<p>Oh lucky you ignatius! I really like that world. I think my older son absconded to California with all our copies of the series! </p>
<p>I will think about my favorite short stories tomorrow, but for now I’ll just say, “None of 'em” - I really don’t like short stories!</p>
<p>^^^ Yeah … I had to buy my daughter off with her own set of books. It was either buy her off or fight her off. At one point, we considered naming a cat Eugenides after the “thief.” It may happen yet.</p>
<p>CAUTION: if you are new to Lonesome Dove, do not read the preface by author Larry McMurtry. He gives away major plot points that reveal the ultimate fate of certain characters. Honestly, I don’t know what he was thinking! I’ll also note this on the new thread.</p>
<p>(The preface was written in 2010, so the spoiler may not exist in earlier versions, at least I hope not.)</p>
<p>Thanks ** Mary ** for the warning, and special thanks to ** Ignatius** for sharing her sister’s story. This is a new genre for me, and you’ve made me excited to start.</p>
<p>I’m reading " The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" now because it was compared to The Storied a life of AJ Fikry.
Recently finished, " The housekeeper and the Professor" because it was previously mentioned as a book discussion possibility. I don’t think it would lend itself to discussion, but glad I read it.
Also, read “** The Woman Upstairs” **and Bill Bryson’s " **One Summer, 1927", **he manages to make history so interesting.
Finally, I spent two days reading ** Gone Girl **, could not put it down! spent most of the time trying to guess what the ending would be! knowing how much most people HATED the ending.
So, the ending didn’t bother me as much as the " misogynistic sludge" I endured throughout the book. Ugh! Gillian Flynn is a disturbed woman- IMHO ! </p>
<p>I went and looked, no forward in my version of Lonesome Dove. OTOH it’s 950 pages!!! 
</p>
<p>I have a very bad habit of reading endings once I’m about half way through a book. I’m not sure why exactly, I’m sure authors would hate me if they knew! </p>
<p>Currently reading “The Interestings” for a real life Book Club. In addition to “Lonesome Dove” for August, I’ll be reading “The Goldfinch” for September. Additionally, I’m in a Books on the Beach club that meets every other week in July and August. The first book for that is “The Orphan Train.” It all sounds good to me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Good. I was really annoyed after I read the preface and I’ve already read the book! There are a few hopping mad comments from Amazon readers.</p>
<p>I have an older copy (hardback) of Lonesome Dove - no preface - 840 or so pages.</p>
<p>I saw the comments on Amazon re McMurtry’s preface. I can’t imagine what he was thinking or that no one stopped him (editor/publisher). Maybe he assumes that certain plot points are so well-known that he doesn’t have to dance around them. He shouldn’t :-q</p>
<p>True confession time: I also read the endings of books before I finish … more often than not.</p>
<p>CBBBlinker: I’m in two real life book clubs. One meets every month and the other one meets every six weeks. Occasionally paths cross - as in this Monday night - and I have to choose. The book club that meets every six weeks picks two books and you can choose to read both or just one. Last time one of the books was Orphan Train. I honestly think I’m the only reader who didn’t like it - book club and elsewhere. Must have been my mood - and the fact that the orphan trains were not new to me. I had read an orphan train trilogy long ago. I think if I had not known anything about them I would have liked the book better. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Maybe McMurtry figured everybody had seen the TV miniseries by then! (I never saw it myself, but I remember all the hype about it at the time.)</p>
<p>Spoilers don’t bother me as much as they do a lot of people. To me, the quality of the writing (or, in the case of movies, the quality of the film making) is more important than the plot. </p>
<p>I don’t read the ends of novels before I finish, but a few times I have peeked very quickly at the last page to see if the name of a character I’m worried about appears there!</p>
<p>^^^ LOL</p>
<p>Thanks to Mary … our leader ^:)^ and thanks to all who posted. I enjoyed the discussion! I’ll “see” you August 1st.</p>
<p>Multiple book clubs! I don’t know how you guys do it. It’d be like having more than one husband.</p>
<p>Thanks for another great discussion, everyone. See you in August!</p>
<p>
Ha, ha Mary!! But not really – I can deal with multiple Book Clubs, but definitely couldn’t deal with multiple husbands!!! (As in, one is quite enough, thank you very much.)</p>
<p>I must be the ONLY person who has no idea what “Lonesome Dove” is all about. Never saw the TV series.</p>
<p>No CBB, I am clueless as well! My Lonesome Dove has arrived and it has no preface. Yay! I don’t want a spoiler. I enjoyed reading both The Interestings and The Goldfinch. Make sure you save plenty of time for the latter–it’s soooo long.</p>
<p>Thanks for leading the great Fikry discussion this month, Mary13. It’s been a pleasure reading your (and the whole group’s) comments!</p>
<p>Yes, thank you, Mary. One of your many great qualities is a genius for diplomacy! I always miss this group when a discussion ends. </p>
<p>I’m another one who often skips to the end. I try to stop myself, but am not usually successful. But I didn’t read ahead with the Storied Life book, because it was a quick read.</p>
<p>And I’m also clueless on Lonesome Dove. So clueless that I didn’t realize I was endorsing the choice of an 800+ page book! Oh, well, I’m glad I’ll be reading it here, because I’d never read it otherwise! I tend to lose focus and/or get bored with long books.</p>
<p>I’m currently reading (listening to) Doc by Mary Doria Russell, a fictionalized story about Doc Holliday. Maybe after that I’ll check out Larry McMurtry’s latest, The Last Kind Words Saloon, with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. It got lousy reviews, but I have a genealogical interest in Wyatt Earp, so I might like it anyway. And then I’ll be more impressed with Lonesome Dove. :-)</p>
<p>I’ve got The Woman Upstairs for another book group, and then I’ll have to find something else before August, maybe from something mentioned here!</p>
<p>I think it will be a good summer read. It’s funny because my paperback doesn’t look that fat. I didn’t peek at the end of *Storied Life * and I’m glad I didn’t.</p>
<p>Thinking about the stories.</p>
<p>Liked</p>
<p>“The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” by Irwin Shaw - I liked this. I felt like it really captured a marriage in just a few pages. Loved the ending.
“A Conversation with My Father” (audio) by Grace Paley - I liked this. Again this short scene really captured the essence of a relationship.
“What Feels Like the World” by Richard Bausch - ditto
“In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried”, by Amy Hempl - So much guilt, so much regret. So perfectly captured.</p>
<p>Meh
“Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Bookseller” by Roald Dahl - pretty typical Dahl, cute but shallow, my favorite of this type of his is one about someone who gets stuck in a Henry Moore Sculpture.
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain - ok, I’ve pretty much forgotten it all ready, and I’ve read it before.
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver - not my cup of tea
The Beauties, by Anton Chekhov - I feel guilty about putting this here, but it really didn’t make that much of an impression, but since I’ve read no other Chekhov nor have I seen his plays, I will try other things, some day!
Indian Camp, by Hemingway - I might have liked this better if I’d read it, I’m not good at listening.
The Doll’s House, by Katherine Mansfield - okay, but I’ve already forgotten it, because the characters didn’t seem interesting.</p>
<p>Disliked
“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I just thought this was stupid and uninteresting.
Brownies, by Z Z Packer - I felt like these girls were too mean for the age they were, and in any event brought back memories of being bullied in middle school.
“The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Bret Harte - bored me
“Ironhead” by Aimee Bender - the fantasy elements just didn’t work for me, I never believed in the characters so it just seemed contrived.</p>
<p>Hated but can’t forget</p>
<p>“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor - wow, powerful, enigmatic, but so many icky characters! I might read more of her even knowing I’ll probably dislike them.
“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger - see above, but no I am not going to read more Salinger, unless I have to!
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe - I read a lot of Poe when I was young, I don’t need to read him again. He’s great at creating a mood, but I get no pleasure from reading his stories.
“Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff - memorable, but horrific.
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by Z Z Packer - hate is probably too strong a word, but I didn’t enjoy it, and yet it’s hard to forget.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ha, ha, gotcha! 
Don’t worry: It’s not a complex puzzle like The Luminaries, nor is it full of Victor Hugo-esque philosophical ramblings like some other 800 + page books. It’s pure, rollicking story and I think you’ll be surprised how quickly it goes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Okay, so you don’t have to…but if you are ever tempted to, try “The Laughing Man.” It’s both funny and poignant, a story about hero-worship, love, and loss told from the perspective of a 9-year old boy. It’s the one I like best in Salinger’s Nine Stories.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Me, too. :-h </p>
<p>Here’s my report on Gabrielle Zevin. She spoke at a book festival I attended this weekend. First, she looks like she’s in her early 20s, but she’s 36. For the session I attended, she wore a short black sun dress that she covered up with a white jacket. Add big white sun glasses perched on top of a huge mass of black curly hair and you have GZ. She was soft-spoken and articulate and seemed more comfortable answering questions about the book than presenting information. People asked about the short stories and she said that she read over 1000 short stories to get the right ones for the book. She selected the stories even before she started writing. It took her 8 years to write AJ’s story.</p>
<p>She told the audience that as an only child reading was a huge part of her childhood and that she read constantly–said she is still a reader. Her parents encouraged her to read. She mentioned a few authors she read recently–the only one I recall was Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). AJ’s story might become a movie. Zevin has written YA novels and also screen plays and answered questions about that. She said book tours were exhausting but she enjoyed them (mostly). Her publisher sends her on tours alone because she’s not high maintenance and not famous enough to warrant a publicist to stay with her and make sure she gets what she needs. She signed books and was friendly and chatted with each person. I liked her!</p>
<p>Thanks for the great report! I thought this was particularly interesting:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>During our discussion, we offered various theories about why Zevin chose one story or another. I wonder how close we came to being right? Given all that time and research, she must have had very particular reasons for each choice.</p>
<p>Thanks for the report. That’s a lot of short stories! I thought I might read some more of them (same authors different stories), but I haven’t - instead I’m reading The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood since I just saw Cabaret on Broadway and rewatched the movie and thought it might be interesting to see what the source material was actually like.</p>