Book Lovers Club

Dragging on with reading The Rosie Project. Two cousins recommended it. Had my mom get a copy from her library. She raced through reading it and enjoyed it! So here I am, visiting her and trying to get into reading it. Read the first 50 pages. Awful. Read the second 50 pages. Still awful. Read another hundred pages and can't find anything interesting about the story. But then....on page 229 it finally resonates with me. There it is....the character is on an airplane watching the film, The Bridges of Madison County and is crying! And so am I....for reading this garbage!

On a happier note....I'm glad to read that Eula Biss's book, On Immunity was nominated for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award. Very deserving book! Her previous book, Notes From No Man's Land won the award back in 2010. Both books are great! Her newest book is also getting a lot of attention due to the measles outbreak at Disneyland. Biss could have predicted it.

Next book up will definitely be non fiction. I've soured on fiction for now, but will read some more fiction later in the year....

Finished reading the book. Author explains that originally the book started out as a drama and through revisions, it became a comedy. I found the book shallow and most emphatically NOT humorous. Having a relative on the spectrum, diagnosed informally in his late 50s....I find nothing humorous about autism. From time to time, the main character found others "distressed." This observation that the character made, I found to be quite a stretch. My family member is incapable of observing other people's feelings of being "distressed.". I just thought that the book really tried to make light of a very complex disorder. I will say, in defense of the author, that the book does try to explain what goes through the mind of a high functioning autistic individual....but from my perspective, the character is too simple. Autism is a very complex disorder...so complex that many high functioning autistics will argue that there is nothing wrong with them and something wrong with " normal" people.

Too simple of a book to explain a highly complex disorder and certainly not a funny book.

Finally read Emperor of All Maladies but not appropriate to discuss here, will just say that I mentioned it to my MO and he said he thought it was fantastic and has given it as gifts to his NPs. And since my prior book was the The Big Fat Surprise - I mean much medical/epidemiological research back to back - I indulged in Christoper Fowlers' White Corridors, 5th in the Bryant and May series (British - peculiar police investigative unit) AND the 7th Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley - As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust which takes Flavia to boarding school in Canada where she is supposed to be trained as a secret agent (like her aunt and mother)??? very satisfying, AS ALWAYS.

Me too! I have read EOAM three times now! Go Mukherjee! Can hardly wait for the series!

the Blowout/Gridlock series sounds fascinating - will check it out Ruthbru ..... in the meantime I just finished Eat Me, The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin by Kenny Shopsin and Carolynn Carreno with a forward by Calvin Trillin. I add that because if you have read Calvin Trillin, gives you an idea how the book will provide insight into living in a NYC neighborhood. So you learn about this quirky grocery store that morphed into a small restaurant which had rules like no parties larger than 4, no choosing your entree based on what you see that looks good at another table, no special orders (seriously, why should you special order when the menu at least at one time had 900 items - you are just an a**hole anyway according to Kenny who wouldn't want you in his restaurant so GET OUT!) so yes the book is about this unique restaurant which has been kept small to keep it fun to run, and run well, and to maintain Kenny's ability to interact with his customers. There are many recipes most of which include cream, cream in egg dishes (Kenny's favorite to make), cream in soups etc. but having just read The Big Fat Surprise.....I could almost imagine cooking this way. What was fascinating was how he organizes his kitchen to enable him to make so many different dishes in a small space in a short time, having made many components of his dishes before hand and having frozen them in single portions so that he can add what needs to be fresh and whip it, or has he says, wack it together within 5 minutes of receiving the order. I am going back over the book to take notes on recipes, short cuts, ingredients....He makes salads, but he says of all the dishes he makes, salads are the ones that are always finished. He believes that his other dishes or more satisfying and people eat til they are sated, but salads are always finished - now what does that say?

Jelson....I'm so on it! Will definitely read the book and hopefully get to the restaurant!

Took my 6 year old grandniece to the library to get her first American library card and I suspect she has my family's trademark gene for the love of books! Little Miss Voracious Reader took out 17 books! She told the librarian EXACTLY who were her favorite authors and within 15 minutes she chose a stack of books to read! Can hardly wait to see her tonight so we can talk about books! Yay!

Just finished reading a terrific nonfiction book about fiction!😇

James W. Hall's book is titled, Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Biggest Bestsellers. The book grew out of a literary criticism course that he teaches. With the help of his students, they uncovered the common themes of the century's best sellers. Of course The Bridges of Madison County was thoroughly dissected along with, among others such as The Godfather and To Kill A Mockingbird. He does a terrific job of analyzing the common themes with razor sharp wit. I'm giving the book 5 stars. Would love to have been one of his students. From the way he speaks about his students and their involement, I bet his classes are well attended!

Just started reading Alain de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness. As a passionate lover of architecture, I find this slim volume most fascinating.

glennie...at the end of his book he explains how he originally came up with the idea for cracking the code. He mentions living in Key Largo and his desire to write a book...I guess he did crack the code because he has produced a number of books!

Yes, I'd like to hear the grandniece's favorite authors too!! I have no grandchildren but have always try to keep up with children's books.

I put a reserve on Harper Lee's " new" book! I laughed when I read that editors agree it will be the biggest seller for 2015! I am drooling in anticipation of the book! That is one piece of fiction that I definitely won't miss. I wonder if it follows Hall's formula.....

July 14.

ooooooo,, we are in for a wait, aren't we???

Ruth, thanks for the rec on Gridlock.  As a lover of Vince Flynn and ND, will def check it out.

Just finished a good book - Terms & Conditions by Robert Glancy.  "A clever and caustic office comedy about a lawyer who drafts the fine print in contracts - the part no one reads - and his search for a more meaningful life."

Now on to an older book - American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  My BIL highly recommended it so I got it from the library before hearing an interview with him on public radio.  Interesting guy; should be an interesting read.

Welcome! For!

Not sure if anyone is following the Leon Wieseltier controversy following his opinion column in The New York Times. The article is entitled Among the Disrupted. I'm happy to see that many have disagreed with him. Looks like books are making a comeback...perhaps being wrong might make him happy!

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2015/01...

VR - great article. I'll forward to my DIL, the girl who insists her first published full length book will be on paper like her original dream. Oh & not self published. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Who? WHO, VR, please tell! Sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet on the Rocha book. I was not really paying alot of attention to scott peterson at the time it happened except to tell myself, that dude is guilty. But he is just a smiling fool. He never looked to me like he was in dhock or mourning. Man, If my man was missing, I would be zombified and unable to eat or sleep, they would have to put me on meds. And if they found my loves' body, I would be tearing my hair out, and there would be screams to curdle your blood, seriously, I would be hyperventilating, I think i would die... So, but the thing that really chilled me in the book was his psychotic family. No wonder.

Also, I got a chuckle remembering when I was wondering if i was going to be picked for jury duty, trying to figure out how i could get myself off the hook, is when they ask if there is any reason that you can't be a part of it, this one lady stood up and said, "look at him, he is guilty!" . They escorted her out promptly.

Harper Lee: I am wondering if that really is her book. I thought I read somewhere long ago, that the experience of fame turned her off so badly, she said she would never publish again. I think someone is pulling a fast one. If she wanted to, why wait till now? If it was not completely fabricated out of things she did write, by someone else?