Language & Grammar discussion

LOL ! Great review. I did tackle the epic crap. I never thought it was exotic, but I did comment that I felt as if I was floating down the Amazon and not seeing the scenery. ha!

Heehee. Well done, NE.

2666 is the only Bolano I've read, but I really, really liked it.

Little books I have recently read that packed wallops for me. The Quiet American, The Ox-box Incident and Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Oh wait one more Cold Comfort Farm. Not so much a wallop on the farm book , but definitely,most assuredly quirky.

Cold Comfort Farm has been dramatised (BBC?) It was really good....

I'm reading an ARC of The Passage. Unlike me, as it's a vampire book and it's HUGE (doorstop sized). After 100 pp., I understand the huge -- too much information. I feel like slapping the author around and saying, "Cut to the quick, man!"

OK, so maybe it's unfair to stick The Passage on the vampire shelf. It's at once a vampire book and a dystopian novel. Dystopia -- in all its protean glory among many books -- is a place I like. So if you enjoyed Cormac McCarthy's The Road, you might want to pull your vehicle onto The Passage.

ENJOY...THE ROAD???

Not so much "enjoy"...as just blown away!

I've read most of McCarthy's novels and the language is so incredibly stunning...I'm undeniably riveted and a huge fan!

Just don't expect the same economy of language from Justin Cronin as you would from Cormac Attack. Two different styles, same disturbing end games.

UH...I'll give that one a pass...I'm generally 'tome phobic!' :-)
Just picked up STONER from all of the great reviews here! So far, so good!

It was very good Susanne. I let one of my customers read it. She is 90 years old. She loved it.

What is an ARC?

Advance Reading Copy.

NOAH (of biblical fame) was the first person to get one though! :-)
Now they are sent out to reviewers by the boatloads!

Susanne wrote: "NOAH (of biblical fame) was the first person to get one though! :-)
Now they are sent out to reviewers by the boatloads!"

Susanne you are on the ball today. LOL

Lots of "arks" in this baby -- none of them in very good shape (it's rainin' vampires).

Newengland wrote: "Lots of "arks" in this baby -- none of them in very good shape (it's rainin' vampires)."

Blood, sweat and tears huh!

With a sweet tooth!

I read Salem's Lot along time ago and decided Vampire books were not my choice of literature. I did read Dracula(but it is a classic and not too graphic)

I loved Dracula. And like I said, I don't want to shelf and categorize this as strictly a vampire book. There's more meat (um, and blood) to it than that. It's a survival story on Planet Dystopia.

It's always good to get out from under a 766-pager. Too tired to write my review tonight, though. Maybe tomorrow.

Lame ending. Yet ANOTHER lame ending. 766 pages to get it right and....

Eh. Whatever.

I love it when writers mention other writers and books. In the memoir, True North, Elliott Merrick and wife are in the middle of Godawful Nowhere, Labrador, with other trappers and so far three titles have come up.

The first was Black Bartlemy's Treasure, which Elliott read aloud to his fellow trappers inside the huts where they hid from the cold. This is 1930, mind you, and he's reading serially every night, and the simple trappers are hanging on every Spanish Main word.

I checked here on GR and sure enough, it's still in print. Five people, I think, have read it. Mr. Merrick is not one of them as he died in 1997.

Another book mentioned is Dick Merriwell's Return. This one a trapper is reading himself. It's out of print, but one lone copy is available from an amazon seller for 8 bucks. Whoo-wee!

Finally, Elliott mentions the pleasure of reading Aucassin and Nicolette, a book I recall reading in 8th grade French. I don't recall much, but he acts like it's Shakespeare. Well, when you have but a few books on a long trip, their value increases proportionately. And remember, no Kindles then. Lots of kindling, but no Kindles.

I don't like it when authors tell too much rather than dramatize their book in scenes. Naipaul does that with A House for Mr. Biswas. I think the tone of the book is charming, but all the "telling rather than showing" is wearing me down a bit.

And as for The Historian, it's getting to be like an overwritten version of The Da Vinci Code. A man and a woman running all over eastern Europe and really no clear story question in sight after more than 500 pages.

I didn't like The Historian either, it bored me to tears. I gave the book to my friend and she didn't have much luck with it either. I hate when I buy a book and I am disappointed.

I thought I'd be disappointed with the book, but I decided to read it anyway, Carol, just to see what all the ruckus was about. Now I know. People just wanted to read another book centered around Dracula, if this one can even be said to be centered around him. It seems Kostova was intent on taking us to every country in Eastern Europe in that one book. I think 2/3 of the book could have been cut. And one of the problems with the book is that in the end, there's no payoff for reading nearly 700 pages of travelogue. The ending is as lame as endings get. All that, and all Dracula wanted was...

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER



Someone to catalog his books. Surely Kostova could have done better than that!

How many books out there can have it said of them: "I think 2/3 of the book could have been cut."?

Their number is legion.

Newengland wrote: "How many books out there can have it said of them: "I think 2/3 of the book could have been cut."?

Their number is legion."

None of William Trevor's, the great living author.

And the numbers shouldn't be legion. The editors should make the authors rewrite. They owe that to the readers who invest time and money in the books. Kostova's second book needs 3/3 of it rewritten.

Speaking for YA only, the successes of Harry Potter and Twilight have put publishers on a prolix kix. NOT A GOOD THING!

Newengland wrote: "Speaking for YA only, the successes of Harry Potter and Twilight have put publishers on a prolix kix. NOT A GOOD THING!"

I totally agree. Not a good thing at all.

Susanne wrote: "ENJOY...THE ROAD???

Not so much "enjoy"...as just blown away!

I've read most of McCarthy's novels and the language is so incredibly stunning...I'm undeniably riveted and a huge fan!"

I haven't read many of McCarthy's books but I read The Road for class two years ago and LOVED it. Including the ending... despite the fact that I haven't made my mind up on what its hinting. I'm currently ALMOST half way through The Wild Things by Dave Eggers.

The good. It reads quick. The narration is so insightful to the mind of the main character who is a kid. The writing style I admire. despite the fact that there is not as much detail as I'd like. Especially with the crazy creatures.

The bad. Well it starts off well enough. But then the story introduces 13 billion characters all at once and just continues on with the story.

The ugly. So I definitely don't know who is who. Who did what. Except for the main character who is Max.

I haven't been able to catch the Dave Eggers wave. For some reason -- like Jonathan Saffron Foer, another darling of the younger generation whom I have read but not been impressed by -- Eggers doesn't seem like he'd be my cup of tea. Still, I suppose it would be fair to hear him out.

I, too, think The Road is an awesome book. I also enjoyed Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses (also by Cormac McCarthy).

I can't say I enjoyed Blood Meridian,but it was a book that stirred deep thoughts about good and evil. It made me think, his books usually do that.

Carol, Have you read BUTCHER'S CROSSING by John Williams (STONER) yet?
It is rumored that McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN evolved in part from this older western novel.
Yet, they are quite different!
The main link is in the telling it like it was...not the suave cowboy riding off into the sunset romanticized western hero novel!

THE UGLY...the senseless slaughter of thousands of buffalo in a manic crazed greedy haze.

No I haven't yet. I had to scale back my book buying I will need to check if the library has it, because I did put it on my to-be-read list. I just recently read The Ox-Bow Incident Another great western about vigilante justice. I might nominate it next time around. It has some great social implications relevent even today about mob justice.

Newengland wrote: "I haven't been able to catch the Dave Eggers wave. For some reason -- like Jonathan Saffron Foer, another darling of the younger generation whom I have read but not been impressed by -- Eggers doe..."

I haven't read Jonathan Saffron Foer, Dave Eggers, OR Bill Bryson! And I think I'd love Bryson's books.

MrsSeby (Gabrielle) wrote: "Newengland wrote: "I haven't been able to catch the Dave Eggers wave. For some reason -- like Jonathan Saffron Foer, another darling of the younger generation whom I have read but not been impress..."

Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is a hoot.

I'm about to throw against the wall the latest YA I'm reading to be able to book talk stuff to the kiddies. It's called The Space Between Trees and starts off OK (your generic murder and now whodunit), but then it introduces the murder victim's best friend who is, quite simply, a jerk.

Now the author's stuck with this one-note Annie doing and saying one jerk thing after another and nothing gets solved or even moved forward because everything jerk does is non-productive and worse than childish. Ever been stuck in the room with a jerk and felt like you needed air? That's where I am with this book.

Expect I'll just flip to the end to see "whodunit" and then move on today.

Sometimes you stumble across a find. I dropped into a junk store (Building 19 1/2, it's called) to look for cheap kickballs for school recess time when I came upon a huge display of discounted YA books.

So, combing through it, what do I find but a no-longer-in-print copy of Markus Zusak's FIGHTING RUBEN WOLFE. This is the Australian author of THE BOOK THIEF. I had my eye on RUBEN WOLFE for some time, but as it is out of print, the costs on-line were higher and you'd have to go through this seller and that.

Here, however, I found paperback copies -- obviously remaindered from WAY back -- for $2.98 each. I found three of them. I bought three of them. Now I'll have to read it and plunk it in my classroom library. I'm always looking for titles that will appeal to the reluctant-reading boys and this fits the bill due to the fighting scenes.

As for how good the book is? Stand by and I'll let you know. All I'm saying now is sometimes a bust (no kickballs) leads to a find (out-of-print, hard-to-find books).

It is like finding unexpected treasures.

I'll say! (Though you just did.)

Echoing your thoughts. You read Cloud Atlas didn't you? I have about 150 pages to go. Odd book ,but I am odd and I love it.

I loved it except for the middle story which has no echo. That was too weird for even me (a weird person).

Weird but I loved it . The cycle of civilization.

A brilliant guy, no doubt. I think he's one of our most talented living writers, AND that he's still harboring "the big one" within (I would say Great American Novel, but he's a Brit).

I think you are right. Hope he does it soon. hahha

I'm chugging along on the third and final installment of the HUNGER GAMES trilogy, Mockingjay. The good news is that this one has a different formula than the first two. Instead of all games, all the time, it's more your typical Armageddon thing. Nothing like Armageddon to shake up a slow news day.

I'm reading The Children's Book by Byatt. Man, she never met a detail she didn't like. If this doesn't improve soon I may throw in the towel.

I hated, hated, hated the one Byatt I tried. It was a few years ago, one of her best sellers (POSSESSION, maybe?). Blah, blah, blah, blah. She out-blahed the Victorians and called it art.

Not.

I wasn't taken with Possession, either.

Too wordy. I'm surprised you even tried this one. Writers seldom change their bad habits.

Both books were CR selections, NE. I usually try to read the selections. Sometimes it's beneficial to be booted out of one's own particular rut. I should have been wary, though. Possession was very popular on CR, yet I didn't care much for it.