Karsa Orlong Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 I get to pick. Wow, thanks! See - manners Quote
The Good Citizen Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 Frankie, thats quite a list of lists you have, I'm duly impressed! Another useful source for me plunder for book hunting. Quote
Janet Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 (edited) Dearest frankie. If you notice that I've stopped following your topic, please do not be upset! It's only because I always look at it anyway, but because you're so (rightly) popular, I can't cope with the sheer number of email notifications I get. I do hope you don't mind - the last thing I want to do is offend you. ETA: Scrub that - I'm a big girl - I'll cope! I have a rather gross image of people licking dead flies now! Edited January 25, 2012 by Janet Quote
Janet Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 Ah, dead fly biscuits - now they're a different matter altogether - I rather like those! Quote
frankie Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 (edited) I get to pick. Wow, thanks! See - manners Yes, I have manners, because I let you pick! Frankie, thats quite a list of lists you have, I'm duly impressed! Another useful source for me plunder for book hunting. Thank you Good Citizen, you are mighty welcome to come and browse Dearest frankie. If you notice that I've stopped following your topic, please do not be upset! It's only because I always look at it anyway, but because you're so (rightly) popular, I can't cope with the sheer number of email notifications I get. I do hope you don't mind - the last thing I want to do is offend you. ETA: Scrub that - I'm a big girl - I'll cope! I have a rather gross image of people licking dead flies now! Oh Janet, no worries at all! I wouldn't have noticed, because I don't keep a tally, mostly because I don't subscribe to anyone's reading blog. I don't subscribe myself because of the exact reason you mentioned in your post. So please unsubscribe away, I don't want you to go 'oh god' and roll your eyes everytime you receive an e-mail because of my blog! Garibaldi biscuit anyone? This is some weird British delicacy, a biscuit made of dead flies? Edited January 25, 2012 by frankie Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 This is some weird British delicacy, a biscuit made of dead flies? Pretty much http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flies_graveyard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_biscuit Quote
frankie Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 (edited) Oooh, I want!! Yummy Edited January 25, 2012 by frankie Quote
frankie Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt Adlibris: ”Out of the blue, your husband of thirty years asks you for a pause in your marriage to indulge his infatuation with a young Frenchwoman. Do you: a) assume it's a passing affair and play along b) angrily declare the marriage over c) crack up d) retreat to a safe haven and regroup? Mia Fredricksen cracks up first, then decamps for the summer to the prairie town of her childhood, where she rages, fumes, and bemoans her sorry fate as abandoned spouse. But little by little, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother and her circle of feisty widows; her young neighbour, with two small children and a loud, angry husband; and the diabolical pubescent girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, wiser though definitely not sadder, Mia knows what she wants to fight for and on whose terms. Provocative, mordant, and fiercely intelligent, The Summer Without Men is a gloriously vivacious tragi-comedy about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old war between the sexes -- a novel for our times by one of the most acclaimed American writers.” Thoughts: My very first Siri Hustvedt, and I'm really thankful I read it in English. No Finnish translations will ever do with Hustvedt, her use of words is sublime. The narrator is Mia Fredricksen, a middle-age-ish poet, and the narration reflects her vocation: single words and expressions are scattered all over the places, in sequences, and yet as numerous as they may seem, they all have their place and it's a pleasure to consume them all. This is a novel that is very difficult to review. There is no clear pattern, events are described, recent, current and past, sometimes Mia reflects her life in a mental monologue, and sometimes Mia talks to the reader. Does this make the book a difficult, unorganized read? Not at all. I loved it just so. There are some quotes I wrote down in my notebook and I want to share them with you: ”If a man opens a novel, he likes to have a masculine name on the cover; it's reassuring somehow. You never know what might happen to that external genitalia if you immerse yourself in imaginary doings concocted by someone with the goods on the inside.” That is such a poetic way to describe a rather banal, misogynous and heinous thing Here's something I think a few of you might find quite amusing, I hope: '”Any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen,” said America's literary darling Mark Twain. ”Even if it contains no other book.” Carlyle called her books ”dismal trash”. But today, too, she is accused of ”narrowness” and ”claustrophobia” and dismissed as a writer for women. Life in the provinces, unworthy of remark? Women's travails, of no import? It's okay when it's Flaubert, of course. Pity the idiots.”' I'll say! Hustvedt's English is beautiful, I want to live in between the words. I'll now go and fetch my Finnish copies of What I Loved and The Sorrows of an American and make sure I donate them to the library's free book trolley and order myself English copies of the same. 5/5, and a wonderful start for the year! Quote
lauraloves Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 But would you lick them if you found a juicy balony sandwich in between the pages? It might be yummy! hehe What if it has been there for a while, like years? I don't think I'd be licking the book, more throwing it out! (althoughi does pain me to say that ) Quote
frankie Posted January 27, 2012 Author Posted January 27, 2012 ^ But it might be nice and crispy, like a crisp! Not all yucky and all mushy. On another note. This was a good bookish day for me I received three book packets in the mail. Here they are as follows: - Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (now I finally have the first 5 novels in the series, I'm so excited!) - 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs (I really want to get back to the series, I really enjoyed it!) - Broken by Karin Slaughter (^ Slaughter's books are the best, right after Deaver's. (Dexter is in a different category). Love love love it!) ^ All of those were sent to me by Chrissy. Thanks again dear!! 2 of the 3 books I've ordered online also arrived: - Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White (for the February Reading Circle, and in the nick of time as well! I've been touching and stroking the book quite a deal, and it feel a bit different than normal, pleasant even, but I'm not sure if it's the same edition as Janet's copy ) - Kaiken takana oli pelko - Kuinka Viro menetti historiansa ja miten se saadaan takaisin by Sofi Oksanen & Imbi Paju (this is a non-fiction book by one of my favorite Finnish authors, Sofi Oksanen, who has roots in Estonia. The title is roughly translated 'Behind everything was fear - How Estonia lost it's history and how to gain it back'. Sofi Oksanen's book Puhdistus (Purge in English) deals with Estonia's history from a few people's individual point-of-views, and it's a fictional novel and I really loved it and wanted to know more about the history of Estonia, and then found out that she's written a book about it with Imbi Paju. This is a beautiful hardback, and it used to cost about 30e in the bookstores, last month I saw it for 10e in discount but it was still a bit too much for my budget. Then found it on 5,50e on Adlibris. I'm evil ) Quote
frankie Posted January 29, 2012 Author Posted January 29, 2012 (edited) Hello peeps! When I was living with Kylie, and we were discussing books (as usual), I once suggested to her that we'd both come up with a list of our personal favorite books, maybe with 30 titles or so, then exchange our lists and see which books the other person likes the best and then perhaps read some of the books on the list, if one wanted to. We started compiling our lists last year, I believe, but then forgot about it for a while and never got round to posting the lists. This week the subject came up again and we both have now sent each other the lists, and here's Kylie's. I've marked which books I have on my TBR and which books I've already read, and I shall also mark the books I suggested to Kylie, with a red F (F for frankie, not anything dirty, you naughty people!). I shouldn't really be so surprised at how similar our lists were, or how we've read the same kinds of books I'll also post my own list that I sent to Kylie. (Oh. And obviously we bent the rule of 30 titles. You can't expect us to limit ourselves to 30 books.) KYLIE'S TOP 40 FICTION Joseph Heller: Catch-22 (TBR) Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (read) Alexandre Dumas: Count of Monte Christo Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (read) F Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita (read) Bram Stoker: Dracula (read) F John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men (read) Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (read) F Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (read) Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (TBR) George Grossmith: Diary of a Nobody (read) Jane Austen: Emma (read) Charles Dickens: Great Expectations (TBR) Jack Kerouac: The Town and the City George Orwell: Animal Farm (read) Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (read) John Banville: The Book of Evidence Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray (TBR) Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (read) Markus Zusak: The Book Thief (read) F John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces (read) John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath (read) Erich Maria Marquez: All Quiet on the Western Front Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex (read) F Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (read) Mark Dunn: Ella Minnow Pea Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (read) Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind (read) F Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (read) Tim Winton: Cloudstreet (TBR) Michel Faber: The Crimson Petal and the White (read) Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged (TBR) Italo Calvino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (TBR) Susan Hill: The Woman in Black (read) Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated (read) F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (read) Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities (read) F Jack Kerouac: On the Road (read) John Connolly: The Book of Lost Things (TBR) KYLIE'S TOP 10 YOUNG ADULT Suzanne Collins: Hunger Games (trilogy) John Marsden: Tomorrow, When the War Began (series) (TBR) J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter (series) (read) F Lucy M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables (read) Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden (read) F Norton Juster: The Phantom Tollbooth (read) Walter Moers: The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear (TBR) A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (TBR) Stephen Chbosky: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (read) F KYLIE'S TOP 13 NON-FICTION Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (TBR) AB Facey: A Fortunate Life Helene Hanff: 84 Charing Cross Road (read) Martin Toseland: A Steroid Hit the Earth Steven D. Levitt: Freaconomics Andrew Solomon: The Noonday Demon (TBR) Sylvia Plath: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (TBR) Bill Bryson: Down Under (TBR) Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods Byll Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything (TBR) Tim Flannery: The Explorers (TBR) Tim Flannery: The Birth of Sydney Anne Frank: The Diary of Anne Frank (read) F ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Frankie recommends: Fiction She Who Remembers by Linda Lay Shuler Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Green Mile by Stephen King Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Northanger Abby by Jane Austen The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde Perfume by Patrick Süskind Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke Fingersmith by Sarah Waters The Book Thief by Markus Zusak The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows Dracula by Bram Stoker A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice Purge by Sofi Oksanen The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne Wasp Factory by Iain Banks Q&A by Vikas Swarup Psycho by Robert Bloch Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami Under the Skin by Michel Faber The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote Gold by Dan Rhodes Push! by Sapphire The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Candide by Voltaire To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon The Last Family in England by Matt Haig The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch (and you need to watch the TV show!!) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro Night by Elie Wiesel Room by Emma Donoghue Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons Incidences by Daniil Harms The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery Crippen by John Boyne The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt Marley and Me by John Grogan Non-fiction And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder by Deborah Spungen The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath by Ronald Hayman The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule The Dirt by Mötley Crüe Stiff – The Life of the Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Sybil by Flora Rheta Scheiber Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski Please Kill Me – The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain Between the Sheets – The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th Century Women Writers by Lesley McDowell Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs Young Adult Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry The Little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg Emily of New Moon (series) by Lucy M. Montgomery Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren The Secred Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 12 ¾ by Sue Townsend Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones The Giver by Lois Lowry Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling The Bill Bergson series by Astrid Lindgren Edit: All possible typos are mine. Edited January 29, 2012 by frankie Quote
poppyshake Posted January 29, 2012 Posted January 29, 2012 Firstly what a great review of Siri Hustvedt's book frankie I immediately want to read it .. especially because she's had a bit of a dig at Flaubert .. sort of. I've got What I Loved on the shelves and if it's anything like as good I'll be happy. Secondly .. look at those lovely lickable lists I have copied and pasted them so that I can pore over them later. I've read about 18/40 on Kylies fiction list and 22/67 on yours .. I have a long long way to go but it will be worth it. I'm glad to see that you recommended one of Georgia Byngs books. I bought it for my niece for her birthday without knowing anything about it (just looked at the cover and read the blurb) .. it looked like a lot of fun but I'm happy to see that you loved it. Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I'm sure I've seen those lists somewhere else ... Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 Firstly what a great review of Siri Hustvedt's book frankie I immediately want to read it .. especially because she's had a bit of a dig at Flaubert .. sort of. I've got What I Loved on the shelves and if it's anything like as good I'll be happy. I hope you shall like it very much! It was beautiful. The only thing that I found a bit strange was the title of the novel. It sounds so chick litty and that's not Hustvedt, at least as far as I know. And I didn't exactly get the cover art either, but that can hardly be Hustvedt's fault. I've seen another version of the book, I much prefer this one. Secondly .. look at those lovely lickable lists I have copied and pasted them so that I can pore over them later. I've read about 18/40 on Kylies fiction list and 22/67 on yours .. I have a long long way to go but it will be worth it. I will not be to blame of any short circuits you may cause to your computer by licking the lists on your screen Some of the books on my list are ones that I'm sure not all would enjoy and they might go against the grain for a lot of people, but as they are my favorites I wanted to list them anyways. I know some people wouldn't go for the Bridget Jones's Diary, and I wouldn't suggest all the people in the world to read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. The latter is a very dear book to me because I'm a huge Twin Peaks fan, I watched the show when I was a pre-teen/teen and it scared the bejesus out of me, and at the same time I was so engrossed by it. Most of the girls in my class (we were on the fifth or sixth grade, meaning 11-13 years old) were watching the show and one of the girls found the book in the library and it circulated amongst us fans and wow, it was a really different kind of a book from the Enid Blytons I would usually read. I'd say it's a must read for a Twin Peaks fan. I'm glad to see that you recommended one of Georgia Byngs books. I bought it for my niece for her birthday without knowing anything about it (just looked at the cover and read the blurb) .. it looked like a lot of fun but I'm happy to see that you loved it. I came across the book in a library sale and I'd heard of the name Molly Moon but I knew nothing about it. I read the blurb and it sounded interesting so I bought it and read it. And the first novel was really hilarious I remember reading it on a bus in the summer, there were other people but not that many, so no one was talking and it was really quiet and as I was reading I had a really hard time trying not to laugh out loud because the book was so funny. I'm really attached to the children's and young adult's books I've owned and read since I was a kid, and I'll never pass them on. However, at a bit more mature age, if I buy a children's/young adult's book, I'll then read it and usually pass those on, unless they are exceptionally great and I know I'll re-read later on. And I definitely kept the Molly Moon book Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 I'm sure I've seen those lists somewhere else ... What?! They promised us that they'd keep close guard of our manuscript of the 30 Or So Books You Must Read Before Kylie and Frankie Come A'Knocking! Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Right, I'm going to start my own list now At least I'll know I've read all of them Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 Right, I'm going to start my own list now Ooh, awesome! Can't wait to see more lists. Although... I suppose I won't know any of the titles. At least I'll know I've read all of them It's good to find comfort somewhere Quote
Kylie Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Secondly .. look at those lovely lickable lists I have copied and pasted them so that I can pore over them later. I've read about 18/40 on Kylies fiction list and 22/67 on yours .. I have a long long way to go but it will be worth it. Licking lists now? I can't keep up with you! (And I'm not sure I want to... ) I'm sure I've seen those lists somewhere else ... What?! They promised us that they'd keep close guard of our manuscript of the 30 Or So Books You Must Read Before Kylie and Frankie Come A'Knocking! Great book title! (Especially because my name's first ). Right, I'm going to start my own list now At least I'll know I've read all of them I can't wait to see it! I'll save yours on my book thread too so I can use it for recommendations. Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 Licking lists now? I can't keep up with you! (And I'm not sure I want to... ) Sure you wouldn't miss the chance to lick a list? Great book title! (Especially because my name's first ). I was just trying to be polite. Actually they've switched the names the other way around, I suggested it might be better to go in alphabetical order since you and I could never agree who should be first Quote
Karsa Orlong Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I can't wait to see it! I'll save yours on my book thread too so I can use it for recommendations. Right, I'm on it. Might take a while ... Quote
Kylie Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Sure you wouldn't miss the chance to lick a list? Yes. Yes I would! I was just trying to be polite. Actually they've switched the names the other way around, I suggested it might be better to go in alphabetical order since you and I could never agree who should be first *pouts* In that case, I demand my lists be removed from the book! Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 *pouts* In that case, I demand my lists be removed from the book! Too late Quote
frankie Posted January 30, 2012 Author Posted January 30, 2012 Score! I just received my copy of Coffee at Luke's by Jennifer Crusie. Some of the members on the forum have lately read this and I had to jump on the bandwagon Only disappointment is that there are no pictures in the book I was looking forward to covering my walls with pics of Luke... Quote
poppyshake Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Right, I'm going to start my own list now At least I'll know I've read all of them This is genius .. why didn't I think of it. Poppyshakes Books What She Has Read.. a list that I can cross off all the titles from .. 100% success This is going to make me look mega efficient on my bookblog. Thanks Steve Quote
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