Author Topic: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~  (Read 283507 times)

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #640 on: October 08, 2011, 11:57:45 AM »
 

Now Considering titles  for 2012 discussions-


January's Book Club Online  Discussion will be
Ship of Fools
 by Katherine Anne Porter

Charles Dickens' 200th Birthday is coming in February -
Nominate one of his titles  for our February Book Club Online in a post below:

Nominations to date:   (the titles are links)

BLEAK HOUSE
~ (often considered Dickens' masterpiece, his finest work, though not his most popular.)


GREAT EXPECTATIONS
~ (An absorbing mystery as well as a morality tale, this novel contains a strong autobiographical elements.)


PICKWICK PAPERS
~ (Dickens' first novel:""If I were to live a hundred years and write three novels in each, I should never be so proud of any of them as I am of Pickwick.")


A Tale of Two Cities
~ (This is the  novel, which begins "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,"  set against the backdrop of the French Revolution.")

Contact:  JoanP




JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #641 on: October 08, 2011, 12:04:48 PM »
Let's open a discussion for light reading and discussion in December.  All suggestions will be considered. 

salan

  • Posts: 1093
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #642 on: October 08, 2011, 12:38:04 PM »
Count me in for Ship of Fools.  I would also be interested in a December discussion of light Christmas books.
Sally

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11350
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #643 on: October 08, 2011, 02:39:16 PM »
OK found JoanP's post about trying to find suggestions for December that most who have spoken about December reading are looking for something light

Well did some homework and here are some suggestions...

 I cross referenced these with Amazon UK - I have not yet cross referenced them with Amazon Australia however, when I looked at titles for an Australian Christmas book on Amazon USA there was not much there - a few children's books and a lot about Christmas Island and so I am hoping these titles are generic enough

With the large number of us that remembered fondly reading Anna of Green Gables when we were young - did you know there is an extension of the story -
Avonlea Christmas: Spin-off from Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea

Always fun and the TV series still rings with a visual for Rumpole
Rumpole Christmas Stories

I like this one - it is unique and it is the first I have heard of it...
My Christmas Attic Things Explained

Now this one is on Sale at a very good price...with just the bit available to read it sounds like it will be a story of hope.
Christmas at Harringtons

This is a new one on me - sounds enchanting... a famous author's Christmas letters to his children...wow!
Letters Father Christmas J R R Tolkien

Seems like Anne Perry is popular where ever in the western world novels are read
Anne Perrys Silent Nights Victorian

And this is a tome but a real delight - fun and Christmasy without being tongue and cheek or ironic, as so many are these days and not so sappy you need a drink to swallow the syrup. Doctors in rural Ireland - reminds you a lot of "All Creatures Great and Strong" with those three vets in rural England.
Irish Country Christmas
“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

bellemere

  • Posts: 862
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #644 on: October 14, 2011, 09:30:18 AM »
for something light, witty, modern and sophisticated: The Three Weissmans of Westport.  Divorce in old age and consequences for the wife and daughters.  the two sisters echo those in Sense and Sensibilty by Jane Austen; the setting is New York's Upeer
West
Side and the tony CT suburb of Westport.

JoanR

  • Posts: 1093
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #645 on: October 18, 2011, 03:58:40 AM »
Two of Eudora Welty's books - "Ponder Heart" and the "Optimist's Daughter" were in the vote a litle while ago.  I read them both, realizing that Welty is a "must" and I've never read any of her books.  "Ponder Heart" is very funny - loved it! It's not long and I found the characters quite endearing.  Would make a good December selection I think.
  The other book I found interesting but certainly far from funny.  Worth reading for sure but not in December.
  I seem to be on a Michael Ondaatje binge right now set off by havng read "The Cat's Table" (super!) and now busy with "In the Skin of a Lion" , more to follow.  What a writer!

kidsal

  • Posts: 2620
  • Howdy from Rock Springs, WY
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #646 on: October 18, 2011, 05:30:48 AM »
Of course there is always "The Christmas Carol" by Dickens

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #647 on: October 18, 2011, 08:15:58 AM »
Kidsal, we're planning to celebrate Dickens' birthday in February - (his 200th!)  with a month long discussion of one of his works.  The consensus seems to be to discuss one of his not-so-often discussed works.  So far, the suggestion list includes these titles:

Barnaby Rudge
Our Mutual Friend
Chimes
Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations

Does anyone care to expand on this list?

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #648 on: October 18, 2011, 08:22:52 AM »
Bellemere - The Three Weissmans of Westport should go on our upcoming slate of nominations!  Light and witty seems to be what our readers are looking for these days.

And I agree with you, JoanR - we ought to put Eudora Welty's books back on the agenda.  Do you think  "The Cat's Table"  would be a good book for group discussion?
 

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #649 on: October 18, 2011, 08:27:31 AM »
JOANR, "super!" will catch me most every time. I hope one of my sources has "The Cat's
Table".
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

salan

  • Posts: 1093
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #650 on: October 18, 2011, 06:56:33 PM »
JoanP,  I did not care for The Three Weissman's.  I found it a little depressing and got disgusted with the women's need for a man in their lives.  It was well written, but.....
Sally

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #651 on: October 19, 2011, 02:29:26 PM »
Oh my - it's a good thing we can talk about these different responses here...before scheduling them for a vote.  Thanks, Sally!

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #652 on: November 15, 2011, 12:59:39 PM »
Thanks for the Heads up on the TCM production of Ship of Fools in the Library, Sheila!  Have you checked your TV listings for the time?  I noticed that it is only showing once on Thursday - Nov.17 at 1:15 am EST  At 10:15 PST... Will you check your TV listings and see if that's right?

I'd say it's a good movie in the big Hollywood tradition - star-studded cast.  Viven Leigh, Simone Signouret - Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer - I think Elizabeth Ashley is in it too.  It has been called a "strange" adaptation of Katherine Ann Porter's novel.

We'll be discussing the real thing, the novel   - here on SeniorLearn in January.  You might enjoy comparing "Fools of1965" with those in 2012...  Fools Folks are already gathering here...Please do join us! 

Ella Gibbons

  • Posts: 2904
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #653 on: November 22, 2011, 07:19:32 PM »
I just finished Ann Padgett's book RUN.  I thought I had read all of her book until I saw this one in my library.   Perhaps it would make a good discussion.

Summary
Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children--all his children--safe. Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you've never even met. As in her bestselling novel Bel Canto , Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #654 on: November 23, 2011, 03:07:59 AM »
That sounds interesting Ella.

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #655 on: November 23, 2011, 08:41:08 AM »
That does sound good, ELLA. I'm not a great Ann Padgett fan, and Bel
Canto, though I liked it, left me angry and saddened. Still, I think I will
give 'Run'a trial if my library acquires it.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

Aberlaine

  • Posts: 180
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #656 on: December 03, 2011, 05:11:17 PM »
I love reading Christmas novels in December.  Even the mysteries seem to be light.  And if the story is about the goodness of humanity (which we see very little of these days) that would be the icing on the cake.

Nancy

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #657 on: December 06, 2011, 09:27:11 AM »
Ella, thank you for the recommendation - everyone is talking about Ann Patchett's latest, State of Wonder - Run had escaped me.  Will give it a look - after the holidays.

Nancy, I agree about Christmas novels...being lighter somehow.  There's something in the air.  Kidsal suggested we read Christmas Carol - Is it just me, or does it seem to take on more significant meaning every year with a rereading?

Dickens' 200th birthday - 200th! - is coming up in February.  We're planning to celebrate with a discussion of one of his many novels.  To date, we've had three nominations - and will continue to add to the list until January when we will have a vote.  If you have any suggestions, please post here and we'll enter it into the slate for consideration.

BarbStAubrey

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 11350
  • Keep beauty alive...
    • Piled on Tables and Floors and Bureau Drawers
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #658 on: December 06, 2011, 01:16:31 PM »
Reading together The Christmas Carol sounds really good and yes, each year there is another aspect of the story that seems to pop out front and center...

I'll join when I can but for me my life goes other places after tomorrow - traveling for my annual visit and then catching up with each other after a whole year has gone by and grandboys still wanting time with their grandmother - it is my North Star and I relish every moment - except the dreaded inspection to get on a plane these days...
“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

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #659 on: December 06, 2011, 04:26:44 PM »
Have a great time Barb!

What about Bleak House?

Rosemary

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #660 on: December 06, 2011, 04:59:41 PM »
There you are, Rosemary - I've been looking all over for you for information about Hogmanay.  Do you know what that's all about?  My son wants to
celebrate Hogmanay on New Year's!

If you take a look in the heading here, you'll see a link to Bleak House.  It's one of the three nominated so far.

kiwilady

  • Posts: 491
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #661 on: December 07, 2011, 12:29:24 AM »
Hard Times is a good novel. I think its apt in a world where the gap between rich and poor is becoming ever wider. Dickens books awoke  social conscience in Great Britain as never before. I love Dickens and read my first Dickens novel Oliver Twist when I was about 10. My great grandpa had the whole set in leather in his library.

Carolyn

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #662 on: December 07, 2011, 08:37:50 AM »
Carolyn, I agree Hard Times is a good, relevent novel for discussion.   A number of us enjoyed a discussion of that novel - and also Dickens'  not-so-often-discussed, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  Both discussions can be found in our Archives.

Archived discussion of The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Archived discussion of Hard Times

We haven't discussed Oliver Twist, however.  Would you like to put that one up for consideration for discussion in February?  Check the heading of this discussion for the nominated titles...

ginny

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 91500
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #663 on: December 07, 2011, 09:14:03 AM »
Oh good, Dickens.  Love the photo in the Newsline. My nomination is already up there: Great Expectations, I do hope to read it someday, what better time, should it get selected?

The Times and the Sunday Times of London to which I am addicted, has put the following in for background info on Dickens:






The explosion of Dickens books this winter will keep his fans reading well beyond it. The man who invented 13,000 characters continues to fascinate because of his own contradictory character. His first biographer was his friend John Forster, whose The Life of Charles Dickens hurtles back into print in an abridged but lavishly illustrated edition edited by Holly Furneaux (Sterling Signature, £27). It looks fit merely for the coffee table but is actually a work of passion and scholarship. Forster ignored Ellen ‘Nelly’ Ternan, the young actress — 31 when she died — whom Dickens fell for, and their affair was not revealed until 1939, when Gladys Storey published his daughter Kate’s unvarnished memories.

In her judicious and brilliant new biography, Claire Tomalin — previously Ternan’s chronicler — explodes any hope that their relationship was chaste, concluding disinterestedly in Charles Dickens: A Life (Viking, £24) that Ternan bore him a son who died in infancy. Anne Isba in the slighter Dickens and Women (Continuum, £13.49) less successfully controls her distaste and believes that he had a second child with her. The actress Miriam Margolyes, meanwhile, in a foreword to a transcript of her exuberant one-woman show, Dickens’ Women (Hesperus, £8.54), goes farther, admitting that she cannot forgive him for his treatment of his wife. It is, indeed, hard not to be shocked by the wicked letter that the author of Life of Our Lord (Oneworld Classics, £9.49) sent his friend Angela Burdett-Coutts after he left his wife. In it he quite falsely claimed that his daughters’ hearts shut up in her presence “as if they are closed by some horrid spring”. It is the lowest point in Jenny Hartley’s invaluable Selected Letters of Charles Dickens (OUP, £18) and can be read as one of scores of removable documents in his great-great-great-granddaughter Lucinda Dickens Hawksley’s Charles Dickens (Andre Deutsch, £27), not so much a book as a delightful giant jackdaw folder for grown-ups.

Graphologists after a real challenge, however, need The Manuscript of Great Expectations (CUP, £26.99), online from next month. Next to the above, the essays of Michael Slater’s The Genius of Dickens (Duckworth, £9.89) look workmanlike, while the remarkable thing about Dickens’s Victorian London (Ebury, £22.50) is that the contemporary photographs it assembles are less vivid than Dickens’ prose. The same could be said of Quentin Blake’s pale illustrations to yet another A Christmas Carol (Pavilion £9.49).


But here's one listed separately I really want:


This one is recommended by Andrew Morton: Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin (Viking, £24) is a delicious insight not only into the life of, in my opinion, Britain’s greatest writer, but also the daily business of Victorian London. Tomalin manages to educate and entertain in equal measure. The perfect read for a winter’s afternoon.

Imagine inventing 13,000 characters!


Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #664 on: December 07, 2011, 09:45:04 AM »
I wouldn't know where to begin to suggest a Dickens book. I have not actually read any except Oliver Twist and possibly Bleak House, but I don't remember a thing about it except the name. I don't recall actually reading A Tale of Two Cities, but I always wanted to. I've seen several versions on TV which is probably why I haven't ever added it to my TBR list.

salan

  • Posts: 1093
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #665 on: December 07, 2011, 12:13:15 PM »
I would love to read Tale of Two Cities, again.
Sally

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #666 on: December 07, 2011, 01:06:56 PM »
The novel, which begins "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".... A Tale of Two Cities has been added to the list in the heading, Sally, Frybabe .  Remember that the titles you see there are links to summaries of the plot - if that helps you decide.

Ginny,  Claire Tomalin's  Charles Dickens: A Life  will go right on my wish list - kids keep asking what I want.  I've an idea - we could read this, along with the Dickens' work we select.  Did you say you have it?

Bow_Belle

  • Posts: 1376
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #667 on: December 07, 2011, 03:06:48 PM »
One of my favourites is "Great Expectations"  charles dickens used to go in a Pub called " The Bunch of Grapes" in Limehouse London which was the area where my father was born. He got the idea for the book whilst in the pub There was a plaque placed where he used to sit and write

JoanK

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 8685
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #668 on: December 07, 2011, 03:12:58 PM »
One thing good about the kiindle: whichever book you choose, I have it! The complete works of Dickens is available on Kindle either free or for a couple of dollars.

marcie

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 7802
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #669 on: December 07, 2011, 10:10:18 PM »
I'd like to read Great Expectations and watch the new 2012 PBS production of Great Expectations. See more about the production with Gillian Anderson, David Suchet and Ray Winstone at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/classic/great_expectations.html

JoanK, That's great that you kindle owners have the entire Dickens!

dbroomsc

  • Posts: 340
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #670 on: December 08, 2011, 08:46:17 AM »
Don't participate in the discussions often, but I do have a suggestion for a Dickens story.  It is "A Tale of Two Cities."  I remember our sophmore high school class wrote a play based on the novel.  Everyone wanted to play Sidney Carton so they could quote the lines, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."  What fun!

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #671 on: December 08, 2011, 09:50:02 AM »
Dean69 - you just reminded me - We did read A Tale of Two Cities in high school too!  Gee that was a long time ago...I'd forgotten til I read your post.  The Tale is up in the heading as one of the four nominations for a Dickens' discussion.  I really don't think we can go wrong - with whatever we choose, do you?  Thanks for your input!

marcie

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 7802
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #672 on: December 08, 2011, 10:20:45 AM »
Speaking of Dickens, Matthew Pearl, author of THE LAST DICKENS will have a new book out in February. You can read more about THE TECHNOLOGISTS in my post in our Fiction discussion at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=938.msg140435#msg140435

Perhaps if enough of us find the book in our library or purchase it in book form or on Kindle, we could discuss it in the near future. We've had great discussions of his books in the past and the author has participated in them.

ginny

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 91500
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #673 on: December 08, 2011, 07:07:40 PM »
Pearson, not yet, it's definitely on my list tho. And wouldn't it be fun to see a movie adaptation of what we choose also, a book and a movie.


ginny

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 91500
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #674 on: December 09, 2011, 07:41:17 AM »
Speaking of movies, I don't know what everybody's favorite version of a Christmas Carol is (mine is the Alistair Sim) but we're reading about Saturnalia dinners in the Latin 301 and a party game played at the table, very ingenious and that reminded me of The Minister's Cat from the  Albert Finney Scrooge (the only movie I have ever been to where the audience erupted after the movie onto the sidewalks singing "Thank you very much!")

Anyway here they are, playing The Minister's Cat:

Albert Finney in Scrooge: The Minister's Cat:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Nh7tXEX00


And of course Gordon Jackson (Mr. Hudson) in the circle. :)

JoanK

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 8685
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #675 on: December 09, 2011, 06:46:05 PM »
my favorite: I saw live Patrick Stewart doing a one man show of the Christmas Carol. he played all the parts.

retired

  • Posts: 48
Charles Dickens Novels
« Reply #676 on: December 11, 2011, 04:35:02 PM »
Joan:
I vote for Bleak House for a February discussion.
Retired

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #677 on: December 12, 2011, 03:50:00 PM »
Marcie, thanks for the reminder about Matthew Pearl's latest book The Technologists. I'm remembering the fun we had reading his book based on Dickens'  last novel - the Mystery of Edwin Drood.  Matthew has been such a willing contributer to our discussions here- three times...The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow, The Last Dickens ...

The Technologists is set in Pearl's own stomping grounds in 1868 - MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is about to graduate its first class of seniors. .  A small group of seniors, including scholarship student Marcus Mansfield and sole female student Ellen Swallow, know that only the technological knowledge of those at the Institute can hope to uncover the man behind the attacks that may ruin the fledgling university.  

This sounds like Matthew Pearl at his best - and happiest.

JoanP

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10394
  • Arlington, VA
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #678 on: December 12, 2011, 04:12:04 PM »
JoanK - I love Patrick Stewart too!  Playing all the parts?

Retired, I would love to do Bleak House too.  What a place!  The name of the novel comes from the name of Dickens' summer home in 1850.  Dickens lived here when he wrote David Copperfield, his 8th novel and I rhink he may have lived here in 1853 when he wrote the novel by the same name...Bleak House was his 9th novel.
Can you believe this place?  It's on the market right now for just a tad over 2 million pounds!


You can read about it here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2007820/Charles-Dickenss-Bleak-House-holiday-home-sale-2m.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Suggestion Box for Future Book Discussions ~
« Reply #679 on: December 13, 2011, 08:28:10 AM »
 Hmm, does look a bit bleak.  I wonder if a few colorful planters would help.
From the location, it might be a bit windy, too.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs