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Post by Les Jondrette Femmes on May 27, 2008 0:11:48 GMT -5
When I was little my mother gave me a book called The Storyteller's Daughter about Scheherazade. It's part of this huge and ongoing series of books by a few authors that are teen-level retellings of fairytales and classic stories. I recently moved yet again and the library here is wonderful. They have Rosetta Stone for free to library card owners, and are connected to all the other libraries in the county. They have tons of books. They have just about every book from the series, so even though I can get through them in an hour each, I have vowed to complete them all. They are very fun, and I would recommend them for some good afternoon reading. A list of books in that series: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_A_Time..._(book_series)Otherwise, some good books for history lovers are those by Lauren Willig. She has four books out that are about romances amidst espionage in the 18th century following the French Revolution. They are very pimpernel-esque, and quite witty. Speaking of the eighteenth century, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund is very, very good; and essayist Theodore Roszak wrote an intriguing book, The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I warn that aside from the fairytale books, all aforementioned writings contain moderate to heavy sexual reference or content. That about sums up my reading material while I've been on this site!
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Post by Liana Marceau on May 27, 2008 0:49:07 GMT -5
I love anything from the Mists of Avalon or Twilight series. I also quite enjoy most historical or twisted fairy tale novels. Anything by Anne Rice is good as I am a huge fan of her style, and Philipa Gregory is also on the top of my list. Adele Gerras is good if you are into greek mythology and I do agree with the Once Upon a Time series that Le Femmes mentioned. I have read all the books and a good deal of them are supurb! They did miss one book on that list however: Fitchers Brides. It is a retelling of Bluebeard and one of the best in the series no matter how grusome it was. Very well written and chilling. There was (fair warning) extreme violence and moderate sexual content.
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Post by Les Jondrette Femmes on May 27, 2008 1:00:52 GMT -5
Ooh, Anne Rice is excellent. I can't say I've enjoyed any of her recent religious-oriented books. I like it when she sticks to human nature and psychology as undercurrents. Philippa Gregory is lovely as well. I first read her book The Queen's Fool in fourth grade, which is based around Mary, Queen of Scots. I had to grow up a little before I could handle some of her other stuff, like Earthly Joy. I just wrote down Fitcher's Brides for later reading! They are still adding things to the series, by the way. Belle is still unpublished, and I think that Cameron Dokey is churning out yet another one.
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Post by Liana Marceau on May 27, 2008 1:04:53 GMT -5
Honestly I think his books are the best. Storyteller's Daughter is still my favorite.
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Post by jez on May 27, 2008 17:09:07 GMT -5
I absolutely love reading! So much that I can finish two or three 300+ paged books while my friends haven't finished one. Though I don't have much money so theres about a library worth of books that I currently want to read but haven't even opened the cover to them. But anyways I love Anne Rice! The first book of hers I read was The Vampire Lestat and after that I was hooked. My absolute fav of hers is Blood and Gold. Sadly I've only read Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl But my mom and I are hoping to get more soon. I also like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. plot summery from Wikipedia Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unspecified future time in a hedonistic and rabidly anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control, filled with lawlessness in the streets, from teenagers crashing cars into people to firemen at Montag's station who set their mechanical hound to hunt various animals for the simple and grotesque pleasure of watching them die. Anyone caught reading books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned. Illegal books mainly include famous works of literature, such as Whitman and Faulkner, as well as The Bible, and all historical texts. One night returning from his job, fireman Guy Montag meets his new neighbor Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit force him to question his life, his ideals, and his own perceived happiness. It's a book that I couldn't put down once I got into it. It made me wonder the possibility of it actually happening the future. Another one I enjoyed was Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It's about a man that died when saving a girl and after his death he is confronted with five people that influenced his life or he influenced. It's very touching and nearly brought me to tears. But I have to say that one of my top authors is Gregory Maguire. Once I read Wicked I was hooked and instantly bought Son of the Witch and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I love his writing style and the way that he takes beloved stories and show the other side of them. I've come to like Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) and Iris (Cinderella's stepsister) more than Dorothy and Cinderella. I highly recommend reading his works!
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Post by hermionelms on May 27, 2008 21:51:37 GMT -5
[/u] and really did like it, but I moved on to Son of a Witch and just. wow. I really hated it. Confessions was a bit better. But the Scrooge one (I can't recall the title) was simply unbearable. Currently, I'm reading Atonement by Ian McEwan. Awesome. <3 I just finished Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Such an interesting plot, unexpected (to me, anyway) ending. And I'm re-reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame which-- note character's name-- I love. I can't wait for school to end. I'm going to tackle Les Miz again, hopefully this time it won't take me so long, and I'll get more out of it.[/size][/ul]
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Post by Liana Marceau on May 27, 2008 23:59:24 GMT -5
Truthfully I wasn't fond of anything by Gregory Maguire
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Post by jez on May 28, 2008 11:42:46 GMT -5
Yeah Son of the Witch wasn't nearly as good as Wicked but it's rare to find a book that I don't like. Lol the Scrooge one is Lost and I haven't read that one yet, but that's the last one of his I want to read.
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Post by Jean Jondrette on Jun 15, 2008 15:17:08 GMT -5
But I have to say that one of my top authors is Gregory Maguire. Once I read Wicked I was hooked and instantly bought Son of the Witch and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I love his writing style and the way that he takes beloved stories and show the other side of them. I've come to like Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) and Iris (Cinderella's stepsister) more than Dorothy and Cinderella. I highly recommend reading his works! You rock for being a Gregory Maguire fan. My favorites of his are in this order: 1) Wicked 2) Mirror, Mirror 3)Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister The rest I didn't fall in love with like those three. But my fav characters are Elphaba, Nanny (My favorite senile old person!), Bianca, Lucrezia (I love a good insane person, though I'm not sure if she acted that way in real life.), Iris and Ruth (Ruth is just a funny character.) I recommend Mirror, Mirror for anyone who likes Snow White, religious questioning and is interested in the Borgia family. I also like Victor Hugo, the Wind on Fire trilogy and of course, Gaston Leroux (with Susan Kay.) P.S. Esmeralda, Notre-Dame is a good book, but I didn't like Esmeralda in the book. I wish she was more like the ones in the movies. Quasi rules!
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