Book a Week 2017 - BW22: Bookish notes and birthdays

[JennW in SoCal]

Thank you for the compliment!

But you all don't see the posts I delete because I can't get my thoughts wel enough written in English...

 

I don't consider my English as 'great' but it becomes better with the years.

I hope to reach that level of English I can post without rewriting each sentence three times before posting :), 

 

I edit, delete and retype lots of my posts, too. Your command of the language is really good, and look forward to having you along for W&P!

 

I finished reading The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit this morning.  I was pre-reading it for Adrian for next school year.  It was okay.  It was very, very, very dated and it made it quaint I suppose, but not especially enjoyable.  It had a nice ending.

 

Railway Children was a favorite book of mine from childhood. In fact, I think I still have the copy I got from one of those Scholastic Books sales. My boys and I listened to it, and saw a nice BBC adaptation -- a recent adaptation. I thought it held up really well & my boys enjoyed it. My youngest went on to read almost everything by E. Nesbit. 

[Lady Florida.]

I finished When Breath Becomes Air for book club. I was thinking our meeting is Tuesday because it's usually the first Tuesday of the month, but then remembered we changed it to the second Tuesday this month. I can't post a review on Goodreads until after our meeting. Well, we don't have a rule against it but most of us prefer not to because we want the discussion to be fresh. When I do review it I'll probably give it two stars.

 

It's well written but not something I would have chosen to read on my own. I thought it would be similar to Being Mortal, but it's really a personal memoir. It was interesting. I learned some things about medical school, doctors, and surgeons. His choices were his and not necessarily what someone else with cancer would choose. I don't know if it would inspire someone who has a terminal disease but maybe it would. 

 

I just didn't find it compelling. I thought the epilogue written by his widow was more moving than the rest of the book. 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[Robin M]

No no no! I think the scheduled read-along and discussion will work just fine. Kathy and I are doing it as a re-read, so the experience will be very different for us anyway. This is a benign monarchy -- the reason why BaW is so successful and long-lasting, if you ask me -- and it's entirely appropriate for you to channel the general War & Peace interest in an organized fashion. I really think we should do both approaches.

 

Robin, I've stayed quiet all day long because I wanted to let other people have a chance to read and comment but I would love it if we have a stated goal for the week and a discussion of sorts early in the week. Your plan sounded pretty perfect to me. :) I hope you will consider posting the chapter divisions each week as you suggested and any other ideas would be welcome. I know I need them and if I am understanding what others are saying I have company. ;) I don't think any of us newbies to War and Peace feel comfortable leading, I know I don't. I'm hoping that with stated weekly goals maybe we can manage a reasonable discussion each week. We obviously will occasionally be in the same place as some of our other readers so hopefully others will pop in and out.

 

 

:iagree:  This all sounds great to me. :)

 

 

:iagree: as well. I thought your plan seemed quite doable.

 

 

Yes. This. I definitely need some guidance in how to divide up W&P.

 

 

I agree. I'll reread it at my pace, but will happily join in any discussion if there's an official read along.

 

Totally understand now, will have plenty of time and scheduling for the 18th to post and begin.  Cleaned off my plate for the summer and the universe decided it needed to be filled back up again.   :lol:   The building won't be done until at least the end of summer - still in process of having everyone and his uncle reviewing the architectural drawings before the contractor can get to work. Gotta love California and all their wonderful regulations.    

[Chrysalis Academy]

I am also grateful to you, Robin, for helping guide the reading pace, that makes this behemoth feel more doable!

 

I am causing some backaches to my librarians by ordering each and every translation our library owns so I can compare them myself. So far I compared the Pevear and the Briggs translations, and surprised myself by liking the Briggs better. I did study French in high school and was even fairly fluent at one point - I spent a couple of summers there. But that is lo, these many years ago, so I'm ok with having the French part showing up in English. But that wasn't the clincher - it was the word choice. Pevear has much longer and more complex words, and while I don't oppose that as a matter of principle, I kind of figured that for 1350 pages, I might be ok with a little simpler semantics. Also the print is a bit larger, so I can cope with it without my reading glasses. Not the most erudite bases for comparison! I may swap Briggs out for a different one, but I'm going to choose based entirely on readability, I think.

 

Is there a consensus on translators in the group, or are we all over the place? It doesn't matter one way or the other, I was just curious!

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Nan in Mass]

My mother asked me to please tell all of you who are reading W&P to pick a translation that allows you to identify with the characters. She blames her dry translation for her trouble getting through it. (She is an English major who reads for hours every day, so for her to have trouble is unusual.)

 

Nan

[Chrysalis Academy]

Hey, I got to meet Eliana today!!!! She is completely awesome & we had a great time.

 

(Notice we are in a bookstore, lol. Eliana on the left, me on the right.)

 

Not sure if my link will work correctly, but hopefully....

 

http://rs930.pbsrc.com/albums/ad146/Stacia-photos/IMG_1886.jpg?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

 

 

Lucky both of you!!! I think of Eliana often and miss her participation here.  And I'm dying to meet you some day, Stacia!

[Matryoshka]

Is there a consensus on translators in the group, or are we all over the place? It doesn't matter one way or the other, I was just curious!

 

Well, I can't speak for the group :) but after reading those blogs and also having compared translations for Anna Karenina, I'm leaning toward the Garnett (which I chose for AK), but I also ordered copies of the Maude and Briggs to compare.  I also looked at the Pevear for Dr. Zhivago (as well as AK), and I've decided I'm not fond of them, so for me they're out.  Too literal; a very literal translation can miss a lot.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Matryoshka

[Lady Florida.]

Hey, I got to meet Eliana today!!!! She is completely awesome & we had a great time.

 

(Notice we are in a bookstore, lol. Eliana on the left, me on the right.)

 

Not sure if my link will work correctly, but hopefully....

 

http://rs930.pbsrc.com/albums/ad146/Stacia-photos/IMG_1886.jpg?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

 

Cool! Thanks for sharing the photo. I hope you told her she's missed here at BaW.

[Kareni]

Hey, I got to meet Eliana today!!!! She is completely awesome & we had a great time.

 

(Notice we are in a bookstore, lol. Eliana on the left, me on the right.)...

 

What fun!  I'm glad to hear that you had a fine time and happy to learn that Eliana is well.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Angelaboord]

Checking in before catching up on the thread...

 

:grouphug: & :laugh: , Angela.

 

Hoping tomorrow is better (& that everyone is feeling better too).

Thanks [emoji5]. Most everybody seems to be on the mend now, although Abby is bringing up the tail end with an ear infection and my dh is now in the coughing stage. I still don't have a stove but I did finish a book! Granted it was a graphic novel that I read in about an hour or so, but I did enjoy it. [emoji2]

 

Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson -- National Book Award finalist and also, I believe, actually a webcomic. Nimona is a shapeshifter who talks her way into becoming the sidekick of Lord Ballister Blackheart, supervillian. Cool pseudo-medieval world where people stand in line to deposit treasure chests of gold at the bank. Nobody is really what they seem to be in this book, where the villains might be heroes and the heroes might be villains. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

 

I also read a short e-book published by Cherrydale Press as a guide to their language curriculum which is based on Charlotte Mason's methods, Teaching Languages with Miss Mason and Francois. I'm hoping to work in a little Spanish for everyone next year (including myself) but I have no idea what I want to use. This is always the time of year when a good chunk of my reading time goes to figuring out school.

 

Now to start catching up on the thread!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Loesje22000]

I am also grateful to you, Robin, for helping guide the reading pace, that makes this behemoth feel more doable!

 

I am causing some backaches to my librarians by ordering each and every translation our library owns so I can compare them myself. So far I compared the Pevear and the Briggs translations, and surprised myself by liking the Briggs better. I did study French in high school and was even fairly fluent at one point - I spent a couple of summers there. But that is lo, these many years ago, so I'm ok with having the French part showing up in English. But that wasn't the clincher - it was the word choice. Pevear has much longer and more complex words, and while I don't oppose that as a matter of principle, I kind of figured that for 1350 pages, I might be ok with a little simpler semantics. Also the print is a bit larger, so I can cope with it without my reading glasses. Not the most erudite bases for comparison! I may swap Briggs out for a different one, but I'm going to choose based entirely on readability, I think.

 

Is there a consensus on translators in the group, or are we all over the place? It doesn't matter one way or the other, I was just curious!

Print matters, I showed dd our new and older edition of W&P, and she decided that if she would consider to read W&P, she would pick my edition.

And i decided that I preferred to have W&P in hard cover although in one volume, above the two volume mass market paperback edition. (The latter has almost no space between lines)

[mumto2]

I am also grateful to you, Robin, for helping guide the reading pace, that makes this behemoth feel more doable!

 

I am causing some backaches to my librarians by ordering each and every translation our library owns so I can compare them myself. So far I compared the Pevear and the Briggs translations, and surprised myself by liking the Briggs better. I did study French in high school and was even fairly fluent at one point - I spent a couple of summers there. But that is lo, these many years ago, so I'm ok with having the French part showing up in English. But that wasn't the clincher - it was the word choice. Pevear has much longer and more complex words, and while I don't oppose that as a matter of principle, I kind of figured that for 1350 pages, I might be ok with a little simpler semantics. Also the print is a bit larger, so I can cope with it without my reading glasses. Not the most erudite bases for comparison! I may swap Briggs out for a different one, but I'm going to choose based entirely on readability, I think.

 

Is there a consensus on translators in the group, or are we all over the place? It doesn't matter one way or the other, I was just curious!

 

I have a few hard copies coming myself. ;) I think dd might be considering reading it while it is in the house and want to make sure there is a translation she would enjoy. She is fluent in French and learning Russian so her needs are a bit different from mine! I'm a Kindle girl so it's Maude or Garrett for me.

 

  

Hey, I got to meet Eliana today!!!! She is completely awesome & we had a great time.

(Notice we are in a bookstore, lol. Eliana on the left, me on the right.)

Not sure if my link will work correctly, but hopefully....

http://rs930.pbsrc.com/albums/ad146/Stacia-photos/IMG_1886.jpg?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

Great picture! It's wonderful you guys were able to get together. I miss her also.

[Butter]

I'm not counting these in my annual book count because they are short and for kids, but I read three little books yesterday.

 

Two are by Andrea Pearson.  Bezza's Book of Enchantments and The Jewel Thief.  These two kids accidentally end up with a book that has a spell to bring someone back to life for a short period of time (long enough to complete a specific task).  In the first one, they bring back Nikolaus Kraft and use him as part of their oral report (teaching assumes they hired an actor).  In the second one, the kids are no longer friends and the "bad" kid brings back a jewel thief and the "good" kid brings back a private detective to stop the jewel thief.  All the people brought back to life are real.  They are cute and my little guys really enjoyed them.

 

The other book was Stories of Beowulf Told to Children by H.E. Marshall.  I pre-read it for Adrian for school next year.  It had lots of excitement and death of creatures and of course Beowulf.  It was a good elementary school level retelling.

[mumto2]

I finally had a chance to read Becky Chamber's A Closed and Common Orbit which is the second book in her Wayfarers series. I loved A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet much to my surprise which was the first in this series. This book was very good in parts but I found many parts really boring. The boring bits did have a purpose but I never would have kept reading if I hadn't liked the first one so much.

 

Angela, Glad everyone is feeling a bit better. I hope Abby's ear infection clears up quickly.

[Butter]

I finished reading Summer Baby by Beth LaBonte.  It's the third Summer book and in this one she and Graham have a baby and in typical Summer fashion everything goes quite silly.  Nice mind vacation book :)

[JennW in SoCal]

Stacia -- how is Eliana? Is her head better? Can she read again? Any chance she would join us for a War and Peace read along??

 

I'm probably going to mostly listen to W&P, though, as I have a show coming up that has a both a long run and a long commute. And no one to car pool with. There are two audible options, and I far prefer the narrator for the Maude translation over the narrator for the Garnett translation.  

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

Last night I finished listening to The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place. It was total fluff but enjoyable. 

[Matryoshka]

So I got in my volumes of War & Peace. :)  Apparently what I ordered was a Maude and two Garnetts in different editions (in case one was easier to read from a layout/white space perspective, or had better commentary or something).

 

And... I've decided on the Maude.  I thought from the blog they'd translated all the French... well, they did, but they also left it all in; it's just footnoted, so I can read as much as I can understand, but just look at the bottom of the page if I get lost (some of the French passages are looong!).  The Garnett has almost no French, mostly just common throwaway words or phrases that most English speakers would understand - no longer sentences or any passages I could see from skimming.  The Maude also has a timeline, a list of character names, and lots of maps, none of which are in either Garnett version - I have a feeling they will come in handy.  And from just comparing, I'm quite liking the Maude translation - bonus that they were the only translators who actually worked with Tolstoy.  So, I'm glad I ordered both to compare. :)

 

And now I shall put it aside and look forward to starting with you all in a couple of weeks!

 

ETA: Because I couldn't help myself, I started perusing the "Notes on the Text and Translation" in the Maude.  It says that while it's widely considered the 'best' translation, it has gotten some justifiable criticism, notably the translation of all the French, making the discourse more 'elevated' than it was in Russian to suit Victorian (English) tastes, Anglicization of Russian names, and apparently made-up chapter headings.  The version I have (Oxford World's Classics, I think that's the one mentioned in that blog upthread), 'is intended to correct and refurbish the Maudes' edition.'  French passages are back (but with the translations as footnotes), names are re-Russified, and they've apparently gotten rid of some dated and non-idiomatic (English) language to align it better with the level in the original Russian.  Anyway, found that interesting. :)

Edited June 3, 2017 by Matryoshka

[Kareni]

Some currently free books for Kindle readers ~

 

London Road Linked Stories: Volume 1 by Tessa Smith McGovern

 

"On the morning of her release from prison, the hottest day on record in England, Janice Bailey makes her way to a boarding house in London, and discovers a bizarre new world.

This moving collection of linked short stories begins with ‘When Janice Bailey Walked’, an award-winning story first published in the Connecticut Review, and continues with six more stories as told by the eccentric residents of Number 17, London Road, thus illuminating a little-known side of the most beautiful city in Europe.

During the course of one day, we meet Bitty, a college drop-out now working in an antique shop, waiting nervously in an Italian restaurant to find out if her American boyfriend is about to dump her. And Nora, the landlady of the boarding house, a romance novelist obsessed with the Queen, who finds herself hotly pursued by Len, landlord of the local pub. Then there's Anna, Nora's teenage daughter, waiting all alone at netball camp because her mother, otherwise engaged, has forgotten to collect her, and Isobel, daughter of a Shakespearean actress, in the aftermath of a crisis. Finally there's Mandy, who must choose between a life of crime or an alternate path."

Praise for LONDON ROAD: LINKED STORIES:
“…reminiscent of the writer who appears in one of the stories: the great Katherine Mansfield.â€
Cynthia Rogerson, winner, V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for a Short Story, UK

REVIEW BY NINA SANKOVITCH, READ ALL DAY
"The short shorts in Tessa Smith McGovern’s collection London Road: Linked Stories really are made to fit within the palm of your hand — her delightful and fresh stories are available as apps for your phone or can be converted for your e-reader.

 

**

 

The Distance Between Stars  by Nicole Conway

 

The Garment Maker's Daughter by Hillary Stern

 

Others of Edenton: Series Volume 1 (Others of Edenton Collection) by Brandy L Rivers

 

Remember When (The Remember Trilogy Book 1) by T. Torrest

 

Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3  by Kate Baray

 

The Girl That Care Forgot - Books One, Two, and Three by Andrew Sutherland

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Butter]

Today I read Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye.  I really liked it.  Very readable and perfect for middle grade age.  Both Fritz and Cameron will be reading it this fall.  Cameron'll be in 10th grade, but because of the dyslexia unless it has an audiobook for immersion reading he needs it to be on a much lower reading level.

[Robin M]

Link to week 23 - please continue conversation in new thread