Go Fug Yourself Book Club discussion
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What are You Currently Reading?
Does anyone play Scrabble anymore? My sister and I had been playing it whenever we saw each other for over 20 years, but now that we have ongoing Words with Friends we're not sure how we would play across the table with a board and tiles. We used to have huge fights about whether a word was acceptable, and games used to be abandoned. WwF makes that decision for you. The last two times we have seen each other in person there has been no Scrabble. But every day we exchange several Words. Sorry about this getting so terribly off-topic; if a moderator needs to delete I will understand.
Bonnie wrote: "I would like to think we are moving in the right direction with feminism, and I am so impressed with Emma Watson and Emma Stone, and several other young high-profile women who have talked about feminism in ways that help to counter some of the anti-feminist rhetoric. On the flipside, I see women being diminished in pop culture more than I see them claiming their (non-sexual) power...."This is my concern too - I love that after many years of women saying "I believe in equal rights but I don't call myself a feminist" there are now very high profile women who are standing up and shouting it. On the other hand, women's rights are being eroded all over the place but the "freedom" to "choose" to get your tits out and buy into the male gaze is seen as a win? (does anyone even read Laura Mulvey any more?)
Bonnie wrote: "I loved the Interestings! I know some people found it dull, but the mundane is part of life..."Wolitzer manages to make the mundane riveting. This book is affecting me in a big way! Almost done.
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I miss real Scrabble too! WWF is great, but I Scrabble is 110x more challenging.
I am just finishing Kavalier and Clay and would like to read more Michael Chabon, as I enjoyed this very much. I never imagined any faces, but what it all looked like was running along in the back of my head the whole time. Recommendations for what next?
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Kavelier & Clay is the best of the bunch, but then it is one of my favorite books period, so it is a pretty high standard. I really liked Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys. A lot of people did not like Yiddish Policemen's Union, but I did very much. I listened to rather than read the book, and the reader was Peter Riegert, and he was just perfect so that might have made a difference. Final Solution is fun (and extremely short as I recall), and it is his stab at Sherlock Holmes. I have heard absolutely nothing positive about Telegraph Avenue, and have chosen not to read it thus far. I know I am forgetting something, but not sure what. Also, I enjoyed his book of essays called Manhood for Amateurs. It is mostly about parenting, he and Ayelet Waldman have 4 or 5 kids. I am not sure it would have resonated with me if I had read it when I was not a parent, but I liked it when I read it. One last thing, I don't do comic books, but he has a couple of series based on a character called The Escapist. They are supposed to be the comic books Kavelier & Clay produced and my 15 year old (who loved K&C) enjoyed this as a follow up to the book.
I just got Mysteries of Pittsburgh; someone, maybe you had mentioned it as one of the faves when I first said I was reading K&C. Am I the only one who thinks it's really cool to watch a book show up on the kindle? Click get book at amazon and then watch the kindle screen? Just me? I am easily impressed though.
Hey everyone, I just joined the group, no idea why it took me so long, but I was prompted to do so by the book I'm currently reading!Hanna's Diary, by Hanna Spencer - if you like people having romantical problems during wars, this book sure checks that box! It's the diary of a woman who lived in Czechoslovakia right before WWII (she's actually the sister of a family friend) and she wrote the diary in the hopes that she would give it to her boyfriend after the political situation calmed down. She was Jewish; he was not, and therefore they couldn't be together once things got scary politically. It's a diary, so it's lots of regular, mundane stuff... but all through the lens of her longing for her boyfriend and her fear for his safety.
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Hanna's Diary, by Hanna Spencer - if you like people having ro..."
Welcome Camille, and thanks for the suggestion!
Tawnia wrote: "I'm currently reading Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinemawhich the Fug Girls offered in a giveaway. I would recommend it t..."I just finished Scandals, and loved it. I wanted Anne Helen Petersen to keep going with more and more scandals -- I find her writing so engaging and insightful. Reading the book also prompted me to watch some classic movies. My Man Godfrey is on Hulu Plus, if you need some Carole Lombard.
Hello! Newcomer here- thought I would chime in!I'm reading Day's of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. It's the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. Very good if you like fantasy and monsters and YA. I am a school librarian so I tend to read a lot of children's and YA stuff. The last adult book I read was Rooms by Lauren Oliver which was really enjoyable. An easy read, but also interesting and engaging. Oliver has some YA stuff as well that I'm excited to check out. I'm excited to read all of these recommendations!
Trish wrote: "Tawnia wrote: "I'm currently reading Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinemawhich the Fug Girls offered in a giveaway. I would..."I felt the same way! I would have loved a book twice as long! I am definitely going to check out some of the movies she referenced.
Just finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Stern Men which was great; thanks to whoever recommended it here. I am also part way through The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which was also recommended here after I was enthusing about Kavalier & Clay. I must say, if this is the next best after K&C (which I really truly loved), I don't think I will be reading any more Chabon and I won't care too much if I get distracted by something else and the library sucks it off my kindle before I finish.
I just finished The Secret History and I LOVED it. I imagine I will think about the characters a lot.Now I've started Eleanor & Park, hoping I will like this (but I'm pretty sure since I devoured Attachments and Fangirl :)
Almost finished reading The Secret Life of AJ Fikry and I highly recommend it. It's a book-lovers kind of book -- each chapter opens with a summary of a literary work by Fikry and you know it's going to connect with something the characters are going through. Lots of twists and turns but they all feel easy and sometimes even magical.
annabel wrote: "Just finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Stern Men which was great; thanks to whoever recommended it here. I am also part way through The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which was also recommended here after I w..."You're not alone -- Kavalier & Clay is one of my favorite books but I hated Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys. Summerland was good and I really enjoyed Yiddish Policeman's Union. YPU is quirky, though -- it's a hard-boiled 30s detective novel crossed with an alternate history, leavened with some goofy humor.
Lauren wrote: "Hello! Newcomer here- thought I would chime in!Hi Lauren,
I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into YA fiction that tilts older (has scenes of sex between characters, for example). She doesn't want to read extremely violent books like the Hunger Games series. She liked the Penderwicks books by Jeanne Birdsall and the Apothocary/Apprentices books by Maile Meloy, as well as the Origami Yoda books by Tom Angleberger and the Red Blazer Girls series by Michael Biele. She's making her way through the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series. As a librarian, do you have any recommendations for what she might try next?
BBethB
BBethB wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Hello! Newcomer here- thought I would chime in!Hi Lauren,
I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."
Jumping in - there's a wonderful blog called www.thediamondinthewindow.com that does recommendations of books for kids - two recent posts would on Advanced Readers/Little Kids have tons of great recommendations that would work for your 13 year old.
BBethB wrote: "Hi Lauren, I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."Jumping in, too, as a middle-school English teacher with a tween daughter. Another good blog for ideas is Nerdy Book Club, at http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/
Some books I'd recommend include
--The School for Good and Evil (2 of a trilogy published so far), by Soman Chainani. My daughter LOVES these books.
--Novels by Elizabeth Enright (the Melendy Quartet and others) and Maud Hart Lovelace (the Betsy-Tacy series). These are the kind of writers who inspired Birdsall to write the Penderwicks books--she shouts out E. Nesbit and Edward Eager frequently, too, along with LM Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott.
--The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. My sixth graders are IN LOVE.
--There's a good batch of contemporary "problem novels" that are VERY popular with my kiddos, and I like them all: Wonder (a boy with facial deformities), Out of My Mind ( a girl with cerebral palsy), Counting by 7s (a girl with--perhaps--OCD or Aspergers).
Lots more if you'd like! ElizabethT
BBethB wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Hello! Newcomer here- thought I would chime in!Hi Lauren,
I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."
What about some classics like Anne of Green Gables?
Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?
Has she tried anything by Dianna Wynne Jones, Robin McKinley, Michelle Magorian, Cynthia Voigt or Tamora Pierce? They were (are still are) some favourites of mine. BBethB wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Hello! Newcomer here- thought I would chime in!
Hi Lauren,
I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."
Nikki wrote: "Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?"Yes, I've done it! I didn't do anything with the book I wrote but it was a GREAT exercise. And I eventually wrote another book, which did get published. I really recommend it if you can carve out the time.
Nikki wrote: "Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?"This year will be my first.
Elizabeth wrote: "BBethB wrote: "Hi Lauren, I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."Jumping in, too, as a middle-school English ..."
Elizabeth wrote: "BBethB wrote: "Hi Lauren, I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."
Jumping in, too, as a middle-school English ..."
This is all great information! I have a 10-year-old daughter who's not ready for YA but is a voracious reader and has loved many of the books mentioned here (Wonder, Origami Yoda, Edward Eager, Harry Potter). I'd also recommend Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels Smile, Drama, and Sisters, and anything by Ellen Raskin. A Mighty Girl is another good resource for books grouped by age and subject: amightygirl.com
I'd love more suggestions for graphic novels that are good for this age group too. My daughter really loves them and that's one area where I don't have much experience.
Off to check out those websites....
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Jumping in, too, as a midd..."
So no one has asked for boy suggestions...but I figure I will throw into the mix, My teen boy is reading decidedly grown up books at this point, but when he was younger I was totally devoted to http://www.guysread.com/. I got so many wonderful ideas from that site. It really helped me raise a reader.
Nikki wrote: "Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?"I signed up for NaNoWriMo the past two years, I didn't finish a novel on either attempt but the reminder to make the time for writing was fantastic. I'm playing around with perhaps doing it this year, but inspiration has yet to strike.
Hi Lauren,I have a 13-year-old who reads more at the 11-year-old level in terms of what she is interested in. She is not yet into Y..."
Ooh! Jasper Fforde's Dragonslayer series! It's a trilogy at this point (just picked up #3 on Saturday night and not sure if it wraps up the series). Terrific strong young female protagonist, funny book. Adults will know Fforde as the author of the awesome Friday Next series--I also love his YA stuff.
Next up, Jonathon Stroud's Bartimaeus books--there's the Bartimaeus trilogy, but your daughter may want to start with the stand-alone book The Ring of Solomon. Stroud is a gifted and very funny writer. I find myself returning to these four books again and again.
Have fun!
Dear Fug Nationals,Thank you for your many kind suggestions for a very sensitive, voracious reader who just turned 13 but skews nerdy. Lauren, whenever I meet librarians I'm eager to chat about books and their jobs (I have several friends who work in library science, too). I end up asking for suggestions, which I now realize might be an undesired demand placed upon the librarian in social conversation, so I apologize if I annoyed you!
I will connect my daughter with the suggested web sites and authors. I will dig up my beloved copies of Anne of Green Gables and Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and so on. She'll decide if she wants to read them, as sometimes we adults can seem overbearing about books we loved as tweens and teens.
Has anyone else noticed that their child falls into crushes on the heroes/heroines of the fiction he/she reads? That's happened to my daughter a lot lately.
Thank you all!
BBethB
BBethB wrote: "Has anyone else noticed that their child falls into crushes on the heroes/heroines of the fiction he/she reads? That's happened to my daughter a lot lately..."Still happens to me! And as far as I am concerned it's a good reason to keep Twilight away from people - no one needs to develop patterns of relationships based on that!
I agree! I haven't made her aware of those books, and if she is aware, she hasn't expressed any interest in them. Blech!
Jen, I have SO MANY graphic novel recommendations. First up, my favorite is How Mirka Got Her Sword, then Jane Yolen has one called Foiled! Hope Larson's Chiggers, another favorite Primates by Jim Ottaviani about the awesome pioneer ladies who study apes, Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale (all of her stuff is great for the reading high, but not ready for teen stuff; her books are interesting and awesome but modest/chaste), The Last Dragon also by Yolen, Anya's Ghost, Bayou, Cat Burglar Black.These two might be a little old, but they're so good: Delilah Dirk & the Turkish Lieutenant and Castle Waiting.
For titles featuring male heroes: Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel, Americus by MK Reed (about a small town book banning), Chickenhare by Chris Grines, the Amulet series, and Into the Volcano.
These are just ones I've read, but apparently, A Mighty Girl has graphic novel lists as well, and check out ALA's Great Graphic Novels yearly lists. So many excellent ones out there!
As a librarian I love talking to anyone about books whether I'm at work or not, could be because so many of my friends don't read, which I will never understand!BBethB wrote: "Dear Fug Nationals,
Thank you for your many kind suggestions for a very sensitive, voracious reader who just turned 13 but skews nerdy. Lauren, whenever I meet librarians I'm eager to chat about bo..."
Alicia wrote: "Nikki wrote: "Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?"This year will be my first."
My first year, too. Gulp.
Jody wrote: "As a librarian I love talking to anyone about books whether I'm at work or not, could be because so many of my friends don't read, which I will never understand!Librarians are COOL!
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This year will be my first."
My first year, t..."
For all you brave Nanowrimo participants, this might help http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennife....
Lora wrote: "Almost finished reading The Secret Life of AJ Fikry and I highly recommend it. It's a book-lovers kind of book -- each chapter opens with a summary of a literary work by Fikry and you know it's goi..."LOVED that book, when I read it earlier this year!! :) It's on my new faves list.
Also I went out and bought Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema after you all suggested it. Thanks!I just started Yes Please by Amy Poehler last night, and I'm already over half done! I think a lot of you will really enjoy it.
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Mysteries of Pittsburgh is my fault! I read it and liked it, and Wonder Boys too. Maybe they should be up for re-reading too :).
Except for Elizabeth Gilbert's first novel it's been awhile since I actually liked the next thing I read by someone. I have a terrible record lately with finding someone with a good back catalog. Gillian Flynn is a perfect example, her first two books were awful, though I really liked Gone Girl and thought the movie adaptation was good. Jennifer Egan; I loved the Goon Squad, but everything else I've read of hers has been sort of disturbing amd uncomfortable-making. And now I am disappointed by Michael Chabon. I guess I should give at least one of his other titles a try, but those of you that have anything to say about him do not seem to agree on which one!!
Bonnie wrote: "For all you brave Nanowrimo participants, this might help http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennife.... ...."Thanks! I have to say I was planning to take it not-seriously, as I have a 4 day trip in the middle of it.
I just started Guests on Earth, about a little girl who winds up in the same mental hospital as Zelda Fitzgerald, and so far it's very engaging!
Bonnie wrote: "Claire-Dee wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Nikki wrote: "Just started Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. I guess it came from his Nanowrimo novel. Has anyone ever done Nanowrimo?"This year will be my first...."
Thanks for the link! Story road map: check! I didn't officially sign-up though on the site, but I have been taking it seriously. Was away in San Francisco over the weekend, so had to squeeze in lots of bad writing in between the Halloween fun.
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This year wi..."
Hope you blow it up! One of these days I am going to get serious about my writing. I have 4 books that have been partway done for years.
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I have just finished a couple of good books that are as different from one another as night and day, but both highly recommended: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage and The Golem and the Jinni. Here are my reviews for those interested https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished A Vision of Fire, really enjoyed it and looking forward to where the next book goes. I think I'll start Hyperbole and a Half Journal tonight.
Bonnie wrote: "Hope you blow it up! One of these days I am going to get serious about my writing. I have 4 books that have been partway done for years." Thank you! Gotta get book 2 out. And jump in and finish one of your books!
rockle wrote: "I'm reading "Grave Mercy" by Robin LaFevers, the first in a series of books which was recommended by Petra Mayer from NPR Books with the following description: "teenage nun assassins." I am not dis..."I L O V E these books! Can't wait to start Mortal Heart!
Kris wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "I may have overloaded my empathy supply. "LOL! That happens. Our book club got on this tear of reading Tragic Women books, and after about 3 I was like, "Uh, can we read something..."
LOL! This reminds me of the year I read ALL of the Oprah's Book Club books. Man, that was a LOT of screwed up families to slog through. They were great, beautifully written books for the most part, but you needed a trashy palate cleanser just to clear your head afterwards!
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Go Fug Yourself Book Club
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Ugh God, I totally hear you. The negatives are so frustrating, it's hard to picture things really moving forward in any significant (or permanent) way. I have to keep reminding myself that at least things are notably better now than they were (at literally any point in time) even though they're FAR from perfect. It mostly feels very Sisyphean.
Thank goodness for Scrabble though!! And also Netflix.