Mary's comments (member since Nov 10, 2008)

Mary's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

I am reading Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It is laugh out loud hilarious.

The only copy I could find though has the stupid movie cover. i just try to ignore it.

These are just a few random books that are 5-stars for me:


Angle of Repose
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
My Antonia
Gilead A Novel
Cold Sassy Tree
The Poisonwood Bible
Life of Pi

I do all the same things the rest of you guys do. When I go on a trip I have to take several books because I could be in different situations. I need a book I can read if there is a lot distraction around me and one for reading before going to sleep, something light, something thought provoking. And I can never pass by the airport bookstore, even though I know I could get any book I buy cheaper somewhere else.

Two remarks I love:
"most likely next" pile (sounds so much more refined than to be read)
also "books and shoes; what else do you need?". (Another good t-shirt idea) :)

I did not know how to say hyperbole until recently. I knew what it meant, and if I read it I would think hyper-bowl, but knew somehow that was wrong. And I would avoid ever saying it. It is actually one of favorite words now. Yes, I have favorite words. Epitome and brilliant being two of them!
My biggest problem with hyperbole and some other words is where to put the emphasis.

10 colours of clothes you just never put on:

1. Orange
2. Brown
3. Light blue (baby blue)
4. Lime green

I've ordered Outlander; hope it gets here soon! Why it has to take more time for free shipping is frustrating but I think it saves a lot of money in the long run. I am always going to be ordering more than $25!

Oops, made a mistake about "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"; the book I'd really like an opinion about is "The Book of Lost Things". Did anyone find it explicit and/or gory? Sometimes it is just what kind or how much of explicit and gory there is.

These are a few of the books I am sure I wouldn't have known about if not for TNBBC. Now my TBR pile is getting even more out of control:

I capture the castle- Dodie Smith
Carter beats the Devil-Glen David Gold
The Magic of Ordinary Days-Ann Howard Creel
The Things they Carried-Tim O'Brien
the Outlander Series---these have been mentioned so many times I must check it out.

I also looked at Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; but a couple of reviews say it is explicit and hard core. Is that true?

Because a man wrote it and I just don't understand him at all.

Why do people think spray tans look good? or real?

I have had a really good reading week. I must not have done something I should have...I wonder what that is?

I read Left to Tell Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly! Phew! Love it!

I just finished Diving Bell about an hour ago. I watched the movie a couple of weeks ago and the story is so gripping. I really wonder how much seeing the movie affected my feelings about the book but of course there is no way to know. I loved the movie and the book.

Now I have to decide what to read next. If I learned anything from the 3 books this week it is to be grateful that I have so many choices.

Every time I buy a new electronic gadget a new version comes out the next day. I was torn between the Sony and the Kindle; but did someone mention that the Sony is not mac-compatible?

Does anyone know if there is going be new version of the Kindle in the near future? (If I buy one there will be for sure) I'd have to back order it so it doesn't really matter at this point but I guess I just want to know if someone out there knows about the future Kindle.

I am just wondering what a 'moody reader' is. Wouldn't that describe a lot of us?

1st line of the introduction:

"I heard the killers call my name."

1st line of chapter 1:

"I was born in paradise."

My brain is a blur from reading all the comments so far...maybe I should have written BEFORE reading. Totally funny with the Darcy/Mr. Thornton tangent...and Mr. Thornton wins hands down. In my opinion. Darcy-Dawsey; coincidence? ;)
Probably.

So, I loved the book. I had to get past the whole letter thing because it always bugs me that all these different people write in basically the same voice, but once I stopped noticing the letters so much and just read it I was hooked.

Right when I was feeling like the book was kind of predictable I was surprised by Elizabeth's death and also the way she died. Her death actually made the book more credible for me. I loved all of the zany characters; most were really lovable. I wanted to get to know Dawsey more but after reading about the circumstances surrounding the author (that caught me by surprise too) maybe there would have been more about him, maybe not. He was so distant...just wanted to fall in love with him too. Does that make any sense?

One part bugged me and it bugs when it happens in other books too. It is when the little children are just so dang adorable and can do no wrong; even when they are doing wrong. Kit was just too cute. That is the cynical side of me.

When Juliet writes about the children being sent away is a total heart-breaker though.

"How did the mothers of Guernsey live, not knowing where their children were?I can't imagine."

phew, longest comment I've ever made. Criticisms aside I must say I really did love this book!

And I want to get a t-shirt that says "reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones"

I am half way and I love it.

Really interesting comment, I know.

Go ahead and call them babies...that's how we all feel about our precious books.

I've had to learn the hard way and I just bite my tongue and do not offer to loan a book. It's so tempting because I want to share in the experience and be able to talk about it, etc.. I can't even remember how many have gone missing.

We've got to take care of our babies!

1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
2. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
11. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
12. The Gawgon and the Boy by Lloyd Alexander
13. Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
14. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
15. A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, by Tiziano Terzani
16. Dissolution, by C.J. Sansom
17. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
18 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
20. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
21. Blindness - Jose Saramago
22. The Giver - Lois Lowry
23. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
24. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
27. Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovski
28. The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
29. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
30. The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien
31. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
32. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
33. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
34. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
35. Little Women-Louisa May Alcott
36. The Island - Victoria Hislop
37. The Crown Conspiracy - Michael J. Sullivan
38. House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
39. Time and Again - Jack Finney
40. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams
42. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
43. Mistress of the Art of Death - Arianna Franklin
44. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
45. Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
46. Book of Lost Things by Connolly
47. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
48. Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Carrell
49. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
50. Just one look by Harlan Coben
51. Water For Elephants by Saru Gruen
52. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
54. Mahabharata by R. Rajagopalachari
55. Straight Man by Richard Russo
56. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
57. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
58. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
59. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
60. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
61. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
62. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
63. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
64. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Rubio
65. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
66. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
67. These Is My Words - Nancy Turner
68. Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
69. What is the What - Dave Eggers
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
71. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
72. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb
73. Written On The Body - Jeanette Winterson
74. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
75. Howards End - E.M. Forster
76. Endurance- Alfred Lansing

Welcome! I am a huge fan of Barbara Kingsolver as well.

Have you ever read anything by Anne Tyler? She has written quite a few books and I really enjoy her way with dealing with ordinary situations in a non-ordinary way. I love to read about quirky people. They are all relatively quick reads too.

I really love TNBBC, but it is really cutting into my reading time. :))))

I thought this would be great idea for a thread...but I don't know how do to that exactly so I'm so glad to see it here! I am in tears right now because I've lost my $30 gift card to Borders (given to me by my children). :((((((((( I am afraid it got tossed with all the wrapping paper, etc. I even went through all the garbage trying to find it. sigh...

And I got "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". I just watched the movie and really want to read the book. There is "which is best; the movie or the book" to worry about, but I am excited to read it anyway.

So I think I will go cry some more about my gift card. I know I am telling this to people who understand.

I would love to discuss the awfulness together. is there actually a place to do that? Without being thrown out of the group? :D