pontalba

Kell, A friend gave me this book, and it was marvelous. It was stark and raw, and really, one of my favorites. I do have Memoirs of a Geisha in my TBR stack, and look forward to comparing them.

Found my first copy of White Doves at Morning!! It had fallen behind a small bookcase that is in front of a window, and was lodged inbetween!! Bookmark still in place a little more than half way! The American cover. (courtesy Amazon)

Another James Lee Burke book is out....no not by him, but about him. James Lee Burke and the Soul of Dave Robicheaux by Barbara Bogue has been delivered to my doorstep and is a beautifully written and packaged item. I was able to get a second hand copy for almost half the price and it looks brand new! Yay for Amazon Marketplace! I have not been able to read it yet, only scan, so will copy out the back cover.....

Me too. I was so mule headed when I was young, that if I was supposed to read a book for school, I would usually dig my heels in and refuse to read it. Dumb. Partially I think it was due to the fact that I'd started reading ahead of my age (so-called) parameters, and I thought what ever they suggested was just too boring. Wrong! Anyhow, now I do want to go back and read what I missed. Hindsight...20/20 I did read Red Badge of Courage though I can't remember a word of it, I remember liking it.

Now Kenny, my TBR stack(s) are high enough! Dang it man. But thanks for an excellent review. It sounds like something I will add to my stack. The one nearest to me. I didn't realize he wrote Arch of Triumph! I have not read the book, but I've seen the movie.....many times. Is it in any way close at all? (I'm on Amazon now).

In the end, by the end, I was glad to have read it. But on occasion it was akin to chewing glass. But fine crystal.....not ordinary glass.

Oh that's great! No time schedule here. I do look forward to discussing this too! I had to read till the very end to appreciate it though.

Maybe it was from you I heard about this Renniemist, but it certainly has piqued my curiosity. I'll have to look into this! Thanks for bring it up Snowflake.

Hi Susan Margaret! This was my first time reading Catcher, and all the way through most of the book, I could hardly stand Holden, then all of a sudden it clicked where he was coming from, and I immediately started sympathizing totally! I don't want to say much about the end because some are still reading it as far as I know.....but it wasn't what I thought at all. Anybody else finished yet? She said hopefully.

Not only that Kell, they change covers every so often on the series books. I noticed it especially on the Sue Grafton detective series. I have the first 10 or so of them in one cover, as I bought them at more or less the same time, but down the road, they re-issued the whole series with new covers. Cynically, I figure they change first of all to confuse people, IOW, the reader will think they have not read that installment, because the cover is unfamiliar so will buy it again. Or maybe simply to attract new readers.....maybe the old cover didn't asthetically appeal to said reader, but the new one will..... Now I just bought White Doves at Morning again. But I lost the one I was reading........it's somewhere in the house though! But the new (U.K.) Cover I bought is much nicer IMO. More evocative of the subject matter.

"I have always found it difficult to loosen my grip of the letter suspended above the abysmal chink. It is like diving into icy water or jumping from a burning balcony into what looks like the heart of an artichoke, and now it was particularly hard to let go. I gulped, I felt a queer sinking in the pit of my stomach; and still holding the letter, I proceeded down the street and stopped at the next letter box, where the same thing happened all over again." Despair by Vladimir Nabokov

I read it over and over, and over again when I was young, and I don't usually like "animal" books like that because I am afraid the animal will be hurt.....but this one was so wonderful! Haven't looked at it in many years though.

For sure! Then it has to set a spell before it starts soaking in and you realize what it was all about. I under rated Holden and Salinger to begin with, but the more I think about it, the more I see and understand.

Oh goody! I'm only one ahead of you, with Black Cherry Blues my next one. Which according to that neat interview that muggle linked, was his financial break through! Hah!

muggle, I received my new copy of White Doves at Morning, so it's back in the stack. This one was a second hand copy I found on Amazon, its a trade paperback with a really interesting cover. As it turns out, it's the same cover as the hardback. My other one, still unfound is a mass market with a different cover.

The only thing for now that I'd like to add is that I ended up enjoying the book, and the end is worth the wait. Even though if at some points I doubted it. Salinger made some excellent, very basic statements with this book. More later.

I just finished Catcher in the Rye, and I must say it took me three quarters of the book to start really appreciating Holden, but it happened, almost against my will. More when it's soaked in a bit more.

With me, it is sort of like, what will I wear today? Whatever the mood dictates. Sometimes I'll read the same author 6 or 7 books in a row. When I discovered Kathy Reichs, for example, I read the first 5 right off the bat. If I try to plan too far ahead, I don't feel like the book when I get to it, so skip.

He is annoying. But I am only on p.73, and am beginning to be roped into the story. The kid has good reason to be angry and hurt, he feels abandoned IMO, and from what I've seen so far, he was abandoned somewhat, which is making him put up an even stronger defense mechanism. All of which does not make me like him. Yet. BTW, blunt is a good thing.

Haven't quite gotten there yet. I'll agree with that view.......for the moment.

I have seen a few signs that he is not, however the timing of his aforementioned bellyaching about hypocrites and admiting to automatic lying was certainly....interesting.

Ah, but he also says "checkups and stuff" leads me to believe that it's a physical aliment he is out in California, near his brother D.B. the writer.

I think it will be a good read, I like the style. Salinger certainly does capture the manner of speech of a 16 y.o. boy, and even though it was written in 1945...it is not dated at all. Don't get me wrong, it's true to the period, but not dated.

I've only read the first 2 chapters, but Holden is so busy railing at the hypocrites he's been surrounded by at the previous schools he's been kicked out of, but the first few lines of Chapter 3 kind of put him in a similar light..... Now I suppose that could be viewed in the light that he just figures it is no one's business where he goes, but it's still not a very attractive trait.

That is the experience I hope for, the latter part at least. And Paul, what you say about high school kids is true, but I didn't like the kids my age when I was in school, probably part of the problem