Books moral and immoral

[Artemis@BC]

Taking a break from detective stories and reading the Jackie Kennedy Onassis bio by Sarah Bradford. Can't. Put. Down.

Have you read (or listened to) Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy. From interviews with Arthur Schlesinger in 1964, it's an amazingly candid oral history of her life with the president. And the book comes with CDs of the actual interviews, very cool.

[IceAlisa]

Thanks! Will check it out. I wonder how it compares with the bio I am reading.

[Nomad]

I'm winding up Rumour of Heaven which up to now has reminded me Mary Webb's novels (albeit w/o the Shropshire dialect) - rather odd characters in a beautifully described rural setting. In the last few pages the plot has suddenly veered off into melodrama. The plot was a bit strange to begin with but in these last 30pp it really jumped the shark.

[IceAlisa]

I have a question that's rather medical in nature and one Dr. IA wasn't able to answer:

JFK suffered from debilitating back pain, has had 2 fusion surgeries and required long periods of bed rest and occasionally walked on crutches. He was possibly addicted to painkillers. He also had Addison's which may decrease sex drive. I am not sure if replacement synthetic androgens were available at the time.

So with all of this, how in the world was he able to have all this sex? Just thought I'd throw this out there. Perhaps someone knows more about Addison's?


ETA: uh oh, looks like Ms. Bradford failed to do due diligence. She mentions the history of Jackie's sunburst diamond pin and then goes on to mention other historic bling, specifically that Jackie had promised to the French minister of culture a loan of the Hope diamond for an exhibit in Paris in exchange for the Mona Lisa exhibit in the US. Then Ms. Bradford states that the Smithsonian had refused Jackie's request. And yet on the SI website it says that the Hope diamond was indeed exhibited in Paris in 1962. Tut tut.

[oleada]

I finished "Where'd You Go, Bernadette", which is written as a series of e-mails, letters, notes etc by the characters as put together by title character's young daughter to explain her mother's disappearance. It started off as pretty funny, but not so deep, and I was surprised at how emotional and layered it was at the end. The author, Maria Semple, used to write for shows like Mad About You and Arrested Development. I liked it a lot.

In case anyone else is a giant dork like me, Caroline B. Cooney is writing a 5th Janie (from "The Face on the Milk Carton" fame) book, called Janie Face To Face and I am ridiculously excited to read this

[made_in_canada]

In case anyone else is a giant dork like me, Caroline B. Cooney is writing a 5th Janie (from "The Face on the Milk Carton" fame) book, called Janie Face To Face and I am ridiculously excited to read this

This excites me as well

[zaphyre14]

To remove the cloying aftertaste of inspirational dreck, I started Rachel Caine's "Two Weeks' Notice." It's the second in her "Rivivalist" urban fantasy series, following "Working Stiff," about a young woman who has died and been revived and is additcted to the (illegal) drug that keeps her alive. There's government conspiracy, evil drug company, kidnapped relative, mayhem and death galore and it's pretty well written for the genre. I like Rachel Caine's other series.

At kleast the characters aren't praying all the time, although they certainly have more reason for doing so than the ones in the last book.

[Buzz]

Winter of the World by Ken Follet

[Nomad]

Finally finished Rumour of Heaven. Rather poetic descriptions of rural England, a few fully-realized characters, a somewhat strange and ultimately unconvincing plot. I don't recommend it, although I suspect that Beatrix Lehmann could have written a very good family memoir or a memoir of her career in theater. But fiction was not her thing. Read sister Rosamond Lehmann's novels instead.

[Buzz]

I am loving Ken Follet's Century Trilogy. I am reading book 2, Winter of the World. I Like it much more than his Pillars of the Earth novel although I do believe most are of the opposite opinion. But I am such a softie for anything that involves WW2 there was no way I was not going to read this series. I always wanted to read a realistic novel from WW2 that involved characters from all sides of the war. But I have read criticisms the call many of the characters as absolutely either good or evil with no in between. For sure the author has a huge love of England's Labour Party and an intense hatred of communism. He also do not have a very high opinion of the British conservatives. It is too easy to find his own personal political opinions in this book but I honestly do not mind, because it was not as if Stalinist Russia was a picnic or that Labour don't have a lot to be proud of. Too besides this book has two things in it's favour; firstly it involves WW2 and 2nd there are no vampires or werewolves!!!

[kwanfan1818]

Buzz, you might like Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise," "Dolce" in particular.

[Buzz]

Buzz, you might like Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise," "Dolce" in particular.

Thanks for the recommendation and I will need something with a dose of reality of this fairy tale. Because that is what this book is beginning to feel like. Especially with the amount of times the characters keep bumping into each other. It all has begun to feel very predictable and nauseating. Too bad because I really did like the first portion of this book so much.

[rfisher]

I'm listening to The River Killings by Merry Jones. She teaches writing at Temple University and there are multiple gushing reviewers quotes. I cannot imagine what she teaches in her classes but it certainly isn't plotting, characterization or dialogue. The book is in 1st person so the reader only knows what the protag knows. Except there will be clues that are in flashing neon lights and the protag pretends they aren't there. Then there will be a page of mental hand wringing, followed by lalalalalalala unicorns play in my yard, folllowed by oops how could that happen to me? I'm so fascinated by how poorly this book is constructed I've continued to listen to it. I yell at the CD player all the way to and from work about how stupid that bit of dialogue was or how unbelievably stupid the characters are. I think those reviews had to have been significantly edited.

[Prancer]

I think those reviews had to have been significantly edited.

I read that one and I think Publisher's Weekly had it right: While Jones keeps the plot zipping along at a fast pace, readers may occasionally cringe at Zoe's naïveté and the surfeit of coincidences.

Yup.

I hate it when the detectives ignore blatant CLUES.

[Matryeshka]

Then there will be a page of mental hand wringing, followed by lalalalalalala unicorns play in my yard, folllowed by oops how could that happen to me? I'm so fascinated by how poorly this book is constructed I've continued to listen to it.

So, basically it's the literary equivalent of a Johnny Weir program?

I'm reading my literary broccoli right now--Cloud Atlas. I have my literary cred before returning to my regularly scheduled sexy werewolves and heroines in leather.

[kwanfan1818]

While Jones keeps the plot zipping along at a fast pace, readers may occasionally cringe at Zoe's naïveté and the surfeit of coincidences.

"Jones keeps the plot zipping along at a fast pace!"

I'm still plugging away at "The Civil War of 1812," a stomach-turning exercise in deja vu all over again, and Bobby Kennedy has started to turn from a 110% prick to something more complex in "The Passage of Power."

[zaphyre14]

In yet another change of genre, I started Kathy Reichs' "Bones are Forever" last night. I don't consider myself unduly sensative but I had to stop reading before bed. The autopsies were just too pitiful. The on/off Ryan romance thing is getting old. I hope Reichs resolves it soon.

[flyingsit]

I finished Seating Arrangements a couple of days ago. I like a lot of literary fiction, but this was ... too pretentious, I think. And too self-aware.

[rfisher]

In yet another change of genre, I started Kathy Reichs' "Bones are Forever" last night. I don't consider myself unduly sensative but I had to stop reading before bed. The autopsies were just too pitiful. The on/off Ryan romance thing is getting old. I hope Reichs resolves it soon.

ITA about Ryan. I didn't have any problem with the anthro stuff, but she's also made Tempe stupid with which I do have a problem. Kathy has become a victim of her own success.

[Spinner]

I finished Seating Arrangements a couple of days ago. I like a lot of literary fiction, but this was ... too pretentious, I think. And too self-aware.

Aww, c'mon. I just loved Mopsy. And

Spoiler

the exploding whale? I nearly peed laughing!