Completely sucked into the Hunger Games series. I actually wanted to stop about 1/4 of the way through the first because I was so upset over the idea, but definitely found it is so much more. Just read the second book in 3 days and hopefully starting the third in a few more.
I am STILL reading "Cutting for Stone". So much back story and history to read through. I hope there is a reason for this because as it stands now, for me, he could have cut most of it out and just focused on the story of the twins. I have started reading Augusten Burroughs "Possible Side Effects" as a bit of a vacation from "...Stone". Just picked up "Some Sing, Some Cry" today at STRAND in hardback for 12 bucks.
It's a great (and deeply saddening) story, but the stream of consciousness style of writing is difficult to deal with, especially since I am spending so much time reading clear and concise textbooks.
"I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."
Good God. I finished GAME OF THRONES, and went on to CLASH OF KINGS, and am now halfway through STORM OF SWORDS, which is one of the few books I've ever been tempted to describe as being "bitchin!"
I have FEAST FOR CROWS and DANCE WITH DRAGONS on the shelf. Yow.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
I'm currently taking suggestions for something to take on vacation with me next week. I'd like it to be relatively mindless and entertaining--I'm just finishing up teaching a rather intense summer class, so I'd like to leave anything heavy on the shelf for a while--but preferably not contain vampires or wizards of any kind. I'm open to any suggestions that the BWW readers might have.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
The first chapter of the new Eugenides book was published in the New Yorker about a year ago. Using that as an indication, I think it's going to be terrific.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Nanny Returns...the sequel to The Nanny Diaries. Picked it up for a dollar at Borders before all the bankruptcy fun started...along with The First Wives Club, The Real Housewives Get Personal and some coffee table book about Death Cab For Cutie for my daughter. Four books, four bucks. Works for me.
Just finished Armistead Maupin's Michael Tolliver Lives, so next is Mary Ann in Autumn. Waiting for it to come back into one of the local libraries.
Finally finished "Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese. A really good story but my problem with it is the amount of medical detail. A lot of it could have been cut. Anyone who is a medical professional would probably enjoy all of the descritions of surgical procedures, etc. The book also follows, a bit, the author's actual journey to America. I would actually like to see this as a film. Glad I read it but probably won't read his book "My Own Country" for a while. I have been told it is good but very graphic. I now figure graphic also means detailed.
Starting "Some Sing, Some Cry" by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza (Shange's sister).
Halfway through Mockingjay and really enjoying it. Most of Catching Fire was repetitive and a rehash of Hunger Games, but at least the end set the stage well for Mockingjay, which takes off in the direction I expected for Catching Fire.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Just finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Best book I've read in a while. It's about a group of friends in 1938 Manhattan. Its kind of got a pre Mad Men vibe about it. A perfect end of summer book.
And Unc, I hated Cutting for Stone. I know everyone kept saying how awesome it was but I thought it was a total drag.
danmag, it was the story that was so good for me. The book could have been 400 pages and it would have been fine. So much could have been cut, pardon the reference, in my opinion.
i realize i'm a little late to this game, but recently read The Life of Pi - after much avoiding as it did become the kind of novel that people talked about with much hype - but i read it and found it very touching. the adventure was less exciting to me then spending time growing up in india.
i really touching and spiritual novel - but in the truest sense of the word.
Last book I read (within the past week) was THE LAST CHILD by John Hart. Saw a blurb about it somewhere online which piqued my interest enough to order a used copy. Glad I did.
Currently about 1/4 of the way through Jonathan Tropper's Plan B but just found out that my hold on Tina Fey's Bossypants came in at my library. So I may have to put Tropper aside for a bit (although I'm enjoying Plan B quite a bit so far).