Kathy ’s Comments (group member since Dec 18, 2008)

Kathy ’s comments from the Between the Lines group.

I am reading The Loop by Nicholas Evans. I've also read The Horse Whisperer and The Divide by him, thoroughly enjoying both of those.

Beth, you're welcome for the posting. I hope to have time to read it tomorrow. Please go see the movie and let me know if you enjoyed it, too. I went into the movie not expecting to love it, but I did.

Prettymisslara wrote: "Kathy I saw Benjamin Button and loved it as well. Thought it was a great story. I ordered a book of F Scott Fitzgeralds short stories today. Hopefully I can read the story it was based on by the..."

Prettymisslara, I found the story online where you can read it. The link is http://www.readbookonline.net/read/69... I hope to get to reading it sometime this week.

Emilee wrote: "Kathy how is The True Story of Hansel and Gretel I just bought it. Or have you not had a chance to start it yet?"

Hey Emilee, I haven't had a chance to start it yet. I had planned on starting it tonight, but I went out to eat and to a movie with a couple of friends. We saw Benjamin Button and loved it.

I bought The True Story of Hansel and Gretel today, and I plan on reading it this month. I'm currently finishing up On What Grounds.

For those of you who enjoy reading about Marie Antoinette, a great fiction read is Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. I thought it was a great read. I, also, immensely enjoy Naslund's book Ahab's Wife. I have her book Four Spirits on my 2009 to-read list.

Fiona, stay with The Divide. I just finished it and really liked it. I'm reading a little mystery cozy now, On What Grounds. It combines two loves of mine, mystery and coffee. I'm also trying to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, but I may just have to wait and finish one, then read the other.

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Hanukkah! And, for today, the 23rd of December, Happy Festivus to my fellow Seinfeld fans!

This question is a hard one. Just off the top of my head, I would have to say Agatha Christie, Laurie R. King, Sue Monk Kidd, Khaled Hosseini, Amy Tan, Joyce Carol Oates (even though so much of her writing is depressing, she's a kick-ass author), Elizabeth Kostova, Ariana Franklin, Sena Jeter Naslund, and Roald Dahl. I know that there are more, but these authors are definitely great in my book.

Zoe, I agree with many critics that the movie version of TKAM is one of the best adaptations of a movie ever. A funny note on the movie is that when I was teaching TKAM last January, I showed the movie following discussion of the book, and when the courtroom scene got to Mayella shouting, a teacher next door came by to make sure everything was OK. He had heard the yelling and thought it was a student. Now, I know to turn the volume down a bit on that part.

Emilee wrote: "Kathy: What's Dirty Santa?"

Ah, well it's not what it sounds like. There are actually a lot of different ways that you can do it, but basically you bring a gift that is either a gag gift or something that you want to get rid of (maybe a gift you've received you didn't like or couldn't use or just something you no longer need), wrap it, and you exchange these gifts. You've heard the saying that what is someone's trash is someone else's treasure. Well, there are actually items that people want in these gifts. I'm taking gifts from my family that are both good and bad gifts. You usually have the group of people playing draw numbers to see who goes first. Each person following the first person can either choose a new gift or take someone's gift that has already chosen. As I said there are lots of variations, so the group playing just has to agree to how they want to play it before starting. If you google "Dirty Santa," you will get a lot more information and variations.

Emilee, let me know how you like A Widow For One Year. Everyone that I've recommended it to has liked it.

Irving's A Widow For One Year is one of my favorite books. I'm always recommending it to someone.

Thanks for the welcome, Emilee. I think this is going to be a great group.

I started The Divide by Nicolas Evans on CD in my car today, as I had a two hour trip to pick up my husband at the airport. So, I liked what I heard, so I'm switching to the print version tonight.

I've read this book multiple times and taught it last year during one of my long-term subs. One of the aspects that I enjoy about it and taught about is all of the allusions that are in the book. There are so many great topics to teach about in this book--prejudice, injustice, honor, love, family, Jim Crow laws, friendship--that help students see how far our country had to come in racial matters. It is especially meaningful now that we have elected the first African-American President. Students sometimes find it hard to believe how horrible things once were for African-Americans.

My dog usually gets me up, unless I have to teach and wake up early. She manages to wake me up a half hour before my alarm is set on days when I could sleep in a little. Oh well, when you have to go, you have to go.

We're going to play Dirty Santa at my mother-in-law's house after our Christmas dinner on the Saturday after Christmas. We are looking forward to passing on some gift duds we've received in the past or things we want to get rid of. However, I'm including some nice gifts in my offerings, too. We will spend Christmas Day at our married daughter's house with her husbands family and ours. We always have a good time getting the two families together, and my husband will be home from the Army for Christmas break. It should be a good week.

Emilee, I've gone to a movie on Christmas Day, and I really enjoy that. I wish we could make it a tradition, too.

Hello all! My name is Kathy. I'm a substitute teacher for high school, mostly English. I have taught English and writing for writing portfolios, but I didn't retire from teaching, just started working for my husband's business before they closed it after 50 yrs. in operation. I got to do two long-term English subs last year for teachers on maternity leave and loved it. I have a Masters in Library Science and would love to find a high school librarian (or media specialist, as it is now called) position, but they are hard to come by around here. My husband is in the Army and just returned from Qatar today. He will fly home tomorrow for the Christmas holidays. Yay!

I love all different kinds of books, but my favorite is mystery with historical fiction added in. Some subjects that interest me are book censorship (against it, of course), the Black Death (both in the 1300's and 1600's) in England, boys and reading (did my research paper for my Masters on this subject), the Middle Ages, dowsing, and much more.

Some favorite authors are Laurie R. King (her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series), Edgar A. Poe, Khaled Hosseini, Agatha Christie, Sena Jeter Naslund, Ariana Franklin, Geraldine Brooks, Sue Monk Kidd, and Amy Tan. Some favorite books are A Widow For One Year by John Irving, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Girls by Lori Lansens, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Mistress of the Art of Death and City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin, Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund, Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, all the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books by Laurie R. King, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, Stones From the River by Ursela Hegi, the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, the BFG by Roald Dahl ... OK, I have to stop now. I have at least 50 favorites.

Anyway, I love to read. I just finished Company of Liars by Karen Maitland and loved it.