Read Any Good Books Recently?

[lolopixie]

I've been so overwhelmed with GRE study and application polishing that I have not been able to do much reading at all. I joined the world of e-reader yesterday, and there were a couple classics already preloaded on it. I actually have not read Dracula, so I am reading that now. I also ordered Elizabeth Nunez's new novel, Boundaries, and I am super excited about that. Anybody else have any suggestions/hot reads recently?

[Grunty DaGnome]

Dracula is a good read and so is Frankenstein, once we're on the topic. Purely for enjoyment, I'm planning on reading a mark twain anthology over the break, once application hell is behind me.

[lolopixie]

I've read Frankenstein countless times. Never got around to Dracula. So sad.

[Safferz]

The Hunger Games. I hope this doesn't mean I've been banned from visiting the literature forum...

[cquin]

I bought The Marriage Plot the day it came out and managed to read about 50 pages before preparing apps became too much. It was great. I will happily pick it up again once this horrible process is over.

[Two Espressos]

The Hunger Games. I hope this doesn't mean I've been banned from visiting the literature forum...

Of course we won't ban you! But I don't think I'd ever touch that series except with a ten-foot pole.

On a less snarky note, I recently read Closer by Patrick Marber. I own and love the film version (and have seen it several times), but I had never read the source material until last week. As much as I like the movie, I find the play to be vastly superior. The movie version glosses over some of the darker elements the play, and the ending is much more depressing in the original, which is funny considering how melancholic the film was.

So I totally recommend reading Marber's original play. It's rather short, less than 100 pages in my copy, and can be read within an hour or two.

[wintergirl]

If you're into Dracula and Frankenstein and, hell, scholarly kickassness mixed with travelogue mixed with romance, this is one the best reads I've had in years: http://www.amazon.com/Historian-Elizabeth-Kostova/dp/0316011770

It's like 8,000 pages long but worth every single one of them.

[Safferz]

Of course we won't ban you! But I don't think I'd ever touch that series except with a ten-foot pole.

I actually had to read it for a gender studies class, and I assumed it would be awful teen fiction along the lines of Twilight. But it really surprised me -- read it in one night because I couldn't put it down, and I've been recommending it to everyone I know since

[Sparky]

I actually had to read it for a gender studies class, and I assumed it would be awful teen fiction along the lines of Twilight. But it really surprised me -- read it in one night because I couldn't put it down, and I've been recommending it to everyone I know since

I really enjoyed the first two, the first more than the second. The deus ex machina near the end of Mockingjay killed it for me. It was a cheap way of letting Katniss (HG protagonist) evade what could and (IMHO) should have been a rather character-making decision. It cheapened pretty much that entire story arc. From a literary point of view, I would have been okay with Katniss being *manipulated* into it by other characters--after all, isn't that the whole point of the books?--but as it was the whole thing just felt cheap.

...But I still thought the first one was awesome.

In other news, I am reading and loving Neal Stephenson's REAMDE. If there are any NS fans out there--it reminds me, thus far, of Zodiac more than anything else he's done, though Zula strikes me rather awesomely as a more sophisticated Y.T. At my current rate of 3-5 pages per day, it should only take me another five months to finish the thing. I still thank NS effusively for publishing it *this* fall and not next year, when I will be reading for comps.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Sparky

[Two Espressos]

I actually had to read it for a gender studies class, and I assumed it would be awful teen fiction along the lines of Twilight. But it really surprised me -- read it in one night because I couldn't put it down, and I've been recommending it to everyone I know since

Oh, I know it isn't as banal as the Twilight series, but it's still primarily a book for adolescents. I don't know very much about it, though I have read some articles on the series, and it seems simplistic to me. I don't think I'd enjoy it at all, but it's perfectly fine that you (and others) do!

[0000000000AAA]

Reading Metahistory by Hayden White. It's fascinating and useful.

[lolopixie]

If you're into Dracula and Frankenstein and, hell, scholarly kickassness mixed with travelogue mixed with romance, this is one the best reads I've had in years: http://www.amazon.co...a/dp/0316011770

It's like 8,000 pages long but worth every single one of them.

Ah, The Historian...I've read that. Couldn't put it down.

[Timshel]

Quite a few of my friends have read The Marriage Plot and loved it. I haven't been able to read anything in a while, but once I am done with these apps, I think that is the first one on my list.

[bdon19]

I bought The Marriage Plot the day it came out and managed to read about 50 pages before preparing apps became too much. It was great. I will happily pick it up again once this horrible process is over.

I actually read the whole thing last week, while working furiously on apps. It was an easy read and kind of kept me sane while working through the huge issues in my writing sample. I just convinced myself that it was potentially helpful for my SOP and therefore wasn't detracting from my app time. And I ended up referencing it in my SOP. It was potentially a gratuitous reference, but I think it worked.

I have many thoughts about the novel that I haven't quite sat down to think through. I liked it, a lot, but (dare I say this?) I think Eugenides is a lot smarter than this book. I was SUPER excited about it because I'd read the short story in the New Yorker a few years back that turned into this novel. Honestly, I think Eugenides, blasphemous though this may be, is a better short story writer than novelist. Yes, of course there's Middlesex, but still.

[Two Espressos]

Quite a few of my friends have read The Marriage Plot and loved it. I haven't been able to read anything in a while, but once I am done with these apps, I think that is the first one on my list.

I'm familiar with Jeffrey Eugenides, but I hadn't heard of this book before. It's about English majors, so I don't think I can resist.

I'm definitely going to read this over Christmas break.

[xfgdfrmgpo332]

Mr Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant

unshaven, with a pocket full of currants...

[truckbasket]

Just read Carpenter's Gothic by Gaddis for a seminar. It was taxing, but form-wise, hugely impressive.

[user_name]

reading 1Q84

[Grunty DaGnome]

Mr Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant

unshaven, with a pocket full of currants...

Madam Sosostris, famous clairvoyant, had a bad cold, nevertheless

Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe

With a wicked pack of cards.

[Timshel]

reading 1Q84

Still trying to finish the Wind-up Bird Chronicle

[rising_star]

I've read a few good books recently. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, and When God Was a Rabbit. Those are three fairly different books but they're all really good. I've been recommending them to people for the last couple of months.

[poeteer]

Just read Disgrace by Coetzee -- it's excellent and I highly recommend it.

I agree with Sparky about The Hunger Games. The deus ex machina in the last book was frustrating, but also its pacing and prose; the first book really is wonderful but I cannot totally recommend the last book. Still, it's worth reading the whole series. Mainly I keep looking for a YA series to fill the hole the end of Harry Potter left. Heh.

Edited December 4, 2011 by poeteer

[fredngeorge]

I'm addicted to Tana French -- which is frustrating because, thus far, she only has three novels (In the Woods, The Likeness, and Faithful Place). If you're at all interested in mystery fiction, I seriously believe she's the best there is (still publishing, that is). I read all three over the last year, and since she has no more, I'm thinking of re-reading them.... That said, the real magic of these novels is her writing style -- not always in plot. My best friend couldn't stand the narrator of In the Woods, and if you must have a neatly resolved novel, it's probably not for you. The Likeness has one of the most absurd premises of all time -- but I love it anyway.

Right now I'm reading Hitch-22 (for my non-fiction fix) and Age of Innocence. Hitch-22 is great, and I would highly recommend it. I'm only five chapters into Age of Innocence, so we'll see.

[cquin]

I actually read the whole thing last week, while working furiously on apps. It was an easy read and kind of kept me sane while working through the huge issues in my writing sample. I just convinced myself that it was potentially helpful for my SOP and therefore wasn't detracting from my app time. And I ended up referencing it in my SOP. It was potentially a gratuitous reference, but I think it worked.

I have many thoughts about the novel that I haven't quite sat down to think through. I liked it, a lot, but (dare I say this?) I think Eugenides is a lot smarter than this book. I was SUPER excited about it because I'd read the short story in the New Yorker a few years back that turned into this novel. Honestly, I think Eugenides, blasphemous though this may be, is a better short story writer than novelist. Yes, of course there's Middlesex, but still.

I read Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides back-to-back when I was a young, impressionable first year English major and thus Eugenides can do no wrong in my eyes. But I'm eager to see how he fleshes out that New Yorker short story that seemed so promising...

As I was working on my apps and read that Madeline was not accepted into Yale, I felt a sense of relief. It's not just me, then!

[bdon19]

As I was working on my apps and read that Madeline was not accepted into Yale, I felt a sense of relief. It's not just me, then!

All I could think was, "Well, obviously she's doing it wrong. You don't JUST apply to Yale. Silly girl."

But *spoiler alert* the next year she still does it wrong (at least in the eyes of people like us). And succeeds. Which just feels cruel. The 80s were a different world. Boo.