Reading Suggestion, Fiction

Isn't she wonderful? And I especially love the fault lines between the different perspectives :)

Thanks for the tip J Gibbs. My fav, Accidental Tourist. Great book and a good movie with William Hurt and Geena Davis.

That sounds really good. I think I know someone who might really enjoy it. I may just give it to them for Christmas.

I really like Anne Tyler. However, right now I'm struggling to get into Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. It got rave reviews so I plan to keep trying. I'll look for A Spool of Blue Thread also.

Carla, I think the rather sweet difficulty with that is that she has real trouble maintaining characters who are not basically lovely. She recently tackled an update of 'The Taming of the Shrew' - oh what was the title? grr, I'll look it up - with very enjoyable results; but the trouble is that because everyone's perspective was so well presented there weren't really any villains of the piece, and it does need some.

My own special favourite is Breathing Lessons. And The Beginner's Goodbye. And, obviously, The Accidental Tourist.

They say you should never meet your heroes, but Ms Tyler would definitely be on my fantasy dinner party list.

Oh tee hee - just giggling at the husband who always gives himself away by humming a song that says what's really on his mind, so that his wife turns on him and snaps "No I am NOT crazy!!!"

I just finished Girl on the Train. I loved it. Now working on another book by Paula Hawkins, Into the Water. This one is harder to get into.

Jeanne, will have to look for Spool of Blue Thread next. It sound as if I would enjoy it. Thank you for the recommendation.

They serialised Into The Water on Radio 4 earlier this year, Glad; and I have to say it made me want to swallow my own tongue - no idea what the heck was going on or who was who or why, why, why - ???

I toyed with the idea of getting the book to see if it would make more sense but thought of Dorothy Parker - "this book should not be tossed aside lightly, but hurled with great force."

I just ordered Daughter's architect boyfriend's Christmas present, following her instructions. She said he had spoken warmly of a big hardback book entitled: "Concrete."

Once I'd paid, the website suggested that I might also like: "Brick."

This is going to be a fun Christmas.

CM, will your next book be "lumber", or perhaps "wiring"?

I'm reading "Blessings" by Anna Quindlen. It's so sweet.

Been reading Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Quite a slog but fascinating history of US. Never knew that Jefferson was such a jerk, at least according to this author. And sure glad that dueling is now out of fashion. That’s all men got done in those days! How they made a hit broadway play from this escapes me.

If anyone enjoys light mysteries and dogs, David Rosenfelt is my new favorite author. Not too gory or too complex and always a dog involved. He's written a bunch of books. I always read right before bed.

Everyone should read Dorothy Sayers mysteries. Good for the soul.

CM, same here, I just cannot figure out who is who. I may feel like getting some concrete and bricks by the time I am done with Into the Water. ;)

GA, there are indeed half a dozen companion volumes, but sadly not anything like Rococo Ceilings or Comfy Chairs. Still! - it's good to know that if the relationship lasts (God willing - this boyfriend seems a nice lad) I'm all set for further present ideas.

That is a brilliant USP Blannie! - undemanding mysteries with added dog for reassurance and comic/touching moments. Sounds perfect.

The late Alan Coren was lectured by his publisher on how to improve his sales. "Put a cat in the title. Golf, obviously, everyone likes golf. Or anything about the Nazis."

You can see the results on Amazon under "Golfing For Cats."

Eenie meanie miney Moe, what should I next read first? These sorts a decisions are supposed hard. So many books, so little time.😉

Ooh, a book thread, Following... :-)

The original topic of a fictional work about caregiving dynamics sounds very interesting, Jeanne.  

I have recently began reading the “Outlander” series of books by Diana Gabaldon. Finished the first, now have “Dragonfly in Amber” to begin.
Not sure if I will make it through the series of 7 soon to be 8 books. While I do enjoy it, the author uses too many words.
I’m like - “get to the point already!” . But read this second one I shall.
I love the Patricia Cornwall books to on Kay Scarpetta. I love forensic science and her books move through the storyline quickly.

I loved the early Scarpetta books too Shane and reread them multiple times, but it seems to me that somewhere along the way Ms Cornwall started to dislike her ties to this series and the writing changed.

Thanks for all the great reading suggestions.

Just ordered a Spool of Blue Thread! It will be next. Thank you for the recommendation, Jeanne.

This is really a fun thread. It's great to get new book recommendations from people I already know I have something in common with.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but since becoming a caregiver I seem to see caregiving themes in everything I read. The author of "A Box of Darkness" went to visit her mother in a nursing home shortly after becoming widowed, and her mother actually forgot that her daughter's husband had died and absently passed on her greetings to him as her daughter was leaving. That would be my mother, who forgot that one of my sisters had colon cancer. The author of The Geography of Love was caring for her husband through lung cancer, when her mother had a health crisis and her out-of-town sister tried to drop the old lady off on the author's doorstep after she was released from the hospital. Wow! (The author refused to take her but said she'd stop at her mother's house daily to see to her needs.)

I recently finished Home is Burning, written by a young man whose mother was sick with cancer when his father was diagnosed with ALS. This kid was a year out of college and had just started progressing in a career and a relationship with a woman he wanted to marry, and his mother demanded that he and his younger brother drop everything to come home and care for their father for an indefinite period of time. "It's time for you kids to step up and give something back," or words to that effect. The young guy was immediately drafted, over his objections, into helping his father in the shower and in the bathroom. Sheesh! Sometimes I want to scream at total strangers, but it's always interesting to see how other people (fictional or real) respond to the challenges of illness and disability in the family.

Hi jeannegibbs,

I just downloaded the audiobook "A Spool of Blue Thread" I just now started listening to it. Thank you for suggesting it :).

I don't know if I could read a novel on caregiving; it might just be too depressing for me at this stage of our journey. I'm having enough trouble balancing challenges.

I have found the Chicken Soup nonfiction books inspiring though. I have almost the entire series, and have read some several times. The Ocean one is particularly appealing as it addresses bonds created by humans with ocean creatures. It's very heartwarming, and makes me wonder, as I have often, how much we really could communicate if we tried (as people who work with marine animals do). It's also inspiring to contemplate the relationship we have with living beings that aren't humans, i.e., whether it's a dominant or more equal relationship.

For fiction, subjects range, depending on mood. I've always found Margaret Truman's "Murder in/on....(insert name of place)" to be a good read. I have (I believe) the entire series and have read most of them twice. It's interesting to see how her writing expanded and became more sophisticated as she herself became more experienced.

Now I'm on a Clive Cussler kick. His novels are action oriented, move quickly, and are completely engrossing, even if they are variations of a common theme. However, they're researched well and seem to be grounded in scientific and engineering basics. History is always a focus around which the plot revolves, and, like the James Bond movies, there's an international villain trying in one way or another to build an empire for himself.

The Romanov Prophecy was one that was particularly intriguing. It's steeped in the history of the Revolution and the ensuing events, unsettling, but a reminder of country wide suppression as well as a pivotal event in the evolution (or tyranny, in this case) of a nation.

Sometimes I'll read a legal novel, such as Scott Turow's works. When I'm in a military mood, it's Stephen Coonts, who has an extensive knowledge of aviation and reflects it in his fast moving novels.

Today, however, I'm in a mood to just thumb through gardening and holiday magazines and plan complicated knot gardens which I probably will never have the stamina to create, or imagine lovely holiday decorations which probably will never get made b/c I can't find my supplies amidst boxes and boxes of material which I also probably will never get to use for quilts.

Alas, dreaming about gardens and decorations is a major part of my life.

I've been skimming more of the discussion posts which have long histories and have found that I've been missing discussions on art, animals, literature and a lot more. The combination of art and literature reminded me of a very creative fiction series I read sometime ago.

It was titled Griffin and Sabine, was extremely allegorical, and written as 6 separate sequential episodes. The "plot" and action were via letters, complete with envelopes, in magnificently and creatively styled art as background or complements.

Has anyone else been captivated by this very unique and creative writing style?

Epistolary, with accessories! Sounds brilliant, I shall run and look it up :)

Hm. "The author says the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats influenced the book."

So did 84 Charing Cross Road by the sound of it... But it still sounds extremely intriguing.

Has anyone had more luck than I've had with 'The Master and Margarita'? It's been sending me off to sleep helpfully for weeks, and it's due back at the library tomorrow, and I can't face renewing it, so I just skimmed the epilogue to see if it would make more sense if I read it again. I suspect this edition might be suffering from pretty feeble translation - the kind of clunks that I used to try to iron out of my schoolchild efforts - but even making allowances... Uh? What?

There are too many books out there to waste time slogging through something that doesn't make sense, I don't care how many glowing reviews it has. Sometimes I wonder what the editor thinking, why allow multiple characters with similar names? Why entire chapters that don't seem to lend anything to the plot? And as for fantasy series, if Tolkien could get it done brilliantly in three books why oh why do so many feel the need to ramble on for five, seven, more?

After reading lots of Veronica's posts, I found in my bookshelf a set of old books by Elswyth Thane. I forgot how much I loved them. It was Veronica talking about nursing when patients were in wards and jolly old England that reminded me of these. But Girl on a train was good too! And Tolkien books were childhood friends too. I love all these suggestions because I love to read anything!