Sunday 26 April 2009

Sunday Salon- A thing for fantasy.


Good morning Sunday Saloners - I have found this week, that I am verging on a fantasy and Young Adult book obsession. Anyone else have the same obsessions as me?

When I walk into Waterstones these days, I am bypassing the books on the tables which are all in the bestseller list and heading straight to the fantasy books hidden at the back and then heading to the fantasy books in the Young Adult section. I have discussed this with a couple of my friends and we have come to the conclusion that we were deprived during our teen years. Books were very much segregated then and you went straight from children fantasy books to adult stories. I don't remember any books that fitted in between apart from The Lord Of The Rings series, which I admit I have never read. So I feel that I and many other 30 something women are making up for it now.

Anyway back to my reading week, this week I have been flitting between three books. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I am desperate to finish this book as I seem to have been reading it for ever. Not that I am not enjoying it, as it is a beautiful story, I just keep getting distracted.

Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman - this is my first reading venture into Alice Hoffman books and so far, so good.

Secret of the Sirens by Julia Golding is a lovely children's book dealing with people who have special powers to communicate with mythical creatures.

I finished reading Bad Blood by Lorna Sage which I will review tomorrow. I also read The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen and the second book in the Spooks series by Joseph Delany - The Spook's Curse.

These are the three books I hope to get started this week.

Beloved by Toni Morrison - my first Toni Morrison book and a book to put towards my 1% challenge. I have heard so much about Toni Morrison and this book, I hope it meets my expectations. This book is based loosely on the life and legal case of the slave Margaret Garner.


Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel - another book for the 1% challenge. This book was a number one bestseller in Mexico for two years before the rest of the world found it and is a book set out in monthly installments about the life of Tita De La Garza and also features a recipe each month too.

The Seventh Tide by Joan Lennon - another fantasy fix. This is a book about teenage shape shifters crossing the time travel barrier.

So that is me set for the week, what will you be reading?

18 comments:

  1. I love Memoairs of a Geisha :)
    All my teen years went to fantasy, my first "English" love, since cos of fantasy I read in English and never looked back

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  2. I do know what you mean about having a particular obsession about the types of books you're drawn to at any given moment. Crime fiction is drawing me in again--which is obvious by my recent book festival purchases. :-)

    I can't say I've ever been drawn to YA fiction. I do enjoy fantasy and the occasional YA fantasy novel, but YA fantasy and I don't always get along well so I tend to avoid it. Maybe, in my case, I had too much of it when I was growing up. :-) I don't think of the Lord of the Rings books as YA. Are they being marketed that way now? I read them after the first movie came out.

    It looks like you have a busy reading week planned! Enjoy your books!

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  3. I'm having that same obsessions right now! Currently I'm reading three ya fiction books, The Hunger Games, Tender Morsels, and A curse as Dark as Gold. I'm also reading a lot of fantasy too. I wonder if I am trying to catch up on my teenage years. I don't think so. I read a lot of ya books when I was growing up like Judy Blume and Cynthia Viogt.

    Vasilly

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  4. I know a lot of 30 to 40 something women who adore fantasy and YA lit. You are in good company.

    I only got about 2 chapters into Memoirs of a Geisha and put it aside. I couldn't get into it at the time, but I will someday. I loved the movie.

    I haven't read Beloved, but I have read The Bluest Eye which I loved. I have A, Mercy, but haven't been able to get past page 2. I think it requires lots of patience and the right mood.

    One of these days I'm going to read Alice Hoffman.

    Have a great week!

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  5. I think it is great that over the last several years adults are discovering that there are fantastically talented authors writing books for young adults which can still speak to and entertain adults. I think a lot of people miss out by not reading YA fiction.

    I should be reading fantasy, seeing as how we are in the midst of Once Upon a Time...and I am hosting...but I am currently still on my nonfiction/essay kick and am alternating Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Both are very good so far.

    I really do want to try out Alice Hoffman sometime. I have seen so many lovely book covers on her books that I am surprised I haven't picked one up.

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  6. I don't really read YA or fantasy, but I know alot of people do.

    Hope you have a great week!

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  7. There is an award waiting for you at my blog :)

    Award

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  8. I go through phases of loving YA and reading nothing but it and not being able to finish a YA book to save my life. I'm currently not able to read anything YAish. I remember really loving Memoirs of A Geisha, but I read it in high school and am not really clear on the details anymore.

    I loved Beloved. I remember for some reason I finished it whilst sitting in my car outside my house. I have no idea why that had happened, maybe I was so eager to read it I couldn't be bothered to walk into the house? I'll never know.

    I remember avoiding Like Water For Chocolate for absolutely ages because someone I really intensely disliked recommended it to me and that's absolutely crazy because it's a beautiful little book.

    I'm hoping to finish the book I'm currently reading (Mister Pip by .. I can't think of his name) and either reading one of the other library books I have out or going to the library tomorrow and being inspired.

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  9. Sounds like you've got some great books to read there. I really liked Memoirs, the details in the writing were so vivid.

    I know what you mean, I feel like I skipped the YA books and went straight to Stephen King by age 13....lol.
    And I also feel like nowadays there's so many wonderful YA books out there. I'm a fan of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
    I read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings books in my twenties, and really enjoyed those. I obsessed over those while I was reading them.

    Enjoy the Toni Morrison book, I read Sula years ago and it was very good. Her writing style is poetic.
    Enjoy your Sunday, i'm trying to catch up on my blogging today :)

    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  10. I loved reading Memoirs of a Geisha...I think I told you that, or maybe it was someone else.
    Right now I am drawn to mostly books I owe reviews for. If I could I would read some contemporary fiction for a change, or historical fiction. I read a lot of YA at school with the students I teach. I know I was deprived as a child. We had nothing like the incredible selection and scope of today's market. I like catching up for lost time too.

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  11. I loved Memoirs of a Geisha and Like Water for Chocolate is on my shelf somewhere. You've got a good reading week coming up. I've got a few on the go-The Red Leather Diary and Frenchman's Creek are a couple of them. Have a great week Viv!

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  12. I read Memoirs of a Geisha a couple of years before the movie came out and really liked it. Oh! My first (and so far only) Hoffman book was Practical Magic and I simply adored it. Really need to get around to reading more by her...

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  13. I can't wait for your review of the Alice Hoffman book! I've been wanting to read her. Also Like Water for Chocolate - I've had that on my list forever! Great books you have there! Happy reading!

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  14. My copy of the Memoirs of the Geisha keeps going on the backburner. I hope to rectify this soon...

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  15. Sheesh...here I am in my mid-40s and it's only been in the last couple years that I discovered fantasy at all. It's not that I ever had anything against it, it just never really crossed my radar until my daughter started reading it. Then I decided I should give it a go, and signed up for Carl's first Once Upon a Time challenge. I simply can't believe what I'd been missing all those years!

    I love the look of you upcoming pile! I'm eager to read both A Mercy and Like Water for Chocolate! And frankly, from the looks of that little peak at the cover, I think I'd like to get my hands on The Seventh Tide, too. :)

    Have a wonderful week!

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  16. i haven't read much (or any, really) fantasy...and now you've got me thinking i'm missing something really good! i read MOAG a few years back...and just passed up the alice h. novel you're reading. let me know if it's any good! lol.

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