Language & Grammar discussion

I much prefer paper, but ebooks are great when I have to have something to read NOW!

I know the drill. No need to explain. It is what it is. Que sera sera. Sic semper paper. Et and cetera.

Don't have any suggestions for you, gebrim.

I'm reading "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. My first book of his. Very interesting. I'm not sure I'm exactly enjoying it, but it's addicting. His writing pulls you in.

I like Gaiman all right, but only all right. His followers are a tad on the rabid side, which always worries me when it comes to followers. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'm "rabid" about any of my favorite writers. Of course, most of them are deader than finishing nails....

I got the first go at Robin Hobb's new book, 'Fools Assassin'. Big fat books with big type = not enough words, annoying, but whetting the appetite for more. I don't think I can last another 2 years 'til the next one comes out. A whole new face and story, I want more!

Too much time wasted gadding around to meet the fans. that's what the delay has been.

Diana Gabaldon was the same, the last book in her series 'Written in My Own Heart's Blood' took forever! Satisfyingly though, it took forever to read, it was about 3 inches thick!

Gabs, your email doesn't go through, since you moved. I tried to send you something.

I am still nursing alongThe Bone Clocks, been busy. Hubby was in hospital again.

Uh-oh (re: hubs). Same problem?

Yes

Carol wrote: "Gabs, your email doesn't go through, since you moved. I tried to send you something."



I thought I gave you the new one, sorry, Babe. sent you an email just now!

I am reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I've enjoyed what I've read of it up to now. I've read 68 pages so far.

I am reading streaming quotes, headlines under the talking heads, captions on the stomachs of colorless thespians dead two or three generations, and the cable bill which looks more and more like a threat of something I can not comprehend.

I recently read The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera and highly recommend. I just finished reading China Dolls by Lisa See, a very enjoyable read.

Clever, Doug. Keep your eye on those cable companies, for sure.

Milan Kundera has become a bit of a machine. Still haven't read him, though I have Incredible Lightness here in the house, ready and waiting for the call (should it ever come)....

Newengland wrote: "Clever, Doug. Keep your eye on those cable companies, for sure.

Milan Kundera has become a bit of a machine. Still haven't read him, though I have Incredible Lightness here in the house, ready and..."

It's a good one NE though certainly not one to boost your attitude toward humanity. I am just starting Burial Rites, which is, like, a big deal apparently.

A big deal that I've not heard tell of. (I know, I know -- I haven't been listening.

So you wouldn't suggest The Unbearable Lightness of Being as holiday reading, I take it?

Depends on the holiday. Beach? Probably not. But if you are going to stay in the woods to 'find yourself' and are feeling philosophical and pensive then it might work....

Jeez guys, that sounds like a recipe for slashing your wrists!

You want to come home from a holiday, rested, contented, energized and ready to roll, not looking up the phone book for the nearest Trick-cyclist!

I am not a person for meaningful text, most definitely. I want to be entertained, 'on the edge of my seat - can't wait for the next instalment' kind of reader.

I meant that bear of a holiday, Christmas. I'd just as soon skip from 15 December to 5 January every year.

About The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, I read it a couple of months after a trip to Central and Eastern Europe including a week in the Czech Republic. After learning about their history, the book made a lot of sense. Some of it is humorous and it wasn't difficult to get through at all.

Newengland wrote: "I meant that bear of a holiday, Christmas. I'd just as soon skip from 15 December to 5 January every year."

Me, too.

Lisa, with regard to the Czech Republic, you may want to try Madeleine Albright's Prague Winter. Terrific book.

I'm reading Whitey Bulger, a non-fiction account of FBI murderous corruption. My Boston roots won't lemme go.

The FBI is only one Washington-based acronym that is rife with corruption. Lately I've been thinking about the FDA.

Do you think they could be taking little rewards for hurrying up approval for pharmaceuticals???

Heaven forbid!

Kenneth P. wrote: "Lisa, with regard to the Czech Republic, you may want to try Madeleine Albright's Prague Winter. Terrific book.

I'm reading Whitey Bulger, a non-fiction account of FBI murderous corruption. My B..."

Thanks for the suggestion.

Kenneth P. wrote: "Lisa, with regard to the Czech Republic, you may want to try Madeleine Albright's Prague Winter. Terrific book.

I'm reading Whitey Bulger, a non-fiction account of FBI murderous corruption. My B..."
I grew up in Boston in the 50s. I went to a lot of parties in Dorchester. It was interesting to read about Whitey.

So you read this book Joanne? What did you think? Have you read Black Mass?

I am between books, and when I am between books I read Montaigne's Essays. Incredibly, I am on p. 300 or so. Still only about a third through, but I find it remarkable how sympatico my views are with his. Good old Michel de Mountain, says I, it's always good to chat between books....

Kenneth P. wrote: "So you read this book Joanne? What did you think? Have you read Black Mass?"
I did read that book, and found the behavior of the FBI as bad as anything Whitey did. I thought the writing was uneven, but it tickled me that his anti-Obama rant helped get him captured. I haven't read Black Mass, did you like it?

Joanne, I haven't gotten that far yet in Whitey. As far as Black Mass goes, it was a terrific book but you probably don't need to read it since it was written a decade before Whitey was arrested. Black Mass was the gold standard of that tawdry, Southie drama. It was when the bodies were being dug up, when a daft public began to say, "No way, Whitey was cool, he was the Prince of Southie."

The book is an honest effort of two newspaper reporters who just wanted to get the facts right. I think uneven writing is a natural byproduct of that effort.

My dad was a career cop in Quincy. Foolishly, I always thought of the FBI as a step up on the law enforcement ladder. The whole thing is mind-boggling!

Have you been to the Adams House? Not much, that. Or how's about the first Dunkin Donuts shrine? Still a working doughnut facility, that.

I was at the House of the Seven Gables a few weeks back, but that's another town entirely.

I remember going there NE when I was travelling. A cool bit of history :-)

I am going to start The Handmaids Take tomorrow. My first Atwood!

Ah, a good choice for a first Atwood, I'd say. She has a new collection of short stories just out last week.

Born and raised in Quincy, I never went to the Adams house to my everlasting shame (it was in Braintree back in the Adams' day--I learned this watching the PBS John Adams series). But when I travel I always make a point of visiting such sites, hmmmmm.

Adams/Atwood, that's damn legitimate segue. I read Surfacing a while back which was quite good but not a knee buckler. I need to read that book Angela. My resume is sadly bereft of those people up there.

I recently finished an extraordinary book, "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson. It was really an eye-opener for me, in that, like most white, upper-middle class, non-bigoted people, I assumed that we, as a nation have a least one field of play where equality reigns: the justice system. I could not have been more wrong. Reading this book made me look deep within myself, at my own views on justice in America, as well as how I could play a part in balancing the scales. I am still struggling with that, although I have made one obvious step - donating money to the Equal Justice Initiative.

I would encourage all my fellow book lovers to read this book, and examine their own views on the equality within the justice system of our country.

I heard Bryan Stevenson speak at a conference of attorneys nationwide who represented people facing the death penalty or those who had already been sentenced initially.

I was part of a defense team for a man whose essential crime - before a death occurred for which the DA sought the death penalty - was 'driving while black'. He was stopped for going 56 on the interstate at a time the speed limit was 55. That was in the 80's in NM.

In 2014 my daughter was stopped in MA for 'driving while Hispanic with a black passenger'. (The "official" charge was "following to close" although the police had no information on the vehicle she was supposed to have been following to closely.)

Racism is very alive and well even in places with a liberal reputation like MA.

While I haven't read Just Mercy, I have no doubt it is an eye-opene, and I join Jerry's recommendation. EJI does excellent work.

I saw his TED Talk and showed it in class.

currently reading and doing the exercises from pat pattison's "songwriting without boundaries"
it's gotten me back into the habit of daily writing

Daily writing is the only writing there is (I hear). Good on ya! And let's get links to your songs as soon as they're up.

Almost at the end of Amitav Ghosh 's Flood of Fire.. I' ve invested so much in the fate of the characters, that I am impatiently waiting to find out what happens to all of them.

Don't know this one, Sonali. Check back when you're done!

Newengland, the New Yorker recently had a review of Ghosh's 3 book series. Actually, it reviewed the third of the books. I can't decide if I will get them to listen to on audible or read.

Perhaps it has so much of my country 's history that I like it...? I like his The Hungry Tide & Shadow Lines best, once again perhaps because he writes about what is quite familiar, shared memory locale history culture. The Ibis Trilogy is perhaps his magnum opus.

The trilogy has clarified a lot of history too, why the Opium War is remembered & used politically by China, what it meant for Indians - common people & the sepoys, bonded labour from the subcontinent settling in far away lands, how the East was transformed... etc

Just finished rereading Camus' The Stranger in prep for group read next month. About halfway through Percy's The Moviegoer for my personal State Challenge (LA), reading Simone de Beuvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity for a Women Writer challenge, When You Were Older by Catherine Ryan Hyde for my State challenge (KS), The Tower Treasure (Hardy Boys # 1 by Dixon) for classic bingo, At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs for another box on bingo.

Between Camus, Percy, and De Beauvoir I am unexpectedly awash in existentialist angst - which I love

Trying to read Frankenstein for another group's discussion coming up on the first. Not making much headway (pun intended). Still chewing on Golden Age, the last in the trilogy. My reading has drastically slowed down.

Carol wrote: "Trying to read Frankenstein for another group's discussion coming up on the first. Not making much headway (pun intended). Still chewing on Golden Age, the last in the ..."

I am a long wave reader at this point in my life. I read constantly between Nov 2013 and Feb 2015, then turned to other interests and read little until Nov 2015.

Have you slowed down for other commitments or something else Carol?

I've been doing poetry and nonfiction for a change. Right now I'm in Scandinavia learning about (surprise!) Scandinavians!

The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

Dave wrote: "Carol wrote: "Trying to read Frankenstein for another group's discussion coming up on the first. Not making much headway (pun intended). Still chewing on Golden Age, th..."

Been doing a lot of oil painting, thanks for asking.

@NE, that looks interesting, but I think I will give it a pass.

NE, since you asked to check back, here I am about The Ibis Trilogy. Was so so disappointed midway through the book. It was as if the author had spent too much time & got bored with the subject. I read the very last bit sporadically. The first two books were had set us up for a grand finale... which didn't happen. Anyway....

Thanks, Sonali, for coming back and closing the circle. So much for Ibis!