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.
A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett was excellent even though I've never cared for his fiction. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Interesting tidbit. As I mentioned in earlier comments that I am now reading Pat Conroy's, "Prince of Tides." I just now came across a reference he made telling his wife to check into the Francis Marion hotel in Charleston, and that hotel was named after my ancestor, Francis Marion, who was known during the Revolutionary War as the Swamp Fox. And it seems he was the hero who saved the city of Charleston from the British taking it over. Disney once made a movie of his life just titled, "The Swamp Fox," and it was actually pretty good. Wish I had known about him when I visited Charleston long ago.
Thanks Joy for this info you seem to always come through with the right details. I intend to read this.
I'm reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
A very good book. Hard to imagine how it came about; the blind portaganist is unbelievable.
Nina, I'm not finding it wonderful. I'm through page 172 and I find the imagery, the description, as blind as the young girl. Maybe that was the author's intent, so that we cannot see clearly what he is writing about, just as the girl has to guess, imagine what is visible. I find the writing very choppy. I don't understand, at least so far, how this received a Pulitzer! I will continue to read it and hope that it improves.
Thank you for posting.
JAKe wrote: "I'm reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr."All the Light We Cannot See
Jake, see my review of the book at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was very disappointed in the ending. I won't say why here. I was always immersed in the technical goings on as they seemed almost a character in the book. When I took a course in Creative Writing, our leader said to close our eyes and crawl around the floor and then write about what you "saw" at that time.. This reminded me of the girl in the story. She seemed very believable to me but I felt the loose ends in the story were not tied together in the end.
Nina, as I said it my review, the book seems "fragmented" to me.As I said in my comments: "And in the end there were unanswered questions in my mind. The ending didn't completely satisfy me. [Edit: The ending was a let-down because the boy and girl hardly interacted with one another. I had expected more interaction between them. Instead it's a story of their parallel lives and they meet only once when he saves her life."
Jim wrote: "Happy birthday, Linda. Don't know how I missed that."Thanks for the bday wishes!
So, I did not finish "Lilac Girls" and the book club meet is the 11th. Seems like a good book. Just not enough time to read. No fun reading a page or two here and there. Picked up the Book Club selection for April which is "Before We Were Yours." Takes place in Memphis in 1939 then "present day" in Aiken South Carolina. Inspired by a true story.
"Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandals - in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country ..."
Anyone ever hear of Georgia Tann? I will look her up before reading the book for more insight. Seems like an interesting book. All depends on how "heartbreaking" the story is if I finish the book or not. Of late, not into reading a story which will squeeze my heart.
Horrible story about Georgia Tann. An awful person!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia...
Had never heard of her before now.
Before We Were Yours BY Lisa Wingate
When you visit used book stores a lot, you find authors you missed at the time. Between 2001 through 2005 Nancy Kress wrote a SF Trilogy. It has certainly stood the test of time---I found and purchased the used trilogy a few weeks ago.I have finished Probability Moon and am on the second book now, Probability Sun.
The concluding book---Probability Space won the
Hugo Award.
Great characterizations and good dialog and an interesting race of aliens. Very enjoyable so far---NancyKress has a well deserved reputation as a leading SF Author.
Thanks for posting, Mary.
Mary JL wrote: "When you visit used book stores a lot, you find authors you missed at the time. Between 2001 through 2005 Nancy Kress wrote a SF Trilogy. It has certainly stood the test of time---I found and purch..."Joy H. wrote: "Horrible story about Georgia Tann. An awful person!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia...
Had never heard of her before now.
Before We Were Yours BY Lisa Wingate"
Pressed enter too soon - 1 - thanks Joy for looking up Georgia Tann - yes an awful person indeed. Caused such terrible pain to many many families.
The book "Before We Were Yours" is quite good. A fast read. Keeps one's interest (or at least mine which has been hard to do of late!).
Mary - when you visit used book stores - do you find yourself engrossed and forget the time? Would be fun to look up all used book stores and such and visit each and every one. If only one had the time.
You're welcome, Linda.
No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria BY Rania AbouzeidToday I saw this book discussed on CNN with host, Fareed Zakaria.
See more at my review at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
""This astonishing book by the prize-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid tells the tragedy of the Syrian War through the dramatic stories of four young people seeking safety and freedom in a shattered country."
Sounds terribly sad.
I frequented used book stores a lot as a child. When I had an extra quarter that is where I went. I used to think if I were blilndfolded and went into one I could tell it by the smell of the old books.
A lovely thought, Nina.
Joy, Interesting to read about the Bronx. Was it an OK place to live when Penny Marshall grew up there? Where did you grow up? Did you teach in NYC? How did you decided to live where you now live? It looks lovely from the photos.
Have ever heard of the author Enid Blyton?She was mentioned at FunTrivia and I had never heard of her.
No, I haven't. Some of the titles seemed a bit familiar, but not once I'd read the descriptions. She's British, so that might explain it. I dated several gals that were over here working from the UK.
Is she a poet? I love most British authors so I'll check her out.
This is an old message but I haven't been getting the daily ones so trying this to see if it goes through. Always something. Tried to read "The Robe, but just couldn't get interested.
Just finished reading for the second time, "The Prince of Tides," by Pat Conroy and "My Mother was Nuts," by Penny Marshall. Both very different but equally good.
Glad you're enjoying them, Nina.
Our book club selection for June is "The Calabria," by Peter Beagle. Are you all familiar with this book. I understand it is excellent.
I'll let you know after I read the book, Calabria, what my view of it is and I do think it has some fantasy involved.
I've never heard of the author or his book. Looking forward to your review. Could be a book for me to recommend to my book club. We need more book choices for the group.
Joy, I read in the NY Times today another mention of Enid Blyton. It was in the Business section discussion of the publishing industry's reaction to Brexit. Here is the quote concerning Enid B, : "Britain's vote to leave the union produced a brief boomlet here for publishers, which hurried out titles, such as "The Brexit Survival
Activity Book," "The Brexit Cookbook," and of course the latest popular riff on Enid Blyton's classic children' books, "Five Escape Brexit Island."
Nina wrote: "Joy, I read in the NY Times today another mention of Enid Blyton. It was in the Business section discussion of the publishing industry's reaction to Brexit. Here is the quote concerning Enid B, : ..."
Nina wrote: "Joy, I read in the NY Times today another mention of Enid Blyton. It was in the Business section discussion of the publishing industry's reaction to Brexit. Here is the quote concerning Enid B, : ..."
Interesting.
Joy, I googled "Little Dorrit," and after reading the summary I was still confused so it suggested reading, "And What about the Ending,:" and it finally made sense but the author of that section explained that the ending in the book was so confusing, Dickens had to add an explanation at the end. So, I am not alone wondering what was going on.
I have finishedthe first two books---Probability Moon; Probability Sun) and am now finishing the trilogy with Probability Space.It is a great trilogy--great characterization and great world-building with an interesting alien race.
However, you really might want to be sure to have all three books. Some trilogies you can read just one; but this set connects and only makes sense if read in order. Well worth looking for for those with a taste for science fiction.
Sounds like a good one if you are into Science Fiction. Mostly, I'm not but once in a while a good one strikes me. I used to be fond of Ray Bradbury.
I love used book stores. Regretfully Omaha has lost Pageturners: Friendly Used Books; Backshelf Books; and Mary's book Exchange in the last eight years!!However, a service organization---Friends of the Omaha Public Library has a weekly book sale at the Omaha Swanson branch--90th and Dodge. The sale is on Thursdays from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The sale has used library books that have been withdrawn from circulation . But many private donors donate used books of their own as well.
Joy, does your library have a library book sale?
Yes, we have used book sales at our library. They are fundraisers.
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are was really good. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
One of my very favorite books came from my daughter's library in Post Falls library at their sale. We just donate books to our local library and I am not sure what they do with them.
The 30th anniversary edition of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was fantastic. Besides reading the origin story of the 'meme', the whole concept of how complex processes can arise out of such simple objects working in groups is fascinating. He also discussed enough of The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene for me, so I probably won't look for that book. I'm not an evolutionary biologist, after all. Still, I found it intriguing & he explained it so well that I never had any trouble following his reasoning, even to questioning it a few times before he came back to clear things up. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Joy H. wrote: "JAKe wrote: "I'm reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr."All the Light We Cannot See
Jake, see my review of the book at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"
Joy, I read part of your review and thanks for referring me to it and posting the link. I have yet to finish it. The story hasn't grabbed me yet, although I keep hoping it will eventually compel me to read through to the end. I recently accidentally left it out in the rain, so I'm letting it dry out.
Hi Jake, I think the book is worth finishing. Good luck with it.
I thought the way the blind girl is depicted is amazing. Loved that part. Some of it disappointed me, however.
GoodReads is changing the authors on all lectures to "NOT A BOOK" & not even listing the author as a narrator. They're deleting them entirely! I don't know why lectures suddenly aren't books. They have an ISBN & are distributed by libraries & resellers as books. They often come with an ebook full of notes. I've spent a lot of hours reading & writing reviews for them here. I often refer to those in discussions of other books by the same author here in various groups.
I've never been happy with they way GR has handled audio books. Listing the number of CDs or tapes as pages was stupid from the start & yet they don't list the number of files as pages. They should just list a minute per page, IMO. I think that's close to an average reading speed & would work for me. As it is, I never pay attention to that data.
Anyway, could you please send an email to support@goodreads.com & ask them to keep lectures as books? Apparently this is a staff decision & maybe if enough of us complain they'll change their minds. Making the author a narrator would be fine, but deleting them entirely really sucks.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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See my short review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...