Inspired by a co-blogger, I wrote another review for Odessa Books. Man oh man do I have a pile of books to write up! I really let that whole scene go, perhaps because nothing has blown my mind quite as significantly as the last book I reviewed (We Need to Talk About Kevin -- have you read it yet? No? Are you waiting for a free copy or something? Just READ IT).
But after today, I think I'll be back in the swing of things. I've been reading even more voraciously in the last few weeks than I normally do, partially because it helps me escape the madness a bit, and partially because my back starts to ache at night and reading is a good back-relaxing activity. I'm sure if I had a television, things would be different, but for now, books are it.
So a few books I have to write up:
My Sister's Keeper
Double Fault
The Shadow of the Wind
A Year in the Merde
Oryx and Crake
I Feel Bad About My Neck
The Glass Palace
With two exceptions, most of those books are only so-so.
Which leads me to my next question: WHAT CAN I READ? I am going crazy because I have not read a really, really good book in awhile. Please give me some suggestions, but I have some constraints this time around:
1. Nothing to intellectual. My last adventure in book suggestions had people throwing out titles by Hesse and Kafka. I'm not saying I want The Devil Wears Prada, either, I'm just saying let's steer clear of anything that might be taught in a sophmore litt class at college.
2. No sci-fi, unless you SWEAR SWEAR SWEAR that it's your absolute favorite book. I've tried getting into the genre and have a difficult time of it.
3. No trashy romances for the same reason.
4. I would like the book to be un-put-downable.
If I get enough suggestions, I'll compile a second list and read a book every week or so. When a book is really good, I usually finish it in 24-48 hours. When it's good, it might take me 3-4 days. Unless the book is Midnight's Children, which might have taken me a year to actually finish. I am currently on my third year of A Hundred Years of Solitude.
Give me some ideas! I will get myself a Christmas present!
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall. I totally picked this book at random off the shelf of the small English section at the local bookstore and thought it sounded interesting, and it may very well be the best book I've ever read. I then passed it to the husband, whose tastes greatly vary from my own, and he loved it too.
I saw the French translation of it in the bookstore yesterday, and today I'm going to go pick it up as part of a friend's Xmas present. I would recommend it to anyone. It's absolutely fantastic.
The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch.
It's the story of a 13-year old boy in Washington state and the things he finds on the beach one summer. Incredibly good, but non-taxing at the same time.
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.
Recommended if you like Nick Hornby :-)
Hey, I just have to chime in, because I can't miss the opportunity to make a book recommendation -- not that I'm an expert on the subject; trust me, far from it. And I think the area of book recommendations is just SO subjective, because we all have such varied, unique tastes in books that it's really hard to expect EVERYONE to enjoy a book the way that *I* or *you* might enjoy it. I mean, that's my humble take on it...
That being said, I cannot say enough about What I Loved, by Siri Hustvedt, a book I read about 3 years ago when I was away for a weekend in Normandy -- I could NOT put it down, even when I was out on a biking afternoon; I carried it with me in the bike basket and took it out whenever we stopped for a break to read a few paragraphs... It was THAT good!
Otherwise, another friend of mine, who worked in the bookstop where I worked for a stint a few years back, was always a no-fail excellent book recommender (ha ha -- I know that's not a word, but you get my drift!): his choices were always spot-on for me. Thus I can safely recommend: Any Human Heart by William Boyd -- fabulous; P. Auster's Oracle Night. And of course S. Hustvedt's book.
Otherwise, I most recently really enjoyed Zadie Smith's On Beauty -- even better than White Teeth! Also, The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss.
Um, guess that's all for now. I've gone on for much too long, as always. Sorry 'bout that!
P.S. ~ I knew I would have to say something more: have you discovered Murakami yet? Have you tried him? Utterly fascinating, and so unique... In a world of his own! I highly recommend Norwegian Wood -- or if you want to try more of his surreal fare, dive into The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Although I prefer reading him in French, believe it or not! Lovely prose... And great stories about ordinary people experiencing extraordinary things.
Ok, so, i can't resist either. Alice is quite right. We worked in the same bookshop, and the guy who worked there with us knows his stuff. I think he's the one who got us all started on "Crimson Petal," "Middlesex" and "What I loved."
I too have had a hard time of late finding the great ones, but there were a few that were worth the time.
1. March by Geraldine Brooks-if you like Little Women, letters in books, and the civil war era. Won the Pultizer 2006.
2. The Adventures of Kavelier and Clay by Michel Chabon, i think. Making it in America after WWII by drawing comics. Fun and a sucker-in -er. Won the Pulitzer too.
3.Freakenomics by Levitt for the fascinated nerd in you.
4.La Maladiction d'Edgar by Marc Dugain.-yes, i know, it is in French, but it's about the States.I'm not finished yet, so i can't give a final review, but it so far so good.
5. I know this doesn't apply to you, but we all have friends who should be given this book for christmas, and i am obsessed. The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr.
6.A great wish list book for xmas, 1001 Books you must read before you die, edited by Peter Boxall. It helps a ton with the what do i read next question.
To be read soon:
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
Life of Pi by Martell
and of course,
coffee this week? by the knitter
I hear you don't like science fiction... I used to love it, but now it seems contrived to me. Nevertheless I have to recommend anything by Ursula K. LeGuin. You could start with The Left Hand of Darkness or The Lathe of Heaven, or just go for one of her compliations of short stories. She is absolutely my favorite author in the world, and I really hope you try her.
I just read The Timetraveler's Wife in a single night. Then I read it again the next day. It's called "Le Temps n'est rien" in French. Not intellectual, just a great read. And yeah, it has a science fiction/fantasy premise (it's about a guy with some whacky sort of epilepsy that causes him to spontaneously timetravel), but it's really not in either of those genres.
As for Ursula K. Le Guin, I'd think that the Earthsea Trilogy is the most accessible for non sci-fi/fantasy bufs.
I would highly recommend
The Time Traveler's Wife: By Audrey Niffenegger
an incredibly well written and interesting story. I know that you will love it.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime made me cry.
Bel Canto sucked me in. The Other Bolyn Girl kept me rapt for days. The History of Love was like a love-letter to love.
Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress made me laugh out loud.
Please Stop Laughing at Me made me late for work. (Ironic, once you see what it is about)
Freakonomics, Blink and the Tipping Point. They keep coming up in conversation. If you liked one, you'll love all three.
The Devil in the White City, amazing.
Wicked--I loved the middle third. The musical lost most of what I'd loved about the book, so I liked it for it's own "thang" but it was disappointing as an interpretation. I've actually liked some of his other stuff better. "The Ugly Stepsister" was beautiful and lyrical and haunting. And short.
These are all great suggestions. In the continued genre of time travel books, how about Marge Piercy's A Woman on the Edge of Time. This is one of my all time favorite books ever, although I imagine you may have already read it. Marge also wrote City of Darkness, City of Light, a historical novel about the French Revolution that was really facinating because it was written from a first fperson perspective.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Excellent. Some people are put off when they hear something is an Oprah Book Club pick (this was, although I read it before then!), but don't you be. It's a really good book. Long, but it doesn't feel that way. I wanted it to go on and on.
And check out this site:
http://www.goodreadz.com
It's great for getting and giving book recommendations!
Also check out www.whatshouldIreadnext.com
which I recently discovered myself!
"Feed" by MT Anderson. Please PLEASE read this book. It's sorta science fictiony, but not over the top. It's more satire, and about the capitalistic path that the world is heading down. It's hysterical, and is considered "Young Adult" fiction, so nothing too intellectual. But it's sooooooo good.
ok, i know i already chimed in, but i'm bored right now. Isn't kind of weird that two people recommended different books that both have the name Edgar in the title?
I also wanted to say to The Knitter: i just read Life of Pi, and i was disappointed. It held so much promise in the first half, but the end left me feeling like the author gave up on his point. Maybe it's just me.
Read "L'Empreinte de l'Ange" by Nancy Huston. You'll find the french easy and it's really, really good.
you know i will recommend this already, but: anything else by Ghosh (The Shadow Lines, The Calcutta Syndrome, In an Antique Land, The Hungry Tide)
Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music" (I haven't read A Suitable Boy yet)
And as long as we're on South Asian writers I second Mistry's A Fine Balance--heartbreaking and beautiful.
Also will second "Chroniques d'un oiseau-a-ressort" by Murakami, and in french--it's 900 pages and i finished it in a week.
ps. not bragging, just trying to show how absolutely the murakami book pulled me into its world.
I second the Incident of the Dog in the Night, and also recommend The Every Boy - can't think of the author, and it's short, so buy it as icing on the cake, but if you like Catcher in the Rye, Every is entertaining.
oh, and for something longer - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
I did read we have to talk about kevin. And while I found it mind blowing, I also felt that it was a bit artificial how deliberately she kept up the [edited b/c it's never a good idea to give away the ending!]. Just didn't ring fully true for me.
I have to trip vote for The History of Love. Sadly uplifting and beautiful. Also, if you haven't read Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius I'd recommend that. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I sure find myself thinking about it a lot since I read it. I've heard his second book is even better.
Was going to mention Murakami, but so many people have beaten me to it! I read Wind-Up Bird in one sitting - nearly the whole day and finished it. Sucked me right in. Highly recommended.
Another vote here for "The Time Traveler's Wife" -- it took me a little bit to get the rhythm, but then i really could not put it down and mourned when i was done with the book. I read it about a year ago, and no book has been able to compare since.
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole, is weird and wonderful and won him the Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, he wasn't around to receive it, as he'd topped himself because he hadn't been able to find anyone to publish the manuscript, poor fella.