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'Martin' wrote on '12:
I love it when couples do something for Valentine's day that has a personal meaning to them. When did you go to Italy? I spent a couple of weeks there in 2004; visited Rome, Florence, Pisa and Cinque Terre.
We were there last May – 2 weeks in Rome, Positano & Capri. Capri is truly one of the most beautiful places! I'll start a new thread as I would love to see where other people here have traveled.
Valentine's Day (like New Year's Eve) is a non-holiday to me. If you love someone, you should live every day like it's Valentine's Day. My honey and I are going to have dinner at a great authentic Italian restaurant that reminds us of our recent trip to Positano/Capri – Trattoria Toscana in the Village.
My funniest Valentine's Day memories are from my single days. My other single friends and I would throw an “Angry Women's Party” – basically a 3 hour all you can drink event for women only. We would put up paper on the walls where we could dedicate declarations of “not love” to the guys who wronged us (i.e. To John – for making me sleep in the wet spot). Very cathartic and funny – then we would open up the event to guys, who would get a kick out of all the dedications, not to mention all my drunk girlfriends.
What a well read group! Orwell is one of my favorites now (not so much in HS when I was forced to read him). 1984, Animal Farm and Down and Out in Paris and London are classics!
My favorite genre of books is the mystery/thriller. James Patterson used to be one of my favorites until he started to ascribe to the “quantity not quality” philosophy of writing. However, his earlier stuff from the Alex Cross series is great, as well as the Women's Murder Club series. Everything else lately is a quick read with no substance.
The Alienist by Caleb Carr is a great book of this genre. The Profiler meets Jack The Ripper in turn of the century NY. Has everything I love: rich history, the application of forensic science to track a serial killer, the chase. A definite must read.
The Innocent Man: Murder & Innocence in a Small Town by John Grisham. Prefer his fiction, however, this true crime story was written well enough to paint a very disturbing look at our (in)justice system. Defense attorneys have their work cut out for them if they face prosecutors who are truly as crooked as the alleged defendants they represent.
Going outside the mystery/thriller genre – My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Very well written book, exploring morals vs. ethics vs. emotions, with a shocking ending. Quick read, you won't be able to put it down. I understand a lot of Ms. Picoult's work is like this but this is the only book of hers that I have read. Do not watch this movie!
I used to be a teacher's assistant in an expository writing class at NYU and in this capacity was exposed to the following which I highly recommend:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of my favorite spiritual reads. An inspired read every time I pick it up, it illustrates the power of dreams and the importance of following them.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a collection of short stories that are set in the time of the Vietnam War, but they are not war stories as much as they are life stories. An illustration of the tangible, physical baggage people carry as well as the intangible that affect our lives.
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. This story is about a self-indulgent man who finds himself the hard way, via the crimes against him and his daughter in the newly-Apartheid abolished South Africa.
That's it for now……
Hi Martin, hi Lindsay – glad to see I have fellow e-Readers here…..I won't lie though, I envy those with a Kindle. Still too early to tell about the Nook. FYI, if you don't already know this, if you have a NY Public Library card, you can borrow books online to download to your e-Reader (the file will “expire” after 21 days). I will look for the thread re: recommended books and add some of my own soon. Ciao for now!
