Comments on: Let the Summer Fiction Begin!

By: marionroach

marionroach — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:02:55 +0000

Hi, Mary Beth. And welcome. Both Paige and I also loved Hedgehog, and you put it beautifully here: little bites, while stretched out. This is not read for plot, per se, but for drama and arc. My local independent bookseller pressed it into my hand some months ago like the gift it is. Such a great kindness. So lovely of you to come into this conversation. We hope you'll keep visiting.

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:12:45 +0000

Coming late on to this thread, but Kingsolver for her light and love, Atwood for her darkness and Alice Hoffman for her magic lenses are tops on my recommendations for readers at the library where I work. I just finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery (translated from the French by Alison Anderson), recommended by a colleague and her teenage daughter. Not a book to be read while doing anything other than sitting in the backyard with a tall glass of tea, this is an exquisite look at two women, one 54, one 12, and their complex inner lives. Eat it in small doses, like one of the exquisite pastries the characters share, and find yourself crying and laughing and never looking at a camellia in the same way again.

By: Janice

Janice — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:20:53 +0000

Another vote for anything by Margaret Atwoood. Great books to have in your bookcases (Canadian author to boot!). Also, how about Fay Weldon? First one I read was The Cloning of Joanna May, and I think I have read most everything she has written now

By: marionroach

marionroach — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:03:00 +0000

Hi, Monika. And welcome. Oh, I don’t know Thomas King, so I’m delighted for the introduction. Thank you. You make the flight from Calgary sound perfect, indeed. Have you been in a book club a long time? How does yours work? I’m always tempted, but have not yet taken the book club plunge. Please come back with more. We’d love to see you again.

By: Monika

Monika — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:15:55 +0000

Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, which I picked up because I was aching to listen to some “Dead Dog Café” shows, but couldn’t find any online. Love the humour and humanity; it recalls for me of the amazing week we spent visiting the Blood Reserve (Blackfoot) back in 2000. The memory of the flight from Calgary, in a silver prop plane (a DC-3) over the crazy-quilt of fields in the bright Alberta August sunshine still takes my breath away today.

It has been pushed aside by my bookclub’s pick for this month (I get to host the meeting), Bonfire of the Vanities.

I’ve also started Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing.

By: marionroach

marionroach — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:36:36 +0000

Hi there, David. And welcome. You’ve got your summer booked out, it seems. So glad to have you here on the Kingsolver magic carpet with all of us. It seems she has a loyal following here on TSP. Read on, brother!

By: marionroach

marionroach — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:34:28 +0000

Hey, Annie: Yes, that Kingsolver mojo is almost overpowering, isn’t it? Seems like we all feel it. What else are you reading these days?

By: Annie in Austin

Annie in Austin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:07:52 +0000

It was both wonderful and a little overwhelming to immediately follow the ‘Bean Trees’ with ‘Pigs in Heaven’ . After reading this post must get ‘Animal Dreams’ now!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

By: David

David — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:37:59 +0000

I just finished Kingsoliver’s “The Bean Trees,” having read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” a few months ago. I’ll have to read “Poisonwood” and “Animal Dreams” this summer!
D

By: marionroach

marionroach — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:00:32 +0000

Hi, Christine. Yes, perhaps we need to start designating sister-writers as empresses of the month or something. I’m thinking of going on an all-Kingsolver-summer jag. What else are you reading?