THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

I love the way that Henry Tilney gets her all worked up with the story about the old maid leaving her in a abandoned wing of the house..... She was such an impressionable young girl with a relish for frightening tales!

I am reading Freddy goes camping

I ordered several of Michael Palin's travel books (again, the "Around the World in 80 Books" challenge). Sahara got here first, so I started with that. It's both interesting and entertaining.

Miss GP wrote: "I ordered several of Michael Palin's travel books (again, the "Around the World in 80 Books" challenge). Sahara got here first, so I started with that. It's both interesting and ente..."

you must let us know how "your journey" proceeds...

The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of my all time favorites! My latest story, still in the editing stage, is set during the French Revolution. A fascinating period in history.

love all the Pimpernel novels!

just finished the analytical theses of Martin S. Bergmann who played Professor Louis Levy in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemenors (I am out the window)

I just started King,Kaiser,Tsar which is the story of the three cousins who, as rulers of England, Germany and Russia, led the world into WWI. So far it is very informative and well written. Will let you know. Finished American Passage, the story of Ellis Island.........a little dry but full of good research and interesting anecdotes.

I loved 'the Scarlet Pimpernel' also, I like those French Revolution stories like 'Tale of two cities', think i'll check your work out Maggi.

Very inportant when reading books in the Pimpernel series- I know there are about 5 or 6 that the Baroness Orczy wrote- is to read them in order- because one could become quite confused if they dont start with The Scarlet Pimpernel- as the others I read assumed the reader was familiar with incidents in previous book-

One must also hold one's nose at the Baroness Orczy's blatent anti-semitism in her portrayal of Jewish characters- it shocked me at first- and I read the informative intro by a fine scholar - who did not let Orczy off the hook- but one must realize the time it was written- still as a Jewish person- I was somewhat taken aback by her dismissal of "the jew"

Miss GP wrote: "Rick wrote: "Corelli's Mandolin, alternatively called Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is a 1993 novel written by Louis de Bernières which takes place on the island of Cephallonia (Kefalonia) during the..."

Hi Ms GP, I loved Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow so will check out At Thread of Grace.

Cheers,
Lai

i'm reading Helen Keller's The Story of my Life now.

Nanette wrote: "Rick,

re: your comment #958 - what book are you talking about?

nanette"

I think he was referring to the Scarlet Pimpernel (#956 - 58)

Clair wrote: "i'm reading Helen Keller's The Story of my Life now."

Is this her autobiography?

I'm "reading" several books now, but I used quotes because reading for me used to involve a much more immersive experience. These days, I may go days or weeks between reading sessions because of my schedule (unlike my husband who diligently reads before bed, I often cannot).

Anyway, I'm almost finished with Eco's The Name of The Rose, which I'm rereading because I like to read a historical novel along with my history reading. And I just started Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present I'll be looking for novel recommendations to go along with this era, but I have a feeling that there will be too many good ones (I still haven't read all of my novels set in the Middle Ages.)

I am reading Girlbomb- A Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Erlbaum.

Lai wrote: "Hi Ms GP, I loved Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow so will check out At Thread of Grace"

Hi Lai - The Sparrow is also one of my favorite books. A Thread of Grace is very different, as it's set during WWII not the distant future, but it's soooo good. I think she did an even better job of characterization in Thread of Grace. I didn't like her Dreamers of the Day at all.

Lyn M wrote: "Plus the 1001 books group is reading it for a group read this month, if you are interested, Judith."

I know, I know! I don't know why I didn't mention that in my comment. Guess I didn't think there were members here in both groups. Glad to know it though!

Thanks Rick, I see the following website has the Pimpernel books listed, I think its the correct order, online e-books are also available, http://www.blakeneymanor.com/series.html

Thanks. My French Revolution story, HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE is still in the process of being edited. You'll find my other books on my website: http://www.maggiandersenauthor.com

Anyone who enjoys reading about the period in which The Scarlet Pimpernel was set, may like James Tipton's ANNETTE VALLON A Novel of the French Revolution. I loved this book.

Jill wrote: "I just started King,Kaiser,Tsar which is the story of the three cousins who, as rulers of England, Germany and Russia, led the world into WWI. So far it is very informative and well written. Will..."

Jill - I just added that to my TBR as I am fascinated with European Royalty.

Maggi wrote: "Anyone who enjoys reading about the period in which The Scarlet Pimpernel was set, may like James Tipton's ANNETTE VALLON A Novel of the French Revolution. I loved this book."

Maggi - Glad to see that you loved it. I just ordered a copy from bookcloseouts.com yesterday on a whim, so it is good to know that it was worth the purchase.

I am thinking of dropping everything and reading the latest Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher called Changes since I have been waiting impatiently for it and Dresden is my favorite series ever. The I will head back to The Count of Monte Cristo, Jean Plaidy's The Lady in the Tower, and Caligula: The Corruption of Power.

Lyn M wrote: "Jill wrote: "I just started King,Kaiser,Tsar which is the story of the three cousins who, as rulers of England, Germany and Russia, led the world into WWI. So far it is very informative and well ..."

Lyn......I really think you will like it. I'm about half-way through and it is quite fascinating. Another book you might enjoy is "The Eagles Die" by George Marek about the end of the Austro-Hungarian royal dynasty in Europe, also set prior/post WWI.

Thanks Jill, I will look into that one, too.

I think you'll enjoy it, Lynne. Wonderfully researched, a fascinating read.

Thanks Maggi, I'll check your website and that Tipton you mentioned.

There was a recent Dumas book that was released in hardcover- that dealt with the Napoleonic times- I purchased it used- looks like a great read- I believe it was newly discovered

The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Cavalier-A...

I have just finished A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory which like his other books was also excellent. I'm now starting Tea TIme for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith (Ilove all of his books but Scotland Street series are my favourites).

Rick - I will have to look at that. I love Dumas!!

A couple of days ago, I finally started on the fourth and final volume of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. If I hadn't had several other reading commitments, I'd have gotten around to this one a lot sooner! :-)

I'm currently re-reading the first Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce ontgomery) Novel: Obsequies at Oxford.

The Gervace Fen novels are particular favourites of mine and I haven't re-read them in twenty years.

LeAnn wrote: " And I just started Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present I'll be looking for novel recommendations to go along with this era, but I have a feeling that there will be too many good ones (I still haven't read all of my novels set in the Middle Ages.) "

LeAnn, I'm also reading From Dawn to Decadence, though at a pretty leisurely pace, and currently it's been supplanted a bit by other things, but it's a great one to pick up and dabble for a few pages in. Tons and tons to think about there. Hope you're enjoying it.

Just finished revisiting Pale Fire, which is a departure from my fondness for contemporary fiction. Read it because of a cousin's recommendation and an essay by Zadie Smith. Also reading The Imperfectionists. Usually read two at a time - one brick and mortar book, one on Kindle. About to start Ordinary Thunderstorms.

Kasa wrote: "Just finished revisiting Pale Fire, which is a departure from my fondness for contemporary fiction. Read it because of a cousin's recommendation and an essay by Zadie Smith. Also reading The Impe..."

Zadie Smith is a facinating writer-

Zadie Smith was born Sadie Smith in the northwest London borough of Brent – a largely working-class area – to a Jamaican mother, Yvonne Bailey, and an English father, Harvey Smith. Her mother had grown up in Jamaica and immigrated to England in 1969. Their marriage was her father's second. She has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers, one of whom is the rapper and stand-up comedian Doc Brown and the other is rapper Luc Skyz. As a child she was fond of tap dancing; as a teenager she considered a career as an actress in musical theatre; and as a university student she earned money as a jazz singer and wanted to become a journalist.

Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. When she was 14, she changed her name to "Zadie." Despite earlier ambitions, literature emerged as her principal interest and would provide a model for her future career.

[edit:] Education and career
Smith attended the local state schools, Malorees Junior School and Hampstead Comprehensive School, and King's College, Cambridge University where she studied English literature. In an interview with the Guardian in 2000, Smith was keen to correct a recent newspaper assertion that she left Cambridge with a double First. "Actually, I got a Third in my Part Ones", she said. At Cambridge she published a number of short stories in a collection of student writing (see Short stories) called the May Anthologies. These attracted the attention of a publisher who offered her a contract for her first novel. Smith decided to contact a literary agent and was taken on by the Wylie Agency on the basis of little more than a first chapter.

Zadie Smith seems to have been rejected for a place in the Cambridge Footlights by the popular British comedy double act Mitchell and Webb, whilst all three were studying at Cambridge University in the 1990s.[3:]

White Teeth was introduced to the publishing world in 1997, long before it was completed. On the basis of a partial manuscript an auction among different publishers for the rights started, with Hamish Hamilton being successful. Smith completed White Teeth during her final year at Cambridge. Published in 2000, the novel became a bestseller immediately. It was praised internationally and won a number of awards (see Novels). The novel was adapted for television in 2002 by Channel 4. She also served as "writer in residence" at the ICA in London and subsequently published as editor an anthology of sex writing, Piece of Flesh, as the culmination of this role.

In interviews she reported that the hype surrounding her first novel had caused her to suffer a short spell of writer's block. Nevertheless, her second novel, The Autograph Man, was published in 2002 and was a commercial success, although the critical response was not as close to unanimously positive as it had been to White Teeth.

After the publication of The Autograph Man, Smith visited the United States as a 2002–2003 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow at Harvard University.[4:] She started work on a still unreleased book of essays, The Morality of the Novel, aka 'Fail Better', in which she considers a selection of 20th century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. Some portions of this book presumably are included in the essay collection Changing My Mind, published in November of 2009.

The second novel was followed by another, On Beauty, published in September 2005 and which is set largely in and around Greater Boston and which attracted more acclaim. This third novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction.

In December 2008 she guest edited the BBC Radio 4 Today programme [5:].

While currently teaching fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts, she will be joining New York University as a tenured professor of fiction as of September 1, 2010.

[edit:] Private life
Smith met Nick Laird at Cambridge University. They married in 2004 in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Smith dedicated On Beauty to "my dear Laird." The couple lived in Monti, Rome, Italy from November 2006–2007 and are now based between New York City and Queen's Park, London. [6:] They have a daughter, Katherine (born 2009).[7:]

Becoming Alice: A Memoir

I am reading "Blackbird" by Jennifer Lauck. I learned about her book by being connected in She Writes.com.
Can't say more until I've finished the book.

The Death of Kings: Royal Deaths in Medieval England--I have a slightly morbid turn, I suppose!

Mary wrote: "The Death of Kings: Royal Deaths in Medieval England--I have a slightly morbid turn, I suppose!"

sounds like a very intriguing book!!
cant wait for your review, Mary!

Alice wrote: "Becoming Alice: A Memoir

I am reading "Blackbird" by Jennifer Lauck. I learned about her book by being connected in She Writes.com.
Can't say more until I've finished the book."

looks like a facinating book!

Mary wrote: "The Death of Kings: Royal Deaths in Medieval England--I have a slightly morbid turn, I suppose!"

I am fascinated by Medieval Royalty (actually, Royalty in general) so I had to put this on my TBR!

I'm now on to Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach and im loving it the way i love Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and Peter Mayle's books on his French experience!

Kasa wrote: "Just finished revisiting Pale Fire, which is a departure from my fondness for contemporary fiction. Read it because of a cousin's recommendation and an essay by Zadie Smith. Also reading The Impe..."

What did you think of Pale Fire? My F2F book group has selected it for our May read & I know nothing about it.

I'd read it over 40 years ago and was completely baffled by it then. Maturity has helped with my understanding of it, but parts are still difficult to decipher. Read carefully, it is a real exercise particularly if you haven't read anything challenging for a while. I've unearthed my Nabokov collection and will reread most of them, spread out over time.

Kasa wrote: "I'd read it over 40 years ago and was completely baffled by it then. Maturity has helped with my understanding of it, but parts are still difficult to decipher. Read carefully, it is a real exerc..."

I remember having to read Nabokov's autobio- Speak.Memory for college- and all I could get out of it was that he liked to catch butterflies!!!

Good morning all,
My blog today is in honor of National Library Week. I invite you to check it out at http://jrlindermuth.blogspot.com

J.R. wrote: "Good morning all,
My blog today is in honor of National Library Week. I invite you to check it out at http://jrlindermuth.blogspot.com"

very nice blog!!!

J.R. wrote: "Good morning all,
My blog today is in honor of National Library Week. I invite you to check it out at http://jrlindermuth.blogspot.com"

I intend to check out your blog later today. I just got a bunch of nice freebies at the library in honor of National Library Week. And Wednesday is the first ever National Bookmobile Day!

Nanette wrote: "Rick,

hello. Do you think Zadie Smith's newest novel is different in style from "White Teeth?" I might be in the minority, but "White Teeth" was one of the books I hated most of all the books I..."

I am in complete agreement with you- I feel the new book is much more "reader friendly" and not as pontificating as White Teeth