Wow, lots of great stuff in here. Love the library news, Frybabe, and the quote, Barbara, and learning about all the great (I knew YOU all were reading) books you all are reading, Callie, Bellamarie (I'm the exact opposite, I would much rather not go to a movie theater, for a lot of reasons, but sometimes I can't get out of it, I expect we'll go see Churchill), and Jean, (Mabel).
This one really resonated with me from Jean (Mabel):
I don't like books that start with a dramatic event in the present and then take you back to various places to tell you how the characters got to the dramatic event. I prefer the author just tell me the story. But I'm glad I stayed with this book after the first dramatic event. While my grandson was here he had to read his summer assignments (they have to read 7 books over the summer from a list, like most children) and so when he was doing his reading I cast about in the TBR pile next to the chair for something to idle the time with. I didn't want to be immersed in the Museum Basement because I knew it wouldn't be too long a time period, and I didn't want the MacArthur, or anything serious, just SOMETHING to pick up and read a minute. So I picked up a book on almost everybody's must read summer books list: All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner. That's a heck of a name, and I've heard of her before somewhere but had never read one of hers and I just opened it where it opened (about 1/3rd thru) for some reason and started reading to see if it caught my interest.
I don't know this author, but she certainly writes well. The protagonist is a mother with a 5 year old, and a father with early onset Alzheimers. She takes a quiz in a magazine about the newest addiction, overuse of prescription drugs, and wonders IF in fact she herself is taking too many, surely not, but it's the father and her efforts to help, and her mother's inability to cope with his increasing dementia which really resounds in this section. It's SO real. I actually woke up the next day thinking about him as a real person and wondered how he was getting on, it's that real, and it's very poignant in spots.
I haven't experienced, thank God, this with my own parents, but my mother's mother had dementia and lived with us as long as I can remember, at least until I went off to college. The things her father does in the book are at once touching and frightening and you literally can't put the book down. I actually read more than 2/3rds of it at that sitting.
So here I am missing the beginning of the book (but I never judge by that anyway, any more) and the end, but pretty sold on this woman as a writer. But I don't know what KIND of books she writes, or what category she'd be in. Probably one I never read. But whatever category it is, this one is very compelling and I want to start it properly and finish it.
I don't like the beginnings of books, anyway, I once attended a workshop taught by the Poet Laureate of SC (stop me if you've heard this), who wanted to write a mystery and who herself took a workshop where she was told that a publisher gives you...I've forgotten how many WORDS, not pages, to grab the reader and if you don't, the publisher simply won't even read it....so that, Jean, I think is one reason for the dramatic beginnings.
Talking about movies, one I saw on the plane and wished I had seen IN a theater, Bellamarie, was The Founder. Now that is a good movie. It's a shame it's not a book because it's about Ethics in Business and is full of things we could discuss for ages.
Michael Keaton as always, is wonderful playing a very unsympathetic character, Ray Croc, who did not "found," McDonald's, but was the "founder" of the McDonald's franchises. It came out when a couple of blockbusters did and so was pretty much ignored but it's really one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. On a par with Barbarians at the Gate about the takeover of RJR Nabisco by KKR, also fabulous acting about real subjects. THAT one is a book, too, and a good one, but the movie is outstanding.
Barbara, what an unusual story about the two books mysteriously delivered to your house, in your name but the customer ordering is Michael Dillon. Spooky! Good thing Stephen King doesn't get hold of this, hahaha. Apparently somebody related to him or he is using his account and thought you would like them.
If that were me it would drive me insane.
I would contact Better World about the order and see what's going on. Perhaps the gift card was misplaced, that does seem to happen a lot with orders.
And I am glad to hear the book on the Old Ladies was funny, I can't wait to read it.
