Wednesday, June 25, 2008
GoodReads newsletterr
A few months ago Ellen (I think it was Ellen) sent us an email about a few good reading websites. I signed up for the newsletter at www.goodreads.com and am enjoying it. I've already picked out several books from there that I plan to read. I think you might enjoy it.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Some summer reading
I was so into the blog setup yesterday that I forgot to post about what I've been reading. I've mentioned to a few of you about a thriller writer that a friend recommended to me. It's Brian Haig and I've really enjoyed his books over the past 6 months or so. He's written 5 or 6 books and I think I've now read all of them. The main character is an Army lawyer and he takes interesting cases of international intrigue. His first book was Secret Sanction and I've also read The President's Assassin, The Kingmaker, Man in the Middle and one other that I can't remember the name of (and it was actually my favorite). Anyway, if you like spy/murder/intrigue novels, you might want to try him. Also, an interesting backstory is that he's Alexander Haig's son. This is definitely not Chick-Lit so if you have a reading man in your life, he may like these too.
I've also read The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris. This is the followup to the book Chocolat. I didn't read Chocolat, but loved the movie, so I thought I'd try this book. I enjoyed it and there were some interesting themes around trying to live true to your own spirit and how difficult that can be sometimes. Another interesting theme was looking at some of the sacrifices we make for children that can backfire on us. If you enjoyed the movie, you'd probably like this book. My only big complaint was that the character that Johnny Depp played in the movie, Roux, had red hair in the book and it was very distracting since I wanted to keep the Johnny Depp fantasy in mind as I read the book!
I'm now reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov. My husband has tried for years to talk me into reading Asimov's classic sci-fi trilogy and I'm glad that I finally got around to it. Foundation is less science fiction (in my mind) than it is a psychological study on mankind and the idea of fatalism. If any of you have read this I'd be interested in your thoughts. I know we don't typically do sci-fi book in book club, but this one delves into some weighty issues that would make for a great discussion.
Finally, when I need a break from deep thinking in deep space I'm also reading David Sedaris' new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames. Typical Sedaris.
I hope you are all having a good summer! Happy reading!
I've also read The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris. This is the followup to the book Chocolat. I didn't read Chocolat, but loved the movie, so I thought I'd try this book. I enjoyed it and there were some interesting themes around trying to live true to your own spirit and how difficult that can be sometimes. Another interesting theme was looking at some of the sacrifices we make for children that can backfire on us. If you enjoyed the movie, you'd probably like this book. My only big complaint was that the character that Johnny Depp played in the movie, Roux, had red hair in the book and it was very distracting since I wanted to keep the Johnny Depp fantasy in mind as I read the book!
I'm now reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov. My husband has tried for years to talk me into reading Asimov's classic sci-fi trilogy and I'm glad that I finally got around to it. Foundation is less science fiction (in my mind) than it is a psychological study on mankind and the idea of fatalism. If any of you have read this I'd be interested in your thoughts. I know we don't typically do sci-fi book in book club, but this one delves into some weighty issues that would make for a great discussion.
Finally, when I need a break from deep thinking in deep space I'm also reading David Sedaris' new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames. Typical Sedaris.
I hope you are all having a good summer! Happy reading!
Another new blogger!
Thanks, Debbie, for doing this - it's sort of exciting for us non-techies! I'll take this opportunity to report that I finally read Ghost at the Table which I missed back in the winter and am really sorry I wasn't able to be at the discussion - lots of food for thought about the book and interrelationships in our own lives. Look forward to what others have to say about books and reading as we go along with this Blog.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Also for September
Don't forget that along with The Double Bind, we'll also be reading the "back story" of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Our First Book - September 2008
Our first book of the new year is The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. Read about the author and watch a trailer about the book at http://www.chrisbohjalian.com/bohjalian-reading-group.htm.
First Blog for Chick-Lits
Hello everyone! This is the beginning of the Blog for Chick-Lits. I'll be playing around with this for a while and I'll email you as I go along so you can check my progress. For now, I'm making the assumptions that each of us will be an author of the blog so we can all post entries. Also, I'm thinking that we'll want to restrict viewing to only our group. Even though this will require a password to see the blog, this way we can post our membership list with names, addresses, etc. and only we will be able to see it. Marty, this will give you the option of posting our book lists, hostess information, etc. to this site and then just notifying the group that a posting has been made. This way everyone can always come back to the blog for information and won't have to keep emails and hard copy information. I'm just learning how to do this, so this will get better as we go along. We will be able to put pictures on the site, post links to book reviews, communicate about non-book club books we're reading.....really, just anything we want. For fun and practice, I'm going to try to post a picture or two and a few links....
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