What Are You Currently Reading?

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

She wrote short stories too but the poems are better.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Since husband and s-i-l weren't aware that she wrote--was a little secretive about her writing, I can't help but wonder if there is more of her work floating around perhaps under a pen-name or pseudonym.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

There does appear to be another book published by this group in 1993. (this one 1995.)

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Wow!

A secret life!

If had written anything and got published, everyone is going to hear about it.

She must have been very private person or kept part of herself hidden.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Well...it's a fragmented family. I expect it was known in her local community.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

I feel a little better if you think possibly her local community knew--that perhaps she shared her happiness of getting published with her friends.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Oh I'm sure the community & her own children knew. This book also contains work by some competition winners.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Oh.

That is very cool that you found it.

[Anastasia Kinderman, The Only]

Wow, that is really cool.

[Anastasia Kinderman, The Only]

Currently reading The Glass Sentence.

[Powder River Rose]

Currently reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

[Powder River Rose]

About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot

[Anastasia Kinderman, The Only]

Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

How are you liking it?

[Carolien]

Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

It's a quarterly group read here https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... if you would like to join a group read.

I just picked up a copy today so will start soon with it as well.

[Carolien]

I finished Crossing to Safety last night and found it very moving. It landed on my TBR list as it was mentioned in The End of Your Life Book Club and Will Schwalbe was very impressed with it.

It's such a good description of marriage and friendship and the changes that are wrought over a forty year period to all relationships. The characters are very well developed and the language beautiful. I'll definitely find more of his books to read.

Funnily enough one of the next books on my list is also from The End of Your Life Book Club - The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

[Powder River Rose]

Anastasia wrote: "Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

How are you liking it?"

After the first 15 Chapters my thoughts have changed. I was thinking it was nothing more than a drippy romance but there is a lot of history to it also. There is some great information on Wikipedia about the book and the time. I'm at chapter 51 now.

Carolien wrote: "Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

It's a quarterly group read here..."

Oh thank you, I didn't realize that and have been reading with another group. I've invited them to digital breakfast at my home on Saturday at 9:00 am (pacific). This is wonderful, I will love to join in and possibly we could do a digital meal or tea here. Thank you for letting me know.

[Powder River Rose]

Carolien wrote: "Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

It's a quarterly group read here https://www.goodreads.com/group/s..."

Hehehehe I just went to the link and that is the group I'm already involved with. Thank you it's been a great group discussion.

[Mizzou]

I'm reading Disgrace, by the South African writer, J. M. Coetzee. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2003. The first 74 pages of this 220-page novel have made me dislike the principal character, a 53-year-old, twice-divorced, college professor who seduces one of his female students. I'm curious to see where Coetzee is going with this story, in pages 75 to 220.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I nominated Dinner at Antoine's for a group read a month or so back. Have just read it - & really didn't like it. Hard to believe a book this bad has ended up being FPK best known work.

[Mizzou]

Okay, I finished Disgrace. There was something surreal about keeping reading this book "till the last dog is dead" . . . . because that is what it came to, at the end. I couldn't begin to tell anyone what this book purports to be about . . . .

[☯Emily , The First]

Mizzou wrote: "Okay, I finished Disgrace. There was something surreal about keeping reading this book "till the last dog is dead" . . . . because that is what it came to, at the end. I couldn't begin to tell anyo..."

Ha ha! This is a highly overrated book and author. First and last book I read by Coetzee. Finding out that he is a racist help understand some of the book.

[☯Emily , The First]

Mizzou wrote: "Okay, I finished Disgrace. There was something surreal about keeping reading this book "till the last dog is dead" . . . . because that is what it came to, at the end. I couldn't begin to tell anyo..."

Don't know if this will help or not: http://imaginingtheworld.blogspot.com...

[Mizzou]

I finally found a copy of Lamb in His Bosom, and am reading it and finding it a worthwhile read, even though it seems like a fusion of a soap opera and a Foxfire book of 'old-timey' ways of doing things. I'm glad I tried the inter-library loan service of the public library. The copy furnished to me doesn't have an ISBN or a date the book was published, though. And I've never heard of Caroline Miller, the author.

[☯Emily , The First]

Mizzou wrote: "I finally found a copy of Lamb in His Bosom, and am reading it and finding it a worthwhile read, even though it seems like a fusion of a soap opera and a Foxfire book of 'old-timey' ways of doing t..."

You can read the comments about this book and add your observations in this link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Alexa]

I love interlibrary loan!

[Mizzou]

I remember how I started reading Mary Chomondeley's novel The Red Pottage at the Miami University library, once, while I was visiting my younger daughter there. When I returned home, I wanted to finish it, so I investigated how the interlibrary loan system works, and used it for the first time. The book arrived, after a while, and had come from outside the state of Ohio! I think it is possible for a patron to actually get a book from the Library of Congress, on loan, if a copy cannot be located anywhere else. Does anyone know if this is true?

[Alexa]

I don't know about the Library of Congress. I do know that here in North Carolina I've gotten books from Brooklyn, NY, and North Dakota before. One book I ordered only had three copies available in the entire country and my copy came from Portland, OR. I love checking to see where my interlibrary loan books are coming from!

[Francis]

Thought y'all might find this literary quiz interesting.

http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/blog/a-gu...

[☯Emily , The First]

Only 54% correct!

[Alexa]

You did better than I did! That was fun, only one book I had never heard of, but some of them really surprised me.

[Mizzou]

With the airline restriction on how much baggage one can take on a flight now, I couldn't pack books for the summer! But my daughter had a few waiting for me ---and I'm reading Imagining Argentina, by Lawrence Thornton, with close interest. It's about "los desaparecidos", the persons who 'disappeared' during the cruel regime of the military in the 70s in Argentina. It combines history with 'magical realism', a genre developed by Latin American authors such as Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.

[Mizzou]

I'm finishing up a novel by English author Dorothy Whipple, They Were Sisters, published in 1944, that deals with the varying personalities of the three women, all the relationships occasioned by their marriages to three quite different men, and the inter-familial relationships that result from two of the sisters having children. All of the characters' affections for and irritations with one another play out in an England that is undergoing social change (although the well-to-do still have domestic servants) and has a fearful anticipation of war in the air.

[Susan]

I'm reading Wilkie Collin's The Moonstone and I really enjoy the butler's narration and I'm reading Ernest Poole's His Family, (1916) about a widower, who feels he's lost touch with his three grown daughters and tries to reconnect with them.

[Susan]

Mizzou wrote: "I'm finishing up a novel by English author Dorothy Whipple, They Were Sisters, published in 1944, that deals with the varying personalities of the three women, all the relationships occasioned by t..."

I'm going to look for They Were Sisters. Sounds good.

[Kathleen]

I'm reading Negotiating with the Dead--a great analysis of the writing craft by Margaret Atwood, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (love all the stories so far), and doing a buddy read of the long but surprisingly fast reading The Wanderer: or, Female Difficulties by Fanny Burney.

[Alexa]

Negotiating with the Dead is on my list of "read this very, very soon" books. This may be the impetus I need to actually pick it up!

[Terry]

☯Emily wrote: "Gone with the Wind, which I wish would be gone with the wind, and Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's."

I've nevertried it. Dragging along?

[Mizzou]

After thoroughly enjoying A Man Called Ove, I'm now into a non-fiction book entitled Brilliant Blunders, by Mario Livio. It tells about scientists, who, though geniuses all, were still altogether human and goofed and stumbled as well as won Nobel prizes.
A Man Called Ove has been made into a movie, in Swedish, so to enjoy this charming story of this curmudgeonly old Swede to the max,I'd advise reading the book first.

[LiLi]

Powder River Rose wrote: "About halfway into Middlemarch by George Eliot"

Such a great book.

[Viv]

I'm reading Virginia Woolf's first novel The Voyage Out. I am so enjoying all the marvellous conversations in it!

[Mizzou]

In the aftermath of the recent election in the USA, with its staggering outcome, I am reading The Revolt of the Masses, by Jose Ortega y Gasset, and marveling at the insights of this intellectual leader into the phenomenon of mass-man.

[Charlene]

Amalia wrote: "The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood"

In case you haven't seen, Hulu is going to turn the Handmaid's Tale into a television series.

[Marga]

For my local reading group I just started to read 'A Moor's Account' by Laila Lalami. It tells the story of Estebanico, a Moroccan slave who accompanied the Spanish armada in their conquest of what now is the southern part of the U.S.A. and Mexico. In alternating chapters he recounts his childhood in Morocco.
The start looks promising. Has anyone read this one?

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Marga,

I haven't read "A Moor's Account," but it sounds very interesting!

I'll check to see if I can get it at the library.

[Carol]

I just finished The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût and highly recommend it to our members. First published in 1955, it is lush and gorgeous and an oft-overlooked women's lit classic.

A link to my 5-star review follows.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

I am reading The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto, Another Country by James Baldwin and Some Prefer Nettles by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

[Mizzou]

Carol's current reading list sounds so cosmopolitan---books by a Finn, an American, and a Japanese, that it makes mine sound really provincial. I'm reading a book by one of our Minnesota U.S. Senators, Al Franken. He titled it Al Franken: Giant of the Senate. And his writing style is conversational without being "flip". I like the tone, and also, getting the information the book contains.

[Carol]

Mizzou wrote: "Carol's current reading list sounds so cosmopolitan---books by a Finn, an American, and a Japanese, that it makes mine sound really provincial. I'm reading a book by one of our Minnesota U.S. Senat..."

Ha! You bring non-fiction to the table --a feat a might achieve once per year, if I am feeling ambitious. ( I remain unable to think about Al without recalling scenes from his SNL days, all of which make me smile.)

[Carol]

I'm still wrapping up Another Country, but am now reading The Statement of Stella Maberly by F. Anstey, Yesterday by Maria Dermoût, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind and today I began The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie.

[☯Emily , The First]

I am currently reading Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska. It features life with a terrorizing, lazy father.