What Are You Reading Showing 4,801-4,850 of 6,935

[Paul]

The book didn't spook me at the start either but it builds into it

[Barbara]

I do recall reading Pet Cemetery years ago and being petrified. I'm up for a bit of spooky.

[Paul]

Tis the season Barbara :-)

[Paul]

Organising my books to bring for Holidays. Definitely bringing We Always Lived here in the Castle, probably also bringing The Watchmaker of Filagree Street, I,Robot , and possibly one more book.

[Seraphina]

Somewhere nice Paul?

[Trelawn]

We're going to Edinburgh Seraphina

[Paul]

And getting excited about it now :-)

[Paul]

4 days Emma. Should be fun.

[Sara]

A cold/flu and applying for new/better jobs has really curtailed my reading life. All I've gotten through this month are two audio books. We Have Always Lived in the Castle and MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. I'm looking forward to discussing the BOTM when more people have gotten to read it. MASH is the book the popular (here in the States anyway) movie and t.v show are based on. While it was a solid read, it wasn't quite as funny as the t.v. show.

[Paul]

I 'll be finished the BOTM in the next few days anyway .
Hope you are feeling better

[Susan]

I am so envious, Trelawn and Paul. I wish I was going to Edinburgh. Sigh.

[Paul]

Thanks Susan

[Seraphina]

Have a great time guys

[Trelawn]

Thank you :-)

[Barbara]

I am listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton as I am currently taking a class on The Master by Colm Toibin. We talk about his writer friends and Wharton was one. It's about New York society of the 1870's which seems to have been very petty. I find my attention wandering which is not a problem with the narration but I suppose that I don't really care a lot about these people. I think the point of Wharton may be to show these characters as "a waste of space" but that may be my 21st century sensebilities.

Just finished Our Souls at Night - a quick and very satisfying read. Also reading NOS4A2 which is going pretty quickly. I misplaced my kindle which got me off track. I'm now reading it on my mini Ipad.

[Cathleen]

Barbara wrote: "I am listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton as I am currently taking a class on The Master by Colm Toibin. We talk about his writer friends and Wharton was one..."

I think Edith Wharton focused on the same class of people that Virginia Woolf did. There's one story that she would write pages (Wharton) and then let them fall to the floor so her servants could pick them up. Virginia Woolf seemed to be somewhat similar and dismissed James Joyce as being, basically, too working class for her to bother with. That influenced my opinion of Woolf.

[Cathleen]

Trelawn wrote: "Thank you :-)"

Trelawn and Paul--have a great time :) When do you leave?

[Barbara]

Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I am listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton as I am currently taking a class on The Master by Colm Toibin. We talk about his writer friends and..."

That is helpful to know. I haven't read Woolf, and right now I am feeling life is too short to read more Wharton or Woolf. At least I can say I tried.

[Cathleen]

Barbara wrote: "Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I am listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton as I am currently taking a class on The Master by Colm Toibin. We talk about his w..."

Yes. That's how I feel about Jonathan Franzen. He's lauded as the "great American novelist," and I read Freedom and thought, "ok, I tried. Enough of him! "

[Barbara]

Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I am listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton as I am currently taking a class on The Master by Colm Toibin. We ..."

I've heard enough similar comments about Franzen that I am also skipping him.

[Susan]

Cathleen, I couldn't agree more about Franzen. I just found him too pretentious for my taste.

[Trelawn]

@ Cathleen we've been in Edinburgh for two days, two more to go. Having a great time. Tonight is the haunted walk that takes us to Canongate cemetery and underground into the crypts.

[Cathleen]

Susan, I think that captures it. Trelawn, that sounds like a perfect activity for this Halloween month. :)

[Trelawn]

Well I owe Paul a ghost walk after not getting round to it in Oxford.

[Barbara]

Trelawn wrote: "Well I owe Paul a ghost walk after not getting round to it in Oxford."

I did a ghost walk in St. Mary's Close in 2002. We really did sense a ghost in one of the rooms, and it broke my sister's camera. We definitely felt a cold spot and a presence. When she brought it to a camera store in Edinburgh, they opened it up and said inexplicably the insides has just fallen apart. She bought a little point and shoot for the rest of the trip.

[Cathleen]

Barbara wrote: "Trelawn wrote: "Well I owe Paul a ghost walk after not getting round to it in Oxford."

I did a ghost walk in St. Mary's Close in 2002. We really did sense a ghost in one of the rooms, and it broke..."

What a creepy story!

[Margo]

I am struggling with Wild Decembers. Love the descriptive passages, plot is shaping up well, but her narrative style is driving me insane. Can anyone tell me should i persevere? Is it worth it??

[Margo]

Emma wrote: "Unfortunately I don't think anyone here has read it. If your really struggling with it maybe set it aside for a while and come back to it another time."

It is my library book club book for the month. If I put aside I'll probably never go back to it. Might not be a bad thing either!!

[Paul]

Lifes just too short for a painful book.

[Margo]

Paul wrote: "Lifes just too short for a painful book."

You are right Paul - decision made!

[Paul]

Its always hard to admit defeat but sometimes you just have to

[Barbara]

Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Trelawn wrote: "Well I owe Paul a ghost walk after not getting round to it in Oxford."

I did a ghost walk in St. Mary's Close in 2002. We really did sense a ghost in one of the roo..."

It reinforced my belief in the spirit world.

[Trelawn]

While I really enjoyed the walk in Edinburgh I didn't sense anything otherwordly. Oxford Castle and prison on the other hand just made me feel cold. There was a real atmosphere there.

[Barbara]

I have set aside NOS4A2 when it hit me it's about vampires. I would have known this if I had read the title aloud, duh. I feel often using vampires as characters is a shortcut to horror. I may get back to it.

I am liking Eleanor & Park a lot. And just started reading I Lived on Butterfly Hill. The first is definitely labeled not for young readers so it is probably for readers 15 and above. The second is for readers 10-14 and set in Valparaiso Chile at the time of the 1971 coup. Valparaiso is a World Heritage City and I visited there a few years ago. The hills are so steep I was a bit terrified as we drove up and down them in a minibus. I kept worrying somehow we'd tip over.
I just started listening to The Orphans of Race Point which I chose because of it's setting - the far end of Cape Cod, and its setting in the Portuguese community.

[Paul]

Oddly its not actually about vampires at all Barbara. Just a nickname given to the bad guy by his wife

[Barbara]

Paul wrote: "Oddly its not actually about vampires at all Barbara. Just a nickname given to the bad guy by his wife"

But what about the ghostly kid with wierd teeth. Glad to know it's not about vampires. It's an incentive to finish it.

[Barbara]

Trelawn wrote: "While I really enjoyed the walk in Edinburgh I didn't sense anything otherwordly. Oxford Castle and prison on the other hand just made me feel cold. There was a real atmosphere there."

I remember shortly after my visit to St. Mary's Close they closed that tour and "redid" things. I wonder it they've changed things around.

[Paul]

The kids do end up with sharp teeth but there is a bit more to it. I thought it was Vampires as well and was suprised that its all about the power of some peoples minds.

[Barbara]

Paul wrote: "The kids do end up with sharp teeth but there is a bit more to it. I thought it was Vampires as well and was suprised that its all about the power of some peoples minds."

Well as you read more of this genre and were also misguided, I don't feel too dumb.

[Frank]

I have a source for very inexpensive used paperbacks that are so old they literally crumble in my hands as I read them. Right now I'm going through a fifty year old copy of Julian. Vidal was at his best when writing historical novels, and this is a perfect subject for him - he uses it as a platform to launch a devastating attack against early Christianity.

[Trelawn]

Poor Julian. He gets a bad name these days as being backwards because he tried to halt to the spread if Christianity but in his day he was quite the intellectual. His philosphical bent didn't go down well with many and his beard in images of him was actually an act of mockery as beards were more fashionable among philosophers than among emperors. Sounds like an interesting read Frank.

[Margo]

Barbara wrote: "I have set aside NOS4A2 when it hit me it's about vampires. I would have known this if I had read the title aloud, duh. I feel often using vampires as characters is a shortcut to ho..."

I didn't get the name Barbara, so you're not alone! Bought it cheap on audible but never got around to listening to it.

[Barbara]

Margo wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I have set aside NOS4A2 when it hit me it's about vampires. I would have known this if I had read the title aloud, duh. I feel often using vampires as characters is ..."

I got it cheap on Kindle. I feel better missing the significance of the name.

[Trelawn]

@Emma i definitely disagree with George Eliot. It's a good read but quite slow in parts and I prefer Jane to Lucy. But it's still worth the read and better than The Professor.

[Sara]

Thanks to Emma for the recommendation (from awhile back) to check out Roddy Doyle on Facebook. He's totally brilliant there.

The most recent one:

-D’you ever go to plays?
-In a theatre, like?
-Yeah.
-No.
-Meself an’ the missis went to one – a while back. She was on about us doin’ somethin’ a bit different. Instead o’ the pictures. So, it’s her birthday an’ her sister got her two tickets for this play.
-An’ did she expect yeh to go with her?
-I was fuckin’ dreadin’ it – all the fuckin’ fuss, yeh know. But annyway, we go along.
-An’ it’s fuckin’ brilliant.
-How did yeh know?
-Your face.
-Well, it was. It was brilliant. Faith Healer, it was called. Your man, the Nazi, was in it.
-Ralph Fiennes.
-Him - yeah. He was very good.
-He’s good in everythin’.
-That’s true. But the play itself. Man – the words. There was him an’ two others. An’ they just talked - just fuckin’ talked. But – brilliant. Spellbindin’. It was like listenin’ to really interestin’ people, ‘cept way better.
-Wha’ made yeh think of it?
-Well, your man who wrote it died today. Brian Friel.
-I heard tha’, yeah – on the news.
-So – yeah.
-It made a big impact on yeh. The play.
-It did, yeah.
-Have yeh been to any since?
-Plays?
-Yeah.
-No. Fuck tha’.

I do plan to get back to The Guts eventually.

[Sara]

My reading has picked up a bit since my last update post in this thread 10 days ago.

I've listened to some more of the The Complete Sherlock Holmes: The Heirloom Edition.

My update review was "I'm 33% done with The Complete Sherlock: I'm finding the Sherlock Holmes stories to be much tighter than the first two novels so far and thus liking them better. My favorite short stories so far are "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb," and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches."

I think that maybe given the short story format, Doyle has much less room to include racial and other stereotypes that come out in his longer work. The short stories were for the most part written after the first two novels, so it will also be interesting to see how this plays out in The Hound of the Baskervilles...which I should get to in part 3/7 of the audiobook.

For now I've switched to listening to Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy which is dry but educational...and less dry than I expected.

In the realm of physical I've finished The Fifth Season. It starts out on a but, but once I finished it, I realized it is absolutely brilliant and a strong contender for my favorite book of the year. I find it hard to say more without giving a way spoilers.

It did, however, leave my brain a little dazed, so for a change of pace I’ve been reading the lighter middle grade fantasy Percy Jackson books. I had paused my reading of them a couple years ago due to thinking the second and third books were a bit weak and heavy on plot filler, but the fourth book, The Battle of the Labyrinth[insert link], resorted my faith in the series, and I’m now about the third of the way through the fifth and final book, The Last Olympian. The books started as bedtime stories for his son, a 9 year-old with dyslexia, ADHD, and an interest in Greek mythology. The author has subsequently received a number of letters from kids with learning disabilities and their families.

Lastly, I’ve dipped my toes into the autobiography,Dust Tracks on a Road, of Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

[Paul]

Delighted to hear The Fifth Season is worth the read . Definitely one I'll pick up soon .

[Barbara]

Sara wrote: "Thanks to Emma for the recommendation (from awhile back) to check out Roddy Doyle on Facebook. He's totally brilliant there.

The most recent one:

-D’you ever go to plays?
-In a theatre, like?
-Y..."

Love it. It made me think of a recent interview I heard with Wendall Pierce who played Bunk on The Wire. He's from New Orleans and was telling a story about performing "Waiting for Godot" in the Lower 9th Ward, the part of New Orleans that suffered the greatest amount of damage and number of deaths. He also repeated this story he'd heard:
"At one performance in the Mississippi delta for sharecropper farmers, legend has it that at intermission a man turned to the director and said, ‘Godot? He ain't coming.’"
Related to plays, I got to meet Rosemary Jenkinson tonight (at Mimi and Dennis's)who is from Belfast. She wrote "Johnny Meister and the Stitch" and has a play as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival here in DC - The Dealer of Balynafeigh.
http://www.culturenorthernireland.org...

[Sara]

Paul wrote: "Delighted to hear The Fifth Season is worth the read . Definitely one I'll pick up soon ."

I think it's the strongest of her work to to date...although I haven't read The Shadowed Sun yet.

[Sara]

I stayed up until 2 am to finish The Last Olympian and it was well worth. This is a very good series, especially if you know middle school age kids who struggle with reading.