Showing posts with label Choderlos le Laclos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Choderlos le Laclos. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

Next book!!!

Finished reading 'Dangerous Liaisons' by Choderlos de Laclos.  Hmmm interesting ending, not what I had anticipated!!  Now to find some time to watch the movies I found on Netflix.com  Maybe tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday!!

I was pleasantly surprised to find how entertaining reading a series of letters could be.  I did find myself picturing  Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil as John Malkovich and Glenn Close after I found out that's who play them in the 1988 movie by the same title.

Now onto the next book!! 

Decided to have a change of pace and started reading 'Dragon Bones' by Lisa See. 

National Public Radio named Dragon Bones as one of the top ten books of the summer for 2003.

Dragon Bones was also on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list.

When ancient myths clash with modern technology, the results can be murder.

In Lisa See’s first novel, Flower Net, she introduced one of her most popular and fascinating characters, Liu Hulan. Flower Net was a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 1997, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, an Edgar Award nominated novel and Amazon’s #1 thriller of the year.  (Guess this will have to be my next read) 

Now, in her latest novel DRAGON BONES (Random House 2003), Liu Hulan, an agent for China’s Ministry of Public Security, and her American husband, attorney David Stark, return to investigate murder and archaeological theft at the Three Gorges Dam, one of the most beautiful and unique places on earth. And also one of the most controversial. When completed, the Three Gorges Dam will be the most powerful dam ever built and the biggest project China has undertaken since the building of the Great Wall. Yet, the reservoir formed by the dam will inundate over 2,000 archaeological sites and displace over 2 million people.

The story of DRAGON BONES unfurls like an ancient Chinese landscape scroll. When the body of an American archaeologist is found floating in the Yangtze River, Hulan and Stark are sent to Site 518 for two very different reasons: Hulan to investigate the death, David to uncover who is stealing artifacts from the site. As Hulan searches for the murderer, a parallel search begins for a missing artifact that can prove to the world that the Chinese civilization dates back 5,000 years. Everyone -- from the Chinese government, to a religious cult, to an unscrupulous American art collector -- wants this relic and will kill to get it. At stake are who will have control of China and maintained stability between China and the United States.


Combining ancient myth and contemporary fears of religious fanaticism and terrorism, DRAGON BONES is a story of love, betrayal, greed, and murder.

********************
Oops!!  Looks like I blew it!!  Guess I should have looked at it a little closer and not just pull it off the shelf!!  This is the 3rd book in a series. . .   and I hate to read things out of order!!   And, believe it or not, I have the other 2 as well!!  Oh well!!!  Guess I'll make an exception this time as I have made good progress into the book already and it is not worth stopping to read the other two and then finish this one.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

No Sunday Girly get-together today.

Looks like there is no Girly get-together later today as Trish is still on her way home from visiting family!!

Guess that leaves me more time to catch up on reading!!  LOL!

Started reading 'Dangerous Liaisons' by Choderlos de Laclos.  Yep another book on my list of '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'.  It is a collections of letters that make up the story.  "For the Marquise and Vicomte de Valmont seduction is a game. . .Depicting decadence and moral corruption in pre-revolutionary France, Dangerous Liaisons (1782) is one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature."

So far it is easy to read.  I was a little worried that reading a collection of letters would be boring, but not so far!!

When looking for a picture for the book I found that a movie had been made of this book back in 1988 with John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Michelle Pfieffer and Uma Thurman, so I did a search on netflix.com and found that I can watch it on instant play!!  Hmmmm I will have to take some time to watch the movie after I finish reading the book!!  won't even have to place it on the top of my list!!

On another thought I might head to Hopland with a friend later in the afternoon, we'll see!!