Rae: These Isn't Really My Words

Lynness: It's not really a pioneer journal, but it IS based on the author's grandmother or great-grandmother who settled in southern Arizona. So, it's pretty close. But it is fictionalized. Still worth your time when you want to fit it in, though.

Lynness Re: Rae: Booky comments

So...the "These is my words" is not an actual pioneer journal? I was
lead to believe (by announcements in RS for the book club) that it was,
though not LDS pioneer.
Hmmm... I'll still probably read it, but I may get an actual pioneer
journal or other relatively obscure person's memoir for my un-famous one.

Rae: Booky comments

It's so wonderful to hear what y'all are reading!

Abby, I have tried to like Orson Scott Card, but have had a real difficult time finding stuff of his I really enjoy. I haven't read Ender's Game, but I know the junior high kids at the library couldn't get enough of that series. I did enjoy the Seventh Son series, but didn't finish it...I think I read the first four or five. I thought it was quite creative. I read Songmaster and a set of his short stories for a book club and hated it. So, I've pretty much given up on Card. Oh, and I also liked his Lost Boys, but it's kind of a downer.

Bill inhaled the Brisingr book. I also gave a copy to Curt for his birthday. Don't know if he has finished it yet. I haven't read any of them, but am glad that the story is absorbing enough to keep a teenage boy reading! He and I read Inkheart as well. I thought that book started out so well and had so much potential. Unfortunately, I didn't think the author kept it up to the end. I lost interest and never read the others in the series.

For what it's worth, I love Gerald Lund's early books. I like his church history series too, but got tired of the characters and drifted off into actual accounts of the early saints. I haven't read his New Testament series for the same reason. I prefer reading the Bible. But he does write well.

Liz and Lynness: Beccy and I absolutely LOVED These Is My Words, also. There is a sequel, which Beccy has read and I have not. But she liked it too...just not as much. Perhaps I can get her to post about the sequel. I thought Words was so well written. I almost forgot that what I was reading was fiction, since the author made it seem just like a real journal. I recommend that book to anyone looking for an uplifting novel. I'm so glad you took the time to read it! And Lynness, your precious time would be greatly rewarded with it...it will just make you feel good.

Happy reading! And thanks for posting...

Lynness- November read

I am planning on 2 reads- a famous person and an unfamiliar one. Just
to broaden myself and see who I find. I am considering reading
something on Joan of Arc, since a quote I heard recently regarding her
bent my mind that way. I don't know if our library has anything good on
her, though. We'll see. As for the unfamiliar one, I will try "These
is my words"- our RS book club read that this month and so I was
already somewhat interested (I don't go the the RS book club- I don't
have enough free evenings as it is...) and then w/ Liz recommending it,
I thought I should go for it. Our library doesn't have it, but I can
probably borrow from someone in the book club. If not, maybe I'll try
another pioneer journal.

Abby- I recommend you finish the Ender series: the other 3 books have a
COMPLETELY different feel. Almost like a different author. I enjoyed
Ender's Game in a way, but liked the rest better. I have not read any
of the Ender's shadow, etc. Anyone?
I had previously read Eragon and Eldest and thought they were okay,
though they felt like they slowed down or just got too bulky, but have
no real compulsion to read Brisingr, although if I have a hunk of time
any time soon (..right....), maybe I will.

Abby: PS

Oh yeah - Liz, I'm so glad you read Twilight!! Can't wait to hear what you think of the other three books in the series.

Abby: I've been reading...

We went such a long time with no posting there and then I think this makes the fourth post in 24 hours.

I realize I haven't been doing a very good job talking about what I've been reading, although as always, I have been reading.

I did read Eragon for my fantasy read and enjoyed it. Definitely not Harry Potter level material, but still highly enjoyable. I also continued on to read the second book in the series, Eldest, and am now on the list at the library for the last book in the series, Brisingr.

I didn't read Caves of Steel for my sci-fi read. I read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card instead. It was interesting...I guess I liked it, but I feel kind of like I'm still not really sure what the whole point was. Or maybe it's that I understood what the point was but was expecting there to be more to the story than was there? I'm not finding a good way to describe what I thought of it. It's kind of how I felt when I read his series about Alvin the Maker. Has anybody else read these and have more they would add?

I didn't read anything for our October read.

November, I'm thinking I might read a musician or composer biography because that's what first comes to mind when I try to think of people who've been dead more than 100 years. :) Or maybe I'll read the book Lucy Mack Smith wrote about Joseph Smith (which I've been trying to read for some time now). We shall see.

I also have my name on the library list for InkDeath by Cornelia Funke. Beccy, I got started with Inkheart because you mentioned Curt wanting you to read it (I think!). Have you read Inkspell or InkDeath? Anyone else?

Oh yeah, and I also reread Gerald Lund's three adventure novels, One In Thine Hand, The Alliance, and Leverage Point. The Alliance is my favorite of the three followed by Leverage Point, but they're all very fun.

That's what I've been up to in the reading world....sorry my notes are not more descriptive or intellectual. Another time I suppose.

Liz: Oct, Nov, and a book I LOVED

I finished the Twilight series this month. It had been a LONG time since I read a book that I carried all over the house with me for weeks, stayed up late several nights with, and thought about while I wasn't reading. I had to tear myself away when it was time to get in the van and go pick up kids from school. I think once I even had it with me, open in the passenger seat, and hoping for a red light so I could read as I sat in the van!! (Not the safest idea . . .) 

I enjoyed reading a series like that at this point in my life. I enjoyed getting inside the characters' heads and being in a fantasy world. I think I ALWAYS love fantasy. As for the scary part, it was only somewhat scary . . . but that's good because Pat was out of town most of the nights I stayed up reading, and if it was too scary, that would not have been good. 

For a biography I don't yet know what I will read . . . maybe Florence Nightingale? Has she been dead over 100 years? I've always admired her and her service. 

I LOVED THE BOOK THESE IS MY WORDS BY NANCY TURNER.  I can't say enough good about how it affected me. At first it seemed slow (probably because I was reading the Twilight books in between) but I got into it soon enough. It made me want to write in my journal more, and it made me admire the main character; I have been so inspired since reading it! In fact, I feel like I want to write about every single day of my life, no matter how boring it may seem to me, because there is always great significance to the little things with my children . . . and more significance with hindsight. I feel like there will never be enough time to write all I want to write but I don't mind. I feel excited about all I want to write, and I feel like, if I can record my life, I can handle anything. Writing is such a part of me--and writing about my life is so important to me. Especially after reading a "journal" of another person. It was awesome. So to all of you, if you haven't already read this book, just know I love it and LOVE what it did for me--and maybe you will do. 

Lynness: Scary read...

I jumped online to do some scripture cross-referencing for my lesson tomorrow and saw that there was a post on the book blog: it's been very slow there lately- part of that is me, so I thought I'd take a minute to post. I did read The Positronic Man and thought it was somewhere between okay and good. I realized at the end that the Robin Williams movie "Bicentennial Man"- (or something close) must be based on that. Did anyone ever see that? Is it worth watching? I also read Ringworld and wasn't impressed. For October, I decided to get 50 True Tales of Terror on the basis that I'd rather read something awful that's true rather than made up. I don't need any more scary images crowding my head, especially ones made up just to scare, but I figure that history, at least, can be learned from (hopefully) or help ensure that some people didn't die in vain. I didn't read all 50 stories, but I read a good portion. The stories were varied, including conditions in Jewish ghettos in Poland in WWII, earthquakes in South America (in which a graveyard was torn open and bodies were ejected and rained onto the streets of the city below), stories from the American West in the 1800's, stories of bloody ascensions in Southeast Asia, and a description of the murder of Rasputin, etc... I also checked out a book of ghost stories from the greater Richmond area. (There are 5 volumes of VA ghost stories and several volumes on particular areas, like Richmond, or types of ghosts, like Civil War.) I was hoping for at least a good story, but these were very prosaic. Maybe around a dying campfire on a chilly night around 11pm...

Rae: November Read: Biography/Memoir

I hope those of you that wanted to do so found something somewhat scary to read for the month of October. I read The Lovely Bones...which wasn't really scary at all but was quite interesting. I liked it and disliked it all at the same time. I found the narrator's conception of heaven really refreshing but I really did not care for the way the whole story ended. It was a bit too farfetched and was probably distasteful to many readers. I found in my research of reviews that people either really liked the book...or, predictably, they hated it! I was more down the middle.

As for November's read...we had this same category over a year ago and it was successful so I'm bringing it back. Choose a non-fiction biography or memoir. The only caveat this time is that the person you are reading about must have been DEAD FOR OVER 100 YEARS. That narrows it down a bit without making your search for a title too much of an effort, I hope.

Enjoy the last days of fall...except those of you who live in areas where they have only spring and summer (read: Abby!). I'm already listening to Christmas music. It has snowed once but didn't stick at all. But it WAS snow so I pulled out the music. It always makes me feel happy!

Happy reading to you all!