Books!!

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating--a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.
 
marazoe said:
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating--a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.
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Brie Larson is getting rave reviews for her role as the other in the film version. Not to take attention away from the achievement of the book. I couldn't read or watch. The subject matter is so distressing, I would be in a permanent state of anxiety while reading.

It's funny how mood affects reading choices so much. Maybe more so as we get older?

Clare
 
marazoe said:
Has anyone read "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr? We are reading that for my book club and I am finding it got a bit boring at around page 300. Will it get better?
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I read "All The Light We Cannot See" and did not find it boring at all. I love it.

I also read "A Man Called Ove" and thought it was amazing. I read it last month and I still think about the characters.

I am currently reading "The Girl on the Train".
 
I just finished "Truth or die" by James Patterson.....sorry Mr. Patterson, I was bored. I will read everything from my fave authors but this one was a fail for me. I just got "Room"! Ill check back in next time I read something exciting. "Room" sounds intriguing. Thanks for the suggestions!!
 
tlc93 said:
I just finished "Truth or die" by James Patterson.....sorry Mr. Patterson, I was bored. I will read everything from my fave authors but this one was a fail for me. I just got "Room"! Ill check back in next time I read something exciting. "Room" sounds intriguing. Thanks for the suggestions!!
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Yeah, I stopped reading his stuff a while back. Too formulaic. Nothing earth-shattering. There's plenty of good authors and good reads, so why waste time on the boring?!!

Clare
 
Clare said "It's funny how mood affects reading choices so much. Maybe more so as we get older?" I agree! I just finished "Room". I thought it was going to be more harrowing than it was. I'm glad it wasn't. (Anyone remember the movie "Not without my daughter" with Sally Fields? YIKES!!) In the beginning of this book I was reminded of conversations I had w/ my daughter when she was very young...."Why Mommy?" As the book goes on you start to get a sense of the bazillion things that you take for granted.....freedom being the biggest. And wonder what you would do if you were in that situation. It certainly was a book that will stay with me.

I'm still waiting for "In a dark, dark wood" from my library. Halloween is approaching....something creepy would be perfect!
 
Ronne....what's it about? Whilst waiting for "In a dark, dark wood" grrrr, I'm just finishing a book called "The murder list". It's about 3 women (friends) who go to a seminar done by a motivational speaker that one of them, a journalist, thinks is crooked. One of the exercises they have do do at this seminar is to write a list of people that they would like to see GONE. Life would be better if these people did not exist. Two of the women write names like The 7 dwarfs, book characters etc while the 3rd woman writes down random names of people who've upset her, were rude and so on. They were then to go to the stage and throw the list into a make believe fire. A sort of cleansing exercise. The 3rd woman didn't go to the stage because she had to leave the room to take a call on her cell. She then drops her list w/o realizing it or even thinking about it again....that is until people on that list start getting killed. Pretty good.
 
Some Luck is the first in a family story spanning 100 years (1920 to 2020). The first book covers 1920 to 1953. It's set in Iowa around a farming family and it follows the family's stories as the kids grow up, go out into the world, have their own families etc. The history of the US 20th century is intertwined in the characters' stories but the events are not at the forefront of their lives, sometimes they're just background noise or sometimes they have more impact. The passage of time and how things change is shown really subtly.
 
I like and have all the books that tic 93 mentioned. There is also a duo of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child who make Michael Crichton look like Mickey Mouse.
 
I just finished "The Murder House" by James Patterson and David Ellis. Mr. Patterson has redeemed himself with me after reading a few duds of his. I liked this one. It's about a large house that had been in a family for generations. The problem is people keep dying there. One female detective is on the hunt for the answers to all the mysterious deaths. Of course there is a handsome male character too. I enjoyed it! Suspense, creepy at times, a bit of romance and humor.

I just got "The Miniaturist" from my library and I'm STILL waiting for "In a dark, dark wood" grrrrr!!!
 
A further update to my post about the Jane Smiley 100 years trilogy. I've now read all three and the first one is definitely the best. You might end up reading all three as you want to find out what happened to people but I can't say it's really worth it. A bit of a disappointment in the end. Particularly in the last book when characters were getting killed off left, right and centre (and sometimes in a rather ludicrous way).
 
Ronne said:
A further update to my post about the Jane Smiley 100 years trilogy. I've now read all three and the first one is definitely the best. You might end up reading all three as you want to find out what happened to people but I can't say it's really worth it. A bit of a disappointment in the end. Particularly in the last book when characters were getting killed off left, right and centre (and sometimes in a rather ludicrous way).
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Oh dear! Still, your diligence has saved me from the same disappointment! Have you read "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara? Jennifer Weiner mentioned it in a recent post in the Guardian. Just wondered if it merited all the raves it has been receiving?

Clare
 
Hi Clare

No I haven't actually. It doesn't really appeal. I don't mind difficult subjects but that does sound unrelentingly grim. I went to an interesting day of talks about the Booker prize at the weekend and that was mentioned by one of the speakers (and they weren't very positive about it).
I recently read Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma (a bit of a mouthful!) which features poor people in tough circumstances but wasn't 'oh aren't these people awful?' and judgmental. It wasn't perfect but I would recommend it for reading about people who don't normally appear in books.
 
I just finished "In a dark, dark wood" by Ruth Ware. I listened to it on CD actually. I loved it!!! The books on CD REALLY give you the emotion behind things. It can make you so much more involved w/ the characters, it does for me anyway! This had just the right amount of creepiness in it. The setting was perfect....a house set in the woods, November in England....friends gather for the last time before one of them gets married. Weird things happen, old feelings resurface. I enjoyed it very much! It became one of those stories that I didn't want to put down....I couldn't wait to get back to it to see what happened next. Great suggestion Clare!!
 
tlc93 said:
I just finished "In a dark, dark wood" by Ruth Ware. I listened to it on CD actually. I loved it!!! The books on CD REALLY give you the emotion behind things. It can make you so much more involved w/ the characters, it does for me anyway! This had just the right amount of creepiness in it. The setting was perfect....a house set in the woods, November in England....friends gather for the last time before one of them gets married. Weird things happen, old feelings resurface. I enjoyed it very much! It became one of those stories that I didn't want to put down....I couldn't wait to get back to it to see what happened next. Great suggestion Clare!!
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This sounds awesome. Right up my alley. Thanks!
 
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