Dottie's comments (member since Sep 24, 2008)

Dottie's comments from the Books on the Nightstand group.

Tressa - had exactly the same reaction to Olive but I think the author did a fantastic job in getting us to realize Olive's needs as well. I kind of felt when I was finished that I knew the entire community through Olive - kind of Our Town like.

And I am glad you are liking The Book Thief. It's one of my favorites.

A recent read that I really enjoyed was Pete Dexter's Spooner - was surprised to find that it was at least in part autobiographical - I have been trying ever since I read it to characterize Spooner in my mind. Limited boundaries but more than that - no concept of consequences. But I thought it was one of the funniest books I have read in ages.

Dottie M.

Have a terrible memory so my apologies if these have been talked about on the blog but I love Kate Atkinson's writing in general and especially enjoy her series that begins with Case Histories and includes One Good Turn and When Will There be Good News - but I would recommend anything of hers.

dottie M.

A suggestion for everyone who is requesting books and being overwhelmed when they all show up at once. Check and see if your library system allows you to "freeze" requests (our system actually puts little icicles on the line). That allows me to put in a request when I see a book I want to read (and will forget about the next day) and freeze some of the requests so they don't all come in at once. As I return one or two, I can then go back in and unfreeze the next set of requests. It does mean that you may get it a little later - but while interlibrary loan is the best thing that ever happened for library borrowers, it is a lot of work for the staff. In these days of reduced library budgets and staff, it seems sad to have them doing the work when you aren't getting any benefit from it.

dottie m.

Tanya wrote: "Tanya wrote: "Anyway, I'm pretty much avoiding finishing Her Fearful Symmetry (by Audrey Niffenegger.) I won't officially DNF it for at least another two weeks, during which I'll clean my house, my..."
Not exactly books but I am so jealous of you getting to the Oregon Shakespeare festival. We came across country a couple of years ago and spent a week there and it was one of my favorite trips. And they have several book stores in town so a trip is urged for all enthusiastic readers.
dottie m.

I am not John but thought maybe I could chime in - one of my book groups read City of Thieves a couple months ago and it was one of the few books that we have read that everyone really liked. The premise is interesting. Two people - a soldier and a young fire spotter in Leningrad during the siege are arrested and instead of being shot as expected, they are given an opportunity to find a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake - in a city where people are starving to death. The author is a screen writer and at one level this is a great buddy flick but he does a terrific job of letting you see what it was like and at the same time using humor to make it palatable.

Dottie M.

Ann - Kateri - I just watched Nobody's Fool for the second (or maybe 4th) time this weekend. It's one of my favorites but I think the book was richer - entire plot segments/characters are omitted for time reasons. But I think his most humorous was Straight Man - that one had laugh out loud segments and his new one - That Old Cape Magic has a very funny segment.

Dottie M.

Want to recommend a non-fiction book - The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. It reads like a novel and is an account of a case in 1860 that both began the use of forensic science and pretty much ended the career of a Scotland yard detective. The Detective - Jonathan Whicher - was the inspiration for Sgt Cuff in the Moonstone and influenced a number of other fictional detectives. Really worth reading.
Dottie M.

Amy - I also enjoyed That Old Cape Magic. Russo is one of my favorite authors but I also just read new books from two of my favorite southern authors - I think I would classify them both as southern fables. Michael Malone's The Four Corners of the Sky is kind of a romantic caper book and Pat Conroy's South of Broad is just Pat Conroy doing what he does. I kept thinking all the way through - while I really enjoyed it - that I didn't believe in the central character but at the end of the book he kind of tells you that he is just storytelling. Both worth reading I thought

dottie m

you wrote: books by narrator- for example, books narrated by animals - I am reading "The Art of Racing in The Rain" right now, and find it charming from the dogs perspective, do you know of any others?

Try Dog on it by Spencer Quinn (actually Peter Abrahams). It is a Bernie and Chet mystery - narrator is Chet who is a dog.

dottie

Libby - depends on what you like. I have read all of them and think I might start with Nobody's Fool but his first three (Mohawk and Risk Pool are the other two) are all set in the same area (blue collar upstate NY) with the same kind of people. I think Nobody's Fool is a bit more sophisticated than the earlier two but he said that he has a special fondness for Risk Pool. His books almost always have a strong father character (the last one being an exception) and they are mostly based on his father. He was writing Risk Pool when his father died.

dottie m

Ann - I was at Porter Square Books. I wish they were just a bit closer as they have a great author program. This week Jonathan Tropper will be there - I think we had a discussion of his books on this site a few weeks ago.

Dottie

Had the opportunity to hear Richard Russo read from his new book - That Old Cape Magic - and am torn between can't wait to read it and want to enjoy the anticipation before I read it since it will be long time before another one and he is one of my favorite authors. If you haven't read his work, you should really try him. I loved Nobody's Fool and thought Straight Man was one of the funniest books I have ever read and he got the Pulitzer for Empire Falls.

dottie M

Have been reading You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr which I am enjoying very much - a book about literature and its importance and the importance of being yourself. But the Library called yesterday to say that the last Donald Westlake - Get Real - had come in and I have to admit I stopped and am half way through that. I love the Dortmunder books and since this is the last one ever, I feel like I should be doing something ceremonial while I am reading it.
Dottie M.

Shona - loved the Book of Joe (he reminds me of the guy version of Elinor Lipman). Have read them all and enjoyed them although the last one "how to talk to a widower" was beginning to feel a bit repetitious.
Dottie M.

Bobbi - did you know there is a book related "take your book group to Guernsey" contest going on. If you want to enter, here's the website:

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey...

dottie M.

On the question of changes between books and movies - did anyone see The Orchid Thief? I think they just bought the name on that one. I think when the authors take the money, they totally lose control - unless there are some very tight contract specifications.

dottie m

I don't know if it gets to be called a pairing if three books are involved but my favorite linked reading was West with the Night by Beryl Markham, Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and White Mischief by James Fox. They are all about the same group of people - Kenya in the days of the empire - from three different points of view. My favorite fun fact is that both Beryl Markham and Karen Blixen said that Dennis Finch Hadden was headed to them when his plane went down.

dottie M.

Graceann - totally off any subject, I wondered if you were aware of the book by P. L. Whitney (writes mysteries as Polly Whitney) called This is Graceanne's Book? I read it quite a while ago and enjoyed it but I do warn anyone that has Oprah problems that this is a plot she would have liked - strong girl overcomes problems.

dottie

Stephanie - wanted to weigh in as well on House of Sand and Fog. I think that is one of the most powerful books I have read and we had the delightful opportunity to host Andre Dubus III at our local library last week. I have never worked with an author who connects so completely with his audience and in hearing him talk about his life you understand why he has such empathy for those people he describes as being on the edge of life and making some very bad choices. His new book is The Garden of Last Days and - like House of Sand and Fog - deals with people who are coping with the result of their bad decisions.

Dottie M.

Shannon - good luck in finding/starting a book club. I absolutely love mine. The thing about guidelines is that every club is different - I work with three (have worked with an addition 4 in the past) and none are exactly the same. What has been successful for me is finding a way for everyone to have input to selecting the books (lots of different ways to do that), making sure that everyone has an opportunity to talk - shutting down the people who can't stop talking is always an issue - and making sure that everyone's opinions are respected. And since all of the groups that I work with are collected from people who want to talk about books rather than friends looking for an excuse to get together, we try to keep the discussion mostly on the books. Once people get to know each other, there will be a need for some personal time - that works well at the beginning to let everyone catch up. One of my groups meets in a store and one of the members selects a local restaurant and everyone who wants to have more chat time, goes to supper before the meeting. I always do some background research on the author (love the web for that - when I started I had to go to the library in the next town and go through lots of books to find this information), send along any links for especially good interviews with my e-mail reminder on when we are meeting, and I always send a wrap up e-mail. This is just a couple of paragraphs highlighting how people felt about the book, any new titles that were suggested by the discussion - that kind of thing. It allows the people who didn't make the meeting to stay connected. There are several people attached to both the groups I lead that seldom if ever make it to the meetings but they like to read the books we are reading and hear what others think about them - so I guess we have a quasi on-line group incorporated into the actual meetings. And - as I said in an earlier note on this - we do related activities outside the actual meetings like trips to author readings and book stores. There are several books on starting book groups and lots more on selecting what to read. The Reading Group Handbook by Rachel Jacobsohn is a good place to start and I am fond of Book Lust for choices. I also subscribe to BookMarks and the on-line BookBrowse and find them very helpful. One rule for all my groups is that we don't read books until they are available in the library and in paperback so the lists of just published make us salivate but we don't select them.

dottie m.