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Try to put your hands on the movie with Yul Brynner and JoAnne Woodward. It's an old treasure of mine. I love books and I enjoyed the book but just this once the movie spoke to me more than the book did.
I just might do that. I read a little about the book earlier today, and learned several things. Some of it, though, made me think, "That happened in the first chapter?! Did I miss that part?!" Still working on the second chapter now.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I started reading The Road to Wellville (T.C. Boyle) and just wasn't feeling anything for it. I think that I saw the movie -- or at least part of it -- a long time ago and didn't like that either. So, that's going into the pile for Goodwill.
Then I started An Inconvenient Wife (Megan Chance). Oh my gosh, it reads like a Victorian romance novel. I am NOT happy about THAT! I had thought it was historical fiction, and while there are a few real names tossed into the mix, this is clearly not based on any one true story (although I suspect that "hysteria" was a common "ailment" back in the day), and I'm not liking it much at all.
I have a bunch of Kindle books for which I'm on the waiting list at the library and books that I've ordered that are in route to me, so I guess I'll just read An Inconvenient Wife until something better arrives at my doorstep or in my email inbox. Or I'll just read some T.C. Boyle short stories if that becomes grossly unappealing.
Elizabeth The Queen: The Life Of A Modern Monarch by Sarah Bedell Smith.
I guess I never realized just how busy Queen Elizabeth--and ALL the royal family members--are. (Some, more so than others.) Their lives are non-stop public appearances for one thing or another. She lives her life pretty much in a fish bowl, as do all the royal family members. This book isn't a gossip-y tell-all; rather one that gives a picture of just what her life has been, from childhood on--including the gossip-y parts but in a matter-of-fact way. The author paints a different picture of Princess Diana other than the sinned-against wife of the Prince of Wales and lets us see a flawed human being with psychological issues that made her unsuited to her role as the wife of the future king of England. I have a much great appreciation for Queen Elizabeth for the effort she has put forth her entire adult life to represent the UK with dignity and honor.
This is a big book--688 pages--and it seems like I've been reading it forever.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,016,638 times
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I couldn't stand the thought of reading one more page of An Inconvenient Wife, so I read the last page so that I could consider myself done with it. Yup, that's what I do with a book that I need to be rid of -- read the last page -- so that there's no way that I can feel guilty for not continuing it. Clearly I have Jewish guilt issues. And possibly a psychological problem!
ANYWAY!
I downloaded Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks) from the library. This should help me get over my nuttiness. Nothing like a good plague story to heal you of your ailments.
Speaking of Wife books, did anyone else read American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld? It came out last year - or maybe even in 2010??? Anyway, my Library book club will be discussing it soon. It's a ficionalization of Laura Bush's life. That book really stayed with me after reading it because it seemed so very true - then right after I read it I went camping in Door County Wisconsin and encountered a yachting couple who just seemed like the husband and wife in the book come to life. I'm dying to hear what others who read it think - few books stick with me like that one did. It's not high lit or anything, but seemed a very accurate observation of an American life. It also could be read as juicy chick lit!
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,016,638 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 601halfdozen0theother
Speaking of Wife books, did anyone else read American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld? It came out last year - or maybe even in 2010??? Anyway, my Library book club will be discussing it soon. It's a ficionalization of Laura Bush's life. That book really stayed with me after reading it because it seemed so very true - then right after I read it I went camping in Door County Wisconsin and encountered a yachting couple who just seemed like the husband and wife in the book come to life. I'm dying to hear what others who read it think - few books stick with me like that one did. It's not high lit or anything, but seemed a very accurate observation of an American life. It also could be read as juicy chick lit!
Hi, hi!
It came out in 2008, actually. I read it, I think, in 2010.
I really, REALLY enjoyed it. I had zero interest in reading it at first, but it quickly sucked me in. I found it fascinating, especially because it was a really good description of Laura Bush. Or at least I *hoped* that it was a good representation of her. I know it was said to be based on her life; I just don't know how much core research the author did. Not that it matters; it's a novel, after all.
The story was terrific and I thought that it was written very well, with the exception being the end. For some reason, I felt like it faltered towards the end, like there wasn't enough detail, description, meaning, etc... to it. Or maybe it got sappy at the end? I don't remember. For some reason, I'm now remembering it going to sap in the last few chapters. I remember finding the end a letdown.
But, as a whole, I thought it was a fabulous read.
I'm starting Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow. I find his books very easy to get into and right now too much real life is interfering with my reading life for me to start something more serious.
I really enjoyed his "Enchantment" if you haven't read it. Also the first two books of the "The Tales of Alvin Maker" were good as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newdaawn
By the way - this thread was started back in August of 2006. Maybe it's time to start a new one.
Oh, please, no! I use this thread all the time to search for other things to read, a new thread would make this one scroll away into oblivion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DandJ
I just finished reading The Paris Wife. I belong in the 1920s. Life was so simple then. I want to travel back in time and be a 20-something in the 1920s. But I'd want to bring the Internet with me.
I downloaded Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks) from the library. This should help me get over my nuttiness. Nothing like a good plague story to heal you of your ailments.
I really liked this book, plague and all.
Sooo, I actually post short reviews on Shelfari and forget that I haven't posted here.
I finished "Outlander" a few weeks ago. It was not what I expected, which was a science fiction/historical novel from everything I had read about it. There was pretty much only the time travel at the beginning that would qualify for science fiction, and, because I kept expecting more of it, I was a little disappointed in the book. I also didn't expect it to be essentially a bodice ripper - if they weren't having sex, they were talking about it. I have no problems with that, it was just not at all what I was expecting. Also, some of the violent aspects are really disturbing.
That said, I really did enjoy the book - I love anything Scottish and auld, and I really like the characters, the settings and all the intrigue. I decided to read the second book in the series, "Dragonfly in Amber," which I finished a couple of days ago. I liked it better than the first book, and I am waiting for the next book to become available at my library. Jamie Fraser is my new ain true love.
I also read John Le Carre's first Smiley novel, "Call for the Dead," which was a good quick read, and "Your Heart Belongs to Me," by Dean Koontz, which was really disappointing, wish I hadn't wasted my time. A bunch of red herrings which led . . . absolutely nowhere. Grrrrr.
I just started "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, which pulled me right in from page one and I am hooked. I also started the audiobook of "Peter and the Starcatchers," a young adult series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, which is a prequel to J. M. Barries "Peter and Wendy." I'm a few chapters into it, and it is laugh out loud funny and a great story so far (I'm a big Dave Barry fan). If you read it, go for the audio version, the narrator is excellent!
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Still working on the second chapter now.
