Quote:
Originally Posted by nlmcp
I love this book.........and it's not near as weird as it sounds, just profoundly human.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nlmcp
I love this book.........and it's not near as weird as it sounds, just profoundly human.
In real life, I don't know. The book does talk about how gender assignment was done for this fictional person. It is good book. There is some graphic scenes about teenage sexual exploration but in away it's part of the story because the main character doesn't realise what is going on and that she is a hermaphrodite.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muduh
I thought it was a great read. I ended up being late to start my trip up north because I only had a few pages to finish and I wanted to get it done so I didn't have to carry it with me.
I'm going through a Stephen King revival at the monent. Just finished The Dead Zone which, bizarrely enough since I was a huuuge King fan back in my teens, I never read before. I enjoyed it, although it felt a bit... short compared to King's other novels. Apparently, his literary elephantiasis (his description, not mine) had yet to kick in. Still, a very enjoyable novel. I liked reading about Castle Rock and people from other novels - Sheriff George Bannerman for instance. Not one of his best, though; I'd rank it somewhere in the middle. Upper middle, mind you, but still middle. My fave King novels are It, The Stand and Bag of Bones.
Continuing my current Stephen King obsession, I'm now reading Skeleton Crew, the only collection of short stories of his I have yet to read. I'm halfway through the first story - it's more of a novelette, really - called "The Mist". Very scary stuff, and well-written too. I love reading Stephen King in the summer.
As to what I should be reading, at least according to my summer reading list: Tender Is The Night by F Scott Fitzgerald. I like what I've read so far, but I'm too intruiged by Stephen King to fully invest myself. Anyone else has the same problem committing to something a bit more challenging when you're on vacation and the sun is shining?
I'm a yuge King fan, geek the girl, and I, too, go through a King revival--for some reason, during the summer. :lol
TDZ is a strange one with me; sometimes, I really like it a lot. But other re-readings, I'm completely lukewarm to it. :shrugQuote:
Originally Posted by geek the girl
I love The Mist. If there's one King short story that should have become a full-length novel, that would be it. If there's one King story that should have had a follow-up, that would be it. (Well, IMHO, that and The Ten O'Clock People. :nod)Quote:
Continuing my current Stephen King obsession, I'm now reading Skeleton Crew, the only collection of short stories of his I have yet to read. I'm halfway through the first story - it's more of a novelette, really - called "The Mist". Very scary stuff, and well-written too. I love reading Stephen King in the summer.
Is that the collection that also includes The Raft? Another personal fave.
Yep! J. and I said we would read our way through The Guardian UK's Top 100 Books of All Time and not just pretended to have read to fake our way through high school essay tests :peek, but I can't get into Faulkner when I've got Kellerman and Lehane on my coffee table. :lolQuote:
Anyone else has the same problem committing to something a bit more challenging when you're on vacation and the sun is shining?
P.S. The first time I saw the list, I did the count: I've read 22/100...that's pretty sad. :lol And just try faking your way through an essay test on Moby Dick, my friends, when you've only read the first four chapters. ;)
ETA: I'm looking over the list again...and the Norwegians think that Don Quixote is the top book of all time? Seriously?? Hey, geek the girl, go straighten out your neighbors in Norway! ;)
I'm not much better, phat: I've read 27 out of those books, and I wouldn't have read half of those books if I didn't have to. I loved some of them, enjoyed most and hated one or two, but I'm glad I read them. After the first couple of weeks of next semester, it will be over thirty - Rememberance of Things Past, Ulysseus and a few other books off the list are on my course requirement list. I'll savour Stephen King for as long as I can.
The only ones I read for pure pleasure (not school related) were Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Pippi Longstocking. :blush
The Norwegian love for Don Quixote is a bit puzzling. It's one of the Top 100 books I did read and I quite enjoyed it. Best book of all time? No. DO NOT ask me which book I think is the best ever written; it will make a madwoman out of me for sure. Some questions are best unanswered. I could probably come up with a Top 100, though, and it would definitely include a few King novels.
Oh, and as a Swede, it's fun seeing Pippi Longstocking in that list! I loved Pippi as a child.
Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America, by Laura Shapiro.
Deja vu or forgetfullness, one or the other.
I've looked in the likely spots and missed post, so maybe I'm blind as well and did include these earlier:
Finished lately
Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island - Good, good, ever so good read. It ought to be as strong a movie as Mystic River to boot. I'd happily settle for a tiny minute fraction of this guys eyes, ears, and ability to translate images into print.
Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down The House M.I.T. crew goes on math assisted rampage taking casinos for millions playing blackjack and living to relate tale. Legal, yes. Moral? Ask yourself. Do they get off scot free?
Does anything come without a price? Seldom. Does it in this case. Take a very quick read to find out.
Currently reading:
Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper
140+ pages in and I'm still unsure what I'm contending with. Simple murder/courtroom thriller; more than a single crazed loon, ghostie tale? Who knows, but twistedness seems to be percolating to the surface. So far all I can say for certain is the protagonist posts his amoral credentials in world class time. The setting is in northern boondock Canada which, along with the slight language differences, makes for an educational tale as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury: Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law
by Michael S. Lief, H. Mitchell Caldwell, and Ben Brycel
10 opportunities to read what the author/editors consider the best of the best closings. My favorite so far involves a labor related bombing in L.A. in 1910. Clarence Darrow allows himself to be brow beaten into representing the accused, and later gets indicted himself for attempting to bribe a juror. This is the closing in question, one that he shared with a co-counsel. Darrow's closing encompassed two days. Now THAT'S entertainment, which you'll see as you read.
The chapters include background of the story leading up to the closing, biography, commentary, and then the actual closing arguments.
Starting with the Nuremburg Trials, including the Chicago 7, Karen Silkwood's case, Charles Manson & Sheeple among others, its an entertaining ride so far. I'd sure like to listen on tape were it available though.
Somewhere I got the impression that Gerry Spence was another 'It's all about me' legal mouth, but if he is now he sure doesn't come across like that when he's verbally whipping everyone and his brother connected even slightly with Silkwood's death. I want THAT dude on MY team when I negatively hit the ten o'clock news three months consecutively "at the top of the news...".
Two stories from Skeleton Crew stand out for me. The first is Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. I do home visits over a large rural area and I'm always looking for another shortcut.Quote:
Originally Posted by geek the girl
The other is Survivor Type. A deserted island and an injured drug dealer. I still have nightmares about this one. :teeth I'd like to know what you think when you finish it.
Yes, phat, The Raft is in that collection. Didn't they make it into a movie?
Leftcoaster, I stumbled across Lost Girls at a booksale last summer. I remember browsing through it and liking the setting and the feel of it, but for some reason or the other, I never got round to reading it and it's been gathering dust on the shelf since. Thanks for reminding me.Quote:
Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper
I'm still reading Skeleton Crew and love it so far. However, last night when I was home alone I couldn't bring myself to reading it. Yep, I scare easily, and those godawful prehistoric birds (or whatever they are) with the tentacles from "The Mist" continue to haunt me. Not to mention that scary monkey... So, now I'm alternating it with a book I've been meaning to read for ages - The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. About 100 pages in, I'm absolutely smitten. What a great, weird book. I especially loved the starting chapter about the bear and it just gets better. Irving is one of those writers I know I'd love, but for some reason, I always put off reading something by him. Not anymore; I recently bought A Prayer For Owen Meany, which I'll probably dive into as soon as I've finished Hotel New Hampshire.
The Secret Man by Bob Woodward.
I've been a Watergate junkie since the Senate hearings in 1973. I used to rush home from school to watch them.