92 posts tagged “books”

Hello Vox!  I've missed the neighborhood feel of Vox over on my WordPress blog, but keeping up with you all in my Google Reader is working quite well.  In case you are interested, here's what I've been up to and what you're missing since I'm posting at bookishlyfabulous.wordpress.com now.  If you missed my last post about moving over there, add me to your Google Reader (or whatever RSS reader you use) if you miss me. :)

I've started running, and I'm planning to run a 10K on Thanksgiving Day.  I ran the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure last Saturday in my grandmother's memory.

I've posted book reviews of:

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

And I gushed about the movie Bright Star.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

(Tell me you didn’t see this one coming?)

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This question was timely because I just finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last weekend and enjoyed it immensely.  I have grown a little weary of the thriller genre lately (especially the Americans) because they seem to all be so formulaic and unoriginal.  Apparently, I just needed to look to Sweden.  Steig Larsson crafted an engrossing tale that kept me up far too late on several nights.  Part mystery, part business intrigue, and part family saga, this was one of the best books I've read this year.

I'd put a book cover in, but Vox wouldn't let me.

It has been a while since I posted about what I've been reading so here's a list.

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being - This was a book club book picked by the same person who loved One Hundred Years of Solitude so I was wary, but I really enjoyed this novel.  It takes place in Prague before and during the invasion of the USSR.  It is a story of several interconnected people and their liaisons.  Even though I enjoyed the book, I agree with everyone in my book club that the only likable character is the dog.

Charlaine Harris - Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse, Dead and Gone - There isn't much to say about these books.  They continue the Sookie Stackhouse series.  They have all started to blend together in my mind, but there are some new characters introduced that I really like reading about, and the shapeshifters and werewolves have a really good story arc.

Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere - I would describe Neverwhere as a dark Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  I love Gaiman's writing style.  He can make you laugh about really dark situations.  The character's Croup and Vandemar are perfectly written, and I found myself giggling through their scenes.   

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games - This is one of many recent Young Adult post-apocalyptic novels.  The interesting twist here is that there is a tyrannical Capitol that rules 12 districts.  Each district must send two teenagers annually to fight in the Hunger Games, a televised game where the 28 teens fight to survive.  Only one teen leaves the arena alive.  It was riveting, and some of the best YA fiction I've read recently.  I loved that it was also a social commentary on reality TV and celebrity.  This will be a trilogy, with the second book, Catching Fire, coming out in September.

Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire - No spoilers here, I promise!  I was lucky enough to land an Advance Reader's Copy of Catching Fire from a Collection Development Librarian who went to Book Expo America this year.  I will just say that it is awesome, and I can't wait to read the final title in the trilogy.

David Wroblewski - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - This is the book club book that we will be discussing on Saturday.  I don't usually read Oprah's Book Club selections (except for the classics), and this title hasn't made me want to in the future.  I do have to say that Wroblewski is an awesome writer.  The prose is wonderfully crafted, but I found that I had to make reading assignments for myself to finish this book because I wasn't riveted.  I did find myself really wanting a Sawtelle dog.

Jane Green - The Beach House - After making myself finish the thick tome for book club, I needed a nice light read to loll around on the beach with.  The Beach House was perfect.  It was predictable and formulaic, but just what I needed.  I loved the Nantucket setting, especially since I read a good portion of it on the beach. 

In an article about reading classics on the beach, Jack Murnighan nails the reason I love Wuthering Heights:

Wuthering Heights is a great book for women to go back to and read again. It's compelling, romantic, creepy, gripping and well-written. And if you know it was written by a woman who more or less was never allowed out of her house, you wonder, how did she came up with these crazy characters? How did she come up with all this drama and all this intensity? And you realize, wow, she must have been smoldering inside.

I'm part of a blog put out by my library system that posts reading recommendations.  If you're interested, the link is:

http://vbplrecommends.blogspot.com

We're just starting to post regularly because we finally got permission from the library to do it officially.  My week will start June 22.  Reviews of Unwind and Monsters of Templeton are already there.  If you read this blog, they will look familiar because they are just rewritten from here.

I'm way behind on blogging books.  Here is a list of short reviews of what I've read since my last book post.

Charlaine Harris - Living Dead in Dallas - You will notice a lot of what I've been reading lately consists of the Sookie Stackhouse series.  It's important to read these in order so I'll just give a quick review of each without spoiling anything.  Living Dead in Dallas is the third in the series.  The change of location and introduction of "The Fellowship of the Sun" made this a nice sequel to the first one.  I did miss the local characters from Bon Temps though since this one took place in Dallas. 

Laura Whitcomb - A Certain Slant of Light - I think maybe I just don't like teen romances.  This is about two ghosts who meet and end up inhabiting other people's bodies.  I would have liked it more if it was more of a ghost story and less of a love story.  There were some very interesting parts when it wasn't describing them pining for each other.  My brain may be telling me that I've read enough supernatural fluff for a while now.  That probably won't stop me though. 

Which is worse?

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or

Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

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I'd say it is more disappointing to read one good book by an awful author.  Every author has one or two stinkers so that's no big deal. 

One good example for me is Philippa Gregory.  I loved The Other Boleyn Girl, but haven't been able to get past the first hundred pages in two others of hers that I've tried.

The Guardian has an interesting article about British thriller writers trying to pull people away from the formulaic American writers like James Patterson, Dan Brown (puke), and Grisham.  It's obviously a publicity stunt, but I happen to agree with them that the thriller mill of the US - not that there aren't good US thriller writers of course - is tiring and uninteresting, especially when it gets to the point of authors using ghostwriters.  coughcough Patterson coughcough

I know I complain about Patterson a lot here, but that's because I'm faced with people at the library every day that will get on a 400 person long wait list for a Patterson book, but don't want me to suggest other authors while they wait for his.  There is SO MUCH good stuff out there with writing a thousand times better than his, and they are fine with whatever he and his ghostwriter put out.

British thriller writers mount challenge to US 'production line'

The five principles of the Curzon group

1. That the first duty of any book is to entertain.

2. That a book should reflect the world around it.

3. That thrilling, popular fiction doesn't follow formulas.

4. That every story should be an adventure for both the writer and the reader.

5. That stylish, witty, and insightful writing can be combined with edge-of-the seat excitement.

Here's the link to their website:

http://www.thecurzongroup.com/

Speak: 10th Anniversary Edition

Laurie Halse Anderson

I found a nice trade paperback edition of Speak in the swap book pile in the library.

Suggested by Janet:

How about, “What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?”

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Just one?  Because people's tastes are so different, it's hard to say that you'll love something just because it's really popular.  Also, in my reading from the various "Best of 2008" lists, I haven't loved one yet.

Some notable "best" books I didn't like that I actually felt like I was "supposed" to like and felt guilty for not liking:

• Lord of the Rings - I was halfway through Fellowship when I realized that nothing was going to really happen.  They just kept walking and walking and walking.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Silas Marner - OK, so maybe I don't feel that guilty.  This was just plain boring.

Some popular books that I didn't like, but I thought the writing was crap so I didn't feel guilty:

• The DaVinci Code - This was just a poorly written mystery that was popular because it made unpopular claims about the church.  Want really good fiction that pokes fun at the church?  Read Daniel Silva.
• The Twilight Saga - Why oh why did I read the whole series?  If I didn't give Tolkein the benefit of the doubt, why did I give it to Meyer?