Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 776429 times)

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3400 on:** July 25, 2012, 04:00:19 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

There has been a massive furore at the Theakston's Crime Writing Conference here (which took place at Harrogate last w/e and featured people like Ian Rankin, Colin Dexter, etc) because one writer spoke out in favour of selling ebooks for low prices or even for nothing (as many ebook writers do from time to time, to stimulate sales) and all the traditional writers went nuts.

The writer in question (whose name I've forgotten - he's not a household name but he has made a good living from his ebooks) was given a very hard time by the audience, although he later told the press he had been put up to it by Mark Billingham, a v well known UK crime writer, who had asked him to shake things up a bit because these conference sessions can be so lovey-dovey. However, the writer said he stood by what he had said. Ever since then lots of writers have been exploding on Twitter and other social media, all incandescent with rage - but I don't really see why. He's got a point, he has still managed to make a good income, and people have happily bought lots of his books for 99p or whatever. The established authors say it devalues their work - but I have certainly downloaded free Kindle books, some of which have been dreadful, some of which have been excellent, and if the latter I have been encouraged to read more of the writer's work, and to pay for it.

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #3401 on:** July 25, 2012, 04:38:57 PM »

Bellemere, I read The New Yorker and have for forever. I can remember looking at the cartoons when I was three!

So the article of excerpts from Gallant's 1952 journal in Spain excited me hugely. My, what things she told that I could never have put to paper, even to a very private, personal journal. And she went on to say on at least two occasions in the journal that there were things that had happened that she had seen but could not possibly put to paper! Good Grief! Left me wondering what THEY could possibly have been.

Anyway, I called one daughter's best friend from college days, who teaches Spanish and spent her Junior Year plus many other summers in Spain, and told her to go right out and buy the New Yorker with a caricature of Obama as a doctor on the front and read from page 48. She did, and sent me a long book report. I did not save it, or I would print it here. But she did say the poverty was almost as bad when she was there in 75/76 and she told me a lot about the Franco/Carlos feelings among the ordinary people she knew. She lived that year with a pro Franco family. All very fascinating to me.

I expect Gallant finally got all of her money, but what a dreadful experience she had!

jane · « **Reply #3402 on:** July 25, 2012, 04:57:04 PM »

Rosemary... I'm sure the established writers were aghast at the mere suggestion of giving away their writings. Maybe they don't have to. I'm sure a Stephen King doesn't need to, but, as you said, I see a lot of new writers giving away ebooks. I think it's a great way to find an audience. I've found more than one writer that I liked enough to pay for their later works. I wouldn't have known their names otherwise and so my list of writers I look for has expanded since I have my Nook.

I also think the various on line forums where people share what they're reading and new authors they've found helps all writers tremendously.

jane

Steph · « **Reply #3403 on:** July 26, 2012, 08:42:44 AM »

I certainly could be wrong, but i thought Paul Scott was on Kindle.. Maybe not though. I find a lot of old stuff and some obscure stuff though.. Since I also like the feel of a real book, I haunt used book stores as well.. So I have both ebooks and regular books and also cd books for the car and taped books for walking.. Hmm. a book freak..

Frybabe · « **Reply #3404 on:** July 26, 2012, 10:20:07 AM »

Quote

but I have certainly downloaded free Kindle books, some of which have been dreadful, some of which have been excellent, and if the latter I have been encouraged to read more of the writer's work, and to pay for it.

I felt the same way when they started shutting down the likes of Napster for music. I got to hear a lot of music from artists I never would have heard that I went on to buy their complete CD's. Amazon and some other e-stores used to have 30sec. clips of songs from the CD's they sold, but I don't see that anymore either. The bad thing about the tiny clips is that I bought several CD's after listening to the clips only to find that, on the whole, the CD's were mediocre.

Steph · « **Reply #3405 on:** July 27, 2012, 08:42:08 AM »

Yes, some of the free cozies in the mystery are not worth anything, when you get into them.They think using a hobby of some type works and you need more than that. You can be a book binder, etc and stil be boring.

bellemere · « **Reply #3406 on:** July 27, 2012, 10:06:37 AM »

alan Bennett allowed a homeless old woman to live in her wrick of a trailer in his front ;yard for years. That story is in a collection of his writings. A library should have it. Hilarious, and also very touching, he was a super human being. Did I say was? H\e still lives, doesn't he/

Dana · « **Reply #3407 on:** July 27, 2012, 04:30:11 PM »

yes he still lives the last I was aware and I do like him, too. He comes across as quite straightforward, can make jokes against himself, and I like the way he has kept his accent. And all that's got nothing to do with the pleasure I get from his plays. I haven't even read anything by him, but now put him on my list!!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3408 on:** July 27, 2012, 05:10:07 PM »

Didn't he write and later produce the play/movie The Madness of King George

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3409 on:** July 28, 2012, 05:26:10 AM »

The Lady In The Van - I think it's in Untold Stories or one of Bennett's other collections. Writing Home is also a wonderful book. He's very much still alive, brilliant writer.

Steph · « **Reply #3410 on:** July 28, 2012, 08:57:10 AM »

An author I have never heard of.. Amazing.Will check him out, but I dislike essaysand short stories for the most part.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3411 on:** July 28, 2012, 12:52:11 PM »

I checked - The Lady in the Van is in "Writing Home" (though it may appear in other collections as well.)

Steph, I don't like them usually, but for me Bennett is something else. He doesn't really do short stories, they're mostly pieces about his life, both now and his childhood (he came from a very working class family in the north of England), and so much of what he describes resonates with me, even though I had never been north of Oxford Street until I was at least 14.

He also wrote a (fictional) series of monologues called Talking Heads, which were later performed on TV by various very well respected actors - he just seems to be able to capture the essence of so many different people.

Rosemary

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3412 on:** July 28, 2012, 01:34:40 PM »

here we go the American Amazon has a nice page that includes his books, his photo and a short bio

http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Bennett/e/B001H6O0IY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1343496758&sr=1-1

Steph · « **Reply #3413 on:** July 29, 2012, 08:06:48 AM »

I found some old Lee Smith's in a used book sale.. I suspect first stuff she wrote. Finished one. She did her usual many characters back and forth, but in this one, there was not a single character that I cared about. So disappointing.

Babi · « **Reply #3414 on:** July 29, 2012, 08:39:33 AM »

Maybe some of Bennett's writing could be termed 'essays' rather than short stories. From
your description, ROSEMARY, that's what some of them sound like. Essayists used to be a
more popular genre. Emerson, Chesterton, the guy with the pen name 'Elias', whose name
now refuses to surface. Actually, I was startled to discover how many well-known names had
essays printed as well.

marjifay · « **Reply #3415 on:** July 29, 2012, 10:10:22 AM »

I really liked Alan Bennett's play, The History Boys. The movie was also good altho' a bit hard to understand all the British accents.

Marj

Steph · « **Reply #3416 on:** July 30, 2012, 08:41:18 AM »

Elias..hmmm was that Lamb??

Babi · « **Reply #3417 on:** July 30, 2012, 09:01:54 AM »

Yes!! Thank you, STEPH. I hate it when my brain refuses to cooperate!

pedln · « **Reply #3418 on:** July 30, 2012, 09:08:32 AM »

Marj, I'd forgotten Bennet had written The History Boys. I sure enjoyed that movie. In the book The Uncommon Reader, I thought it interesting that the more the Queen read, the more she found the harder books becoming easier. Does that sound like anyone you know?

marjifay · « **Reply #3419 on:** July 30, 2012, 02:42:18 PM »

Pedln wrote, " In the book The Uncommon Reader, I thought it interesting that the more the Queen read, the more she found the harder books becoming easier. Does that sound like anyone you know?"

Yes, it sounds like me! I think I will try Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. I tried it a long time ago and did not finish, as it seemed difficult. We'll see.

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #3420 on:** July 30, 2012, 03:32:29 PM »

"The Tale of Two Cities" featured on an Inspevter Lewis mystery last night on PBS, a quote from it providing a clue to who the murderer was.

bellemere · « **Reply #3421 on:** July 30, 2012, 04:16:04 PM »

I finished my reread of Anna Karenina, and now must try to develop some interesting discussion questions for my Book Club discussion in September., I am wondering if al the members will get through it! Once I reconized that it is really the World's Classiest Soap Opera, it lost its awesomeness and i could enjoy it . With some creative skimming of course. The provincial elections and levin's interminable conversion back to religion were a bit spotty. i didn't realize that the soap opera construction comes from the novel being originaly published in a magazine as a serial novel. similariaty to the structure used by Charles Dickens.
Yes, to the Mavis Gallant essay! and i like essays, including som eof the modern ones by Adam Gopnik and Malcolm Gladwell. I absolutely adore the new Yorker and my eyes are having a lot of trouble with the tiny print. it is available on Nook, but without the feature of enlarging the type. I will have to get a larger magnifier to contiinue subscribing - over 25 uears now. And I love good short stories. The Selected Stories of William Trevor is my next Nook purchase, after my current one, Unbroken by Laur Hillebrand. Just started it, and was struck by how Hillebrand, who suffers from some strange autoimmune disese and is almost completely bedridden , writes about athletes in strenuous sports, Zamperini in Unbroken, and the jokeys in Seabiscuit. Wonderful writer, wonder who does all her meticuluous research.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3422 on:** July 30, 2012, 04:26:51 PM »

Joan what do you think of the part for Detective Sergeant Hathaway - to me they seem to be all over the map trying to give him something, some identity but who knows what - in one episode last year he was gay and then another he had found a girl friend and last week he was supposed to be too shy for a girl friend and then last week he was wandering in and out of rooms while Lewis was talking to suspects and working alone on material clues that never got tied to the story then this week they sorta get back to him being Lewis' side kick but after the crime is solved he had a book to read so no shared drink at the pub -

That much they have been consistent with - Hathaway is well educated, knows his lit, poetry, ancient history etc. At one point they said he had been studying to be a priest and then the one episode where as a kid he was sexually abused by the 'Lord' of the Manor - he is good looking and his educated ways does not match Lewis but then Morse was more educated, appearing to be self educated but more culturally aware than Lewis - and even Lewis' character is a mix - for awhile he and Hobson were an item and now he is supposed to be set in his ways and Hobson is not someone he wants to spend time with.

I wonder if they keep changing writers and the new writer does not review past episodes.

jeriron · « **Reply #3423 on:** July 30, 2012, 05:31:45 PM »

I don't remember them saying he was gay. But I just recently ordered the whole set except for this season so I'll look for that when I start rewatching them.

CallieOK · « **Reply #3424 on:** July 30, 2012, 09:10:37 PM »

Quote from: bellemere on July 30, 2012, 04:16:04 PM

I finished my reread of Anna Karenina, and now must try to develop some interesting discussion questions for my Book Club discussion in September., I am wondering if al the members will get through it! Once I reconized that it is really the World's Classiest Soap Opera, it lost its awesomeness and i could enjoy it .

I wonder if this was why I was able to do a book report on AK when I was in high school? I was too young - and too uninformed to pick up all the other themes and only remember it as a tragic love story.
Of course, I guess it says something about the teacher who gave me an A and bragged on my reading Tolstoy (which meant nothing to me). Obviously, we weren't made aware of how fiction and history intertwine.

Steph · « **Reply #3425 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:08:50 AM »

I finished the Lee Smith, but did not like it at all..And I generally love her.

Babi · « **Reply #3426 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:59:11 AM »

BELLE, suggest to the other members of the group your 'classiest soap opera' take. It
might make it easier for them, too. I read Anna Karenina, ages ago, and I must confess
I found it depressing. I was still young enough to want a happy ending.

I don't remember it actually being stated that Hathaway was gay. I think it was more
hinted at because of his detached manner and apparent disinterest in any romantic
involvement. Hathaway is a very private person, which always seems to leave one open to
all sorts of speculation.

bellemere · « **Reply #3427 on:** July 31, 2012, 10:45:01 AM »

What eactly do we mean when we say a book is "depressing"? Does the conflict in the story end with the hero or heroine dying or ending up in a bad situation? Or just that the story was about something we found very sad. Most of us who find a book "depressing" state that it is a reason why we "didn't like it" Nobody likes to be "depressed", but what do we lose if we confine our reading to happy endings?

And my frined said "what makes a book a classic?" i don't think it is a decision made by "list makers " or academics. I think a book becomes a classic because people keep reading it. Like Anna Karenina, in 15 or so languages, in countries all over the owrld with at least five or six film or TV versiona, another one coming in November. It must have some "universal appeal" to a lot of people to have stayed this long on the bookshelves of the world.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3428 on:** July 31, 2012, 12:20:48 PM »

For me Bellemere the story was depressing because she had so few options so that taking a lover seemed like her only escape and then she is at the mercy of being ill used as any women at that time in history who steps over the line and is so powerless - Separating a mother from a child sends chills up my spine - I do not like reading about a system that subjugates anyone to a powerless life and it becomes depressing to realize it was and is true for women - they are still trying to keep women powerless as compared to and by men jockeying for power. Today we see this power over others (women) by folks using their moral fortitude as their weapon.

OK I had to check thinking maybe I was going old age crazy - and I know how many of you do not respect wikipedia but they did have the clearest explanation for Hathaway. I remember at the time watching the program thinking, this could be interesting but I do not think it will go down yet by many who love the Morse stories which, didn't seem to focus on their love life but rather, the jibes seem to be more about working class versus the cultural. Here is what they have to say - Jeriron please, let us know when you look at your recent purchase of the tapes your take on this episode.

Quote

In the third episode of the second series ("Life Born of Fire") his guilt at sharing the homophobic attitudes of some of his fellow trainees is revealed when he discovers that a suicide he is investigating is a former friend, Will McEwan, who broke off his friendship with him when Hathaway urged him to reject his homosexuality.

In "Life Born of Fire" he refuses to answer Lewis's direct question as to whether or not he is gay, though at the end of the episode in a conversation with Zoe Kenneth he both implies that he has had homosexual feelings and that he wants to have sexual intercourse with her (admitting that "it's been a while"). Hathaway berates Lewis for drawing a "neat dividing line" between heterosexuals who "read Loaded and eat Yorkie bars" and homosexuals who like fashion and musicals. At the end of the episode Hathaway is seen holding a copy of Loaded and a Yorkie bar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Hathaway

Evidently "Loaded" is a British gay mens magazine that reached its highest popularity in the 90s and a Yorkie is a Chocolate Bar.

jeriron · « **Reply #3429 on:** July 31, 2012, 03:06:59 PM »

It's possible that Hathaway is gay I suppose. I think that being in a Seminary always starts people wondering about him. But Lewis always seems to be pushing him to date (woman) so it makes me wonder why he would do that if he(Lewis) knows or feels Hathaway may be gay.
Barbara it will be awhile before I get to watching Lewis but I'll let you know when I do.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #3430 on:** July 31, 2012, 05:01:52 PM »

Thanks - just let me know even if it is next Thanksgiving - this series with Hathaway I find to be so disconnected that I am not sure they have settled down to a complete ID for either character - and now another seems to be brought in as a set up to waring departments with the other department headed by a know it all. I thought when he first appeared they were getting ready to retire Lewis but it doesn't seem to be what is going on now... I just find this series to be less predictable than when it was Lewis with Morse.

I never did know is the Morse series based on a book - does anyone Know?

Frybabe · « **Reply #3431 on:** July 31, 2012, 05:37:29 PM »

Barb, Colin Dexter wrote thirteen Morse novels as well as some short stories that include Morse. Dexter is now 81.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/colin-dexter/

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3432 on:** July 31, 2012, 05:41:43 PM »

And he was still making merry at the Theakstons Crime Writing Festival at Harrogate a few weeks ago! -

http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/news/2012-festival-photos/

jeriron · « **Reply #3433 on:** July 31, 2012, 09:25:50 PM »

I just watched the first morse today again,struggling through it without close caps. And in one scene Colon Dexter walks past Morse and Morse turns sound to look at him. Kind of like Alfred Hitchcock did.

Barbara I really enjoy the Lewis series. Almost as much as Morse. I think Lewis is the same as he was in Morse. his prblemwith women (dating) is that he hasn't gotten over the dealth of his wife and he obviously doesn't see his kids as much as he should now that they are grown.In Morse there is a lot of mentions of his family and not wanting to work overtime because he wants to get home which Morse doesn't always understand.
As for Hathaway I don't know. I don't think they want to get into relationships on the show.That's whe they seemed have dropped Lewis and Laura. Which is why Lewis said he'sstill back in time or something likevthat.

Babi · « **Reply #3434 on:** August 01, 2012, 08:17:51 AM »

Good question, BELLE. I think I find a book depressing when the author seems to find
nothing but doom and gloom to write about. Or when the book ends on a definitely defeatist
note. The ending doesn't have to be a 'happy ever after' thing. Most unrealistic, actually.
But at least on a note of acceptance and moving on.

We do seem to want to put an identifying tag on people and place them in the appropriate
slot, don't we? I wonder how often the slot is really a bad fit.

jeriron · « **Reply #3435 on:** August 01, 2012, 08:43:16 AM »

I find a book depressing if the subject matter hits home. Re Cancer, death of a husband etc. Movies the same.

Steph · « **Reply #3436 on:** August 01, 2012, 08:49:52 AM »

Depressing.. hmm. I find a book depressing when there is not a single character that I can identify wth.. They dont have to be happy and I dont have to have a happy ending, but I need people there that I can say.. I have been there or I know that feeling..

pedln · « **Reply #3437 on:** August 01, 2012, 10:33:58 AM »

That is an interesting question, Bellemere. I've just finished a book that some might call depressing because the subject certainly is -- an 18-year-old has gone missing -- Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan. Yet the book is so well-written, is so realistic, with characters one really cares about. Throughout the book there is still an essence of hope.

One that is also very well-written, but without the hope, that I'm glad I read, but never want to read again is Mistry's A Fine Balance -- set in India during Indira Ghandi's time. I found it very depressing even though I liked the characterization.

Another book, that begins with a drowning, that could easily be depressing, but isn't, is the best book I've read all year -- Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monniger. I loved the characters -- they're my neighbors, my family, my friends.

bellemere · « **Reply #3438 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:45:40 PM »

rest in peace Maeve Binchey. Your books wee pure delight, funny, warm, gently satirical on the fussiest aspects of irish society today. Will revisit them soon.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #3439 on:** August 01, 2012, 01:28:34 PM »

Yes, RIP Maeve - what a wonderful writer she was, and by all accounts also a wonderful woman. She worked her way up, wrote her first novel in the early hours of each morning before she went to work, and had a trolley under the stairs with her writing stuff on it, as she had no space then for a desk. Light a Penny Candle is still one of my favourite books, and brings back so many details of my first visits to rural County Waterford in my 20s (I know it starts ages before that, but nothing much changed in Ireland until about 1990.) Thinking of her beloved husband Gordon, with whom she had a long and happy marriage.

Rosemary

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Author Topic: Fiction ~ Old ~ New ~ Best Sellers #2 (Read 776429 times)