books

[corianderstem]

Steinbeck is my favorite classic author, I believe. East off Eden alone would make me revere the man.

I love Steinbeck. I think I was the only one in my high school class who actually liked Grapes of Wrath. Weirdos.

 

[lazarus]

Wherever there's a mod censoring an offensive post, I'll be there, ma.

 

[corianderstem]

 

[onebloodonelife]

I love Steinbeck. I think I was the only one in my high school class who actually liked Grapes of Wrath. Weirdos.

I Grapes of Wrath. I read the whole thing in like two nights during my junior year. You're right though, everybody else hated it.
My English teacher also lectured about the phallic symbols and raping of the land in the book for an entire hour once.

I just got a book called Can't Find My Way Home, which is all about the drug culture from 1945-2000. It's very interesting, talking about all types of drugs, from heroin usage by jazz musicians to marijuana usage by the Beat writers in the 1950s.

 

[corianderstem]

#33 Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey

The full title is Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams.

Last year I read Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, about the world of gymnastics and figure skating (mostly gymnastics) for young girls. Really eye-opening and often horrifying stuff. I certainly don't look at gymnastic events the same way anymore.

Jennifer was the 1986 national gymastic champion, and this is her story. It's interesting - most accounts you hear about gymnastics in the US is about the horrifying side, and yet and yet and yet ...

The gymnasts want it. They hide the abuses (abuses they do to themselves, the abuse from coaches) from their parents because this is what they're driven to do. The parents seem to often get caught up in that drive, and elite gymnasts' families are separated by necessity for costly training, and sometimes look the other way to pretend their daughters aren't bulemic, anorexic or whatever. Or that performing while injured isn't such a big deal, because all gymnasts do it, and it's what's needed to keep competing, to win.

Whew. Anyway. Good book. Fast read.

 

[No spoken words]

Laz, I always thought you liked either Steinbeck or Hemmingway....I'll take Fitzgerald over Hemmingway, like I choose Steinbeck over Hemmingway. Hemmingway's a little too macho for me, and the anti-semitism aint exactly endearing him to me either. I loved the Winter of Our Discontent, but, it's not exactly an uplifting book.

Reading Outer Dark by Cormac right now. This is a man that likes dark themes, jesus.

 

[corianderstem]

The only Hemingway I've read that I really liked was a short-story collection. ... and I'm totally blanking on the name of it. D'oh.

edit: In Our Time, maybe? That sounds right.

 

[corianderstem]

#34 World War Z by Max Brooks

What if World War III wasn't a nuclear attack? Or even a biological attack? What if it was .... ZOMBIES????

The book is an oral history of the outbreak, the panic, the war, and the aftermath of the Zombie war.

I skimmed some of the bits where the characters were describing military technology and manuevers in great detail, but it was really, really cool and often quite creepy.

 

[u2popmofo]

That's one of the most entertaining books I've read in a few years, Cori. It's spread like virus (or zombie outbreak? ) among my friends. I think all of us read it in 3 days or less. Sounds like you skipped over all the parts guys worship the book for though!

A couple interesting tidbits:
-Max Brooks is Mel Brooks' son, and previously a writer for SNL
-Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment (Troy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Departed), is developing a movie adaptation

 

[corianderstem]

A couple interesting tidbits:
-Max Brooks is Mel Brooks' son, and previously a writer for SNL

Get OUT. That's so cool!

I wouldn't mind seeing what they could do with a movie adaptation ... as long as it wasn't just another blow-em-up war movie or something.

 

[powerhour24]

I Grapes of Wrath. I read the whole thing in like two nights during my junior year. You're right though, everybody else hated it.
My English teacher also lectured about the phallic symbols and raping of the land in the book for an entire hour once.

I just got a book called Can't Find My Way Home, which is all about the drug culture from 1945-2000. It's very interesting, talking about all types of drugs, from heroin usage by jazz musicians to marijuana usage by the Beat writers in the 1950s.

Grapes of Wrath is amazing, but most everything else Steinbeck wrote bores me to death or just aggravates me (The Pearl ), I see what he was trying to convey and the themes and characters are admirable, I just don't care for his writing.

 

[powerhour24]

I'm pumped to start the summer with a new novel from my favorite Chuck Palahniuk (Snuff) and David Benioff (City of Thieves) who wrote the 25th Hour and then adapted the screenplay and has since been a Hollywood screenwriter, instead of continuing to write and I really really like his style of writing. I don't even know what it is about it, but its instantly compelling and stark descriptions without being wordy, I love it. I haven't read either of them yet but I'm really excited for them, not so much for Palahniuk being attempted for the screen again with Choke (but it does have Anjelica Huston in it so there's its redemption), he writes quite cinematic action I suppose but his themes and satire just can't be done well on screen like Fight Club, brilliantly stylish movie completely misses the point of what made the book a masterpiece.

 

[No spoken words]

Grapes of Wrath is amazing, but most everything else Steinbeck wrote bores me to death or just aggravates me (The Pearl ), I see what he was trying to convey and the themes and characters are admirable, I just don't care for his writing.

East of Eden bored you? Wow.

 

[redkat]

Grapes of Wrath is amazing, but most everything else Steinbeck wrote bores me to death or just aggravates me (The Pearl ), I see what he was trying to convey and the themes and characters are admirable, I just don't care for his writing.

I was mad at him after reading The Red Pony. If his books hadn't been required reading at my high school i would stayed away. I loved The Grapes of Wrath, Mice and Men and Cannery Row. The Pearl wasn't my favorite either.

Has anyone ever gone back and re-read all their high school reading lists? I was looking at all the classics laid out at the book store for the summer reading lists and was tempted. I think I'd start with A Farewell to Arms nsw or The Red Badge of Courage

 

[zuropa_fit]

I haven't gone back to re-read but I have read a couple that I was supposed to read and never did . Both times I wonder why I didn't read it the 1st time; they were so good. Of Mice and Men and All Quiet on the Western Front.

Reading Into The Wild right now (Jon Krakauer). It's really poorly written. Also trying to get into Reading Lolita In Tehran.

 

[corianderstem]

Reading Into The Wild right now (Jon Krakauer). It's really poorly written.

Can you elaborate? I've really loved everything Krakauer has written, although to be honest, I'm usually so caught up in what he's writing about that I don't notice the writing itself. Then again, it's probably at least partly the writing that sucks me in.

#35 The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

I know I just finished #34 yesterday, but I picked this one up and cliche, cliche, cliche, I couldn't put it down.

The narrator takes her fiance's young daughter to the beach, looks away for a minute, and the little girl has disappeared. The book covers the year after - the search, the narrator's attempt to dig deeper into her memories to see what details she's not remembering, and the emotional fallout.

It was pretty good, a quick read. The ending surprised me (in a good way).

 

[beegee]

Reading Into The Wild right now (Jon Krakauer). It's really poorly written.

I'd be interested in hearing why you think it's poorly written as well.

 

[zuropa_fit]

Can you elaborate?

Of course this is just my opinion but I feel like his writing is too dry, too analytical, too self-conscious. It also jumps around waaaaaaaay too much for my taste. And finally, there is a lot of extraneous information that could have been pared down. Again, just my opinions. My students and I are reading it together and I'm sort of sorry I assigned it.

 

[corianderstem]

Ah, okay. I find his writing very engrossing, but for that book, I could agree that he added a lot of extraneous information that probably could have been withheld (no, I can't name specific things, just a general memory of reading it).

I didn't feel that way at all reading Into Thin Air or Under the Banner of Heaven.

He needs to come out with a new book, stat!

 

[beegee]

cori, you're probably remembering the chapters where Krakauer veers off into the tale of his own Alaskan adventure. I agree it wasn't really necessary and I must admit that I skip it every time I read it.

Krakauer was lucky to have researched this book when he did because a lot of the places where McCandless spent time are now gone. He was able to visit places and conduct interviews that would be impossible today. That alone makes it a very special book.

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, that sounds right. It felt a bit like he had to stretch things out a bit, or flesh them out, to get enough pages to justify a whole book. But I still love it, my mixed feelings about McCandless and all.

 

[beegee]

I'm just finishing How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder by Mike Gilbert, former sports agent and confidant to O.J. Simpson.

The whole thing reads like

Tell us something we don't know.

 

[Carek1230]

I don't like books that are like that. I Feel guilty that I am wasting my time when I am into a book like that and oftentimes will just put the book down.

I'm still plugging away at Barbara Walters' latest book and it's gotten a bit boring, it's not as good as I thought, there was a lot of hype. Bleh.

 

[powerhour24]

East of Eden bored you? Wow.

I haven't read that one, I'm speaking of his writing style in The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and his book about King Arthur, all of which were read in school, whereas Grapes of Wrath I did on my own, perhaps there's a connection.

I've been devouring some contemporary novels and nonfiction stuff in the past week or so, but I'm thinking of going back to some classic writers in the next month or so, maybe I'll give East of Eden a try.

 

[No spoken words]

I haven't read that one, I'm speaking of his writing style in The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and his book about King Arthur, all of which were read in school, whereas Grapes of Wrath I did on my own, perhaps there's a connection.

I've been devouring some contemporary novels and nonfiction stuff in the past week or so, but I'm thinking of going back to some classic writers in the next month or so, maybe I'll give East of Eden a try.

I hope you do, and that you enjoy it.....and I've always found that when I revisit books I read due to mandates, I end up with a completely different take than I originally had....sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. I know people that refuse to re-read books and I cannot really understand that at all. I'm not a big fan of The Pearl, either, by the way.

I just finished Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. I did not like it as much as the Border Trilogy books, or Blood Meridian or The Road....but I did enjoy it....his worst books are still great, at least to me. He' not everyone's cup of tea, though, that's for sure.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I confess I'm not much of a Steinbeck fan, either. I hated reading The Red Pony so much in seventh grade that it's sort of a miracle that I ended up getting a PhD in English. Then again, I hated The Great Gatsby in high school, and when I went back to it later, I loved it. Maybe I need to give Steinbeck another chance. Usually when I want a rather sparse 20th Century American writer, I turn to Hemingway.

 

[corianderstem]

#36 sMothering by Wendy French

Yes, that odd capitalization is on purpose, which should have been my first clue as to how the book was.

I make no secret of my love for fluffy chick lit, but I usually have good luck in picking chick lit that's actually good. This one, not so much. I kind of hated it. The main character was heinously annoying and kind of a bitch. She's in her 20s, working at a job she hates, her life is a mess, her mom unexpectedly comes to stay, cliches follow.

Oh well! That's another one for the paperbackswap.com pile.

 

[No spoken words]

I make no secret of my love for fluffy chick lit

QFT

 

[lazarus]

I make no secret of my love for furries.

WHOA.

 

[No spoken words]

WHOA.

Come on man, it's the book thread...pretend you're in a library.