The Next Best Book Club discussion
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Revive a Dead Thread
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What are you reading?
Cortney wrote: "I just started Jurassic Park and can't put it down. I'm only about 50 pages in, but the beginning was so great! I don't know if the rest of the book will live up to that, but I hope s..Cortney, I loved this book. It actually gave me nightmares where I thought the movie was entertaining. Enjoy!
I finished "The Sunday Wife" Cassandra King and enjoyed it. It took me a while because I took a 10 day vacation thinking I'd get a lot of reading done but I hardly got any done!Now reading "Tin Angel"Kathy Lawrence aka Kat Martin. It's a romance my m-i-l loaned me while I was there. She's met Kat and loves her books so I'll read these and send them back to her.
I finished Persepolis. It is the first graphic novel I have really enjoyed and I have already taken book 2 from the library.Then I read Boy Overboard an excellent children's book about a family fleeing Afghanistan.
I also read Mum's Story A Child Learns About MS which I received as a first read. Hardly riveting fiction but useful and well written.
I have just started Dirty Little Angels a novella in e-book form which I also received as a first read.
I am enjoying the writing style but it is a rather depressing story.
Esther wrote: "Claire wrote: "...I'm starting The History of Love. The History of Love is one of my all time favourites. I hope you enjoy it."
Thanks, I'm looking forward to it.
Cait wrote: "I finishedMadame Bovary yesterday. Man, Flaubert doesn't hold back; when his characters fall, they fall hard. It was bleak and tragic and so, so good.Today I'm going to try and knoc..."
The Haunting of Hill House is one my favorite books ever! It's just so wonderfully creepy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Hill House was spooky and creepy. It was great. We should read it around Halloween. Myahaaaaaa.
Finished The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, which I received as a first reads a month or two ago. Still working on a review for that one, but I didnt love it. Way too long. And while I know this comes with reading fantasy, I REALLY hate when books just...end... I dont care that it is part 1 of a trilogy. It should still stand on its own. This one basically seemed like it ended when he ran out of paper for his printer. No resolution. No climax. There wasnt even a cliffhanger. oh well.
Have just started The Map of True Places so hopefully I'll be contributing to the read along here soon.
Mary wrote: "Mona wrote: "Mary, this book is on my list but I may take it off now. The language has discouraged me and it just doesn't seem realistic for a high school student to be talking like that."Mona,..."
Mary, I felt the same way about that book. I started out liking it but just before the half way mark I started disliking it. Eveline turned out to be just so....blah. I ended up not caring about her at all.
Beth wrote: "Mary, I felt the same way about that book. I started out liking it but just before the half way mark I started disliking it. Eveline turned out to be just so....blah. I ended up not caring about her at all."Exactly. She's so passive, always fainting and crying for no reason. If I knew her IRL I would probably hate her.
Mary, I really thought I'd like Anthropology of an American Girl so I was really disappointed when I didn't. I graduated from high school in 1982 so, like you, I'm part of her generation and so I thought I'd be able to identify with her. I was also excited when I read the blurb on the back comparing Anthropology to Catcher in the Rye. I couldn't identify with Eveline at all and she is so NOT a Holden! I think Hamnn has the potential to write a good book but I think her characterization of a high schooler was off.
You guys are cracking me up with this conversation.
I'm learning that any time a book is plugged as "the new Catcher in the Rye", it's going to be shite.
Mary wrote: "I'm learning that any time a book is plugged as "the new Catcher in the Rye", it's going to be shite."For sure, Mary!!! I've learned my lesson :-)
Mary wrote: "I'm learning that any time a book is plugged as "the new Catcher in the Rye", it's going to be shite."True, that.
Super happy you are all mentioning your thoughts on the highly anticipated & highly advertised Anthropology... Anytime a book is said to the "the new 'Catcher in the Rye'" I am skeptical, but anytime a book is said to be "shite" I run away...quickly!
Carol (akittykat) wrote: "I am starting Moloka'i I am already heartbroken. I know others have read it."You will love it as I did! If you are in it from the start you will not be disappointed.
Man, I wasn't even that crazy about the old Catcher in the Rye.I'm midway through Eugene Onegin, close enough to the Russian national epic, by Pushkin. It's awesome. Funny and beautiful.
Alex wrote: "I'm midway through Eugene Onegin, close enough to the Russian national epic, by Pushkin. It's awesome. Funny and beau..."Alex, I agree. I read this awhile back and remember really enjoying it.
I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know that was a book---I thought it was an opera.*hangs head*
Mary wrote: "F1, Anthropology of an American Girl is quite good so far, but very dense. It starts out in 1979, when the narrator is a high school senior. I graduated from high school in 1981 ..."
Hehehehehe, Mary. All my overwrought high school poetry was at the very least much more cynical. Though one of my closest friends was very very wholesome and did write stuff more along those lines, except with running metaphors and French orphans instead of "philosophical" tangents.
Thinking of giving up on The Colossus and Other Poems. I know Sylvia Plath is famously depressive and stuff, but I thought it would be more interesting. It's probably all going over my head, but all I'm getting is daddy issues! Decrepit building imagery!
So, as counter-reading, Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle, because Kormon's conception of teenagers is both zany hilarious and oddly quaint.
It's cool Mary, I didn't know either 'til recently.Petra, high five! Really cool to hear from someone else who's read it. It's so good!
I was wondering about online just the other day and i found a book of E-bay called "the book shop next door" so i began reading up about it turns out it did not really exist so i put a bid on it from E-bay and i literally bought a bookstore. It really was quite humorous at the time.
I just finished reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Just okay for me. Now I'm starting to read The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon, I've seen a lot of recommendations for this book in the group threads, so it would be interesting to read this one.
Carol (akittykat) wrote: "I am starting Moloka'i I am already heartbroken. I know others have read it."Carol, I don't how others feel about this book, but for me it was smooth sailing from beginning to end. Some books are like turbulent seas, rising and falling and leaving you at points, this one was riveting all the way through. I hope you enjoy it.
Rosabelle, Pirate Latitudes was just okay, huh? Bummer. I've been sorta tempted by that one.
Linda wrote: "Carol (akittykat) wrote: "I am starting Moloka'i I am already heartbroken. I know others have read it."Carol, I don't how others feel about this book, but for me it was smooth saili..."
I am half way through the book. As you say smooth sailing . Beautiful story about a difficult subject.
The people are as lovely as the descriptive scenery.
Mary wrote: "I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know that was a book---I thought it was an opera.*hangs head*"
It's also an opera, yes.
i'm still working on The Calligrapher's Daughter. i'm liking it ok, but it's so dense, i haven't gotten more than 120 pages in to the book over the last 6 days. that's disappointing to me. i'm thinking of setting it aside to read Lev Grossman's The Magicians, but i don't know yet.
I completed Little Bee and have not been able to stop thinking of the book. Greed overpowering lives.
Riches overpowering preciousness.
Intolerance overcoming caring.
Next up - I need another fun and light one Maisie Dobbs is just what I need OR maybe Summer People.
I finished The Haunting of Hill House (good and creepy) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: And Other Tales of Terror (just ok).Now I'm starting Tethered. Crossing my fingers that it's good, as I've wanted to read it for quite some time now.
NerdGirl wrote: "I just finished My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares and How did You Get This Number by Sloan Crosley. Both were REALLY good."Yay Nerdgirl! I loved How Did You Get This Number. Did you read Cake?
Dang I have Pirate Latitudes on my shelf. Oh well even if it's not awesome I still have other Crichton I haven't read.
Still reading Blood Song, but now also Frommer's Morocco. I love how they organize their guidebooks.
Susanna wrote: "It's also an opera, yes"I know--I've seen it. It was also made into a movie starring one of the Fiennes brothers and Liv Tyler, which should've been my first clue that it was originally a novel.
I am reading Lost and Found, which is like a cold drink on a hot day after the vast and arid tedium that was Anthropology of an American Girl
Wow, Eugene Onegin really was made into a movie. Bizarre. Did you see it? Did it suck?
I saw bits of it, Alex. It looked pretty good, actually--beautiful photography. I don't know how I feel about Liv Tyler generally but she was postitively luminous.
Yeah, I don't kn0w if she can act because I've never seen her try it, but she's super hot. :P I'll probably Netflix it due to my inability to avoid movies based on books I've read.
Ever see One Night at McCool's? She was pretty good in that.
I just started THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST by Stieg Larsson. It's starting out a little slow, but I know it will get better as did the first two.
Mary wrote: "I saw bits of it, Alex. It looked pretty good, actually--beautiful photography. I don't know how I feel about Liv Tyler generally but she was postitively luminous."I saw the opera of Eugen Onegin first and then the film. Both were excellent.
Ralph Fiennes and Liv Taylor were compelling in their roles. The film was directed by Martha Fiennes Ralph's sister.
The thing I like about the film is that it's such a weird idea to adapt Eugene Onegin to film, I assume it could only come from someone who's really passionate about the work.I'm gonna ask my mom if she knows the opera. She's into that stuff.
Finished The Map of True Places last night and will pop over to that discussion this afternoon, though I think with the author in the group it will be more of a Q&A than a discussion.My husband as NO time to read with his crazy work schedule, but I acutally got him to sit down and read a book the other day and he LOVED it: Storm Front - so now I am picking it up. Already bought book 2 for him to try to encourage his reading...
Planning on going to Hulu once I finish to watch the TV show that was based on the series: The Dresden Files. Did anyone see it? It was cancelled after one season, so I dont have high hopes...but I always pray for another Firefly or Arrested Development where the show is just too good for the general public to realize and THAT is why it was cancelled... sigh...
Linda wrote: "Carol (akittykat) wrote: "I am starting Moloka'i I am already heartbroken. I know others have read it."Carol, I don't how others feel about this book, but for me it was smooth saili..."
I read this with my F2F book group last year and everyone thought it was terrific. It still comes up in conversation with the group from time to time.
Last night I finished Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb. It kept pretty close to the movie with a few minor differences and the ending was completly different. However, the book was good. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I found that I was really pulling for the main character to come out on top.Today I'm starting Pop Goes the Weasel (Alex Cross,#5) by James Patterson. It's the fifth book in the Alex Cross series, which I tend to enjoy. Plus it's a great source of book crack...who doesn't enjoy that from time to time.
I was in the mood to get into a long story so i started on the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I'm halfway through The Eye of the World. i finished rolling my eyes at all the silly names and comparing it with lotr, and now im beginning to like it
NerdGirl wrote: "I just finished My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares and How did You Get This Number by Sloan Crosley. Both were REALLY good."Just finished this book three days ago. I loved Brashear's book. It was excellent bibliotherapy for me and I thought it made alot points about love as well as managing to explain concepts about reincarnation without being preachy or who-whoo.
Ann from S.C. wrote: "I just started THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST by Stieg Larsson. It's starting out a little slow, but I know it will get better as did the first two."I finished this book last night. It does speed up,but I figured that was due to the necessary summarization of the other previous novels. Whew, all these books are winners don't you think?
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The Next Best Book Club
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Today I'm going to try and knock out The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by RLS. I've also picked up My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black; Or, A Culture-Up Manifesto for some bedtime fluff.