Comments on: July 2008 Meeting of the Ruthless Book Club — What Books Are You Taking on Vacation or Reading in a Hammock at Home?

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:25:27 +0000

Your comments and some others I have read have sold me on the need to read this one, and I’m hoping to get to it within the next few weeks. The book sounds a bit like Simon Winchester’s “The Professor and the Madman” — which I admired greatly — in its ability to blend period detail with a great story. Thanks for getting back to me.

By: sarahsk

sarahsk — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:42:50 +0000

I finished “The Suspicious of Mr. Whicher” the other day and loved 3/4ths of it. Wonderfully researched and well-written. Towards the end, I found myself wishing that the author didn’t provide somewhat tangential information about relatively minor characters in such detail, though, and because the events in the book are all true, some of the main players were never vindicated, which was unsatisfying (that’s real life for ya…). While reading it I was completely absorbed and fascinated, and enjoyed the glimpse into the time period and its media. I loved that everyone in England was trying to solve the crime, and that amateur detectives concocted elaborate theories that they would publish themselves and/or send into Scotland Yard and all the newspapers. Great stuff.

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:59:07 +0000

Would love to hear more about “The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher” after you’ve read it. I like historical true-crime, too …

The Penguin Classics Jane Austen may be the only one-volume edition of all the Austen novels that you can find easily in America right now, so I’m grateful for it. My one reservation about that one (which I don’t own but have been tempted to buy) is that the pages seem a bit large. They look as though they might not be as comfortable to hold as the out-of-print OUP edition. But the Penguin Classics edition is also more handsomely designed that the OUP.

By: sarahsk

sarahsk — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:00:35 +0000

I just picked up The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. It's a true-crime murder mystery set in the English countryside in 1860. Apparently the real-life case sparked a craze in detective fiction at the time. The book looks fabulous. Regarding the Jane Austen collection, Penguin Classics recently came out with a new one-volume paperback edition if anyone's interested.

By: ggelliott

ggelliott — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:08:27 +0000

Jan,

I happened to hear, on NPR this afternoon, author Brad Meltzer discussing the novel REPLAY by Ken Grimwood, and after hearing Brad’s passion for the work, especially his comment: “…you realize that this book isn’t a thriller. Rather, it’s an instruction manual: You should never live your life looking backward.”

While it bears obvious similarities to the movie Groundhog Day, it was written earlier, and the premise is that a 53 year old man dies of a heart attack but awakens as himself at 18 – with the opportunity to live his life from that point differently while having the benefit of remembering everything from his first time around. This is repeated as he fails to get it right several times.

Here’s a link to NPR’s You Must Read This, the Brad Meltzer piece on REPLAY. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92131281

I’m looking forward to getting into this book!

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:27:16 +0000

Can you say a few more words about “Replay” for visitors who haven’t heard about it?

By: ggelliott

ggelliott — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:51:42 +0000

Oh, and just picked up Jon Stewart’s AMERICA (the book) A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.

For moments of poignancy and giggles…

By: ggelliott

ggelliott — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:46:49 +0000

Just got back in town from a short getaway at Vero Beach, and want to add:

REPLAY by Ken Grimwood

I’m guessing that I’m going to find it apropos at this point in my life!

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:45:13 +0000

Malcolm, I have actually done that — not using UPS but FedEx or Global Priority Mail — when traveling overseas. You can always buy new clothes when you’re abroad, but you can’t always count on finding English-language books. Jan

By: knightofswords

knightofswords — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:45:54 +0000

Or, Janice, you can send your clothes out to your destination via UPS and filled your carry-on bags with books.

Malcolm

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:39:52 +0000

You know, I never thought about how the pay-per-bag change would affect readers until you said that. But I might hesitate now to throw my usual half dozen “insurance” books into a suitcase. For the extra baggage cost, you might be able to buy new books at your destination.

By: knightofswords

knightofswords — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:55:58 +0000

Probably Nora Caron’s “Journey to the Heart,” William Young’s “The Shack,” and Mark Gerson’s “Moonquest.”

“They” won’t let us pack as much as “they” used to when one’s going by air.

Malcolm

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:33:59 +0000

Luckily for anyone who wasn’t wild about “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Garcia Marquez also wrote the wonderful “Love in the Time of Cholera.” It is — to oversimplify greatly — an epic love story with little chance for that character confusion.

By: oh

oh — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:13:28 +0000

oh good grief, hit the wrong button and didn’t finish the comment above…and I’m reading a good deal of essays on travel and grace and memoir. We do have a copy of THE SPARROW in the house that I haven’t picked up yet and am now tempted because of speedytexaslibrarian’s reference. I am delighted to see P is reading THE SHIPPING NEWS, an unaccountable favorite of mine and I agree with P on all the character “confusion” in 100 YEARSO F… Updike’s shorts? You got me looking at his poetry, Jan! Now, the short stories! And for a treat, I’m headed to Amazon to download your YEAR IN …(I have a gift certificate with an odd amount left on it and this will be perfect!)
Now to get down to the business of reading – outdoors!

By: oh

oh — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:08:45 +0000

We’re doing the staycation this year, getting to know our house and grounds, enjoying the place. And the weather! I stacked up the books I want to read and stuck them in my blog, but I don’t think there’s anything in the stack that will make someone say “oh, I want to read that!” Turns out mine are personal choices, I think, some sentimental (CELTIC QUEST), some pure escapism (RESISTANCE by Shreve and MURDER IN WASHINGTON SQUARE