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Thread: What Are You Reading in 2013?

  1. #31
    Low Tech grunt iris lily's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by larknm View Post
    Lost Prophet--about Bayard Rustin who was a gay, black Quaker, did a lot of pacifist work and organized the March on Washington. He wasn't widely visible because of prejudice against gays, but those who worked with him knew and learned from him. King learned a lot of his pacifism from Rustin.
    Did you see that PBS show last week on Ruskin? I missed that he was Quaker.

  2. #32
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    I just finished Allison Weir's book called Mary Boleyn. I enjoy reading about history, both biographical and historical fiction.
    The only pet peeve I have is when people believe that the fiction (as it relates to historical topics) is historically accurate. For example, Phillipa Gregory's, The Other Boleyn Girl while based on historical information and some facts it is still fiction.

  3. #33
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    A little late joining in, but oh well!

    AmeliaJane--I love P and P! Have you finished it yet? What did you think?

    bUU--Karl Popper sure is an interesting fellow. I am fascinated by his theory of disconfirmation and how it relates to more religious arguments.

    Rogar and Spartana--I am a Steinbeck fan, too! Have you ever read "Driftless" by David Rhodes? When it came out, Rhodes' descriptions of the Midwest were compared to Steinbeck's writings of Monterey and Salinas. Being that I love Steinbeck and am from the Midwest, I had to check it out! :-)

    So far this year I read a book called "You Can Buy Happiness and It's Cheap" by Tammy Strobel. I really enjoyed it. I also re-read "Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life" by Margaret Kim Petersen. It is really intelligently written; I think most ladies looking for purpose at home from a Christian perspective would enjoy it. Then I read "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly. I don't mean to offend anyone here who likes that book, but I thought it was horrible. It boasts some of the worst writing I have ever seen (and I teach introductory college English, so that should tell you something! ;-) ), and it is absolutely riddled with historical inaccuracies. For example, it has Lincoln and Grant meeting in the Oval Office. Um...Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. The Oval Office was not completed until 1909. A very sloppy attempt at scholarship, indeed!

  4. #34
    Low Tech grunt iris lily's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BarbieGirl View Post
    I just finished Allison Weir's book called Mary Boleyn. I enjoy reading about history, both biographical and historical fiction.
    The only pet peeve I have is when people believe that the fiction (as it relates to historical topics) is historically accurate. For example, Phillipa Gregory's, The Other Boleyn Girl while based on historical information and some facts it is still fiction.
    I know! Our local film board is currently talking about Lincoln (the film) and someone is very cranky because it represented 2 Connecticut Congressmen as voting against the 13th amendment when inf fact all of the Conn delegation voted in favor.

    I don't understand why he's so het up about it, it is a dramatic film. It's entertainment.

    However, I will say that I don't understand the dramatic intent of changing this fact.

  5. #35
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    Iris lily,

    Lol, I'd be upset too! I think it's because once a fiction is looked on as fact, we lose something of our history. That makes me sad.

  6. #36
    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kat View Post
    Rogar and Spartana--I am a Steinbeck fan, too! Have you ever read "Driftless" by David Rhodes? When it came out, Rhodes' descriptions of the Midwest were compared to Steinbeck's writings of Monterey and Salinas. Being that I love Steinbeck and am from the Midwest, I had to check it out! :-)
    I've not heard of it. Thanks! I've run out of Steinbeck books to read without re-reading them. I'll have to give it a try.

    After reading The Road, which was about the most downer fiction I think I've ever read, I didn't know if I could ever swallow another post-apocalyptic themed book. But I just finished two. The Dog Stars and The Bird Saviors. Both are set in my home state which added to my interest, but I think they would be stand-alone for anyone. The Dog Stars was more of a wild adventure/action romp with something of a happy ending, considering the world as we know it has imploded. The Birds Saviors takes place in the not too distant future with the effects of climate change and peak oil just starting to surface and was a little more of a believable character study, again with a fairly happy ending. They were both quick reads and worth a few evenings of entertainment.
    "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver

  7. #37
    Low Tech grunt iris lily's Avatar
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    I finished Still Alice, a novel about a college professor who gets early onset Alzheimer's disease at 50 years old. It's interesting how she and her family approach this disease.

    Also read Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. It's a biography of a Somali nomad girl who runs away from her life in the desert to escape an early marriage to an old man. She ends up in London, and is discovered by a photographer and becomes a model. Because she endured female circumcision, she became a worldwide spokesman against that practice.

    A novel I'm enjoying a lot is City of Thieves by David Benioff about a young man in WWII Leningrad who is charged with finding a dozen eggs in that city where everyone is starving. The eggs are for the plice chief's daughter's wedding. If he doesn't find the eggs, he is imprisoned.
    The author is a screenwriter and so know how to keep it lively.

    I finally, after decades of hearing about Angela Thirkell's Barchester novels, tried the first one, High Rising. It's just too flat for me. Too bad, I though this would be a batch I could read in retirement.

  8. #38
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    I just finished Maeve Binchy's last book (sob), "A Week in Winter."

    Now I am reading "The Last Runaway" by Tracey Chevalier. It's excellent!

  9. #39
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    I liked some of the later Thirkell books much better than High Rising. I had read a few from the middle, and meant to go back and read the whole series from the beginning, and also found High Rising a bit of a snore. I am usually adamant about reading things in order, but had not in this case and it was fine. So you might give another book in the series a try.

    I just finished "On the Way to the Gates," about Christo's Gates project in NY City a few years back. It was a bit repetitive--they included four different interviews from his career which all pretty much covered the same ground--but I enjoyed learning more about his and his wife Jeanne-Claude's process. It was interesting that they thought of the long public permitting/hearing/negotiating process behind public art as a way to get people like ranchers and parks department officials who don't really engage with art on a regular basis to do so.

  10. #40
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    "Ambulance Girl" by Jane Stern. A true story of her midlife crisis, sub-titled "How I Saved Myself by Becoming an EMT."
    You might recognize her name as half of the Stern duo who are foodies and wrote one of their most popular series on Road Food.

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