Zoe ,'Serenity'
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."
Anyone read Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books? Didja know Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under has optioned it, and is making an HBO series of it? They start filming next year.
I read those! I don't get HBO though so no joy for me (until the DVDs come out).
I'm in the midst of Dead to the World at present, though I've got to say it's not wowing me.
Just read the first chapter or so of Dead to the World in the back of one of the Nightside books last night. Looks interesting, but I'm in the midst of a book-buying moratorium (no, really!) for the next little while. I'll have to put the author in my little notebook to check for next visit to the liberry.
Actually liked Grave Sight her non-sookie book much better.
Just in from the Department of Coincidences: Charlaine Harris is doing a book signing here this Saturday of her new book, Definitely Dead.
I just finished River of Darkness, by Rennie Airth. It's a mystery/thriller about a police detective in post WWI England, dealing with the aftermath of both the war and his own personal tragedies. Really well written and with a great sense of place and time. It manages to feel of the period without being arch or self-consciously Olde Fashioned. I recommend it highly.
How to build a canon NY Times poll on the greatest work of American fiction of the last 25 years.
I'm not surprised that Beloved won. It seemed the most universally acclaimed book since Gravity's Rainbow. I was a little surprised that (a) that's the only Toni Morrison book among the top choices and (b) that so many of Philip Roth's later works were cited.
Well, not entirely surprised since I love Roth, but I haven't kept up with his career at all and it's nice to see that he and Don Delillo have both been cranking out the quality work with regularity. Corwood will be happy to see that Cormac gets his props too. Interesting that Housekeeping got cited. I knew people liked it, but I didn't realize that it had that kind of consensus. Also pleased to see Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried sustaining its reputation.
I would have found it more useful if they'd asked each voter to pick 5 or 10 books, and not just 1.
People voted for Cormac McC's Border Trilogy over Blood Meridian! That's some kind of insane troll logic.
Beloved is the only thing on that list I've read. Of course, I kept thinking, "What about -- oh, right, that's not by an American." I am a little surprised that there's no Auster in there, though.