Author |
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 5:01 am
I finished Big Stone Gap the other day- started the second book in the series {Big Cherry Holler. This one is great too I got more than half way through it yesterday and should finish today. Then I'll go back to the library for the third (final) book in the series. I also listened to Nicholas Evans' The Smoke Jumper on the drive up to my mom's and back over the weekend. Eh. I didn't much care for it, but Luke Perry's reading didn't help much. The story jumped around so much that by the last CD it seemed like a totally different story than the one I had started listening to.
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Not1worry
Member
07-30-2002
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 5:21 am
Kaili, I recall I wasn't impressed with The Smoke Jumper either. I'm sure Luke Perry would have made it worse. What is Big Stone Gap like? Serious fiction, historical, humorous? I think I have looked at it, but for some reason decided not to try it. Currently, I'm involved in Deep Pockets, a Carlotta Carlyle mystery by Linda Barnes. Probably if I were from the Boston area, it would be more entertaining, but it's still good. I don't know who done it yet.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 5:30 am
Big Stone Gap is a story about a southern woman who's a foreigner (Italian heritage) despite living there (in Big Stone Gap) her whole life. She's kind of the town spinster at about 35 yrs old (others around her age are grandparents at this point). Anyway, it's about her and- hmm- kind of hard to explain without just telling the story. It's just about her and her friends lives and, for her, she finds out some things after her mother dies and shakes up her life a bit. It's humourous in a lot of ways but not in a trying to be funny way. Just in a people can be really odd kind of way. Either way- I recommend it. It's a pretty quick easy read and hard for me to put down. The town characters are kind of Gilmore Girls-ish.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 5:32 am
This is what Amazon has as the book description: It's 1978, and Ave Maria Mulligan is the thirty-five-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She's also the local pharmacist, the co-captain of the Rescue Squad, and the director of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the town's long-running Outdoor Drama. Ave Maria is content with her life of doing errands and negotiating small details-until she discovers a skeleton in her family's formerly tidy closet that completely unravels her quiet, conventional life. Suddenly, she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, planning a life-changing journey to the Old Country, and helping her best friend, the high-school band director, design a halftime show to dazzle Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed Hollywood movie star who's coming through town on a campaign stump with her husband, senatorial candidate John Warner. Filled with big-time eccentrics and small-town shenanigans, Big Stone Gap is a jewel box of original characters, including sexpot Bookmobile librarian Iva Lou Wade; Fleeta Mullins, the chain-smoking pharmacy cashier with a penchant for professional wrestling; the dashing visionary Theodore Tipton; Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling preacher; Jack MacChesney, a coal-mining bachelor looking for true love; and Pearl Grimes, a shy mountain girl on the verge of a miraculous transformation. Comic and compassionate, Big Stone Gap is is the story of a woman who thinks life has passed her by, only to learn that the best is yet to come.
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Marysafan
Member
08-07-2000
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 12:24 pm
Big Stone Gap sounds like a must read for me! I just finished the Shell Seekers this morning. I was at the restaurant waiting for breakfast to arrive when the big unexpected moment happened. I was trying not to embarrass hubby by breaking down and boohooing all over my bacon and eggs! I hadn't heard of the mini-series until a real nice lady in the book store in Park Rapids told me about it. She said Angela Landsbury played the lead...so I know I would love it. The way this book came to my attention was last summer, hubby brought a book home for me called "September" and it was the sequel to the Shell Seekers so I hunted down the Shell Seekers to read first. Unfortunately, I didn't bring "September" with me so..I am going to start reading the book I found in Park Rapids also by Rosamunde Pilcher. It is a three books in one volume. The first story is "Snow in April". It is starting slow...so that's why I got up and walked through the woods in search of my brother-in-law's computer. I am hanging out here instead of reading and most probably napping! lol!
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Trishan
Member
06-21-2003
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 4:40 pm
Agree Big Stone Gap sounds like an excellent read..right up my alley...will probably buy it used from Alibris or Amazon. Read Revenge of the Middle Age Woman by Elizabeth Buchan & quite liked it. Read Artistic License by Katie Fforde--another British author. I don't recommend this one. Also read The Last of the Honky Tonk Angelsthe wonderful follow-up to Marsha Moyer's The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch. I absolutely loved it & highly recommend it. Southern fiction is wonderful, so decided to try Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch by Haywood Smith, but did not enjoy the conclusion. Noodle, thanks for recommending Daedelus.com...I ordered three books yesterday: Adam Bede by George Eliot, The Archivist by Martha Cooley & Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox. 
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 4:50 pm
Let me offer another site for low-priced books: Labyrinth Books. It's primarily academic books, but there are also general interest literature books, especially of you like classics and foreign titles. Go to the "Sale Annex" and click on "literature" if that's your favorite category. The books are listed alphabetically by title after you get through the "New" titles. I get books on there that regularly cost 20-40 dollars for only $5-10 each.
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Puppylov3
Member
01-26-2004
| Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 8:56 pm
In addition to The Blue Shoe - I'm reading Ophelia Speaks by Sara Shandler AND I started Natalie Goldberg's Thunder & Lightning on audio in the car - and I just love her!!
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Beachcomber
Member
08-26-2003
| Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 5:26 pm
ITA with Kaili re the Big Stone Gap trilogy. Great books with engaging characters that go through hilarity and trials and tribulations. I was left wanting to read more about them when I finished the series. I am now reading the Ladies of Covington series. The first book was good and I am into the second one.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 6:19 pm
I am now starting The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler and I really am liking it right from the start. I hope it lasts throughout the book.
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 10:02 pm
Beach, author, title on the Covington? Mary, I KNOW you will like the Shell Seeker miniseries..
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Beachcomber
Member
08-26-2003
| Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 2:31 pm
Ladies of Covington Send Their Love is the first book in the series and the author is Joan Medlicott.
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Trishan
Member
06-21-2003
| Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 2:52 pm
Puppy, I was going to order both Ophelia Speaks & Blue Shoe recently--are they good? I might just log on to Alibris & buy them used. Read The Summer I Dared by Barbara Delinsky, left me wanting more. Not as good as The Vineyard or An Accidental Woman. Also read The Best of Good by Sara Lewis, which I found quite enjoyable. Read Say When by Elizabeth Berg a couple of weeks ago--I don't recommend it. Don't know if I'll purchase her work again, as Never Change, her previous book disappointed me almost as much as Say When.
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Puppylov3
Member
01-26-2004
| Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 4:53 pm
Both books are great! Ophelia speaks is AMAZING because there are all these stories and poetry written by teen girls. (yes that is me give that a highly recommended)
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 10:04 pm
Got it, Beach
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Friday, July 09, 2004 - 11:26 pm
Finished Drowning Ruth this week and have almso finished Robert Ludlum's The Hades Factor. After so much Oprah, I needed a "happy ending" spy novel! I'd rather read Nelson Demille, but he hasn't had a new one for a year or so. Anyone here read Andrew Greeley's Irish series (Irish Gold, Irish Lace, Irish Whiskey, etc.) starring Nuala Ann? I LOVE those books and hope another one is out soon.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 12:03 pm
What is it about Oprah books and their depressing content?
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Beachcomber
Member
08-26-2003
| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 2:11 pm
I am glad to see others say that about Oprah books! I read a few of them and wondered what the big hoopla was about.
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Puppylov3
Member
01-26-2004
| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 3:57 pm
I ask that Beach. As for Drowning Ruth - I read it - and I didn't much care for it - but I think that's because Oprah tried to pump it as a mystery and as a mystery fan it just didn't do too much for me.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 7:34 pm
I really enjoyed The Amateur Marriage. I think it is the favorite of all the Anne Tyler books that I have read. I've just begun This Side of Married by Rachel Pastan. It is supposed to be akin to a modern day Pride and Prejudice. I have some kind of theme going in the books I'm reading lately!
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Marysafan
Member
08-07-2000
| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 8:03 pm
Finished the Rosamunde Pilcher...everyone lived happily ever after...big surprise! (Sarcasm abounds). Found the most engaging book at a garage sale. It's called "A Patchwork Planet" by Anne Tyler. This book grabbed me from the first page and is very hard to put down. The main character is a hoot. He makes me laugh right out loud! The book is loaded with great characters. I am only about 1/3 of the way through...and I already know that I am going to hate when it ends. I would HIGHLY recommend this one...but I haven't got to the end yet!
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 8:47 pm
All's well in the TVCH world; Mary's back in the Library
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, July 12, 2004 - 1:45 pm
I just finished Nicolas Sparks' "The Notebook". I wanted to read it before I see the movie. I loved it. It is a good, fast read. Very romantic, very touching, very sad. Get your tissue.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, July 12, 2004 - 8:54 pm
Puppy....I don't think I would have liked Drowning Ruth either, if I had been expecting a mystery! I just picked it up because it was on sale; I didn't see any of Oprah's discussion or it or anything. Finished The Hades Factor and am now on the Cassandra Compact (second book of series). They're quick reads and I'm finding them similar to Robin Cook's science / spy / mystery books. I like Ludlum better when he's on his own...more intrigue, more characters and more to figure out.
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Bearware
Member
07-12-2002
| Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 1:52 am
Ok, going to confess. I actually bought the hardback Evanovick novel just out "Ten" something. Was hilarious. I read it at the hospital waiting on my stepmother, and got the entire book read in an afternoon, so you know it isn't heavy reading, but it sure was entertaining!
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