Book Lovers Club

Jelson

Just finished Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

an effete Englishman and ghostwriter for celebrities, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. His idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, a seemingly  vulgar woman from the Soviet Republic. Their lives disastrously intertwine as Marta writes the score for an Italian film, and the Englisman cooks the oddest dishes imaginable and takes on a British boy-band star's autobiography.  This is one funny book - there are two more about the same character that I will definitely read.

ruthbru

Diverted from my reading plans by a suggestion from here, and am reading Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. I am LOVING it. Lots of interesting historical tidbets, and I have been laughing out loud at some of the authors observations. Very good!

voraciousreader

Ruth! Yay!!! I KNEW you would LOVE the book!!!! A gem!

ruthbru

It reminds me of Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell in style. Loved that book too (and recommended it here many, many pages ago).

voraciousreader

Yep! Vowell's book is terrific too! Have you seen any of her youtube videos? I'll post some tomorrow! Hilarious!

voraciousreader

Here's my favorite video of the very clever, hysterically funny, history author extraordinaire, Sarah Vowell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH0yuwnGkg0

ruthbru

Very good, and also true!

Sickofpink

Hi ladies,

 I couldn't help but notice this thread -I ama novelist who has been struggling through final edits with my book as I underwent chemo - and now in radiation, with Hercepton infusions for 6 more months, trying to decide how much traveling, if any, I can do. What A Mother Knows comes out in May andIwill needa wig and gloves (my nails are about to come off) and fake eyelashes if my eyes stop tearing enough to glue them on...anyway, it's about how far amotehr woudl go to protect her daughter, escapism, but the exciting kind. Please look it up and when you see my real name, check out the website with reviews and interactive stuff and if anyone wants s a Skype book club visit, I'll do it with or without wig, ha!

To better days and good health!

xo

Moonflwr912

Sickofpink, congrats on finishing a book while going through this stuff.

mcsushi

Laurie08: I just finished Tollesbury Time Forever and really enjoyed it. It was such an orginal story and style. Thanks for another great recommendation!

Jelson

finished City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris - had read and enjoyed her first book, Finding Noof and I liked this one even better. again set in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia with Katya, a technician in the medical examiners office and Nayir, a desert guide/sometimes investigator as the main protagonists. The story involves a murdered young Saudi woman and a missing American. You learn about what it is like to live day to day in Saudia Arabia both as citizens and as foreign nationals - especially as a woman. a great story, great character development and you learn a lot. Can reading get any better?

ruthbru

Finished Harry Trumas....was very excellant.

Just read through Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed for my Book Club....pretty good, a screwed up young woman hikes alone across the Pacific Crest on a journey of self discovery...a word of warning, if 'people dying prematurely because of cancer' books creep you out; then this won't be for you, because that is what happens to the author's mom....

WaveWhisperer

Ruth, I, too, read 'Wild' and enjoyed it, once past her mom's death, although that did color her entire journey. Want to read 'City of Veils' mentioned in another post. Currently reading 'Her,' story of a twin after her sister committed suicide. Gee, such uplifting topics!

Elizabeth1959

For those of you who enjoy fiction, I highly recommend The Orchardist by Amanda Copplin. I stayed up last night to finish it because I couldn't put it down. The book is set in upstate Washington in the late 1800's and follows the life of a solitary man who is an orchardist. He has lost his family as a very young man. Later in middle age, strangers enter his life and he creates a surregate family. Very good read



I also enjoyed Finding Nouf and City of Veils

Elizabeth

maryc2130

I'm about halfway through The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.  It started off a bit slow, but now I am hooked!  Such a good writer.

AnneW

I just started THE ORCHARDIST. I always need a fiction to temper my non-fiction selection, which is COMING CLEAR about L. Ron Hubbard and the Scietology "church." Amazing. I can see why Katie Holmes got out. She was damn lucky to keep her child...

Laurie08

mcsuchi- SO glad you liked Tollsbury Time Forever!

Jelson

 am finishing My Year with Eleanor (recommended here! thanks) I am really enjoying it and am inspired to search out Eleanor Roosevelt's own writing. The author, Noelle Hancock includes much useful "self-help" advice in a very entertaining/palatable way.

I hadn't realized Mary Roach has a new book out, Gulp. Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. AND thanks to my local independent book store I am gazing at my copy right now (but I have two library books in line ahead of it)  From her previous books, I know it will be a heady and in this case, definitely stomach churning combination of factual and hysterically funny information. Here is a "taste" of Mary Roach, she also was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show 4/1 

 

Warning!!  NOT for the qweezy or faint-hearted http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/recipes-mary-roach/

voraciousreader

Jelson....I put a reserve on Gulp last week after reading an article about the book in The NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/health/mary-roach-on-studying-food-and-how-humans-eat-it.html?pagewanted=all

Can't wait to get my hands on her book!  I'm a great fan of her writing!

WaveWhisperer

Thanks for word that the inimitable Mary Roach has another book out. I've read all of her outlandishly factual books, starting, I guess, with "Stiff." I'm eager to see what she has found out about eating!

I, too, finished "My Year with Eleanor," thanks to this thread.

LibraryLynn

I, too, am a Mary Roach fan! I just ordered Gulp for my Kindle last night! Whoo hooo! Stiff is my favorite of her others. She is such an accessible writer, even my high school students love to read her!

Lynn

Jelson

surprisingly, since I have not followed space travel much, Packing for Mars has been my favorite Mary Roach book so far. I am especially interested in Gulp because from my (thankfully) limited contact, I have found that gastroenterolgy is the most clueless of the medical specialties. 

voraciousreader

Am I the only one getting excited about the latest Great Gatsby film?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ud6haTTfFY

ruthbru

I can not wait for Gatsby either......we reread the book again in my Book Club. I had forgotten what an 'artist with words' Fitzgerald was. Stunning, and this movie looks like it will put the pictures with the words very beautifully.

voraciousreader

http://spinzialongislandestates.com/GATSBY.pdf

A little background on Fitzgerald and Gatsby.....

I had the pleasure of attending one of Monica Randall's discussions about Gatsby.  A little trivia....she has a cameo appearance in the Robert Redford-Mia Farrow film.....

ruthbru

Interesting...the houses remind me of the Biltmore mansion in Ashville, NC, which I toured one Christmas.....unbelievable wealth....

ruthbru

Just finished The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. Historical fiction, tells the story of the difficult marriage of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh through her eyes, from their courtship through his death. I wondered how Benjamin would pull off that huge time frame; but it was very, very good and a pretty accurate take, I think. I might pick it for my Book Club to read when it is my turn because it is one you want to talk about after you read it.

voraciousreader

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/the-slow-death-of-the-american-author.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0&pagewanted=print

The Slow Death of the American Author...Op Ed...New York Times by Scott Turow

Jelson

finished Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill, the latest in his series about Dr. Siri, the elderly reluctant coroner for the new communist Laos in the 1970's. This one involved Americans and a really screwed up search for MIAs. Wonderful characters and interesting perspective on the Indochina wars - unfortunately, I stayed up until 1AM reading eventhough I had to get up at 5AM to take my literacy student to fulfill a dream, to be in the audience of the Jerry Springer Show in Stamford CT. Ugh! I approached it as a challenge and life experience - not to be repeated. Did get a laugh from the fellow sitting next to me who asked if I had been there before - many in the audience simply take the bus from NYC whenever they have a chance! I said NO, that I didn't even watch the show and in fact had brought a book to read. He asked what book and I whipped out "As You Like It" which I have been carrying around a reading at odd moments since having seen a production a month ago. On to MC Beaton's latest Agatha Raisin mystery. Hiss and Hers, which I will not report on since it will be similar to all the others - which is fine with me.

mumito

Just finished Winter of the world by Ken Follet a very good read.He is one of my favorite authors.