Fall reading
 

I'm looking for some books to curl up with (+ fuzzy blanket and hot tea ;) ) anyone have some fall reading suggestions?

I highly recommend "The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears especially if you like history/philosophy that still has a page turning plot. I'm reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series right now (I haven't seen the movie) and really enjoying it.

I recently read "Foxmask" by Juliette Marillier. I really like her other books, but this one was the best of all that I've read so far. It's a second in a series, but stands alone just fine. It's in the historical fantasy genre like all her others. It was really great.
I have been on a kick for everything historical fantasy lately. I am loving Morgan Lewellyn's style of writing. Druids was excellent as was Bard. Am reading Red Branch right now, which is alright, I kind of lost interest in it. It's a retelling of the tale of Cuchulain and already knowing the story I just sort of lost interest in it, but that's not to say it isn't good. If you're more into history than fantasy, she also has a story that follows ireland with the uprising through to more modern times. So far her books include 1916, 1921, 1949, and 1972. I've read all but the last one and they are just great. Starts off following the IRA and the uprising and just sort of goes from there.
I read so much, I can't remember if I mentioned them before or not.

Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" is finally out! It's the sequel to "American Gods". I just have to assemble the pieces of my freshly knitted cardigan and I'll be all over it. (One obsession at a time)

okay maybe you are just looking for fiction, if so disregard this post. My favorite is Sly Moves by slyvester stallone

Nope, non-fiction is just as good as fictions! :D

Thanks for the suggestions - keep em coming!

I just finished "The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde (the same person who wrote the Tuesday Next series). Very clever writing.

Tani - I am so excited that Neil Gaiman has a new book out. I loved "American Gods"; I cry every time i read it. I also just recently read "Coraline." Short, but good.

Have you read the "Dead Witch Walking" series by Kim Harrison? Also, if you haven't read them, the Otherworld series by Tad Williams is amazing.

My husband LOVES Otherworld. I tried the first one and just kinda got bored. He did say the others are much much better and the story overall is the best he's ever read. He always says how amazed he is that Williams had such a vision several years ago in regards to net and way it can or may evolve. I should give it another try since I've heard so many good things about it. I only got about 1/3 of the way in. But you never know... my favorite book is 100 Years of Solitude and it took abour 3 or 4 tries before I could read it through and when I finally did I was very glad.

I'm loving Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle right now. I have about 15 pages in the last book to finish and I'm reluctant to finish it because then it will be over and I will be sad.

I'm going to re-read American Gods because we went to House on the Rock last summer and I had completely forgotten how important that was in the book (I read it years ago). I want to read it again knowing what I know of House of the Rock, and then I'm going to read the sequel. Yay!

I am about halfway through the third book in the baroque cycle and can't seem to finish it. I put it down about 4 months ago and haven't found the inclination to pick it up again. I need to make that my metro book until i finish it. I need to know what happens to everyone!

Another good book is "Strange & Mr. Norrell" (maybe "Mr. Norrell & Strange").

One I Enjoyed
 

It's actually a set of books but I finished the first one and am almost through with the second. The first one is called The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. It has some very interesting characters, the kind that you just have to know what happens to them and almost feel a sense of loss if one of them goes away (in one form or another). The books have been out for quite awhile so you might be able to get it at the library or a used book store.

Celebrating banned books week!
 

For anyone who enjoys reading I found this while surfing....It is on the American Library Association's website - very interesting, I never knew this existed, we don't have this up where I am.

Banned books week
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedboo...dbooksweek.htm

Top one hundred books banned between 1990 and 2004
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedboo...frequently.htm

Funny thing is I read a lot of those books on the list when I was in grade 7 or 8. Every girl I knew read Judy Blume :lol:

In high school the following books were required reading in the two schools I went to:

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

I found it weird that those books were on the list :shrug:

One book that I remember really loving was called Best Friends though I don't recall the author. I loaned it out & it never came back. Its very long. I once mailed it to an estranged friend whom I had been very close with & then had a falling out with. I mailed it out like a year after we had broken communication. She called me up on the phone crying after she read it. Very poignant book about how friends are sometimes the most important relationships we have just because they can persevere when all other things (men, jobs, kids, etc) have moved on.

A series that I adore but which I agree is purely junkfood for the brain, Laurell Hamilton's vampire killer series. It has a perky main character named Anita Blake who is a short scar covered brunette who gets more kinky sex than any other heroine I've ever read about. The sex is a bit tame in the first few books...the cool thing is watching her character evolve through the novels...the old Mae West quote "I used to be snow white but I drifted" comes to mind. I tore through the entire series in about a month. My ex husband loved them too.

If your looking for serious & thought provoking I'd suggest The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Or maybe Written on the Skin. Those were both really good thinking sort of books I recall. Right now I am reading 365 Tao...which is a book with a different poem that applies to Taoism & then a very modern & easy to read small essay (a page) about this & how it can apply to daily life. Its very calming, and the bite sized pieces are easy to fit into my outrageous schedule.

365 Tao sound like something I would like to read. Who is the author or publisher so I can look for a copy? Thanks in advance Dawn :)

I have seen those Vampire killer books but I may take a closer look now that you've mentioned them.

ooh, I have read a considerable amount of those books too. My all time favorite kids book is on that list "Bridge to Teribithia" by far the best childrens book I've ever read.
Several of those books were also required reading when I was in school too.

The lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
The Color Purple
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Outsiders
Flowers for Algernon
Native Son

And several of them were from Junior High!

That banned book list is full of wierd titles - like Harry Potter... :?: And puberty guides... I can't imagine the puberty guides make anything up so what IS people's problem?? I don't see how any book can be banned cos the images and disturbances come from your own head. Ok well maybe banned for bad language I suppose. But Stephen King's The Dark Half (is that the right title, with the writer and his pen name...?) made me squirm more than most of the really graphic horror stuff he writes!

I've recently been to a bargain bookshop and picked up a load of cheap classic books. I'm going to start reading more Hardy, should be nice and uplifting for the winter nights :lol3: I also bought "Confessions of an Opium Eater" Which I haven't got round to starting yet!

I got Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction last week. Have you guys got Mr Mole over there? It's really really good and with a nice happy ending AWWWW! I read it in a day, so not one to get if you really like a good *chew* with a book!

A book I did like and it took me a long time to read was Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I read most of it in the bath. Once I was in there so long, I had to re-fil the bath TWICE cos the water had gone cold! :lol:

Mauv one book you might like is Billy Morgan by Joolz Denby - if you can get it over there.


She is a punk poet/authoress - she used to have red coloured hair and Justin O'Sullivan from New Model Army (UK band) was/is her partner and was married to a guy in a biker gang called Satan's Slaves. In this story Billy is a 40 or so year old woman looking back on a life of murder and mayhem. It is a bit greek tragedy but has funny parts too. I don't mean it is greek - it is set in Bradford as I recall. The character has a not too good relationship with her mum but all the characters are believable.

Reading an interesting book by Annie Proulx (author of the Shipping News one of my faves) called "Postcards" so far it's interesting. I love that she writes in a sort of 1940's farmer dialect, it's really great but sometimes hard to read. So far it's really great.
Hubby and I went to bookstore heaven, also known as Powells bookstore in Portland Or the largest independent bookstore in the world. Imagine a store that takes up an entire city block, where each section (like arts/crafts, sci-fi, etc) is the size of one of those bookstores in malls - umm.. waldenbooks. It was so awesome. We totally spent like 130 bucks there, it was amazing. I am so set for reading now for a while... at least til Christmas the way I read!

Peacock - I knew what you meant when you said "Greek tragedy" :rofl: Thanks for the great suggestion - I will see if I can find that author here :)

A friend loaned me the Laurel Hamilton books but I haven't read them yet - :o another thing on my to do list!

Did someone say "Adrian Mole." I've read every one through "The Capuccino Years" which I didn't like as well as the earlier ones. I'll be on the lookout for the latest one but they always come out in the U.S. much later. Have you read other Sue Townsend books? "The Queen and I" was hilarious.
If you like mysteries and Venice, the Donna Leon Guido Brunetti mysteries are great.

i like the adrian mole books, too.

i just made a huge zooba buy-it-now order (i can't resist $10 hardbacks with free shipping, so every now and again i get a lot off stuff on my list all at once). it should get here in a few days. highlights:

school days (the new spenser novel)
what einstein told his cook 2
rituals of the season (the new deborah knott mystery) by margaret maron
the truth (with jokes) by al franken
bait and switch: the (futile) pursuit of the american dream by barbara ehrenreich
the cradle roobers by ayelet waldman (her newest mommy track mystery)
the perfect paragon by mc beaton (agatha raisin series)
over her dead body by kate white

i know it's pretty top-heavy with mysteries, but those are my candy books. i'm also one of those people who has a large stack of things to be read. i can't go anywhere without a book; i've even been known to read disposable books (ones i don't mind getting a bit damp) in the shower.

deb

Has anyone ever read Dolores Stewart Riccio? She's got a trio of mysteries/crime fighters out that are all solved by wiccans. Sounds a bit goofy, but they're the most realistic fictional books I've read. Great stories too. I read all three books in 3 weeks, and they're not small (not huge either).

Terri

I recently finished "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman (mentioned below) and "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood.

I liked Anansi Boys, but not as much as I liked American Gods. I felt that American Gods referenced more of the background of the various gods/goddesses while Anansi Boys just sort of brushed against that background.

Oryx and Crake was very good. It makes you think about the repercussions of genetic engineering.

I am currently reading "Son of a Witch" by Gregory McGuire. It is the sequel to "Wicked." I think I liked Wicked more, but that may be because I had the whole "Wizard of Oz" precept in my head. It is interesting noting some things from Son of a Witch that I remember from the Oz books. I imagine if I went back and read the Oz books, that i would catch even more references.

I am finishing up a series of books by Nora Roberts. I never read any of her stuff before. It is the "key" series, and is pretty entertaining. Nothing earth shattering, but a nice fantasy-ish set of novels about 3 modern day women looking for a series of keys to unlock a trio of sleeping goddesses.

I am currently reading Deep End of the Ocean and also Big Bad Wolf byJames Patterson
Virginia

Adrain Mole = :lol:

I just finished Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Vampire book by a sci-fi writer. Good, fast-paced writing, but the end was to much talking and not enough action. Overall, Butler did a great job setting up a universe (sequelsequelsequel). And you'll care about the characters.

Just finished reading Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer. I loved it. I finished it in a few days. It was a very easy, funny read. It reminds me of Good in Bed or In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner.

I got an early birthday present from the boy. I got The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. I can't wait to start it. :D

No reason for this other then he is cute - :turkey:

YOWZA!! I LOVE Hitchhiker's Guide!!!

I also liked the books by Weiner, so I should check out Fat Girl. THANKS Squeak!!

Now I know why you love Hitchhiker's Guide. I ran into your name while reading yesterday. :lol: I am not that far into it, but I am really enjoying it.

I was so disappointed with Good in Bed. There seemed to be so many unrealistic scenarios. Like she talks about how heavy the main character is, but at some point, doesn't she borrow clothes both from her skinny boyfriend and her super-skinny pop-star friend? My thought was, "Where is your editor?!" And it bothered me that the writing in her boyfriend's column, which she was complaining was so bad, was actually better than most of the writing in the actual book. Maybe as a writer/editor, I'm overly sensitive to stuff like that.

I'm kind of torn about what I want from literatur about overweight women. On the one hand, I want a realistic depiction, where she is successful and well-blanced and happy despite her weight. But is that an oxymoron? The majority of women I know who are overweight, unfortunately, don't find happiness and balance while they are overweight. They might not find it when they lose weight either, but it's really tough when you're a hundred or more pounds overweight. It SHOULDN'T be that way, and I hope it's changing, but I think it IS that way. Society is tough on heavy women -- but then again we all know that, right?

I would like to see a film where one of the main characters is overweight -- and it's never even mentioned. It has nothing to do with the plot, she's not the funny but ugly sidekick. She's just another character. Hard to do in a novel since you have to describe characters. But it could be done in a movie or TV show.

Don't usually post here but here goes...
The Laurell Hamilton Anita Blake series is very addictive..just like pringles once you start...you have to keep going..do yourself the favor and start at the beginning..some of the books read faster than others, but they all build on each other--mush reading not for deep thinkers...
I have been reading for many years and it is hard to get a book that you don't see the ending coming. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) is awesome. It's a mystery set in an insane asylum that is on a island. Best book I have read all year....and I read alot.

Just finished a book called _Nobody's Son_ by Sean Stewart. Good for fantasy readers. One of those books that you don't want to put down.

Read some more Orson Scott Card books, homebody was alright, lost boys was really good, and treasure box was just plain weird. I'm now working on George RR Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. They are fantasy, and so far are interesting. We'll see though, usually a refernce from my hubby means a guarantee they I do not like it.