Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
>
What are U reading these days? (PART SIX) (2010)
Thanks for the links, Jackie.
Thanks for the link, Joy! (I'm usually too lazy to supply them myself. :-))
Werner, I think you're busy, not lazy. I'm retired and have more time.
Jackie and Werner: I have read Eternity Road and it is quite good.
Thanks, Joy --"busy" sounds a lot better. :-) (And with all the irons I've got in the fire, it's pretty much the truth, too!)Mary JL, glad to hear you liked it, too! One of these days, I need to post a review of it here on Goodreads; as with so many things I've read, I haven't gotten around to that yet.
Werner, don't rush for me. I have plenty to keep me busy until we can read Tuck.Yes, I have read Eternity Road. I like McDevitt's Alex Benedict series too.
Thanks, Jackie --no, I won't rush on your account. (I'll rush on MY account --I want to find out what happens!! :-))
Please tell me what IMO means, confused?. I gave Blonde Bombshell no stars.It would have been better without the vulgar dialect.Didn't add much to the story line. nina
Nina: In My OpinionI too cannot stand unnecessary vulgarities. If it doesn't add to the story, why put it in? And I can see no reason for gratuitous vulgaritites.
I saw a good, Netflix last night, "Owl and Sparrow." It was set in Vietnam; had subtitles. Great acting. Not a war movie. Maybe it was interesting to me as my granddaughter teaches English to kindergarterners there. nina
I suggested a good movie, but I didn't get the title correct, It is "Did you Hear about the Morgans?" It stars Hugh Grant and it is enjoyable to watch. nina
Nina wrote: "I saw a good, Netflix last night, "Owl and Sparrow." It was set in Vietnam; had subtitles. Great acting. Not a war movie. Maybe it was interesting to me as my granddaughter teaches English to kinde..."Here's the Netflix link:
"Owl and the Sparrow" (2007)
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Owl-and-...
"This movie is: Understated, Feel-good, Romantic, Heartfelt."
Language: Vietnamese
Nina wrote: "... I gave Blonde Bombshell no stars.It would have been better without the vulgar dialect.Didn't add much to the story line. nina"I saw the movie but I don't recall the vulgar dialect.
"The Last of the Blonde Bombshells"(2000)
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Last...
"Judi Dench is delightful in this comedic look at aging gracefully."
-from a customer review at Netflix
One word I thought quite dreadful was the "f" word at her husband's funeral. It was supposed to be funny. It wasn't to me. nina
Nina wrote: "One word I thought quite dreadful was the "f" word at her husband's funeral. It was supposed to be funny. It wasn't to me. nina"Nina, If I could stream the film, I'd watch it again just to refresh my memory. :)
I just finished A Land Remembered & reviewed it. It was pretty good, reminding me of the Bicentennial series by John Jakes.
Thanks, Jim. While reading the GR description of _A Land Remembered_ (1984), I learned a new word: "cracker" - a poor white person in the southern United States.I also learned that the book earned the following literary award:
"Tebeau Prize for the Most Outstanding Florida Historical novel"
'Cracker' is often used as a derogatory term for poor white people, just like 'redneck'. Personally, I've never understood how 'redneck' could be a bad thing. It epitomizes poor, but very tough people who made due with very little in some of the harshest conditions & stood up for their rights. Wikipedia has a good write-up about the origins of 'redneck', if you're interested. Basically it was coal miners unionizing & going up against both the rich & the US government, defending their right to do so. Very scary stuff that shows our government has been bought & paid for - has been for years.
'Cracker', in the case of this book, has the word originating from or used to mean the cattle herders & their use of & reliance on bullwhips. There are other derivations of the word, though. The oldest is poor people that had cracked corn as one of their dietary staples. Another is from slave drivers & yet another is from the low paying job of cracking nuts for a living.
That's interesting, Jim, about the derivation of the word "cracker". Thanks.
All that description is interesting. I had heard the word, Cracker, all my growing up and just thought it meant poor southerner but didn't think it meant anything derisive. The other definitions are good. As for Redneck, it got a bad meaning along the way. I thought it meant they were outdoor workers so their necks got dirty red from the soil and then they started referring to nasty Southern sherifs as "red necks. nina
I had thought the red in "redneck" was the sunburn on the back of their necks.However, Wiki says:
=====================================================
"Redneck is historically a derogatory slang term to refer to poor white Southern farmers in the United States. It is similar in meaning to "cracker" (especially in Georgia and Florida), "hillbilly" (especially in Appalachia) and "white trash" (especially among African-Americans).
"The most common American usage, referring to the poor rural white Southerner, is probably derived from individuals having a red neck caused by working outdoors in the hot sun."
"In recent decades the term expanded its meaning to mean bigoted, loutish and opposed to modern ways, and has often been used to attack Southern conservatives and segregationists. At the same time, many members of the U.S. Southern community have set out to reclaim the word, using it as a self-identifier..."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck
====================================================
Wiktionary says:
====================================================
"Redneck - Compound of red + neck (referring to the red neckerchiefs worn by unionized workers during the mine wars in West Virginia)"
"1.(slang) An uneducated, unsophisticated, or poor white person, typically used to describe residents (of either gender) of the rural US."
"2.(slang) The nickname given to miners who wore red bandanas for identification during the West Virginia mine war of 1921."
FROM:http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/redneck
====================================================
I am currently reading Book #7 in W. E. B. Griffin's series The Corps--"Behind the Lines".It covers the period in World War II after the Phillipines fell, and soldiers are forming a guerilla/resistance movement.
Last night I started Lost Souls, #4 in the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz. I've enjoyed the series thus far and am confident that I'll enjoy the rest. Still waiting on Tuck from the library.
This proves you are never too old to learn something new. I just assumed the term, "redneck" meant they had red dust from the red soil in GA on their necks and didn't know about sunburned or red kerchiefs in WV. I am currently reading a book recommend by someone recently on Goodreads which I believe started us discussing Cracker and redneck. So far, so good; it's "A Land Remembered," by Patrick D. Smith. It is set in FL from 1863 to 1968. The author has won several literary prizes. nina
Everybody's reading but me. LOL I really have to go to the library and pick up some books.
Joy, we have another book sale at the library on Oct 8, 9 and 10.
Nina wrote: "This proves you are never too old to learn something new. I just assumed the term, "redneck" meant they had red dust from the red soil in GA on their necks and didn't know about sunburned or red ke..."I just finished it. I wasn't happy with the end, but it was pretty good. I think they must have been pretty shy on nominations the year it won best Florida Historical Novel, though. I didn't think the writing was that good. Some of the dialogue was horrible & the writing was uneven. Even so, I'm glad I read it.
Jackie wrote: "Joy, we have another book sale at the library on Oct 8, 9 and 10."Thanks, Jackie. I'm trying to get rid of my old books these days. So I try to borrow books from the library when I want to read them.
You can always donate any old books to the library too. The Lake George library is so small that they cannot hold an official book sale but from donated books, they have a shelf of books for sale which helps bring in much needed revenue.
Yes, Jackie, I've been donating my old books to the library a few at at time.
I wish I could keep a lot of books but I just don't have the room for it.
I try to stay down to just a few thousand books. It gets tougher every year. Terrible problem to have - NOT!
;-)
LOLI wish I had property to put up a huge barn size building to be my library. Ah, perchance to dream...
I have several books in my home "library" that I haven't read so i picked up Jeffery Archer's, "First Among Equals," last night and was disappointed in it. I used to really like him but maybe the plot just wasn't my thing. nina
When I moved last year, I had to get rid of lots of my old books. I used to keep mostly everything but I was downsizing to a smaller apartment.Oh, my freinds, that HURT! Books are my friends--I hated to give them up. But, I am not going to have time to re-read most of them.
I sold 350 to the local used bookstore, and donated about 150 to charity.
And, I still have over a thousand left!
What I am attempting to do is keep the ones that might be hard to replace. So I am getting rid of the more popular authors--because they would be more readily available at the library if I DID need to find them.
Yes, MaryJL, I agree. It HURTS when we have to let go of our favorite things.
I went to pick up Tuck at the library and found some incredible jewels for only $2.00Two Andre Norton books, and almost the entire Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 14 out of the 20 books series! And two non-darkover Bradley books. I'm so excited. I've read a few Darkover novels and have always wanted the rest but the series is so big that I didn't want to spend the money on so many books. Now I have almost the whole series. The $2.00 spent will justify spending more on the rest, LOL
Jackie: Should you ever find "The Colors of Space" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, I highly recommend it. It was Bradley's first novel; originally marketed as a juvenile.A good example of her early writing style. Is it one of the two non-Darkover novel you found? It has a special place in my heart, as it was the first book by Bradley I read.
Mary JL, No, the non-darkovers novels are: Falcons of Narabedla and The Brass Dragon.
Falcons isn't part of the official Darkover chronology, but it is 'marginally' tied to Darkover. It's publication date is 1957 and the first Darkover novel, The Planet Savers, had a publication date of 1958. Maybe I'll read it first just to be on the safe side. However, the Darkover novels were each written to stand as a separate story and the individual novel plots are not dependent upon one another. Bradley herself said to read them in the order they were published rather than the Darkovan chronological order.
The Colors of Space sounds really good and I'll put it on my To Buy list. Thanks, Mary JL
Isn't it awesome, Jim? And this isn't even the big book sale I'm going to on 10/8. I hope I'm equally lucky then.
The only Darkover novel I ever read was The Spell Sword, back in the 80s. Personally, while the premise of the series was intriguing, I wasn't very impressed with the execution of that one; I thought it had a pretty thin, by-the-numbers sort of plot, and I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters. But maybe that's just me; and of course, it doesn't mean that the other Darkover novels are all written in the same mediocre way, either --Bradley might just have been a bit off her game with this one.
I find I can usually connect with Bradley's female lead characters. Even if they're not great, I'll still be happy to read this series in it's entirety, eventually.
I met Marion Zimmer Bradley at a local SF convention here. I had two copies of "The Colors of Space" with me--the original 1963 juvenile and the re-issued edition from Strablza Press, which has a few slight differences in the text. She was gracious enough to sign both for me and we spoke for just a few minutes. She was recovering from a stroke she'd had the previousyear, and died the next year.
Those signed copies are among my treasure.
I also treasure the memory of her kind words. One classy lady.
Mary JL, that is fantastic! MZB is one person I'd love to have met. She's one of my favorite authors. She's provided strong female characters in a time when scifi-fantasy was generally a male-dominated genre.Next to The Mists of Avalon, her The Firebrand is my favorite MZB book. It's the story of Troy but from the perspective of Kassandra, a minor character in the original Iliad. It was amazing and I highly recommend that one, especially you like Greeky mythology.
I finished Lost Souls last night (which was outstanding) and decided to dive right into a re-read of Desert Places. I ordered the sequel, Locked Doors: A Thriller, which should arrive within the next two weeks. Since Werner and I will be starting Tuck next week, this was the best available time for me to start DP and still be ready for LD when it arrives. Desert Places was one of the best thrillers I've ever read and one of the rare times when I wished for a sequel. It was so good I literally could not put it down and read it in one night. Now, with years having passed, I'm sure I've forgotten much of the details and really need to refresh my memory. I'd always planned on re-reading DP anyway...and now's that time.
Jackie, I love the way you enjoy your books!
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Thirteenth Tale (other topics)A Game of Thrones (other topics)
The Sight (other topics)
Hotspur (other topics)
Aunt Dimity's Christmas (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Diane Setterfield (other topics)George R.R. Martin (other topics)
David Clement-Davies (other topics)
Rita Mae Brown (other topics)
Nancy Atherton (other topics)
More...
Have you read McDevitt's Eternity Road? That's a very good post-apocalyptic novel, IMO.