I saw your comment about The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle and I agree...I was there..YOu do feel it..
You experience all the feelings in that book.
What a wonderful story...and yes..You can't discuss it till everyone has read it all..
(*_*)
deb

Yes, she had a discussion going for this book...it's on her reading list for October...so it's probably dead by now, you're right. Oh darn!

:)

But...it will be archived...

p.s. I am sorry to hear about your surgery...oh dear. I hope you are feeling better soon. !!!

Hi Candy...do you mean Oprah discussion as in her website or as in the Oprah Banter Books and Bling group here?

There's a discussion over there...I've had surgery and can't be on the computer for too long yet, so I don't know how alive or dead the threads are...

January! Oh dear...I'll have to go join the Oprah discussion now then,. And maybe find a book club.

Hopefully everyone will have a tight memory for a future discussion... I thought ten or so people have already read this book here?...how funny to vote for it also as a nomination!

Yes, I guess I am out of it Beej...off to Oprah! (and I'll add post it notes to my reading to save for January, harumph!)

(Just watch...I'll probably get a copy for Hanukkah too!)

LOL you crack me up mama! The formal discussion is set for January m'dear.

Oh...there is a formal disscussion somewhere? Sorry I better for look for it! Heh heh...I am still reading it...

:)

Of course I'm going to discuss it when time comes for the discussion! How could I NOT want to discuss it? It's magnificant.

Did you finish it?

Beej, you're not going to discuss this book!? I just went and bought it and am reading it because you and Sara and others have already read it! I was so excited to discuss this book!

Oh it does hurt to read it doesn't it?

Funny, when I looked at his pic on the back cover the other day...I was so excited and impressed to see how he would be a great example for the discussion over at "is genius always precocious?"

I'll be back with some excerpts..this is so wonderful this book...

I've finished this great novel and wondered throughout most of it, "Why does this book hurt to read?" And I think I figured it out; this book hurts because you don't just read it, you experience it.

Of course, I'm not going into detail or beginning a discussion, but this has to be one of the overall greatest books of my life. I wouldn't be surprised if it won many awards.

One of the many reasons I was first attracted to ES was because the author was older and to me it was a wonderful thing that he didn't allow his age to interfere with his dream of writing the 'GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL." It's his first book, and it is a wowser. Now I'm kind of mad at him for denying us this caliber of literature for all of his adult life.

If you are thinking of not reading this, shame on you!!!! Run right now and wrap your arms around it!

I was on her email list for a long time and, just recently, maybe two months ago, someone hacked it and sent out viral messages. Just after that, she closed the website and I haven't heard from her since.

I remember Sparkle. Saw her in person in Milwaukee. I have a bunch of her books, but I have to admit that the last one I read was a bit of a jumble. I haven't read the very last one I own. I heard that she lost her publisher. I do wonder where she is. I guess Robin Hudson just didn't become Stephanie Plum, except I think Robin came first, but Stephanie made more money.

I am not a mystery reader, but recall years ago the writer Sparkle Hayter made a couple of guest appearances on CR when we were discussing her books. I like the Chelsea Hotel connection in her books, that is where I plan to stay if/when I ever visit NYC. Sparkle had a fun website back then that was like a very early form of a blog, but I cannot find it now.

Theresa

Oh I've read Laura Lippmann...in a reading slump in 2000!

I read a lot of mysteries especially when I have a slump for reading nvoels Gail. There is something so wonderful about good versus evil...hoping that the bad guys get caught and having my imagination courted with some puzzle solving...and a view into evil nad goodness and stuff. I watch the tv show Law and Order (and the spin offs) for the exact same reason. I also watch mystries from BBC. I love Cracker, Prime Suspect...


Sara has sugested I check out Denise Mina...and it's just a matter of me bng int he right place at a book store to get her first book to geet into her.

I've worked my way through a lot of mystery writers and series.

I read Cruz-Smith, Nicolas Freeling, Kinky Friedman, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovitz, Jim Thompson (twice) John D. MacDonald (four times at least of his Travis McGee series--I have a fantasy to directa Travis McGee movie, I used to want to cast Ed Harris, now maybe A blonde George Clooney?), Walter Mosley, I only started to read Dick Francis recently, Ellery Queen, Dashiel Hamett, James McCain, Agatha Christie, Elizabeth George...

Well...I go through phases, these are more for sure. A good mystery novel is one of my favourite super happy fun reading stuff!!!!!

Um and these mystery books I recycle taking them to trade for new ones...which relates to Mark's topic (on heavy books and tbr piles somewhere here at Goodreads/Constat Reader) here if I didn't already say that...I don't keep them...okay. I have a few original Travis McGee novels...I heart McGee!!!!

Edgar Sawtelle is so good...I had to re-enact the five first opening pages for Stagg..I was lie "all right, we got ourselves a novel"...with Korea, poison, dark alleys, a boy in jeopardy and dead dog!!!!

I have a good stack of mysteries also, especially new books from series that I like. They are fun and sort of a palate cleanser between heavy courses. I'm squeezing in a Laura Lippman before jumping into American Pastoral.

Ah, Candy, glad to know I have a fellow "Geez, I just can't get into anything now" mystery reader here at Goodreads. I keep a small stack of new (to me) mysteries available in a cabinet in the laundry room...just in case I get a sudden attack of, "Oh, I don't like anything here! What can I read?"

Sara gave us a a wonderful wedding gift of an amazon certificate. I've never ordered anything off of amazon before so I was pretty excited.

We got two parcels the other day...and it was an incredibly uplifting experience! I've already started a new list because I think I am a believer now!

What I ordered (and Stagg had his own selections even though we tend to land up reading each others stuff here and there) was Obsene in the Extreme which Sara had just been telling me about. I didn't know that Grapes of Wrath had been so offensive to soe people. I can imagine the breastfeeding of a grown man to be disturbing...it still resonates today as an image that is for sure!

I also ordered Edgar Sawtelle and have just begun...and love it...I love the tone already and it is just a flowing read.

I also ordered Shakespeare's Last Plays by Frances Yates

Yates is one of my favourite writers in academia...I've read all her works and own some...but not this one...


She (Yates) wrote extensively on the occult or neoplatonist philosophies of the Renaissance. Her books Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964), The Art of Memory (1966), and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1971), drew attention to the key role played by magic in early modern science and philosophy before scholars such as Keith Thomas brought this topic into the historiographical mainstream. With the publication of Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition she transformed Renaissance historiography. In it Yates revealed the hermeticism with which the Renaissance was imbued, and the revived interest in mysticism, magic and Gnosticism of Late Antiquity that survived the Middle Ages.

I was on a book slump and had really been reading a lot of mysteries, but I am so into and stoked about Edgar Sawtelle it's got me hooked to enjoying and making time for novels.

I absolutely love the feeling of getting a parcel of books in the post...wowwie! (thanks again Sara!)

Just what I need another obsession heh heh...

I have not even been watching the series, Newengland....protesting you know....!

And thank you, Diane, for re-inserting the "Devil" in Rays...

Haha, Diane!

That's funny. I didn't know library holds were unlimited. Don't worry. Some of those 235 will get impatient and buy their own copy. You'll probably bump up to 178 in no time.

After reading everyone's comments, I decided to put Edgar Sawtelle on hold at the library. I'm number 235 in the hold queue. The library gods do not like me.

thanks for the reply Newengland (boo hiss to Tampa Bay Devil rays).
I have no critter favoritism, loving the felines and canines equally. But to go along with your post, when I met my partner (a man) 14 years ago, he told me if I ever got a cat, we'd break up. Here we are 14 years and 3 cats later, and I say, how come you're still here :)

Hi, Diane. I'm speaking in black-and-white generalities, which is obviously illogical. BUT, if you asked a bazillion guys who love animals, you'd probably find they overwhelmingly prefer dogs over cats as pets. While it might not be as clear cut when you (finally) get to asking the bazillion women, I think you'd discover more women favor cats over dogs.

Non-scientific, like my brain (I have the grades to prove it), but there you have it.

Newengland - (i'm originally from Boston by the way :)
What makes you think because it's a dog book, guys should weigh in...just curious.

I got this for my birthday but I'm waiting to see if this is voted in as a CR selection and I'd like to read it with y'all.

Robt

What's curious is that no guys have weighed in. If it's a DOG book, then it shouldn't be chick lit or anything approaching that (say, like the works of that other Oprah writer, Jhuari Lumpaur... no, that's not it... oh forget it... something exotic and Indian-like),

Hi Kristine -that's interesting that he's writing another!

I just finished it and loved it!! I heard he's writing another book about the Sawtelle ancestors.

It has my vote too. It's been a long, long time since I've read a newly published novel of this caliber.

I bought my copy the day before Oprah announced it as her new pick and I'm sooo glad I got it pre Oprah, or I might have laid it back down on the store shelf; I have a thing about not reading a book that Oprah picks. Don't know why I feel this way except maybe because I hate 'following the crowd' like a little lemming.

It's got my vote! I finished it last week and truly enjoyed the writing style and the story.

Let's hope this is on the next Reading List.

Candy, I'm reading this now and it's wonderful. Not only is the writing stunning, it makes you feel what each character feels.

It's well worth the time to pick up and read.

No...I didn't even see an interview with her and him...must have missed an Oprah episode, that's not like me heh heh!

I happened to see his first little interview with her, and he seems like a very kind person. My understanding is he is a software developer and went to Warren Wilson, which is a low-residency (you do two weeks twice a year, I believe, and otherwise work from home) MFA program. His writing is really quite fine.

WR

All right...a few decent recommendations...I am stoked!

W&R, can you imagine how blissed out this guy must be? His first novel an Oprah pick? Wow.

I picked this one up when it first came out, and then let it drift down the stack. I fished it out and have read about 100 pages in the past couple of days. Really very good.

I'm much more of a cat person, but I don't think that makes a difference in this case.

WR

I have read Edgar Sawtelle and enjoyed it. The writing is splendid and it gives one a whole new way to look at dogs. I am a dog person anyway.
Sandy

I absolutely loved this book. I didn't want it to end, though the ending was not one I would have preferred.

I found the writing to be so poetic, as though it begged to be read aloud. ANd while some of the characters were not developed as well as I would like, and at times I felt the book needed way more editing, I truly was taken in by the story and by Edgar and his dogs.

I much prefer cats, but that's not an issue.

Has anyone else read this yet? It's quite the tome, but a quick read.

Anne

Oh yes, I see that he has been on the radar for a couple of months. Probably Oprah listens to NPR and reads book reviews, just like us heh heh. When I came here yesterday to see if anyone was going to reead this one around here...I first found his listing here! I guess his book was published in the spring?

It's not that I usually go and get an Oprah pick, sometimes I have already read them...or pick it up later. But this one really interested me because it has a pet dog in it in...and an animal in a novel always gets my interest.

You all already know I am a fellow cat lover, but I love dogs too...(animals in general) and had dogs growing up. Apparently this novel really is going to be enjoyable for people who have or have had dogs in their lives.

Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman who do the Books on the Nightstand podcast and group here on goodreads have been recommending The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for a while. I also heard the author do a reading on an NPR booktour podcast and was impressed. This was all before Oprah chose it, but it sounds like she picked a good one. I have it on Hold at the library but am about 12th on the list.

Anybody read this one by a new author? Called
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle?