A Good Read (and watch)!!!

I just got through reading North and South by Elizabeth Glaskell.   It was written around 1854 and made more widely known by the BBC mini-series North and South.  (I'm just assuming this . . . maybe it WAS widely know, just not by me!)

I recently watched the mini-series on Netflix while sick with the flu.  I would NEVER sit around and watch TV that long unless I were sick!  I can read for hours and not feel a guilty bone in my body for sitting around . . . . because my mind is busy right?  Even if my body isn't.  I guess it is the same for TV, but I just feel differently about it.

This book was originally a 20 series magazine article for a woman's magazine, way back when.  They added to the magazine articles and stuck them together to make the book.

I think it was best to watch the mini-series and THEN read the book.  The BBC version really follows the book, except for two major things.  One, (if you are familiar with the movie) where Mr. Thornton beats a worker senseless for smoking in his factory (didn't happen in the book).  And two, how they got together at the end (TOTALLY different!) 

I loved reading the book AFTERwards because it goes more in depth about the feelings of the two main characters.  I especially enjoyed the thoughts of Mr. Thornton.  Nice! 

I'm not sure I would have liked the book without the movie . . . . but that is the way it happened for me. . . . .

 Worth a read and a watch . . . . just my 2 cents!!



See a new blog I've put together www.weareboundbybooks.blogspot.com.

A Good Read

I am always looking for a good read and this book delivered.  

Thank you to my niece Hope, who put me onto it.

My love of reading has been nurtured by authors such as

Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)

Victoria Holt along with her 3 other pen names (historical fiction)

Louis L'Amour (western)

and

many many others!!!

Book Club has helped me to expand my verizons into other genres,

but the Gothic novel and historical fiction are still near and dear to me.

(love a good true-to-life story also)

This book, "The Forgotten Garden" is modern with a Gothic feel. 

Gothic=set in a castle, woman in distress, intrigue, 

mystery, a little romance, some hint of horror or distress . . . . 

Rebecca, and Jane Eyre would fall into this category.

This book has many facets though, three time periods: 1900, 1975, and 2005.

At times I had a hard time switching and keeping up with the time period changes,

it was complicated, but not so much that I needed to chart it out!

There were 478 pages on my e-reader and I could have stood more!!

From Book Depository:

 A lost child …

On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. 

A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her –

but has disappeared without a trace.

A terrible secret …

On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell Andrews learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

A mysterious inheritance …

On Nell’s death, her granddaughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. 

Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold — secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace,

 a writer of dark Victorian fairytales.

 It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family,

 and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.

Good Reads

I've read some pretty good books lately.

This one was for book club.

"Still Alice" is story about a woman who finds herself 

diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

She is educated and on the top of her world
and then her world seems to crumble around her.

This book had me questioning whether or not I had Alzheimer's.

Thankfully I've forgotten most of the details of the book.

:)

"Heaven Is Here"
I just finished this one.

I was surprised to find it in our library system since the author is from Utah.

There is just one copy in the tri-county area!

and I've got it at present.

This is just the kind of story I like . . . . . triumph over hardship.

And what a hardship.

This is a true story about the blogger nie nie at the nieniechronicles.com

She and her husband were in an airplane accident

shortly after he received his pilots license.

He was burned badly but she was burned over 80 percent of her body.

She had a long-hard-painful journey to discover that

a person is not their body . .. . . . 

they are something more.

This one was hard to put down and I finished in record time!

"The Chosen" is an older book.

Published in the 1960's.

I feel it is relevant today.  

It's about two Jewish boys with different background

who develop an unlikely friendship.

One has a loving relationship with his father the other doesn't.

One is grounded in his religion, the other is questioning it.

WOW! did I find so many parallels to my life in this book.

Children who question and make choices.

Parents who have to deal with their questioning and choices.

This book spoke to me in so many ways.

And was a VERY interesting look into Jewish life which I know nothing about.

(this was my book club choice!  book club today!!)

HAPPY READING!

A good read

Calling all dog lovers!  (which ain't me)!!!

This was our book club book for July.  Even though I'm not a dog lover I enjoyed this story that was told by a dog.

This book helps you see life in a different perspective and makes you thankful you have a thumb!  I learned a lot from this dog about how not to interrupt people while they are speaking . . . . . about not putting off doctor's appointments when you feel something may be wrong with you . . . . . . about uplifting people for the sake of other people . . . . . . about trying to understand other peoples or dogs difficulties.

People love to humanize animals and this book does this.  I feel it is important to remember however, that dogs are dogs are dogs and act the way in which dogs act. 

It is a good book that will test all of your emotions . . . . joy, pain, exhilaration, sadness, wonder, humor and love. 

Ahhhh! look at those puppy dog eyes . . . . .

Book of the month

 I don't know how it came about that we picked two "Asian" based books in two consecutive months, but I have to say I've enjoyed them both.  I have about 20 pages left of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and if we don't have a lively discussion at book club about this book, I'd say we all need to have our pulses taken. . . . . .

This woman is crazy times two!   

This is a book on East vs. West . . . . . . Chinese (Asian) parenting, vs. Western (lazy) parenting.  Here is a sample of her battle hymn:

Her two daughters were never allowed to:

~attend a sleepover
~have a play date
~be in a school play
~complain about not being in a school play
~watch TV or own computer games
~choose their own extracurricular activities
~get any grade less than an A
~not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama
~play any instrument other than the piano or violin
~not play the piano or violin

I have to say that I was leery about reading this book.  The last thing I need is another guilt trip about my parenting techniques . . . . which the more I parent have declined to a "I don't know one thing about parenting."  I don't really think SHE knows the first thing about parenting either . . . . . but what is important is that she thinks she does! 

I couldn't believe some of the things I read in this book.  It had several jaw dropping moments for me. 

A VERY interesting read!!!

Another Good Read

The book club book this month was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. 

This book is just what it says, bitter and sweet.  It is a story about a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl that develop a relationship because they are thrown into a situation where they are the only Asian kids in a all white school.  Their parents are determined that they become "American."  So determined, that Henry, the Chinese boy, is forbidden to speak anything but English in his home and his parents speak nothing but Cantonese.  He said from that day on his parents became "invisible" to him.  The story takes place during WWII and the children are torn apart by the Japanese relocation process.  It is a story of their childhood, and their adulthood and in between.

When I finally realized what this book was about I was very interested in it because I grew up very very near a Japanese relocation center.  I'm thinking the Japanese relocation camp (some called them prisoner camps, which was probably more correct) was less than 5 miles from us.  I didn't really realize what it was all about until my high school years, and then I started putting things together.  My grandfather had a long shed that he parked his combine, tractors, and other farm implements in.  He and we called it "The Jap House."  There were other homes in our area that were long and narrow, also made from the Japanese barracks that were sold after the internment period was over.  It's funny that I never thought about the name of our shed until I was older.  It actually was a very derogatory term "Jap." 

 

I've never seen one of these until
last night.  It was pretty cool. 
When the rice was done, she
shook it and the rice formed a
nice sticky ball.  GOOD RICE!



Of course I wasn't around when all this happened, I just saw some of the effects from it.  My grandfather would tell stories about it.  On our last visit to our hometown, the relocation center was one of the places I needed to take McKay.  The roads still exist between the barracks, the foundations are still there, and the memories.  It is a very solemn bleak place, nothing but sagebrush and alkali ridden land.  It was our home, it was their prison. 

Is this book a must read?  For me yes, I've never read anything like it before, and may try to read more like it to get a better feel for the time.  It was a good read.

Side note:  For book club last night LeeAnn made the most amazing "sticky rice."  She soaked the "sweet" rice and then steamed it in a most amazing looking pot and basket, then served it with a sweet coconut milk mixture and mangos.  YUMMY!!!  I want one of those pots now!

A good read

Ever since I was a child I have loved the movie The Sound of Music.  My daughter also loves the movie and we can sing every word of every song in it.  Anything done by Rogers and Hammerstein is a favorite of ours.  I just assumed that everyone loved these movies until I moved here and started trying to give my piano students some of the songs for their lessons . . . . I was apalled that not even my Catholic students had seen the movie!!! 

I've always wanted to read the autobiography of the family and finally did read it last month.  I don't know if you would like it as much as I, because I'm obsessed with the movie, but it was a good read.  One of the surprises for me is that this is a 300 some-odd page book and the story that we are all familiar with is done by about page 75.  Some of it is the same, yes, the captain really did call his children with a whistle! but there is a lot that is different.  They changed the children's names in the movie, a girl was the oldest, not a boy . . . . and when they escaped Austria it was not by walking over a mountain, they took a train to Italy.  Hmmmmmm. 

Anyhow, I was interested in the family's story, how they immigrated to the USA, how they made their living and how they lived their lives.  Maria has a sense of humor and she seems like she was just as quirky as the Maria in the movie.  I'm glad I finally got around to reading this one.

Good Read

Our book club book this month is Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.  I really enjoyed this book.  I needed a book that pulled me to it and kept me coming back for more.  It is also a quick easy read.  I wouldn't have minded having more of it to read!

In the book, there are a couple of spots that the author uses the color purple to describe things.  I loved the descriptions.  One:  "From behind me a woman spoke - - had it been a color, her voice would have been a velvety shade of purple."  Another:  "The same day I bought myself a purple velvet sofa . . . . . a purple velvet couch is a sign of  a gal's freedom."  And then later the vine Wisteria (we had one at our house in Salt Lake) which has purple flowers the author described as a symbol of strength.  I think this author likes purple!

How would you describe purple to a blind person?  soft as velvet?  a low sustained note on a church organ?  like the smell and taste of a concord grape? the force of two magnets pulling away from each other?

This book was purple to me.  A Comfortable, "feel good" book.  It does have it's struggle . . . . which any really good book has!  If I had to compare it, I'd say it was related to "The Help" or "Cold Sassy Tree" or something Fanny Flag would write.   If I had to rate it, because I know I have some mighty picky readers who read my blog, I'd say most of it is G rated, but there are some PG-13 things sprinkled through, but I wouldn't discard the book based on those. 

Happy reading!

A couple more good reads

Enchanted April is about a woman who is "dis"enchanted with her life.  She finds an advertisement in the newspaper for a mansion in Italy that is for lease and dreams what it would be like to get away from it all and take a vacation from life.  She finds 3 other women willing to do the same.  I don't want to spoil the story and so I'll just say she finds herself yearning for something she didn't expect and got the unexpected.  A nice read!  Below is the video cover to a movie . . . . . I'll have to get it from netflix! 

Howard's End.  I would call this book a classic.  It was written in 1910.  It involves, class, art, literature, politics, and human frailties and strengths.  I love to read old books like this one.  If you like Wuthering Heights, or Jane Austen, you would like this one too.  This will go on my netflix list also!

Happy Reading!!!   (and thank you again Georgia!)

Good Reads

I found a couple of books (recommended by Georgia) on PDF for my e-reader and really enjoyed them, so I thought I'd share with you.  These both are juvenile historical fiction.  I loved these children's books and would like to find more of the same.

From Amazon:  Jacob Have I Loved deals with difficult, but very real and raw emotions between siblings. The author Katerine Paterson is one of the best story tellers that young people of this generation can read and understand. The story has everything! A tale of family relationships, and rivalry between twins, set in the 1940's era in the Chesapeake Bay.

It is fun to read a book that is based in the area in which you live.  If you have ever found yourself  "outside of the spotlight" you might sympathize with "Wheeze" the main character in this book.  I enjoy books that have struggle in them and then the struggle is overcome in the end.  Some of the Amazon reviews of this book said it was hateful and nothing was resolved in the end . . . . . . making me wonder, "what the heck?"  I felt that the story came around full circle and ended beautifully!  (made me cry) 

King of the Wind . . . . . From Amazon:  The story is of a mute Morrocan stable boy, Agba, and a foal, Sham, who is born to one of the royal mares Agba cares for. Sham...and Agba...are selected to be part of a gift to the King of France. Their adventures in Europe are filled mostly with despair and cruelty, until Sham sires a foal that becomes the beginnings of the Thoroughbred breed we know today (this part is true; Sham was renamed "The Godolphin Arabian"; all Thoroughbreds must include in their pedigreeone of the three specific founding sires, and the Godolphin Arabian is one of them).  

This is truly an amazing story.  Greatness was almost overlooked and discarded as I'm sure happens a great many times in this lifetime of ours.  I am always more intrigued with a story when it is based on fact.  If you are familiar with the story of Sea Biscuit, it might be interesting to note that he is a result of this royal bloodline.

Happy Reading!