What book are you reading?

[Marlow]

Originally Posted by Ketabcha

That's part of the "Border Trilogy", right?

I have all three of those but have not started them yet. It's good to hear that you liked The Crossing. I'm just crazy about his books but they tend to wring me out emotionally. So I space them out, too.

Well get ready to be wrung out then. I read All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing and just decided I couldn't read the third one. Those were just too wrenching.

[peppermint]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I read Moonstone so many years ago, I can't remember anything about it. Collins would be interesting to try again. Thanks.

I may have to add Moonstone to the list. I'm really diggin' The Woman in White.

[LookinForMayberry]

As promised earlier...

Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry

I will add to this once I've finished

From start to finish, (including the Author's Notes and Acknowledgements!) this book is a poignant read.

From the author's tales of her family history, and how they contributed to and reaped the rewards of founding Liberia, to the overthrow and long-suffering of that nation's people, I learned yet again about people's dualities of nature. (We suffer injustice until we can no longer abide the suffering, and then act out our intolerance to our greater disadvantage.)

I was particularly touched at the way she closes the story, with her discovery that she could not permanently leave the people of her country where she was so deeply rooted, and how she was able to retrace those roots and renew connections that had been severed over time and circumstances.

I hope Ms. Cooper writes a sequel to describe how these amazing people surmount their struggles and regain their foothold, surviving decades of terrors -- but I believe from reading this book that that story is still in the making.

[salonva]

Originally Posted by DandJ

Amazon.com: In The Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time: Peter Lovenheim: Books

The book takes place in Rochester, NY. I don't remember what year it takes place in, but it's recent times.

It's NOT written like a sociology textbook AT ALL. It's much more like a novel, but it's non-fiction.

It's a TERRIFIC book by an AMAZING man.

sounds very interesting.
also am going to try that garden of the beasts? have to check back on the thread a bit earlier where a few people mentioned it- it made an impression on me. thanks for all the suggestions.

[LookinForMayberry]

After taking yet another try reading a work by Anne Tyler, this time "Noah's Compass" (and that's all I need to say about THAT), I quickly decided this was an author on my permanent Ignore List, and moved on to the next in the stack: "Dorothy Parker: In Her Own Words."

In the time it took me to struggle through the first several pages in the first mentioned, I was laughing my way through as many chapters of this compilation of quotes by Dorothy Parker. Mr. Day uses the quotes to illustrate his view of who Dorothy was in person, and I hope he is correct. She must've been quite the gal. I wish I might've lived as a contemporary, just to know her in life. What a delightfully candid and witty woman!

I'm only about a third through the book and hope it finishes as well as it starts. From what I've read so far, I gather she developed a drinking problem later in life, so I am apt to be disappointed in her ending, but I suspect that Barry's handling of the story will still be as well done.

I've got the Portable Dorothy Parker waiting next on the stack, and am hoping to have a view of the author before I read her works.

More on both those works, later. (As for Ms Tyler's works, I am certain there are other more appreciative readers for hers.)

[poletop1]

Sounds like a very interesting book, although Parker was a delight to read she went through many difficult, suicidal times as a life-long alcoholic.

[Ketabcha]

That Dorothy Parker book sounds great. She was an accomplished wit but not exactly nice to people. Cruel, in fact. But the fact remains that she was amazingly clever with words.

I have a deck of cards from the Algonquin that a friend brought me from New York. The cards have a pic of the members of the Algonquin Round Table on them.

[LookinForMayberry]

I saw another book on Amazon about the Algonquin Round Table, but we didn't have it at our County Library.

[LookinForMayberry]

He's only briefly referred to her drinking, so I wasn't aware it started early. I had the impression it was a later life thing. She could indeed be cruel, but Day seemed to portray her as living up to a part that people expected from her, sort of a female Don Rickles.

[poletop1]

I remember reading her poetry in a poetry class and researching her I found that her life was depressing. She would outdrink Hemingway and I wonder if her self-perceived inferior writing yet commercial success led to emotional problems. She was too hard on herself. Her criticism were brilliant and her writings were sharp yet acerbic.