Outside of a Dog, a Book is Man's Best Friend (The Book Thread)

[rfisher]

I maintain that you suck at writing dialogue if you have to make the character "smirk" with every sentence when you're trying to have the characters banter with each other. But, then the book was free and there's usually a reason.

 

[Prancer]

Smirking is obnoxious, so why would you repeatedly have characters smirk?

Plus the word itself is annoying, so why repeat it all the time?

 

[MsZem]

There's an author whose books I've enjoyed, but who seems to be coasting with some of her recent titles. She doesn't do smirking, but she has an annoying habit of writing something happen, and then the next line is "laughter". Not specific people laughing, or laughter in a way that relates to what is happening. It's lazy, lacking in imagination, and tells me nothing about the characters or their story.

I wonder if some of this is quality control related to self-publishing. Some self-pubbed authors work with excellent editors, but some release their books so quickly after finishing them that I can't imagine there was time for anything more than basic proofreading. Plus a self-published author has more power than one working with a legacy publisher, and they can simply ignore editorial suggestions.

 

[rfisher]

Smirking is obnoxious, so why would you repeatedly have characters smirk?

Plus the word itself is annoying, so why repeat it all the time?

Exactly

 

[skatesindreams]

We have a president who does it constantly.
I suspect that has brought the action/word into regular usage and speech.

 

[antmanb]

Third -"The Couple Next Door" by Shari Lorena

Tired,boring story with an utterly predictable ending. All the characters involved need to be shot. (Maybe not baby Cora but wtf sort of name is Cora anyway?)

Oh I read this on holiday too! I actually really enjoyed it, and while it was fairly predictable, I'm usually able to shut the part of my brain up that tries to ruin the story for me so I always end up enjoying this kind of story and not out and out telling myself - this is going to happen I agree though, that by the end I wanted to kill all of the characters. That and the way the author portrayed the parents - by the end in my head they were the Pewterschmidts from Family Guy which made for some really strange images in my head

I am currently reading I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (I can't remember if I picked up the recommendation for this in here or in real life) but I am really enjoying the story, but I am a little confused about the timings of the protagonist's story which i'm hoping will be cleared up by the end.

 

[Jenny]

I maintain that you suck at writing dialogue if you have to make the character "smirk" with every sentence when you're trying to have the characters banter with each other. But, then the book was free and there's usually a reason.

Agree, but it least it sounds like they are attributing the quotes. My pet peeve is dialogue where it's not immediately clear who's speaking, so you have to go back a page and literally count down to find out who said the last line. Maybe if the words were in character it would help, but in a quick back and forth, I'll take a "he smirked" just to keep track!

 

[Prancer]

We have a president who does it constantly.
I suspect that has brought the action/word into regular usage and speech.

Smirk has been in regular use since I have been reading adult books.

 

[Wyliefan]

Repetition is a pet peeve of mine too. I don't know if there's been any discussion of The Essex Serpent in here -- I didn't look very far back -- but Stella's obsession with blue made me want to throw things. "She wrote with blue ink in her blue notebook leaning against her blue cushion in her blue bedroom with the blue glass trinkets" YES THANK YOU VERY MUCH SHE LIKES BLUE I GOT IT THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND TIMES THAT YOU SAID IT YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME AGAIN.

And that's literary fiction, where they're supposed to know better.

 

[MsZem]

And that's literary fiction, where they're supposed to know better.

Sometimes I read examples of supposedly amazing writing in literary fiction, and I'm basically meh, that's unoriginal, or overwritten, or downright unappealing. I don't need authors to show me how clever they are; I like them to write something compelling.

I've come across excellent writing in genre fiction and in literary fiction. I don't think authors know better in one or the other.

 

[Winnipeg]

The Alice Network was good.....just finished it, great female war spy story

 

[SHARPIE]

Read "Copy Cat" by Alex Lake recently. Pretty good thriller imo. Bit disturbing at times but all in all I enjoyed it.

 

[Prancer]

You previously received an email informing you that you have a new credit in your Barnes & Noble account as a result of a redistribution of the Apple Settlement. We're happy to let you know that your settlement credit for $22.80 is now in your Barnes & Noble account and ready to spend.

Wheee! What shall I buy? One expensive thing? A few cheap things?

 

[Wyliefan]

You previously received an email informing you that you have a new credit in your Barnes & Noble account as a result of a redistribution of the Apple Settlement. We're happy to let you know that your settlement credit for $22.80 is now in your Barnes & Noble account and ready to spend.

Wheee! What shall I buy? One expensive thing? A few cheap things?

Ooh, nice! Wish I could get one of those. I got a similar one from Amazon . . . for 38 cents.

 

[Prancer]

This is (I think) my third payout from that settlement. I'm pretty sure this puts me over $100.

Not that I buy a lot of ebooks or anything .

 

[jeffisjeff]

I got the same thing from B&N, but it was less than $5.

 

[MacMadame]

I got one from Apple. Around $3.00. I already spent it.

 

[oleada]

Oooh! $13.52!

 

[PrincessLeppard]

So. 9/11 was a bit weird this year. Many of my freshmen believe the whole "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" stuff and two of them told me that what I saw on TV was CGI and I was watching on a seven minute delay.

So I told them my cousin had to evacuate the first tower and was on her way to the second tower to meet her husband (who was pre-emptively evacuating that tower) and saw the second plane hit. And also that many other people saw the planes hit.

Mass hysteria, sez student #1.

At my library, I found the book based on the Popular Mechanics article that debunks all of the conspiracy theories (well, not the CGI, seven minute delay thing. Is that new? I hadn't heard that one before) in terms that a non-engineer such as myself can understand. I might use parts of it in class.

Yes, I know when you hit nutcases with facts, they just entrench themselves further, but maybe some of my students are salvageable.
.

 

[Prancer]

So. 9/11 was a bit weird this year. Many of my freshmen believe the whole "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" stuff and two of them told me that what I saw on TV was CGI and I was watching on a seven minute delay..

My fall faculty in-service focused on teaching Gen Z and one of the things that was emphasized was that this generation was born into the age of fake news and rampant conspiracy theories and that they have grown up in a world where such theories are more mainstream and commonly believed than in the past, complete with internet sources to back them up.

I've always had the odd "we didn't actually land on the moon" and "the government is hiding little green men" and, when I first started, Kennedy assassination theorists, but in the last two years, I've had a LOT of 9/11 conspiracy students. The CGI thing is new to me, but the rest of it I've heard before.

I don't think I have ever changed a student's mind on any of those things . But there are other students in classes who gain something from the evidence review process and that's important, too.

 

[Japanfan]

I just completed Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy (Oryz and Crake, Year of the Flood, and Maddadam). The film is based in a future not to far in the distance in which genetic engineering has altered the world as we it (will say no more to avoid spoilers).

The first book was my favorite, and I mostly enjoyed the series and thought it was both very compelling and highly imaginative.

There were some plot glitches and convenient, hard-to-buy turns of events in the final book. However I thought the ending was masterful and fascinating, and am still dwelling on its possible ramifications.

 

[Susan1]

BTW

Y is for Yesterday is really good!!! Almost done and have enjoyed it a lot. The problem is now waiting forever for Z to come out.

Guesses - Z is for ??? Zoo? Zeppelin, Zero, Zilch, Zephyr

I'm in the middle of Y. It is good. It would be about 100 pages shorter if she didn't describe everyone's clothes down to the buttons (like the Spenser books) and homes down to the books on the shelves. It doesn't add anything to the story.

 

[Prancer]

Joyce Carol Oates' memoir about her husband's death was on my cheap books list the other day and I debated getting it. Sometimes I love JCO and sometimes I don't, and I generally don't love her personal writing.

Then I read this review. Maybe @IceAlisa can tackle it and review it. I am agog that JCO took such a slap at Joan Didion, who, as far as I can see, did a remarkable job of keeping on keeping on and not wallowing in grief.

 

[MacMadame]

I like how it called her writing flabbier and flightier. That's a very concise summary of what I think of her writing.

 

[IceAlisa]

Joyce Carol Oates' memoir about her husband's death was on my cheap books list the other day and I debated getting it. Sometimes I love JCO and sometimes I don't, and I generally don't love her personal writing.

Then I read this review. Maybe @IceAlisa can tackle it and review it. I am agog that JCO took such a slap at Joan Didion, who, as far as I can see, did a remarkable job of keeping on keeping on and not wallowing in grief.

I may do this just because I love homework and my year is not complete until I inflict a hefty and flawed JCO on myself.

 

[clairecloutier]

I've been meaning to read JCO's book about her husband's death. I read her other recent memoir, The Lost Landscape, and liked it.

Kind of a weird review by Janet Maslin in the Times, then again, I find most NYT book reviews to be sort of impenetrable. Maslin is right, though, that JCO is a tease when it comes to writing about her husband--she mentions him a lot, but doesn't want to give you any details.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Second book - Marian Keyes - "The Break"

Oh Marian, it's time to give it up my love. I read you since my early twenties and you were amazing. But besides the occasional witty one liner in this book it was really, really dull and none of the characters were in any way likeable. Go back to the Walsh family if you're going to churn something else out and I'll buy it but nothing has been good since, "This charming man" (thankfully this was better)


Third -"The Couple Next Door" by Shari Lorena

Tired,boring story with an utterly predictable ending. All the characters involved need to be shot. (Maybe not baby Cora but wtf sort of name is Cora anyway?)

My grandmother's name. Aren't "old-fashioned" names supposed to be coming back into vogue for babies?

 

[IceAlisa]

My grandmother's name. Aren't "old-fashioned" names supposed to be coming back into vogue for babies?

A beautiful name!

 

[puglover]

A few new books for legal/police/mystery buffs: John Sanford "Deep Freeze", Virgil Flowers series. I enjoy these but maybe because they take place just south of where I grew up and I can picture the terrain and biting cold so well. John Grisham "Rooster Bar" - just released. Michael Connelly "Two Kinds of Truth" - to be released Oct. 31st - I think it is a Harry Bosch series book. Finally, Lee Child "The Midnight Line", Jack Reacher series to be released Nov. 7th. The early reviews I have read of the latest Jack Reacher seem encouraging.
I just finished a biography "Raven", which is an incredibly detailed account of the Jonestown horror and the life of Jim Jones. It is very well written but certainly not an easy reading, pleasant book - but then one would probably not expect it to be.

 

[antmanb]

My grandmother's name. Aren't "old-fashioned" names supposed to be coming back into vogue for babies?

I think the received wisdom I've heard is that names generally spike in popularity roughly every 100 years - long enough that the generation that thinks "that's an old person's name" because their grandparents had names like that wouldn't use them or their parent's generation names (unless they are specifically naming after people in their family) so older names are resurrected by a generation trying to be more unique and so the cycle goes.