Books moral and immoral

[zaphyre14]

I've been laid up for a week with what may be a pinched nerve in my ankle so I read a lot. The most notable of the lot was Lee Childs' first Jack Reacher novel, "Killing Floor." I found the writing style choppy and a little irritating but it seemed to suit the first-person narrative so I got used to it. But it seems from the excerpt at the back that the next book in the series is third-person but in a similar choppy style. Is that true for the rest?

I also finished "Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter by Aancy Atherton, which is a semi-paranormal cozy British mystery that was more about the denseness of the "sleuth" than anything else, and "City of Bones" by Sombody Clare which is the first in a multi-volume teen paramal saga that I liked well enough to put the next volume on my shopping list.

Next up is "The Map of Time" by Felix Pala. I've had this one sitting around for a whileut I'm now in the ood for something big and dense and this looks as if it might fit the bill.

All the freebies on my Kindle have been disappointing - I can't get more than 10 - 15 % in before the bad writing or typos or inane dialog scrapes my nerves raw and I give up.

[Prancer]

I've been laid up for a week with what may be a pinched nerve in my ankle so I read a lot. The most notable of the lot was Lee Childs' first Jack Reacher novel, "Killing Floor." I found the writing style choppy and a little irritating but it seemed to suit the first-person narrative so I got used to it. But it seems from the excerpt at the back that the next book in the series is third-person but in a similar choppy style. Is that true for the rest?

In general, I prefer the first-person books for that reason--I think the style suits Reacher's thinking pattern as it is laid out in the books. The style doesn't vary much.

All the freebies on my Kindle have been disappointing - I can't get more than 10 - 15 % in before the bad writing or typos or inane dialog scrapes my nerves raw and I give up.

The only time you get good freebies (well, most of the time) is if you get, say, the first book in a good series that doesn't sell particularly well. The publisher is willing to eat the cost in order to generate interest in the series, and sometimes that's worthwhile.

Otherwise, you are better off with the cheapies--$5.99 and under, for example. There you can find bestsellers from last year or the year before and good books that have been out for a while. If you want something good and current, you will always have to pay the full price unless you find a sale.

[dbell1]

Read the KDD yesterday "Illuminations" the story of Hildegard the potential saint who had visions. Would have loved to know the real story of her, book got lost in a bunch of nonsense about forbidden nun love and went haywire.

Also read "High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in An Age of Greed". I wanted to like it, but didn't.

Now reading "The Bride Collector" by Ted Dekker. My first Kindle rental from our library. I'm also plodding through "Wolf Hall", but it's boring me - anyone else read it? I thought I'd like it since it deals with Tudor England, but it jumps around way too much.

Hit the local library's book sale the other day - so crowded I walked 2 blocks in the wind and rain. But, I emerged successful. 5 hardcovers for me, 2 by Maeve Binchey and one by Alice Hoffman (and a couple by John Grisham that I hadn't read yet). 7 paperbacks, mostly biographies. Add in another 5 hardcovers for my mom - $24 total. I plan to read a lot.

[my little pony]

dear god i have an old biography of hildegaard of bingen around here somewhere, hadnt given that a thought in yrs. but i know i did a book report on it in 11th grade.

[michiruwater]

Hildegard von Bingen was amazing. I wish every music classroom in the country had a big poster of her in it.

dbell1, a documentary about her called 'Visions', if I remember correctly, came out just a couple years ago and is pretty good. It might be on Netflix.

[BigB08822]

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to my first summer off as a teacher and I plan on reading to keep myself from constantly running around town and spending money. I have asked before and you all never let me down. Can anyone suggest some must read books for the summer? I don't care what kind of book, I will sort through later and I should have time to read a few so I can try a little of everything. I do think I would prefer to not read something that is part of a series with more than 3 books or so. I want to be able to finish anything I read over the summer because I know once school starts up again I wont have time to read much. Thanks in advance, I can't wait to begin stocking up for the summer!

[Buzz]

I highly recommend Lee Child's Jack Reacher series.

[cygnus]

I recently finished Paul Cahill's "Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe", which sounds "heavy" but it really isn't-it's very readable, and is physically beautiful, with illuminations on the pages of many chapters. It has an interesting chapter on Hildegarde, and another on Helöise and Abelard, and an interesting section on Renaissance painting.

I would recommend it to anyone interested in Hildegarde or medieval culture in general.

[IceAlisa]

Philip Roth is brilliant in The Human Stain character sketches--just one chapter on a character and they are 3D in their totality in front of you. Someone on amazon said his sentences are Jamesian--b1tch, please. They are very deliberately and clearly structured but it's done so well that the flow of the sentence seems natural, you don't see the man behind the curtain. James, OTOH...yeah...

This is not for everyone as there is not a lot of action but a lot of ruminating, discussion, stream of consciousness and a lot of masterful character development. Lots of talk about the Monica Lewinsky affair and the blue dress (ties nicely with the title, innit), political correctness and SO much more. Such a nuanced discussion of race/racism for one. So many layers. If I were teaching this book to undergrads, I could see an almost infinite number of suggested topics for an essay on this book.

[Artemis@BC]

Speaking of series books ... last night I finished the most recent Alan Bradley "Flavia de Luce" book, Speaking from among the Bones. Of the 5 books in the series so far, this one probably ties for 2nd favourite. There's some nice character development with the sisters, and the introduction of an interesting new ally whom I think might become a recurring character.

There was also an interesting Glasonbury/Grail plotline, coincidentally the 2nd mystery book in a row I've read with such a connection.

But with 5 murder cases in 1 year, Bishop's Lacey is rivaling Midsomer for unsafest place in England to live!

I was terribly concerned that something bad was going to happen to Gladys, going by the picture on the cover of the book. But aside from getting very dirty, she's makes it through the novel unscathed. (I don't think I need spoiler tags for that, do I?)

But this one really is a big spoiler:

Spoiler

Something that I predicted way back in book 1 finally happened at the very end of this book. Well, sort of. I'd predicted that Harriet was not actually dead. At the end of the book, Flavia's father tells them that "Your mother has been found." I choose to interpret that as being she's still alive, tho of course it could also mean that they've recovered her body.

[dbell1]

Thanks for the Hildegard information - she really seems like a fascinating woman, way ahead of her time. I found a few You Tube links of her music - breathtaking. I'll totally be looking for more on her.

[IceAlisa]

PL, thanks for the rep--the book is awesome IMO. One more thing--with one stroke he skewers a certain type within the French Marxist-leaning intellectual elite. That chapter on Delphine Roux was nothing short of lethal.

[Prancer]

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to my first summer off as a teacher and I plan on reading to keep myself from constantly running around town and spending money. I have asked before and you all never let me down. Can anyone suggest some must read books for the summer? I don't care what kind of book, I will sort through later and I should have time to read a few so I can try a little of everything. I do think I would prefer to not read something that is part of a series with more than 3 books or so. I want to be able to finish anything I read over the summer because I know once school starts up again I wont have time to read much. Thanks in advance, I can't wait to begin stocking up for the summer!

What do you like to read?

[LilJen]

All the freebies on my Kindle have been disappointing - I can't get more than 10 - 15 % in before the bad writing or typos or inane dialog scrapes my nerves raw and I give up.

Stick to the classics; that has worked well for me.

[dbell1]

Yesterday's KDD was the CS Lewis Narnia series. All 7 books, $1.99 each. Bought 3. Still annoyed with them charging me sales tax on virtual deliveries. Last week they didn't.

Anyone looking for the Hunger Games trilogy, Amazon has all 3 for $5.00. They're price matching something else out there on the web.

[Grannyfan]

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to my first summer off as a teacher and I plan on reading to keep myself from constantly running around town and spending money. I have asked before and you all never let me down. Can anyone suggest some must read books for the summer? I don't care what kind of book, I will sort through later and I should have time to read a few so I can try a little of everything. I do think I would prefer to not read something that is part of a series with more than 3 books or so. I want to be able to finish anything I read over the summer because I know once school starts up again I wont have time to read much. Thanks in advance, I can't wait to begin stocking up for the summer!

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. Read it many years ago, and it's one of my favorites. I've recommended it to several friends and family, and no one has been disappointed.

[zaphyre14]

Stick to the classics; that has worked well for me.

I was an English major. I've read all the classics I intend to read in this lifetime. Now I look for dreck. But it has to be well-written dreck.

[zaphyre14]

Bumping this up before it gets forgotten and buried.

I dowloaded the audios of my favorite comfort read onto my Kindle: Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss series. I have a couple long drives coming up soon and I figure I'll have enough entertainment to keep me from minding the traffic.

'The Map of Time" was flat. I think that people who really liked Connie Willies' "To Say Nothing About the Dog" and Jasper FForde might enjoy it more than I did.

I'm now finishing up Karen Robard's "Sleepwalker" which has 300+ pages covering about 24 hours with all the murder, mayhem, betrayal and bloodshed that you can imagine thrown into a blender. Mobsters, crooked cops, good-hearted thieves, and a decades old revenge plot are tossed in for good measure. It's fun. Not great literature but fun. Which is why I read.

[dbell1]

Just finished "Shackleton: Endurance." Wonderfully researched, but it looks like someone replaced ‘the’ with ‘die’ in certain spots. It became distracting. “Shackleton looked at die iceberg”. Did he want the iceberg to die? Or “die penguin waddled”. Maybe he hated penguins?

Real paper books - Now reading Preston & Child's "Reliquary". I'm discovering their Pendergast series and happy with it. At the library, I've got 4 books holding. Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand, Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory, The Storyteller by Jodi Picoluet, and something I forget the name of. I'm on the waiting list for Pope Joan and The Light Between Oceans. Gave up on Wolf Hall, it bothered me.

[PrincessLeppard]

Real paper books - Now reading Preston & Child's "Reliquary". I'm discovering their Pendergast series and happy with it. At the library, I've got 4 books holding.

Just realize that he's MY LITERARY BOYFRIEND. rfisher is gonna come in here and be all "oh, no, he's MINE," but he isn't.