Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread.
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Joy H., Group Founder
(last edited Mar 12, 2016 08:50AM)
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Mar 12, 2016 08:49AM
Werner, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. You always explain things so well!
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You're welcome, Joy! (I guess I've gotten practice from having served in a teaching role, in various contexts. :-) )
Werner wrote: "You're welcome, Joy! (I guess I've gotten practice from having served in a teaching role, in various contexts. :-) )"Yes, Werner, I'm sure you are a very good teacher! As an aside, when I first met my husband, one of the things that I noticed was his ability to explain things and his patience in doing so. He also knew a lot about a lot of things. I was a teacher at the time. He was in the business world in the accounting area. (He was an economics major.)
I suggested that he would make a good teacher. So he took courses and got his teaching license by the time we had our first 2 kids (around 1964). That's when he became a teacher and he taught school for the rest of his working years. He was perfect as a teacher.
PS-He's still good at explaining things.
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "I can';t think of anything I ever heard Eddy Arnold sing I didn't like. I especially liked "Hello My Friend," and that could have been our song(my husband's and mine) when he'd meet me..."That is it. I had the wrong singer. When my daughter and grandchildren lived in France I would viist them for a month to six weeks at a time and my husband was still working so couldn't take off that long.
Nina wrote: "That is it. I had the wrong singer. When my daughter and grandchildren lived in France I would viist them for a month to six weeks at a time and my husband was still working so couldn't take off that long."I see, Nina. Glad I found the right song and singer.
You were so lucky to stay in France for so long! What great experiences you've had!
September Morn, too, is lovely. Thanks for posting. Werner do you have trouble with dialects? They were the first to go in my hearing problems and thankfully I can use the subtitles to alleviate that problem. From the time I was around six years old it was discovered I could barely see out of my left eye. I am legally blind in the eye. I can distunguish light from dark and most other things are blurred so mostly I am blind in that eye and I guess I just have compensted as I don't know what it would be like to have vision in both eyes.
Nina wrote: "...From the time I was around six years old it was discovered I could barely see out of my left eye. I am legally blind in the eye. I can distunguish light from dark and most other things are blurred so mostly I am blind in that eye and I guess I just have compensted as I don't know what it would be like to have vision in both eyes. ..."Nina, that is interesting to know. It's so good that you have been able to compensate! You do very well, indeed!
No, Nina, I don't usually have difficulty with understanding dialects and accents, provided I know enough of the vocabulary of the dialect to translate it. If I do have trouble with accents, it's not related to my tone deafness, but to other issues. There was a case back in the 90s, when I was babysitting at my brother-in-law's house, and a guy came around to ask for some "awl." While I was searching the drawers for a long, thin, pointed hole-punching instrument, he suggested that it would be in a can. "Oh!," I said, in a sudden epiphany, you mean oil." "Yeah, awl," he replied....So sorry to hear about your vision problems with the one eye! My mother was blind in one eye from an accident that happened well before I was born, so I can relate. :-(
Joy, that's a wonderful story about Eddie; I can tell that you're justly proud of him!
When I think of all the lives that are affected by a teacher how could you not be proud of yourself and your husband. YES!
Werner, when you mentioned the problem with understanding the "awl" word it reminded of when my daughter and family lived in India and a lady came to the door and my son in law thought she was asking for Irene so he was looking all over the house for someone named Irene and finally found out she was not saying "Irene" but "Ironing." She wished to know if they need any inroning done. You know they had to hang their wash on the roof and one time a monkey stole my grandson's shirt. I wrote a haiku describing this incident and it was published in an international literally magazine. Fun for the grandson to see it.
Some of your family members lead fascinating lives, Nina! :-)
Werner and Nina, I enjoyed your anecdotes about accents.
Nina wrote: "When I think of all the lives that are affected by a teacher how could you not be proud of yourself and your husband. YES!"Nina, in 2011 I found my some of my pupils from 1960 on Facebook! They had been in the 4th & 5th grade classes I taught. What a thrill that was for all of us!
In 2012 one of them wrote the following to me via Facebook:
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"Dearest Joy: From the bottom of my heart I wish you the happiest of birthdays! You have been the greatest influence on me since I was 10 years old...how wonderful to have reconnected with you, and be able to wish you much joy and happiness always! xoxoxo"
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Joy, that is so cool! Congratulations.
Thank you, Werner. Life can be full of surprises... if we wait long enough! LOL
That is awesome, Joy. I ran into my 4th or 5th grade teacher in adulthood. I had stopped by one of our sites, an assisted & independent living facility that was on my way home, to fix a computer problem for the receptionist. I'm sitting there deep in thought, working away on the computer when all of a sudden a voice behind me snaps, "Jimmy, what are you doing?" I jumped out of the chair & said, "Just fixing the computer, Mrs. Rowe!" as if she'd caught me doing something wrong again. LOL! Old habits on both our parts.
Jim wrote: "That is awesome, Joy. I ran into my 4th or 5th grade teacher in adulthood. I had stopped by one of our sites, an assisted & independent living facility that was on my way home, to fix a computer pr..."That's funny, Jim. When I went into office work, I found myself working with a former 4th grade student. I also came across a cop in White Plains who had been a 4th grade student. He recognized me. That was a nice experience.
My sisters live in the same area they taught in. They must meet past students all over the place! LOL
Mob Cop: My Life of Crime in the Chicago Police Department by Fred Pascente was great. Johnny Heller & Sam Reaves did an excellent job bringing Pascente alive in this memoir. If you liked the Sopranos, you'll love this. I gave it 4 stars here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Modern Scholar: Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Major Ecosystems was a series of lectures by John C. Kricher. It was great. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "Mob Cop: My Life of Crime in the Chicago Police Department by Fred Pascente was great. Johnny Heller & Sam Reaves did an excellent job bringing Pascente alive in th..."I never watched the Sopranos. The theme of crime doesn't interest me. Having said that, I DID enjoy the detective books of Lawrence Sanders, for example: The First Deadly Sin. :) A friend had given me a pile of paperbacks by Sanders. I loved them! Which proves that I can be drawn in unexpectedly! LOL
BTW, that friend is now in Heaven. May he RIP. Which proves that if someone gives you a good book, you will remember him forever! :)
Jim wrote: "The Modern Scholar: Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Major Ecosystems was a series of lectures by John C. Kricher. It was great. I gave it a 5 star revie..."I don't usually like non-fiction books unless they are biographies of people who interest me.
Hmmm, perhaps I could be drawn in, unexpectedly? :)
I may be one of the last people on earth to have read Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See," but I was blown away by it. Not only is it a wonderful (if a bit dark) story, but I found the literary gymnastics demonstrated here truly remarkable. Not only does Doerr flip back and forth between four different points of view, he also rotates among three different time periods, then adds a fourth at the end. Somehow, I never got lost. Amazing.
Darrell wrote: "I may be one of the last people on earth to have read Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See," but I was blown away by it. Not only is it a wonderful (if a bit dark) story, but I found the li..."RE: All the Light We Cannot See
See my extensive review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Excerpts from my review:
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"The book seems "fragmented" to me. One chapter is about one character and place. The next chapter skips to an entirely different character and place. Then it goes back to the other place and character. I know that they come together toward the end, but I'm not a fan of that sort of fragmentation."
"Nevertheless I think the story is worth taking a further look at."
""I found the book to be too "wordy" at times. "
"... at times the descriptions got to be just too much! He sets a haunting atmosphere but the over-abundance of words got in my way. Otherwise, it's a compelling plot.
All that skipping around (time-shifts/place shifts) back and forth bothered me at times. 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 (view spoiler)
Also, the horrors of war were hard to take."
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "When I think of all the lives that are affected by a teacher how could you not be proud of yourself and your husband. YES!"Nina, in 2011 I found my some of my pupils from 1960 on Fac..."Joy, what a treasure/keepsake.
I really was impressed with "The LIght You Cannot See." as I loved the setting in the museum and the radio segments seemed amazing to me. I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending. I felt he should have stopped earlier and made it different. Seemed like an add on to me.
Joy back to the Regans'; I read this morning that the only ones at the wedding were Bill Holden and his wife and they were having a huge argument at that time. Doesn't sound wonderful to me.
Nina wrote: "Joy, I have forgotten what you taught."Nina, I taught mostly 4th grade but also some 5th grade.
Nina wrote: "Joy back to the Regans'; I read this morning that the only ones at the wedding were Bill Holden and his wife and they were having a huge argument at that time. Doesn't sound wonderful to me."Nina, I don't know anything about the Reagan's wedding. I do remember seeing somewhere that she said (about her falling in love with him), the fact that he was good-looking didn't hurt. :)
Ronald Reagan also had a good sense of humor. So he must have been easy to be with. He wrote some beautiful letters to Nancy. Seems he was talented with words. She probably thrived on his affection.
I think he came to depend on her more and more because she was a strong person. They say he hated firing people which shows his soft side.
I suppose people are still trying to figure out what the attraction was between them since it seemed so unusually strong. I suppose it was a good combination of qualities... a good match. One fulfilled the needs of the other.
Joy, about your review of "All the Light We Cannot See," that's one of the things that fascinates me about books -- they strike different people in different ways. No piece of writing can please everyone.
Darrell, you are SO right! I often wonder makes us each so different in our reading tastes. I know there has to be many reasons but I sometimes wish I could appreciate what others appreciate.
Not to worry -- it's the same with movies, TV shows, music, art and every other creative endeavor. I do agree with you, though, that Doerr's book was a bit wordy in spots, like so many these days. I borrowed "City on Fire," by Garth Hallberg, on my Kindle, then realized it was 944 pages long. For a novel! And I only had 14 days to read it (I failed). One irony of the business, I think, is that the more successful you become, the less you get meaningfully edited.
Darrell, it's a good thing I was never a book editor. I probably would have edited out half of Shakespeare's work! :) I DEFINITELY would have rejected the entire One Hundred Years of Solitude! LOLSee my review of the latter at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As a long-time journalist, I'm very conscious about not overwriting. The book I just came out with, "Inspiration Street" (non-fiction) is only 166 pages. It looks kind of small, but I said everything I felt I needed to say.
Darrell wrote: "As a long-time journalist, I'm very conscious about not overwriting. The book I just came out with, "Inspiration Street" (non-fiction) is only 166 pages. It looks kind of small, but I said everythi..."Darrell, can you provide us with a link to something about the book, especially a Goodreads link?
I am having trouble as this is a new format. Is anyone else having this type on their good reads?
No trouble here, Nina. Hope you will be able to deal with the new format. Is the new format yours or Goodreads?
It's probably Goodreads. They've been rolling out changes. I'm not fond of the new look, either. This time, just my top line changed, but last time it changed the font & made it much more difficult to see. I feel like GR is trying to make the desktop view more like a mobile app which irks me to no end. Microsoft keeps doing that with their operating system except they want to look more like a tablet or MAC. It's silly & just wastes my time. I'm not using it because of how it looks. I actually want to get things done.:(
Since I don't navigate around much on Goodreads, I guess I don't notice some of the changes.
Joy H. wrote: "Since I don't navigate around much on Goodreads, I guess I don't notice some of the changes."The principal change that I've noticed is that the link to your "home" page is no longer "home," but has been changed to "goodreads." And to my knowledge they never explained the change to anybody (though maybe they did, and I missed it); I had to learn the new link from browsing in the Feedback group. The other changes appear to be more cosmetic than substantive, but instead of improving the look they tend to do the opposite, IMO. Coupled with the font change (for which there's only a partial fix), the net effect is a good deal of irritation, all for no useful purpose that I personally can see.
Werner wrote: ",,,Coupled with the font change (for which there's only a partial fix), the net effect is a good deal of irritation, all for no useful purpose that I personally can see."I agree, Werner. It seems to be "change for the sake of change". They have nothing better to do! lol
Is anyone able to read my postings? I am having trouble today. Thanks for looking. nina
I was able to read both of your posts just now, Nina.
Nina wrote: "Is anyone able to read my postings? I am having trouble today. Thanks for looking. nina"Yes, Nina, your posts are coming in fine.
The Revisionists is the first book I've read by Thomas Mullen & now I'm going to look for more. Wow! It's a SF-mystery-thriller wrapped in a really thoughtful package that still has me thinking about it. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "The Revisionists is the first book I've read by Thomas Mullen & now I'm going to look for more. Wow! It's a SF-mystery-thriller wrapped in a really thoughtful package..."Sounds like really good one, Jim! It's always a pleasure to find a book that really appeals! How did you find it?
Right now I'm reading some short stories by Agatha Christie. One of the short stories is "Three Blind Mice and Other Stories". I think it's related to the later "And then there were none" or "Ten Little Indians" Not sure.
PS-At least the book keeps my attention. :)
Thanks for replying Werner. These new arrangements are somewhat confusing to me. Also, my husband it seems has not given up the idea of me getting a new computer so wish me luck.
Hang in there, Nina! Definitely wishing you luck.
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