mcdunc

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  travelingmamma says

  I know what you mean about forgetting what you read! I can't tell you how many times I've picked up a book and, half-way through the first page, realized I'd already read it! The other thing I like to do with Shelfari, is add "to-be-published" books. I check the reviews on publishersweekly.com and add the ones I want to my "I Plan to Read" shelf. Then, when they come out, I just move them to "I'm Reading".
  
  I was born in the US and only moved to Toronto for several years as an adult. Loved it there and I do go back for visits when I can, but I'm living in the US again, now.

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  travelingmamma says

  Hi,
  Thanks for the request. I notice you have a number of novels by Michael Palmer - I have never read anything by him, so I'll take a look. We do seem to read many similar books. Re: my books without stars - they are generally ones I read before joining Shelfari. Since joining, I've tried to rate and review everything. I, too, am retired and used to live in Canada (Toronto).

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Yes, we should all have such tough choices... LOL

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Thanks for the recommendation. Quebec huh? I'm going to start my travel jar today. LOl But I am serious! Hope you're having fun!

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Victor! Be still my heart! How are you? You've must've been very busy indeed. The last time we chatted was prior Valentine's.
  
  I'm glad you enjoyed yourself in Florida. And it sounds like the fun continues in Vancouver Island. Good for you! I wish I was traveling. I'd love to visit Montreal!
  
  Limitations and Reversible Errors sound very intriguing indeed. Let me know how you like them, I may just add them to my wish list...
  
  I am well, I hope you are well - as well :)

  Posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )

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  Richard Jay Parker says

  Thanks for your note, mcdunc.
  
  STOP ME if you can.
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Richard
  www.richardjayparker.com

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Happy Valentine's weekend.

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  You're right, downtown Delray is nice. But I think most of the towns around the coast are nice. Have you been to Boca Raton?? VERY nice.
  Garlic Fest on Valentine's day- I wonder who's brilliant idea this was. Although, I must say, I do love garlic :)
  
  Looking out the window- it's snowing. You have a ton of fun in the sun!!

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  You've decided you don't have a favorites list LOL Ok- I'll have to check your 4stars and hopefully your reviews.
  
  What was I doing in Delray? An adventure of sorts. Lol I had this (convoluted) epiphamy- I was going to sell my condo and move to a warm place- Fl. I did. I was there for about 7mos. I stayed in Miami, Boynton and Port St. Lucie. Looked at houses etc. I drove everywhere. Especially US1, from Miami to Jupiter and back, several times. Talk about beautiful; wasted $ I didn't have (I did have a lot of fun), but alas- I was too far away from my family, so- I came back. The one thing I can say is, I got it out of my system.
  
  I want to go back in the near future, but not to stay :) Just to relax and enjoy.

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Delray Beach!!! Oh how envious. I was there 3yrs ago. Delray, Boynton, Lantana. The area is beautiful. I can see how you would not be doing a lot of reading :)

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Hi- How come you don't have any books in your favorites section? No favorite book?

  Posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  Belated congratulations on your 50K words. I’m still feebly fiddling with six-word combinations and a stab at haiku poetry. Thanksgiving and a general lethargy have colored the effort but Dec. 4th is the writing group meeting so it’s do or die. I finished Atonement and The Sister but haven’t gotten to the reviews. I’m still puzzling over my reaction to Atonement. My current “read” is Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman and am only mildly impressed. Just 50 pages in and I feel I know just how it will evolve. (Seems to borrow heavily on Wuthering Heights). Hope I’m wrong. Another trip to the library and $2.00 bought me somel old prize winners: Middlesex, As I Lay Dying and two others I can’t recall just now. Plus I borrowed five mysteries. Amazed that I found a new Tannenbaum, Connelly, Abrahams, etc. Anyway, I’m set for a while. My to-do lists get longer and the days get shorter. Stay well.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  I suspect that sparks are still flying from your keyboard, with half the month to go. In stark contrast I’ve just begun to work on a writing group exercise in preparation for a December meeting: Telling a story in SIX words. Some examples by great writers: Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Mailer: “Jehovah, Satan, fifteen rounds, a draw.” And Tobias Wolff: “She gave. He took. He forgot.” Fascinating, but as yet I’ve not come up with anything extraordinary. But I do have a book recommendation whose theme is kind of up your alley: teacher/student relationships (plus father/son relationships, and more.). “Master of the Delta” by Thomas H. Cook. I hate the title but was surprisingly impressed with the rest of it (a little let down near the end, but not enough to curb my enthusiasm). I especially admired the complex mental meanderings of the teacher. His line (the first of the book) reeled me in: “I was badly shaped by my good fortune and so failed to see the darkness and the things that darkness hides.” I’m impressed with this author’s ability to interweave time periods and reveal glimpses of events that pique the interest and invite speculation but do not “spill the beans. Following that I read “Mudbound” by Hillary Jordan. This Bellwether Prize for Fiction winner left me unimpressed. The author tackles the topic of racial prejudice in the South during the World War II era, but spoiling its value as social critique were the stock characters and utter predictability. Sort of a plug and play invention. The prose was OK but not memorable. Barbara Kingsolver’s jacket blurb was, however, laudatory. I’m now nearing the end of “Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle. He also addresses a societal issue (illegal immigration) but he’s masterful at tugging the reader from pole to a diametrically opposite pole, from one rationale/mindset to another and of course, inciting an overriding, roller coasting emotional response. The Boyle you just added is one I’ll pick up when available. I do like his work. And, I’ll now leave you to your work.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  Your quest to write a novel in one month has my utmost respect. Like you, I have unfinished works: two novels (one of which could be wrapped up in another 50-100 pages and which my writing group nags me to finish) and about six first-draft short stories that are intended to be grouped as a small town chronicle. I excuse myself from the NaNoWriMo experience because I am a slow, self-edit-as-I-go, OMG did I really write that yesterday? kind of writer. I suspect that if I tried, I would find that at the stroke of midnight on November 30, I will have completed five pages. Oh, and did I mention that I’m a first-rate procrastinator? In any case, I’ll want to hear all about your experience. In the meantime I will read, and perhaps motivated by your courage, I’ll do a bit of writing. May your muse have access to snowshoes--- whatever it takes. Have fun.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  Ah yes, wee wafts of “Air and Shadows” are coming through the fog. Thanks for the synopsis. I know I enjoyed reading the novel back then; I assume I’d like it as much now. I just finished Patricia Cornwell’s “Book of the Dead” and was mostly disappointed. Not certain whether it’s the book or me. I seem to have missed an interim novel so some characters and character motivations seemed off-key. You mentioned that your wife reads Cornwell. I’d be interested to know if she’s enjoying the author as much as she did in the past.
  
  I’m now reading “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards. Nicely written but am afraid it might be deemed “chick-lit.” It’s one of the five trade paperbacks I bought at the library (I really lucked out the last two visits), most being recipients of awards. I haven’t the titles at hand, but over the months ahead they’ll be appearing on my shelf.
  
  You mention preparing to leave for the mountains. Seems to me that one would want to get OUT of the mountains come winter. Or does preparation include snowmobiles, snow shoes and cross-country skies? I’d opt for looking out the window at snow-dripping pines but to venture out??????
  
  As to my kick-start preferences: coffee, cups of, pots of --- blended grounds direct from grinder to Mr. Coffee to my Bed, Bath and Beyond mug. My husband, “The Keeper of the Beans.”
  
  Did I forget to mention tire chains????

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  The last few days had our temperature plummeting to 68 degrees ---Brrrrrr. Had to put on a sweater to go to the mail box. Felt like a pioneer braving the elements. Seriously, CA is burning again and coupled with the economic meltdown and election folderol, my attention has been drawn away from Shelfari. Still reading though. Just finished “Empire Falls” by Richard Russo (Pulitzer prize winning trade paperback on sale for $.75 at library). I don’t know how it escaped my radar at the time but I’m glad I found it. Chronicle of a deteriorating small town and the town faithful. Well written, plotted. Interweaving of time periods and POV’s. I picked up a new Patricia Cornwell and John Lescroat – neither a candidate for acclaim but guaranteed to provide diversion. As to comparing notes on “The Book of Air and Shadows,” I’ll need some cues to kick-start my recall. Safe travel to you and yours.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  My memories of growing up in Pennsylvania include lots of winter scenes: snow down my boots, VW Beetle with frozen door locks, icy winds that burn the lungs and drill through the forehead (brain-freeze!!), white, numb and tingly fingers and on and on. Doubt I could thrive there at this point. I do miss the rain and when the few rainy day opportunities occur here, I have to temper my pleasure with the plea that no fellow Californians wash into the Pacific or disappear into mudslides.
  
  Finished off Child’s Jack Reacher novel a bit disappointed, not certain whether Child just didn’t hit it this time or that I just wasn’t in the mood. I hope the latter. Now I’m about one-third into David Guterson’s “The Other.” I loved “Snow Falling on Cedars” but this novel, rich in many ways, tries my patience. The prose is excellent, the sense of place exceptionally vivid (travel log-like). But it feels like a self-indulgent autobiography (have no idea if this is the case) where the author believes every occurrence and observation deserves to be detailed. It is interesting enough to hold me prisoner and when I finish the last page, I’ll read the reviews.
  
  I’ve a stack of still unread library books but on my next trip I’ll look for “Planet of the Blind.” I’m much more willing to try new authors these days, but some old friends woo me off the wagon. (Odd Hours by Dean Koontz “snuck” into my book bag – not my fault).
  
  Stay warm and dry. And for the record---the brown M&Ms are the last to survive.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  tishiejean says

  OK, here’s a scenario: you stop insulating and read, then comes a global-cooling winter and your blue and brittle fingers pain under the weight of, say, …Edward Sawtelle…and you end up at drug store paperback racks or a yard sale looking for Readers’ Digest abridged novels or, like my friend, hooked up to a book on tape. See? Your current self-sacrifice and delayed gratification is worth it. Sort of like the ant and grasshopper morality play. As for me, I fell off the literary wagon and am running with Child’s tough guy, Jack Reacher. My friends don’t see that side of me.

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  Ouch ouch!!! lol
  
  Ok- but after you found out about the book "When God was a Woman", 6M dollar question is- did you read it? I think we may have found different things in "The Valley of the bones." har har har

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

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  morrighan says

  You had me going there for a sec... You didn't mention you were also a comedian. LOL

  Posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )