KathyS wrote:About noon, I was right in the middle of typing a response to your post, when I was kicked off....Just like that! Grrrr! I closed B&N down, and re-tried getting back on...this is the page I got! The big X is the Lithium trademark! It was nice of them to warn me! Ha! I got offline, and wrote a short story in the meantime!
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Bah! Humbug!
Thanks for "Say la V" -- that's what I wanted. 
(C'est la vie" = "That's life!".-- it is nice when someone else does the research! I like your grandmother's expression, too. Rather like my mother's Danish for "poor little.")
I sent Exuberance and Under This Unbroken Sky out for comment and feedback.
I understand a bit about chosing what to include in one's profile. No way could, nor would, I include everything, so the questions become "what?" I very much enjoyed seeing what you had selected. I sensed your favorites lists is more current than mine, which is weighted with things I return to again and again as resources, although not necessarily to reread.
Pepper, I'm glad to return the favor of foot work for you...the least I could do for all of the times you've researched for me! 
As for the two books you've chosen, or possibly will choose: I don't know how much you follow me on these boards, and read the things I say about books, etc., but I assume you do know that Exuberance is not a novel, and I have written on Ilana's blog about its contents, with quotes, and the writer's experiences in her life and her writing of each of her books? This book, as you know, I'm still reading. I pick it up and put it down, as I feel the need to read it. Its contents has more than enough things in it to discuss!
Kay, I can only imagine, is a reader of all literature. She incorporates so many references into her writing, its wonderful to hear her quotes as she writes. She truly is a beautiful writer, as well as an obvious researcher. I feel that this book is an important book to read, especially by psychologists. And the lay person will have no trouble reading it.
The feelings of Joy/Exuberance, is a part of all of us, but for so many, those feels can't be felt. They're hidden. The importance of these feelings comes when treating patients, and to know that there is something to reach for, to live for. I identify, because I've been there. I think more people than any of us can imagine, are without it. We need these feelings to live, there is no doubt.
I haven't given anything away about this book, except what it translates to me, as a whole. So much content, I would never be able to tell you. It would take more than just a week, or a month...to tell you everything that it contains, and I'm only half way through it!
And the First Look Book, Under This Unbroken Sky, was a personal challenge for me, as I participated in that discussion. The challenge was to convince others of the characters' validity. Everyone had doubts about these characters' reasoning for doing what they did. It's not an easy book to digest, but the writing and story is so unusual, and compelling, there is no way you can put it down. Shandi Mitchell is one of the most introspective writers I've had the privilege to talk to.
I do hope you choose these two books. I think they go hand in hand, and are more than worth reading. Kay's books, her background in her personal life, and as a research doctor and teacher, will expalin these characters in UTUS.
Enjoy!
Kathy
I just finished watching " The Jane Austen Book Club " I believe that it will be one of my top 10 films forever I absolutely love that film and it got me wondering what everyone else's top ten films and books are : ) I will start mine are:
films:
1.) My Fair Lady
2.) The Jane Austen Book Club
3.) To Sir With love
4.) True Grit
5.) Stepmom
6.) Grease
7.) Legends of the Fall
8.) Van Wilder
9.) Bruce Almighty
10.) 13 going on 30
I know that as the years pass this may change but at 26(almost 27) years of age these are my top 10 
My top 10 books
1.) Emma
2.) The fountain Head
3.) Roots
4.) Wicked
5.) Beloved
6.) Catcher in the Rye
7.) Joy luck club
8.) Hamlet
9.)Voyage of the Dawn Treader
10.) Hatchet
if I could only read the same 10 books over and over again these would be the ones I would choose 
Really gets you thinking doesn't it...
yes you could have a collection of Poe LOL... Want to know how I came to my top 10 re-reads?
I thought of all the books that I have enjoyed over the last 20 years ( and oh my the number is impressive to me ) and I thought about what books I recommended to others to read, and then I thought about the books that were good the first time through but when I tried to re-read I found I got nothing more out of them and eliminated them from my list. I thought about the books that got me through hard times in my life and books that I never wanted to end and books that no matter how many time I read them it feels like the very first time and so I collected those books in a smaller list and all the while lamenting the idea of only ever being to read the same 10 books again and again with no possibility of anything new I came to my list. A book on my list that I read as a child and again as a teen and again as an adult and will read again with my son made my list ... A book that I wrote an essay on and won a scholarship also went on my list as I have re-read that book every 5 years since I first opened it and have always gotten something new from it. Now I did limit my books to fiction as this is a fiction discussion board and to think of all the different types of books would have been impossible for me to pick just 10
Wow, you did put a lot of thought into that list! I'm impressed.
Deserted Island Scenario.
I haven't spent that much time thinking about books I'd read again, let alone take just ten with me, to wherever there isn't a bookstore! I wouldn't just pick fiction. My list is buried in my B&N Profile. I also have some books that are no longer published, which I can't list in my profile, that I would like to take. I don't generally reread fiction, unless I have to. I know a lot of people do, but I just don't want to. When I read, I feel as though I've rung out the dish rag, or sucked all the flavor out of a Popsicle, and I leave just the clear ice on the stick.
I do reread nonfiction, when necessary. Maybe we could all be on that deserted island together, then we could exchange books! Ha! I have some art history books I'd like to take with me,and if I could have a piano, I'd bring my sheet music! Stephanie, I'd share them with you. And I'd need something to write on, and with...can I have my computer, please? That new iPad looks like something I might have to investigate......I'll get one before I leave!
Well, how's that for getting totally off the subject?
Good morning, Ms. Sunshine.... Happy Monday!
All's fair on the western front....just foggy this morning....typical June gloom in So. Ca. this time of year....which is nice for here. It keeps us cool! Our hot weather comes the rest of the year, so I can't (and won't) complain! Ha!
Hope all are well, elsewhere! Stay cool, all you cats!
K.
