September 2010: What Are You Reading?

[Michy]

[quote=""LoobyG""]Just finished 'Dragonwyck' by Anya Seton which I ended up liking very much [/quote] I'm glad you liked it! Another of my favorite Setons is The Turquoise. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it.

[Tanzanite]

Poison by Sara Poole

[Kasthu]

Reading William: An Englishman, in which the MC goes on his honeymoon to Belgium in the year 1914. Guess what's going on outside their kitchen window?

[chuck]

Currently reading Alan Le May's "The Searchers" and next in line is Le May's "The Unforgiven".....really looking forward to these reads....No quick draw, shoot em ups, or wild west oaters here...just well developed and interesting stories with great characters....Both novels made into films.....

[Leo62]

[quote=""Kasthu""]Reading William: An Englishman, in which the MC goes on his honeymoon to Belgium in the year 1914. Guess what's going on outside their kitchen window?[/quote]

That's a great book - I found it totally gripping. Unfortunately, it's hampered by a crap title.

[Misfit]

[quote=""chuck""]Currently reading Alan Le May's "The Searchers" and next in line is Le May's "The Unforgiven".....really looking forward to these reads....No quick draw, shoot em ups, or wild west oaters here...just well developed and interesting stories with great characters....Both novels made into films.....[/quote]

I loved The Searchers. It really is amazing how much story an author can stuff into such a small book.

[chuck]

[quote=""Misfit""]I loved The Searchers. It really is amazing how much story an author can stuff into such a small book.[/quote]

A Western Classic writer......This Quote from Le May says it all...."These people had a kind of courage that may be the finest gift of man;the courage of those who simply keep on and on, doing the next thing, for beyond all resonable endurance, seldom thinking of themselves as martyed, and never thinking of themselves as brave".....

[RichardWarrenField]

I have to say, this is more about what I am not reading. I put WOLF HALL down for the second and last time. (I posted recently that I started reading it "to find out what all the fuss is about.") At the risk of people thinking I'm unsophisticated, I have to say, I just didn't get it. I found it hard to follow, and I found the story to be something I feel like I have heard before, many times. I struggled long and hard to place my recently published novel with a small press. I have this gnawing feeling that if I had tried to submit something written like this, I would have had no chance. Ms. Mantel, if you're on this list, my apologies - I just didn't get it. I'm thinking I'll take on a few novels recently out by friends of mine. Or, the Attila the Hun series by William Napier seems interesting. There is also the short list for the Walter C. Scott award - I have them all saved on my wish list at Amazon. I'm just afraid I'll run into another one that I "just don't get," and will find out how truly unsophisticated I really am!

Richard Warren Field
http://www.richardwarrenfield.com/
http://www.richardwarrenfield.com/TheSwordsofFaith.htm
THE SWORDS OF FAITH, a unique novel about the "Third Crusade" (Richard the Lionheart and Saladin) that stresses tolerance between the faiths even during a time of great conflict.
Richard Warren Field's blog: http://creativeeccentric.wordpress.com

[Vanessa]

I'm just about to start The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. I keep calling it The Winter Queen and I don't know why!

[Misfit]

[quote=""RichardWarrenField""]I have to say, this is more about what I am not reading. I put WOLF HALL down for the second and last time. (I posted recently that I started reading it "to find out what all the fuss is about.") At the risk of people thinking I'm unsophisticated, I have to say, I just didn't get it. I found it hard to follow, and I found the story to be something I feel like I have heard before, many times. I struggled long and hard to place my recently published novel with a small press. I have this gnawing feeling that if I had tried to submit something written like this, I would have had no chance. Ms. Mantel, if you're on this list, my apologies - I just didn't get it. I'm thinking I'll take on a few novels recently out by friends of mine. Or, the Attila the Hun series by William Napier seems interesting. There is also the short list for the Walter C. Scott award - I have them all saved on my wish list at Amazon. I'm just afraid I'll run into another one that I "just don't get," and will find out how truly unsophisticated I really am!

Richard Warren Field
http://www.richardwarrenfield.com/
http://www.richardwarrenfield.com/TheSwordsofFaith.htm
THE SWORDS OF FAITH, a unique novel about the "Third Crusade" (Richard the Lionheart and Saladin) that stresses tolerance between the faiths even during a time of great conflict.
Richard Warren Field's blog: http://creativeeccentric.wordpress.com[/quote]

Don't feel bad, it took me several tries and three books read in between until things finally clicked for me. That said, it is unfortunate with these *literary* books with that pressure that if you don't get it there must be something wrong. Definitely not literary, but I sure felt like the odd man out when reading Pillars of the Earth and then looked again at all those glowing reviews wondering if I had a different book. That's life.