^I hope you enjoy the last 2/3 but honestly, I did not. She gets whiny, it gets away from food and focuses more on her extended Italian family, women as chef's, and her strained marriage. I had such high hopes after the first 100 pages, that I was extremely disappointed. Still worth the read, just frustrating.

9/20/2011 3:34:04 PM

^ I share your views on the last 2/3, but I still enjoyed it, just in a different way. I like hearing experts talk about food. She is a great writer, but it did go from a good story to an autobiography. I just happened to enjoy the topics she was talking about.

9/20/2011 3:51:13 PM

9/20/2011 4:14:08 PM

So I'm late to the party, I'm just now reading A Dance with Dragons, but I'm enjoying it worlds more than A Feast for Crows. I opened the latter and couldn't figure out where all the characters that interested me were. Though I grew to enjoy it, I'm liking this a lot more. Frequently tell my students about the tamer parts after our Sustained Silent Reading.

9/26/2011 11:38:22 AM

Not reading it currently, but when it comes out next week I'll be reading it to my family.

9/29/2011 10:39:40 AM

^pre-ordered!

9/29/2011 11:40:50 AM

Turns out Barnes and Noble is breaking the street date and has it available now. Getting it at lunch tomorrow.

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 6:17 PM. Reason : .]

9/29/2011 6:17:26 PM

Listening to the audiobook, really liking it so far.

And still trudging through A Dance With Dragons.

9/29/2011 8:21:52 PM

Recently finished:

Pretty interesting, especially regarding the ethical questions that are still at work today (and the surprising fact that tissues taken from you without your permission can still be legally used in research and are no longer under your control).

Also:

Quite good, which ties into what I am currently reading:

9/30/2011 10:17:52 AM

The Magic of Reality is really cool. Each chapter is laid out with a question like "What is the Sun?" and then provides a variety of myths about that question, then follows with "What is the Sun really?" and explains it. It not only explains it, but explains *how* we know it. It's also beautifully illustrated.

It's a bit above my 3 year old's paygrade, but when she's a bit older and knows about mating and death and things like that I'm definitely reading it with her.

[Edited on September 30, 2011 at 2:05 PM. Reason : .]

9/30/2011 2:04:43 PM

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

9/30/2011 2:15:46 PM

^ Quality

First Law Book 2: Before They Are Hanged

9/30/2011 2:17:34 PM

The Help...

I'm going to borrow or purchase The Sookie Stackhouse books next though!

10/3/2011 8:42:36 PM

I flew through The Hunger Games

10/3/2011 8:51:06 PM

^Heard a lot about that series recently. is it a good read?

10/3/2011 9:14:45 PM

I liked it, it's described as Young Adult but it doesn't read that way.
Post-apocalyptic, government-controlled, uprising-inducing, science fiction.

Quote :

"It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once existed. This is where a government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of 12 districts for a massive televised battle in which only one person can survive."

10/3/2011 9:25:44 PM

I don't know about that, I thought it definitely read like Young Adult sci-fi.

EDIT: Then again, I study postmodern literature, anything that's a light-read feels so drastically different.

[Edited on October 3, 2011 at 9:33 PM. Reason : f]

10/3/2011 9:32:23 PM

Yeah I can definitely see that.
I go from studying for my certifications to reading some trash horror novel and sometimes feel brain cells leaking out of my ears, but I guess what I meant is that I didn't feel like I was reading a tweeny, twilight book? Which is what comes to mind when I see or hear the term "Young Adult."

10/3/2011 9:37:05 PM

It's weird. The author doesn't use any punctuation except periods and commas. No quotes. Quotes don't even get their own paragraphs. No "he said" or "she said." Just words crammed into paragraphs a page or two each.

And I'm not sure if the plot is engaging either. If you're gonna use funny grammar, at least make the plot interesting.

10/3/2011 10:44:27 PM

making miss sweden something fierce

10/5/2011 8:30:07 AM

^^He wrote "Blindness" using the same style of no-punctuation or identifying who is saying what. I thought it was more of his approach to make you feel like the people in the story, but I guess that's just his writing style. Never read any of his other works.

10/5/2011 8:35:53 AM

Reading this for book club but not sure if I'll even be going so not sure if I even want to get into it...


And reading this for fun

10/5/2011 8:56:16 AM

Quote :

"It's weird. The author doesn't use any punctuation except periods and commas. No quotes. Quotes don't even get their own paragraphs. No "he said" or "she said." Just words crammed into paragraphs a page or two each. And I'm not sure if the plot is engaging either. If you're gonna use funny grammar, at least make the plot interesting."

I found this really frustrating when reading Blindness. I felt like I spent more time deciphering who was speaking and whether things were quotes or exposition than I did enjoying the story. It was more distracting that interesting, and it never really became natural or unnoticed.

10/5/2011 9:14:21 AM

^At least one book we read in South African Lit was like that. It drove me mad. And yea, the plot wasn't that interesting.

10/5/2011 11:44:27 AM

Quote :

"It's weird. The author doesn't use any punctuation except periods and commas. No quotes. Quotes don't even get their own paragraphs. No "he said" or "she said." Just words crammed into paragraphs a page or two each."

Ha...I've read two of his other novels, "Blindness" and "Seeing." "Blindness" was great, actually. "Seeing", the sequel, not so much. Interesting...but I struggled through it.

I had trouble with the "no punctuation" in his novels at first, but I slowly got use to it. And "Blindness" was so good, that it really didn't bother me. I recommend it to people who can get through the punctuation problem.

I also just finished:



by my favorite author, David Liss.

Again, Liss is a great writer and this book was very entertaining, but I like his other works better. This one got a little preachy (and he admitted in the prologue that was what he was trying to do, to an extent) and that kind of got on my nerves (preachy about animal rights).

So it was a good book, just had it's drawbacks. This book was written smack dab in the middle of a lot of his other stuff, so let's hope he doesn't go back to being preachy about certain subjects.

10/5/2011 12:30:10 PM

I'm about half-way through. So far there isn't as much action as the first book but it is still pretty good.

Barnes & Nobles is running an extra 30% off sale (Code: C9L3Y4V) on their Facebook page until 6pm EST today. I picked up the "Song of Ice and Fire" box set for a little over $15 after taxes.

10/12/2011 3:00:34 PM

^ I am reading that book right now as well! I was excited to attend the signing they had at Quail Ridge Books a couple weeks ago.

10/12/2011 10:03:39 PM

10/12/2011 10:57:37 PM

10/13/2011 10:37:27 AM

Quote :

"^ I am reading that book right now as well! I was excited to attend the signing they had at Quail Ridge Books a couple weeks ago."

I met Clay at Heroes Con down in Charlotte this summer and picked up the first book then. He was really nice and it was pretty awesome to find out he worked at State for a while. I'm hoping I can find a way to talk Barnes & Noble here in Greensboro into having them for a signing sometime.

10/13/2011 10:41:13 AM

these are definitely good books, and this isn't my typical genre by any stretch of the imagination. the "young adult" tag put me off for a while, but after finally reading them...they need to emphasize ADULT. some of the stuff in the 2nd book creeped me out. i just started this one, the 3rd. my husband's cousin let her 12 year old read the series, and 3 weeks later he's still having pretty bad nightmares. not at all appropriate for anybody under 17 maybe.

10/13/2011 11:32:19 AM

I'm feeling sort of bogged down in this book and the last. I'm still enjoying all the intrigue and the interrelatedness (word?) of the stories, but it's feeling pretty tedious at times.

10/14/2011 10:15:53 AM

I'm looking to read something scary. Haven't ever read Stephen King so I think I'm going to pick up one of his books. What would be a good choice for a first time reader? Not looking to start off with The Stand or It.

11/17/2011 1:32:35 PM

Dark Tower series!! I'm going to start those soon.

11/17/2011 1:34:23 PM

^^The Shining is absolutely fantastic.

Or The Dead Zone.

[Edited on November 17, 2011 at 1:39 PM. Reason : ]

11/17/2011 1:39:22 PM

I recently finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which I loved, and The Hunger Games, which I was underwhelmed by. I'm reading Catching Fire now and really not digging it, might just say fuck it and wiki the rest of the series to see what happens.

12/28/2011 7:54:26 PM

Quote :

"Dark Tower series!! I'm going to start those soon."

for a first time reader?? absolutely not, that is quite a leap.

the gunslinger is great on its own, but the series is pretty foreboding and hardly qualifies as "scary"

I would say Salem's lot, Cujo, or Dark Half; then It if you want something longer. I think It is easily his best "scary" book. skeleton crew for a good series of shorts.

there are many other good simple reads but alot of them arent "scary" and/or you need some knowledge of the Dark Tower universe to fully enjoy them.

12/28/2011 9:43:41 PM

Did a lot of reading over the holidays. My gf had the Hunger Games trilogy and I read all three of them in about 5 days while at her house in Connecticut over Christmas:



Not usually the kind of books I read...but it took me back to when I use to tear through Grisham novels. Very entertaining, tough-to-put-down kind of books. Very interested to see how the movie comes out.

Speaking of Grisham, there was a book of short stories at her parents house that I also picked up and read:



Meh...it was decent. Grisham is still at his best when writing about attorneys. Although "A Painted House" was decent.

Got "Shadow Divers" in my stocking:



I think the author could have cut out a lot of the fluff by trying to get the reader to relate to all the characters, but I see where he was trying to go with it. I find myself more and more interested in the histories of wars, so this definitely fit that bill. And although I was initially bored with a lot of the "diving" stuff, it kept enough of my attention for me to be able to really enjoy the book. Lots of interesting stuff I didn't know in this book.

Now I'm reading "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus":



Doesn't move along very fast, but is a very very interesting read so far. The author is definitely more of an academic than an author...as he tends to use a lot of academic language that make is tough for a casual reader to get through. But I really like the subject material and it sheds a completely different light on Indians than the shit we were taught in school. I recommend this one as well.

1/5/2012 3:12:55 PM

if you enjoy the social commentary that is The Wire, i would recommend this. it's fairly interesting. I was kind of expecting a very liberal argument for gun control, but its also sort of a meta-thinking approach to crime in general, including interesting case studies on both baltimore and high point, nc. i don't necessarily agree with all of it but i find the perspective interesting.

1/5/2012 3:19:34 PM

Has anyone read 11/22/63?

Good? Opinion?

1/14/2012 7:55:21 PM

I really enjoyed it. Lots of detail. The main character is kinda thin, as is the backstory, but they arent that relevant to the story anyway.

1/14/2012 9:09:36 PM

I was finishing the Dune series (that is, the Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson piece of crap known as "Sandworms of Dune"), and couldn't STAND the ending.

I've read this book once before, but I guess I was so interested in how it ended that I didn't stop to think WWFHD.

I tell you what he would do.

He would vomit.

Then he would roll over in his grave.

Then he would vomit again.

2/20/2012 3:13:47 PM

i feel like i have been reading Steve Jobs for years now. it just won't end.

2/20/2012 4:52:56 PM

Just started the Dark Tower series.

2/20/2012 5:06:18 PM

^^really? that was a quick read.

2/20/2012 5:36:23 PM

Its finally out on audio book so I can 'read' it!



[Edited on February 26, 2012 at 12:31 PM. Reason : *]

2/26/2012 12:31:00 PM

It's taking forever because it's just not that interesting and I fall asleep after 2-3 pages at night.

2/26/2012 4:39:10 PM

lol you get a piture of sam harris in this screenshot. Oh well.

[Edited on March 2, 2012 at 4:05 PM. Reason : .]

3/2/2012 4:05:16 PM

he's a good looking dude

3/2/2012 5:04:07 PM

^^ I'm currently reading the Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris as well.

3/3/2012 1:35:50 AM