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Post by starsea on Jun 30, 2009 12:04:19 GMT -5
I just finished reading Tamora Pierce's Page, from the Protector of the Small Series. However, I haven't read the first book yet, so I'm waiting to come across that. OMG, I loved "Protector of the Small". The first book is called "First Test". Lord Wyldon reminded me a little of Snape... only fairer, but that's not difficult. Currently reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, which has sunk its stone claws into my brain and refuses to let go! Re-reading Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, just because. A Spy In The House of Love by Anais Nin and Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
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Post by vegablack on Jul 13, 2009 22:08:30 GMT -5
I just finished Miracle at Santa Anna by James Mcbride. It tells the story of Black troops serving in Italy in WWII. I enjoyed it a lot. An actual massacre that hadn't been investigated until 2004 forms the backdrop for the story. (Just google Santa Anna.) The experience of these troops was very interesting and the characters enjoyable to read about. I loved it.
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Post by Mirabelle on Jul 19, 2009 10:24:33 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of Tanamera, an epic set in Singapore during WWII, and I really want to start The Sisters, a biography of the Mitford sisters.
I'd also like to recommend the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series if you haven't already read them. I think people who enjoyed HP for the humor, action, and the friendships will like PJ.
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Post by queenie on Jan 4, 2010 0:33:03 GMT -5
I just finished Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart, and enjoyed it hugely, and I recommend it if you liked The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, by Lloyd Alexander. Bridge of Birds is rather more lewd, more convoluted, and gets off to a slower start, but it's got an absolutely great payoff and finish to everything.
I also read Tamora Pierce's Squire over the past month, and even got my mom to read it. I've been working my way through the Protector of the Small series (not quite in their proper order) and really like them. Kel is an absolutely winning heroine, and I'm looking forward to Lady Knight. I should also pull out The Will of the Empress one of these days.
I put A House Like a Lotus on my Christmas list, and got it, which is a delight, because I love that book so much!
I also got The Blythes Are Quoted, the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Although I recognize a lot of the stories, I'm still enjoying them as I read through.
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Post by starsea on Jan 4, 2010 19:38:15 GMT -5
Currently reading The Seducer's Diary by Kierkegaard (existential fiction on the struggle between morals and aesthetics in love), In My Father's House by Miranda Seymour (memoir about her father's obsessive love for his family home) and Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Post by Mirabelle on Jan 5, 2010 21:22:46 GMT -5
I've just started Jude Morgan's Indiscretion. I read An Accomplished Woman and really enjoyed it and I hope this is just as good.
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Post by MWPP on Jan 11, 2010 3:30:55 GMT -5
Thom Hartmann's "Threshold", then his "Screwed".
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Post by queenie on Mar 18, 2010 2:15:31 GMT -5
Almost done with The Will of the Empress, by Tamora Pierce, and savoring it because I know there's not much left to the Circle universe - which I personally love so much better than the Tortall universe! Don't get me wrong, Tortall's a great place to visit, but Winding Circle is hands-down my favorite location. I would just love to study there.
Forcing my way through Charles Dickens' Hard Times. It's not as good as A Tale of Two Cities, or even Great Expectations, but (it's for a class), and it's not bad. What am I saying, it's Dickens, of course it's not bad.
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Post by queenie on Apr 7, 2010 20:39:10 GMT -5
Well, I just survived my midterms (hurrah!) so now it's time to relax and catch up on some reading. I recently finished The Truth-Teller's Tale by Sharon Shinn - quite good, and I'd like to discuss it with someone else who's read it, if anyone has. I should be starting Wildwood Dancing at some point too... I'm also rereading Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery - Pat is a heroine I've always found quite difficult, simply because of her Stay-Put-iveness. Some people have stick to it ivness, but Pat has that applied exclusively to her home. Last night I reread The Yellow Wallpaper for Major American Writers - awesomesauce! It's so delightfully creepy.
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Post by Mirabelle on Apr 8, 2010 1:21:21 GMT -5
Pat is my least favorite Montomery heroine. I can't stand the way she refuses to accept any change to the point where she's upset that her brother wants to move on from his dead childhood sweetheart.
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Post by queenie on Apr 10, 2010 2:05:33 GMT -5
And her books are full of such things! It's why Pat's books are the only L.M. Montgomery books I haven't read up to now. But I am finding lots to love about them. And lots to be annoyed with, too. I have Emily of New Moon tucked up in my dorm room for when I'm ready for a character who does take chances and risks... Actually, the next book I plan on reading is A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle. It'll be good to read in conjunction with studying Major American Writers.
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Post by MWPP on May 13, 2010 0:28:54 GMT -5
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Its a bit rough for "delicate" readers, but very well plotted and lots of twists and turns.
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Post by Katmandu on May 13, 2010 5:06:36 GMT -5
I'm currently reading The X Factor by Andre Norton. I love her stuff; it's pure comfort reading for me.
I have a ton of books (books I've never read!) to go through, and yet.. when I'm stressed,I grab a Norton.
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Post by queenie on May 13, 2010 21:42:44 GMT -5
The X Factor? I remember that; that was in Return to the Forbidden Planet!
Now that I've finally finished Mistress Pat, I'm rereading Mrs. Dalloway, Emily of New Moon, and Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton (love these books.) Sadly, have not yet picked up A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I'm a bad L'Engle fan, I know.
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Post by Mirabelle on May 17, 2010 22:47:18 GMT -5
When You Reach Me, the latest Newbery winner, references A Wrinkle in Time and was inspired by it. I didn't like it as much as its superfans do because I figured out the ending about halfway through the book.
LM Montgomery is who I turn to when I need a comfort read. I haven't read the Emily books in a long while though and maybe it's time for a serious rereading of the series. As for the Pat books, I may not like them as much as the others but I still own copies and I still reread them. I wish Rae had gotten a book of her own.
I just finished Laurie King's The God of the Hive and World War Z. So I'm either going to read the first Skullduggery Pleasant book or I'm going to read For All the Tea in China. I also just started Eva Ibbotson's A Glove in Vienna & Other Short Stories.
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Post by queenie on May 18, 2010 18:47:26 GMT -5
Oh? A Newbery Award winner that references A Wrinkle in Time? Why, sign me up! I'll have to find that at my local library.
Overall I really trust the Newbery medal on a cover, but sometimes it backfires. I tried to read the book Kira-Kira, and couldn't finish it. Maybe it was the fact that it stopped in the middle of a perfectly good scene (When the main character's sister suddenly falls deathly ill) to provide backstory that should have gone earlier. Or the fact that it seemed too full of all the Newbery medal tropes - the normal kid who doesn't like him/herself, the mentor who teaches them to see beauty in everything, the tragic death of the mentor which I could see coming from a mile off, the oblique references to "grown-up" things like sex and labor issues, because a Newbery book must have those things.
But, honestly, overall, I tend to love books that have been given the Newbery Medal or honor.
Incidentally, has anyone heard of Francine Prose? I found an positive article about her lately and am intrigued.
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Post by Mirabelle on May 18, 2010 22:20:41 GMT -5
I think my expectations of When You Reach Me were too high based on all the praise it was getting. I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been expecting to be blown away by it. My hair fluttered in the breeze though. I found out about it from Fuse #8 which is a children's book blog. It was doing a Top 100 Children's book poll and WYRM was one of them. The results of the poll is interesting reading especially when you reach the top twenty because she starts devoting an entire entry to the book and gives a lot of background information on it. One of the tidbits she shared for one of the books was it had actually tied with the Newbery winner that year in votes but the committee couldn't make a decision so the chair that year said, "X will be the winner and Y will be the ONLY Newbery Honor book." Makes me wonder whether that's the case whenever a given year has only one Honor book. It's also interesting to see how often the committee gets it right and how often they've been wrong. I have heard of Francine Prose but I haven't read anything she's written. I tend to confuse her with Francise Pascal best known for creating Sweet Valley High.
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Post by queenie on May 21, 2010 17:32:57 GMT -5
Incidentally, I recently reread Romeo and Juliet, and MAN is that a good read. Short, action-packed, full of great, quotable lines, with themes and poetry and speeches to knock your socks off. People keep saying "it's not a romance," "the two were just a pair of lustful teenagers," etc. etc., I think it is definitely a great romance, yes, even if the two main characters were kind of stupid (mostly Romeo), and Love at First Sight was a totally acceptable way to write a romance back in the day.
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Post by MWPP on Oct 16, 2010 0:24:20 GMT -5
The last of Stieg Larsson's trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. These books are so well written and translated - can barely put any of them down!
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