Jump to content

Willoyd's Reading Log 2013


willoyd

Recommended Posts

Your so lucky to have the literature festival right on your doorstep Willoyd i'm very envious. I discovered that they have a literature festival in Morley, this is it's second year, so i went across to listen to Jo Baker talking about her novel Longbourn , it was very enjoyable but it was an hour there & back again on the bus which is a bit of a schlep & although i would have liked to go to more events it just wasn't possible. Just out of interest what kind of people go to these events in Ilkley? At the one i was at it seemed to be mainly old ladies  :shrug:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 261
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Just out of interest what kind of people go to these events in Ilkley? At the one i was at it seemed to be mainly old ladies  :shrug:

 

It varies a lot depending on the speakers. OH and I are in our mid-fifties. She went to see Rob Ellingworth about his work with the British cycling squad, and felt quite old; we both went to Artemis Cooper talking about her editing Patrick Leigh Fermor's last volume, and felt very young! There's also a thriving children's programme.

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne *****
 
As the author comments in her acknowledgements, short of the discovery of a previously unknown cache of letters or some other discovery it's unlikely that any biographer can bring much that's new to a conventional chronological biography of Jane Austen. So, she takes a somewhat different tack, identifying what she regards as specific objects from Austen's life that identify with particular, important, themes from her life.

On the whole it works well, with Byrne expanding upon such minutiae to paint a fascinating portrait of one of England's most revered writers, that breaths new vigour and introduces some interesting alternative views of Austen's life story. The book is subtitled A Life in Small Things, and for me it was the chapters based on these small things that worked best, particularly when they were directly related to Austen, such as the chapter based on her 'laptop', the portable writing desk given to her on her nineteenth birthday by her father, and now in the British Library. 'Bigger object' chapters, such as The Barouche, interesting as their topics were, tended not to gel quite as much for me.

Not all the objects were directly related to or from Jane Austen's life. Paula Byrne commented on this in her talk at the Ilkley Literature Festival, saying that it had been her original intention for them to have done so, but there just wasn't enough around. However, aside from one or two small infelicities (like the barouche), they were all worked in remarkably cleverly. In particular, I thought the portrait of the two sisters which, whilst setting up a chapter on the importance of Austen's relationship with her sister Cassandra, had little do with the two women, did the job admirably. Other small items, like the red cushions or the box of letters, were worked in from references to similar items in Austen's writing. All together, they helped provide a useful and differently interesting framework around which the author created a coherent whole.

My one difficulty was trying to keep track of all the different participant in Jane Austen's life, often referred to as many obviously wrote about their famous relative. Jane may not have married or had children herself, but her brothers more than made up in fecundity what the two sisters opted out of. Along with a long list of other relations (most, it seems, with her mother's maiden name of Leigh, or Leigh-something else!), it was a perfect recipe for reader confusion, which would have been helped enormously by the presence of a family tree, and/or a dramatis personae to deal with friends.

However, that's a relatively small criticism: overall, this was a highly readable, thoroughly engaging piece of writing, which makes a worthwhile addition to the Jane Austen biographical oeuvre.

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi willoyd! I recently watched a documentary about Jane Austen and found it very interesting. I was surprised to learn when she moved to Bath she found it hard to write. What are your thoughts on this considering you read a biography about her?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi willoyd! I recently watched a documentary about Jane Austen and found it very interesting. I was surprised to learn when she moved to Bath she found it hard to write. What are your thoughts on this considering you read a biography about her?

 

That is certainly the conventional view, but Byrne argues rather strongly against that idea, and spends some of her chapter based on the laptop amplifying.  Basically, Austen spent a fair bit of time refining work she had already done, whilst developing two new works, both of which were aborted for various reasons (thus the idea of struggling?).  Her main energies appear to have been focused on being published, using material she had already produced.  It wasn't that she was finding it hard, it was that her efforts needed to be focused elsewhere.  Once she was published, the output picked up again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is certainly the conventional view, but Byrne argues rather strongly against that idea, and spends some of her chapter based on the laptop amplifying.  Basically, Austen spent a fair bit of time refining work she had already done, whilst developing two new works, both of which were aborted for various reasons (thus the idea of struggling?).  Her main energies appear to have been focused on being published, using material she had already produced.  It wasn't that she was finding it hard, it was that her efforts needed to be focused elsewhere.  Once she was published, the output picked up again.

I thought so because Jane wrote so much about Bath.

Edited by cuppycakes
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading notes October 29th
 
Birthday, Literature Festival, half term - it's been a big few weeks for book acquisition!  I love the fact that my birthday usually falls in the middle of the Ilkley festival, as it means I can spend much appreciated money/book token gifts at the festival with no accompanying guilt (and much glee)! This year, the pile has ben bigger than ever before, but at least it means that reading is sorted out for the next few weeks, even months!

So - books acquired in the past couple of weeks:
 
Biography
The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne (read, and reviewed above)
The Love Charms of Bombs - Lara Feigel
Penelope Fitzgerald - Hermione Lee
Tudor: The Family Story - Leanda de Lisle
 
History
Great Britain's Great War - Jeremy Paxman
The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj - Anne de Courcy
 
Other Non-Fiction
Deep Sea and Foreign Going - Rose George
Cities Are Good For You - Leo Hollis
The Serpent's Promise - Steve Jones
 
Fiction
Ramayana - Daljit Nagra
Marriage Material - Sathnam Sanghera
Blood and Beauty - Sarah Dunant
Footsteps - Katherine McMahon
plus, I couldn't resist the complete Man Booker shortlist at a massively knocked down price with The Book People. The Luminaries alone will probably keep me going for a couple of weeks at the very least, but it looks a very attractive collection; I'm not sure how the change to include American books will affect the prize lists, but am not overly optimistic, as I do enjoy the current balance.  But then, with a fair number of exceptions, I'm not a great fan of American literature.

 

That list looks quite scary when written down!

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading notes October 29th

 

Birthday, Literature Festival, half term - it's been a big few weeks for book acquisition!  I love the fact that my birthday usually falls in the middle of the Ilkley festival, as it means I can spend much appreciated money/book token gifts at the festival with no accompanying guilt (and much glee)! This year, the pile has ben bigger than ever before, but at least it means that reading is sorted out for the next few weeks, even months!

 

So - books acquired in the past couple of weeks:

 

Biography

The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne (read, and reviewed above)

The Love Charms of Bombs - Lara Feigel

Penelope Fitzgerald - Hermione Lee

Tudor: The Family Story - Leanda de Lisle

 

History

Great Britain's Great War - Jeremy Paxman

The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj - Anne de Courcy

 

Other Non-Fiction

Deep Sea and Foreign Going - Rose George

Cities Are Good For You - Leo Hollis

The Serpent's Promise - Steve Jones

 

Fiction

Ramayana - Daljit Nagra

Marriage Material - Sathnam Sanghera

Blood and Beauty - Sarah Dunant

Footsteps - Katherine McMahon

plus, I couldn't resist the complete Man Booker shortlist at a massively knocked down price with The Book People. The Luminaries alone will probably keep me going for a couple of weeks at the very least, but it looks a very attractive collection; I'm not sure how the change to include American books will affect the prize lists, but am not overly optimistic, as I do enjoy the current balance.  But then, with a fair number of exceptions, I'm not a great fan of American literature.

 

That list looks quite scary when written down!

 

 

Willoyd

I find your comment about American literature offensive  .You're making the remark in a way that is more or less saying that we have very little to offer the literary world. That type of remark is very unfair . I have read books that are written by authors from other countries ,that I may not have enjoyed, but to make a remark that there is very little to offer from the entire COUNTRY full of authors would be very derogatory .

I have enjoyed being a part of this group, but with comments like you make, it makes me feel like I'm not in the right place . It'd be extremely rude of me to come in and bash "most English authors" as unworthy of reading , with the exception of a few . How would all of you feel if I were to make that remark ? I'm guessing I'd make a lot of enemies .

NOT NICE at all .  :(

Edited by julie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Willoyd

I find your comment about American literature offensive .You're making the remark in a way that is more or less saying that we have very little to offer the literary world. That type of remark is very unfair . I have read books that are written by authors from other countries ,that I may not have enjoyed, but to make a remark that there is very little to offer from the entire COUNTRY full of authors would be very derogatory .

I have enjoyed being a part of this group, but with comments like you make, it makes me feel like I'm not in the right place . It'd be extremely rude of me to come in and bash "most English authors" as unworthy of reading , with the exception of a few . How would all of you feel if I were to make that remark ? I'm guessing I'd make a lot of enemies .

NOT NICE at all . :(

 

I didn't say that American literature didn't have a lot to offer. Nor did I say it was unworthy of reading. I simply said that, in very broad brush terms, I'm not a great fan, i.e. it's not an area of literature that I've found many books I am especially keen on. I enjoy some of course, but I'm no aficionado.  Therefore, with a fair number of exceptions, I don't target American writers as ones I particularly want to read. I should have included the word 'modern' though - I was really thinking of writing in relation to the Man Booker rather than all writing historically.

 

There are, of course some modern American authors I positively enjoy, a few I rave about; there's fewer I positively don't! The majority though I find myself somewhere in the middle with, possibly because I don't relate easily to either the who, the what or the where they're writing about. or the way they're writing. That probably says more about me than about the writers themselves, but just because one doesn't positively enjoy something does not for one second say that one thinks they have little or nothing to offer, nor that they are unworthy of reading. One can respect and appreciate something without having to enjoy it. I generally love the classics (British, French, Russian and American included), but loads of people will openly confess to not being great fans - I suspect that very few will think they have little to offer or are unworthy, they simply don't enjoy them enough to want to read them.

 

If you were to say that on the whole you weren't a great fan of English writers, it wouldn't bother me one jot (some people are, some people aren't) as long as you'd given some of them a go, so that you had some sort of rationale for saying that. There are many who don't enjoy a lot more things English than just the writing, and quite a few of these people are British! Whilst I do on the whole enjoy English writing (FWIW I'm only partly English myself), there are a number of aspects of English and British culture that I definitely don't enjoy!

 

I've had this discussion about American literature with my American relatives on several occasions, who have certainly never had any problems with this. My uncle, as American as they came, actually reckoned I enjoyed more American writers than he did, but that was mainly because I'd read more American literature than he had! We have all agreed that I need an extended visit to the States to sort me out (I wish!).  In the meantime, I've promised to try and up the amount of American writers I read to broaden my experience and see if I can find more American writers to enjoy - maybe the States challenge would be the way to go?

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice haul, willoyd!

 

I agree with Julie, though it doesn't offend me personally. It's possible that you didn't like a lot of American literature or that you're not that interested in it, there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe you just worded it in a way that can be taken as an offense, I don't know. As I said, I'm not offended but I can see where Julie is coming from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will

Thanks for explaining your comment in more detail. Sorry if I snapped at you ,but it's difficult at times when you are in the minority in a group IF someone in the majority makes negative comments about our country as a whole .(or as your terms put it, painting us all with a broad brush ) .

 

Not saying I don't feel welcome here or that I feel that people aren't treating me politely, because they are . Everyone here has been incredibly nice . I think, though, that when someone openly makes a statement that is saying that one group is lacking in some way, or that one group is better than another, it can cause hard feelings .

 

Could you give me a few names or a short list of authors /books from our country that you find to be unworthy of reading ?  We may actually agree on some of them .

 

Not sure I'm wording this properly, but I'm just curious as to which authors you don't like , and why .

 

No hard feelings . It's just that most ,if not all Americans are proud of our country and won't sit by and allow others to bash it unless they have a valid point. I'm not saying our country is better than any other or that our literature is the only kind worth reading . It's just as challenging for me to read some of your author's works ,and get out of them everything I should . I have never been there, I know very little about some of the subjects or phrases used . That doesn't mean I think the writing is bad or the author isn't worth reading, it is probably the "reader" who is lacking ,not the author . ( Talking about ME ,not you )

 

I guess ,bottom line is that for a large group of readers from many different countries ,to all converge as a group, we have to be sensitive to the fact that some comments won't go down well and may cause some disharmony .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Julie - I do appreciate where you're coming from, and yes, I was probably being way too sweeping in my statements - trying to saying something shorthand.  It's interesting about your comment on minority, because that's the where much of the debate about the Man Booker allowing American writers in next year has been focused: fears that the smaller, slightly more quirky, publishing houses and writers from Britain and the Commonwealth will get somewhat overwhelmed by the big cousin from over the pond.  The decision has been very controversial! 
 

I think, though, that when someone openly makes a statement that is saying that one group is lacking in some way, or that one group is better than another, it can cause hard feelings. 
Could you give me a few names or a short list of authors /books from our country that you find to be unworthy of reading ?

 
I don't find modern American literature as a whole lacking, better/worse, or unworthy.  My point was that I personally don't enjoy it as much.  For me there is a big difference.  There are, for instance, a number of famous British writers I don't enjoy, including, off the top of my head based on reading over the last couple of years, the likes of George Orwell, Lawrence Durrell, Daniel Defoe, Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian MacEwan.  That doesn't mean to say that I find their writing lacking, or 'better' or 'worse', and they're definitely not unworthy.  Indeed, I regard some of them as outstanding writers, especially technically, It's just that for whatever reason I don't relate to them as well as I do to others.  I respect their writing, appreciate it even, I just don't enjoy it and, given how much reading there is to do, and how little time to do it, I don't pursue them.
 
I'll do what you ask, and put together a list of American writers I've tried and not particularly enjoyed, but on a positive note, the following are twentieth century (post-WW1) American writers who have written one or more books that I've rated 5 or 6 stars (my top two ratings for enjoyment, and not necessarily 'literary'!):
 
Raymond Chandler
Michael Cunningham

James Ellroy
Frank Herbert

Laurie R King
Harper Lee

Donna Leon
Audrey Niffenberger

Sara Paretsky
Jane Smiley
Neal Stephenson
Connie Willis
 
A Thousand Acres, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Hours are all in my top 20 favourite books, as is the nineteenth century Moby Dick.

 

Having said that, I've been down through the list of Pullitzer winners, and I'm not impressed as to how many I've read or tried.  Maybe I need some educating!

 

BTW, I should emphasise that we are only talking about twentieth century fiction.  For instance, I'm much keener on non-fiction writers, numbering several amongst my favourites.

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Julie - I've had a trawl through my notes over the past few years, and these are the writers who I've tried and didn't do a lot for me.  Some names, I know, will surprise, some I'm sure won't.  I've stuck to what I list as 'twentieth century', which actually means post-WW1.  Please remember, I don't positively dislike all (even most) of these; they are simply the writers of books who have not achieved more than 3 stars in my reading list - some I've only tried once though.
 
Mitch Albom, Maya Angelou, Paul Auster, Dan Brown, William S Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Harlan Coben, Patricia Cornwell, Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Jeffrey Eugenides, William Faulkner, F Scott Fitzgerald, William Gibson, William Goldman, John Grisham, Joseph Heller, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Hiaasen, Garrison Keillor, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Armistead Maupin, Cormac McCarthy, Jay MacInerny, Marisha Pessl, Thomas Pynchon, JD Salinger, Alice Sebold, Anita Shreve, John Steinbeck (but like his non-fiction), Kate Stockett, Anne Tyler, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe.

I've got several writers on my shelves who I've yet to try: Saul Bellow, Truman Capote, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Marilynne Robinson, Amy Tan

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne *****

 

As the author comments in her acknowledgements, short of the discovery of a previously unknown cache of letters or some other discovery it's unlikely that any biographer can bring much that's new to a conventional chronological biography of Jane Austen. So, she takes a somewhat different tack, identifying what she regards as specific objects from Austen's life that identify with particular, important, themes from her life.

 

On the whole it works well, with Byrne expanding upon such minutiae to paint a fascinating portrait of one of England's most revered writers, that breaths new vigour and introduces some interesting alternative views of Austen's life story. The book is subtitled A Life in Small Things, and for me it was the chapters based on these small things that worked best, particularly when they were directly related to Austen, such as the chapter based on her 'laptop', the portable writing desk given to her on her nineteenth birthday by her father, and now in the British Library. 'Bigger object' chapters, such as The Barouche, interesting as their topics were, tended not to gel quite as much for me.

 

Not all the objects were directly related to or from Jane Austen's life. Paula Byrne commented on this in her talk at the Ilkley Literature Festival, saying that it had been her original intention for them to have done so, but there just wasn't enough around. However, aside from one or two small infelicities (like the barouche), they were all worked in remarkably cleverly. In particular, I thought the portrait of the two sisters which, whilst setting up a chapter on the importance of Austen's relationship with her sister Cassandra, had little do with the two women, did the job admirably. Other small items, like the red cushions or the box of letters, were worked in from references to similar items in Austen's writing. All together, they helped provide a useful and differently interesting framework around which the author created a coherent whole.

 

My one difficulty was trying to keep track of all the different participant in Jane Austen's life, often referred to as many obviously wrote about their famous relative. Jane may not have married or had children herself, but her brothers more than made up in fecundity what the two sisters opted out of. Along with a long list of other relations (most, it seems, with her mother's maiden name of Leigh, or Leigh-something else!), it was a perfect recipe for reader confusion, which would have been helped enormously by the presence of a family tree, and/or a dramatis personae to deal with friends.

 

However, that's a relatively small criticism: overall, this was a highly readable, thoroughly engaging piece of writing, which makes a worthwhile addition to the Jane Austen biographical oeuvre.

 

What a great review!  I'm adding this to my wishlist right now :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will

Let's take a look at the Pulitzers since you mentioned them in your last post . The ones in bold are the ones I've read ,or I've read other books by the author ... comments to follow .

*** All comments are only my opinion, not trying to talk anyone else into liking what I like ....


 

Pulitzer Prize Winners in Fiction


 

1948 – Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener   -- To me, Michener can do no wrong . Some think his books are dry, stuffy, too much information ,etc . They usually start with a lengthy (100 pages or so) of commentary on the DIRT, PLANTS, ROCKS , etc that make the ground where the story began. If you can stick it out through that , you are in for writing of the highest caliber (in MY opinion ) I've not read this specific book, but several of his larger books ( Centennial, Chesapeake ,are my 2 favorites)


 

1949 – Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens


 

1950 – The Way West by A. B. Guthrie   ?-- WHY haven't I read this ? No excuse. I'd love it . It's a COWBOY story .


 

1951 – The Town by Conrad Richter


 

1952 – The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk


 

1953 – The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway


 

1954 – No Award


 

1955 – A Fable by William Faulkner


 

1956 – Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor  ? Should have read this. I love learning about the Civil War . Shame on me .


 

1957 – No Award


 

1958 – A Death in the Family by James Agee (posthumously published)


 

1959 – The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor


 

1960 – Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
 

1961 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee --Classic, what more can you say ? Very odd that Harper didn't find it in her to write more .. This book NEEDED a writer. This story NEEDED to be told . Ficton, but lots of true stories with the same undertones in that time and place .


 

1962 – The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor


 

1963 – The Reivers by William Faulkner


 

1964 – No Award


 

1965 – The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau -Absolute stunner . Beautiful language ..The Southerners are wonderful story tellers . This blows" The Help "out of the water ...


 

1966 – The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter


 

1967 – The Fixer by Bernard Malamud


 

1968 – The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron


 

1969 – House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday


 

1970 – Collected Stories by Jean Stafford


 

1971 – No Award


 

1972 – Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner  ?(Another WHY -- started this a dozen times. The writing is beautiful .. not sure why I didn't stick with it .)


 

1973 – The Optimist’s Daughter by Euroda Welty


 

1974 – No Award


 

1975 – The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara ( Was the WRITING worth a prize ? Good,but not prize-worthy. The STORY was prize-worthy .


 

1976 – Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow


 

1977 – No Award


 

1978 – Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson


 

1979 – The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever


 

1980 – The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer -( Genius .Anyone who was touched by In Cold Blood, give this a gander .. Another one that will make you cry with the sadness of what one wrong decision did to destroy a person's life ..Mailer had a fiery disposition and extreme dislike for Capote .. I think it may have been a bit of jealousy ,since Truman supposedly "beat him " by writing the supposed first true crime nonfiction book written as more of a novel-type story. Not true, guys. Dreiser beat them both with  "An American Tragedy ". True story, brilliant writing ... Where's HIS award ? Did he get one for that book ? I need to check .

Truman Capote
Crime: Saying of Mailer, “He has no talent. None, none, none!”
Action taken: Mailer sat on him.
Blowback: In 1980, Capote told an interviewer that while Mailer called In Cold Blood a “failure of the imagination … now I see that the only prizes Norman wins are for that very same kind of writing. I’m glad I was of some small service to him.”


Leave it to Truman --he was always his own best fan.   :)

 

1981 – A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumously published)


 

1982 – Rabbit is Rich by John Updike


 

1983 – The Color Purple by Alice Walker


 

1984 – Ironweed by William Kennedy


 

1985 – Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie


 

1986 – Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry -What can I say about this that hasn't been said ? A true classic that will always have a place at  the top of the charts when it comes to WESTERNS .


 

1987 – A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor  ?WHY haven't I read this ?? Another beautiful southern writer .


 

1988 – Beloved by Toni Morrison


 

1989 – Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler --In my opinion, lukewarm at best . A better one of hers was The Accidental Tourist . It was prize-worthy ,had a quirky lead character ..the movie they made totally chopped it up .


 

1990 – The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos


 

1991 – Rabbit at Rest by John Updike


 

1992 – A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley-Another lukewarm story in my opinion. I have yet to read anything by her that I'd give above a B on a grade card ,but others love her . 


 

1993 – A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler --Haven't read this but have read another - "Had a Good Time "... he showed Ransom Riggs  how to use pictures to build a story around . He collects old postcards ,and used one per chapter to make a story about . They all had writing on them,by unknown people ..Butler studied the postcards and the writing ,and built a story around each . STUNNINGLY good . ( And I HATE short stories)


 

1994 – The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx -In my top 10 . Quoyle will always have a place in my heart ... a wonderful character ,superb writing.


 

1995 – The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

 

1996 – Independence Day by Richard Ford --This book was so-so ,although some of his others were much more enjoyable to me. A good writer .


 

1997 – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser


 

1998 – American Pastoral by Philip Roth


 

1999 – The Hours by Michael Cunningham


 

2000 – Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri


 

2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon


 

2002 – Empire Falls by Richard Russo -Russo is in a class by himself. He takes a bit of getting used to, but he can tell a whopper of a tale ...This one, once again, is one I wouldn't have chosen for an award. That would oddly go to his very first book" The Risk Pool." Just my opinion ,once again . "Nobody's Fool " was a close second .


 

2003 – Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides


 

2004 – The Known World by Edward P. Jones  ?WHY HAVEN'T I READ THIS ???


 

2005 – Gilead by Marilynne Robinson --A good book .. On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give it a 6 or 7 ... wonderful writing,but missing a bit of something .. not sure what . .I like her though .


 

2006 – March by Geraldine Brooks


 

2007 – The Road by Cormac McCarthy


 

2008 – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz


 

2009 – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout --Probably one of the lamest on the list ( my opinion ) .. Very dull ...
 

2010 – Tinkers by Paul Harding

 

A few added notes -- these books win their awards ( my opinion,) sometimes because of the writer's last name .. the fact that they may have deserved an award and didn't get one while alive (as with 2 of them ) ... lots of the books also win ,based on the fact that over here, I think books sometimes get some added HYPE if they are about the plight of a certain group of people, a certain time in history, etc.. they want us to LEARN from these books ,about times and places long gone.( Another JUST MY OPINION)

 

OK, I'm taking a break for a bit ... will respond more later .


 

 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, one more go at it since you left a list that needs answered .

 

Mitch Albom, Maya Angelou, Paul Auster, Dan Brown, William S Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Harlan Coben, Patricia Cornwell, Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Jeffrey Eugenides, William Faulkner, F Scott Fitzgerald, William Gibson, William Goldman, John Grisham, Joseph Heller, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Hiaasen, Garrison Keillor, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Armistead Maupin, Cormac McCarthy, Jay MacInerny, Marisha Pessl, Thomas Pynchon, JD Salinger, Alice Sebold, Anita Shreve, John Steinbeck (but like his non-fiction), Kate Stockett, Anne Tyler, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe.

 

OK, I'm gonna color-code this list --

The ones in Black -- I love for different reasons. Albom has a message for ME .His books are all short ,but they pack a wallop .. I like them because they teach me things about LIFE that I need to learn ..

 

Steinbeck -- I know some people dislike him or think he has nothing worth saying .I think he is a master with his writing .. I like books told like he tells them , so they fit what I am searching for in a book .

 

Sebold, to me isn't in the same class as the others ,but she is here for a different reason. She tells her Lovely Bones story from the viewpoint of a dead girl ,and the aftermath of what happens to those who remain when a child is kidnapped and killed . I feel she deserves a top notch spot for the idea of the story ..

Then there's her book LUCKY .. Her account of the aftermath of a rape victim. Powerful stuff that has probably helped a lot of girls who had the same thing happen to them ...

 

 

Those in BLUE --  We ALL like different books, but in MY opinion, the ones in blue , I call grocery-store books ... That's where you find them, they all are sort-of repeats of the previous ones .. I would read some of them, but I'd prefer others .. AGAIN, no offense to anyone who enjoys them .

 

The Greens get it on name alone .. The shortest response I can give on these

 

( sorry but I have typed til I don't have any FINGERPRINTS left) --

 

I'd say the ones in green get recognition due to their names. Are they good writers ? I'd say each of them have a huge fan base .. I can't say I'm a FAN of any of them, but I'm sure lots of people are ,so I'd never tell them they are wrong for enjoying these writers . Again, we all like different books, like we all like different foods or colors, etc .

 

The rest are left floating as I don't have much knowledge of them ,so it'd be unfair to comment good or bad .

 

 

To be continued when my fingerprints grow back ........................................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

can you help me, Does anyone have this book Years of Upheaval by Henry Kissinger, if yes please send me

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

ika.gachechiladzee@gmail.com

 

Err, no.  Think you may have the wrong place for this!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fascinating stuff Julie - some really interesting insights.  I must try some more American writing......!
 
The one that surprised me was your comments on Jane Smiley. I've read a few of hers, and some are definitely better than others (Moo didn't work for me at all for instance), but the one I have read that I did rate highly was A Thousand Acres!  I think it was the whole concept of taking King Lear and putting it in such a context - for me that really worked.  In fact, sacrilegious as it might sound to some, I thought it worked better for me than the original (which, TBH, I don't rate as highly as other Shakespeares:  oh, no, I can just  feel the wrath of Shakespeareians descending on me, so just to say that I'm a massive Shakespeare fan - just not of King Lear!). 

Of the three you put in black, I have to say that Albom and Sebold rated one stars for me - they were just way too sentimental for my taste. I was pretty middling on Steinbeck's fiction, although the man can certainly write. He was one of those where I just didn't relate to what he was writing about (my OH will tell you that I don't do empathy!). I have dipped into Travels with Charley, and have just bought a copy of Once There Was a War, and both look excellent, much more my stuff.

Edited by willoyd
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a great review!  I'm adding this to my wishlist right now :)

 

Thank you Ruth.  Knowing your reading, I don't think you'll be disappointed (fingers crossed).

We're heading off tomorrow to Hampshire for a couple of days, and aim as part of that trip to visit Steventon and Chawton.  Really excited!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Final bit of post-birthday book buying today, taking advantage of various offers, accumulated loyalty points and the last gift cards:

 

Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century by Geoffrey Parker

Bertie, A Life of Edward VII by Jane Ridley

The Ash and The Beech: The Drama of Woodland Change by Richard Mabey

The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper by Jonathan Wilson

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark

 

Non-fiction all - definitely in that sort of mood at the moment.  Whatever, I think I'll need to call a moratorium on book buying for a while, otherwise I'm never going to get through this pile!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've read one Don Delillo book and didn't enjoy it much either. I read The Body Artist which was a free book at the book fair a few years ago. Which one have you read?

 

It's interesting to read your both's opinions on these writers. I could comment on all those I know but that might get boring maybe since it's kind of a discussion between the two of you, so will leave it at this for now. I'm not sure if you want others to weigh in or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Athena

 I don't mind a bit if you comment, but since it's Will's thread, he can make the call on it . You know you can always come over to my thread and yak about anything .

 

It's always Open for Business  :)  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...