On the Southern Literary Trail discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
General Bookishness
>
Retired: What are you reading?
Mod
dang if a bunch of yall haven't read this and liked it. Its on my list now thanks to Mz Barnes, Kirk, That lawyer guy, and Mz Copely.
Carol wrote: "I am midst two books: 
and 
. Each is very much of a place and very different. Each is wonderful."^^^ditto to what Diane said. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is one of my all time favorites too. Don't you love the chicken coop on wheels??
Mod
and . Each is very much of a place and very different. Each is wonderful."That's an excellent pair of books!
LeAnne wrote: "Carol wrote: "I am midst two books: and . Each is very much of a place and very different. Each is wonderful."..."
The chicken coop on wheels is brilliant, lol. I stopped reading at that moment to describe it to my husband and tweet to a friend about it.
Yay, Carol! I love how it showed us what a compassionate man he was, making life a little sweeter for his feathered ladies. The only other character Ive read that compare with that kindness is the young Russian army private, Kolya, when he trudges extra miles through snow to relieve some random dog's suffering. Franklin can write!
LeAnne wrote: "Yay, Carol! I love how it showed us what a compassionate man he was, making life a little sweeter for his feathered ladies. The only other character Ive read that compare with that kindness is the ..."I agree entirely. It is a rarity to find an author taking the time to show a character's values and thought processes with such a quirky and creative example.
LeAnne wrote: "Oooooo, I just added a five star book to my favorites list. For those of y'all who enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See, you won't believe this, but I somehow had it in the back of m..."His short story collection, Memory Wall, is also well worth the read.
Jennyyyyyyy - should I do Wall or Shells first? I am usually too shallow or too forgetful or too ADD to enjoy short stories, but certain collections do thrill me. Which set do you recommend first? Thanks!
LeAnne wrote: "Jennyyyyyyy - should I do Wall or Shells first? I am usually too shallow or too forgetful or too ADD to enjoy short stories, but certain collections do thrill me. Which set do you recommend first? ..."I can attest to Memory Wall being excellent. It was the first work of Doerr's that I read.
Mod
Mod
I'm most of the way through The Kitchen House so I can finally read my early copy of Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House which I hadn't realized was a sequel.
Lol Tom, and so, special when authors take the time to do that. Karin, reading Glory now, not too far into it but am enjoying.
I love when that happens too , Tom . I have had a few nice notes from authors as well and I'm always so thrilled !
Diane S ☔ wrote: "Lol Tom, and so, special when authors take the time to do that. Karin, reading Glory now, not too far into it but am enjoying."
Good to hear. I started it, barely, before finding out about the first one, and am looking forward to getting back to it.
Mod
Tom wrote: "My day is made! Homer Hickam liked my review of Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator. My review is here. [bookcover:..."
Welllll, I don't know if you have a real world book club or not, but FedExing him a bottle of wine & some local doo-dads, then setting up a phone-in author chat seems the logical next step! SO TICKLED FOR YOU!
Mod
I am a little out of sync with the group by reading
Love in a Dry Season because this was only available through an inter-library loan which someone suggested. Thanks so much, who ever you were.The Fallen Land
is on my bedside table sitting on top of
Lie Down in Darkness. What am I going to do? Dry Season has a climax lurking some where in the shadows. Characters are being built, despicable behavior has surfaced, financial and emotional carpetbaggers lurk. I so want this to end horridly. I think you guys will like it.
Dang it! I just can't keep up.
Mod
My review is here.
I read that about a year-and-a-half ago, it was on one of Stephen King's Entertainment Weekly annual lists.
Love in a Dry Season different than I expected but a satisfying end. a quick little read with twists and turns.
Love in a Dry season I adored one of my favorite novels along with Fitzgerald
I am one hundred pages in The Summer Before the War and cannot put it down
Jane wrote: "I am one hundred pages in The Summer Before the War and cannot put it down"I'm reading The Summer Before the War too. I also enjoyed Helen Simonson's first book, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Love the dry British humor!
I just finished a book of short storiesThe Garden Party and Other Stories by the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield.My review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I want to read The Summer Before the War, really liked Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Made me feel good, smile. Speaking of smiling, about to watch Outlander Season 2 Episode 1.
I want to read The Summer Before the War, really liked Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Made me feel good, smile. Speaking of smiling, about to watch Outlander Season 2 Episode 1.
The style is wonderful and spot on in The Summer Before the War I was surprised it is such a page turner for it reads to begin with like a comedy of manners
Jane, Connie, and Kim - Im nearly through my second reading of Major Pettigrew and bought the audio to go w my existing Kindle copy. The narration is hilariously done! I may check the narrator on her newer book and get it. Y'all convinced me :)
Mod
Mod
Even better, Homer has also agreed to participate in a Q&A in conjunction with next month's reading of Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator. That means that two of the authors we will be reading in May will participate.
I listened to the audio book of A Land More Kind Than Home and thought both the story and the narration were excellent.
Faith, I absolutely loved that book . Wonderful writer!
Faith and Angela M, I really need to get to that one. I hear good things.
Angela M wrote: "Faith, I absolutely loved that book . Wonderful writer!"I read his other book too. I wish he had more for me to read.
Just started Fallen Land, Feels like it's gonna be a good one.
Finished On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light: A Novel. 5 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In a million years, I'd never have thought a novel describing the travails of an amputee would have me repeatedly giggling aloud. But yeah, there's a new book out called Amp'd that did just that. This is a debut novel, but the author has been writing for television - mostly comedy - for ages. There are some dark things that the main character, a bit of a slacker (middle school teacher) must face of course, so the wry humor is sweet enough to help the medicine go down. For those of you with virgin ears, there are F bombs sprinkled about and the use of medical marijuana. I don't ever inhale either of these, but the usage fit the anti-hero well. Five stars and high on the quirky meter!https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Im on my darn phone & cannot find our David Joy discussion. Thought y'all would be interested. This is from his FB page:
For fans of Where All Light Tends To Go, you might be happy to hear that Jackson County's finest attorney, Irving Queen esq., found his way into the new novel I'm working on, The Line That Held Us, though the fact of the matter is he's a little worse for the wear:
Two blocks off Main Street, within stumbling distance of the bars in one direction and spitting distance of the Justice Center in the other, Irving Queen kept his office.
The two-story colonial had stood for more than a century, and like most things that stand for a hundred years, the building had taken on the slouch of an old, beaten man. Cracked white clapboards scaly with lead paint held the texture of alligator hide. The roof slumped and asphalt shingles had been blown away to reveal the darker tarpaper beneath. Jeremy climbed the steps onto the porch, the planks creaking beneath his weight, and looked through wavy glass windowpanes that distorted what stood behind, the type of glass the old timers swore would run like water. It was dark inside except for a low light in the back, but he could hear someone.
Jeremy turned the loose doorknob and the latch gave. Even at the threshold he could feel the heat. An oil furnace burned with all that it had, the blower roaring from the vents along the baseboards, and Jeremy was quite certain as he stood there that this was indeed what it felt like to stand at the gates of hell. All the lights were off in the office and he was hesitant to enter, but then he could hear his lawyer in the back, Irving Queen singing Pure Prairie League’s “Amie” somewhere between baritone and bass at the top of his lungs like an opera singer. Jeremy peaked around a brick fireplace that rose through the center of the building, and could see the light on in the office at the back. He headed toward that light and as he did Queen transitioned from opera to yodel, the words reaching high then tailing off into a cough as he choked on the note.
At the backroom, Jeremy pecked with one knuckle at the door and poked his head inside. Irving Queen stood before him in boxer shorts, a Booze It and Lose It t-shirt that was too small to fully cover his stomach, and a pair of thin, navy-check church socks. He looked like a fifth grade science experiment when a kid sticks toothpicks into a potato. A cigar stub plugged one side of his mouth, and his eyes were closed as he raised a highball glass toward the ceiling, and belted out the last line of the song.
#LongLiveIrvingQueen
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
On the Southern Literary Trail
Books mentioned in this topic
Happy Land (other topics)Take My Hand (other topics)
Happy Land (other topics)
Happy Land (other topics)
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Bennett Parten (other topics)Wes Browne (other topics)
Hubert Skidmore (other topics)
Mark Twain (other topics)
Delia Owens (other topics)
More...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...