I just finished Homer Hickam Jr.'s excellent 3 book memoir on his time in Coalwood, WV during the 1950s. The first book, The Rocket Boys, was made into a movie entitled October Sky.
Hickam's character desscriptions are vivid and the reader is transported into his high school world.
My favorite thing about the book and series is the author was able to actually do something that I think we all want to--reconnect with his childhood so that the events, people, sights, and smells that made him who he became are cherished by many and not forgotten.
Jury is still out. Interesting concept but this one is a bit too 'out there' even for me. Mechanical walking weapons I can swallow. Floating whales covered in messenger lizards... not so much.
I'm with Wendy! I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
I'm loving how you switch from three character's 1st person and how you learn things about them through the other's eyes that they don't see about themselves.
Read this one!! (Actually, I'll send it to you via the parentals once I'm done : )
It's not as funny as I'd hoped, given the recommendations I received for it. Still, it's amusing, with the odd very funny bit, and the characterisation is very good. :)
I'm taking a break. I just finished Help by Kathryn Stockett about a week ago. I usually take a couple weeks off between. Help was like taking my state and rewinding it fifty years, seeing the world in which my parents grew up, and understanding it a little bit more.
I just came from the library with a new memoir called The Journal Keeper by Phyllis Theroux. I haven't started it yet, but it's apparently the story of six years of her life, written as a double narrative of her writing life combined with her midlife experiences.
I'm taking a break from fiction as I work on my own edits. But I do have two non-fics going: The Marriage Project and Parenting Gifted Kids. They're good, but I enjoy stuff like that so much less than a novel.
Between beta reading my own revisions, it's hard to find time for a book. But my friend just lent me "Wicked Lovely" and I'm enjoying it so far (not 1000% but enough to want to read more.)
I'm currently reading an ARC from my publisher. As i'll be reviewing it soon. It's good though, really good! I'm just having a hard time remembering to read. Can't tell if it's because I'm prego and get uncomfortable all the time, or if I've just been writing so much I can't concentrate long enough to read anymore. LOL! Awful, aren't i?
What I love about it is Francine takes fascinating Biblical characters whose lives have been shrouded in mystery and gives us a glimpse... Find out for yourself!
I'm reading 'Sharp North', by Patrick Cave. I started it about 3 months ago, and I'm about 2 chapters in, because I am a very slow reader. Patrick is a friend of mine, so I really out to finish it (actually, he is my barman in my local pub, so I really do not see why I should finish it).
Currently reading two: Timothy Keller's The Reason for God and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
On Keller: I like the straightforward way Keller writes. Easy to understand. He takes both arguments into account and provides evidence for his argument.
On Potato Peel: I usually am not a fan of epistolary novels. But the characters in this one are very engaging, so I definitely plan to finish it!
Just finished Kell Hollingsworth's "Soup in the City," and then actually had soup with her...in the city...yesterday at a lovely lunch/meeting. Great read, fun, fast, loved it.
As usual I've got more than one on the go. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott - love, love, loving it! And I've just started Susan Albert's Work of Her Own.
Dear Janna, I have been reading on and off the "Footprints on the path" by Eileen Caddy ever since returning from Findhorn, Scotland. You see Eileen Caddy is one of the three founders of the Spiritual community of Findhorn, Scotland. It was created in 1972 and since than has envolved into an international centre for holistic education, helping to unfold and uplift human consciousness and be an example of a positive and sustainable change in the world. :) The book by Eileen Caddy is a collection of her guided insights and wisdom in connection with the divine source. You see, they are as equal as my own messages and that is why I can easily relate to her and her life. Eileen died in 2006, but her books still exist to this day. She is a source of inspiration and I'm happy to be reading these powerful messages.
I'm reading several books right now. I'm into Liz Curtis Higgs, Here Burns My Candle, and Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark, and Ira Stoll's Samuel Adams A Life. And there are six more novels on the bedside table that I haven't reached yet.
I have just finished Memoirs of a Geisha and enjoyed it. I have just won The Wild Marquis by Miranda Neville, so that will be on my bedside table next.
I am reading 'The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate'. It's a Newbery Honor this year and, while the writing is lovely, I'm longing for a faster pace on the actual story line. I'll hang in there .. maybe it will wrap together and make more of a journey at the end.
I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and am working on Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Lucky for all of you, I write exactly what I like (and don't like) about everything I read at The Blue Bookcase.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Great world building and interesting characters. You think you know what is going on, but then you discover you have no idea.
I just finished Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra (YA). I loved the world she created and the fact that it's paranormal -- something I'm trying to study before writing my own. I just wish I'd known how much this would help me so I could have saved it for when I'm ready to actually write!
36 comments:
I just finished Homer Hickam Jr.'s excellent 3 book memoir on his time in Coalwood, WV during the 1950s. The first book, The Rocket Boys, was made into a movie entitled October Sky.
Hickam's character desscriptions are vivid and the reader is transported into his high school world.
My favorite thing about the book and series is the author was able to actually do something that I think we all want to--reconnect with his childhood so that the events, people, sights, and smells that made him who he became are cherished by many and not forgotten.
Wrote a whole post about this recently. ;)
I'll go with The Help and I'm thoroughly enjoying how the characters feel very real.
~ Wendy
Oooh, what a great question, Janna.
"On Writing Well," by uh-oh, who wrote it? A man, I know that much. It's at home on the loveseat.
Excellent, "sets you free to write like yourself" craft book. I recommend it to all writers everywhere.
Leviathon by Scott Westerfeld.
Jury is still out. Interesting concept but this one is a bit too 'out there' even for me. Mechanical walking weapons I can swallow. Floating whales covered in messenger lizards... not so much.
I'm with Wendy! I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
I'm loving how you switch from three character's 1st person and how you learn things about them through the other's eyes that they don't see about themselves.
Read this one!! (Actually, I'll send it to you via the parentals once I'm done : )
Dave Barry - Tricky Business.
It's not as funny as I'd hoped, given the recommendations I received for it. Still, it's amusing, with the odd very funny bit, and the characterisation is very good. :)
Adam
I'm reading Beguiled. Very good! :O)
www.dianeestrella.com
I'm taking a break. I just finished Help by Kathryn Stockett about a week ago. I usually take a couple weeks off between. Help was like taking my state and rewinding it fifty years, seeing the world in which my parents grew up, and understanding it a little bit more.
All fiction is allegory, for it is the mirror we hold up to reality while the mirror itself becomes part of it.
I just came from the library with a new memoir called The Journal Keeper by Phyllis Theroux. I haven't started it yet, but it's apparently the story of six years of her life, written as a double narrative of her writing life combined with her midlife experiences.
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. Just started it yesterday, so I can't say what I feel about it, but the first chapter took a while to get into.
I'm taking a break from fiction as I work on my own edits. But I do have two non-fics going: The Marriage Project and Parenting Gifted Kids. They're good, but I enjoy stuff like that so much less than a novel.
Between beta reading my own revisions, it's hard to find time for a book. But my friend just lent me "Wicked Lovely" and I'm enjoying it so far (not 1000% but enough to want to read more.)
I just finished Chasing Alaska by John Green. At least I hope I got the title right. It was fun YA. Well written but sort of a downer in the end.
I'm currently reading an ARC from my publisher. As i'll be reviewing it soon. It's good though, really good! I'm just having a hard time remembering to read. Can't tell if it's because I'm prego and get uncomfortable all the time, or if I've just been writing so much I can't concentrate long enough to read anymore. LOL! Awful, aren't i?
Jenni
I'm reading (finally!) Camy Tang's "Deadly Intent." It's a Steeple Hill Suspense from last year, and I'm really enjoying it!
A Lineage of Grace by FRANCINE RIVERS!!
What I love about it is Francine takes fascinating Biblical characters whose lives have been shrouded in mystery and gives us a glimpse...
Find out for yourself!
I'm reading Break by Hannah Moskowitz. I'm enjoying it because of her style of writing and the character's voice.
I'm reading 'Sharp North', by Patrick Cave. I started it about 3 months ago, and I'm about 2 chapters in, because I am a very slow reader. Patrick is a friend of mine, so I really out to finish it (actually, he is my barman in my local pub, so I really do not see why I should finish it).
Currently reading two: Timothy Keller's The Reason for God and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
On Keller: I like the straightforward way Keller writes. Easy to understand. He takes both arguments into account and provides evidence for his argument.
On Potato Peel: I usually am not a fan of epistolary novels. But the characters in this one are very engaging, so I definitely plan to finish it!
I am reading a book called, John G. Lake, His life,His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith.
Reading the insightful sermons full of fire has been very uplifting. He was a man living for God and would settle for nothing less. It is a good read.
Just finished Kell Hollingsworth's "Soup in the City," and then actually had soup with her...in the city...yesterday at a lovely lunch/meeting. Great read, fun, fast, loved it.
I just finished a really awful book. Now I'm about to start a new book by Christa Parish and I'm pumped. I love her stuff!
As usual I've got more than one on the go. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott - love, love, loving it! And I've just started Susan Albert's Work of Her Own.
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg. I'm not enjoying it at the moment - much too safe, if that makes any sense. Need something with more of an edge.
I'm not reading anything right now because I'm still waiting on that darn shipment from Barnes & Noble. :)
Dear Janna,
I have been reading on and off the "Footprints on the path" by Eileen Caddy ever since returning from Findhorn, Scotland. You see Eileen Caddy is one of the three founders of the Spiritual community of Findhorn, Scotland. It was created in 1972 and since than has envolved into an international centre for holistic education, helping to unfold and uplift human consciousness and be an example of a positive and sustainable change in the world. :)
The book by Eileen Caddy is a collection of her guided insights and wisdom in connection with the divine source. You see, they are as equal as my own messages and that is why I can easily relate to her and her life. Eileen died in 2006, but her books still exist to this day. She is a source of inspiration and I'm happy to be reading these powerful messages.
I'm reading several books right now. I'm into Liz Curtis Higgs, Here Burns My Candle, and Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark, and Ira Stoll's Samuel Adams A Life. And there are six more novels on the bedside table that I haven't reached yet.
I'm reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It's slow going, but I'm enjoying Pip so much more than I did in high school.
I have just finished Memoirs of a Geisha and enjoyed it. I have just won The Wild Marquis by Miranda Neville, so that will be on my bedside table next.
I am reading 'The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate'. It's a Newbery Honor this year and, while the writing is lovely, I'm longing for a faster pace on the actual story line. I'll hang in there .. maybe it will wrap together and make more of a journey at the end.
Still reading Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts.
I like it.
I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and am working on Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Lucky for all of you, I write exactly what I like (and don't like) about everything I read at The Blue Bookcase.
www.thebluebookcase.blogspot.com
:)
Good question.
I'm reading "The Laodicean" by Thomas Hardy and then some "homework" from pre-marital counseling.:)
Great question!
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Great world building and interesting characters. You think you know what is going on, but then you discover you have no idea.
I just finished Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra (YA). I loved the world she created and the fact that it's paranormal -- something I'm trying to study before writing my own. I just wish I'd known how much this would help me so I could have saved it for when I'm ready to actually write!
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