The Syndicate

RIP Harper Lee.

Spacedaisy wrote:Third of the way through. If I didn't need to play Dune Mafia I'd probably finish tonight. All this to say, I'm enjoying it so far.

I've read both Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale. I read O&C on a cruise because Simon was three-weeks-old at the time- lots of time spent in the cabin!

Intriguing read- one I recommend, though a tad dated (but what sci-fi isn't?).

thellama73 wrote:

S~V~S wrote: I have to think on this~ my initial reaction is to nominate Ulysses, by Joyce. I have never read it. But I have not read alot of things

I read it last year. I don't recommend it.

I took a class on Irish lit. I also don't recommend it. Joyce was a master of short stories. His novels were pretentious twaddle and he knew it.

juliets wrote:Oh, I thought that earlier reply was a joke - you don't like words. In that case I guess you're right it doesn't matter to you what we do. I'm still curious how you would pick the books. It might be something we haven't thought of.

Maybe you all could each nominate one book and then have a little poll in which no one can vote for his or her own pick. Go in order from there. That might be fun.

By the way, I think you all might have a lot to discuss reading this one.

juliets wrote: Epi since you don't like the list of 100 what would you suggest we use?

Hopefully nothing with too much humor. Sheesh! I wasn't ridiculing someone's picks or anybody's suggestions. I was taking satirical and sarcastic jabs at the authors, titles and content of each book in an attempt to get a few chuckles out of people. I only included my actual opinions in a couple of places.

I'm not even in the book club, so I don't really care what anyone chooses to read..

Neverwhere wrote:

"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
I'm not gonna lie. This one sounds fucking interesting.

It is. In my altime favourite list.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Stupid lady wrote one novel and quit and then never ever ever followed up. I hate her.

Actually, To Kill a Mockingbird is a prequel. I don't know if you heard but she had actually written another book about Scout as an adult and publishers told her that they wanted more backstory first. So, she went away and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. There was only one typed copy of the other book and it got lost. It was recently found and published. So she has two books. Excited to read that one actually.

That's...the gag.

I'll save everyone some time.

"1984" by George Orwell
I was born the year before. Things weren't so bad. Cartoons were the shit.
"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking
Gotta be brief. Dude was only here for a bit of it.
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers
Dude should see a doctor followed by a psychiatrist.
"A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah
A Muslim made this list? Isn't this America?
"A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning: The Short-Lived Edition" by Lemony Snicket
I don't read books written by GIrl Scout cookies.
"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
Who? Which? Whatsit?
"Alice Munro: Selected Stories" by Alice Munro
Hard to believe Alice Munro actually wrote this.
"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll
This is where Alice Munro really was.
"All the President's Men" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
If this had been by "Deep Throat" Wal-Mart wouldn't carry it, so Bob had to use his real name.
"Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Bob's Butts. Camel's Carcinogens. This could have gone anywhere. Don't smoke kids.
"Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret" by Judy Blume
Has anyone ever read any of Judy Blume's other works? God ain't there for those.
"Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett
Any relation to Terry Pratchett? Wait no, missed the "r," sorry.
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
Oprah dies.
"Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall
The title is longer than the book.
"Breath, Eyes, Memory" by Edwidge Danticat
Oprah likes it.
"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
There's a hint in the title and in the author's last name.
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl
This factory could have been many other things. Why chocolate? Why not selfie sticks?
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
Moral: Your children can replace you to your friends when you die!
"Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese
More nonsense from foreigners.
"Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead" by Brene Brown
Tip from Chapter 12: "Let a knife-waving maniac into your home. It will change the way you do everything."
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1" by Jeff Kinney
The drawings on the front cover put me off.
"Dune" by Frank Herbert
Hot, dry book.
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
An even hotter, drier book.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson
And yet another hotter, drier book.
"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
Tried to watch the film. Fell asleep. Didn't try to read the book.
"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown
Good theme, but Samuel L. Jackson narrated one slightly better.
"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
From the guy whose wife was always expecting.
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Dude must live in an inner city McDonalds.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
Read this again knowing Dumbledore was gay. Won't make any difference.
"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Responsible for Philip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death.
"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa lol
"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Tried to read this once and saw that the first part was "Battle Royale." Come on dude. "The Hunger Games" lady already ripped that one off.
"Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth" by Chris Ware
The smartest kid on earth is still a relative moron.
"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain
Another McDonalds tell-all, apparently.
"Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson

"Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Michael Landon ftmfw.
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
Don't stand so close to me.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Please don't stand so close to me.
"Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
Cialis
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
Men have already found meaning. Beer and a good game.
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Somehow this made it past an editor.
"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
OH oh OH OHHH OHooooo ah ah ohhho oh WHAT THE FUCK JEFFERY?
"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is good, so give this one a shot.
"Moneyball" by Michael Lewis
Sounds like a bad arcade game from the 90s.
"Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham
No comment.
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
I tried to read this six times. Never got past page ten because the guy can't figure out punctua- Oh wait. That's "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.
"Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen
GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAY FROM YOU
"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
Girl doesn't understand cultural boundaries ANYWHERE
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
Dream Theater needed a break.
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
Jane Austen needs to stop criticizing me 170 years before I am born.
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Prefer "Silver Spring" by Stephanie Nicks
"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
PO-TEE-WHAT-THE FUCK? One of the stupidest books I have ever read.
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Four-bore and seventeen dollars wasted.
"The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton
Read this book and then listen to this Don Henley tune. Makes so much sense.
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon
A Jew writing about Jews. Pointless. Christians need to be reading the Bible.
"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Begins little. Ends abruptly.
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
Barnes & Noble actually have a database of people who buy this one.
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz
I'm not even going to pretend I've ever heard of this one.
"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
Serious commentary: Get Salinger's Nine Stories. His novel is good, but he can say more in fewer words.
"The Color of Water" by James McBride
Why are you so focused on what color the water is? Doesn't your book have more important issues to tack- Oh.
"The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen
His publisher accidentally used the label from the editor.
"The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" by Erik Larson
Georgia has never been called the "White City."
"The Diary of Anne Frank" by Anne Frank
Too much unnecessary teen angst.
"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
Shakespeare rip off.
"The Giver" by Lois Lowry
Back massages by old men.
"The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman
Christian propaganda.
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
How many of you took forever to figure out that eyes of TJ Eckleberg was referencing a fucking billboard?
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
The Hamfisted's Tale. Atwood can be hamfisted and still be good though. Read this. Read Oryx and Crake too.
"The House At Pooh Corner" by A. A. Milne
Much better as a song by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
A rushed trilogy out of one borrowed idea.
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Skloot. haha
"The Liars' Club: A Memoir" by Mary Karr
Would rather play a timmer game than read this.
"The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)" by Rick Riordan
Saw this on repeat in Wal-Mart's TV electronics center. Buy a Wal-Mart TV.
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Probably something about Napoleon.
"The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler
Raymond Carver was a better writer.
"The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright
Barad-dûr
"The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien
So much fuss over fucking jewelry.
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales" by Oliver Sacks
So much fuss over fucking crazy people.
"The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan
I don't believe he knows what a "dilemma" is.
"The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster
A Roger Hargreaves book makes more sense than this.
"The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel" by Barbara Kingsolver
Also known as The Undergraduate Bible
"The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert A. Caro
New York is still a thing.
"The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe
I'm not even going to try to make fun of astronauts.
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
THERE'S that piece of shit novel with no punctuation.
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
I'm not gonna lie. This one sounds fucking interesting.
"The Shining" by Stephen King
I don't know why this makes the tops of so many lists. King has written so much better shit. His Twitter is not one of those things.
"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
Fuck Ka-MOO.
"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
The shotgun also rises.
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Guns?
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle
Eating disorders are not whimsical things.
"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame
Mr. Toad. That is all.
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel" by Haruki Murakami
More foreigners.
"The World According to Garp" by John Irving
Not a bad book, but A Prayer for Owen Meany is John Irving's masterwork. Please read it.
"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion
Magical thinking doesn't do much for me either, lady.
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
And so do fifteen-year-olds' grades when they have to read this book.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Stupid lady wrote one novel and quit and then never ever ever followed up. I hate her.
"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
What do women know about World War II?
"Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann
Any relation to Village of the Damned?
"Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein
Usually where the city planners said "This is where the sidewalk ends."
"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak
Right here on THE SYNDICATE.

YEAH.

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

Neverwhere wrote:

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

Why do any of the characters have to be likeable? I don't think they're supposed to impress you.

No. I hate words.