pontalba
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Posts posted by pontalba
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I'm loving Wolf Hall.
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Love he marmite reference SueK made over on the book activity thread. I really must buy a jar of that the next time we visit World Market...lol
I am really enjoying Wolf Hall, it is refreshingly irreverent.
I can see how the pronouns are a bit confusing...but once I got into Mantel's rhythm it was far less confusing for me. Only in a little over a hundred pages, and can't wait to get back to it.Whatever one thinks of her as a person, her writing is crisp and wonderfully to the point.
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I remember the old Dark Shadows show. Watched it all the time .
I used to cut my last class in high school, it was Study Hall anyhow, to go home and watch it.
I've just finished The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/5
I've had it on the shelf for a while now, but it was chosen as a BOTM on another forum and my husband wanted to read it, so we bought another copy and read it together.
I found it charming, a fantasy, a love story all wrapped together in a back and forth narrative that was interestingly accomplished.
The center of the story is a battle between two sorcerers, using their apprentices as stand ins. This has taken place several times over unspecified centuries and this story covers the last of the series of showdowns. The battle is played out against the background of a Night Circus, a magical place appearing without notice all over the globe. The story has a lovely circular feel to it that will become apparent at the last of the book.
Recommended.
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Finished Night Circus, and have started Wolf Hall....so far so good.
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We went to see Olympus Has Fallen, but left, I suppose, about halfway through. Yes, that bad.
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About half way through Night Circus. Really enjoying it too.
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The connection new between Amazon and Good Reads is all the more amusing considering the kerfuffle last year (wasn't it?) about book covers or some such nonsense. I saw the announcement on facebook, and the tone of the announcement was...........kinda creepy actually. So, fake cheerful.
A bit on the nauseating side, sort of like......we are soooo happy to have our toes cut off at the first joint. It's exhilarating! Oy. 
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I finished the two Dark Shadows books, and have started Night Circus along with my husband.
Wolf Hall, next.....
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Welcome from the sunny American South.
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I've finished the two books based on the old Dark Shadows gothic soap opera that was on television here in the States back in the mid-1960's.
They are Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch and Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent by Lara Parker. Parker was, in fact, the actress that played Angelique in the original series.
These books have nothing to do with, or in common with the Johnny Depp film that came out last year.
By accident I read them in reverse order, Salem first, then Descent. I found Angelique's Descent far more interesting as it detailed the How and even more importantly the Why she became the Witch (literally) she did and her reasons for the mayhem she caused to the male protagonist, Barnabas Collins. It details her life and background in Martinique with rich descriptions of the island life in the 18th Century. Parker was the perfect one to write such a book, obviously she gave a lot of thought over the years to Angelique's motivations that occured before the tv series took place.
The Salem Branch gave some resolution to the series, but there is one more to come out later this year. The prose is not the smoothest, or the most well written, and can be almost sophamoric at times, but the story, to a fan of the old series, is interesting.
Recommended to fans of the tv series, for the most part. Or, perhaps to vampire/witch tellings.
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I hardly ever read magazines now. I used to subscribe to Time and Newsweek magazine, (yes, I am a reformed news junkie) and The New Yorker, but half the time they ended up being stacked somewhere, unread. I'd subscribed to TNY on account of the short stories and cartoons honestly.
McCalls and Ladies Home Journal were on my list too at one time.Now we are subscribed to Poetry, a small monthly magazine featuring new poets and poetry contests. I get Paris Review as well. But they are beginning to stack. /grrr/
Then there is Star Trek. Occasionally they will have something that interests me...from the original series.
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Hey Frankie, sorry you've had all the problems with flu. It can be a mean bugger.
Feel loads better, no more relapses allowed!
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I've read 6 or 7 of her books, and finally have decided I don't much care for her writing. The stories and characters are all good, but there is just something missing. It's been so long I can't properly articulate my reasoning, but there you are.
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We had quite a full day yesterday. Drove down to New Orleans and first went to the show and saw this..... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2309788/ The Gatekeepers. A documentary. Fantastic. Interviews of 6 past heads of the Shin Bet. Israel's, security agency. If you are at all interested in the Middle East, you must watch it.
Then we caught the last event of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival... http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/tennessee-williams-in-others-words It was lots of fun! The speakers were wonderful. Articulate and talented presenters/actors.
It was all kind of last minute, making it all the more fun.
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If you could roll up all the female voices into one person, you would have a view of all the aspects that a woman was supposed to bring to the society of the time - innocence and virginal before marriage, passionate and excitement as a wife behind closed doors, religious faith outwardly but in private the entertaining gossip - was it possible to be all those things? Do you think you could see all those conflicting elements as a single person?
I believe they could possibly be age related phases or passages of a woman's life. If the woman, in that particular time of history had been given the gifts of a protective and effective mother, a tender and understanding husband those phases could have happened. But if her religious faith was a true one, and not just "for show", no she could not be a true gossip. A gossip must first of all be a vindictive person, willing and wanting to hurt the object of the gossip. But if what you (anyone) means by gossip is a little harmless wondering out loud, yes.
Oh, I definitely believe it's a morality tale. I also have read that it is one of the many, many sparks of the French Revolution. Can you imagine the reaction of someone scratching for a living reading about these people?!? Yikes. It would be enough to inflame anyone I think.
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Love the cat pics!! Adorable.
poppy, glad you posted that vid of the father and daughter, great!
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Wow, Kate
Sounds as if Ship of Fools was definitely a fish that needed thrown back in the water -- sounds like it was pretty lousy . I don
t like SLEEZE in my books either ,so boring on topof sleeze is definitely reason for tossing it out .
LOL yeah, I kept trying, but there was nothing to hang onto, finally, in the end. Shoot. I suppose one simply has to admit defeat.
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I haven't tackled A Brief History of Time, but my husband enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed The Psychopath Test though, I will read more of him, for sure.
I love your list.
I've read lots of Highsmith, but not those...but they're on the shelf waiting for me to get in a Highsmith Frame of Mind again. -
An Atkins snack bar (Caramel Chocolate Nut Roll) with a cup of tea.
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I'm nostalgia reading now.
Dark Shadows-Angelique's Desire by Lara Parker. Lara Parker played Angelique in the old television soap opera Dark Shadows. After seeing the new film Dark Shadows I happened on these books and couldn't resist them. It isn't that they are the greatest written books, but they are familiar characters for me. In fact when DS was on the air here in the mid-60's I used to cut my last Study Hall to get home and watch it. 
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You should read a chick-lit/fluff novel in between. None of the hassle of world-building or long chapters. Just plain old cringy/cheesy romance that won't take a toll haha. That's always my choice. Or read a genre you haven't read in a long time!
LOL I think I need to get back to mysteries for a bit. Or a great reread that'll clear my head.
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You're welcome
I didn't want to come across like I was telling you off! (Hope it didn't seem like that.)Shame about The Master - I had high hopes for it, but a few people have said the same as you. Not sure I'll bother seeing it now.
Did you see my take on The Master above?
I'd see it again.
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^ 44% in? I like that you did the maths!
lol nah, no maths for me...I keep track of reading on goodreads, they give the percentage, even if it isn't on an ereader.
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Peacefield had queried the "meaning" of the film The Master on the film thread. I thought I'd post my answer/thoughts over here, just to keep track of it. It was an interesting and disturbing film.
My husband and I saw The Master at the theatre a while back. I haven't seen much of Phoenix, but read about his performance and how he had truly pulled off a masterpiece of acting. Well, it was all true, the way he took on the physical aspects of the character was absolutely amazing to me. No, it wasn't much of a stretch, in a way for Hoffman, but man, he was good.
Well. As to the point or meaning of the film, I thought Hoffman took Phoenix's unformed character. He was rather a thuggish sort I thought, and gave him focus. At the end when Phoenix had left Hoffman's "organization" (which I thought was a total rip-off of Scientology) he was a different man. Phoenix became a hustler/confidence man like Hoffman was in the film. The scene at the end of the film, when Phoenix was in bed with the girl.........he was totally spinning a tale for her, with much the same "aura" that Hoffman had in the beginning of their association.
So for me the meaning was Phoenix's morphing into a focused sort of confidence man. Becoming Hoffman's character in a large way. So, the con continues.
And, btw, I'd actually like to see it again, and so would husband.
Julie ~ "Lucky" 2013 ~ Booklist
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Both sound interesting Julie, and congratulations on finishing! I have Canada on the shelf waiting for us to get to it. I like Ford.
btw, I've ordered a Kindle Fire.....
lol Finally caved, mostly on account of being able to carry it around in my purse and get online for maps and stuff easily. All else is lagniappe. 