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Dwight, I Googled 'Anthony Horowitz's agent' and there was one result: Robert Kirby of United Agents. But when I looked at United Agents' website, two agents are mentioned:
Thanks Jay. What would I ever do without you? It looks like it was either Robert Kirby or Anthony Jones of United Agents - presumably under the auspices of Rosemary Canter.
Finally finished Sarah Water's The Little Stranger. It's slow right up to the middle, but still held my attention. After that I couldn't put it down. I think I said in a previous thread that she managed to have everyone speaking BBC post-war Queen's English without actually saying 'jolly hockeysticks', which was clever.
I didn't actually like any of the main characters, but still wanted - or rather - needed to know what happened to them.
Just finished reading 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer. My daughter brought it and couldn't get on with it. I read it and enjoyed it. I haven't looked at any of her books before. Does anyone know if her other books are like this one or is this a one off?
The book I read before 'The host' was 'North of Watford' by Lynn Philips. The story was full of action the characters interesting and believable and I enjoyed it. The ending was a bit of a disapointment and put me off looking for any other books by this author.
Just started 'A long way down' by Nick Hornby. Haven't read him in years after struggling through the moanings of the protagonist in 'High Fidelity'. I'm really enjoying it though, its about a man who goes to the top of a tower block on New Years day to kill himself, only to find there's a queue! It's really funny and sensitive, I'm only really at the start though.
I put Mr Toppit to one side for today. OH's Grandad's funeral was today and was reading it last night and it was all about a funeral (typical). So this evening I'll be reading Meave Binchy's Writer's Club!
PS The funeral was emotional but it was a nice send off for a lovely old man :-)
Well, I got the first Cherub book 'The Recruit' from Waterstones this morning and read chapters 1-5 over a sandwich and coffee in Starbucks while my son did his holiday shopping. I like it - quite different from Horowitz - and I will have to see what I can learn from it. Thanks Probie, and have a good time on the boooat.
I have finished reading 'Home' by Marilynne Robinson - has anyone else read it? I wasn't all that keen on it. It won the Orange Prize recently. Not sure if it's because I hadn't read 'Gilead' first. I am now reading 'The Glass Painter's Daughter' by Rachel Hore.
[quote=Soobdoo]Just finished reading 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer. My daughter brought it and couldn't get on with it. I read it and enjoyed it. I haven't looked at any of her books before. Does anyone know if her other books are like this one or is this a one off?[/quote]
The Twilight books have a similar feel to 'The Host'. I loved them both- and I wasn't expecting to like 'The Host' at all. Sci-fi stuff, aliens in particular, has never interested me at all when I've been looking for my next read, but 'The Host' had me hooked. That book is supposed to be SM's first foray into writing for a grown-up audience, but Wanderer was so innocent, it felt like seeing the world through a child's eyes. In that way, 'The Host' was just as much a YA book as 'Twilight' was.
I'll probably have everyone gnashing their teeth to keep from disagreeing with me, but the Twilight series is amazing. If you liked 'The Host', wait til you get a load of Edward Cullen. ;)
*SA*
p.s. oh yeah- I'm reading 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I've never read anything by either author before (shock-horror, how has the discworld series passed me by?), and I have to say, I'm loving it. I've just put in an amazon order for 'The Colour of Magic' to get myself cracking on the discworld saga. :D xxx
sianies_auntie - you lucky, lucky thing to be just beginning the discworld series - all those books to look forward to!!
Good Omens was excellent, too.
Have just finished 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult - I cried and cried. :(
Now on 'The Sleeping Doll' by Jeffrey Deaver - change of pace!
I didn't get on with the Discworld books at all, they all sort of fell flat for me so I gave up.
Jeffrey Deaver I loooooovvvvveeee ...
Still reading Brethren by Robyn Young (it's huge), still getting annoyed with the 'eyes syndrome' and the errors, despite the fact some medieval expert went over it (really?) there are errors. A mantle, for example, is a short cloak, hence it having a different name. So why is the heroine's yellow mantle dragging through puddles, and would a cloak do that anyway? You would hitch it up. I do that automatically with my long skirts, second nature to me. Irritating. She's too busy with the death and destruction bit to get her female protagonist right.
I enjoyed both the film and book of My Sister's Keeper, but preferred the book, as the film really watered down Jesse's storyline making the best part of the book rather dull and even confusing in the film.
FMN- Watered down? Missed it out more like! There was sooooo much that was different but without giving anything away I thought the ending was loads better.
Speaking of book to film - my daughter dubbed the film of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' as 'Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Plot' - and I so agree! The film was no more than a series of snippets, often unconnected, usually featuring different characters than those in the same scenes from the book, and the whole thing was a complete let down - anyone else feel the same?
still haven't watch HP 6 and not sure if i want to...had so many mixed reviews... but i think number three was exactly what you explain Mcbemused... they missed out the main plot in that story... i've just finished reading book 6 again... and started book 7 coz i couldn't sleep...
they are very well written... i always struggled to get into any books written in first person (don't know why) but these were written really well...i couldn't put them down.
Haven were giving families free books if they stay during August, so I've been reading 'Going Dutch' by Katie Fforde this week.
Had a few faults- and I'm sure there were a couple of pages at the start that missed the final editing process (nearly put me off reading the rest) which I'm actually enjoying.
Still reading the same two -- The Wastelands' by Stephen King is my downstairs book (I couldn't read it for a while due to being too busy and being ill) and 'The Secret of Excalibur' by Andy McDermott is my upstairs book, right now. Both have got to the point that I'm having trouble puttin them down.
I've aways wanted to read 'The Time Traveller's Wife' hmm, I may have to see if it's at the library.
[quote=Emma B]I have thought of reading The Host. What's it like? [/quote]
It's kind of like if you crossed Twilight with Stephen King's Dreamcatcher -- YA sensibiltities with the 'bodysnatcher' storyline.
The world has been conquered by aliens who take over the bodies and the lives of their hosts, whose individual personalities are erased in favour of the consciousness of the invading aliens (called, rather aptly, 'souls').
Alien 'soul', Wanderer, is placed into the body of one of the last free humans, Melanie Stryder. Where Wanderer would normally only have the memories left over from the previous inhabitant of her host body, somehow Melanie's consciousness has remained intact -- though Melanie is just a voice screaming in Wanderer's head; she no longer has any power over her own body.
Wanderer can remember Melanie's life before her capture, and begins to realise that she is in love with Jared, the man that Melanie loves, and together they go to find him.
I've probably not done a good job of describing the book, but it is really good. I'd definitely recommend it. :)
[quote=mcbemused]Speaking of book to film - my daughter dubbed the film of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' as 'Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Plot' - and I so agree! The film was no more than a series of snippets, often unconnected, usually featuring different characters than those in the same scenes from the book, and the whole thing was a complete let down - anyone else feel the same? [/quote]
I loved the film, but I think that's because I've come to see the books and films as separate entities entirely. The films are always so different to the books, with so much chopped and changed that if I troubled myself with the revisions I'd be in a constant state of disappointment.
The changes they made (the Burrow, in particular) I thought fit well with the film, and didn't feel like they *couldn't* have happened in JKR's vision of the magical world.
The only part that bothered me was the ending, because I was looking forward to the big stuff from the end of the book, and then it didn't materialise. In the book, the ending paves the way for the DA's continued efforts at Hogwarts in book 7. With the ending as it was in this film, I'm not sure what they're going to do in the next film(s).
just bought Jeffrey Deaver and Dean Koontz, time for some blood bath stuff. Not that the Crusades are not blood bath stuff but it isn't the same, is it?
I have a continually growing pile of books to read - I am still currently reading 'The Suspiscions of Mr whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House' by Kate Summerscale.
However other books I have to read include:
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani
Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Home to Big stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman
and at some point in the near[ish] future I want to read:
The Valkyrie Song by Craig Russell
Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Bleak House by Charles Dickins
The latter 2 keep being mentione in the book I am currently reading and now I want to read them as well!!
My daughter read Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani and said it was the worst book she had ever read in her life and would not touch another of hers with a bargepole. I've just read the first anti review on Amazon. Let me know what you think of her writing, Chippy. My daughter found it repetitive, bland, and the storyline having massive holes in it from the start.
So far I have read Lucia Lucia, Very Valentine and Big stone Gap.
And I liked them all - i didn't think I would like Lucia Lucia at first but I did enjoy it. I then read Very Valentine which I liked as well - it reminded me of the film 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' only Italian and more romantic than comedy
Big stone gap is the 1st in a quadrilogy the other 3 books of which are in the list I put in my last post...and I want to know what happened next...and after that...and after that...so that is why I have them all to read.
I can understand why they might not be to everyones taste...There are some author's that I would never read again...can't think of any off the top of my head...but that is because all my favourite authors are floating around up there...not much room left for the ones I don't like ;)
I have heard that Adriana will be continuing Valentine's story - and I would love to know what happened next with her
I've read loads of books whilst on hols - "A dedicated man" by Peter Robinson, "Azincourt" by Bernard Cornwall, and 5 of M C Beaton's "Death of a ....." books. And another book which escapes my memory at the moment. I will have to buy a new book now, as I've nothing left to read.
I finished 'The Man who was Thursday' by GK Chesterton,'The Search' by Geoff Dyer and 'Last Evenings on Earth' by Roberto Bolano. I started 'By Night in Chile' and '2666' both by Roberto Bolano. '2666' I've read before but is so good that I've got to read it again, which is a challenge seeing as it's over 800 pages long.
That's one I've yet to do, Caro. I bought the recent translation by Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky which has a lovely cloth cover, but I've yet to delve into in.
can I choose? Life Expectancy is SO good - I got deeply involved in False Memory, could not see that one for a while, that manipulative analyst type person.
Finished 'Secret of Excalibur', by Andy McDermott, early this morning (now wish I didn't have to wait until November for the paperback version of 'Covenant of Genesis' is out *sighs*)
Then a couple hours later, finished 'The Wastelands' by Stephen King, and have promptly grabbed 'Wizard and Glass' off the shelf and plowed straight through the riddles section with 'Blaine the pain', so I could continue the quest to the Dark Tower swiftly ;)
Now, I just need to pick a book to replace SoE as my upstairs book *ponders*
Oh J, Wizard and Glass, what a section of the Dark Tower series that is!
My question is, how does he/did he write 800 pages and still leave it on a cliffhanger?????
Almost finshed "Kipling Sahib" by Charles Allen - can`t put it down. Must read more of his books.
Before that I finally got round to "The Old Man and the Sea" - couldn`t put that down either. Had only seen the film with Spencer Tracy.
Just started Neal Stephenson's 'Quicksilver' after hubby spent three months on it, telling me exciting snippets. It's set (or at least based) in 1713 but flits back and forth. It's about alchemy, politics, coffee ships, wigs, inventions, philosophy, Isaac Newton, debauchery and printing. And that's just the first couple of chapters. Loving it already - but it's hooooooge. So will probably take me 6 months and bed-time reading to get through.
Dorothy - obviously my buying Jeffrey Deaver's 'The Broken Window' today was a good choice then! I shall look forward to it, though have to finish 'Sleeping Doll' first.
Have to have the next read ready so I know I have something to look forward to when the current read is finished :)
Earlier today I finished reading "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (excellent, I enjoyed it immensely and now can't wait for my copy of "The Colour of Magic" to turn up), and started on "FlashForward" by Robert J. Sawyer. "FlashForward" is a sci-fi book that I'm sure I wouldn't have picked up if I'd seen it in the shops (I don't tend to go down the sci-fi aisles at all), but my brother told me about a new TV series that's starting in a few weeks, and I found out that it was based on a book. The trailer looked really good, so I thought I'd give the book a go. Do you know what? It's really good. :D
My plan this weekend is to go through my Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (I got the normal one, and the children's one as well. I'm not sure yet whether I needed both, but decided to go the whole hog and invest in the pair), get my synopsis and cover letter down, and start making a list of where my MSS is getting shipped off to. I'm getting really scared now, if I'm being honest. I think the next draft will be the final one, and then I've got no excuses left. By the end of september I will be biting the bullet, or hurling myself into the line of fire for total strangers to take shots at me. Bring it on, I say, though in a weak and altogether unconvincing tone of voice...
Comments
http://unitedagents.co.uk/?s=Anthony+Horowitz
I didn't actually like any of the main characters, but still wanted - or rather - needed to know what happened to them.
It would make a good film noir.
The book I read before 'The host' was 'North of Watford' by Lynn Philips. The story was full of action the characters interesting and believable and I enjoyed it. The ending was a bit of a disapointment and put me off looking for any other books by this author.
PS The funeral was emotional but it was a nice send off for a lovely old man :-)
Enjoy. I do. :)
The Twilight books have a similar feel to 'The Host'. I loved them both- and I wasn't expecting to like 'The Host' at all. Sci-fi stuff, aliens in particular, has never interested me at all when I've been looking for my next read, but 'The Host' had me hooked. That book is supposed to be SM's first foray into writing for a grown-up audience, but Wanderer was so innocent, it felt like seeing the world through a child's eyes. In that way, 'The Host' was just as much a YA book as 'Twilight' was.
I'll probably have everyone gnashing their teeth to keep from disagreeing with me, but the Twilight series is amazing. If you liked 'The Host', wait til you get a load of Edward Cullen. ;)
*SA*
p.s. oh yeah- I'm reading 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I've never read anything by either author before (shock-horror, how has the discworld series passed me by?), and I have to say, I'm loving it. I've just put in an amazon order for 'The Colour of Magic' to get myself cracking on the discworld saga. :D xxx
Good Omens was excellent, too.
Have just finished 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult - I cried and cried. :(
Now on 'The Sleeping Doll' by Jeffrey Deaver - change of pace!
Jeffrey Deaver I loooooovvvvveeee ...
Still reading Brethren by Robyn Young (it's huge), still getting annoyed with the 'eyes syndrome' and the errors, despite the fact some medieval expert went over it (really?) there are errors. A mantle, for example, is a short cloak, hence it having a different name. So why is the heroine's yellow mantle dragging through puddles, and would a cloak do that anyway? You would hitch it up. I do that automatically with my long skirts, second nature to me. Irritating. She's too busy with the death and destruction bit to get her female protagonist right.
Had a few faults- and I'm sure there were a couple of pages at the start that missed the final editing process (nearly put me off reading the rest) which I'm actually enjoying.
I've aways wanted to read 'The Time Traveller's Wife' hmm, I may have to see if it's at the library.
It's kind of like if you crossed Twilight with Stephen King's Dreamcatcher -- YA sensibiltities with the 'bodysnatcher' storyline.
The world has been conquered by aliens who take over the bodies and the lives of their hosts, whose individual personalities are erased in favour of the consciousness of the invading aliens (called, rather aptly, 'souls').
Alien 'soul', Wanderer, is placed into the body of one of the last free humans, Melanie Stryder. Where Wanderer would normally only have the memories left over from the previous inhabitant of her host body, somehow Melanie's consciousness has remained intact -- though Melanie is just a voice screaming in Wanderer's head; she no longer has any power over her own body.
Wanderer can remember Melanie's life before her capture, and begins to realise that she is in love with Jared, the man that Melanie loves, and together they go to find him.
I've probably not done a good job of describing the book, but it is really good. I'd definitely recommend it. :)
[quote=mcbemused]Speaking of book to film - my daughter dubbed the film of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' as 'Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Plot' - and I so agree! The film was no more than a series of snippets, often unconnected, usually featuring different characters than those in the same scenes from the book, and the whole thing was a complete let down - anyone else feel the same? [/quote]
I loved the film, but I think that's because I've come to see the books and films as separate entities entirely. The films are always so different to the books, with so much chopped and changed that if I troubled myself with the revisions I'd be in a constant state of disappointment.
The changes they made (the Burrow, in particular) I thought fit well with the film, and didn't feel like they *couldn't* have happened in JKR's vision of the magical world.
The only part that bothered me was the ending, because I was looking forward to the big stuff from the end of the book, and then it didn't materialise. In the book, the ending paves the way for the DA's continued efforts at Hogwarts in book 7. With the ending as it was in this film, I'm not sure what they're going to do in the next film(s).
*SA*
However other books I have to read include:
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani
Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Home to Big stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman
and at some point in the near[ish] future I want to read:
The Valkyrie Song by Craig Russell
Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Bleak House by Charles Dickins
The latter 2 keep being mentione in the book I am currently reading and now I want to read them as well!!
And I liked them all - i didn't think I would like Lucia Lucia at first but I did enjoy it. I then read Very Valentine which I liked as well - it reminded me of the film 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' only Italian and more romantic than comedy
Big stone gap is the 1st in a quadrilogy the other 3 books of which are in the list I put in my last post...and I want to know what happened next...and after that...and after that...so that is why I have them all to read.
I can understand why they might not be to everyones taste...There are some author's that I would never read again...can't think of any off the top of my head...but that is because all my favourite authors are floating around up there...not much room left for the ones I don't like ;)
I have heard that Adriana will be continuing Valentine's story - and I would love to know what happened next with her
One to try before the end of the year.
Dorothy - which is your favourite Dean Koontz? My choice is between Life Expectancy and Forever Odd - loved both, can't choose between them!
Then a couple hours later, finished 'The Wastelands' by Stephen King, and have promptly grabbed 'Wizard and Glass' off the shelf and plowed straight through the riddles section with 'Blaine the pain', so I could continue the quest to the Dark Tower swiftly ;)
Now, I just need to pick a book to replace SoE as my upstairs book *ponders*
My question is, how does he/did he write 800 pages and still leave it on a cliffhanger?????
Before that I finally got round to "The Old Man and the Sea" - couldn`t put that down either. Had only seen the film with Spencer Tracy.
Have to have the next read ready so I know I have something to look forward to when the current read is finished :)
My plan this weekend is to go through my Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (I got the normal one, and the children's one as well. I'm not sure yet whether I needed both, but decided to go the whole hog and invest in the pair), get my synopsis and cover letter down, and start making a list of where my MSS is getting shipped off to. I'm getting really scared now, if I'm being honest. I think the next draft will be the final one, and then I've got no excuses left. By the end of september I will be biting the bullet, or hurling myself into the line of fire for total strangers to take shots at me. Bring it on, I say, though in a weak and altogether unconvincing tone of voice...
*SA*