Molly's comments (member since Oct 06, 2008)

Molly's comments from the Constant Reader group.

Jonathan wrote: "It helps to imagine that you are Yoda from the Star Wars movies and start putting verbs at the end of your sentences just because it cool sounds..."

Hahahaha! I'm glad you didn't mention this before I read your book or I would have had nothing but the image of Yoda narrating it for me the entire time ;0)

"Manipulative, he was. Trust him they will."

Sherry - I thought that was a terrific way to bridge the modern reader to the past. Especially by placing it near the end of the book - gave lots of food for thought.

Ruth wrote: "Sherry, I remember that quote by Goering. It sent chills down my spine."

It struck me as sounding an awful lot like the last administration's whole WMD fiasco and those who were hesitant to climb on board:

"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and then denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

Andrea wrote: "I haven't actually finished the book, but am enjoying it so much I had to jump in. I know next to nothing about art really, although along with the rest of the world, I've always enjoyed Vermeer. ..."

Actually - I would say that A Million Little Pieces WAS about an addict's experiences - with some other people's experiences thrown in to make things more exciting. Disappointing. However, the author was in rehab and I still believe his emotional descriptions were incredibly real, regardless of the reality of all the events involved. But I get the point you are making. Forger or Frey, they were all successful in duping the public for a time.

I am just about finished up with the book. I really wish there had been some type of "key" listing all the various people's names and who they each were - I had a very hard time keeping track of all the Vans and Vons. Not to mention I know nothing of the art world so having a guide to refer to while reading would have been helpful to me.

I really enjoyed the portions referring to his arrest, "incarceration" if you could call the part spent in the museum that (that was absolutely ridiculous!), and his trial. It seems those sections were most engaging because Jonathan had so much actual documentation to work with in his research - what was actually said, photos of people and places (the one of him creating his Vermeer fake while under arrest was incredible), etc. It allowed for the story to become entertaining through the realities rather than having to suppose or estimate what may have been going on during much of the middle section.

I'm more a fan of NF that reads like fiction (think Devil In The White City or Monsters of Florence) which this tended towards but overall was more what I would consider traditional NF. It would have been interesting to see Piller's story paralleled with Van Meegren's - insight into his life was quite interesting to me. But the writing was wonderful and taught me much about something I knew nothing of before.

carol (akittykat) wrote: "I found first graders just learning to read would be enthralled with mystery books. "

Now that you mention that, I do recall a 1st grade classroom I visited as a student teacher once near Halloween that was completely entrhalled with the ghost stories the teacher read to them from a collection of short "spooky" stories. The thrill of mysteries would get their imaginations going as well and perhaps get them to seek out similar books.

Since there are a lot of educators, parents and book lovers here in Constant Reader I thought I would share a post I recently provided to the website LifeSnips.

It contains tips to motivate children to read. I'd love to know any other ideas the group has on that topic - share your thoughts on the article for future readers to learn from too.

Just checked it out of the library over the weekend. Hope to get to it in a few days.

Throwing on my overalls and going barefoot a la Scout.

Sherry wrote: "Thanks for the heads-up. I expect the high school will be mobbed. I'll look into it. My daughter is even a bigger fan of Kingsolver than I am."

It was originally scheduled to take place at Malaprops but it was moved to the H.S. - I think it might be sold out now though.

Suzanne wrote: "I am on the last few pages of 'The Poisonwood Bible' and find myself stunned and immeasurably moved by this work. ..."

I'm not sure where you are located but if you are anywhere near Asheville, NC Barbara Kingslover is appearing at the high school there next week as sponsored by a local bookstore. I was just passing through on vacation and wished the appearance was happening during my travels.

Jane wrote: "KATYN

This is a Polish movie that takes place during WWII. This time period has always been fascinating to me, so I never seem to tire of books and movies on the subject. This is a true story ab..."

You might be interested in the memorial fountain in Baltimore in honor of the Katyn Massacre. It is a beautiful sculpture that I stumbled across during a visit a few years ago and was how I learned the history of this atrocity. I didn't know about this movie - but because of the memorial I think I would be interested in learning more of the story.

http://www.katynbaltimore.com/

From what country Sheila? I run a group on a different site called What's The Name of That Movie? (http://netflixcommunity.ning.com/) that has success every now and then in tracking titles down. Or you can go on IMDB.com and type your question in their Forum.

Just received an e-mail about this site:

http://www.sniplits.com/

You can join and receive a free story each week or you can just buy ones you want whenever. Short stories via audio broken down by duration - anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.

Ruth - that's an interesting artist bravely tackling a sensitive subject. Thank you for the introduction.

Well Sherry - that was very nice! Thanks for starting my day with a smile :0)

Thank you Philip! Time does fly. But every year I am thankful to have reached another milestone! Better than the alternative ;0)

Summer wrote: "I didn't know either. Until I looked it up, I thought he was shouting out to Italy..."

Hahahahaha!!!! You crack me up Summer.

Jane wrote: "Has anyone seen Breaking Bad?.."

Oh Jane - we love that show. The realtionship between the teacher and his former student/cooking partner is terrific - such great actors.

I agree that consequences need to be as clear as the guidelines. I also feel that enforcing them would likely be instances that were few and far between. But when needed, having something to refer to as an explanation makes things easier on everyone. I appreciate the time spent in researching, proposing and eventually providing them. And hopefully it does not make the moderators feel like police or that what they do here is work. It should continue to be a fun place to gather. I don't want to worry about a big list of rules to make sure I'm not out of line - and I don't want our moderators to have to worry about monitoring that line.

And I think that creating a separate thread for major tangents off the original intent can be important - I seem to remember in the apostrophe thread it was requested at one point that things get back on topic but things kept going off on other tangents which probably caused some annoyance and lack of interest for others. That is a point where maybe a moderator could be notified and they could just start a new thread and post a message in the original one about it. A neutral nudge.