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Post by Canela on Mar 6, 2006 17:25:46 GMT -5
'The Blue Castle' by LM Montgomery. And I've read it about... Hmmm. I'm guessing 15-20 times in the last five years. I BookCrossed it last summer, though, and I have yet to get a new copy, I really need to order one. It's got a sympathetic protagonist, great love story, characters who decide to defy society and live their own way, and some wonderful quotes.
My favorite line: "People who dislike cats always seem to think that there is some peculiar virtue that comes in not liking them."
'Pride and Prejudice' is second. I've only read it twice. I hated it when I read it in high school, but I read an article over on ChickLit about re-reading the books you hated in high school, and I decided to give it a try, and man, I loved it. The characters are very human, and it's witty and it's got a lot of great little subplots below the main story.
Plus, ya know. Mr. Darcy.
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Post by Oz on Mar 7, 2006 0:53:38 GMT -5
Oh, man, favorite book? I couldn't tell ya my favorite book of all time, but I can give you the ones that spring most readily to mind.
For Fantasy, it's easily George RR Martin's 'A Game of Thrones'. Really indepth 'grey' (meaning not really easily recognizable as good or evil) characters, a plot with a thousand twists, and an awesome political world.
For mysteries, my favorite author would be Robert B. Parker, however, my favorite mystery book would be Michael Conelly's 'Lost Light'. A great gritty narative style, wonderful dialogue, and it's one of the few mystery books that had an ending that completely shocked me. After years of reading mystery books, I've gotten pretty good at deciphering the plots before the conclusion of the book, however, 'Lost Light' snuck up behind me, stabbed me in the back, and then shot my bleeding corpse until it finally stopped twitching.
Oh god, there are so many other books I can think of too... I really wish I had a definitive favorite.
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Post by Canela on Jul 17, 2006 14:05:38 GMT -5
Because Canela just isn't content to let this thread die.
Anyone read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series? They seem very BWEish to me, they've got the right distorted perspective of reality and unconventional sense of humor. I'm reading Fforde's newest novel, so I feel the need to pimp him here. The series is set in an alternate-universe version of 1980's Britain where several important historical events happened differently (for example, Winston Churchill died at a very young age, and World War II went on until the 1970's or so), Wales is an independent Socialist state, Britain's government is controlled by a corporation, airplanes were never invented but it's possible to buy clone-your-own-dodo kits at the drugstore, and pop culture revolves around literature rather than music or movies/TV. People dress in costume to go to special showings of Shakespeare's plays and shout lines and throw things at the stage; 'Baconians' go door-to-door trying to convert people to the theory that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works. The main character, Thursday, discovered as a child that she has the rare ability to enter the storylines of books, and she works for a governmental branch dealing with literary crimes; several of the books involve her adventures in the other-worldly library that's sort of a convergence point for all fiction- there are councils of important characters whose jobs involve things like fixing plot holes without drawing the readers' attention to the change, dragging the characters from Wuthering Heights to group-therapy meetings to try to help them deal with their resentment of Heathcliff, etc.
Canela really likes Jasper Fforde, in case you couldn't tell.
Also, I'm going to try to shove Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca in your faces, because it just rocks. The first couple of chapters are rather slow, but then it picks up and it's absolutely fascinating until the end. The main character (you never find out her name) marries the owner of a very old, famous estate, early in the book. She was working as a paid companion for a rich woman whom she didn't like before they met while traveling in Europe, and she suspects that he only marries her because he's lonely; his first wife died in an accident and everyone gossips about how he never really got over her death. There's a mystery surrounding how Rebecca died, which unravels as the book goes on, and Rebecca is one of the most important characters, despite having died before the beginning of the story. The servants are still creepily loyal to her and refer to 'Mrs. de Winter' as though she's still alive (the narrator is always adressed as 'Madam,' never as 'Mrs. de Winter'), and her husband's friends openly compare her to Rebecca. The protagonist's outside view of her husband's world, which she never really fits into due to the difference in their social classes, makes her sympathetic while still a little disturbing herself because she shows a detachment/occasional morbid interest where Rebecca's death is concerned. Plus, there's a huge plot twist at the end that's just... Well, I'm not going to let it go, but yes. Bloody brill book.
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Post by Oz on Jul 29, 2006 17:58:12 GMT -5
Oh, everyone needs to read 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch. It's his first published book and it is awesome. I'd tell you all about it, but I figure my recommendation will be more than enough.
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Post by Skiv on Jul 29, 2006 23:18:02 GMT -5
The Alchemist is mad crazy good, no idea who it's by though. It's fantasticly... Godishy-omenful-and-everything-happens-for-a-reason.
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Post by Canela on Jul 30, 2006 0:16:04 GMT -5
Paulo Coelho!
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Post by Kirukelgyr on Jul 31, 2006 4:05:34 GMT -5
I think I almost read the Alchemist once.
Pretty sweet reads, yos.
"To Say Nothing Of The Dog", awesome time travel. (Good book on a whole if you ignore the romance.)
Furball has now officially read "The Shining" and "Tommy Knockers". She didn't like either of them. Stick to "Cujo" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan", but mostly the second one.
Sadly, Furball has been reading more graphic novels than actual novels recently. She is bad, she knows.
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Post by Canela on Jul 31, 2006 12:51:25 GMT -5
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Look at the lovely leaf Oz brought me!!