The Doctors Blackwell sounds really good, but it’s a new release, and there’s a waiting list at my library for both the hardcover and the electronic version.
As @ignatius anticipated, I have the same issue with We Begin at the End. Since we just read a new release–and found that Hamnet was either hard to obtain (cheaply) or a long wait (waving at @jollymama out there)–I’d like to avoid that situation for the June pick.
That makes a classic the easiest choice, so let’s go with Shane and True Grit. They have the triple draw of accessibility, brevity and quality writing.
Also, even though they are classics, it’s actually a timely choice: True Grit is one of the 2020-2021 Big Read books for the National Endowment for the Arts: NEA Big Read
I think I can safely assure everyone that these are not westerns in the style of a Louis L’Amour shoot-em-up. Rather they are stories that are part coming-of-age and part adventure, with both novels reflecting on what it means to be an outcast and how we turn strangers into family.
@Marilyn, although “off-screen” death is the impetus for the journey in True Grit, grief is not a major theme in the book (nor in Shane).
Both books can be categorized as Young Adult (i.e., recommended for ages 12 and up); Shane is always viewed as such. That might add another dimension to our discussion as I don’t think we’ve read any YA since Ender’s Game back in 2013.
Warning: Don’t choose the audio book for True Grit, read by Donna Tartt (author of The Goldfinch). I can’t quite explain it but, for me, she doesn’t capture Maddie’s voice or rather the humor underlying Maddie’s words. I’ve read the book and listened to it. It wouldn’t be a favorite book if I had just listened to it. I feel bad saying this because Donna Tartt loves the book.
I will be late to the discussion but plan to read the books now (and hope to remember enough).
May through early June is going to be very busy with multiple family events and related travel.
I never got a chance to weigh in, but I’m fine with the choice.
I haven’t read either. I think I’ve seen both movie versions of True Grit and liked them both in different ways. I don’t remember them at all, so I don’t think it will effect my reading of the book. I also believe I saw Shane at some point, though not in the college film class I took where we saw Hitchcock thrillers and John Ford westerns.
The last couple of rounds, I’ve called the selection pretty quickly because I’ve found that I tend to overthink things if I wait too long. So now I read everybody’s comments, rule out the vetoes, look up the length/cost/availability of the remaining titles, then go with my gut.
I always figure that even if the book is a dud, we still enjoy hanging around together for a week or 10 days.
Shane and True Grit won’t be duds, though, I promise.
I’ll start a new thread, but this discussion is still open for @jollymama and anyone else running behind with Hamnet.
In the meantime, what is everybody currently reading?
I just finished O’Farrell’s book,This Must be the Place, that @wisteria100 mentioned earlier. I enjoyed it. As @ignatius suggested earlier about O’Farrell’s writing, this was a difficult book to read on a Kindle. I often wanted to go back and check chapter dates, but it was cumbersome. An actual book would have worked better. The story set up was similar to Hamnet, going back and forth between characters and time. Like Hamnet, the ending was very good!
I was thinking about reading True Grit on Kindle, since we are taking a road trip thru most of May.
I noticed a “Read with Free App”. Has anybody used that option? If so, please advise (I have an iphone, an ipad mini, and a new ipad 10.2in/LTE that we are setting up for delivery to Dad in NY.)
I use the Kindle app on my iPad and sometimes on my iPhone if I am waiting somewhere and did not anticipated the wait. You can sync across devices but I don’t. I read different books on kindle and iPad.
Good decision making Mary13, and I enjoyed this discussion, even though I haven’t finished Hamnet, yet.
So Wonderful seeing so many people post, and kudos again to @Mary13 for leading another stellar discussion.
I’m looking forward True Grit and Shane, both unfamiliar to me, haven’t seen any movie version, so I’m happy about that.
Reading Hamnet, now.
Had read Vaccinated: One mans quest to defeat the worlds deadliest diseases by Paul Offit
Two Agatha Christie’s - Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and Murder at the Vicarage.
@Colorado_mom I prefer reading with the kindle app on iPad, can control the text size, easier to hold, even the font itself can be changed sometimes.
Thanks for summoning me back, @Mary13 ! Still no Hamnet, but I’ve been happily reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the first time. Somehow I missed that one growing up. Also Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, one of the best books I’ve read lately.
I’m happy we’ll be reading True Grit and Shane next. I’ve read both and agree they’re not “typical Westerns.” Unlike my esteemed friend @ignatius , I greatly enjoyed Donna Tartt’s narration, so, others might want to chance it. Here’s a 2-minute sample on libro.fm.
The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb - a novella set in her fantasy world.
When We Left Cuba (The Cuba Saga #2) by Chanel Cleeton
I need to pick up by Wednesday:
Murder Must Advertise (Lord Peter Wimsey #8) by Dorothy L. Sayers - yep, working my way through the Wimsey series
Faithless in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, 52) - J.D. Robb. Yep, I’ve read the previous 51 in the series. Consider the In Death series my guilty pleasure.
It’s all the “I said …” and “He said …” I just listened to the clip and all the “saids” (13 in that sample) still bother me. I don’t notice them when reading. Maddie and Rooster’s voices just flowed naturally then. (I do realize that Maddie’s telling her story and she would tell it just that way: “I said … He said …” so ignore me.)
I reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn recently. Good, isn’t it? I then read Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson. Good pairing.
