Book Lovers Club
Comments
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I just finished Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and I highly recommend it. It's set in the Mississippi delta at the end of WWII. The story is told from different characters' perspectives. It was well written and the characters were memorable. It deals with many social issues, race, class, etc,
I never finished the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, despite all the acclaim. I don't think I was in the right frame of mind (midst of my diagnosis) and couldn't keep the all the people straight. Everyone I know talks about it so I may give it another try.
Gina
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I stayed up till 4 AM this morning to finish the Girl with th eDragon Tatoo. It was really good. On the way home from AL I began the Swan Theives by Elizabeth Kostova, and it's going to be a real winner, too.
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Just found two great books..
Women of the Silk
and
The Samurai's Garden
both by Gail Tsukiyama
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I liked the first two of the Dragon Tatoo books, but just
couldn't get into the third one
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Read a great book I just happened to pick up at the library. It is called "Perfect Peace". A really great read, very engaging, interesting and well written.
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I've been enjoying Donna Leon's detective stories set in Venice this summer. They're a slower read than many, with less gristly violence, but the lead character is very thoughtful and they deal with many issues that are relevant today.
I've also enjoyed Henning Mankell's Swedish mysteries.
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Burn by Nevada Barr report: I loved the interesting characters she created and the way she wove two stories together... it was only very loosely and peripherally set in a national park, and I missed the nature setting, but she did a great job of capturing New Orleans. Part of the ending was predictable and part of it felt like she skimmed over some important pieces and part of it left me hanging. I know the latter is a technique more authors are using now but I'm not sure I care that much for it
I can't say more without giving parts of the plot away so I'll shut up, but overall I liked it.Also have read Sarah's Key, thanks to recommendations here.
I have a few more library books I want to read before I turn to Eat Pray Love (including The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama, The Infinite Plan by Isabel Allende, and The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho), so I may go see the movie before I read EPL... I'd really like to catch it on the big screen rather than on DVD. Has anyone seen it yet? Ratings seem to be good but I know books translated to movies can be a disappointment -- but since Elizabeth Gilbert was happy with how the movie turned out, I'm hoping it's good. Of course, who wouldn't be happy with Julia Roberts playing themselves?
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SoCalLisa, I loved the Tsukiyama books! I think Samuri's Garden was one of the most beautifully written books ever--not an unnecessary word, as simple as a Zen garden.
Anne
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Thanks for the Burn update Nature, I think I might get it next week. I have just finished an old Diane Mott Davidson as I'm in summer ready mode (light and fluffy). I did see Eat Pray Love last weekend, went out to lunch with friends and then to the movie and I really liked it and Javier Bardim is easy on the old eyes, but I have to say I didn't like the book at all, I couldn't understand what all the hoo haa was about.
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I think my pull with Eat Pray Love is because I went through that painful, confusing end-of-marriage thing and my own search for something deeper in life; of course I didn't have the option of traveling the world to do that searching
but I'm thinking I'll hear some of my own story in hers. We'll see. Thanks for the movie review (and yeah, Javier, yum!), I think I'll try to go see it this week.Happy reading, everyone!
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Just finished reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa SeeI. It is set in remote 19-century China and details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women. I could not put the book down. The writing iss beautiful and I'm going to try another of the author's books. After reading how they bound their feet, I will never complain about my bunion again.0
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SoCalLisa and AnneW - the Gail Tsukiyama books are wonderful. I recently bought The Language of Threads but haven't started it yet. It's the sequel to Women of the Silk. I'll put The Street of a Thousand Blossoms on my library list to read. I really like the books by Isabel Allende and Lisa See, too. gina
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For great murder mysteries, I recommend anything by Elizabeth George.
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I am listening to The Lacuna on CD in my car on the way to work. So far I don't love it. The author is the reader and she is not very good at it.
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I liked Snow Flower and The Secret Fan a lot also. Fasinating look at that time and culture. My Book Club read it and had a good discussion on what seems like a brutal custom today (binding the feet) was what everyone was doing, and what we'd have probably done, and had our daughters do too if we lived at that time.
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Love this topic.
Goodreads.com- great site to read reviews, save the books you've read and want to read.
Here are my favorites from this summer of surgery and chemo:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot - This amazing story is of the history of HeLa cells. The very cells most of the chemo treatments are developed from. It's about a poor 30 year old black woman in the 50's, her immortal cells, her family and all the ramifications of taking someones tissue without permission and using it for research. Listen to the interview with the author on NPR's Fresh Air.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, by Heidi Durrow - excellent first novel dealing with parental loss, and personal identity of a mixed race young girl.
Merle's Door, by Ted Kerosote - one of the best dog books ever written.
I love seeing so many women liking The Book Thief. It's one of my favorites, too. Another of the same period is Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blumm. Jenna Blumm was an interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust Survivors project. She wrote this novel from the point of view of a German woman who finds herself in America after the war.
I'll be checking this thread often since I love books. Thanks for all your suggestions.
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LOOK AGAIN by Lisa Scottoline Haven't read it yet but my sister could not put it down. She stayed up all night reading it from cover to cover so I am anxious to start it. Will def let you know my opinion in a few days.0
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I catalogue the fiction collection for my local public library, and love seeing the suggestions of what I would call "hidden gems."
If you like the Dragon tattoo books, or liked the concept, but maybe not the violence against women aspect, I have a recommendation for you: Julie Zeh's In free fall. A marvelous book, set in Germany, that includes physicists who study the nature of time, a child who is kidnapped (or was he?), a detective who has special insights (or does he?), and an odd policewoman. Very well-written.
And who knew that in 1953, the Netherlands suffered massive flooding from a freak winter hurricane? One fourth of the country's land mass was wiped off the map when the dikes burst. The novel The storm, by Margriet de Moor is about two sisters, one who ends up going to Zeeland the day before disaster strikes. The other, who talked her sister into taking the trip, is left to live with the decision's repercussions. I think seeing the images of Katrina's destruction helped me understand the ferocity of this event. Another very well-written story that draws you in.
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Picked up a book that was highly recommended by Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, which so many of us enjoyed. It is called A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White. I'm not done yet, but it is very good and hard to put down. It's the story of two sisters and the twists and turns their lives take after their parent's death in a plane crash. A good read.0
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I am almost finished with " Mao's Last Dancer". It is a captivating autobiography of a young Chinese boy taken from his poor village to Madame's Mao's school of ballet. He eventually becomes one of Houston Ballet Company', premier ballet dancer. A great read which cameh ighly recommended by 3 different friends.
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I just finidhed reading Howie Mandel's book and I am reading the first book by Carol Burnett. I like biographies and true stories.
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Billy Crystal's biography (the name of the book escapes me) is good too.
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Ken Follett has a new one out -- "Fall of Giants" -- first of a historical trilogy, logging in at over 900 pp. I put a hold on it -- anyone read it yet?
I was surprised (in reading about this new novel) to see his "Pillars..." was published in '89. I assumed it was recent, I don't know why! Also surprised to read about "World without End," the follow up (200 years later) to "Pillars..." Has anyone read it? Also didn't realize Pillars was a miniseries, I completely missed that.
Anyway, I haven't read much that's been really satisfying lately (except some digital photography books) -- have done some light reading that was entertaining but the books I picked up that I thought would be meatier were disappointing.
Am about 1/3 of the way through "Eat Pray Love" and while I'm enjoying it in some ways, I agree with whoever mentioned that she thought it didn't live up to the hype. I'll see how the last two parts hit me.
Glad to see some new recommendations.
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oh, my goodness, I didn't know about the Follett books either. Thanks so much for this info!
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People I know who read 'Eat, Pray, Love' were under-impressed.
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I just finished "Tales of a Female Nomad" and she is the real thing compared to "Eat, Pray, Love".
In EPL it seemed so self-centered (which is one way to learn more about yourself, I suppose). The woman in TFN, on the other hand, connected with and learned from the cultures she visited in so many ways. They are similar in that they both had recently divorced and took to exploring different cultures as a way to live following that difficult time, but it is fascinating how differently they approached it.
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Read a few books while hanging out at my Dad's bedside in the hospital recently:
IN THE WOODS by Tana French. Wow, what a story and good writing! Can't wait to find her other books!
THE RELIABLE WIFE by Robert Goolrick. Dark, sparse, depressing at times, but ultimately a triumph of one human's spirit.
LITTLE BEE--reading it right now and can't put it down.
Anne
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Hi all, love this thread, only read 2 pages so far but already found 3 things I want to read.
I'd like to recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008). It's the story of a woman writer who goes to live on the island of Guernsey after WWII, the people she meets and their stories, told through the format of correspondence between the characters. Very easy to read and heartwarming.
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AnneW- I live in Boulder, too. I also loved Tana French's Into the Woods. I read her 2nd book - The Likeness - and liked it, too. And I loved Little Bee. I'm going to read your 3rd suggestion since our tastes seem so similar.
badger - A long time ago I read a book about Guernsey during WWII - maybe Elizabeth George?? - and liked the history as well as the novel. I'll check this one out.
I really like Kate Atkinson, especially the Jackson Brodie ones.
Sandy
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badger, I can't count how many times I have stood in the bookstore with that particular book in my hand, but I think that I am going to pick it up today. I am looking for something easy to read at the moment, and it sounds like it will do the job nicely. Thanks.
This is a great thread.
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