Book a Week 2017 - BW28: Octavia Butler

[mumto2]

Ethel, Another good Southern author is Sharyn McCrumb. Her ballad series is good. I have only read the first few but enjoyed them. http://www.sharynmccrumb.com/ballad_overview.html

 

I've also read her cozy series. It's one of my favourites! :)

[Ethel Mertz]

Carol, your reading was my deep obsession last year.  I recommend $2 a Day too, and White Trash.  I am still laboring through Arlie Hochschild's book though.  Just can't come back to it somehow.  But thank you for Hild!  right up my alley

 

Similar to that vein of biography/sociology etc. I have been trying to get my mitts on Family of Earth but no library in Michigan carries it! horrors.  It seems that that book, and any Octavia Butler books, are just in the deep beyond for me unless I, you know, opened my pocketbook and spent actual money on my reading :sleep:

I too liked $2 a Day. And Nickel and Dimed as well...  I've got Catching Out: The Secret World of Day Laborers by Dick Reavis sitting in my TBR pile. Mario Cuomo in a blurb on the back of the book notes that Reavis does for day laborers what Barbara Ehrenreich did for women in Nickel and Dimed.

 

Prime Day Alert!

$5 off a $15 purchase of books sold by Amazon - while supplies last (?) - so don't dawdle too long. Code is: PRIMEBOOKS17. And, yes, I already spent my $15.

Ethel, Another good Southern author is Sharyn McCrumb. Her ballad series is good. I have only read the first few but enjoyed them. http://www.sharynmccrumb.com/ballad_overview.html

 

I've also read her cozy series. It's one of my favourites! :)

Thanks, Sandy!

[Onceuponatime]

I haven't chimed in on this week's thread yet. I'm still reading Magpie Murders and it has me in its grip. The author has placed an unfinished mystery novel of the same name inside this novel. Then we find that the author of the unfinished novel dies mysteriously. There are multiple connections between the novel in the novel and the exterior novel, not to mention connections to the whole IRL old fashioned, village murder mystery genre, especially Agatha Christie mysteries. Everything is not quite what it seems. It's quite convoluted but fun.

[Mom-ninja.]

 

 

But this will have to wait.  It was with great! effort!  that I *only* read those two books.  I need to exercise some discipline and finish my half-read pile before I take on anything new.  Dinner before dessert and all that.  :)

 

 

 

Um, yeah, so I know I'm not the only one who will eat dessert for dinner. Ben & Jerry's is a very filling and satisfying meal! 

 

 

You'd think with it being summer and not having co-op classes or any of our extracurricular classes I'd have lots more time to read. Nope. How does that happen? Let me count the ways: home improvement projects, petsitting, homeschooling the kids, helping ds with his classes, holiday plans, more home improvement projects, and all the added bonuses like cleaning, cooking, running errands, and solving everyone's problems because I'm Mom.  

 

I pick up my book at night in bed and manage to read 3 pages before falling asleep.   

[Mom-ninja.]

I used my prime day discount. I bought a cookbook that's been on my wishlist for a long time. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Thank you for mentioning the Prime book discount!  Used it on my next read in the 'current social mores' genre--Janesville!  Score!

[mumto2]

I haven't chimed in on this week's thread yet. I'm still reading Magpie Murders and it has me in its grip. The author has placed an unfinished mystery novel of the same name inside this novel. Then we find that the author of the unfinished novel dies mysteriously. There are multiple connections between the novel in the novel and the exterior novel, not to mention connections to the whole IRL old fashioned, village murder mystery genre, especially Agatha Christie mysteries. Everything is not quite what it seems. It's quite convoluted but fun.

I have this one on hold and am now really looking forward to it!

 

I mentioned the Scandinavian book Quicksand a couple of days ago in a "not very sure I want to read this manner. " It turned out to be very good. I found this review which describes it perfectly without spoilers. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/quicksand-malin-persson-giolito I love that they call it a whydoneit as opposed to a whodoneit. That is exactly what it is. Why was the girl sitting in the room unharmed with dead and dying people around her at the start of the book? Written totally in the first person we slowly discover what happened to her. There is a great deal of social commentary mixed in with the why.

 

Eta. I fixed the link

 

 

I also want to give a bit of a warning ;) about World Literature Today which I just linked. I just spent way to long reading various articles in that publication. Did you know that there are zombie fracking novels https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/fracking-novels-scrabble-zombies-and-problematized-real-susan-smith-nash or that Korean Noir is the next Scandi Noir https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/crime-mystery-korean-crime-novels-next-big-thing-j-madison-davis? I could spend all day reading all those articles and add countless books to my tbr lists. I couldn't find a Zombie Fracking novel at the library and not sure if I am sad or relieved! :lol: Probably going to try the Korean Noir soon but there are so many Scandi ones left to read......

Edited July 12, 2017 by mumto2

[Guest]

I received my first postcard from a BaWer - what joy! Thank you, Jane in NC!

 

I finished my first of two "Pearl" books - Girl With a Pearl Earring. I enjoyed it quite a bit; 4 stars. I also have The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck), but I haven't begun that yet.

 

I am partially into a few different books. I started reading the NF Degrees of Inequality about for-profit colleges disproportionately ill-serving lower income people, but the book is not outstandingly done. I quit the book The Power of Others, which was due back at the library. I liked this book. My main obstacle to enjoying it seems to be simply that the font was so small. It wasn't so great that I wanted it on Kindle, where I could adjust the font. On that note, I got halfway through the NF book Take Off Your Glasses and See, which is about natural vision improvement. The book is not totally without its merits, and I did discover I can read for hours without my glasses as long as the light is daylight-bright. But this book is not going to get me totally out of corrective lenses...dare I say it? - clearly. I have a bookmark a few pages into the fictional In a Garden of Stone. i can't decide whether to proceed with this or not. I also just started reading in The Miniaturist, because I am the book selection person for my IRL book club, which meets this Thursday and this is one possible choice. I'm also still listening to The Snowball while I do my workouts; this is biography on Warren Buffet.

 

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. Sometimes, the gelling is helped along by writing a review on Goodreads, or writing in my physical Books notebook, or even by reading other reviews or discussing it with someone. But it seems like if I have just read a serious, heavy, or thought-provoking book, I start looking for some NF or something simpler before I can jump back into another significant book. Does this happen to others?

[Chrysalis Academy]

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. Sometimes, the gelling is helped along by writing a review on Goodreads, or writing in my physical Books notebook, or even by reading other reviews or discussing it with someone. But it seems like if I have just read a serious, heavy, or thought-provoking book, I start looking for some NF or something simpler before I can jump back into another significant book. Does this happen to others?

 

Yep. Sometimes with a wonderful fiction story, but more often for me with a really thought-provoking nonfiction. I finished listening to The Vanishing American Adult yesterday, and could only read fluff for the rest of the day because my mind was still grappling with it. I wrote my goodreads review this morning. I wasn't capable of doing so immediately afterwards, I definitely had to let it churn in my brain for awhile.

 

And I'm not going to discuss this book here, because it would be hopelessly political, but I do want to say that one of the things it made me think about is how much I appreciate the WTM community, and the BaW group. It's rare to be able to transcend differences in religion, politics, etc. and share discussion of things we care about, whether it's homeschooling, raising our kids, or reading and loving good books. I don't think I could have read this book and gotten as much out of it as I did if I hadn't had that experience. And I really appreciate all of you. Even if we don't always agree.  And Moby Dick is torture.  ;)  :D

[Penguin]

 

For those of you who like books about books and reading, I have a recommendation.  This was an enjoyable memoir that had me chuckling from time to time and sharing passages with my husband.

 

My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues  by Pamela Paul

 

"Imagine keeping a record of every book you’ve ever read. What would this reading trajectory say about you? With passion, humor, and insight, the editor of The New York Times Book Review shares the stories that have shaped her life.

 

Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for twenty-eight years – carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk – reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob.

 

Bob is Paul’s Book of Books, a journal that records every book she’s ever read, from Sweet Valley High to Anna Karenina, from Catch-22 to Swimming to Cambodia, a journey in reading that reflects her inner life – her fantasies and hopes, her mistakes and missteps, her dreams and her ideas, both half-baked and wholehearted. Her life, in turn, influences the books she chooses, whether for solace or escape, information or sheer entertainment.

 

But My Life with Bob isn’t really about those books. It’s about the deep and powerful relationship between book and reader. It’s about the way books provide each of us the perspective, courage, companionship, and imperfect self-knowledge to forge our own path. It’s about why we read what we read and how those choices make us who we are. It’s about how we make our own stories."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I really really really wish that I would have kept a record of every book that I had ever read. I have kept lists in fits and starts, and titles are also scattered amongst other writings. I would very much like to aggregate them. I did start a separate bullet journal for books in January, and I have thought about starting a master, neverending list in a new notebook that would at least capture what I can recall reading. Thanks for the nudge :)

 

I'm sure that I am not the only stationery nerd here,right? One of my favorite such websites is Notebook Stories.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Penguin

[fastweedpuller]

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. ...Does this happen to others?

I consider it self-care, Quill!  I intentionally luxuriated in the world of Middlemarch for one extra night/morning, and have not picked up anything since. 

 

Yep. Sometimes with a wonderful fiction story, but more often for me with a really thought-provoking nonfiction. I finished listening to The Vanishing American Adult yesterday, and could only read fluff for the rest of the day because my mind was still grappling with it. I wrote my goodreads review this morning. I wasn't capable of doing so immediately afterwards, I definitely had to let it churn in my brain for awhile.

 

And I'm not going to discuss this book here, because it would be hopelessly political, but I do want to say that one of the things it made me think about is how much I appreciate the WTM community, and the BaW group. It's rare to be able to transcend differences in religion, politics, etc. and share discussion of things we care about, whether it's homeschooling, raising our kids, or reading and loving good books. I don't think I could have read this book and gotten as much out of it as I did if I hadn't had that experience. And I really appreciate all of you. Even if we don't always agree.  And Moby Dick is torture.  ;)  :D

I appreciated your review, Rose.  Wondered how it got 4 stars from you and glad you downgraded it for the reasons you mentioned.  But...I loves me some Moby-Dick! and will be just fine looking the other way when you disparage it :lol:

 

but what you have said about the BAW/WTM crowd is quite true:  we've all got the same goals in mind, however we try to get there, and it's best done with a little help from our online friends

[Ethel Mertz]

Thank you for mentioning the Prime book discount!  Used it on my next read in the 'current social mores' genre--Janesville!  Score!

Thanks for mentioning Janesville. I just ordered the kindle version.

 

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. Sometimes, the gelling is helped along by writing a review on Goodreads, or writing in my physical Books notebook, or even by reading other reviews or discussing it with someone. But it seems like if I have just read a serious, heavy, or thought-provoking book, I start looking for some NF or something simpler before I can jump back into another significant book. Does this happen to others?

 

Absolutely! Sometimes I feel like I need a palate cleanser between books.

 

For my prime books discount I ordered Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation and the next book for my IRL Book Club (Emma Straub's Other People We Married.

 

Amazon has a kindle book discount: Buy any kindle book, get 40% back towards your next book.

[Penguin]

(snip)

 

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. Sometimes, the gelling is helped along by writing a review on Goodreads, or writing in my physical Books notebook, or even by reading other reviews or discussing it with someone. But it seems like if I have just read a serious, heavy, or thought-provoking book, I start looking for some NF or something simpler before I can jump back into another significant book. Does this happen to others? YES!!!!

 

I can't immediately jump from a fantasy novel to another fantasy novel, or a NF to another NF. I guess I handle it by keeping multiple books across several genres going at once.

 

I'm not much of an audiobook person, but I finished listening to Palace of Illusions this week while I was on a long drive, and I tried to start another audiobook on the same drive and just couldn't focus on it. I turned it off after one chapter, even though I think it will be good.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I consider it self-care, Quill!  I intentionally luxuriated in the world of Middlemarch for one extra night/morning, and have not picked up anything since. 

 

I appreciated your review, Rose.  Wondered how it got 4 stars from you and glad you downgraded it for the reasons you mentioned.  But...I loves me some Moby-Dick! and will be just fine looking the other way when you disparage it :lol:

 

but what you have said about the BAW/WTM crowd is quite true:  we've all got the same goals in mind, however we try to get there, and it's best done with a little help from our online friends

 

It's so hard to rate a book you find yourself talking back to. Or even shouting at! I did like it, I like it for how it engaged me and made me think. Some of the content I'm in total agreement with. Some of it made me feel like I live on a different planet. But I will say it gave me a better, more honest insight into "the other side" in the cultural debates (as if there are only two sides, and as if they are really opposite  :001_rolleyes: ) than anything else I've read in awhile. Including Strangers in Their Own Land, which was discussed earlier. SiTOL was an explicit effort to explain "the right" to "the left" and it didn't succeed as well as this did. I guess there is really no substitute for listening when people speak for themselves.

 

And it made me think about what ratings mean. Especially with nonfiction. Does a high rating imply agreement with/acceptance of the message? Or can you highly rate something because it challenged you and engaged you, even if you didn't buy it completely? I ended up going with 3 stars. But I'm curious how others rate nonfiction. Is it mostly writing style? content? level of agreement? or a mix?

Edited July 11, 2017 by Chrysalis Academy

[Guest]

I really really really wish that I would have kept a record of every book that I had ever read. I have kept lists in fits and starts, and titles are also scattered amongst other writings. I would very much like to aggregate them. I did start a separate bullet journal for books in January, and I have thought about starting a master, neverending list in a new notebook that would at least capture what I can recall reading. Thanks for the nudge :)

 

I'm sure that I am not the only stationery nerd here,right? One of my favorite such websites is Notebook Stories.

Same here. I have kept running lists of titles from time to time and have also kept Book Note journals off and on over many years, but nothing continuous or meticulously kept. Too bad. I did reconvene my Book Notes journal this year on the urging of my IRL avid reader friend. I fall behind, though, once again.

 

I should try to do a Master List. That would be probably an amazing exercise. Would you attempt to go roughly chronological? Or by genre?

[Penguin]

 

I should try to do a Master List. That would be probably an amazing exercise. Would you attempt to go roughly chronological? Or by genre?

I don't know, but I am pretty sure that I will be thinking about it all day  :lol: .

[Matryoshka]

I really really really wish that I would have kept a record of every book that I had ever read. I have kept lists in fits and starts, and titles are also scattered amongst other writings. I would very much like to aggregate them. I did start a separate bullet journal for books in January, and I have thought about starting a master, neverending list in a new notebook that would at least capture what I can recall reading. Thanks for the nudge :)

 

I'm sure that I am not the only stationery nerd here,right? One of my favorite such websites is Notebook Stories.

 

Right before I joined BaW I bought a really cute little notebook in which I was going to start doing this, as well as add books I'd read in the past - not all of them, but the ones I'd remembered and stuck with me a bit.

 

But then you guys introduced me to Goodreads, and I've been using that instead.  One of the things I struggle with in physical record-keeping is perfectionism.  What if I made a section for a type of book and ran out of space?  Where do I continue it?  What do I do when a book fits in more than one category?  These are really stupid considerations, but they can keep me from actually starting things.

 

I've already added well over 400 books I read in the past to Goodreads, and I can continue adding them any old time and sort them into as many 'shelves' as I want, it adds pictures and I've at least star-reviewed most of them (I wouldn't have even thought about that in my imagined notebook- I was just going to list).  I can find a book easily by searching.  Anyway, I feel like it's finally given me that record of the books I've read - yeah, it's not chronological, but that ship had sailed anyway. (And it will be chronological going forward, just not for past books).  It's not complete, but I can keep adding to it at any time without messing up the organization.

 

Anyway, another idea for people like me who love the idea of a physical record but for whatever reason have issues with the execution...

 

I ended up giving the cute little notebook to dd.

[Chrysalis Academy]

When I was in high school, I decided that I would read all the Classics. I don't know why. No one told me to or coached me to or anything. I used to go to the library on Sunday afternoon. I remember standing by the Fiction shelves, at A, and going, Okay, let's do this thing!  I found a list somewhere (this was pre-internet, of course) of the Great Books of english literature, and started reading them chronologically. I read Clarissa and Pamela and Tristam Shandy and Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels and Tom Jones. And Austen and Dickens. And, I made lists. I had a notebook, where I wrote everything I read. How I wish I still had that notebook! I have forgotten many of the books, no doubt, and I have forgotten what motivated me to do this thing, but I remember the notebook and I wish I still had it.  

 

I think I did this partly because I was so bored in high school. Once I got to college and started actually learning new things, this effort to become well-read feel by the wayside and didn't really get re-started till I discovered WTM & WEM and decided to start homeschooling.  I'm glad to have come back around to where it all began.

 

See, I *should* have been an English major!  ;)  :D

 

ETA: Yes, goodreads has taken the place of paper lists for me too. It's so satisfying to have a list, though, whether virtual or on paper.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Chrysalis Academy

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

 

And it made me think about what ratings mean. Especially with nonfiction. Does a high rating imply agreement with/acceptance of the message? Or can you highly rate something because it challenged you and engaged you, even if you didn't buy it completely? I ended up going with 3 stars. But I'm curious how others rate nonfiction. Is it mostly writing style? content? level of agreement? or a mix?

 

Being a dork and quoting myself, I realized after thinking more on this that it's the same issue for fiction, too. I rate Lolita 5 stars, it's one of the most amazingly written books I've ever read, and I'm stunned by the virtuosity every time I read it. But of course that doesn't imply that I "agree with" pedophilia. So I guess it was kind of a silly question.

[Penguin]

I love and appreciate Goodreads, but I also cherish my pens and notebooks. I have shelves and boxes filled with notebooks - some are full, some are empty, some are partially completed. I have also sent PLENTY of pages to the shredder over the years.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Penguin

[Lady Florida.]

Re: The Nightingale

 

 

Interested to hear what you think.  I hear a lot about this book, but I think I've seen some reviews which have kept it off my TR list for now.  (of course, now I remember nothing about what those reviews said...)

 

 

 

 

I waited until I finished to post, and I finished this morning, just in time for the meeting tonight. Interestingly, it was an Octavia Butler book, The Parable of the Sower, the last time I felt this way about a book club book. With both books I felt there were inconsistencies and the writing was sub-par.

 

So anyway...

 

There were a number of historical errors in this historical fiction, the biggest one being the use of antibiotics in 1941. The author seems to think they were widely used at the time. Overall though, it was as if she researched the horrors experienced by the French in WWII and threw all of them at her two main characters. Without giving too much away, I also think if one character acted the way she did as part of the Resistance, she would have been captured quickly. Instead we have several miraculous escapes. Then there were the Good German, Bad German stereotypes and no gray whatsoever. Also:

 

We have a starving family who spends their precious little money on feed for their chickens and rabbits. Um, just eat them. They didn't even use eggs from the chickens.

 

There was language that didn't fit the time. One example: "Last night the Allies bombed the hell out of the Renault factory".

 

It's all quite melodramatic.

 

Much of the above I could forgive if only the writing had been good. Instead it could be used in a writing class as an example of too much telling and not enough showing. Here are a few:

 

"He turned to her and gazed at her. Gazed, not looked." Italics are from the author, not me

 

"He kicked the door shut with his booted foot and then shoved her up against the wall. She made an ooph as she hit." Again, italics are the author's.

 

"She reached out and took the plate in her hands, bringing it toward her. The salty, smoky scent of the ham, combined with the slightly stinky aroma of the cheese, intoxicated her, overwhelmed her better intentions, seduced her so thoroughly that there was no choice to be made." 

 

There's more, so much more, but I'll stop there. I will say that the last chapter made me cry but I also have to say I cry easily when reading books or watching a movie or tv show (every single episode of Call the Midwife) but even that seemed like a rushed ending.

 

Thanks for letting me vent here. I'll be more diplomatic at the meeting tonight and I won't put a review on Goodreads (I rarely write an actual review there anyway).

Edited July 11, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[Guest]

When I was in high school, I decided that I would read all the Classics. I don't know why. No one told me to or coached me to or anything. I used to go to the library on Sunday afternoon. I remember standing by the Fiction shelves, at A, and going, Okay, let's do this thing! I found a list somewhere (this was pre-internet, of course) of the Great Books of english literature, and started reading them chronologically. I read Clarissa and Pamela and Tristam Shandy and Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels and Tom Jones. And Austen and Dickens. And, I made lists. I had a notebook, where I wrote everything I read. How I wish I still had that notebook! I have forgotten many of the books, no doubt, and I have forgotten what motivated me to do this thing, but I remember the notebook and I wish I still had it.

 

I think I did this partly because I was so bored in high school. Once I got to college and started actually learning new things, this effort to become well-read feel by the wayside and didn't really get re-started till I discovered WTM & WEM and decided to start homeschooling. I'm glad to have come back around to where it all began.

 

See, I *should* have been an English major! ;) :D

 

ETA: Yes, goodreads has taken the place of paper lists for me too. It's so satisfying to have a list, though, whether virtual or on paper.

That's so interesting that you decided to do that in high school. One thing I decided to do, when I was about 13yo, was write at least one poem every day. And I did. Sometimes, they were trash, other times, they were quite good, but every day, I sat at my little vanity table-cum-desk and wrote at least one poem, often two or three of them. I did keep the large majority of these poems and I still have them, written in calligraphy pen and kept in a ring binder.

 

This fizzled out by the time I was around 15; I think boys got the greater portion of my attention by then, plus I started working PT jobs. But can you imagine if I had continued that habit through to today? I would have written at least 12,000 poems. And I imagine at least a couple of them would have been pretty good. ðŸ˜

[Guest]

I love and appreciate Goodreads, but I also cherish my pens and notebooks. I have shelves and boxes filled with notebooks - some are full, some are empty, some are partially completed. I have also sent PLENTY of pages to the shredder over the years.

Me, too. This is one area where my knack for decluttering does not hold. I have a really massive amount of notebooks and journals. A lot of the journals do contain writings that had better not be circulated after my death. But I don't really want to sanitize all of my journals, even if I could. So there it is. I have told my family a few times, "better to just burn the lot of them when I die." But they might not. But then, what do I care; I'm dead! Most of the unflattering commentary is on extended family. If my mother reads them, I'm dead. But wait! I'll be dead! So, maybe who cares?!

[Lady Florida.]

 

One thing I find, and I'm wondering if other avid readers experience this: when I finish a good book, I feel the need to ruminate about the book a little while. It seems like I can't jump into another book, especially a serious or important book, until the good book has gelled in my mind a little bit. Sometimes, the gelling is helped along by writing a review on Goodreads, or writing in my physical Books notebook, or even by reading other reviews or discussing it with someone. But it seems like if I have just read a serious, heavy, or thought-provoking book, I start looking for some NF or something simpler before I can jump back into another significant book. Does this happen to others?

 

Yes, the book hangover. :D Sometimes it's because the writing was so beautiful I feel like whatever I read next won't measure up. Other times it was thought provoking. Sometimes the characters stay with me and I can't stop thinking about them.

 

Like Ethel Mertz I need a palate cleanser. For me that's usually one of my cozy mysteries. I don't expect the writing to be stellar so there's no let-down.

[Kareni]

I'm sure that I am not the only stationery nerd here,right? One of my favorite such websites is Notebook Stories.

 

Ooh, that looks like an addictive website!

 

I should try to do a Master List. That would be probably an amazing exercise. Would you attempt to go roughly chronological? Or by genre?

 

I'm guessing that Stacia would recommend you keep a  Margarita  list! 

 

And, incidentally, The Master and Margarita   and War and Peace are both mentioned in  My Life with Bob.

 

 I do want to say that one of the things it made me think about is how much I appreciate the WTM community, and the BaW group. It's rare to be able to transcend differences in religion, politics, etc. and share discussion of things we care about, whether it's homeschooling, raising our kids, or reading and loving good books....

 

Hear, hear!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Mom-ninja.]

I also wish I had a list of every book I have read. I didn't start until 2009. There are many times that I think about a book I read at some point in my life, but cannot remember the title or author. Frustrating. 

 

I am listening to Four Queens: the Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe and it is so interesting. That said, if you can't fall asleep just listen to a history book about 13th century Europe when the house is dark and quiet and you will find yourself waking up surprised to still be on the couch and possibly with a little bit of drool on your arm. 

[Kareni]

A one day only currently free classic for Kindle readers ~

 

Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge by Alexander Philip

 

"An exploration of the fundamental realities of the existence

Is this the end? If not; how are we to discover and assure for stricken Humanity the vision and the possession of a Better Land?
 
In this volume plumbing the depths of human experience, Alexander Philip explores the nature of reality at its most basic level. Examining the ways that time, abstract thought, and physical sensation affect consciousness, this book posits that matter and energy are the foundations of all existence."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Jane in NC]

I finished Celine by Peter Heller & will declare it a book for both Jane & Nan. It's a mystery of sorts, but I think both of you would enjoy the nature/wildlife descriptions, along w/ the spunky older protagonist. It's not really a traditional mystery & moves along at a different pace & with a different style, but I think it might be appealing summer type reading for both of you.

 

 

On my list.  Thanks Stacia!

 

Earlier I mentioned that I am a James McBride fan girl and you responded by mentioning how much you enjoyed The Good Lord Bird.  That was the book (one you recommended) that led me to McBride initially.

 

Another author you inspired several of us to read is Mat Johnson.  A couple of summers ago we read Poe's strange Antarctic tale, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, followed by Johnson's satirical version of the tale, Pym.  Johnson had a commentary on today's Fresh Air program.  Anyone who has been frustrated by their technology will appreciate this:

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/07/11/534865245/a-novelist-forces-himself-to-press-on-after-losing-100-pages-in-a-tech-glitch?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

[Stacia]

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Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Angelaboord]

Good article. He's right -- they are just words. He's lost more important things in life.

 

:

Agreed, but that article still caused me physical pain. The headline alone made me feel like I had nearly received a punch in the gut. [emoji23]

 

A little over a year ago I decided I was going to try to resurrect an old novel. This novel was 250,000 words long. When I started digging through my crate of old manuscripts I discovered that I did not have a hard copy and I couldn't find any of the files. I spent about a day hyperventilating before I finally discovered the ancient laptop on which I had written the book. Fortunately it still worked and I was able to move the files.

 

Then I decided that very little of the book could actually be used anyway and basically started over. So it wouldn't have made a difference if I had lost it... but I think it's more the idea that all that effort might have been wasted that makes it so painful. Of course it wouldn't have been wasted effort at all, since I learned a lot by writing those 250,000 words, but it definitely would have *felt* that way for two or three days until I got back to work.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mumto2]

I think the first link just goes to the main page?

 

I'll have to share the link about the Korean Noir w/ my coworker so she can be in on the next noir trend. Actually, my book club just read one on the Korean list (Please Look After Mom), but I had various issues & didn't get far into it & didn't finish it. The other people in my group weren't thrilled with it either.

 

As you mentioned, the site sucks you in. I noticed they had an interview with Yoss, the Cuban sci-fi writer that I read recently (Super Extra Grande). Rose, the interview is interesting in that he's discussing sci-fi w/ dystopia. You might like the article for some of his commentary. One statement:

Thank you, I just fixed the link in my original post but here it is in case your friend is interested. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/quicksand-malin-persson-giolito It really was good.

 

Regarding the Korean Noir...I would be more tempted but am pretty confident I cannot handle a book titled Please Look after Mom. Also I did remember that you had tried it and your review pretty much told me I wasn't up for it. I guess I am waiting for the next popular one that I spot to try!

 

I have actually been sleeping at night for the past few weeks so have been skipping my middle of the night BaW adventures. I think it's because I have been able to start walking a couple of miles a day after months with a foot issue. Obviously it's been helping but it rained all day yesterday and here I am wide awake at 4:30!

Edited July 12, 2017 by mumto2

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[mumto2]

Mumto2, your earlier comment of the book being a whydoneit instead of a whodoneit reminded me of a Japanese mystery book I read years ago: The Devotion of Suspect X. You know who did the killing at the beginning so it is more of a whydoneit, along with a big dose of the cat and mouse game between suspect and police.

Did you read that one?

I haven't read it but just did a quick search and it is available. It even sounds good! I need an X for my Alphabetical by title category since I'm not double dipping so that one. Btw, didn't the Korean Noir article say Japanese Noir could be next? :lol:

[Mom-ninja.]

Yesterday I had a doctor's appt. As soon as I signed in and sat down they called me back. Then I got a whole 2 min. before the doctor walked in the room. I bitterly complained about them being on time because they had deprived me of reading time.  :lol:   I mean if I can't count on getting a nice chunk of reading done while waiting at a doctor's office then what am I to do?!

 

I'm telling ya. This summer is out to sabotage me. 

[Violet Crown]

She made an ooph as she hit."

 

😳😳😳

 

You'd think with it being summer and not having co-op classes or any of our extracurricular classes I'd have lots more time to read. Nope. How does that happen? Let me count the ways: home improvement projects, petsitting, homeschooling the kids, helping ds with his classes, holiday plans, more home improvement projects, and all the added bonuses like cleaning, cooking, running errands, and solving everyone's problems because I'm Mom.

 

I pick up my book at night in bed and manage to read 3 pages before falling asleep.

 

Yes, I share your pain: we've started our academic year and so here I am reading Crèvecour excerpts instead of Tolstoy. Between children and Other Things I may not be able to get back to serious reading time until after the Playoffs. Edited July 12, 2017 by Violet Crown

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

Someone else here read this earlier this year too, yes?  Do you think I should read it - we're currently hosting our second Basque exchange student!  I currently have a couple of other possible books picked out for the Basque square - one's a thriller that take place partly there and includes the ETA; the other is the only translated Basque novel I could find - but not sure what I'll pick yet...

 

I meant to reply to this - you posted it when I said I was reading The Basque History of the World. Rose first linked to it when she found it for the Basque square on Big Bingo. I've always been fascinated by the Basque people because they seem so mysterious (as in who are they & where did they come from?). I don't know if anyone who doesn't have an interest in the people or the region would like it. It's not boring to me but it's slow. Rose, did you read it or have you started it? If so, what do you think? I'm not very far into it. 

[Stacia]

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Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Chrysalis Academy]

I meant to reply to this - you posted it when I said I was reading The Basque History of the World. Rose first linked to it when she found it for the Basque square on Big Bingo. I've always been fascinated by the Basque people because they seem so mysterious (as in who are they & where did they come from?). I don't know if anyone who doesn't have an interest in the people or the region would like it. It's not boring to me but it's slow. Rose, did you read it or have you started it? If so, what do you think? I'm not very far into it. 

 

I listened to the audiobook. I enjoyed it very much, but I think I would have found it a bit slow to read - as you say, not boring, but slow. Listening while I was doing chores, driving etc.worked really well for me, I'm not sure if I would have persisted just sitting in a chair and reading the whole thing, honestly.

[Kareni]

A one day only currently free classic for Kindle readers ~

 

The Evil Shepherd by E. Phillips Oppenhein

 

About the Author

E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866–1946) was an enormously popular English author of thrillers and romance. He wrote more than one hundred novels, composing them in as little as three weeks and publishing as many as seven a year. He is best remembered today for the classic spy novel The Great Impersonation (1920).

 

 

"A former defense attorney turned righteous crusader is the hero of this blockbuster novel from an early master of the thriller genre

A businessman is found stabbed through the heart, the obvious suspect his partner: Oliver Hilditch, a cold-eyed fellow with a paper-thin alibi. Hilditch seems destined for the gallows, but he is saved by brilliant defense attorney Francis Ledsam, who uses every legal trick he knows to free his client. It is a defense to be proud of, but Ledsam’s joy vanishes when Hilditch’s wife informs him that her husband is guilty of crimes far more monstrous than murder.
 
His faith in his career shaken, Ledsam vows never again to defend a guilty man. But when his newfound principles run up against the harsh reality of real-world justice, he finds himself trapped between his love for a beautiful woman and a powerful desire to do the right thing—no matter the cost."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

I'm back from my music adventures in the upper Midwest. I spent several days in Chicago with various family members and played tourist. We went to the top of the Sears Willis Tower and I confronted my terror of heights and stepped out onto the plexiglass platform 103 stories over the street. We also took an architectural tour by boat which was quite excellent. Outside of the city I was delighted by the fireflies (we don't have those here) and the epic lightening and thunderstorm that lasted over an hour one night. We get very little of that here.

 

I was in the area to play in a recital with my brother who is an excellent pianist. It was held in a small town in in Wisconsin, the venue surrounded by corn fields. We played well, and to top off the local experience, following the recital they grilled brats and burgers. No rhubarb pie, I'm afraid, but I did have a great pork shoulder sandwich with a rhubarb compote in Chicago.

 

There was lots of time to read, too. I just loved News of the World. Didn't want it to end, almost want to go right back and read it again. Thank you to all who raved about it earlier in the year. Those of you who have not read it yet, well, get on it already!!

 

I looked for more books by Paulette Jiles while we were in some Chicago-area bookstores, but didn't find any. I did find, however, The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes and read about 2/3 of it on the plane last night. It is staggeringly good. So good I could not just binge read it to the end. I needed to pull myself out and catch my breath. It captures, through the life of composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the utter horror and absurdity of being an artist who gets bullied into becoming a puppet for the Soviet Union.  

 

While in the Chicago bookstore Women and Children First, my friend (and ex-sister-in-law) handed me the first in a series by Jane Gardam, Old Filth. Have any of you read it? Filth apparently was an acronym for white business and professional types working in SE Asia -- "failed in London, try Hong Kong".  It is about an 80 year old widower, living in Dorset, looking back on his childhood in Malaysia, his British schooling and his career, and his forever being a foreigner wherever he lives. 

 

And I made progress on War and Peace -- am in the summer of 1812 and Napoleon's advance on Moscow. I continue to love how Tolstoy captures the smallest moments that put the reader right in the middle of the action. He's like a photojournalist but with words.

 

But now I'm faced with the usual post-trip tasks of laundry and tackling dust bunnies and sorting through the mail.

 

 

[mumto2]

Typing on my phone...

 

Read a rather charming Basque book published by Archipelago: Plants Don't Drink Coffee by Unai Elorriaga.

https://archipelagobooks.org/book/plants-dont-drink-coffee/

 

Also, I have meant to read something by Bernardo Atxaga because my library has a couple of his books. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

One more might be Catalina de Erauso's autobiography Lieutenant Nun. She was from the Basque areas though most of her life and story does not take place there.

😀 That title cracks me up because plants do drink tea! A friend here babysits my plants when we go away and they look much nicer when I return because she gives them tea. When I give them tea they turn tea coloured... 😥

 

I finished Jo Beverley's last book this morning. Merely a Marriage was a pretty good regency romance although someone on Goodreads really disliked it! :( Unlike most of her other books it was a stand alone. Since I knew the author had passed away I had a certain level of concern while I read that there would be characters left dangling without a satisfying conclusion because they were supposed to star in future books. She wrapped them all up which was sort of sad. I have enjoyed several of her books over the years and I believe she was one of the original WordWenches which Kareni frequently links for us.

[Lori D.]

...I need an X for my Alphabetical by title category...

 

Confessions of X by Suzanne Wolfe. Currently at the top of my list of books I've read this past year. ;)

[Lori D.]

I'd probably be reading this [The Sunne in Splendor] right now, but it got pushed down my TR list because of W&P.  I can only handle one tome at a time!  But this is the book I'm planning to use for my last bingo square, so have to get to it this year (when are we finishing W&P? ;) )

 

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it!   :)

 

Just reached the 1/3 mark last night (page 300 of 900). It builds slowly, but it's become quite exciting with all of the deposing and fighting to return to power, the politicking, and right now, everything is running towards the big showdown between the 3 families -- the deposed Yorks making their bid to return vs. the Lancasters + Nevilles -- the Lancaster king had been deposed by the Yorks who had the help of the Nevilles; the Nevilles have turned and now support the Lancasters... And it's all so tense, because of all the intermarrying between the families, you have brothers vs. brothers, father-in-law vs son-in-law, and all the towns of England caught in the middle not knowing who to open the gates to, because if that faction turns out to lose, the winning faction will take reprisals...   :eek: 

 

Who knew the War of the Roses was so exciting! :laugh:

 

Also, major lightbulb moment, early on in reading the book, when realizing that the Roses of the war refers to the white rose symbol of the Yorks and the red rose symbol of the Lancasters -- remind anyone else of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and the White and Red Queens, and the playing card soldiers painting the white roses red to avoid having their heads chopped off?!

[Matryoshka]

Confessions of X by Suzanne Wolfe. Currently at the top of my list of books I've read this past year. ;)

 

I used the Autobiography of Malcolm X for my X title for this year, but I'm putting this book on my TR list for next year's challenge. :)  Thanks for the rec.

[mumto2]

Confessions of X by Suzanne Wolfe. Currently at the top of my list of books I've read this past year. ;)

I want to echo Matryoshka's thank you. It sounds great and I plan to read it either this year or next.

 

When I went looking for it in my main Overdrive account and discovered that my library is experiencing difficulties. Basically I can't get in to see if they have it. Very frustrating. Total panic actually since I had checked a few books out and sent them to my Kindle which has been turned off so was afraid they wouldn't download when I turned things on. Pretty sure everything is there so I am good for a few days..... ;).

[ErinE]

I'm back from my music adventures in the upper Midwest. I spent several days in Chicago with various family members and played tourist. We went to the top of the Sears Willis Tower and I confronted my terror of heights and stepped out onto the plexiglass platform 103 stories over the street. We also took an architectural tour by boat which was quite excellent. Outside of the city I was delighted by the fireflies (we don't have those here) and the epic lightening and thunderstorm that lasted over an hour one night. We get very little of that here.

 

Nope. Nope. Nope.

 

No way would I step out onto a clear platform! My fear of heights story - I couldn't even step close to the railing/wall of the Eiffel Tower or the Space Needle. At each place, I stayed close to the center and just looked out at the view. We had to take the stairs at the Eiffel Tower because the elevator was so packed. I hurried down the steps, clutching the railing and keeping my eyes down. DH kept urging me to look at Paris! The view's gorgeous! I finally snapped, firmly telling him to quit talking to me.

 

I'm the person who urges their kids away from stuff like that, telling the random story of the one guy who leaned on a window and fell out. 

Edited July 12, 2017 by ErinE

[Violet Crown]

I haven't read it but just did a quick search and it is available. It even sounds good! I need an X for my Alphabetical by title category since I'm not double dipping so that one. Btw, didn't the Korean Noir article say Japanese Noir could be next? :lol:

Dh suggests The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The only X-title book I've read is Secular Lyrics of the XIV and XV Centuries: but it was awfully good.

[Jane in NC]

Jenn---I loved Gardam's Old Filth Trilogy! The books made my top five the year I read them.

 

Your Midwestern excursion sounds delightful. Welcome back.

[JennW in SoCal]

Jenn---I loved Gardam's Old Filth Trilogy! The books made my top five the year I read them.

 

Your Midwestern excursion sounds delightful. Welcome back.

 

Jane -- you must have been with me in spirit. I recommended Alan Furst to the same friend who handed me Old Filth, and she went home with 3 of his books!