| Author |
Message |
Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 12:59 pm 
I agree 100%, Teach! Nice to have my opinions validated - it truly speaks to the strength of the human spirit under adversity. Did you understand the suicide attempt? I had a very hard time with that -
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 5:01 pm
I read it last year. Very emotional read.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 6:31 pm
IMHO, the suicide attempt was the aftermath. After being strong for so long and under such strain, to be "normal" again just crashed down on her. The mother is so young that it made sense to me that she just collapsed, physically and mentally, when she wasn't the one who HAD to be strong.
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 8:16 pm
Thank you for your insights, Teach!
This is a case that helps me understand how very different we all are as individuals. While I have never been subjected to anything neqrly as dehumanizing or demeaning or long-term as this mom's experience, the termination of any and all of my not infrequent difficult life experiences has been "Let's party!"
If that means that I am a shallow person, then let it be known that I am a happy shallow person by nature!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, January 08, 2012 - 9:14 pm
 First, since when does happy =shallow? Crazy gal - that's just being an optimimst!
I'm naturally a "let's party" kind of person, too, but having worked with teens with any number of issues, I can completely see why suicide wasn't considered by the character until they were safe.
Shoot - my Spanish 3 class watches a documentary, and a mother of 4 who is traveling from Honduras to Mexico is gang-raped and robbed on the trains (she tells the story, we don't see it). She says now she can never go home - even though it's not her fault, she is totally ashamed and says she cannot be a wife to her husband. I think some of the same mentality is seen in the mom of Room. She's experiencing so many emotions, some of which she is ashamed, that she just gets overwhelmed and looks for a way to end ALL of it.
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Monday, January 09, 2012 - 6:20 am
Thanks, Teach! I value your opinion and experiences -
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 09, 2012 - 7:33 pm
Finished Best Foot Forward: A 500 Mile Walk Through Hidden France by Susie Kelly. A freebie
I enjoyed it for the most part.
Now starting a book I've had for some time and almost started several times, but now really starting it..
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. (novel) $.99 when I bought it.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, January 09, 2012 - 8:55 pm
Loved Mudbound. I've got her 2nd book (When She Woke), but will have to finish Armageddon first. Here mom is an AP Lit. teacher and is on a listserv I'm part of - too much fun to read her books and know how much her mom is bustin' her buttons.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 09, 2012 - 10:54 pm
I can imagine.. I'll have to check out the second book, but being a cheapskate for the most part with so many free and cheap books, it just may go on my endless wish list.
Glad I'm finally starting it.. those non fiction books often lure me away from fiction.
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Scout
Member
01-19-2005
| Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 1:48 pm
I keep thinking I've read all of Ken Follet's books, and then I run across one I'd missed. Stumbled across "Night Over Water" at the bookstore and it's so good. I love his books.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 2:12 pm
Moving through Denise Domning's Season series. I like it so far. At home I am trudging through the first Lord John book....................I feel like Charlie Brown trying to get through War & Peace.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 3:07 pm
The week after Christmas, When She Woke was on sale for $2.99. I snagged it then, thanks to Hilary's mom letting us know it was on sale.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 4:23 pm
I enjoyed Mudbound and have When She Woke on my TBR mountain of books
I'm reading a wonderfully written book about a missing woman who is a gypsy and the PI hired to investigate is also party gypsy. It's called The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney. I got it as an ARC and hadn't gotten to it. I think it just came out. I might have to check out her first book, The Tenderness of Wolves.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 7:41 am
There's nothing like a 'real' book. This vid is amazing. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SKVcQnyEIT8
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 4:06 pm
I have the two Hillary Jordan books requested from my library!
I am reading the seventh or eighth Lord John book - but my first of them - and find it to be a page-turner! I do have trouble with the secrecy necessary about his sexual orientation as I have several close guy friends who are guy
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 5:42 pm
If you don't count the short stories, so far there are only 4 LJ books (Private Matter, Brotherhood of the Blade, Hand of Devils and the newest, Scottish Prisoner). I loved the latest one - but that probably has quite a bit to do with the fact that Jamie was in it! LOL
TNT, I'll be anxious to hear your opinion of Mudbound. I haven't heard of anyone who didn't like it, but we all have such varied taste that you never know.
Actually, I'd be quite interested in hearing from someone who did NOT like it because that always offers new details or a new way of looking at a book that I hadn't thought of.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 8:10 pm
Finished Mudbound. Not sure "enjoyed" is the word but certainly appreciated excellent writing.
At one point I thought I had read it before because I knew what was coming.. it is almost like I had read an excerpt.
So now I'm going back to France with Susie Kelly, The Valley of Heaven and Hell: Cycling in the Shadow of Marie Antoinette Where Susie and her husband cycle around France.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 16, 2012 - 11:47 am
Finished the above book and learned much about Marie Antoinette and history in that area.
And since I read on my Kindle Fire I was able to click on the numerous links to places mentioned. Very nice.
Now starting a freebie, The Archeoloy of Home: An Epic Set on a Thousand Square Feet of the Lower East Side by Katharine Greider. Liking it so far.
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Lakecat
Member
10-01-2006
| Monday, January 16, 2012 - 3:56 pm
TnTitan I am still wondering if the Sally Gunning books are too heavy and too much of a downer. They sound interesting, Im just not so sure Im in the frame of mind to read something real depressing right now.
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Tntitanfan
Member
08-03-2001
| Monday, January 16, 2012 - 7:33 pm
Lakecat - They are not depressing! Can't you check one out of your local library and take it back if you don't like it?
Didn't love "Wading Home," but I did have to go out and buy some Zatarain's red beans and rice mix for supper after I finished it!
I continue to be enchanted with "Stars of David" - reading only a few interviews a day as I really need to think about each!
I am about a quarter of the way through "A Respectable Trade" and look forward to reading more books by this author!
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Monday, January 16, 2012 - 10:56 pm
TNT, so happy that you are savouring Stars of David!
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, January 23, 2012 - 9:47 am
Read One for the Money in the airport on Friday due to my delayed flight from OKC to Denver.
TNtitanfan, I like it ok, but I had to fix some red beans and rice too!
I am reading Game of Thrones right now and having trouble getting into it.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Monday, January 23, 2012 - 10:01 am
I found that Game of Thrones started slowly but it definitely grew on me.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, January 23, 2012 - 10:10 am
I'm about 200 pages into it. It's ok so far. So many characters to remember, though.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, January 23, 2012 - 10:24 am
I just read Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich. I'd stopped reading the Plum series because it was starting to be the same-old, same-old. I enjoyed this one. The hobbits were a fun touch.
I'm now reading Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee. I've had it on my TBR pile forever.
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