Comments on: The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: Barbara

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 01:42:17 +0000

I remember always thinking Thor Heyerdahl’s adventures were for men, not something I’d like. But then I read Fatu-Hiva and I enjoyed it immensely. I watch action films with my spouse, and he watches romantic comedies with me.

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: Mark

Sat, 29 Jan 2005 11:23:21 +0000

How eclectic.

I must be the only guy in America who has thoroughly read Jane Austen. Something about her style and wit. Really the first best thing I read, way after schooling when I thought it was all stupid.

As for “Tess,” - yes! So evocative if sad. I love that book.

I often pause by the mystery aisle at Barnes & Noble, because I think I would like the genre, but I have no idea who is good. The books just stare at me, then I pick up the latest Grisham or something like “401K’s for Dummies”

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: cassie-b

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 20:55:47 +0000

That sounds interesting. I think I’ll put it on my “to read” list. I just finished a book, “Ella Minnow Pea” It was fascinating.

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: Barbara

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:22:49 +0000

When I was younger I read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books. Anne of Green Gables was a favorite too. (I read some Nancy Drew books, but they didn’t really stay with me.) Later I read nearly everything by Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Victoria Holt. They wrote mostly romantic suspense, but Mary Stewart also wrote The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills, novels based on the Arthurian legends from Merlin’s point of view. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd captivated me during high school. That was also when I fell in love with the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Sara Teasdale, and William Wordsworth, among others. After Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings I read Watership Down by Richard Adams, and when my husband and I were dating he introduced me to Robert Heinlein (Stranger In a Strange Land was the first of his that I read), and Frank Herbert’s Dune series. I liked the first Dune books, but not the later ones. I think they turned a corner after the first two or three, which I also believe is about the time Herbert died and others took over the series, but I’m not sure.

All this makes one wonder when I got interested in mysteries, doesn’t it? It must have been the three queens of romantic suspense, mentioned above, who headed me in that direction, especially Mary Stewart. But I also recall being awestruck by Poe’s The Purloined Letter when I read it in high school, and one of my grade school teachers read several Sherlock Holmes stories to the class.

You asked , and this is nowhere near a complete list.

I’ve left out the BrontÃ«s and Jane Austen. . . .

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: mark

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:30:11 +0000

Just a casual comment to probe your teenage reading proclivities. I was a Hardy Boys and Tom Swift man myself. I devoured those books when I was thirteen. Then came girls - and it was all abandoned.

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: Barbara

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 20:59:28 +0000

Nancy Drew? I was in high school at the time she brought home The Two Towers. Although the character Nancy Drew is a perpetual teenager, the Nancy Drew books themselves are aimed at a younger audience.

Comment on The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman by: Mark

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:19:08 +0000

Your mother gave you “The Two Towers?” What about Nancy Drew?