Book Challenge - Page 5

[MamaBug]

I just read a really great book! Could not put it down!


Look For a Letter Tomorrow

A College Girls Life 100 Years Ago
1900-1904 Helen Gertrude Fox
Her Letters Home to Her Family
Edited by her daughter Margaret Carmichael Emerson

This was an awesome book. It tells the true story, through letters of a girl form Milton Mills, NH ( about 30 minutes from me) and her 4 years at Wellesley College. It is amazing the way things have changed. I was also amazed by some of the things that stayed the same at that university. For anyone who has seen Mona Lisa Smile, this is a great book, as alot of the custom seen in the movie are seen in the book some 50 plus years before hand. I really liked this book. I liked it so much that I plan to go to the museum in NH where the real letters are stored and also try and learn more about this womans life. A wonderful non-fiction historical novel!


I could not find it on amazon, but I went to the website of the publisher,which is out of NH and alot of libraries will order something if you request it! Here is the URL for it, go down the page

http://www.worldpath.net/~ghb/

[Joi]

I am starting Middlesex....... so far so good I will keep you all informed.

[Indigo73]

The Good Life is by Helen Hearing.

Never Kiss a Goat on the Lips is about 20 years old (and not reprinted) so it may be tough to find. I have just starting it, I will let you know what I think.

[cathe]

Thanks Indigo73 - I'll look it up. I found the goat one on amazon and saw it was written in the 80's. I was wondering if the info is still relevant. I'll be interested to hear how you like it.

angstmommy - I loved Middlesex. After I read that, I got his previous book "The Virgin Suicides that was great too."

[MamaBug]

I really liked the Virgin Suicides too! Did you see the movie version? How was it? It is on my list of things to rent!

[cathe]

I didn't even know there was a movie - I'll have to put it on my list too. I also want to see Catch Me If You Can now that I read the book.

[Arduinna]

I'm currently reading Civil Wars the battle for gay marriage by David Moates. Very interesting book that tells the story of how same sex unions because legal in the state of Vermont.

Also has some background into the gay rights movement of the 70's.

[Joi]

I haven't read The Virgin Suicides but I thought the movie was incredible.

[cathe]

I just finished The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahari. I had read her first book Interpreter of Maladies when it was recommended on another thread. That first book was incredible so I requested this one as well. This was not quite as good - the plot was somewhat lacking but her writing is so wonderful and the chacters so real that the book is still a pleasure to read.

It was about an couple who move from India to the US and have a child and the story of his growing up. You learn a lot about Indian culture and tradition which I loved and about what it's like to grow up torn between two cultures.

[cathe]

I just read this cool book that I got at a library book sale called "Juno and Juliet". They are twins starting college in Ireland and it is from Juliet's point of view. She is such a cool character and the book is really funny and a little sad. I really enjoyed it.

[Indigo73]

Thought I would let ya'll know that I surpassed 100 this past week.

I was on vacation and read 12 books (I average 2 or 3 a week.) I read Middlesex, 2 books each by Laurie R. King & Jasper Fforde, The Memiors of a Geisha, Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balogh, Pride and prescience by Carrie Bebris and re-read 4 books by Nora Roberts.

I just requested a bunch of books on simplicity and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency from my library (still waiting for some books on organic gardening). I suspect I am starting a mystery and historical romance jag. It's nice when they over lap.

[cathe]

I read Girl with the Pearl Earring and really enjoyed the story. then I got her latest book . . . something about a unicorn but could not get into it at all. I found a cool cookbook called "The Book Lover's Cookbook". It has recipes based on books with excerpts from the books they were inspired by. Really fun and some good recipes.

[Indigo73]

I will have to see if I can find The Book Lover's Cookbook, I have something similar called A Literary Feast: Recipes and Writings by American Women Authors from History. My husband thought it was an interesting mix of my 2 passions - reading and cooking. He was right.

[MamaBug]

Aimee that is awesome.

I just finished a REALLY great book My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I could not put it down and I cried several times during. I would highly recommened it. It is a book about family and what lengths parents will go to to save their sick children. Very moving

[MamaBug]

Just read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, really great, going to get the sequel tomorrow. Here is a synopsis:

"Somewhere," muses Noah Calhoun, while sitting on his porch in the moonight, "there were people making love." Anyway, head elsewhere for Great Literature, but if you're in the market to get your heartstrings plucked, look no further. The Notebook, a Southern-fried story of love-lost-and-found-again, revolves around a single time-honored romantic dilemma: will beautiful Allison Nelson stay with Mr. Respectability (to whom she happens to be engaged), or will she hook up with Noah, the romantic rascal she left so many years ago? We're not telling, but you have two guesses and the first one doesn't count. Decades later, after Allison develops Alzheimer's, her beau uses "the notebook" to read her the story of the great love she's plumb forgot. The Notebook--film rights already sold, thank you very much--is a little glazed doughnut of a book: sticky- sweet, satisfying, not much nourishment. But who cares? Take an extra vitamin and indulge

[cathe]

I just finished "In the Cut" by Susanna Moore. This was an awesome book - really well written about a school teacher who gets involved with a detective investigating a murder that happened nearby. It's rather erotic and the end is disturbing both of which I don't normally like but it comes across very well in this book.

[MamaBug]

cathe did you know that book was also made into a movie starring Meg Ryan? I always am curious to see the movie after I read the book

[cathe]

No I didn't - did you see the movie - is it any good?

[Alkenny]

Originally Posted by SoccerMom

Just read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, really great, going to get the sequel tomorrow. Here is a synopsis:

"Somewhere," muses Noah Calhoun, while sitting on his porch in the moonight, "there were people making love." Anyway, head elsewhere for Great Literature, but if you're in the market to get your heartstrings plucked, look no further. The Notebook, a Southern-fried story of love-lost-and-found-again, revolves around a single time-honored romantic dilemma: will beautiful Allison Nelson stay with Mr. Respectability (to whom she happens to be engaged), or will she hook up with Noah, the romantic rascal she left so many years ago? We're not telling, but you have two guesses and the first one doesn't count. Decades later, after Allison develops Alzheimer's, her beau uses "the notebook" to read her the story of the great love she's plumb forgot. The Notebook--film rights already sold, thank you very much--is a little glazed doughnut of a book: sticky- sweet, satisfying, not much nourishment. But who cares? Take an extra vitamin and indulge

I just saw the preview for the movie of this last night! (Read the book a couple of years ago and it was great!) The movie looks like it'll be a good one too.

[newmainer]

I haven't been to this thread in a while; I'm glad its still alive.

I wanted to put a plug in for The Mother Dance, by Harriet Lerman (or Lerner? not sure, don't have it in front of me. She's written the The Dance of Anger, also The Dance of Intimacy).

I picked up this book right after my dd was born and was craving for anything I could relate to. I literally cried laughing so hard in the aisle of the bookstore. She is *so* funny and off the cuff. The book is mostly about how motherhood affects and changes us personally, as well as our marriages and friendships. Its great. She isn't necessarily AP- I didnt' get that sense; but how you raise your kids isn't the focus of the book so it doesn't matter. Anyway, great, great read.

I need to check ouit some of these fiction books mentioned.. I can be so anti-fiction sometimes...