Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are U reading these days? (PART EIGHT (2012) (ONGOING THREAD for 2012)
I'm with you on the Anita Blake, Jenni. I must confess that I've read all of them, but the series really plummeted after book 10 or so. Some were just awful, but Hamilton is recovering a bit for the past 1 or 2. There is hope & I really want to see what becomes of a character that is introduced in about book 10.I read the first Twilight, didn't like the story much, & hated the writing. The only picture I have of Edward is a sparkly, broad, bare chest. Blech. I got all 4 books & my daughter read them all, but didn't like them much. I didn't bother with any after the first.
No, Jenni, I haven't read any of the Anita Blake books, but I've had Guilty Pleasures, the first one, on my to-read list for awhile. If I read any of the series, it will only be the earlier books, before they take their nosedive into ultra-erotic territory!A lot of fans like their vampires mean and vindictive, so that's cool. (I can take or leave the sparkling in the sunlight, myself. :-) )
Jim, would the middle chunk of the Anita Blake series be worth reading for the last couple of books? I've heard from a few people that the last couple have gotten quite a bit better... I'm just not sure if I want to make the time for all of those in-between ones.Oh, according to goodreads, I've read the first nine books. :)
Werner wrote: "... When I feel like engaging in some wild, daredevil form of life-threatening extreme sport, as Mark Twain used to say about exercise, "I lie down until the feeling goes away." :-)"LOL, Werner! That's a good one!
Jim wrote: ".. Joy, we all have our things. I don't mind heights ..."Jim, I can't stand heights! They affect me physically. I get a strange feeling inside which is beyond fear. It borders on dizziness. Even going over a bridge affects me. My father had the same fear. I could never understand how people can manage heights.
As for being deep underwater, it's a bit claustrophobic for me.
Jim wrote: "I finished Bedtime Stories: A Collection of Erotic Fairy Tales by Jean Johnson. I liked it! The sex was easy enough to skim through as needed, but it really added a lot to some of the stories. A..."Jim, I read your review. Interesting. I haven't got an e-reader. Did the book cost you anything? That's one thing I have against e-readers. It costs money to get books whereas I get my books free from the library.
Jenni wrote: "... Jim, thanks for the fox hunting/chasing story... that was interesting, especially the fox who "outfoxed" the dogs."Well put, Jenni. I enjoyed Jim's post too.
I heard about this a few months ago, a friend of mine who buys a lot of Kindle ebooks from amazon told me that a huge amount of reviews were fake. I'm not sure if it's this same guy, but sounds like it.
Jim wrote: "Interesting article about online book reviews: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/bus..."That's pretty discouraging. I tend to believe the negative reviews more than the positive ones. (If I trust the reviewer, I'll believe the positive ones.) That's why I use the GR filter and read the 1 star and 2 star reviews. :)
Besides, each person has different tastes.
That's why I use GR friends & reviews. I know what your tastes in books are & how they align with my own. Even for a great book, I'll look at the lower end reviews to see if any of my pet peeves are mentioned.
Jim wrote: "That's why I use GR friends & reviews. I know what your tastes in books are & how they align with my own. Even for a great book, I'll look at the lower end reviews to see if any of my pet peeves ..."I agree. I look at friend reviews, and then I skim over a range of other reviews. I'll look at a few 5 star, and make sure to hit a 3/2/1 star review if it's a book that I don't know much about, or if I don't have many friends who have reviewed the book.
Personally, I suck at reviewing
books. I feel like I'm literally just copying what everyone else wrote, and I get intimidated by all of those awesome reviews that are out there. (Jim, I need to soak up some of your awesomeness!)
Jenni, like you, I'm not too confident about reviewing books. On the one hand it IS intimidating to read articulate reviews but on the other hand we can learn from them. By reading good reviews, we improve our own ability to analyze a book and we enrich our vocabulary, learning new words to use in our critiques.As an example, I've learned to use the word "linear" to describe a plot which doesn't have many time shifts. I've learned to use the word "exposition" to describe the explanation of a story's setting and background. I need a lot of exposition in a story to help me understand where it's going and where it's been. Even the expression, "time shifts", is something I picked up from reading other people's reviews. I've learned to use POV for "point of view". I think it was in one of Jim's reviews that he used the words "simplistic POV". How about "spiritual musings and theological ponderings". I read that in a GR review of Gilead
I liked these words too: "Circling back and forth from the present to the past, the narrative loses momentum..." [from a NYTimes book review]. It's so well-put. It expresses my preference for stories which move forward at a decent pace.
Jenni, thank you for your kind words. I don't really try to do super reviews like some of my friends. Some actually keep lists of points to discuss. I keep in mind a few of the obvious things, but often won't bother to mention them unless they need it. I figure a short review with a few germane points is usually better than a long discussion.Occasionally I'll go the extra mile. Fahrenheit 451 really got my attention. There was just so much cool stuff packed in to that old classic that I couldn't resist. Generally, I'd rather read than write about my reading, though. My comments are directed at my failing memory & friends rather than for the general public's consumption.
Jim wrote: "... My comments are directed at my failing memory & friends rather than for the general public's consumption."Yes, Jim. My reviews are aimed at helping me remember.
A gal in one of my in-person book clubs always wrote down a summary of the plot of each book she had read. For me, that would be too time-consuming but it's a good idea if one can manage to do it.
I'm a little bummed out. The book club meets on Nov 12 and my office is having a mandatory meeting that same night. The book is: Forever by Pete Hamill. The book cover states its about a young man from Ireland who goes to NYC in America to avenge the death of his parents. Since he assisted an African shaman he is given a gift of living forever.
In my earlier post I mentioned my struggle with reading the book and started skimming.
Looked forward to attending the book club to hear what others had to say about the book. Now I'll miss it.
Guess I'll stop reading the book - no sense in struggling if I'm missing the main event.
I'll let you know what the name of the next book selection.
Linda, if you know anyone who will be at that book club meeting (maybe the leader), they might let you know what went on or at least let you know if there were any outstanding comments or opinions stated during the meeting.PS-In any case, if I were "struggling" with a book, I would probably quit reading it... unless I had a good reason to go on struggling. Who needs to struggle when they are reading for pleasure?
Sarah Zettel has written some science fiction I really liked (Fool's War. So I decided to try her fantasy series.She has written four volumes about a parallel world called Isavalta, where magic is real. I just started the first book,A Sorcerer's Treason. So far I am enjoying it--lots of details to keep track of but it is keeping my interest!
Mary JL, sounds intriguing (A Sorcerer's Treason).Interesting location:
"1899, Sand Island, Wisconsin: Bridget Lederle is a lighthouse keeper on this stormy, windswept shore of Lake Superior." (from GR description)
There might be some fakes on Amazon but I've done three and none were fake. I have other friends who have also. We read the books and send our review just like here. But, it's a big organization and some could slip by. I have had such user friendly relation withthem.
Nina wrote: "There might be some fakes on Amazon but I've done three and none were fake. I have other friends who have also. We read the books and send our review just like here. But, it's a big organization an..."Nina, I'm not sure what you're referring to.
Joy, see message 1009 and the following ones (about fake reviews on Amazon). Nina, I'm guessing that's what you were referring to?
Thanks, Werner. Now I remember.PS-But I have always wondered about the recommendations made on the back of book covers. The glowing comments seem too good to be true. I think that sometimes author-friends write those blurbs as favors to promote each other's books. (Maybe I read about that somewhere.)
There was a comment on one of the last goodreads that said it was thought that some of the reviews on Amazon were fake. I have since deleted it but it was on one of today's messages. I do know that some of my friend's books have a blurb on the back written by a friend; however, when I looked on the back cover of the book, "The Shoemaker's Wife," a blurb was written by the author of "Help" and she said she wished the author of The Shoemaker's Wife would go back up in the attic and find more family letters and write another one.
I'm sure they're not all fakes. It's just good to know there are fakes out there when making purchases.
Jackie and I are now started on our buddy read of The Skin Map, the first book in Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires series. It's a science fiction novel premised on inter-dimensional travel by means of ley lines. For those (like me!) not very familiar with that concept, here's a link: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line .
Werner & Jackie, enjoy your buddy read.Thanks for the link about ley lines.
Below is a simple definition from Cambridge Dictionary which always has the most clear definitions:
============================================
ley line -"an imaginary line between some important places such as hills or very old churches in Britain, believed to be where there were very old paths"
FROM: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dicti...
(The page also has a sound-link to hear it pronounced.)
=============================================
Oxford Dictionary gives the origin of the word "ley" (if you can understand it):
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definit...
Evidently, the original word meant "fallow" (to lie/lay fallow).
Ah, now I understand! :)
It's fun already. Good book, made even better when you have someone to discuss it with as you go along. I prefer buddy reads to group reads for this very reason.
Jackie wrote: "... I prefer buddy reads to group reads for this very reason."Jackie, I can understand that preference. Trouble is that I don't think I would be good for a buddy read because wouldn't be disciplined enough to stick to the schedule. My buddy would be sorely disappointed when I lagged behind. :) I'm watching too many movies. :)
PS-It's a great concept though (the idea of buddy reads).
Joy, I can relate --when Jackie and I read a book together (I've never read with anybody else), I'm usually the slowpoke. But it's an open-ended process; we don't really have a set schedule, and if I fall too far behind, she's usually reading more than one book at a time, so isn't too inconvenienced. If I were doing a buddy read with someone who read at an even slower pace than I do, I'd just keep a good short story collection handy to read at intervals when he/she had to have a chance to catch up. So it IS do-able, even for folks who read at different speeds. :-)
The book, "Defending Jacob," by Landay Williams is highly recommended although I haven't read it. Are any of you interested in checking it out?
Defending Jacob sounds really good. I might read it.Joy, another thing that Werner and I do is when we have something to say about the book, we use the subject line for where we are in the book, so the other knows not to read it unless they get to that part, so no spoilers. It's the spoilers that keep me from doing Group reads, you can't help but see them as everyone is at a different pace. Even when they use spoiler tags, they never say what part of the book it's from. So you either get spoilers or you have to wait til you finish, and by then, I'm on to the next book. Me and Werner have a good system. Yesterday I tried to use spoiler tags for a small part of the message, and they failed, so I'll be using the subject line exclusively from now on.
Jackie, can you give me an example of one of your subject lines? I'm not quite clear on what you mean. I agree with you about spoilers.Speaking of spoilers, they can give away a good play as well as a good book. I once saw a play which included characters dressed as nuns. The nuns had guns hidden under their habits. A friend told me about them before I saw the play. So it was no surprise when the nuns revealed the guns.
Nina, about Defending Jacob, I'm not usually a fan of legal thrillers. Are you going to read it?
Joy, This is from one of our emails, in the subject line: re: The Skin Map --Chapter 20, p. 212So I know, without reading body of the email, exactly where my partner is in the book, if I wasn't up to that part yet I'd wait to read the email. It's a great incentive to put time in to the book too, if I'm behind.
Some people don't mind spoilers, I'm not one of them. I like to experience books and movies untainted by others thoughts, feelings, and definitely no details from the plot especially not surprises moments. I want to have no expectation other than to enjoy it.
I finished The Skin Map last night and will start the next in the series The Bone House when we coordinate our schedules. In the meantime, I'm re-reading The Hobbit to refresh my memory before I go see the first film which comes to theaters next month and I have a standing date to see with Eric. I remember the story but I want to be up on the little details for comparison. Peter Jackson did an extraordinary job with LOTR and I expect the same with The Hobbit. I've been waiting a long time for this, I can't believe it's almost here!
Thanks for explaining about the subject line. I understand now. I agree about spoilers.I think I'll enjoy The Hobbit movie more than I enjoyed LOTR. I read, the book ( The Hobbit) and I saw the 1977 animated movie via a Netflix DVD. Of course, it's a less complicated story than LOTR.
A lot more adventures in The Hobbit.
Really? I remember lots of adventures in LOTR.
The difference between LOTR is that there's a lot of time spent getting from one place to another, chapters where nothing much happens. The Hobbit has something new in every chapter, fast pacing. LOTR is slow. I love them both, but they have very different ways of telling the story even though they are tied to one another. I see Tolkien as writing The Hobbit for fun, as a fun adventure, and LOTR in a far more serious manner with a more serious subject matter.
Jackie wrote: "The difference between LOTR is that there's a lot of time spent getting from one place to another, chapters where nothing much happens. The Hobbit has something new in every chapter, fast pacing. ..."Wow, Jackie. I never realized that. Interesting!
Jackie and Werner, I LOVE the idea of putting where you're at in a book in the subject line of an email. I'm going to start doing this with buddy reads. Why have I never thought of this? It makes so much sense!
I'm glad you like it, it does make sense. I've suggested in Group Reads to denote where the spoiler is from right before the spoiler tags, but no one responded to the idea. It would probably be more complicated in a Group Read but very handy in a Buddy Read.
I am pasting a post which Nina posted today in another thread which had expired. See Nina' post below:================================================
11/17/12 -Nina wrote:
New information: Ben Fountain, finalist in the National Book Awards for "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk." The final award went to Louise Erdrich for her new novel, "The Round House." Katherine "Behind the Beautiful Forevers," won the non-fiction award. Other National Book winners: "Bewilderment; New Poems and Translations," by Davud Ferry for poetry and William Alexander's "Goblin Secrets" in young people's literature. Popular crime writer Elmore Leonard won a lifetime achievement award.
================================================
Thanks, Joy. I had deleted my current goodread messages and the old one was all I had. glad you were able to fix the problem. nina
Thank you, Nina.Below are a few links to more information about The National Book Award for 2012:
http://theweek.com/article/index/2364...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/bo...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/us/...
http://nationalbook.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National...
Nina wrote: "Thanks, Joy. I had deleted my current goodread messages and the old one was all I had. glad you were able to fix the problem. nina"You're welcome, Nina.
At least the information got to us. :)
I have finished two of the "Isavalta" series by Sarah Zettel---A Sorcerer's Treason andThe Usurper's Crown and I am currently reading Book 3, The Firebird's Vengeance.I am enjoying this fantasy series so much I intend to read the series straight through (there are only four books in the entire series). I find the fantasy world very intriguing and the characters well-written.
Mary JL, that series sounds good. If I come across it I'll be sure to pick it up.
More updates \\ Best Sellers/Fiction 1."The Racketeer." John Grisham
2."The Sins of the Mother" Danielle Steele
3. "The Casual Vacancy" J.K.Rowling
4. "The Panther" Nelson DeMille
5. "Gone Girl" Gillian Flynn
One more fiction that was reviewed in our paper this morning that sounded quite interesting: "Phoebe and the Ghost of Chagall" Jill Koenigsdorf.
Non Fiction:
1."Killing Kennedy" Bill O'Reilly and Martin Owen
2. "No Easy DAy" Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer
3. "Killing Lincoln" Bill O'Reillya d Martin Dugard
4. "Bruce" Peter Ames Carlin
5. "Rod" Red Stewart
Nina wrote: "More updates \\ Best Sellers/Fiction 1."The Racketeer." John Grisham
2."The Sins of the Mother" Danielle Steele
3. "The Casual Vacancy" J.K.Rowling
4. "The Panther" Nelson DeMille
5. "Gone Girl" ..."
Thanks, Nina. Here's a link to all the current Best-Sellers:
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-b...
I keep a shortcut to it on my desktop screen.
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So cool! Iowans and Hawkeye fans are the best!
Oh, and about Twilight, I've read book one and four, and skimmed two and three. :) (Yes, two and three made me lose brain cells!) I've seen the first movie, and twenty minutes of the second movie... but nothing else. I like my vampires more vindictive and less sparkly I guess. :)
Have you read any Anita Blake? I quite enjoyed books one through seven or so. I think I've read the first eight, but around seven or eight, it got to be too much about the sex.