Leann’s Comments (group member since Dec 11, 2011)

Leann’s comments from the Off The Shelf group.

Finally making some headway, page 115, chapter 9, is where I stop for tonight.

Hello sweethearts! Oh, garsh, well I'm only on page 70, starting Chapter 6. I busted myself trying to bloody speed read through this and thus made myself slow way down. Making my eyes run a marathon over the words isn't the point. I keep having to remind myself of that. I want my heart and brain to absorb the characters.

My thoughts so far, I read some reviews and a few people didn't like the gun parts, I actually loved them. My father is approximately the age of the Major and as he comes to visit me and speak with me at length at least once a week, I can tell you that these kinds of thoughts, motivations, are so much like his. He becomes fixated on things I cannot conceive the importance of but I am more resolved to understand or at least provide fellow feeling after seeing the way the son treats the father and how very despicable it seems.

I find myself becoming irritated with how horrible and shallow the son is, and yet, I can't help but think my own father views me this way sometimes. I get tired of his stagnant views on certain things, his inability to change, to grow and progress. Major Pettigrew's thoughts, fears, desires.... made me feel closer to my own father and made me actually like him a little better as I considered how much softer and more tolerable the Major's thoughts and desires were in comparison with the actual words he spoke aloud.

I love being in someone else's head other than my own. Maybe it's the introvert in me, but I love being able to have access to private thoughts, the secret things that marinate thoughts and actions. They are richer than their dialogue counterparts.

That's all I got for now... OH, one more thing, I have no idea what lugubrious means.

Here's something fun. I was having trouble getting into the book (mostly because when I try to read my husband is watching tv and it throws off my concentration.) I'll just have to read at work. Anywho, I have actually started reading it semi-outloud to myself in an english accent, an indian accent for Mrs. Ali's parts. It's actually working to make me get more into the book! I do a very good indian accent but my english accent could use some work. :) Just started chapter 3.

I use Calibre too. No issues to date.

My new fav place to get free ebooks on my kindle is the library! No joke! Go online to your local area library, chances are theyve already started lending kindle titles. It is lent to u through amazon and thus goes over whispernet just like they do.

Now THIS is a fun discussion! I love it!

Karen and Shanan: It seems so odd to me that people would read a book that is either fiction or nonfiction and raise a fuss about a genre switch or finding out when it is more one than the other. If you loved it, you loved it.

ALTHOUGH... I kind of had an interesting experience with this recently. I read The Lovely Bones (fiction)which is the account of this girl getting raped and murdered and then what happens to her and her family and her murderer afterward. Then I got the author's other book which is a memoir of her actual rape account from when she was 18. I thought TLB wasn't actually that graphic for the subject matter it was portraying. When I read the memoir I was shocked at the raw details from her rape. It's awed me how the real story was so much more vivid.

Paula: You said "I tend to read a book with the genre in mind, for instance, if it's YA, then I don't expect the level of complexity that I would find in an adult novel. Again, however, that preconception is being challenged with the new crop of authors writing such awesome works like Harry Potter and others. My one criteria for a new book/author is: was I entertained and/or informed? If that happened, then it was a good use of my time. If there was more than that, awesome! Maybe I just found a new favorite author!"

Stop creeping into my brain and stealing my thoughts! This is exactly what I meant to say in my last post but failed miserably due to constant interruption while I was trying to type it.

BTW, Karen, I am quite enjoying Major Pettigrew so far. But it's not surprising, I actually enjoy realistic fiction. I also love hearing older people's thoughts, they feel so much more like my own.

For now I see through a glass, darkly. I absolutely love lines like that one.

Yes, Karen, I DO think that, within reason, we should expect stories of different genres, time periods, themes, etc to have a similar feel or similar qualities.

Yes, I would be very much annoyed with Anne Elliot of Persuasion were she to act in a contemporary setting the way she does in the time period of the book. I would hate that she allowed herself to wait for Wentworth to go out and make his fortune and come back a wealthy man before finally deeming him suitable marriage material. She would be completely shallow to me. BUT, in those days, that was just part of a woman's life.

I didn't really think you were "nagging" that much before, I just thought you were taking a childrens book a bit too seriously. I definitely think you're nagging NOW though... Gees O PETE, man! Lighten up!

Well for the love of noodles, learn to control yourself. I try not to be too much of a jerk with other people's writing unless it's just absolute feces... like, actually written with poo, about poo, for an audience of maggots.

Hey guys, it's a fantasy children's novel... let's not get carried away. I mean COME ON. PLUS... how could they go study the red Bull all the time right underneath Haggards nose? That's not cool. Poor haggard.

On other notes, I'm having trouble getting into Pettigrew... I just started writing again yesterday and got 3k words done! Pretty stoked about it. I'm going to a "write in" this saturday for approx 4-6 hours so I may be able to get more done there too. JANO may be too much pressure for me, but I may shoot for 30 K by the end of this month, maybe like 80 k for the whole book.

I tried to read Time Travelers Wife, and while I did enjoy the details about the characters, I just couldn't force myself to get into it at the time.

BTW, Our pick for March, Her Fearful Symmetry, there are several copies available on www.paperbackswap.com. I have already interested Karen in this site because it's an easier way to BUY books and then swap them once you finish them.

They end up being about $3.50 per book, that includes shipping directly to your house and everything. If you swap a book and mail it to another member, then you get credit for one book that you can order from someone else. It's very cool. Give it a shot. The only book I was not able to get was Major Pettigrew, but that's ok. 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Welcome, Robin! Wonderful to have you! :)

Well u should, Pauls, they were so good I absorbed them one after the other in a weeks time, chain reading style.

Yeah, I'd probably do Hunger games again if I got to do it as a group thing.

Ooh... Virus developed in a lab?? That sounds more like scifi. I'm in the mood for a book about real people, their lives, and the intertwining of all that lies in between.

I was totally up for Pettigrew, but karen listed it as already read this month. I like the idea of everyone experiencing the thing for the first time together.

The Before I go to sleep story sounds like the movie Memento (if you've ever seen it). I saw it a loooong time ago, and while i didn't care for the language, the story line/concept was actually really interesting.

I'm likin me some scottish highlands...

OH! And you know what... I will add one that I saw on the recent best sellers list that sounded amusing:

Before I go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

Well, Pooooop. OK, so Karen assures me I will LOVE Maeve Binchy... thus, I am picking three of hers.

The Return Journey, The Lilac Bus and Dublins 4.
All by Maeve Binchy.

I have never read anything by Agatha Christie and everyone just raves about her, so I will simply say that I want to read a really GOOD one of hers. K. Nel? You have a couple suggestions of hers that I can put as my suggestions?? Much obliged madam, much obliged.

Just my thoughts, if you make me plod through a mystery, can it be either really fast paced or really funny or a combo of the two? I will do some research and figure out some names for a couple that sound interesting so i can post them.