Bookworms

jessiferrrb wrote: »

mayoosh_primrose wrote: »

jessiferrrb wrote: »

i know you didn't actually ask me - but i really liked the whole series so far, now if we could only get the next book before hbo blows it all to hell . . .

Thanks! Will give it another shot once I finish the Steinbeck book I'm reading What are you currently reading?

I just finished the goldfinch, which took me a while to get into, but i ended up really loving it. i'm reading an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Harlan Ellison right now, it's from the 60's and it's called "dangerous visions" there are some really good stories and some laughable ones, but overall i'm enjoying it.

I love Harlan Ellison. He's my favorite short story writer! I've read his Gentleman Junkie compilation a thousand times, and I've been meaning to get my hands on more of his stories.

Right now I'm hooked on Gone Girl. Good god that booked is messed up, but the writing style is fantastic and I keep finding myself gripping at the pages to glimpse what perspective/timeline I'll see next and why. Last book I read was *cough* Fault In Our Stars, since I'm a sucker for romantic fiction when I'm not reading suspense.

*pssst* I'm new. Nice to meet you all!

I like my romance with a dash of humor - Eloise James has a very nice, easy style, good, quick characterizations, and she invites her reader into her worlds with graciousness and an edge.

Going way old time, as I tend to do, for romance, you can't do much better than "Jane Eyre" or any one of Mrs. Gaskell's books - though my introduction to her, long ago, wasn't a romance but a sweet and tart, gentle parody of the town and people she knew when growing up: "Cranford":

pagebypagebooks.com/Elizabeth_Gaskell/Cranford/

The first paragraph hooked me:

"IN the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble, distant only twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever does become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford. What could they do if they were there? The surgeon has his round of thirty miles, and sleeps at Cranford; but every man cannot be a surgeon. For keeping the trim gardens full of choice flowers without a weed to speck them; for frightening away little boys who look wistfully at the said flowers through the railings; for rushing out at the geese that occasionally venture in to the gardens if the gates are left open; for deciding all questions of literature and politics without troubling themselves with unnecessary reasons or arguments; for obtaining clear and correct knowledge of everybody's affairs in the parish; for keeping their neat maid-servants in admirable order; for kindness (somewhat dictatorial) to the poor, and real tender good offices to each other whenever they are in distress, the ladies of Cranford are quite sufficient. "A man," as one of them observed to me once, "is SO in the way in the house!" Although the ladies of Cranford know all each other's proceedings, they are exceedingly indifferent to each other's opinions. Indeed, as each has her own individuality, not to say eccentricity, pretty strongly developed, nothing is so easy as verbal retaliation; but, somehow, good-will reigns among them to a considerable degree."

Also a bookworm...kind of showing up late to the conversation. I love that you guys are discussing Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte! I also love Jane Austen. Those three are my favourite authors!

I didn't discover Elizabeth Gaskell until University, and it was only after watching the BBC adaptation of North and South. After reading that one, I quickly ordered a bunch of her books from the local shop haha.

maryrice702 wrote: »

I am reading Devil in the White City. Very well written--read it before it gets turned into a movie.

i love that book!

SpontaneousHiker wrote: »

Also a bookworm...kind of showing up late to the conversation. I love that you guys are discussing Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte! I also love Jane Austen. Those three are my favourite authors!

I didn't discover Elizabeth Gaskell until University, and it was only after watching the BBC adaptation of North and South. After reading that one, I quickly ordered a bunch of her books from the local shop haha.

I discovered her around that time, too - as an author, anyway. I first knew her as the friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte. I didn't actually read the bio right away though. She came to me through other biographies of Charlotte who used Mrs. Gaskell as a source. Sometimes their picture of her was of a shallow, ambitious, chatty woman and she didn't attract me. Imagine my pleased surprised when I met the sympathy-with-an-edge tone of "Cranford". Then I read her own biography, and emerged with a much fuller, more attractive impression.

See? Never take the first, second or third impressions to be the concrete ones!

Has anyone here read "The Girl On The Train" by Paula Hawkins??? I want to discuss it

I read "The Girl On The Train" a while ago. Pretty decent.

I'm reading some epic fantasy type thing right now. Its apparently a trilogy or some such. I'm on book 2. James Maxwell The Evermen Saga. It's decent and well written...especially for a book that is free with kindle unlimited. I get some real stinkers free on amazon some times.

By the way @louise1491...did you really like the Time Traveller's Wife? I thought that was the most depressing book I ever read.