Laurie, My DH swears by the Life Application Bible (wow, that's a strange sentence, since the Bible itself says not to swear by anything!). Let's say, he adores it. His NASB is completely fallen to pieces.
I really have to plug the book I am reading, Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. It is about the friendship between Patchett and the author Lucy Grealy, who wrote Autobiography of a Face (and later committed suicide). It's been on my mind since I started reading it. In some ways I identify with both the women, in other ways neither, but either way, it's had me thinking tremendously about passion and life and suicide and writing. I'll let you know when I finish it.
Amending this to say: I have been reading articles and while I had always heard Grealy killed herself it seems like it is not necessarily true. Just wanted to add that disclaimer. She died of a heroin OD which could or could not have been suicide. Truth & Beauty also made the Grealy family really angry. Still interested to finish it.
Oh my goodness! I had to go to page 3 of the threads to find ours! Well, I am well into Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World by Murukami. I can't remember so many parts of it that it's like reading it for the first time. I'm really loving it. The other thing that is weird is that I'm only able to read 2 chapters a night. I can't believe how slow it's going!! Well, I'm supposed to be working and I need to eat some breakfast! Time to go!
Arrrgh! Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish came in today and I can't wait to read it!! Plus, there are 2 more reads on the way. Oh well, I'm almost done with the Murakami - should finish it this weekend and then I can start the rest next week.
Hi literary chicks!
I have set aside A Proper Marriage for now. I'm about halfway through and it is good, but I don't think I'm in the right frame of mind for it now. Also, I have to find another time to read besides 10PM in bed. I never seem to get very far and the next thing I know it's 3AM and the lights are all still on and my glasses are on the floor.
The kids and I finished the 4th book of the Warrior series that DS got for Christmas, and we are now reading The House of Sixty Fathers, which I loved as a kid. We are on chapter 3 and they seem to be spellbound.
I finished Kingsolver's Animal Dreams, and in the car on Thursday on the way to and from work I had time to listen to all of an Evanovich, which I can't remember the name of right now. They were okay, but I didn't love either one of them. I get bored with the ones that go: independent girl, not looking for guy, meets awesome guy. Girl resists guy, but he is too awesome and wins her heart and they live happily ever after. Insert additional story lines and interesting details here. These were both basically from that formula.
I have started Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and so far I like it. I'm looking for something really awesome though, because I haven't read a book I couldn't put down, since last July, and I'm sure you know the one I mean.
I'm reading the best seller, Happy for No Reason, the South Beach Diet again, other diet exercise books, Joel Osteen's latest book, the Secret, and my business bible Prospecting your Way to Sales Success. Plus tons of articles in magazines about Diet/Exercise, I have a "theme" going - new year, new me and it's Feb!
Jessie, I can totally see why your DH loves the Life Application Bible so much ( about "swearing" by it...)! I'm looking forward to hearing more about Truth & Beauty. I feel like I should know the names of the authors, but I'm not sure I've read them (or about them) before...
Oh, Kim, I can TOTALLY relate to the feeling of so many juicy books to dig into and not enough time! If only we could put the world on hold and curl up in a comfy chair with our books until we're satisfied. Wouldn't that be divine? Let me know what you think when you do read Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral! Horsey, if you get in the mood for some fiction, that book would go very well with what you are reading right now!
Schmoodle, what's House of Sixty Fathers about? Isn't it great to share books you love with kids? I don't think I read Animal Dreams...is it the first book before the Bean Trees one? I hear you on that formula. Sometimes I like it, but other times it just makes me think, "Bleh." Have you read Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner? That was a "can't put it down" book for me and it made me laugh uproariously and sob too. It was FABULOUS!!! I think you'll like how it breaks the formula and turns it on its head!
I'm getting frustrated with Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love. It seems like most of their advice suggests being more positive, not letting things bother you, etc. Maybe I'm a crotchety, grumpy ole' thing, but some of the time, I want to let things bother me and I think I have a right to be bothered! I'd like to put it aside, but I have such a hard time not finishing a book, even if I don't like it. How do y'all do that? I really want to learn how...
Laurie, I convince myself that life is too short to read books I am not interested in. I have too many books in my TBR pile to worry about those that aren't good! I have a 50-page rule: if it doesn't interest me after 50 pages, I have permission to toss it aside.
I don't think Animal Dreams is part of the Bean Trees/Pigs in Heaven series. I haven't read it, but the description didn't seem like it was about the same characters.
I'm almost to the end of The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy. I don't know why I read her short story volumes. They are good but she writes VERY short stories, never anything in-depth and they always frustrate me. She is too good of a writer for these volumes. I am not dis-meriting (is that a word??) short stories at all, but I think for them to work they have to have some substance and a little character development. I ADORE Binchy, but she just thinks up a theme and runs with it.
I did finish Truth & Beauty last week and it definitely does not say Grealy committed suicide, I don't know where I got that in my head. She just got into a downward spiral and had a cocaine OD. I still think it's an amazing book. What I was thinking about earlier, was that so many people in the arts come to that point of suicide or depression or drug using, etc. And I think a lot of it has to do with pent-up passion that you just can't seem to get out. In a way, I identified with that and I think it's why the book struck me so. Patchett also uses this analogy of Lucy being the wild 'grasshopper,' with tons of friends, tons of passion, completely flighty, and herself being the ant--steady, hardworking, but boring. I really see that in one of my closest relationships and that also hit me.
I REALLY have to read some review books I have stacked up now. A few Christian fiction. Then I want to read some of the books I have had in the TBR pile over a year.
Jessie, that's an interesting point (well, actually, you made a bunch of them!)...I never thought about it, but if you read for a living, sometimes your reading for work can get in the way of your reading for pleasure, eh? If the reading for work is pleasurable, then I suppose that's okay...but if it's not... Do you enjoy the things you read for review, even if you have other things you want to be reading?
I love what you said about 50 pages. That's a great motto. I totally agree...my TBR bookshelf (no kidding!!!) is huge, and the gazillion books I want to read just at my local library is insane. Why waste time on something I'm not enjoying? Especially when I can just post it online and swap it for something more fun?
I totally agree with you on the art=depression/wildness/passion thing. The more I read and learn, the more I become aware of how many talented people were also suffering from what we'd call mental illness. Of course, I then wonder, "What if what we call mental illness is just normal for them?" but I've experienced enough to know that if it makes you unhappy, you shouldn't have to suffer it, even if it means depriving the world of great art. Is it a case of having "pent-up passion that you can't get out" or is it that our society won't accept the ways that they want to let out the passion? I'm not sure...but I think you've hit on something right and true there.
I've definitely felt grasshopper/ant-ish about some of my relationships, but I think that we ants tend to feel that there's something wrong/boring/sad about us. Meanwhile, the grasshopper feels the same way about herself, seeing us as steady and happy. Did you ever read/see Jennifer Weiner's In Her Shoes? She compares two sisters who have that kind of relationship. It's a fantastic, amazing book. We read it for book club several years ago and it began my love affair with Weiner's writing. Sadly, the only thing of hers I haven't enjoyed was her book of short stories...and I get what you mean about Maeve Binchy. Where that flighty kind of approach to lots of stories works well in a book like Quentins, I don't think it works as well in the short story books she's done. Still, there's something about her that makes me want to read every word she's written!
Sometimes, Laurie, I think you are the only person who understands me! Hehe. I also feel compelled to read everything Binchy's ever written despite the fact I know I won't love the short stories. I have read In Her Shoes and seen the movie--it is such a great book. I don't usually think about how my reading life is kind of strange--My job is reading, I do book reviews, and then I read for fun in there too. Maybe that is why I have little patience for books that don't grab me. My Dh finally set up a bookshelf for my TBR pile. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold the whole lot of it! Ack!!!
The review book I decided to dig into is Reluctant Smuggler by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. It's the third in her To Catch a Thief trilogy, and I have reviewed the other two. They are Christian mysteries with a romantic twist, and well it's not what I would usually read for fun, I've found them pretty enjoyable. I think after this will be A Mending at the Edge by Jane Kirkpatrick (new author for me) and then I can read something else for fun!
Well, I finally finished the Murukami. I'd forgotten how wonderful it was, but I wish I had more time per day so that it wouldn't take too long. Tonight I start on Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral. It looks like a short, easy read, so I'm really looking forward to it. While I like Murukami, sometimes his work is a little too analytical for me. Add that to the required reading for school and I'm really looking forward to a bit of "Chick-Lit".
Well, I really need to stop posting and start working, so I'd better go!
horsey, I set the other books aside to re-read The South Beach Diet last night. I just felt like I needed a refresher after almost a year, but I skipped the menus and got through it in one night. I did pick up on things I didn't the previous times through.
Laurie, House of Sixty Fathers is a Newberry book about a little Chinese boy who gets separated from his family during the Japanese invasion and ends up traveling through the mountains with only his little pig, eating leaves to survive and sleeping in little caves during the day. For some reason as a kid, I always loved the books that were about kids that had to survive on their own after some terrible calamity befell their parents. Not sure why, I really never wanted anything to happen to my family. It's the same theme as some of my other faves, Flight of the Doves, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Giant Peach, and of course, Harry Potter.
Anyway, sometimes that formula does work, like in Outlander, when the story is rich and well-developed, and doesn't depend too heavily on boy-gets-girl. But if that's all there is, I get bored. I will definitely try Good in Bed. I made a reading list based on a lot of the recommendations from this thread and that one is on it.
I really got into Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral last night. I shouldn't have stayed up so late to read that much, but I just had to get to the end of a certain chapter. I cried twice and had to stop myself from laughing out loud and waking up DH several times. I have to admit that the first chapter was just a little fragmented and confusing, but once I got into it, I was fine. The only thing that has bothered me other than that is that it seems the women in the story cuss like sailors! I end up cringing a bit when I read certain words, but I'm looking past it because this looks like it will be a good book! I'm really looking forward to getting further into it tonight!
Happy reading!
P.S. I just wanted to give you an update on the "reading chair". It seems to be the only surface that does not get littered with school books or dirty clothes, etc., etc. throughout the week. It has been universally accepted as sacred territory for me and DH and I both respect the chair! It's so nice to finally have a dedicated reading area...one of these days I'll have a dedicated reading room!
Last edited by Kim_Star060404; 02-08-2008 at 12:45 PM.
Reason: add a "P.S."
Kim, The reading chair sounds so nice!! I read once that Robin Jones Gunn's family knows that when she sits in her certain chair and lights a candle, she is studying her Bible and is NOT to be disturbed. I need a place like that! I am forever considering trying to make a corner of my walk-in closet a prayer closet. But then where would I throw my dirty clothes?? I'm so glad you like Annie Freeman! It's been a hit on this board!
This weekend I happily devoured the fourth in a teen series, Payback by Melody Carlson in the Secret Life of Samantha McGregor series. I have read 2-4 now and I love them!
Well, I am well into Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World by Murukami. I can't remember so many parts of it that it's like reading it for the first time. I'm really loving it. The other thing that is weird is that I'm only able to read 2 chapters a night. I can't believe how slow it's going!! Well, I'm supposed to be working and I need to eat some breakfast! Time to go!
about "swearing" by it...)! I'm looking forward to hearing more about Truth & Beauty. I feel like I should know the names of the authors, but I'm not sure I've read them (or about them) before... 
Wouldn't that be divine? 
Let me know what you think when you do read Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral! Horsey, if you get in the mood for some fiction, that book would go very well with what you are reading right now!
I hear you on that formula. Sometimes I like it, but other times it just makes me think, "Bleh." 
Have you read Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner? That was a "can't put it down" book for me and it made me laugh uproariously and sob too. It was FABULOUS!!! 
I think you'll like how it breaks the formula and turns it on its head! 
But then where would I throw my dirty clothes?? I'm so glad you like Annie Freeman! It's been a hit on this board!
