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
Thanks for the link Janice! I haven't yet figured out how to do that on my iPhone...
Ann wrote: "Thanks for the link Janice! I haven't yet figured out how to do that on my iPhone..."I figured that was the likely situation. It's a common complaint with the mobile apps.
Sandra wrote: "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 [au..."
We read Five Quarters of the Orange for a group read a few months back so you might like to check the thread out in the Group Reads section for all our comments on the book.
Lilisa wrote: "Sandra wrote: "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 [book:The Almond Tree|1..."
Gentlemen and Players is the next Joanne Harris' in my list!
Just finished How It All Began by Penelope Lively and really enjoyed, 3***.Although it was a quick read there was depth to it.
Here is my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The bridge of peace by Cindy woodsmall . An Amish fiction . It's book 2 in that series
April wrote: "The bridge of peace by Cindy woodsmall . An Amish fiction . It's book 2 in that series"If possible, could you link your books using the "add book/author" above the comment box? It makes it easier for people to take a peak at the book and add it to their TBRs. Of course, if you are using a mobile app, it's not possible.
The Bridge of Peace
Did you read the first book in the series?
I'm halfway through Swann's Way Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and loving it. This is doing double duty for the Top Ten Challenge here and a challenge for another group. I should have it finished this weekend.
I am reading Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster for the November Top Ten challenge. So far, it is excellent.
I am reading The End of Your Life Book Club and listening to Neverwhere. I keep reading from my top ten list ( thanks Rusalka ).
finished The Well of Ascension and nearing the end of The Hunger Games which i'll be glad to be over and definitely will mot worry about watching the movie. just not my kind of story I guess.
Glad to hear ladies.Ladies... urgh. Where did that come from? I went to an all girls school for high school (yr7-10 in my territory). By the end of year 10 I had the teachers referring to the class as "Ladies!... and Rusalka". I'm still not a lady! And definitely wasn't at 15!
Life cut my fun online time so I have not been around. I have not caught up yet but I just finished listening to Letters from Skye. If you like this type of book, try to get the audio. It's great.
Started 1984 I never read this in school and can't help but wonder if it wasn't assigned or if I just didn't read it.
Travis of NNY wrote: "Started 1984 I never read this in school and can't help but wonder if it wasn't assigned or if I just didn't read it."That is one book I do recall reading in high school. I don't ever recall reading To Kill a Mockingbird as assigned reading and ye everyone else seems to have read it in school.
Peggy wrote: "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 n..."I have read that biography of Jimi Hendrix and found it quite fascinating
my current reads are The Sabi (re-read as part of club here) and Half of a Yellow Sun
I finished Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix yesterday. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...I've been reading The Name of the Wind for 5 weeks now, and still haven't finished it! I'm going to try to do it this weekend.
Janice wrote: "Travis of NNY wrote: "Started 1984 I never read this in school and can't help but wonder if it wasn't assigned or if I just didn't read it."That is one book I do recall reading in hig..."
I didn't read 1984 or To Kill a Mockingbird at school nor some of the others which many people were assigned. I think it may have depended on which set for English you're in. I only read 1984 this year and I really liked it.
Sarah wrote: "I didn't read 1984 or To Kill a Mockingbird at school nor some of the others which many people were assigned..."I don't even remember having reading assignments in school! Southern education was pretty basic.
I do remember though, that word got around in college that "if you didn't read 1984, that you were just out of it".
Isn't it great how each generation discovers certain books long after they were first published? (The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings series is another "word of mouth" must read like that.)
This week's been a really goo example of real life getting in the way.
Started The Little Stranger for this month's book club. Quite dark and unsettling, but going quite well.
then Wednesday i get news a friend died unexpectedly at the awfully young age of 49. And so I've retreated into the nice safe world of mild romance and detective fiction - because nothing bad ever happens there. OK, people get killed, but they're always the baddies and you're not emotionally invested in them. Trying to at least make them useful alphabet reads as well as safe ones.
I've got The Uninvited Guests on in the car - and that's diverting enough at the moment.
We didn't do 1984 or mockingbird at school, Thomas Hardy was our form of torture. not been anywhere near him since!
Started The Little Stranger for this month's book club. Quite dark and unsettling, but going quite well.
then Wednesday i get news a friend died unexpectedly at the awfully young age of 49. And so I've retreated into the nice safe world of mild romance and detective fiction - because nothing bad ever happens there. OK, people get killed, but they're always the baddies and you're not emotionally invested in them. Trying to at least make them useful alphabet reads as well as safe ones.
I've got The Uninvited Guests on in the car - and that's diverting enough at the moment.
We didn't do 1984 or mockingbird at school, Thomas Hardy was our form of torture. not been anywhere near him since!
Sorry to hear about your friend Helen.
Sarah wrote: "Janice wrote: "Travis of NNY wrote: "Started 1984 I never read this in school and can't help but wonder if it wasn't assigned or if I just didn't read it."That is one book I do recall..."
We didn't do 1984 or To Kill a Mockingbird at school either. It was Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Wuthering Heights for us along with Of Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls and Other Plays. I fared quite well in that I enjoyed them all apart from Wuthering Heights and Emma. I vowed never to read Wuthering Heights again, school put me off of it that much! Luckily I changed my mind and read it again a few years later and it is now one of my favourite books of all time!
Sorry to hear your bad news Helen. My thoughts are with you.
Sorry to hear Helen :( Bring on the detective fiction. I completely understand the compulsion.
I did To Kill a Mockingbird then a different teacher took over 9th grade and she reads 1984. That's why kids are now reading it at my old school and I didn't it was really bugging me why and had to doa little investigating. As seniors we all had to read Beowulf: A New Verse Translation and Grendel I hated both at the time. From 7-12 grade we read about 3 books a year so there's a dozen or so I'm forgetting.
Here in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) we have a very different education system. Year 7-10 are high school. In English I did a lot of Aussie YA fiction, and Shakespeare. I did do one course in yr 10 which was "advanced" which I read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath. That reflects on my school more than the states (Catholic girls school, run by the church than the education department).
College (yrs 11-12) there are two schools in the ACT that have trimesters instead of semesters. I'm lucky to have gone to one of them which did 3 courses per year, not 2, and then ever y subject I took I could choose my course, things like Chemistry for example, it was 1, then 2, the 3, etc. English it was was whatever looked interesting. Which was great coz i did a whole heap of SHakespeare and mythology.
But in my last tri I took a class to make up my "major" (you had to take up a certain number of majors (2 years) and minors (1 Year)(ie 5 majors, 4 majors and 2 minors, etc) to get a year 12 cert (leaving cert)) and took a 20th Century lit course. I had 6 weeks of school left in my life and every one had to present an 20 min oral (speech, talk) on a 20th cent lit piece. That was my intro to 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, The Great Gatsby, The Bell Jar, etc. My tiny mind was blown. It hasn't restored itself 13 years on and I have to read all the things to find it all out.
I must say if I had my time again, I would have taken the course that had a Bill Bryson as a text. For "The Origins of English" they read The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. A friend took that course and raved about it. I didn't get it Until I read Bill Bryson 5 years later. As someone who tried to make him mandatory reading for their staff (A Short History of Nearly Everything. I ran the front of house team at our National Science museum) he would have been mind blowing as a textbook!!
At school we read a lot of Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth). I also remember reading Buddy, Z for Zachariah and An Inspector Calls but I'm sure we must have read more than that over 5 years worth of secondary school.
I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, Helen! Hugs!
The assigned reading in school that I recall was The Pearl, The Red Pony, 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and The Lottery. We must have read others and I don't remember.
Yup there was also Lord of the Flies. Romeo and Juliet. The Canterbury Tales. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Diary of a Young Girl and Fahrenheit 451
Oh yeah... now that you mention it, we also read the The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Diary of a Young Girl. I don't recall ever having to read Shakespear - either that or I've blocked it out of my memory.I've noticed that we read two books by some of the authors. Interesting. I wonder if that was intentional.
So sorry Helen.I cannot remember having assignent reading before last year of hish school (quebec has 6 years of elementary, 5 of high school, 2 year of college, then university). We had reading but we had a choice, which i may be thankful for as, like Rusalka, I was in an all girl HS runned by nuns. Then it was a mix of quebec litterature and classic like Racine, Corneille and Moliere.
The only transaltion I remember reading are Brave New World and Equus.
Just starting Doctor Sleep for the top ten challenge. Looking forward to seeing Danny Torrance again!
Almeta wrote: "I don't even remember having reading assignments in school! Southern..."Now, I am remembering having to memorize:
The Song of Hiawatha and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.☻
I just finished Rebecca. I loved it and gave it 5 stars. It was such a good story! It was quite different from what I was expecting but it blew me away! I would highly recommend checking it out if you have not already done so.I am now starting Burial Rites which is a book that I have had my eye on for a few months. I am looking forward to seeing what it is like.
Marnie wrote: "Started The Goldfinch? I hear it is very wordy but good... fingers crossed."Looking forward to hearing what you think of it Marnie. It is sitting in my TBR pile waiting to be picked up.
Travis of NNY wrote: "Started Speaks the Nightbird"I really enjoyed this book. I'll be interested in your take on it.
Janice wrote: "Travis of NNY wrote: "Started Speaks the Nightbird"I really enjoyed this book. I'll be interested in your take on it."
I reaaly liked this one as well. The Queen of Bedlam will be one of my first reads of 2014. (Can't do a 600+ page book right now!)
I'm reading The Queen of Bedlam right now for my alphabet challenge. It took me a bit to warm up to it, but I'm enjoying it now. I'm still not sure if I like it as much as Nightbird, but close. Let me just say that I'm in for the series. Woohooo!
So far enjoying it. Good thing since I picked up the other two books in the last audible sale
That's what I call a leap of faith, Travis. Mind you, I've done it myself, but with the The Hangman's Daughter series. They were $.99 each. My investment was $5.00 for the series. I've spent more than that on one book, so I figured I was doing okay even if I didn't like the first book. I now see that I can get the audiobooks for $1.99 each through Whispersync. Maybe, when I get my $10 coupon from Audible, I can use it for that.
Lisa wrote: "I just finished Rebecca. I loved it and gave it 5 stars. It was such a good story! It was quite different from what I was expecting but it blew me away! I would highly recommend checki..."Marnie wrote: "Started The Goldfinch? I hear it is very wordy but good... fingers crossed."
I loved Rebecca and really enjoyed Burial Rites. Look forward to your thoughts Lisa.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Steven Pressfield (other topics)Rainbow Rowell (other topics)
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Jo Nesbø (other topics)
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Now starting The Almond Tree by [au..."
Sandra - you'd probably enjoy the Chocolat series then - I really enjoyed them - [book:Chocolate|47425]. The Girl with No Shadow. Peaches for Father Francis . My favorite however is Gentlemen and Players.