Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Entertainment and Arts > Books
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 09-02-2012, 09:11 AM
 
Location: Bangor Maine
3,440 posts, read 6,525,083 times
Reputation: 4049

Advertisements

"When Madeline Was Young" by Jane Hamilton. This is the first book of her's I have read. I'm only into it about 32 pages, and just getting used to her style. She brings in alot of characters and I'm trying to sort out their relationships to one another. I remember seeing her other books were popular - Map of the World and The Book of Ruth.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-02-2012, 09:55 AM
 
Location: Canada
7,246 posts, read 9,248,251 times
Reputation: 9833
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Time Baroness View Post
Oh, forgot to mention that I'm currently reading Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson - another genius, and I promise I don't use that word lightly. This one is a tome, as is the other book in the series, Crytonomicon (there may be another, I'm not sure). Stephenson is known as a sci/fi writer, but not your typical one. A long time ago, I read Snow Crash by him because my husband was in love with it. Sure enough, I fell in love too, and it remains one of our favorite books. We even named our car after the main character, Hiro Protagonist. Do you love it? Am I the only one who names my car, and names it after book characters? (We named the next car Semalu after a character in another of our favorite books, The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea).

Anyway, though Quicksilver is dense, and sometimes a little hard to follow, I'm beginning to really enjoy it. It's about the time when Newton was making his wondrous discoveries about gravity and many other things, and a fictional friend of his who experiments with alchemy. It's unbelievably clever and well-written. Very humorous as well.
I think I might have a book suggestion for you - The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody. It's described as a combination of Vonnegut and Stephenson.

I'm almost finished reading it. The book is divided into 3 highly weird parts. The first part has brilliant lines but doesn't even seem to have much to do with book 2 and 3 - it's kind of a comment on the post-modern movement as the narrator is a writer - or would-be writer. Later, in part two, there's a footnote by the fictional writer, how the publisher wanted him to drop part 1, to which the fictional writer suggests that if people don't like it, they can simply rip it out of the book.

Highly weird. Highly fascinating. The strangely out-of-place part one is explained in the afterword.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 10:38 AM
 
Location: Poshawa, Ontario
2,982 posts, read 4,083,949 times
Reputation: 5622
I just finished Matthew Stokoe's "High Life" this morning. If you enjoy books like Brett Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero" and "Imperial Bedrooms" you will probably like High Life as well. However, it is not for the squeamish... Depictions of brutal violence, nihilism, coprophilia, torture, necrophilia and hardcore depictions of every type of sexual activity are commonplace. It was well written, but IMO the characters are such degenerates it was difficult to find sympathy for any of them to be quite honest.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 11:19 AM
 
9,229 posts, read 8,511,493 times
Reputation: 14765
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newdaawn View Post
"When Madeline Was Young" by Jane Hamilton. This is the first book of her's I have read. I'm only into it about 32 pages, and just getting used to her style. She brings in alot of characters and I'm trying to sort out their relationships to one another. I remember seeing her other books were popular - Map of the World and The Book of Ruth.
I read "Map of the World" years ago and loved it, so I was thrilled when I came across "The Book of Ruth" but I couldn't read Ruth. I didn't have the stomach to read it. Even then I was over-saturated on the whole "let's build a story about child abuse" genre. (Not that I don't acknowledge it exists, I just get tired of it being a baseline in so many books. It's like every author has to have at least once character shaped by their childhood abuse.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Annuvin View Post
... Depictions of brutal violence, nihilism, coprophilia, torture, necrophilia and hardcore depictions of every type of sexual activity are commonplace.
Where's the emoticon for tossing one's cookies when one needs it?!
Really, if an author is talented, why wouldn't they use their talent for good.

I know, but I grip my naïveté with both hands and hold very, very tightly.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 03:55 PM
 
9,229 posts, read 8,511,493 times
Reputation: 14765
PD James' "Death Comes to Pemberly" may not be the most compelling mystery I've ever read, but she has the honor of being the author most able to send me to my dictionary.

Today's words (so far):
Peripatetic: pedestrian, or itinerant
Unctous: affected, exaggerated, or insincere ernestness

12% left. There's still opportunity for greater vocabulary!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 32,916,734 times
Reputation: 28902
I'm on a roll or in a rut... we'll see which.

I just finished a coming-of-age story about a girl and her uncle (who died of AIDS).
I'm about to start a coming-of-age story about a girl and her father (who is deployed to Iraq). This one is called Alice Bliss. I'll let you know how it goes...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 05:14 PM
 
9,229 posts, read 8,511,493 times
Reputation: 14765
Quote:
Originally Posted by DandJ View Post
I'm on a roll or in a rut... we'll see which.

I just finished a coming-of-age story about a girl and her uncle (who died of AIDS).
I'm about to start a coming-of-age story about a girl and her father (who is deployed to Iraq). This one is called Alice Bliss. I'll let you know how it goes...
Go! Go! Go!

She's off, Ladies and Gentlemen! It's DandJ in the lead by a full-length and look at her go.....

Da du, da du, da duh duh duh......
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 05:24 PM
 
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 32,916,734 times
Reputation: 28902
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry View Post
Go! Go! Go!

She's off, Ladies and Gentlemen! It's DandJ in the lead by a full-length and look at her go.....

Da du, da du, da duh duh duh......
Neigh, snort snort, neeeeiiiigh!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 05:32 PM
 
9,229 posts, read 8,511,493 times
Reputation: 14765
Quote:
Originally Posted by DandJ View Post
Neigh, snort snort, neeeeiiiigh!
Back to THE BOOK! I've got money on this race.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-02-2012, 05:42 PM
 
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 32,916,734 times
Reputation: 28902
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry View Post
Back to THE BOOK! I've got money on this race.
LOL! The pressure, the pressure!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Entertainment and Arts > Books

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top