Great news! I finally broke through my 'book picking' block and have chosen the July book! We will get it in the mail by Monday (promise)! I think it is a perfect summer read, covers several genres and will make everybody happy! (I did mention it a while back here on the blog but hopefully y'all didn't run out and buy it!) So look for your book towards the end of next week!
(And again... I do apologize for the delay)
Jamie
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
ALL APOLOGIES
I'm SOOOO sorry... summer hit us full force head on and from behind and to say I'm a bit behind is putting it mildly. The July selection for Jamie's Book Club is running a bit behind but I'll get it out and in the mail soon- PROMISE!! Hope everyone is having a great summer! Will post soon with some great beach books!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Reader
The Duck's Cottage Reading Group met last night. Our June selection was Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and we met at a member's home in order to discuss the book and watch the movie.
The Reader provokes a very interesting discussion. We had about sixteen members there and I think it was split 50/50 between those who loved the book and those of us (like me) who just didn't care for it. Regardless of personal opinion, the conversation that swirled around the variety of issues within the book was stimulating. Illiteracy, right vs. wrong, the Holocaust, love... I think we'll still be discussing this book at our July meeting.
I liked the movie a lot more than the book. But, again, your mind doesn't stop at the end of the film. So many questions, what-if's, and personal introspection follow. Kate Winslet is great, although I didn't think they did a very good job of aging her. (Ironically, the last book/movie pairing that our group did, about two years ago, was Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea followed by a screening of Iris which also starred Kate Winslet and featured several scenes where she was also naked.) The casting of the movie is great and if you read the book first, the movie brings home several points that may be easily missed in the reading. Some of our members had seen the movie first then read the book and said the book definitely filled in a lot of gaps.
I think it can be said that The Reader for a book/movie night got the seal of approval from our reading group!
The Reader provokes a very interesting discussion. We had about sixteen members there and I think it was split 50/50 between those who loved the book and those of us (like me) who just didn't care for it. Regardless of personal opinion, the conversation that swirled around the variety of issues within the book was stimulating. Illiteracy, right vs. wrong, the Holocaust, love... I think we'll still be discussing this book at our July meeting.
I liked the movie a lot more than the book. But, again, your mind doesn't stop at the end of the film. So many questions, what-if's, and personal introspection follow. Kate Winslet is great, although I didn't think they did a very good job of aging her. (Ironically, the last book/movie pairing that our group did, about two years ago, was Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea followed by a screening of Iris which also starred Kate Winslet and featured several scenes where she was also naked.) The casting of the movie is great and if you read the book first, the movie brings home several points that may be easily missed in the reading. Some of our members had seen the movie first then read the book and said the book definitely filled in a lot of gaps.
I think it can be said that The Reader for a book/movie night got the seal of approval from our reading group!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
What I'm Reading...
Lisa See's latest novel, Shanghai Girls, has been out for a bit now. I've had an advance copy lying around and after a customer raved about the book last week I finally picked it up. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and have really enjoyed it. The book is set in the 30's and 40's, in Shanghai and LA. This is the story of two sisters, Pearl and May, who live an upper middle class life in Shanghai- servants, beautiful custom tailored clothes, the works- and spend many of their evenings posing for artists. They are considered 'beautiful girls' and their images are featured on calendars, ads and more.
Pearl and May are confident their future holds nothing but glamour and ease and that their eventual marriages will be for love and not arranged like their parent's marriage.
Unfortunately, that which we hold so much stock in never seems to come to fruition. As Japan and China come to ever more violent blows, Pearl and May discover their family wealth has vanished, their marriages have been arranged and they will be going to America.
The sister's journey first to escape what will certainly be loveless marriages only to find themselves struggling to reach their husbands in a far off country; once esconced in their in-law's grubby tenement their struggles begin anew- to acheive independence- financially, emotionally and physically.
I liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; I loved Peony in Love. Shanghai Girls is definitely worthy of sitting on the same shelf as See's former novels.
Pearl and May are confident their future holds nothing but glamour and ease and that their eventual marriages will be for love and not arranged like their parent's marriage.
Unfortunately, that which we hold so much stock in never seems to come to fruition. As Japan and China come to ever more violent blows, Pearl and May discover their family wealth has vanished, their marriages have been arranged and they will be going to America.
The sister's journey first to escape what will certainly be loveless marriages only to find themselves struggling to reach their husbands in a far off country; once esconced in their in-law's grubby tenement their struggles begin anew- to acheive independence- financially, emotionally and physically.
I liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; I loved Peony in Love. Shanghai Girls is definitely worthy of sitting on the same shelf as See's former novels.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Today in Duck...
It's been a weird weather week in Duck and the whole Outer Banks for that matter... pretty overcast, fluctuating temperatures (I wore jeans twice this week!) and a stormy sea... so far it doesn't seem to have affected our visitor's moods, maybe because it hasn't actually rained so people can still use their pools and hit the beach (if they don't mind the stiff breeze). I think this is the last week of lower rates for a lot of rental companies so the throngs are taking advantage of that; it will be interesting to see what next week's crowds are like...
The good news is that people are buying a lot of books! Yay! Here's what I'm having a hard time keeping stock: the entire Rick Riordan YA series Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse and the most recent, The Last Olympian; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Whiskey Rebels (just out this week), Jane Green's Beach House (her latest hardcover Dune Road came out Tuesday), When I Married My Mother and Death by Cashmere.
The good news is that people are buying a lot of books! Yay! Here's what I'm having a hard time keeping stock: the entire Rick Riordan YA series Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse and the most recent, The Last Olympian; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Whiskey Rebels (just out this week), Jane Green's Beach House (her latest hardcover Dune Road came out Tuesday), When I Married My Mother and Death by Cashmere.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Boy and the Cougar
I started and finished The Reader this weekend. I'm hoping, for once, that the movie is better than the book because I really didn't care for this novel. I don't know if the writing was just too philosophical for me or if the characters left me wanting or what, but it definitely was not one of my favorites.
Have you read The Reader and, if so, what did you think?
Have you read The Reader and, if so, what did you think?
Friday, June 12, 2009
My weekend plans include The Reader, the June book for the Duck's Cottage Reading Group. We're combining our discussion with a viewing of the movie starring Kate Winslet. This is one of the few times a year our group meets outside the store so we'll enjoy some social time in addition to the discussion/movie. We do a book & movie meeting about once every two years. In the past we've done Nabokov's Lolita (and screened Kubrick's film version) and after reading The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch we watched the phenomenal movie Iris: A Memoir starring, again, Kate Winslet, Dame Judi Dench and the wonderful Jim Broadbent.
Here's another good idea for a book/movie night- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Great book, terrific movie!
Have a great weekend-
j
Here's another good idea for a book/movie night- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Great book, terrific movie!
Have a great weekend-
j
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