You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Chit Chat About Books
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What are you Reading and Why
message 951:
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Esther
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Nov 14, 2013 07:34AM
I'm reading The Secret Life of Bees for the top 10 challenge. This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages and ages, so I'm pleased to be finally reading it. I am really liking it so far.
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Travis of NNY wrote: "Just checked out your review I feel much better knowing where I'm heading with this now. So far I am enjoying it."I panicked then and had to make sure I didn't spoil anything. You're good. Enjoy!
Esta wrote: "I'm reading The Secret Life of Bees for the top 10 challenge. This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages and ages, so I'm pleased to be finally reading it. I am really liking it s..."I read the book some time ago, Esta and had to read the summary to 'refresh' (I do not think I was on GR at the time or writing reviews). Anyway, I thought it was an interesting story. I liked most of it, but there were parts about the Black Madonna that I did not get. I have read sever of the author's books. Most of her characters are pretty good, but some of the elements of her stories are just strange.
I finished Tipping the Velvet
for the Top Ten challenge. This was my second Sarah Waters book and I really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars because I didn't enjoy it as much as Fingersmith simply because I didn't find the storyline as gripping but it was still a really good read and I would definitely recommend it.
Travis of NNY wrote: "I did enjoy Night Watch now started The Warded Man"I loved the warded man - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I have Night Watch on my TBR after reading Rusalka's review a few months back. Looks good.
Sarah wrote: "Travis of NNY wrote: "I did enjoy Night Watch now started The Warded Man"I loved the warded man - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I have Night Watch on my TBR a..."
This one is on my "as soon as I am done with my alphabet" pile. I heard only good things so far about it.
I finished The Potato Factory. While I enjoyed it, I'm overdosing on Bryce Courtenay. Reading The Power of One followed quickly with the Potato Factory did it for me.I'm excited to get back to my alphabet and will start The Queen of Bedlam after work today.
Janice wrote: "I finished The Potato Factory. While I enjoyed it, I'm overdosing on Bryce Courtenay. Reading The Power of One followed quickly with the Potato Factory did it for me.I'm excited to get back to my alphabet and will start The Queen of Bedlam after work today. ..."
I just picked up The Potato Factory, but because of its size, I am going to wait to read it and The Queen of Bedlam next year.
Saving Doorstops until then.
Funny, Almeta. We do seem to do things in tandem. Are you reading or listening?
I have just begun reading How It All Began
by Penelope Lively and found the following, which, I believe, sums up the way many of us on Goodreads feel:"Forever, reading has been central, the necessary fix, the support system. Her life has been informed by reading. She has read not just for distraction, sustenance, to pass the time, but she has read in a state of primal innocence, reading for enlightenment, for instruction, even. She has read to find out how sex works, how babies are born, she has red to discover what it is to be good, or bad; she has read to find out if things are the same for others as they are for her -- then, discovering that frequently they are not, she has read to find out what it is that other people experience that she is missing...She read to discover how not to be Charlotte, how to escape the prison of her own mind, how to expand and experience...Thus has reading wound in with living, each a complement to the other. Charlotte knows herself to ride upon a great sea of words, of language, of stories and situations and information, of knowledge, some of which she can summon up, much of which is half lost, but it in there somewhere, and has had an effect on who she is and how she thinks. She is as much a product of what she has read as of the way in which she has lived; she is like millions of others built by books, for whom books are an essential foodstuff, who could starve without."
Lynn G. wrote: "I have just begun reading How It All Began by Penelope Lively and found the following, which, I believe, sums up the way many of ..."Did you ever read Fahrenheit 451? I watched the movie years ago and finally read the book a couple of years ago. The whole idea of reading being illegal and books being destroyed was chilling.
Janice wrote: "Funny, Almeta. We do seem to do things in tandem. Are you reading or listening?"The Potato Factory I acquired is ink and paper. When it comes time to read The Queen of Bedlam, I will try for audio.
I think it is so much easier to get through a big book on audio, both physically and psychologically.
Plus they tend to read faster than I and they speak the words correctly!☻
I used to think I could read faster than a narrator speaks, but I'm having to re-evaluate that. It seems to take me forever to read a print book lately.
Janice wrote: "I used to think I could read faster than a narrator speaks, but I'm having to re-evaluate that. It seems to take me forever to read a print book lately."I think I read faster, but as I have more time listening than reading, audiobooks get done faster.
I've honestly got several books going. The Emperor of All Maladies is a buddy read on my Kindle that is really good so far, but I've put it on hold to finish some challenges. Swann's Way is on my iPod read by Neville Jason, and that's going to do double duty for the Top 10 Challenge here and a challenge in another group. The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki is a short story anthology I'm reading for another challenge. The final one is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, for which I'm using the immersion reading on my Kindle Fire. The narrators are great, but I found it a bit difficult to follow the 999 line poem while listening in the car. Immersion reading lets me read on the Kindle while listening to the narration - the best of both worlds. That one's for a challenge, too.
Janice wrote: "Lynn G. wrote: "I have just begun reading How It All Began by Penelope Lively and found the following, which, I believe, sums up ..."Janice, "chilling" is the perfect word for what happens in Fahrenheit 451. I saw the movie when it was first released and one or two more times since then. Seeing the movie led to reading the book. It's likely to be one of the books that deserves a re-read.
Janice wrote: "I used to think I could read faster than a narrator speaks, but I'm having to re-evaluate that. It seems to take me forever to read a print book lately."I can identify with you on that Janice. Having same problem.
I'm one disk away from finishing The Light Between Oceans which is just beautifully written, but what a predicament. Can't begin to work out how it's all going to play out.
As an aside - I just had to share this link. A performance poetry piece extolling the virtues of reading. I'm half in love!
As an aside - I just had to share this link. A performance poetry piece extolling the virtues of reading. I'm half in love!
Too funny not to link http://popcrush.com/fifty-shades-of-g... Hope no one is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, especially not from a Belgium library.
... *snigger*...
ewww, ewww and ewww again! Nope, I'd really rather not think how that happened.
Rusalka wrote: "Too funny not to link http://popcrush.com/fifty-shades-of-g... Hope no one is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, especially not from a Belgium library.
... *snigger*..."
Could not help sending the link to a collegue who just finish reading it, borrowed from our local library. Hehe.
Helen wrote: "As an aside - I just had to share this link. A performance poetry piece extolling the virtues of reading. I'm half in love!"Where IS that guy? I want one just like him... well, maybe a bit older. Hehehehe!
Actually, I discover that guy is less than 20 miles from me! hmm. Wonder what I can get as trade in value for mine - he is mostly house trained >;-)
A house trained man is a rare commodity in itself, Helen. Are you sure you want to trade him in? :)
Helen wrote: "As an aside - I just had to share this link. A performance poetry piece extolling the virtues of reading. I'm half in love! ..."
Really cute. Thanks for sharing that.
Rusalka wrote: "Too funny not to link http://popcrush.com/fifty-shades-of-g... Hope no one is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, especially not from a Belgium library.
... *snigger*..."
Library books do concern me. Like when I turn a page and find a crusty bit of something unidentifiable stuck on a page, which I have to flick off in order to read the word underneath! Was that pizza or a booger? I hope that was a coffee stain.☻
I bought my Nook when there were reports of bed bugs in books! (Thankfully not at my library.)
Best not to think about it.
Rusalka wrote: "Too funny not to link http://popcrush.com/fifty-shades-of-g... Hope no one is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, especially not from a Belgium library.
... *snigger*..."
Well that is just WRONG! And I get 90% of the books I read from the library. I'm with Almeta on how I feel when I run across some unidentifiable stain on a book. What is THAT!? Makes me want to keep one of those bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer close at hand!
I remember getting a book out of the library that had clearly been in store for decades. Inside the front cover was a label from (I suspect) the 40s about loan conditions and so on. But is also contained statements about if this book had been in contact with infectious diseases it should be returned to somewhere else for disinfecting.
Nope, don't want to think too hard about that either.
Nope, don't want to think too hard about that either.
I am reading my most shameful unread book on my tbr shelf, for the Top Ten - The Catcher in the Rye. I can't understand why I never read or had to read it, it seems it was required reading for a lot of people. Anyway, I'm getting to it now!
Helen wrote: "But is also contained statements about if this book had been in contact with infectious diseases it should be returned to somewhere else for disinfecting. ..."Hmmm, interesting that they used to do that.
Still I don't think bacteria and viruses can live outside a nice cozily warm environment. Dry books would not be appealing.
It would be of little benefit to avoid libraries because of this. Think about the paper currency that you use to buy a book!☻
I finished
and now I'm going to start
. I had it on hold from the library for the longest time before it became available.
I finished All Quiet on the Western Front
for the Top Ten challenge. I gave it 5 stars because it is one of the best war-set books that I have read. It was harrowing, raw and thought-provoking and definitely deserves to be called a classic in my opinion.I am now going to start reading Rebecca
which I have been wanting to read for ages! It was also going to be my 'R' read for the ABC challenge.
I'm 56% done with Five Quarters of the Orange. First book I read by Joanne Harris. I'm enjoying it a lot!
Just finished Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations
. Wonderful read. This is my review; www.goodreads.com/review/show/759878795
Finished an oldie but a goodie today: And Be a Villain
. Also read a meh short story by an author I usually like --
Recalculating. The male character in that story needed to be snapped in half like a glow stick. Just sayin.
Little Fingers for Other Wordly Challenge Romania entryThe Painted Man for a Countdown Challenge
361 for the YLTO! Top Ten Challenge
Started Joyland for the YLTO! Alphabet Challenge. You will never guess to whom the book is dedicated. That's Right!!! Donald E. Westlake!!!
Almeta wrote: "Started Joyland for the YLTO! Alphabet Challenge. You will never gujess to whom the book is dedicated. That's Right!!! Donald E. Westlake!!!"A match made in heaven! LOL!
Well I finished reading Anansi Boys which was amazing. I abandoned my audiobook The Road because the narrator was so annoying - he is the same narrator as The Black Dahlia which I also abandoned this month - I must keep a note of his name so I can avoid his other ones. So I started Stormdancer on audiobook and Heart-Shaped Box for my Top 10 challenge as well as a group read in another group.
I just finished Garden Spells which I found quite disappointing. I read the last 50 pages quickly, just to get it over with. I liked the magical idea, but I thought the story was a not-so-good romance novel, not very well written and very predictable. I'll start reading Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix next, for the top 10 challenge.
Peggy wrote: "Those books are hard to read and places hard to visit. I have to admit I often avoid reading them, because I'm not myself for a couple of days after. I once visited Tuol Sleng in Cambodia, a former..."Another hard to read (but worthwhile) book set in Cambodia is Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick. There were times I really wanted to stop reading, but couldn't.
Ann wrote: "I am reading Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. Reminiscent of Angela's Ashes, only circumstances aren't quite as dire as it is set in the 1960's. I am enjoying it immensely!"I recently listened to The Deportees and Other Stories and really enjoyed it, love Doyle's writing!
I had to move The Twelve to my started-but-not-finished shelf. It was my T for my ABC challenge, but I just could not stay interested in it right now. I replaced it with Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris for a "lighter" read. I have also started listening to Under the Never Sky and The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
OK, now I'm going to have to start wearing gloves when I read a book. Those little dried things on the pages are gross!I'm listening to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest after listening to the first two last week. Fantastic narration by Simon Vance, I could listen tohim read almost anything.
I have finished Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and have started The Silent Wife by the late A.S.A. Harrison.
Just finished Five Quarters of the Orange. It is a good story. I'm glad I read it. I'll certainly try more Joanne Harris' novels. Now starting The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
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