Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Ron, thanks so mentioning that about spoilers. I think for most nonfiction books discussed, it really doesn't matter too much about spoilers. But I'm sure that there are exceptions.

Ron wrote: "Okay so my copy of: Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World
arrives today so I'll be starting it later this afternoon.

I've made a thread on it so I'll keep you all updated (even if no one decides to read it...."

Ron, I deleted that thread and started another one capturing most of your text. I'm going to control the creation of threads ... based on a few unpleasant past experiences with some other people ... none of whom are here.

Thread for Ron and others to discuss Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World. Ron said: "Either I can discuss it or you can join me so we can discuss it together. Just let me know, or I can simply tell you my thoughts on the book.

*****

I'll most likely share my posts in spoiler format so I don't ruin the book should any of you decide to join me."

Cynda wrote: "Thanks for this information Larry. I may use it in the future. As you say, Scribd continues to improve its services. And soon a satellite campus library will open nearby me. So I will wait to look ..."

I can totally understand about your excitement about the new library. I would be excited also.

Non-Fiction wrote: "Larry wrote: "A Storm in Flanders: The Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front is by Winston Groom. As the writer of the two Forrest Gump novels, people mig..."

The first book I read by Groom was his novel based on his Vietnam experiences, Better Times Than These. I thought it was excellent. It's a bit hard to remember but I don't think when I saw the movie Forrest Gump that I connected it with that earlier novel. I actually think it was the Flanders book--even though I didn't read it--that got me to dig deeper into his bibliography.

A few months back, our fellow member John and I read Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That about his experiences as an officer in the trench warfare of 1915 of the Western Front. They were terrible times but he says directly that worse time were to come as the worse weapons were introduced. They were also crazy times as the colonel in his regiment insisted on his officers carrying out polo practice when they weren't on duty in the trenches.

Cynda wrote: "I know I have access to the first three on Scribd. Within year a new community college library will be two academic buildings over from the new second bus line in walking distance from my front doo..."

Keep on checking on Scribd. They're constantly adding books. I've mentioned another similar subscription service to friends, and that's Perlego. It's focused much more on academic presses than Scribd. I think currently it has books from over 8,000 different publishers and especially academic presses (including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, and Cambridge (sorry, but Oxford continues to go its own way). Perlego set itself up to serve as a textbook rental service, but I think that the most popular textbooks never have been available. But what Perlego has is amazing, including some access to some books even before their formal publication date.

Here's the site for Perlego: https://www.perlego.com/?utm_source=b...

Ron wrote: "Just wondering, but do any of you do book challenges?

I've currently got 3 going: Popsugar Reading Challenge, Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, and Booklist Queen.

My favorite so far has been the ..."

I guess I admire people who do book challenges, but I don't do them.

I don't know what I would do without music. I actually subscribe to three streaming services (Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Youtube Music) and moved my many Spotify playlists to these services. I've explained to more than a few people if all you like is popular music, you only need one streaming service. But if you like classical music (for me that's mainly baroque) and jazz (for me mainly jazz before 1970), you can't find a lot of albums on only one of the services. Just as one example, perhaps 80 percent of Dave Brubeck's albums on Apple may be on Amazon and 80 percent may be on YouTube Music, but that won't be the same 80 percent. It's worth it to me to be able to find classical or jazz album that I want to listen to, and that's why I pay for for those three music streaming services.

Cynda wrote: "I am currently reading La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language by Diane Hales as part of my language studies this year. I..."

My wife grew up in a household where her Sicilian-American grandmother lived several months every year. All she spoke was Sicilian although she understood English. My father-in-law fluently spoke Italian, Sicilian, English and French. My wife has studied Italian off and on for most of her life. I think she would love this book. And I already have it on our Kindles! I'll suggest it to her.

A Storm in Flanders: The Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front is by Winston Groom. As the writer of the two Forrest Gump novels, people might think that he doesn't take seriously history seriously, but he really does. In fact he has written slightly more non-fiction works (mainly history) than novels. I have the Flanders book, but it has languished on my TBR stack for years. I greatly enjoyed his The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II. I found it full of important insights into the American generals that he focused on: Patton, MacArthur, and Marshall. Based on your comments, I'll move the Flanders higher on my TBR stack.

Cynda, the decision to have elective surgery as we get older is a hard decision. Hoping and praying that all will be good.

Ron, there was a time when we listened to Shamrock & Thistle every week on NPR. So it was probably through that show we got introduced to her music, probably in the late 1980s. I don’t listen to Celtic music quite as much as I used to … mainly because I’m listening to a lot of everything these days. But she remains one my favorites along with the groups Altan and Clannad.

I just finished listening to the song now … it’s great … I’ll keep on listening to her music for a while … streaming it through Amazon Music right now.

I like Loreena McKennitt a lot. I'll definitely listen to her version.

Ron wrote: "This is one of my favorite poems. It's long, but very worth it.

I first read it in the 7th grade. Celtic artist Loreena McKennitt sings this poem and it's even beautiful with her voice and the mus..."

It has been so long since I read that one. It's great to read it again. And I think we read it in Middle School.

John wrote: "Cynda wrote: "John we used used to read together at the other nonfiction group before this one. . . . . I hope Maverick got a good rest and that you are finding answers so that you can Maverick fee...The anesthesia was rough on him,"

Yesterday, we showed up at my son's home (he'll be back from Luxembourg this afternoon) to help get the granddaughters off to school. I thought it would be a short stay. But their dog Taffy has had something going on ... so our daughter-in-law Amanda took him to the vet and then it was off to Columbia, Maryland to the vet cardiologist. So we hung around in case she didn't didn't get back in time for the girls return from school. But she got back about 2:00pm ... I think the anesthesia was actually easy on him ... but Taffy was definitely groggy upon return. The good news is no heart failure. And Taffy seemed beter as the day wore on.

Ron,

I looked at the book and then the reviews and bought a copy right away. Thanks for the recommendation.

Ron wrote: "That is a strange coincidence, Larry, and excellent. Thanks for the article. I'll give it a read-through."

I think that our browsers look across our tabs gathering information ... that's good and bad.

Ron,

Coincidentally, I just saw this review.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/arti...

I bought Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs when it was first published. What got me to read it was that I started reading A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine, the Hugo award winner from 2020. This SF novel posits a Aztec-based interstellar empire, and it's great too. But I wanted to see how accurate it was in the Aztec society that it painted. Having finished A Memory Called Empire and almost finished Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, I'm still not sure what the answer is to that question. But I'm not sure it matters too much. Both the SF novel and the history are great books.

Ron, surprisingly (at least to some of my friends) I watch a good many Hallmark movies especially at Christmas time. Too many of them are way too formulaic and that's gotten worse in recent years, so we'll start a number and stop within 10 or 15 minutes, but there are some good ones. And I've probably read about half of the novels of Nicholas Sparks and seen most of the ones that have been made into movies. One attraction for me is how many are based in North Carolina, a state that I spent eight years in. I'll give THE SECRET: DARE TO DREAM a try.