Anne Tyler is a great storyteller. Her stories are generally about families. I've just read "A Spool of Blue Thread" and thought some of you might like it because one of its themes is caregiving. The first third of the book focuses on an elderly woman who doesn't accept that she is declining and her adult children who try to take care of her. I think it presents both sides of this conflict very well. It reminded me of many posts on this site! The rest of the book is also about caring about and for family. Tyler is very good at showing an event from several different perspectives.
My daughter gave me a book A Man Called Ove about a grumpy old guy that she enjoyed. But, then do I really need any grumpy old guys? 😲
And My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry. Same author and may be a good book for many caregivers to read.
But I think now it's time for some more Peter Mayle novels on his ventures in Provence. They're very relaxing and soothing novels, as is the thought of retiring in Provence.
I was surprised that the other three ladies had never read the book, or apparently any Hemingway that they could remember. They didn't care for it much. Too much drinking. Too bleak. Relationship between the lieutenant and Cat was superficial. I reminded them that the characters are very young, and are in the middle of a war. When you think of love stories like West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet and even Cinderella, they pretty much are superficial. Do the Prince and Cinderella ever discuss their religious views or how they feel about having children or their favorite books? Seemed perfectly normal to me in my twenties, but it seems pure fantasy now.
I loved the writing style when I first read it. Now I find it a bit choppy. I agree with the ladies that it is bleak, and I thought that when I first read it fifty years ago. Life is hard and then you die.
My favorite Hemingway is "The Old Man and the Sea." Even in that, when the old man is victorious over the fish, he does not get to keep his prize.
Anybody else reread anything by Hemingway? Did your reaction change from when you first read it?
I do remember taking courses on Shakespeare and Fitzgerald's works. It's so interesting that you're seeing Hemingway's literature differently than when you read it earlier. That same feeling occurred to me when I started Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. I remember having been so moved by it decades ago, but had trouble finding interest now and just abandoned it in favor of a quick read that redirected my thoughts to action (hence Cussler).
I wonder if I'll feel the same way about Hemingway. Best recollections are not only the life and death issues, but a young, adventuresome man exploring life. And sadly, beyond that, it's hard to remember how I reacted when I read his works.
Perhaps some of these writers address periods of our own lives which have already past, and to which we can relate at that particular time? But they aren't as relevant to us now as we're exploring seguing into older age, rather than exploring the world and all its wonders. (Sometimes the wonders I discover now are the different areas of nursing homes or new stiffness or aches in my old body!)
Your observation is thought provoking; I might start a Hemingway novel now just to see if I too experience it differently.
I recall one that I did find more challenging - Joyce's Ulysses. I can't for the life of me now recall how I found that stream of consciousness style so fascinating. It's too hard on my old eyes.
I had been reading The Lost Order, but experienced my own loss - of interest. It's massive, and drags on and on and on. There are a few action points inbetween sleeper type narrative. I eventually put it on the "to finish some day" pile as I was tired of the literal slow pace at which most of the novel was written.
It was:
"She took me to St. Petersburg, where all her brothers lay.
Then she took me home again; said 'Life is hard today.' "
I also love any book by Fannie Flagg (author of Fried Green Tomatoes). She is great at telling a good story with a sense of humor.
Do ordinary people actually read that book, outside of college classrooms? I still think it is brilliant. I concur with all those list makers. But it is/was more important for its influence on other writers than for the number of people who read it on the subway, I think.
If you do read it again, I'd love to know if you finish it.
Judith Kerr, who wrote 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' as well as the Mog series, is also in her nineties and still writing, only she's a children's author and I expect it's a bit easier to keep plugging away at that. She iced Mog eventually, not so much because she was sick of her as because she worked out that Mog would be something like 140 in cat years and it was beginning to strain credulity. 'Goodbye Mog' - look, the lady was a WW2 refugee, she's going to tell things like they are, isn't she - was greeted by parents throughout the land with horror, but it does have a hopeful ending; and it's not a bad introduction to the whole subject of bereavement, come to that.
My very favourite undemanding read is the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith. Set in Botswana, the books tell the story of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a "traditionally built" lady who has learned to be a detective by following the writings of Clovis Anderson. Good always triumphs over evil, the mystery is always solved, and all ends up right with the world. Balm to the soul in these troubled times.
The Book 'Em fundraiser used book sale was amazing! It was held in a former Toys R Us location. With everything out that is a large space, and it was filled with table after table after table with books, organized by author name within genre. Amazing!
Six of us from the bookclub carpooled, had lunch together, and shopped until we couldn't carry any more books. My arms are sore today, but I am not complaining.
I made a list of all the books and authors mentioned in this thread. At least 7 of my purchases came from that list. It was fun to have specific things to look for.
I'm now reading a Margaret Truman book, which I'd forgotten about until someone mentioned her on this thread. I'd read most of them, but found one that was new to me. (She sets her murder mysteries in Washington DC.)
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Happy reading.
Isn't buying books wonderful? So many new places to visit, while comfortable at home and not even having to drive, let alone get stuffed into an airplane seat!
I might have been the one who mentioned Margaret Truman; I love her books and have some of them multiple times. The progression in her skill is so obvious from the first book, which is fairly straightforward, to the more complex later ones in which she excels in her writing.
Which book did you get?
My choice now is Peter Mayle's Hotel Pastis, not quite as I remember it, but still somewhat charming in the descriptions of Provence.
Wayne State U. used to have a great bookstores; after getting my texts, I'd wander around to see what else I could find, then lug them all back to the car, several blocks away.
I miss the smell of libraries and bookstores.
It's from Jabberwocky, Garden; in which Lewis Carroll coined a good many words including galumph, beamish.
Beware the jabberwock, my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that snatch
Something something the jou-jou bird and shun
the hideous bandersnatch
Oh bollocks I'll have to go and find it now...
(Sorry, CM, but yes, you probably do have to look up the verse now.)
This is a whole new language for me. It's been years since I've read anything clever and playful, with its own language.
I can't remember Murder in Ford's Theatre so I guess I should read it again. Summer is such a great time for reading.
They will benefit, anyway, from being a change from 'Pamela' by Samuel Richardson; which took me decades to get round to and I'm beginning to think might take me decades to finish. Oh God! - I'm on about page 400, and it's only just got interesting with the arrival of the hero's incensed sister.
Mind you. In the light of #MeToo... Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose...
A thousand curses on all authors who do not pick a surname, just one, and stick to it. And the same to those with prefixes.
Does Conan Doyle come under C for Conan or D for Doyle? MacDonald Fraser? Daphne du Maurier - is she a d or a m?
I want my dining room floor back. At this rate I'll be tiptoeing round the stacks of books 'til flaming Christmas.
I almost wish (hold your tongue, GA) it was winter again so I wouldn't be tempted to just leave it and take refuge in the garden.