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Post by oldbean on Jan 27, 2008 16:47:11 GMT
Gone with the Wind, when the casualty lists are posted and the Tarleton twins are amongst those that are killed.
Requiem for a Wren, because I would have had to have told his parents who I was...
And finally, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and Lorna Landvik's O My Stars... similar styles of writing, both of which I have had to stop reading on the train because I was crying.
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Post by Ricky T Outhouse on Feb 1, 2008 20:29:57 GMT
Strangely enough..."The Bridges of Madison County"...for all the subsequent wasted loveless years..
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Post by Dancin' Girl on Feb 3, 2008 22:35:11 GMT
"The Loop" by Nicholas Evans
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Post by tde on Jul 8, 2008 8:13:41 GMT
the curious incident of the dog in the night time. - Mark haddon the number of times i could not read because of the tears, but couldnt put it down either. Grrrrrrrrrr! One of my most hated books! The guy knows absolutely nothing about Asperger's Syndrome. Absolutely - I'd put this book in the same skip as Rain Man and burn them both.
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Post by tde on Jul 8, 2008 8:17:37 GMT
I didn't have a book for this thread - until this morning, when I finished 'The Lovely Bones'.
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Post by lindasahandir on Jul 8, 2008 9:15:59 GMT
I didn't have a book for this thread - until this morning, when I finished 'The Lovely Bones'. I know I bought a copy of that book a couple of years ago and never got round to reading it. Can I find it now? Nope. *sigh* I expect it'll turn up eventually.
I don't have one book for this thread - I cry far too easily when reading novels, so there are loads. Two that come to mind are The Girl in a Swing by, er, you know, the bloke that wrote Watership Down, and The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Nifenegger (and I'm sure I've spelt that wrong - my brain isn't working today).
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Post by hoofhearted on Jul 9, 2008 21:13:09 GMT
harry potter (can't remember which particular one) but i get so involved in the stories i did get upset reading them
(how pathetic am i....)
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Post by ivy noidea on Jul 13, 2008 20:08:33 GMT
On the 'What are you reading?' thread, I mentioned that I had read some books while on holiday and one of them was Man and Boy by Tony Parsons. I cried a few times reading that book but I also laughed out loud several times.
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Post by Dinah Boordum on Jul 14, 2008 11:17:52 GMT
the curious incident of the dog in the night time. - Mark haddon the number of times i could not read because of the tears, but couldnt put it down either. Grrrrrrrrrr! One of my most hated books! The guy knows absolutely nothing about Asperger's Syndrome. I just have to disagree with this, at least from personal experience!! Asperger's can present itself differently in different people & different personalities and can, through genetics, end up being 'blended' with other conditions to produce something that doesn't necessarily conform to the 'norm'. My grown up Tyg has Asperger's, and the character in 'The Curious Incident' was very like him. Even if you didn't like 'The Curious Incident', don't let it put you off Mark Haddon. His next offering, ' A Spot of Bother', had me laughing & crying in equal measure.
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Post by clarevoyant on Jul 14, 2008 12:38:09 GMT
Grrrrrrrrrr! One of my most hated books! The guy knows absolutely nothing about Asperger's Syndrome. I just have to disagree with this, at least from personal experience!! Asperger's can present itself differently in different people & different personalities and can, through genetics, end up being 'blended' with other conditions to produce something that doesn't necessarily conform to the 'norm'. My grown up Tyg has Asperger's, and the character in 'The Curious Incident' was very like him. Even if you didn't like 'The Curious Incident', don't let it put you off Mark Haddon. His next offering, ' A Spot of Bother', had me laughing & crying in equal measure. Christopher Boone is a literary device, not even a particularly good one, with a number of Asperger traits pasted on to the 'cardboard cutout' AS person. The whole point is Dinah, that Haddon matches Christopher with some of your son's traits. They are not the traits of all Asperger's people. It implies that there is the potential for violence, an irresponsible implication because those not aware of AS, may think this potential is in all people with AS differences. It shows that Boone has a lack of empathy, again, not always the case. It is, in my opinion, badly written and irresponsible.
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Post by Dinah Boordum on Jul 14, 2008 15:53:01 GMT
I just have to disagree with this, at least from personal experience!! Asperger's can present itself differently in different people & different personalities and can, through genetics, end up being 'blended' with other conditions to produce something that doesn't necessarily conform to the 'norm'. My grown up Tyg has Asperger's, and the character in 'The Curious Incident' was very like him. Even if you didn't like 'The Curious Incident', don't let it put you off Mark Haddon. His next offering, ' A Spot of Bother', had me laughing & crying in equal measure. Christopher Boone is a literary device, not even a particularly good one, with a number of Asperger traits pasted on to the 'cardboard cutout' AS person. The whole point is Dinah, that Haddon matches Christopher with some of your son's traits. They are not the traits of all Asperger's people. It implies that there is the potential for violence, an irresponsible implication because those not aware of AS, may think this potential is in all people with AS differences. It shows that Boone has a lack of empathy, again, not always the case. It is, in my opinion, badly written and irresponsible. I do see what you're saying, Clare, but the fact is that not everyone is the same, whether they have Asperger's or not, and the potential for violence is in all of us, to some degree or another. I don't believe it is the responsibility of an author of fiction to write about things in a factual way. To expect an author of fiction to always make sure that, when writing about a character with any known 'condition' or 'syndrome', they make that character's traits as close to the accepted 'norm' for that condition as possible, is, in my view, a bit unreasonable. By that standard, you could say that the author of 'The Memory Keeper's daughter' was 'irresponsible' because they made the character with Down's Syndrome more capable of independent living than is usual in the majority of cases. The book wasn't intended as a text book - it was a novel - and as such, the author does not have any moral duty (or any other sort of duty) to ensure his characters are factually accurate. I also think it is a little unreasonable to say that the writer knows nothing about Asperger's (as a previous poster wrote). While I agree that not all people with Asperger's have a lack of empathy, a higher proportion of people on the Autistic Spectrum lack empathy than those who are not. He may just know some people with Asperger's who are very similar to his main character, as I do, and was just 'writing about what he knows', as most authors do. You obviously have very strong feelings about the book and you are as entitled to your opinion as I am. I thoroughly enjoyed it and did not think it was badly written. It was recommended to me by a close friend, who also has a son with Asperger's, and who also thought the main character was very like her son. Having said all of the above, I hadn't considered the possibility that someone who knows nothing about Asperger's might think that all people who have it are exactly the same as the character in the novel (probably because I was reading it as a person who does have experience of several people with Asperger's - all of them different). While I still believe it shouldn't be the fiction-writer's responsibility to clarify things, it might have been helpful to include somewhere in the foreword, perhaps, that the character was not intended to be typical of all people with Asperger's and should not be regarded as a blueprint for people who have it.
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Post by clarevoyant on Jul 14, 2008 16:16:06 GMT
Whilst I do not believe in censorship, I do believe the writer should consider other aspects. I wonder if you feel the same way about Margaret Attwood's "Oryx and Crake" in which Aspies are presented as genocidal maniacs. As for expecting an author of fiction to make sure that they know about a syndrome, condition or difference, as the book was promoted, with Haddon's blessing, as a book about Asperger's Syndrome, in this case I do believe there was a moral responsiblity to have had some experience. I do have some experience in the field and have to deal with queries, on a regular basis from people whose only experience is of reading the book.
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Post by Dinah Boordum on Jul 15, 2008 10:07:19 GMT
Re: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
Clare & I have already discussed this by way of pm, but I felt, in the interests of fairness, I wanted to post an alternative view here.
Mark Haddon claims to have worked with with adults & children with various physical & mental disabilities, including Asperger's.
He has also stated that he deliberately chose not to mention Asperger's - or any other condition - in his book, and that it was the decision of those marketing the book to include a reference to it on the cover. While he did not object at the time, he has expressed a desire for future editions to omit this reference. _________________________________________________
A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
My previous mention of Haddon's next book may have got lost in the discussion that took place afterwards, so I'm just giving it another mention here.
Even if you hated 'The Curious Incident', A Spot of Bother is well worth a read. It's about a middle-aged man who is going through a bit of a breakdown and the various family members who share the experience, while coping with their own problems. There's a lot of humour (some of which made me laugh out loud) and quite a few bits that reduced me to tears. I thought it was a thoroughly good read and was left wanting more.
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Post by marigoldglove on Aug 29, 2008 21:06:28 GMT
they boy in the striped pyjamas... made me cry and my son who is a grown man....try it, is a a wonderful evocative book
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Post by tde on Aug 30, 2008 9:03:01 GMT
Whilst I do not believe in censorship, I do believe the writer should consider other aspects. I wonder if you feel the same way about Margaret Attwood's "Oryx and Crake" in which Aspies are presented as genocidal maniacs. I must admit, I read 'Oryx and Crake' recently, and I must have missed something, because that isn't the impression I got at all. I just didn't think it was very good.
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Post by roobarb on Sept 9, 2008 16:22:07 GMT
I loved "The Curious Incident...". I think worries that people might think that all people with Aspergers might be like Christopher is a slight overreaction (albeit an understandable one). Most people reading would hopefully have been intelligent enough to realise the basics of Aspergers and know that it's not a "one-size fits all" complain. It's like me getting upset if a book was to present someone who is Bi-polar as a murderer. I don't think people would assume that I was capable of murder just because I had the same condition.
My sad book is "On Beauty" by Zadie Smith. I read it and A Spot of Bother one after the other, and they have quite a similar basic story, but different themes. It's quite bleak in places, but wonderfully true to life and a great advert for human spirit. I decided to read White Teeth after, but was quite disappointed with it - it seemed to jump around too much!
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Post by Frankleapold on Sept 16, 2008 22:36:14 GMT
I enjoying reading autobiographies because it is the person speaking not some ghost writer. If you like sport ( football in this case ) , you will like Bob Wilson's book - Behind the network. In it he speaks of his life in football ( Arsenal and Scotland Goalkeeper ) and his subsequent career in TV Sport.
He also talks about family life and in particularly his daughter, Anna. I found this very moving as he spoke about her battle with Cancer and how he and his family coped with her early death.
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Post by clarevoyant on Sept 17, 2008 19:12:21 GMT
Roo, believe you me, it isn't an over reaction. I come across people on a weekly basis who have read the book and immediately associate it with AS. I include GPs and student doctors.
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Alice Tickband
TOG
Supplier of pompoms & boings to the gentry
I try to be good, I really do, but my 'bad' is so much more interesting!
Posts: 594
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Post by Alice Tickband on Sept 30, 2008 10:01:19 GMT
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult was the first book that I cried real tears over and then I read Atonement (forget the film...next to useless) and I almost had to call the plumber.
I also agree with previous posters who mentioned The Thorn Birds and the Time Traveller's Wife
but for a great can't put it down book try anything by Dean Koontz, although his books wont make you cry, unless with fright!
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Post by tigerlily on Oct 2, 2008 10:49:31 GMT
I'm just nearing the end of Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. Not my usual sort of author, but she is actually very good!
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