Anthea
said "yes" to attending the event: Literary Festival.
date: October 02, 2009 03:06AM
location: Manitou Springs Public Library, Manitou Springs, CO, The United States
description: Literary celebration and promotional event for authors. Also includes promotional seminars, Poetry readings, Movie nights, etc.
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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Great Book!!! If I don't say so myself. Actually I really mean that. This book was a tribute to a way of life gone by. A way of life that I valued so much! The small family farm. I know there are still working farms resembling the one I write about in Ainsworth, but they are disappearing fast. Agribusiness has butted them out of the way like a cattle guard, in their pursuit of money. Oil made it difficult for the small farmer, because large scale farms became much more lucrative and profitable. The small farm became a quaint and antiquated way of life.
This book is a tribute to is my cousin Paul. He tried to make it work on the small farm, raising sheep. He was an unforgettable character, and we all miss him very much. So I tried to bring both him, and my childhood memories of life on the farm back to life with this book.
This is a tribute to is the Native people we displaced when we moved ever westward in our expansion across the west. My great grandfather was one of the homesteaders. It was a great opportunity for him. But for the Native Americans it spelled their doom. They watched, as more and more wagons moved in. Then they did the ghost dance, and went quietly to their reservations, and to the pages of history as well.
It is too bad we couldn't have found a way to better integrate with these various assortments of cultures. They are so uniquely American. When we lost them, we lost a part of our selves.
I wanted to title this book the Ghostdance, because that is very much a part of this story. But my publisher said "Oh no, Ainsworth says it all. ]]>
by Jane Austen
Interesting comments. I happen to love Jane Austen, and anything she writes. I love Pride and Prejudice, but now that I read your review I realize it isn't because I identify with Lizzy. I also found her snippy and a bit shallow. So I had to ask myself why I like this book so much! I did read The Taming of the Shrew in college, and I remember a similar dynamic in the relationship of that play. So I think it must be that romantic tension Austen creates so well. I love the way they snipe at each other. And though it isn't clear to Lizzy till the last 30 pages of the book, as you say, it was clear to me as the reader that she had feelings for him all along. And readers love to be proven right! ]]>
I read this in one afternoon, and I'm a slow reader, so for me that's pretty good. And of course it was because I couldn't put it down. I'd seen the movie, and loved it as well, but the movie can not replace this book. The writing is so engaging and lively, and of course no character is quite like Holly Golightly.
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Amazing book, evokes compassion, profound insight into human cruelty and violence. This is the story of a cold blooded murder that takes place out in the middle of "nowhere." It examines the lives of both the victims and the killers in a way that few crime dramas do. In fact, I tend to avoid this type of book, so I admit I don't have much to compare it to as this genre goes. But I do read a lot of classic literature, and this one definitely qualifies as a classic.
The Clutter family, like any ordinary family, has its eccentricities, making them that much more human, which makes their murder that much more painful to witness. And you do feel as if you witnessed it, because Truman Capote knows how to put you right there.
One of the killers, Perry Smith is also intensely human, giving the reader a sense of deep sadness at his choices, which right up until the end seemed so open. It gives the sense that any of us, especially if our lives haven't been easy, which many have not, could find ourselves caught up in the same circumstances. He didn't know what he was going to do, or was capable of, until that moment of choice, when he couldn't turn back. Chilling. ]]>
Oh wow, good luck with that! I would love to stop by and see your book signing -- it's at Barnes and Noble right? Near chapel hills? I might not get time -- I have a chess tournament and plans to meet for dinner around 6 -- in fact I just have a 2 hr window -- but if you're going to be there during that time between 4 and 6 I want stop by. ]]>