Summer's comments
(member since Jun 04, 2008)
Summer's comments from the Books on the Nightstand group.
(showing 1-20 of 46)
I'm going to check out the Bittman book.
I'm catching up on podcasts I've missed. I've enjoyed reading Michael Pollan's books and columns in the past. I just wanted to point out that The Botany of Desire A Plant's-Eye View of the World is now on PBS. I recommend it.
http://www.pbs.org/thebotanyofdesire/
My favorite picture book is We Were Tired of Living in a House, but my two-year-old nephew prefers The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Yummy Yucky, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Where the Wild Things Are.
This probably isn't any help since I haven't read much adolescent self-help, but Stargirl promotes a positive, it's okay to be different ideal. (Though it has a bit of a romance, you may not want that). I would ask your librarian.
Blind Man is still in print and I can say it's worth the purchase!"
I found a copy on betterworldbooks.com. I'm trying to go the used route as often as possible. I figure it's a savings all around, though I guess it doesn't support the author very well. I suppose my conscience and I will have to figure that out.
Michael wrote: "It's such a great book Summer, I hope you love it all the way through!"
Indeed, I did. Unfortunately, my cooperative library system doesn't have A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You Stories. I think her style would shine even more in the short story format. Away felt episodic, like a bunch of short stories strung together.
Michael, in this podcast, you mentioned Away by Amy Bloom. I'm reading it now and I'm loving it thus far. Thank you!
In the latest podcast, Michael and Ann seem to confess that poetry intimidates them.
I like poetry, but I don't consider myself well read. I tend to gorge on a few poets. I dig Dylan Thomas, Pablo Neruda, Aphra Behn and recently discovered Alden Nowlan. I'm looking forward to reading more of him, trying to select a volume now.
I'm going to check out one of the anthologies recommended by Schiavo.
I subscribe to a daily newsletter from the Writer's Almanac. http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
**I write a bit, too. I posted one of my poems here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/7855...
Stephanie wrote: "I had the book Fun Home on my reading list, and upon checking the catalog at my local library I was very disappointed to see it was located in the graphic novel section."
My local library shelved it in the section with the biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs where it belongs.
I had a terrible time with Ulysses. Ulysses and Tale of Two Cities are two books I doubt I'll ever finish.
Books On The Nightstand: Difficult (but Necessary) Reading
Posted: 13 Mar 2009 02:00 AM PDT
By Michael
In episode 26 of the podcast, Ann and I discussed books that had been sitting patiently on our shelves and that we finally got around to reading. I gushed and raved over The Book Thief and mentioned that, even though I hadn't read Night by Elie Wiesel, I imagined The Book Thief was similar in its power.
I was getting into bed the other evening and noticed Night sitting on the bookshelf near my nightstand. (Yes, I actually have a bookcase next to my bed - so why are there still piles on the floor?) Night has been sitting on that shelf since it was published in a new translation back in 2006. I decided the time was right to read the book.
I'm only half-way through, but it's easy to see why this book has endured and has been so acclaimed. The book is shocking in its horrors, and rightly so. It brings the holocaust to life in a way I haven't encountered since I visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. (An unbelievable experience. If you've never been, and the Holocaust is something you want to know more about, I highly recommend it.)
Here's my question to all of you wonderful readers out there: What else should I read on this subject? I've read Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl and Maus. There's also a new book out called Every Man Dies Alone that's getting amazing reviews, so I may have to pick that one up too. What else?
I recently read:
A fiction one you might try is:
I use Goodreads and have a solution for for books which you did not yet finish. You can create a shelf and "make it exclusive." I call mine "on-hold."
I resolve to finish at least five of the ten books that I started and lost interest in or returned to the library unfinished.
I am beginning with The Flea Palace.
Fair warning: Possible spoilers ahead!
I think that The Time Traveler's Wife and The Sparrow are akin in that the fantastical setting of the stories (time & space travel, respectively) is less important than the enormous issues faced by the characters. The Sparrow also has a strong spiritual thread, but it isn't defined by that.
I found The Time Traveler's Wife very interesting to me at the time (I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler) because Claire has this line where she accuses Henry of turning her weird. You see, he knows future Claire, so he knows who she'll become, what her likes and dislikes are. Should he really be telling her, before she tastes coffee, how she will eventually like it fixed? I found myself at the time thinking of my grandmother, who is forgetting who she was, what her likes and dislikes are. Ought we remind her, or just let her be?
But what else can we call a novel in which one of the main characters travels through time?
Dottie, I've only read AS Byatt's Possession. I loved "LaMotte's" fairy stories in it. Are any more of Byatt's works along those lines?
I should start out by saying that I enjoy science fiction and fantasy books, but I know the genre(s) are not for everyone. AND I third the recommendation for The Sparrow. Great pick!
I’d like to mention The Time Traveler's Wife. I feel that is accessible for non-science fiction readers. It’s so hard for me to discuss this book without fawning or mentioning spoilers. Yes, there is a time traveler, but it is the least tech-y science fiction possible and is most of all a love story of two people who are devoted to one another despite incredibly unusual circumstances.
I tend to favor really long, preferably multi-volume, epic stories like Dune, Hyperion, and the Otherland series by Tad Williams (City of Golden Shadow Vol. 1) which I think are less accessible for non-science fiction readers. I also love reading retellings of fairy tales (Enchantmentby Orson Scott Card was very well done) and young adult fantasy (The Time Quartet Box Set by Madeline L’Engle is a classic favorite and Abarat, Book 1: Abarat by Clive Barker is a new discovery).
I added some links and you are welcome to click my "ft-sf-f" shelf if you want more recommendations.
I think you'd like it, Ann. It's a whodunit.
Ann, one of my regrets is that I passed on the opportunity to see L'Engle when she came to a nearby bookstore. I was afraid of turning into hopelessly gushing nerd-Or worse, crying. I love her Time Quartet. Really, I mean, I LOVE it. Feeling that it was ok to have an imagination and was perhaps good to be a little different got me through some tough moments during my adolescence. (I've read most of her other books, too.) Not that she needed my gratitude, but I wimped out for sure. Eh, such is life, right?
Phantom Tollbooth is a great book, five-star, IMO. I read it for the first time when I was a teenager; I was old enough to understand some of Juster’s excellent word play. Later, I read it aloud to someone I love when she was in grade school. She is dyslexic and I wanted her to experience what reading was like. I picked it because it had enough action and dialogue to not drag, but was long enough to be substantial. It was a smashing success. If you ever come across Juster again, please tell him thank you. I also really enjoyed The Dot and the Line A Romance in Lower Mathematics.
Two childhood favorites that have held up well for me are:
and 
