<p>Check out The Memory Keepers Daughter and Three Cups of Tea.
I’m currently reading What Is The What by Dave Eggers.</p>
<p>I’ve never read any Wodehouse so right now I’m on my first-ever Jeeves novel. Light and frivolous, sure. I think the next time I’ll look for an earlier one…the one I’m reading is copyrighted 1960. Didn’t realize that he wrote more than 90 of them.</p>
<p>Wait a sec…if I construct the sentence correctly, I can say something about being in the middle of the Wode–…</p>
<p>Yesterday, I finished reading Empire Falls, by Russo. It was recommended to be by a friend, and I thought it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. My husband has been trying to get me to read Team of Rivals for a while now. I’ll probably read that next.</p>
<p>odyssey, Empire Falls is one of my favorite books, too. I highly recommend the HBO film that is based on the book. Fabulous!</p>
<p>Well, I finished my Dick Francis - enjoyed it. Now to see if I can find our copy of Neuromancer…</p>
<p>mathmom,
I look forward to hearing how you liked Neuromancer!</p>
<p>TheDad,
The Jeeves books are so much fun! I read all of the books long ago and plan to read them again with my daughter this summer (after she gets through all the reading for her AP Lit course, she’ll be ready to have some fun and she’s already obsessed with Brittish humor (or should I say humour?).</p>
<p>Wodehouse: I honestly find Jeeves and Bertie a bit wearing over the course of a whole book. Their best medium is really a long short story, of which there are many. I do, however, remember loving a full-length Wodehouse novel called Leave It To Psmith.</p>
<p>Once Upon A Child, A wonderful book to read and write the great moments of your childs life. I am giving the book to my child for graduation!</p>
<p>RE: NEUROMANCER</p>
<p>If anyone is a serious fan of NEUROMANCER, I have a copy of the British (World) First edition of the book. I was lucky enough to get two copies shortly after it first came out. One was always tagged to go for D’s college tuition and it’s about that time. If interested, I can point you towards Bibliofinders or whatever it is for price benchmarks and we can chat.</p>
<p>JHS, I found it a bit wearing too but I wonder if it’s simply because I was reading one of the ones written very late in his career when the sheer weight of repetition may have bogged him down. I’ll keep my eye out for Psmith.</p>
<p>2fC, see above. Within two pages, though, I saw why the style was inimitable. Or perhaps just “distinctive.” Because I can see imitating it, even to the point of parody.</p>
<p>TheDad,</p>
<p>Too bad I have to pay for college or else I would be interested…I’m lucky to have a signed “Pattern Recognition”. But I can point you to WG’s website where I think you would have plenty of fans interested: <a href=“http://williamgibsonboard.com/6/ubb.x?cdra=Y&s=5006046771[/url]”>William Gibson; </p>
<p>You were smart to hold onto that book…it’s where the word, “cyberspace” was first coined (info for those not into SF).</p>
<p>2fc: For someone I know, I’d spread the purchase over 3-5 years if that would help, 3-5 annual payments. I figure I was patient to hold on to it, so I can reward someone else’s patience in buying it. (Or am I just providing unwanted temptation?)</p>
<p>If not, thanks for the link.</p>
<p>Okay, finished The Moviegoer (anyone care to explain that one?) and now it’s on to Snowflower and the Secret Fan, and after that To Kill a Mockingbird. </p>
<p>My friend and I are trying to get a bookclub going. Does anyone have tips on how to discuss books? It has been a long time since my high school/college classes . . . Last night my friend and I discussed The Moviegoer by sort of randomly flipping through it and talking about various things, which was enjoyable, but when we get some more folks involved, probably better to have some kind of structure . . .</p>
<p>Loose Balls (the story of the ABA) by Terry Pluto … on my typical rotation of 1) professional book … 2) sports book … 3) history or mystery book. Good read for bball fans.</p>
<p>The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is set in Nazi Germany during the late 30’s and early 40’s. The book is narrated by “Death” and tells the story of a young girl who is given to foster parents in Munich by a mother who can no longer care for her. It’s very good.</p>
<p>Lots of publishers have “reading group guides”. There are also lots of suggestions for running book clubs - just google “book club questions”. Some are very formal, some much looser, my mother belonged to a very odd club where they didn’t read the same book, just took turns giving book reviews.</p>
<p>“When is God when it Hurts”
“The Gift of Pain”
both by Philip Yancey</p>
<p>… I’m exploring my faith :)</p>
<p>You’re going to have to wait a bit on hearing how I like Neuromancer, we don’t seem to have a copy nor does the most convenient library, though a few other libraries in the system have it. So for the moment I’m marking time reading Steven Brust. I’m told he’s pretty funny.</p>
<p>SKZB…now there’s a name to conjure with. A good writer and sometimes funny. I’ve dueled with him politically on-line…he’s about as far Left from me as I am from, oh, say, FundingFather. Formidable intellect, probably one of the five or ten smartest people I’ve ever met. Member of a loose circle of writers modeled upon the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. See works by Ellen Kushner, of which SWORDSPOINT is my favorite, THOMAS THE RHYMER being pretty good.</p>
<p>My favorite quote from SKZB: “I like to consider some writers beneath me. Some other writers I like to consider on top of me.”</p>
<p>To JHS, I bought Dai’s “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamtress” for my D when it first came out in English. I just read it. Here are some amusing thoughts.</p>
<p>Dai has spinned out a story based on a relatively well known poem by Su Tung Po (Su is a poet in the 11th century Sung Dyansty but is less well known outside of China. In the most recent New Yorker MS Merwin has a poem entitled: letter to Su Tung Po.). Su’s poem detailed a boating trip with a friend on a lake where the Phoenix Mountain can be seen in distance. The poem begins with the line: Under the Phoenix Mountain rain had just ceased. The poem went on to describe a lotus flower with two cranes dropping by in admiration and the playing of a Chinese harp by an “unseen female person” nearby. The poem ends with the loss feeling of not meeting up with the harp player and the empty lushes of the Phoenix Mountain peaks. Su was from Sechaun, the province of the setting of Phoenix Mountain in Dai’s novel, and was exiled many times. I suspect that the allusion is deliberate as Dai has transposed the location of Phoenix Mountain into Sechuan. The mountain is actually located about 100 miles south of Shanghai.</p>
<p>This got a good review in Entertainment Weekly. Looks like a satire of “The Overachievers”: <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Acceptance-Novel-Susan-Coll/dp/0374237190/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-6528716-5751214?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173115344&sr=8-3[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Acceptance-Novel-Susan-Coll/dp/0374237190/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-6528716-5751214?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173115344&sr=8-3</a>
Or was The Overachievers already satire?</p>