Book a Week 2015: BW43 - jack o'lantern & tale of stingy jack

[unsinkable]

Oh, that is just the worst. :grouphug: This wouldn't work on a device you use for multiple purposed, but on a single-purpose Kindle you can turn the wifi off and it'll stay on there for as long as you need it, so long as you don't re-enable wifi. If the POOF is happening a lot, that might be worth the investment!

Thank you for this advice.

 

I was wondering if it might be worth it to get a Kindle bc of the Lending Library that is part of Amazon Prime and your advice has me leaning even more in that direction.

[Kim in Appalachia]

Going to jump in here to report that I did manage a "creepy' type book for Halloween.  Amazon had a sale the other day, and I bought The Girl with all the Gifts, by Mike Carey (though I believe that's a pen name).  It was over 400 pgs but a very fast read.  I think I'd give it 2.5 stars.  The writing was decent, the characters decently developed, and the plot kept moving.  It wasn't very original, but fun. I think, in quality, it reminded me a bit of Wool, but Wool was more original.   

 

I've been on a reading kick of books by Kate Atkinson. I'm on her last detective novel. They've been enjoyable to read.

[idnib]

I was reading the Martian...POOF! Now there are 13 people in front of me again.

 

Interesting. I had The Martian on hold via Overdrive and as I was getting close to my turn, I started moving backwards in the queue. Went to the library, they were mystified. It was at that point I went to see the movie because I wasn't sure it would still be in theaters by the time I got my turn with the book. (And I still haven't gotten my turn.)

[KathyBC]

Just beginning Far From the Madding Crowd. Far more readable than I remember from a failed attempt some years back. I think Tess of the d'Urbervilles had soured me on Hardy.

[Stacia]

DH went tonight after I've been bugging him. I'm hoping to catch it one more time before it leaves the cinema, but at least now we can talk about the movie!

 

So, what did your dh think of it?

 

Echoing the Coates endorsement, and I'm game for either/both the Newark or Detroit books.

 

Out of that list, I've requested the three I haven't yet read from the library. Hoping I will get through at least the Baldwin & Kenan book. Not sure if I'll get through the Detroit book in November, but I will see....

 

Here is what I wrote about the Newark book (No Cause for Indictment) after I read it earlier this year:

 

This is a sprawling book, taking on racism, the Newark riots, the Mafia, crooked & militant police, corrupt politicians, feeble justice institutions, failing medical & educational systems, a meek Fourth Estate, & more. Porambo apparently went where others wouldn't, interviewing & pounding the pavement for four years to gather his information for this book (as well as for numerous newspaper articles & series he wrote on the topics). As a piece of journalism, it is not neutral -- not at all; Porambo is angry on behalf of the citizens of Newark & it shows in his acerbic writing. Even though the 40th anniversary reissue was apparently edited more than the original version, there is still plenty of personal vitrol left & he skews strongly against all the people & institutions he takes on; he even skewers Newark's newspapers for being weak & unopinionated when he feels they should have been leading the charge. Since I was not familiar with the Newark riots prior to reading this book, nor was I familiar the local politicians & influential people, I did get a bit bogged down in the sheer numbers of individuals covered in this book. It is sometimes hard to follow along as the book jumps around between topics even though, ultimately, it's all interrelated -- so many factors feeding into the slow & ugly demise of a city & its people, so many deaths that were completely overlooked or ignored. After all of the investigating & work, the afterword covers Porambo himself years later with an odd & bitter ending. Even with its weaknesses, I think it's an important book, a raw piece of American history. Unfortunately, it also shows how little progress we've made in almost 50 years. Despite its flaws, it is a scathing book that is worth reading.

 

Going to jump in here to report that I did manage a "creepy' type book for Halloween. 

 

Kim, good to see you! :seeya:

 

Interesting. I had The Martian on hold via Overdrive and as I was getting close to my turn, I started moving backwards in the queue. Went to the library, they were mystified. It was at that point I went to see the movie because I wasn't sure it would still be in theaters by the time I got my turn with the book. (And I still haven't gotten my turn.)

 

One thing I've heard re: moving backward in the hold line.... If someone puts themselves on the hold list, they enter the line for the book. But, if they then 'suspend' their hold, they are temporarily removed from the list during the 'suspend' time. Once the 'suspend' time ends or the person removes the 'suspend' dates, they enter the line back where they originally were. So, it's like people waiting in line, someone steps out of line to run get something else, but another person there holds their place. Later, they come back & resume their original place in line.

 

So that's why sometimes you can be bumped backward in the list.

 

Just beginning Far From the Madding Crowd. Far more readable than I remember from a failed attempt some years back. I think Tess of the d'Urbervilles had soured me on Hardy.

 

I haven't read Hardy since high school & haven't felt a real draw toward doing so. But, I've wondered about trying Far From the Madding Crowd as my reintro to Hardy sometime.

 

Violet Crown, hope you & your family are all recovered now. :grouphug:

 

Heather, how are you doing? :grouphug:

 

Eliana, we're all thinking of you & your family. :grouphug:

 

Nan, :grouphug: . Seems like you've had a year with its measure of sadness & sorrow.

[Kareni]

I finished a couple of books ~

 

Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

 

I was drawn to read this because I have so enjoyed Sarina Bowen's new adult romances; I enjoyed it.  Adult content.

 

"They don't play for the same team. Or do they?  
 
Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wise-cracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were eighteen? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

Ryan Wesley's biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he'll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever.

Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions -- can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? When Wesley turns up to coach alongside Jamie for one more hot summer at camp, Jamie has a few things to discover about his old friend...and a big one to learn about himself."

 

 

I also finished Jackdaw by KJ Charles

 

This is a spin-off book from the author's A Charm of Magpies series.  While this could be read alone, the reader would miss out on a lot of backstory and world building.  This is a historical paranormal male/male romance; I enjoyed it.

 

"If you stop running, you fall.

 

Jonah Pastern is a magician, a liar, a windwalker, a professional thief…and for six months, he was the love of police constable Ben Spenser’s life. Until his betrayal left Ben jailed, ruined, alone, and looking for revenge.

 

Ben is determined to make Jonah pay. But he can’t seem to forget what they once shared, and Jonah refuses to let him. Soon Ben is entangled in Jonah’s chaotic existence all over again, and they’re running together—from the police, the justiciary, and some dangerous people with a lethal grudge against them.

 

Threatened on all sides by betrayals, secrets, and the laws of the land, can they find a way to live and love before the past catches up with them?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

see if you can find a book with Jack, Lantern, Irish, Pumpkin, Turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets in the title.  You'd be surprised how many books you can find with rutabaga in the title on Amazon.  *grin*

I will look on my shelves - there's got to be a rutabaga book around here somewhere.

 

The idea of the word rutabaga being in the title makes me laugh. :lol:  I'm not even sure I know what a rutabaga actually is. :leaving:

 

I almost finished No Country for Old Men. Seriously, I had ten pages left when I started to feel sick last night. But now nobody else is home and the book is downstairs and I'm upstairs perfectly situated with the aforementioned heating pad and a cup of coffee supplied by DH before he took the kids to class. 

 

Did you manage to get to your last ten pages?

 

I'm still surprised at how much I loved that book. It's one I may have to re-read.

 

I'm still reading the same things I posted about last week, but added My Brilliant Friend (impatience got the best of me). 

 

Dh, ds, and I are heading out soon to see The Martian. Dh said he doesn't mind seeing it before he reads the book. He knows it will be a while before he gets to it and doesn't want to miss the movie on the big screen.

 

:lol:  about the Ferrante book. Looking forward to your review on it too. It's a series I want to read, but I keep putting it off....

 

How did you guys enjoy the movie?

 

And am almost done with 'Longitude' in Dutch.

 

Do you like Sobel's writing?

 

Plus two stretch books I never would have picked up if not for friends like Stacia - The Book of the Chameleon and The Story of my Teeth.

 

:D

 

Fluff was needed so I turned to a hit Swedish novel. (This is meant to raise an eyebrow since it seems that the more popular Scandinavian authors translated into English write chilling thrillers.)  The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared  is far from chilling.  It reads like a script to a Peter Sellers movie--very silly.

 

Ds really enjoyed that book & I think he like the author's second book even more, if I'm remembering correctly. (The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden)

 

Shawne, Stacia got me to watch the movie last year because I love most of Coben's books and I reread the book shortly after. They were an interesting combination....the movie is in French with subtitles and filmed in France. Much of the action takes place in Paris. That contrast alone makes for an interesting comparison to the book with it's New England setting.

 

That's interesting -- I didn't realize the book is set in New England.

[Lady Florida.]

Just beginning Far From the Madding Crowd. Far more readable than I remember from a failed attempt some years back. I think Tess of the d'Urbervilles had soured me on Hardy.

 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles. was my only Hardy for a long time and my reason for not wanting to read anything else of his. Far From the Madding Crowd, while not exactly uplifiting, is nowhere near depressing. There are even some chuckles along the way, thanks to the villagers.

 

I don't think I'll read anything else of his though. As far as I can tell the rest are just as depressing as Tess and I'd rather stop on what (for Hardy) might be considered a high note. 

[mumto2]

Interesting. I had The Martian on hold via Overdrive and as I was getting close to my turn, I started moving backwards in the queue. Went to the library, they were mystified. It was at that point I went to see the movie because I wasn't sure it would still be in theaters by the time I got my turn with the book. (And I still haven't gotten my turn.)

I wonder if it could be because of the ability to suspend your hold until ready to read. I have been experimenting with the Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries. I wait in normal hold until I am next in line and then suspend for a given number of days. When I remove the suspension I am back at next in line. On a popular book that could probably have a big effect.

 

I never reported on my completed books yesterday.....

 

A Trail Through Time, Jodi Taylor's St. Mary's Chronicles #4. Thi was an out of order read and I had a few problems figuring things out. Overall good. Fun series.

 

The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths series about archaeology prof Ruth Galloway #7. One of my favorite series and this one did not disappoint me.

 

My current read is titled the Killer Librarian by Mary Lou Kirwin. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13547379-killer-librarian. At first I thought this was a great cozy but at halfway through I am a bit bored.

[Loesje22000]

Do you like Sobel's writing?

 

.

Yes,

 

I read several neo-nazi, racism, WWII themed YA books last weeks,

and this was a welcome break.

 

There are more titels from Sobel available in Dutch, but not all are available in my Library...

[Stacia]

Yes,

 

I read several neo-nazi, racism, WWII themed YA books last weeks,

and this was a welcome break.

 

There are more titels from Sobel available in Dutch, but not all are available in my Library...

 

I can see how her book would be a nice break from such bleak topics.

 

I think Sobel's book Galileo's Daughter is an interesting one, if you happen to have access to it.

[Loesje22000]

I can see how her book would be a nice break from such bleak topics.

 

I think Sobel's book Galileo's Daughter is an interesting one, if you happen to have access to it.

That's the one I was looking for, but my local library doesn't have.

Not in the magasins nor the change collections.

I still have to found out how expensive IBL is here ( I think the abbreviation should be different, Inter Library Loansystem)

[idnib]

So, what did your dh think of it?

 

<snip>

 

 

One thing I've heard re: moving backward in the hold line.... If someone puts themselves on the hold list, they enter the line for the book. But, if they then 'suspend' their hold, they are temporarily removed from the list during the 'suspend' time. Once the 'suspend' time ends or the person removes the 'suspend' dates, they enter the line back where they originally were. So, it's like people waiting in line, someone steps out of line to run get something else, but another person there holds their place. Later, they come back & resume their original place in line.

 

DH really loved the movie but we didn't get much time to discuss. He had to be up very early so he basically came home, went to bed, and left while it was still dark.

 

Thanks for the tip about suspending holds. That sounds like the most plausible explanation, although I'm surprised the librarian didn't mention it.

 

The idea of the word rutabaga being in the title makes me laugh. :lol:  I'm not even sure I know what a rutabaga actually is. :leaving:

 

 

Did you manage to get to your last ten pages?

 

I'm still surprised at how much I loved that book. It's one I may have to re-read.

 

Believe it or not, I didn't get to the last 10 pages yet. I am trying to overcome a bad habit of leaving books unfinished when I don't want them to end. I think I'll go finish it while the kids do their math.

 

The work is just fantastic. If you try and explain the book it's too easy to get caught up in the plot and then it doesn't sound very good. It's a book best explained by discussing the writing itself and the meaning of the title, I think. The work really captures some of the things that have always happened in the world (what could be described as "evil") but it also touches on current political topics. Not to get too political, but when you contrast the "old-fashioned" view on gun control and policing with the more modern situation on the ground, you can see where some of the disconnect happens between different viewpoints.

 

The trajectories of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances, the idea that none of this would have come to pass if not for an (unnecessary) good deed, and the feeling of absolute relentlessness, makes this book one I'll read over again. I always feel like there are way too many books to get through and I'm a slow reader, so there are very few books I re-read these days but this is one of them.

[JennW in SoCal]

Just posting so I can find this thread when I have time to read it all.  63 posts already and its only mid-day on Monday?!!

 

Just paid full hard cover price for Elizabeth George's new book so I can go see her give a talk later in the week. Some of her recent titles have annoyed me, but I have a soft spot for the Inspector Lynley series because they were the first British police procedurals I read, and like the Grafton books, they've been part of my life for 20 some odd years now! 

[mumto2]

Just posting so I can find this thread when I have time to read it all. 63 posts already and its only mid-day on Monday?!!

 

Just paid full hard cover price for Elizabeth George's new book so I can go see her give a talk later in the week. Some of her recent titles have annoyed me, but I have a soft spot for the Inspector Lynley series because they were the first British police procedurals I read, and like the Grafton books, they've been part of my life for 20 some odd years now!

I don't think I have ever read the Inspector Lynley series but I plan to rectify that! I just put the first on hold.....Have fun at her talk. I really enjoy listening to most authors. I do like it better if I have read the books!

[KathyBC]

Just posting so I can find this thread when I have time to read it all.  63 posts already and its only mid-day on Monday?!!

 

Just paid full hard cover price for Elizabeth George's new book so I can go see her give a talk later in the week. Some of her recent titles have annoyed me, but I have a soft spot for the Inspector Lynley series because they were the first British police procedurals I read, and like the Grafton books, they've been part of my life for 20 some odd years now! 

A new Lynley book? Yay!

[Onceuponatime]

I decided to be done with Ghosts by Gaslight. I've read over 200 pages of its short stories, and that's enough. Today, I sped through Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Elliot. I read it because it was on a Mensa list. Some lines in the first section were very appropriate.

 

"Since golden October declined into somber November

And the apples were gathered and stored, and the land

became brown sharp points of death in a waste of

water and mud,

The New Year waits, breathes, waits, whispers in darkness."

[KathyBC]

Tess of the d'Urbervilles. was my only Hardy for a long time and my reason for not wanting to read anything else of his. Far From the Madding Crowd, while not exactly uplifiting, is nowhere near depressing. There are even some chuckles along the way, thanks to the villagers.

 

I don't think I'll read anything else of his though. As far as I can tell the rest are just as depressing as Tess and I'd rather stop on what (for Hardy) might be considered a high note. 

Just got a chuckle from this:

"It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way, but it has been known to fail." 

[Robin M]

 

Stoner easily earned a spot on my "Top 100 Shelf."

 

From my commonplace book (November 2010):

 

p. 26

He began to resent the time he had to spend at work on the Foote farm. Having come to his studies late, he felt the urgency of study. Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know.

 

 

COMMENT: How accurately this passage describes those who, like me, like William Stoner, arrive at the scholar’s banquet late: We resent any activity that keeps us from reading, thinking, learning, synthesizing, writing. And we are occasionally all but undone by the realization that there will never be enough time to read all that we want — all we must read.

 

________________________

p. 74

Within a month he knew that his marriage was a failure; within a year he stopped hoping it would improve.

 

 

COMMENT: In a sentence formed with the deceptive simplicity of a Shaker rocking chair, Williams establishes how Stoner’s inherited stoicism has and will inform his entire life — a life that the author maintains wasn’t “such a sad and bad†one, despite the ineffable melancholy the sentence above may evoke. After all, he continues in an interview about Stoner:

 

 He had a better life than most people do, certainly. He was doing what he wanted to do, he had some feeling for what he was doing, he had some sense of the importance of the job he was doing.

 

 

COMMENT: Yes, since William Stoner is a man of so few relationships, the failure of his marriage before it even begins presages how essential his work will be.

 

________________________

p. 113

He suspected that he was beginning, ten years late, to discover who he was; and the figure he saw was both more and less than he had once imagined it to be. He felt himself at last beginning to be a teacher, which was simply a man to whom his book is true, to whom is given a dignity of art that has little to do with his foolishness or weakness or inadequacy as a man. It was knowledge of which he could not speak, but one which changed him, once he had it, so that no one could mistake its presence.

 

 

COMMENT: The maturity, the wisdom of this self-realization and the quiet but essential way in which it strengthens Stoner will startle readers accustomed to the angsty navel-gazing that masquerades as penetrating insight in more contemporary novels.

 

________________________

p. 138

Almost from the first, the implications of the subject caught the students, and they all had that sense of discovery that comes when one feels that the subject at hand lies at the center of a much larger subject, and when one feels intensely that a pursuit of the subject is likely to lead — where, one does not know.

 

 

COMMENT: I’ve experienced this sense of scholarly delight, intensity, and, yes, urgency more frequently in my autodidactic pursuits and in our family-centered learning project than in my undergraduate and graduate studies.

 

________________________

p. 179

He had come to that moment in his age when there occurred to him, with increasing intensity, a question of such overwhelming simplicity that he had no means to face it. He found himself wondering if his life were worth the living; if it had ever been. It was a question, he suspected, that came to all men at one time or another; he wondered if it came to them with such impersonal force as it came to him. The question brought with it a little sadness, but it was a general sadness which (he thought) had little to do with himself or with his particular fate; he was not even sure that the question sprang from the most immediate and obvious causes, from what his own life had become. It came, he believed, from the accretion of his years, from the density of accident and circumstance, and from what he had come to understand of them. He took a grim and ironic pleasure from the possibility that what little learning he had managed to acquire had led him to this knowledge: that in the long run all things, even the learning that let him know this, were futile and empty, and at last diminished into a nothingness they did not alter.

 

 

COMMENT: This meditation occurs after Walker’s sham of a graduate examination and the repercussions of Stoner’s evaluation of his performance but before Katherine Driscoll’s re-entry into the professor’s life. Sandwiched, as it were, between these two defining moments in Stoner’s chronology, it may have read as midlife crisis and cliché had it not been for the stoicism and scholarly detachment with which Stoner examines and then dispatches the basic question of life: What does it all mean?

 

________________________

p. 232

And Stoner looked upon it all — the rage, the woe, the screams, and the hateful silences — as if it were happening to two other people, in whom, by an effort of the will, he could summon only the most perfunctory interest.

 

 

COMMENT: In other words, one’s stoicism not only yields penetrating self-evaluation but also diminishes the effects of emotional gales. Like any philosophy, stoicism has its limits and disadvantages, but Stoner manages to employ it effectively.

________________________

 

From “The Inner Lives of Men†(NYT, June 17, 2007)

 

This is the story of an ordinary man, seemingly thwarted at every turn, but also of the knotty integrity he preserves, the deep inner life behind the impassive facade.

 

 

 

 

 

Like your new look, doll!   :coolgleamA:    And your chapbook comments never fail to interest me and always strike a chord.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

Perhaps we can both read it even if Capote is not selected.

 

 

 

 

I'm in. So, In Cold Blood, The Winter's Tale, and The Gap of Time for November. Plus Catch-22 for my IRL group.  And now I want to read Stoner.  Plus a Philip K Dick marathon and a few series I'm supposedly reading with Shannon. I had better get reading!!!

[idnib]

I'm in. So, In Cold Blood, The Winter's Tale, and The Gap of Time for November. Plus Catch-22 for my IRL group.  And now I want to read Stoner.  Plus a Philip K Dick marathon and a few series I'm supposedly reading with Shannon. I had better get reading!!!

 

Great!!!

 

For November I think I'll read In Cold Blood, the Gaiman one with "Spindle" in the title (can you tell I'm feeling lazy?), and I'll finish House of Leaves. Not many books, but we have two trips coming up so I'll have my hands full.

[aggieamy]

Just posting so I can find this thread when I have time to read it all.  63 posts already and its only mid-day on Monday?!!

 

Just paid full hard cover price for Elizabeth George's new book so I can go see her give a talk later in the week. Some of her recent titles have annoyed me, but I have a soft spot for the Inspector Lynley series because they were the first British police procedurals I read, and like the Grafton books, they've been part of my life for 20 some odd years now! 

 

How cool!  In the 90's (wow - was it really that long ago?) I read all her books but then something changed and I was less interested in the later ones.  I would love to see her in person though.  I hope you have a splendid time.  

[KathyBC]

J.K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy covered similar ground to Elizabeth George's What Came Before He Shot Her, I thought. Did anyone else find that?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Great!!!

 

For November I think I'll read In Cold Blood, the Gaiman one with "Spindle" in the title (can you tell I'm feeling lazy?), and I'll finish House of Leaves. Not many books, but we have two trips coming up so I'll have my hands full.

 

The Sleeper and the Spindle. It's super short, won't take you more than 15 minutes to read. So you are probably good!

[Nan in Mass]

Nan is very grateful you are prereading the alligator book, Jane. It sounds perfect but many things do and I do not want any surprises right now.

[Pam in CT]

Aw, Nan.   :grouphug:

[JennW in SoCal]

Speaking of alligator stories, this caught my eye at the bookstore yesterday, and based on the reviews at both Goodreads and Amazon, I may be pre-reading this for Nan before long.  Jane's alligator book sounds like fun, too!

 

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam

[mumto2]

Speaking of alligator stories, this caught my eye at the bookstore yesterday, and based on the reviews at both Goodreads and Amazon, I may be pre-reading this for Nan before long. Jane's alligator book sounds like fun, too!

 

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam

That looks like a fun one! When I read the description I realized I did see one alligator regularly for a couple of months as a child in Florida, it lived in my friend's bathtub and was about a foot long. Her mother eventually tired of it and it was returned to wherever her father found it.

 

I had this one, Swamplandia, http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/133312784/swamplandia-a-haunted-alluring-phantasmagoria picked out and in the pile a couple of months ago. I have no idea what out theme was but something BaW made me check it out. I still mght read it. I had an alternate cover with just the gator which I think might be why I picked it for a weekly challenge.

[Stacia]

I've had Swamplandia on my radar/might read someday mental list that is filed in the nether-regions of my brain....

 

I finished Sir Richard Burton's King Vikram and the Vampire. It was an entertaining & unusual set of tales set within a larger storytelling framework. I found the intro & conclusion (which set the framework as to why the tales are being told) to be more interesting than the stories themselves. The vampire/baital is a tricky & fun narrator of these morality tales.

Although there are some footnotes & explanations, I still felt a little lost at points when there were references to Hindu deities & beliefs (about which I know very little). Still, it's a great immersion & peek into another culture with the help of Burton's eyes, ears, & translating skills.

Recommended reading for a variety of readers; probably required reading for fans of myth & folklore from around the world.

Well done, Sir Richard Burton.

 

P.S. Even though there is a vampire/baital as a main character/narrator of the stories, there really is no connection to Halloween-related reading or vampires as we know them here in the US. It is a folktale collection from ancient India.

 

Translated from the original Sanskrit by the noted Victorian Orientalist, Sir Richard Burton, these ancient Indian folk tales influenced such later works as 1001 Arabian Nights and Boccaccio's Decameron. As revealing today as they were in their own time, these stories will entertain and delight modern readers while illuminating the life and customs of classical India. This reprint from the 1893 limited edition contains 34 black-and‑white illustrations, including the frontispiece designed especially for that edition.

 

[Kareni]

I finished two books yesterday/last night ~

 

The first was a re-read of a contemporary romance --  The Genius and the Muse by Elizabeth Hunter -- which I read back in September of 2013.  I enjoyed revisiting it.

 

"When Kate Mitchell decided to research the mysterious portrait in the student gallery, she had no idea how her life would change. She thought she knew what she wanted in life. She had a great boyfriend, a promising career, and a clear path. How could one simple portrait change all that? A photograph. A sculpture. A painting. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave unexpected marks on her own future, too. And how, exactly, did she end up in an irritable sculptor's studio? One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story, and in the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art."

 

 

The second was the contemporary romance In the Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish which I also enjoyed.  A little online researching has revealed that this is the first book in a series; I will be on the lookout for more by this author.  (Significant adult content.)

 

"Daniel Mulligan is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in―not at home in Philadelphia with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates looked down on him. Now, Daniel’s relieved to have a job at a small college in Holiday, Northern Michigan, but he’s a city boy through and through, and it’s clear that this small town is one more place he won’t fit in.

 

Rex Vale clings to routine to keep loneliness at bay: honing his muscular body, perfecting his recipes, and making custom furniture. Rex has lived in Holiday for years, but his shyness and imposing size have kept him from connecting with people.

 

When the two men meet, their chemistry is explosive, but Rex fears Daniel will be another in a long line of people to leave him, and Daniel has learned that letting anyone in can be a fatal weakness. Just as they begin to break down the walls keeping them apart, Daniel is called home to Philadelphia, where he discovers a secret that changes the way he understands everything."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Kareni]

Bookish news ~ 

 

If you've ever wondered about those penny plus shipping books on Amazon:

 

From the New York Times, A Penny for Your Books

 

***

 

I haven't read this, but, Nan, it may well be your cup of tea ~

The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird by Tom Michell

 

"In 1975, twenty-three-year-old Englishman Tom Michell follows his wanderlust to Argentina, where he becomes assistant master at a prestigious boarding school. But Michell’s adventures really begin when, on a weekend in Uraguay, he rescues a penguin covered in oil from an ocean spill, cleans the bird up, and attempts to return him to the sea. But the penguin refuses to leave his rescuer’s side. “That was the moment at which he became my penguin, and whatever the future held, we’d face it together,†says Michell in this charming memoir.
 
Michell names the penguin Juan Salvador (“John Savedâ€), but Juan Salvador, as it turns out, is the one who saves Michell.
 
After Michell smuggles the bird back to Argentina and into his campus apartment, word spreads about the young Englishman’s unusual roommate. Juan Salvador is suddenly the center of attention—as mascot of the rugby team, confidant to the dorm housekeeper, co-host of Michell’s parties, and an unprecedented swimming coach to a shy boy. Even through the collapse of the Perónist government and amid the country’s economic and political strife, Juan Salvador brings joy to everyone around him—especially Michell, who considers the affectionate animal a compadre and kindred spirit.
 
Witty and heartwarming, The Penguin Lessons is a classic in the making, a story that is both absurd and wonderful, exactly like Juan Salvador."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[aggieamy]

Well, this is awkward. 

 

I just finished reading Take Off Your Pants!  Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Liibbie Hawker.  I didn't like it.  I thought it was overly complicated in parts and too simple in other parts. The author uses her own books as good examples of writing which came off as a little pretentious.  Overall I think there's a lot of other better books out there on outlining. 

 

I didn't hate it but I try to rate books honestly to help others know if this is a book they wanted to read. 

 

I went to Goodreads to add my review and read a few of the other two and three star reviews and then I read their comments.  Eek.  The author has replied to some of the comments aggressively and defensively.  I have never seen that done before.  It feels like bullying because I don't want to get into a detailed discussion with the author on how my review is wrong and it's a great system. 

[Stacia]

Well, this is awkward. 

 

I just finished reading Take Off Your Pants!  Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Liibbie Hawker.  I didn't like it.  I thought it was overly complicated in parts and too simple in other parts. The author uses her own books as good examples of writing which came off as a little pretentious.  Overall I think there's a lot of other better books out there on outlining. 

 

I didn't hate it but I try to rate books honestly to help others know if this is a book they wanted to read. 

 

I went to Goodreads to add my review and read a few of the other two and three star reviews and then I read their comments.  Eek.  The author has replied to some of the comments aggressively and defensively.  I have never seen that done before.  It feels like bullying because I don't want to get into a detailed discussion with the author on how my review is wrong and it's a great system. 

 

I would definitely label attacks on honest reviews as cyber bullying. I think one problem is that, ultimately, GR is run by amazon (whose goal is to sell books, putting them more squarely on the side of the authors). Not sure much, if anything, is done to prevent authors from doing that kind of stuff on there.

 

If you do want to post your review, you may want to block the author. Go to the author's page on GR & scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. There is a tiny link for "block this member". Doing so will...

 

This will prevent _____ from sending you messages or viewing your profile. _____ will not know you have blocked him/her—your profile will appear as if it was private. Also, messages on discussion boards from _____ will be hidden (though there will be a link to view it if you want to).

[Chrysalis Academy]

Goodness, that was awkward.  I do think one of the things an author needs to develop is a thick skin, don't you? Not everyone will like everything you write.

 

ETA: I also thought it was strange that people felt the need to justify low star ratings.  Meh, if I don't like a book, I give it one or two stars, depending on whether it was just bad, or really bad. More often I abandon a book that would come in at under 3 stars, unless I'm reading it for a book group or something.  But no matter what, why on earth should a person have to justify their ratings? To anyone, much less an author?

[Stacia]

Goodness, that was awkward.  I do think one of the things an author needs to develop is a thick skin, don't you? Not everyone will like everything you write.

 

ETA: I also thought it was strange that people felt the need to justify low star ratings.  Meh, if I don't like a book, I give it one or two stars.  Why on earth should a person have to justify their ratings? To anyone, much less an author?

 

I totally agree.

 

I think I've only ever heard back once from an author. I gave his book '3 grudging stars' in my review. He actually replied back (which made me feel a little awkward), but mostly he said 'thanks for posting/the feedback'. I didn't respond to him, though, even though he was polite. Didn't feel the need to further justify or explain my comments.

[Pam in CT]

Coming back around to Ta-Nehisi Coates - in an interview last week he shared his Essential Reading List -- interesting.  

[Stacia]

Coming back around to Ta-Nehisi Coates - in an interview last week he shared his Essential Reading List -- interesting.  

 

Thanks, Pam.

 

I just got notification that Balwin's The Fire Next Time is waiting on me at the library.

[Pam in CT]

and books...

 

Omeros, by Derek Wolcott - this was among Eliana's long list of recommendations last month.  This... defies characterization, other than "precipitated a Nobel Prize in Literature."  It's a seven book epic in three-line rhyming stanzas, whose interweaving narratives come back most often to a cast of modern-day characters in St Lucia, some of whom reference Iliad characters.  Other storylines loop to colonial-era Caribbean history, the roaming modern-day narrator, the roaming Homer in the ancient world, and -- I found these to be the most heartbreaking of them all -- a series before/during/after the Middle Passage slave journey.

 

In Search of Bernabe, by Graciela Limon - carrying on with my Central American project. The author was among an investigatory delegation that interviewed Salvadorans following the assassinations in 1990 of six Jesuit priests.  This is a fictionalized/composite version of some of the stories she heard.  The writing is a bit uneven at times but it's worth reading for the history and insights into that awful period in El Salvador's history.  Which isn't really over.

 

Under a Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania, by Haya Leah Molnar.  Another of Eliana's recommendations, for R for Romania... a coming-of-age memoir.  For the first third, the child narrator (it reads more like a novel)/memoirist does not know that her family is Jewish.  Then they apply for exit visas to emigrate to Israel and everything falls apart -- both parents are promptly fired, money becomes extremely tight, contacts with neighbors become strained, and yet... years pass.  Again the writing is a bit uneven but again worth it.

 

A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute.  Stacia recommended this, for Australia.  A WWII occupation/POW/unlikely love story, which starts in Malaya, dips briefly over to England, and resolves ultimately in Australia.  It reminded me a good bit of Agnes Newton Keith's memoir Three Came Home, which for some reason (?) I read repeatedly as a child (I know, explains a lot, huh.).  Anyone ever come across this?  

[Guest]

I want to try to talk, at least briefly, about the books I read before our grandbaby's surprise arrival and the ones I've finished since... before I feel hopelessly behind!

 

Some stand outs:

 

The Folly (thank you, ibnib!): From what I'd read about the book, I expected to experience it very differently than I did.  I expected to find Nieuwenhuisen charismatic and inspiring, to see the building as aspirational, representative perhaps of  utopian dreams and to see Mr as moving from humdrum, ploddingness to investment in a (utopian?) dream... instead I saw a manipulative charlatan and a self-deluded man seeing only his own wants and needs while trampling over those of his wife.  ...and in her I saw powerlessness and sadness... I found it powerful and compelling, and more important a story than the one I expected to experience... how easily we can lose ourselves in self-serving delusions while the world (in this case literally) is burning around us... And how easily we can focus on our own self-actualization while squashing the personhood of our nearest and dearest.  Dreams (utopian or otherwise) and faith (religious or otherwise) should expand our awareness, our compassion, our sphere of action, not contract it. 

 

 

The Twin (another Archipelago Press publication): An enigmatic tale of complicated relationships and the working through of suppressed grief, anger, resentment, and aspiration.

 

Invisible Cities: Enigmatic doesn't even begin to cover this one... I enjoyed the Polo-Kublai exchanges, but it is the cities that kept me coming back... and the questions they raised, about life, about narrative, about how we perceive reality... and then the sense that there was at least one other layer I was missing (the city names all being women's names?  the sense that everything was really describing Venice (but I don't know enough about Venice to pick up on the connections)) I am bumping Calvino further up my TBR lists...

 

3 Penelope Lively books (though none I loved the way I did Consequences):

 

The Photograph: A masterful depiction of the complicated, somewhat dysfunctional relationships of a woman with her husband, sister, and a few others... told entirely from the other sides, and after her death.  

 

Moon Tiger: I think I would have appreciated this more if I hadn't read Walton's My Real Children first... because this hit some similar buttons for me, but MRC did it better.  ...but still a brilliant book, of less moving than others of hers.

 

How It All Began: this read more like popular fiction than Lively's other books have... it lacks some of the vividness and insightfulness of her other books... but it still quite good.

 

 

Dashing madly out the door... more about books later.

 

A quick life update: my grandbaby might be coming home **today**.  We are all blown away... and so excited. More about that later too...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pam in CT]

Welcome home, Eliana's grand baby!   :party:

[Stacia]

:grouphug: , Eliana. Hope your granddaughter gets to join everyone else at home today! What exciting news!

[idnib]

The Sleeper and the Spindle. It's super short, won't take you more than 15 minutes to read. So you are probably good!

 

Thanks! 

 

I stopped by the local bookstore today and picked up In True Blood so I'm set. Also ended up getting The Girl With All the Gifts based on a recommendation from the clerk. Because The Sleeper and the Spindle is so short I guess I'll add the new book to November.

 

I also ended up buying a hard copy of The Martian. After all my angst about the library queue and whether it was even worth it after having seen the movie, DH was happy to have the hard copy. Much teeth gnashing could have been prevented had I thought to consult the other adult in the house. 

[Stacia]

Believe it or not, I didn't get to the last 10 pages yet. I am trying to overcome a bad habit of leaving books unfinished when I don't want them to end. I think I'll go finish it while the kids do their math.

 

The work is just fantastic. If you try and explain the book it's too easy to get caught up in the plot and then it doesn't sound very good. It's a book best explained by discussing the writing itself and the meaning of the title, I think. The work really captures some of the things that have always happened in the world (what could be described as "evil") but it also touches on current political topics. Not to get too political, but when you contrast the "old-fashioned" view on gun control and policing with the more modern situation on the ground, you can see where some of the disconnect happens between different viewpoints.

 

The trajectories of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances, the idea that none of this would have come to pass if not for an (unnecessary) good deed, and the feeling of absolute relentlessness, makes this book one I'll read over again. I always feel like there are way too many books to get through and I'm a slow reader, so there are very few books I re-read these days but this is one of them.

 

Just had to quote you because I so agree with your post (re: No Country for Old Men).

 

Fantastic, relentless.... Yes. Just yes.

[Angel]

From last week...

 

We all know that Angel SECRETLY loves Slaughterhouse-Five. I mean, she keeps posting about how it is better than other books. :hurray:

 

 

I find Vonnegut an amazing writer because his work is almost surprisingly simple to read, so succinct -- a master of ironic understatement. Yet his observations are profound, his satire razor sharp. I think he's one of America's great contemporary writers and someone that everyone should read at least once (even if he's not your normal cup of tea).

:lol: Quoting Pride & Prejudice (the movie) "You think that Jane if it gives you comfort."   :lol:  Let's consider what I was comparing Slaughterhouse-Five to lol!  Profound and razor sharp satire would not be the first adjectives to come to mind for Vonnegut.   :laugh:

 

Kindle got charged and I finished The Death Cure.  It was the best of the three books.  There were things that bothered me and were just not well written.  The two major death scenes were really anticlimatic.  I expected much more out of the first one since my daughter cried and cried over it and then refused to pick the book back up for 2 or 3 weeks.  There were a couple twists and turns I wasn't at all expecting, though, so that made it more fun to read.

Our dd's may have the same taste in books!!  I don't know if I liked The Death Cure best, though the last quarter of the book was really good, maybe because I finally knew who was on whose side and what the whole thing was about in the first place  :laugh: I was disappointed in the death scene as well, and by the fact that the author killed that character at all.  That character being the only one through the books that I could truly say I liked.  

 

Eliana, so glad the baby is doing so well!!  That's wonderful news!

 

I'm rereading The Magician's Nephew along with Aly for her Worldview class at co-op, and I'm reading the newest Michael Vey book now that Aly and dh are finished with it.

[Violet Crown]

I totally agree.

 

I think I've only ever heard back once from an author. I gave his book '3 grudging stars' in my review. He actually replied back (which made me feel a little awkward), but mostly he said 'thanks for posting/the feedback'. I didn't respond to him, though, even though he was polite. Didn't feel the need to further justify or explain my comments.

This is one of the advantages of sticking to dead authors.

 

Though I once sent an e-mail to a publisher complaining about the lousy editing of their edition of The Bostonians, which was so typo-ridden as to be in places unreadable; only to receive a grumpy response saying they were not responsible for errors in the books they published and that I must contact the author with any complaints. I replied saying that Henry James was not responding to my e-mails, but heard nothing back from them.

[Stacia]

This is one of the advantages of sticking to dead authors.

 

Though I once sent an e-mail to a publisher complaining about the lousy editing of their edition of The Bostonians, which was so typo-ridden as to be in places unreadable; only to receive a grumpy response saying they were not responsible for errors in the books they published and that I must contact the author with any complaints. I replied saying that Henry James was not responding to my e-mails, but heard nothing back from them.

 

:smilielol5:

 

[Lady Florida.]

As I often do, I let this thread get away from me. I was going to multi-quote but I read through it first and am now too lazy to go back. So -

 

idnib - I hope you feel better by now. Food poisoning is nasty. 

 

Jane - I love that mask!

 

Eliana - What wonderful news!

 

Stacia - We all really liked The Martian. I do put this in the rare "movie is better than the book" category. As for My Brilliant Friend, I'm really enjoying it but so far am puzzled at all the accolades. It's good but not outstanding IMO. Maybe I'll have a different view once I finish it.

 

Amy - That was awkward. She really ripped into that one reviewer. I think professionalism divides true authors from wannabes. 

 

I probably forgot a few others I wanted to respond to.

 

 

[Stacia]

From last week...

 

:lol: Quoting Pride & Prejudice (the movie) "You think that Jane if it gives you comfort."   :lol:  Let's consider what I was comparing Slaughterhouse-Five to lol!  Profound and razor sharp satire would not be the first adjectives to come to mind for Vonnegut.   :laugh:

 

 

 

:lol:

 

Ah, it's always fun sparring with you, Angel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

I finished Slaughterhouse Five today and will grudgingly admit it was powerful. I do think it was a product of its time though. This quote from the book (about fictional author Kilgore Trout) sums up my feelings about it.

 

"His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good."

 

 

I've had 2 audio books on hold at the library and wouldn't you know, both came in the same day - Brave New World and the non-fiction Sapiens. I listened to a bit of each, and so far Sapiens is winning. 

[Stacia]

Stacia - We all really like The Martian. I do put this in the rare "movie is better than the book" category. As for My Brilliant Friend, I'm really enjoying it but so far am puzzled at all the accolades. It's good but not outstanding IMO. Maybe I'll have a different view once I finish it.

 

Glad to hear the movie was a hit. I think I enjoyed the book just a wee bit more, but the movie was fun too, imo.

 

Let me know your final view on My Brilliant Friend. We seem to have similar taste in modern literary novels, so I'm looking forward to your comments.