"There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away." (Emily Dickinson)
Request: When you reference something in the book, please let us know where it is so we can all read along. Include the chapter number, page number, and the paragraph number. Like this: (C3, P245, G3) Thanks!
Share your thoughts; any and all are welcome.
Don't know what to say? Here are some ideas:
What made you laugh/cry/think
Lines you loved/hated/didn't understand
Characters or scenes you identified with
Something you disagreed with/embraced
Just one request: When you reference something in the book, please let us know where it is so we can all read along. Include the chapter number, page number, and the paragraph number. Like this: (C3, P245, G3).
Happy Reading!
BREATHING LESSONS by Anne Tyler
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by Richard Yates
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside
A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
6 Robert Frost Poems (3 Group Assigned & You Pick 3)
War as I Knew It by George S. Patton Jr.
Secret Lives of First Ladies by Cormac O'Brian
7 comments:
I identified with the scene of Maggie leaving the garage and getting into an accident because she was shocked by what she heard on the radio. Not that I would get into an accident but a certain line that came in that scene: "Back when Maggie played baseball with her brothers, she used to get hurt but say she was fine, for fear they'd make her quit. She'd pick herself up and run on without a limp, even if her knee was killing her." (C1,P5,G5)
I used to do that to be able to keep up with the guys in sports. And I also think this bit a great way for the author to tell us something about Maggie's character without actually "telling" us. Pretending everything's fine when it really isn't? I love this part: "She used to get hurt...but say she was fine...for fear..."
I identified with the scene when Serena's children ask her where she wants to go eat after the funeral... "When all these people leave, Mom, we're taking you out to dinner, any place your heart desires" (C3, P90, G1) and she suggests the Golden Chopsticks. And then the children go through their selfish reasons why they don't want to eat there and that they already had MacMann's restaurant despite Serena's dislike for it.
I think we have all had those moments when someone asks your opinion, you give it, and then you realize they really didn't care what your opinion was because they had already made their decision... This might also be an insightful moment into the family relationship.
fth: I first read this book in 1993 and haven't read it since. Books I've read more recently (well, since 1995) have tons of marks in them, from my taking notes. But my copy of Breathing Lessons was virtually untouched. So it was surprising to me to find some passges underlined...they must have meant something to me on my first read. Guess what the first underlined passage was! This very scene you mentioned. Interesting!!
Oh gosh. I identify with the following scene TOO well. I didn't even remember the "event" until I read this passage in the book...and it reminded me of a similar coversation I had with my mom while I was in college and cock-sure I was going to change the world. Sorry, Mom!
"Tears pricked her eyelids. She took a deep breath. 'Daisy just sat there and studied me for the longest time,' she said, 'with this kind of...fascinated expression on her face, and then she said, "Mom? Was there a certain conscious point in your life when you decided to settle for being ordinary?"'"
Ouch! Again, sooooo sorry, Mom!
I can identify in general with Maggie's powers of imagination!!! So detailed! And fanciful! And very often absolutely NOTHING like what ends up happening! :o)
(P186)
I identified with the scene of Maggie wondering what was wrong with her that she equated/mourned all loss equally. And the resulting reflection: "Was this how it feels to grow old?"
(P258) The paragraph that starts with "The way Jesse and Fiona relate to each other..." and ends with "Jesse and Fiona were more like a boy and his mother than husband and wife."
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