faftris ? Huh?

Just finished Phillipa Gregory's Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History, a huge tome and fascinating. Highly recommend!

Annie, aren't they writing the words on slips, and the word "slip" appears on every page? Am I remembering incorrectly? If so, I apologize.

I’m currently reading The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer, based on a friend’s recommendation. Clover is a 36-year-old death doula in NYC. So far, I’m enjoying it and finding it hard to put down. More later.

faftris, yes they did use slip a lot, but it didn't bother me...no need to apologize.

Currently reading The Women by Kristin Hannah about nurses in the Vietnam War. Good book, easy read. I plan to track down the old tv series called China Beach (only on DVD) for a rewatch when I am done reading.

My book group recently read The Measure by Nikki Erlick. This is a story about everyone in the world receiving a small box at their front door. Inside the box is a string and it’s length determines how long you will live. Everyone deals with this news differently and that’s what makes this book interesting. My book group had a lively discussion.

I also read The Magnificient Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki. This is a historical fiction about the Post cereal heiress. (her father invented Grape Nuts) and her fascinating life. She lived at a time where women had no rights, but she managed to donate her time and money while accumulating 4 husbands!

4+ stars to all these books.

faftris, you and I both had that allergic reaction to "slip" after reading Dictionary.

Bunny, I enjoyed Clover, as well, although I think it started stronger than it ended for me. I could be remembering that incorrectly, though.

I just finished Afterlife by Julia Alvarez, for book club. I give it a 5 and will reread it. Not all members liked it, though. I strongly identified with the way the heroine worked through her grief, loss and afterlife in her head, as it were, while that drove some members crazy. The other theme is when/how/whether we step up in the face of others' need.

I also finished The Passionate Tudor, Allison Weir's latest about Queen Mary 1. I found it tedious toward the middle but it picked up a bit and I got through. Weir was not a Mary fan once she assumed the throne and I thought the pathos of her relationship with Phillip disappeared under that annoyance. Still, I gave it a 3. Weir can take you into the Tudor period.

Barncatz, I'm at the halfway point with Clover. I very much agree with you in that it started strong for me and I thought, oh boy, this will be good. Now, not so much. I'm hoping it gets back on track. I'm having a hard time with the never-been-kissed aspect.

I'm in the midst of a re-reading Penelope binge, i.e. books by Penelope Fitzgerald and Penelope Lively. PF didn't publish her first novel until she was in her 60s, and PL is alive and still writing at age 93. All their books are good reading, but my favorites are The Bookshop (PF), Offshore (PF), and Moon Tiger (PL).

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Penelope-Fitzgerald

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Penelope-Lively

Ha ha, the word slip. I was so tired of that word!

Finished The Mother In Law. Pretty meh, in my opinion. I stuck it out but would notrecommend it.

The book The Wager byDavid Grann was available on Libby . It gets very good reviews, so Iborrowed it and will start it tonight. Doesnt exactly sound like my kind of book but maybe I need something with an edge to it now.

From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire

I am a sucker for lists:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

I love a lot of the books on that list, but disagree with #1. I just couldn't get into Ferrante's prose (although the HBO adaptation of her books is wonderful), and gave up after the first of them.

I was surprised too. I thought that I was the only one less than impressed with the Ferrante books. I think that the fascination with her/his identity fuels the popularity.

Glad to hear i am not the only one who just could not get into the Ferrante books.

What surprised me was the realization that we are nearly a quarter of the way through this century. I looked at some of the titles and thought that i had read those books soooo long ago. I was surprised to see them on the list thinking surely they were ftom the last century!

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer. 2 stars for its heart being in the right place, the rest, meh, predictable, corny, felt like YA to me.

A very good friend loved this book and I gave it weight because of her. But not even good friends always agree on books, e.g., she hated A Gentleman in Moscow, but I still love her.

Do not recommend.

3 Stars for Emma Cline's Daddy Stories. I think it's pretty realistic, though not very kind to men/fathers. There are no heroes here, just some normal, confused guys trying to make sense of their lives -- fatherhood generally ocupying a small portion of their thoughts. I could have hoped for a few happier men. Maybe that's not an interesting story. I know I am tired of reading about drugged up people, men, women, kids. Glad I have the following:

I'm dipping in and out of Lord Peter, a collection of all the Lord Peter Wimsey stories. Jolly good fun! Dorothy Sayers sure could concoct a mystery, and Wimsey and his 'man' Bunter sure could solve them. 4 Stars, even today, for ingenious plots set in 1920's England.

I finished Memoirs of a Geisha and I can understand why it was such a popular and well read book. I never really knew anything about geishas, other than the word and that they existed. I also hadn't read much about Japan during those years so it was quite interesting.

It was very well written, and was mostly an "easy " read. Towards the end though I felt if dragging even thought the story became even more compelling.

I think it would be great for book clubs, and I gave it 4.5 stars.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle about Memoirs of a Geisha. The author interviewed a geisha, promising to give her anonymity, but then let out the secret. She sued him for defamation. Apparently, there is a code of silence associated with the role.

I read this book years ago and was probably the only person who didn't much care for it.

I just started The Caretaker by Ron Rash ( there are several books with that title) for book club.

I'm only about 10% in, but it definitely seems like a great story so far. It's also a pretty short book - 252 pages- so that's always useful info for me :). The Caretaker At least what I'm reading takes place during Korean war, both in the warzone, and in North Carolina /Tenn.

It's publish date is 2023 which is more current than what we usually read.

I'll update of couse when I finish but it does seem worthwhile.

Edited with page count.

salonva -- I love Ron Rash!

4.5 Stars for We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker. I read until my eyes fell out, but it either took a bit too long to wrap...or it wrapped too fast and lacked the earlier detail at the end. I sure hope to see more from this author.

Has anyone ever stopped reading a book because of excessive parentheses?

I saw a book recommended by people I follow on social media and thought, might as well check it out: The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

I didn't make it past the first chapter because I could not abide the constant use of parenthetical comments. There were multiples on every page.

Now, I'm guilty of using them frequently when I write casually, mostly to friends. I'm guilty of doing that here. It's mostly because of stream of thought writing where I need to shoehorn something into what I'm saying and am too lazy to go back and edit for flow.

But this is a book and could be edited, right? It became a trigger for me. I randomly paged forward and found the parens throughout. Maybe someone here has read it and has thoughts. I just could not deal with it.

I really enjoyed The Plot, and didn't especially notice the parentheses (but then I'm guilty of using them a lot in my own writing.) ;-)

She has a sequel coming out, called...The Sequel. Her The Latecomer is also very well done. I think of her books as fairly literary page-turners.

Bookwoman, thank you for weighing in. Once I started noticing the parentheses I couldn't stop noticing them, like a vocal tic. It's a bad habit of mine (but I wish I could not do it so often...hee hee).

Bunny, I don't think it was The Plot, but I know exactly what you mean. I know I have read books with that style choice and it drives me bonkers. It's just very distracting to me and I clock it as if my reading is being interrupted. (I will have to go to GR and see if The Plot is on my Read shelf.) ( Apparently, I did read it.) 😁

There have been books without quotation marks when someone is speaking. While annoying at first, I’ve gotten used to it and stopped noticing.

It’s like when someone uses ”quotes” to ”emphasize” a word. It’s like a style and it drives me nuts.

Oh, no, Bunny! I think I do that a lot. Typed text often seems so flat.

Not sure if someone posted this or not: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

barncatz, I agree about typed text often seeming flat. Someone more clued in about correct use of punctuation and add-ons may weigh in here. There's a ton of stuff if you google "use of quotation marks for emphasis." But this is what I thought was better usage: "If a word needs to be emphasized but is not being quoted, you should avoid putting the word in quotes and use italics instead."

I am reading an off-the-radar book I borrowed from DD1. It's called Guard Your Daughters, by Diana Tutton, and the best way to describe it is "Little Women on Crack". I am not sure if I will finish it. Not to worry, it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. She got it from that bookstore in Bath, UK that specializes in forgotten women authors. Maybe some of them need to be forgotten.

Next up is a bio of E. M. Forster, written by, coincidentally, Nicola Beauman, who is one of the founders of that Bath bookstore!

I think italics, underlining, or even asterisks on either side of the word work well for emphasis.

@chisue, Whitaker's new book is All the Colors of the Dark and I loved it!

I finished The Caretaker and thought it was a really good read. Book club meets next week so I'll see what everyone else thinks. I had no idea what to expect, and it was a very good story, good writing , and a twist at then end that did surprise me. I'd give it 4 stars.

I've just started Dissolution, have read all of 5% of it but it 's captured my interest. I just hope I can keep track.

I read Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton, prob not bookclub choice but I really enjoyed it. It didn't get a lot of Goodreads love because at times the author shifted the narrative voice and many didn't appreciate it; whereas I thought that choice highlighted the storytelling aspect of the novel. It's a story about 6 enslaved women on a small plantation. I liked the way it brought the women themselves, their cultures and choices, and their dilemma into vivid view. 4 stars.

cit3 -- Thanks. I'm putting All the Colors of the Dark on my hold at the library!

BTW, is there some presumed meaning for Whitaker's title, We Begin at the End? I don't know the association.

I have just finished The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl. It is enchanting. Reichl’s ability to describe the feel of a silk dress or the aromas of a restaurant enthrall me. The story covers a year in the life of a young woman whose self-centered mother has just died. The mother leaves her daughter a small inheritance with the proviso that she use it to go to Paris. It was a book that I didn’t want to end!

salonva, is the Dissolution you're referring to is the first in the Shardlake series by CJ Sansom? I found it and the rest of the series extremely enjoyable.

Sadly, Samsom died of cancer at the age of 71 just a few months ago. He'd been ill for several years. There is rumored to be another episode in the series that was in progress that he was unable to finish. I guess time will tell if another appears at some future time.

Hillbilly Elergy. I felt compelled to read it to gather some insight. I loved the book though it brought back some gut wrenching memories.

Confederates In The Attic. It was a good read because history and different perspectives of history have always intrigued me. It did drag a few times but it was a learning experience.

I loved the Shardlake series and am very sad that CJ Sansom died.

I tried to watch the tv series but it didn’t work for me.

Elmer and Bunny--- Yes, it is the first in the Shardlake series. I remember a few discussing it and really praising it on one of the monthly threads and I made a note of it. I am enjoying it. I am one of the few unaware of the series.

Moosemac- I read Hillbilly when it first came out and was so blown away by it. I remember just talking about it to anyone who would listen :).

I too enjoyed Confederates in the Attic. I did not love it, but it was very different .

Wonder what Vance will write next? Will he dare return to being as brutally honest?

I guess I forgot to update, but I finished Dissolution and did enjoy it quite a bit. I will probably read more from the series but not right away. I read for pleasure, and I would say that I don't read as though I'm going to be tested on the book, so sometimes maybe I don't follow as closely as I should. There were so many characters and so many details and twists, and I still enjoyed it. I will see when I read another one in the series if I needed to pay closer attention to this first one or I 'll be able to enjoy it just the same. I gave it 4.5 stars. I am sure it would lead to tons of discussion for a book club, but I'm fine reading it on m own.

I just started West With Giraffes, which I've been wanting to read forever.

I finished The True Believer by Hoffer. Wow. Unbelievable insight into the makings of a cult be it religious, political, national... Took me a long time as I had to re-read many paragraphs or stop and think about the point he was making.

Now I'm working on The Far Country by Shute. Similar to his other Aussie adventures where someone moves from England and learns about life in Australia. OK, but his Trustee from the Toolroom is by far his best.

Trustee from the Toolroom is by far his best.

Yes yes yes!!!

How the Light Gets In..Joyce Maynard.

Help me, I am having a senior moment. I am trying to remember the name of a book I read a while ago. The main character hired some glass artist from a European country, and he created the Glass Flowers that are in the Harvard museum. Anybody? TIA

Is it ”Flowers That Never Fade”? https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Pk0QAQAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=Flowers+that+never+fade&ots=LQbWlnPHkJ&sig=-pXMIQff0IPEmfuA7jEVcVSqkqA#v=onepage&q=Flowers%20that%20never%20fade&f=false

Or maybe Glass Wonders: The Story of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka

or The Glass Flowers at Harvard

I was reading Henry, Himself, Stewart O'Nan, while DH was listening to it. We both enjoyed it. 3.5 Stars from me, and I will go back to read his prior book, Emily, Alone, but DH says he won't.

I paused Edmund De Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes to read Henry. Now we are reading/listening to Michael Connelly's 2008 serial killer mystery The Scarecrow. He likes it better than I do. It's not just evil; I could envision the overall plot in the first chapter.

I just finished a book that was given to me a whike ago. i couldnt put it down! "The good daughter" by Karin Slaughter. Loved it!

Link to August 2024