What are you reading? January 2015

[Melanie]

Please share what you are reading this first month of 2015.

[Melanie]

I just started Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I have read another book of hers and loved it. This is about women and friendship in China in the 1400s. The process of footbinding is tough - I'm proudly embracing my 9.5ers now.

[Bill]

I'm still working on , probably wasn't a good idea to start this just before the holidays, but now that they're over I can finish this up. Can't wait to read volume 2, but I think I'll read something else in between. most likely another genre than fantasy!

[Ronald]

I just started reading had not done a lot of reading over the holidays. But hoping to get more reading done now.

[Melanie]

I really enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It was about friendship and being a woman in China in the 1800s. Lily's laotung friendship with Snow Flower is meant to last forever and should be more important that marriage. For Lily it was a way to improve her lot in life, because Snow Flower came from better family.

Women had created a secret language call nu shu that became in the 1960s and people were considered spys. Now it is a part of the national heritage.

[Melanie]

I'm now reading the 2nd Nancy Drew book and will be finished shortly. It is a good book, and I had intended to read all of them since they should be quick reads. However, I discovered the author was a man and really screwed over his women ghost writers. After his death they got 1/5 of the profit of the books they wrote.

The first one I read was one of the late 1950s rewrites and the second one is the original 1930s. I'm thinking with my feeling on the author and having an opportunity to read an original and a rewrite I'm thinking of ending my Nancy Drew experience here.

[Melanie]

Reading two books at the moment. One is on James Monroe - and I'm not impressed with the book. They author is too much of a fan.

Also reading Little House in the Big Woods.

[Ronald]

Melanie wrote: "Reading two books at the moment. One is on James Monroe - and I'm not impressed with the book. They author is too much of a fan.

Also reading Little House in the Big Woods."

I remember my mother reading the Little House books to me and my brother when I was a little kid. Talk about memories.

[Melanie]

The Little House books is really what got me to read. My mom would read to me then it got where she would read a page and I would read a paragraph.

I didn't have much time to start it only a few pages in. It is a very easy read. Sometimes it is nice to revist childhood.

[Ronald]

Melanie wrote:
I didn't have much time to start it only a few ..."

I know what you mean - re-reading old books from when I was a kid can be fun. I have a couple of old Hardy Boy's books I got from the friends of the Library in line to read. I also have a couple of the old thin Doctor Who books.

[Bill]

Sometimes the library being closed can be a good thing. In my panic over having nothing to read I remember I have a few books set aside for just such an emergency. I won this as part of a set of three and kept this one for last.

[Ronald]

I have not started the book yet but after the FB guy Mr. Z selected as his first book I have this on my to read list. I am waiting for an eBook version from my library to open up so I can read the book. My library does not even have a dead tree copy of the book available yet.

I will probably read the next Stephanie Plum book in the meantime.

[Melanie]

Finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I listened to David Clarke read it off Librivox.org which is a free and only has public domain books. All readers are volunteers, and some voluteers are professional audiobook readers as well. I'm now going to begin listening to Oliver Twist.

I'm also reading:

The Last Founding Father - James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness which I'm not very impressed with either him or his biographer.

Little House in the Big Woods - pretty much bathroom reading at the moment. I really don't want to carry it around. I should just grab it and read it in bed. I may do that after the half marathon on Saturday.

True Grit - it is the Big Read in Topeka. I have seen the movie and I can hear the girl's voice in my head as I'm reading it. I'm only a chapter into right now. True Grit is the book I'm currently carrying around.

[Bill]

I was somewhat familiar with the story of Alan Turing even before recently seeing the film "The Imitation Game". The movie got me even more curious, so I decided to read

[Melanie]

I want to see that movie!

[Bill]

Melanie wrote: "I want to see that movie!"

I highly recommend it! Benedict Cumberbatch & Keira Knightley are both deserving of Oscars, as is the film. As far as the book I'm reading goes, it doesn't appear to have been used as source material, though there is a chapter called The Imitation Game. I have to admit so far it's not quite what I'd hoped.

[Melanie]

Always disappointing when a book isn't what you had hoped it would be.

I just saw begin again with Kiera Knightly and can't get the music out of my head.

[Bill]

My niece has been raving about , and urging me to read it, since she read it in class a few months ago. She finally took the drastic measure of putting the book in with a bag containing cookies she made for her old uncle! So I guess I'm obligated now!

[Melanie]

Bill wrote: "My niece has been raving about , and urging me to read it, since she read it in class a few months ago. She finally took the drastic measur..."

Sweet!

[Melanie]

Finished The Last Founding Father by Harlow Unger. I do not recommend him as a biographer. I honestly feel there was a time he nearly attacked the reader if you think that others - especially John Quincy Adams wrote the Monroe Doctrine. Right before the attack it was stated he askd for advice both written and oral, and only an idea of JQ Adams was used. I see he wrote one on JQ Adams my next POTUS but I will avoid it like the plague or measles.