What are you reading this week of February 21, 2016?

[hermetic]

I finished Reflections in a Golden Eye and that was quite grim. I did not see the movie but read that it followed the book closely. Only in the book she didn't strike her husband after the horse incident.

Now I've started The Ballad of the Sad Café. Again, this is a story about an eccentric group of characters in a small Southern town. Again she writes all of her characters with a real sense of empathy so that you feel for them in spite of their quirks. She never seems to make judgments about them. They just are who they are and do what they do.

I've been reading a lot about her life, Carson McCullers, and she seems quite amazing. She suffered terrible illnesses: rheumatic fever, strokes, alcoholism, one attempted suicide By the age of 31 her left side was entirely paralyzed. Then, at age 50, she had a massive brain hemorrhage and died. On my birthday!

So, what are you reading now!

[MuseRider]

1. Just peeking in

to say if the book The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is as good as the movie (most likely it is better) then enjoy. I loved the movie. I will have the check out the book.

I don't know but do audio books count here? I have little time anymore to sit and read so I voraciously have been raiding 2 libraries of audio books that I can listen to while I work outside on the farm.

If so, I decided to revisit the Lonesome Dove series. I usually don't read cowboy books or westerns but I was smitten with the pictures that Larry McMurtry created in the books. Many of the books I read are biography or history.

I am going to add The Ballad of the Sad Cafe to my list, if there is audio. Otherwise it will be next winter before I can actually sit and read a lot. Thanks for reminding me of this outstanding story.

[hermetic]

2. My pleasure.

I do quite a few audio books. Feel free to discuss them here. I plan to listen to a few Tony Hillermans very soon myself.

Sad Cafe is just a novella, 65 pages. I'm reading it in a complete collection of her works. It is also published under that title along with several of her short stories. Enjoy!

[MuseRider]

3. Thank you

I see I actually read your post incorrectly. Go figure huh?

Anyway I see that you were talking about stories from a collection. I should look this author up as well, the characters in the movie were very well done by the cast, at least by someone who has not read the book. She must have been an interesting person, and tragic reading what you wrote, to have been able to craft a story around that set of characters.

[Enthusiast]

6. Nice to hear from you, MuseRider.

Working on the farm while listening to books sounds pretty good to me.

[MuseRider]

7. It IS pretty wonderful!

[Enthusiast]

4. Hello, everyone! Thank you for the thread, hermetic.

I finished Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. Girl Waits With Gun was very entertaining. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Now I'm reading English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. This book gives you a sense of the historical time involved. It feels authentic.

Mrs. Enthusiast finished The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. She says it is a sad book but she liked it anyway. It captured her interest the entire way.

Thank you for sharing the information on Carson McCullers, hermetic! It's little wonder she suffered from alcoholism considering her circumstances.

Now Mrs. Enthusiast is enjoying Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. It's a fun book, strangely enough, one based on actual historical events.

[TexasProgresive]

5. "The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

My fiction reading has crawled to nearly a stop. I left Dragonfly in Amber at the start of book 3. I will pick it back up later.l

[Enthusiast]

8. I'm looking forward to hearing your take on The Girl in the Spider's Web, TexasProgresive.

We loved the original series. It seems everyone loved the original series.

[TexasProgresive]

9. When I finish I will post a review.

[pscot]

10. Case Histories: a novel by Kate Atkinson

Starting it tonight. I have not read anything else by her, so I have no idea what to expect.

[japple]

11. Finished reading T. C. Boyle's book, The Harder They Come. Things got very exciting

towards the end and I stayed up late to finish it. Not my favorite of Boyle's works, but a good, well-crafted plot.

I've been yearning for something with a western flair and came across Thomas Savage's book, The Power of the Dog on e-book and downloaded it from the library. Boy-oh-boy, it is just what I was looking for! Here is a snip from Publisher's Weekly via amazon.

First published in 1967 to critical raves, Thomas Savage's The Power of the Dog now includes an afterword by Annie Proulx. It traces the tense relationship between two bachelor brothers, Phil and George Burbank, on a Montana ranch in the 1920s. When George marries a widow, Phil, a bullying, repressed homosexual, terrorizes his new sister-in-law. And when her teenage son comes to the ranch, things get even more complicated. This is just the first reissue of a long-out-of-print book by Savage, hailed as a true master of the western genre. I Heard My Sister Speak My Name is scheduled for this fall, retitled The Sheep Queen.

Thank you for the thread, hermetic, and I hope everyone has a great week. Happy reading!

[Number9Dream]

12. Finished "Reliquary" by Preston / Child; started "The Paying Guests"

Just finished "Reliquary" by Preston / Child. I enjoyed it very much. A creepy, action, page-turner. I started "The Paying Guests" by Sarah Waters, on a friend's recommendation. So far, it's slow and boring. To be fair, guess I'll stick with it for a little longer.