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 on the road tomorrow, from my expected low of 23 degrees in Kentucky to the expected high of 80 in Florida.  I am not too fussy over the books-on-discs I choose for the road, as I am limited to those my retirement complex library has donated to them.  I have "The Dirty Secrets Club" by Meg Gardner, which is about so evil doings in San Francisco and "Led Astray" by Sandra Brown, described as a classic love story.  I could use a good love story. Will have the HP powered up in a couple of days. 

[rapa]

Safe travels!  Please check in with us next week after you've settled in.

[rapa]

SYCAMORE ROW arrived at the library for me today!!!  Will pick it up on Sat.  :)

[Ioruach]

It must be a seasonal thing, but when I saw the book title, Sycamore Row, what came to mind was
320 Sycamore Street in Bedford Falls.

[rapa]

Indeed it's the season for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE"!!!

[Ursula]

Hello fellow Bookoholics, I was beginning to think I would have to turn in my membership in the group as I just spent 6 weeks reading Smilla's Sense of Snow.  This is an old book, published in 1993 and it was loaned to me by a young friend.  Well, I was heading to the mountains for a weekend getaway and thought it would be a good match.  Interesting story, but didn't hold my interest.  This is the strange part: normally I would have put it away and not made the effort, but I was so determined to discover why little Isaiah was murdered.  So something was holding my interest, but???  Finally finished it last night and not sure it was worth the effort.

Reading through this post tells me I have lots of catching up to do.  So a belated Merry Christmas to all, and now to decide what to read first!!

[Susan Gillmor]

I read Smilla's Sense of Snow several years ago and had a similar reaction to yours, Ursula!  I couldn't stop reading, but it DID take me a while to finish.  I wasn't sure if it was worth it, either.  Though I can't remember details, I've been left with a long-term sense of atmosphere - SNOW, in all its textures, temperatures, shapes.  I still feel a sense of night-time white coldness when I think about it!!

[Ursula]

Thanks for the validation, Susan.  I really wondered about the hold the story had on me.  I have a friend who has been trying to talk me into going to Iceland on vacation....realizing this was set in Denmark and Greenland, I'm even less inclined to make the trip.  I live in sunny southern CA, why would I want to go there??  All that snow and ice holds no attraction for me!

[Susan Gillmor]

I live in Maine and although I loved it as a child, the snow and cold has lost ALL fascination for me in these later years!!!

[Susan Gillmor]

P.S.  There seems to be a lot of lit coming out of Iceland and Scandinavia the last few years.  So a lot of folks are clearly fascinated by the snow and cold deal!!  

[Ursula]

My father was from Maine...little town called Jay, but I haven't been there sine the 50's....the years, not my age LOL.  I actually lived in the mountains of Southern CA for 5 years.  The last year I was there was the worse winter in 21 years.  We had 11 feet of snow and because we were on the north side of the mountain, we were in shade all but 4 hours of the day.  The snow berms by my driveway were there until May.  It will be fine with me if I never see snow again!!  That said it can be beautiful in the summer.

[Susan Gillmor]

I've been to and through Jay many times!!  Very small world.  I'm from Portland, the "big city" of Maine!! :-)