The Book Thread

[happylabs]

I saw Jaycee being interviewed on 60 minutes, she is an inspiration to everyone, what that sadistic monster put her through just makes me feel sick to the stomach, and i have not read the book, but would like to,mind you i think it would haunt me thinking about it all.

She is one hellava brave young woman, to come out of this and still be normal, i am sure she has lots to deal with in her daily life, because of that creep,but isn't she amazing.

I thought maybe it would bother me after reading the book but I think seeing her and reading how well she is doing has helped and also knowing that those 2 monsters are in jail for the rest of their lives.

[Grace]

Just finished Cleo, The Cat Who Mended a Family by Helen Brown. Loved it. True story.

I wonder if Carole has already read it, as it took place in New Zealand, starting in the mid-eighties?

[carole]

Yes Yes GRACE i have read it, in fact my sister gave it to me for my birthday a few years back, and it ignited my passion for reading again, and i have not stopped since, it is a lovely story and highly recommend it to anyone.

[Grace]

Another day, another book. The weather is disgusting - hot and humid day after day. So I sit in my air conditioned house and read.

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton. While not normally a fiction reader, I have read all of her books. This one grabbed me from the beginning, but the ending was not what I expected. It was darker, and left me with lots of wondering about what would happen next.

[Grace]

Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions by Vicki Myron.

A couple more Dewey stories, and some others the author heard about after the Dewey book was published. Not a quick a read as the first, but interesting.

[Grace]

Looks like I'm the only one reading

Just finished Gary Jobson: An American Sailing Story by Gary Jobson.

My brother, who almost never reads, recommended this to me. Gary Jobson has been a sailor all his life. He was the tactician on Courageous - winner of the 1977 America's Cup, skippered by Ted Turner.

I enjoyed this - interesting adventures and wonderful pictures. For those of us with a bit of salt water in our veins.

[phesina]

I'm still reading Scandinavian noir (?), mysteries and other weird stuff, even if I haven't checked in. I finished Mercy, which Carole tipped me off on, and thank you!

Then I read Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, a Norwegian mystery to do with past- and present-day Nazi and other fascist activity in Norway. This was especially relevant after the recent Norwegian bombing and shootings.

In fact, Jo Nesbo had a commentary in the New York Times about that a couple of weeks ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/op...nes&emc=tha212, saying essentially that Norway will never be the same again.

Then I re-read maybe the first Scandinavian-set mystery I'd ever come across, Death in a Cold Climate by Robert Barnard, who is actually British and at the time was Professor of English at the University of Tromso in northern Norway, which is where the story takes place.

Now I'm re-reading Smilla's Sense of Snow, which I read long ago when it was first out and popular. Since I don't remember any of the details from then, I'm finding it very well written.!

Aside from being a very intriguing mystery, this book is filling in for me some of the history of just what the relationship between Denmark and Greenland is, about which I don't know anything.

[tokolosh]

Looks like I'm the only one reading

That will never be, while I'm alive I never seem to be reading anything other people have ever heard of so anything I say about 'my' books is a monologue. However. . .

I'm reading A Fairly Honourable Defeat, by Iris Murdoch, not at all for the first time. Really like it. I like everything Murdoch - well, almost everything. Her very first and very last weren't quite 'there' for me. And I think I must have them all, somewhere around here. She was so incomprehensible and so heartless to her characters, and completely without pity. I find her comforting No matter how drab and awful and senseless your own life may seem, so long as you have Iris Murdoch at hand you never have to feel like this is the worst that could ever happen to you. Being one of her characters is the worst it can get on this earth, as far as purely mental torment goes.

She put them through such contortions. Always smiting them with sudden uncontrollable love for completely unsuitable people, messing around with their heads, trashing their lives . . . but she did write a few that were kind, in spite of all the turmoil. This one is one of them. It has what is probably the first gay couple I ever encountered in it, and I still think they're the only really believable, 'relate-to'-able gay relationship I've ever found in a book. It should probably be on reading lists for that reason alone.