Go Fug Yourself Book Club discussion
Not about books
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Bonnie G.
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Jun 25, 2019 10:40AM
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Bonnie G. wrote: "i adore Pollack. There is a room in Moma (or there was before the current renovation) where I have spent hour immersed. His work is so visceral. Sadly I don't like the work of any of the enumerated..."I've never been a Pollack fan, over the years I've realized colour is really important to me in art! But it is really interesting learning about him and everyone else. Especially Helen Frankenthaler- when I worked the front desk at a museum, I got to meet her and she was so nice. I would say with the exception of Dale Chihuily, she was the nicest I dealt with. And he became big and famous soon afterwards so he might not still be as nice.
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Bonnie G. wrote: "I have heard he is nice from people who knew him only after fame. I have only met his glass, which is certainly pretty."That is good to hear. So few artists even acknowledged us front desk/ shop people even though when setting up an exhibit they would pass us 100x a day. There was one who tried to boss us around- that was rude. But Dale would always say hello or stop to chat or drop off treats and when the exhibit was in, he stayed late and took us all through it when we were done with work, giving us great detail on everything. So nice! I still want to see one of his garden installations, I never have.
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Bonnie G. wrote: "https://atlantabg.org/plan-your-visit... This should get you to Atlanta :)"Plus my evil aunt (we all have that aunt or uncle these days) lives in Atlanta and has cut the family off. Let her see I'm in her city! Ha!
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So this is kind of About Books but I didn't see another obvious place to chat about it...Has anyone else seen the trailer for the Goldfinch movie? I read the book several years back, and when I saw the trailer I thought for a minute it was a horror movie, and then I had to look back at GR to remember what the plot was. It just seems so off! I'm not much of a movie-goer, so if anything I'll probably end up Redbox-ing it later, but I'm curious what ya'll thought.
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Has anyone else seen the trailer for the Goldfinch movie? I read the book several years back, and when I s..."
I did. I loved the book, I know many did not. I do not understand why this of all books did not get a 6 or 8 part Netflix treatment instead of cramming an 800 page book full of nuance into a couple of hours at the multiplex. The way they did that was to essentially eliminate the first half of the book, (including hte bombing!!) and make it about Theo fitting in with the rich family (forgot their name.) It seems...ill-advised. I think I will skip it.
Bonnie G. wrote: "Allie wrote: "So this is kind of About Books but I didn't see another obvious place to chat about it...Has anyone else seen the trailer for the Goldfinch movie? I read the book several years back..."
But I liked the first part! I thought the Vegas part was too draggy....
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"It was the same after 911, there was that hum in the air. Everyone everywhere talking about the same thing. In stores, in restaurants, on the subway. My friend met me at the diner for coffee. His family fled Iran one week before the Shah fell. He didn't want to talk about the hum. I pressed him though. Your people have finally fallen into history, he said. The rest of us are already here."
Stay safe, wash your hands.
Bonnie G. wrote: "I am coincidentally listening to a book set at the end of the world in NYC, a slow death by global warming. (Truly coincidental, I have had it on hold for a couple months.) This line just chilled m..."Wow...
The library hold roulette wheel has given me Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. First I have 38 hours of The Mirror & The Light to go.
Stay safe everyone and read some good books!
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LOL, well that is on the nose! I am reading Weather and it is excellent, but I could have used something a touch more escapist after 2 days locked in my apartment and the mayor announcing we should expect a Shelter in Place order within the next 48 hours. How is The Mirror & the Light? It is coming up on my library queue soon --I got in really early on the pre-release reserve.
Station Eleven is going cheap on kindle at the moment - but is that *really* what people want to read now? Although all the "Oh it's a lot of fuss about nothing" types probably should!
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Station Eleven is such a wonderful book, and this week I cannot stop thinking about it. New York is a stranger to me these days, streets are empty and eyes downcast. The forced physical distance has manifested in a complete emotional/social reserve as well. All the interactions of dystopia I have read so far differ greatly from the reality, which is both more emotionally taxing and more mundane than I could have imagined.
More emotionally taxing and more mundane is a good way to phrase it!
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Hope you are staying healthy. Do you have any cases in your town? NYC is hit hard. Mounting numbers, but probably at least in part because there were no tests to be had so earlier people were not being counted. My son was trapped in Serbia (got him out Sunday) and my sister is trapped in Morocco, which has sealed its borders and banned all flights. She is sitting on the tarmac on a humanitarian flight as I type. Hopefully they will let them take off. Really, truly, this is madness.
Hi all! I am glad I got a notification that this thread had some posts - even though I don't know any of you, keeping in touch online (both here and GFY) is helping me a lot. And for the first time ever, I'm not mad that I had 10 library books come in all at once! Silver linings, right :)(Our libraries are now closed, and I have to appreciate how well I think my state and local leaders have handled thing thus far - it is a joy to trust in them so completely. I'm super grateful for their leadership and hope the same is true wherever you live.)
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Our libraries are closed as well, but digital collections are available and both the NYPL and Queens Library systems have doubled the number of books you can take out at once. I am working like a madwoman, so my reading time has not increased yet, but soon it will because my social life is officially dead.
Everything is closed here (as it should be) other than medical providers, grocery stores, and gas stations (I am not even sure how far I would have to go to find a gas station -- I own a car but almost never drive so I fill up every couple of months when I visit friends in the suburbs.)
What did the pioneers do for fun?! Expecting a baby boom starting in January 2021. For my part I may jump into some big hefty books I don't usually have time for. I am finishing two short and very very good books. Next up I think is The Testaments since it came in to the library, but life might be dystopian enough for me and I might pivot. Let us know if you come across any great books. I am reading the rather dystopian Weather and Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest which is a must if you have an interest in hip hop history and culture. It is brilliant.
We've got a couple of confirmed cases in Bedford, but as the government has decided only to test people who are sick enough to be hospitalised, that is almost certainly woefully underreporting. My husband is working from home for the duration, so he has his usual "I have downtime so I am going to get sick" cold. It's exactly the same as every cold he has had every Christmas for the last 15 years, but I still flinch every time he coughs!
We're planning to attempt some wallpapering, if we can buy the bits online.
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M..."
These limits on testing is maddening. It seems to me that to combat this we should be testing everyone possible. Many people are asymptomatic, or it manifests with minor symptoms. If we could test people and sequester them we could cut down on exposure. I have no patience with this! I know it takes resources to run the test kits, but cell culture is very basic work - there are a lot of people who could be deployed. (Stepping off my high horse - its a long way to the ground from here.)
Hope your hub feels better soon, He needs to be at his best for effective wallpapering.
Alicia wrote: "My husband is working from home for the duration, so he has his usual "I have downtime so I am going to get sick" cold. It's exactly the same as every cold he has had every Christmas for the last 15 years, but I still flinch every time he coughs!.."I'm waving to your husband= I'm another get sick when you stop person. When I was college and grad school, my mom never made plans for the first week I was home. At my last job they laughed when I put 3 sick days on the calendar as soon as we planned a major event, cause I knew I would get sick the second it was over.
I just found out I got an apartment (major achievement here on Cape Cod- there is very little affordable year round housing) and I've come down with a migraine!
Bonnie G. wrote: "I think we all appreciate the opportunity to come together. We are a community, especially those of us who comment regularly. This is scary. We got my sister out of Morocco with help from many peop..."Happy the sister got out- I love Morocco but not sure I would want to be sick there!
If you have a car and need gas, go get it! The prices have been plummeting. I've not left the house since Tuesday but have to go drop off my security deposit for the new place so will get gas tomorrow.
I am personally amazed at how much time I can waste. Despite working from home, I've gotten like an hour of work done. Not much reading or knitting done. Have passed a large number of levels on candy crush. And so much pacing! I have so much energy but it's also been raining (apparently on the mainland it is 70 and beautiful but we're at the ocean's mercy so have cold and rain) . I guess I should start packing,
*waves excitedly* We've been going for walks so we don't go stir crazy (as much), but both hubs and I are working from home, so I'm not getting as much reading done as I would like either. Maybe more this weekend. We're also on the other side of the country from all of our family, which sucks, but I'm Facetiming and calling people as much as I can because extroverts gotta extrovert.Bonnie, did your sister make it back to the U.S.?
I agree that testing has been DISMAL. Allegedly our area hasn't had an official case yet, but I'm like, how do we know that if people are hardly being tested?
Allie wrote: "*waves excitedly* We've been going for walks so we don't go stir crazy (as much), but both hubs and I are working from home, so I'm not getting as much reading done as I would like either. Maybe mo..."I'm so obsessed with waving! I keep doing waving gifs on Facebook!
Should I mention I knocked over a water glass the other day on my "desk" onto my phone and although the phone is ok, the camera, not so much.
Imagine if we had had testing before?? Or if we could get them up and going so people can plan with knowledge.
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I don't know what we would have done if we had not had a few connections, and if people who knew our connections but did not know us intervened. The State Department was less than no help, they were not being given information from DC. Many others intervened, including the CEO of a Fortune 50 company with concerns in Morocco (a client of my brother's) who took his valuable time to push for my sister to get on a plane despite having plenty of emergencies of his own. So incredibly grateful! This week has really brought home how important family is, especially right now, so tomorrow I am going to flee NYC and head to ATL for at least the next month. There I have a 5 bedroom house and a backyard instead of a 1 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. Also my son wants to head there (we love each other, but the one bedroom is getting cramped after a week) and my sister is back as well. Also I can drive E back, and not put him on a plane. Note: my sister and my son both reentered the country in the last week and there was no screening.
Didn't know you were moving Pamela. What timing! Hope it goes smoothly. is it nearby? What a weird time to pull up stakes, but you will have lots of time to work on settling in, so that is good. Too bad you can't take before and after pictures :) Hope the phone gets fixed soon.
A friend of mine in Ireland almost certainly has it but even there, where they are testing quite a lot she hasn't been able to get a test. It sounds completely grim and she's a 30-something woman in good health.
Bonnie G. wrote: Didn't know you were moving Pamela. What timing! Hope it goes smoothly. is it nearby? What a weird time to pull up stakes, but you will have lots of time to work on settling in, so that is good. Too bad you can't take before and after pictures :) Hope the phone gets fixed soon."My lease is up June 1 because the landlord is putting the house on the market so he said whenever I can find something. The rental market here make's NYC's wide open. And every place is so strange. So grabbed this one. Hoping I can move April 10- today's job is contacting moving companies although I just want to finish my book!
Happy your sister got out! (was she on a Gate 1 trip? I always consider booking through them but the deals seem too good). I have a friend at the State Department who was on work travel in Vienna and she got no guidance, help, anything either. That department has been so gutted, as have the others, and I think we're being shown why the federal government matters in all this.
Good idea heading down- plus the weather will be better. My brother invited me to quarantine with them but I decided it would stress me out too much. Stuck with a teen-ager who only wants to be with her friends? I figure if this goes on too long I'll have that option. My parents are staying in Florida for the time being cause here they live in a continuing care facility and mom says they're all on lock-down, the gym and pool are closed, and meals are being delivered to your apartment. And you can't have visitors.
Safe travels! And I'm thinking of picking up A Little Life next! Seems I have time to read,.
I'm hoping the phone will just dry and work again, some online things said it would. The only other option is replacement, so I know where my stimulus check will go!
Checking in from the SF Bay Area, where my very socially-driven neighbor is going bananas while I'm just like "stay home all the time? great, my to-read list is waiting." Working from home is the more painful thing, not the least due to all-day construction across the street, the beginning of which coincided with my needing to be here all day. But I really can't complain when so many are out of work or struggling during this crisis.I hope all of you and your families continue to be safe and healthy, wherever you are. There's a lot that's, uh, not great, about our current period in history, but we've never had more high-bandwidth ways to connect with people from a distance.
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I hear what you are saying about going to your brother's house. I have a weird situation. I own a home with my sister (well I own a small piece, its mostly hers) and when I left E's father we moved in with her. So we lived together for 15 years (we moved to this house about 2 years after E and I landed on her doorstep) and so this is home for me in a way even though I don't live here. It is also home for Ethan who doesn't remember anywhere else. Luckily E always wanted to spend some time with me and Rhonda. Even when he wanted to spend a lot of time with his friends he always, unbidden, would reserve time for both of us. I now that is weird, but it is also really nice. Right now he is on SnapChat, and my sister and I are both doing things on our laptops, but we are sitting in the same room and that feels comforting in the midst of the crazy.
Sara, I am also having issues with working remotely. I am a fairly social person, but I also like my alone time and so am handling the shut-in life pretty well, but focusing is hard. I have upstairs neighbors who, now that I am home in the daytime, I know have a lot of sex. It doesn't sound like great sex to be honest, but I can't say it doesn't tear one's attention from updating admissions and rewriting my students' cover letters.
With my son in residence I have been doing less reading in the last week than usual, and I imagine that will continue to be the case. For one thing my son is a cinephile (and a film and public policy major) so my screen time has been upped. We are planning Bogdanovich and sports movies film festivals, and watching Tiger King on Netflix (It is AH-mazing.) Also he is now watching a ridiculous movie called Kansas City Confidential from 1952 and is thinking that we should do an all noir week. We shall see. Still I am reading a couple great books and have plans to launch into the new Hilary Mantel next week.
Hope everyone stays healthy and that we stay in touch throughout.
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Book life is progressing nicely. I am reading the new Emily St. John Mandel (it bumped the Hilary Mantel) The Glass Hotelwhich is thankfully nothing like Station Eleven - which I loved, but armageddon brought on my a flu virus is a little too on the nose right now. I am also reading a YA nonfiction, Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family and because I am feeling stressed and it is my xanax, I am readling Lisa Kleypas as well Blue-Eyed Devil
I just started Glass Hotel too- because Hilary Mantel was boring me. I've also moved to Red, White & Royal Blue for eye reading because the library gave it to me. I've also started eye reading Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the MoonA friend said a book blog she read opened the discussion on how people are doing, reading and there was a general consensus that they were having problems focusing and in general, they were finding non-fiction easier to focus on because you don't use your imagination as much. That is why I'm reading the Apollo 8 and the theory seems working
But I'm actually working alot. The joy of being in development is although the work of the organization can't go on, I can still write grants. We've cancelled May performances and I would not be surprised if June got cancelled. So now there is also the stress of do we have jobs anymore.
And I have movers coming on the 10th! EEEK!
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I am also working a lot, which is a blessing. My students are freaking out about jobs, and I am trying to help despite it being something of a fool's errand. Also admissions continues apace, though we are blessedly almost through. One more round of scholarship decisions to go. And we are trying to figure out if anyone will even show if we suddenly become an online program. We are doing a good job, but virtual Cornell University is not the same as real Cornell University. It can't be. Collaboration, up close and personal is essential. I assume I still have a job. but if we don't have students in our program, who knows.
Good luck with the move! I guess the silver lining is that you will have time to really settle in to the new place.
Good luck with the move Pamela! I absolutely agree about nonfiction being fantastic for right now, though I'm trying to be careful about not reading anything too too dark or heavy.Bonnie, I get that about the univ. My husband is a researcher/professor at Virginia Tech, and he's doing all online classes, but still has to go in for some research collaboration stuff. I know they're struggling with admissions stuff too.
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Bonnie, I get t..."
I hope things get more normal is Blacksburg, Allie. We are actually banned from entering our building since we are in NY. The only people allowed in our building are facilities and security and people working at the Cafe, which is still open for carryout. The rest of us are nonessential, so our collaboration is Zoom. Unless it is for medical purposes, research labs are shut down now. Our Cornell Weill students, even first year med students, are close to 100% focused on pandemic response at the moment. I don't know what happens for research with live subjects where data needs to be charted on schedule (and where animals are used they need to be fed.) I still can't get over how weird the world is now, or how much TV I suddenly watch. I probably watch less than 5 hours a week normally, some weeks it might go up to 7 or 8 hours, and Saturday alone I watched 9 hours!
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Bonnie G. wrote: "An article I found fascinating and depressing, for the fashionistas among us https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2..."So depressing. I went into the office yesterday to work my 4 hours/week and the few of us there were talking fashion and I was like "when this is over, I am wearing my heels and everything else, I don't care if that isn't how people dress around here!"
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So depressing. I wen..."
Today I am wearing something with an actual (non-elastic) waistband and I feel like a revolutionary!
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Kris wrote: "I called a video meeting with my staff today - we normally do Teams, but not video - and I got up, showered, put on makeup, did my hair, and put on lipstick!! Even have on earrings! Where's the pro..."I wear make-up, done hair, and jewelry once a month for board meetings Feel like a queen every montb!
Bonnie G. wrote: "Today I am wearing something with an actual (non-elastic) waistband and I feel like a revolutionary!""
Wow, don't know if I could do that.... Quarantine weight is me!
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We're getting a Havanese, and I have been contemplating vaguely latin sounding names - Josefina and calling her Josie, Rosalita (for all my Bruce fans) and calling her Rosie, and last night, Daisy sounded like a good name, as well.
We'll likely be getting a boy next year, and I was trying to think of pair names, but hadn't come up with anything I liked. Both Dickens and Hemingway had Havanese pups!!
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LOL! I hope the other Zoomers were suitably impressed. I do a little prettying up most days because psychologically I just can't get into work mode if I do nothing and my giant face is on Zoom every damn day. Mind you, if you are diagraming that sentence, "a little" is the operative phrase, but a little foundation and blush and mascara do wonders. Yesterday I ran to the market and put on lippy, totally forgetting that I was then putting on a mask and no one would be beholding my beauty and I would be staining a perfectly good gray mask. The lessons of Covid.
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Jewelry?! You are a fashion DO!
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Well Rosalita and BRUCE sounds like pair names for me. Also, I will never forget my first day in Spanish Lab in Jr. high, we had to listen and repeat the sentence "Rosalita, Juan es muy guapo" about 10 times. So Rosalita and Juan also work. Of course Diego and Frida would work well too or Lucy and Desi. And congrats on the doggie! That will definitely melt the pounds.
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Funny story, it's 3 other women, and I triumphantly told them that I had put on a bra just for them! They were... undoubtedly relieved. With menopause and taking the pill since January, I'm up to a 34G. A G, people! I'll say one thing for Amazon, the Amazon Wardrobe where you can try things on and return them was a LIFE SAVER. I finally have bras that fit, and my cups no longer runneth over.
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Funny story, it's 3 other women, and I triumphantly told them that I had put on a bra just for them! They were... undoubte..."
38DDD here, pleasure to meet you. I did menopause without HRT - I just have big boobs. For what its worth I like Chantelle, Panache, and when I am feeling really rich (a rarity) Rigby & Peller.
Bonnie G. wrote: "38DDD here, pleasure to meet you. I did menopause without HRT - I just have big boobs. For what its worth I like Chantelle, Panache, and when I am feeling really rich (a rarity) Rigby & Peller..."If the queen's own bra-seller can't look after you, who can?
Go Fug Yourself Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Red, White & Royal Blue (other topics)Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon (other topics)
The Glass Hotel (other topics)
Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family (other topics)
Blue-Eyed Devil (other topics)
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