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What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread.
message 51:
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Nina
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Jan 16, 2016 01:12PM
It looks like I'd have to join her group to read anything by her so I probably won't bother; but thanks anyway for the info.
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Nina wrote: "Thanks, Joy. Even the author of "The Ingredients of Love," has a different name as does the translator. Just like the story."Interesting!
PS - I see from the description page of the author of The Ingredients of Love, that "Nicolas Barreau is a fictional author and therefore a pseudonym of the German author Daniela Thiele."https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
It was really a fun book to read. The author must be a character like the one in his book. Just watched "Old Acquaintance," from your suggestion, Joy. Good acting and interesting movie. Thanks.
Nina wrote: "... Just watched "Old Acquaintance," from your suggestion, Joy. ...."Glad you enjoyed it.
I watched "The Great American Broadcast" (1941) yesterday via a Netflix DVD. A good old movie about the beginning of the radio industry.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033674/?...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Grea...
"Ambitious radio executives Rix Martin (John Payne) and Chuck Hadley (Jack Oakie) struggle to compete against the big broadcasters, but Rix and his wife, Vicki (Alice Faye), have a bitter falling out when she turns to an old flame for a loan to support the failing station. Vicki finds success as a singer and reunites with Rix onstage when Chuck organizes the country's first coast-to-coast radio broadcast. Cesar Romero also stars."
Glad you liked it Joy. I thought when I saw it how we took for granted that we could just turn a dial and there was the sound. Don't we still take things for granted? Like seeing the British series from England/Dontown Abby.
I read Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. It drew me in right away and I finished it quickly. See my short review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Now I look forward to seeing the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381111/?...
Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together is a book that until very recently wasn't on my radar. But someone donated a copy to the BC library, and when it was being processed earlier this month, the question arose of how to classify it. (The call number assigned by the Library of Congress was pretty clearly a device of desperation.) It seemed clear that the only way to come up with a better one (if I can) is to read it myself; so I've started on it today. :-)
Werner wrote: "Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together is a book that until very recently wasn't on my radar. B..."Good luck with that, Werner!
Joy, good review of "Brooklyn," but I didn't read the spoiler as I haven't read the story yet. Question. Were you raised in Brooklyn?
Nina wrote: "Joy, good review of "Brooklyn," but I didn't read the spoiler as I haven't read the story yet. Question. Were you raised in Brooklyn?"No, but my parents and Eddie's parents were raised in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn. I have fond memories of our visits to see my aunts, my great-aunts, and grandparents there ... and of the many holidays I spent there.
PS-Here's a picture of my grandmother's house in Brooklyn where I spent many holidays: http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL25/9...The house is no longer there, sad to say.
Neat house, Joy. Did the windows come out of the porch or was it built into a parlor? That's a nostalgic bit of architecture for me. A lot of my older relatives had places like that once they got out of the cold water walk ups, also in Brooklyn. In later years, I had to redo the putty & paint on those sorts of windows & houses more than a few times. It's one reason I LOVE vinyl replacement windows. No, they don't look as good, but those old ones are a maintenance nightmare. I even had to rebuild some. Yuck.
The house looks so inviting . Yes, sad that it is like so many houses and buildings that are no longer there. Must have been a fun house to visit though and great memories of being there with loved ones.
Jim wrote: "Neat house, Joy. Did the windows come out of the porch or was it built into a parlor? That's a nostalgic bit of architecture for me. A lot of my older relatives had places like that once they got o..."Jim, I doubt if the windows came out. But I remember sitting out on that porch and relaxing.
Nina, Eddie looked at that address on Google and there seems to be more updated housing there now, maybe attached condo-type buildings, about two or three stories high, if I remember correctly. Very nice.
Nina wrote: "What a title!" Yes, that's like the long-winded titles of some 18th and 19th-century tomes! :-)
This week I finished reading Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. I gave it only one star. My review is at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I will avoid that book. Thanks for posting, Joy. The only book that author wrote that I thought was very good was, "My Sister's Keeper." and it is always interesting to me that someone can write a really good book and a really bad book. Do you agree?
Nina wrote: "I will avoid that book. Thanks for posting, Joy. The only book that author wrote that I thought was very good was, "My Sister's Keeper." and it is always interesting to me that someone can write a ..."Nina, see my review of My Sister's Keeper at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
For me, it was no picnic!
I wish you would read Leaving Time. Perhaps you would be able to explain the plot to me after you read it. I think you're a better reader than I am. Maybe it won't be as confusing to you as it was to me. It kept my interest for a long time but then I got lost in the labyrinth! I know you would enjoy the parts about elephant behavior and psychology.
I recently tried reading the following books but couldn't get into them.So I decided not to read them:
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
and
City of Light by Lauren Belfer
See my explanations at my reviews:
Claire of the Sea Light: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
City of Light: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here's a book I recently read right to the end in a very short time.I couldn't stop reading it!
A Talent for Genius: The Life and Times of Oscar Levant.
See my enthusiastic review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The John Deere Way: Performance That Endures by David Magee was a 3 star listen, but interesting.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for posting, Jim.
I just finished reading a wonderful book, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau. FIVE STARS!See my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Nina, thank you for recommending this book!
Joy, My daughter recommended it to me so guess it works for all ages. Just finished, "September" by Rosamund Pilcher and guess I hadn't read it before this. I mostly liked it but it sometimes did drag a bit and then parts of the ending didn't appeal to me. I really liked "The Gracelin trilogy"
Nina wrote: "Joy, My daughter recommended it to me so guess it works for all ages. Just finished, "September" by Rosamund Pilcher and guess I hadn't read it before this. I mostly liked it but it sometimes did d..."Thanks, Nina. I'll check those two books out.
--- September by Rosamunde Pilcher
--- Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore
---"Gracelin O'Malley Trilogy": http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Gr...
Today I heard about the book: Time and Again by Jack Finney
I heard about it at the message board of my FunTrivia group, where Anita said it was her "all time favorite book." The GR description sounds intriguing.
QUESTION FOR ALL: Is the time-travel genre considered science fiction or fantasy?
Does science fiction has some real life in it's story? Seems like I heard that once.
Nina wrote: "Does science fiction has some real life in it's story? Seems like I heard that once."Nina, I found the following online:
=============================================
"... many seem to agree that possibility is a determining factor.
Science fiction explores what is possible (even if it’s improbable),
while fantasy explores the impossible."
FROM: https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbo...
=============================================
SEE MORE AT:
https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbo...
and
http://www.nownovel.com/blog/differen...
PS-Having read the above definitions, can we decide whether time-travel
possible
or
impossible
?
PPS-I think I've read that it's possible that there could be a "wormhole" into another time era. I just don't know what a wormhole is. LOL
PPPS-The dictionary says that a wormhole is "a hole or tunnel in outer space that some people believe connects two very distant places".FROM: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio...
PPPPS-About my question in Message 77 [Is the time-travel genre considered science fiction or fantasy?], the answer is discussed at:https://richardlevesqueauthor.wordpre...
Excerpt:
========================================
[Richard Levesque says]:
"These sorts of questions have led many to argue that we’re dealing with speculative fiction rather than science fiction. ...
"I take the position that time travel novels and alternate histories are, in fact, science fiction simply because of the possibilities suggested by quantum physics and theories of multiple universes branching off of each other. This is something I tried addressing in Take Back Tomorrow, but phrased in the characters’ 1940 way of thinking."
=========================================
I've always considered time-travel more of an SF device, but it's been used in fantasy, too. Depends on how it is done. I know one person who says anything with Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is fantasy since we can't do it. I disagree. Books with FTL read like SF to me. Whether the science is possible or not has nothing to do with it. As Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." There are prosaic versions of time travel. Many stories have a person 'leap' forward in time by being put into statis. Fantasy uses that when King Arthur sleeps until England needs him again or Merlin sleeps in his oak tree. SF does it through cryogenics.
Spider Robinson had a guy do it for a decade by spending it in a South American prison. He basically time traveled by missing the 1960s. Think about that for a moment. Jump from the 50's directly to the 70's without experiencing the 60's. Temporal shock! Neither SF nor fantasy, IMO.
Twain had Hank travel back to Camelot via astral projection sort of, maybe. (It was never made particularly clear as I recall. He had some odd beliefs on the subject.) Anyway, once there, he imposed post Civil War industrialism on the feudal society & made a mess. SF or fantasy? Whatever makes you happy. I wouldn't begin to argue either way.
About 40 years ago, so many SF writers were doing time travel stories that editors were posting notices that they wouldn't accept any more. Some great ones came out of it. Heinlein did a couple of memorable ones. "All You Zombies" is one where a guy is both his own mother & father via time travel, modern surgery, & an inherent birth defect.
Finney was mostly a SF & thriller author. He's best known for Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a SF book that's inspired 5 movies, I believe. (The first 2 were the best & I've always preferred the 2d that stars Donald Sutherland.)
The latest theories in quantum physics actually do away with time as a dimension completely or so I've been told. Einstein's physics allow for leaping forward in time & also back, with caveats. It would have to be done via a wormhole & that could only be as far back as the creation of the wormhole. We've never found one & don't know how to create one, either.
http://gizmodo.com/yes-time-travel-is...
Jim wrote: "I've always considered time-travel more of an SF device, but it's been used in fantasy, too. Depends on how it is done. I know one person who says anything with Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is fa..."Thanks, Jim. I need some time to read that. I'll be back in the morning. :)
Personally, I agree with the comments that have already been made. Science fiction and fantasy/supernatural fiction both speculate about premises that (as far as we know) don't presently exist. Whether or not they theoretically could exist someday or somewhere isn't the distinction between the two. Rather, the distinction is that the latter genres appeal to magical, supernatural causes for their premises, while SF "explains" its premises naturalistically --whether the explanation makes realistic sense or not. (Writers of "hard" SF are very concerned with keeping their speculations in line with what can reasonably be extrapolated from known, verified science; but writers in the genre's "soft" tradition don't really care about that.) Time travel is a premise that can fit in with any of these approaches. H. G. Wells' The Time Machine is classic soft SF; he doesn't care how the machine supposedly works, because it's just a device to enable the story he wants to tell. But in Timeline, Michael Crichton (who's more in the hard tradition) tries seriously to explain time travel technology in terms of quantum physics. And in Outlander, Diana Gabaldon's protagonist travels in time with no natural explanation at all --she just touches a magic-endued standing stone and POW, she's back in the 1740s. :-)Yesterday, I started reading Crown of Aloes, a historical novel by Norah Lofts about Queen Isabella of Spain. It's a common read for next month in the Norah Lofts' fan group here on Goodreads; but since the discussion thread is already up and I was ready to start a new book now, I went ahead without waiting for Feb. 1.
Jim wrote: "I've always considered time-travel more of an SF device, but it's been used in fantasy, too. Depends on how it is done. I know one person who says anything with Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is fa..."Jim, thanks for your knowledgeable comments. All the examples you give certainly help clarify why the issue is so complicated.
Werner wrote: "... the distinction is that the latter genres appeal to magical, supernatural causes for their premises, while SF "explains" its premises naturalistically --whether the explanation makes realistic sense or not. ..."Werner, thanks for your informed comments. Your explanations about "hard SF" and "soft SF" are interesting.
Enjoy Lofts' "Crown of Aloes". Thanks for the links.
What about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?" Is it Fantasy? And the "Chocolate," series of books and "Practical Magic?" There are so many that border on S.F. or Fantasy it seems to me. Or what about just plain magic? Please somebody tell me what catagory "The NIght Circus fits into, Fantasy I would guess? Strange book but I really liked it.
Nina, I can't answer your questions but here's a link to The Night Circus. I notice that 8,849 readers put it on their "Fantasy" bookshelf.
IMO, the genre is often just a personal preference. I've read a lot of definitions of SF & fantasy & found most of them as unsatisfactory as defining the difference between craftsmanship & art. I think that's why the genres are so tied together so often. The line isn't a definitive one based on any one thing, but a preponderance of elements. Some include SF as a subgenre of the overall fantasy genre or speculative fiction.Many authors dislike being shoehorned into a genre, too. Bradbury is probably one of the best known examples. Many of his books & stories contain many elements of both plus horror. Horror is another slippery genre than can be a genre on its own &/or slip into almost every other genre.
If you're really curious as to a genre, look the book up here on GR & look at the right hand column. You'll see how people shelve the book. The Martian Chronicles is a good example. Ignoring the general shelves, you get the following list.
Science Fiction 2,400 users
Fantasy 362 users
Science Fiction Fantasy 334 users
Speculative Fiction 93 users
Space 75 users
IMO, more people shelve it as SF simply because of the name.
Jim wrote: "IMO, the genre is often just a personal preference. I've read a lot of definitions of SF & fantasy & found most of them as unsatisfactory as defining the difference between craftsmanship & art. I t..."Jim, I would venture to say that a lot of people aren't fussy about how they classify their reading. To them, all the fine lines are a blur. It's the pedantics who want to pigeon-hole everything. Life is too varied to try to capture all the nuances. In addition, there's a lot of over-lapping. After a while it all boggles the mind.
Nina wrote: "What about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?" Is it Fantasy? And the "Chocolate," series of books and "Practical Magic?" There are so many that border on S.F. or Fantasy it seems to me. Or what about j..."The classification of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," like some other novels and stories, is an interesting question because it depends on how you understand the story. Is Ichabod really pursued by a supernatural revenant, a headless ghost bent on bloodshed? Or is he chased by Brom Bones dressed up as the Horseman, wanting to throw a good scare into his rival and run him out of the area? For some of us, that makes a lot of difference in how we classify it.
As some others who've posted have indicated, literary genre classifications, like every other kind of classification in any area of life, are mental groupings made up by people to bring some kind of conceptual clarity to the messy chaos of thousands or millions of individual things, and facilitate some kind of comparison and contrast between them. Like anything else that's man-made, it's subjective and can vary from individual to individual, though some groupings are more widely agreed on than others. And as Joy noted, classification systems can't capture every nuance, and it's perfectly possible to enjoy reading without them. But with all of that understood, they still have their uses.
The only other work you mentioned that I'm familiar with is The Night Circus (which I also really liked!). Personally, I make a distinction between fantasy, set in an invented world where magic operates, and what I call "supernatural fiction," set in this world but positing that the supernatural operates here. (That's not a genre distinction that everybody would draw, or a terminology that everybody would use; but to me, it seems natural to see a book like Dracula, for instance, as being significantly different from something like Tolkien's LOTR saga.) If we approach The Night Circus from that viewpoint, I'd definitely call it supernatural fiction. So that's my opinion, for whatever it's worth!
Werner wrote: "... If we approach The Night Circus from that viewpoint, I'd definitely call it supernatural fiction. ..."Werner, thanks for explaining.
BTW, is "supernatural" the same as "paranormal"?
PS-Werner, I want to compliment you on your ability to clearly explain the differences between these different kinds of literature. For example, you wrote:==========================================
"Personally, I make a distinction between fantasy, set in an invented world where magic operates, and what I call 'supernatural fiction,' set in this world but positing that the supernatural operates here."
(Underlining is mine to help me understand.)
==========================================
PPS-You've got me thinking. :) Would you say that the term "magical realism" is similar to your term "supernatural fiction", in that it has "magical" circumstances operating in a real world? Or shouldn't we confuse the word "magical" with the word "supernatural"?I've never been able to grasp the meaning of "magical realism".
PPPS - I think I'm being a bit of a pedantic myself, in trying so hard to analyze these things! lol Or perhaps I have an analytical mind which can't stop analyzing, in an attempt to help myself understand! I do like to see things clearly but that's not always easy.
Thanks, Joy! As for "supernatural" and "paranormal," I would think of them as essentially synonymous. But some people, like Roger Clarke, the author of Ghosts: A Natural History: 500 Years of Searching for Proof make a distinction between the two; he uses "paranormal" to designate something as being outside of normal experience, but to specifically deny that there's anything "supernatural" about it. And in a literary context, some people use the word "paranormal" as short for "paranormal romance," though I don't use it that way myself.
Werner wrote: "... But some people, like Roger Clarke ... make a distinction between the two; he uses "paranormal" to designate something as being outside of normal experience, but to specifically deny that there's anything "supernatural" about it...."Hmmm, Clarke's idea doesn't satisfy me. Gee, "outside of normal experience" for me would be tasting snails! LOL
According to the dictionary, the word "supernatural describes anything that pertains to or is caused by something that can't be explained by the laws of nature [or science]."
FROM: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary...
I prefer that definition.
Joy, "magical realism" is a literary term that critics started using in the late 20th century to describe a type of writing (mostly done at first by some Latin American authors) where the setting is the normal world and events in the novel or story are mostly realistic --but mixed in with all that realism, there's a light touch of supernatural, or possibly supernatural, events here and there. You could think of it as "supernatural fiction lite," if you wanted to look at it that way. I've never read any of the work of the Latin American "magical realists," but Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad series might be a good American example. I classify those books as general fiction myself, and they are that for the most part --but then, mountain wise-woman Nora Bonesteel does have the Sight, and there are times when a ghost or two might drop in.... :-)I don't think you're being too pedantic. You and I both have analytical minds, and that sometimes does help in understanding things better, because it recognizes patterns that can shed light on how things are related, and ways in which they're similar or different.
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