Socializing III Showing 1,751-1,800 of 1,957

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I have just seen that Pulitzer winner Shirley Ann Grau died earlier this month.

[Rebekah]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I have just seen that Pulitzer winner Shirley Ann Grau died earlier this month."

I set myself a challenge about 10 years ago to read all the Pulitzer Prizes for fiction, some I liked, some ok, some I hated. Her The Keepers of the House was one I really enjoyed.

[Rebekah]

Elizabeth, could we please have a thread for reading plans for the Fall 2020 challenge? I’ve gotten lazy and that’s become my way to plan. Thank you! Great job you all have been doing! Missed you all!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Rebekah wrote: "Elizabeth, could we please have a thread for reading plans for the Fall 2020 challenge? I’ve gotten lazy and that’s become my way to plan. Thank you! Great job you all have been doing! Missed you all!"

Yes - done!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

In the completed tasks thread Anika wrote: "I am not used to looking for combos after the straightforward Summer season :-D Also: I'm so glad to get new books from the library and not be limited to what I have on hand, especially audiobooks--I have so many projects requiring my attention and I'm so happy to be able to listen to a book while I work on them :-) Phew! Happy Fall!!"

Just the other day I remarked to myself how not having combos has become routine and that I hope I remember what I'm supposed to do, score keeping-wise. Library books too!

[Ed]

I saw Ann's review of a book she posted for the group project for New Caledonia.... and the passage she posted in amazingly appalling. I'm in a similar quandary....reading a book I got off Kindle free......although not racist like Ann's book..... my book seems like a 4th grade history report written in Italian....and then put through a 3rd rate online language translator....to emerge as a completely unedited mess of nearly indecipherable word vomit.

[Valerie]

Ed wrote: "I saw Ann's review of a book she posted for the group project for New Caledonia.... and the passage she posted in amazingly appalling. I'm in a similar quandary....reading a book I got off Kindle f..."

OMG - between your and Ann's experiences I just have to laugh. I'm reading a competently written book right now. After Ann's review I was nervous going into it. Now with your added comment I hold 'competent' in high esteem! ha, ha....

[Ed]

Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I saw Ann's review of a book she posted for the group project for New Caledonia.... and the passage she posted in amazingly appalling. I'm in a similar quandary....reading a book I got o..."

LOL

[Ann]

I saw that Miss Benson’s Beetle would have ticked the New Caledonia box too, but it was expensive as an ebook ($13) and not available in my library. So I went with the $.99, thinking It might be unpolished, but how bad can it be?

That will teach me! At least my next book was more than competently written... I actually enjoyed it.

[Bea]

Here I am trying to read more of the books I own...and make my way through the Wishlist TBR on GR...and I read reviews in the Completed Thread. Dang! Just added to more to the wishlist.

[Bea]

Congrats, Valerie, on winning the gift card. Now to decide what book you want!

[Anika]

Congrats, Valerie! New books for you! <3

[Karen Michele]

Yay, Valerie! Congratulations!

[Denise]

Have fun shopping, Valerie!

[Connie]

Congratulations, Valerie! Enjoy the gift card!

[Valerie]

Hey thanks all! I just sat down for a minute in the midst of canning tomato sauce and saw Elizabeth's message! I already have a book in mind.....

[Tien]

Congrats, Valerie!! Wow it's great that you already have a book in mind :)

It's taken me 3 months to decide & I've just placed an order and yet, they are both pre-orders!! lol

Little Jiang -one I can read aloud to my boys plus supporting local poc author :)
The Burning God (The Poppy War #3)

Thanks again, mods, for my gift card xo

[Valerie]

I liked your review of The Portrait, Elizabeth. Especially this:

'Pears needed to get his story told - and told brilliantly. I'm rambling myself here, trying to decide whether this is worth 5-stars. I so want it to be, but I'm afraid it just doesn't quite make the leap over that line. '

It did make the leap to 5* for me. Two years later, I don't remember the details but I do remember the intensity of the book. (I'll add that I have a bad memory and read a lot, so I figure if I remember how I felt it must have been either very good or very bad!)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Thank you, Valerie. I might be wrong about that last star.

[Valerie]

This made me laugh....

I was looking at the GR entries for the other two Jaden Skye novellas I have on my list (I just posted my review of the one I read last night) to see if I still want to read them. Anyhow, I came across this comment in someone else's review:

'I have to say Jaden Skye is persistent, if not a very good writer. Who read the previous nine crappy books (if they were as bad as this one)?......."

[Kathleen (itpdx)]

In the completed thread Anika wrote: Sorry to dump these all at once: we had a giant wind storm here two weeks ago—hurricane-force winds (120+ mph), which is not normal for this area! We had three 80-foot trees in our back yard blow over, taking out the power and cable lines (and the neighbor’s fence). It took eight days to get power and we JUST got our internet hooked back up!
Oh my, Anika, I am glad you are OK. That is along time to be without power!
Was that the same Labor Day storm that blew up the fires here in Oregon?

[Anika]

Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "In the completed thread Anika wrote: Sorry to dump these all at once: we had a giant wind storm here two weeks ago—hurricane-force winds (120+ mph), which is not normal for this area! We had three ..."

Kathleen, it *had* to have been the same storm...it blew up Monday (Labor Day) night and all the damage was done between 5 and 7 a.m. Tuesday morning...the power outage wasn't the worst of it (we have a gas stove to cook on, all our food was in our camping coolers, and we have a wood-burning stove for the 40-degree mornings we had), it was the tree clean-up (that's my sister in the pic, she's 5'6" for scale). Our back yard looks like a lumber yard with the amount of tree rounds and sawdust that's back there and the neighbor's dogs are in our back yard all the time now since the fence was decimated and has yet to be fixed...
Hope you're faring well in Oregon! Every time I hear the news about the fires decimating the West Coast, my heart breaks...it's was one of the most beautiful regions of this country, all ash and rubble now :'-(

[Bea]

Anika, so very glad you are alright. Sounds like you are well on the way to getting things back on track around your home.

Kathleen, please be safe out there. Fire is one of my fears...and loves. A good fire in a fire pit is beautiful, but running wild over the earth...very scary.

[Kathleen (itpdx)]

Anika wrote: "Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "In the completed thread Anika wrote: Sorry to dump these all at once: we had a giant wind storm here two weeks ago—hurricane-force winds (120+ mph), which is not normal for..."
Fortunately it isn't all ash and rubble. Just heard an assessment of the state parks. A couple have sustained fire damage and a lot of trees are down in others, which is actually common in our winter storms. So that is not bad. The US Forest Service is only focused on containing the fires for now. But the Federal Forests are where most of the fires burned and it will be awhile before we get assessments there.
The number of homes that have been lost is heart-breaking. Nine lives were lost and five people are still missing, which is actually amazingly low considering how fast and hot those fires were.
I am glad you are safe. And that the trees fell away from your house. It sounds like you will have plenty of firewood for your wood stove.

[Karen Michele]

Kathleen and all others going through weather and fire issues, I’m thinking of you. My sister and brother in law live in Medford and good friends of theirs and ours lost their home. I can’t believe the pictures of Phoenix Talent where my sister-in- law taught — it’s just disappeared! Take care all.

[Ed]

Good vibes being sent to all those dealing with these hard times. My best friend's sister also lost her home to the fires in Northern California. So sad.

[Denise]

Argh. I have been unable since yesterday to edit any of my posts. I get the "There was a problem saving your comment" error message. I have signed out and back in, still won't work, and it is doing that on multiple devices. Is anyone else having this problem?

Also, is there a place on GR where current bugs are listed?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

There is not a place that I know about. I am hoping they know about this Denise. I was getting it too, but have not yet reported it.

[Denise]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "There is not a place that I know about. I am hoping they know about this Denise. I was getting it too, but have not yet reported it."

Thanks Elizabeth, I was worried it was just me. Hopefully they will get it fixed soon.

[Karen Michele]

Another of my groups was posting about this problem, too.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I did email support. Hard to tell when they might respond.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Wow! Fast response time from support! Here is what they said:

Thank you for taking the time to write in about this! Our developers are aware of users not being able to edit comments and are working on fixing it. While I don't have a firm date for the fix, this bug is prioritized in our development team's backlog – we know how important it is to have such functionality working and hope to fix this soon. I've added your report to the developer ticket and I'll let you know once it's been resolved

[Denise]

Great! I wasn't even sure how to contact someone. I miss the GR Feedback Group, and don't find the Help section all that helpful. Thanks for checking in to this, Elizabeth.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I mentioned to them once that the new "help" section isn't organized very well, but honestly I'm not sure what to suggest. It seems designed for members who don't know anything, rather than for those who are more familiar with the site.

[Denise]

That is my impression too. The discontinued GR Feedback group is on my list of things I really miss, along with Most Read Authors.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Denise wrote: "I wasn't even sure how to contact someone.."

There are two ways. There is a "Contact Us" link on the About Us Page (link bottom of every page). I prefer to use email so I have a copy of what I've reported, and I sent it to support at goodreads dot com.

[Denise]

Okay, thank you! I missed that somehow.

[Denise]

Editing is working again, yay!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

That was quick!

[Denise]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "That was quick!"

Yes it was, yay for the GR staff!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Goodreads is testing a new book page. They are asking for feedback via the Beta button on the format. I hope each of you will give feedback. Personally, I think the new format is an abomination, and doesn't give much information at a time. But you all know I have strong opinions and maybe you don't agree. But they need to hear from you.

[Rosemary]

How do we see the new version?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Rosemary wrote: "How do we see the new version?"

Since I posted, I've learned that not all members see the Beta. I think just now they're testing only some members, and, frankly, I don't understand that attitude.

Basically, I can tell you that they have moved the cover further to the left and it is huge, absolutely huge. Consequently, it pushes other information down the page. And they've lost a lot of information. What we use for the Main Page Genre is no longer there - there are genres, but no number of members for example. There is no Readers Also Enjoyed section. The short author blurb on the right panel is now in the main section. The ratings are "below the fold". Reviews are messed up - I think they may be displaying only those for a specific edition, but I'm not positive of that.

Anyway, it's obviously just Beta, but I have written to Support complaining that they want to change the wonderfully useful book page in such a drastic manner.

[Denise]

None of these changes sound good. I am not seeing the new page yet and hope I never do. If it isn't broken...don't fix it.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I first saw it when I was doing some work adding books to the database prior to Kate's scoring. Change is always hard, but my first thought was that this would make adding books to the database more difficult.

[Denise]

It sure sounds like it would make everything harder, maybe even task writing, if so much information is gone. I understand websites like to freshen their look from time to time, and being an older person I like things to stay the same once I get them figured out, but these changes sound drastic. Since they are asking for feedback, maybe there is hope that the pages won't get totally upended.

[Kathleen (itpdx)]

I don't see a "beta" button either.
I wonder if they are trying to adapt to the app, which I tried once and deleted immediately because it was so poor. Some of the things you are talking about fit with that model.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "I don't see a "beta" button either.
I wonder if they are trying to adapt to the app, which I tried once and deleted immediately because it was so poor. Some of the things you are talking about fit ..."

I wondered about that.

[Rosemary]

Grrrr.... Where is the logic in making a good website harmonize with a bad app? They should surely be improving the app...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Rosemary wrote: "Grrrr.... Where is the logic in making a good website harmonize with a bad app? They should surely be improving the app..."

My thought exactly!