Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2

[mabel1015j]

This is the place to talk about the works of fiction you are reading, whether they are new or old, and share your own opinions and reviews with interested readers. Every week the new bestseller lists come out brimming with enticing looking books and rave reviews. How to choose?

Discussion Leader:  Judy Laird

Reading my second Covington ladies book, Gardens of Covington. I think they have become popular because all of us would love to find ourselves living with dear friends, w/whom we are compatible, having no trauma, insuch a lovely uncomplicated place, if we didn't have a spouse. There's just enough community drama to be interesting..........i love Grace and Bob's relationship and that Grace said "no" to his proposal and they could still have a relationship, such a mature behavior........jean

[Aberlaine]

Jean, I started the Covington series last year and found I got tired after the fourth book.  So I took a break.  But I plan on going back and finishing them all.  I just love the three ladies and, I agree with you, I'd love to find a few close friends to live with once I'm alone.

Nancy

[Babi]

 I've just started Verghese's "Cutting Stone", and my thanks to whoever recommended it.
Beautiful writing.

[Steph]

Many years ago, I read about a coop in Boston, but had a central atrium area with a large kitchen, dining area and communal space. Then each person had a separate area with tiny kitchen, bedroom, bath.. That way you could have some privacy, but still see others. Struck me as perfect and I would love to live like that. Being a widow is lonely, but at the same time, I tire easily with too much company.

[pedln]

Babi, I have Cutting for Stone  on my Kindle and am looking forward to reading it.  You might find the link below interesting.  It's about the author and his efforts to save the physical exam, by teaching his young med students to touch , feel, and talk to the patients. Verghese is a professor at Stanford Medical School.

Saving a Lost Art

[Steph]

Listened at Silver Sneakers yesterday and discovered that many of the women use Medicare plus because they feel they cannot afford AARP medigap or Blue Cross. both are more expensive, but you can choose doctors and hospitals.. Was startled..

[Babi]

Thanks for the link, PEDLN. I enjoyed seeing what Verghese looks like...very open and
friendly. Our primary physicians still do physical exams; the specialists just confine
themselves to their own arenas. My cardiologist only listens to my heart, and doesn't
even seem to be particularly interested in further information I might offer. Needless
to say, we will never form a bond. 

[mabel1015j]

The turkey's cooking, so i'm tootaling arnd in my ipad, just found this interesting list of one person's Best Historical Novel's of 2009

http://www.historicalnovels.info/Best-Historical-Novels.html

There are other links to historical novel sites and blogs.......jean

[winsummm]

re large books:  get a kindle six by nine inches and about a quarter of an inch thick. even at that I brace it against a pillow on my lap and adjust the size to large enough to be read at a distance.  their content is good enough to cover most things for me.

[Babi]

Margaret Donsbach writes really great reviews, JEAN. I've jotted down several books to look up. I'm having a hard time, tho', adjusting to the perspective (from "Wolf Hall) that features Cromwell as a good guy and Thomas More as the baddie.

[Steph]

I am beginning to wonder about the different applications for ebooks. Are they all the same? I saw a free book on facebook, but when I clicked, the applications came up with maybe 6 different types of downloads. I was a bit reluctant to decide, so did not download..My ipad, has ebook, Amazone kindle and Barnes and Nobles.. all free.

[mabel1015j]

Finished "Gardens of Covington", loved the way she tied the title into the end of the book. These woman seem very human and real to me, actually all the characters, events and localities seem very natural to me. They have commonplace, not out of the ordinary, or traumatizing events happening in their lives. That's largely the reason i'm enjoying the series.

I liked Heken Van Slyke for the same reason, if i am remembering her books correctly, it's been a long time since i read one. I tho't i had a treat coming, i tho't i had found a Van Slyke book that i hadn't read last week at the library, one that she had started before she died. However, in reading a few pages last night, i think i've already read it, but since i'm not sure, i may enjoy it a second time also, it's been a decade or so since i read any of them.........jean

[mabel1015j]

Steph - take a look at

http://manybooks.net/

I've had no trouble w/ these books on my ipad.

Oh my gosh! I just saw the first book they are showing on manybooks is a Grace Livingston Hill book. My mother read many of her books, i probably read one or two, but at the time my impression was that they were stuffy/puritan reads. I think i'll try this one to see if i still think that.....haha

Jean

[Steph]

Will check out the site. I was just curious as to whether all of the machines sync to receive the book in proper chapters, etc.

[JimNT]

I read Steph's comments regarding her reading experiences since childhood and was particularly interested in her interpretation of Animal Farm as she reread it at various age levels while growing into adulthood.  I read Animal Farm only as an adult.  In the same sense, however, I have read Salinger's Catcher in the Rye several times as an adult and while thoroughly enjoying the novel, I have concluded that I'm simply too thick to garner the political ramifications that so many find objectionable.  Someone please help me understand why some find the story of Holden Caulfield's short life is unsuitable reading for the youth.     

[Steph]

I think Catcher in the Rye is another book that reads differently depending on age.. But the politicial objections are just silly.. But I know people who wont let their children read C.S. Lewis.. and those stories are so wonderful.. The adult quartet is great as well, although not as popular. I read it as a teen and thought it was Sci Fi.. But it is good , no matter what you think it is.

[Babi]

  My Canadian Jewish grandkids loved C. S. Lewis.  When my DIL (ex, but loved) was told they
were just Christian propaganda, she was startled.  She went back and re-read them, then
decided, "Okay. But they're good propaganda!"

[jane]

I think Catcher in the Rye is another book that reads differently depending on age

Steph...I believe that's true of all books. When I hear someone brag that their 7 yr old read some lofty title, I think..."oh, that's nice and I hope he/she re-reads it as an adult because it'll be an entirely different experience."  I believe firmly that what we "get" from any book is based not only on the author's writing prowess, but more on our own experiences/background. A seven year old (or insert age of your choice) simply doesn't have the experiences of a 28 yr old or a 35 yr old or a 66 yr old.  The same book, in my opinion, is, in fact, different for each of those readers, based entirely on their own experiences/background. 

Babi...hurrah for your DIL.  She sounds like a bright, common-sense woman.

jane

[JimNT]

Great comments on books reading differently depending on ones age.  Re C. S. Lewis, I'm a huge fan of his, though I've managed to skip his Nardia Chronicles.  While Mere Christianity seems to be his defining book, I lean toward Christian Reflections.  In the trivia arena, he died on the day John Kennedy was assassinated, which I'm sure most of you know.  Love him or not, the man was a tremendous thinker.

[mabel1015j]

Oh, Jim, you know there are too many bad words in Catcher the Rye for many, and too much masturbation.........of course, we are now at the period where almost all adults read it as teen-agers, some times as assinged reading, sometimes under the covers of the bed or inside the covers of something considered more acceptable, so there are fewer and fewer gripes about it, i suspect.......jean

[rosemarykaye]

Mabel, it is so long ago that I read it that I don't even recall understanding those references!  i was a naive teenager - I didn't even understand the word "sonovabitch" in "Love Story" until quite recently, I honestly thought it was something to do with Casanova.

Rosemary

[Frybabe]

I read about ten pages of "Catcher.." when I was about 23 and put it back on the shelf. I thought it was vulgar.

[Steph]

I loved Catcher, but Frannie and Zooey was even better.. Catcher was more a boy type book.

[jeriron]

I've never read "Catcher" I always thought of it for boys too.

[Babi]

 C. S. Lewis wrote some 'sci/fi', too, you know.  Though those books also had  underlying
Christian themes.  The only title I can recall at the moment was "The Silent Planet".

[marjifay]

I just finished a wonderful vintage book by L. M. Montgomery -- THE BLUE CASTLE.  This will be in my top ten reads of 2010.  218 pp, a fast, fun read.  Maybe you've read it, or her Anne of Green Gables.  This is one of her adult books.  I loved Valancy, the 29-year-old girl who lives with her overbearing mother and meddlesome old aunt.  Valancy and her relatives all believe she is destined to remain a timid, dull old maid.  She detests her life and has only her favorite books and her daydreams of living in a Blue Castle to console her.  But not to despair.  She receives a letter from her doctor that makes her decide to throw caution to the wind, and live only for herself. Her relatives are horrified, as  she finds a life full of surprises she never knew existed.

Marj

[rosemarykaye]

Marj - that sounds wonderful, just my kind of thing.  I will look for it at the library.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Rosemary

[mabel1015j]

I was teaching high school in the 60's and teen-age boys had 2 gifts given to them in that decade - Catcher in the Rye and the movie The Graduate. Both gave them a new perspective of what might be possible in their lives.  C in the Rye had been published in the 50's, but was underground for about ten yrs and many teenagers in the Harrisburg school I was teaching in were reading it in the 60's and some less surreptiously than the teens of the 50's.

 I had students, both boys and girls, who saw The Graduate over and over. Dustin Hoffman resonated w/ both sexes in his confusion at his potential options, but for boys, the thought of having an Ann Bancroft in their lives brought a whole new fantasy, literally.  .........jean

[rosemarykaye]

Oh yes Jean - I wonder if they looked at their friends' mothers differently after that?  (Or perhaps not - I can't imagine any of my son's friends entertaining any thoughts about me  ).

In my college days, it was Debbie Harry who provided the older woman fantasy figure.  I have several old university friends who would have enjoyed a weekend with her 

[marjifay]

Oh, I loved the movie, The Graduate.  I was in my 30s when I first saw it, and must have seen it about 8 times in the theater (that was way before Netflix).  Even took my two sons to see it.  Remember my oldest who was about 10 then, saying, "Mom, he's (Dustin Hoffman) just like me!  He asks lots of questions." 

And I loved Catcher in the Rye.  Haven't read any of Salinger's other stories, tho.'

Marj

[joangrimes]

I loved Catcher in the Rye... At the time I read it the objection was mostly that it was bout Teenage suicide.  I see with you younger people that does not seem to be what any of you see in it...So it goes..Joan Grimes

[MaryPage]

I hated The Graduate, but loved Catcher in The Rye.  And I agree, Frannie and Zooey was even better!

[Steph]

Yes, the sci fi C.S. Lewis has four books in the series.. They are quite wonderful. They are somehwere in my library.. Heavensknows just where.

[Babi]

 I'm reading my first Victoria Thompson book.  I am enjoying it, but there is no question it is
strongly reminiscent of the Perry books.  Except for being in New York instead of London, they
are almost identical.  Anne Perry's do, I think, have a deeper character development, but I don't
doubt Thompson's characters will develop also as the series continues.

[FlaJean]

I'm just starting my first Victoria Thompson book Murder in Little Italy.  We were away for a few days so haven't been reading much lately.

[Steph]

I like the Victoria Thompson books much better than the Anne Perry. It does a good job of showing how customs worked in big cities in that period.

[Babi]

  One of the things I found hardest to imagine, in both the Anne Perry and
Victoria Thompson's book,  was the was society families would cut off
children who embarassed them.  Their position in society and their 'good
reputation' was so important to them that they would abandon their own
child.  Talk about peer pressure! 

[jane]

And severely twisted priorities of what's important, I think!

[Steph]

But Thompsons books show how much the loved their daughter.

[rosemarykaye]

I haven't read these books, but what you said about disowning ones own children reminded me of the film "The Magdalene Sisters" - has anyone see that?  It's about the Magdalene laundries that were run by the church in Ireland until really quite recently - the girls who were made to work in them (and live on site, in terrible conditions and under a very harsh regime) had become pregnant whilst unmarried and had been thrown out by their families, such was the scandal attached to this.  One of them had actually been raped, but her family still disowned her.  Even in the UK, pregnancy outside wedlock was very much frowned on even in my youth - I remember my mother issuing dire threats about it - and I went to an a very bluestocking all girls school and certainly didn't have a boyfriend or access to any men apart from the Chemistry teacher, who was at least 150, or so we thought then    (He was probably about 42).

R