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NeonJungle
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I am a True Crime junkie with a little obsession with Ann Rule. While I wait for her new books I re-read the older ones. I live in the Pacific Northwest so I love any book written about my area. Tom Olson (local author) is a great non-fiction author a well.

I went through a True Crime period myself even belonged to a message board that related to current and past crimes. A co worker turned me on to Ann Rule and I was hooked! Great writer and her personal involvement with some of the cases is amazing! I was pregnant with my second child, reading one of Ann's series of short stories one of which included spontaneous combustion. I guess it freaked me out so bad I haven't had the guts to read any more of her stories, though I have a shelf full of unread books of hers. I also can't follow my crime board anymore. I can't stomach it anymore.

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I've enjoyed many of the authors mentioned in this thread.  Also wanted to add my admiration for David McCullough's bringing American history to life. Like some others have mentioned here, I found his descriptions of the various battles and efforts during the American Revolution to be very suspenseful (had to remind myself of the positive outcome a few times).  Some other authors I enjoy are: Charles Todd (the Inspector Rutledge series and the Bess Crawford series, both of which take place during WWI, mostly in England but sometimes in France); John Lescroart's wonderful Dismas Hardy series that takes place in San Francisco (we fans have forced him to stick with Dis & his family, fellow attorneys, & other fascinating characters);  Lisa Scottoline's interesting female attorney sleuths in Philadelphia; Archer Mayor's unusual Joe Gunther police procedural featuring several interesting main characters with most stories taking place in Vermont; Patricia Houck Sprinkle's "Thoroughly Southern Mystery Series"...I found myself more interested in the wonderful characters who live in the main character's hometown than whodunnit. I can't leave out John LeCarre, especially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & Smiley's People.

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I am a True Crime junkie with a little obsession with Ann Rule. While I wait for her new books I re-read the older ones. I live in the Pacific Northwest so I love any book written about my area. Tom Olson (local author) is a great non-fiction author a well.

Leave me a seat on that bus.  I read a lot of true crime and Ann Rule is always my favorite - - although I am saddened to say that I think her more recent books aren't nearly as good as her "classics" (i.e., The Stranger Beside Me, Small Sacrifices). 

 

I also enjoy Caitlin Rother's true crime books, which are written in narrative fiction format and delve into a lot of the psychological and legal aspects versus any gore or prolific violence.

 

Luis Urrea is wonderful.  I have read and reread Into the Beautiful North and the 2 he wrote about Hummingbird's Daughter.  Fantastic reading.  

 

I loved The Book Thief and have given it as a gift to grandkids and to adult friends.  Just an amazing book. 

 

I am reading Fanny Flagg's latest book right now and am so enjoying it.  Almost every page gives you a nice chuckle.  

I love Fanny Flagg.  "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" is genius.  I can reread that many times over (and have).  Being from the south myself, I recognize family members in her writing.

 

Oh me too! And I'll had Lois Duncan to the list. I read and reread her stuff, which was just amazing, and it pissed me off to no end how badly Hollywood massacred and annihilated her stories that made it to the big screen.

Well, I meant to add the original post on this about Judy Blume because I read and reread all her books when I was growing up.  I also loved Lois Duncan and can sit down now and read one of her books. 

 

When I was a teen I absolutely loved V. C. Andrews.  Her writing style certainly wasn't the best (reread Flowers in the Attic and its series as an adult and you'll see) but she was a terrific storyteller.  She did late 70s/early 80s gothic like nobody else.

 

I also thoroughly enjoyed reading Sidney Sheldon around the same time and Phyllis A. Whitney, who wrote a lot of clean romantic type suspense.

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Gee, why did I never know this thread existed?  

Another weighing in on the awesome Neil Gaiman (His Neverwhere is one of my favorite books) and will read just about anything he writes.

 

Me too!  Neverwhere is my favorite but I also really enjoyed American Gods and love, love Stardust.

 

A lot of people have mentioned China Mieville but not my favorite of his books, The City and the City.  It's a murder mystery that takes place in a very unique setting.  Really original and interesting concept.  Embassytown also has a very novel (heh) twist to it but is hard to get into.  I recommend both, especially City.

 

Of course I'm a huge Tolkien fan (thus my username, which moving to PTV allowed me to resurrect after having to retire it in that other place) and have read GRRM several times.  Of the classics I adore Austin and Dickens and snuggle up with them on cold winter's days in my favorite reading chair.

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For those of you who like southern authors, T. R. Pearson is a good choice-- my favorite book is A Short History of a Small Place :

 

Although T. R. Pearson's Neely, North Carolina, doesn't appear on any map of the state, it has already earned a secure place on the literary landscape of the South. In this introduction to Neely, the young narrator, Louis Benfield, recounts the tragic last days of Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew, a local spinster and former town belle who, after years of total seclusion, returns flamboyantly to public view-with her pet monkey, Mr. Britches.

 

Quotes

 

“According to Daddy, that was a time of general lunacy in Neely, but then Daddy has always said there's nothing like a good snowfall to bring out the feeble-mindedness in people. ”

“They were the Epperson sisters, and they had distinguished themselves in the minds of the Neelyites by going from reasonably normal to unquestionably insane without ever pausing at peculiar.”

 

 

 

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David Sedaris is one of my favorites. Normally I am not a big fan of short stories, but I enjoy his. He is great to see in person as well. Plus he drew a great picture of me throwing up in my copy of "Me Talk Pretty One Day".

 

Sophie Kinsella is one of my favorite fluff book writers. The Shopaholic series and her other books are great for some light reading.

 

Sarah Dessen is a YA favorite of mine with "Just Listen" being one of my favorite books of hers.

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Agreed on so many of these.  Let me add three more that are automatic "must reads" for me:

 

1.  Elizabeth Berg:  her novels are like the "after" to Jennifer Weiner's "before"-- about women whose kids (and often husbands) have left the nest but who still have lives to live and lessons to learn.  As with many writers, I enjoy her earlier work more than her more recent efforts.  Favorite:  Joy School.  Least favorite:  The Handmaid and the Carpenter.

 

2. Rainbow Rowell:  I. am. obsessed.  I insist that you all read all of her books in the order that she published them because each novel concerns a group of characters in the next stage of life from the previous one.  Read them now.  You're welcome.

 

3.  Bill Bryson:  His A Walk in the Woods is one of my all-time favorites and his travel books crack me up every time.  One Summer and At Home taught me a lot too.

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3.  Bill Bryson:  His A Walk in the Woods is one of my all-time favorites and his travel books crack me up every time.  One Summer and At Home taught me a lot too.

 

Oh, I love Bill Bryson's writing style. So full of genuine warmth and wit, and he has such a wry view on all the oddities of life. Notes From a Small Island is a great book, entertaining and educational, just full of so much interesting stuff I never knew about my own country. And his other books are great too.

 

What's even better is that he does the reading for the audiobooks himself, and he's got a great voice to listen to.

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Oh, hell, yeah! Dream Man is still my favorite of hers, though.

Anne Stuart is fantastic. I haven't read her in years, but I had several of her Silhouette Special Editions.

My favorite thing about Nora's writing is the quality of her male characters. You can tell that she knows how to write men, probably because of her four brothers, two sons, as well as her husband. I think she has the best male characters in the entire genre.

When I was putting my recommended list together for school, I realized I had a lot of pirate books, both historical and time-travel, which was a thing back in the 1990s, I guess! From Tom and Sharon Curtis's The Windflower, to Betina Krahn's Passion's Ransom, to some of my favorite time travel titles, Nancy Block's Once Upon a Pirate, and Amy J. Fetzer's My Timeswept Heart and Timeswept Rogue (the sequel). Also, I love Mary Jo Putney's One Perfect Rose (a fantastic historical) and Maura Seger's Eye of the Storm, a WWII romance, which is rare for its setting--there are very few WWII romances out there that I'm aware of.

Elizabeth Lowell did write some fantastic straight SF titles that can be found in the romance section (if stocked at all) just because that is the genre she's known for. I really recommend her Timeshadow Rider, which is really out there in terms of concept (I had to reread it the day after I finished it just to understand the ending), but it is really amazing.

One of my favorite authors from the 1990s was Dara Joy, who had a really great fantasy romance series going until she developed legal issues with her publisher which are still continuing to this day. You can tell she was developing a fantastic universe for these titles (Knight of a Trillion Stars, Rejar, and Mine to Take) that she would have continued if she had the chance.

Dude! You have GOT to read Anne's Ice series, and all of her single titles and historicals! Well Ritual Sins was not as good, because I found I couldn't relate to either the hero or heroine.

To Love a Dark Lord was awesome because the only reason James helped Molly was not because he was noble or the right thing to do...but because...he was...bored.

And Nora may irritate me with her use of acronyms or just having three words to pass off as sentences, but she's TOPS when it comes to storytelling. And yes, she does like men. I had asked her this once: Bear with me here...

When I first read her Silhouette series on the MacKade brothers. I thought, man, I LOVE theses guys! They're so real and I could totally relate to them...

Then she gave me the Quinn brothers in the Chesapeake saga. Dammit, I loved them too! No way Nora could top this, considering they were all foster brothers at first and were adopted. You wouldn't know they didn't share any blood.

Then she went and gave me Aidan and Shawn Gallagher. Surely, she couldn't top this. And THEN...there was her last trilogy set near her home town, but used her hubby's store and the restaurants nearby and the B&B in Boonsboro as the setting...gave us the Montgomery brothers. So I asked her, just how does she do it? Write such great men; who are real and relatable, and makes the relationships so believable? Her response, and this is a direct quote:

""I like men." <grin>"

And it shows. She's great at writing relationships. Be they brothers, sisters, friends, lovers, husbands/wives...cops...DOGS..,So when she disappoints me, I blame her for setting the bar so high to begin with.

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@GHScorpiosRule , I love that Nora quote!! 

 

Yes, Nora Roberts is probably at the top of my authors list, just going by the number of her books on my shelves. She might not be deep, but she is entertaining, and if I want a book to just read and escape for the afternoon, I reach for one of hers.

 

For non-romance fiction, I really like Connie Willis, Tolkien, Jasper Fforde, Caleb Carr (I really wish he would write more fiction--The Alienist is, IMO, one of the best mysteries of the past 25 years, although the sequel wasn't nearly as good), and Rowling.

 

However, I read a lot more non-fiction. Simon Schama's histories are fantastic and wide-ranging in topic. Barbara Tuchman was another amazing historian (The Guns of August is a great one to read right now as it covers 1914 and the years leading up to it).

 

Science writers such as Laurie Garrett (read the chapters on Ebola in her seminal work on the late-20th-century rise in bloodborne diseases, The Coming Plague) and Deborah Blum (I love The Poisoner's Handbook--a fantastic blend of science, true crime, corporate malfesance, and Jazz Age history) are great resources.

 

Alice Sheldon (nee James Tiptree Jr) - Wrote under a male pseudonym her entire life. Her scifi schort stories are incredible. I'm also amused at the number of male scifi writers who were on record insisting that based on her work that Tiptree couldn't possibly be a woman.

 

 

I read Tiptree/Sheldon in my Feminist Lit class in college--what an amazing writer!!  She was one of my two big discoveries from that class, along with C.L. Moore, whose short stories from the 1930s were extremely influential; "Shambleau" is a really dark mood piece of seduction which is really hard to believe was written in the early 1930s, and "Jirel of Joiry" is probably the first of the female sword-and-sorcery heroines.

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I meant to add @Sharpie66 , that I have read those Putney and Joy book. Rejar was my favorite.

 

Not sure if you ever read Linda's Open Season...if for nothing else, the sheer lauging hysterically factor, that it makes your tummy hurt, get it. I won't spoil it too much, but just say that the scene where Daisy and Jack discuss the Condom Party Pak, will have you putting your book/tablet down, it's so hilarious. Seriously.

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Oh, yes I love that bit! I purged it when I cleared out my hardcover romances several years ago, but now I wish I still had it.

 

Whaaat? If you had to purge, why that one? I mean, have you forgotten the "Do you know what color Puce" is? and how Jack accused Daisy of making it up!

 

Me: {shaking head in disappointment}

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I know, I know. My only defense was that I had to give up a bookshelf when I moved, and reduced my romance collection by two-thirds from sheer necessity. I still have over 250 of them, plus a few Loretta Chase titles in e-book format. Actually, I might pick up Open Season in ebook, just so I can have it on my tablet! 

 

::off to Amazon...::

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Favorite meaning "I'll buy whatever they write as soon as it's published"  -- Stewart O'Nan (relationships and everyday people), Joe Abercrombie (gritty fantasy -- no elves for Joe),Iain Pears (historical fiction), Ron Hansen, Pat Barker, Sarah Waters (historical and psychological), Laura Lippman (crime fiction), Tom Franklin (Southern), Kate Atkinson (crime fiction), Donald Ray Pollock (Southern), Tim Powers (urban fantasy), David Mitchell.

 

Former favorites who've dropped off that list are Stephen King, Peter Straub, Joe Lansdale, Dan Simmons, and David L. Martin.  All it takes is one disappointment and I'm done.  Life's too short.

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Rainbow Rowell is my newest favorite author. I only have Landline left to read and I'm stalling because I don't want to be out of her books!

 

Old favorites: Margaret Atwood, Gillian Flynn, Tom Perotta. And Jodi Picoult, Nicholas Sparks, and James Patterson are my go-to authors for quick fluff.

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I don't read the heavy stuff at all - they tend to inject too much realism into my escapism for me to like it. Plus, it annoys me that people into that look down on my authors. And I pretty much read non fiction if I'm gifted it - and luckily i've liked everything i've been gifted. 

 

Which is to say my current genre is Urban fantasy, paranormal romance, some YA fiction by those authors. and classic fantasy, again by the authors with a similar voice. 

So, 

Ilona Andrews - snarky women, strong, supportive and snarky men, humour and heroism and the ability to build a vivid world or character in one short paragraph. 

Patricia Briggs - she writes classic and urban fantasy, again with strong world building skills and interesting and diverse women. 

Sarah Monette - stunning imagination and character building skills, she brought her protagonist from madness into lucidity (and back) and i followed, despite his being a dick. 

JIm Butcher - wonderful plots and characters. I'm on the 4th re-read of his Codex Alera series - it's one that draws me in literally from any page I'm on. And Dresden's definitely my favourite wizard named Harry.

Rob Thurman - the strength and beauty of the relationships between the protagonists that she draws is so evocative. These are damaged codependent men who know themselves to be so, yet are each others saving graces. Just the thought of them parting makes me sad. 

Charlaine Harris - I liked her better before she ended the Sookie series - hated her ending actually. But she did telegraph it fairly well from the beginning so I can't feel betrayed. She builds these really small, insular worlds that draw you in against your will, almost. 

Michelle Sagara - an appealing heroine whose neck you want to wring, because everyone in the world wants to wring her neck. Intriguing characters and mystery and a world that keeps expanding. 

Richalle Mead - the movie Vampire Academy may have flopped, but this woman knows how to write an epic romance that will break your heart and then rule you. And have it unfold over an entire series. Yet the other relationships and friendships of the protagonist doesn't suffer. 

Nalini Singh - she's a paranormal romance author whom I was initially reluctant to get into because - I forget. But I've never regretted picking her up. She's created two entirely different worlds that leap off the page, and manages to create people to root for, seamingly endlessly. And strong women. Always, strong women. 

 

There are others that i love as well - Thea Harrison, Lisa Shearin, Devon Monk, Meljean Brook, Lilith Saintcrow, Benedict Jacka, Kevin Hearne, Kim Harrison, Kelley Armstrong, Naomi Novik, C. E. Murphy, Faith Hunter, to name a few (compared to the entire list, okay?), but the ones above I buy on the day they are released. 

 

 

My favorite author is Nora Roberts, who also writes under J.D. Robb. S

 

I love J.D. Robb's In Death series. I love show 35 or more books into the series, the stories are still fresh, the characters are still fresh and not caricatures of themselves, and how Eve and Roarke are still discovering each other, and how they are still hot together. I'll confess to liking Nora Roberts a little less - I mean, I do lover reading her, but somehow the re-read factor is comparatively less for me. Though I don't think it's Nora Roberts actually I loved reading romance through school, college and into my twenties, but nowadays, I keep finding difficulty into them because there are so few sources of internal conflict left, you know (for me, at least). Apart from incest, really, there aren't any taboos, so all the conflict has to external which I enjoy comparatively less. 

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Michelle Sagara - an appealing heroine whose neck you want to wring, because everyone in the world wants to wring her neck. Intriguing characters and mystery and a world that keeps expanding.

 

One of my favorites as well, though I might like the books she writes as Michelle West a bit more.  They are epic fantasy at its complex best.  She has written several interconnected series.  The character I've enjoyed the most is Jewel Markess and her story is told in the following :

 

House Wars

1. The Hidden City (2008)

2. City of Night (2009)

3. House Name (2011)

4. Skirmish (2012)

5. Battle (2012)

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Just an update to my previous post-- Oracle, the 6th book in the House War series is now out.

 

And Cast in Honor (The Chronicles of Elantra) by Michelle Sagara will be out (Nov 24, 2015)

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Tom Robbins - an absolute bizarre style of writing has led to an assortment of novels that overflow with insane metaphors (one of my favorite: he was so lazy he was like a python digesting a valium addict). 

Margaret Atwood - Handmaids Tale... so much to say, but I won't bother here as it would come off more as a social commentary/rant on patriarchal and religious rules and their effect on women in todays society (and in other societies where women are marginalized and otherwise diminished into property).

I'm kinda on the fence about John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books of all time, but I've been less enamored of the rest of what I've read of his.

You guys, I love you for citing these authors. Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All is another one to read if you haven't already. Bizarre, insane, and very powerful. One of my faves of his.

 

Regarding Margaret Atwood, while The Handmaid's Tale is what got me to know her, I also very much enjoyed the Penelopiad (recommended for anyone who read/is a fan of Ulysses/the Odyssey, for a different viewpoint) and others such as Alias Grace, my favorite so far and by far is The Blind Assassin. I think it's a book for any age group. In your 20s, you get a glimpse of how powerful physical attraction stays with you for a long time, in your 70s and older you get to smile over the youngsters who didn't know you could have had it in you. I'm somewhere in between and loved it to bits.  

 

One of my all time favorite books.  For me, the thing about John Irving is that he is hit and miss.  Some of his books are just okay.  But when he's on ("The World According to Garp," "Cider House Rules," "Prayer for Owen Meany"), he is so damn good that I'm in awe of his talent.

 

I read Count of Monte Cristo for the first time a year or two ago and, though I really liked the first half or so, kind of lost interest later on. Haven't read anything else. Any suggestions?

John Irving I love best for his secondary characters. So I'm not a big fan of his more "intimist" novels and prefer those with a rich cast. Therefore, "World according to Garp", "Hotel New Hampshire" (movie was pretty good too and had an awesome cast, which maybe made me love it more than I would have otherwise) and "Son of the Circus" are amongst my favorites my favorites, whereas I was underwhelmed by "The Fourth Hand". 

 

Regarding Alexandre Dumas, why not start with "The four Musqueteers"? When I read it, ages ago, I was amazed at his sense of suspense at the end of each chapter. Turns out he was publishing them (weekly? daily?) so he would have been a great scriptwriter for a series, because he had all the right instincts :) 

 

In another genre, in crime fiction, I like the Kellermans (both Jonathan and Fay) as well as Sara Paretsky.  In an other genre, I second Maeve Birchy and raise you Marian Keyes for more up to date, sometime dark but always satisfying read.

 

Lastly, rereading Somerset Maugham, whose short stories in particular are delightful. He also has excellent insights for writers (should we start a writer thread?)

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My favorites:

Arthur Hailey (of course, I've only read one book of his, that being his 1965 classic Hotel)

Erle Stanley Gardner (his Perry Mason novels, of which I have 5 right now, are incredible page-turners: I'm right now in the middle of The Case of the Careless Kitten from 1942)

Beverly Cleary (for the Ramona Quimby books of course)

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My current favorites, the ones I spend money on to buy their books in hardback soon after publication include

Sue Grafton (there's some repetition, but not as much as many others, plus we're almost to the end! and I love how she has really kept the whole series in the 80s)

Harlan Coban (yeah, his Myron Bolitar books are my favorite, but I like his stand alone stories too)

Lisa Scottoline (both her stand alone books and the Rosato Law Firm books)

 

I don't read as much now, but I have always been a bit hooked on british crime:  Martha Grimes, PD James, Anne Perry.  And I truly miss Dick Francis.  His son Felix is trying to keep up the theme, and they are ok, but not quite the same.

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Poet Warsan Shire is my new girl crush. Her amazing way with words, and that she can be so concise and incisive and yet gorgeously poetic at the same time is enthralling. I feel like I read so much anymore that feels banal and cliche, that coming across someone who clearly cares about every word, feels like manna from heaven. (Please forgive my use of a cliche in describing a writer whose work is the antithesis of such :)).

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And I truly miss Dick Francis.  His son Felix is trying to keep up the theme, and they are ok, but not quite the same.

 

Yeah, Dick Francis had something of an original voice, and backed it up with his wife's incredible researching ability.  After his wife died, a little of the life went out of his books, but there was still a joy to them.  Now, well as you say, it just isn't the same.  Not that Felix is a bad writer, he's fine, but the things that made me wait on tenterhooks whenever a new Dick Francis book was announced isn't there anymore.

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I know I  already posted a tribute in "Celebrity Deaths"  but I'd feel remiss if I didn't honor  Miss Harper Lee who gave us her wonderful gift of "Mockingbird"  and is now free to be Scout again!

Edited by Blergh
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Another favorite of recent: James Herriot of the All Creatures Great and Small series (I'm almost through three books of his [the latest one being All Things Wise and Wonderful], and right now, I'm even listening to one of those books on audio [All Things Bright and Beautiful; I'm not listening to it front to back, having started with my favorite stories from that book, but just the same, I'm enjoying it]). 

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(edited)

Preston and Childs

Wasn't overly keen about the Helen Trilogy, and one I guessed the ending on page 42 (the one set in the west and had a table with Conan Doyle and other literary figures seated at it but I can't recall their names offhand) but overall I love their characters Aloysius Pendergast and his niece Constance. 

I live for the once a year when they come out and about 20 extended family members also devour them to be discussed ad nauseum. 

Edited by Mindthinkr
I'm not a writer!!
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For anyone besides myself whom likes John le Carré, a bit of his memoir was published in the Guardian today. It's called The Pigeon Tunnel and it's out in paperback today. 

(I am a lover of books, not a promoter of any kind) 

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So, I've been coming to the forums on this site since TWOP shut down, and I never knew there were book and movie threads, which are way more up my alley than TV. Go team.

I just scrolled quickly through this thread, and several of my favorites have been mentioned, but I'll talk about them anyway:

Faulkner has become my all-time favorite author (outside of Tolkien, of course), but I never thought that would happen. I didn't read him until I took a Faulkner/Cather seminar in college, and I never thought I would've preferred him, but Absalom, Absalom sealed the deal. The way that story circles around itself and builds to the end...I'll never forget the experience of reading it, and I reread it ever few years.

Margaret Atwood, and not just for the Handmaid's Tale--the MaddAddam trilogy is equally phenomenal (the second book especially).

Every sentence Angela Carter writes is a jewel. I appreciated, but didn't enjoy, The Passion of New Eve, but The Bloody Chamber, The Magic Toyshop, and Nights at the Circus are must-reads.

Mary Gaitskill always manages to carve out my insides.

If you like Neil Gaiman (he's awesome), you should also read Kelly Link. She writes fantasy short stories, and both her collections are great.

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, now and always.

Some others: Balzac, Dostoevsky, Bronte (Charlotte over Emily for me; haven't read Anne), Vonnegut, Alice Kaplan, Jasper Fforde, etc.

Okay, I'll stop. Thanks for indulging me! There aren't enough readers in my life anymore. And I'm always looking for new authors, so I'm glad I found this thread!

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14 minutes ago, HawkeyeLo said:

 

Some others: Balzac, Dostoevsky, Bronte (Charlotte over Emily for me; haven't read Anne), Vonnegut, Alice Kaplan, Jasper Fforde, etc.

 

Loved Balzac's Eugénie Grandet. Read it when I was a young woman and it made an impression on me. Thanks for the reminder of it. 

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59 minutes ago, HawkeyeLo said:

Margaret Atwood, and not just for the Handmaid's Tale--the MaddAddam trilogy is equally phenomenal (the second book especially).

 

This is good to hear.  I recently finished Oryx and Crake and enjoyed it.  I am planning to read on in the series, but I think I'll wait until I'm done watching The Handmaid's Tale and have had time to digest it.  I was still finished O&C when The Handmaid's Tale started and that was too much dystopia at once for me!

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On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 9:38 PM, HawkeyeLo said:

Bronte (Charlotte over Emily for me; haven't read Anne),

As for Anne, I really loved Agnes Grey, but I didn't care that much for Tenant at Wildfell Hall.  I love Wuthering Heights, but while I liked Jane Eyre, more or less, I would have preferred Shirley without the character of Shirley.  And when I read that Charlotte pretty much taunted Emily with bad reviews of WH on her death bed, it just makes me not want to read her.

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42 minutes ago, Katy M said:

As for Anne, I really loved Agnes Grey, but I didn't care that much for Tenant at Wildfell Hall.  I love Wuthering Heights, but while I liked Jane Eyre, more or less, I would have preferred Shirley without the character of Shirley.  And when I read that Charlotte pretty much taunted Emily with bad reviews of WH on her death bed, it just makes me not want to read her.

Yeah, Charlotte Bronte was actually not a very nice person.  Most of her books are veiled character assassination against an innocent woman (the wife of the professor she had a crush on) and she was rather cruel to both of her sisters.  I can't give up my adoration for Jane Eyre (although not as a love story--Rochester is pretty loathesome), but I would say that she is the least of the 3 in my eyes.

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I quite like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but Anne is my favorite Bronte anyway because she's pretty feminist for the time and because she's the only one of the three who doesn't try to pretty up terrible men who behave terribly.   I remain forever fascinated that anyone considers Wuthering Heights a love story and not two people obsessing and behaving horribly over each other.

Even in the recent PBS production To Walk Invisible, none of the Bronte family came off particularly well.

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43 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

I remain forever fascinated that anyone considers Wuthering Heights a love story and not two people obsessing and behaving horribly over each other.

Oh, don't get me wrong.  I think Cathy and Heathcliff are horrid people, but I still love the book.

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On 5/8/2017 at 10:39 PM, OtterMommy said:

This is good to hear.  I recently finished Oryx and Crake and enjoyed it.  I am planning to read on in the series, but I think I'll wait until I'm done watching The Handmaid's Tale and have had time to digest it.  I was still finished O&C when The Handmaid's Tale started and that was too much dystopia at once for me!

I found Oryx and Crake completely painful. I had to read it for a book club and would rather have gnawed off my own arm.

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In no particular order but my library will always contain books from these 10 guys:-

  1. Agatha Christie (old style author famous for her crime/murder mystery books)
  2. Jeannette Winterson - has a fascinating writing style that you can easily dive into
  3. JRR Tolkien - goes without saying, one of the finest fantasy authors ever to put pen to paper. The Hobbit and LOTR, are quite accessible, but the more challenging Silmarillion  is far more satisfying.
  4. Sara Waters - writes very much in the same style as Winterson, although is by far the more prolific. Easy on the mind, indulgent, engrossing and rewarding.
  5. Isaac Asimov - Not a big fan of science fiction, but there's something rather stimulating about his prose and vision, especially his Robot, Empire and Foundation books.
  6. Enid Blyton - Controversial author of children's books back in the 50s and 60s - way before my time but my mother loved reading them when she was a child, and gave me the chance to read some of her more well known works such as "The Secret Seven" and "Famous Five" books.
  7. Stephen R. Donaldson - famous for his "Thomas Covenant" books, often compared to Tolkien, but writes in a far more pessimistic, brooding style, which makes it heavy going at times. 
  8. Jane Austin - My favourite author during my undergrad years; classic in every sense of the word. 
  9. Robert Louis Stevenson - "Treasure Island" and "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" - two books I must have read 10 times over during my teen years, and still nibble at today, along with "Kidnapped" and "Black Arrow"
  10. Douglas Adams - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" still remains my favourite "comedy" book ever! I don't think I have laughed so much reading a book than his (and not just "Hitchhikers"). His “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.” line, was truly inventive as well as stupendously funny!
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44 minutes ago, Lovecat said:

I didn't know where else to share this, but I guess it fits in here best...Sue Grafton has died :(  I'm sure a lot of us have been enjoying the alphabet series for more years than we care to admit.  RIP Sue (and Kinsey!).

Sue Grafton

Very sad. BTW, if you go under Miscellaneous TV there's a thread for celebrity deaths and there's been some chatter re: her passing. 

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The completionist in me may never get over that Grafton didn’t get to finish her series. I thought her family put it fantastically well, in that they now consider the alphabet to end at “y”.  So sad.  

Edited by pennben
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