Kelli’s Comments (group member since Jun 29, 2011)

Kelli’s comments from the Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library group.

If you are a fan of historical adventure or relic hunting stories, I have a series to recommend to you. Try the Ethan Gage series by William Dietrich.

Ethan Gage is a mouthy protege of Benjamin Franklin that prefers to hang out in the gambling halls and brothels of Paris. To his dismay however, he gets swept up in a variety of adventures and bumbles around with freemasons, soldiers, and educated savants while trying to avoid more evil treasure hunters and keep the skin on his back. Overall, I am greatly entertained by Ethan Gage's character. He is not very brave, but witty and lucky. He flip flops his loyalties between his allies and enemies just to preserve himself. He knows there is nothing redeeming about his character but he always tries to do the right thing which of course usually leads him down the wrong path.

The first novel in the series is Napoleon's Pyramids. In this story, Ethan gets pulled into an expedition to Egypt by Napoleon himself. The adventure takes Ethan through swashbuckling battles between the French and British Navies, has him fighting on the scorched battefields of Egypt, and eventually has him racing against members of an evil secret society in Egypt's pyramids. In the second book, The Rosetta Key, Ethan's adventures in Egypt continue as he gets swept up in more French battles, womanizing, and relic hunting. The adventures in the third book, The Dakota Cipher, takes Ethan back to the United States where he is hired to explore the Louisiana Territory for Napoleon and President Thomas Jefferson. His Norwegian travel companion, however, has Ethan helping him find a long lost Templar relic that was brought over to the New World by Vikings. The next book in the series is The Barbary Pirates. In this story, Ethan leaves the New World and heads back over to France only to get forced by Napoleon to search for the lost Mirror of Archimedes. The adventure leads him through Greece, Tripoli, and Sicily. The latest book in the series is The Emerald Storm. In this story, Ethan Gage finds himself in the Caribbean searching for Montezuma's legendary treasure.

I do want to note that Dietrich's books can sometimes be a little slow-paced with detail. But if you feel yourself getting bogged down, I recommend that you keep reading because when the action takes off you can't put down his books.

I'm guessing your plot twist is that Carl gave her a faux shot in the head and she will return as a zombie. :)

The producers may do anything... but so far they've stayed somewhat close to books.

I agree. Lori was hard to take on the show. I was just surprised that it they got rid of her so soon. I thought that event wasn't going to happen until the season finale. Now I'm curious how they will handle the Governor.

I'm really excited about this new book group! Classics are usually the only ebooks that I read since most of them are free. :)

I may be the only one who has read the books and is currently watching the show, but did anyone see the latest episode with Lori and the baby?

What are your thoughts?

Welcome! This ongoing discussion is your place to share what you are reading and what you think about it!

Apparently, Spielberg's new movie, Lincoln, is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. What did you think about the book and are you excited about the movie?

I've started The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King. I had been wanting to start this series for a couple years now and finally got around to it. I'm really enjoying the blossoming relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell.

Here's also ALA's list of the top 10 challenged materials of 2011. I'm always surprised to still find classics being challenged. Have you read any on the list?

1.ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle

2.The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa

3.The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins

4.My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler

5.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

6.Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

7.Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

8.What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones

9.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar

10.To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

September 30-October 6, 2012 is Banned Books Week. This annual event celebrates the freedom to read and promotes the value of free and open access to information.

If you are looking for some reading inspiration, the classics listed below are from a list provided by the American Library Association. ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom records attempts made to ban books and other information. All of the titles below have at least been challenged at one time by groups or individuals to be removed from library shelves and classrooms.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Ulysses, by James Joyce
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
1984, by George Orwell
Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Native Son, by Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Welcome! This ongoing discussion is your place to share what you are reading and what you think about it!

I am just starting Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I enjoy hiking so hopefully this book won't scare me too much. :)

I'm also reading volume 16 of The Walking Dead graphic novel series. I'm not a huge zombie fan but I can't stop reading this series. It's great!

Melanie wrote: "Reading Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return I read Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood for the Humanities Council and enjoyed it. I'm not enjoying this one as much."

I thought the second book was good, but like you I did not enjoy it as much as the first book. I guess I had this notion that once the author got out of Iran, she would live happily ever after.

I found an interesting graphic posted to a Goodreads blog on dystopian fiction. It examines the genres popularity over the years. Click on the link below if you're interested.

http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/35...

My favorite dystopian book would be Brave New World by Huxley. I was assigned to read it in high school and loved it! I also wanted to throw out a dystopian movie favorite, V for Vendetta.

Another movie suggestion based off of a P.D. James book that I haven't read is Children of Men. It takes place over in England or elsewhere in the UK under the assumption that the human race can no longer reproduce.

I should say extra shocking!! :)

Erin wrote: "Kelli, the first (and only so far) book I've read by Chuck Palahniuk was "Snuff" on audiobook on a drive down to my parents' house with my husband. It is very different from my normal choice of ple..."

Yikes! "Snuff" is a major slap in the face and shocking for a first time Palahniuk book. Were you able to finish it?

I think I'm going to have to read like crazy this fall to make it unless I luck out a pick one book with numerous states in it. We'll see how it goes! :)

I just finished Chuck Palahniuk's book Invisible Monsters and really don't know what to think of it. He is definitely an author I don't recommend to just anyone, but I do enjoy his strange, disturbing stories. In this book a self-absorbed model is trying to cope with the loss of her beauty with the help of a few characters.

I've just started Alex Grecian's The Yard and love it! It is set during the Victorian period in London and examines the "murder squad" composed of twelve detectives in post Jack the Ripper London. I find the characters fascinating. The detectives are overworked with having only 12 detectives to solve all of London's murder cases and underappreciated by the locals. I also really enjoy that early forensic science is used to help solve their cases.

Welcome! This ongoing discussion is your place to share what you are reading and what you think about it!