The Library

[ginny]

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.

[ginny]

How nice to see everybody here and to see all the different things you are reading!

Karen, welcome back, yourself, I hope you are doing OK? Are you able to do stairs yet? I hope you are recovering nicely,  and will soon be running marathons.

What did you think of the Frances Mays? I have been considering reading it,  it looks good,  but I think I am the only person in the world who disliked her first one, Under the Tuscan Sun.  I think now I was too harsh but she irritated me with her evasiveness (as I recall) on the boyfriend thing.  I haven't read one since, maybe I should try one?

Frybabe, I'll ask Jane to put you on the list, and we can communicate later to see where you feel most comfortable.

Wastelands sounds good... is it? I like Apocalypse  stories but in short doses.

I think, at least for me, recreational reading (Beach Books) can be on any subject, the more different the better, take one out of one's rut so to speak in reading the same type of things.  Always eager to hear something different.

Hats and Callie, I read and enjoyed a Rhys Bowen a while back, it was fun. I bought another but have not read it  yet.   Nice to see you back, Hats!

Callie, that's the very reason I really dislike historical fiction, but is Eisenhower's Women  considered fiction or a biography?

Bellamarie, a lot of people really like Penelope Lively, so I appreciate your frank opinion of it, I was thinking of reading one of hers, she's always on the "best" lists and I've never read one. Penelope  Fitzgerald, yes, loved her books, but have  yet to try one of Lively's, maybe I'll put that on  hold a bit.

Jean, First Mothers sounds really good! It's nice to  hear that FDR's mother gets a sympathetic treatment somewhere. Sometimes I wonder if the current trend toward revisionism has gone a bit far. Seems like nobody is left unscathed.

I agree, escapist Beach Reading is really the ticket now.... for me anyway...

Has anybody read the Patterson/ Clinton book?

[bellamarie]

Ginny, no, I have not read The President Is Missing by Clinton and Patterson.  It seems Clinton is not doing it any justice on his book tour, or shall I call it his "foot in mouth" tour.  It always amazes me how neither he nor Hillary, never seem to know when to just say, "No comment."  Anyway, my neighbor has the book sitting on her coffee table, which is her TBR pile.  I told her I think it will actually be a good read, considering Patterson is great at mysteries, and Clinton was the expert for all the presidential/white house info.  Hopefully, Patterson did most of the writing, because the one Clinton book I did read, was so wordy and long, I thought I would never get through it.  My hubby picked it up years later and felt the same way.  He gave up on it, said, "He sure likes talking about himself." I told him, it was autobiographical. lolol

[CallieOK]

ginny,   I was mistaken about the title of the book about Eisenhower, Mamie and Kaye.  Correct one is The General's Women.
The historical settings and events are accurate.  The personal stories are....umm....questionable.
Apparently,  John Eisenhower blocked publication of Kaye Somersby's "tell all" book.
In her author's notes, Susan Wittig Albert goes into great detail explaining what research materials were available and what were not.

I liked her Darling Dahlias series better.  These are light reads  (quoting the library blurb) set in the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s—and the Darling Dahlias, the ladies of a garden club who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty solving mysteries... (end quote).

[Frybabe]

Ginny, of the nine stories I've read so far, there were only three I didn't care for and didn't finish, the Stephen King, the George R. R. Martin and the Mary Rickert. I think the last anthology I read, I only finished about half the stories, if that. Right now I am reading a good one by Cory Doctorow. There are thirteen more to go. Of those, there are only two authors who are familiar to me, Elizabeth Bear and Olivia E. Butler.

BTW, The Jack McDevitt story (Never Despair) is set in the same place and time (and I think, the two characters) as in his stand-alone book, Eternity Road. I highly recommend this book. It is about a quest to discover who the mythical Roadmakers were, who built the concrete pathways that connect the great clusters of ruins, and to find the rumored treasure trove of lost knowledge.

[Frybabe]

This is just too good not to share. For all you crochet fans, Cindy Wang as a book out called Literary Yarns: Crochet Projects Inspired by Classic Books. What a great way to use up your yarn scraps. I might just have to order it.

[PatH]

Hats is the crochet expert among us.  Are you laughing too, hats?  It could be a lot of fun, or a total flop.

Frybabe, which Octavia Butler short story did you read?  She wrote a number of them, many very good ones.

I read a YA book by Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, which was quite good.

[hats]

Ginny have you taken any trips lately? Is it possible to share them with us?

Path Oh no, I'm far from an expert. I like to crochet. It's been a long time since I picked up a needle. My sister taught me how to crochet. I have forgotten who listed the title of the crochet book. It seems from your review that it's worth looking over. I will write down the title.

[hats]

Frybabe, I really like Octavia Butler. She is called one of the geniuses of Science Fiction. I've read three of her novels. I might have her short stories too. I will look. I've never read one of her short stories.  Oh, thanks for listing the Crochet book title.

[PatH]

Hats, I haven't read the crochet book.  I was laughing at the very idea.

I agree about Butler.  We nearly read Kindred, my favorite, here once or twice, but it never happened.

[Frybabe]

PatH, I have a few more to read before I get to it, but Butler's short story is "Speech Sounds".

From the cover of the crochet book, it looks like most or all of the projects are little stuffed figures of the characters. My library system has it, so I am putting a hold on it. If I really like it, I will buy it.

[bellamarie]

Hats, I think I would like that crochet book.  I have so much yarn from left over projects, it would be nice to see patterns to use it up.  I crocheted for years when having my three children.  It was a perfect past time while pregnant and having napping babies, since I never worked outside the house til the third one was in Kindergarten.  Oh the beautiful sweater, bonnet, booties, and blanket sets I would crochet.  Just two years ago for Christmas gifts I knitted and crocheted each of the four granddaughters a hat and scarf set.  They opened them up and ohhhhed and ahhhhed, not believing I made them my self.  There is such a sweet satisfaction in seeing how much they treasured them.

Well, talk about beach books.....  I went on a buying spree yesterday and purchased eight used books, all hardcover except two, for only $32.12 at Thrift Books.com.  NO shipping and handling fees! 
Beachcombers  by Nancy Thayer
A Summer Affair  by Elin Hilderbrand   (She is my favorite beach author)
Beach House  by Georgia Bockoven
The Island  by Elin Hilderbrand
Nantucket Nights  by Elin Hilderbrand
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
The Beach House: Coming Home  by Georgia Bockoven
Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

After the week I just had with watching my brother in law die, a funeral, having infected eyes from allergies and tears, excruciating pain from a tooth needing to be extracted but must wait for my dentist to get back from his vacation, rain and cold temps for this time of year, a family crisis with a teen grandson, etc., etc., I am ready to hunker in and just read fiction love stories for the next month! You heard the phrase, "Calgon take me away...."  Well, I am thinking, "Nantucket take me away..."

[PatH]

Wow, Bellamarie, you've really earned your beach reading.  Enjoy.

[mabel1015j]

Yes, Bellemarie, escape to some place else. Reading the best and cheapest way to do that. I hope this week is better for you.
Jean

[BarbStAubrey]

Wow Bellamarie - wishing you a time of peaceful reading and healing... be thinking about you...

[bellamarie]

Thanks everyone!  I can't wait for those books to arrive.  I am going to the library tomorrow to check out The Joy Luck Club.  Have any of you seen the movie?  Ginny, I forget, when do you plan to begin that discussion? 

[Jonathan]

Bellamarie get yourself to the beach. My wife had a recurring, similiar yearning. Take me to Cape Cod. She was the hardiest beach comber. And the hardiest reader at the cottage. She passed away two years ago today, at this very hour How I do miss her. She left me a pile of books. Nicely shelved of course. Just checking out her collection the other day, I made an interesting discovery. We both enjoyed biography. We each had two by Victoria Glendinning. She had Edith Sitwell and Vita Sackville-West. I have Leonard Woolf and Jonathan Swift. Now they're all shoulder to shoulder on the same shelf. I can sense the verbal play in the air.

I hope I haven't taken you away from your reading. LOL

I've just seen your post. Congratulations on your hardy spirit.

[bellamarie]

Jonathan, my hubby and I are planning our getaway for a week in July, thinking New Buffalo, Michigan.  We love the small harbor town, and beautiful white sandy beach there, near St. Joseph's, and the casino if I get bored reading.  I bet your wife is smiling down at the "verbal play in the air."   

[ginny]

Callie, thank you for checking on The General's Women. I will stifle my soapbox irritation with long lists of sources cited, which, when examined, prove to be nothing of the  kind.  A Wikipedia Specialty, but they ARE trying to clean that up, to their credit. At least your author was honest.

That Darling Dalhias actually sounds quite good. I've been digging out my old Corrine Holt Sawyer's books on senior sleuths in Retirement Centers solving crimes, most of hers are now out of print but The  J. Alfred Prufrock Murders, I think,  is one of the best ever of its type. Happily I've got all of hers so it's not hard to find one.

Jonathan, what a sweet way to remember your wife.

Thank you Frybabe, on the Wasteland stories, some of them, am I correct, are 20 years old? I am going to see if I can find the book, one of the best Stephen King things I ever read was in a short story collection easily 30 years ago. And I like that theme.

Hats, how nice to see you again! I think of you every time I think of Philly, now. And the Eagle.  Yes, I'm just back from Italy, France (rail strike) and England. If I ever get over it I'll be glad to talk about it. hahaha  Takes a long time at my age to get over 9 flights. Thing IS, it seems one of us is getting old?!!??  No one mentions that to me normally, or asks me out of the blue if I need help or am OK?

Seems like a wake up call.  I think I need to work on my posture..have been exercising like mad ever since.

Bellamarie, it looks like you're all set with beach reading!! I'm the same way, if I get on a genre I like I can't get enough of it.  I've never read a Patterson book, co authored or not but that one is really getting stinko reviews.

I finished The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, the author of the Woman in Cabin 10,  and recommend it to anybody, it's a great read. I never figured out "who dun it," till she revealed it.  But then I never do. Lots of red herrings, fun.

We've scheduled the Joy Luck Club to begin on July 16, hopefully giving enough time for folks to get the book.

 It's funny on movies about books. I haven't seen and don't want to, the movie, because the characters are solid in my mind now, because I read the book first, and I don't want Hollywood's take on the book (film being its own art) but IF I see the movie first of any book then I only see the actors in the parts. Film is such a strong medium.

I would never have read Wolf Hall or Bring up the Bodies without having seen the movie Wolf Hall, or finished Bleak House without the movie first. But  you can't "unsee" a character once you've seen it in film.

Which do you all prefer? To read the book first or to see the movie first? And which, do you think, is better?


I've started Barbara Ehrenreich's (Nickle and Dimed)  new
book Natural Causes,  a brave book in which she talks about our obsession with aging, medical tests, and trying to avoid the Grim Reaper, and how it interferes with  our own lives. It starts by talking about macrophages. She introduces us to a world of dystopian “intrabody conflict.” (Ehrenreich has a Ph.D. in cellular immunology,) and how they aren't at all what she was taught. 

It's profound and beautifully written, and is unflinching about old, outdated and useless medical tests, the stress and humiliation of same, the counter arguments, and since I agree with her on many counts without having her scientific background, I am finding it fascinating.

It's a small book and I should finish it today, but she makes a lot of good points.

It's nice to see one can still have a civil conversation somewhere in  our increasingly uncivil world.

[ginny]

I have to add this, while waiting for Argentina and Nigeria to start their World Cup Game, but while reading the Mrs. Westaway book I came upon two words which I did not  know, what fun to have to look up words, and there's no way I could figure them out.

I know what it means,  now, but would you have had to look it up like I did?

glamping yurts

That was fun. I won't forget that in a hurry.

[CallieOK]

Bellamarie,  gentle hugs to you.  Your reading list sounds like a wonderful escape - as do your July "get-away" plans.

Ginny,  the author of The General's Women did have a long list of accurate references.  She commented on the "suppositions"  she fictionalized because she could find no verifiable facts.  She blamed this on John Eisenhower blocking publication of Kaye Somersby's second book - supposedly a "tell all".  The 3 main characters were all deceased.
I don't really recommend it unless you're just curious or out of other things to read.

Re books/movie or vice versa:     If I read the book first,  I usually become very irritated at the movie version, which is usually "based on..." the book.  I guess that gives the screenwriters permission to change things around to suit themselves. 
Example is "Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy.  Barbra Streisand produced and starred in the movie (maybe directed, too - don't remember).
The entire story centered around her role (IMO) and the main character's brother, who was an important part of the book plot, was completely ignored.   
OTOH,  the original movie of "Gone With The Wind" almost exactly follows the book - even the dialogue.  I have my mother's 2nd edition and have read it more times than I can count.  I always see Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett and Scarlett.

Another Rhys Bowen Molly Murphy  book has just been added to my e-book loans.   After 4 days of solid rain/thunderstorms/cooler temperatures, central Oklahoma is now like a "Sauna".
Off I go to stay cool and enjoy....

[mabel1015j]

I thought somebody here mentioned Bill Bryson’s At Home book, but I can’t find the post, so it may have been in one of my other 19 newsletters I read. 🤪

In any case I got the ebook and if you are a lover of a variety of bits and pieces of history, as I am, you probably will enjoy it. It’s supposed to be “a short history of private life”, but as with other Bryson books, it’s a little bit of many things. In a short few dozen pages that I’ve read,  he talks about the  crystal palace of the British exposition in the 19th century, houses and the “first houses” found on the Orkney Islands of Scotland - older than Stonehinge and the pyramids, how complicated it was to figure out the proces of getting grain to become bread, etc.

I’m enjoying it.

Jean

[Frybabe]

Ginny, I don't know what glamping is but isn't a yurt one of those Monglolian/Central Asian round tents?

I am not generally a movie watcher, but like Callie, I get real irritated when a movie diverges greatly from the book. Also, I find that reading the book first often helps to fill in and explain some of what a movie skips in the interest of time. There are a few books vs. movies which I liked both. The latest that comes to mind is The Martian. I recommend the book to read, but if you don't like the science bits (which, to my mind, are mostly explained at a high school or first year college level) then the movie is the way to go. It stick pretty close to the book, skipping a few things, and the ending is a changed just a little bit, to follow up (give some closure?) on where the main characters ended up after their return. I don't remember that in the book.

Oh, another movie (almost forgot) was Lawrence of Arabia.  Yes, I actually read the book (an old volume, 1926, I think). I don't remember if I read it before or after the movie. The movie stuck very close to the events. The only thing I could find that was different was that the second boy who was attached to Lawrence, did not die in a sand trap of sorts. In the movie it looks like a dry kind of quicksand. Anyhow, that fellow died of exposure during the winter campaign in the mountains. The first boy did indeed blow himself up accidentally with a blasting cap. BTW, my Dad was amazed that I got through the whole book. He thought I would find it too dry.

[bellamarie]

Ginny, I generally like reading the book first.  Producers for what ever their reasons, tend to chop up the original story, and make it into what their narrative is at the time.  I'll never stop complaining about how the movie The Help, was made to be more of a comedy, where as the book tackles very important issues on domestic abuse, racism, self worth, and how black nannies were treated.  I had just finished the book the night before going to see the opening of the movie, I sat throughout the entire movie telling my friend how they left out such and such, and how this or that did not happen in the book.  It was infuriating to say the least.  So for me, read the book first, then see the movie.

Callie, good to know the movie Gone With The Wind follows the book exactly.  I have only seen the movie and loved it.  I have the book on my TBR pile, I found it at a used book store and it is very old.  I also found the glass figurines of Rhett and Scarlet at a used store called Encore.  They are two of my favorite fictional book characters.

Marking my calendar for July 16th!

[Frybabe]

Bellamarie, you reminded me of when I saw Red Sparrow with my sister after I had already read the book. She generally doesn't appreciate me interrupting her attention on the movie with the little asides about what was wrong or missed. However, she did say in that instance, it helped to explain some of the it. It is not something I do often, but sometimes the movie screams for it. She and her husband are avid movie goers. Most of their "reading" is via audiobooks.

[bellamarie]

Frybabe,  I generally never talk during a movie, but like you, I could NOT keep quiet after just finishing the book the night before we went to see the movie.  It was devastating seeing how they destroyed that story.  Another movie I was disappointed seeing, after reading the book was, Hidden Figures. 

[mabel1015j]

The Bryson book continues to tell me things I didn’t know.

Prince of Tides is one of my top five favorite books and yes the book was so much better than Barbra’s version, altho I think if I hadn’t read the book, I would have liked the movie. One of the problems with reading the book first is that I have MY picture of what the characters and the environment look like and, of course, they look different than my imagination, in the movie. Janet Evanovich’s characters in One for the Money “looked” nothing lke I had imagined them in my mind. The movie I thought was better than the book was The Firm. The movie ending was so much better than the ending in the book.

In my young adult days, I think I almost always saw the movie and then read the book. The movies introduced me to many great books.

Jean

[Mkaren557]

I think the best movie from book is To Kill a Mockingbird:  Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch!  I agree with you, Bellamarie, about Gone With the Wind:  I know it is not "cool" anymore to "love" GWTW and as a history teacher I can be critical of the accuracy of almost everything, but the magic of the summer I was 14 and babysat my brother on the beach reading GWTW continues for me.  One day in class I was being outraged by the Disney movie Pocahontas.  My student commented, Ms. Mathews, it is fiction.  I am also with you on your beach reads. 
Sometime it would be fun to discuss the limits of fiction and of non-fiction.  Roots is a good example of "non-fiction" that read like wonderful fiction. 

[Frybabe]

I don't make a habit of talking but I made an exception for Red Sparrow, and then I kept them short and limited to things like "didn't happen", or missing part of the story, or some such without explanation.

My sister is a bit difficult to discuss books with. If I go into a synopsis of the story, she often says she doesn't want any spoilers before she reads the book. She rarely reads what I read. I think Red Sparrow and The Martian were the only two books I read before going to see the movie with Sue, and that was before the movies were even cast. The Martian was something of a wonder.  Ridley Scott picked up the option to make the movie before or about the same time it came out in print. Prior to that, it was published, like so many today, as an E-book first.

My library system still has around nine copies of Joy Luck Club, so I won't have a problem getting a copy shortly before we start. I remember seeing the movie, but don't remember anything about it.

[PatH]

Karen:

Roots is a good example of "non-fiction" that read like wonderful fiction.

Apparently Roots owes a bit more to fiction than it should.  I've read that Haley made some of it up.

But that reminds me of another book I meant to mention here.  Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, wrote another book, which has only now been published: Barracoon, The Story of the Last Black Cargo.  It's the transcription of her 1927 interviews of Oluale Kossula, aka Cudjo Lewis, who, at age 19, was captured by a rival tribe and sold into slavery, and transported on the last of the (by then illegal) slave vessels.

Interestingly, Kossula focuses on his life as a free man, as a youth in Africa, and after emancipation, and this seems to define him.  He still has an overwhelming homesickness for Africa.  Hurston kept the book in a transcription of Kossula's dialect; her publisher wouldn't print it that way, and she wouldn't back down.  It probably makes for tough going now, too.

Here's the Washington Post's review:

Barracoon

[CallieOK]

I really don't mind "spoilers" because I like seeing how the author gets to the ending.

I sometimes mutter to myself in a movie = earning me a poke in the ribs from friends. Can't remember the title of the Merryl Streep/Alex Baldwin "comedy" but I remember commenting to my friend,  "If she takes him back one more time, I may throw my shoe at the screen."  She did - but I didn't.   

Wish we could get a screen writer to help us discuss the process of turning a lengthy book into a movie.

[Frybabe]

Wish we could get a screen writer to help us discuss the process of turning a lengthy book into a movie.

That would be really cool, Callie. There are a lot of books about screenwriting. I have no idea if any of them are an explanation of the process for non-screenwriters.

[ginny]

What interesting points.  As I was reading everybody's take on the difference and how irritated we get when the movie is different (and we DO!) I started to wonder why? I wonder if it's when we read we see it through our own prism, it's really a personal experience, maybe?  We relate to it, we're all different, and that's why book club discussions are so valuable, and fun. Maybe? But when we see the movie take on it, it's somebody else's prism, the directors? Or the screenwriters?

And that's not what we got out of it at all.

Is that the difference or what IS the difference, what causes that irritation?

What a great set of thoughts.

I also can't see anybody but  Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh as Rhett and Scarlet, but as good as the movie is, and it's one of the greats, I think, (can you imagine it with any other actors? George Clooney might make a good Rhett, tho?  He's got that swagger, but perhaps he's got too much humanity to not let it show, or?) the book is better, to me.

 I do feel a sadness seeing Leslie Howard there, what a shame his death was. I feel the same way seeing "Boy Mulcaster," from the original  Brideshead Revisited,  he also died an untimely death, and in the actor's comments Jeremy Irons particularly has some nice things to say about him, his name was Jeremy  Sindon and he was only 46 years old when he died.  I can't imagine that one made over but they did,  and it was a disaster.

I thought Brideshead was pretty close to the book as well as Remains of the Day but both books, to me,  were better, despite the powerful and unforgettable performances of each film.

Remains of the Day is one of the candidates for the best of the Booker Awards  in the Last 50 years. On the website where it was announced (the Golden Booker Awards) they put a list of the 50 and asked which one YOU would pick and I was looking for a way to post  Remains of the Day when I saw that some important person has done a Short List and it's not on it. Fie! But I also see several other people like me thought it was the best too: what a book that is, and didn't Ishiguro just win the Nobel Prize for his works?

I saw a REALLY good film on the flight over, called Brad's Status. I never heard of it. It's got Ben Stiller in it. He plays a man who is visiting colleges with his only child, his son, and how that experience causes him to evaluate his own life,  as the boy qualifies for Harvard, he can't afford it and his dad feels  they aren't "Harvard" types, and the fact that he has to confront his choices in life versus his very successful former friends. It's very powerful. Apparently nobody likes it but me as it's only got 6.9 out of 10 review but I am going to change that when I get off here.  I am willing to bet nobody has seen it yet.  Super movie, touching a  lot of things about life in general.  I don't know if there's a book but the performances almost want you not to read it and have your perceptions of it spoiled.

Has anybody seen the last Jurassic one? I saw Jurassic World on TV last week and was surprised it was actually pretty good, tho scary. The original book is good.

[ginny]

Jean, I have two copies of Bryson's At Home book, one of them huge and  profusely illustrated and never started it. I'm a big fan of Bryson, since you recommend it, I'll start it, I've heard a great deal about it. Apparently he wrote one about the home in which he grew up which they say is a must read, is it the same thing? I need to get it out and see.

Frybabe, YES, the yurts are circular tents and the glamping is apparently glamorous camping, a new trend where you have, if I understand it correctly, running water, toilets, electricity in a tent, a big circular tent. I don't think you carry the yurts with you and pitch them yourself.

I am definitely not a camper, got over that with my last Sunday  School Girl Scout camping "adventure." So I totally understand the need for comforts, but apparently  Glamping is the newest thing and it took a young author to throw that out, apropos of nothing, near the end of The Death of Mrs. Westaway to send me scurrying to the dictionary.

Gracious day how the other half lives. There's a TV program called Below  Deck Mediterranean on one of those ...channels...and I stumbled on it last night,  it shows life below and above stairs on these chartered yachts,  making me 100 percent not likely to ever consider  taking one, even as a guest. People actually leave tips of between $10,000-  $40,000+ for a week's trip.  Tips!!!!!!!   And act like idiots while doing it. UGG UGG UGG.

Watch it once and you'll see what I mean.

WHO, what type of person, would consent to being filmed in that situation? Maybe they are all made up, it's all actors. I sure hope so.

[mabel1015j]

Ginny - I’m waaaaaay past the age of wanting to be in the midst of people who have had too much to drink - actually, I’ve never wanted to be in the midst of people who have had too much to drink - and the times I’ve passed by that yacht-trip show, there appeared to be a lot of drinking, therefore dumb dcisions being made.

I’m netflixing - probably not a word but it should be - Mad Men. I didn’t watch it at all when it was on tv, now I know why, constant smoking/drinking/sex! Overdoing it by a mile. I know I sound like a prudish Victorian. I don’t think I am, but every time they light up, which is at the beginning of every scene, I can smell those noxious fumes in the air. Those poor actors. Maybe because I grew up in small-town America, or maybe I was an innocent, but the fifties were not that active in my experience. 

They did highlight the book Exodus - another book I read after seeing the movie - on one show.

Jean

[bellamarie]

I just ordered a used hard copy of The Joy Luck Club for 5.00, including s&h from Thriftbook.com.  Can't wait to begin July 16th.

[BarbStAubrey]

JULY 1 HAPPY CANADA DAY

[bellamarie]

Happy Canada Day Jonathan!! 

[hats]

Ginny - I would like to take a few days and read the posts about Remains Of The Day again. I had a chance to read A Pale View Of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro this month. I can't spell his first name. I don't have the novel nearby at the moment. He is a wonderful author.

Jonathan - Yes, Happy Canada Day. I am ashamed. I didn't realize yesterday was a special Canadian day. I've been looking at a novel by Margaret Laurence. The title is Stone Angel. I've never read anything about this author. Neither have I read any of her novels.

bellamarie - I did see the movie The Joy Luck Club. As far as reading one of Amy Tan's books, I have my mind on The Kitchen God's Wife. 

[bellamarie]

So excited my beach books have arrived!  Decisions, decisions, which one do I begin with? 



Hats - I have not read Amy Tan so The Joy Luck Club will be my first.  I'm interested in the mother/daughter relationships the book tackles.  I was very close to my mother, I still miss her so very much, where as my sister had a love/hate relationship with our Mom, which I can not relate to.  My other sister has only one daughter, and they have a more hate/love relationship, and it just breaks my heart seeing how they treat each other. She is very close to her sons.  I have an only daughter, and treasure our relationship. I live in Ohio, she lives in Florida, we don't see each other often, but we talk almost every day on the phone.