Read any good books lately?

[jillywilly65]

Out of shear bordem and an atttempt to keep sane while I was without my computer I took my niece and we went to the library. We got a lot of books and read some good stuff. She checked out a book called
"Violation" by Darian North
about a woman hiding from her painful past with a 13 year old asking alot of questions, he puts them ultimatley in danger. A real page turner
I checked out John Steinbecks
"Of Mice and Men" I have never read the classics. It is soo sad and tragic
and yesterday I read a book called
"House" by Frank Peretti, a book that had alot of twist and turns and made me squeamish sometimes but couldn't put it down, a bit scary too.
What else is out there gang?
Hey I highly recommend the local library. It was free!!!

[dawn]

I've nearly finished a book by Tom Holt called "You don't have to be evil to work here but it helps", it's quiet weird, but getting better with every page.

[Cheza]

Hey Jilly, you should try to tackle Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights. The Pearl by Steinbeck is also a good one. My favorite books of all time are A Tale of Two Cities and The Outsiders - but now I'm starting to rethink Cities position as a fave as I've re-read it this year. I've read Eyre and Heights since then and I think I like them better.

[jillywilly65]

A while back Heli gave me a few book recommendations. She is the queen of all things literary. I think she said she owns hundreds upon hundreds of books?! Way cool. I would love to have a library someday.
Anyway her list includes

"Grapes of Wrath"-Steinbeck
"Foe"- J.M. Coetzee
"Lonely Londoners"- Sam Salvon
"The Prestige"- Christopher Priest (she said the book is much better than the movie)

I think I am going to make my way thru the list in that order. Iam hitting the books this summer.

jilly

[jillywilly65]

Dawn
I love the title "You don't have to be evil to work here, but it helps"
is this fiction or non-fiction? I know my last job as an operator for the phone company required alot of smiling and gritting thru my teeth..so cheesy and hard to be nice to mean people.
What is it about basically? I am curious for sure......

I remember Heli saying that the Bronte sisters are so full of female angst , maybe she is right? I loved Wuthering Heights with Olivier I can't imagine the book being better?!

Right now I am reading a book on prayer. I think its helping me be more reflective and relaxed. Lord knows I am too high strung and a worry wart.

Jilly

[dawn]

Hi Jilly

Well, the book is quite difficult to explain - it's fiction, ummm, this guy has a pretty dull job working for his dad (in a deadbeat place), quite down on himself then his dad employes the services of a company to assist them. The company employed uses magic and there are deals with the man downstairs (note the Evil in the title!), known as Oscar. Anyway, there's a lot of twists and although the book takes a while to get in to, once I was gripped, I didn't want to put the book down.

Best of luck with your quest to read more, I only manage probably 5 books a year, none of the big classics, just as & when I fancy a read.

Hope this makes sense - I tend to ramble.

[Cheza]

That sounds like a very interesting book, Dawn.

I'm hoping to get a bit of Orwell in this summer. I keep meaning to read his books, but then I get pulled off track. I think 1984 is more of a priority for me than Animal Farm. All of my students who have read Animal Farm lately HATE IT.

[dawn]

Really? I loved that book in school. Guess the drumming down our throat about the first animated british cartoon helped with the education. Loved that book & Lord of the Flies in school.

[jillywilly65]

Thanks for that description Dawn, it does sound very interesting. I failed to mention some books read recently as well.
I love the Jeffery Deaver series with the character Lincoln Rhymes. If you are a fan of CSI you would love the series . He is a Grissom type man and he is a quadraplegic from an accident and his assistant Amanda a hot headed red head forensic/ detective is his partner. She is his arms and legs and his amazingly brilliant mind solves crimes with her help. They are really good !!

I also like James Patterson and followed his series with the serial killer Geoffrey Shaffer, employee of the British Embassy in DC.and all his escapades....serious page turning! You'll get paper cuts from being so anxious to get to the next page

[Cheza]

Hmm...thriller type books, eh? I'll have to think to come up with some others you might like.

[jillywilly65]

A few days ago I saw Oprah briefly and she said she would be announcing her book club selection pretty soon. I remember her saying last year that she was going to probably stick with the classics. I wonder what she will pick? I know that I saw the Gentleman Elie Viesel a Holocaust survivor's book "Night" I think it is called on her list of books once and I would love to read that. I am fascinated with the Holocaust and am so Inspired by the stories of survival the Jews share. It makes me hopeful that even when mankind is at its worst, the will to live overcomes over and over.

[Cheza]

Night is a small book. It's on my reading list. Several of my students who read it really liked it, which it helps that he was about their age when the Holocaust happened. Plus that is something they are used to studying in English class, but we don't. In eighth grade they read The Diary of Anne Frank and in ninth grade they read Farewell to Manzanar (which deals with the Japanese Americans during WWII). Wiesel also wrote two other books that can be thought of as follow-ups so to speak - Dawn and Day - but I believe they are purely fictional, while the Night is autobiographical.

I'm putting The Great Gatsby, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and some Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men and probably one other) on my list of books to read his summer. I'm beginning to wonder when I'll ever have time to read with all these workshops!

I want to change novels next year. Dickens was too difficult to get through...it took way too long...so I'm looking for something shorter.

I hope someday I have time to sit down and read Steinbeck's take on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - I have it...it's just finding time to read it!

BTW I don't know if you're a Meatloaf fan or not, but his autobiography To Hell and Back is also a good, quick read.

[jillywilly65]

Just last night I saw an article about a newly discovered Diary of a polish young girl, 14 years old, and how she was a victim of the war and concentration camps as well. Gosh I forget the name but they are calling her the polish Anne Frank. That should be fascinating. Sorry the name escapes me just now.
That will be a must read!!!


Jilly
p/s if you know the name post it, I can't find the article now.

[dawn]

Cheza - good call on the Meatloaf bio - I've read that and couldn't put it down. I also enjoyed Uri Gellers autobiography too.

[Cheza]

Dawn, I acquired my copy of Meat's bio off ebay. Then a major ice storm hit the area I was living in at the time and the power went out. We were out of school for two or three days...the power was off all that time too.

My dear best friend at the time dragged me out of my house (which was warm because I had an old school gas stove - not central heat/air) into her FREEZING house because she thought I should not be alone. We had fun, but we were cold...so the next morning I made her take me home.

My book arrived So, I curled up in bed and lit the candles in my sconces as night fell and read Meatloaf by candlelight in a room full of shadows. Somehow that seems ironically appropo. I loved the conversational tone of his book...like one reviewer said it's almost like you're sitting across the table from him and he's just telling you about his life...one friend to another. Then again, he and Steinman have told so many tales over the years you wonder if it's all the truth at times...but I believe the book is the truth at last.

I've decided to keep the same works next year... I found out they've all been used on the AP test...so I'm doing better than I thought. One that I'm required to teach has been used 8 or 11 times!!!! I think I'm just not going to mess with changing things up. Keep it simple. Another told me she's eliminating her reading list for her regular classes. I wish she wouldn't...she's the bridge between me and another teacher who both have reading lists...*sigh*. Oh well, it will all work out. It always does.

Jilly, in that vein there is a book called Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo you might be interested in. Zlata has been described as the Anne Frank of Sarajevo for her account of the war there through a child's eyes. I have a ton more as you are ready for them. OH, I bought a James Patterson book last night - it's part of the Maximum Ride series. Have you ever read any of them? I heard that some teachers are raving about them and I'm always on the lookout for different kinds of books for the kids to read.

[Cheza]

Dawn, I forgot to ask. What grade were you in when you read Animal Farm? We were thinking about implementing that into the 7th grade curriculum, but I'm a bit worried about how the kids would react to some of the violence in it (dogs killing other animals...etc.)...

[dawn]

I think I read it about first year seniors, so I would of been about 11 when we studied it. I think that's about the 7th grade isn't it?

Hope it helps!

[jillywilly65]

Thanks for the recommendations Cheza, I am going to the library Friday so I will check out those BIO's.
I did see a bit of Oprah and she announced her summer reading for her bookclub

it is called "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides

I think that was his name spelling? Yikes anyway I will look it up and get more info on it. She said the author won a Pulitzer over this book so it should be a good one.

Jilly

[Cheza]

Thanks, Dawn. I think we're going to end up doing some short stories (including "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl...I never read it before...so appropriately macabre...to think his former wife is coming to our little town in September!!!) and poetry instead. If I have time I'll sneak in Animal Farm, but we may not have time...we'll have to wait and see.

Jilly, I think I saw that one at Wal-Mart or Sam's the other night. I'm on a book buying spree again. I really want to read Sidney Poitier's bio that she recommended earlier this year, but I haven't got the chance yet. Too many workshops and I just picked up two more today. *UGH*

[feather]

In the last couple weeks I've read Find Me by Rosie O'Donnell and The The Voice Of The Night by Dean Koontz, both really good books and a quick read.

Find Me is based on a true story about a very important time in her life - with embellishments. This is just a nice sweet story that is easy to read and gives some insights into Rosie that are touching and interesting. Rosie knows how to tell a story!!

The Voice Of The Night This is not "typical" Koontz fare in that the violence is only alluded to not spit out letter by bloody, scary letter. It' a fast read, 350 pgs. and really reaches out and grabs you Here - the book jacket says it better than I can - "No one could understand why Colin and Roy were best friends. Colin was so shy. Roy was so popular. Colin was nervous around girls; Roy was l ladies man. Colin was fascinated by Roy-and Roy was fascinated by death. Then one day Roy asked his timid friend; :You ever killed anything?" And from that moment on, the two were bound together in a game too terrifying to imagine...and too irresistible to stop."