Book spoils

[rachelmanija]

I got all these at a thrift shop for six dollars total. Comment if you've read them/heard of them/hate them.

Laurie Colwin, A Big Storm Knocked it Over. I like her nonfiction food writing enough to overcome my reservations about buying an adult mainstream novel about "marriage, friendship, motherhood, and careers as experienced by a cast of endearingly eccentric Manhattanites,"-- a genre which I usually loathe.

Mollie Hunter, The Kelpie's Pearls. Obviously out of print kid's book with an appealing title. I think I've heard of the author, but can't recall the context.

Eloisa James, Kiss Me, Annabel. The sequel to Much Ado About You.

Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter. I wish I'd read these when I was a kid, but I still like them. They are very odd and Scandinavian.

Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking. I remember adoring this, but who knows if I still will.

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. coffeeandink convinced me to give it a try.

L. M. Montgomery, Mistress Pat, which is the sequel to a book I have but haven't read yet, and Magic for Marigold.

Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase. Because I keep meaning to read his novels.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And Condors Danced. Looks like a realistic YA novel about a lonely girl and her dog. The dog better not die.

Erik Weihenmayer, Touch the Top of the World. A memoir by a blind man who climbed Everest. I have recently become obsessed with climbing and in the last week, I re-read Into Thin Air and watched Touching the Void, even though I wouldn't personally want to do any of that sort of mountain climbing, which combines three things I detest: cold, high altitudes, and serious danger.

Jay Williams, Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave. Oops, I already have a copy of this. Anyone want this one?

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Danny Dunn! Please?

My booklog entry on the James in its entirety: Eloisa James' Kiss Me, Annabel is the sequel to Much Ado About You, and like that book it was light lunchtime reading. I preferred the middle, relatively-plotless interlude best, where the two protagonists actually, you know, get to know and like each other. Other than that, I don't have much to say about it, except that I think I know where book three is going (the same place I thought after book one), and I'm rather dubious about it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Sure! Email me your address, and it's yours.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

I loved the Montgomery books as a kid, though I've heard these are her weaker ones. I can't really judge from where I sit now.

I didn't get into Cloud Atlas although it many fans.

[octopedingenue]

I love Haruki Murakami's short stories, but I've yet to manage one of his novels as well.

1. Am I still downloading "Lost" for you, since I am late late late and you may have found a better supplier in desperation?
2. If so, are there specific episodes you want me to snag or just all of season 2? (I can't remember what if anything I've sent you already.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have not found a better supplier. The ones I haven't seen are... 2/5, 2/6, 2/7, 2/8, I did manage to catch 2/9 (What Kate Did), but then missed everything after that. maybe you could just mail me 2/5-2/8 for now, if you've been downloading them in order?

Also, I am now desperate to see more of Naruto, pretty please when you get a chance? Like, from the chuunin exams on? (I already have a Bleach supplier.

Let me know when you want BPAL/books/LJ posts written to order/a horse head in someone's bed/an autographed copy of my book/an autographed copy of Project Blue Rose/other favors to be determined later.

Naruto

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I meant, "starting with the chuunin exams and continuing from there," not "everything after the end of the chuunin exams."

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And Condors Danced. Looks like a realistic YA novel about a lonely girl and her dog. The dog better not die

....ummmmmm. ((looks off into middle distance, whistles))

I loved Touching the Void and Into Thin Air, too, and I would almost never go climbing, partly because growing up next to mountain ranges you become too aware of all the stupid shit people do (going on all-day hikes without matches or water, in regular running shoes, not bringing spare clothing, not bringing stuff like candy bars in case they get lost, &c &c). While watching the Blair Witch Project, I was the one howling: "Follow the water, you IDIOTS! Follow it DOWN!"

You might like Joe Simpson's books -- TTV is v dry and unassuming (as opposed to Krakauer, who has the tendency to make everything Meaningful and Operatic) and This Game of Ghosts and The Beckoning Silence (he nearly dies as a result of a collapsing serac and as a result decides to climb the Eiger Face) also thoughtfully question the insane bravery/death wish of some extreme climbers. Dark Shadows Falling also talks about the commercialization of Everest, and the plight of the Sherpas, a lot more interestingly than Krakauer who is, frankly, sort of a journo wannabe (not that I have anything against journos Doing Stuff and then writing about it -- but you can tell the difference when someone who's done it all their lives writes about it).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Krakauer actually says that he realized in retrospect that he wasn't qualified to climb Everest, even though he'd done some very difficult climbs before.

After I first read his book, I read a couple others about the same climb, like Anatoli Boukreev's and Lene Gamelgaard's, both of whom were better climbers than Krakauer. However, Krakauer is so much better as writer that it's obvious why his book was the one that became a bestseller. It's really well-written and well-organized in a way that jumps out even more after you read accounts by other people who were more in the thick of things than he was, but who just aren't that great as writers.

I think it's pretty unusual for excellent athletes to also be excellent writers, which is why a lot of the key literature, as opposed to technical manuals on various sports is frequently written by professional writers who loved their sport but weren't really that good at it, or, like Krakauer, were excellent amateurs but not in the league of pros: Mark Salzman's books on kung fu, for instance, or Pat Conroy's My Losing Season, whose first line sums it all up: "I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one."

I am totally talking about myself here, aren't I?

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And Condors Danced. Looks like a realistic YA novel about a lonely girl and her dog. The dog better not die

....ummmmmm. ((looks off into middle distance, whistles))

Ummm, ummmmmmm, And Condors Danced is really good, honest. Ummm.

[herself_nyc]

Colwin used to be my favorite living novelist until her untimely death. I adore everything she wrote. But I caution you that A Big Storm was published posthumously and so wasn't polished to her usual level; keep that in mind when you read it, and do try any of her other fiction too--I especially like Goodbye Without Leaving.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

That was more or less what I was going to say - that's it's not perhaps the place to start. The one I love most is Happy All The Time, followed by Goodbye without Leaving.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And Condors Danced.

Read this long, long time ago (though not in a galaxy far, far away). I don't remember the fate of the dog. My favorites of ZKS's novels remain The Egypt Game and The Changeling.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Oh, have also read Mistress Pat, which I liked at the time but would probably hate now. I didn't think there were any LMM novels which I had missed, but Magic for Marigold would seem to be one.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I quite like the Moomin books. Except, for some reason, I gave them away when I was in high school or college, and regretted that, so I had to hunt up new copies to replace them. I guess I felt they were a little too much the same to read all in one fell swoop.

I quite liked A Wild Sheep Chase when I read it over a decade ago. I started rereading it, enjoying it, and then sabotaged my reread by getting too ambitious: I started writing down notes for a big DbS post, and when I didn't have time to post my notes, my reread stalled. Oops.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I agree with kate_nepveu on Kiss Me, Annabel (I'm starting to loathe Imogen) and with herself_nyc and oursin on Colwin (though I actually read A Big Storm Knocked It Over first, years ago, and liked it enough to read the rest of her fiction).

Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat are, sadly, my least favorite Montgomery books, because of the deeply neurotic heroine, who wants nothing more than to stay home and take care of her house forever. They're worth reading for the other, more engaging characters and the affectionate descriptions of Prince Edward Island, but I reread them far less than any other of her books.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. I stalled out on Pat of Silver Bush, but thought I might have been in the wrong mood. However, nothing can possibly be worse than Kilmeny of the Orchard.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping an eye out for MOOMINLAND MIDWINTER--Michael Swanwick said that was his favorite of them, and was perfect to read at this time of year. I'd borrowed some of the Moomin books from plasticsturgeon, but she didn't have that one.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I read PAT OF SILVER BUSH and found it a little creepy. I think there were some period attitudes I wasn't getting, maybe.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I went surfing around and found a Montgomery site (http://www.literarytraveler.com/montgomery/lucymaud.htm) with a biography that tells about the houses that Silver Bush and Green Gables etc were based on. Montgomery lived in some of them for a while. She talks about them in her journals years afterwards. Apparently she had a lot of feeling for them.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of L.M. Montgomery generally (and a rabid fan of the Emily trilogy), but I rather dislike the Pat books. Pat is really, really, really, really attatched to her house, and after a certain point it goes from "endearing" to "a little bit nutso." I like Jingle, though.

[cofax7]

I highly recommend finding a copy of Touching the Void; it's a fantastic read. Also Krakauer's essay collection, um, I memfault on the name, but I think it has Eiger in the title. "Bad Summer in the Karakorum" is fabulous. I've liked almost all of Krakauer's other work better than Into Thin Air, which I think he wrote too soon after the tragedy.

Annapurna: A Woman's Place is, I think, back in print -- it's the story of the women's expedition to Annapurna back in 1978. They funded it with the sale of t-shirts that said "A Woman's Place is On Top." So risque! *g*

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Oh yes on the Annapurna. I read some women climbers' books, and that was a good one.

[cofax7]

Seconding the Joe Simpson rec, here. He's very good, and more than a little nuts.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I liked Cloud Atlas a lot.

My sons adored the Moomin books. Despite being large sullen teenagers now, they still keep those books on their shelves (although I don't know if they surreptiously reread them).

Count me also as a person who likes to read about climbing. I climbed Mt Lassen and Long's Peak, but, um, well, anyway, those were hikes. Still, the feeling of standing at the top of a big tall mountain is amazing.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

I read Cloud Atlas on the recommendation of a friend who thought it was absolutely brilliant. I think it's structurally amazing, and its internal stories were very interesting, but I didn't get emotionally attached to it. I wrote a bit more about it at the time (http://fillingthewell.livejournal.com/3976.html).

[octopedingenue]

Whatever you do, don't go read the Amazon page for And Condors Danced, because it spoils the end of the book AND the dog by the fifth sentence. Nice, Amazon.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the Cloud Atlas lovers. Amazing structure, and I connected with the Sonmi plotline in particular.

Yay Moominland! I wish I'd had them as a kid too, but didn't find out about them until a couple of years ago.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

By the way, I really admire how this Comment page is set up, with the sub-threads not showing User Pics. It's much easier to see the structure of the conversation. Could you give some hint about how that's done?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Umm, this is just the basic default LJ template. I am pretty much computer illiterate.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I am not sure how much you'll like Cloud Atlas. But it is an interesting book.

A Wild Sheep Chase is what I expected from a Murakami novel, although so far I like his short fiction better.