Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread.
Good review and think I might get it for my great granddaughters age, 12 and 14. Does that age sound about right, JIm?
I think so, Nina. Maybe a little younger would be better, but I'm a horrible judge of reading ages. Marg always told me I was giving our kids books that were too advanced. Occasionally she was right, but often they'd read the book & like it anyway. They might not get all out of it that they should, though. They're all big readers & I always discussed books with them, so it worked out.
These girls are avid readers and very bright. The youngest who is now twelve had read twenty four books by the time she was four and was fluent in English and Spanish and somewhat in French. At that time she lived in Mexico but she is not Latino; just a little American girl. Would you think that book would be better for her than her fourteen year old sister?
No clue. If they like juvenile mysteries, it should be OK.
Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys into the Time Before Bones by Sue Hubbell is a must read. Part science, part autobiography, & all wonderful, this interesting lady explores some of the spineless creatures of the world along with our places in it. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thank you for posting.
I just finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 . It was great. I listed all the articles with my quick thoughts on them in my review. Occasionally I put in a link to where the article could be found on line. Most can be. My 5 star review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed my visit to Glens Falls and the surrounding area. I especially liked talking to the owner of the Bridal Shop that is in the historic blacksmith shop on Glen St. down by the Hudson. She showed me pictures of the charred beams inside her store. Her father had cleaned most of the char away, but there were some remnants. I stayed at The Cornerstone B&B in Warrensburg. Very nice.
Thank you both for posting.
I am enjoying reading Huck Finn as I might have mentioned and the last time I read it I was probably about eleven.Earnest Hemingway "All modern American literature comes from one book, "Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain..There's a quote for you Joy.
Have your leaves turned color yet? Ours are due in a couple of weeks.
I listened to Huck Finn not too long ago - a year or two. It's a book worth reading every couple of decades. While it doesn't change, the world & I do which puts a different light on things.Our leaves are turning rapidly now. We've had some chill nights, although no frost yet. Getting close, though. Makes for a busy time trying to get the gardens in shape & do all the other fall chores.
Yes, our leaves are turning color.
The leaves are turning color, seems one tree at a time. Not spectaulor this year. One tree will be bare of leaves, one tree is starting to change, one tree is past peek. Still pretty though.
I just finished listening to The Jungle Book & gave it 4 stars. It was nice to revisit the original after so many years of the Disney cartoon version. Don't get me wrong, I really liked that. I watched it when it first came out in the theater & was thrilled when we got the video tape of it 20 years later. Then I had 3 kids watching it & rewatching it until I could recite it. Just thinking about it gives me an ear worm of Baloo the bear singing "Bare Necessities", though.Anyway, I gave the Librivox version a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A couple of new items on the copyright front from the Internet Archive (archive.org). The Internet Archive is now leveraging a little known, and perhaps never used, provision of US copyright law, Section 108h, which allows libraries to scan and make available materials published 1923 to 1941 if they are not being actively sold.https://blog.archive.org/2017/10/10/b...
The Boston Public Library announced the transfer of significant holdings from its Sound Archives Collection to the Internet Archive, which will digitize, preserve and make these recordings accessible to the public. The Boston Public Library (BPL) sound collection includes hundreds of thousands of audio recordings in a variety of historical formats, including wax cylinders, 78 rpms, and LPs.
http://blog.archive.org/2017/10/11/bo...
These initiatives plus the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine are preserving & making a lot of historical material available. Here's a pretty good explanation of why this is so important:
http://blog.archive.org/2017/10/13/th...
Thank you for posting.
The Black Stallion was an excellent read, even for an adult. I hadn't read it for a long time, maybe 50 years, & didn't remember it at all for some reason. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "The Black Stallion was an excellent read, even for an adult. I hadn't read it for a long time, maybe 50 years, & didn't remember it at all for some reason. I gave it a 5 star review h..."Here's my review of same: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I loved the movie. I should have read the book from your description. Thanks for posting it.
You're welcome. If I've seen the movie, I don't recall it. I seem to have a huge blank spot with this book.
Picked up library book club reading for November. "The Nightingale" a novel by Kristin Hannah. She is a NY Times bestselling author of 22 novels.
Takes place in France 1939.
439 pages
Anyone read books by Ms. Hannah? I haven't.
I just finished reading A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. It's become a traditional Halloween read that I start 1Oct & finish 31Oct reading one chapter per day preferably with a group of others. The seemingly simple story is filled with great references. It's a 5 star read each time & I've lost count of how many. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Interesting review, Jim with knowable characters mentioned.
"Th e Nightingale" was on my best book favorites for the past year. Could hardly put it down.
Nina wrote: ""Th e Nightingale" was on my best book favorites for the past year. Could hardly put it down."Oh good! Thanks, Nina.
Finished, "The Nightingale" which was quite good. Surprised myself by reading 439 pages quickly. Well-written, engrossing. The book club discussion should be quite lively. Looking forward to the discussions.
I was going through the audio books at the library's site. By default, they're sorted by popularity. Just for fun, I went to the end to see what the least popular titles were & found a lot of my favorites. I was thrilled when they got L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s books in audio, but half a dozen of his are on the last few pages. The same with some of their SF.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari was fantastic & terrifying. He has a wonderful ability to see overall trends & where we might be going is a strange place indeed. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Don't be alarmed by the length of the review. Most of it is notes to myself. The top few paragraphs are for everyone else.
I am wondering what he would make of my husband and I celebrating our 70th wedding anniversary this past week.
Congrats on the 70th anniversary!!! Wow! Marg & I celebrated half that this past summer.Yes, 'Homo Deus' is something like 'Future Shock', better, IMO. Toffler wowed me in the beginning of FS, but only in that section. I found the rest of it to be less engaging & much of it was so wrong when I reread it a decade ago. OTOH, Harari wowed me pretty much all the way through. He peeved me at times, but never bored me. Toffler did. Good comparison, though.
He would have nothing to say about your anniversary except congrats. That is within the scope of the book, but a small bit about the effects of ammortality. He feels that a lot of existing structures like lifelong careers & commitments will have to break down when life spans get really long.
Makes sense. Already the idea of lifelong monogamy has suffered as society is seeing marriage as a social contract for the welfare of kids rather than some sort of holy stricture, but then religion is on its way out. It hasn't done anything for us in centuries & become completely reactive, a clear sign of stagnation. It's worldview is terribly dated, unable to keep up with changing times. I put some of his views on that in my review. His definition of it is especially interesting.
I did read your thought provoking review. They are always interesting.
Nina wrote: "I am wondering what he would make of my husband and I celebrating our 70th wedding anniversary this past week."70 years - how wonderful. Not too many couples get to celebrate 70 years together.
Congratulations to you both.
Thanks, Linda. After our Anniversary dinner at a small family run restaurant with thirteen of our family and friends, the owner came out and handed us a bottle of champagne..It was a wonderful busy week and a happy ending.
Nina wrote: "Thanks, Linda. After our Anniversary dinner at a small family run restaurant with thirteen of our family and friends, the owner came out and handed us a bottle of champagne..It was a wonderful busy..."Nice ending indeed. If you haven't opened the bottle of champagne yet - new year's eve is always a good time to celebrate and bring in the new year! And you don't have to stay up until midnight - just when the mood strikes you!
Book club selection of the month is: "To capture what we cannot keep" by Beatrice Colin. Haven't started it yet.
Just picked up our book for the coming month selection, " The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu," by Joshua Hammer.
Happy 70th Anniversary, Nina!
Thanks Joy, we could hardly believe we made it this far; the fact that both of us are still alive. All of our "kids" from various destinations came for that Thanksgiving weekend to help us celebrate. We were married the Saturday after Thanksgiving. At our actual Anniversary dinner, at a small family owned Italian restaurant the owner came with a bottle of champagne for us. Good ending; not quite as our pastor called us up to stand on the altar and gave us his blessing and everyone clapped. That was the real ending of the celebration.
I was somewhat disappointed with The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, the 5th Lisbeth Salander book. Not up to the standards of the rest. I reviewed it here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I recently became an author & now know first hand just how true my assertion is that authors shouldn't read reviews of their books. Inkle Loom Design & Construction is a fairly obscure subject. I've avoided marketing (pestering friends), checking sales, & reviews. Yesterday, I was in a meeting with a vendor. I'd sold her an Inkle loom as a birthday present for her sister. She loved it, got the bug, & now wants to build a bigger one, so I told her about my book. That surprised both my boss & coworker who hadn't known I'd written it. The coworker manning the PC hooked to the projector googled it & brought up a glowing review (The only one!) on Amazon.
We all wound up reading the review together & everyone was thrilled. The joy I felt at all the accolades was similar to a drug high. Actually better since the feeling was earned. If it had been a bad review, I would have been severely depressed.
I must admit that when I see the few dollars that Smashwords & Amazon send me, I am somewhat discouraged. I have to keep firmly in mind that I wrote it to learn the subject as suggested by Eric Sloane, one of my favorite authors. He was correct, it's a great way to learn since it requires a thorough knowledge & ordering of thought.
I now understand on a visceral level the pride & pain authors go through with their creations. My comparison of a book to a baby was an apt one.
Good luck with that book, Jim!
You have been published. That means you are an author so that is no slim accomplishment. Good luck, Jim.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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