Frederick’s Comments (group member since Nov 15, 2012)

Frederick’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Moldy old Fleming might be extremely chilly inside?

I love it! This fast-paced, beautifully written medical thriller glues you between its covers and will not set you free until the final page!
Author Carrie Rubin takes you with Dr. Sydney McKnight on shift in a Boston hospital as she is swept up onto the wave of an epidemic on the grand scale - an epidemic that is almost unerringly fatal, and one for which no remedy is known.
The words skip off the page as Ms. Rubin guides you through the technical language of epidemiology with authoritative ease, taking you deep inside her heroine’s mind without breaking the rhythm of the story. Her obvious experience as a hospital doctor brings the frantic atmosphere alive - takes you along each corridor, through each door - stands beside you at each bed. And all the time sharing Sydney’s suspicions: something is not quite right....
I don’t think I’ve ever read a medical thriller before. I’ve read few books that were better written. The Seneca Scourge was new to me in many ways: I gulped it down more eagerly than any book I’ve read in years.

Strictly speaking I suppose this isn't fiction, but too good to miss: 'Gir....'

Cold Comfit Farm

Erin wrote: "Ample presumption" Great expectations?

Leora wrote: "Yes to all three.

And Alessia, you should definitely read Like Water for Chocolate. It's bizarre and profound and impossible to describe!

How about; Weapons and the Adult Male" Arms and the Man?

The Balsamic Verses - here comes the fatwah

Bath Oliver Twist, then...

Sue wrote: "That leaves Bodily fluid with granular material!
Blood and Dust or
Blood And Sand ??"

Blood and Sand was the one I was after! (Sorry to be so quick on the draw but I'm here doing my blog, so...)

Sue wrote: "Frederick wrote: "Bodily fluid with granular material;
Try this one again: MCMXIV/08;
The bolts of cotton, silk, rayon or wool he possesses, in colors such as black or navy;
Consequences of my oscu..."

Close! MCMXIV/08 August 1914 (Solzhenitsyn - I wish I could spell that!)
His Dark Materials yes,
I was thinking of 'Kiss me Deadly' but I guess that works too:
That leaves Bodily fluid with granular material!

The Grill with the Pearl Earring?

Bodily fluid with granular material;
Try this one again: MCMXIV/08;
The bolts of cotton, silk, rayon or wool he possesses, in colors such as black or navy;
Consequences of my osculation will be lethal

The Beans and the Chive

MCMXIV/08

Blini the Pooh
The Crepes of Wrath
Look back in Hunger
For Whom the Bread rolls?
The Lovely Scones

Under Milk Pud?

Of Rice and Penn

Tom Soya

Margaret wrote: "Frederick wrote: "I think that's worth raising my head above the barricades for a considered response: if I had based my opinion of Salman Rushdie upon his 'Moonlight's Children'..."

Oh I agree wi..."

Hmmm. Might be a subject for a separate thread - Lesser-known books by the author.....

Margaret wrote: "Frederick wrote: " However,I must agree, though its such a shame that, like yourself, so many judge Lawrence by those two iconic books."

If a reader has a negative encounter with Sons and Lovers a..."

I think that's worth raising my head above the barricades for a considered response: if I had based my opinion of Salman Rushdie upon his 'Moonlight's Children' I might never have picked up 'The Satanic Verses' or 'The Moor's Last Sigh'. Vikram Seth's 'Golden Gate' should not deter the reader from moving on to 'An Equal Music'. 'Pickwick Papers'(which I find difficult) is not everybody's taste as an introduction to Dickens, but then, should you discover 'Dombey and Son'.....

I seem to read a lot of extreme reactions to certain books and I am sometimes guilty of it myself, but it should surely be possible to gain something positive from every work, even when the overall impression is bad. An encounter with a book? I don't know. Surely to read is to broaden, isn't it? And that implies depth.