Jinjer 31: Books, Books, and More Books

[grandmadugger]

1 hour ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

wrong thread!

Feel free to add something new about JinJer if you want to get the thread drift to die down. 

[Lurky]

I loved Cat's eye and Handmaid's Tale - but I read them both when i was at school, hitting up my local second hand bookshop, spending babysitting money and the book tokens I demanded from anyone unlucky enough to ask me what I wanted for Xmas/Birthday.

Wow, those day, browsing shelves full of musty books, in a low-ceilinged cellar full of a labyrinth of shelves!  I'd go over on Saturday mornings, via my local park, feeling so wealthy I had £12 to spend a week, with books costing around £2.50.  I adored the Women's Press, especially their Science Fiction imprint, because even if I hated the book, it made me think.  Even seeing the house style on my bookshelves today makes me happy!

(I think The Women's Press started in 1978, and could be UK only?  Their icon was a sarcastic iron, which I'll always love)

[Cat Damon]

I'm not 100% caught up and the thread may have moved on but I wanted to chime in with one of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I found it on my own and I just love it so much- it's heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, and I so wish that I knew more people that love it as much as I do. I try and read it at least once a year. 

I also agree with a lot of you saying you didn't like Fifty Shades- I laugh to myself every time I remember that it started out as Twilight fan-fiction but I was seriously disturbed by both of those series so I don't laugh for long when I remember how people thought those were such romantic book series with aspirational relationships 

[louisa05]

18 minutes ago, Cat Damon said:

 I was seriously disturbed by both of those series so I don't laugh for long when I remember how people thought those were such romantic book series with aspirational relationships 

I was still teaching full time during the height of Twilight mania. I had so many young girls in my classroom--about 15-17 years old-- who idealized the relationship between Bella and Edward and indeed thought it was aspirational. It was really disturbing. So much of the behavior depicted was abusive or potentially abusive. 

[FleeJanaFree]

I loved the youth portion of cats eye. So true!

i got the audiobook of a high wind in Jamaica after y'all recommended it...I just listened to the first ten minutes or so and I don't think I can go on. The rampant racism is so unsettling. I react viscerally every time I hear the 'n' word tossed out so casually. It bothers me so much I'm having a hard time following the story. Something about white kids they're more clever than the brown kids? Haven't gotten to the ship part, obviously. So far ive heard the n word wayyyy too many times, a shitty attitude about how brown kids can't read,  dirt described as 'something you'd find under a n*'s feet, and something about brown people being heathens god can't save. Oh, and swimming. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

8 minutes ago, FleeJanaFree said:

I just listened to the first ten minutes or so and I don't think I can go on. The rampant racism is so unsettling. I react viscerally every time I hear the 'n' word tossed out so casually. It bothers me so much I'm having a hard time following the story. Something about white kids they're more clever than the brown kids? Haven't gotten to the ship part, obviously. So far ive heard the n word wayyyy too many times, a shitty attitude about how brown kids can't read,  dirt described as 'something you'd find under a n*'s feet, and something about brown people being heathens god can't save. Oh, and swimming. 

I'm reading it, and probably about as far into it as you are (because:  swimming).

I was a bit taken aback at the use of the n-word, but it's a book that was written in the style of its time. I've read many books that use the n-word, and other derogatory terms for various groups of people; they're typically older books, written when certain words hadn't become unacceptable in society. I remember when "Negro" and then "Afro-American" were the acceptable terms for referring to Black people. Language is fluid.

Reading this book shows how far we - as PEOPLE - have come in our judgment/acceptance of others.

[AprilQuilt]

10 minutes ago, FleeJanaFree said:

I loved the youth portion of cats eye. So true!

i got the audiobook of a high wind in Jamaica after y'all recommended it...I just listened to the first ten minutes or so and I don't think I can go on. The rampant racism is so unsettling. I react viscerally every time I hear the 'n' word tossed out so casually. It bothers me so much I'm having a hard time following the story. Something about white kids they're more clever than the brown kids? Haven't gotten to the ship part, obviously. So far ive heard the n word wayyyy too many times, a shitty attitude about how brown kids can't read,  dirt described as 'something you'd find under a n*'s feet, and something about brown people being heathens god can't save. Oh, and swimming. 

Ehhh, I think you need to go on if you can. It is quite cold in its assessment of the attitudes and behaviour of both children and adults. I don't think it's at all un-inspected, he knows what he's saying.

I should maybe also give a heads-up that some really shocking things happen. It is a brutal book and pretty unsparing re 'civilised' people's hypocrisy and self-deception, v much a Lord of the Flies precursor in that sense. That may not be any sort of encouragement, I don't know.

[Snowless]

Loving all this book discussion!  I’m setting aside Native Son for now to return to at a later date.  Let’s see...I recently got a new iPad and I’ve actually downloaded a couple of Project Gutenberg books to read in the iBooks reader, but they’re definitely classics: Ulysses by James Joyce, and Moby Dick by Herman Melville (and I have never read either of those books, though both have been on my “To Read” list for a while.  If all goes well with these books, I’ll probably consider War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and Candide by Voltaire as well, as those should be available through Project Gutenberg as well.

I think I saw Love in the Time of Cholera mentioned on here...we actually did study a Márquez book when I was in high school, but it was Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which kicked off my sophomore year.  That one, I actually did finish!

[VixenToast]

Has anyone ever read Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende?

So. Damn. Good.

[justodd]

On 9/21/2017 at 8:36 AM, singsingsing said:

Catcher in the Rye seems to be the one everyone hates. I read it when I was about 16 and loved it. I really identified with Holden, like a lot of teenagers do, but more so I think because I also just up and quit school. I refuse to re-read it because I'm worried that as an adult I'll hate it, and I want to hold onto my good memories of it instead. 

FWIW, I loved Catcher when I was twelve, and I still love it at forty. 

 

You could never, ever, EVER, on the other hand, pay me enough money to suffer through a single chapter of anything written by Tolkien. I got a Hobbit/LOTR box set from my sister for Christmas when I was ten or eleven, and they were literally the first books I ever encountered that I just. couldn’t. stand. I don’t think I gave up on another book until I was in high school and tried convincing myself I liked Stephen King (short stories, yes, but dear god, his novels are such a different matter).

[onekidanddone]

On 9/25/2017 at 10:12 PM, PennySycamore said:

@nausicaa,  I haven't tackled the MLA list yet. but I did seriously consider reading through the Pulitzer Prize novels list once.

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner is on that list. 1972. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_Repose. Pretty amazing.

[tabitha2]

The last Fantasy books I really dug were the Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik.  I hope that movie does actually get made because Peter Jackson  has the rights. 

[calimojo]

12 hours ago, Cat Damon said:

I'm not 100% caught up and the thread may have moved on but I wanted to chime in with one of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I found it on my own and I just love it so much- it's heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, and I so wish that I knew more people that love it as much as I do. I try and read it at least once a year. 

I also agree with a lot of you saying you didn't like Fifty Shades- I laugh to myself every time I remember that it started out as Twilight fan-fiction but I was seriously disturbed by both of those series so I don't laugh for long when I remember how people thought those were such romantic book series with aspirational relationships 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a lovely book.  Fifty shades is the worst. 

4 hours ago, justodd said:

FWIW, I loved Catcher when I was twelve, and I still love it at forty. 

 

You could never, ever, EVER, on the other hand, pay me enough money to suffer through a single chapter of anything written by Tolkien. I got a Hobbit/LOTR box set from my sister for Christmas when I was ten or eleven, and they were literally the first books I ever encountered that I just. couldn’t. stand. I don’t think I gave up on another book until I was in high school and tried convincing myself I liked Stephen King (short stories, yes, but dear god, his novels are such a different matter).

I am surprised so many dislike Catcher in the Rye.  I loved that book.  Maybe you just have to read it in the right time or something, because for me, it caught me on page 1. 

I could never make it through any Tolkien books and never liked the movies either, but I as far as Stephen King goes,  I think his early novels were amazing.  The Stand is a classic. It is not pulp fiction but it is actual literature.  The Stand is chilling, where as The Shining is frightening.  Salem's Lot is also good and often gets overlooked when reviewing King. 

 

The thing I loved about his early writing is he  often relied more than just the supernatural.   The characters themselves were often more frightening or disturbing than the supernatural manifestations.  You spend much of the book The Shining watching the disintegration of sanity, but at times unsure if it is a result of the haunting or just a manifestation of the haunting.  SPOILER ALERT:  It was the smaller details that made my blood run cold such as when his wife sees his novel that just has hundreds and hundreds of pages of the same phrase, or the topiary changing. 

The final climax was good, but it was the journey to that point that left an impression.  How much of a haunting is perhaps an unlocking of some secret and dark part of our mind, that is manifest around us?    I lost interest in King after the first few books, though I appreciate his outspoken presence in social media

[SapphireSlytherin]

I can’t have Salem’s Lot in my house. 

And The Stand is one of my top-5 books. 

[Jana814]

I didn't like Catcher in the Rye. Their were several books I had to read for English in High School that I didn't like. 

[HereticHick]

Not to break up the book club, but I wanna make a prediction:  JinJer will actually make it to their 1st wedding anniversary without a baby announcement.   They will go on a short wedding anniversary trip somewhere, but not to Tontitown. A puppy **may** be an anniversary gift.

[Iokaste]

10 hours ago, calimojo said:

I am surprised so many dislike Catcher in the Rye.  I loved that book.  Maybe you just have to read it in the right time or something, because for me, it caught me on page 1. 

 

I'm not sure what I think of the book as literature, since I haven't read it since I was a teenager, but I absolutely loathed Holden Caulfield and his fucking hunting hat....
I remember him as entitled, self-aggrandising, insufferable angsty and nurturing his own spleen like it was a precious baby. 
Maybe the point is that I should hate him, but that is not how I remember it. 

[Snowless]

16 hours ago, justodd said:

You could never, ever, EVER, on the other hand, pay me enough money to suffer through a single chapter of anything written by Tolkien.

Hear, hear!  My dad loves Tolkien’s books, but I could never quite grab onto them, much less the fantasy genre as a whole (with the exception of the Harry Potter series.  And my mom has a large collection of Stephen King books.

After trying to read the first book in the series, I think it’s safe to say I want nothing to do with A Song of Ice and Fire (and I have never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones).

[singsingsing]

33 minutes ago, Snowless said:

Hear, hear!  My dad loves Tolkien’s books, but I could never quite grab onto them, much less the fantasy genre as a whole (with the exception of the Harry Potter series.  And my mom has a large collection of Stephen King books.

After trying to read the first book in the series, I think it’s safe to say I want nothing to do with A Song of Ice and Fire (and I have never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones).

I'm a huge Tolkien fan, but the first time I tried reading The Hobbit I thought it sucked. I had to give it a chance, get into it a bit, and then I was hooked. That said, I totally understand why other people do not like Tolkien. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I finally started reading A Game of Thrones yesterday. Hopefully this will get people off my back about never reading or watching it.  It's okay so far. From the way people talk I was expecting detailed descriptions of disembowelments and hardcore porn on every page , but it's way more tame than I expected - still only like 13 or 14 chapters in, though, so I'm sure it gets worse, haha. I do find it a tad silly and overwrought, and I don't really care about any of the characters, but it's easy to read. Definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hates the fantasy genre, though (I'm sort of iffy when it comes to fantasy myself - 'high fantasy' like Game of Thrones, anyway - with the exception of LotR).

[justoneoftwo]

1 hour ago, singsingsing said:

I'm a huge Tolkien fan, but the first time I tried reading The Hobbit I thought it sucked. I had to give it a chance, get into it a bit, and then I was hooked. That said, I totally understand why other people do not like Tolkien. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I finally started reading A Game of Thrones yesterday. Hopefully this will get people off my back about never reading or watching it.  It's okay so far. From the way people talk I was expecting detailed descriptions of disembowelments and hardcore porn on every page , but it's way more tame than I expected - still only like 13 or 14 chapters in, though, so I'm sure it gets worse, haha. I do find it a tad silly and overwrought, and I don't really care about any of the characters, but it's easy to read. Definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hates the fantasy genre, though (I'm sort of iffy when it comes to fantasy myself - 'high fantasy' like Game of Thrones, anyway - with the exception of LotR).

If I recall correctly at the end of book 1 it starts getting much more icky.  People forget that book 1 is basically setting up the rest of the books. . . 

[singsingsing]

24 minutes ago, justoneoftwo said:

If I recall correctly at the end of book 1 it starts getting much more icky.  People forget that book 1 is basically setting up the rest of the books. . . 

I seriously doubt I'll read any of the future books, so sadly I will never find out for myself, lol.

[albireo]

2 hours ago, singsingsing said:

From the way people talk I was expecting detailed descriptions of disembowelments and hardcore porn on every page , but it's way more tame than I expected - still only like 13 or 14 chapters in, though, so I'm sure it gets worse, haha.

Really, the detailed descriptions are of food and people walking. And I say this as a fan of the books.

[singsingsing]

Just now, albireo said:

Really, the detailed descriptions are of food and people walking. And I say this as a fan of the books.

I actually love the scenery descriptions. I know most people think I'm nuts, but why do they think I'm such a huge Tolkien fan? 

[Dugg@rTime]

You're a better woman than me Singsingsing!

I was browbeaten into reading book 1 of ASOIAF about 12 years ago and I couldn't finish it. I only half liked 3 characters, and didn't really give a toss about the rest of them. An unlikeable bunch. I found it much too wordy with little actually going on. I think I still have the book somewhere, but it shall remain unopened by me. I've watched Game of Thrones though, it's better than the books, but I'm sure they could have condensed the whole thing down to 1 or.2 series easily without losing anything important.

 

i wish they'd make the Belgariad/Mallorian series into a film. Ive read those books many times  in my life and would love to see it on the big screen.

[singsingsing]

3 minutes ago, Dugg@rTime said:

I only half liked 3 characters, and didn't really give a toss about the rest of them.

Yeah, this is what I'm finding, personally. I just don't like any of them. Don't really hate any of them, either. I just don't care. And I don't know why so many of them get their own POV chapters. It's really unnecessary, just choose two or three characters to focus on, it would make for a much stronger narrative. But millions of people love these books, so my opinion obviously doesn't matter. 

I said I would read it, so I'm really going to try to finish it, but I'm currently experiencing that dangerous condition as a reader where you enjoy the book well enough while you're reading it, but when you put it down you feel no particular urge to pick it up again...