Play Book Tag discussion

Michael has been an active member of PBT since our Shelfari days. He described himself as an omnivorous reader. He was an intelligent man who was a scientist and public health professional, he was an amateur photographer and loved to share his beautiful photos.
As a Goodreads friend I enjoyed interacting with him and valued his opinion. Each month when our tag was announced, he would add a lengthy list of recommendations which I always looked forward to.

Please join us by reading a favorite of Michael’s this month.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I just did a compare books with Michael and 3 books in my currently reading TBR Tower are his favorites:

Go Tell It on the Mountain
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland

As I read them, it will be a pleasure thinking of Michael and, once finished, reading his review.

I also of course found many shared favorites, and a surprise or two.

Theresa-when you starting Mornings? I will read it with you

Joanne wrote: "Theresa-when you starting Mornings? I will read it with you"

Late September/early Oct. I need to be done by around Oct 10. Can't start yet because using in Autodidact's unofficial 3rd loop of History Walk. I follow Cora who will follow the current reader...who is reading Violeta.

Which is fine because Feminerdy has a chunkster for September discussion.

I've always have had much in common with Michael, but have these on my tbr

Fourth of July Creek
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother-I've been reading this bit by bit over the past few years and need something to propel it forward.
Ordinary Grace
The Round House
To Say Nothing of the Dog- currently reading.

I am planning to read one of his favorites:
Kafka on the Shore

I have been meaning to read another Murakami (only read one so far).

I will also read: The Snow Leopard, which has been on my list for a long time.

@ Joanne & Theresa, I have started Mornings on Horseback, but it is going to take me a while to get through it (not sure it will be finished in time for the "favorites" tag).

Joy D wrote: "I am planning to read one of his favorites:
Kafka on the Shore

I have been meaning to read another Murakami (only read one so far).

I will also read: The Snow Leopard, w..."

I have Kafka on the Shore on my nightstand and it is somewhere on my Unofficial Trim list in a number not yet picked. I doubt I will get to it in September - too many chunksters and a bad work schedule.

But I look forward to an future discussion!

I am going to pick up Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt next week and probably start it. It will take me awhile to read too, I have 2 other chunksters in September

I am not sure what I will read but I am saddened to hear of Michael's passing. He was so forthcoming about his diagnosis and I was so touched that he would share with us.

Not sure I'll get to it this month ... But I've made a list of 15 books either on his "favorites" list or which he rated 5*. Among them:
The One-in-a-Million Boy
Jayber Crow
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Master and Commander

I have Altered Carbon on my tbr list and it's on Michael's favorites list so I'll read it this month. I do miss his recommendations each month and was sorry to hear of his passing.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis was one of Michael's favorites.

Here is my review of it:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've not been that active here the last couple of years, even though I check in almost every day ... I missed MIchael's whole illness, I guess. I'm sad. He was a very interesting and intelligent person.

Elyse - thrilled to see you joining us here at PBT! You were one of my very first Goodreads friends. You will really love this book.

Michael was a very interesting guy and I enjoyed getting to know him. He was devoted to mental health advocacy, and he had an incisive way about thinking about subjects. His reviews and commentary were always spot on. He was both intelligent and down to earth. He will be missed. I also enjoyed looking at his shelf and seeing things we both had shared.

Elyse wrote: "I'm having trouble figuring out how to post -- maybe this will work (testing)

The book I was going to share that Michael loved as much as me was "The Orchardist" by Amanda Coplin!."

That's a great book!

As for posting ... are you talking about linking to a specific book?
Just above the comment box where you type your remarks is a hyperlink "add book/author". Click that and you'll get a pop-up menu. Type in the title of the book and you should get several choices.

If you want to link to a specific edition, you can type in the ISBN # instead of title and you'll get the edition you want.

The default is a link to the title. But if you want a cover image, scroll down to the bottom of the pop-up menu and you can switch to "cover."

At the top of the pop-up box you have a choice of book (default) or author ... click AUTHOR to link to the author.

Hope that helped.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 4.5* - My Review

Rather than attempt to summarize this zany plot, here’s a portion of the book’s description: “Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu…. He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days--continuing his impressive self-education--and is befriended by a clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger….Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.”

With characters named Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders, talking cats, collapsing timelines, and a stone that appears as a portal to a liminal space, it is wildly creative and even absurd. I got caught up in the complex and intricately drawn storylines. It is filled with literary references. I particularly enjoyed Mr. Nakata – what a great character! It is quite humorous in places. It is a little more explicit than I normally prefer, but I tried to ignore those parts and enjoy the rest. It is a strange book in the best possible way. I read this book in memory of a Goodreads friend. This book was one of his favorites.

4.5

I read this in memory of Michael. It is tagged favorites by
7,430 people.

The Namesake by Jumpha Lahiri
4 stars

This book was read in honor of Michael Edwards who gave it 5 stars.

In the late 1960's Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli left their homes in India as newlyweds and moved to Boston where Ashoke had attended M.I.T. He is now a professor of engineering and has learned to assimilate into the American culture. Ashima is constantly homesick and has a difficult time feeling at peace. The birth of their son only made her miss India even more as she is unable to celebrate the customs surrounding the birth of their child. A tradition is to wait to officially name the child until a name is chosen by an older family member. As they wait for a letter from Ashima's grandmother with the infant boy's name they choose the name 'Gogol' as a temporary pet name. Ashoke admires the Russian author and a deep connection was formed during a near tragedy years before.

As Gogol grows he detests his name just waiting for the day he would be old enough to officially change it. Attending Yale and Columbia with an advanced degree in architecture, Gogol is now known as Nikhil except to his family. He embarks on several serious relationships with American women but never quite finding the right match until he meets Moushumi, another Bengali who becomes his wife. Family celebrations, tragedies and drama fill Gogol's life as he tries to have the life he believes he wants.

This is a lovely story of the deep love of a family for one another. I enjoyed the Indian customs and foods that were described in the book. Gogol is a great character, one who initially seems lost but finds great strength within himself, much of it instilled by his parents. I have liked all of Jhumpa Lahiri's books so far.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - 4* - My Review

“For something had happened in this year. He [John Singer] had been left in an alien land. Alone. He had opened his eyes and around him there was much he could not understand. He was bewildered.”

This is a novel in the Southern gothic tradition that tells the stories of four diverse people living in a mill town in rural Georgia in the 1930s. They are connected through friendship with a central character, John Singer, a deaf-mute man. When John’s roommate, another deaf-mute man, is sent to an asylum, he moves into a boarding house run by the Kelly family. Mick Kelly is a girl with musical talent, who dreams of leaving home for a better life. Biff Brannon owns the local café where John takes most of his meals. Jake Blount is an aggressive alcoholic mill worker who espouses socialist views. Dr. Copeland is a black doctor who is a vocal advocate for racial equality. The story revolves around the struggles of those on the fringes of society.

Themes include loneliness, despair, communication, and the desire for self-fulfillment, even in the face of massive obstacles. As a person that does not speak, John serves as the listener. The others confide in him even though he sometimes has difficulty understanding them. “Each man described the mute as they wanted him to be.” The characters are deeply drawn. They feel authentic. As the characters interact, they show compassion for each other. They relate to each other’s troubles. It is dark, sad, and occasionally gut-wrenching.

It evokes a time and place – the Great Depression in the American South. It explores the place of the individual in society, and the picture that emerges is rather cynical. It is apparent why the political theories of the time are attractive to these people living in poverty. There are many harsh and difficult scenes, so it can occasionally feel depressing, but there is always a tiny ray of hope. First published in 1940, I think it was ahead of its time and is deserving of its place as a classic.

I found this book on the favorites list for both Michael and John on PBT. This book is tagged favorites by 1596 people.

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - 4* - My Review

“Behind and below, among swirls made by snow gleam and the ice-broken black brook, a surreal figure very like my own pursues me across the vast floor of the mountains. It crosses the shining boulders, coming on with slow, portentous step. The sight of this figure brings a small foreboding, as if it were the self of dreams who seeks me out with the coming of the day at the black labyrinthine river, in dead whiteness.”

Published in 1978, this book is the author’s memoir of his journey to the Himalayas to search for the elusive snow leopard. Accompanied by biologist George Schaller, porters, and Sherpas, he crossed mountains to reach the remote region of Dolpo, Nepal on the Tibetan plateau. Along the way he describes his spiritual quest based on the principles of Zen Buddhism in the wake of his wife’s death from cancer. It contains atmospheric nature and travel writing. It is filled with philosophical musings. It is written in the form of a daily diary from September 28 to December 1, 1973. Matthiessen’s detailed descriptions provide the reader with a sense of the stark beauty of the region, the harsh weather conditions, and the manner in which the people live. I particularly enjoyed their visit to the monastery at Crystal Mountain. It is a book where the journey is more important than the destination.

“In worrying about the future, I despoil the present.”

This book is tagged favorites by 177 people. It was one of Michael's favorites.

Another from Michael's list of favorites:

Sweetland by Michael Crummey - 4* - My Review

Protagonist Moses Sweetland lives in a small community on an island off the coast of Newfoundland. The island is named Sweetland after Moses’s ancestors. The government has offered to relocate the residents if they all agree to move to the mainland. Moses becomes the lone holdout, which makes him a target for abuse by the other residents. He has previously been a fisherman and a lighthouse keeper, but fishing was outlawed (due to overfishing) and the lighthouse was automated.

One of the highlights is the relationship between Moses and Jesse, the teenage son of his niece. Jesse has autism and enjoys listening to Moses’s stories. Moses eventually figures out how to get what he wants, but at a terrible cost. It is a sad story, full of loneliness. The message seems to be that adapting to change and neighbors helping each other are important to survival. Crummey writes in a way that calls to mind a vanishing way of life. I very much enjoyed this book, but it is not cheery.

A favourite (and 5 stars) from Michael

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel / Carl Safina
4 stars

The subtitle sums up this book in just a few words, but to be more specific, the author talks to people who have been studying elephants, wolves, and whales (and travels to the places to see the animals). One additional section does not focus on any one specific type of animal, but looks at many different animals and various studies of animal observation and behaviour.

If there are still people out there who think animals don’t think or feel, they are deluding themselves. Anyone who spends any time around animals at all has to realize. And it seems most or all are smarter than we think. And how do we define “intelligence”, anyway? In human terms. Even IQ tests are biased. The author points out many instances where if we held humans to the same standards as scientists hold animals when they are being studied, humans may not fare very well, either.

Of the three animals that were mainly focused on, I have read very little about whales, so I probably learned the most in that section. Sadly (and to no surprise for most of us), each of these animals are having a hard time surviving with everything humans are doing to their world, and this is touched on toward the end of the sections for each of the animals. If we start to “understand” them a bit better, will that help change things we are doing to our world (as it affects them so much)?

Michael and I shared a lot of favorites - both ones we had both already read and a number still lurking in my TBR. It was hard to choose so I made a short list of options from my TBR, deciding whichever popped into my currently reading first would be my In Memorium read.

It is Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt, which is also a Buddy Read Here should anyone wish to join.

Dawn
4 stars

I chose this book in memory of Michael; it was one of his favorites. I enjoy sci-fi and this classic has been on my TBR for a while. As much as I appreciated this book, I didn't love it. It felt very weird even for science fiction. It seemed that Butler threw everything into this book and hoped it would all somehow come together. But (and it is a very big but) the book brings very important ideas and themes to the reader.

The earth has been destroyed by a nuclear war. An alien race has "collected" the survivors and placed them in suspended animation on their ship for 250 years. One of them, Lilith, is awoken and chosen to live among the aliens and ultimately become the leader of the humans that will be returned to earth. But the alien race is masterful at altering DNA and it is unclear what that means for the next generation of humanity..... if they can survive and not kill each other. So nuclear war, captivity, and genetic engineering are just a few of the issues that come into play. There are many other ideas that one can point to in this book, and for that reason, I have given it 4 stars. I think if I want to read the entire trilogy, I would reread this one. I think this is the kind of book that grows on you if you read it more than once.

When I looked through Michael's favorites, there were so many we had both read and loved, but there were also a large number I had in my TBR. It just so happened that Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough was a 54 star read by Michael, and a favorite, and was on my to read in the short term.

Here's my 5 star review

And here's a link to Michael's review.

3 stars
Wow that was a long tedious book to read but I am happy I got through it. I will admit I did skim here and there when I was not interested in some of the subjects it talked about. The book’s main focus is about his family, his younger years, school years and his love life, very little about his years as the Vice President and President.

Yes, it is a dry, boring, tedious read but it is filled with lots of information so if you are into President's life reads then this is your type of book. If you are wanting more about his Vice President/President years, skip this book.