What Are You Reading? March 2014

[Bill]

2014 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I. is the story of one family in the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[Mamabee]

Mary Poppins

Hope I'm doing this right ... I'm reading P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins to my kids, a chapter before bed every night I have them. They're really enjoying how different it is from the classic Julie Andrews movie. The original Mary Poppins is much crankier and much more of a personal enigma.

[Melanie]

You are doing this right!

I just finished the above book for the Kansas Humanities Discussion. He is from Kansas but ended up in Oregon. I wished they had mixed the poems with the essays and interviews for more balance. I've discovered I like my poems as a real estate agent likes homes - staged. I don't want to know the name of others or the name of the location. Let me put myself there.

[Saralinda]

I just finished Maphead, by Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame (It's a lot of interesting trivia about maps and geography and related topics. He talked about geocaching, but didn't mention Where's George, so I only gave it 4 stars). Now I am finishing up The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times, by Ilyon Woo. It reads like a novel, but is extremely well-researched history. It's about a woman whose alcoholic husband left her to join the Shakers, and took the kids with him. Married women had no rights in those days, so she went through an incredible legal and political struggle to get her kids back.

I am on a mission to finish several books that I started in recent months (and years) but did not finish -- not because they weren't good books, but because I was having trouble focusing and had gotten out of the reading habit. Most of these books, I will start again from the beginning.

[Saralinda]

I finished The Great Divorce, and am now reading "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared," by Jonas Jonasson.

[April]

I just started Stories I Only Tell My Friends

[Melanie]

April wrote: "I just started Stories I Only Tell My Friends"

My mom read Melissa Gilbert's autobiography. Apparently Rob Low and Melissa Gilbert view their relationship differently. She was much more serious about him than he was her.

It was an enjoyable read.

[April]

I think allot of girls view relationships differently than the guys they are dating. He kinda glosses over her.

[Mike]

I think I might finally get done with soon. The amount of time I've had to actually get any reading done has taken a nosedive the last few months. I've been on this book since Thanksgiving. But Saturday I need to wait in my new apartment by myself for a furniture delivery and the cable guy. That could take all day. And the TV and radio haven't been moved in yet, so I will need some reading to stay occupied.

[April]

I am waiting to get that book from the library.

[April]

Ok I finished Stories I Only Tell My Friends. Now I'm moving on to Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. It's from the NY Times best seller list. I'm trying to keep up with that reading list.

[April]

I finished Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth yesterday. Then I stared In the Flesh, which I finished this morning. So I stopped by the library this afternoon and picked up my hold on A Dance with Dragons. I will be on this one for a few days.

[Bill]

I've finished The Radetzky March and have begun reading which though a different genre also indirectly features classical music as a part of the story.

[Ronald]

Still working my way through Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) not nearly as good as I had been lead to believe. It is not a bad book but exceptions were raised. ;)

[Saralinda]

Finished The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared -- it took a bit longer than I would have liked. Now starting The Book Thief...

[Mike]

Wow. So I finally completed Dance With Dragons this morning. Now I've moved onto Grave Peril. I enjoyed the first two books of the Dresden Files series, and I'm happy to get back into it.

[Saralinda]

I finished The Book Thief, the third book in my one-book-per-week goal. It was gloomy, but well-written, and I had trouble putting it down in the second half. This will be a busy week, so I'll pick a shorter book. I want to stay on track! I've never read Kafka's The Metamorphosis, so maybe I'll read that...

[Bill]

I'm about to start reading ; a post-apocalyse/crime novel with something different. Instead of New York or L.A. it takes place in Finland!

[Saralinda]

I just finished Passing Passing, by Nella Larsen. It's a short book from the Harlem Renaissance. The title refers to light-skinned blacks passing for white during the pre-Civil Rights era (and a double meaning of passing, death). I'm thinking for my next book, I need to pick one where nobody dies!

[Melanie]

is a book of short stories I just started reading for the Kansas Humanities Council TALK discussion. It is much more enjoyable that I had anticipated. Queen Sarah, it is a quick read and so far nobody has died, but there as a rattle snake bite.

[Melanie]

I finished this one on Sunday for a book club. I found it to be a very slow book, and I didn't really connect with any of the characters. It does raise some interesting questions about when should women no longer be able to give birth. If we do find a "miracle" drug in the rainforest how should we pursue it? At the risk of destroying a culture and possibly an environment? What are our responsibilities with medical knowledge and nature's course.

[Saralinda]

That sounds really good, actually. But it's not on Kindle -- I think I will wait for it to show up on Kindle. My goal for the next hour is to pick my next book before I leave for work...

[Saralinda]

OK, I've decided on The Pleasure of My Company The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin. It looks short and entertaining. This is a very busy and stressful week, so I hope I can find some reading time!

[Ronald]

I started reading Eleven on Top while sitting around waiting for my father at Kaiser. Surprisingly this book has much less of the stuff that was pissing me off about the previous stories. Either that or I needed a break. ;-)

[Melanie]

Ronald wrote: "I started reading Eleven on Top while sitting around waiting for my father at Kaiser. Surprisingly this book has much less of the stuff that was pissing me off about the previous stor..."

Many have said there were several books that were not as enjoyable. However, 18, 19, and 20 pick up.

[Melanie]

Just finished Orinary Genius by Thomas Fox Averill and enjoyed it. I haven't read short stories in years I also finished Emma yesterday. I love Jane Austen but was really disappointed by this book. Emma is not as witty as Elizabeth or Anne in the other books I love. However, I do enjoy Clueless the modern movie adaptation.

[Melanie]

Saralinda wrote: "That sounds really good, actually. But it's not on Kindle -- I think I will wait for it to show up on Kindle. My goal for the next hour is to pick my next book before I leave for work..."

It was published in 2004 by University of Nebraska Press so if it isn't on Kindle now I'm not sure if it will be...

[April]

Ok I have been busy since I last posted. I finished A Dance with Dragons, then moved on to The Hunt for Red October finished it and am reading Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life. The last book is part of my trying to read all the NY Times Non fiction best sellers.

[Ronald]

Melanie wrote: Many have said there were several books that were not as enjoyable. However, 18, 19, and 20 pick up. i>

Yes you and several people warned me about quality of some of her books. I think part of my issue was solved just by reading something else. ;-)

[Saralinda]

It's inspiring to me, how much some of you people read!

I finished the Steve Martin book, so now I think I'll go back and read a book I started awhile back and didn't finish for some reason. I'll start again from the beginning. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America

[Melanie]

I'm currently reading this book for fun. It was a recommendation by our SWAT commander.