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Past, Present & Future Reads June/July 2009
Barbara said: "I am somewhat determined to finish World Without End before I start the next thing. Only about 200 pages to go. A Light at the end of the tunnel. Or in this case at the top of the church tower. "Barbara, I always feel like that when reading those extreme BFBs. When I get within 200-300 pages of the end I think, "Only one normal-sized book chunk to go!"
What do you think of World Without End? It may be a long time before I can commit to another book that long.
You also read Three Cups of Tea recently, didn't you? You know this qualifies you to be my new best friend--although now that EVERYBODY is reading it, I may have to rescind that offer. I simply loved TCoT.
Jan O'Cat
Counterintuitive, I tend to put BFBs on my determination list or I think I will never read them. This has been on my list for maybe 3 years. I am enjoying World Without End. For me it is pure entertainment -- not meaningful in any other way. LOL Been reading a lot of Non-Fiction so it seemed a good time to pick it up. After Team of Rivals. Geez --
Three Cups of Tea is in a hanging on the shelf mode. Thought I would get back to it now, but I am going to insert Worst Hard Time. I loved what I read of TCoT. I'll do my best to get back to the category of your new best friend.
Barbara
Barbara said: "I loved what I read of TCoT. I'll do my best to get back to the category of your new best friend. "That's the spirit I like to hear!
As I recall, the first half of Three Cups of Tea was more entertaining than the last half. Not that there was anything wrong with the last half, but once he got the charity set up there was less of an armchair travel element and that's one of the reasons I enjoyed the book. However, when he does get the charity set up, his commitment is amazing.
Jan O'Cat
I am re-posting this (also posted at Readers and Reading). Please forgive me, but this book was sooo good that I just have to tell everyone about it!THE STORY SISTERS
I finished Alice Hoffman's recent release, "The Story Sisters", this afternoon, and cannot remember the last time I completed a book within 24 hours. What a fantastic book (and not all of Hoffman's recent books have appealed to me). It was sad and sometimes grim, often bittersweet, but ultimately a powerful story about forgiveness and redemption.
From the Washington Post:
It's a rare year that doesn't bring a novel from Alice Hoffman, and those who follow this maddeningly uneven writer have learned to cast a wary eye on each new offering. Will it be Good Alice, poser of uncomfortable moral dilemmas and marvelously rich portraitist of family life ("Blue Diary," "Skylight Confessions")? Or will it be Bad Alice, blatantly careless plotter and outrageous overdoer of the magic-beneath-the-surface-of-our-lives shtick ("The Probable Future," "The Third Angel")?
"The Story Sisters," actually, is In-Between Alice: excessive and over-determined but ultimately so moving that it overwhelms these faults.
Just finished For One More Day - Mitch Albom. Now I am going to carry on reading Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham
Just finished Brimstone
The third in his Western Series, featuring Cole & Hitch. Quick and fun.
Donna in Southern Maryland
Fiona (Titch) wrote: "Just finished listening to The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger"So, what did you think of it?
Meredith wrote: "Now reading Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter"
Am i correct in remembering that Aunt Dimity is dead? I read a few of that series & liked them but not enough to continue.
deborah
Yesterday I went to the library armed with a list of books that were on the shelves (looked them up before I left the house). Our library system's website has a list function where patrons can keep a list (online) of up to 100 books that one wants to read. I LOVE this feature.
I got
The birthdays : a novel / by Pitlor, Heidi
A country called home /by Barnes, Kim
Don't I know you : a novel /by Shepard, Karen
Imperial life in the emerald city : inside Iraq's green zone /by Chandrasekaran, Rajiv
In hovering flight /by Hinnefeld, Joyce
Literacy and longing in L.A. /by Kaufman, Jennifer
This cold country /by Davis-Goff, Annabel
This damn house : a cautionary tale /by Kaufman, Margo
Wonder if I will like any of them? The last one looks like it will be amusing. I need amusing right now!
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Our library system's website has a list function where patrons can keep a list (online) of up to 100 books that one wants to read. I LOVE this feature..."My library has this feature too. In fact you can create multiple lists. Unfortunately my list has 85 entries on it. This is not helpful.
I just picked up TEN BOOKS from the library, a case of all the requests coming in at the same time. I won't even say how many I already have out. Ever have so many books to read that it's overwhelming and you don't know where to turn first? That's me today.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Ever have so many books to read that it's overwhelming and you don't know where to turn first? That's me today.."Carol, been there, done that. It is paralyzing.
Ingrid, I love A Tale of Two Cities! The soaring poetic writing, the moralistic tale, it's just fabulous.
I did find the online guides to the story helpful for things that I might have missed.
Just google: notes a tale of two cities.
Alias Reader wrote: "Ingrid, I love A Tale of Two Cities! The soaring poetic writing, the moralistic tale, it's just fabulous.I did find the online guides to the story helpful for things that I might have missed...."
What Alias said. Do be cautious about the online guides, though, because if you read too far ahead or use the wrong ones, they contain spoilers. I used them to good effect for A Tale of Two Cities, and as Alias said it is good for filling in the gaps, particularly as I listened to it on tape and some of the names were confusing.
Re: reading guides.
What I do is read a chapter or two, then read the guide to see if I am on track. This way it doesn't color my views, yet gives me the info/history I need to appreciate the work to its fullest.
As for A Tale Of Two Cities, I think I must own 4 or 5 different editions. I would put it in my top 5 fiction books of all time. The other one off the top of my head is Grapes of Wrath.
One of the books nominated during our last round of voting for our monthly read was Michael Lewis's new book Home Game. He was interviewed in USA Today. I though you might want to read it.
Michael Lewis talks about 'Home Game' and fatherhood
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker, Moneyball) is more involved with his kids than his own dad was, but falls short of "perfect fathers of the future." After daughter Quinn was born 11 years ago, he began a Slate journal. (Quinn now has a sister, Dixie, 7, and brother, Walker, 2.) Lewis, 48, lives in Berkeley, Calif., with his wife, former MTV reporter Tabitha Soren. He spoke to USA TODAY'S Bob Minzesheimer about Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (Norton, $23.95).
Q: It sounds as if you've not read many parenting books.
A: Does it? I've skimmed dozens of them, most of which were left by my wife on my bedside table. They sort of helped but — as you obviously picked up — sort of didn't. They felt abstract and easily undermined by a determined and intelligent child. And in the handling of babies, I've found essentially nothing I read made it any easier.
Q: Do you think the word "accidental" in your subtitle disqualifies it from the parenting section?
A: If not that, then surely the first chapter (in which Dixie, in public, innocently repeats some "seriously bad words" she once heard her father use).
Q: You still doing "approximately 31.5% of all parenting"?
A: Funny you should ask. That was the only line in the book I changed after my wife, Tabitha, had read it. For her consumption, I had it at 29%, and she seemed to think that was about right. I cling stubbornly to the higher number.
Q: What's harder: being a father or a writer and reporter?
A: It's easier to skate through fatherhood, but harder to do it extremely well. If parenthood was graded pass/fail, then it would be the class to take. If we're handing out A's and F's and grading on a curve, I'll take writing and reporting.
Q: Did you think about what your kids would think when they were old enough to read it?
A: In the beginning I was so irritated with them for the many ways in which they were disrupting my previously placid life that the last thing I thought to do was take them into account. But after a while I thought: I wish I had some document that described the more momentous episodes of my first few years on Earth, about which no one now seems to recall a thing. When the galleys arrived, Quinn, then 9, finished it in two days, howling with laughter basically constantly. It was not my main purpose not to scar my children, but they remain, to all appearances, unscarred. They now must come to grips with not being written about.
Q: Has your father read it?
A: He's near the end. Even though he hadn't reached the part about my vasectomy or the traumatic attempts to verify its success, he was still a little shocked — couldn't quite believe I had put the words down on paper. He thought it was very funny but also, as he put it, "off the wall." The interesting thing is that even though he was a great dad, my entire fatherhood experience was more or less alien to him. The role has changed that much.
Q: Does your wife have any plans to write her side of the story?
A: I pray not.
Q: Next book?
A: It will be about what happened on Wall Street these last few years. It's a sort of bookend to Liar's Poker. It's called The Big Short.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/...
I have just finished Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham and found it weird. Not sure what to make of it now. I am now gonna read Hollywood Wives - Jackie Collins.
madrano wrote: "Meredith wrote: "Now reading Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter"
Am i correct in remembering that Aunt Dimity is dead? I read a few of that series & liked them but not enough to continue.
deborah
"
Yes Aunt Dimity is dead. I keep these tutles for when my brain needs fluff that i do not need to think about what I am reading.
Meredith
I went to a garage sale last weekend and I was excited as they had brand new hardcover books for one dollar! I got Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott, A is for Alibi and B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton, Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik, 44 Scottland Street by Alexander Smith, Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand, Friends, Lovers and Chocolate by Alexander Smith and The Alchemist by Coelho. I will be busy the rest of the summer reading these! I just read Pretty in Plaid on vacation by Jen Lancaster. I really enjoy her fun writing and have read all four of her books about her life.
Becky
Wildcats40 wrote: "I went to a garage sale last weekend and I was excited as they had brand new hardcover books for one dollar! I got Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott, A is for Alibi and B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton, Oh..."
How come that never happens to me? When i go to a garage sale the only books offered are Christian tracts, the Bible or self-help (think AA) books! I don't even remember seeing fiction offered much here, at least at garage sales...or thrift stores.
Enjoy your stash, Becky!
deborah
My mom told me today that she took some of my books I had sent her, that she had read to the library. The lady said you can leave them, but we probably cant use them, She did and the librarian called later and thanked her and told her that she could bring any down, they already had somebody want some. I guess my books will really get used now. I love that my purchase allows many people to read the books.
Has anyone read Eat,Pray, Love? I had heard such good things but am totally underwhelmed. The author seems very self absorbed and I am not finding much that is spiritual about her journey.
Kim, I read the synopsis/description of Eat, Pray, Love (when it first came out) and it sure did not sound like anything I would want to read!
Kim, I read EPL and loved it. She is on a journey to find herself. I guess that can be seen as self absorbed. However, I thought of it more as a search to find out who she was, what where her real wants and needs, and where did she want to go in life. She is a real person with faults. It's just her journey, her path, not a guide for anyone else. There was also a lot of Buddhist concepts in the book and that also appealed to me.
Alias, your comments are similar to the ones I have read about the book but I am just not into it.
I just got to the India part so I will let you know how it goes.
The author was very fortunate to be able to take a year to take her journey. I wonder if that appealed to a lot of people as most people would not have that option.
My town just picked the nominees for the book for one city. I thought I would list them to see if anyone has read them.People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
What is What by Dave Eggers
Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
Color of Water by James McBride
River of Doubt by Candice Millard
I have read Color of Water but it was ages ago. I also have read People of the Book and enjoyed it along with her other book called March. I read Dave Eggers book Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius and it really wasn't for me but this one looks totally different . I have heard good things about Widow of the South so I may try to read that first. Anyone recommend any of them?
Becky
I read Color of Water. I recall the mom saying "who cares what color you are. It's what is in your head that counts ! "
It was a good book, but I read it ages ago, also.
Becky said: " My town just picked the nominees for the book for one city. I thought I would list them to see if anyone has read them."Becky, I've read The Color of Water A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. It was a good read. I'm not rhapsodic about it as some people are.
I've also read People of the Book. The same as the ones you've read, so I'm not much help.
I've got What Is the What here and hope to get to it this summer. It's highly recommended by our friend, Sarah, who hasn't been posting much with us lately.
Jan O'Cat
I have read Widow of the South and couldnt wait to finish it. I really didnt really like it. Very disappointing.
Went to Borrders and got 4 books hat came out today.
Finger Licken Fifteen - Janet Evanovich
The Fixer Upper - Mary Kay Andrews
Happiness Key - Emilee Richards
Moon Shell Beach - Nancy Thayer
Richiesheff wrote: "I have read Widow of the South and couldnt wait to finish it. I really didnt really like it. Very disappointing.Went to Borrders and got 4 books hat came out today.
Finger Licken Fifteen - Janet Evanovich
The Fixer Upper - Mary Kay Andrews
Happiness Key - Emilee Richards
Moon Shell Beach - Nancy Thayer ."
I have seen some good reviews of The Fixer Upper. Can't wait to read it. Here is one by a pretty respected critic:
http://www.thebookstudio.com/blog/bethan...
Alias Reader wrote: "Jan, I see from your GR page that you are on page 250 of The Given Day. Any thoughts so far ?"Alias, there are aspects of this book that are great and some that aren't so great. The history of the city of Boston is quite interesting, but some of the book is soap-operaish, so my feelings are mixed.
It's perhaps a case of trying to include too much. I wonder if Lehane was deliberately going for the feel of a sprawling family drama? I think he must have been, though it's hard to imagine why he'd want to indulge in that genre. But then, I'm prejudiced, as I just don't like the SFD genre.
I had heard mostly about the Boston aspect, so I was surprised that Tulsa is also a major setting. Though it can't be good that an African-American young man moves there just prior to the Tulsa race riots of 1921. Lehane has obviously done his research and the details both of setting and atmosphere ring true according to what I've heard and read about this era. However, Lehane keeps referring to the area of "Admiral and First" streets. I could be wrong, but those streets should NOT intersect. It's funny how a niggling detail like that can get under your skin. I keep meaning to get out a map of Tulsa, but there's been a huge amount of urban renewal in the Greenwood section of Tulsa (where the riots were centered) and it's unlikely that the streets remain the same.
Jan O'Cat
I am reading a somewhat difficult-to-read novel A Country Called Home. A sad story, but beautifully rendered. Loving writing about Idaho...the wilderness and a small town. This author has not yet used too many words!
re: jan's post #42
Thanks for the review, Jan. I was on the fence about it. Usually a bfb fiction book doesn't sit too well with me. After you noted the soap opera aspect of it, I suspect it wouldn't be my cup of tea.
btw, I love when people update their page for their current reads and give the page that they are on. Thanks for doing that.
Alias said re: The Given Day A Novel by Dennis Lehane: "I was on the fence about it. Usually a bfb fiction book doesn't sit too well with me. After you noted the soap opera aspect of it, I suspect it wouldn't be my cup of tea."There have been lots of people who loved it loads, Alias, so you might want to take a look at it one day. I know you're a baseball lover and Babe Ruth has part of the story.
Jan O'Cat
Wildcats40 wrote: "My town just picked the nominees for the book for one city. I thought I would list them to see if anyone has read them.People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
What is What by Dave Eggers
Widow o..."
Becky, I have read all but the last book. I wanted to love Widow of the South....but I didn't. I thought What is the What one of the best books I've read this year...or was it last year? Anyway, I think it was worth reading. I also liked People of the Book but I don't think it would appeal to a whole city like Dave Eggars book would. The Color of Water would be a great book for a city to read, too. JMO.
Couldn't get into Nip n Tuck - Kathy Lette. Tried to read The Boy who taught the Beekeeper to Read - Susan Hill couldn't get into that neither. Now reading Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead which I am finding really good, not my usual kind of book. Need to read the series for the last book to be sent off in a swap and book 3 is awaiting at the local library for me.
Post #47 Fiona: be sent off in a swap
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FYI, according to the Feedback board GR is planning to start a book swap by the end of summer.
If I see any more news on it, I'll post it.
Alias Reader wrote: "Post #47 Fiona: be sent off in a swap
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FYI, according to the Feedback board GR is planning to start a book swap by the end of summer.
If I see any more news..."
FYI hon, I belong to a UK booksite where we swap books and thats why I am readin the book I am now. But thanks for that info about swaps, will keep an ear out for that as well.
Barbara, how are you liking Lincoln's Melancholy How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness? I have this on my "next up" stack. Unfortunately there are about 10 other books in there with it! My guess is that if I finish The Given Day A Novel soon, I'll read another section of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before we start White Teeth. But I hope to get to Lincoln's Melancholy before the end of summer!
Jan O'Cat
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Books mentioned in this topic
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time (other topics)Little Women (other topics)
Brimstone (other topics)
Cold New World: Growing Up in Harder Country (other topics)
In Hovering Flight (other topics)
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