OT- Books

[Veronica]

Has anyone read The Life of Pi? I just finished it. I quite enjoyed it. It really made me think about some things. I found the end a bit disturbing.

Lise, have you finished Wicked yet?

V.

[mimitabby]

i read Wicked, i know you didn't ask me. It was an okay read, nothing to get really excited about. what's the life of Pi?

[spokewench]

Is a little disturbing but a book well worth reading! It is a story about a boy from India stuck with a tiger on a boat after the ship he was on sank. It has a real twist at the end so it is fun to read!

But, I liked Wicked as well! I guess I like books that have a different take on known values

:)

[Nanci]

I just finished "The Rider" and loved it, and am now starting "23 Days in July" which is ok so far but kind of dry, while reading "The Fourth Hand" again in bed and "Party Of One: The Loner's Manifesto" in the bathroom, where the second re-reading of "Heft On Wheels" is being delayed.

[mimitabby]

The Rider?
is that about a bicyclist? a murder mystery? what?

[Veronica]

I didn't like the ending to Wicked. It was almost like he just got tired of writing.

V.

[SadieKate]

Well, heck, now what do I do? From my gigadawanda bedside pile of books I had pulled Wicked, Small Wonder (Barbara Kingsolver) and Snow Lake (Mary Lawson). I was tossing around the options.

So what do I read first?

[Veronica]

Personally, I think Wicked is skippable, especially if you have lots of other options. It was okay, but not great.

V.

[Nanci]

Editorial Reviews
From The New Yorker
At the start of this chronicle of a single bike race, the author glances up from his gear to assess the crowd of spectators. "Non-racers," he writes. "The emptiness of those lives shocks me." In immediate, living prose, Krabbé, a novelist as well as a cyclist, takes us with him, inch by inch, as he rides the hundred-and-thirty-seven-kilometre Tour de Mont Aigoual, a course through the mountains that is better known as one of the cruellest stages of the Tour de France. He imagines an official collecting his clothes "after I've died in the race" recalls a champion cyclist who suffocated to death while climbing one particularly nasty hill; and insists that "being a good loser is a despicable evasion." Along the way, he lays bare the athlete's peculiar mixture of arrogance and terror, viciousness and camaraderie, and the result is one of the more convincing love stories of recent memory.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

*************

Interestingly, this is the author who also wrote "The Vanishing" and "The Cave."

[mimitabby]

Personally, I think Wicked is skippable, especially if you have lots of other options. It was okay, but not great.

V.

I agree about Wicked. it was like... huh?? big deal!

I am reading Alias Grace right now by Margaret Atwood, and I am really enjoying it. It's about a woman convicted of murder 100 years ago. You go into this
other world. Excellent writing.

[WrensMom]

I didn't like the ending to Wicked. It was almost like he just got tired of writing.

I agree, but overall I still liked the book. I like those kind of books with a different take on the same story you already know, kind of like the oldie-but-goodie, Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. If you have never read that one, I recommend it.

[WrensMom]

I am reading Alias Grace right now by Margaret Atwood, and I am really enjoying it. It's about a woman convicted of murder 100 years ago. You go into this
other world. Excellent writing.
That sounds pretty cool. I may have to check that out. I liked The Handmaid's Tale by her as well. I'm really not much of a fiction person, but sometimes the mood hits.

[Rakekay]

I just finished The Kite Runner. Originally I thought I wouldn't really like it, but I LOVED it. Highly recommend it.

[mimitabby]

I just finished The Kite Runner. Originally I thought I wouldn't really like it, but I LOVED it. Highly recommend it.

Yeah, me too. good book, very powerful and educational at the same time.
All about the life of some people in Afghanistan. It's autobiographical/fiction.

[Bikingmomof3]

I just finished The Kite Runner. Originally I thought I wouldn't really like it, but I LOVED it. Highly recommend it.


I agree. The Kite Runner was wonderful.

[Deanna]

I really enjoyed Life of Pi, everybody in my book group did too, though we all had a difficult time getting through the first section (before they get on the boat). The ending was a little disturbing if you believe "he did" but if you believe his story, not so much. I love that aspect of the book, that reality is dependent on who's experiencing it. I also loved the idea of all the "lost" critters in urban areas. I thought of the book the other night when we heard some LARGE animal crawling through the bushes outside our bedroom window.

I read Wicked quite a while ago. I don't remember being overly impressed. I consider it a good brain cleanser for after a more involved book. Now that the author has a whole series of fairy tale retellings it just seems sort-of gimmicky.

[Tuckervill]

I took the whole tiger business in Life of Pi as metaphorical. Can't remember now why I thought that, because it's been a few years. But I liked it.

Didn't they make a movie of it, too?

Speaking of book group type books, one of my favs that I wouldn't have read otherwise is Gate to Women's Country, by Sherri S. Tepper. Anything by her is thought provoking.

Karen

[Lise]

I just finished Wicked, and I loved it. It was one of those books that I read while doing stuff around the house, read while brushing my teeth, took to work to read in case a patient didn't keep her appointment... I felt like it kept my mind working at many levels at once.

- Comparing the book to the movie as it unfolded. Sometimes this was annoying, such as the passage where the Witch is persuing Dorothy, but has other things on her mind as well, is tired, hungry, and he writes, "...maybe she should surrender Dorothy..." Cute, but not necessary. Still, I immediately saw the scene from the movie.
- Thinking about the politics and religion of that society. Very interesting.
- What's the relation between the worlds? What was it that made her able to read some of that book, but not other parts of it? What would it mean to be of both worlds?
- Who were the dwarf and Yackle? I would've liked to learn more about that story.
- What is the nature of evil, friendship, power, time, etc?
- Animals and animals. Which kind were the monkeys? I would've liked to know more about Dr. Dillamond's research.
- Keeping an open mind--comparing it to the movie, thinking, hmmm, what if it were seen from a different perspective? And how does Elphaba compare to Miss Gulch back in Kansas?

I really enjoyed reading it. Left it at the clinic on Friday, didn't get it back til Wed, finished it last night. In the meantime, I started The Hummingbird's Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea. Really enjoying this one, too. A friend brought me the sequel to Wicked tonight, Son of A Witch. Sequels are seldom as good, and in this case part of what I enjoyed so much about Wicked was the parallel Wizard of Oz story running in my mind.

I haven't read Life of Pi. So many books! So many books! This working for a living is really overrated. I waste so much time earning money, when I could be reading. :)

[snapdragen]

I couldn't finish Life of Pi :( I quit when it got to the part where the tiger (I think) was chewing on one of the other animals in the boat. (I wonder if I remember that correctly?) Anyway, that put me off.

I liked Wicked too Lise! His other book, The Ugly Stepsister (a take on Cinderella) was fun too.

I've been re-reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress at lunch. I only get to read when my lunch partner is gone, so it's very slow going.

[bikerz]

I've been on a kick of excellent books the last few weeks:

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - I loved it! Very ordinary and pedestrian on the surface, and creepy-suspenseful underneath. Man can that guy write a story!

Saturday - Ian McEwan - amazing pacing, very suspensful, interesting moral issues.

Cry the Beloved Country - Alan Paton - I reread this book about every 5 years, to stay "tenderized" to the issues of race, fear, and forgiveness in South Africa - what a wonderful book.

Almost done with Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels - very poetic, moving but unsentimental poetic book about the holocaust and its survivors.

Kite Runner, Life of Pi and Wicked I liked as well, but especially Life of Pi - so inventive.

So many books, so little time!

[Selkie]

Here are my all time favorites:

Dalva by Jim Harrison. Beautiful story and wonderfully written. The sequel (I think it's called The Road Home) is also excellent.

The Last Life by Claire Messud. Another beautiful book, in every way.

[pooks]

I just finished a totally chick lit read, easy and fast and funny and moving, WHY MOMS ARE WEIRD, by Pamela Ribon. It's a sequel to WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD, another chick lit book. These have a little more substance than typical chick lit. Why Moms are Weird is about a weird mother-daughter-sister dynamic, and I really did like it bunches.

[crazycanuck]

Just a few-
Beyond Illusions, Paradise of the blind,Memories of a pure spring-all by Duong Thu Huong

Keep the aspidestra flying, Down and out in Paris & london, Coming Up For Air-George Orwell

The True History of The Ned Kelly gang-Peter Kelly (ned kelly was an Australian Outlaw/cattle rustler)

Roses are Difficult here & Who has seen the wind-W.O Mitchell

Why I hate Canadians-Will ferguson(Canadian author & humorous!!!)

I'd love to read Burmese Days-George Orwell
The Satanic Verses-Salman Rushdie (bought it when it first came out-i was 16 & curious but couldn't get into it...)
The Book of Salt-Monique Troung

If you're looking for a good site for fiction books try www.mostlyfiction.com

I'm still looking for a perfect site for non fiction

I'm more of a non fiction girl-what are some of your faves???

c

[pyxichick]

I love non-fiction too. Especially natual history or travel writing.

I'm reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin (an autistic woman who was featured in one of Oliver Sacks' books.) It attempts to explain how animals think and why they act the way they do. Very interesting.

Some of my favorite non-fiction books:
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman;
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard (both essay-type books);
The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux (travel essay by kayak)
Songlines or In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (fictionalized non-fiction)
Tracks by Robyn Davidson (travel essay about a solo trip with camel across Australia)
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby (mountaineering in Afghanistan-- very harrowing story)

I can't wait to hear about more good non-fiction books to add to my list!:D

[Lise]

Non-fiction--

Almost anything by Karen Armstrong. I especially liked Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, A History of God, Muhammad, and Holy War (about the Crusades). She has two volumes of autobiography, which I really enjoyed. Fascinating woman.
Color: A Natural History of the Palate,Victoria Finlay
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Lise Meitner, A Life in Physics, Ruth Lewin Sime. A biography of the "mother" of nuclear fission.
Marie Curie, A Life, Susan Quinn. Mdme. Curie was an early hero of mine.

[crazycanuck]

Hmm..Non fiction-I could spend days at a particular bookshop's History section

SIx Days or Forever-Ray Ginger (read it for uni..not bad)

Right now I'm reading "Pity the Nation"-Robert Fisk

Shake Hands with the Devil-Ret Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire (to understand PTSD but don't read it if gory details bother you)

Hitlers Willing Executioners-Daniel Jonah Goldhagen(This one has to be read just for the arrogant nature of the Author-I forced myself to continue reading for some reason)

In Retrospect-Robert S MCnamara-(did you see the film about him??)

The Lost Executioner-NIc Dunlop(author went on a search for Duch-Head of S21 prison in Cambodia)

Bright Shining Lie-Neil Sheehan

The Downing Street Years-Margaret Thatcher(have only read a bit of it so far)

CHallenge to Civilization-History of the 20th Century-1900-1933, 1934-1951, 1952-1999-Martin Gilbert

I really want to read Martin Gilbert's biographies on Sir Winston CHurchill

I know most of my books are on war but that's one of my main interests-History/War/Conflict

These are just some of the books on our bookcases but have many more stored in Canada...

c

[crazycanuck]

Lise- Reading Lolita In Tehran -tell me your thoughts

c

[Lise]

CC-- Reading Lolita in Tehran was like peeking in through a magic window. Lives of women we'd otherwise never know anything about. Ah, I just remembered, The Hemmingway Club of Kosova, something like that...I must've given it to somebody...similar book, but an American who lives in Kosovo during the Balkan war, and teaches English via The Old Man and the Sea.

You have a strong stomach, by the books you read. Have you read Rising Up and Rising Down, Some thoughts on violence, freedom, and urgent means, by William T. Vollmann? I bought it, but haven't brought myself to read it yet. It's a 705 page abridgement of his 3,500 page, 7 volume work on the history of violence.

[crazycanuck]

Lise-I will def try & find The Hemmingway Club of Kosova, & Rising Up and Rising Down, Some thoughts on violence, freedom, and urgent means


Do you ladies have a favourite non fiction book shop? I have one down from my work & can't go in without spending $.....It's not one of the big chain book shops and am oh so happy to go there...:D

c

[bikerz]

Favorite non-fiction:

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman (this book has a string TE fan club, as I recall) - also by her - Ex Libris - a must for book lovers!

I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?) - I just read her Biography of Muhammed, which made me want to re-read Satanic Verses (an "all-time top 10" book for me)

I liked Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, and have almost finished Collapse (sort of depressing...)

I haven't unpacked my non-fiction, so not much more is coming immediately to mind - oh, except essays by Joan Didiion and Barbara Kingsolver (esp. High Tide in Tucson)- I love a good essay.

Ok - off to bed to read -

[salsabike]

A Bright Shining Lie is a great book.

Also: And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts. From Wiki--"a sweeping and extensively researched journalistic account of the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. It details a variety of overlapping story lines including the tepid response to the epidemic by the scientific research establishment, and the later controversy over competing proprietary claims to discovery of the virus, now known as HIV, that causes AIDS made by a research group at the NIH of the United States led by Robert Gallo, and by a research group at the Pasteur Institute of France led by Luc Montagnier."

And Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, by Paul Monette.

And Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, a fascinating story about what it was like to be a nun, what happened to her after she left the convent, and how she became the writer and thinker she is today.

For fiction:

The Dave Robicheaux series, by James Lee Burke

Richard Morgan's sci fi trilogy about a time when your "self" can be stored in a cortical stack and moved from body to body. First book of the trilogy is Altered Carbon.

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books. Between these and Robicheaux, I seem to be in an iconoclastic, troubled-cop, with sometimes alcohol problems and Vietnam histories, mood. I have no idea why.

Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl has written two wonderful books about HER favorite books. She has a very wide-ranging set of tastes, and I found many of the books I love in there. The first one is called Book Lust, and I think the second may be simply called More Book Lust. You couldn't have a more wonderful compendium of book suggestions. She has them in chapters by type of book, too. Just READING Book Lust itself is fun.

[Veronica]

I loved Lolitia in Tehran! I've loaned it to so many people!

V.

[Lise]

I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?)
Entirely possible.

[margo49]

:


I'm a big Karen Armstrong fan (Lise, were we twins seperated at birth?)

-

Make that triplets

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?

[bikerz]

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?

It's on my list - but I think I'll wait for the paperback release! I'm looking forward to reading it - I'm trying to get my book club to read it but I think I will not be successful!

[Bikingmomof3]

I loved Lolitia in Tehran! I've loaned it to so many people!

V.

I thoroughly enjoyed that book and have recommended it to countless people.

[Lise]

Make that triplets

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?Ooooh! Ooooh! A new one! Thanks for the info! What a remarkable writer (and person) she is, that people get so excited when she publishes a new book on the history of religion.

Edit: I just went to Amazon and read reviews. This book looks amazing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375413170/sr=1-1/qid=1154194404/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6385335-4677705?ie=UTF8&s=books
Amazon's selling the hardcover for $18.90. I like to get her books in hardcover--sort of a sign of respect!

Her two volumes of autobiography were so moving, especially The Spiral Staircase. I first read Jerusalem in '97. My sister had just come back from living in Tel Aviv for 15 years. I'd been to visit her three times. Karen Armstrong makes the historical record read like a novel. It took me 9 months to finish Holy Wars, which is about the Crusades. I usually only have time to read before going to bed, and that book is slow going. It gave me good historical back ground on the relation between the Arab and European/Western worlds.

Holy Wars and The Battle for God, by KA, and Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem helped me have a wider perspective on the Middle East's conflicts.

[RoadRaven]

Like WrensMom I would recommend "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley

For some easy to read and interesting essays on feminism and comments on the place of women in history (both contemporary and long past), read Kathryn Rountree's "Embracing the Witch and the Goddess". She explores things like stereotypes... women must be the maid (virginal), or cast as the bad person (prostitutes/mother in laws) or as a saint (his mother no one can live up to, Mother Teresa). She explores the social history that progressively took power away from women (for example, not owning land, not being able to work /have own wages, and for a while, midwifes not being able to help birth babies!). And Rountree explores ways we have been reclaiming the power we have.

I like Wilbur Smiths books for an easy escapism - The Seventh Scroll is one of my faves

**** Francis still turns out a good mystery.

Clare Francis writes extremly well, as does Nelson deMille.

Another fun book that debunks the myths surrounding how women should be and I believe should be a must for any teenage daughters... is "Real Gorgeous" by Kaz Cook... it challenges the media nonsense that females are ingrained with from magazines, TV and advertising... things around skinny is fit, and fat is undesirable, and you have to do what your friends say, and real girlfriends go all the way... its matter of fact, and fun and very affirming.

Oh... Ben Elton... some of his books area riot! (and what would you expect from the writer of the Young Ones, Black Adder and Filthy Rich and Catflap!)

[Lise]

...and for a while, midwifes not being able to help birth babies!).
Midwives' practice is still interfered with in myriad ways around the world, not to mention right here at home, and sometimes downright outlawed. Sigh. Que sigue la lucha. (the fight goes on)

[Trek420]

In my backpack now The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It was reccomended by my sister, fast moving, well written, set in Chicago, great artists, incredible history and horrific violence.

[RoadRaven]

Midwives' practice is still interfered with in myriad ways around the world, not to mention right here at home, and sometimes downright outlawed. Sigh. Que sigue la lucha. (the fight goes on)

I know...
There are still many restrictions around midwifery here... but I remember reading a history of midwifery (when i was contemplating training to be one) and reading how for a while there in the post-middle ages, midwives sometimes tied womens legs together -so great was their fear that the woman would give birth before the (male) doctor got there... awful!

I think you'd find the book I recommended (Rountree's) interesting, Lise

[Deanna]

I'm more of a fiction fan, but there are a few non-fiction that stick out for me:

Rain of Gold, by Victor Villasenor. The biography of his grandparents and a great read about immigrants setting roots in America. This is one I've recommended over and over.

Just about anything by Bill Bryson & Hunter Thompson

The Shirley Letters by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, a collection of articles written as letters from a woman in the California Gold Mines. If you've spent time in the Feather River/Plumas County area you'll enjoy it even more.

[mimitabby]

I love non-fiction too. Especially natual history or travel writing.

I'm reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin (an autistic woman who was featured in one of Oliver Sacks' books.) It attempts to explain how animals think and why they act the way they do. Very interesting.


I love Temple Grandin! isn't she amazing?
I have read 3 other of Eric Newby's books, about his adventures in Italy!