Readers and Reading discussion
GENERAL CONVERSATION
>
What are you reading now? Finished recently? from 11/7/2009 on
Mod
I started college in September of '71. I was so scared that summer. We had not done more than drive around the campus, and I was scared to death! My Dad helped me move in the things that had been on the list they sent. I was so naive, I did not know I had to buy my own books!
I remember the first night, my RA took me to another room to meet another RA. We were sitting there getting aquainted, and another girl came in and said: "I'm F*****G hungry, let's go get dinner!" Well. I swear that my ears turned red. I was NOT used to that kind of language. If you credit peer pressure, I know that in several weeks I was speaking the same way to fit in!
We were about 75 miles south of Washington,DC. There was one tv in the rec room downstairs. We got very poor radioi reception, so our primary form of entertainment was the stereo. Guess that's why Classic Rock is still a big part of my life. We had a pay phone in the hall, and mail delivery at the front desk. Can't help wondering how WE would have turned out differently if we had all this modern stuff. I'm grateful we didn't.
Peace, Love, and Rock 'n Roll,
Donna in Southern Maryland
(PS> We were also able to get "The Pill" free at the Infirmary!) :o)
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "I have been reading a lot in recent years about the damage done to kids by over-boosting their self-esteem by praising them about every little thing. Food for thought about emotional stunting, Michael.....Here are some articles:"Thanks, JoAnn. Those links didn't work for me in this format -- if those were in previous thread, I'll try from there. The problem I've found is, the people who buy into these kinds of things are horrified by any suggestion that they may not be the right approach after all. And many people do buy into them, for various reasons.
Mod
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/featur...
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/art...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0302/p0...
Mod
Sounds like my experience, Donna. Those lines for the pay phone were atrocious and if you were waiting for a special call....forget it! Our joke was that we went to college in "Radio- Free Newark" (that would be Newark, DE) because we had no reception unless we held a radio out a window on the top floor of the dorm.
I was in college a few years before you - before the day of birth control pills being handed out in the infirmary. Maybe they had not even been invented then!
Currently reading Draw One in the Dark. Not my usual fare (it is an urban fantasy) but it has been a quick read so far.Will probably pick up A Hell of a Woman An Anthology of Female Noir next.
I started college in '68 & my experience is similar, as well. I thought Texas was out of the loop, as there were no protests. What was the point of college, i wondered, if not to protest. I kid you not, i wasn't really clear on what else one did at university. Later i learned we were to eat (Frosh 15 was true but not a term then in use) & fall in love weekly. We had a 10PM curfew weeknights, which was extended to midnight on Saturdays. The next year it all changed & there were no curfews! Of course i was out of there by then...i lasted only one term, as might be clear by what i knew about college. ;-)
deborah
Mod
In talking to some of my high school friends this year, and especially my "First Love," we have talked about the fact that we were right in the middle of the changing times. We were born in '53. There HAD been rules about dating and such, and then "boom" there weren't any. It's confusing enough to be a teenager at any time, but it seemed especially rough for us.
BTW, I consider it a real gift to have been able to reconnect with that old first love. We are both very happily married, so it was wonderful to have some very frank e-mail exchanges about what went on from each perspective. It really cleared up some lingering doubts that had haunted me (and him as well)for all these years. I don't think many people get that opportunity.
Tallking about the "Freshman 15" Deborah......I remember a girl one night saying that her mom had told her one of three things would happen. "You either gain weight, lose, weight, or stay the same!" Well, duh! We had a good laugh over that one! :o)
Donna in Southern Maryland
I was on the University of Iowa campus the day of the Kent State murders. Nothing can scare you more that to see guardsmen or troopers looking out of windows with rifles. I think this was about finals time.Deb in ATL
Mod
Deb, Last year my DH was at a rock concert with our GrandNephew. The band Gov't Mule, played "Ohio." At intermission, GN asked about the song. DH ended up giving all the 'youngsters' around him a history lesson. They didn't know about it and couldn't imagine.....'4 dead on O-Hi-O.'
Donna in Southern Maryland
It was a scary deal. I know I wanted to get away from there. Of course, I had to call home and make arrangements for somebody to come get me. Debbie
How scary, Deb! I cannot imagine handling that at such a young age. It shook me up & i was hundreds of miles away.deborah
Mod
And after a week away from it, I finally gave up on Wintergirls ...it was just way too depressing and I did not like the writing style at all....including all the crossed-out words which were so darn annoying.
I found it to be a much lesser book than SPEAK by the same author.
It would have helped had I been able to feel ANY sympathy for Lia, one of the least likable characters I have ever met. I hated her wallowing and wanted to SMACK her! LOL
Mod
I loved the setting on the Italian Riviera, in Portofino, and enjoyed learning about that area. The descriptions of the jewelry, the food, the clothes, the locale were amazing. I was stumped right up to the delightful ending.
I have the third book headed my way at the library and since my library system does not have the fourth book, I ordered it from ABEBooks today...$1.89 plus shipping!
Mod
Donna in Southern Maryland
: "Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "Too funny, Deborah! We didn't have a protest at St. Mary's until '73, I think it was. Tear gas and everything! It was a scary night. Don't even remember what the protest was over.
Donna: There must be a lot of places named St. Mary's in so. Maryland. My mother went to a boarding school in Leonardtown,Maryland called St. Marys. Among her things I found after she died was a cookbook from 1959 with contributions from many past students there.
Mod
Right you are, Deborah. St. Mary's is one of the three counties on the Southern Maryland peninsula. Leonardtown is the County Seat, and it's about 45 minutes south of me. My neice attended that same school in the 60's as a Catholic Day School. The buildings now are part of the College of Southern Maryland.
The Colony of Maryland was settled in 1635 when colonists including Father Andrew White landed at St. Mary's City on the Ark & the Dove. The colony was founded for religious freedom.
I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland, located in St. Mary's City. It is annually on the list of top 10 small liberal arts colleges.
Check out http://www.stmaryscity.org/
Donna in "Southern Maryland" :o)
Mod
Mod
"
Something must be wonky in GoodReads. Your St. Mary's City link took me to a GoodReads page! LOL
Here is the link for Priceless
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38...
and the link for St. Mary's City:
http://www.stmaryscity.org/
Mod
I love the waterfront webcam on the school's website:
http://www.smcm.edu/about/watercam.html
Mod
I love the waterfront webcam on the school's website:
http://www.smcm.edu/about/waterca..."
Isn't it nice? That was the view I had every morning! BTW, thanks for fixing the links. Something MUST be wonky!
Donna in Southern Maryland
Mod
There is NO WAY both of us could have screwed up our links!
Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland, located in St. Mary's City. It is annually on the list of top 10 small liberal arts colleges..."How interesting that this has come up; we are going to see a few colleges with our 11th grader next week, and St. Mary's is one of them. The campus looks beautiful, and the school sounds excellent; I just wonder how our city-born and -bred student would handle the rural location. He is a camper and something of an outdoorsman, though. Any tips or advice, Donna?
Mod
How interesting that this has come up; we are going to see a few colleges with our 11th grader next week, and St. Mary's is one of them. The campus looks beautiful, and the school sounds excellent; I just wonder how our city-born and -bred student would handle the rural location. He is a camper and something of an outdoorsman, though. Any tips or advice, Donna?
Well, Michael, I was there from '71 to '75, so that was a looooooong time ago! It has certainly grown since I was there. It is still small, which I very much like. If you don't know everybody, at least you know everybody's face. It's about an hour and a half from DC, so it's very rural, but not that far. I live about 40 minutes north of the campus.
It depends on what your son is looking for. It is a beautiful place, with lots of very important boosters. Ben Bradlee, former editor of the Wash Post, is still on the Board, I believe. They have famous journalists visit to lecture --I know Tom Brokaw was there last year. Since it is located in St. Mary's City, there's a lot of archeology that goes on, and he can participate if he's interested.
Southern Maryland is set on a peninisula, with the Potomac on one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other. On one hand, it is very rural with lots of farms and a large Amish Community. On the other, Pax River NAS is close to the college, and the area has grown by leaps and bounds since the base realignemnt put a heliocopter development center there (I think that's what it is.) There are also lots of housing communities that house all the government workers in the area.
I've lived here all my life, and it's a very vibrant, beautiful, interesting area that very few people across the country know about. Mention Maryland when you travel, and most people will mention Baltimore or Annapolis. That's why I always sign off as...........
Donna in Southern Maryland
PS. Feel free to holler if I can offer any more help for your visit. :o)
I finished Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, which I had to do because a good friend gave it to me for my birthday last July, so you can see I was in a rush to read it :) If one is very fond of graphic descriptions of bodily functions, this is the book for you! I did enjoy it on some level - absolute insanity and lots of imagination. Definitely liked it better than his Diary which struck me as rather mundane. I knew where the plot was going from page 1 practically and thought it a worn out plot at that.Am now reading, for lack of anything else as I've been too sick and too busy to go to the book store, Sea of Poppies by Amitov Ghosh. It's a very interesting look at the British run opium trade in India. Several characters tell the story, which is OK. I like all of them and have no idea where the story's going and how they're all going to end up together. Definitely I'll finish it.
I am reading a debut novel. The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden. Keeping my interest. About a mother whose kids are grown and she decides to leave and make a go on her own.
Bunny wrote: RE: CHOKE: "If one is very fond of graphic descriptions of bodily functions, this is the book for you! I did enjoy it on some level - absolute insanity and lots of imagination...."Well written, Bunny. I like the creative aspects of his imagination but the body business becomes less & less interesting as i read more of his books.
deborah
Mod
Sounds good, thanks for the title. I just read a few pages online and think I will pick it up at my library tomorrow.
I started Mennonite in a Little Black Dress A Memoir of Going Home on audio (narration by Hillary Huber) today.
Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "Southern Maryland is set on a peninisula, with the Potomac on one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other. On one hand, it is very rural with lots of farms and a large Amish Community. On the other, Pax River NAS is close to the college, and the area has grown by leaps and bounds since the base realignemnt put a heliocopter development center there... I've lived here all my life, and it's a very vibrant, beautiful, interesting area that very few people across the country know about..."We've driven through the Amish area many times, heading down toward Budd's Creek and then over, crossing the Potomac on Rte. 301. I agree that it is beautiful, peaceful, and interesting. Maybe I will email you with one or two more questions relating to the college. Thanks, Donna!
Mod
This newer book is a look inside the Orthodox Jewish culture and shows how two observant families cope with the demands placed upon them by their more Orthodox children. I am probably saying that wrong....."more Orthodox" in this case meaning more strictly observant.
I should mention that the Jewish vocabulary in this book has been really off-putting until I decided that I just need to skim it and not try to figure out the meaning.
Mod
If you've driven that road, we live less than 10 miles from there. Enjoy your visit, and holler if I can help.
Sando wrote: I started Mennonite in a Little Black Dress A Memoir of Going Home on audio (narration by Hillary Huber) today.
There's also a large Mennonite Community in St. Mary's County!
Donna in Southern Maryland
I just finished OUTTAKES FROM A MARRIAGE by Ann Leary. It has great reviews on the back cover, including one from Frank McCourt. It's a quick read, very likeable, and the characters each have a life--which isn't the case these days in too many novels!
I finished A Time To Embrace by Karen Kingsbury last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Next up Land Girls by Angela Huth. Something I found on the shelves at the library yesterday.
Mod
Isn't THIS the truth, Shannon?
Looked this book up and it sounds good...and I love the cover art. My library system has the audio..I think I will reserve that soon.
>>Next up Land Girls by Angela Huth. Something I found on the shelves at the library yesterday. <<I read Land Girls about ten years ago and really enjoyed it. Also saw the movie that was based on the book and found it entertaining enough.
JoAnn: I am reading The Outside World by Tova Mirvis who also wrote The Ladies Auxiliary a few years ago )and I really like that book).....----------------------------
I have both books by her on my TBR list after you recommended them to me when I was reading The Unchosen. The Unchosen, by the way, had a small dictionary of Yiddish terms in the back of the book. It was very helpful.
Make sure you post your final thougts on The Outside World. Though it sounds like I should start with The Ladies Auxiliary.
Mod
The Outside World has improved since I posted last night.
JoAnn, I think OUTTAKES would be a great book to listen to. The author's voice (in her writing) has a lot of personality, and I'm betting the audio would do it justice.I've picked up Frank Delaney's latest Irish book called SHANNON. I've found him to be a reliable historian and storyteller in the past, so I'm looking forward to this one.
Mod
"
GREAT!
Mod
Donna in Southern Maryland
Reading
. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's only detective story, discovered in manuscript and recently published for the first time. Husband and wife detective team reminiscent of The Thin Man. Haven't got far enough to spoil the plot for anyone... Charles
I finished Song of the Lark this morning. It took ages, not because it wasn't good - it was very good - but because I had it loaded on my iPod, and only read it in spare moments. I enjoy Cather's writing, with its emphasis on place, and on the lives of both ordinary and extraordinary people. She also has a sense of place, and of how place shapes a person. This novel is about Thea Kroneberg, a young woman with great musical talent from a little Colorado town. It traces her girlhood, early family life, lessons, travel and study, loves, and eventual career as an international opera star. I've read that it is the most autobiographical of Willa Cather's novels; it suggests something of the sacrifices an artist must make to excel.
OT, re St Mary's:Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "If you've driven that road, we live less than 10 miles from there. Enjoy your visit, and holler if I can help"
Donna, I'm hollering because I can't email to your private-profile status. So, my question about St. Mary's is, do students stay on campus on weekends, or do a substantial number (say, 25%) head home? I realize you may not know current campus customs; if so, how about when you were there?
Mod
Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "If you've driven that road, we live less than 10 miles from there. Enjoy your visit, and holler if I can help"
Donna, I'm hollering becaus..."
Michael, I'm sorry you could not e-mail me. Didn't realize about the setting, I'll fix it. As far as weekends at St. Mary's........gosh, let me see if I can remember that far back! :o) I'd say back then,I'd average going home 1 weekend a month. So yes, I'd say your 25% figure is about right for back then. My home was about an hour and 10 minutes north. Most kids had homes farther away than me. I have no idea what it is now...........
Of course there is far more to do in the closest town, Lexington Park, than when I was there. Every kind of store, fast food, and even movie theaters! I was there for 2 years before we got a McDonald's. Some students now do get involved with working at Historic St. Mary's City as re-enactors, etc. HTH
Donna in Southern Maryland
I just finished Anne Rice's new one "Angel Time" in 2 sittings. I loved it! Have it in my book's read with my review.
My current read is "Cutting for Stone", which I'm pretty sure was recommended on Good Reads. I am enjoying it, and now I kind of want to go to Ethiopia. I've recently finished "The Girl Who Played with Fire", which I also enjoyed. Vanity Fair has an article on the author, including speculation that his death may have been a murder by Sweden's rightwing Nazi types (pretty flimsy evidence).
I just started a Nevada Barr mystery set in Isle Royale National Park. The title is Winter Study, and it is based on a real ongoing study of wolf packs in that park. She had another book set there, one of her first entitled A Superior Death, and that was the one that started me on the series.Nevada Barr
Winter Study
I recently finished two really good crime novels by two authors I saw on the same panel (A Town Called Malice: Where is as important as Whom) at the Baltimore Bouchercon last year. First was Raven Blackwhich was set on the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland by Ann Cleeves and then I read Sweeping Up Glass which was set in depression era Kentucky by Carolyn Wall.I just started Hardly Knew Her Stories a collection of short stories by Laura Lippman and am listening to The English Assassin by Daniel Silva with the narration by John Lee.
Mod
Sherry, this one is very intense. Let me know what you think when you finish!
Donna in Southern Maryland
Readers and Reading
Books mentioned in this topic
The Great Gatsby (other topics)Dom Casmurro (other topics)
Raven Black (other topics)
Sweeping Up Glass (other topics)
The English Assassin (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Laura Lippman (other topics)Carolyn Wall (other topics)
Daniel Silva (other topics)
Ann Cleeves (other topics)
Nevada Barr (other topics)
More...
message 541: by Donna in Southern Maryland 16 hours, 6 min ago
The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
There was snow on the ground when my time came. I'd expected pain but, Reader! How could this be! I bellowed, I know I did.
"It's like shitting a pumpkin, it is," I cried.
"Shut up, if you can, girl," said Dinah, the midwife, "for you're hurting my ears and you'll be fine in the end. I'm feared your baby'll be deef with the noise you're making."
"I'll never be fine in my end again," I panted, which made her laugh herself, but then the pains started back up and so did my shrieks.
When it was all over, I cried for my mother, to think what the poor thing suffered for all of us. And then I did what I'd seen my mother do for my whole childhood, and that was to open my shift for the baby and let it nurse.
I found this new book on the shelves at the Library. The cover drew my eye, and I opened to the first page and read the above. Don't have any idea why, but I was hooked. It's 259 pages, and I read it in 2 days. Set in Victorian times, it tells the story of Susan Rose, who follows in her mother's footsteps as a wet nurse.
Hard to believe, but in Victorian times in England, it was the normal thing for women of a certain station in life to hire a wet nurse; doing it yourself was seen as a low class thing. Sprinkled throughout the story are different stories of why the women required a wet nurse.
I've just finished it, and I think I'll give it 4 stars; lovely, unexpected, humorous in places, an enjoyable book.
Donna in Southern Maryland
================================
message 540: by JoAnn/QuAppelle 17 hours, 3 min ago
I have been reading a lot in recent years about the damage done to kids by over-boosting their self-esteem by praising them about every little thing. Food for thought about emotional stunting, Michael.....Here are some articles:
Self Esteem - Can Kids Have Too Much?
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/...
Too Much of a Good Thing
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/articl...
Has Generation Y Overdosed on Self-Esteem?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0302/p01s0...
==============================
message 539: by linreadsalot 20 hours, 0 min ago
I finished up Visions Of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich early this morning.
Picking A Time To Embrace by Karen Kingsbury next.
==============================
message 538: by Richiesheff Nov 03, 2009 12:48PM
I remember when I went away to college in the early 70's and my parents took me there and helped me move in, but that was that. We were not allowed cars on campus, so unless somebody from your town was going home, you stayed on campus. I might have gotten to call once a week, but mostly you waited for the mail delivery. When my daughter went to college, there were cell phones and cars, but we tried to discourage her from coming home every weekend, because the college experience can be so rewarding. She has made such good friends.
=============================
message 537: by R. Nov 03, 2009 12:15PM
Michael asked: Is there any reason other than over-involved parenting that you think is at work here, R? Have we somehow stunted (emotionally) a generation of young people?
Not all kids or famlies are this way of course. However,I do think the cell phone has become the biggest umbilical cord in the world. My hubby and a friend were saying the other day that they got dropped off with their stuff at college and except for a once a week phone call that was it! Now even mine call at the drop of a hat and training them to mostly be proactive for themselves is a work in progress!
==============================
message 536: by Michael Nov 03, 2009 08:33AM
Is there any reason other than over-involved parenting that you think is at work here, R? Have we somehow stunted (emotionally) a generation of young people?
R. wrote: "As the Mother of 3 in college right now and most recently had a senior in high school I can say that getting this generation to actually stay and graduate from the schools that seems "right" for them is the hard part. This generation has had an entire life scheduled by parents from day one. Also,Mommy and Daddy are their "best friends" so jr. and Sissy find it hard going to actually organize themselves and they miss their best friends just way too much. This is a problem not just here in the Haddonfield,NJ area but all over the lower 48!"
============================
message 535: by Sandi Nov 03, 2009 06:38AM
Just started Nine Coaches Waiting on audio (narration by Davina Porter). This is my first by Mary Stewart.
Also, reading
The Machine A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series-The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (I can't believe Sparky Anderson was only 41 in 1975, he seemed ancient to me back then).