Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 19, 2013 5:41:28 GMT -8
True grit is a fun and quick read. A 14 year old girl named Mattie Ross hires the meanest US Marshall, Rooster Cogburn, to kill the coward Tom Chaney and avenge her father. This was an excellent read. And a quick one, the book is short and quite hard to put down. I'd heartily recommend it.
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Post by Riku on Aug 19, 2013 10:52:52 GMT -8
I remember considering reading that book after finding out that most of the great Coen-esque dialogue from their recent movie version of it was actually pulled from the book.
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Furare
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ROMS Encyclopaedia
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Post by Furare on Aug 19, 2013 11:46:47 GMT -8
So... you only want to read the book because you saw the movie?
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Post by Riku on Aug 19, 2013 12:17:26 GMT -8
Well, to be fair, I wouldn't have known about the book if I hadn't seen the movie If I had learned about the book some other way I probably also would have wanted to read it.
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Furare
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Post by Furare on Aug 19, 2013 12:38:34 GMT -8
Oh, c'mon, this is the ROMS forum. Less fairness! More word-twisting!
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 19, 2013 12:42:12 GMT -8
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 19, 2013 14:18:04 GMT -8
I remember considering reading that book after finding out that most of the great Coen-esque dialogue from their recent movie version of it was actually pulled from the book. The dialogue and particular phrasing and asides from Mattie are a large part of what makes the book enjoyable, I think.
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Post by Riku on Aug 19, 2013 16:17:22 GMT -8
I'm worried about Ender's Game, but Asa Butterfield is a pretty cool dude, so I will have faith. Also, the Monuments Men has one of the best casts ever. Besides Clooney, Damon, and Blanchett, there's also John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, and Bob Balaban. While we're on the topic of movies, this secret teaser was released today by BadRobot.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 19, 2013 16:50:16 GMT -8
As much as I enjoy it, I sorta don't want to see Ender's Game because Card is a bad person.
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 19, 2013 17:21:44 GMT -8
I saw a trailer for it when I went to see Percy Jackson the other week and it looks pretty nifty. All I know about it is it's the first of a series and the main character is some boy military genius.
Riku I totally saw the teaser and it was more than a little freaky.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 20, 2013 5:38:37 GMT -8
It's a good book. Read the book. Just check it out from the library or borrow it from a friend instead of buying it. The 2nd in the series, Speaker for the Dead, is also a pretty decent book. The remainder are not. The other offspring series going along Ender's Shadow are pulpier, and the first one or two are at least fun. I stopped after that.
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 20, 2013 9:23:34 GMT -8
Yeah these days I borrow books from the library to read instead of buying them first unless it's one of my favorite authors or something, otherwise I'd be broke. But that one is part of the "currently checked out from the library" pile.
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Post by Aethera on Aug 21, 2013 9:39:06 GMT -8
I enjoyed Ender's Game, and I've had Speaker for the Dead sitting on the list for years, but never got to it. After the way Card has been going on lately, I don't think I will. I was planning to re-read it and see the movie, but now I'm thinking not.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on Aug 21, 2013 13:37:08 GMT -8
Ender's Game has been my favorite book since I was a kid, so I'm a bit torn about seeing vs boycotting the movie. I've known for years that Card's homophobic. That never stopped me from enjoying the book-ten times-but it's different when you're giving the author money via a movie ticket. On the other hand, if most of my friends want to see the film, I'm not sure what I'll decide. (The trailer I saw also has me worried about the faithfulness to the spirit of the story, but that's another issue... )
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 21, 2013 14:19:33 GMT -8
Yeah. I'm a bit torn on what to do there. Realistically, I'll probably just miss it incidentally rather than a deliberate boycott.
Last night I finished Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore. Like most of Moore's books, it's primarily humor with a touch of the supernatural. It's set in 19th century Paris around Montmartre area, a district frequented by artists, particularly Impressionists. Many of these artists have had experiences of some sort with a small brokenen look man called the Colorman. Follow along with Lucien Lessard and Henri Tolouse-Lautrec as they tease out the mystery of the Colorman, the artists who seem to lose time and paintings, and the mysteries of the pigment ultramarine, also known as sacre bleu. It features a number of famous artists and according to the epilogue tried to stay true to their personalities based on contemporary accounts. It's a fairly enjoyable read. Very quick though. There's, unsurprisingly, not much substance. Moore's characters/dialogue tend to get a little repetitive to me across books. One particular thing I enjoyed was the way the book illustrated characters with small pictures from the era. When they first mention Tolouse-Lautrec's model Carmen, there's a small image of The Laundress. There are portraits, self and otherwise, of many of the actual people that became characters in the book. If you enjoy comedy type books, you might like this. If you like Moore, you'll probably enjoy this. If you think you'd enjoy a bit of a funny mystery romp set among impressionists, post impressionists, etc, then you might enjoy this. If you want to know what Renoir thought of big butts, this is the book for you.
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 21, 2013 22:43:59 GMT -8
Technically, the author isn't getting money from the movie ticket. Card sold his rights to the film to the studio, and unless there was some sort of deal brokered (highly unlikely), he's not seeing any money from the film after the initial sale of the film rights. Not buying his books is a better boycott--thus why I borrowed it from the library (among other reasons).
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 24, 2013 11:35:07 GMT -8
So I finished Ender's Game, and I'm sorry to say that I was kind of bored throughout most of the book. The most interesting thing happened 40 pages from the end :-\.
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Post by Jolyma on Aug 28, 2013 20:28:31 GMT -8
I just found out Terry Goodkind has been writing more Richard and Kahlan novels. I'm torn because the first 3 or 4 books I was good with (except for a few very descriptive parts I could have done without. Not into torture scenes or S&M). Then he got super preachy and while I finished the series, I had to make myself do so. I have a burning curiosity to know if he went back to the entertaining type of writing, or the dull and dusty preachy writing. I don't want to start a new series that I won't like though, because I have a difficult time not finishing a book or series I started on.
Yes, this means I have NOT read the Shades of Gray set of books. From what I understand, it's fan fic of Twilight, which was, in and of itself, fan fic, and well, I think you all know my opinion of Twilight anyways.
Right now I'm reading yet another alternate society book that my daughter brought home begging me to read so she could, but there is a big magic/fantasy element. It's been pretty good, it's called the Unwanteds by Lisa McMann.
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Taelac
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Post by Taelac on Aug 28, 2013 20:35:59 GMT -8
If the Sword of Truth scenes were too disturbing for your tastes, please let me save you some time and possibly money with a small Reader's Advisory that the Shades of Grey books are pretty much all about that sort of thing, only more so, according to the reviews I've read (the ones for librarians, not the ones for popular media).
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Post by Jolyma on Aug 29, 2013 4:28:28 GMT -8
They're S&M porn with a bad attempt at a 'plot' in order to be able to sell them as a novel. From everything I've heard they are WAY worse than your typical romance in the description department. I never intended to read them, I think I'd lose IQ points.
Of course, the last time I discussed this, with a person who was shocked about the fact I didn't read them, I was scolded for calling it porn when it was REALLY a trilogy about women and their roles in the relationship, and how men think what that should be.
No. It's porn.
(Note: I don't care what other people read or watch or fantasize about. I'm not judging anyone who liked the books. It's just not something I've ever been into, and I don't see the point of it, nor, after reading reviews and descriptions after the craze hit last year, do I see why so many women thought it was the read of the summer and a book to never put down).
And dagnabit, I thought you were going to tell me about the new Richard and Kahlan novels, and if they're 'entertainment' or 'preachy objectivism' or whatever that is that Ayn Rand calls her political POV.
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Taelac
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Post by Taelac on Aug 29, 2013 5:47:56 GMT -8
Ah, sorry. I haven't read any reviews of recent SoT or related novels. Once the "got mine, screw you" mindset became apparent, I stopped bothering with his stuff altogether. I only read the professional reviews of 50SoG because there were tons of people asking dumb questions like "Why would a library buy fifteen copies of this?" and I wanted to be informed when I explained that when you have 137 people on the hold list to read something, you buy extra copies, because Ranganathan.
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Post by randomact on Aug 29, 2013 5:58:24 GMT -8
Yeahhhh, I refuse to read the 50SoG books. Not so much because of the sexual nature of the books... but from a lot of the reviews I've read, it portrays BDSM fairly horribly. More of an abusive relationship than anything from the sounds of it.
On another note, my sister and her fiance basically have a library in their house they have so many books. So I'm starting at the beginning of one bookshelf and slowly working my way through all of them! Except the ones that aren't in English... and perhaps not the uni text books either.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 29, 2013 6:16:12 GMT -8
Yeah, I read the first SoT and didn't really see the need to continue. I wasn't a huge fan, it all felt somewhat clunky to me. And you can see the beginnings of some preachy politics in the first one
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Post by Jolyma on Aug 29, 2013 8:39:32 GMT -8
Leif, I had hoped it would stay as a background feature of the 'world' and not become the sole reason for the stories, but I have a hard time starting a story and not knowing the end of it. I had hopes for his writing to improve, but instead, he degenerated into a frothing Randian lunatic.
I was sad for the characters, they deserved better.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 30, 2013 7:09:04 GMT -8
For a bit less usual fantasy, I would recommend Lies of Locke Lamora. Instead of fantasy set in dark ages generic Europe-esque it's more of a late medieval Venice type setting. The titular Locke Lamora is a member of the Gentleman Bastards, an group of con artists. It's a good take on the genre. There's a 2nd book, Red Seas Under Red Skies which I found less good, but still entertaining. there are pirates in that one. A third is due out in about October.
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Taelac
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Post by Taelac on Aug 30, 2013 10:12:40 GMT -8
For modern-set fantasy, try Jim C. Hines' Libriomancer, and the sequel is just out this month, Codex Born. But if you read Codex Born, don't spoil it for me, because I have not yet managed to pick it up. Nutshell: books are magic; protagonist is a librarian.
Same author also has some retold fairy tales in his Princess series, starting with The Stepsister Scheme, which is a really different take on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, and Little Red Riding Hood. In the first one, the Princess rescues the Prince, who was kidnapped after accepting a drink from a stranger.
And he also has a humor-fantasy trilogy that kind of retells LOTR from the point of view of the goblins, starting with Goblin Quest.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 30, 2013 10:49:02 GMT -8
I might take a look at that. Headed to the library tomorrow, I suspect. I'm trying to finish these last 30 pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because all my books are due back tomorrow.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 30, 2013 11:17:16 GMT -8
Luv suggested we might get a ROMS group together on Good Reads if any folks are members.
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Taelac
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Post by Taelac on Aug 30, 2013 12:22:09 GMT -8
I think I signed up there once, but I don't remember my login info. Will have to poke around this weekend and see if I can find it.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Aug 31, 2013 13:59:40 GMT -8
For modern-set fantasy, try Jim C. Hines' Libriomancer, and the sequel is just out this month, Codex Born. But if you read Codex Born, don't spoil it for me, because I have not yet managed to pick it up. Nutshell: books are magic; protagonist is a librarian. Same author also has some retold fairy tales in his Princess series, starting with The Stepsister Scheme, which is a really different take on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, and Little Red Riding Hood. In the first one, the Princess rescues the Prince, who was kidnapped after accepting a drink from a stranger. And he also has a humor-fantasy trilogy that kind of retells LOTR from the point of view of the goblins, starting with Goblin Quest. And the library does not appear to have these. So a whole other set of books was borrowed. On the subject of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. This was an interesting book. This being the second book by Murakami I've read, I have to say they don't quite read to me like most other books I read. Each has sort of a sprawling tale and in a way a journey without a set end point. The wiki plot summary of this is woefully understated. "The novel is about a low-key unemployed man, Toru Okada, whose cat runs away. A chain of events follows that prove that his seemingly mundane life is much more complicated than it appears." Toru has a bit of a pre-midlife crisis and quits his job as a gofer at a law firm. Unsure of what he wants to do, he stays home for awhile while his wife works. Then his cat runs away. Then there's a call on the phone from a woman who says he knows who she is, but she doesn't know who she is, and they can learn everything about each other in 10 minutes over the phone. The search for the cat commences and Toru meets a young girl at the end of the alley and discovers an abandoned lot that seems to be cursed. The book builds as he meets spiritualists with the unlikely names of Malta and Creta Kano. Then it starts to get weird, with discursions into Japanese ruled Manchuria during WW2, spiritual healing, the toupee industry, and wells. The novel explores themes of alienation, dissatisfaction with modern life and politics, fate and other things. It builds sort of a tower of riddles where the truth may be nonfactual and the facts may not be truthful. It's a lot like a car ride where you don't know where the destination is. There were some bits where I laughed and several "Ohhh" type moments. If sometimes the real world seems less than real to you, you might enjoy this book. If you see connections everywhere in things you do and the people around you, you might enjoy this book. If you feel that sometimes things are driven forward by the past towards some climax you can't identify, this might be a book you enjoy. If you think the mystery of now can be solved by a few unspoken words from then, you might like this book. If you've ever wanted to sit at the bottom of a well, this book is for you. In the end I enjoyed it. It's not one I'd recommend to everyone though.
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