Books on the Nightstand discussion

Joe wrote: "I just finished Ready Player One and now I am reading The Magicians.

I was highly disappointed with Ready Player One and I am having a hard time getting into The Magicians."

I read The Magicians and was so not impressed. Have no intention of reading the sequel even though I own it. Will probably donate it to the library book sale.

Decided to take a reading holiday today. Started and finished The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and while I loved the story idea, did not like the book as much as I expected to.

i just finished Gone, Baby, GoneGone, Baby, Gone. Now I'm working on Middlesex for book club in May and Catching Fire just for fun. I also read a couple of good comic trades.


Also listening to on audio.

I'm a little behind but got sucked into the Soho Crime read along and just finished The Murders In The Rue Morgue. I had never read it and loved it.i'll be re reading A Study in Scarlet next.

I also finally just read the Hunger Games. Put it off forever, because I like my endings happy or just, but I did enjoy it. Will read the other two at some point, although daughter assures me it's not a happy ending. Still, surprisingly well written.

I'm about to dive into and ? I'm a foodie who's going through a WWII history jag!

Joe wrote: "I just finished Ready Player One and now I am reading The Magicians.

I was highly disappointed with Ready Player One and I am having a hard time getting into The Magicians."
I'm just finishing The Magicians and wish I hadn't bothered. I find it so hard to DNF a book especially when it is a group read.

As a compensation I have put off other books on my TBR pile and an enjoying Catching Fire.

@ linda,

i finished Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power last night. i couldn't send you a message so i am posting the review here. all in all, i gave it four stars and found it a compelling argument to cut our military budget and to question the president's choice when it comes to engaging in war.

i picked this book on a whim in the library. it wasn't until i got home that i flipped it over and saw rachel maddow on the back and realized who she was in tv land.

i consider myself to be liberal when it comes to politics. so i can't say whether this book feeds my ideology per se or not. i will say that maddow does an excellent job of explaining exactly how we've come to be a nation that has put the power to go to war directly in the hands of our president. this is not what the founding father's envisioned when constructing the constitution. thomas jefferson warns against the very idea that president's like to seek out conflict and so the power to declare war lays in the hands of congress.

but that has changed. and the way we run our military has changed. the way we use our reservists has changed. all for the worse.

maddow makes a good argument for cutting down the budget for the military. it has increased exponentially over the years eclipsing what we pour into education, social programs, and any other program not having to do with homeland security. our military budget is more than all other military budgets in the world combined. i have to ask "why?" especially as a teacher.

this book makes me feel jaded about the american political machine. it makes me feel sad that in a republic our vote doesn't make much of a difference. our voice is not counted.

i am reading Secret Daughter.

Just finished Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck, her second book of memoir following the NYT bestseller Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found from 2001. Touching, heartbreaking, hopeful, familiar, tragicomic, all the things a good story needs. Highly recommend both!

Oh dear, I have not been a member in good standing of the Books on the Nightstand Community! It's been two months since I've posted what I'm reading! No, I'm not going to eat up space and your time by recounting the twenty books I've read since last we met! I'm just going to pick up with the last book I finished and a little bit about the book I'm reading now:


Invisible by Paul Auster
This is a story about a young man, Adam Walker, at Columbia University who has a chance encounter with a visiting professor, Rudolf Born. Born and his enigmatic and attractive girlfriend, Margot take an interest in Adam, invite him for dinner and decide to fund a fledgling literary magazine with Adam at the helm. And then something happens which causes forty years of male angst, sorta along the lines of Ian McEwan (cf Saturday and On Chesil Beach) and Michael Cunningham (Nightfall.) There is no denying that Auster can write: He had me on the hook from the first page; but by the end, I was left on the hook. The ending was dissatisfying and left me feeling stupid for not "getting it" and actually wondering what the point of the whole book was :-/




Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Instead of diving right into this 500-page lit-fic novel, I procrastinated by reading a half dozen short novels and novellas. Then last night, it called to me and I whipped through 100+ pages in a couple of hours! I don't know why I was dragging my heels: I have loved, or at last really liked Margaret Atwood's other books (The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood (together) and, The Blind Assassin) so there was no reason I wouldn't like Alias Grace as well! Anyway, this is a bit different than Atwood'd other works: It's a historical fiction based on a true crime. In 1843, Grace Marks and her boyfriend killed her employer. Convicted, her boyfriend was hanged and she ended up serving a life sentence in a Canadian penitentiary. Her case apparently is controversial as there was quite a bit of doubt regarding her guilt. Alias Grace is different; but it is still unmistakably Margaret Atwood: her sensibility, her cadence and, her themes :-)

I've just started The Blind Assassin. It's my first Atwood, and so far I'm loving it.

I've also got Down and Dirty Pictures - a history of the rise of Sundance, Miramax and independent film in the 90s - going and I just picked up The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, which I can't wait to dive into.

I'd really better get cracking on my Booktopia reading for Oxford though. I'm going to make myself pick up Faulkner on my next trip to the bookstore.

JT wrote: "I've just started The Blind Assassin. It's my first Atwood, and so far I'm loving it.

I read The Blind Assassin last month and it made me realize how much I really groove on Margaret Atwood's writing! There something about her use of language that I totally get, meaning that I'm not sitting there staring at any given sentence trying to figure out what she means. This is not to imply that her writing is "simple," just straight forward enough that I can spend more grey matter on the themes she's playing out in the stories. I love how The Blind Assassin spools out in particular: the layers of deceptions and the warp-and-weft of my own perspectives that Atwood engenders.


The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Every now and then you read one of those books that says things that are so true and elementary that you wonder why they haven't been said before (at least in such a popular, best-selling platform). This is one of those books.

I mean, of course 80% of the great thinkers in history have been introverts. Why wouldn't that be? You have to spend a lot of time in solitude to get those great thoughts down on paper. And yet, we live in a world where we are encouraged to be more outgoing and social, and not to honor the impulse that leads to solitude and contemplation. As a result, we suffer a lack of quality leadership, and a skewed education system.

This is a book that people who read should read. It's all about you! You who forgo social activity to expose yourselves to the ideas of strangers. There is nothing wrong with you, despite what society may tell you. We need more people like you to be more like people like you. Stop trying to emulate "them". The extroverts. Except in cases where it serves your ends to do so.

This is a very liberating book.

The only reason I docked it the full five stars is the last section, which suggests what we should do about the problem of societal tampering with our introvert impulses. The answers given are a bit too facile, and maybe need to be explored and studied a bit more. My wife, a Montessori educator, spoke to Susan Cain about that hundred-year-old method of education, which follows the child's own natural inclinations and curiosities, instilling a lifelong love of learning. Maria Montessori, through observation alone, reached the same conclusion as the researchers cited by Cain, and invented a classroom where children, by their own choice, could work together or separately, exercising the methods more appropriate to the child's own learning style or personality type.

I can't wait for my signed copy to arrive!

Eric, my son went to a Montessori school because, just as you described, the decision to put my son in an M school was just that, so he could follow his natural desires and in effect, instill a love of learning with the help of teachers trained to do just that. Unfortunately, the M school we placed him in followed a different path and, in fact, ultimately made him feel very bad about his introvertedness (shyness) and, in fact, did not allow him to follow his own natural inclinations. Without all the gory details, this experience put us on the path of unschooling (a style of homeschooling) in which my son now can truly follow his natural inclinations and feel 100% supported in his introvert style.

Please don't misunderstand me as I am NOT knocking Montessori teachers like your wife who sound like they truly understand the M way. Unfortunately we chose one that was more concerned about looking good once the kids moved on to public/private schools. It sounds like your wife gets the M philosophy and her students are very lucky indeed! Please let her know I really appreciate that as it's SO good to hear coming off of our bad experience and feeling jaded about the Montessori system we experienced.

Anytime people take a cookie cutter approach to learning, there's trouble ahead. My wife says the M approach is used by quite a few state schools these days and I don't know how that would work.

I don't know either as it is very different from the one-size fits all style, unless they mold it to their needs like our shool did and then call it Montessori learning?

That's probably what happened.

I've started a book I randomly picked up at the library:

The Haunting of Maddy Clare

I like a good ghost story, I hope it gives me goosebumps!

I am reading Exit Music. It's the first time I've read a book by Ian Rankin, and am enjoying it so far.

http://thebookbags.blogspot.ca/

I am in a book conundrum. I'm waiting for Middlesex to be returned, and in the meantime I picked up History of a Pleasure Seeker, which I am enjoying... but now I've just received Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, which my boss grabbed for me while he was traveling in the UK. Too many options!

I have recently started The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. Everyone should check it out.It's a great read!

I gobbled up Catching Fire and dived straight into Mockingjay

Eric wrote: "[bookcover:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking]

Every now and then you read one of those books that says things that are so true and elementary that you wonder why th..."

Liberating is exactly the word I would use to describe this book as well. I just finished it about 2 weeks ago myself. Loved it.

I am now reading by Elizabeth George and on Kindle by Susan Kiernan-Lewis.

I'm reading The Professionals and it's quite the page turner. My last read was The Sense of an Ending. It's rare for me to love 2 books back to back so yay...maybe I'm out of my reading slump.

1Q84 and Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twenthieth Century's Biggest Bestsellers

Elizabeth wrote: "i would love to hear what you think of The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. i hear good things about it."

I couldn't get into it so I read about 20 pages (it seemed a little dry) and I put it down. I may go back to it at some point, but I tend to move on if a book doesn't grab me within 25 pages.

This wasn't in my wheelhouse. It's well written erotica, with some interesting characters, but I expected more in terms of thematic depth. It was recommended as more of a literary novel than it turned out to be. I guess erotica can be literary, but this book didn't deliver what I was looking for.

The title character, Piet Barol, is engaged as a tutor to a prosperous Dutch family's OCD son, and proceeds to become embroiled in an affair with the lady of the house. He is also pursued, to varying degrees, by the two young daughters and a couple of male servants. I made it a third of the way through the book before realizing it wasn't for me. It seemed to follow a pattern of building up to one unsatisfying (for Piet) sexual encounter after another, which I suppose would eventually lead into some major fireworks. But what interested me the most were the psychological peculiarities of the boy, Egbert, and his father, Maarten. The book (to me at least) squandered too much time on the sexual frolics and didn't get back in time to what was, to me, the intellectual meat of the story.

I met Richard Mason at Booktopia in Vermont. A smart, charming, engaging man he is, and maybe he's got a book in him that would be more to my taste, but this wasn't the one.

I should say here that I'm not anti-erotica. But I don't seek the stuff out. One book along these lines I can recommend is Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's graphic novel, . That book, which, like this one, is set in Europe in the Gilded Age, has the additional draw of being itself not only erotica, but an argument in favor of erotica, of engaging the Eros urge instead of aggression. Moore and Gebbie (who are husband and wife) score some serious points in that regard, amid the titillation.

Over a recent weeklong vacation I read Doc by Mary Doria Russell for a book club meeting and enjoyed it very much. The others in the group were not as impressed, but no one was terribly negative (which made me feel better, since I was the one who suggested this title!). I also read Marilyn L'Engles A Wrinkle in Time, a classic kids' book whose 50th publication anniversary is this year. I read it to or along with my now-college age son years ago and was curious to go back to it.

I've begun reading Just Kids, a memoir by Patti Smith, also for a book club. I'd been aware of this title but wasn't interested, but I'm sure I'll like it well enough. Although I've only read a couple of chapters so far, it seems well written.

On audio, I finished Swamplandia a few days ago and am now listening to The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. Quite a contrast in the settings of these two books and the writing style, but both are outstanding.

@ Eric, funny I read History of a Pleasure Seeker also, liked it very much, but wouldn't have dreamed of categorizing it as erotica. I think I read on the book jacket that the genre is picaresque so of course I had to look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresq...

I know the term, but most picaresque novels don't have explosions of bodily fluids every few pages. Hence my categorization.

Finished -loved it!!!

Taking a break before I start #2


Started

Eric - those were exactly my thoughts on History of a Pleasure Seeker! I did finish it and while I found it an easy, breezy, read, I was most interested in the things that Mason left out of the book. I didn't have much of an interest in continuing with the further adventures of Piet but since he told us that book two would be very different, I'm sure I'll give it a try.

One of the things I found frustrating was how people were so dazzled by Piet and seemed completely enamoured of him but as readers we were never really shown why, just told that it was so. Richard Mason made an offhand remark at some point over the weekend, I can't remember when, that he'd given his character the ability to read people's minds -- and then it kind of clicked for me that it really wasn't supposed to make sense in any real way. I also suppose the fact that Mason himself was so charming helped make it easy to understand how a character he developed could be that way too.

Becky wrote: "Finished -loved it!!!

Taking a break before I start #2


Started "

The School ... is a quick read. i started and finished it in one night. i thought it was sweet.

i started .

by Lauren Groff.
Halfway thru, good.

Robin wrote: "by Lauren Groff.
Halfway thru, good."

I have that in my TBR...isn't it about hippies? Yay, should be right up my alley.

Just finished , great premise, page-turner, very entertaining read and a debut author...debut authors are my favorites. I think a lot of authors only have one book in them. Hopefully not the case here as it is to be a series.

I have all these books in my home office waiting for me. I have stacks upon stacks for challenges and blog memes. And yet, instead of any of those books, this is the one calling out to me:


The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín

I have no idea what it is about and, having looked up what "blackwater" is (sewage), I'm wary; but it can't be helped, so here I go ;-)

Finished this weekend, and I enjoyed it, although thought it was a bit long and took awhile to get to the good part of the story. I'm finishing up , which is definitely a light read, but I'm finding it fairly entertaining. Next up is , which I can't wait to get into!

About halfway thru with this,and I am loving it. Learning fascinating things I never knew about a topic I thought I knew pretty well, and loving the way the history is sandwiched in the middle of a riveting story. Brava, Ms. Stockett.

i started .

I've had a very enjoyable reading month
Started with King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village and LOVED it!

Then I became totally consumed with 11/23/64 and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Fault in Our Stars was excellent!

I learned I won the newest Masie Dobbs book so I thought I should try to catch up on the series first. I enjoyed Messenger of Truth

Just began prepping for Mississippi with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter which I'm listening to. I've restarted it 3 times to listen to the wonderful descriptions from the first five minutes which really hit home and touched my rural southern girl memories.

Finally, began Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef which kept me up waaay too late last night because I couldn't make myself put it down.

So thankful to BOTNS because I doubt I would have read most of these without the recommendations from this group.

11/22/63

Lori wrote: "Just began prepping for Mississippi with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter which I'm listening to. I've restarted it 3 times to listen to the wonderful descriptions from the first five minutes which really hit home and touched my rural southern girl memories."

I can't tell you how much I love that audio book! I won't go on and on and risk spoiling it for you; but Kevin Kenerly did an amazing work in narration :-)

I can't tell you how much I love that audio book! I won't go on and on and risk spoiling it for you; but Kevin Kenerly did an amazing work in narration :-) Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Lori wrote: "Just began prepping for Mississippi with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter which I'm listening to. I've restarted it 3 times to listen to the wonderful descriptions from the first five m..."

Oooh good! When something begins this beautifully it makes me almost hesitant to continue. Glad to hear the audio recommendation. This is making me very excited (as if I wasn't already!) about meeting him in Mississippi - which I did indeed learn to spell, M-I-crooked letter, crooked letter...

Finally broke down and am starting Stephen King's It, I have been putting it off till I was done with college and now I just have one class left. After that taking a second crack at Dickens with Great Expectations.

If you read "11/12/63" and "It" you'll run into some of the same characters. Dick Hallorann from "The Shining" appears in "It", too. Stephen King's books take place in a "multiverse" where everything connects. Read the "Dark Tower" books to find out more about how this works.

Started last night, it looks to be an intriguing read!

I have finished Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace! I have now read four of Atwood’s novels: The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and now Alias Grace. Atwood is one of those writers, who the more you read their books, the more you understand the other books that they have written. There is a common sensibility and variations of (a) theme(s) that you would expect from work originating from the same writer; but more than that, you can see how it’s all related in some sort of private universe that we all are privileged to share. I’m looking forward to exploring more of this private universe with Life Before Man and Wilderness Tips, both of which I picked up at the Rogue Book Exchange a couple of weeks ago.

Right now though, I’m reading The Blackwater Lightship (by Colm Toibin.) I have a number of stacks and lists of books I “should” be reading for various challenges and memes; but this is the one that is called out to me. I didn’t know anything about it when I picked it up and I wonder if the cover art, with its muted golden hues, is what attracted me in somehow appealing to my mood. I looked up “Blackwater’ and discovered that it means, uh, sewage of the nastiest kind; and I was a bit wary of what this might portend in the book; but it tuns out that Blackwater is the name of the town setting! “The Blackwater Lightship” sounds like a rather romantic title though, doesn’t it? But there’s nothing particularly romantic about it: Declan is dying from AIDS and his sister, mother and grandmother have been called upon to bear witness and be with him in this (perhaps final) round of illness. The setting is in Ireland and the time is 1992 and so reasonable hope is not a factor in the atmosphere of the story.

I should finish The Blackwater Lightship tonight and then I have Man in the Dark, a short novel by Paul Auster here on-hand. I’m not sure I like Paul Auster, after having read Invisible last week; but I think this is worth investigating before I move on.

Read Madeline Miller's on the way home from Booktopia (sigh) and really enjoyed it. Tender is the best word for this love story. I can't wait for her next book.

Palate cleansed with while waiting for my box from Northshire to arrive. Must say I was disappointed in this YA, dystopian novel. I thought the main premise of the factions was hard to swallow, which kept me from being able to immerse in the plot. Oh, well...plenty more dystopia out there to discover.

Now reading, , and it is off to a wonderful start.

Finished History of a Pleasure Seeker, which I definitely enjoyed. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite books of all time, and I feel like this was a less creepy, more adult version. Also very similar character-wise to Bel Ami, although Piet Barol was vastly more interesting and sympathetic. Not great literature, but a fun, light read.

I also finished The Best American Science Writing 2011, which was a solid collection. I have to wonder if this series is always a collection of stories about how we are either killing the planet and its many living things, or killing each other, or being killed by forces outside of our control, or being taken over by computers. I really don't think science is that bleak in general, although I guess bleakness sells.

I started Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend yesterday, and I couldn't put it down. I woke up thinking about it this morning, and I am counting the hours until I can go home and finish it. I wholeheartedly agree with the blurb on the cover that mentions The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Room, both of which I adored and feel very similar to this. By the way, have tissues nearby while you read this. I wasn't expecting the emotional hit, but just the description of a character called Summer left me devastated last night. Such a great read.