Denise’s Comments (group member since Jan 23, 2009)

Denise’s comments from the The Reading Rainbow Coalition group.

@Kristy - short books as a second book sounds fair!

I'm sorry to say that I haven't read as much Gaiman as I probably should have by now. Good Omens has been the only one.

Catcher is an excellent suggestion. It's still one of my favorite books.

OK, so I'm kind of thinking that 2 books a month might be a little ambitious so let's bring it back down to one (unless there is a tie).

Here's a list of last month's suggested books -- I omitted books that got no votes and also, obviously, books we have already read. If you want to see another book in here please suggest away!

Where Angels Fear to Tread The Zygan Emprise Book
Vurt
Snow Crash
The City & the City

@Mike - one of my favorite books! If you want a longer discussion on this feel free to put up a new thread.

Anyone else read this?

Here's my review:

Very campy and pretty corny but a fun read. This book was an amusing blend of murder-mystery, harlequin romance and vampire story, but someone looking for a more "serious" vampire novel might want to skip this one.

I thought the HBO series did a better job of not only fleshing out the characters but also exploring the social implications of making vampires legal citizens. To my understanding, Tara and Lafayette show up in the subsequent books but were basically absent in this one (Lafayette mentioned only in passing); in the TV series they basically steal the show.

As other reviewers have mentioned, there is a considerable amount of laughable writing in this one, but probably not the worst I've seen *coughTwilightcough*. Sookie is a little dim and annoying but there was enough mystery to keep my reading, and the characterizations and interactions of the vampires were also intriguing. I think what held my attention the most was probably comparing it to the 1st season of the show, though.

Recommended, if you're just looking for a light and fun read.

I could not find this book at Barnes and Noble. Might order it from amazon.com but don't know if I'll finish it by the end for the month.

Has anyone started on this yet?

Finally got around to buying this book! Hoping to finish it over Memorial Day Weekend.

Goodreads description: "A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humor (think Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut) with a stunning futuristic vision (ᠬa A Clockwork Orange and 1984, with a little Mad Max thrown in) to give us an electrifyingly original tale of love, friendship, and the apocalypse.

There couldn't be a fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. It was the last thing the world needed. But there it was, burning bright on national television. The Pipe was what kept the Livable Zone safe from the bandits, monsters, and nightmares the Go-Away War had left in its wake. The fire was a very big problem.

Enter Gonzo Lubitsch and his friends, the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, a team of master troubleshooters who roll into action when things get particularly hot. They helped build the Pipe. Now they have to preserve it—and save humanity yet again. But this job is not all it seems. It will touch more closely on Gonzo's life—and that of his best friend—than either of them can imagine. And it will decide the fate of the Gone-Away World.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana, and ultra-cool epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of—among other things—love, pirates, mimes, greed, and ninjas. But it is also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes—however unlikely they may seem."

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From Amazon.com: "Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor."

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@Ainulindale - we can try that but we also have to accommodate for new suggestions. We'll figure it out. :) Thanks for the suggestion!

There have been a lot of great suggestions for books so far but unfortunately we can't get around to all of them... so this forum is for any other book that you have read or have been reading and would like to suggest to the other members.

Enjoy!

@Misterworld - honestly I was expecting at least one of them to die but towards the end there I thought it would be the boy, after he gets so sick. That would have made for a pretty brutal ending, even more so than how it actually ended.

Alright, we are totally rockin' the cyberpunk so far with these suggestions ;)

Posting up the poll soon so hold off on any more suggestions. I think we have a pretty good spread already.

Great suggestions so far, gang!

Ok, question: If we do a shorter book, would you guys like to do two books within the month? I know that The Road, for example, was a quick read. So maybe this time instead of 4 weeks we knock it down to 2.5 if it's a smaller book? Maybe that way we can get rolling on some of these more excellent suggestions.

Thoughts?

Alright then homies, it's about that time again... suggest your book of choice! I'll have the poll up by tomorrow if we get enough suggestions and I want to start on something new by next Monday.

@Self-propelled: loved those mini movie narratives :) i wouldn't mind seeing this on screen as i think visually it could have the same impact as the diction of the book did. the biggest way they could screw this up is to mis-cast the kid. i'm pretty confident that viggo mortensen will be great.

@Aaron: i love that analysis of comparing it to a western! that never even occurred but it makes perfect sense. i'm even reminded of the scenes in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett and company were just trying to survive during the war.

@Vicki: mine was "Where men can't live gods fare no better."

@Self-propelled: I might be intrigued enough to pick up some of his other books just to see if his writing style holds up through other scenarios or if it's a one-time hit.

i'm really enjoying this discussion guys! we'll be moving on to a new book soon but please keep on contributing if you come up with anything else. this feels like one of those books that will haunt a reader long after you read it.

Ok, I've had a few days to absorb the book. Although I rated it a three, I think of it more of a 3.5. Not a huge difference maybe but the way I rate my books are 4 stars for "almost-favorites" and 5 stars for "rocked my world." So in my mind, 3 is not mediocre by any stretch, but didn't quite make my list of favorite... this comes from my HR background of performance ratings probably...

Aaaaaanyway.

I tend towards very verbose and imagery-heavy works, books that can act as door-stoppers basically, so this was a refreshing change of pace. The author managed to convey a great amount of emotion and imagery in very sparse, albeit poetic, description. It's one thing to go on and on about the cold grey landscape, and quite another to make you feel the despair of being in it.

I think this book is great because of what Vicki has already pointed out - that you don't really know what you would be capable of in the most dire situations. It's an interesting piece because it focuses on something very basic and simple - the relationship between two people - and McCarthy refuses to let you be distracted by the "hows" and "whys." It is pure in the sense that, when something like this DOES happen, you won't care about what everyone else is doing, and how it happened, and why. All you can focus on is you and the people you have to take care of.

The book also does a great job of moral ambiguity. I hate to give away any spoilers because certain scenes are so chilling and creepy that they really shouldn't be spoiled. BUT :) this moral ambiguity isn't just about the obvious (cannibalism) but also about whether it is worth pressing on, living in a dying world. When there is no hope of salvation, do you fake hope for the sake of your child? Is it worth it? Would YOU do it? And if you do, is that strength, or weakness?

@Vicki - I think the man's dreams alternate between dreams of peril and those of a better time, but the good dreams slip away and the bad dreams just solidify when he wakes up. His (one of few) happy memories that he dreams about are of the beach with his wife, and that I think is the hope for escape that he is striving for. There isn't really any other explanation of why they're heading to the coast in the first place. His memories of a blue ocean and a happier time are untarnished and that is what keeps him going. My 2 cents, anyway.

Oh god, it will probably take you longer to read this post than the book. Sorry about that. This is why I was an English major for only a semester.

i'm almost halfway through the book and expect to be finished by this week. it's a pretty quick read. so far, very bleak but almost lyrical in tone. i was afraid it was going to get boring partway through because it's mostly gray landscapes, cold and snow, and how interesting can 2 characters be for the length of a 270+ page book? but i just got through a pretty interesting (and disturbing) scene so it seems like the author has a few things up his sleeve.

The Road

Goodreads description:

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food-and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

This novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection.

Ok, so I know next to nothing about this book other than it comes pretty highly recommended. I think there might be a movie adaptation in the works as well? I'll pick it up this weekend... go get your copy!

@ Roe: make sure to suggest it again! I'd love to read that!

thanks to everyone who participated! this was a great discussion not only about the book but about the movie :)

feel free to keep posting even though we are moving on to a new book. i know it is a daunting read, and not everyone has seen the movie yet... but hop to it! ;)