Originally Posted By MissCandice I just finished "Gone" by Johnathan Kellerman. Next up is "Little Earthquakes" by Jennifer Weiner.
Originally Posted By eww4 The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein. It's been a while since I last read it, and I'm getting ready for my yearly Lord Of The Rings read.
Originally Posted By MissCandice Alex, it was okay. Better than some of his, worse than others. He has been hit or miss for years now but yet I read every one of his Dr Deleware books.
Originally Posted By PlainoLJoe currently reading Conn Iggulden Emperor: The Death of Kings book 2 in the Emperor series. GOod stuff about Ceaser.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Now that I work at a bookstore and have trime occasionally to read (when I'm not writing) I've started to read a few comedy-mysteries. Curretnly (because I used to love his newspaper columns) I'm reading Dave Barry's "Tricky Business." What a hoot. Non-fiction-wise, I just finished Bernard Goldberg's "Bias" and "Arrogance" books. Hard to argue with his examples of news media bias.
Originally Posted By jasmine7 The Kitchen's God Wife by Amy Tan. She's one of my all-time favorite authors, and I'm not sure why I haven't read this one before. It's the only I haven't read, and it's very good so far.
Originally Posted By Mary Poppins I just finished "The Glass Lake" by Maeve Binchy. Set in 1950's Ireland, it is about a beautiful woman who abandons her family for her long-lost lover. Nowadays, people have joint custody but in those days it was unheard of.
Originally Posted By alexbook Just finishing "Shutter Island." Very good, very twisted. About to start "Adverbs," by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. (This is *not* part of the Series of Unfortunate Events and is not recommended for children.)
Originally Posted By Tinkerbell819 JohnS, is "Tricky Business" the book about the gambling/cruise ship that takes place in FL? That book was laugh out loud funny! (I love Dave Barry!)
Originally Posted By MissCandice As soon as I finish my Entertainment Weekly magazine I will start "The Ice Storm" by Rick Moody.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Tink - yes, that's the book. I love Dave Barry too. I also feel a particular bond with him because I won a national contest he once held related to his column. He asked for readers to list tax tips for paying less to the IRS. My tip was that taxpayers should take to heart the IRS recommedation to "round off" the amounts you list regarding income. "For example," I wrote, "I make $35,867 a year and dutifully round it off each year to $30,000." I also got to meet him when he came to the university I worked for to give a talk.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Here's a question which sort of ties in to this topic (and will no doubt make me seem very antiquated and prudish and thin skinned) but do any of you older people out there (40s and 50s) agree with me that popular fiction books have become increasingly crass? I finished the Dave Barry book I referred to a few posts back, and while I enjoyed the typical Barry brand of humor, I was somewhat disheartened that not only the villains of the stories, but the "heroes" such as they were, cussed continuously, initiated all sorts of violent acts and participated in all manner of premarital, extramarital and post-marital (is that a word?) sex throughout the book. And this was Dave Barry, for crying out loud. Then I started a book by Carl Hiassen (sp) which my 24-year-old daughter recommended. More of the same, swear words, crude behavior, sex every few pages and a decent plot, but emphasis throughout on the seamy side of life. Is it just the mystery genre that dwells on these aspects of life? I fear not, because I work in a book store now, and can't believe the stuff I read in Harlequin romances bought by 80-year-old grandmothers. I try to skim through a number of different types of books from Nora Roberts to Clive Cussler to Maeve Binchy because I'm am making an attempt to become knowledgeable as to contemporary authors precisely because I DO work in a bookstore (and because I have some story ideas of my own and like to see what's already out there). But I have continued to be disheartened at the crassness of so much fiction out there. I used to put people on a pedestal if they were avid readers rather than TV watchers, but now I see that there is crap out there in books just as there is on TV. Or am I just living in the past and expecting contemporary fiction to rise to the level of 19th century authors such as Bronte and Austen and Hardy and Dickens and Twain and Hemingway and Steinbeck, et al?
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Well JS1, I think it's nice that you have "classic standards" so to speak. There can be fascinating, terrific, beautiful works of writing out there without resorting to cursing, "for the sake of it" sex, and violence. I'm a little lost on "post-marital sex" though...is this sex after a broken marriage, or what?
