Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910619 times)

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6120 on:** February 06, 2014, 02:03:33 AM »

Thanks Joan, I'll have a look at this

Steph · « **Reply #6121 on:** February 06, 2014, 08:48:51 AM »

Ah, I knew the name Sheila Connolly was familiar. I love the museum mysteries, only read two of them, they are hard to find.
Yes, I no longer will go to the library book club.. The librarian and head facilitator pick the books based on what they library has or can borrow, and that is soooo boring.

JoanK · « **Reply #6122 on:** February 06, 2014, 05:06:36 PM »

Not all book clubs are good. I heard there was a nonfiction book club in my local library, and went to join. They told me they were reading Bob Hope's biography. Okay, I liked Bob Hope, could see reading his biography, maybe, but going to a meeting to discus it? I didn't join.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6123 on:** February 07, 2014, 02:07:46 AM »

Steph, that is just what mine did. The librarian even asked me to suggest some books to start it off (reading set books every month was not my plan in the first place) - then every time I did suggest something it became plain that they were only going to provide books of which they had sets, and very soon two big boxes of books were summarily delivered every month - most of them were dreadful 'worthy' reads and I didn't last long with them. Disappointing. This site is so much more fun.

Joan - I agree. I couldn't stand all the 'good for you' books my library foisted upon us, but Bob Hope's biography is the other end of the spectrum! I wanted to have themes around which we all suggested books and talked about them, to give everyone more ideas. They clearly thought I was nuts.

Rosemary

Steph · « **Reply #6124 on:** February 07, 2014, 12:03:48 PM »

In my new f2f, we all suggest books.. discuss them in our last meeting in May of each year.Then we find out who is willing to be the facilitator that month with that book.. Works out medium OK.. I love the idea of a theme, and may try to see if they are willing next year.

ursamajor · « **Reply #6125 on:** February 07, 2014, 02:28:51 PM »

The book club I belong to is very similar. We discuss a book a month until November, have a meeting to choose the books for next year, and in December we party. I have read many books I would not have found otherwise. This is a very bright group of women including at least five former librarians. We have about 30 members and at most meetings about 15 attend. I feel lucky to participate. I enjoy our online group for many of the same reasons.

Steph · « **Reply #6126 on:** February 08, 2014, 08:16:41 AM »

I find that online tend to wander off in some strange directions sometimes, but then in the f2f group, we have several members with bees in their bonnets and they turn each discussion into their favorites..
I remember on line in seniornet.. we did a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay and I loved her stuff, but have never been able to see her the same way after discovering her monumental selfishness.

MaryPage · « **Reply #6127 on:** February 08, 2014, 09:24:40 AM »

I love her poetry so very much. Some of it has been dear to me for most of the years of my life, and still is.
However, when you study the lives of greatly gifted authors, poets, composers and artists, you quite frequently find it is just as well you did not know and have to suffer the person possessed of the great gift.
Not always true, of course. I am inclined to believe I would have loved A.A. Milne.
But the greater the creative gift, often follows the narcissism, or some such personality disorder.

JoanK · « **Reply #6128 on:** February 08, 2014, 02:59:25 PM »

And they often leave a trail of people around them who have suffered from their self-centeredness in order to make them who they are.

I have to do something about my kindle samples of mysteries to be read: they're now over 80 and growing every day! It's a Last In First Out Queue: I hear of something new and it puts the old ones out of mind. Some have been on there for years.

At least, I made a rule that I won't buy the book til I've finished reading the sample. Otherwise, I'd be broke!

JeanneP · « **Reply #6129 on:** February 08, 2014, 08:46:28 PM »

JoanK.

Can't you delete a lot of those books you have on Kindle?. It would confuse me as to what I wanted to read. I have just 2 on my IPad as I still like book in hand. I just use the library and they only stay on for a month unless you renew them.
Now I do have 40 Listed on my LIbrary list some have long waiting and others I just change the date to release when ready. I like this way of doing.

Steph · « **Reply #6130 on:** February 09, 2014, 09:47:05 AM »

Finally got around to Louise Penney..The Beautiful Mystery.. Hmm, I cannot believe it is the same author.. Finding it very disappointing indeed. I guess that part of my problem is that I have no feelings for the monks or plain song.. or the wilderness. Very unhappy with her.

marjifay · « **Reply #6131 on:** February 09, 2014, 10:47:38 AM »

Steph wrote: "I remember on line in seniornet.. we did a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay and I loved her stuff, but have never been able to see her the same way after discovering her monumental selfishness."

That why I don't like to read biographies of my favorite author of fiction. I love Edna St. Vincent Millay's work.

Marj

ursamajor · « **Reply #6132 on:** February 09, 2014, 11:58:42 AM »

I recently read a biography of the artist Norman Rockwell; we saw an exhibition of his work in Nashville recently. It had some interesting facts but I rather wish I hadn't read it. He had great struggles with his work, his personal life, and his marriages and suffered from dementia at the end. i would just as soon have maintained my previous images of him.

ginny · « **Reply #6133 on:** February 09, 2014, 12:09:54 PM »

I think this is a fascinating topic. Don't you think what matters is what the artist, writer, etc., left behind? Rather than who he or she was?

Do you think you can see the real person in the art, I guess is what I'm asking?

Who on earth is not flawed in some way? I'd hate to read a biography of me, tho I'm sure nobody would ever bother, but still, think about it: it would entirely depend on who was interviewed and who wrote it.

I thought (and think) that art is the expression of the real person or soul if you will.

So I don't care what they are like, and some of them are a mess.

Actors, I find actors fascinating. They are fine while acting but when they have to be themselves, a lot of them are very uncomfortable stepping out behind the mask.

I wonder sometimes why we need to identify with them at all. And it's clear we do from the magazines in the stores. "Stars! They're just like us!"

No they aren't.

pedln · « **Reply #6134 on:** February 09, 2014, 12:57:44 PM »

Quote

Who on earth is not flawed in some way? I'd hate to read a biography of me, tho I'm sure nobody would ever bother, but still, think about it: it would entirely depend on who was interviewed and who wrote it.

Good point, Ginny, about who writes and who is interviewed. I would like to think that I could still appreciate the artist or the writer regardless of the mishaps in his or her life. But then, I think about how I don't want to read anything by Anne Perry, regardless of how much her works have been recommended.

But then there is the novel So Long, See You Tomorrow by former New Yorker mag short story editor William Maxwell, which leaves the message that we should be forgiven, and not condemned by things we did in your youth.

It's a tough question. I think whatever we know about someone affects how we see them. Replace artist and substitute "good friend." Would that be the same.

maryz · « **Reply #6135 on:** February 09, 2014, 01:37:54 PM »

?"The only thing an actor owes the audience is a good performance."

I thought I remembered the quote as being from Frank Sinatra. But when I googled it, something like it came up attributed to Humphrey Bogart. I kind of feel like that about writers and performers. Although I guess in today's world, celebrities are seen as role models, thus the public nature of their private lives. An interesting problem.

JoanK · « **Reply #6136 on:** February 09, 2014, 03:05:54 PM »

That's right: the people we take as role models, actors and athletes, are people who excel in one talent, but don't necessarily know any more than we do on how to live a good life.

ginny · « **Reply #6137 on:** February 09, 2014, 05:20:06 PM »

OH I'm with you on Anne Perry, Pedln. You have to draw the line somewhere and bashing in the head of somebody's mother because you feared she'd stand in your way does it for me. I've not read any of her books since I found that out, sorry.

Anne or Ann Perry fans will like to know there's a new biography out on her: read at your own risk, I think.

salan · « **Reply #6138 on:** February 09, 2014, 05:39:26 PM »

Perhaps it is a bit shallow of me; but I can't help but be influenced by what I read/hear about famous authors, actors, etc. I have frequently been sorry that I watched interviews with some whose works I greatly admired. Maybe I would have been better off not knowing......
Sally

Steph · « **Reply #6139 on:** February 10, 2014, 08:53:24 AM »

Once I found out, never read another Anne Perry.... But I still love Millays poetry, but was dismayed to discover I would not have liked the person.That is probably what we carry away from biographies, etc.. We always think that we loved the author, actor, artist, then we discover that although we love the work, we dislike the human. Ah well.
Still working A beautiful Mystery, It has now become a divided story.. No idea why she has mixed the two, but I suspect I am not going to like the ending of this one.

ursamajor · « **Reply #6140 on:** February 10, 2014, 10:40:59 AM »

I prefer to think of Millay as the model for the statue of her on the little island where she grew up. The statue of an adolescent girl looks out over the bay:

"All I could see from where I stood
Was two long mountains and a wood.
I turned and looked the other say
And saw three island in a bay."

That's exactly what you see on the island.

CubFan · « **Reply #6141 on:** February 10, 2014, 10:46:50 AM »

Steph -
I did not like the character behaviors in the "Beautiful Mystery" but found the chanting info interesting. After I finished the book I almost decided not to read any more of hers but did read the next one and was glad I did. It finally resolves all the conflicts we've been dealing with since her first book. I understand her continuing the issues to keep the readers buying the next installment, but I think she carried them on too long. The last book "How the Light Gets In" was a frustrating read but had a satisfying ending. I feel that her books definitely need to be read in order and even then you don't understand the underling current of contention until the last one. At least you can read the next one as soon as you want to instead of having to wait until it's published.

Mary

maryz · « **Reply #6142 on:** February 10, 2014, 11:00:57 AM »

Did anybody else see the piece on Phillip Seymour Hoffman on 60 Minutes last night? In an (obviously) earlier interview, he said that he considered he had given a good performance only when the audience saw only the character and not him (the actor) in the role. Ties in with what we've been talking about.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #6143 on:** February 10, 2014, 01:09:31 PM »

I just finished J.D. Robb's Indulgence in Death, a later one in the death series. It was great, the best of the series in my opinion. It had a good puzzle, good humor, and just more of Dallas being Dallas. Robb got very gory in the middle of the series and i didn't read her for a time, but i've enjoyed the later ones. I'm enjoying the relationship between Dallas and Peabody, a mentor/mentee relationship, but at the same time Peabody feels confident enough to tease Dallas, especially about her idiosyncrasies and about Roarke. I hope Robb continues in these veins, i look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Steph · « **Reply #6144 on:** February 11, 2014, 08:59:41 AM »

Yes, I like the J.D.Robb,, not the Nora Roberts however.
Still plugging away at The Beautiful Mystery.. I simply do not understand the destruction of good characters by an author.

JoanK · « **Reply #6145 on:** February 11, 2014, 03:18:35 PM »

I felt the same way, Steph.

Went to the library yesterday and got a new, to me, McCall Smith,"The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds". It's in the Elizabeth Dalhousie series. I like those (I know not everyone does), but you have to be in the mood for them. I found myself getting very irritated with her last night: she was supposed to meet someone on business, and never got the business done, because of her endless wondering about theoretical ethical issues. When someone asks her opinion on a practical ethical issue they're facing, she hems and haws.

JoanK · « **Reply #6146 on:** February 11, 2014, 03:23:20 PM »

I also got a new Anne Perry. Another ethical issue. I debated when I found out she was a murderess whether to read more. I had already read many of hers, and reread them to see if knowing that changed my view of the books (It didn't). I decided that she had served the punishment that society demanded, and deserved a second chance, as any ex-convict would.

Steph · « **Reply #6147 on:** February 12, 2014, 08:57:29 AM »

I just cant on Anne perry.. She is one of the murderers who really was punished so lightly being a teen..
Louise Penney and I are on the outs. I truly dislike, but will finished
The Beautiful Mystery. I will read the next one, but if it doesn't get better, then off with her head.

pedln · « **Reply #6148 on:** February 12, 2014, 11:11:42 AM »

Steph, do you read the Louise Penny's in order. I read The Brutal Telling when it came out a few years ago, when I didn't know it was part of a series. Then read the first one -- STill Life, which I really liked. But now I know "who done it" from Brutal Telling, and wish I didn't know. Not exactly a spoiler, but I plan to read the rest in order.

I'm trying out Amazon Prime for a month, and probably will stick with it. The shipping is a good deal, I haven't found too many free films that I want to see, but the one free read a month from the Lending library might be good even though most of the authors and titles are unknowns or little knowns. Currently reading A Novel Death, Judi Culbertson's first book -- whose protaganist is an Internet book seller. Kind of interesting to see from the book seller's perspective. (That'd be one for you, Steph.)

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #6149 on:** February 12, 2014, 12:40:59 PM »

Steph, is your summer place in N.C.? Aren't they supposed to get some really bad winter weather, with power outages, trees down, etc? Do you have someone to look in on the place to make sure everything is Okay?

ursamajor · « **Reply #6150 on:** February 12, 2014, 01:07:03 PM »

I think a book stands on its own. The author may have done bad things, but the book may have real value. I thought Anne Perry's World War I novels were valuable from a historical point of view and well done. I don't have to invite her into my living room. Some people have condemned The education of Littletree because the author, Forrest Carter once belonged to the KKK. The only racial hatred in the book is directed against the characters, who are Native Americans. I found the book very moving and delightful to read.

JoanK · « **Reply #6151 on:** February 12, 2014, 03:27:06 PM »

Reading a book by Mary Higgins Clark "Daddy's Gone a Hunting." Poorly plotted: it feels like a bunch of different plots stuck together with glue, and I think it's obvious who did it (I'll tell you if I'm right!) but it keeps you reading.

ginny · « **Reply #6152 on:** February 12, 2014, 07:00:26 PM »

Well, here again, just for the sake of cordial discussion, I think it depends on the subject of the book.

I wonder how many of us read mysteries to really understand how it feels or what it means to kill somebody. I have a feeling nobody does.

So if I'm reading a mystery, I am not sure I want to read one written by a person who actually did beat somebody to death (20 blows with a brick). Every time I would read a detail, I'd have to stop and wonder is that what really happened?

If that author wrote about something other than murder, that might be different, but again, there are a lot of good authors and books waiting to be read.

Just my opinion.

Frybabe · « **Reply #6153 on:** February 13, 2014, 07:18:44 AM »

I am getting close to caught up on Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. Reading Though Not Dead now. Really enjoying this series, especially the interplay between Jim Chopin and Kate as these two independent, commitment shy people slowly discover their mutual attraction and building of trust (well kind of).

While I was at the library the other day, I picked up two Lincoln Child books, Deep Storm and Terminal Freeze, to tide me over (like I don't already have piles to read at home already) during the snowstorm and aftermath.

Steph · « **Reply #6154 on:** February 13, 2014, 07:58:54 AM »

Lets see. Yes, I read Louise Penney in order.. Actually I make a real effort in the case of a good author and a continuing series to read them in order. I love Kate and except for one I had somehow missed, I read them in order Even V.I. in Chicago , although the books certainly stand alone, I read in order to keep her friends and family straight..J.P. Beaumont and Jances other series are certainly read in order or be lost.. Hmm, I am trying to think of a continuing series that it does not matter.. Anyone else??

FlaJean · « **Reply #6155 on:** February 13, 2014, 05:57:55 PM »

Susan Wittig Albert has a new China Bayles coming out in April and Donna Leon has another Guido Brunetti also in April. April must be a good month for new books. My library has them on order and I already have several ahead of me on the reserve list.

Steph · « **Reply #6156 on:** February 14, 2014, 08:07:11 AM »

I like China and the herb series, but she does another series that I don't like.. Too too gooey..

JeanneP · « **Reply #6157 on:** February 14, 2014, 02:04:17 PM »

On Lois ïPenney. The writer. I thought in reading about the murder it was the daughter who killed her mother with the brick. But Penney was with her.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #6158 on:** February 14, 2014, 02:17:27 PM »

Youve got the wrong author, Jeanne. Anne Perry is the one who murdered or helped murder her friend's mother.
Not LOUISE PENNEY.

Frybabe · « **Reply #6159 on:** February 15, 2014, 09:10:47 AM »

I just read some reviews of Dana Stabenow's latest Kate Shugak book, Bad Blood. Not too many people were happy with it. There were some interesting comments about it appearing to have been written like a TV episode or a play, characters were flat, some called Kate a "Stepford Kate" (I never saw or read Stepford Wives so the reference escapes me), the ending was a cliff hanger rather than the usual clean ending, and the book is shorter than usual. One person recommended not reading it until the next book comes out.

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Author Topic: Mystery Corner ~ 2 (Read 910619 times)