Metropolitan’s Comments (group member since Aug 25, 2014)

Metropolitan’s comments from the Metro Library ReadUp group.

I'm less than 40 pages in and I am hooked. The writing style is pretty amazing--Capote gives you an intimate look into the characters with his evocative descriptions. I am especially creeped out by his portrayal of Dick and Perry:

Perry: "His own face enthralled him. Each angle of it introduced a different impression. It was a changeling's face, and mirror-guided experiments had taught him how to ring the changes, how to look now ominous, now impish, now soulful." I can just see this weird looking guy making faces at himself in the mirror.

Dick: "Neither Dick's physique nor the inky gallery adorning it made as remarkable an impression as his face, which seemed composed of mismatching parts. It was as though his head had been halved like an apple, then put together a fraction off center."

Couple of scary looking dudes!

Reserve your copy today, there are plenty in the Metro Library system in all formats, and share your thoughts here!

All right, looks like the winner is In Cold Blood.

Which nonfiction title should we read in March?

Vote in the poll or just comment here.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the Wild West by Dorothy Wickenden
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

4 very different books to choose from!

It was definitely a lighter read than I usually go for. It kind of reminded me of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman except not as dark. I could see it translating to TV very well.

A bunch of our copies are checked out, so I'm assuming people are reading them. This was a very enjoyable, quick read for me. I liked the magical realism stuff too, especially the misunderstood apple tree.

Questions I think are most interesting from the link I posted above:

1. Claire believes all relationships are temporary, and does everything in her power to fight the pain this causes by ordering her life into predictable routines. Sydney's rebellious youth and history of dangerous, unstable affairs recklessly embraces the emotional turmoil Claire avoids. Whose approach to life resonates with you personally? Are their outlooks two sides of the same coin? In the course of the book, how are their attitudes transformed?

2. The four Waverley women in this novel (Claire, Sydney, Bay, Evanelle) have special gifts. Which of the four gifts would you like to have? Why? How would you use it?


3. If you knew that biting into a Waverley apple would reveal your future, would you bite? Why or why not?


My thoughts:
1. I could relate pretty well to Claire's outlook. I think trying to be too self-protective can be harmful in the long run though, as it deprives you of valuable life experiences. I was very glad that she finally accepted her feelings for Tyler.

2. I would definitely use Bay's gift of knowing where things belong if I had it. It would come in very handy in everyday life, and super-handy at work! (Librarians spend a lot of time looking for things.)

3. I would definitely not eat the apple!


I also liked many of the secondary characters, especially Fred, and poor long suffering Henry, who takes a bullet for love!

There's a sequel too, just published in 2015: http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guid... It's also in Metropolitan's collection, with a fairly long holds list. (To which I am adding my name!)

Me too! I finished it a couple days ago and was pleasantly surprised at how sweet it is.

Here are some discussion questions and other interesting info about the book: http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guid...

litlovers is a pretty good website, I think!

Discuss here!

It's a tie between Jane Eyre and Garden Spells, but in the interest of time, let's go with Garden Spells. Jane Eyre is a lot longer. Sorry for the delay in responding, I was out sick yesterday.

It's that time again! What shall we read in February? Since it's Valentine's month we could try something romantic.

Classics:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Newer:
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Garden Spells by Sarah Allen Addison
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Vote in the poll for your favorite!

It took a bit for me to get into it, but I'm liking it. There are a lot of fascinating facts and descriptions of the ancient world and its rulers. I've found that this isn't a book to read with distractions around either. We'll go for something lighter next month for sure.

Here's a review: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/boo...

"To distract the present-day reader from the absence of her subject’s early years, Schiff neatly draws our attention to a different, albeit geographic, femme fatale — Alexandria. Balanced on the sparkling Mediterranean coast, with a parade-ready colonnade running the length of the city and mechanical marvels like hydraulic lifts, coin-operated machines and statues with flickering eyes, Egypt’s capital made Rome look like the “provincial backwater” it was. Schiff’s rendering of the city is so juicy and cinematic it leaves one with the sense of having visited a hopped-up ancient Las Vegas, with a busy harbor and a really good library." --there are some really terrific descriptions in the book.

"Cleopatra mythologized herself before anyone else had the chance. Roman contemporaries misread the pageants she acted out; early biographers were biased, xenophobic, politically motivated and sometimes sensationalistic, writing for an audience that expected to be dazzled by intrigues reflecting its assumptions. It’s dizzying to contemplate the thicket of prejudices, personalities and propaganda Schiff penetrated to reconstruct a woman whose style, ambition and audacity make her a subject worthy of her latest biographer."

Here's another one: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/boo...
"In “Cleopatra: A Life,” Ms. Schiff strips away the accretions of myth that have built up around the Egyptian queen and plucks off the imaginative embroiderings of Shakespeare, Shaw and Elizabeth Taylor. In doing so, she gives us a cinematic portrait of a historical figure far more complex and compelling than any fictional creation, and a wide, panning, panoramic picture of her world." --She shows that a lot of what has been passed down about Cleopatra is probably not true, as it was said by people who didn't like her.

And here's the author on the Daily Show being interviewed about the book: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/f8m...
"Awesome read!"- Jon Stewart

This month we're reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. It's available in regular print, large print, audio CD, and eBook formats.

From the catalog description: "The subject of gossip and legend, veneration and speculation in her lifetime, Cleopatra fascinated the world right up to her death. In the 2000 years since, myths about the last Queen of Egypt have been fueled by Shakespeare, Dryden, and Shaw, who put words in her mouth, and by Michelangelo, Delacroix, and Elizabeth Taylor, who put a face to her name. In Cleopatra, Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff accomplishes a feat that has eluded artists and writers for centuries: capturing fully the operatic life of an exceptionally seductive and powerful woman, whose death ushered in a new world order."

Sounds exciting! Get your copy today!

I extended the poll one more day, since there's a bit of a tie going on right now.

I've made a poll, please vote! The books some of you suggested sound good, but with a club this big, I need to choose books that the library has at least 20 copies of, in as many formats as possible, so I chose some others for us to vote on.

Finally finished reading it. I was in suspense during the last chapter that something would go wrong, and the happy ending I felt was coming wouldn't actually happen--like Vivian would keel over and die before getting a chance to finally have a happy moment in her life!

I thought this was pretty much the saddest line in the whole book: "I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. Now I feel with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again." These are not the things a new mom generally feels, are they?

Even though it was a bit of a downer, I'd still recommend this book, mainly for how the similarities among the characters are expressed--it really shows how we aren't all that different from one another.

For January we should do a nonfiction book. I have a couple likely titles. Anyone have a suggestion for a nonfiction book we could read?

It just keeps getting worse and worse for her. I had a very bad feeling about that Mr. Grote. Sorry to have chosen such a depressing book, guys.

Oh man, page 112 ends so sadly: Niamh is being taken to another home.

"It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or is taking care of you, to always be on the outside looking in. I feel a decade older than my years. I know too much; I have seen people at their worst, and their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I fell broken inside."

Niamh and Molly have a lot in common, don't they?

I can't help but compare the narrative structure of this book and The Night Circus. To me, the two stories in Orphan Train are parallel and they seem to serve a purpose of advancing a larger story. The different stories in The Night Circus were sort of purposeless and made the book harder to follow. Thoughts?