Thanks to Mary for her executive decision-making ability. I’m looking forward to reading Far from the Madding Crowd. It deserves its turn now. Good choice.
I’m also curious as to what else everyone plans to read till next discussion. I have quite a collection on my bedside table … too many to actually read. I’ll look through the titles and post later today. For now, off to see The Martian with family. (We enjoyed the book - me, son-in-law, son, and youngest daughter. I recommend it.)
We’ve been putting off seeing
until my son who still lives with us comes back from Ukraine/Russia. (He’s there for his job.) With our luck he’ll decide to see it in the city with his girlfriend and without us, but we hope she comes out next weekend and we can all see it together.
If we are going to read Far from the Madding Crowd I will definitely see if I can get a hold of the Julie Christie version to watch. I thought the new one made Bathsheba too flighty, but I haven’t read the book since high school, so I may feel differently after reading it.
I am currently reading *Thieves World *a collection of short stories written by different authors all set in the same world. It may have been the first “shared world” anthology. The stories are long enough that you can get invested in the characters. I’m reading it because the world of a pair of books a fried wrote was compared to it.
I also still want to read Necromancer the first cyber-punk novel.
Some day I will finish Keith Richard’s autobiography which migrated to the bottom of the bedside table pile. It’s fun, but not actually that compelling. The Good Lord Bird is in the pile too.
A Suitable Boy has been handing around too. And then there’s always the question, is this the year I try to tackle one of those difficult authors like Joyce, or Pynchon? Nah, probably not!
So interesting to see what everyone is reading.
I started sample of Harriet Chance last night and VERY happy about Mary13’s decision to go with Thomas Hardy!!!
Also, " the life changing magic of tidying up" - oh, I wish
@ignatius How was movie the walk - and,do report about The Martian, friend raved about it.
Thank you for deciding, Mary 
I have located from the never-ending stack and dusted off my copy of *Far from the Madding Crowd * so it’s ready to read. Maybe this selection will inspire me to continue on with my other unread, even dustier Jude the Obscure, lol. Oh, and our library system has three film versions of Madding residing in its huge expanse of branches. I’ll have fun tracking them down!
For my current reading, I’ve been trying to catch up with some of the Louise Erdrich titles. I finished The Plague of Doves and am listening to another audio book pairing of The Four Souls and Tracks. The first book, Doves, is really fine. It filled in much of the history of the Judge and Geraldine, the parents from The Roundhouse, and the Grandfather, Mooshum. If you were a fan of The Roundhouse, I highly recommend this book. I also have the Franzen… As with his other books, I already feel like I’m spending as much time trying to figure out what he’s saying about me, his reader, as what he’s getting at with the book.
Thanks everyone for the discussion this month!
Thanks for choosing Far From the Madding Crowd, Mary. I’ve never read any Hardy at all, and that needs to be remedied.
Ooh ooh, mathmom, I hope you do read A Suitable Boy soon. It’s sooo good!
The next book I’m planning to read is the memoir Lit by Mary Karr. I heard an interview with her on the radio recently, and it reminded me how much I liked her writing when I read The Liar’s Club.
I know, there is an intervening book, Cherry, but I’m going to skip it for now. Lit has to do with Karr’s recovery from alcoholism and her conversion to Catholicism, both of which sound interesting to me.
I’ve been reading almost as many memoirs and biographies as fiction lately, and I have another biographical work lined up: The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Doctor Norman Bethune by Ted Allan.
Clarification about my post referring to This is Your Life Harriet Chance. as a lighter selection. It is anything but that half way through this book.
^SJCM, the reviews do indicate that Harriet Chance is rather dark (though apparently with a good ending), despite the silly-sounding title. I didn’t realize it was the book you were referring to as “lighter” in an earlier post. What is it that makes you very glad the book wasn’t chosen? Just curious.
^ for some reason I thought it was a humorous book. It reminds me of "Where did ya go Bermadette " - not sure there would be much to discuss, especially compared to the classic selected
We liked both movies BUT felt that both lasted a bit too long. The Martian gets a stronger thumbs up from everyone, so if you only see one, choose The Martian.
My grandchild’s baby shower kept me whirled away by the sewing machine.
I really enjoyed catching up on your discussions.
Enjoyed how Beryl’s memories were filled in with by the folklore. Was anybody thinking about the dentist’s lion with the tale of Paddy the lion?
Beryl’s mother leaving reminded me of O Brother Where Art Thou and the R-U-N-N-O-F-T scene.
I sympathized with her father, especially, when he valued his word of keeping his contracts when he had the mill. The bankruptcy, losing his horses, home, and family after all his hard work really was Beryl’s life lesson.
Beryl living on credit balances where folks shared with each other. Love your neighbor seemed a daily occasion for Beryl to master. I did not like Beryl for the betrayal of Karen with Denys. Beyond seeing how two people are best friends tend to have similar qualities that would allow them to like each other; Beryl and Denys were all about momentary pleasures. Love the one you are with was the happy valley.
I thought Beryl’s Dad did a good job of allowing Beryl to share his work and developed her love of horses by providing opportunities to learn animal husbandry skills.
The chapter with the voice of the horse was one of my favorites. I own a horse so appreciate the perspective.
The other favorite was her riding on Pegasus, where she talked about how her destiny had been set when she ran into Tom on the edge of the road. I liked how she had phrased Exciting changes take place on a word. Tom had told her how the sky was something you could own. Alone in the sky, you feel like you not only ride on the wind, the view of looking into the world probably gives a feeling of being in more command of the winds. The ultimate Pegasus.
I like Thomas Hardy for the next choice.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Is what I am reading.
The books on my library table to read are:
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
So Much for That by Luis Shriver
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
How are you liking Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Ulumay? I thought Atkinson’s writing was really good in Life After Life, though the plot went a bit off the rails at a certain point, and some of the content about the London Blitz was perhaps unnecessarily grim.
Good comments, Ulumay. I laughed at
However, with all the cheating going on, I think I’d change that to Love the one you’re NOT with. 
My real life book club read Into the Beautiful North five years ago or so. Enjoy!
Really enjoying Behind the Scenes at the Museum. I think it was genius to use the footnotes to tell the tale of four generations via the buttons etc.
I have never read Atkinson’s work before. Would you recommend Life after Life?
Great to hear Into the Beautiful North is good. Did you read The Hummingbird’s Daughter?
I’d recommend Life After Life if you don’t mind books that are non-linear and play around with time and go so far as to create alternative story lines for the same characters. Atkinson does this all quite brilliantly, and the book is not hard to read.
Life After Life was a big best-seller. I’m sure other people here have read it.
I haven’t read The Hummingbird’s Daughter. My book club read Into the Beautiful North six years ago so details are fuzzy but I remember that it’s light/comedic.
Thanks to you both for your input.
Atkinson does non linear beautifully and I have laughed out loud more than once over the wisecracks.