Books I've read and favorite authors (book corner)

[gingerbird]

Cindy, I have the same question about The Grounding of Group Six. Give us the synopsis!

The shipping on eBay KILLS me. I hate it when people make their profits on shipping, so I always figure that into a price when I bid. I like buying DVDs and books on Amazon better (my biggest purchases over the last few years, although I am giving up buying much of anything lately) since shipping is a constant $2.99. Shipping to Canada is also crazy, priced like it's going to Timbuktu, by personal courier.

[gingerbird]

p.s. I am excited you are starting the newest King book, peanut. Let me about it as you progress through it. I'm almost done with Koontz's Frankenstein. It's a fast read.

[Cindy]

Ginger: Canadian shipping is absolutely outrageous but no kidding our postal people live like kings. They finish routes between 2-3pm and have weekends off (we have no weekend delivery)

Jen mentioned the book upthread and I read about it on Amazon.

6 kids are sent off to boarding school but what they don't know is that their teacher is a paid assassin--paid for by....their parents. Apparently the kids are an embarrassment to thier wealthy families and the parents want to get rid of them for good. So, its how the kids deal with it, and come together to help each other. (Some on Amazon describe it as being like the "breakfast club" movie.) Many read it as teens, then re-read it later and loved it even more as they got older.

[peanut]

Oooh that sounds really good Cindy. Must keep an eye out for it.

[gingerbird]

Those parents should have just sent their kids to the camp where Jason started out. I never saw those movies (but I'll bet peanut did), but remember the kids at camp got picked off (read: slaughtered) one by one.

[peanut]

Haha Ginger! Actually I only saw one of those movies when I was very wee so don't remember it much but they are on my list of horrors to see!! I have the first four Saw Movies and a few weeks ago I watched the first three (I'd seen the first one a few years ago but couldn't really remember it all). I thought they were very good. I've yet to watch the 4th one.

I still haven't started Lisey's Story. I intended starting it last night but then fell asleep before I even took it down from the book shelf! So this morning I took it down and it is now on my bed still not started! But at least it's gotten closer to me haha! I plan to start it tonight.

There's an application flying round Facebook where you pick your top 5 of different things. So after I did my fave books I did one for my five fave horrors (books) which are: "'Salem's Lot", "It", "The Stand", "Misery" and the only non-Stephen King was "The Magic Cottage" by James Herbert. I actually don't remember it all as I read it when I was about 14. I must re-read it as I know I really liked it but can't remember it all. I remember it was a mixture of kind-of cool mystical stuff mixed with horror.

[gingerbird]

I just finished Frankenstein. It's part one; not sure if I'll read part two, City of Night. Maybe I'll never find out how it all ends! This first book left off with the manufactured autistic man hiding underneath the porch of the police detective's house where she lives with HER autistic brother, the original 200-year-old "monster" teaming up with the detectives to help capture the planted "manufactured" killing detective (who just had a being "hatch" out of his stomach a la Alien). Meanwhile, Frankenstein, the doctor himself, just killed his manufactured wive No. 4 after finding out she killed his head-in-a-jar after it begged her to do so. He was producing wife No. 5 from the "tank" as the book ended.

I know, I know! (Did I mention the undercurrent of an unrequited love between the two lead "normal" detectives? Heh.)

Peanut, you were up so late last night with your amigo Senior Veeno, I'm surprised you even thought of reading at all!

I thought Gerald's Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were far superior to earlier King books. Can't wait to hear your take on Lisey's Story, pnut.

[peanut]

Ginger, you just gave away the ending of a book!! Bad Ginger! Don't know if it sounds like my cup of tea though.

Snr Veeeeeno was Thursday night Ginger. I didn't drink on Good Friday (or eat meat!). I'm soooo good

I read the first page of Lisey's Story and then decided (for some inexplicable reason) that I wanted to watch Bridget Jones' Diary for the millioneth time. I don't even know why it came into my head but there ya go.

[gingerbird]

Peanut, I was being bad about revealing the ending of that book since I cannot imagine anyone here reading it. It was loaned to me more than a year ago, it's taken me that long to get into it, then it only took a few hours to read some 500 pages. It is NOT one of Koontz's best, or even average books. The preface says it originally was to be Martin Scorsese movie, then Scorsese left the project, then Koontz himself left the project, so the book(s) were produced from the original movie script. This one was quickly written, and quickly read.

I loved the Bridget Jones books, peanut. The books are even better than the movies!

Peanut: Since you put "It" on your list of fav horror books, what were your thoughts on the monster revealed at the end? I guess I am not afraid of those things, but perhaps they are a horror object for most people since they also were used as monsters in the forest in Harry Potter.

[gingerbird]

Well, this thread has been pretty quiet, so I'll perk it up by saying I read "The Shack" today. It's been a No. 1 best-seller for umpteen months with 50 zillion copies sold. (Does everyone like my status facts?) Anyway, this could be a cross-over with the Clairvoyance thread since here's how I got the book: It appeared in my mailbox around my birth date in an envelope addressed to me, but with only "Happy Birthday" as a return address. I opened the package ... no card, no inscription, nothing to tell me who sent it. The postmark was a town about two hours south of me; I don't know anyone who lives there. Only a wee handful of people know when my birthday is, so that made it even more mystical. The one person I thought it might be (her parents live in between that town and mine, so she could have been traveling through) said it wasn't her, but she wished it had been. It's a stumper.

Anyway, has anyone read this book? I think it might be helpful to people who have lost a loved one or had a terrible tragedy in their life. I expect that's nearly everyone, although peanut here did come to mind. But I guess I'm burning in hell since I pretty much hated it.

theshackbook.com/

[Cindy]

Hmm...that is weird GB. Someone sends you a book you end up hating..lol Not a smashing birthday gift.

I'm now reading Jodi Picoult--Handle with Care--awesome book about a little girl with a disease and her Mom ends up suing the doctor for wrongful birth (just so she can get $$ to help pay for all the expenses--the dr is her former best friend too so it's about the struggle and the impact it has on the family) Great book and it's funny because I had been reading an earlier one of hers and was totally bored...proof positive that writers get better with experience.

I like her because she tackles hard subjects. I've read ones of hers with school shootings, organ transplants (one sister was born to help another) Kidnapping by a parent. She's not afraid to put it out there.

Anyway, this one was really good.

I hadn't commented in awhile because I was busy racing through twilight series books so I could get them back to the library. Liked parts of the series, hated others.

[peanut]

Sorry Ginger, I hadn't been in this thread in a while and didn't realise you had asked me a question about "It". Well the truth is, it's been years since I read it so can't fully remember the monster. All I can remember was a light or something coming out of the clown. It's been years since I read it but I remember being scared. One of the main parts that scared me was when the little brother got taken.

It's funny what you say about the Bridget Jones books cuz I read the first one and didn't find it amusing at all. I had watched the movie a few years back and I just feel in love with it. Thought it very funny. Then I read the book on the flight to Hawaii two years ago and thought it was crap. All it seemed to be made up of were her alcohol units and cigarettes smoked. All the parts of the movie that i found hilarious weren't in the book at all! So I was disappointed.

That certainly is very strange about The Shack!! Spooky that it was sent to you on your birthday and you never found out who sent it! And it's disappointing for you that after that you didn't enjoy it!!

It does sound interesting to me and thank you for thinking of me. I must read those first couple pages on the website to see if I would get into it. I started reading it just there but am too tired!

And I haven't read anymore of Lisey's Story. I must get stuck into it and let ye know what I think.

Cindy, Handle with Care sounds interesting too.

[gingerbird]

*crickets chirping*

Anyone reading anything lately?

[Cindy]

Oh, I finally got the grounding of group six so I'm busy with that but I'm in the early stages...My house needs some major cleaning so I feel guilty everytime I pick up a book..lol

[Cindy]

I finished the grounding of group six. Very breakfast club feel--good kids with screwy parents. It was interesting to see how quickly I figured out what was going to happen with the kids (short of being spoiled here) but it did keep up a good pace. Worth the read.