The Library

[Steph]

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!  Everyone is welcome!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

I tend to give to Salvation Army since I know they use every penny for good.

[jane]

We do, too, Steph.  I got so fed up with "organized" help groups when that blatant misuse of funds came up with the United Way and office furnishings and limos some years ago...and when I saw the then head of Red Cross, pulling in $250,000 while she paraded around being photographed in her little Red Cross teeshirt.  She was a "former" political figure then, and I about gagged...and no more funds to them from me!

jane

[Frybabe]

All our family give to the Salvation Army. When Mom was a girl in an impoverished  family of seven children, the Salvation Army was there to help. Mom never forgot that. And we children don't either.

[mrssherlock]

I usually give to Doctors Without Borders, maybe because I worked in the medical field.  CharityWatch rates each on on several criteria. 

Groups included on the Top-Rated list generally spend 75% or more of their budgets on programs, spend $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, do not hold excessive assets in reserve, and receive "open-book" status for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to AIP.

(Americn Institite of Philanthropy)
About AIP:  http://www.charitywatch.org/aboutaip.html
Here is their entry for Salvation Army:  http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/salvarmy.html

[bellemere]

My knowledge of Haiti is so sketchy.  I read Mountains Upon Mountains a few years back , by Tracy Kidder, and hears the name of Dr. Paul Farmer mentioned by Bill Clinton in his appeal for Haitian relief. Dr. Farmer
s big cause, or one of them, was eradication of T.B. in Haiti. 
I too give to Doctors Without Borders. 

[evergreen]

I'd like to recommend a book:I'll Never Be French by Mark Greenside.  I don't think you need to be a francophile or know French to enjoy this book (although it wouldn't hurt!).  I'm still reading it, but I wanted to mention it because I am smiling as I read.

These are sad days, and I'm hoping it will put a smile on someone's face, or somehow lift your spirits during the coming days.

[JoanK]

Hi, EVERGREEN! I'm curious to find out why Greenside says that.

[ginny]

Stephanie, I am sorry you're having so much hassle and hope that things may get brighter, I'm learning, tho, from your experiences,  and paying a lot of attention to what you're saying.

After I read what Jane said also  I had to double think the 999 or whatever number to call because that goes to the Red Cross and then Jackie's stuff on the  Salvation Army made me think again too. I wonder the best place to send some money which is what they want for Haiti is? I do see the charity listings, and ratings, seems like something urgent, tho,  is needed, and they do promise 100 percent to the Haitian relief. I dunno what to do?

Evergreen, that sounds intriguing, I must look it up.

The Powell's thing sounds interesting, too. It's apparently a lottery type thing, a drawing, you first register,  nominate,  and write a "comment," I misunderstood the comment thing and wrote a small blurb but it doesn't seem to matter, it's just the nominating thing, one person put "wonderful," as his only comment on the book.

I nominated in the non fiction category Down the Nile which IS the best non fiction book I've read in the last 10 years and they came up when it was accepted  with a million other books on similar subjects I could order, all, unfortunately, used, but still, all  very interesting. I think I may like to have some of them, never heard of any of them.

____________________________________

Preston and  Childs are on a roll. They have a new Pendergast coming out (to redeem the last one?) called  Fever Dream. I wish I could get past the first few pages of Cemetery Dance.  


I also picked up Preston's The Monster of Florence. I am interested in his own sojourn in Italy but if it gets too graphic, and I hear it does, out it goes, back to the library or flip of the pages, it's reader's choice there.

But the one I'm most interested in now is Douglas Preston's new one: Impact.
"When Wyman Ford is called in to investigate the mysterious exit hole of a meteorite that amazingly passed straight through the earth, what he finds defies all we know about our universe..."

I LOVE that kind of thing, doesn't it sound interesting? And the author of Daemon , Daniel Suarez, which is about a computer bug and was self published has a new one out everybody is raving about, the sequel, called Freedom, ties up the loose ends which Daemon was criticized for. In the first a  computer program is surfing the web, looking for an obituary: here's why: from an Amazon review:

     

If you know even just a little about AI, encryption, computer networks, gaming and internet technology you're going to LOVE this book. This is one of those books that's a wild ride right from the beginning, a page turner that you can't put down even late into the night when you really should be sleeping. This WILL keep you awake. Every time you start to put it down, the next 'big thing' occurs and you just have to find out the outcome.

It starts out with an obituary on Matthew Sobol, a top computer game designer who's designed a half dozen games and he leaves behind kind of a super game in the form of a daemon that scans internet obituaries and news articles for keywords that trigger a world changing sequence of events. A detective, Peter Sebeck, who is investigating a pair of Internet-related homicides and Jon Ross, who is trying to help his company battle a virus become involved in trying to stop this destructive force from causing irreparable damage to the world.

Looks like I need to read the first one first, tho. I am happy for Suarez, he self published the first one and now has a publisher and a new book too.


Meanwhile I'm with Wang the Tiger in China in the 2nd of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth series and have started Possession which has blown me away. If it had been in the last 10 years I'd nominate it, what a tour de force,  how have we missed it? Apparently a lot of Latin students have not, many have written they have enjoyed it and her newest book, just out   The Children's Book.

 I think you've have to call Possession absolutely...fabulous so far, talk about a book centered literate book! Jeepers! You need peace and quiet, a good fire and all brain cells firing to read her, unlike her sister Margaret Drabble and her absolutely...well.....Seven Sisters.

 Then I was interested in Byatt's  title The Whistling Woman and find it's part of a...what do you call a trilogy in 4 parts? A quadroligy?   haaaaa. She's got a series starting with The Virgin in the Garden. How have we missed this woman in all the years reading books?

___________________________________

OK fess up, who is reading  Roses, the new Gone With The Wind type saga of Texas families? Is that a romance? What IS Gone With the Wind? I have to say other than the title the premise intrigues me. How is it different from Giant by Edna Ferber? Are you reading it? Do you plan to?

Why are we not reading Ferber here?

What ARE you reading?

[pedln]

That's an interesting site, Jackie.  I like to donate to the national headquarters of my church denomination because their disaster assistance program spends only 5% on administrative matters.  And I can specify my donation to be used for domestic, international, or as in the case of Haiti, a specific distaster.

We have rather neglected (Antonia Susan) Byatt, haven't we?  I've had The Children's Book on request for several weeks, am still no. 2.  But they do have Possession and I think I'll check it out tomorrow when I go for Library Concierge Duty.  The DVD of Possession is somewhere on my Netflix queue.

I've just finished Sara Paretsky's Bleeding Kansas, read for my f2f group.  This one is not a mystery, is set in contemporary times, about three Kansas farm families.  Our November selection was Nancy Pickard's Virgin of Small Plains, also set in Kansas, and there are some interesting parallels between the two.  We got snowed out for January, but our FEb. session should be interesting.  Both books are excellent.

[ALF43]

pOSSESSION?  Who is the author please?

[ginny]

A.S. Byatt!

[joangrimes]

What ARE you reading?

Do you really want to know, Ginny...If I tell you it will just start a long drawn out discussion of how reading from a Kindle is not a rewarding way to read.  Well to start that discussion again I am reading "Monster in a Box" by Ruth Rendell...I am just happy that I can sit in a chair in a sort of warm house during a cold, cold winter on wet day and read this book.

[ALF43]

Thanks Ginny, I hadn't realized that that was the author you were speaking about.  I am #1 on the queque at my local library for the book. 
I've just finished Prey by Michael Crichteon.  I've always read his stories.  I read The Reliable Wife, which I mentioned earlier.
 I finished Clive Cussler's Deep Probe book and am just starting The Lazarus Project.  Has anyone read that one yet?  It was recommended to me by a fellow reader.  I am in the middle of the 47th Sumurai and had A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee.  I don't even know where that one came from but it's on my To read shelf.  I haven't found anything as good as the Book Thief yet!!

[Frybabe]

I too am waiting for Impact, Ginny. Right now I have Preston's Tyranasaur Canyon to read. And thanks for reminding me of Daniel Suaraz's Daemon. That was on one of my constantly disappearing to buy lists. And now he has a new one to put on the list.

I am almost through Henning Mankell's The Dogs of Riga which is the second of the Wallander series. In it, he meets Biaba for the first time. While I like the story as a whole I think Wallander does some particularly stupid things in this one.

[mabel1015j]

A friend of mine on her facebook page has a note to list the 15 books that has stuck w/ you. In trying to do my list i kept thinking of authors whose book(S) i had read and liked the whole bunch. Do you have authors of whom you have read a whole series of books and just like the author, whether there is an actually "series" by the author or not.

i.e. a long time ago i read all the Helen Van Slyke books and liked them a lot; all the Stephanie Plum series from Evanovich; the Howard Fast books; Mary Alice Monroe; Irving Stone; the Elliot Roosevelt mysteries; Herman Wouke; Irving Wallace; Ross's Miss Julie series; Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb; David McCullough; John Jakes; Susan Issacs; Dorethea Frank; Barbara Delinsky; Diane Davidson mysteries.

It was easier for me to make a list of authors than a list of books.........we should jog each others memories w/ these lists.... ......jean

[bellemere]

I am still glowing, just got in from the live telecst of Carmen from the Metropolitan opera.  Wonderful production.  The baritone Escamillo was singing the role for the first time, and just found out this morning that he was goin to go on in place of the sceduled performier, who was takin ill. he made a great toreador, and looked like Rhett Butler!!!!!Elena Guarance was perfect as Carmen, sensuous without being slutty.  And Roberto Alagna just owns the role of Don Jose.  I absolutely loved it.  Now to get my ticket for Simon Boccanegra, with Placido Domingo, next month.
any other opera fans seeing these telecasts in local theaters?

[pedln]

Bellemere, I just now read your post about the live telecast of Carmen.  And a friend who also saw it this afternoon, and stopped by for tea afterwards, left just a short time ago.  She had asked me earlier if I wanted to go, but for various and sundry reasons I could not.  I didn't realize it was a live telecast, but thought it had been filmed at an earlier live performance.  I told my friend that when they have something light, like Marriage of Figaro, I would go.

[JoanK]

bellemere: unfortunatel;y, none of the theaters that do the live broadcasts are anywhere near me. I am pleased that PBS sometimes brodcasts Met productions.

Have you mentioned this in the Classical music discussion on Seniors and friends?

[winsummm]

the HAITI 90999 operation works through your phone provider adding ten bucks to your bill and then sending proceeds to red cross specified for use in Haiti. some providers do it directly BEFORE they add to your bill. I did it immediately. and lots of high school kids did too. they wanted to help just needed a way to do it and they all have cell phones these days and know how to message with them.

other groups were doing this also and lists of reliable charities can be had at CNN, at MSNBC and elsewhere.  How much can you lose anyway. . .five or ten dollars at the most. paranoids step up with the rest of us.

claire

[Steph]

Our movie that does the live operas is clear in Orlando and I am not driving that far just yet.
I loved Bleeding Kansas.. Hard to believe however. I guess that that sort of hate driven by religion is horrible to contemplate.
I did laugh.. Ginny. I loved Pearl Buck and read every single one of her books way way back, but have not thought of them in years.. Maybe I should try rereading them. I loved the way she wrote.

[Babi]

I read all of Pearl Buck I could find many years ago, but had no idea
"The Good Earth" was part of a series. And I'll definitely have to become
acquainted with A. S. Byatt.

[JoanK]

I could swear we read "Possession" here together. I must have been in my f2f book group.

I'm sitting here listening to Don's classical music program on Seniors and friends. It's nice to listen to music with my Seniornet friends, and comment as we go.

Discussion:http://www.seniorsandfriends.org/index.php?topic=1421.810

Program: http://www.fanshawec.ca/EN/Broadcasting_Properties/The_X.asp

[Frybabe]

Listening to Don's classical music too JoanK. Since there is no work to do at work I was called off - AGAIN. I was going to spend more time with Mom at the rehab center, but her football game came on so I bailed out. I don't do football. Most of the time I have to miss most of Don's program.

[evergreen]

I've just finished reading The  Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.  Although the book is presented and reviewed as historical fiction, it's so much more. The story is about a fictional writer who is inadvertently drawn into the McCarthy hearings.  The characters are all so richly drawn;  I really like her writing.

Joan K.. Greenside moved to a small town in Brittany, and is totally befuddled by the French way of life.  It doesn't help that he knows no French and is constantly saying things that amuse his neighbors.  In addition, he was expecting them to be rude, and instead they wind up helping him adjust to the town manners and teaching him some French.  He is grateful, but decides despite all the help,  he'll never be French.  Even though he buys a house and lives there half the year.

Ginny, I loved Pearl Buck too.  I've read a lot of books about China in recent years.  It seems
China is changing so rapidly, the books are almost out of date before they're published.  One of the books I've enjoyed most  lately is Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.

I'm going to have to check out Possession.

You are all reading such interesting books.  It's hard to keep up with you.

[evergreen]

Ginny,  The Monster of Florence points how the inept the Italian system of justice is.  At one point, they try to pin the murders on the journalists who are writing about the murders.

[JoanP]

Yesm, we DID discuss Possession - way back in 1999 on SeniorNet.  What good memories you have!  The book is beautifully written - it is worth checking out, evergreen.  If you decide to do that, you might want to read the discussion in our Archives.  Here: http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/fiction/Possession.htm
Don't be put off by the small print - it can be enlarged - ask if you need help just ask.

The author's name is Antonia Susan Byatt - she goes by the name A.S.Byatt.  Did you know Byatt's sister is the author, Margaret Drabble?

I love her work!  Her latest book is The Children's Story - just out this past year -

The Children's Book is a 2009 novel by British writer A.S. Byatt. It follows the adventures of several inter-related families, adults and children, from 1895 through World War I. Loosely based upon the life of children's writer E. Nesbit [1] there are secrets slowly revealed that show that the families are much more creatively formed than first guessed. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

Interested?

[mrssherlock]

There are several authors whose every book I have read.  Elizabeth George, Laurie R King, Nevile Shute, Charlotte Mccleod, Anne McCaffrey, Rachel Caine, Sandra Dallas, Jane Austen, Kate Wilhelm, David Liss, Alan Furst, Chaim Potok,
Charles De Lint, Monica Ferris, Giles Blunt, C J Box, Roger Crais, Lois Mc Masters Bujold, Julia Spencer-Fleming,  Minette Walters, Sarah Shaber, Jo Dereske, Michael McGarrity, Cormac McCarthy, Jack McDevitt, - these just off the top of my head.

[joangrimes]

Finished " Monster in the Box" today and am starting one that is quite an undertaking.  It is called " Dark Water: Flood and Redemption In Florence" by Robert Clark. It was recommended to me by one of my docent friends at the Birmingham museum of art.  I was lucky that it is available on Kindle.  

Here is a review of it

From Publishers Weekly
"The Arno River flood that deluged Florence, Italy, in 1966—killing 33 people and damaging 14,000 works of art and countless books and antiques—frames this meditation on the relationship between art and life. Clark (River of the West) embarks first on a leisurely history of Florence's intertwined experience of great floods and great art, through the perceptions of Dante, Leonardo, E.M. Forster and other writers and artists. The world's rapt concern for Florence's cultural treasures contrasts sharply with its neglect of the city's inhabitants, Clark argues, offering his impressionistic account of the 1966 disaster as seen through the eyes of artists, photographers, volunteer mud angels who swarmed the city to help rescue its waterlogged art and Communist militants who organized relief for poor neighborhoods. He then follows the decades-long and rancorously debated restoration projects, especially the controversial rehabilitation of Cimabue's 13th-century Crucifix, seeing in them a metaphor for artistic beauty as an endless work-in-progress. Clark's study is sometimes unfocused, but by building up layers of atmospheric chiaroscuro—the drying city, he notes, lay lacquered in tints of warm earth and azzuro sky... like pigments just brushed on and still moist—he achieves an evocative portrait of Florence as its own greatest masterpiece."  (Oct. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

If you are interested in History and Art you really might like it.

i loved Pearl Buck too.

Greenside sounds like something I might like too.  I used to want to buy a house and live part of every year in France.   I would still enjoy reading about it eventhough I am too old and sick to do it myself.  Oh I am really lucky tonight. It is on Kindle also. So I will probably read it too.

Joan Grimes

[JoanK]

"Dark Water" sounds fascinating. The only time I was in Florence was in 1963, before the flood. So sad to think that many of the things I saw were lost.

[pedln]

Just came home from the library with Possession, and with Border Songs by Jim Lynch -- someone here suggested it, The Brutal something by Louise Penny -- again, someone here suggested it, and one more, that I can't remember what it is.

Jackie, I read Chaim Potok's first three, but hasn't he written another as well?  I really like his My Name is Asher Lev. The Promise and The Chosen got a little heavy.  I also read all of the Rabbi Day of the Week books, can't think of the author -- He slept late.

And I think I've read all of Colin Dexter's Morse books.  Almost all of Elizabeth George, until she went off the deep end and murdered one of her best characters.  One who I keep reading, and love her works is Margaret Maron with her Judge Deborah Knott series.  Some of the other mystery people, the cozy ones, start getting a little too icky sweet.  And I think I've read every Agatha Christie, but that's not saying I remember them all.

[joangrimes]

Yes JoanK,  I am sure that "Dark Water" is fascinating but will be so sad to read of all the things destroyed.  I did not see Florence before the flood though.

[ginny]

Isn't that something? That's scary, there I am discussing a book in 1999 which I don't recall ever reading. Really don't have the faintest memory. Nothing. I wonder if that was one of those speed read things I used to do in order to be able to  natter along and provide a body and chirp for the discussion. That's what it looks like, and something else, some other memory keeps whispering of why i was in that discussion,  but the book? Absolutely no memory of it whatsoever.  I sure do like it now.

 I think that one needs a do over, I think I'll read her series too. May hold off on the Children till I see if I like her at all.   Interesting that I felt she was like her sister stylistically in 1999, not quite the twit I appeared, hah? hahahaaa. Got that much out of it anyway. Apparently.

Do over. That one needs a do over.   Like her sister's Seven Sisters which we did over and found something more redeeming, and less artificial,  maybe the sisters themselves need reading twice? 

The Florence book sounds great, Joan G.

Evergreen, how graphic IS the Monster of Florence? 

Mrs. Sherlock, what an interesting premise. I've read all the Potok's and Stephen Birmingham's  and also Charlotte McLeod (she never, in my opinion, bettered her first one). Also all of  Agatha Christie and Pearl Buck, and other authors who have written less, like the woman who wrote about the Retirement Home Murders, she was good, former actress?

Pedln I mentioned the Louise Penny, let us know if you like it, I've got it sitting here saying if you can't remember a book you read 11 years ago why even pick me up? hahahaa Ah but in that way I get to discover it twice? hahashaaa

Greenside sounds good too!

But HA! Grey Gardens the HBO movie  just got Best Mini Series at the Golden Globes and the producer said it was about finally getting a chance and called the Mayles documentary funny? Did she say it was funny?

[PatH]

I also read all of the Rabbi Day of the Week books, can't think of the author -- He slept late.

Harry Kemelman.  I've read them all too, starting with "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late".  Kemelman was particularly concerned with Judaic philosophy and principles, which often play a part in solving the mystery, and are always interesting to read about.

[joangrimes]

Pat H, 
I read all the Rabbi books also.  I always felt that I learned so much from that series.

Joan Grimes

[Steph]

Chaim Potok.. I learned so much about the various forms that the Jewish religion takes. I know he wrote more than three. One was something like Davitas Harp?? and at least one more. But the first three were wonderful..
Harry Kemelman.. Yes, read all of the rabbi stories and I think I saw some newer ones just recently somewhere.

[Babi]

 I find I still have feelings of anger and shame whenever the McCarthy
'era' comes up. And well I should. It was one of the most shameful and
outrageous episodes in our history.

"..a body and chirp for the discussion."

GINNY, I love that!

[pedln]

I find I still have feelings of anger and shame whenever the McCarthy
'era' comes up. And well I should. It was one of the most shameful and
outrageous episodes in our history.

Babi, would you believe, I grew up in a household where one family member thought McCarthy walked on water.  It wasn't until I was a little more mature that I realized he didn't.  But I've probably lost a fortune, when during a move 30 -40 years ago I lost my autographed copy (by McC) of Stan Freeburg's little 45 rpm of "Point of Order."  I went to the hearings the summer after my freshman year in college.

if you can't remember a book you read 11 years ago why even pick me up

What I remember of Potak's Asher Lev --  when he was three, the protagonist mixed ashes from his mother's cigarette to get the right color of gray for his paintings.

But, here's a new way to sell books -- and it might be a fun way to have a literary event -- see the link from today's NYT

Stephen Elliot's Addersall Diaries

[FlaJean]

Harry Kemelman wrote the last Rabbi book the same year he died--1996.  I have 9 of the series and have re-read them a couple of times over the years.  I also loved the Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series.  Finished "The outliers" and found it very interesting.  I should have gone to the library yesterday as I feel quite stuck with no unread books around me.  Today is Martin Luther King's Day and everything except retail stores is closed here in our county.

My husband and I enjoyed the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency DVDs so much.  There is already a long reserve list for his newest books (No. 1 Ladies and the Philosophy Club) due out in several months.  I don't watch a lot of TV but after hearing how much everyone enjoys the Cranford series on PBS, I wish I had stuck with it for more than one episode.

[mrssherlock]

Pedln:  Interesting concept.  Now I'll have to read the book.  I wonder if he would appear at a literary event here online.

[evergreen]

Joan P - There are nine books by A.S. Byatt listed on my Kindle, and Possession is not included.
I guess I'll probably go with her newest, The Children's Book.

I'm unable to get to a library at present.  One of the positive factors for the Kindle is that it keeps me supplied with books even when I'm snowed in.