Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion

Jim wrote: "We saw the Dresden Files TV show. It was OK, but did diverge from the books pretty quickly. I think it was only on for 1 season, though. My almost-son-in-law, Josh, really likes the series. Whi..."

Jim, I read your review and I see what you mean about the flaws in the writing. I probably would never have noticed those inconsistencies.

I finished watching the first TV episode of "The Dresden Files" via Amazon Prime ("Birds of a Feather" - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C... ).
I found the TV episode hard to follow because I couldn't keep the characters straight (several different women). There also seemed to be too many confusing time-shifts from the past to the present (Harry as a boy and Harry as an adult). The transitioning was poor, IMO.

Also see my related post below in Message #55.

Werner wrote: "Joy, I read Storm Front, the first book of the Dresden Files series, as a common read in another of my Goodreads groups, and gave it four stars. I was able to get a copy of the second..."

Werner, I read a bit of the sample of Storm Front at Amazon.com's "inside the book". http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451...

I liked the droll style. So I've ordered (from my public library) a CD with the audio versions of the different books in the Dresden series. I'm going to give them a try.

Here's audible.com's page showing the different books in the series.
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_h...
Each one can be sampled via a short audio clip at the above-linked page.

PS-Thanks for the link to your review. I'll check it out after supper. :)

That's good, then you know if it's a movie or series you'd be expecting in the mail.

Werner, your review of _Storm Front_ was excellent.
( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) You are so good at analysis!

About "The Dresden File" episode ("Birds of a Feather") which I mentioned above in Message #51, (view spoiler)[I meant to mention that I was a bit repelled by the part in which it actually showed people who had been skinned alive by some sort monster-character. Too grisly! That type of character had a name but I can't recall it. (hide spoiler)]

I don't like grisly stuff. Does anyone remember what they called that type of monster-character?

Thanks, Joy! Glad you liked the review.

It's been seven years since I saw the first episode of the TV series, so I remember it only vaguely, and don't recall what the monster was called. But I would say that some of the deaths in Storm Front are all of "grisly;" we're dealing with a sorcerer who kills by causing his victims' beating hearts to burst out of their bodies. That makes for very unpleasant deaths and nauseatingly messy crime scenes; so, Mary Poppins this definitely ain't! :-(

Werner, thanks for the warning. LOL
PS-Since I'll be listening to the audios of the Dresden books and not watching videos of the TV series, the killings should be easier to take. :)

Be brave, Joy! :-) Seriously, I admire you for experimenting with some reading that's outside of your usual fare. That's always an interesting and broadening experience.

Werner, I've been "broadening" for years, in more ways than one! LOL

I finished Brian Boru, it was good, simply told. But when I did some investigation, it seems that it is not historically accurate, more a myth or legend.

I'm going to start a DragonLance series later, starting with the first one, Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Jackie wrote: "I finished Brian Boru, it was good, simply told. But when I did some investigation, it seems that it is not historically accurate, more a myth or legend. I'm going to start a DragonLance series ..."

Interesting fact from Wiki:
"The descendants of Brian were known as the Ui Briain (O'Brien) clan, hence the surnames Ó Briain, O'Brien, O'Brian etc."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Boru

I looked at the GR page of Margaret Weis, the author of _Dragons of Autumn Twilight_. Her hobby is flyball racing with her dog. There's a video of it at her page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Looks like the dogs love it!

I just finished listening to The Call of the Wild by Jack London read by Jeff Daniels (star of HBO's Newsroom). Wow! 5 stars both due to the story & the reader.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jim wrote: "I just finished listening to The Call of the Wild by Jack London read by Jeff Daniels (star of HBO's Newsroom). Wow! 5 stars both due to the story & the reader.
https://..."

Enjoyed your review, Jim. I think the story would be too "brutal" for me. I liked your little tangent about your dog "Mav". Sounds like a real doll.

Thanks, Joy. Maverick was certainly unique. He's been gone over 30 years now, but I still remember him fondly. Of course, I still remember Ulysses fondly & he's been gone almost 50 years. He was the Doberman that raised me.

What was the personality of the Doberman? They are probably the best dogs to get for protection. Most people are scared of them. Do they make good pets?

Ulysses was a pretty grim dog, as I recall. He died when I was 8. He was a great dog, but not playful. He'd never play tug-of-war or fetch. Just sort of hung around me like a grim shadow & nagged me.

He dragged me out of a pond & nipped me or killed snakes I wanted to play with, although he let me have frogs & toads. He wouldn't let any one or thing near me. I found a nest of puppies in the woods one time & it belonged to a feral dog. He killed her when she attacked me. Neither of us knew he was there. I heard her come at me & he hit her from the side & she was dead instantly.

(Wild dogs were quite a problem on the Eastern Shore of MD in those years. Most were abandoned & had no fear of man along with a grudge. The men used to get together & shoot the packs when they got too big. They killed a lot of livestock.)

I vaguely recall trouble when the cops would bring me home before that when I was 3 or 4. They had to stand way back & let us get in the car together, I think. I remember they had Mom in tears one time & I got a really bad spanking. I wasn't supposed to climb out of the fenced in yard, but apparently kept doing it anyway. Mom said I drove her nuts because we'd head off into the fields, by the pond, & through the woods, so she never knew where we'd wind up. It was quite a ways from home by road, but we were fairly well known having been picked up by Mom, neighbors, or the cops, depending on who spied us first.

Poor Mom. No wonder she dyes her hair. I was a horrible child.
;-)

Jim wrote: "Ulysses was a pretty grim dog, as I recall. He died when I was 8. He was a great dog, but not playful. He'd never play tug-of-war or fetch. Just sort of hung around me like a grim shadow & nagge..."

Ulysses was definitely protective! Sounds like he didn't crave affection. But he certainly must have liked you to protect you like that. He must have been very smart. A friend of mind had a Doberman. She told me that he ate sponges! A rugged dog!

Having recently finished Mockingjay, while I wait to start a common read in another of my groups at the beginning of February, I'm filling in the time with short stories from the collection Sword and Sorceress XIX. I'm a big fan of this long-running anthology series, which was originally started by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. This is the second of three volumes made from the stories already submitted before her death.

Speaking of short stories, I've been listening to: The Dorothy Parker Audio Collection: The Dorothy Parker Audio Collection. At first the stories and reviews are amusing but after a while the sarcasm gets old. My short review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finally finished reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wish I could have given it more than 3 stars. Although it was interesting, it wasn't compelling. It took me a long time to finish it since I read it a bit at a time in between other books. If it had held my attention more, I would have finished it sooner. I guess you could say it was lackluster but still good enough to finish.

I've taken a break from To Build a Fire and Other Stories by Jack London & am listening to The Old Buzzard Had It Coming by Donis Casey. There are 5 stories in this collection of London's & while 2 of the 3 were excellent, they're also depressing as hell. The other one, his attempt at a 'Heart of Darkness' mixed with Wells or Verne, didn't do much for me, but was also depressing. No wonder the man drank to excess!

Casey's story is a murder mystery, but the heroine is a very upbeat lady, mother of 9, set in OK of 1912. She's a farmer's wife dealing with the murder of a neighbor that no one liked. No sex or violence & a very interesting look at daily life of the time. I think you'd like it, Joy. There are 6 books in the series. I'm going to get them all.

Jim wrote: "I've taken a break from To Build a Fire and Other Stories by Jack London & am listening to The Old Buzzard Had It Coming by Donis Casey. ... I think you'd like it, Joy. There are 6 books in the series. I'm going to get them all. ..."

But didn't you say they were depressing?

EDIT: Oh, I see. You were referring to: _The Old Buzzard Had It Coming (Alafair Tucker #1)_

As I noted above, I've been waiting until today to join in this month's common read in another Goodreads group I belong to (Action Heroine Fans). This time, the book selected is the first novel in David Weber's popular and long-running Honor Harrington series, On Basilisk Station. Weber's a new-to-me author, but the series has been on my radar since back in the summer of 2004, when a fellow college librarian (who's now a Goodreads friend!) recommended it to me.

Werner, it's interesting to see a woman in command of a space ship. Speaking of women in command, I wonder how many women jet pilots there are compared to the number of men in the job.

Honor Harrington is an updated version of the Horatio Hornblower series. I've read a dozen or more of them, the first 8 or so twice. I give Weber a lot of credit, not just for writing good rousing stories, but for working with his publisher, Baen books, to put his older books out on their web site for free. That's how I came to first read "On Basilisk Station". After that, I bought all the books. Now I'm going to listen to it for the group read.

I got my new Kindle DX a couple of days ago. It's pretty awesome since it has a 10" epaper screen, the biggest on the market. That makes it a bit hefty, about like a hard back book.

On the downside, it barely fits in my lunch box, uses a proprietary micro USB connector, & doesn't natively support epubs.

On the plus side, it does fit into my lunch box & I have Calibre, so can convert most epubs, lit, pdf, & such to work on it. It also has a free networking service so I can even do some basic web searching on it (google & wikipedia) plus a built-in dictionary. It was about $200, $100 less than my Sony PRS-505 (7") was when I got it 3 or 4 years ago.

The battery died on the Sony. I've ordered a new one for it ($30 delivered), but only after I took it apart since others have complained about not being able to get it apart due to too much glue being used. Still others have said the battery didn't work, so we'll see. It was pretty slow at turning pages, couldn't handle too many books, & the small pages drove me nuts. I read pretty fast, so couldn't turn pages fast enough sometimes. I guess I'll give it to one of the kids or someone if I can fix it.

I finished Dragons of Autumn Twilight, enjoyed it immensely. Gave it 4 stars, probably should have given it 4.5 now that I think about it. I'm starting the next in the series Dragons of Winter Night in about 5 minutes.

Jim wrote: "I got my new Kindle DX a couple of days ago. It's pretty awesome since it has a 10" epaper screen, the biggest on the market. ..."

I feel as if the world is going on ahead and leaving me behind! I have no desire to get a new device beyond my laptop. I LOVE my laptop because I have so much good stuff stored on it and I feel competent when using it. I just can't bear the thought of learning how to use the newer devices. Thank goodness for hard-copy books!

Jackie wrote: "I finished Dragons of Autumn Twilight, enjoyed it immensely."

Jackie, whenever a book talks about "secrets", my interest perks up! What is it about "secrets"?! I guess we all want to find out what the secret it. It's a great literary device.

By coincidence (I was just thinking), last night I saw a stage musical of The Secret Garden at the local Wood Theater here in Glens Falls. They did a great job! Read a bit about it here:
http://poststar.com/friday-saturday-c...
(SMSA = St. Mary's - St. Alphonsus Regional Catholic School)

PS-It was like a Broadway show. Beautiful music, great singing and harmony. Such local talent!

RE: Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough
I am still trying to get through this book (in between other books).

The following comments from reviews by GR readers seem to be true about this book:
================================
"...this bit of over-researched fluff, McCullough desperately needs an editor."

"I have tried to read her books before and found them ponderous and excessive in description to make up for plot."

SEE MORE GR MEMBER COMMENTS AT MY REVIEW AT:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
=================================

Don't know if I'll stick with this book. Some of the GR reviewers say the last part of the book is better that the first part. Guess I'll stick with it and do a lot of skimming.

I'm on p.291 out of 832 pages in this paperback edition.

I read The Thorn Birds many years ago & remember liking it. Not too long after, Richard Chamberlain starred in the mini series. I haven't read anything else by her, though.

I remember McCullough's The Thorn Birds very well! Definitely saw the adaption with Richard Chamberlain. Who could forget that priest! lol
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085101/?...
Not sure if I read the book.

I just came across the following in a book: "looked younger than her 43 years". You can always tell when the author is only a kid herself. She thinks 43 is OLD! LOL
https://play.google.com/books/reader?...

I just finished listening to TekWar written & read by William Shatner. It was abridged, which didn't hurt it at all. Read like a TV show & was as cliched. Kind of fun. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I started the 3rd Dragonlance book, Dragons of Spring Dawning, so far a solid 4.5 for each book. I find myself excited to get back to it, rushing through chores so I can make some reading time.

Jim, I can understand your liking William Shatner. He's one of a kind.

Jackie, that sounds like a very compelling book. I love it when I find a book like that.

RE: Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough
I've decided to give up on this book. I read to page 388 and still wasn't enjoying it. Among other things, there were too many names without any real character development. The plot was very slow with too many uninteresting details. See my other complaints at my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

RE: Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them by Frank Langella
This book is a series of interesting sketches about the famous people Frank Langella has known. I listened to the audio version which is read by the author himself. Langella is very frank and open. His personal evaluations and observations are very compelling. He's good with words. Recommended for people who are interested in interesting people.

RE: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book, read by John Lee. I had always wondered what the book was like. Now I know. It's 11 hours long but it keeps your attention. At times it's a bit long-winded but, considering that, it's well-paced. Each time you think that there just couldn't be another phase to the story, Robinson Crusoe, who is the narrator, manages to come up with a new phase to his adventures. I liked the way Daniel Defoe made Robinson Crusoe's story seem very up close and personal. Four Netflix stars.

PS-THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND ABOUT THIS BOOK:

"Robinson Crusoe marked the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre." -Wiki

"Written nearly 300 years ago [pub. 1719], it deserves every merit it can receive."
-From a GR member comment

RE: The World Of O. Henry (Collected Short Stories by O. Henry)
I listened to a good number of stories from this collection via an audio-tape. I didn't enjoy them at all. There didn't seem to be a smooth flow of plot. I found most of the stories difficult to follow. Too many names and uninteresting details. Many of the stories are told with annoying "country" speech patterns.

Most of the GR reviews are positive but I found the following negative reviews:

_The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories_ by O. Henry
Robin's review - Oct 03, 08 - 2 of 5 stars
"I was not all that impressed. Some of the short stories were good but on the whole I found the author to be a bit over descriptive and wordy. I had to look up the meanings of several words and didn't care for the story interuptions from the author."
FROM: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

_The Complete Works of O. Henry_ by O. Henry
Michael C's review - Sep 13, 12 - 2 of 5 stars
"Well written, but very monotonous, and over-reliant on the twist ending gimmick. If you've read "The Gift of The Magi", then you get the idea."
FROM: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

_Complete Works of O. Henry Volume I_ by O. Henry
An Odd1's review - Jul 11, 12 - 2 of 5 stars
"Nigh on a foreign language from centuries gone. Often first person, related about a pal, a girl, a romance gone wrong, from his real life observations, about hombre, outlaw, drunk, drifter, grifter, shopgirl, in slang western, hobo, massah, obfuscatory, sometimes incomprehensible to those ignorant of train hop, horse, carriage, side gun, hat, and separate collar."
FROM: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

NOTE: Definition of "obfuscatory": Tending to obfuscate; intended to conceal the truth by confusion

[BOLD TEXT MINE.]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dragonlance trilogy, makes me eager for me. I've got some more but not the next book, so I'll have to go to the library for that one before I can continue.

At my last book sale, back in October, I came across a new Stephen King book, Joyland. The only reason I even bought it was because it was less than 300 pages since I really dislike his newer hefty tomes. I was curious to see if he still has it, if he is even capable of writing like his old self. So far, the answer is a surprising Yes! If he puts out short books like this, I can read him again. If not, not a big deal, at least I got one last good book out of him.

Jackie, what differences do you find between Stephen King's earlier writings and his later writings?

Good question. I started reading him early, short stories and novels, the first one being Night Shift in 1978. He had a way of grabbing me right away and never letting go til I finished. Many a night I stayed up all night reading because I could not put the book down. He was fast paced and really knew how to spin a yarn, keeping me on the hook with well placed hints. In later books, he writes with so much unnecessary detail, that it adds anywhere from 200 to 400 pages extra (maybe even more!). I don't mind details if they're pertinent but these are not, they're just boring and bogs down the book, interferes with the flow. I feel like he's just fumbling around and liking the sound of his own voice a bit too much. If any of these later tomes were pared down, they could be really good.

Joy, our different responses to O. Henry's work is a good illustration of how everybody's literary tastes are uniquely individual (which is good; diversity is interesting, and homogenous sameness is boring!). I've read quite a few of his stories, and enjoy his work immensely. Of course, he wrote 100 years ago or more, and his stories take for granted a social setting that's unfamiliar to most modern readers, which does make them harder to follow (for us) than works written today. For me, the details in the story add to the texture --though I'm not sure if he really has that many; they're probably just more noticeable if you aren't interested in the storyline to start with. (I don't actually find him as visually descriptive as several other short story writers.) He does rely heavily on his trademark surprise endings, but I don't think of that as a flaw; he handles that device very masterfully and lets his surprise ending grow fairly and organically from the story itself, rather than dragging it in from left field as some authors do.

My wife also dislikes the use of dialect in dialogue; but this was a common characteristic of Realist writers like Henry in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That's especially true of the regionalist Realists; but though O. Henry didn't set his stories all in one region of the country (some are set in the South and Southwest of his boyhood and young manhood --that's where you get the country dialect-- and many of them are set in New York City, where he spent his later years) but whatever the setting, he tried to capture the verbal language exactly as it was really spoken. For Realists, that was partly a matter of literary principle. It was also, in many cases, a deliberate statement that regional speech pattern are worth preserving, in the face of cultural and social tendencies to reduce speech and culture to one big homogenized, characterless national lump.

Jackie, I feel the same about unnecessary details that bog down a plot.

Werner, thanks for your comments about O.Henry's stories. I understand that what you say is true.

However, when I listen to or read a story, I know when it "grabs" me and when it doesn't. Sometimes I try to figure out what it is that "grabs" me.

Other times I just throw up my hands and say to myself: "No, this isn't doing the trick". I just get tired of analyzing exactly what draws me in. I chalk it up to my personal taste.

At the same time I try to tell myself that my likes and dislikes are not an evaluation of the value of the literature itself.

On the other hand, sometimes I wonder why I can't appreciate some of what the world calls good literature. Is it an acquired taste? But that's a whole other topic. :)

MY READING REQUIREMENTS

To continue my train of thought about likes and dislikes, I must say that my first requirement when reading a story is that I have to be able to UNDERSTAND what's happening. If the plot is opaque or confusing, my prerequisites aren't being fulfilled. Goodbye.

The second requirement is: DO I CARE what's happening? If not, goodbye.

As an example of NOT CARING, the other day I began reading a random book I had around the house. The first page started off with uninteresting dialogue taking place around a birthday cake. Dull dialogue. Goodbye.

Another requirement is: "DO I LIKE THE THEME"? One book I picked up started off with such a sad occasion that I didn't want to be forced into that train of thought for a minute longer. Goodbye.

So that's how my choices are narrowed down.

Joy, your reading requirements make pretty good sense to me! Actually, I think many of us have pretty similar requirements, though our reactions to how well any specific book meets those requirements will vary from individual to individual.

So true, Werner. That's why book recommendations are fairly meaningless unless one knows the person's preferences.