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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

Pit book readers,

I just finished the Game of Thrones books, and I am fantasied out. I would like a good mystery/thriller recommendation for my pleasure reading. I read all day at work, so I like good page turners at home. Recommednations? Thanks.

Note: James Patterson is not what I am looking for. I would like a little more substance.

If you like history tied in with your mysteries, check out authors Steve Berry & James Rollins, especially the Sigma series by James Rollins.
 
Who has read Sum by David Eagleman? That's at the top of my reading list with Malcolm Gladwell's relatively new book, What the Dog Saw.
 
After reading a bunch of new books, I went back and read some on my shelf that I hadn't read in years. Most recently, I re-read an old favorite, The Winter of Our Discontent, and it didn't hold up quite as well as I remembered. The language is a little dated and much more colloquial than even some of Steinbeck's other lesser works. I do love the story though, depressing as everything is.

I am re-reading Jeanette Winterson's The Passion right now. It's wild.
 
After reading a bunch of new books, I went back and read some on my shelf that I hadn't read in years. Most recently, I re-read an old favorite, The Winter of Our Discontent, and it didn't hold up quite as well as I remembered. The language is a little dated and much more colloquial than even some of Steinbeck's other lesser works. I do love the story though, depressing as everything is.

I am re-reading Jeanette Winterson's The Passion right now. It's wild.

That book was awesome.

I'm just about done with Bed by David Whitehouse right now. I'm really enjoying it.
 
After reading a bunch of new books, I went back and read some on my shelf that I hadn't read in years. Most recently, I re-read an old favorite, The Winter of Our Discontent, and it didn't hold up quite as well as I remembered. The language is a little dated and much more colloquial than even some of Steinbeck's other lesser works. I do love the story though, depressing as everything is.

I am re-reading Jeanette Winterson's The Passion right now. It's wild.

I used to love Winterson and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit keeps calling to me from my book self. To this day, thanks to Winterson, I still describe certain women as "serene to the point of being bovine." I think you just inspired me to revisit her work and I haven't read The Passion yet so that will probably be what I'll read next. What do you mean by wild?
 
I used to love Winterson and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit keeps calling to me from my book self. To this day, thanks to Winterson, I still describe certain women as "serene to the point of being bovine." I think you just inspired me to revisit her work and I haven't read The Passion yet so that will probably be what I'll read next. What do you mean by wild?

Well she was still pretty young when she wrote it, but a few years older than when she wrote Oranges.

I guess by wild I mean she is wildly talented as a writer and the book is pretty crazy. It's just an awesome line between reality and fantasy, history and fiction, prose and poetry. She is a really really good writer.
 
I love me some dreamy, fairy-tale quality books that also incorporate rhythm and different styles of writing and aren't just straight-forward prose. Gimme dem blurred lines!
 
Anyone else read The Art of Fielding?

I highly recommend it. I've got about 50 pages left. Was reading it on bus to work and missed my stop by about 7 blocks.
 
Finally read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. Very interesting story.
 
Anyone read the Sandman Slim books by Richard Kadrey? I've read the first one (Sandman Slim) and just started the second one (Kill the Dead). The first one was awesome and the second one is starting out great as well.
 
It took me forever to get into Jane Eyre, and now it's one of my favorites. (YA HEAR THAT OGB???)

HA! Team Wakephan gains another follower!

OGB, 'Vile Bodies' is far better than 'A Handful of Dust'. The latter was totally depressing to me, although the irony of the divorce plot is pretty hilarious.

I am reading 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins right now. I'm trying to get through all those Victorian novelists I never cared to read.

I am not sure how to describe his stuff. This is similar to 'The Moonstone' in that there are several alternating narrators writing in a sort of epistolary style (if you include diary entries in the genre). The plot is intricate, but the pacing rather slow. Definitely a sort of mountain house-type read (as opposed to a beach read...this is 'Victorian Gothic').
 
I am enjoying The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, 2005. It's the story of Teddy Roosevelt's descent into an "unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon" (Rio da Duvida) . Very suspenseful and a great look at the South American rain forest in 1913. On this expedition three men died and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. Eeesh!
 
I am enjoying The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, 2005. It's the story of Teddy Roosevelt's descent into an "unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon" (Rio da Duvida) . Very suspenseful and a great look at the South American rain forest in 1913. On this expedition three men died and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. Eeesh!

Read it earlier this year. Amazing story. Roosevelt was a stud.

If you like those types of stories you should check out Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Incredible stuff.
 
Knocked out a couple Vonnegut books (Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions), some Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Swan, and some books on international development. Looking to take on some bell hooks soon.
 
For a bit of modernist avant-garde that isn't non-narrative or impossible to read, check out Jesse Ball. I really enjoyed Samedi the Deafness and I'm reading The Curfew now. Recommend both.

Also picked up Diary of an Oxygen Thief (author anonymous) at McSweeney's the last time I was in NYC. It's good, but emotionally rough.
 
Finally read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. Very interesting story.

Have you read other Krakauer books? I liked Into Thin Air better than Into the Wild. Also found Under the Banner of Heaven extremely fascinating.

Just finished Loving Frank. It's an historical fiction novel based on part of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and focused on his affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney (one of this clients). Very interesting story.
 
Have you read other Krakauer books? I liked Into Thin Air better than Into the Wild. Also found Under the Banner of Heaven extremely fascinating.

Me too. Haven't read Under the Banner of Heaven yet but that will be a good choice with one of the multitudes of Amazon gift cards I'm hoping to receive for Christmas.
 
Into Thin Air is the best Krakauer book no doubt. Have read it probably 10+ times.
 
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