Adult summer reading

[Anonymous]

Did not like Winter's Tale.

I like to read good YA fiction (much of which is not even marketed as YA fiction outside the US).

For example, the Hunger Games Trilogy is good.

[Anonymous]

I love, love, love "Say her name", by Francisco Goldman. Heartily recommended. It is a love memoir, written by the widower after his young wife dies in a bodysurfing accident. Beautifully written, heart wrenching... Could not put it down !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are a bunch of illiterate losers.

What are your recommendations then?

My all time favorites:

Random Family
Room
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Guests of the Ayatollah
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Roots

[Anonymous]

A guy whose wife dies in a bodysurfing accident? A woman and her son trapped in a rapist's garage for years and years? FAULKNER?

Y'all bitches is delusional. That is not what summer reading it about!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A guy whose wife dies in a bodysurfing accident? A woman and her son trapped in a rapist's garage for years and years? FAULKNER?

Y'all bitches is delusional. That is not what summer reading it about!

You should read more so you can broaden your vocabulary and sharpen your reading comprehension. Room might not be a light read, but it's not graphic and it's really not about the rapist at all. It's about the bond between a mother & son and overcoming obstacles. It is a quick read that you don't have to put a lot of effort into.

[Anonymous]

Bossy Pants - tina Fey. I downloaded the audible on my kindle and loved it (Tina reads it)
The Room - it is a quick read, but I'm not certain that it is good beach reading
Anything written by Janet Evanovich
Water for Elephants - oldie but goodie
Anything written by Carl Hiaasen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you read The Help by Kathryn Stockett? It was good. Just read The Ask by Sam Lipsyte. A little heavy, but funny in a black humor sort of way.

I hated The Ask. I really found it to be incredibly misogynistic - also just misanthropic, but especially hateful of / to women. I wonder what's up with authors who write like this. I wonder if they hate themselves or just their readers? Or if they're catering to a form of self-flagellation that we all engage in? The book had no redeeming characters. At all. Maybe the kid, but they even managed to make the reader think the kid was a jerk. Hated that book.

I read it differently. It was an enjoyable read for me. I thought Milo's mother, her partner, and Maura were intended as Milo's redeemers. And Bernie was lovable; Milo needed him desperately. A question for you: do you think literature should be didactic? Because if you do you'll miss out on a lot of the good stuff.

Bizarre that you read Milo's mother as redeeming in any way. More misogynism, by my read.

No, I don't believe literature should be didactic. Thanks for looking out for me, and your worry that I "might be missing out" but I don't think anything about my comment really suggested that question. (I think you were just trying to be insulting because I dissed your book--okay...)

BTW, calling The Ask literature gives me gall stones. But I guess they set a low bar these days. It was even a national book award finalist. Weird.

[Anonymous]

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld

[Anonymous]

I am bookmarking this page for the Kindle. I wonder if it is possible to send this thread as a document to myself...

[Anonymous]

I'm just reading "Game of Thrones" while watching the series on HBO. It is nordic/primitive sword play romantic-fantasy. Not remotely literature--but is a summer read.

[Anonymous]

The Room-is such a nightmare. DH and I got into huge fight after he recommended to me and I downloaded and started to read it and it slowly dawned on me that it was about A YOUNG WOMAN WHO HAD BBEN KIDKNAPPED AND RAPED REPEATEDLY AND SHE WAS LOCKED IN A SMALL ROOM WITH THE SON (PRODUCT OF THE RAPE) WHO WOULD STAY IN THE CUPBOARD AND COUNT THE NUMBER OF STROKES THE RAPIST WOULD MAKE INTO HIS MOTHER---OMFG! I was like, "who are you that you would recommend this book to me?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you read The Help by Kathryn Stockett? It was good. Just read The Ask by Sam Lipsyte. A little heavy, but funny in a black humor sort of way.

I hated The Ask. I really found it to be incredibly misogynistic - also just misanthropic, but especially hateful of / to women. I wonder what's up with authors who write like this. I wonder if they hate themselves or just their readers? Or if they're catering to a form of self-flagellation that we all engage in? The book had no redeeming characters. At all. Maybe the kid, but they even managed to make the reader think the kid was a jerk. Hated that book.

I read it differently. It was an enjoyable read for me. I thought Milo's mother, her partner, and Maura were intended as Milo's redeemers. And Bernie was lovable; Milo needed him desperately. A question for you: do you think literature should be didactic? Because if you do you'll miss out on a lot of the good stuff.

Bizarre that you read Milo's mother as redeeming in any way. More misogynism, by my read.

No, I don't believe literature should be didactic. Thanks for looking out for me, and your worry that I "might be missing out" but I don't think anything about my comment really suggested that question. (I think you were just trying to be insulting because I dissed your book--okay...)

BTW, calling The Ask literature gives me gall stones. But I guess they set a low bar these days. It was even a national book award finalist. Weird.

Enjoy your gallstones and your chick lit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, here's one that I've never seen recommended on one of these threads: Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin. It's not new, it's not soon to be a major motion picture, and it's about as far from a light fluffy bestseller as you can get.

That said, it's... well, it's indescribable. Magical, gut-wrenching, joyous, weird, and totally thrilling. I found that it wasn't great for reading before bed. I needed to be "on" to read this book. I think it may be the only book that actually made my cry. Certain images are still with me, two years later. I wanted to live up to it, so to speak, to give it everything I had. It redefined my personal definition of great modern literature.

Thank you for reminding me about Mark Helprin! I haven't read this and will get it from the library tomorrow. His A Soldier of the Great War is the same way for me- I still have images in my head from that book a decade after I read it.

[Anonymous]

The chick lit comment? Self-hating, okay. Can women not attack each other (or if you're a man saying this, you're just an asshole) by assigning "female tastes" to someone's book preferences. Attack the the other person if the theme is not to your liking--and explain why. "Chick Lit" is a misogynistic term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The chick lit comment? Self-hating, okay. Can women not attack each other (or if you're a man saying this, you're just an asshole) by assigning "female tastes" to someone's book preferences. Attack the the other person if the theme is not to your liking--and explain why. "Chick Lit" is a misogynistic term.

I think any self respecting woman is a feminist, and that includes myself. But can the "misogynistic" this, that and the other poster just stop? Just b/c you don't like a book that's written by a male author, or has a male narrator, doesn't make it necessarily "misogynistic." And just b/c you love Sophie Kinsella and Jennifer Weiner doesn't make your taste worse than other readers.