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Archive through September 15, 2003

The TVClubHouse: Archives: Movies & Library 2003 -2004: Library: June 2003 - April 2004: Let's share....what are you reading? (ARCHIVES): Archives: Archive through September 15, 2003 users admin

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Seamonkey

Friday, August 29, 2003 - 4:13 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished Under the Banner of Heaven.. very very eye-opening about Mormons, especially the various fundamentalist sects!! Yikes.

Change of pace; a rather different novel, What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoe Heller.

Seamonkey

Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 8:10 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished the novel.. on to The Kennedy Curse.

Honey51

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 11:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I started The Da Vinci Code yesterday and can hardly put it down. Has anyone else read it? I want to look up the references to see what's true and what's not. It seems to be based on some reality.

Sisalou

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 1:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hi Honey - I read it about a month ago and absolutely loved it. Of course I am a huge conspiracy nut so it is right up my alley. I am familiar with alot of what he claims as fact and I believe in his accuracy.

I am presently reading his book `Angels & Demons" and its pretty good so far but it hasn't captured my attention as much as `Da Vinci Code'.

Mak1

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 3:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This afternoon I read Alexandria by Nick Bantock.

Tonight I'll start Off the Wall at Callahan's by Spider Robinson. I've read just one of the books in the Callahan's series and loved the weird humor.

Lizajane

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 3:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Just finished Kay Hooper's "Always a Thief", the sequel to "Once a Thief" (say that one coming, didn't ya). I always enjoy her, mysteries with a touch of supernatural

Kimmo

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 4:56 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" and Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections"-- Both were great, but both at the end made me feel a little let down. Not that I expected a big happy ending or some miraculous way to make everything better (when both outlined the various ways life can be completely crappy), but they both veered away to resolve things, not confront them. I suppose that's life, or maybe I didn't understand the books, but oh well. They were both hilarious, and painful, etc.

Now I'm finally going to finish Frank Harris's "My Life and Loves". The sex scenes are less frequent and more tolerable than I first realized, and this man's life is very interesting...

Seamonkey

Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 5:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mak.. I've read that Nick Bantock book.. actually have the last of the Griffen & Sabine trilogy turned ?? quinology ?? but I'll start at the beginning even though I read the first three long ago..

Kimmo, the Frank Harris book mention makes me smile.. never read it but years and years ago my parents took us to Vegas and we went to shows that kids could go to and ate and all that but then we got to be on our own for an evening while the parents went out to gamble and take in more racy shows.. my brother and I each had bought paperback books.. well, he picked My Life and Times by Frank Harris based upon the thickness of the book :) I don't remember exactly how old we were but he couldn't have been older than 13, I'm thinking.. he didn't get far in and declared it boring.. my parents found out later and I do believe mom was pretty much ROFLing; she and dad hadn't noticed what he picked up, bookwise, clearly wasn't appropriate but, not a problem..

Mak1

Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 5:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sea, I haven't found the first 3 yet. It was kind of hard beginning with the 4th, but I caught on. Someday I'll search for the rest of them.

Right now I'm reading Seven Up by Janet Evanovich.

Not1worry

Thursday, September 04, 2003 - 7:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished "The Single Wife" by Nina Solomon. I think I enjoyed it, even though I had a feeling when it was over it wouldn't tie up all the loose ends. It's about a wife who's husband disappears (not for the first time) and she decides not to tell anyone, but to carry on as though he's just stepped out. She sets up her apartment with his dirty clothes and remembers to put an extra wet umbrella by the door when it rains. The weeks go on and she begins to realize it's going to go on longer than the few days he's disappeared in the past. There's some good characters and it was a good read.

Now starting on Marian Keyes' "Sushi for Beginners". Set in England and Ireland.

Can anyone tell me how to pronouce the Irish name Clodagh? It's driving nuts.

Seamonkey

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 8:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished reading The Kennedy Curse sad and interesting and well done.

Now more non-fiction, Louise Erdrich's writing on motherhood and such.. The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year, which is lovely and will be over way too soon, but am enjoying it very much.

Marysafan

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 9:16 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I finally finished Nelson Demille's "The Charm School". I had to put it down for awhile as it got a bit intense and was stressing me out! I have since read "Cybill Disobediance" the autobiography of Cybill Shepard...such a randy gal!

Now I am about half-way through Faith Sullivan's "The Cape May" which is very well written and full of rich charaters. I will definitely seek out more of her books. This book was given high marks by readers on Amazon.com. I lucked into it as picked it up by accident at a garage sale this summer. Another one of life's unexpected treasures.

I am also halfway through "My Point and I Do Have One" by Ellen Degeneres. It is very funny...hilarious in spots, but not at all what I expected. I thought it was an autobiography, but it is more like a stand-up rountine. Hubby got it for me this last week at a garage sale for 25 cents...I sure am glad I didn't pay the $19.95 retail price. It is only about 200 pages and in my opinon not worth nearly $20.00...but for 25 cents...it's great!!!

Midlifer

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 9:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just finished Seabiscuit. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Movie is great, too! Even though I knew the outcome, this book just made me cry. I highly recommend it!

Kimmo

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 2:07 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sea, funny memory about the Frank Harris book! Your brother must have had a different edition to not have kept on reading-- Mine says in huge capital letters on the back of it, "I predict [this book] will continue to be read, not just for its sex"!

I felt like falling asleep for the first 12 pages. Then the first sex scene came up! Now I'm into volume 2 and there is hardly any sex (he then admits that the "mad sex urge" was a theme of the first volume). But there are portraits in volume 2 of notable figures who eventually went mad from syphilis (such as Guy de Maupassant and Lord Randolph Churchill).

Lots of other non-syphilitic portraits of literary and political lights of the late 19th century, too. Good read!

Not1worry

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 3:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Marys, did you mean "The Cape Ann"? I couldn't find anything for "The Cape May"

Her books all looked promising, I'll have to see if my libary has any of them.

Seamonkey

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 4:59 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Loved Seabiscuit.. haven't seen the movie yet but I will in time.

My little brother just wasn't old enough to be able to get very far into Frank Harris.. I'm wondering if that was a trip we made before we moved to California, which would mean I was under 13 and he was not 11.. makes more sense :)

Pamy

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 6:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sea..Alaginger is looking for ya, there is a thread in AR and i think a message in your folder

Yankee_In_Ca

Friday, September 05, 2003 - 9:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just finished "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon.

In fact, I read it in just one plane trip, it is that good (and, frankly, that brief).

The book's premise is that it is being "written" by a 15-year-old autistic teen who is writing a book for a school project. He decides that his book will be a "murder mystery," and he will investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog (a crime that he was initially accused of). While investigating the dog's death, the boy finds out some unexpected things about his life and his family's life.

Through the words and thoughts that the boy puts down in "his" book, the reader gets a very fascinating glimpse into what might be the thought process of someone who thinks primarily logically and not necessarily emotionally.

The novel was written by an English writer who has worked with autistic youth.

I highly recommend this book.

Seamonkey

Monday, September 08, 2003 - 6:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yankee, that sounds good.

I savored Louise Erdrich's The Bluejay's Dance about motherhood.. it was just lovely..

Starting on a Joyce Carol Oates novel The Tattooed Girl which is well written but I think so far I hate all the characters and may hate them more before it is done.. it is labelled as her most controversial but somepart supposedly tender so I'll hold out hope.. one theme is intense anti-semitism :(

Not1worry

Monday, September 08, 2003 - 7:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sea, I started that Tattooed book and just could not get into it. Like not even a few pages. From your message, it sounds like I would have had a hard time finishing it.

Trying for "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry now. I feel like I need an Indian glossary. I'm sure I'm missing quite a bit by just not knowing squat about the Indian culture. Not exactly light reading either, but it is captivating.

Marysafan

Monday, September 08, 2003 - 8:18 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Not1worry...oops...sorry. I did mean "The Cape Ann" (we can blame my friend from NJ for that slip). I finished it last night because I could not put it down and I wasn't going to sleep until I knew how it all turned out. This one easily makes my favorites of all time list. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Next up...a another garage sale treasure hubby found for me this week end. "The Last Convertible" by Anton Myrer.

Seamonkey

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 4:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hmm, guess my last post was lost in the outage..

The Mistry book is worth any effort, Not1...

Finished The Tatooed Girl and it had some literary merit but I never found myself enjoying it.

Will be starting Three Junes by Julia Glass.

Kimmo

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 1:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Finished Frank Harris's "My Life and Loves"-- I liked it, except, as stated before, the sex parts.

I need to go buy more books-- I'd like to get Augusten Burroughs's "Dry" next, and whatever else strikes the fancy...In the meantime I'm going to re-read the Harry Potter books. :)

Sea, there's a book called "Tattoo Girl" by Brooke Stevens that I really liked...It's a bit of a mystery, quest, and thriller, very romantic and wistful but modern, with a traveling circus lurking in the background.

Mak1

Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 9:05 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Just started Mildred Pierced, a mystery by Stuart M. Kaminsky.

Seamonkey

Monday, September 15, 2003 - 9:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Three Junes was excellent, the perfect antidote to the Oates novel.

Starting non-fiction The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth by Barbara Seaman.