Classy and Trashy Book Club with the Moorhead Public Library discussion

Here's a spot to discuss anything we happen to be reading in addition to our monthly pick. And as a reminder, here's a post from last month's Salon to keep in mind:
Karen shared some information about an upcoming author event that will be featuring an author we've read: Kim Michele Richardson ('The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek'). Bookreporter.com has something called Bookaccino: a Lively Talk About Books, and they have Richardson scheduled for Thursday, March 25th at 8pm ET. You can find information at: https://www.bookreporter.com/features...

And they also have regular talks about upcoming books, so that could be interesting too! I'll try to repost this information in the upcoming Book Salons so we keep it on our radar. - deb

Thanks for reminder, Karen. That was such a good book and author talk would be interesting. I have been getting the Book Reporter and Readding Group Guides newsletters for some years now and find then so interesting and helpful in choosing books for my other book club. Book Reporter has really branched out now to You Tube and podcast and author talks but I really haven't used them yet. There is so much to read and do and so little time for it all!!
Diane

Diane wrote: "Thanks for reminder, Karen. That was such a good book and author talk would be interesting. I have been getting the Book Reporter and Readding Group Guides newsletters for some years now and find t..."
I've checked out their Reading Group Guides, but haven't actually watched any of the Bookaccino events or anything - definitely need to find time to! ....Because I have so much trouble finding something to read ;) - deb

I'm continuing my mystery kick - I cruised through the first few Daisy Dalrymple books which are very light and easy. I enjoyed them and think I'll go back to them, but after the 3rd one I was craving something slightly different. So I'm diving into Agatha Christie audiobooks!

I've only actually read a few of her books, although I've seen every Poirot w/ Suchet and every one of the recent Marple adaptations that were made along with them at one point, so I actually know most of the mysteries and am kind of hoping it turns out they changed them a bit when adapting them.

I finished The Murder at the Vicarage last night and enjoyed it. I started listening to a version read by Joan Hickson (who excellently played Marple in some earlier adaptations) thinking that might be the best version, but then realized the book is narrated by the the Vicar, and it kept confusing me because I'd hear the voice of Marple but it was a different character actually speaking. So i switched to the version with Richard Grant, which was easier for me to follow. I'm now moving on to The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's kind of hard choosing which version to listen to; Hoopla has A LOT! For this one I went w/ the Hugh Fraser version because he's so good as Hastings in the tv series, and I think Hastings is also the narrator, so should be much less confusing. - deb

I've gotten into a really nice groove book-wise - for starters, I'm continuing my Christie kick. I finished both the Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Moving Finger and am currently on The Murder on the Links. I like the lack of emotional drama in the Christie mysteries - they seem more cerebral to me and thus are a nice chance to give the heart a rest and exercise the little grey cells (to speak metaphorically). However, to give the heart a little exercise too I'm also throwing in some Mary Stewart! I don't think I've read her since high school, but some coworkers were talking about her and I remembered that I'd really liked her back in the day, so decided to revisit. Thus far, I'm still liking her. I listened to Touch Not the Cat and am currently on Nine Coaches Waiting.

So, to speak to the books themselves a bit (and the recordings of them) - I like listening to the Poirot books read by Hugh Fraser. Since Hastings narrates them and I'm already familiar w/ Fraser's voice as Hastings from the tv series, it works out really well. And he's a good narrator in general - gets other voices well. Perhaps influenced by my appreciation of Fraser, but at this point I'm feeling like Hastings really is what makes the Poirot books. He adds the humor and a way to emotionally connect to the stories; otherwise there would just be this odd little man walking around making cryptic statements.....hmm, it would be interesting to try reading only the parts where Poirot makes observations. Not interesting in terms of a good story, but interesting to see if the solution to the mystery becomes clearer that way (I never have it worked out right by the end).

As for the Marple books....she's hardly in The Moving Finger! Its fascinating that there's this larger-than-life figure in my mind who doesn't actually have much page space in the novels; it adds a whole level of humor for the reader who gets to feel like they're in on a secret of how cool she is, while so many around her hardly even notice her (and if anyone disagrees that she's cool, I will happily debate that with you - she's probably one of my all-time favorite characters).

I can't remember the character names at the moment, but I really like the relationship between the Vicar and his wife in The Murder at the Vicarage; the relationship between the Jerry (narrator of The Moving Finger) and Megan however is fairly ridiculous. It would not fly today; however, maybe because it's so dated I find it easier to be amused and entertained by it than offended by it? Although that doesn't hold true for all dated things I read....I really don't know why I was entertained by it even as I thought it was so ridiculous.

Anyway - so quick notes about Mary Stewart - it's possible that my love of a gothic atmosphere stems from reading her books when I was younger (along with Barbara Michaels). She is so incredibly good at setting a scene that incorporates secrets from the past, romance in the present, and a little fear of how both of those things will impact the future. Strangely, the only thing I remembered from Touch Not the Cat was a minor thing from the very end of the book (which for some reason in my memory played a bigger role in the book than it did...I actually thought there was an archeological dig in the book because of it and there totally isn't). But my pitiful memory means it was almost like reading a book for the first time and that was great. Once I got over rolling my eyes at the psychic connection and the repeated use of the term "lover" (which for whatever reason I just can't take seriously - I remember also thinking it was ridiculous the first time I read it) I completely got into it and enjoyed it. - deb

I almost forgot! Since I think most of you are in other book clubs, I wanted to let you know that we now have Book Club Kits! A bin w/ 10 copies of the book that can be checked out and used for your book clubs. Let me know if you have any questions about them. - deb

Wow! It's been a long time since I popped in here. Right now, I am listening to Beauchamp Hall (which is a tad early since we're not discussing for another 9 days, but I borrowed it earlier so it's going to be due and I wanted to make sure to finish it). My other recent listens were Foundation by Isaac Asimov and Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra, both of which are for book discussions this week. I'm reading Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault, which was highly recommended to me by multiple people. It's about Alexander the Great (his childhood/youth in this first of a trilogy). I'm finding it a good read, but not a quick one.

I'm currently doing a free online course about Classic Detective Fiction (which, BTW, I think you'd really find interesting Deb, if you have time to check it out - I emailed you, but got your automatic out of office message). So, in the past couple of days I've listened to Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Dupin Stories by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. The latter two are focused on in the course and the first was mentioned by other people in the comments and was interesting to hear as I was learning similar stuff in the course.

Apart from that, I finished The Children's Book by AS Byatt, which is the Outlander Book Club choice for March, Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (highly recommended by people on another lit based course), Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, Dear Miss Kopp by Amy Stewart and The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley.

The Kopp sisters one was interesting in that it was told completely in letters since the three sisters were separated for almost all of the book. The others haven't been like that. Apparently, the author doesn't have any info about what they were doing during WWI, so this one isn't based on known facts, but now she can get back to what she knows they were doing after the war.

Hi ladies! So good to read all your comments regarding Christie and Mary Stewart. Did anyone watch the Agatha Christie 2-part documentary that was recently on PBS? I thought it was fabulous + watched a recent filming of And Then Were None that was published by Acorn TV. Karen, I'd like more info on the free Mystery class. Deb, I remember how much my mother loved Mary Stewart. I think the only Stewart book I've read is The Moonspinners but I have several of her books on my basement bookshelf. How about doing one of her books for book club this fall?? I recently finished The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue and am now working on a classic The Sound of the Mountain. In my book bag is Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys and Alan Brennert's sequel Daughter of Molokai. Happy Monday! Kathy PS So exciting to see that MPL now has book club kits + I saw the 60th anniversary celebration with the $60 donation suggestion. Such a small price to pay for such a dynamic library!

Kathy - The is the link to the course: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/c... You can join now, though the second week has started. You have free access for 2 weeks past the official end of the course so that hopefully would be plenty of time to catch up if you want to. There are a LOT of comments in this one (hundreds on most steps), but I don't read all of them. Usually just some of the newest ones and then the "Most Liked" threads. I'm enjoying it.