| Author |
Message |
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, June 08, 2011 - 4:44 pm 
I just found out I actually paid $9.99 for Melissa's book in 2009.. ACK! But I did enjoy it. It is now even more for it. Alison's book is more than THAT. But I d/l a sample and eventually I'll read it, when a better price is offered someday.
Now I'm reading a book that I suspect I clicked on by accident since it was over $8. But it looks good anyway.. Amazing Gracie: A Dog's Tale by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff.
|
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, June 08, 2011 - 8:24 pm
I did the same Sea - I've read the samples of both Melissa and Alison's books, but until they're under $10, I'll wait.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, June 10, 2011 - 4:06 pm
I'm not quite finished but have been enjoying Amazing Gracie very much and I'm totally fine with spending over $8 on it. Very engaging writing style, nice people, funny, good story.. I recommend it.
|
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, June 10, 2011 - 7:22 pm
Absolutely loved Meredith Baxter's UNTIED! Took a bit of time to get into the rhythm of it, but then it became rivetting. I REALLY enjoyed it. One of the more honest bio's I've encountered. IMHO.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 1:58 pm
Well, Amazing Gracie had me in tears, but what a joyful life and I loved her humans and the business she inspired and I thought they should have a reality show, but they already did!
Now starting a more serious tome, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey Into the Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman by Lisa Shannon and Zainab Salbi about the Congo and Run for Congo..
|
Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 2:23 pm
Finished "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Krakauer. It was a very different book than I expected - focused on some particular fundamentalist nut jobs with some questionable history thrown in. It was an interesting read, though. I'm disgusted to learn that Ron Lafferty has still not met with the death penalty.
On to "She Wolves: The Women who Ruled England Before Elizabeth" by Helen Castor. She has a real gift for identifying the underserved characters in history and bringing them to life. This isn't just another rehash of Eleanor of Aquitaine - it brings valuable information forward that fills in the gaps on the women who preceded Elizabeth I to the British throne. Just in the first two chapters I learned more about Edward VI and the Empress Mathilde than I ever knew from my scads of previous reading on British royal history.
Recommend.
|
Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 2:54 pm
Mamie, I read The First Husband....I knew I would like it if you did. I agree with you....chick lit with normal likeable characters! It's the week before vacation and I am stressed and it was a nice easy relaxing read that I admittedly used to escape from the stack of work I have waiting to be done!
|
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 6:08 pm
Finally, finally, finally...sat down and read the second half of Shadow of the Wind today. I thoroughly enjoyed the Jorge-Luis-Borges-like ending.
Now I'm on to The Lincoln Lawyer. Haven't seen the movie yet, and DS has a bunch of orientation tomorrow morning for a dual-enrollment class he's taking next year. That should give me plenty of time to get into it. LOVE summer reading time!!
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 6:32 pm
Finished A Thousand Sisters which was just crushing.. so hard to read.
Totally different one to start Freddie and Me: Life Lessons from Freddie Bennet, Augusta National's Legendary Caddie Master by Tripp Bowden.
|
Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 7:01 am
I've been reading Secrets of the Tudor Court by DL Bogdan. Its takes you back to 1530 thru the eyes of a young girl new to court life. I really enjoy this era and reading about it. But wouldn't want to live back then.
http://historical-fiction.com/?p=1610
|
Lakecat
Member
10-01-2006
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 1:55 pm
thanks for the movie trailer Cable jockey. im about 3/4 finished with "The Help',I really like it. Can anyone recommend something similar to 'The Help"? I like books about women ala "The Joy Luck Club" or "Secret Lives of Bees".
|
Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 3:41 pm
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is another feel good book.
The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 8:42 pm
Lakecat, I'll second what SG just posted and I've read all four books mentioned..
While it seems not to have high ratings on Amazon, I enjoyed The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.
|
Lakecat
Member
10-01-2006
| Thursday, June 16, 2011 - 4:48 am
thanks for the suggestions!
|
Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, June 16, 2011 - 4:48 pm
I'm reading Dirty Secrets by Jessie Sholl.
"When her divorced mother was diagnosed with cancer, New York City writer Jessie Sholl returned to her hometown of Minneapolis to help her mother prepare for her upcoming surgery and get her affairs in order. While a daunting task for any adult dealing with an aging parent, it's compounded for Sholl by one lifelong, complex, and confounding truth: her mother is a compulsive hoarder."
It's very compelling so far.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, June 17, 2011 - 10:32 pm
Life Lessons from Freddie Bennet was mixed.. I liked learning about this man but the writing wasn't great. Free book.
Started another freebie called Heart? Was to be three short stories billed as really good. OMG. Well I went to read the reviews and they were terrible. But I started reading and quickly agreed.. just a mess.. so that's D.U.N.
Now reading a memoir, Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves.
|
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Saturday, June 18, 2011 - 6:23 am
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - by Rebecca Skloot. Just started this interesting book based on YOUR recommendations here. 
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, June 18, 2011 - 6:40 pm
It is a good one.. sad but important.. and I think a movie is being made or will be made from it.
It'll make you angry..
|
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 10:45 am
Sea, I'm a third of the way into it, and I'm seriously p'od already.
|
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 11:17 am
Sea, I'm a third of the way into it, and I'm seriously p'od already.
I googled the author and am happy that she set up a Foundation for the Lacks Family and others who've been medical gunea pigs without their knowledge.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 11:25 am
Yep and you won't be any less po'd by the end... I mean yes it is a good thing that she was finally allowed in enough to write the book so that's a good thing, but still..
|
Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 3:28 pm
Supergranny ~ I read "Guernsey Literary . . ." last year and loved it. It made me want to visit the Channel Islands!
I'm currently halfway through The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and really like it so far.
|
Scout
Member
01-19-2005
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 4:34 pm
Mameblanche and Seamonkey, I understand why you were both upset with the book. It's sad that after her cells provided so much for so many, that her family had so little. I guess I look at it in that it was a really different time back then. People generally didn't get any compensation for their tissues, cells, organs or whatever. At least at that time those hospitals were able to provide free medical care to a lot of people, which they might or might not have been able to do if they had started compensating for all research materials.
I look at her story the same as any person who's ever been in a clinical trial. They are not compensated for it, they are just hopeful for a cure. I'm sure many of the people who were in the most vital studies also have family that have no medical insurance.
I know that a lot of the pharmaceutical companies were unscrupulous about the whole thing. No doubt about it. But, with the kind of person they described Henrietta as, I think she would have been happier that people were able to live because of her contribution, rather than her family be compensated financially.
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 9:54 pm
But they didn't even attempt to treat her, for their own selfish reasons. People in clinical trials do so of their own free will.
Mame, you might also like Radium Halos by Shelley Stout. About women who painted dials on glow in the dark timepieces and just how toxic that was and how they were never warned. It is only 99 cents on kindle and worth much more.
|
Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Monday, June 20, 2011 - 8:11 am
I'm in the middle of Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. Not my usual read as its about a woman who suffers thru abduction and being held for months by a crazy man/ But its told thru sessions with her doctor, and goes into so many more levels than I would have thought! An amazing story so far.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7159515-still-missing
|
