Books

[Birdhead]

Also on the topic of authors around there, Sherryl Jordan comes from New Zealand. Tauranga, specifically.

Have you read Winter of Fire and Rocco and The Raging Quiet and The Juniper Game? If not, DO. :P I'm also saying that I'm not offended by you calling NZ "somwhere around Australia" but some people would be. :P Remember, Australia is somewhere around New Zealand. (Kidding.)

With respect to those books:
-I have heard that The Haunting of Alaizable Cray is good, and I think I've picked it up a lot on libraries and bookshops but never got it out. I don't know if that says anything.

- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is really, really excellent and I thoroughly reccommend it.
- I did like The Geography Club because it is not so angst-ridden and somewhat more... open? inclusive? a book than many other YA "gay" books I have read. I mean it's not just focused on OMG BEING GAY. On the other hand IIRC it was Hartinger's first book and so some bits of it are a little bit clumsy; I liked The Last Chance Texaco, which was his second book, a lot more. (Interestingly he's clearly not feeling confined to writing about gay teenagers because LCT is about foster homes. It's kind of refreshing cf the excellent but one-track-mind Nancy Garden.)

-I liked Born Confused very much, it's a little long and maybe a tad... sprawling, and not so together, but it's also very refeshing and cheerful. It's fun.

-I haven't read Milkweed, but Jerry Spinelli is usually a veyr good read. I loved Maniac Magee and Stargirl in particular.

-Wee Free Men is great, plus any othe Pratchett- I'm surprised you haven't read anything by him, truly, although I suppose he may not be your thing.

[Gigo]

Tui:

*skips through the top part* *Hasn't read any 'gay' books yet, as chosen method of picking books is snatching books at random from the YA shelves: plenty of violence, though.*

Milkweed isn't bad at all. It's pretty good. Maniac Magee is the best, but Space Station 7th Grade made me laugh so hard.

Ahh: Pratchett. XD He rules!

*is sad* The only books my library has by him are: The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents (very enjoyable), Wee Free Men (very different) and The Bromeliad Triology (Truckers, Diggers, Wings). What-ho! *aims at everyone with a gnu.

[alla]

(from another thread, but fits in here) Scorpia, huh, Gigo? have you read it before? If not, its good . Ark Angel is, I would say, even better.

Anyone read the Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy by Kate Constable? Preferably Alla...the books are all published in Australia, and only the first two are out here. Grr. Also on the topic of authors around there, Sherryl Jordan comes from New Zealand. Tauranga, specifically

*giggles* Around there? Tui will be seething
Oh look:

I'm also saying that I'm not offended by you calling NZ "somwhere around Australia" but some people would be. :P Remember, Australia is somewhere around New Zealand.

Heh. People just don't know about those little two beautiful islands as much more than 'the place they filmed LOTR' though, Tui. It comes of you having a bigger island as your neighbour - and who's population is more... noticeable?

back to Lisa: Random Jedi! Random Jedi! Random Jedi! Random Jedi! I went to a midnight session of ROTS (that soo looks like a typo of ROTK XD) as a random Jedi... It was fun. I do get the feeling that there is something wrong with my idea of costumes though, as (based on my cloak) I got called a Jedi at the Brisbane Medieval Fayre and a Hobbit at the Star Wars thing... *shrugs* It's all in good fun.

Chanters of Tremaris? Hmm, can't say I have. *goes looking* Hmm... looks interesting. I'll have to look into reading that - after exams, though. On the subject of Australian authors, however, you may enjoy Alison Croggon (The Treesong Trilogy), Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Trilogy and hmm... its not fantasy, but its really good, The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden. Sara Douglass is good too.

Alla

[seabiscuit1009]

Ok, don't remeber if I've read any of those books other than The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things That one's not too bad, very funny teenage girl type of book. Ever heard of Louise Rennison? Well, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things is very much like her books.

-seabiscuit, a.k.a. hungry

[Angel_Star]

Lisa: I read the first Chanters book and the first 20 some odd pages of the second one. (It was in our school book sale, but I was broke. Heheh...) I really liked the first one, anyways, though I can't remember hardly anything about it.

Recently I've been reading okay books, but nothing that's really caught my attention. We have to read Animal Farm for school, but I haven't even bought it yet.

[Birdhead]

*Hasn't read any 'gay' books yet, as chosen method of picking books is snatching books at random from the YA shelves: plenty of violence, though.*

Um, golly? :P Oh, er, probably best not to take me too seriously on the topic of "gay" books or even, really, to think of them as "gay" books; I was being flippant, really. :P Also I have read several really excellent books for young adults that feature gay characters that are not what I categorise as "gay books"; they tend to be better, too, as a rule, so, really, just ignore me. Or if you're really interested I can reccommend some to you, or whatever. *shrug* David Levithan is good. And Paula Boock although the likelihood of you finding Dare Truth or Promise in a library outside New Zealand are very likely slim to none. Maybe William Taylor.

People just don't know about those little two beautiful islands as much more than 'the place they filmed LOTR' though, Tui.

Sadly true, that's why I have to enlighten them. :P

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by Lisa:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Kli:
I have also read a draft of Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman wanted to say thank you for some fountain pens I've given him).

Wha...? How...? *grumbling* When I'm published, I may send some of you guys advance signed copies. But that is SO COOL! I'm going to send fountain pens to J.K. Rowling now, and Scott Westerfeld, and...(list goes on forever). </div>[quote]Oh, it wasn't a signed ARC or anything like that. He just e-mailed me a PDF of the final draft. I don't know if the fountain pen gambit would work with another author or another pen, though. Neil writes his first drafts long hand with a fountain pen in a notebook, before he types them into the computer and starts editing. And the fountain pen I gave him was from the 1920s and has what's called a flex nib--a nib that responds to pressure to make downstrokes thicker and upstrokes thinner. Upshot: your writing looks old-fashioned. Aside from that, I've been a fan of his for about twenty years now, and he got to know me pretty well during this weird CBLDF fundraising cruise, where it was essentially a 100-person convention trapped aboard a boat. These types of situations don't happen very often.

I have been toying with the idea of giving similar pens to Garth Nix and Neal Stephenson, though. They also write their first drafts with fountain pens in notebooks...

[Kathy Li]

Yay! Yay!!!!

NEW LAURIE KING!!!!

Locked Rooms just came out in hardcover, and I bought it, read it, and loved it. It's probably the best in the Russell/Holmes series since the first one. And there are quite a few changes from LRK's usually modus operandi in this one. We actually get 3rd person narrative from Holmes's POV for a lot of the book. It's just plain grand.

Plus, there are rumors abounding that some of what's established in it (as it's set in San Francisco this time), will show up in her next book, which is going to be a Kate Martinelli!

BTW, this also means that LRK is also doing a signing tour up and down the US west coast. She's great fun.

[meteorite]

kli6, I am extremely jealous. I have been waiting for our library to acquire a copy of Locked Rooms (I'm on the wait list) for about 4 months now. And you got it first. Nuts!

New book: Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel. You are all hereby geased and quested to read it. Airships, and a gread deal like the world of The Golden Compass. 'Nuff said!

[Kathy Li]

Well, that's what happens when you're willing to just fling money about willy-nilly when it comes to buying books. Who needs to eat, anyway? You're gonna love it, btw. It's almost like a Secret Origins story.

Can't read Airborn, alas. I'm trying to get through Califia's Daughters before the Laurie R. King signing!

Sorry if ive mentioned it, or its old.. but I JUST found the next Artemis Fowl book, Opal Deception... OMG, FINALLY!! the last one stopped at a horrible cliffy... I've been waiting forever for it... I had to read Catcher in the Rye for summer assignment.. I dont understand it.. i mean, i read it.. but how can someone even think that passes for a book? there was like no plot or purpose... just some stupid kid who got kicked out of school and didnt want his parents to find out right away... He says everything twice, and goes way off topic and makes no sense... there is no way i can do any of the stupid essay questions.. anyone want to help and help me understand?

[db_pr]

Has anybody read James Rollins' Sandstorm? It's the only book I've read by him but I'm looking forward to more... it was great. I read it in one and a half days... all 500 pages of it, that's how hooked I was.

[Kathy Li]

Just wanted to point out that a few authors are going to be throwing out new books this fall, which means signing tours.

Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys
Terry Pratchett - Thud!
George R.R. Martin - A Feast For Crows

You might wanna do a search of likely suspect bookstores in your area.

[alla]

Hmm... my planned post in here is going to seem a little random, as I usually steer clear of classics. Don't know why. Most of the ones that I have read were really good, but *shrugs*.

Anyway...

*bounces* I finally managed to get my hands on the fifth book of the Secret of the Unicorn Queen . Now I just have to find book six and I'll have them all - and finally find out what happens in the end. . There's one on ebay, but its US$65 - for a PAPERBACK! *sigh* I might get lucky.

Hmm... what else have I been reading? the new Ninth Doctor Doctor Who novels - well the first three anyway. I should be able to start getting the new three soon . They're really good. My favourite one so far would have to be The Monsters Inside.

Alla

[Mel]

Hey, I was wondering...did anyone else here read Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson? I thought it was really good, though it sort of reminded me of SOTTP (sisterhood of the...)

its written kinda cool because it has like, maybe a narrarator or something in between chapters like he was summarizing a newspaper article or something after the story takes place.

...if you get what i mean

so theres my 2 cents on the matter