One Book a Week Club 2016 (Good Intentions Edition)

Carolin · Post by **Carolin** » April 18th, 2016, 1:03 am

middlemarch has been on my to read pile forever. i even have a pretty edition.. i have three weeks holiday next month (sorely needed) and i think i will try to squeeze it in then

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » April 18th, 2016, 11:50 am

I've just finished "As You Wish" by Cary Elwes (and Joe Layden). It's over 25 years since The Princess Bride was released: Cary Elwes played Westley, the farmhand and the Man in Black. He has brought together memories of making the film, from many of the people involved; actors, director, crew, and stuntsmen. If you love the film, the book shows you how much they loved making it, and how much that memory has stayed with them. For me, there was that little prickle of tears when it all came to an end, with that wistful wish that I could have been part of such a close and happy sharing. A wonderful book. [One review on Amazon regrets that there's none of the juicy gossip that he/she expected from a book like this ... some people!]

As Cary says, near the end of the book:

The film is indeed magical. It makes you feel many different things upon every viewing. As Billy Crystal has said, it makes you feel good. It makes you miss your childhood. It makes you want to have someone read stories to you again. It makes you want to kiss your sweetheart, fight a duel, or ride a white horse into the sunset ... all in the name of love. In short, it's the perfect fairy tale.

Peter

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » May 2nd, 2016, 7:33 pm

Only a few books read in April. Started a couple more, but didn't care for them. I am long past the stage where I'll read a book I don't like just because I think I should finish it, no matter what.

Paperback: "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davies. First book of “The Deptford Trilogy”
Gutenberg download: "The Jonathan Papers" by Elizabeth Woodbridge Morris
Librivox download: "LibriVox Short Stories #058" Various Authors. Nice stories. Especially enjoyed “Send Round the Hat” by Henry Lawson. Nice reading by Son of the Exiles

J_N · Post by **J_N** » May 7th, 2016, 6:36 am

"The Stand" (Stephen King) recently brought me over my half-way point of 20,000 pages... being the beginning of May, I am making good progress so far. After the Stand with its almost 2,000 pages on my e-reader (I think the paperback is somewhere in the 1,200-1,400 region), I read a book of hilarious comic strips ("Heart & Brain")... I earned it.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 17th, 2016, 2:36 pm

I've just finished Gerald Durrell's "Corfu Trilogy" (My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; The Garden of the Gods). I read the first of these in around 1963; we were set it as a text in an English Literature O-level exam. A lovely book ... though, rather strangely, the copy we were given for the exam was bowdlerised, so two of his dogs weren't named in the text (Widdle and Puke), neither was his boat (Bootle-Bumtrinket), and many other changes were made, presumably to protect our delicate minds. I've always wished that I'd managed to keep my copy; I bet Gerald Durrell hadn't approved the editing.

It was very good to read the other two books, all about the time he and his family spent on Corfu in the four years or so before the second world war. Fictionalised, I suppose, but all the tales were based on actual experiences. I'm glad to have read more about Theodore Stephanides (who actually proof-read My Family and Other Animals for Durrell).

I always find biographies rather sad, so I tend not to read many. While I'm reading the book, the people in it are alive and I often feel a lot of affection for them. Then, suddenly, I turn the last page and they are all dead, and long buried. It really brought it home when I read, when I was following a Wikipedia link, that Kralefsky and his mother both died when Corfu was bombed in the war. (Kralefsky was one of the stranger of Gerry's teachers.)

Oh, well, it's coming to us all. Not many of us will live on in a little typewritten idyll in pre-war Corfu.

Peter

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 20th, 2016, 1:11 pm

Then there was "Those Who Hunt the Night", by Barbara Hambly. A powerfully believable vampire story set in Victorian/Edwardian? Britain. Professor James Asher returns home one night to find his household deeply asleep ..... and Don Simon Ysidro, a Spanish vampire, waiting in his study, where Asher's wife lies unconscious on a couch. Don Simon recruits the professor's help in discovering who is killing the vampires of London, by threatening the life of his wife.

An emotional and involving story; where very complex motives and personalities intertwine.

Peter

MBraymiller · Post by **MBraymiller** » May 24th, 2016, 9:12 am

Peter Why wrote:Then there was "Those Who Hunt the Night", by Barbara Hambly.

Peter

Barbara Hambly is a very under appreciated writer IMO.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 26th, 2016, 6:14 am

I agree. I just found out that there's a sequel to Bride of the Rat God, but unfortunately it seems only to be on Kindle at the moment. I do prefer paper books.

I've not tried her Benjamin January series yet ... something to look forward to. I loved the Windrose Chronicles, Darwath and Sunwolf. Alll waiting to be re-read.

Another I just found out about is Darkness on his Bones, which I've just finished (1½ days after receiving it!). Another in the series about the Ashers and Don Simon, the Spanish vampire. Very good, very complex. Unfortunately, because much of it describes James Asher's sort-of fever dreams, for me the story becomes rather fuzzy ... that is, I'd find it almost impossible to summarise, because it's so hard to hold onto the line. The relationship between Lydia and Don Simon does become more interesting. I'll probably re-read it in a month or so, as I rather gulped it down, skipping through some of the descriptive passages to get to the meat of the story.

Peter

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » June 1st, 2016, 4:14 pm

These are the books that I read during the month of May. I also worked on DPLing a couple of things. I didn't count those as some chapters had already been DPL'd, so I only listened to parts of the books. Anyway, here's what I actually started and finished:

LibriVox Recording: "John Brown" by W.E.B. DuBois. Read and reported on for LibriVox non-fiction book club
LibriVox Recording: "The Three Sisters" by May Sinclair. A very good book by a writer I hadn't heard of before. I just love how LibriVox introduces me to "new" writers

Paperback book: "The Manticore" by Robertson Davies. Second book of “The Deptford Trilogy" Another excellent book. Unusual story.
Hardback book: "The Endless Steppe" by Esther Hautzig. Non-fiction book written by a woman who, during her childhood in WWII, was exiled to Siberia along with her family. Excellent book.
LibriVox Recording: "On Our Selection" by Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis) Humorous stories of Australian farmer and his family late 1890s. Very nicely read by “Son of the Exiles”.

Carolin · Post by **Carolin** » June 2nd, 2016, 5:23 am

compared to my usual level i was completely useless in may. i completed less than half as much lit as in the months before and hopefully after. but then im in the middle of a couple of chunky ones so i can tell myself that was the reason..

smike · Post by **smike** » June 2nd, 2016, 5:40 am

I didn't get a lot read or listened to in May, either, but then I spent two weeks at my parents, so there was only bedtime reading/listening.

J_N · Post by **J_N** » June 12th, 2016, 10:47 am

May was a slow month for me as well... only managed 2 books - one of which was a compilation of comic strips

But I have picked up some steam again in June - vacation is helping

readinglover · Post by **readinglover** » June 27th, 2016, 10:29 am

Hi Ava,
I have so many on the go right now I wouldn't know where to start

(one friend teases me about reading 10 books in two days!) But my favorites are in the cozy mystery and historical fiction genres (especially the Tudor period) One of my favorite authors is Anne Perry and I'm trying to read all of her Pitt series in order (I think I'm on #4) Perhaps that should be my goal for this year. Or maybe the Agatha Raisin series (love the readings by Penelope Keith!)
Readinglover

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » July 3rd, 2016, 5:23 pm

Here is my list of books read in June. Have a couple more started, but not completed yet.

"Short Story Collection Volume 062" LibriVox recording
"Lucia in London" by E. F. Benson (read online)
"The Trial of Susan B. Anthony" by Anonymous. LibriVox recording for non-fiction book club. Interesting account of Miss Anthony’s trial for daring to vote in the 1870s!

"The Ghost" by Arnold Bennett. LibriVox recording. Entertaining - a different kind of ghost story.
"James Shore’s Daughter" by Stephen Vincent Benet. Book from library sale. Good book.

readinglover · Post by **readinglover** » July 4th, 2016, 9:20 am

Cary Elwes also played Gildford Dudly in the mini series Jane Grey. That movie sent chills down my spine, and inspired a scene in one of my own novels

Gaynor