So Many Books, So Little Time (The Reading Thread)

**Wyliefan** · 09-23-2009, 03:39 PM

[QUOTE=Aimless;2384990]

Originally Posted by star_gazer11

I'm about 1/3 way through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Yes, it's charming, but I'm not getting all the hype about it.

GLPPPS is grossly overrated. Chicken soup style. Derivative (Pride & Prejudice), predictable, cartoonish characters, and the epistolary style got very strained at times. If it hadn't been for the very interesting and moving historical detail about Guernsey's ordeal during WWII, I'd have put it down. Choice of my book club, what are you going to do.

I liked it.

It's not the greatest novel ever, but it's sweet and enjoyable, and the historical detail is indeed interesting.

**zhenya271** · 09-23-2009, 09:57 PM

[QUOTE=Aimless;2384990]

Originally Posted by star_gazer11

I'm about 1/3 way through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Yes, it's charming, but I'm not getting all the hype about it.

GLPPPS is grossly overrated. Chicken soup style. Derivative (Pride & Prejudice), predictable, cartoonish characters, and the epistolary style got very strained at times. If it hadn't been for the very interesting and moving historical detail about Guernsey's ordeal during WWII, I'd have put it down. Choice of my book club, what are you going to do.

Our book this time is The Reader. Much chewier.

GLPPPS has sat on my nightstand for months. The subject matter is appealing, but after the first few pages it didn't have me reaching for it the following nights when there were other titles to choose from. I plan to get to it one of these days, but as the thread title goes...

**Nomad** · 09-23-2009, 10:31 PM

Series. I should not buy series. I just started Storm Jameson's Mirror in Darkness trilogy; I still have to finish The Balkan Trilogy; then there are The Levant Trilogy, G. B. Stern's Rakonitz Chronicles (five novels), and Richardson's Pilgrimage (13 novels) all waiting to be read.

**rjblue** · 09-23-2009, 11:29 PM

Margaret Atwood- I read Handmaid's Tale many years ago and hated it so much that I thought I didn't like Atwood at all. Then the CBC aired an audio serial of Alias Grace, which I loved and I bought the book to get the bits I missed.

I've also read and enjoyed The Robber Bride and The Blind Assasin.

On another note, my daughter and a few others have decided to start a book club. The first book-The Virgin Secretary's Impossible Boss.

**shells** · 09-24-2009, 04:56 AM

I looked at that title and thought 'that has to be a Harlequin'...and sure enough.

I love those books. I've never read them, but I had many hours of enjoyment throughout my 9 years at the bookstore giggling at the titles as I merchandised them and also as I stripped them to return them.

(ETA: I want to make it clear that I am not saying they aren't worth reading - just that they have hilarious titles)

**pair mom** · 09-24-2009, 05:43 AM

Don't waste you time reading My Sister's Keeper! It was a light interesting tale with interesting perspective and it raised many ethical questions about the role of tissue harvesting and genetic blueprinting. I enjoyed the story .....until the last 5 pages! What a juvenile and shameful plot resolution! It seemed the author never had an intelligent ending in mind and just decided to shut down the computer and mail off the manuscript to the publisher! A major disappointment.

**IceAlisa** · 09-24-2009, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by Prancer

I like Atwood, but she may not be your cup of tea, since you like to read for fun and frolic. She's written a lot of short stories; you might be able to find one or two online to try before you dive into a whole book. Or you might want to check one out of the library and read a bit first, just to see what you think.

I like Atwood too. The Handmaid's Tale is great. I've also liked the Robber Bride and Edible Woman, both were light reads IMO.

I am finishing up several projects right now including a paper and two or three presentations so reading is mostly on hold. I am still on The 19th Wife which made me appreciate the PI polygamy thread so much more.

Earlier this month before all the craziness started I finished Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune and plan to read the sequel Portrait in Sepia. I've always had a weakness for Allende and magical realism in general.

**Nomad** · 09-24-2009, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by shells

I looked at that title and thought 'that has to be a Harlequin'...and sure enough.

I love those books. I've never read them, but I had many hours of enjoyment throughout my 9 years at the bookstore giggling at the titles as I merchandised them and also as I stripped them to return them.

(ETA: I want to make it clear that I am not saying they aren't worth reading - just that they have hilarious titles)

My favorite is probably Love's Windswept Embrace, about a female balloonist named Ariel Windsor.

**sk8pics** · 09-24-2009, 10:52 PM

I just picked up 3 books at Borders:

A Bit Little Life, A Memoir of a Joyful Dog --I read an excerpt in Reader's Digest a few months ago and was really intrigued. I'll start this tonight.

Tell Me Where It Hurts -- a story of a veterinary surgeon

Lone Survivor --an account of Operation Redwing and the lost heroes of Seal Team 10

I love to read but don't usually have much time to read, but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf.

**Buzz** · 09-25-2009, 04:57 PM

Just finished Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island", and true to Lehane's writting the ending left me in knots and totally confused. LOL But I still love the few of his books I have read. If anyone has read this book you know what I mean about the ending, could you clearify it for me?!

Spoiler

**Buzz** · 09-25-2009, 05:24 PM

Oh never mind... LOL Just read a bunch of posts on youtube that gave me all the answers I need. I suggest if you want to see the movie when it comes out, don't go to see the trailer on youtube.

P.S.
My stomach is still in knots however. It always is after reading one of Lehane's books.

**meggonzo** · 09-26-2009, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by IceAlisa

I like Atwood too. The Handmaid's Tale is great. I've also liked the Robber Bride and Edible Woman, both were light reads IMO.

I am finishing up several projects right now including a paper and two or three presentations so reading is mostly on hold. I am still on The 19th Wife which made me appreciate the PI polygamy thread so much more.

Earlier this month before all the craziness started I finished Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune and plan to read the sequel Portrait in Sepia. I've always had a weakness for Allende and magical realism in general.

I've read most of Atwood's books too. Oryx and Crake is great, very intense read. For lighter, Edible Woman is humorous and interesting. If anyone has finished her new book, The Flood, let us know how it is!

I read Allende's Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia within the past few years too. I really liked both. I also read her Zorro a few months ago and enjoyed that too. A lot of action and adventure.

One of my other favorite authors is Alice Hoffman. I think I've read all her books by now. My favorites are Practical Magic, The River King, Blue Diary and The Probable Future.

I just finished reading The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. Suspenseful and easy to read, it has strong ties to the Great Gatsby. The ending made me sad though, but it was a great read.

**PDilemma** · 09-26-2009, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by pair mom

Don't waste you time reading My Sister's Keeper! It was a light interesting tale with interesting perspective and it raised many ethical questions about the role of tissue harvesting and genetic blueprinting. I enjoyed the story .....until the last 5 pages! What a juvenile and shameful plot resolution! It seemed the author never had an intelligent ending in mind and just decided to shut down the computer and mail off the manuscript to the publisher! A major disappointment.

And now you get Jodi Piccoult. I think she and her editors think that her endings are clever twists that surprise the reader. But I've found most of them to be convenient ways to avoid more realistic resolutions that are harder to write.

**jen_faith** · 09-26-2009, 09:20 PM

Just popping in to say TERRY PRATCHETT'S GOT A NEW DISCWORLD BOOK COMING OUt!!!

Unseen Academicals, due out early October. So excited so excited...

Am whiling away my time contemplating whether or not to read Mistress Shakespeare... so far it is sitting on my night table gathering coffee mug rings

**rfisher** · 09-26-2009, 09:30 PM

Just finished Linda Howard's latest Burn. Typical Howard fare. She felt compelled to italicize at least one word every page for emphasis. Well maybe not every page, but a lot. It was annoying.

**PrincessLeppard** · 09-26-2009, 10:10 PM

I just bought Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

**Fergus** · 09-26-2009, 10:40 PM

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran: Almost beach-reading, but still has nice vivid descriptions of everyday Roman life (if only of the super wealthy class) &

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George: A poetic door-stop, George is good at what she does.

**NeilJLeonard** · 09-27-2009, 12:23 AM

I just got Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders from the Broward County Library on Prancer's recommendation. Interesting thus far. More on it later...

NJL

**IceAlisa** · 09-27-2009, 12:27 AM

Originally Posted by PrincessLeppard

I just bought Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Sounds like it's along the lines of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or something like that. I saw that book cover at Barnes and Noble and

. Don't like zombies much.

**PrincessLeppard** · 09-27-2009, 01:44 AM

It's by the same people. Pride and Prejudice with Zombies was all kinds of awesome. I am hoping the Sea Monsters are equally cool.

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