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Book a Week 2017 - BW6: Pick a book by the cover


Robin M
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Earlier I finished B N Toler's Where One Goes which had my husband enquiring from the other room about all the sniffling and nose blowing he was hearing.  Can you say tear jerker?  I enjoyed the book despite my tears.

 

 

"What happens when the very thing ruining your life ends up saving it?

I was never one to believe in spirits—until six years ago, when a bone-chilling accident changed my life…forever.

My name is Charlotte, but most people call me Char…and I have a special gift.

I talk to the dead.

Make no mistake, I can’t summon them. I’m only able to see and speak to the spirits that linger when they’re unable to crossover. They’re somehow weighted to the world with unfinished affairs. And for the last six years, I’ve relentlessly used my gift to help their lost souls.

But it’s come at a price. My life is dark. Feeling despondent, I’ve begun to give up. And in helping the dead, I’ve realized I haven’t allowed myself to live. With no money, no place to go, and most importantly… no hope, I’ve decided there is only one option—to end it all.

But fate is a funny thing. One minute, I’m about to leap to my death, and the next, I’m saved by Ike McDermott. The strong, striking soldier stopped me from putting an end to my despair. He’s the kind of man that smiles and brightens an entire room.

Sweet and gentle.

He is my savior.

And he’s dead.

We’ve made an agreement. He’ll help me find a place to stay and a new job if I’ll help him with his unfinished business so that he may crossover.

Ike’s unfinished matter involves his twin brother, George. George has been falling apart since Ike’s death and Ike has not been able to compel himself to crossover in peace until he knows George will be okay.

When I agreed to help, little did I know that I’d fall in love with the charming folks of Bath County, and…Ike and George McDermott.

Now, as both brothers own equal parts of my heart, I am faced with a cruel and unfair predicament. In saving George, I must let go of Ike.

But how does one let go of half of their heart?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I missed posting last week and am only partway through this thread. I had a long post about Euphoria disappear into the ether. I'm not sure I'm up for recreating it, so I think I will create an abbreviated version in another post here.

 

 

That's the one! I figured somebody would remember it. Funny what sticks in your mind - one word, starts with E - and what falls right out.  Unfortunately having read the blurb and seen that some BaWers only gave it 3 stars, I'm not convinced. I do like the cover though.

 

 

I'll write a blurb about it soon, but I get the feeling you would not enjoy the first part of the book, but probably the second half.

 

I'm in a bit of a reading slump, partly due to stressful life events, and partly due to not really enjoying the books I started. I was initially really excited to read Euphoria; I had several friends in grad school who'd done their fieldwork in New Guinea, and I'd planned (at the time) to work in another part of Melanesia (Tonga). So I'd read quite a lot about Melanesian cultures. Knowing it was based on the lives of Mead and Bateson, I assumed it would end in vaguely the same way their lives did. Then, when I was partway through it, I accidentally discovered that my assumption was mistaken, and now I can't bring myself to finish it.  :sad: 

 

If you're attached to the original outcome of events, it's probably a really good decision to not finish the book.

 

 

 

Re: Lady Gaga. I love Lady Gaga and thought the halftime show was terrific.  (I also enjoyed the Schuyler sisters from Hamilton singing at the start of the game, but then I have Hamilton fever.) Gaga very outspoken and interesting, with the real talent to back it up. Here's a fun video of her singing The Lady is a Tramp with Tony Bennett.

 

 

 

 

Argh! Atlanta! Hang in there!

Eta: Wah! Sorry that Atlanta lost.

 

I'm no fan of Tom Brady, but he's like the ocean--never turn your back on him! He is essentially a football machine in human form.  I was rooting for Atlanta, but I did notice their younger players getting cocky way too early in the game. 

 

I also think it might be time for reading glasses. I've been doing all sorts of odd tricks in order to be able to read. I've used reading lights or sitting in direct sun to brighten the pages. I've been tilting the books in multiple directions in order to see the print better; first I tilt the top half of the page then I tilt the bottom half of the page. I wanna cry. I know it's silly but this is the first time I've felt like I'm getting old.

 

 

I might need glasses too, but am somewhat in denial. My mom and I have the same eyes, and I'm 2 years older than she was when she got glasses. Lalalala I'm sticking my fingers in my ears.

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We are fine, just wet! Just when thought I'd gotten over the crud, along comes the croupy cough. Pobably result of our wet weather. Maybe, maybe not. Now I sound like Lauren Bacall. However don't feel so sexy. Har! har!

 

Finished my first birthstone, yeah! Amethyst is daunting but giving it a go. Dove into dusty book - Robert Charles Wilson's Axis, the 2nd book in his science fiction Spin series.

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We are fine, just wet! Just when thought I'd gotten over the crud, along comes the croupy cough. Pobably result of our wet weather. Maybe, maybe not. Now I sound like Lauren Bacall. However don't feel so sexy. Har! har!

Finished my first birthstone, yeah! Amethyst is daunting but giving it a go. Dove into dusty book - Robert Charles Wilson's Axis, the 2nd book in his science fiction Spin series.

 

Glad "y'all" are feeling better! Sounds like what we had back in November. I have only finished one of my T's in Amethyst. So I have quite a ways to go also. It's one of this weeks projects because I have a few in the stack that need to be returned also.

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Book #16: The Key of Kilenya by Andrea Pearson.  It's the first book of a middle grade fantasy series I got free ages ago.  I bought the entire series because the first one was that good.  My boys LOVED it.  A 14 year old gets chased into a tree which leads to another world and then he goes on a quest by the Makalos to retrieve the missing key from the evil Lorkon.  Really imaginative book.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm always looking for ideas for my picky 12yo ds. My library doesn't have them, but the first three in the series are free on Amazon as a kindle box set!! 🙌

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I finished At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. It was a great read. Bakewell has a jaunty, conspiratorial writing style, that draws you into her world and initiates you into the gang. It was a wonderful place to be. I took notes, asked questions, debated with myself, and then ran out and bought Jean-Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness, and put Martin Heidegger's Being and Time on hold at the library. Can't wait to get started.

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I finished a book today. It was one of the free Kindle First books for February, Signature Wounds by Kirk Russell.

It was okay. It was a slow moving FBI crime drama. 

 

What I am finding out is that the selections offered by Kindle First are just not top shelf; not necessarily drivel but not NYT Best Sellers either.

 

I'm going back to The Underground Railroad and hope to finish it by next Sunday. The weather here has been back in the 40's and I am feeling a touch of Spring fever. The call of hiking and biking may get the best of me but I'll keep trying to find a few minutes each day to read.

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Lots of good suggestions for book/movie ideas - can't wait to float some of them at book club this week.

 

I finished In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner last night.  A fictionalized semi-memoir of a young girl during the Khmer Rouge occupation of Cambodia.  I was really struck by the tactics the Khmer Rouge used - sowing lies (the Americans are coming to bomb you - get out of the city!), separating families, constantly moving people from place to place, ensuring that people did hard physical labour even if there was no point to it etc. - and how effective they were at creating chaos and terror and numbness.  But I was also struck by the resilience of people - that even if your relatives disappeared or died and you were starved and beaten and forced to experience countless atrocities, you could still find your way to believing that you could escape and that there would be a way to transform yourself and the world around you into something positive.  

 

 

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As brutal as the book was, I could still get through it. (And I loved it. It's an amazing book. Another one of my favorites.) I know the movie is great, so many have told me so. But, I'm not sure I can watch it.

 

 

And besides... The haircut. I just don't understand the haircut. Can I watch an entire movie with that haircut?  :confused1: :ack2: :lol:

 

I do love Tommy Lee Jones, though. I may have to buckle down & watch it.

 

(Watching all these movie trailers tonight makes me want to go back & read all these books.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re: No Country for Old Men . . . I get it, and far be it from me to pressure somebody to watch something they might find too brutal. I am notorious for abandoning books and walking out of movies if they are too much for me. But in this case, the movie is so much like the book - no extra, egregious gore, just exactly what was written - that if you could handle the book, you can probably handle the movie. And it's just a brilliant movie.

 

And the haircut!! Totally authentic! It's the southwest/cowboy mullet. I have seen that exact haircut on uncles, greatuncles, cousins, etc. all my life.

 

I've been thinking more about Cloud Atlas, book vs. movie - I think I'll definitely want to treat them as two separate, only loosely connected events. Because I think that in the book, you don't have to commit to any particular theory about how the characters are connected.  There is the birthmark, and there is an external connection via a document or film in each case. You don't have to buy into the literal transmigration of souls for it to work. Whereas it seems like in the movie, with the same actor playing multiple roles, (and from the voice over in the trailer) it seems like they are trying to imply this kind of literal connection.   I'm definitely going to watch the movie.

 

I started reading Half of a Yellow Sun, but I think I need to track down an audio version. I enjoyed the audio of Americanah so much, and I feel like already there are nuances that I'm missing in reading the book but not hearing the accents. I do think it will be a great one, though.

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Re: No Country for Old Men . . . I get it, and far be it from me to pressure somebody to watch something they might find too brutal. I am notorious for abandoning books and walking out of movies if they are too much for me. But in this case, the movie is so much like the book - no extra, egregious gore, just exactly what was written - that if you could handle the book, you can probably handle the movie. And it's just a brilliant movie.

 

 

 

I saw the movie and because of the movie I won't be reading the book. I could "handle" the movie - I just really, really, disliked it. Dh didn't like it either and since we were watching it at home we could have stopped if only we had communicated. It was one of those situations where each of us kept watching because we thought the other wanted to continue. It's rare that we both really dislike a movie. No Country for Old Men was one. Pulp Fiction (I know, I know. I've been told countless times.) was another.

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I finally finished By Gaslight this morning!!!!!! It took forever because I couldn't seem to read it if I had any distractions at all. feelings about this book went up and down throughout reading it. I was feeling quite positive at the end and gave it a four.

 

I also finished the latest Stephanie Plum book Turbo Twenty Three which has been my insomnia book for the past few nights. I still find the series entertaining but if you've read a couple not much new happens.

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A currently free Kindle book, one day only ~

 

Tutt and Mr. Tutt  by Arthur Train  (published in the 1920s)

 

"America’s wisest and kindliest lawyer tackles a series of impossible cases—and wins

Ephraim Tutt, Esq., never met a hard luck story he didn’t like. The rare lawyer happy to forego his fee, Tutt specializes in defending the downtrodden against the powerful and the corrupt. In Manhattan and his hometown of Pottsville, New York, he argues cases involving murder, forgery, and theft, always finding some arcane legal point to save the day—much to the chagrin of the prosecution. In this delightful collection, Tutt brings his sharp mind and genial wit to bear on the cases of the “Mock Hen and Mock Turtle,†the “Hepplewhite Tramp,†the “Lallapaloosa Limited,†and many others.
 
Based on author Arthur Train’s experiences working in the offices of the New York District Attorney, Tutt and Mr. Tutt is a must-read for fans of legal mysteries."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I saw the movie and because of the movie I won't be reading the book. I could "handle" the movie - I just really, really, disliked it. Dh didn't like it either and since we were watching it at home we could have stopped if only we had communicated. It was one of those situations where each of us kept watching because we thought the other wanted to continue. It's rare that we both really dislike a movie. No Country for Old Men was one. Pulp Fiction (I know, I know. I've been told countless times.) was another.

 

I always just assume that when I say something like "It was a brilliant movie" everybody understand it comes with "IMHO," right?  

 

Says the girl who abandoned By Gaslight, didn't love The Remains of the Day, and liked Death Comes to Pemberly . . .  ;)  :D

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How are all our CA women & families doing with all the rain & flooding???

 

Stay safe! :grouphug:

 

We are really, really tired of all the rain but embarrassed to complain because we've just survived a multi-year drought.  Plus live in a place with one of the mildest pleasantest winters in the country.  OTOH . . . dh is under the house today, trying to dig a sink a sump pump because our soil is so saturated we have standing water under the house, threatening our brand new hardwood floor with mildew and other unpleasant side effects. All my neighbors have sumps going in their basement, hoses running to the street, it's quite the little river running down. We're quite close to the river but out of the flood zone, but the ground is so super-saturated down deep that not another drop will sink in. And another storm coming next week.

 

But we have the problems of the fortunate. I sure as heck wouldn't want to be living downstream of Oroville dam right now. Anybody up that way?

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Concerning B N Toler's Where One Goes

 

 

 

I just checked my Amazon account, and it appears that I can lend this book. When you're ready to read it, let me know and you can be my first guinea pig loan recipient.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

Awesome, I'd be delighted and will let you know. Thanks!

 

💋

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Well, guess who's sick? All my kids are on the mend, and I felt myself sliding down the black hole of illness yesterday as the day progressed. I've taken 4 doses of Sambucol so far. I don't have a fever. I just feel like I have a head cold at this point. Hopefully, it stays there and does not get worse. Putting my hope into Sambucol! You know I don't feel well when the thought of doing a burpee makes me feel like my head might explode. I have lots of books here and lots of tea plus people to bring it to me. 

 

 

Maybe I'll unwrap my Blind Date. Only when your blind date is a book would you show up while sick. 

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Well, guess who's sick? All my kids are on the mend, and I felt myself sliding down the black hole of illness yesterday as the day progressed. I've taken 4 doses of Sambucol so far. I don't have a fever. I just feel like I have a head cold at this point. Hopefully, it stays there and does not get worse. Putting my hope into Sambucol! You know I don't feel well when the thought of doing a burpee makes me feel like my head might explode. I have lots of books here and lots of tea plus people to bring it to me. 

 

 

Maybe I'll unwrap my Blind Date. Only when your blind date is a book would you show up while sick. 

 

Ugh! Sorry about that. The last time all of us had the flu, ds was 5 years old. He got sick first, then me, then dh. By the time he was on the mend and active again, dh and I had the full blown flu. Not fun. :grouphug:

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Re: Goodreads & book covers.

 

If you look under the details area about the book (publisher, page number, etc...), one of the choices is "Other Editions". Click on that & it will bring up a list of all the editions of that book that are linked/entered in Goodreads. To me, that's a good way to find the version I'm looking for (esp. if the book is older & doesn't have an ISBN or something like that).

This is how I find out what the title is in Dutch.

Somehow Dutch translators don't translate booktitles but rename the translated book.

They do it less with translations from French or German.

So 'The night with the blue moon' might become 'the chicken on the roof' or something else totally different then the original title, most often we have different cover too.

So I love this goodread feature!

 

But I'm feeling better now.

Ready to read books again,

And ready for the Hygge crochet Cal :)

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Well, guess who's sick? All my kids are on the mend, and I felt myself sliding down the black hole of illness yesterday as the day progressed. I've taken 4 doses of Sambucol so far. I don't have a fever. I just feel like I have a head cold at this point. Hopefully, it stays there and does not get worse. Putting my hope into Sambucol! You know I don't feel well when the thought of doing a burpee makes me feel like my head might explode. I have lots of books here and lots of tea plus people to bring it to me. 

 

 

Maybe I'll unwrap my Blind Date. Only when your blind date is a book would you show up while sick. 

 

 

Ugh! Sorry about that. The last time all of us had the flu, ds was 5 years old. He got sick first, then me, then dh. By the time he was on the mend and active again, dh and I had the full blown flu. Not fun. :grouphug:

 

Passing around sickness is awful!  I think it was last year at this time that DS got sick, then I got sick, then DS got sick again, the DH, and then me again.  It was a good six weeks of someone being sick and at times there was overlap.  Awful.  (DD never got sick though!) 

 

Hope you get feeling better.  I can't wait to hear how your blind date is!

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An interesting list: 100 Must-Read Modern Classics

 

 

I think Jane will be happy to note that the first book on the list is one by Barbara Pym.

 

I bet if all the BaWers looked through the list, between all of us, every book on that list will have been read at least by one person here....

Thanks for sharing this list!

I only read five so far :blush:

But it contains some interesting but unknown titles for me

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This is how I find out what the title is in Dutch.

Somehow Dutch translators don't translate booktitles but rename the translated book.

They do it less with translations from French or German.

So 'The night with the blue moon' might become 'the chicken on the roof' or something else totally different then the original title, most often we have different cover too.

So I love this goodread feature!

But I'm feeling better now.

Ready to read books again,

And ready for the Hygge crochet Cal :)

Our hardcover books almost always have different covers and occasionally different titles. Because I am super visual I was coming home with stacks of books where I had read every single book. For a couple of years I concentrated on free kindle books and Agatha Christie (I hadn't read many) because of this. Goodreads has been wonderful because of this. BaW also because I started hunting in new directions.

 

Looking forward to hearing about the hygge crochet along. Craftwise I'm not very productive currently. Hopefully that will change soon.

 

Mom Ninja :grouphug:

 

I spent an embarrassingly long time today organizing my wish lists for my libraries. I now have the next book showing for many of the series I have in progress. I am hoping this will make the birthstone spelling challenges much easier. It was a surprise to discover that many have that previously hard to find E!

 

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Well, guess who's sick? All my kids are on the mend, and I felt myself sliding down the black hole of illness yesterday as the day progressed. I've taken 4 doses of Sambucol so far. I don't have a fever. I just feel like I have a head cold at this point. Hopefully, it stays there and does not get worse. Putting my hope into Sambucol! You know I don't feel well when the thought of doing a burpee makes me feel like my head might explode. I have lots of books here and lots of tea plus people to bring it to me. 

 

 

Maybe I'll unwrap my Blind Date. Only when your blind date is a book would you show up while sick. 

 

I swear by the combination of echinacea and elderberry syrup taken at the first sign of symptoms, and then 3x a day for ~4 days. I've headed off countless upper respiratory infections that way. I seem to be nipping this one pretty close to the bud (knock on wood) using that technique right now, although a night spent tossing and turning on the hardwood floor in a sleeping bag beside my puking 10 year old may set me back a bit . . . man, the floor is definitely harder than when I was younger. And makes me achier.

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Well, guess who's sick? All my kids are on the mend, and I felt myself sliding down the black hole of illness yesterday as the day progressed. I've taken 4 doses of Sambucol so far. I don't have a fever. I just feel like I have a head cold at this point. Hopefully, it stays there and does not get worse. Putting my hope into Sambucol! You know I don't feel well when the thought of doing a burpee makes me feel like my head might explode. I have lots of books here and lots of tea plus people to bring it to me. 

 

 

Maybe I'll unwrap my Blind Date. Only when your blind date is a book would you show up while sick.

 

Sorry! Hope others around you take over chores and bring you tea.

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