Tea and Books

That book is so interesting. I love bees.

I’ve got about 100 pages left and I’m really enjoying it. I’m generally interested in bees, but I feel like learning more now to see what of this is similar to bee behaviour. So interesting!

I PLOUGHED through it. Great writing style. I didn’t know about royal jelly before reading …among other things…I don’t want to say any spoilers!! :O

I also like the fact that it’s in the point of view of a bee, and that this shows how honeybees view bumblebees, wasps, spiders, flies. There are soooo many fascinating things.

I love Michael Pollan, but haven’t read Cooked yet.
How is it?

I kike some of Pollan’s ideas but he comes off as a prat for me. I didn’t mint the Omnivores Dilemma but this one didn’t jive for me. He compared the four elements to aspects of cooking and then expounded on them for 70ish pages each. I didn’t like it but if you’re a fan of him in general you might!

I see her name a lot lately. I’ll have to pick one up sometime to try out. Wikipedia tells me she has two main universes, which do you recommend I start? I do like fantasy books, but am turned off by a lot of repeated details or minutiae of the background (a la Lord of the Rings). I read Terry Goodkind though, so obviously I can handle repetition better now!

Okay, just realized there are two universes, filled with series. AHHH. Should I just begin at the beginning? Does it matter? I only read from the library and I like to go somewhat in order so maybe I should go newer. I shot myself in the foot with Pratchett by insisting on reading in publication order, but only once in a while and I forget things.

I’d start at the beginning of one universe or the other. The characters in Tortall start young but age more quickly; they’re more YA books. In the Circle books they start young and stay young for quite a while; they’re more YT books. She wrote the initial Tortall books first, and that’s where I started. I would probably start there, with Song of the Lioness quartet.

I’ll give it a go. I’ve found the quartet through the library in audio format which I’m not a fan of. I’ve put in a request to a fantasy loving friend, in case she has them in paper. I was surprised there isn’t an e-format in my library for them, but I see a lot of later books available. Thanks for the recommendation!

I am on my phone, so it’s being a pain trying to tell if the books are sharable our not. I’ll check when I get back to my computer.

Unfortunately, it’s not loanable. Sorry!

Ooh! It looks like the Circle books are loanable, or at least some of them are. Message me your email and I can loan you the Kindle book of the first one.

I don’t really know about the loan thing, but assuming it doesn’t apply to other types of ereaders? I only joined the e-world a month or two ago, but have a Kobo since I’m Canadian and wanted library books rather than purchased.

Yeah, it probably won’t work. Sorry. :(

That’s okay! It was very thoughtful anyway. I will work something out. Where there is a will, there is a way. Maybe I’ll just have to make a library recommendation for purchase!

Tamora Pierce! I loved her Lioness Quartet when I was a kid. I recommend that you start with Alanna.

Oh man, it’s been a while since I read that, but I remember really liking it. The musical’s so different from the book, but both are great. And you’re meeting Gregory Maguire?! That’s awesome. So jealous! =)

So far, I’m honestly not a fan of the book. Besides the overly explicit sexual material that I find disturbing and unnecessary, he seems to jump forward 5-7 years every time the conflict finally gets climactic. And it is SOOO different from the musical!! I honestly don’t know how someone read this book and then created that musical from it. There are hardly any similarities at all (I’m about halfway through).

It’s definitely a polarizing book. I enjoyed his prose and some of the philosophical/moral/political questions the book raised (though admittedly, if I reread it now, there’s a chance I’d dislike one of the two since my tastes have shifted a little since then).

The musical really only pulls character names from the book and a handful of other details, and the rest is mostly based on the events of the movie, whereas the book is based around the Baum novels, if I remember correctly.

I haven’t seen the musical, but I did read most of his books. I remember really enjoying Wicked but being let down by the rest. I also didn’t always necessarily like the characters or the story and I too would get frustrated by the leaps but I still enjoyed it. I’ve noticed that I seem to remove explicit scenes from my memory though. I recently convinced someone to read my favourite author (Jasper Fforde) and she reported back that the violence in it really bothered her. I don’t think of it as a violent book so I either gloss over it in my brain in favour of other things or I’m highly desensitized. Likely a combo of both…I’ve read some pretty weird stuff at a pretty young age.

Anyway, good luck with Maguire!

Thanks! I do plan on asking him why he jumped forward in time like that so much. It’ll be interesting to see what he says.

What makes it better than GOT? And are you referring to the HBO series or the books?

Everything he wrote may take a while! If my mother ever gets back into reading I’d love to have a mini book club with had. We used to read Ted Dekker books together a few years back.

My daughter Jess (age 31, lives one block away with hubby & 2 kids) has been my book reading companion for years. For years we both bought books, & traded them back & forth. When I got a kindle I gave it to her & downloaded the kindle app to my iPad, so now we can read the same books simultaneously, & enjoy lively discussions. :)

Re Stephen King, I was a big fan back in high school (mid seventies), reading everything he wrote, then I deviated from the path, so there’s a lot I haven’t read. We’ll probably read a few, then read something else, then read a few more SK…or something like that :)

That sounds so great. My mother has been experiencing severe depression for a few years and one of the things she would like to return to (but isn’t yet) is reading. She tries occasionally, and i got her some reading glasses since that is a factor now but she doesn’t have the focus yet. I look forward to the day i can read with her again – and get her help with crosswords!

Mercury fillings can also cause depression and anxiety. When I got mine removed and had a metal cleanse, I never got depression or major anxiety attacks again. I still do tend to feel overwhelmed though… :-( That books sounds interesting. I’ll have to download it to my Kindle app.

Whew, Steepster let me on the forum! I actually had to get that audiobook for a patron yesterday and wondered what it was about. I think I’ll take a read of it myself. I appreciate hearing your stories – it is amazing the variety of things that can help people. My mother is on medication and has been for some time, but other efforts have been made as well. For the longest time she ate only enough to be alive as she didn’t derive any pleasure from it. I can only assume that resulted in some imbalances, which likely continue today. I’ve tended toward ‘the blues’ especially in winter or extended grey weather but my experience as the relative of someone experiencing a deeper depression has left me more conscious of causes and the things that can be done to turn things around at an early stage. Hopefully these methods can keep me and others from reaching her level, but time will tell. I am just grateful that she finally feels better, no matter the cause.