The Library

[Frybabe]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is  always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

Oops! More posts to answer:

PatH: I've been feeling "fried" for a while. The job was becoming more and more automated and more and more boring.

Pedln: No, it was Fry Communications in Mechanicsburg, PA. Printers. Aside from the ubiquitous trade journals, some of the titles they print include the Dover book catalog, some of those big parts catalogs you see in the auto stores, Dog Fancy, Reptiles, Horse Illustrated, Pennsylvania Magazine, Delaware Beach, Mainline Today (Philly area), lots of directories, Virginia Tech's The Cavalier, the New York Yankee and the Giants game programs, Hamodia (a favorite of mine), Style.


Oh, I just found out today, that there is a Salvadore Dali exhibit just opened and running until the beginning of Aug.  at the Susquehanna Art Museum. I will have to find out where the museum is because I've never run across the name before.

[ginny]

Good heavens! I get the Dover Catalogs, they are wonderful.

Oh I do hope they have an opening at the local B&N or Borders! Not only will you be a perfect fit, you'll be an anomaly: a bookseller who knows books!

You can tell them about us, too! As well as having more time for Latin!

Win/ win! One door closes, a million others open.

 I didn't know you were near my home town Philly! Every fall I get the most incredible homesickness for something that's no longer there any more. hahahaa  Like mummers, which  my mother would never allow me to go see. hahahaa

Have you seen the video Things That Aren't There Anymore? It's got  Willow Grove Park in it (life is a lark at Willow Grove Park).

The last three times I have been to Phila and NJ where I grew up I have gotten lost. I have all three times run a red light because the doggone red lights in Philadelphia are over the sidewalks, it's a miracle everybody isn't killed. You simply don't see them. I have all three times gone the wrong way on a one way street and all three times managed NOT to find the row house in Holmesburg (area of Philadelphia)  we  lived in originally. It's still there, that is the row houses are still there, but I can't find ours.

 The old landmarks are gone. But I did find and got to hear the Wanamaker organ. Gimbel's, Lits, Wanamakers, all gone.


 We moved to Moorestown NJ, a Quaker town originally and I was quite interested in the remarks here earlier about the Quakers because my perception was that everybody stood up as they would in any meeting and said their piece.


Ah well, gone but not forgotten, enougth with the nostalgia, Anderson!

hahaha

The new issue of People Magazine has a huge ad for The Men Who Would be King, about Jeffrey Katzenberg, Stephen Spielberg and Michael Ovitz.  Apparently this is about their take off from Eisner and Disney. I found the books on Eisner fascinating and want to read it, is it on  DreamWorks? Have any of you read it?

Supposedly it's so well written it's hard to put down and of course it's true, always stranger than fiction.

And then Entertainment Magazine which I get free for some reason has a huge section on Laura Bush's new autobiography   and compares IT to the fictitious American Wife and apparently   finds a lot of parallels. I have not read either of these books, have any of you?

They keep playing W on TV and I keep catching snatches of it, and I think I'll rent it, it's not what I thought it would be.

I do know Laura Bush was absolutely stunning when he was the governor of Texas. I think I'll read American Wife and run out and get The Men Who Would be King.

[Ella Gibbons]

GiNNY, if you get the MEN WHO WOULD BE KING and like it, let us know in NonFiction.  I think it sounds interesting, also, and will see if my Library has it.  I go once a week intown (which is about a 5 minute ride from where I live but it is still intown as it is the only town we have, it's a little town, remember "going downtown" when we were all young!).  We have huge shopping centers a ways away, of course.  HUGE! It makes me tired to think of going there.

I just watched almost all of Pat Buchanan on BookTV and I don't even like to listen to Pat Buchanan much.  However, it got interesting; his theories on WWII, calling it the Unnecessary War.  I think that was the name of one of his books.  He's written nine books, I had no idea.    I'm going to get his latest DEATH OF THE WEST.

Has anyone read any of Pat Buchanan's books?  He is reading WORLD ON FIRE by _____ Chua I think he said.  I'll look that one up also.

NO, JEAN, I have not read A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM.  But anything by Ken Follett should be good.  Let us know.

FRYBABE, I don't know if you want consolation on getting laid off or congratulations on retirement!  Whichever, you have it from me.  

[marjifay]

I also watched Pat Buchanan, Ella, on BookTV.  Very interesting. I haven't read anything by him yet, but I certainly will.  I just put STATE OF EMERGENCY and CHURCHILL, HITLER AND THE UNNECESSARY WAR on hold at my library. 

I sure agree with Buchanan about what is happening with all the illegal aliens here who do not want to meld into our culture.  I recently listened to a woman who was born here say "We Mexicans," (not "we Americans").  My dad was born in Denmark (and came here legally thru Ellis Island), but I don't refer to myself as "We Danish!"  Buchanan says instead of a nation of united Americans, we are becoming a nation of separate cultural enclaves.

Marj

[Babi]

ELLA, if thinking stopping Hitler was 'unnecessary', I don't think I'd be
interested in Mr. Buchanan's opinions on anything. 

[ginny]

What interesting discussion here on Book TV,  I wish I had the upcoming schedules for some of the programs, but they repeat a lot, so it may be possible to catch it again.

I can't wait to start the final saga of the Eisner/ DreamWorks odyssey. Eisner fascinates me, they all do, in their way.

I do find my taste changing in books, it seems lately that no fiction grabs me long enough to hold my interest. I see that Frankenstein and Dracula are nominated over in the Suggestion Box, they are both outstanding reads, and Frankenstein should be on everybody's book table, it's just something that's out of this world and that you don't expect.

If there were anything to convince a non fiction reader of the value of fiction it's Frankenstein.

But I've read it several times and can't seem to find something like it to entice me  away from non fiction. I  just bought something from a  author I never heard of  called Barbara Cleverly (haha you know that one's made up). Anyway, she is an "award winning author," whose main character is an archaeologist and the settings for her books are exotic, here's a review: "With a spirited, intelligent heroine, a glorious exotic setting,  clever plots, loads of archaeological details  and a touch of romance, there's nothing not to like." (from The Denver Post).


Also " Sparkling historical mystery.... A heady stew indeed, but Cleverly brings it off with stylish writing, and intricate plot  that surprises and satisfies." (Richmond Times- Dispatch).

She has several pages of  rave reviews starting the book, her first book , The Last Kashmiri Rose, was a NY Times Notable Book.. That one deals with British colonial life in India, she's done several in that locale, as well as ancient Greece.

Has anybody read her?  The one I've got concerns Mycenae. She spells it with an extra a for some reason.  I've been to Mycenae, City of Gold, and  I thought one of these might make good summer reading or a good book on the plane.

_____________________________________


We'll discuss  Possession as the Book Club Online  on June 1 and we have quite an international group assembled there, from Australia to Sweden and everywhere in between, and we'll need all of our readers, all hands on deck,  because Possession is no ordinary book. It looks ordinary, sort of, till you read a page. It's got little woodcuts and they've taken quite a bit of trouble with the presentation of the text (Vintage always does just a super job) but you have the feeling when you open it this is going to be a different experience, and you're right. It is.

In our history here in our Book Club Online since 1996 we have offered every sort of book experience there is, from Homer, to  Shakespeare to the latest author, serious books, poetry, non fiction, you name it, we've offered it.  Possession is in  a class of its own; we gave it a first shot (what IS it about these sisters? Possession is by A. S. Byatt. Her sister, Margaret Drabble's book The Seven Sisters, we've discussed twice here) and now we're going to TRY to unravel Possession for the second time.  Second discussions of books are always more revealing, there's just something about this book that tries to defy....you'll just have to come over and help us figure it out, what fun: a puzzle in words.

But can we finally conquer it or, after 14 years in the business of discussing books,  will we finally be conquered by a handful of pages?

If you've ever wondered if your ideas,  perspectives,   and opinions count in a book discussion, come join us in Possession, and see if you can help us unravel this  Victorian literary thing!  We'll all, I am sure, get something totally different out of it.    I guarantee you your ideas are needed. hahahaaa

It's going to be one for the Books! Everyone is welcome, and needed. Come on down!

[Frybabe]

Ginny, do you know of any older non fiction that can be nominated? I don't know that anyone would be up for Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom which is interesting but huge. I found one that I am going to bookmark and read later in Gutenberg that might work. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14466/14466-h/14466-h.htm

Maybe Ella can come up with one or two since non fiction is her forte.

[FlaJean]

I finally got Roses from the library (was on the reserve list for several weeks).  My husband read it first as I was in the middle of a mystery book.  He gave it rave reviews.  I've just read a few pages so far and it has already grabbed me.  Thanks to the person who suggested it!

[maryz]

ginny, you can get the schedule at booktv.org . Or go to the CSpan web site and follow the links.

[Gumtree]

Ginny - Cleverly ? I know a family of that name - what makes you think it is made up by the author?

Frankenstein would be a great book for discussion. I always want to weep for the monster in his great lonliness. And the book within the book is always an interesting concept.

Frybabe -Don't you think that Seven Pillars of Wisdom would need longer than a month for discussion? - but it would be a great choice for the non fiction lovers.

[Frybabe]

Yes, Gum it IS way, way too long for a one month discussion. It was just the only older non-fiction that popped into my mind at the time.

George, who doesn't participate but has to listen to me telling him of all my neat friends and  the discussions here, has suggested the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I've already suggested two other older books so I don't want to suggest any more.

[Babi]

 I think I still have the autobio. of Ben Franklin in here somewhere.  Also, John Wesley and Benvenuto Cellini.  How's that for a contrast? 

[ginny]

Margie, no I don't, but you are right Ella and those in the Non Fiction areas of our site know a lot about non fiction.

Yesterday's New York Times was brimming with exciting news of a lot of  what appear to be great new books coming out. I can't believe Preston and Childs have ANOTHER new Pendergrast out already. I literally can't read them fast enough, how do they DO that? They write faster than I can read.

 I still can't read their (previously) newest one, can't get past the first pages and here they are again!

Baldacchi (sp) is another one. Do any of you read him? He's got a new one out every other day it would seem. I hear the Winner or something like that is really good. Something about a lottery?

Thank you Mary! I am so glad to have that. I wonder why there are only non fiction authors on Book TV. Real life is always stranger than fiction tho but still.

FlaJean, I recommended  Roses and I'm so glad you liked it!

Gum, of course you are right! I just ASSumed she had made it up, "cozy" wise like some of the mystery authors, but I looked her up!

You won't believe what I found. (Have never heard of the name Cleverly, is it British in origin?) She is.

She lives in Cambridge, England, has written LOTS of books, has won lots of awards, was a teacher, guess of what? French and Latin. Has degrees in French and Latin, taught Latin. hahaha  She wrote her first book The Last Kashmiri Rose, which I mentioned before, to entertain her husband when he was seriously ill, with stories of the  British Raj because his great uncle  had spent a lot of time  in India,  she wrote stories based on the objects found in a "battered old tin trunk in the attic."

She begins the book with Dear Reader and explains the background. She opened the trunk and "out spilled more than two centuries of memories, the memories of a family  of soldiers, statesman, architects and doctors.." and Brigadier Harold Richard Sandilands, who told her husband stories as a child and for whom she named her main character Detective Joe Sandilands.

She says "The India Harold Sandilands knew has largely disappeared but the glorious architecture remains, the beauty of the landsacapes, the ebullience of the people....

I hope you find my dramatization of this incredible life and the compelling world in which he lived as mesmerizing as I have found it to write."

Had you not said anything I'd never have looked her up! And never have known the true story of who she was or how she got started writing. The book has the old photos on the front of it.

Well I don't know about anybody else, but with that going in,  there's no way I am going to miss that one, and it's a mystery on top of it!



I don't know why but I find the British Raj in India fascinating. The Paul Scott books, the Wolpert (non fiction)  books, A Passage to India, movie and book,  have taken three classes in it, it's just fascinating. And it does give Major Benjy of EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia series, a little more seriousness, tho I'm not quite ready to read the new sequel done on him in the last couple of years.


 I do so enjoy coming in here and seeing what's on your minds,  book wise and otherwise,  and what everybody is reading.

Readers keep the best company!

[Frybabe]

Sounds very interesting Ginny. Will look up The Last Kashmiri Rose.

Readers keep the best company!

Here, Here!

[Ella Gibbons]

You shouldn't have mentioned it!  Hahahaa

Nonfiction books!  I am reading GAME CHANGE, I would never have believed the things I am reading in this book about the 2008 election, those that participated; but as no one has sued the authors I presume it is all true.  If you have felt sympathy for Elizabeth Edwards, STOP!

I just finished James Patterson's King Tut (don't bother, it's not good).

On my list to read are the following and I have no idea if they are any good, I have reserved them at the Library.  My shelves are full of nonfiction books, but so many are not good for discussion purposes.  Anyone who is in the mood to read a good nonfiction book should poke around here and choose one:

http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/

Appetite for America: How Fred Harvey Built a Hospitality Empire
Anthony Blunt by Miranda Carter
Lyndon B. Johnson by Dallek
Commander in Chief:  How Truman, Johnaon and Bush..... by Georffrey Perrit
What Should I do with the Rest of My Life  (right now rest a lot, hahaha) as

yesterday I took a neighbor who has no children to the Artifacts of the Titanic exhibit at our local Science Museum.  It's a good exhibit and if you have never read a book about that tragedy, I would recommend one.  We ate at a downtown hotel, a Westin hotel, lovely, expensive but good food, and we were about the only people in their dining room.   Who goes downtown (our big city of Columbus downtown) on Mother's Day.

[Ella Gibbons]

My daughter recently was in Chicago and took the Architecture Tour (they are wonderful tours) of the sites mentioned in the book THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY.  It's a good book and we discussed it a few years ago.  There are only two buildings remaining in the White City and one is the Field Museum.  I'm going to look up their web site, maybe I can find out more about the trip, I'd love to take it.  Several of us on the old Seniornet met in Chicago a few years ago  and took the Architecture Tour of Chicago historical buildings. 

[Ella Gibbons]

All the Chicago/Architecture site says is:

Devil In The White City
Sundays, June 6 and July 18, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Imagine the grandeur of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and learn about the chilling deeds of H.H. Holmes on this unique tour based on Erik Larson’s best-selling book. An open bar option is available for an additional $18.

[marjifay]

I just looked at the front page of the NY Times online, and there is a photo of the new female justice, with Obama and Biden on either side of her with their arms on her back,  walking down the hall of, I guess, the White House.  I am sure they indend to be polite to a female, but it looks as if they are leading a little old lady who can't walk by herself.  If she were a man, I doubt they would touch her except to shake her hand. 

Marj

[Steph]

Generally the book stores have people signed up for jobs. .but maybe some neat thing will happen. I am retired.. love it..
Went to the boys for Mothers Days. Then my sons, their wives and the grandchildren and I went to a lovely prairie, very empty with balloons and markers. We wrote goodbye messages to MDH and sent them off with a flourish.. I think it eased all of our hearts, although tears were shed by all.

[maryz]

What a wonderful tribute, Steph. I'm glad you shed good family tears, too.   

We did something similar for the son of good friends who go to the beach with us - he had gone with us, too, a number of times.  We had a kite fly at the beach and many toasts.

[mrssherlock]

Steph:  What a fitting way to celebrate his life with those lovely balloons floating away up high.

[mrssherlock]

I heard on the BBC news on NPR that Elena Kagen, President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice William Stevens' seat, reads Pride and Prejudice every year.

[PatH]

I heard on the BBC news on NPR that Elena Kagen, President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice William Stevens' seat, reads Pride and Prejudice every year.

Wow!  I thought she looked good before, but that clinches it.

[marjifay]

Ginny, you asked about David Baldacci's mystery/thriller books. 
My favorite Baldacci books are those with the Camel Club, a short series (only 4 so far).  I love this group of four rather eccentric senior-age men, each very talented and/or brilliant in his own way, who investigate conspiracies and get themselves in some very scary situations. 

But read them in order:  The Camel Club, The Collectors, Stone Cold and Divine Justice.

Marj

[Steph]

The nominee seems to be a truly brilliant woman and achiever.. Now the conservatives can grouch about never being a judge, even though a lot of the Supreme court members have not been.

[Frybabe]

I don't have a problem with never having been a judge. She DOES apparently have a good knowledge of the law though. I am more concerned about judges who try to make law rather than uphold the law. And, I'd like to know how extensive is her knowledge of CONSTITUTIONAL law. If she gets the nomination, we will have for the first time three women sitting on the Supreme Court. Exciting.

[Babi]

 I haven't been keeping up with the news....shame on me!     I want to learn more about
Elena Kagen; it's the first time I've even heard the name.

[Gumtree]

Just watched a bookies show - topic was best sellers. The panel were all well known authors - Lee Child, Di Morrissey, Matthew Reilly and Bryce Courtenay. They had lots to say -

Di Morrissey is convinced that there is an invisible thread between the reader and the writer... presumably always connected to her. She stressed that there is no formula for writing a best seller.

Courtenay made the point that if a book is not read it doesn't exist ... that it is the reader who makes the chunk of paper into a book. He also mentioned that the reader also writes the book as s/he reads it, in that, the reader sees things the author didn't envisage. - I was reminded of John Steinbeck saying something very similar to that donkey's years ago - actually when he wrote East of Eden

But they were all agreed that the book is nothing without the reader.

A lot of talk about the importance of  marketing in maintaining sales. Especially in relation to design of cover and choice of nom de plume if used. Lee Child said he chose Child because the word gives everyone a nice warm fuzzy feeling - and because it starts with C and so the books are placed  among the first on an alphabetical stand... and will be seen by the browsers before they get too fatigued trying to find a book to buy - any book. Oh my!

The literary vs bestseller question got a good airing - they seemed to consider  that literary writers couldn't write a bestseller but that each of the panel could write THE literary novel... H'mmm - maybe they should try.

The consensus was that the bestseller authors make reading easy for the reader but that literary writers don't polish their work to such a degree so that the reader has to work more to get the story and underlying meaning... Now I ask you - have they never read Flaubert or George Eliot?

One of Courtenay's ploys is that when he is greeted by a reader or fan in the street or supermarket etc he takes their name and address and sends them his next book. In this way he gives away about 2,500 books a year - which he admits is a lot - a whole print run for some writers - but then he says the word of mouth advertising that person does for him when they tell their friends that he sent the book to them is immeasurable.

[jane]

Gumtree...what interesting comments from the writers' panel.  I was wondering what distinguishes "literary" from "best seller" since it sounds as if they're mutually exclusive. Hmmm...but then I see that they think that the "literary" author doesn't make his/her writing easy to read.  Interesting comment...I wonder if it's that the writer doesn't make it "easy to read" or if the author isn't that accomplished as a writer?  The first thing I was taught in composition was that the writer must be able to communicate with his target audience. If he fails, it's not the reader's fault. The author has failed.  It sounds as if some of those prefer to think they're "literary" and excuse their failure to communicate? 

Interesting, too, about Child choosing the name for shelf placement. I've often wondered how many people are actually writing under any given pen name...and how many pen names some authors have.  I guess I'm a cynic, but I wonder how many prolific authors are actually doing their own writing and how many have a stable of ghost writers (for lack of a better term) who publish then under one name for name recognition among writers.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Thanks for your post on that panel.

jane

[mrssherlock]

Gum:  Such interesting insight shows that they can think as well as write.  Love your emphasis.  Child and Courtenay have taken me on thrilling rides, Morrissey write Romace (not my thing) and Relly has been added to my list.  This is what our community is, a place for sharing both good and bad news/reviews with a welcoming audience.  I can't say how many times I've started a comment with the words, "My friend in Australia (Canada, NZ, Alaska, Florida, Texas, etc.) said thus and so."  The expansion of my consciousness to include the entire world is a joy and a challenge.

[serenesheila]

Today is my 76th birthday.  My daughter wanted to take me out to dinner..  However, I just wat to stay home, read and have a quiet day.  How different from past years!  I used to love to go out to eat, on a special day.  Now I cannot believe, that I enjoy just being home.  I also cannot believe that I am this old!  My husband died at 68.  That now seems young.

I am continuing to read "The Duchess of Windsor".  It certainly holds my interest.  Amazing how pro Nazi she and the King were.  But, it also tells of the upper class social circles they habituate.  Edward seems to be an insecure, weak individual.  She ran the show.  The book mentions so many well known names at were also pro German in the mid to late 1930s.  I had never really thought about it before, but the Kaiser and Edward were cousins.  If Edward had remained King, there would probably have negotiated peace with Germany.  I also ordered a few more, new books for my Kindle:  "The War Lovers": Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, William Hearst, and the rush to Empire, 1898".  The author is:  Evan Thomas.

Another new purchase is:  "Europe's Last Summer, Who started the Great War in 1914?"  The author is:  David Fromkin. I look forward to reading it, too.  Recently, I have read, and heard so much about WWI leading to WWII.  I want to learn more.

Sheila 

[Frybabe]

Happy Birthday Sheila

[joangrimes]

Happy Birthday Sheila

Joan Grimes

[jane]

Happy Birthday, Sheila. 

I assume that Evan Thomas is the Newsweek editor (or he was) who appears on some of the news programs on public tv in this area.  I always enjoy his comments on these shows on the events that are taking place.

jane

[ginny]

Call for the Official Books Birthday Cake!

Happy Happy Birthday, Sheila!

What have I missed  here? Is there a new book on the  Duchess of Windsor? Tell all! I have a lot of books on that pair, I've even got the Sotheby's Auction catalogue (both of them) when their effects were auctioned off because I entertained the vain hope of having something from the collection. Right.

[ginny]

Gum, that's one of the most interesting things I ever read.

[ginny]

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it does it make a sound?

Don't you all think or do you that to say a book does not exist without a reader is a little egocentric? The Hunchback of Notre Dame does not exist because one of us has not read it? Or until we read it?

How does that work? If 3 of us have read it then it's alive but if the rest have not it does not exist until they do?

I agree that every reader makes the book come alive for him, but that does not mean that it didn't exist  without him.

Golly moses we have become SO the "Me" society.

[Gumtree]

Jane:

I was wondering what distinguishes 'literary' from 'best seller' since it sounds as if they're mutually exclusive

That's a very difficult question and one which I've often thought about - there is probably no clear cut or definitive answer.

 To me the blockbuster 'bestseller' is normally one that is plot driven and easily assimilated by the reader. Although they frequently touch on society and its ills and sometimes offer possible solutions, in general there are no underlying messages for the reader to ponder. Above all the 'best seller' captures the popular interest and imagination - witness the huge sales.

 The term 'literary' seems to carry with it qualitative connotations which may imply that the work in question has superior qualities. 'Literary' fiction often addresses the fundamental flaws in human nature or society and engages the reader on multiple levels of intellectual depth. Some may even address the reader on a subliminal level, by-passing the conscious perception and gaining access to the sub-conscious thus invoking the power of suggestion to transmit the message. I know when I've read one of those when I put the book down and realise I have been in another place mentally.

I don't think the two terms are 'mutually exclusive' as there are many instances of 'literary' novels which transcend their classification as 'literary' and capture the popular interest and imagination to become 'bestsellers' as well. Oddly enough in my experience far fewer 'bestsellers' cross the line to become 'literary'

[Gumtree]

MrsSherlock: I'm with you in that I don't read Di Morrissey - in fact, the only one of the four writers on that panel that I have read is Bryce Courtenay and I'm not his biggest fan either.

You hit the nail squarely on the head saying how welcoming and sharing this community of bookies is. I always feel that I am among true friends.

[Gumtree]

Ginny:  Yes, the egos were laid bare for all to see. A blatant show of 'Me Me Me!' It was good publicity and a chance to flaunt their latest wares.  Most of their statements didn't really hold water when one comes to think about - the book doesn't exist ? Bah!

I did agree with the idea that the reader often 'writes' things into the book as he reads - it all depends on the reader's  life experiences and what he brings to the subject matter in terms of knowledge and understanding - sometimes sheer ignorance plays a pivotal role in enabling comprehension.

The suggestion that the panel members' individual writing was 'more polished' than that of 'literary' fiction was simply laughable - more polished than whose I wonder? -Proust?  Henry James? Evelyn Waugh? Patrick White? Anita Brookner? or, dare I say it, A.S Byatt?

I think I'm on my hobby horse ...again!