DECEMBER READS

[rapa]

Happy December!  Busy month for most of us but always time to relax with a good read!  I've finished Amy Tan's THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It tells the story of a mother and daughter who were both high class courtesans in China. The story covers forty years. 

Currently well into David Baldacci's KING AND MAXWELL.  Am quite enjoying following King and Maxwell--former Secret Service agents turned private investigators, as they try to help a teenage boy prove that his father who was reported killed in Afghanistan is alive and not a traitor.  Story moves quickly and lots of action!

What are you reading???????

[Mandy Muffin]

I'm currently spending some time in women's prison with Piper Kerman as I read, "Orange is the New Black."  http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Is-New-Black-Womens/dp/0385523394  There is a TV series to complement the read when I finish. 

Having just completed "Sycamore Row" by John Grisham, I concur, it is the best book I have read in quite some time.  This a "no doubt" movie making story that will win awards as it has a flashback to  black history from the South in a time of evil doing.  And besides that it has a maid.  It seems you need a maid or a butler to make an award winning film on black history.   

[Carolyn Tewell]

Rapa...I will follow you most anywhere but not Wally's latest. I read 2 of his books...absolutely loved them...would even lay my head back on the chair and savor the words, concepts. But his latest has a premise that I can't relate.

Mandy...Orange is the New...read that in November. Some of it was engrossing but felt the chick had "Affleuenza" you know that newly coined term for youth of the wealthy as their excuse for bad behavior?

Sycamore Row. OMG, I think I could re-read that in a few more months. Just excellent. And I wonder if John Grishom will be passed over for awards just because he has made some slams against Big Biz in previous books.

Inferno. Not something that works on AudioBook, I'm thinking? I was bored by the 3rd disc. Also, I know men aren't huge readers but my DH would be asking??? "When is this mystery going to get interesting?"

Defending Jacob. Probably my favorite book of 2012! I gotta check to see if he has anything new.

Lip. Thanks for the photos...very fun, when I needed a break from the calculator! (Accountant)

Now the other SLAM is for Quest by Nelson DeMille. I did finally finish this book after starting and stopping since October and it was hard going. First of all it is a re-write of his 1970's book adding more sex and romance. But the whole "rent a plane and fly over the jungle to find a hidden Monastery?" Maybe I'm too used to Google Earth?

Top 100 Books of 2013. Have tried twice today to print out this list...maybe tomorrow?

***shakes head***

Punching out...hopefully have something fun to report next time!

[rapa]

Carolyn, I, too, cannot relate to the premise of Lamb's WE ARE WATER, but there is so much else in his story regarding siblings, secrets, life's choices and how former lovers can remain friends. The ending does deserve discussion.

[Carolyn Tewell]

Maybe I doth protest too quickly, Rapa? I was so excited to see he had a new book out and then the brief 5 word analysis threw me?  I swear, normally that Author can read my mind/emotions/decision process - he doesn't have all the answers but the things that mystify him...mystify me as well.  

I'm on last disc of Identical by Scott Turow sp? Now, I have started this audiobook twice.  Huge Greek family involvements - lots of characters are a struggle when listening - because very hard to go back a few chapters to refresh who is who.  But I have nothing else on hand - so I just play the dang thing sort of like music - paying no real attention to the words - but by mid-way thru the story had me hooked and the mystery is pretty amazing.

Every once in awhile I think I can write and tease about heading over to Kent State for a class.  Then I am spellbound by a REAL Author who has spun an amazing, complex but actually believable story!  Sigh.

Mandy - my oldest daughter wanted Law Enforcement so badly; especially crime scene analysis - she have meetings with Counselor and he explain that in South Florida at the time - EVERYONE needed to be able to handle a heavy service revolver - her hands were too small.  Probably now they have modified their requirements.  

Sort of reminds me of when I tried out for Flight Attendant position - had to be 5'2" and weigh a certain amount.  I was 5' 1 1/2 in.  Just as well - get airsick on a swing. LOL

Leave the light on for me.

[Mandy Muffin]

I just finished "Identical" a couple of weeks ago.  It is classic Greek Tragedy of Identical twins, based on Castor and Pollux. The novel was filled with off-beat characters, including a lesbian ex-FBI agent turned head of security and an washed up investigator in his 80s, who is ready for assisted living.  There were plenty of side plots and twists and turns, which added to the drama of seeing the tragedy  unfold in the classic sense.  I loved it.   

[rapa]

Started IDENTICAL last night.  So far, so good!  Didn't get very far as the sandman visited!

[Mandy Muffin]

Carolyn,

I have a special interest in Connecticut prisons, as I have studied penology in that state as part of police training I was taking at the time, and did a tour of the old Weathersfield State Prison in 1961. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wethersfield_State_Prison  It housed a number of murderers, left over from the death row pardons, and I met a few.  This story takes place in the Danbury  Federal Pen which a storied past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Danbury  So far, I find the book interesting, as to the insights of what life is like on the inside.  I may watch the TV series. 

As to Wally Lamb, there is a tie-in, as "The Hour I First Believed" deals with female incarceration in a Connecticut prison among other themes.  I'm not really sure what the basic theme of the new Wally Lamb book is, except what I read in the blurbs, but I am willing to find out. 

As to Wally Lamb, his first novel, "She's Come Undone" deals with teenage obesity, "I Know This Much is True" deals with the twin syndrome and "The Hour I First Believe" deals with post-Columbine depression.  I just enjoy the fact that they are all placed in a region that I once called home. 

[Mandy Muffin]

I just started "We are Water" last night.  It must be something in the water in Connecticut, as my niece raised two children from the first marriage of her current husband.  In the early 1990's, her husband's former wife left him for a Lesbian relationship which ended up in a marriage when it became legal.  When my mother died, in 2002, we spent four days in the car driving north and back as I was in Florida at the time and she was living in Alabama.  Being a chatty sort, she disclosed enough information about the situation for me to write a novel.  The story line would have been: Can a woman love another woman so much that she would abandon her children to pursue the relationship? (or should she have to?)   The kids turned out great, as the youngest one graduated from Troy State University last May.  They currently maintain a relationship with their mother. 

I guess the first thing I look at when I pick up a novel to read is, "Can I relate?" On to see what the ending is like, after I consume another 400 or so pages.  Wally Lamb never writes about regular people who lead normal lives.    Or perhaps we have progressed to the point were same sex marriage is the new normal?  By the way, my neighbors in Florida are a Lesbian couple who are in lock-step nearly every minute of the day.  We are good friends. They are from Rhode Island. 

[Ioruach]

This morning I read the final two chapters of The Sound and the Furry by Spencer Quinn.  I actually needed a Chet and Bernie mystery, having previously read Inferno.  Quite a contrast, I must say.

As to the discussion about Wally Lamb’s books, and We are Water in particular, I became curious and put a hold on the book at my library.  I have never read his titles and some of the comments make me wonder if they are up my alley or not.  We shall see, although there are quite a few “holds” ahead of me.

[CaliforniaNow]

Si-cology:  so far, so good

Johnny Carson (bio by Henry Bushkin):  meh

and, since I'm still on the waiting list for W/Wasted, re-reading F/Fugitive 'cause I couldn't remember the details of it

[Carolyn Tewell]

Merry Christmas Members!

Our meal is catered today so only to heat and eat. Taking some time to recover/decompress. Heard about a lot of folks getting e-readers today!

I pretty much took a book list and tossed darts on it...so picked the "winners" to put on hold. Some surprises so guess I will see how that works out compared to hours of research at B&N. Lol

Catch in with reviews soonly.~Carolyn aka Mellowgal

[Mandy Muffin]

I just finished “We Are Water” by Wally Lamb. I was living and working in Norwich, Connecticut on March 6, 1963. It was the day of the “Great Flood.” The flood changed my life, as I lost my job due to the destruction of my place of work. It never reopened and I moved to Old Saybrook, Conn to find new employment. Floods change lives - Biblical and real ones.

Lamb cites the “swift and deadly maelstrom” which he used as a basis for the his book: http://www.amazon.com/Swift-Deadly-Maelstrom-Norwich-Survivors/dp/1... His premise is based on the often used pledge of AA: Lord give me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. The books deals with a myriad of subjects: same sex marriage, child abuse, misandry, murder, the world of art, psychology, twins, etc. The overriding theme seems to be an ante and post- diluvian world, comparing the Biblical flood, the Norwich flood and the water balance in human beings - our own change agent that shifts the ebb and flow of our lives -- what will we accept and what will we try to change? Most of the characters have come to terms with their situations in life by the end of the story, except Andrew.  Does he need to find absolution, or can he live with his crime?