While we are waiting . . .

So while we are waiting for everyone to be in a position to comment on the German occupation of Paris - and France - I have been reading this book:We were in the Burbank airport and I noticed it at one of the many book stalls there - decided I would order it from Amazon - which I did at Phoebe's.

My book group chose to read GWTW for January - and so I dug out Scarlett too - and have been thoroughly enjoying transporting myself back in time in these very historical - but very readable - novels about the ante bellum South.

I need to visit the South some time - I have read about it so often - I really need to see it.

I have loved GWTW for lo these many years - and maybe because I have read it so often, I love the fact that Margaret Mitchell's estate has commissioned sequels to the book. I'm sure they are in it for the money, and they are not great art - or even great literature - but the original has "stood the test of time" and that is good enough for me.

Besides, I enjoy curling up with a book that transports me!!

Talk about a "theme!"

I finished Suite Francaise - as well written as Sarah's Key is not - and was so moved by not only the novel, but by Irene N.'s story too.

I'm excited for all of you to get through it.

And I'm half way through Resistance by Anita Shreve - about the French underground in Belgium in the same time period - actually 1944 - but a gripping story too.

I also started Rhett Butlter's People - it's my new SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) book. The glory that is GWTW just goes on and on!!

Sarah's Key

Bonny hasn't read Sarah's Key yet - I will take it to her tomorrow - since we are going there after the temple - we have a wedding to attend in Ojai at 11 a.m. so we thought we'd try to avoid all the extra driving.

Anyway, if you'd like to get a head start - I think we should read Suite Francaise to compare the two. The above photo is of the author - her story is fascinating.

So happy reading - we'll start discussing soon!!

Getting going

Since I'm leading a "book discussion," I thought a "school pix" of me might be apropos. (Actually couldn't think of any other image - and it's nice to have images on a blog now and then!)

I confess that as I started reading this book, I figured out some of what was going to be happening. And in my own impatient style, I skimmed through the book to the end - and my suspicions were confirmed.

But as always happens when I skim that way, I do find out some major details that I suspected - and then realize that the ending has some minor details that I don't understand.

And in addition to being impatient, I am also very curious. So I have to go back and read for the details.

Which is why I love Gone With the Wind - I read it the first time when I was young - and didn't know about "skipping ahead" so I read all the details and wasn't impatient. Now I can just read the "good parts!"

Which leads to my next question - that I want everyone to consider as they read - why does the author "set us up" so blatantly? Or do you even think that she does? (I do.) And many books do this - is it just "bad writing?" Or am I expecting great literature when the author was just intending fiction?

Your thoughts??

Sarah's Key

To answer Mom's question, I sent invites to everyone and Mom and Phoebe have not yet responded. I will send you a second invite and you can join when you have time.

So the first book will be Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. From Publishers Weekly: "De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz." An American reporter living in Paris and working for an American magazine is assigned to write about the anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. She discovers that the former occupants of the apartment she is moving into were Jews kicked out at the time of the roundups (at which time the apartment was acquired by her husband's family).

My last question is, is a month enough time for you to read it, or would you rather have more time since we also need time to post/comment? If a month is good, then we can start in November and Mom can review it (I am volunteering you, Mom) at the end of November or beginning of December and we can discuss.


By the way, if you don't want to lead the discussion then I can do it. I just figured I'd let The Matriarch start and we can go from there.


Phoebe, I also want to read Finn; maybe that can be our second book. Matt recently re-read Huck Finn and sparked my interest.

Information overload.

So far nobody's volunteered to pick the first book. I'll do it if you would like. I still haven't decided; I'll get back to you.

Here are a few books on my current list--most are nonfiction, a few are fiction. Anything stand out to you? Sorry; it's kind of a long list.

• Girls Gone Mild - Shalit (trend of chastity, modesty, mildness in young women)
• The Feminine Mistake - Bennetts
• What Would Barbra Do? - Brockes ("history, art, and politics of musicals")
• The Next Thing on My List - Smolinski (from what I remember, this lady or man dies and had a list of things she/he wanted to do before dying; so, a friend, or someone, picks up the list and tries to finish it)
• Dandelion Wine - Bradbury (RB's first novel, supposed to be really good)
• On Chesil Beach - McEwan (iffy--about a newlywed couple's disastrous honeymoon night)
• 100 Questions from My Child - Chopra
• How Starbucks Saved My Life - Gill (interesting concept; the guy seems like a jerk though)
• Sarah's Key - deRosnay (historical fiction; Paris during the Holocaust)
• Back on the Career Track - Cohen and Rabin (I think this was the more practical volume I had in mind when I read The Feminine Mistake)
• The Escape Artists - Piven (all about "escape artists"--e.g., race car drivers, animal hunters, alligator wrestlers, standup comedians)
• The Maytrees - Annie Dillard (don't remember)
• Tamar - Peet (don't remember)
• Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety - Judith Warner
• Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo (a novel about a prisoner...I think)
• Bowl of Cherries - Millard Kaufman (don't remember)
• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England - Clark (fiction)
• A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway (I read this in HS and want to read it again)
• The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin
• Memo to the President Elect - Madeline Albright
• The Zookeeper's Wife - Ackerman (about the Holocaust, I think)
• Children at Play - Chudacoff (a social history--"parents try to keep children indoors for fear of dangers lurking outside, but children take new kinds of risks playing in cyberspace.")
• The Rope Walk - Carrie Brown (novel; don't remember)
• The Godmother - Carrie Adams (novel; don't remember)
• The Sisterhood: Inside the Lives of Mormon Women - Solomon
• Realityland - Koenig (I have "Bonny" written next to this; I think it's something about Disney I wanted to tell her about)
• Everything He Hasn't Told You Yet - Silver (don't remember)
• From the Hips - Odes and Morris
• My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
• 19 Minutes - Picoult
• Finn - Jon Clinch (got good reviews; a story about Huck Finn's dad)
• The Alexandria Link - Berry (don't remember)
• To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Your Inner Housewife - Caitlan Flanagan (apparently Leslie Bennetts's "nemesis")
• Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture - Jon Savage
• The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing (who just won the Nobel Prize--the oldest lit. prizewinner at 87)
  

In case you didn't see it, Bonny suggested:

also - what might be fun - a women's theme -

american jezebel (anne hutchinson - ancestor)

marie antoinette

well behaved women seldom make history (or any of the laurel thatcher ulrich books - she's so interesting to me)

fem mystique

i am a mother

and i'm sure there are more


just a brain storm

we could also do theme like:

19th century, pioneer, early 20th century (STEINBECK!!!), etc.

First book

Mom is reading Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Matt and I are reading Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate your Dentist by Tyler Cowen.

I actually have not read a ton of fiction lately. Another good nonfiction book I started but didn't finish (it was due at the library) was Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent by Meredith Small. Fictionwise I just started The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

What are you reading, or what have you been wanting to read?

Do you want to vote on books, or take turns selecting? Should we get together a cache of books that we can go through over the next several months?

I was thinking we could take turns being the discussion leader, but that doesn't necessarily mean there only needs to be one post per book. We could also use this blog to post about other books we have read, but that kinda laps over into Goodreads.

Should we invite anyone else? Family, friends, both, I am open. Maybe e-mail your yay or nay and/or names of people to invite. People don't necessarily have to become a Blogger member to comment if that's too complicated, I mean if they aren't already bloggers. We could do e-mail invites, or general announcements on our blogs or the Terrill blog, or both. We should probably pick a book to start with first.

First post

What do you think?