Ann's comments (member since Oct 28, 2007)

Ann's comments from the Constant Reader group.

I read this book during last Christmas vacation, so I don't remember a lot of details. I have also read the author's SNOW. At the beginning of reading both books,I was really enthusiastic. As I continued to read, I got bogged down in the middle. However, I enjoyed them both enough to persevere to the end.

What I like about Pamuk the most is that he helps me visit worlds I barely knew existed before I met his books. That makes the experience of reading him worthwhile for me, although I would like to see him condense his books - they do seem to repeat themselves a lot.

Whitaker, I really liked what you said about the book being a homage to the miniaturists and their art

Thanks, Sherry. I enjoyed that article. I find it reassuring to know that there is no such thing as multitasking since I seem unable to master it. Now I don't have to feel so inadequate.

I would love one of those little hearing aid type devices (to be invented in the future) for one one my students , whose basically bright but very, very scattered.

Ann

I was so impressed by his book. I would like to know if the Taliban have destroyed some of his schools in the last year.

Ann

I loved READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN, not least because of all the references to the classics. I wouldn't have read most of the latter without participating in the Classics Corner section of Constant Reader-which has now found a home on Good Reads. I am happy to know that the author of READING LOLITA is just as interesting in person, Kate.

I have read the books which you mentioned, Susan, but it has been too long ago to comment much. I like James, but in some of his later writings the sentences get so long and convoluted, I wonder what the man had against periods. PORTRAIT OF A LADY was probably my favorite. I also read THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, this time with a small in person book club. I must say that the title is extremely ironic. All the emphasis on social class in these books reminds me of how far we have come - at least in some ways.

Ann

I checked it out of the library and read a few chapters. Maybe it was just too dreary for my tastes at the time, but I never finished it.

Ann

I wish Susan Boyle all the best. She has a beautiful voice, and I thought her performance was wonderful.

However, you will never convince me that Simon Cowell and the other judges were caught by surprise. In June of 2007, another unattractive contestant named Paul Pott wowed judges on the same show with a gorgeous performance of the opera aria Nessun Dorma. It generated a huge amount of publicity and was good for both Paul and the show. I think that Simon and crew understand very well the appeal of these underdogs. I don't know if they search them out, but surely they know when they are in the lineup.

Wonderful pictures, Sherry. I thought there were still restrictions on Americans traveling directly to Cuba. I know that some go via an intermediate stop to another country. Did you get to go because it was part of a charitable mission?

Everything looks so green. What was the weather like? If relations with the U.S. improved, I think they would get a lot of American tourists. I imagine they get a lot from other countries right now. It looks like a beautiful place.
Ann

For once I have actually finished a book in time for the discussion! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your comments - as usual.

One problem that I had with the book was that many of the descriptions were so overwritten they interrupted the flow of the narrative. Here is an example from page 498 which describes Glen's trip through the country.
The underbrush leaned into the road, green and hypnotic as it flowed past the high beams;red-lanterned eyes looked back from the tangle just often enough to break the pattern, keep him alert.

Maybe I'm just dense. What exactly are those red-lanterned eyes? Animals?

Here's another from the same page:
Tendrils of fog drifted pale across the road, condensing on the windshield like a kind of dream writing that he let accumulate...

That's a beautiful image, but I've just never seen fog look like that.

I agree with those who questioned the author's decision to superimpose a Shakespearean plot on Edgar's story. I agree with Pamela about Smiley doing it successfully in A THOUSAND ACRES. However, in this book Wroblewski represented some of the main Hamlet characters as dogs. Much as I like dogs and agree that their intelligence is often underestimated, I just find the idea of Almondine being Ophelia to be really creepy.

As many of you have pointed out, Claude's motivations were not adequately explained. I found this odd in a book which had chapters dealing with what was going on in his head. I too disliked the ending, not least because it dragged on so long. After reading 562 pages of popular fiction, I thought the reader deserved a bit of happiness at the end.

Now, for what I did like. Edgar was a well developed character and very likable. Barb, thank you for your comments on his mutism. I did wonder about that, although I thought his inability to use his voice added some very interesting dimensions to the plot. I liked reading about the dogs - up to a point. And much to my surprise, I really got into the survival part of the story when Edgar was off on his own.

All and all, an interesting read. It would have been much better if the author had forgotten about the Hamlet parallels and let his story flow more naturally.

Ann

Barb,
Thanks for the heads up on Claire Tomalin's SEVERAL STANGERS. I liked her biography of Jane Austin very much. After reading the Pepys book, I tried her biography of Thomas Hardy as well, but ended up just skimming parts of it. I'm afraid I found Hardy much less engaging than the irrepressible Samuel Pepys.

I always enjoy Bill Bryson's books. I'll have to check out his book on Shakespeare.

Jane, I've gotten into mysteries more in the last year. After I've read a little too much literary fiction, I appreciate a good mystery for the clean cut prose, clear plot lines, and definitive endings. I do get impatient sometimes with all the ambiguity in some modern fiction. I'm adding your selections to my TBR list.

Ann

This year I read 47 books and these are my top picks:

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – most original

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo – best story I could sink into

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig – not great literature, but a fun read

Pure Drivel by Steve Martin – maybe I was just in the mood, but I found it laugh-out-loud funny

In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson – best mystery

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks – best historical novel, much better than her Pulitzer prize winning March

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – best popular science book for science dummies like me

Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self by Claire Tomlin – one of the best biographies I have every read, written by a master

Three Cups of Tea – Mortenson and Relin – most inspiring

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner – This one made me laugh a lot. I’m not sure if his conclusions had any validity.

The Jude the Obscure discussion was probably in 1996 - possibly in late 1995. I loved that book and the discussion, maybe because it was one of my first on Classics Corner. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the discussion.

Ann

Janet,
Persuasion is one of my Jane Austen favorites. I saw the 1995 movie with Ciaran Hands and Amanda Root first, and then I read the book. Both were excellent.

Ann

Happy birthday to my old friends Ruth and Cathy. You've helped make Constant Reader a very special place.

Ann D.

Fran,
So glad to hear that both you and your boyfriend really liked WHAT IS THE WHAT. I teach ESL and a lot of my students are Sudanese, so that book was especially meaningful for me - also a great read.

As for my husband, he reads some - mostly non-fiction. Only rarely do we read the same books. We have raised one reader (who rarely has a chance to read now because he is working so hard) and one non-reader. Both are pretty neat kids, if I do say so myself. :)

Ann D.

I think Ondaatje is "difficult." I ended up loving The English Patient, but only because I had someone to discuss it with on Constant Reader. Before that, I had tried a couple of chapters on my own and given up. I have also read In the Skin of a Lion and Running in the Family. Running is a memoir about Ondaatje's family in Sri Lanka. For me that was his most accessible and interesting book - but then I am a big fan of biographies and travel books.

Ann D.

I've been involved in Constant Reader since 1995, so I wasn't there in the very beginning but close.

It has been such a joy to explore books with the wonderful people here on Constant Reader. Now GoodReads has added so many new members. This has been a great move.

Out of curiosity, who pays for the storage space and software we use here?

Ann D.

Jim,
Thank you for that wonderful note. I always enjoy your witty, insightful posts.

Ann D.

Mary Ellen and Dash,
I enjoyed reading your comments on Mama Mia. Artistically it was probably a terrible movie, but it was great fun and I laughed a lot. The play and movie were never intended to be in the least bit realistic. My mind kept screaming, get a DNA test for heaven's sake!

I loved the daughter and her boyfriend. Streep was too old for the part, but I'd watch her in anything. Because they cast Streep, all the "adult" parts were given to actors in their fifties (except for Colin Firth who was the baby at 48). I was willing to accept the age discrepancies, but why oh why didn't another singer dub in Pierce Brosnan's singing voice? I saw the movie with my sister and niece. The latter told me that Pierce's children told him he should be embarrassed to leave the house after that role. I also wondered if Colin Firth ever gets tired of playing the handsome, kind, terribly uptight Brit.

Ann D.

Val,
I'm glad to know that you liked Bryson's s In a Sunburned Country. Now it definitely goes on my reading list.

Lost Continent was published in 1989. I think his books got a lot better and kinder.

Ann

Ruth,

Re: The Lost Continent
The Library Journal says that he wrote the book to explain small town American life to the British, although the paperback itself doesn't credit any magazines. That would certainly explain some of his snide remarks.

The following is an example, quoted from an Amazon.com/LitNet site:

Here's Bryson on the women of his native state: "I will say this, however--and it's a strange, strange thing--the teenaged daughters of these fat women are always utterly delectable ... I don't know what it is that happens to them, but it must be awful to marry one of those nubile cuties knowing that there is a time bomb ticking away in her that will at some unknown date make her bloat out into something huge and grotesque, presumably all of a sudden and without much notice, like a self-inflating raft from which the pin has been yanked."

Fortunately, he seems to have gotten over this nasty attitude in later books - or at least learned to suppress it. I don't mean to be too critical. I have thoroughly enjoyed almost everything else he wrote. I read, rather than listened to, A Walk in the Woods and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ann D.