Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
What Are You Reading Now (anything goes) 2019
I never knew a lawyer who didn't LOVE the sound of his own voice. I think some of them would do it even if the pay were only so-so, just because they were getting paid to argue. A few clearly have a passion for something like children's rights or holding Big Business responsible for its dirty deeds. The ones who specialize in something really deadly dull like interpreting the tax code are...a special breed.
Mod
Finally. I find her very driven and as she said a 'tick the boxes' kind of person. Funny thing is she studied to become a lawyer, but why ..."
I think most people think all lawyers litigate, but in the Michelle Obama book she never did. She also didnt work at it for long because she didnt like it. Imagine spending all that money for school and then not work at it very long, but I guess it all worked out for her.
I think a lot of people are probably drawn by the money they can make. Lawyers are one of the best paid professions. And the majority of our politicians are lawyers so they must like to talk a lot.
I read somewhere years ago that everyone who possibly can in Mexico gets a law degree, not because of the money but because it's very, very prestigious. The result is that they have way too many attorneys with nothing to do all day. What they need is a better pool of engineers.
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick
3/5 stars
A law enforcement agent, Fred is following the criminal activities of a known drug dealer and user – Bob Arctor. Bob is selling Substance D which alters the mind while destroying it at the same time. There is a big twist involving the two in this black comedy tale. The book was made into a movie and I would love to see how the director interpreted this unusual story!
Julie wrote: "A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick
3/5 stars
A law enforcement agent, Fred is following the criminal activities of a known drug dealer and..."
What was the title of the movie version? Phildickian movies are usually pretty great!
Deeply absorbed in reading A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America.
Fishface wrote: "Julie wrote: "A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick
3/5 stars
A law enforcement agent, Fred is following the criminal activities of a known d..."
I just saw the film. It had the same title. I enjoyed it better than the book. The film was made in regular format and then they went back and illustrated the film so that it was animated which was a great look and I understood the story better.
Ayesha at Last
Uzma Jalaluddin
4/5 stars
This is a fun spin on Pride and Prejudice though this time the background is set in Toronto amidst the Muslim world. Ayesha is a poet and teacher when she meets Khalid to work on a community project. They clash over her choices while he is very conservative. While she would like to have nothing to do with him circumstances keep putting them together. I really enjoyed this debut book by Jalaluddin.
Time and Again
Jack Finney
3/5 stars
This is the story about a government organization recruiting citizens to go back in time using self-hypnosis. The goal is to just observe but not change anything in the past. Set in the 1970’s Si Morley has shown adeptness in going back in time. He has done his first mission when the organization is upended when one of their other members who time traveled caused someone’s life to disappear after a mission. Despite that Si is urged to go again to the past and he ends up falling in love with someone from the past. Well told but at times the descriptive narrative just goes on and on and I just wanted something to happen and also the use of self-hypnosis to go back in time seemed implausible to me.
Julie wrote: "...and also the use of self-hypnosis to go back in time seemed implausible to me."You think!? Hey, it's no odder than his seed pods that make themselves into perfect copies of anyone who falls asleep too close to them. :D
What I Didn't Know: True Stories of Becoming a Teacher20 teachers talk about their experiences of becoming a teacher. One of them I found was so shocking I didn't know what to think. There was a shooting in one of the high schools library, one student was killed and the shooter then shot himself, he was after the librarian who apparently had dropped him from the debate team. This is an American book. It wasn't Columbine it was some other school - Arapahoe in Colorado.
There's other stories too, some funny, some heartwarming, but I think I will need to do some more reading about those shootings after what happened in Christchurch. Oh and the topic this term for the children at my school is Keeping Ourselves Safe.
You didn't need to tell us it was an American book Selina! That is such a quintissentially American situation...SMH
Mr. Dickens and His Carol
Samantha Silva
4.5/5 stars
This is the fictional story of Dickens whose last book was a flop and his need to get a best seller before he goes bankrupt. I thought this was quite charming and a very fast read.
The Drowning Girl
Caitlín R. Kiernan
3/5 stars
This fantasy book revolves around a young woman, India Morgan Phelps (Imp) who is schizophrenic. With her mother dead, Imp struggles on her own. Working dead end jobs, writing stories and meeting people who may not be real makes up her life. She meets Eva one night but is Eva real or part of her schizophrenia. Though well written, I sometimes struggled with the writing style of the book though I feel the author was using that style to enhance the character’s schizophrenia.
The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing
A very happy couple from London marries, buys a new home and starts a family. Wanting to have a big family, they start having children and are quite content until Ben, their fifth child is born. Ben is not like the others and tries the patience of the whole family till they know they have to do something about him. Considered a horror novel, we initially place Ben as the evil one but is he really? This book really is an eye opening look at family dynamics and what people will do when they can only see one option open to them.
This book sounds very interesting. Nice and insightful summary, Julie. Thanks for sharing.
Now reading Mary PoppinsI never read this as a child...quite enjoying it. Have decided to do a catch up of all the children's classics I missed.
I’m reading a new memoir Skinny House: A Memoir of Family by Julie L. Seely. It tracks an African-American family through the Depression and WWII. Honest account of how finances devastate families, and how the self-reliant overcome. Quite good, especially the Great Depression part.
Selina wrote: "Now reading Mary PoppinsI never read this as a child...quite enjoying it. Have decided to do a catch up of all the children's classics I missed."
I read that awhile ago and really enjoyed it too!
News of the World
Paulette Jiles
4/5 stars
After the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is at loose ends. His job now involves traveling town to town in Texas reading newspaper stories in halls where people gather to listen. After one of his shows, he is offered a large sum to return Johanna, a young girl whose family was killed by Indians and then was taken and raised by them. She speaks no English but he reluctantly agrees to take her back to her kinsmen. This is a tale of two lost souls and what can happen from their connection. Lovely!
Selina wrote: "Another is accountants. Why do people become accountants, is it they love number crunching? You could do it for a while, but wouldn't it get boring?"My dad was an accountant, he told the weirdest jokes. Weirder than your typical dad jokes. He wasn't an accountant his whole working life, being an accountant led to him working in computers. Which is basically just high speed accounting.
Julie wrote: "News of the World
Paulette Jiles
4/5 stars
After the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is at loose ends. His job now invol..."
I liked this one at four stars as well. I've read a number of her novels starting with Enemy Women.
Karin wrote: "Julie wrote: "News of the World
Paulette Jiles
4/5 stars
After the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is at loose ends. His..."
I would read her other books!
Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Just started Becoming by Michelle Obama. Finally. I find her very driven and as she said a 'tick the boxes' kind of person. Funny thing is she studied to become a l..."
Sometimes I think that people go into professions and then through that find a marriage partner instead, then they give up what they doing to be married. So the cost of going to school is not that they learn and actually practice their profession, but marry someone else who does it and live vicariously with them. If you cant be an actor, marry an actor. If you cant handle being a lawyer or doctor you marry one. I dont really know, I dont know that many lawyers or doctors personally but in high school had a friend whos parents were BOTH doctors. I am not sure how that worked but she always complained she could never have a sick day off school.
I am wary of going out with workmates. I mean you work with them all day why would you want to live with them as well?! But then some people do that. I dont know if I could handle being married to anyone at work. I guess it saves on the commute...
Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "Selina wrote: "Another is accountants. Why do people become accountants, is it they love number crunching? You could do it for a while, but wouldn't it get boring?"My dad was an accountant, he to..."
I kinda feel sorry for my school accountant. She's always at her desk computer number crunching and never has time to have morning tea so I never see her out around the school. Shes very methodical though.
I did accounts for a while in one of my library jobs and the software I had to use was a bit crazy. Also the other job I really hated was balancing the till and float each morning, the ones who came in later never had to do this job of counting the money. You have to be a real scrooge about it and the annoying things is balancing it then find you are 3 cents under. Cos theres no such thing as 3 cents.
Julie wrote: "Time and Again
Jack Finney
3/5 stars
This is the story about a government organization recruiting citizens to go back in time using self..."
Couldnt they have just watched an old video or movie about the past.
Reading Tom's Midnight Garden was a bit of a time travel story except its set up that Tom travels back in time in his dreams. So it is a bit more plausible, although sometimes I think the description was a bit slower I wanted a bit more action. He meets this girl called Hattie, no he doesnt fall in love with her though as hes only about ten years old.
Then it would be like the Back to the Future scenario.
Julie wrote: "The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing
A very happy couple from London marries, buys a new home and starts a family. Wanting to have a big fami..."
That was an excellent read.
Selina wrote: "Julie wrote: "Time and Again
Jack Finney
3/5 stars
This is the story about a government organization recruiting citizens to go back in t..."
There was no filming in the past. It hadn't been invented yet!
Kristy's Big News by Ann M MartinOk its been a few years since I read the Baby Sitters Club series and this book is now quite old too but it was a nice catch up for me. Now theyve repackaged the series into graphix form the first few books. AND they are going to make it into another movie. My sister is so excited.
Oh to be 12-13 again!
In this book Kristy goes to meet her dads new wife and their wedding. In the BSC books it always seemed theres a lot of parents divorcing and remarrying. And the babysitters sometimes were more mature than the parents...lol
Daisy Jones & The Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid
5/5 stars
I loved this fictional biographical book about a young female singer, Daisy Jones who hooks up with the male group The Six in the 1970’s to do concerts and albums. The story is told through the interviews of the people involved. This reminds me of all those retrospectives of actual singers. Wonderful!
Fox 8
George Saunders
3.5/5 stars
I enjoy Saunders writing and found this book/short story/novelette about a Fox called Fox 8 who learns to read and understands human language. When he discovers a shopping mall, he goes to explore it but on his return to his home finds that the humans have done something horrendous! Quick read and very well done!
Julie wrote: "There was no filming in the past. It hadn't been invented yet.. "And think how much any movie, even an excellent documentary, has to leave out. You could go anywhere and see anything you wanted if you went there...went then?...in person.
A Conversation with my Country by Alan DuffAlan Duff wrote the hard hitting book Once Were Warriors which was made into a movie, about maori and domestic violence, which became famous in nz for the kind of gangland mentality and welfare dependency that often gets swept under the rug or put into the 'too hard basket'.
Several books and years later Duff looks back on how far Maori have come. It was an interesting read for me as my school is part of the Duffy Books in homes scheme that Alan Duff piloted to help Maori children get into reading and literacy, to prevent the kind of violence that he grew up with on his mothers side.
He makes points on both sides (his dad is Pakeha, scottish, and his mum was Maori) that are trying to look honestly at the situation, which basically seems to boil down to bad parenting and a cycle of violence. I would look in deeper and say its the sins of the fathers visiting the suceeding generations or a curse that only love can break. I dont know if the solution is as he puts it solely education...although that can help, but more of a spiritual malaise...Duff doesnt touch on anything like that in his book but makes a good stab at trying to make sense of why Maori have such a violent culture and are overpresented in the negative stats of crime, poverty and ill health.
I had no idea Once Were Warriors was ever a book. The movie was kind of devastating to watch and there is always a lot more in the book, so...(shudder)I read a fascinating book called All God's Children that traces one multi-generationally-incarcerated African-American family back to slave times in a particular, heavily Scots-Irish county in a Southern state that was so into that Celtic heritage of blood and honor -- every issue seemed to get settled violently -- that the author feels it leaked through to the slaves themselves, many of whom were part Scots-Irish themselves of course.
Fishface wrote: "I had no idea Once Were Warriors was ever a book. The movie was kind of devastating to watch and there is always a lot more in the book, so...(shudder)I read a fascinating book call..."
He does mention Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis in this book and makes some comparisons to this similar violent culture. But I don't think either made the connection between alcohol and abuse explicit. Duffs mum was alcoholic as was Vances. I think both cultures have the concept of revenge down pat and were unaware of the power of forgiveness to change everything...when Maori heard the gospel, they did begin to change and the practice of cannibalism and utu (revenge) and tribal warfare did stop, although some of it has shifted into other forms like adults taking out all their frustration on their own children.
The Rose and the Yew Tree
Mary Westmacott
5/5 stars
Written by Agatha Christie under a pseudonym, this story is narrated by Hugh Norreys who knows all the participants in this unusual tale. When Hugh is summoned by John Gabriel now known by as Father Clement, Hugh is shocked by the revelation. John Gabriel was a scoundrel and social climber who was a hero in the war and was running for election when Hugh first met him. However, when John meets the lovely Isabella, whose family Hugh is staying with, everything changes for John. I really enjoyed this book, the characters, the storyline and the surprise ending.
4/5 starsThe Dog Stars
Peter Heller
4/5 stars
Years following a massive flu epidemic and the death of his wife, Hig finds himself adrift despite the company of his dog and his neighbor. With his wife gone, there is nothing to live for anymore. After his dog dies, he decides to take his plane for a final ride leaving his friend to take care of his property. He lands in an area and finds a father and a daughter trying to eke out a living on their plot of land and stays with them where he makes his decision of what to do with his life. I enjoyed Heller’s book Celine and this one too. Looking forward to reading more of his books!
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics
Robert Gilmore
2.5/5 stars
This is an allegorical book that is supposed to help teach you the different aspects of quantum mechanics by following Alice around as she encounters the different theories. This got very high marks but this is not for everyone. I had taken physics many decades ago but had lost that knowledge since it was never my major field of study. I think someone studying beginning quantum physics now would benefit from reading this cleverly written and illustrated book.
Mod
3 stars
Found this book at a library book sale and was hoping it would be helpful. I cried through most of this book. I lost my dog last year that I had for 13 years and still miss him so much and now in the last two months I have lost 2 cats. One was a stray that I had been feeding and had tamed him quite a bit and the other I found as a stray when he was around 3 months old and had for 4 years. I read this book wondering why reading about other people's losses would be helpful and read the stories about pets contacting their humans after death with a bit of skepticism. But at the end of the book I read this: Mourning following a loss is inevitable, appropriate, even neccessary, but suffering interminable misery is a choice we make. Going forward, I am going to try to remember this.
Koren wrote: "I lost my dog last year that I had for 13 years and still miss him so much and now in the last two months I have lost 2 cats. One was a stray that I had been feeding and had tamed him quite a bit and the other I found as a stray when he was around 3 months old and had for 4 years."That's a lot of pain, Koren. Be gentle with yourself. Big hug to you.
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
3.5/5 stars
In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Arthur Less is in the doldrums. His former lover is getting married and he needs to leave town before the wedding. Les is an author so he books as many literary events and readings around the world so he doesn’t have to face up to the fact that he is turning 50 and not in a relationship. Probably not the funniest book I ever read but a highly enjoyable novel and I would read him again.
Koren wrote: "Good Grief: Finding Peace After Pet Loss: Personal and Professional Insights on the Animal Lover's Unique Grieving Process by Sid Korpi 3 stars
[bookcover:Good Grief: Finding Peace ..."
Sorry about your pets passing. It is never easy.
Koren wrote: "Good Grief: Finding Peace After Pet Loss: Personal and Professional Insights on the Animal Lover's Unique Grieving Process by Sid Korpi 3 stars
[bookcover:Good Grief: Finding Peace ..."
Sorry about your pets passing. It is never easy.
Mod
3 stars
[bookcover:Good Grief: ..."
Thanks everybody. It will get better.
Mod
3 stars
Interesting and a few things I will watch for or practice.
Not related to any particular book, but does anyone read more than one book at a time ?Personally I've never wanted to start another book until I've finished the one I'm reading, but I imagine there's plenty of people who have more than one on the go. I hate to give up on a book, but I have done on occasion.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
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Finally. I find her very driven and as she said a 'tick the boxes' kind of person. Funny thing is she studied to become a lawyer, but why do people become lawyers? She never said why in her book so far.
I'm always puzzled why people go into law. I once applied for a library job at a law library and there are just tonnes and tonnes of acts and statutes to look after and keep updated. It's not fun reading. Yes Legal librarians and secretaries etc get paid way more, but do lawyers get real satisfaction over winning arguments, even if they are wrong?
Another is accountants. Why do people become accountants, is it they love number crunching? You could do it for a while, but wouldn't it get boring?