| Author |
Message |
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 12:22 pm 
Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him by Luis Carlos Montalvan was about the dog but more about PTSD among veterans.. I definitely added to my knowledge in that area!
I think the Kim Noble book is next.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 12:42 pm
On the weekend, I pulled an all-nighter and finished the Binchy book A WEEK IN WINTER in one go, over 600 pages! LOVED IT!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 2:01 pm
I went to look at that book, but I'll wait for price to drop and a bit leery of people describing it as short stories vaguely connected, but I'm sure in time I will read it.
But another book with the same title popped up by an author compared to Rosamude Pilcher (who I loved) and Binchy.. at $7.99 and I did buy that.. looks like an author to explore, but will first read this book, of course.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 2:22 pm
Sea, Binchy's book is about a fictional inn/hotel in Ireland. The first chapters deal with the folks who own/run it and why and how they come to get be there and get it ready to open. Then the subsequent chapters are about each of the first week's visitors and their individual back-stories up to and including their time at the inn. If memory serves, she did something similar with her book about tourists who went to Italy to study Italian.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 8:53 pm
I think that was about a restaurant or something.
The one about the students was called Night Class (or Classes) and I loved that book!!
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 9:13 pm
Sea I think the main character in Night Classes was called Signora, right?
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 9:45 pm
Yep. At least by her students.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 06, 2013 - 10:29 pm
She's mentioned in this new book as are a few other characters and places from her other books.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 12:39 am
Cool.
Started the book by the multiple.. or actually by a dominant alter who was "never abused", doesn't want to hear others inside or communicate.. OY! But I just started.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 12:49 am
Lemme guess. That's Patricia. she was interviewed w her daughter by Anderson Cooper. She is main alter. What struck me was when he said she gave his staff the emails for each alter to ask them individually about coming on show!
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 7:00 am
Reading "the Lemon Tree" which is VERY slow going with lots of history and difficult names! It is gonna be a 20-30 page a day book -
Also reading as an antidote "Shopaholic and Sister." Nice and fluffy until I can pick up a couple more March mysteries.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 10:01 am
IMO "she"/they are settling for never being whole and present (even as a group), for thinking that some of them can remain in denial about being abused, etc. This is all natural but normally not when you stop and write a book.
Again, I'm not too far into it.. the experiences she describes are not unusual and in childhood they protected from knowing about the abuse but also from telling about it and seemed to get the body into trouble constantly at school, which created more abuse (corporal punishment).
I wonder if they fear losing certain talents if they do the work and start communicating?
But still reading so we'll see.
Oh and the part where child alters don't age progress.. that can happen. And someone driving and then someone else being out who doesn't drive.. with a bit of work you can bring back someone who does drive, rather than abandonning the vehicle, getting home AND not letting anyone know where the vehicle is!! Others CAN learn to drive as well. Been there,done that and had friends who also managed to deal with that.
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 10:25 am
I almost never read contemporary fiction, but over the holidays I decided I would because, I figured, it would give my head a rest from the stuff I usually read. Boy was I wrong--and in a good way.
I finally got around to reading The Known World by Edward P Jones, which is a novel about black slaveholders in Antebellum VA. It was just a remarkable book--easily the best contemporary book I've read in ages. The characters are so well-drawn, so complex, and so lyrically rendered, at certain points I felt almost as if I were reading poetry (which is, somewhat ironically--or not--the feeling I had when I read Beloved many years ago). Anyhow, it won book of the year or something about 5 years ago, and I'd been meaning to read it for that long, and I'm glad I finally did.
I also read Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which is a novel about a fictional town on the Alaskan coast where Jews settled, instead of historic Palestine, after WW2. So the whole novel is literally about an invented world, but the invented world is fascinating because at its heart, the novel is a potboiler detective story in the mode of Raymond Chandler or something. Chabon is always a gifted writer--I've loved his stuff since I read The Mystery of Pittsburgh more years ago than I care to remember--and his talents for storytelling are extraordinary. While I had some quibbles with some of his writing (he uses similes so much, I sort of felt like it was a tic in his style, but then I just decided he was doing it because it's endemic to the genre), the story's ruminations on fatherhood, its intrigue, and its sense of seeking to know the unknowable, and then, when the unknowable is known, to render it unsayable, were quite remarkable. It also has a helpful glossary of Yiddish words in the back of the book...I know a good deal of Yiddish, but without it, I would have been lost (for example, he uses a slang for the word "gun," calling it a "sholem," which literally means "peace," but it intended to mimic the English slang for gun, "piece." Ah, wordplay!).
Anyhow, this is already too long, but I also read Zadie Smith's newest book and I finally read The Corrections. So lots of good reading, at least.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 11:38 am
I have had The Corrections sitting there forever. I will have to pick it up eventually. Did you like it, Tishala?
My daughter is just finishing up the latest Chabon book. I haven't heard what she thinks of it yet.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 1:20 pm
Tish & Mamie, I wasn't crazy about Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, read it quite a while ago. For me, it wasn't an easy read. While the concept is fascinating, I found myself slogging through it and forced myself to finish it.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 1:43 pm
I read The Known World quite some time ago.. I'm thinking it was in dead tree format before I had a Kindle (because I can picture the book) and agree with your assessment, Tisha.
Glad you had some good books out of your norm and seems like you had a variety at that.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 2:01 pm
Sea, I bit the bullet and bought Kim Noble's book. (That sounds like a tongue-twister, LOL) 9.99, with taxes it came to 11.29 total. Not too bad.
I figure IF she ever 'integrates' then that's another possible book comparing her experiences before and after they merge.
BTW, you are right... Pretty sure she said in an interview that she thinks they will lose their artistic talents if they merge or disappear.
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Anntie
Member
09-03-2010
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 4:10 pm
Finally, after months on the waiting list, I picked up "Gone Girl" from the library. I will be spending the evening reading!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 4:35 pm
Well some do lose some talents. I must have lost whoever cooked the most! But Sybil (Shirley) didn't lose her art.. she had her MFA from I think Columbia, before she integrated and she didn't lose her music, in fact she got it back.. Her art was in the Museum of Modern Art and she taught art (a professor of same) until she retired.
I sure wouldn't want to still be losing time, that's for aure.
Congrats on waiting out the list, Anntie!
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 5:11 pm
Oh yes you will, Anntie! Enjoy 
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Anntie
Member
09-03-2010
| Monday, January 07, 2013 - 6:00 pm
Thank you!!! 
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 10:53 am
Right now I'm enjoying Agatha Christie's favorite books that she authored. I'm very comfortable visiting my old friend again after a long hiatus on my part.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 12:52 pm
Sea, not sure how far you are into Kim's book, but all I can say is that for me part 1 was sad but pretty boring. On the other hand, part 2 is exciting. So of course my battery died on my Kobo at a moment when I was just racing through it (a real digital page-turner!) it felt like a cliffhanger AND I was midsentence. Grr. I am so frustrated having to wait for it to juice up again so I can finally finish it. So glad her book has finally become a truly satisfying read. Although I do feel mean saying the first part of the book was boring. And I didn't like the little teasers at the start of each chapter. Felt like an appetizer when you need a meal. So glad Part 2 is providing that. I'm at the point now, where she is just learning about the other's memories and what they endured. So I may not be as 'excited', and will probably be very distraught as I continue reading...
ETA: Frankly the biggest surprise was that Patricia saw herself as 21. VERY mature young lady, all things considered. I figured she was at least in her late 30s (although 'the body' is in her 50s).
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 2:54 pm
Often alters do hold on to a certain age, and there will be a real range of ages.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 6:10 pm
Finished it and it was terrific.
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