Author Topic: The Library (Read 2087045 times)

Steph · « **Reply #3480 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:57:24 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!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

Steph:I have really missed Jackie.She and I seemed toread the same type of books.. Hope she gets better soon.When I was in my mid 20's with two small boys, I got a sinus infection that did that. Even laying in the bed, I was convinced the entire bed and building was moving. Horrible thing. Thank heaven, I lived close to my Mom and an Aunt and they took the boys until I could stand upright again. Very very horrid feeling.

Babi · « **Reply #3481 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:21:04 AM »

Thanks so much for checking on Mrs.Sherlock for us, PATH. I'm sorry to hear about the vertigo, especially now that Bellemere has explained what a serious problem it can be. I do hope Jackie's problems won't be as severe or lengthy.

You still ride a bicycle, GUM?!! I am in awe!

Gumtree · « **Reply #3482 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:34:02 AM »

Babi - don't forget - I'm an Aussie!

CallieOK · « **Reply #3483 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:35:22 AM »

Chronic sinusitis - vertigo - spinning rooms...Oh, my, all of these sound soooo familiar. The first time I felt like the room was whirling around me, my son called a Physician Assistant friend. She suggested getting an OTC medicine that is taken for motion sickness. It worked then and it works now - although I rarely need it.

Best wishes to Jackie for a speedy recovery.

I just finished reading "The Cookbook Collector" by Allegra Goodman. It wasn't at all the story I expected but it was a good read.

pedln · « **Reply #3484 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:54:05 AM »

PatH, thanks for inquiring about Mrs Sherlock and letting the rest of us know. I surely do hope this goes away or at least lessens soon. I’ve only had one brief experience with vertigo and can’t imagine what it would be like to have it continuously. And I never knew there was a connection with it and sinusitis. Wow. The things our bodies respond to.

Gum, bravo on the biking. I used to do a lot, but somehow have acquired a mental block against it – afraid of falling or not being able to stop when necessary. I keep talking about a three-wheeler, with enough gears, but the knees are real cooperative and I haven’t done anything about it.

Callie, The Cookbook Collector has been on my Amazon Wish List ever since I got my Kindle. Glad to know you thought it was a good read.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3485 on:** December 30, 2010, 11:28:57 AM »

Back from my job, which takes me away from home from Monday to Thursday, and find a couple of questions to respond to:

I own the hardback first edition of the Mark Twain autobiography. It is a HUGE book, and there will be 2 more to follow!

I agree that it is to be read a bit at a time, when the mood strikes. It is perfectly marvelous, though he skips about ALL THE TIME and does not do things chronologically. This IS Mark Twain we are talking about, and he wrote a lot out by hand and dictated some. He remembers stuff as it pops into his head and disgresses a lot, you see. Hard to explain. But yes, it is quite, quite wonderful. I wonder if I will live long enough to finish it!

As for THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, I just flat out adored it. Did not seem heavy at all to me; I rejoiced over Lisbeth's conquering her hurdles and defeating those who would use and/or destroy her. It is refreshing these days to have a winner and as much as can be expected of a happily ever after scenario.

ALF43 · « **Reply #3486 on:** December 30, 2010, 01:45:56 PM »

Me too MaryPage. I am a Lizabeth follower and enjoyed all three of his books.

If anyone would care to join us, we are kicking off the New Year with a discussion of Little Bee by Chris Cleave. You will love memorable novel probably more than you will the characters.

does that intrigue you? Stop on by and say hello.
join us here

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3487 on:** December 30, 2010, 02:42:50 PM »

I have just finished watching "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo". I had read the book when it first came out. It certainly was difficult to watch, as I knew it would be, especially with Lisbet's guardian and his evil-ness. But, it was a good movie, and the closed captioned made it easy to follow. Next up, I will read, The Girl Who Played With Fire" as I haven't had a chance yet.

ALF43 · « **Reply #3488 on:** December 30, 2010, 04:10:24 PM »

Tome.. I was kind of surprised of the guy that played her guardian, weren't you? I had him pictured as a "Billy Bob" Thornton weirdo.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3489 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:43:45 PM »

Thanks Pat for finding out about Jackie, i miss her too.

Totally off the subject, i'm watching a Charlie Brown tv show w/ my grandson, Charlie is reading War and Peace for school.........funny, i think of the CB crew as elementary school students.......i know that subject matter has been pushed way down the grade line ( subjs i first heard abt in college are being studied by middle schl students today) but War and Peace for elementary students!?!......

,

........jean

kiwilady · « **Reply #3490 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:57:36 PM »

Just been to library this morning and begun listening to "The Weight of a Mustard Seed".
The story of Iraq told from the inside out. Its by Wendell Steavenson. Its non fiction and would make a great discussion. It centres round the life of an Iraqi General. You see him through many eyes and see Iraq from more than one perspective. So far I am finding this book fascinating.

Carolyn

Frybabe · « **Reply #3491 on:** December 30, 2010, 10:44:12 PM »

I got a wonderful surprise today. A friend gave me her old Kindle. She upgraded. I am just now reading the manual. What a surprise. I didn't know it has speakers for audiobooks. Super! I've got a few pdf books on my computer that I am going to try to download as soon as I figure out what to do, then on to the Kindle store.

Steph · « **Reply #3492 on:** December 31, 2010, 05:51:58 AM »

Hooray,I am sure you will love your Kindle. I know I do my IPAD. Got some itunes gift cards for Christmas, so have used them to download some more books..

Babi · « **Reply #3493 on:** December 31, 2010, 09:28:55 AM »

So, GUM, does that mean Aussie's are tougher or that Aussie's do a lot
of bike riding? All I know about Australia is what I've read in books,
..which is a scattershot affair.

ginny · « **Reply #3494 on:** December 31, 2010, 10:09:00 AM »

Me too and I'd love to go to Australia, I've never "met" anybody from there (on here or SeniorNet) who was not fantastically interesting.

I like the spirit I seem to "see" in Australians.

I'm half way thru one of my Christmas books, from my youngest son, this one, the Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling and I have to say I have never read anything like it in my life. That woman (who was beautiful) had the most appalling life growing up, and a hard hard time of it, you have to read it to understand. You talk about your pioneer days, holy cow. It's incredible. I must go now to her home in PA, I mean talk about determination. Oh golly and her mother, her mother...the mind boggles on all the paradoxes and true tragedy but they kept going. How, I don't know. How DID her mother even survive?

One thing missing entirely and I've read the Boxer section over twice, is the bit about her Amah hiding her during the Boxer Rebellion. It's simply not there. But I've always heard it reported. Was it not true? If I could talk with Hiilary Spurling (whose Paul Scott seems unavailable, I'll keep trying), I'd ask her that one thing.

The book also has a good map in the front which you need because otherwise the names of the towns are unfamiliar and you'd not be able to understand where they were, or are today. Was her father a madman, a saint or something in between? It would make a good discussion, I can't get over her life.

I'll say one thing: it's totally different from anything else.

If that had been I? I would have been whining since day 1. And what awful things are reported, almost beyond human understanding. She wrote what she knew, that's for sure. It's no wonder that the Chinese read her to this day to understand what China was: she knew.

I'm now going to reread the entire Good Earth Trilogy, even tho I just finished the first one, it's going to be different. We need to read Pearl Buck here. We need to read her books like Exile which are taken from her mother's life. It would be searing.

One interesting fact, the average size of the farms of the Chinese of the time was 2.8 acres. Lossing Buck, her husband, was an agriculturalist who interviewed Chinese farmers and reported on agricultural statistics, the first and only person to do so at the time.

Some of the true stories in the book, however, will give one nightmares, so if you're impressionable you really don't want to read it.

On a happier? note I'm also reading The Lodger (yes, that one) by Marie Belloc Lowndes, which is old but kind of hard to put down. What a character study it is. Bas Bleu had several Oldies but Goodies in their catalog and I got some to temper the new books I'm reading and boy are they good.

What are you reading, old or new?

rich7 · « **Reply #3495 on:** December 31, 2010, 10:23:47 AM »

Morning all.

Just read an interesting news item this morning. Barnes and Noble announced that they are now selling more e-books than "real" ones. I guess that's good, but, for some reason, it kind of saddens me. Someday people will be going to museums rather than libraries to see old fashioned cloth or leather bound books with real pages you can turn.

Happy new year to everyone!

Rich

pedln · « **Reply #3496 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:02:30 AM »

Rich, don't be sad. Perhaps it means also that people are reading more.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our friends down under. I hope you all brought it in well.

Gumtree · « **Reply #3497 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:06:03 AM »

Thanks Pedln - the New year has just arrived here - its 12.05am on 1st January 2011

Happy New Year to all.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3498 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:07:30 AM »

Actually reading "old" right now-- Angle of Repose" - Wallace Stegner. It's for my f2f book group. Lovely, well-written book, a little "talky" sometimes, but that only serves to put you right into the story/characters. Can't think how I missed this one from years ago.
Has everyone here read it?

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3499 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:10:50 AM »

Did everybody go to the library or bookstore this week? Guess we all slowed down on reading to take care of holiday needs and now need to replenish our "addiction"........

........i went to the library yesterday and picked up 8 mysteries, most of authors that were recommened in the "mystery"discussion, 3 or 4 new authors to me and an Emilie Richards that was on the "oldies, but goodies shelf........aahhh, so much to look forward to! I read a "Judge Knott" last night.

Yes, Ginny, Pearl Buck had a fasinating life. I have forgotten, for sure, whether Pete Conn talked abt her rescue in the Boxer Rebellion, but it sounds familiar and his is the only book i've read abt her. You're right abt her Mother, i am amazed at what some human beings can survive. I think, had i been her i would have had to say on my first "vacation" back home "i'm not going back!".........there must have been some redeeming features for her.........i hope you get to go to her home in Bucks County. The buildings are impressive and they give a good story of her life on the tour. Altho, we had a special tour, four of us from the Alice Paul Institute were invited to share info on our similar tours. Pearl and Alice did know each other, Pearl was a generation earlier than Alice, but they were both women of the progressive era and the women's rts struggle and both knew many woman of the time, including Margaret Sanger, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jane Addams. There is a lot more to PB than being an author and an advocate of internat'l adoption..........Jean

marjifay · « **Reply #3500 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:37:18 AM »

Ginny, The Lodger by Marie Belloc-Lowndes was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's first successful thriller in the 1920s. It's a silent film, and available at Netflix with another film as "Alfred Hitchcock: Sabotage and The Lodger" (1926).

I recently finished what was my favorite fiction read of 2010, THE BLUE CASTLE by L. M. Montgomery. Am just getting ready to start Hemingway's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS for discussion with another group.

I've put the Pearl Buck in China book you recommended on my TBR list. I loved The Good Earth, but have not read the other two in the trilogy yet.

Happy New Year!
Marj

Gumtree · « **Reply #3501 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:59:36 AM »

I've just finished a reread of The Good Earth - wonderful read - so evocative of the time and place and apparently she knew what was what in China. I'm going to go for the other books in the trilogy which I also read long ago but need to take a short break from China. - it's so intense.

I read my very first Alexander McCall Smith- The Sunday Philosophy Club. I have to say I was a trifle disappointed after all the raves from these boards. I thought there was too much padding - I'm not sure whether he was showing off Isobel Dalhousie's intellectual interests or his own - but there was too much of it and not enough story. The depiction of life in Edinburgh seemed rather claustrophobic to me and I thought the ending was pretty lame too. After all the discussion on ethical questions throughout the book it ends up with 'let's leave well enough alone' and 'why ruin another life' - that's not good enough - what about the victim? doesn't he and his bereaved family deserve justice and to know the truth. I may read another of his but so far I'm not a fan.

Have also just started a Xmas gift - Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence - am not very far into it but it looks OK so far - its fairly long 750 pages - I'll post more when I've read more. The blurb says it's one join the likes of Lolita, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina... I guess the proof will be in the reading.

I gave myself Kristin Lavransdatter for Christmas and it's on my coffee table waiting - I think I will need to gird my loins to begin that one and I expect I'll then be swept away into medieval mystique. Can't wait to start but have too much happening around me at present and want to wait until everything has calmed down again.

CallieOK · « **Reply #3502 on:** December 31, 2010, 12:13:09 PM »

I've started "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver. At first, I didn't think I would care for the story line - but she has brought in some competing senior citizen characters who are hilarious. The other story lines are getting more interesting, too.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3503 on:** December 31, 2010, 12:24:12 PM »

Gumtree - I am so sorry you didn't enjoy Alexander McCall Smith. The Sunday Philosopher's Club books are not, IMO, his best works, and I would recommend the Scotland Street books far more. One of my friends who loves the Scotland St books cannot bear the Isobel Dalhousie ones, and although I quite like them, I agree that the depiction of Edinburgh in them is really rather smug and limited, like Isobel herself - the Scotland Street books, though set in the New Town (ie the poshest bit), are far more fun and get better with every volume, I think.

If you would like a copy of 44 Scotland Street (the first one), I'd be happy to send you one (I have the inveterate bad habit of buying copies of books I like from charity shops, even though I know I've already got them- I always think "I'm sure someone will like that sometime"

Just email me your address.

Rosemary

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #3504 on:** December 31, 2010, 12:27:16 PM »

Rosemary, happy Hogmanay!

bellemere · « **Reply #3505 on:** December 31, 2010, 02:10:11 PM »

Ginny, I read Conn's book about Pearl
Buck's life, and would like to try the Spurling book. As I remember, a Chinese family did shelter the Bucks during the Boxer Rebellion.
I got kind of bogged down toward the end, when she was hiring young handsome men to be the executives of her Foundation. But she was a remarkable woman, and I willprobaboy return to the Good Earth.
In fact, Chine is becoming , so fast, one of the world's leading societies, it might be worthwhile to devote a year or a half year to fiction and nonfiction about China. We had better understand this society; it will be a bigger and bigger factor in our country's destiny.
I am also reading "old" , Washington Square by Henry James. What a writer! He ferrits out every thought and feeling of all his characters; sets every scene, weighs every word. although I have to admit, I prefer the ending of the deHavilland movie with Morris poinding on the fron door, to the less melodramatic, but probably more realistic, "breakup " scene by James. In the past I also saw a version with a young actress I had never heard of: Jennifer Jason Leigh. She could break your heart! I wonder what else she is doing now. Anyway, James is a master; I hope to try more of his.
I don't have an ereader, but I read the whole novel on Gutenberg. Will that site survive as everyone gets ereaders? I am making a list of questions about the Nook, and will sve them for another day to post.

MaryPage · « **Reply #3506 on:** December 31, 2010, 03:52:41 PM »

Am over the moon at all the Christmas books I have to read. Got six of Denise Mina's mysteries I can hardly wait to get into. Also one of Reginald Hill's: Midnight Fugue, featuring that good old team of Pascoe and Dalziel. Have The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg. I collect books of poems by Calvin Trillin, and got Deciding The Next Decider, The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme. He writes most of these for The Nation magazine, having retired more or less from The New Yorker, and every now and again there are enough to publish in a book as a collection. No one in this world makes me laugh so hard. Ogden Nash used to, and of course Will Rogers and Mark Twain. I am deep into Stieg Larsson, Our Days In Stockholm by Kurdo Baksi. Fascinating. Spent last night unable to tear myself away from Wait For Me, the memoirs of Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire.

If only I had nothing to do but read! You know what? I've been wishing that quite consciously for about 74 years now; ever since I was about seven!

HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS 2011 TO EACH OF YOU!

Gumtree · « **Reply #3507 on:** December 31, 2010, 09:41:47 PM »

Rosemary - thank you but I really must decline your offer to send 44 Scotland Street to me. Apart from the exhorbitant postage costs from UK to Australia I'm not certain that I would read it - or any other McCall Smith for that matter. In any case the books are readily available from my library system so can be easily obtained should I be overcome with an irresistible urge to be annoyed by him again... I truly appreciate your kindness and hope this doesn't sound too churlish. I'm sure that book could go to a much more welcoming home than mine.

Bellemere What a writer we have in Henry James! He's a man for all seasons but not one to be rushed - rather to be savoured. I like to pick him up from time to time and somehow he relaxes me. Maybe it's the superb prose and the completeness of his explorations into human behaviour. His short stories are worth reading too...

roshanarose · « **Reply #3508 on:** December 31, 2010, 09:50:13 PM »

Happy New Year all !

Pedln - Thanks for thinking of us.

Ginny - Next time you are flying over Australia, come and visit, you would be most welcome.

I am persisting with "The Girl Who Played with Fire". I think the section that I was bogged down in was padding. Sacrilege to some to even think such a thing. The part I didn't appreciate was early in the book when a new character was added who had been head of the secret service (or something similar). There was too much written about him that didn't seem relevant to the plot, and the goings'on between Sweden and Russia were very superficial, in fact unnecessary, to what else was going on (or supposed to be going on) in the book. Something similar was the case in the first "Girl", when I skipped to page 61 and missed nothing. I am a fan of "The Girl" herself and whenever she is on the page I am interested. Now Salander is tough!

Gumtree · « **Reply #3509 on:** December 31, 2010, 09:57:19 PM »

Quote

So, GUM, does that mean Aussie's are tougher or that Aussie's do a lot of bike riding? All I know about Australia is what I've read in books,
..which is a scattershot affair

Babi I guess you know I was just being facetious - although Aussies are pretty good bike riders - at least many of our current crop of professionals seem to keep on winning major events. I still love to trundle around on my velocipede though - I used to do some fairly long distance riding just for fun - it's a great feeling almost as good as surfing.

If there's anything you want to know about Aus - just ask.

joangrimes · « **Reply #3510 on:** January 01, 2011, 01:39:01 AM »

Happy New year Everyone!!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3511 on:** January 01, 2011, 02:44:32 AM »

Happy New Year to everyone - and Gumtree, no problem - I am the not-proud possessor of far too many books that friends, esp my neighbour, have foisted upon me, so I appreciate your honesty. I have a shelf full of things like Dan Brown just because I haven't had the strength to say no!

Rosemary

kiwilady · « **Reply #3512 on:** January 01, 2011, 03:05:04 AM »

My 13 year old granddaughter loves Dan Brown. She also goes to a Catholic girls college! LOL! Brooke got me to take out a documentary film on DVD from our library. It was about one of Dan Browns books and the history and myth that make up the plot. She sat enthralled. She is going to buy "The Symbol" with her Christmas money.

Brooke loves also to read history. She got a great tome out of the library "NZ at war". It was the account of NZs participation in WW2. She has read books on Womens Suffrage in NZ. We were the first country in the World to give women the vote. She has studied WW1. The Vietnam and Korean wars. Victorian workhouses and social problems in the Victorian era. She read Martin Luther Kings biography. Nelson Mandelas biography. She is an unusual child in this day and age.

One day I said to her "You must get bored having to spend so much time with Granny".
"Oh No" she said very seriously " I love the deep conversations we have about politics and world affairs" She is a girl after my own heart.

Carolyn

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3513 on:** January 01, 2011, 05:42:18 AM »

Gosh Carolyn, she is some 13 year old! My 12 year old - whose teacher has told me is unusually well read and has a broader general knowledge than most people in her year - would never have read anything like that. My 15 year old likes to talk about politics, etc, (but would never have applied herself to the biography of ML King, or anyone else for that matter) but my 12 year old is more into history and writing.

What a good thing that you and she can share so much together. I am sorry to say that none of my children are that close to their grandparents (who live a long way away on both sides), and I sincerely hope that when my grandchildren eventually arrive (if ever), I will be as involved with them as you are with yours.

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #3514 on:** January 01, 2011, 08:51:04 AM »

Roshanarose, I am gratified to hear you like Lisbeth and are persisting with the book. I must, though, assure you there are no wasted passages. Every word is relevant. You will find this out!

The three books are really all one book, and every word in each book is important to the whole, as is every person.

Have you discovered, though, that each of the 3 books is written in a different genre? Larsson did this on purpose, and he was very excited when one of his editors caught on to what he was doing.

Larsson had big plans for making his words photograph the major wrongs of our world society. Too, too sad that he was struck down before his dream could be realized.

Steph · « **Reply #3515 on:** January 01, 2011, 09:26:22 AM »

I simply cannot get into Alexander McCall Smith?? The African ones bore me and the Edinburgh have so little plot.. So I just marked him off. I did get a copy of the Book about the Brooklyn house and the edible history of it.. Sounds so good.. Also Julias Letters..I will look for the Pearl Buck. I admired her so much and that sounds like a wonderful read. Like many Americans, I must confess that I am not particularly interested in reading too much of current day China.. The little I read leads me to believe that the Communism has turned into t he haves and havenots.. Lots of high ranking officials have offspring who kill and obey no laws.. Anyone else think of Animal Farm..All are equal, but some are more equal than others.

FlaJean · « **Reply #3516 on:** January 01, 2011, 09:50:40 AM »

I love Alexander McCall Smith. We even bought the DVDs of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and have looked at them several times. I enjoy the slow and thoughtful rhythm of his books. I don't care for most action type mysteries, too exciting for my imagination and blood pressure.

ALF43 · « **Reply #3517 on:** January 01, 2011, 10:07:27 AM »

For those of you who have read the trilogy with lizbeth Sander and all of the crooked political nuances in the books, do you find any credence in the fact that the author spoke of too many private details, disrupting important government secrets? There was talk at the time of his death that it may have been a homicide case. Did anyone hear of that fact?

I'm ready Ginny- Australia here we come.

maryz · « **Reply #3518 on:** January 01, 2011, 10:15:00 AM »

Rosemary, does your local library (or Friends of the Library) have book sales? Ours has two a year, and they are always glad to have books to sell. We keep very few books any more - they all go to the book sales. When our family and friends get together at the beach every summer, we always have a giant book swap. Any books that don't find new homes go back with us to go to the sale. The very best of recycling, IMO.

nlhome · « **Reply #3519 on:** January 01, 2011, 10:24:49 AM »

I enjoy the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency also, FLaJean, also. You put it well, "the slow and thoughtful rhythm." I also enjoy some of the darker and occasionally violent mysteries, though. Right now I'm reading The Best Americna Mystery Storeis of 2010, edited by Lee Childs, and so far they are dark, even ugly - I may need to find something light soon.

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 2087045 times)