Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 776379 times)

JoanK · « **Reply #3200 on:** May 27, 2012, 06:37:59 PM »

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

Great choices! Glad to find another Tolstoy lover. We read War and Peace a few years ago, but haven't read Anna (in the time I've been here).

I tell everyone the secret to reading Tolstoy is creative skimming. He has certain "hobby-horses that he likes to ride over and over. Once you recognize them you can just go "Oh, here he goes again" and skim until he's finished. He really needed an editor, but who was going to edit Lord Tolstoy?

Having said that, I've read Anna at least four times.

bellemere · « **Reply #3201 on:** May 27, 2012, 08:12:43 PM »

Fellos tolstoy lover! I really hope they go for Anna. My translation is the "old ' one bye Constance Garnett. I understnad there is a new one and I hope it is downloadable onto y Nook. I, too, have read it multiple times, and I am ready to take that journeuy through the ballrooms and blizzards and the passion once again!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3202 on:** May 27, 2012, 09:05:33 PM »

The ballrooms, blizzards and passions sound grand but oh dear not yet another victimized woman... - however, I really would love to read Little Man, What Now - did not know about it till you shared - looked it up on Amazon and it sounds grand just by itself without even pairing it with In The Garden of the Beasts which would be another good read but is it fiction or history -

We did the Good Earth some years ago - Rather than Graham Greene how about Graham Swift or better yet - Hilary Mantel with The Giant, O'Brien: A Novel - the clash of Irish and British culture - fantasy versus science -

Oh and Capote's Christmas stories are ever more charming with just as much literary skill don't you think.

And talk about Paris, I am looking forward to the release in the fall of Mission to Paris: A Novel by Alan Furst

Steph · « **Reply #3203 on:** May 28, 2012, 08:05:32 AM »

I loved In Cold Blood and the movie and would do that in a minute. I like the Hitler thing as well. I have read and hated Anna. I simply do not like Russian novels and refuse to even try any more. Dont know if that helps..
Also a neat book is Ann Patchetts first.. "The Patron Saint of Liars".. It really dug into my skin years ago.. A complicated book.

nlhome · « **Reply #3204 on:** May 28, 2012, 12:53:37 PM »

Bellemere, such good suggestions. Let us know what is selected.

Steph · « **Reply #3205 on:** May 29, 2012, 08:15:32 AM »

I finally finished the Jodi Picoult.. Sing me Home.. She tried hard to show both sides of a complicated arguement.. I guess I had trouble with both ends.. But she did a good job.. First one of hers that I have not ended it furious .. Her endings are alwaysabrupt.

JoanP · « **Reply #3206 on:** May 29, 2012, 08:28:39 AM »

Well, we appear to have a winner for SeniorLearn's June Book Club Online discussion - very close between the top two. Polls will be open for the rest of the day - results may change in the next few hours. If you haven't voted, but have a preference, your vote will make a difference.

* VOTE HERE FOR RUN-OFF by 5/29!!

ps Ann Patchett is on the list!

Babi · « **Reply #3207 on:** May 29, 2012, 09:16:35 AM »

You end Jodi Picoult books furious, yet keep reading them? You never impressed
me as a glutton for punishment, STEPH.

Steph · « **Reply #3208 on:** May 30, 2012, 08:19:37 AM »

The thing about Picoult.. Her stories are interesting.. but her conclusions infuriate me.. So reading the book up to the last 10 pages is great.. Silly but true.

Babi · « **Reply #3209 on:** May 30, 2012, 08:58:32 AM »

Well, I did ask. How about a project? Re-write the endings to all the Picoult
books and offer them to other readers who hate her endings.

Steph · « **Reply #3210 on:** May 31, 2012, 08:03:21 AM »

Ah Babi, I love the suggestion, but I do know I am a minority of one on the endings. People love her. She is an excellent researcher, writes an interesting book, but then abruptly ends, sort of in mid sentence.

Babi · « **Reply #3211 on:** May 31, 2012, 09:03:29 AM »

Actually, I don't know that I've read any of her books. I think I saw the film of "My Sister's Keeper", which was okay but not terribly memorable. I know a few of them have been
mentioned here, but I wasn't really interested. No idea why.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3212 on:** May 31, 2012, 04:26:20 PM »

I am reading a good, big, historical fiction book - 600 pages - The Physician by Noah Gordon. It's set the 11th century and starts in England. When he was 10 his mother died in childbirth and shortly after his father died of tb. He was taken in by a "barber-surgeon" who traveled about performing entertainment of juggling, etc and selling "medicine" for all ills. He did also do some true "doctoring", setting bones, etc. Rob, the boy, learned all his tricks, but by the time he was 18 wanted to be able to really heal people. At the time the best medical schools were in "Persia." So he takes two years to get to Persia and tries to get admitted to the med school. I won't spoil it for you w/ any further info. The author has apparently done a monumental job of research. There are many details. I'm 3/4s of the way thru and have enjoyed it, altho i just skimmed a number of pages that were gruesome about the Muslim style of punishments and entertainment.

There is a good deal of Rob questioning the rationale of Jewish and Muslim religious practices and behavior. I can't figure out if he's just stating factual information or being critical/cynical about the religions. His other books appear to have some religious stories. One is titled The Rabbi and one The Jerusalem Diamond, so i'm not sure where he stands. But it has been an entertaining story.

Jean

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3213 on:** May 31, 2012, 04:49:01 PM »

A review on Amazon says:

"Family life, morality, religion, sexuality, medicine, xenophobia and history are all presented in an interesting, subtle, and easily read writing style. When Cole grows up and decides to be a physician, he comes in contact with Jewish doctors who explain to him that the best universities are in Moslem-ruled Persia, where no Christian may go. Determined to learn, Cole overcomes this obstacle by pretending to be a Jew. As he travels and studies in Persia, the same questions of lifestyle are addressed, only this time within the Jewish and Moslem communities. This is a great read for anyone who likes adventurous stories about growing up, or who is interested in sociology, religion, medicine, or history."

It is the first of a trilogy. The writing reminds me very much of Pillars of the earth and the way Ken Follett writes.

Jean

Babi · « **Reply #3214 on:** June 01, 2012, 08:19:24 AM »

Well, JEAN, I'm generally interested in all of those things, so it sounds like "The
Doctor" would be something I'd want to look up. Thanks for the review.

Steph · « **Reply #3215 on:** June 01, 2012, 08:37:21 AM »

I like NOah Gordon and have read several of his books.. ONly thing is he is long winded.. But you can always skip part of it.. Too much research is my opinion.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3216 on:** June 01, 2012, 12:38:47 PM »

Babi - "The Physician"

FlaJean · « **Reply #3217 on:** June 01, 2012, 12:47:16 PM »

"The Physician" really sounds interesting, Jean. Will check my library for it.

marjifay · « **Reply #3218 on:** June 01, 2012, 06:48:59 PM »

I've put Noah Gordon's THE PHYSICIAN on my TBR list. Thanks, Jean.

Marj

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3219 on:** June 01, 2012, 11:02:49 PM »

Fair warning! There are some gruesome parts, some medical related, some tyranny related. Another one of those books that makes me glad to be living in the USA in the 20/21st century.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #3220 on:** June 02, 2012, 08:30:21 AM »

I am now involved in sorting out the books I brought with me to the mountains. I just packed up three boxes of tbr's and did not sort. So now I am having a ball looking at all sorts of stuff, I did not remember having.

Babi · « **Reply #3221 on:** June 02, 2012, 09:04:13 AM »

Oh, okay, JEAN. Thanks for the correction. That will be a great help in finding the book!

Sounds like fun, STEPH. I can relate to that. A lovely, tempting smorgasbord of books!

JoanP · « **Reply #3222 on:** June 02, 2012, 06:26:55 PM »

I came in this afternoon to let you know the results of the recent voting have been counted. We have a winner for our next group Book Club Online discussion.
How many of you have read Ann Patchett's award winning Bel Canto? Or her recent State of Wonder? You've got to wonder where the seeds for these very different novels come from.

In the book just selected, Run, she's written the story of two families who come together following a traffic accident during a snowstorm. It quickly becomes clear that the families -- a poor, single black mother with her 11-year-old daughter and a white, Irish Catholic, former Boston mayor with a biological son and two adopted black college-aged sons, whose much-loved wife died over 20 years ago -- have a connection. The book is about families, what makes a family - and politics, as the author has stated - how political responsibility plays out in the smallest and most intimate scale of family life.

If you think you might join us in mid June, please leave a note in the new discussion today - at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=136.0

Steph · « **Reply #3223 on:** June 03, 2012, 08:16:06 AM »

It is 46 degrees that morning.Wow.. A sweatshirt was pulled on at our arly 6:15 walk..But it felt wonderful.. Will get up to mid 70's sometime later today..I am loving this..

mabel1015j · « **Reply #3224 on:** June 03, 2012, 12:21:13 PM »

Yesterday was so beautiful here. After taking my grandson to his basketball practice camp, i sat in the car for an hour reading The Physician, waiting for him to finish, and then spent the afternoon on the patio - low 70s, breeze blowing, sun shining - and read and read to try to fnish the 600 pages, and i did and i still recommend it to those of you who like historical fiction and/or any of those issues the reviewer mentioned above.

One of the most interesting things for me about reading it is to be here in the 21st century and "knowing" more then the people in the book know about medical situations. So the reader knows what is going on and what might happen next when the characters don't know.

I still haven't decided if Gordon is anti-religion or if it's my bias that I'm reading into his "facts" of the time. I did skim more of the last quarter of the book and Gordon's packing in a lot of details, as Steph mentioned, where the details didn't necessarily carry the story forward.

I still recommend it.

Jean

JeanneP · « **Reply #3225 on:** June 03, 2012, 03:55:41 PM »

Perfect weather here at the moment. I should be out walking. Maybe little later when sun goes down. sort of lazy today.

salan · « **Reply #3226 on:** June 03, 2012, 05:35:34 PM »

I just finished The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I found the book depressing and was terribly disappointed in it. I had so been looking forward to reading it. Sigh.......I am glad to hear that the movie is nothing like the book. Anyone else have an opinion of the book?

Sally

MaryPage · « **Reply #3227 on:** June 04, 2012, 07:10:38 AM »

I never read the book, Sally; but I loved the movie.

Steph · « **Reply #3228 on:** June 04, 2012, 08:52:03 AM »

I want to see the movie, but in this tiny town, the four movie does not do that sort.. Mostly shoot em ups.. I may have to settle for the book or put it onmy net flix queu.

bellemere · « **Reply #3229 on:** June 04, 2012, 01:51:03 PM »

I have read Bel Canto and State of wonder and liked the former best. State of wonder is a wild ride, though, and very enhoyable. Is "Run" the book for June?

JoanP · « **Reply #3230 on:** June 04, 2012, 07:47:47 PM »

Yes :Dit is, Belle...we'll begin June 15...and probably spend two weeks on it...before moving on to Great Expectations in July.
I picked up my copy from the library this evening and can't put it down.

If you think you might join us, please stop over to the discussion when you see this...and reserve a seat.

We're here...

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=136.0

salan · « **Reply #3231 on:** June 05, 2012, 04:31:56 AM »

I am currently reading Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones; and am enjoying it very much. I think someone on this site recommended it. It takes place on a tropical island that is shattered by war. Almost everyone has left; but the lone white man sweeps out the school and starts reading Great Expectations to the remaining children. It would be interesting to read this after, before or during our discussion on Great Expectations.
Sally

Steph · « **Reply #3232 on:** June 05, 2012, 10:01:59 AM »

Time is still my enemy just now, but I have finished the Darling Dahlias.. May try a second, not quite sure..I did pick up a Patricia Cornwall that I have not read.. I have such mixed emotions about her heroine and the squib on the back of her books. Sort of like the second coming.

ginny · « **Reply #3233 on:** June 06, 2012, 05:13:14 PM »

Salan, I also read The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and I agree with you it's depressing and a downer. I just came from seeing the movie, however, and it's the exact opposite. I just wrote on it in our Movies and Books into Movies section so I won't repeat it here.

The book itself is nothing like the movie, where it matters. The name of the hotel in India is the same, and there are some characters with the same names and that's where the similarities end.

Steph · « **Reply #3234 on:** June 07, 2012, 08:45:58 AM »

I have never understood why the movie people do that. I can think of several book to movies that are so different as to be not even remotely he same.. I hate that.

Babi · « **Reply #3235 on:** June 08, 2012, 08:13:35 AM »

If it ruins a good book, naturally I agree. But when it transforms a disappointing book into
a popular movie, great!

Steph · « **Reply #3236 on:** June 08, 2012, 08:30:32 AM »

I guess what bothers me is changing the book into something entirely different.

bellemere · « **Reply #3237 on:** June 09, 2012, 10:05:01 PM »

Our Book club did Mr. Pip a couple of years ago. Everyone like it, a location so unfamiliar and exotic. Gave it to a friend who tsught for the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea and she really loved it.
Just finished the Hans Falllada novel from 1932, Little Man, Wjat Now?
Very touching storu of a young couple struggling through the great depression in Germany.
I'm a little depressed myself. My macular degeneration is progressing and the eye doctor told me I should stop driving. What a blow . I have been drivingsince I was 17, loved the independence. However, my life is a lot "smaller" geographically; the YMCA, the library, the shopping center, , homes of a few girlfriends. And my hero is rising to the challenge of chauffering me . so far he has been so good about it, but it has only been a week. Actually I am kind of relieved. I have been driving scared for a long time and had a fender bender with a city dump truck last month that cost over 700 dollars. Now I can miss the independence, but not the driving! I told my husband I was going to get him a little black cap and sit in the back seat like Miss Daisy.
.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3238 on:** June 10, 2012, 04:05:04 AM »

So sorry to hear that, Bellemere. One of my neighbours has been told to stop as he has blackouts associated with a heart condition, and he found it hard to come to terms with - though his wife is still driving. However, you are so right to look on the bright side - I hate driving! I find it much more peaceful to walk or to take public transport - no more worries about finding the right lane/turn off, or having to negotiate huge roundabouts with enormous lorries bearing down on you like monsters. I love sitting in the train and reading on my Kindle, or just looking out of the window and watching the world go by. It's great that your husband is happy to drive - make the most of it! A chauffeur's uniform is a must!

Neither of my parents-in-law should be driving, I don't know how they scrape through the medicals. It is frightening to be in the car with them, and I know they find it very stressful, but they live somewhere with no public transport close by, and they aren't minded to move. My mother has never learned to drive, she could not have afforded to run a car once my father died. The only things she misses it for are getting to out of the way places, but she has good friends who give her lifts, or she takes taxis - which sound like an extravagance but actually work out a lot cheaper than paying for the road tax, insurance, petrol, car maintenance, etc. She does not feel lacking in independence, but I suppose that's maybe because she's never had a car.

Babi · « **Reply #3239 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:36:47 AM »

I'm still driving, thank goodness, but only locally. Hearing isn't essential, but it does mean you
have to remain very alert to what's going on around you. You don't want the driver behind you
getting angry because he's honking at you madly and you're ignoring him!

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Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 776379 times)