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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 11:47:21 GMT
Thanks for posting that, Elly. I wasn't aware there was such a list, though of course I knew people complained about books.
Can I just ask: do your schools have libraries, or do the "school" complaints refer to texts set for classes? (I have to ask because all schools here have a library but maybe yours don't.)
The only one I agree with is "poor writing" in Fifty Shades of Gray. lol.
People who ask for books to be withdrawn from public, municipal libraries disgust me. If you're worried about your kid's exposure to certain books, don't let them go to the library. Plenty of cheap book sources in the US if you want to monitor their reading. If you want to stop random strangers from being exposed, you should be ashamed of yourself.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 18:48:55 GMT
Schools here do have libraries. Our school system has a library from middle school (grade 5) and higher. In the lower grades they keep recreational reading materials in the classroom. It's possible in smaller communities that there may not be money for libraries in lower grades, but I've never known a high school not to have one.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 22:43:14 GMT
This is John Green's response as the author of the number one book on the list. My favorite line, paraphrased, 'if your world view can be changed based on the reading of a novel, I don't think the problem is with the novel'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=69rd-7vEF3s
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 22:51:03 GMT
Everywhere I've lived/taught has had libraries in all the schools, even the elementary ones. How sad is it that some don't? I LOVE taking the kids to the library!
Thank you for that elly - Green's response is fabulous!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2016 0:22:04 GMT
My mother never took me to the public libraries, so the only library experience I got was at school, from kindergarten onwards. We had a Library Day each week and we had to bring a special bag to put our books in. Most kids' mothers made theirs. Mine was super-special, thick mauve silky textured fabric from, as usual, Mum's remnant hoard, lol.
I loved library day sooooo much! After we borrowed our books the librarian would read to us, even when we were in sixth grade. And during Book Week there'd be an open day when the parents would come and there'd be a display of new books that they could buy for the library. If your parents bought one (and of course they nearly all did) the staff would put a sticker in it saying which kid donated it, and the kid got to borrow it first.
Plus our library had a REAL tortoise shell on display. Good times! That's the age to suck kids into reading. It's much harder when they're older. It's a shame some schools don't have that kind of experience for the little kids.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2016 2:38:49 GMT
There's an elementary school half a block from the library branch closest to where I live. I often see the kids walking single file from school to library or back. I've also seen the book mobile outside the elementary schools. We still have a lot of older schools here, and I think it's just a matter of space. More kids need more classroom space. But the classrooms do have lending material for recreational reading. Anything for research has to stay in the class.
Where my niece does her student teaching they no longer have a designated art room either. Since kids at the primary grades don't change classes here like the older kids, art is now done in the regular classroom. They do still have a designated music room at least.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2016 10:37:41 GMT
Bookmobile, lol. I'd forgotten about that. I never used it because I was happy enough with the school library. But it's a great idea.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2016 3:03:04 GMT
I haven't read these books so I make no comment on their quality. I just stumbled upon them and thought someone here might be interested. They're a series of cosies where the detective is the owner of a scrapbooking shop. Here's the author's website: www.laurachilds.com/scrapbook.phpThere is a longer series about a teashop owner too. lol. I was thinking that the scrapbooking ones might be handy gifts for scrapbooking friends even if you're not into it yourself.
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Shirley U Geste
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Post by Shirley U Geste on Apr 19, 2016 3:21:00 GMT
The teashop ones are the best of her series IMO. I love the main character Theodosia.
The scrapbook shop and the Cackleberry Club mysteries are also really good. She is an excellent writer and has the cosy format down pat.
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Post by frakinfashion on Apr 29, 2016 20:32:40 GMT
Just finished Fates and Furies for my book club. What a miserable slog.
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Post by val2525 on May 2, 2016 1:55:36 GMT
If you like cozy mysteries, try the Hannah Swenson series by Joanne Fluke. Hannah owns a cookie shop and you get lots of recipes with the books. Hallmark channel has a series of movies based on the books but I think they did a lousy job in casting Hannah, and they changed some very significant character traits of Hannah. But the books are still awesome!
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Post by val2525 on May 2, 2016 2:03:06 GMT
Just finished Fates and Furies for my book club. What a miserable slog. Apparently you aren't alone in that thought, Frakin. Love this review: This book was a HUGE disappointment. I mean, holy purple prose, Batman! I really loved Lauren Groff’s writing in Arcadia - it was beautiful and touching, with gorgeous metaphors. But Fates and Furies is pretentious and overwritten. It tries so hard to be a literary masterpiece that you end up with asides like this one:
Her mother had smelled of cold and scales, her father of stone dust and dog. She imagined her husband’s mother, whom she had never met, had a whiff of rotting apples, although her...
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Shirley U Geste
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Post by Shirley U Geste on May 2, 2016 2:31:30 GMT
If you like cozy mysteries, try the Hannah Swenson series by Joanne Fluke. Hannah owns a cookie shop and you get lots of recipes with the books. Hallmark channel has a series of movies based on the books but I think they did a lousy job in casting Hannah, and they changed some very significant character traits of Hannah. But the books are still awesome! Havent seen the movies but I totally agree the books are great. If you are a foodie and like cozies they should be on your list to try.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on May 2, 2016 2:33:43 GMT
They cast Allison Sweeny as Hannah....Allison is blonde. Plus, they have Hannah jogging to work in the movies. And some other changes die-hard fans (rightly so) complained about.
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Shirley U Geste
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Post by Shirley U Geste on May 2, 2016 2:40:08 GMT
LOL Hannah would NEVER jog!
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Post by val2525 on May 2, 2016 2:42:39 GMT
That's pretty much what all the fans who posted said Makes me wonder if the author had a bad agent handling that deal, an agent who didn't think to demand control over final casting decisions.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 21:11:00 GMT
This sentence from an Amazon review is as stupid as I think it is, isn't it?
"It is amazing that this book was published in 1937 because as I just finished reading it in the very early stages of 2008, I couldn't believe how complex and intelligent this book is."
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Post by Dawn R on May 4, 2016 22:19:23 GMT
Just reread "The Kite Runner."
Still not a fan. I keep thinking if I read it enough, I will learn to like it.\
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2016 0:16:58 GMT
I can't imagine re-reading a book I hated the first time around. You must be a masochist, Dawn!
When I turned 40 I adopted the Life Is Too Short principle. If I'm 50% in and I dislike a book or it bores me, I chuck it. There are so many books I want to read that I just don't have time to punish myself anymore. Prior to 40 I think I chucked maybe two books unfinished...but I got a kick out of bad crap in those days.
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Post by chapeaunoir on May 5, 2016 0:42:28 GMT
This sentence from an Amazon review is as stupid as I think it is, isn't it?"It is amazing that this book was published in 1937 because as I just finished reading it in the very early stages of 2008, I couldn't believe how complex and intelligent this book is." Yes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2016 17:45:11 GMT
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the best thing I've read this fall. I don't know why it took me so long to hear about it (it's from 2008) since a few people I've tried to pass it to have already read it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2016 17:50:01 GMT
Ooh thanks Elly, I'm looking for a new read. I'm stalled reading The Girl on The Train and I keep picking up others books, then going back to it. Bleh.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2016 3:44:05 GMT
I'm about halfway through a book that I'm really enjoying, "Florence and Giles" by John Harding. A 12 year old girl and her younger half-brother live in a mansion in New Hampshire? New England? - doesn't really matter - in 1891. The girl is the narrator. A new governess shows up and the girl becomes convinced that the governess wants to harm her brother, or steal him away. That's as far as I've got. So it's a spooky book - a big old mansion with only simple-minded servants to protect the children, hostility from their absent guardian. I thought it was going one way, now I think it's going another. I'm desperately trying not to flip to the last few pages and spoil the ending for myself. That's not something I usually care about. I'm pretty immune to spoilers. Here's the thing - it's an adult novel but I think an intelligent, reading, 14+ year old girl would absolutely devour it. And with gift-giving time coming up and all... If you check the Amazon reviews and see people complaining about the narrator's use of language, don't worry. It's NOT hard to follow/understand at all. I'll admit that it could annoy some readers, but it doesn't annoy me. That's really unusual, too.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 4, 2016 22:17:41 GMT
If it's Amazon US, some of those reviewers have trouble reading the ABCs.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2016 22:36:02 GMT
Well, Chap, being a furriner I didn't like to say... Actually I've burned with shame at some of the things dumb Australians have said on there.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2016 1:58:48 GMT
Ooh thanks Elly, I'm looking for a new read. I'm stalled reading The Girl on The Train and I keep picking up others books, then going back to it. Bleh. I did finish The Girl on the Train, but it didn't keep me up at night reading it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2016 2:13:52 GMT
Ooh thanks Elly, I'm looking for a new read. I'm stalled reading The Girl on The Train and I keep picking up others books, then going back to it. Bleh. I did finish The Girl on the Train, but it didn't keep me up at night reading it. I'll definitely finish it, but grudgingly. I'm just not big on this sad, slow plot.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 0:52:56 GMT
I finished "Florence and Giles" and still recommend it. My only gripe was that one thing was left unexplained. A few people at goodreads etc say "too many threads were left dangling" but I think they're just thickies who want everything spelled out. The answers are all in there, it's just that there's no crib notes summary at the end.
His next book is billed as a sequel to this one, but apparently it's not. Florence is present in it, but only as wallpaper.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2016 14:44:35 GMT
I'm still on an "olden days" jag so I'm a third of the way through "The Devil in the Marshalsea" by Antonia Hodgson. It's set in about 1727. A young guy gets sent to Marshalsea Prison in London for debt. It was mainly a debtors' prison, but you could also be put in there for a few other "white collar" crimes like sedition. I didn't know that and I like it when I learn stuff from authors who seem to have done their research. So it's all about him learning the ropes and trying to stay on the Master's side of the prison, where you have to have money to survive, and not be thrown "over the wall" to the Common side where the chances of surviving at all are very slim. I never knew how these prisons worked before, and it explains it all really well. The best thing is that they all speak in keeping with the time (in my estimation). It irks me so much that I usually have to stop reading when characters sound like modern people. It makes me think the author is stupid, or lazy, or thinks I am, and why would I read a book by that kind of author? I'm only on Day Two of the guy's imprisonment but it's pretty engrossing. I think chapeaunoir in particular might be interested, as would anyone who likes Dickens, though he's much later.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2016 2:44:06 GMT
I'm still reading The Devil in the Marshalsea. It's taking so long because I only read it in bed and that's when Bubby the cat drapes herself across me to be patted. And that's so relaxing that I fall asleep, lol. Then Bubby gets cranky and stomps off across my pillow, rousing me enough to turn the light off. But I'm enjoying it so much that I've ordered the next book. The main guy is going to become some sort of 18th century detective, lol. There's a third book too but I don't buy books until they're out in mass market paperback. Hate the dumb big trade books. Anyway, the language is STILL not annoying me, but it's also not cutesy oldey-speak. The prison setting is really thorough. And the best thing - the main character is totally clueless, even though he's an intelligent guy. He's only clueless because he's never faced these situations before. PLUS the other characters often tell him how clueless he is. Elebenty billion cheers for the author in this regard! There's nothing worse than a character who's supposed to be intelligent but isn't, and everyone, including the author, thinks they are. But I'm a bit sad just now because evil has befallen my favourite character. He was fun and kind of sexy.
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