What are you reading in July?
Annie Deighnaugh
7 years ago
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Olychick
7 years agorunninginplace
7 years agoRelated Discussions
JULY! Fireworks, barbecues, beach reads....
Comments (55)Been reading a mishmash of different titles at the moment, including A Sight for Sore Eyes by Baroness Ruth Rendell. I have no idea why I have not picked up more of her work as I am *adoring* this story and have a hard time putting it down to do other things. The characters are believable, they do believable things and make believable decisions. Rendell is, quite honestly, the best writer I have read for some time (in terms of sheer enjoyability). Along with that, I am reading Dave Cullen's NF book about the Columbine shooting. I had ordered this weeks ago on ILL and it just arrived last Wed so it was a strange coincidence that I am reading this title when the awful shooting happened in Aurora (only 17 miles from Columbine). Cullen is a seasoned reporter and has covered the Columbine incident since Day One. It's a compelling read and it mostly focuses on how facts get twisted through media repetition and word of mouth based on that inaccuracy. It's not slamming any one media outlet in particular - just an well-informed observation of how a story can evolve despite the facts being known. Quite curious and I would not be surprised if something similar happened with the Aurora shooting. And then along these, I am also reading the original Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1906). What a twisted tale this is and very different from the sanitized Disney version! Tinker Bell is mean and spiteful, there are daily grisly murders in Neverland, and no one has enough food. Peter is also a bully, and don't mention the psychological issues of the Lost Boys with Wendy...! Fascinating read though....See MoreJuly: What are you reading?
Comments (104)A BURNT-OUT CASE SBS TV showed the docudrama Lamumba two nights ago, on the evening of 30 July 2010. I had never really got a handle on the events of the historical crisis associated with the legendary African leader Patrice Lamumba, events which took place when I was in my mid-teens. Lumumba is a 2000 film directed by the award-winning Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck(b. 1953). It is centred around Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960. Raoul Peck's film is a coproduction of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti. Lumumba dramatises the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba. In late October 1959, just days after I joined the BahaÂi Faith at the age of 15, Lumumba was arrested for allegedly inciting an anti-colonial riot in the city of Stanleyville where thirty people were killed. He was sentenced to six months in prison. His name was just a news item on the distant periphery of my life, immersed as I was in a smalltown culture in the 1950s, in Ontario Canada. The plot of this docudrama is based on the final months of the life of Patrice Lumumba in his role as the first Prime Minister of the Congo. His tenure in office lasted two months until he was driven from office in September 1960. Joseph Kasavubu was sworn in alongside Lumumba as the first president of the country, and together they attempted to prevent the Congo succumbing to secession and anarchy. The film concluded with the army chief-of-staff, Joseph Mobutu, seizing power in a CIA sponsored coup.-Ron Price with thanks to SBS TV, "Lamumba," 30 July 2010. All of this got me back into Graham Greene who went to the Belgian Congo in January 1959, just before the Congo crisis broke out, with a new novel already beginning to form in his head by way of a situation involving a stranger who turned up in a remote leper settlement for no apparent reason. While Greene was writing A Burnt-Out Case in 1959 in the months leading up to and after I became a member of the BahaÂi Faith. This novel is one of those in the running for the most depressing narratives ever written. The reader only has to endure for a short time the company of the burnt-out character whose name in the novel was Querry. Greene had to live with him and in him--in his head--for eighteen months. Greene wrote that: "Success as a novelist is often more dangerous than failure; the ripples often break over a wider coast line. The Heart of the Matter(1948) was a success in the great vulgar sense of that term. There must have been something corrupt there, for the book appealed too often to weak elements in its readers. Never had I received so many letters from strangers, perhaps the majority of them from women and priests. At a stroke I found myself regarded as a Catholic author in England, Europe and America -- the last title to which I had ever aspired. This account may seem cynical and unfeeling, but in the years......See MoreJuly already! What are you reading?
Comments (125)For some reason I ended up buying both hard cover and paperback copies of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night and never read it until now. Loved it. I know little about the main character's special needs, but enjoyed the way the plot surprised me. I guessed the "murderer" early on, but that was such a small element of the story that I didn't care. I also came away thinking that dealing with those special needs was very much like computer programming. Unless one gets it exactly right communication doesn't happen. Which in the context of the story seems to be a major subtext for those of us who've spent a lot of time programming. Been doing some re-reading of Zelazny. Jack of Shadows I didn't remember at all. Mythic and lyrical, his is a world where one side of the earth always faces the sun and is ruled by science, the other side is always in darkness and magic reigns. Much as I love Gaiman, he just misses, except in Sandman, the charm of Zelazny....See MoreWhat are we reading? July 2020 edition
Comments (119)"I also have access to 2 library systems. ( we moved, and my old library system access still works! don't tell!!!)." That may be perfectly allowable although certainly unlikely to be enforced since most cards do expire after a few years and need to be renewed. Something I've mentioned before is that in many states, residents are granted library card privileges for library systems in other cities and towns of the state they live in. California offers this, parts of NY state do too. In California, unless special accommodations have been made because of current circumstances, it may be more difficult right now because library card applications need to be made in person. (I have 10 and they can be renewed by phone when they periodically expire). Getting new cards is a bit more of a challenge since many libraries are closed. The NY Public Library, which has a very extensive Overdrive collection, allows remote card application and internet borrowing for in-state residents using its app SimplyE. Call your regional libraries to see what can be done, if interested. Another way to get access to different Overdrive collections, as an example, is to exchange library card numbers with friends who live elsewhere. I myself have three such accounts with people I know in different cities in other parts of the US. The advantage of the multiple card approach is that the popularity of books, the number of copies of any one particular title purchased and made available, and indeed which books are chosen to provide vary from library to library. More often than not, when I'm looking for a particular title, it's not unusual to find a 12 week or longer wait at one large library and immediate availability at another. Or, for books of lesser popularity, I may check 4 different libraries to find the book isn't in their Overdrive subscription and then the 5th library I check will have it....See MoreHolly- Kay
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