A Book(s) Thread

[katharath]

Justginger - I completely loved the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's one of those things I think everyone should read! I first read it on the recommendation of a good friend of mine who was completely shocked that I'd never read it, lol. I'd like to do a reread fairly soon, I'm glad you mentioned it! The series is chock full of great lines/quotes.

Have fun with it, yourself

 

[aviastar]

A few pages back in this thread, aviastar and violet3 briefly discussed The Book Thief. I had had a paperback copy of it on my bookshelf for a few years and had been meaning to get to it, but had not yet done so. Their discussion made me yank it from underneath some other books that should be read, and when I finished Creole Belle, I started that.

So far it is intriguing and has made me want to keep reading. I was surprised it was such a recent book (from 2006); for some reason I had thought it was much older.

I finished The Book Thief tonight. Once I started it, it was hard to put down. Very compelling reading; I enjoyed it.

Deb

Oh, Deb, I'm soooooo glad you liked it! I was very lucky, the first time I read it was in preparation for a stint of readers' theater that my local library system puts on. I read Leisle and I never made it through a performance without tears and more than any character I have ever played she burrowed right into my soul. I love passing that recommendation on !

 

[AGBF]

I finished The Book Thief tonight. Once I started it, it was hard to put down. Very compelling reading; I enjoyed it.

Oh, Deb, I'm soooooo glad you liked it! I was very lucky, the first time I read it was in preparation for a stint of readers' theater that my local library system puts on. I read Leisle and I never made it through a performance without tears and more than any character I have ever played she burrowed right into my soul. I love passing that recommendation on !

Thank you again, aviastar. Had you not recommended it, I would have let the book sit on my shelf indefinitely. It had been there for years! I really needed a push to pick it up and start reading it. It was, really, a wondrous book. Liesel's relationships with Max, Rudy, Rosa, and Hans were all moving and beautifully delineated. I also enjoyed the way her relationship with Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife, was played out over time. The book was very skillfully written. I appreciate the recommendation!

Hugs,
Deb

 

[dragonfly411]

Bouncing this back up. I'm currently reading The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Journey Home, and my Yoga Toolkit book, as well as referencing A Light on Yoga. It's refreshing to read something different. These are all for my yoga certification studies.

 

[AGBF]

Inspired by a suggestion in this thread, I just read Firestarter by Stephen King. I used to love his books. I have no idea why I stopped reading them, but I did. Now there are dozens that I have not yet read. I loved Firestarter.

Deb

 

[aviastar]

I love it when this thread pops up

I haven't read anything super satisfying lately; except the new Percy Jackson book, that was good.

I think it may be time for a re-read of The Book Thief. I need a soul gripper.

 

[AGBF]

I love it when this thread pops up

I do, too. This thread is good for me. It gets me to read books that I otherwise would not, books that are within my general range of interests and authors, but which have just not been "sold" to me before. Once I read the descriptions of some literate Pricescopers, I want to read the books! As I said, this thread is really good for me! Thank you for starting it, aviastar.

Deb

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, way off the beaten track here, but hopefully right up the alley of some of our gemstone nuts: The Stone of Heaven: The Secret History of Imperial Green Jade by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark. This book traces the history of jade from when it was first discovered to the present day, and loosely follows one ornately carved, apparently exquisite, pendant, from its inception to more or less now. Amazingly detailed history, rife with intrigue, backstabbing and lots and lots of plundering. Nonfiction. The descriptions of the stones and types of jade are drool-worthy.

 

[VapidLapid]

I am reading , "The Hare With the Amber Eyes". Going to see the exhibit a gagosian tomorrow as it closes this week.

 

[packrat]

Inspired by a suggestion in this thread, I just read Firestarter by Stephen King. I used to love his books. I have no idea why I stopped reading them, but I did. Now there are dozens that I have not yet read. I loved Firestarter.

Deb

Deb, you are missing out! You have a lot of reading to catch up on! JD borrowed a bunch from my mom to take to the Academy last winter, thinking he was going to have tons of time to read (haha-no), and I just kept them here b/c I want to read them over again...cuz yanno...my list of books to read for the first time right now is way up there, why not add a ton more books to read for the 2nd/3rd/4th time??

 

[dragonfly411]

I love it when this thread pops up

I do, too. This thread is good for me. It gets me to read books that I otherwise would not, books that are within my general range of interests and authors, but which have just not been "sold" to me before. Once I read the descriptions of some literate Pricescopers, I want to read the books! As I said, this thread is really good for me! Thank you for starting it, aviastar.

Deb

I agree with this entire post.

 

[aviastar]

I love it when this thread pops up

I do, too. This thread is good for me. It gets me to read books that I otherwise would not, books that are within my general range of interests and authors, but which have just not been "sold" to me before. Once I read the descriptions of some literate Pricescopers, I want to read the books! As I said, this thread is really good for me! Thank you for starting it, aviastar.

Deb

I agree with this entire post.

Aww, I am SOO glad I started this thread! You two are are a large reason why it continues to pop up, so THANK YOU, too!

 

[aviastar]

So, this is going to be a random request, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway

Anyone have any good Robin Hood retellings to recommend?

I tend to go on style/genre kicks and I've been into Robin lately; I've just read Robin: Lady of Legend. Obviously a twist in which Robin is a girl, and found it fluffy and fine, but it put me in the mood for a rip roaring awesome Robin Hood tale.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Inspired by a suggestion in this thread, I just read Firestarter by Stephen King. I used to love his books. I have no idea why I stopped reading them, but I did. Now there are dozens that I have not yet read. I loved Firestarter.

Deb

Firestarter is pretty good. I started reading SK again about a year and a half ago after not reading his stuff for a number of years (he use to be my favorite) and realized he is THE KING of character development. The charaters swear, smoke, drink, have tons of vices (just like real life people), but they also have great or intense personalities. After recently reading (and also re-reading a couple of my favorites - The Talisman & The Stand), it seems characters in many other books are flat. SK sure creates depth to all people.

Right now, I'm finishing up an Alice Hoffman book called Skylight Confessions. It's a very quick read. I've read many of her other books b/c they read quickly and sometimes have a quirky side to them. My favorite of hers is Practical Magic. The books aren't literary or super fancy in writing style, but they're perfect for reading when I'm in the living room with my family because the stories don't require a lot of concentration and my DH can be watching/yelling @ football and I can still breeze through her books. I went and bought two more of her books at the book store yesterday so I could catch up to my annual resolution to read a certain number of books. There were a couple I absolutely HATED and tried to read, when I should have just put them down, so that set me back in my book goal. I've pretty much determined that I'm a rogue reader...that if a book is recommended to me and it's outside my normal reading genre, I have a difficult time adapting. One of the books that took me longest to read was a book my DH recommended. In fact, aside from Watership Down, every book he's suggested, I've hated. He is the same w/the books I suggest. He thinks To Kill a Mockingbird was the worst book he's ever read. lol

 

[aviastar]

So, MC, which books didn't you finish? Good, bad, and ugly...I want to knoooooow!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

So, MC, which books didn't you finish? Good, bad, and ugly...I want to knoooooow!

There's a bunch, but I disconnected my Kindles from an account I was sharing so my Kindles have been reset and I'm hooking them up to my own account...I'd have to log into the other account to see some of the titles.

A couple off-hand from this year/2013 (ones I have in book form):

Gone Girl
The Firm
World War Z (Finished, but I skipped about 20 pages near the end because I just wanted it to be over with)
Cloud Atlas
The Kitchen House
Souless
January First (which I did finish only bc two people recommended it to me and I felt obligated to read it.)
The White Queen (Also finished this one. I bought the next book in the series at the same time, but won't read it.)

When I log onto the other Amazon account, I'll see what else I couldn't make it through.

I'm sitting here on my living room floor looking at my books. All I see are the good ones. I'm donating the ones I didn't like to the library sale b/c someone else is bound to enjoy the ones I didn't. I also like to buy books from there...some of my favorites were only 50 cents and brand new (not ex-library ETA - I've found some of the books that I found most tedious - like the Life of Pi and The Time Traveler's Wife have ended up being the very favorites of friends/family...that is why I started getting rid of books I didn't enjoy. It was awkward having a relative want to discuss the Time Traveler's Wife and me remembering all the reasons the book drove me nuts, so I started cleaning out my collection.

 

[aviastar]

Excellent, thank you!

I haven't tried any of those- I've been avoiding Gone Girl on purpose even though there's so much buzz about it because the consistent criticism I read on it was that the characters are just so unlikeable and there's no one to root for. I don't do well with those; I like a little bit of escapism, please and thank you, not to spend my limited down time with crappy people.

And Life of Pi...my MIL has been trying to get me to read it for ages. I hadn't picked it up and then I made the mistake of watching the movie which I strongly disliked (read: HATED). So I doubt I will try this one at all.

There are several books that I finished, but felt lukewarm enough about recently that I won't be picking up the others in their series, but the only book I flat out could not finish this year was Wizard's First Rule (Sorry, DragonFly!).

Oh, I was very irritated when I purchased The Last Unicorn for my kindle, excited that it was released electronically at last! Well it turned out to be the graphic novel (seriously?) which was only noted in the little notes under the actual blurb on amazon. Well, I didn't read the blurb cause I already knew I wanted to read it!

 

[AGBF]

Right now, I'm finishing up an Alice Hoffman book called Skylight Confessions. It's a very quick read. I've read many of her other books b/c they read quickly and sometimes have a quirky side to them. My favorite of hers is Practical Magic.

It's funny that the other book I had considered reading when I read Firestarter happened to be Practical Magic. I had seen the DVD recently and then gone onto Amazon to read a review of the book. That led to my buying the book. I almost read it a few weeks ago, but chose Firestarter instead! Did we ever discuss Practical Magic here? I remember reading that the book was nothing like the movie, but the description of the book intrigued me, nonetheless. (Obviously, or I wouldn't have bought the book.)

Deb

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Excellent, thank you!

I haven't tried any of those- I've been avoiding Gone Girl on purpose even though there's so much buzz about it because the consistent criticism I read on it was that the characters are just so unlikeable and there's no one to root for. I don't do well with those; I like a little bit of escapism, please and thank you, not to spend my limited down time with crappy people.

And Life of Pi...my MIL has been trying to get me to read it for ages. I hadn't picked it up and then I made the mistake of watching the movie which I strongly disliked (read: HATED). So I doubt I will try this one at all.!

Yep, that's exactly why I didn't finish Gone Girl - both characters were miserable & unlikable and there was no one to cheer for and I'd find myself procrastinating when it came to my evening reading time. I only had 60 (or so) pages left when I put it down and decided to look at the online reviews and discovered the majority of people who didn't like it, had the same gripe about it. I wanted to move on and read World War Z b/c the movie was about to come out on Redbox and I wanted to read the book first, which had potential but the story was lost in the horrible format it was written in.

The funny thing about the Life of Pi was the ONLY part I liked in the book was when he was on the island. It sounded very cool and fascinating. What is strange is a person who told me they loved that book couldn't remember the part about the island, which I can't imagine since that was the most vividly described part. The rest was him floating around on the ocean with Richard Parker.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Right now, I'm finishing up an Alice Hoffman book called Skylight Confessions. It's a very quick read. I've read many of her other books b/c they read quickly and sometimes have a quirky side to them. My favorite of hers is Practical Magic.

It's funny that the other book I had considered reading when I read Firestarter happened to be Practical Magic. I had seen the DVD recently and then gone onto Amazon to read a review of the book. That led to my buying the book. I almost read it a few weeks ago, but chose Firestarter instead! Did we ever discuss Practical Magic here? I remember reading that the book was nothing like the movie, but the description of the book intrigued me, nonetheless. (Obviously, or I wouldn't have bought the book.)

Deb

I'm going to have to re-read Practical Magic. The movie is one of my top-10 favorite chick flicks and I've watched it at least 10 times, that I can't remember the book as well. I'm pretty sure I've read the book twice, but my mind conjures up images of Nicole Kidman and midnight margaritas when I think of the story (so I've kind of mashed the two versions together in my head). Let me know what you think of it.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Oh, I was very irritated when I purchased The Last Unicorn for my kindle, excited that it was released electronically at last! Well it turned out to be the graphic novel (seriously?) which was only noted in the little notes under the actual blurb on amazon. Well, I didn't read the blurb cause I already knew I wanted to read it!

Ugh, I banned graphic novels from the house. My son became hooked on a series that are *for kids* and filled with smoking and drinking and the books were popular with the boys at the time (and this was when he was in 3rd grade). I was worried that format of writing would stunt his reading skills so I banned those books. He then decided to read the Hunger Games Trilogy soon after (as he entered into 4th) which are very violent (for a younger kid), however, used complete sentences, so those are okay.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Looks like I am still the only person in the world who disliked "The Passage".

I just read Pie-cah and, well, it is strange. I am not sure I like it or not, which is a good sign.

 

[aviastar]

Looks like I am still the only person in the world who disliked "The Passage".

I just read Pie-cah and, well, it is strange. I am not sure I like it or not, which is a good sign.

My DH is reading The Passage right now and I am debating picking it up; any particular reason you didn't enjoy it?

 

[Lady_Disdain]

I thought it slow and rather predictable. Sure, not all the details and twists but the main plot points. I didn't particularly care for any character and their slog through the wilderness reminded me of The Neverending Camping Trip. I was about 2/3 of the way through when I realized it was going to be part of a trilogy, decided I was not going to push myself through two more books and decided to give up sooner rather than later. Curiously, my mother also didn't enjoy it much.

 

[dragonfly411]

So, this is going to be a random request, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway

Anyone have any good Robin Hood retellings to recommend?

I tend to go on style/genre kicks and I've been into Robin lately; I've just read Robin: Lady of Legend. Obviously a twist in which Robin is a girl, and found it fluffy and fine, but it put me in the mood for a rip roaring awesome Robin Hood tale.

Aviastar - I wanted to respond to you quickly. Unfortunately, I don't know of any. I have honestly never really looked though! I know that Ivanhoe has Robin Hood sort-of included in it, as well as The Last Unicorn. I might look around for some titles coming up today though.

 

[NOYFB]

I've not read all the replies but just wanted to say that cat lovers will appreciate Gwen Cooper's books -Homers Odyssey (about her blind cat Homer that she adopted) and Love Saves The Day (told from the perspective of the cat). I had the pleasure of meeting Gwen last weekend at a book signing and she is just a lovely person. I strongly recommend that any cat owners/lovers read these books.

 

[AGBF]

I had never read Vince Flynn, an author who is popular in one of the genres that I read. Recently I decided to give him a go and to read his Mitch Rapp books in order. So I read the two prequels (written most recently) first: American Assassin then Kill Shot. Now I am reading what I believe is actually the first book he wrote, Transfer of Power. I enjoyed the first books more than the original one; perhaps he grew more skillful as a writer over time. He isn't the kind of writer who delights me with a turn of phrase or wit, however. He simply delivers a suspenseful story. I prefer a Nelson DeMille writing a John Corey book or Brian Haig writing a Sean Drummond book. In those books I get a story, but I also get some wry wit! Way above all of these authors is James Lee Burke, who actually delivers characterization and makes one think about social and moral questions while being entertained by the plot. But he doesn't write about international intrigue; he stays in Louisiana (or Montana/Wyoming) even though his protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, is an action hero who tangles with dangerous men.

Deb/AGBF

 

[aviastar]

I've been ignoring this thread for too long!

I just finished up the Razorland books by Ann Aguirre and throughly enjoyed them. Post-apocalyptic dystopian setting, but a great balance of action and character development. Highly recommend for fans of the genre or the Hunger Games.

Anyone here read Garth Nix? Did I see his name up thread somewhere (Deb?)? Amazon has suggested his newest, Newt's Emerald, for me and it looks fantastic. Georgette Hyer is mentioned as an influence of this Regency Romance with Magic, as it is labeled. At $3.99, I'm going to go for it!

Who's got some good winter reading going on? Cup of coco, roaring fire, good book?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I've been ignoring this thread for too long!

I just finished up the Razorland books by Ann Aguirre and throughly enjoyed them. Post-apocalyptic dystopian setting, but a great balance of action and character development. Highly recommend for fans of the genre or the Hunger Games.

I haven't heard of the Razorland books, but just jotted down the Title/Author for future reading! Yay. Thanks for posting.

Currently I'm reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and I also bought the sequel to read after. It's set in China in the 1930s...I guess that is one of my genres - historical-fiction set in China. I was skimming my books the other day and there's quite a few set there. Anyone else have a similar interest. Any book recommendations?

 

[zoebartlett]

New recommendations:
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (fun, quick chick lit)
Where We Belong by Emily Giffin (chick lit, quick read)
The Accused by Lisa Scottoline (the newest book in the Rosato & Associates series)
The Litigators by John Grisham (This one's good but I do get tired of his bumbling characters.)


On my shelf, waiting to be read:
The Hit by David Baldacci
The Broker by John Grisham
About a By by Helen Fielding
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
Save Me and Look Again, both by Lisa Scottoline

Has anyone read the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series?