Lots of reading
Jul. 24th, 2003 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielI haven't listed what I've been reading in ages, a couple of months now. OK, here we go.
Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog--Time Travel--High Jinks on the Thames--Victoriana--Nods and Winks to DLS fans--sagged a little in the middle but I loved it.
Gregory Maguire, Lost. I adored his first book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. This is a much sparer book, not as well-written, but I like ghost stories, and I found the prickly heroine's story and the exorcism of what was haunting her very touching. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katlinel, one for the pile?)
Twelfth Night. The only thing I like about this play is Feste.
Gita Mehta, Raj. This book is absolutely raved about in all the reviews I've read. It's the story of an Indian princess growing up during all the major events of the 20th century, and I have to say that it's really badly written. The lead character is a complete cipher, hardly uttering a word throughout and, at one point - I kid you not - she scores the winning goal in a polo match in front of Edward VIII. Honestly. And yet I absolutely devoured it, because the historical and cultural information was so fascinating. A review on the front (OK, it was The Daily Mail) says it was 'easily the year's best novel' and you really have to wonder what other novels were published in 1989, because as a novel it's crap. But it's still a very absorbing read.
Michael Stanton, Hobbits, Elves and Wizards is a collection of Stanton's lecture notes turned into brief essays. It didn't say anything I didn't already know, but it was a quick and enjoyable read, and I would have adored it when I was thirteen. So I'm glad it's on my shelf for any thirteen-year-old Tolkien devotee who may one day be in my house.
Diana Wynne Jones, Deep Secret. We are not worthy. It's that simple.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I do my bit for the world's trees by not providing a link to Amazon. I enjoyed it. The start was slow, I liked the Orwellian overtones and more snippets from the previous generation, thought Umbridge was a great villain, and the scene with Dumbledore at the end was preposterous. So I liked the usual things, disliked the usual things, and thought it was streets ahead of Goblet of Fire.
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. No, I've never read it before. I thought it was great.
Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, A Presumption of Death. The connection of this to any of DLS's actual work is pretty tenuous (it's based on The Wimsey Papers, which were a series of wartime letters between members of the Wimsey family published as a morale raiser in the Spectator in 1939 and 1940). Stylistically, too, it's nothing like Sayers, but I thought the characterization was very good, and I found the evocation of wartime England very touching. And I wanted there to be more when I finished reading, which is surely a good sign.
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain. I tell you, this book was this close to being my favourite book of the year. It's a retelling of the Odyssey, set in North Carolina at the very end of the American Civil War, and it alternates between the perspectives of Inman, a Confederate soldier who has deserted, and Ada, his sweetheart to whom he is trying to return. The prose is just gorgeous, and the sense of melancholy and yearning at the start of the book made me ache so much I had to put the book aside for a couple of weeks. I picked up it up again and raced through it, loving it... and then - ten minutes to go - and he starts putting some bloody plot in! I couldn't believe it! I haven't been this cross about the end of something since I saw Vanilla Sky. Oh, Minghella's making it into a film with Jude Law.
Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer.merrymaia thank you so much for recommending this wonderful, marvellous book, which had me crying for joy twice this morning! katlinel, I suspect this is an INFJ book, and I've added it to the pile.
That's your lot.
Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog--Time Travel--High Jinks on the Thames--Victoriana--Nods and Winks to DLS fans--sagged a little in the middle but I loved it.
Gregory Maguire, Lost. I adored his first book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. This is a much sparer book, not as well-written, but I like ghost stories, and I found the prickly heroine's story and the exorcism of what was haunting her very touching. (
katlinel, one for the pile?)Twelfth Night. The only thing I like about this play is Feste.
Gita Mehta, Raj. This book is absolutely raved about in all the reviews I've read. It's the story of an Indian princess growing up during all the major events of the 20th century, and I have to say that it's really badly written. The lead character is a complete cipher, hardly uttering a word throughout and, at one point - I kid you not - she scores the winning goal in a polo match in front of Edward VIII. Honestly. And yet I absolutely devoured it, because the historical and cultural information was so fascinating. A review on the front (OK, it was The Daily Mail) says it was 'easily the year's best novel' and you really have to wonder what other novels were published in 1989, because as a novel it's crap. But it's still a very absorbing read.
Michael Stanton, Hobbits, Elves and Wizards is a collection of Stanton's lecture notes turned into brief essays. It didn't say anything I didn't already know, but it was a quick and enjoyable read, and I would have adored it when I was thirteen. So I'm glad it's on my shelf for any thirteen-year-old Tolkien devotee who may one day be in my house.
Diana Wynne Jones, Deep Secret. We are not worthy. It's that simple.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I do my bit for the world's trees by not providing a link to Amazon. I enjoyed it. The start was slow, I liked the Orwellian overtones and more snippets from the previous generation, thought Umbridge was a great villain, and the scene with Dumbledore at the end was preposterous. So I liked the usual things, disliked the usual things, and thought it was streets ahead of Goblet of Fire.
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. No, I've never read it before. I thought it was great.
Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, A Presumption of Death. The connection of this to any of DLS's actual work is pretty tenuous (it's based on The Wimsey Papers, which were a series of wartime letters between members of the Wimsey family published as a morale raiser in the Spectator in 1939 and 1940). Stylistically, too, it's nothing like Sayers, but I thought the characterization was very good, and I found the evocation of wartime England very touching. And I wanted there to be more when I finished reading, which is surely a good sign.
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain. I tell you, this book was this close to being my favourite book of the year. It's a retelling of the Odyssey, set in North Carolina at the very end of the American Civil War, and it alternates between the perspectives of Inman, a Confederate soldier who has deserted, and Ada, his sweetheart to whom he is trying to return. The prose is just gorgeous, and the sense of melancholy and yearning at the start of the book made me ache so much I had to put the book aside for a couple of weeks. I picked up it up again and raced through it, loving it... and then - ten minutes to go - and he starts putting some bloody plot in! I couldn't believe it! I haven't been this cross about the end of something since I saw Vanilla Sky. Oh, Minghella's making it into a film with Jude Law.
Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer.
merrymaia thank you so much for recommending this wonderful, marvellous book, which had me crying for joy twice this morning! katlinel, I suspect this is an INFJ book, and I've added it to the pile. That's your lot.
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Books!
Date: 2003-07-24 07:57 pm (UTC)BTW, would you like more DWJ? I keep looking at the pile for you, and then stare abstractedly at my bookshelves whilst muttering about books I've offered to you that I can't remember.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 02:27 am (UTC)But what am i saying? You are fen. You've probably read it a dozen times...
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 07:01 am (UTC)Re: Books!
Date: 2003-07-25 09:41 am (UTC)On the pile.
BTW, would you like more DWJ?
Hm, thank you, but I think I'd better say no for the moment. I still have several of your books I've not read yet, and I suspect I want to do a massive DWJ read-a-thon at some point in the next few months. But I'd love recommendations!
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:50 am (UTC)Passage is the next one up, but that one's going to have to join the pile!
OotP - there was a terrific review in the Sunday NY Times about two weeks ago - did you read it?
I don't think I saw that - was it online?
Prodigal Summer.
I'm so glad you are reading it, and that you like it! How far have you gotten now? What are your favorite parts?
I finished yesterday morning - talk about devouring it! I think I only started on Monday! I loved the whole thing, particularly how you knew from the start that the interconnection of the stories was going to be a major theme, but that didn't detract from the delight of seeing it all unfold. The writing was so lush and vibrant.
Also the final chapter from the perspective of one of the other inhabitants of the mountain was beautifully done.
which had me crying for joy twice this morning!
Where?
I was very moved by the scene where Lusa tells Jewel that she wants to adopt the children, but the bit that actually made me cry was when Jewel described how her sisters would react (pretending to mind, but thanking God). And then I cried when Nannie and Garnett hugged. (His line about not liking how the scarecrow was looking at her in her short pants was just priceless.)
It was all a real pleasure - thank you for the recommendation.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:22 pm (UTC)Me too. Vastly better than the travesty that was the movie adaptation. And can you get it on video or DVD? Can you buggery.
Iain
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 07:13 pm (UTC)Afterwards to be repeated on UK Gold 2. I shall prevail upon my bro-in-law to record it for me with his magic pie-in-the-Sky dish.
Info from: http://www.the-mausoleum-club.org.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=2097
I remember watching it on TV, but not taking too much notice of it, except to laugh at the triffids lumbering along. It's the first Whyndham book i've read. I'll probably try Chocky next, another TV classic from my youth. :-)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 10:19 pm (UTC)Mr Altariel picked up the Chocky DVD and absolutely loved it.