Right now I am reading "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place" by Maryrose Wood. It is awesomely delightful. I love those kids and their governess. Bought for a buck as the library was clearing out their shelves for new books. Lots of people call me the old guy.
Alberta has an amazing library system and all the library collections are interconnected. The problem in Alberta is that the libraries are used so much.
Years ago, the Canadian writer Sheila Heti had an article in The Globe and Mail in which she confessed her initial reluctance to wean herself from YA literature and start tackling the classics. She knew it was time to graduate to worthier stuff, but feared the classics were going to be stodgy and boring. When she finally began dipping her toes in the water, what a revelation! The classics were far more subversive and daring than anything she'd ever encountered before! It turned out that when a book has survived on publishers' back lists for decades—sometimes for several centuries—there are usually very good reasons why.
In my capacity as a retired reference librarian I offer the following 'summer reads' for Line readers who enjoy being challenged and entertained. They aren't new, and they aren't 'classics'—not yet, anyway; but I guarantee the reward delivered for your attention will equal or exceed anything the current publishing season is likely to provide:
The Individualized Society (Zygmunt Bauman)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus)
Introduction to Logic (Irving M. Copi)
Quarantine (Greg Egan)
The Human Touch (Michael Frayn)
Liberal Fascism (Jonah Goldberg)
Demian (Hermann Hesse)
Ideas (Edmund Husserl)
Point Counter Point (Aldous Huxley)
Way to Wisdom (Karl Jaspers)
The Great Time Machine Hoax (Keith Laumer)
Night of Delusions (Keith Laumer)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
The New Penguin Atlas of Recent History (Colin McEvedy)
Talk about a dream job. Brandon has figured out something most people haven't. I literally dream about selling my business and just reading all day figuring out the next thing.
Right now I am going down the Timothy Garton Ash rabbit hole and just re-read "Bridge Over The River Drina."
Loved this “On the Line” episode (unexpectedly). Brandon was fantastic, loved the recommendations, topics and convo. Best episode you’ve done yet Jen (imo). Would be awesome to see him become a regular/returning guest. Maybe every quarter or something?
Great discussion and suggestions, except you reduced YA to teen chick lit.
YA is mostly a marketing tool to create a niche for books with a teen lead. There's plenty of shlock as there is with "adult" but YA literature incorporates every coming of age story from "Huck Finn" and "Lord of the Flies" to Miriam Toews "All My Puny Sorrows". Since S.E. Hinton, YAs have frequently been crossovers. For instance, "The Curious Case of the Boy in the Nighttime" originally came out as YA in Britain. There are plenty of authors like Neil Gaimon, Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo (War Horse) doing quality YA work. And also plenty of YA titles whose film adaptations were marketed as adult.
The appropriation debates of the past few years have had a negative effect on YA lit as they have on "adult", but it's been several generations since YA was merely fluff or expected to provide a moral. The best, as in any genre, take you inside experiences you've never had and/or make you see your own through different eyes.
How old is too old? For me, if the story is fantastic and hooks me, I'm in. I don't think age matters or it matters only to people who see adult readers of YA books and scratch their heads.
I very much enjoyed this episode with Brandon. I hope you make it a regular thing.
Right now I am reading "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place" by Maryrose Wood. It is awesomely delightful. I love those kids and their governess. Bought for a buck as the library was clearing out their shelves for new books. Lots of people call me the old guy.
Not to undermine the guests’ business interests too much, but if you’re patient library apps are awesome.
I’ve read the first few Slow Horses and Murderbot books that way. I do expect that Jen will like them.
Alberta has an amazing library system and all the library collections are interconnected. The problem in Alberta is that the libraries are used so much.
Years ago, the Canadian writer Sheila Heti had an article in The Globe and Mail in which she confessed her initial reluctance to wean herself from YA literature and start tackling the classics. She knew it was time to graduate to worthier stuff, but feared the classics were going to be stodgy and boring. When she finally began dipping her toes in the water, what a revelation! The classics were far more subversive and daring than anything she'd ever encountered before! It turned out that when a book has survived on publishers' back lists for decades—sometimes for several centuries—there are usually very good reasons why.
In my capacity as a retired reference librarian I offer the following 'summer reads' for Line readers who enjoy being challenged and entertained. They aren't new, and they aren't 'classics'—not yet, anyway; but I guarantee the reward delivered for your attention will equal or exceed anything the current publishing season is likely to provide:
The Individualized Society (Zygmunt Bauman)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus)
Introduction to Logic (Irving M. Copi)
Quarantine (Greg Egan)
The Human Touch (Michael Frayn)
Liberal Fascism (Jonah Goldberg)
Demian (Hermann Hesse)
Ideas (Edmund Husserl)
Point Counter Point (Aldous Huxley)
Way to Wisdom (Karl Jaspers)
The Great Time Machine Hoax (Keith Laumer)
Night of Delusions (Keith Laumer)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
The New Penguin Atlas of Recent History (Colin McEvedy)
Tropic of Capricorn (Henry Miller)
The Emergence of Everything (Harold Morowitz)
Nightmare Abbey (Thomas Love Peacock)
Blindness (Jose Saramago)
Doctor Glas (Hjalmar Soderberg)
Hate, Inc. (Matt Taibbi)
The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut)
The Smallest Minority (Kevin D. Williamson)
Lord of Light (Roger Zelazny)
Thanks Mark! I’m copying and pasting your recommendations for later.
Talk about a dream job. Brandon has figured out something most people haven't. I literally dream about selling my business and just reading all day figuring out the next thing.
Right now I am going down the Timothy Garton Ash rabbit hole and just re-read "Bridge Over The River Drina."
Loved this “On the Line” episode (unexpectedly). Brandon was fantastic, loved the recommendations, topics and convo. Best episode you’ve done yet Jen (imo). Would be awesome to see him become a regular/returning guest. Maybe every quarter or something?
Great discussion and suggestions, except you reduced YA to teen chick lit.
YA is mostly a marketing tool to create a niche for books with a teen lead. There's plenty of shlock as there is with "adult" but YA literature incorporates every coming of age story from "Huck Finn" and "Lord of the Flies" to Miriam Toews "All My Puny Sorrows". Since S.E. Hinton, YAs have frequently been crossovers. For instance, "The Curious Case of the Boy in the Nighttime" originally came out as YA in Britain. There are plenty of authors like Neil Gaimon, Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo (War Horse) doing quality YA work. And also plenty of YA titles whose film adaptations were marketed as adult.
The appropriation debates of the past few years have had a negative effect on YA lit as they have on "adult", but it's been several generations since YA was merely fluff or expected to provide a moral. The best, as in any genre, take you inside experiences you've never had and/or make you see your own through different eyes.
I wonder if The Line makes money if people buy books from the links shared in the show notes.
Nope, this is not sponsored! I just wanted to talk books. JG
We could have made money off of this?!
Entire tens of dollars, perhaps. JG
Thank you for responding.
How old is too old? For me, if the story is fantastic and hooks me, I'm in. I don't think age matters or it matters only to people who see adult readers of YA books and scratch their heads.