August: What Are You Reading
carolyn_ky
7 years ago
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michellecoxwrites
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In August summer still yields - What are you reading?
Comments (60)As August draws to a close I have four books going at once. First is the fifth in George RR Martins's Game of Thrones series, A Dance with Dragons. I am halfway through, but am reading it as an ebook when I travel. We've been traveling a lot this summer and I do expect to finish it. I'm not in a hurry. It may well be years until he releases #6, and who knows if we will ever see #7, or if #7 will indeed complete the story? Second is Superfreakonomics, which my husband Tom read, enjoyed, and passed along to me. It is every bit as engaging as the original Freakonomics was, and I do recommend it to people who enjoy this kind of book, an analysis of human behavior based on economic principles written for a popular audience. Third is The Time in Between by Maria Duenas, which I am reading for my book club. This hefty volume is a historical novel based in mid 20th century Spain. It is moving along well so far. At this point it does not seem like great literature, but the plot has pulled me in and I am enjoying it. If it keeps on this way, I'm sure I will find it to be a thumping good read. And if it does not, well, I will thump it down on the floor in disgust. Finally I am looking forward to opening up a book I just got from the library. It is Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. This novel about an early stage dementia patient who suspects a murder caught my attention this summer in a bookstore in Edinburgh, but I decided to wait until I returned home to read it. Apparently it is as popular here in the US as it was in the UK, because I had to go on the waiting list for several weeks before I could hold it in my greedy hands. Finally I should mention that I also read The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, last month's book club selection. Not to my taste, I'm sorry to say, but I believe it does have its fans. I found it slight. I'm all for reading lighthearted fun, and do so unabashedly, but not when it earnestly tries to be Significant. Rosefolly...See MoreDolly?
Comments (2)Kathy, I think in this context Dolly is/was homosexual slang for attractive or pretty. It was always 'understood' that the Royal Palaces employed many 'gay' servants, especially so in the late Queen Mother's household. Back-Stairs Billy was a well-known character there. There is a 'job description' Page of the Backstairs, but his name was used in a wider context, upon which I am not prepared to elaborate . . . this being a family site. William Talon aka Backstairs Billy...See MoreTesting: New to Kitchens? Read Me First! (August 2020)
Comments (1)All my other threads have now mysteriously re-appeared (i.e., I suspect the Houzz bug has been fixed). Let's use the first one I created and let this thread slowly fade away. Here's the one to go to: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5972404/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-2020-interim#n=1...See MoreWhat are we reading? August 2021 Edition
Comments (159)I'm very much enjoying This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. Almost from the start it read like an echo of Huck Finn. Halfway thru the book I googled the two titles and this came up: Krueger said that one thing he knew about this book when he started was that he wanted the kids to be on an epic journey, and the journey he thought most about was Homer’s “Odyssey.” For years, local author William Kent Krueger has wanted to write an updated version of Huckleberry Finn. “I knew it would be a story of kids on the river, but an updated version,” he said. “I knew when I wrote the story it would still be in the past, but I wasn’t sure just when.” The multi-award winning author has spent the past three years researching and writing the book, while still working on his Cork O’Connor fiction series about an Irish and Ojibwe private investigator. The result is “This Tender Land,” a story of four Minnesota orphans set in the Depression era, who flee from the Indian school they had been sent to and travel by canoe along the river, connecting along the way with others who are trying to survive hard times. The author wrote in 1st person narrative as the protagonist. It's important to remember that this is his recollection of his youth and that he is now 80 something. That helps to explain how and why his characters, as children, speak and think as much older than they are. However, it puts me off when a six year old - I know the age well - speaks philosophically and uses adult vocabulary. iI takes you away from a really good story when that happens. The racial issue in Huck Finn is also in This Tender Land because one of the four is a Native American. Who had his tongue cut out as a child. He uses very fluent sign language as do the other two boys. This boy, called Moses, is gifted in many ways and liked by all the four come upon. He begins to show his rage at the racism he experienced and others he knew. I give it four stars, one off because of the disconcerting language of an adult coming from children. it has great suspense, which I love. Good descriptions of their world, largely living outdoors and intriguing interaction and relationships among the four. This from Good Reads: In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Odie and his brother, Albert, are the only white faces among the hundreds of Native American children at the school. After committing a terrible crime, Odie and Albert are forced to flee for their lives along with their best friend, Mose, a mute young man of Sioux heritage. Out of pity, they also take with them a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy. Together, they steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi in search for a place to call home. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphan vagabonds journey into the unknown, crossing paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, bighearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole. (less)...See Morefriedag
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