Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

kerry: i think we had a double post at some point earlier and it was settled because somebody answered one of them and we moved on?

but i will point up that dan posted basic rules for this game in his first post...

moira and claudia: i don't know either of your books! if nobody answers by tomorrow can you please come back and give us hints?

Jimmy wrote: "Also, kind of unrelated, but I was digging around more on her blog and found this little thing about Goodreads & stats:

http://paperpools.blogspot.ca/2012/02..."

very intriguing. i actually am cursing the additional time suck finding her blog is going to create in my life. :) and to keep us on topic: no doubt i will be re-reading it often. :P

more on the topic of re-reading. i am desperately trying to hunt down a copy of helen dewitt's last samurai but here she is, in her blog, talking about re-reading (and adding another book to my shelf... sigh. :)

http://paperpools.blogspot.ca/2012/03...

Rod wrote: "Happy birthday! I'm about to retire for the night, and since you're the birthday girl, you should have the privilege."

diabolical, rod. diabolical. luckily, i still have two left in reserve. here's my second last:

sorry rod! i had no idea, and it was my birthday so i was busy celebrating on the weekend. :)

are you going to post another image?

Patty wrote: "i know it! the maltese falcon!

i hope you guys will get this one quickly, because i'm going on vacation and it'll be radio silence from me for the next week.

"

hurray patty! for knowing the maltese falcon and for your holiday! we will miss you but i know it will be this will be a great break for you!!! :)

can we please have a hint? this picture seems familiar but... ?

Ben wrote: "looks kinda like ayn rand."

not ayn rand. but the book was published in 1930. a favourite of mine. you have also read and enjoyed it. :)

if i give you any more hints you would know it. :)

well, we all agreed to disagree, yes? i don't see any genius at all in these books, which is why i came and posted the comment from the woman on facebook. but i don't like a lot of books that the modern reader is crazy about, or have any interest in reading them. what i see in common with the millenium trilogy and harry potter and other successful books of this era, is the page-turner quality. people want to know what happens and it doesn't necessarily have to be the best writing along the way to finding out.

your comment got me thinking about neuromancer (though i don't see the corollary at all -- i think the men who hate women idea that maren points up is really the thesis of this book. maybe salander's actions are illustrative, and symbolic to a degree but i don't think i'm meant to take them out of the scope of the action and narrative. they "happen" in the millenium universe.) and i liked thinking about neuromancer again, so thank you for that. not one of my favourite books either, but certainly way more inventive and interesting to me than this trilogy.

i don't know that i necessarily buy the swedish audience argument either: maren, above, is norwegian, and read it in the original swedish, and doesn't seem wowed. not sure how we differentiate between the nordic peoples and their reading proclivities (i think this might be a slippery slope) but i did point out either earlier in this thread or in one of my reviews that there might be something in regards to writing for the swedish culture that i'm not getting, so i guess i'll concede your point to a degree. :)

but i'm glad for the lady on facebook that there's somebody out there who concedes her point. :)

Elizabeth wrote: ""

i know my british covers! midnight's children by salman rushdie! :)

from the first edition US cover:

just seen on facebook: a friend of mine asked for good book recommendations and her friend said, "Dragon Tattoo series...wow, I don't even know how to express what a genius Steig was."

... and then a little part of me died. :P

Elizabeth wrote: "Here's a hint: The movie is David Lynch's famous flop.

Maybe I read the paperback edition? Sorry this one slowed the game."

i thought i knew it but i was getting tired of hogging all the fun. it's dune! (excellent clue, elizabeth! i read the 70s cover with the big van-style writing :)

i am running out of my stockpile so here is one that should be easy-peasy even if you haven't read it...

wow! yep, i guess we're learning that covers aren't really ubiquitous from country to country. i've never see the cover rod posted before. :) it might have something to do with the fact that lord of the flies is a british book, and we would've picked up those covers here, but likely the american house would have designed a new cover. extending that principle out: i remember seeing a great article comparing english and american covers for the same books somewhere... actually it looks like the millions has been doing this the last four years. this link is to last year's which has links back to the previous year's and so on): http://www.themillions.com/2012/02/ju...

having looked at all four articles, my best guess is that here in canada, country of origin is predicating what cover i'm most familiar with: so if it's a british writer a british cover, an American writer, a US cover. interesting!

and then i also found this neat little article which talked to publishers about why they're different: http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow....

kerry! it is not an ancient classic, although it does deal with primal vs civilized themes. and you are one of my 72 friends who has read it. my clue above actually has words from the title in it because i was trying to be tricksy! :)

did i break the game? lord, i thought for sure that this was a dead giveaway. but maybe you all read different copies? i read this in school. funny how time flies. 72 of my goodreads friends have rated this book.

ask the dust!! yay elizabeth! :)

i am guessing franzen was writing about wharton in preparation for the introduction he wrote to this new collected edition of three of her novels, age of innocence, house of mirth, and the custom of the country: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/Bo...
do you suppose that they're simply reprinting his new yorker piece as the introduction? poor edith wharton.

jwj: i'm not sure how vocal i was about how much i hate this book with the group. patty's right. i really enjoyed the beginning of the book, and i was still mostly with it in the second part(though i did feel it got sluggish), until the end. i found the end to be manipulative, and set up a frustrating and false dichotomy about the choices set before the reader. i nearly had an apoplectic fit when i told patty about how much i hated the ending of that book. i think i wailed "i don't want these options!".

nonetheless, it is clear from the enjoyment that patty and jwj and dan found in it that not everyone has the same reaction, and in looking over some of the reviews here on goodreads, i do find that i'm not alone, either. give me mrs. unguentine over this any day for books about people lost at sea. or the odyssey. i pick the odyssey over this too. :)

fyi: there's a movie coming out based on the life of pi at christmas this year, directed by ang lee. it will be interesting to see what they do with it... apparently tobey maguire is in it, appearing as the author.

Kerry wrote: "Maureen wrote: "trying to think of hints: it's a prize-winning novel that came under scrutiny because the premise was based on the work of another writer who was acknowledged but not informed. it w..."

ha! initially my hint said, the book infuriated me, and patty really liked it. and then i went on to tell a story that would have immediately revealed to patty what book it was (if that doesn't already) but then i realized it was unfair to do that, and was borderline ranty.

i think you'd probably like it, kerry. :)

trying to think of hints: it's a prize-winning novel that came under scrutiny because the premise was based on the work of another writer who was acknowledged but not informed. it was published in the last thirteen years... patty, dan, jwj have all read it, maybe not with this cover but it was the paperback cover i saw everywhere... :)

i did not recognize kerry's cover, but i figured it out from the tops of the letters! it is anna karenina!

rod! you picked an iconic one there -- i had this one in my arsenal, using the same cover and cropping almost exactly the same image! :)

here's another: