I just finished The Art Forger, which was discussed on this thread back when it was published. Terrific read.
I agree with @nottelling 's suggestion of the Jeeves books, for good light amusing reading.
@Nrdsb4 I think everything by Sedaris should be listened to. It’s a unique style and may not appeal to you. Here’s a link to the Christmas Elf story: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/144136439/david-sedaris-reads-from-his-santaland-diaries
@mathmom, thanks. Yesterday I had to do a lot of driving to visit two different hospitalized relatives. I went ahead and purchased Me Talk Pretty One Day as an audiobook and yes, it was much better than the print version imo. I’m glad to have found Sedaris because I find him interesting and amusing and would be willing to “wait” to enjoy him during my walks, exercise, and in the car. Mystery/thrillers which tend to be page turners are probably better suited for kindle or traditional book form for me.
I’m an audio book junkie. I find I enjoy every type of book more in that format. I listen every night before bed, while I workout and since my work sometimes involves database work, I can listen then too. I actually rarely listen when I drive, unless it is a long trip. I don’t miss traditional books.
I started Bossy Pants last night and just finished it. Loved it!
I just finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. It’s hard to say much about it without spoilers, though I will say the twist in the middle caught me totally off guard. But I feel like it’s one of those books which is going to stick with me. I’ve been unable to think of much else the whole time I was reading it (all of two days). The immersion feeling won’t last more than a couple of days, probably. It’ll be interesting to see what I think and feel about it in a few months. But it’s already the book to beat for my personal-book-of-the-year award. It really affected me.
I was moved by We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, too, although I felt the college scenes did not live up to the rest of the book.
Mild spoiler:
The book reminded me very, very much of Allen Shawn’s two memoirs about his severely autistic twin sister, Twin and I Wish I Could Be There. Until they were about six or seven, Allen and his twin sister Mary were inseparable, and since Mary had mo language, Allen became her voice. Then, one day, without any discussion or explanation, she was gone from the family. She had been placed in a home, but no one had bothered to explain that to Allen. To add to the trauma, Mary became a taboo subject who was not to be spoken of, so Allen had to deal with the terror and trauma of losing his sister without any support. This trauma becomes the defining event of his life, and the books are a study of the lingering effects that he suffers for his entire life. Not to give too much away, he eventually reunites with Mary and the meaning of that reunion is sensitively and movingly explored.
So many parallels to the Fowler! I’ve always wanted to ask her if Allen Shawn’s books influenced her.
Wow. ^
I too loved WACBO.
Tournament of Books is in full swing, with some judgements that I am NOT happy about. But so many knowledgeable readers and commenters. It’s a bookworm’s heaven.
@nottelling – Interesting about Allen Shawn’s experience with his twin. I hope Shawn has discussed the situation with his parents, because as we find out in WAACBO, Rosemary’s memories about the reasons for Fern’s exile – and the reasons for the aftermath of silence – are not how it happened. At least, according to her mother’s account at the end, and the mother’s story rings true to me.
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Some people are calling it one of the best books they have ever read. It apparently involves very, very dark material, however, and I’m not sure I’m up for it. I don’t know too much about it but I’m wondering if it is on others’ to-be-read lists (or, if anyone has already read it).
Oh sorry, just saw that GoldenWest posted about it. I had somehow missed that post. Did you finish it, GoldenWest? How did you like it?
I too really liked We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and was caught off guard. I’m glad to see others are enjoying it. I was ready to listen to A Little Life but it’s not in audio format yet so I started The Martian and really don’t like it so moved on to another Liane Moriarity book. I’m on a Moriarity kick. Maybe I’ll go back to the The Martian at some point but the minutia at the beginning of the book bored me.
I gave The Martian to a book club friend and put a note in it saying “on page # this speeds up!”
I enjoyed “Beside Ourselves” despite the fact that a stupid reviewer gave it away.
@nottelling, I am about 1/4 of the way through and still enjoying it very much. So far it is just hinting at the darker themes, but I know they are coming. I had seen the Huff Post Books review about it, seen raves on Amazon and just jumped in. I will say I am looking forward to my “reading time” tonight!
For Audible lovers, there is a good sale going on now. I picked up a couple of books that I want to re-read.
@cartera45, on what device do you listen to your books?
I listen on my iphone.
So back here to report I finished reading Jo Walton’s most recent book which I read first since I can only have it for two weeks. It’s call The Just City. I didn’t love it, but I found it very interesting. The premise is that Athena decides to run an experiment of trying to recreate Plato’s Just City which he describes in The Republic. Apollo, who is just coming off a disappointing and to him mysterious experience with Daphne, decides to become mortal temporarily so he can be part of the experiment. Things get interesting when they decide to import Sokrates to teach the children rhetoric. Sokrates, needless to say, does not behave as predicted. There’s a lot of philosophical talk (which I usually have little patience for), but enjoyed pretty well in this case. Unlike Jostein Gaardener’s creepy Sophie’s World which also combines philosophy with a story, but just gets boring (or overly meta) by the end, I thought this one got more fun as it goes along, though it ends surprisingly abruptly. (I see there are sequels planned.)
Okay, I admit to being a total techno idiot. Right now I buy books on my iphone using my i-tunes app. I don’t have to have my computer at hand to download them; they just come onto my phone via wifi or 4G. So when you use another company, do you have an app on your phone, or do you plug your phone into your laptop and download it that way by going through amazon?
ETA: I found an Audible app and put it on my i-phone, so I’m good to go. Thanks for the tip.