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I've enjoyed several books mentioned here -- especially Minotaur and the two Joe Hill books. I keep a list, and so far this year I've dumped: The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen -- interesting premise, wooden dialogue and improbable behavior from the first page Christine Falls by...

Just last week -- The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. Usually my one-sitting books are thrillers, or the shorter Stephen King books. Slaves was different -- there's no plot to speak of, just character observation, but it was very compelling.

Thanks! Landslide, it's Harold Bloom's fault that I get defensive about liking King. :) fluffy bunny, are you a Doper? (There's a fluffy bunny at the Straight Dope message board.)

I've been reading horror for 40+ years, and you're right -- there aren't many "monster" novels. Plenty of vampires, witches, werewolves, etc., but darn few monsters. There's Shikar by Jack Warner, where the "monster" is a Bengal tiger. The monster in Stinger by Robert McCammon takes over an...

Thanks! I love Nebraska -- I've driven through a few times and even stopped once or twice. People poo-poo the Midwest because we don't have mountains or oceans, but there's something to be said for subtle, quiet landscapes. I'm working my way through Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle but...

I just read some of the text on-line to refresh my memory about my complaints. :) In the text at literature.org, what I notice is that Bronte uses a colon where a period might be expected. There are two or three colons in some sentences. Actually, the on-line text is easier to read. I...

A thread on another board was "Name a good book that you're pretty sure no one else has read." From that thread, I bought: Elleander Morning by Jerry Yulsman The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant Freaks Amour by Tom deHaven While browsing for those at Amazon, I also came away...

Maybe he'd like Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston. I read it a few months ago, and remember thinking that it'd be perfect for a teenage boy. Not that it wasn't fine for this old lady . . . Huston's writing a vampire series too, but I haven't tried those.

Probably not the book you're looking for, but Green Darkness by Anya Seton is a classic time travel romance. I loved it on first read, back in my 20's.

I liked World War Z. After reading (or thumbing through) the Zombie Survival Guide, I didn't expect Z to be serious. My favorite chapter was the one with the pilot who was shot down. I've heard it's going to be made into a movie. Not a surprise, considering the popularity of zombies.

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart is funny, charming, and witty, and the dark bits sneak up on you. You're reading and laughing and wham! somebody's dead. Swords for Hire by Will Allen -- another funny one, with all the fantasy cliches, played for laughs but also surprisingly serious in...

Magic and dragons -- how about Robin Hobb? She's written three trilogies set in the same world -- Farseer, Liveships, and Tawny Man. Start with Assassin's Apprentice.

I loved Fingersmith too. A couple others you might want to check out (although they're not as twisty) are The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber, Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, and Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears.

D'oh! You're exactly right. The title I gave was the title for the TV adaptation.

I should have waited for the paperbacks. I do most of my reading at bedtime, in bed, and the hardcovers are really heavy. The Malazon story is so broad, so massive -- I've lost track of the plot and most of the characters. But when I start reading, it doesn't matter. What a world he's...

I love lists!! I've read a few of this year's releases -- very few. Seems like everybody's jumping on the historical fiction bandwagon. Dennis Lehane? Loren Estleman? Don't they write crime thrillers? Pat Barker – Life Class -- she's one of my favorite writers. This was typical Barker...

Softspoken by Lucius Shepard is very unsettling. It has echoes of The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining but it's not derivative. It definitely unsettled me. I was actually a bit nauseated at the end. "Oh dear, this can't be happening." For a book with no explicit gore or violence...

I tried to read it -- I really did -- but the punctuation defeated me. Commas and colons and semicolons were placed willy-nilly. It drove me nuts! I've read a lot of 19th century writers, and none of them punctuate like that. It was unreadable. Mine was the Everyman edition. I don't...

Thanks for the nice welcome! Libra, I did read Outlander. The story was so intriguing, I just had to visit the main website. Bad idea -- I spoiled the rest of the books for myself. sparkchaser, you're welcome. :) I didn't get the title right, but someone corrected it, so all's well...

I just finished reading Elleander Morning by Jerry Yulsman, and was googling around looking for some discussion about the book. Google brought me here because of a thread from 2004. The person who started the thread doesn't appear to be around anymore, darn it. Anyway, I'm new, and I need...