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Y&R Discussion Group
I'm really enjoying it. Every time I read Dickens, I re-realize why he's considered one of the giants of all-time.
P.S. A big hello to everyone. I continue to be snowed under, it seems, most of the time and I'm beginning another six-day work week. I miss posting and chatting with you all as regularly as I once did, but I intend to continue dropping in, even if it's sporadically. I'm hoping the schedule will let up sooner or later, but nothing on the horizon now.






I haven't been reading lately, but I had better get started. I received a Borders gift card for Christmas.
''Gas City'' by Loren D. Estleman
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I'm with you on Dickens. I re-read Oliver Twist last year and enjoyed it once again.
These days I can't seem to find much time for literature and pleasure reading. Instead I always seem to be researching something or another either for what we're doing at home or for work.
Always good to see you on MD, Farmer.
I've always liked Dickens. I recommend (the appropriately titled) Bleak House. One of the characters spontaneously combusts.
I'm reading Live from New York, "an unscensored history of Saturday Night Live" by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. Ir reminds me why I stopped watching after the first three years.
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I love Dickens, good choice Farmer. I am still reading World War Z. It's sounds bizarre but it is an excellent book. They are making a movie about it with Brad Pitt i believe. The reason it is taking me so long to read is because I have found STUMBLEUPON.com Don't ever go there, you will be on the net for hours and hours, lol.
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For the past couple of weeks, my son and granddaughter are slooowly moving to their own place. As soon as that's accomplished, I'll be recapturing the guest room/my office and redoing it, so now's the time to grab some reading time.
I have two books going right now. One is "Charlie Wilson's War" by George Crile, which is my little guilty pleasure. The woman in the book (played in the movie by Julia Roberts) is someone who I now realize is a woman I've seen and chatted with, many times at gatherings here, so to be able to really visualize the book character, complete with personality (which is soooo southern belle) is fun. But in the midst of that book, I got hooked on David Halberstam's last book before his death, "The Coldest Winter". The title seemed just right for this winter. It's probably going to take me into our hot summer to finish this one. It's a (long 700 page) detailed history of the Korean War, which I feel I never really have known much about other than M*A*S*H. Although, I do know North and South Korea are not the same country, even though I can't see them from my house (snark).
I also have three books in the hopper, which my kids got me for Christmas, that I'm really looking forward to getting started. Probably the first I'll get into is "Family of Secrets" by Russell Baker. The other two in-waiting are "The War Conspiracy" by Peter Scott and "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass
Geez, re-reading this, I'm overwhelmed. Maybe I'll just be lazy and hop into bed and start watching the first two seasons of "Mad Men", which my husband bought me for Christmas. Everyone talks about it, but I need to see the first two seasons, before I try to start watching the third season when it starts reruns.
Right now I'm reading Beach Music by Pat Conroy - I am on a mini Conroy kick having finished South of Broad prior to this one. And if I have to recommend a book that I think is a MUST READ, buy or borrow The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Absolutely amazing book.
I want to get Under the Dome, too and am very interested in opinions (not spoilers LOL) - I see SM below likes it a lot :-)
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Farmer, we miss you too. Bigtime! Dickens is one of my favorite authors as well. I especially love A Tale of Two Cities.
I just finished Greg Mortenson's Stones Into Schools, about building schools in Afghanistan and educating girls, in particular. This book is nonfiction but reads like an adventure. I was particularly thrilled to read that some of Mortenson's dedicated staff are former members of the Taliban. He feels that the most effective way to fight terrorism is through education, and I agree.
I just started Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan. It's a historical novel about Venice in the years following the Reformation. I had read another Dunant book last month and admire her ability to evoke time and place.
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Finally finished Joyce Carol Oates' The Gravedigger's Daughter. I love JCO, but her stuff is always dark and therefore sometimes hard to read.
I'm about 200 pages into Stephen King's Under The Dome, and it is *made* of awesome.
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Glad you can still drop in occassionally, farmer brown!
I just finished THE LAW OF SIMILARS by Chris Bohjalian, a very interesting writer. I had previously read his book THE DOUBLE BIND.
I have now started WHAT WAS LOST by Catherine O'Flynn and it is gripping.
Have you ever read Dickens' BLEAK HOUSE? I always wanted to!
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I am finishing off Tony Abbott's book, Battlelines. Tony Abbott is our new Leader of the Opposition. The book was given to me by a friend for Christmas. It is a really good read, much better than I expected - funny, thought-provoking, and accessible. What a contrast Abbott is in person and in print to our dreadful Prime Minister, the smug Kevin Rudd (who has turned a lifetime Labor voter like me away from the Labor Party).
I was reading Sarah Palin's Going Rogue, but put it down to read Abbott's book. So far, Palin's book has been enlightening even though I disagree with almost everything that Palin stands for (except her scepticism of the Climate Change cult). Which brings me to the next book I have racked up and ready to read...Christopher Booker's The Real Global Warming Disaster.
And to prove that I don' just spend my time wading through turgid political tomes, I recently finished off Clinton Walker's fantastic biography of Bon Scott, Highway to Hell. Scott was the lead singer of AC/DC who died in 1980. Great book. AC/DC played their first gig at our High School so I feel a real connection to them, even though I am hardly a head-bangin' heavy metal freak. Such wonderful memories. In my mind's eye, I can still see Bon leering at all us school girls from the Assembly Hall stage, Angus Young (who was wearing a real school uniform because he was still in high school at the time) going mental on his guitar, and the whole joint goin' off. I can hardly believe it was 35+ years ago.





