I just finished A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates. I recommed it with the caveat that, in my opinion, it could have used some editing and was not as good as Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking.
Years ago I read Black Water by Oates and loved it. I tried some of her other books but didn’t find them nearly as good. If any one wants to recommend a favorite book by Oates, I’d like to try reading her again.
Call of the Wild and White Fang
Currently reading [Behind</a> the Beautiful For*evers](<a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2012/0220/Behind-the-Beautiful-Forevers]Behind”>Behind the Beautiful Forevers - CSMonitor.com)
pugmadkate, years ago I loved the Wonderland Quartet. I also recently started A Widow’s Tale and couldn’t get into it. I found that I enjoyed her when I was early 20’s and frequent attempts to read her later books left me unable to deal with their darkness.
Me too Kitty, Beyond The Beautiful Forevers, as well as The Snowball, which is a 1000 pg biography of Warren Buffet. An interesting contrast.
I’m reading Colin Powell’s autobiography… it is good. Only downside is that it came out in the mid 1990s, which is before he spent his time as Secretary of State, so that is missing (unless there is a followup chapter or two at the end).
Just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I couldn’t put them down, although the first book is clearly the best. Although I know these are “young adult” novels, I don’t think I’d want someone under about 14 reading them - there are deeply disturbing themes and lots and lots of violence. I was hooked though, and definitely recommend them for adults. Looking forward to the movie.
Am I the only one who couldn’t read “The Hunger Games?” I read the beginning and end of the first book. The idea of children killing each other was too much for me. I couldn’t read much of the book once the <em>games</em> started.
mstee, I think what made it bearable is that I didn’t see any of them as really being teens in my mind’s eye - except for Rue. The rest of them I pictured as early 20’s, although they were supposed to be 12 - 18. I may be in for a rude awakening when I see the movie.
Those of you who’ve read them, are the Hunger Games part of the young adult fiction genre in the vein of Orson Scott Card, maybe? Or are they simpler, akin to maybe Harry Potter (I haven’t read Ender’s Game/Shadow in years, so I don’t remember how these two series stack up, just that the Card books were harder).
Well, I am still reading it, but Sometimes A Great Notion, by Ken Kesey, is amazing if you sometimes like to work for your reading pleasure. It truly is a modern American masterpiece. I would literally gasp at some of his gorgeous writing. The first 100 pages or so are fairly rough going, however, but if you hang in there you will be amply rewarded.
^One of my all time favorites, wrldtravlr.
“A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains” letters written by Isabella Bird.
It’s the middle of the 19th century, and you’re the daughter of an Anglican clergyman living in rural Northern England. What do you do? If you’re Isabella Bird (1831-1904) you get a £100 allowance and set off to North America by yourself to do something more interesting.
I loved “Sometimes a Great Notion,” too. I haven’t read it in many years. Thank you for the reminder.
You know I have never read that? Going to fix that right now!
[Ken</a> Kesey’s true legacy is ‘Sometimes a Great Notion’ - seattlepi.com](<a href=“http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/Ken-Kesey-s-true-legacy-is-Sometimes-a-Great-1071815.php]Ken”>http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/Ken-Kesey-s-true-legacy-is-Sometimes-a-Great-1071815.php)
^^^^^
Thanks for posting that, emeraldkity4. When you read this you will be in for a treat.
I just read ** I Beat the Odds ** by Michael Oher (with Don Yaeger). Knocked it out in 2 days - what a great book!
Did you read “The Blind Side”? Maybe you saw the movie. Michael Oher was the subject of the book and the movie, but this is his story as told by him (although written by Don Yaeger, who writes extremely well). There are some very powerful messages in this book, and what makes it so compelling is hearing the story from the guy who lived it, not having the story told to you by a third party. I love Michael Lewis as a writer and story teller and really enjoyed the Blind Side, but this book is something different.
IMO it falls in the middle… I don’t think the reading level is as high as Orson Scott Card, but that is just my opinion as a casual reader, not an English teacher or anything. The later books in the Ender’s Game series are definitely more “advanced” than Hunger Games, and some of those later EG books get quite “out there” IMO. The Hunger Games has a pretty straight forward storyline, but it does deal with kids fighting to the death, so the themes are not necessarily more kid friendly.
More on The Hunger Games - if you or your kids read book 1, they will definitely want to read 2 and 3. If you have middle-schoolers, please be aware that the violence level just keeps going up with each book (as hard as that seems to believe). Book 3 was the first time I felt like it might be gratuitous, though - prior to that it really did advance the story and reveal the nature of the characters and the situation they find themselves in.
I just finished Cain by Jose Saramago. Really enjoyed it, but it’s probably not for everyone - irreverent take on the Old Testament. I also really liked Blindness - and if you haven’t seen the movie, read the book first or instead.