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

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

Hi John:
We are moving this discussion to this new thread. I hope you will enjoy it.. here it is
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Here is a new thread for discussion about poetry that may interest our poetry lovers. We hope as the group grows, we will have more of us. I bet we will. Seems like many nonfiction readers also love poetry. I wonder why that is...?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This thread is to discuss and question writing, reading, understanding and appreciating poetry. Plus feel free to share any great books about the craft of poetry you have read.


"poetry (noun): writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning sound, and rhythm ." Merriam Webster

A friendly reminder -- we may have different views and opinions about poetry - let's enjoy this thread by remaining open minded to views that don't support our own. Let us, if we can, discover new ways to enjoy and experience poetry.

John wrote: "Sher wrote: "Hi John-- it's funny you say all of this because I looked up The Open Door, and that book is published by Poetry Magazine , which I now understand is the Poetry Foundation. It's the qu..."

John:
Of The New Yorker poems, I liked Louise Gluck's "Song" the best recently although there was one other you and I remarked on , no two one was about Mt Rushmore, but neither is terribly memorable.

I believe we all have our own poetry journey, and that we do is part of the attraction of reading poetry.

Can I ask you what you mean by long-- you would rather not read long poems? Because some of the 19th C poems we will are long, and then there is a epic poem like or very long poem such as Walcott's?

Larry wrote: "Sher,

I have the latest Yergin book also. How far into the book are you?

Larry"

Larry I am 30 % done. I think you read another book by Yergin with Eileen , if I remember correctly. I remember not being interested, but since I have started subscribing to Bloomberg and I have the general environmental interests, I have wondered about oil - and I had no idea what the shale revolution was. Smile.

I see John- good, this information is very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks John- you will see I have moved it and asked you a question at Christianity. Thank you...

If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus John, from Washington has shared this book with us.

John, I could not find your review of this book- did you want to share a few lines as to why this is a great book? Thank you...

Hi John-- I recently bought this book. The other John and I had planned to read it before year's end. What did you find exceptional about these essays...?

Hello,
I'm currently reading The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations by Yergin. It's an unusual read for me in that I haven't read a book about energy before. I often read heavily in the humanities.

I can recommend this book if you want to understand the role of oil in geopolitics and the way the world map in relationship to oil is changing. Yergin writes so clearly that even someone who is new to this topic will follow. Plus the writing and the way he tells the story is interesting. Finally - if you want to understand the American Shale revolution and how it came about - it's all in this book.

Hi John-- it's funny you say all of this because I looked up The Open Door, and that book is published by Poetry Magazine , which I now understand is the Poetry Foundation. It's the quarterly magazine I mentioned to you some weeks back, and I expressed how challenging it is for me to get through these new poets's works--because they are so dark, so modern, so dystopian. So personal --by this I mean very "singer songwriter." People who love singer songwriter music won't appreciate the comparison.

So what happened? The first hundred years of the Poetry Magazine was okay , but now...

I was going to ask you to say more about this.

But, about these aha moments... are they not different for each of us?

When a poet or writer releases a work - should we all see it the same way? That seems impossible to me.

I do know what you mean though about this feeling or value judgment of not caring when the poem is about someone you do not know or when it is the work I was describing earlier.

Still- this new poetry has a fan club doesn't it?

Just musing here- you know I am really curious these days about poetry.

Sher moved for Carol:

Not a book, but a film- so perhaps it is in the wrong section.

Have just watched 'Shoplifters' by Hirokazu Kore-eda who wrote and directed it.
An intensely sad, complicated and rather strange film, which I have spent the last week watching in short bits as I kept feeling something awful was about to happen and I would have preferred, during these Covid times, to be watching something more cheerful. However, it drew me in, not least because the two children in it reminded me very much of my grandchildren. It is . however, a wonderful film, quiet and understated, and with a surprising twist at the end. I believe it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It is Japanese but was subtitled

Hi Larry:
I wonder what will happen with Zoom too. We are considering a Zoom with family in Hawaii, and I know several large families in the neighborhood that will be zooming all about the same time.

I'm brining a turkey and will work on pumpkin pie soon.

I'm really looking ward to make a big vat of turkey soup to freeze.

Just me and my husband tomorrow.


If others see this- I am curious what was your favorite one or two dishes you enjoyed at Thanksgiving when you were growing up?

Mine was oyster stuffing - those were the days when the stuffing was baked inside the turkey, and mom's stuffing poured from the bird. The outside stuffing exposed to the oven was always crunchy and the flavor of the oysters and spices and day old bread -- just fantastic ... That was my favorite dish when I was a kid.

Hello Everyone -- this thread is for you to post any news you would like to share about something happening in the neighborhood group and also for your to share news and happenings of a personal nature --book related or not. Feel free to ask a question too. This is a all purpose open thread. Don't be shy, we'd love to know what is on your mind today.

Please post the best presidential biographies and memoirs you have read.

What an excellent resource Larry! Thank you. Most of the art books are huge and take up a lot of room on the bookshelf. I am still not ready to say goodbye to my art books, but this is such an interesting resource. I will check this out. Thanks again.

This thread for you to ask members if they know of a great book about a topic you are interested in.

I am looking for a book about...?

Ask us here, and we will help if we can.

I really am struck and held by "Ars Poetica" -- the ambiguity and the way it fires my imagination. I love the idea of poetry as timeless and slices of time. Here is a portrait of Archibald Macleish (1892- 1982) provided by the Poetry Foundation.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poet...

Post your best books about art styles, movements, and books showing artist's works --versus artist biographies.

Carol wrote: "Have I put the above in the wrong place? Should I have started a different thread? I was putting it under Biography and Memoirs, rather than Beethoven."

Hi Carol-- this sounds like a wonderful book! I have placed it under the subcategory of Great Women under Biographies / Memoirs

As Larry mentioned all part of the process of trying to make things easy to find for members...