Grapes of Wrath. Huckleberry is a reasonable backup.
Dawn: You're not fleeing. You're... moving at a brisk pace. Buffy: Quaintly referred to in some cultures as the Big Scaredy Run Away.
'Touched'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Gris - Jul 14, 2013 3:25:06 am PDT #21054 of 28370
Hey. New board.
sj - Jul 14, 2013 5:49:41 am PDT #21055 of 28370
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Author Robert Galbraith is actually J.K. Rowling link.
Kat - Jul 14, 2013 6:07:55 am PDT #21056 of 28370
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Kate, I feel like anything that pertains to Maddie is true. I believe that the Anna Engel stuff was all lies -- it was meant to be the diversion. Most of her account was a lie. Hence her "This is the truth! This is the truth!" and her telling the girl who refused to confess to just lie.
It's a perfect way to teach unreliable narrator, I think.
Polter-Cow - Jul 14, 2013 4:09:16 pm PDT #21057 of 28370
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Has anyone read Armor, by John Steakley? I haven't read a book this fucking frustrating in a while. I'm almost annoyed that it actually redeemed itself in the end.
Fred Pete - Jul 15, 2013 5:31:27 am PDT #21058 of 28370
Ann, that's a ferret.
I do think class is as much an American focus as race, although race is clearly not a focus anywhere else.
Yet class in America is inextricably intertwined with money, more so (I think) than elsewhere. I'd also add a 3rd Great American Focus, religion, which also plays out in a way different than elsewhere.
I'll argue for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. It isn't on that list. But class/money determines almost the entire plot, with more than a passing discussion of the effect of religion.
Oh, and Moby Dick is overrated. The treatise on whaling breaks into the plot too deeply.
§ ita § - Jul 15, 2013 7:03:24 am PDT #21059 of 28370
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
although race is clearly not a focus anywhere else
I don't understand what this means. What is the anywhere else?
Amy - Jul 15, 2013 7:56:06 am PDT #21060 of 28370
Because books.
I should have said almost, I guess. Race isn't a big focus in historical British literature, or most European literature, unless I'm completely wrong. And I absolutely could be. I just couldn't think of examples that address it the way Huck Finn and other American literature does.
§ ita § - Jul 15, 2013 8:06:58 am PDT #21061 of 28370
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
When British literature touches the colonies (and unsurprisingly my reading is skewed thusly) it is reasonably often a big deal. And when it's not it is therefore in hindsight, because it takes a lot of work to ignore that shit. I think of Kipling and Achebe and Stevenson and Defoe when I think of the genre.
Amy - Jul 15, 2013 8:42:26 am PDT #21062 of 28370
Because books.
That's a bunch of people I never really read. So, like I said, if I'm wrong, I apologize.
le nubian - Jul 15, 2013 8:46:41 am PDT #21063 of 28370
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
I'm reading Divergent by Veronica Roth right now and from the first chapter, the book has me hooked. I'm about 60% of the way right now (can you tell I'm reading on a Kindle?) and my early affection for the book is a bit more muted, but I'm still hooked.
I find the events of the book pretty realistic (and periodically horrifying) given Roth's world-building.
For those who liked Hunger Games, I recommend it.