Short & Sweet Treats discussion

Jen ƸӜƷ wrote: "I'm going to add The Red Queen"


The Red Queen? How does it compare to the White Queen of Phillipa Gregory repertoire?

"Unput-downable"

Love it!

Kristi wrote: "Jen ƸӜƷ wrote: "I'm going to add The Red Queen"


The Red Queen? How does it compare to the White Queen of Phillipa Gregory repertoire?"

I haven't read The White Queen, yet, but I did buy it since I've been so impressed with the writing of The Red Queen.

Kristi wrote: "adding The Time Keeper to the log of TBRs. I guess I have been put off by him/his work ever since Tuesdays With Morrie which I found peppered everywhere. Wasn't it eve..."

I read the Timekeeper and actually liked it. I didn't care too much for Tuesdays with Morrie.

Gone Bitch: A Parody of Gone Girl

Kristi wrote: "adding The Time Keeper to the log of TBRs. I guess I have been put off by him/his work ever since Tuesdays With Morrie which I found peppered everywhere. Wasn't it eve..."

I think there have been some good books on the today show. Although I only gave The Time Keeper two stars, and that was because it was too dumb to inspire the hatred that one star usually means.

For me it's Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and I just finished Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler.

Kim wrote: "For me it's Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and I just finished Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler."

Oooo...good to hear!! I have this planned for next month:)

Mary wrote: "Wuthering Heights is one that people either love or hate it seems. I LOVED it!"

Me, too, Mary :-) And I also found Jane Eyre wonderful. The Bronte sisters certainly knew the power of words!

Juliet Barker has written two books on the Brontes: The Brontës and the updated edition, Brontes, The: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of Three Sisters.

NPR a good article about the updated book: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/27/1593558...

"Barker's own original approach as a biographer in 1994 was to regard the Brontes as a unit. As children, Branwell, Charlotte, Anne and Emily only had each others' company. Well into adulthood, they crafted elaborate stories involving imaginary kingdoms called Gondal and Angria.* Barker traces how those absorbing fantasies, as well as the siblings' intense interdependency, fueled the creation of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and the other novels.

Barker also further redeems the reputation of Patrick Bronte, showing him to be a compassionate father and liberal-minded minister, and darkens our view of narcissistic Emily. Charlotte comes off as one of those tetchy authors better to read than to meet: As a teacher, she was prone to calling her pupils "dolts" and "fat-headed."

But that icy impression of Charlotte is thawed somewhat later in this biography courtesy of a charming new letter that's been discovered. Writing in 1854 to a friend, Charlotte confesses to being talked into a white wedding dress, which she describes as "plain book muslin with a tuck or two. Also the white veil ... being simply of tulle with little tucks. If I must make a fool of myself, [the 38-year-old Charlotte wrote], it shall be on an economical plan."

A year later, Charlotte would be dead; the official cause was exhaustion during pregnancy. She joined her siblings who'd all died before her of consumption. Barker's updated and enthralling biography of the Brontes carries us deeper into the everyday realities of their strange world, and elicits sympathy for their father, who, alone, lived on to old age and to witness the transformation of his family history into the stuff of lurid legend."

*Emily invented a world called Gondal, a mystical land of magic, to escape the sorrow that never left her over her mother’s death. Charlotte invented the Kingdom of Angria. The tiny books (about the size of a credit card) require a magnifying glass to read.

I just finished The Woman in White, an excellent piece of story telling. Such an intricate plot and every character, no matter how small the role, plays a part in bringing the story to its close. Love the narratives and my favorite character was Marian.