November 2010 Book Thread - Page 2

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by cathe 

Yikes . . . this new format his freaky!

So, I've been stuck in the Oct. thread and just noticed we're in November. Yes, things have been super busy as I tried to finish up my new book and get to agent. Anyway, just read this one:

Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde

This one was released only in the UK but I got a copy thanks to a blog contest. Interesting premise: a woman dies in a car accident and her heart is donated to a 19-year-old girl. The girl begins to have memories from the donor and falls in love with the donor's husband. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the girl and the husband. I really enjoyed it. Hyde is a such a good writer; I was drawn in from the first page.

She's the Pay It Forward woman, eh?  Do you know why it was only published in the UK?
 

Originally Posted by cathe 

Nature Girl by Jane Kelley

Loved this middle-grade novel about an eleven-year-old girl stuck in Vermont for the summer--no Internet, no cell phone, and worst of all her best friend cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately, Megan does not take to Vermont very well. She refuses to participate in "art time" or appreciate the beauty of the country. Basically she is a big pill -- even to her friend who only cancelled because her mom's cancer treatments were not going well. When Megan gets lost during a hike and ends up on the Appalachian Trial, she decides she will walk to Massachusetts to be with her friend. After all, it's only 30 miles or so. She figured she'd make it by nightfall . . . Not quite. But she does have quite an adventure and learns something about herself too. I loved the voice of the character, loved the story, and had quite a few laughs. I'll definitely be recommending this to my daughters and my elementary school students.

Put it on hold, after reading this.

Originally Posted by cathe 

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan

Beautiful, sad, wonderful book!

I have this one out -- maybe Fiona and I will read it next. 

Originally Posted by kofduke 

Sacred Games, Chandra

Quote:

 Mumbai in all its seedy glory is at the center of Vikram Chandra's episodic novel, which follows the fortunes of two opposing characters: the jaded Sikh policeman, Sartaj Singh, who first appeared in the story "Kama," and Ganesh Gaitonde, a famous Hindu Bhai who "dallied with bejewelled starlets, bankrolled politicians" and whose "daily skim from Bombay's various criminal dhandas was said to be greater than annual corporate incomes." Sartaj, still handsome and impeccably turned out, is now divorced, weary and resigned to his post, complicit in the bribes and police brutality that oil the workings of his city. Sartaj is ambivalent about his choices, but Gaitone is hungry for position and wealth from the moment he commits his first murder as a young man. A confrontation between the two men opens the novel, with Gaitonde taunting Sartaj from inside the protection of his strange shell-like bunker.

This is a long, dense book -- I don't know that I've spent this long with a book in years.  It's multilayered, rich, and altogether fascinating and beautifully written. I'm very glad that I stuck with it.

I saw this author speak and it was fun.

Originally Posted by cathe 

A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

Fun read in the same style as Series of Unfortunate Events (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Lemony Snickett and Dr. Cuthbert Soup were one and the same). In this book, the Cheeseman family is on the run from government agents, spies, and evil corporations who are want to get their hands on Mr. Cheeseman's latest invention. 

I loved this one, too. 

DD and I just finished What Happened on Fox Street by Tricia Springstubb.  It was okay. . . DD says "I liked it a lot." 

I agree that this new format feels very different!

[Smokering]

I read two today - one fairly unmemorable trashy chick-lit book called "The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom". I like books with kooky titles, but it was predictable right down to the gay best friend with great fashion sense. Also "Mr and Mrs Smith", as in the movie. Funnish, although it had annoying movie tie-in photos, and I haven't seen the movie for vaguely moral reasons relating to Brad/Angelina sleaziness.

This "picking out random books from the library shelf" method is pretty hit-and-miss, I've gotta say.

[kofduke]

The Terror, Simmons

This book is a fictional account of the doomed arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin, of two ships which tried to find the Northwest passage.  In the 19th century, the arctic was still unexplored territory for british explorers.  The expedition had its full share of terror, both fictional and supernatural.  Other than the detailed description of cannibalism, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

#1-World Without End, #2-Giada's Family Dinners, #3 When You Are Engulfed in Flames, #4 Her Fearful Symmetry, #5 First Among Sequels , #6 Under the Dome, #7 Look Again, #8 The Lost Symbol, #9 Sea of Monsters, #10 Protecting the Gift, #11 Titan's Curse, #12 Never Tell a Lie, #13 Man in the Dark Suit, #14 Battle of the Labyrinth, #15 An Abundance of Katherines, #16 Shanghai Girls, #17 Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, #18 The Last Olympian, #19 The Orientalist, #20 Labyrinth, #21 Shutter Island, #22 The Scarecrow, #23 The Road, #24 The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, #25 The Graveyard Book, #26 The Last Dickens, #27 City of Bones, #28 The Fate of Katherine Carr, #29 Just After Sunset, #30 The Last Town on Earth, #31 The Alexandria Link, #32 A Complicated Kindness, #33 The Revolution will not be Microwaved, #34 American Rust, #35 Lost:A Novel, #36 Lunatic Express, #37 Brimstone, #38 Overachievers, #39 The Empty Chair, #40 American Gods, #41 Push, #42 Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer, #43 Children of God, #44 Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, #45 Slow Fat Triathlete, #46 Ladies' #1 Detective Agency, #47 The Last Child in the Woods, #48 The Book of Lost Things, #49 Monster of Florence, #50 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, #51 Random Family, #52 Skeletons at the Feast, #53 Hunger Games, #54 Anansi Boys, #55 Looking for Alaska, #56, Monster, #57 Devil's Labyrinthe, #58 Sacred Games, #59 Terror, #60 Mercedes Coffin, #61 Sunstroke, #62 UR, #63 City of Ashes, #64 Deep Storm, #65 I would know you anywhere, #66 The Painter of Battles, #67 City of Glass, #68 Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

Edited by kofduke - 12/20/10 at 4:44pm

[kofduke]

Originally Posted by kofduke 

The Terror, Simmons

This book is a fictional account of the doomed arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin, of two ships which tried to find the Northwest passage.  In the 19th century, the arctic was still unexplored territory for british explorers.  The expedition had its full share of terror, both fictional and supernatural.  Other than the detailed description of cannibalism, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

[cathe]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I love that I went into this book not really knowing what it was all about. I was completely drawn in, wondering what the big secret about the "students" was. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was so subtly creepy, the story so matter-of-factly told that when I found out what was going on, it was all the more horrifying. I know this story will be haunting me for a quite a while.

[cathe]

Buff -- Catherine Ryan Hyde is the Pay It Forward author, and this is her second book that came out only in UK. I guess she is quite huge in the UK and the publisher releases some of her books only there. Luckily, she is local and a friend so I have both of her UK books.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by kofduke 

The Terror, Simmons

This book is a fictional account of the doomed arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin, of two ships which tried to find the Northwest passage.  In the 19th century, the arctic was still unexplored territory for british explorers.  The expedition had its full share of terror, both fictional and supernatural.  Other than the detailed description of cannibalism, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

#1-World Without End, #2-Giada's Family Dinners, #3 When You Are Engulfed in Flames, #4 Her Fearful Symmetry, #5 First Among Sequels , #6 Under the Dome, #7 Look Again, #8 The Lost Symbol, #9 Sea of Monsters, #10 Protecting the Gift, #11 Titan's Curse, #12 Never Tell a Lie, #13 Man in the Dark Suit, #14 Battle of the Labyrinth, #15 An Abundance of Katherines, #16 Shanghai Girls, #17 Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, #18 The Last Olympian, #19 The Orientalist, #20 Labyrinth, #21 Shutter Island, #22 The Scarecrow, #23 The Road, #24 The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, #25 The Graveyard Book, #26 The Last Dickens, #27 City of Bones, #28 The Fate of Katherine Carr, #29 Just After Sunset, #30 The Last Town on Earth, #31 The Alexandria Link, #32 A Complicated Kindness, #33 The Revolution will not be Microwaved, #34 American Rust, #35 Lost:A Novel, #36 Lunatic Express, #37 Brimstone, #38 Overachievers, #39 The Empty Chair, #40 American Gods, #41 Push, #42 Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer, #43 Children of God, #44 Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, #45 Slow Fat Triathlete, #46 Ladies' #1 Detective Agency, #47 The Last Child in the Woods, #48 The Book of Lost Things, #49 Monster of Florence, #50 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, #51 Random Family, #52 Skeletons at the Feast, #53 Hunger Games, #54 Anansi Boys, #55 Looking for Alaska, #56, Monster, #57 Devil's Labyrinthe, #58 Sacred Games, #59 Terror

I listened to the audiobook of this one last year (it was in the late Fall, as a matter of fact).  Up here, it doesn't start to get light (after the time change) until well after 8, and it starts to get dark really early (3-ish), so coupled with the cold winds, dark skies, rain and then listening to this book as I walked the 20 minutes to the bus stop in the mornings and then back in the evenings ... I was sufficiently creeped out.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

#53 Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film
by Carol J. Clover
>>More reading for my seminar paper and thesis.  In spite of the fact that now, 18 years after it's initial publication, Clover's argument has a lot of holes in it given the changes to the genre in that time, this is still an interesting book and is a useful look at the genre.


#1 Tales from Outer Suburbia, #2 The Men Who Stare at Goats, #3 Under the Dome (Audio), #4 Benito Cereno, #5 Doctor Who: The Rising Night, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #6 UR (Audio), #7 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, #8 Shutter Island (Audio), #9 Watchmen, #10 The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection (Audio), #11 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #12 Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy, #13 Lovecraft: Tales, #14 Hellboy: Oddest Jobs, #15 Danse Macabre (Audio), #16 Doctor Who: Ghosts of India (Audio) #17 The Iron Man: A Story in Five Nights, #18 The Pop-Up Book of Phobias, #19 The Pop-Up Book of Nightmares, #20 Horns (Audio), #21 Blockade Billy, #22 Titus Andronicus (Bantam Anthology), #23 Doctor Who: Dead Air, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio), #24 The Puppet Masters, #25 The Body Snatchers, #26 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, #27 The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House, #28 Psycho, #29 The Silence of the Lambs, #30 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel, #31 Leviathan (Audio), #32 Android Karenina, #33 Mythologies, #34 The Short Secret Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Audio), #35 America, #36 The Post-Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, #37 The Shining, #38 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, #39 Rosemary's Baby, #40 Blood and Guts in High School, Plus Two, #41 Naked Lunch: The Restored Text, #42 Watchmen: Redux, #43 Lolita, #44 Beloved, #45 Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, #46 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, #47 Dracula, #48 Behind a Mask: Her Unknown Thrillers, #49 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings, #50 Goblin Market and Other Poems, #51 Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing, #52 The Stepford Wives, #53 Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

[Bufomander]

#160 The Dreamer  by Pam Munoz Ryan and Peter Sis
 

Originally Posted by cathe 

Buff -- Catherine Ryan Hyde is the Pay It Forward author, and this is her second book that came out only in UK. I guess she is quite huge in the UK and the publisher releases some of her books only there. Luckily, she is local and a friend so I have both of her UK books.

Very cool.

[kofduke]

The Mercedes Coffin, Faye Kellerman

 

A cold case turns red hot, threatening to consume detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus in the spellbinding new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman.

Billionaire genius Genoa Greeves never got over the shocking death of her favorite teacher, Bennett "Dr. Ben" Alston Little, murdered execution-style and stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes Benz. No arrests were ever made. Fifteen years later, the high-tech CEO reads about another execution-style murder. The case is eerily similar and Genoa offers the L.A.P.D. a substantial financial "incentive" if justice is finally served.

I like Faye Kellerman's books best when they mix the police procedural with the home life of Decker, the main detective -- both his relationship with his wife and his Jewish faith.  While the detective angle of this book was interesting, Kellerman has fallen away from the religious aspect of the series that got me so interested in them in the first place.  I have books on my TBR by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (her husband and child) up next, I think...

[cathe]

Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Alex, a high-school junior at an exclusive boarding school, wakes up naked in bed with a boy she doesn't know and and finds she is no longer a virgin. As the hazy events of the night before come back to her in flashes, Alex realizes she has been date-raped. Afraid to go to the police or her parents, she asks the Mockingbirds, a student run judicial system, to take her case.

Enjoyed it . . . though just slightly preachy.

[kangamitroo]

Year of Wonders: A novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks

a while back i had read a few reviews on this thread--the voices of surprise, indicating that no, a novel about the plague was not just a depressing book, but beautifully written and well worth reading.  i really enjoyed it.  the pain of loss, the surprises of strength and endurance, the herb lore and period language all wove a lovely book. 

always, in any time period, i find it very very hard to read about someone losing a child.  however, when i realized i had survived novels about the Taliban, i decided i could handle this just fine.

on a much lighter note, next up i have Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour

[cathe]

The Personal History of Rachael DuPree by Ann Weisgarber

Enjoyable book about a African American family homesteading in the early 1900's.

[cathe]

Room by Emma Donoghue

Sorry of a girl who was kidnapped when she was 19 and locked in a shed in the man's backyard. During that time, she has a child. The story is told from the child's (Jack's) point of view beginning from his fifth birthday. Room is the only world he's ever known. I read this in one day . . . just had to know how it was going to turn out. I don't want to give away more than that.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by kangamitroo 

Year of Wonders: A novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks

a while back i had read a few reviews on this thread--the voices of surprise, indicating that no, a novel about the plague was not just a depressing book, but beautifully written and well worth reading.  i really enjoyed it.  the pain of loss, the surprises of strength and endurance, the herb lore and period language all wove a lovely book. 

always, in any time period, i find it very very hard to read about someone losing a child.  however, when i realized i had survived novels about the Taliban, i decided i could handle this just fine.

on a much lighter note, next up i have Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour

It was really good right?  Her writing is amazing.  And Anthony Bourdain is a good follow up, much more lighthearted :D

Originally Posted by cathe 

Room by Emma Donoghue

Sorry of a girl who was kidnapped when she was 19 and locked in a shed in the man's backyard. During that time, she has a child. The story is told from the child's (Jack's) point of view beginning from his fifth birthday. Room is the only world he's ever known. I read this in one day . . . just had to know how it was going to turn out. I don't want to give away more than that.

That sounds kinda fascinating.....I'm adding it to my list :D

I have a bunch of books to post.  I'll be back tomorrow once I get my desk at work clear :D

[kofduke]

Secrets of Eden, Bohjalian

The morning after her baptism into the Rev. Stephen Drew's Vermont Baptist church, Alice Hayward and her abusive husband are found dead in their home, an apparent murder-suicide. Stephen, the novel's first narrator, is so racked with guilt over his failure to save Alice that he leaves town. Soon, he meets Heather Laurent, the author of a book about angels whose own parents' marriage also ended in tragedy. Stephen's deeply sympathetic narration is challenged by the next two narrators: deputy state attorney Catherine Benincasa, whose suspicions are aroused initially by Stephen's abrupt departure (and then by questions about his relationship with Alice), and Heather, who distances herself from Stephen for similar reasons and risks the trip into her dark past by seeking out Katie, the Haywards' now-orphaned 15-year-old daughter who puts into play the final pieces of the puzzle, setting things up for a touching twist.

I was a little disappointed by this, I felt like as soon as I knew there was a "twist," I knew exactly what it was going to be.  But overall an interesting perspective on domestic violence.

[kofduke]

Obsession, Jonathan Kellerman

Quote:

 Once again, Delaware, an accomplished psychologist, teams with his friend Milo Sturgis, an LAPD detective, to probe a mystery, though this time there's considerable doubt as to the nature of the puzzle. Teenager Tanya Bigelow, whom Delaware treated as a child for obsessive-compulsive disorder, consults him because her aunt Patty, who raised her, conveyed a cryptic message just before she died, apparently confessing to a crime. Shortly after Delaware and Sturgis start investigating, one of Patty's former neighbors turns up dead, the first in a series of corpses that appear, possibly as a result of the duo's turning over old rocks. Since the identity of the killer is revealed relatively early on, the final sections are short on suspense.  

 A solid contribution to the Delaware series...some gaps in the plot (one character, who basically solved the puzzle, appeared out of nowhere) but a suspenseful look a the seedy underside of Hollywood's B-list nonetheless.

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by cathe 

Room by Emma Donoghue

Sorry of a girl who was kidnapped when she was 19 and locked in a shed in the man's backyard. During that time, she has a child. The story is told from the child's (Jack's) point of view beginning from his fifth birthday. Room is the only world he's ever known. I read this in one day . . . just had to know how it was going to turn out. I don't want to give away more than that.

This was such an intense plot!

[kofduke]

Sunstroke, Kellerman

 Uncovering a secret life isn't a very original plot, but then again, neither is boy meets girl; it all depends on what the writer does with it. And in his extraordinarily self-assured debut novel, playwright Kellerman (son of Faye and Jonathan) shows that he could probably take us on a compelling journey to the water cooler. L.A. novelty-company secretary Gloria Mendez, in love with her boss, is heartbroken when he dies while on vacation in Mexico. No family comes forward, so she heads south to claim the body. In sun-bleached Aguas Vivas, a dead town whose only industry is its graveyard, she finds ashes and a suspicious-acting cop. As Kellerman teasingly plays pieces of the puzzle, Gloria soon learns that nearly everything about the man she longed for has been a mirage--and she learns a few things about herself, too.

The characters in this story were very well-drawn -- however the plot seemed to have some gaps.  Interesting first novel, though.

[raksmama]

Spirits in The Wires by Charles De Lint

http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/spirits-desc01.htm

I just loved this book and from the description I was not sure I would!

When a new website is created a Spirit takes possession of it and the site has a life of its own. People are born out of this site. All goes well until the site gets attacked by a virus, and then people get sucked into the website. It becomes a quest to rescue loved ones involving the help of tinker who travels between worlds, a guitar player who has made a pack and sold his soul to the Spirit of the Crossroads only to figure out how to live forever and a fairy queen who lives in a shopping mall. Like all De Lint novels the human characters are very real and likable.