BOOKS THREAD

I enjoyed Steve Martin's book. It's light, too. I read it in two days.

 

I enjoyed Steve Martin's book, too. It was a quick and worthwhile read.

 

Steve Martin's book was verrrry light and quick, almost to the point of weightlessness.

 

I finished the Martin book this afternoon. It was interesting, especially how frank he was about his depression during the apex of his career.

Starting the Schulz book now.

 

Just started up on Bukowski's Ham and Rye last night and chewed through the first 100 pages. Very good book. His spare style puts him in the arena with Hemingway. "I walked towards the car. I got in the car. We drove away." He makes it sing.

 

Zadie Smith is a great author. I didn't read Autograph Man, but loved White Teeth and On Beauty. I truly authors who can write from a male and female perspective.

I think Khaled Hoesseini does a darn fine job focusing on female characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns. As opposed to Kite Runner, where he relied on men's voices to carry the tale.

 

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

 

What to buy the Fenian Bastard on your gift list:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Novels-Everymans-Library-Cloth/dp/0307267490/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202213744&sr=8-1

Looks like a lovely new edition of the best unsung writer in the language.

 

in re Zadie Smith - I didn't get White Teeth. But I couldn't put down "On Beauty."

I am reading the funniest effing book I have read in a while - "Mortified."

It's a collection of journal entries from the teenage years of now-adults. Arguably the funniest entry so far is the suburban kid who is sent away to a camp in Vermont with no running water and no electricity. The chapter documents the letters he and his parents exchange through the summer - I just can't convey how hilarious the letters are, but it's like the poor kid is losing his mind and his parents are simply cavalier, just like, "Honey, we'll see you in a month, enjoy the rest of camp!"

 

Has anyone read "The Ruins" by Scott Smith? I heard great stuff about it and wanted to read it before the movie (possibly) ruins it. No pun intended.

 

I read it and enjoyed it very much. It was a Stephen King recommendation that led me to it.

 

Any Canadians who are Richard Ford fans, good news: In a New York Times story about how he's changing publishers, there's this:

His first novel with Ecco, scheduled for a 2010 release, is tentatively titled “Canada,” and will be a “novel of revenge and violent retribution set on the Saskatchewan prairie, in the early 1960s,” according to Ecco’s statement.