| travelling detectives |
[07 May 2012|12:37pm] |
Hi, hipsters %)
Can anyone please recommend a book with the following storyline:
Some sort of detective travelling to a backwater place (becoming a big deal to locals subsequently) to investigate the mysterious things there. Something along the lines of The Sleepy Hollow (as it was in the movie) or maybe the Name of the Rose. The genre really doesn't matter: anything from cyberpunk mysteries to pseudo-medieval detective stories counts.
The books I know of so far:
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Irving Washington (probably)
-The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
-The first two books about Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski
-Sherlock Holmes constantly travels somewhere, as far as I remember. At least in The Hound of the Baskervilles
-Many books of Agatha Christie, probably
Is there something else?
Thanks for any suggestions!
///Many thanks for all the replies! Extremely useful ^__^
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| help wanted |
[22 Jan 2012|09:41pm] |
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can anyone help me think of books that deal with the death of a father, in any way? it's for a story i'm writing. my mind's gone blank. anything with a dead/dying father as the main element of the plot would be great, as would anything like l'etranger which starts with a line about a dying parent.
thank you!!
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[06 Jan 2012|07:09pm] |
I'm reading The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume II: 1934-1939 right now and it's blowing my mind. I think Nin is my new hero. I'm reading this book so quickly that it's like she's narrating my thoughts.
This was in the Erotic Fiction section of the bookstore. Funny, there's nothing erotic in the book whatsoever.
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| "'God only knows who's givin' information to the Government now'": a review of The Informer. |
[12 Dec 2011|03:29am] |
From Saturday, 12 November to Monday, 14 November, I read Liam O'Flaherty's 1925 novel The Informer (Dublin: Wolfhound Press [an imprint of Merlin Publishing], 2006; ISBN: 0-86327-938-4; 217 pps.).
( ..the eternal melancholy of the entrammelled Irish soul?!? )
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| Snow Flower & the Secret Fan |
[28 Oct 2011|10:41am] |
 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This is such a powerful book! I really enjoyed reading about a different culture in past times. I found it harsh, but sometimes the past is harsh and we, as the world need to learn from the mistakes made and move on. I found Lily to be a girl (and then woman) of self-discovery and change. I was so sad to learn that she became a bit harsh towards Snow Flower, but was glad to see that she tried to make amends to Snow Flower's family once she passed away. There were a few parts in the beginning of the book that were slow, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
**If anyone wants to recommend any books about past Asian cultures (China, Japan, India, etc.), that would be WONDERFUL!
View all my reviews
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| HBC update/Donate to Doctors Without Borders & WIN |
[01 Sep 2011|11:19am] |
Hey all,
Today's HBC update features reviews of the latest books by Nicholson Baker, Alex Shakar, Yannick Murphy, Jim Knipfel, Elissa Shappell, and others.
More importantly, though, we're running a charity drive for Doctors Without Borders. Donate and you can win FORTHCOMING (yes, as in not yet released) books by Jeffrey Eugenides, Neal Stephenson, Ben Marcus Colson Whitehead, Cecil Castellucci, and Sara Zarr. You can also win the chance to be tuckerized (that is, become the namesake of characters) in the future books of Amanda Eyre Ward, Paul Tremblay, and Jean Kwok. There are also tons of prizes from Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, Katie Arnoldi, Matt Bell, Elizabeth Crane, Charles Bock, and plenty others.
For updates on the charity drive, check us out on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks, all!
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| The book of Harold, the illegitimate son of God/ Devil Red |
[07 Aug 2011|09:43pm] |
Does anyone have have Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale and/or The book of Harold , The illegitimate son of god? I have book looking all over the forums for for my nook to no avail, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
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| writers readers pumpkin eaters |
[28 Jul 2011|11:35am] |
What are some books, or authors, that make you want to write? That make you grope for the nearest pen and notepad? That fire you up with the possibilities of language? Assuming a semipermeable membrane between the readers that frequent this comm and those with writerly aspirations....
For me, David Mitchell's Number9dream has been the leading contestant in this department for the last month.
Parts of Little, Big.
Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Some Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith, Marisha Pessl, Bradbury, Guy Gavriel Kay and Elizabeth Hand.
Things these books have in common: a cinematic eye for detail, lyricism, a keen interest in playing with language.
Though I'm sure someone will, I'm hesitant to namecheck Lolita, and Nabokov's body of work at large, because while he is an incredible prose stylist, the effect is as often dampening (Nabokov makes me look like a dundering clodhead! why am I even trying!) as it is inspirational.
Thoughts?
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| Looking for new books to read... |
[10 Jul 2011|12:00pm] |
I'm looking for some recommendations, I keep coming up blank myself. I absolutely am in love with Sylvia Plath, and Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov's prose is just so beautiful. I just finished Laughter in the Dark, really great read. I'm a sucker for good prose.
So yes, I'm open to any suggestions... your favorite books/authors, or what you might think I'd enjoy!
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| Need A New Book |
[09 Jun 2011|02:00am] |
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Hello, the last two books I’ve read, Touching From A Distance and Down And Out In Paris And London, have been an extremely enjoyable experience for me. I’m now currently struggling through Michael Chabon’s Manhood For Armatures. It has come to my attention that this is because it’s perhaps too modern American and happy for my liking. I would love some recommendations for come similar character based books that are also not too thick, so that I can fit it easily in my jacket pocket.
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| need a summer book club recommendation! |
[17 May 2011|02:29pm] |
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Hey all,
It's my turn to pick a book for my book club and I'm looking for something funny, upbeat and good to kickstart the summer in the 300-400 page range. Presently we are reading "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro and although great it is incredibly sad. So any fun book picks with maybe a road trip element would be enticing...
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| House of Leaves |
[05 May 2011|03:40am] |
Danielewski's House of Leave has been on my reading list for a very long time (because of references in this community, actually). I finally starting reading it this week. I'm only fifty pages in, and it's already jacking with my head quite a bit. I seem to be able to handle it only in small doses. It's the first book since junior high to truly frighten me. I also find it to be insanely creative and brilliant.
Thoughts?
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| book recommendations |
[28 Apr 2011|08:51pm] |
Hi HBC!
Any recommendations for books about (very loosely) the British Empire, from the perspective of a Briton in Britain? Fiction or Non-Fiction is fine. I'm thinking c. late 19th c but time period isn't super important. Doesn't have to be contemporary either.
Thanks...
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| Clockwork Orange, Film vs Book |
[21 Apr 2011|10:51am] |
So,
As a very young child I was traumatized by the film version of A Clockwork Orange.
I am really into how people describe the plot but no one seems to know anything about the book.
So, as usual I turn to this community to find out, is the film like the book or some inane interpretation of the general flow?
It would suck to get the book and realize halfway through that it sucks and is nothing like the story I imagined from what other's say about it.
Also, is it worth the read anyway?
Thanks
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| Question for you all |
[25 Mar 2011|03:12pm] |
Hey all,
I'm doing a poll of sorts for the HBC: Which celebrities are also great authors & which ones should stick to their day jobs?
Can't wait to read your answers!
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| "Bitch" by Elizabeth Wurtzel |
[20 Feb 2011|01:47pm] |
I wanted to like "Bitch". I really did. The biggest problem with Wurtzel's book is that it gives up on its premise halfway through. It promises to dig in and give a hard cold look at why women get labeled "bitches", and she never follows through with it. She starts off strong with an analysis of the Delilah/Sampson biblical story, but in the next chapter she devotes nearly 75 pages to Amy Fisher, who while certainly a victim, isn't anyone's idea of a bitch. She's a 13 year old girl who got swindled and criminally taken advantage of, but it's a leap of the imagination to try and equate her with Elizabeth Taylor, Gloria Steinem, or other examples of "difficult" women that Wurtzel attempts to equate her with.
While it is evident that Wurtzel is a good, capable writer, she still has a tendency to diverge from the point she's trying to beat into our heads. She seems like she's going to have a breakthrough but then she rambles off on her own tangent- again and again and again. It's really messy, and you wonder why Wurtzel's editors didn't have a crack at her. She sent herself off to drug rehab immediately after this book was published, so that explains the messy, psuedo-stream of consciousness babbles. Utimately, this book is more about Wurtzel's own worldview than it is a book about difficult women. She inserts so much of her own personal dramas, complaints and rants about her personal life into the book, it becomes irritating and self-indulgent.
I hesitate to call her a feminist because she has such a bleak and negative view of feminism. In her view, feminism didn't do any real good for anybody. The chapter she devotes to Sylvia Plath and Ann Sexton, while greatly written, is disturbing in its glamorization of suicide. Wurtzel clearly identifies with them- and in the chapter before she ends with this feel-good bon mot: "And when the time is right, if it comes to that, you can drive that car into a garage, turn on the engine, feel the air fill with carbon monoxide, feel the onset of asphyxia, feel your breathing slow, feel your body stop feeling, feel the only real freedom you will ever know". Basically the equivalent of sticking your head in an oven is the only way you'll be free.
Not to mention the passage where she ticks off a list strong women-- which includes Leni Reifensthal. Really Liz? "Bitch" exhausts the reader- and did she really need to devote nearly 100 pages to Nicole Brown Simpson? Her examination of the mindset of abused and battered women, and how they are complicit in their own abuse is fascinating and great reading...but it belongs to another book. It would make an eye-opening thesis of its own, but it's out of place in a book like this. I kept wanting to yell "okay, okay, I GET IT". I wish Liz had cut out the fat, or that her editors cared enough to do it for her. A mixed bag.
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| recommendations? |
[17 Feb 2011|08:38pm] |
Does anyone know a good novel dealing with Judaism and feminism? Or Jewish women? Other than The Red Tent, I've got that one.
I'd prefer fiction, but if you know some good non-fiction on the subjects, I'd love that too.
Thanks!
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| Book Recommendations |
[06 Feb 2011|06:44pm] |
Hello dear book lovers! I was wondering if I could ask for some book recommendations on a few topics :) Please!
They are...
1. The 'Lost World' genre. Like Heart of Darkness and King Solomon's Mines. Those wonderful classics that explore Africa and all it's mysteries :)
2. Must-Read Agatha Christie! ...Other than Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. I'm afraid the rest of her collection is very daunting to me...
3. Must-read Classics (Excluding Jane Austen & Emily Bronte). I recently picked up the collection of Sherlock Holmes and am dying for more classic reads but again, have no clue where to start!
And, this last one may be odd, but hear me out! A-Also, I'm not a neo-nazi or anything! Gah!
4. Fiction WWII books from the German POV. I usually find myself reading about an American going to war or other Allied Force and am afraid that I would like a change from that.
Thank you all so much in advance!
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| February Hipster Book Club update! |
[01 Feb 2011|02:45am] |
The latest update of the Hipster Book Club website is now up! Here's what you'll find this month:
- Reviews of books by Karen Russell, Patton Oswalt, Stacy Pershall, Matthew Stokoe, and many more.
- Also, there's a review of a book about a hyper-intelligent chimp who doesn't eat faces or fling poo. Nevertheless, it's one of my favorite reviews this month.
- Adam Levin writes a 1000-page novel. Our interview with him takes far less time to read.
- Since Amy Chua claims her book is meant to make fun of herself, I decided to make fun of her, too.
- And then I write a couple of open letters, inspired former students. (One even includes writing from one of them.)
- Dorothy Parka talks about the author that her whole family loves.
- Kyle talks about Foursquare badges that may or may not have something to do with sexy librarians.
Hope you enjoy it. Please let us know what you think.
Also, if you haven't joined yet, we're on Facebook and Twitter.
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[26 Jan 2011|09:47pm] |
I am looking for book recommendations. Specifically, in certain topic areas.
1) books (fictional, memoir, biography, or autobiography) that discuss trangergendered/inter-sexed individuals and their experiences. Even a really good blog.
2) novels that discuss post-apocalyptic events or dystopian worlds. Recent reads of mine include The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, and the Life As We Knew It trilogy.
3) books that tell the stories of holocaust. Doesn't need to be specific to WWII.
Thanks in advance for anything you guys can recommend :D
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