Actually liked Grave Sight her non-sookie book much better.
Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Giles ,'Conversations with Dead People'
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."
Typo Boy - May 09, 2006 11:58:45 am PDT #437 of 28061
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
EpicTangent - May 09, 2006 12:52:27 pm PDT #438 of 28061
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty
Just in from the Department of Coincidences: Charlaine Harris is doing a book signing here this Saturday of her new book, Definitely Dead.
Scrappy - May 11, 2006 7:22:08 am PDT #439 of 28061
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
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.
DavidS - May 14, 2006 8:42:00 pm PDT #440 of 28061
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
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.
Jon B. - May 15, 2006 2:35:10 am PDT #441 of 28061
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
I would have found it more useful if they'd asked each voter to pick 5 or 10 books, and not just 1.
Hayden - May 15, 2006 5:37:30 am PDT #442 of 28061
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
People voted for Cormac McC's Border Trilogy over Blood Meridian! That's some kind of insane troll logic.
Strega - May 15, 2006 5:41:46 am PDT #443 of 28061
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.
Sophia Brooks - May 15, 2006 5:46:18 am PDT #444 of 28061
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
Beloved is also the only book on that list I have read. But Philip Roth seems to drive me bugfuck, so I guess that is unsurprising.
flea - May 15, 2006 5:53:16 am PDT #445 of 28061
information libertarian
I was stunned by how many of the top choices were by novelists in their 70s. I don't read a lot of literary fiction in general, but it seems to me that there might be some good younger writers out there who got missed? It seemed like a lot of these guys (Roth, DeLillo, Updike)were canonized longer ago than 25 years, and their newer works got put on the list by default. I would love to know the age/demographic of the people surveyed.
For some reason Toni Morrison seems a much more modern writer to me than Roth or Updike.
brenda m - May 15, 2006 5:54:01 am PDT #446 of 28061
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
I'm not a Roth fan, but The Things They Carried is on my top ten, for sure. (Hec, I think you and I have had that conversation before.)