| Author | |
Mimip
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 17 2009
Location: Florida
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1526
|
| Posted: Jan 21 2010 at 9:49am | IP Logged
|
 |
|
I just finished The Haunted Rectory by Katherine Valentine and just found the best read in a very long time!!!!!!!!!!
What a wonderful book!!!! Highly recommended!! Thank you all for recommending it from last years Book list.
FYI: It is not part of the series but written afterwards.
Also just finished the Red Glove series by Karen Kingsbury. Good quick reads that were a bit cheesy but cute.
I also finished One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning both in the September 11 Series by Karen Kingsbury. I liked them both and was able to learn quite a bit. It is fictional but she did a ton of research about St. Paul's Church where the pictures and posters were kept after Sept 11 and it was very moving to read about that. Recommended as well.
I's starting some Lisa Smart this week so I'll be back with those reads soon. 
__________________
In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Natalia
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1343
|
| Posted: Jan 21 2010 at 1:13pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I just finished Going Rogue by Sarah Palin. I found it eye opening and quite good.
__________________
Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JuliaT
Forum All-Star
Joined: June 25 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 563
|
| Posted: Jan 21 2010 at 8:07pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
The books that I have read so far this month are:
HATCHET by Gary Paulson. This was a pre-read as we will be using this book for our unit study next month. I loved this book and am looking forward to doing this with the kids.
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F.Scott Fitzgerald. This was my first Fitzgerald book and it just might be my last. I did not like it at all. It was hard to finish it.
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley. I simply loved this book. It was a delightful read.
I have just started WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Anderson (I think that is her name. I am so bad with author's names.) I am not sure whether I am going to like this book or not.
__________________
Blessings,
Julia
mom of 3(14,13 & 11 yrs.old)
MusingsofaPrairieGirl
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mimip
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 17 2009
Location: Florida
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1526
|
| Posted: Jan 21 2010 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
JuliaT wrote:
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F.Scott Fitzgerald. This was my first Fitzgerald book and it just might be my last. I did not like it at all. It was hard to finish it.
|
|
|
We did this for a Book club I was in one time and to this day we still ask every time we don't like a book we ask "Was it as bad as Tender is the Night?"
__________________
In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Cay Gibson
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 16 2005
Location: Louisiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5193
|
| Posted: Jan 21 2010 at 10:40pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Jane Austen's "Persuasion" is my current cache. 
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary Chris
Forum All-Star
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2175
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 11:32am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I finished Katherine, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, and Olive Ketteridge.
I enjoyed Katerine. I loved Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy! I didn't care for Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
Tonight, I'll start either Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie or The Scent of Water.
__________________
Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SuzanneG
Forum Moderator
Joined: June 17 2006
Location: Idaho
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5465
|
| Posted: Jan 28 2010 at 3:45pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mary Chris wrote:
| I finished [COLOR=GREEN]Katherine, |
|
|
 Avalon rivals Katherine as my favorite Anya Seton novel, if you're looking for another one!
__________________
Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Natalia
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1343
|
| Posted: Jan 28 2010 at 7:01pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Suzanne,
I never heard of Anya Seton, what kind of books does she write?
__________________
Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Natalia
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1343
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I just finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Excellent!
I also finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was the pick for my book club this month and i can't wait to talk about it!
__________________
Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
DominaCaeli
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 24 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3711
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 5:16pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'm hoping to post here on the booklist this year thanks to the many great recommendations I've received from this annual thread in past years. Thanks for sharing all your reading! Here goes for January...
Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Middle-grade mystery novel. Delightfully clever and just plain smart. Fun!
Rumer Godden's The Kitchen Madonna - I had read some of Godden's adult fiction, but this is the first of her children's novels I've encountered. Really enjoyed it. The relationship between Gregory and Jane and between Gregory and Marta felt very real to me, and the plotting was nicely paced. Lovely story.
Adam Shepherd's Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the American Dream - Heard about this one via The Common Room. In contrast to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, college-educated Shepherd sets out to test the American Dream on his own with only $25 in his pocket and the clothes on his back. Traces his roughly year-long journey from life in a shelter to an encouraging level of financial independence. Not a perfect memoir, but I really enjoyed the account of his adventures--quick read, and funny too.
Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting (for the book discussion here)
A.J. Jacobs' Guinea Pig Diaries - Another funny one--I've been in the mood for light reading lately. (Warning: some of his jokes are a little risque.)
I'm still reading G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong with the World (wonderful so far) and David Denby's Great Books--I probably won't be done with those two for a long while.
__________________
Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chari
Forum Moderator
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5228
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mimip wrote:
We did this for a Book club I was in one time and to this day we still ask every time we don't like a book we ask "Was it as bad as Tender is the Night?"
|
|
|
Oh, Mimi! That is funny! 
I did not mind some of FSF's more famous titles.......but I read them a long time ago before I was Catholic.....or even an adult.....I have been thinking of re-reading them as my kids sometimes ask for American authors. Hmmm.....good idea for a new thread!
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chari
Forum Moderator
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5228
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Cay Gibson wrote:
| Jane Austen's "Persuasion" is my current cache. |
|
|
Go, Cay!
Have you already seen the movie???
How many Jane Austen's do you have left to go? And, which ones?
Have you seen all of the movies, but not read all of the books yet??
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chari
Forum Moderator
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5228
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 6:25pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Wow, Celeste! That is a lot of January reading for a mom of littles! Good for you!  (you remind me of.....well, me! )
I am glad you will be joining us more frequently here!
Just curious............how do you have two kids, same age different months? If you feel like sharing.....I am jhust curious.
My best friend has the same.....a child born in June 07 and one in September 07.......the first bio, the second a totally unexpected adoption.
and, if they were born in 2006.....they are not toddlers anymore
Congrats on your new baby! I am quite partial to April........and so is Cay!
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chari
Forum Moderator
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5228
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
My kids all LOVE Rebecca, Natalia.........it is on my really long "to read" list.
I have a few books to add......but I am out of time now.......off to a basketball game!
I am proud of you all for keeping our list going in 2010....this is so much fun!
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SusanJ
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 25 2007
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1347
|
| Posted: Feb 01 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I can't believe how long this list is after only one month!
I listened to Going Rogue by Sarah Palin in January and am now listening to The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes with dh.
I just finished North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell--my first Gaskell read, thanks to the ladies here! Loved it. Now I'm reading a book on buying real estate. I need to mix it up--when I'm reading a novel nothing else gets done
__________________
Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Karen T
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 16 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
|
| Posted: Feb 02 2010 at 9:45pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Oooh, Rebecca is one of those that I just have to reread every 10 years or so. I think I first read it in my late teens, then at least twice since then but it's getting time to pick it up again.
I just (literally, 5 minutes ago) finished Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and am just overwhelmed at the emotions. I read it in high school, hated it, avoided Dickens for 30 yrs and have been reading his other works this last year but finally decided I had to revisit this one. A friend and I have been reading it together and discussing it. So powerful.
I read part of the Simplicity Parenting book everyone's discussing but it was due back at the library before I finished it.
I'm in the midst of Inkspell the sequel to Inkheart. I want to like these books but I was so-so on the first one. For once I actually liked the movie better than the book for some reason. This one is the same way - it's OK but something is just not there for me.
I'm still listening to the audio version of Return of the Native and reading Patrick O'Brian's The Letter of Marque the 12th book in his Aubrey-Maturin series.
Last week I read Miss Buncle, Married by D.E. Stevenson, one of her earliest books. Our library has about 8 of her books, but they seem to be random, not more than one of any series. So I have a couple on order through ILL including the one before this one, but I highly enjoyed this one.
Karen T
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SuzanneG
Forum Moderator
Joined: June 17 2006
Location: Idaho
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5465
|
| Posted: Feb 04 2010 at 4:10pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Natalia wrote:
| Suzanne, I never heard of Anya Seton, what kind of books does she write? |
|
|
Historical Fiction. I love her books!!! Here is some bio info about her at Wikipedia.
Chicago Review Press is re-printing many of them now!
__________________
Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chari
Forum Moderator
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5228
|
| Posted: Feb 06 2010 at 2:49pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Bleak House by Dickens.
Okay, so I finally read my first full-length Dickens' novel. Of course I enjoyed it, even if it did take over 350 pages to give me all of the background info. And, the number of characters was most dizzying. Most.
I enjoyed it very much.........I loved Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. I highly recommend the book to any of you.
Then, we watched the movie. It was kind of okay at first, but in the end we hated it. They take several noble charaters and reduce them to romantic sops. Disgusting. The stuff they added was modernistic in thinking and ruined the original. Blech House.
So, after that 950 page book (during which I read 2 300 page books about medicine), I decided to take a break from reading for a week or so.
Well, as most of you can identify with.....that lasted only half a day. So, I finally picked up
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I had bought last spring, since our library does not own it. Since some of you had mention it was somewhat similar to Pride & Prejudice, I read about 125 pages wondering when the similarity would start.....and then it finally did. I was shocked to find that Gaskell almost stole an entire scene from Austen. Very surprising. I also found the first 125 pages a bit depressing, thinking: I need to stop reading these depressing English novels for awhile. Why are there so many depressing Eglish novels? Is it because they did not get enough sunshine???
Though I found it depressing, I still enjoyed the writing. I did enjoy the book much more when it got moving......I enjoyed the surprising turns.....but I am very mad at Gaskell for hanging me along for over three hundred pages only to solve the dilemma in less than a minute, on the second to alst page. That was a dissatisfying ending. I wonder if she suddenly had to end the book or something??
All that said: I am glad I read it and I did like and I do recommend it. I think it is the first Gaskell I have read, though I have seen Wives and Daughters and loved it.
One of my teen girls read it aloud to the other teen girl and they are way more critical than I. The movie arrives from Netflix today...after Bleak House...uh, I mean, Blech House........we are prepared to be unsatisfied. I hope we are not!
Then, I found Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick at the library while looking for kid's books on Vivaldi. It looked to be an interesting read. I enjoyed the story very much.....it is mostly Anna Maria's story, the great foundling violinist he trained It is historical fiction.....I do not know what is true, but the author did do research before writing. There are a few vulgar scenes, very short, that almost made me put down the book.....but, then it ended there. In the end, there were some children in existence due to promiscuity of a bishop and of a priest. The author definitely caught me up in her story. Not for kids.
And, I found this on a library list:
Emma & Knightley by Rachel Billington. It is a sequel to Emma by Austen. I needed something light and while I may not have had the same story for a sequel to Emma myself, I found it an easy and enjoyable read and just what I needed after all the depressing stories above.  I can recommend to Jane Austen addicts, if they need more.....and are flexible about what thet get.
I just picked up Don Quixote......what am I thinking???
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Karen T
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 16 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
|
| Posted: Feb 08 2010 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Oh, Chari, glad to hear you liked Bleak House. That's one I haven't read yet but it's on my list. I just finished watching A Tale of Two Cities movie (old black and white) after reading the book and it mostly held true to the book so I liked it. OTOH, last summer I read Little Dorrit and then tried to watch the movie (much newer - Masterpiece Theatre or BBC) and one of the main surprises from the end of the book was revealed in the first 30 min of the movie! I quit watching.
I just returned Inkspell to the library, could not even finish it. I don't know why these books don't do anything for me, b/c I think the concept is fascinating (reading characters out of a book).
I've just started The Hunchback of Notre Dame and have picked up Mrs. Tim Christie from ILL to try, after all the positive reviews of it!
I'm also reading Keeping a Family Cow. It is my heart's desire to move to a small farm one day and I can't help reading books like this to tide me over.
Karen T
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mimip
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 17 2009
Location: Florida
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1526
|
| Posted: Feb 08 2010 at 6:05pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Chari wrote:
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I had bought last spring, since our library does not own it. Since some of you had mention it was somewhat similar to Pride & Prejudice, I read about 125 pages wondering when the similarity would start.....and then it finally did. I was shocked to find that Gaskell almost stole an entire scene from Austen. Very surprising. I also found the first 125 pages a bit depressing, thinking: I need to stop reading these depressing English novels for awhile. Why are there so many depressing Eglish novels? Is it because they did not get enough sunshine???
Though I found it depressing, I still enjoyed the writing. I did enjoy the book much more when it got moving......I enjoyed the surprising turns.....but I am very mad at Gaskell for hanging me along for over three hundred pages only to solve the dilemma in less than a minute, on the second to alst page. That was a dissatisfying ending. I wonder if she suddenly had to end the book or something??
All that said: I am glad I read it and I did like and I do recommend it. I think it is the first Gaskell I have read, though I have seen Wives and Daughters and loved it.
|
|
|
Chari, there is a VERY well done BBC movie of this book if you are interested even though I hear that it is not true to the book but hey, it was on Netflix Instant viewing and was so good I had to watch all four episodes in one night!
I finished the Ally Carter series of Gallagher Girls in one week! Very cute stories of teenage spies that someone on this board recommend last year. (sorry, I don't remember who  )
I just found out she is writing another one in the series due out for June! Fluff reading I know!
For Lent, I'm going to read St. John of the Cross so I thought that some fluff reading is in order before then
Oh and I read A miracle for St. Cecilia's too! Now onto Gathering of Angels
__________________
In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4Real Forums : Book Club
Topic: Our 2010 Booklist!
