Old Books, New Readers discussion

This thread is dedicated to YOU guys!
As Mods we want to know any recommendations or concerns you have.

Comment below if you would like us to dedicate more time to buddy reads, challenges or anything else for you guys to enjoy.

Also feel free to recommend any books to other members.

I just finished The Silent Patient in record time as I could not put it down. I just want to recommend it.

I'd love to do more challenges! And I'd recommend a book I just finished - Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. It is one of the sweetest books I've ever read! :)

twice_baked✌️ wrote: "I'd love to do more challenges! And I'd recommend a book I just finished - Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. It is one of the sweetest books I've ever read! :)"

Yes, I keep meaning to read that one as it sounds very good. I should request it right now while I am thinking about it.

Hi, I'm new here so my apologies if this book has already been discussed. I am re-reading Wuthering Heights and I'd enjoy discussing it with other readers. I'm looking forward to Rebecca! :-)

I recently finished The Great Gatsby and I would recommend it to all readers. I am currently reading War and Peace, which is also a good book, however, is very confusing. I would say both are equally as interesting to read.

I agree, Rowena. The Great Gatsby was a wonderful read. I've read War and Peace and I will confess I only got through it by using a cheat sheet to keep track btw - the combined short stories of F. Scott and Zelda as well as Zelda's "Save Me The Waltz" are worthwhile reads as well. !

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
is my second favourite book of all time! I have the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation as a Penguin clothbound classic.



The most breathtaking ride on a winter's night while stars glitter overhead with Boris and Natasha will forever be etched in my memory, and just as Petya rides pellmell down the hillside I got a message saying a dear friend had died, and left Petya there for a couple of weeks until I could compose myself to continue on the journey.

I think it far outshines The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald, although that is a great book, and there are many different and tantalising covers to choose from.

Mine looks like this:

That's interesting how you compare the two. I've never viewed them in quite that way given they are so distinctly different. It's an intriguing viewpoint. Have you ever read Dr. Zhivago?

I just finished and reviewed “Z: A Novel Of Zelda Fitzgerald,” I think this is a wonderful and well-researched novel.

I have read Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak some time ago, but can't remember the translator.
My newer copy is a translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky as well. I have bought it to read sometime this year.
Doctor Zhivago


My battered little paperback book of poems by Pasternak is one of my treasures.
Selected Poems

A Dream

I dreamt of autumn in the window’s twilight,
And you, a tipsy jesters’ throng amidst.
And like a falcon, having stooped to slaughter,
My heart returned to settle on your wrist.

But time went on, grew old and deaf. Like thawing
Soft ice old silk decayed on easy chairs.
A bloated sunset from the garden painted
The glass with bloody red September tears.

But time grew old and deaf. And you, the loud one,
Quite suddenly were still. This broke a spell.
The dreaming ceased at once, as though in answer
To an abruptly silenced bell.

And I awakened. Dismal as the autumn
The dawn was dark. A stronger wind arose
To chase the racing birch trees on the skyline,
As from a running cart the streams of straws.


A blog post I compiled on the 56th anniversary of the day Boris Pasternak rejected the Nobel Prize due to pressure from the Soviet government.
https://freekindlebooksoftheday.wordp...

Here is a great article in the Paris Review on Pevear & Volokhonsky
https://www.theparisreview.org/interv...

I have a suggestion to make...

Monthly Group Reads are great but I mostly use the nominations (usually the book of the month is decided with a poll in many groups) as reading suggestions. I do like to discuss my readings too, so...

What if we first create bookshelves of classics; they could be divided by time period, by prize winning or by country fr example, while not being mutually exclusive (ex: a book within the, say, "American literature" bookshelf could still be in the "19th century era" bookshelf as well).

Then, what if there were threads for each book without spoilers?

The point being that there are SO MANY classics to read and those bookshelves and thread comments could help members make more enlightened choices.

I am new in this group and as an active goodreads member. Maybe there are bookshelves in this group that I just haven't seen yet but then, I think it would be a good idea to make those bookshelves stand out...

Am I making any sense? Do those ideas appeal to anyone?

~☆~Autumn♥♥ wrote: "twice_baked✌️ wrote: "I'd love to do more challenges! And I'd recommend a book I just finished - Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. It is one of the sweetest books I've ever read! :)"

Y..."

I'd highly recommend! ;)

Richard wrote: "I have a suggestion to make...

Monthly Group Reads are great but I mostly use the nominations (usually the book of the month is decided with a poll in many groups) as reading suggestions. I do lik..."

It makes sense to me, but I'm not sure how this is supposed to help people make better botm decisions, if that's the purpose.

twice_baked✌️ wrote: "It makes sense to me, but I'm not sure how this is supposed to help people make better botm decisions, if that's the purpose."

My idea wasn't to help make better botm decisions but to make this group more versatile in its offerings. Instead of a listopia that shows all the ratings and comments of everybody who read it on goodreads, the comments would thus be first limited to this group who enjoys "old books" and who can be engaged in conversations about their reading experience of the book they commented on.

Reading hefty books is a big time commitment and before embarking on a long read, I'd might like to discuss it with others...

I liked “Twice Baked” (Richard’s) idea. At first, I sort of recoil at having to read something as if it were an assignment once a book is selected, but it is the book and the sharing of thoughts about it that is the main thing. And, anyway, if I have read the book before, I need to remember that “you never read the same book twice” because each time you read it, you see different things and are yourself a different person than when you first read it. The books I’ve read two or more times all convince me of that.

Richard wrote: "twice_baked✌️ wrote: "It makes sense to me, but I'm not sure how this is supposed to help people make better botm decisions, if that's the purpose."

My idea wasn't to help make better botm decisio..."

Yeah, sounds good. At this point ig you'd just need other people on board, maybe get some feedback.

Just finished “The Woman in the Window” and can I just say omg?! Highly recommend it if you like twists and turns and surprise endings. Takes a while to get into it and it is on the long side but it’s so worth it! Best book I’ve read in a long while!

Laken wrote: "Just finished “The Woman in the Window” and can I just say omg?! Highly recommend it if you like twists and turns and surprise endings. Takes a while to get into it and it is on the long side but i..."

I also liked it. Since you like it so much you will probably like The Silent Patient and An Anonymous Girl!!

Thanks Laken for the recommendation!

Laken wrote: "Just finished “The Woman in the Window” and can I just say omg?! Highly recommend it if you like twists and turns and surprise endings. Takes a while to get into it and it is on the long side but i..."

I started this a month or so ago and hardly made a dent in it. After hearing it takes a while to get going, I may revisit the novel. Thank you!

Who is the author. Of Wiman in the Window? There are several titles.

Tom wrote: "Who is the author. Of Wiman in the Window? There are several titles."

I double checked with Laken's read shelf to be sure.
It's the one by A.J. Finn.

Thank you

Thanks Autumn for the recommendations!

Laken wrote: "Just finished “The Woman in the Window” and can I just say omg?! Highly recommend it if you like twists and turns and surprise endings. Takes a while to get into it and it is on the long side but i..."

Ooh I've been looking for a book that has really good plot twists - I'll check this one out, tyyy!

I want to nominate a book for August but don't see where to comment on post am I missing something

Connie wrote: "I want to nominate a book for August but don't see where to comment on post am I missing something"

I will be unlocking the nominations thread on Tuesday with a broadcast message to all members about the theme.

I want to recommend 'The Green Ember' series by SD Smith...though aimed at a younger crowd, as a firm Tolkien fan, I can say it's worth it! Plenty of battles, a lot of action, mystery, suspense; it is one of the most thrilling and gripping series I've ever come across.

Abbie wrote: "I want to recommend 'The Green Ember' series by SD Smith...though aimed at a younger crowd, as a firm Tolkien fan, I can say it's worth it! Plenty of battles, a lot of action, mystery, suspense; it..."

I have heard fantastic things about this series!

X Marks The Spot by Joan de Hamel

This is a great children's book it's sad not many people have heard of it.

Hi! A couple of years ago I participated in a read along here for the book of the month, which was Anna Karenina. I really loved the fact that the book was divided up on a reading schedule and there was a discussion post for each section (8 total over two months). I loved talking about the book while we were reading it and I’ve been looking for the same kind of situation again, but it seems like mostly there is only one discussion thread per book. Would it be possible to bring back the Anna Karenina format, or do you have any suggestions for where I could go to find something like it?

Hannah wrote: "Hi! A couple of years ago I participated in a read along here for the book of the month, which was Anna Karenina. I really loved the fact that the book was divided up on a reading schedule and ther..."

I enjoy that style too. That way you can pick the thread that matches your reading speed and not worry as much about spoilers. Each moderator sets up the BOTM threads differently. I'll be moderating in June and will definitely create a reading schedule for the month and a few different discussion threads in just this way.

Isaac wrote: " X Marks The Spot by Joan de Hamel

This is a great children's book it's sad not many people have heard of it."

ooh I'll have to check it out! I love reading books that aren't well-known.

It's a great book! I really enjoyed it.

twice_baked✌️ wrote: "Isaac wrote: " X Marks The Spot by Joan de Hamel

This is a great children's book it's sad not many people have heard of it."

oo..."

Kindle:
Missing My Bejeweled by Rabindranath Tagore

The Honeycomb of Page Turners is a subgroup of The Book Hive Book Club, which is a unique opportunity that encourages members to share their love of reading with others across the United States. Essentially, as a member of 12-member team, each person journals their thoughts in a notebook while reading a book and then mails the book and journal to the next member on their team at the end of the month. At the end of 12 months, each member's original book and thought-filled journal are mailed back to them.

If interested follow the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/honey...

“Woman of Promise” – Between the Shores of Truth and Omission
Julius Franz Schuetz, Austria, 1918

It begins with an escape – not from the world, but from himself.
A young concert violinist, worn out by the glare of the cities and the pressure of the stage, seeks stillness, clarity, nature. He drifts into the secretive floodplains of the River Mur, where tangled banks meet the whisper of the current, and the air is thick with the memory of other lives. There, he meets Lieselotte Rechenzaun, the bright, nature-bound, young daughter of a country doctor – and a quiet, deep love story takes root.
They share a rare sensibility, a devotion to the earth, to plants and animals, to water and its hidden rhythms. But soon, the calm begins to splinter. From the city comes Gösta Gomera, a cultured, eccentric woman from the music world – bound to the violinist in a way both magnetic and scornful. She despises his retreat into the “provincial,” yet circles him like a shadow from a past life. The violinist finds himself caught between two women, two worlds, two currents of time: one anchored in the soil, the other drawn to glitter.
The unraveling comes not in grand scenes, but in small, irreversible moments. Lieselotte releases her canary because the violinist seemed not to like it – a symbol of her fragile love – one summer evening. By morning, it lies dead, killed by some predator. In deep sorrow they bury the bird together when Gösta Gomera appears and mocks the scene.
Later, he fails to stop an old raftsman, feverish and dazed, from walking stepping onto his boat, entering the raging Mur. The man is gone. Was it madness? Was it will? No one knows. Not even Lieselotte. But something in her begins to harden: this man will not protect her. He is a hesitator, a silent witness.
After a final night together in the floodplains of the river Mur, the thread between them snaps.
Autumn. Lieselotte lies ill and pale to the temples in bed. She has invited a large group of prominent villagers. The violinist plays for the friendly crowd. Gösta Gomera is also present. Suddenly Gösta laughs sharply and cuttingly. The scene shifts.
Friendliness turns into hostile attention, for suddenly everyone present realizes what really happened. Not only has the child Lieselotte was carrying been destroyed, but also her own life. Lieselotte dies as a result of a botched abortion, which , although not stated, is clear at this point.
Years later, aged and adrift, the violinist holds an inner dialogue with God. Not as an act of penance, but as an open question: “What would have happened if I had chosen?”
The answer – or the echo from his own depths – is simple: “That no longer matters. The summer was a gift.”
And this is the truth at the heart of Woman of Promise: beauty and sadness are not enemies – they are bound to each other. In our own restless age, torn between nature and progress, between inner truth and outward performance, the story speaks in a voice that remains urgent. It asks what endures: Am I responsible only for what I do, or also for what I fail to do? And when does silence itself become an act?
This is no invented idyll. Much points to the story being real – delicately disguised yet firmly anchored in place. The topography of the Mur floodplains, the precise glimpse of Mureck’s town hall tower, the subtle presence of the legal profession in a key scene – all suggest that Julius Franz Schütz wrote from within the very world he described. The names are changed – “Rechenzaun” appears nowhere in records – but the emotional detail, the intimate observation, and the authenticity of the human drama speak of lived experience.
Schütz, himself a lawyer, may have drawn the story from his close circle. Particularly telling is the evening at the doctor’s house, the night before the final rupture, where several lawyers are present. Amid a thick silence, Gösta Gomera’s sudden, cutting laugh falls like a verdict – a social judgment no one contests. No defense. Only distance, betrayal, resignation.
Remarkably, Lieselotte is never condemned. Schütz’s portrayal is one of empathy, tenderness, and rare generosity for the time. This is all the more astonishing given his otherwise conservative background.
This alone sets the novella apart. It is the story of a young woman crushed not by scandal, but by a man’s hesitation and his refusal to speak. And it is also the portrait of a man who realizes too late that what remains unsaid can weigh heavier than what is spoken.
That this work has been forgotten for over a century is no accident. Julius Franz Schuetz’s, 21 years later, in 1939, beginning, membership in the Nazi Party cast a long shadow after 1945, and many of his earlier, unpolitical works were swept aside. Yet Woman of Promise is untouched by ideology – it is human to its core.
Today, as we once again face questions of belonging, of ecological longing, of fractured identities, the novella feels uncannily modern. Its questions have not aged.
It could live again – not as a sentimental Heimatfilm, but as a psychological drama, an anti-Heimat film, where the river is both witness and accomplice, and where love dies not in a storm of words, but in the soft violence of silence.
Perhaps then, what was once forgotten would return – as an audible echo of a true story, as a caution, as a gift from a summer that will never come again.

This book presentation comes from me — and I’m pretty sure I own the world’s only digital copy of the novella, stored in pure ASCII code, for I typed this novella in the early 2000s from an old, mostly disintegrated original in old German Fraktur script, to practice reading the script and also typing quickly.