Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 8:02 AM EDT
- -callie
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For Martha's Vineyard & back to mysteries:
Philip R. Craig wrote a series set on the island
Linda Fairstein also has a series whose main character, Alex Cooper, lives in NYC but has a home on Martha's vineyard
Elkie - I love Geraldine Brooks. Once I discovered her, I read her books all in a row.
You're right, sandy. Harry Potter is a series, not a book. I couldn't figure out a way to include them in this list!
next: how about a journey (literal, spiritual, whatever)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 9:05 AM EDT
- chazz508
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Journey:
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult
Breakfast with Buddha -Roland Merullo ---loved this book, read it last summer.
there must be a ton more....
or main characters who have a funny sidekick...
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 9:48 AM EDT
Lawrence of Arabia comes to mind for journey. Eat, Pray, Love does, too, though I hate to keep using a book I am ambivalent about. Plus any number of biographies of explorer books, e.g. Captain Cook or The Endurance about Shackleton's trip to Antarctica.
Gee, chazz, I can think of any number of sidekick books, but funny sidekicks is going to take a lot more thought. 8)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 9:54 AM EDT
In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
For Martha's Vineyard & back to mysteries: Philip R. Craig wrote a series set on the island Linda Fairstein also has a series whose main character, Alex Cooper, lives in NYC but has a home on Martha's vineyard Elkie - I love Geraldine Brooks. Once I discovered her, I read her all in a row. You're right, sandy. Harry Potter is a series, not a book. I couldn't figure out a way to include them in this list! next: how about a journey (literal, spiritual, whatever)
Posted by -callie
I figured the rite of passage there really took all 7 books, which really would make it more of a long transition than a "rite". My oldest and I are on our second read through the series, so it tends to pop to mind for many of these categories -- though not for funny sidekick! That would really be a stretch!
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 9:59 AM EDT
- chazz508
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In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
In Response to Re: Book Theme Game : I figured the rite of passage there really took all 7 books, which really would make it more of a long transition than a "rite". My oldest and I are on our second read through the series, so it tends to pop to mind for many of these categories -- though not for funny sidekick! That would really be a stretch!
Posted by EnjoyEverySandwich
Good Morning Sandwich! I'm very flexible if you want to change it to just a "sidekick"!
:)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 10:04 AM EDT
- -callie
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Not an episodic rite, I agree, but I would be willing to lump it in with the broad theme.
As to funny sidekicks, Ron Weasley has some funny lines in the movies though not in the books as far as I can remember. I guess that doesn't count.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 10:30 AM EDT
callie: I think most of the humor in the movies is in the books, too. But ROn Weasley is not consistently funny, the way I think of "funny sidekick". Fred and George Weasley are funny 80+% or the time, but they're not really sidekicks.
I know there are probably plenty of funny sidekicks, I just need to percolate on it for a while. :) Which is good -- I like the challenge, chazz!
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 4:49 PM EDT
- Elekktra
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Adding to the journey list if I may:
Contact (Carl Sagan)
Surfacing (Margaret Atwood)
Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Baum)
The Diary Of Anne Frank
Ben Hur: A Tale of The Christ (Wallace)
************
funny sidekicks -- ay yi yi. (This would be easy if we were talking TV!)
Sancho Panza (Don Quioxte)
Dr Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
Captain Hastings (Hercule Poirot)
Trapper John (Hawkeye Pierce) MASH novels.
Tinkerbell (Peter Pan)
Toto (Dorothy Gale) WWOz stories
Not suggesting a new category yet. Will wait for others to weigh in.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 5:24 PM EDT
- -callie
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chazz: Breakfast with Buddha was the book I first thought of when I suggested journey. And then I realized that the book I finished last night was by the same author - Roland Merullo! Small book, an unexpected gem. I didn't link the two till I saw your post!
ay yi yi is right Elkie, but you came up with some great titles! I'll have to think on it a bit more.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 5:31 PM EDT
- chazz508
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callie, that is funny! Which other one did you read? I tried Golfing with God, which was pretty good, but really loved the Buddha one.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 5:35 PM EDT
- -callie
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Oh! I forgot to give the title; A Little Love Story. Really liked it, and the Buddha as well. It really stuck with me. I'll have to check out Golfing with God - it sounds like it could be funny?
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 7:22 PM EDT
In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
Adding to the journey list if I may: Contact (Carl Sagan) Surfacing (Margaret Atwood) Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Baum) The Diary Of Anne Frank Ben Hur: A Tale of The Christ (Wallace) ************ funny sidekicks -- ay yi yi. (This would be easy if we were talking TV!) Sancho Panza (Don Quioxte) Dr Watson (Sherlock Holmes) Captain Hastings (Hercule Poirot) Trapper John (Hawkeye Pierce) MASH novels. Tinkerbell (Peter Pan) Toto (Dorothy Gale) WWOz stories Not suggesting a new category yet. Will wait for others to weigh in.
Posted by Elekktra
Elekktra: I love your journey suggestions.
......but I have a quibble with one of your sidekick ones -- Dr. Watson is not at all funny in the books. Actually, he's a lot more like the character on the fantastic new "Sherlock" BBC show (have you seen that? -- it's awesome!) than the bumbling idiot misplayed in the Basil Rathbone movies. I agree it's easier to think of movie or tv funny sidekicks than book ones. Like all the characters in
The Pickwick Papers are funny -- so that's not a serious main character with a funny companion. Or Hawk to Spenser -- except that they joke together, and both are serious as well (maybe Hawk more so than Spenser).
chazz: DId you have anything in mind when you posted the category?
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/18/2011 8:42 PM EDT
- chazz508
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In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
In Response to Re: Book Theme Game : Elekktra: I love your journey suggestions. ......but I have a quibble with one of your sidekick ones -- Dr. Watson is not at all funny in the books. Actually, he's a lot more like the character on the fantastic new "Sherlock" BBC show (have you seen that? -- it's awesome!) than the bumbling idiot misplayed in the Basil Rathbone movies. I agree it's easier to think of movie or tv funny sidekicks than book ones. Like all the characters in The Pickwick Papers are funny -- so that's not a serious main character with a funny companion. Or Hawk to Spenser -- except that they joke together, and both are serious as well (maybe Hawk more so than Spenser). chazz: DId you have anything in mind when you posted the category?
Posted by EnjoyEverySandwich
I was actually thinking of the Lula character in the Stephanie Plum books. She's her large, ex-hooker sidekick in her bounty hunting expeditions. She is always on some donut or all-meat diet and constantly wears loud spandex outfits. I laugh at loud at her character. It's kinda silly but I do love that series. :)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 11:23 AM EDT
In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
In Response to Re: Book Theme Game : I was actually thinking of the Lula character in the Stephanie Plum books. She's her large, ex-hooker sidekick in her bounty hunting expeditions. She is always on some donut or all-meat diet and constantly wears loud spandex outfits. I laugh at loud at her character. It's kinda silly but I do love that series. :)
Posted by chazz508
Alright already!! I'll read a Stephanie Plum book!!
:^D
You had me at "donut diet".
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 1:40 PM EDT
- chazz508
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In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
In Response to Re: Book Theme Game : Alright already!! I'll read a Stephanie Plum book!! :^D You had me at "donut diet".
Posted by EnjoyEverySandwich
Ha! Excellent!
I am reading such a good book right now. Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult.....
maybe in a while the next theme could be a gay/lesbian character.....
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 6:32 PM EDT
What theme are we on right now, anyway? We need callie to come in and crack the whip.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 8:09 PM EDT
- Elekktra
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I think we were struggling with funny sidekicks. Regarding Dr Watson, excellent observation my dear Sandwich.
Next: oceans.
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 9:19 PM EDT
- chazz508
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Oceans: ---mine are settings in the ocean, not really about the ocean....
Sphere - Michael Crichton (all takes place at the bottom of Pacific Ocean)
Skinny Dip - Carl Haissen ( Chaz (!) throws his wife overboard into the Atlantic on their cruise)
The Castaways - Elin Hilderbrand (how friends deal when their friends' boat capsizes in the Atlantic and they are killed)
for the funny sidekicks, I was also thinking of Win and Esperenza from Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitaire series..........
There must be a ton more....
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 9:21 PM EDT
- chazz508
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In Response to
Re: Book Theme Game:
Oh! I forgot to give the title; A Little Love Story. Really liked it, and the Buddha as well. It really stuck with me. I'll have to check out Golfing with God - it sounds like it could be funny?
Posted by -callie
It was pretty funny.....what heaven is like for a golfer!
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 9:28 PM EDT
chazz: next category after oceans?
Elekktra: 8)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/19/2011 11:24 PM EDT
- -callie
- Posts: 2697
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Crack the whip? I get to crack the whip?
Let's go with chazz's earlier suggestion of gay/lesbian characters.
Dumbledore - Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling said so!)
Lucy - Kay Scarpetta's niece; Patricia Cornwell, author
I feel like more are tiptoeing 'round the edges of my brain ... it's late, maybe they'll dawn on me tomorrow :-)
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/20/2011 8:09 AM EDT
- -callie
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Ennis and Jack, Brokeback Mountain (short story originally)
Clarissa, The Hours. Read the book, never saw the movie.
That's all I can think of - please add more if you've got 'em.
If not, next theme: vacations
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/20/2011 10:36 AM EDT
more on the gay characters theme:
Ethan of Athos -- Lois McMasters Bujold's book about a world of only men, where the dna of the tissue they've been using in the uterine replicators starts to degrade, and one of the citizens is chosen for the mission to visit another world to get new samples -- first time in 100s of years that anyone from Athos has ever even seen a woman. Good book, part of the incredible Vorkosigan series -- Bujold can write like nobody's business (caveat: her Sharing Knife series is not really as good as the rest.)
P.S. Your Cat Is Dead -- saved my sanity when I read it -- I really needed the laugh so hard you cry effect of this book at the time.
Midnight Cowboy -- a classic for a reason and better than the movie, which was great, too. Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo develop a dependency and love for one another.
Those are the ones off the top of my head.
next theme -- vacations
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/20/2011 11:27 AM EDT
- chazz508
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one more on gay/lesbian
Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin - I read the first few about 20 years ago, still remember how funny they were.
Sandy, I've seen that PS you're cat is dead....is it a mystery or what kind of book?
on to vacation....
Re: Book Theme Game
posted at 6/20/2011 12:10 PM EDT
chazz: It's hard to describe -- and it's been well over 20 years since I read it, but I seem to recall it's about a guy who is having the WORST day of his life....I forget the particulars, but I think his love interest leaves him and the PS in the Dear John letter is the news about his cat. Then a burglar breaks into his apartment, and the guy, who has already hit his limit, catches the guy and ties him to the kitchen table. Then he has to figure out what to do next, because that's just the beginning of the book.
Sounds like it would be sad or upsetting but Kirkwood manages to make it side splitting -- or maybe it just seemed that way to me at the time because I really really needed the laugh. One of those books I've often thought I should go back and reread to see if it really is as funny as I remembered it. But then, I wonder if I'm better off remembering the laughs it gave me than the book itself.
I probably ask myself too many questions.....
