Book Lovers Club

Celand

Pat01,

I also read Half Broke Horses and really enjoyed that book as well. Jeannette Walls is a great author.

Celand

Celand

JCSLibrarian,

I also am not sure how or why I became a reader either. I learned to read quickly and easily in school so it was a strength for me unlike math! I was child Number 5 in my family, didn't get read to very much there either. I only had been taken to a Library a couple of times as a child, but when I was there I absolutely loved it and so wanted to go back! I made up for it with my own two daughters, I read to them all of the time since they were really little. I enjoy reading as an adult, it allows me to escape the fast paced world that we live in!

By the way, I spent alot of time in SC as a child, my dad was from Spartanburg! Beautiful state!

Celand

MinusTwo

VR - Just realized I hadn't answered your challenge - how did we become readers???

My Mother read to us from the beginning - probably when we were in the womb. There were always lots of age appropriate books and she read aloud when we climbed into her bed in the mornings & before naps & before bed time- and sometimes during long rainy afternoons. We had children's magazines & went to story hour at the local children's library from the time I was 5 years old. It was a wonderful place with a real "secret garden" and an expressive librarian with white hair. From my earliest memories we checked out books every week. And we were encouraged to spend part of any money we received for allowance or birthdays on buying books at out local bookstore - where another lovely lady held sway with a resident cat. I remember several summers we belonged to a children's book club that mailed copies of the Caldecott & Newberry winners and other children's lit to our home, including the Hobbit and the Borrowers. Books were always prized possessions.

Mother had us all reciting poetry and singing rhyming songs from a very early age while we took our baths, washed dishes, pulled weeds in the garden, hopped over the cracks on the sidewalk, or just lay on our backs watching the clouds. As an aside - I remember her playing a recording of Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite when my brother and I were probably 3 & 5 and encouraging us to dance like trolls all around the room.

I can remember reading books with a flashlight under the covers in elementary school & junior high long after "lights out". That's how I first read Gone With the Wind. And I was fortunate to have inspiring English teachers in school who promoted discussion of good books & personal writing every day.

Both of my parents read both the morning & the evening paper every day. We cut our teeth on the Sunday comics. My mother had people clamoring for her to give book reviews to their groups all of her life. We never visited any city anywhere without going to check out their library. So VR - my fascination with your lions from my first NYC visit at age 13.

Oh I could go on & on, but enough to say I was very fortunate to have a Mother who cultivated a love of reading. I always take a book in my car - and have an extra in the trunk in case I get stuck somewhere. There are always 10 books waiting for me to dive in - not to mention the books on the shelves that I plan to re-read. I'm doubly fortunate during this shelter at home time because I will never be bored.

carolehalston

Minus, what a lovely post! I enjoyed reading it and am smitten with your mother.

I grew up in the country in rural Louisiana in the days before tv. During the long-g-g-g summers, the parish (county) library bookmobile came to our neighborhood every two weeks on a certain day. It parked "up the road" from our house, probably a city block or two. My brother Shelby, sister Linda and I pulled a wagon to the location because we checked out too many books to carry. I read all of Emilie Loring and Grace Livingston Hill and other authors I don't remember. I'm sure my brother must have read Zane Gray westerns.

I had long bus rides to school that gave me plenty of time to do homework and read books. English was a favorite subject. I ended up majoring in English in college and went on to get a master's degree. I did some teaching in college and high school. When the romance novel craze hit paperback publishing in the 80's, I decided to give writing a try. I sold 30 plus romance novels to Silhouette Books, owned by Harlequin romances, and was published under the pseudonym Carole Halston.

Now I read primarily mystery fiction. I also have online subscriptions to the NYT and WAPO. I love watching good documentaries but am not drawn to reading nonfiction.

ruthbru

Wow, Carole, we have a real author in our midst!

MinusTwo

Ah so Carole, that is your pseudonym. My local used book store has one whole room of Harlequins so when they open again, I'll look for you. I was an English major too, and a Junior Hi English teacher for awhile. I too now read primarily mystery fiction with misc. lit fiction thrown in. I still take the local Houston Chronicle (now a Hearst paper), but not sure for how much longer although I love having a physical paper to page through. The prices for home delivery keep going up and the size of the paper gets smaller. I too read Washington Post on line, and The Atlantic.

When I got breast cancer, I ordered a number of magazines since I couldn't concentrate on anything longer than short articles. I've dropped many but it's interesting to see which I have renewed past the original $10.00 come-on offers: AARP, Atlantic, Arizona Highways, Bookmarks, Cure, National Parks, Smithsonian, Texas Highways and Time. My ex-DH has given me a 'lifetime subscription' to The Week. Since I don't watch TV, I'm quite liking their short reports from around the world.

Sorry for the lengthy posts today. It's grey & rainy here & I'm tired of accounting chores.

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MinusTwo

I pulled The Diary of Anne Frank off my shelves to read. It was the copy my son read in high school - 1980s. As I'm sure you've seen, if Anne made it 2 years, we can likely manage a couple of weeks of quarantine.

LilacBlue

Ruth, have you read any reviews of the new Lincoln book? If not you can read the one I read this morning here.

ruthbru

Thanks, Lilac. I will definitely check it out.

I just finished the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. Winston Churchill in the beginning days of WWII. Facts that read like fiction. I laughed out loud, I cried, I cheered. I can not recommend it highly enough. I just started a historical fiction Lady Clementine, which I will report on when I am done. She was quite a character herself.

pat01

Well, I finished Educated by Tara Westover today. A heartbreaking story, and a remarkable story, but overall the book didn't sit very well with me. I remember someone else on this thread didn't care for it either. Done with non-fiction for a while, back to escapist novels, whodunits.

MelissaDallas

As to the Splendid and the Vile, my sister is now obsessed with finding a picture of Churchill in a red silk dressing gown with mink pom pom slippers:

voraciousreader

melissa... here is a clip from the film, The Gathering Storm. While reading Splendid, I was reminded of this film which did a great job of portraying Churchill. This early scene in the film shows him working from his bed in his pajamas and giving dictation to his young secretary. Boy oh boy...would the Metoo movement have gone wild over this behavior....

https://youtu.be/6R61ZZDcr2k

ruthbru

That clip is great, VR!

Melissa, I would give anything to see FDR's face, or better yet know what he was thinking when he knocked on Churchill's bedroom door to say goodnight (on Churchill's first visit to the White House) & Churchill not only greeted him in the nude but invited him in for a nightcap, not bothering to put on any clothes, or even one of his crazy robes, throughout their conversation. What a character!

ruthbru

VR, I just watched all 10 segments of A Gathering Storm from the link you shared. Excellent!

voraciousreader

ruth! I am thrilled that you enjoyed A Gathering Storm. I am sure as you watched it, in your mind, you were checking all of the boxes that Larson mentioned in his book. Similarly, as I read his book, the film was swirling in my head.

ruthbru

Yes, I was. And I believe I will be able to reccomend the historical fiction I'm reading about Clementine as well. The boxes are being checked off in it as well.

voraciousreader

Ruth....i hate to say this....but there is another installment. Into the Storm......i warn you....it is good...but not as good as the gathering storm...still worth watching...Clemmie has more screen time...from what I can recall...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0992993/

voraciousreader

i also highly recommend this book...It is called...The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill. I love the book so much...I own it. Yep! I actually own a few books. I have shared the book with my students.

https://www.amazon.com/Wit-Wisdom-Winston-Churchill-Quotations/dp/0060170352

ruthbru

I will be looking at both your links, VR! But not this evening, it's almost bedtime and I stayed up too late with Winston last night!

magiclight

Any suggestions for authors/books that can evoke some laughter and are worth reading?

JKL2017

Magiclight, have you read the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evonavich? I laughed out loud during many of her books, I don’t know your guidelines for “worth reading” but there is value in being able to laugh at something right now!

voraciousreader

imho ....no one funnier than.....geoff dyer...Out of Sheer Rage.

Second runner up...anything by Carl Hiaason.

And...The Wit and Wisdom of Churchill.

ruthbru

I watched Into the Storm & downloaded The Wit and Wisdom of Churchill (and also the Wit of the Presidents, the Wit of the First Ladies, and a book called American Rebels about some of the prominent families involved in the Revolutionary War......all VR's fault for telling me about Churchill!

voraciousreader

ruth...first things first...I apologize. As I mentioned earlier, I recently watched an interview of the Churchill biographer, Andrew Roberts. Back in 2018, he wrote a 1000 page book about him. I was just about ready to crack the book when The Splendid and the Vile came into my hands. So, I returned Roberts’ book to my library. I wish I hadn’t returned the book because I would be reading it now. It is supposed to be excellent. Roberts had said there is a laugh on most pages. He said considering how serious the material is, he surprised himself in finding so much humor in Churchill’s life.

As a child, I recalled Churchill’s funeral. It came a few years after the Kennedy assassination. I recalled how upset my parents were over the young president’s death, but couldn’t quite register why so many people were so upset over Churchill’s death. I was a young girl and had no idea why people mourned such an old man. By high school age, I finally understood the importance of his life. Looking back at those formative years there was still so much ahead to learn about Churchill and about life. Does a person make history or does history make a person? With each new historybook I read, I am still learning.....

ruthbru

I watched parts of Churchill's funeral coverage on utube after finishing the movie. Some rare individuals can bend the arch of history itself, Churchill was one of them.

voraciousreader

ruth....so true

Ibis

Another good Churchill book is Hero of the Empire by Candace Millard.

magiclight

Thanks for the suggestions for a bit of humor. I read some of the authors years ago and now will check them out again.

pat01

Definitely not a humor book, but I highly recommend The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton. Tragedy, depression, family values, class values, and young boy coming of age - this book has everything, and is so well written, I couldn't put it down. I think someone on this list recommended it. Set in rural Kentucky in coal country. This is the authors debut novel, and I wish he would finish his next one!