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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 20, 2008 14:19:33 GMT
I mostly read biographies (Charles II at the moment!), but I recently read "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins - I can thoroughly recommend it.
I liked the way it is read through the testimony of the different characters, so you get different perspectives of the same event, and even though it could be said to be a "typical Victorian melodrama", it was very well done and I really cared about the characters. In his 20s, Rufus would have been a perfect Walter Hartwright....
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Post by catdishy on Feb 20, 2008 20:04:51 GMT
Now that I'm retired, I can juggle three or four books at a time. Just finished "The Best Women's Travel Writing 2007" edited by Lucy McCauley, a very lively collection of true stories by women travelers from around the world.Also, re-reading Alice Munro," Runaway" specifically, and Mavis Gallant's "Paris Stories".Short stories interest me more recently...they're often 40 or 50 pages, and you feel like you're reading a full length novel, in the hands of a topnotch writer like Munro or Gallant, as the characters and backstory are well developed.
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Post by susan on Sept 25, 2008 19:13:20 GMT
Hello Catdishy,
Which Michael Dibden book would you recommend I start with?
Susan X
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Post by ambra on Mar 4, 2009 20:22:10 GMT
I enjoy reading books that explore the strange and unusual. I just finished reading "Weird Virginia"; I knew I lived in an interesting state but I didn't realize how interesting until I read this book! There are sections on everything from strange roadside attractions like Dinosaur Land to urban legends like the Bunnyman, a supposedly homicidal manic dressed in a bloodied bunny suit who roams the roads of northern Va. It also had chapters on several "natural wonders" like Natural Bridge and Luray Caverns, both fairly close to where I live. I'm ashamed to say I've never been to the former and I've only been once to the latter but this book has inspired me to make a trip to both once the weather warms up.
I just bought "The Ghosts of Virginia Volume Six" and "Cruel and Unusual Idiots: Chronicles of Meanness and Stupidity". The second one has little tidbits of real-life acts of stupidity like the case of Michael Schoop who tried to convince a judge that the reason he had child pornography on his computer was because he had accidently downloaded the material while searching the Internet for asparagus recipes. The judge didn't buy it. Stories like that not only make me feel better about my own IQ but give me a good laugh as well!
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Post by tipou on Mar 4, 2009 20:48:18 GMT
i have finished book one of a trilogy named "millenium" by a swedish author named stieg larssen. i read it in french, of course!
it is a sinancial thriller of sorts, main character is a financial reporter who is honest to a fault, and so see his career threatened by a powerful business man who he suspects of being very dirty indeed. soon enough, he has to leave his beloved journal "millenium" and is proposed to help an old c.e.o. to find out what happened to his niece who disappeared a long time ago, and fears the culprit might be a memeber of his own family. he accepts, because his niew employer promises to help him nail his archenemy... he is helped in his quest by his former colleague and long time lover, and by a young, and very strange, p.i./hacker/punkette who does not feel bound by law and conventions.
the writing is very raw, but oh boy how good it is. i have not felt drawn to a story like i am now in a very long time.
i just got back from the bookstore with volume 2. so if i disappear at times, you will know why.
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Post by tipou on Mar 20, 2009 19:20:12 GMT
i have eaten up volume 2 of millenium, and started on volume 3. boy this series is a good read. i have just found out that the swedes have make a movie based on book 1, apparently it is a total success, i have seen the previews, it looks grrrrreat. you know how you get attached to characters from a book, and get wary when you hear of a film version ?? you know, the reason why so many of us do not like tom cruise that much??? well these characters have been respected. most of them unknown swedes and danes, but all appear to have stepped right out of the book. shortcoming: this movie will premiere in may, IN PARIS. when here?  when??? any way, if you like long, entrancing stories you want to remember all your life, try and find the three books of the millenium series. this is already cult material, world wide, and i fully understand why. |
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Ems
Mind in the Sew-er
It's the wanting that keeps us alive.
Posts: 198
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Post by Ems on Jul 21, 2009 2:27:20 GMT
Just finished reading 'The 5 People You Meet In Heaven' by Mitch Albom. Although fairly sad, its quite comforting too. If you ever get the chance to read it, please do, its a lovely book  I'm now started 'Yes Man' by Danny Wallace & thoroughly enjoying it so far. This guy is hilarious! ;D |
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Post by francesca on Sept 21, 2009 19:02:08 GMT
Just read back to back the pillars of the earth and world without end by ken follett
am now reading Revelation by CJ Sanson a tudor whodunit but more along the lines of TPOTE in depth
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Post by rugirl on Sept 29, 2009 1:44:39 GMT
I just read the new Dan Brown novel, "The Lost Symbol", which was great, and so was the PD James novel I read "The Private Patient", I love all her work, as I'm a huge British mystery novel fan. Started back when I was a girl and got my first Agatha Christie novel, "Death on the Nile".
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Post by dippyponge on Sept 29, 2009 7:12:53 GMT
I'm currently reading The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease. It is really fasinating and has given me so much confidence. I have always had a bit of a confidence problem but now I am beggining to read body signals (and it is amazing how many we all do subconciously!) I am realising that people are genuinely interested in what I have to say and that they are not pretending. It has also helped me through interveiws. Great Book! |
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Post by judypatooty on Sept 29, 2009 14:21:29 GMT
I just finished reading Craig Ferguson's memoir "American on Purpose." It's amazing that he survived his years of drinking and drugging to become the successful and hilarious late night talk show host that he is. |
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Post by pixie on Oct 2, 2009 20:35:29 GMT
Oh, Judy, I love Craig Ferguson! He's SO funny! I got to attend a taping of his show a couple years ago and he was great!
I've been reading The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, the series on which the HBO show True Blood is based! If you like the show then you must read the books!! If you've never seen the show, I highly recommend it along with the books. The books are fun, mysterious, a little sexy, and oddly addictive! Light, quick reading!
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Post by judypatooty on Oct 2, 2009 20:59:48 GMT
Hey Pixie! The next time I go to LA there is no way I would miss the opportunity to see a taping of CF's show. The last time I was out there (years ago!) I got to see a taping of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It was so much fun! I loved the Sookie Stackhouse novels! I actually had read the first 5 or 6 of them before the show was on, so it's been fun to see how the show and the books differ. I love them both. Now I've been reading a totally silly (and very sexy) series of romance novels by Sandra Hill about time-traveling Vikings! Talk about light reading.  |
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Post by pixie on Oct 3, 2009 4:44:19 GMT
Hey Pixie! The next time I go to LA there is no way I would miss the opportunity to see a taping of CF's show. The last time I was out there (years ago!) I got to see a taping of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It was so much fun! I loved the Sookie Stackhouse novels! I actually had read the first 5 or 6 of them before the show was on, so it's been fun to see how the show and the books differ. I love them both. Now I've been reading a totally silly (and very sexy) series of romance novels by Sandra Hill about time-traveling Vikings! Talk about light reading. Awesome!! So you know what I mean about addictive! I didn't even know about Sookie Stackhouse until I started watching True Blood, and then I debated whether or not to read the books. I'm now on book 4, and OMG Eric! Oh, and it really is fun to see the differences between show and books! I actually like some of the creative decisions they have made regarding certain characters in the show. Like you, I love them both...in different ways! So, this Viking series (I'm picturing Eric Northman here, hehehe), would you equate the quality of it with the Sookie Stackhouse books? I'm totally open to all kinds of books as I love to read, so maybe I will look them up! Oh yes, make sure you get tickets to Craig's show! It is well worth it. His studio is tiny, so you get a really close up view! Too bad none of us were there when Rufus was on! Oh, and you're lucky to have experienced The Tonight Show when Carson was on! I went when Jay Leno was on....but Johnny Carson would've been better!! |
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Post by rueful on Oct 5, 2009 14:30:02 GMT
Numbat mentioned in another thread that she just finished "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (by Shaffer and Barrows). I really loved that book and have mentally cast Rufus in the movie when they make one. He's be excellent as any of the three main male roles (and how many actors can you say that about, since they're all such different characters), but there's one role in particular I'd love to see him play. Anyway, I thought it was really interesting, set just after WWII in the channel islands, and I'd recommend it.
I also liked "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" (by Haddon). It's told from the point of view of an autistic teen, and it's got a lot of humor as well as being quite touching.
Neither of these books is new, since I'm always several years behind the popular curve, but at least that means they're available in paperback. ;D
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when???
