Book Club: What are you reading?

[Virginia]

Agate, they really are though we certainly have not seen it on here.

[agate]

I'm starting to read a book that was recommended to me many years ago by a friend but I never got around to it--Mary Chesnut's Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward. I mention the editor because it must have been a gigantic editing job.

Mary Boykin Chesnut was a South Carolinian married to a high-ranking government official in the Confederacy. She kept a diary during the Civil War years and this book is that diary, restored so as to preserve her original intentions and make it readable. It went through several transformations in later years as she revised it later.

It promises to be a fascinating picture of life in the South at the time from the perspective of a very observant person.

The size of the book could be daunting--it's 886 pages or about 45 hours of listening. I can't recall ever having a recorded book that was that long.

[agate]

Just bumping this up since some people here are reading and might want to talk about the books they've been reading.

I finally finished Mary Boykin Chesnut's Civil War, all 45 hours of it in recorded form. It was often a slog because she knew so many people, and many of them were related to one another. I should have kept a chart so as to keep them all straight but was too lazy.

The library sends about 8 books on a cartridge, and I can keep a cartridge for a year. At about the 6-month point I get a letter reminding me to send back the cartridge as soon as I can. The Chesnut book took so much time that I decided to skip the remaining books on the cartridge and just return it. I dipped into them but didn't want to read them so very much. I give up on books much more easily nowadays than I did in the past.

[agate]

I read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It was long and wonderful. It was set in Ethiopia and the U.S. it held my interest from beginning to end. It is about identical twins who are conjoined but immediately cut apart. Of course they are very close but as they grow up they think differently about some things.

If you enjoy reading I highly recommend this book.

I'm well along in this book now and have been finding it very absorbing. My reading was slowed down during the holidays. Also when recorded periodicals come along, I do them first because the library's due date is much earlier for them (3 weeks or 7 weeks depending on whether it's a weekly or a monthly). The recorded books can be kept for up to a year but at the 6-month point I often get a reminder notice.

Cutting for Stone has a lot of explicit medical detail but it's necessary for the story.

At first I thought the title had something to do with the name of one of the main characters (Stone) but later I found out that it's a reference to a passage in the Hippocratic oath:

I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register..., but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

[Virginia]

I hope you enjoy this book. I truly did. My concentration has still not returned to normal since last May. I haven't read a book since then. I do read digital newspapers, which takes too much time on news. I have decided as each paper's subscription runs out I will not renew it. Although, I think a couple have quite a few months left. I do have two unread books in my tablet. They have been waiting all this time.

[jingle]

I read just about all the time and treasure every minute. Right now it's an author and book I had never even heard of- The Vengeance of Mothers by Jim Fergus. I'm just on page 90 and I'm really "in". It's very different from anything I usually enjoy but I'm eager for the next page.

[Virginia]

Agate, I am pretty sure I read the book about the Civil War many years ago. I think it would have been 35 years or so. It would not have bothered me to tackle a big thick book. I read all the sagas about the civil war I could find back then.

Keep reading Jingle, I will be able to join you again soon.

[jingle]

My, my this is an old one. In the last 6 months I've read lots of good books. Anybody else? I just finished Ruth by ?? I forgot-- written sometime around 1850. It was very good - so good I pulled Main Street out of my collection of old classics. It's great.

[agate]

Would that be Main Street by Sinclair Lewis? I read it many years ago.

I'm planning to get into more books now that summer is here. I've tried not to schedule any appointments in the hotter weather, and that means more time to read.

[jingle]

Yes, that's Sinclair Lewis. I don't know when I bought that paperback copy of Main Street, the pages are yellowed and the printed price is $1.25!!!!! I have a copy of every book Sinclair wrote. He's always been a favorite.

[Virginia]

I like Sinclair Lewis also. I have read most of his books and I think I read Main Street but it has been so long I am not totally sure. My Aunt Virginia gave me one of his books that he wrote after his wife's death. She gave it to me when my husband died and said it had helped her when her husband passed away.

like Agate I am hoping to get a few books read this summer. Something always seems to be going on around here, plus I now take two digital National newspapers. I plan to drop one.