On the Southern Literary Trail discussion
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General Bookishness
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Retired: What are you reading?
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ALLEN
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Dec 01, 2018 07:50AM
I'm trying to remember -- wasn't "A Rose for Emily" made into a PBS production about 30 years ago?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM4SH...
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You're welcome!
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You're welcome!
Thanks Tom! I'll post that on my group short story thread for January along with the movie link.
ALLEN wrote: "RJ wrote: "I started reading: 
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt"
That's a favorite of mine, RJ! I hope you like it."
I read the first four or five chapters while waiting in the dealership for my car's servicing to be completed. I like it a lot! It kind of reminds me of The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession where there's a bunch of oddball characters and funny anecdotes and no real plotline to follow, at least so far. Some of it is hilarious! I'm enjoying it a lot and kicking myself for taking so long to read it.
Thanks for the tip, Tom - I’ve added ‘A Rose For Emily.’ Excellent book, RJ and Allen! I read ‘Midnight’ when it was first published. The Lady Chablis is an unforgettable character. This is also one of my favorite book covers ever - the very essence of Savannah.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is indeed an excellent book which completely deserves its reputation. I recall being disappointed in the movie, but this is not a book which made any sense to film in the first place; it was only done because it was such a bestseller.
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Be sure to tell them that they can read it for free online at the link below.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_r...
Patrick wrote: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is indeed an excellent book which completely deserves its reputation. I recall being disappointed in the movie, but this is not a book which made any sense t..."I can see what you mean. No reason to make this book into a movie; it would never translate well to the big screen. Unless you did it like Adaptation which was the "big screen version" of Orchid Thief.
Adaptation was unique. Only Charlie Kaufman could have written a script like that!
I’ll be starting Pleasantville this week because my library had a copy. Any way to start the threads early?
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I'll set it up in the next day or so.
A one-off, but a cute one: Amazon currently has the 2013 Bruno Gmunder book FILTHY REMARKS: SEX QUOTES available for about a dollar in either kindle or paperback. Here's the review I posted at GR a few minutes ago:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
RJ wrote: "Patrick wrote: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is indeed an excellent book which completely deserves its reputation. I recall being disappointed in the movie, but this is not a book which ..."Oh, my goodness! Yes, Adaptation was a great, ahem, adaptation of The Orchid Thief! Patrick is right - it was only a script that Charlie could have written :)
Happy Christmas Eve, friends! This week, I've bumped into a couple of real winners when it comes to books. Both audio versions are free on Hoopla from the library.First is En ce lieu enchanté. Actually, for some reason my GR account suddenly believes me to be French and posted the title that way. The Enchanted is set in a prison for the most part - usually the type setting that really puts me off and that I'll avoid. But.... it's POV is that of an insane inmate, and a strange narrator - not necessarily unreliable - always pulls me in. Everybody but me has read this already, but if not, I highly recommend.
Currently, I'm trying to wrap up Milkman (okay, that title shows up in English - whee!). Again, the setting for the story is a place that usually will have me skip the book. It is Northern Ireland during the time of "the troubles." Two of my grandparents were from Northern Ireland, so you'd think I'd gravitate to books set there. No. Those that I've tried and put down have been too depressing and whiney. My intolerance for whining is vast.
Instead, this book is wry and humorous and has intrigue within it. The humor is a bit dark, which takes skill to write, and in a way, the story could be set in Russia/Lithuania during the Stalin ere or the confederate South or Chechnya during its wars. Clever and good, this one!
Anyway, may great reads find themselves into your Christmas stockings this evening! Your insights here in the group make every day a special one.
Thanks for the recommendations, good people, and Merry Christmas to all!
Mod
and Merry Christmas to all!"
And to you as well Allen!
is the color purple a good read? I only saw the film.
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I finished:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Am now well into Hunter's Hornand it's really good. A bit depressing in places but the realism of the old hill country farms comes through. I believe I heard about it in this group. The library didn't have it but the book was easy to get through Interlibrary loan.
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Last Bus to Wisdom Ivan DoigA Dwight Yoakum song, purchased with Green Stamps, and delivered by the Greyhound bus.
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a fun book. not too serious, his last. it took me a few months to come up w that description. sharon stone described dwight as being dumber than dirt. i didn't mention "the land of sky blue waters" is in there too.ya can't get much further from the trail than montana
how nice it would be to meet the two of you.(i was wondering who i would catch this morning) 😎
I have to catch up with Ivan Doig this year. So many writers I haven’t begun reading yet. Oh well, I guess it’s nice to have so much still ahead of me as long as I can catch up with it :-)
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I've read one of his and decided that I must read a lot more. I really like his style and western setting.
I’ve heard so many good comments about his books, Tom, and I have more than one on my kindle. It’s the prioritizing that always gets me. I think I will move one up.
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Isn't it always?
I highly recommend Forever Across The Marsh, a new release by Savannah-based author Jeff Pearson. You think it's a comedy, then there is a suspense-filled adventure woven throughout and next thing you know you've got tears in your eyes. You can't put it down. The book takes place in Savannah and highlights life on the coast. I gave it as a gift to several friends and family at Christmas and everyone was blown away. Once this book gains more publicity, it is going to take off. Forever Across The Marsh
Other Voices, Other Rooms – Truman Capote – 3.5***
Capote’s debut novel is a semiautobiographical coming-of-age story. It’s a classic Southern Gothic novel, full of ghosts, haints, superstitions, secrets and closed off rooms. Joel is isolated not only by the remote location, but by the lack of connection with these people. He is confused and cautious, and his loneliness and despair are palpable. Capote’s writing is wonderfully atmospheric. Still, at times, much like Joel, I felt lost in unfamiliar surroundings.
LINK to my review
This book is only Southern by implication: the third week of September, 1938, a hurricane that was supposed to strike Florida did not. The last reliable forecasts of the storm (they were unnamed in those days), a Category 5, were filed out of the Jacksonville office ("Weather Bureau" they called it back then), and it was presumed the hurricane would head harmlessly out to sea. It did not: It barreled through central Long Island and struck Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island) full on, virtually without warning, drowning hundreds and causing millions of dollars of damage.
This book is called Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938; here's my GR review of it:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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The one thing I remember the most about this book was that it said that the impact of the waves on the shore was so great that they registered on a seismograph in Alaska.
Amazing, isn't it? While this storm did not have the ferocity or the body count of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 (for that, see the book Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History), it was relatively under-documented until recent times.
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Isaac's Storm put Erik Larson on my very short list of authors whose books I will buy sight unseen.
Tom wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Amazing, isn't it? While this storm did not have the ferocity or the body count of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 (for that, see the book Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the ..."</i>Me, too! We pre-order any and everything he writes! My fave was [book:The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America… read it the year it was published and regularly give copies to people headed to Chicago on vacay.
My mother told stories of walking home from work during the hurricane of ‘38, in eastern Massachusetts, seeing trees bending sideways. I have wondered if that was why she always was afraid of wind storms for the rest of her long life.I found Isaac’s Storm to be an excellent book. I need to get to the Chicago book. Thanks for the reminder.
DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY is, by far, my favorite Eric Larson book. I say that not so much as a Chicagoan, because most of the fair apparatus from 1893-94 is long gone, except for what is now the Museum of Science and Industry. It's just compulsively readable.
ETA: In light of current controversy, I must add that much of what was left after the Columbian Exposition was razed became Jackson Park -- which is where Obama and his supporters want to put his Presidential museum. However, the Friends of the Park (who speak for various large parks) in Chicago may forestall this -- pretty much the same people who kept George Lucas from planting a for-profit museum in a different City park, south of Soldier Field.
Not southern but quite intriguing, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Carrying Albert Home – Homer Hickam – 3***
Subtitle: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator. I loved listening to the stories my father, mother, aunts and uncles would tell of “the old days” and adventures they had had. So, I was predisposed to like this tale of the author’s parents and a great adventure they embarked upon without any plan other than to “carry Albert home.” I found it fun and enjoyable, but gosh, Elsie got on my nerves.
LINK to my review
The HelpJust a few pages in. One layer of humiliation after another.
In 1960 I was 8 years old living in a Phoenix suburb. I was very protected. Nobody I knew had a housekeeper. Our minorities were Mexican. I am sure they have stories to tell but I don't believe they were treated this bad. I lived in a white neighborhood on the edge of the barrio. We got beat up by the Mexicans. I'm too young into this story to know how it will connect to me other than basic human decency. I do believe there is racism on both sides of the line and two wrongs don't make a right.
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens – 2.5**
I wanted to like this. I found it intriguing and interesting. I loved Owens’ descriptions of the marsh and the marvels of the natural world. I was invested in Kya’s story from the beginning, and her loneliness was practically tangible. I marveled at her resilience and intelligence. However, as the novel progressed things got a little too unbelievable and soap-opera-ish for me. After all the drama of the murder and trial, the ending seeming rather anti-climactic.
LINK to my review
A Breath Of Snow And Ashes – Diana Gabaldon – 3***
Book six in a time-travel series I swore I’d never read, but have become strangely addicted to. This one is heavy on the history of the years leading up to the American colonies declaring independence from Britain. I wanted more of the loving relationship between Jaime and Claire, and yet was happy to see the younger generation play a bigger role. Still, I think I’ll give the series a rest for a year or so. Don’t want to get too far ahead of the TV series.
LINK to my review
"Southern" if you count the South of France ... LOL
A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle – 4****
This is a re-read and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it. What a delightful diversion! Mayle's accont of his and his wife's first year owning a house in Provence is entertaining, relaxing and inspiring - it inspires me to enjoy life - good food, good wine and the siesta.
LINK to my review
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On the Southern Literary Trail
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Delia Owens (other topics)
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