<p>I don’t know about fictional characters of today who would stand the test of time. Some 20th century ones with longevity are James Bond, Holden Caulfield, Scarlett O’Hara, Atticus Finch.</p>
<p>As I think about it, despite the pastiche label generally given to Wide Sargasso Sea and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, that’s really not quite accurate is it? Because neither of those books “openly mime” the prose style and mannerisms of their inspirations. In fact, their styles are about as different from the original author as you can get. But they do pay homage to the originals while offering new content, so I guess they fall into some kind of sub-category.</p>
<p>The holidays are descending upon us and I think we’ve had our fill of Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes, so let’s start thinking about our February selection.</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply to your question, Mary! My husband read The House of Silk on the recommendation of a mutual friend who also is a fan of the original Holmes series by Doyle. They both thought it a reasonable approximation of the original. That said, H just shared with me that he preferred A Conan Doyle’s writing style. He also enjoyed the mystery aspect of the originals with the conservative presentation of clues and enough information held until the end to keep the reader in the dark until the grand reveal. He felt Horowitz wasn’t as effective at retaining information, and found the mystery in Silk easier to figure out before the ending. Personally, I like a story in which the author is clever enough to provide enough information in theory to solve the mystery, yet keep me in suspense until the ending. I want the author to be smarter than I am! I don’t think it’s fair to the reader to withhold critical information. But that’s just my preference :).</p>
<p>Regarding the next selection, I know that people have in the past liked to choose a book with a romantic theme for February. With that in mind, I would suggest:</p>
<p>A Room With a View by E.M. Forster.</p>
<p>I am also still interested in reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert and Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín. </p>
<p>A few suggestions for future discussion based on books I have in my stack:</p>
<p>Lila by Marilynne Robinson
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Some Luck by Jane Smiley </p>
<p>I also finished All The Light We Cannot See yesterday–liked much. </p>
<p>I’m a bit intimidated by the heft of Mann, so maybe I’d be able to read in a group?! On the other hand, I’d hate to drag a whole group down with something too heavy. I just started the Smiley book; it seems to be easy reading so either that or the Robinson’s Lila would be my top picks of the three in my list.</p>
<p>Oh, I do like Forster and have not read * A Room With a View*! Very willing.</p>
<p>I have read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book–highly recommend–and Toibin’s Nora Webster. Very different, and I preferred Gilbert’s. </p>
<p>I also finished Sarah Waters’ *The Paying Guests * we talked about last time. It definitely has a huge element of “smoldering passion”, but it’s very good. </p>
<p>
Mine too.</p>
<p>I’d say Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and Gollum have stood the test of time. Personally I think Mile Vorkosigan should stand the test of time, but not enough people read sci fi! </p>
<p>Thomas Mann is an interesting suggestion. Despite five years in Germany, I could never quite bring myself to read him. There just always seemed to be something more fun to read.</p>
<p>I think I’ve read all of Forster’s book - I’d be willing to reread it though my preference would be to read something new.</p>
<p>Next up for me is So you want to be a Wizard, a YA book my oldest reread numerous times, and I inexplicably never got around to reading. </p>
<p>I also have The Good Lord Bird on my bedside table. (February is also Black History month!)</p>
<p>Let’s see - no titles, just some thoughts</p>
<p>we haven’t read anything romantic in a while so that would be good (Room with a View sounds good)</p>
<p>a long book for cold winter months would be good (nothing depressing - the weather takes care of that)</p>
<p>we mentioned looking into fantasy for our next book so that would be good (suggestions, mathmom?)</p>
<p>I’ve really liked each of our winter picks - The Luminaries, Possession, 11/22/63, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, and The Help. I hope we can come up with something good this time too.</p>
<p>Cross-posted with mathmom - but I too have The Good Lord Bird sitting here.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I would have to agree. The Arthur Conan Doyle stories I’ve read are just a little quirkier and harder to figure out than Horowitz’s story. Also, as we discussed earlier, I didn’t like the pedophilia aspect of The House of Silk or the boy’s murder. Children would not be victims in such a graphic way in a true Sherlock Holmes story. I know that Horowitz’s Watson tried to explain away this aspect by declaring that the delay in writing the story was due to the terrible nature of the crime involved…but still…no, thank you.</p>
<p>I’ve read The Magic Mountain and don’t think I could put myself through that again. I wish I had read it with all of you because then I would have understood it better and appreciated it more.</p>
<p>I am currently reading All the Light We Cannot See and I think I’m the last one to join the party. I have a feeling that everyone here who wanted to read it has already done so, and it may be a distant memory for some by February. But if I’m wrong, I’d be quite happy to discuss it, so I’ll add it to the list and wait for opinions from others.</p>
<p>So far – add or strike, as you see fit:</p>
<p>A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride</p>
<p>My son votes for *The Name of the Wind *Patrick Rothfuss. He says it can be read closely and every word is carefully chosen. I haven’t read any of his books yet, so it would be new for me.</p>
<p>Two newer fantasies I have read, that he would also recommend are Brandon Sanderson’s *Mistborn <a href=“which%20I%20liked,%20but%20I%20thought%20had%20a%20rather%20tiresome%20magic%20system”>/i</a> or *Warbreaker <a href=“which%20also%20has%20a%20strange%20magic%20system,%20but%20I%20liked%20because%20it%20had%20more%20humor%20and%20surprises.”>/i</a></p>
<p>Older fantasies I like a lot:</p>
<p>Patricia McKillip - The* Bards of Bone Plain* “The reader is pulled from the current trials and tribulations occurring in Phelan’s life into the legend of Nairn, until the reality and the legend slowly become mirrors of each other, and then finally fused together. Almost (Thomas) Hardy-ish in the level of description, the author never loses the reader in description for description’s sake. Each element described serves to further the story.” (from Booklist) I like this and it’s not part of larger series.</p>
<p>Peter Dickinson - * The Ropemaker* Dickinson is prolific and has written breathtakingly different books - from his first children’s books set in the future with a grouchy Merlin to a story about a girl’s brain transplanted into a chimpanzee body after a terrible accident, to books set in the prehistoric past. </p>
<p>Robin McKinley - I loved her * Blue Sword* a fantasy clearly inspired by the Raj. My son thought it a little bit too pat treading too close to the white man saves the natives plot. She’s also very good at retelling fairly tales. I love her version of * Beauty and the Beast* called * Beauty*. She actually did a second version called * Rosedaughter* that I don’t think is nearly as good, though there are things about it I like very much. It would be a great duo - along with perhaps the original version by Perrault.</p>
<p>Finally, Megan Whelan Turner’s The Thief and its sequels is an awful lot of fun. I love the landscape.</p>
<p>For urban fantasy I really like the world created by Charles deLint. His Canadian town of Newford is gritty and contemporary with the addition of sprites and spirits from Irish and Native American mythology. I’ve read many, and not in the right order so I am frequently somewhat confused by who is who in his overlapping cast of characters. </p>
<p>So many interesting choices-
Sharing the NPR link to their lists of " staff picks", “book club selections” and many more categories including " seriously great writing" …</p>
<p><a href=“Best Books of 2014 : NPR”>http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2014/</a></p>
<p>I would also like to suggest All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu. It is on all of the “best recent books” lists, is high on my own to-read list…and contains a love story!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Mary: I read All the Light We Can Not See when it first came out but would happily read it again. In fact, I plan to read it again at some point. Really good book.</p>
<p>mathmom: I know Caraid had a lot of interest in The Name of the Wind. Her son too originally suggested it to her. (She may have already read it by now.) I’ve wanted to read it.</p>
<p>I have Warbreaker sitting here. Someone recommended it on the Best Books thread. I looked at the reviews and picked it up. </p>
<p>Megan Whalen Turner - The Queen’s Thief series. The Thief and its sequels are short enough to count as one long book. Yes, I’ve read them - more that once - but would more than happily read them again. I can’t say enough good things about this series. We had to buy multiple copies for this house. <a href=“http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=6682”>http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=6682</a></p>
<p>I trust your opinion on the others.</p>
<p>Someone highly recommended The Goblin’s Emperor on the Best Books thread and I’ve seen it show up on other best books thread. Station Eleven keeps popping up on best books threads. And a discussion of favorite fantasy can’t pass without me including Kushiel’s Dart - a multiple reread for me. </p>
<p>Mary and all - lots of good choices. I’m hoping we pick one that some of our off-and-on members want to read with us.</p>
<p>mathmom, thank you for the short course in fantasies. I have never read any fantasies (except fairy tales, and Beauty by Robin McKinley), so it’s all new to me. In order to keep our list manageable, I will add just two of your recommended titles (the ones that were also mentioned by others). </p>
<p>Actually, this list isn’t manageable at all, is it? 
We have too many possibilities! I would read any of them. This doesn’t include every title posted above, but I felt I’d better stop at lucky number 13!</p>
<p>A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Thief and its sequels (The Queen’s Thief series) by Megan Whalen Turner
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel</p>
<p>I’m listing so many books because every once in a while, it’s nice for us to create a stack to refer to later, either for a future selection or for off-month reading. </p>
<p>We have too many titles to vote, so the next step is to eliminate some of the above. Please go ahead and strike any book you would prefer not to read. No questions asked, no explanation necessary (unless you want to share), and no offense taken. I’ve already used one veto with The Magic Mountain, and the rest of you have veto power, too. Go ahead and use it and then we’ll see what remains. </p>
<p>I’ll veto Lila because it’s third of three novels. I know, I know … I don’t have to read *Gilead<a href=“Pulitzer%20Prize%202005”>/i</a> and Home before picking up Lila but I’d feel like I should. I hate starting with a third book.</p>
<p>Among the fantasy choices, I’d be willing to read Station Eleven. None of the others (i.e.the books by Rothfuss, Turner, Sanderson and Addison) look appealing in the least.</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but though Some Luck and The Good Lord Bird seem like fine, worthwhile reads, I’m afraid I find myself resistant to spending over 400 pages worth of my time in the world of either of those novels. </p>
<p>Here are my top five:</p>
<ol>
<li>All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu</li>
<li>* A Room With a View* by E.M. Forster </li>
<li>The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, OR Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín</li>
<li>Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel</li>
<li>All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr</li>
</ol>
<p>I noticed that In the Name of the Wind by Rothfuss has 2553 five-star reviews on Amazon. Very impressive! But it is 722 pages long! It does actually look pretty good…in fact, it looks like something I might be glad to take with me on a leisurely round-the-world voyage, if I didn’t want to strain my brain with the likes of Mann or Proust. However, right now I really wouldn’t want to bump other things off my to-read list in favor of such a long fantasy novel</p>