Board 8 > B8 Books & Lit Topic 42 - A Squeeze of the Hand

(+) Yeah! (+)

question: how well aware do you consider yourself about literature? whenever i mention something that i read, i just mention the title because i assume everyone else knows what i'm talking about since i consider myself behind in this. i'm unaware of a lot of the more contemporary, popular stuff so usually if i've even heard of something it's because it's considered a classic or it got too big to ignore. and by "too big to ignore" i mean it was a subject of multiple national stories or otherwise controversial. i don't pay attention to awards or anything like that so i couldn't tell you what's won any Pulitzer or anything like that.

i guess i'll start including a sentence or two on what the books are about in case people don't know and might get interested. what about for classics (like pre-1960)?

It depends on genre. I've read most of the really important classics (though I still haven't gotten around to Moby-Dick), and I have an interest in sci-fi and fantasy, but I know little about thrillers.
---

I barely dabbled in Fantasy
---

Yeah genre is a big kicker. I obviously won't be able to read everything in my lifetime, but I have read several classic American Literature, Sci-Fi/Fantasy books, and some plays.

Moving Pictures, the 10th Discworld book, finished. Probably the first of the Wizards Series, as the characters and dynamic between the now more permanent Wizards are being established. The final clique isn't finished yet though. Anyway, a new trend is springing up in Discworld, moving pictures! Various people on the Discworld abandon what they're doing to move to Holy Wood to be in them! However... Holy Wood Dreams... and something watches...

Best Parts
- Let me start by saying that if I list every single film and movies and what it references we'll be here all day. Favorite is definitely the Donald Duck and Tom and Jerry expys
- Victor's kind of a jerk, but a loveable intelligent jerk
- He's here! MUSTRUM RIDCULLY THE BROWN IS FINALLY HERE! He's large, in charge, and endlessly entertaining.
- The rest of the Wizarding gang is also here, though they're not completely fleshed out yet. The Dean, the Bursar, the Lecturer in Recent Runes, and the Chair of Indefinite Studies! There's also Windle Poons, and for the briefest of time he provides a lot of laughs. Ponder Stibbons is here as well, though he's currently still a student and not a member of the staff yet. Rincewind, of course, is still missing.
- XD Victor's manipulation of test scores and how the Wizards decided to handle his final test. Good for Ponder
- Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is... a rather refreshing take of the greedy movie mogul. He rips you off yeah, but he's not evil. Helps flesh him out for the opportunist that he is. His banter with his nephew Saul was great, especially with CMOT constantly trying to sneak in advertisements into the movies
- I love what they did to Detritus here. From Carrot's punching bag in the previous books to big wall of muscles to lovestruck lump to unsuspecting hero
- I love how creepy they made Holy Wood and the pit underneath the hills. We all know it's just a cinema (albeit ancient and derelict), but I still get chills as Victor found the dead man on the beach and the book and the underwater city and realized that something is sleeping underneath the hill waiting (too bad he misunderstood the position of Gate and Man) to get out to the Librarian consulting the Necrotelicomnicon to decipher the runes of the doorway to what actually lies underneath Holy Wood
- Gaspode! He kind of whines a bit much, but he's still a loveable scamp
- Oh god when the Wizards snuck out to watch the movies I kept laughing and laughing. Poor Ponder
- The Climaxes of the book, from the screening of Ankh-Morpork to the Giant Man utterly destroying Holy Wood. Fantastic. Dat reversal of a familiar theme when Dungeon Dimension Ginger grabbed the Librarian, when Victor realized how to and correctly used movie magic and Ginger and the Gaffer man and the Wizards trailed along (LMAO 57th strangest sight the Librarian has scene) to Gaspode's and Laddie's heroic sacrifice (they got better), to Ridcully and the Bursar riding on a broomstick and helping Victor confront the DD Ginger to Death killing the DD Ginger to Detritus being saved by the gang to Detritus SAVING the gang in return. Twice. Second time he even saved the Discworld on purpose. And of course, the Giant Man destroying the Screen Gateway and Holy Wood itself
- The 1000 elephants running joke. Great payoff man
- This marks the last appearance of the Dungeon Dimensions. I do feel they've run their course, as there's only so many times you can do the same enemies that are simple as them. I do love their portrayal here, first and last time we know what they're thinking. Goodbye Chaotic Evil... hello Lawful Evil in the next book

Chockful of film references and sendups, great characters that move on to other things, and a climax I really liked cements it in the upper half of my rankings

Guards! Guards! > Wyrd Sisters > Moving Pictures > Mort > Sourcery > Pyramids > The Light Fantastic > Equal Rites > The Colour of Magic > Eric
---

kateee posted...

i'm reading Candide

ha

good reaction
---

actually it was more like a "HA!"

OH LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

Reaper Man, the 11th Discworld book, finished. By far my absolute favorite book out of the batch so far, blows the rest out of the water. An entry in both the Death and Wizards series, it tells the story of Life and Death. It all started as Death is forced to retire from his job, which causes an imbalance between the Life and Death force in Discworld. This imbalance manifested itself as new Deaths spring up all over Discworld, latching onto every being's perception of Death. On the flip side, a predator is using the excess Life force to manifest itself... and it's targeting Ankh-Morpork

Best Parts:
- I love that they made Windle Poons half the protagonist here. They made me, someone who thinks zombies are overdone to death, love the old codger. From the decrepit old man that he was in Moving Pictures to the undead hero that forced his
- Aww yeah Death in a starring role once again! A continuation of Death trying to do human things, and I personally felt it was portrayed better here than in Mort. And he's just so damn happy to have Time! And then slowly losing himself to despair...
- The Wizard are in top form now! The Bursar finally started losing his grip on reality, and the Dean takes over the role of straight man for now... until maschismo takes over. Sad that Windle Poons is taken out of the equation, but oh well
- The Auditors of Reality. By far my favorite Discworld villains get an early start here. But they'll be back, oh yes, and they keep getting worse... just like how a good villain should. I've always had a thing for villains whose motivation is to rearrange things as they should be, reinforcing some insane laws they cooked up
- The Mall Lifeform was just sheer genius. From snow globe (egg) to Trolleys (workers) to the mall itself (queen), it keeps astounding me every time I read about it
- The Wizards' reaction to undead Windle Poons was a non-stop laugh a minute ride. From the Bursar biting trough his wooden spoon to their various attempts to exorcise him, these idiots never have a dull moment
- Windle Poons slowly piecing together what's wrong with the snow globes and trolleys
- Reg Shoe's club. Oh man, those guys. Like the ghoul that can't cook to the banshee that is too shy to the boogie man to the middle class vampire and his non-vampire wife to the wereman, they're all fun
- Death's- err, Bill Door's Dream and his reaction
- Renata Flitworth was a joy to read as well. Slapping Bill Door and kicking him out for his callous disregard for human life to saving Death from new death to her actually having treasure but still pines for her dead man.
- The new Deaths. The death of mayflies (a trout), the death of the counting pines (a sound), and everybody's favorite, the Death of Rats!
- The climaxes, from Death VS New Death (a CROWN?) to the Wizards + the Fresh Start Club against the Alien Mall (Yo! Ook! Yo!) to Death courting Renata
- Quite possibly my absolute favorite line in a book, period. The one at the beginning.
- One-Man-Bucket's name origin. XD not Two-Dogs-Fighting

How much did I love this book? I heard it. Twice. I'm short succession. Once read by Tony Robinson, another by Nigel Plainer. This was my first Discworld book, and to this day it still rates highly to me. Will it stay on top though? I can think of one entry that could dethrone it... but that's not for awhile. In any case, my favorite character in a starring role, the first appearance of my favorite villains, hilarious moments all over, and even touching moments here and there, makes this one of my all time favorite books

Reaper Man > Guards! Guards! > Wyrd Sisters > Moving Pictures > Mort > Sourcery > Pyramids > The Light Fantastic > Equal Rites > The Colour of Magic > Eric
---

That's a lot of enthusiasm! Do I need to read any specific books in the sequence before it, or is that one I could go straight into?
---

Hmm

It happens after Mort, but oddly enough is rather stand alone. I'd say you can read it right away, that's what I did the first time
---

I've read 3 discworld books. I liked two of them (Guards! Guards! and Mort) and was bored by the first (The Colour of Magic). I should probably read more of them sometime but I just have so much stuff to read and so little time to read it.

I just started reading Golden Son. I had heard a lot of good about Red Rising so I gave it a try. Was not expecting it to be similar concept to Hunger Games but so far I do enjoy it. Seems much more mature than HG and I am interested to see where it goes.
---

kateee posted...

question: how well aware do you consider yourself about literature? whenever i mention something that i read, i just mention the title because i assume everyone else knows what i'm talking about since i consider myself behind in this. i'm unaware of a lot of the more contemporary, popular stuff so usually if i've even heard of something it's because it's considered a classic or it got too big to ignore. and by "too big to ignore" i mean it was a subject of multiple national stories or otherwise controversial. i don't pay attention to awards or anything like that so i couldn't tell you what's won any Pulitzer or anything like that.

i guess i'll start including a sentence or two on what the books are about in case people don't know and might get interested. what about for classics (like pre-1960)?

I'm an English major right now, going to be teaching...Classics are still emphasized. I am not as well read as I'd like to be on the classics. There are some things it seems like all kids read as class novels in middle and high school that I never did.

As for modern stuff, my focus tends to be young adult lit so I don't know much about more "adult" stuff.
---

Oh that reminds me, I need to catch up on my Thug Notes
---

tabiicat42 posted...

There are some things it seems like all kids read as class novels in middle and high school that I never did.

are there any in particular you remember?

this topic title is a Moby Dick reference for those that didn't know. along with the obvious Hitchhiker reference.

went to school in southern California. i'll post what i can remember of my reading list.

we barely did any reading books in middle school. mostly out of the anthology so excerpts, short stories, and poetry.

high school is where it got pretty fun for me since we read a bunch of stuff. especially in junior and senior year what you read was dependent on what teacher you had along with the few required ones that everyone in the department had to assign. after being part of enough conversations where people complained about the books they had to read, i tracked down nearly everything that had a chance of being assigned in the school and read those too because i didn't want to miss out on anything.

10th:
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
The Human Comedy - Saroyan
Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
My Antonia - Cather
Night - Wiesel
Animal Farm - Orwell
Lord of the Flies - Golding
Othello - Shakespeare
something of our choice
Julius Caesar - Shakespeare
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee

and i know other classes could also read:
1984 (Orwell), Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare)

11th:
Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne
Moby Dick - Melville
The Crucible - Miller
The Awakening - Chopin
Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
Huck Finn - Twain
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

other classes could also read: As I Lay Dying (Faulkner), Beloved (Morrison), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston)

12th:
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
Medea - Euripides
Othello - Shakespeare
Richard III
Macbeth
Henry V
Hamlet
Waiting for Godot - Beckett
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
Metamorphosis - Kafka

other classes could read: Pride & Prejudice (Austen), Frankenstein (Shelley), Heart of Darkness (Conrad), Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), Stranger (Camus)

pretty sure i missed some stuff for other classes but i got everything i read.

Oh wow, You had some teachers who were CLASSICS ONLY FOREVER. I'm glad I wasn't with those teachers - no modern novels would have turned me off of classics forever.

I'm not gonna lie - I don't remember most of what happened to me during 9th grade, let alone what we read. 10th grade, I was homeschooled. My dad had me read The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig, Taming of the Shrew... probably the some other stuff that I don't remember.
11th grade I was in AP Language and Composition. We didn't read anything aside from articles and some poetry. It was purely a writing class.
12 grade is mostly what I remember...
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
1,000 Acres - Jane Smiley
[Book of our choice] Life of Pi was what I read
1984 - Orwell
Brave New World - Huxley
The Handmaid's Tale - Atwell
[another one of our choice] I chose Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
a bunch of poetry that I didn't pay attention to... at the time I didn't enjoy poetry or literature. I was also a theater kid so at that time of year we were prepping for the big musical and I didn't pay attention to much as it was.
We also did Midsummer Night's Dream after AP testing.

I'm 100% against *only* classics as a future educator, but I do recognize their significance and importance to American culture and whatever is required on curriculum I will teach it... but I definitely want to be able to mix modern lit into it.

Edit: I was also a military brat. I went to 3 high schools, if you count homeschooling as a separate entity (which I do)
---

tabiicat42 posted...

As for modern stuff, my focus tends to be young adult lit so I don't know much about more "adult" stuff.

A couple YA recs that I really liked and might be interesting in a classroom setting:

Challenger Deep (Neal Shusterman) (mild spoilers for the basic premise of the book because I think it's best to go into this book totally blind) - contemporary YA story about a high schooler developing mental illness - I forget the exact diagnosis but it involves profound unreality. deals heavily in how scary the world is when you can't tell what is or isn't real, and you don't know who to trust.

The Drowned Cities (Paolo Bacigalupi) - near-future story about america dissolved into anarchy, with warlords conscripting child soldiers to fight over the scraps of the world. the main characters are a couple of war orphans struggling to survive. dark and brutal, probably best suited for an older teen audience, but it also never glorifies its subject matter; one of the main themes is that soldiers themselves are also victims of war.
---

Things I remember reading in Middle/High School (in no particular order)

Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
The Pearl - Steinbeck
Animal Farm - Orwell
1984 - Orwell
Huck Finn - Twain
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
Hatchet - Paulsen
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
The Outsiders - Hinton
The Diary of Anne Frank
Othello - Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare
Julius Caesar - Shakespeare
Macbeth - Shakespeare
Hamlet - Shakespeare
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
Beowulf

I'm sure there were more but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.
---

Gatarix posted...

tabiicat42 posted...

As for modern stuff, my focus tends to be young adult lit so I don't know much about more "adult" stuff.

A couple YA recs that I really liked and might be interesting in a classroom setting:

Challenger Deep (Neal Shusterman) (mild spoilers for the basic premise of the book because I think it's best to go into this book totally blind) - contemporary YA story about a high schooler developing mental illness - I forget the exact diagnosis but it involves profound unreality. deals heavily in how scary the world is when you can't tell what is or isn't real, and you don't know who to trust.

The Drowned Cities (Paolo Bacigalupi) - near-future story about america dissolved into anarchy, with warlords conscripting child soldiers to fight over the scraps of the world. the main characters are a couple of war orphans struggling to survive. dark and brutal, probably best suited for an older teen audience, but it also never glorifies its subject matter; one of the main themes is that soldiers themselves are also victims of war.

I love it. I'll add these to my list. I think once you get to higher grade levels it gets harder to incorporate YA lit because of curriculum requirements. At least where I live.
---

My English classes in High School really phoned it in, and we mostly read a few chapters at most from the books. The full books we read, that I can remember, are:

Great Expectations
The Grapes of Wrath
The Purple Hibiscus
Kite Runner
A Streetcar Named Desire (and that's not a long play)
Macbeth
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Hell, we read more in Middle School!

I got choose my own book for one assignment, so at least I got something I enjoyed (Brave New World). The plays were alright.

oh yeha we read gatsby too
---

muddersmilk posted...

I've read 3 discworld books. I liked two of them (Guards! Guards! and Mort) and was bored by the first (The Colour of Magic). I should probably read more of them sometime but I just have so much stuff to read and so little time to read it.

I just started reading Golden Son. I had heard a lot of good about Red Rising so I gave it a try. Was not expecting it to be similar concept to Hunger Games but so far I do enjoy it. Seems much more mature than HG and I am interested to see where it goes.

Yea, the Vimes books are fun. The next one of those are Men at Arms and Feet of Clay, both really good books.

Same thing with Death and with Susan. Hogfather comes to mind as a good one with these too.

I'd say start with Red Rising if you haven't already, but Golden Son is more about the world all over rather than the trials. Also, the ending is really well done.
---

Here's what I remember offhand. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff.

Freshman year: Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Huck Finn, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Night
Sophomore year: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oedipus Rex, The Odyssey
Junior year: Macbeth, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Crime and Punishment (choice)
Senior year: Hamlet, The Joy Luck Club, Beloved
---

crazygamer999 posted...

muddersmilk posted...

I've read 3 discworld books. I liked two of them (Guards! Guards! and Mort) and was bored by the first (The Colour of Magic). I should probably read more of them sometime but I just have so much stuff to read and so little time to read it.

I just started reading Golden Son. I had heard a lot of good about Red Rising so I gave it a try. Was not expecting it to be similar concept to Hunger Games but so far I do enjoy it. Seems much more mature than HG and I am interested to see where it goes.

Yea, the Vimes books are fun. The next one of those are Men at Arms and Feet of Clay, both really good books.

Same thing with Death and with Susan. Hogfather comes to mind as a good one with these too.

I'd say start with Red Rising if you haven't already, but Golden Son is more about the world all over rather than the trials. Also, the ending is really well done.

And the best Discworld book of them all (Night Watch) is in Vimes's series.
---

with the exception of like two or three titles and ninth grade, i actually enjoyed the books i read throughout high school.

tabiicat42 posted...

11th grade I was in AP Language and Composition. We didn't read anything aside from articles and some poetry. It was purely a writing class.

i also took AP Lang in junior year but my teacher then and the other teachers that taught that class still had reading lists. was that something particular to your teacher or throughout your school?

NFUN posted...

And the best Discworld book of them all (Night Watch) is in Vimes's series.

that was the one where Vimes goes back in time, right?\

Cause yea, that book was awesome from start to finish.
---

crazygamer999 posted...

NFUN posted...

And the best Discworld book of them all (Night Watch) is in Vimes's series.

that was the one where Vimes goes back in time, right?\

Cause yea, that book was awesome from start to finish.

Yes
---

I really need to read the vimes books again. It's been so long.
---

kateee posted...

with the exception of like two or three titles and ninth grade, i actually enjoyed the books i read throughout high school.

tabiicat42 posted...

11th grade I was in AP Language and Composition. We didn't read anything aside from articles and some poetry. It was purely a writing class.

i also took AP Lang in junior year but my teacher then and the other teachers that taught that class still had reading lists. was that something particular to your teacher or throughout your school?

We only had one teacher for regular 11 and AP lang. My graduating class was 52 students so we didn't need more. I don't know what the non-ap classes read. I do know we definitely didn't read anything longer than a short story for this class. I think it was my teacher. She was kind of peculiar.
---

crazygamer999 posted...

I'd say start with Red Rising if you haven't already, but Golden Son is more about the world all over rather than the trials. Also, the ending is really well done.

Oh yeah Golden Son would be darn near incomprehensible without reading the first book. I already read the first. It was good.
---

Maniac64 posted...

crazygamer999 posted...

I'd say start with Red Rising if you haven't already, but Golden Son is more about the world all over rather than the trials. Also, the ending is really well done.

Oh yeah Golden Son would be darn near incomprehensible without reading the first book. I already read the first. It was good.

Yea, I loved it.

I like how GS gets more into the machinations of stuff- if RR was Hunger Games, GS is Game of Thrones.

also, Roque is best
---

Looking back, I read some pretty good books in middle and high for class. I think I read even more in college for my majors (so much that it essentially killed off reading as a hobby for a little while)

Here's what I remember offhand for 8th + high school

8th: Night, Call of the Wild, Flowers for Algernon, And Then There Were None, Frankenstein for a book report
9th: The Pearl, Romeo and Juliet, Great Expectations, The Most Dangerous Game
10th: Great Gatsby, Catcher, Glass Menagerie, Of Mice And Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scarlet Letter
11th: Beowulf, The Hobbit, Lord of the Flies, 1984, Hamlet
12th: The Stranger, Siddhartha, Death of a Salesman, Macbeth, Metamorphosis, The Alchemist, One Flew Over for a research paper

There's probably quite a few I'm forgetting but those are the ones that come to mind
---

I had no reading material all my life
---

crazygamer999 posted...

Maniac64 posted...

crazygamer999 posted...

I'd say start with Red Rising if you haven't already, but Golden Son is more about the world all over rather than the trials. Also, the ending is really well done.

Oh yeah Golden Son would be darn near incomprehensible without reading the first book. I already read the first. It was good.

Yea, I loved it.

I like how GS gets more into the machinations of stuff- if RR was Hunger Games, GS is Game of Thrones.

also, Roque is best

Yeah, I was really glad they didn't do a Catching Fire and make it a new set of games. I kind of expected this book to be about the Academy and another round of games, so I was pleasantly surprised when the book started with the end of the Academy.
---

kinda warms my heart to see this topic taking off

the YA series sounds interesting to me

the next time i take a long, relaxing vacation with long flights and/or bus rides, these are gonna be on my kindle!
---

muddersmilk posted...

Yeah, I was really glad they didn't do a Catching Fire and make it a new set of games. I kind of expected this book to be about the Academy and another round of games, so I was pleasantly surprised when the book started with the end of the Academy

I mean, I would have been fine cause space combat, but yea, that was a good call in hindsight.

what death in RR hit you the hardest?
---

Man that is pretty tough. There was some really emotional deaths in there.

Though honestly? I think it might be Pax just because I really liked Pax and did not want him to die. But Eo would probably be next. Especially in hindsight after I just found out what she said to her sister.
---

PAX AU TELEMACUS!

*repeat ad nauseum*
---

Has anyone read the kingkiller trilogy? How is it. I wanted to buy a book to read in the plane ride home from hawaii and wanted infomocracy but they didnt had it so i picked up this random book. However was too dark to read on the plane so I havent touched it yet.


So how is that trilogy and/or infomocracy?
---

Corrik posted...

Has anyone read the kingkiller trilogy? How is it. I wanted to buy a book to read in the plane ride home from hawaii and wanted infomocracy but they didnt had it so i picked up this random book. However was too dark to read on the plane so I havent touched it yet.


So how is that trilogy and/or infomocracy?

I think it's great if you're a fan of fantasy. Unfortunately, the third book of the trilogy hasn't come out yet. It's been a long wait.
---

tabiicat42 posted...

Corrik posted...

Has anyone read the kingkiller trilogy? How is it. I wanted to buy a book to read in the plane ride home from hawaii and wanted infomocracy but they didnt had it so i picked up this random book. However was too dark to read on the plane so I havent touched it yet.


So how is that trilogy and/or infomocracy?

I think it's great if you're a fan of fantasy. Unfortunately, the third book of the trilogy hasn't come out yet. It's been a long wait.

How would you compare it to say Asoiaf
---

Corrik posted...

tabiicat42 posted...

Corrik posted...

Has anyone read the kingkiller trilogy? How is it. I wanted to buy a book to read in the plane ride home from hawaii and wanted infomocracy but they didnt had it so i picked up this random book. However was too dark to read on the plane so I havent touched it yet.


So how is that trilogy and/or infomocracy?

I think it's great if you're a fan of fantasy. Unfortunately, the third book of the trilogy hasn't come out yet. It's been a long wait.

How would you compare it to say Asoiaf

Hmm. Without details, since it's been a bit, I feel like it's hard to compare the two. Despite the fact that they're basically in the same genre, the two series are pretty different. I like the Kingkiller books more because I think the writing is better. Someone else might be able to sell the series better with more detail!
---

Kingkiller is significantly different from ASOIAF and other fantasy books I've read. First Person Narrator, the plot doesn't really pick up speed at an epic scale, and it almost seems kinda slice of lifeish in how the chapters play out.

That said, it is fantastically well written, especially the first book. Although Kvothe is a dick, he is at the very least a relatable one in his story of tragedy and how he wishes to keep his pride and intellect above all else. And there are some chapters in the tale that just catch you off guard, showing significant meaning

I would say it's definitely tailored to the non Fantasy reader.
---

hello everybody

i've been getting back into fiction recently. some coworkers started recommending things to me and I just sort of did it

- finished Kim Stanley Robinson's mars trilogy
- 75% of the way through Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun

some good shit! love when the human/emotional element gets blended in with the hard stuff. too much fiction in my past became, simply, a transcription of events without emotional context. "this happened, then this happened, then this happened..."

oh yeah, someone recommended Hyperion and I hated that
---

Everybody should read the Three Body Problem series.
---

VeryInsane posted...

Kingkiller is significantly different from ASOIAF and other fantasy books I've read. First Person Narrator, the plot doesn't really pick up speed at an epic scale, and it almost seems kinda slice of lifeish in how the chapters play out.

That said, it is fantastically well written, especially the first book. Although Kvothe is a dick, he is at the very least a relatable one in his story of tragedy and how he wishes to keep his pride and intellect above all else. And there are some chapters in the tale that just catch you off guard, showing significant meaning

I would say it's definitely tailored to the non Fantasy reader.

Interesting.

Anyone read infomocracy? I really wanted to buy that one after reading online for a book to get at the store but that BandN didnt have one.
---

i'm making a reading list for a 3rd grade girl. are any of you guys familiar with children's lit? she's starting to read longer chapter books so i don't want books that are too easy but nothing challenging to the point that half the content will fly over her head (happened recently with Harry Potter #2). preferably "lighter" storytelling titles (e.g. Roald Dahl). It feels like an awkward middle ground.

i have a bunch of stuff i read around that time but i don't know anything about more recent titles. been looking around some lists but would like some recs if anybody has good suggestions.

so far i have:
Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little
Beverly Cleary
Judy Blume
The Cricket of Times Square - Selden
Little Prince
Tuck Everlasting

I liked the Hobbit around then. The Phantom Tollbooth is great.
---

kateee posted...

i have a bunch of stuff i read around that time but i don't know anything about more recent titles. been looking around some lists but would like some recs if anybody has good suggestions.

I highly recommend Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels. My niece is a big fan of Smile and Sisters. We're working through Drama right now and while the narrative isn't as strong I do appreciate that it discusses adolescent struggles in maintaining friendships or discovering sexuality while they're still developing, and does so in an age-appropriate manner.
---

I just remember reading a lot of Boxcar Children around that age.

And I think that was when I was reading the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids books as well.
---

Varjak Paw is a fun book. It's about a housecat who sets out from home on a quest to save his family, and his adventures experiencing the real world for the first time.
---