[mom2kylenkatie]

Can you identify with any of the charachters?

[brenintx]

I'm reading Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. It's set in a small town in Virginia in 1978. Elizbeth Taylor and her then husband who is running for the senate are coming to town and the whole town is getting ready for it. It's pretty good so far. Apparently this is a triology and I'm going to have to find the others after I read this one.

BIG STONE GAP
It's 1978 and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townfolks' secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious Outdoor Drama and keeping the town's dysfunctional Rescue Squad on its toes.

The crazy-quilt of characters includes Jack MacChesney ("Jack Mac" to his friends), the stoic miner with coal dust on his hands but love in his heart; Iva Lou Wade, the sexpot Bookmobile librarian; Theodore Tipton, band leader extraordinaire; Preacher Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling Freewill Baptist; and Pearl Grimes, a coal-miner's daughter on the verge of a miraculous transformation, thanks to Ave's intervention.

This post has been edited by brenintx: 23 September 2007 - 03:29 PM

[babymax0103]

brenintx, on Sep 23 2007, 04:28 PM, said:

I'm reading Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. It's set in a small town in Virginia in 1978. Elizbeth Taylor and her then husband who is running for the senate are coming to town and the whole town is getting ready for it. It's pretty good so far. Apparently this is a triology and I'm going to have to find the others after I read this one.

BIG STONE GAP
It's 1978 and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townfolks' secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious Outdoor Drama and keeping the town's dysfunctional Rescue Squad on its toes.

The crazy-quilt of characters includes Jack MacChesney ("Jack Mac" to his friends), the stoic miner with coal dust on his hands but love in his heart; Iva Lou Wade, the sexpot Bookmobile librarian; Theodore Tipton, band leader extraordinaire; Preacher Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling Freewill Baptist; and Pearl Grimes, a coal-miner's daughter on the verge of a miraculous transformation, thanks to Ave's intervention.

Brenda I'm interested to hear what you think (not being from Virginia) . . . I read that book several years ago and liked it, but it's my home state now and I know Senator Warner and his Liz taylor phaze and that made it more interesting to me, I think? that area of VA is 4+ hours away, but I've been there several times. anyway, tell me what you think.

[mom2kylenkatie]

babymax0103, on Sep 23 2007, 05:36 PM, said:

brenintx, on Sep 23 2007, 04:28 PM, said:

I'm reading Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. It's set in a small town in Virginia in 1978. Elizbeth Taylor and her then husband who is running for the senate are coming to town and the whole town is getting ready for it. It's pretty good so far. Apparently this is a triology and I'm going to have to find the others after I read this one.

BIG STONE GAP
It's 1978 and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townfolks' secrets for years, but she's about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious Outdoor Drama and keeping the town's dysfunctional Rescue Squad on its toes.

The crazy-quilt of characters includes Jack MacChesney ("Jack Mac" to his friends), the stoic miner with coal dust on his hands but love in his heart; Iva Lou Wade, the sexpot Bookmobile librarian; Theodore Tipton, band leader extraordinaire; Preacher Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling Freewill Baptist; and Pearl Grimes, a coal-miner's daughter on the verge of a miraculous transformation, thanks to Ave's intervention.

Brenda I'm interested to hear what you think (not being from Virginia) . . . I read that book several years ago and liked it, but it's my home state now and I know Senator Warner and his Liz taylor phaze and that made it more interesting to me, I think? that area of VA is 4+ hours away, but I've been there several times. anyway, tell me what you think.

I read this book about a year ago...sorry to say I was not impressed and did not finish the trilogy. Looking forward to your opinion

[pygmyhippo]

I just finished "Metro Girl", Evanovich. I have to say that I really did enjoy it almost as much as the S. Plum series once I got into the main character a bit more. She has some similar qualities that Steph does and it was "fun". I'm definitely going to read the next one when I get a chance, "Motor Mouth", I believe.

I put "Plum Lovin" on hold at the library and "Lean Mean Thirteen" is already waiting for pick up.

This Friday I'm picking up our book club selection, "Middlesex".

I also want to read "The Bourne Ultimatum. I read a few pages and felt hooked again -- used to read Ludlum before he was too popular.

What is it with me -- I seem to crave adventure -- must be too much heavy stuff in my life!

Nick and I finished his "Beavers" level 2 book and also #20 Magic Tree House. He started reading "Pish Posh", Level 2 reader tonight (15 pages of a 60-page book, I believe) and we read the first 3-4 chapters of #21 of the Magic Tree House series.

Lots of reading going on here at our house....

[brenintx]

pygmyhippo, on Sep 23 2007, 09:36 PM, said:

I just finished "Metro Girl", Evanovich. I have to say that I really did enjoy it almost as much as the S. Plum series once I got into the main character a bit more. She has some similar qualities that Steph does and it was "fun". I'm definitely going to read the next one when I get a chance, "Motor Mouth", I believe.

I put "Plum Lovin" on hold at the library and "Lean Mean Thirteen" is already waiting for pick up.

This Friday I'm picking up our book club selection, "Middlesex".

I also want to read "The Bourne Ultimatum. I read a few pages and felt hooked again -- used to read Ludlum before he was too popular.

What is it with me -- I seem to crave adventure -- must be too much heavy stuff in my life!

Nick and I finished his "Beavers" level 2 book and also #20 Magic Tree House. He started reading "Pish Posh", Level 2 reader tonight (15 pages of a 60-page book, I believe) and we read the first 3-4 chapters of #21 of the Magic Tree House series.

Lots of reading going on here at our house....

Since you're near the end of the Evanovich books, how about a few new suggestions? Have you read any Sue Grafton? Her alphabet series is great. The Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun is a light fast read. There are about 25 or so of those now. There are a few other series I can recomend but I'm at work right now and need to look them up. I post again later.

[mom2kylenkatie]

pygmyhippo, on Sep 23 2007, 11:36 PM, said:

I just finished "Metro Girl", Evanovich. I have to say that I really did enjoy it almost as much as the S. Plum series once I got into the main character a bit more. She has some similar qualities that Steph does and it was "fun". I'm definitely going to read the next one when I get a chance, "Motor Mouth", I believe.

I put "Plum Lovin" on hold at the library and "Lean Mean Thirteen" is already waiting for pick up.

This Friday I'm picking up our book club selection, "Middlesex".

I also want to read "The Bourne Ultimatum. I read a few pages and felt hooked again -- used to read Ludlum before he was too popular.

What is it with me -- I seem to crave adventure -- must be too much heavy stuff in my life!

Nick and I finished his "Beavers" level 2 book and also #20 Magic Tree House. He started reading "Pish Posh", Level 2 reader tonight (15 pages of a 60-page book, I believe) and we read the first 3-4 chapters of #21 of the Magic Tree House series.

Lots of reading going on here at our house....

Would love to hear your take on Middlesex. They just interviewd the author on Oprah last week. I loved the story of the grandparents more than the story of Cal. Please let us know what you think of it when you finish

[momski98]

Well, I have to put down "The Lady in the Tower" because a book I reserved at the library came in and is only a short term loan. So, I picked up "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier"

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. Beah's harrowing journey transforms him overnight from a child enthralled by American hip-hop music and dance to an internal refugee bereft of family, wandering from village to village in a country grown deeply divided by the indiscriminate atrocities of unruly, sociopathic rebel and army forces. Beah then finds himself in the army—in a drug-filled life of casual mass slaughter that lasts until he is 15, when he's brought to a rehabilitation center sponsored by UNICEF and partnering NGOs. The process marks out Beah as a gifted spokesman for the center's work after his "repatriation" to civilian life in the capital, where he lives with his family and a distant uncle. When the war finally engulfs the capital, it sends 17-year-old Beah fleeing again, this time to the U.S., where he now lives. (Beah graduated from Oberlin College in 2004.) Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide. (Feb.)

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. Beah, a boy equally thrilled by causing mischief as by memorizing passages from Shakespeare and dance moves from hip-hop videos, was a typical precocious 12-year-old. But rebel forces destroyed his childhood innocence when they hit his village, driving him to leave his home and travel the arid deserts and jungles of Africa. After several months of struggle, he was recruited by the national army, made a full soldier and learned to shoot an AK-47, and hated everyone who came up against the rebels. The first two thirds of his memoir are frightening: how easy it is for a normal boy to transform into someone as addicted to killing as he is to the cocaine that the army makes readily available. But an abrupt change occurred a few years later when agents from the United Nations pulled him out of the army and placed him in a rehabilitation center. Anger and hate slowly faded away, and readers see the first glimmers of Beah's work as an advocate. Told in a conversational, accessible style, this powerful record of war ends as a beacon to all teens experiencing violence around them by showing them that there are other ways to survive than by adding to the chaos.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

[pygmyhippo]

brenintx, on Sep 24 2007, 11:03 AM, said:

pygmyhippo, on Sep 23 2007, 09:36 PM, said:

I just finished "Metro Girl", Evanovich. I have to say that I really did enjoy it almost as much as the S. Plum series once I got into the main character a bit more. She has some similar qualities that Steph does and it was "fun". I'm definitely going to read the next one when I get a chance, "Motor Mouth", I believe.

I put "Plum Lovin" on hold at the library and "Lean Mean Thirteen" is already waiting for pick up.

This Friday I'm picking up our book club selection, "Middlesex".

I also want to read "The Bourne Ultimatum. I read a few pages and felt hooked again -- used to read Ludlum before he was too popular.

What is it with me -- I seem to crave adventure -- must be too much heavy stuff in my life!

Nick and I finished his "Beavers" level 2 book and also #20 Magic Tree House. He started reading "Pish Posh", Level 2 reader tonight (15 pages of a 60-page book, I believe) and we read the first 3-4 chapters of #21 of the Magic Tree House series.

Lots of reading going on here at our house....

Since you're near the end of the Evanovich books, how about a few new suggestions? Have you read any Sue Grafton? Her alphabet series is great. The Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun is a light fast read. There are about 25 or so of those now. There are a few other series I can recomend but I'm at work right now and need to look them up. I post again later.

I love, love Sue Grafton -- I've read all of hers. I also read Patricia Cornwell -- read those if you haven't. I read Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark and Mary Jane Clark. -- just to name a few.

I haven't heard of The Cat Who series -- will need to look into that.

I want to finish Plum Lovin, Lean Mean Thirteen and then Motor Mouth -- then I'll look into The Cat Who -- DH is going to kill me...he can't believe how much I've been reading lately. But I am just happy as can be. I've always been a book worm.

I'm going to use that little book that my old boss gave me to write down that series....

[pygmyhippo]

mom2kylenkatie, on Sep 24 2007, 03:16 PM, said:

pygmyhippo, on Sep 23 2007, 11:36 PM, said:

I just finished "Metro Girl", Evanovich. I have to say that I really did enjoy it almost as much as the S. Plum series once I got into the main character a bit more. She has some similar qualities that Steph does and it was "fun". I'm definitely going to read the next one when I get a chance, "Motor Mouth", I believe.

I put "Plum Lovin" on hold at the library and "Lean Mean Thirteen" is already waiting for pick up.

This Friday I'm picking up our book club selection, "Middlesex".

I also want to read "The Bourne Ultimatum. I read a few pages and felt hooked again -- used to read Ludlum before he was too popular.

What is it with me -- I seem to crave adventure -- must be too much heavy stuff in my life!

Nick and I finished his "Beavers" level 2 book and also #20 Magic Tree House. He started reading "Pish Posh", Level 2 reader tonight (15 pages of a 60-page book, I believe) and we read the first 3-4 chapters of #21 of the Magic Tree House series.

Lots of reading going on here at our house....

Would love to hear your take on Middlesex. They just interviewd the author on Oprah last week. I loved the story of the grandparents more than the story of Cal. Please let us know what you think of it when you finish

I have no preconceived notions or really any idea how I am going to feel about Middlesex -- I'll let you know. I pick it up on Friday with our "book kit".

[brenintx]

pygmyhippo, on Sep 24 2007, 10:12 PM, said:

I love, love Sue Grafton -- I've read all of hers. I also read Patricia Cornwell -- read those if you haven't. I read Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark and Mary Jane Clark. -- just to name a few.

I haven't heard of The Cat Who series -- will need to look into that.

I want to finish Plum Lovin, Lean Mean Thirteen and then Motor Mouth -- then I'll look into The Cat Who -- DH is going to kill me...he can't believe how much I've been reading lately. But I am just happy as can be. I've always been a book worm.

I'm going to use that little book that my old boss gave me to write down that series....

I've read quite a few Patricia Cornwell. I have forgotten where I am in the series and need to figure it out one day. I tried one day a the library but they had some in hard back and some in paper back and I got tired of going back and forth. I need to print out a list and see where I'm at so I can pick them back up again.
I've never read Motor Mouth. I'm not sure if it's at the library or not.
Here are a few other series that I like:

Susan Wittig Albert -- all her books have a herb or plant in the title. They are set in central Texas. I'm behind on this series since neither of the libraries I go to have the newest ones.

Nancy Fairbanks -- There are a lot of new series that combine cooking/recipes with mystery. This author does that. I love her character Carolyn Blue.

This post has been edited by brenintx: 25 September 2007 - 12:02 AM

[shmode]

brenintx, on Sep 24 2007, 09:58 PM, said:

I've read quite a few Patricia Cornwell. I have forgotten where I am in the series and need to figure it out one day. I tried one day a the library but they had some in hard back and some in paper back and I got tired of going back and forth. I need to print out a list and see where I'm at so I can pick them back up again.
I've never read Motor Mouth. I'm not sure if it's at the library or not.
Here are a few other series that I like:

Susan Wittig Albert -- all her books have a herb or plant in the title. They are set in central Texas. I'm behind on this series since neither of the libraries I go to have the newest ones.

Nancy Fairbanks -- There are a lot of new series that combine cooking/recipes with mystery. This author does that. I love her character Carolyn Blue.

Here's your Patricia Cornwell list for her Scarpetta series
Scarpetta series

1. Postmortem (1990)

2. Body of Evidence (1991)

3. All That Remains (1992)

4. Cruel and Unusual (1993)

5. The Body Farm (1994)

6. From Potter's Field (1995)

7. Cause of Death (1996)

8. Unnatural Exposure (1997)

9. Point of Origin (1998)

10. Black Notice (1999)

11. The Last Precinct (2000)

12. Blow Fly (2003)

13. Trace (2004)

14. Predator (2005)

15. Book of the Dead (2007)


She also has an 'Andy Brazil' series that was ok, but I don't think they were her best works.
Andy Brazil Series

Isle of Dogs

Southern Cross

Hornet’s Nest


I keep track of all the books I read or need to read and the ones already read are underlined.

[babymax0103]

Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt for my IRL book club

we are also reading Vera, the biography of Nabokov's wife

[brenintx]

shmode, on Sep 25 2007, 08:00 AM, said:

brenintx, on Sep 24 2007, 09:58 PM, said:

I've read quite a few Patricia Cornwell. I have forgotten where I am in the series and need to figure it out one day. I tried one day a the library but they had some in hard back and some in paper back and I got tired of going back and forth. I need to print out a list and see where I'm at so I can pick them back up again.
I've never read Motor Mouth. I'm not sure if it's at the library or not.
Here are a few other series that I like:

Susan Wittig Albert -- all her books have a herb or plant in the title. They are set in central Texas. I'm behind on this series since neither of the libraries I go to have the newest ones.

Nancy Fairbanks -- There are a lot of new series that combine cooking/recipes with mystery. This author does that. I love her character Carolyn Blue.

Here's your Patricia Cornwell list for her Scarpetta series
Scarpetta series

1. Postmortem (1990)

2. Body of Evidence (1991)

3. All That Remains (1992)

4. Cruel and Unusual (1993)

5. The Body Farm (1994)

6. From Potter's Field (1995)

7. Cause of Death (1996)

8. Unnatural Exposure (1997)

9. Point of Origin (1998)

10. Black Notice (1999)

11. The Last Precinct (2000)

12. Blow Fly (2003)

13. Trace (2004)

14. Predator (2005)

15. Book of the Dead (2007)


She also has an 'Andy Brazil' series that was ok, but I don't think they were her best works.
Andy Brazil Series

Isle of Dogs

Southern Cross

Hornet’s Nest


I keep track of all the books I read or need to read and the ones already read are underlined.

Thanks!! That will help a lot. I've been really good about keeping up with other series but I lost track of this one some where in the middle. I read one of the Andy Brazil series and didn't care for it.

[mom2kylenkatie]

I am reading Sams Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson.

[Sara]

mom2kylenkatie, on Sep 27 2007, 11:08 AM, said:

I am reading Sams Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson.

Oh, I enjoyed that one. It's been awhile though.

[enid]

a piece of cake by cupcake brown

Wow is it depressing so far