Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2  (Read 738815 times)

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5640 on: October 30, 2014, 08:32:49 AM »
         
This is the place to talk about the works of fiction you are reading, whether they are new or old, and share your own opinions and reviews with interested readers.

Every week the new bestseller lists come out brimming with enticing looking books and rave reviews. How to choose?


Discussion Leader:  Judy Laird



Plainsong. I would assume the teacher knew of their isolated lonely lives and she had a female who needed a safe place and decided they would work.. The next farm to my families place.. an older couple who were aging in place and needed help desperately.. One of the Ag teachers at our school had two boys who were thrown into a bad situation because of family problems. He made a deal of some sort and the boys moved to the farm, went to school and worked the farm. I never saw anyone as happy as this blended family.. One of the boys never left and now owns and runs the farm.. He said once, that it was like his own personal miracle. So I could related.. I think the other examples had more to deal with farm life than anything. He has written three books on this town and they are all low key, but I loved them all. Sometimes I don't want much much action, I just want a small quiet story of life.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

marjifay

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5641 on: November 05, 2014, 10:59:40 AM »
I have been reading Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman.  It's been made into a TV series.   I'm about halfway thru the book, but doubt I'll finish.  The first part of the book is interesting when she finally gets into prison (she has to wait 6 months because the authorities want her to testify against a drug dealer who is still in custody in England, and they don't want her in court wearing a prison uniform).  When she is getting acclimated to prison and meeting the female inmates, the book got my attention.  But she just goes on and one talking briefly about one woman after the other, some who were interesting, but many were not.  I believe the rest of the book will just be more of the same, so I've had my fill of this book. 

Marj
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5642 on: November 06, 2014, 03:54:17 PM »
It gets more interesting later.. They have to send her to testify and she meets up with the original person getting her involved. I liked the book, but it did drag in spots and I really felt as if she was into blaming everyone else except herself.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

marjifay

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5643 on: November 07, 2014, 09:32:17 AM »
Thanks, Steph.  I'll give Orange is  the New Black some more time.

I often get impatient with books because I always have a big TBR list of interesting books waiting to be read.

Marj
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

mabel1015j

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5644 on: November 07, 2014, 01:54:22 PM »
I just finished Katherine by Anya Seton, all 600 pages of it. I would have given up 500 pages before the end, but i was reading it for the library book group. If i was asked to rate it, i would give it 21/2 out of 5 stars. The best part was the wonderful research and historical and cultural tidbits. Katherine was the long-time mistress and finally wife of the Duke of Lancaster, one of the good, long-suffering kind of mistresses, and they were figures at the beginning of the Tudor line.

It was published in 1954 and suggested by one of the women who said she had read it as a teen-ager and loved it; another women had the same experience, and they both still loved it. I probably would have loved it at 15 also when the "romance" scenes would have seemed forbidden reading, but at 73 they were just boring and annoying, especially since they were all described by Katherine's narrative.

About 1/2 way thru if i had been asked to describe the book in one sentence i would have said "it's a stereotypical story of a man who sees women only as sexual objects and otherwise dismisses them and a woman who swings back and forth between longing for him and feeling guilty about the relationship." By the end of the book - so i guess it was a good thing i finished it - i would say that Seton includes every human characteristic of human beings in the story and she may be cautioning us to be aware of the impact our behaviors have as they reverberate to those around us, altho i wish she had done that with about 5 dozen fewer characters.

It was very au courant in several aspects - religious wars, fear of epidemics, etc.

If you like historical fiction with a major dose of romance, you will probably like it. Several of the women in the group liked it. I liked the history and would have liked some tighter writing.

Jean

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5645 on: November 08, 2014, 08:41:36 AM »
Oh Jean, I am in the company of the women who read it as teens. I loved it then and considered it a wonderful story. Looked up and read all of Anya Seton as well, but now.. I suspect like you, it would be boring and silly, but when I was 17, ahhhh the romance. Funny but then I tried to reread Marjorie Morningstar several years ago and although it was a favorite originally. Now it seems irrelevant. Sigh..
Stephanie and assorted corgi

MaryPage

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5646 on: November 08, 2014, 09:43:27 AM »
I was a young mother living in our first (post World War II subdivision/G.I. Bill of Rights) house when I read that book.  Since almost everything was introduced to me via Book of The Month in those days, I think it probably came from that source.  I remember the book vividly, because I was truly passionate about English History from 8th grade (Miss Lewis) on, and that book helped me sort out the who was who a great deal, as did Thomas Costain's 4 book series The Last Plantagenets that came out in about that same time period:  the forties, fifties and sixties.  All of Costain's books, as a matter of fact, were most excellent in fixing the fabric of history in my head.  But I think it was Kathryn (the book) that sealed my partisanship with the White Rose permanently, as I could "get" that Parliament meant that the crown should always come down through legitimate heirs and never, ever descend on the head of one of the Duke of Gaunt's born out of wedlock.  Not that it makes any difference to me personally, but something in me wanted to choose a side for once and for all, and for that, principally, and for a myriad other reasons I was and remain a Yorkist.  That being said, there has been throughout the history of mankind another and very final method of gaining the throne, and that is by conquest on the field of battle.  Is it not sick making to think that has consistently been the real game changer throughout the centuries?

pedln

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5647 on: November 08, 2014, 02:13:25 PM »
Marjifay, I know nother about Orange is the New Black other than it is a prison story, also on TV.  A prison story you might like, is Wally Lamb's Couldn't Keep it To Myself, which grew out of his writing class at the York Correctional Institution in Conn.  It includes writings by the women themselves.

SeniorLearn discussed it back in the early 2000's -- a link to that discussion below.



Couldn't Keep it to Myself

mabel1015j

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5648 on: November 08, 2014, 03:26:09 PM »
Steph - i also was disappointed w/ Morningstar when i read it as an adult.

Jean

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5649 on: November 09, 2014, 08:51:45 AM »
andyet young.. Marjorie and Katherine resonated with the young wife and mother. We do change so much over time and it is so slowly we don't notice.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

marjifay

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5650 on: November 09, 2014, 02:46:07 PM »
Thanks, Pedln, for recommending Wally Lamb's nonfiction book Couldn't Keep It To Myself.  I'll look for it.  I've not read anything by him.

Marj
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5651 on: November 10, 2014, 08:11:20 AM »
Oh my, you will love it. I remember the discussion. It led to us wanting to help him and his writers group..Powerful book.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

mabel1015j

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5652 on: November 13, 2014, 02:22:40 AM »
I've just finished Jeane Slone's She Was an American Spy During WWII. The writing was not good, but the story was very interesting. It is a fictional account of several women who were spies in Vichy France. The story focuses on an American woman whose husband was fighting in the war, so she felt free to become involved in the Intelligence Service.

There is a lot of information about her training, although, like the title of the book, written in a straight-forward, minimalist narrative. At the end of the fiction account she describes the real person the fictional sketches portrayed, and what happened to them after the war, or at the end of their lives.

There is also an extensive bibliography, most of which i assume was non-fiction. I'm glad she added that because this book wet my appetite for reading the real stories of women spies. I knew there were some newly published ones in the last decade.

It was one if the free ebooks on Amazon. I'll check to see if it is still free. If it s not, i'm sure it's very inexpensive. yes, it is still free and she's written two others. One was She Flew Bombers in WWII, and one was She Built Ships in WWII

oops! Correction! The books are free to Kindle Unlimited Or Amazon Prime patrons. For the rest of us they are $4.99

Jean

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5653 on: November 13, 2014, 08:27:58 AM »
Don't see point of Kindle unlimited or Amazon prime.. I am always careful in Amazon to order enough books to get free shipping. Never watch videos on the small screens, etc. too hard on my eyes. and music.. that is on my little players.. I have three all different music programmed for my moods.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

Frybabe

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5654 on: November 13, 2014, 09:34:41 AM »
Since I have a Roku box, I get to watch Amazon videos and others on my TV. I used to do what you do about the shipping, Steph, but I like taking advantage of the Lending Library, the Kindle First, and seeing a some of the programs and movies I can't get on cable. The two day shipping is nice, but not imperative. What I do like is not having to wait to get the requisite amount for free shipping if I need something soon. To save costs, I've dropped back on my cable tier, reduced still further with a new package deal, and went to Amazon Prime to make up for some of the programming losses. That all saved me about $600 a year. I buy very few books any more, using the freedbie Ebooks and the library instead.

MaryPage

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5655 on: November 13, 2014, 11:14:21 AM »
I just cannot enjoy any sort of movie or show on anything other than my lovely television with closed captioning and my Sennheiser amplifying earplugs and my beloved easy chair.  My computer just does not offer me all the comforts, and those little screens are too puny for pleasure.  Nope;  tried it, didn't like it, don't do it.

FlaJean

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5656 on: November 13, 2014, 01:02:35 PM »
I guess I'm an "outlier" as I enjoy looking at videos or movies on my iPad.  I find it very comfortable and the details of the picture clearer.  The streaming is seamless as we have fiber optic broadband with the city.  It's a good thing that we can each enjoy so much diversity.

MaryPage

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5657 on: November 13, 2014, 02:36:18 PM »
Absolutely!

I do not pan what others enjoy;  I say good on them!  I am simply trying everything that comes down the pike and picking out the way of doing things that gives me the most comfort and joy.

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5658 on: November 13, 2014, 03:01:04 PM »
The plus of Prime for me is that I order everything on Amazon now - filters for my AC - cleaning supplies - vitamins - make up, soaps and body lotion - reading glasses - you name it. Amazon is like my handy old fashioned department store - book- hardware - small appliance - kitchen supply store that I can order when I realize I need something - Blender goes, I order one, need socks, order them, even my bra I order from Amazon.

After checking prices for instance I ordered fertilizer - same price as Lowe's AND it was delivered to my front door in two days prime - no gas, not hauling a bag of fertilizer into a cart to the checkout and then hauling into my vehicle to finally get it home.

Last year I did order two times those big orders of groceries that are sold by weight - for that though I need to have current prices from my grocery market and by the time I do that and then compare to the price on Amazon it takes too much time - but if paper products are the same price they fill up a box quickly and to have paper towels etc in the large quantities that will last 4,5 or 6 months is nice plus again the ease of not having to deal with stashing into my vehicle all those bulky packages.

I'm buying fewer full price books - however, even the lower priced used books are sold using prime so instead of a week to 5 weeks to receive my book, it is at my front door in 2 days. And now they really mean 2 days - they are delivering on the weekends.

I watch so few movies and like you Steph I like seeing them on my large screen but I am not going to pay to buy a foreign language film and I sure like my French and Italian films along with some Asian and so I will make the picture as large as my computer screen rather than the strip and maybe not sit back as comfortable but with a cup of coffee or glass of wine if it is late I can enjoy a foreign film now that Blockbusters are gone - never did Netflix and since I rent maybe twice a month this works. Not as many of the foreign films are free but enough that I am happy.  
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Frybabe

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5659 on: November 13, 2014, 03:31:16 PM »
Right Barb, it has gotten more difficult for me to lug around heavy bags and boxes of things. It is so much nicer to order online and have things delivered than it is to run around from store to store trying to find something. Some of the websites say if an item is in store, but the price is often more in the store than online. I like webstores like at Home Depot which keeps prices the same and tell you if the item is in stock at the store you shop.
 

pedln

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5660 on: November 13, 2014, 10:07:47 PM »
I've got to hand it to Amazon.  They've made shopping extremely easy.  I finally joined Amazon Prime, just before they upped the price.  It's so nice to get things quickly and not worry about the shipping costs.  What's really been convenient has been the returns - I've had to return three different items the past few months and it's been so easy  -- and free.  Just print out the label and drop it off at UPS.  By comparison, Toys R Us are a pain to deal with, but that's where one gets the little ones' hearts desires, so be it.

Steph, I"m with you -- don't see much use for Kindle Unlimited, but I have taken advantage of the Prime Lending (one book a month) for free.  I don't think their film offerings compare with Netflix's, but that may be because I haven't really investigated them enough.  The Netflix DVD database is hugh and very easy to use and it doesn't care that I have over 250 films in my queue.

Flajean, when I got my iPad about a year ago I had visions of watching films on it.  I've watched captioned films on those little portable DVD players, but have yet to try any films streamed to the iPad.  Do you have to have an APP -- like a Netflix App or an Amazon App?    Or do you set up an iTunes account (have not yet done that) and rent films that way?

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5661 on: November 14, 2014, 01:50:08 AM »
Interesting, just saw the Tommy Lee Jones interview on the Tavis Smiley show and he was most concerned that folks would watch his movie on a small screen or Ipad or to him unbelievable would be an Iphone - as a director he plans the screen shots so that the scenery and background help tell the story and are almost like a character in the story therefore the character being so large as compared to a human it takes a big screen to have the essence or sublet colors that tell us the viewer about the setting.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5662 on: November 14, 2014, 08:46:33 AM »
Netflix suits me because most of my queu is old tv shows, etc. very few movies. Pedlin.. I thought I was terrible because I have 52 on my list.Wow..
Stephanie and assorted corgi

Tomereader1

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5663 on: November 14, 2014, 11:30:16 AM »
Steph, I have over 200 selections on my Netflix queue.  A lot of them foreign language films, some of them Music-type documentaries, i.e. "Guitarra" which showed how guitar music evolved thru the ages.  Very interesting!  Also have some on various art museums.  The last ones on the list would be movies that have been recently released, or some from a couple years ago.  Very eclectic queue, if I do say so myself, LOL!
The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.


André Maurois

FlaJean

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5664 on: November 14, 2014, 12:10:58 PM »
Pedlin, I have a Netflix app on my iPad.  I also have one of those Apple TV set tops (similar to Roku) so can watch Netflix also on the TV (my husband's preference).  If you have registered your iPad and set up an iTunes account you can rent or buy from Apple, but Netflix is much cheaper.  Last Christmas our daughter gave us an iTunes gift card and I bought several favorite movies.  I've watched them on both my TV and my iPad.  technology is great.  I don't know anything about Amazon Prime but that sounds like another possibility.

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5665 on: November 14, 2014, 03:14:59 PM »
Well with these good words about Netflix I really need to look into it - sounds like from what you are saying Sally there are really many wonders to choose from that i am missing out on. The history of the Guitar sounds grand.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5666 on: November 15, 2014, 08:52:25 AM »
Netflix has some of the most wonderful strange things in it.. I get such a kick out of asking for things and seeing what they offer me.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

Tomereader1

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5667 on: November 15, 2014, 06:57:52 PM »
And you only have to choose one (1) DVD at a time, if you think that will be adequate, and there's no limit on how long you can keep it to view. I personally opt for two DVD's at a time, usually watch one, return it, and get another in the mail before I have time to watch the other one.  For two, it is $12.00+ tax, which is like paying $6.00 to see a movie, (last few times I've gone to movies it is $8.50 for Senior Admission at the matinee).  I don't do the Netflix "streaming", which a lot of you do.  My TV system is not adapted to that, but maybe someday. Perhaps in a few days I will post a short list of what all I have gotten from them, that would be considered eclectic or strange!
The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.


André Maurois

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5668 on: November 16, 2014, 09:34:09 AM »
I don't do streaming.. one of my sons does. My other son is a library fanatic. He gets all his movies from his library and has a queu there and seems to really get the newest movies quickly. He loves it and says.. hmm I don't pay anything.. So that is a way to go. He picks up he movies on his way home from work, but he says they would actually send them to him if he wanted. Ah the modern libraries.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

mabel1015j

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5669 on: November 30, 2014, 12:49:15 PM »
I just finished Mary Alice Monroe's "Skyward". I love the way she teaches us about something while giving us an interesting story of human relationships. This was about raptors! The protagonist runs a rehab center for injured or orphaned raptors. Also his 5 yr old dgt has diabetes, so she teaches us about that kind of diabetes also. I think i have liked all of her books. Beach House was the first one i read and is my favorite.

Jean

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5670 on: December 01, 2014, 09:06:07 AM »
My Kindle went with me when I went to my sons.. I am reading another of the Dorothy Sayers continuations by Jill Paton Walsh.. Excellent.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

jane

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5671 on: December 15, 2014, 03:15:26 PM »
Any new titles on your Christmas Want List this year?

I don't ask for specific titles....just for gift cards for online places like Amazon.


Jane

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5672 on: December 16, 2014, 09:08:04 AM »
I am with you. I love gift cards.. that way I can get what I want.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

MaryPage

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5673 on: December 17, 2014, 02:59:02 PM »
Me, too!  I always ask for and get Barnes & Noble.  We have a huge store, complete with Starbucks Cafe, very close to hand;  so I can order on line or browse in the store, whichever suits me.  I get their annual membership, which gives me an additional ten per cent off, and the number of purchases I have in any given year MORE than make up for the expenditure for that!

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5674 on: December 18, 2014, 09:02:15 AM »
So do I. We have a medium to large B&N and I do so love to browse.. You find authors you have never heard of.. Such fun.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

FlaJean

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5675 on: December 18, 2014, 09:48:44 AM »
We also have a large B&N with a nice Starbucks section.  I've bought my boxed Christmas cards there the last couple of years---lovely selection and reasonably priced.

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5676 on: December 19, 2014, 10:33:49 AM »
I am not a Starbucks fan, but will have iced tea and a sweet.. but the browsing is the thing. This year, ours has some wonderful toys and games, better than the big stores. I got a small set, that makes three bridges out of aluminum.. strictly a grownup toy for my engineer, who loves bridges.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

MaryPage

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5677 on: December 20, 2014, 11:45:11 AM »
I could live happy in my heart in a bookstore or hardware store, I swear.  You just never run out of things to discover.

Tomereader1

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5678 on: December 20, 2014, 12:41:27 PM »
Some folks have weird, off-the-wall fantasies!  My favorite fantasy is being locked in a library for a week or more...even a weekend would work.  As long as I had lighting, I would read and read and read!
The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.


André Maurois

Steph

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Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #5679 on: December 21, 2014, 08:42:55 AM »
I used to dream of being locked in for the weekend at the New England Genealogical and Historical Society. Oh , the stacks, the smells.. my favorite spot in the whole world.
Stephanie and assorted corgi