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Let's talk about the pleasures and puzzles of the smaller mystery--mystery novels and other fiction--and the bigger one--life.
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. . .here is a smoke signal, unmistakable but unobtrusive--we are following what comes, going through the world, knowing each other, building our little fires.
William Stafford
William Stafford
20 comments:
I'm just dipping in and out of the non-fiction, because they're both more detailed than I need to know, but quite interesting at whatever level your interest. I'm wallowing in the novel, though, and it's pretty darned brilliant, imo, if you like that kind of thing. :D
What's on your bedside table?
The Smoke Jumper, by Nicholas Evans. It was the fattest book on my Idaho bookshelf that I hadn't read yet, and I needed a fat book for the plane. Now I need a book for the train tomorrow, so it'll do. Hopefully will be working on my own instead of reading, tho!
I used to keep track of what I was reading and studying on my blog; have slacked off recently. Thanks for the reminder, Nancy - I need to get back to a regular reading schedule again.
Will be offline for a couple of days, visiting writer friends in Maine. Back Tuesday, unless I can find a signal in the wilds of Bangor. Have a good couple of days, everyone!
Still reading Brisingr. Yes, the 3rd book by that often scorned young writer, Christopher Paolini. I enjoyed the first two, parts of this one were a bit awkward, but overall it is enjoyable so far.
For fiction, recently finished a friend's [intense, brilliant and hilarious] ms, and am choosing next between PowerBook and Art & Lies, both by Jeanette Winterson and new from giftmas.
For nonfiction, I've just finished both Pretending to be Normal: Living With Asperger's Syndrome, by Liane Holliday Willey, and Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings by Clea Simon.
And for the theorydork night of giftmas, I gave myself Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left, an essay-conversation amongst Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Zizek.
Morning All.
Nancy, I like that idea of dipping in and out. I seem to do quite a bit of that.
Beth, Enjoy your time with Kathy and Cindy. Hope you get to meet Janet too. Tell them Howdy from Texas.
Boran, I appreciate that you read what intrigues you even if it isn't popular with all.
After reading only part of The Shack for my book club I had to toss it aside. Many waxed poetic about it. I just felt slapped in the face by poor writing and beat over the head with religion.
Jen, I'll just stand next to you and feel smarter. I suspect your choices would require concentration that I seldom have these days when reading.
My reading runway is filled with the suspense suggestions of the other day. I did pick up James W Hall's Forests of the Night. I love his descriptions and feel he is good at suspense.
Nonfiction--I'm rereading Margie Lawson's Deep Editing. It's actually a lecture series. She's really good at getting me to see how other authors stretch and excel in creating emotional interest for the reader. This is an area I struggle to improve.
Relaxing Sunday to All.
Recent readings:
All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell.
Morning all.
Oh crumbs, what a high-powered lot. I've been doing my 'it's Christmas so I'm going to wallow in nostalgia' thing and have read the Christmassy bits in all kinds of books, including What Katy Did and Little Women, plus a load of others.
And now my brain is feeling rested and soppy and comfortable after a stressfull few months and I'm almost ready for a spot of work!
Well, I finished Blood Bargain a while ago, and refer to yesterday's topic.
Right now, I'm elbow-deep in camera manuals. Fortunately, Canon's camera division writes decent documentation so I can concentrate on the info-acquisition without wanting to strangle the writer (their printer manuals bite big-time though). I also spent an hour or two yesterday wading through their online tutorials for the camera software.
One book I like to read at least once a year is The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams (not the actor). Seeing as we have a complete re-design coming up at work next year, I'll have to crack that one open again soon.
Winter often finds me wanting to re-read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars books… a chicken house in winter is also cold and dusty, but the air is a lot thicker if still somewhat toxic. :-P
Beth! You managed to hook up with your Maine friends after all? Cool.
Jen, that Amazon review of PowerBook sounds interesting, even if I will always think of a laptop when I hear the name. ;-) I thought cyberpunk had been wrung dry; good to know it's not quite that way.
Nicola, I'm kind of ready for "a spot of work" myself, after two weeks off.
Everyone… happy reading!
Morning all! Nancy, I love wallowing in a good book.
I just finished re-reading Elizabeth Bear's Stratford Man duology and am about to dive into Dust (also Bear). Been dipping in and out of my own first 2 books for research and remembering while I craft the 3rd.
I've discovered that home remedies for cough help me sleep at night (a wee bit of whisky in lemon-ginger tea plus 2 oz of dark chocolate) and Vick's on the soles of the feet) Wild, but damn, they worked!
Jen, I'll just stand next to you and feel smarter. I suspect your choices would require concentration that I seldom have these days when reading.
Well I don't feel any smarter while I'm reading what I enjoy, so good luck with that. ;p More seriously, I do read popular fiction as well, I'm just not reading any right now as I don't want it to interfere with some story work I'm doing.
Farf, that Winterson novel is nearly 10 years old and probably seemed much fresher when it was first published. She is not really a genre writer, though, imo her literary voice is quite unique.
The Hobbit, 7 Steps on the Writer's Path, Off Main Street (Michael Perry essays), Stiff, two short story collections by friends and a small heap of manuscripts.
Hi, all. I can't even remember the names of the various books I am reading. I do know that one is something like The Day the Mississippi Ran Backwards, another is about Richard, Earl of Warwick. I am also in the middle of Jenna Peterson (?) and Touchstone by Laura King. I tend to have a book going in almost every room as well as in the purse.
And thanks to the Kindle, I can be reading several there.
I do read popular fiction as well, I'm just not reading any right now as I don't want it to interfere with some story work I'm doing.
Jen, it worked. Smarter me can now do italics!!
Alright I did get some help online. But you inspired me to expand my skills.
I on the other hand am constantly reading popular fiction in search of wow ways to do things. That's how I "discovered" Nancy this last year.
This ADD brain of mine is constantly seeing connections with my story (or one of my critique partners). I'm actually trying to figure a good way to wrangle these thoughts and assimilate them onto page.
Andi--Hope visit with family went well.
On the tv I'm seeing all the horrific weather some of you guys have been having. Hope all are safe and warm (at least beside the fire.)
39 and sunny here.
I tip my hat to all you prolific readers. I'm a turtle reader that gets distracted and picks up another book without finishing the first way too often. So I'm always interested in what makes me stick with a book.
I just finished an Elinor Lipman marathon and read 4 of her novels. By the end of the last, I was ready to crawl under the bed for the rest of my life.
She's a good writer and funny but, like Anne Tyler too much of her is way TOO much.
Ooh, yummy, new books to read.
My list:
Rachel Caine's "Glass House" YA vampire series. Interesting premise, well executed, I'm on the third and last so far.
D.P.Lyle's books on forensics. I love these as authors write in oddball questions and he answers them in a fun way. I've gotten several good story ideas. Here's the link to the website:
http://www.dplylemd.com/
These are the 2 major areas I'm reading in now. There are more, of course.
Ah kb, I love Elinor Lipman (and if you like Lipman and haven't read the late and much missed Laurie Colwin, you have a lot of pleasure waiting) so I think it's not Lipman (or Tyler) but reading too much of anybody all at once that's the problem; there's nothing so good that you can't o.d. on it.
Lisa, family visit went fine. The bad weather kindly waited until after we got home and the dogs were all tucked up around the wood stove. And we didn't even lose power, despite the huge winds, which around here counts as a miracle.
Andi, Laurie Colwin's books (especially "Happy all the time") depressed me too. It didn't help that I was married to a guy suffering from a suicidal depression at the time I read it.
I have an embarrassing affection for well written funny books about people who actually ARE happy all the time. Or close to it. And believe me when I say it's embarrassing. I'm widely regarded as a near-illiterate.
In many circles (librarians for example) it's not enough to have READ an author's books, you have to LOVE them too.....
Maybe I'll re-read this....
Good article, good things, good feelings, good BLOG!
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