A DISers Book Club!

[kafitty]

oooo i'm so excited for this thread!! every time i go to the library, i blank on books to read...not anymore!!

currently i'm about 1/3 of the way through The English Patient. VERY interesting story thus far, even though everything is very non-linear and at times a tad confusing. However i think the characters are wonderful, and i really like the author's prose.

i finished Running With Scissors, a memoir by Augusten Burroughs - quite a read!! His stories are nearly too fantastic to be true, but i don't think anyone's called him on it yet, soo...i guess i have to believe it! He had a very unconventional upbringing, to say the least, and as a person who grew up with strict parents, it is definitely eye opening to see what happens when the adults behave like children and everyone just lets loose.

DD is reading 1984 for school and she is not having fun. I think it has less to do with the book but the fact that she has to read and write a report on it.

That's too bad - i LOVE LOVE LOVE 1984. And Brave New World. And The Giver. Why i'm obsessed with utopian disfunction, i don't know...

I feel about libraries how many of my friends feel about shopping. I enter the building and feel the world is at my fingertips.

great quote, great summation of the feeling...

Again, technology has allowed things to happen. No pages printed, yet a book has found an audience!

isn't it incredible?

Books that made me cry so much, I'll never see the movie:

sorry to laugh at your sorrow, but that was just too funny.

Also, if you're an HP fan and just so happen to like musicals and/or satire....check out A Very Potter Musical: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C76BE906C9D83A3A&search_query=a+very+potter+musical. Quite possibly one of the funniest things i've ever seen, ever in my entire life, and trust me i seek out the hilarious!!

 

[corky441]

I finished Pillars of the Earth in two days...it was that GOOD! I give it two . Also make sure you read World Without End, it is written by the same author and is just as amazing.

I just started reading-Eve: A Novel of the First Woman- by Elissa Elliott.. it is pretty good so far.

I just started Pillars of the Earth it is truely an awesome book. I won't be finishing it in your record time, but i can recommend it highly.

If Kevin hadn't mentioned it, I never would have picked it up to read.

 

[kafitty]

i forgot to mention, while checking out my library's website for eBooks to download, they're promoting something called What Book Got You Hooked?

http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/index.php

The state with the most votes gets 50,000 books donated to it! wow!!

i nominated Roxaboxen. (Again, my weird obsession with utopian life...haha.)

 

[mainegal]

That's too bad - i LOVE LOVE LOVE 1984. And Brave New World. And The Giver. Why i'm obsessed with utopian disfunction, i don't know...

I didn't know there was a genre called distopian fiction until I realized that was what I was reading! I don't think I like science fiction. But I like books set in the future when the future didn't go quite right.

Giver is great! Also by same author, a companion book, Gathering Blue.

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
How quickly a woman's basic rights, personal freedoms, financial independence, carreer can be taken away by a patriarchal society. Truly scary how close to reality it could be.

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
Young adult award winner, I stayed up 'til 4:00 in the morning with this book. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world. This book is about his young clone. Fantastic!

On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Could this really happen? Written in 1957, this is something everyone should read as a cautionary tale. World War III has devastated the Northern Hemisphere with nuclear warheads. The fallout is advancing toward Australia but a Morse code signal emerges from the United States. A submarine heads north in a search for survivors. The characters exhibit acceptance of their fate – suicide is preferred to the desperate bid for survival seen in most post-apocalyptic fiction.

 

[mainegal]

Why i'm obsessed with utopian disfunction, i don't know...

Could it be that distopian books make life today seem "not so bad"?!

 

[willis37862]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Could this really happen? Written in 1957, this is something everyone should read as a cautionary tale. World War III has devastated the Northern Hemisphere with nuclear warheads. The fallout is advancing toward Australia but a Morse code signal emerges from the United States. A submarine heads north in a search for survivors. The characters exhibit acceptance of their fate – suicide is preferred to the desperate bid for survival seen in most post-apocalyptic fiction.

That sounds pretty interesting. I will put that on my list of books to look for. I like those types of books also. Have you read Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson...it was pretty interesting if at times hard to understand. It's a bit more sci-fi which is what is catching my attention right now

 

[splashmountain86]

Woot woot.....we have obtained sticky status!......Woot woot!

I have just started reading Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. His other book, The Things They Carried, is one of my favorite books of all time so I am really looking forward to this! Both books are about the Vietnam War; however, they go so much deeper than battle scenes. So far so good!

 

[MinnieMommy]

What a great thread!!

I have been avoiding it on purpose... too much temptation.

I am a school librarian and I had a mountain (well, small hill) size pile of "school" reading to get through before school is back in. I was trying to get through it before I started in on "my" reading. ;-)
So, if any needs tips on high school or elementary school reading lists (especially with a Canadian content focus)... just ask!

At least reading for school forces me to read genre outside my comfort zone.

Tonight I'm going to start The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
From the publisher: "When she was a young woman, Roseanne McNulty was one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland. Now, she is a patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, and nearing her hundredth year..."

 

[Plutes]

Tonight I'm going to start The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
From the publisher: "When she was a young woman, Roseanne McNulty was one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland. Now, she is a patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, and nearing her hundredth year..."

Please let me know what you think of this! I've had that one on my list for a few months, and still haven't gotten to it!

I just started reading The Lord of The Rings - that should take me a while!

 

[Decorated_Dust]

I just started reading The Lord of The Rings - that should take me a while!

You're a braver woman than me. I'm WAY too ADD for those books. Also, the movies were so good, that I did not see the point of reading the books. That NEVER happens to me.

 

[MelissaFromRI]

I just started "Julie & Julia" last night and I LOVE the first 2 chapters so far

 

[willis37862]

You're a braver woman than me. I'm WAY too ADD for those books. Also, the movies were so good, that I did not see the point of reading the books. That NEVER happens to me.

I read the first one but I haven't been able to talk myself into the second one I loved the movies so much and for once I think the movies were the way to go...Tolkien has a tendency to overly describe scenery ( at least I thought so ) and stretch scenes out forever!

 

[adsrtw]

I just have to add one that I read to my daughter today (well part of it at least), Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.

 

[AnninIowa]

I just have to add one that I read to my daughter today (well part of it at least), Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.

I LOVE all of the Silverstein books! I got the boxed set several years ago.

 

[adsrtw]

I LOVE all of the Silverstein books! I got the boxed set several years ago.

I had no idea there was a boxed set. Sounds like a good present for myself.

 

[tanyabanana]

yeah for the sticky status!!
I finished Honolulu by Alan Brennert
A fairly good read about a Korean woman that travels to Honolulu as a 'picture bride'. Wasn't as in love with this book as Moloka'i by the same author, but I would recommend it.
Next up was White House Nannies by Barbara Kline. Have to say I didn't really like it too much. I thought it would be funnier and more light hearted but it was focused on how hard it was to match nanny to family.
Now reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann. So far really good. This was a freebie off of Oprah and I didn't know what to expect but I am up at almost 330 am and taking a break from reading it if that tells you anything.
I love this thread and enjoy hearing what others are reading.

 

[mainegal]

I finished Honolulu by Alan Brennert
A fairly good read about a Korean woman that travels to Honolulu as a 'picture bride'. Wasn't as in love with this book as Moloka'i by the same author, but I would recommend it.

I know this isn't a book / movie club, but...

Picture Bride, a film from 1995 is a similar story. A young city woman leaves Japan in 1918 for the Hawaiian cane fields to marry a man she has never met. Adjustment is difficult, but eventually she finds love & friendship.

 

[evildiva]

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife such a great book! Very romantic and bittersweet. Now I am actually a little nervous to see the movie for fear that they will ruin the book.

 

[corky441]

Tonight I'm going to start The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
From the publisher: "When she was a young woman, Roseanne McNulty was one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland. Now, she is a patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, and nearing her hundredth year..."

Ooooooooooooo - that sounds good. Guess i have another to add to the even growing list

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife such a great book! Very romantic and bittersweet. Now I am actually a little nervous to see the movie for fear that they will ruin the book.

So often that happens to me - I read a book and my mental pictures of people & places is so real to me, that when the movie comes out it's hard to see it through some director's eyes.

 

[willis37862]

So often that happens to me - I read a book and my mental pictures of people & places is so real to me, that when the movie comes out it's hard to see it through some director's eyes.

I know what you mean. The movie seldom lives up to the book Speaking of book/movie tie-ins....I am reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest and so far I like the book better