Short & Sweet Treats discussion

That is awful, left me very confused!

I don't think quotation marks would save writing that bad. :(

I'm sitting here pretty stunned, since you and Melanti are two of the members of this group I respect, Jen. However, you're talking about one of the world's great writers, José Saramago! Please just say that his style is not something you like, but these comments are insulting someone who won the 1998 Nobel Prize. His biography is on their website: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...

My favorite book by him is Death with Interruptions. The Amazon blurb says: "Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question -- what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration—flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home—families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots. Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?" My review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I was also deeply impacted by Cain. My review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

So I agree that Blindness is not my favorite of his, but to dismiss him entirely is unfair. Everyone has their own preferences in literature; I'm one of the few people I know who truly loves Moby Dick. However, I will never read Ulysses by James Joyce. I've tried three times to start it and can't manage his style. But I'd NEVER sit in judgment on either Joyce or his novel, which is considered a masterpiece.

Really stunned.

I apologize if I came across as judgmental, I just don't think I'd enjoy his writing style.

This is why we are here ... to share our passion of books. And I appreciate all your viewpoints and that passion you bring.

Doesn't "in my opinion" go unsaid with every post on this website? We're talking about art after all...

I'm sorry if I was a bit too snarky in suggesting he buy a new keyboard, but I'll stand by the rest of what I said. I'm not saying that anyone else who likes him is crazy - just that I find this literary fad of not including quotation marks to be completely ridiculous.

I do generally give authors two chances to impress me but in a case like this where what I don't like seems to be a fundamental component of the author's writing style, I don't see how giving him another would be at all productive.

Yes, best for you AND Saramago to just let it go :-) Life's too short, and there are those who love him.

I'm just starting The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. I really liked A Natural History of the Senses, and I'm looking forward to "giving" this book as part of World Book Night. This will be my second year as a "giver", and the whole story of World Book Night is so inspiring. http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/

The idea that authors would lift copyright so that these books can be given to light or non-readers is very special.

I just finished Mortality by Christopher Hitchens. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Amazon blurb says:

"On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for his bestselling memoir, Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for Vanity Fair, he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.

Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this riveting account of his affliction, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.

Mortality is the exemplary story of one man's refusal to cower in the face of the unknown, as well as a searching look at the human predicament. Crisp and vivid, veined throughout with penetrating intelligence, Hitchens's testament is a courageous and lucid work of literature, an affirmation of the dignity and worth of man."

It is only 128 pages, so I'll suggest it for our bookshelf.

I started reading by Lizzy Ford.

I'm 20% into Up at the Villa. My first W. Somerset Maugham.

I'm reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's my third time, and I'm still enjoying every minute! :-)

I am reading a few books alongside my class studies.

The Girl that Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by C. Valente & The Last Runaway by T. Chevalier

Hmm, Jen--The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is by Catherynne M. Valente :-) Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ah... The wonders of typing on your Kindle with autocorrect! :)

I hope you like Valente's fairy lands books too!

I started Here on Earth yesterday, which is turning out to be a re-telling of Wuthering Heights. Nearly every plot point is matching up so far, though the Catherine equivalent never died of a hissy fit...

I'm not sure if the Wuthering Heights associations are going to be good or bad... I liked Wuthering Heights but never thought the Catherine/Heathcliff relationship was swoon-worthy. Selfish and obsessive, yes. Something to sigh and pine over? Certainly not. So if the Catherine and Heathcliff analogs in this book start having an affair like I think they're going to, that's not necessarily something I'll be on board with...

Jen ƸӜƷ wrote: "Ah... The wonders of typing on your Kindle with autocorrect! :)"

ROFL, I didn't know Kindles did that! What a hoot :-)

Its frightful to see some of the corrections they provide! ;)

I'm reading The Hottest State.

Just finished Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse.
I've been considering this career path for a while and will be finishing my BSN this month.

I'm re-reading the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, so that when the 5th book comes out in the fall, I'll be ready.

I just finished The Lost Hero. The other books in the series are:
The Son of Neptune
The Mark of Athena
The House of Hades
The Blood of Olympus (released in October 2014)

I read Riordan's books with my granddaughter. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Boxed Set is built around Greek mythology, The Kane Chronicles centers on Egyptian myth, and this Heroes of Olympus series returns to Percy and adds Roman mythology.

I find these SO much more rewarding than the YA dystopias, perhaps because I taught mythology.

I read the first Percy Jackson book and immediately put the rest on my TBR shelf.

Love all these encouraging reviews for the Percy Jackson books, I have one on my shelves waiting to be read. :)

I've even enjoyed the films of the first two Percy Jackson books, although things were left out. Still, Logan Lerman is a good Percy, and the supporting cast is done well also. I hope they'll make all 5 books, although I'm sure this innocent series may not compete with all the YA dystopia films, sadly.

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse.

Now I'm currently reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

I am reading O Pioneers! and The Visitors.

I am doing the chronological reading of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. I am actually enjoying it even if I will be here for a while lol.

As I get ready to move, I'm re-reading Griffin & Sabine - 6 Volume Deluxe Boxed Set. I have to decide which books to give up as I'm moving to a one-bedroom--but it won't be these six! Nick Bantock is magical imho :-)

12 Years a Slave & Clammed Up are my current reads.

Finished Astonish Me https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Now reading The Brooklyn Follies and Ragtime.

o

Just finished A Room with a View - I've read it a few times and I always enjoy it. This time afterwards I was just holding the book thinking, and I skimmed the about the author stuff on the back flap. E.M. Forster was born in 1879 and died in 1970!! Can you imagine the cultural upheaval this man experienced .. and especially given the person he was? To come of age being who he was at the end of the Victorian era around the time Oscar Wilde was being carted off to prison .. and then to live all the way to hippies and the sexual revolution. How I wish I could've sat down and had tea with this man towards the end of his life. What stories he must have had!!
It made me think: life can be so strange, so curious, so amazing, each of us so "fearfully and wonderfully made."Or maybe I've just had "too much Beethoven" as Mr. Beebe says of Lucy. :) Oh well, back to work!
Have a great weekend everyone!

thank you Greg. I really never thought of it like that. how much history one person could see. you enjoy your weekend too! :)

Thanks Laura :)

what your summer beach read says about you.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/543128...

Hmmm--none of my reads there! If I COULD get to a beach, I'd read Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh--still one of my favorite little gems. I sort of think "beach books" should at least pay SOME kind of tribute to the beach itself! :-)

Sadly, none of the books listed really interest me.

Has anyone ever read this or heard anything about the book?

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Jen ƸӜƷ wrote: "Has anyone ever read this or heard anything about the book?

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore"

It's a fun book. Mostly mystery. A tiny bit of suspense at the end. Not any fantasy at all (despite a fantasy sounding premise.)

And I've heard the cover glows in the dark. Sadly, I can't vouch for that myself since I bought the ebook version.

I was hoping for a fantasy :)

If it makes you feel better, some friends thought it qualified as a fantasy, even after reading all the way to the end. And plenty must agree with them from the sheer number of people who shelved it as such!

It has a lot of the same aspects as a fantasy... secret societies, mysterious and strange characters, and a hidden secret they're all desperately trying to find...

(view spoiler)[
The main premise is that a guy in the past thought he'd discovered the secret to eternal life and promptly encoded it in hundreds of books. A secret society grew up around these encoded books and has spent centuries deciphering them. (hide spoiler)]

And, of course, it's a book about books! Who can resist that?

Then I shall add it to my TBR list, thank you for the input Melanti! :)

Melanti wrote: "Jen ƸӜƷ wrote: "Has anyone ever read this or heard anything about the book?

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore"

It's a fun book. Mostly mystery. A tiny bit of suspense at the end. ..."

A friend of mine from a bookstore read it and raved about it. Her synopsis and description of it made it sounds pretty awesome. It's been a good seller at B&N, if that means anything to you. :)

I am almost done with The Ask and the Answer audio version. Great voice acting! Someone got Todd Hewitt's voice perfect!! I am loving this trilogy. It is so so so good.

Also halfway through Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, which has taught me a lot about myself and the world we live in. I didn't think it was an emotion I would have reading it, but it has made me feel empowered. :)

At the moment, I'm reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman in addition to the monthly reads.

Ah, Greg--Philip Pullman and his trilogy are high on my list of favorites. His Dark Materials is a trilogy of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

I love these books, and Pullman's writing is wonderful. I hope you enjoy your journey with Lyra Silvertongue as much as I did :-) The alethiometer is one of my favorite devices from any book:

Jessica wrote: "Also halfway through Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, which has taught me a lot about myself and the world we live in. I didn't think it was an emotion I would have reading it, but it has made me feel empowered. :) "

Quiet is a lot of fun too! And I agree with the empowering bit.

Greg wrote: "At the moment, I'm reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman in addition to the monthly reads."

That book has been on my TBR shelf for a while now. Let me know how you like it:)

Julia wrote: "Ah, Greg--Philip Pullman and his trilogy are high on my list of favorites. His Dark Materials is a trilogy of The Golden Compass, [book:The Subtle Knife|119..."

This is actually my second time reading the series - I really enjoyed it last time around! Aside from the fantastic and gripping story, it has a lot of intriguing ideas ... the dust and the "severing". Had a lot of resonance for me. I'm already enjoying my second read - halfway through Golden Compass already and I just started a couple days ago. :)

Ashley wrote: "Greg wrote: "At the moment, I'm reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman in addition to the monthly reads."

That book has been on my TBR shelf for a while now. Let me know how yo..."

Ashley, it's a wonderful series, pure magic! But I do have one warning that really only applies to the third book (The Amber Spyglass) - the final book has some very overt anti Judeo-Christian messages that could be off-putting. It didn't bother me, but a friend of mine was pretty horrified when he read it (at my recommendation unfortunately). Hence the warning. :) But the series is gripping, well written, and fascinating if you can get past that part!