The Next Best Book Club discussion
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What are you reading?
Lisa wrote: "Ashley wrote: "Finished The Secret Life of Bees last night.I picked up Rebecca to start today at lunch."
I just finished "Secret Life of Bees." What did you think? "Rebecca" will be quite a ..."
I really liked Bees. It was really well written and made me really think.
Liz wrote: "Linda, did you prefer one book over the other? I've only read The Kite Runner but I really enjoyed it and thought it was beautifully written. I cannot wait to read A Thousand Splendid Suns."Liz, while Hosseini writes on a similar theme in A Thousand Splendid Suns, it is really a vastly different story since it is all from the female perspective this time. If you haven't watched the Borders Book Club interview of him on this book, you might want to give it a look see. If I had to pick one over the other I can't. I loved them both for different reasons. Both, however, are beautifully written.
Just started Kite Runner last night and I am loving it... I did read A Thousand Splendid Suns about a year ago and really liked that one too... Wonder if and when he will be coming out with a new book.
I want to read Outlander!!! I have to get it from the library though. =/
Catherine wrote: "Kandice, I understand - I can't stop reading Sookie. I have the 1-7 boxed set, but I need to look into getting #8. I feel like I can't concentrate on any other reading until I'm done."I'm totally with y'all on the Sookie thing!!
I'll check with the library. I know the copy they have is available but when I went to the shelf it wasn't there. I hate when that happens. I'll definitely join in though.
Yeah, they do take forever to put them back and sometimes they never put them in the same place. When I went on Saturday, to my dismay the YA section was completely emptied out. I don't know where they putting them now.
Shana wrote: "I just finished Crime & Punishment, am on the last chapter of Anna Karenina, and the first chapter of The Brothers Karamazov. It looks like the next book is going to be Catcher in the Rye..."I finished The Brothers Karamazov a few weeks ago. Some parts seemed endless, others sped by and still others were the type one lingers over or rereads in order to really think through the ideas. But, overall it was slower going than most novels (including other 19th C Russian novels) for me. I would have liked it better in my 20's when I was more passionate about the ideas and themes he takes up. Still, I've never been a huge Dostoevsky fan (beyond Notes). I'm thinking about starting Anna Karenina next...well...after a few more light reads.
I just finished Guernsey which I loved and before that the first of Butcher's Fury series which was fun. I'm currently reading Akunin's The Turkish Gambit but wondering why I am bothering to finish it.
I also read Catcher in the Rye recently. Good book! But, I'm not sure why they have kids read it in high school. It would have been way beyond me at that point.
Hayes wrote: "The Time Traveller's Wife. This is the Book that will get me reading ficiton again! It is so good and so weird and so funny. Only "flaw", if you can call it that: A little too much sex. I mea..."
It did have a lot of sex in it, but I thought it was so honest in the way it was written that I considered it part of the love story. It was an amazing book.
Hayes wrote: "The Time Traveller's Wife. This is the Book that will get me reading ficiton again! It is so good and so weird and so funny. Only "flaw", if you can call it that: A little too much sex. I mea..."
Not too square, not too square Hayes! I haven't read that book in particular, but sex can definitely get in the way of a good story. If it belongs, fine. (It can really mess up a good movie too.)
Kristen wrote: "Is the Thirteenth Tale really that good? I started it once and couldn't get into it. I might have to pick it up again. "Yes, it is! If you're a fan of audio books, try listening. The readers were wonderful. I listened to it, then ran out and bought the book, then since I loved it so much, I gave the book to another reader because I couldn't NOT share it with someone who I knew would love it.
Lori - Would it be OK if we opened up a new Outlander thread? I don't know how many spoilers may already exist in the thread we have and I don't want to ruin the story for anyone.Anyone participating in the Winter Challenge - this book fits for the 25 point task to read a book that is 700 pages plus!
Looking forward to it!
Kristen, I agree with Erin about the Thirteenth Tale. If you like the Bronte's, you should definitely give it a try. 
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JuliAnna, I love The Catcher in the Rye. I read it in high school and have taught it to high school students - it actually seems to go over better than the other "classics" - The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men.
Erin wrote: "Kristen wrote: "Is the Thirteenth Tale really that good? I started it once and couldn't get into it. I might have to pick it up again. "Yes, it is! If you're a fan of audio books, try listenin..."
I just started listening to that this morning. The box states there are 2 narrators, but I have heard only one so far. She speaks very slowly and has kind of an uppity accent. I really like it so far!
Becky wrote: "I can't decide what to read next... I'm trying to decide if I want to read "Runaway Jury" by Grisham (my 25 point task for the Winter Challenge) or "Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill (a 10 point task). "Becky:
Kudos to you for defending Lori and the group. While I think that person needs to be seriously medicated, I hope she does take her "ball" and move to another court.
That being said, I don't think you can go wrong with either of these excellent choices. I will say, Heart-Shaped Box gets downright creepy so if you are not ready for that quite yet, Grisham is not a bad alternative.
Vicki wrote: "Jaime- what did you think of Thirteenth Tale. I read it awhile back. I started Guernsey last night, I feel like this may be a real quick read for me... how are you finding it? "Vicki-All in all I liked the Thirteenth Tale...there were a few things that I did not care for too much but I did enjoy it as a whole.
I am liking Guernsey so far and it does seem like a quick read however I am only reading it @ lunch seen as I am slowly plugging through War & Peace @ home...so it may take me a lil longer than it normally would.
Catherine wrote: "JuliAnna, I love The Catcher in the Rye. I read it in high school and have taught it to high school students - it actually seems to go over better than the other "classics" - The Scarlet Letter, Of..."Maybe it is just me. I think I would have handled Franny and Zoey better. At least, I would have had a better understanding of what I didn't understand, if that makes any sense.
You make a good point about other classics. I hated the Scarlett Letter in high school, although I doubt it was assigned, since I was one of those students who only read books that had not been assigned by my teachers. Oddly, the one exception was Shakespeare, which I always read and loved.
I just finished A Peculiar Grace by Jeffrey Lent. The Ending was a bit odd, but I liked the book overall. I just started Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
I think the books I was assigned in high school that I liked best were Pride and Prejudice, The Tempest (actually all of the ten Shakespeare plays we were assigned, except Romeo and Juliet), The Canterbury Tales, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't think we were ever assigned anything as "modern" as Salinger, though!
JuliAnna, it's funny that you loved Shakespeare (which most students find awful!), but would have backed off Holden. I've actually never read Franny and Zoey so maybe it is more appropriate. Or mabye I just love Holden so much that I insist everyone do the same!
I just finished The Amber Spyglass, the last book in His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I LOVED the whole series. I love when original and inventive ideas are executed well. Lyra is a fierce and lovable heroine. Reading this series has made me want to search out all of Pullman's other books. Has anyone read any of them?So...the next two books on my reading list are acknowledging my inner nerd. I don't know if anyone watched the TV show Firefly, but it was canceled way too soon, they made a movie, and now they've been releasing comics and novels. I loved this show so much so anything I can get of the world and its characters I'll take. I'm reading the first in a series called Serenity: Those Left Behind. I'm also continuing my horrible addiction to Star Wars novels and reading the latest release, Millennium Falcon. Go on, I dare someone to be a bigger geek than I am haha.
In 12th grade they made us read all of Salinger, and I just couldn't deal with it. Holden just didn't speak to me at all (nor Franny and Zoey) and I couldn't figure out why everyone loved him so (and still can't - was so scared away that I've never tried to read salinger since). Can't figure out what it was that put me off, as I will usually read just about anything. Why do you love him, Catherine?
I liked Shakespeare too, JuliAnna and really enjoyed the explorations into the roots of our modern language.
I liked Shakespeare too, JuliAnna and really enjoyed the explorations into the roots of our modern language.
Susanna, I love all of those (plus Romeo and Juliet, but I read that on my own). It's funny that they very rarely assign anything modern in high school - or really even that I read in college. P.S. The Canterbury Tales! Nice, I'm a medieval lit grad student so I've had my fair share of Chacuer, in the original and translation.
Katie wrote: "I just finished The Amber Spyglass, the last book in His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I LOVED the whole series. I love when original and inventive ideas are executed well. Lyra is a fierce a..."I LOVE, LOVE LOVED Firefly! I have the series on DVD and watch it over and over...
As far as your dare, just check out my read books! I bet you tons I have read more Star Wars than you!!:)
Lori wrote: "Laura, if you are goingo to open a second thread for something, make sure you differeniate it. If it is spoilers, or no spoilers... ok?"OK thanks Lori - I didn't want to disturb your OCD-ness. (Since I live w/2 of those, I know what that's like)
;)
Hey! Wow we're both on. Amazing. I just came from there, but I'm on the waiting list. Sorry about that. I'm gonna finish Ghost at Work, and I recently started audio-ing Zusak (book thief)'s other book - I am the Messenger. I really enjoy it. His writing style reminds me a lot of the guy who wrote Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
I've just started Ella Enchanted, which I'm reading for a YA challenge as well as for the Winter Challenge. It looks promising.Re: The Time Traveler's Wife, I agree with those of you who found the sex off-putting. That was one of the major reasons why I set it aside. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood for the book when I tried to read it, but I'm really not sure I want to give it another shot now.
LOL Kandice! I'm so excited that you like the Star Wars books too! All right, you're on...but I checked yours and I think I may have you beat. ;) I have a special shelf just for SW books. You've read some of the prequel books though, which I never was able to get into. I've always just followed the storyline during and after the classic trilogy. What can I say? I'm a purist haha. That's also probably because my favorite character quickly became Jaina Solo when I started reading into the extended universe.I just got the Firefly DVD's for Christmas! I love those episodes so much. I made my brother do a marathon with me where we watched all the episodes and then the movie. I got him hooked :)
Oh Jamie, let me know how Ella Enchanted is! I've always wanted to read that book and I've never gotten around to it.
i just finished PS I Love You from Ceclia Ahern. i really, really liked this story. it was funny, sweet, and heart-wrenchingly sad all at the same time. so very glad i picked this one up.
I just finished The Shadow of the Wind, which I really enjoyed, and now I'm starting Anna Karenina for another group's classic read for February. I was scared of it, but I'm almost 100 pages in and it's very readable. I am keeping a running list of characters' names and nicknames though!
alicia wrote: "I am now reading Brother Odd i really like this series."Alicia, I too got hooked on Brother Odd - I think I've read the first three. My second favorite character was his waitress girlfriend!
Picked up Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier from the Library today.
JG - I read Anna Karenina in high school, and while I remember liking it, I didn't love it. I think I'll try again.
Like the idea of the character list. Russian novels do have a way of confusing you. Every character has 15 names, nicknames, patronnymics, family names... my memory is bad enough in my advancing middle years. Can hardly remember my husband's name, much less all those characters!
Like the idea of the character list. Russian novels do have a way of confusing you. Every character has 15 names, nicknames, patronnymics, family names... my memory is bad enough in my advancing middle years. Can hardly remember my husband's name, much less all those characters!
That's what I keep hearing. The list is helping so far. I just read four of Levin's cows' names and had to shake my head. Who cares? But otherwise, so far, so good.
Atishay wrote: "Picked up Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier from the Library today."I read Thirteen Moons in 2007 and it was on my lift of favorites for that year. I hope you will like it too.
Linda, thanks for the response on Hosseini's novel! Katie, his Dark Materials are agood. And it sounds like you and my boyfriend would get along! He's a big Firefly/Dr.Who/Star Wars/Star Trek fan. I'm going to make him show me firefly at some point soon.Jamie/Katie--Ella Enchanged is a really good YA novel. I enjoyed it a lot.
I'm still working on Ghost Road, which I'll finish next week. However, since it like everything else on my currently-reading list is for university (can you tell I'm an English major?) I'm going to start on Cecilia Ahern's P.S. I Love You over the weekend, as a reward to myself for the two massive essays I'll be hanidng in tomorrow.
JG, you may want to check out Oprah's website. Anna Karenina was a book she had picked. The site had character charts and all kinds of reader goodies to keep readers on track. I attempted to read it awhile back but had a hard time getting into it.
oh wow, that sounds cool. Thanks!
I loved his girlfriend too Liz.I have the 4th one as well sitting here so i'll read that next before moving on to something totally different.
Just started reading "Love the One You're With" by Emily Giffin. Had read Something Borrowed and Something Blue and loved them, I was a bit disappointed with Baby Proof but maybe that was b/c i had read them all so close together. Its been about a year now. Just finished Snowflower and the Secret Fan - LOVED it, but I need a chick-lit fix.
Post a list of options, and we could choose for you.I am reading The Road McCarthy and it is soooo good, but almost painful, too. Has anyone read it? I keep having to take breaks to not tear up.
Still reading The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914. Interesting organization - by theme and year. 1900 was the world's fair in Paris; 1901 about aristocrats; 1902 Austria and Dr. Freud, for example.I'm enjoying it. Though the chapter on the Belgians in the Congo should probably not be read on a full stomach.
Huge fan of The Road! It's definitely depressing, but I found the language beautiful and got caught up in that. I like post-apocalyptic fiction though so it's probably a good match.
I'm finally reading something in addition to Sookie - Full House, a collection of short stories written by a professor of mine, Wendy Fairey. So far, the prose is pretty (I could use a good language fix after Charlaine Harris) and is it's fun recognizing auto-biographical moments from her life.
I recall Pillars of the Earth being good if quite long (I read it back in the day; must be 20 years ago). Haven't read Mary Barton. Is it a biography?
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I loved the Road. We actually had a very LARGE discussion on it in the Group reads or Wanna Discuss THis Novel folder awhile back. You should check it out.
McCarthy did such an excellent job with the writing. Its beautiful, haunting, bare bones....
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The Next Best Book Club
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Do you have room for one more for Outlander? I have not read it yet but I would like to, and it would be fun discussing it with others.