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Post by rukia888 on Jul 19, 2008 0:35:46 GMT -5
Yeah, I deleted my previous post because I don't want to double post. I'm sure you'll like White Male Heart, kaatopp! Can't wait to get your insight on it!  Anyway, last weekend I'd just finished reading...
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan This earliest work of Ian is definitely much more macabre and disturbing than his recent works. The story centers around a family of two brothers and two sisters whose parents have just recently passed away. They continue to live on their own in their house (with their mother buried in cement in a box) because they fear that they will get taken away as orphans. The book deals with incest, and it's just so disturbing how rules and order can just disintegrate away when young children have no parents to abide by. I'm not sure that I like this book, but I can definitely see Ian's style in it. He's a great storyteller as usual, and he's also great in developing a good character study. I've just started The Comfort of Strangers, which I heard was also pretty disturbing. I have Enduring Love, but I haven't touched it yet. I haven't been able to get Invisible Monsters yet, so I guess that one has to wait for now.  |
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Post by PoisonAndFear on Jul 19, 2008 23:58:58 GMT -5
The Divine Comedy. Verrrrrrry good and Looooong. XD.
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Post by razzthekid on Jul 29, 2008 6:57:57 GMT -5
The Motorcycle Diaries- Ernesto Guevara.
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Post by haley311 on Jul 29, 2008 11:55:58 GMT -5
I'm currently reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, just because Ed Norton's making it a movie (I'm so pathetic). I'm also almost finished with The Ruins by Scott Smith. It is such a good book but it's taking me forever to read because I've been so busy with college stuff lately.
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Post by rukia888 on Jul 29, 2008 19:15:00 GMT -5
I'm currently reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, just because Ed Norton's making it a movie (I'm so pathetic). I'm also almost finished with The Ruins by Scott Smith. It is such a good book but it's taking me forever to read because I've been so busy with college stuff lately. How is Motherless Brooklyn? It's about the detective with Tourette's, right? I've heard that Ed's just "rumored" to be doing it. Is he currently working on this movie right now? It just says "in production" over on IMDB, and there's no other cast member listed with him. I wonder what he's up to; it's been quiet in Ed news lately, too. And, no, you're not pathetic, Haley. At least you're not the only one. I'm the same way, too.  That's why I read White Male Heart in the first place, because of Cillian, or else I probably wouldn't have even known it existed! By the way, love your signature! It's of Ed when he was at Comic Con promoting Hulk, right?  |
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Post by haley311 on Jul 29, 2008 23:44:29 GMT -5
I'm currently reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, just because Ed Norton's making it a movie (I'm so pathetic). I'm also almost finished with The Ruins by Scott Smith. It is such a good book but it's taking me forever to read because I've been so busy with college stuff lately. How is Motherless Brooklyn? It's about the detective with Tourette's, right? I've heard that Ed's just "rumored" to be doing it. Is he currently working on this movie right now? It just says "in production" over on IMDB, and there's no other cast member listed with him. I wonder what he's up to; it's been quiet in Ed news lately, too. And, no, you're not pathetic, Haley. At least you're not the only one. I'm the same way, too. That's why I read White Male Heart in the first place, because of Cillian, or else I probably wouldn't have even known it existed! By the way, love your signature! It's of Ed when he was at Comic Con promoting Hulk, right? MB is good so far, I can't really say much because I just started it. I do hope that Ed does make it though, it's good material and I'd love to see him direct again. Haha yeah, I'm thinking of picking out White Male Heart too, just to see what the deal with it is. It seems like every book I read has or is being made into a movie  Yep, the signature is a gif I made of a video of Ed at Comic Con 07 promoting the Hulk. I saw the interview on YouTube and was absolutely smitten, so I figured I needed to make it a gif! I just love his smile |
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Post by rukia888 on Jul 31, 2008 15:55:06 GMT -5
Haha yeah,I'm thinking of picking out White Male Heart too, just to see what the deal with it is. It seems like every book I read has or is being made into a movie You should definitely check out White Male Heart. There's a lot of animal violence, but that's not the whole point of the story. It's a pretty good read. Yup, gotta love Ed's smile! I finally found out what Ed's been up to lately. From edward-norton.org, he and Liv were in Japan promoting The Incredible Hulk! |
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Post by kaatopp on Jul 31, 2008 16:21:43 GMT -5
Rukia, I am stilllllll reading White Male Heart, I am being really slow and non-diligent about reading it but I am getting nearer to the end. I am still waiting for all the sh*t to hit the fan at the end and its really working my nerves!! When Mac invited everyone up to his place for Christmas dinner I could barely read the chapter, I was so certain something horrible was going to happen, I could hardly breathe the entire time! It is really a great book, I just need to get-a-move-on and finish it up already! I normally would never take this long with such a short book. It really has nothing to do with the book being bad either, I have just been lazy and ill-attentive!
I also started reading The Giver last night, thats part of my problem, I try to read too many things at once! This is a child's book (with not so childlike themes and consequences) so I should be able to read it pretty quick. I read it back in 5th grade and loved it so much, it really has an intriguing and powerful message, so I picked the book up for a dollar and am reading it again!
I am probably going to have to check out The Cement Garden next, I am ever-intrigued by Ian McEwan. He seems to write about such heart breaking and disturbing stuff. Like, maybe we don't like the story but he writes it so well and doesn't concern himself with happy endings or polite topics and you have to respect that, thats what keeps me coming back for me.
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Post by rukia888 on Jul 31, 2008 18:04:08 GMT -5
I know what you mean, Kaatopp. I'm still reading The Comfort of Strangers right now. It's an absurdly short book (only 127 pages), but I've been reading it for about 2 weeks now. I'm about halfway through it fortunately. I just get so lazy, and I'm so tired from the daily grind of the things. So I know what you mean, so take your time with White Male Heart. I'm glad you're liking it though. I'm curious to hear what you think about The Cement Garden when you get to it, Kaatopp. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I appreciate the risk that Ian's taking by delving into such a disturbing issue such as incest.
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Post by haley311 on Jul 31, 2008 23:05:17 GMT -5
Yup, gotta love Ed's smile! I finally found out what Ed's been up to lately. From edward-norton.org, he and Liv were in Japan promoting The Incredible Hulk! Cool! It also says that Ed is confirmed to be in the Avengers! That's good news because I had read earlier from another source that he wasn't going to be in it! And it says that Pride and Glory's release date was moved from April 2009 to October 2008! Yessss...thanks for the info! |
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Post by singoutloud on Jul 31, 2008 23:10:57 GMT -5
W00t! I just finished reading Twilight for the first time. I think I had about 10 heart-attacks throughout. So now I'm reading New Moon, but I haven't gotten that far.
I love Twilight!!!!!
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Post by rukia888 on Aug 2, 2008 11:00:32 GMT -5
I just finished up with The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan. It was a pretty short read, but I felt like it dragged too much in the beginning (I think Ian was trying to experiment with suspenseful writing). I had a bad feeling about the characters, Robert and Caroline, but I didn't really know what to expect with them. Everything was revealed at the end -- which was indeed quite disturbing and shocking! I've noticed that Ian likes to shock his readers. It has been more subtle with his recent works though like with Atonement. I've also noticed that he writes about obsession well -- especially sexual obsession -- The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, and On Chesil Beach all dealt with this. Atonement dealt with obsession, too, in which Briony was obsessed with the world she creates through writing (the lines between reality and what's in her head gets blurred). All in all, The Comfort of Strangers was an okay read. It just dragged too much in the beginning. Again, Ian wrote great character studies for each of the main characters. Cool! It also says that Ed is confirmed to be in the Avengers! That's good news because I had read earlier from another source that he wasn't going to be in it! And it says that Pride and Glory's release date was moved from April 2009 to October 2008! Yessss...thanks for the info! Haley, there's a new trailer for Pride & Glory that I will post over at the Ed Norton thread! Check it out! |
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Post by kaatopp on Aug 4, 2008 3:15:20 GMT -5
HUGE SPOILERS FOR WHITE MALE HEART
Rukia, Quiet One et al, I finished White Male Heart, finally.
I will try to describe myself in the least confusing way possible.
I liked the book a lot, it was very good and well written. I agree with you Rukia, it dragged for me a bit in the beginning. One thing that added to the "slow-ness" of its' reading was excessive description of Hugh and Aaron's landscape and surroundings. I appreciate a proper and beautiful description of environment but it was too much in this book. That paired with drawn out descriptions of hunting scenes made it almost as bad as waiting for hours upon hours for a stag to reach the right place for a killing. What was most difficult for me about the describing of the landscape was that I have no idea how to picture the landscape to begin with and most of the description was of foliage and rock formations and dips and climbs in land, basically terms I do not know because the Highlands of Scotland is ... ummm ... ridiculously different from Chicago! We have no mountains! Its hard to picture driving through forest, parking somewhere, walking through fields, camping out in mountains. I can't picture it, especially when I do not know what the terms are that are being used to describe these things.
I definitely agree with both of you, Rukia and QuietOne, that the action all happened a little too quickly at the end. Some of the love affair, if you will, between Becky and Hugh could have been minimized in the middle of the book. Thats where I started to lose interest or read slower. I was still interested in the story and their love affair but I think less of that and more of Hugh and Aaron going crazy (or whatever it is they do) would have been better. It definitely wrapped up too quickly but it was really interesting to read.
I saw the killing of Aaron as a mercy killing in a way but also as a way for both Hugh and Aaron to get out of the crimes they have committed. Aaron will be possibly lynched, or at least mobbed, by the town, and in Hugh's eyes, is a very tortured and disturbed soul. I can see Hugh thinking he is almost doing Aaron a favor by ending his life. At the same time I agree with QuietOne that Hugh was trying to kill the darkside of his life by killing Aaron.
I do not think Hugh ever saw himself as disturbed of a person as he saw Aaron but I think the truth is that Hugh was just as disturbed as Aaron, Aaron just was not afraid to act on it. That is why I think Hugh felt such calm after he killed the Dane. He was blowing away the obstacles in his life so he could escape from a world he hated. I think he killed Aaron for that reason especially, Aaron was a huge obstacle for him, even if Aaron would agree to go abroad with him I think Aaron would forever drag Hugh down and remind Hugh of the tortured (or messed up) person he is inside.
It is interesting after Hugh kills Aaron and he immediately sees his father, being a farmer as always, helping a sheep give birth, because I think Hugh immediately realizes that even though he has killed the Dane, killed Aaron, and blown up all the stuff that reminded him of Becky, he was still not free from the highlands and still not free from whatever it was inside him that tortured him or disgusted him about himself. It said in the book that his calm blanket split open. In a way I have some sympathy for Hugh, he wanted out so badly and was close when he was with Becky. I think she is a pretty sh*tty person for leaving him, but thats another story. But Hugh will always be tortured by what he has down now, if he stays in the Highlands Mac will forever haunt him, even though he knows Mac is a poacher that is nothing on the fact that Mac knows Hugh murdered two people and stole the stuff from the church and planted the molotovs. Mac is a more disturbing force in Hugh's life than Aaron and he will haunt Hugh forever. If Hugh does get out of the Highlands he is still a good enough person that he will be ruined by the knowledge of his two murders. It is possible the murder of the Dane will not bother him, but he murdered his best friend, his other half, he tried to murder his dark side, but Hugh is not all light side, and he will realize that when all the stuff that is happening in the community blows over or when he is sitting somewhere alone, abroad. I do not think he will ever be at peace. He permanently fused the dark and tortured aspects of both himself and Aaron into his soul.
I do not really know what was up with Mac either. It is possible that in some way Mac did not even really influence either of the boys. I know he talked to Aaron about how to get Hugh back from Becky but I think in general it is possible that Mac's presence alone influenced the boys, not his actual words. Mac was like an evil and conniving force in their lives, he made the boys squirm. I think in many ways Mac is extremely innocent (well obviously, he didn't first hand kill anyone), he was a silent watcher from the forest, watching all the misery and chaos unfold before him, resulting in the death and destruction of many lives and I think he was amused by it, greatly amused by it. Maybe you could say Mac poached Aaron and Hugh's lives.
I do not really think this will make that great of a movie. I specifically do not think American audiences will react well to it. The U.S. typically (and close mindedly) likes happy endings. Cillian's 28 Days Later had a different and happy ending specifically for its' U.S. release. The ending of this book could be good in film form if it is done in a creepy way, if it is sort of like a thriller, if it is gory and dark. They have to make it intense and good. It cannot just be like, Oh, well, Aaron's dead now, it has to be extremely shocking. The story leading up to that I do not think will translate well onto screen. I think it will seem boring and random on screen. I will obviously watch it, even if Cillian isn't in it for some reason, but I think this story just has to be made perfectly otherwise it will go unnoticed or receive bad reviews when it is such a good story that deserves thought and reflection.
I cannot really see Cillian as either Hugh or Aaron but I suppose I would enjoy him as Hugh the most. I kept thinking of James McAvoy obviously since he is actually Scottish. I think it would disturb me to see him as Aaron but I think he fits that character's physical description better than Hughs'. Just lighten his hair, which he has done before for so many projects, and I think he would have the compact and strong build required to be a silent weirdo, out hunting in the Highlands. I think Kate Winslet would be good as Becky too but even she might be getting too old for that. Becky said something like she wasted nearly all of her 20s so I am assuming she is about 29. That is really not old, and Kate Winslet isn't old either, but I think she is closer to 40 than she is 30.
All in all, a good, but strange book. As I wrote about it here I realized that I liked it more than I thought after immediately finishing it. It was an interesting look into two people's psyches. I am glad I read it. It was a somewhat exhausting reading this book, in a strange way, as if I, as the reader, was out stalking a stag alongside Aaron and Hugh all day in the sun, waiting for the right moment .... but it was really worth the journey. I feel rewarded reflecting on it.
******
Different topic!!
I am planning to read I Am Legend next. I LOVED the movie. The ending was a bit cheesy but I really LOVED this movie. My brother read the book first, before he saw the movie, so he really disliked the movie. He said a big difference between the book and the film, is that in the book, Will Smith is the only one of his kind, so he is the enemy to all these vampire creatures, they are not the enemy, which they are portrayed as in the film. It makes sense, movies obviously will portray creatures and monsters as the bad guys but when you think about it, Will Smith is the scary intruder in their life, he is the one different from them, invading their world. So I am excited to read from this different perspective, especially since I loved the movie so much.
also, this is my official plea for a Chuck Palahniuk recommendation
take this very seriously people because I have been judging this author unfairly for years now and I have never read him before. So I need the best possible recommendation for a first time reader. Debate it amongst yourselves, vote on it and present the recommendation to me! haha, but seriously, I need good advice and I trust you guys have the reflection and taste to guide me on my path to Palahniuk enlightenment! ;D
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Post by rukia888 on Aug 5, 2008 22:21:17 GMT -5
HUGE SPOILERS FOR WHITE MALE HEARTRukia, Quiet One et al, I finished White Male Heart, finally. I will try to describe myself in the least confusing way possible. I liked the book a lot, it was very good and well written. I agree with you Rukia, it dragged for me a bit in the beginning. One thing that added to the "slow-ness" of its' reading was excessive description of Hugh and Aaron's landscape and surroundings. Yeah, I agree; those nature descriptions were what made the book "drag" so much in the beginning. I didn't really read it word for word at those parts; I just skimmed right over them. Heh. I didn't really mind the love affair between Becky and Hugh. It was a bit dull though. I didn't really feel like "Wow, that's a really great first love!" or anything. It was a bit one-sided, too; Hugh was definitely more into the relationship than Becky. I agree. It would've been interesting (albeit really disturbing) to see more of Aaron's perspective of things. This part was very, very reminiscent of Disco Pigs... Good point, Kaatopp! I didn't think of that for some reason. I agree; Hugh probably didn't realize that Aaron's ways had such an influence on him. Growing up together and being friends for so long, Aaron played a big part on shaping the person Hugh is. I wish we could've seen where Hugh ended up at the end after killing Aaron. I get a feeling he just dug himself a hole into deeper darkness after killing Aaron and the Dane. Aaron's never killed a human being, but Hugh has. He has more blood on his hands than Aaron unfortunately. Awesome analysis - Mac physically poaching animals but also emotionally poaching (preying) upon the innocence of Aaron and Hugh. If it ever becomes a movie, I definitely don't think it will be a mainstream one. It's definitely going to be an indie, which is fine because indie moviegoers have a great wide variety of tastes. It won't cater to the average American moviegoer, but it will definitely catch the attention of some indie fans, I'm sure. Cillian definitely fits better as Hugh, and Eddie Redmayne as Aaron. I like Kate, and I can't really picture anyone else at this moment, but I also don't really mind seeing a total unknown actress as Becky. The book wasn't perfect by any means, but I thought it was a good read, too. Glad you liked it. I've only read one Palahniuk book - Choke - which was pretty good. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you like to read a lot of the "classics." Even though Ian McEwan's a contemporary writer, I would say his style is more classic than contemporary. Palahniuk is very contemporary and modern in his style. He's not very hard to read at all. He's very sarcastic and wry in his humor, and I think he projects a lot of good voice in his narration. If you're into contemporary reads, I think you'll enjoy Palahniuk. I've heard Fight Club was good. Did you like the movie? I've heard the movie follows the book quite well. I'd recommend Choke - a very funny read with a good twist at the end. It's a bit raunchy, but hey, the main character's a sex addict, so I wasn't that surprised that it was raunchy. I'm looking to read Invisible Monsters next, so maybe you should check that out, too? |
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Post by quackattack on Aug 5, 2008 22:54:21 GMT -5
this is my official plea for a Chuck Palahniuk recommendationtake this very seriously people because I have been judging this author unfairly for years now and I have never read him before. So I need the best possible recommendation for a first time reader. Debate it amongst yourselves, vote on it and present the recommendation to me! haha, but seriously, I need good advice and I trust you guys have the reflection and taste to guide me on my path to Palahniuk enlightenment! ;D I think Fight Club's a pretty good place to start with Palahniuk. The movie follows it pretty closely, so if you liked the movie you'll like the book. The only other book of his I read is Invisible Monsters, which I also enjoyed. I remember the ending suprising me and the book in general was interesting. I've also read some of Survivor. Never got to read the whole thing because school got in the way, but I was enjoying that too. I guess I would just suggest reading the synopsis on Amazon or something of each of his books and find which one sounds most interesting to you. |
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That's why I read White Male Heart in the first place, because of Cillian, or else I probably wouldn't have even known it existed! 
