Fiction

I recently read and reviewed The Condition by Jennifer Haigh. I am stingy with 5-star ratings, but this book deserved it. It is fiction and her third book - the first two were good, but this is the best.

This new group definitely grabbed my attention. Great idea. Best book I've read this year would have to be Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Almost running neck and neck with that one was Atonement by Ian McEwan. As soon as I saw the movie trailer, I went out and bought the book because I knew the book had to be 10 times better than the movie. I wasn't disappointed.

best book read recently, Mine would have to be The Little Prince or Hamlet, what is The Condition about?
and what is Water for Elephants about? They both sound good.

The Condition refers to Turner Syndrome, which is the medical condition of the daughter in the family. The family is iniitially comprised of a couple with their two sons and one daughter. Their flaws as individuals and as a family are eventually revealed in a stunning conclusion. This book is very well written. Her previous two books are Mrs. Kimble and Baker Towers, both of which are also very good. Check it out at the library if you don't want to buy it. I hope you will and that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

The Lace Reader ( i hate to use the word but ) it resonated with me in a profound way. Prior to that, its been a while but Birth House was another good one. I enjoy books about strong women.

The Condition sounds really good!

Woman's World by Graham Rawle. I loved it and have been recommending it to everyone!

I wrote a review of it:

http://nobsbookreviews.blogspot.com

I want to caution everyone against reading the review that is on the book's title page on Amazon! Major spoilers!!!

You'll probably do that now because the curiousity will kill you. But really, don't.

Edited because the title touchstone gives the wrong book.

What a great idea for a group! I love recommendations of books I would never have thought about reading because they aren't my usual style or genre or because I just haven't come across them yet, so hopefully I'll be keeping a new list of books to buy from here.

As for my favourite book of the year so far, it has to be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak which I have recommended to everyone. Friends and family have read it (I think to shut me up going on about it!) and all have said they loved it.

Sometimes I despair of finding an author new (to me) and rewarding. Such a one is Craig Nova. I've just read Incandesence and The Good Son. They are very different but both have strong, interesting characters and the writing is very intelligent. The best thing is he has written more than a handful of other books (and he's still at it).

It's great to find authors I didn't know I'd been missing. Craign Nova has been previously unknown (to me) and looks very promising. I am currently reading Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, which I just discovered is going to be a movie. It's the story of a disenchanted couple in the suburbs in the idyllic 1950s.

Pat, we have a lot of books in common so I think I can safely say I'm almost sure you'd like Craig Nova. I just started The Congressman's Daughter and I know it won't disappoint. I must tell you too, I sent him a fan letter and got a very gracious reply!

I finished The Lovely Bones yesterday, and I loved it. The other books that I've read this summer and were fantastic are Water for Elephants and The Last Lecture. Right now I'm working my way through Witness to Hope: the Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel. I'll be reading that one for a while (it's a thick book and heavy reading) but as someone who admires John Paul II as much as I do, it fascinating.

Ellen Foster was very good. Birth House, The Lace Reader, and Ruby: a novel were excellent.

Not too long ago, I read The Girls by Lori Lansens, which I thought was very well done. It's the story of conjoined twins told from each of the twins' perspectives. It's a fascinating topic.

I had to read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien for school. It has become one of my favorite books. Most all the other students who read it, loved it as well.

I also had to read Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton one year. I didn't run into many people who liked it, but I thought it was a beautiful, moving story, that captured the time and the place (Apartheid South Africa) wonderfully.

One other book that stands out from school reading is My Antonia by Willa Cather. It too has a fantastic sense of place (the prairies of Nebraska). This book captures the American spirit, and the perseverance of the immigrants who settled the midwest.

The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block. It's a beautiful story by a first-time novelist.

Yesterday I read The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin. It was wonderful.

#16-have you seen the movie? Never ever as good, but Robin Williams did it very well.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is so good, I want to read it again and would except I loaned my copy to a friend and she loved it and loaned it to another friend of ours, who is reading it now. I plan to buy a couple of hard copies next time I get to the bookstore.

Here's my LT review: http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=Storeetllr

Other excellent books I've read so far this year are:
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

#16 and #17-Though a fan of both Maupin and Robin Williams, somehow book and movie had slipped by me. Thanks for pointing them out.

I am just finishing Bonnie Burnard's A Good Home. It is a multi-generational story of a Canadian family, and I loved the way it flowed. There is something very special about the way that Canadian writers seem to capture family moments. I also really liked Clara Callan by Richard Wright, another gifted Canadian author who somehow made me a part of Clara Callan's life.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society today presented itself as the next book I should read. I've just started it and once again I marvel at how just the right book for the mood I'm in often reveals itself to me. I loved 84 Charing Cross Road, book and movie.

I have not seen the movie, but I will be hunting it down I think...

21 I am going to add that one to my wish list too... everyone raves about it!

Okay. Confession. I was message #2. Joined the group, got discouraged because there weren't any others adding on, left the group! Now I'm back!

I'm new to this. Even though I've been "a member" since early 2007, just now really getting hooked in the past week!

My library basically consists of nothing compared to all of you guys' collections (I read books and then pass them on), but thrilled to hear your input on great reads.

pdebolt, really enjoy perusing your library. Wow.

Ahab's Wife has been recommended so frequently, that I am going to begin that as soon as I finish Story of A Marriage. A friend told me that Wally Lamb has a new book that will come out in the fall, and I do love his writing (for some reason he is listed as Geri Pate in my author cloud). Hope we can continue to keep each other posed on remarkable reads.

I finished Walk Two Moons this morning. This is simply an incredible book -- written by Sharon Creech. While I found this book in the young adult section of my local library, truly it is a book that transcends age. I highly recommend this.

The Treatment & The Cure by Peter Kocan. It's about the experiences of a 19 year old, young man who is put in a hospital for the criminally insane. I can't recommend it highly enough!

Thanks for recommending The Treatment and the Cure It sounds fascinating. I've added it to my ever growing to be read pile.

Whisper1---I'm so glad! I really think you'll enjoy it. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but by the time I finished, I just thought...Wow. It was a reading experience I've never had before.

As a matter of fact, I just recommended it to a customer in the bookstore I work at yesterday and she bought our only copy! I'm going to need to order us some more.

Hi.
I'm not sure if you are aware of the site bookcloseouts.com.
I checked there for The Treatment and the Cure and found it for a very reasonable price -- I think it is $4.99

I agree with those above about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I got it as an Early Reviewer and it is a five star read. Within a week of reading it I got Coventry by Helen Humphreys from Harper Collins to review for its release date Aug.22. It's about England during WW II also and it's just as good. I wish every review was as easy to write as these.
Guernsey is here:
http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D711518&entry=10077&mo...
Coventry is here:
http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D711518&entry=10083&mo...

I have had Ahab's Wife for sometime but just haven't been able to get past the first few pages. I'll try again this week. In the meantime, I just finished Nora Roberts Angels Fall. Roberts is another author who I just passed up each time I was looking for something to read. Since I have read all of Kellerman's books, I got the Roberts from the bookshelf, and WOW...it is great! I recommend it to everyone, and now must go to my bookshelf and select another Roberts book that I have passed over.

I get books at a local library book sale for $1 each, so I have many waiting to read. On the day of the sale, I just grab books, and now am glad Roberts was one that I grabbed!

Last night I finished When Zachary Beaver Came To Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. It was delightful!

I've recently finished and reviewed two historical fictions that are excellent.Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins is set in 1770s Scotland and colonial America. Twice Born by PaulineGedge is set in ancient Egypt:
http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/

Can I throw in a book of short stories too? Tiny Deaths by the lovely Robert Shearman - a fellow-LTer and truly nice bloke - and some of the best, most thoughtful and funniest short stories I've read in more years than I care to tell you lot about!

I recently read two five star novels, Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden and Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek. The first won Canada's Giller prize, set in north Ontario among a community of Native Canadians and fiction just doesn't get much better than this. And Tomato Girl is one of the best stories from a young girl's perpective I've read in years. Reviews are here:

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2009/01/through-black-spruce-by-joseph-boyden....

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2009/01/tomato-girl-by-jayne-pupek.html

this thread is a tad dormant but i've read some seriously good books in the past few weeks and wanted to share!

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley: good political/social satire (4.5 stars)

The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson: fantastic novella, really wonderful (5 stars)

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: good dark fantasy about the power of stories (4 stars)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick: great YA book, beautifully illustrated (it's almost a graphic novel), with much to interest older readers, especially film buffs (4.5 stars)

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink: amazing post-WWII story. really makes you question the nature of love and justice. (4.5 stars)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman: wonderfully creepy kid's book, kind of a throw back to when fairy tales were about children getting eaten by big bad wolves and such (4 stars)

Firmin by Sam Savage: best book i've read in a long time. one of my new favorites. just amazing. (5 stars)

I am currently Jenna Blum's debut novel, Those Who Save Us. It involves WWII - a mother and daughter whose past and present meet in a riveting way. I highly recommend it.