I read several books by Minette Walters this month and have mixed feeling about her books. She seems to interwine the social problems in England around her mysteries and always at the end has a 'surprise' but not one where you can tell yourself "oh - of course".... she seems to drag in the criminal/bad guy or woman in the final pages without ever really giving the reader even a slight clue (that I could read) that this was "the one" - so I found this to be her pattern and with lots of misdirection.
So having read 4 of what I was told were her 'best' books I think I am done with her - although I know she has written several more!

Pat

Just to thank Frieda, Mary, Cindy et al for their remarks and ideas re 'Southern' literature, at the end of the last thread.
I had always thought of the Pulitzer Prize as something little short of the Nobel Prize for Literature (if there is one) so thanks for putting me right . . .although I checked out a list of PP books by many distinguished authors.

Vee, certainly a lot of the Pulitzer Prizes have gone to distinguished writers and many of the books chosen became, or will become, classics. But the point I was trying to make -- poorly -- that a lot of the fiction winners have an overblown quality about them, chosen, one might expect, for their flavor-of-the-year aspects (much like the choosing process for the Booker Prize, I'm told). If the winners are sometimes far removed from reality, we have to consider this category is for fiction and the committee readers/choosers often have limited knowledge and experience with the backgrounds and settings of these books; thus their decisions are based on stereotypes -- what they think they know and what they wish to promulgate and reward.

Then there's the politics, unfortunately. Such is the case of trying to disperse the prizes between ethnic groups, genders, story types, regions, etc. If a writer has two very strong books two years running, her chance of consideration the second year will be slim, especially if she won the first year. That's true of most awards, though, it seems.

Americans have a very high opinion of the Booker Prize, and it discombobulates us when we hear or read of British readers dismissing it as the action of a bunch of head-in-the-clouds types. I have a British friend who will NOT read a Booker Prize winner now, on principle, because she thinks if it's a Booker it is probably overwritten. Vee, when you wrote that you probably should have known better to read The Sea because it was a Booker, the echo of my other British friend was funny.

I just finished Suds In Your Eye from the "gentle reads" thread-very sweet. Have the first Cazalet to start tonight, and Midwives and Idylls of a Small Town for book club coming up in September...

I just finished a re-read of Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. Her essays on books are uniformly wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them again.

Next, I'm starting Growing Girls: The Mother of All Adventures by Jeanne Marie Laskas. This is her third autobiographical book (the first in the series is the irresistibly-titled Fifty Acres and a Poodle) and it covers the year after she adopted her daughters.

Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
The Secret River-Kate Grenville
Sight Hound-Pam Houston- All three are interesting reads.
sheri-I loved Ms. Laskas Books!

It was with great relief that I read the last page of the Hooblers' "the Monsters" (story of how Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.) What a depressing account of a group of narcissistic young folk who happened to be creative. More than anything else, it seemed a portrait of the incredibly self-centered and cruel Lord Byron.

Now I am trying to get through for the first time Wharton's "Age of Innocence". I have a notion of where the plot is going to go, but will keep at it, fine print and all. Her style is a bit reminiscent of that of Henry James, IMO. I know they were close friends.

James Lee Burke's Pegasus Descending was another solid work in the David Robicheaux series. I was wondering how he would handle Katrina. It was peripheral to the story, but he had probably written much of it before the storm hit. I guess I'd expected him to work it in the way Sara Paretsky worked the Chicago Flood of a few years ago into one of her V.I. Warshawski tales. Frankly, I still want to see him do a story on the NOPD during the disaster, but I can imagine this is just too raw and sensitive as yet.

Pegasus Descending is an interesting name to give one of the few books in the series where music plays no part. It does work the Pegasus and Bellerophon story well. Elements of the Orpheus myth are there as are elements of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending." But then again, I can find elements of "Orpheus Descending" in all of James Lee Burke's novels.

Chris, I'm not sure whether Burke intends to work Katrina into the next novel or not. On his website, a reader asked him whether he had plans to have Robicheaux solve a crime during the hurricane, and Burke only replied that there were elements of Katrina in his forthcoming novel (Pegasus Descending). For some reason, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see Katrina figure prominently in the next Robicheaux novel.

Woodnymph, hang in there on The Age of Innocence. It's one of my favorite books.

I finished my library books with a blank 24-hour period of NOTHING TO READ, so I picked up To Kill a Mockingbird which I hadn't read for a number of years. I had forgotten just how good it really is and am so glad to have re-read it (again).

>Hooblers' "the Monsters" (story of how Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.)

Is that a relatively recent book? I remember reading something similar after reading the book for a class - I loved it (this would have been in the 70s). If its the same book, I probably was reading it with big, round, teenager eyes. I do think the story is an interesting one, albeit with unlikable characters.

BLS for Healthcare providers. Time for my biennial update required for work. Fascinating reading!

Oh dear, I bought The Monsters but haven't read it yet. Mary, is it not a well-written account? I know the material is depressing -- all the deaths at a young age -- but I've long been fascinated with the Shelley/Byron group and I've watched Ken Russell's "Gothic" dozens of times and the other film, "Haunted Summer," several times. I had great hopes that the Hooblers' book would give insight and maybe a further frisson or two. But I can't quite tell, Mary, if you think the book is dull or you dislike the subjects themselves. I admit that I've long thought Lord Byron deserved much of his miseries -- and perhaps Shelley too -- but I've felt much sympathy for Mary Shelley, though practically none for "Claire" Clairmont and Polidori. Is the book likely to reinforce my impressions?

Just finished Martin Cruz' December 6. As good as all the rest of his books. I wish he was a bit more prolific, but given that he takes me to such different places I'm sure his research is intense. I loved the insight into pre-war Japan and story itself.

I'm almost finished listening to Middlesex. I've enjoyed it a great deal. There are so many levels to the story although i'm not really sure the narrator's voice rings quite true! Anyone else have any thoughts?

Mary, Frieda for an enjoyable and informative read about the Romantic Poets I would recommend Passion by Jude Morgan, which I read last summer.
Written as fiction, but keeping fairly true to the facts it follows the lives of Byron, his half-sister Augusta, Keats and Fanny Brawn, mad Caroline Lamb and the Shelleys plus all their 'interminglings'.
None of the characters are portrayed unsympathetically and you are given a good 'feel' for the London of the late eighteenth century.
Except that it rather too long I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Hooblers' "Monsters" is indeed a relatively recent book.

Frieda, it's hard for me to answer your question. I have a gut feeling that you will like this book far better than I. Maybe because I was already depressed when I read it, I found it more difficult to take in than most. I cannot say that is is poorly written. OTOH, it is a long shot from being the best biography or historical work that I've ever read. Let me know if you are taken with it.

BTW, I am really into Wharton's "Age of Innocence" and am liking it so much that I may go on to read others, such as "House of Mirth"," The Reef", et al.

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about House of Mirth. For some reason I haven't read it, and need to.

I finally, on the last day of the month, after picking up and putting down a dozen books, found a book to get into: School for the Blind. He also wrote Music Room which I've heard about before. Anyone read that one?

Here is a link that might be useful: School for the Blind

I just finished reading "Conversations with Capote" by Lawrence Grobel. A delightful book; I couldn't put it down! Truman Capote, I think, was one of the best writers and brilliant stylists of last century. "In Cold Blood" is a classic and will stand the test of time. Has anyone read Gerald Clarke's biography of Capote?

Adam

I read At Risk by Patricia Cornwell-in a little over 2 hours last night-what a waste of 2 hours!
What was she-and her editors thinking! This wasn't a novel it was like an outline, or even a short story....very disappointing!

Pat

Pam53, what did you think of Grenville's book?

I found this article in today's paper on the process of writing The Secret River. I'm about to read Grenville's novel, The Idea of Perfection for an Australian literature course I'm doing at the moment.

Adam

Here is a link that might be useful: The Secret River