The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was his best novel that I've read so far. He has such talent for capturing the many facets of humanity; it didn't have the verbal jousting of perspective that made The Idiot so great but it did a nice job of forcing many philosophies and ideologies against each other through love and law and faith.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. A novel where the quiet tragedy of unrequited love falls against a backdrop of cafes and pubs where the booze and insults never stop flowing. Don't think Ive laughed as much reading a book as this one....though Catcher In The Rye is very funny as well. Will re-read this one often, I think.
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Harrison Ryan, thankee-sai! So do I; I love me some Bachman. A dark(er) Stephen King, what's not to love?
China Mieville - The Tain
Poe's Children anthology (a story a day, it'll take a month)
Dan Simmons - The Crook Factory
Lucius Shepard - The Ends of the Earth
+
R. Crumb's America
Azzarello - 100 Bullets vol. 2
Brian Bendis - Torso
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bears, so glad you're getting to it-- let me know what you think.
Just finished The Running Man. Loved it, too. I'm a Bachman boy, for sure. At first I was getting annoyed with how similar I found it to be to 1984, but then I was like, Wait a second, my favorite author paying homage to a book I thoroughly enjoyed, what's not to like?
Spoiler:
Trying to decide which I liked more, Roadwork or The Running Man...
Cannery Row by Steinbeck...which makes it good by default.
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Interesting how NOS4A2 has many references to "IT" "THE STAND" ...as well as some of the midworld parallel worlds dark tower themes.
Almost finished listening to it and I think it's "okay" thus far. IMO the narrator for the audiobook is NOT a good fit. I came very close to putting NOS4a2 on the backburner and loading up Dan Brown's INFERNO which is next on my list.
Too many of the characters in NOS4A2 seemed too "dumbed down." I mean it was too much of a crazy mix of mentally challenged (Bing and Manx) along with a shallow personality in the main character. These two things made it hard to take the characters seriously. Juvenile fiction came to mind, but it definitely had some crazy adult (not for kids) sexual mentionings...
My fav character thus far (even though he is one of the least developed qualities) is the overweight husband. And it was touching how he really wishes he could tell his son how one time long ago he was "the hero" rescuing his mom from the ultimate evil.
At this point I am almost done with the book so we will see. I do appreciate how a lot of Hill's characters in his short stories and novels are very flawed and screwed up.
So..does anyone else out there have issues with the audiobook narrator??
Gabriel
"Absorb the genius of the moment." -Michael Stipe
"Victory is sweet even deep in the cheap seats." -Connor Oberst
NEED:
One For Road Signed Artist Edition, PS Publishing
The Gunslinger Viking proof
Carrie $7.95 Doubleday later printing
I actually really liked the narrator for NOS4A2. I'm very picky on narrators. I've had books ruined because I couldn't understand them or they were just so drab that I couldn't differentiate the characters. I was not sure having a female narrator, but I thought she was great. Of course, that's one persons opinion. Some people love when King reads his books, some don't. I almost laughed the first time I started to listen to one of his after hearing Frank Muller do so great, but have grown to enjoy hearing King self narrate.
I'm currently reading Alan Moore's first (and, so far, only) novel, Voice of the Fire. It isn't for everybody (the first chapter takes place in 4000 BC and is written in an incredibly strange dialect that tries -- and succeeds -- to simulate what it might be like to be a Stone Age simpleton), but so far the first fifty pages are among the most imaginative things I've ever read.
Going back to where it all began. I'm interested to see how different, if he is, Westlake's Parker is before the almost quarter century hiatus.
Jean, glad to hear it! See, we have quite a bit of common ground within King's work. Differences just tend to stick out more than similarities.
The Wolves difference sticks out a mile, Stebbins. A bloody mile.
Gabriel, can you please re-post it in this thread?
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am listening to the DT series on audio in the car (it's a fantastic way to get in extra reading time, I am thoroughly addicted to audio books, much to my kid's disgust). I have listened to them all back-to-back (as I did with GRRM's Game of Thrones series) - I do miss Frank Muller, I must say. In paper, form, I'm reading the latest Jack Reacher book, "Never Go Back" utterly brilliant, his best in a long time, I think.............
Jean: Well we'll see if my opinion changes on my DT re-read (I was only fifteen or sixteen my first time with Wolves). I would very much enjoy seeing your list of ranking King's work.
I posted it somewhere at the beginning of that thread, but I'll update it soon. Got to finish Joyland first.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The latest issue - with another great cover.
Only read one article so far: 70th Anniversary: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man revisited - a great read on one of the classics.
Too bad there are only four more issues to go!
sk
At the request of my Mother:
I'm deciding which King book I own but have not read to start for my next fiction novel. It's between DESPERATION that is in the lead, BAG OF BONES, the middle man, and 11/22/63, the caboose. It's primarily based on length because I am simultaneously reading another book.