Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: The Jade Knight 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.
-
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!
-
/me strangles Jane Eyre
-
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.
-
oh, you just don't know what I can do to strangle fictional characters. Why must you be so literal?
-
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.
-
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
-
/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.
-
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.
-
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'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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Last 12 Months?
Easily the final Dark Tower novel.
More recently? The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine.
-
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?
-
I've said too much. Now I must summon the monkeys.
-
*Master_Gopher waits in breathless anticipation for the advent of the monkeys*
-
*Archon waits with cocked pistol for monkeys.
-
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. Very hard to read if you don't like reading about war camps and all that stuff. But a worthy book, especially if you've seen the movie.
-
Empire of the Sun gets my vote as the worst book ever. And the movie as the worst movie ever. I had to read it in high school.
-
Well of course you're going to hate the book if someone - namely, teachers - force you to read it. You hate the book before you've even finished the first chapter!
-
I am freakin' out: one of my almost-favourite books is going to be force-fed to me later this year in English (The Great Gatsby). Thank goodness I have already read it many times and my first impressions won't be trampled, at least.
-
See, I loved 80% of the books I was forced to read.
-
Now, the thing I liked most about the release of the 'I, Robot' movie was the fact the it's now easier to buy Asimov's books again.
I finished reading the second book in the Foudnation series Foundation & Empire...I never stop liking his work. I liked this one especially because I was able to figure out who the villain was, and usually I'm not able to do that, so that made it extra special for me XD
-
See, I loved 80% of the books I was forced to read.
Didn't say I didn't love any of them. I do, many. It's just what happens to them when put through the English Class Filter.
-
Carribian
James Mitchner
Picked it up after my Honeymoon in Cancun. When I was down there I found myself more intrested in the Mayan Ruins and the interior of the Yucatan, than by the famous Cancun Party Scene.
One of my favorite memories of the trip was climbing the Pyramid at Ek Balam, and wandering the ruins of Tulum. Then I read Carribian, and part of it took me down the same path through Tulum, from the beach where I wet my feet, to the NW Gate of the City, only 800 years ago. It was a breathtaking read in that light.
Also, I'll never look at a bottle of Capt Morgan again. The real Capt Morgan was a right sod-off Basturd
-
Schott's original miscellany by ben schott.
especially enjoyable as a provider of completely useless information; how else would you discover a group of priests is called a 'pontification of priests'... aside from reading that just now.
-
welcome to the forums, cragum, be sure to read the FAQ (http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1080380396) and introduce yourself (http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1051196804)
-
I really liked The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
It was amazing how emotionally caught up in it I was. The horrors of the reign of terror were more real than I've ever thought of them before -- I mean, you don't really get the same impression from the Scaret Pimpernel.
And the ending -- I predicted what was going to happen from the first moment the twin characters were introduced, but when it came, even though I was expecting it, it brought tears to my eyes, and a feeling like there is some good in the world after all.
I'd highly recommend it.