C. (Comment, never msg).’s Comments (group member since Jan 30, 2014)

C. (Comment, never msg).’s comments from the Gentle SPECTRUMS group.

Thank you for showing your review, Shirin!

I replied a bit there because we all like the reward of comments at our reviews. But if you prefer, we could converse in more detail here. It is fun to know your opinions.

The shorter PDF "Shipwreck" really is my second favourite. Thanks to the nice ten star chart summarizing Maureen's book grades at your review, I see that it is your third favourite. I love your summaries, a great idea to see everything without searching the slow Goodreads book pages, whose new organization hardly works for me.

Today is southeastern Manitoba's first +24 C warm day and I have yardwork to do before this week-end's spring rains. However, I was compelled to watch a 2-hour special about our legendary Gordon Lightfoot. It is from 2019 and is wonderfully made, with appearances from all kinds of old greats from before my time!

My Dad and our whole country played Gord a lot as I grew up. Currently, I am appreciating his music, while preparing Canadian content to send my friend, Kerri. At a book sale 2 weeks ago, I scored his 2017 biography. At this end of this afternoon's special, I checked on a memorial in the end credits and see it was for his Sister, Beverley.

I was astonished to read that Gord also arose the afterlife just 2 days ago! Oh, what a difficult parting for all Canadians, as well as folk, pop, and country fans and numerous music lovers around the world. I am glad to have learned so much about him and indulged in his musical treasury while he was alive.

I happened to also procure the autobiography of Ian Tyson. Gord credits Ian & Sylvia's cover recordings of 2 of his songs with lifting his career. Ian Tyson and Ronnie Hawkins are also recently gone but I don't know them at all. May the CD sellers of our province hold onto their hats when I arrive. Rest in peace with love from me: Gord, Ian, and Ronnie. ~Sincerely, Carolyn~.

I am glad a few of my friends are in the mood for lighthearted fun! I will set an estimated starting date for this famous chick lit, until we see how our buddy reading of "The Raven Boys" soars along. If that novel is dark, the humour of an Englishwoman spending money should be a blast!

Hi Kerri! If you e-mail within half an hour, I will get a few answers before I go to bed to read. Being in the other halves of the world, we communicate live when we are getting up and settling down. :) It is 15 minutes to midnight in Manitoba.

I didn't know "Shiver" is about werewolves but have a few hardcovers in that series, as a completionist buying more of the same author who looked interesting elsewhere. I too prefer spirits and magic and fairies will do.

I'll write one more review and leave you to read up all around here. I have put a lot of work into our group today and in my review writing. :) Love, Carolyn.

Friends, I have noticed two fun activities. The requirement to download or stream them makes them tricky to obtain. If technology were equalized as it was 5 years ago, our internet speed wouldn't factor into it. Everyone relied on television airing or DVDs to watch things and now we cannot necessarily buy content either.

One annoying example is "Murder Mystery" with Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston; a far too generic title to look up! Maybe I will find blu-rays outside of Amazon.ca where I usually buy them, who I guess is in competition with their supplier, Netflix? Ron hasn't found this film in stores for me either. What is annoying is that the sequel is emerging, without us having enjoyed the first.

Recently, Yannick Bisson did fun advertisements in between commercials, inviting us to download games and solve mysteries with William Murdoch! I get that you need decent internet speed for some on-line content and was going to see if I could access it, or get copies from one of you.

Now the show is advertising a mini series featuring the Great-Great descendent of William Murdoch, that is only shown on-line. Now would be a good time to try a YouTube converter program and to mail the video files to me! The extra fun thing is that they interact with the regular "Murdoch Mysteries" set and some of the primary characters, like Constable Henry Higgins.

Oh, inventing additional technology is fine, if they don't usurp the basic TVs and blu-ray players that rural citizens are using! https://murdochmysteries.fandom.com/w...

It turned out that before we read “The Big Four”, you had to move into a home without internet and return the library loaned book. As discussed, we will read it on our own, having discovered that it is a short story compilation. Do you have home internet now, Shirin?

I have switched this conversation's title to the next full novel of the Hercule Poirot series, because 1928 happens to be the next release among Agatha Christie's work. I love reading in order of what I have at home.

With many different influences, personal memories, and associations originating from this 1895 novel; I look forward to experiencing it at last in 2023 and sharing it with my special worldwide friends. Love, Carolyn.

Revisting this book conversation, I am happily reminded that Shirin updated us until chapter #32. I apologize, Shirin, for getting an idea in my head that you had not given feedback yet. I remember now, it is only your final opinion we await.

It really is too bad the end fell into stupid tropes, multiple ones. Because it was not as gross, abusive, mean as "Under The Dragon's Tail", I was liking "Poor Tom Is Cold" better. Even though I avoid and am disturbed by the subject of assault, I think "Except The Dying" was much better too. Minus the annoying Great-Grandkid, "Shipwreck" is my second favourite.

Another reason I was liking "Poor Tom Is Cold" at least half of the way, I think I wrote above last year, is that there was no killer threatening danger to anyone. You just needed to solve who killed their station #4 policeman. He had a suspicious Mom and the wrong woman posing as his fiancé. I dislike stressful emotions and environments. I remember very much liking the break, to just enjoy reading at an easy, safe pace.

I know friends missed a few sensitive dates shared here but am glad we are warming up our time together by conversing anew. We can always catch-up.

I learned from Shirin that May is "Asian / Pacific Islander" literature month. It originated from some kind of proprietary US territory appreciation, into general worldwide promotion of Asian & Pacific Islander literature. I curiously looked into what the oceanic term meant.

I see that although Australia is not in it for some reason, New Zealand is! So our dear Kerri is a "Pacific Islander"! This is just the right time for me to bring out something she has given me, plus the Margaret Mahy "The Changeling" novel I got last year. I am very happy to salute our Asian & Pacific Islander friends and neighbours of our world.

I am experiencing “Harry Potter” by myself, like everyone else did when these life-changing novels came out. It is my first time reading them, even though I am 51! We have plenty of other common authors before then.

Shirin contributed the following.
Hi everyone! I just mention the books Carolyn and I have in common to read and I can start reading Thursday whatever books you choose.

CANADIAN (June list)
Maureen Jennings's Let Loose The Dogs”
Lucy Maud Montgomery and Margaret Laurence

SERIES
Agatha Christie, Carolyn I didn't read the ones you chose.
Cassandra Clare “The Bane Chronicles”
Ian Rankin “Tooth And Nail”
Rick Riordan “The Lightning Thief” I have a few books of this series in Persian.
Carlos Luiz Zafón “The Angel's Game”

CLASSICS
Charles Dickens “A Tale Of Two Cities”
Susan Hill “The Woman In Black”
Mark Twain “The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn”
H.G. Wells “The Time Machine”
Virginia Woolf “Orlando”

VARIETY
Anthony Doerr “All The Light We Cannot See”
Erin Morgenstern “The Starless Sea”.

A-ha, we have found a nice place at the top of the conversation space, for our alphabetized, master buddy-reading list! It is trimmed for 2023 and I regularly add goodies. Let's defer to “Canadian” in authors or subjects, no matter their genre.

If some books aren’t shown: I have not had time to add them, do not have them, or am uninterested. I reflect volumes we are at. Feel free to continue conversations anywhere in our group. Sincerely, your friend and hostess, Carolyn.


~ CANADIAN ~

Jann Arden “Feeding My Mother”
John Buchan “The 39 Steps”
Margaret Buffie “Angels Turn Their Backs” (Winnipegger!)
John Candy “Laughing On The Outside”
Michael G. Coney “Celestial Steam Locomotive”
Biruté M.F. Galdikas “Reflections Of Eden” (wildlife activism)
Maureen Jennings “Let Loose The Dogs”
Lyn King “Walking Into The Night Sky” (poetry)
Lake Winnipeg Writers’ Group “Voices: Volume Ten, Number One”
Margaret Laurence “Heart Of A Stranger”, “Dance On The Earth”, “Long Drums And Cannons”
Gordon Lightfoot “Lightfoot”
Janet Lunn “The Unseen: Scary Stories”
Susie Moloney “A Dry Spell”, “The Thirteen” (Winnipegger!)
Lucy Maud Montgomery “Anne Of Ingleside”, “The Blue Castle”, “Along The Shore”, “Among The Shadows”
William Shatner “Up Till Now”
Ian Tyson “The Long Trail: My Life In The West”.


~ SERIES ~

Nevada Barr “Track Of The Cat”
S.J. Bennett “The Windsor Knot”
Anne Brashares “The Second Summer Of The Sisterhood”
Agatha Christie “The Mystery Of The Blue Train”, “Partners In Crime”, “The Seven Dials Mystery”, “The Murder At The Vicarage”
Cassandra Clare “The Mortal Instruments”, “The Bane Chronicles”
Eoin Colfer “Artemis Fowl”
Chris D’Lacey “The Fire Within”
Melissa De La Cruz “The Isle Of The Lost”
Frances Fyfied “Shadows On The Mirror” and “Half Light” in her real name, Frances Hegarty.
Sue Grafton “A Is For Alibi”
David Handler “The Burnt Orange Sunset”
P.D. James “Cover Her Face”
Sophie Kinsella "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan"
Christopher Paolini “Eragon”
Ian Rankin “Tooth And Nail”
Rick Riordan “The Maze Of Bones”, “The Lightning Thief”, “The Sea Of Monsters”, “The 39 Bones”
J.K. Rowling 1 “Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban” (yes, I am last to indulge. I want to savour this.)
Michael Scott “The Alchemyst”
Trenton Lee Stewart “The Mysterious Benedict Society”
Maggie Stiefvater “Lament”, “The Raven King”, “Opal”.
Garcia Stohl “Beautiful Creatures”
Rex Stout “The Rubber Band”
Carlos Luiz Zafón “The Angel’s Game”.


~ VARIETY ~

Kate Atkinson “Behind The Scenes At The Museum”
John Berendt “Midnight In The Garden Of Good & Evil”
Chris Colfer “The Land Of Stories”
Blake Crouch “Recursion”
Anthony Doerr “All The Light We Cannot See”
Barbara Erskine “Lady Of Hay”
Cornelia Funke “The Thief Lord”
Hazel Gaynor “The Cottingley Secret” 2017
John Green “The Fault In Our Stars”
Michael Gruber “The Book Of Air And Shadows”, “The Forgery Of Venus”
Joanne Harris “Chocolat”
James Herbert “Haunted” (David Ash #1)
Khaled Hosseini “The Kite Runner”
Barbara Kingsolver “The Bean Tree”, “Homeland And Other Stories”, “Animal Dreams”, “Pigs In Heaven”
E.L. Konigsburg “The Second Mrs. Gioconda”
Katherine Kurtz “Chamber Of Culdi”
Ursual Le Gun “Wizard Of Earthsea”
Kate Mascarenhas “The Psychology Of Time Travel”
Jennifer McMahon “The Winter People” I’ll save the same Phyllis A. Whitney title for later.
Erin Morgenstern “The Starless Sea”
Sōsuke Natsukawa “The Cat Who Saved Books”!
Audrey Niffenegger“The Time Traveler’s Wife”, “Her Perfect Symmetry”
A.J. Pearce “Dear Mrs. Bird”
Kate Quinn “The Alice Network”
Nicole Richie “Priceless”
Anne River Siddons “The House Next Door”
Amy Tan “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”
Donna Tartt “The Goldfinch”
Gemma Townley “When In Rome....” (Sophie Kinsella's Sister ~ what fun)!
Sarah Waters “The Little Stranger”
Barbara Wood “The Dreaming”.


~ BIOGRAPHIES ~

Jeanne Cooper “Not Young, Still Restless”
Kirk Douglas “My Stroke Of Luck”
Chelsea Handler “Uganda Be Kidding Me”
Goldie Hawn “Goldie: A Lotus Grows In The Mud”
Elton John “Me”
Anna Faris “Unqualified”
Amy Poehler “Yes, Please!”
Amy Schumer “The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo”
Rainn Wilson “Bassoon King”.


~ NON-FICTION ~

James Bowen “A Street Cat Named Bob”
Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Junior “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life Of Huguette Clark And The Spending Of A Great American Fortune”
Anne Frank “Diary Of A Young Girl”
James Herriot “All Creatures Great And Small”
Kathleen Jamie “Sightlines”


~ CLASSICS ~

Isaac Asimov “Prelude To Foundation”
Jane Austen “Pride And Prejudice”, “Emma”
Frank L. Baum “The Wizard Of Oz”
Emily Brontë “Wuthering Heights”
Lewis Carrol “Alice In Wonderland”
Geoffrey Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales”
Wilkie Collins “The Woman In White”, “The Moonstone”
Charles Dickens “A Tale Of Two Cities”, “The Pickwick Papers”
Kenneth Graeme “The Wind In The Willows”
Thomas Hardy “Far From The Madding Crowd”, “Tess Of The D'Urbervilles”
Susan Hill “The Woman In Black”, “Mrs. De Winter”, “The Man In The Picture”
Shirley Jackson “The Haunting Of Hill House”, “We Have Always Lived In The Castle”
Norton Juster “The Phantom Tollbooth”
Anna Sewell “Black Beauty: The Autobiography Of A Horse”
Robert Louis Stevenson “Treasure Island”
Jules Verne “In Search Of The Castaways / The Children Of Captain Grant”, “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”!
Virginia Woolf “Orlando”.

“” “”

I am always happy to see you chiming in, Shirin. Kerri & I are considering the prequel to “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”. I noticed Captain Nemo was introduced earlier. Would you mind please finding us a PDF for “In Search Of The Castaways / The Children Of Captain Grant”? I have not heard of it.

Interestingly, the books besides “20,000 Leagues” that I am very keen to read turns out to be the third Captain Nemo adventure: “The Mysterious Island”, woo hoo!

If you & Kerri feel like reading “The Gargoyle” together, make a thread, or I could put it up for you. It combines a great range of cultures. It so impressive and varied, I can't believe Andrew Davidson researched and wrote about them all!

I look forward to Sophie Kinsella and H.G. Wells next. Yes, my friend, you are the copy procuring queen. :) You bet, I sure am in the mood to try out authors I have not read yet. They deserve to come out of our home shelves! I am already having fun. Hugs, Carolyn.

I am looking forward to chatting my way through a book with both of you too, Kerri and Shirin! Maybe you will obtain "Lament". I might finally get to it this year. It is time for us to board the famous Maggie Stiefvater train, choo choo! I read a couple of her short stories and believe I will enjoy her books much better. It sounds like she has built a full, memorable world of loveable family characters.

Friends, I should add that I have also been craving something really fun, light, and simple. How about the first "Confessions Of A Shopaholic" soon? Xoxo, Carolyn.

Post the link to your shelf here or in your Kerri "Members" folder. I will gladly visit it and so will our friends. Alternatively, clicking "compare books" should hit what we have in common but might not show the shelf names. When you have time to save your list in a Notepad or Word document, paste it here as well.

Fun fact, Shirin is about to read "The Stone Angel" and "The Gargoyle" soon. :)

I will check for e-mail in the morning. I am thrilled to be on-line simultaneously with you before I sign off. Ron works in the morning and we'd better have some couples time before we go to sleep. Xoxo, Carolyn.

Here is the conversation space for our buddy reading of "The Raven Boys"! Are we last to this party, or would anyone new like to join us? I would also like to read my copy of the older novel "Lament". See you Thursday, ladies!

I guess I own all of these if Shirin is citing them, haha! I'm in the mood for trying different authors and would like to wait a little for the next Anne Shirley story. I am giving Shirin time to actually say something about "Poor Tom Is Cold", haha and for Leeanne to read that one. Then I am excited to delve into our highly anticipated "Let Loose The Dogs".

Everything else you & Shirin have suggested sounds good to me. I propose after Maggie, finally reading "The Time Machine" and "10,000 Leagues Under The Sea"! :) But I have discovered there is a prequel to that. Should we find the first Captain Nemo beforehand?

I am happy to tell all of you that I own way more classics and popular, more recent books than this. They are merely too many to type. Feel free to use your "Meet The Members" personal folders and this one, to list stuff you are keen to read, if my already owned list isn't long enough. I would "compare books" with you, Kerri but you list thousands that you do not have.

Okay, I will make a conversation thread with pleasure. Hope you are both able to chime in daily. :) I do my updating in the morning, central time. Are you obtaining "The Raven Boys" from a library?

I will ask Kerri if she wants to join us for "The Raven Boys", although that girl has read *everything*. She has been busy offline. Leeanne is likely to spot this group entry. I look forward to your catch-up on "Poor Tom Is Cold" anytime. :)

Susan Hill is the horror authoress in question. Do you have the earlier Maggie Stiefvater book called "Lament"? I like beginning with the oldest books I have by each author but it isn't crucial.

Hi Shirin! It is neat, I am reading a study of Margaret Laurence's history and writing style right now, published by the wonderful Clara Thompson in 1975. The next novel I need to read by Margaret is "A Bird In The House". The five books set in the fictional town, Manawaka, have no other connection to each other. But if you would rather read "The Stone Angel", "A Jest Of God", "The Fire-Dwellers" first, I can wait. You blow through books too fast already!

I want to wait for Leeanne on "Let Loose The Dogs" but it won't be long. She only needs to read one more book to catch-up with us! Also, I want to give you a chance to contribute your review or comments on "Poor Tom Is Cold". For Agatha Christie, we said we don't mind reading "The Big Four" by ourselves because it comprises short stories. We can read the next novel together. :)

I think I am in the mood for "The Time Machine", "The Woman In Black", "The Raven Boys", and "The Lightening Thief"! What say you, our dear other group members? Your friend, Carolyn.

P.S. Do you want me to copy our master list in message #20 to a new 2023 folder? Or is this area easy to find anytime?