Has anyone read all the Dick Francis books?
Or Jane Austen's?
(yes, they are not really series authors, although Francis now has four with Sid Halley.)

"It always sounded interesting when lecturers spoke about it, and then a couple of chapters into the reality and I was losing the will to live. What’s truly ironic is that it now features on the introduction to literature course we set for the first years, so I’ll have to teach it when I go back next autumn. Oh helpington! as my son is fond of saying."

Check here to see what best 5, worst 5 books are being discussed.

I will review "1001 Books" more in depth later; check out this though:

"See if you agree whether these are the ‘must read’ books since the year 2003 (to 2006):

Elizabeth Costello, J. M. Coetzee

Islands, Dan Sleigh

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt

The Light of Day, Graham Swift

Thursbitch, Alan Garner

The Colour, Rose Tremain

Drop City, T. Coraghessan Boyle

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

Dining on Stones, Iain Sinclair

The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd

Vanishing Point, David Markson

The Master, Colm Tóibín

The Plot Against America, Philip Roth

The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble

The Sea, John Banville

Adjunct: An Undigest, Peter Manson

Slow Man, J. M. Coetzee

On Beauty, Zadie Smith

Saturday, Ian McEwan

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Now my litblogging friends, (writes litlove), we can do better than this, can’t we? (Litlove's) must read novels since 2003 include: Ali Smith, The Accidental, Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad, Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal and Jonathan Coe, The Closed Circle. Any other suggestions?"

Of course, I'm into Western and Texas history.
Outlaw history is a bonus.

But his "Getting Away With Murder" tells true stories of turn-of-the-(last)-century justice in Texas, and the research he put into it is most impressive.

I understand he's got another book coming out soon.

Some of the courthouses he talks about are still standing.

My father had a cousin who was a famous outlaw turned Texas Ranger; so I'm a little prejudiced.

Truth Partisan, Austen wrote only six books, so I wouldn't be too breathless about ALL her books. Francis, on the other hand. . . . Especially since he eventually got samee enough that you suspect him of creating his latest novel with a search-and-replace template.

A good entertaining series is the Dalziel and Pascoe series by Reginald Hill. The early books each take three or four hours to read -- I got started on them, in fact, because there weren't any good TV mystery series of the Columbo type on, so I'd kick back with one late on every Sunday afternoon. The later ones got longer and occasionally pretend to seriousness, with sporadic success. Hill's a playful writer, and likes parody. He's successfully used it as a structural and stylistic base in several of the books (Pictures of Perfection echoes Jane Austen, Arms and the Women echoes Homer -- Hill makes his living by writing, so I assume he figured Virgil was not familiar to enough readers).

The characters are about as realistic as Columbo, but to the extent that he does character development, Hill's good at being fair about the strengths and weaknesses of his come-up-through-the-ranks conservative Dalziel and university educated liberal Pascoe. As the series advances, of course, both characters get more sympathetic. Plotting is not Hill's strength. It's the humor and inventiveness of language and incident that make the series so much fun.

Dorothy L. Sayers.

Mysteries with a touch of class and comedy.
Why she hasn't more devotees than the derivative Christie, I'll never know.

For young readers, the Barbara Cartland romances might be especially good. They're G-Rated, and while they're romances, they do give an idea of history from a point of view not often portrayed -- David Copperfield-class young women, mostly.

Sayers wrote some other books as well, but Lord Peter stands up better IMNVHO.

I'm also something of a Tom Buchanan fan, although that's sheer unadulterated escapism. {NB: there seem to be two different Tom Buchanans in these novels: one from Alpine who travels mostly alone, and one from somewhere unnamed in East Texas who travels with a boxer named Coco. Both are good, but the variations in the temperaments of the two sets of adventures suggest, to my mind, two different authors as well.}

Now, there are things that qualify as great literature that I am not into -- as I've said before, Conrad and Joyce leave me cold.

Of course, sophistication is in the eye of the beholder too.

We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

I've read all of Austen, but I'd be hard pressed to review them *all* at this time. I'd need a refresher on Mansfield Park and Lady Susan. (yes LS is a novel even though it is comprised of letters-Austen has 7 completed novels. There is also her unfinished work which can be purchased and read.)

Though right now I am in the midst of (re)reading Sense & Sensibility-on the knitting site, Ravelry, I belong to the Austentatious Fibres group and it's our current book for the 'book club.'

But what are you going for? Someone to review all 7? To compare and contrast? Because people do read Jane so very differently that if people have favourite books then maybe they should review those. Personally I adore Emma, Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice. (They contain my favourite heroines.)

Just a thought.

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Her protagonist is a National Park Service Ranger named Anna Pigeon. Wonderful details about our national parks and how things work in the Park Service, and Barr writes like nobody's business.

"The Magus" is the only book I know of that a friend went out and bought in paperback so she could rip out the pages after reading them, one by one. The end pages she ripped up and stomped on.

It's pretty amazing that those stories are true! The Wild West legends are based on such stories...I have recently reread "White Hats" edited by Robert J. Randisi, which are historical fiction stories about real people in the Old West, including one story with Texas Rangers, with Captain John "Old Rip" Salmon Ford.

were fun...I only read a couple. Does the way the characters act change if Hill is echoing a different author?

It's funny that her books have stood up so well from her time period when some others feel so dusty from the same time. I think it's because she's so witty and the human character hasn't changed that much. Sayers uses the structure of the murder mystery to whittle people down to their essentials--and we get to see their underlying desperation and sometimes cowardice--and their moving bravery, often acted on with stiff upper lips and often terribly buttoned up but very clear all the same...the fact that Harriet insists on acting as if she is from more modern times like ours helps too.
They are excellent rereads too.

And the Thursday Next series. For me the books are like Vonnegut in that I can go cover to cover in a single sitting. Fforde is sarcastic and witty in the Thursday Next series (original is "the Eyre Affair"). The Jack Spratt series isn't as good but still entertaining.

Wasn't a fan of "The Sea", but its short enough to read quickly and Never Let Me Go wasn't Ishiguro's best--the end felt rushed and the setup for the main plot line wasn't adequate for me.

I read and enjoyed What I loved by Suri Hustvedt. If you are interested in art and the modern art world in particular, this book has much to offer. Suri Hustvedt has written on art outside of this novel and knows her stuff. The main voice in the book is that of art historian Leo who becomes friends with Bill an artist (some of his works, imo, are evocative of Joseph Cornell/ Duchamp) after buying one of his paintings. This is not a dry exposition on art and meaning however. The novel shifts into almost a thriller, as Bill's son Mark becomes more and more erratic and hostile, and becomes involved with an egotistical "shock" artist. As a bonus, Bill's great love is the academic Violet who's an expert on 19th century madness.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith moved me to tears when I read it a few years ago. Art and academia are also themes in this novel, but the characters are what make this a great book. I plan to read this book again.

I wasn't crazy about The Colour (pioneer days in New Zealand) by Rose Tremain, but I've read and loved several of her other works such as The Way I Found Her and Restoration ( made into a so-so movie with Robert Downey Jr.) She has a new book coming out in the US soon called The Road Home which won the Orange Prize and sounds like a winner.

Instead of The Colour, I suggest reading Kate Grenville's The Secret River about early settlement in Australia and (tragic) interactions with the native people. Beautiful, heartbreaking, great reading.

LostClown,
Thanks for your ideas!
What if we review one Austen a week for the next seven weeks (or eight with unfinished work?), posting a review and asking others to post their review of the same book?
Do you want to post a review of one of them, starting next week? If yes, could you say with which one you want to start?

I'm not sure I've read any but I love this title.

are die-hards. They want to read them all. How many are there?

Scoff, that you liked especially?

"Also, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy about the colonization and terraforming of Mars. In my opinion he rivals Tolkein for the completeness of the worlds he creates."

Didn't someone review something by Kim Robinson?

Yeahhh...the Thursday Next series is so complex, with such humorous word-play and ideas, like that sea of words and all the time travel (fans of sci fi will like these too)...really portrays well the slopping over of fictional into RL and vice versa...Dr. G, want to write a little more about them?

Thanks for the feedback!
What do you think of Jane Smiley's fiction?

reviewers, for your thoughtful reviews.

Upcoming, a review of a garden book.

Moo, The Greenlanders, and others were knockouts.

So I was shocked at her irrational, over-the-top Hillary hate screeds at HuffPo. She is one of the very painful losses from this primary that feel almost personal to me. Remind me to compartmentalize more.

have been a painful surprise...but we do still have her earlier fiction.

Where is that personal/political line?

Thanks.

Science series, yes!

Read George Ordish's The Living Garden (1985, Houghton Mifflin.) It's the 400 year history of one particular English garden, at Barton's End, Kent, England. The author writes extensively on the natural life cycle of various insects, animals and many plants, and their effect on the land over centuries. The author got the family's old garden notes and diaries from the 1500's to the 1970's, looked at parish records and studied the history of the times. It is absolutely fascinating; it is, however, rather dry. But if you put your imagination to work, reading slowly and imaging what work was involved and what life was like in other times, their whole world sparkles around you. Here's the Barton garden 500 years ago, including the books read by the owners: "John's standby was Fitzherbert's "Boke of Husbandrie," the fifth edition (1552) and Mary had William Turner's "New Herball" (1551.)" (p. 21)

"For her first herb bed Mary collected plants and seeds from her parents, friends, travelling packmen, the common lands and woods. After a year's work she had established borage, chervil, chives, coriander, cowslip or paigle, cumin, dill, eyebright, fennel, foxglove, furze, marjoram, mints of various kinds including pennyroyal, parsley, poppies, 'purcelaine' (purslane, an early arrival from America), rue, sage, savory, 'time' (thyme) and violets." (p. 21)

Here is the image of a hard working newly married spouse, going out and collecting herbs as best she could, for her home, her foods and her medicinals. Here also is the image of an isolated English countryside life--travelling packmen come and tell tales and sell things from far away, her parents and friends are all local, the common lands shared.
Yet she has books to read, and knows about the "new" land America and its plants. Here, in the new land, almost 460 years later, how many of the same plants do you grow in your garden?

too busy until Denver, next week would be fine. I could do Sense and Sensibility if that sounds good. (Since I'm reading it *right now*)

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Fantastic!

I will post saying you're reviewing S'n'S for next Sunday Morning, and asking others to submit their review then too. Should be very interesting!

Many thanks.

to share my love of Ms. Austen. I hope other people share their reviews too. Our book discussions in my Jane Austen book club are always interesting b/c everyone interprets them so differently.

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