| Author |
Message |
Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 7:23 pm 
Take the credit Uncle Rick - I have now read six of his books because of you and enjoyed every one!
I already have another on hold at the library, lol.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 9:12 pm
Well I'm just blushing up a storm! Thank you all for those sweet comments. Whenever I mention Barclay in general conversation, away from TVCH, I always the blank stare. That's why it's so nice that we're able share our reviews with one another here. It's a treasure trove of great book info. Thanks everyone!! 🎉🎉🎉
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 10:04 pm
I love how various threads help us to know each other in different ways..
I certainly love it when people love to read!! Doesn't have to be that we read the same books or genres, just that we share loving to read..
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - 6:47 am
As I mentioned, I used to read his column all the time in the local paper but I'd forgotten he'd started writing books until Uncle Ricky mentioned it. Count me as another happy reader. Yes it is fun to share. I agree that's what makes TVCH such a great place!
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - 4:37 pm
And I'm (still) insanely jealous that you got to read his humor columns in the Toronto newspaper - what a treat those must have been!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 12:40 am
Maybe there is a collection of his columns.. online or printed...
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 9:35 am
As soon as I mention Being Mortal to a friend, the response I get is along the lines of 'I'm not reading that!' I finished it and was glad I did. The early part that focuses on the inevitable decline we all face was tough but also good information. What held my interest were the personal family stories, which were reminders to consider what is most important in each day we live.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 10:35 am
I am re-reading The Listener by Taylor Caldwell.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Friday, March 17, 2017 - 4:02 pm
Finished The River at Night by Erica Ferencik and really enjoyed it. I think I first saw it on an 'Oprah' list. It's about four middle-aged women who get together for a 4 day trip riding rapids down a river where things start to go wrong in all ways.
I was worried in the beginning that it might simply be a female version of Deliverance but it turned out to be a good thriller and I couldn'the put it down.
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Rvon
Member
12-11-2003
| Friday, March 17, 2017 - 5:41 pm
Tresbien, ladies at my book club were talking about this book Being Mortal yesterday. Those that read it said it was one of the best books they have read. Excellent insight.
Also, next month our book club is reading The Girl Who Wrote In Silk. Rave reviews from those who have already read it. Can't wait to get started on this one.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, March 17, 2017 - 6:35 pm
Kappy, that one was very interesting. It did have a bit of a Deliverance feel with the couple that they meet. I kept thinking they were going to meet up with some of the creepy hunters they saw at the store but boy was I wrong.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, March 18, 2017 - 1:29 pm
I read A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline. I must say I enjoyed it and plan to read this author again. It is based on the Andrew Wyeth painting Christina's World. I gather it is a rather true to life imagining of Christina Olson.
I remember my Aunt Mary had this print and I was a bit unsettled my it. I would look at it every time we visited her. I could not decide if I liked it, it wasn't really pretty and seemed a bit stark. I was too young to really appreciate it. Now I wish I had a copy of the print myself to hang above my desk. Will put it on the list of things I might buy once I start working again. Funny thing about not working, no one pays you so no art prints. Stupid cancer and other operations, really put a crimp in my finances. Thank goodness for libraries. I hope trump doesn't plan on ending public libraries along with his other idiotic ideas. }}
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 18, 2017 - 2:27 pm
Sugar.. Years ago the library would lend out art prints.. Several of us borrowed prints for our cubicles.. Other people thought we were crazy. It was free..
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, March 18, 2017 - 3:02 pm
I had no idea that libraries did that. That would have been cool.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 18, 2017 - 3:08 pm
My parents borrowed.. if cheaply rented tapes of movies from the library after they got a vcr.
No idea what all is available currently.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, March 19, 2017 - 5:31 pm
While reviewing - earlier this year - a list of the possible contenders for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, I came across Austin Wright's novel, Tony and Susan, which was adapted into the film "Nocturnal Animals." It didn't get the nomination, but I got in line to get a library copy anyway.
That copy arrived last week. Written in 1993, the story concerns a man who writes a book called Nocturnal Animals. He drops it off with his ex-wife (whom he'd divorced 25 years earlier) to get her feedback.
I didn't like the main story and I didn't like the book within the book, so it was a double-whammy waste of time. I did my best to like it, but I just couldn't. I'm going to watch the film version tonight on pay-per-view, so I hope the adaptation is better than the source material! 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, March 19, 2017 - 9:32 pm
All I've seen is clips from that movie and I wouldn't want to see it, I think.
Hopefully you will enjoy it.
===
I'm almost done with From a Bush Wing: Notes of an Alaska Wildlife Trooper by Stephen Santiago Reynolds, which I've enjoyed.
And I just downloaded My Name is Mahtob: The Story that Began in the Global Phenomenon Not Without My Daughter Continues by Mahtob Mahmoody.
Really looking forward to the update. I gather she never contacted the father who kidnapped her and took her to Iran. I can also see that he, Dr Mahmoody, wrote a book that seems to have been published posthumously.. telling his side.. but from many detailed reviews, his book is a total crock and asically took Betty Mahmoody's book and tried to discredit statements.. even though they had been verified. He also described her as white trailer trash and implied that she couldn't have known to go to an embassy or various other things she did. After all he was a doctor. Reviews are mostly scathing on his book.
I'm REALLY looking forward to this book.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, March 20, 2017 - 10:29 am
Most of us agree the film version of a book is rarely better than the book. I can assure you that "Nocturnal Animals" is outrageously better than the book on which it's based. I couldn't believe how much better.
While the book is a bit bloated and suffers from confusing (and wholly unnecessary characters), the screenplay adaptation by Tom Ford (who also directed the film) strips away all of the gunky excess of the book to give the film a richly focused narrative. Oh, and the acting is great too, along with the music - everything is top of the line! See the movie - avoid the book!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, March 20, 2017 - 2:11 pm
I think for me best to avoid both, in this case.. So many movies I would want to see, given time.
Sounds like in this case they improved on the source.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Monday, March 20, 2017 - 2:35 pm
That's interesting, Uncle Ricky. As you mentioned, normally film versions are rarely better though there are a few exceptions and this sure sounds like one of them.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 21, 2017 - 6:59 pm
I guess it is difficult to make a great film out of a really well written but detailed book..
But a book with a promising plot that isn't well developed in the book.. a good screenwriter could run with it.
And then there are books like The Martian.. where the book was written as a freebie for the guy's online fans but you got all the humor from the main character.
And the movie, of course could use sweeping scenes of space and it did BUT it translated well, I thought, with a well acted main character who kept that sense of humor intact.
Thus I enjoyed the book AND enjoyed the movie as well.
And there are books that keep your attention but you hate the outcome. Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper was that way.. yikes I hated the outcome.
And they made the movie and changed the outcome.. I mean seriously flipped it. And that made some fans of the book angry but made lots of us happier.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 3:04 pm
I thought Fried Green Tomatoes and Silence Of The Lambs were pretty good adaptations of the novels.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 8:51 am
Sugar, they definitely were.
And Sea, I hated the way they changed the ending of My Sister's Keeper!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 5:43 pm
Those were both good adaptations, Sugar.
Hmm, I did hate that they changed My Sister's keeper so much.. But I also hated the ending of the book and thought yep, the directed transplant would have occurred, but that cancer would have won in the end, unfortunately.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 5:58 pm
I finished Mahtab's book.. Even after escaping and returning to Michigan, she and her mom had lost everything, as her father had drained all US funds.
And they were always terrified that she would be re abducted or they would be harmed.
Her mom's book helped to support them, and the movie, but later the father teamed with a Finnish producer and they were bombarded with phone calls, emails and their home was entered.. Someone would play mind games and move things or put the toilet 🚽 seat up or down. They had to move.
One of her fellow students was hired to stalk her and provide information.
Meanwhile, she was diagnosed with lupus, which her grandmother had suffered from and of course she was under stress.
Anyway, the father had both kidneys fail, bought a donor kidney, that failed and he tried to use that to get her to be in contact.
Crazy life.. Interesting book.
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