Current Reads

I'm eating choco chip cookies for dinner and hooked on Jurassic Park. I may actually be turning into a 12-year old boy.

Ok, every single time I love a book from this thread, the recommendation comes from MaddyCat. I think you need to be my personal book shopper from now on. :)

I'm about 3/4 of the way through this book and I really don't want it to end, I'm so enjoying it. Though it's kind of hitting me in a personal way as I can relate to the aimless Louisa who doesn't do a whole lot and I feel kinda guilty thinking of all the time I waste when there are people who CAN'T do a whole lot but would like to.

Aww, this made my night Mayram! Thanks!

Also, if I could find a job as a personal book shopper, my life would be complete. Sigh.

I thought I was the only one who dreamed of being a personal book shopper.

Thanks to the Moon Lodge, dystopic books have been on my palette this week, so last night I finally read The Handmaid's Tale. I don't know why I've never read it before. Wonderful book, but some of the reasons for how Gilead came to be strike a little too close to some of the political news. Between this book and CNN, I had some weird dreams last night.

I just got A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel from the library and I'm going to read that next (or a fluffy Regency Romance) and I hope my seven-year-old will want to read it, too.

whatthedeuce, I don't think you'll be disappointed. YA, so it's a quick read, but a surprising amount of depth.

mayram, I remember loving Remember Me, but my favorite Christopher Pike ended up not being his horror/mysteries, but a lovely little semi-philosphical book called Sati. Did anyone else ever read that?

mayram wrote:I'm embarrassed over my excitement at getting word from the library that my inter-library loan copy of Remember Me by Christopher Pike had come in. I started it tonight and despite not having read it in many years, I'm totally familiar with every freaking word.

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite of the Christopher Pikes, which I used to devour back in the day.

Has anyone read the 2 sequels (of which I had no idea til I looked up the original on the library site!)? Are they any good?

That was my favorite of his books, too. And I don't think I knew there were sequels. ...interesting.

I re-read Tiger Eyes for the kajillionth time recently, though I don't think I'd read it since high school (so 20+ years ago now, yikes). I couldn't believe how much of it was still burned in my brain. Like, entire passages. It holds up really well, I thought, and it still brought me to tears a couple of times. I hope the movie does it justice.

I also read Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. I can't decide how I feel about it. I thought parts were really good, parts were kind of a mess, and she just kind of jumped around a lot towards the end after spending so much time on the earlier years. It was like chapters and chapters about their early lives together, (which I'm sure were the most interesting parts/where she had the most material to draw from), chapters and chapters on how much Zelda hated Hemingway and how he ruined her and Scott, and then bam! She's in and out of institutions, Scott's dead, and the book is over. It wasn't a bad book by any means, but I thought the flow was strange.

And now I'm reading Me Before You. I'm about a third of the way through, and cursing myself for not having gotten the Kindle version so that I can sneakily read it at my desk. You can't do that with a hardcover book. I've been spoiled!

Algae wrote:mayram, I remember loving Remember Me, but my favorite Christopher Pike ended up not being his horror/mysteries, but a lovely little semi-philosphical book called Sati. Did anyone else ever read that?

I DO remember that book! I liked it too, as I recall. It was certainly a departure.

I read a bunch of the Christopher Pikes, and the R.L. Stines (pre-Goosebumps, slightly more mature), but I don't remember the details of very many. Except there was one where some friends are driving up or down the coast of (California maybe?) and I think they probably pick up a mysterious hitchhiker or something, but basically the night just keeps going on and on and on and not ending (due to paranormal activity) and eventually they're all like "Where ARE we? And shouldn't it be morning by now?" When I drove from Northampton to Montreal I kept thinking of that book, because it was a long, dark, featureless drive.

Oh, but there was another one, no clue which, and I guess there was some girl named Jean and it took place at a beach resort or something. My sister and I used to make fun of the sort of factory feeling of them (not that it stopped us devouring them), and at one point someone is showing Jean how to scuba-dive (probably so she can be attacked by a sinister mermaid later in the book or what have you). And there's a sentence that goes, "Jean found the different techniques interesting." For some reason we found this the funniest, most hamhanded, doofiest line ever and we used to say it all the time. You suck, Jean! Get to the scariness!

Graphic novel of A Wrinkle in Time? DO WANT.

About a quarter of the way through Double Feature the first novel from Owen King, son of you know who. Unlike the rest of the family he hasn't gone in for horror, but rather a (so far) darkly comedic story of a young man making his first film, who also has a fraught realtionship with his father, a famous B movie actor. Hmm, wonder where he got that plot from? Anyway, it's quite good and has made me laugh out loud on several occasions.

Just finished The Sea Thy Mistress. It and By the Mountain Bound were both much quicker reads than All the Windwracked Stars, which I liked but which took me some time to get through. I really enjoyed this series.

Instant Monkeys wrote:

Algae wrote:mayram, I remember loving Remember Me, but my favorite Christopher Pike ended up not being his horror/mysteries, but a lovely little semi-philosphical book called Sati. Did anyone else ever read that?

I DO remember that book! I liked it too, as I recall. It was certainly a departure.

Yes! Sati! I remember thinking it was SO WEIRD and yet...reading it about a bazillion times.

Jurassic Park really has me hooked! I haven't seen the film in ages so it's fun to read the novel and go, "Oh yeah, this is when the T-rex effs that goat up" and what have you.

I finished Me Before You by Jojo Moyes over the weekend, and I really loved it. Though I had to stop reading it with only about 30 pages to go, because it was a Friday night, and I knew the ending was going to wreck me. (Spoiler: it did.)

Now I'm reading And the Mountains Echoed, which may not have been the best choice for a follow-up. I'm only like 50 pages in, and already

Spoiler:

I read the third Tana French (Faithful Place) over the weekend. It didn't give me the debilitating FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS of the previous two. I quite enjoyed it. Looking forward to the fourth, but for now I'm onto The Night Circus (finally).

How is it possible that Pride and Prejudice gets better with each successive reading? I think this is my fourth time delving into it, and I'm paying even more attention to Darcy's character and behavior towards Elizabeth than I ever have before. It cracks me up that she's always sassing him, and he tries not to show how irritated he is and continues to fall harder for her everytime they politely argue. And Caroline Bingley is hilariously lame with her pathetic attempts to kiss Darcy's ass and make fun of his attraction to Elizabeth.

Same goes for Emma and Northanger Abbey, I'd say. But P&P is the best.

I've only read Austen's other novels oncw before but plan to amend that slight this summer. I have no doubt that each novel will seem even better and more entertaining than they did upon my first reading them years ago.

I read Prisoner of Zenda and it was good although extremely skimpy, but what the heck? I guess this book was obviously planned to be a sequel, but I never realized it because I've heard nothing about the second book. I looked it up and has anyone read it? Is it any good at all?

Hope wrote "Rupert of Henzau" too, but I don't think we'll get any more with Hope dead since 1933. There are a number of modern "redos" of Prisoner of Zenda that I really love. My favorites are Elizabeth Peters' "Street of the Five Moons" (which is only very loosely based on the original), and Sherwood Smith's "Coronets and Steel" which is closer. Both of them have a woman as the protagonist, unlike the original. "Coronets" has two sequels and the author has said she plans to self-pub more in that series. I've read "Zenda" and haven't read "Rupert" but I was talking with Smith about it on Goodreads, and she said she hated it. So at least that's an educated opinion?

Instant Monkeys wrote:I read the third Tana French (Faithful Place) over the weekend. It didn't give me the debilitating FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS of the previous two. I quite enjoyed it. Looking forward to the fourth, but for now I'm onto The Night Circus (finally).

Have you read All Souls? Faithful Place reminded me of that, quite a bit. My dad is a product of the Dot projects, so I may be a bit biased, though...

I haven't, but that looks really interesting. Onto the list!

particle_person wrote:Hope wrote "Rupert of Henzau" too, but I don't think we'll get any more with Hope dead since 1933. There are a number of modern "redos" of Prisoner of Zenda that I really love. My favorites are Elizabeth Peters' "Street of the Five Moons" (which is only very loosely based on the original), and Sherwood Smith's "Coronets and Steel" which is closer. Both of them have a woman as the protagonist, unlike the original. "Coronets" has two sequels and the author has said she plans to self-pub more in that series. I've read "Zenda" and haven't read "Rupert" but I was talking with Smith about it on Goodreads, and she said she hated it. So at least that's an educated opinion?

yeah I figure if no one ever mentions it it must suck but I will probably check it out out of curiosity one day. I don't care about him never

Spoiler:

Read "Coronets" too! It's a good book that has a sequel that's probably more fun.

I will definitely check it out. :) I've been meaning to read one of her books.

Just finished Libba Bray's newest book, The Diviners, which I mostly liked, though the story seemed to end really abruptly, both plot and character-wise--couldn't tell if she was trying to end off with the possibility of a sequel or what. Still, I'd recommend it--she really brought the 1920's to life--I enjoyed all the little details including slang, clothing references, etc--and it was an enjoyably creepy read.

Hah, I was just about to post about a Libba Bray book too - I'm finally getting around to A Great and Terrible Beauty. The only other book of hers that I've read is Beauty Queens, which I kind of hated and was definitely disappointed in, and this is an improvement so far.

That trilogy is the only thing I've read of hers. And... I'm not sure I'm going to read anything else! Although, I was definitely engaged through all three books, I found myself rolling my eyes more and more and losing patience. She has a good writing style, but

Spoiler: