| Author |
Message |
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, March 20, 2016 - 7:13 pm 
Ah.. I actually met one of the WASPS. I knew her partner from an online group and then went to meet them both for dinner once. The woman who was a WASP was still quite active at a very advanced age, but was starting to have memory problems, just starting. She had just returned from China where she did a race walk on the Great Wall.. She had a picture online as she walked with two walking poles like hikers use. They lived in Leisure World in Seal Beach.
And another of the WASPS was in Orange County and had articles in the paper.
There was a big reunion of WASPs a few years back in DC and I think both of them went, though I'm not sure they knew each other so well.
They were really not given credit for what they did.
Hm, that book sounds like something I might grab if it goes on sale.. full price on Amazon isn't in my budget for books but I will now be alert to that title.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Monday, March 21, 2016 - 1:19 pm
That's great that you got to meet one of them. It was interesting.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, March 21, 2016 - 1:46 pm
So I finished Ask Him Why and as usual, the characters were complicated and at times bull headed.. she is really good creating such characters. Satisfying ending.
Next up White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters by Mary Pflum Peterson. I snagged it for 99 cents but it is currently selling for $9.99.. so that's all good!
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 3:42 pm
After I read about Pat Conroy passing, I looked for him on the shelf at the Library and found South of Broad.
My initiation into his eloquent style has me enjoying every page, so far.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 4:27 pm
Oh, if you ever read with an accent in your mind.. I always read Conroy's books using Nick Nolte's accent from the movie of Conroy's book The Prince of Tides
The Water is Wide (which was made into a movie as "Conrack") is another autobiographical book by/about Conroy. Well I guess all of his fiction is also autobiographical in nature, but The Water is Wide was not a novel.
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 4:39 pm
Thanks, Sea. I'll keep them in mind. My youngest son is a librarian, here in the city, so I can have him look for books that aren't on the shelves, at my local. ;)
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 5:29 pm
Having a son who is a librarian. Now that would be awesome. 
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 6:00 pm
It sure is Jim. I was one for 10 years and he got his love of books and reading from his Mum! Now he's passing that love onto his son and daughter. His son is reading way above Gr 1 level.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 7:57 pm
Very nice! I got my love of reading from my mom.
Oh, I wish I had new Conroy books ahead. Was so sad that he died and it went so very fast, too. He wanted to finish his last book.
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 9:00 pm
I wonder if any of his children inherited his talent?
They could finish it and it would sort of be like when Natalie Cole sang with her extraordinarily talented father, the great Nat King Cole.
Oh, I'm savouring this book, Sea.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 9:12 pm
So happy you are enjoying it!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 4:02 pm
It took 12 days, but I finished A Little Life last night. I am an emotional wreck as a result and that's putting it mildly.
It's very well written, a bit too long and certain passages will make you roll your eyes here and there.
But when you reach the main thrust of the story, you'll be instantly gripped by the intensity of how the characters evolve and the book, in all its heft, becomes impossible to put down.
The reason it resonated so deeply with me is because I identified, to a not-insignificant degree, with what the main character, Jude, experiences as a child. And when I say child, it's no joke: he's a pre-pubescent boy we follow into his teen years and beyond.
From early childhood, Jude suffers sexual abuse unlike anything you'll ever read in a major work of literature like this. (It was a finalist for the Booker Prize.)
I, too, experienced a fair amount of sexual abuse, beginning when I was 7 years old and it continued into my teen years. Fortunately for me, it did not approach anything near what Jude experiences in the story. But as I read it, I could not help thinking - over and over and over again -- "that very easily could have been me." I managed to survive the abuse without too much psychological damage.
Alas, that is not the case for the boy in this book. He, along with his three best friends, is the heart and soul of the story. What impressed me the most was that this sweeping novel was written by a woman AND it featured a cast of characters that were at least 90% male. The women in the story are quite secondary characters, not quite invisible, but close.
I cannot stress enough (and to forewarn you) that Yanagihara writes the sex abuse scenes quite vividly. They, understandably, are the most difficult scenes to read. I am truly stunned by how successfully she kept the story moving across so many pages. It was one of the most intense reading experiences of my life. And that, too, is no joke.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 6:21 pm
Sounds very intense, Ric!
What I went through started at "almost 5" til just before 13.. sending really safe hugs your way.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 6:46 pm
White Dresses.. quite a family history.. the author was a correspondent for CNN until AOL was involved and then they cut staff.. she was called in Turkey and cut off cold turkey, she also worked for or works on GMA.
Her mother was an overachiever with an odd mother.. jumped from active college life to 10 abusive years in a convent, then out with nothing.. ended up marrying a man who turned out to be gay. He left her and the two kids.. author and her brother. The mother raised the kids but gradually became a major hoarder.
The author was involved with a photographer for CNN who is Turkish and muslim. Her family is super involved in the catholic church for generations.. they had quite the affair all over the world and planned to get married but after 9/11 his attitude changed, so that was over.
Eventually she did marry another catholic, had 4 kids, lots of dealings with her mother. Sad stuff with the mother.. while her home was completely wrecked.. animals living there, non working toilets, junk piled up.. she taught students with autism, other learning disabilities well into her seventies.. and then she died because of neglect at her local hospital.
White dresses featured through the years.
So now something lighter, shorter, and freebie: Cats Don't Understand Gravity: 23 Common Mistakes Cat Owners Make, From the Trivial to the Fatal by Jenna Inouye.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 9:05 pm
((((((((((Uncle Ricky & Sea)))))))))) Gentlest of gentle hugs.
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 3:54 am
Non-readers don't understand the deep emotional impact a book can have when it resonates with your own life.
Rick,you were so courageous to visit such a bad time in your life-I might have put the book down myself, though nothing like that happened to me.
I'm sending caring thoughts for both you and Sea. 
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 9:56 am
Thank you, Lynn. Hugs to you as well - it's never easy to be reminded of the difficult moments in our lives.
Thank you, too, Mame and RB2 - very sweet of you to send your good thoughts - they're very much appreciated.
Sometimes you just have to sit back, as I do, and be eternally grateful that the experiences were not worse. I'm most grateful of all that I didn't turn into a molester myself because so many (too many) molested kids become molesters themselves later in life. 
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 10:55 am
I have been debating reading it, Ricky. I know that it's gotten rave reviews and was on the top lists of last year. Since you have read it, and after all you went through in your young life and can read it and still rave about it, I am definitely going to pick it up.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 11:06 am
I admire you all for reading it. Especially the people who have suffered similar experiences.
I'm so happy you've been able to overcome something like that.
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Rieann
Member
08-26-2006
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 11:32 am
Sea and Ricky, much love to you both. 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 7:19 pm
Ah, but we have won, Ric.. we are here.. and thankfully among friends. And so happy to have TVCH friends.
I hope for a price drop.
I have been active in survivor groups in the past and heard so much, not fiction.. and so fiction is a tiny bit easier.
I finished the cat book and will be starting a novel, Into the Night Sky by Caroline Finnerty.
Irish novel.
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Rupertbear2
Member
07-15-2015
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 7:44 pm
Oh, speaking of Irish novels, Sea...have you read any by Cecelia Ahern? I love her work.
I also miss Maeve Binchy. You could read one of her novels in an evening but I loved her style. It was quite reminiscent of Catherine Cookson.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, March 25, 2016 - 9:31 pm
I miss Maeve Binchy a n d Rosamund Pilcher.
I don't read tons of fiction.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Saturday, March 26, 2016 - 12:20 am
Trust me, Cathy Kelly is the new Binchy. I met Binchy and her Canadian husvand a couple of times and wrote abiut it. Love Binchy and Pilcher.And you will love Cathy Kelly. Sorry for typos... typing on my cell.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Saturday, March 26, 2016 - 12:39 am
Thanks Jim and Rieann. And thanks, too, Mary - if you decide to read it, I'm pretty sure you'll be deeply affected by it. What's truly astonishing is that Yanagihara wrote in just 18 months while also holding down a full-time job at Conde Nast.
Lynn, I totally agree that the people at TVCH are among the kindest I've ever come across. And even though I've never been part of a support group, I think the caring folks who post here regularly have filled that role for me quite nicely on so many different levels (books and TV shows; current events; my beloved NFL; etc., etc.). It really is a special place. I'm so glad TVCH provides a safe outlet to share our opinions and personal stories!
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