Book a Week in 2015 - BW3

[mumto2]

On the topic of Austen, I was going to have dd (7th) read Pride & Prejudice next, but do y'all think we should do a different Austen? (I remember reading Austen in school but have no recollection of which book we read.) At this point in her life, she dislikes every book I pick out but maybe if I tell her The Hive suggested the book... :)

FWIW. P and P is the one that dd and all of her friends started with. They all went on to read most if not all of her books. Has your dd tried Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books? Nothing at all to do with the Austen discussion but they might be a successful suggestion. ;)

[4ofus]

 

Northanger Abbey is my favourite Austen, actually it is one of my all time favourite books. It is so deliciously snarky. 

 

Well, then, I haven't read this one & you've just sealed it for me.

 

Northanger Abbey for February!

[4ofus]

Also, trying to remember what I've read this month. January isn't my best month for reading, but it usually gets better in February. January just seems so full of things that require attention!

 

1) A Christmas Carol - Dickens (my first actual read of this book). ~ It came alive about 2/3 of the way in. It was a slog for me up until that point. I'm glad I stuck it out & will probably read it again as I now have fond feelings of the book :).

 

2) Night - Weisel ~ I was fielding this one for my kids. Powerful. We will definitely be using this one.

 

3) The Skinny Gut Diet - Watson. ~ Does this count? I read tons of diet/nutrition books. Some are simple, some are not. I take what I want from them & leave the rest. Nutrition is something that is wildly interesting to me, so I spend lots of time & money on food/health reads & this was a new one I found in my local grocer. 

 

4) Norwegian Woods - Murakami ~ I don't know how to feel about this one, so I guess that means it was a good book! Haha! I didn't love much about it, but it's still with me almost a week later. I'll certainly never forget many of the characters. They are permanently etched in my reader's mind, for better or for worse. 

 

I might've read more, but that's all I can think of right now. I tend to binge read, then fast a while :). If I can't remember I read it, it was probably forgettable!

 

 

[shukriyya]

prairiegirl, sending good thoughts your way :grouphug:

 

Well, am I the only one going to be reading Bronte during next month's Austen/Bronte challenge???

 

Last night ds sat down with The Invention of Hugo Cabret and finished it in one sitting. He thoroughly enjoyed it and recommends it for readers 10 and up ;)

 

I'm enjoying the exquisite writing of 'Ahab's Wife'. And in the audio book realm I mentioned a couple of weeks ago listening to David Whyte's, 'What to Remember when Waking'. I turned right around and did a complete re-listen after finishing it the first time, it was that good. I've now started Longing and Belonging by John O'Donohue. Fifty-one hours should keep me busy for a while ;)

[guilfordlake]

FWIW. P and P is the one that dd and all of her friends started with. They all went on to read most if not all of her books. Has your dd tried Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books? Nothing at all to do with the Austen discussion but they might be a successful suggestion. ;)

 

She has not, but the first book in the series is now on hold at the library.  Thanks!

[TeacherZee]

prairiegirl, sending good thoughts your way :grouphug:

 

Well, am I the only one going to be reading Bronte during next month's Austen/Bronte challenge???

 

Last night ds sat down with The Invention of Hugo Cabret and finished it in one sitting. He thoroughly enjoyed it and recommends it for readers 10 and up ;)

 

I'm enjoying the exquisite writing of 'Ahab's Wife'. And in the audio book realm I mentioned a couple of weeks ago listening to David Whyte's 'What to Remember when Waking'. I turned right around and did a complete re-listen after finishing it the first time, it was that good. I've now started the Longing and Belonging by John O'Donahue. Fifty-one hours should keep me busy for a while ;)

 

Nope :001_smile: I'm attempting Wuthering Heights for the first time but I might have to also re-read Northanger Abbey

[LostSurprise]

 

 

Stacia, I read one by Hemingway in high school.  I looked at both "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises."  And to this day, I can't remember with certainty which one I ended up reading...   :leaving:

 

 

I *think* it was TSAR.  To be fair, they're both set in WWI and I'm sure they were written in much the same style.   :lol:  But, if that tells you anything about the incredibly memorable storylines....

 

 

The Sun Also Rises is not set during WWI (although the characters are influenced by that time). It was about the "Lost Generation" during the '20s and moves between Paris and Spain. His WWI novel is A Farewell to Arms which is very plot-y and kind of boring and impersonal for a love story.

 

Ah, Hemingway bashing!  Now that's a train I can jump onto.  I was forced to read The Old Man in the Sea in my (parochial) high school, and hated it.  Seriously, hated it, even before we were bashed over the head with all the Christ-symbolism.  I did not pick up another Hemingway book for 25 years, and then only because my book group was reading it.  I got through A Moveable Feast ok, but then I read the one about the bullfights in Spain - and I remembered that I really don't like Hemingway.  Still.

 

 

To be honest, The Old Man and the Sea is not iconic Hemingway. It's an experiment he did to see how far he could take his minimalist style. Of course that is the one they teach in schools because its vocabulary and structure are so dead simple and it's oh-so-short. 

 

I read it first in middle school and hated it for its perceived (to me) shallowness (it gives the lure of eternity while never getting past grit as the heart of a man), although it was interesting to reread it in college to compare and contrast with novels that reflect his style better. 

 

Sigh. Here come the Hemingway bashers again, picking on me as they always do.   ;)

 

My favorite Hemingway is For Whom the Bell Tolls which I really need to reread. Despite being a fan of Papa Hem, I think it is a mistake to assign A Farewell to Arms to high school students.  The Nick Adams stories are a far, far better choice. 

 

 

 

For Hemingway haters, the Nick Adams short stories are really well done. I do like those the best and they are the most accessible. Actually, Hemingway is a pretty good short story writer. Like Salinger, he's much more to the point and less likely to get on your nerves in a short story.

 

I love For Whom the Bell Tolls because that is probably as poetic as Hemingway gets. It's more like a dreamy idyll then his usual minimalism. Time slows down because 2 people are infatuated with each other in a very intense situation. This can either drive you crazy (plot plot plot...come on move it) or strike you as wonderfully strange for Hemingway. 

[Stacia]

I read For Whom the Bell Tolls a long, long time ago & don't remember much about it other than I liked it. I've often meant to read more Hemingway as I suspect I would probably be a fan of his. (I can appreciate & often love spare prose.) No opinions on dd's assigned reading (since I haven't read the book myself) -- just one of the things in her AP Lang. class this year. Now that I'm older & look back at some of the lit choices when I was in high school, I sometimes wonder why certain books were assigned because, imo, some books need a certain amount of life experience before you would really 'get' them. (Madame Bovary springs to mind to me.) But that's a whole 'nother can of worms that I won't open now.

 

Jane, the Archipelago book sounds exquisite. And I love what you wrote about it too. I kwym about the particular weather terms & finding these interesting differences between languages & translations -- amazingly fascinating to me. So much can be 'lost in translation' (a great movie too  ;) ) & it sometimes amazes me how well people can learn & truly understand the nuances of other languages. The depth & capabilities of the human brain & feeling is just mind-blowing for me sometimes.

 

NoseInABook, :thumbup1:  "Sick" is one of my faves! :lol:  Your dd is a lovely young lady! Thanks so much for the photo. :grouphug:

 

Julia, :grouphug: . Hope you're feeling better & the docs can figure out what is going on.

 

4ofus, how cool that you joined the Murakami read. I've never read Norwegian Wood. Maybe when I pick up one of his books again in about a decade ( :tongue_smilie:), that will be the one I read.

 

redsquirrel, thanks for the heads up on the Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies adaptations. I can totally see them making a great show from them. (Perhaps better than the books. I made it partway through Wolf Hall but ended up stopping because of her numerous unclear pronoun references. It distracted me too much from the story.)

 

Nan, both my dc loved Catwings when they were younger.

 

I have read various Dickens books, but I'm not a great fan. He's just too wordy, imo. I realize that's the time/period/style of writing for him & others of his era, but it's not something I generally enjoy slogging through.

 

Haven't read the article or articles about e-reader lighting & sleep patterns, but I saw something similar awhile ago. Personally, I can see it being disruptive to sleep patterns, esp. if you go along w/ the idea that total darkness is what you need for a truly restful night's sleep (though few actually get total darkness because of clock lights or a tv being on or ...). Of course, I'm the one who will be getting a sensory deprivation chamber (since I find the noise, smells, etc... of the 'normal' world to be overwhelming at times) of my own when my sister hits the lottery jackpot, so take my opinion with a grain of salt! :laugh:

 

I'm really enjoying Nigerians in Space, btw. Cool story so far. And, I've been intrigued to see that even though this is a perfectly modern (& futuristic) type tale, African storytelling in & of itself it still an integral part of the characters' lives. Things like Yoruba riddles, weaving of words, symbology of twins, etc.... (Similar themes that I've seen pop up in some of Helen Oyeyemi's works, as well as in the epic of Sunjata, among others....) 

[Violet Crown]

I enjoyed Northanger Abbey most of all her books, too, and had the added advantage of reading it for the first time after having read several of Mrs Radcliffe's gothics. Oh the hilarity.

[Mom-ninja.]

I was told by my high school lit teacher that Dickens was paid by the word. If so that totally explains his lengthy works. I'd get awfully clever with adjectives and adverbs as well if I was paid by the word. 

[swimmermom3]

Sigh. Here come the Hemingway bashers again, picking on me as they always do.  ;)

 

My favorite Hemingway is For Whom the Bell Tolls which I really need to reread. Despite being a fan of Papa Hem, I think it is a mistake to assign A Farewell to Arms to high school students.  The Nick Adams stories are a far, far better choice. 

 

It saddened me to finish the story collection A Useless Man, simply because I did not want the exquisiteness to end.  The translators chose selections from across the wide body of work written by Sait Faik Abasıyanık.  Perhaps if this book is well received, Archipelago can commission another volume. 

 

From the translators' note at the end of the book:

 

 

Sait Faik Abasıyanık resided on an island served by ferry from Istanbul.  His stories often focus on a small corner of this small world, interactions in a coffee shop or observations along a stroll.  One of the things that tickled me so much when reading was encountering six different Turkish words for the wind based on its direction and type.  How sensible!  Of course, we know of the French Mistral or the Chinook winds of the Northwest, but how useful it would be to have a vocabulary to describe the humid southerlies off the Atlantic vs. the chilly winds from the North, let alone the swirling winds of tropical storms. Perhaps it is only those of us subject to these winds who would appreciate such a vocabulary, but I think it would enrich my life.

 

Same for the rain.  The word "shower" does not do justice to a pelting of two or three inches received in an hour. 

 

I suspect that Nan could create several words for frost while other BaWers could create a vocabulary for levels of cold or windchill.  All of these words would be more interesting than a dry rendering of weather statistics.

 

I have started reading a book that Stacia passed my way, Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd, a Welsh writer.  Interestingly, she had previously published novels in Welsh; this is her first in English.

 

I love Hemingway, Jane, and my oldest son, who is 19, has been reading his books the last couple of years. I am rather partial to A Moveable Feast myself, but then I also like Henry Miller and Saul Bellow, so I am not to be relied upon.

 

 

[Onceuponatime]

I didn't know we could choose a Bronte instead of an Austen in Feb. I think I will go that route.

[redsquirrel]

I am not a Hemingway hater, more of a meh-er.

 

I think it's just me. There isn't a lot of works from that period that I connect with beyond an appreciation for the skill of the author. I feel the same about a lot of authors of that time. I only noticed it a couple years ago after rereading Gatsby for a book club. I realized that I just never make the emotional leap with a lot of books written in that 1920ish Lost Generation/Jazz Age time. Again, I can recognize the skill and find parts amazing, but there is a disconnect. Now, that might be a product of how the authors were feeling at the time. Maybe I am reacting to that. But it leaves me feeling unsatisfied. T.S. Eliot and other poets are excepted, because poetry is always excepted, lol.

[beckster]

prairiegirl, sending good thoughts your way :grouphug:

 

Well, am I the only one going to be reading Bronte during next month's Austen/Bronte challenge???

 

Last night ds sat down with The Invention of Hugo Cabret and finished it in one sitting. He thoroughly enjoyed it and recommends it for readers 10 and up ;)

 

I'm enjoying the exquisite writing of 'Ahab's Wife'. And in the audio book realm I mentioned a couple of weeks ago listening to David Whyte's, 'What to Remember when Waking'. I turned right around and did a complete re-listen after finishing it the first time, it was that good. I've now started Longing and Belonging by John O'Donohue. Fifty-one hours should keep me busy for a while ;)

 

Nope.  I am considering a Jane Eyre re-read.  Read it in high school.  Read it again... a long time ago.  Loved it both times.  But can I really justify a re-read with so many new books in my TBR stacks (and I mean many, many stacks!!)?!

[shukriyya]

Okay, good. It seems like I'll have some companions to read along with during Bronte/Austen month. I'm planning on Jane Eyre, WH and/or Villette.

[Stacia]

If I do participate in the Feb. author challenge, I'm thinking of reading Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

Well, am I the only one going to be reading Bronte during next month's Austen/Bronte challenge???

 

 

 

I might try a Wuthering Heights reread, just to see if I still feel the same about it. With all this Austen discussion though, I will probably reread Northanger Abbey either in addition to or instead of a Bronte.

[JennW in SoCal]

I haven't read any Hemingway, uneducated sloth that I am, but Farewell to Arms will forever be linked in my mind to the movie "Silver Linings Playbook". Have any of you seen it? I loved, LOVED the scene where Bradley Cooper breaks a window by throwing that book at it in disgust over its ending. Here's a blog post about the movie and Hemingway -- spoilerific to those of you who haven't yet but still might want to read the book or see the movie.  

 

Once again I must recommend Bitch in a Bonnet to those of you who love or are starting to love Austen. The book is a collection of blog posts the author wrote while rereading all the Austen novels, in the order in which they were published.  The author's aim is to reclaim Austen from the grip of the sappy romantic treatments its gotten on film, and to focus on the wonderful satire and fabulously funny characters in the book.  He calls Northanger Abby the most modern of her books, and I'd agree it is very accessible to modern readers who might otherwise get bogged down in her longer books.  He also thinks Henry Tillney is a creep, a potential wife abuser!!  Though I'm not a huge fan of Emma, I think my all time favorite satirical character from any of the Austen novels is Mrs. Elton, the classless and judgmental wife of the vicar.  And of course poor Miss Bates, the dotty aunt of Jane Fairfax is a hoot, as is Emma's neurotic father.  I usually revisit the second half of the book as it is where all those characters are set loose.

 

I'm almost finished with Journeys on the Silk Road.  It is taking forever because I keep stopping to google place names, and to study maps and look at photos of places and objects, to read about current events in those areas or to look at web pages devoted to museum exhibitions of materials and people related to the book.  I wish the book had a better map!  I also just realized yesterday that there are several pages of photographs at the end of the book that are not listed in the table of contents.  I'm reading a kindle version of the book and am sure this wouldn't have been an issue with a printed book, which would likely have the photos bound in the middle on glossy paper where you'd find them right away.  Anyway, it is excellent.

 

I loved the first of the Inspector Rutledge mysteries, A Test of Wills.  The writing is beautiful and evocative, the mystery a good one though the ending solution was not entirely satisfying.  But Inspector Rutledge is a great character worth following.

 

[JennW in SoCal]

If I do participate in the Feb. author challenge, I'm thinking of reading Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

 

Ooooh -- excellent choice!  I should revisit that one.

[aggieamy]

 

I loved the first of the Inspector Rutledge mysteries, A Test of Wills.  The writing is beautiful and evocative, the mystery a good one though the ending solution was not entirely satisfying.  But Inspector Rutledge is a great character worth following.

 

I will be finishing tonight or tomorrow night.  Do you think you'll read another in the series?

[Stacia]

I haven't read any Hemingway, uneducated sloth that I am, but Farewell to Arms will forever be linked in my mind to the movie "Silver Linings Playbook". Have any of you seen it? I loved, LOVED the scene where Bradley Cooper breaks a window by throwing that book at it in disgust over its ending. Here's a blog post about the movie and Hemingway -- spoilerific to those of you who haven't yet but still might want to read the book or see the movie. 

 

Great scene! And, then he bursts into his parents' bedroom to rant about the book too. :lol:

 

ETA: Fun blog post!

 

ETA again: I had to look up the scene again & show it to my dd. She thought it was pretty funny. (Profanity if that bothers you.)

 

 

[Jane in NC]

Wuthering Heights for me.  Although all this Jane chatter has me considering Sense and Sensibility too.

[Kareni]

Lol, I live in the Finger Lake region. I am very familiar with both nor'easters AND lake effect snow.  And rain and fog.  And humidity. But wine!

 

I read all of Jane Austen one cold winter and it all sort of mushed together in my head.  Or my head has gotten mushy? ...

 

Perhaps it was that wine?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

I borrowed a copy of Bing Xu's Book from the Ground: from point to point  after seeing the discussion here.

 

"Following his classic work Book from the Sky, the Chinese artist Xu Bing presents a new graphic novel -- one composed entirely of symbols and icons that are universally understood. Xu Bing spent seven years gathering materials, experimenting, revising, and arranging thousands of pictograms to construct the narrative of Book from the Ground. The result is a readable story without words, an account of twenty-four hours in the life of "Mr. Black," a typical urban white-collar worker. Our protagonist's day begins with wake-up calls from a nearby bird and his bedside alarm clock; it continues through tooth-brushing, coffee-making, TV-watching, and cat-feeding. He commutes to his job on the subway, works in his office, ponders various fast-food options for lunch, waits in line for the bathroom, daydreams, sends flowers, socializes after work, goes home, kills a mosquito, goes to bed, sleeps, and gets up the next morning to do it all over again. His day is recounted with meticulous and intimate detail, and reads like a postmodern, post-textual riff on James Joyce's account of Bloom's peregrinations in Ulysses. But Xu Bing's narrative, using an exclusively visual language, could be published anywhere, without translation or explication; anyone with experience in contemporary life--anyone who has internalized the icons and logos of modernity, from smiley faces to transit maps to menus--can understand it."

 

 

You can see the first few pages of the text by using the "Look Inside" feature at the Amazon link above.

 

 

It's a fascinating premise and I send kudos to the author; however, I made it through only a few pages before I gave up.  This may be due to:

 

1.  the fact that I'm not a visual person

 

2.  the fact that I prefer to read for pleasure and not have to work for that pleasure

 

3.  sheer laziness.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[mumto2]

If I do participate in the Feb. author challenge, I'm thinking of reading Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

This is the one I plan to start with also. I plan to read Sense and Sensibility also. Would love to read Pride and Prejudice but am afraid that I have watched and read too many adaptations recently and may stall....it will be the last one no matter where my trail leads me.

 

Northanger Abbey is the only Austen I have actually made it through by reading. I actually really liked it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and finally gave up halfway through the audiobook of Villette last year.  Whereas the only Jane Austen re-read I've done in forever is Emma, my least favorite.  So I'm going to do Jane for sure.  I'm thinking Northanger Abbey, because I don't think I've ever read it, and I was trying to talk myself into reading some Ann Radcliffe first, but I don't think it's going to happen.  So, Northanger it is!

[Rosie_0801]

On the topic of Austen, I was going to have dd (7th) read Pride & Prejudice next, but do y'all think we should do a different Austen?  (I remember reading Austen in school but have no recollection of which book we read.)  At this point in her life, she dislikes every book I pick out but maybe if I tell her The Hive suggested the book... :)

 

If she's probably going to hate them, I'd make her listen to them all read by Karen Savage for Librivox while she's folding washing and call it done. Cultural literacy? Check.

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

Once again I must recommend Bitch in a Bonnet to those of you who love or are starting to love Austen. The book is a collection of blog posts the author wrote while rereading all the Austen novels, in the order in which they were published.  The author's aim is to reclaim Austen from the grip of the sappy romantic treatments its gotten on film, and to focus on the wonderful satire and fabulously funny characters in the book.  He calls Northanger Abby the most modern of her books, and I'd agree it is very accessible to modern readers who might otherwise get bogged down in her longer books.  He also thinks Henry Tillney is a creep, a potential wife abuser!!  Though I'm not a huge fan of Emma, I think my all time favorite satirical character from any of the Austen novels is Mrs. Elton, the classless and judgmental wife of the vicar.  And of course poor Miss Bates, the dotty aunt of Jane Fairfax is a hoot, as is Emma's neurotic father.  I usually revisit the second half of the book as it is where all those characters are set loose.

 

I'm almost finished with Journeys on the Silk Road.  It is taking forever because I keep stopping to google place names, and to study maps and look at photos of places and objects, to read about current events in those areas or to look at web pages devoted to museum exhibitions of materials and people related to the book.  I wish the book had a better map!  I also just realized yesterday that there are several pages of photographs at the end of the book that are not listed in the table of contents.  I'm reading a kindle version of the book and am sure this wouldn't have been an issue with a printed book, which would likely have the photos bound in the middle on glossy paper where you'd find them right away.  Anyway, it is excellent.

 

 

 

I completely forgot about Bitch in a Bonnet. I loved Volume I but he seemed to be taking forever on the next part, both in blog posts and in a complete volume. I just forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.

 

Journeys on the Silk Road is one I hope to get to in 2015.

 

I'm getting bogged down in Unbroken and feeling bad about it. I feel that, due to the subject, I shouldn't get bored. But I am.

[Stacia]

A couple of articles that may be of interest....

 

Did OUP ban references to pork products in its textbooks? Not really, but here are some references Melville House is banning

 

Anxious governments: Japan seeks to remove “comfort women†from textbooks and history

[Stacia]

I borrowed a copy of Bing Xu's Book from the Ground: from point to point  after seeing the discussion here.

 

<<snip>>

 

It's a fascinating premise and I send kudos to the author; however, I made it through only a few pages before I gave up.  This may be due to:

 

1.  the fact that I'm not a visual person

 

2.  the fact that I prefer to read for pleasure and not have to work for that pleasure

 

3.  sheer laziness.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Hmmm. I don't know. I am a visual person, yet looking at the sample was making my eyes cross....

 

[Jane in NC]

A couple of articles that may be of interest....

 

Did OUP ban references to pork products in its textbooks? Not really, but here are some references Melville House is banning

 

Anxious governments: Japan seeks to remove “comfort women†from textbooks and history

 

This root vegetable lover was amused by a quote from the first article:

 

 

As with all great instances of bureaucratic anxiety, there was even an acronym: PARSNIP, which stands for Politics, Alcohol, Religion, Sex, Narcotics, -Isms, and Pork. OUP did not state whether actual parsnips are off limits, but one can assume that they probably are, because let’s be honest: no one needs to learn about parsnips.

 

But what about rutabagas?  And I am sure some of those Hemingway haters have less than pleasant things about turnips, poor things.

[Nan in Mass]

About Point to Point - That's funny.  After the first little bit, which did take some adjustment, I mostly read it without problems.  The biggest problem I had was occasionally going faster than I thought I ought to go and then going back to check that I'd gotten it right.  I had.  It is very quick once you stop trying to put it into words.  Not much plot, but that wasn't the point.

 

About Austen/Brönte - Doesn't anyone like Lady Susan?  It is one of my favourite Jane Austens but nobody ever even mentions it.

 

Nan

[prairiegirl]

The bright side of feeling under the weather is that lots of books get read.  I finished  "The Anatomy of a Disappearance"-- a boy's father disappears, the book deals with the aftermath.  I really enjoyed it.   I am now reading  "Weight of Blood:  by Laura McHugh--this is turning into another  good book.

[Rosie_0801]

I don't think I've ever seen a copy of Lady Susan. I only knew it existed because I found it on Librivox in my listening to Jane year. I remember liking it, but that's all.

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

About Austen/Brönte - Doesn't anyone like Lady Susan?  It is one of my favourite Jane Austens but nobody ever even mentions it.

 

Nan

 

I do! I don't usually like epistolary novels, but I like Lady Susan and Love and Freindship, both of which are written in that style.

 

Rosie - I think I got a free Kindle version of Lady Susan a few years ago. Oh yes, here it is. 

[shukriyya]

Mmm, parsnips roasted with olive oil, celtic sea salt and rosemary :drool:

[SunnyDays]

 

...and I apologize if I broke a book thread rule. I just thought this is a group of people who might be interested.

 

 

We have rules on the book thread?!?  ;)  :LOL:

[Kareni]

We have rules on the book thread?!?  ;)  :lol:

 

Yes.

 

1. Read books. 

2. Discuss books.

3. Discuss anything and everything else.

4. Have fun.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, I am breaking Rule 1! I haven't read a book all day, just the newspaper over breakfast.  Been working.  Got to go read now - I need my fix!

[*Inna*]

Hey, Zentangle people! There is a free Kindle book today -A Zentangle Fall For All.

[Stacia]

I have questions for those of you in the know about Kindle Fires AND a question for Tress & Loesje...

 

Kindle Fire folks:

My fil got one of these recently for a gift. I haven't really looked at it yet. But, can you put other software on it, for example the Zinio software (for magazines)? Wondering if that's possible because our library system has a huge collection of e-magazines available through Zinio, including some my fil really enjoys. I'd like to get him set up with that.

 

Tress & Loesje:

Other than the amazon.nl site, is there a site that posts/publishes kindle books in Dutch? Or, are there any book blogs that you know about that maybe go over good deals on Dutch kindle books, etc...? And, the same question for books in French (other than kindle books through amazon.fr)? My fil was asking me tonight if I knew about downloading books in Dutch, but other than the obvious answer of the amazon site, I don't know. I thought maybe you gals might have some great resources for Dutch ebooks. And, if the Kindle Fire can support downloading other e-reader software, perhaps he could also download books that are in something other than a kindle format. So, any sort of Dutch ebook resources, blogs, stores, etc... would be appreciated. Thanks! (You can PM me the link or links rather than posting here in the thread, if you want.)

 

Thanks!!!!

 

 

[Kathleen.]

I'm almost finished with "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate and my 8yo loved reading "The Book with No Pictures" by B. J. Novak.

[Robin M]

With all the talk about Jane Austen - check out what Virginia Woolf has to say about her writing.

[Robin M]

shukriyya:  Well, am I the only one going to be reading Bronte during next month's Austen/Bronte challenge???

 

No, darling. I'll be right there with you. Of the Bronte sisters works, enjoyed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but not enough to read again. And since I've already read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights more than once, I'll probably try Villette and Agnes Grey.  I've only read Austen's Pride and Prejudice so have the range to choose from.  

 

And let's not forget all the spin-off books for those who want to explore rabbit trails.

 

 

 

Kareni: I borrowed a copy of Bing Xu's Book from the Ground: from point to point  after seeing the discussion here.

 

Um! I thought I was a visual person but maybe not.  :blink:

 

 

 

Stacia:  A couple of articles that may be of interest....

 

Did OUP ban references to pork products in its textbooks? Not really, but here are some references Melville House is banning

 

Anxious governments: Japan seeks to remove “comfort women†from textbooks and history

 

Melville house is joking right. They can't be serious.  And of course, the Japanese are trying to rewrite history. Everyone else does it. Although, I had no idea what comfort women were, I thought they were nurses or something.  :leaving:

 

 

Is a comfort read going to take on a whole new meaning now?

 

I've fallen back into my comfort reads - paranormal and urban fantasies. I finished Marjorie Liu's last book in Hunter Kiss series - Labyrinth of Stars.  Much much darker than the rest so not to terribly sad to see it all end.  Currently reading Jayne Castle's (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) The Hot Zone, #3 in her Rain Shadow series.

 

 

[Kareni]

Those who enjoy fantasy might be interested in this book which is available free to Kindle readers:

 

The Very Best of Charles de Lint by Charles de Lint

 

"Contemporary fantasist de Lint built this winning compilation with help from his readers, who voted on their favorite stories. The result is an outstanding and widely varied collection of 29 tales. The delightfully light-hearted "Pixel Pixies" adds magic and mischief to innocent online interactions. ("If you're lucky, [the pixies are] still on the Internet and didn't follow you home.") "Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood" investigates the nature and meaning of memories. The heart-wrenching "In the House of My Enemy," later developed into the novel The Onion Girl, narrates the decisions made by a pregnant girl with an abusive past. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will fall in love with de Lint's graceful, poetic language and characters like "an old man who wore the shape of a red-haired boy with crackernut eyes that seemed as bright as salmon tails glinting up the water.""
—Publishers Weekly

"When it comes to urban waifs and strays, Ottawa fantasy writer Charles de Lint has his own unusual take, creating in his fiction a fantastic world populated by artists, musicians, booksellers, scholars, runaways and, well, magic. With The Very Best of Charles de Lint, the author, who is also a musician, has created a greatest-hits set with a twist. To determine which stories to include (from a body of work spanning 25 years), he asked his fans for their favourites via Facebook and Twitter. The resulting volume is more than 400 pages of the finest urban fantasy fiction of the past three decades, characterized by de Lint’s deep and passionate humanism."
—Robert Wiersema, National Post

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Tress]

Nope. I am considering a Jane Eyre re-read. Read it in high school. Read it again... a long time ago. Loved it both times. But can I really justify a re-read with so many new books in my TBR stacks (and I mean many, many stacks!!)?!

I had planned to read Jane Eyre, and Sargasso Sea because I vaguely remember it has some connection to Jane Eyre, but all this talk about Jane Austen has me itching to reread Sense and Sensibility. Hmmmm, I might need to flip a coin or something :).

 

I hear you on the stacks and stacks of your TBR books, although mine are mostly dusties. I really want/need to read lots of dusties this year. And there is definitely no dust on my Jane Austens :D.

[LaughingCat]

Although we don't use only  'shower' here, we don't have such have such lyrical words as 'misty' or such either - it's normally either spittin' or it's pourin'.  Pretty much nothing in-between :lol:

 

One nice thing about joining this group is it has pushed me to read when I might have given up - so I sat down with Black Out thinking - got to make a real try at this -  and around page 200 I got sucked in.  Inhaled the rest of the book and went on to All Clear and inhaled that too.   I think I read books that jump around in point of view even faster - trying to find out what happened next!    The beginning was slow (as usual for me and Connie Willis) and the end was a bit of a let down (once I got to a certain point it seemed too predictable or something - haven't really decided if that's it though) - but middle was very good.

 

 

 

[Tress]

Thanks, Kareni, for mentioning Charles de Lint's free Kindle book! I always appreciate your free finds.

 

Stacia, I'm sending you a PM.

 

JennW, thanks for mentioning Bitch in Bonnets! Now I have broken my no-book-buying rule for 2015 ;). Luckily, at 1.20$ for the Kindle edition it's not too bad and it won't take up any space.

[shukriyya]

But, but, but...

Don't you talk about the weather with people, Jane?  Here, it is what begins almost every conversation when you decide you want to talk to someone, and I'd say a good solid portion of the family conversations involve weather.

We have LOTS of words for different sorts of winds.  If you ask me what it is doing outside and I tell you that it's a southerly, that conveys something VASTLY different than if I say there's a nor'easter.  Or a westerly (a fine, steady wind that will die with the sun).  Or a smoky sou'wester.  Or a northly.  Or an easterly (which brings fog and damp, here).  Or it's whiffling up.  Or there are cat's paws.  Or there's just a breath.  Or it's calm.  Or there's a gale.  Or it's making up.  Or it's dieing.  Or there's a lull.  Or it's blasting.  Or it's still a land breeze.  Or the seabreeze is coming up.  Or...  Don't all places have names for their winds?

And rain... What about it's a downpour?  Or it's a sprinkle?  Or it's steady?  Or it's mizzling?  Or it's misting?  Or it's heavy?  Or it's lightening?  Or it's driving?  Or it's sideways?

I know some of these are verbs, not nouns, but does it matter?  They are all ways of describing what it is doing outside.  LOL  I guess you can tell it doesn't just rain or be windy where I live.  I could make you some lovely words for frost. : )  We mostly just say a light frost or a heavy frost.  We have more words for snow or ice in lakes or the ocean.

 

Nan

 

Spoken word poem here, Nan. Love this :001_wub:

[mumto2]

I just finished one of Kareni's finds from last week, Written in Red by Anne Bishophttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15711341-written-in-red?from_search=true. It was excellent!!! I thought it started off a bit slow, a bit too much world building for my personal taste but once things started moving I was mesmerized. I read a few blogs that complained about the lack of a strong romance element in the book but have to say I disagree.....the fact that the couple is actually learning about each other slowly is wonderful and very romantic imo.

 

I have the second one and plan to start it as soon as the church bells stop their serenade. The quarter peal in honour of our dear friend is happening now. I had planned to listen in the tower but ds is ill with a stomach bug so I am home with my poor boy who is missing something he really wanted to do -- he isn't skilled enough to ring in today's event but wanted to be there. Dd and dh are in his place. Windows are open and can easily hear from our house. I don't want to listen to youtube while our bells are ringing but this should give you a great idea of what is happening

It is from the York Minster which has a great ringing team.

 

Eta. I replaced the first link with a better one.