Author Topic: The Library (Read 2049384 times)

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #17160 on:** July 26, 2016, 04:29:18 AM »

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!

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BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #17161 on:** July 26, 2016, 04:37:24 AM »

Sounds like the assumption is the school library is their only resource - is there no public library nearby - I remember as a kid there were a couple of shelves of books we were allowed to read based on grade level - I used to read through them quickly so that I had all the grade level read by January or February and after 4th grade had permission to start on the next grade level - but my real saving grace was I went with my mom to do the big grocery shopping every month that meant quite a walk and while mom did the shopping I was allowed to spend the time at the small public library - at first, there too, I wanted to read what I called real books - before I was allowed in that section I had to read the children's section with books of all sizes, mostly skinny and usually with pictures - after a certain number of these books were on my card then finally, the real books that we could take out 3 at a time and I could choose whatever I wanted.

And so I am wondering if kids today have restrictions using a color code that is maybe not much different than the choices allowed based on grade level reading - which of course were selected based on the average reading ability for the grade and so I wonder is it possible kids today could read to their hearts content whatever they choose by either spending a day in a bookstore sitting on the floor reading or checking out some books from the Public Library.

Do not know the reading system in schools here but I do see on Friday evening and Saturday morning and afternoon grade school age and middle school age kids in small groups or just one alone, sprawled out on the floor all over Barnes & Nobel reading books from all sections, not just the kids section. Could be the parents think it is safer since a couple of our branch libraries have homeless folks spending the day in the library.

And what about the summer reading list - aren't those lists grade appropriate - although I was shocked when my grands only had a 20 book summer reading list - I'm remembering our school summer list 3rd through 6th a 60 book list with 7th and 8th and first year high a 100 book list - after that it was assumed you read without having to report on your reading and I think they were aware most kids had summer jobs after the age of 16 -

As a young kid our public library did not have any reading program but I remember my children did - there was a 20 book list that after each book they had to give a verbal synopsis to one of the extra high school students hired for the summer and the book was marked off their list with a sticker and they colored in their thermometer so that those who read all 20 attended a party at the library. As I recall it was for 1st graders to 5th graders.

My youngest was so dyslexic - no one knew that word back then but we knew from testing he could not see more than a few letters at a time to make sense out of them - so using his fingers to make a circle together we isolated two or maybe three letter to build and say the words - he would read some and then I would read the story so he could enjoy it and then his task was to make something or build something or draw something that would illustrate the story. The poor high school kids had no idea what to make of our creative way of reading from the list and of course he never did get more than a dozen books read but if he achieved that much I thought he was wonderful and we would go to a movie as a treat having an ice cream cone afterwards. So no, he never made a library party but he participated and learned something - just never perfected his reading skills is all.

Frybabe · « **Reply #17162 on:** July 26, 2016, 06:29:40 AM »

What an interesting discussion about school reading. I don't remember ever being forced to read from just my own grade level nor do I remeber not being allowed into other library sections, but maybe I never "crossed the line". We had summer reading lists, but I never paid any attention to them.

So, what happens to the child who is reading at an advanced level, like me? It seems to me that being forced to read only at the school grade level could also discourage some from reading. Teens are more likely to find ways around the rules, but I don't know about the younger set.

I remember taking a remediial reading class once, not because of my reading comprehension (which was advanced) but because I was (and still am to some degree) a slow reader. I was a "regressive" reader.

ginny · « **Reply #17163 on:** July 26, 2016, 06:59:22 AM »

I appreciate all the concern. Apparently I haven't explained this well enough if people think there's some kind of deprivation going on here.

On my way out of town this morning but rest assured there are tons of libraries here with excellent programs for children at which he's been a regular including the summer read paste a leaf on the wall when you have "read" or been read to X number of books, his entire life. I have photos of him at the library going back literally to where he came in as a toddler. Obviously the child goes to Barnes and Noble (see photo) and he's earned his way to what he wanted in the school library by his own efforts. A good lesson, perhaps, in life?

The colors don't represent grades, they are reading levels, like SRA's, the children choose among the core color books themselves, and what he's done is in the way of an incentive, albeit one I had never seen before, but it really seems to work with 3rd grade boys. There's also a required summer reading program, in each grade, in which they choose from a list of books which must be read over the summer.

I did think it unusual, probably because of my own temperament, but I'm not a typical 3rd grade boy. It's also possible I have not explained it well. At any rate there's WHOLE lot of reading going on.

Frybabe · « **Reply #17164 on:** July 26, 2016, 07:11:02 AM »

Oh, I just remembered at least once having to read a book over summer and do a book report for fall classes. I don't remember if it was for a history class or for English.

Frybabe · « **Reply #17165 on:** July 26, 2016, 08:00:39 AM »

Ginny, I just read Mary Beard's review of Anthony Everitt's, Cicero: A Turbulent Life (I have the reprint edition, Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician) in her book, Confronting the Classics. She found it "disappointing". She was hoping for something above another run-of-the-mill biography, something that is, to my mind, not exactly a biography at all, but an analysis of how Cicero was "constructed and reconstructed over the past two thousand years" and how and why to read and why we still read Cicero's works.

One of the paragraphs reminded me of the reason Cicero was exiled from Rome for a while (not to mention the abuse of his corpse when he himself was executed). We are still having this argument today. After the execution of leaders of the Catiline revolt with out due process of the law under their emergency powers decree, "One of the sharpest political debates of the first century BC centered ...on the nature of the emergency powers decree. In what circumstances should you declare a state of emergency? What exactly does martial law, a prevention of terrorism act or - in Roman terms - a Final Decree of the Senate allow the state authorities to do? How far it is ever legitimate for a constitutional government to suspend the constitutional rights of its people?" (Confronting the Classics, p82). Does the debate sound familiar?

bellamarie · « **Reply #17166 on:** July 26, 2016, 09:45:28 AM »

Barb, that is truly amazing how you helped your son learn to read and love reading in spite of his challenges. My grandson Zakary is 8 yrs. old and has been diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is highly functional and has an IQ three grades above where he is, his issues are sensory and social. It was very difficult for him as a baby, toddler and pre-schooler, even into Kindergarten, but with the support and love of family, friends and great therapists and Rehab Dynamics he is doing fantastic! He will always suffer in some areas with this disorder but as you have done and we as a whole family, we showed him ways to cope and overcome in some ways to enjoy life with all the kids his same age. He sure has taught us more than we could imagine in his little 8 yrs of life. He said his goal in life is, "To make Nonnie laugh." He accomplishes his goal every time he is in my presence!!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #17167 on:** July 26, 2016, 01:02:57 PM »

What do you think?

http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/the-10-greatest-books-ever.html

Jean

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #17168 on:** July 26, 2016, 01:31:52 PM »

Oh dear please did not intend any judgment - I was not sharing my experience as a benchmark only that it was different for my grands as it was for my children and have no idea what it is today - we did not have TV much less all the reading that goes with a hand held devise so of course our reading list was huge - I had not even thought that through when my kids were young and was all umphy over what I thought was a meager list.

As to reading by color code, I was really asking if it was different than the grade level reading we experienced - and then, yes, since I went around school expectations of what shelves in the library from which I could read I thought any child can do that. So yes, that was sharing how to get around limitations that yes, Ginny your grand is well acquainted with thanks to you and I am sure his parents - and lucky us, most of us are comfortable enough financially to buy books for our grands, another way around restrictions - but again, I was really questioning if the new color coded restrictions were similar to the class level restrictions that I remember -

Another example of sharing that if we were talking live to each other would probably be shared as a down memory lane chat that it was intended - sorry, I can see protection of any thought that would suggest a lack of creativity would be hurtful and yes, I did add the thought, rather than being limited by school expectations - just go around it and dredging up the memory of going around it when I was a kid.

bellamarie · « **Reply #17169 on:** July 26, 2016, 01:55:29 PM »

Jean, that list is interesting, and I must say I have not actually read any of the top ten chosen.

Barb, like you it was as though we could all just be sitting around the cafe at Barnes and Nobles sharing our thoughts and experiences. Isn't it wonderful to be able to do that with no judgement intended. Just our own memories and thought on yesteryear compared to today.

Ginny, Yes, the main thing is there is lots of reading happening! Growing up my public school system never gave summer reading lists. As a matter of fact there was never any books assigned for me to read until high school English Lit. class. As long as our young ones are being introduced to any books and enjoy the world of reading it's a plus for them!

Frybabe, Cicero oh my, one more book I have never read. I'm thinking I spent way too many years with Danielle Steele.

PatH · « **Reply #17170 on:** July 26, 2016, 04:04:32 PM »

I've read half of the ten. I agree that Huckleberry Finn, Hamlet, and War and Peace (we read it here) are of that quality. Madame Bovary seemed very good, but not top ten. I've read The Great Gatsby three times, and I see the effect he's trying to produce, but for me he totally doesn't pull it off.

I've tried to read Lolita several times, but though I can see it's good writing, it irritates me, and I can't get into the spirit. I never get very far. I never get very far into In Search of Lost Time either. I started Middlemarch, got bogged down in the politics, but will probably finish it sometime. I've read a few Chekhov short stories, probably won't read more, nor Anna Karenina. Russial novels aren't my thing except for War and Peace, which I ate up eagerly.

ginny · « **Reply #17171 on:** July 26, 2016, 05:48:59 PM »

I've read all of them. I would have to question some of them as the 10 greatest books, because I don't think they are, all.

Barbara. That sounds like a very creative way to help your son read and enjoy it. I got off on Memory Lane myself writing that post and the SRA's. I actually did not know what they were until I taught adult reading for District 7. They had SRA's. I had never heard of them but they were wonderful.

Do you all know what they (were?) I think they are electronic now but then they were little color (here's the color stuff) coded boxes. It's a reading series which is slanted to a particular audience. This one was for adults who did not know how to read. Each colorful box had lots of cards. I'd say the laminated colorful cards were about the size of an Ipad mini. Each card presented a story which was interesting to the adult beginning reader. Each story contained core words, each box covered X number of core words in a series which worked up. They weren't by grade level (you can find out the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of anything in Word by typing in a paragraph and selecting Readability Levels and it will tell you that your local newspaper, for instance, is probably 5th grade), they, like the old Dick and Jane series, wanted to get a basic vocabulary recognized by the reader and build on it. They were ingenious.

These stories were wonderful. Each one was fantastically interesting. I sat and read them myself all day. The students loved them because they addressed their own lives but they had history, too. I will never forget reading about the Winchester House which is a true story and can be visited in California.

I couldn't put it down. When I went to California we went to San Jose I think it was to see it. Sarah Winchester, widow of the man who invented the Winchester rifle, became so upset at the number of people killed by his firearms, and what she felt were their spirits, and the guilt she felt, that she felt the need to add on to the house to accommodate them. The house was under construction her entire life. Stairwells go nowhere, it's like something in a novel.

The SRA's were full of that kind of thing. And they did work. That's a lot more sophisticated than what the school is doing but it's the same theory I think.

Frybabe, yes, Mary Beard, that most kind and gracious of Classical lights is pretty hard on Everett. I think his mistake is doing his own translations, which she has pronounced, some of them, "howlers." He writes well but perhaps he might use works in translation so that he does not make, especially with Cicero, the wrong assumptions. Cicero is hard to get hold of.

However, I still contend that Everitt's description of the flies and the death of Cicero is really not equaled anywhere and it's worth reading for that. But it's like any historical fiction, (and it is fiction) not to be taken verbatim.

I love that quote. Mary Beard writes a very....outspoken column for the Times which is available online called A Don's Life and even tho they like to call her "subversive," she is her own woman, and a formidable scholar, in pretty much a man's world. It's a pleasure to read anything she says, even when it's something I don't agree with, I learn from her point of view. I am a total fan.

JoanK · « **Reply #17172 on:** July 26, 2016, 08:02:29 PM »

've read all of them, too (except I only read the first book of the first volume of "In Search of Lost Time.")

I, too would question Madame Bovary and Lolita. I would also question whether it's really possible to have A list of the 10 best books. best in what way?

bellamarie · « **Reply #17173 on:** July 26, 2016, 08:17:49 PM »

JoanK.,

Quote

I would also question whether it's really possible to have A list of the 10 best books. best in what way?

Even though they said they asked the authors to suggest their titles, what makes them the expert on them, just because they are authors? I have to tend to think the readers would be best determining, and then is that even fair? I mean it all has to do with genre and likes. One book could sell because of the known author and the hype in advertising the book, but maybe it was not liked as much as it was expected. I'm just not into "the best or most" lists anymore. It's like magazines putting on their front cover the most beautiful women or men in the world. REALLY??? By what standard do we judge to determine beauty, and how much operations and beauty techniques make them beautiful when presented to us after the work is done? Oh gee..... I am on a roll or would you say rant. I'll shut up now.

Frybabe · « **Reply #17174 on:** July 27, 2016, 05:51:53 AM »

Well stated Bellamarie. I read Hamlet and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn years and years ago. I have no intention of ever reading any of the others. Athough I had Anna Karenina on my shelf for years, I never read it, finally deciding I was no longer interested and gave it away.

ginny · « **Reply #17175 on:** July 27, 2016, 08:19:52 AM »

Actually I was surprised when I got around to finally reading it that Anna Karenina is good. 😎

ginny · « **Reply #17176 on:** July 27, 2016, 08:42:47 AM »

" Catfishing" on the Internet: an author confronts her severest critic who turns out to be a fake:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/18/am-i-being-catfished-an-author-confronts-her-number-one-online-critic?CMP=share_btn_link

Frybabe · « **Reply #17177 on:** July 27, 2016, 09:41:30 AM »

That was incredibly interesting, Ginny. There are a lot of fake reviews out there. Usually I one hear/read about the fake good reviews, not only for books but for other products as well. I think one of the best ways to see if a book is going to interest you is to read a sample or from the "look inside" feature, not to mention credible reviews from credible sources like the NYT Book Review or Kirkus. On Project Gutenberg, I even take a look at the html versions of books I think I might like before downloading them to my ereader.

jane · « **Reply #17178 on:** July 27, 2016, 11:14:27 AM »

Lots of fake reviews and even websites which offer to post 5 star reviews for authors for a given sum.

PatH · « **Reply #17179 on:** July 27, 2016, 12:13:26 PM »

That's an interesting article. I'm not sure whether that sort of behavior is pathological or just pathetic. And you certainly have to look at reviews with caution.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #17180 on:** July 27, 2016, 12:43:21 PM »

Many order their books - if the site offers the ability to read the first chapter or so then there is something more to go on other than the reviews - however, with so many ordering books online or even gravitating towards a book in a bookstore based on reviews - publishing a bad review can not only affect the sale and profit for the author but for the publisher - as I understand it these bad reviews on any product is part of the competition business is up against today.

If you notice Amazon is particular about letting you know if the one offering their critique had purchased the item through Amazon which is not an ironclad way of identifying trolls since products can be purchased anyplace however, most give more credence to those who had purchased the item, book or any other item, through Amazon therefore, balancing out the negative feedback submitted by a troll.

Rather than 10 best I think a longer list has a better shot - and this is very interesting after he submitted the first list that was the compilation of recommendations by authors for the 100 greatest books he not only did a follow up after a large hue and cry but also has an alternative list from readers of books that did not make the list.

After Robert McCrum finished his two-year-long project compiling the best novels written in English, you had a lot to add. Here are the 15 books that received most votes to join the list

The 100 best novels written in English: the full list
Robert McCrum reflects on his choices
One in five doesn’t represent over 300 years of women in literature: a response
The world’s 100 greatest novels of all time (2003)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/the-100-best-novels-written-in-english-the-full-list

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/12/features.fiction

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/16/100-best-novels-bunyan-to-carey-robert-mccrum?CMP=share_btn_tw

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/03/the-best-novels-in-english-readers-alternative-list

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/aug/21/did-the-100-best-english-language-novels-make-enough-room-for-the-irish

bellamarie · « **Reply #17181 on:** July 27, 2016, 03:58:51 PM »

Ginny that article is insane! The author got so caught up in the same type of obsessive behavior as the person she was trying to expose. I watch Dr. Phil Mcgraw shows on catfishing and when the person on his show is proven the person she has been corresponding with is a fake and has used pictures from someone else's Facebook account, it's amazing how the person does not want to believe they have been duped. Most instances on his show is the person duped has gotten not only emotionally involved but financially depleted by the scams the catfisher runs on them. Like this author, the person gets so caught up and invested that they don't want to let go even though they know the reality is a catfisher. Ughh.....

I'm just not into the "best" of anything anymore. Too much self serving intentions involved. Bill O'Reilly exposed the New York Times Best Seller's list when his book was clearly outselling others and they refused to list his as the #1 top seller. Guess it wasn't politically correct for them to promote his books.

marjifay · « **Reply #17182 on:** July 27, 2016, 04:58:06 PM »

Thanks to Ginny's post a while back about wanting to read the book and/or watch the film of BLEAK HOUSE, I just watched the first disc of the movie (5 episodes) from Netflix. I thought the characters were fascinating, but I was a bit confused by the story. Have just bought a used copy of the book from Amazon, knowing I'd never be able to read the 1036 page book from the library and get it back in time, and hoping it will clarify the story.

I've never read any of Danielle Steele's books, and don't intend to. Don't care at all for the type of stories she writes.

For some reason I've been getting into books by Ira Levin. I just read The Stepford Wives after watching the movie. The book is better than the movie IMO. Next, I have waiting to read his THIS PERFECT DAY (a sci-fy thriller about a future society run by a computer, and the book, ROSEMARY'S BABY.

Also have waiting a reread of Ken Follett's FALL OF GIANTS. This has a very interesting story and is the first book that enabled me to understand how the First World War got started.

Another book waiting is a book recommended by Barb St. Aubrey: THE TRIBES TRIUMPHANT by Charles Glass, which sounded interesting about the Middle East.

This should keep me busy for a few days.

Marj

PatH · « **Reply #17183 on:** July 27, 2016, 06:09:10 PM »

Jane Austen certainly belongs on any such list. All those lists pick Emma as her best. We've read most of them here. Do you agree with this choice?

ginny · « **Reply #17184 on:** July 28, 2016, 08:52:52 AM »

There is Marjifay! Isn't Bleak House a great movie? I love how one struggles to figure out a plot with the thousand and one characters and those NAMES!

Isn't Charles Dance (Mr. Tulkinghorn) the epitome of that part? I actually bought the DVD, and am going to watch it again. I'm starting the book, too! My book says the first four chapters were the first installment when it was first printed so I'm going to try to read it in the order, but Charles Dance will always be Mr. Tulkinghorn to me. Sometime back Barbara put in a quote from Dickens here and that's what started me, maybe we two (or whoever wants) from time to time can informally discuss it, here, since it's been read here before and well, as we go, just off the cuff stuff, it's a big one. There's nobody better than Dickens in the winter, either.

Loved the Ira Levin reference. I am the same about Preston and Child. I don't think I have ever read The Stepford Wives, however. Of course I've heard of the movie, I'll try one of his the next time I go to the store.

ginny · « **Reply #17185 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:12:17 AM »

Pat, I would certainly think a Jane Austen belongs on any list. (I did not notice it was not there but I was pleased to see Sinclair Lewis there, represented in Babbitt). You never hear of Lewis any more because his dialogue is dated, but he belongs on any list, as does Upton Sinclair which I don't recall seeing and was Steinbeck there? Very hard to make lists when there are so many great writers and of course no classical anything there.

I disliked Babbitt when I first read it, then I grew up and read it again, my goodness a lot more wisdom in it than I thought and then was stunned to discover sequels to it, there may be two, I no longer remember. Pretense in small town America. His Arrowsmith I once thought was the best book ever written. His language now is a problem but someday I predict he'll be back. I'm wondering if there's any Ibsen on the list as well, I went thru it very fast.

On the "catfishing," I had no idea what that was and had never heard of it. I am somewhat bemused to see the links referenced don't really work beyond a clearing house for more links to bullying, so I could not find a list of the Goodreads people who "bully," so I began to wonder if this indeed was, itself, a spoof.

It may be. Author's revenge. There is a Blythe on the internet, mother of two, so it MAY not be, or it MAY be an exposé, either way it's fascinating. Never heard of such.

I know that Mary Beard (the classicist mentioned above ) did something similar after her first TV shows on the BBC. She was viciously criticized for her appearance by internet trolls, and some critics, that she wasn't pretty enough to be a "presenter," why couldn't they get somebody more photogenic, on and on, it was very nasty, it really was, and ridiculous. She was surprised and somewhat hurt, I think, and then as people rallied round, and it became a real war, she, in her usual forthright manner, actually (I found this out a couple of years later after the fire storm had somewhat lessened) contacted the person making the comments, the worst one, and engaged in dialog, and today that person is one of her biggest supporters.

I thought that was immensely cool. This one seems to take it a little far, but she IS a horror writer after all.

People say things protected by the anonymity of the internet they would not say to somebody's face, and sometimes embellish their own stories. Gilbert and Sullivan sang of it years ago in the Pinafore:

Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.

jane · « **Reply #17186 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:32:12 AM »

No. That reference to a "Stopthegrbullies" website was not a spoof. I'd seen that original website. It was a listing of GR reviewers who wrote what authors thought were critical reviews. It does not appear to be up on the internet anymore, at least not at the original name and location.

That article was from 2014, I believe, and the issue was everywhere at Goodreads back then. I believe we discussed it here, too, in passing.

Here is one which explained the original "bullying". ...which was used for anything which was critical of a book or author.

http://stopthegrbullies.net

There was much talk at GR of the tactics of these authors to bully the reviewers, etc.

ginny · « **Reply #17187 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:35:45 AM »

OMG! Sock puppets? Strange and stranger! Who KNEW all this stuff, thank you for that!!

PatH · « **Reply #17188 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:39:07 AM »

Austen was on the lists. My question was, do you agree with their choice of Emma as the book to represent her?

ginny · « **Reply #17189 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:50:50 AM »

Ah, good question! I read over that list very quickly scanning for the authors I thought belonged. I wonder how many others did that very thing? I personally thought there were some really odd selections present, which would not be on any list I did.

I couldn't choose between Lewis, much less Austen. It will be interesting to see what Austen lovers here think. Sorry to have misinterpreted the question.

Frybabe · « **Reply #17190 on:** July 28, 2016, 09:56:02 AM »

I joined Goodreads years ago, but didn't stay very long. I had a hard time finding discussions I thought interesting enough to join. The one I did join, started a few months earlier, never got off the ground. The only other person I saw post never came back. Goodreads setup just was a little to crowded and confusing to me. One good thing, I got to read and evaluate one book. The book was good, reminded me of the kind of books Carol Goodman was writing, but flat compared to her books, I think.

Anyway, I wonder how badly all this bullying has affected Goodreads reputation?

jane · « **Reply #17191 on:** July 28, 2016, 10:22:50 AM »

I don't think it affected it at all. If anything, the regular readers, as opposed to authors there, rallied around and had their own list of BBAs...Badly Behaving Authors.

Since Amazon bought GR, it seems that the push of authors has gotten to be a bit too much. I understand the $$ part of it on Amazon's part. GR is rolling out a new design which seems to push the discussions/groups farther into the hinderlands, and that's not popular with a lot of people like me. I love discovering new authors, but I'm more inclined to buy based on info from other readers I've come to know share my reading tastes, and less on the Amazon blurb. I don't really trust reviews or ratings by anyone I don't "know" from my groups. There are far too many sock puppets there to inflate ratings.

I also would take exception to some on the 10 Best List. I recall, especially, Middlemarch that was required reading in a class I was taking, and the difficult time I had getting through the thing. In the meantime, I didn't see a Henry James title, and my English profs all seemed to think the man was great. I recall we spent a lot of time on the symbolism of The Ambassadors.

ginny · « **Reply #17192 on:** July 28, 2016, 10:55:44 AM »

It's a very subjective list. I went back and read it again. No Thomas Wolfe, no Look Homeward, Angel. No Upton Sinclair, no Pearl Buck.

I do agree with 87, tho: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (1971)

Elizabeth Taylor’s exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel postwar English life facing the changes taking shape in the 60s.

Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress) seems to be having a new renaissance and I'm really glad to see it.

bellamarie · « **Reply #17193 on:** July 28, 2016, 10:57:26 AM »

PatH., I am torn with which of Austen's would be considered the best, I absolutely think Pride and Prejudice and Emma are tied for her best books. My hubby bought me the DVD of Emma for Valentine's Day. It is this one:

I felt they captured Emma's true personality, and will be watching it over and over.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #17194 on:** July 28, 2016, 12:08:58 PM »

Here's another interesting book site from the Strand bookstore - test your knowlegde of authors. Of the four quizzes, I got about 1/2 of them right.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/07/14/nyregion/strand-quiz.html

Marjifay - Barbara Tuchman is one of my favorite historians. It was great to see her quote on your posting. Her book on WWI is a good read.

Jean

marjifay · « **Reply #17195 on:** July 28, 2016, 12:27:03 PM »

Yes, Ginny, I am LOVING the BBC film of Bleak House! I can see why you bought it so you can watch it again. I can't wait to receive the second disc of the next episodes.

The names of the characters are marvelous! The Dedlocks -- the rather nice looking but ominous Lady Dedlock who is married to that ugly Lord Dedlock. Uggh! The ultra clever lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn whom you can't help but despise. And poor Jo the poverty stricken little boy who is a street crossing cleaner and whom the policeman sends off to who-knows-where to get rid of him because he suspects Jo of stealing money. (What does a street crossing cleaner do? Clean up horse droppings?) What a fantastic imagination Dickens had.

Sad that the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce has dragged on and on so long, enriching all those lawyers and soaking up money from litigants who hope to become rich. Mr. Jarndyce's uncle finally gave up hope and put a bullet in his head. Someone said Dickens talked about another case, Jennings vs. Jennings, that began in 1798 and was not settled until 1878!

My favorite character is Mr. Dunby (sp?) the young man with the wicked smile who lurks everywhere soaking up information for his own advantage and who has the secret hots for Miss Esther Summerson (or is is just for her possibly becoming rich?)

Then there is Miss Jellybee who obsesses over a colony in Africa while her own family falls into ruin. Someone said these charity do-gooders are like some today who rant about saving the whales or freeing Tibet while their own neighbors starve. (That's probably overstating it a bit; I doubt many people in the U.S. are starving. At least I certainly hope not.)

Thanks for talking about this book/film, Ginny. I'd probably never have looked at it otherwise.

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #17196 on:** July 28, 2016, 02:12:09 PM »

Jean, I own two copies of Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, but have not read this book by her. Think I bought them (don't know why I got two) after reading Ken Folletts novel on WWI, Fall of Giants because I'd heard what a great writer she was. I believe that one won a Pulitzer.

Thanks for recommending her book; I'll pull it from my shelf and read it.

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #17197 on:** July 28, 2016, 02:22:00 PM »

I'm ashamed to say I've only read four of the ten best list of books from Open Culture, actually two were only 1/2 read -- War and Peace and Lolita. I did not care for the book or the movie of Lolita. Was not particularly fond of The Great Gatsby. I did really like the 1974 movie of Gatsby with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford.

Have always meant to read Hamlet but have just never got a round tuit.

Marj

FlaJean · « **Reply #17198 on:** July 28, 2016, 02:50:29 PM »

My favorite Jane Austin is Persuasion, which is seldom mentioned.

marjifay · « **Reply #17199 on:** July 28, 2016, 02:56:28 PM »

Frybabe, you mentioned Goodreads and that you left it not long after joining, unable to find a group you wanted to discuss with.

Frybabe, Have you tried the Constant Reader group at Goodreads. I really like them and have belonged since before they went to Goodreads. They talk about a log of stuff: books (They vote on a 6-month reading list including a classics reading group ) They also talk about movies, poetry and other things. I've also looked at a couple of other groups threre, but found nothing that interested me. I joined a history group for a short while but left because the leader was too much of a "know-it-all."

Marj

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