What is your favorite book of all time?
I can not answer this question. Watership Down, The Shining, Gone With the Wind…there are so many more. Let’s just move on.
What is the title of the last good book you read?
The Kid: what happened after my boyfriend and I decided to go get pregnant : an adoption story, by Dan Savage. Dan is a gay man who writes a sex advice column. I laughed aloud a couple of times during this one, which is unusual for me.
What book would you recommend to others?
Again, there are too many answers to this one. I’m currently pushing some James Herriot books on my daughter. I’d be happy to recommend them to anyone.
What book have you heard good things about but not yet read (if any)?
One of the books in the to-read pile that I’m especially looking forward to is When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, by George Carlin.
Dolores, I’m listening to Fannie Flagg read Welcome to the World, Baby Girl. Can’t say I’m loving the book itself, but I do look forward to hearing her voice each day. So far, your reading choices make you sound the most like me…if you haven’t read the Sweet Potato Queens books by Jill Conner Browne, I think you would like them!
Sounds like glee and I have similar tastes. We’ll have to swap reading lists. I highly recommend all three of his (her?) books (I haven’t read the Saberhagen one either). To avoid repetition, though, I’ll pick different ones:
Favorite: Time Enough For Love by Robert Heinlein, or possibly Dune by Frank Herbert. My answer changes with my mood, and I’m in a science fiction mood at the moment.
Last Good Book: Fools Crow by James Welch. It’s great historical fiction.
Book I’d Recommend: Hawks Rest by Gary Ferguson. Nature writing at its best.
(Note: Those last two titles have no apostrophes. If you search for “Fool’s Crow” or “Hawk’s Rest”, you probably won’t find them)
Heard Good Things About: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.
“The Road to Wellville” by TC Boyle: I loved this book so much that it’s one of my favorites now. I love the cast of characters and the way Boyle writes about a small part of US history.
“The Road to Wellville” by TC Boyle or “Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn
:smack: I should have looked at the profile. Of course, my daughter is heavily into roleplaying and computer games, and she’s thoroughly female…
Drop everything. Run, don’t walk, to your favorite bookstore and get Time Enough For Love. It’s a long book, so I don’t expect you to read it all tonight. Do let me know what you think of the ending, though…
Larry Niven is one of my favorite authors, including the series you’ve listed. Remember that short story, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex (subtitled "Why Superman can’t get a girl)? That created some mental images that took a while to get rid of.
I haven’t read any Saberhagen or Robert Parker. Which are the best ones to start with?
Have you read any of these?
**Science Fiction/Fantasy: **
Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series
Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series
Mystery:
John Dunning’s Janeway series (start with Booked to Die)
Isaac Asimov’s Black Widowers stories (in small doses)
What is your favorite book of all time? A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin - Alessandro Giuliani is 80 years old, he’s a professor of Aesthetics and he missed the bus. Along with an young illiterate factory worker he begins a long walk to catch it in the next town. As his none too bright companion listens raptly, our hero tells story after story of his amazing life. It’s brutal, beautiful, funny, absurd and life affirming. Just an incredible book.
What is the title of the last good book you read? The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien - written as a series of short stories, they are probably the best (most effecting) Vietnam narratives I’ve ever read (I’ve read piles of 'em, too).
What book would you recommend to others? Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. Love, obsession, murder and all sorts of fun stuff happens when a seriously batshit woman runs amuck in turn of the century Vermont. Beautifully written, completely absorbing.
What book have you heard good things about but not yet read (if any)? I’m waiting for Florence of Arabia: a novel by Christopher Buckley to come in for me at the library. I haven’t heard too much about it. I’m only hoping it’s at least half as funny as No Way to Treat a First Lady which almost killed me.
A note to anyone who hasn’t read it yet but wants to. If possible, read the books in the order they were written, not the order they take place. There’s two reasons for this-
Anne’s writing gets a lot better over time, so you’ll get to watch as her style evolves.
It’s best read this way because some of the later books take place before the bulk of the series, and some things will be mentioned that are unknown in some the the books that were written earlier but take place later. Books written after these will bring these elements back in. I started with Dragonsdawn first, then read Moreta’s Ride, and ran into this myself. I was reading the book, wondering the entire time,
“What happened to the dragonlings?”
Good series though, well worth reading. Now, on to the OP.
1)Though it’s hard for me to pin it down to one, I’ll go for the Kushiel’s Dart trilogy by Jaqueline Carey. Wow. Just wow. These books are amazing on their own merit, and to add to the wow-ness, they’re her first novels. Well-written and a very intriguing plot. And best of all, I didn’t run through them in two days, like I do with most other novels. I think it took me at least a week to get through each one. Loved them all.
Crisis at Doona by Anne McCaffrey and…someone who’s name escapes me, as does the book itself. I mainly picked it up because I absolutely love Anne McCaffrey.
stares blankly Just one? I’ll leave Anne alone for now, and say The Nine BIllion Names of God, a collection of short stories by Arthur C. Clark. Personally, I think they’re better than his novels, since he can just take an idea and write it, versus having to actually tack on all the things that make a novel worth reading.
American Gods. I’m also always looking for anything Anne McCaffrey wrote that I haven’t read yet (Are we sensing a pattern yet?)
I strongly agree. Read the original trilogy first. The second trilogy overlaps the times and events of the first, told through different eyes. I think it would lose a lot if they were read out of order. Then start in on the other books that explore the prehistory.
I forgot about The Nine BIllion Names of God. Great book! I’m also a fan of the short stories (especially Niven’s and Asimov’s), but I wouldn’t go so far as to say Clark’s short stories are better than his novels. He’s written some awesome novels. Childhood’s End is great, for example.
That book was bizarre. What genre would you put that in, anyway? Sort of fantasy/mythology/horror/alternate universe/cyberpunk?
Having just read his blow-your-mind story “The Star” this past weekend, I’d be inclined to agree with you. His stories seem to hinge on the success of a single idea rather than character or conflict. Not that I doubt the overall quality of his novels.
(Next on my plate is Asimov’s “Nightfall,” which I’ve heard referred to more than once as the greatest sci-fi story ever. No hype there, I hope!)
I think you’ve found another example where the original short story is better than the novelization. I think Nightfall was definitely one of the best short stories of all time, science fiction or otherwise.
I can’t run to mzn.c.*k :eek:
But I will indeed look out for that book.
Oh yes. Walls in Smallville riddled with tiny holes…
Well they are different genres. Saberhagen and Parker are both storytellers, but Saberhagen uses science fiction and fantasy. Try the ‘First Book of Swords’. it’s about how the Gods decide to play games by giving humans powerful magical weapons, and what effects follow.
Alernatively meet the tough PI Spenser (by Parker). He works out and is handy with a gun. But he likes cooking and is a thoughtful chap, when not clashing with violent crooks.
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Certainly Anne McCaffrey! (I also like Usrula Le Guin).
And Isaac Asimov (what a prolific author!). (Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes too).
I have read Hawking too.
I’ll make a note of the others - thanks!
What is your favorite book of all time?
To Kill a MockingBird, Lorna Doone and others as I re read them
What is the title of the last good book you read?
Incubus Dreams, by Laurell K Hamilton
What book would you recommend to others?
Anything by Anne McAffrey
of course to Kill A Mockinbird
and for lightweight fantasy… Mercedes Lackey
Sci Fi… The Way of the Pilgrim, by Gordon R. Dickson
Friday… Heinlein or anything else Heinlein
fun sci fi… Any Callahans series by Spider Robinson, the Myth Series by Robert Asprin
Romance… Any Jude Devereaux, Linda Lael Miller, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Nora Roberts or Barbara Delinsky
What book have you heard good things about but not yet read (if any)?
I can’t remember any right now
(Sadly I feel the rest of the series gets steadily worse.)