Thought it might be interesting to have a look at our best reads this past month.
Here are mine --
Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
Germinal by Émile Zola
The Face of War by Martha Gellhorn
The Days of the Consuls/Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić
Message edited by its author, Jan 31, 2009, 3:18pm.
My favourites for January:
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Quiver by Peter Leonard
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Swimmers Rope by Stephanie Johnson
Message 19
I'm curious about your thoughts re.
Drowning Ruth. I read this a few years ago and it haunted me.
message 26 and 27..I've added these books to my huge list!
My favorites in January were:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (4.5/5 stars) and
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (5/5 stars).
They both moved me.
edited to add authors and ratingsMessage edited by its author, Feb 2, 2009, 4:00pm.
#31 I read both last year and loved them.
As I am reading through these lists, I am struck with the wide diversity of books this group has read. Wow!
Stasia, I agree. Thanks again to Deebee for thinking of this idea and starting the thread. Shall we keep it going each month?
It may be a good reference when we compile our favorite reads of the year.
i thought that since this forum has grown so large and it has become almost an impossibility to go through each thread and trying to weed out the more interesting titles --- something like a monthly short list would make it easier for everyone (at any time and at year-end when we do the favorites list). same reason why i set up additional What We Are Reading threads.
so yes, Whisper, let's keep it going!
My best all-around for January were
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac and
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut.
For readers who like outdoor living, calmer wilderness adventure stories, and biographies of everyday people, I highly recommend my third favorite,
Adventures at Mitchell Lake by Bill Corbett.
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane was my most memorable read for this month.
This is a good idea.
My favourites are in the fantasy genre:
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan and
Thunderer by Felix Gilman
My favorite for January:
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri - Wonderfully written short stories
No OMG-how-wonderful books, but my top three, in no particular order, were:
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe,
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin and
The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett.
Edited to say - What the h-e-double l is the matter with the author touchstones? They just don't seem to work much of anywhere anymore.Message edited by its author, Feb 5, 2009, 10:21am.
I have two to list that were great books and just about as different as two books can be.
Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates (Recommended by drneutron)
Feathers by Jacaqueline Woodson (Recommended by HobbitPrincess)
>51 - Wings, I think you need a
SPOILER ALERT in your message. I have not read
The Road (on the list for this year), and now I know something I probably did not want to know before reading it.
>54 Thanks for saying that. I was also unhappy with the spoiler, but wasn't sure whether I should speak out.
Thanks Zoe - Not trying to be a jerk, but I'm bummed now!
54/55 - Don't be too bummed - Wings gave away a little, but certainly not the entire ending.
There definitely should have been a spoiler alert, but I didn't want the idea of the spoiler to ruin either of your readings of
The Road. It's such an excellent book, and plot is not exactly a big part of it, so you should still be able to read the book and get a ton out of it.
Edited for typo.
Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 10:47am.
>58 Thanks for the reassurance, Talbin. I've been wavering about whether I want to read that book or not--I think it might be too bleak and depressing for my liking--and I'm glad that the deciding factor doesn't have to be the fact that I read a spoiler.
Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 10:21am.
>61 Zoe - It seems like a lot of people disagree about whether
The Road is bleak or uplifting. I think it's both, and for me the scales tipped to uplifting. I think this was one of the best books I've read in the bast few years, and would highly recommend it. If nothing else, revel in the way McCarthy uses language. For me it was as close to poetry as prose.
>51, 54, 55:
:-(
I'm also bummed about that. I have
The Road on my TBR pile, but now I guess I'll put it off for a long while until I forget the ending. I've got
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the same status because someone mentioned the ending last year.
BTW, Talbin, probably just a typo on your part in #58, but it wasn't Whisper's post that gave it away.
>63 Thanks Tad, fixed typo.
re:
The Road: Also, be aware that what Wings said isn't THE end, it's just a part of the end. It really doesn't give away the entire book. And it's hard to describe, but
The Road is really not about plot. Yes, things happen, but not really a lot. It's far more about the process than about the start-to-finish storyline. While reading, you will probably have a pretty darn good idea how things will turn out, and McCarthy doesn't really try to hide things, either. It's really a book about the process of going through what they're going through. Again, it's really hard to describe, but you'll find that spoilers aren't as important to this book as they are to most.
>64 - I totally agree about
The Road. It's strength lies in the writing style and the emotional connections, not the actual plot. I would encourage everyone to read it, as it really was an outstanding novel.
Yep. I agree. What's said in the above message doesn't give away the whole ending. And I completely agree that one doesn't read McCarthy for plot. It's all about the language and the characters with him.
I didn't see
The Road as either uplifting or discouraging. He presents real, human characters in a situation and makes you interested in them. No Country For Old Men is the same way.
January wasn't a great reading month for me, but if I had to pick I would say
The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith. I could add
2666 by Roberto Bolano but I didn't finish it until February.
Thanks Talbin and Dr. Neutron; I still don't want to read it right now, but it will be read in 2009.
Maybe it's not that much of a surprise, I guess I'll see when I read it.
This may not be a very good analogy, but someone told me who was who before I saw Terminator 2; my husband didn't know before we saw it, and I kinda wish I could have had that surprise before seeing the movie. I still thought the movie was great though.
To all!!! I am so sorry if in any way I hurt anyone's enjoyment of The Road. I wasn't thinking. I have learned my lesson.
Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 3:25pm.
No problem, wings. It would still be a good idea to edit your message and put spoiler alert at the beginning for those who are still catching up on threads!
I do it right now! And I promise never to be so thoughtless again. Jeepers. So sorry.
Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 3:25pm.
By far the best book I read last month was This Thing of Darkness, but I'd also rate
The Book Thief very highly.
I actually got quite lucky with the books I picked out for January, looking back I've rated most of them pretty highly.
I agree with everyone else TadAD, what you read really doesn't spoil the enjoyment about the book. I don't think it would matter if we told the entire plot to you, you would still get so much out of it that it wouldn't matter.
Its not about what happens, the book goes so much deeper than that. The ending is where the book finishes, not where the story is leading to.
Please don't let it put you off reading it. I want to go back and read it now and I've read it about 5 times since I got my sticky little paws on it!
lunacat...I love your image of "sticky little paws." .... very cat like I must say!
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