Lissa’s Comments (group member since Jul 12, 2011)

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

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account) by Charles Dickens (1850) uses some incidents from Dicken’s early life. Read the free ebook and discuss it here or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at the Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library --Marvin Auditorium 101C , 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon Jun 10, 2013.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (1920) presents the debut of the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorpe in her locked bedroom? Suspects, clues and red herrings abound. Read the free ebook and discuss it here, or at http://www.yscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at the Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library --Marvin Auditorium 101C, 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon May 13, 2013.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy(1878) creates a epic tale of sex, duty, marriage and moral regeneration in this realistic novel of unhappy families set in imperial Russia. Critics describe it as flawless, the greatest novel ever written. Read the free ebook and discuss it here, or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at the Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library--Marvin Auditorium 101C, 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon Apr 8, 2013.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891) imagines a young man who sells his soul to ensure that a painting of him will age so that his own beauty never fades in this work of classic gothic fiction with a strong Faustian theme. Read the free ebook and discuss it here, or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at the Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library --Marvin Auditorium 101C, 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon Mar 11, 2013.

Roughing It by Mark Twain (1872) is a semi-autobiographical account of his six years traveling in the West, including Nevada and San Francisco. Twain’s satiric humor and imagination freely inspire his memory of these adventures. Read the free ebook and discuss it here, or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library - Marvin Auditorium 101C, 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon Feb 11, 2013.

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) by Thomas Hardy opens with a shocking act: a man sells his wife and child at a country fair in rustic England. In time, the man becomes successful and respected, but his shameful past makes this a tragic novel. Read the free ebook and discuss here, or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics, or in person at Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library --Marvin Auditorium 101C 1:30–3:00 pm, Mon Jan 14, 2013.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) creates a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The characters are familiar; the logic and literary nonsense are highly influential to other genres. Read the free ebook and discuss here, or at http://www.tscpl.org/tag/classics or in person at the Classic Made Modern eBook Discussion at the library --Marvin Auditorium 101C 1:30–3:00 pm Mon Dec 10, 2012.

Hailey Kendrick works hard for her perfect life. It's her senior year at an elite boarding school in Vermont. She's best friends with a popular party girl. She's dating a hottie who's parents are Hollywood movie stars. She's looking forward to spending the summer after graduation at an internship working alongside her dad, but only after throwing the biggest and best end-of-school party that her even her wealthiest friends have ever seen...
Until some disappointing news sends Hailey out into the cold rainy night and she gets caught doing something that no one would have ever expected. When Hailey refuses to reveal who she was with that night, everyone in school gets punished, her boyfriend dumps her, her best friend is avoiding her, and everything starts changing, including Hailey herself.

The Education of Hailey Kendrick is a journey of self-discovery, in the form of a life spiraling out of control. Going along on her adventure, and her romance, is a ton of fun!

This book is YA/teen fiction!

I read a review of Are You My Mother over the weekend in the newspaper and literally yelled out "quick, bring me my phone, I've got to put this book on hold!" I was so excited!

Reading-wise I've been working my way through all of the light/happy/non-dystopian teen romance ebooks at http://ebooks.tscpl.org, I think the last one I read was Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story edited by Kelly Milner Halls, which was EXCELLENT. It was pairs of short stories written by great YA authors, telling both sides of the same story. Interesting, with more depth than my typical favorite light reading, but highly recommended!

Jane Austen Book Club!

Thanks Melanie! I'm almost done with Boneshaker now-- it's a good read and interesting. Even the zombies in it aren't bothering me, and that's really saying something!

The Literature with Lunch discussion of Our Boys REALLY brought more depth to the book for the participants. The group, primarily women, criticized the lack of women and girls in the story, particularly the lack of role for women in the football program. People in the group from small towns were MUCH more attuned to the feelings of the Smith Center folks who were NOT involved in the football program. The author's conclusion that everyone could be involved in the football program in some way didn't ring true for the people who had personally felt like outsiders in small towns.

The idea that people in the Midwest are a certain way was debated -- and Midwestern values versus farm-work-ethic were debated as well. The absense of immigrant workers on the farms was noted. Big city versus small town was discussed at length, including what we liked about each scenario, particularly as it related to parenting and children.
The huge amount of financial resources donated by a wealthy person to support the football program in an otherwise poor town surprised some people. The violence inherent in football, and the impact of the injuries, and the feelings of the boys who were injured and missing out on their senior year of football were discussed.

The sport psychology, the motivational power of the coach, the teamwork, identifying the strengths of each player - these were all parts of the book that were of interest and had broader application than just in a football setting. Those broader messages were not explicit though - some readers enjoyed that this book really is just a story about one fall with one team.

The members who had been to the program where Joe Drape spoke at the library were much more open to being impressed by the ways that being a part of Smith Center, and being friends with the people there, had changed his life. I think many participants will be coming to hear Coach Barta and his son speak at the library next month!

Have you read Our Boys yet? Did you take note of any of the things that were discussed in Literature with Lunch? What did you find to be the most discussable things from the book?

The HUSH podcast is Thad Hartman and Lissa Staley hosting a discussion with our guests around an engaging and interesting topic. Our guests this episode are Dave Coleman, Red Carpet Specialist and Nate Hohl, Public Services Specialist. They also host the book review column "Uncommonly Good Books Read by Two Common Guys"

Check out some of their recommendations here, including the new Walter Payton biography "Sweetness" by Jeff Pearlman, and Joe Drape's Our Boys about Smith Center, Kansas.

What are some of your favorite "Books for Guys" either that you have read or that you would recommend to guys to read?

Our guest this episode is Stephanie Hall, Red Carpet Manager to chat about the best books of 2011 according to Goodreads, our library customers, and also our own reading tastes.

Listen here.

what were your best books of 2011? Have you read some of the 2011 best books we mention in the podcast?

Our guest this episode is Nancy Pearl, Author and Librarian. She is a rock star among readers and her Book Lust series helps tempt readers with new book recommendations. Nancy invented and popularized the concept of a community reading and discussing the same book together. She is a frequent contributor to NPR on topics of books and reading. She is an inspiration for librarians, library customers and readers everywhere!

In this podcast, she confesses ”I wanted to be a librarian because I wanted to make the world a better place” and explains “The rule of 50″ for how to judge whether to keep reading a book that you aren’t enjoying.

Listen to the podcast here

Have you heard Nancy Pearl on NPR or read her books or columns? Do her recommendations appeal to you?

The Literature with Lunch group's book discussion of Innocents Abroad started out focused on how this book was just a little too long and repetitive. Two things helped us -- one was learning more about the "subscription book" industry in which books were sold through door-to-door agents and were moderately expensive, so the authors had to deliver something longer to be worth the extra cost. The second was when a new group member comments that non-fiction isn't like fiction reading -- it doesn't neccesarily built toward a conclusion and isn't always conducive to being read on a deadline. Reading just a section of this at a time would have made it more enjoyable, we all agreed. Others commented that hearing Twain tell the stories (or an audiobook) would have been more humourous, and several people gave up on reading the ebook in favor of the print edition. The original book had over 200 illustrations, and those who had illustrated reprints spoke highly of the additional enjoyment these gave the experience. Twain originally took his journey on the Quaker City (ship) to Europe and the Holy Land to write letters back to a San Francisco newspaper - he then turned those letters into both a humourous lecture tour and this book.
The best online resources about this book were found from the University of Virginia Etext site. http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/inn...
The Project Guterberg version is available with the original illustrations: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176

The line from the Conclusion "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts." sparked much discussion about whether travel was enough to accomplish all of this. Many people felt that the attitude and willingness that the traveler brings to the experience is just as important as the travel itself. Armchair travel with a williness to truly learn and explore a new place or culture may also serve to decrease prejudice, bigotry and narrowmindedness.

Have you read Innocents Abroad? Share your thoughts here!

Here's a quick summary of our Literature with Lunch Book group today at the library --

Great Expectations is used as an expression throughout the novel and it grows increasingly ironic each time the phrase appears. As often as Pip’s circumstances are supposed to improve, they seem to spiral further down. The book being full of irony appealed to many of us as readers.

The split personality of John Wemmick gave rise to an interesting discussion of public and private life. In London, Wemmick serves as clerk and bill collector to the lawyer Mr. Jaggers, collecting portable property from the condemned at Newgate prison and berating clients in support for his employers general demeanor. At home, which John Wemmick has modeled after a castle, he looks after his delightful deaf father and putters about the garden with an altogether different demeanor. The narrator, Pip, is invited home with Wemmick and therefore sees both his work and home personas in contrast. This separation of public and private, of work and home, provides a basis for looking at everything from the examination of public officials private lives to whether to friend your coworkers on Facebook, and our book discussion group shared many perspectives and examples for and against Wemmick’s split persona. Wemmick was my favorite character this read-through and I think that it was because I identified with his split-personality issues.

From the review of “Great Expectations” in The Saturday Review 12.299 (July 20, 1861) “ It has characters in it that will become part of common talk, and live even in the mouths of those who do not read novels.” What better phrasing for “instant classic” than these? And who hasn't heard of Miss Havisham?

Dickens gives us, the modern reader two endings to discuss – the first original ending being shorter and leaving less romantic possibilities than the second, which was written to please his readers. We were divided at book group as to which ending we preferred.

Many members of book group had watched one or more movie versions -- the BBC version was judged to be the most accurate, and Gwenyth Paltrow/Ethan Hawke version to be the most laughable, and the David Lean version was enjoyed by some as well.

Have you read Great Expectations? What do you think?

Listen to the HUSH podcast (33:53) about books and movies. Download here
This episode focuses on what Library CEO Gina Millsap is reading on her Kindle. Reading is becoming situational -- with ebooks, audiobooks, print books all meeting people's needs in different ways. Have you read any of our recommendations?

In the new episode of Hush, Thad and I talk with Tween Librarian Jason Lamb about the William Allen White Children's Book Awards, which are a Kansas tradition. Find out why these are the original kids choice awards, and also hear about the controversy surrounding this year's award.
http://www.tscpl.org/podcast/hush-a-podcast-from-your-library-episode-13-william-allen-white-awards/
View the current and previous William Allen White award books here: http://waw.emporia.edu
Which William Allen White award winners or nominees have you read?

I have been listening to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer -- fun fantasy teen books about a 13 year old boy who is quite possibly an evil gold-obsessed genius...although his encounters with the fairy people (whom he met while trying to steal the gold from the leprachauns)may change him....but will it be for the better? I've listened to the first 3 books in the series and I am looking forward to tracking down the fourth soon!