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Native_texan
Member
08-24-2004
| Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 9:07 am
Mamie, a lot of the "new" books by Nora Roberts that have been coming out in the last year or so are her old books that are being republished. I believe she only comes out with one, maybe two, actual new books each year. She is one of my favorites. I just finished The Yada Yada Prayer Group and have now started The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down. I have been reading a lot of Christian fiction the last couple of years and really enjoy them. It's amazing to know that there are good mysteries, romance, action, etc. books out there that are great reads without the heaving-bosom sex or filthy language.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, January 14, 2005 - 2:44 pm
I've started The Soloman Sisters Wise Up by Melissa Senate. Just started it so don't know too much about it yet.
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Not1worry
Member
07-30-2002
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 4:51 pm
If the Shopaholic were a little more sensible and a lot more clumsy, she'd be Holly Colshannon. The book is "Playing James" by Sarah Mason. Holly is a reporter assigned to the dull police beat. James is the detective that the police department allows her to follow around and publish a daily diary. There's typical romance and the requisite happy ending, but it was such a hoot! Totally laugh out loud. Lots of British slang that made me glad I'd read Shopaholic and Marian Keyes stuff. Don't be thrown off by the beginning where she takes her best friend to the ER to remove a birth control item that's umm...trapped. That made me say "Ewww!", but the rest of the book was great. Native, I'd love for you to share some of your good ones! I tend to be disappointed with a lot of Christian fiction. The last one I read, Lori Wick's "Every Storm" had a great story, but the dialogue and narration was terrible.
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Native_texan
Member
08-24-2004
| Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 8:06 pm
Not1, I have read and loved just about everything by Dee Henderson and Karen Kingsbury. Karen Kingsbury also co-authored the Redemption Series with Gary Smalley. I will be reading the last book in that series once I have finished the second Yada Yada book. I have really enjoyed The Mitford Series by Jan Karon. The story can move a little slow at times, but I feel like I can't stop until all is told.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:44 pm
I am reading Every Boy's Got One and I have to tell you that I am loving it! I think I like it just as much as Boy Next Door.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, January 28, 2005 - 5:01 pm
I am reading Sushi For Beginners by Marian Keyes. I really love her work!
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Sunday, January 30, 2005 - 10:53 am
i have read all marian keyes' books and wish i had a dozen more.... janet evanovich's stephanie plum novels are great, but her other books are all 'romance genre' and bore me to tears. right now i'm reading dean koontz' 'frankenstein'. i've only read about 50 pages so far, but it seems to be pretty good. my favorite koontz book is 'from the corner of his eye'.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Monday, January 31, 2005 - 11:27 am
Tabbyking, did you ever read "Lightning" by Dean Koontz? It was one of his earlier ones (dealing with time travel). It was probably my favorite of all his books, although it was quite different than a lot of his. I haven't liked some of his latest books because most of the book seems to involve one long chase scene. He does have some pretty interesting plots, though.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, January 31, 2005 - 3:31 pm
I finished Sushi For Beginners. I just have to run out and get all her other books! Love her! I am going to start reading Once Upon A Blind Date by Wendy Markham, tonight. Looks like it will be a fast read.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 8:34 am
Anyone here read any of Fannie Flagg's books? They're really great - especially "Welcome to the World Baby Girl" and "Standing in the Rainbow". Both those stories overlap a lot of the characters. I especially loved "Standing in the Rainbow." It's one of those feel-good stories with characters that you wished you knew and almost feel like you do by the end. Her latest one, a "Redbird Christmas" was good, too, but not as long as the others.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 8:40 am
I've read them all Scout. I really liked Welcome to the World. Redbird was a very sweet Christmas story. I find that I always feel good after reading her books.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 9:19 am
Mamie, it sounds like we like a lot of the same kind of books. You've probably mentioned your favorite authors above somewhere, but I was just wondering if you might name them again? Always looking for another book!
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - 11:50 am
I don't really have a favorite. I just buy whatever strikes my fancy! It does seem like we like the same books!
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - 10:15 pm
scout, i have read all the koontz books. the frankenstein book is 'book one' of his new 'the prodigal son' series. very good and a quick read. the horrid part is that book 2 won't be out until summer!! at the end of this book it lists two other books he will release in march and april of this year. one he compares to 'intensity'; it's called 'velocity'-- and the other is 'the taking'. one is being released in paperback and the other in hardback. the paperback release (the taking) i must have somehow missed when it came out in hardback several months back!! i can't wait to get both books to tide me over until the second book of the prodigal son comes out. i know this topic is 'chick lit' but i'm a chick and i'm discussing lit! i do enjoy a lot of the chick lit as long as it isn't all throbbing and girded loins (which, by the way, i swear i saw on a menu once--i would suggest ordering it rare, lol) and i am hoping marian keyes comes up with a new one soon. must be the irish in me! i also love the sue grafton books with kinsey millhone. she is so like me! i could just see me tooling around in my vw bug with my all-purpose dress somewhere on the floor behind the driver's seat, and a change of panties and toothbrush in my pocket! i am totally in love with her little one-car garage apartment and her octogenarian landlord who bakes bread and always has wonderful wine about the place...okay, the hungarian restaurant scares me, but i'll try anything once! except for marriage, which i tried twice....ehehehehe.....
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 8:21 am
TabbyKing, I've never read anything by Marian Keyes (except I think she might have been in a book of short stories I read by Irish authors). I'm heading for the library today to find one of hers. Do you have a favorite of hers? I just finished "The Good Earth". The first half of the book I really liked. The second half of the book I saw why Oprah liked it. Don't mean to offend any Oprah fans, but I don't like her recommendations very often (mostly because they always seem so depressing) and I don't like her putting her seal on classics. I'm glad that she does get people reading - that part is great. I guess I just wish that for established classics she could just suggest and not reprint with her logo on the cover. Oh yeah, the "girded loins on the menu" LOL
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 8:39 am
I find Oprah's books to be very depressing. I started with her book club and then just thought, I need to have some lightness every once in awhile. They all seem to have the same theme of despair and abandonment.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 9:01 am
"despair and abandonment" - that's exactly how they strike me, too. I like books that make me laugh, or inspire me, or teach me. When I was growing up I loved historical fiction. I was always most impressed with the Little House series. Continued to read them over and over again as an adult. I started researching the family and found some pretty interesting books. One was "The Ghost in the Little House" which is a biography (and clips of her autobiography) of Laura's daughter, Rose. When I first read it, I was appalled at her feelings towards her mother, but after reading it again, I think their's was just the same complex love/hate thing that most people have. (The premise is that Rose actually wrote the books. My own personal belief is that it represented all of Laura's ideas and Rose's expertise at editing - which isn't the same as ghostwriting at all)It's always intriguing, though, to see where the stories veered from fact into pure fiction. I recently read all the children's series they had about Laura's mother, grandmother,and great-grandmother, and also the series about Rose. Now I know they were mostly fiction (and children's books at that), but I still thought they were good. No one could capture that essence that was Laura's writing, but I would still recommend them to children (or adults).
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 9:34 am
I only read the original Little House series. I was a big fan of Little Women, Little Men, etc. I could just lose myself in those books when I was younger. I still count Little Women as my all time favorite book.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 9:44 am
I loved, "Little Women" also. Did you like any of the movie versions? I know of three - the one with Kathryn Hepburn, one with June Allyson, and the recent one with Winona Ryder? I liked parts of all of them, but none were ever as good as the book. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie that was better than the book, except maybe "A Beautiful Mind". The movie was great (although not nearly as good after reading the book and finding out they made up most of their "true story"), but the book was just not that interesting.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 9:54 am
I never read A Beautiful Mind but I did love the movie. I find that the movies are never as good as the book. With maybe a few exceptions with escape me at this time. I like the way I have imagined them a lot more than the way they are depicted.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 10:26 am
I remember seeing, "Gone with the Wind" on tv when I was a kid. I thought it was good, but never cared to read the book. Then one day, I picked it up and I thought it was the most amazing, involving book I'd ever read. I almost felt like I'd been through the war by the time it was over. Since then, I've read it over and over. Now, when I picture the characters they look absolutely nothing like the movie characters (well, maybe Rhett, but definitely not Ashley or most of the characters). It's interesting how people can read the same book with descriptions of characters, but still the way they would actually cast them can be so different. Maybe that's part of the magic of books for me.
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Puppylov3
Member
01-26-2004
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 10:32 am
LOVE LOVE LOVE Little Women - only I don't identify with the character everyone else does (for me it's Beth no Jo). favorite movie version was actually a tv miniseries of Little Women with Susan Dey as Jo and Eve Plumb as Beth that try as I can - I cannot locate on tape or dvd which aggrevates me. Interesting info on Little House books - I was a massive Laura/Little House freak long about the age of 10/11/12. Favorite of the books is The Long Winter for some reason.
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Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 10:48 am
My favorite was also, "The Long Winter", followed by "Little Town on the Prairie". I like the way she made each successive book a more difficult reading level - as though the reader were growing up right along with Laura. I can't think of another series of books I've read that have ever done that. I was about 11 when I first found the series and started in the middle before I knew there were more. I started researching Laura as an adult and stumbled across the "Ghost in the Little House" book. I guess everybody wants to find a conspiracy with everything! I actually find conspiracy theories and books interesting. It's always fun to read about someone de-bunking a myth and then read de-bunkers debunking the original de-bunkers. (that sounds a little de-bonkers, I think) I'm surprised that I never saw the tv miniseries because I was a fan of Susan Dey and of course, watched the Brady Bunch. I have trouble finding a lot of shows from the 70's. For some reason, they are printing very recent tv shows of dvd - even ones that didn't last long or do well. I've been looking for some of my fav shows from when I was young - "Family", "Eight is Enough" etc. but still not out. Sorry for drifting off the thread. I guess I indentified with Jo the most, but I think Beth was a much more complex character. Most of the Jo interpretations in movies seem similar, but Beth's character has been very different.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 1:00 pm
Scout, all my favorite shows too! I think I've found a kindred spirit! I also identified with Jo but I did name my daughter Elizabeth after my favorite character, Beth. Little Woman was the first book that I ever cried reading. And believe me, it wasn't the last! I really credit my love for reading to my Godmother. Every Christmas and birthday, she bought me books. She started with Nancy Drew and went on to Little Women, Black Beauty, etc. She gave me Gone With The Wind to read when I was about 11. I fell madly in love with that book. At first, I was a little intimidated by the size of it but once I started reading it, magic! I did see it on a big screen with my mom when I was about 16. I have to say I did enjoy it very much. I to this day cannot watch it on a small screen.
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 8:18 pm
scout, i hope you found a marian keyes book to read! i don't have a favorite, mainly because most of them are about siblings. a book about each sister. after reading one, you just have to grab another and read it! she is witty and smart and fun even about serious things. they all seem to come out okay at the end, too! i am trying to remember which one has the parents in it a lot. one of the girls moves home. her parents only eat frozen meals. mom hasn't cooked in years!
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