Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion

What are U reading these days? (PART SEVEN) (2011)
(continued from Part Six)

I am reading, "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo," and just finished, "Homer and Langley," which I didn't like. The best book for me in 2010 was, "The Help," and I also liked "The Gurnsey Literally and Potato Peel Pie Society," and "South of Broad." nina

Nina, I too enjoyed The Help and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Haven't read the others you mentioned.

I might try South of Broad, but I'll pass on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because of the violence. I did watch the film adaptation of Tattoo and gave it 3 stars. I liked the ending.

I've decided to drop The Sight. Besides being rife with inaccuracies on basic wolf behavior, it's not interesting and far too slow.
It's difficult for me to drop a book without finishing it and I struggled with the decision all day. But as a friend recently pointed out, life is too short to read bad books. I have far too much on my shelves to waste time with something I'm not enjoying.

I've chosen Never After by Rebecca Lickiss because it seems like it'd be fun. And that's what I want right now: some fun.

Jackie, I'm with you about not finishing a book I'm not enjoying. Why struggle?

I see that the book, Never After, combines the ideas of several fairy tales. That reminds me of Stephen Sondheim's musical, "Into the Woods" which, according to Wiki, "intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the...
I saw the play in Saratoga several years ago. The lyrics are fast and hard to follow if one can't hear well. Anyway, enjoy your book. Yes, our leisure reading should be fun.

An excellent book that combined several fairytales was Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper.

Jackie, Beauty sounds like an entertaining book. I might try it. I like your review which I found at:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

PS - Ooops, our library system doesn't carry it. :(

It's available through interlibrary loan from Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library and Frothingham Free Library. I find that when I search by ISBN # it yields better results.

Yes, but there's no way I can put a reserve in for it online via the interlibrary loan option at our Crandall Library (which doesn't list the book). That's how I do my book borrowing. See the catalog here:
http://pac.sals.edu/polaris/Search/de...
There's a search setting for all libraries via a drop down option. I tried searching using the title, the author, and the ISBN number. Nada!

SEE MY NEXT POST!

OOOPS! Jackie, I found it (by entering just the author's last name, "Tepper"!).
Will put in a reserve. Thanks, Jackie!

Joy, that's odd because the same thing happened to me. Usually when I click 'all libraries' I immediately get the listings for all NY libraries that have the book available. But with this one, even after I did the ISBN# it only gave me Lake George, but beneath the area where it says Not Available for Lake George, there was a link I could click to 'see other libraries' and that's how I found the two available. Maybe they changed the way they're doing it now. I'm not a fan of change, I get used to doing something one way and want that to be the end of it, LOL

Joy, Parts of "South of Broad," are grim. I liked it because of Pat Conroy's very good writing and the Charleston, SC setting. I had mixed feelings and as I said it was one of the best written books I read last year. Seems funny to write, "last year." nina

Nina, thanks for the warning about "grim". From what I've read in the GR reviews, I get the feeling that Conroy's books do have grim parts. A while ago I did read two other books by him, but have no specific memory about his style or the plots. Here are my very short comments in my reviews:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Happy New Year, all. Still working my way through StephenKing's "Under the Dome". It is good. However, some reviewers have praised it as being as good as "The Stand". Imho, " The Stand" was much better.

Hi Mary JL. I've never read anything by Stephen King. I don't handle horror well.

GR links:
The Stand:
"... Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil ..."
"... the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works."

Under the Dome:
"On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field."

The Stand is one of my favorite books, I've read it a few times and it's just as good as a re-read. I love old Stephen King novels.
There was a TV mini-series based on the book. TV/movies never measure up but it's still worth seeing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108941/

Dear Joy or Jim or Jackie: If someone could explain to me how to post a GR link, I would be glad to start doing my own so Joy does not have to.

We ARE talking computers, so simple, instructions, please!

1. Go to the page you want to show everyone.
2. Click in the navigation bar once. The url should turn blue meaning the entire thing is selected. If you click more than once, the selection goes away & you can edit. If that happens, press control A to select all OR right click & left click on "Select All".
3. Either hold down the control key, tap the 'C' key & release OR right click & left click on copy.
4. Go to the page where you want to post your message with the url in it.
5. Click in the message box once & then either hold down the control key, tap the 'V' key & release OR right click & left click on paste. The url should appear in the message.

Note:
Control-C = copy
Control-V = paste
Control-A = select all
These 3 key combinations will work even when the right click menu isn't available.

Jim, thanks for those detailed instructions. Sometimes, to make the finger movements simpler for myself, I do the following:

1. After I select/highlight the desired URL (as Jim described), I click on my Edit menu. When it drops down, I click on COPY.
2. Then I go to my message (clicking as Jim described) and paste the URL by doing a CTRL V. (or you can use the Edit menu again and click on PASTE).

As you can see, there are several different ways to accomplish the same thing. When I first started learning, that confused me.

Mary JL should get someone to teach her how to copy and paste. It takes practice. Then it becomes automatic.

NOTE: If Mary JL is asking how to post a book or author link, that's different. See my next post.

You can post a book or author link by clicking on "add book/author" above the comment box.

You will see a window open up.

Enter the name of the book or author. Click on SEARCH. When you see the name, click on "ADD".

You will see the name/link appear at the end of your comment box.

Then you can COPY and PASTE the name/link to anywhere in your paragraph. (Or you can use the CUT option. CUT is almost the same as COPY, except it eliminates the need to delete the letters after you've copied them.)

It's as simple as that, especially after you know how! LOL

Okay, Joy and Jim: Testing, 1, 2, 3,4.......Under the Dome

!! It worked. The first time even! Joy, I used your instructions as for now I just wanted to be able to post book/author links. But, Jim, I will write and save both your instructions and hers!

THANK YOU!!!!!!

Mary, whatever works for you. My daughter teaches my wife since I can't seem to. My logic is not hers.

Glad it worked for you, Mary JL. It's amazing how easy things are when you know how. :) It's the learning curve that's hard. As Jim says, everyone thinks differently. Writing procedures for anything isn't easy because each learner is starting from a different level. Even the vocabulary can be tricky if one is just beginning.

Jim and Joy, thanks for those directions; I'm definitely going to write them down! When I post links, I always hand-copy the URL and re-type it into my post; but that's time-consuming, especially with very long URLs.

Ouch! Glad we could help.

Here's another tip for everyone: Notepad
It's under Accessories, but I usually start it by clicking Start - Run - notepad
I keep a text file (that's what Notepad makes) called Temp.txt on my desktop & open it immediately when I start my computer up so it is always handy.

There's 2 reasons to use it; copy/paste & backup.

Often, I want to copy something from a web page but there are links I don't want or odd text. GR strips that away, but if you paste the odd stuff directly into some other web sites or other programs such as Word, you keep all of it. If you paste into Notepad first, you strip away all the odd stuff, too. Then simply highlight it again, copy it & paste it where you want sans all the odd stuff.

Backup: If I'm writing a long message here or using some sort of web program that might time out, I'll write it in my temp.txt, then copy & paste the final result into the application. My Internet at home comes & goes a lot, so it's saved me a lot of hours.

Yes, Jim, Notepad comes in handy for all the uses you mentioned. Our son told me about Notepad a while back. It comes in handy many times because it's so simple and uncomplicated.

When I'm afraid of losing my unsaved GR message during composition, I go to the Edit Menu (after clicking anywhere within the comment box). Then I click on SELECT ALL and then I click on COPY. Then I PASTE it into Notepad as a temporary backup. I like your idea of keeping a text (Notepad) file called Temp.txt.

Quote: "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend...if you have one." George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill. "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second..if there is one." Winston Churchill in response. nina

Nina, it sounds as if they weren't too fond of one another. :) (Re: Churchill and Shaw)
(Or maybe they just liked to tease.)

Today I am starting to read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005) by Lisa See. I recently read Lisa See's book, Shanghai Girls (2009) and enjoyed it. (Both books were NY Times bestsellers.) Someone at our library book group mentioned that she felt that the Snow Flower story is even better than the Shanghai story. She liked the characters more. So I thought I'd give it a try.

The Washington Post Book World called it a "beautiful, heartbreaking story." The Denver Post wrote: "Both hearbreaking and heartbreakingly lovely... The characters and their surroundings come vibrantly alive."

Joy and Nina: Nina's comment brought to mind a famous Churchhill story. Unsure if it is true or not--but it sound slike him.

After a very bitter debate in Parliament, one of the first women members, Lady Astor said to Churchill "Winston, you horrible man. If you were my husband I'd put poison in your tea!"

NOt missing a beat, Churchill replied "Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."

Oh, and this gen IS true:

Somebody--an editor I think--criticized Churchill for ending a sentence with a propostion. Said you could not do that.

Churhcill's famous reply "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put"

An irascible but fascinating man--I'd have love to have been at a dinner party with him!

We once had a quiz in a Writing critique class on who we would choose to have as a dinner partner in the entire world and any time frame. I chose Sir Thomas More and second choice was Thomas Jefferson. Kind of fun. I was always fascinated that Jefferson carried his books with him no matter when he traveled. nina

About Winston Churchill, I looked at his Wiki page and learned the following fact:
"To date, he is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature."
He certainly had a way with words!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_...
http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/bulldog....

I've just started reading Edgar Rice Burrough's The Bandit of Hell's Bend (1924). It's a Western, recommended by my wife, who's the expert on Westerns at our house.

Werner, I checked out one of the GR reviews of The Bandit of Hell's Bend by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Dave Hardy said: "When he wanted to take a break from Tarzan and Barsoom, ERB would occasionally try a Western. The Bandit of Hell’s Bend is one such. The theme is the classic one of stuffed shirt Easterners vs. Robust Westerners (a theme that I daresay underlies much if not most of ERB’s fiction)."
FROM: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Enjoy your read.

PS-In case anyone is curious (I was!) I found the following at Wiki: "Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote close to 100 swashbuckling action adventure stories in various genres in the first half of the 20th century, and is now best known as the creator of the character Tarzan."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom

I don't recall Werner saying anything about it here, so I will. His book, Lifeblood, is now being published again & is available here:
http://inkedinblood.webs.com/apps/web...

-----------
John Carter of Barsoom was one of my early favorites. ERB was a lot of fun to read when I was younger. Lots of romance (clean), adventure & cool places. Pellucidar was the center of the earth, Almuric was a distant planet &, of course, Tarzan had his jungles.

Barsoom was Mars & all the planets had names ending with 'soom', as I recall (Sasoom = Saturn?). In the 11th book of the series which is actually 2 short stories, John Carter goes to Jupiter in one & fights the skeleton men of Saturn in another.

The Mucker (mucker being a name for a fighter & thug) was another favorite along with The Monster Men. Both are stand alone, although there is a sequel to "The Mucker" called, The Return of the Mucker which is a western. The Oakdale Affair is another western, but I seem to recall it was several short stories & might have Billy (the Mucker) in one. Can't recall for sure, though. It's been a lot of years since I last read any of them.

I think I've read every one of ERB's books & stories over the years. Most of the worlds have partial languages invented by Burroughs which really give the feel that you're there in a different place. They're dated in a lot of ways & some folks find a lot of fault with that, but they'll always have a top place in my heart.

Good luck to Werner with the republishing of his book, _Lifeblood_!
http://inkedinblood.webs.com/apps/web...

Jim, thanks for the info re Burroughs. I've never read any of his work.

Another author from Burroughs' time who had fun, adventures was Robert E. Howard. He's best known for his Conan series, but he also wrote a lot of other story types for the pulps of the day including hilarious adventures in the west. My favorite is A Gent from Bear Creek and Other Tales which features Breckinridge Elkins. (Originally, there were a series of stories with 2 different characters but in the 70's, they were edited into this one book with some details changed to make them flow almost like a novel.) Anyway, Breckinridge is dumber than a doorknob, but tougher than any normal human has the right to be since he's the toughest man in Bear Creek which is up in the Humbolt mountains & far from civilization. He rides a horse named Cap'n Kidd who is also tougher than anything else around, except Breckinridge.

A similar set of editing by the same folks (Zebra?) resulted in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan. He was a merchant marine sailor who boxed on the side & was always getting into improbable situations with his bulldog, Spike. Lots of fun.

Joy and Jim, thanks for the links; and thanks for the plug for Lifeblood! (Small presses do little or no advertising, so every bit of publicity helps!)

Both Burroughs and Howard are among my favorite authors, though I haven't read nearly as much of either man's work as Jim has. Of course, that gives me something to look forward to. :-)

I don't know if Howard's humorous stories will tickle you, Werner. My wife says I have a very low sense of humor. (You use what you have.) Have you read any of his horror stories? Black Canaan is a collection of some of his horror & I found it very good. Very similar to Karl Edward Wagner.

Both authors lived tragic, too short lives. Howard shot himself at 30 years old or so, when his mother died, I think. A very prolific, but too short career. Wagner didn't make 50 as I recall. Drank himself to death. Like Howard's Conan, Wagner had a sword wielding hero (more of an anti-hero) named Kane. Wagner wrote & edited a lot of horror, but never got into any other genres that I'm aware of.

A fantastic biography of Wagner is Exorcisms and Ecstasies. Wagner was well known, liked & respected among other authors. A couple of them got together & put together this book with some of the best of his work, then wrote their recollections of him in between. The got other authors to do so, too. It's a fascinating look into the man & his work. Sad, too. I found my copy for $5 & now it sells for well over $100 on Amazon, often for twice that.

Most of Wagner's books command very high prices because they've never been reprinted. In a Lonely Place is his finest collection of horror shorts, IMO. Last time I looked, the PB edition was $20 used & the HB was over $150. (I have both!)

Jim, the only Howard story I've read that could be called "horror" is "The Black Stone." That's a tale inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and an outstandingly good one; both those things are also true of Wagner's "Sticks," which is the only story by him that I've read (but hopefully not the last!). Both stories are included in the anthology Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos.

This is interesting as I never knew ERB beyond his Tarzan stories which in themselves was a place far beyond Kansas City, MO. As to westerns I was amazed when I read some of Louis L'Amour's stories as to what an excellent writer he was but now I can't recall which ones I read. nina

Louis L'Amour is Barb's favorite writer! So far, I've only read one of his short stories, though.

Looking back perhaps it wasn't so much his good writing that captured my imagination(Louis L'Amour) but his great storytelling. I would have liked to have sat at his knee like I did when my grandfather told me of his father coming home with blood on his blue uniform. He was a Union soldier. nina

Jim wrote: "... Last time I looked, the PB edition was $20 used & the HB was over $150. (I have both!)"

I had to go to http://www.acronymfinder.com/ to find our what PB and HB meant. Now I realize they mean "paperback" and "hardbound". :)

Nina wrote: "... when my grandfather told me of his father coming home with blood on his blue uniform. He was a Union soldier. nina"

Gee, Nina, that's a precious memory!

Sorry, Joy.
;-)

Don't be sorry. I learned something. :)

Werner, you really need to see if you can't get your hands on the books I've mentioned, if you liked those two stories. "In the Pines", "Sticks" & "Where the Summer Ends" are all "In A Lonely Place" & are absolutely haunting by Wagner.

"Black Canaan" is the title story of Howard's collection, but I think my favorite is "Pigeons from Hell". Again, haunting. If I believed in reincarnation, Howard being reborn as Wagner would be a perfect example.

For a brief synopsis of "In A Lonely Place" go here:
http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/inde...
I tend to agree with the author of this about each of the stories; the first 3 are fantastic, the others are OK, but have their faults.

For a better look at Wagner & his most famous story, "Sticks", the Cimmerian, did a great write up last year.
http://www.thecimmerian.com/the-terro...

Howard's stories are on Project Gutenberg for free. They have the Breckinridge Elkins stories & a lot more available.
http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m...