scout - I’m about half way through listening to Fourth of July Creek. I hope reading it is just as entertaining as listening to it. The narrators are wonderful and there are moments when the tension is so palpable, my inclination is to put my hands over my ears. I admit I have chosen books based on the fact that MacLeod Andrews narrated them so I was thrilled to see that he narrated this one. It would be tempting to call the author an overnight success had it not taken 10 years for him to write it. I’m thinking negotiations for movie rights are well underway.
@cartera45 - success! Turns out my local library just ordered a copy of “Fourth of July Creek”! And now I’m second in line for the first available copy.
Can’t wait to read it!
I gave up about halfway through Life after Life. I kept trying to like it but found it very confusing everytime the story was reconstructed. I realized I just didn’t care that much for the characters. Also, what happened to Silvia’s character? She starts out warm and loving and ends up the kind of mother we all dread.
So I jumped ship and started reading Mercedes Man by Stephen King. So far, so good.
I mght have said this before, but another book titled “Life After Life” came out at the same time, by Jill McCorkle, which ws wonderful. definitely recommend. She’s one of my favorite writers.
I’m just finishing The Jewel in the Crown, which I’ve found to be fascinating and haunting and beautifully written.
Has anyone read the entire Quartet?
I just read the new novel by Mona Simpson, Casebook. It is really great – kind of a Harriet the Spy for adults, as a son and his friend keep snooping around to see what is going on with his mom’s new boyfriend. It is about divorce, family, love, change. The ending dragged a bit and I see in reviews that some people had a “ewww” reaction to a boy going through his mother’s things, but I really liked it and thought the character of Miles, the son, was a fabulous achievement.
Also liked Shorecliff by Ursula de Young about a group of cousins spending an intense summer together in a family cottage in 1928 – kind of your typical adolescent coming of age, but well done. Now reading My Notorious Life by Kate Manning, told in a Dickensian voice about the life of a hardscrabble orphan who will grow up to a “lady doctor” and I think midwife and maybe abortionist? Haven’t gotten that far yet. Great for lovers of nineteenth century novels, does not pul any punches about how grim life was back then for the poor (set in New York).
dbwes: I just picked up Casebook from the library and look forward to reading it. (It’s not next up on my list but soon.)
Oh my gosh, yes!
scout59: I like the Lariat List but feel good if I read five or six of the books listed. I’m impressed that you’re working through the list of titles. My library book club read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter and everyone liked it. I have Reconstructing Amelia here but it keeps moving back in line - through no fault of its own.
@LasMa, I loved the Raj Quartet, though I read it so long ago I don’t remember much about it. The television series was good too.
LasMa, I read the whole Raj Quartet and absolutely adored it. I remember being disturbed by ending of The Towers of Silence and being glad that I had the next book in the quartet to proceed with.
If you have stamina for long reads and like reading about India, I’d also strongly recommend A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
Thanks mathmom.
If your looking for a good beach read and if you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, check out “The Passing Bells” by Phillip Rock. It’s a series of three books set around a great house, Abingdon Pryory and the aristocratic family that lives there. It begins in 1914 and ends at WWII. The second in the series is “Circles of Time”. The third is “A Future Arrived”.
Written in the 80’s some of the plot lines are very much like Downton’s, but to say anymore would give things away.
And thanks NJTheatreMom.
Sounds yummy, Tatin!
Recently read and enjoyed:
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Calling Me Home- Julie Kibler
You Should Have Known - Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Partner Track - Helen Wan
I finished A Suitable Boy yesterday and I loved it so much! I read it in about 5 days and once woke up muttering dreams about it. I laughed, I cried, I can’t wait for the sequel. I bought it when I was 15 or something, and it sat utterly untouched on my shelves until this week, but as soon as I started reading it I knew I was in for a good one. That was my favorite read of the past month, in which I also read Du Maurier’s Rebecca, a Jasper Fforde YA novel, and Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Notebook.
I also recently read and loved The Possessed by Dostoevsky (it’s frequently titled Demons). It was an incredibly, incredibly exciting novel. One of the main pairs is laugh out loud funny, which considerably lightens the intense plot and the philosophical discussions characters engage in. There’s a lengthy scene at the end of the novel’s first part that is really and truly one of the best things I’ve ever read.
Going back quite a bit further in time, I read Borges’ Dreamtigers in August. It’s a mix of his short pose and poetry and as beautiful as one would expect from such a master. The piece for Delia Elena San Marco, especially, was striking.
I’m so happy to hear that you loved A Suitable Boy, Millancad. You read it (1488 pages) in five days, wow! That’s incredible. Did you do anything else, lol? I once read a comment about the book where the person said, “Ive never met so many dear friends in any other novel.” I felt that way about it, too!
There’s a sequel coming??
I must admit I’ve never yet read any Dostoevsky. I should try The Possessed. I appreciate your recommendation.
@NJTheatreMOM - I did very, very little else. It was addictive!
A Suitable Girl, the sequel, was supposed to be published in 2013 actually, but has been delayed until at least 2016. It’s set 50-60 years after A Suitable Boy in the present day, and I believe it follows the Mehras’ descendants. I hope a good number of the younger characters from A Suitable Boy are still around!
There was a wonderful Masterpiece Theatre of The Possessed back in the 70s, but for reading I preferred Crime and Punishment.
I just finished reading Christopher Isherwood’s* Berlin Stories* having just watched Cabaret on Broadway and then Cabaret the movie. They Broadway version is closer in feel to the stories, but I still love the movie. Very amusing how they completely changed some character - some switching from being Jewish to Nazis or vice versa and somehow still working.
I’m a graduated senior, but I couldn’t find a thread like this in the high school forum.
Sorry, I have to chose 3…
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren - it can be slow at times, but 100% worth it. One of my favourite books. Do look up a single thing about ANYTHING relating to this book… reading it spoiler-free is crucial.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard - it’s a play - very witty, existential. Make sure you read/re-read/read about Hamlet first.
Richard II by Shakespeare - I think this play is SO underrated. Probably my favourite of his works (or tied with Hamlet)
[/book nerding]
Reading the Giver with my daughter and it gave me nightmares last night.