Started Case Histories by Kate Atkinson today. It was Stephen King's favorite book of 2005, which I discovered from the great "best of" lists he publishes in his monthly articles for Entertainment Weekly magazine. I have had it on my wish list since it was in hardback and finally bought it in paperback.

All I can say from the first chapter is that it (at least this chapter, or case history) is set in England (like the book I just finished) so I'm getting more Brit speak--also that it is a rather dour picture of family life. However, from my peek at the first page of chapter 2, it appears that every chapter is a different case history so we'll see what I get tomorrow.

Amazon.com has these little newsletters members can subscribe to that will alert you to the latest books in a given genre. This link was in my newsletter for literature and fiction today and it lists the 7 "must-read" books right now. I think the first one sounds very interesting.

Link to Amazon's 7 Best Picks

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Originally posted by jillybean:

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Originally posted by SheriaVa:
Started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon today at lunch. Very interesting so far!

I have picked up and put down this book 100 times at the bookstore. I'm excited to hear your final review and maybe I will finally get it.

I finished the book last night, so here's my review (of sorts):

Things I liked:

1. A very fast read (I finished it in under a week and that is FAST for me because I only read in little spurts at lunch or bedtime).

2. Shows a "disability" from inside the mind of the affected person. Helps you understand how people with that condition think and why they may react in what seems to the rest of us an overdramatic way (I'm not specifying the condition because it's not specified in the book, though I think it's fairly obvious).

3. It is very funny in places without (in my opinion) "making fun" of people with the condition, though I would not characterize it as a funny story. There are sad parts and heavy themes though, for me, none were weepy.

4. Highlights the difference between how an adult reasons and how a child reasons and why the two don't always communicate easily.

What I was on the fence about:

1. The story takes place in England and there are a lot of Brit terms...some of which I was familiar with and some I wasn't. It wasn't terribly distracting, but just enough that it bugged me when I didn't know what a word meant.

2. The protagonist is a math wiz and, as a result, there is LOTS of math talk and LOTS of things seen from a mathmatical perspective and that really didn't add much to the party for me personally because I am not a math lover.

Things I didn't care for:

1. The ending--I found it profoundly disappointing.


All in all, I enjoyed it but I don't know that I found it as good as I had been expecting from all the buzz I have heard for so long. The fact that I found the ending such a huge disappointment really colored my thoughts in the end, because I had been enjoying the heck out of it all week.

It was like being on a new roller coaster for the first time...climbing that first big rise with great anticipation because you know there is going to be something fabulous just over the peak...and you get to the peak...and the coaster car derails or gets stuck. That's what the ending felt like to me.

"Revolutionary Road" is considered a master work of modern American literature, and was named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Time magazine.

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Anyone read Margaret Atwood?

She has some good short story collections too (Wilderness Tips, Bluebeard's Egg) and I've read her early stuff (Surfacing, The Edible Woman), but not her later work (Oryx and Crake). She has a fairly recent collection of essays out, but last time I looked it was way too expensive for my budget.

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Originally posted by BrenauMom:
Anyone read Margaret Atwood?

Yes but it's been a long time. I read Robber Bride and Handmaid's Tale

Anyone read Margaret Atwood?

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Originally posted by SheriaVa:
Started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon today at lunch. Very interesting so far!

Sheri,
That is one of my favorites of the past few years. I read it not too long after it came out. It was one of the Today Show Book Club choices (which I generally like better than Oprah's).

On my nightstand for after I finish the Thirteen Moons is Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. I had to wait for that one, there was quite a list at the library.

Linda

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:
Started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon today at lunch. Very interesting so far!

I have picked up and put down this book 100 times at the bookstore. I'm excited to hear your final review and maybe I will finally get it.

Jill

Started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon today at lunch. Very interesting so far!

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Originally posted by SheriaVa:

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Originally posted by Brenaumom:
Be Impeccable With Your Word
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

Judy: I noted in another thread that you changed your siggy to this from the Four Agreements. Have you finished the book? Do you agree that it is excellent advice but tough to live it every day?

I have rarely had a problem with the first and the last, as those are just things that are part of me...and I've improved on the third, but the second is something I don't know if I'll ever master!

I just changed it yesterday. Yes, I finished it and liked it so very much more than that one by Debbie Ford. I feel like a lot of what he says I have always known on some level of my conscience.

I think I will make a new thread so as not to high-jack the book thread

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Originally posted by Brenaumom:
Be Impeccable With Your Word
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

Judy: I noted in another thread that you changed your siggy to this from the Four Agreements. Have you finished the book? Do you agree that it is excellent advice but tough to live it every day?

I have rarely had a problem with the first and the last, as those are just things that are part of me...and I've improved on the third, but the second is something I don't know if I'll ever master!

On Writing and Wild Mind? Thanks for the tips. I've read Bird by Bird several times and it's one of my favorites. I need to get my own copy instead of chewing on borrowed ones I also bought Walking in this World for when I finish The Artist's Way, but if I can't wait I might read them both at the same time.

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Originally posted by Nbox:
I'm currently reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and rereading Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. I'm hoping I'll benefit from their ideas.

Have you ever read Stephen King's "On Writing"? I am not a horror fan so I had never read a book by Stephen King, but I got "On Writing" on CD for a long car trip a couple of years ago and REALLY enjoyed it. It is half autobiography and half treatise on writing. King reads it himself on the CD, which is entertaining beyond measure. He is a hilarious dude (an opinion of mine which has only grown since he started writing a monthly column for Entertainment Weekly magazine) and he is SCATHINGLY honest on his opinions of other popular authors.

If you are liking Natalie Goldberg, I really liked Wild Mind better than Writing down the Bones. Also Anne Lammot's Bird by Bird is an awesome book on writing.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is one of my favorites.

I'm currently reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and rereading Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. I'm hoping I'll benefit from their ideas.

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Originally posted by D in St Pete:
Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" and Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" are two pieces that have stayed with me, many years after the initial reading, if you're looking for even MORE classics They aren't painful reading, either, but the endings of both elicit some pretty gut-wrenching reactions.

Madame Bovary is good. I liked that one.
Dawn

I'm now reading Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain.

Kat, I figured out some of the end of The Thirteenth Tale and I was disappointed with the ending. Felt she just hurried up and finished it.

Linda

Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" and Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" are two pieces that have stayed with me, many years after the initial reading, if you're looking for even MORE classics They aren't painful reading, either, but the endings of both elicit some pretty gut-wrenching reactions.

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Originally posted by jillybean:
I bought The Scarlet Letter last night. I am really into reading the classics right now. I am currently reading Jane Eyre, which I should finish this week. I like this book a lot but the writing is sometimes hard to understand because it was written so long ago when people spoke and wrote quite differently than they do now and although there are definitions listed for some words I have been using m-w.com(merriam webster's website) to help me out.

If you're into the classics right now I highly recommend both "Howard's End" and "A Room with a View" by E.M. Forster. (STAY away from "A Pasasage to India though....snooze...)

Dawn