| Author |
Message |
Reenie
Member
06-24-2006
| Sunday, November 13, 2011 - 11:57 am 
Mamie - that's exactly what we are looking for!
THANKS!
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 8:42 am
I am in the middle of Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson. A fascinating tale of a woman who wakes up every morning not knowing who she is! A man is there who says he is her husband and tries to explain everything to her yet every night she goes to sleep and forgets all that she re-remembered that day! She finds a secret journal she is keeping and a doctor she has who she keeps her husband from finding out about.
http://books.google.ca/books/about/Before_I_Go_to_Sleep.html?id=1ZEx7GiEz3IC&redir_esc=y
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 3:04 pm
I am reading My Sisters Keeper. My first Jodi Piccoult book.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 3:06 pm
Can someone share the free online library website?
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 4:12 pm
I just read The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie. It was a sweet little Chick Lit book.
I'm reading The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker. It's about a child who leaves his yard with a woman and the search for the missing child. All the skeletons in the closet are coming out.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 4:34 pm
Escapee, your local library system may be free once you join.
The Free Library of Philadelphia is free to seniors and veterans and active military (I think) but $35 for 2 or 3 years for anyone out of state.
quote:Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 6:15 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.freelibrary.org/
If you are over 65 you can sign up on line for a library card. It will come in the mail in a few days. I just used mine and it works!! Oh...and it is free.
And there could be sites I'm unaware of naturally.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 5:28 pm
I'm reading "The Women of the Cousins' War" by Philippa Gregory. It sheds light on some of the murkier female characters from the War of the Roses (Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort). You read elsewhere on Elizabeth Woodville (she became Queen of England when she secretly married Edward IV) and you get the impression that she was some kind of common country girl with a couple of kids and great looks who caught the King's eye. She actually was the daughter of a royal duchess (Jacquetta of Luxembourg) who was sent by her mother to seduce the King. Oy. Margaret Beaufort was the mother of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. She had a confusing marriage and royal descendancy, where her husband (Owen Tudor) was the King's half brother through his mother, but Margaret herself was the one who gave her son his claim to the throne by descending from John of Gaunt through his mistress Katherine Swynford.
I dislike Gregory's writing style (she repeats the same points endlessly I got this already lady, I got this), but the book is in fact illuminating a confusing familial entanglement from that time period. Recommend.
ETA BTW if you read Gregory's historical novels "The Red Queen" and "The White Queen," this book shares the non-fiction results of the research Gregory did on the real women behind those novels.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 8:51 pm
I finished Kitchen Confidential - LOVED it - and am anxious to start War Horse (only $5 something on Kindle) - but I have senior portfolios to finish up first.
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 9:37 am
I am reading Hypothermia by Arnaldo Inidisdason. Its set in Iceland and is a mystery. I never would have even picked it up except for the success of the Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest series. It is better than I expected.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/hypothermia-by-arnaldur-indridason-1799162.html
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 9:54 am
I finished my sister's keeper.....omg so sad!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 10:38 am
Escapee, have you seen the movie? Also sad but different ending..
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 10:39 am
Currently reading Summer Secrets by Barbara Freethy on my KOBO. I have 2 more of her novels dl'd to my KOBO to read after this. She's my fave writer for e-novels. I don't have any of her dead-tree books, just e-books.
Prior to that I read Mary Beth McDonough's "Lessons from the Mountain, What I Learned from Erin Walton" It's one of the best autobio's I've read in a long while. I've been on the set of the Waltons, and met most of the cast, but she wasn't there that day. Figures. LOL. If you like biographies, I HIGHLY recommend it. Even if you were never a Walton's fan. She's also a spokesperson for Lupus, which she suffers from, and for those who have had horrible, almost deadly health setbacks due to breast enlargements due to silicone leakage, etc. As a result, she believes this is why her daughter has Tourette's Syndrome. Fascinating reading.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 10:46 am
Escapee & Sea, yeah the book and the movie were both terrific.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 10:48 am
I have not seen the movie. It is on my list.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 11:43 am
A bit off-topic but why do people enjoy reading sad books? I'm just curious.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 11:49 am
To cry over something like that is cathartic, while not being personal. IMHO.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 12:49 pm
Yep, that's part of it and life IS like that. Also if people overcome the sadness or use what happened to them to turn life around. I get tham more from memoir/bio type non fiction but Jodi Picoult always chooses subjects thad make you think.. dilemma, between a rock and a hard space, ethical type situations.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 2:07 pm
Sea, that was my first Picoult book. I may read some more. It was heart wrenching, as a mother of two girls I suffered through it wonder what I would do if one of my children were sick like that.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 4:58 pm
Sister's Keeper had one of those moments where you are reading and you gasp out loud and the tears fall. I hated that they changed the movie's ending.
A lot of Jodi Picoult's books have the same formula of something medical happens, courtroom drama ensues but there are a few treasures. I really liked her last one, Sing You Home, more than I thought I would.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 5:27 pm
I haven't read that yet, but I will.. and yes there can be a formula to some but still her writing is above the level of many authors,so I'm more likely to read her than most chick lit or romance stuff.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, November 18, 2011 - 9:37 pm
It's an interesting question. I do enjoy books that have a mix of happiness, excitement, sadness, etc. I'm trying to think of a book that I enjoyed where the sad events were the core element of the book and I can't think of one like that which I enjoyed. But I do appreciate your explanations.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Sunday, November 20, 2011 - 8:31 pm
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Just finished it, LOVE the story-telling from three different angles. What a heartbreaker, though. Highly recommend - my MIL is now ordering it from her library on my recommendation.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, November 21, 2011 - 12:14 am
I thought it was a great book and definitely a heartbreaker, GAL.. There will be a movie.
===
Jimmer, your question has kept me thinking.. I think usually the books I like, even if the core element is sad events, usually include elements that make me think, make me wonder what I would do if.. or they show people dealing with or overcoming the sad stuff.
I'd much rather read sad/realistic than mean ..
Current book is STILL Steve Jobs and that has sad and ironic (in that here was a guy who had the MEANS to get the very best medical care in the entire world, and he did get some of that, but he didn't trust what needed to be done, so he put it off, plus he refused to nourish his body, due to what was really a lifelong eating disorder . Frustrating, and then he was so mean to people and so egocentric. I wish would read that at some point when he was very disabled due to his treatment for cancer and the transplant that he had finally come to realize that there actually ARE people who NEED the handicapped parking spaces that he so cavalierly insisted on using all his life, in his cars with no license plates.
OK.. rant over. I have to finish this book, but it still is interesting.. then have a dead tree book for bookcrossing.
And I want to get my free book from Amazon's lending library while I have my free month of Prime, and then I have the new Stephen King book!!
And the Fire lures me into Angry Birds.
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Monday, November 21, 2011 - 7:04 am
Since Christmas is approaching I thought that along with watching tv shows and movies with a Christmas theme or setting, I would look for books with a Christmas theme.
Right now I am reading This Year It Will Be Different(and other stories)by Maeve Binchy. It has 15 Christmas stories.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/maeve-binchy/this-year-it-will-be-different.htm
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 10:23 am
I've just started reading Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher. Her books always make me laugh out loud while I'm reading.
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