Easley Library Bookworms discussion

I just finished reading The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I haven't written a review of it, and it's not yet available in the Easley Library Collection, so it didn't quite fit into the previously established topics. That got me thinking ... What are you reading?

Are you currently reading something you want to share?
Is there a book you love and want to recommend?
Do you have a favorite book of all time?

I hope you'll share it here.

I have just started the Troublesome Young Men by Lynn Olsen. A story about Winston Churchill and the young men who helped bring him to power. Just beginning, so I don't have an opinion. It is in the Easley Library collection.

I'm currently reading & listening to 1Q84 written by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist. It has been translated into English and I believe the book is over 1000 pages. I'm listening on Audible and reading on Kindle using their "Whispersync" feature - likely the only way I could get through a book this long. I wanted to tackle this book because Murakami is critically acclaimed in some circles and this particular novel has elements of magical realism which I enjoy. I love getting lost in a book this size because it reminds me of childhood when I could lose myself in a book.

A book I would highly recommend that I just finished a month or so ago is The Goldfinch. It recently won the Pulitzer and I feel all the hype is really worth it. I loved it and was lost in it for the longest time.

I also just finished The Best American Essays of 2013 and enjoyed it very much. It was edited this year by Cheryl Strayed, author of the memoir "Wild." The last essay in the book is written by a retired professor, Steve Harvey. I recently attended a nonfiction conference where he spoke and was fortunate enough to share a meal around a table with him and several other writers. His essay is "The Book of Knowledge" and is about his mother's suicide when he was just a young boy. Beautifully written from the perspective of an older man, reflecting on this event of his youth.

I don't believe we have any of these books at Easley - but, of course, these are leisure reading.

Someone recently donated a copy of The Fault in Our Stars to us. It isn't cataloged and processed yet, but it will be, and probably before long.

None of the books I'm currently reading is in Easley's collection either (although I've checked out quite a few of our books over the years for leisure reading, both for entertainment and interest!). The main book I'm reading is David Barbour and Richard Raleigh's Shadows Bend: A Novel of the Fantastic and Unspeakable, originally published in 2000, which casts real-life 1930s pulp fiction writers H. P. Lovecraft and his pen pal Robert E. Howard as heroes in an adventure inspired by the former's fiction. (We do have a few books by both of these authors.) Barb and I always have a "car book" going as well, one that I read to her when we're riding together. The one we just started is Son of the Morning by Linda Howard, one that Barb got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. (Author Howard is identified with the "romance" genre, which isn't one I usually like, but in this case a supernatural element is the attraction, as well as a historical mystery involving the Knights Templars.) Finally, on our vacations to visit family, when Barb and my sisters-in-law go shopping, I usually pass time reading a short story collection in the public library in Harrisonburg. (That lets me read part of a book during the time I'm there, and then start a new story the next time I come, rather than trying to pick up reading a novel or monograph in the middle after a lapse of weeks or months.) On our vacation last week, I started on Valley So Low: Southern Mountain Stories, by one of my favorite authors (who regrettably isn't represented in our collection at all!), Manly Wade Wellman.

Paula, this was a great idea for a thread! I'd started one earlier where we can post when we we're reading a book the library has; but I like the more inclusive scope of this one. (Maybe we could keep my original thread too, as a kind of yardstick to measure how much of our reading is of books we have here in the library?) I'd say a listing of our favorite books, and posts recommending books we've read, would actually deserve distinct threads of their own. I'll try to start those later this week, unless someone beats me to it!

This month, Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream was selected for a common read in the classics group I belong to here on Goodreads, so I've just started reading that one. (I've seen it performed twice, once live as a student production when I was in college and once on film, but have never read it before.) It's short, so I'm expecting it to be a pretty quick read.

Christian author Andrew M. Seddon has been an Internet friend of mine for about 10 years (before Goodreads ever existed, though we're Goodreads friends, too). I'm now reading my signed copy of his latest book, the story collection Saints Alive! New Stories of Old Saints: Volume II Celtic Paths. It's a sequel to Saints Alive! New Stories of Old Saints, which Easley Library has in our Christian Fiction collection. (We don't have the newest one, but we'll be getting it!)

I just finished A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. I really liked it. One of those I couldn't put down and had to finish it as quickly as possible. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly woman, a middle-aged sheriff, and a 9-year-old boy. It's amazing that the author can create such true voices from such different perspectives. The story is tragic. As I read it, I found myself fearing for the characters and hoping for them. Cash made me care about them.

Just checked out Bloodroot by Amy Greene. I've heard that it's good so I'm looking forward to it.

I just finished the first book in David Eddings' Belgariad series called Pawn of Prophecy. It's a fantasy from the perspective of a young boy named Garion who discovers the people around him are not as they appear. It was recommended to me by one of our group members, and Easley Library has a copy. If you like Lord of the Rings, this one would probably appeal to you. :-)

Over the weekend, I started reading Hester Roon, a historical novel by British author Norah Lofts (1904-1983). It's the common read for this month in the Lofts fan group I belong to here on Goodreads; but I started on it early, since it's an interlibrary loan book that's due back at the lending library on July 21 (and I expect to lose some reading time while I'm on vacation early next month).

Lofts was a serious historical novelist, popular in her own lifetime, whose work is definitely worth reading today as well. (Most of her books are currently out of print, but they're now being systematically reprinted by an English press, Tree of Life Publishing.) Easley Library currently has three of her novels (though not this one), of which I can personally recommend How Far to Bethlehem?.

Anybody reading anything interesting? I just finished "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. It was an interesting mix of spooky supernatural and boarding school for girls set in 1895.

When Gemma Doyle's mother dies tragically. Gemma is sent from her home in India to boarding school in England. Upon arriving at school, Gemma is led to the diary of a dead girl who leads her to witchcraft, turmoil, terror, and her future. (There is also a deeply disturbing, to me, scene of sacrifice of a deer, so be warned.) She also meets and forms "friendships" with a small group of girls. The friendships are rocky and often showcase a "mean girl" mentality. The girls are rich, spoiled, and trying to conform to the strict conventions of their society. They are not very nice.

Honestly, as I said, I don't know if I liked this book. It's witchcraft theme may be uncomfortable and objectionable to some people. However, the author has a beautiful way with words. It "feels" like a Victorian novel. The atmosphere is suitably creepy. The girls fight through the every day social conventions of the time period to create some modicum of life for themselves beyond training to be a wife, mother, and future society matron. All in all, this was an interesting read.

Tonight, I finished The Book of Time by Guillaum Prevost. This was a fun romp through history. Our hero is fourteen year old Sam Faulkner. His father has gone missing, and Sam is determined to find him. When Sam finds a hidden room in his basement, an old book, an old coin, and a statue, his adventure begins. If you're a children's/young adult time travel fan, this one is fun. :-) This is the first in a trilogy. Be prepared for an end specifically designed to draw you into the next book.

During the summer, when Barb and I usually take trips up to Fulks Run every month, and so spend a lot of time on the road, we tend to finish a car book much quicker than at other times of year, especially if it's a stand-alone rather than a thick omnibus volume. We finished Son of the Morning yesterday, and started a new book, Mark of the Lion (2006) by Suzanne Arruda, a historical mystery series-opener set in British East Africa just after World War I.

The Norah Lofts fan group I'm in is doing another common read this month, this time of her A Wayside Tavern, so that's the book I'm currently reading. We don't have it in the library collection at the moment, but I'll be donating my copy when I'm finished. It was generously given to me by an NL fan group member, Karyl Carlson, who offered her spare copies to any group member who wanted one. When she learned that mine would be destined for the library, she kindly sent her hardcover edition.

Werner, I've been working my way through a YA series by Lauren Kate. Just today, I concluded book 3.5 called Fallen in Love. It's 3.5 because it's basically separate short stories about characters you meet in the other books but who are not the main protagonists of the stories. I'm waiting on. Book 4 to become available. :-)

In some ways, this story is a little reminiscent of Twilight. Gorgeous boy spurns pretty girl on sight for no apparent reason. Girl falls in love, regardless of the fact that it doesn't make sense. Eventually, she discovers there is more to her relationship with Daniel than she had previously been aware, and she has to take matters I to her own hands to stop a curse that is keeping their souls apart.

I haven't read than final book in the saga, so I'm going to refrain from saying anything else until I've read the conclusion.

I've also been reading Over sea and Under Stone, the first in The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. With any luck, I'll finish that one, today.

Both series sound interesting, Paula!

Last week, I finished reading a book by Terry Tempest Williams entitled When Women were Birds: Fifty Four Variations on Voice. The subject classification on the dust jacket says Spirituality/Women's Studies and while I agree with this I find it to be a moving group of personal essays both short and long. I've read another of William's books Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place and have to say that it has placed on the list of my favorites. But now When Women were Birds has placed above it. The premise of this book is that Williams is left with her mothers journals after her mother's death. Williams says that women in the Mormon culture are to do two things: bear children and keep journals. But the women in the Tempest lineage are not ordinary and her mother's journals when she opens them are blank. Many of the essays or "entries" in this book are powerful reflections and revelations that have occurred to Williams while contemplating her mothers journals.
I must say that the style of this book has inspired my own writing and I'm poised to reread this book again very soon. If you are interested in this book, I feel the background of Refuge might be good before reading this book.

We have Williams' Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place here in our print collection. Crystal, do you think her When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice would be a good addition to our collection as well?

Werner -
It is an excellent book but I believe that there are other books that we might need in the library that would be more utilized. I'll send you an email about some books I think might get more circulation.

Thanks, Crystal! I hope to do some more book selection next month, so your suggestions will be helpful.

The classics group I belong to here on Goodreads selected R. D. Blackmore's classic 1869 historical novel Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor as our common read for September-October, so I'm taking part in that right now. I was the one who nominated it for the poll; it's been high on my to-read list for years, ever since I saw the excellent A&E/BBC miniseries adaptation in 2000.

One of my Goodreads friends recently sent me a copy of the short poetry book Anatomy of a Love Affair, by French-born Goodreads author Melanie Francis, and implored me to read it right away. So, having just finished Lorna Doone; I've now started on this one --though it's not a book I'd have been likely to pick to read on my own.

Another one of my Goodreads friends, author Andrew M. Seddon, recently sent me a PDF copy of the newly-published anthology The Tanist's Wife and Other Stories: Stories of Alternative Histories, which includes one of his stories, "The Pride of Knossos." I'm reading this intermittently in electronic format as I have opportunity; of course, if I like it, I'll buy the print edition when it comes out. (Alternate world yarns are among my favorite sub-genres!)

The book I started over the weekend, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (which is one we don't have here in the library) is the common read this month in my Supernatural Fiction Readers group. Obviously, I've had to start late; I was finishing up some other reading first. But I think I'll still be able to finish it by the end of this month, in time for a common read in the Christian Goodreaders group!

Werner -
This is one of my favorite books! I took me two starts to get going in it but I was hooked. I was just thinking the other day that I would love to make time to reread it. I wish Ms Morgenstern would write more.

I'll be excited to read your review of the book. :-)

I'll try to remember to post the link to that review here (when I write it), Crystal! I'm hoping to finish it by next Friday, but we'll see.

British-born American author Piers Anthony isn't represented at all in our library's collection; but my wife Barb and I have been big fans of his humorous fantasy Xanth series. We've read some dozen volumes of it, including the first seven; but not always in order, and it's been about six years since we read the last one we finished, Yon Ill Wind (which is number 20 in the series). Now, we're going back and reading the preceding volume, Roc and a Hard Place, as our "car book."

Well, I didn't get around to linking to my review of The Night Circus here, but Crystal discovered it anyway. I gave the book five stars!

Right now, I'm reading The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis. It's the common read for this month in my Christian Goodreaders group.

Over the weekend, I started on Ghosts: A Natural History: 500 Years of Searching for Proof, by British ghost researcher Roger Clarke, which I won in a recent Goodreads giveaway. This isn't a book that Easley Library currently has, but it soon will be; I signed up for the giveaway with the idea that it would be a good addition to our shelves, and I plan to donate it once I've finished reading it!

That sounds very interesting, Werner. I'm reading The Lighthouse Land, by Adrian McKinty, which I borrowed in audio format from the Tazewell County Public Library. It's the first in a young adult science fiction trilogy. It's very interesting, so far. I'm curious to see the outcome.

This weekend I finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro which was pretty interesting and might be considered slightly dystopian. It’s a fresh copy so if Easley Library is interested in having it for the leisure collection, I’ll be glad to donate it. Ishiguro won the Pulitizer for his novel Remains of the Day which was also made into a movie with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. I think Christopher Reeve was also in the movie.
I’ve begun three books this weekend. I know, I’m nuts but it’s just how I operate and two are brand new from the Tazewell Library so I have to move quickly with them. The first is called The Other Side by Lacy Johnson, and is a stark memoir about her rape and abduction by a former boyfriend and her “memory” of it – writing about it after many years have past. It appears to be a quick read and I am glad because of the subject matter. I am reading because of my interest in the memoir genre. I’ve also started The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters which is just out and sounded quite interesting and slightly offbeat which I have a penchant for and am listening to Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I find Ms. Jackson fascinating and eventually want to work through reading all of her work. Next on my list is her memoir which hopefully is different than her fiction!!!!!

Yes, Crystal, we would be delighted to have the Ishiguro book for our collection when you're finished with it; thanks for thinking of us! We'll put that one in the main literature collection, actually. I've never read any of his work, but I know the author by reputation; and being a Pulitzer Prize winner, he clearly has the kind of literary cachet that college English departments tend to take seriously.

Goodreads author Juliene Lloyd recently sent me a review copy of her debut novel, Operation Angelica (Dark Sword Press, 2014). I always try to give review copies as high a priority as I can (and found the premise for this one intriguing anyway!), so I got started on reading it over the Thanksgiving break. (This is the kind of book that will go on my "action heroines" shelf.)

I've just started a memoir by Kim Stafford, son of the poet William Stafford. This memoir is about Kim's older brother, Brett and his suicide. It is rare when I'm immediately drawn in. As I mentioned in my update, Kim's writing style is magnetic. I immediately thought that I would like to read his other books - a book of essays, one on the craft of writing and some other text - just because of the writing style. Wow. Can't wait to see how this book plays out.

I've gotten several free review copies of books recently, so I'm working through the pile! Today I started on the next one in the queue, Living in the Spirit: Paul's Timeless Message to Christians by Ron Andrea, who's one of my Goodreads friends. It's a short, popular-level exposition of the basic themes in the Apostle's Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

Over Christmas break, I read another of my review copies, Ring of Time, a collection of short stories (with bridging material) about a time-traveling 27th-century historian studying the Roman Empire, written by my friend Andrew Seddon. This is his best work to date, IMO, and I hope to order a copy for our collection. (We already have several of his books in the Christian Fiction section.)

Yesterday, I started on my final review copy, Tails From the Front Lines, also a collection of short stories (but each one by a different writer) --and also a gift from Andrew, who contributed a story to the anthology. Proceeds from the sale of this book go to the work of the TADSAW (Train a Dog, Save a Warrior) organization (www.tadsaw.org/ ).

Looking ahead to reading the New Atheist polemic Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris later this month, I thought that Dr. Paul Copan's book Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God might be helpful preliminary background reading. So I started on the latter book yesterday.

I'm currently involved with "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson. (Yes, it's spelled correctly.) At this point, I'm lost in a world of science fiction exposition. I can't even explain it, LOL. Brilliant scientists hidden behind locked boarding school walls mixed with Gregorian style chants and apparently alien space ships. It's challenging my scientific understanding. We'll see if I can manage it to the end.

I started on the Harris book on Friday, and read most of it yesterday (it's quite short). Today and tomorrow, my schedule won't allow for any reading time; but I expect to finish it on Tuesday.

After finishing the Harris book on schedule on Tuesday, I've gotten back to my more typical fiction reading, with a lighter book that provides a welcome change of pace: The Pirate Vortex by Deborah Cannon. The first book in her Elizabeth Latimer, Pirate Hunter series, it's a YA novel that features pirates, time travel, and a plucky 21st-century teenage heroine who's adept at fencing.

The book I'm currently reading, The Haunting of Gad's Hall, is a supernatural novel by Norah Lofts, whom I've mentioned before on this thread (see message 9, for instance). It's the sequel to her earlier Gad's Hall; and I recently got my copy through BookMooch.

I want to read that Pirate book, Werner. Can you add more hours to the day so I can read all the books on my "To be Read" list???

Paula wrote: "Can you add more hours to the day so I can read all the books on my 'To be Read' list?"

If I could do that, Paula, it would help me with my TBR list, too; mine's pushing 390 titles already! :-)

I hope to have my review of The Pirate Vortex up next Friday evening (and will link to it here in this group). It's a fast-paced read with a likeable heroine, which should appeal to fans of YA fiction with pirate and/or time travel themes. My rating will be three stars (four on Amazon), and would be three and a half if Goodreads had half stars. Warning: it does have some bad language (but mostly not too rough).

Paula wrote: "I want to read that Pirate book, Werner."

A few more relatively recent pirate-themed books in our collection that are on my to-read list include: in the Christian fiction section, The Redemption and The Red Siren, series openers both by M. L. (MaryLu) Tyndall; and in the Juvenile collection, the YA novel Pirates! by Celia Rees. And of course there's Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood --though, being first published in 1922, that one isn't recent. I'm guessing most members of this group have read Treasure Island? (I know that Tabi and I both have!)

Having recently finished the Lofts book I mentioned earlier (message 39), and getting ready to start a common read in another group at the beginning of March, I don't really have time to start and finish another novel in the interval. When that's the case, I usually read in a short story collection (which can be set aside and returned to later) while I wait; and that's what I opted for this time as well.

The collection I'm reading is a spin-off from the old Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, How I Survived My Summer Vacation, set between the show's first and second seasons. (Back in the 90s, when the series was syndicated around here, I was a bit of a fan, though a dilettante one; I've still only seen some sporadic episodes here and there.) I'd picked up the book years ago at a yard sale, and didn't really have high expectations for it; but the stories are actually proving to be surprisingly good!

I used to love Buffy, Werner! I haven't seen that particular book, however. Did you ever watch The X-Files? They had a few spin-off books, as well. I'm always interested in those types of books for the nostalgic fun. :-)

Actually, I think I only ever watched part of one episode of The X-Files (on one occasion when I was in the hospital recuperating from surgery). Not sure why, but it just never was a staple of my TV watching. But I was a pretty faithful fan of shows like Hercules (starring Kevin Sorbo), Xena, and Relic Hunter. And I also liked the Buffy spin-off show Angel. :-)

I loved all of those, Werner! :-)

At least a couple of those shows have spin-off books of their own, including Xena: The Huntress And The Sphinx, and Redemption (an Angel spin-off). (Both of those are in my TBR piles. :-) )

My fans of British Writers group is doing a common read of Rumer Godden's novel The Dark Horse this month, so I'm taking part in that. Godden (1907-1998) wrote some 60 books, for both adults and younger readers; we don't have this particular one in our collection, but we have a couple of her others, including Black Narcissus (and the film adaptation of the latter, on VHS).

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are quite well known as a writing team in the fantasy genre; but though I read a lot of fantasy, up to now I haven't read any of their work. However, Barb picked up the Darksword trilogy last summer at a yard sale, with the idea that it might make a good out-loud read for us; so we've started on the first volume, Forging the Darksword, today as our "car book."

Earlier this month, I started reading in the anthology The Vampire Hunters' Casebook (edited by the late Peter Haining, a compiler of voluminous genre collections) to fill in the time while I waited to start a buddy read of Stephen Lawhead's The Fatal Tree with a Goodreads friend. Now, we've decided to postpone that read until the latter book becomes available in paperback here in the U.S., sometime this summer. But I'm so engrossed in the Haining book that I plan to just go ahead and finish it!

About two years ago, I read a newly self-published novel, Fire Storm by my Goodreads friend Mackenzie Dare, which she had been kind enough to donate to Easley Library. At the time, I rated it at three stars. Subsequently, however, she did a major rewrite (although she kept the same title, cover, and ISBN) to incorporate some of the feedback she got in my review and others. I promised her I'd read the new version sometime and revise my review accordingly. Until recently, I hadn't been able to get hold of a copy (long story!), but I finally have, and I started reading version II this morning.