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

[peanut]

Glad you enjoyed it Cindy! I must keep my eye out for that one. I still haven't read Lisey's Story. I read a book last week that my sister sent me for my birthday. It's called "Ghosts Among Us" and is by James Van Praagh who is co-executive producer of The Ghost Whisperer (which I want to see but haven't yet).

I found it very relevent and helpful given the recent events in my life. Mostly it's stuff that I believed anyway but it's always nice to hear the perspective of someone who has such a gift.

I think it's worth a read to anyone who has questions about what happens when we die or for someone who has lost a loved one.

[gingerbird]

Peanut, James Van Praagh has written several books; you should check out his others. He was on The View last year and got BLASTED by Barbara Walters for his "talents." He was on to promote a new book and instead she ranked on him for being a "fake" for the entire interview. She got quite hysterical, actually. It was quite the sensation in the gossip rags for a while. (Walters is an idiot.)

Ghost Whisperer is okay, but predictable. WM guested on the very first ep ever, as a dead soldier. He got progressively less "moldy" as the hour went on.

I'm half-way through Burn Notice, just to stay OT for this thread. I'd hate to get a "warn" from the mod.

[peanut]

Hey Ginger, yeh they give a list of his books in this one - I'm gonna keep my eye out for them. Isn't Barbara Walters always causing a media frenzy or other over there? She seems a bit nutty to me from what I've heard.

And yeh, remember our mod is none other than The Boss (and a devil/divil) so behave!!!

[Cindy]

Oh yes, I'm such a "crack the whip" girl..lol

Yes, peanut, I know that James has a bunch of books. (As does Sylvia Brown) She is actually coming here and I had a shot at some tickets but no luck. I would have gone as a "freebie" but I wouldn't pay to see her.

Barbara Walters is a total cracker and man, she sounds like a snob too. She had some quote out there this yr along the lines of "Yeah, I'm retiring this yr, I'm tired of interviewing people who are just wanna be celebreties." Not an exact quote, but pretty darn close. LOL NICE.

No book picked out for this week but I'm on the library list for the one you recommended peanut "Angels in My Hair." it's still on order.

[Cindy]

Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care is a good read..about a little girl with brittle bone disease..I'll say this, Picoult isn't afraid to tackle the issues/tough questions.

And I see Jude Devereux has a new book out..yay! She's my guilty pleasure read..Historical Romance with the characters quite often going back and forth in time living their various "lives." A good read anyway..lol

[Cindy]

Peanut: I'm about to start "Angel's in my Hair."

It finally came in to the library.

[sabina82]

Right now I'm reading "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Really good. It's told from the perspective of a 90 (or 93) year old man in a long-term care facility - he is telling the tale of how he worked in the circus in the 1920s/30s after he dropped out of vet school. He's funny and crochety as an old man - love it. Kind of reminds me of my grampa.

[Cindy]

I'll put it on my list...

[peanut]

Cindy, what do you think of Angels in My Hair so far?

I just finished "Lazy Bones" by Mark Billingham a couple days ago. I hadn't heard of the author before and three books of his were being sold through a book club company that leave stuff at my work and we can buy from them. For the three of them it was only €7.00 and they looked good so I thought for that price I couldn't go wrong. I found it really good - pretty much hard to put down. It's a detective story set in London. The two others are "Sleepy Head" and I can't remember the name of the third off hand but I don't think I'm reading them in order (same detective is in all 3) but I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter. Looking forward to reading them if Lazy Bones is anything to go by.

I went to see Angels and Demons in the cinema last night and loved it. I bought the book a few years ago but haven't read it yet (not sure why) so I want to get stuck into it now to see what might have been left out of the movie or whatever although my niece tells me it stayed pretty much to form which I like.

[Cindy]

Peanut: I totally believe her--the detail with which she describes her scenarios makes me think it's absolutely true. Also, she talks about a lot of bright colours ect..which is consistant with with many others (including myself) I'm not that far into it but I imagine I will find 98% of it to be relevant.

[hepalien]

Has anyone read the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich?

My sister-in-law (the one I like, not the other one ) gave me the first 3-books-in-one for Christmas, and when I was on vacation a few weeks ago I finally got around to reading it. I was hooked immediately, so I started rushing through the rest of them. I'm up to book 9 now.

My problem is that I'm liking Stephanie less and less, and the damn love triangle is driving me crazy. (It's how I feel about any love triangle, but especially the one on Lost - it's a cliche storyline, and I think it's been done to death. Come up with something more creative!) Anyway, I'm having a hard time getting around the fact that she's essentially cheating on Joe, but doesn't really feel all that badly about it. I like him! I bought into their relationship from the beginning, so I don't like to see her be so wishy washy.

Also, I'm sick of her being so stupid when it comes to getting into scary situations, and not taking them seriously. Maybe it's just because I've read all of them back-to-back, but I feel like it's the same recycled plot over and over and Steph never learns anything.

I guess these later books just aren't as fun as the first ones.

Anyone else read these? Agree with me or think I shouldn't take it so seriously and just go along for the ride?

[Cindy]

Hmmm...never read them Hep--I'll put the first few on my list too. (The nice thing about looking stuff up at the library is it goes from most recent to earliest so I can work backwards)

It's likely that you'll find more issues with the writing because you did read it all back to back and remember it so clearly.

I did that with the Twilight series...one week I hadn't heard of it, then in the next 2 months I read all 4.

I swear if I had the word Beautiful, stunning, perfect or marble like skin, one more time, I was going to scream.

And like you, I was on the fence about weather I enjoyed the books because the same issues kept cropping up. You can have the opinion and still go along for the ride..if it really starts to interrfere with your enjoyment of the book, put them on the backburner for awhile and go back to them when you aren't so annoyed by it:-)

[gingerbird]

Hep, I've read nearly all of the Stephanie Plum books and enjoy them, although the first ones are the best. The 15th (Finger Lickin' Fifteen) just got bumped on the hardcover fiction best-seller list to No. 2 from No. 1 (by James Patterson's new book, Swimsuit).

I think they are written very much tongue-in-cheek, with the characters being so crazy and the same things happening to Stephanie, like her car being constantly blown up/set on fire. Every time she gets a new car, you KNOW it's going to be destroyed somehow, with the humour in the repetition. I don't think any of it should be taken very seriously, especially in the romance department. I like Ranger better than Joe since he's dark, mysterious and always shows up to save Steph when she needs it most. He's the "dark-side" of hot, steamy romance while Joe is the upstanding cop, who understands Steph and keeps a balance in her life. While Joe could be real, I doubt any of us could ever have a Ranger in our lives, he's such a fantasy guy. While she's lived with both, sometimes out of necessity after her apartment has been fire bombed, neither have made her commit to an exclusive. Each knows the other is in Steph's life, but she commits to neither. That's just her persona -- I don't think she wants to be owned by anyone.

Yes, the books are repetitive, but I see that as Evanovich's working the same plot device (car being destroyed, apartment fire bombed, et. al.) as humourous elements in each book. Plots are basically the same, just the "icing" on the story is different. Eventually, the sameness can stop being funny or interesting. I lost interest in them a few books back since I felt the later ones lost the "joy d'vivre" of the earlier ones, which really were very funny. So, maybe some things have happened in the Joe/Ranger/Steph triangle that I'm not aware of. I enjoyed the craziness of the first several.

I might add, because I liked the Stephanie Plum books so much, I tried another of Evanovich's, "Full Tilt," I THINK it was. (She has written several others.) I hated it so much, I stopped reading almost as soon as I started. HATED it. "Worse book EVER," to quote Comic Book Guy.

[Cindy]

I've just finished Eileen Goudge Domestic Affairs very good--she was on welfare and continously sent out articles to supplement income and basically fell into a book deal. Now she has about 15 books and I've enjoyed all of them

[hepalien]

ginger - I'm glad someone else has read them. Yeah, I think it gets a little tedious with all the repetition she has going on. And again, maybe it's just because I've read them all back-to-back-to-back (I'm on number 12 now), but it feels like the same plot rehashed over and over again.

I get what you're saying - that's where some of the humor comes from - but at some point, you have to find something new. I reread the first few, and they were so much funnier. Maybe it's just because they were fresh or something, but I feel like something is missing in these later ones. I need the characters to grow or...do something different. I realize that it's only been a couple of years for them since the first book (while in real life it's been 15 years), but still - I think she could stand to move her characters along a little without losing the funny.

It's funny that I've gotten so sucked into these and take them seriously, because they really are just fluff and a good read. I can't help it - don't get me invested in characters and then treat them like crap as the author and expect me not to care!

And I'm sorry, I can't get behind the Ranger thing. First of all, his name is Ranger. Kinda lame, no? I can't take a person with a name like that seriously. And I don't really find him appealing, because he's just so monosyllabic and hard to read...I feel like I can't connect with him as a character. Plus, if you reread the first few books, JE totally reimagined him as a character in order to create this love triangle. Again, the hazards of reading them so quickly, I guess. The initial descriptions were still fresh in my mind.

Plus, I always think that it is really hypocritical of Steph to be jealous of Joe possibly cheating on her, but yet she's doing just that behind his back. I hate that in real life, so I can't support it in my fiction either.

Anyhoodle, I'm going to keep going because I want to see where she goes with the books, but I'm not as invested in these last few as I was at first.

I was reading some customer reviews of the newest book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc, and many said what you did - that they haven't read the last couple of books because they just weren't as fun anymore and were too repetitive.

Eh, whatever - I'm just going to stop taking them so seriously.