Queen Amaranthine Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Speaking of Dickens, I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities. I'm taking it too slow. I love his descriptive writing. That's a great one too. The Canada novel above made me think of these. The companion DVD is interesting and funny too: Link to post Share on other sites
fif1435 Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Speaking of Dickens, I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities. I'm taking it too slow. I love his descriptive writing. Hey! A Tale of Two Cities is next on my list. I was inspired to pick up a Dickens novel when someone earlier in this thread (maybe last year) was praising A Christmas Carol. I haven't read any Chuck Dickens, but listened to Great Expectations on cd.Anyway, I'll get to it as soon as I finish this (which also came from somewhere earlier in this topic): Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 I am a HUGE fan of The Ghost Map. I'm an epidemiology nerd, and I think it's such a great story, combining social issues, politics, science. Plus, you can impress your friends* by telling them you know where this blog gets its title: http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/ *This only applies if your friends are as off-the-charts geeky as mine, and are impressed by this kind of incredibly dorky trivia. Actually, even my geeky friends were probably only pretending to be at all impressed. Link to post Share on other sites
alison the wilca Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 I'm a huge John Bellairs fan and somehow never read this one. I wish i had this edition; I'm reading it on my silly kindle. This one is staring out pretty creepy, although most of them are pretty good at being spooky. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 I just finished his collection of short stories, Rock Springs. Pretty good, if on the depressing side. He can turn a phrase, for sure. How is "Canada"? Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 I just finished his collection of short stories, Rock Springs. Pretty good, if on the depressing side. He can turn a phrase, for sure. How is "Canada"?I'm about 100 pages in but so far, so good. I am a big fan of The Sportswriter and Independence Day but I thought the third book in the triology (The Lay of the Land) was not great. This one is more like his short stories - it's set in Montana (and I'm guessing eventually Canada) in the early 1960s and is somewhat bleak. Link to post Share on other sites
fif1435 Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 I am a HUGE fan of The Ghost Map. I'm an epidemiology nerd, and I think it's such a great story, combining social issues, politics, science. Plus, you can impress your friends* by telling them you know where this blog gets its title: http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/ Well, I'm not an epidemiology nerd (I don't even know how to spell it...) as you are, but I really like the historical aspect of issues like this. In this case, overcoming the miasma mindset of the time (at least, starting to shift the winds, anyway), how close minded most were to real data...just the whole data-based problem solving steps that we take for granted today weren't used at the time for this constant threat (cholera). Not to mention how one (or two, I guess) men had the courage and determination to continue to work on this despite the overriding notion of the cause cholera. I don't have the book in front of me now, but wasn't it the surgeon general of the London police force who publicly stated that the way to cure cholera was to take laudanum (which, I've figured out, is basically alcohol and opium, right?). Anyway, there is really a lot to think about from this book. I've really enjoyed it.And no nerds in my circle who would appreciate the blog title. But I do now! and I don't know why that text posted so small.....(text size edited by gogo, epidemiology nerd and moderator ) Link to post Share on other sites
gogo Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 I also loved the bit about how the men who worked at the brewery and were given an allotment of beer each day drank less water, and therefore were less likely to get cholera! Fascinating stuff! Link to post Share on other sites
NightOfJoy Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 "The Age of Miracles" K. Walker. A bit slow yet creepy, waiting for the big payoff. Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Last Night at the Lobster by Stuart O'NanChose it partially (a lot) because my first job after college was waiting tables at a Red Lobster near Chicago while searching for my first "real" job.One night of reading this very short book, I'm about halfway done. Very into it. Link to post Share on other sites
DrNo Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Weird. I opened this thread and one of the first posts I see is about the book I'm reading right now. Small world, I guess. The writing in Rock Springs is beautiful, but damn... I read the story set on the train today at lunch and felt like I got punched in the stomach. Anyway, I'm headed to Colorado for the first time in a few weeks so I'm stocking up on bleak Western/nature writing. Picked up some Rick Bass last night, as I really liked his book Ghost Grizzlies. Anybody else have any mountain reading suggestions? I just finished his collection of short stories, Rock Springs. Pretty good, if on the depressing side. He can turn a phrase, for sure. How is "Canada"? Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I agree, he writes beautifully. I did think his author photo looked a little like a serial killer, but maybe that was just the effect of the stories. That creepy shot on the barren, snow-edged road? Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Rock Springs was a book I had to read in a college course --- great, great book. Speaking of Colorado - Kent Haruf (while at Southern Illinois University) was the one who assigned Rock Springs - Kent wrote a couple of books set in Colorado - both worth reading. Speaking of SIU, I am reading the below book - this is her first book of short stories - she is mostly writes poetry and also has a book of essay that focuses on her Multiple sclerosis . Not only is she a great writer - she was a great teacher. - Man, SIU had a great creative program in the early nineties. Rodney Jones and Ricardo Cruz were also part of the staff. Link to post Share on other sites
smells like flowers Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Just finished this: It took me a while to get into it but in the end I enjoyed it. For me, it didn't hold a candle to Virgin Suidicides, and I hate to admit I started Middlesex but put it down. Anyway, interesting stuff here for people interested in mental illness and religion. Link to post Share on other sites
alison the wilca Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 My sister got me a copy of the BBC adaptation of MR James A Warning to the Curious for Christmas and it was quite good and moody. Just starting to read his collected written works. I like that he was an academic who write these stories to entertain his professor friends around the fireplace. Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 That looks like excellent reading for around Halloween! I'll have to see if the library carries it. I've just finished Jetta Carleton's "Clair de Lune". Fans of her sublime "The Moonflower Vine" will love Clair de Lune as well. A very satisfying story, set just before the onset of American involvement in WWII, and full of the grace and humanity of Carleton's writing. Quite beautiful. The cover makes it look like a sappy romance...I wish they had come up with something more suited. It's less a romance (though there's a bit of that) than it is a story of a young woman's coming of age in 1941. It's a shame Carleton's life didn't allow her time to write more, because she was an exceptionally gifted writer. Her scenes...of people, or nature...paint themselves onto your mind and stay. Link to post Share on other sites
smells like flowers Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 The widespread enthusiasm on this board for John Irving's work inspired me to read Until I Find You. It's been years since I read any of his stuff but this one grabbed me right away. Only a couple chapters in and loving it already! Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 You're always in for a good story with John Irving! Link to post Share on other sites
Fritz Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 You're always in for a good story with John Irving! Agreed. Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 You're always in for a good story with John Irving! It's funny - I have Irving's new one but I'm not quite ready to read it. Instead I just started this: Link to post Share on other sites
The High Heat Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Birthday gift!!! Link to post Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 I actually just put this down after about 100 pages. I thought I'd love it but the writing style really bothered me. Link to post Share on other sites
smells like flowers Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Just finished this, which was good but not great: I definitely have a thing for chef memoirs and this one was inspiring in terms of the truly hard work that went into the making of Samuelsson's career. (Personal faves in this genre, though, are Bill Buford's "Heat" and "Blood, Bones & Butter, " by Gabrielle Hamilton.) Now I have to go back and finish that John Irving book I started last month. ("Until I Find You.") It's the first novel I've read where a penis is pretty much a character in the story. Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Don't forget to check out the film someday - Far From The Madding Crowd (1967). Link to post Share on other sites
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