Karen’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2020)

Karen’s comments from the Classy and Trashy Book Club with the Moorhead Public Library group.

Deb - I have listened to the first two Ben Aaronovitch books, too, since they came highly recommended on one of the boards I check. I enjoyed them, but haven't gotten to the third yet.

And, yes, I did listen to the Madeline Miller talk and I thought it was fantastic. There was another non-fiction author there too who is an expert in the classics, but I don't recall her name and her book is "something something Antigone" I think, but I wasn't able to find it with that little memory. MM said that what tends to inspire her writing is rage - about the way some characters are treated in the stories she's read, which I thought was an interesting insight and does make sense with how she created Circe's story. She said lots more too - like her current project relates to Caliban and Miranda from The Tempest and I think what happens after the action of the play.

And, I have started listening to the new Louise Erdrich book: The Night Watchman and so far it's a good listen.

I would love to plan a Google Hangout or Zoom meeting to discuss. I'll need to refresh my memory since I listened to this last November.

I just heard that Madeline Miller - author of Circe and Song of Achilles, will be speaking online at 6 our time tonight. I signed up and we'll see if I can manage it. Here is the link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/circe?utm_...

I finished both of the books I mentioned above. I thought Enchanted Islands was good and it was the first book that I can recall that was partially set in the Galapagos Islands.

I think The Mirror & The Light was better. Kind of long, but good. I'm glad I knew some of the history of Henry VIII's reign because there were a lot of characters and a lot of events and some familiarity with some of them made it a little easier to follow and keep up with things. There were things that I didn't know about or had forgotten too, but the people/stuff I did know about helped me. It was interesting to follow Cromwell's perspective since in other novels I've read about this period, he wasn't the central character and he was involved in - or aware of - a lot of things that were going on. If you like historical fiction, I think the trilogy is very good and Hilary Mantel did a huge amount of research for it.

I've heard some interviews with HM, including a short one at the end of the audiobook, and I find her voice a little unusual, but she has some really interesting things to say.

I'm now listening to Conjure Women by Afia Atakora, which is the latest B&N Book Club selection. I'm about halfway through and it's good, but I keep thinking that I could use something light and fluffy and that hasn't been the case and I think 5 audiobooks came in for me on OverDrive in the past 3 days, so I'm not really looking for something that fits light & fluffy at the moment, alas.

I started reading a little of Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which I've been meaning to read for years. I haven't gotten far, but it's interesting so far.

I'm sure there are things I'd rather have on there than some of the ones that are. I liked The Stand, but I think my favorite Stephen King book is 11/22/63 as one example. [I asked my husband what he thought of The Stand this time through and his main comment was that it was really just too long and a bunch in the middle could have been cut out with little loss to the story.]

A lot of my favorites are on it (Outlander, P&P - loved the musical version I watched yesterday BTW, LotR, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre) though I don't think everything on the list deserves to be there and there are a few I haven't read that I have no interest in reading despite their presence on it.

Thanks for the link to the Stephen King interview. I just listened and it was interesting.

I did find it rather ironic to be listening to The Stand during this strange time. Since I had the book around (even though I was listening, my husband owns a copy and I had it around so I could flip through if I felt that I missed anything while listening. I find that much easier on paper than on audio or ebook the few times I've tried that), my husband has been rereading it too.

As far as the question of having trouble getting through parts with characters I didn't like: Since I was listening at 2x speed (and I LOVE being able to do that!!!), I didn't find it as hard. I know with other things I found it harder to get through those parts reading than I do on audio. That doesn't mean I enjoy all those parts as much as other parts, but I don't find it as oppressive on speeded up audio.

Since I had the audio checked out around the time we were supposed to meet and discuss Book 2, I ended up finishing it, figuring we weren't going to be meeting to discuss it anyway. I don't want to say too much not knowing if anyone else has finished, but overall I found it a good listen and I'm glad to have finally gotten through it since I've heard about it for a long time.

Plus, it was on the Great American Reads list that NPR did in 2018 and I've now completed all of the top 50, plus a bunch in the 50-100 range, so I'm feeling good about that. :-)

I'll have to refresh my memory on The Dutch House because I listened a while back. I think Tom Hanks was the narrator, so that was fun.

I'm currently listening to The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel, third in the Cromwell trilogy, which is good. The second and third books are much easier going than the first because she makes sure to clarify when "he" refers to Cromwell himself vs other people, which was really confusing in Wolf Hall.

I'm also reading Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend, which I'm enjoying when I can carve out reading time (which I'm not good at). It was supposed to be for the Tea Time Book Club at Carlson, but I think that might have been this past Monday if the library had been open. Or not? Not sure but it arrived for me before our library closed, so I'm reading it.

Hi! I'm Karen. I've been part of this group since it started as the Jane Austen Book Club, then changed to The Classics Book Club and now as Classy and Trashy. One of my favorite books is Pride & Prejudice (there's a free premiere of a new musical version of P&P on Friday that I could get the link for if anyone is interested). But, I'll also mention the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (since I lead the Outlander Book Club at the library).