Books on the Nightstand discussion
What Are You Currently Reading? November 2011
Sadly, I just finished the audio version of Ready Player One. I enjoyed every second of it, and will miss the characters and the story. It was a well developed, fun, and engaging story. Thank you Ernest Cline, for creating such a great story, and Wil Wheaton for reading it perfectly. I am currently reading the text version of Tabloid City: A Novel. After I mourn Ready Player One for a couple days, I will start A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in audio.
Angela wrote: "I am reading "Ready Player One" and enjoying it immensly. I should be reading "The Remains of the Day" because it's my bookclubs selection for this month but had a hard time getting into that one. ..."I just finished listening to Ready Player One, Wil Wheaton was the perfect voice. I'm so sad it's over, and I'm having a hard time finding a new audio book :(
In the meantime, I'm reading The Affair. Jack Reacher is a guilty pleasure.
I finished Fahrenheit 451 yesterday, and found it mesmerizing. I don't know why I didn't appreciate it more at 14, but I'm glad I picked it up again.I started Bite Me last night. I didn't realize it was the third in a series, but so far I seem to be following along ok. Christopher Moore is hilarious, and that's really what matters here.
Julie wrote: "Just finished "Room" by Emma Donoghue. It was on a 'best of 2010' lists I found in another notebook, I'm sure it was from BOTN . . One of the most compelling reads I've had in a long, long, while."Try her other books as well. They are very different from Room. I especially loved
and
.
Shannon wrote: "Sadly, I just finished the audio version of Ready Player One. I enjoyed every second of it, and will miss the characters and the story. It was a well developed, fun, and engaging s..."I have been saving the last six hours of RP1 for my Thanksgiving road trip. I am so excited to polish it off without interruption!
I'm also just about to finish up the The Historian which I have enjoyed immensely. The writing is great and she has done a fantastic job of keeping the pacing clipping along in a long book. Highly recommended for those literary folks looking for an accessible way into genre, as it's basically a horror story (Dracula, to be specific)
Just finished
last night. Loved it. There is something so magical about Kevin Brockmeier's writing - I always finish his books wanting more.Started
this morning for a change of pace.
Frankie wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Sadly, I just finished the audio version of Ready Player One. I enjoyed every second of it, and will miss the characters and the story. It was a well developed, fun..."Frankie, you will enjoy your road trip very much with the last 6 hours of RP1. It's such a fun listen! I am trying to decide which audio books to save for my holiday travels. I love audio books, they make cleaning and traveling much more enjoyable : )
Safe travels!
I just finished Moloka'i
, which I picked up on a whim but ended up really really loving. I highly recommend this one.Now I've started The Stranger's Child
in which had me completely entranced by page 8.
Eric wrote: "Also, fans of 
will shiver at being plunked down in Derry again, at the point in time right after Pennywise was active. And you'll visit with some old friends."Eric, I've never read a Stephen King book other than Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons and I was really interested in 11/22/63. But should I read It before 11/22/63?
Heather wrote: "Eric wrote: "Also, fans of will shiver at being plunked down in Derry again, at the point in time right after Pennywise was active. And you'll visit with some old friends."Er..."
Yes, Yes, Yes!! :)
You don't need to. But you'll get certain references if you do. A lot of King's books since the early nineties have contained references to others of his books. There is a "Stephen King Multiverse", if you will, where all the stories are interconnected, even ones that take place in incompatible alternate realities.
11/22/63 has a Shawshank reference too, btw.
11/22/63 has a Shawshank reference too, btw.
Eric wrote: "You don't need to. But you'll get certain references if you do. A lot of King's books since the early nineties have contained references to others of his books. There is a "Stephen King Multiverse"..."agree... The Talisman is like that; and then Black House ...
Thanks Eric and Alondra. I do like being in on literary references, so I guess I'll have to ad It to the TBR pile too. So many books, so little time.... And I read too slowly!
I just finished reading Auslander which I thought was excellent. It is the story of Peter Bruck who after his Polish parents are killed is "reclaimed" by the Nazis as "racially significant" because he looks like the boy on the Hitler Youth poster. He is adopted by a rabid Nazi family in Berlin. This book gives great insight into what it was like to live in Nazi Germany. I highly recommend it.
Eric wrote: "I started "The Night Circus" on audio. Am I the only one who finds it repetitious, vague, cliche-ridden, and tedious? Overhyped?Seems like a big waste of time to me, on par with the Twilight series."
actually I wonder if this has to do with the audio version.. total bummer because I love jim dale so much, but for some reason his voice doesn't work well with this book. I'm laboring through the second half of Night Circus on audio and I feel like I'd be enjoying it a lot more were I just reading it.
In one passage of this book, about a third of the way in, a character named Chandresh throws a lavish dinner. For several pages, the sumptuous dinner is described in loving detail, except that it's not. Because Chandresh makes a point of not letting the guests know the ingredients of the meals they're being served. So we, the reader, are served with a lengthy description which describes nothing. This is all preparatory to a grand anmouncement which is to be made by Chandresh. Here I quote:
“Your company has been requested this evening because I have a project I am beginning, an endeavor, you might say. I do believe it is an endeavor that will appeal to all of you, and that you may each, in your unique ways, aid in the planning. Your assistance, which is entirely voluntary, will be both appreciated and well compensated,” he says.
“Stop beating around the bush and tell us what your new game is, Chandresh darling,” Mme. Padva says, swirling her brandy. “Some of us aren’t getting any younger.”
I know exactly how Mme. Padva feels. In fact, I know how the bush feels. When you finish this book, the poor bush will be a pile of flattened splinters from being beaten about. The foregoing passage is emblematic of the entire book (at least the first third...and I am unwilling to subject myself to more). This book consists of 90% vamping (or if you like, "beautiful descriptions"), 10% plot, and 0% character. There are no characters of any interest, just ciphers.
I think with this book, I have learned that when the selling point "beautiful descriptions" is offered by a reviewer, to read that as "puffing what should be a short story to novel-length".
Before she entered politics, Margaret Thatcher was a food scientist whose claim to fame was creating a process by which air bubbles could increase the volume of ice cream, thereby enabling manufacturers to sell less ice cream for the same amount of money. Erin Morgenstern has managed the literary equivalent.
Don't believe the hype! The emperor has no clothes!
I finished this book today. And by that I don't mean I completed the book. I mean I saved myself some pointlessly wasted hours.
Titone does a great job at telling a true story about Shakespearean actors which in itself would be a worthy subject for one of the Bard's plays. She deconstructs the sibling rivalry between John Wilkes Booth and his brother Edwin. Edwin was the DeNiro of his day, both in looks and in his influential and realistic style of acting. John Wilkes was a ham-handed hack as an actor, although he had the matinee-idol good looks and and skill at stage combat that made him a lesser star.
Of course, aiding them in achieving fame was their family name: Booth. They were the sons of the great Shakespearean star Junius Brutus Booth, who left his native England (where he was revered as the greatest actor of his time) to seek fame in the United States. His motives were the desire to conquer new territory, an admiration of the American Founding Fathers, and a desire to escape an ill-considered marriage and live with his true love, Mary Ann. Junius's life, with its aura of dark romanticism, could be considered Byronic, which is apt also because Lord Byron was a friend and mentor to young Junius, and also an idol of his young paramour, Mary Ann.
Junius was an iconoclast, a heretic, and an alcoholic, and was a misfit in the puritanical country he'd adopted. As with many showman who traveled for long stretches to make their bread in the nineteenth century (Mark Twain was another), death from viral epidemics decimated his family during a long absence, resulting in dark and tragic scenes of grieving. These dark hours overshadow and dominate the later lives of Edwin and John Wilkes, almost as though a family curse is visited upon the subsequent generations for the sins of the father. The end result, the death of Lincoln, we all know. What few today know is the story of how Edwin escaped being tarred with the same brush as Brother John, and how he rehabilitated the family name (at least during his own lifetime).
I would have liked to have read more about the conspiracy of which John Wilkes was a part, but Titone's book glossed over that in favor of telling the story of the Booth family. But that's fine. The tragic, operatic tale of the Booth family is the story she intended to tell, and told well. The reader probably shouldn't expect more.
Heather wrote: "Thanks Eric and Alondra. I do like being in on literary references, so I guess I'll have to ad It to the TBR pile too. So many books, so little time.... And I read too slowly!"You dont read slowly; you 'savor' your books! Happy reading!! :D
Mod
This time I read it. The first time I listened to it. (Quite often I have read the book that my book discussion group has chosen, so I use the opposite media to go through the book the 2nd time.)
Now starting
.This will be a great reading week since everyone else will be getting ready for a big Thanksgiving dinner. It will just be a small dinner at home for us.
I think if you have a passing acquaintance with the internet these days, you've heard a brief description of this book: time traveler from the present goes back and tries to prevent JFK's assassination. But that's only the hook. The story is that, like John Lennon said, "Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".
2011's Jake Epping becomes 1958's George Amberson. (By the rules of this story, there's no choice of time or location. You can only go back to Lisbon Falls, Maine, September, 1958). Jake, now George, has instructions: live out the five years until the assassination without making any waves or connections. Remember, by making connections, you may trigger the "butterfly effect" and screw up the future in unpredictable ways. But that's easier said than done. Human beings, most of us, anyway, are social animals.
You may have guessed by my previous paragraph that "11/22/63" is a love story. I won't tease anymore. Just read this great story.
Started and finished "Habibi" this week-end. So glad Michael recommended this. Excellent read and wonderful art throughout the book.
Dawn wrote: Started [bookcove..."I loved Blood, Bones, & Butter! Hope you enjoy it.
Sarah wrote: "Julie wrote: "Just finished "Room" by Emma Donoghue. It was on a 'best of 2010' lists I found in another notebook, I'm sure it was from BOTN . . One of the most compelling reads I've had in a long,..."I haven't read Room yet but I read Slammerkin recently and my, but that was an incredible book. I don't even like historical fiction but I couldn't put it down. Excellent.
I am reading Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, and I find it interesting, informative, fascinating, and fun so far! Mr. Foer is a great writer and entertainer.
Shannon wrote: "I am reading Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, and I find it interesting, informative, fascinating, and fun so far! Mr. Foer is a great write..."I agree, Shannon! I will be finishing it soon and have learned a lot. Very enjoyable read.
Eric wrote: "I think if you have a passing acquaintance with the internet these days, you've heard a brief description of this book: time traveler from the present goes back and t..."
Sold! Just downloaded the audible for my next listen:
All the others in my queue will have to wait patiently. I probably have 2-3 more days to finish listening to
. David Mitchell never lets me down. Excellent.
I'm listening to 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 and reading State of Wonder.I'll be finishing both in the next day or two and not sure what I want to dig into next - I'm thinking The Night Circus on audio and Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History for my book read.
I started The Boy in the Suitcase a few days ago.I finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This book has beautiful drawings and a lovely story.
Eric wrote: "In one passage of this book, about a third of the way in, a character named Chandresh throws a lavish dinner. For several pages, the sumptuous dinner is descri..."
I agree with you, Eric....this book is overrated....I was very disappointed.
Mod
In one passage of this book, about a third of the way in, a character named Chandresh throws a lavish dinner. For several pages, the sumptuous din..."
This book is, in my mind, similar to
. I read that almost 600-page book in three days and with two mornings until 4 a.m. I immediately urged my best reading friend to read it, who also thought it was a page-turning, can't-put-down experience.The two of us urged our book discussion group to include it, which they did. It was one of the most divisive (and therefore good) discussions that we had. Readers seemed to be on one end of the pendulum swing and rarely is someone in the middle and able to take it or leave it.
Eric wrote: "In one passage of this book, about a third of the way in, a character named Chandresh throws a lavish dinner. For several pages, the sumptuous dinner is descri..."
Ha ha, Eric - tell us how you really feel! I can't say I felt much different though, as I have posted on Goodreads somewhere (maybe on the thread for the book somewhere). I just didn't feel quite so strongly about it, because I did enjoy the descriptions!
I am reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And I agree with Eric's sentiments of The Night Circus; apparently she started the book when doing a NaNoWriMo (the thing where people try to aim to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November), or so I have heard.
Victoria wrote: "Eric wrote: "In one passage of this book, about a third of the way in, a character named Chandresh throws a lavish dinner. For several pages, the sumptuous din..."
I recently finished The Night Circus and I thought the writing was amazing. The descriptions of the circus made me want to be there which is something because I really don't like the circus. I don't think I've read anything else recently that has invoked such strong imagery - I still see some of the scenes in my mind. I did however finish the book thinking that I missed something considering all the glowing reviews. Despite the beautiful writing, for me the book didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't care about the characters. Perhaps if she stuck to one or two POVs she could have fleshed out the main characters a bit. I didn't buy the love story between Marco and Celia and there really was no action - just a lot of talk about the action.
I still liked the book - I guess I was just expecting it to blow me away which it didn't....perhaps I should give it another try?
The Night Circus backlash is underway!
The last times I felt the serious need to kill the hype were "The Bridges of Madison County" and "The Da Vinci Code".
The last times I felt the serious need to kill the hype were "The Bridges of Madison County" and "The Da Vinci Code".
Mod
Honestly, when the book speaks to people, it really speaks. Never before have I seen sophisticated, often jaded, booksellers dress up in costume and/or dye their hair red in honor of a book ... and I"ve been in this business for a very long time. I've had people who read for a living immediately re-read the book upon finishing. And in another thread (I think -- maybe it was earlier in this one), several were discussing the dream of staging a midnight dinner at Booktopia Manchester.
Is the book perfect? Of course not. But every once in a while a book sparks something in readers that is magical. And it also brings out the haters.
The two books you mentioned (Bridges of Madison County and The DaVinci code), along with The Help, are books that "crossover" into the non-reading public. As a publishing professional and a lifelong reader, I can't fault any book that makes non-readers read. And personally, I loved The DaVinci Code, long before the hype, before the backlash, before it was even bound between paper covers. I loved John Grisham's The Firm, too.
I'm not sure what it is about major success that causes people who once loved a book to suddenly poo-poo it, but that happens a lot. (Not saying you are doing that Eric, I know you weren't a fan from the start). And it really bugs me. It hasn't happened with The Night Circus yet, and I"m not sure that it will since TNC hasn't hit the level that the other 3 books have. But I'm curious about why it happens. I wish someone could commission a study. There's definitely a psychology at work.
Me and crossover books:
Bridges of Madison County - threw it across the room
The Da Vinci Code - admired it as a fast-moving thriller, but didn't think it deserved anywhere near the kudos and serious attention it was getting.
The Firm - Liked it, although I had major problems with the story construction of Grisham's later books.
Harry Potter - Love 'em!
The Help - A solid, entertaining novel
Water for Elephants - a decent story marred by cardboard characters, especially the moustache-twirling villains. Surprised they never actually tied the heroine to the railroad tracks.
Bridges of Madison County - threw it across the room
The Da Vinci Code - admired it as a fast-moving thriller, but didn't think it deserved anywhere near the kudos and serious attention it was getting.
The Firm - Liked it, although I had major problems with the story construction of Grisham's later books.
Harry Potter - Love 'em!
The Help - A solid, entertaining novel
Water for Elephants - a decent story marred by cardboard characters, especially the moustache-twirling villains. Surprised they never actually tied the heroine to the railroad tracks.
Mod
Really? Among literary critics there's a lot!
I just finished Out of Oz which I really liked. I thought it tied things up nicely even tho I wish it had ended differently. I also just finished The Spirit of Nora, A Novel that I also liked. Currently I'm reading Clockwork Prince that I won from Firstreads , and also Grave Goods
Mod
I get it mostly from my mother...
she who planted my seed to love reading.
she who has not read a single Harry Potter book.
she who taught us to think for ourselves.
she who should recognize that my 49-year-old baby brother is NOT a reader and still found himself proximate to the book on a long car ride (his teenaged son was driving) and got hooked.
she who keeps telling me (through life's kicks) to keep positive.
and finally
she who thinks outside the box. (Probably a cereal box that I used to read at the breakfast table.)
Now, I'm contending with a best friend who insists on calling graphic novels comic books. In the end, I'll let her turn up her nose and subsequently miss some fantastic material as long as she allows me the same courtesy for anything labeled "romance" (and I'm talking Harlequin - not
or
I'm all for whatever gets somebody reading. I also understand that all books have a specific audience of which I may or may not be a member.
Elizabeth asked back on Nov. 2 for me to post my thoughts about David Ulin's The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time. It took a while to lay my hands on a copy, so pardon the delay. The book is a single long essay that takes up just 152 octavo pages, so I was able to finish it in a sitting. I know Ulin as a talented print/radio reviewer with a pleasant narrative style, and because of this I expected something more from him...not in terms of length, but of insight.Lost Art is the author's reaction to his 15-year-old son's declaration, in response to a homework assignment, that "reading is over." His best sections are the personal writing: the discussions of the critic's reading style and the family anecdotes that tie in to his argument that books and words have always been and will always be key to a civilized society. However, he mentions early on that his personal library bristles with Post-Its marking interesting passages and points of view. Lost Art is full of these quotes, some just a sentence long but others stretching on for a page and a half. For more than half the book it seemed to me that Ulin was leaping like a mountain goat from quote to quote, providing lead-ins and reactions but no original thoughts. Only in the final section, when he and his son come to uneasy terms with both the printed word and the technology that seems ready to supplant it, does the book really come to life. It's certainly worth the time of any fan of BOTN, but I can't justify assigning it more than three Goodreads stars.
Linda, I call them comics books, or comics. It's the true name of the art form. The "straight" world calls them graphic novels, but to the true fan and to the people in the industry, they're comics.
Mod
(I also have a hard time thinking of a book as serious as Perspolis as a 'comic', though I know the word has surpassed the definition of 'funny.')
Mod
In conjunction with my volunteering to run my library's book sales, I sometimes make "executive decisions" that the library may earn more money if I put items online rather than getting the, at most, 50¢ we charge for hardback books.
Two sales ago I had several holiday magazines from the 50s. In order to minimize questions from potential buyers, I put everything in the table of contents in the description.
Each of those magazines had articles about gay Christmas cards.
Kathy wrote: "Elizabeth asked back on Nov. 2 for me to post my thoughts about David Ulin's The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time. It took a while to lay my hands on a copy..."Interesting Kathy - thanks for the review. Doesn't sound like anything I will be reading though (either before your review or after).
I would call a long form work of fiction that was originally published as such a graphic novel. I still see Watchmen as a 12 issue limited series of comics, because that's what it was originally. Same with "Y the Last Man". A lot of the long-form serials like "Y", "100 Bullets", "Sandman", and "Preacher" could be called novels, but each individual paperback book isn't the novel any more than the individual pamphlet chapters were. Rather, the novel comprises the entire saga. The paperback collections are only sections of a larger story.
Many series never wrap up, but are ongoing in the same way that TV series are. Fables, The Walking Dead, and Green Lantern are like that. They don't have actual endings, just cliffhanger after cliffhanger. They have more in common with a soap opera than a novel.
Strangely, Will Eisner's "A Contract With God" was billed as a graphic novel when it came out in the mid-seventies, even though it was a collection of short stories. It was also billed as the first graphic novel, even though there were quite a few works preceding it that could have held that distiction.
Persepolis would be a graphic memoir, rather than a graphic novel, I would think.
Will Eisner coined the term "sequential art" to describe the artform.
Many series never wrap up, but are ongoing in the same way that TV series are. Fables, The Walking Dead, and Green Lantern are like that. They don't have actual endings, just cliffhanger after cliffhanger. They have more in common with a soap opera than a novel.
Strangely, Will Eisner's "A Contract With God" was billed as a graphic novel when it came out in the mid-seventies, even though it was a collection of short stories. It was also billed as the first graphic novel, even though there were quite a few works preceding it that could have held that distiction.
Persepolis would be a graphic memoir, rather than a graphic novel, I would think.
Will Eisner coined the term "sequential art" to describe the artform.
Kathy wrote: "Elizabeth asked back on Nov. 2 for me to post my thoughts about David Ulin's The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time. It took a while to lay my hands on a copy..."thanks kathy. i appreciate the insight and the honesty. i think i might skip this one.
Books on the Nightstand
Books mentioned in this topic
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All Over But the Shoutin' (other topics)
The Marriage Plot (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Salman Rushdie (other topics)Salman Rushdie (other topics)
Victoria Alexander (other topics)
Dennis Lehane (other topics)
i finished The Translator: A Memoir which i found quite moving.