The cook thing is a little over-exposed in the books, IMHO. Every time she says: “I didn’t want to go through a lot of trouble for dinner, just threw something together and fixed a quick something” I cringe at the description of the five-course dinner that follows and ashamedly go throw a frozen pizza in my oven.
Anyway, just want to second Life of Pi which I really liked even though I picked it up thinking it was about mathematics.
That and Middlesex. I like this book so much that I don’t really want to finish it because then it’ll be over. Does this make any sense?
Book that I hated:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. (Strange coincidence: I had forgotten title as well as author and tried to enter key things I remembered into amazon: this inevitably yielded Middlesex). Quite convoluted and pretentious book. I hate it when every sentence the author produces seems to scream: “Look at me! I’m so edgy!”
I really enjoy David Sedaris’ stuff that makes it to This American Life and did enjoy a number of the essays in Me Talk Pretty - but can certainly understand people not being thrilled with it. I didn’t care for A Heartbreaking Work… as it just seemed gimicky. I’ve tried to enjoy Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything and have occasionally succeeded.
I’ve really enjoyed Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series despite not being the target audience At All.
I don’t read bestsellers much, but I just read two on a business trip and I’ve never had a more bipolar reading experience.
On the way down, I read Grisham’s “The King of Torts.” What a piece of crap. I swear, he’s getting worse. The book had no plot. It just went on for enough pages to qualify as a novel and then, stopped. The characters were slapped together from other Grisham novels. I hated it so much I just left it on the airplane. It was not worth carrying.
On the way back up I read Stephen King’s “From A Buick 8.” I was quite shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Silly story, but very well put together and well written.
Best: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay I enjoyed it. I just wish I could read the Golum graphic novel detailed within.
Enjoyed: Angels and Demons it was a fun little thriller. Good beach read.
Worst: Digital Fortress Okay, I had no idea Dan Brown had only one formula.
Worst ever: Mists of Avalon Words cannot describe how much I disliked that book. A dear friend gave it to me, and I tried to read it. I really did, but I put it down after 300 plus pages about whining about the christians and the patriarchs. Also I had no idea that the celts were so touchy-feely. I mean, weren’t these the same guys whose religion was banned by the Romans because it was too violent?
Sorry about the rant, but I really did not like that book. At all.
[QUOTE=burundi]
I don’t want to hi-jack the thread too much, but could some Irving fans explain him to me?
[QUOTE]
He definitely has talent, but sometimes he comes off as too contrived. At least he seems to have gotten the whole
(bears on bikes) + Vienna + (aerial catastrophe) + (character who has had sex only one time but became a parent [or parent figure]) = novel
formula out of his system.
What I hated about the film Cider House Rules was that it covered perhaps 4 years when the novel covered almost a century. My favorite aspect of the novel was the history of abortion since the last 19th century, though I thought the symbolism of the actual “Cider House Rules” was brilliant (and the cover of the novel- a crosscut of an apple with unmistakable ovarian imagery- was also great).
Tom Hulce (of Amadeus fame) adapted Cider House for the stage leaving absolutely nothing out; consequently the play is six hours long and has to be viewed on consecutive nights. Needless to say it’s not exactly breaking box office records. [sub-HIJACK] Speaking of gay memoirs I’d like to read his autobio, incidentally- a few years ago he was an openly gay actor and activist, now he’s married with a child, begging the query “whassup?”.[/sub-HIJACK]
To those who put down Me Talk Pretty One Day, may I suggest reading the second half of the book? It’s about Sedaris living in France and his issues with learning the language. Funny, funny stuff.
I’ve never read anything by David Sedaris that I didn’t think was hysterical so I’m probably the wrong one to give advice, but I would definitely start with either Naked or Barrel Fever to get a general intro. (I can’t remember which one has the story of his Greyhound Bus trip from North Carolina to California but ohmigod I thought I was going to wet myself (especially the dialogue from the really p.o.d black lady who’d just broken up with her boyfriend and the woman who had to say anything she saw- “Corn cribs”…“red Buick”).
In one of the above there is a fictional piece- the suicide note of a drama queen teenager- that is one of the funniest “short story” (if you can call it that) I’ve ever read. There’s also an insane rambling from a delusional gay man about his various celebrity lovers (Charlton Heston, Sean Connery, etc.) that’s great. Why the Siblings Sedaris don’t have a blank check sitcom deal is beyond me.
Okay, Sampiro…I’ll admit I’m basing my entire opinion of David Sedaris on Me Talk Pretty One Day. But you’re making me wonder if I’ve been too hasty. I have *Barrel Fever * on reserve at the library solely on the strength of your recommendation, so if I don’t like it, may the blame rest entirely upon you!
I found Sedaris’ short stories to be, well, an acquired taste. I did, finally, acquire said taste but if someone told me s/he didn’t like Barrel Fever and had no interest in trying to like it, well, I couldn’t blame her/him.
The second half of Me Talk Pretty One Day was very funny.
Worst: I have to wholeheartedly agree that The DaVinci Code was the worst book I’ve read in years. Horrible. What do people see in it? I wish I could have least learned something of the history of the whole grail thing and Da Vinci’s works but it all sounded like bullshit.
Best: Another vote for A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I don’t read a lot of ‘bestsellers’ (or maybe I do, I don’t pay attention) but I’ve been working my way through Charles Sheffield’s body of work. Great hard sci fi.
Worst: Another vote for Dreamcatcher by Stephen King - I’d been really looking forward to reading this, as people had told me that King was back on track with this one, but I hated it. Started off well, but then just kind of meandered off for most of the rest of the book.
Best:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime by Mark Haddon - had heard really good things about this, and so was really curious about it. It was absolutely brilliant, I couldn’t put it down. I have a brother with mild Aspergers, and the way that the main character has been portrayed is just spot-on.
