Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are U reading these days? (PART NINE (2013) (ongoing thread for 2013)
Joy wrote: "A lovely song with meaningful lyrics". My thoughts exactly!
Besides Dragon Rider, I'm reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury, not for the first time. October makes me think of the book, my sister and I were talking about it, she has the old movie, I have the book, we're gonna trade but not before I read it again.
Jackie wrote: "Besides Dragon Rider, I'm reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury, not for the first time. October makes me think of the book, my sister and I were talking about it, she has the old mo..."Jackie, gee that title seems very familiar, but I haven't read it or seen the movie.
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" (1983)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086336/?...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Somethin...
Netflix description:
"When a traveling carnival comes to a small town, the proprietor, Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce), promises to make residents' dreams come true. But the price turns out to be steep, as those dreams slowly spiral into a nightmare. Now, two boys (Vidal Peterson and Shawn Carson) must try to fight the sinister force infesting the town. Based on a Ray Bradbury novel, this surreal psychological thriller co-stars Jason Robards, Diane Ladd and Pam Grier."
That's the movie my sister has, she said Jason Robards was in it. TY
Jackie, I'm still wondering why the title is so familiar to me. I went to Wiki and found the following info:======================================================
"'Something wicked this way comes' is part of a line uttered by a witch in Act IV of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth".
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somethin...
(This is Wiki's "disambiguation" page.)
=========================================================
Well, that's news to me too. :)
I started Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West as a buddy read a couple of days ago. It's really good. I've read other books by Gregory Maguire and enjoyed them. I'm liking this one best, so far.
Jackie, I've seen Maguire's Oz books, including this one, for sale in recent years, and been intrigued by the buzz surrounding them. But I've always figured that modern take-offs on a classic series probably can't be fully appreciated without a knowledge of the original; and in the case of Oz, that would take a LOT of reading. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is only the first of 14 Oz books that L. Frank Baum wrote; I've only read the first one.)As our current "organically-powered audiobook" :-), Barb and I recently started another thick omnibus volume with three novels in it, The Empty Crown by Rosemary Edghill (who also writes as Eluki Bes Shahar; they're both pen names, and I don't know her real name). It's the first three novels of her extensive Twelve Treasures fantasy series; when I got the book from the Science Fiction Book Club back in the 90s, I assumed it was just a trilogy. (Of course, back then maybe it was!)
Werner, what I like about Wicked so far is that it's before the events of TWWoO. Back to when the Wicked Witch of the West is born and her life. It's not necessary to read all the Oz books and to be honest, I don't remember much about the TWWoO because I read it so long ago. The person I'm reading Wicked with hasn't read the original at all. If you've seen the movie, which I think everyone in the US has at one time or another, that's enough for some background. What's interesting is that these main characters are being formed in Wicked into the people we know later in TWWoO.I love this: "organically-powered audiobook" ! The books in The Empty Crown sound good.
Jackie wrote: "I started Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West as a buddy read a couple of days ago. It's really good. I've read other books by Gregory Maguire and enjoyed them. I'm liking..."Jackie, I just realized that the musical, "Wicked" is based on Maguire's book. See Wiki's page about the musical: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_%...
BTW, I read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Maguire. I gave it 5 GR stars! Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Werner, it's great the way you enjoy the fantasy genre. I'm such a slowpoke. I'm still reading the biography, Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn. There's so much distraction from my books these days, with my movies and FunTrivia, not to mention my audible books which I often listen to more than once. :)
The edition I have has photos from the play, though I haven't seen it nor do I want to. I have Confessions on my shelf, I plan on getting to it sooner rather than later. I read Maguire's Mirror Mirror, it was OK, could have been better. I'm enjoying Wicked much more.
PS-My latest audible book is: Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys by Billy Crystal.Before that I listened to: Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations. It was juicy and compelling!
Thanks for the clarification (above), Jackie!
I just finished 2 excellent books. The Williamson Effect is an anthology in paperback format with stories written by the best in the business (primarily SF) in honor of Jack Williamson & his influence on the genre. My 5 star review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The other was an audio book of Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. While she's best known for her SF Vorkosigan series, she's an excellent fantasy author, too. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
They're going to be tough acts to follow.
I'm listening to P.N. Elrod's vampire series & am on the second book now. It's fun, not like normal urban fantasies since it's set in 1930's Chicago & the vampire was a reporter who works with an actor turned private agent. I read the books years ago & liked them. Listening to them is fun, although the English actor has a Boston accent. Pretty horrible.I've started reading My Animals and Other Family, an autobiography by Clare Balding told through tales of the animals she's loved. Each chapter focuses on a different animal starting with the dog that raised her. That caught me since I have very fond memories of the one that raised me, too. She's known some very famous people through her well connected family, so it's an interesting glimpse at different sides of them. One was the Queen of England as seen through a tale of a Shetland pony.
Jim wrote: "... I've started reading My Animals and Other Family, an autobiography by Clare Balding told through tales of the animals she's loved. ..."Jim, you could probably write a book about YOUR animals. :)
I probably could, Joy. Not sure anyone would want to read it, though. Balding is an announcer, so a public figure in England.
Kind of a weird mix of books reviewed today.I finished My Animals and Other Family, the autobiography of BBC sports caster Clare Balding. Recommended by my mother & I loved it. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished listening to the second of P.N. Elrod vampire series, Bloodlist, as an audio book. It was good. My 3 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Then I listened to a short LA Theater Production of Shakespeare's Greatest Hits. It was short, just clips from some great plays. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for the links to your reviews, Jim. As usual, they are very readable and interesting.
Thanks, Joy. I recently looked up my book stats & was amazed. I've read over 180 books so far this year! 20% or a bit more have been audio books.5 star - 30 books
4 star - 70 books
3 star - 57 books
2 star - 20 books (about 10%)
1 star - 8 books (about 4%)
What a fantastic year, so far. My average is above 3 stars, which means I've really liked most of them. I give out 3 stars to enjoyable books that just don't have much to recommend them except entertainment; Sookie, Parker, & a lot of other series fall into this rating. Since I snatch up any new ones & read them greedily, it's obvious that I like them a lot.
Of the 1 & 2 star books, a total of 28, I didn't bother finishing half of them, so I really didn't waste much time at all on books I didn't enjoy this year.
There has been a lot of criticism of GR this year for the Amazon buy out & now their new review/shelf policy, but numbers like this tell me that it is working very well for me, as are my friends' reviews & recommendations.
Jim, that's a great reading record! Wow! Over 180 books! Fantastic!Just now I looked at my stats. I'm ashamed to say that so far in 2013, I have finished reading only 14 books (including hard copy and audio). I'm not counting the books I started and didn't finish.
5 star - 6 books
4 star - 4 books
3 star - 3 books
2 star - 1 book
1 star - 0 books
When I don't finish a book, I usually don't rate it with any stars at all (unless I've read quite a bit it). I try to give the book the benefit of the doubt, thinking that it might have gotten better if I had stuck with it to the end. Instead of stars, I indicate that I didn't finish the book by putting it on a shelf called "read-partially", or on one of the following shelves: "decided-not-to-read-it" "couldn't-get-into-it".
Below are the books I've given FIVE STARS to this year:
1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2. Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow
3. Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Theodore C. Sorensen
4. The Private Lives of Winston Churchill by John Pearson
5. Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand by William J. Mann
6. Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations by Peter Evans, Ava Gardner
Tell me, Jim, what is Goodreads "new review/shelf policy"?
Joy H. wrote: "Jackie, I'm still wondering why the title is so familiar to me. I went to Wiki and found the following info:======================================================
"'Something wicked this way comes..."
What would novelists do without Shakespeare as a title source? Agatha Christie uses the first half of this quote "By the pricking of my thumbs..." for one of her Tommy & Tuppence mysteries.
Hi Margaret! Thanks for that info. It's always interesting to learn the source of these titles. In fact, I have an ongoing thread related to title origins. It's at:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I just finished, "Canada," and am wondering if any of you have read it; Jackie I think you would be most intrigued as it is from the viewpoint of a fifteen year old boy. It was fascinating but don't know yet if I liked it. Great writing.
Joy, GR is now deleting reviews if they are just about the author & not the book. They're also deleting shelf names if they are about the author. This is due to some people abusing authors through the practice. It's been quite controversial & a lot of people have left GR due to it. Werner can explain more about it.
Joy, what Jim said is an accurate thumbnail sketch of the controversy. I'm at work right now, and just finished my meal break. I won't have opportunity to write a post without time constraints again until tomorrow morning, but I'll try to post some more detailed explanation and some links then. (IMO, it would probably be best for me to start a thread for that topic, so it doesn't take up space on this one; but I'll post a link here.)
Thanks, Jim and Werner! I wonder what kind of staff they have reading all the reviews to find the culprits!What happened to free speech? If the authors can't take the heat, they should get out of the kitchen!
Joy (and all), here's the link to the new thread I just started: www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1540438-... .
Thank you, Werner. I've read your very informative post. Thank you for placing it in the appropriate section of our group: "Questions and Answers". Good thinking.FOR REFERENCE: Werner's thread is called:
"Goodreads' new (Sept. 2013) review/shelf policy".
The link is: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You're welcome, Joy. ("Questions and Answers" seemed like the only folder where it would fit! :-) )
Yes, Werner, I think it was the best place for it.
Jackie and I are gearing up for a buddy read of Magic Bites, the first book in the Kate Daniels series by "Ilona Andrews." (That's the pen name of a husband-and-wife writing team whose first names are Ilona --she's Russian-born-- and Andrew.) I have a special edition with various added background features, and read some of those yesterday; but I'll be starting on the book itself today. (We were planning to do The Shadow Lamp; but that one is very new, and didn't prove as easy to get as we'd hoped, so we're going to read it together some time next year.)Apropos of Jim and Joy's stats above, I've read 32 books so far this year, not counting short e-stories (and counting the omnibus volume of a trilogy as three books). For me, that also represents a pretty fast pace of reading (they were all read in print form); many of them were relatively short, and quick reads. Of these, I rated 17 as five-star reads, and gave four stars to eight. Five more got three stars from me. There was only one that I didn't like, and rated accordingly with one star (and no mediocre two stars) --I know, that only adds up to 31, but I've gone over my list repeatedly, and can't find the discrepancy! Anyway, that adds up to a pretty rewarding year (so far) of reading for me, too!
Jackie was asking me about Andrews' series on FB the other day. It's a pretty neat world, but I'm burned out on PNR. I had the first 4 books & read the first 2, I think. I gave them all to Erin the last time she was up.
You have an excellent batting average too, Werner. Over half being 5 star reads is fantastic. The number of books don't really matter - it's the quality.
Good reading record, Werner!Enjoy your buddy read with Jackie.
BTW, audible.com has a new feature. It's a "full cast dramatization" of Ender's Game. See the description at: http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fant...
I downloaded 4 free chapters. It's like listening to a radio drama.
Everything old is new again. :)
Jim wrote: "The number of books don't really matter --it's the quality." Very true, Jim!
Joy H. wrote: "BTW, audible.com has a new feature. It's a "full cast dramatization" of Ender's Game. See the description at: http://www.audible.com..."This is actually "Ender's Game Alive", Joy. It's definitely based on the book, but I see that it is only 7.5 hours long which is somewhat shorter than the version I listened to which was 11 hours.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Since it started out as a long short story, I'm sure cutting it down didn't hurt much, although I wonder what he cut. I see that Stefan Rudnicki & Harlan Ellison are both in both versions. The one I listened to had the author, Card, doing one part. Rudnicki did most as the narrator & is very good. Come to think of it, if it is a play, most of the narration has to go, so that would explain the big time difference.
Jackie, that's interesting about the time difference (Ender's Game). I listened to the longer unabridged version as well as the first 4 chapters of the shorter dramatized version. I think I liked the longer version better. In the dramatized version sometimes I couldn't figure out which character was talking, even though I knew the story. A person who listens to only the dramatized version might find it a bit confusing for that reason.The description of the audible.com version (unabridged) (which I listened to) looks like this:
====================================================
Ender's Game: 20th Anniversary Edition (Unabridged)
Author: Orson Scott Card
Date: 01-JAN-2002
Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison
Provider: Macmillan Audio
"The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.Is Ender the general Earth so desperately needs? The only way to find out is to throw him into ever-harsher training at Battle School, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when his training begins. He will grow up fast.But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. His two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Among the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.This Special 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is now digitally remastered with a full cast production. It also contains an exclusive bonus: an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!"
======================================================
The unabridged version is over 12 hours long when you add Part 1 and Part 2 together.
Finished Wicked, some of it was good but mostly not. Great potential but never realized. I started my buddy read with Werner, and so far I like Magic Bites.
Jackie wrote: "Finished Wicked, some of it was good but mostly not. Great potential but never realized. I started my buddy read with Werner, and so far I like Magic Bites."Jackie, how many stars did you give Wicked?
How many stars would you give Werner, as a buddy reader? :)
2.5 for Wicked and Werner gets a 5+ stars, we have an exceptionally good time buddy reading. He has amazing insights and our discussions are fun as well as informative.
Jackie, Both you and Werner are insightful and articulate. I'm sure the conversations are great!
Jackie, you're sweet; thanks for the kind words (and thank you too, Joy!) As my daughter Rebekah would say, "Right back at ya!"
I finished Magic Bites late last night, it was good, so much in it that I've never read before. I like new and unique. I started Coils last night. TY, Jim. I've been meaning to read this for a long while. I have a scifi bookcase in my bedroom and always forget to look there when choosing a new book, somehow I remembered and Coils jumped out at me. It's off to a good start.
Oh boy, Jackie. Zelazny again! :)
"Coils" is co-written with Fred Saberhagen & is a simpler story than many of his others. Saberhagen was a very good, imaginative author. He actually had an urban fantasy type vampire before Anne Rice - updated tales of Dracula. There are about 8 or 9 books, I think. Thorn is my favorite. His 'Book of Swords' is a fantastic mythical series.Saberhagen also created the Berserker series which a lot of writers have contributed to. Pure SF, they're alien killer machines & the stories revolve around humanity dealing with their cold, computer determination to wipe out all life. Quite good & very influential in the genre.
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OOPS! I meant to reply to Werner, not Jackie.
Werner, I think I found the song on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek_HkL...
"Colors Of The Wind" - A lovely song with meaningful lyrics