Who else was going to open the November book thread?

Blood Child by Octavia Butler
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
Vacation by Deb Olin Unferth

Derek, this last month I read "Nocturns" by John Conneally...LOVED IT. One of the best short story collections I've read in a long time.

I think this month I'm finally going to start reading "A Death in the Family" by James Agee.

I'm mostly reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Corellion recommended this to me, and it's good. It was solidly good about the first 200 pages and I got annoyed with the good, like be great or something man. Not much happens and a lot happens, but everything just seems random. I was getting bored but it really picks up about midway and it has gotten good with little pockets of great--You can tell why Stephen King likes this, the guy has a very similar way of explaining things by not explaining them at all. The story is very sad. A nigga shed a tear.

I've got the following in my queue:

Recycling Jimmy by Andy Tilley
Clocks Stopped at a Strange and Savage Hour Fulton Street by Brian Spaeth
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Barca Boy, does it bother you that O'Brien didn't finish writing Stripper Lessons, and that his sister completed it for him? This according to Wikipedia,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O'Brien_(novelist)

Thats funny because his sister actually finished the ending to The Assault at Tonys which it says at the end of the book.

Ive started The Night Country by Stewart O Nan, this writer Mirka introduced me to and Im enjoying his books.

Finishing the latest Odd Thomas by Koontz, as well as Snuff (still, I know) and a bunch of short stories by my peers.

About to finish Fools Die by Mario Puzo (finally) and then back to another back-burner book.

I just read The Art of War, starting at midnight and ending at about 2:30. I didn't realize how short it was. It was okay reading for dating back 2500 years ago.

not reading anything at the moment as Im up to my neck in school work.

The Sound and the Fury.

... which I started and finished today. What a cracking novel.

I am about half way through with "Heart Shaped Box" by Joe Hill.
After that, I am going to pick up "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Hill and "Syrup" by Max Barry.

C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters.

I just read Cormac McCarthy's Child of God in less than an hour. That was an easy read. Not emotionally, though.

Yes he did. One of my favorite books.

I decided to start reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, because I'm rocking out like it's 2003.

I read Jennifer Government by Max Barry which was ace.
Now on The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.

the road by mccarthy.

^5. I'm glad someone agrees with me on that.

I'm reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami...though I only started it because I had no other books to read. But yesterday I went to B&N and bought five books. So now I'm also reading Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey into the Heart of Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman.

Rocking like it's 2003? What a strange thought. I liked the Lovely Bones a lot, and am looking forward to seeing the movie version by Peter Jackson. I liked Sebold's first book Lucky, but you must listen to it on Audiobook since she reads it herself; it's very intense. I tried reading her third book Almost Moon, but put it down cuz it sucked. You can read a short story of hers here,

http://www.nerve.com/Fiction/Sebold/FarmBoyRiot/

alex pallix wrote:

tom9d wrote:

alex pallix wrote:

I read Jennifer Government by Max Barry which was ace.

^5. I'm glad someone agrees with me on that.

It's the first of his that I've read, I loved it so I'm adding his others to my xmas list
oh is there any you'd particularly recommend?

I liked Syrup even more than Jennifer Government, I have Company but havent got round to it yet.

Just finished Less Than Zero this morning. Not bad, however, the fact that he wrote it when he was my age makes me feel quite unaccomplished. Great read though.

500 dollars out of our tuition gets put on our Student ID, and we can use that 500 bucks in the bookstore for books and supplies. Well I only really had to buy two texts book this semester. So all semester I had tons of money in my account to spend at the bookstore, which is also a Barnes and Noble. Friday was the last day to charge things to our account using our ID and I had 50 bucks still in my account to put towards books, so I went on a bit of a book buying frenzy. If I didn't spend it it would've gone to waste so I figured hell why not.

I bought Sex, Drugs and Coco puffs.. I wanted some sort of social events, essay type book to break my recent streak of reading only fiction.

I bought House of Leaves..It was on sale, and I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. I also got Stranger Than Fiction and Mother Night by Vonnegut.

My to be read pile is getting big.. I think I may finally start Blood Meridian, or Blindness. I want to take my time on Blood Meridian and House of Leaves so.. we'll see which I read next.

alex pallix wrote:

tom9d wrote:

alex pallix wrote:

I read Jennifer Government by Max Barry which was ace.

^5. I'm glad someone agrees with me on that.

It's the first of his that I've read, I loved it so I'm adding his others to my xmas list
oh is there any you'd particularly recommend?

Well, he only has three, unfortunately. I liked all of them...so I'd recommend Syrup and Company. But of the two, I think Syrup is better.

Fox wrote:

Just finished Less Than Zero this morning. Not bad, however, the fact that he wrote it when he was my age makes me feel quite unaccomplished. Great read though.

500 dollars out of our tuition gets put on our Student ID, and we can use that 500 bucks in the bookstore for books and supplies. Well I only really had to buy two texts book this semester. So all semester I had tons of money in my account to spend at the bookstore, which is also a Barnes and Noble. Friday was the last day to charge things to our account using our ID and I had 50 bucks still in my account to put towards books, so I went on a bit of a book buying frenzy. If I didn't spend it it would've gone to waste so I figured hell why not.

I bought Sex, Drugs and Coco puffs.. I wanted some sort of social events, essay type book to break my recent streak of reading only fiction.

I bought House of Leaves..It was on sale, and I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. I also got Stranger Than Fiction and Mother Night by Vonnegut.

My to be read pile is getting big.. I think I may finally start Blood Meridian, or Blindness. I want to take my time on Blood Meridian and House of Leaves so.. we'll see which I read next.

Excellent choices. I loved Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs and House of Leaves and Mother Night and Blindness and Less Than Zero. And I've yet to read Blood Meridian, but I love Cormac McCarthy as well.

So ^5 to that whole post.

Im about to start Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Its a whopper so it should take me all week.

i have this in mass market paperback which i bought for $5 used, it's so thick the seller joked if i got bored with it, i could use it as a doorstop.

i read I AM LEGEND by richard matheson and THE BIRD IS GONE: A MANIFESTO by stephen graham jones this weekend on bus rides.
I AM LEGEND is a pretty quick, easy, and strong book. enjoyed it a lot. really, all i need is vampires and i'll read it.
THE BIRD IS GONE, my third time reading it and it gets better every time. you start to realize more and more how everything pieces together and fits just right, just perfectly.

HOW TO READ LACAN by slavoj zizek is next. should get it all read tomorrow, though ive also a lot of school to catch up on as traveling makes homework difficult. but its really about time i finish this.

I think this month I'm finally going to start reading "A Death in the Family" by James Agee.

I'm not sure if I know how to use the quote thingy, so sorry if that looks stupid.
Jane S., A Death In the Family is one of my all time favorites. I hope you like it, I know some people who absolutely hated it so I wouldn't be surprised if you do(although i know nothing of what you like in a book). Let me know what you think.
Best,

I LOVE that book! It's one of my favourite books ever, I just thought it was perfect.

I'm reading The New York Torilogy by Paul Auster and it's so good I'm actually swooning at some parts, he's amazing.

I'm only a short way in so far but I'm loving it!
And I recently read the New York Trilogy...it really is amazing.

i need to snatch something else by her. it took forever to get to talk about kevin because i had some strange taste about it. it was a different author than i'd originally thought, though. anyway. was a great fucking read.

what is the post birthday world like to you ?
thanks

.

btw purchased gulliver's travels last night and will be finishing it tonight. (can't believe i havent read it yet, that sort of thing.)
-kabol

The Post Birthday World is a really different novel to We Need To Talk About Kevin, it's like Sliding Doors, but better. So it's two novels in one, the two go chapter by chapter, so it really analyzes the two relationships and compares every choice in detail, I was just blown away by it, because you'd expect one story to be better than the other, but they both just rock. Five stars! A tour de force!

I really enjoyed her Double Fault too, even though the plots are quite 'chick-lit' at times (not that there's anything wrong with that) she delivers it in a totally different way, it's a lot more complex and cynical, she's one of my living heroes.

Yay, other Lionel Shriver fans! No-one I recommended Post-Birthday World to liked it, they found it boring, but I really loved it.

JKabol, that was me who recommended Kevin to you (not to be mistaken for Anita Shreve, ahem) - glad you got to it and enjoyed it.

The Post-Birthday World was not my favourite. I thought it was hokey, you guys! And the main character was insufferable.

I read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe on Saturday and it was delightful. I don't find myself delighted by enough things nowadays. And there were some really gross but intriguing recipes in the back of the book.

Now I don't know what to read. I've been away from the internet for too long so I don't know what's out there. I suppose I could always read The Little Friend or House of Mirth again. They're my faves!

Just finished The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

It was a very interesting book, that unfortunately comes off as how-to/self-help book at some points.

Trying to choose what to read next among the following
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea Carl Zimmer
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Douglas Adams
The Double Helix James D. Watson
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared M. Diamond
House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Mary Roach

Kind of leaning towards
Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy which you can download and read for free here

oh. my memory's shot, sorry. i wont forget again. anyway, thank you !
-kabol

..

I just read "Brideshead Revisited" recently and it made me think of "House of Mirth" a lot, although the former is English. A lot the same sort of tone, that post Victorian hanging on by a thread sort of thing.

Jane, have you read The Loved One (also by Evelyn Waugh)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loved_One

Twilight by William Gay. Southern gothic at its finest, and each page has me in awe of the man's skill for earthy description and despicably-drawn characters.

also, to the others, evelyn waugh is fucking fantastic. everything by him is very proper and english and awesome. though, i never read BRIDESHEAD as i always think of it as a similar thing as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which ive a strong distaste for. but im always willing to be wrong.

You don't like Pride and Prejudice?

Because then...we can't really be friends anymore.

I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I loved it; the little dude at the center of the story is a neurotic kid trying to make sense of his dad dying in the 9/11 attack on NYC.
The kid ain't right! and I fell in love with him!
Now I'm trying to get into A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. It's a little too dreamy and not enough IN YOUR FACE...I'm having trouble getting into it...Anybody have an opinion on it?

I really must agree, Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites.

I also love this book. I read it last year, but I'm re-reading it now for College English. I'm very excited to be reading it in class.

Right now, I'm reading:
Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

twilight. fucking dammit. i know i bought the book within the past year and each camping trip i desperately search for it, furiously, and i cant find it within my shelves. my woman must have put it in some pile someplace odd. probably drunk and looking for a spot to jam my shit outta the way. ive been fucking thursting to have that read in me. i really one of these days need to just tear the house apart until i find it. i refuse to rebuy a book ive not yet read. it may, though, come to that.

..

I must also agree, and Keira Knightley was wonderful in it. The book sucked, though. j/k

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald (read it in high school but don't remember much of it)
The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (i think that's what it's called-the second of the dark tower series-ordered it off Amazon)
and hopefully i can get to As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner