Book a Week 2018 - BW1: Welcome to our Open Roads Reading Adventure

[Runningmom80]

I also really do not like Murder on the Orient Express so perhaps I’m not a mystery person?

[tuesdayschild]

For others that like to know content before purchasing a new read, here is a review I posted elsewhere online:

(I actually quite enjoyed it, once I got my head around the odd, abrupt, switches the author seemed to take in the book .  Perhaps reading it would have been less confusing than listening.  I gave it a 3 out of 5 = would recommend.)

 

Picture Miss Seeton bk.1 ~ Heron Carvic, narrated by Phyllida Nash   

I selected this audiobook due to Phyllida Nash's narration.- perfect. 

 

The story originally started out with a very 'golden era' mystery feel to it.  Miss Seeton is not golden era, she's an elderly, ladylike, spinster in a more modern time who has psychic drawing, as in artistic, powers,  practices yoga, and has an umbrella as her lucky talisman.  

 

Carvic repeatedly refers to "Alice in Wonderland" throughout the book - I eventually made the connection - which explains why the book has a slightly offbeat, Madhatter, tone to it.  

The ending has the same Madhatter feel to it,  it doesn't resolve the question, "What happened to the body in the cupboard?".

 

Extra content others may like to know about before handing to your teen:  Carvic has his villain in the book ruthlessly ending someone's life (I wasn't prepared for it, the author just tossed it down the 'rabbit hole').  The story centres around drugs, their pushers and victims.

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Tuesdays Child

[mumto2]

Kent village of "Plummergen".  She originally starts out in London.

 

Thank you! :). I updated my list. I just want to add that I really can spell Seeton. I fixed it at least twice before I posted. Thought I had it right. Autocorrect won. Seriously why does it change words especially when I have approved them.

 

 

 

Can anyone compare this series to the Louise Penny mysteries? I’m longing for a series but cant seem to find one I like.

Well Flavia and Gamache are both favorite characters of mine. Both series are well written and both draw you into another world that is gentle and lovely even though crime seems to exist disproportionately in their worlds ;). The main thing is Gamache is for adults, no question there, and Flavia can be handed to many young teens with the parents being comfortable. Flavia isn't a children's book or even really YA but it is gentle, my dd loved Flavia as a young teen. There are heavy topics it was always handled in a way that I was good with having a discussion about the topic with dd. If I missed something she wouldn't be traumatised. ;) Flavia is a child genius when the series starts who has very little supervision and is essentially raising herself. Her mother is missing and is assumed to be dead by all except Flavia who still hopes. She spends a great deal of her time in her deceased great uncle's chemistry lab. These books are wonderful. Flavia races down country roads riding her beloved bicycle. The images are rich like in Penny's Gamache. If you decide to try them start with the first one Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Like any series there were one or two I didn't like as well as the rest but I know I loved Sweetness.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

As we were putting on our jackets to head for the airport, I received a call that my flight had been cancelled.  Tomorrow, I try again.

 

This change has left me rather discombobulated, but I've been using this unexpected time to catch up on some long overdue emails.  (And perhaps a chapter or two of an old favorite book ....)

 

Regards,

Kareni

I hope you don't have any more hiccups in your plans.

[Robin M]

New Genevieve Cogman story in the Invisible Library series is coming out this month.  Unbound world's best sci fi and fantasy of January 2018

 

Everything you wanted to know about Kazuo ishiguro.

 

Simon and Schuster's XoXo after dark's e book deals.

 

Tick off color in the title bingo category  with Off the Shelf's list of Own Reading Rainbow 

[Robin M]

Happy New Year!

 

So, as I reported last week, I finished 157 books in 2017. It's less about the number and more about the experience, though, and this year was enhanced by my participation in the "Shakespeare in a Year" project, Robin's War and Peace read-along, and a slew of terrific non-fiction. In short, 2017 is a tough act to follow.

 

While mulling over my reading goals for this year, I stumbled upon a post in which a virtual friend mentioned that turning sixty has made her keenly aware of how finite her reading life is; she chooses books even more carefully now. Her wise insight now informs my own reading choices. I also came up with a short list of reading resolutions for 2018:

1. Read from the shelves.
2. Complete a close reading of Moby Dick. (Yes, I have already read it. More than once. It's worth it.)
3. Reread at least one Vonnegut novel. (I appreciated rereads these past two years but wonder how much of his oeuvre "holds up.")
4. Finish reading several books abandoned in 2017, including Six Four (Hideo Yokoyama), Will in the World (Stephen Greenblatt), and Providence of a Sparrow (Chris Chester). (Yeah, I have been a shamelessly promiscuous reader in the past, but these are good books that didn't deserve to be abandoned.)
5. Read thirty non-fiction titles. (Twenty-six has been my goal in the past. I beat it in 2017, so I've raised the bar.)

My first book of the year was Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro), a family book club selection and a reread for me. Tonight I will finish An Enemy of the People (Henrik Ibsen) -- a selection made in anticipation of seeing Traitor (based on this play) later this winter break and An Enemy of the People over spring break. Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is up next (another family book club selection).

Yep, turning 60 in a couple years and have found myself slowing down a bit more each year with my reading and more selective.  You may find a few folks who haven't read Moby Dick who will enjoy either reading along with you or following your thoughts on the close reading. Such a dense book and so many rabbit trails to follow.  You've twisted my arm (without too much effort - *grin*) to add a select number of non fiction to my goals for this year.  

 

 

 

Great find Robin, but I don’t know these names :)

(= I am not familiar with modern poets)

 

These are more ‘classics’:

http://www.letterenfonds.nl/download.php?file=Dutch-Classics-2012-poetry.pdf

 

This is a famous one:

https://allpoetry.com/The-Mother-The-Woman

Keep this picture in your head while you read it:

http://www.ronaldvandenboogaard.nl/images/stories/fruit/zaltnegen.jpg

(just in case you live in very different environment)

Great minds think alike. I had look at the more classics one and had it in my bookmarks to read more of it.  Very small print.  Oy!   Beautiful poem and thank you for pairing it with the picture of the bridge.  Between the visual and the imagery from the poem, made it very heartfelt.  

 

As we were putting on our jackets to head for the airport, I received a call that my flight had been cancelled.  Tomorrow, I try again.

 

This change has left me rather discombobulated, but I've been using this unexpected time to catch up on some long overdue emails.  (And perhaps a chapter or two of an old favorite book ....)

 

Regards,

Kareni

Glad to hear you didn't get stuck at the airport.  Hope the weather improves for you tomorrow.   :grouphug:

[Robin M]

I finished reading Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball which I thoroughly enjoyed. It isn't badly written at all for his first two novels.  From a writer's point of view, I can see how he came into his style of writing.  It's very nonlinear, jumping in time with an almost stream of consciousness vibe to it.  The two books read like a memoir. Similar his later books, it meanders and introduces topics or goes on tangents that you not quite sure how they fit, but you know they fit anyway. Murakami loads his books with oddball characters which keeps you reading, wanting to know where he is taking you. The narrator's obsession over pinball has an quirky resolution you probably wouldn't find in other stories. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.  

[Guest]

I finished reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

Blah. Nope. Not a favorite, which is hard for me to say, since some friends whom I regard highly loved this book. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It was in Oprah’s Book Club. But for me? No.

[Ottakee]

I finished reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

Blah. Nope. Not a favorite, which is hard for me to say, since some friends whom I regard highly loved this book. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It was in Oprah’s Book Club. But for me? No.

I started that one too and abandoned it. Just didn't do it for me.

[Runningmom80]

 

Thank you! :). I updated my list. I just want to add that I really can spell Seeton. I fixed it at least twice before I posted. Thought I had it right. Autocorrect won. Seriously why does it change words especially when I have approved them.

 

 

 

Well Flavia and Gamache are both favorite characters of mine. Both series are well written and both draw you into another world that is gentle and lovely even though crime seems to exist disproportionately in their worlds ;). The main thing is Gamache is for adults, no question there, and Flavia can be handed to many young teens with the parents being comfortable. Flavia isn't a children's book or even really YA but it is gentle, my dd loved Flavia as a young teen. There are heavy topics it was always handled in a way that I was good with having a discussion about the topic with dd. If I missed something she wouldn't be traumatised. ;) Flavia is a child genius when the series starts who has very little supervision and is essentially raising herself. Her mother is missing and is assumed to be dead by all except Flavia who still hopes. She spends a great deal of her time in her deceased great uncle's chemistry lab. These books are wonderful. Flavia races down country roads riding her beloved bicycle. The images are rich like in Penny's Gamache. If you decide to try them start with the first one Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Like any series there were one or two I didn't like as well as the rest but I know I loved Sweetness.

I will give it a try! You sold me. :)

[Runningmom80]

I finished reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

Blah. Nope. Not a favorite, which is hard for me to say, since some friends whom I regard highly loved this book. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It was in Oprah’s Book Club. But for me? No.

I loved it but none of my friends did! They didn’t connect with the characters.

[PeacefulChaos]

 

 

I am a very new iPad owner so have not mastered much. Dh put the Kindle app on my iPad when setting it up for me and it works with my Overdrive just fine in terms of the books downloading and returning themselves. I haven't actually checked anything out directly to the iPad yet. My fire is all set up and I have been too lazy to move this function over. ;)

 

I always read this thread with tabs open! I was not too thrilled with Cursed Child while reading it but its grown on me. I like having a look on the story continued and am content with it. The many teens in my life who grew up on HP have opinions that are great fun to listen to!

 

For the Blossom Bookology remember if you haven't finished by the end of the month it's fine to just keep working on your flower. Chrysanthemum is possibly the longest one I have tried to spell and I suspect I will run into February. The good news is the flower for February is Rose. So short!

 

 

 

I ended up finishing Cursed Child before bed last night.  It was okay.  As a huge HP fan, it obviously couldn't hold a candle to the originals.  And with it being a play, my issues with the plot holes and the huge jumps in reasoning and the lack of backstory is all explainable, so it doesn't hang me up too much.

 

It's like Harry Potter ultra lite edition.  I'm glad I read it, it's a nice side story arc, but I don't ever plan on reading it again.  :lol:

[SEGway]

Yesterday I started (and finished....there's something about winter that makes me a faster reader, I think...also, more motivated to read voraciously...) Carolyn Weber's Surprised by Oxford. It's like a combination memoir/apologetic (I got that from another reviewer on goodreads) for the author's conversion/faith journey during her first year at Oxford.  It would have benefited from picking one or the other. I liked that she used classic lit as her organizing theme...but, so many conversations sounded more like unfinished essays instead of dialogue. I wanted to like it more than I did. Oh, well. There were some good parts. I'm not sorry I read it. 

 

As soon as I finished that I started Heinlein's Starship Troopers. (No common thread that I can think of...other than they were both on the Kindle and I had been mentally classifying them as TBR sometime in the next fill-in-the-blank months.) This is a re-read, but the last time I read it was more than a decade ago. I'm trying to decide when would be a good time to include it in my required read/discuss pile for the kids. I really like this book. Also...I want to audit a History of Moral Philosophy class. 

[Lady Florida.]

I finished my first two books of 2018 -

 

The Diet Fix - I started this one at the very end of 2017. It's written by a bariatric doctor and based on science plus his experience with his patients. There's probably not a lot that's earth shattering for people who have dieted before, but I haven't so I can say I learned a good bit. I can also say I skipped sections that didn't apply to me. The one thing I didn't care for are his recipes that include protein powder or TVP. 

 

The Two Gentlemen of Verona - This was the first in the Shakespeare in a Year 2018 schedule. I've not seen this one performed and never read it before but I can say it's not a favorite. It was just okay. The best I can say about it is that you can tell it's Shakespeare. I can't really say how, just that there's something about it telling you it's his.

[Runningmom80]

I finished Murder on the Orient Express. Meh. But yay for finishing my first book for 2018!

 

I started “The Artist’s Way.â€

[Penguin]

I finished Murder on the Orient Express. Meh. But yay for finishing my first book for 2018!

 

I started “The Artist’s Way.â€

I read Murder on the Orient Express last year, and wondered what all the fuss was about. Edited January 5, 2018 by Penguin

[Karen A]

Just powered through the end of Prairie Fires (LIW), which I need to get back to the library as someone else has it on hold.  As a life-long Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, not a lot was really new except some of the political and time period things that influenced the family's life and the writing. It was somewhat hard to read as it continued to shatter my illusion of Laura as a perfect role model.  I so wanted her for my best friend when I was growing up in the 70's.  I so wanted every word of the Little House series to be true. 

 

I've done plenty of reading in the last 30 years so I've known for a long time that LIW and family were not perfect, and the books fictionalized. But wow, this book went into more detail on the dysfunction and insecurity that is skipped over in the LH series. It makes me sad what a terribly difficult relationship she and her daughter had, and how unstable Rose Wilder Lane was.

[Raifta]

New Genevieve Cogman story in the Invisible Library series is coming out this month.  Unbound world's best sci fi and fantasy of January 2018

 

 

That was my last bingo book last year and I'm super excited to read the rest of the series.  And excited to check out the link.  I'm getting back into sci fi and fantasy after many years.

 

 

 

 

As soon as I finished that I started Heinlein's Starship Troopers. (No common thread that I can think of...other than they were both on the Kindle and I had been mentally classifying them as TBR sometime in the next fill-in-the-blank months.) This is a re-read, but the last time I read it was more than a decade ago. I'm trying to decide when would be a good time to include it in my required read/discuss pile for the kids. I really like this book. Also...I want to audit a History of Moral Philosophy class. 

 

So I've noticed a lot of talk about Heinlein here recently and I'm curious as DH just got rid of pretty much all his Heinlein.  I think he maybe kept one.  He felt that it really hadn't held up well over the years and was not impressed with the sexist nature of the writing.  Curious as to what others feel about this and whether there's some Heinlein that is to be avoided at all costs but some that is still OK to say, hand to your teenage child and say "Read this!" or if there is just other better stuff out there in that same genre.

 

Welcome ThatBookworkMom!  Can't wait to hear what you think of Ready  Player One.  I thoroughly enjoyed it the first (and second and third) time but I do think that there is a certain age range for readers where it hits a sweet spot.

 

I am not getting much reading done.  If any of you are on the Well Trained Bodies thread, I've joined that one too and I'm doing well with the  exercise but it's causing me to pass out in a dead heap of exhaustion every evening and hence - not much reading.  Plus the students are back at university so the buses are incredibly crowded and I can't even get my book out of my backpack to read on the bus home, which was one of my prime reading times.

 

However the weekend stretches before me without many commitments so I'm going to try to finish the two books I've started.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Raifta

[RootAnn]

So I've noticed a lot of talk about Heinlein here recently and I'm curious as DH just got rid of pretty much all his Heinlein.  I think he maybe kept one.  He felt that it really hadn't held up well over the years and was not impressed with the sexist nature of the writing.  Curious as to what others feel about this and whether there's some Heinlein that is to be avoided at all costs but some that is still OK to say, hand to your teenage child and say "Read this!" or if there is just other better stuff out there in that same genre.

 

Well, I'd preread any Heinlein book before handing it to my kids. There are definitely a LOT of his books that I wouldn't hand to my kids. For upper high school, Starship Troopers is appropriate for us. The Cat Who Walks through Walls (and any of his other Lazarus Long books) - not planning on having my kids read those. Mind candy for me, mostly. There's some pretty good sci fiction/sci fantasy out there, but handful of Heinlein's stuff was pretty break-through at the time.

 

Heinlein's writing includes a lot of moral and religious preaching (of the anti-Catholic & immorality is fun variety), but I'm one of those readers who just like a good read. Heinlein gives that to me. His multiple partner / bisexual / incestuous liaisons were and, in the case of incest, are still, shocking to some. As an adult, I mind it less than some of the stuff I see on the YA shelves these days. All Heinlein is definitely not okay for everyone.

[guilfordlake]

Some of you mentioned SWB's upcoming book and I had completely forgotten I had a digital review copy of it. So I just finished that up yesterday. Like all her work, it was very good. :)

[Guest]

I ended up finishing Cursed Child before bed last night. It was okay. As a huge HP fan, it obviously couldn't hold a candle to the originals. And with it being a play, my issues with the plot holes and the huge jumps in reasoning and the lack of backstory is all explainable, so it doesn't hang me up too much.

 

It's like Harry Potter ultra lite edition. I'm glad I read it, it's a nice side story arc, but I don't ever plan on reading it again. :lol:

When I read Cursed Child, I said it is like Fanfic. I really didn’t like it much, although I liked Albus Severus. Grown-up Ron is a giant idiot. Even Hermione was nothing to write home about. Sigh.

[Violet Crown]

Heinlein's writing includes a lot of moral and religious preaching (of the anti-Catholic & immorality is fun variety), but I'm one of those readers who just like a good read.

If you like good anti-Catholic reads, I'm 2/3 of the way through Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew (1844), one of his "anti-Catholic novels" (the other one being the more famous The Mysteries of Paris, which I'm still trying to get hold of), and it's just fantastic. Besides being nearly 1500 pages of Everything (heiress imprisoned in a madhouse! psychic twins immured in evil convent! wild beast tamer with murderous panther who sells rosaries in his spare time! labor riots! Indian Thuggee stranglers!), in Sue's universe the Jesuits are a secret all-knowing, all-powerful Illuminati who have their tentacles wound into absolutely everything. It makes one wistful for a Church really that administratively competent. If you can find it -- and it isn't easy -- I do recommend it.

 

ETA: Didn't mean the first sentence to sound quite that weird.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Violet Crown

[Lady Florida.]

Just powered through the end of Prairie Fires (LIW), which I need to get back to the library as someone else has it on hold.  As a life-long Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, not a lot was really new except some of the political and time period things that influenced the family's life and the writing. It was somewhat hard to read as it continued to shatter my illusion of Laura as a perfect role model.  I so wanted her for my best friend when I was growing up in the 70's.  I so wanted every word of the Little House series to be true. 

 

I've done plenty of reading in the last 30 years so I've known for a long time that LIW and family were not perfect, and the books fictionalized. But wow, this book went into more detail on the dysfunction and insecurity that is skipped over in the LH series. It makes me sad what a terribly difficult relationship she and her daughter had, and how unstable Rose Wilder Lane was.

 

I'm only about 1/4 of the way through so I have a ways to go. Mine is and Overdrive library loan and as long as I don't turn on the wifi on my Kindle Paperwhite I'll be okay. 

 

I never read any of the books, not for myself, not as homeschool read-alouds. (I also never watched the series but I don't know how closely that followed the books, if at all). That means I'm reading it as an interested outsider and finding it interesting. I think the only reason I was even curious about Prairie Fires is because the LIW books are so popular in homeschool circles. I guess reading about how much of it was whitewashed makes me feel not so guilty about having never read them to ds (or made him read them on his own).

[SEGway]

 

 

So I've noticed a lot of talk about Heinlein here recently and I'm curious as DH just got rid of pretty much all his Heinlein.  I think he maybe kept one.  He felt that it really hadn't held up well over the years and was not impressed with the sexist nature of the writing.  Curious as to what others feel about this and whether there's some Heinlein that is to be avoided at all costs but some that is still OK to say, hand to your teenage child and say "Read this!" or if there is just other better stuff out there in that same genre.

 

I haven't actually read that much Heinlein. I think I read Have Space Ship, Will Travel sometime during high school. But I have no idea what it was about at this point. The only one of his books that I remember reading then was Starship Troopers. I read it again sometime in college (or just after? I can't remember precisely) But, it made my short-ish list of books that will probably get read 3+ times.

 

This time around (as a parent) I was struck (pardon the pun) by all the encouragements toward the absolute necessity of corporal punishment as a means of instilling responsibility. That never stood out to me before. I'm not sure how I missed it...not what I was expecting/remembering. Also, I was more annoyed than previous times at how many times the narrator commented on the "niceness" of females. How it was such a morale booster to be near the reason they were all fighting in the first place. That came across a little more condescending than I remembered. But, not as much as I was prepared to find. 

 

The parts that make it work for me....well, there are a few. I've never had the slightest interest in personally enlisting, but my brother served for more than a decade before being honorably discharged from the USMC. He's tried just a few times to explain the family-ness of what it means to be military. My GrandDad served in the Navy in WW2, and he and my brother have an understanding that no one else can really share. There are so many initial reasons to sign up....but for the people who make it through training...especially the people who make it through combat....there's just a bond that seems almost sacred about that. The descriptions of boot camp and sitting around getting nervous and then complete chaos of battle...this story just somehow makes me feel like I can appreciate my family a bit better. (Hope that doesn't sound as cheesy as I'm afraid it does.) Walter Myers' Fallen Angels did that for me, too, I think. But differently. 

 

I'm also completely intrigued with the idea of a society where the franchise/citizenship is reserved for people who have volunteered for and completed at least a term of military service. This self-selected small percentage of the population have nothing obviously different about them in terms of objective measurements (not intellect, athleticism, health, wealth, etc.)...anyone can join and they will find you something to do if you insist. But, the dearest prize (a say in how the government works) is categorically reserved for those who are willing to pay the greatest cost and have demonstrated this willingness by signing up to protect the group/whole at the risk of individual self. 

 

I like how Heinlein had plenty of females in his military allowed to take risks themselves and gain citizenship, too. No second-class citizens in this book. You either are or you aren't.

 

I found things to take issue with in his mini-essays disguised as dialogue, sometimes...but, I think this book, at least, is going to be a good conversation starter about government, military, just war, and balancing the self-preservation instinct with the "greater good" concept for me with my kids...in a couple of years. :) (dd1 is a 7th grader who could probably read it now, but it wouldn't be her preference, and I think it'll foster better discussions several years down the road.)

 

I can't really speak to any of his other stuff...I think someone probably steered me away from most of what you referenced earlier. 

I think I was maybe handed a few John M. Ford books instead...

Anyone else here read Growing up Weightless? Princes in the Air? Or....Web of Angels? I should find those to re-read, too.

I think I had Heinlein/Ford/Asimov confused in my head for a long time.

(shakes head) I'm sure That's not helpful to anyone else. :)

 

Edited to remove duplicate adjectives. 

Edited January 6, 2018 by SEGway

[eternalsummer]

I haven't actually read that much Heinlein. I think I read Have Space Ship, Will Travel sometime during high school. But I have no idea what it was about at this point. The only one of his books that I remember reading then was Starship Troopers. I read it again sometime in college (or just after? I can't remember precisely) But, it made my short-ish list of books that will probably get read 3+ times.

 

This time around (as a parent) I was struck (pardon the pun) by all the encouragements toward the absolute necessity of corporal punishment as a means of instilling responsibility. That never stood out to me before. I'm not sure how I missed it...not what I was expecting/remembering. Also, I was more annoyed than previous times at how many times the narrator commented on the "niceness" of females. How it was such a morale booster to be near the reason they were all fighting in the first place. That came across a little more condescending than I remembered. But, not as much as I was prepared to find. 

 

The parts that make it work for me....well, there are a few. I've never had the slightest interest in personally enlisting, but my brother served honorably for more than a decade before being honorably discharged from the USMC. He's tried just a few times to explain the family-ness of what it means to be military. My GrandDad served in the Navy in WW2, and he and my brother have an understanding that no one else can really share. There are so many initial reasons to sign up....but for the people who make it through training...especially the people who make it through combat....there's just a bond that seems almost sacred about that. The descriptions of boot camp and sitting around getting nervous and then complete chaos of battle...this story just somehow makes me feel like I can appreciate my family a bit better. (Hope that doesn't sound as cheesy as I'm afraid it does.) Walter Myers' Fallen Angels did that for me, too, I think. But differently. 

 

I'm also completely intrigued with the idea of a society where the franchise/citizenship is reserved for people who have volunteered for and completed at least a term of military service. This self-selected small percentage of the population have nothing obviously different about them in terms of objective measurements (not intellect, athleticism, health, wealth, etc.)...anyone can join and they will find you something to do if you insist. But, the dearest prize (a say in how the government works) is categorically reserved for those who are willing to pay the greatest cost and have demonstrated this willingness by signing up to protect the group/whole at the risk of individual self. 

 

I like how Heinlein had plenty of females in his military allowed to take risks themselves and gain citizenship, too. No second-class citizens in this book. You either are or you aren't.

 

I found things to take issue with in his mini-essays disguised as dialogue, sometimes...but, I think this book, at least, is going to be a good conversation starter about government, military, just war, and balancing the self-preservation instinct with the "greater good" concept for me with my kids...in a couple of years. :) (dd1 is a 7th grader who could probably read it now, but it wouldn't be her preference, and I think it'll foster better discussions several years down the road.)

 

I can't really speak to any of his other stuff...I think someone probably steered me away from most of what you referenced earlier. 

I think I was maybe handed a few John M. Ford books instead...

Anyone else here read Growing up Weightless? Princes in the Air? Or....Web of Angels? I should find those to re-read, too.

I think I had Heinlein/Ford/Asimov confused in my head for a long time.

(shakes head) I'm sure That's not helpful to anyone else. :)

 

 

I've read pretty much all early Heinlein; I don't agree with him about corporal punishment and I think Starship Troopers fails on a number of accounts, including that one.

 

The idea of reserving the right to vote for those who complete military service is a poor argument because it forgets that women, who are both less inclined toward military service and less capable by nature (this is statistical truth, not opinion), also risk the ultimate sacrifice in the perpetuation and preservation of society - childbearing.  

 

Now, I am quite sympathetic to an argument that says government is an essentially masculine role and is therefore reserved to those who demonstrate and participate in biologically masculine endeavors, but that is not quite the argument he makes.  Also, imo, if you're going to limit the franchise to people who have skin in the game - well, many people have skin in the game via taxes, as the two essential functions of government seem to be to make war/respond to aggression and collect taxes.  

 

 

I did like, in Starship Troopers, the idea that a society where everyone is armed is a more polite society.  I don't know that it's true exactly - see the American West, where everyone was armed - and I don't know that you can have both that sort of society and the technological refinements and ease of living that we've come to expect, but it's an interesting idea at least.

 

I think that Heinlein is a very masculine writer (or early Heinlein was anyway, later Heinlein is a disaster of wish-fulfillment orgies), which makes his plotting and idea generation fun to read but his emotional drama kind of nil.  I don't think I've ever read a female character in Heinlein that seemed real at all.  I'm sure there are female writers who can't write men accurately for male readers either, though, and it's not like women are a huge functional part of his writing anyway, so I don't worry about it.

 

 

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a great book and avoids a lot of his more typical pitfalls, imo.

 

All of that said, I still prefer Asimov and esp. Nightfall.

[eternalsummer]

DD and I just read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

 

I am conflicted.  It's a clever idea (the construction of the story) and some of his wordplay is good and occasionally he has a good sense of imagery, but I think really that such a good idea - to write a Holocaust story as a sort of fable told by a child - demands somewhat more lyrical or sensitive writing than he was capable of.

 

I also read a book of Agatha Christie's short stories (with neither Poirot nor Marple!), The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which was great but I think short stories kind of annoy me.  Just when I've gotten used to a character and setting, it's over!

 

Reread Many Waters by L'Engle (getting desperate and rereading from the kids' bookshelves), liked it much less than when I was a kid.  Le Guin's books held up just fine for me as an adult but L'Engle makes me a bit stabby.  I loved them as a kid of course.

 

Reread The Rowan, which I got for DD12 remembering how much I liked it as a kid.  Oops!  Waaaay too early, what was my mom thinking giving me that at 10?  

[PeacefulChaos]

My weight has varied a lot throughout my life and I have struggled with all kinds of eating disorders.  About 5 1/2 years ago I started losing weight slowly and have been in maintenance for several years now.  It's still a terrible struggle for me, but my weight hasn't increased.  

 

I have a trunk filled with clothes that are too big for me.  I am trying to declutter and I made a huge pile of clothes to donate, but it makes me so anxious to get rid of these clothes in case I gain weight back.  I live in constant fear of gaining weight and not being able to fit into my current clothes.  Even if my eating doesn't change, I exercise a LOT and worry that I will end up with an injury or something that keeps me from exercising, which would cause me to gain weight and grow out of my current clothes.  I don't want to have to go out and purchase all new stuff because of the expense and hassle (I hate shopping).  

 

I have the room to keep the clothes and DH thinks I should just do that, but I really want to declutter.  My closet and drawers are stuffed and messy, and it would be nice to transfer the excess to the trunk to make more space.  But it makes me stressed getting rid of the bigger clothes because of the constant fear of gaining the weight back.  I'd feel so guilty if I donated all of this stuff and then needed to replace it.  

 

Anyone have similar experiences?  If so, what did/do you do?  Any advice?  

 

DD and I just read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

 

I am conflicted.  It's a clever idea (the construction of the story) and some of his wordplay is good and occasionally he has a good sense of imagery, but I think really that such a good idea - to write a Holocaust story as a sort of fable told by a child - demands somewhat more lyrical or sensitive writing than he was capable of.

 

I also read a book of Agatha Christie's short stories (with neither Poirot nor Marple!), The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which was great but I think short stories kind of annoy me.  Just when I've gotten used to a character and setting, it's over!

 

 

 

Ah, I've never read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and I was wondering about it.  I've seen the movie - thought it was wonderful (not the right word, but I hope you know what I mean) and had thought of picking the book up from the library one of these times.

 

I'll admit I've never read Agatha Christie.  Now I'm kind of curious, because so many are saying they don't get what the fuss is about.   :lol:  Stuff like that always makes me want to check things out.

 

 

I've also never read any Little House on the Prairie - not growing up, not homeschooling... my SIL loves them, I borrowed one and started it with the kids and we. were. so. bored. :svengo:  Seriously maybe made it a chapter.  But now I'm also curious about the Prairie Fires book (was that what it was called?  I have it pulled up on a tab in the other window somewhere lol...)

 

 

Also, I forgot to quote Quill about HP/Cursed Child, but yes, I agree.  Fanfic is just about right, though thankfully it stayed away from a lot of the content that fanfic seems to love :lol:  ... I didn't care for any of the characters much either.  Harry was ok; I think some people wanted him to grow up to be perfect, but clearly he's never been perfect and I don't see a problem with him having a hard time relating to Albus.  I liked Albus and Scorpius fine; Draco was fine.  But yeah, overall it was meh.

 

 

Anyway, I finished The Residence today and it was pretty entertaining.  I would take a break here and there because sometimes it could get a little repetitive, but this also isn't my usual genre.  In the end I really liked it.  

Edited January 6, 2018 by PeacefulChaos

[eternalsummer]

I didn't get it about Agatha Christie either, but DD12 requested them and so I bought a bunch (boy are they cheap and ubiquitous!) and one day I had nothing to read in the bath so I picked one up, I think The Body in the Library.

 

I just really liked them - not a lot of emotional drama or romantic interest or danger (particularly) but they are satisfying.

[guilfordlake]

 

 

I also read a book of Agatha Christie's short stories (with neither Poirot nor Marple!), The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which was great but I think short stories kind of annoy me.  Just when I've gotten used to a character and setting, it's over!

 

 

I'm not a fan of short stories either for precisely this reason.

[mumto2]

Oh, I'm enjoying Ready Player One. I was born in 1985, so it isn't really my generation, but I do remember enough to still get a lot of the refernces. (I have older siblings, too, which helps. I was exposed to a lot of 80s lore because it held a special place for them.) I'm about 1/4 through.

Edited because spelling.

I loved Ready Player One but have to admit it was written to my generation. ;). I spent my teen years playing Pac Man and Centipede whenever possible. My kids actually liked it also, partly because they had many of the games mentioned on Game boys etc when they were little and also because an early programming class DS took went through Pong etc. They spent hours playing his versions....because they were his first fun programs and they worked.

 

I finished the latest Mary Balogh, Someone to Wed, and enjoyed it. Great escape. I have started The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra and am finding the inspector to be a lovely main character. I plan to start reading my Murakami's later today or tomorrow.

 

I am back to quilting intensely for this years exhibit. I need to see if it is even possible to finish my planned quilt before the deadlines so am giving the project January. If it isn't going well at the end of the month I will have time for something less complicated. I also discovered Grey's Anatomy is free on my prime(UK) this month so have been watching TV for a change of pace while I quilt (hand piecing not machine). The original Dark Shadows is also free right now......I have been watching those too. I was never allowed as a child so it finally getting to see what all the fuss was about. My audio book hasn't received much attention.

[Runningmom80]

I didn't get it about Agatha Christie either, but DD12 requested them and so I bought a bunch (boy are they cheap and ubiquitous!) and one day I had nothing to read in the bath so I picked one up, I think The Body in the Library.

 

I just really liked them - not a lot of emotional drama or romantic interest or danger (particularly) but they are satisfying.

I passed MotOE on to my 11 year old DS I think he will love it!

[Robin M]

Hello! I'm new here, but I can already tell we're going to be good friends. I can't believe I haven't been in here before, but there's no time like the present, right?

 

I don't have many goals for this year, reading-wise, and I don't think I'm going to try a challenge just yet, but I'm looking forward to the read along(s?) referred to upthread. I'm sorry I missed War and Peace last year. My goals include establishing a study reading half hour in the mornings (currently working on The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian, alternating with Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie) and actually tracking what I read in my journal. I think I've already missed a few.

 

So far this year, I've finished Voyager and The Exile, both by Diana Gabaldon. I intend to finish the Outlander series this winter. I didn't love The Exile, but I will admit to being a hard sell on graphic novels generally. It was interesting to see a possible rendering of the characters, especially since I haven't seen the show. I loved Voyager, and I eagerly await Drums in Autumn from the library.

 

Current read is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I know nothing about this book save the fact that Jean in Newcastle recommended it to me.

 

For audiobooks, I just finished The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron. This is a YA sci-fi, cleverly done and excellently narrated. I tagged it for a relisten sometime, which is rare indeed. It concerns a society, enclosed in a walled city for their protection, subject to a Forgetting every 12 years. To deal with this, each citizen keeps a book tethered to them, to record their lives in and hold their memories against the next Forgetting. But Nadia the Dyer's daughter hasn't forgotten, and she has questions. Thoroughly fun listen.

 

Current audiobook is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, with a full cast narration. I read this first, and couldn't resist when I saw the full cast production. I think Neil Gaiman himself voices Silas.

Welcome to our book party! So glad you decided to join in.  I consumed the whole Outlander series last year. Quite a fascinating storyline.  

 

 

Yesterday I started (and finished....there's something about winter that makes me a faster reader, I think...also, more motivated to read voraciously...) Carolyn Weber's Surprised by Oxford. It's like a combination memoir/apologetic (I got that from another reviewer on goodreads) for the author's conversion/faith journey during her first year at Oxford.  It would have benefited from picking one or the other. I liked that she used classic lit as her organizing theme...but, so many conversations sounded more like unfinished essays instead of dialogue. I wanted to like it more than I did. Oh, well. There were some good parts. I'm not sorry I read it. 

 

As soon as I finished that I started Heinlein's Starship Troopers. (No common thread that I can think of...other than they were both on the Kindle and I had been mentally classifying them as TBR sometime in the next fill-in-the-blank months.) This is a re-read, but the last time I read it was more than a decade ago. I'm trying to decide when would be a good time to include it in my required read/discuss pile for the kids. I really like this book. Also...I want to audit a History of Moral Philosophy class. 

The moral philosophy class sounds interesting.  Are there specific books they recommend reading?

 

I finished Murder on the Orient Express. Meh. But yay for finishing my first book for 2018!

 

I started “The Artist’s Way.â€

Is that Julia Cameron's Artist Way?  If so, I've read it twice as well as the Right to Write.  Vein of Gold is sitting on my shelves but not sure when I'll get to it. 

 

DD and I just read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

 

I am conflicted.  It's a clever idea (the construction of the story) and some of his wordplay is good and occasionally he has a good sense of imagery, but I think really that such a good idea - to write a Holocaust story as a sort of fable told by a child - demands somewhat more lyrical or sensitive writing than he was capable of.

 

I also read a book of Agatha Christie's short stories (with neither Poirot nor Marple!), The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which was great but I think short stories kind of annoy me.  Just when I've gotten used to a character and setting, it's over!

 

Reread Many Waters by L'Engle (getting desperate and rereading from the kids' bookshelves), liked it much less than when I was a kid.  Le Guin's books held up just fine for me as an adult but L'Engle makes me a bit stabby.  I loved them as a kid of course.

 

Reread The Rowan, which I got for DD12 remembering how much I liked it as a kid.  Oops!  Waaaay too early, what was my mom thinking giving me that at 10?  

We have The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and will be reading it this year.  We just finished The Boy on the Wooden Box which I highly recommend and is excellent .  It opened my son's eyes as to how people were treated during the war.  We'd only read wwII books about Hitler and the other players so he hadn't had a real up close and personal view of how people managed to survive while all those around them were being killed. 

 

Ah, I've never read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and I was wondering about it.  I've seen the movie - thought it was wonderful (not the right word, but I hope you know what I mean) and had thought of picking the book up from the library one of these times.

 

I'll admit I've never read Agatha Christie.  Now I'm kind of curious, because so many are saying they don't get what the fuss is about.   :lol:  Stuff like that always makes me want to check things out.

I have totally enjoyed Agatha Christie's book. They are more police procedurals and who done's it versus action packed murder which is a nice break from some books.  I love the twists and turns and sometimes I know right away who done it and enjoy seeing how the detective figures it out and other times I'm totally clueless so it's always a grand surprise.  As with every author, there are going to be some clunkers.  I really liked The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as well as The Mysterious Affair at Styles.  I joined a perpetual challenge a few years back and read two or three a year.  

[Carol in Cal.]

I finished 'Swedish Death Cleaning' and recommend it.

It's a gentle, clear book on the rationale and methods for decluttering for yourself and for your family, later in life.

I liked the personal examples and the tone, which reminded me of a sort of ideal great-grandmother.

 

Now I am reading my first LIBRARY book in years--Lisa See's "The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane".

[Robin M]

Audible is celebrating Frankenstein turning 200 this year with a list of books for  Celebrating Women in Sci-Fi & Horror.  Awesome list of books!

 

Lit hub's highlighting 35 Literary Adaptions for 2018.  Lots of books to read and compare to the movies.  I'm looking forward to Area X.

 

As always Brain Pickings is an awesome source and leads to many rabbit trails for book and poet selections  - today's Wonders of Possibility 

 

Deep thoughts for the day - The Conversation's:  H.G. Wells vs. George Orwell: Their debate whether science is humanity’s best hope continues today.

[Runningmom80]

 

Is that Julia Cameron's Artist Way?  If so, I've read it twice as well as the Right to Write.  Vein of Gold is sitting on my shelves but not sure when I'll get to it. 

 

 

Yes!  I really like it so far. :)

[guilfordlake]

I started American Gods (the book) last night. Has anyone here read the book and seen the TV series? I only read the first chapter and then stopped because I thought it sounded like a TV show Dh and I might want to watch together. But if the book is much better than the show, maybe I won't mention it to Dh.

[Robin M]

I started American Gods (the book) last night. Has anyone here read the book and seen the TV series? I only read the first chapter and then stopped because I thought it sounded like a TV show Dh and I might want to watch together. But if the book is much better than the show, maybe I won't mention it to Dh.

I've read the book and while it was different, I liked it.   I haven't watched the TV Series. I've seen video clips from the tv show and same as The Game of Thrones, I can't handle the visuals, so won't be watching it.  

[guilfordlake]

I've read the book and while it was different, I liked it.   I haven't watched the TV Series. I've seen video clips from the tv show and same as The Game of Thrones, I can't handle the visuals, so won't be watching it.  

Hmmm, I will have to look for some clips. 

[Critterfixer]

I finished The Arkansas War by Eric Flint tonight. I wasn't really hooked. I never got attached to the characters because there were so many, and whenever something interesting would happen, the setting would shift back to Washington and the politics of the day. Even the setting left a lot to be desired. But I did finish it, and if one enjoys alternative history, it would suit.

However, for a die-hard fantasy person, I didn't think it belonged on the fantasy shelf in the library where I found it. I feel in need of something with crazy, mad magic to follow it, preferably with a single POV or two, in third-person, with close narration and some stellar world building complete with three pages of maps and an index of magical language in the back. :laugh:

Edited January 7, 2018 by Critterfixer

[Critterfixer]

Have never seen the series for American Gods. I really liked the book.

[Carol in Cal.]

OMGosh, finished The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, and it's exquisitely well written.  Loved it, and that's a wrap for the week.  Wow!  Starting the new year RIGHT!

[Joules]

I'm back and getting my first post in under the wire.  I started strong last year, but ended up in the hospital the end of February.  You'd think that would give lots of time to read, but the meds and the stress made that difficult, so I moved to watching TV series last year and stopped keeping track of books.  I'm moving back into the workforce full time so most of what reading I've done has been technical stuff.

 

I haven't read anything yet this year (unless this thread counts!!), but I'm pulling out my old lists and a long list from ds to pick my first of the year.  See y'all in the next thread!

[Lady Florida.]

OMGosh, finished The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, and it's exquisitely well written.  Loved it, and that's a wrap for the week.  Wow!  Starting the new year RIGHT!

 

That's good to hear. I have it on my TBR list and hope to get to it later this year.

[Robin M]

Link to week two  - please continue conversation in new thread