Books on the Nightstand discussion
What are you reading: February, 2011
Oy, this ice storm Linda. I did a face plant in the parking lot at work this morning. I really need to move somewhere that doesn't have an annual snowpocalypse.I decided to read some junk food so I started Fangland: A Novel. It's about a producer from a 60 Minutes type show that stumbles onto some kind of vampire story in Romania. The old school kind of vampires that is, not the moping lovesick au courant types. It got kind of bad reviews here on Goodreads but I was curious.
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My county is now at a level three (no one allowed on the roads) so looks like I won't be going in tomorrow either. READING TIME!
Yeah more or less. I have whiplash and apparently a mild concussion. None of which is as distressing as having to going to work and walking through that winter minefield again
Hey this is a good idea. I worry every winter about falling. On the bright side, I had my iPod in my pocket and I landed right on top of it. I was afraid I broke it but it's still chugging away.
I can't imagine walking in this with a cane, Linda. Don't go out. Even the grass is slick.
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Linda - sorry to hijack this thread, but I sent you a msg thru Goodreads a few days ago. Did you see it? Please email me: ann@booksonthenightstand.com Thanks.
My reading: a book coming out next summer called The Last Werewolf. I'm not much for the supernatural, but I figured if I could enjoy the zombies in The Passage, I might like the werewolf in this book. So far, I do!
I hope you are ok Vanessa. I fell down my front steps not long ago. I know than even when you are ok you are still left feeling sore all over.I just finished The Nature of Monsters and I loved it even tho it was heartbreaking. I'm also about half way thru The Aeneid
Flora, so many people here wiped out yesterday. Some of them like you just leaving their houses (by the way--steps. Ouch!) At least I have power (for now.) This is the worst ice storm I've seen since I moved to Ohio 10 years ago. I would rather have had the foot of snow they got up north instead than this.
I agree, Vanessa, snow is so much easier to deal with than ice. We had an ice storm here a couple of years ago and it was awful. All of the power lines for miles were down. We were without power for three weeks. I don't ever want to go thru that again. At night you would be laying in bed and hear breaking limbs hitting the roof, it was very unsettling.
Just started Emperor of All Maladies: a biography of cancer. Saw the author interviewed a couple of weeks ago and realized how little I knew about the illness that has taken several of my friends. I'll let you know how this goes. When I told someone what I was reading, the response was "How depressing!" Since when is knowledge a depressant?? This seems like a natural to follow on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks which my book group read last fall.
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Will contact you, Ann.
Vanessa, so sorry to hear about your fall! We just got another 15+ inches of snow where I live and I'll take that over ice any day!I'm reading
for my book group and it is very interesting. I just can't put the book down!
I'm finally starting
Kavalier and Clay because it took forever to get to the top of the library's request list. I'm also just starting The Bells.
.
Finished "Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes" by Stephen Sondheim.
Normally I don't make a habit of reading song lyrics. Yeah, with a rock record I'll sometimes sit down with the liner notes and read along, but mostly I'll refer to the lyric only if I can't suss out what's being sung. This book is the exception for two reasons: 1) These aren't rock lyrics. Sondheim is a great writer in this form. Literate and witty, these are songs meant to tell stories. Although they're meant to be coupled with music, they're good enough to be taken on their own. 2) This isn't just a collection of lyrics. The lyrics serve as springboards to discussions of the creative process and creative outcomes. Sondheim, at age 80, is clear-eyed about his work. When he tells us what worked, what didn't, and why, his arguments are irrefutable enough that this reader can only nod his head in agreement.
Sondheim, in propounding his philosophy of lyric writing, also places some of the greats of previous generations under the lens and offers his opinions on their bodies of work. Even his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein, gets the treatment. ("Oh What a Beautiful Morning" --good! "Climb Every Mountain --bad!) The reader will learn the terminology used by insiders. Now I'll always know when I'm hearing a "list song", for example.
Sondheim's core principles are that content dictates form, less is more, and...er...a few others that I've forgotten. He also believes in rhyming. Not approximate rhyming, but "true" or exact rhyming. Not just as a creative restriction. The importance of rhyming, he tells us, is to reinforce what the ear has just heard. As someone who sometimes struggles to keep up with the words in theater songs, I agree wholeheartedly. One should not assume from this that Sondheim's lyrics are all "moon, June and spoon". They're creative as hell. Open the book to any random page and you'll see what I mean. Here, I'll do it right now: elixir/nick, sir -- gamut/dammit -- barbari[ans]/hairy.
The grudges and whines listed in the title are just the author being self-deprecating. But there are heresies. For example, he hates the time honored tradition of a group of people singing a single thought in unison. He shies away from doing this unless to highlight the fact that people are acting or thinking without individuality. And there are anecdotes. Some very funny ones are told, especially about Ethel Merman and Hermione Gingold. I don't think I'll ever be able to see Gingold on screen again without laughing inappropriately.
There are thirteen shows covered here, up to 1981's "Merrily We Roll Along". There is a sequel promised, yet these shows represent about 2/3 of Sondheim's output. So why a book of such length? Why not save more material for the sequel? I thought this until I read the section on "Merrily We Roll Along". Sondheim was 50 when he wrote that show, and its subject was a successful songwriter of a similar age, from a vantage point of financial and critical success juxtaposed with frayed and failed relationships. The story is told backward in time, ending with the promising start of lasting friendships and a career on the rise. Happier times. Although Sondheim rejects the notion that creative artists' characters reflect their own personalities, he confesses some autobiographical feelings expressed in "Merrily" (at east in so far as it portrays a young songwriter trying to get "the suits" to appreciate his good work), there couldn't be a more poignant place at which to end this book.
Normally I don't make a habit of reading song lyrics. Yeah, with a rock record I'll sometimes sit down with the liner notes and read along, but mostly I'll refer to the lyric only if I can't suss out what's being sung. This book is the exception for two reasons: 1) These aren't rock lyrics. Sondheim is a great writer in this form. Literate and witty, these are songs meant to tell stories. Although they're meant to be coupled with music, they're good enough to be taken on their own. 2) This isn't just a collection of lyrics. The lyrics serve as springboards to discussions of the creative process and creative outcomes. Sondheim, at age 80, is clear-eyed about his work. When he tells us what worked, what didn't, and why, his arguments are irrefutable enough that this reader can only nod his head in agreement.
Sondheim, in propounding his philosophy of lyric writing, also places some of the greats of previous generations under the lens and offers his opinions on their bodies of work. Even his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein, gets the treatment. ("Oh What a Beautiful Morning" --good! "Climb Every Mountain --bad!) The reader will learn the terminology used by insiders. Now I'll always know when I'm hearing a "list song", for example.
Sondheim's core principles are that content dictates form, less is more, and...er...a few others that I've forgotten. He also believes in rhyming. Not approximate rhyming, but "true" or exact rhyming. Not just as a creative restriction. The importance of rhyming, he tells us, is to reinforce what the ear has just heard. As someone who sometimes struggles to keep up with the words in theater songs, I agree wholeheartedly. One should not assume from this that Sondheim's lyrics are all "moon, June and spoon". They're creative as hell. Open the book to any random page and you'll see what I mean. Here, I'll do it right now: elixir/nick, sir -- gamut/dammit -- barbari[ans]/hairy.
The grudges and whines listed in the title are just the author being self-deprecating. But there are heresies. For example, he hates the time honored tradition of a group of people singing a single thought in unison. He shies away from doing this unless to highlight the fact that people are acting or thinking without individuality. And there are anecdotes. Some very funny ones are told, especially about Ethel Merman and Hermione Gingold. I don't think I'll ever be able to see Gingold on screen again without laughing inappropriately.
There are thirteen shows covered here, up to 1981's "Merrily We Roll Along". There is a sequel promised, yet these shows represent about 2/3 of Sondheim's output. So why a book of such length? Why not save more material for the sequel? I thought this until I read the section on "Merrily We Roll Along". Sondheim was 50 when he wrote that show, and its subject was a successful songwriter of a similar age, from a vantage point of financial and critical success juxtaposed with frayed and failed relationships. The story is told backward in time, ending with the promising start of lasting friendships and a career on the rise. Happier times. Although Sondheim rejects the notion that creative artists' characters reflect their own personalities, he confesses some autobiographical feelings expressed in "Merrily" (at east in so far as it portrays a young songwriter trying to get "the suits" to appreciate his good work), there couldn't be a more poignant place at which to end this book.
I did a Facebook poll last month & read what my friends/family voted for...The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I'll be done shortly & will do a new poll, this time between The Hunger Games, The Honey Bee Girl & Unbroken: A World War II Story... I kinda like doing it that way so it's a surprise what I'll read next.
I'm currently listening to Caribou Island (by David Vann; narrated by Bronson Pinchot.) Bronson Pinchot is hitting all the right notes in telling the story of a family on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. The setting is lushly portrayed and the characters are fully drawn, warts and all. The keel of the novel is that Gary, the father, is building a cabin on an even more isolated part of the peninsula. You can sense the inexorable pull toward a dark or tragic event beyond their lives of seemingly never-ending regret and frustration. I'm not sure what this says about me, but so far, so good.
I finally dnf-ed Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotay.) Technically there is nothing wrong with the book. The premise is interesting, the writing clear and, it's even got great cover art; but just like that, within a few chapters, I lost interest and was never able to get it back. The set-up for the novel is that a retired ballerina is auctioning off her jewelry. The lead-up to the auction triggers three seemingly disparate story lines: the ballerina's flashes back to her life in Stalinist USSR, another Russian emigre who has some sort of mysterious connection with the ballerina starts trying to re-connect with the dancer and, the love-disillusioned auction house agent engages upon her research efforts into the pieces being auctioned. The writing is straight forward and descriptive (even with the occasional phrases masquerading as statements for stylistic effect); but for all the scene building, there's a certain lack of lushness or romanticism to the story and; no tension. The whole of the book builds on the flashback structure that seems to be popular amongst book clubs (see Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen) and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (by Jamie Ford)) but weights it a little more on present day action by including the Russian emigre and the auction house agent. Each chapter is preceded by a description of a piece of jewelry which provides a bit of a tease for the ensuing chapter; but the correlation between the jewelry and the following text is often tenuous at best. I didn't hate the book. I just set it down six weeks ago in the middle and forgot about it.
FYI: I got to page 270 of the 466 page book
I finally dnf-ed Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotay.) Technically there is nothing wrong with the book. The premise is interesting, the writing clear and, it's even got great cover art; but just like that, within a few chapters, I lost interest and was never able to get it back. The set-up for the novel is that a retired ballerina is auctioning off her jewelry. The lead-up to the auction triggers three seemingly disparate story lines: the ballerina's flashes back to her life in Stalinist USSR, another Russian emigre who has some sort of mysterious connection with the ballerina starts trying to re-connect with the dancer and, the love-disillusioned auction house agent engages upon her research efforts into the pieces being auctioned. The writing is straight forward and descriptive (even with the occasional phrases masquerading as statements for stylistic effect); but for all the scene building, there's a certain lack of lushness or romanticism to the story and; no tension. The whole of the book builds on the flashback structure that seems to be popular amongst book clubs (see Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen) and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (by Jamie Ford)) but weights it a little more on present day action by including the Russian emigre and the auction house agent. Each chapter is preceded by a description of a piece of jewelry which provides a bit of a tease for the ensuing chapter; but the correlation between the jewelry and the following text is often tenuous at best. I didn't hate the book. I just set it down six weeks ago in the middle and forgot about it.
FYI: I got to page 270 of the 466 page book
Still plugging away at The Elegance of the Hedgehog
. I say plugging away but it's one of the best books I've ever read period. I'm just not finding enough reading time lately. :( I seriously need to do something about that.My audio book is Falling Free
by Lois McMaster Bujold. Her Vorkosigan series is far better but this book is good enough to keep me interested. This is one of those books I don't know if I'd ever have read but am definitely enjoying listening to it.
Tanya wrote: "I'm currently listening to Caribou Island (by David Vann; narrated by Bronson Pinchot.) Bronson Pinchot is hitting all the right notes in telling the story of a family on the Kenai P..."I managed to finish, but was quite disappointed as well!
I am working on Possession by AS Byatt for book club. Neat premise and intrigiuing mix in the format. But, it has too much poetry in it for me. Sure taking my time reading it. Also, still working on Free For All and 3 books for MBA classes. I will also read Something Missing for the Retreat Challenge because I only have it for 2 more weeks from the library. My other book club is reading Omnivore's Dilemma this month, and since I've already read it, I am listening to the CDs. Possession,Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition, The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well, Framework for Marketing Management, A, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
I finished bot Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities for book group tonight and "loved " them much more than I thought I would. Read them mostly in Oprah's new edition by Penguin, but for counting and challenge purposes I listed them as Kindle editions so they count as 2 books (read about 40% of each on my Kindle). Just started The Finkler Questionon my Kindle this morning as a break from the classics and the 18th and 19th centuries.
Amy wrote: "I managed to finish, but was quite disappointed as well!"
You're talking about Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotoy,) right?
You're talking about Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotoy,) right?
Jusat finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Waiting for Columbus Thomas Trofimuk. Started The Finkler Question over coffee this afternoon.I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Historian. Do not usually like vampire stories. This was good writing. Maybe I am changing as I had fun reading Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer last year.
Ann wrote: "Vanessa, I hope you are recovering OK from your fall!Linda - sorry to hijack this thread, but I sent you a msg thru Goodreads a few days ago. Did you see it? Please email me: ann@booksonthenights..."
Ann, looking forward to your review of The Last Werewolf. I've heard good things. It has the same pub date as The Taker, both are literary/supernatural--I'm hoping it will be a good thing!
Tanya wrote: "Amy wrote: "I managed to finish, but was quite disappointed as well!"You're talking about Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotoy,) right?"
Yes sorry, took out too much of the quote.
Right now I am waiting for a book I've ordered online, so in the meantime I am reading:
And the book I am waiting for is:
I have a seventeen year old daughter, who is following the "current trend" to read anything vampire, gothic or werewolf. I'm told that every one of these books cluttering up the house is a "must-read", therefore, I am asking you to advise me on whether there is any series worth checking out myself.Huge thanks in anticipation
I finished Fangland: A Novel which is as ok-ish as the average Goodreads rating would lead you to believe. Kind of interested to see what John Carpenter does with it though.I just started The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years. I heard the author on Fresh Air and she was riveting.
Chris wrote: "I have a seventeen year old daughter, who is following the "current trend" to read anything vampire, gothic or werewolf. I'm told that every one of these books cluttering up the house is a "must-re..."The Mortal Instruments series is highly addicting. Cassandra Clare is a wonderful writer and all sorts of fantasy characters are included. The series starts with
and so far it is a trilogy. Book 4 is set to be published in April of this year. In addition to these series, there is a prequel called
. I do recommend reading it after the first three Mortal Instruments books since that is the order of publication.
I've just started The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian which is my 2nd book in the BOTNS Reader Retreat Challenge.
I finished Saving Ceecee Honeycutt and loved it. Currently I'm just getting started on
and so far its pretty good.
Just finished Before You Know Kindness By Chris Bohjalian and am trying to continue The Finkler Question,but I'm not loving it. I may move onto something else either In the Woods or Saving Ceecee Honeycutt which are very different books.
Kate wrote: "Just finished Before You Know Kindness By Chris Bohjalian and am trying to continue The Finkler Question,but I'm not loving it. I may move onto something else either [bo..."I LOVED
[book:Saving Ceecee Honeycutt|6617928], would recommend that to be next.
I finished up Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption and there really isn't anything I can add that hasn't already been said. I attempted the first 70 pages of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Timebut could not get into it so now I'm trying The Likeness It's not grabbing me right off the bat but I will give it a bit of time. The premise is interesting to me. I also read the last several trade paperbacks of Ex Machina which were okay but not nearly as good as this series originally promised to be.
I took a break from books after finishing Cormac McCarthy´s The Road, but now I´m back reading Kazuo Ishiguro´s The Remains of the Day. I will probably move on to something by Ray Bradbury after this.
Finished City of Ashes and thought it was much better than the first one. Looking forward to City of Glass, hopefully I can pick that up this weekend. Getting started now on The Scarlet Letter
I'm reading Never Let Me Go - I'm finding it a bit of a hard read right now but am determined to read it before I see the film.
but I haven't had time to read it yet, new author to me too :) hope to start tomorrow
Sorry but I really can't get into Never Let Me Go so will probably start something else - still want to see thefilm though. Life's too short and I've too many other books to be read!
Quinn wrote: "I've been working on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for a few weeks now - I like it, it just hasn't really grabbed me.I started The Corrections last week, and ..."
I am in the same boat as you are: I pick up and put downThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I like it but it is long and I want to read other things. The Corrections was the only book I have ever put down and never picked up again. Half way through I found the characters insufferable and did not care what happened to them. Then I had a big glass of wine and moved on!
Catherine wrote: " but I haven't had time to read it yet, new author to me too :) hope to start tomorrow"I have not read this one but I may make a suggestion....I would find her 1st Scarpetta book & start with that one, there may very well be quite a bit of background story for this to be a stand alone book.
I believe the first one was Postmortem
Maggie wrote: "Sorry but I really can't get into Never Let Me Go so will probably start something else - still want to see thefilm though. Life's too short and I've too many other books to be read!"While I didn't love this book I didn't hate it either. I won't say it was worth plodding through the book but the plot did pick up a little at the end. When I finished the book I felt the same way I did when I watched the series finale of Lost - many of my questions were answered but I was also left with more questions.
Last night I finished reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and listening to Falling FreeI really, really loved Elegance of the Hedgehog, and the ending took my completely by surprise. I am not yet able to put into words what made this book so special to me but the feeling I got as I read this book is amazing.
Falling Free was a fine book, though not one of Bujold's better works. I happened to start listening to it as I was reading Never Let Me Go, which proved extremely interesting. Both dealt with the social implications of medical ethics but in completely different ways. Someday I may sit down and compare the two books more thoroughly.
Not sure whether to start Russian Winter or The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Any thoughts?
I'm still reading The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years which is kind of slow going in the beginning-my eyes are crossed from reading about the number of Plasmodium mutations. I had to put it aside to start One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for book club next week. I can already tell I should I had started it earlier. Reading something narrated by a paranoid schizophrenic requires some patience it seems.
Alexia wrote: "Not sure whether to start Russian Winter or The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Any thoughts? "
If you belong to any sort of book club whatsoever, I would wait on reading Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotay) until they pick it (and they will!) Like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (by Mary Ann Shaffer) and Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen) it's pretty irresistible fare for book clubs.
Personally, I found the premise intriguing, but somehow disappointing in execution and I ended up DNF-ing it 270 pages in. I set it down one day and completely forgot about it :-/
If you belong to any sort of book club whatsoever, I would wait on reading Russian Winter (by Daphne Kalotay) until they pick it (and they will!) Like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (by Mary Ann Shaffer) and Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen) it's pretty irresistible fare for book clubs.
Personally, I found the premise intriguing, but somehow disappointing in execution and I ended up DNF-ing it 270 pages in. I set it down one day and completely forgot about it :-/
Tanya wrote: "Alexia wrote: "Not sure whether to start Russian Winter or The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Any thoughts? "If you belong to any sort of book club whatsoever, I would wait on reading [book:R..."
Thanks, Tanya. Unfortunately I'm not in a book club. So, that doesn't help me choose. :(
Hm. I need to read something new. Was recently completely disappointed with American Gods (Eric, I think you said you're a big fan, but maybe it just isn't meant for women to read). I also read The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, and liked it though it's very short. The illustrations are gorgeous, and I like the IDEA of the King of Dreams, I say idea because i hear Sandman would not be much to my liking.Considering reading The Count of Monte Cristo, as I have been meaning to forever. What do you guys think?
Books on the Nightstand
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I'm working on four - which seems to be on going:
and I'm listening to the only less than 600 page book of the bunch (and boy is it less than 600 pages):
Hopefully, since we are iced in, I'll finishThe Frontiersmen
tomorrow and move on to the pile of goodies I have from the library including
And, our local independent book store is going out of business and I purchased