Books! How do you read and what do you read?

MountainRa said:
On the negative side - this book needed some editing. It doesn’t need to be as long as it is. The author’s sentence construction is awkward at times. I found myself often having to reread a sentence after thinking “wait, what is he talking about“ . The dialogue is occasionally unrealistic.. A lot of cultural references to America in the 70’s that are so vague that the reader might not know what is being referenced if they did not grow up in that era.
Click to expand...
Publishers are cheaping out on editorial services, and it shows.
 

Pepper said:
The new Library Book Club selection is When the Crawdads Sing. I remember the title so well, I think from movie? TV? award shows and thought I may have read it or seen it, but when I read the blurb, there is a murder in it and that doesn't sound familiar at all, so off to new reading adventure.

Thrilled to have read the books in my above post, really enjoyed the experience. Two books, in one month! Books I couldn't wait to return to! A rare event, and to happen twice in one month is more I ever expected. Reading can be such a great experience.
Click to expand...
I really liked that book except for the ending. I liked the movie ending better. :)
 

StarSong said:
SO TRUE. I'm also finding that best selling authors have more sway than they should when it comes to editing. The early works that made them popular are often tighter, better written and more interesting than later ones. Not always, but often.
Click to expand...
My favorite writer, Doris Lessing, said she had to be super careful bc editors didn't really edit her. I've been both a writer and an editor, and my motto is "Every writer deserves and editor."
 
StarSong said:
SO TRUE. I'm also finding that best selling authors have more sway than they should when it comes to editing. The early works that made them popular are often tighter, better written and more interesting than later ones. Not always, but often.
Click to expand...
Yes! A classic example is Stephen King's The Stand. I vastly prefer the edited version.
 
Marcy Sheiner said:
My favorite writer, Doris Lessing, said she had to be super careful bc editors didn't really edit her. I've been both a writer and an editor, and my motto is "Every writer deserves and editor."
Click to expand...
I just looked her up as I'm unfamiliar with her works. Which of her books would you recommend I start with, bearing in mind I avoid books that provoke anxiety, i.e., thrillers, horror and suspense?

I recently read, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. Excellent, very readable, non-fiction work whose title says it all. By John Green (The Fault in Our Stars).
 
MountainRa said:
Just finished the novel Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I read it because so many people were raving about it on the Facebook group Friends and Fiction.
I’m not really sure how to describe the book but I’m glad I read it. It’s about kindness and our interconnection with one another. Human kindness seems to be in short supply in our world at the moment (not that there has ever been a time when we were overrun with kindness) and this book will leave you tearful but also uplifted.
Click to expand...
Thank you for telling us about Theo of Golden. I just finished it today, and I loved it. I sent the author an email about how wonderful the book was.
 
StarSong said:
I just looked her up as I'm unfamiliar with her works. Which of her books would you recommend I start with, bearing in mind I avoid books that provoke anxiety, i.e., thrillers, horror and suspense?

I recently read, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. Excellent, very readable, non-fiction work whose title says it all. By John Green (The Fault in Our Stars).
Click to expand...
DL does not write horror or anything scary. Her writing is quite dense intellectually and takes some getting used to. I picked up the first book I read by her (A Proper Marriage) 3 times before I was into it enough to keep going. So glad I did, as her books (and there are many) have brought me a lifetime of pleasure. I guess I'd recommend her most popular, which is The Golden Notebook. BTW, she was a Nobel prize winner. (She died a few years ago in her 80s.) Let me know how or if you like it.
 
Finished reading The Thursday Murder Club then I watched the movie, the latter was Ok but not as good as the book and changed the story.


I have only ever seen one movie that was better than the book it came from - Atonement


(Oh and The Life of Brian)
 
Always a physical book.
Genre is almost always horror.
Currently reading The Many Ghosts of Donahue Byrnes

When Ballinadrum Hotel's elderly owner Donahue Byrnes dies, twenty two year old Mia Moran discovers the rumors that have long plagued the place are true, and it is indeed HAUNTED!
 
I recommend this book.

‘The Authenticity Project’ by Clare Pooley. Fiction, published 2020, set in London.

An eccentric septuagenarian writes a brief description of his life in a green notebook. The notebook then finds its random way to a cast of characters whose lives are changed by the notebook.

This book is heartwarming and the characters are engaging. It reminds me somewhat of Fredrik Backman’s books. Also of the book ‘Theo of Golden’.
 
"AT 7:15 IN THE MORNING local time on November 1, 1962, the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb in the Eniwetok…atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific, though it wasn’t really a bomb as it wasn’t in any sense portable.
Unless an enemy would considerately stand by while we built an 80 ton refrigeration unit to cool large volumes of liquid deuterium and tritium, ran in several miles of cabling, and attached scores of electric detonators, we didn’t have any way of blowing anyone up with it.

11,000 soldiers and civilians were needed to get the device to go off at Eniwetok, so this was hardly the sort of thing you could set up in Red Square without arousing suspicions.”

-from “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir” by Bill Bryson about growing up in the 1950s
 
Getting back to "The Phoenix Pencil Company". I did finish it. The main story, i.e., that of the grandmothers, was creating and engaging. The love story subplot, not so much.

Mind you, I have no moral or other objections to romantic plots or subplots, straight or LGBTQ+, but this one was tedious, uninteresting, and unnecessary. No idea why it wasn't cut out.

How I miss the days of judicious editing...
 
Yesterday started reading 'The City of Falling Angels' by John Berendt, true story of a fire that destroyed the historic Fernice Opera House in Venice in 1996. The author arrived 3 days later,he begins to investigate on his own how the fire started by talking with local officials and residents
 
Currently reading The Davenports, Krystal Marquis is author. Chicago, set at the beginning of the Horseless Carriage, follows wealthy black families and the soap opera connecting them. Love this book. So gentle and sweet.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top