Ok, awesome. Tons of suggestions, and they will definetly get me going. I'm calling it the 2007 book list, although it will obviously start as soon as I get my next book. I tried to mix up the order a bit from the order that people commented in, and I'll add more if you think of 'em. My master plan is to take a bunch of books to the used book store, sell back what I can, and then get at least one book, maybe two, off of the list to start with. Then I'll go from there.
I broke the list down into four categories:
- Books I will read and would love for you to read with me.
- Books I have already read but that others suggested
- Books by authors of books I have already read... I'll eventually read these, too, but new authors get priority here.
- Books that were suggested, but that are in French. Since this site is in English, I'll read in English. But maybe I'll sneak a French book in there without letting you know about it.
I'll post a permanent version of the list on the Bookworm part of the site, but here it is for now:
Books to be read:
The History of Love - Nichole Krauss
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Brady Udall
City of Darkness, City of Light - Marge Pierce
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
March - Gerladine Brooks
The Every Boy - Dana Adam Shapiro
The Adventures of Kavelier and Clay - Michel Chabon
Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Leguin
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Leguin
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
The Other Bolyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
The Highest Tide - Jim Lynch
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress - Susan Jane Gilman
Please Stop Laughing at Me - Jodee Blanco
Wicked - Gregory Maguire
A Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Pierce
Feed - MT Anderson
Suggested Books that I have already read:
*The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Marc Haddon
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
*Any Human Heart - William Boyd
*Oracle Night - Paul Auster
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh
* means I loved the book with a burning passion
Suggested books by authors whose books I have already read, but that I will one day read:
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
The Shadow Lines - Amitav Ghosh
The Calcutta Syndrome - Amitav Ghosh
French books suggested:
La Mal�diction d'Edgar - Marc Dugain
L'Empreinte de l'ange - Nancy Huston
; "Sun River 5K")
; "Catching fish")
So I was looking at your list and thought "Cool! The three books I would have recommended are already on there!" Then I looked and noticed that it was Kari that had recommended those three books and though "hmm, Lee's sister and I are friends, huh?"
I forgot to mention that Nancy Huston, a canadian from calgary who writes mostly in French, also wrote an english version of her book, it's called "The Mark of the Angel."
Add to your list "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" ("Le Scaphandre et le Papillon") by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Either in French or English. Fascinating quick read. Also-- Une Soupe aux HErbes Sauvages" by Emilie Carles. A great autobiography that might be harder to find but worth the search.
have you read Murder in the Marais, an Aim�e Leduc investigation set in Paris? It's great and there's 6 in this mystery series
please read something that you won't find on the borders "3 for 2" table.
I recommend all of nancy huston, whose work I am incredibly passionate about. and another of my all-time favorites is The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson. Read Katharine Mansfield and Flannery O'Connor, if you like short fiction.
in the spirit of sharing: I'm dying to start dorothy Richarson's Pilgrimage but since it's a cycle of 9 volumes it's daunting... Rebecca West's Black Lamp and Grey Falcon. I've not gotten beyond the first fifty pages of A la recherche but my new year's resolution is to finish it and vol.2. this year! And of course the giant Jonathan Littell and the new Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day... looks like 2007 is shaping up to be the year of the Doorstop Novel.
Looking forward to reading more from Odessa Books...