Book a Week 2015 - BW35: stifled september

[TeacherZee]

I've heard good things about this book and am hoping my library will take my suggestion to purchase it.

 

 

 

Did your friend decide on one of the titles suggested here?

 

I hope that work will soon settle down into a more manageable schedule.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I really hope your library buys it. It was really impressive. Both the story and the discussion that I think you can have about many different aspects of it.

 

I'm not sure what she chose, I will have to check in with her.

 

I finished two book today.  Yay.

 

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets by Peter Menzel - This is similar to the book of what families eat in a week around the world.  It's not the book you read cover to cover but flip through and read what interests you.  Highly recommend to anyone interested in different cultures or food.  ****

 

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - I listened to this as an audiobook and it wasn't a great book but it was still fun. (Great narrator on the audiobook.) I think it was the author's first book so I expect the series will get better as it goes.  I recommend it with the caveat that it is just an easy fun silly book.  If you take your books seriously then this isn't for you.  *** 

 

As soon as I log off the internet I'm going to start re-listening to an old favorite audiobook - Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer. 

 

The Royal Spyness books aren't earth shattering but they are a nice fluffy read at times. The latest one did send me off on some rabbit trails with regards to the royal family.

 

Ali :grouphug: I hope your back is completely better soon!

 

Teacherzee- Hope you have a good week next week with your new students. Please check in with us even if you are too busy to read much.

 

Aggieamy - :lol: That's what happens to me with an organized book club, I am always the kid who didn't do her homework. I never manage to read a book when I feel pressured. I even have problems here sometimes. My library runs three very active book clubs and my absence has apparently been noticed ( blush, mainly because I am a volunteer and board member) and someone recently asked me why publicly(while I was standing behind the desk working, trapped). All of you would be amazed at what an active group of readers my online bookclub is (that's you). We actually really are thanks to Robin but my explanation about no time for more was interesting. I just do not want to look at a book and know I must read it, takes the fun out. Imo

 

Jenn - Glad you had such a nice time on you trip. I love Chicago. I hope you enjoy Irene. I think you will be the first one who starts at the beginning. I will be interested in your view from where much of the story starts.

 

Negin - The Stand sounds good too ( last week someone was talking about 11/22/63). I am going to have to be brave and read a Steven King book again.

 

Banned Books - None on the current list but have read quite a few on the larger list. I have never read The Great Gatsby. Dd is reading it this year so I will try that, I think. I can't commit too firmly! ;)

 

I will try. I miss the discussion. Hopefully things will slow down or I'll get used to my new normal. I am actually getting quite a bit read since I have much more of a commute now than I did before so...

[aggieamy]

I do so enjoy this book club format.  I love hearing about a wide range of books, many of which I add to my reading lists, some of which I eventually read. There are others discussed which I won't ever touch, but I still love hearing what y'all have to say. I enjoy book reviews and author interviews for the same horizon-broadening reasons.

 

The 3 books I read last week were found thanks to these threads. The Shepherd's Life was through one of Kareni's links, the author Alan Furst is a favorite of Jane's and I don't know which of you mystery lovers mentioned the Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridadon.  I highly recommend all 3, by the way.

 

Don't know if I can handle even gentle Stephen King.  I had to put down the Balkan Spies book several times because I was getting nervous for the main, and side, character's safety!!

 

I feel the same way.  I can't do thrillers because I feel nervous in the pit of my stomach for the characters for days on end. 

[LaughingCat]

Don't know if I can handle even gentle Stephen King.  I had to put down the Balkan Spies book several times because I was getting nervous for the main, and side, character's safety!!

 

Yeah, gentle isn't a word I associate with Stephen King :lol:   Plus Salem's Lot on the non-horror list?   That book scared me silly back in high school!  And Running Man, Firestarter and The Stand (the others I've read on that list) -- none of these are 'gentle' books.  Horrible things happen to good people books, maybe (although I loved Firestarter for a while in high school).   

[Robin M]

rose: Of the banned classics on the page you linked, I've read many but not all of them.  Time for a new Goodreads to-read page!  I already know what I want to read this year - dare I admit, Stacia, that I've never read Slaughterhouse-Five?  :leaving:

Neither have I, Rose, so no need to run away and hide.  

 

Negin: I’m realizing that I really do enjoy Stephen King. I’d always been rather wary to read any of his stuff, since I cannot handle horror, not too much anyway. I need to start working on a list of books of his that I would like to read – the ones that are not excessively scary – and I am open to suggestions!

 

I like psychological thrillers and he has written some good ones.  I read Duma Key, Under the Dome, and his Dark Tower series. Enjoyed them all.  

 

 

 

Fantastic pictures, Jenn and I'm sure you had some interesting conversations with the ten young adults.   Now I want to go to Chicago again and expose my young un to all the neat museums. 

 

Ali:  My back went out in July due to carrying a 76 pound child (now an adult) incorrectly. The acute pain is gone but it still twinges on me, especially if I try to jog or walk too far.

Owie.  Glad it is doing better.    I lift a lot of heavy stereos and speakers at our business, so I've pulled my back, my knees, my sacroiliac, and elbow at various times.   My technician managed to pull his cardiac muscle carrying a door across the street to his neighbor's house. Took him forever to recover from that one.    As we get older those things take longer to go away.  Pace yourself with the walking and up the length a little every couple weeks.   You'll be in marching shape given time.  Unless your doctor has said otherwise, then just ignore me.  :thumbup1:

 

 

Noseinabook:  We even had an adventure with a family of skunks who were under our camper... *snort* Only the baby skunk sprayed when it got into a fight with its parent so thankfully, it wasn't that bad!

 

Thank goodness.   John and I went camping years ago in Big Sur and picked the wrong spot evidently.  A family of skunks kept traipsing right through our site. We ended up packing up and going to a hotel.  :lol:

 

 

 

Kareni -- Awesome, I love Jayne Castle's Harmony books and didn't know another was out.  Added it to my want list.

 

 

[TeacherZee]

Another thread reminded me of this poem but I didn't think it would be appreciated over there, and the discussion had moved on so I will post it here where I think it will be recognized and enjoyed (and also to remind myself to show it to my students)

 

The Unknown Citizen

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

[mumto2]

It's definitely a different romance, I agree. (I'd also not read many books featuring Quakers.) My next favorite of hers, though it's quite different, is My Sweet Folly.

 

Here's a post you might also enjoy ~

If You Like Laura Kinsale…. Hosted by Janine

 

Regards,

Kareni

Sorry Kareni, I don't know how but I missed your post. Great link. I am definitely going to have to read more of her books. I can get My Sweet Folly through overdrive so will probably start with that one. Many of them sound interesting.

 

Regarding the Jayne Castle series, I have never read her new books but used to love her romance novels back in the 80's. Did you read her before too? I have looked at the new ones but never actually checked one out. Now I will.

 

First I need to get through my stack of Fool's Gold by Susan Mallery. The new one was put on hold when I read the first one and the line has gone quickly. I am going to have it way sooner than anticipated and would like to have everything in between done first. ;) I had no idea how much in between there was.

[Kareni]

Regarding the Jayne Castle series, I have never read her new books but used to love her romance novels back in the 80's. Did you read her before too? I have looked at the new ones but never actually checked one out. Now I will.

 

I've been reading her books since the early eighties.  Reading her wikipedia page, I see she has written under the names "Jayne Castle ... Jayne Taylor, Jayne Bentley, Stephanie James and Amanda Glass ... Jayne Ann Krentz."  I believe I've read her under all of those names.  In fact, some old books on my shelf have since been reissued with her more well-known names.  She's published over 120 books; I suspect I've read about 75% of those over the past thirty years.

 

You might enjoy the linked books  Amaryllis, Zinnia, and Orchid which are romances set in a world that earth colonized and was then cut off from.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

I've been reading her books since the early eighties. Reading her wikipedia page, I see she has written under the names "Jayne Castle ... Jayne Taylor, Jayne Bentley, Stephanie James and Amanda Glass ... Jayne Ann Krentz." I believe I've read her under all of those names. In fact, some old books on my shelf have since been reissued with her more well-known names. She's published over 120 books; I suspect I've read about 75% of those over the past thirty years.

 

You might enjoy the linked books Amaryllis, Zinnia, and Orchid which are romances set in a world that earth colonized and was then cut off from.

 

Regards,

Kareni

I shouldn't have but I went ahead and checked Amaryllis out. It looks interesting and I normally enjoy your recommendations. I also found the Guenivere Jones seris which I remember liking. I am probably at more like 50 percent on the wiki list. Stephanie James is one of my all time favourite romance authors but have also read my fair share of the others especially the oldies.

[Negin]

Plus Salem's Lot on the non-horror list?   That book scared me silly back in high school!  And Running Man, Firestarter and The Stand (the others I've read on that list) -- none of these are 'gentle' books.  Horrible things happen to good people books, maybe (although I loved Firestarter for a while in high school).   

Oh dear. Guess I'll have to look at that list more carefully. I know he's not gentle. I can handle thriller, but not awful horror. 

[prairiegirl]

 I don't know what happened but my complete post is down below.

[prairiegirl]

When I was younger,  much younger, I inhaled Stephen King's books.  I didn't read his first ones but I did enjoy Christine, Pet Cemetery and Misery.  Oh, how I loved Misery!  But then it all got a bit old so I haven't read a King book in a long, long time.  I did read 11/22/63 and I enjoyed what I read but it was just soooo long that I couldn't finish it.  It was good, though, quite different from the King books that I am used to.

 

I read Stella by Starlight, a middle grade book written by Sharron Draper.  It is set in 1932, in the south, complete with the Ku Klux Klan.  I quite liked it.  There have been  a few middle grade books released lately that have been enjoyable.   I am getting ready to read The Magician's Lie  by Greer Mcallister and am still in the middle of Gulliver's Travels.

[idnib]

I finally finished Faust Part II. I didn't enjoy it (both parts), unfortunately. I can see why it's considered an important work and I might even enjoy a performance of it, but reading it was tedious until the last act, which I enjoyed. And there were poetic moments and quotable lines, but it's impossible to say how much was Goethe's writing and how much was the translation.

[LaughingCat]

Oh dear. Guess I'll have to look at that list more carefully. I know he's not gentle. I can handle thriller, but not awful horror. 

I think books these days are a little more graphic in general -- so maybe I am judging them by the standards of the time I read them?  They are probably not any worse than Patricia Briggs books.  The difference IMO is that hers have a 'happy ending'  whereas the best you can hope for from King is to be the last one or two survivors who 'escape' at the end. 

Note: looking at a list of his books sure dates me -- all I have read is 'early' King -- I don't know how that compares to later King.    Plus I see Cujo won an award??? I really disliked that one -- it seemed ridiculous to me rather than scary... pretty much stopped me from reading any more King (maybe it would be more scary now that I have kids?? I have noticed some books go that way

 

-- spoiler in  white : although it does seem like I remember thinking "why doesn't that woman get out of the truck and kick that dogs butt to save her kid!"

[Pam in CT]

... I read Stella by Starlight, a middle grade book written by Sharron Draper.  It is set in 1932, in the south, complete with the Ku Klux Klan.  I quite liked it.  There have been  a few middle grade books released lately that have been enjoyable.   I am getting ready to read The Magician's Lie  by Greer Mcallister and am still in the middle of Gulliver's Travels.

Wow, thanks for this -- will add to my read-together pile with my very own Stella.

 

 

I can't do King.

At all.

Ever.

Just sayin'.

 

 

Stacia, I stayed up until 2 this morning finishing The Martian. Oh.my.word.  (sadly, I notice it has catapulted in price from $1.99 earlier this week to $7.99!!!  I expect BAW sales tipped it into a different marketing category....)

 

 

All right, ladies, I sit myself down now to collect and collate and report on my Summer Reading dating back to... I dunno, late May I'm afraid. Hold me in the light, please.

[Stacia]

Pam, I guess you got caught up with Mark Watney since you stayed up until two, lol?! Wasn't it a fun book? Are you going to see the movie?

 

My dad & a couple of friends of mine are Stephen King fans. I tried 11/22/63 a couple of years ago but was bored by 100 pages in because he's so repetitive. Plus there was some semi-gross stuff he kept harping on (not scary but just gross details) & I decided there was no way I could get through another 700 pages of that type of writing. The first hundred pages could have been halved with a decent editor, but I guess he gets free reign at this point in his career. I also tried The Green Mile many years ago, but that was back in the day before easy online requesting, the chapters were published individually in serialized form, & and I had a hard time managing to get the right chapter at the right time. I gave up after too many long gaps when trying to get the correct volume through the library. Lol. I would imagine I could get the whole thing in one book these days, though....

[Lady Florida.]

I finished Salvage the Bones last night. Book club is tonight. I can't (well, don't want to) post a review on goodreads until after the  meeting, but I have mixed feelings about it. The metaphors drove me crazy. Why use one metaphor in a paragraph when you can use two? Or three? Or Five? Ack!  Sometimes a long sentence contained more than one metaphor.

 

The characters seemed very real and believable, and her (book club member) choice was timely with the ten year anniversary of Katrina. I found the narrator's voice (the main character) to be inconsistent and that bothered me. She's supposedly a barely educated poor African American girl yet she speaks in the vernacular in one sentence, big and uncommon words in the next, and flowery prose a few paragraphs later. 

 

I enjoyed the motherhood theme that was woven through the whole book. I'll probably end up giving it three stars, which to me means it was good and I would recommend it to others, though not as a "must-read".

 

As for Stephen KIng, I went on a kick with his books in the eighties. I read all of the older ones: Carrie, Firestarter, Salem's Lot, The Dead Zone, Christine, and of course, The Stand. I loved The Stand and it's probably the only one I can still say I like. I got tired of his books after a time, and haven't read anything recent. The most recent one was Rose Madder, which I only read for book club years ago (odd book club choice I thought). Dh read Under the Dome and wasn't crazy about it. He too had read a lot of King's earlier stuff. Oddly enough, I never read The Shining. 

[JennW in SoCal]

I need some reassurance from those of you who have read Pierre Lemaitre's Irene.  How can I ask this question without getting or giving spoilers....um... is there a personal tragedy in store for our hero? I'm leery because of the title of the book.

 

I have a sort of PTSD from seeing the movie Seven (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow). It was my first movie date after the birth of my second child, I was a bundle of lactating hormones and as the movie unfolded I wound up in a fetal position in the chair with my ears plugged and eyes closed! I have never recovered from the movie as a whole and the ending in particular.  If Irene has a similar ending, just tell me to stop reading it now!  Please!

 

 

[Jane in NC]

I need some reassurance from those of you who have read Pierre Lemaitre's Irene.  How can I ask this question without getting or giving spoilers....um... is there a personal tragedy in store for our hero? I'm leery because of the title of the book.

 

I have a sort of PTSD from seeing the movie Seven (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow). It was my first movie date after the birth of my second child, I was a bundle of lactating hormones and as the movie unfolded I wound up in a fetal position in the chair with my ears plugged and eyes closed! I have never recovered from the movie as a whole and the ending in particular.  If Irene has a similar ending, just tell me to stop reading it now!  Please!

 

Bad news for you, Jenn.  I have not seen Seven but yes, there is a personal tragedy of immense proportion in Irene.  Having read the series out of order (starting with number 3, Camille), I was made aware of the tragedy as background.  I commented earlier this summer that I don't think I would have read all three books in the series had I started with the first.

 

Mumto2 was the first to mention the Lemaitre novels.  I believe that she too read them out of order.

 

You may wish to abandon Irene.  The books are well written, captivating, and so wonderfully French--but they are intense. 

 

[Guest]

My daughter and her family are getting settled in and we're all adjusting to new routines, And my (amazing!) son-in-law has made incredible progress on the wall he is building.  (The largest space we could offer them is one separated from the breakfast nook by a counter.  It was intended as a family room, I believe.  So, he's putting in a wall and a door.)

 

My middle daughter came home late last night and then my mother is coming mid-month for a nice long visit... so our house will be very wonderfully full.

 

I read several more volumes of the Greek Tragedy in New Translations: Helen, Hecuba, Suppliant Women, and Women of Trachis.  None were as stunning as Aias, but all were well done.  Painful, but then they're supposed to be... 

 

Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons is another from the Guardian's new list of 100 best novels.  I approached it skeptically because I hated Accidental Tourist when I read it 20+ years ago.   I think I would have hated this then too... I think I needed to be middle aged, with some grown children, and some experience of myself as a very imperfect, but striving human being.  

 

...and two (more) Diana Wynne Jones books Witch Week and Charmed Life, both of which I over-read as a child and can't reread too often now. 

[Jane in NC]

Let me paint the scene:  Sibelius has been in the background the last couple of hours and I have been curled up in my chair reading Knausgaard.  Maybe the fatigue of this summer's oppressive heat sends me on this Nordic excursion?

 

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, the BBC Proms is featuring a number of his works.  I have been listening to Sibelius via the BBC Proms 2015 website where performances are archived.  And I must say that one of the highlights of my trip to London two years ago was attending a Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall. Highly recommended.

[Pam in CT]

Oooookay. Deep breath here.

 

 

Books I Read Over Summer Vacation, by Pam in CT

 

 

Round the World:

 

 

• A Treatise on Shelling Beans, by Wieslaw Mysliwski - thank you Jane, for this.  A beautiful, musing, stream-of-consciousness outpouring in which the narrator slowly, fitfully, unreliably relays (parts of) his not-all-heroic life story during and after WWII, mostly in Poland, to a weird visitor who may or may not (more likely not) actually be there...
• White Masks, by Elias Khoury - another Archipelago offering from Jane, also shifting/unreliable narration; this one is a sort of Rashomon inquiry into the murder of a civil servant in the throes of Lebanon's civil war.  Khoury: I'll be looking for more, by him...
• Kid Moses, by Mark Thornton (YA) - this is about a street kid in Tanzania's Dar el Salaam, whose daily struggles, uneasy alliances with other kids, and efforts to find another way to live are chronicled in a manner that manages (mostly) to remain appropriate for YA ages and also to avoid romanticizing poverty.  There are not a lot of books set in Africa for this age group and I really liked this one.  (The author is an American who has worked in conservation in the region for twenty years; this is his first book of this nature.)
• The Jews of Greece, by Nicholas Stavroulakis - this is a nice summary of (go figure!) the history of the Jews in Greece from ancient times to the present, which I picked up while at the Jewish Museum in Athens.  Shout out to Eliana - same author has a cookbook which looks FANTASTIC.... mmmm.....

A slew of books about Guatemala, where my son and I spent most of June:

• Guatemala: Never Again, by Archdioceses of Guatemala - this is a collation of personal testimonies of survivors of Guatemala's 30 year civil war, painstakingly collected by field workers from a group of nuns and priests and a coordinating local NGO, under the leadership of Bishop Juan Gerardi, who was himself assassinated two days after its publication.  Difficult reading.
• I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, the memoir of Rigoberta Menchu, the grass roots Mayan organizer who won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.  Also difficult reading; in part because it puts faces on some of the same events that Never Again! covers more exhaustively.
• Seeking Human Rights Justice in Latin America: Truth, Extra-Territorial Courts, and the Process of Justice, by Jeffrey Davis (Guatemala and other Latin America, particularly El Salvador) - this tells the quite fascinating, slow-motion, story of how a (painfully) few of the most egregious disappearance/torture/executions of the war have found (too little, too late, partial) justice -- Davis calls it "transitional justice" -- despite the current government's ongoing efforts to cover up, deny, delay, and protect the perpetrators, many of who remain powerful in the financial, military and government sectors.  In large measure, such "transitional justice" has been furthered outside Guatemala itself -- these murdered priests were Spanish, so Spain claimed jurisdiction; this officer has a house in Miami, so the US went after him for lying on his immigration form; this one has income in Canada, and Canada pursued him for non-payment of taxes... etc.  Very interesting from both a social justice and a creative legal strategy perspective; also for those interested in the US government role during the time period.
• Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala, by Sebastien Rotella - true story of a toddler whose entire village was massacred, but he (light skin, green eyes) was plucked out of the mayhem and raised by one of the army officials.  Decades later, one of the prosecutors working in Guatemala pulled together evidence related to the massacre and tracked down what happened.
• Adios Ninos: The Gangs of Guatemala and the Politics of Death, by Deborah T Levenson - examines the links between the violence, displaced populations, and migration caused by the war, and today's gang structures and patterns of violence.  Sigh.

 

Non Fiction:

• The War Against Women in Israel: A Story of Religious Radicalism and The Women Fighting for Freedom, by Elana Stzokman.  This is about the increasing efforts within Israel on the part of the most observant communities to bring their strongly held religious beliefs into the public square in such areas as public buses (women in the back!), media (images of Angela Merkel must be photoshopped out!  No women doctors to speak at medical conferences!), education, etc.  In essence, she makes a boiling frog argument.
• The House of Secrets: The Hidden World of the Mikveh, by Varda Polak-Sahm.  My eldest daughter urged me to this one; she liked it better than I did.
• Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates.   I see Coates as among the very best writers out there these days (The Atlantic); and this book, addressed to his 15 year old son, is very, very good.  It's hard to categorize.  Just read it.
• Hannah Goslar Remembers: A Childhood Friend of  Anne Frank, by Alison Leslie Gold.  I picked this up at the Anne Frank House; a quick memoir by her best friend before she went into hiding (Hannah was also deported to the camps and crossed paths with Anne just weeks before she died)
• Anne Frank Remembered, by Miep Gies.  Another one I picked up at the Anne Frank House; Miep was the Dutch woman who scrounged and struggled to feed the 8 people in the Annex in a time of rationing and increasing shortages....  I remember even as a kid, reading the diary, where Anne described how eagerly they all looked forward to Miep's daily visits and how hard they struggled to contain their disappointment on the days she had so little to give them, and thinking my god what pressure she must have been under... but that isn't the sense that comes through the memoir at all, just straightforward, grounded, this is what happened.  The story of Miep's husband, who was involved with the resistance, was also new for me.

 

Fiction:

• The Painted Kiss, by Elizabeth Hickey, historical fiction re: Gustav Klimt.  Interesting windows into both the artist and a certain society in Vienna; don't know about its veracity but a quick fun read.
• Dictionary of the Khazars, by Milorad Pavic.  OK, I am flummoxed about who recommended this.  Someone on these threads must have, it didn't make its way onto my Kindle all.by.itself.  Anyway, a number of y'all seem to be circling around it, warily, and... I can't in good conscience recommend it.  Yeah, I know it sounds cool.  And some of the bits are interesting,  It's just that (for me, at least) all those PARTS never did cohere into anything remotely approximating a whole.  In one of the Amazon blurbs, the NYT review is excerpted: "In truth, this is a book that is best read just about any way except cover to cover. For all its seeming complexity, it surrenders easily - even gratefully - to a reconstructed reading..."  If that means, "don't even try to understand it as a whole, just dip in for a vignette or two before, say, hopping in the shower..." and you're good with that, then, rock on.  Not my cuppa, I'm afraid...
• Stray, by Andrea Host (YA) - first of a trilogy that evidently actually DID make it on to my Kindle all.by.itself.  Australian girl falls through wormhole on her way home from A level exams and lands in another world.  All three of my kids deny ordering it, so I have no idea how the first one came to me, but I read it on a plane and immediately ripped through the other two as well (Lab Rat One, and Caszandra).  Storyline moves along.  The third one wanders into semi-adult content as the protagonist falls in love with one of the other-world inhabitants (FWIW they marry off and collect three kids in very short order...)

• Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett (YA) - a whole host of you ladies have recommended this over the years, and you were right.  I read it aloud with my daughter and we both laughed out loud repeatedly.
• Shooting the Moon, by Frances O'Roark O'Donnel (YA) - Robin, ages ago, you invited us to invite our kids to recommend a book for us to read.  This was Stella's recommendation to me, and I am ashamed to admit has teetered about halfway up the embarrassing stack of books by my bed for lo, these many moons.  Years, maybe.  Anyway I finally read it, and -- go figure!! -- it is really great.  Set in the Viet Nam era, written from the perspective of a coming-of-age aged narrator whose older brother has gone off to war.  Beautiful.  From now on when my younger daughter makes a recommendation I am going to get to it on a more timely basis.
• Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, by Alan Bradley.  Another hearty recommendation from a chorus of BAW.  Deservedly so; I'm up for more Flavia.
• The Martian, by Andy Weir (sci fi?  YA?).  Stacia's recommendation.  Just hilarious.  Jenn, if you haven't already... 

Other:

• The Trial of God: As it was Held in 1649 in Shamgorod, by Elie Wiesel.  Another that defies categorization.. While in the camps as a teenager, Wiesel evidently witnessed three rabbis conducting a trial in which they indicted God for his indifference to what was happening; he continued to rework this theme repeatedly.  Earlier this year I read the libretto of his cantata Ani Maamin, which works a storyline in which the patriarchs similarly accuse God; this book returns to the theme, set partly a story set in a Polish shtetl following a particularly grim pogrom, with a play-within-the-story.

 

OK, that's all I've got, at least that I've kept track of.  It's time to start dinner.  Never again will I let it slide this long!!

 

 

[Kareni]

Books I Read Over Summer Vacation, by Pam in CT

 

Wow, you did some serious reading!

 

 

Dictionary of the Khazars, by Milorad Pavic.  OK, I am flummoxed about who recommended this.  Someone on these threads must have, it didn't make its way onto my Kindle all.by.itself. 

 

I can answer that one ~

 

 

Dictionary of the Khazars is free on Kindle right now. Don't know if it's any good, just know it's on the 1001 Books list. 

 

 

• Stray, by Andrea Host (YA) - first of a trilogy that evidently actually DID make it on to my Kindle all.by.itself.  Australian girl falls through wormhole on her way home from A level exams and lands in another world.  All three of my kids deny ordering it, so I have no idea how the first one came to me, but I read it on a plane and immediately ripped through the other two as well (Lab Rat One, and Caszandra). 

 

and from June of last year ~

 

 

I recall that Eliana has spoken highly of the author Andrea K Höst.  If you have a Kindle, her book

Stray (Touchstone Book 1) is currently free.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

I need some reassurance from those of you who have read Pierre Lemaitre's Irene. How can I ask this question without getting or giving spoilers....um... is there a personal tragedy in store for our hero? I'm leery because of the title of the book.

 

I have a sort of PTSD from seeing the movie Seven (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow). It was my first movie date after the birth of my second child, I was a bundle of lactating hormones and as the movie unfolded I wound up in a fetal position in the chair with my ears plugged and eyes closed! I have never recovered from the movie as a whole and the ending in particular. If Irene has a similar ending, just tell me to stop reading it now! Please!

I agree with Jane. I have never seen Seven so no idea comparisn wise. I started with the second one which honestly was a good place to start. When I went back and read the first it was more detailed but I knew most of it already so the shock factor was gone at least. Actually the first could be skipped. I was worried when you posted you were starting with the first because I was not sure I would have liked the first one first. I just wasn't sure how to stop you because I hadn't read them in order myself and thought maybe I was wrong. The books are very French and the main character is so unusual.

[Butter]

I finished The Martian today.  I loved it!  But it still loses points to me because there was a bit too much bad language for my liking.  I read the interview with the author that was included afterwards and it said if he could only take one book with him to Mars he'd take Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein.  Last week when we went back to school I asked the kids various questions and my 13 year old picked that book as his favorite.  The very same 13 year old who begged me to read this book because he thought it was so great.  https://thefamilywho.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/the-kids-on-the-first-day-of-school/

[Pam in CT]

Dang, Kareni, you're good!  If I could manage that kind of targeted searching I'd look a whole lot less clueless on these threads.

 

 

And speaking of Clueless, I hereby offer up for your entertainment pleasure this essay, by my daughter on behalf of the Oxford English Dictionary, on how classic lines from the movie have made their way into the language and, thus, the dictionary.  (Summer internship...)  Enjoy!

[Kareni]

And speaking of Clueless, I hereby offer up for your entertainment pleasure this essay, by my daughter on behalf of the Oxford English Dictionary, on how classic lines from the movie have made their way into the language and, thus, the dictionary.  (Summer internship...)  Enjoy!

 

What a very nifty summer internship!  I enjoyed your daughter's essay, Pam; thanks for sharing it.

 

 

And, Heather, thanks for sharing the lovely photos of your children with their first day signs.  That brought back some memories as I did likewise with my daughter.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Responses to Pam's list...

 

If you read more Khoury, please be sure to post the title & your opinions on it. 

 

I've had I, Rigoberta on my to-read list for awhile now. Sounds like a worthwhile read & I'm glad you posted about it.

 

Re: Between the World and Me: This was the first thing I've read by Coates (haven't read any of his essays published in magazines); I thought the book was strong, worth reading, but I can't say that I was a total fan of his overall writing style. 

 

Re: Dictionary of the Khazars: I remember checking it out from the library years ago because it looked cool, but after reading a short bit, flipping around through it, it just never really pulled me in. I figured it was something I would try again later & eventually picked up a used copy. But, still, it sat on my shelves forever, I flipped through it again, never made headway, & ended up donating it. 

 

Glad The Wee Free Men, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, & The Martian provided good reading entertainment. Loved all of them. I do believe there is one last Tiffany Aching book that is coming out later this year. Even though I'm not much of a series reader, I read the first six Flavia de Luce books & loved all of them. I haven't yet read the seventh one. 

[Stacia]

Heather, loved the first day photos & lists of your kids. Glad you enjoyed The Martian too (in spite of the bad language).

 

Even though I'm reading Marco Polo (so slowly), I still have to have fiction. I was bored last night & spent some time browsing the library's ebook offerings (even though I don't like reading in ebook format, lol) & ended up downloading I Am Radar by Reif Larsen. I've read a few chapters & really like it so far. Just hope the kindle version does justice to the printed version since it supposedly has various maps, diagrams, etc.... (I've seen one of these so far in what I've read, but haven't looked further ahead to see more...).

[Stacia]

Eliana, enjoy having all your family with you! Sounds fun (if challenging to your reading time)!

 

Any cute grandbaby photos to share?  :)

[Stacia]

Oh, and one more post for Pam....

 

Book 1, Chapter 43 in Marco Polo mentions...

 

Rhubarb!

 

:lol:

 

Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found in great abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it thence all over the world.

 

[Pam in CT]

Oh, and one more post for Pam....

 

Book 1, Chapter 43 in Marco Polo mentions...

 

Rhubarb!

 

:lol:

 

:lol: Mine had already bolted this year by the time I got back from traveling.  "Bitter" doesn't begin to convey the magnitude of the problem.  Not enough strawberries in this world to fix that kind of problem.

 

(rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb...)

[JennW in SoCal]

Thank you Jane and Mumto2 for confirming what I had feared.  

 

I am hereby abandoning Irene and searching for something fluffy and gentle as a literary palate-cleanser.  Not sure when (or if) I will attempt the other 2 in the trilogy.  

[Pam in CT]

Thank you Jane and Mumto2 for confirming what I had feared.  

 

I am hereby abandoning Irene and searching for something fluffy and gentle as a literary palate-cleanser.  Not sure when (or if) I will attempt the other 2 in the trilogy.  

Tell me how to share Kindle books and I'll send Martian right over... not sure I'd call it a "palate cleanser," exactly, but I think it'd likely do the job...

[Onceuponatime]

I've just finished Cards On The Table by Agatha Christie for my book club meeting Thursday. It's supposed to be a classics book club but everyone begged for something lighter than usual. The librarian decided Ms. Christie was old enough to be a classic. 😀 I had read the book long ago, but was still surprised by the twist at the end.

 

I don't know what I'll read next. I do know it won't be a Stephen King. Count me among those that won't go there. I watched the movie Misery when my husband was out to sea and the kids were in bed. Big mistake. That convinced me I wasn't cut out for his books.

[aggieamy]

I have a sort of PTSD from seeing the movie Seven (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow). It was my first movie date after the birth of my second child, I was a bundle of lactating hormones and as the movie unfolded I wound up in a fetal position in the chair with my ears plugged and eyes closed! I have never recovered from the movie as a whole and the ending in particular.  If Irene has a similar ending, just tell me to stop reading it now!  Please!

 

My dad as a newly divorced dad decided to take us to this movie one weekend.  He thought it would be a great family movie.  We were 11, 9, and 5.  

 

He just mentioned the last time I talked to him how he didn't not realize that it was such a horrible movie.  I think he's still traumatized by it.

 

Let me paint the scene:  Sibelius has been in the background the last couple of hours and I have been curled up in my chair reading Knausgaard.  Maybe the fatigue of this summer's oppressive heat sends me on this Nordic excursion?

 

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, the BBC Proms is featuring a number of his works.  I have been listening to Sibelius via the BBC Proms 2015 website where performances are archived.  And I must say that one of the highlights of my trip to London two years ago was attending a Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall. Highly recommended.

 

That sounds just wonderful!  I'm more than a bit jealous.

[prairiegirl]

_{Well, The Magician's Lie was called back to the library without grace of a renewal so I will have to grab it back later on.   I think I will now read  Neil Gaiman's  Trigger Warnings.  I am not a huge Gaiman fan so I'm not sure if this one will get finished either.}

[shukriyya]

Well, I've got nothing to report.

My alternate reality self says :iagree:

My parallel universe self is feeling :toetap05:

And the moralist :nopity:

As the impatient Aries is ready to hit the :driving:

Meanwhile the trickster :smilielol5:

And let's not forget the empath :cheers2:

But finally the first guru, the mama, swoops in with a :grouphug:

 

Nary a book in sight though I'm entertained by y'alls literary exploits.

 

It's not actually true about nary a book in sight, reading is occurring every day for research and teaching purposes but it's chapters and chunks here and there, cross-referencing and quoting but nothing with an actual start-to-finish trajectory.

[mommymilkies]

I finished The Reapers Are the Angels.  I'm rather shocked I found out about it on a YA list.  Nope.  No way.  Very graphic.  And the ending? Hmmm.  I don't think I'll recommend this one, or maybe I'm forgetting something?

 

I never used to like horror/thrillers but then a couple years ago they really started hitting the spot.  They stress some people out, but for me it's like "Huh, I guess my life doesn't suck so bad after all.  At least I know this won't happen to me." But then again I'm usually picky about choosing ones I know don't end entirely terribly.  I can't handle things with infant loss, sexual violence, or pet deaths, though. I try to weed those out early before I spend a night without sleeping. 

[Kareni]

Courtesy of BookRiot ~

 

19 Rad Bookshelves For Your Home (Or Dream Home)

Enjoy.  Some of these are nifty indeed!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pam in CT]

OK, I found another couple summer books that had slid under the bed (sigh... I expect they'll keep turning up for weeks...)

 

The Door, by Magda Szabo - set in post-war Hungary, so I expect it came from Jane (Kareni will confirm this or deny it...).  Really terrific dive into questions of class/education and spirit/religiosity and the games we play with our own mind...

 

and

 

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman, a novel based on the premise that Jesus had a twin brother to whom some of the words/narratives that have come down through the ages ultimately got attributed... Not for everyone, obviously; but I ended up associating it with both Reza Aslan's Zealot (which I loathed, twice) and with Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus (which I disliked) -- quite different in perspective, and both meant to be Serious Non-fiction, and thinking that in a weird and unexpected way Pullman actually pulled off some of what (I think) they were trying to achieve...

 

 

[Kareni]

The Door, by Magda Szabo - set in post-war Hungary, so I expect it came from Jane (Kareni will confirm this or deny it...). 

 

Sadly, my mad searching skills are letting me down and I am unable to confirm or deny this!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

Hmm. ..Not me, Pam. Looks interesting though.

[Kareni]

Yesterday, I read Carola Dunn's regency romance His Lordship's Reward; it was a light enjoyable romance.  It took place four years after Miss Jacobson's Journey which I read in July and commented on here.  The hero has matured significantly since that book and continues to do so in this story.  (I believe this story would be acceptable to all readers.)

 

"The Viscount Roworth, a distinguished British spy, enters the world of Brussels high society and falls for the lovely, fiercely independent Fanny Ingram, the woman with whom he is forced to share lodgings."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pam in CT]

re The Door:

Hmm. ..Not me, Pam. Looks interesting though.

 

Oh.  Well then, I'll send it along...

[mommymilkies]

_{Well, The Magician's Lie was called back to the library without grace of a renewal so I will have to grab it back later on.   I think I will now read  Neil Gaiman's  Trigger Warnings.  I am not a huge Gaiman fan so I'm not sure if this one will get finished either.}

I'm not sure I'd say that's one I'd pick for someone who isn't a big Gaiman fan.  They're great short stories, but they're very Gaiman-esque! I'm listening to the audio of it and it's good (plus his amazing voice). What else have you read of his?  

 

I'm reading Those Who Are Left and I'm iffy about it, too.  It's just kind of odd.  I don't want to give spoilers but it all reads kind of like "Really, no questions or emotions with this apocalyptic situation???"

[idnib]

We have two Gaiman books here too, Smoke and Mirrors and something else that I'm forgetting right now. I picked them up for DH but I might read them too after he's done.

 

Currently I'm reading Acceptance, the last books of the Souther Reach Trilogy. This series has been quite confusing and I'm hoping this third book clears up some confusion. I have houseguests this week so i'm only getting a bit of reading done at night, once everyone is in bed.

 

Oh, I'm also pre-reading How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. Great book, and I'm grateful someone has taken the time to list passages in order of ease of memorization for children!

[JennW in SoCal]

Tell me how to share Kindle books and I'll send Martian right over... not sure I'd call it a "palate cleanser," exactly, but I think it'd likely do the job...

 

Thank you anyway, Pam, but I read it last summer and recently re-listened to it, have seen the author at comic-con twice now, actually struck up a conversation with him last year. Such as nice guy -- he is Mark Watney!

[Pam in CT]

Thank you anyway, Pam, but I read it last summer and recently re-listened to it, have seen the author at comic-con twice now, actually struck up a conversation with him last year. Such as nice guy -- he is Mark Watney!

Oh, well, see, I was right, you WOULD like it!   :lol:

 

Not surprised at all to hear he's a good guy.  It comes across.

[Chrysalis Academy]

OK, I found another couple summer books that had slid under the bed (sigh... I expect they'll keep turning up for weeks...)

 

 

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman, a novel based on the premise that Jesus had a twin brother to whom some of the words/narratives that have come down through the ages ultimately got attributed... Not for everyone, obviously; but I ended up associating it with both Reza Aslan's Zealot (which I loathed, twice) and with Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus (which I disliked) -- quite different in perspective, and both meant to be Serious Non-fiction, and thinking that in a weird and unexpected way Pullman actually pulled off some of what (I think) they were trying to achieve...

 

I agree. And it was much less irreverent than Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28881.Lamb?from_search=true&search_version=service

 

Re: Pullman - after finishing my re-read of His Dark Materials, I picked up this - Killing the Imposter God: Phillip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36667.Killing_the_Imposter_God?from_search=true&search_version=service

 

 

The authors spend a whole book developing the off-the-cuff idea i dropped last week, that Pullman's series certainly doesn't read like an atheist manifesto, despite his contentions about his own beliefs.  Against organized religion, yes, but not against the notion of a creator (where did all the angels come from, anyway?)  or a world with a whole lot of spirituality in it.  This book is written from a liberation theology POV.  I don't get liberation theology.  I mean, I get what it is, but I don't get it.  Anyway, it's interesting to read a well-developed argument for my nebulous idea.  So far anyway.

[Robin M]

I need some reassurance from those of you who have read Pierre Lemaitre's Irene.  How can I ask this question without getting or giving spoilers....um... is there a personal tragedy in store for our hero? I'm leery because of the title of the book.

 

I have a sort of PTSD from seeing the movie Seven (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow). It was my first movie date after the birth of my second child, I was a bundle of lactating hormones and as the movie unfolded I wound up in a fetal position in the chair with my ears plugged and eyes closed! I have never recovered from the movie as a whole and the ending in particular.  If Irene has a similar ending, just tell me to stop reading it now!  Please!

Oh my god, that movie is awful. I started watching it at home, it was on hbo or something.  Don't remember how long I tried to keep watching but gave it up because it was way too violent for me.   If I had been watching it in a theater, I would have ended up leaving.