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.
I would probably like that book but would it destroy some of what I first thought about the past history?
Jim, I can understand your frustration with GR not listing authors or narrators. After all, if they ARE books which are being read orally, then they should be treated as "audiobooks". Perhaps the word "audiobook" has been copyrighted and they can't use the word.Could it be that a "lecture" is never taken from a book? Anyway, authors and narrator deserve recognition.
Joy, that's not the reason. They're leaving audio books, but they are just removing lectures. They've got some weird notions about what comprises a book. A printed or ebook play is a book & might have 100 pages, yet one that is narrated as an audio book has the pages numbered by the hour now, so might just be a few pages. (It used to be by the CD or tape.) Worse, if the play is performed, it might not be a book at all even though it has an ISBN & is listed as a book on Amazon or in a library. It's just stupid & serves no purpose.
Thanks for the explanation, Jim.
I finally struggled through Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, a 'classic' that I've wanted to read for decades, but have never managed to bear for any length of time. References to it appear in all kinds of places, so I finally struggled through it. It was not worth the time or aggravation & it wasn't funny at all. I gave it a 1 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The movie was somewhat better but not great.
Big storm predicted and possible tornado overnight. We'll be watching.
I heard about your upcoming storm. Hope you'll be OK, Nina.
Some people had a bit of damage but we escaped with only winds and an inch and a half of rain. So, we were lucky.
Rascal by Sterling North is an absolute treasure. I read it back when I was a kid & wasn't too impressed since it was so like my own childhood, but now it's a real blast from the past. Kind of sad how those days are gone. Kids don't have anything like the freedom we did. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Another blast from the past was The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen. It is Dracula told from Vlad's point of view & the first in a series of 10 books that take place in modern times. It even has quotes from the original which are logically explained. Great fun. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I like this bookhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The short stories are pretty good, but the main thing is I discovered several that I like are by prolific authors I'd never heard of. So lots of new reading to look forward to and easily obtainable from my library. Like finding gold nuggets.
Thank you both for posting.
In our paper this morning an article about a family finding a journal in their linen closet written by a fifth great grandfather who served in the RW at the age of thirteen who was captured by the British and had to serve as a cabin boy on their ship until he escaped through a port hole and then was recaptured again and so on. Fascinating story and a version of it was made into a book in 1864 and is available on Amazon according to the article; The Adventures of Christopher Hawkins." The family donated the journal to the RW museum in Philadelphia.
I looked this up and it got rave reviews. Isn't that interesting the people found the original journal in their linen closet?
Yes, it was an amazing find!
The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett was kind of interesting & amusing. I gave it 3 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Book club selection for this month is: "The Bookseller" a novel by Cynthia Swanson. Tried this book via Audio and just couldn't do it. I kept cringing. Went to library and picked up a physical book. Read up to page 58.
About a 38yo woman named Kitty who is Katharyn in her dreams. She has 2 lives - one real and one in her dreams. Kind of odd. Found myself getting annoyed when Kitty would say things like I'm dreaming so how could I know where such and such is located or how could I know how to be a Mother when in real life I'm not? It's a dream!!!
Perhaps I need to get past that and see if there is a reason for those statements.
Anyone read this book?
Haven't read the book, Linda. But I've never been a fan of dream sequences.
Think I'll try to read a little more to see where it takes me but seems I may not be a fan of dream sequences either.
Earl wrote: "I like this bookhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The short stories are pretty good, but the main thing is I discovered several that I like are by prolific authors I'd never hear..."
Good short stories are hard to find. Many moons ago I used to read the short stories in Readers' Digest.
Thanks for posting, Earl
Ok. Not going to continue reading "The Bookseller" as its just not for me. Our book club is going to see the movie tomorrow the "Book Club" just for kicks!
Diane (Diane Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, Vivian (Jane Fonda) enjoys her men with no strings attached, Sharon (Candice Bergen) is still working through her decades-old divorce, and Carol's (Mary Steenburgen) marriage is in a slump after 35 years. The lives of these four lifelong friends are turned upside down after reading the infamous "50 Shades of Grey," catapulting them into a series of outrageous life choices.
Release date: May 18, 2018 (USA)
Director: Bill Holderman
Production company: June Pictures
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Screenplay: Bill Holderman, Erin Simms
Producers: Bill Holderman, Erin Simms, Andrew Duncan
Thanks for posting this, Linda. I've seen the commercials about the movie "Book Club". Looks good.Book Club (2018)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6857166/...
"Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading "50 Shades of Grey" in their monthly book club."
PS-Stars: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Club-Dian...
"Four friends' lives are turned upside down to hilarious ends when their book club tackles the infamous "50 Shades of Grey." From discovering new romance to rekindling old flames, they inspire each other to make their next chapter the best chapter.
Nine of us from the book club saw the movie together. Everyone enjoyed the movie - funny - fast moving - good ending. Senior Rate for movie was $10 which I thought was fair - especially since the seats were new. Reclining seats.
However, a bottle of water was $4.99. Snack and drink prices were outrageous.
That was a good group activity, Linda. Glad you enjoyed the movie. It has a great cast.
Nice to enjoy a new movie once in a while.
Book club meets next week to discuss "The Bookseller." Even though I didn't like the movie will be good to hear other perspectives and see who liked the book and why. Not sure what our summer book will be (book club does not meet in July and August simply because the library is on the main street in town and extremely difficult to find parking with all the tourist and summer events).
Linda wrote: "Book club meets next week to discuss "The Bookseller." Even though I didn't like the movie will be good to hear other perspectives and see who liked the book and why. ,,,"The Bookseller BY Cynthia Swanson
Haven't read it but it sounds interesting.
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies was a 5 star read. There wasn't a lot of material that was new to me, but the way the information was put together & presented was masterful. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I came to the same conclusions as they did decades ago when computers were my hobby. After 15 years remodeling, I was barely making a living wage even though I was really good at my job & pretty well paid for the market. An injury forced me to change careers to working with computers where I made more money & benefits immediately. I prove their point that people have to be willing to study hard & make large career moves in the changing economy.
Has anyone read or heard about the "NOT QUITE" SERIES by Catherine Bybee?Or do you know anything about her books?
See the list of her books here:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
For example, Not Quite Dating BY Catherine Bybee
OR Not Quite Mine BY Catherine Bybee
===========================================
BYW, I recently signed up for "Kindle Unlimited" and I downloaded some free samples of the above books.
Here's a link to the FAQ's about "Kindle Unlimited":
See FAQ's here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...
PS-I'm starting to get interested in silly romance stories after being bombarded with so many war stories describing the horrors of wartime.
I haven't read any of her books nor heard of her.
I haven't heard of her, Joy. You might try Penelope Lively's "How It All Began." How one incident leads to so many others. It is an interesting premise and has a good list of characters; not hard to keep track of as there aren't too many. No war stories in this one but does take place in an English village. It wasn't great literary read but still enjoyable to spend time with this story.
Thanks, Jim. I'll give it a try.How It All Began BY Penelope Lively
Meanwhile I'm really enjoying Not Quite Dating by Catherine Bybee. An added bonus is that it includes a free audible narrator while I look at the text. It's almost like an old radio show. The story is cute too.
Not all books have this bonus and the best part is that I didn't have to pay extra for it. It's all part of the Kindle Unlimited for this particular book. I don't know why they make that different allowance, but there it is!
PS-My private notes from 2015 tell me that Nina mentioned Penelope Lively at our group. I made a note of it. Nina said that the author reminds her of Anita Brookner's writing.Here's my 2015 review of How It All Began:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for reminding me about it. I'll keep it in mind.
PS - Unfortunately the Kindle book, How It All Began by Penelope Lively, would cost me $14.99. See the sale price here: https://www.amazon.com/How-It-All-Beg...
I might try borrowing the book from our library one of these days.
Trouble is, I hardly ever go to the library these days because I can read my other Kindle books.Public libraries must be feeling the diminishing number of clients.
Libraries are offering a lot more than just books today. While I don't go into any of mine very often, I download books from them even more often than any other time in the past & I've always been a pretty regular customer.Joy, I don't know if you or Nina would like them, but Christopher Moore is a fun author. I just finished Practical Demonkeeping & gave it a 3 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
You'd need to read the descriptions to see what might tickle you. The first one I read was A Dirty Job which is about Death & I really liked it. Fool is King Lear retold from his Fool's point of view & it's a lot of fun if you remember the play at all. No sex or bad language, just people in the weirdest situations.
My book, "How It All Began," was a birthday hardback so didn't know how expensive it was. The story does go into individual character's lives back and forth so you might not like it if that bothers you.
Nina wrote: "My book, "How It All Began," was a birthday hardback so didn't know how expensive it was. The story does go into individual character's lives back and forth so you might not like it if that bothers..."RE: How It All Began BY Penelope Lively
Nina, sometimes I can deal with time-shifts if they're done well. It all depends on the skill of the writer.
RE: Not Quite Dating BY Catherine BybeeSo far so good with this book. The story is interesting and the characters are likable.
In fact, as I learn more about Jack's personality, I'm automatically seeing him as the actor, Jim Carrey. See his pic here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000120/?...
He has the same appealing smile.
This is the second time I've ever "cast" a character from a book. The last time was when I cast Jack Nicholson as the main character in Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo.
I was disappointed when Paul Newman got the role in the movie.
(I wrote the above in my review of _Not Quite Dating_. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
Just finished, "The Summer Before the War," by Helen Simonson; her second book. The first was very good also; "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." This second book is set in East Sussex in the town of coastal Rye. It shows us what life is like for the citizens of this village in a peaceful time performed before the specter of WWI appears on the horizon somewhat later than 1914 which is the beginning of their last stress free summer. Appealing characters; a bit of War scenes and some parts toward the end are sad but leaves one accepting.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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