| Author |
Message |
Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 2:48 am 
I’m sorry about your sister, Sugar, and your possible exposure. I hope you get good news about your test result.
One of my all-time faves, Anne Tyler, released her 21st novel earlier this year, Redhead by the Side of the Road, and I was delighted by every one of its 178 pages. It’s a very, very sweet character-driven story. She is really a master when it comes to creating great characters. She’ll be 80 next year, so I fear there may not be too many books left in her imagination. I hope her retirement is many years away!
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 10:35 am
(((Sugar praying for you and your sister.)))
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 10:44 am
Thank you Uncle_ricky. My husband and I just received the results of our tests and both were negative. My sister had no symptoms which is especially good as she is a nurse in a nursing home and has a few health issues herself.
I also understand the fear of favorite authors retiring. I have a few that wrote series I enjoyed who seem to be no longer writing and when I look at their bio's realize they are older people who may well have retired. I am still sad that Sue Grafton died before writing a Z Is For ? book. Then there are a few authors who are still going strong, thank Seshat. Of course, there are always new authors to discover as well.
I finished the latest John Sandford book, Masked Prey. I enjoyed it for the most part.
Began reading The Lending Library by Aliza Fogelson in the wee hours and am enjoying so far.
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Tresbien
Member
08-26-2002
| Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 10:44 am
Sending all good wishes to you and your sister Sugar.
Ric, I'm also a huge fan of Anne Tyler, and I will be getting Redhead in the next week or so. Now I have to finish The Testaments, which I'm enjoying a lot, so I'll be ready for it. Excited now!
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 2:00 pm
Thank you Mame and Tresbien.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - 10:00 am
I hope that your sister stays feeling good and thank goodness, you aren't positive! This whole thing is so scary. Thank goodness we have reading to take us away from it all.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - 11:26 pm
Sugar, sending huge to all of you. Glad you got the negative result!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - 11:28 pm
My virtual stack of books is growing, but I am not reading books currently. I read a lot, but need to get to those books.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Friday, August 21, 2020 - 11:56 am
Has anyone read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery? Isn't that a great title? The reviews are hot and cold and I am not sure if I want to give it a read or not.
The Lending Library was ok, predictable but not bad.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, August 23, 2020 - 1:33 pm
I need to go back and fill in the books I have read, but I did finish Mary Trump's book today.
Whew!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, August 23, 2020 - 1:38 pm
Next is The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly SuperBug. A memoir by Stephanie Strathdee, PhD and Thomas Patterson, PhD.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, August 24, 2020 - 1:04 pm
Sugar, I picked it up because of the title but I really didn't care for it very much.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Monday, August 24, 2020 - 3:27 pm
Thanks Mamie316. I'm thinking that the title may have been the best bit of writing for the book so I shall give it a pass.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 4:07 am
https://tvclubhouse.com/forum/messages/
8324/11802810.html#POST5371050
Mak1 and TNT on The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
I mentioned reading it in January, but have no impression that comes to ind. I will download and see what I remember.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 4:10 am
OK. I did read it and it was ok for a novel. I mostly read non-fiction.
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Heckagirl631
Member
09-08-2010
| Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 3:37 pm
The Sacred Blood by Michael Byrnes. It was kind of slow at first, but really picked up at the end. It was an interesting premise.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Sunday, August 30, 2020 - 6:35 pm
The latest from Allison Winn Scotch came out earlier this month, Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, and while I didn’t love it as much as some of her earlier books, it’s still a winning effort and examines, fictionally, the effects of confronting someone (who took advantage of you as a young person) years later and making that person answer for taking those advantages now that you’re older and wiser.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 6:44 pm
I finally read The Last Flight by Julie Clark and it was terrific. It will make a great film (assuming someone options it). Ms. Clark did a marvelous job of keeping the pace nice and suspenseful. Highly recommended!
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, September 04, 2020 - 8:42 am
It really will make a great movie.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, September 05, 2020 - 11:33 am
I just finished Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline and I enjoyed it.
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Uncle_ricky
Member
07-02-2007
| Monday, September 07, 2020 - 7:12 pm
I'm shuddering with shock over having to write this, but -- as I continue to work my way through Lisa Jewell's collection of novels -- I just finished her 14th book, The Girls in the Garden and I'm absolutely devastated to declare that it is thoroughly horrendous.
I'm very disappointed, of course, but I'm much more stunned over what a stink-bomb it is. This level is stink could level a small American city. I feel so foolish thinking she was incapable of writing a bad book. If you read this book, I guarantee that you will regret every minute you devoted to doing so.
I think I'll take a nice long break from her and try to forget I ever read TGITG (impossible, I know, but I do have to try).
I'll also refrain from posting my usual review on Twitter (I typically do this for all the books I read). But I recently came across a Twitter thread written by Allison Winn Scotch where she pointed out that writers don't want to read negative comments about their works and anyone who does that is just being unnecessarily mean. That was news to me, but it totally makes sense. Besides, who am I to trash a writer's book (directly to the writer's attention) when I don't even write books myself, right?
I feel badly, though, because Ms. Jewell always acknowledges the positive tweets I've posted about her other books. I have a terrible fear -- totally bonkers and wildly unrealistic -- that she'll notice that I didn't write anything about TGITG and will one day ask me why I didn't post a review about it. I have my response ready, though, just in case: "It's far kinder to say nothing."
I can't believe she wrote this monstrosity! 
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, September 08, 2020 - 8:01 am
This is shocking coming from you, Ric!
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Roxip
Member
01-29-2004
| Tuesday, September 08, 2020 - 8:11 am
Not sure where to ask this, but does anyone else listen to the podcast "Crime Junkies"? My daughter put it on as we drove to Florida an we listened to it nonstop coming and going.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Tuesday, September 08, 2020 - 11:00 am
Uncle-ricky, I too disliked The Girls in the Garden. I seem to recall it being insipid. An interesting premise for a novel but poorly executed.
I have been thinking about Orphan Train since finishing the other day. I had no idea that the Orphan Trains ran for so many years. I wondered if there was a documentary about the Orphan Trains and it seems PBS had one in the mid 90's I shall try to find. I was talking with an acquaintance at the river walk today who had also just finished to book, we both found it quite interesting. Another friend had a family member who adopted someone from the Orphan Train, and she was a single lady. Very unusual for a single person let alone a lady to adopt then.
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Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Tuesday, September 08, 2020 - 11:05 am
The Goodbye Man by Jeffery Deaver was good. It is the 2nd book in his new series featuring Colter Shaw.
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