Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
I agree that preaching doesn't work if it is too much in the foreground; the old a little bit goes a long way applies here. I do like to come away with something, however,that I'd not really thought about before. I do agree that how we come to a book or any other type of reading is subjective and we've proved that with our goodread responses to this question, don't you think?
Yes, Nina. "Different strokes for different folks". A cliche but so true!I never thought about "coming away with something" from a novel, except for the memory of a darn good story! :) Sometimes we do get something new from a story, something which opens up new vistas for us. But that's icing on the cake. :)
One thing I do "come away with" (as you say) when the writing style is exceptional, is an appreciation of the way the author uses words. I am in awe of wordsmiths!
I think that's the difference between a good novel & a great one. I rate a lot of books at 3 stars because they're good, but I was simply entertained. 4 stars means they go above mere entertainment. They might have really moved me or be so interesting that I want to read them again some time. 5 stars are all that & more. Usually they've engaged me to the point of making me think about my assumptions & prejudices, given me another way to look at the world or made me more discriminating. IOW, I've learned something. Not necessarily facts, though. I never trust a fiction book to teach me facts.
Jim wrote: "... making me think about my assumptions & prejudices, given me another way to look at the world or made me more discriminating ..."Jim, I'm trying to think of a fiction book that did that for me. Some fiction books have deepened my knowledge and awareness of a subject or a place but I can't think of any which have made me think about (or changed) my assumptions and prejudices. BUT WAIT!
YES! One book which did that was The Cider House Rules by John Irving. That book definitely made me start doubting my own former opinions. I won't even mention the theme because it is such an explosive one.
A non-fiction book I read years ago opened my eyes to the long lasting effects of cultural deprivation. But in this discussion I've been referring to the fiction genre, not non-fiction.
When one of my daughters was in high school, she read, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and she told me that opened her eyes to the race situation more than anything she had learned about it in school. There were race riot in Kasas City but I have forgotten which year it was. When I grew up Kansas City was segregated.
Books like Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) certainly opened our eyes too!To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960, earlier than _Roots_.
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), the an anti-slavery novel, was even earlier.
They were all eye-openers.
I wonder what the list of standards are for awarding the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I did a quick search but didn't find anything except that it was a prize for "excellence". I can't find their definition of "excellence".http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer...
I'll agree with To Kill a Mockingbird. I reread it about a year ago & my 5 star review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Quite a few classics fall in to this category because they spoke to me through out my life, although the message was often different depending on my age & circumstances.
Jim, I like the quotes you posted in your review of _To Kill A Mockingbird_. Excellent review.
Thanks, Joy.Something that's been a bit of a subtext in our discussion is that the best books speak to us in multiple ways or levels. There's the main thrust of the story, but also a lot of others going on. Some resonate better at different ages.
Yes, Jim, the best books will have it "all"!
We just had our own autocorrect failure. Erin's getting married in July & someone posted a cake made out of a watermelon with icing on it. Things went downhill from there.Erin: It will have to be made very close to service because it will sweat and melt. It sounds pretty and yummy, it will take a lot of fridge space. I would also suggest a seedless watermelon, we don't need, people in formalwear spitting seeds.
Jim: Formal wear? I thought I got to wear jeans since I'm riding Chip. You're going to make me wear a tie?
Erin: Not very formal but you must not have holes and we've been talking about you just laying me down the isle but we should have some pictures of you on Chip
Jim: I'm teasing & I will 'LEAD you down the aisle', but will not 'lay you down the isle'. Not sure what that means, but I'm not going there.
Erin: omg... phone... and what not
Jim, you have a lot to look forward to with all the wedding plans. Keep us posted. It already sounds like it will be a very unique wedding!
Yeah, it should be a real dog & pony show - literally.
How many dogs are to be invited. Brrrr! here today; twenty below zero wind chill, two inches of snow and sleet underneath on ground, more snow expected this afternoon. The coldest March 2nd on record. I braved the temps to feed the birds this morning. Hope they appreciate it.
Snow here too. Temp is 21°F.
We have 4 dogs, Erin has at least 2 (depending on fosters), so 6 to start. It was 36 at 6am, 31 at 8am when the rain started. We have some ice, but the rain stopped, thankfully. Hopefully it won't start up again, but we're slated for 3/4" of ice & up to 6" of snow on top of it. Tonight is supposed to be the worst. We'll see, I guess.
Good luck with the weather, Jim.Who's going to watch the Academy Awards show tonight? Ellen DeGeneres is hosting. She's usually very entertaining.
17 below zero wind chill tonight; setting records for this date. Might watch a bit.
I watched most of the Acadamy Awards last night but toward the end I got bored. Here's what bored me:---- I was bored by all the commercials they threw at me one after the other, most of which I couldn't figure out what they were about because they flashed one pic after another at me.
---- I was bored by too many boring speeches by so many people behind the scenes whom I didn't care about.
---- I was bored by boring musical performances with songs I didn't care for.
---- I was depressed by all the somber themes in so many of the films. I started to realize how desolate the real world can be. Not a good thing to realize. (What happened to uplifting, cheery entertainment?!?)
HOWEVER, I DID enjoy:
----I enjoyed Ellen DeGeneres' stand up talks and her gimmicks. [e.g., sending out for pizza and serving pieces (from pizza boxes) to all the fancily-dressed celebrities out in the audience] lol
----I enjoyed the FINE SPEECHES of some the main winners. (Many can be seen on YouTube.)
----I enjoyed watching the audience and the reactions of the celebrities.
As for the Red Carpet stuff, after a while, all the gowns, expensive jewelry, hairdo's, super-slim figures, pretty faces etc., start to pall and the artificiality of it all starts to bother you. Too much of a good thing? A surfeit of beautiful things? After a while you start to realize the emptiness of it all.
But despite all that, I do enjoy watching the show every year. LOL
I only watched the last hour and a half. My favorite was the Wizard of Oz segment. I agree with Joy concerning the dreary themmed movies. Can't we have a smiley faced movie once in a while? I didn't envy any of the dresses or jewelry. Guess that is my age showing. On the other hand, there will be some happy faces today on the winners contenances.
I was impressed by the grace and poise of Lupita Nyong'o who won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in "12 Years a Slave".See her giving her acceptance speech at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fluQ6i...
She has excellent credentials behind her, including the Yale School of Drama.
See her Wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupita_N...
Rant alert!Jeff Wyler Chevrolet of Shelbyville just tried to pull a bait & switch. I put $200 down on a used 2012 Nissan Versa hatchback with 9K miles on it last night. This morning, it was being driven down here, but a hour later I got a call that it was sold last night. They have a used 2012 Chevrolet Spark they'll sell me for the same price, though. I think NOT! New it sold for far less & it's a subcompact.
The $200 is on a credit card, so no problem getting it back. I called the sales manager & he is going to find out what's going on. I told him I will have the money back tonight. Now it's just a matter of whether I report them to the BBB & the Attorney General's office or not.
A couple of hours later, they came up with a comparable vehicle - 12K instead of 9K miles, but the SL instead of S model. It was priced a bit more (+$500), but they're giving it to me for the same price as the first with apologies. Too many apologies, but at least they're trying hard, I guess.
Why does buying a halfway decent used car have to be such a PITA!!!
(rhetorical, thus no question mark)
:(
No, it wasn't delivered by the time I went by today, so I'll drop in tomorrow. Hopefully it will work out.
It will work out if it's meant to be. Otherwise somethng else will. Good luck with whatever.
Drove my new car to work for the first time. A big doe came out of the dark from 4 o'clock & tried to take the lead. I slammed on the brakes (dumping my lunchbox off the seat & blowing up my yogurt all over my Kindle) & only received a minor ding in the hood. She lost her feet & some hair, but was running off to ambush someone else last I saw of her. I HATE deer!!!I need to get some deer stickers, something like the ones WWI Aces put on the sides of their planes. A gunner wouldn't hurt, either.
;-)
Oh well, at least the hood just has a dimple & sits in place properly, unlike my old car. The hood opens fine, too. Could have been worse...
Glad that your you and your car are okay and not hurt too badly! More importantly, did the yogurt clean off the kindle nicely? :)
Now that it's light out I can see the passenger side light is pushed in & the fender is cracked. All seems to work, so I don't really want to get it fixed. Not only would it be a hassle & take a couple of weeks, but I just had to have the radiators replaced on my Cobalt a few months ago when I hit a coon. I have no idea what it would do to my rates, but it wouldn't be good. Still, I could use the Cobalt to commute in rather than Marg's truck. I'll talk it over with her tonight.The Kindle is fine since I have it in a leather case. It just took a while to clean everything off this morning.
Jm, I don't know what your insurance is like, but a few years ago my hubby hit a deer and his front fender/lights all needed to be replaced. I can't remember if the hood was damaged. We used insurance to fix it, and it literally had no (or possibly only minimal) effect on our insurance rates. I don't remember noticing a change. Hopefully that's good news for you and you'll have the same experience. :) Glad you're okay though, that's the most important thing.
Sorry to read about your car trouble, Jim. Once again, I didn't get notification for the recent posts here. I had to come online and check for "unread" posts.
Once usually doesn't have much effect, Jenni. I had no change after the last one. Twice might, though.
Ohhhh. Well, I sure hope that it doesn't have an effect. It's not like you could really help it since the deer attacked your car. :( I'll cross my fingers for ya!
Not lucky you Jim but glad you weren't hurt. Most important. The car, is easier to fix than you. Take Care.
Back from our trip to MD. Grandmonster Colin is about the happiest baby I've ever seen. Rarely fussed much & then only for a minute even though he's teething & drooling up a storm. Chortles a lot. Excellent. Had a good drive up until the last 1.5 hours which turned into a white knuckle horror as the snow came pouring down covering the Interstate with a few inches of slush, so it wound up being over 11 hours of driving. Still, we got to Mom's & had a good dinner.
The next day we took Colin to see his great grandmother go out on the last hunt of the season. He liked all the horses & hounds. The meet was at the Smythe's, so he got to see their beagle pack, too. We got to see a lot of old friends, too. Then had a delicious lunch with our oldest adopted daughter (it was her birthday) of crab cakes & saw some other folks before going out to dinner with more.
Yesterday, Marg babysat Colin while Brandon & I did some home improvement projects. Then I went to lunch with Mom & then stopped by to see Dave, a guy I went to high school with. I gave him some hackberry, a wood they don't have up in MD & I have plenty of since a big tree came down this winter in the north field. Dave makes banjos from scratch including bending the pots & making the hardware for ones he restores. He also restores fiddles & guitars. Amazing work. His picking & fiddling is great, although his voice isn't the best. Doesn't matter much with a lot of the old songs he plays, though.
The kids had to put down their dog. He got bad cancer that brought him down very quickly. Marg was there to watch Colin & help them through it while I had fun.
Then we rushed up to dinner with Paul & Sara. They had a couple of big trees come down in a storm recently, so I cut some bowl blanks out. Taught Paul how to sharpen his saw as I did it. He's new to owning one & Brandon got him a good one, so he can take over from now. I also cut him some boards from another long piece, but I used Brandon's chainsaw for that.
Then we all went out to an AA meeting at my old home group. Got there at 7:30 for an 8pm meeting & didn't leave until 10pm. The meeting lasted an hour, the rest was old friends talking in the parking lot - a dozen of us. Couldn't believe so many were still there since I moved almost 7 years ago. Pretty cool.
Had good weather for the drive down. 10 hours, got here at 4pm & went out for a ride with Marg & the kids after a quick unpacking of the car. Chip was practically perfect, as usual. He even kicked his heels a couple of times which amazed everyone since Josh had trouble getting him to go yesterday. He went fine for me. I don't think he likes green riders.
Now Josh is cooking up a delicious meal & I'm trying to catch up after no time for the computer for almost 4 days!
Oh,Jim sounds like a good time was had by all. Good to have this wonderful family memory to hash over in years to come. I know the feeling. Baby Colin already has captured hearts.
Jim! It's good to hear from you. I was hoping you were OK. Now I know you were having a wonderful time with the family. Glad to hear it!
Nice that there were sympathies for the ones who had to put down the dog. Doesn't take away the hurt but it helps sooth.
Pics from the trip (& the goats after we got back) posted here:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
I got a pretty good picture of grandmonster Colin holding Ace's head before Mom mounted.
Are the cute babies cousins! Loved the horse pics; especially the ones with the dogs and red coats.
No, the babies are just very close friends. I'm sure they'll grow up together. She's 1.5 months older than Colin.The hunt is a pretty amazing sight, isn't it? One of Mom's friends was out there riding & is the same age, 73. Last year a horse kicked Mary & shattered her lower leg. She rode back to the trailer & waited in the truck while the friend she came with trailered the horses & started driving her home. They were debating whether to try the hospital parking lot with the horse trailer or not when they decided to stop by a local fire department on the way to see if they would mind taking Mary to the hospital. They didn't, of course. It was a bad compound fracture & now she has a rod up the leg plus assorted clamps & screws, but she's back out there riding.
The old truism; once you fall off a horse, get back on. She proved it right.
Some people have sense enough to quit doing something dangerous after getting injured, especially as they get older. I've quit riding motorcycles & parachuting. Horse people don't seem to get it, though.;-)
I mowed the grass for the first time today. It suddenly greened up & popped while we were up in MD. Saw a frog & a water spider on the pond, but still no Purple Martins.
Our grass is green but not long enough to mow. Our crabapple tree has several dead branches that have to be sawed off before it is sprayed. Bees distributed a killing virus from one crab blossom to the other last spring resulting in us almost losing the tree. Bees aren't always the helpers they are claimed to be;literally.
I read in the Extension Office monthly flier that I should spray the crab apples for fungus this month. I might, but I'm definitely going to spray my hollyhocks. Maybe if I get an early start on it they won't get that rust.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Count of Monte Cristo (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Tara Westover (other topics)Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
C.W. Gortner (other topics)
C.W. Gortner (other topics)
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When I read fiction, I don't necessarily want to be taught anything about life even though I like to read general observations about life and people. A story that seeks to teach lessons borders on being preachy.