USVI-On-Line

Current:
The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt
The Bushwacked Piano - Thomas McGuane
Nobody's Angel - Thomas McGuane

I borrowed The Road from Skinny's library. After having read the trilogy (All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain), and Suttree and No Country for Old Men, The Road is the most desperate and disturbing embodimant of evil I've stumbled across. McCarthy is a very sick puppy.

Just read The Ruins-

Creepy, intimately creepy then horrific. Hot, desperate, thirst. Pain.

I still have images floating in my head from this book. Reading it on-island would be very courageous.

Scott Smith... Sean Scott...ugh, I can't remember the author's name.

This is coming out as a movie any minute now so it should be on every grocery store shelf across the country.

Reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson now. Just can't get into it. It seemed so promising, I am hoping it will get better!

flip-flop wrote:Reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson now. Just can't get into it. It seemed so promising, I am hoping it will get better!

Drat, I just shipped that one, and another of hers, down to read on vacation. I hope you can tell me that it improves!

liamsaunt wrote:

flip-flop wrote:Reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson now. Just can't get into it. It seemed so promising, I am hoping it will get better!

Drat, I just shipped that one, and another of hers, down to read on vacation. I hope you can tell me that it improves!

I think my problem is it took a long time to hook me - a long time to get to a point where it makes sense. But I have two kids and deal with a lot of interruptions so I kept having to go back and re-read what I'd read to remember what was going on because it was so disjointed. Now, the I kind of have an idea of what's going on, it is getting better. It could be my delayed reading style that is causing me trouble. If I were on the beach uninterrupted flying through it, it might me a completely different experience!

Has anyone else ever gotten in to Wilbur Smith? He has written many, many novels. Some were series of generations of South Africans, another were swashbuckling high seas adventure stories set in the dawn of the eighteenth century. The latest were a series of books revolving around ancient Egypt. All good reads!
Has anyone else read the "Kite Runner"?

I'm currently reading Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I'm really enjoying it. I have to stop every so often, and go back to see who's who, but otherwise an interesting read.

One of the best books I've read lately is Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind which I brought with me to St John. I left it in the "lending library" of Lavender Hill's 8E, but I'm wishing I had brought it home with me. I loved that book.

Next up is Lisa See's Peony in Love which was highly recommended by our local bookstore.

JT wrote:Has anyone else ever gotten in to Wilbur Smith?

I've read the Courtney series, the one about the South Africa families. Outstanding, and I learned a lot about the history of South Africa.

I'm about to start Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille. I've read almost all his books. The Charm School is probably my favorite of his.

KatieH wrote:I'm currently reading Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I'm really enjoying it. I have to stop every so often, and go back to see who's who, but otherwise an interesting read.

One of the best books I've read lately is Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind which I brought with me to St John. I left it in the "lending library" of Lavender Hill's 8E, but I'm wishing I had brought it home with me. I loved that book.

Next up is Lisa See's Peony in Love which was highly recommended by our local bookstore.

KatieH, That's the other Atkinson book I shipped to myself! I hope I like them...

Did you read Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? I loved it way more than Peony in Love. That one was OK, but I liked Snow Flower a lot more.

I just finished Double Bind a couple of days ago, as I mentioned upthread. I am glad you noted it again here, because I forgot to say in my post that the book really only makes sense if you have previously read the Great Gatsby.

JT, yes, I thought that the Kite Runner was excellent, as is his follow up novel, a Thousand Splendid Suns. I've never heard of Wilbur Smith. I'll check him out tomorrow on Amazon.

Chet, what do you think of City of Falling Angels? It took me a bit to get into it, but then I really loved it.

It's the usvi-on-line book club!

Teddy Salad, I started with one of Smith's stand alone novels about 20 years ago, then read the Courtney series. Since then, I've read pretty much every one of his books.

liamsaunt, go to: wilbursmithbooks.com

It's a great web page of his books. His stand alone, i.e. single book novels are a good place to start. Warning, though! You can get addicted to him. I think of his Courtney and Ballyntine series as sort of a southern African history put into very readable adventure novels. I can't really give a comparison to him with anybody else. Adventure, intrique, soap, history rolled up into one. Maybe a sophisticated John Jakes meets a watered down version of James Minchener in Southern Africa!

I'm reading his newest novel now called "The Quest" but it's the fourth in a series of ancient Egypt.

Chet, what do you think of City of Falling Angels? It took me a bit to get into it, but then I really loved it.

It's the usvi-on-line book club!

After choking down Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin", Venice Light was just what I needed. Yeah, Falling Angels is about the fire and the people and politics, but it's also an allegorical tale about the rise and fall, resurrection and fall, and rebirth of Venice. Berendt leaves me thinking there's very little heart of Venice behind the current pop-culture stage curtain facade.

After choking down Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin".[/quote]

Oh, gargh, I HATED that book. There was so much venom in it. I ended up not liking not just the characters, but HER also. I have not been able to read anything else of hers since, even though she gets good reviews.

I have only intentionally destroyed one book in my life, but I came close to ripping up that one too.

liamsaunt wrote: AsheAfter choking down Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

I have only intentionally destroyed one book in my life, but I came close to ripping up that one too.

I felt that way about "Angela's Ashes".

JT wrote: Has anyone else read the "Kite Runner"?

I read that on our STJ trip last fall. Leslie brought that one, and I brought "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and when we both finished those we switched.

Kite Runner was quite the gripping story...

Has anyone read "Adrift on a Sea of Blue Light", by Peter Muilenburg (captain/owner of The Breath)?

I've ordered it after going on the Breath web site to get info on the sailing charter.

augie wrote: Has anyone read "Adrift on a Sea of Blue Light", by Peter Muilenburg (captain/owner of The Breath)?

I've ordered it after going on the Breath web site to get info on the sailing charter.

I read it and really, really enjoyed it. What an amazing life that family has.