Veer, like any book about a group of people, there will be some exaggerations, some generalizations, and various levels of truth. Certainly we have trailer parks filled with single women and kids, and certainly we have parts of the country filled with religious vervor (we can thank our puritan ancestors for this, remember the ones you sent us? :)Its certainly not a picture of the US, but a small puzzle piece.

BTW, I'd have tossed that book aside unfinished. I have a hard time reading books filled with despair, poverty and futility without some sort of redemption, hope, chance for a better life.

Cindy, re your/our Puritan ancestors. I once saw a newpaper cartoon showing a couple of 'settlers' standing on a rock marked 'Plymouth', with the Mayflower just out to sea. One is saying to the other "Thank God to be away from those religious views forced upon us. Now just let me get my hands on a Heathen Indian to convert."
Btw televangelism is something unknown in the UK as are religious revival meetings. I think you would need to go back to the days of Wesley to hear a charasmatic religious speaker. I'm not counting Billy Graham who has visited England a few times.

Ha, ha, Veer. I was in a group once that included a woman going on and on about being a descendant of someone on the Mayflower. I looked at her and said, "Well, My ancestor wasn't on the Mayflower, but he was there to meet the boat!"....a.k.a. Indian.

I have just finished the seventh and final book of The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

It was a long, long journey, made longer by the fact that Stephen King desperately needs an editor. Certainly it's not unflawed. But I thoroughly enjoyed it - and I was very impressed by the end.

So here's to Rayma, wherever she may be. Remember reading and discussing the very first one in the series(The Gunslinger) here on RP?

I think I need a break before moving on to a new book. Fortunately, it's the weekend - I can start something new on Monday on the train into work.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter was the book club selection this month for both my reading groups. I was not expecting to like it, so I procrastinated until the last minute figuring I could speed read, making it less painful. Turns out I like it a lot and found myself slowing down to enjoy it.

Regarding the Mayflower, you figure in 13 or so generations those 41 Compact signers have had 35 million descendants - that's about 12% of us.

I finished and really enjoyed The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. It was a light and fast read that was very funny and had me laughing out loud in several parts.

I've just picked up Traveler by Ron McLarty, the same author as The Memory of Running which was one of my favorite books a couple of years ago.

Oh, thanks for the heads up! I loved his first book.

Just received The Founding today, looking forward to discovering the Moorland series. I'll probably alternated it with Suite Francaise. The change of tone and mood could be good for me.

I finished Brainiac by Ken Jennings. It was an interesting read. I did not realize how serious some are about trivia. But then we RP'ers are pretty serious about books. I could see some of their traits coming through me with books...lists and so forth. I mean sitting right in front of me now are 3 lists---Books I have read this month, books to buy, and books to get my hands on at the library to flip through to see if I am interested. Then there is the list in my wallet, and oh the other list in my car.
I am about half through with a Gladys Taber book and will post on that thread. Then I will peruse my TBR pile and see what's next.

gbg

Martin, I just finished rereading The Gunslinger - Discussion. I'd be happy to paste it in here if you'd like to see it again. I can't seem to find the link to your website where you store some of these threads, so forgive me if you've already got it there.

I'm sure it was that discussion which got me started on this series, because I have never been a Stephen King fan before this. I read number three sometime last year, and have four and five in my TBR pile. I recommended these to one of my sons, I may have even given Gunslinger as a Christmas present last year, and he has finished them all.

Guess that shoulda been year before last.

Hello. I am new to forum. I love to read so I guess this is the forum for me. I am reading "The Death of the Heart" by Elizabeth Bowen.

Welcome boo! I haven't read Bowen but I know many folks who are big fans of her work.

Along with the Moorland book, I also received Six Characters in search of an Author. Its a play from a while back, and it looks like great fun.

I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which has instantly been added to my list of favorite books of all time. It is an amazing, wonderful book, and if I didn't have so many stacks of books waiting to be read, I would start reading it all over again. Maybe I should since it has left me thinking that any book I pick up now is going to suffer by comparison.

Thanks for the welcome cindydavid4. I have only read one half of the book and it is a real treat. Bowen is a powerful author. I just finished "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith. Anyone read that book?

Boo

(btw, my name is cindy. At the time the site wasn't accepting any of my log ins :)

Book Theif was incredible. And interesting to think about as I am reading Suite Francaise. This book was written by a woman escaping from the Nazi's occupation of France. She was eventually is murdered by them. Her daughter escapes, taking the manuscript with her. Its not until many decades later that she can finally bring herself to read them. She realizes that her mother was writing a book about what she was experiencing just before the occupation. The writing is wonderful - it evokes the fear and panic of the people in the city, with reminders of their connections with other refugees of other times and places. I don't know much about the occupation, just about the trains carrying the Jews out of the country. This book is teaching me much that I need to know.

Too funny.

"It's kind of boring. It's about cars and parking."

Here is a link that might be useful: Once around the block, James

Reading Claire Messud's much touted Emperor's Children, set in New York in 2001.

I'm underwhelmed, the '30-something', angst-ridden characters are rubbing me the wrong way.

A friend lent me two SF novels by Amy Thomson, a writer I have not encountered before. I enjoyed both. Virtual Girl was about an AI program passing for human, and The Color of Distance was a fascinating first contact novel.

Martin, thank you for reminding us of Rayma. I miss her comments on this forum.

Last night I was in a bookstore with a friend picking out books to read. Her selections included The Night Watch by Sarah Water and she mentioned that she seemed to always enjoy Booker Prize novels. I thought of Martin, who brings them to our attention here on this forum. I pretty much ignore literary prizes, but I have also enjoyed several Booker Prize novels. There may be something to it.

What I bought on that shopping trip was not a prize winner, but The Water Devil by Judith Merkle Riley. I'll be starting it tonight. I'm trying to think how long it has been she has published a novel. Ten years?

Rosefolly

Just finished "the Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood.
When, for the first time, I tried to read it , I put it aside after sisty- seventy pages, because there was
no way for me to get involved in it. The scene changes were too swift and I wasnÂt able to keep up
with the story; usually I need a good plot for being drawn in a novel.
But this time, after having read a lot of good reviews by "normal" readers and reviewers, I held out ,
and after the critical first one hundred pages the words and pages, just started to flow naturally, and I
could easily see how the three stories were a whole, and the novel a kind of building where the author
moves the characthers from room to room, from chapther to chapter

grelobe

p.s. the last line, and the novel a kind of building where the author
moves the characthers from room to room, from chapther to chapter
itÂs not "flours of my bag" as we say here in Italy, but I read it somewhere and I
liked it , so I made it mine

Grelobe, it's good to see you again. I read The Blind Assassin last year and loved it. As you say, it takes a while to adjust to the story changes, but the reader is well rewarded for sticking with it.

I finished Lisa Gardner's latest book, Hide, last night. It wasn't bad, and I needed a fast, light read after The Book Thief. Last night I started The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander. It looks promising, although I haven't gotten very far into it yet.

KEEPING MUM - by Brian Thompson
A Wartime Childhood

Autobiography set just before and just after WW2 written by a Londoner (grandparents from Lambeth Walk). Michael Frayn says in his review:

'A wonderful book, that brings vividly to life one of the oddest childhoods I've ever read about.'

Hilariously funny, exceptionally well written, ie observed, fascinating, touching - it's up for a prize, I gather. I can't put it down.

Dido

grelobe-glad to "see" you back-I've been wondering where you've been.
Atwood's books are not easy- so glad you persevered. As an English as a second language reader it would take that kind of "digging" in I imagine.

I'm reading the latest Ian Rutledge mystery by Charles Todd. I also picked up Thomas Cook's latest-so feel like I've hit the jackpot.
Due to Martin's recommend I have Notes On A Scandal on tap also.
Lots of good stuff to read.

Well, I've FINALLY finished that book on the French Revolution that I had been reading on and off for the past, uh, two/three months?

Anyway, it's done. It was good reading but man, it was heavy going at times due to the HUGE cast of characters. Well worth the read though. (Oh, and the title was Citizens: A Chronicle Of The French Revolution by Simon Schama. I don't know if it's still available. It's about 16 years old now!)

Oh, and I've started a new book entitled Gods, mongrels and demons: 101 brief but essential lives by Angus Calder. An interesting book, to say the least. It's comprised of small biographical sketches that make quite interesting reading. (I must confess, I picked up the book simply because the title was so intriguing AND because it was only $5 at Chapters!)

I've also picked up An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine by Lewis H. Lapham. It's a neat collection of articles from Harper's Magazine spanning the magazine's life span of about 150 years. I couldn't resist -- with discounts and all that, the book only cost me just under $9!

Give me another few months to finish these books and then I'll be back. ;-)

(At the pace that I'm reading right now, it reminds me of Snoopy's attempt to read War and Peace by reading a word a day!)

I have finished Dust, the new Martha Grimes, and she is continuing her new policy of quitting at a high point . . . to be continued. It's like the old Saturday afternoon cliffhangers at the movies.

This book involved the Henry James house in Rye, and that part was interesting. Dust is the name of a bar, I believe, rather than a pub.

Just finished Atonement by Ian McEwan, and thought it was great. I also truly liked his Saturday, so must read more of his writings.

I'm keeping track of the books listed here, of course....would not want the TBR pile to ever diminish.

Grelobe, welcome back -- we missed you.

I'm still plodding away at my 2nd Seton novel "Devil Water." Not liking it nearly as much as "Green Darkness", and not because it is "dated." I found Seton's "Avalon" today, so perhaps I'll try that one next.

Have just begun a course in Russian literature of the 19th century, so will have lots of reading for that, starting with the short stories of Alexander Pushkin.

Just raced through Gone With the Windsors and even though it was historically inaccurate, it was great fun! I found myself looking for the sets of photographs always bound into biographies-that would have been the icing on the "gake." (Inside joke-read the book!)
Not sure which way to jump next-either the new Martha Grimes, or the new bio of Wallis. We'll see.

>KEEPING MUM - by Brian Thompson
A Wartime Childhood

Mmm, this sounds very much like a movie called Hope and Glory. A wonderful film about the same subject - tho not sure if it was a book first.

Still wading through The Founding by Harrod- Eagles the first in the Morland Dynasty. Not much time to read after problems setting up this new computer, most of which are resolved-but very time consuming!
This first book in the Morland Dynasty is-to me-not as well done as the Sharon Kay Penman books of that same period, and it is hard not to compare them. I bought the next 4 books in the series (0nce again thanks to Carolyn!), so I am hoping that I am not disappointed.

Pat

I'm almost done with Lovric's The Floating Book. I think I liked The Remedy better. After this, I'm going to start Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter.

Pat, I also started reading the Founding, and really was less than impressed. I'll pick it up again and see if it gets better. Like you, I have been spoiled by writers like Penman when it comes to historical fiction.

Cindydavid,

Keeping Mum has only just been published so it won't have anything to do with the film you cite. There are probably a lot of memoirs of wartime childhoods about - it was an interesting time - but each one will be different, of course.

Dido

Oh, boy, Pat. The pressure is on. I hope you and Cindy are not too disappointed. I think what is so fascinating about the Morland books is the way Cynthia H-E keeps going down the generations through the history timeline.

Some of the books are definitely better than others. I got a little bogged down in Peterloo politics and the beginnings of the industrial revolution, but I can hardly wait to get my next book. I ordered the last 16, and 13 have arrived but not the one I need. Maybe today. I'm out of library books and waiting, waiting. Reduced to reading a Christmas stocking offering, Hand over the Chocolate and No One Will Get Hurt. The title is better than the book.

Decided to go with the updated Higham bio of Duchess of Windsor-he wrote one about 15-20 years ago, but "new information" is now public.

I'm about 50 pages in, and so far so good-lots of bedhopping and strange entertainments.

Carolyn, Just so you know. I am definitely a Morland enthusiast! I'm in book 18 now, and I've enjoyed some more than others. I find following the family is immersing, and it's really helping my understanding of history.

carolyn, Im sorry, I should have reassured you. I'd never blame someone who recommends a book if I don't like it. If I don't like it, its just me and my reading style. I can see why it would be well loved by many. So no pressure, no worries, 'k?

Someone here recommended Ulverton, by Adam Thorpe. I just got it from ABE. Looks interesting - I'll have to get to it soon.

The last shipment of my Morland books came, and I've already started No. 17, The Poison Tree. I can hardly wait to see Nicholas get his comeuppance; at least, I hope he gets it.

Cindy, I didn't really think you would castigate me too much if you don't care for the book. I don't know how many times I have had someone recommend a book to me that I didn't like at all. One work friend who was not a great reader used to tell me I "must" read something she liked and I just never liked them, so when she told me I "must" see the movie Dr. Zhivago I didn't go for ages. I finally took my mother and an aunt, and she was right--I did love it. You just never know from others' recommendations.

Finished Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones. It was interesting, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had been in the mood for that sort of novel when I picked it up.

Now reading The Frog Prince by E.D. Baker. I'm thinking I'm almost due for one of my non-fiction TBR books....

I have several books on the go at the moment because I am finding it difficult to concentrate on any one book for long.

I am tackling Proust, and have read about 60 pages of "Swann's Way" (book 1 of "In search of Lost Time"). The writing is elegant, detailed and dense and I find I have to be wide awake when reading it so as not to get lost in the long sentences and paragraphs. This is an on and off read for me. I am liking it so far, but I feel I really should be reading it in French. I fear some of Proust's style has got lost in the Icelandic translation because of the different sentence structures of the two languages.

I have finally started reading "The Kite Runner" and expect to finish it by Sunday.

I am also reading (on and off) an old travel edition of Granta magazine with stories and book excerpts from several famous travel writers.

And finally, my breakfast read is "Riding the Iron Rooster" by Paul Theroux, which is making me long to visit China. The guy may be a grump and a cynic, but he sure can write.