Reading Is Sexy: Books Part III

[lazarus]

Right. I read a little about that. Apparently King is himself working on a new Dark Tower book which will fit in-between two of the earlier stories.

Anyway, another title that intrigued me was the collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman. Did you read that one and its sequel?

 

[No spoken words]

Straub is another cat I've read a lot of....his last one, which is fairly new, was pretty disappointing but he's written some great stuff. That being said, I never did read the Talisman, not sure why since I have owned it for ages.

 

[lazarus]

I may have to get ahold of that at some point. Keep my eye out for it at the thrift stores.

Also, hopefully I can take another stab at that Jeanne Wolf Shadowclaw thing soon.

Spoiler

 

[No spoken words]

That, or skip ahead to the Books of the Long Sun.......the Shadow/Claw stuff is more fantasy, Long Sun more sci-fi....they are related but it is not necessary to read one in order to read the other......just giving you options here.....his Wizard/Knight books might be a good entry point for him as well.

 

[corianderstem]

Set This House In Order by Matt Ruff

Andrew Gage has a house inside his head. Designed by his father (and "father" is a loose term that gets redefined early on by Andrew, as you'll see if you read it), it is intended to keep his multiple personalities in order and under control. And if that actually worked swimmingly 100% of the time, there wouldn't be much of a book here.

Andrew's got his life pretty together, for the most part, until Penny, a woman who also has MPD/DID comes into his life. And then things start to go haywire as his carefully-constructed world starts to unravel when he reluctantly tries to help Penny.

Really, really enjoyed this book. It takes place in the Seattle area, which was just another thing to like about it, but it was really well-constructed.

My only complaint is that the last 60-70 pages or so kind of dissolve into an almost-standard "whodunnit" regarding the central mystery of Andrew's life, and that almost felt like a cheat after the rest of the book, but it didn't ruin the book for me, so yay.

 

[onebloodonelife]

So, I got a Kindle this week. I'm in love.

NSW, you'll probably be happy to know I put East of Eden on it immediately. (Still need to start reading it though... )

 

[vjacqb]

^Sweet! A Kindle!!

I just finished The Last Child by John Hart.

I can't remember when I have wept so much from reading a book. Yes, I wept... I know I seem to have liked almost every book I've mentioned in here, so maybe my standard is not that high. But this definitely ranks high up there as one of my most favorite books. It's an intricate look of relationships/friendships, faith, obsession/dedication, hope lost and innocence ripped away from a perfect family. Lately I'd been reading spy novels and humor-laden fluff like Stephanie Plum series, which I thoroughly enjoyed as well, but then I read something like this where it's all about drama, and character development, and angsty plot twists that drive that dagger deeper into my heart and I get knocked off my feet. And I thought Hart couldn't have written a better ending. Maybe I also like this book so much because I have always been curious on how people cope with unresolved tragedies such as an abduction...

Synopsys from Publishers Weekly:
A year after 12-year-old Alyssa Merrimon disappeared on her way home from the library in an unnamed rural North Carolina town, her twin brother, Johnny, continues to search the town, street by street, even visiting the homes of known sex offenders, in this chilling novel from Edgar-winner Hart (Down River). Det. Clyde Hunt, the lead cop on Alyssa's case, keeps a watchful eye on Johnny and his mother, who has deteriorated since Alyssa's abduction and her husband's departure soon afterward. When a second girl is snatched, Johnny is even more determined to find his sister, convinced that the perpetrator is the same person who took Alyssa. But what he unearths is more sinister than anyone imagined, sending shock waves through the community and putting Johnny's own life in danger.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I just finished The Last Child by John Hart.

I read that last year, it was great! I remember being shocked by

Spoiler

what happened to Johnny's sister. Also when the police found what was in the weird guy's back yard.

Really liked that you, the reader, could feel what was happening with Johnny's family. You could feel the emotional pain, by the way that the family just completely fell apart after Johnny's sister was abducted. Overall, I would recommend it to others. A from me!

 

[No spoken words]

(Still need to start reading it though... )

Sigh.

You'll probably hate it, too.

 

[vjacqb]

I read that last year, it was great! I remember being shocked by

Spoiler

what happened to Johnny's sister. Also when the police found what was in the weird guy's back yard.

Really liked that you, the reader, could feel what was happening with Johnny's family. You could feel the emotional pain, by the way that the family just completely fell apart after Johnny's sister was abducted. Overall, I would recommend it to others. A from me!

YAY! So it's not just me...
What blew me away was

Spoiler

when they found out what really happened to the Dad. I thought that was the best tear jerker moment of the book. I (as the reader) immediately felt ashamed for thinking the worst about him from the very beginning and then finding that out...

Another unique thing about this book is that EVERY character Hart presented plays a significant role in the story. I mean, I remember almost every single character in this book, because of their various involvement. I've seen some reviews saying there's too much going on in the book, but I disagree. What the author managed to do is make me remember the dozen or so characters well after I finished reading the book. Which is rare for me...

 

[martha]

Wild Strawberries and The Demon in the House, both by Angela Thirkell. These are the second and third novels in Thirkell's Barsetshire series. Wild Strawberries was delightful; she really gets into her rhythm as a charming, funny, and sympathetic writer. The Demon in the House is a whole different ballgame, though. It's supposed to be funny and charming, but the 13-year-old protagonist is just a spoiled, annoying brat who needs multiple spankings.

 

[Saracene]

P.G. Wodehouse - Very Good, Jeeves!

I have dim memories of watching the TV series based on these books with Stephen Fry and (young and totally unHouse-like ) Hugh Laurie aaaaages ago, but only got to read Wodehouse now. It's feather-light, amusing, witty fun and the writing style reminded me a bit of my beloved Terry Pratchett, which can only be a good thing. Some lines had me chortling aloud

 

[martha]

Oh yeah. Wodehouse is good for a genuine lol.

 

[anitram]

Just started reading Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind" and I'm really enjoying it so far. It would resonate with anyone who has a love of books.

Has anyone here read The Remains of the Day? I want to pick it up. Really enjoyed Never Let Me Go (movie is a bit of a different story but anyway), so I'd like to read more Ishiguro.

 

[corianderstem]

I read it, and remember liking it but not loving it. I had felt the same way about Never Let Me Go.

 

[anitram]

I read it, and remember liking it but not loving it. I had felt the same way about Never Let Me Go.

Ah, ok, thanks! I loved Never Let Me Go (and I usually hate books that are primarily stylistically beautiful) so I'll pick it up.

 

[corianderstem]

Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert has done more than just inspire some people to swoon and some people to roll their eyes with Eat, Pray, Love. She wrote a novel about lobster fishermen!

Two islands off the coast of Maine, with a long history of wars between lobster fishing families, and now it's the 1960s and 1970s, the story focusing on headstrong Ruth Thomas and a bunch of other characters.

It took me a while to get into it, and while I sometimes struggled with keeping my interest up, it really had some charm to it. Quirky characters (the good kind of quirky - i.e., well-written quirky, as opposed to irritating, trying-too-hard quirky), a good story involving Ruth's family line, and good writing.

 

[indigo tree]

The River of Doubt. I love books on Theodore.

 

[Saracene]

Has anyone here read The Remains of the Day? I want to pick it up. Really enjoyed Never Let Me Go (movie is a bit of a different story but anyway), so I'd like to read more Ishiguro.

Loved both books, they haunted me long after I've finished reading them. I love Ishiguro's style in general

 

[onebloodonelife]

Sigh.

You'll probably hate it, too.

Doubtful, as I've liked everything I've read by Steinbeck. We read Grapes of Wrath in my junior year of high school, and I remember loving it, while most of the class despised it.


Over the weekend, I finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first in the series, and wow, is it different from season one of Dexter...but I enjoyed it a lot. It was a breezy read. And, I'm about halfway through Dearly Devoted Dexter (again, very, very different from season two) and Pedagogy of the Oppressed (for my senior thesis).

 

[powerhour24]

Loved both books, they haunted me long after I've finished reading them. I love Ishiguro's style in general

This, . It baffles me how anyone could say they hated Never Let Me Go. Beyond the obvious accolades it's been given I think it contains some of, if not the best first person narration I've ever read, it is so natural in the way the story unfolds in tangents and folding back onto itself, no one tells a long story linearly.

 

[Maxwellhouse]

This room is so intense. I come from esteemed James Joyce and Edith Wharton scholars. The last thing I have been reading is a classic. I just read, never purchased, Ozzie Osbourne's memoir. Wait!!!! Don't shoot the messenger. I got it from the library and laughed all the way through. What a buffoon.

Sadly, that is what writing has turned into - keep me in the media spotlight. Much like Bill Rancik here in Chicago who won the first he Apprentice. He has a new book out about how great his amrriage is a La-Ti-Da. Who cares and why do we buy into this crap?

Where's the next great American novelist?

 

[powerhour24]

Probably crying over a pile of rejection letter from publishers.

 

[beegee]

Lucky, by Alice Sebold

 

[Maxwellhouse]

Yeah, I am sure. We all have at one point or another of our writing lives. Oh, well maybe not the socialites media hogs and you know who I am talking about.

 

[Pearl]

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex

It was OK. It was good up until 3/4 of the book, when things started to change.

The book is about how the lives of two women - who actually lived - centuries apart, are linked to the artwork of the Acropolis and how similar their lives were. At first I liked the idea, but when I finished the book, I wondered if writing about one of the women was necessary. I mean 2/3 of the book was about one, Lady Elgin from 19th century Scotland, and 1/3 was about Aspasia from ancient Athens.

For the most part, you thought the book was all about Elgin's husband trying to get pieces of the Acropolis to his estate in Scotland and how is charming wife helped him. But at 3/4 of the way, things started to change and I began to wonder what the book was really all about.

Its just about how Elgin and Aspasia's life were similar and how they were linked to the art at the Acropolis. I felt a lot of Lady Elgin's scenes could've been done without since in the end, they seemed totally unnecessary. In other words, Karen Essex should've just gotten to the point and not go so in depth with certain scenes.

Alright, I'm going to start reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I've been meaning to read this book for years. I actually have skimmed through it for a long time whenever I went to the bookstore. I'm just concerned if I should be reading Buddhist and Zen philosophy books than this one.

 

[beegee]

We all have at one point or another of our writing lives.

We've all what?

 

[corianderstem]

Cried over piles of rejection letters, I think is what he meant.

 

[beegee]

Oh.

Hmm.

 

[No spoken words]

I have piles of rejection letters/memories, but it wasn't from publishers.

Hey-oooooo!!!!

Oneblood, you can't like or dislike a book unless you freaking read it. Fool.