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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 16:50:33 GMT
Let's start an author thread. Along with the threads about what people are currently reading, an author thread would be a good resource. It would be good if each post could start with name & type of writing in bold, for easier scrolling later.
JIM HARRISON -- Fiction
Lately I have been reading and re-reading my way through this author. I read him when I was younger, and don't think I was ready for him then. I now think he is one of the great American writers.
His plots weave themselves through generations of one family, although each book stands alone. Much of his writing about the landscape easily stands with Hardy in the evocation and reverence for place and subtle conveying of how it affects the character of the humans who live there. There is always a strong story line and he has that good story teller's strength of never losing the reader no matter how many characters or subplots there are. But it's his profound understanding of human nature that lifts his novels into literature. Although deftly woven into the fabric of the writing, there are so many sentences that beg to be copied or read aloud in their aphoristic perfection.
This is an author who I'd rather avoided because his reputation was somehow that of a "man's author", with the suggestion of a Hemingwayesque stage of hunting, fishing and wide open prairies. Another reason I'd rather dismissed him was because of the movie 'Legends of the Fall', which seemed a romantic soap for men.
How wrong I was, as this is writing for any man or woman who has both suffered and enjoyed life. The book 'Legends of the Fall', for that matter, could easily make anyone's list for a desert-island library. It is composed of three somewhat linked novellas, each of which has the stature and completeness of a long novel. But if you've not read him, just pull any one of his books from the shelf of your library or bookstore and dive right in.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 3, 2009 18:21:25 GMT
ROSE TREMAIN - FICTION
Rose Tremain is one of my favourite authors. She was born in London in 1943, was educated in England, attended the Sorbonne and graduated at the University of East Anglia.
She has written many books and volumes of short stories and has won acclaim for all.
I first read Restoration (Sunday Express Book of the Year). The story is set during the reign of Charles 11 and follows the life of Robert Merivel, an anatomy student and Court favourite who falls in love with the King's mistress.
Next I read Music and Silence which is an historical novel set in the early 17c, the story of an English lute player employed at the Danish Court to play for King Christian 1V.
As soon as Ms Tremain's books are published I run to buy them. Next came The Colour which is my favourite of her novels. This is set in New Zealand at the time of the West Coast Gold Rush in the 1860s. Reading this story brought tears to my eyes especially her description of the lone cow dying of cold in the snow outside the door of a mud and grass hovel.
The Road Home was published recently. It recounts the lot of the economic migrant who finds work in London having endured much deprivation. One's emotions are fully engaged reading about separation, loss and love.
Of all of Ms Tremain's short stories I enjoyed The Darkness of Wallis Simpson the most. This is a chilling tale.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 18:43:03 GMT
Delighted to find another fan of Rose Tremain! My introduction to her was "The Swimming Pool Season", a book I've read several times. I love the Polish woman's mangled English in it and how Tremain does not make her simply a figure of fun. All of her characters are so fully realized, with all the quirks and surprises of flesh and blood people.
The variety of her imagination and ability to portray different eras and radically different characters is astounding. I've not read all the same books of hers as you have, but must mention "Sacred Country", as a fascinating story that pulls the reader into full identification with a character undergoing something unimaginable to most of us.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 3, 2009 19:10:53 GMT
AMY TAN - Novelist
Amy Tan, born in California in 1962, is an American writer of Chinese descent whose works explore mother/daughter relationships and those of Chinese/American people. Both of her parents were Chinese immigrants.
Her books hold a special appeal for me.
I first read The Kitchen God's Wife. This story is set in Shanghai of the 1920s, through World War 2 and the harrowing events recounting how her mother finally arrived in American in 1949 from China. This tale is of innocence and its loss, tragedy and survival and most of all, the enduring qualities of hope, love and friendship.
The Hundred Secret Senses, once again in the mother/daughter relationship mode, takes a good look at people, life and the spiritual nature of humankind, including superstitions that lurk in everyone's psyche.
The Bonesetter's Daughter is Ms Tan's fourth novel. This also explores the lives of an American/Chinese woman and her immigrant mother. As I remember, ghosts of the past link into the lives of those living in the present.
Saving Fish from Drowning is narrated by a ghost who, like all of Tan's heroines, is caught between two worlds, part of both yet belonging to neither. The ghost is that of a Chinese/American woman.
I pounce on Ms Tan's novels as fast as she can write them.
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Post by gyro on Feb 3, 2009 21:09:38 GMT
Ray Carver - The best short story writer of the 20th century.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2009 21:41:13 GMT
I thought that was Eudora Welty.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 22:22:49 GMT
I love Eudora Welty. Based on the above recommendation, I guess I need to have another run at Ray Carver. Care to expound?
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Post by gyro on Feb 4, 2009 6:11:25 GMT
Who is Eudora Welty ?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2009 6:19:47 GMT
A writer from Mississippi ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_Welty). I doubt there is a general anthology of American short stories that does not include "Why I Live at the P.O." bit of trivia: the email Eudora is named for Eudora Welty.
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Post by gyro on Feb 4, 2009 7:49:13 GMT
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Post by gyro on Feb 4, 2009 7:49:52 GMT
(oh, and that's one of his LONGER short stories .....)
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Post by BigIain on Feb 4, 2009 22:48:13 GMT
I love, and have complete works of:
James lee Burke Ian Rankin John Grisham Sam Bourne
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Post by tillystar on Feb 5, 2009 13:39:40 GMT
There are so many favorite authors, but these are the writers who I get excited about and run to the bookshop when I see they have written something new:
Isabel Allende Jostein Gaarder Margaret Atwood Sharon Penman Margaret George Louis des Bernieres
Carlos Ruis Zafon has only had Shadow of the Wind puiblished in English but he is also on this list. That book was fantastic and he has a second El Juego del Angel that I am just dying to be translated and published in English.
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Post by repertoire on Feb 5, 2009 14:16:27 GMT
My favorite is John Fante.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 5, 2009 22:50:10 GMT
One of my very favourite books is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have read the story several times and I know I'll go back to it again. I didn't realise that it had been made into a film. I will buy it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 6, 2009 4:53:47 GMT
Gabriel Marcía Márquez! This is an author I truly love. I have to say that One Hundred Years of Solitude is probably my favorite book, if judging by the number of times I've been compelled to read it. Every time it's wonderful and new for me again.
It seems that most people prefer Love in the Time of Cholera, though. I enjoyed the book, and will probably re-read it one day, but for all-encompassing sweep of time, plot and character, nothing compares to One Hundred Years for me.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2009 1:21:52 GMT
A.S. Byatt Margaret Atwood Iris Murdoch Isak Dinesen Italo Calvino Paul Bowles Lawrence Durrell Peter Mattheissen Michael Ondaatje
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 7, 2009 1:32:29 GMT
I don't think any forum with a central theme of travel would be complete without mention of Paul Theroux. Many people don't care for him, because they find him too acerbic. Like most people who fell in love with his travel writing because of "The Great Railway Bazaar", I appreciated his recounting of all the discomfort, confusion, and strange humor encountered by the traveler to foreign places. Here was something other than blankly smiling natives in colorful traditional dress!
Much as I am a fan of the travel writing, he has to be appreciated as a novelist as well. In all honesty, I find his body of work uneven, but "The Family Arsenal", for instance, shows his strength as a classic novelist.
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Post by ArthurPhilipDent on Feb 7, 2009 9:45:54 GMT
My "I'd buy & read anything by these authors" list is:
Michael Connelly Terry Pratchett Christopher Brookmyre James Hall Carl Hiaasen Tim Dorsey Joe R Lansdale Robert Ferrigno Colin Bateman Tom Robbins John McCabe
A bit heavy on the Crime and Insanity, but that's the escapism I need.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 7, 2009 16:49:09 GMT
Arthur, you must try Lee Childs for incredibly good escapism. His main character, Jack Reacher, is a completely different take on the usual mystery-solver.
I also love Robert Crais. His detective is a much sunnier version of H.Bosch, but with that same moral sensibility that's characterized the "L.A. detective" genre since the time of Raymond Chandler.
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Post by grecian on Feb 7, 2009 17:44:15 GMT
Birdsong by Mr S Faulks was good....
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Post by tillystar on Feb 8, 2009 12:33:40 GMT
I loved that G... have you read Regeneration by Pat Barker?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2009 21:20:46 GMT
Oh yes ~~ Birdsong is a wonderful book! I really like Sebastian Faulks for the most part, although Birdsong is my favorite. I tried Regeneration, but the beginning with the hospital & the horror memories was too much for me.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 8, 2009 21:41:41 GMT
I couldn't get on with Birdsong at all. I don't like S. Faulks' writing style.
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Post by gyro on Feb 9, 2009 20:18:08 GMT
Margaret Attwood is TERRIBLY overrated.
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Post by Jazz on Feb 9, 2009 20:37:52 GMT
Margaret Attwood is TERRIBLY overrated. I agree and I am Canadian. I think she is technically Brilliant but I always fall into a catatonic depression when I read her work. I NEVER reread a Margaret Atwood book...my highest compliment to an author is when I read their work over the years and break down and actually buy their books, I buy fiction only when I love the book. I invest in design books, bio's, autobio's, art books, history etc. Now, I haven't read it yet, but I am very curious about her latest book, unusual for Atwood... Payback: Debt and the Shallow Side of Wealth: 'an examination of our relationship with debt through the prisms of myth, literature and religion. www.amazon.ca/Payback-Debt-Shadow-Side-Wealth/dp/0887848109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234211445&sr=1-1This is unusual subject matter for her and might even be readable. It is being hailed as 'prescient'. ?
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Post by gyro on Feb 9, 2009 20:53:08 GMT
Don't EVER read Surfacing ....
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Post by tillystar on Feb 9, 2009 21:24:16 GMT
I have enjoyed all of her books except for Oryx and Crake, that was dire.
My favorite was the Handmaiden's Tale.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2009 22:00:11 GMT
Atwood's poetry is quite good. She has several volumes published. Morning in the burned house is one I enjoyed.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2009 16:06:04 GMT
Is anyone a fan of Anita Brookner? All of her books are essentially character studies, but of a depth and human realness that make the character fascinating. Of course the novels are built around plots, but her way of spiraling around and into the personality and reactions of the main character uncover interest and surprising insights that bloom into a rich picture.
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