What Are You Reading Now?

[mbhenty]

Mother Angelica was very popular on TV. Mom use to watch her all the time. Like many devotees, she has her faith steeped in suffering. Watching her on TV scared me. I had terrible experiences with the nuns when I attended Chaotic school.

To make my confession.... when I was a little boy (and in the 2nd grade) and Mother Superior died I was so happy she was gone. I know! That's terrible! But it speaks lots to how I was treated by the nuns. Mother Superior looked just like Mother Angelica.

I remember I had a kind and pleasant nun for a teacher, once. Sister Clair. She was soon removed and sent to the missions in South America or Africa.

Nonetheless, Mother Angelica's book has excellent reviews on Amazon. 92 percent gave her 5 stars. That's as good as you can get with a review.

[Nadzieja]

I really learn alot from watching her. I too had terrible experiences in school with the nuns. The school Ted went to was totally different. He has great memories I on the other hand had a really rough time and they wouldn't let me go to public school. Today they probably would have been up on charges. During the changes of Vatican II, there was much confusion and chaos. Many left the religious life. Quite a few of them were forced into either the convent or priesthood, and many of them left. I'm studying quite a bit right now, mostly adult classes and I'm looking at so many things so differently. Why---because I'm studying with not only an open mind but as an adult. I've also have been having questions answered that I was never able to get a straight answer from anyone. So I have quite a bit of empathy with all of us who were unfortunately in school during that time period. Keep in touch with me, love to know how you're both doing.

[Constantine]

I've been reading a few Victorian novels lately. The first one was Middlemarch, by George Eliot. There are those who believe it to be the finest novel in the English language. (Among these is novelist Martin Amis.) I cannot agree. It certainly is quite ambitious. Eliot juggles a lot of balls, but she drops a few. Nothing much is made of the character of Joshua Rigg, for example. He is little more than a plot device and is discarded almost immediately. The resolution of Dorothea's romance is handled rather perfunctorily too. But the book is certainly worth reading and you might not agree with me. I found Silas Marner much more to my liking (heresy!).

After that, I read Nicholas Nickelby, by Charles Dickens, about which I had mixed feelings. The plot was a trifle rickety. What really made the book for me was the character of Nicholas's scatterbrained mother. I would have liked to have seen her played by Marion Lorne.

I am now reading Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope. It is one of the most highly regarded of his novels, if not the most. I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. It is the second of his six Barsetshire novels, some of the characters of which also appear in his Palliser series, also consisting of six novels. I had read the first Barsetshire novel, The Warden, some years back. That is one of the works included in a book called Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without, by Brigid Brophy, Michael Levey and Charles Osborne. (Others they include are Pickwick Papers, Hamlet and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Shame on them, though they do like Through the Looking Glass.) The Warden is pretty dull, so it really wasn't fair of them to use it to pick on Trollope. Barchester Towers is very much livelier. I'll let you know more when I finish it.

[Franz]

I am reading "The Immense Journey", by Loren Eiseley. This is a French version, that I found by chance last Sunday in a flea market.

[mbhenty]

What are you reading Now?

Well...

How about this. The horror continues. Not sure which is worse. This book or the actual murders. I guess this is part II. Abraham Lincoln Zombie Hunter move over

[mbhenty]

Here's one which has the name "Lizzie Borden" inserted into the sub title.

Good for sales. Murder Mystery which happened in Ontario in the 30s.

Just published and released this summer.


https://archive.macleans.ca/article/193 ... de-mystery





.

[kssunflower]

This looks good. Will have to check it out. Can never do enough true crime reading.

[mbhenty]

Here's another recent publication. Just published last month, I believe, by Boston author Nicole Mello. WHEN SHE SAW WHAT SHE HAD DONE. "Cleaver" title... ah I mean 'Cleve'r title. The book is poetry. Seventy seven pages. Uninspiring cover. But don't let that be your judge.

[mbhenty]

And here's another just published this year. Fancy, fancy.

But I'm afraid that the only words are written on the cover. It's a journal. SELL'EM LIZZIE

Here's part of the description, which you can find on the Amazon listing.


A simple journal for fans and cast members of punk-rock opera “Lizzie, The Musical.” The cover art is inspired by Chance Theater’s 2019 production. *** This journal alternates between 9 LINED pages for writing and 1 BLANK page for sketching throughout – no text. Size 5.2” x 0.2” x 8” with 110 pages total. *** Its pages can be used for journaling, appointments, show notes, class notes, prayer and reflection, and more.

[Kat]

I love this topic, but meant it for literally "What are you reading?"
Right now I'm re-reading Georgette Heyer. She has mysteries, but also what's called Regency Romance. But hers are just darn good stories. Enjoying the tale, not the arrival at the destination.
I actually re-read her every other year! Like re-visiting old friends...
What are you reading now?

[mbhenty]

Yes, I understand.

But I'm famous for going off topic.

[Kat]

Do you re-read your books you like the best...just wondering. I think it's like comfort food right now, I need that...🕯

[mbhenty]

ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?

ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?

Just kidding.

Remember that movie. Taxi Driver, me thinks.

Oh yeah. Off topic again.

Right now I'm reading THE LOST FLEET by Marc Songini, THE CIVIL WAR WORLD OF HERMAN MELVILLE by Stanton Garner, and WAR OF THE AERONAUTS by.... I forgot. I will read a little of one, than a little of another, than another. Depends which room I left them in and where I left the book. If I'm reading fiction I will stay with the story and read it alone and right through. Most of the subject matter of the books I am reading has to do with research. Research for my next book. But still enjoyable. Just finished reading LINCOLN'S FLYING SPIES. A book for young people. Basic information without all the backstory to the subject matter.

Can't say I have reread books I liked, but in fact have reread books I didn't like.

Most of the books I read in high school I hated. Like Catcher in the Rye, The Winter of Our Discontent, and Death of a Salesman. Perhaps I was too young to appreciate them. So I reread them just to see if I disliked them as much as I did in high school.

One book in particular I read three times. I read it when I was in my early twenties. It was awful. I reread it in my thirties. It was just as bad. And I read it in my fifties. It never improved. Just as dull as ever. I have read four or five books by Ernest Heminway and believe he is one of the most overrated writers of the twentieth century. THE SUN ALSO RISES. It's what happens when you're a newspaper reporter and become a novelist. And it's not only his writing style, for which I am no fan, but the characters in THE SUN ALSO RISES. Spoiled, pitiful, vagabond drifters who just bored me to death.

[Reasonwhy]

The bore, for me, in Hemingway, is his macho “code”: he seems to have pledged allegiance to spareness and leanness almost as if writing anything but laconically is unclean. And his words read as a shorthand we are supposed to already understand. There’s a paucity there that leaves me indifferent.

I much prefer a writer such as D.H. Lawrence (do you ever read him?) who respects and is willing to describe the force of life. I know many fault him—some of it I find deserved—but he is not afraid of viewing holistically. He seems able to see things simultaneously from both a man’s and a woman’s point of view. That makes his rendering of people and nature so searing, honest, and often, tender. For me, he translates the world so vibrantly.

I’ve gone on and on, not knowing if you’re even interested—your comments about Hemingway just revived an old dissatisfaction with him…

[Reasonwhy]

We were actually reading D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers in my junior year of high school, if you can believe that! Nowadays, they’d arrest the teacher, no doubt.

[Kat]

Thanks you guys! This topic always gives me more insight into members but is also fun!
Lately, I've had to re-look up things in The Hatchet, so am enjoying reading those again!
I've also been re-reading selections from Michael Brimbau's book of poetry, The Sadness I Take To The Sea, PearTreePress, 2014. After ya'll were discussing Hemmingway, I wanted MB's seafaring poetry to bring me out to the ocean again.

[Reasonwhy]

I love that title. Kat, do you have a poem you like from his book that you might share here?

[Kat]

Well, there are a couple I'd like to know what they are really about!

[mbhenty]

Certainly, I can answer that... I think, perhaps.

I'm delighted that you are reading that, Kat. I have written tons of poems that were lost or thrown away. I had a floppy disk from a Brother Word Processor full of poetry. We were unable to access the disk and I think with time I tossed the disk out. There is only one Lizzie poem in that book. All of the Lizzie poetry went into my play, book, By the Naked Pear Tree.

Many of the poems in The Sadness I take to Sea were written as far back as the 70s. The newest ones are the ones written for and around Stefani.

[Kat]

That's like tearing one's heart out and then one has to just accept; still,That's terrible, losing that.

[augusta]

Just finished Fannie Flagg's "I Still Dream of You".
I've read all of Flagg's novels and loved them, but this one I found dull so it took me months to get thru it.
Have started Edward Klein's "Just Jackie - Her Private Years". A friend who also loves Kennedy history loaned it to me. I have tons of Kennedy books I have enjoyed, and when he brought this one to me to loan me, it was pretty astonishing that I didn't have it already.

[Kat]

I love Fannie Flagg…it’s too bad her book started to lag…
I’ve been re-reading books- like the “I Hate To Cook Book” by Peg Bracken- do you remember her?
For some reason I’ve been looking at my mom’s cookbook collection and found the Galloping Gourmet book (Graham Kerr) autographed to my mom. I took her to meet him at his book signing at the mall c. 1996. He was very approachable, which i did’t expect, and she was in a wheelchair and he and his people brought us to the front of the line.

I don’t think too many people know this about him but in this later part of his life he was religious and humble and he took her hand and prayed over her for healing.(After asking her if it was ok). He truly meant it- it was very touching- I have a photo of the meeting around here somewhere…
Wow…I just looked him up and he’s still alive- age 88!!

[mbhenty]

Yes:

I do not read much Sci-Fi myself, although it is the ultimate escape from life as we know it to better worlds... or not. But to have a Sci-Fi play on our emotions is quite the feat.

Writing, I believe that there are certain elements that we must employee as writers to reach some level of success in making a book popular or a worthwhile read, whether passionate or not. Of course there is the story, and some may say that the story is everything, as Hemingway believed. You must have a good story, capture the readers inquisitiveness, his/her inner impulse to keep on reading by placing tasty morsels along the path of every chapter until the reader finds it very difficult not to turn the page—leaving them with a burning desire to finish the story, but at the same time not wanting it to end.

In spite of a good "story", an element of writing that really holds the reader is that we must care for the people in the story. It may not necessarily be the protagonists you care for. It may be a malefactor or transgressor, the main villain. You may care for this evil person. Care that justice is served, that he gets what's coming, thus you turn the page to find out. It is one of the most vital aspects in the novel... to care for the characters.

Of course early Sci-Fi had its feet firmly planted on earth like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, or even Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Sci-Fi came into it's own in a perfect way with the Jules Vern stories. The ultimate Sci-Fi writer of the 19th century. Outer space was the order of the day. Today it appears the story takes place in surrogate worlds, far far away. Whether primordial or in the future.

Many Sci-Fi tales have become chronicles, multiple stories tied with a single theme. This gives us time to bond with the characters as we get to know them better. Sort of like a soap opera only on Mars.

I don't read much Sci-Fi. Although, I have an extensive Ray Bradbury first edition collection. Ray is as far as I go with Sci-fi.

Today the sky is the limit and trilogies are the thing. History, time travel, space, alternate universes and worlds, etc., with revenge and love being the order of the day.

Still, the story must be there and we must care for the characters. Care to love them or hate them. Share something in common, believe in their cause. And if they touch our heart, how great is that!

Things can get pretty complicated. Mix in a cosmic "who dun-it" or a prehistoric, steamy affaire de lit and Wa-Lah!

[mbhenty]

I read a couple of books by Lawrence Goldstone. Mostly because they were centered around book collecting. I can't remember or rate them good or bad since it's been over twenty years since I read them when they were published. I have his books in a box somewhere. One of them was called Slightly Chipped, and the other Used and Rare. Very casual reads, from what I remember, mixing the hunt for books with the discovery of local eateries. He got some nasty reviews by hard core book collectors. Who I guess do not eat out. He's written two or three others centered in the book collecting world. Never got around in searching them out. Perhaps now is a good time.

Mr. Goldstone from what I can see is all over the place when it comes to subject matter. Jack of all topics, master of none, I suppose. Very prolific writer.

Writing about famous people and placing them in fictional worlds such as The Anatomy of Deception is a tricky business. Famous people have their groupies waiting to pounce on anyone who disagrees or sullies his/her vision of their hero. Had that problem writing about Lizzie. A book based on real people but meant to be a novel will lean to fiction. Especially when you introduce fictional people. Some readers don't like that. Goldstone got torn up by a surgeon on Amazon who read his book and probably had no business doing so.

Right now I am reading Refuse to be Done, by Matt Bell to see how his style differs from mine. A tech instructional narrative on refining the drafts of your novel up to completion. Of course I am disagreeing with most of it. Still, I would give it five stars so far. Since I disagreed with my mother when she was pregnant for me.

[Kat]

Edit-KK

[Kat]

Last year I read the 35 books of the “Moreland Dynasty” series that follows a family in England from “The Founding” around 1400? Thru to the Industrial age and WWI. It’s historical fiction by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles who first captured my interest thru her British Mysteries, and “Bill Slider” series.
This year I read them all over again.
This minute I’m reading “Simon the Coldheart” by Georgette Heyer- my all- time favorite British author. It’s Knights and Barons and HenryV, and starts about 1385. I’m in 1415, after the battle of Agincourt, now. (Again, historical fiction)

[Kat]

I’ve been enjoying the humorous offerings of our Sherry Chapman at The Hatchet website.
Needed a laugh or two: *she so funny*!
https://lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetOnline/

Up at the top right there’s the search icon- I just type in Sherry Chapman-
And notice the “Load More” option at the bottom.

[Kat]

I am reading William Spencer’s new book The Other Fall River Tragedy, The Murder of Bertha Manchester.

Quite a few of us here have been interested in this crime, as well as the murder of Sarah Cornell.
Harry and I got together and made a pdf “booklet” from the Evening Standard news reports on Bertha Manchester. He found the material and typed it and I created the Introduction and Afterword, so we knew a lot about the crime. We also visited her grave at Oak Grove.

But all the extra detail in Spenser’s book would put any other effort to shame! It’s extremely well-researched and has newspaper illustrations I’d never seen before. It’s a horrible ax murder, and a terrible tragedy, but I am really enjoying it.