Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library discussion
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What Are You Reading? October 2011
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Angie
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Oct 03, 2011 01:29PM
Welcome! This ongoing discussion is your place to share what you are reading and what you think about it!
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I just finished reading Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, which has been generating a lot of buzz, and I think it is mostly worthy of it. It is about a Westish college baseball player, Henry Skrimshander, who is a can’t-miss pro prospect on the verge of setting the record for consecutive games without an error set by his shortstop idol, Aparicio Rodriguez. When an errant throw strikes a teammate in the face, it begins a crisis of confidence for Henry. This one throw, and Henry’s downward spiral, also affects other people in his orbit, including his roommate, Owen; the college president, Guert Affenlight; Guert’s daughter, Pella; and Henry’s teammate and personal coach, Mike Schwartz. This is a baseball novel with appeal for those who aren’t sports fans as well, due to its well-drawn characters and the focus on the shifting relationships between them. At times it reminded me a bit of David James Duncan’s The Brother's K, another novel with a character’s struggling baseball career at its core, although Duncan’s novel is more expansive in terms of time and setting.
I quickly became wrapped up in the characters of the novel, especially Mike Schwartz, the burly catcher whose own career suffers as he becomes increasingly devoted to mentoring Henry. Surprisingly, Henry's struggles almost take a backseat to the other characters in the book's second half. Without giving anything away, I really liked how Harbach handled the ending to Henry’s part of the story.
In other sports-related reading, I just finished the ESPN oral history Those Guys Have All the Fun. I listened to the audiobook, which may not have been the best format for this book, because I would often forget who was telling each story in the middle and couldn’t easily flip back to check. It focused more on the business side of the network’s evolution, and less on the personalities and the sporting events they covered. After reading this, I really want to read a book based solely on the experiences of the women working in such a male-dominated place and industry, which is occasionally mentioned but with frustratingly little detail.
Just as I finished reading "Catching Fire" I found "Mockingjay" in my box!Safe to say, this isn't a book I would recommend reading when you're waiting for the doctor in a closed in office by yourself. Just saying.
So far, I've found it less engaging and less dark than "Catching Fire." There were periods in "Catching Fire" where I didn't think I would read another chapter, but Mockingjay is, so far, surprisingly mild compared to the first two books. I expect that to change as I've just entered the third, and last, portion of the book.
Mod
Update: I definitely ended the book feeling really excited about the next release in the series. There was some interesting character development near the end of the book that has me wondering what he's going to do with the "cast" as he continues the story...I'm looking forward to finding out!
Just finished "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson. I enjoyed it, but think Larson chose the wrong character as the central point. Instead of choosing Ambassador Dodd he should have gone with his daughter Martha. However, I can see where Larson would have a hard time writing from Martha's perspective. Overall it gives the perspective of the time on why we didn't stop Hitler when he took control.
I had received several books that I requested all at once so I've been trying to catch up, and get them back to the libary for the next patron. My book club meets Monday so I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I have seen and enjoyed the movie. I'm not sure I would be enjoying the book as much if I hadn't seen the movie because there are some things I would have a hard time visualing some things that are happening. Considering I've hadn't had much time to read I'm already 13% of the way through it.
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I have always wanted to read this author. I think I'll have to grab one of his books when I'm finished with what I'm reading now, Jean Plaidy's The Thistle and the Rose. She writes historical fiction which I enjoy reading every now and then.
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I'm really excited to read this book! I'll keep in mind what you said about the daughter.
I am reading three very different books right now. Variety is the spice of life! I am reading Jane Kirkpatrick's historical fiction, Where Lilacs Still Bloom. I got my hands on an advanced reading copy and unfortunately this book is not out until April 17, 2012. I am also reading Apparition & Late Fictions by Thomas Lynch. Thomas Lynch is an undertaker in Milford, Michigan and also lives in Clare, Ireland. This is a group of short stories linked by the "gone and not forgotten". They are very good short stories and I thought it would be a good book to read in October. My last book is Snakes in Suits by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare. Robert Hare devised the checklist for psychopaths that was discussed in one of the last books I read, Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test. These books are all so different from each other but each one very interesting to me.
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I've read a couple of books by Card. My personal favorite is "Songmaster", which I would highly recommend.
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I'm currently entertaining a book called "The Magician" in the "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series. It's got a cliche premise but it involves a lot of folklore and mythology from a myriad of cultures from around the world, but mostly the western half. Like the Morrigan, a celtic goddess, and the Valkyries from the norse mythologies, and that's only the beginning. I'm hoping as the series continues that it delves deeper into ancient eastern beliefs, but I like the author's perspective into the beliefs of our ancestors.
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I am reading John Flanagan's "The Lost Stories" the fillers for his series "Ranger's Apprentice" which ended, to much sadness by his fans, in Book 10. This is clearly a set of story plots he either took out or abandoned when writing his series. They do add to the overall understanding of the characters and help to say goodbye to the series. This is a great series for anyone 10 and up - very robin hood meets the lone ranger. I have read the "Alchemist" the first in the "Nicholas Flamel"series and really liked it. I would recommend it for 12 and up - I haven't read the rest series as yet but I am working on it, among other things.
I am starting "Throw like a girl" a book by Olympic Gold medalist and super athlete/softball pitcher, Jennie Finch. It was recommended and looks like a good book for aspiring softball stars in what can be done in the field of Softball even making it a livelihood. It deals with, among other things, where to go to college, how and when to get coaches, how to balance the rest of life with top level competitive sports. There are far too few guidance books for girls in sports. I hope this one turns out to be a good one. I will let you know.
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I have really enjoyed reading Card's science fiction; Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorites. This book has the superb wordsmithing and imagination that made the Ender series so good, but it's sparkling with magic! Another that he wrote in the fantasty category is Enchantment, and I recommend it as a romantic and magical story that kept me captivated until the end. :)
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I haven't read that one, I'll definitely check it out!
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Sounds like another good magical read...I have such a great list of titles growing right now, with magic and myth as the common theme. :)
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I have also read all of her titles under the pseudonym Philippa Carr, a series of historical fiction that follows the women of a family generation after generation, starting with the time of King Henry VIII. Have you ever read them?
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I have also read all of her titles under the pseudonym Philippa Carr, a seri..."
I have not read any Philippa Carr books. I will have to try that series. Thanks!
Over the weekend, I read Julie Otsuka's slim, beautiful book, The Buddha in the Attic. (Otsuka's first book, When the Emperor Was Devine was a community reads pick.)In this novella, Otsuka documents the lives of Japanese picture brides: their arrival in the United States, married to husbands and adopting lives that do not live up to the promises they had been led to believe when leaving Japan; their lives as wives and mothers and workers; and their forced removal to internment camps during World War II.
The book is told from the first person plural perspective, as in the book's opening lines:
"On the boat we were mostly virgins. We had long black hair and flat wide feet and we were not very tall. Some of us had eaten nothing but rice gruel as young girls and had slightly bowed legs, and some of us were only fourteen years old and were still young girls ourselves. Some of us came from the city, and wore stylish city clothes, but many more of us came from the country and on the boat we wore the same old kimonos we'd been wearing for years--faded hand-me-downs from our sisters that had been patched and redyed many times."
The result is an evocative, lyrical portrait of the lives of the women, their husbands, and, in the moving final chapter, the townspeople left behind when all the Japanese disappeared. The story veers from the universal to the carefully chosen specifics--a sweater left behind at a friend's house, a woman dying in childbirth. In this way, it reminded me very much of Tim O'Brien's haunting story of Vietnam, The Things They Carried.
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I'm reading Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men. It's part of the series that the libary and Kansas Humanities Council bring in the fall and the spring. I realized Monday that we are meeting today (Wednesday), and I'm not going to get finished. I will have to get to the library early and check it out so I can finish it.
Melanie wrote: "I'm reading Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men. It's part of the series that the libary and Kansas Humanities Council bring in the fall and the spring. I realized Monday that we are meeting today (..."I haven't read Mules and Men, but I really like Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and her short stories. I imagine it will make for a great discussion.
The first part of Mules and Men is one to read a bit and put down then go back a bit later. It was even recommend to read some of it outloud. I'm into the second half which is more of the style I'm used to reading and will hopefully finish tonight or before the weekend.
