Crystal’s Comments (group member since Feb 10, 2014)

Crystal’s comments from the Easley Library Bookworms group.

Oh! I love that book! I know you will enjoy it! I had a hard time at first with that prompt too. I don't usually care for that type of story but Atticus is a hero.

Here's my list!
Read a book:
E set in Europe -Nurse, Come You Here!: More True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeod
A set in Appalachia – The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
S set in the summertime – Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
L with a title starting with L - Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage by Kimi Eisele
Y with a yellow cover - Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy

L with a lawyer protagonist – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I set on an island -- Island of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O’Dell
B a chapter in the Bible – Psalm 139
R that is a romance – The Night Circusby Erin Morganstern
A from Africa -- Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
R that's Realist/realistic fiction – The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
Y that's marketed as YA -- When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I'm currently "reading" an audiobook recommended to me by an Instagram friend. It is called "I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. It is really causing me to think and evaluate much about me and others. Our attitudes mostly.

I've just finished listening to H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald which is a memoir about the loss of her father and how she trained a goshawk, which is supposed to be a very difficult task. It was an exquisitely written book. If I can get in two more books this year, I will have read 75 which is above the goal of 60 I had for this year. Of course, in the last few years I have not been able to even get near my reading goals so I'm glad that I've been able to "catch up" so to speak.

Werner, I read The House on the Strand by du Maurier which had some very odd time travel in it. I enjoy those types of things but this was a bit odd Rebecca is her best work. I finished Gilbert's Big Magic a couple of days ago and I was more impressed by Gilbert than I expected to be.

I keep forgetting that this discussion is here! I've just finished reading my second Daphne du Maurier novel after loving the most popular of her novel's "Rebecca" and am getting ready to start a nonfiction book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. I am looking forward to this holiday week and hoping to polish off at least a couple of books.

This is a great challenge. I have already met this challenge this year by supporting our local bookstore, Hearthside Books. I also love browsing used bookstores and wish we had a nice one in the area.

Paula wrote: "I just finished Station Eleven. This is a beautifully written novel of life after a plague has destroyed most of the people on earth. There are no zombies, no vampires, and no aliens, but there are..."

Paula - I have to agree with you. Station Eleven is one of those books that remain with you long after finishing it. I plan to try another of her books soon. I'm so glad you enjoyed this book.

Paula! I just finished it this afternoon. The title is all wrong for this book. I didn't realize that I was really reading another take on "zombies." Only the zombies are evolving and the girl is the leader in the evolutionary process. I really live under a rock. I've never read nor am I interested in zombies. These creatures are called "hungries." I guess her gifts were that she was evolving.

I've just gotten caught up on all that everyone has been reading. This year has been slower for me and I'm way behind on my reading. Currently, I've got an audio book going - The Girl with All the Gifts which now that I'm more than 2/3 of the way through, I'm disappointed that the description isn't matching the book. So far the kid isn't manifesting any gifts. Do we have to wait until the end? This is another dystopian novel where a disease has infected a major portion of the human race and there are a few left to survive with any semblance of normalcy and are trying to find an antidote to the infection. Think Oryx and Crake meets the Body Snatchers. My hardcover read is The Funeral Dress written by Susan Greg Gilmore, an Appalachian author who will be conducting a workshop next week at Breaks Interstate Park. This is a sad book so far but very representative of the genre.

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.

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!!!!!

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. :-)

Werner -
On point number 1, I agree very much with all of your comments and can say that I wholeheartedly agree with your regarding the adaptation of Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson. I cry every single time I watch it.

Werner -
I'm not sure that I've read many Appalachian memoirs. I looked that book up and I'm going to add it to my list. It might be the first of the year before I get to it but it's good to know that we have it right here. Thanks very much for the recommendation!

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.

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.

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.

Paula -
I really liked this book. I thought that it was very, very good for YA fiction. I know some folks believe it is overrated but I remind them that it isn't written for adults. I'm hoping to see the movie too. I know I have a review on here of what I thought about the book.

I listen to audio books most of the time. I am not a bit fan of television but I will put on an audiobook in the kitchen while I'm doing chores in there or while I'm folding laundry, etc. It helps to make tasks far more tolerable and at the same time I am working my way through a terrific book (most of the time). It also substitutes for one of my deepest pleasures - being read to. I have learned what types of books are better for me to listen to and which are better to read. Often if I get stuck with a print book, whether hard copy or kindle, using the audio might get me through to the end of the title.

Like Paula, I also download from the library and I have a subscription to Audible which I really love. They have daily deals that are usually between $2.95 & $4.95 and I've discovered some terrific authors because of the specials.

For the questions of audio books in Easley library, I would think that while it is a college library, we do have popular DVDs and several types of fiction available, so why wouldn't audiobooks fit our mission? I would also recommend that you look into "playaways" that can plug into a car audio system that has an auxiliary jack for mp3 players and smartphones. This is the main way I listen to audiobooks. Would it be feasible to bring on a subscription to Overdrive which allows patrons to download audio books? I'm not sure what other systems are out there but I do know that Tazewell, Craft Memorial, and Princeton Libraries all have this delivery system.
Paula - my favorite set of CDs is The Chronicles of Narnia. My husband and I also listened to all of the Harry Potter books on audio except the last book. We couldn't wait for it to come out on audio when the book was released. We bought it and he read it to me. :-)
It is a beautiful way to redeem the time.