tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3979501558241561585.post3364819196912973400..comments2023-11-02T07:09:21.601-07:00Comments on Local or Express?: Books Gone BadRobin Aronsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03080623538120396969noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3979501558241561585.post-28526305019989590392010-01-11T13:20:04.500-08:002010-01-11T13:20:04.500-08:00Thank you, Sue! Do you know I think a friend told...Thank you, Sue! Do you know I think a friend told me about the 70-year-old first time novelist because he met him? I'm going to check it out along with Tropper. I have Richard Price's Lush Life on my bookstand and am in general So Glad to be done with the Byatt! I only saw one review of it which said it was the best book of the year. But, you know, it's a subjective business. Still, I think it'll be years before I can work my way up to Wolf Hall. There was one more thing I wanted to write here, but I can't remember. It is nice to see you again -- happy new year!Robin Aronsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03080623538120396969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3979501558241561585.post-4122391386555246142010-01-11T11:01:08.472-08:002010-01-11T11:01:08.472-08:00This is good to know, as The Children's Book i...This is good to know, as <i>The Children's Book</i> is waiting for me at the library. I feel like reading Byatt can be a bit of a crapshoot. I'm one who adored <i>Possession</i> with a raging passion and love it still, 18 years and several re-reads later. And I like some of her other stuff quite a bit (I'm thinking particularly of the lovely novella <i>The Djinn in the Nightengale's Eye</i>. But I slogged my way through <i>Babel Tower</i> and was so underwhelmed by it that I can't bring myself to read any of the other books that go before and after it. The reviews I've read of <i>The Children's Book</i> are so mixed that I wasn't sure what to think.<br /><br />If you want a post-Byatt palate cleanser, I thought Jonathan Tropper's <i>This is Where I Leave You </i> was great--very funny and a quick read. And if you at all like mysteries, there's a new-ish one by a 70-year-old first time novelist that's just terrific. It's called <i>The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie</i> by Alan Bradley, and it's narrated by an 11-year-old chemistry genius living in an old manor house in Britain in 1950 who finds a dying man in the cucumber patch and decides to figure out what happened. (The book's site is <a href="http://www.flaviadeluce.com/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.) It sounds like it could be too much, but it's not. I just listened to it as an audio book and loved it. <br /><br />Anyway, happy reading whatever's next, and if I get bogged down in the Byatt, I may think of you and give it up.Sue Dickmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06964270562532579030noreply@blogger.com