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Author Topic: What's the best thing you've read in a year?  (Read 4500 times)

The Jade Knight

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What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« on: March 31, 2005, 02:54:34 PM »
Similar to the "What are you reading" threads, the idea behind this one is to provide a bit more of a focus on what you liked, and maybe help people find the best stuff to read.  At least in theory.


At any rate, in my case, the best thing I've read last year I would probably say is My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.  I rather enjoyed the book and way Potok depicts the struggle of a young writer.

Even though it's not Fantasy, it beats out the Wheel of Time stuff I've been reading.
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Jelly_Belly

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2005, 03:00:45 PM »
I don't think you're going to like this, but the best thing I have read in 2005 is Jane Eyre. It was so good. I was very surprised cause I read Emily Bronte's book (the author's sister) and it was just stupid and horrible, but I really liked Jane Eyre. It was a great girly book and I thought that the writing was better than Jane Austin.

Guess if you don't like my answer than you shouldn't have asked!
« Last Edit: March 31, 2005, 03:03:52 PM by Jelly_Belly »
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2005, 03:02:14 PM »
/me strangles Jane Eyre
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Jelly_Belly

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2005, 03:05:33 PM »
I'd like to see that since not only does she not exist, but if she had she would be dead for like 175 years!

But nice try anyway.
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2005, 03:07:26 PM »
oh, you just don't know what I can do to strangle fictional characters. Why must you be so literal?
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Archon

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2005, 03:20:55 PM »
I would have to say Dragons of Summer Flame by Weis and Hickman. I thought that this book did a good job at laying out a complex plot, and bringing it together in the end, making for a very exciting book.
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Jelly_Belly

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2005, 03:41:53 PM »
Quote
oh, you just don't know what I can do to strangle fictional characters. Why must you be so literal?



Mostly because I'm an editor by trade trained to looked for literal-ness so I can spot misplaced and dangling modifiers and also because I enjoy annoying you.

:D
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2005, 03:57:00 PM »
/me puts Jelly Belly on his ignore list

It's a very short list for this forum now. Most people who were once on it, Gorgon, Archon, et al, have managed to get off it by impressing me.
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Skar

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2005, 04:44:40 PM »
Flyboys by James Bradley.
Very balanced, very well researched, engagingly written.  Historical, focusing on the role and deeds of American pilots in the Pacific theatre of WWII.

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.
Popular Science. Excellent intro to General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, why they don't agree, and how Physicists are trying to reconcile the two.

Buddha's Child by Nguyen Cao Ky and Marvin Wolf.
Biographical. Ky started the VietNam war as an officer and pilot in the S. VietNamese Air Force, became the prime minister of S. VietNam and ended the war as the vice prime minister.  Totally fascinating look at the war from his perspective.  If you have swallowed the view of that war that the American mainstream press and Hollywood has been promulgating for so long and are comfortable with it, don't read this book.
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Jelly_Belly

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2005, 04:50:53 PM »
I also read a really great book called "Kite Runners" which was on the best sellers list. It is an historical fiction that depicts a boy growing up in Afghanistan and how the war affected his family. It has amazing writing and really made me understand what it was like for this boy. It has a lot of emotion--not something to read when you want to just curl up and enter another world, but very good and worth the effort.
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Mistress of Darkness

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2005, 05:03:33 PM »
I'd have to say Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. It had a Romantic (as in the Romantic period of literature) feel to it that I loved.
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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2005, 05:41:34 PM »
Quote
I also read a really great book called "Kite Runners" which was on the best sellers list. It is an historical fiction that depicts a boy growing up in Afghanistan and how the war affected his family. It has amazing writing and really made me understand what it was like for this boy. It has a lot of emotion--not something to read when you want to just curl up and enter another world, but very good and worth the effort.


I was supposed to have read this a few weeks ago for my YA class, but didn't find it till a week after the class in which we discussed it, and now have no time to make it up. So it sits on my shelf. But I intend to read it.

(And for the literal-minded, it's The Kite Runner. :D)

I liked Rose Daughter well enough, but I still think Beauty was a better version. Robin McKinley really didn't have to improve upon it, though it's an intriguing idea to rewrite yourself 20 years later. What really annoys me every time, however, is that the name of one of the sisters in Rose Daughter is the name of the HORSE in Beauty. Which confused me no end coming back to it and trying to refresh myself on it for a paper, because I thought I'd written about RD when I'd actually written about Beauty.
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Sigyn

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2005, 07:18:21 PM »
Maybe not the best thing I've read this year, but the most enjoyable new author I've found would be Jonathan Stroud.  He wrote "Amulet of Samarkand" and "Golem's Eye" which have an interesting demon protagonist and a boy wizard who could be good if he just had the right influences.

I loved "Asher Lev", disliked "Jane Eyre", hated "Rose daughter", and haven't read the rest.
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fuzzyoctopus

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2005, 09:48:54 PM »
Last 12 Months?

Easily the final Dark Tower novel.

More recently?  The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine.
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Archon

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Re: What's the best thing you've read in a year?
« Reply #14 on: March 31, 2005, 10:14:40 PM »
Quote
Most people who were once on it, Gorgon, Archon, et al, have managed to get off it by impressing me.

I got off that list? When did this happen?
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