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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.