November Fantasy Thread - NO SPOILERS - The Historian

I'll be ordering The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova from the library for our November read.

oh! let me see if I still have that somewhere.

OOOH! Finally, one I've read! :o)

I've been looking forward to rereading this. Hope I enjoy it as much the second time!

Oh, that one is sitting, half read, on my shelf. I think I started it over 2 years ago.....

hummmm, I do have a huge commitment to Team of Rivals for November.... and two library books, and -

oh, dear, what shall I do?

My library seems to have it so if it hasn't disappeared from the shelves by my next visit maybe I'll join in.

Edit : Successfully snagged.

I loved this one when I read it. I won't re-read it, but I'll certainly be lurking!

#7 - That's my plan as well!

To my great surprise I found this in the library, so can join in.

Just came in from the library. Man, it is a doorstop!

Morphy, yup! Enjoy losing yourself in it! :o)

Just checked and my library has this one, but it's checked out so I've put a hold on it.

Do we have a spoiler thread? Should we have one?

Thanks for reminding me!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/144323

Thank you, Morphy.

Hmmm, this one has been on my list. I just started another book, but I miss all of you, and a group read might be just the ticket to getting back into LT-ing on a regular basis.

I just started it but won't have much reading time until after Tuesday.

I've had this one in the wish list for a long time, and new month means new money in book envelope. Might be the perfect time to pick this one up.

Finished it a few days ago now.

Started it last night. Enjoying it so far, but pretty standard tropes.

Picked this one up when it came out but abandoned it after a couple hundred pages. It wasn't bad, per se, but just so boring I couldn't summon the energy to pick it back up.

Hmmm, it says it's a novel, but I'm on Chapter 10 and so far there's no plot and no characterizations. Just a travellogue with some occasional ham-fisted forboding. "Oh, no, I can't go on at this point..." Does it get better?

>22 littlegeek: Not really. Characterization emerges indirectly through the characters' writings or as they interact with (or think of) each other but it's definitely a slow process and it keeps the travelogue / "letters left behind" shape almost the entire way through.
Didn't mind it but I read pretty fast which makes me less sensitive than most to a lesser density of action I guess.

I suppose the beginning of the book IS rather slow...in fact, I wouldn't say there are very many intense "action" scenes at all. The book is mostly mood / setting...the characters DO develop, but only through time. However, I enjoyed the travellogue parts...

Yes, I agree that it's really all about the descriptions and atmosphere, a slow build rather than an action packed narrative. If you don't like that sort of thing, it probably won't get any better for you. I like the characters and the way we are shown, not told, their personalities. (The girl remains rather opaque, but I think she, as narrator, is deliberately not revealing much about herself.) There are a lot of nice minor characters too, who are often more interesting than the protagonists.

Finished at last. If it hadn't become a quick read over the last 200-odd pages I wouldn't have bothered. Sakerfalcon is right, but I'd still be hard-pressed to pick up this author's next offering.

I didn't want to read her second book either. The subject and characters just didn't interest me, and friends who did read it were not enthusiastic.

The reviews for her second book were very 'meh,' so I did not bother with it. Loved this one, though.

I read the cover copy for The Swan Thieves and it looks kind of self-involved and dull. But I would read The Historian again.

I read both books too. I would read The Historian again, but not The Swan Thieves. Not even for a time killer. *yawn*

I've never been tempted to read The Swan Thieves based on the reviews.

I'm liking this book, but I wish the POV changes were clearer. At the beginning of the book I kept thinking I was still reading about the daughter, only to finally realize after dozens of pages that I was back on the dad's story...

I read 200 pages and then the book had to go back to the library. I was able to request it again right away. But now it's been sitting... and sitting. And I have absolutely no desire to go back to it and it's coming due again. So I'm giving up on this one. Another DNF - this time for boredom and disinterest.

Enjoyed the Historian (though not on a stormy night when I was home by myself) I found the The Swan Thieves too Miles and Boonie

Miles and Boonie? Wassat?

>35 clamairy: Mills & Boon, British romance publisher, was bought by Harlequin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_%26_Boon

Oh! Thanks. I googled 'Miles & Boonie' and came up with nothing applicable. :oD