Synopsis:
A lonely young man sells his soul to the devil so that he will grow tall, but it’s his troubled sister who falls under the sway of the occult.
Review:
The Killing Doll is an odd little book, with more horror elements than can usually be found in a Ruth Rendell crime novel. I’m used to the pettiness of her characters, but usually there are one or two who engage me. I really didn’t connect to any of these people, and was glad when the book was over.
Synopsis:
Convinced her sister murdered their stepfather, a young woman unravels when her relationship ends while her sister’s flourishes, and she wonders whether she should finally tell.
Review:
The Water’s Lovely is one of Ruth Rendell’s quieter books, with a fineness to it despite the emotional (and sometimes physical) violence that lurks in most of the relationships. While most of the characters have deep emotional flaws, some of them are appealingly good, even brave and admirable, and that’s what kept me really engaged in this book. It would be a good introduction to Ruth Rendell, one of Britain’s finest living writers.
Synopsis:
A bereft woman’s mother’s desperate act triggers a violent spiral affecting a whole community.
Review:
The Tree of Hands was lesser Ruth Rendell. It dates back to 1986 and she’s really grown as a writer since then. It definitely has her trademark nuanced characterizations but the story wasn’t as gripping as later works like The Rottweiler have been.
Heather at Errant Dreams came up with a wonderful meme–enjoy & consider yourself tagged!
* Answer the questions as you see fit. Although they’re all phrased to ask about a singular author, feel free to respond with multiples, or even a list.
* Where possible & convenient (you don’t have to go as crazy as I did!), include a link here or there to an author’s website, your review of one of their books, or a review that inspired you to try the author(s), so your readers can get more information on anyone that sounds interesting.
* Tag five people and drop by their blogs to let them know you tagged them, or open-tag your readers.
* It would be nice if you included a link back to your tagger.
1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?
I think I would have to say CS Lewis. I’ve read all of his books, many of them several times. I’ve read the Narnia Chronicles at least a dozen times, and books like The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters have meant a lot to me at certain times in my life.
2. Who was your first favorite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
The first author I remember being obsessed with–as in, I’ve got to read everything by this person–was John Bellairs. He wrote gothic stories for kids illustrated by Edward Gorey that were imaginative and just scary enough, and the first one I read was The House with a Clock in its Walls. I’m saving a few for Superfast Baby when she’s old enough. I had read multiple books by other authors, but I was more into the series, than the author, as with the All of a Kind Family books.
3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Robin Hobb, without question. She’s a superlative storyteller and I just lost myself in love starting with Assassin’s Apprentice. I’d also add Leo Tolstoy and Jhumpa Lahiri to the list, having read both of them for the first time in 2007.
4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Stephen King, Madeleine L’Engle, CS Lewis, Robin Hobb, George RR Martin, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Dickens, Kathleen Norris, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Dan Allender, Edith Wharton, Jhumpa Lahiri.
Nothing really to add on further reflection. I spend a lot of time thinking about my favorite authors!
Picked this meme up from Melanie, in honor of two YA books I read for work this weekend.
The goal of this is to list favourite authors according to last name (with a representative fave book as well).
Atwood, Margaret — Cat’s Eye
Bronte, Charlotte — Jane Eyre
Card, Orson Scott — Ender’s Game
Dragonwagon, Crescent — The Year It Rained (with Paul Zindel)
Eager, Edward — Half Magic
Forster, EM — Howard’s End
Gibson, William — Neuromancer
Hobb, Robin — Ship of Magic
Ishiguro, Kazuo — And Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley — Hangsaman
King, Stephen — The Gunslinger
Lewis, CS — Till We Have Faces
Martin, George RR — Game of Thrones
Novik, Naomi — His Majesty’s Dragon
Oates, Joyce Carol — Blonde
Percy, Walker — The Last Gentleman
Queenan, Joe — If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble
Rendell, Ruth — Judgment in Stone
Smith, Wesley — Culture of Death
Tolkien, JRR — The Return of the King
Undset, Sigrid — Kristin Lavransdatter
Vine, Barbara — A Dark-Adapted Eye
Wharton, Edith — Twilight Sleep
X — I’ll read the next book someone recommends by an author whose last name starts with X.
Yancey, Phillip — Where is God When It Hurts?
Zarr, Sara — Story of a Girl
From Booking Through Thursday:
It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?
List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?
It was a good year, reading-wise. Here are my highlights, with links to my reviews.
The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer
The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Joel Carmichael)
Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
And a few series:
Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word and A Handful of Men
Megan Lindholm’s Ki and Vandien Quartet
I mentioned that I had to go on maternity leave for my reading jobs, so my On Reading posts will no longer mean that I read a book for work. I could be a stickler for consistency and just stop doing them, but they’re just too much fun–especially when I catch the fever for a really great meme like the one accidentally started by the Accidental Novelist, and picked up by Poodlerat.
Here are 13 opening lines (or two) to books that are beloved by me, the Superfast Reader. See if you can guess where they come from. I’ll update the post with the answers as the correct ones come in. Continue reading
Synopsis:
After his release from prison, a troubled man befriends the man he crippled, and awakens his demons with tragic result.
Review:
Though strong in characterization (as always), Live Flesh doesn’t hold up as one of Ruth Rendell’s strongest. On its publication in 1986, I’m sure it made much more of an impact, but in today’s serial killer-saturated culture, this story now feels like old hat. Continue reading
Synopsis:
Hired to be an au pair to a schizophrenic man, a Swedish girl watches as interfamilial tensions come to a boiling point, with deadly results.
Review:
Barbara Vine (the alter ego of best-selling crime novelist Ruth Rendell) has carved out a niche as deft portrayer of tightly interwoven groups of people who are all set to go poof! in spectacular and surprising ways. The Minotaur concerns a family that revolves itself around the supposed schizophrenia of the only son and heir to the family fortune. His four sisters are dowdy spinsters, save the youngest who has her own fortune and therefore the ability to come and go as she pleases. Kerstin, the narrator, is a young Swedish woman hired to care for John, but she ends up functioning as a witness as John takes a stand towards autonomy that causes the deterioration of the family. Continue reading
In the comments thread for Will the Series be Unbroken, Brad & Imani‘s insights made me realize that I was thinking of series in a very limited way. I was only considering a series as having the following criteria:
In other words, the common model in the fantasy/sci fi world. Continue reading
