Denne meldingen har blitt slettet av forfatteren.
Welcome! Nice list.
If you liked
The Woman in White, you may want to take a look at
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, about a real Victorian detective that was one of Wilkie's inspirations. Also, Dan Simmons recently published
Drood, an imagining of the relationship between Collins and Charles Dickens with a little weirdness thrown in.
You can definitely tell that I am trying to do the 1001 before you die as well can't you :)
Will look out for The Suspicions - I am really enjoying the Victorian/Gothic stuff.
Welcome to the group!
Thank you. :)
I really enjoyed it! Do you like gothic novels? It's most definitely one. It's narrated from various different view points which makes it a really interesting read and, I found, a quick one.
A friend keeps recommending
the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins which is also in this genre so I htink that is inching to the top of my TBR pile.
Just started to read more Gothic titles but only dipped my toe in with books like Frankenstein/Jekyll & Hyde but would like to read more.
The Moonstone looks really interesting can't wait to see what you think.
12)
Age of Innocence. This was my first Edith Wharton and I will totally be reading more. After the first few chapters I did feel a little bored by it - but then you just end up totally enthralled and wrapped up in her world. I love her language - it has a lightness to it which made this one of the easiest reads I have had in a long time, and yet there is an overwhelming emotion to her writing which you feel all through the novel. I also loved it's representation of the society at the time - many describe the plot as the introduction of a scandalous woman into the New York society, and whilst it never actually denounces the society, reading from our time and our perspective, Archer and Ellen pretty much get all my sympathy.
FYI - apologies if anyone is bugged by my duplicating - this is the same review that I posted on my 1001 progress list.
Agnes Grey and Dragonharper by Anne and Todd McCaffrey (the touchstone on this brings up random things).
Does anyone else feel like the new Pern books are just not as good as the old ones. Sigh.
Oh and Agnes Grey - very enjoyable and full of morals to learn and grow from.
So that's 13 + 14.... and it's June! I should be halfway through! There is so no way I'm going to make this...
#11: I have not read
Agnes Grey, so I will add that on to Planet TBR. Thanks for the recommendation!
BTW - Do not worry over much about the numbers. We have several people who go above and below 75. We just enjoy the group!
Add my nod for
The Moonstone, told by four of the participants in the story. There are a couple of British television productions of the story which are fun to watch as well--one which was seriously abridged for filming, and one which was not. I haven't made it to
The Woman in White, but it's on my list. It's also very nice to find another person who actually admits that the 1001 (or 1284) list is a source of reading materials--LOL!
Aww, yay,
Pippi Longstocking! I was so obsessed with that book when I was 8 or 9. I wanted to own a horse so it could live on my porch.
Interestingly, my mother doesn't even really remember this book, though she's the one who read it to me. Funny what gets remembered and what gets forgotten. (end quasi-poetic introspection)
I'll admit I am looking forward to reading this to my daughter in a few years!
#8
The Moonstone is also on my tbr list for this year. I started it last year and was enjoying it but got sidetracked.
#15
Uncle Tom's Cabin. What can I say...towards the end I just started crying! It didn't have exactly the ending I expected - I fully expected a happy ending. I really should have realised that this would work against the whole anti-slavery motif if it had all ended in hugs and puppies. My main issues with the novel mainly stem from reading it as an Agnostic when it is a heavilly Christian novel - and that side of it I did find heavy going.
Still, definitely one I'd recommend.
#16 -
Ethan Frome - just so so so very very depressing...
Nice reading!
About 20 hours travel time in addition to normal reading, definitely boosts my total...
#22 -
Silas Marner - starts out so amazingly depressing... and ends in quite a lovely place. Made me smile anyway, but then I always am a sap for a happy ending.
#23
Summer - Edith Wharton
I so love Edith Wharton.... I am fast becoming addicted to her work. It just has that slosh of humanity in that makes it so very appealing.
I decided to go for a couple of shorties:
#25
Siddhartha - at the start of this I was really not getting it. I just thought it was going to be a dull wade through it kinda book. It's so not - I'd highly suggest it to anyone who's in a philosophical mood, or if you're feeling sad at all. The peace and beauty of the later sections is wonderful.
#26
A Modest Proposal by Swift - bravo! It is very short - it is in fact just an essay rather than a novel. And it's great - for once I find his satire entertaining rather than .... I don't know. I've read Gulliver's Travels and just felt let down, and I keep trying Tale of a Tub to no avail. This (maybe due to its brevity) was delicious.
There is no way I'm finishing 75 this year... unless i can count the picture books I read to my daughter? :)
Count whatever you like!
Hmmmm will have to see how desperate I get by the end of the year!
#27
The Pit and the Pendulum .... Now I knew Poe was odd but still...
Yeah, that's a strange one. I suspect absinthe may have been imbibed during the writing! 8^}
Yup absinthe and quite possibly some mescaline...
Oh, another fan of
A Modest Proposal--I literally gasped when I initially read the "proposal" and then just laughed at the sheer audacity of Swift. Glad you enjoyed the tale.
#32 It's brilliant isn't it! You're just reading along and then suddenly have to do a complete double take!
#34 So glad it's not just me on
Tale of a Tub! I just cannot get going on it! It sucks!
*sigh*
28
The Fall of the House of Usher - entertaining, gothic, poetic and short.
What more can you want to fill your time between reviewing securitisation transactional documentation!
Denne beskjeden har blitt redigert av forfatteren, sep 25, 2009, 10:29am.
29
The Purloined Letter and
30 - yet another Edith Wharton
The Glimpses of the Moon.
Loved the Edith Wharton - for once a happy ending.... kinda. I won't ruin it more! Either way it's all about marriage and I think maybe should only be read if you're in a happy marriage/relationship. Not sure it would go down well otherwise!
The Poe... it was over before I felt it had even gotten started. I had to go back over it again to try and understand why and what the whole point of it is... I think a second reading did it though! I now really want to go dig out the other ones with the detective and read those. There's something very addictive about Poe that I'm discovering at the moment.
#31
Veronika decides to die - Paulo Coelho
#31 The Outsider - Albert Camus
Highly recommend both of these - I've been feeling very philosophical lately and each of these has its own take on the way we think and feel about things - and indeed about how society dictates that we should think and feel about things.
#32
The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne
Honestly just don't do it. All I can say is that if I wasn't so determined to give the 1001 to read before you die (or 1281 or whatever it is now) a good shot I would have thrown this out the window 2 pages in. And miraculously? It doesn't get any better. No, no no, no, no!
#33
The Silver Mage - Katherine Kerr
Love it! But then that pretty much goes for Kerr's Deverry series in one big addictive heap. I will say that it just kinda ends - no huge battle etc which I was expecting. But then I guess that's the whole point - to reach a place where she could happily stop, rather than anywhere final. Either way, loved it and very sad that it's the last Deverry novel.
Okay - I need some short but good book recommendations please! 42 to go in 2 months... plus husband, job and toddler.
Yeah, it's just not going to happen. Clean slate next year.
Sorry you did not enjoy
The Scarlet Letter more. It is one of my personal favorites.
As far as the 75 books, do not worry about it. Just give it another shot next year and enjoy the remainder of this one!
Concentrate on the good. Better to read a few good ones than 42 short yucky ones--the numbers aren't worth it!
So true - though Scarlet Letter was pretty yucky...
Sorry alcottacre - just really hated it!
Nearly done on
Amsterdam though. But also started
On Human Bondage and I think that may take me a while...
#34
AmsterdamI'm really not in love with McEwan. Sigh. It's easy reading but has more to it than usual easy reading, yet I constantly fail to be blown away by his novels.
I did like the end of this though... I won't spoil it for anyone, though it is fairly obvious where it's heading from halfway through. What exactly happens though is quite startling.
Denne beskjeden har blitt redigert av forfatteren, nov 10, 2009, 3:31am.
#45: I have never read that one by McEwan, so I cannot comment on it. I have read
On Chesil Beach, which to me, was OK, but nothing earth-shattering. I really liked his
Saturday, one of my memorable reads for last year, but
The Child in Time was not up to that standard.
I have authors, who despite wonderful reviews from other people, just do not work for me. Sounds like McEwan is that way for you. Luckily, you have a bunch of others to choose from!
35
Turn Coat - Jim Butcher.
I do so enjoy these...
(tilbake til toppen)
