frankie
-
Posts
16,958 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Books
Posts posted by frankie
-
-
Hello Ilona and welcome to the forum!
That's a pretty name you have there, how did you get it? It happens to be a Finnish girl's name as well -
Wow, Alex and Katie got married! I hope he's happy and he'll have a nice future
-
I'm ten episodes into season one, love it, love it, love it!
Wow, YAY!!!
I'm soo happy to hear this! I guess you've been so caught up in watching the show that you haven't even had the time to inform us that you already started to watch the show, I mean you're on the tenth episode already 
-
They are secondhand books that are donated and all profits go to charity. The great thing is that a lot of the books look brand new (I think people just read them once and then donate them) so a lot of the time it's like you're getting a brand new book for at least 75% off. I took photos last time and I've been meaning to put them in an album here. I'll try it now.
That sounds like the best thing ever! Secondhand books that are in shipshape condition, are really cheap and the profits go to charity!! I wish we had something like that in here. And all those books are in English... I looked up the pic you posted on your album and it was just amazing. AND, I read somewhere else that there's books coming in throughout the day so you can go through the place whole day and still find some new interesting things! You know when you told me last year you bought over 100 books, I was a little worried because I thought that the books cost the normal price but now I can totally understand why you'd buy so many books. I have to come and visit some day. Although that might not be very smart, how am I ever gonna get all them books to the airplane??
Haha, had I not known that you've read all these books during the last couple of weeks or so, I would've thought you've gone bonkers and read 10 books during last weekend and written all those reviews today!
I definitely need to get the Ella Minnow Pea book. And The Plucker book, maybe, although I don't think that's the kind of book I would usually go for. 10 books in January, if you keep going at this rate you'll have read easily over 100 books by the end of the year
I've forgotten how many pages you have in your GwtW edition and I was just wondering that if you'll keep up with your goal of 50 pages per day, how long will it take you to finish the book? -
I posted this already in the Book Activity Today -thread but will post it in here as well:
Went to a charityshop today and got these:
V
-
Oh I loved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe!
Not read the book but having loved the film, I might have to give it a go...
Yep, the movie is awesome and just had to buy it when I saw as a DVD
The book is great as well, not exactly the same as the movie, there's more story in it and characters that didn't make it to the movie, and it might seem a bit confusing at times because it's not in a chronological order, but otherwise it's a fantastic read and I definitely recommend it -
Went to a charityshop today and got these:
V
-
1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1961)
It’s seldom that I am quite as disappointed by a book as I was by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I found the characters to be obnoxious (yes, all of them!) and found absolutely nothing to like in any of them. The stereotyping, both of Miss Jean Brodie and “her girls” was grotesquely cartoon-like and the plot entirely predictable – partially because all the major plot points are revealed up-front and the entire story is just one long-winded and stuffy study of the finer details.
...
If it had been any longer, I wouldn’t have bothered finishing it.
utterly no point!) makes it even more difficult to swallow.
Yes!! Thank you. I had high hopes for that one, and what does the bloody book do? Reveal all the plot points up front, leave the reader to think there's more to the story and something big is going to happen, end then just discuss endlessly the finer details. What was Muriel Spark thinking? I never would've finished it had it not been such a short read and had it not been one of my English lit course novels.
That was my third. My special mention goes for The Lord of the Flies. Utter rubbish!
Scarlette, I think Thomas Hardy must've been madly in love with a beautiful woman who was wise enough to dump him at the get-go, and then the stupid smartypants had his revenge in the best way he knew how: wrote the Tess novel, the beautiful woman representing Tess, and then he made all these terrible things happen to her. And did it poorly at that. I have no idea why the book was published though. The publishing house must've been owned by smartypant's uncle who had a bad case of nepotism.
I also liked Grapes of Wrath, I didn't find it boring at all. That was also an English lit novel but I've reread the book on my own just because I liked it so much.
-
I've heard a lot of nice things about Water for Elephants and it's on my TBR pile so I'll look forward to your thoughts, Lexie.
I'm about 80 pages into Gone with the Wind and really enjoying it.
I don't quite know what to think of Scarlett yet.80 pages?! Wow. I gotta finish Pygmalion and start reading GwtW! Glad to hear you're enjoying it though, that seems to be the case with the other fellow readers as well
-
Porridge, yoghurt and orange juice
-
Fi, you won't regret ordering the earlier seasons, I agree with Kylie and the first 4 are the best! Soon you'll be less confused, and all the more hooked
-
Oops She's quite the prolific writer, isn't she? She won an award for Number the Stars, which is set during World War II.
I didn't know about the award, there's so much to learn! There a minibio of her in goodreads.com which I read, it was quite illuminating.
-
I've read and enjoyed The Giver, and I have Gathering Blue and Messenger on my TBR pile, as well as Number the Stars (which I think you have also?)
Good to hear you have the books already, and like you said they'll fit perfectly into your this year's reading since their dystopian novels
I only have The Giver and the Anastasia books, the Number the Stars novels is something you've cooked up yourself. Apparently Lowry has written 35 books in total so I'm going to need to take a look at what other stuff she's written. Exciting
Read more of Pygmalion last night, I'm really enjoying this one which is surprising to me!
-
Hello Englishrose and welcome to the forum!
-
Thanks Kylie
It really did make my day yesterday, to see that she'd e-mailed me like 4-5 hours after I e-mailed her, I never thought that authors would actually e-mail anyone back Kylie I think you've read The Giver, haven't you, but have you read the other novels in that trilogy? I'm thinking about getting those books. I'd also like to read some of Lowry's stand alone novels.
-
Wow, I cannot believe Lois Lowry already wrote me back! She thanked for my e-mail and said it was a treat to read it, and that she feels like Anastasia is a very dear old friend - just like I feel. Unfortunately the publishers told her sometime ago that they wouldn't publish any more of Anastasia novels and she had to give them up.
You know, when I was just finished with highschool I wanted to become a translator and applied for a uni that did translation courses but I didn't get in (I was 0.07 points short of getting in, can you believe that?). Since then I've kind of changed my mind about the translating thing, although it's sometimes nice to think that I would do it... Anyway, as far as I know, the last four Anastasia books have never been translated into Finnish and when I realised that I thought to myself, I would soooo want to translate them!! It would be so nice, one of my dreams coming true, and with an Anastasia book as well
It may sound silly to you guys but to me it would be such a huge thing. The Anastasia books mean so much to me. -
The first one is easy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Boring, boring, incredibly boring, and incredibly depressing. And I don't care that the woman was a victim of her age and I guess couldn't defend herself as she would've been able to do in the modern society? I felt no compassion towards her because she was a miserable wimp who let everything happen to her. I hate that book with a passion and only struggled to finish it because it was on my English lit course. It totally put me off Thomas Hardy, forever.
The second one would be Lady Chatterley's Lover. I guess that book was really exciting in it's own days, but if I'd been living that time, I would've felt betrayed because it was supposed to be very courageous and yet I don't think there was that much sex. It was boring. I have to admit I was merely skimming through some of the pages, I couldn't bring myself to read every single boring word.
The third one? I have to think about that. I don't think I've read a third yet.
-
How's everybody? Have you all started Gone with the Wind already? I read Macbeth during the weekend (that's one Rory book I can cross from the list!) and started reading Pygmalion after that because Macbeth made me want to read more plays (Pygmalion is also on Rory's list
). But I'm going to start GwtW soon! I haven't found a suitable notebook yet though, I've been scribbling my thoughts on some legal pads I bought. They are plain white, I couldn't find any yellow ones that I adore, but however, I managed to spill coffee on one of the pads so a couple of the papers turned yellowish I think Rory would approve of this method, I did use coffee didn't I? -
Bethany, so sorry to hear you didn't like this
I'm sure you tried to like it and wanted to like it but I guess it just wasn't for you. I can't understand how that is though, but maybe it's just one of those unexplicable things. I hope it wasn't the hype that did it. -
Hello Rebecca and welcome to the forum!
Do you read fantasy? If so, and since you enjoyed Jane Eyre so much, I would definitely recommend The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
-
I was actually surprised at how he manages to make you feel like you've guessed what's going to happen and who the bad guy is, and then he does the complete opposite thing and throws you completely off track!
This is Deaver alright, that's his best trademark in my opinion
A great review Kelly, I'm happy as a bunny that you enjoyed it so much! I can really recommend the Lincoln Rhyme -series, starting with The Bone Collector. When you've read it and thought 'Wow, how can he ever top that??' you'll go straight to the second book The Coffin Dancer, and that novel, my friend, will blow your mind away!! -
This might be a silly question but anyways: I'm trying to e-mail a person, and I've written the e-mail on an Open Office document and now I'm in hotmail, trying to paste the text in the new message area. Usually copy+paste is as easy as breathing but now when I click on the right mouse button, there is no 'paste' option, just "back, rewind, full screen, ... frame, print" options which I don't understand. What's that about?
Usually BF helps me with this stuff but of course he had to absent right at this moment.Edit: okay problem solved, BF returned quickly and told me to do a little ctrl-v and that did it
-
Strangler's hands indeed
Vodkafan do you think you'll be reading the book? If so, clear your mind of The Curious Incident because most of people's complaints on this book is that it was nothing compared to The Curious Incident 
Otherwise I really liked it. Book 9. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
I haven't read anything by Shakespeare in a really long time. I think the last time (well, probably the only time?) was years ago in our English plays course where we had to read King Lear, School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar, and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Before that I don't think I'd ever read a play in my life. Thinking back I really enjoyed reading all of them, especially The Importance of Being Earnest and School for Scandal.
At first I struggled with the language and was even thinking about getting a Finnish copy so I could make sure I'd understood everything I'd read so far but I got used to it after a while. Overall it was an okay read but I tell you, if this had not been a Shakespeare, would it be so highly esteemed today, in it's own right? Not in my opinion anyway. Like I already said in the Book Activity Today -thread, it was mostly
kill, kill, kill; flee flee flee
. I still give it a 3/5.
Book 10. Anastasia's Chosen Career by Lois Lowry
Blurb:
Anastasia Krupnik has exactly one week to work on her school assignment called "My Chosen Career." Determined to be a bookstore owner, she must first develop poise and self-confidence. So Anastasia takes the plunge and spends her life savings on a modeling course at Studio Charmante.
She has one week to interview a bookstore owner, write a report, and complete her modeling course. Luckily, her new friend Henry is with her most of the way. Is Anastasia destined to be a succesful bookstore owner or a glamorous model? Only Anastasia has the answers!
Back to my favorite teen villain!
I can't stop admiring Anastasia for taking one thing (becoming a bookstore owner) and making it all about self-confidence and poise. This is a kind of recurring theme in Anastasia's life. Previously she's signed up for a tap dancing class (well, to get free tips from the telemarketing person on how to make a fabulous and romantic dinner) where she was hoping to become less clumsy and become more poised. There are other numerous examples. Actually, Anastasia only wanted to become a bookstore owner so she could take a trip to Boston (where she's supposed to interview a bookstore owner) and take the modeling course. As she spends time with the bookstore owner Barbara Page she realises that she actually has a lot of potential in the field of selling books. The start of the course is not too promising: there are only five kids, of which one is a pompous monologue-reciting moviestar wannabe and one is a very shy girl who seems very out of place. And, drum roll! One of the kids is a boy. And not just any boy, but Robert Giannini, the briefcase bearing nerd from Anastasia's old school. O the horror, the horror! (I got very teenagy and emotional when Robert Giannini made a come-back, he wasn't mentioned in the previous novel at all, to my astonishment)
The course turns out to be a success. Anastasia makes a new friend, finds out that Robert Giannini isn't that impossible in the end, and they discover the secret of the shy girl. They have wonderful experiences and lifelong lessons.
I hate the fact that I have only two more Anastasia books to read
I'm going to miss knowing more and more about her. I'm going to have to buy the Sam books, maybe she'll be mentioned in them. I'm also getting more and more curious about Sam himself. A definite 5/5 again.
Edit: Oooh I forgot to tell you! I just found Lowry's website last night, with her e-mail details and I couldn't resist writing her about my utter admiration for Anastasia
-
For comedy I am forced to say The Office, US version. That show has me in giggles everytime, and I'm not hating the romantic developments in the series either.
Frankie Reads 2010
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Charm, glad I could cheer you up
Kylie I know, a lot of books. But almost all of them were cheap secondhand books I swear!!
I started reading GwtW the day before yesterday but I fell asleep before I could finish the second page
Yesterday I was too busy to continue reading it, and as it's too heavy to be read in bed I started Flowers for Algernon as a side read. That one's pretty good, have you read it Kylie? If not, it's on the Rory list and it would make a great read for your dystopian challenge 