Book Club: What are you reading?

[Virginia]

Thanks Linda, got it worked out through my wify provider for now. I will wait to the next book to see how long that last.

[agate]

This thread has dropped to page 3, and so maybe it's time to bring it up again.

I just finished Room with a View by E. M. Forster. I'm a Forster fan and had seen the TV dramatization of this novel but never read it before. Very interesting novel about turn-of-the-century British class snobbery--and a young woman trying to find her way.

Now I'm in the middle of a Nero Wolfe mystery. I'd never read anything by Rex Stout before and thought I'd give it a try. This one is The League of Frightened Men. I don't often read mysteries but have been watching quite a few of them on PBS lately and decided to try reading some of them. I've read some Sherlock Holmes stories years ago but hardly ever read any other mysteries. I do read true-crime accounts though.

[Donna Thomson]

Hi everyone!
I love reading this thread! I have read lots of the books recommended but lots are new to me too! I wanted to let you know (especially old friends from CN and CN2) that I have a new book out called The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation From Loved to Caregiver. It's available at all major online booksellers. It will be of interest to anyone who is here as a caregiver, I think. :) Take care everyone and carry on reading! PS The book I'm reading right now is called Accessible America by Bess Williamson. It's fascinating - full of juicy history!

[Sunshine]

Agate:
Try Michael Connelly’s Two Kinds of Truth, or the Late Show. To me , he is the best mystery writer out there (noir detective writer). His commentary on character, police investigation methods, social mores, political implications of crime, is well done, in highly readable, never boring, never trite, books.

[Sunshine]

I am closing in the end of DInner with Buddha, the last of the trilogy (Breakfast with B was the best, Lunch was so so, DInner is pretty good) must read them in order or it doesn’t make sense.

Everyone I give Breakfast with Buddha to, just adores it. One quit her job and retired after reading it. It’s powerful in a good way.

[Virginia]

I haven't been doing anything good for my mind. I read City of Girls. It is about a 19 year old who is shipped to her Aunt in NYC by her parents in 1940 because she flunked her freshman year at Vassar. Her Aunt in NYC owns a dilapidated old theatre where live shows are put on. The show girls there decide that it is time this young woman finds out about sex and so begins her journey for the first half of the book. Boy, does she ever learn. The second half as the war years ramp up are different and the ending of the book is different. It is a long book, but overall I enjoyed it other than the sex was a little overdone during the first half. Didn't do anything to improve my mind, but I really wasn't trying to right now.

[Sunshine]

I am glad you were entertained by the book. Why judge yourself on “improving the mind”?
I see no problem with reading for enjoyment and entertainment!

[agate]

If someone can spin a good yarn and put me into another world for a while, that's a really good reason for reading, IMO.

[Virginia]

I have been reading a good book. The name of it is "Dragonfly". The setting is in World War II, behind enemy lines in occupied France. I am really enjoying it, however it does keep me from doing a lot of other things in the house. I don't really care because I am tired of doing those things anyway.

[Virginia]

I stayed up late last night finishing my book "Dragonfly". It was so good. It was a long book, over 500 pages, but was good from beginning to end. It didn't start off slow or lag anywhere for me. The author is a good story teller, and she had done a lot of research on what it was like in occupied France, more specifically Paris since that was where it all took place. I wish I could always find books as good as this one.

[stillstANNding]

Virginia, I just ordered this for my mom. Thank you.

ANN

[Virginia]

Ann, may I make a suggestion for your Mom - tell her it will be a good idea to write down the names of the people in the book and their code names out beside it. The author does that for you and if you got a hard back then it is not necessary because you can go back to the front easy enough. I was reading from a kindle and it is not as easy to do on a kindle. Hope she enjoys it.

[Lazarus]

Well, I am reading a book that one of my customers at market wrote! Is writing!
This man is a lawyer, the father of a daughter now interning at MIT- a daughter I first saw in a carrier on her mom’s back when just an infant...that’s how long the farmers’ Market has given me lasting friends.

So, he asked me to read...he has 2/3 of the book in final draft and the rest being typed. Something about the option had been picked up...so this is a real deal.

I sort of groaned at his request...I keep starting and stopping books...can’t find anything to read??? Life is so off scale with John and the farm and every other damn thing that can go wrong with farming...but, I smiled and said that I would be happy to read and offer a review.

Turns out the book is very good. It has a single dramatic episode that has tentacles that wrap around the main characters (unknown to each other) and there is a supply of great minor characters who are important characters in their own right.

The focus of the story is important, the characters are distinct and already independent beings walking around in my thoughts.

Most important, I enjoyed reading and cared about what happens next. Thank heavens for this gift from my farmers’ market life!
We

[stillstANNding]

Very cool, Linda. Let’s us know when it’s published.

ANN

[Sunshine]

Wow! Let us know when its published if you find out :)