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One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
14 comments:
Because I'm incredibly busy with classes and suchlike, I decided I'd start a nice quick reread--Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Logic never was my strong suit.
Oooohhh. Cooksin liked that one. Is it for an older crowd than the Potter books?
Reading 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.
Yeah, please tell me more about Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell--a friend of mine recommended that to me once. What's it like?
~Lisa
O.K. no lie, I read four(4!) books this week. I must be feeling better.
"God Save the Fan" - a bit of fluff collecting stuff from the sports blog Deadspin. Purportedly about empowering the fan, but done mostly so the author could tell us HIS opinions.
"Book of Vice" - NPR's Peter Sagel (Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me...) goes in search of vice (gambling, gluttony, pornography, etc) and ends up being not much interested in any of them. If only there were some calm, erudite radio network he could call home.
"Money for Nothing" - Billed as "one man's journey through the dark side of Lottery millions", it really is just another "memoir" of a 30-something who thinks he is much more special than anyone else and absolutely cannot stop talking about it. I put it right up there with Frey's Million Little Pieces. Crap. Just utter crap. (And yes, I read the whole book.)
"V For Vendetta" - I'm really gonna need to talk to Danika about this one and I don't think she's gonna be my friend after we do. Suffice to say I enjoyed it about the same as all the other Alan Moore comics I've read. And for the same reasons.
Well, look at that. Four books and I didn't really like any of them. Clearly I AM feeling better.
Finally finished The Almost Moon. I won't discuss it further because I'll degenerate into incoherent swearing.
Checked out The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson from the library and am well into it. It's so, so much better than Sebold. Huge relief to be reading something that's good.
Sorry, Don. Alas.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a long fantasy novel set in England, and there the similarity to Harry Potter ends. It takes place during the Napoleonic wars, and details (with extensive footnotes) the revival of English magic, including its contribution to the war. It's great fun, though something of a committment, and the footnotes can get to be a little trying. Still, I'd recommend it.
Probably not to Don, though.
Thanks for the rundown, Danika. Maybe I'll pick it up when the semester's over or something.
Wow, Don--you were busy this past week! Thanks for all the reviews...but sorry you didn't really like any of the books, :\.
~Lisa
Don, you saved me two reads: Book of Vice and Money for Nothing. The second one in particular sounded right up my alley, but now I will skip.
Too bad about Vendetta. It started out so promising for you.
Have you tried Geography of Bliss yet?
Erin, you're not the first to complain about Almost Moon. I don't think I've talked to anyone who liked it.
Geo of Bliss seems to be on my slow-read list. I've done about three chapters. I'm having a little trouble with his style but I'll get it done.
I wanted to like The Almost Moon, I really did, but all the characters did was tick me off. The only person I found remotely likable was Natalie because she acted like an actual human being. Everyone else I couldn't care less about.
I'm all kinds of overwhelmed by the amount of cool books vs. the tiny time I have to read them lately. Right now, I'm reading Duma Key (Stephen King), still in Julie & Julia, What's the Difference? by the Mental Floss nutjobs (LOVE those guys), Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitting America by Susan Strawn (extremely beautiful history of knitting in the States, very engaging to us yarn addict types), and I was recently handed Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, though I've not started it yet. Sheesh. They're all fairly different books, different realms & genres & all that, but still...that doesn't make for any extra time in which to read them. Feh.
Ok, I'm finally with it enough to join in the discussion. Not sure my reads will be as fabulous as the others, but who doesn't love a good junk read every once in a while? Actually, I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See -- a fictional account of foot binding, a secret language created by Chinese women, and a deep friendship between two women. I found it fascinating...
-Mel
Mel? It's knott really you is it?
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