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Archive through April 06, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Movies/Library ARCHIVES: Library 2005: Let's share....what are you reading? (ARCHIVES): ARCHIVES: Archive through April 06, 2004 users admin

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Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 10:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
You know, I've never read it but I love the Masterpiece Theater production so now I am wondering why I haven't! Have you?

Rslover
Member

11-19-2002

Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 1:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Rslover a private message Print Post    
No, but just finished watching the dvd, part 1 and loved it. They aired part 2 last month and I hope they air it again. I want to read the book now. I started a miniseries thread in TV.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 3:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
My parents read The Forsyte Saga, more than once.

The whole family got hooked on all the books by Delderfield.. great thick books in series.. just yummy and perfect to leap in and wallow around in..

Anyway, the flip side, a small, quick read was Must Love Dogs which, while I tended to be irritated by the protagonist's family, I found to be much better than similar fare.. Now starting a new novel, set in the south, which features freed slaves who owned other slaves.. seems to be well reviewed and recommended and I"m looking forward to it..

The Known World by Edward P. Jones.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Monday, March 22, 2004 - 1:14 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
I finished P.S. I Love You which I really enjoyed and have now started The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer. It is about a man who is born with the appearance of a 70 year old and as he gets older, he starts to look younger. So, when he gets to the actual age of 70, he will be a baby. It is very interesting so far and then I received 4 more books today in the mail, so hopefully I am set for at least a week!

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:47 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
I backed out of The Known World, for now, not engaging but will go bck later. So, started the new Anne Tyler book, The Amateur Marriage, which is moving along quickly.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Monday, March 22, 2004 - 7:41 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mak1 a private message Print Post    
I finished Sacred Time yesterday. Mary, it's another good one! Keep the Kleenex box handy, it will make you laugh and cry.

I'm about halfway through Summer of '02 by Michael Frederick. It's a romantic mystery with some time travel involved, quirky and fun to read.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 4:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
I raced through The Amateur Marriage and decided to just slide on into Anne Tyler's second most recent book, which was sitting there.. Back When We Were Grownups.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 5:13 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
I thought that one was just okay Sea. I finished Confessions of Max Tivoli already today. Excellent book! I am now starting on The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman. I always love her books.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 6:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mak1 a private message Print Post    
I love Hoffman's books too, Mamie. I'll be interested in what you think of it.

I finished Summer of '02. It was confusing at times but a fun read. Next I'm reading Moon's Crossing by Barbara Croft.

Amchess
Member

08-27-2002

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 5:28 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Amchess a private message Print Post    
Just read Deception Point by Dan Brown. Like DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons better tho.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 10:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
Finished the second Anne Tyler novel.. I can understand why it would be "just ok" for many but I happen to like her quietly quirky people, so it was a nice couple of days.

Will be starting Raising Blaze: Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World by Debra Ginsberg.

Calamity
Member

10-18-2001

Friday, March 26, 2004 - 2:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Calamity a private message Print Post    
Haven't posted in here in a long while...here's some of the books I've read recently -

The Sandman : Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
I’ve loved several of Gaiman’s darkly fantastic (in more than one sense of the word) books for adults as well as kids but until picking up Endless Nights had never read anything from his acclaimed Sandman series. Consequently, there were a number of times while reading this collection that I was left rather lost and bewildered. But I also felt a couple stories were somewhat predictable. When I finally closed the book though, I had been sufficiently intrigued that reading the other Sandman volumes is now sorely tempting.

There are seven tales in this collection, one for each of the Endless siblings – Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium – with a different artist for each chapter. Oh, I must admit that I only skimmed a page of “15 Portraits of Despair” and very much wished I hadn’t looked at even that much. And I thought that Delirium’s tale, “Going Inside”, was at first maddeningly confusing (apropos, I suppose) but now sort of understand it a little better. I think. Maybe not.

The book is labeled “Suggested for Mature Readers” and that’s a reasonable caution, given some of the graphic artwork and adult themes.


Hiroshima’s Shadow Edited by Kai Bird and Lawrence Lifeschultz
A collection of essays that traces the path to the United States’ decision to use atomic weapons against Japan, and in addition debates the morality and reasoning of that decision. The book was compiled in response to the Smithsonian Museum’s Enola Gay exhibit controversy of almost a decade ago.

The editors didn’t balance this text in their choice of material – the writings that defend the decision to use the A-bomb are greatly outnumbered by those that condemn it. However it would be wrong to thus conclude that this book is “p.c. historical revisionism”. That is the charge often leveled against works such as this (and not always without reason, I will concede). But in an enlightening and also sobering case of turnabout-is-fair-play, the book details how much of our popularly accepted beliefs about the atomic bomb are based on incorrect information (aka “historical revisionism” of another kind). The editors have provided an entire section of World War II era documents that contradict many of our generally accepted justifications.

Also among the works included in this text are Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell’s 1955 declaration “The Peril of Universal Death”, with it’s still-chilling observation that it is civilian populations and not military objectives that are target of nuclear weapons.

This was not an easy book to read and I must admit that I did not…could not…read every single page. But undoubtedly the most affecting chapter for me was the one that featured the memories of people who survived the bombings as well as a partial transcript of a 1995 conversion between the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki discussing the fifty years that had passed since the atomic bombs were used.


The Beast in the Garden by David Baron
Both a true-life tragedy centered on the death of a Colorado high school athlete killed by a mountain lion and a cautionary tale of the evolving relationship between humans & other predators. The story is told rather like a crime novel (a genre I typically avoid) but not in a lurid, sensationalized way. The author spares neither those who refuse to acknowledge the consequences of human encroachment on wildlife habitats nor nature lovers who romanticize the wild.

The most haunting part of the book was the accounts of survivors of large animal attacks – the author describes how many victims experience a peaceful, “out-of-body” feeling. This defense mechanism seems to serve two purposes – 1) it helps victims remain calm enough to get away if possible, and 2) for those who don’t make it, it presumably eases death.


Oh gosh, I'm getting tired of typing...I also read the youth fantasy novel Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Quite memorable and magical; The Carousel by Liz Rosenberg - a picture book with gorgeous illustrations and a bittersweet story (I picked this up because reading Inkheart reminded me of Funke's other book, The Thief Lord, which also featured a mysterious carousel.)

Memory lane...keeping with my plan to revist some old favorites, I listened to an audio version of the kid classic Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah & James Howe. Broadway vet Victor Garber provided the narration and his voice characterizations were marvelous and so funny. Sigh. I just love great voices.

Another audio book I listened to was Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. A true store simply and heartbreakingly told. Sadako Sasaki died in 1955 as a result of the radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb. The "thousand cranes" refers to a Japanese legend that if a person folds 1000 paper cranes, the gods will grant his/her wish. When she is diagnosed with leukemia, she takes up paper folding, hoping to ask the gods to spare her life. She made 644 cranes. Her classmates folded 356 more so that one thousand were buried with her. A statue of her stands in the Hiroshima Peace Park and every August 6, Peace Day, thousands of paper cranes are left there in her memory. When I first read this story as a child, it affected me a great deal, perhaps not the least because I had also been a cancer patient when I was little. But listening to this story now, the sadness, confusion, and loss I felt then was joined by a regret and anger. This story was what inspired me to read Hiroshima's Shadow.

Sorry so long (I ought to just post titles like everyone else does!)

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 1:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
I like how in depth you are! I finished The Probable Future and Mak, I loved it. I just love the way Alice Hoffman writes. I don't think that I have ever not liked one of her books. I am now starting The Center Of Everything by Laura Moriarty. It is her first novel and it is about a girl coming of age in Kansas with her kind of flighty mom and 46 year old Grandma. It is starting out well.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 4:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mak1 a private message Print Post    
Calamity, I loved reading your reviews! Thanks for following up on that, Mamie. I expected it to be good, as she is such a good writer. I finished Moon's Crossing. It was ok, kind of a good vs. evil theme, a pretty depressing tale overall but kept my interest.

I'm nearing the end of Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs. It makes me laugh a lot!



Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 7:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
Sellevision is a hoot, especially since I've watched more than enough QVC in my time :-)

I finished Blaze (frustrating story) and will be starting Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Cablejockey
Member

12-27-2001

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 8:04 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Cablejockey a private message Print Post    
I've been reading Sweet Caroline by Christopher Anderson, its about the life of Caroline Kennedy.Its a fascinating read even if you are not particularly interested in the Kennedys. This woman has lived thru some pretty sad historical moments, suffered a lot of personal grief, yet has such strength. She narrowly escaped death herself in the 70s when a car-bomb meant for her host in England went off before they got in his car. Instead, a doctor who was making breakthroughs in cancer--particular the kind that would kill her mother 20 years later--died walking his dog passed the car when bomb went off. Caroline talked to her brother everyday, and his last words to her were "don't worry about me, I plan on living to a ripe old age". The author must have interviewed many people who worked for her parents, there is a lot of information in this book that makes you say--I didn't know that!

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 1:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
Sounds good.. just added that book to my wish list.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 7:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mak1 a private message Print Post    
The ending of Sellevision was the best, lol!

I just read 21 Dog Years: doing time @ amazon.com by Mike Daisey. He does a one-man show by the same title. I wouldn't go to see it, even if it was free. There were some interesting tidbits in it, but I couldn't relate to the author at all. It was worth the $1 I paid for it on clearance, lol.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Friday, April 02, 2004 - 8:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
I just began Mystic River and I am getting very emotional already. I think this book will have me crying.

Sillycalimomma
Member

11-13-2003

Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 12:48 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Sillycalimomma a private message Print Post    
Oh, I loved Mystic River Mamie! I never saw the movie though, but the book is great. I couldn't put it down even with a full course load of material for school!

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 3:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Rupertbear a private message Print Post    
Quentin's by Maeve Binchy.

She's an Irish authoress, akin to Catherine Cookson.

Granted...a light read but I have enjoyed every single one of her books.

One was made into a movie, back in the mid-90s....Circle Of Friends with Minnie Driver & Chris O'Donnell.



Roxip
Member

01-29-2004

Monday, April 05, 2004 - 12:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Roxip a private message Print Post    
I'm reading the Mitford Chronicles right now - up to book 4 (Out to Canaan). They are sweet reads in our rather turbulent times.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Monday, April 05, 2004 - 2:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
I finished up the book about Bobby Fischer, started and finished up Augustin Burroughs' Dry: A Memoir which is a followup to his childhood memoir, Running With Scissors..

And now starting a Jonathan Kellerman book (not in the Alex Delaware series), The Conspiracy Club.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Monday, April 05, 2004 - 2:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mak1 a private message Print Post    
I'm reading Alice Hoffman's Seventh Heaven.

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 2:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mamie316 a private message Print Post    
I finished Mystic River. What a great book! I was so sad at the end. It was tough. I am now waiting for some books to arrive so at the moment, I can't believe I am saying this, I am bookless! I think I may reread an oldie but goodie.