appearance of a ghostly Carthusian monk. When she crosses paths with Geoff Harris, a well-known TV journalist and a dead ringer for the strange apparition, they are called upon to crack an enigmatic code, still unbroken after five hundred years. About to delve into Orest Stelmach's The Boy from Reactor 4 which was one of the books ya'll chose for me a year or so ago from Judge a Book by its Cover. Nadia’s memories of her father are not happy ones. An angry, secretive man, he died when she was thirteen, leaving his past shrouded in mystery. When a stranger claims to have known her father during his early years in Eastern Europe, she agrees to meet—only to watch the man shot dead on a city sidewalk. With his last breath, he whispers a cryptic clue, one that will propel Nadia on a high-stakes treasure hunt from New York to her ancestral homeland of Ukraine. There she meets an unlikely ally: Adam, a teenage hockey prodigy who honed his skills on the abandoned cooling ponds of Chernobyl. Physically and emotionally scarred by radiation syndrome, Adam possesses a secret that could change the world—if she can keep him alive long enough to do it. A twisting tale of greed, secrets, and lies, I seem to have a theme going here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I switched Common Sense from audio to text and finished it quickly. The audio reader was too slow for me. I'm on to The Age of Reason. I can't believe I've never read any Tom Paine before. I picked up a stack of books from the library, including one called Moriarty by Anthony Horowtiz, which drew me like a magnet. I will probably start it tonight. Hopefully it will not disappoint. Count me among those who enjoyed The Lost City of Z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I finished Fire and Hemlock. Parts of it were hard for me to get through. DWJ does children so very well... I,ve had this problem before with her books. I have never made it further than a few pages into either The Cart and the Cwidder or Drowned Ammet. Her lighter books I love. I really enjoyed the first half of Fire and Hemlock - not so much the end though. I find that certain authors have 1 or 2 books that I love (Howl's Moving Castle for DWJ for me) - and then the rest are only good at best. Of course that doesn't usually stop me from reading the rest :lol: although I say that as I slowly work my way into Blackout by Connie Willis - her To Say Nothing of the Dog is the only one I love - and I've ended up putting down others of hers -- Doomsday Book for example, I have started several times and never got past the very beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maus Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Keeping track offline. Can post from my phone, but not my computer for some reason. Grrr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 ...Connie Willis - her To Say Nothing of the Dog is the only one I love - and I've ended up putting down others of hers -- Doomsday Book for example, I have started several times and never got past the very beginning. I've long heard raves about To Say Nothing of the Dog; however, every time I've started it, I go so far and no further. Perhaps I should try one of her others since my reaction is the opposite of yours. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Finished As You Wish which I had to read after hearing about here and because I love the movie. Fun book and I may have shed a tear or two. Sigh, now I need to get back to my homework. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bellwether is my favorite Connie Willis. It is light and funny social commentary. I liked Lincoln's Dreams too. Each of her books is different from the rest. More enjoyment of To Say Nothing of the Dog might be had if Three Men in a Boat by Jerome Jerome was read first. However, I make no guarantees. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bellwether is my favorite Connie Willis. It is light and funny social commentary. I liked Lincoln's Dreams too. Each of her books is different from the rest. More enjoyment of To Say Nothing of the Dog might be had if Three Men in a Boat by Jerome Jerome was read first. However, I make no guarantees. :-) Bellwether is my 2nd favorite of Connie Willis. I will say I don't think there a single book of hers didn't take me a bit to get into-- including To Say Nothing of the Dog. I just enjoyed it best (and have read it again). And I'm just reading Three Men in a Boat now lol! I have been laughing a lot in Three Men in a Boat -- so maybe that is why I liked To Say Nothing of the Dog so much. I'll have to read it again after to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Since Marilynne Robinson has been mentioned, I'll throw in that she wrote an article for this week's NYRB on Edgar Allen Poe. I look forward to reading it if I am allowed to stop reading Clyde Robert Bulla to Wee Girl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'm listening to the audiobook of American Gods. (Re-read but it's been awhile) 1. Neil Gaiman's voice makes me whimper. 2. This passage makes me cry like a baby every time. No plot spoilers, but if you need to let out some pent up tears, or want to read something heart shattering and beautiful, read it. (note: curse word in the tumblr title) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Regarding House-Keeping or Marilynne Robinson or being influenced by discussion with others in general: I'm not sure which one you want, but I'll do my best. ;) House-Keeping is an earlier, more poetic/symbolic novel of Marilynne Robinson (Gilead) which I read 10-15 years ago. (Ok, that's for all the newcomers.) When I first read the novel I was frustrated by it. It really does not have much plot and the language is so gorgeous and it's so mysterious. I liked it. I wanted to understand it better because my liking had an under-current of frustration. I read it a second time and liked it even better but still felt I was missing so much of the impact. Within a year of that I had a very interesting online discussion with a librarian friend which really opened the novel to me. Not that she told me anything new (she hadn't even read it), but describing it to her and struggling to express the book in words opened a whole new aspect of the novel to me. I've had that happen with other books on here. Just struggling to summarize the book and analyze why you feel the way you do about it draws you into a greater connection with various levels of the story. I think that kind of epiphany can increase the affection you have for something (or decrease it), even though the thing itself has not changed. A few years after that I found another person who'd read the novel and we had a deeper conversation. She preferred Gilead to House-Keeping (I felt oppositely) and the give and take, the disagreement, the intellectual struggle to put everything straight and put a light to what the other person is missing strongly connects you to how you feel about a story. Looking at this I see a few interesting things at work. Intellectually analyzing something to other people (which motivates you to push yourself and really connect and communicate) can push the boundaries of how you understand a story. It makes you think. Debating and sharing (squees and quoting are a part of this) can also re-connect you to the feelings and emotions you have about the story....deepening what was already there. We're social beings. We affect each other by being together. It's fun to wash in the ocean of this thread and feel the undercurrents of different books as they come up and then disappear. I hope I described what you were looking for without being too wordy. :) :001_wub: :001_wub: This is beautiful... and why I so love book groups, IRL and this one. thank you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Check out this flavorwire list of 50 books to read to make you more interesting. Oh, excuse me, guaranteed to make you more interesting. :lol: From Off the Shelf - What's the Back Story. 6 Origin stories to shed light on characters. Following a rabbit trail - The City that Silk built. Definition of a dictionary - Merriam-Webster is revising for the digital age (such a scary thought) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Those who like stories with some magical realism might enjoy the book I read today. The Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag "Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways." The description above makes it sound as though the story concerns mostly Cora and Walt. I'd say that they are the main characters in the book; however, there are a number of others whose stories are also told. I enjoyed the book. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'm listening to the audiobook of American Gods. (Re-read but it's been awhile) 1. Neil Gaiman's voice makes me whimper. With pleasure or with pain? Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guilfordlake Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I switched Common Sense from audio to text and finished it quickly. The audio reader was too slow for me. I'm on to The Age of Reason. I can't believe I've never read any Tom Paine before. Common Sense is on my hope-to-read list this year. I don't think I've read any Thomas Paine, either. If I did, I don't remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Those who like stories with some magical realism might enjoy the book I read today. The Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag "Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires. Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways." The description above makes it sound as though the story concerns mostly Cora and Walt. I'd say that they are the main characters in the book; however, there are a number of others whose stories are also told. I enjoyed the book. Regards, Kareni Cool beans! I thoroughly enjoyed The House at the End of Hope Street. Adding to my wishlist! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Mum2: I love A Murder for Her Majesty.......it was one of the last read alouds we dis. :( Libriomancer, I am at the halfway point so not done. Nothing overly explicit has happened so PG13. There is violence pretty frequently but so far it has been quick. There is a war with vampires happening so things could escalate beyond this level so I will report when done. I think a romantic relationship is going to happen eventually but not sure wHat level of description. I can't remember which paranormal type books we have both read to use as a comparison. Skye remembers A Murder for Her Majesty fondly. It was one of the few Sonlight books that we actually liked :laugh: She was excited to see that Aly and I were going to read it. Thanks for the review! I look forward to seeing how you like it overall! Lady Florida: While the book is well loved, including by many of the stars of the movie, I've often heard this is one of those rare instances where the movie is better. I've never tried to read the book, so I don't know how true that is. The bolded is what made me want to pick up the book even more! The actual story is good. The fictional narration about a fictional William Goldman and a fictional Morgenstern just annoy me and interrupt the story. I keep thinking it's real. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Kareni: Those who like stories with some magical realism might enjoy the book I read today. The Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag Karen, what's the rating on this, if you don't mind me asking! This sounds like a book Skye may enjoy. She read a book last year about a dress shop called A Vintage Affair, which was one of her favorite books of the year. She enjoys delving into the dresses, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Check out this flavorwire list of 50 books to read to make you more interesting. Oh, excuse me, guaranteed to make you more interesting. :lol: From Off the Shelf - What's the Back Story. 6 Origin stories to shed light on characters. Following a rabbit trail - The City that Silk built. Definition of a dictionary - Merriam-Webster is revising for the digital age (such a scary thought) Nice! I added Speak, Memory, Dhalgren, Bad Feminist, Persepolis, The Gilda Stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Mating, Wittgenstein's Mistress, The Known World, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Against Interpretation, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Eros the Bittersweet, and Men Explain Things to Me to my list. Oy ve! OTOH, I'm already at least halfway interesting, according to this list ;) :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 With pleasure or with pain? Regards, Kareni Oh, pleasure indeed. I want his voice in my head all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Somehow from that Flavorwire list I ended up with precisely nothing in the tbr stack and instead with Susan Griffin's, The Eros of Everday Life: Essays on Ecology, Gender and Society winging its way to me :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Those who like stories with some magical realism might enjoy the book I read today. The Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag <snip> Regards, Kareni Looks like a fun read. I added it to my list. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I didn't get any reading time yesterday. So frustrating! I love how when anyone finds out I am reading David Copperfield they make a comment about how they 'like to read light stuff' and can't handle really hard things like Dickens. I am guessing they have never read any Dickens, because while David Copperfield is looong and very rich and engaging, it is just... a family drama. It is a bit soap opera-ish at time, but, of course, always beautifully written, with such amazing characters. I am also surprised at how modern David Copperfield feels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tress Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Nice! I added Speak, Memory, Dhalgren, Bad Feminist, Persepolis, The Gilda Stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Mating, Wittgenstein's Mistress, The Known World, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Against Interpretation, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Eros the Bittersweet, and Men Explain Things to Me to my list. Oy ve! OTOH, at I'm already at least halfway interesting, according to this list ;) :D I didn't read the list, I stopped after the 'trilingual, lion-tamer, astrophysicist reader' bit :D. I told my kids I need to start taming lions asap, luckily I've got the other things down already :lol:. (Okay, trilingual reader is a bit of a stretch, I'm :banghead: trying to read Cicero's Letters to Family.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Kareni: Those who like stories with some magical realism might enjoy the book I read today. The Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag Karen, what's the rating on this, if you don't mind me asking! Let me think. Spoilers: There is kissing, there is subterfuge via letter writing a la Cyrano de Bergerac where one character assumes the identity of another but it's not done maliciously, and there is a murder some twenty years earlier that was done for personal gain that is solved during the book; I don't recall any lovemaking. A couple of items might or might not be troublesome for Catholics ~ one character routinely visits the confessional even though he is not Catholic (but the priest is aware of this). Also, some forty or fifty years before the story begins, a man who intends to become a priest falls in love with an engaged woman and they make love. During the course of the story, he considers leaving the priesthood. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yesterday I finished Try by Lily Burana which I enjoyed a great deal. (Caution: this is not for conservative readers.) "My God, it's refreshing to read a novel as good and rank and honest as TRY." ----Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love "A love story with an alternative-country twang, Try is a fresh, sexy novel about holding on to what you love despite all the bumps and bruises. In Denver, Colorado, Daryl Heatherly is a promising young artist trying to find her place. When she returns to the country just outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, Daryl is forced to confront her true feelings about saying goodbye to the last home her family all lived in together. And it's there that she meets J.W. Jarrett, a World Champion rodeo cowboy and true Southern gentleman. Against her better judgment, Daryl forges ahead despite a recent heartbreak, not only dating him but joining him on the circuit to watch him ride. Though the chemistry between them is undeniable, Daryl is determined not to fall for a cowboy, with all the dust and drama that implies--especially when she finds out that J.W has secrets. But Daryl hasn't counted on the grit of a man who has outlasted every other rider in the arena--her cowboy isn't going to give up that easily…" This isn't marketed as a romance (though it features a strong one); it's probably categorized as mainstream fiction. I knew very little about rodeo before I started the book; I know more now. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tress Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I finished reading Kafka on the Shore. I was determined to finish it, but I'm quite sure there will not be any more Murakami in my reading future.I started and dropped David Eggers - The Circle. The idea was very interesting, but the story felt really lame. I had expected to really like it, so that was disapointing.I started and....gasp....am contemplating dropping (what's happening to me?? :D) Mortimer Adler's Paideia Proposal. It's a dusty from my shelves and I have always heard about it in glowing terms. After several pages on why everyone has to have the Exact Same Education, with No Exceptions Ever, except maaaaaybe for children with Severe Brain Damage.......which makes me itchy, because I do not like one-size-fits-all solutions, although I do understand the democratic ideal behind it, he ends by repeating that everyone needs the Exact Same Education except for...........wait for it........foreign languages, because learning a foreign language is so difficult that you can not ask that of everyone. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry.In contrast, Dutch schools start tracking in 7th grade and everyone in every track*, studies English, French and German for a couple of years.Maybe I need to stop reading American educational books, that might help my blood pressure, for sure :lol:.I'm reading and enjoying: Marguerite Duras's The Lover. *I stand corrected, Loesje informed me that currently the lowest educational track students study only two foreign languages, English and French or German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Thanks, Karen! That's exactly what I needed to know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Thanks for the link, Robin. I'll have to go back through it later & see which, if any, of them my library carries. I've read a few from the list (& have enjoyed them) so I look forward to finding a few new ones too. Since I've been dissatisfied with my reading attempts lately, I'm happy to have now started a book from my shelves (that I got for Christmas): Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, published by Unnamed Press. I'm not too far yet, but it's an engaging read & I think I'm finding my reading groove again. (Yay!) 1993. Houston. Dr. Wale Olufunmi, lunar rock geologist, has a life most Nigerian immigrants would kill for, but then most Nigerians aren’t Wale—a great scientific mind in exile with galactic ambitions. Then comes an outlandish order: steal a piece of the moon. With both personal and national glory at stake, Wale manages to pull off the near impossible, setting out on a journey back to Nigeria that leads anywhere but home. Compelled by Wale’s impulsive act, Nigerians traces arcs in time and space from Houston to Stockholm, from Cape Town to Bulawayo, picking up on the intersecting lives of a South African abalone smuggler, a freedom fighter’s young daughter, and Wale’s own ambitious son. Deji Olukotun’s debut novel defies categorization—a story of international intrigue that tackles deeper questions about exile, identity, and the need to answer an elusive question: what exactly is brain gain? And, here's quite a neat article by the author, I Wrote a Novel About the Nigerian Space Program. Then I Met My Main Character. It's different because the author says he made up his protagonist. Then, a few years later, he actually met a man who is almost exactly like his protagonist. Which posed a paradox for him. Some quotes from the article... There was something absolutely terrifying about meeting in real life a person whom I thought I made up. Some of the characters in the novel were based on real people—for example, on an abalone farmer and a prosecutor I had met in South Africa while researching the story. But this was the opposite: A fictional character become real. Before me sat an individual with agency and flaws and nuance. I was nearly silenced by the absurdity of our encounter. and ...I had also learned the perverse burden of responsibility placed on an author who writes speculative fiction. One of the noble ambitions of Neal Stephenson’s Hieroglyph project is to move away from the dystopian mode of storytelling. While books such as George Orwell’s 1984 have tremendous appeal, they are projections of our foremost fears, essentially imagining things in the status quo changing for the worse. But science-fiction writers have a responsibility, in the view of the Hieroglyph project, to excite the public imagination with possibility. :thumbup1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Angel, I really enjoyed the Libriomancer and think it stayed around the PG13 range. The violence never hit the Hunger Games level imo so if I use that as a standard.....Romatic nature wise nothing seriously depicted some talk about the needs of one of the characters who because of her nymph nature needed to be romatically attached for survival, first she was attached to a woman but due to circumstances needed to find a new mate who was male. I am still pretty enthusiastic about Libriomancer after finishing it. Guttenberg (as in creater of printing press) actually is the father of this form of magic and is a character. For a home a mom who has read tons about Guttenburg there were some incredibly clever scenes and a couple historical figures that are a bit obscure that I felt pretty proud of myself because I knew who they were. ;) I have learned so much with the kids! Tress, Sorry you didn't enjoy Murakami. I was hoping that the threads coming together at the end would make the ick factors fade into the background for you......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Tress, I am also sorry you didn't enjoy Murakami. I have that book on me 2015 list and have been looking forward to it. Have you read any Murakami before? I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicles years and years ago and, while I struggled with it, I did finish it feeling very positively about it. But reading it felt like walking through a pitch black museum with a flashlight. I only saw bits of the whole as I stumbled my way through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Since I've been dissatisfied with my reading attempts lately, I'm happy to have now started a book from my shelves (that I got for Christmas): Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, published by Unnamed Press. I'm not too far yet, but it's an engaging read & I think I'm finding my reading groove again. (Yay!) The link has this quote: " ... Then comes an outlandish order: steal a piece of the moon." Curiously enough I stumbled on this book yesterday while in a thrift store ~ Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich "From the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House, this is the incredible true story of how a college student and two female accomplices stole some of the rarest objects on the planet—moon rocks—from an "impregnable" high-tech vault. But breaking into a highly secure laboratory wasn't easy. Thad Roberts, an intern in a prestigious NASA training program, would have to concoct a meticulous plan to get past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways even before he could get his hands on the 600-pound safe. And then how was he supposed to get it out? And what does one do with an item so valuable that it's illegal even to own? With his signature high-velocity style, Mezrich reconstructs the outlandish heist and tells a story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride." Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Robin, I remember you mentioning that you'd enjoyed Kristin Hannah's Night Road. You might enjoy this post about some of her books: Love, Loss, Sisterhood, and Motherhood in Kristin Hannah’s Novels by Maggie Boyd Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Just wanted to stop in a share this bit of Why Read Moby-Dick? Hawthorne had a lot to do with the making of Moby-Dick, but the novel truly began in February 1849 when Melville purchased a large-type edition of Shakespeare's plays. The eyes that would become so inflamed during the composition of Moby-Dick were already beginning to bother him. "[C]hancing to fall in with this glorious edition," he wrote to a friend of the large-type volumes, "I now exult over it, page after page." Melville's example demonstrates the wisdom of waiting to read the classics. Coming to a great book on your own after having accumulated essential life experience can make all the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Finished Graham Greene's The Quiet American. I had stopped reading Greene in annoyance after The Honorary Consul; but The Quiet American redeemed him for now. Then I started Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquarian, but suddenly realized "Wait--I could be reading more Henry James!" and so have switched to The Princess Casamassima, which is surprisingly accessible for James. Almost Dickens-esque, if Dickens had written beautiful, sentimentalism-free sentences and known how to get to the point. Some Jamesian description: ------------------ “Well, I enjoy beautiful ’ealth,†said the young lady; “every one thinks I’m twenty.†She spoke with a certain artless pride in her bigness and her bloom, and as if, to show her development, she would have taken off her jacket or let you feel her upper arm. She was very handsome, with a shining, bold, good-natured eye, a fine, free, facial oval, an abundance of brown hair, and a smile which showed the whiteness of her teeth. Her head was set upon a fair, strong neck, and her tall young figure was rich in feminine curves. Her gloves, covering her wrists insufficiently, showed the redness of those parts, in the interstices of the numerous silver bracelets that encircled them, and Miss Pynsent made the observation that her hands were not more delicate than her feet. She was not graceful, and even the little dressmaker, whose preference for distinguished forms never deserted her, indulged in the mental reflection that she was common, for all her magnificence; but there was something about her indescribably fresh, successful and satisfying. She was, to her blunt, expanded finger-tips, a daughter of London, of the crowded streets and hustling traffic of the great city; she had drawn her health and strength from its dingy courts and foggy thoroughfares, and peopled its parks and squares and crescents with her ambitions; it had entered into her blood and her bone, the sound of her voice and the carriage of her head; she understood it by instinct and loved it with passion; she represented its immense vulgarities and curiosities, its brutality and its knowingness, its good-nature and its impudence, and might have figured, in an allegorical procession, as a kind of glorified townswoman, a nymph of the wilderness of Middlesex, a flower of the accumulated parishes, the genius of urban civilisation, the muse of cockneyism. --------------- Isn't that marvelous? [edited to un-Britishize spelling] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I tried to make a Zentangle last night. Who knew hands could be out of shape? My right hand is still sore this morning. :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Missing multiquote, I shall attempt the Eliana method. I didn't get any reading time yesterday. So frustrating! I love how when anyone finds out I am reading David Copperfield they make a comment about how they 'like to read light stuff' and can't handle really hard things like Dickens. I am guessing they have never read any Dickens, because while David Copperfield is looong and very rich and engaging, it is just... a family drama. It is a bit soap opera-ish at time, but, of course, always beautifully written, with such amazing characters. I am also surprised at how modern David Copperfield feels. For me Dickens is not "hard" but, as VC notes in a post I quote below, he fails to get to the point. Which is why I prefer my Dickens as multi-episodic Masterpiece Theater productions. I finished reading Kafka on the Shore. I was determined to finish it, but I'm quite sure there will not be any more Murakami in my reading future.I started and dropped David Eggers - The Circle. The idea was very interesting, but the story felt really lame. I had expected to really like it, so that was disapointing.I started and....gasp....am contemplating dropping (what's happening to me?? :D) Mortimer Adler's Paideia Proposal. It's a dusty from my shelves and I have always heard about it in glowing terms. After several pages on why everyone has to have the Exact Same Education, with No Exceptions Ever, except maaaaaybe for children with Severe Brain Damage.......which makes me itchy, because I do not like one-size-fits-all solutions, although I do understand the democratic ideal behind it, he ends by repeating that everyone needs the Exact Same Education except for...........wait for it........foreign languages, because learning a foreign language is so difficult that you can not ask that of everyone. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry.In contrast, Dutch schools start tracking in 7th grade and everyone in every track*, studies English, French and German for a couple of years.Maybe I need to stop reading American educational books, that might help my blood pressure, for sure :lol:.I'm reading and enjoying: Marguerite Duras's The Lover. *I stand corrected, Loesje informed me that currently the lowest educational track students study only two foreign languages, English and French or German. Reading American educational books would certainly raise my blood pressure! Maybe you and Loesje can run summer camp for we BaWers who wish to learn some Dutch. Finished Graham Greene's The Quiet American. I had stopped reading Greene in annoyance after The Honorary Consul; but The Quiet American redeemed him for now.Then I started Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquarian, but suddenly realized "Wait--I could be reading more Henry James!" and so have switched to The Princess Casamassima, which is surprisingly accessible for James. Almost Dickens-esque, if Dickens had written beautiful, sentimentalism-free sentences and known how to get to the point.Some Jamesian description:------------------“Well, I enjoy beautiful ’ealth,†said the young lady; “every one thinks I’m twenty.†She spoke with a certain artless pride in her bigness and her bloom, and as if, to show her development, she would have taken off her jacket or let you feel her upper arm. She was very handsome, with a shining, bold, good-natured eye, a fine, free, facial oval, an abundance of brown hair, and a smile which showed the whiteness of her teeth. Her head was set upon a fair, strong neck, and her tall young figure was rich in feminine curves. Her gloves, covering her wrists insufficiently, showed the redness of those parts, in the interstices of the numerous silver bracelets that encircled them, and Miss Pynsent made the observation that her hands were not more delicate than her feet. She was not graceful, and even the little dressmaker, whose preference for distinguished forms never deserted her, indulged in the mental reflection that she was common, for all her magnificence; but there was something about her indescribably fresh, successful and satisfying. She was, to her blunt, expanded finger-tips, a daughter of London, of the crowded streets and hustling traffic of the great city; she had drawn her health and strength from its dingy courts and foggy thoroughfares, and peopled its parks and squares and crescents with her ambitions; it had entered into her blood and her bone, the sound of her voice and the carriage of her head; she understood it by instinct and loved it with passion; she represented its immense vulgarities and curiosities, its brutality and its knowingness, its good-nature and its impudence, and might have figured, in an allegorical procession, as a kind of glorified townswoman, a nymph of the wilderness of Middlesex, a flower of the accumulated parishes, the genius of urban civilisation, the muse of cockneyism.---------------Isn't that marvellous? Marvelous? Hmmm...James' never ending sentences also drive me bonkers. This despite my love of the semi-colon. I finished listening to Absolute Friends and find that I need to take a break from le Carre. The next time I need espionage I'll read Buchan or Ambler. Off to sit in the afternoon sun beam with my stack of very enjoyable books (A Useless Man; A Short Walk; The Golden Legend; and An Illustrated Guide to Cocktails. :lol: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Finished Graham Greene's The Quiet American. I had stopped reading Greene in annoyance after The Honorary Consul; but The Quiet American redeemed him for now. And I feel compelled to share that dh just finished The Ugly American :laugh: Then I started Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquarian, but suddenly realized "Wait--I could be reading more Henry James!" and so have switched to The Princess Casamassima, which is surprisingly accessible for James. Almost Dickens-esque, if Dickens had written beautiful, sentimentalism-free sentences and known how to get to the point. Some Jamesian description: ------------------ “Well, I enjoy beautiful ’ealth,†said the young lady; “every one thinks I’m twenty.†She spoke with a certain artless pride in her bigness and her bloom, and as if, to show her development, she would have taken off her jacket or let you feel her upper arm. She was very handsome, with a shining, bold, good-natured eye, a fine, free, facial oval, an abundance of brown hair, and a smile which showed the whiteness of her teeth. Her head was set upon a fair, strong neck, and her tall young figure was rich in feminine curves. Her gloves, covering her wrists insufficiently, showed the redness of those parts, in the interstices of the numerous silver bracelets that encircled them, and Miss Pynsent made the observation that her hands were not more delicate than her feet. She was not graceful, and even the little dressmaker, whose preference for distinguished forms never deserted her, indulged in the mental reflection that she was common, for all her magnificence; but there was something about her indescribably fresh, successful and satisfying. She was, to her blunt, expanded finger-tips, a daughter of London, of the crowded streets and hustling traffic of the great city; she had drawn her health and strength from its dingy courts and foggy thoroughfares, and peopled its parks and squares and crescents with her ambitions; it had entered into her blood and her bone, the sound of her voice and the carriage of her head; she understood it by instinct and loved it with passion; she represented its immense vulgarities and curiosities, its brutality and its knowingness, its good-nature and its impudence, and might have figured, in an allegorical procession, as a kind of glorified townswoman, a nymph of the wilderness of Middlesex, a flower of the accumulated parishes, the genius of urban civilisation, the muse of cockneyism. --------------- Isn't that marvellous? While I don't foresee myself rushing out to read James anytime soon I have to agree the above is rather marvelous, the bolded particularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Redsquirrel: I love how when anyone finds out I am reading David Copperfield they make a comment about how they 'like to read light stuff' and can't handle really hard things like Dickens. You could always pull a "what? you've can't handle the Christmas Carol? Pshaw" or "Away from my sight, peon" with a wave of your hand and an impish smile. Currently reading The Boy From Reactor 4 and finding myself in a quandry. It's meh, too many subarcs introducing yet another character or something implausible happening. I want to like the story and it has an interesting premise, but do I want to waste my time with a meh book? Probably not. When I find myself skimming, reading as quickly as possible, my brain not connecting but finding fault, shaking my head at something that's just stupid, time to give it up. *sigh* Problem is I don't know what I'm in the mood for. :svengo: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forget-Me-Not Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Okay, newish here. I tried to keep up last year and fell behind. I'll give it another go. Read: 1. The Husband's Secret, Liane Moriarty 2. Little Big Lies, Liane Moriarty Both of these were ok. Vacation reads. Somewhat predictable. I gave her another whirl after reading "What Alice Forgot", which I loved, last year, but neither of these lived up to that one for me. 3. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson. I actually listened on audiobook, and I'm tempted to buy a copy of the book and actually read it because the plot is such that I found myself wanting to flip back and reread things at times. I really loved this one. Still have a "book hangover" and still puzzling over things. Especially the ending. Apparently a sequel/spinoff is due this year and I'm ambivalent about that thought. I sort of feel like she should have left well enough alone, but I suppose I should reserve judgment. Atkinson is a new author to me, and I'll definitely check out her other books. Currently reading 1. Good Omens, Gaiman & Pratchett I'm having trouble picking it back up. Not sure why. To be read: too many to list. I tend to pick based on mood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Finished Graham Greene's The Quiet American. And I feel compelled to share that dh just finished The Ugly American :laugh: I'm tempted to read something to join the club .... The English American by Alison Larkin The Vanishing American by Zane Grey The Old American by Ernest Hebert or The Perfect American by Peter Jungk Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I haven't been able to keep up with the thread as it is birthday week here (2 kids have birthdays this week) and I have been waylaid by some nasty stomach pain. They think I either have galbladder problems or its an ulcer. I have an ultrasound tomorrow. I really hope they figure out what the problem is cause the pain and nausea is messing up my plans for the week. Anyway, I wanted to comment on Marilynne Robinson's books. I have read the first two and am currently reading the third one, 'Home.' I see a great difference between her first one and the two proceeding ones. Housekeeping was full of poetic language. It was beautifully written but towards the end it became too much. It was poetic overload. The story was quite depressing and dreary. That said, though, I think Housekeeping is my favourite of the three that I have read. The other two books--Gilead and Home--seem to be more down to earth as far as written language goes. I am quite looking forward to "Lila." There is more I want to respond to but I have to finish a birthday meal and I think I need to go to bed after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 For the record, I went back and colonialized my spelling of "marvel[l]ous." Since people seem to have noticed the error. ;) I blame Greene and James. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Marvelous? Hmmm...James' never ending sentences also drive me bonkers. This despite my love of the semi-colon. Off to sit in the afternoon sun beam with ... An Illustrated Guide to Cocktails. :lol: ) After a little Faulkner, James seems choppy. Drinks at Jane's!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I finished Day, the third book in Wiesel's trilogy. gah, I don't know how to talk about these books! I want to say this was my least favorite of the three, but then using "favorite" in the same sentence with books about the suffering of Holocaust survivors just seems . . . wrong. Anyway, Night was excruciatingly personal and painful. Dawn was compelling and shocking. Day was just - I don't know. I think its other characters - not the narrator, but his girlfriend and the doctor and a few others -were really annoying, and making so many emotional demands on this man who was just so empty after having survived an unimaginable amount of loss and death. Maybe this is just as true of a part of a survivor's experience as the other aspects, but it made the book a lot harder to connect with. I wanted to slap everyone on the narrator's behalf. I think I'm going to give it a few days, then start Rue du Retour, which I have on my stack thanks to Stacia. Similar themes - survival and reintigration - but in a different context. I'm also about halfway through my re-read of 1984, which I was inspired to do after reading The Case of Comrade Tulayev. They are such an interesting comparison - a British man's fantasy about what a totalitarian regime in England might look like, vs. a Russian writing about the reality of a Russian totalitarian regime. Many similarities, but the differences were interesting too. Orwell's book has us completely inhabiting Winston Smith's individual experiences, whereas Serge has us sharing the collective experience of a group of people randomly affected by an assasination. There's an analogy there somewhere, I'm sure. Must-not-start-any-new-books-tonight!! I just got a notice from the library that a whole slew of holds came in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I finished Day, the third book in Wiesel's trilogy. gah, I don't know how to talk about these books! I want to say this was my least favorite of the three, but then using "favorite" in the same sentence with books about the suffering of Holocaust survivors just seems . . . wrong. Anyway, Night was excruciatingly personal and painful. Dawn was compelling and shocking. Day was just - I don't know. I think its other characters - not the narrator, but his girlfriend and the doctor and a few others -were really annoying, and making so many emotional demands on this man who was just so empty after having survived an unimaginable amount of loss and death. Maybe this is just as true of a part of a survivor's experience as the other aspects, but it made the book a lot harder to connect with. I wanted to slap everyone on the narrator's behalf. I think I'm going to give it a few days, then start Rue du Retour, which I have on my stack thanks to Stacia. Similar themes - survival and reintigration - but in a different context. I'm also about halfway through my re-read of 1984, which I was inspired to do after reading The Case of Comrade Tulayev. They are such an interesting comparison - a British man's fantasy about what a totalitarian regime in England might look like, vs. a Russian writing about the reality of a Russian totalitarian regime. Many similarities, but the differences were interesting too. Orwell's book has us completely inhabiting Winston Smith's individual experiences, whereas Serge has us sharing the collective experience of a group of people randomly affected by an assasination. There's an analogy there somewhere, I'm sure. Must-not-start-any-new-books-tonight!! I just got a notice from the library that a whole slew of holds came in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Julia, :grouphug: . Hope you feel better quickly & that there's no bigger issue. And, sending birthday greetings to your household. Hope the birthday folks have had festive & fun birthdays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 ... and I have been waylaid by some nasty stomach pain. They think I either have galbladder problems or its an ulcer. I have an ultrasound tomorrow. Ouch. Hoping that you get some answers and some relief. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Julia :grouphug: Hope you feel better soon! My likes seem to be sporadic for some unknown reason. Everyone please consider yourself liked because they are only working when they feel like it.....according to my previous theorie I should have plenty right now so not sure why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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