Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
>
What are U reading these days? (Part Five) (begun 3/12/09)
Oh this is just almost too much! My Eastern Civilization professor was just discussing the Nag Hammadi texts! It makes me so happy that I knew what you were talking about.Joy, Do you ever find yourself holding your breath as you read The Time Traveler's Wife? Whenever I read it, I found myself reading faster than I ever knew I was able and holding my breath until I knew what happened. Such a lovely story. I can't wait to see the movie.
Personally, I'm reading Public Enemies America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34, which is absolutely amazing. It has me considering writing my senior thesis on Bonnie and Clyde. I feel such a sympathy for the criminals because of how well I'm getting to know them.
Next I think I'll tackle either An Unfinished Life John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963, The Help (which is for another book group), Lady Chatterley's Lover or one of the Gore Vidal American Series books or maybe it will be something completely different from these. I own so many great books! I wish I could just lock myself in a room and devour them all.
Jackie wrote: "I plan on renting it when it comes out on DVD, maybe we can watch it together. ...... I sure have a lot of 'favorite' movies, LOL"
Good idea, Jackie (about "The Time Traveler's Wife")!
Jackie, I have a lot of favorite movies too, but many of them are the classic oldies.
I've started a new topic about them at: ====>
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
If you ever see any of the movies I mention there, I'd be curious to know your opinion of them.
Re the phenomenon of Goodread's occasional "problem in saving" comments that Joy and I were discussing earlier on this thread, I made an interesting discovery today. We all receive e-mails from Goodreads when people comment on our reviews or threads we're following, as well as daily updates from our groups. All these e-mails have appropriate links, and once on-site, you can navigate to different parts of Goodreads without logging in, unless you want to go to your inbox.While doing this, without being logged in, this morning, I tried to post two comments. There was a "problem saving" both of them. This had been happening to me with frustrating frequency in the last few days; and I suddenly remembered that in the same time period, I'd twice gotten a unexpected notice that I had to be logged in to change the setting on my friends' updates. As an experiment, I logged in and tried a post. It worked like a jewel! So did my re-posting of the two comments I'd tried earlier.
IMO, this is not likely to be coincidental. To have a comment successfully saved, it's apparent to me that you have to be logged in. (I don't know if this is a recent change in Goodreads' software, or if I'm only now discovering it --I've often tried to comment from my home e-mail program before, and been successful; but I've also often, on those occasions, logged in very early on to check my inbox. There've been times before that a comment hasn't been saved, but until now I never thought about a connection between that and not being logged in.) Anyway, maybe this discovery will be helpful to others, too!
That's exactly what happened to me Werner, and never before...going to try to post this without logging in, but...copy and paste first...
:eek:
it worked without officially logging in, this time at least.
Consistency, thy name is not Good Reads
:rolleyes:
:eek:
it worked without officially logging in, this time at least.
Consistency, thy name is not Good Reads
:rolleyes:
So....to be on topic, I just finished rereading Outlander, and am still reading Dancing After Hours Stories.
The new Gabaldon is coming out 9/22. An Echo in the Bone
The new Gabaldon is coming out 9/22. An Echo in the Bone
Pontalba wrote: "...Consistency, thy name is not Good Reads..."It's not just GR. It's your browser, cookies & times of connections that matter. What credentials are cached, how long they last & your Internet connection all make a huge difference. There are quite a few different ways of setting it up. Some are more secure, some are more friendly with a myriad in the middle. If your ISP is having any router issues due to attacks, that can change how it all works too.
It's not simple or easy. Believe me, I support remote users through VPNs & such. It can be a mess.
Werner wrote: "Re the phenomenon of Goodread's occasional "problem in saving" ...... once on-site, you can navigate to different parts of Goodreads without logging in, unless you want to go to your inbox. ..."
Werner, it seems that I'm always automatically logged in when I go to Goodreads. I never have to log in unless I've manually logged out.
Pontalba wrote: "So....to be on topic, I just finished rereading Outlander, and am still reading Dancing After Hours Stories.The new Gabaldon is coming out 9/22. An Echo in the Bone"
Pontalba, thanks for the links. These look like good stories. How do you choose your books? I never know which ones to choose. So I read usually what my library groups select.
Outlander is an outstanding series. The first book came out in 1991, and I ran across it accidentally in the grocery store of all places a few years later. I immediately read the few that were out at the time, and was totally hooked.
How do I pick books. Any number of ways really. I've always had pretty strong likes and dislikes, I've always loved history, so historical fiction was a given, I cut my teeth on mysteries, so another given. But in the last 5 or 6 years, I've branched out a lot more. In that time I'd started visiting different forums and slowly, after sizing the situation up as best I could, started choosing amongst the recommendations. Since then I've read a great deal of literary fiction. Vladimir Nabokov, John Banville and Marguerite Duras were among the first authors I branched out into.
I've found short story anthologies are helpful in finding new authors as well.
Taylor Caldwell is wonderful for interesting and accurate historical fiction. Her research is thorough and painstakingly accurate. And she was a darned good writer.
I'd grown tired of the mainstream, popular fiction, all the plots seemed alike, and became boring to me. Literary Fiction is a varied and interesting genre. For me at least. I just wish I'd started 30 years earlier. :)
How do I pick books. Any number of ways really. I've always had pretty strong likes and dislikes, I've always loved history, so historical fiction was a given, I cut my teeth on mysteries, so another given. But in the last 5 or 6 years, I've branched out a lot more. In that time I'd started visiting different forums and slowly, after sizing the situation up as best I could, started choosing amongst the recommendations. Since then I've read a great deal of literary fiction. Vladimir Nabokov, John Banville and Marguerite Duras were among the first authors I branched out into.
I've found short story anthologies are helpful in finding new authors as well.
Taylor Caldwell is wonderful for interesting and accurate historical fiction. Her research is thorough and painstakingly accurate. And she was a darned good writer.
I'd grown tired of the mainstream, popular fiction, all the plots seemed alike, and became boring to me. Literary Fiction is a varied and interesting genre. For me at least. I just wish I'd started 30 years earlier. :)
Jim wrote: It's not just GR. It's your browser, cookies & times of connections that matter. What credentials are cached, how long they last &..."
I don't doubt there are a plethora of circumstances, but I at least, have not changed anything on my end. I've run Firefox for a couple of years now with no problem, and I haven't changed providers.
I haven't had any problem today. /fingers crossed/ :)
I don't doubt there are a plethora of circumstances, but I at least, have not changed anything on my end. I've run Firefox for a couple of years now with no problem, and I haven't changed providers.
I haven't had any problem today. /fingers crossed/ :)
Joy, I always log out manually at the end of a Goodreads session (I assumed I was supposed to). That might have something to do with the problem. :-)
Pontalba, it's not changing providers, it's what your Internet connection is doing. It's not something most are aware of, but often sections of the Internet are undergoing repair, under attack or just plain busy with other users, so our sessions are re-routed through other sections. You don't deal with one computer on the GR side, but many.You SHOULD have changed things on your end! The Firefox you're using today shouldn't be the same one you were using a week or so ago - there's been an upgrade from 3.51 to 3.52 lately. Patches to Windows can make a difference & there have been a bunch issued in the past month. They're important & you should have applied them.
About the only thing you can be certain of with computers today is nothing ever remains the same & it's a lot more complex than most imagine.
Ahh, well automatic updates take care of that sort of thing on both Firefox and Microsoft. I wouldn't count those as changes. :)
Werner,
I log out as well, but GR always recognizes me when i click on those links, the only time I had to sign in was to visit my account page. But last week it went nutz and from one click to the next it would sign me out. For example when I'd be on this site, and click "groups" at the top, it'd tell me I had no groups, and then I'd notice I'd been signed out somehow. It happened several times.
It seems to be straightened out now.
Werner,
I log out as well, but GR always recognizes me when i click on those links, the only time I had to sign in was to visit my account page. But last week it went nutz and from one click to the next it would sign me out. For example when I'd be on this site, and click "groups" at the top, it'd tell me I had no groups, and then I'd notice I'd been signed out somehow. It happened several times.
It seems to be straightened out now.
Well, as I often tell people at the library where I work, I don't make any attempt to explain anything that computers do! Of course, I don't know diddily-swat about them --except that, as Jim said, they're "a lot more complex than most imagine." :-)
I just realized that I didn't log in before posting the comment above, and Goodreads still saved it. Ah well, back to the drawing board....
Lori wrote: "Oh this is just almost too much! My Eastern Civilization professor was just discussing the Nag Hammadi texts! It makes me so happy that I knew what you were talking about. ...Joy, Do you ever find yourself holding your breath as you read The Time Traveler's Wife? ..."
Lori, I just found this post of yours. At times I found TTW compelling, but they were offset by the times the writing dragged. IMO they could have omitted the descriptions of her art work and also their dream sequences. Also, the numerous time shifts were a bit confusing (and annoying) at times.
Pontalba wrote: "Outlander is an outstanding series. The first book came out in 1991, and I ran across it accidentally in the grocery store of all places a few years later. ...How do I pick books. Any number of ways really. ... I've always loved history, so historical fiction was a given, I cut my teeth on mysteries, so another given. ... Since then I've read a great deal of literary fiction. ...
Taylor Caldwell is wonderful for interesting and accurate historical fiction. ...
I'd grown tired of the mainstream, popular fiction, all the plots seemed alike, and became boring to me. Literary Fiction is a varied and interesting genre. For me at least. I just wish I'd started 30 years earlier. :)"
___________________________________________________
Pontalba, I too wish I had been able to read more years ago. But I had no time or energy after parenting and working. Now that I'm retired I have time.
Years ago I enjoyed reading Taylor Caldwell's historical fiction. I should really go back and review her writings.
I've put _Outlander_ on my to-read shelf.
Werner wrote: "Joy, I always log out manually at the end of a Goodreads session (I assumed I was supposed to). That might have something to do with the problem. :-)"Werner, since I'm the only person who uses my laptop, I don't bother to sign out.
Linda wrote: "My Mom requested a personal cd player for her birthday ...One of her presents from us (me and hubby) is the cd audiobook "Dead and Gone" by Charlaine Harris. The narrator is great. Its funny, a bit of mystery and has vampires and werewolves (which Mom should enjoy).
I'll let you know what Mom thinks. There are about 8 cd's...wondering if Mom will get through 1!!!! LOL "
Linda, hope your mom enjoys her CD player and the audio CD of _Dead and Gone_. If it's a good story, she'll stick with it.
I'm currently listening to an audio of _Madam Secretary A Memoir_ by Madeleine Albright. It's an amazing story. One would never have expected her to become Sec. of State, but she was a true intellectual and her life led her into political circles. These memoirs tell some interesting personal stories. For example, Madeleine Albright gave birth to identical twins.
Funny story I heard somewhere: When someone once telephoned to speak to Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, he was told that she was "on the floor with Senator Goldwater!" :)
Joy H. (of Glens Falls) wrote: "Lori wrote: "Oh this is just almost too much! My Eastern Civilization professor was just discussing the Nag Hammadi texts! It makes me so happy that I knew what you were talking about. ...Joy, D..."
Joy, I can see that. A lot of my friends recommended not paying attention to the dates. Personally, I liked knowing where in time they were and seeing how the pieces fit together. I do agree about the art; it wasn't really hugely important to the overall story, at least not as I saw it.
Speaking of dates, today is the 40th anniversary of the Internet according to National Geographic. Kind of a hard day to pin down, but they do it by when the first two computers shared info. The IMP chip was released on 29Aug69 & that's what allowed routing. Kind of cool.Here for more:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
I'm quite popular these days, every time I want to read someone comes over to see me. It's driving me crazy. Part of me wants to be rude and say Go Away I'm reading! One of Eric's friends came over, stopped to talk to me for a minute which turned out to be 3 hours. Now it's after 1 AM. I'll read but I don't know if I can stay up long enough to finish Nine Princes in Amber, which is REALLY good.
Jackie wrote: "I'm quite popular these days, every time I want to read someone comes over to see me. It's driving me crazy. Part of me wants to be rude and say Go Away I'm reading! One of Eric's friends came..."
Jackie, that's what you get for being such an interesting person! :)
Lori wrote: "Joy, I can see that. A lot of my friends recommended not paying attention to the dates. Personally, I liked knowing where in time they were and seeing how the pieces fit together. I do agree about the art; it wasn't really hugely important to the overall story, at least not as I saw it."Lori, about _The Time Traveler's Wife_, glad you agree about the art sections. I hated them because they stalled the story. I agree about paying attention to the dates and times of each scene. I need to feel oriented in order to understand what I'm reading.
I DID finish Nine Princes and started on Guns of Avalon but didn't get very far. I'm going tohelp my neighbor with his garden and then reading time on the porch!
Jackie wrote: "I DID finish Nine Princes and started on Guns of Avalon but didn't get very far. I'm going tohelp my neighbor with his garden and then reading time on the porch!"Beautiful weather today for doing absolutely anything! I'm enjoying David McCollough's _1776_ (2005). He brings history to life!
Have also started reading Gore Vidal's _Burr A Novel_. It drew me right in.
When I read books like these, I remember why, years ago in college, I decided to major in history. It's fascinating when presented so well.
Joy, my undergraduate major was history, too! I agree that it's fascinating.I'm currently reading the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Barb gave me a copy last month for my birthday. :-)
Joy, I'm happy to hear that you're starting Burr A Novel. I'm anxiously and impatiently waiting for Washington, D.C. A Novel to be delivered to my apartment. I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.
Werner wrote: "Joy, my undergraduate major was history, too! I agree that it's fascinating.I'm currently reading the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Barb gave me a copy last month for my birthday. :-)"
Jackie said that the movie based on Stephenie Meyer's book _New Moon_ will be coming out in November. Below are links to a couple of clips she referred us to:
http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer....
http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer....
(a short ad precedes each clip)
Lori wrote: "Joy, I'm happy to hear that you're starting Burr A Novel. I'm anxiously and impatiently waiting for Washington, D.C. A Novel to be delivered to my apartment. I can't w..."Lori, as I read _Burr_ by Gore Vidal, I can hear the voice of Gore Vidal as he sounds on the audio of his memoir (which I am also listening to currently). His delivery is unique and he seems to write the way he talks. Hard to describe. So far, the novel presents the rumor that President Van Buren was Burr's illegitimate son! It seems to me that Vidal loves to gossip! LOL I wonder how true the rumor is.
Joy, I'd never heard the claim that Martin Van Buren was Burr's out-of-wedlock son before, but I researched it a bit just now. Historical writer Thomas J. Fleming says that some modern writers make that claim "against all evidence." John Niven's 715- page biography of Van Buren makes no mention of the idea, which he surely would have if he'd taken it seriously or encountered evidence for it in his vast research of the primary sources. I'd say it's an old wive's tale --or, more probably, an old politician's tale; scurrilous slanders out of the gutter against political rivals were a staple of 19th-century politics, and grist for the partisan press of that day.
Werner wrote: "Joy, I'd never heard the claim that Martin Van Buren was Burr's out-of-wedlock son before, but I researched it a bit just now. Historical writer Thomas J. Fleming says that some modern writers mak..."Werner, as you suggested, the rumor was probably a political tactic (to prevent Van Buren from being elected).
Another feature of Vidal's book (_Burr__) is criticism of George Washington. Burr expresses criticisms I've never heard before about GW. According to Vidal's story, Burr didn't think too highly of GW, and Burr and GW weren't too fond of one another. The book is historical fiction, but Vidal claims that all the historical facts are correct. The problem is separating the facts from the fiction. :)
David McCullough's book, _1776_, (non-fiction) states that all of George Washington's peers thought very highly of him and his ability as a commander. Indeed, I've never heard a negative word about the way GW conducted the war until now (that I'm reading _Burr_). But then again, I really haven't read much in that area. I'm still reading _1776_.
Washington did command enormous, wide-ranging respect, both for his character and abilities, especially among his peers in the army and government who knew him well. Military historians, from what I've read, do consider him a very capable and successful field commander. He did have his critics during the war, though, because he didn't produce instant victory, and suffered some major defeats. Another Continental general, Horatio Gates, fancied himself as a better choice for commander-in-chief, and intrigued unsuccessfully with a faction in the Congress to bring that about. And during Washington's administration, a handful of very radical Democratic-Republicans (outside of the government) despised him as too aristocratic, and were quite vitriolic in their abuse.I've never read anything that suggested that Burr and Washington held bad opinions of each other. If they did, it wasn't consistent with Washington's character, or with Burr's political ambitions, to say so openly; so I doubt if Vidal has any objective basis for that part of his portrayal. :-)
Werner wrote: "Washington did command enormous, wide-ranging respect, both for his character and abilities... ... I've never read anything that suggested that Burr and Washington held bad opinions of each other. If they did, it wasn't consistent with Washington's character, or with Burr's political ambitions, to say so openly; so I doubt if Vidal has any objective basis for that part of his portrayal. :-)"Werner, if you ever read Vidal's _Burr_, please let me know if you think Vidal was making it all up. It's so hard to tell. Meanwhile, it makes for interesting reading... and discussion. :)
I got the impression, while reading _Burr_, that Washington passed over Burr when appointing officers... or something to that effect. So that may have been the start of any possible animosity on Burr's part. Who knows!
BTW, Vidal's story says that Washington had a big behind! LOL You never know what Vidal is going to say next. He presents a lot of this info in letters (sent between the characters), which I'm not sure are fiction or not.
Joy, I've never read Burr, so I'm just bringing what I happen to know (or can look up!) about American history to bear on different points that you raise from the book. So I can't speak about its overall accuracy, unfortunately. (I've never read any of Vidal's work all the way through; I once started Empire about 20 years ago, on my landlady's recommendation, but couldn't get into it --I didn't like any of the main characters enough to bother finishing it.)Washington probably did have a big behind. He was quite a large man physically --over six feet tall-- so I'd be surprised if he didn't. :-)
I'm reading this and laughing: Washington's butt! LOLThe problem with history is it's subjective to the author's perspective, not that it's necessarily accurate. It may be accurate, but it's equally possible that it's not.
Let's look at contemporary reporting, you get a variety of perspectives, but how about these same texts in 100 years, how many will be available then? Basically, which ones survive (or are allowed to survive) are the ones that will be taught in a classroom 100 years in the future, it doesn't mean it's accurate or any more valid than another perspective.
Or, better yet, pick a 20th century war that the US was involved in. The US perspective for the history books is quite different from the losers' perspective. See what I mean? History is subjective.
My father was a big history buff, and he taught me, never believe what you read in a 'history' book unless you can back it up from at least 3 contemporary sources from different parts of the world. You'd be surprised how different history is when viewed through various sources.
Vidal, whom I venerate, alas has feet of clay sometimes.
Because of his strong anti-US imperialist feelings, he tends sometimes to latch on to the latest somewhat questionable conspiracy theories---in "The Golden Age" it was the one that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor in advance.
In his memoir "Point to Point..." he puts great stock in the latest JFK assassination plot "solution" by Thom Hartmann, which has been discredited by many serious researchers in the field.
I just feel that sometimes he lets his iconoclastic zeal impinge on his understanding of true history
Jackie and Arnie make a good point about subjectivity in historical writing. It's more marked in historical fiction, obviously; but it's a factor in nonfiction history as well --no writer can be 100% objective.When it comes to historical facts --speaking as a history major and sometimes history teacher-- we're on pretty sure ground. Modern historical and archaeological science have come a long way in reliably reconstructing the factual record of the past; and it helps that very few past writers knowingly wrote falsehoods in their representation of the facts themselves. (Those who did can usually be detected by ordinary techniques of investigation and assessment.) But when it comes to the interpretation of the facts, we enter a much more subjective realm. Was such-and-such an event a "good" or a "bad" thing --and for whom? What caused it, and what did it cause? What events and facts in history are "important" or "unimportant" --and why? Knowing the bare facts --and maybe discovering some more of those as we go along-- is only the beginning of those more important discussions; and those won't ever come to a definitive end until the world does.
I don't know who said them but I love these two quips: "History is a myth agreed upon",
"History doesn't repeat itself---historians merely repeat each other"
And my own: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it in summer school."
Interesting discussion about the accuracy of historic facts.By coincidence, today an interesting Wikipedia page was brought to my attention. It has to do with "bias", which interferes with objective thinking. Evidently, the academic world has given labels to different kinds of bias in the way people think. They refer to it as "cognitive bias". The list is at the following Wiki page: ====>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
An example of a kind of a cognitive bias is "confirmation bias", the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.
There are so many kinds of cognitive biases that one wonders how any accurate conclusions can ever be met!
There are also "memory biases". See: ====>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
And if all of that doesn't confuse you, take a look at Wiki's page of links to "Thinking-Related Topics". (On this list of links, you will see links to the "cognitive biases" and "memory biases" which I mentioned above.)
My mind is still whirling after browsing those pages. :)
In addition to reading Cheap Amusements Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York and Public Enemies America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 for class, I started reading The Help because I just needed some fiction. I'm really enjoying it so far.
Lori wrote: "...I started reading The Help because I just needed some fiction. I'm really enjoying it so far."Lori, my neighbor just mentioned that book to me yesterday. She recommended it. She said it's on the Bestseller List.
I'm enjoying David McCullough's book, _1776_ about the American Revolution. As I read, the battle scene has moved from Boston to New York and is now proceeding through New Jersey toward Philadelphia. I find it especially interesting because so many of the places mentioned in NY are familiar places to me: "New York Island" (now Manhattan), Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester, White Plains, Fort Lee, Tappan Zee, etc.It's a happy coincidence that I'm reading Gore Vidal's novel, _Burr A Novel_, at the same time because facts about Aaron Burr are mentioned in McCullough's _1776_.
I never thought I'd enjoy a book about war, but this book is holding my attention because it's so well done. It's sad to read about the many people who suffered and gave their lives in this war, despite the fact that the cause was a good one... liberty.
I'm on the 3rd in the Amber series, Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny. I'm really enjoying this series as I learn more about the characters, circumstances that led Corwin to this point. It's interesting because Corwin is learning these things himself.My Dean Koontz group is going to read the Frankenstein series and since I haven't read it yet, I'll be joining them as well as continuing with Amber.
Jackie wrote: "I'm on the 3rd in the Amber series, Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny. I'm really enjoying this series as I learn more about the characters, circumstances that led C......My Dean Koontz group is going to read the Frankenstein series"
Jackie, have you read anything by Dean Koontz before? I haven't.
GR says he is: "Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist...".
I think of him as writing scary stories. I wonder how scary they are.
Below are the Koontz books about Frankenstein which I was able to find at Goodreads:
Frankenstein The Original Screenplay - Signed Numbered Edition
Prodigal Son
Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Prodigal Son Volume 1
City of Night
Dead and Alive
I wasn't aware that he wrote about Frankenstein.
Just about every one of them. He's not horror, per se, more like suspense and psychological thriller. He takes regular people with regular lives and has extraordinary events happen. His characters really come alive for me. And through all that happens, he reaffirms the idea that people are basically good and rise above adversity. And he has a way of catching your attention in the first chapter and never lets go. Usually. The books he wrote under a psuedonym, I can't remember the name now, but they were re-published under DK, those I didn't like, slower, more drawn out. When I think of DK, I think of a fast paced WOW kind of ride. I wrote him a letter a few years ago, someone made a movie and ripped off the beginning of Intensity and it devolved into something really sick. I was livid! I got a form letter back, bcause I'm sure, thousands of fans wrote in about this very thing. But on that form letter he wrote me a note in his own handwriting, it was very cool. I still have it, and he now sends me his Useless News newsletter which is hysterically funny. That's another thing, he uses a lot of humor in his books, so even when things are dark, there's still an element of lightness. I really can't say he's a horror writer, no graphic violence, no sex, rarely a curse word. He's in a category all his own.
The only reason I didn't read the Frankenstein series is because I was waiting for the series to end. Anthony read them and is currently on the 3rd (an final ???) book.
PS: Often he has dogs in the books, and they are just as important as the main character, a dog has even been the main character, in Watchers. He loves dogs and truly understands the canine mind. His dog Trixie, who has since passed away, even 'wrote' a few books with all proceeds going to a dogs for the handicapped place near his home and where he got Trixie from. Those books are hysterically funny, I'd read them out loud at the dinner table and I couldn't eat I was laughing so hard. Bliss to You Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life by Trixie Koontz was my favorite.
Jackie, you've given me a whole new impression of Dean Koontz.In one of our threads we were talking about not liking to be scared by a book or movie. As I was watching a recent DVD of "Lord of the Rings", it occurred to me that I wasn't too frightened because most of the scary characters were imaginary beings, not people. There was some apprehension and worry for the cute little hobbits, but I figured that Tolkien wouldn't let them suffer too much.
So you finally watched it! Tell me how you liked, a little or a lot? The trilogy is my all time favorite movie and I doubt it'll ever be dislodged from it's primo spot. It gets darker the further you go, but again, like with DK, there's the goodness of the people, hobbits, dwarfs, elfs and the depth of friendship and loyalty that is especially uplifting.
I saw them all in the theater, and in the 3rd one, in a particular scene, I won't say what so I don't ruin it for you, it was such a YES!!! moment, everyone, and I do mean everyone in a packed theater was on their feet, screaming and clapping and cheering! It was awesome! I've never seen that in a theater before!
Tell me what you thought of the music? I loved it; it all fit so perfctly with what was going on, and had an underlying Celtic theme to so much of it.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Future Shock (other topics)Dead and Alive (other topics)
Twistor (other topics)
Dead and Alive (other topics)
Twistor (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Alvin Toffler (other topics)Thrity Umrigar (other topics)
Diana L. Paxson (other topics)
Marion Zimmer Bradley (other topics)
Joy Fielding (other topics)
More...
One of her presents from us (me and hubby) is the cd audiobook "Dead and Gone" by Charlaine Harris. The narrator is great. Its funny, a bit of mystery and has vampires and werewolves (which Mom should enjoy).
I'll let you know what Mom thinks. There are about 8 cd's...wondering if Mom will get through 1!!!! LOL