One Book A Week Club 2020

Everything except LibriVox (yes, this is where knitting gets discussed. Now includes non-LV Volunteers Wanted projects)
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

I had a lot going on at the beginning of February and completely forgot to post what I read in January. Here's my list for that month:

"The Valley of Fear" by Arthur Conan Doyle. BBC Radio Program. Excellent dramatic reading by Ian McKellen. Not outstanding, but entertaining
"Becoming" by Michelle Obama. Library audio download. Excellent
"Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand" by Helen Simonson. Library audiobook download. Humorous and heartwarming. Very enjoyable.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
mmelhart
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Post by mmelhart »

I'll make my goal 80. Here's my 2020 list so far:

january
Heros, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History - Thomas Carlyle (1840)
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (1895)
The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe (1774)
Lotte in Weimar - Thomas Mann (1939)
Elective Affinities - Goethe (1809)
Les Belles Images - Simone de Beauvoir (1966)
The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading - Edmund Burke Huey (1908)

february
The Story of Philosophy - Will Durant (1926)
The True Believer - Eric Hoffer (1951)
Pamela - Samuel Richardson (1740)
Belonging Here - Judith Blackstone (2012)
Le Grand Meaulnes - Alain-Fournier (1912)
Flatland - Edwin A. Abbott (1844)
The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)
Adam Bede - George Eliot (1859)
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot (1860)
The Lonely Crowd - David Riesman (1950) ***3/4 finished

Happy reading y'all!!!!
Last edited by mmelhart on April 1st, 2020, 1:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
in the morning!
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

mmelhart wrote: February 27th, 2020, 9:26 am Friends, I am new here and I'm very shy about how much I read because it makes me feel like a total weirdo!!!

But I thought this group might be interested since you all want to read more.
Welcome to LibriVox! Your goal is impressive. You obviously love to read, which makes LibriVox a perfect site for you. I’ve discovered a lot of “new” writers through LibriVox and have enjoyed being a small part of it for several years. I think you’ll enjoy it, too.

Your video is very nice and your voice and song are lovely. Of course I was trying to read book titles when the camera panned by your book cases. Of course that’s something that readers do.

Again, Welcome! :D
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
mmelhart
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Post by mmelhart »

Thank you for the kind words, Mary!! And thanks for watching my video!! I know what you mean about the books...I wish you could see them too!!
in the morning!
mmelhart
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Post by mmelhart »

happy april everybody, here's my march list:

17. The Lonely Crowd - David Reisman
18. The Turn of the Screw, The Pupil, The Third Person - Henry James
19. Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan
20. Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung
21. The Tree of Yoga - BKS Iyengar
22. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
23. Southern Mail - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
24. Night Flight - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
25. Night and Day - Virginia Woolf
26. Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf
in the morning!
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

I only read two books in March, so combined those with April's books. In spite of staying home during the "virus crisis" I haven't read a lot, though I have listened to several books. Anyway, for March and April I've read:

"Virginia" by Ellen Glasgow. Paperback. Excellent book. This book is also being recorded for LibriVox (I'm the proof listener) Set in the post Civil War South, the story is about a woman who (she thinks) does everything right, living by the rules for women of that day. Quite a contrast to Scarlett O’Hara’s character

"Contending Forces" by Pauline E. Hopkins. Librivox download. Very well done reading of fictional book written in the early 1900s regarding the American Negro during the Reconstruction era and that race’s place in American society. A little confusing at times, but very good.

"The Case of the Golden Bullet" by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner. LibriVox download. Nicely read, ok little mystery. Reminiscent of early “B” mystery movies.

"Murder at Moose Jaw" by John Heald. Book from library sale. Quick read. Very entertaining.

"The Pioneers" by Katharine Susannah Prichard. LibriVox Recording. Very good, entertaining book. Enjoyed this one very much. Novel about Australian pioneers. Very nicely read by Kirsty Leischman

"The Keepers of the House" by Shirley Ann Grau. Kindle library download. Very good, unusual novel (Pulitzer Prize winner for 1965) what an ending!

"Oblomov" by Ivan Goncharov. BBC Radio Program. Entertaining, well done adaption of a 19th century Russian novel

"The Lady’s Maid" by Margaret Forster. BBC Radio Program Entertaining account (fictionalized, I assume) about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her maid

"An Unsuitable Attachment" by Barbnara Pym. BBC Radio Program. Well done serial. Entertaining

"Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. Library audiobook download. Hard reading at times due to subject matter. Excellent.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
KevinS
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Post by KevinS »

Barbara Pym is such a unique pleasure!
mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

I'd just like to report that I'm still keeping up with tracking the books I'm reading, go me! :clap:

Also, my library's summer reading program just started up two days ago, so now I'll need to track my reading there AND here! :shock: I'll track everything over there first, and then transfer it here. LV is wonderful, but it doesn't get me entered in a drawing at the end of the summer! :wink:
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

Following are the books that I read in May, a month that went by surprisingly fast, in spite of being somewhat isolated:

"Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI." by David Grann. Library ebook Very good, true story about early 20th century murders of some members of the Osage tribe. From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osage_Indian_murders

"The Dwarf Pine" by A. Irene Reiser. Old, hardback book from long ago library sale. Story of a young Japanese girl growing up in Japan in the 1930s. Mainly for young people, well written account of the Japanese attitude at the time and some of the attitudes of the younger people before WWII.

"Foreign Correspondence" by Geraldine Brooks. (One of my favorite writers.) Hardback book from library $1 sale bag. Excellent account of Ms. Brooks’ letters to pen pals around the world and how she sought out the people in adulthood.

"Tin Horns and Calico. A Decisive Episode in the Emergence of Democracy" by Henry Christman. LibriVox recording. Recording nicely read by commonsparrow3 (Maria Kasper) Very interesting account of something I wasn't really aware of. Maria's summary: Description: In the early 19th century, in the Hudson Valley of New York State, hundreds of square miles of land were still the feudal domains of large landowners known as patroons. Such families as the Van Rensselaers, Livingstons, and Schuylers owned the farms and towns in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary people lived and worked. Even the capitol city of New York State, Albany, was encompassed in the private fiefdom of a patroon. On July 4, 1839, in the mountain town of Berne, New York, a mass meeting of tenant farmers issued a declaration of independence, promising: "We will take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it and roll it to the final consummation of freedom and independence of the masses." The Anti-Rent War consumed the Catskill Mountain region through the 1840's, leading in the end to the downfall of the patroon system and the democratization of land ownership in New York State.

A pretty good list for May. As always, I have several books going for June. We'll see how many I actually get finished. :)

Happy reading to all!
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

I didn't finish many books in June, so I'm posting them with July's books.

June 2020: "Bossy Pants" by Tina Fey. Library audio download. Good, entertaining book.
"A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel DeFoe. Gutenberg e book. (Yeah, lots of downloads on this one right now) Good book. A lot of parallels to today’s pandemic. Definitely appropriate reading.

July 2020: "My Life and Hard Times" by James Thurber. Ebook. Entertaining series of articles by humor columnist James Thurber
"Crooked River" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Library audiobook download. Another Pendergast adventure mystery. Not great literary stuff, but fun and exciting.
"WLT: A Radio Romance" by Garrison Keillor. Book from library sale. Good book. Some parts not as interesting as others, but all in all well done and a good read.
"Spence & Lila" by Bobbie Ann Mason. Book from library sale bag. Good book. Entertaining story about an older couple from Kentucky.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
MaryinArkansas
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Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

Books read in August. Several good books. Some started in July:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Library audiobook download. One of the books on the PBS Great Books list of 2018. One of the best books I’ve read. Powerful writing, excellent reading by the actor Joe Morton

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. Kindle E-book download Good fiction book with interesting factual background of book delivery services in the Appalachian region during the 1930's depression. Nicely written, though somewhat predictable. Would make a good TV mini-series.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Library Freegal music download. Classic ghost story novella. Well read, good story.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. Book from library sale. Good book written by Chinese author who left Communist China in 1984. Interesting novel about what life is like under a Communist regime.

Alice Dugdale by Anthony Trollope. LibriVox download. One of his shorter novels. Nice little book with his usual well written characters

The Winding Stair by A.E.W. Mason. Gutenberg EBook download. Good, entertaining book. Old fashioned early 20th century British adventure.

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather. Librivox ownload Very good short novel about a socialite living in a small prairie town, probably early 1900s.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
MaryinArkansas
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Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
Location: Arkansas

Post by MaryinArkansas »

In spite of the pandemic and staying at home reading more books than usual, I haven’t finished that many books lately. No psychological problems with reading at this time, I’m just working on other long delayed projects. Anyway, here is a list of my most recently read books:

10/2020. “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” by Casey Cep. Library audiobook download. Very good, interesting book about a murder trial of a man who killed a suspected serial killer (it’s complicated) and the writer Harper Lee’s (To Kill a Mockingbird) coverage of the trial and her intention to write a book about it.

10/2020. “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison. Kindle library book. I’m not a sci-fi fan but my husband is, so I’m familiar with some of the writers of that genre. Anyway, this one sounded interesting. The book (novella) was actually very good.

10/2020. “I am the Clay” by Chaim Potok. Paperback book. Very good fiction book taking place during the Korean War. Not the type of book I expected from this author.

11/2020. “The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women” by Kate Moore. Kindle library ebook. Ugh. I liked the book, but so far as what these women went through for so many years…Ugh. Anyway, a very good non-fiction book about women who suffered radiation poisoning while working as luminous dial painters at factories in Orange, New Jersey and Ottawa, Illinois.

11/2020 “Buried Alive” by Arnold Bennett. LibriVox download. Entertaining book. Excellently read by Simon Evers. Very enjoyable.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
KevinS
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Post by KevinS »

MaryinArkansas wrote: November 14th, 2020, 12:45 pm
10/2020. “I am the Clay” by Chaim Potok. Paperback book. Very good fiction book taking place during the Korean War. Not the type of book I expected from this author.
Chaim Potok is one of my favorite authors, but I've not read this novel yet. (I've worried it was too disturbing.) You recommend it?
MaryinArkansas
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Post by MaryinArkansas »

KevinS wrote: November 14th, 2020, 12:51 pm
MaryinArkansas wrote: November 14th, 2020, 12:45 pm
10/2020. “I am the Clay” by Chaim Potok. Paperback book. Very good fiction book taking place during the Korean War. Not the type of book I expected from this author.
Chaim Potok is one of my favorite authors, but I've not read this novel yet. (I've worried it was too disturbing.) You recommend it?

Hi Kevin,

There are definitely some disturbing incidents, but I found a lot of positive things in the book. Yes, I recommend it.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
MaryinArkansas
Posts: 1402
Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
Location: Arkansas

Post by MaryinArkansas »

KevinS wrote: November 14th, 2020, 12:51 pm
MaryinArkansas wrote: November 14th, 2020, 12:45 pm
10/2020. “I am the Clay” by Chaim Potok. Paperback book. Very good fiction book taking place during the Korean War. Not the type of book I expected from this author.
Chaim Potok is one of my favorite authors, but I've not read this novel yet. (I've worried it was too disturbing.) You recommend it?

Hi Kevin,

There are definitely some disturbing incidents, but I found a lot of positive things in the book. Yes, I recommend it.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
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