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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 11:32 am
Kaili: I tried to get the audio recording of On the Road this weekend at my library! The catalog said it was available but it wasn't on the shelf. Matt Dillon was the narrator for this one btw. Let me know how you like it.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 11:38 am
Hermione, no I didn't. Will it matter? I pretty much just walk over to the audio section and look for stuff. They have a ton of cassette ones, but I listen in my car and only have a CD player in there. Some days they have a good selection, some days they don't. They actually have a lot of good classics- The Chocolate War, Animal Farm, etc in the kids section on tape and CD (again, more on tape). Calamity- I'll let you know. I'm probably going to start it today or tomorrow. They have Interview With a Vampire in but I've seen the movie so many times and read the book a few times- I think I'll get it the next time I go in and can't find anything at all of interest. I'm sure it's long, but if they have a good voice doing the reading I won't mind listening.
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 11:50 am
Kaili, IMHO, I think Hannibal was the worst of the bunch. By far. Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were much better books, I thought. Hannibal struck me as sloppily done and I couldn't buy into the ending. That said, I don't know that it really matters if you read them out of order. You might actually enjoy it more if you don't. I didn't feel the author stayed true to the characters; I thought he fell back on cheap thrills and triteness. Since you won't have those same expectations, you may like it. My BIL loved it. We had an argument about just this, LOL. He thought the ending was awesome! Just goes to show that everyone has their own opinion about how characters should behave! Calamity, the books on your list sound good, but my "To Read" list is soooo long! By the way, I remember you were talking about Calvin in the Workout Thread and how you hadn't liked a comic strip since. Have you read Foxtrot? It will never replace Calvin, but it is pretty good, I think. The family is hilarious. I didn't get into it until I read one of the collections and since then, I have gotten them all.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 11:56 am
Hmmm...I saw the Silence of the Lambs movie years ago- never bothered with the others. I don't like it when they switch actors (Jodie Foster).
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 12:06 pm
I agree with you Hermione on Hannibal. I didn't like it at all, couldn't believe that certain characters would act a certain way and I finally just quit reading it. I loved Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. I don't want to sway you though Kaili, you might like it.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 12:17 pm
Thanks, Kaili. OTR is one of those books I guess I figure I ought to read but just never have! Ooh, The Silence of the Lambs *shudder*. That and The Weatherman (think that was the title) are the only graphic crime novels I've ever read. Both thoroughly traumatized me - I'm such a wuss. I saw of review of Hannibal when the book was released and was truly repulsed by what the critic said had been done to one of characters. (I originally wrote the character's name but edited it out - hope that's okay.) Hermione: I think I remember chucking at Foxtrot but haven't read it - or any newspaper comic strip, for that matter - in so long! I should look it up again. Thanks for reminding me! Hmm...I wanted to like Opus but it never really grabbed me. Guess I should give that another try too.
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 1:10 pm
LOL, Hermi! Thanks, too. I agree, life is too short to waste on a bad book. I read a page from each of the remaining chapters and the last couple pages, and am leaving the house right now to return it to the library so that I don't even have to see it again, lol. Oh...and the ending was even worse than I had expected!
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 5:13 pm
Just checking in and oh gosh...in my post two spots up I meant to say that I think I remember "chuckling" at Foxtrot. Not "chucking"! (Ugh, what a typo - the image that word brings to mind.) And I should have said that I was upset at the reportedly drastic change in characterization in Hannibal - not "what had been done to one of the characters". I didn't mean to imply anything had happened to any of the characters in the story. Mistakes, mistakes! I really need an editor.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 9:48 pm
I love Foxtrot, but really have followed For Better or Worse since its inception. I just finished Carl Hiassin's Skinny Dip and started Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, but forgot it at home when I went to the Sunday vet trip, so I bought a copy of his Digital Fortress. A&D is now in my purse for transportation reading.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 9:52 pm
Audible.com...does anyone have any experience with them? IF I do a year's membership at $20/month, I'd be able to download two books a month to listen to; for example, my Discworld books, that I have recently gotten into and are like $40 each for unabridged aubiobooks, I could get two of of for $20. Plus, they have a promotion, that, if i sign up first with them, I would get a gc for $100 off my new Palm Pilot. So, I must say, that does make for even more incentative. So, I just thought I'd see if anyone had ever used them.
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 4:41 am
I could not get into Angels and Demons. It fell flat for me. I know several people that loved it. Of course, the main reason I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code was for the questions it made me ask myself. I thought the writing itself was not that great. His attempts at foreshadowing and building suspense were so transparent to me. I like more subtlety. It was still a great read, though. I liked the twists to the traditional story of Christ. Without giving anything away to someone who hasn't read it, I found it very comforting to think that a woman could have played a stronger role in the rise of Christianity than we have been led to believe. It made my concept of a Higher Power more personal and approachable. Calamity, I caught your chucking typo and was going to make a gross bodily function joke by referencing the definition of "upchuck," but I restrained myself. It was hard, but I did it. Lkunkel, I don't use Audible. My hearing loss is too severe for me to listen to audiobooks. The Vanished Man is good! I didn't want to put it down last night!
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Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 5:06 am
LK, I've been an Audible member for well over a year. My only problem is trying to find time to listen to the books! A few months ago I dropped down to their basic membership, which is one book a month for $10.95. However, they also allow you to burn books on CD, so I may, once I catch up with what I already have, go back to to the two books a month plan. I do find their selection is a little limited in the types of books I generally like. I hit about 50/50 when I search for a specific book, but I can always find something, even if it isn't my first choice. The quality of the recording is very good, as good as on tape if you download the highest quality your reader will support.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 11:12 am
Hermione: I'm grateful for your restraint, lol! With all the outrageous grammar & spelling mistakes I make, I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to mock me some other time!
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 12:14 pm
Prisoner: Thanks. I went working through their catalog, and I can easily find 24 books to fulfill my year commitment to get the $100 off from my new Zire, which will be one of the places I will be listening to books.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, July 30, 2004 - 8:48 am
I finished The Art Of Mending. I really liked that one and I probably will get more of her books. I also finished Circle Of Grace by Penelope J. Stokes. It was a very sweet, touching book about friendship. I am now starting The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher. I am on such a book roll here and I have such a stack of books left to read. I am just glad that I don't have the BB feeds or I would never get any reading done!
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Friday, July 30, 2004 - 2:10 pm
I just picked up Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life at the grocery story for $19.50. I also picked up The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom and its companion book, The Four Agreements Companion Book: Using the Four Agreements to Master the Dream of You Life. I can't wait to dig in.
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Friday, July 30, 2004 - 3:29 pm
I'm reading some chick lit, Ask Me Anything by Francesca Delbanco. It's fun!
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Tashakinz
Member
11-13-2002
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 7:24 am
In continuing my voracious reading spree, I have just started Patricia Cornwell's book on Jack the Ripper. I'm interested in why she feels so strongly that she's solved the mystery once and for all.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 7:33 am
I finished Girls Poker night- it was alright. I wouldn't really recommend it or anything but it was worth finishing and it's short. Now I'm about 100 pages into The Nanny Diaries and I've listened to the first few CDs for On the Road. Calamity, check it out. Matt Dillon's voice does a LOT for the story.
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 7:40 am
Tasha, I started Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed last summer. I got about 1/3 of the way into it and I just couldn't finish it. It is VERY good, but VERY disturbing. That is what made me put it down. I was having trouble getting it out of my mind. It even affected my sleep! From what I did read, she was making a compelling case. I'll have to pick it up again one day and finish it. It was just so disturbing knowing it all happened. <shudder>
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 9:17 am
I can't even remember what I was reading when I last posted.. with Vegas and being out and about more and Big Brother.. haven't been zooming though books. What I'm reading now, I like VERY much: Monique Truong's The Book of Salt a novel set in 1929 era in Paris, where the narrator is a gay Vietnamese man who gets a job as cook to Alice B. Toklas and "gertrudestein" as he says she is always called Just full of delicious phrasing, food, family dynamics and more. A passage I enjoyed this morning while brushing my teeth, on rice, specifically left-over rice: Rice remains the same. If I leave the pot uncovered, there is a conversion of textures, a layer of chewiness and a crunch, insulating a pocket of softness, hidden inside like an endearing character flaw or a sentimental heart. But if I cover it with a plate right after it cools, if the night air sags with moisture and rain, if there is not enough left to call it a meal, then its fate is sealed. A pot of water is added the next day, and the rice is cooked again in its own starchy soup until each kernel expands, splitting itself in half, generously expanding its volume. What begins as a small bowl can now easily fill at least four. The spectacle fools the eye but rarely the stomach, as the latter is always the more perceptive of the two.
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Marysafan
Member
08-07-2000
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 12:15 pm
I have finished "A Time of War" by Michael Peterson. The book was very good, very well written and kept me enthralled. I cared about the characters and their fate. I have to be careful reading war novels as I am inclined to lose sleep if "my boys" are out on patrol and I am worried about whether or not they make it back all right. This book was exactly just right for me at this time. All that said, I am faced with a dilemma of sorts...as to whether I would recommend this book. You see, while I was reading the book...I googled it. And what came up was both a surprise and a shock. Apparently, the author is THE Michael Peterson who was convicted of murdering his wife last fall involving a scuffle and a staircase. And in the course of the trial they uncovered the facts that another woman he knew in Germany died in the same manner and he has supported her two children ever since. Very odd. So it was really bizarre, reading this book with all these murders (all justifiable by their perpetrators I might add) knowing that the author may have himself committed a murder before writing this book...and has been convicted of a murder since it's publication. So, after that, I decided I would read one of my many biographies waiting to be read...a short one because I didn't want to get too involved as I was still emotionally attached to "my boys". I thought that Brett Butler's autobiography titled "Knee Deep in Paradise" might do the trick. I was wrong. It was short, but not at all pleasant or the least bit superficial. I found it lacking in most of the things I had hoped to learn about her...and knee deep in her angst about her father which permeates the whole book. Everything that has ever happened to her or everything that she has ever done...she seems to want to lay at his feet. I'm saying that he doesn't deserve a lot of what she lays on him, but at some point, she needs to step up to her own plate. The book certainly gives credence to something that I have always believed. The 50's weren't as "nice" as they were cracked up to be. As much as she would like to place the blame of her march into the 70's drug culture on her father...she went brazenly and willingly. In my opinion, She really doesn't take full responsibility for her own bad behavior. Brett is obviously a smart woman...but I can't say that she earned any respect with this effort. She is very self-serving and I think she wrote this book more for herself than for anyone else. I have no idea what's next...but I'll keep you posted once I decide.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 1:51 pm
Tash...I'd b interested in knowing how you like the Jack the Ripper book. I have it in my "to be read" pile by the bed. Should I move it to the top or bottom of the pile?
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 2:34 pm
I've read the Cornwall, Jack the Ripper book and it was interesting though, as I remember, I was put off with how much she stressed her own "findings".. I wish I could say it more clearly but it wasn't what I expected, or as well done/interesting.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Monday, August 02, 2004 - 2:51 pm
I started reading Why Have They Taken Our Chidren? by Jack M. Baugh. It's about the 1976 school bus kidnapping in Chowchilla, CA. I remember being 10 and being very fascinated about how a school bus could disappear. It came back into my thought, as for the last few weeks, I've been having nightmares of being buried in a bus with other children. So, I Googled the info: school bus, kidnapping, and California, I got some info, but not a lot. So, I found the book on Amazon, and snagged it. I'll start it later.
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