I have been trying to pull together a post for, well, too long, and am struggling mightily. It seems that I can't properly construct a sentence to save my ass.
So.
I am going to cheat and throw this out there to you, my Five Faithful Readers: What are some of your favorite books and authors? Please feel free to respond immediately or to take your time, mull it over, and submit a lengthy, thoughtful comment with loads of good stuff. Whichever suits your fancy!
I am serious about the book recommendations, though. I am desperate for some good reading! (That has not the slightest thing to do with my thesis. Yay!) Also, I really, really like how many of you write and I am a huge believer in the theory that those who write well often read a lot.
Hope to hear from you!
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Just yesterday I posted a response to a similar request over at Kwarter Life Crisis. So I'm going to cheat and re-post the same list here because I still love those books as much as I did yesterday. For good literature-type fiction, I like The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, the Kite Runner and the new book by the same author, A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. And for some lighter, girly reading, anything by Marian Keyes is great, especially Sushi for Beginners, Last Chance Saloon, and her latest, Anybody Out There? I always order her books on amazon.co.uk to get the original British copies, because they are much better than the American versions.
ReplyDeleteA couple of authors I really enjoy:
ReplyDeleteAnne Marie MacDonald (Fall on Your Knees; The Way the Crow Flies)
Jane Urquhart (Away; The Underpainter)
They're both Canadian authors and very, very good.
My favorite book of all time is Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham.
ReplyDeleteMore recent stuff I like: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, anything by the tandem of Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston, anything by Vince Flynn, and anything by Tim Green.
Oooo, I second P&D for Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and I raise her Greg Iles, if you like that genre. Also, Tess Gerritson if you are into thrillers.
ReplyDeleteFor fluffy stuff, I like Lorna Landvik (she writes books based in the Great White North).
I love Colson Whitehead. Anybody who can write an engaging book about an elevator inspector and a product namer has my vote. I suppose that's why he won a Genius Award.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading in The Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant. Dunant has an amazing eye for detail.
I adore the way Neil Gaiman makes science fiction seem not at all like science fiction.
And I'm slowly browsing my way through The Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook. The recipes and accompanying stories are incredibly enticing. Yeah, I read cookbooks.
HI I LIKE TO READ!! HI HI HI!
ReplyDeleteI like Maeve Binchy (Light a Penny Candle). Christopher Moore (Lamb). Elizabeth Berg (except her last few books). Lynda Barry (My Perfect Life). Oo-ooh! Read The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr. Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
OK, everyone else has suggested Real Books (i.e. books of substance). In Times of Necessary Escapism, I recommend pretty much anything by Elizabeth George and Steven Saylor for mysteries. I am a huge fan of the oft-forgotten Rumer Godden, with both In This House of Brede and Black Narcissus at the head of the list. And The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (actually, anything by Robertson Davies) is a good read. Lastly, The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris is quite good too.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I never remember authors but I can tell you some books I've enjoyed a lot recently. Mrs. Bridge, The Death of the Beekeeper, Days of the Dog-Men by Brad Watson. (He works at UW!)
ReplyDeleteYou guys are awesome!!! I am so excited for the weekend to arrive so I can curl up with some of these books...whoo hoo!!
ReplyDeleteHi! I found your blog by way of BlackSheeped.
ReplyDeleteI love this question. On my blog, I do a repeating post called "What we're reading" in which I do a list of the interesting books that each of my family is reading (spans non-fiction, fiction, comic, kids...)
My fav author is Neil Gaiman. He is so brilliant, he makes me pant.
Yay for booktalk!
ReplyDeleteYou MUST read "A Thousand Splendid Suns."
Others:
"Inglorious"---I'm too lazy to look up the author.
"The Romantic Movement" by Alain de Botton. I think you'll get a kick out of it because he combines a fictional love story with all this tongue-in-cheek social theory. And diagrams. Hee!
I second the Urquhart recommendation. I read "Map of Glass" a year or two ago.
My two favorite authors: Margaret Atwood ("Lady Oracle" is my favorite; "Penelopiad" is a quick read and a total hoot) and Toni Morrison (I think I've read "The Bluest Eye" at least a dozen times, and I've been meaning to reread "Beloved")
Persepolis I and II. I skipped work to read these.
Karen Armstrong---nonfiction, but so brilliantly written.
Bill Bryson---"A Walk in the Woods" or "In a Sunburned Country"
"On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwan
"The Man of My Dreams" by Curtis Sittenfeld
"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Anne Tyler---"Back When We Were Grownups," "Breathing Lessons," and pretty much anything else she's written
I got hooked on Laura Lippman mysteries this summer.
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
For pure fun reading, anything by Christopher Moore. I think you'd get a kick out of "Lamb."
Happy reading!
I remembered another one I liked. I think it's called One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. And I think it's by Rebecca Mead.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a year in the life of the author as she searches for meaning after a divorce and loss of identity. FABULOUS book.
ReplyDelete