From the Bookshelf of The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List…

True Grit

Charles Portis

Start date: January 1, 2009

Finish date: January 31, 2009

Discussion: Chapter 8: Westerns

Why we're reading this: Chapter 8- Westerns
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Chapter 8: Westerns

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* Giddy-Up and Read - Chapter 8 book list
By MJ , Idiot's Top libriarian · 4 posts · 209 views

last updated May 25, 2008 07:11PM

True Grit- book club selection- *may contain spoilers*
By MJ , Idiot's Top libriarian · 20 posts · 88 views

last updated Dec 09, 2010 02:18PM

What Members Thought

Dec 29, 2008 Sunflower rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2009, library, historical-fiction

Ok, Westerns aren't my genre, but this book earns 3.5 stars from me. It has the spunky 14 year old heroine, whose language has always amused me with its funny stilted cadence, the crusty almost has-been cowboy hero, and some extremely funny moments.
My library had to fetch this up from the archives for me, and it looks like it hasn't been read in years, which is a shame. Is it really 40 years since the movie came out? And yet you can still hear the Duke as you read the lines! This book has true ...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Jennifer rated it really liked it

I loved the Cohen Brothers movie (have not seen the John Wayne version) and wanted to see how closely they followed the book. Mostly, I was interested to see if Portis used any contractions in his dialogue. And he did not. (Are contractions a new development? I find it hard to believe they are. Must research.)

The movie follows the book closely with only a few differences. No crazy medicine man for one. And if you did not like the ending of the movie (which I actually found brilliant if not perfe ...more

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Jul 08, 2011 beentsy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this story. In particular I loved the language used: the lack of contractions, the forceful, almost pedantic way that Mattie speaks, and all the little tiny details in each character's dialogue that made them seem to come alive.

An excellent book that I will definitely read again. ...more

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May 28, 2009 Lianna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: secret-santa

So good. Spunky Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn, he of the ostrich ranch, go off to Indian country on a mission of adventure and avenging. My thought was: as entertaining, filled with ponies 'n action, and wild west gunslinging as this book was it comes a hair short of Dog of the South.

Can't wait to see the movie. I hope they did the scene where Mattie beats the ball of snakes away w/a skeleton forearm justice.

5 stars based on the first line alone:

"People do not give it credence that a fourteen ...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Joanie rated it liked it

Shelves: from-the-library, bookclub, ultimate-reading-list

I read this for the Western category of the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading list book club. I really liked the beginning but then lost interested around 3/4 or the way in. The dialog in the book is great and really entertaining. The longer narrative sections just didn't grab me in the same way and it got tiresome. Not bad for a Western though. ...more

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