Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947371 times)

Sarah

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #225 on: December 23, 2007, 08:54:52 AM »
I want to read reviews of all of these.

Laurie

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #226 on: January 30, 2008, 08:54:36 PM »
I've had the Persepolis box set sitting on my shelf. After reading that it's been made into an Oscar nominated movie and seeing Marjane Satrapi on The Colbert Report, I decided to rip open the shrink wrap today. I just finished it. Let me tell you how affecting this true story was for me: I've never cried so hard at the end of a book's conclusion. Not once. I've read sad books, I've cried, but I don't think I've ever sobbed. The sum of it had a really strong impact on me. I cried so hard it freaked out my cat, who was sleeping next to me. She put her nose in my face three times to see what's up, purred and rubbed against me in an attempt to comfort me, walked over me, jumped when my jobs jolted her off my back, and nipped my arm when none of the usual stuff worked. The nip actually worked. I laughed.

It's not a total sob fest the whole way through. I only cried during one other part, and I managed to keep it together as I was out and about in public at the time. It's just... tough. And frustrating. It makes you want to do something, and I feel like I should, but I don't know what I can do to help. It's so complicated and fucked up, and there are people just stuck in the middle of all of this fundamentalist bullshit, and that's the point of the book. And it worked. I think everyone should read it. I think it's an important book, whatever that means. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I don't know if I have the strength to start Persepolis 2 tonight. I do want to see the movie this weekend, though. It's only playing at one whole movie theater in Miami, which is bullshit, but it's close enough to me anyhow. And I want to see it even though one of the characters -- most likely, Marji, the author herself -- in the adaptation sniffs, "ABBA is for wimps."  :)

samir

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 1652
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #227 on: January 30, 2008, 09:08:21 PM »
Laurie I just started Persepolis, too - we can have a Floriscussion about it shortly!
"Son, there's a thin line between crazed and rabid"


Susannah

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #228 on: January 31, 2008, 06:40:28 PM »
Finished "War and Peace" a few weeks ago and have been reading Oliver Sacks's "An Anthropologist on Mars" ever since.

I love this thread!  I definitely need to read "Persepolis" now.

Denim Gremlin

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 1040
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #229 on: January 31, 2008, 07:04:09 PM »
i read persepolis a couple of years ago. didn't really do anything for me.
I was the first guy in hardcore to whip people with his belt.

dania

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 383
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #230 on: January 31, 2008, 08:56:06 PM »
I read a few of those books and I absolutely loved them!  Then I forgot about them..   Then I heard about the film because there was a feature in The Reader on how it isn't playing anywhere in Chicago.  Rats!  Consider yourself blessed to have it showing at least somewhere in your vicinity. 

<<<<<

  • Achilles Tendon Bursitis
  • Posts: 809
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #231 on: January 31, 2008, 10:03:19 PM »
Re: Vonnegut, I enjoyed Bluebeard a great deal.

Also very much share a fondness for Donald Barthelme.  He tickles my love for Kafka without also depressing me horribly.  I mean, from an existential standpoint, he got it right.  It all should be something to have a laugh about.

Rainer

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 401
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #232 on: February 03, 2008, 09:24:43 PM »
Quote
It's no Hay-on-Wye but here is one of my many bookcases:

Looks like you've got Careless Love there.  I've always meant to read that.  Any good?

It's the second part of the Elvis bio its a fantastic. Read both parts.

Just finished Part 1, Last Train to Memphis.  Really great. Love the bit about the Teddy Bear named Pelvis.





folksnake

  • Policemans heel
  • Posts: 94
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #233 on: February 03, 2008, 09:50:12 PM »
Just finished Part 1, Last Train to Memphis.  Really great. Love the bit about the Teddy Bear named Pelvis.

I love that book. The second book gets sadder and sadder as it goes along, with less and less magic. Be careful, Rainer, if you go on to that one.
But the beginning of his story....ahh, there was magic.

Rainer

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 401
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #234 on: February 03, 2008, 10:01:06 PM »
Quote
I love that book. The second book gets sadder and sadder as it goes along, with less and less magic. Be careful, Rainer, if you go on to that one.

OK, now you (and ChrisL) have sold me on it.  I shall read it on the plane. :)


Laurie

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #235 on: February 03, 2008, 10:14:55 PM »
Re: Vonnegut, I enjoyed Bluebeard a great deal.

Ooh, I Bluebeard, too. Then again, I also loved Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. I even like the Charles Perrault version. I think I just love the Bluebeard fairy tale for some reason. I mean, I'm really in love with the song "Bluebeard" by Would-Be-Goods. Listen!

Susannah

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #236 on: February 04, 2008, 12:31:45 AM »
Am re-reading "Rebecca" on this somewhat cold, rainy evening.  Do any men enjoy this book, or is its appeal limited to women only?

bruce

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #237 on: February 04, 2008, 07:04:18 AM »
Am re-reading "Rebecca" on this somewhat cold, rainy evening.  Do any men enjoy this book, or is its appeal limited to women only?
I liked it Susannah see its not all about Hard Boiled Noir for me.

dave from knoxville

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 5108
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #238 on: February 04, 2008, 07:56:05 AM »
I just finished George Singleton's Why Dogs Chase Cars, (many reasons are given; my favorite is that, lacking opposable thumbs, they can not tie a noose) a hilarious easy read featuring around 15 interconnected short stories tracking the growth and mental development of Mendal Dawes, a resident of Forty-Five, South Carolina, who realizes, almost as soon as he develops self-awareness, that he must get out. I recommend it highly.

bruce

  • Guest
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #239 on: February 04, 2008, 08:32:31 AM »
Read over the past week:

The Doomsters - Ross Macdonald
Missing - Karin Alvtegen
A DEVIL FOR O'SHAUGNESSY/THE THREE-WAY SPLIT - Gil Brewer
THE CRAZY SCHOOL - Cornelia Read
NEPTUNE NOIR - Edited by Rob Thomas (a collection of essays about a certain girl detective)