Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
General Chit Chat
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Koren
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Jun 14, 2020 06:54PM
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haha yes...online church meant several shots of pastor's office and it seems he enjoys crime novels...
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That's hilarious!
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How do you celebrate it Koren?Just wondering.
We have Waitangi Day in NZ but there doesn't seem to be a special way of celebrating it. I wish we did things like have a hangi or bbq and maybe some fireworks and decorate our houses or something, but we don't.
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Selina wrote: "How do you celebrate it Koren?Just wondering.
We have Waitangi Day in NZ but there doesn't seem to be a special way of celebrating it. I wish we did things like have a hangi or bbq and maybe some ..."
Selina, what does hangi mean?
With all the talk of true crime at this group lately, this is how Los Angeles celebrated Independence Day this year after the city banned all fireworks:
https://youtu.be/tIvdcdogC6k
Wow cool. Was that from people's backyards? Hangi is a traditional earth oven way of cooking the Maori used. You dig a pit and cover everything with stones and earth to cook for several hours.
We do have fireworks but for Guy Fawkes day on November 5 and they are only allowed to be sold 2 weeks prior to people over 14. Sadly some people do abuse them, sky rockets and bangers were banned several years ago. People are encouraged to go and see public displays.
On New Years day and Diwali, and sometimes Chinese New Year there are also public fireworks displays.
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Hangi is a traditional earth oven way of cooking the Maori used. You dig a pit and cover everything with stones and earth to cook for several hours.
..."
I believe you are having winter right now, right? Arent you the opposite of the Americas? We had 90 degrees on 'the Fourth'. How cold do you get in the winter?
Yes its winter, we have our Maori New Year aka Matariki so its just gone past the shortest day. It can get down to -5 degrees celsius (don't know what that is in Fahrenheit) but Auckland rarely gets snow.
Koren wrote: "With the proliferation of TV interviews being televised from someone's home, or at least that is what the back drop looks like, many times the interviewee is posing in front of their home library. ..."HA HA at my last church session they advised us to 'be aware of what's behind us'.
You can have fake backgrounds like they do on the tv news. The reporter pretends to be at the scene of the action when really they have just superimposed the images on a green screen.
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True, but I still want to see what books are behind them.
Selina wrote: "Wow cool. Was that from people's backyards? Hangi is a traditional earth oven way of cooking the Maori used. You dig a pit and cover everything with stones and earth to cook for several hours.
..."
I think it's interesting that Kiwis celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, but Canadians don't. I can understand why Americans don't celebrate it, though. But I am an expat, so live in the States (because I married an American and he didn't want to move that far from his mother--we don't live too close, about a 4 and a half hour drive).
There the churches I know have been livestreaming from the actual building but with very few people there, so we haven't been able to peruse any bookshelves. That would be distracting! Now churches here can be open with social distancing, masks and no more than at 40 percent capacity. Rows are roped off, etc, etc.
Selina wrote: "Do Canadians have Pancake Day?"I don't remember ever having one, but it's a very large country and it's possible some area just might or that it's started since I got married and moved to the States. After all, there wasn't even a territory called Nunavit yet, and it's been around 21 years this year.
Koren wrote: "True, but I still want to see what books are behind them."You can probably guess what books are behind me.
I got 6 right! I thought Memoirs of A Geisha was fictional. Still was a great read!
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https://www.goodreads.com/quizzes/113...
I challenge you!"
That was fun! And hard! I only got 6 out of 10. I have never seen where we can make a quiz. Hope you make more quizzes.
You can make a quiz here https://www.goodreads.com/quizzes/newhmm I will see if I can make another one...*racks brains*
wonder if this will work...
Selina wrote: "wonder if this will work...Goodreads Quiz
I didn't do very well on this one but it was fun!
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Goodreads Quiz
Bio, Memoir and Autobiography Quiz take 2
taken
1 time
10 questions
take quiz
"
Thanks. I will try to create one sometime. It wont be this week. I got 6 out of 10 again on the second quiz. Fun! Selina, next time if you would like to start a new discussion thread it will be easier to find.
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "wonder if this will work...Goodreads Quiz
Bio, Memoir and Autobiography Quiz take 2
taken
1 time
10 questions
take quiz
"
Thanks. I will try to create one sometime. It wo..."
I couldn't figure out how to make another thread Koren it seemed like Goodreads was blocking me if I didn't choose a specific book to discuss.
You can hopefully find all the quizzes I've created on this link.Goodreads doesn't make them that easy to find or share.
https://www.goodreads.com/quizzes/by_...
I was surprised to get a thumbs up from Christian Picciolini for my review of his memoir, White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out. Decided to "follow" him.
I'm a bit slack with posting my reviews but I do try and post them for books that don't have very many reviews on Goodreads.
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Koren wrote: "The United States of America has a new president and our first ever female vice president!"wow I heard it from you first Koren!
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wow I heard it from you first Koren!"
I posted it as soon as I heard about it
I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published three years posthumously and was originally a dissertation. I have no idea how I'll rate it, because it's not fair to expect it to read more like a layperson's novel or literary nonfiction when that wasn't how it was written, but some parts are just so very boring. I'm not talking so much about the musical discussions where it gets into stuff it helps to know about classical music for (or just general music, even, but some of it is very much the classical tradition even if it is mixed with other things).This isn't the first time I have felt mixed about it--where the person being written about is amazing and I think everyone should know about them and so should read the book, but where I am not in love with the writing (and people can always skip those sections). Is this just me, or have any of you also felt this way?
Karin wrote: "I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published three years posthumously and ..."Yes, a few times. I thought a bio on Roald Dahl was a bit boring, which is crazy because he's such a brilliant writer and interesting personality, but the biographer just got so bogged down in details that he was missing the wood for the trees.
If it's someone's first book sometimes you can excuse it and hope they may do better next time. Also some biographies can verge on fan-fic and don't really give an objective view of the person.
Academic treatises are never really meant for general readers anyway. In academia, you are expected to follow up on every footnote in the biography, and have read or referenced all the books or in the bibliography. Most of them end up regurgitating what's already been written somewhere else, and just put it all in a timeline. It's a bit lazy.
Karin wrote: "I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published three years posthumously and ..."I too felt like if I started a book I should finish reading it. But now, I would just chuck it and go on to the next book. Too many books, too little time!
Thanks. I ended up giving it 4 stars because I decided that in this case I really want people to learn about this amazing composer, and the author (it turns out, I read at the end, and this is one of the things I dislike about Kindle because I have an older one and can't just go to any page I like) that she was working on it as a book but died first, etc, etc. There is nothing bad about the writing, and I think part of the problem is that, for me, not all books are good on Kindle.
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I have seen that many times when reading about a movie star or musician and they spend way too much time talking about individual movies or songs.
Koren wrote: "Karin wrote: "I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published three years pos..."Right. In this case, the author was a musicology professor, which was her major when she found the first scores at Yale, so I guess she didn't know how to write for a general audience.
I am mostly interested in promoting great music by women composers and ought to start listening to Clara Schumann's music--here is one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsPEM... - this concert pianist (her brother played the cello at Megan Markle's royal wedding to Harry) travels the world performing Clara Schuann's works, plus Mahler' wife composed. I am not fond of a lot of the kinds of things that came out in the latter part of the 20th century and on (I have had to sit through this in my son's concerts, plus of course my cousin was a composition major doing a grad degree while I was doing a non-Music Bachelor's), but that school did avante garde which is even harder to get through, and he was the only student who was world class level and it's too bad he didn't go for writing music accessible to audiences).
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Koren wrote: "Karin wrote: "I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published three years pos..."But if it's by Dolly Parton, who does write her own brilliant songs, and lyrics, its forgiveable.
btw Happy 2021!Customer came to the shop and complained the large print calendar he bought for 2021 still had 2020 inside. We checked and sure enough all of them had 2020. Had to pull them all off the shelves!
What a gyp! Nobody wants to relive that year again lol.
Selina wrote: "Koren wrote: "Karin wrote: "I am in a conundrum. I am reading a biography about a brilliant but, for a long time largely forgotten, composer. Her music is lovely, but this biography was published t..."I am not a huge Dolly Parton fan, but she has written some great songs, such as Jolene. Love that song! I particularly love it sung by The Petersens, but also how Dolly sings it. It's ironic that Jolene wasn't even a real threat, but she wrote a brilliant song that millions can relate to out if the situation.
Today, January 17th, 2021 is Betty White's 99th birthday. She has been in show business for 80 years, the longest career in the industry ever.
Selina wrote: "btw Happy 2021!Customer came to the shop and complained the large print calendar he bought for 2021 still had 2020 inside. We checked and sure enough all of them had 2020. Had to pull them all of..."
But what a creepy souvenir.
Fishface wrote: "Today, January 17th, 2021 is Betty White's 99th birthday. She has been in show business for 80 years, the longest career in the industry ever."I'll bet--certainly in recorded entertainment history that I know of. It would be hard to match this for anyone.
Wow the Golden Girl.Cliff Richard has written another memoir. Debating whether to put on my list. I've read some previous ones where he wrote about his faith.
The Dreamer: An Autobiography. He must be getting on a bit.
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https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Roc...
There are two other books on Goodreads that have the same title but different authors and they are not the same book. The book I added to my profile page here is not the right book but I added it so I could keep my Goodreads count accurate. Any ideas?
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Koren wrote: "I was able to figure out the problem from another group. There is something that isn't working in the 'search' feature both at the top of the page and in the 'add book/author feature. If you search..."Yes, the add book/author has not been working well even with exact title, etc. This started yesterday, but if you search via a search engine you can probably find it that way and mark it read. I have been doing this today, and have done it in the past if I don't remember a title correctly. This is good if you are looking for a book that doesn't have an ISBN number because it was published before they were given, etc.
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Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
Small Fry: A Memoir (other topics)The Watergate: Inside America's Most Infamous Address (other topics)
Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood (other topics)
Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood (other topics)
Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gina LaManna (other topics)Christian Picciolini (other topics)
