Update on Anne Rice's The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

I've learned that a few people who are reading along are already finished (you go, guys!) so since I'm behind, instead of having two discussions, we will have the final discussion on November 1st. That will give me time to finish it! I'm loving it. It's as good as I remember.

Talk to you on November 1st!

Anne Rice's The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

 

I can't wait for Anne's new book, the sequel to The Mummy...Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra! That's why I decided, way back when Anne announced that her and Christopher had written the book, I would host a read-along of the first book. I absolutely loved it when I read it years ago and it remains one of my top favorites of her books.

I'm a bit late with the schedule, but I hope you will still join me. My copy is 436 pages so I'm thinking we will read the first half, have a discussion, and then read the second half, and have a final discussion. It actually works out nicely for this book because it has a Part One and a Part Two.

I will post discussions here and we will have an event over in the Gather Together and Read Facebook page.

Schedule:

• Read Part One and join us for the discussion on October 16.
• Read Part Two and join us for the discussion on November 1st.

I hope you will join me! I promise you...this book is SO good!

Note: This read-along is also part of the Never-Ending Anne Rice Challenge. You do not have to be a challenge participant to take part in the read-along.

IT - #SummerofIT Read-Along Update

Sadly, the Summer of IT seems to have become the year of IT. I saw the movie on Sunday. AWESOME! Just to let you know...it's "Chapter One" so there will be a second movie. So, if you're halfway (or more) through the book (like me), you're okay to see the movie without really spoiling the book...I think. Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging away. If you're still reading along (slowly, like me), I hope you will join me to discuss when the time comes. I'll be sure to post updates periodically.

Thanks for bearing with!

The Never-Ending #AnneRice Challenge announces...The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

Everyone knows I'm a huge Anne Rice fan (duh, the reading challenge might be a clue lol). She's my favorite author and she has written a sequel (with her son, Christopher Rice) to one of my favorites of her books, The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. The new book is titled Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. So, I've decided to host a read-along of the first book in honor of the sequel's release in November. This will be a reread for me and frankly, I'm pretty excited. Rereading a favorite is always fun!

 The new book...squee!

If you would like to join us, leave a comment (and a link to your post, if you do one). I will have a post ready on October 1st with the reading/discussion schedule. Note: You do not have to be a Never-Ending Anne Rice challenge participant to join in on the read-along.

I hope you will join us!

IT - #SummerofIT Read-Along - Revised reading schedule

I'm failing so miserably at this read-along. Go figure. (This book is daunting) I'm trying to figure out a way to revise the schedule while still keeping it the Summer of IT. Here goes:

Previous schedule:

• Start reading on June 1st
• In June, read Part 1: The Shadow Before, Derry: The First Interlude, and Part 2: June of 1958 - Pages 3 - 433
• Discussion on Friday, June 30th - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In July, read Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Monday, July 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In August, read Derry: The Fourth Interlude, Part 5: The Ritual of Chud, Derry: The Last Interlude, and Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats The Devil (II) - Pages 879 -1138 (end)
• Final discussion on Thursday, August 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)

Parts 1 through 4 make up the bulk of the book so I miscalculated the time needed (at least for busy slowpokes, like me). The last section is only 259 pages so this reading schedule revision makes more sense.

Revised schedule:

• Read in June, July, and August 1 - 15 - Part 1: The Shadow Before, Derry: The First Interlude, and Part 2: June of 1958 - Pages 3 - 433
  
  AND
  
• Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Wednesday, August 16 - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• August 16 - August 31, read Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Friday, September 1 - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)

Reminder Discussion will take place in our Gather Together and Read group on Facebook.

I will also post a discussion post here on the blog for those who are not on Facebook.

IT - #SummerofIT Read-Along - Part of the Stephen King Challenge

The new movie comes out in September and we will be ready! Read along with us this summer...June, July and August. Added bonus, this counts toward the Stephen King Perpetual Challenge, also hosted on this site. Who else has been wanting to mark this off their TBR for a long time, or maybe it's a reread for you (if that's the case, I commend you!)?

Note: You do not have to be a challenge participant to join in on the read-along. That being said, I do hope you will take a look at the challenge and think about signing up.

My copy is the 1986 Viking Penguin hardcover edition. Total pages, 1138.

Discussion will take place in our Gather Together and Read group on Facebook. I will create an event for each month, as I don't think Facebook will allow a three month event. Please ask to join the group if you want to participate over there so you will receive the event invites.

I will also post a discussion post here on the blog for those who are not on Facebook. When/if you mention the read-along on social media, please use the hashtag #SummerofIT

Schedule:

• Start reading on June 1st
• In June, read Part 1: The Shadow Before, Derry: The First Interlude, and Part 2: June of 1958 - Pages 3 - 433
• Discussion on Friday, June 30th - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In July, read Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Monday, July 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In August, read Derry: The Fourth Interlude, Part 5: The Ritual of Chud, Derry: The Last Interlude, and Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats The Devil (II) - Pages 879 -1138 (end)
• Final discussion on Thursday, August 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)

You can sign-up by posting about it on your blog (or on social media) and adding your link in the Mister Linky widget below. Again, please use #SummerofIT when sharing about this read-along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Any questions for me...hit the contact me button in the sidebar, or ask in the Facebook group. 

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

The Handmaid's Tale Read-Along - Discussion #Resistance #13WLRP

I'm wondering if now was a good time to read a book like this...because it scared me, and I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach throughout reading it. I now realize that it's an important read because it demonstrates why we must fight to keep the freedoms we have won. We must not let our status as women be demoted to that of the women in this book. We must not let the tenets of our Constitution (United States) be trampled upon. The freedom of speech, of the press, to address grievances. The separation of church and state.

I think the fear really hit me when I read this passage (p. 174, Ch. 28). "It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time."

Sound familiar?

Then, when Offred (the woman she was in the past) goes to buy cigarettes and is told that her Compubank card is invalid. Then she, along with the other women who work with her, is let go from her job. She finds out later that day from her friend, Moira that "women can't hold property anymore. It's a new law."

Sucker punch. I pride myself on my independence, as I'm sure many women do, whether they're married (or in a relationship) or not. Could this happen? Is this what insidious plan some government officials might have in mind for women?

This is probably my favorite quote from the novel. "Better never means better for everyone...It always means worse for some." The commander is the one who says this to Offred. Its meaning echoes the sentiments of one who says, "Make American great again." The quote is the Commander's justification for Gilead existing when Offred asks why it is such an awful society for women. As in most dictatorships, the elite believe the change they caused were for the public good, no matter how many people suffer as a result. Again, sound familiar?

It is truly alarming when a dystopian novel, a work of fiction, may be foreshadowing what's to come if the state of our country continues to proceed down the path it is currently on. It's a cue to us that we cannot be complacent. As many of us know from history, people never believed that things could get as bad as they did during the Holocaust. They never imagined that people would be imprisoned and killed just because they were Jewish, because they didn't fit the Arian mold that Hitler coined as the supreme human.

Complacency. We cannot smugly sit by and think, "That could never happen" because it very well could.

So, what are your thoughts? Share your insight and/or, if you wrote a blog post, share the link in the comments.


Thanks for reading along!

The Handmaid's Tale Read-Along - Update #Resistance

Okay, so I got behind on the read-along. (I suck, I know) Then I got sick. 😠 So, I've decided to do a final discussion this Friday which will be open all day. I created an event for our discussion here (if you're on Facebook and are a member of our group over there, you should have rec'd invites): https://www.facebook.com/events/168940450278958/ 

If you haven't yet joined the group, you'll find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1625188764455723/

I will have a post up here for discussion as well, for those who are not on Facebook. Stop by, start a conversation, share your thoughts, share your blog post(s).

Thanks for bearing with me, guys. Real life (mostly politics 😉 ) keeps interfering with my reading ambitions.

The Handmaid's Tale: A #Resistance Read-Along - We start today! #13WLRP

Today's the day! Start reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. If you haven't signed up, you still can!

Sign up post and reading schedule are HERE. 

Let's show our resistance with reading!

The Handmaid's Tale - A #Resistance Read-Along #13WLRP

In light of recent events in our country, I had decided that I was going to read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's 1984 in the next couple of months. I had much interaction on Facebook about these titles and, as I've been wanting to read Atwood's book for a very long time, and the TV series is coming to Hulu soon, I decided to go for it and host a read-along next month. A bonus is that this book is on List 2 (#231 in the Going Further section) for the 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan challenge. So, it will allow participants of the challenge to mark one off their list for the perpetual challenge, and the yearly challenge.

Note: You do not have to be a challenge participant to join in on the read-along. That being said, I do hope you will take a look at the challenge and think about signing up.

This is not a very long book so there will be a simple read-along schedule. My copy is the 1998 Anchor Books trade paperback edition. Total pages, 311. That page count is including a 13 page Historical Notes section at the end of the book. Excluding those pages, the page count is 295.

Discussion will take place in our Gather Together and Read group on Facebook. I will also post a discussion post here on the blog for those who are not on Facebook. When/if you mention the read-along on social media, please use the hashtag #Resistance

Schedule:

• Start reading on Febrary 1st
  Read through Chapter IX - Night (ending on page 147)
• Midpoint discussion will be on February 15 in our discussion group on Facebook - there will be a post here for those who are not on Facebook.
• Start reading section two on February 16
  Chapter X - Soul Scrolls (page 151) - read to the end of the book (you can elect, or not, to read the historical notes - we will probably discuss, as I'm sure they give insight into the book)
• Discussion on section two/book as a whole on February 28 in our Facebook discussion group - there will be a post here for those who are not on Facebook.

You can sign-up by posting about it on your blog (or on social media) and adding your link in the Mister Linky widget below. Please use #Resistance when sharing about this read-along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Advertisements

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

The #StephenKing Challenge: Salem's Lot Read-Along - Discussion Four/Final Thoughts #TuesBookTalk

Potential spoilers ahead if you have not read the book.

Yes, I'm a week late with this. I apologize. My reading did not go as planned, as usual.

What a book! I can't believe I waited so long to read this.

I have to mention that I was listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula on audio in conjunction with reading this book (my second reading of Dracula) and I found it interesting to see where SK was inspired by Stoker's tale in his story.

For instance, Susan is a kind of parallel with the three vampire women that live with Dracula in his castle. Wow...when Ben had to kill her...that was quite a moment.

Barlow himself could be Dracula. The way SK describes him is fairly similar to how Stoker describes Dracula. Perhaps somehow Dracula did survive being killed. There have been many plausible reincarnations over the years. And so, Dracula takes on the alias Barlow. Outlandish? Not in my opinion.

One of my most favorite parts was the end. I know that's kind of weird, but I liked the part where they were telling of occurrences in and around Jerusalem's Lot and then Ben and Mark go back and set fire to the town to draw the remaining vamps out of their hiding places. Do you think they were eventually able to get them all? I like to think so...and since there isn't a sequel (although you never know...look how long SK took to write a sequel to The Shining), perhaps they did.

This really was a great book, and for being King's second published novel, I can see why his books led him to fame. He really is a genius storyteller and he knows how to deliver the scary, often in a subtle, sneaky way that you're not quite prepared for, but when it happens, it's golden.

I'd like to thank those of you who read along with me and for hanging in there. I'll be sure to visit your posts/reply to the comments you've already left. 

Now we can mark one more off our Stephen King Challenge lists!

The #StephenKing Challenge: Salem's Lot Read-Along - Discussion Two/Three #TuesBookTalk

Note: If you have not completely read sections 2 {pp 111 (Ch. 4, section 10 in Part one) - 218 (end of Ch. 9 in Part two)} and 3 {pp 219 (Chapter Ten - in Part two) - 328 (part three, Ch. 14, before section 4)}, please note that there are spoilers ahead.

I fell way behind on this read-along and I apologize. I hope I'm not the only one! So, this post will cover sections 2 and 3 (see above). I will have the final discussion posted on Halloween (Oct. 31). What better day, I say!?

I'm just going to start off by saying...Wow! That part when Matt and Susan are talking in his kitchen and he says, "There's someone upstairs" and then "I know my house...someone is in the guest bedroom..." Well, I started getting this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then, when he goes upstairs and discovers Mike. Egads! That was probably the scariest part of the book for me so far. Whew! My skin was crawling with fear.

I've mentioned that I've seen both television mini-series based on this book. The 1979 version which starred David Soul, and the 2004 version starring Rob Lowe. Previously, these were the only point of reference I had for this story...and I thought them pretty scary, especially the 1979 version. Not anymore. These two TV films do not hold a candle to this book. So, again, the book is better. As if we didn't know!

Things really escalated in these two sections. People are dropping like flies, And Kurt Barlow. Did anyone else envision him as a Dracula-like figure? Totally! I just think the name "Kurt Barlow" is so weird. And I guess Straker is a kind of Renfield character, but a more tough, less sniveling one. Thank you for that, SK. I never could stand the Renfield character, to be honest. (I'm listening to Dracula on audio right now).

The facepalm moment for me was when Susan decides to go to the Marsten House...alone. What a dummy. She is so set on proving her independence (my opinion) that she takes it to the ultimate limit, and it costs her life. But I guess it's kind of the theme of vampire novels (or at least Dracula-esque stories). There has to be a woman who is tragically lost to the vampire.

So, those are my thoughts this week? What did you think? Are you enjoying the book as much as I am?

I'm also sharing this discussion in the TuesBookTalk group on Goodreads.

The #StephenKing Challenge: Salem's Lot Read-Along - Discussion One #TuesBookTalk

Note: If you have not completely read section one through subchapter 10 in Chapter 4 of Part One, please not that there are spoilers ahead.

Subtlety. That's how I would describe how King sets up a story. He goes about showing us how normal a town is, throwing in bits of alarming details, like the savage hanging of the dog on the cemetery gate, slowly building us toward the horror to come. It's masterful.

It's at that point, when we feel nice and settled in, perhaps part of the town now, that he throws us the scene with the Glick boys in the woods. Now we really get the master of horror. Yikes. The growing terror is palpable and the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. The scene in the cellar, when Hank Peters has to go back down to leave the keys...and sees a shirt, jeans, a sneaker, and then one of the aluminum bands comes loose on the big box. Egads!

I have been a fan of Stephen King since I was about ten years old. Oddly, I read a lot of his books as they were released, like Pet Sematary, Cujo, Christine, etc., and did not read these older books until I was well past my thirties. I read The Shining a few years back. Excellent. The Stand, also excellent. Now this one. And I can tell already...excellent.

This is the perfect read for this time of year. I can't wait to keep going. I know I've seen both editions of the made for TV movies, but these often do not compare to the book (although the 1979 version was quite creepy. My parents wouldn't even let me watch it when it was first aired. I saw it years later).

From the 1979 movie - Delivering crate to the cellar

So, what are your thoughts so far?

I'm also sharing this discussion in the TuesBookTalk group on Goodreads.

Salem's Lot Read-Along - The #StephenKing Challenge

In my TuesBookTalk book group on Goodreads, we always read a scary book in October. I decided that this year we would read a Stephen King novel and Salem's Lot was unanimously voted for. So I decided to host this read-along for The Stephen King Challenge (hosted here on this blog) in conjunction with TuesBookTalk.

You can join the discussion here at Gather Together and Read, in the TuesBookTalk Goodreads group, and/or on Twitter every Tuesday in October at 8:30pm CDT/9:30pm EDT (Hashtag #TuesBookTalk).

Here is the reading/discussion schedule:

Oct. 4: pp 1 - 111 (stop before section 10)
Oct. 11: pp 111 - 218
Oct. 18: pp 219 (Chapter Ten) - 328
Oct. 25: pp 329 - 439 (end)

The edition I'm reading from is the Doubleday edition, 1975 (original publishing date). Hardcover, 439 pages.

I hope you will join me! Just leave me a comment if you plan to join in.

Salem's Lot is reported to be one of King's most scary books. Delicious!