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Summer is finally here, after a dank and cold late spring here has finally switched into the full, humid boil of summertime. We’ve reached the hot, sticky weather that cries out for another glass of lemonade and a good book, preferably somewhere near an air conditioner vent. Or an iced coffee out back on the patio in the early morning when I can hear the birdies calling out their daybreak hellos, and a few stolen moments with my journal before The Peanut wakes up at a gallop to start her day, and if I’m lucky a chapter or two of something really good that I’ll have trouble putting down until the next stolen hour of reading.
But I realized this morning that I have been digging through a lot of political books lately, and not much else. Not that I’m not enjoying them — I am, always do — but there is something about getting lost in great fiction that is such a wonderful escape.
It used to be that I had two or three good fiction books going at once. I’ve always been one of those people who couldn’t be content to keep her nose in just one storyline — I had to work my way through a mystery and some good science fiction, or perhaps a novilized travel journal and some great fantasy on the side. But lately, it is all I have been able to do to keep up with the swirling currents of news that keep buffeting the Beltway and beyond.
And, since the last Harry Potter book won’t be hitting my doorstep for another month (yes, I do love the stories, the fact that they are getting so many kids interested in reading again, and am on pins and needles to see if Harry survives, why do you ask?), I thought I’d take a few reading list suggestions from the floor this morning. What is in your beach tote as your vacation read this summer? What book have you picked up lately that you just cannot put down? What characters are haunting you, long after you’ve turned the last page?
It can be a new book, or one that has been around forever. I’m sure some of you are looking for that next great read as well, so let’s swap some titles and authors this morning. Funny, mysterious, magical — whatever you love to read, there is bound to be someone else here who loves it as well. I’d just love a new book or two for some summer escape of my own. Coffee is on, so pull up a chair…
(Photo of a great beach read via BrotherGrimm.)
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Good morning Christy!
Zed? And great topic! Good morning!
tres?
well, my Spanish is improving…
I’ve really been enjoying reading The Wind In The Willows to my daughter
You mean besides FDL and the “Document Dumps”?
I hate to admit it, but I just finished reading Chrichton’s “Prey” in two sittings. I think he is a jerk, but he sure can write a page turner.
Christy,
Don’t know if you like science fiction, but take a look at “Darwin’s Radio” by Greg Bear. It’s a thriller that about the next leap in human evolution, and how society (all too predictably)reacts when all their cherished assumptions go belly-up.
My all-time favorite book is Ken Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion.”
It is a book that will literally make you laugh and cry. The first chapter is a bit of a slog, but if you make it through the the last line of chapter 1, there’s no way you don’t keep going.
I just got around to reading On the Road. I too have been wrapped up in political books (and textbooks) for quite awhile and thought I’d start reading some of the books I was assigned in high school but never actually read. On the Road is so atmospheric and since I am from San Francisco where several parts of the book take place it is fun to read accounts of the city in the forties and fifties. I found it hard to relate with the protagonist Dean Morariety (sp?) because he seems so irresponsible but of course he personifies the zen notion of being in the moment so I think that is the challenge of the book. Fun read, I think I’ll read the Dharma Bums next.
Good Morning Christy and pups!
One of my all time favorites was Shogun by James Clavell. I knew nothing about it when I opened the book, had never heard of it before.
It was a wonderful surprise adventure for me.
Good morning Christy!
I just got Murray Waas’s book last night, suppose that doesn’t count as light summer reading. It all depends on your definition. I can’t wait til he comes for Book Salon tomorrow afternoon. 5:00 eastern iirc
Yesterday, we had an outage of the main fiber optic cable to the Bay Area backbone, and the whole county was down – including ATM’s and merchant links. We actually went outside and saw the sun.
Hey there tommy!
What do you read to your kids?
edit—looks like you already answered before I asked :)
I can never even remember the name or author of the book I’m currently reading. Which has led to some unfortunate re-purchases of books I’ve already read.
Also, I have an inability to eat without something to also read – or watch TV without also reading something.
Odd personal quirk #719.
It’s because of Phoenix Woman’s quoting the Bene Gesserit Litany of Fear the other night, but I’m going to have to re-read Dune. And just because I’m seriously in need of unrestrained howls of laughter I’m going to get out Rudyard Kipling’s Stalky and Company, and then may progress on to Kim. After that I hope Harry Potter will have arrived. Yep, I’m a 61 year old Potter addict.
jayt: Yeah, I even read the cereal box if nothing else is available.
tommy yum @ 5
I loved reading that book, and I was in my twenties.
Did you see the recent Masterpiece Theatre version?
Elliott @ 11
Ding Elliot! Never had an experience quite like Shogun.
Morning all — just got up. Mr. ReddHedd let me have a sleep-in this morning, got up early with The Peanut and made the coffee. Am I lucky or what?
Scott at 8 — Love Darwin’s Radio. It’s really a fantastic book, isn’t it? Greg Bear is a genius. I think there is a sequel out — but I haven’t read the second one yet.
If you want to read some fun fiction that makes you laugh out loud (truly) you should try Janet Evanovich’s ‘Stephanie Plum’ series. The first one is ‘One for the Money’.
They’re mysteries with some sexiness and lots of fun. If you’ve had a trying week, this will get you laughing.
Boston1775 @ 19
I grew up like most little girls my age, with a big crush on Dr. (three stars will shine tonight) Kildare, but that mini series was absolutely no comparison to reading the book itself.
I just gave a copy of Erica Jongs Fanny to my 17 year old.. I am re reading and its wonderful..
Its fiction but based on fact.
Funny you write about this.
I have just ‘re-read’ (for the 10th time) one of my childhood fav’s.
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L’Engle
Ahhhhhh, the distant memories of a wonderful childhood growing up in the 60’s and 70’s. Kinda like my own innocence lost.
solai @ 21
Sounds like fun, she’s going on my library list, thanks!
egregious @ 14
My son is all up into Thomas the Tank engine. I like doing different voices for the characters.
I’ve read a couple Narnia books to my daughter (I didn’t really like them), and now The Wind In The Willows. Soon she’ll be old enough for A Wrinkle In Time, which I’ve been emjoying myself.
For grown-ups, there’s a new one, Manhunt, about the search for John Wilkes Booth. A real page turner; I couldn’t put it down.
I would suggest Michael Chabon’s new book, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, which conjures up a rich alternative world in which Franklin Roosevelt’s and Harold Ickes’s pre-war idea of a Jewish settlement in Alaska is realized. Chabon is a great story teller and has a glorious sense of language. I’m also, at the moment, enjoying Donald Westlake’s latest Dortmunder caper novel, What’s So Funny? and, in an entirely different vein, Natalie Angier’s delightful tour of the basics of science, The Canon.
Something about summer makes me want to re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Like Jayt, I can’t remember what I’ve read, but Three Junes is one I read last summer, and it’s a beautiful book.
Mass Southpaw @ 28
That, and “Blue Highways” by William Least-Heat Moon.
Ah Christy! My favorite subject of all (my mother was an English teacher and librarian and the public library was two doors down when I was growing up – cheap babysitters at the time).
For mystery/detective a couple of series:
John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee. McGee was a “salvage consultant” meaing if someone lost money by legal means but unethical or immoral acts, McGee would get it back for half. He lived on a houseboat in Bahia Del Mar in FL (where I believe there is a memorial slip). The boat was called the “Busted Flush” cuz he won it in a p*ker game by bluffing. His best friend Meyer the economist. A dozen or more books in the series all have a color in the title. First is “The Deep Blue Goodbye”
Still alive and kicking is Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder. Scudder is an alcoholic former NYPD detective who lives in the city. It follows him from leaving the force on. These can be a bit dark though but great writing. Block also has a couple of other recurring series that are a little lighter in tone. Bernie Rhodebaris a used bookseller whose primary occupation is really as a thief and the series usually has titles like “The Thief Who Stole Mondrian”. The third is the Evan Tanner series. The premise is Tanner is a Korean War vet who had his “sleep center” in the brain destroyed so he can’t really sleep and spends all his time researching and joining fringe organizations (the Tanner books are mid-late sixties so cold war tongue in cheek).
well good morning Christy. going to get my 2nd cuppa. hows pnut this fine morning? as to reading, I’m behind as usual, but David Corn’s Bush Lies book is quite a dense read. Who knew someone could lie that much? oh, and if any of you tekkies out there know how I can post a pdf file over at my place, please let me know. thanks much.
oddball @ 24
You know, I never read that, but I remember so many other kids reading it. I can really relate to the reflection back to growing up in that era…
I survived a terrible dark time in my early years, before I met my wife, with the hold of some friends and The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Even in this age of Harry Potter, they haven’t lost their wonderful ability to inspire all the things we hold as true in the darkness (and light!) of the soul. Here’s a link for those interested in purchasing from Amazon.
Coffee….must have cofee…
BTW, how is the list on web comics. I have a few reccomendations if anyone is interested…
Anyone read “The Hot Zone”? Have been thinking about it cuz of the TB guy. If you’ve read it you have to strongly suspect that the father-in-law infected that guy. It’s mainly about the CDC and how human error could have caused an ebola outbreak right here in the US. Very well written. A page turner. It’s another book that went through my entire office. And we’re a mixed bunch.
I ‘ve just *got* to go do something physical.
Y’all have a good morning.
OT, but Christy, do you know anything about the W.Virginia supremes striking down a request to put in wind farms?
Morning, all.
I haven’t read fiction in years, preferring history, which is often stranger. Currently reading Robert Fisk’s “Great War for Civilisation” which is his account of covering the Middle East for the London “Times” and “Independent” newspapers. He was on the ground for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (eye-popping, given the U.S’s current adventure) and has covered every major ME conflict since. This is not a book for the faint-hearted or weak of stomach. The descriptions of torture methods used by the Shah of Iran make for particularly tough reading. Fisk spares no-one; the UK, US, Soviets, Iran’s pre & post revolutionary governments, the Israelis, Saddam, all are treated equally by Fisk’s incisive writing.
The title is an ironic reference to an inscription on one of his father’s WW1 medals, and the historical context that Fisk brings to this region’s ongoing troubles make this a valuable book, which should be read by anyone seeking to understand today’s events.
They don’t hate us for our freedoms. They hate us because we won’t leave them alone.
For pleasure I read science fiction. I just picked up Robert Sawyer’s Rollback and can’t wait to start.
To make car trips bearable, we listen to mysteries. The Stephanie Plum books are fantastic to listen to. As are Lawrence Block’s Burglar books and Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax books.
This is my favorite kind of thread! I saved the last one. I am slowly reading The Assault on Reason and stay amazed at the wisdom and sadness in it.
My husband and I read The Road by McCarthy. It was an Oprah book and extremely well written but oh so dark. I will remember it for a long time.
I have a collection of children’s book from when I was young and my Mom too and the classics from my children . Such great memories.
Dang! Sorry mods, I keep forgetting and use a “bad” word in my comment. Please forgive me!
TiredFed @ 30
okay, some questions from a (barely) functioning tekkie:
1) can you write html?
2) how do you otherwise upload stuff to your site?
3) how big is the pdf?
I read Underworld by Don DeLillo on my vacation, really long, but worth it. It has echoes of Pynchon, but it also has a plot, of sorts.
A cornucopiaic topic, thanks Christy for the opening.
If I could narrow a list of favorites, it would be a thousand titles long, I seldom met a book that I didn’t like. Unfortunately my library is in boxes as a change of residence is occurring at this time, so the safety net of title and author isn’t available. Elliot’s (@11) Shogun was good, but Taipan was I thought better. For kids, it is hard to beat:
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there’s got to be
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a better way
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to come down
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the stairs
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A.A.Milne’s Winnie the Pooh collection.
and oh so many more. (the preview doesn’t show spacing in comment, maybe different on submission)
For those reading to their kids, don’t forget to read them the Jungle Book, Riki-Tiki-Tavi, and the Just So Stories from Kipling. Even if it is British Imperialism, it’s still great writing…
sofistic at 35 — I know a little, but haven’t read the decision as yet. There has been a huge back and forth between the people who want to put in the wind farm and an environmental group who don’t want them due to the location they have selected. It’s been going on — back and forth — for several years now. I’m sure I’ve gotten the decision in my in-box with the latest court update they sent out, just haven’t had time to read it.
one of the best books I’ve read lately was David Hackett Fisher’s book about Paul Revere. Having grown up in Concord, Mass, his story was particularly significant (I have a brother named Paul as his birthday is April 19th). The book was well-researched and well-written. I highly recommend it, along with Fisher’s Washington’s Crossing.
Pynchon: “Vineland” some very funny scenes in it.
The best books I’ve read lately are Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (now in paperback) and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I say read, but I listened to both on CD. Hosseini’s book is enhanced by his beautiful speaking voice and his pronouncing all the Afghani names correctly; I wish Gilbert had hired a professional. She had a tendency to lose air when she got quiet. I kept having to adjust the volume while driving.
solai @ 33
I’m not visiting Reston Virginia anytime soon.
PeteCO at 36 — Am going to have to pick that one up. Fisk’s reporting is remarkable for the detail that he is able to put in and the historical context that he has from first-hand work through the years. Sounds like a good read.
I just recently finished John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War trilogy. I think the first book was the best, but the other two are fun reads as well.
I also highly recommend Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore.
G’morning. “So many books, so little time” reads my favorite T-shirt.
Just finished the first Janet Evanovich book. Late to the party on that series. Great good fun.
Also “The Weight of All Things,” by Sandra Benitez. Bittersweet tale set in El Salvador just after the assassination of Archbishop Romero. Great read.
Now reading “The Golden Compass,” meant to be a fill-in until Harry Potter comes round the bend, but an excellent read on its own merits.
Okay. I also bought Al Gore’s book, but haven’t started it yet.
truth @ 47
WPR had a full hour with Hosseini two days ago. Fascinating stuff in the discussion and a real must read book added to my list, along with Marcy’s book.
truth at 47 — I bought Eat, Pray, Love ages ago based on a friend’s recommendation — just haven’t gotten to it yet. Will have to dig it out of my “to read” pile after your rec, too. :)
G’morning, Firepups.
Right now my own current reading project is uber-geeky; I’m making my way through Vernor Vinge’s Zones of Thought duology (A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky). Each has a very interesting, well written alien race (the Tines, creatures only sentient in packs, and the Spiders) and are very heavily stilted toward computer geekery. I’m a molecular biologist, so I miss alot of the IT in-jokes, but they’re still great reads.
Certainly looking forward to the newest Harry Potter as well.
It’s been a week here and I’m reading Mary Pipher’s letters to a young therapist at the right time. She writes of the ways in which families can be a reservoir of hope and there is a gentle respect for the potential power of therapy and also a fierce stand for the role of the values of care and “do no harm” in our lives.
I’m not a therapist, but this week has been a week of sitting with the dying, reunions with the long not seen, a funeral, and today, a wedding. As a result of the reading and the conversations, I sought out an uncle with whom things have been difficult and found reconciliation. On the political side of things, he’s still right wing and I’m still not, but he is not pleased with George Bush. Finally, we found something political to agree upon. And beyond the political, there was a reconnection with our history (he was the establishment at college; I was the rebel leading the peace marches); there were some tears and some hugs.
When a book chimes in with events and starts a new song in one’s life, even if it is a small song, it is worth a look.
“Galileo’s Daughter” by Dava Sobel, is an interesting historical memoir.
Margaret Maron, a NC writer, has a wonderful series of mysteries featuring Judge Deborah Knott. I find the series is like Nancy Drew for adults. I recommend reading them in order beginning with “Bootleggers Daughter.” My biggest disappointment is that her latest book always comes out the week after our beach week.
truth @ 47
I listened to The Kite Runner while on a five hour flight. It moved me to tears and I had to put on my sunglasses so as not to alarm the flight attendant or my fellow passengers.
barbara at 51 — That whole “His Dark Materials” series is amazing. Philip Pullman is a very gifted writer, and you’ll see so many of the themes of things that we talk about here day to day woven into the book as well. One of the things that I have always loved about science fiction and fantasy is how well authors weave in questions of philosophy and political issues and individual rights and such, but can do so in a fresh way through the character development and worldbuilding of an alien society that, at its heart, faces so many of the same issues that we face over and over. When it is well done, it is brilliant. Dune, pretty much any Asimov, Harlan Ellison…the list is endless. Truly great stuff.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 40
1. hahaha. no way.
2. cut and paste
3. just under a meg (.87mb)
there’s a feature to upload photos. maybe I should use that?
sofistic @ 7
Crichton’s ‘The Great Train Robbery’ is also great.
Will check ‘Prey”. Cuz, you’re right. The jerk can write
Arnie @ 42
Couldn’t agree more about A. A. Milne, also loved the poems for Christopher Robin (I found a little beetle so that Beetle was his name and I called him Alexander and he answered just the same… Forgiven)
But I preferred Shogun to Taipan, I did read Taipan too soon after I read Shogun, though.
Marion in Savannah @ 16
AAAAGGGGG! She’s inside my mind! This week she’s referenced Ian Dury’s “Reasons to be Cheerful”, Peter Gabriel’s “Moribund the Burgermeister” (B-side of the “Solsbury Hill” single, from the first album), and now this! I first read Dune about the time these songs were out; 1978, 1979. She’s tapping into the subconscious mind of my 14-year-old self! AAAAGGGG!!!!
Has anyone read the next book by the fellow who wrote the Kite Runner — I think it is A Thousand Splendid Suns? Time had a piece on him and the book a few weeks ago, and it sounds haunting and wonderful at the same time — this time it is set solely in Afghanistan. He really tapped into a rich and wonderful emotional pool with The Kite Runner. Loved the book, but it is definitely one that has stayed with me in a painful way along with all the beauty in it.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 49
I remember reading his reports of the earlier Iraq conflict in ‘90,91. His writing is even better when he has the space a book affords. Do it, you won’t regret it.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 59
not that I could have guessed, but I should not be surprised that you like scifi. I read every last thing Asimov wrote. And quite a bit more (was one of those library geeks as a kid).
TiredFed @ 60
probably not. this dilemma has two parts.
1) getting the file to your site.
2) getting the html in place to allow others to access it.
can you give me the url of your site? just looking at how the host is set up will tell me a lot. we can do this, i just need to learn which wall will cause you the least suffering. (you WILL suffer, the ghods of HTML demand sacrifice, but they don’t actually need that much. :))
so, what is the url of your site (post it as a link).
For fans of Restoration England:
Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
The King’s Touch by Jude Morgan.
Just started Walter Isaacson’s new Einstein bio. It is very good. The Harry Potter books on audio are great for road trips…they usually last for about 26 hours.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 67
I think you can get there by clicking on my name.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 40
“Building Web Sites for Dummies” (Sahlin and Snell, $35) a “Dummies book” is readable and is a good manual that can get you started making web pages and then moving on to your own web site. It is not that hard other than there are some tekkie details as usual. Maybe some of the FDL tekkies can provide “templates”.
Hi! Long time lurker, teacher on summer break.
A Song of Ice and Fire (series) by George R. R. Martin. Politics, fantasy, knights, intrigue, war. Great stuff.
I’ve read the first four twice now: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords,and A Feast for Crows. I’m waiting desperately for the next one, A Dance with Dragons. Curse you, George R.R. Martin! Write faster! They’re huge books and extremely satisfying. Love ‘em.
Good morning (prying open an eyelid and squinting at the screen), FDLers! I’m making coffee and enjoying the thread. Like oddball@24, I also recently re-read many of Madeleine L’Engle’s works – her nonfiction is just as compelling as her fiction.
The other novel I’ve been reading is purely a work of self-growth; it’s my own, Division 70. I answered the National Novel Writing Month challenge, sat in the gorgeous reading room of a grand public library and wrote. And I’m working through the drafts now.
I gave my copy of Julia Child’s My Life in France to my parents. They loved it.
Wally Lambs, She’s Come Undone is the comical metamorphosis of a young woman on the losing end of life. I kept wondering if Wally was female.
I Know This Much is True is a first person trip into families caring for a loved one/a twin in this case whose brain has snapped.
Get through the first chapter of Barbara Kingsolover’s Poisonwood Bible and you’ll thank me for the trip to Africa. I’m currently reading her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: small farming, community food, slowfood movement.
I shy away from fiction that will haunt me. I read a book in my teens about the Rosenburgs. The scene where they are taken to their execution made me sob and bothered me for the longest time.
So, I miss out on some great fiction (like ‘The Kite Runner’) but I can’t read them. Just can’t.
just found out cirano de bergirac was an incredible writer…just like jules verne, inventing things that are pretty darned close to their actual counterpart…for instance the ram jet looks like debergirac invented it in one of his novels
read ‘Other Worlds’ …he comes ups with pretty interesting methods of his space travel he describes
pretty diverse fellow this de bergerac fellow…died too young
TiredFed at 66 — I’m an SFF fan, through and through. Tried my hand at writing it for a while as well — and will likely try again one of these days when and if I get the time to do so. I miss tinkering with fiction, a lot, but don’t have the time to really work on it at the moment what with blogging and family and all. *G* Have been to many a Worldcon, though — meeting the authors who were writing some of my favorite reads really has been an amazing gift, I have to say. Really being able to sit down and talk craft of writing with someone like George R. R. Martin was amazing.
Okay, tiredfed. have your site up and am playing with it. should have you instructions in a few minutes.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 64
I put it down two thirds through because of the pain. Haunting.
I have been reading The Essence of Style, by Joan DeJean. It discusses the creation of high culture by the French under the reigns of Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Among other things, it solved a mystery for me.
Several months ago, Jane mentioned her Christian Louboutin shoes. I clicked through and noticed that they all had red soles, which seemed odd to me. It turns out that Louis XIV was really into shoes. His last portrait, which usually hangs in the Louvre but is on loan (or there is a really good copy, I can’t remember which) to the High Museum in Atlanta. He is wearing one of his favorite pairs, which has a red heel and is tied with a red ribbon, as so many of his shoes did, and it further turns out that Louboutin thinks that his shoes were really great. So, that is enough to explain the red soles to me.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 77
kinda like sitting with Marcy while she liveblogs, eh?
ps. hope you dont mind the parallel question about posting pdf files to my site. I’m trying to figure it out so I can share PACER stuff without clogging email inboxes ;)
Steve–
I bet you’d be interested in Lee Smolin’s piece in the NYRoB on Einstein. Smolin points out that the longstanding disdain for Einstein’s refusal to accept quantum mechanics as a final answer is being more openly questioned every year.
On books to read,
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
And if you haven’t read either Fiasco or Imperial Life in the Emerald City, you really should.
With a kid and a job hunt on, I’ve been feeling like I never get anything read — 5 books going at once, none ever finished. Meanwhile, my kid has discovered a great love of reading and is going through books at an enormous rate, to the delight of his mother. So we’re spending more time hanging out in the kid’s section … and I have discovered the “Austin” family series by Madeliene L’Engle. I read the Wrinkle in Time series (Murray/O’Keefe’s) as a kid, but missed the Austins. Loving them, loving L’Engle again. Lovely to have something “new” of hers to read.
Also recommend Alexander McCall Smith’s series set in Botswana, starting with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency — a wonderful series.
Love Janet Evanovich — read hers as soon as they come out :) There’s something about Grandma Mazur that is delightful ….
For heavier and somewhat magical reading, two of my favorites are “Possession” by A.S. Byatt, and “The Time Travellor’s Wife” by Audrey Neiffenneger (ok, I probably botched her last name).
solai @ 75
Kite Runner is gut wrenching, but it’s the main character’s personal redemption that has stayed with me (and made me recommend the book to others).
tiredfed-
do you use a mac or a pc?
Christy—
Maybe your long-standing interest in science fiction gives you the capacity to envision a better future for us.
Any fans of mysteries may like a historical mystery series by Sharon Kay Penman. She writes historical novels set in the Eleanor of Aquitane/King Richard times. She also has a mystery series set in the same period beginning with the book “The Queen’s Man”
And that’s kinda funny. I just got off the phone with Annette Curtis Klaus, who wrote Blood and Chocolate and The Silver Kiss YA novels with a lot of adult appeal. The first is about teen werewolves fitting into suburban Maryland. The second is about vampires in a similar setting.
Her latest novel is Freaks which is about a freak show in the early part of this century. More Dickensian than her previous work.
If people who love food are foodies, are people who love books, bookies?selise @ 85
pc *hi btw
dakine01 @ 87
Have you recovered from your celebrations?
jayackroyd @ 82
Those are two I’m going to add to my ever-expanding library of evidence against the regime.
Favorite George RailRoad Martin story is “The Unicorn Variations.” I’ve read all but the last Fire and Ice novels. Is it still hardcover only?
Oh, one more in the “magical” category … Barbara Kingslover’s “Prodigal Summer.” Beautifully written book, very hard to put down.
Melissa at 83 — If your kiddo is loving L’Engle, another magical read for that age is the Earthsea series that Ursula Le Guin did. Wonderful writing, and some great life lessons in them to boot.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 60
I thought the last book needed to be two–it was kinda rushed. But The Golden Compass was amazing.
Speaking of world building, John Varley is one creative fellow.
dakine01 @ 87
I loved Penman’s Welsh trilogy, but was somewhat bored with the mystery series. Go figure.
Historical fiction is my escape from politics, news and the wretched state of the world.
ok. reaching was back now. one of the best SF trilogies IMO was Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Anyone else think we might have a Mule in the WH now?
Trash reader here. Currently: Washingtonian. Yes, I’m ashamed.
I also have a stack of books by Paul Auster I will get to soon. And I love the work by a little-talked-about author named Austin Wright.
My teenage granddaughter has two kinds of dyslexia. I’d never known her to read a book until a few weeks ago when her teacher introduced the class to a couple of books by Sharon Draper. For her, it was like being tapped by a magic wand. She actually wanted to discuss the books (not just boys, clothes, and makeup). I bought her everything I could find by that author and now that school’s out, she’s not even wanting to hang around with her friends. She always has a book in her hand. I let the author know about this and she sent my granddaughter a long letter of encouragement, plus an autographed book. I think a young life has been changed forever.
Do you folks remember the book(s) that made you a life-long reader? I’ve tried to find the ones that did that for me, but cannot remember the series or author. The heroine was named Betsy and she lived in the early 1900s. I think the books were written in the ’40s.
Just thinking of some of the scenes in Russo’s “Straight Man” makes me laugh sometimes. There was the scene about the geese, and the TV crew…
I’m reading Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. About a third of the thing is set in Colorado. The Ludlow Massacre is background for several chapters.
Anyone read/know anything about “The Wrong Stuff”? It’s the Duke Cunningham story. It was going to be my vacation book but there is only one customer review on amazon.com and I’m wondering if it’s not that good.
gotta get more coffee. this cursed laptop and I just dont work well together.
A High Wind in Jamaica – written in the 1920s, is to me a much more interesting working of the “kids unfettered” theme than Lord of the Flies. If you saw the movie you got a taste of it, but do read the book too – it’s full of “pirates of the Caribbean” as well.
And for the SciFi fans David Mitchell’s multi-genre Cloud Atlas is a compelling read.
A few more here.
OK, not so good news on TiredFed’s site. Its on Live Spaces. I currently can’t see a way to upload the PDF directly and my searches of developer and html sites aren’t getting anything useful.
Question for TiredFed: is the formatting important, or could you theoretically cut and paste. Also, would you be willing to have the PDF hosted on a free third party site?
Standing by…(and will happily defer to a more knowledgeable tekkie)
I was hoping for this topic before I left for vacation! I am going to get Al Gore’s book, what other political reads do you all recommend for the beach? I usally read Clive Cussler-his stories are very much the same but they are light and fun.
And Christy, I have Howl’s moving castle and Castle in the Sky on Netflix for the kids to watch in the car.
Twisted at 106 — They are going to love both movies. The Peanut adores Calcifer, the fire demon, in Howl’s Moving Castle. :)
hi back at you tiredfed!
bummer. if you were on a mac, i think it would be easy. it may also be easy on a pc, but i can’t give you the step-by-step ‘cuz i do it all by mac (and i am no comp techie)
hmmm…. do you know how to ftp to your site? are you wedded to using your site, or would an alternative hosting site like wikispaces be acceptable?
i’d love to see your pacer files get posted (so i could read them too!), feel free to email me if you don’t find an easy solution in this thread.
If you are into history, “The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology” by Simon Winchester is fascinating.
Twisted Martini @ 105
I thought the Duke Cunningham book(’The Wrong Stuff’) would be perfect for the beach. Happy ending and all. But waiting for some reviews before I buy it.
I read Stephen King’s “The Stand” at the recommendation of an esteemed drama teacher (of others, not myself). Stuck with me.
King’s “On Writing” is a great how-to.
Slothrop’s spouse is reading Pride and Prejudice again. Damn, how many times can one woman read the same novel?
Interesting. I just went to Amazon to see about a couple of the books we are talking about and Kingsolver’s and Thousand Splendid Suns were the recommended books as the page opens. They know my tastes…hmmm good marketing I guess.
TiredFed @ 97
I read it, enjoyed it, but now I can’t remember it. We may have a Manchurian Candidate, though.
Heinlein’s “Revolt in 2100″ posits a theocracy that has ruled the USA since the late 20th century. Written in 1940. I’m aware of the controversy over his politics, but his short stories and novellas really are very good. His Wikipedia bio is interesting. I’m a sucker for that future history stuff. Larry Niven is another good one.
sofistic @ 108
Sofistic — too lazy to google this early. Wasn’t Smith the progenitor of “continental drift” theory?
My wife got me hooked on the “Marcus Falco” books by Linsey Davis. Falco is a detective in ancient Rome. Davis, in a JK Rowling kind of way, brings this world to life.
Well, Damn! You are welcome to read my books anytime you would like. And if you love them (or hate them) you can always tell me. I have two available, SILENT SCREAMS OF A SURVIVOR and CHALLENGE. Both are available at Amazon or at my publisher’s website, http://www.acornpublishing.com
Thanks for asking. :)
Slothrop @ 112
Maybe she’s feeling romantic. How far away is your local florist? ;)
sofistic @ 109
Great book, which for some reason reminds me of The Places in Between by a guy who walked across Afghanistan immediately following the fall of the Taliban.
Someone mentioned the Hot Zone above — Preston’s new book, The Wild Trees (about the NoCal Redwood forests) is fantastic — who knew all the things, romantic and otherwise, that happen in the redwood canopy?
Right now I’m enjoying Jamestown, by Matthew Sharpe. Takes the story of Jamestown and turns it into a dystopian futuristic fairy tale (Pocahontas has an e-mail address, for example). Wacky but also very touching at times.
I need to resize a really large image for a post we’ll have later today. It’s a little over 3 MB. Anyone know of a resizer online that could handle a conversion to a smaller size for this?
The Stand, especially the unabridged, is one of my fav’s. I have re-read it several times. I was one of those who loved the miniseries as well. Stephen King rocks during the summer!
I would also recommend anything by David Halberstam. I may get a few of his sports books as a personal tribute. His political writing is nails, and very prescient. I read “The 50’s” a few year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 95
My kid is a bit young yet for L’Engle, its me that’s loving them all over again. He’s reading Cornelia Funke’s Ghosthunters series, Goosebumps, and Encyclopedia Brown, and eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Magic Treehouse series. I’m currently reading aloud to him The Hobbit, as we have finished the Harry Potter books (and boy, do I feel like reading all six HP books aloud was an accomplishment!), and waiting for Book 7. I’m afraid that we’re next reading the Lord of the Rings (though we haven’t discussed it yet). Earthsea is lovely — I haven’t read them in years, but maybe we’ll get out of the worlds of Rowling and Tolkein long enough to explore Le Guin … and then maybe L’Engle. At some point he’s just going to want to read them all on his own and I’ll be cut out of the loop …
Christy, email it to me with the dimensions you want & I’ll run it through photoshop.
Slothrop @ 112
You’d be surprised. Jane Austin survives many readings … can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion ….
If you’re looking for historical/pre-historical fiction, Judith Tarr writes some fine novels. I’ve been enjoying the works of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series, and have also liked her other works related to Avalon. Another author who’s delved into the Roman Empire is Colleen MacCullough(sp?).
I have been lurking for over a year Christy, so many good things to say about your site, contributors and fans…not enough words.
This topic however, is a great one and being an avid reader I thought I’d pop in…fun, light summer Sci-fi reading: Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. I got hooked on the character when Sci-Fi Channel inserted “The Dresden Files” series as a late season addition with no intention of running it past the first season.
I had heard about it through the “Mamala” as I call her and had been intending to pick the series up but having two kidletts myself at 15 and 5, it seems like there is never enough time to do for myself. Stolen moments are the foundation of my sanity :) . A co-worker gifted me with the entire series while cleaning out his bookshelves prior to a move yesterday. I stayed up till midnight last night finishing the first one.
Enjoy FirePups!
melissa, I read the Hobbit and the entire Lord of the Rings to my son, and he loved them! Good for you!
Frank33 @ 115
don’t know if you’re into radio dramatizations… but bbc has been doing an excellent job with this series (they are up to “iron”). i liked the books better, but these are great radio plays and audio is nice for those time when you can’t read (driving, household chores).
Elliott @ 91
Really didn’t celebrate other than having a generally good outlook on the day and refusing to let anything bother me, although my best friend/housemate is taking me out for a steak tonight.
Twisted — Bless you! Picture is on it’s way.
Twisted Martini @ 121
Do you like sports books? If you do, ‘The Fab Five’ by Mitch Albom is really, really great. In my quest to make my sons read I bought this book for them. I enjoyed it as much as they did.
Since I’m always lurking here my reading time has diminished but some authors that I enjoy are Elisabeth George for mysteries, fiction, Tyler, Hoffman, and Miller and then all types of books on history. I really enjoyed David McColloch “The path between the seas”.
lina @ 97
Depending on what periods you enjoy reading about, there are a number of historical novels from the 40s/50s/60s I enjoyed. Thomas B Costain (The Black Rose), Samuel Shellabarger (Prince of Foxes), John Jennings, Kenneth Roberts (Northwest Passage), and Frank Yerby. Most of Roberts fiction is colonial period. Shellabarger’s seemed to be late 1500/early 1600. Costain and Yerby both were all over the place with Yerby writing from ancient Greece to early 1900s.
Sofistic — too lazy to google this early. Wasn’t Smith the progenitor of “continental drift” theory?
You are probably thinking of Wegener – pushed the idea ca. 1920, but not given much credence. (He later died on a weather expedition to Greenland.) Evidence of sea-floor striping sealed the deal in the early ’60s. (And actually, Ben Franklin mentioned the idea.)
Smith made what was basically the first significant geologic map in the early 19th century.
And another book rec. For the older child Ruskins The Westing Game.
I 2nd (or 3rd) the Barbara Kingsolver novels – Poisonwood Bible blew my socks off… looking forward to picking up her latest…
I’m reading Wolves at the Door by Judith Pearson. Tells the story of Virginia Hall, “greatest American female spy” in WWII. Also, Anita Shreve’s Body Surfing. She’s an excellent fiction writer.
TiredFed @ 98
I even enjoyed how he circled everything around and tied Foundation in with the Robots.
YellowDogJen @ 73
I heartily agree with that. Complex characters, written with shades of Gray.
I also highly recommend The Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan. It’s by far my favorite series to read and re-read. Also, anything by Terry Pratchett will leave you laughing.
It would be great fun if one of FDL’s law mavens did a backgrounder on Reggie Walton’s hilarious footnote
wigwam at 140 — Give us time…
I’m a foodie and a bookie, TiredFed. What do you call gardeners who are addicted?
Love remembering A Wrinkle in Time. My copy was dogeared, but I haven’t thought of it in years. And maybe it’s time for me to reread Pride and Prejudice again. Thanks for the reminder of one of my favorites. For kids under 10: we had a cat wander in this week who looks like the white-and-black-spotted protagonist in Harry The Dirty Dog, so I named her Harriet.
I love Barbara Kingsolver, and Animal Dreams is my favorite. It’s set in the Southwest, where I grew up, a story about love and forgiveness.
Tired fed — have found a solution. can you email me the file?
DWD @ 117
Just read about Silent Screams of a Survivor. Please, tell me if you are happy now. My husband’s family lost quite a few. I want to read your book, just, are you happy now? I can bear reading it if you have happiness.
Twisted Martini @ 123
cheers to twisted!
christy, if you have a mac, it can be done directly in iphoto (and then you’ll be able to do it for yourself in the future)… otherwise you have a legion of people who are happy to help…
I think reading aloud is great for youth/children of all ages. I have been volunteering at my neighborhood high school doing reading this last year. The students really have not learned how to read aloud, and their efforts are very wooden. So I enjoy reading to them just for the opportunity for them to hear it done.
I was an avid reader from a very early age. I remember WHEN I figured out the connection between the sounds of words and the words themselves. It was because my favorite story was Peter Rabbit, and my father read it over and over until. I. read. one day.
Does anyone else remember the Boxcar Children? I loved that stuff. I also read biographies. There was a series for young readers. I know we have talked about it here before.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 104
the stuff (pdfs of Libby filings and US Atty files) usually gets posted by someone eventually, but I’m searching for a better/faster way than emailing them to others who can host. thanks for checking. you are a prince.
Shall we talk about disappointments? I actually saved for vacation ‘The DaVinci Code’. Bought it, hid it to avoid temptation, and brought it on vacation. UGH. Double UGH.
G’Morning Christy and all
What a great subject, just planning to get my vacation reading material, thanks so much!
After 30 years, I am going back to Greece for three years. Will be on Crete for two weeks and south of Athens for one week.
retirin’ in five @ 115
Ahh, back. My connection is still hinky after yesterday’s regional fiber optic meltdown.
Short answer: Yes.
bg at 146 — My mom was an elementary school teacher for years and years, and read The Boxcar Children series aloud to her class every year. Love those books. :)
selise @ 107
ftp = file transfer protocol? not sure what that means. not wedded to using my site. just want to more widely share these files. cant cut and paste from some of them and wouldnt want to anyway. will have to look into wiki. thanks.
Solai, being a Michigan alum, the Fab 5 are kind of a sore subject since they tanked our basketball team due to NCAA violations for about 10 years. We just stole Christy’s coach in the hopes of turning it around.
bg @ 146
I have a theory that getting kids to read biographies is a great way of getting them to value life and set goals.
katymine at 149 — Ooooh, I am so jealous! Greece is one of those “definitely some day” vacation spots. I’ll expect a full, vividly described report when you get back so I can vacation vicariously. *g*
Christy Hardin Smith @ 141
Thanks, Christie, your analyses are terrific.
TiredFed @ 146
understood. your problem, obviously, is that MS wants to control content and so limits your upload options.
I am creating my own site today for another reason; if at a later time you would like me to host for you, send a note to alfredkelgarries ayat sign gee mayal daht cahm. (aren’t phonetics fun! :))
Fir anyone wanting to get a youngster interested in some history, try “Two Years Before The Mast” by Richard Henry Dana. It was written in the 1840s and it was the author’s stories of his adventures shipping as a common seaman on a whaler. Unique in that it was the first book ever written about life at sea from the perspective of a common seaman. Up till then, all the books about life aboard ships were written by Captains/officers/supercargos or pampered passengers.
Ditto on Preston’s The Wild Trees. My husband liked it so much he booked a trip for us to N.CA in September,lol. I can’t wait.
Right now I’m reading Sy Montgomery’s The Good Good Pig,which is adorable,but I know it’s gonna break my heart when Christopher Hogswood dies at the end(he’s the pig,btw,lol).
I liked The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd,I read that last summer. I just finished Kingsolver’s Animal,Vegetable,Miracle and am about to start The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’m looking for a little farm to buy,so that’s kind of where my reading leads me these days.
Somewhere around here I have a book called 50 Acres and a Poodle which is funny,about city people who buy a farm. I think there’s a part two called 50 Acres and a Family.
Oh,and Allen Eckert’s A Sorrow In Our Heart, about Tecumseh,is a good historical fiction book.I liked it and fiction isn’t my thing.
White Gold – Giles Milton (about European slaves in north Africa in the early 1700s)
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson (Science for the uneducated and interested)
Over the Edge of the World – Laurence Bergreen (about Magellan’s voyage around the world)
A Sense of the World – Jason Roberts (about the world’s most prolific traveller, a blind guy in the early 1800s)
Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling – Ross King (about the painting of the Sistine Chapel)
Here’s a good free wiki site you might like to look at…
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
dakine01 @ 137
ah yes. the 3 laws. simple. classic. elegant.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 155
Will be the boring tourist at Yearlykos!
Alfred Kelgarries @ 142
of course. where to?
I love everything by Dean Koontz, and re-read James Mitchner’s “The Word” about every 7 or 8 years. An author all would enjoy is Ben Rehder – his first book is “Buck Fever” and is hilarious.
Twisted Martini @ 153
Besides, as most any Kentucky fan can tell you, the REAL Fab Five were the Wildcat teams that won the NCAA Championships in iirc ‘47 and ‘48 and were the bulk of the ‘48 Olympic team… ;})
katymine @ 149
3 weeks or 3 years?
Travel, now this is a topic I can respond to. I like Iepetra on the south coast of Crete. Also, while in Athens, climb the Lykavittos Hill and you’ll have a great view of the Parthenon.
TiredFed @ 98
No the Mule had brains and WON WARS it took Gaia? I believe to defeat the Mule. Nope how about Nero, Caligula or someone out of the “Twelve Cesears”. Whats that quote describing Nero we have had emperors who were evil Tiberus, crazy Caligula, and a fool Claudius and with Nero/Bush we now have all three. Evil is torture and spying on people, crazy well he thinks he talks to God and only a fool would think we could win in Iraq with the small number of troops we got there. The NeoCons, Rove and most of all Darth Cheney all think that they are smart they all think they can still win the war because they pull Bush’s puppet strings of course they thought the war would have been over a few years ago too! Yet they STILL think they are going to win its sad when the puppet is as smart as the puppet masters.
katymine:
where are you staying in Crete? I’m headed there in August.
TiredFed @ 163
ah, i think i may have been overtaken by events. my solution is to host the file for you, and you mentioned previously that you aren’t fond of the idea.
if you want to, tho, i can do it in about ten minutes. addy is alfredkelgarries ayat sign gee mayal daht cahm. (phonetics to fool spammers)
Christy, incoming…
Englishlehrer….
Correction… I lived in Greece for three years 30 years ago, I will be there three weeks in July. *g*
Alfred Kelgarries @ 156
doh! email coming at ya.
I’m on the nineteenth book in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. (There are twenty, in all; he died while writing the twenty-first.) Stephen Maturin’s wife, Diana, has died — crashed while driving her carriage, as Captain Jack Aubrey had feared she might — and Napoleon has escaped from Elba: can Stephen be mended and can reinforcements for Napoleon be blocked?
I think that this in my seventh time through the series; there has been almost no time since shortly after O’Brian’s death in the late ’90s that I have not been reading these books. The first time through I just took them in the order in which they appeared back on the stacks in the local library, but then, having bought the whole series in W.W.Norton paperbacks, I’ve been taking them in chronological order.
I wish Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson would write more books. (Funny, at first glance, to like these three authors.)
But O’Brian, for me, is The Master.
hey…anyone remember the short film called “snow” or something like that?
it was a flick played in grade school that was what the author perceived falling into schizophrenia which was represented by the boy’s surrounding having snow
rod serling did another version with that kid from “lost in space”…something mummy
pretty good piece…anyone remember that?
A book that stuck with me (among some mentioned above) is Sophie’s Choice.
Morning everyone!
Okay. What am i reading?
aaarrrrgh! I have to confess i can’t stand the ad here for “John in Cincinnati” any more. Nothing against John. nor agnst Cincy. But, but, but, could SOMEONE in charge PULEEZE proofread the ad?! Or fess up?! Maybe the typo’s there to catch our attn even more, but this has been driving me bonkers ever since the ad went up…. -um-, scuse… thanks in advance ;->
Note to self: less caffeine…. *g*
Neal Stephenson would write more books.
The Baroque Cycle is not gonna hold you for a while?!?
Haruki Murakami’s After Dark , published this month.
William Gibson’s Spook Country, due in August.
TiredFed @ 151
don’t worry about the ftp then, was just trying to see what tools you had available. i’ll assume nothing beyond the basics.
there are several possibilities i see… sound like Alfred Kelgarries has an idea too… let me know if that does’t work out… one of us will certainly be able to help you out – so that you can post your own files, or one of us can host them for you. good luck!
bg @ 176
the one work of fiction that affected my entire childhood on to my adult life was “fail safe”
I don’t even know if it was a good flick cuz I haven’t seen it since but I believe that is what turned me into a progressive
Katymine @149
I’m envious. I enjoyed Greece so much and especially Athens. What a Vibrant city. Crete is amazing – would have liked to spend a month there. The people are very nice and helpful. I traveled with a friend and we rented a car and just drove all over the place. It was interesting since we were unable to read the signs.
BTW, if anyone is thinking of trying O’Brian’s books, “H.M.S. Surprise”, the third one in that series, might be a good one to try: the first one in which he really hits the stride he will be using for the rest of the series, and some astounding writing.
behindthefall @ 173
If you like O’Brian, you might like Bernard Cornwell.
Katymine’s super fine vacation …
will be staying in the village of Piskopiano which is the village up the hill from Hersonissos and will be staying inland from Glyfada south of Athens. Staying at the Amazones Village Suites in Crete. Renting a car and planing to see to see all the piles of rocks again with my boyfriend.
‘The Fab Five’ is a great book though. One line I remember is when Albom is talking about the high school recruiters going into the poor neighborhoods getting to know the kids and their families. He would bring donuts every Sunday. Albom writes (maybe paraphrased a bit):
“And if you don’t think people can be influenced by a box of donuts, then you must be from the suburbs”
For mystery lovers, Nevada Barr’s Anna Pidgeon series is phenomenal. Also, thoroughly enjoy Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender series, though he’s not for those looking for a little light cheer. Lighter fare though are Patricia Sprinkle and Marcia Mueller. On the not deep end of reading, I also read Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters and enjoy nearly all of her books … some more than others, but still.
Cornelia Funke’s Ghosthunters series,
You might try Kai Meyer’s Dark Reflections trilogy. Very interesting world, complete with mermaids and flying stone lions. Protagonist is a girl, which is a little different for this kind of fantasy novel.
jayackroyd @ 178
Yeah, that went through my mind as I was writing the comment: gotta shell out for that; bought “Zodiac” instead. But I have liked the regular-sized novels he has written so much that I just wanted more of them.
TiredFed, got it. will email link and/or code for your site within thirty mins or less.
Hopefully, we’ll solve this at this point. if not, i will (hold my breath until i turn blue) humbly ask for help….:>
lina @ 184: Thanks for the tip. I’ll take a look.
I’m a fortean, interested in oddball stuff. The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena is a masterpiece. All you’d ever want to know about mysterious rains of frogs and phonecalls from the dead!
If you want a smart but ridiculous read, try Confessions of a Shopaholic. It’s a series, but the first two are the best. Want an oldie that none of your friends will recommend? World of Suzie Wong. You may have to get it on interlibrary loan, but it’s great. The new Chabon, History of Love by Krauss. I’ll be reading Catch-22.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See and The True Story of Hansel and Gretel:a novel of war and survival by Louise Murphy are wonderful and quick reads to sneak in while the peanut is otherwise occupied and there’s no better recent book to get lost in than Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind.
For anyone who hasn’t read them and, and feel that the current “world is too much with me,” you have to read James Herriot’s first two books, All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful. Over the years, I’ve read them again each time I need to remind myself that there are good people.
Ross Thomas wrote some great mystery/cold war thrillers that would be great beach reading.
Robertson Davies’ “Deptford Trilogy” is fantastic reading, but MUST be read in order, beginning with “Fifth Business”, followed by “The Manticore” and finally “World of Wonders”. I”ve re-read these books over and over.
Also, Davies’ “What’s Bred in the Bone” is a wonderful book.
I loved Zodiac. I lived for seven years in the area where he’s set the novel. I love Joan Jett’s Roadrunner cover–which is also a subtle MA reference, because she’s covering a Jonathan Richman song.
He’s got Sox fans down, as well.
I did read the Baroque Cycle. It’s interesting, but does go on for some time. You do get some Cryptonomicon back story, and get to meet another Shaftoe. Oh, and Root is there.
behindthefall @ 174
COOL! Totally agreed! Both hubby & I are reading the whole series (separately. we look kinda funny sitting side-by-side). What a writer/story-teller!
Now I’ve gotta try to forget details you divulged… We’re not that far in the series.
What are YOUR plans when you get to the end? I may just start reading slower & slower, so it lasts longer… heh.
Hard to put them down.
april164 @ 193
Catch 22 reminds me of a couple of oddball from the German side of WWII:
The Revolt of Gunner Asch and Gunner Asch Goes To War by Hans Helmut Kirst. They’re in the same satirical vein as Catch 22 but from the German perspective.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 78
Christy, you should try to make Dragoncon in Atlanta Labor Day weekend. Biggest con I’ve attended, takes over the downtown Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott completely. It’s worth the trip for the costume contest alone as well as the costumed parade through downtown Atlanta… there’s something about Klingons on Harleys, the entire group of knights from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and a bunch of Imperial Stormtroopers walking down the street that makes me laugh aloud.
I’m lucky enough to be in charge of the autograph room there and have greatly enjoyed talking to the various writers.
april164 @ 193
Loved “Can You Keep a Secret” by the same author. Haven’t been as interesting in Shopaholic … not that interested in shopping.
PMA @ 195
So true for me as well. I live on a tiny farm because of Herriot and E.B. White.
behindthefall @ 174
You probably have read Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series, but if you haven’t, try them. I skipped them forever, thinking they were childrens books. Then I read them after the O’Brien series. I don’t know who’s best, but they are both enthralling.
Here are two more good ones:
Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald is a fictionalized account of the relationship between the eighteenth-century German poet known as Novalis and his true love, Sophie.
Famous Writers School by Steven Carter is composed of the letters and stories of three authors who are taking a would-be correspondence course by that grandiose name, and the self-serving “lessons” that Wendell Newton, their endearingly obtuse instructor, doles out in response.
behindthefall @ 190
Go for the Sharpe series if you’re into the Napoleonic wars. If you have a taste for medieval Britain (pre Norman Conquest) the trilogy that begins with The Last Kingdom is good. And if you ever wondered about an historical King Arthur circa 500 A.D., he has a trilogy that begins with The Winter King.
Author’s website: http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm
For historical novels try Dorothy Dunnett. Fabulous.
James Lee Burke for amazing descriptions of New Orleans. Mysteries.
Jasper FForde has a whole series of books (starting I think with the Eyre Affair) that takes place in an alternate Britain where literature is the dominant … well, everything. Nursery rhyme characters really exist and commit crimes (the current one is a murder mystery– who pushed Humpty off that wall?), and thieves “steal” the endings of books (so Jane Eyre ends up with the wrong fella). It’s kind of indescribable, but it’s the sort of completely controlled insanity that you wish neo-cons were capable of. I wish I could do the series justice– but it’s very, very clever. Very. The cleverest ever. Whether Shakespeare or Bacon wrote the plays is a long-running dispute in political elections, and you have to admit, that beats “I don’t believe in evolution” Republican debates.
Sorry. The author of Blue Flower is Penelope Fitzgerald.
[Mod: fixed]
I just picked up a “re-read” a couple of days ago.
Grisham’s, “The Partner.”
OMG. I’d forgotten the plot. Absolutely chilling, with what’s going on in the u s of a these past few years. It’s eerie & unsettling even more than Grisham intended, because he obviously had no clue, when he wrote it, that our constitutional rights would be in such jeopardy right now.
Have I thanked you yet, today, Christy – for all you’re doing?
{{{{{Christy}}}}} {{{{{Jane}}}}} {{{{{FDL}}}}}
And, let’s not forget Amy Tan. Her second book “The Kitchen God’s Wife” is my personal favorite. ‘Joy Luck’, of course, is also great.
‘The Hundred Secret Senses’ is pretty good.
Then, she lost me.
Good morning from L.A. Proofing a friend’s writing since early this a.m., so late to the party…
Great reads? Would it be disingenuous to suggest my old friend E.A. Poe? ;-)
Seriously, I wrote my doc dissertation on aspects of his writing 10 yrs ago & he still fascinates. Not into the dark side today? How about any of the “off the beaten path” writings of Mark Twain? Getting a bit beyond Huck, Tom, & Puddin’Head Wilson can really be a revelation:
I always recommend “The Mysterious Stranger” and “My
Platonic Sweetheart” to start off with if you’d like
to go deeper into Twain as fiction writer. “The War Prayer” is particularly apt for these times. Below are some favorite non-fiction books (including a few collected works):
-What is Man? & other essays by Mark Twain
-Letters from the Earth- Uncensored Writings of Mark
Twain
-Mark Twain’s Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist
Writings on the Philippine-American War
-The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on
Heaven, Eden, and the Flood
-Mark Twain’s Helpful Hints for Good Living: A
Handbook for the Damned Human Race
solai @ 132
Horses anyone?
Just heard about Kelso on “It’s only a Game”
http://www.horse-races.net/lib…..053107.htm
Liberal Heart @ 99
Little Women
just a side note for those of you who’s browser might be crashing lately
go here to update flash player
Perris, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Marie Roget, I happened to pick up a book of Mark Twain’s letters, an old paperback, and out jumped the man. What a voice.
Speaking of Twain, my favorite is Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Twain was a better economist for a century before the profession caught on. He understood in 1891 that growth in the economy did not come out of the ground, as in mining & farming, nor out of the factory door, but rather out of the brain, as in intellectual and creative property. He understood the role of communications in spreading it, and in patents for establishing property rights that would provide the economic incentive for more innovation. He also understood that technology is neutral, in the sense that it can be used for either good or evil, which is illustrated in the denouement of the book.
perris,
Bless your heart. This has been interfering with my work and driving me nuts.
Somthing old: Air by Geoff Ryman is brilliant, dense, culturally intricate and a fabulous read.
Something new: Sherri S. Tepper’s latest, The Margarets is a fine grandmotherly, feminist rant about our collective foolishness and her fondness for us as a species disguised as a Science Fiction novel about cats, among other things.
SonofLiberty — I’ve heard DragonCon is huge. Worldcon is generally a comperable size — but this year is in Japan and the budget and time constraints, alas, do not allow for attendance.
I remember a series from the 40’s that we called the “orange books”. They were biographies of famous people. They had silhouettes as illustrations. There were many of them and I read them all.
WRT Mark Twain. Some years back my family had a gathering in the Reno, NV area. We visited Virginia City, where Twain was a newspaper editor.
Something my family ends up doing is making visits to bookstores where we buy all manner of stuff, but there is a big focus on learning about the place we are visiting, flora and fauna, history and such. Just another approach to vacation.
We have the map guy, his fiction wife, some generalists, and of course the children. It is a lot of fun to share and cross reference.
Well I’m hopping down to the end of this thread, ’cause it will take me forever to read it. I’ll just savor that later.
I too am a non-fiction reader — much more so since Iraq. Highly, HIGHLY recommend The Looming Tower. It’s an excellent history of the many “players” in the Middle East. Reads like a mystery.
Ah, fiction. Well, I’m an ex-English teacher and devoted lover of Victorian novels. I’m reading my way through Anthony Trollope, having been turned on to the Pallisers by the tv series many years ago, and read the Barchester Chronicles as well. My favorite Trollope is The Way We Live Now: biting, funny, unforgettable characters.
In the 20th century, one book I read again & again is A Yellow Raft On Blue Water, by Michael Dorris. It takes the point of view of each of three Native American women [daughter, mother, grandmother]. It’s voice is so “true” you won’t believe a man wrote it.
For views of other cultures, Palace Walk and the rest of the Cairo Trilogy, by Egypt’s greatest writer, Naguib Mahfouz, set in Egypt in the 1920’s. And The White Swans re women in China.
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver. Atonement by Ewan McEwan. I re-read something by Jane Austen every year. And Middlemarch by George Elliot.
Thank God for books on tape & CD.
I recommend Alan Furst for novels with the power to transport readers to another time and place. The stories he spins are also instructive about international politics in the first half of the 20th Century. A long time ago a New Yorker profile called Furst’s books “the literary equivalent of watching Casablanca.” Ti my mind, it’s a true statement.
Another fun series is ‘Fletch’. Don’t judge them by the movie. The books are very good.
Second on the Fletch series. And the Shopaholic books are a hoot. All good for the beach bag.
Setting aside the non-fiction for a bit (reading two 1200 page tomes at present) there is fiction that I read and re-read. I agree that the Harry Potter series are just pure enjoyment. I’ve read all twice, so far. Another is the Pip and Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster. Could be that I’m attracted to tales of dragons and such. Imagine that. And a mini-drag named Pip was just too good to pass up. For classic fiction I read the full, unedited version of Dumas’ “Count of Monte Cristo” (another tome) at least every two years. For my money it’s the best novel ever written. The classic story of revenge complete with all the other elements, betrayal, murder, love, etc. A young man named Chrisopher Paolini has written two volumes of a planned trilogy called Inheritance. “Eragon” is the first and “Eldest” is the second. Wonderful good vs evil tales. Like Harry’s last volume, I can’t wait for Paolini’s third offering. Yeah, ok, it’s another dragon story. I can’t help it. I’ve been trying to read James Joyce’s “Ulysses” for over twenty years. A friend once told me it takes a lifetime to read it. I believe it. Boooooring. The two non-fiction tomes? Robert Fisk’s “The Great War For Civilisation” and Karl Marx’s “Capital.” Don’t laugh. “Capital” is still considered the best treatise on capitalism written. Has nothing to do with communism, but if you want to know how capitalism works this is the book to read. Not an easy read but well worth the time. And no summer reading list would be complete without “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Another series I read every couple of years. I”m afraid I can’t get excited over the run-of-the-mill thrillers the publishing houses churn out like…I don’t know what. For good mysteries I like the old stuff. Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Evan Hunter’s 87th Precinct tales, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and who can forget the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot. I’d like to think that television has gotten so bad that children and young adults are turning to the printed page to occupy their time. I certainly hope so. They’ll never regret it.
Well I’m hopping down to the end of this thread, ’cause it will take me forever to read it. I’ll just savor that later.
I too am a non-fiction reader — much more so since Iraq. Highly, HIGHLY recommend The Looming Tower. It’s an excellent history of the many “players” in the Middle East. Reads like a mystery.
Ah, fiction. Well, I’m an ex-English teacher and devoted lover of Victorian novels. I’m reading my way through Anthony Trollope, having been turned on to the Pallisers by the tv series many years ago, and read the Barchester Chronicles as well. My favorite Trollope is The Way We Live Now: biting, funny, unforgettable characters.
In the 20th century, one book I read again & again is A Yellow Raft On Blue Water, by Michael Dorris. It takes the point of view of each of three Native American women [daughter, mother, grandmother]. It’s voice is so “true” you won’t believe a man wrote it.
For views of other cultures, Palace Walk and the rest of the Cairo Trilogy, by Egypt’s greatest writer, Naguib Mahfouz, set in Egypt in the 1920’s. And The White Swans re women in China.
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver. Atonement by Ewan McEwan. I re-read something by Jane Austen every year. And Middlemarch by George Elliot.
Thank God for books on tape & CD.
Favorites: Anything by Connie Willis (both because I love the writing and because I know the author well)
The Hornblower series (reread all of them at least once every couple of years
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (though the first is still by far the best)
Right now, and for the past several years, I’m reading non-fiction almost exclusively. I’m in the middle of Simon Winchester’s Crack in the Edge of the World, about the SF earthquake in 1906. Anything by Winchester is fabulous, but I highly recommend The Professor and the Madman.
Also, I’m a disaster buff, and the best disaster book I have ever read, bar none, is The Circus Fire by Stewart O’Nan. Truly lyrical writing that does a heartbreaking story justice.
Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders .
How others dealt with climate change.
I had a great time with the “enders game” series…author started off pretty pedestrian but improved exponentially with each installment
I am wondering why this has not become a cinema franchise yet
Why are the underlining & italicizing funtions not working?
Don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this yet (225 posts are a bit much to scan through) but “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson is brilliant. “Lamb” by Christopher Moore is way up there too. Books which make you think AND laugh.
I am currently reading The Real All Americans which is about the Carlise Indian School football teams and Glenn ‘Pop’ Warner their coach and how they changed football to the game it is today. Intersting mainly for the sport history but also for Indian education policy.
The other book I have going is The Six Frigates. It is about the founding of the US Navy under Adams and Jefferson, the political history and politics involved with that. Believe me the politics haven’t change that much. I am through the part dealing with the Barbary Pirates.
I loved the Patrick O’Brien books and read all of Bernard Cornwall’s books.
How many of you have more than one book going at the same time? I usually have something light (to brighten the mood) and another that’s probably non-fiction.
One year I sat on the beach and cried while reading. Not good. Put that away and grabbed something more uplifting. Mr. Solai was grateful.
Mauimom @ 232
They don’t survive the sidetrip through the NSA mainframe.
Mauimom — We are still tinkering with the glitches as they show up from the upgrade. We had to upgrade the software to the newer version of WordPress, but that has resulted in a few kinks. Hopefully we’ll work through all of them in the next week or so.
Boston1775 @ 216
eCAHNomics @ 217
We’re so in agreement on Twain. I could start gushing on his clarity of thought & prose style regarding econ, politics, human nature, but my status as a Twain geek would become even more obvious. Plus, I’ve got to go back to editing for above mentioned friend…
Mauimom @ 232
none of that is working for me but you you can type it in by hand
[b] is bold, [u] is underline [blockquote] is quote, [strike] is cross out
replace [ with
Great post Christy
Liberal Heart on Biographies:
A question once for a college psych course test was to name ways that people can fast-track toward transformation-what things can help motivate us toward self-actualization. The reading of biographies and autobiographies was one of the correct answers.
Solai, I’m currently in the middle of six, but I only do that with non-fiction. Fiction I devour, usually in one sitting.
The six: Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson (Crippen and Marconi!), The River of Doubt by Candice Millard (about Teddy Roosevelt’s Amazon exploration), Thomas Fleming’s Washington’s Secret War (about Valley Forge), Winchester’s Crack in the Edge of the World, and Thomas Cahill’s Mysteries of the Middle Ages.
Speaking of the books which got us started, does anyone else miss the great illustrators. I spent hours, after reading the text, daydreaming over the illustrations of N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, etc. I still miss them.
Mystery-wise I’m a big Ian Rankin (author) fan.
There’s the new Tolkien, Children of Hurin…
I was so happy to see the latest installment in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series in the bookstore last week that I impulsively bought it in hardback, and I’m not sorry. These are entertaining SF space action books with strong female protagonists and an intelligent awareness of politics, cultural diversity, etc. Trading in Danger is the first in the series.
Thanks. At least I’m not crazy — or at least THAT issue doesn’t suggest I’m crazy. On to another.
oops. brain just crashed. time for sleepies. will see everyone later today. have got TiredFed’s file uploaded, fighting with site manager to allow access to it due to size. have let TF know.
(thud)
PMA @242, it’s funny you mention that. One of the earliest comments mentioned Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series, and I immediately remembered the illustrations. I have one of the earliest sets of those books, and the pictures are dark and disturbing and absolutely perfect for those books.
And I will always have a place in my heart for Tenniel.
masssouthpaw at 28
“Something about summer makes me want to re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Like Jayt, I can’t remember what I’ve read, but Three Junes is one I read last summer, and it’s a beautiful book.”
===============
here is a link to zen and the art of motorcycle maintenace .
http://www.virtualschool.edu/m…..PirsigZen/
My favorite book from early childhood was ‘Charlotte’s Web’. I loved that book. It may very well have started it all.
perris @ 230
Orson Scott Card
“The Wild Trees” by Richard Preston has probably already been mentioned but I enjoyed it.
Older books but I still reread them:
“Handling Sin” by Michael Malone
“Flamingo Rising” by Larry Baker
“The Handyman” by Carolyn See
& the Ya Ya Sisterhood books by Rebecca Wells
BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS by Eliot Pattison
Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Beautifu…..0312277598
Adie @ 198
When I get to the end? “When he gets to the end, he’s gonna start all over again …” “The Band”? I do think that this is my seventh time through, although I had re-read the series several times before it dawned on me that I ought to keep score.
I’m writing, and since it is unavoidable that what I read comes out in what I write, I would rather be influenced by O’Brian than any other author I have encountered. Since, God willing, I will be writing as long as I live, I presume that I shall be re-reading O’Brian that whole time, too.
Lurker here.
Since school has ended I have read around 20 or so books, many of which people have already recommended, but I thought I would throw in my two cents anyway.
George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series is a worth a read. I usually don’t mess with fantasy but read it on the recommendation of some friends.
Then I read Phillip Pullman “His Dark Materials” trilogy on their recommendation and have to disagree with the poster above: not worth reading. The writing is standard fare, the characterization largely nonexistent or underdeveloped and the plot too hurried.
I recently read Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas and it was quite amazing.
John Banville’s The Sea blew me away. As did the novels of Alessandrio Barico, particularly Ocean Sea. Just to complete this little water trend, anything by Iris Murdoch is amazing, with The Sea, The Sea being her best.
And I agree with the poster above: if you are looking for laughs the novels of Richard Russo are excellent. Straight Man and Nobody’s Fool will kill you.
I too cannot wait for the new Harry Potter book. The past few I have purchased at midnight and read until I was finished with it until 6 in the morning. Good stuff.
I think Breece D’J Pancake, of Milton, WV, is a great atmospheric naturalist who wrote some seriously dark short fiction.
Currently I am reading Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and am having a great time with it. A fun book.
How am I supposed to get any work done with all these good books to read?
Doing my first ever fast this weekend, Burroughs Master Cleanse, so I will be homebound with lots of time to read.
Three-quarters of the way through my second read of 1984. First read was high school in the 70s and I found it fascinating, took it as a warning. This read however is quite depressing seeing how it has been used as a manual by these neocon bastards. I’ve got The Devil Wore Prada on the nightstand and will be reading that next to lift my spirits.
Thought y’all might enjoy this ebook link, free books online. Includes SF!
Project Gutenberg
perris @ 214
I could just kiss you, thanks!
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
The English Patient
The God of Small Things
I’m currently unable to put down the Warren Zevon memoir, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.
Want a true treat for the summer? — Dorothy Dunnett’s novels, the Lymond and Niccolo series. Breathtakingly good.
Virginia Woolf–A Room of Her Own–must read for all women.
Elliott @ 258
hmmm
BuggyQ@248
Yeah, those people were great. I read that N.C. Wyeth never illustrated a scene directly described by text, but illustrated a scene which would have had to occur as a result of a described scene. Thus the illustrations allowed the reader to imagine even more than that described by the writer.
Anna Quindlen’s “Black and Blue”
Why do women stay?
laurie9 @ 213
Oh, that’s brilliant, PMA. Now I’m gonna have to go back and look at Wyeth’s work again.
Theft by Peter Carey
Just copied all the comments to save and look at later for good books. Much respect for you-all’s recommendations. So someone may have already mentioned this one. It’s unique.
allan_in_upstate @ 229
Great rec. I think The Greenlanders is sheer genius. That said, it is easy to get lost in keeping Asgeir Gunnarson straight from Gunnar Asgeirson etc., and most people I have foisted it upon have not made it through. My solution is to read it through twice, the 2nd time you’ll love it :)
Alternatively read it in conjuntion with the Greenland section of Jared Diamond’s Collapse, they complement each other very well. (And if you are a map nerd like me, Google Earth has surprisingly good coverage of southwestern Greenland which helps you follow the action more easily than Smiley’s somewhat confusing map.)
THE DEPTFORD TRILOGY by Robertson Davies
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Deptford…..89-9519254
Every page is a feast.
behindthefall 253
apologies for not reading your original post more carefully. just read O’Brian & dashed to reply, heh.
love the idea! i shall simply start all over.
we, too find ourselves…, well…, ah…
Give you joy!
;->
Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, completed in 1859, is a story of double identity. The innocent and frail character Laura Fairley is eerily doubled with the distraught and disturbed Anne Catherick. After Laura enters into marriage with Sir Percival Glyde , he in order to extort her inheritance, has Anne Catherick removed, under which circumstances she suspiciously dies, and Laura Fairley is remanded to the asylum in which Anne Catherick was once confined.
“The Woman in White, serialized in Charles Dicken’s weekly periodical All the Year Round, and in Harpers Weekly was not simply read by the public, it was consumed. The progress of the plot became a topic of great speculation and bets were struck on the outcome of various situations. Collins received letters from men who wished to know the identity of the original Marian Halcombe, so that they could propose marriage to her. The novel also propelled a widely successful merchandising industry spawning such things as Woman in White perfume, cloaks and bonnets, not to mention waltzes and quadrilles. Certain affluents of Collins peer group were mighty fans of the novel as well. The future Prime Minister William Gladstone, in order to continue reading it, canceled a theater engagement. The poet Edward Fitzgerald considered naming his boat Marian Halcombe, after reading it at least five times. Thackeray and Prince Albert were also absorbed in the novel and trumpeted it accordingly. The novel had an effect on the general public as well, Walter, the name of the hero in the novel was revived as a name for children, crowds of people would haunt the offices of All the Year Round on the day of issue.”
The novel has lost none of its charm since publication. If you are interested in checking it out, you can read it online at:
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/12/21/frameset.html
Anyone planning to buy Bob Shrum’s book? Carville probably likes it. And so does Fox News.
perris @ 214
THX for this. I thought it was just me. BTW FDL…luv the new layout.
Thread-wise…“Conversations with God.” ~ I give it away all the time.
JOHN FROM CINCCINNATI [sic]?!
1776 by David McCullough
1968 by Mark Kurlansky
1453 (the author’s name escapes me)
are all good nonfiction of years….
Slothrop @ 112
Jane Austen is Comfort Food – i re-read when things are too chaotic.
Last month I read Sinclair Lewis It Can’t Happen Here, now I’m reading Joe Connason’s It CAN Happen Here. I want to compliment my local public library, Westchester Township in NW Indiana. They do a good job of keeping everyone happy in a purple town (red county, blue state but we’re working on it!).
Back to the world. I had always assumed that people of my generation would have read most of the same books I did and assimmilated the same history and civics lessons. The current administration shocked me into realization that it isn’t true, and that many in later generations have no background at all in those experiences.
Englischlehrer @ 273
Oooh, that brought to mind the series that was popular around the bi-cantennial. Written by John Jakes. The first was ‘The Bastard’. Very good historical fiction.
T.H. White’s, The Once and Future King, a fabulous telling of the
Arthurian legends. I first read it when I was too young to understand all of it, but I guess I do now since I’ve read it about 20 times in the last 40 years. I’ve read parts of it aloud to kids and some of them have gotten hooked. (It almost took me down a professional medieval path) Disney’s original animation of “The Sword in the Stone” is an absolute masterpiece.
Another serial read is John Irving’s, A Prayer for Owen Meany. I personally view it as maybe the best modern American novel. The plotting is nothing short of perfect.
Just finished Michael Gruber’s, The Book of Air and Shadows. This is a really good read; interesting, really funny, and serious all at the same time. He’s very good.
Also try The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. A first novel by a
U of Mich Hopwood winner. If you can just accept the vampire
premise, you’ll like the trips all over Eastern Europe.
So many books, so little time. If anyone wants a really large list of really good reads, e-mail me.
BUGGY Q: You KNOW Connie Wills? I am sooo jealous.
Adie @ 268: I find the bird-watching jokes tickle me most: Stephen walking overland to the port and having been told not to make the ship miss her tide, yet unable to resist the opportunity to observe the last bustards in England. But bird-watching’s been with me for sixty years, and so I identify with this part of Stephen’s makeup.
The poignancy of Stephen wondering if his daughter is too young to begin her study of shrews: perhaps not the most suitable animal: botany, then, in the spring. My being taught the Latin names of wildflowers by my grandfather before I knew the english names, in some instances …
solai @ 272
Yes, my cat’s litter box does need to be relined.
Although I was saving room for Gerth and Van Hatta’s fantasy.
chigail @ 275
I’m considering this. Never read Sinclair Lewis’s book. I know it’s informative but did you like it?
I’m still fond of Steinbeck’s “Log from the Sea of Cortez”
u guys r gonna h8 me but I love ricee’s entire vampire series
Owen Meany I only read that for the first time this year. Chilling in context of today.
Mark Kurlansky: Cod is a really fine bit of history-writing.
Barbara at 52 sooo jealous of your reading the golden compass (the northern lights) for the first time. Enjoy the trilogy because the movie comes out this winter and armored bears may never be imagined the same.
NPR has been having lots of discussion of summer reading, and has left their booklists up for Talk of the nation, I’ll look for the link.
I’m planning my camping read to be the thief of books, but maybe we’ll find another. Last year it was a recommendation from this forum, The shadow of the Winds, that has THE best first page ever written by a novelist.
perris @ 283
Hey, don’t feel bad, so do I. But Ramses is also a great read.
Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charlie”: got me the dog, just need the truck camper.
Favorite novel of the year so far: Named of the Dragon
perris @ 283
That’s okay with me. As long as you don’t say ‘The DaVinci Code’ is the best book of the decade.
solai @ 281
As someone who got in trouble for reading far more for enjoyment than for school, I found It Can’t Happen Here to be a very enjoyable read.
Solai, it’s good but the writing is a bit old fashioned. I also read Heinlein’s Revolution 2100. I’m inadvertently enjoying dystopic fiction from the Thirties, I guess.
If you haven’t read them, Thom Hartmann’s The Prophet’s Way and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight are exceptional – two of the best books of the last 10 years. Ancient Sunlight (the title refers to oil) offers a critical and insightful look at western culture, while Prophet’s Way details Hartmann’s never ending spiritual journey. Both of these books are life changers.
And Bill McKibben’s new Deep Economy takes a discerning look at who we are, why we do the things we do, and how to transition to a more sustainable economy/ society. Excellent stuff.
tt @ 294
thom hartman is the friggin man, the passion and knowledge for our constitution is mind boggling
I am hoping jane or christy gets him to guest blog here once or twice
Oh, I almost forgot. Find “The Long Walk,” by Slavomir Rawicz. It’s a true story of a Polish officer, captured and imprisoned by Soviets at the beginning of WWII. He escaped and walked across Siberia, the Gobi, and the Himalayas. It’s only a little over 200 pages and is fascinating.
Fresh thread from Phoenix Woman up and running for everyone.
Phoenix Woman upstairs
“Named of the Dragon..”
I saw a funny bumper sticker yesterday: Do Not Involve Yourself In The Affairs of Dragons. You Are Crispy and Good With Ketchup.
Totally agree with Christy… It was funny for me, after years of my Dostoevsky-chugging friends’ contempt (since I had been mainlining Tolkein from before I turned 10 and didn’t spend as much time on the classics), to show up to undergrad anthro and other classes and be like,
“well, duh!” for many of the lessons, thanks to these authors!
Really enjoyed reading the thread (and BuggyQ I am doubly jealous) — my recommendations:
light and so worth it, if you missed it:
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie
heavy and also SOOO worth it, if you want to enter another world for a day or two:
The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis.
Actually, her collaborations (water witch, light raid) are lighter (occasional and intentional 007 references) and very fun.
(And BuggyQ, if you’re wondering what the second source of jealousy is, it’s that I also grew up on the Dark is Rising series but I don’t think I saw any illustrations!)
Christy Hardin Smith @ 60
dkd @ 243
She’ll be a Conestoga in Tulsa in July. She’s very funny, very bright. Will be doing her SFWA musketeers routine as part of her toastmaster’s gig. http://www.sftulsa.org
For the SciFi fans, does anyone remember Simac’s “Dusty Zebra?”
solai @ 270
I do not want to burn books, but some books burn me. By the way Mary Matalin is a book publisher.
PMA @ 294
You could pair that with Cold Mountain, where he walks hundreds of miles after an earlier war.
The Stand has always been my favorite King book. Currently reading the “Birth of Venus” – Florence during the Medici reign and Anita Diamant’s “The Red Tent”. But give me the beach and Nora Roberts fantasy series for sheer indulgence and escapism.
Hi, Christy!
My predictions for Book Seven of HP:
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, all the Weasleys, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Lupin, Hagrid, Dobby — and Snape and Draco — all survive.
Anyone else is up for grabs, but Voldie’s toast for sure.
Hi Christy and your gang of booklovers,
I just finished The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and was tremendously impressed by her writing–so rich and alive. How timely that it examines the plight of immigrants in India and the US. I am looking forward to reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book, Dancing in the Streets, a History of Collective Joy, since I feel that our job as an awake, aware, enlightened community is, in the face of all the fear and bad news, to promote its present and future.
Joyful reading everyone!
susan @ 204
[Mod: fixed]
The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett — medieval historical fiction about the multi-decade construction of a cathedral
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham — Newberry-award-winning biography of early American mathematical genius who revolutionized navigation, emphasizes boot-strapism and perseverance
My chair is broken. I can’t sit and read for more than 5 minutes anymore, what with boxes still to unpack, a world to save on FDL nightly, a Sprout who is more fun than a box of monkeys and work, always work, interrupting my playtime.
So I always go to my fallback novels, The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (who, BTW, has a new book of essays out about gardening and food and plants and such). I’ve read them so many times I can pick one up and open it anywhere and the story comes flooding back, about Taylor Greer, who leaves her home in a Kentucky holler with a barely running VW and ends up in Tucson with a barely running VW and a child. GEntle humor. LOL sections. Love, life etc. very well done.
But if I have time I’m going to pick some suggestions from this list for the summer. Thanks, Christy et al.
Lyrebird at 298: Believe me, I know how lucky I am. Especially on the first count.
The Dark is Rising books were illustrated by Michael Heslop. For years, I looked for a copy of Over Sea, Under Stone with his illustrations, but apparently he didn’t do that one. Just The Dark is Rising through Silver on the Tree. Absolutely fascinating pictures–all black and white, stark and imposing. His Herne the Hunter gave me the WILLIES!
Good morning, Christy et al -
Love this post. Thank god for the printing press. Reading a lontar would be much too difficult. I am listening to music. I love to be transported by classical music and often I start my day with Tomaso Albinoni. I love this guy! Just like I sit and read and give a book my full concentration that’s what I love to do with music. Later today I plan to spend time with Giacomo Puccini and listen to one of his operas. Classical music is the language that clears everything for me and I am revitalized and inspired. Bless the artists for keeping us sane.
Hey there Southerndragon at 226
How about Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon and the rest of the Tremeraire books. And of course what dragon lover doesn’t reread the Pern novels of Anna McCaffery?
My Book Club is looking for a specific, or “favorite”, Vonnegut for a coming read. Any suggestion for the best? Or best place to start? Thanks
Just reread my comment (305) and realize I should have clarified to what “its” refers—collective joy, NOT fear and bad news. SORRY!
I have to recommend probably the first documented romance novel — Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”. I read, read, and re-read it as a tween. It’s still with me.
Since I write in that genre, if anyone wants something light for the beach, try Jennifer Crusie or Anne Stuart.
-S
Can’t resist adding one more. Thomas King’s Green Grass,Running Water is just a wonderful, wonderful book. Quoting the jacket as I’m a johnny-come-lately to this thread and I’m on my way out the door, “…weaving subtle, magical humor, revisionist history, muted nostalgia, and sacred humanity into one bright, whole cloth.” It’s five or six stories woven tapestry-like into a positively hilarious read. Captures the incredibly subtle and sweet Native American humor like no other writer, except maybe for Louise Erdrich or Sherman Alexie. You won’t be disappointed.
If you are asking about staying with you forever –
A Long Way Gone
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
A riveting, gut wrenching book by a child soldier during the Sierra Leone civil war and his rehabilitation of rejoining society. Check out the reading group guide at http://www.fsgbooks.com
I’m reading the “Freedom Writers Diary” by Erin Gruwell aloud to my teenagers this summer.
I’m also reading Al Gore’s “Assualt on Reason” and Norman Doidge’s “The Brain that Changes Itself”.
I’ve read a lot of fiction and many historical novels, many of which sent me to other books looking for more. But only one book actually sent me to another country: Morton Thompson’s “The Cry and the Covenant,” about Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss’ struggle against the Vienna medical establishment’s refusal to instruct doctors to simply wash their hands. This was before Lister and germ theory, but Semmelweiss actually cured childbirth fever with a few antiseptic practices we take for granted today. Not so in the 1830’s and 40’s. Yep, I actually drove to Budapest (from Vienna) to visit his clinic. Anybody ever try to decipher Magyar road signs?
I sorted a YouTube playlist for ‘Conversations with God’ Audio Book
Ah, sumer is icumen in.
If you read out loud to your small-to-medium kids, T.S. Elliott’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is just the thing. More melodious fun than Seuss. It helps to be something of a ham, and to like cats.
For the youthful and adventurous :
Treasure Island, Stevenson
Tom Sawyer, Twain
Mysterious Island, Verne
Never Cry Wolf, Mowatt
Kon Tiki, Heyerdahl
Canoeing With The Cree, Sevareid
And for the youthful SF reader, The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and First Men In the Moon are bedrock reading. Images and scenes from these three novels have stuck with me my whole life.
For the adolescent with widening horizons :
The Source, Michener
Hawaii, Michener
For the adult adventurer :
We Die Alone, Howarth
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
Roughing It, Twain
The Bounty Trilogy, Hall and Nordhoff
Little Big Man, Berger
In historical fiction, Dorothy Dunnett’s two long series, set in the Renaissance, are wonderful. I’d say read them in the order written is the right approach; start with Lymond and then read Nicolo’. Kafka wrote that “Ein Buch muss die Axt sein fuer das gefrorene Meer in uns” which means, roughly “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” No books I have ever read have affected me more deeply.
If you like mysteries and have not yet read the Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy L. Sayers, why, then, your entire summer is now booked up.
Even some non-science-fiction-readers (like my Mom) enjoy the Miles Vorkosigan books by Bujold. Swashing and buckling in the grand space opera tradition, except with both male and female characters that are not made of cardboard. And some in between.
Adult SF readers who have not yet read Nicola Griffith’s Slow River, should. Noir. Erotic. Feminist. What’s not to like?
Liberal @ 99-
hope I didn’t miss an already posted answer -
I think you’re talking about the Betsy-Tacey books-author’s name escapes me.
they’re set in the Midwest, a series of several; one I remember is set during WWI and one of the characters is ostracized because of her German name and background.
I remember being surprised. Loved the whole series, which followed the girls as they grew up.
I like the new books to show new facts, the changing world and new ways to deal. However, I really love the classics bc they give us points of reference to share- you know all that, ‘you’re really OK, bc they believed, and screwed up the same way, too, 100s of years ago.”
Jukesgrrl @ 223
I’ve gottem all, including “Caribbean Account” which was actually for sale on E-Bay for over $800. I found my copy at the famous Naples President’s Day Book sale for 25¢.
B. Hatten at 312 :
re Vonnegut recommendations –
Slaughterhouse Five is his masterwork. Start there. Cat’s Cradle is also important. My own sentimental favorite is God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, which is less well known.
more
In SF, some of Ursula LeGuin’s lesser-known Hainish-cycle books are perfect summmer fare. I like The Telling, Planet of Exile, and Rocannon’s World.
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’s Reindeer Moon and Animal Wife are Neolithic fiction that far outshine Jean Auel.
Richard Clarke’s Breakpoint is a fascinating read.
My Uncle John Mackie wrote 4 books: Manhattan North, Manhattan South, East Side & West side. He is an ex-police officer in Manhattan and his books are on crime and they are pretty good.
surprised none of the S.K. Penman recommendations mention The Sunne In Splendour, which I liked much better that the Welsh trilogy or the mysteries.
And if you like Penman, you will probably like Elizabeth Pargeter.
Thanks to those above who set me on the path to finding the Betsy books again. I wonder how they’ll look to these old eyes on a re-read.
non-fiction for the environmentally-conscious:
John McPhee
The Control of Nature
Conversations With The Archdruid
Coming Into The Country
Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
West of the 100th Meridian, Wallace Stegner
I also like Stegner’s fiction Angle of Repose and Crossing To Safety. I didn’t like All The Little Live Things at all; IMHO Stegner didn’t understand the 60’s, and it shows. Michener had the same problem.
and this would be a good summer to finally get around to reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, before you see the movie (if you do). Heartbreaking.
Californians should read Stewart’s East of the Giants.
more SF:
Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking Dangerous Visions anthologies from the early 70’s are a goldmine (for a long time the only place you could read LeGuin’s “The Word for World is Forest” and Joanna Russ’s “When It Changed”).
Sierra Volk @ 258
Yes on Dunnett’s oeuvre!
Good morning (at least it’s morning here on the west coast!)
When I was a kid, I read The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron, and then read it to my daughter when she was little. We both love it! It’s a great story of 2 boys from Pacific Grove CA who respond to an ad in the paper and build a rocket ship and then blast off from the beach to save the day for the mushroom people. A great fanstasy for all!!
Just finished Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – good lessons for all of us….
QuakerGirl @ 310
nice. just really really nice… ;->
Less than 100 pages, but a favorite. “The Heart is a Little to the Left,” by William Sloane Coffin. It reminds me all the reasons I am a liberal and also reminds me that brave and courageous people can make a difference. If your in a funk, you will be inspired in short order. There are also some really good points to toss at the wingnuts.
ncdrew @ 311
I’m sure glad I looked at the comments once more before I embarked on a journey to my local indy bookseller (Haslam’s in St Petersburg FL). I had planned this trip yesterday and, thanks to Christy, et al, it’s gonna be a lot more fun than I imagined. After my first comment I thought of so many other books I would have liked to list but, holy moly, where does one start. The Pern series is delightful reading.
One other series I do want to mention is the alternative Arthurian legend by Marian Zimmer Bradley. The original “The Mists of Avalon” is undoubtedly the best but the prequels that followed are excellent as well. I definitely prefer her version to the usual male dominated tales.
For Susan @ 297
Great bumper sticker. I prefer a spicy mustard, myself, and not too crispy. A little long in the tooth, aye yam.
OK, enough. This ol’ dragon is off to the bookseller’s.
Peace
Never give up.
ooooh, I could write for over an hour on this one! thanks, Christy, as I read at least two books a week, due to being nearly a recluse. Lately, I’ve been completely blown away by Greg Iles. Any book he writes is great, but I especially loved ‘The Quiet Game’, ‘Footprints of God’,’Blood Memory’, Mortal Fear’, and ‘Dead Sleep’. His books are beyond what anyone else writes as far as complex psychological thrillers, and most are set in Mississippi and Louisiana (I’m a southern belle myself, but his descriptions defy even my own vivid recollections of the unique environment in the Deep South). I will admit that Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels used to be my fav, until I read Mortal Fear. I defy anyone to read The Quiet Game, and not feel somehow altered afterwards. I will log on later in order to read the remainder of the comments (only made it through the first 100!).
BTW, Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Love, Pray’ is a wonderful story of a woman discovering herself when she travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia.
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read anyway.”
I love that quote.
Joel Hanes, you have hit all my fave non-fic environmental-type books. Anything by Jon McPhee, but especially the ones you list; my fave Stegner is Angels of Repose (or Angels up your Nose, as the Sprout mis-heard once).
For “getting the sixties”, try Ann Tyler’s Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.
good morning and a quick hello.
I know it’s time for a break when I go to the bookstore looking for some of Lew Koch’s reccs and think I’ll find Abu Ghraib books at the table labelled “Grilling”. It’s true.
cheers y’all.
“Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” Ruth Rendell
> Anything by Jon McPhee
I think that the Annals of the Former World volumes are pretty heavy going for anyone without some interest in geology. I try to lure people in with Rising From The Plains, and Californians with Assembling California, but even those can overwhelm the common reader with geology jargon. Myself, I love ‘em — which is why it’s not safe to ride with me in the mountains: I’m looking at roadcuts when I should be watching the road.
If you liked Angle of Repose, I can again recommend George R. Stewart’s East of the Giants, which is similar but not the same.
If you liked A Sand County Almanac, I can recommend Of Men and Marshes and The Red God’s Call by Paul J. Errington, and Leopold’s camping journals published as Round River.
If you like fantasy / action / horror, it’s time to become a fan of Repairman Jack, a great hero created by F. Paul Wilson
Read “The Tomb” (also re-released recently under it’s real name “Rakoshi”). It’s a great story that introduces Repairman Jack, as well as one (well, several, really) of the best monsters in recent fiction.
There’s a seris of RPJ novels after this, but start here.
Hope you like it.
Anything by David Baldacci.
Pearl S. Buck — The Good Earth — Excellent
joel hanes @ 338
Hello Joel, just circling back to say I adore John McPhee! Giving Good Weight is a favorite.
Love joan didion too, I see she has a new one out about Sacto.
Christy and any other West Virginians:
One of my recent favorites is the 1632 series by Eric Flint and others. The first, 1632, begins when a chunk of a small West Virginia town (six miles in diameter) is moved in time and space into the middle of Germany and the middle of the Thirty Years War. Once they have accepted what has happened, the locals decide to start the American Revolution 150 years early.
The heroes are not rich super-spies; they are ordinary folks, the UMWA local president, the high school history teacher, the head cheerleader. The series has spawned some of a cottage industry, with many of the books’ fans writing short stories and even novels to continue the story. Check it out at http://www.1632.org.
Long time lurker, first time posting.
One medieval fantasy series I’ve reread several times is The Heirs of Saint Camber triology writen by Katherine Kurtz:
The Harrowing of Gwynedd (1989)
King Javan’s Year (1992)
The Bastard Prince (1994)
It is very dark but wonderful.
I love fantasy/sci fi of all kinds, and have been giving the earthsea trilogy as presents to teen for years now. She has written a sequal with her main characters in old age.
I’d add Christopher Moore’s “A Dirty Job” to the recommendations – along with Moore’s trademark laugh-out-loud humor, there’s a warmth that’s less typical for Moore and insight on death, parental love, and the nebbish courage of beta males.
For quick, fun, clever reads that are especially good for summertime, I’ve become addicted to Charlaine Harris’ mysteries. She has a Southern Vampire mystery series (”Dead as a Doornail,” et al.), the grounded-in-reality Lily Bard series set in the small town of Shakespeare (”Shakespeare’s Landlord”, et al.), and a new series (Harper Connelly) that spans the gap between supernatural and natural worlds
(”A Grave Sight”). The Lily Bard and Harper Connelly series, in particular, feature female protagonists who’ve survived devastating past events so that they are complicated and interesting in their efforts to build functioning lives.
For something heftier, I’d also recommend Marisha Pessl’s “Special Topics in Calamity Physics.” Ever wonder what underground radicals may be up to in their graying years?
Welcome Dormouse!
:)
Hey Dormouse—
Welcome to the Lake!
Love in the time of Cholera and 100 years of Solitude.
Great ideas here Christy. Wonderful topic.
I’m like you…always have at least three books going in the fiction area.
My three favorite books are Ruslan by Barbara Scrupski from 2004 a book about late 19th century Russia, Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, and the Russian Debutante’s Ball by Gary Shteyngart.
Old standbys include The World According to Garp by John Irving and How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Lenny Bruce.
Also anything by Kage Baker…the Mendoza books….The Garden of Iden, Mendoza in Hollywood, etc.
Have a great weekend.
Fifth Life of the Catwoman, by Kathleen Dexter
Letters from Yellowstone, by Diane Smith
The Mind-Body Problem, by Rebecca Goldstein
The Speed of Light, by Elizabeth Rosner
Frankie Furbo, by William Wharton
Help me, I can’t stop.
adolescent SF:
Out Of The Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Far more grown up than Narnia, and better written; the Christian proselytizing doesn’t seem to have hurt me any. These I would recommend to those who loved Madeleine L’Engle. (I dislike both the gender roles and the writing in the middle book of this trilog, and cannot recommend it.)
Davy, A Mirror For Observers, The Company of Glory, and Still I Persist In Wondering by Edgar Pangborn
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee
The Anything Box by Zenna Henderson, and her Chronicles of The People, are the rare SF-genre that appealed to my niece, and are primarily concerned with relationships, not with space nor science nor explosions.
adult SF for summer :
Earth Abides, George R. Stewart
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller
Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, to whom William Gibson and Neal Stephenson owe a huge debt.
adult fantasy
Little, Big, Crowley
The Folk of the Air, Beagle
sui generis
Watership Down, Adams
Although older kids enjoy it, this is a very adult book, with political overtones that will resonate today.
adult literary fiction:
I think Richard Powers’ Gain will appeal to those who like Barbara Kingsolver.
From there, perhaps his more recent The Echo Maker.
damn, forgot Crowley’s Aegypt
quote:
John Crowley, _Aegypt_, 1987
Moonlight Hotel Scott Anderson
great great book but not as good as his The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of an American Hero
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Trie…..amp;sr=1-2
FIRST IS FICTION, SECOND IS NON FICTIoN. Can’t reccomend these enough to understand today’s world
To: 323 Thank you. That will get us started. Have you read the late one, a sort of memoir, I think?
Wow this is a great thread. My family says that if I leave the house without a book, pen and pocket-knife its time to check my temp.
I am kind of surprised that no one has brought up Spider Robinson “Callahan” series. Great stuff, great characters. Maybe I’m biased because of all the Long Island references. Some of it might be dated but still a great read, especially when I’m a little down. His article compilation “The Crazy Years” is another book I would call a must read. The title comes from part of Heinlein’s future time-line which he calls to the period around the year 2000.
PeteCO @ 114
Don’t know which version you have but in my copy of “Revolt in 2100″ there is an essay that struck me as dead on regarding the rise of the religious right. We are truly in the “Crazy Years”
The Spenser series by Robert B. Parker
By Homer Hickam: October Sky (Rocket Boys), The Keeper’s Son, The Ambassador’s Son
Orbit by John J. Nance
Saucer by Stephen Coonts
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God by Mary Doria Russell
Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
I could go on and on, probably I read a book a day.
but seriously folks:
I have the impression that most FDL readers a just a little bit politically engaged …
Read Robert A. Caro’s magisterial biography of Lyndon Johnson. The first two volumes are
The Path To Power and
Master of the Senate
Time well spent. Word.
> Have you read the late one, a sort of memoir, I think?
If all Vonnegut had ever written was Slaughterhouse Five, he would still be famous now and fifty years from now.
If all he ever wrote was A Man without a Country he would be an unknown.
> does anyone remember Simac’s “Dusty Zebra?”
Yes. Clifford Simak.
As a kid, I loved Way Station
Christy,
Darwin’s Children was alos very good. Anything by Greg Bear is fantastic, although Darwin’s Radio is pretty approachable as it takes place today.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 20
The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You – Dorothy Butler
Anything by Christopher Lamb
Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away – Elizabeth Enright – children’s book that hooked me on reading
The absolute best summer read is A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffet. Not light reading but fun. You have to pay attention. Buffet is an amazing writer. Write about what you know works for him! Maribeth Fischer wrote, The Life You Longed For. The mother of a terminally ill child is accused of making her own son ill. The writer had to have had a similar experience herself to write about this subject in such a heartfelt way. I felt privileged to have been able to read this story. Both of these are works of fiction. Enjoy!
“A prayer for Owen Meany” Oh my, yes…
“The Boys of Summer” is my favorite baseball book.
“Housekeeping” is heartbreakingly beautiful.
“The Known World”
“The Kite Runner”
“Memoirs of a Geisha”
“Empire Falls” is another wonder by Richard Russo.
Wally Lamb’s books …
There are way too many to list, but I am so grateful for all the suggestions. I’m going to the Printer’s Row Book Fair tomorrow. I’ll go to Amazon when I get back.
last post from me on this thread, I promise.
all you old hippies:
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, Farina
Funny. Tragic. Madcap. Prescient. T. Coraghessan Boyle pales by comparison.
More old-skool-but-great SF:
The Day of the Triffids Wyndham
More Than Human Sturgeon
and for those who love O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books:
Sailing Alone Around The World Slocum
and for the ill-behaved twelve-year-old boy in your summer house:
Captains Courageous, Stevenson
Laurie R King has a series that details the “retirement” of Sherlock Holmes which is the finest addition to the original stories I have read, and trust me, I’ve read them all. The first book in the series is “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.” I also love the Marcus Didius Falco series written by Lyndsey Davis, set in ancient Rome. “Course of Honor,” also by Davis is a novel about Emperor Vespasian and the woman he loved but could not marry. Best damn love story I’ve ever read. Elizabeth Peters’ Ameila Peabody series is such a treat, lots of fun, historical Egyptian archeology, crazy characters, murder, mystery and mayhem. Damn funny too. I also put in a vote for Janet Ivanovich’s Stephany Plum novels. Classic mystery writers like Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Stout, and Josephine Tey are all pearls beyond price. Aaron Elkins’ Gideon Oliver mysteries are lovely. Thank you so much for the thread. I’m always on the look-out for new books. Enjoy!
Don’t know if anyone mentioned James Lee Burke’s Dave Robichieux mysteries. Burke is a wonderful writer. I just discovered him a year or so ago and immediately read all of his dozen or more books. An Affair of Honor by Richard Marius is another favorite of mine. My husband enjoys Tim Dorsey’s insanely funny novels. He’s been called Elmore Leonard on crack – Dorsey, that is, not my husband. I read Hosseini’s new book, “A Thousand Splendid Sunsets” – another moving story, but I liked “The Kite Runner” better – sad by truly life affirming. Tom Wolfe’s “A Man in Full”, “Sabbath Day River”, by Jean Korelitz,
“The Shadow of the Wind”, all superb books.