Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Archived Chit Chat & All That
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What Are You Reading Now?

just to encourage anybody dubious about trying it: Pynchon's style is not as dense/"difficult" as in some of his earlier books, and the doorstop size is ameliorated by lots of short/episodic chapters


Don't blame your..."
Exactly, it's tedious. Which one of her books would you recommend me?

Hello lu, you might like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I read it last year and enjoyed it very much.
Currently reading The Children of Green Knowe Collection and The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other Stories



D..."
Since you've read And Then There Were None, I also recommend A Murder is Announced, Death on the Nile, and maybe After the Funeral to start with. Those four give you a good idea of the scope of her writing and you get stand-alones as well as a Poirot and a Marple. Then you can go from there and explore her entire list whenever something strikes your fancy.
The Murder of Roger Akroyd is also good, and gives you a lovely twist ending. Or try The Seven Dials or M or N? for a spy-romp, if you like those. (I do!) They're just not "typical" Christie and some folks really dislike them.
J_BlueFlower wrote: "I have finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver...."
I have this one on my TBR list and was wondering if I should read David Copperfield first. I'm not a real fan of Dickens though.
I have this one on my TBR list and was wondering if I should read David Copperfield first. I'm not a real fan of Dickens though.

Hello lu, you might like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I read it last year and enjoyed it very much.
Currently reading [book..."
'Right, putting on my list.... thank u


The Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle. This author's name came up in another thread so I have decided to begin reading his mystery short stories. I found an ebook edition edited by Harlan Ellison. When I say edited - Ellison likes to discuss the selections. I like his style as an editor.

I hope you enjoy it, Nimarsin. I haven't read the book, but I loved the film version when I watched it a few years ago.



That was a sweet one.

I really enjoyed that one!

I loved it.


I've read four books by Hardy and enjoyed them all. He really has a knack for digging into the nature of humans and their settings. I bought Desperate Remedies a year or two ago and hope to read soon.

Yes, to everyone! Housekeeper and the Professor was a book I was kind of afraid to read, due to my own life experiences. But it was kind, tender, and touching. There's so much there for such a short book. I'm glad I finally gave it a try.
I'm now rereading Watership Down. Another really good one.


Love is high praise though, so I think I'll search for the movie!
I'm 30-ish pages in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and it's decent. It's too soon to judge.
I'll be starting OSC's Speaker of the Dead sometime this week! Really looking forward to it after Ender's Game."
I can't compare the book to the film since I haven't read the book, but the film was fairly carnal as well, much more so than I had anticipated. And it's especially fascinating to see a very young Jeff Bridges and Cybil Shepard in prominent roles.
Enjoy Picture of Dorian Gray! I liked that one a lot too, and actually got around to watching the film version a few months back. Seeing a young Angela Lansbury took me by surprise.
I'll be interested to see how you like Speaker for the Dead. It's quite a bit different from Ender’s Game. Card actually wrote Ender's Game just so he could write Speaker for the Dead but most readers, I think, prefer Ender's Game to the sequel.

I just finished that one earlier this year. I found it to be a tough read, an honest look at the author's years in a Siberian prison camp. I would say I hope you enjoy it but maybe that sounds strange due to the grim subject matter, so instead I'll just wish you a fulfilling reading experience.


The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading another short novel

The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West

I just finished that one earlier this year. I found it to be a tough read, an honest look at the author's years in a Siberian prison camp. I woul..."
Yes, a very tough read. It's short stories, so it helps to be able to spread it out.

Watership Down is gorgeous. I hope you have an enjoyable experience!"
It's a reread. I am loving it just as much as an adult.

I first read “Watership Down” as a college student, and was knocked over by it. Of course, I was taking Latin at the time, and part of my response was that it was the Aeneid, but with animals. (And The Lion King is Hamlet…..)


The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Rating: 4 stars..."
Loved that one RJ!




I thought that book was very good as were all three books I've read by Jean Edward Smith. I feel that Smith is underrated as a biographer. I believe he ranks with better known political biographers such as David McCullough and Ron Chernow.
These are the books I have by Smith:
John Marshall: Definer of a Nation - 4 stars
Grant - 5 stars
Eisenhower in War and Peace - 4 stars https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
FDR - on my TBR shelf
Here are his 5 major political biographies in publication order.
1996:





Smith was a Professor at several American universities, including a stint as the John Marshall Professor of political science at Marshall University in Huntington West Virginia where he was when he died in 2019. But I've thought it most interesting that this Washington D.C.-born chronicler of the lives of American founding fathers and Presidents, spent 35 years, the bulk of his career, as a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto.

Chris wrote: "I finally finished Independent People by Halldor Laxness. This book won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. Writing is gorgeous, but the story is so very bleak. Set in Iceland."
That is a book that has been on my TBR list for quite a while. Time to move it up and read it.
That is a book that has been on my TBR list for quite a while. Time to move it up and read it.

I thought it was a very thought-provoking read as well.


The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers..."
Loved that one RJ!"
Thanks, Greg. Yeah, I really liked it. It was my first by McCullers, but I liked it enough to track down the Library of American collection of her novels and I think I'll read them all, eventually.

I thought it was a very thought-provoking read as well."
Agreed. I also enjoyed reading on Wikipedia (I think) how Huxley was accused of blatantly ripping it off when he wrote Brave New World.


The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading

The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe


3.5 stars
Read as a BookSirens ARC.
Book Published May 21, 2024
Worth enjoyable thriller.
My review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am currently reading a cookbook. I am actually reading it, not just using it as a reference. It is the Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book
. Betty Crocker of course was a marketing image not one person, but this is the first book that started the Betty Crocker Industry.
The story of Betty Crocker.
https://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-ho...
Originally published in 1950 it still has War Era Recipes with War Era Names. I bought a version that was republished in 1980. It is more of a How To than just a recipe book. There are sections on the Nutrition - the 7 Food Groups, balanced meal planning, economics, how to set a table, kitchen equipment, and then the recipes. It is fun to see the older names for things; for instance, the word Goulash was replaced by "Hamburger Helper" when that product was introduced. (1970's?) I am really interested in the older recipes, but at the same time am using my Instant Pot pressure cooker a good bit more. Those recipes are working well. I can't wait to try Tamale Pie using my Instant Pot.
I think this will qualify as a "non-fiction" book for challenges. It might even be a "book that reminds you of someone", but not in my house. My mother's cookbooks were the Southern Living Series which I now own.

The story of Betty Crocker.
https://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-ho...
Originally published in 1950 it still has War Era Recipes with War Era Names. I bought a version that was republished in 1980. It is more of a How To than just a recipe book. There are sections on the Nutrition - the 7 Food Groups, balanced meal planning, economics, how to set a table, kitchen equipment, and then the recipes. It is fun to see the older names for things; for instance, the word Goulash was replaced by "Hamburger Helper" when that product was introduced. (1970's?) I am really interested in the older recipes, but at the same time am using my Instant Pot pressure cooker a good bit more. Those recipes are working well. I can't wait to try Tamale Pie using my Instant Pot.
I think this will qualify as a "non-fiction" book for challenges. It might even be a "book that reminds you of someone", but not in my house. My mother's cookbooks were the Southern Living Series which I now own.


Matheson wrote such good sci-fi horror.

This will be the first book I'll have reviewed this year when I finish it. I usually hate every book Le Guin has written, but this is a fantastic exception.

The first cookbook I was tempted to "read" (instead of just using the recipes) was Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer. I didn't make it very far though. Maybe someday I'll try it again.
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Sweet. I have the books, but have yet had time to read them. Want to at some point. Just don't know when.