Book Club

[LoriLori]

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@smoky22 wrote:

Oh @LoriLori  I don't get your love for The Great Gatsby (lol), a book I think is just ok.  I haven't been voting, but you reminded me, so today I voted for Great Expectations.  Tomorrow I plan to vote for Rebecca.  The next day I plan to vote for Grapes of Wrath.  I don't know about the day after that.  I think I need to read a couple of the books on the list.  Who knows, I might end up voting for a book I haven't even read yet.  ( If The Great Gatsby wins, I'll know why.)

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@smoky22, great books all.  IMO "The Great Gatsby" is the great American novel.  Someone on the other thread described it and I was going to post that there but it would seem like I'm correcting her and everyone experiences a book differently so here goes why I think it's the best novel of all:

Judging writing by the quality of the actual writing, "Gatsby" has one of the richest subtexts and some of the most beautiful imagery and symbolism of any book, elegantly written into a short , spare novel.  Fitzgerald's brilliant (IMO) writing is as much a part of the book's genius as the characters and plot.  That iconic billboard!  Iconic.  So symbolic.  Amazing.  There are books so rich with symbolism that I marvel at the control over the material by the writer -- this one is the greatest, for me and

-- TBH I'm not sure I would have picked up on all of it if I had read it on my own rather than for a college class.  Maybe yes, maybe no, definitely not all of it; like Shakespeare and all of the greatest it works on many levels.

(Next best-written for me is "Madame Bovary" which didn't even make the list.)

In a short book it manages to touch on and beautifully illuminate themes including identity, and the American obsession with wealth, and romantic love, and crime and justice, entitlement and morality, and the American idea that anyone can work their way into the upper class, and always, what is justice, what is a life worth in America.

It will never lose its relevance as some classics have, and these days it is very relevant.  

Hope that helps, it's of course overly long and I hope my tone comes across as reverent because that's how I feel about it

[smoky22]

@LoriLori I was hoping I hadn't offended you with my comment about The Great Gatsby.  I actually think it's admirable that you are so loyal to that one book.  You do such great reviews, btw.  If I had to pick a Fitzerald book, I prefer Tender is The Night.

I've come to the conclusion that I should be voting for an author rather than the particular book they have chosen to represent that author.  This is why I am not actually going to vote for Rebecca (or even Jane Eyre, for that matter).  I'm going to alternate voting for the two books by Steinbeck and Dickens, my favorite authors.

I still plan to read a couple of the books on the list that I've never read, but I doubt they will change my voting.  I think Middlemarch should have been on the list somewhere, too. Madame Bovary, yes. Lots of omissions. 

[esmerelda]

I was looking forward to this "series."  I saw 90% of the first night (missed the very beginning) and then totally forgot about it until I saw this thread.

I don't know what I expected...maybe a book club of sorts?

I have my own list of "best-loved" or "best" books...some I've read, some I've yet to read.  

If I watch again, it will be by accident.  Glad others are enjoying it.

[LoriLori]

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@smoky22 wrote:

@LoriLori I was hoping I hadn't offended you with my comment about The Great Gatsby.  I actually think it's admirable that you are so loyal to that one book.  You do such great reviews, btw.  If I had to pick a Fitzerald book, I prefer Tender is The Night.

I've come to the conclusion that I should be voting for an author rather than the particular book they have chosen to represent that author.  This is why I am not actually going to vote for Rebecca (or even Jane Eyre, for that matter).  I'm going to alternate voting for the two books by Steinbeck and Dickens, my favorite authors.

I still plan to read a couple of the books on the list that I've never read, but I doubt they will change my voting.  I think Middlemarch should have been on the list somewhere, too. Madame Bovary, yes. Lots of omissions. 

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Thank you, @smoky22, what you said about my reviews means a lot to me.  "Tender Is the Night" is a great book but I've already laid out my case for "Great Gatsby." 

I just wanted to add, because I don't know if you love, hate or could care less about Family Guy, that I meant it when I said their version of it was spot on.  I detested both movies made but Family Guy, although funny, "got it" -- including the green light across the water.  Whoever wrote it has a deep understanding of "Great Gatsby" and used it to write a really fun take of it.

There are three books in that episode.  One is "Of Mice and Men" which I'm ashamed to say I've never read because it seems like the stuff of nightmares.  The other was "Huck Finn" and it was a really fun show -- if you go for that sort of thing.

Family Guy is definitely not for everybody.  Me, every day I thank fate that Seth MacFarlane missed his flight by ten minutes on 9/11 (his plane was one of the two from Boston that went into the WTC).  Family Guy makes me laugh and makes me happy and sometimes even makes me think.

[smoky22]

@LoriLori  you will think I live under a rock, but I've never watched Family Guy.  I've heard good things about it.  I don't watch a lot of television these days.  I used to be such a movie buff.  I know all the old ones, not so much what's out now  If I'm not reading or doing household chores, I'm out working in my yard.  

I didn't know Seth MacFarlane missed his flight that day. Interesting.  He's a talented guy, and on the right side of civil rights issues, too.  I just read his comment on the ridiculous  supreme court ruling about the gay wedding cake. 

[smoky22]

Just to keep this on track, I tried to get several of the books on the list through my library.  Somebody must be reading them because there is quite a waitlist for A Confederacy of Dunces, White Teeth, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, etc.  

[LoriLori]

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@smoky22 wrote:

Just to keep this on track, I tried to get several of the books on the list through my library.  Somebody must be reading them because there is quite a waitlist for A Confederacy of Dunces, White Teeth, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, etc.  

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@smoky22it was kinda sorta on track.  If I notice the rerun of the lit episode of FG I will give you a heads up...

...That's great because someone else posted they work in a bookstore and the books weren't moving.  I'm glad they're moving elsewhere.  

I got an email from PBS yesterday saying summer book clubs are starting up on the site.  If anyone is interested (I'm not but I could become).

"Confederacy of Dunces," I wonder how that book has aged.  So curious to hear your take.  I loved that book so much but can't imagine reading it now.

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" -- Junot Diaz has been caught in the #metoo movement and I wonder if they'll find a way to make sure that book doesn't make it to the end.  Speaking of the end, that's why I'm really posting about it -- after you read it, can we talk about the end in a spoiler box?

"100  Years of Solitude" -- awesome.

The other two I have to read.  If you say so I will

[teganslaw]

I've been waiting for months for the book (kindle version) "East of Eden." by John Steinbeck. It's on hold at the library right now. I don;t know if that book is on the Great American Read, but it must be popular since I've been waiting so long. 

[LoriLori]

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@teganslaw wrote:

I've been waiting for months for the book (kindle version) "East of Eden." by John Steinbeck. It's on hold at the library right now. I don;t know if that book is on the Great American Read, but it must be popular since I've been waiting so long. 

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"East of Eden" is not on the list.   "Grapes of Wrath" is, and I think it has a real chance of ending us as #1.

Here is a link to the list:

http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/

[teganslaw]

Lori Lori, thanks for the link. I'm pleased to see "The Stand" and 'Watchers" on the list. Both are great! 

I finished "The Great Gatsby" and agree that it's a masterpiece. Such a tragedy; in a way I felt sorry for Gatsby, although he was responsible for his own unhappiness.