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Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 10:06 am
by Cattleman
I am currently reading two novels, "The Lost and Found Bookshop" by Susan Wiggs, and "Special Circumstances" by Sheldon Siegel. I am also listening to "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" by Dennis E. Taylor. All are neatly packaged in my Kindle Fire, and please don't start ranting about 'real' books. I know.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:24 pm
by brian douglas
The Bobiverse series are great.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:26 am
by Cattleman
As anyone who has seen my posts here knows, i read a lot. Since my last post, I have read JoJo Moyes trilogy, "Me Before You." Yes, all 3 books. Also, via audio book, I 'read" Dan Crenshaws "Fortitude." I am currently reading three books (not unusal for me). Brian W. Aldiss's HARM (science fiction), Michael Connelly's "Night Fires" (via audio book) and most recently, Dr. Katie Mack's "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)." This last is non-fiction, and discusses various ways in which the universe might end. I found this book after hearing Dr. Mack being interviewed on NPR. Hoping these will help me survice Winter and COVIZD19.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:08 pm
by DWill
I don't know how you do that! You must have good focus.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:38 pm
by Harry Marks
Cattleman wrote: Since my last post, I have read JoJo Moyes trilogy, "Me Before You." Yes, all 3 books.
I am very curious how you come out on "Me Before You." My wife and I saw the movie, and we have a deep disagreement about the choice of the rich, crippled protaganist.

(Spoiler alert). I found the man's despair to be a kind of sellout of the romantic appeal of the book. Sure, it would be too Hollywood for her actually to convince him that life is worth living despite everything he has lost, but then, the premise of his charmed interest in bringing wider horizons to her is already too Hollywood for following through with "realism". Faux realism, it seemed to me. Why not explore the possibilities available for redemption by relationship? My wife, on the other hand, sees his depression as inevitable given the gusto with which he had lived his life. We did not actually discuss it at any length - I tried to make my case in about 3 sentences, and she was so offended by my view that we never got into any kind of back and forth.

Also, I had no idea that it was a trilogy! The movie is all we know of it.

Very interested in your views.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 4:55 pm
by Cattleman
To Harry: You have asked me a very tricky question. I have not seen the movie; I did not even know one had been made. So I have not basis for comparison. I did not immediately 'fall in love' with the book; in fact, I almost quit reading it about half way through, then for some reason decided to go a little further. Then I got hooked. It was not until I started reading "After You" that I realized that Louisa, not Will, is the central character (even though all three books are written in first person - Louisa). Was Will's suicide noble, selfish, or just inevitable? There are so many things I don't know about the movie, so it may be a spoiler to mention them. In the movie, does Will contract pneumonia near the end? I know that if he had died from that, I would have felt cheated. Guess I will have to watch the movie.


To DWill: I was a practicing lawyer for almost forty years. Keeping track of multiple clients with multiple cases/issues trains you to compartmentalize your thoughts.

Thanks to both of you for your comments/thoughts.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:43 pm
by Harry Marks
Yes, I see the problem. I have not read the book (first in the series). I have trouble even remembering the details in the movie. I think it may have glossed over the pneumonia episode as more of a reason for her to reflect on his situation, but honestly I am not sure there was such a sickness.

I got that Louisa is the real subject, but I also felt that Will's distress and his desire to give Louisa a gift are clearly the matter of the story. The impact, for me (more spoiler alert), came from their realization that the other was giving them a gift by needing another person, so I really thought it was a great setup. And then to have Will surrender to his disappointment, to his attachment to his former life of excitement and accomplishment, seemed to me a great betrayal of the promise of the story by the author.

I can frame an alternative view, and almost accept it. That Will wanted Louisa to enjoy some of what had made his life meaningful, but his bereft state meant that the more successful he was at kindling her excitement and delight, the more it tormented him with his own loss. And that is a coherent view, with internal logic that I can accept. What I find hard to take about it is that both of them were beginning to make a human connection, and yet it did not mean enough to Will for him to put off the finality of his decision and explore the possibilities further. Perhaps the book fleshed out his character more, and made it more understandable that he would reject that opening of his own heart. And perhaps the later books deliver some kind of payoff for his betrayal (yes, that's how I see it) of Louisa and of himself. Perhaps she comes to a larger understanding based on having seen how his exciting life leaves him unable to live out his humanity, or some such.

I am still left with the feeling that the author dropped the ball.

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2021 1:27 pm
by princesscookie19
Jo Spain AFter The Fire :btw: :yes:

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2021 9:42 am
by shawn253
This Hidden Gem is. Must Read!! Enough Said! I great Modern Day Novel Depicting Real Life and Social Issues that continue to exist in present-day Tokyo!

https://t.co/87N6q18Oza?amp=1

Re: What are you reading these days?

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 7:37 am
by ellisacoy
I am almost at the end of Circe (a Greek character in Homer's Odyssey). The book is a retelling of the classic from Circe's perspective. Madeline Miller provides an immersive and enchanting narration of the world of Circe filled with mystic characters.
I have also started with Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. Going through a few pages, Dostoevsky talks in detail about the 'curse of the conscious', touching on boredom and hopelessness like his fellow countryman Anton Chekhov.