The Book Shelf

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

On the other hand, Change of Heart by Sally Mendel is one of my favorite novels. Not nearly as light as a Harlequin romance, much more real than a Danielle Steele novel. Sweet and funny, somewhat dated now in some aspects (written in late 70's). Story of a girl who grew up with a congenital heart condition; she falls in love and gets a heart transplant, and the psychological ramifications of the transplant feel dead-on accurate.

[lynnzop[$]]

Delia: I think you are thinking of another book. (19 minutes)

MJ: I know you are thinking of another book. (Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart)

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Um yeah, duh, that's why I posted it I know I am referring to another book, which is why I included the other author's name. Wormie didn't like the Change of Heart you cited, I loved the Change of Heart I cited and provided as an alternative. Sorry it wasn't clearer what I was doing.

[lynnzop[$]]

Oh the powers of The Internets to make us not understand what our friends are telling us.

[amykhar]

I'm reading The Fountainhead right now. It's a good story, but this writing is a bit heavy.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Ugh. I read that at the insistence of a coworker, it was his favorite book. What a slog. In return, he was reading Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite book). (much nicer read if you ask me.) We came to the conclusion that the philosophies put forth are amazingly similar.

[theworm[$]]

Lynn - I was thinking about the one before 19 Minutes.... I can't remember the name now....the main characters name was Delia.....It was about a woman who found out that her father kidnapped her when she was little. I didn't like it much. 19 Minutes was ok. I liked My Sister's Keeper. I'll try this one if you liked it.

[eris esoteric]

mjfrombuffalo said

Ugh. I read that at the insistence of a coworker, it was his favorite book. What a slog. In return, he was reading Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite book). (much nicer read if you ask me.) We came to the conclusion that the philosophies put forth are amazingly similar.

*blink*

*blink blink*

OK, I have to ask. Which part of the philosophies did you find similar?

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Well this was like 10 years ago, so it's all rather fuzzy now, but the whole maximizing individual human potential was part of it.

[lynnzop[$]]

theworm said

Lynn - I was thinking about the one before 19 Minutes.... I can't remember the name now....the main characters name was Delia.....It was about a woman who found out that her father kidnapped her when she was little. I didn't like it much. 19 Minutes was ok. I liked My Sister's Keeper. I'll try this one if you liked it.

Oh yeah...I did read that one recently too. Can't remember the name, didn't enjoy it all that much either. She was a search and rescue officer or something.

This one is better. There are some religious undertones (well, okay they are more like BLAM in your face) that go to the Gnostic testaments and some other stuff, but I thought it was pretty good. <---intentional use of "pretty good"

[mtbat]

I'm about 1/2 way through the Reed Farrel Coleman 'Soul Patch" -the 4th Moe Prager mystery-it's very good.

[lynnzop[$]]

Wow.

I picked up Kristy Kiernan's Matters of Faith and am nearly done with it. I'm blown away by this gal's writing. Going to go out and find her first novel after I complete this one.

[anderclayton]

emeleel said

Here's an online copy of "A Study in Emerald":

http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles...es/emerald.pdf

Warning: will probably only make sense if you are somewhat familiar with Sherlock Holmes. Helps to at least be passing familiar with the Cthulu stuff, too, but I enjoyed it very much even without having ever read any Lovecraft, just *about* Lovecraft.

I read it in the collection. Forget what the collection was called though.

Personally I pretty much love anything by Gaiman. Just read his book with Michael Reaves (forget the book name offhand--er... "Interworld"). Thought it was reasonably decent but more a kids book.
Still haven't read any Sandman stuff but hey.

Personal I've enjoyed The Dresden Files quite a bit lately. By Jim Butcher. It is a series where I've actually gone out and bought the hardcover book when it hit the shelves.

I think maybe I read something by Scalzi lately but it might have been someone else I'm thinking about

[Qed]

I picked up this new Author Tom Robb Smith. A book called "Child 44". Great writing style, fast paced story with believable characters.
Great read for sure.

I also enjoyed a WW2 era book by Neal Stephenson (of "Snow Crash" fame) called Cryptonomicon.

The last book I finished was a book I picked up in Wal-Mart of all places. William Martin "The Lost Constitution". Story covers a "lost" version of the US constitution and it's travels through to modern day.

[lynnzop[$]]

Hi Qed, welcome to the forum!

What genre is Tom Robb Smith? Sounds interesting, would like to know more about the book and the author! I am always looking for new authors to pick up.

[theworm[$]]

me too!!

[Qed]

Tom Robb Smith... He only has one book out of Fiction. This book covers a time after Russia has gone into Communism and their "perfect society". From the point of view of an investigator who is great at his job but finds himself investigating a crime which his own government says never happens.

[rmthunter]

Ooomph! Been a while since I've hit this thread. Another catch-up:

Halfway through Elizabeth Bear's new one, All the Windwracked Stars. Wow, again. Imagine pushing the three survivors of Ragnarok 2,000 years into their future in a world where sorcery and technology work together. And two of them are stalking each other. (It comes out in November -- watch for it.)

Waiting to find time to get into Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters, the new installment in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. If you're into heroic fantasy noir, Erikson's your guy. This one's just over 1200 pages, so I'm waiting until I have a stretch of time.

Happened across a fascinating book in the slush-pile rejects at work, The Natures of Maps by Denis Wood and John Fels. It's about how maps create the worlds they describe, and it's really interesting -- some foundational concepts here that apply to just about any branch of literature, as well as maps. Or any form of art, for that matter.

Other than that, it's been manga, especially yaoi, which I've been reviewing at Hunter at Random and Epinions. Among other things, it's really interesting to see how the Japanese approach graphic novels, and how the various graphic traditions -- Western comic books and Japanese woodcuts -- tend to blend together. Favorite series lately: Kazuya Minekura's Saiyuki, which originally ran 9 volumes and is now on a second series, [i]Saiyuki Reload[i]. It's a retelling of an old Chinese story, updated in bizarre and delightful ways -- such as one of the main characters, a very holy Buddhist priest, who smokes, drinks, and carries a pistol, and is usually really cranky.

Note to Ander: Butcher's series is terrific -- I think I've read them all at this point. If you like those, you'll probably enjoy Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Vampire (sort of Dashiel Hammett meets Lewis Carroll) and Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series.

[anderclayton]

rmthunter said

Note to Ander: Butcher's series is terrific -- I think I've read them all at this point. If you like those, you'll probably enjoy Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Vampire (sort of Dashiel Hammett meets Lewis Carroll) and Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series.

Sounds good. I've read some of Cook's series but don't have access to the whole thing (except through interlibrary loans). I've enjoyed other Resnick stuff in the past so I'll have to check that out too.

...and it is at this point that I wish I remembered author names/titles a bit better than I do because I've read some decent stuff in the same vein in the past few years.

Ander

[theworm[$]]

Just about done reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I highly recommend it.

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[sleeper54]

theworm said

Just about done reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I highly recommend it.

peeps at Eps like it also . . .well, a couple of them anyway.


...tom...