Wednesday, January 19

Is it just me??

Chick Lit
I've read my share. I have my favorite authors.
Lately, I've had to stop reading at least two of my favorite authors because the only adjective these particular authors seem to know is....AMAZING!
Do these women not have editors who might edit out the amazingly overuse of the word "amazing"??
In one, somebody takes kids to a mall. "how was it?" someone else inquires afterward.
"The kids were amazing"
"Peter's an amazing dad"
"That cupcake was amazing"
"I know an amazing steakhouse".
You all get my drift.
I am reading a biography of Warren Beatty, at the moment. No "amazings" in sight.
What a relief.

16 comments:

emma said...

I would think that if ANY book deserved a few "amazings" in it--it would be Beatty's biography!

Gail said...

I agree with Emma-Beatty's biography brings to mind the saying, if these walls could talk.

Know just what you mean about over use of certain words and it seems as if the editing of many books is just a memory. It may be just the writing, but the new Follett is gag worthy, such a come down from The Pillars of the Earth, that someone (editor, agent, his WIFE) should have told him he needed a do-over. I haven't read a book lately that really sticks in my mind, probably The Art of Racing in the Rain is the only one.

Jilly said...

i agree with gail, often times i find myself holding a book doing a preview saying "is this really worth $20? heck no!" thank god for the library, although the library near me seems to mostly contain black romance novels and magazines. i did comment to a librarian that a book found on the children's section should perhaps be moved, since it talks of a hooker getting an abortion. the woman looked at me blankly and said "but so-and-so wrote it. she's a children's author!" so writing one children's book apparently means ALL books one writes belong in the children's section...

for the past few years i've been feeling the pull towards nonfiction further and further. i read less fiction each year it seems.

vq said...

haha, Murf. I tease Hallie and her friends all the time about using "amazing" so much. Are they really THAT easily amazed?

emma said...

Gail,
I just read the two most AMAZING books--I need to buy the third in the series: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The second one is Catching Fire and the third is Mockingjay. They're a Scholastic "teen" series, but really well done and thought provoking. Check 'em out

emma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gail said...

Emma,I've seen Mockingjay in the bookstore and thought about picking it up. On your recommendation, I'll check it out! I'm always on the lookout for a good book or series. Thanks.

Re: my take on Follett's new book-not only does he repeat words, but whole paragraphs over and over.

Maryetta said...

Repeats phrases over and over??
I wasn't planning to read Follet's book anyway and now I will warn others!

Gail said...

Maryetta: Follett's The Pillars of the Earth-an oldie but goodie, is worth your while. It's one of my all time favorites.

vq said...

I'm starting to wonder if Follett has a staff churning these things out, Michener-style. PIllars was wonderful, but the ones that have followed it have been tedious, disjointed and uninteresting.

Maryetta said...

My theory is that a writer basically only has one story to tell. He or she tells it and if it makes money, he or she tells it again with different names. The author,of the Beatty bio,Peter Biskind, is also the author , isalso the author of "Easy Riders to Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock and roll Generation Saved Hollywood."
I liked that book, so I thought I'd like the Beatty bio. Mr. Biskind is not going to win the Pulitzer for biography, anytime soon, but the book is highly entertaining. I don't know if it's Mr. Biskind's skill as a writer, or the oh-so-rich material prented to him by the subject about whom he chose to write.
Either way, it's an amazing read.
And Emma, what was January Jones thinking? (or Annette Bening for that matter).

Gail said...

VQ-I was thinking just that thing this morning. Lonesome Dove is another one of my favorites, but the follow-ups reeked, except for Comanche Moon which involved the same characters as LD. I was told by a bookseller not to long ago, that James Patterson had franchised his name and his books are being churned out by monkeys with typewriters. (The monkeys are my addition) :)

vq said...

I was about to bring up the Patterson thing, Gail. I think he might be dead and his staff of co-writers just hasn't noticed yet.

He's propped up in the corner, next to V.C. Andrews and Robert Ludlum.

Gail said...

Verb, I'm beginning to think Grisham is in that group too. I read Ford County and hated myself for it, but I keep hoping Grisham will match his very first book writing-wise-A Time To Kill. I'm always suspicious of authors who put out a book a year-although I know their contracts probably call for it-but when the white spaces on the page overwhelm the words, you know you're in trouble.

I just finished Steve Martin's new one. I'd not read one of his before and I'm thinking this one will be the last. Martin's is said to be very into the art scene and it seemed he was working a little to hard to show off. I know there was a story in there somewhere, but dang, it was hard to find.

longhair75 said...

Just dropping in to say hello to my old friend Murf

Maryetta said...

And a hello to you, too, Pete. Long time, no see! How are you and your lovely wife??