Author Topic: The Library (Read 207497 times)

maryz · « **Reply #880 on:** April 09, 2009, 04:13:03 PM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not) right now.

Let the book talk begin here!

Everyone is welcome!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

AMEN!!!

pedln · « **Reply #881 on:** April 09, 2009, 06:30:33 PM »

Steph, I'm glad to know Maron's come out with another Deborah Knott. I'll have to look for that Death's Half-Acre. I thought I'd read all of hers, but don't think I've read that one.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #882 on:** April 09, 2009, 06:33:57 PM »

Just to add my 2cents worth.
Mary I like you am enjoying the Kindle more and more. Today I drove a lady to the doctor so Emma and I sat out in front while I played with the Kindle I was trying to find out how to use the internet. I put in my name and guess I am an expert on worms at least thats what google said.

The intertainment center in my living room has a TV on top and the entire bottom is book sheves. A large three shelves in the computer room and 2 more book cases in my bedroom. So far there are none on the floor but it may be coming.

winsummm · « **Reply #883 on:** April 09, 2009, 10:37:34 PM »

the kindle my daughter gave me three weeks ago is keeping me very busy, too busy seven books read already and anther begun today. this is the second Obama book "The Audacty of Hope". He is such a good writer and this was written before the election which really did change everything. It is clear when reading this book that all the hopes are beginning to become acts of this new president.

The Lincoln Child Douglas Reston team has written a lot of very scarey thrillers. The do it well. sp.

Steph · « **Reply #884 on:** April 10, 2009, 07:31:30 AM »

I think we all tend to look at people when they are reading in public and want to know what.. I must confess that I love to go to my dental hygenists. They have people magazine. I would never spend money for it, but it is a guilty pleasure when I go to see Jan. Mostly about people that I dont even know what they do.

Babi · « **Reply #885 on:** April 10, 2009, 09:18:16 AM »

GUM, I wonder if that young couple were college students. I definitely remember 'scruffy' from my college days, and those two books may have been college lit. (Thouigh, actually, I think I read them earlier than that.)

pedln · « **Reply #886 on:** April 10, 2009, 09:22:31 AM »

Hi Kindle users and others, I just came across this interesting link on Amazon with all kinds of questions. As a pacemaker user I'd never thoght about pacemakers and kindles. (I usually forget I have a pacemaker, except at the airport.)

Kindle Questions

redbud73086 · « **Reply #887 on:** April 10, 2009, 01:00:41 PM »

I've been an avid reader all my life and both my "kids" (45 & 41) are the same. I think my favorite picture is one of my daughter, who was about 3 years old, sitting on her Dad's lap "reading" one of her Dr. Seuss books to him.

My income is limited now and as my daughter and I have similar tastes in books, she buys them and then gives them to me when she's finished. Between her and my library's reserve list, I get to read most everything I want.

PatH · « **Reply #888 on:** April 10, 2009, 01:55:03 PM »

Hi, redbud, and welcome. You'll find a lot of kindred souls here--we talk about all kinds of books. What are you reading now?

ANNIE · « **Reply #889 on:** April 11, 2009, 07:44:21 AM »

Good morning! What a gorgeous day in my hometown! Sunny but crisp and such beautiful blue skies.

Our f2f group has a new book which I have already read but I decided to read it again(something I don't ordinarily do.) The book is still delightful! Entitled "Water For Elephants", its about the circus and a young man who finds himself part of the working crew and, of course, there's a love story connected also. Entwined is also the story of the young man as an old man living in a nursing home. Different and delightful!

I recently brought home a few audio CD's for listening to when I can't sleep but my CD player crashed and I haven't had time for shopping for a new one. Back to classical music for soothing my fevered brow in the middle of the night!

HAPPY EASTER OR PASSOVER OR NEW SPRING TO ALL!

Steph · « **Reply #890 on:** April 11, 2009, 09:30:49 AM »

Water for Elephants was one of those books that I loved and hated at the same time. A lot of it was great, but it did tend to drag off and on.
Just started the huge Wallly Lamb.. Interesting but slow reading at this point. I did find that he had published a second book from the jail women who took his class. Must look for it, I loved the first one and we had a wonderful discussion a few years ago on Senior net on it. He joined in as did at least one of the women

pedln · « **Reply #891 on:** April 11, 2009, 01:09:22 PM »

My f2f group read Water for Elephants this past year. Loved it.

Ann, you sound so bright and chipper today. I think of you and Ralph often and hope everything is going well. I know you are happy to have him home.

A wonderful weekend to everyone.

ANNIE · « **Reply #892 on:** April 11, 2009, 08:31:00 PM »

Yes, Eloise, I am certainly mucking through this part of my life. Oh dear, Ralph's alarm just went off so he has to change his batteries. It always something around here.
Tomorrow we will have ham, baked sweet potatoes(organic, of course), salad, green or perfection, scalloped corn and carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

HAPPY EASTER, PASSOVER OR NEW SPRING TO ALL!

Steph · « **Reply #893 on:** April 12, 2009, 09:09:47 AM »

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL... HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY. IT IS BRIGHT AND SUNNY IN CENTRAL FLORIDA.
I do hope all is well with everyone. I loved the premise of Water for Elephants, but not the execution.

Babi · « **Reply #894 on:** April 12, 2009, 10:32:42 AM »

I dyed a half-dozen eggs and bought some candy. I always enjoy the colors of Easter. Thankfully, my girls and I have been asked to have lunch out with family, so no one is cooking a big meal. Or cleaning up afterwards.

Be sure to enjoy all the little girls and boys in their Easter outfits.

[size=14]A JOYOUS EASTER OR PASSOVER[/size]

Steph · « **Reply #895 on:** April 13, 2009, 07:40:27 AM »

Hooray.. Our Captain is free. Now if the world would just get serious about the pirates. They are making life way too hard on the merchant ships.. Tribal warfare wastes everyones energy and time.

Babi · « **Reply #896 on:** April 13, 2009, 09:42:51 AM »

"Tribal warfare", STEPH? You lost me there. What is the background on this piracy? Other than criminal theft, violence and greed, of course.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #897 on:** April 13, 2009, 12:26:39 PM »

Problem is that because their government went bankrupt and there is no strong power there was no longer fishing rights protection for the fishermen and so large commercial fishing vassals came in over two years ago and scooped up all the fish in the giant nets and processing ships so that the local fishermen are not only without work but have no way to feed the communities that depended on the fish they brought in to sell.

There still is no government strong enough to protect them, the sea that they fished nor, repremand them for their current choice of earning a livelihood. This is not out and out bad guy pirates - the Fishing industry of Europeans and even Americans went in and scalped them of their legitimate livelihood.

Steph · « **Reply #898 on:** April 14, 2009, 07:43:30 AM »

Somalia is ruled mostly by War Lords and they tend to be tribal. I agree that the fishermen got caught in the overfishing, but piracy is not an answer. It is increasing and needs to be put under some sort of control. I get so discouraged with a good many African countries. Places where the soldiers and poachers kill the gorillas, no reason, but they want to. Others where they poach the elephants.. Here where the pirates seem to be considered good village producers. This is a wonderful country that is constantly being torn apart by tribal concerns. The congo has had warfare for over 20 years now.. Rape is a constant problem in many of the countries as well. I have read the wonderful books on the Africa from the early part of the 1900's and see what is left now and wonder how they can fix it.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #899 on:** April 15, 2009, 11:41:37 AM »

Our Humorous short story for the month starts today - come on over and join us for our monthly 10 day discussion - the O'Henry story was made into a movie although I did not see it as a movie - like most of you we read it in school. I remember laughing along with the rest of the class. - Here is the link to "The Ransom of Red Chief" http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=436.0

mabel1015j · « **Reply #900 on:** April 15, 2009, 03:13:48 PM »

I was thinking about favorite authors i've liked thru my years. When i was a tenn-ager, i liked John O'Hara because i had seen From the Terrace in the movies. Who couldn't love Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward together? So, i read most of what he had written up til that time. Now i see O'Hara's books as soapy stories. In the 80's i found Helen Van Slyke and read all of her books, they were real relationship stories which i seemed to need at that time. I also read sev'l of the Irving STone fictional historical biographies and altho they were probably greatly romaticized, they were enjoyable. Sometime in the 80's and 90's, i read Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides and Harriet Arnow's The Dollmaker, both rather "heavy," sometimes dark, long, books, but the writing was so good, they both put me right into the scene and i could hear the dialogue and the accent of the characters. Then in the 90's, under greater stress, i was looking for something lighter and fell into Evanovich's hilarious world and that got me started on mysteries, which i had never been crazy about before. I've never stopped reading them and apparently everyone else has gotten into them also from the space that they now take up on the library book shelves. Our library has usurped two full walls for mysteries and many that i would call "mysteries" are shelved on the fiction shelves. I have never figured out how they decide what goes where. ...................interesting, the evolution that my reading has taken and how my needs have changed, usually based on what's happening in my life. Is that true for the rest of you? ....................jean

maryz · « **Reply #901 on:** April 15, 2009, 03:46:24 PM »

Oh, jean, I DO hope my tastes and what I want from a book have changed over the years.

Have you read the first Pat Conroy books? The Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline? IMHO, these are far and away better books than The Prince of Tides and Beach Music. Frankly, we didn't like the latter two much at all, and loved the earlier ones. (The earlier ones were good movies, too.)

p.s. I just ordered Travels with Charley for my Kindle.

CallieOK · « **Reply #902 on:** April 15, 2009, 03:53:34 PM »

Absolutely, Jean - and my reading tastes have been much like yours from the 80's on. I hadn't thought about Helen Van Slyke in years.

Not sure what it says about my life, but, although I always like to see the plot problem(s) resolved in the end, I have no desire to read anything that follows a character or characters through chapter after chapter of woeful turmoils of life. Neither do I care for polly-annish "everything is wonderful because (character) is so inspirational to all with whom (usually "she") comes in contact".
Maybe I need an Attitude Adjustment!!

I never cared much for mysteries but began reading them to keep up with what the neighborhood book group likes. I like the Sue Grafton "alphabet" stories a little better than Evanovich. I've enjoyed the Carolyn Hart "Henry O" series but do not care for her "Death On Demand" series because I get bogged down in the lists of other mystery authors she insists on including in the story.
Right now, I'm reading Catherine Coulter's "Tail Spin". Although the actions of one of the main characters seem a little far-fetched IMO, it's a "page-turner".

bellemere · « **Reply #903 on:** April 15, 2009, 08:31:35 PM »

I am lucky to have a relative working for Barnes and Noble New York h.q, and sometimes get prepublication copies of things. One that I am reading is Admission, about an admissions officer for Princeton University. Parents of kids aspiring to Ivy League colleges might like it. I find it kind of contrived. The author describes the characters in detais instead of letting their words and actions reveal themselves.
Our library is having a fund raising drive, and a local deli set aside today to donate 20 percent of each check, before tax and tip, to the library. I loved my potato pancakes with apple sauce!
Book Club meeting tomorrow. Wish I could get them off the food kick. Coffee table groaning with snacks, and then dessert and coffee. My friend's book club forbids homemade goodies, only things like oreos. another one says only popcorn and peanuts.
We have to discuss Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by a Jonathan Safran Foer. He varies the narrator, but mostly it is told by a precocious nine year old boy who lost his father in the World Trade Center. I liked it, even though some of the plot stretched credibility. anyone read it?

marjifay · « **Reply #904 on:** April 16, 2009, 01:15:56 AM »

Jean, interesting to read of your changing tastes in books. I've never heard of Helen Van Syke. I did read a John O'Hara book not long ago-- APPOINTMENT IN SAMARA which I found very interesting and not at all soap operaish. Have you read it?

When I was young I read all kinds of stuff, but what I remember most were all the Agatha Christie mysteries. Loved them. Still do.

ginny · « **Reply #905 on:** April 16, 2009, 06:54:23 AM »

Oh my tastes are changing, too, and in TV, what little I watch, as well. What does that say about us? We're WISER? I sure hope so. Our next Talking Heads discussion will be on the guilty pleasures of "pleasure reading." Don't miss it!!

One of the magazines out (can't remember which) has an interview with an author saying which author has inspired you the most (what would YOU say? ) and which old fave, upon being reread, disappointed you the most? It appears that a lot of people find their tastes may have changed, (or may not!) How would you have answered those two questions?

For inspiration, if you have not seen these 4 minutes, you're in for a treat!

I will confess to singing in the shower after seeing this inspiring thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Enjoy!

Steph · « **Reply #906 on:** April 16, 2009, 08:13:27 AM »

Wow, you did bring me back to think of changing tastes in books. I also read John O;Hara, but I loved him and read all of him. Some are better than others. Van Slyck,, no.. never cared for her, but I read a lot of science fiction and that era was when I started on several authors like Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley, etc. I have been reading all sorts of mysteries over the years, but note that now I tend to read mysteries with strong women protagonist. I also like several of the vampire sagas.. Just now Charlaine Harris is a strong favorite of mine. She has at least three different series and I like Sookie, the woman who hears dead people and the reall remarkable small series on a woman damaged by a terrible rape and her recovery into the world of people..
Old favorite that I no longer find interesting.. Sinclair Lewis..

marjifay · « **Reply #907 on:** April 16, 2009, 10:04:44 AM »

WOW!!! Ginny, I loved that UTube video you posted of Susan Boyle and her beautiful singing voice. Wonderful! Thank you.

As to which author(s) influenced me the most, I would say the (nonfiction) books of Joseph Campbell who wrote on comparative mythology and religion, Alan Watts who wrote lovely nonfiction books on Asian philisophy, especially Taoism, and the nature of life and reality, and a book called the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. I read these in the 1970s and they influenced the way I look at life and my religeous
thinking.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #908 on:** April 16, 2009, 10:37:59 AM »

It was not a book but a short story by Isaac Asimov. A large, vibrant, society of intellectuals were aware of an eminent catastrophe. For example (I'm as little fuzzy on the details), their formerly pristine black night sky was suddenly to be full of stars. No, it was the opposite, the formerly brilliant night sky with millions of stars was to be become black, instantly. Forget the reason but knowing Asimov it was logical and sound science. Our narrator is a mature man of intellect, able to think in abstractions and deal with consequences, predicted or unexpected. He has mentally prepared himself for doom. Reposts come in across the globe from other cities where the black has already arrived; people are committing suicide, losing their reason, acting as if it was the end of the world. He chides himself for worrying, he is able to repress his emotions and act with reason as the situation required. At the end he is howling like a banshee at the incredible BLACK everywhere.

A slight, interesting tale yet it has survived in my memory for close to 50 years. The profound realization that our minds can accept only so much change without becoming irretrievably lost. Maybe it is my congenital depression which so affected me about this story that it has survived the millions of printed words which my mind has processed but there it is, firmly ensconced in my memory as if written in stone.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #909 on:** April 16, 2009, 11:18:20 AM »

These are the books I have on reserve at my branch library. Has anyone read any of them?

The turtle catcher / Helget, Nicole Lea,
Never tell a lie / Ephron, Hallie.
The woman behind the New Deal : the life of Frances Perkins
Vincente Minnelli : Hollywood's dark dreamer / Levy, E
Dark lady : Winston Churchill's mother and her world /
Devil's gate : Brigham Young and the great Mormon hand
My sister's keeper : a novel / Picoult, Jodi,

catbrown · « **Reply #910 on:** April 16, 2009, 11:40:04 AM »

Old favorites that I can't reread? Conrad and Hardy ... I can no longer enter their worlds. But Dickens, Trollope, Austen? I can reread them again and again. Also, Dunnett, Sabatini, Murdoch, Renault, early Cecilia Holland, and James (but not past "Ambassadors." Oh, and then there's Robert Jordan ... .

Ginny, thanks for posting that link there. It's gone viral and I've done my bit, sharing it with lots of women friends. I think it highlights our society's almost automatic dismissal of older women; and then, of course, there's the performance.

Cathy

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #911 on:** April 16, 2009, 12:00:03 PM »

I just finished reading this wonderful, beautiful novel by Lisa Genova, "Still Alice". It is timely with a brave and heart-rending protagonist. Imagine you are a 50 year old, brilliant professor of cognitive psychology, at the height of your career, and Early Onset Alzheimers takes you in its grasp. This is a short novel, but extremely well written and something that will tear at your heart and mind.

marjifay · « **Reply #912 on:** April 16, 2009, 01:24:34 PM »

No, Ella, I haven't read any of those books on your library list, but I have THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL on my TBR list. I think that will be very interesting.

On my TBR Next List:

A WILDERNESS SO IMMENSE; THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE AND
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA by Jon Kukla. I wanted to know more about the Louisiana Purchase and how France got territory in the U.S. after reading Team of Rivals and how so many young men in the 1800s were going west after the L.P. Per PW, this is now the book to read on the Purchase: "A splendid, beutifully written narrative focused tightly on the complex historic origins of the Purchase and the diplomacy that pulled it off."

BENEDICT ARNOLD; PATRIOT AND TRAITOR by Willard Sterne Randall
I heard a Cash Cab question, about him and realized I knew nothing about him. (I love Cash Cab on cable TV -- Does anyone else watch it? Kind of a Jeopardy program in a NY cab where people earn money answering questions as they ride to their destinations.)

THE TESTAMENT OF GIDEON MACK by James Robertson (2008-fiction)
About a Scottish minister who is rescued by the Devil (he says) from a gorge into which he had fallen. Per Wash. Post, it's a deeply unsettling story that will prick the faith of the devout, shake the conficence of atheists, and haunt those of us who hover uneasily in between.

WOMEN IN LOVE by D. H. Lawrence. This will be a re-read -- I read it long ago.

bellemere · « **Reply #913 on:** April 16, 2009, 01:29:27 PM »

Dumping
Admission - it is one of those books that has to get the steamy sex scene in the first part, hoping to hook you. It also tells you what kind of wine the characters are drinking and what labels their clothes (when they have them on)
are . Exercising my right not to finish, and taking up the next on mylist. This Republic of Suffering. I read about it here.

Babi · « **Reply #914 on:** April 16, 2009, 03:40:36 PM »

Astute observation, JEAN. Once we discover books,we can always find what
we need at any period of our life. And isn't that a blessing!?

Oh, CALLIE, Grafton and Evanovich are two different genres, IMO. It's like
comparing lemons and lemonade. A common base, but no other similarities.

GINNY, I couldn't possibly name one author who inspired me the most. Many of
them have been inspirations at different times in my life. I would be interested
to hear what authors other readers might name, but if I tried to pick one I'd
feel disloyal to so many others!

Thanks for the warning, BELLEMERE. It's good to get notice of the ones not to waste time on, too.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #915 on:** April 16, 2009, 04:36:27 PM »

Ella - you reminded me that i read a book about Churchill's mother decades ago, can't remember the title, but it was very interesting.

I can't think of books that influenced me directly, other than the biographies that i've read and particularly those of women. I loved the Kahlil Gibran books that we were all reading in the 60's. We used some of his poem on marriage in our wedding vows. I don't think he influenced me as much as reenforced what i already believed. The teen-age girls books may have taught me that women also had smarts , and power, and courage. But again that was reenforcing what i saw in the women around me.

MaryZ - i did read the earlier Conroy books. I liked them also, but the Prince of Tides was so powerful to me........... the movie was not as good, altho i tho't Nick Nolte was perfect as the lead.

I re-read Marjorie Morningstar a few years ago and was disappointed - now THAT was a soap opera to me in my old age.

I read Sinclair Lewis' Main STreet for the first time about 10 years ago and altho i wasn't enthralled w/ it, i was amazed at how "feminist-thinking" it was. He understood her boredom as a housewife w/ no children and no intellectual outlets in that forelorn place. Of course, i think it was written in the 20's and there was still a holdover from the suffragist movement and a feminist philosophy of life. He probably was in touch w/ women who were a part of those issues...............

Babi - i agree about Grafton and Evanovich. I can read JE in one day, she just keeps me reading. SG's book are entertaining, but not captivating............IMO.................jean

CallieOK · « **Reply #916 on:** April 16, 2009, 04:44:08 PM »

Babi and Jean, The comparison of Grafton and Evanovich to lemons and lemonade is very apt. I had more or less "lumped them together" until I began reading each one.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #917 on:** April 16, 2009, 06:15:10 PM »

Ginny's delight in Rosemary Mahoney's Down the Nile impelled me to check it out of the library. Also I borrowed Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt, the journey of a woman who walked with her daughter across the country. In the introduction Hunt quotes from the estimable Scottish psychiatrist, R D Laing:

The range of what we think and do
is limited by what we fail to notice
And because we fail to notice
that we fail to notice
there is little we can do
to change
until we notice
how failing to notice
shapes our thoughts and deeds.

How can it be that this tremendous feat has passed from our ken? Hunt pursues this question as she creates from the few sources available this journey. Failing to notice, how profound.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #918 on:** April 16, 2009, 06:26:03 PM »

Thanks for reminding me of that Laing quote, Jackie. I had forgotten that it was in the front of that book.......................profound!................jean

PatH · « **Reply #919 on:** April 16, 2009, 07:18:51 PM »

Mrs. Sherlock, you're not alone in your reaction to Asimov's short story. It's name is "Nightfall". The situation is that in a system with six suns, you only get darkness every 2500 years or so, and although they had tried to prepare for the dark, the thing that really freaked them out was the stars. As you said, it totally destroyed them.

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 207497 times)