Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Good books, good memories

Oooh, look we got Melisma all distracted!

I loved the film The Green Mile, sobbed my heart out, but have never read any of Stephan Kings books. I'm trying to remember, did he also write Shawshank Redemption? I *love* the film, but again have never read the book (very unusual for me!).

After seeing Pam's summary of The Westing Game, I may have to go and find it, it sounds great!

Another book I've read, but not seen mentioned, is Sophie's World. It was a good book, though heavy going in parts. I enjoyed reading the philosophy parts, tho that was generally the bit that slowed me down - for some reason non - fiction just doesn't hold my attention. The ending was a little... odd/unusual. You had to be paying attention for it to make sense, and even then it didn't make much sense!

Loriel

Yup, another superb movie that makes me cry every time I watch it, just like The Green Mile. It was based on King's novella, Rita Heyworth and the Shawshank Redemption, one of four stories contained in his collection, Different Seasons. Another of the stories in that collection, The Body was filmed as the wonderful coming-of-age movie, Stand By Me.

LabRat

Oh, wow, reading everyone's posts is reminding me of many I forgot the first time!

Harry Potter! Of course! I have all 4 in paperback, reread many times. I'll get 5 when the library has it -- I'm too poor to buy HCs these days.

THE SECRET GARDEN! I reread that so many times when I was a kid! And A Little Princess too!

Loriel, I think of the Avonlea books as part of the Anne series, and I don't think I'm talking about Emily either... /me tries to remember ... something about a house that she didn't want to move away from?

Didn't watch on the BBC, but they came to the U.S. as Wonderworks episodes. I loved that show!

XANTH!!! I love those! And also Anthony's Phaze books.

Oh, and I used to read books by Enid Blyghton every time we visited a country that had them (England, Wales, Australia). A bit harder to get them in the States.

Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie! Definitely! Still love mysteries! Favorite current mystery writer is Diane Mott Davidson. Yummy recipes are a bonus!

My favorite Pern book is also my first -- which was Harper Hall -- my mom left it lying around. And I have a whole stack of Pern 'zines.

How did I foget Madeline L'Engle?! Wrinkle in Time was probably my first real SF. And her non-SF books are also amazing! A Ring of Endless Light is actually one of the Austins books, I believe, Pam. I love those, and the two Camilla books.

The Westing Game! Pam, Jill, I had forgotten that book! It was GREAT!

Oh, and books by E.L. Konigsburg! Mixed up Files..., Scarlet and Miniver, Jennifer, Hecate..., Rats of NIMH!

/me is reveling in memories of all these wonderful books

The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin... LOL, that *does* bring back memories!

Many, many of the books/series mentioned here bring warm smiles of nostalgia. But since this thread is supposed to be for the all-time favorites, I'll restrict myself to three:

Watership Down, by Richard Adams. Kind of a given, considering my nick and avatar! I read this to my little sister when she was ten and I look forward to reading it to my own children, sometime after I finish reading...

Laura Ingalls Wilder's books to them. Mind you, the last few are too old for them at the moment. Grey eyes and dark hair still sound good to me!

Hazel, who also liked To Kill a Mockingbird and The Phantom Tollbooth and the Narnia books (although, as an adult, I was a little taken aback at just how *blatant* the Christian allegories were) and Madeleine L'Engle and Graham Martin's Giftwish and Catchfire and the Hardy Boys and Asimov and the first few Pern books and Francis and Rex Stout and Scarlet Pimpernel and Macbeth, for some reason, and Ngaio Marsh Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and a few Agatha Christies and Terry Pratchett and Lois McMaster Bujold and Eddings' Belgariad (although not the other books) and Gordon Korman's child and teen books and the Harry Potter books and Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave and Hollow Hills and Anne of Green Gables and Gillian Bradshaw's Hawk of May and... oh, never mind, just call me a literary omnivore.

LOL, Hazel, I found this interesting because I still remember the 'huh?' moment I had many years later when the Christian connection in the Narnia novels was pointed out to me. Until then (and I was twenty-something by that point) it had passed me by entirely.

I found this interesting too because although I adore the Belgariad and (having re-read it recently and decided I'd been a little harsh on it) enjoy the Mallorean, although I didn't think it was as good, I've tried and tried and simply cannot get into the other series/novels.

I know that there was something I heard vaguely that it was actually Eddings' wife, Leigh, who had written The Belgariad and I've often wondered if this was true and that David Eddings wrote the others and that's why I find one series so enthralling and the others leave me cold. Anyone else know anything about the story behind this? Was it just a rumour or was it confirmed at some point by his publisher? Memory tells me it was confirmed, but I wasn't paying too much attention at the time, I have to say.

LabRat (who also thought that Belgarath the Sorcerer was an annoying way to get more cash out of a story already told...)

Well, LOL both of you - the Christian connection was the *only* reason my parents let me read them when I was eight, nine and ten. Because CS Lewis was this great Christian author, and he'd written such a classical Christian allegory - otherwise, fiction? Ban the trash from the house, kids. We read only true stories here, and Bible stories. :rolleyes:

Oh and of course Pilgrim's Progress. Can't forget that one. Actually I liked that, so I'm not saying nothing against it...

Anyway, what I mean to say is, the Narnia books were my first fiction (other than PP, but PP isn't counted as fiction, right?), and thanks to them, I got interested in all other fiction books, and later, TV. So despite my parents' ban on all non-true books in the house, because they let the Narnia books through, I'm sitting here with baited breath as Harry and Hermione and Ron are meeting Sirius Black finally, and finding out that their teacher (what'shisnameagain?) is a werewolf, and that Ron's rat is Peter someone, Harry's dad's friend... Well sheesh, I'm reading so fast here you can't expect me to remember all the details, right? That's what re-reading is for! Besides, we have spoiler virgins here, LOL...

But anyway, that's how I got into reading novels and fiction (and later, fanfiction), so if it took reading a book with *Christian* overtones to get me hooked, I'll say thanks very much, and oh yeah, I LOVE the Narnia books, which is why I got myself yet another set on Thursday...

Melisma (shutting up for now, here under her Rock)

Oh my god, I should *never* have come into this thread. I've been avoiding it, knowing I'd be sucked in. Of course I was right, and now I'm going to sit here thinking and writing for hours, and then I'm going to wander through my house looking for books on bookshelves and in boxes so that I can read them again.

I have to agree with most of the choices listed so far.

Classics and Childhood Favorites
I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Sense and Sensibility and Emma.

I'm also a huge Chronicle of Narnia fan. I own the box set and still read them occassionally. Definitely something I want my kids to read someday. I definitely read them out of order, starting with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which is still my all time favorite in the series. I also really liked The Magician's Nephew which is definitely the first story chronologically because it explains where the wardrobe came from. And I liked The Horse and His Boy a lot when I was younger. I liked all the stuff about the talking animals. I did see the miniseries and I loved it. As a matter of fact, I think we wore the tape out watching it so much.

Anne of Green Gables is probably my all-time favorite book or series of books. I was named after Anne, and my mom read me those books over and over and over again when I was little. I read out numerous sets of them. I don't even have a coherent set now, just the surviving miscellaneous copies of each story. I think Gibert was my first love. I always loved the way he loved Anne and wanted to find a guy who would be so patient and encouraging with me. (Hmm, come to think of it, his relationship with Anne is pretty similar to Clark's relationship with Lois. Funny how I never noticed that before.) I watched these movies too (I own the boxed sets of both Anne of Green Gable and Anne of Avonlea) and I love them, but every time I watch I cringe at the way they slaughtered the books. They crammed four books into two movies and...wow. Some of the scenes are identical, but there are MAJOR changes. There is a third movie which I just couldn't bring myself to watch. It's more like an elseworld fanfic than an actual sequel. Somehow the movie has them has a young married couple during WWI even though Gil and Anne had a son who died in WWI. IIRC, Gil goes MIA and Anne goes to find him. I'm sure it's a good movie, but I just couldn't do it. I just want Gil and Anne to be at Ingleside with their seven children where they belong, not galavanting through Europe. It makes no sense to me.

I loved A Wrinkle in Time and all its sequels too. I thought Meg was the coolest. <G>

Another book I loved as a child was Caroline B. Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton. I read and reread it. Years later, the author finally came out with a sequel, Whatever Happened to Janie which I also devoured. Then, a couple of years ago, I was babysitting for a 10 year old little girl who was just as adorable as can be and she was telling me all about her favorite books. I was listening and reminiscing about the books when I was her age, when she started describing a book that sounded eerily familiar, but I knew I hadn't read it. Turned out to be yet another sequel. So, I borrowed it and read it. I think her mom thought I was insane, borrowing a book from her 10 year old. <G>

1984 and Farenheit 454 were also big favorites of mine. Terrifying, but inspiring at the same time.

The Princess Bride - I remember discovering that this was actually a book and being thrilled. I also remember wondering if there actually was a longer version that it was excerpted from as the foreward claimed, and searching to see if I could find it. Little did I know that I was one of millions to try that.


Newer books I love:

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. Incredible book. It covers three generations of family secrets, mental illness, abuse and love.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berent. Set in the most beautiful city on earth - my future home - Savannah, GA, it's got amazing characters, a murder mystery, courtroom drama and an intrepid reporter chronicling the whole thing. What more could you want? Oh, yeah. It's a true story.

Catch-22 There is no other book on earth this funny. Everytime I read it, I see something new.

Personal History is the autobiography of possibly the most influencial woman in journalism, Katharine Graham. Kay Graham became owner and publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 after her husband committed suicide. She went overnight from being a shy, overlooked, housewife with minimal experience as a journalist to the head of a Fortune 500 company. She rose to the occassion became both loved and feared within Washington. She created the empire that is the Washington Post, Co. while bringing down Nixon with the Watergate stories. She's my hero and I've wanted for most of my life to work for her. When she died two years ago, I cried. The book, told in her own words, is the story of her life, The Washington Post, and the city of Washington, DC.

Let's see, what else...

Romance and Light Reading

I'll read anything by Mary Jo Putney or Mary Balogh. I definitely owe those obsessions to people on the mbs and IRC who convinced me to start reading and got be hooked. I also love Linda Howard books, especially the newer ones. I honestly think I might own every one of her books, barring the one that's still in hardback. (Give me time... <G>) I love the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich. The new one will be out soon, and I can't wait.

Oh, and in the same vein, I love the Bridget Jones books. I actually read Bridget Jones' Diary in an airport and had to stop because I was laughing out loud and people were looking at me like I was crazy.

The Nanny Diaries is a new favorite. Not sure if it would be as funny to anyone who hasn't actually *been* a nanny, but I was cracking up.

Okay, I HAVE to stop now. See, I knew I should never come in here....

Annie

Editing to add *one* more thing. A couple of people have mentioned Jane Ann Krenz/Jayne Castle. I read one of her short stories (published as JAK) that was in an anthology and loved it, so I borrowed a JC novel from the library and just couldn't get through it. If she's this good though, maybe I should give her another try. And maybe I just need to stay away from the JC stuff, since I tend not to be overly fond of futuristic stuff.

Oh, yes, the books she wrote as Jayne Castle are VERY different. Read some of the ones she wrote under Jayne Ann Krentz or... sheesh, what's the 3rd name she writes under?

LOL, Annie. You know, kids can be excellent conduits to good things. My very favourite animated movie is The Swan Princess - hilarious, waffy and brilliant musical numbers.

I discovered it while visiting my brother and his three-year-old of the time happened to be watching it while I was there. I quickly had trouble focusing on the adults' conversation as I became more and more engrossed in the story and then I had to leave before the end!!! Nonchalently pretending I didn't care, of course.

Dashed out the next day and bought my own copy, wore it out, and now I have it on DVD.

LabRat

Well, Rat, I wonder if the clerks in Kyobo thought I was crazy on Thursday, going in there and buying *two* sets of children's books. Except that I do look like I'm 11 months pregnant, and I'm old enough to have kids of that age at home - except that every good Korean mother (or grandmother), it seems, won't leave the kids at home. Nope, I'm constantly tripping over kids here!

Melisma (under her Rock, swearing that yes, she likes kids, really - in moderation. And provided she can give the kid back to the mother at the end of the lesson. And provided the kid doesn't come with other kids attached - groups of kids give her the heebeejeebees, which is why she no longer teaches classrooms of kids...)

Yeah, well kids can provide good camouflage too. <g> Just tell any nosey clerks it's your three-year-old niece's birthday. <G>

LabRat

Yeh, that might do it. If only I *did* have a three-year-old niece <whine>. My sis and bro-in-law have been married for 11 years now, and they are showing no interest in having kids of their own.

But you know, looking like you're 11 mos pregnant has it's benefits - people always give you their seats in the subway, and all the little old ladies smile at you and start jabbering at you in Korean and try to pat your tummy.. Oh wait, that's not a benefit! I'm actually considering ordering a t-shirt that has a picture of a baby in a circle with a line through it, like a no-entry sign, that says "no baby on board". It doesn't just happen here, I've had it happen at home, too...

Melisma (seriously debating abdominal adipose reduction surgery, here under her Rock - if she ever wins the lottery of course!)

Wow... you guys have been having too much fun! <g>

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the camp gym, watching all the kids run around, when all of a sudden I was thinking "west... west... Westing Game!" <g> And I'm honestly stunned to see that anyone else recognized it! Maybe I need to take a little trip over to amazon...

re: JAK -- for the most part, she writes contemporary stuff as JAK, futuristic/sci-fi stuff as JC, and Regency romance as Amanda Quick. Some of the older sci-fi stuff was published in her name, though. As for good... well, I'm hesitant to say she's a great writer -- she is *definitely* formulaic, and I know that's a serious flaw in some eyes. But as I said, I like the formula Still, there are some of her books that leave me cold. <shrug> She's certainly got tons of books to choose from!

And since some others have mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold, I'll expand on that a little bit... that woman is an *amazing* writer. Intricate plots, subtle characterization, layers of meaning all over the place, and some great phrasing... There was one chapter in A Civil Campaign that started out hilarious, got very dark and serious in the middle, and had me laughing through tears at the end...

You can read ACC all by itself, I suppose, but there are so many layers of history there, which make it a much richer experience if you've read some of the earlier Vorkosigan books.

And she just keeps getting better! The most recent is The Curse of Chalion which has a fantasy/historical setting, a great adventure plot, vivid characters, and some very deep thoughts about the nature of faith. She's created an entirely new belief system, and it took me a bit to catch on, but it's really fascinating, and deeply cool. I have re-read that one about a million times.

PJ
who actually met LMB in person last fall! and she's a really fabulous lady. Oh, and she started out writing fanfic

That's exactly how I feel about the Anne series.

I'll always remember reading the books and agreeing with Anne; that when I have kids I'm going to remember what it was like to be their age and not do to them what adults did to me (and Anne)! I haven't had a chance to put the theory into practise, but if I ever forget what I said, you guys can remind me!

Loriel

Ok, so great may be too strong a word for JAK. It is true, at some point her formula wore a bit thin with me, and I stopped reading her books. But I got over it, and came back.

After all, she is the author that a friend from another fandom used to, as she put it, "corrupt" me. This was back when I was 16, and relatively, uh, uncorrupted. No, really!

I remembered another one I reread and reread when I was a teen: Momma's Bank Account

Oh, and how did I forget the All of a Kind Family books? My daughter is old enough to read them now -- it's so cool to share books that I loved when I was a kid!

Back again... I've been browsing barnes & noble (got a gc for my birthday that I haven't used yet... )

Found The Westing Game in a recent paperback reprint, and that got me free-associating some more... I also found Mara, Daughter of the Nile -- a book that I absolutely *adored* in junior high school. I think I wore out the library copy all by myself It's also been recently reprinted, which means I can't have been the only one who liked it ... which is making me worry that I'm not nearly as unusual as I've always liked to think

And I don't know how on earth I managed to not mention Tryst! Tryst isn't in print anymore, but B&N listed some second-hand copies for sale -- ranging from $10-15 (a bargain! Four years ago the lowest price I could find was $30) all the way up to a paperback copy that's priced at $211. And also by Elswyth Thane there's a whole series of Williamsburg novels, following a few families from the Revolutionary War up to World War II.

Oh, and I've read most everything I can find by M. M. Kaye. I started with the big fat historical novels (Trade Wind was the best, IMO) but then moved on to her murder mysteries, which are all good, too.

PJ
who is loving this nostalgia trip!