The Next Best Book Club discussion
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What are you reading?
I hadn't heard of it until No Country For Old Men opened in theatres.
Well, first there was the Pulitzer, then there was Oprah...the world just fell in line. :-)
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Charity, was Blood Meridian a tough read for you?
Ah...that makes sense. I dont watch Oprah, she's on while I'm at work and I don't use DVR.
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Lori, I may have to read Watchmen for the same reason.
I am absolutely loving Cannery Row. I've never been a big Steinbeck fan, but with passages like:Mack and the boys, too, spinning in their orbits. They are the Virtues, the Graces, the Beauties of the hurried mangled craziness of Monterey and the cosmic Monterey where men in fear and hunger destroy their stomachs in the fight to secure certain food, where men hungering for love destroy everything lovable about them. Mack and the boys are the Beauties, the Virtues, the Graces. In the world ruled by tigers with ulcers, rutted by strictured bulls, scavenged by blind jackals, mack and the boys dine delicately with the tigers, fondle the frantic heifers and wrap up the crumbs to feed the sea gulls of Cannery Row.
how could I not be happy? It's funny but some of the passages sound like better written versions of a lost Kerouac novel. I'd never seen any link between them before but now I can hardly avoid it. I may have to dive deeper into Steinbeck before this year is over.
No, Jesse. There was an unfortunate incident (uh, here) where I became quite frantic over locating a copy of the Border Trilogy for Sherry. She found a copy and order was restored (and most of my dignity was left unscathed).
Logan, it's been years since I've read it, but I remember enjoying Steinbeck's Travels With Charley.
okay, very little...let's not split hairs here.
So, Cannery Row huh? I'm going to be devouring all the Steinbeck on my shelf in the next few months.Being the nerdlette that I am, I've been drafting my to-read lists by season for the next 2 years. Now that is some quality OCD there!
*Lol* Yes Charity saved the day for me yesterday and was able to find me a copy of The Border Trilogy for under $30(it's typically more than $50 here in Canada).It was a good day to be me yesterday!
Wonderful passage Logan.I once had a copies of all Steinbecks works in a lovely leatherbound set that I had to give away because of a move.I still feel sick about it.I've learned to never get rid of books.You never know when you'll need them.
Sherry, I feel so sad for you. I once had to sell books in order to eat because I wasn't working. I think that is why I have such a compulsion for owning books. (I have since bought back all the books I had once sold.)Logan, I am glad you are enjoying Steinbeck. He is one of my favorite American authors. I actually came to him by way of East of Eden, as opposed to Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men - both of which are beautiful. I honestly can't think of one of his novels that I didn't love.
I had read both Of Mice and Men and East of Eden but for some reason never got to Cannery Row or Grapes of Wrath.Don't know why.Loved his writing though.
I know I read a couple Steinbacks in high...I just can't for the life of me remember which ones.
Wow, I leave work and come home and all of a sudden there are over 100 new posts on this thread! You guys are crazy!
Travels With Charley was a key book of my childhood, but aside from reading Of Mice & Men in Lit class I'd never ventured any deeper into Steinbeck than the first two chapters of Grapes of Wrath. Loving this book as intensely as I am is really opening up whole new vistas of potential reads. If I was wrong about Steinbeck, could I have been wrong about Hemingway? This boggles my mind!
I've read very little Steinbeck, but have read Grapes of Wrath countless times. That reminds me, has anyone read The Worst Hard Time? It deals with the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl era, giving personal accounts of those who actually stayed behind instead of leaving, like the Joads did. Fascinating book.
That sounds very interesting Val! I will have to add that to my ever-growing list.Logan, as a HUGE Hemingway fan, I am going to go with yes, you have been wrong about him. I would suggest reading Garden of Eden...it was the turning point book for me...then Moveable Feast and one cannot leave out Old Man and the Sea. Beautiful!
People often just write him off as a misogynist, war monger that loves bull fighting, but he is an amazingly wonderful writer and has a wonderful way with words and a way of writing between the lines that most people miss.
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Ok, I am still reading ORYX AND CRAKE. It is a good read, just very confusing. Some very scientific, futuristic stuff. But, I am almost done...
Somehow I ended up with everything that Steinbeck ever wrote. My mom gave me her whole book collection a few months back and she had a massive jones for Steinbeck. I also picked up a vast assortment of Russian Lit from her. They were the only things that I ever wanted to inherit and I got them while she's still alive, so it's a double score!
Wow Logan! That is a double score! The only books my mom has are about quilting and other sewing shenanigans and I have no interest in any of that.
East of Eden is one of my absolute favorite novels of all time but amazingly, I have not read any other Steinbeck. I really want to suggest Grapes of Wrath at my next book club meeting.Hemingway is someone I've been jonesing to get into lately too. I got through half of For Whom the Bell Tolls about 9 years ago and never finished.
Right now I'm in the middle of "Imperial Capitals of China" by Arthur Cotterell. An interesting enough read, as these things go, but the copy editor in me has been appalled by the egregious textual errors -- "bareness" for "barrenness," "dairy" for "diary," and it goes on and on.Fictionwise, I'm in the midst of the Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan's "Say You're One of Them," a collection of short stories about children surviving some truly harrowing experiences. The first story is about a 12-year-old prostitute and her family, and the second one (which I'm still reading) is about 2 children being "fattened" for eventual sale into slavery.
The physical conditions these characters find themselves in are gruesome but there's a certain elan about the children that saves the reader from utter despair.
Logan,lucky you!My mothers reading habits run more towards Danielle Steele and some cat solving mysteries,which sadly leaves us not a lot to talk about when it comes to books.How cool that your Mom is into Steinbeck.
I'm reading Dead Until Dawn by Charlaine HarrisVipi
I just finished Elie Wiesel's Night. I needed somthing a bit "light" after that so I am reading an adventure-thiller called The Last Oracle (James Rollins).
Terence, I hear you. When there are obvious errors in a book it makes the hair on my editorial skin raise. I have the desire to highlight the errors and send them to the publisher, offering my services.
Finished The Shack and really enjoyed it.Finally some other validation that i can believe in God without having to sit in a church and have rules thrown at me.I can see where some people are going to be very upset and I think it would make a excellent discussion for a bookclub.
On to The Secret for a rl bookclub.And Bloody Mary by J.A Konrath
man this is crazy, there were 164 new posts on this thread...
Morning Kirsty!
I am starting Ann Patchetts novel, Run. I saw her speak yesterday and found her so funny and insightful. I loved Bel Canto and Truth and Beauty. Has anyone read Run?
Christine, no I haven't but funnily enough I looked at it this morning. Let me know how you get on as I did quite fancy it.
Logan, glad to see you like Cannery Row. I have not read it yet, but it sits up there on my shelf waiting. I'd be interested to see if you like East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath on a 2nd try. Grapes of Wrath ended up leading me on a John Dos Passos kick and then Sinclair Lewis. I was so disgusted, yet intrigued, at how American citizens were being treated during the great depression.
I obtained my Steinbeck collection on Ebay. One of the best purchases I ever made.
I read through the 2nd and 3rd short stories within Haunted. Fortunately they were actually pretty good stories and far less repulsing than the 1st.
I obtained my Steinbeck collection on Ebay. One of the best purchases I ever made.
I read through the 2nd and 3rd short stories within Haunted. Fortunately they were actually pretty good stories and far less repulsing than the 1st.
Ken, I'm dying to know how your wife and daughter got on at the American Idol concert. Did David Cook have any little messages he wanted them to pass on to me?
Oh Jeremy, don't tell me that. I have 5 unread Steinbecks here and I'm already dying to read Sinclair's Babbitt and Main Street and Dos Passos's U.S.A. Trilogy. How many other books will Steinbeck lead to???
Melanie:I have been in a groove reading books WWII related:
Skeletons at the Feast - Bohjalian
Schindler's List
Night
Black Cross
Would recommend all, but also something with some laughs in between.
Well, since you asked....I read Grapes of Wrath and was dying to talk to someone about it. I mentioned it to a fellow reader at work (my old job) and commiserated about the great depression and all so he recommended the U.S.A. Trilogy. You know how we are, not being able to refuse recommendations, so off I went to the library. As I was crusing the shelves It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair of the Lewis variety jumped off the shelf at me so I put it on my internal TBR list (pre GR). And there you have it. The trilogy was decent but frustrating at times. It took me about 1 month and a 1/2 so you'll probably have them done in about 1 week. :) Then the Sinclair took forever because the book drove me nuts. Even the introduction said it wasn't written as well as Babbitt and Main St and it was a terrible follow up to The Road. So I'll give him another chance.
I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last night. I have a feeling I will be done with it tonight or tomorrow and after that I am going to dive into The Book Thief.
Tell us what you think Jessica!
Jessica I loved that book, I am an Occupational Therapist and worked with children with autism spectrum for a short while, and I thought the book gave such a great view at what life must be like for some people, and the book was just so beautifuly written and gave such a unique look at the little boy's world ... I really liked that book.
Yes, I'm only about 30 pages in right now and I'm enjoying it. I've never personally met anyone with autism so this is a new area for me to explore.
Curious Incident is one of my faves! It made me want to read some Doyle...so my brother loaned me a copy of Hound of the Baskervilles.
Lorena, that is fantastic. I have a 3 yr old boy on the spectrum. He had all the special therapists (a world that is so new to me) and is now going to special preschool right now. I have been amazed at the abilities of the OT, PT, ST and DT. They try to show my wife and I how to do what they do and don't realize that it is not so easy for the person without that sort of talent.
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The Next Best Book Club
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I need to read it.