Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2  (Read 738680 times)

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6120 on: August 09, 2017, 09:11:19 PM »
         
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






Thanks Barb and Pat. I don't know why I wouldn't have taken part in that discussion, but I'll look for it.

Hi Hats, good to hear from you.

Jean

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6121 on: August 10, 2017, 03:01:09 AM »
Here is a happy hello to all of you Bookies. Sorry I haven't written each name down yet to make my hi more personal. All of you are good friends.

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11233
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6122 on: August 10, 2017, 12:02:53 PM »
;) Us? Could this be us Hats?
“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

Jonathan

  • Posts: 1697
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6123 on: August 10, 2017, 01:50:11 PM »
Please. Would someone identify these three lovely ladies.

PatH

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10917
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6124 on: August 10, 2017, 02:39:59 PM »
Just the question I was about to ask.  I have guesses for two, but no certainties.

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11233
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6125 on: August 10, 2017, 03:26:47 PM »
Oh lordy - just a fun photo I found that could be any of us and with Hats saying, 'All of us are good friends' I thought it would be fun to upload a photo of friends - lots of photos on Google of groups of young friends but not so many of older folks as friends so I took what there was that showed smiling folks. And so, Pat and Jonathan y'all can have fun Baptizing them or holding a simchat bat ceremony and name our new photographed friends  ;)
“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

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6126 on: August 10, 2017, 10:45:08 PM »
Barb, I wish. It's a lovely photo. I should look so good.

ANNIE

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 2977
  • Downtown Gahanna
    • SeniorLearn
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6127 on: August 11, 2017, 08:55:29 AM »
Hats, it's so nice to see you posting again.  Where have you been hiding?
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." Robert Southey

Jonathan

  • Posts: 1697
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6128 on: August 11, 2017, 11:49:32 AM »
That's wonderful. I was guessing, but now that I know, I will enjoy all your posts more than ever, and allow your wonderful, infectious smiles to make my day. Every day. What a pin up!!! The world is a beautiful place.

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6129 on: August 15, 2017, 04:32:23 AM »
Hi Annie, I haven't been hiding. Sometimes I would love to hide. It's impossible in this new world. I'm becoming a child again in thought. ???  I just finished "Summer" by Edith Wharton.  It's very sad. I needed a tissue. Since I like a sad novel every once and again, I loved it. There is so much I didn't understand in it. Would love to have this group discuss it. Barb, where is your book of symbolism? It did put me in a Edith Wharton mood. Remembered the "House Of Mirth" discussion. Looked at her other titles. Wonderful.

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11233
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6130 on: August 15, 2017, 10:57:21 AM »
Never read Summer by Wharton - most of her stories do involve women who get the short end of things because of the way women experienced life during that time in history -

Hats, For $2.99 + shipping Amazon has a used copy of
An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols by J. C. Cooper

When grandsons were seniors in High School they each received a copy - that and a copy of The Man Who Planted Trees.
“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

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6131 on: August 15, 2017, 01:20:55 PM »
Well, I went to the archive to read your discussion on "I Have Always Loved You". It answered my question as to why I didn't remember the discussion!?!?

I was traveling and my library was "traveling", (the library was being moved into a new bdg and was closed for about a month), so I didn't really participate, altho I intended to "hitch a ride" on your discussion at the time. So now that I'm reading the book I will enjoy your comments and many links to those wonderful paintings.

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11233
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6132 on: August 15, 2017, 06:15:05 PM »
OK Hats - read the Wharton's book Summer today after reading your post - http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Edith_Wharton/Summer/Chapter_I_p3.html

Lots of analogies - sad and yet, not so sad - she had a kind caretaker - I wonder if she ever becomes fond enough of him so that their union is made real. False kindness was sure well manipulated overlaid with secrets and soft words - those who take what they want have a charm about them that makes the betrayal all the more cruel and despicable - society has changed some so that she would not be forced into such narrow choices for her and her child's future - interesting how we all fantasize about what could have been. But then that is commenting on the story-line as presented where as the entire story could easily be an allegory for nature and the greed and ruthless behavior of man versus those who protect and allow nature its existence. But then like Mr. Royal you have to come home and not only acknowledge but accept and nurture your relationship with nature.   
“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

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11233
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6133 on: September 09, 2017, 05:33:24 AM »

Curl up and read with us our Fall selection. The Warden starts in October

The more you get into this time in history and the Anglican Church of England the more fun. There is so much background history, traditions, change and just life's goings on during the time of the publication, 1855. Learning as much as we can will be an adventure that will help us pick out the dry humor of Trollop and will highlight the sublet differences between the characters. This read is not the cozy afternoon cup of tea - the story is more like a game of chess with each character having their traditional space in which to move while change is blowing strong - in this simply story there is a lot going on.

The Plan for our discussion - We begin The Warden pre-discussion on Monday, October 2:

    October 2: Pre-Discussion with suggested Topics for Discussion
    October 9: Chapters 1-4
    October 16: Chapters 5-8
    October 23: Chapters 9-12
    October 30: Chapters 13-16
    November 6: Chapters 17-20
    November 11: Chapter 21 Finis

A link to the story will be in the heading however, if you are buying the book one of the better additions with background on the story and background on the author is the Oxford World's Classics addition - the Amazon Prime addition of the Oxford paperback edition is priced at $7.99

“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

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6134 on: September 21, 2017, 12:07:42 PM »
I'm reading The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant. I think someone in SL mentioned it, which got me interested. I know a lot of people liked The Red Tent, but I couldn't get into it. I really like TBG though, so I may go back to TRT and give it another try.

In TBG, Addie Baum, an 80-something granmother, is telling her 20-something grandgt about her life, which began in 1900 Boston. It is a well told history of the first half of the 20th century, with accuracy of the time, and humor. I got well pulled in by the emotional dynamics of the family and enjoyed the spunkiness AND doubt in Addie's personality.

Studying about a lot of women thru history, I've seen the trend that even the women who have been strongest in pushing their cause have at times wondered if they are behaving too progressively. (i. e., Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate with a medical degree, who had pushed hard, being rejected by 30 medical colleges before she got into one, got the highest grades in several courses and graduated with honors, thought it was inappropriate to go onto the stage to collect her diploma. So her brother went up onstage to collect it for her.)

I'm also reading Terrible Virtue, a fictionalized story of Margaret Sanger's life. As I've said before, I think Margaret Sanger and Kathryn McCormick should have their birthdays celebrated by a nation who has a birth rate of about 2 children per family, instead of 7, 9, 13!!!!

I'm looking forward to duscussing it with our mother-dgt book group. I feel like the author is often reenforcing the negative aspects that the anti-planned parenthood people constantly talk about. But, I am so grateful to Sanger and McCormick that I may be too sensitive to that part of the story. Yeah, she was a socialist and free-love advocate, but for people who don't like those behaviors, I ask, "who is perfect?" The benefits she has brought us far outweigh those behaviors!

Jean

bellamarie

  • Posts: 4076
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6135 on: September 21, 2017, 02:53:36 PM »
As a woman and Pro Life Christian, I could not disagree with you stronger.  Sanger is not a woman I could ever celebrate in any fashion.  By her own words she clearly was a racist, bigot and inhumane.

Sanger's own words:

“By all means, there should be no children when either mother or father suffers from such diseases as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, syphilis, cancer, epilepsy, insanity, drunkenness and mental disorders. In the case of the mother, heart disease, kidney trouble and pelvic deformities are also a serious bar to childbearing No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their children are physically or mentally defective.” (“Woman and the New Race,” 1920, Chapter 7).
“The main objects of the Population Congress would be to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring[;] to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.” (“A Plan for Peace,” 1932).
In a 1957 interview with Mike Wallace, Sanger revealed: “I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world — that have disease from their parents, that have no chance in the world to be a human being practically. Delinquents, prisoners, all sorts of things just marked when they’re born. That to me is the greatest sin — that people can — can commit.”


This line of thinking from its founder has left lasting marks on the legacy of Planned Parenthood. For example, 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of black or Hispanic communities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Abortion Surveillance report revealed that between 2007 and 2010, nearly 36 percent of all abortions in the United States were performed on black children, even though black Americans make up only 13 percent of our population. A further 21 percent of abortions were performed on Hispanics, and 7 percent more on other minority groups, for a total of 64 percent of U.S. abortions tragically performed on minority groups. Margaret Sanger would have been proud of the effects of her legacy.

Famous blacks of today see her as a racist, who wanted to do away with the black race.  In my opinion she is as bad as Adolf Hitler trying to do away with the Jews.  I am thrilled to see more and more Planned Parenthood centers close, and less tax payer's money used to help fund these abortion clinics.  Abortion is their ultimate goal, and their idea of birth control.  Everything else is a front. 
“What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?”
__Anthony Trollope, The Warden

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6136 on: November 16, 2017, 02:02:35 PM »
My day at the library netted me three books at the Friends of the Library books store. One is called The Middle of the Air by Kenneth Butcher, an author new to me. This is his first novel set and is set in Appalachia. My copy is signed. His second also sounds kind of interesting, The Dream of Saint Ursula: A Virgin Islands Mystery. According to the author these are part of a trilogy.

Also, I gained another Steve Berry, The 14th Colony, even though I am way behind in reading his novels. This one is also signed.


Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6137 on: November 21, 2017, 06:36:21 AM »
I ran across a children's (juniors?) book by Carolyn Keen called Marjorie in Command. Now you know, I just had to take a peek. Here are the first four intriguing lines of the book.
Quote
“Well,” said Marjorie, “I think it’s too perfectly, awfully, horribly dreadful for anything in all this world!”

“I do, too,” agreed King. “It’s a calamity, and a catastrophe and a cat,—a cata—cataclysm!”

“Of course it is,” said Kitty, who was philosophical. “But as it’s all settled, and we’ve got to live through it, we may as well make the best of it.”

“The best of it!” grumbled King; “there isn’t any best! It’s all outrageously horrid, and that’s all there is about it! I don’t see how we can stand it.”


PatH

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10917
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6138 on: November 21, 2017, 10:52:19 AM »
Goodness! I wonder what the catastrophic cataclysm could be?

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6139 on: November 25, 2017, 02:02:34 PM »
Indeed, I am agog - I love these old children's books!

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6140 on: December 01, 2017, 04:23:01 PM »
Just started reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. It is about a wheelchair bound historian who writes about his frontier-era grandparents. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972 and is on the Modern Library's 100 best English language books of the 20th Century. I've only gotten into the intro which is interesting of itself.

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6141 on: December 01, 2017, 08:01:19 PM »
I’m about half way thru Adriana Trigiani’s The Shoemaker’s Wife. It’s delightful! She’s obviously done a lot of research about the various settings - northern Italy, an Atlantic voyage at the end of the 19th century, Little Italy in NYC. A little romance, a little history, a good story with many positive moments. Just what I needed to avoid the world at the moment.

Jean

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6142 on: December 03, 2017, 12:08:22 PM »
I’ve almost finished “The Shoemaker’s Wife” and am still liking it very much. There is a strong woman protagonist who has supportive men around her. As I said it moves from northern Italy, across the Atlantic to NYC and then to Minnesota. It has a lot to say about what makes a “family”, how important friends can be in our lives, the power of having goals, and is a good look at immigrant lives at the turn of the 20th century. It’s a good story.

Jean

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6143 on: December 03, 2017, 05:51:33 PM »
I think that Angle of Repose is worth a book discussion. I am not that far in, but it has all kinds of things to talk about, including the huge argument over the author's use of materials from Mary Hallock Foote's writings.

About the book: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/novelreadings/a-kind-of-investigation-into-a-life-wallace-stegner-angle-of-repose/

About the author: https://wallacestegner.org/bio.html

Angle of repose is an actual scientific term. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/angle_of_repose

About Mary Hallock Foote, including links to some of her stories: https://americanliterature.com/author/mary-hallock-foote

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6144 on: December 08, 2017, 10:31:43 AM »
I just realized that I have one of Mary Hallock Foote's books on my Kindle (once again, courtesy of Project Gutenberg): The Desert and the Sown. I'll have to read it after I get done with Angle of Repose (and the other borrows that are already waiting). And, I will have to find and read The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote, Edited by Rodman W . Paul.
 
I can well see why there was such a great controversy over Wallace Stegner's book. It does indeed take much of its story from Mary Hallock Foote's writings, a lot of it verbatim. However, he did get the okay to use the material as he saw fit with the proviso that he keep the sources a secret, and the none of the family apparently wanted to bother to read the offered prepublication manuscript for comment.

In the meantime, Angle of Repose is quite descriptive. At the moment, I am getting a reminder of how badly miners were treated back then.

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6145 on: December 08, 2017, 12:00:31 PM »
I've always wanted to read Angle of Repose. I've also wanted to read The Shoemaker's Wife. At the moment, I'm reading The Bridal Chair by Gloria Goldreich. It's about the life of Marc Chagall and his family mainly his daughter, Ida and her husband. At the moment, they are living in Paris. Trying to use visas to get away from Adolph Hitler. It's written very well. I like looking for Marc Chagall's paintings on the Internet.

nlhome

  • Posts: 984
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6146 on: December 08, 2017, 03:15:51 PM »
I just finished listening to A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy. That was a most relaxing book.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6147 on: December 09, 2017, 07:51:31 AM »
nlhome - I read that book earlier this year and enjoyed it. Who was reading it on your audiobook? Maeve Binchy gets a lot of flak, but I love her - she never pretended to be writing high literature, but she wrote about ordinary Irish people and the way they live their lives in a quite beautiful way. I get the impression that she was a lovely woman. She could not have children, and once said that their (much regretted) absence gave her the time to write her books (although when she first started she was still working full time as a journalist, so would get up at 5.30am to get some writing done - and she kept her writing stuff on a pull-out trolly under the stairs, as there was no other space in their tiny house). She and her husband Gordon were devoted to one another.

Rosemary

nlhome

  • Posts: 984
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6148 on: December 09, 2017, 06:55:32 PM »
Rosemary, the narrator was Rosalyn Landor. I am fairly new to audiobooks, so I am not familiar with the different readers. I had eye surgery recently, and reading is still a strain for me, so I am listening to books that I order through our online library. I haven't had much luck getting specific books, so I have been looking in the "available" category. I think someone here or on another site had mentioned reading this one; in any case, it was "available" so I checked it out. I've listened to some books I would not have read this way, so that's good.

I must say, that book made me interested in the western part of Ireland. I haven't read many of Binchy's books, mostly the short stories. Right now, as I'm not as active as I normally am, I enjoyed the book.

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6149 on: December 09, 2017, 09:29:05 PM »
I'm listening to "The Christmas Train" by David Baldacci. I think I would like reading the book. It's a light, fun book about a journalist who gets so frustrated with the TSA at Dulles Airport - oh, I guess that's now Reagan Airport - that he throws a fit and is banned from all air travel in the US for 2 yrs! He has a date to meet his "girlfriend" in LA for Christmas, so he decides to take the train across the country. Which gives him the thought of writing a book about taking a train across the country. It's a charming story..........however, Tim Mathieson, the reader of the audio book has the same voice for every other character but the protagonist - it sounds like an 85 yr old man from the South. LOL It's very distracting, so I will get the book when I go to the library next week and enjoy the story.
I'm also reading The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Stout for our mother/dgt book group. Have any of you read it? What did you think? So far I don't like any character in the book.   :( I'm hoping it gets better.

Jean


rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6150 on: December 10, 2017, 08:12:52 AM »
Jean, I haven't read either of those books but I like the sound of The Christmas Train, I will see if our library has it.

I find the lack of difference between voices so frustrating in radio drama too - even when the characters are played by different actors, they sometimes all sound the same. Last night I was lisitening to Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder, which is a fictional detective story that includes the real life author Josephine Tey as a character. It's set in the world of London theatre in the 1930s. The plot wasn't brilliant, but my main problem was telling one person from another. The details of theatre life were, however, fascinating.

nlhome - I do hope your eyesight is recovering? The Maeve Binchy that I personally love best is Light A Penny Candle, one of her earliest works. It's a sort of family saga about an English schoolgirl sent to stay with an Irish farming family, and how both their and her lives (she returns to England) develop over the years. It rang especially true with me because I used to stay with my friend's farming family every year, but I think anyone would enjoy it. Lots of detail about life in Ireland from WW2 onwards, the (now declining) power of the Catholic church, the changes in attitudes on both sides of the Irish Sea - and as ever with Binchy, a good page-turning plot.

Rosemary

nlhome

  • Posts: 984
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6151 on: December 10, 2017, 10:33:23 AM »
Thanks, Rosemary. I have to retrain my brain, but it's moving along. I can read on the computer, but it's hard on my eyes. It will be a few days yet before I can do strenuous activities, or I'd be doing a deep clean of the house. After I see the doctor Tuesday, I'll probably have the ok to drive; meanwhile, I listen to books and wrap gifts, etc. (And hint to my husband about vacuuming)

I have read "The Christmas Train." I liked it. It was a change from the Baldacci books I had read.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6152 on: December 14, 2017, 08:24:17 AM »
Just finished Angle of Repose. What a story! The story is very heavily based on real people, places and events.

Wikipedia has a summary that doesn't get too detailed with spoilers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_Repose

The struggle of these two mismatched characters to keep a marriage together in the late 1800's/early 1900's is well worth reading. The occupations of both partners, one an illustrator and writer, the other a civil engineer are well illustrated. Oliver was an overly trusting and hard working engineer who (along with his family) suffered set back after set back and disappointment.  Susan, who all the while wrote about and illustrated the West and its inhabitants, never really became a part of nor was reconciled to living in the West. She preferred the society of and moaned over the loss of her Eastern family, friends and sensibilities.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6153 on: December 14, 2017, 10:24:20 AM »
Almost forgot the other bit of the novel involves a wheelchair bound historian who is writing a novel about his grandparents, the subjects of the other part of the novel. He does some comparisons and speculations regarding his situation, experience and feelings with those of his grandparents.

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6154 on: December 17, 2017, 01:27:31 PM »
Each story is amazing. I would love to know how Susan Vreeland felt as she researched and wrote each story. Did she travel to the homes of these painters? Who was her favorite artist? Because as I read "Life Studies" by Susan Vreeland, her passionate feelings or love for these people comes through the sentences. Here is one quote I like from the novel or anthology.

"The painter worked faster this time,  swaying toward and away from his painting, a rhythm that would last for a while and then abruptly stop, as if a pain were attacking him and he had to wait until it passed...Every so often he murmured excited syllables--not words, just sounds."

mabel1015j

  • Posts: 3656
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6155 on: December 19, 2017, 12:12:35 AM »
I just noticed on a list of Hallmark Christmas movies that there is a movie based on “The Christmas Train” bt Baldacci. I’d like to get to see it.

Jean

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9939
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6156 on: January 02, 2018, 04:43:57 PM »
I've just started reading a L. Frank Baum (yes the Wizard of Oz guy) book called Daughters of Destiny(1906). He wrote this adult adventure novel under one of his pen-names, Schuyler Staunton.

Much of the action is set in Baluchistan which is now a part of Pakistan although, from what I've read, it would prefer to be independent. I also learned that Baluchistan was once one of the semi-independent areas protected by the Brits. Some time after they gained full independence, Pakistan invaded and took it over (in spite of signed treaties that it should remain independent). According to a site I read (forget which one) it covers 49% of Pakistan and is fertile ground with a good bit of mineral wealth. Those wishing their independence back claim that they are under represented in the Pakistani government, and that the government has not put any effort into improving infrastructure, among other things. Uh, Oh! Learning things again.  ;D   



rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6158 on: February 17, 2018, 07:14:17 AM »
Thanks Frybabe, that's a very interesting list (and I'm a sucker for lists...). The only book I had even heard of is Little Women, which I read so long ago that I really should read it again. The article did put me in mind of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, in which Cassandra shuts her author father in the dungeon to make him write again (he's been going on about writer's block on and off all through the story, and his lack of output is leaving them all seriously impoverished.)

Rosemary

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2
« Reply #6159 on: February 17, 2018, 07:08:20 PM »
Hi Rosemary and Frybabe, thanks for the title list. I like a few of them. I wrote down Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. I remember The Fixer by Bernard Malamud. So I would like to read The Tenant. Hope I looked at the right list.