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Wow! Sometimes people recommend something to me & I do end up reading it... YEARS later. :lol: But, I do get to it. Eventually. Usually.

 

Which Saramago are you reading again? I read All the Names years ago & enjoyed it. I think that may be the only Saramago I've read.

 

 

Generally if I have room I check the book out or put it on hold right away. When it hits my account it normally sits for at least a week in the stack. At some point after that I read a couple of pages. If I don't say I read it fairly quickly I probably quietly gave up! Onr thing BaW has taught me is how to sift through a pile!

 

I'm reading The Elephant's Journey. It's a historical retelling he did of an elephant's journey back in the 1500's from Lisbon to Vienna. I have never read any of his other books. It is interesting but I am not finding it as quick a read as I was hoping for. The huge eye confusing paragraphs are slowing me down along with busy days. I truly am reading it for the E in Garnet. I thought I had it with Hillbilly Elegy but I am not sure if I started it in 2016. I threw my E and N out and went hunting for new books because of start dates. I have a fluffy historical for N so thought I would read something more literary for E. No biggie except I wonder what I will be readin next December to find a vowel!

  • Like 16
Posted (edited)

So, for an Overdrive ebook, if I click on the screen it will tell me how much % of the book I've read, so it's easy to know where I am.

 

Can anybody tell me if there is a similar feature for an Overdrive audiobook?  I'm listening to Age of Innocence, and I have absolutely no idea how far i've gotten and how far there is to go, and for some reason that's frustrating me... (enjoying the book, though).

Edited by Matryoshka
  • Like 11
Posted (edited)

So, for an Overdrive ebook, if I click on the screen it will tell me how much % of the book I've read, so it's easy to know where I am.

 

Can anybody tell me if there is a similar feature for an Overdrive audiobook?  I'm listening to Age of Innocence, and I have absolutely no idea how far i've gotten and how far there is to go, and for some reason that's frustrating me... (enjoying the book, though).

 

You should be able to pull up the details (what that looks like will depend on your device) and see how much time is left. It will show you all the parts and chapters and tell you how much time is in each chapter - or sometimes it tells you the total time in the part. That's the only way to really know how much time is left. I usually glance at all the times left and just estimate a total.

 

I've noticed that how the book is broken up is different depending on the book. Some books that were really audio cd's show up differently than one that was recorded as an mp3 audio book. Also the chapters don't always match. When you hear the narrator say "Chapter 5" it doesn't necessarily show you're on Chapter 5 if you look at the details.

Edited by Lady Florida.
  • Like 15
Posted (edited)

Another book to add to the list of novels without quotation marks... The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee. I picked it up during that Kindle sale of Goodreads Award winners around Christmas and pulled it up to read the first chapter when I was up with the baby the other night. So I guess it really is a thing now, not using quotation marks? But - why? Is it supposed to make the action more immediate or more embedded in the story? If so, I'm not sure it works that way for me. It doesn't bug me enough to want to put down the book, but I have to admit that it's somewhat disconcerting. And it just feels ... purposeless.

 

I'm still undecided about The Queen of the Night for other reasons, though. It's about opera and I am quickly finding that it would be helpful if I knew a little more about opera than I do, which is approximately almost nothing.

 

I am feeling a little overwhelmed by all the books I have to choose from right now.

 

Hope everyone who is sick or recovering from or awaiting surgery feels better soon. We had a bout of RSV here last week with the 3 year old (no ER visit thankfully) and it seems to manifest as a middling cold in the other kids.

 

VC, I just sent my 20 yo back to college for the semester and I know how you feel! He'll be traveling for spring break and we won't see him again until Easter... which seems a long time off.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Angelaboord
  • Like 19
Posted (edited)

You should be able to pull up the details (what that looks like will depend on your device) and see how much time is left. It will show you all the parts and chapters and tell you how much time is in each chapter - or sometimes it tells you the total time in the part. That's the only way to really know how much time is left. I usually glance at all the times left and just estimate a total.

 

I've noticed that how the book is broken up is different depending on the book. Some books that were really audio cd's show up differently than one that was recorded as an mp3 audio book. Also the chapters don't always match. When you hear the narrator say "Chapter 5" it doesn't necessarily show you're on Chapter 5 if you look at the details.

 

Darn.  I had figured that out, but it makes me do lots of math.  This current book, for example, has over 30 chapters of wildly uneven length.  The ebooks just have a nice little bar that pops up and says 'you're at X%' when I press the screen, not 'add 30-something numbers together, then add up all the times of the chapters to where you are now every time you want to figure out where you're at, and then divide'.  That is not straightforward. :grumpyface:  Guess my only audiobook updates are going to be when I finish the book...

Edited by Matryoshka
  • Like 12
Posted

Finds of the day: 

 

13 Extra Long Books to Read While you Wait for Spring   (I've read 4 so far) 

 

Sumito Yamashita claims 156th Akutagawa Prize

 

20 Sci Fi and Fantasy books with a Message of Social Justice

 

70 Books recommended by TED Talk speakers to make you feel hopefull

 

MWA Announces the 2017 Edgar Nominations

 

 

 

 

And because I've tortured, err enticed you to spend way too money on books or added to your already overflowing wishlists: 

 

 

 

From Me to You

 

You know when you start to read

The books on your shelf tend to breed.

They expand your horizon

And fill your house by the dozen.

 

Fiction, nonfiction, poetry and essays,

Dive in and let yourself play.

Imaginary and not so imaginary worlds fill your mind.

Real life gets left behind!

 

It’s never too late

Let thoughts cogitate and marinate.

A debate, a discussion

Oh my…a literary concussion!

 

So grab a cat, a cup, a cozy chair,

Never mind about your hair.

Ignore the day and set yourself free,

Blessed be with much love --- me! 

  • Like 17
Posted

Mumto2, what is the December gem? Topaz? Turquoise?

 

I'm probably not doing any of the birthstone challenges (or maybe only during my birthday month). But, looking at my bookshelf here by my desk, some vowel books that could be used for any of the birthstone challenges:

 

The Infiltrator

The Iron Wyrm Affair

Into Thin Air

The Art of Forgery

The Elementals

American Gods

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Journey to Ixtlan

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine

Cloud Atlas

The Crossing of Antarctica

No Country for Old Men

The Origin of Species

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

 

From my funky curled wall bookcase:

An Instance of the Fingerpost

A General Theory of Oblivion

Sakhalin Island

Autonauts of the Cosmoroute

John Dies at the End

The Tales of Uncle Remus

All My Puny Sorrows

 

From my library books:

In the Orchard, the Swallows

Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds

 

Not all of these may fit re: page count & such. It's interesting to me that "E" seems to be the hardest vowel to find in a title (at least among the ones I have here).

Thanks guys! The E problem has been a bit of a surprise to me. I really thought I would be able to do it out of my stacks for the most part for a few months then move into my wish list. Because of availability issues I ended up going through a new books listing to find The Elephants's Journey. I'm not planning an quitting the challenge but it did become more of a big challenge. Originally I had been going to do the stone in the title each month and consider myself done! Than I decided to do it every way and up my game for some unknown reason. I am just so grateful that it's any word in the title because I have read several of the E books from that list! The challenge is actually fun for me, sorry I'm probably moaning and whinging too much. But a 205 page book really shouldn't take me this long! ;)

  • Like 11
Posted

Darn. I had figured that out, but it makes me do lots of math. This current book, for example, has over 30 chapters of wildly uneven length. The ebooks just have a nice little bar that pops up and says 'you're at X%' when I press the screen, not 'add 30-something numbers together, then add up all the times of the chapters to where you are now every time you want to figure out where you're at, and then divide'. That is not straightforward. :grumpyface: Guess my only audiobook updates are going to be when I finish the book...

In Overdrive Listen my fire shows the number of minutes left (and completed) on one of the screens. I have that one constantly up while listening, also what chapter I'm on.

  • Like 11
Posted (edited)

I finished my third book, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.  It was an excellent insight into a world that I really knew nothing about.  I have read the history of Apartheid and post-Apartheid, but the day-to-day reality of a mixed-race child there was hard to believe.  I'm in awe of what Mr. Noah has made of his life and in awe of his mom, the true hero of the story.

 

This, from a NYT review, sums it up:

By turns alarming, sad and funny, his book provides a harrowing look, through the prism of Mr. Noah’s family, at life in South Africa under apartheid and the country’s lurching entry into a postapartheid era in the 1990s.

 

 

I listened on audiobook, which was wonderful because his narration of his own story brought it to life.  

 

It did have one disadvantage, which provides my only complaint about the book: The chronology was confusing.  I think if I had had the book, I would have realized earlier that it is a collection of stories.  Sometimes there is information repeated, so in general, each story stands alone.  One may end in high school, and then the next will start in some random place in childhood to set the next scene.  It made me crazy until I realized they were independent stories.  This was made worse by each story being preceded by a brief intro making a point and leading into the story.  They would definitely make the story more meaningful, but in audiobook the words announcing the new chapter were spoken at the beginning of the actual story "Chapter 2 - Born a Crime," after the intro.

 

So in the text you have 

Intro-The title of the Chapter-Chapter Body

New Page-Intro-The title of the Chapter-Chapter Body

 

 

But after the first chapter in audio book you have

Announcement of new Chapter- Chapter Body-Intro (for next chapter, which seemed a random tangent closing that had nothing to do with the story you were following)  

Announcement of new Chapter- Chapter Body-Intro (for next chapter)  and so on...

 

It was confusing for the first third of the book until I figured it out (but I'm pretty new to audiobooks, so slow on the uptake.)  If you listen on audiobook, check out the "look inside" for the first chapter on amazon to see the format.  I imagine you'll catch on much faster than me.

 

Definitely a 5-star listen for me, despite the hiccup.

 

Edited by Joules
  • Like 14
Posted (edited)

I just realized that Debut Author is on Bingo!  I have my first square with Trevor Noah's book.  :-)

 

Does Selected by a Friend have to be a non-relative?  Ds19 recommended NPCs for me.

Edited by Joules
  • Like 13
Posted

Finds of the day: 

 

13 Extra Long Books to Read While you Wait for Spring   (I've read 4 so far) 

 

Sumito Yamashita claims 156th Akutagawa Prize

 

20 Sci Fi and Fantasy books with a Message of Social Justice

 

70 Books recommended by TED Talk speakers to make you feel hopefull

 

MWA Announces the 2017 Edgar Nominations

 

 

 

 

And because I've tortured, err enticed you to spend way too money on books or added to your already overflowing wishlists: 

 

 

Some great books on these lists, Robin, thanks! My overflowing wishlist indeed thanks you. I was especially pleased to see that Jane Steel is nominated for an Edgar Award. It was one of my favorite reads last year.

 

I finished my third book, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.  It was an excellent insight into a world that I really knew nothing about.  I have read the history of Apartheid and post-Apartheid, but the day-to-day reality of a mixed-race child there was hard to believe.  I'm in awe of what Mr. Noah has made of his life and in awe of his mom, the true hero of the story.

 

This, from a NYT review, sums it up:

 

I listened on audiobook, which was wonderful because his narration of his own story brought it to life.  

 

It did have one disadvantage, which provides my only complaint about the book: The chronology was confusing.  I think if I had had the book, I would have realized earlier that it is a collection of stories.  Sometimes there is information repeated, so in general, each story stands alone.  One may end in high school, and then the next will start in some random place in childhood to set the next scene.  It made me crazy until I realized they were independent stories.  This was made worse by each story being preceded by a brief intro making a point and leading into the story.  They would definitely make the story more meaningful, but in audiobook the words announcing the new chapter were spoken at the beginning of the actual story "Chapter 2 - Born a Crime," after the intro.

 

So in the text you have 

Intro-The title of the Chapter-Chapter Body

New Page-Intro-The title of the Chapter-Chapter Body

 

 

But after the first chapter in audio book you have

Announcement of new Chapter- Chapter Body-Intro (for next chapter, which seemed a random tangent closing that had nothing to do with the story you were following)  

Announcement of new Chapter- Chapter Body-Intro (for next chapter)  and so on...

 

It was confusing for the first third of the book until I figured it out (but I'm pretty new to audiobooks, so slow on the uptake.)  If you listen on audiobook, check out the "look inside" for the first chapter on amazon to see the format.  I imagine you'll catch on much faster than me.

 

Definitely a 5-star listen for me, despite the hiccup.

 

Thanks for explaining this - at your suggestion I decided to listen to this book and am in line for the audio now. I appreciate the heads up about the structure - we've talked about audio books vs print books before, and one of my criteria for a successful audio book is one that doesn't jump around chronologically too much - that can be hard to follow if you aren't able to flip back and forth in an actual physical book. Sounds like this one will work so long as you understand that they are separate stories.

  • Like 13
Posted

You know how they say Texans *really* love Texas?  It's a real thing.  There's a saying "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could."  That's me.  I'm not Texan.  I'm from Maryland.  But I LOVE Texas.  I seriously, big, puffy heart, love Texas.  And specifically San Antonio.  I really, really, really love San Antonio.  I am so proud of the Alamo it's ridiculous.  It probably helps I'm related to Jim Bowie so it's extra special.  Anyway, so why am I saying this?  I'm slowly plodding my way through Texas by Michener.  It's enormous.  And yesterday I reached the point where it started talking about San Antonio de Valero.  The Alamo.  And I get all proud of my city and state.  Texans are weird.

  • Like 17
Posted (edited)

Finds of the day: 

 

13 Extra Long Books to Read While you Wait for Spring   (I've read 4 so far) 

 

 

I love long books! I added a few to my tbr-list, and placed an order for Benjamin Strange & Mr. Norrell Thank you! :huh: :lol:

I'm two weeks into this challenge and have already ordered three books because of you all: Norwegian Wood, The Night Circus, and this one.

 

Another book to add to the list of novels without quotation marks... The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee. I picked it up during that Kindle sale of Goodreads Award winners around Christmas and pulled it up to read the first chapter when I was up with the baby the other night. So I guess it really is a thing now, not using quotation marks? But - why? Is it supposed to make the action more immediate or more embedded in the story? If so, I'm not sure it works that way for me. It doesn't bug me enough to want to put down the book, but I have to admit that it's somewhat disconcerting. And it just feels ... purposeless.

 

It does bug me enough to put the book down. I remember reading Lila, by Marilynne Robinson and I think (not sure, maybe it was something else) she does the same. I did finish it, but decided there and then not to pick up another book by her.

Edited by SpreadingtheFeast
  • Like 16
Posted (edited)

"There is special providence in the fall of the sparrow."  --Hamlet

 

I finished The Beak of the Finch last night.  Upon explaining the procedure the Grants undertook to assess how much their finches were eating, my husband looked at me and said "that seems as exciting as watching paint dry."  I assured him this book was thankfully not written that way.  This has been on my TBR list forever, so I am grateful that so many of you have read it recently as it goaded me to do so too.

 

"The closer you look at life, the more rapid and intense the rate of evolutionary change.  The farther back in time you stand, the less you see."

Edited by fastweedpuller
  • Like 17
Posted

Darn.  I had figured that out, but it makes me do lots of math.  This current book, for example, has over 30 chapters of wildly uneven length.  The ebooks just have a nice little bar that pops up and says 'you're at X%' when I press the screen, not 'add 30-something numbers together, then add up all the times of the chapters to where you are now every time you want to figure out where you're at, and then divide'.  That is not straightforward. :grumpyface:  Guess my only audiobook updates are going to be when I finish the book...

 

Yes, it annoys me. I listen on my phone and haven't found any other way to figure out time left. I don't usually update my audio books on Goodreads. I just mark when I finish.

  • Like 15
Posted (edited)

It looks like it needs an app.  You can put them on a Fire, but not an eink Kindle.

Thanks. 

 

You should be able to pull up the details (what that looks like will depend on your device) and see how much time is left. It will show you all the parts and chapters and tell you how much time is in each chapter - or sometimes it tells you the total time in the part. That's the only way to really know how much time is left. I usually glance at all the times left and just estimate a total.

 

I've noticed that how the book is broken up is different depending on the book. Some books that were really audio cd's show up differently than one that was recorded as an mp3 audio book. Also the chapters don't always match. When you hear the narrator say "Chapter 5" it doesn't necessarily show you're on Chapter 5 if you look at the details.

On my phone it shows me the total time and has a time bar counting down. As it counts down it shows how much time has passed and how much is left for the entire book not just parts. I always know how many hours or minutes are left by just looking at the time bar, and it shows automatically as the book is playing. 

 

Your post has confused me because that is not what is displayed when I listen to an audio book on Overdrive. 

 

Speaking of audio books I need some easy funny brain candy as this cold takes hold of me. So I started listening to The Funny Thing Is by Ellen DeGeneres. I must warn you all that for your own safety do not listen to this book while applying mascara. I almost took my eye out when I started laughing.

Edited by Mom-ninja.
  • Like 16
Posted

In Overdrive Listen my fire shows the number of minutes left (and completed) on one of the screens. I have that one constantly up while listening, also what chapter I'm on.

 

Sigh.  Guess that's what I get for being too cheap to buy another device.  I've just got my Android phone - the Overdrive app for that apparently has way less features...  but hey, it's free, so I guess I shouldn't complain. :)

  • Like 14
Posted

On my phone it shows me the total time and has a time bar counting down. As it counts down it shows how much time has passed and how much is left for the entire book not just parts. I always know how many hours or minutes are left by just looking at the time bar, and it shows automatically as the book is playing. 

 

Your post has confused me because that is not what is displayed when I listen to an audio book on Overdrive. 

 

 

Huh.  Do you have an iPhone, perchance?  I can't find any such feature on my Android (I think it's a 5?)

  • Like 11
Posted (edited)

No, I have an Android. It's a Moto X from three years ago.  

 

I just went back and checked because I thought maybe I'm wrong and I'm seeing the time for each part as opposed to the whole book. So I went to Overdrive and looked at the duration of the audio books I have downloaded right now and the time matches the time bar that shows at the bottom.

 

I have no idea what is different with my phone or if I did anything to get the time bar to show.  

Edited by Mom-ninja.
  • Like 14
Posted (edited)

No, I have an Android. It's a Moto X from three years ago.

I have a Samsung. Wouldn't the apps be the same if they're both Android? Where do you get this to come up??

 

Okay, I went and looked again too after your edit. There is a time bar at the bottom as I play, but I thought it was for the chapter, since that's what's displayed right above it, but the times don't make sense, and maybe it is for the whole book? I hadn't been paying attention to it, since I thought it was for just the chapter or section, and I'm not really paying attention to the screen while it's playing (I'm usually driving). If that's it, it still doesn't give me a percent, but I could guesstimate more easily than doing the adding and dividing chapters nightmare . ..

Edited by Matryoshka
  • Like 13
Posted

From Me to You

 

You know when you start to read

The books on your shelf tend to breed.

They expand your horizon

And fill your house by the dozen.

 

Fiction, nonfiction, poetry and essays,

Dive in and let yourself play.

Imaginary and not so imaginary worlds fill your mind.

Real life gets left behind!

 

It’s never too late

Let thoughts cogitate and marinate.

A debate, a discussion

Oh my…a literary concussion!

 

So grab a cat, a cup, a cozy chair,

Never mind about your hair.

Ignore the day and set yourself free,

Blessed be with much love --- me! 

 

This is just perfect.  I love it. 

 

You know how they say Texans *really* love Texas?  It's a real thing.  There's a saying "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could."  That's me.  I'm not Texan.  I'm from Maryland.  But I LOVE Texas.  I seriously, big, puffy heart, love Texas.  And specifically San Antonio.  I really, really, really love San Antonio.  I am so proud of the Alamo it's ridiculous.  It probably helps I'm related to Jim Bowie so it's extra special.  Anyway, so why am I saying this?  I'm slowly plodding my way through Texas by Michener.  It's enormous.  And yesterday I reached the point where it started talking about San Antonio de Valero.  The Alamo.  And I get all proud of my city and state.  Texans are weird.

 

I was born in Kansas City but my family moved to San Antonio while I was in high school and I went to college in Texas ... I guess that's a little obvious with a title like "aggie" amy.  I now live back in Kansas City and I have such fond lovely memories of Texas.  And such a pride in it still.  My parents are now in Pennsylvania but they still tell people that my brother is a Texan and my son (born/adopted from Texas) is a Texan. Probably just in case you guys secede and we need to establish a connection or something.  :laugh:

 

MIchener .. that's impressive.  Have you read any of his other books?

  • Like 16
Posted

I have a Samsung. Wouldn't the apps be the same if they're both Android? Where do you get this to come up??

 

Okay, I went and looked again too after your edit. There is a time bar at the bottom as I play, but I thought it was for the chapter, since that's what's displayed right above it, but the times don't make sense, and maybe it is for the whole book? I hadn't been paying attention to it, since I thought it was for just the chapter or section, and I'm not really paying attention to the screen while it's playing (I'm usually driving). If that's it, it still doesn't give me a percent, but I could guesstimate more easily than doing the adding and dividing chapters nightmare . ..

Yes, that's it. No percent but it shows time left of the book. 

  • Like 10
Posted

MIchener .. that's impressive.  Have you read any of his other books?

 

No, this is the first.  My mom is always recommending them to me.  She loves his stuff.  I'm planning to read Alaska as well.  My brother lives in Alaska and feels a bit about it the way I feel about Texas.

  • Like 14
Posted

I have a Samsung. Wouldn't the apps be the same if they're both Android? Where do you get this to come up??

 

Okay, I went and looked again too after your edit. There is a time bar at the bottom as I play, but I thought it was for the chapter, since that's what's displayed right above it, but the times don't make sense, and maybe it is for the whole book? I hadn't been paying attention to it, since I thought it was for just the chapter or section, and I'm not really paying attention to the screen while it's playing (I'm usually driving). If that's it, it still doesn't give me a percent, but I could guesstimate more easily than doing the adding and dividing chapters nightmare . ..

 

I have a Samsung too, and the app would be the same for all android phones. I just went and looked and now I see the total time left. 

 

My complaint has been with Goodreads, not Overdrive or Audible. They offer page number and percent in the progress section, but I wish they also had time (hours?) for audio books. I've mentioned it to them more than once, whenever they ask for suggestions before the next update.

  • Like 12
Posted (edited)

No, this is the first. My mom is always recommending them to me. She loves his stuff. I'm planning to read Alaska as well. My brother lives in Alaska and feels a bit about it the way I feel about Texas.

Alaska people are just a different breed. I lived in Montana for a time and former residents of Alaska would go on and on about the state. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating Jack London's "To Build a Fire" in -20 degree Fahrenheit cold (-29 Celsius), thinking happy thoughts of beach and the Gulf of Mexico.

Edited by ErinE
  • Like 16
Posted

I'm reading Sigrid Undset an Appraisal in Christian Realism by A.H. Winsnes. Undset is a wonderful Norwegian writer who won the Nobel prize in (I think) 1923 for Kristen Lavransdatter. This book is the first critical study I've seen of her. It was published in 1949- I just found it at the used book store!! and seemingly has been in someone's basement since then- it's very musty! Worth reading, though. I put it under the sunlamps for a bit, which did help.

  • Like 15
Posted

No, this is the first. My mom is always recommending them to me. She loves his stuff. I'm planning to read Alaska as well. My brother lives in Alaska and feels a bit about it the way I feel about Texas.

I read Texas over thirty years ago, after I married dh, who grew up in San Antonio. He insisted we go there on our honeymoon. Texas still feels like a foreign country to me. Dh has lived away from it twice as many years as he lived there, but he is still from Texas. Unfortunately I can't remember much about the book at all.

 

I also read Michener's Hawaii. Before I had kids, big books didn't scare me. 😉

  • Like 17
Posted

I read Texas over thirty years ago, after I married dh, who grew up in San Antonio. He insisted we go there on our honeymoon. Texas still feels like a foreign country to me. Dh has lived away from it twice as many years as he lived there, but he is still from Texas. Unfortunately I can't remember much about the book at all.

 

I also read Michener's Hawaii. Before I had kids, big books didn't scare me. 😉

Space was my favorite.  I used to love Michener's books.

 

Before I had kids....I was looking at Bingo and noticed the "Bestseller Written in Child Birth Year."  I looked up ds's birth year and I was saying, "Check, check, check..."  I'd read so many of them.  The years after that, just a few, mostly Harry Potter.

  • Like 15
Posted

A currently free Kindle book (today only) ~ Roderick Hudson by Henry James

 

"A gifted American artist finds fame, fortune, and tragedy in Europe in this classic tale.

Working in obscurity, sculptor Roderick Hudson finds a generous patron in Rowland Mallet, an art aficionado so captivated by the young man’s work, he offers to take Hudson with him to Europe. Mallet soon falls in love with Miss Mary Garland, a distant cousin of Hudson’s who lives with the family and tends to his aging mother. Unfortunately, Hudson has already proposed to Mary.
 
In Rome, Hudson’s unparalleled talents bring him accolades and admiration, placing Mallet in a confounding predicament when his protégée begins to entertain women other than Mary, including a beauty betrothed to a prince. Two serious and potentially devastating love triangles form as Hudson struggles to balance his artistic pursuits with his insatiable lust for life.
 
Part tragedy, part love story, Roderick Hudson is one of the finest novels ever written about art and an inspiration for many a classic bildungsroman, including James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."

**

 

I finished a pair of books yesterday.  The first one was a re-read, the second was the sequel which I'd not read previously. I enjoyed them both.  These are male/male romances.  (Adult content)

 

 

Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

 

and

 

Us (Him Book 2)  by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

 

Regards,

Kareni

  • Like 11
Posted (edited)

Literary bliss! Yesterday was the first meeting of the Junior Great Books discussion group I organized for half a dozen young ladies, aged 13-16, and it went off swimmingly. They dug through and discussed the ideas they had found in good and careful readings of three Chekhov short stories, with an intelligence and maturity that would have done an undergrad seminar proud. Next month, Sophocles!

 

Meanwhile, our library discard store had a bonanza of fifty-cent books, where I picked up-

 

Christopher Isherwood, Down There on a Visit

Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818 text!)

St Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings

Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities

Dylan Thomas, Adventures in the Skin Trade & Other Stories

Jacques Barzun, Darwin, Marx, Wagner

D. H. Lawrence, Selected Poems

Herbert Spencer, Essays on Education

Giovanni Verga, The House by the Medlar Tree

Goethe, Elective Affinities

Dostoevsky, Best Short Stories

H. R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

Aristophanes, The Wasps, The Poet and the Women, The Frogs

Cicero, De Finibus (Loeb edition!)

 

Must ... read ... faster....

 

ETA: Also a trove of Alcott for Middle Girl, who likes everything LMA wrote except Little Women.

Edited by Violet Crown
  • Like 20
Posted

Woot! I finished another book.

 

The Circle by Dave Eggers

 

I enjoyed this one, it was a quick book. It was easy to read and had me constantly pausing to think more about our current digital and social life, what it means and doesn't mean. I would have enjoyed reading with someone else so we could discuss these issues. I am trying to get my oldest to read it so I can talk about it some more.

 

Next up - either the nonfiction books impatiently waiting for my attention or the Underground book I picked up.

 

I'll have to review due dates and what has holds and then decide.

  • Like 15
Posted

Literary bliss! Yesterday was the first meeting of the Junior Great Books discussion group I organized for half a dozen young ladies, aged 13-16, and it went off swimmingly. They dug through and discussed the ideas they had found in good and careful readings of three Chekhov short stories, with an intelligence and maturity that would have done an undergrad seminar proud. Next month, Sophocles!

 

 

 

One of my favorite parts of parenting is doing book clubs with DD (and eventually DS).  I'm always so pleasantly surprised by how brilliant and insightful these kids can be.  Sounds you got a great group of girls!

  • Like 15
Posted

I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro for my IRL book club. I didn't have any idea what it would be like going in. I certainly didn't expect what I got. That was wierd and uncomfortable. The story was told in first person and you have to pay attention, read between the lines, and piece things together, just like other books of his that I've read. I don't want to imagine a world like that depicted in the story as being possible. What makes his stories so unnerving to me is the feeling of emotional detachment that the narrators portray with their words, yet belie with the account of their actions.

  • Like 14
Posted

Help, Help!! Has anyone seen my kindle?  Last seen in its usual place. Now its gone!  Shall I file a missing kindle report? Will the police find it as urgent as I?

 

Anyway, I findished a few books!  Currently, enjoying Pillars of the Earth on Audio and reading The stranger that you seek, or was rather, its on the lost kindle

  • Like 15
Posted (edited)

Finished The Caliph's House earlier today. It never really took off for me and I found it difficult to connect with the narrator but it held my interest enough to see it through to the end. Not sure what I'm going to read next. I've got a few possibilities mainly in the myth/fantasy realm. Still listening to The Palace of Illusions and thoroughly enjoying it. Ds and I are listening together. He knows the stories of the Mahabharata inside and out having grown up with his father reading William Buck's translation of them to him, then reading the Amar Chitra Katha graphic books and then watching it,

, on youtube. He says the author sticks to the story and he's really enjoying it.  Edited by shukriyya
  • Like 16
Posted

Alaska people are just a different breed. I lived in Montana for a time and former residents of Alaska would go on and on about the state. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating Jack London's "To Build a Fire" in -20 degree Fahrenheit cold (-29 Celsius), thinking happy thoughts of beach and the Gulf of Mexico.

Is that the story where the guy goes out on his own and snow lands on his matches and he gets hypothermia?

  • Like 11
Posted

Is that the story where the guy goes out on his own and snow lands on his matches and he gets hypothermia?

Yes, except he gets hypothermia and dies. Here's the link.

 

https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-build-a-fire.pdf

 

Growing up in the southern US, I'd never experienced cold like Montana (a northwestern US state that shares a border with Canada), never owned a true winter coat, never owned boots required to keep your feet warm. And I'd sit at a table with people who'd lived in Alaska (which is far northwest of Montana) and they'd reminisce fondly about living there.

  • Like 10
Posted

Finished The Caliph's House earlier today. It never really took off for me and I found it difficult to connect with the narrator but it held my interest enough to see it through to the end. Not sure what I'm going to read next. I've got a few possibilities mainly in the myth/fantasy realm. Still listening to The Palace of Illusions and thoroughly enjoying it. Ds and I are listening together. He knows the stories of the Mahabharata inside and out having grown up with his father reading William Buck's translation of them to him, then reading the Amar Chitra Katha graphic books and then watching it, all 94 episodes, on youtube. He says the author sticks to the story and he's really enjoying it. 

 

We're up to episode 20. 

 

Much binge watching to go...

Posted

Yes, except he gets hypothermia and dies. Here's the link.

 

https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-build-a-fire.pdf

 

Growing up in the southern US, I'd never experienced cold like Montana (a northwestern US state that shares a border with Canada), never owned a true winter coat, never owned boots required to keep your feet warm. And I'd sit at a table with people who'd lived in Alaska (which is far northwest of Montana) and they'd reminisce fondly about living there.

Yep that was one pretty bleak story. I vaguely remember one about a Oija board session with that I found super creepy during my Jack London binge...

  • Like 9
Posted

A currently free Kindle book (today only) ~ The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol

 

"Five tragicomic tales from the visionary writer heralded by Vladimir Nabokov as “the greatest artist that Russia has yet producedâ€
 
A midlevel bureaucrat in the czar’s administration, Poprishchin is hurrying to work when he sees a woman step out of a carriage. Her beauty astounds him, and as she passes by, he hears something impossible: Her dog opens its mouth, and begins to speak. It is Poprishchin’s first step on the road to insanity, a journey that will take him into the depths of hell—and raise him up to the heights of emperors and kings.
 
“Memoirs of a Madman†is one of Nikolai Gogol’s definitive short works, a satire of the excesses of czarist bureaucracy told with wit, empathy, and his signature blend of the real and surreal. Other highlights in this indispensable volume include the haunting title story and “The Nose,†an absurdist masterpiece."

**

 

a cozy mystery ~  Gunpowder Chowder (A Hooked & Cooked...  by Lyndsey Cole

 

a young adult fantasy ~ Golden Blood (Time Spirit Trilogy Boo...  by Melissa Pearl

 

 
Regards,
Kareni

 

  • Like 11
Posted

We're up to episode 20. 

 

Much binge watching to go...

 

You're in for a treat. Apparently all of India would 'shut down' each week the episode came on, banks, shops, and the like all quiet for the hour of the show. The Palace of Illusions is the Mahabharat told from Draupadi's pov which makes for a different take on things. Very well done!

  • Like 12

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