Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 775974 times)

Steph · « **Reply #160 on:** January 13, 2010, 06:24:01 AM »

This is the place to talk about the works of fiction you are reading, whether they are new or old, and share your own opinions and reviews with interested readers.

Every week the new bestseller lists come out brimming with enticing looking books and rave reviews. How to choose?

Discussion Leader: Judy Laird

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Oh I do love the poem. I remember the ten New England years and every winter, the snow just remained from December through March and sometimes April to my dispair.. It is supposed to warm up now

salan · « **Reply #161 on:** January 13, 2010, 07:55:14 AM »

Marj, My step-grandson is in the Air Force stationed in Minot, N.D. He was born & raised in Texas and would agree with you 100%!! I feel sorry for him, but am glad he is there and not in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Sally

ALF43 · « **Reply #162 on:** January 13, 2010, 08:41:28 AM »

Well, last evening I finished reading The Reliable Wife. I enjoyed the suspense, the mystery and the "psychology" of the story but I could have done with a little less of the explicit sex scenes. The story is a good story about forgiveness and the need for warmth from another human being but this is just HOT! I am not a prude but the novel could have stood on its own without the repeated sexual narration. I'll give it a 7. (Who asked?)

Babi · « **Reply #163 on:** January 13, 2010, 09:09:10 AM »

Amen!, SALLY.

ALF, I feel the same way about books padded out with numerous explicit
sex scenes. I don't continue reading when I realize I've gotten
hold of one. I can't help feeling the author must not have much confidence in his/her ability to hold the reader's interest.

Frybabe · « **Reply #164 on:** January 13, 2010, 09:20:26 AM »

Once, a long, long, time ago, I read a Harold Robbins book. He had a reputation for writing steamy books. Be that as it may, I read one anyway because the story line looked interesting. I thought the writing and story were excellent, so it was beyond me why he felt it necessary to put in so much potty mouthing and sex scenes. I think fully half the book could have been axed. But then, maybe he was being paid by page or word count? Needless to say, it was the only book of his I read.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #165 on:** January 13, 2010, 12:07:45 PM »

The sex was over the top but I knew someone who was consumed by thoughts of sex. He was the best friend of my ex so I don't know if he was as candid with others as he was with his own group of friends.Maybe that's why the emphasis on sex rang true to me. It is very sad to see someone afflicted with addictive styles of behavior and, like other addictions, the cost affects many.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_addiction

mabel1015j · « **Reply #166 on:** January 13, 2010, 03:22:40 PM »

Finished The Help. It is the best fiction book i've read in a while. I'd almost like to read a sequel. What happens to Skeeter in NYC, what happens to the maids as things change in the South? I liked Stockett's prologue of info about why she wrote the book and how ambivilent she felt. ............... i'm going to check w/ some friends who have, or are going to, read it for a book group, i'd like to know what the conversation is around the book. I think some of you have read it in book groups? What was the discussion about?..................jean

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #167 on:** January 13, 2010, 03:59:55 PM »

mabel, I read this in book group. I can honestly tell you that we had more attendees for this discussion than any other book over the past year. All was favorable. Some younger folks came that night, and were totally unaware of how "things were" for domestics during that era. Yes, for me too, it was the best fiction I'd read all year. Our library book group usually runs about 6 to 8 people, mostly older. We had to add an additional table w/chairs for the extras. I didn't write it down but I think we had 12. Since the book was fairly new, at first we had a problem getting enough copies through our library to have the discussion, but it worked out all right. We discussed the strength of the characters, especially the maids; the sense of impending tragedy (had anyone found out about their writing circle); the book seemed so real, and really drew all of us into the story. Great writing!

JoanK · « **Reply #168 on:** January 13, 2010, 06:24:10 PM »

Posted by mistake

Steph · « **Reply #169 on:** January 14, 2010, 08:11:17 AM »

O k.. I finally give in. Will get the Help and read it.. Been putting it off long enough. I certainly lived long enough in the south to witness a lot of that.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #170 on:** January 14, 2010, 06:00:50 PM »

I have Help on my Kindle and have put off reading it, but after all your comments I will read it as soon as I finish Heart of Ice by Gregg Olsen. After reading Starvation Heights I try to read all his books and enjoy them. I read a Wicked Snow last week and enjoyed it.

Now that I have semi- charge of the library here everytime I go to put up books I see something that looks good I take it. If I hear about things I am interested in here I put them on the Kindle and have tons of books in my bookcase I haven't read so I am deep in it.

Hi Steph I was thinking about our lunch in Charleston a few years ago, that was such fun.

Steph · « **Reply #171 on:** January 15, 2010, 06:40:17 AM »

Yes, I do agree Judy.. Maybe time for Ginny to organize the bookies in some sort of adventure?? May early spring? I think we all had such fun.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #172 on:** January 17, 2010, 06:28:24 PM »

A new author is exciting comments here in the Northwest. Jim Lynch has published only two novels but has many short stories to his credit as well as a stint reporting for the Portland Oregonian. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/jim-lynch/
His latest, Border Songs illuminates the area where Washington state and British Columbia are separated only by a ditch. Brandon Vanderkool gres up on his father's dairy farm nex to that ditch; now he comes back as a rookie Border Guard. He is physically almost grotesque, 6'8" with muscles to match. Brandon is a lifelong birder. He discovers a pond has become the overnight stop for a gaggle of snow geese, one of the largest flocks he'd ever seen. When eagles begin to pay attention to them they take flight in alarm. Here is part of a paragraph to savor:

Quote

And the sound! A solo snow goose flying overhead sounds lost and pathetic. Hel-lo? But with thousands honking simultaneously it is a wildly different noise, like the tribal roar you hear in stadiums, yet even greater than that. more like an enormous avalanche or the howl of the earth itself, the high-pitched hum of the sphere, if you could actually hear it, hurtling through space at sixty-six thousand miles an hour. . .[/

JoanK · « **Reply #173 on:** January 17, 2010, 08:11:19 PM »

JACKIE: As an (almost) lifelong birder, I have to read that book.

Steph · « **Reply #174 on:** January 18, 2010, 07:29:16 AM »

Not a birder, but it does sound interestingl.

Babi · « **Reply #175 on:** January 18, 2010, 09:09:19 AM »

JACKIE, that does sound good! I'll check and see if Jim Lynch has made
it way down here in Texas. We're border land, too, but much less peaceful than Washington/Canada.

Steph · « **Reply #176 on:** January 20, 2010, 06:39:24 AM »

Went to Borders yesterday and found several interesting books that I had never heard of. They are downstairs, but I will remember to write down titles and tell you when I read them.

serenesheila · « **Reply #177 on:** January 21, 2010, 02:46:00 AM »

I am reading a novel called "Roses". It is a multigenerational tale. It takes place in Texas. (I thought of you, Babi) I was hooked from page 3. It is the tale of three families, and begins in 1901. So far, I have read 2 chapters. I really think it is the type of book, in which I can get lost.

Sheila

Steph · « **Reply #178 on:** January 21, 2010, 06:21:07 AM »

I love the old multigenerational. I always think of Michener. If you didnt live where he was writing about, you loved him. I gather that if you lived in Texas or Hawaii or the eastern shore, you were not that happy with him.

Babi · « **Reply #179 on:** January 21, 2010, 08:22:46 AM »

How nice of you to think of me, Sheila. "Roses" does sound interesting;
Can you tell me the author? If I just put in "Roses" I'll get 50 books about
raising roses.

Aha! I loved "Hawaii" and the one about the Chesapeake bay...in fact,
most of Michener's books. But I didn't care much for "Texas". Good to
hear that's usual with other Michener fans, STEPH.

maryz · « **Reply #180 on:** January 21, 2010, 09:08:22 AM »

Roses by Leila Meacham. I've just put it on hold at my library. Thanks!

CallieOK · « **Reply #181 on:** January 21, 2010, 11:22:41 AM »

Include me in the list of those who didn't care for Michner's books about familiar areas - "Centennial" and "Texas" being the ones with which I was most disgusted. Nevertheless, I read every one of them!
My Michener favorites are "The Novel" and "The Source".

I'm a little more than 1/3 of the way through "Roses" - plot still concentrating on two characters so only a hint at the "saga" development. I've all ready come across a vague reference to "Gone With The Wind", cleverly inserted into the narrative.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #182 on:** January 21, 2010, 11:47:00 AM »

Roses looks good. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/leila-meacham/roses.htm

CallieOK · « **Reply #183 on:** January 21, 2010, 11:51:56 PM »

Jackie, it is. I'm enjoying it more now that I'm past the first section - which probably won't be as tedious for anyone else.

Steph · « **Reply #184 on:** January 22, 2010, 06:29:57 AM »

Now that I have the author of Roses, will look it up.

Babi · « **Reply #185 on:** January 22, 2010, 08:31:45 AM »

Thanks for posting the author of "Roses", MARY. Apparently my library
had a copy, but availability is now listed as "0 of 1". That usually means
a copy didn't make it back.

joangrimes · « **Reply #186 on:** January 22, 2010, 09:50:42 AM »

I will download "Roses" to my Kindle and read it.

I have read a lot of Michener. I liked most of his books but then I would because I like history.

Joan Grimes

Steph · « **Reply #187 on:** January 23, 2010, 06:34:25 AM »

The thing about Michener, at least in the Chesapeake book.. since I came from that area.. Some of it was quite accurate, but he slipped in some doozies of mistakes about various parts of the country.. But I still enjoyed most of his books.

CallieOK · « **Reply #188 on:** January 23, 2010, 11:38:07 AM »

Steph, that's exactly what bothered me about "Centennial" and "Texas". In "Centennial", Michener "moved" a big geological formation clear across the state and had the main character drive from Centennial to Durango between breakfast and lunch - which is impossible to do, especially over the route described.
I know there's "author's license" - but those two things were really far-fetched.

However, I do like the stories in general very much.

I've finished "Roses" - but will wait to comment until others have done so.

winsummm · « **Reply #189 on:** January 23, 2010, 02:40:56 PM »

jackie: BORDER SONGS is lovely and I know the area. my kids live over the line on texada island BC. It is a beautiful aea, dubbed "the sunshine coast". I might give it to son for his birthday Mr. first. The kindle works up there but not in all the areas and I think thy are OFF THE GRID. they are too busy to read now anyway raising FOOD and community stuff and real estate which is slow but all the rest is constant responsibility.

THE HIGHEST TIDE sounds good too by Jim Lynch but so far I don't see a indle version. I have to use it in order to blow up the print six times. on all my old books print is too small for me to read.

ROSES sound like a very long journy. . .and a Michner style leaping about. the same for NEW YORK. not for me now . . . maybe later.

claire

winsummm · « **Reply #190 on:** January 23, 2010, 03:03:42 PM »

Michners characters end too soon with six hundred year leaps between characters. very frustrating for me. his early books the best EXCEPT for killing off his characters just as I learn to love them.

claire

mrssherlock · « **Reply #191 on:** January 23, 2010, 03:33:04 PM »

Claire: So glad you liked Border Songs. Jim Lynch has a very distinct voice; his books are memorable not only for the characters but for the situations he places them in. My married name is Lynch but there are no Lynch relations in the US. The family who emigrated had only two children, one was a nun, other had one child, adopted, my ex.

winsummm · « **Reply #192 on:** January 23, 2010, 03:37:31 PM »

hey jackie my ex husbands lady friend is sally lynch. she has kids and there is probably more family around. maybe I shouldn't say her name out loud but it is rpetty safe in here. she is very ill, but hanging on.

Steph · « **Reply #193 on:** January 24, 2010, 06:28:12 AM »

Yes, Michener in Chesapeake, moves things around like crazy.. Puts the quaker population in Maryland mostly and they are very very big in Delaware.. The long guns were funny. Noone I ever knew and I knew a lot of duck hunters had ever heard of them.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #194 on:** January 24, 2010, 12:52:00 PM »

Michener seemed to me to be good at the spirit of a story even when the "letter" of the details was skewed for literary effect.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #195 on:** January 24, 2010, 01:40:31 PM »

I really liked Chesapeake, it' s my favorite JM book................it IS fiction. Messing w/ details doesn't bother me in fiction books.........jean

JoanK · « **Reply #196 on:** January 24, 2010, 06:10:15 PM »

Here I am more of a purist. Many of us get our notions of a time or place from fiction, not non-fiction. I believe the author has a duty not to make up or mix up "facts" (as opposed of couse to the characters and incidents of the story) or to tell us in an epilogue if he/she does.

Steph · « **Reply #197 on:** January 25, 2010, 06:32:55 AM »

Hear Hear Joan.. I like authors who make you realize you could use them as mapquest. Robert Parker who just died did that in Boston. I lived outside of Boston for ten years and it was amazing how accurate he was.
Charlotte McLeod also writes about Boston in one of her series and describes a neighborhood right down to the curtains.
So I resented some of Chesapeake..Coming from Delaware, the people were different, but not quite as different as he wanted to pretend.

Babi · « **Reply #198 on:** January 25, 2010, 10:11:49 AM »

Louis L'Amour used to claim that if he wrote of a pool of water in the
wilderness, that pool was there and the water was fit to drink. I won't
swear that was entirely true, but it certainly added to my pleasure in reading his books.
I agree with JOAN and STEPH. I like my historical and geographical
background to be correct.

joangrimes · « **Reply #199 on:** January 25, 2010, 05:06:57 PM »

I think we all really feel that way.

Joan Grimes

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Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 775974 times)