Books you're currently reading???

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

...it was too "Oprah's Book Club" for me.

yeah. I remember when Oprah called White Oleander "liquid poetry." I read that book and wondered what was wrong with me. Then I figured it out - Oprah is stupid.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

I don't remember the "year 2000" problem, but I read it in the 80's so 2000 was still a little over a decade away.

The main character's girlfriend was born a year before me.

Ridley Scott's got the rights (he'd been after them for years). I wonder whether he'll set it in the future, or make it an alternate history.

[wolf]

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by wolf

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

Do let me know your opinion - I loved the pants off it. I became more lukewarm as the series went on, but The Eyre Affair had me laughing out loud on the bus.

Ah Bri and Clod - I mourn for you.
I guess I'm just too much of a romantic. TTTW had me from the moment Claire ran whooping across the square because she'd finally got to meet Henry. Oprah might well be stupid - I have no idea about any of her other book choices - but I don't think this book is insipid. And I now know I have vast hipness factor, because I didn't find any of that stuff obscure I didn't always agree with her tastes of course. Thai, meh.

I cared deeply about the characters. To me it was a romance first. A book about a relationship and how it has to crack and bend along the way. With an imaginative external device. And blood and spew and drunkeness and the Violent Femmes and beautiful beautiful hair. And world enough, and time.

Of course it is all purely subjective and I love you none the less.
Just be warned that when I get my mind-probe working, you're on my list.

Hope you adore The Yiddish Detectives Union to make up for it!

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

Do let me know your opinion - I loved the pants off it. I became more lukewarm as the series went on, but The Eyre Affair had me laughing out loud on the bus.

I've been reading enough that it's keeping me off the internet more!

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Another recommendation by my bookseller friend. Interesting discovering a world that's not quite ours ... where books are highly regarded, with a nearly religious fervor in some cases, and the Crimean War is still being fought, 100 years later. Entertaining SF/Fantasy/Mystery. I really enjoyed this, not sure how it will work over more books, I can see things like the Dodo becoming tiring. Actually, it became quite tiring in this one. I did get a lot of giggles out of it.

The rest of the recent reads ... (these are since the beginning of July. I've been reading a LOT!)

Rules of Modern Policing: 1973 Edition - "DCI Gene Hunt" (Guy Adams)
For fans of the BBC Series, Life on Mars, this is a treat. From Gene Genie's misogynistic advice to Chris Skelton's Schoolboy doodles, it's a fun complement to the show.

One Second After - William Fortschen
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. Post-big awfulness novel, well researched, but I think the author made people a lot nicer than they would be under the actual conditions he describes.

Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
My bookseller friend strikes again. First of a series about a female physician and forensic specialist ... near the end of the 12th Century. Think Medieval Quincy! I will have to read more of these.

Serial - Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch
Free Download from amazon.com for Kindle. Not sure I would have found it otherwise. Interesting literary trick ... two authors, two main characters, neither told the other what their character was doing other than the basics of the premise ... then they wrote. More of a novella than novel, but interesting. And gory.

Darkfever - Karen Marie Morning
Awful, awful, awful paranormal romance. Has some good story elements, creepy settings, interesting characters, but all of that gets lost in the bubblegum pinkness, heaving breasts, and inane dialog. Free amazon.com Kindle download strikes again.

[Jacquelita]

Originally Posted by wolf

Free Download from amazon.com for Kindle. ...

Wolf - how do you like the kindle. I've been jonesing for one ever since I saw it!

I can't determine if it's worth the $$$. I think the ease of getting reading materials would be great.

I also keep thinking that it would be a great gift for my mom since she's an avid reader, but needs to buy large print books (limits options for her)

Which one do you have - and what's your review?

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

TTTW... [was] a book about a relationship and how it has to crack and bend along the way. With an imaginative external device. And blood and spew and drunkeness and the Violent Femmes and beautiful beautiful hair. And world enough, and time.

And now I have seen trailers for the film. And Claire Abshire has shoulder length hair. Why? In these days of hair extensions? Why? When it's stated in the book that she feels there are there are three of them in the relationship; Claire, Henry and her hair. Why not even bother?

I've been spanked here before for making too much of a deal of original texts (aka beloved books - note the viewpoint.) So I am not going to mention this again.

EXCEPT! EXCEPT! The wedding is outside! How can Henry hide?

No, I mean it.
I didn't go see the Narnia films, Coraline, The Dark Is Rising, The Golden Compass. I won't go see this. So you'll be spared my grumpiness. FTR - this didn't fit in the other thread, not being a children's book - it's just been discussed here recently.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

The Eyre Affair had me laughing out loud on the bus.

I'm about halfway through and loving it. Any author who names characters Thursday Next and Jack Schitt is worth a read.

[bigw00dy]

Too fat to fish - Artie Lange

[Clodfobble]

Really, it was my fault, because I don't do romance at all and I already know this. I had been misled to believe it was almost more of a fantasy/sci-fi book, so I went in expecting all the wrong things.

[lumberjim]

I'm with sundae. that book was excellent. intricate.

[Trilby]

I disagree. It was hack writing; I think she was being paid by the word.




ANYWAY - I adored Kate Atkinson and am getting two more of her books at the library along with some Esther Freud!

We can't all like the same things - it would make life boring.

[Sundae]

I was thinking of this when I went to get Grandad's shopping today.
Two miles in the tall heat, occupied by an internal monolgue which effectively boiled down to you are wrong.

When I got home I realised it was unfair and unnecessary.
And after all, anyone who likes Kate Atkinson is alright in my book(s).
Just hope you like Esther Freud now...
And I'm very flattered you followed my recommendation despite the mismatch

I'm reading the second in the Chaos Walking series (trilogy? not sure yet) by Patrick Ness - The Ask and the Answer. The first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go was so captivating, I've read it about 5 times. I was waiting for the papernack to come out, but a generous benefactor sent me a birthday prize and I capitulated and bought the hardback.

It's good, but not quite as good as the first. Well, I'm a third of the way through so maybe that's not fair. The premise of the first was breathtaking, so of course another novel set in the same scheme of things can never have quite the same impact. But it's emotionally engaging, the characters are as conflicted as previously and I feel their hurt as much. I haven't cried yet - but I suspect Ness has something up his sleeve... Like Atkinson, the emotional impact of his words remain long after you finish reading.

Oh, it's technically a children's book. Blimey - they have to be so much tougher than we were if they have the stomach for this. It's a battering. In a good way. I'll always venerate Rowling for making it is acceptable to read good children's literature. It was my guilty secret for so many years. Although bless her - even the Deathly Hallows doesn't approach the intensity of this. Horses for courses.

[Trilby]

Ah, I'm too harsh a critic because it's the only fun I have these days (critizing, that is!)

There are few authors I get excited about but Atkinson is definitely one of them.

I guess I'm not a romance kind of reader, either, like Clod said. I prefer horrid circumstances, abuse, murders, tragic landscapes, haunted houses, the emotionally destryoed, the drug addled, the incarcerated, the tortured soul and the curiously suspect.

I'm really just a Poe girl at heart.

FWIW I read the Bridges of Madison County when it was first popular and laughed my fool head off - I thought it was the dumbest book ever.

[Shawnee123]

I can tell you what I'm not reading: Amish Chick Lit. Apparently it is the thing in the Wally Worlds, because I passed a whole cardboard rack of them. I don't know if it is one character named Rebecca, or if other Amish chicks feature in the others. I didn't see "Rebecca Does Dallas." I'm guessing most of it is about pure and chaste love, perhaps a buggy chase thrown in for excitement. Seriously.