I read Duma Key on Saturday. It was so much better than the last few things he’s had out! I had a bad moment while reading it late Saturday night. It was just at the point where they had gone to investigate the old house. They saw Charley…and my light went out. (I was using the living room lamp, which is on a timer). I had to scurry to get to a light switch before my imagination got the better of me! I’m so glad Steve’s back on his game.
Next up: Pride and Prejudice.
I just checked Stardust out from the library. I saw the movie over break and I wanted to see if the book was as good.
To be honest, I’m a little afraid to read it. Most of the Gaiman fans I’ve run across are…frighteningly rabid. No one is good enough to justify that level of hysteria.
I liked Stardust. I’ve read just one other Gaiman. It didn’t make me rabid, so my expectations weren’t real high. I thought it was charming.
In Duma Key, the main character mentions a favorite painting – Hailstorm by Thomas Hart Benton.
I love Benton, so I looked it up. Turns out Hailstorm is one I own (a print, not the painting). I never knew the title.
I bought it years ago, in Seattle, at Elliott Bay Bookstore (when they sold prints) and had it matted and framed. It was my first splurge in many years, and my first art print. I must have gotten a pay raise or something.
Just a bit of fan geekery, or whatever it’s called when someone you like likes something you like.
I’ve enjoyed Gaiman okay, though I thought Coraline was overpraised and Gaiman does have a couple of plot and character points he overuses.
I haven’t been all that impressed with Gaiman. I just read Anansi Boys and liked it the most of the books I’ve read (others were Coraline and Stardust). I don’t think he’s bad, he just doesn’t click with me.
I like *Anansi Boys * and American Gods (the first I read), thought Neverwhere was okay even if it got dull, and read Coraline in an airport, where it passed the time well enough. But now I’m sick of Gaiman for maybe a year.
Well said. I loved Neverwhere when I first read it, a few years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed American Gods when it came out, and Stardust as well.
I was super-hyped to enjoy Coraline when it was published, but was disappointed. Mirror Mask was unwatchable. Anansi Boys was the biggest disappointment, to me. It was self-consciously cute and read like a dumbed-down urban fantasy. It felt like he was pandering to the masses rather than writing from his roots. I thought he could have been less smug and a little more edgy in how he told the story - more Gaimanesque.
I don’t like Gaiman-lite so much. Now I’m sick of Gaiman for maybe a year or more.
I am on a nonfiction binge. I am reading two books - Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy and *The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. * I plan to read *Blackwater *next. I am starting to feel drained by the politics, so I will be switching to fiction.
Jeffrey Eugenides and Ken Follett are at top of my list. My Husband started Pillars of the Earth, so I’ll inherit it after him. We also have World without End.
Pillars of the Earth is wonderful, you’re in for a real treat there, unconventional.
I’ve read most of Gaiman’s books and personally think he’s a so-so writer. I enjoyed American Gods but thought Neverwhere was weak, and Anansi boys was okay but not anything to write home about. I haven’t been tempted to pick up any of this other works.
I am half way through The Dark River. I would be 2/3 through but had to work very late last night and only read for about 10 minutes before hitting the bed. I am enjoying it, but oddly, I liked it more before I realized that the author really believes what he is saying about The Vast Machine and living “off the grid.”
I have started Sung In Blood by Glen Cook. It is one of his early ones before he became moderately successful. I’m enjoying it so far, but am only a few pages into it.
Cool!
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are two authors that I’ve been very leery of picking up because of the fans. I mention I like fantasy around the wrong people and they perk up and ask me if I’ve read either of those authors. I read part of a Discworld book, didn’t like it and put it down. My only exposure to Gaiman has been watching Stardust. I say this and all of a sudden I have mountains of Discworld/Sandman/“Good Omens” offered to me. I say no, they say “why?”, and I run away. No good can come of answering that question.
I like Charles de Lint for urban fantasy. He has a neat trick of melding Celtic and Native American mythologies.
This is an excellent series. ( Well, I stalled on book 6. Not because of the writing, but life got too busy.)
I’ve been reading The Female Brain. How hormones effect/affect our brains.
Prep. By Curtis Something. Very engaging read. 3/4 into it now.
Finished Paul Theroux’s Pillars of Hercules, which described a trip I’ve always wanted to take – clockwise around the Mediterranean, starting in Gibraltar. Not his best work, interesting in spots – good enough that I loaned it to a friend who saw me reading it, though, rather than telling him “no, don’t bother.”
Went to a party a few weeks ago and had a “whatcha reading” conversation with my brother’s college roommate, who recommended Route 66 A.D., about Mediterranean tourism for ancient Romans – seemed serendipitous, so I found a copy and have just started it. So far I’m liking it, but I’m only a couple of chapters in.
I’ve decided to go back and read (or re-read) all of Dickens. I find it baffling, but I can’t remember which I’ve read and which I haven’t.
My brain is a squishy pudding!
Recently finished Bridge of Birds which was just RIDICULOUSLY good (and very funny). That was an extremely quick read, though.
I’m still plodding through Crime and Punishment (am 75% done) which is good, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re going to pick it up, try for the newer, more expensive translations. I definitely like Dostoevsky enough to move on to “Brothers Karamazov” but I think I’m going to go for the updated translations rather than relying on the old Constance Garnett ones (which are competent but all the scamazon reviewers are saying the language sounds better in the newer updates).
But most likely I’m going to space C & P and BK with some Dickens and Twain, looking like Our Mutual Friend and some travel writing. Also want to squeeze some “Cloud Atlas” in there too.
That sounded very familiar to me, so I went out to Amazon and read the synopsis. *That *sounded familiar as well, but I still can’t tell whether I have read it or not - so I put it in the queue. It sounds good.
I’m really surprised he’s not more famous, or that this book hasn’t been made into a movie yet. sigh
Apparently there are sequels.
I just finished reading Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night (dated by so well-written) and, after finishing the current issue of The New Yorker, will be starting There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975, by Jason Sokol, inspired by recent Huckabee/Southern Pride discussions here at the Straight Dope.
