Peggy's Orange July, 2011

Long may this group continue!!!
My first Orange of the summer is A Visit from the Goon Squad. I said it before, and I'll say it again. Jennifer Egan is a clever, clever, clever woman!



(And have a nice, cool orange squash!)

* waves*
HELLO PEGGY !!!!

I'm reading Memory of Love right now and thinking of you, because I know that's one you were particularly fond of.

Hi, Laura!
I'm excited that you're reading the Forna. It's still fresh in my tiny little mind, and I'd love to talk about it with you when you're ready.

>3 LizzieD:: it's a deal! I have refrained from reading the thread for this book but will weigh in there when I'm finished.

Hello Peggy! I loved the Goon Squad - yes, Egan is clever! =)

Hi Peggy. ***waves madly***

Greetings, Jill and Belva!!!
What a kaleidoscope *Goon Squad* is turning out to be! I'd short-list it!

#1 Ooh, very refreshing - has made me thirsty!

Glad you're enjoying The Goon Squad so much - that's another on my list of orange books to try at some point.

Hello Peggy, I don't have a copy of The Goon Squad yet - looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

I just finished A Visit from the Goon Squad and loved it! Since there were a couple of decent reviews, I just jotted down my immediate reactions on my 75 thread - here. They're so general as to be unhelpful, but I did enjoy the book. Egan is a phenomenon of sorts, but I don't think that her cleverness does anything but enhance her character-building, story-telling abilities.
Now I am in the enviable position of starting a new Orange. I probably won't finish it before the month is out, but I'm looking forward to it..... I had toyed with loading *T'sW* on my Kindle, but I don't feel ready for it and the mixed reviews are enough to rule that one out for now. SO ---- I had promised myself to read Fingersmith last year and didn't and to read Old Filth this year and didn't. I'll dip a bit into both of those and Black Water Rising and be back in a bit to report on my next choice. Choosing a new book is one of life's great excitements!

I read Fingersmith a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it - my first Sarah Waters.

Squee for Waters! Fingersmith was my first read of hers; now I'm a devoted fangirl. ;) I just brought Black Water Rising home from the libbrary, can't wait to get to it!

I did decide to go with Fingersmith, but The Siege came in a close second. (I know. I know. It wasn't on the possibles list.) It will be my second Waters; I read The Night Watch when it came out.

Peggy, so happy you enjoyed A Visit From the Goon Squad. I can now feel confident when I read the one that I won over on the F/B Orange thread. Yea!~! I will be saving it for Orange January.
I have my first Waters book awaiting: The Little Stranger and I am looking forward to that one. Although I may have to put it back until after ALL VIRAGO/ALL AUGUST.
hugs,

As fast as you read, Belva, I'd expect you to squeeze it into Orange July!!!

I lied: Tipping the Velvet was my first Waters: not sure how I got the two confused! :) The Little Stranger was really wonderful, although quite a departure from her first three. The only one I've yet to get to is The Night Watch: I'm saving it. ;)

Glad you enjoyed the Egan, that will definitely go on my list of books to get out of the library (but after I've read my current library loans).

Is The Little Stranger short or long listed for the Orange? I could only find it under the Booker Prizes. If it is, of course I will read it this month.

Long listed in 2010, Belva.

thanx Linda. I am reading it this month. thanx also Peggy for putting the bug in my ear, so to speak.

Eva, I predict that you will find Waters up to her old tricks in new circumstances when you do get to The Night Watch. Not having read the earlier two, I say that on the basis of others' remarks.
Hi, Dee!
Hi, Belva and Linda. Glad Linda could help you out, Ms. B., and you're welcome to any insects I have hanging around.

I'm looking forward to it! :)

Very cute Peggy, very cute. May I just say: cute as a bug's ear. lol!~!
hugs,

Belva, you may bug me any time you're feeling antsy.

Do I need to say that I'm loving Fingersmith every single time I have time to pick it up? I am!

Glad you are enjoying it. I loved it back in April when I read it.

LizzieD, I'm just surprised you've been able to put Fingersmith down!

I remember trying to ration Fingersmith so it would last longer, but my self control broke down quickly! I think I read the last 300 pgs all in one huge go. :D

Hi, y'all. It's just that everything I'm reading now is awfully good, but I did read a chunk (for me) of *FS* today - got Maud married. (I just looked ahead, and I was suspecting plot twist #1 - can't say why.)

Hi Lizzie! I guessed all of the plot twists ahead of time, but I still thought it was fun to see if I was right. :D

I've read more! How am I going to finish it and The Shadows in the Street at the same time - fast!???!??

Just reporting in. I'm deep into Maud/Sue and Sue/Maud and can't get out enough to read anything else - highly unusual for me. I have also splurged and ordered Hotel World, A Spell of Winter, and Lullabies for Little Criminals, and that's all my Orange library is growing right now. No The Tiger's Wife yet. No.

I must read Fingersmith. It sounds so good to me and I loved The Little Stranger!

I thought Fingersmith was many times better than The Little Stranger!

Her books seem to go in pairs. It's like Waters did all her research for the time era and then had so much information she was able to write 2 books.
Fingersmith and Affinity are both Victorian, as is Tipping the Velvet.
The Little Stranger followed The Night Watch, which are both WW2 era books.

I think you may be right about that coupling, Elizabeth. Or maybe she plans a couple of books at a time. Anyway, I just finished Fingersmith and was as carried away by it as most people seem to be. I'd put it on the light end of the Orange spectrum, child and insane patient abuse notwithstanding. But Holy MOLY! How compelling!!! I don't believe you'll be disappointed, Belva.
Now I am toying with starting either The Siege or Molly Fox's Birthday or whatever else looks good when I visit my Orange shelf to take me out of the month. Bliss.

You all have me Watersed out!~! I feel like running out and buying all of her books. I think that I will read The Little Stranger again one day. Do the rest of you reread her works?
I just finished The Seas by Samantha Hunt and really liked it a lot. Odd little fantasy. (or not) Am now 55 pages into The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey and don't quite know what to think of this one so far. Have any of you read it? Yet on my Orange shelf to be read this week are: Gilgamesh by Joan London, Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden, A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore, Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman and a partially read Tremain, The Road Home that I just can't seem to get into at this time. But the week is short and I have much to do so I don't know how many I will get to. I may have to save some for January.
What to give up?

Belva, do you have an only January and July rule for Orange? I know what you'll be reading in August, but I always want to read something Orange..... My new choice turns out to be Bel Canto. YAY!
And about *RH* - if you haven't gotten Lev into the kitchen, then you really ought to keep reading now. If you did and don't like it, then I give you permission not to finish it. (That's from your older sister!)

@#37:
You are such a sweetie Peggy. I think that I am just pages away from Lev going to work in the kitchen. Lydia has just met him at the tube. So......continue on? Okay. (and I don't think you are older than me at nearly 64 but would love a 'sister' as I have lost both of mine and sisters are precious and irreplaceable)
hugs,

Sweetie yourself! And as I am turning 67 in a few months, I reserve the right to be your big sister. I never had one of those precious commodities. ((((Belva))))

Oh Peggy, can I adopt you then?
I lost my baby sister to a heart condition at 47 and my older sister to cancer at 64. I miss them so much my heart hurts. We all love our families but no one knows you like a sister. No one shares the same life experiences from our youth like a sister. I know that if I let Him, God will fill that empty hole that remains, but I am selfish and sometimes feel that if I don't have that pain of their loss, that I will have lost what I did have of them. Stupid, huh? Bonnie and Susie were their names and they were more precious than gold. We raised Bonnie's daughter after she passed for 3 years before she went out on her own. A little treasure.
((((Peggy)))) back atcha.

Bless you, Belva! Adopt away!!
I watch my mother miss her two sisters who died last year and this year, so I know that the pain really won't disappear altogether. Families that make room for a sister's daughter are a blessing all around!

Here's to adoptive sisters! And thanks for the reminder not to neglect my own sister. We only meet once or twice a year, but you're right, there's no-one else with quite the same shared experiences from those early years.

HEAR, HEAR!~!~!
We could start a 'Sisters of the heart' thread.

The ♥Sisters of the Heart♥ would burgeon exponentially around here! I love and adore my RL friends, especially the hometown ones who share 60 years of experience, but you all are something special! The RL ones suffer when I start trying to talk about books.

But I am sure they do it with glad hearts because of their love for you Peg o my heart.

I finished Bel Canto in Peach August, but I started it in Orange July. I did love it too!!! Thank you, Jill, for getting it to me in Orange January.

You're welcome - such a great book!