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

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

Ron, let us know what is going on with you!

Ron,

I am very happy to welcome you here.

Larry

Jeffrey wrote: "John wrote: "There was an article in the latest New Yorker aboutH is for Hawk the southern writer Harry Crews. He is a rather interesting character, very hardscrabble life. He did w..."

It has been years since I read Harry Crews. I am glad that you mentioned this book. I never saw hawks when I was growing up in Northern Virginia ... these days, I regularly see both hawks and eagles. I do want to know more about these birds.

Here's another change that will be coming. All the books of the month are ones that I have selected. That's it. But, I want to offer more choices beyond the books that I have chosen so in the next few months I will set up another category for Books of the Month - Members' Choice.

I will explain the nomination and voting process soon, but it will be different than that is used in other GoodReads book groups.

The following books have been selected to be books of the month. Discussion will start on the first of the month and will continue ... well, until it stops.

April 2023 - Mary Beard - SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

May 2023 - Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

June 2023 - Elizabeth Kolbert - Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

July 2023 - David Quammen - Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

August 2023 - Judith A. Green - The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe

September 2023 - Carl Zimmer - A Planet of Viruses

October 2023 - Elizabeth Pisani - Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

November 2023 - Peter Zeihan - The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

December 2023 - Michael Ruhlman - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

January 2024 - Michael Herr - Dispatches

February 2024 - Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

March 2024 - Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

This is where you propose a book to read with other members of the book group.

I will monitor this section daily and handle the creation of threads. (Elsewhere members may create threads within folders but not folders.) Let me know in your proposal when you propose to start reading it and anything else that is pertinent.

Feel free to even say that, even without others having committed to joining you, you still want a thread started so that you can share your thoughts on the book you are proposing. Others can join at any time.

Eileen, change is needed to keep growing. I think that the changes will be positive.

Pretty much good news, John. Hope that the other vet concurs.

Great, Cynda!

Larry

Cynda,

So glad to see your here. Do tell your friends that we are open for business and will be having both Monthly Reads and Buddy Reads beginning in April.

Larry

Carol wrote: "Do you call them sausage dogs in the US as we do here? I believe they were originally hunting dogs- can get down holes."

We do indeed! I hadn't heard that term used until my son called Taffy a "sausage dog"! As for hunting, Taffy is easy to walk until he sees a squirrel. Then he will lunge forward, trying to go after the squirrel. I think he has those natural hunting instincts.

Taffy is a male long haired dachshund-Sheltie cross. Very calm except when his food arrives in the bowl in the floor. He gets very excited as it is being put in his bowl. The one surprise—he is a rescue—is that my son thought he was one or two years old. The vet said she was certain he away about five. But no problem with that.

Carol, I think that I enjoy the walks as much as little Taffy does. It is Luxembourg in Europe. Jamie has the OECD portfolio for the Department of Education now, so he gets these interesting trips. Latvia a few months ago … Canada coming up next (although he told me that that meeting may be turned a Zoom meeting).

I’ll be thinking you and your furry friend today, John. My son is in Luxembourg this week, so I am the designated mid-day dog walker for their sweet dog. A task that I really look forward to.

My real disappointment is that it could have been a really good movie.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "Carol, my feelings also. Halfway through the film I felt it was never going to end … sort of like being on the AT."

Have you walked along it? I think I might have walked just a very ..."
Carol, Only for a very small section near Humpback Rocks ... so formally, I've been on it, but I really never tell anyone that I've hiked along the Appalachian Trail. We have a friend whose son has hiked the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. Now that's an accomplishment! When he's not doing that, he works at the local REI store ... and is a great source of personal information for hikers and campers.

https://www.rei.com/stores/fairfax

Carol, my feelings also. Halfway through the film I felt it was never going to end … sort of like being on the AT.

John wrote: "Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail was very funny..."

John, I went to a reception at the New Zealand Embassy and had a great chat with he Ambassador at the time, James Bolger, about that book. It began when I asked if had read Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and whether the NZ government had thought about approaching him to do a book on New Zealand. Nothing there, but we quickly moved to the Appalachian Trail book. Bolger had read most of Bryson's books and was great fun to talk with.

NONFICTION READING - ONLY THE BEST

Newsletter -- March 2023

Some changes are coming for this book group. Here's a look ahead at what's coming in April, 2023.

COMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - When I started this book group, I wanted to mainly focus on finding and sharing what the best books on a particular subject were. Some of that has worked. And that is still the primary focus of the book group.

But I have come to recognize that a sense of community is enhanced by reading books together. That has led me to decide to start a Book of the Month shared reading experience. I have listed below the books for the next twelve months that I have chosen and hope that more than a few of you may decide to read along with me and others.

April 2023 - Mary Beard - SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

May 2023 - Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

June 2023 - Elizabeth Kolbert - Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

July 2023 - David Quammen - Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

August 2023 - Judith A. Green - The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe

September 2023 - Carl Zimmer - A Planet of Viruses

October 2023 - Elizabeth Pisani - Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

November 2023 - Peter Zeihan - The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

December 2023 - Michael Ruhlman - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

January 2024 - Michael Herr - Dispatches

February 2024 - Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

March 2024 - Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration


BUDDY READS - Call them Buddy Reads or Side Reads ... I don't really think it matters. But if you want to read any (or almost any ... I have some limits) books with someone else here, I'll set up folders for doing just that. I'll set up a thread for proposed buddy reads and when someone proposes a book and someone else opts in for the shared reading experience, I'll set up a folder for that book. Look for this in the next few days.

Larry, Founder and Moderator

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOLDER FOR 2023 NEWSLETTERS
LATEST ISSUE IS AT THE BOTTOM