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Archive through November 21, 2003

The TVClubHouse: Archives: Movies & Library 2003 -2004: Library: June 2003 - April 2004: Let's share....what are you reading? (ARCHIVES): Archives: Archive through November 21, 2003 users admin

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Squaredsc

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 2:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
in my mind they are, lol.

Marysafan

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 6:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Decided to pass on the Anne Tyler book for now...Thanks ladies for your input, but after the first chapter it just didn't grab me.

I opted instead for another Nelson Demille. I decided on "Cathedral". I have be wanting to read it since my recent visit to St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City. Now that I have been there and it is still fresh in my mind, I think I will enjoy it more at this time.

Not1worry

Wednesday, November 12, 2003 - 6:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm reading the new Stuart Woods, "Captial Crimes". Unfortunately I spent too long on the Berrybenders and "Crimes" has to go back to the library tomorrow, no renewals allowed. It's pretty good too!

Mak1

Wednesday, November 12, 2003 - 6:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm reading The Web by Jonathan Kellerman. I'm near the end, and it's very intense now. I needed to take a break from it for a while.

Seamonkey

Friday, November 14, 2003 - 9:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
He can be intense, for sure..

I finished reading Brick Road and think it is excellent...

Now starting the new Ann Rule, Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death.. love her books..

Kady

Friday, November 14, 2003 - 11:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I've recently finished "The Lovely Bones". I very much enjoyed that book. I would recommend the book highly.

I have a stack of books that I bought at the used book store. I haven't decided what to read next....maybe Mystic River. :)

Mamie316

Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 3:43 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I don't read much of the true crime but I really enjoy Ann Rule's books.

Seamonkey

Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 6:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Same here, Mamie; she chooses interesting cases and does her research. At times I wish the editing for sentence structure was more precise, but I do enjoy them.. (the books, just not a few of the sentences).

Mamie316

Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 7:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just started reading The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans. It seems to be a love story set in Tuscany. Hopefully I will enjoy it.

Seamonkey

Monday, November 17, 2003 - 1:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished the Ann Rule quickly.. very good one!!

Diving into another non-fiction book.. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village by Sarah Erdman.

Peace Corps memoir of great quality..

Wonderful writing.. loving it.

Slothkitten

Monday, November 17, 2003 - 10:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Very satisfied with Stephen King's latest.

Missed out on reading last couple of weeks.

Am reading Carol Goodman's The Seduction of Water.
Difficult to describe, blurb says a elegant pageturner, I agree! Have reserved her first book
The Lake of Dead Languages . .

Next is the latest BerryBender book by Larry
McMurtry.

Babyruth

Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Normally, I absolutely inhale books, but the past year has been a busy one and I haven't made as much time for them. And I seem to be reading only non-fiction.
Reading The Da Vinci Code a few weeks ago sort of kick-started me back into fiction :) and I've vowed to make the time for myself, because it feels too damn good.
Yesterday I started reading "Caramelo" by Sandra Cisneros.

Slothkitten

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 5:13 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Managed to get to the library today, yay.
One looks particularly interesting.
Dorothy Allred Solomon's " Predators, Prey and
Other Kinfolk ( Growing up in Polygamy ).

A new novel by Benilde Little ( I loved her other
2 books, Good Hair and The Itch ).

A fun title- Cleopatra Dismounts- by Carmen
Boullosa.

A new bio on Elizabeth the First ( love to read about her and that time in history).

Got a bunch more, hope good to read.

Can't wait for new Anne Rule, Amy Tan, Rita Mae Brown and Colleen McCullough.

Babyruth, good for you! Lot's of good fiction out this year, I found several good ones here and posted a few juicy reads in Favorite Books.

All of your opinions have been great to read, and
pointed out some really great books. Love the
Library.

Seamonkey

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 6:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Besides my main book, I now have the new The Complete Far Side, Volumes I and II by Gary Larson. 1250 huge pages.. I cannot believe how heavy these books are.. anyway I've been reading a bit of it each night.. brought back some memories for sure.

I'm eyeing several bios in my stack.. have Amy Tan's, Stings, Eminem among others.

Squaredsc

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 12:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
well i just finished wild orchids and jude has done it again. another great book. i laughed and i cried(and i hate crying). now ive got nothing to read till i get home.

Denecee

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 2:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I read "Little Alters Everywhere" by Rebecca Wells and now I'm reading "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". Great books!

Mamie316

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 3:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I liked Divine Secrets much more than Little Altars. Tell me what you think!

Not1worry

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 4:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I agree with Mamie on the Wells books.

Calamity

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 5:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Been a while since I’ve checked in here. I very much enjoyed Bill Bryson’s *A Short History of Nearly Everything but the scope of its subject matter is such that I’m going to have to look at it again - there’s simply too much information to take in through a single reading. The book’s aim is to not only to relate what we know about Nature, but how we know it.

Although brimming with theories, facts and figures, this is by no means a hardcore science book. In a way it is reminiscent of Bryson’s well-known travelogues, except here he is exploring the macro- and micro-universes and all the wild and wonderful things that can be found within them. Along the way readers are treated to his dry, at times biting, sense of humor, as well as his wonder and appreciation for things that too many of us simply overlook or take for granted.

Out of necessity, Bryson does not go very in depth with the multitude of subjects he covers yet he still manages to provide a respectable overview of past & current ideas in chemistry, particle physics, genetics, oceanography, astronomy, taxonomy, paleontology, geology, meteorology, anthropology, biology, climatology, and zoology. There’s probably a few more -ologies in there as well, but that’s all I can think of at the moment!

This is not a doom-and-gloom book, however some sections could probably give more neurotic readers the absolute fits. Among them: accounts of worrying trends in disease spread; the ramifications of a massive asteroid or meteor again striking the planet; and how the Earth’s geological instability could spell disaster for us. Even I had to pause upon reading about what would happen if Yellowstone National Park - which is actually an active supervolcano - exploded again with the same force as it did approximately 2 million years ago. Suffice it to say there wouldn’t be any need for future editions of Survivor. At least not for many, many, many thousands of years.

The scientists and researchers (past and present) that Bryson profiles are nearly all European, North American, or Australian. I’m not mentioning this as some sort of PC multi-cultural accusation; it’s just that books such as this always leave me wondering what scientific studies were going on in other parts of the globe during the time of Darwin, Newton, and even earlier. I think that would be interesting to read about but have never come across such a title.

Again, I don’t wish to give the impression that this a downbeat text, but for those who have read Bryson before, you won’t be surprised that he is rather critical of how thoughtlessly at times our species has treated the miracle of life on our blue planet. The book concludes with a sobering chapter on extinction and the role we humans have played in the demise of other species.

I cannot say as to whether this book will become a modern popular science classic, as influential as works by Stephen Jay Gould or Timothy Ferris, et al, or even whether it deserves to be, given that Bryson is not a scientist himself and is merely “repackaging” much of the information to be found in here. But I do know that ever since finishing this book, not a day goes by that I am not reminded of something I read in it. Just in the past week or so, topics as disparate as debate over the US energy plan, the new film Master and Commander, and my recent hand surgery have brought to mind things I read about in here. Even things I thought I already understood fairly well became clearer. I tell you, I will not look at the sky, a fruit fly, a bit of moss, a rock, or another human being in quite the same way again.

Sorry, I know this is long but the book was over 550 pages! Difficult to summarize that in just a few words.

I’m also still occasionally checking out picture books. What can I say? I’ve always enjoyed illustrated books and there are darn few for adults, lol. Recent favorites have been Neil Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls, and a beautiful Caldecott winner from the 1940’s called The Big Snow.

I got Alberto Fuguet’s novel The Movies of My Life from the library to read next but have decided instead to again pick up The Return of the King. My memory needs to be refreshed before the upcoming film release.

Slothkitten

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 5:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Calamity- found your post facinating and enjoyed
reading it. Will check out Bill Bryson's book.
The way you described it, the book really
digs deep, and sounds challanging.

Midlifer

Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mamie, if you liked Divine Secrets so much, have you read The Secret Life of Bees? Wonderful book!

Mamie316

Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:14 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh yes Mid..I loved that book. I wasn't too sure when I got it but once I started reading it...Loved it!

Midlifer

Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Why am I not surprised? LOL!!!!!

Kimmo

Friday, November 21, 2003 - 1:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow...I finally finished "European Society, 1500-1700," by Henry Kamen! It felt like it took forever. Interesting, but just your basic European history book.

Onto Margaret Aston's "The Fifteenth Century: The Prospect of Europe".

I also want to re-read "Return of the King" before the movie comes out! But I still want to get the Jacques Pepin autobiography.

Seamonkey

Friday, November 21, 2003 - 6:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I finished Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village by Sarah Erdman and liked it very much!

New book is a novel.. Drop City, by T. C. Boyle. Set in the sixties, hippies, drugs, free love and all that jazz.. so far pretty interesting.. not relating well to the actual characters since I spent that decaed in high school, working, getting my bachelor's and starting my career in data processing.. and even though I spend a good hunk of the sixties in Berkeley, wasn't turned on, tuned in or dropped out.. anyway it should be an interesting read.