Topic: Books for 2012 - Discussion Thread

[Johnny Slick]

I was able to blow through the Hunger Games trilogy and the HP series this month, but most of the books were pretty short.

I've decided to give WoT another go.  I am re-reading the last book I read/listened to, and will try to complete out the series over the next eight or so weeks.  I know they get bogged down around book five, but I'm hoping I'll be able to complete them by mid to late June.

I just started Hunger Games. It's f'ing awesome! I wish books were this cool when I was a kid.

[pandamonium]

I was able to blow through the Hunger Games trilogy and the HP series this month, but most of the books were pretty short.

I've decided to give WoT another go.  I am re-reading the last book I read/listened to, and will try to complete out the series over the next eight or so weeks.  I know they get bogged down around book five, but I'm hoping I'll be able to complete them by mid to late June.

I just started Hunger Games. It's f'ing awesome! I wish books were this cool when I was a kid.

The first twenty or so books of KA Applegate's Animorph series were pretty awesome. They dealt with heavy moral issues and stuff. Also they turned into animals.

[Neon Genesis]

Don't forget the Goosebump books.

[pandamonium]

Don't forget the Goosebump books.

I had the whole collection, and they were donated (with my permission) to a cousin of mine. I hope his spine was tingled.

What's the name of that series that retold urban legends/campfire tales? It was illustrated, and the covers were typically predominantly black and white with red trim? Those are the best.

[Caffiene]

Don't forget the Goosebump books.

I had the whole collection, and they were donated (with my permission) to a cousin of mine. I hope his spine was tingled.

I rescued my collection just the other month from my dad's place.
Theyre all sitting in a box now... I think Ive got about 20 or 30 of them.

Might also be 1 or 2 animorphs books in there somewhere.

[Neon Genesis]

Other books I own but haven't gotten around to reading yet that I need to are Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

[pandamonium]

Other books I own but haven't gotten around to reading yet that I need to are Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

You for definitely need to read Out of Oz! I rated it almost as a good as Wicked and it made me want to reread the series.

[Neon Genesis]

I don't understand why so many Wicked fans despise Son of a Witch.

[pandamonium]

I don't understand why so many Wicked fans despise Son of a Witch.

If I remember correctly, I felt that there were some big issues with continuity between the first and second books... but maybe it's just because there was such a big gap between my reading of each book. I didn't hate the book, but I didn't really care about any of the characters, or what happened to them. Granted, this was years ago and I might feel differently after a second read.

Son of a Witch is pretty different from Wicked, too. I don't remember it continuing much of the politics that Maguire set up in Wicked. Honestly, you don't really get any loose ends tied up until Out of Oz. Of course, Maguire makes sure to create more loose ends as he's tying up ones from previous books, the clever bastard. I definitely felt more for the characters in this book than in the previous two books.

A Lion Among Men was decent, but I listened to the audiobook with half an ear and I think I missed a lot of the key parts.

[Neon Genesis]

I personally enjoyed Son of a Witch a lot and in some ways I felt like it was an improvement over Wicked as blasphemous as that may be for me to say.  I liked Liir's character and seeing Maguire tackle an original character of his own creation and I liked Liir's journey to find his purpose and seeing how he matures throughout the story.  I also liked that Maguire actually explored Liir's bisexuality in the novel with the introduction of Trism.  While Wicked lightly touched on homoerotic themes, it always felt like it was there more for shock value and fanservice rather than treated as a serious relationship outside of some possible femslash implications between Elphaba and Galinda for one whole paragraph.  I also thought the nun characters in the Saint Aelphaba church were very funny and clever characters and I felt like Son of a Witch had better pacing than Wicked did.  Wicked was good for Maguire's first novel but it felt like he was jumping around a lot between different points in Elphaba's life and it seemed like they were always told from the perspective of people who knew Elphaba rather than Elphaba herself.  With Son of a Witch though, the pacing seems more refined and focused and we actually see the story following Liir rather than people who know Liir.  Another aspect about Son of a Witch I liked was that he had more references to Baum's canon such as a brief cameo of Tip and Mombi in one scene.  Have you read Maguire's new book, The Next Queen of Heaven?

[pandamonium]

I haven't. *googles*

Free sample for Kindle ftw. To be honest, though, I have a huge backlog of books I want to read. I think I'll tackle them on my weekend (Wed/Thurs).

[MikeHz]

I'm not usually a King fan, but I'm enjoying the hell out of "11/22/63."

[Neon Genesis]

For my non-fiction books, I'm reading Did Jesus Exist? by Bart Ehrman and Re-Claiming the Bible For A Non-Religious World by Bishop Spong.

[pandamonium]

I haven't touched Black Swan in a week; maybe I'll switch between Wicked and Black Swan on my days off. I don't have anything better to do, really.

[Grimner]

Wicked - great read, thanks Discussion Thread

Nailed - just when you thought Jesus could not be buried deeper and an inspiration to seek out some really ancient writers.

The gods themselves by Issac Asimov: amazing run of the dirty laundery behind science. Pretty sure it is based on historic events. Nasty when you replace "electron pump" with "global warming". Lovely aliens. One of the older sci-fi books that feels modern.