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[Reggia]

Thank you, Jean!

[Werner]

Glad to hear you're feeling better, Reggia, and hope you have a wonderful trip!

I've never been a big fan of musicals, on the whole. (Of course, I'm tone deaf, so that's probably understandable!)

[Reggia]

Thanks, Werner!

There are a select few (musicals) that I love, but this was NOT one of them. The half that I watched was painful! I was hoping to find an actual movie, but when doing online searches it keeps coming back to this same musical, arggh!

[Werner]

With a common read coming up next month in another group, I was looking for a short(ish) read to help fill up the intervening time. So, I picked a book that's been in my physical TBR piles for some time, Mr. and Mrs. Smith by a new-to-me writer, Cathy East Dubowski. It's the novelization of the movie of the same name, which I saw back in 2015; I'm hoping the book might clarify some plot points that aren't very clear (at least to me) in the film version. :-)

[Reggia]

The novelization of Mr and Mrs Smith? So the movie came out first?

[Werner]

Reggia wrote: "The novelization of Mr and Mrs Smith? So the movie came out first?"

Yes --they both first appeared in 2005, but the book was based on the screenplay for the movie, not the other way around.

[Reggia]

Interesting. I think it must be rare.

[Reed]

Secrets of the Deep by Danielle Singleton

[Werner]

Reggia wrote: "Interesting. I think it must be rare."

I'm not sure that it is actually rare --it was published by Harper, a pillar of Big Publishing, and my edition is a mass-market paperback, a format only used for large runs. Amazon carries the paperback. But it doesn't have a Kindle version, and it also would be rare in libraries. (Many librarians snidely turn up their noses at movie novelizations.)

[Werner]

This month, I'm joining in another group's common read of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. (Though I'm actually reading a large-print edition, which is the only one the public library in Bluefield, West Virginia has.) This novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2011; so it's the sort of self-consciously "high-brow literature" I normally shun like the plague (I didn't vote for it). But on the plus side, it's quite short (just 150 pages in the normal-sized edition).

[Bionic Jean]

Oh it's in Large Print? Great - thanks Werner! I've seen the normal print size edition, and realised it was short (lots of margin space!) but thought I'd have to read it on kindle. I do like Julian Barnes, (though not usually prizewinners) :)

[Werner]

Yes, Jean, there is a large print edition, published in 2012 by Center Point Publishing in Thorndike, Maine. It doesn't seem to be included in the Goodreads database at this time, though.

[Reed]

TᕼE ᑭOᗯEᖇ Oᖴ OᑎE ᗷY ᗷᖇYᑕE ᑕOᑌᖇTEᑎᗩY

[Bionic Jean]

Werner - I had a look in all my libraries but none seem to have that edition :( Not surprising really, as it's not the largest USA LP publisher. So I Iooked in Abe books - success! Several copies reasonably priced at £3+ - but then an extra few pounds to be shipped from the USA ... no thanks!

But I got the details from there, and diligently filled out the "new edition" form on GR, with ISBN etc., downloaded the cover image to my files and uploaded it ... only to be told that the edition is already on the GR database! Here it is The Sense of an Ending.

But apart from all this, I'll be interested to know what you think. My friends rate it from 5 stars (quite a few) to one or two - with none in the middle!

[Werner]

Jean, thanks for your help with this! Yes, that's definitely the edition I'm reading. Not sure why it didn't show up at the "all editions" link on the description for the default edition; but then, I'm not sure why Goodreads does, or doesn't do, quite a few things. :-)

I expect to finish the book early next week. At this point, I'm still not sure what my final rating will be.

[Werner]

On our road trip earlier this week, Barb and I started a new "car book," The Stairway to Forever by Robert Adams, a new-to-us writer. It's a science fiction novel dealing with interdimensional travel through a mysterious portal. Barb had picked it up years ago at a flea market and given it to me for Christmas; I used to get a lot of gift books, so they've tended to sit in my TBR piles for ages. We figured it was high time we rescued this one! :-)

[ღ Carol jinx~☆~☔ʚϊɞ]

Werner wrote: "On our road trip earlier this week, Barb and I started a new "car book," The Stairway to Forever by Robert Adams, a new-to-us writer. It's..."

That sounds like a good story!

[Werner]

Carol wrote: "That sounds like a good story!"

Well, we think it has possibilities, anyway! :-)

[Werner]

Kate Douglas Wiggin's short novel Polly Oliver's Problem: A Story For Girls (1893) unexpectedly turned out to be included as a bonus in the back of another book by the author that I picked up a few years ago in my favorite used book outlet. I finally got around to starting it today. (Although it has a 16-year-old female protagonist, and Wiggin or her publisher probably titled it as they did on the assumption that teen males wouldn't be interested, I would say the appeal actually isn't all that gender-specific.)

[Werner]

Ever since I was introduced to Willa Cather's work back in high school through her story "Neighbor Rossicky," I've wanted to read more of it. But after going on to read My Ántonia (which got five stars from me) soon after that, the project got pushed to the back burner for a lot of years, despite having my interest freshly whetted in the 90s by watching the wonderful Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of her novel O Pioneers!, starring Jessica Lange. Finally, earlier today, I started my read of the latter novel; so I'm pretty excited about that!

[Donnally]

I just recently read Willa Cather's A Lost Lady. A very good book.

[Werner]

Having very recently finished Willa Cather's O Pioneers! (my five-star review will hopefully be posted soon!), I'm following it up with another Cather novel, Shadows on the Rock. (As you can tell, I'm making up for lost time. :-) ) Set in Quebec in the late 1600s, this will be my first experience of Cather's historical fiction (one of my favorite genres), and a relatively new-to-me setting as well.

[Bionic Jean]

I'll be really interested to know what you think of these, Werner. The fact that you are reading another by the same author, immediately after, bodes well :)

[Werner]

Bionic Jean wrote: "I'll be really interested to know what you think of these, Werner. The fact that you are reading another by the same author, immediately after, bodes well :)"

Jean, I've just linked to my O Pioneers! review over on the "Share your book reviews" thread. :-)

[Bionic Jean]

Thanks Werner!

I'm reading Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island by Thor Heyerdahl at the moment, and finding it fascinating! Some of the author's theories have been questioned, but it's a remarkable account of discoveries in a then inaccessible remote place, which time has now changed forever.

[Reggia]

I've added The Tale of Despereaux to my other books. After 2 years, I finally renewed my library card. (That is the longest I've ever not been to the library since I began to read!) Rest assured that I have a houseful of books, and not just a few more than when I let my card lapse.

[Werner]

Recently, I actually started three new reads in a period of just seven days. First, I've begun reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin to Barb. We'd already read this together once before, in (I think) the late 80s; but it was so long ago that I guessed correctly it would be like a new read for Barb. I'd forgotten enough of it myself that without this fresh read, I could never have done it justice in a review.

While passing time last week in Harrisonburg, Virginia's public library, I started reading Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy Sayers. Normally, this would go on my "being read intermittently" shelf, to be carried over until next summer. But the BU library also has a copy, so I plan to finish reading the collection later this month.

Finally, I'm taking part in another group's just-starting group read of Esther (1950) by Nora Lofts, a historical novella retelling and fleshing out the Old Testament book of Esther. I'd suggested it to the group myself, since it's short (with just 141 pages of actual text), and I figured it could easily be squeezed in between other books. (Goodreads will soon delete its official "favorite authors" list feature; but Lofts is also a long-time "unofficial" favorite. :-) )

[Reed]

I’m currently reading Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

[Bionic Jean]

I'm so pleased you're rereading A Wizard of Earthsea, Werner. The first of its kind in a way, and never bettered, in my view. My next by Ursula K. Le Guin, coming to it later with a more mature view, will be The Farthest Shore. As you'll no doubt remember, that was the first in her original trilogy (later expanded), I first read that on its first publication ... but the 1st (English) edition from 1973 I have is off to the charity shop shortly, as I now have it in Large Print, as the other two have been :)

I'm reading an early light novel by George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, and struggling with my review of Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Maybe I should just stick at "good in parts", like the curate's egg!

[Reggia]

I'm reading French Braid along with my 'sporadics' currently listed.

[Donnally]

I have tested positive for covid, so I have to quarantine and lie low for a spell. I have decided it is the right time finally to tackle Rembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. It's going well. Finding I can devote uninterrupted hours to the work I am enjoying it very much. I have gotten into the thrid volume, The Guermantes Way.

[Bionic Jean]

Aw, sorry to hear this Donnally, but I like your attitude! Hopefully the covid will soon pass so that you feel better :)

[Werner]

Donnally, I can relate, as I had it myself back in 2020! Glad that at least the cloud has a silver lining. :-) I hope your symptoms aren't severe, and that you feel much better soon.

[Donnally]

Thanks for the good wishes. This has been the worst flu I've ever experienced. But I'm starting to feel better.

Proust has been my lifeline.

[Reggia]

Sorry to hear it has you feeling so ill, Donnally, but glad Proust is keeping you in good company. Hope you are soon recovered! :)

[Linda]

Currently reading, "The Road to Little Dribbling" by Bill Bryson. Quite funny and interesting about Bill's revisit to England.

The Prologue had me in stitches. Laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. First thought was so glad not to be reading this book in a quiet doctor's office.

Enjoyable.

[Werner]

Since I have the start of a group read coming up on Sept. 1, I wanted my next read to be a relatively quick one; so I've started The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. (I'm actually reading it in the volume The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Stories, which I own.) This is my third time reading this novella; but I've never reviewed it here, and my most recent previous read was sometime back in the 90s.

[Reggia]

Welcome Linda... thanks for sharing! I have several Bryson books on my to-read list... looking forward to them.

Today, I'm adding The Talented Mr. Varg to my other current reads.

A third re-read, Werner? I need to bump this up on my list, too. :-)

[Reed]

I’m currently reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

[Werner]

Reggia wrote: "A third re-read, Werner? I need to bump this up on my list, too. :-) "

Well, the third reread isn't actually a reflection of the story's quality in my estimation (though I do like it). It's just because I've never reviewed it here on Goodreads, and have always wanted to; but since I last read it nearly 25 years ago, I don't think my memory of it is sharp enough to do it justice without a reread, and it's short enough to reread relatively quickly. (Some books and stories I can review fairly even after 50 or 60 years, but this isn't one of those.)

[Reggia]

Thanks for the clarification, Werner. :-)

[Werner]

No problem, Reggia! :-)

[Werner]

Finding myself ready for another read, and being scheduled to start a group read in a few days, as usual I turned to a short story collection to fill the interim. This time, my pick is Shadow of the Lariat: A Treasury of the Frontier. At 556 pages of story text, this is a very thick anthology that will probably come to my rescue on a good many such occasions. :-)

[Werner]

This month, I'm taking part in another group's common read of Quo Vadis (1896) by the Polish Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz. (That's pronounced as "Shen-kyay-vich.") I'm reading it in the 1955 printing by Dodd, Mead and Co. as part of their "Great Illustrated Classics" imprint, which uses the translation done by Jeremiah Curtin around the time of the novel's first publication. It's historical fiction dealing with early Christianity during the first-century reign of Nero.

[Bionic Jean]

I'm reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy for the 'Nth' time, this time leading a chapter-a-day group read. I love this book :)

[Werner]

Having recently read the first novel in Robert Adams' Stairway to Forever series together, Barb and I have now embarked on a read of the sequel, Monsters and Magicians. Like our previous read, A Wizard of Earthsea, it's fantasy; but it's written for adults and, if it's like the first one, has significant problematic content issues that the Le Guin book doesn't have. Barb enjoyed the first book in Adams' series more than I did --mostly because, since I read it aloud, she was able to experience it in a more expurgated form than I could. :-)

[Reed]

I’m reading 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher it’s good and mysterious

[Bionic Jean]

Werner wrote: "Having recently read the first novel in Robert Adams' Stairway to Forever series together, Barb and I have now embarked on a read of the sequel, ..."

I don't know this one, so am interested, but have to zoom in on your comment "it has serious content issues that the Le Guin book doesn't have". I'm hoping that you simply mean it has different serious content issues from A Wizard of Earthsea, but am not sure because you stress that A Wizard of Earthsea is a YA book. So I feel this might be a little unfairly dismissive.

Yes, A Wizard of Earthsea has always been presented as a book for younger people (as we know, YA is a recent publishers' concept) and can certainly be read on one level by older children. Ursula K. Le Guin herself said:

“Back then, in 1967 wizards were all, more or less, Merlin and Gandalf. Old men, peaked hats, white beards. But this was to be a book for young people. Well, Merlin and Gandalf must have been young once, right? And when they were young, when they were fool kids, how did they learn to be wizards? And there was my book.”

So I'm not disputing its original target audience. But it had developed into something else, even before its (equally amazing) sequels. I find it a profound and original book, with so much more than its top story. After all, we could just describe other great fantasy works with her words "Merlin and Gandalf. Old men, peaked hats, white beards" as she does. But we all know they are so much more.

In A Wizard of Earthsea we have the recurring theme of the presence of evil within good, a very difficult concept indeed. Plus all the references to known cultural and spiritual beliefs, such as the power of names, make for a very rich read indeed. And that's before we get into literary analysis such as the detailed worldbuilding and unusual casting of an antihero - both of which are exceptionally well done.

I'm sure you've read my detailed review, so won't go on about all this. I just felt I had to put in a word of defence. Ursula K. Le Guin was I believe the first to write a story about a young wizard, and despite the imitators, remains the best, in my opinion. Its ideas stay with you for many years, and only a true masterpiece can do that.

[Werner]

Jean, everything you just wrote above is true; I apologize for the lack of clarity in my phrase "serious content issues," which you misunderstood (I've just edited my previous comment to make my meaning clearer). I intended readers to take the phrase as meaning "a seriously concerning amount of problematic content (in the form of foul language and unwholesome sexual content), a problem that A Wizard of Earthsea doesn't have." (The latter book has no bad language or sexual content that needed any expurgating.)

Yes, I did read your excellent (as usual!) review of the Le Guin book, and officially liked it. (I like it unofficially, too. :-) ) My own review (which is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) recommended the book to fantasy genre fans of all ages; in my comment above, I mentioned that Adams' book was written for adults only to imply an explanation for why he apparently figured he could get away with including a lot of profanity and obscenity, not to suggest that YA books aren't "serious." (I read a lot of YA books myself, and often consider them far better written and more serious than much of the fiction churned out for adults these days, partly because YA authors often exhibit higher content standards.) I'd certainly agree that Le Guin's book has serious content; I didn't analyze the latter as deeply as you did, but did mention that "her messaging... is essentially moral, with strong encouragement of responsibility, loyalty, and concern for others." Hope this helps to clarifies my intent!

[Bionic Jean]

Werner wrote: "I mentioned that Adams' book was written for adults only to imply an explanation for why he apparently figured he could get away with including a lot of profanity and obscenity, not to suggest that YA books aren't "serious." ..."

Oooh! I'm sorry, I completely misunderstood you, and to boot hadn't even considered that that might be what was wrong/what you disliked about the Adams book :( (I won't be reading that one, then.) I was a bit baffled about the different editions (re. the "expurgated form"), and now realise that you must edit it as you read aloud! I remember once I missed out an entire chunk of a novel I was reading aloud, because I disliked it so much. I explained that I wasn't enjoying this description of hunting - and a couple of youngsters came in and said they hadn't liked it either!

Yes, I'd spotted that you had read my review (and were one of the first, so it must have been a while ago) and I had read and enjoyed yours a couple of days ago when it was posted. That was partly what confused me.

Sorry again if I got over-defensive. I'm probably on heightened alert for people classifying books as "just kids' stories" when I judge that they are so much more :(