Reading Is Sexy: Books Part III

[zuropa_fit]

I picked up Confessions of a Pagan Nun (it's a true story/memoir) but I'm not sure I"ll be able to get into it.

 

[zuropa_fit]

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen.

.

This doesn't sound disturbing, just depressing. It would make me very sad I think.

 

[beegee]

Yes, it's sad that she felt she needed so much male attention to compensate for whatever was missing in her life. But the point of it is the fact that she overcomes the problem. It's not just about a woman sleeping around. The author gets very much into the root of the problem, how she recognized it, and ultimately dealt with it.

 

[No spoken words]

Yes, it's sad that she felt she needed so much male attention to compensate for whatever was missing in her life. But the point of it is the fact that she overcomes the problem. It's not just about a woman sleeping around. The author gets very much into the root of the problem, how she recognized it, and ultimately dealt with it.

Was there any one thing, event, consequence that lead to her recognizing and fixing the problem, or was it a slow build?

 

[beegee]

Very slow build.

She eventually discovered her passion for writing and that helped.

She also met a man who wanted more from her than just sex and she married him.

 

[No spoken words]

Interesting, thanks.

 

[beegee]

I thought her story was brutally honest and telling it was incredibly brave.

I like that kind of writer.

 

[No spoken words]

I read 99% fiction, and when I read non-fiction it's typically biographies of historic figures, but I can see how a story such as hers could be compelling.

 

[Carek1230]

I'm reading Tomas by James Palumbo

 

[powerhour24]

The author gets very much into the root of the problem, how she recognized it, and ultimately dealt with it.

That's a very good thing to hear out of such tough circumstances, many many people's lives are brought down by not doing the same thing with their own respective issues.

 

[meegannie]

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen.

The US cover of that book (the one on Amazon) is so much better than the UK cover.

 

[beegee]

Wow, I just looked it up, and it is.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I have, but still haven't read, Killing Pablo (also by Bowden). There are apparently a couple movies supposedly in stages of development for it, so I should probably read it before I get in the "book after the movie" stage again!

I should google this question, rather than ask here and willingly embarrass myself, but is Killing Pablo about the drug dealer or the assassination of the Colombian soccer player? Or is it not even (a) Pablo Escobar, and this is something I have just assumed? I'd like to know your opinion when/if you read it, too.

 

[Pearl]

Currently reading "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd, author of "The Secret Life of Bees."

It's hard for me to get into this book. After reading two great books in a row (The Alchemist, and The Kite Runner), this one is not as well written. Nothing is grabbing me so far, and I have a feeling its going to have a quite predictable storyline.

I'm going to force myself to read this in hopes of something will grab me. Maybe the love scenes will be hot. Not that I read books just for the romance scenes...

 

[beegee]

I couldn't get into it, either.

I read Secret Life of Bees and thought I might like Mermaid Chair but I couldn't get past the second chapter.

 

[Pearl]

Thanks, beegee. So, its not me, its probably the book.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm So Happy For You by Lucinda Rosenfeld

A lightweight book about female friendship and what happens when the roles are switched. The narrator in this book has a good life and a drama-infused friend. What happens when everything starts going right for Drama Friend and everything starts going wrong for the narrator?

It wasn't bad - I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if I didn't see myself quite a bit in the main character. Except for the whole desperate to get pregnant thing. Not so much.

 

[karinlv]

I usually stick to Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb books..I strayed and went with something my Mom sent me by Dinah McCall called 'The Survivors'. Didn't care for it..read it all the way up to somewhere around the last 30 pages and didn't even finish it.

Reading and loving 'Strangers In Death' by J.D. Robb currently. All the In Deaths are great...futuristic suspense/romance.

 

[Pearl]

I tried giving The Mermaid Chair a second chance, but I just couldn't get into it. Its too boring.

So, I have set that aside, and now am reading The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho. I already read The Alchemist by him, so I am hoping this book would be good as well.

 

[U2isthebest]

I'm finding it hard to get into The Hours, so over the weekend I started reading Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken. If you're looking for a book about politics that's entertaining (I was laughing the entire way through it) and educational, this is it. I learned a lot of information, particularly about the military and counterterrorism during the Clinton years and more detail about how the Right uses lies and distortions to create a "liberal" media. I'm about to start The Family by Jeff Sharet about how the history of Christian fundmentalism and its rise to power in U.S. politics. It's a subject I'm especially passionate about, not just because I'm a Poli Sci. major, but because I come from a fundamentalist home and church, and it's something I'm still recovering from. Sharet, the author, actually went undercover in an especially fundamental group of Christians to see how they live and think. It sounds fascinating. He's actually going to be on 'The Daily Show' tonight, so I can't wait to see the interview.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I'm struggling through Lolita at the moment. Really struggling. Struggling to find what makes it so applauded, I guess? If it's the language, then I truly give up on trying to understand classic literature. There's poetic, flowing writing in many places. No matter how you romanticise this book, it's still a story of a vile and predatory man. Is it that it's nice to see a human side to a man with deep troubles? Only if you're one who thinks all criminal types are 2-dimensional. I dunno.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah, that is the point. To take what would be a despicable character and humanize him, without excusing him. Considering how moving the story is by the time you reach its conclusion, I'd say Nabokov's gambit more than paid off. It also happens to work well as satire, and is laugh-out-loud funny at times. And it was also the writer's first novel in English.

You can't judge it by its subject matter.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I've been re-reading a lot of Twain lately.

And, still picking up some P.G. Wodehouse every once in a while.

 

[lazarus]

I've been re-reading a lot of Twain lately.

Thank heaven for lyric booklets, huh?

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I see what you did.

 

[powerhour24]

Going through some Henry James, reading 'The Altar of the Dead' right now.

 

[Saracene]

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

I have mixed feelings about this book. The central love story kinda got on my nerves: a girl loves a junkie, he constantly lets her down, she can't give him up, repeat for the next 100 pages. While a whole host of interchangeable secondary characters flutters in and out. On the other hand the language is often quite lyrical and beautiful, and the author throws in some interesting, truthful observations.

 

[Zoobaby14]

I'm struggling through Lolita at the moment. Really struggling. Struggling to find what makes it so applauded, I guess? If it's the language, then I truly give up on trying to understand classic literature. There's poetic, flowing writing in many places. No matter how you romanticise this book, it's still a story of a vile and predatory man. Is it that it's nice to see a human side to a man with deep troubles? Only if you're one who thinks all criminal types are 2-dimensional. I dunno.

Anna I know how you feel, I got about half way through, then gave it the flick.

 

[beegee]

Oh, my heart.

 

[trinx]

McCone - First Old Irish Grammar and Reader

For my exams. What a complicated language, oh... But it's easier when I connect it to Ireland and U2.

And Eco's The Name of the Rose again. I adore that book. Mystery & Aristotel - what more can I ask?