What Are You Reading?

[AchtungBaby]

Almost finished with Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet. It's good -- great, even. But it's so depressing!

 

[Kurben]

What did you like about it Kurben? I found it tedious and less than thrilling myself. I'd be curious to hear your take on it.

It is not a thriller or a horrorstory really but i thought it was well told and interesting. It is not fastpaced, granted, but i thought it had atmosphere and i find it is nice to read a book that takes its time. Too many books hurry too much just to keep up the pace and make the reader turn the pages so fast that you hardly remember what happened. This i found was a book that had integrity. It told an exciting tale that slowly built the excitement. Then the interesting little facts that are spread throughout the book are a plus too.

 

[kingricefan]

If anyone would like a rather different take on the vampire i can recommend Elisabeth Kostova and her book The Historian. I really liked it.

What did you like about it Kurben? I found it tedious and less than thrilling myself. I'd be curious to hear your take on it.

I loved this book! Like Kurben says in his next post, the book has great atmosphere. It's the only Dracula 'sequel' story I've read that captured the atmosphere and storytelling greatness of the original novel.

 

[carrie's younger brother]

It is not a thriller or a horrorstory really but i thought it was well told and interesting. It is not fastpaced, granted, but i thought it had atmosphere and i find it is nice to read a book that takes its time. Too many books hurry too much just to keep up the pace and make the reader turn the pages so fast that you hardly remember what happened. This i found was a book that had integrity. It told an exciting tale that slowly built the excitement. Then the interesting little facts that are spread throughout the book are a plus too.

That's fair and I respect it. Still, I got none of that when I read it. But, we all bring our personal tastes to a book when reading. It's all good. Thanks!

 

[carrie's younger brother]

I loved this book! Like Kurben says in his next post, the book has great atmosphere. It's the only Dracula 'sequel' story I've read that captured the atmosphere and storytelling greatness of the original novel.

See my response to Kurben. (this is getting confusing now )

 

[MadamMack]

I recently started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I had never read her before and was not very familiar with her style. I'm finding that although the prose is sometimes intricate and poetic, I am speeding right along and able to keep up with the story. From what I've gathered, I don't think I'm going to leave this book feeling all fuzzy and lighthearted, but I do love how the reality of these people's worlds is portrayed, even though I see myself heading for some serious sh*t down the road.

I love her work and I really enjoyed that one!!!!

 

[MadamMack]

skimom2 Just finished These Is My Words last night. Oh, my heart! What a beautiful story. I read her notes at the end, and it's so funny how I was seeing Sam Elliot as Jack then entire book. Were you, as well? Thanks for sending me that. I might loan it to a co-worker if you don't mind before I send it back to you.

Adding to the list . . .

 

[HollyGolightly]

Adding to the list . . .

Prepare for the Sam Elliot fantasies, love. :swoon:

 

[Todash]

Almost finished with Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet. It's good -- great, even. But it's so depressing!

Yes. I was SO impressed by it ... and equally impressed by how the people in the book are not caricatures, but are just ... people. Even the fundamentalist parents, who would have been so easy to make into either complete idiots or villains, are colored with all the crayons. I might have to read that again soon.

Spoiler

Not to say that fundamentalists are idiots or villains, just that they are so extreme that it is easy to paint them as caricatures.

 

[HollyGolightly]

I recently started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I had never read her before and was not very familiar with her style. I'm finding that although the prose is sometimes intricate and poetic, I am speeding right along and able to keep up with the story. From what I've gathered, I don't think I'm going to leave this book feeling all fuzzy and lighthearted, but I do love how the reality of these people's worlds is portrayed, even though I see myself heading for some serious sh*t down the road.

I love Carson McCullers - I lucked up and found a collection of her short stories a while back. She's wicked smart. Another southern writer I recommend is Eudora Welty - she's wicked funny.

 

[AchtungBaby]

Yes. I was SO impressed by it ... and equally impressed by how the people in the book are not caricatures, but are just ... people. Even the fundamentalist parents, who would have been so easy to make into either complete idiots or villains, are colored with all the crayons. I might have to read that again soon.

Spoiler

Not to say that fundamentalists are idiots or villains, just that they are so extreme that it is easy to paint them as caricatures.

Yeah, same here. I was shocked by how *real* all of the characters seemed.

 

[Dana Jean]

I

I love Carson McCullers - I lucked up and found a collection of her short stories a while back. She's wicked smart. Another southern writer I recommend is Eudora Welty - she's wicked funny.

loved The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I didn't know she had a collection of shorts. Must find.

 

[HollyGolightly]

I

loved The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I didn't know she had a collection of shorts. Must find.

Ooops - it was Flannery O'Connor. I don't know if she does have a collection.

 

[kingricefan]

OK, so I just finished The Troop by Nick Cutter. Wow. This book creeped me out! There were some really get-under-your-skin moments in it! There were some real gross-out moments, too. Some of those I had to kind of skim thru, and I'm a hard-core horror buff, but they were alittle too intense for me. One involved a turtle and that's all I'm gonna say about that. The story is a good one. The writing is not the greatest, but it had me turning the pages. I felt sorry for the kids in this tale, they were doomed from the get-go. It's about some teenage boys in the Scouts and their Scoutmaster who are on an uninhabited island for the weekend and something bad comes to them in the shape of a man. Sort of Lord Of The Flies meets The Thing. Nasty. The author even gives a nod to Stephen King- he thanks Steve for writing Carrie and being able to use that form of storytelling (using newspaper clippings, testimonials from witnesses, etc.) to tell his (Cutter's) tale. To quote: 'That said, I want to honor the Master. Honor paid.'

 

[Dana Jean]

OK, so I just finished The Troop by Nick Cutter. Wow. This book creeped me out! There were some really get-under-your-skin moments in it! There were some real gross-out moments, too. Some of those I had to kind of skim thru, and I'm a hard-core horror buff, but they were alittle too intense for me. One involved a turtle and that's all I'm gonna say about that. The story is a good one. The writing is not the greatest, but it had me turning the pages. I felt sorry for the kids in this tale, they were doomed from the get-go. It's about some teenage boys in the Scouts and their Scoutmaster who are on an uninhabited island for the weekend and something bad comes to them in the shape of a man. Sort of Lord Of The Flies meets The Thing. Nasty. The author even gives a nod to Stephen King- he thanks Steve for writing Carrie and being able to use that form of storytelling (using newspaper clippings, testimonials from witnesses, etc.) to tell his (Cutter's) tale. To quote: 'That said, I want to honor the Master. Honor paid.'

What's with turtles? Everyone just needs to leave turtles the hell alone.

 

[carrie's younger brother]

Ooops - it was Flannery O'Connor. I don't know if she does have a collection.

I read Flannery O'Connor in school and really liked what I read. Another author to revisit!

 

[kingricefan]

What's with turtles? Everyone just needs to leave turtles the hell alone.

There's also another incident with a kitten (or cat, can't remember which) that is gruesome. I really just had to skim over that till I got past that part. You know I luvs my cats and anything bad happening to a cat really gets to me....

 

[AchtungBaby]

OK, so I just finished The Troop by Nick Cutter. Wow. This book creeped me out! There were some really get-under-your-skin moments in it! There were some real gross-out moments, too. Some of those I had to kind of skim thru, and I'm a hard-core horror buff, but they were alittle too intense for me. One involved a turtle and that's all I'm gonna say about that. The story is a good one. The writing is not the greatest, but it had me turning the pages. I felt sorry for the kids in this tale, they were doomed from the get-go. It's about some teenage boys in the Scouts and their Scoutmaster who are on an uninhabited island for the weekend and something bad comes to them in the shape of a man. Sort of Lord Of The Flies meets The Thing. Nasty. The author even gives a nod to Stephen King- he thanks Steve for writing Carrie and being able to use that form of storytelling (using newspaper clippings, testimonials from witnesses, etc.) to tell his (Cutter's) tale. To quote: 'That said, I want to honor the Master. Honor paid.'

I have this one on my shelf. I'll be reading it next month.

 

[MadamMack]

Hey y'all take good care of yourselves. I've got some serious reading to do!!!!

 

[blunthead]

I'm not reading this yet but it looks interesting. See Inklings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...

J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their circle, by Philip Zaleski & Carol Zaleski | Harvard Magazine May-Jun 2015