Everything By the Book

[Prancer]

Or should it be Everything BUY the book?

Carry on. I believe we left off with Edith Wharton recommendations.

[IceAlisa]

Yes, we did. I was recommended Ethan Frome and Summer. Any others?

[Nomad]

The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence.

[Wyliefan]

And Old New York.

[Allen]

And Old New York.

Can't believe I forgot Old New York which is also very good. If you get a chance, the film version of The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson is very good.

[Wyliefan]

Can't believe I forgot Old New York which is also very good. If you get a chance, the film version of The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson is very good.

One of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've seen, I think. Wharton's books tend to make excellent films. (See also The Old Maid with Bette Davis, which comes from one of the stories in Old New York!)

I always have to chuckle a little ruefully when Eric Stoltz yells, "Oh, LILY!" in that half-horrified, half-exasperated tone near the end. It's kind of funny the way he does it, but it's so relatable. I love Lily -- she's one of my favorite heroines -- but she makes me want to bang my head against the wall!

[PrincessLeppard]

I would rather gnaw my arm off rather than ever pick up another Edith Wharton novel. But that's just me.

[LordCirque]

I had to read Ethan Fromme during my first round of Community College and wanted to pull my hair out. Dostoyevsky I can read, Wharton I cannot.

Thought this thread would enjoy this website I discovered while in Borders today:

http://www.outofprintclothing.com/

Some awesome Literary t-shirts.

[rjblue]

I made an Amazon wish list with quite a few books that I really wanted, listed by priority. No one used it to get me Christmas gifts. I did tell my husband about 10 different times as we walked through Chapters, "I'd really like Lois McMaster Bujold's new book Cryoburn for Christmas." And he still had to call me for the name, when he was out shopping. That was the only book I received.

The plus side is that I'm now going to use my Amazon wish list to buy myself a bunch of New Year's presents.

[nubka]

What exactly is this thread about and how does it work...?

[rjblue]

It's a continuous book discussion thread in the Off The Beaten Track forum. Every 1000 posts it gets a new title. The old thread (just locked) is called "We're Novel Lovers (But We're All Booked Up)".

[Prancer]

What exactly is this thread about and how does it work...?

It works just like the old reading thread, just with a new name.

[Allen]

Dostoyevsky I can read, Wharton I cannot.

I first read Dostoyevsky in AP Lit in high school. Everyone thought I was nuts because I really liked Crime and Punishment. I think that's where my love of depressing literature started. For whatever reason, that class was tragedy heavy. Besides C&P, we read Beloved, Their Eyes Were Watching God, King Lear, Oedipus Rex, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (those are the ones I remember off the top of my head). I'm thinking of rereading Their Eyes Were Watching God after I finish Death Comes for the Archbishop

[LordCirque]

I'm just starting The Brothers Karamazov and LOVING it, and I'm not even to the good parts yet. Fyodor and Pyotr Missuov have just arrived at the Hermitage and are speaking with Zosima, well, more like arguing with each other while The Elder listens .

It took me a little while to get used to the syntax of the translation but it was easier than I initially thought it would be.

[Wyliefan]

I had to read Ethan Fromme during my first round of Community College and wanted to pull my hair out. Dostoyevsky I can read, Wharton I cannot.

Thought this thread would enjoy this website I discovered while in Borders today:

http://www.outofprintclothing.com/

Some awesome Literary t-shirts.

Great site!

As for Wharton, to each his own. (Russian lit isn't my bag, for the most part, though I've dutifully plodded through various Russian classics because I figured I should.) No author is for everyone. But just for the record, Ethan Frome is pretty atypical Wharton.

[Nomad]

...I'm thinking of rereading Their Eyes Were Watching God after I finish Death Comes for the Archbishop

I loved Their Eyes Were Watching God. Jonah's Gourd Vine and her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, are also excellent.

[Allen]

I loved Their Eyes Were Watching God. Jonah's Gourd Vine and her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, are also excellent.

I love Jonah's Gourd Vine, maybe I'll do Dust Tracks on a Road next, I have it lying around somewhere.

[Theatregirl1122]

Yes, we did. I was recommended Ethan Frome and Summer. Any others?

I read summer in 9th grade English and we were all traumatized by the ending. Although I did find Wharton very readable.

[nubka]

It works just like the old reading thread, just with a new name.

Oh. I never read the old thread, so I didn't have a clue...

[PDilemma]

A few recent reads:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See--Excellent. Set in 19th Century China. A lot of it is about the friendships between women. I really liked it. And it got me very curious about the practice of foot binding.

Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin--Pretty good book about girls in a Catholic girls school in the 1950s and their teachers (nuns). Very interesting take on the subject.

Rococo by Adriana Trigiani--Trigiani is an up and down author for me. I have really loved some of her novels (Lucia Lucia is wonderful), but some, not so much. This is the worst one I have read. It's like she has the makings of a great story, but she doesn't quite tell it.