Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Book, Movie & Podcast Reviews my own book page

BamaMama,

120 ++ books in the "waiting to be read bookcase" isn't enough? You just had to recommend David Rosenfelt? I miss having a Golden in my life and when my current pack of 6 is down to some smaller number I will be adopting a senior golden. Since 4 out of my 6 are 11 or 12 years old and can't last forever I suppose that senior golden will be a part of life before too many years go by.

thanks,

rigel

Once, years and years ago, I started reading Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. Why not? It won the National Book Award; it was highly spoken of as illustrative of Southern Literature—the two words capitalized and spoken in awe. At that time, not having instituted my 50-page rule, I doubt I made it to the second page. Earlier this week I had another "go" at it and happily report that I have now read the whole thing. 'Nuff said.

PS I take it back. One thing in The Moviegoer will stick with me. The narrator is talking about remembering scenes in movies and refers to "the time the kitten found Orson Welles in the doorway in The Third Man." (page 7) Excuse me! That wasn't a kitten; it was a cat! (Yes. I really am that picky.)

Last year at Christmas I was given "The Book Thief," by Markus Zusak. This is marketed in the US as a Young Adult book, although I'd consider that a lower limit, rather than an upper limit, of audience age. (Apparently, in Australia (the author is Australian) the book was not given the "young adult" label.)

For some reason I didn't get to it until this week.

The story is set in Germany at the beginning of the war; a young refugee is sent to foster parents for safety, and on that journey she picks up a book - her first. The book is narrated by Death.

It's well written, and does a good job of explaining the kinds of decisions made, even by adolescents, at such a time. I can't research it because I'm only 2/3ds through it and I don't want to ruin the story for myself. I can't even tell you what has me glued to the pages except, of course, that I want to know how it comes out. As far as I'm concerned, that's one of the best reviews I can give.

Clearly not the cheeriest subject matter in the world but the characters are believable and well-drawn. I can picture each person, each street corner, each building as described in the novel, and that's no small trick for an author, either.

You can get more info from Amazon; Zusak has a site as well...just don't tell me how it ends, please.

Tomorrow I make my first venture out--armed with a nurse and a container of oxygen (guess I'm now my own No Smoking zone)--to Barnes and Noble. I'll buy The Book Thief. It sounds good.

Martha, I hope you have an enjoyable outing. And I'd expect your first trip to be to a bookstore!

Good luck Martha. Give me a shout out if you want another body to help.....I'm free until 2:30ish.

---------
Kathy

Outing a success. Spent under $200--for me that's a success. Only bought four books not on my list. "The Book Thief" was prominently displayed. Also not on the list was a new Thursday Next, "Love in the Time of Chlora(sp?," and a new book by a Sharon Creech who was a student at Hiram College (Ohio) at the same time I was there. It's a small enough school that we can support each other--although I lean toward resenting her. She won the Newberry one year.

Then, adding the ones on my list, my unread shelf should, once again, be filled.

Martha, the happy bookstore wanderer

Martha, I was up till nearly 2 last night with 'The Book Thief' - hope I can finish it tonight. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it once it hits the right part of the shelf.

I've read most of the Thursday Next books, but they always seem to be a pale imitation of a "Hitchhiker's Guide" kind of story.

I'm glad your wander was good...I was wondering how it went.

I think I like the idea of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels more than I like the books themselves. I had tried one of them—no idea which—some years ago, and day before yesterday I finished The Code of the Woosters. It was terribly British, as one would expect, and I enjoy Wodehouse's style, which is heavy on dialogue. That in turn made me think he'd adapt well to the stage, and I remembered that the last time I was in New York a musical farce based on the Jeeves novels was playing. I had wanted to see it, but it might have closed even before my brief visit ended. Music was by Andrew Lloyd Weber and when Bertie Wooster says, "By Jove, Jeeves (page 177), all I could think of was what a wonderful chorus those three words would have made. I'll hoping someone will revive the idea. Come on. It's not that farfetched a desire. Sondheim's Assassins, the musical about people who have assassinated US presidents, was revived and its first opening was greeted with jeers and laughter. By Jove, a Jeeves musical could hardly have done worse.

Ladies, I don't want to intrude on this thread too much or interupt what's going on but I have become desperately addicted to reading Charles de Lint. It's a huge body of work and he continues to churn them out at an alarming and expensive rate. He's certainly a sidestep away from mainstream fiction but seems to be creating his own genre. Just a heads up if you've not heard of him and might be seeking new and unusual authors.