<p>I too loved “The Red Tent”…and “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morrell” was wonderful (a tad long) with a scene early on set in a cathedral where all the statues begin to talk as though alive, of the time when they were created, so it is a caucaphony (sp) of sound. I still get shivers when I think of what it would be like to have the carvings in Westminster Abbey or Kings Chapel or Windsor Chapel come “alive”…this image was worth the book alone. I gave about 8 copies of the new Lincoln book from Doris Kearns Goodwin “Team of Rivals” out to friends/family at XMAS…even got the CD’s for my hubby… haven’t yet read it myself, must be savoring the anticipation?? Abe is my favorite man of all time…</p>
<p>I worry sometimes that I am drawn to these posts and I regurgitate my same old list of favorite books…but I think the reward is to then see others who post they love a certain book too…I don’t really need to “discuss” books with others in great depth…but I do enjoy knowing others like what I like… and while we don’t know one another here in “RL” I do recognize some voices and get a tiny sense of satisfaction knowing we think alike and seeing what others recommend.</p>
<p>“In the books vs. movies discussion, my favorite book to movie success is Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon”</p>
<p>Much of this movie was filmed around the corner from me. Had the trucks and RVs on our block for months. Michael Douglas was charming and gracious, thanking us for our hospitality and incovenience during the shooting. Some nights the neighborhood was lit up like a Monday Night Football game.</p>
<p>How about favorite classics? I just reread Bleak House–was my favorite Dickens, this time around I still loved it but did find some of it a little too cute. Want to reread my other favorite, “Our Mutual Friend.”</p>
<p>I reread “Middlemarch” every few years–I’m a huge Eliot fan.</p>
<p>Keep saying I’m going to tackle Tolstoy again, but haven’t yet.</p>
<p>now I loved the english patient- the movie
when the book came out I picked it up several times but just didn’t appeal to me-
But I liked the movie so much that I gave it another try and read it straight through twice !</p>
<p>For all consuming vacation reading- especially for those who are interested in history I would recommend the Outlander series by Diana Gabladon- yes it is supposedly a “romance” but also time travel and a great deal of character development and history.( it begins in the scottish highlands in the 18th century)
The author has done a great deal of research and even my husband who admittedly skipped through the “racy” parts read the series straight through.</p>
<p>I do really love Joan Didions writing, but the most recent book I haven’t gotten to-
Red tent was our first book group book- I think we bugged out the yes of the other coffeeshop customers in discussing some of the details
oh if you like mysteries- especially British legal dramas I suggest Sarah Caudwell- who was a British Barrister and wrote just 3 or 4 mysteries before she died but they are great- full of that dry brit humor.
I love british humor- one more</p>
<p>I read quite a bit. A few of my favorites:
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
Bee Season, Myla Goldberg (it’s a fast, entertaining read)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
The Metamorphoses, Ovid (good if you’re into mythology)</p>
<p>I also really like the short stories of Graham Greene, especially because it’s easy to read as many (or as few) as you’d like, then come back to them when you have more time. The volume I have is called Twenty-one Stories.</p>
<p>Hysteron porteron,
of course it is okay if you are not a parent… in fact, your suggestion of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn might be a good one for our mother/son book group. We discuss our latest read, Bode Miller’s autobiography, this coming Sunday…and now I have a suggestion to throw out… so thanks for adding to our considerations!!</p>
<p>rereading classics…I’m currently rereading “My Antonia” by Willa Cather. It’s been so long since I read it that it’s almost like reading it for the first time.</p>
<p>For me there is a whole lot of difference between at home reading and vacation reading. I define vacation reading that if I am distracted I can come back to the book and not have to go back and remind myself who is who.
For vacation reading my favorites are anything by Jodi Picoult. Favorites Salem Falls, The Pact, Plain Truth.
Ann Lamont
Gail Tsukiyama- Dreaming Water, The Samarai’s Garden. Women of the Silk.
Year’s ago I read a series that I think were written by a San Francisco author who wrote for one of the newspaper’s and some of the character’s were gay. Anyone know of them. I would love to reread them if I could remember the titles.</p>
<p>I’m currently reading Jonathan Franzen’s ‘The Corrections’, which I think is good vacation fare. </p>
<p>But what I really want to recommend is ‘after the quake’ by Haruki Murakami. It is a collection of six short stories. All of them are in some way connected to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. These are just awesomely, great short stories. The kind that stick in your mind, long after you’ve finishied reading them.</p>
<p>As for book/movie pairs. Hands down winner is ‘The Tin Drum’. Great book and a great movie. (but you never want to eat eels again)</p>
<p>robyrm, no exaggeration: Every week when I get the NY Times Book Review, I scan the fiction titles and authors to see if Jhumpa Lahiri has written another book yet! Have you also read The Namesake (her novel)?</p>
<p>I, too, loved Jhumpa Lahiri.<br>
Yesterday, we all read a book review in the NYT that made us think we’d like to read the book. It’s the Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. It begins in 1688 and moves from England to Boston, MA. It involves witch-hunting, Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Native Americans and more. The heroine marries a Boston postman after asking him: “Do you have access to Harvard College Library?” We all fell about laughing. How can you not love such a heroine? I’m going to buy the book, even though it’s not yet in paperback.</p>
<p>Mom60,
one of my best friends has strongly urged the Gail Tsukiyama books,
saying that The Women of the Silk is just a haunting read. I hereby “pledge” to read her this year. Thanks for the reminder!</p>
<p>Answering a previous post, yes, I DID like The Year of Magical Thinking. Not at all easy sometimes, but there are aspects of it that are: all of the reminiscences of their lives together as writers; her unblinking courage and perspective is almost beyond imagination. But she has given us a great gift with that book, showing us a path that we all must endure at one time or another in our lives. But yes, terribly sad too.</p>
<p>Agreed on Anne Tyler too, I think I’ve read all of her books as they come out over the years. </p>
<p>Since baseball season is beginning, if you enjoy the game and history, try “Wait Til Next Year” by Doris Kearns. A memoir of her growing up with baseball in New York–outstanding.</p>
<p>I agree with garland about The DaVinci Code. At the beginning, I couldn’t put it down, I thought the beginning was just outstanding. But the denouement was completely unsatisfying. It has become quite a cult though.</p>
<p>I’ll get The Secret Life of Bees and several others mentioned above. In my pile but unfinished: “Snow”, “The Kite Runner”, and “Reading Lolita in Tehran”…</p>
<p>patient, I’ll be anxious to hear what you think of The Kite Runner. I read it last year and found it a fascinating look into Afghan culture. It was the kind of book that after reading it, I wanted to get in touch with the author to tell him how much I enjoyed it! </p>
<p>I agree with you about Joan Didion. I loved how she shared, so generously, her reminiscences of the life they had together. One interesting thing I just found out recently, was the origin of her daughter’s name. There’s been a big story in the news here about a wealthy couple from Toronto who were in Mexico for their daughter’s wedding, and were found murdered in their hotel room. The hotel was in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.</p>
<p>Second The Kite Runner - just started reading it and am fascinated and hoping, as hinted, another book by Hosseini is soon forthcoming. (Just checked on line to see if there was more info about that and darn - it looks as if they are making a movie of it.)</p>
<p>I am on an Alice Munro binge this year…try NYT’s top Ten for 2004 title…Runaway, for trilogy of short stories on estrangement between a mother and her daughter that is brilliant and will stop the heart of parents our age, also try Murakami for his total originality…Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Just reported on The Known World by Edward Jones Pulitzer prize winner for 2005…amazingly good writing on obscure complex real thread of black families in Virginia that were briefly slave owners in antebellum years…he is as good as Garcia Marquez and will turn what you thought you grasped about slavery on its ear just as Morrison did in Beloved.</p>