A good librarian does not judge the reader's taste, whether it be LoTR or (shudder) Left Behind. There may be private shuddering, but public shuddering is Right Out.
YLMV.
Mal: Can I come in? Inara: No. Mal: See? That's why I usually don't ask.
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
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."
flea - Feb 26, 2004 7:38:12 am PST #1040 of 10002
information libertarian
amyparker - Feb 26, 2004 7:39:22 am PST #1041 of 10002
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.
Kenny's reading Ender's Game. This should be interesting.
Hi, my name's amyparker (and welcome to AmyLiz; let's see you weirdos mess around with pronouncing that!) and I had never read a romance novel before I fell in with you lot.
Deena - Feb 26, 2004 7:46:22 am PST #1042 of 10002
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara
flea, yeah, of course, that was (way too many) years ago. I've even read one of the Left Behind books. Pertty much disliked it, but I read it.
erikaj - Feb 26, 2004 8:10:32 am PST #1043 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
dude, I can top that...I read "The Rules". I'm so ashamed. I'm Erika, and I'm a textoholic.But when the urge for the printed word hits, I might read anything.
Astarte - Feb 26, 2004 8:14:10 am PST #1044 of 10002
Not having has never been the thing I've regretted most in my life. Not trying is.
Erika, it's when the mystery element kicked in that I finally found Atonement bearable.
The start of the book was compelling character free. Since I live, eat, and breathe character it made for a very hard slog.
erikaj - Feb 26, 2004 8:15:19 am PST #1045 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
I'm Dialogue's Bitch.
deborah grabien - Feb 26, 2004 9:36:13 am PST #1046 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
I don't know about professional reviewers, but I couldn't finish the two books of hers that I tried. Didn't care about the protagonist. Didn't care about the plot. Didn't care about anything she mentioned, basically. I was disappointed, because they'd been recommended by people whose other book choices I'd really liked.
I haven't read her last few - writing mysteries, I don't dare read new stuff in mid-write. Bad on every level.
But everything through the early nineties in the Inspector Wexford series - I think "Simisola" was the most recent of hers I've read, and she took on some very difficult stuff in there - knocks me out. I love "Dark Adapted Eye", as well.
But if I was reccing Rendell? It would be two non-Wexford mysteries, oddly enough. "A Demon In My View" just floors me - about a serial killer, and I don't remember it missing on a single cylinder. The other, "To Fear A Painted Devil" (she likes Shakespearean quotes, Rendell does!) is another corker. Very much about character and situation, and one is dark in North London (my old 'hood, perfectly done), the other is sun-soaked in the countryside. Killer books, those two.
Dani - Feb 26, 2004 10:45:11 am PST #1047 of 10002
I believe vampires are the world's greatest golfers
Early Rendell/Vine is indeed stunning - my favourite by a nose is probably Asta's Book . The most recent of hers I've read is the latest Wexford, Babes in the Wood . I loved Wexford, as always, but the identity of the villain & the nature of their villany was totally obvious (even to me, a rather unobservant reader) - bad for any mystery, and very unusual for her.
Amy - Feb 26, 2004 11:03:47 am PST #1048 of 10002
Because books.
Dani -- I think that's Anna's Book in the U.S., and I loved that one, too. What I hated about The Blood Doctor was that she tried to do the same thing with a diary/letters and uncovering the truth about a family member, and it was just a huge yawn. Also loved The House of Stairs. More of a whydunit than a whodunit.
flea -- I love characters and dialogue, too. It's one of the reasons Regencies are so much fun. Like listening in on a private conversation between two very bright, very witty people.
Betsy HP -- Were you in NYC last summer? My favorite was New Orleans a few years ago. Hot as hell, and even more humid, but I'd never been there before.
I think one thing that gets me about the literary elite is the whole "popular = bad" equation they seem to be taught at birth. Right now I'm reading (and okay, it's a friend's book, but still) A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray -- it's a YA novel set in 1895, featuring a 16-year-old girl sent to boarding school when her mother dies, who realizes that she has visions. Magic, other realms, and general spookiness ensue, but what I love is that the girls she describes are REAL. They're 1895 real on one level, true, but they're any-era real, as well. The story is just boiling along in the best page-turning sense, but she explores with these girls and the themes of power, individuality, and society is deep stuff. Plus, her writing is fabulous -- lush (but not too) balanced with straighforward. I've never understood why the critics don't understand (or don't advocate for) good writing that tells a kick-ass story.
deborah grabien - Feb 26, 2004 11:04:36 am PST #1049 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
Dani, have you read A Judgement in Stone? A non-Wexford, utterly terrifying, and just inexorable, the story of what happens is like a damned steamroller, no getting out of its way. Amazing book.
I have two shelves of Rendell, early stuff, and the only one that flipped me and hit me wrong was An Unkindness of Ravens. I didn't like the message in that one, I didn't like her extraneous characters, and it hit me as weirdly antifeminist.