Have you read any good books recently? Here's a roundup of my favorites that I read in 2008:
General fiction
The Gone-Away World
In the near future, much of the world has been rendered unhabitable, thanks to the effects of a great war and some unusual weaponry. Human society limps along in a narrow Livable Zone. Then the pipeline keeping that area stable catches on fire. Uh oh. A dark, comic, conspiracy-laden, epic debut that unfolds slowly in unexpected directions. Plenty of plot twists kept me involved in the story. Pirates? ninjas?? mimes??? It's a love-it-or-hate-it book, and I'm firmly in the love-it camp.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Enzo, a lab-terrier mix and the narrator of this novel, is the companion of Denny, a struggling mechanic/racer. Enzo is a wise and philosophical dog who hopes to be reincarnated as a human (he saw a documentary on tv that suggested this was possible). In the meanwhile, he is a steadfast friend to Denny and Denny's family, and is witness to some of the darkest times in Denny's life. It's hard to describe this book without making it sound like a melodramatic mess, but it's an emotional, compelling look at the human--and canine--condition.
(Edit: forgot the following)
Last Night at the Lobster
Manny is the conscientious manager of a Connecticut Red Lobster. He's committed to his job and should be the envy of any corporate restaurant chain. Despite his efforts, however, he's been informed that his location is performing below expectations and will be closed. He wants to have a great last day and lock the restaurant up with some sense of dignity and accomplishment. But fate intervenes in the form of a northeastern blizzard, keeping much of his crew from coming in and making customers few and far between. This novella deals with the mundane, but provides rich characters, good dialogue, and a pitch-perfect feeling of everyday life.
General Nonfiction
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us
An engaging, readable look at an area of interest to almost all of us, traffic and driving. Vanderbilt draws upon a century of research to describe the way that technology, psychology, and social considerations intertwine, and challenges our assumptions about life on the road. Is it better to merge late or early? Are intersections safer, or roundabouts? Full of aha moments and seemingly counterintuitive conclusions, this book addresses any question you've had about driving.
The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team
Chronicles a year in the lives of the members of the Edward R. Murrow High School chess team. While you might expect a champion chess team to be from some top-flight private prep school, this public school team is a diverse mix of low-income students and first- and second-generation Americans. An entertaining look at a subculture of talented teenagers and their achievements and struggles in competition, in school, and at home. I don't play chess, but I found this book fascinating.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
Three-year-old Saville Kent is killed at his country home, and Mr. Whicher, one of England's first detectives, is sent to investigate. Suspects abound, but Mr. Whicher suspects that one of the family members is responsible. While crimes like this are common news fodder today, the allusion that a family member could be responsible for a young child's death was unthinkable at that time. The case becomes a nationwide obsession, but the evidence to make a case is elusive. More than just a true crime story, this well-researched book is a fascinating look at an earlier era, when criminal detection and scientific reasoning were brand new and the image of the detective was still being developed.
Genre Fiction
Crime
Grand Theft (2004)
Finally, a reliable readalike for Elmore Leonard. Teddy Clyde is an upscale car thief who grew up in on the hard streets of Philadelphia. He's careful to avoid the attention of the police and to stay out of the way of organized crime. That becomes difficult when the body of Mob boss Scarlotti turns up in the trunk of his car. With the help of undercover journalist Natalie, he has to find his way out of the situation and maybe make a little profit on the side. Snappy dialogue, morally gray characters, and plot-twists aplenty make this caper story a winner.
Horror
Heart-Shaped Box
Aging rock star Jude Coyne collects many things: royalty payments from a lifetime of popular, anger-fueled music; young women nicknamed after states; and morbid curio pieces. When he comes across an online auction for a dead man's suit, complete with ghost, he goes for the bait. But the suit doesn't belong to just any dead man, and the ghost that comes with it is particularly mean. This one gave me plenty of chills and nightmares. Jude is a coarse character and not very likeable at the beginning, but his development throughout the story is compelling.
Adventure/Thriller
The Faithful Spy
CIA agent John Wells has been undercover with al-Qaeda. When 9/11 happens with no warning from him, his handlers question whether he serves any purpose. His loyalty comes into doubt as time ticks by with no word from him. Meanwhile, Wells, now a true Muslim convert, is assigned by al-Qaeda to an attack on American soil. A classic spy story within the realm of current events.
Fantasy
The Somnambulist
Edward Moon is a stage magician whose popularity is on the wane. His reputation as a crime solver secures him the investigation of a underground religious movement. His eponymous sidekick, a mute, freakishly tall, seemingly inhuman creature, accompanies him through his investigation of a shadowy Victorian world, filled with secret plots and magical elements. (side note: this may not be fantasy--magical realism? steampunk? mystery? but that's what I'm calling it anyway.)
Science Fiction
Mindscan (2005)
Jake Sullivan suffers from a rare hereditary disease that left his father in a vegetative state at an early age. Fearing the same fate, he elects to have his brain scanned and downloaded into a basically immortal android body. The flesh-and-blood Jake is sent to a "retirement" community on the Moon, while the android Jake assumes his place on Earth. An interesting study of what it means to be human.
Genre Fiction continued
Women's Fiction/Chick Lit
Bet Me (2004)
Thirtysomething Minerva Dobbs has just been dumped by her boyfriend. To make matters worse, she overhears her loser ex bet good-looking Cal Morrisey that Cal won't be able to get Min in bed within a month. Min decides to string Cal along to get her revenge, securing a date for her sister's wedding at the same time. But what does she do when she starts to fall for him for real? A light read but a page-turner, with many laugh out loud moments.
Western
Lonesome Dove (1986)
Finally got around to reading this Pulitzer prize winner. Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, former Texas Rangers, double as the proprietors of a small ranch and nocturnal cattle thieves. Their former friend Jake Spoon turns up at the ranch, running from the law after accidentally shooting a man. His description of Montana compels Call to organize a cattle drive to settle there. A sprawling, epic novel of the American West.
Historical Fiction
American Dreams (1998)
Set in America from 1906 to 1917, this novel follows the children of a German-American brewer/baron. Fritzi goes against her father's wishes and moves to New York to become an actress. As she struggles to survive, she becomes involved in the fledgling and unrespected motion picture industry to make ends meet. Her brother Carl has an eclectic career path in the auto industry and as a pilot, while their cousin Paul serves as a war cameraman. Part of a series. I don't read much historical fiction, but I was riveted to this tale of America in the early twentieth century.
Romance
Harlequin NASCAR series
They're not great literary works, but I truly enjoy Harlequin's category romance series centering around the world of NASCAR. As a group, they have a wonderful sense of place, taking full advantage of their auto-racing setting. Light, fun reads that are sweet but not syrupy, romantic but not erotic.
Thanks Michelle!! I love to read and am always looking for something new. I live three blocks from the library and walk there often. Our library has a great kids section and my daughter walks down there a lot, too.
I am a Dean Koontz fan. I recommend the Odd Thomas series. Odd can see the dead and often helps them to pass on. For a while the ghost of Elvis tags along with him. He can see and communicate non-verbally with the ghosts but cannot hear anything they say. There's four books out now. I think the stories are very well written, there is comedy, tragedy, true love, and adventure.
Sorry, I've never done a book review so I'm hard pressed at what to say, other than they are excellent stories and I highly recommend them.
Odd Thomas
Forever Odd
Brother Odd
Odd Hours
http://www.deankoontz.com/books/list-of-books.php
I love to read...maybe too much. I am in the middle of State of Fear by Micheal Creighten (sp). It's ok. That's about as good as I can give this one.
Over the holidays I read all of the Twilight Series...Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. They're page turners...like eating peanuts. Very good and addictive.
I will be picking up the Lace Reader next. I'm not sure of the author, so I'll post it later w/ a review.
I wasn't going to read the Twilight series at first. I thought, oh boy, these are under the teen section...and then I thought, I don't need to read about teenage angst. But, I was given the Twilight book to read and I got hooked...so I ordered the rest of the series from Amazon. It was worth it.
I've been trying to read two books on Budism...and they're sitting there waiting for me...but I find I have to get in a state of mind to digest it. I will get there. I think it's like therapy...you have to accept it in doses!
Eh, I'll read teen books from time to time. Plus, the Twilight series seems to have plenty of adult fans. I feel ya on having to be in the right mood for a weighty book.
Nearly finished with In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. Stunning.
This is the book I am reading right now.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Goes-Up-Uncensored-Scoundrels/dp/0316929662
It is called "what goes up" and it is a short history of modern Wall Street, as told by many of the people who made it what it is today. So far the highlight has been reading Bernie Madoff talking about believing in the little man, and that being the reason they founded the NASDAQ to operate the way that they did.
Yes, madoff sure believed in the little man all right. Isn't the Michael jackson afterschool daycare center part of that conglomerate?
A couple new and great books I've read recently:
Lush Life
A haunting novel by Richard Price (Clockers; co-writer, HBO's The Wire) that details the circumstances surrounding a street shooting in New York. Loosely arranged as a police procedural, the book probes the aftermath of the event from the point of view of the victim's family, witnesses, investigators, and perpetrators. It perfectly evokes its New York setting, and Richard Price has a keen ear for believable yet engaging dialogue. Thriller fans beware--this novel unfolds very slowly. But the believable and nuanced characters and thought-provoking story are worth the investment. Clocking in at just over 450 pages, this is somehow a page-turner but still a very weighty book. I'm still thinking about it weeks later.
Hardly Knew Her: Stories
Short stories from the acclaimed crime writer Laura Lippman. IMO there are no weak stories in this collection. Each story hooked me from the start, even when the theme (women behaving in unexpected ways) prepared me for the "twist" in several stories. A first-rate read; cold-blooded yet wry. A fascinating collection. [parental warning: some of the content is not safe for kids or the faint of heart].
I am currently reading my first John Grisham novel. I picked The Firm because I don't like Tom Cruise and I haven't seen the movie. I like to read a book before the movie because I have this very wonderful imagination and it's fun to see the movie and how close I envisioned the story. However, in this case I may never see the movie because I don't like Tom Cruise. Anyway, the book is very good and I like the way the author writes. I avoided John Grisham because I thought the story would bore me but I was way wrong.
I think I'm going to continue with his novels. Any suggestions for the next one I should read?
I did enjoy A Few Good Men, but only cause of Jack Nicholsen. I don't like Tom Cruise because I don't agree with what he stands for, so I don't watch his films.
I am almost done with The Firm now. Mitch has already been snitched out and is on the run hiding in the apartment in Nashville. When I finish, I will hit the library and pick up a copy of A Time To Kill. Thanks for the suggestion and I'll let you know what I think of that book in a couple weeks......
This is what I am reading now. Its a bio of John Lennon, and so far I am stunned.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=john+lennon+biography&hl=en&cid=17321933782026448990&sa=title#ps-sellers
I am in the very early years of the Beatles (they haven't even hit the States yet) and I never knew how awful Lennon was. He was a sexist/racist/homophobe/etc. He was a brawler, and he was a serial adulterer. I don't know if he changes in the later stages of his life, but I had never heard about this side of the guy. I am totally hooked on this book.
It's been a good week in books. Here are two more that I really enjoyed
Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody
by Chelsea Cain
This is the memoir of the real Nancy Drew, girl detective. Nancy tells us that her life story was stolen by the author Carolyn Keene, and she is publishing this memoir to set the record straight. She tells the real story about her relationships with Ned Nickerson and Frank Hardy, her friendships with Bess and George, and the path of her life into adulthood and old age. Chelsea Cain perfectly mimics the style and formula of the old Nancy Drew books in this fond yet brutally funny send-up of the famous sleuth. Get to know the real Nancy Drew as she solves mysteries from the Prohibition era, World War II, the Summer of Love, and into the '90s. Bonus appearances by the Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames, the Bobbsey Twins, Kim Aldrich, Donna Parker, Encyclopedia Brown, and more! I was a big Nancy Drew fan when I was younger, and I laughed out loud at this revealing look into her world. An adult take on a childhood icon.
The Walls of the Universe
by Paul Melko
John Rayburn, a farm boy from Ohio, is having a bad day when things take a turn for the weird--his doppelganger shows up in his parents' pumpkin patch. As his doppelganger explains, he is also John Rayburn (but you can call him John Prime, for simplicity's sake), and he's from another corner of the Multiverse. He has a device that allows him to travel through the walls of the universe and visit the other versions of his world. John R takes him up on his offer to try out the device, but it turns out it doesn't quite work as described. Now John R is traveling across the Multiverse to try to find a way back to his world. Meanwhile, John Prime usurps John R's life and tries to get rich by "inventing" the Rubik's Cube--which doesn't exist in John R's version of the world. An entertaining page-turner for people who like soft sci-fi themes. It fizzles out a little in the end, but leaves room for a sequel.
This is my second time responding to this thread. It would be really scary if I ever became technologically savvy. As it is, I stay mildly confused.
The book suggestions are wonderful! You've really enhanced my reading. Thanks everyone. I have a couple of suggestions that weren't mentioned. They were my favorite reads for this year.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This is about the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Great book! Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This is about the circus during the Depression. Another great book. And last, The Power of One (I can't remember the author's last name; and I've loaned it to someone.) Probably my favorite book for the year. It is about a white boy growing up in Africa. It begins during WWII. The first 50 pages are brutal reading; but then it is wonderful!
I also want to mention books by Jodi Picoult. Wonderful writer. Her books all deal with social issues. She explores all sides of the issue. Good reading.
Anyone need a laugh? Read Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore! In fact read anything by Christopher Moore.
Need thought? Read Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
Need beauty? Read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I know, I know they made you read it in high school...well, read it for real now, it's breathtaking, and heartbreaking.
Need hope? Read The teachings of Don Juan: The Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda (I'm sure some of you more "experienced" post-ers read this during a different stage of your life.)
Need love for life? Read Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Read it hard! Get down on it! There are perspectives we should all be aware of!
Need grounding? Read The Color of Water by James McBride
Need a crazy twist ending, a quick read, but complex issues concerning the control of your destiny? (Gee i hope not), read Oedipus Rex by Sophocles the B.M.W. Knox translation.
that should do you for a while...
I've been posting a ton in this thread recently, but I couldn't wait to share this book:
The Legal Limit
by Martin Clark
Mason Hunt is a law student who comes home to southern Virginia on break. He goes out to a party with his older brother Gates, a former high school football star turned degenerate. An argument at the party leads to an altercation on a lonely country road. Mason instinctively helps his brother with a cover-up, with long-term implications. A finely tuned examination of family ties vs. principle, with several complementary subplots examining what justice demands.
This book hits the trifecta--an engrossing plot, interesting and developed characters, and a strong sense of place. The ethical dilemmas facing the characters invite discussion. This legal thriller may be a good fit for fans of Scott Turow, George Pelecanos, and John Grisham, but it deserves to find a wide readership beyond those ranks as well.
Hey SSder!! Thanks for the recommendation on A Time To Kill by John Grisham. Excellent story. I'm not quite finished, but it's so good I've been taking the book with me where ever I go. I read at every opportunity (even the intersections with the long traffic lights! ha ha)
They did make a movie of that one too. Matthew McConaughey and Samuel L Jackson starred in it... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/
I didn't catch the whole movie, only the end and I never knew what the name of the movie was, but as soon as I started reading that book, I knew. I'm glad to be able to know the whole story and will have to rent the movie so I can see the whole thing when I'm done. (I love Matthew McConaughey and want to marry him when I grow up)
The movie is awesome. You go through points where you love, hate, love, hate, and love the main character. It is really well done.
Recently I finished reading The Reader Very dark. It's a German author writing about people during post WWII Germany. It was quite a book.
You want dark? I just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". It's a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son trying to survive. Now I am going to have to read a Christopher Moore book to ward off depression
Speaking of post-apocalypse, I just finished reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. A disease wipes out most of the human race, leaving only scattered survivors. Our main character Ish, a young geologist and a great observer, chronicles the path of humans in the years after the plague and the changes to the earth. Good stuff. Originally published in 1969.
Also enjoyed The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet is a 12 year old cartographer living on a ranch in Montana. He maps every detail of his life and surroundings, as well as providing maps and illustrations for leading publications and exhibits. When his mentor enters him for the prestigious Baird award for illustrators at the Smithsonian and he wins (the Smithsonian is unaware of his age), he embarks on a cross-country trip to the nation's capital hobo-style. T.S. is a unique and refreshing narrative voice. The book is copiously illustrated with T.S.'s maps and illustrations. Loved it.
I've started the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
Lindsay Boxer is a tough San Fransisco Homicide Detective and her character is so very real. I like these books better than the Alex Cross novels I guess because the hero is a woman, but also because they are so down to earth and full of feminine-type humor. It's been my experience that it's difficult for a man to write a story about women and have it be "real" but James Patterson has overcome that and these stories are excellent. So, if you're into murder mysteries, Check out the Women's Murder Club series, starting with 1st To Die
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Decoding-the-Pyramids/John-DeSalvo/e/9781435103399/?itm=1
I love a good research book on the pyramids, though this one trends much more mystical.
I read at least the first Women's Murder Club and liked it, but I've lost track of whether I read further in the series. May have to take it up again. There was a TV series for it, but I think it may have been cancelled.
I played the first WMC game, and it looked like it would be good, but it was super-glitchy for me. In its defense, I think it was a "rough cuts" version, and I'm working on a Vista platform.
For mystery PC game lovers, the Nancy Drew series is pretty awesome. I particularly liked Legend of the Crystal Skull, Secret of the Old Clock, and The Haunting of Castle Malloy. They're all $6.99 at Big Fish.
If you have an older computer, Black Dahlia is the absolute nuts of mystery games. I played that game for a solid year sans walkthrough to solve it. I have a copy to lend if anyone's interested. It was made pre-XP so I'm not sure how compatible it is with today's computers. But it hasn't aged badly--graphics were great at the time and hold up now.
Sorry for prattling on (my mom started it, though), but I love mystery games.
Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark. Excellent story with a very climatic ending. I enjoyed this one very much. It's about a female prosecuting attorney who tries this guy for murdering his wife. The guy didn't do it, but the PA did her job well and got a conviction. The next day some new evidence comes out as to who the real killer is and the PA's life is in danger - not only from one psychopath but two! A very good read.
The book I just started is by Jeffery Deaver and is titled Roadside Crosses. It's about a serial killer who leaves a memorial cross on the side of the road the day before he kills his victims. I'm only in the 4th chapter but I'm hooked.
Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. READ IT!
http://www.nudges.org/
Oh, one more thing, READ IT!
Every day, we make decisions about how to invest our money, where
to send our children to school, and what to put on our dinner plates.
Unfortunately, we often make poor choices - and look back at them with bafflement! We do this because as human beings, we all are susceptible to a wide array of routine biases that can lead to an equally wide array of embarrassing blunders in education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, happiness, and even the planet itself.
Our errors are what make us human, but up till now, they have been largely ignored by those around us, whether they make a complex public policy or sell us a plain old bottle of wine.
In this ground-breaking collaboration, two extraordinary, if ultimately human, thinkers, economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein, invite us into an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for them to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society.
Using colorful examples drawn from the realms of 401(k) investing, organ donations, and marriage, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful "choice architecture" can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice.
Nudge offers a unique new take-from neither the left nor the right-on many hot-button issues, for individuals, companies, and governments alike.
Nudge is a book about making your life better-one small decision at a time.
Click here to read an excerpt of the book.
http://nudges.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/our-dozen-nudges1.pdf
Penguin Books| For media/publicity requests contact Yen Cheong 212.366.2000
Web site designed and hosted by LinkZero Technology Solutions, LLC.
I am reading a good book for us Libertarians although Glenn Beck is getting a bad rap lately, I like the book. "Arguing with Idiots"
When Beck made the leap from CNN to Fox, it wasn't going to end well.
I wasn't much of a civil war person until I actually visited Gettysburg a couple of years ago. Just being on the battlefield and hearing the stories told was enough to get me very interested in it. I found this book, which is just an incredible amount of information and detail on the battle.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DsxcBNGyPh4C&dq=gettysburg+sears&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=T1tDS6XmGsKBnQfM3c3sCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CDEQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=&f=false
I found this on facebook, and thought it might be fun.
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here...
Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (I did read Holy Blood, Holy Grail instead)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I am doing this on my Facebook page. I did notice that number 23 and 26 are missing though. Do you know what books those were?
[quote name='southsiderMMX' date='Nov 18 2010, 11:52 AM' post='29769'] I found this on facebook, and thought it might be fun.
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here...
.......
I have no idea. I am seeing if I can find out!
I can't actually find this list on the BBC site. It's similar to http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml, but not the same. Also not seeing where they predicted that most people will have read 6 or fewer books from the list. I'm wondering if someone adapted the BBC list into their own reading list, and then later on someone appended the "only read six books" bit onto it.
Oh, well, enough fact checking.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
It looks like 23 is Bleak House and 26 is Brideshead Revisited, if the http://www.librarything.com/topic/61828 list is correct.
It's embarrassing that I haven't read some of the classic titles, but I'm trying to rectify that. I'm currently working through these lists from http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103869541.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (can't remember)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (can't remember)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (can't remember)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (can't remember)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (can't remember)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (can't remember)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold[/b]
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (can't remember)
76 The Inferno - Dante (can't remember)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (does seeing the movie count?)(smile)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Notes: My high school had a good English program and we read a lot of books, some I can't remember though.
Seems like a lot of British books on this list of course.
Where is any Mark Twain? or Uncle Toms Cabin?
Heart Of Darkness is really stupid..."I'm cold, I'm cold, I shall wear my trousers rolled."...the only good thing is I now say that when it's cold out, or I say, "I think it's a tit nipply out."
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (can't remember)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold[/b]
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
This was a a great book if you are into conspiracy theories at all. Completely different and a very cool angle on the topic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040RMEM6/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0224074709&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=12KA9KWDXM0VSHGZR24W
Shop Class As Soul Craft by Matt Crawford
"an inquiry to the value of work"
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
The Emperor Of All Maladies: A Biography Of Cancer. Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Amazon.com: 54 Reviews: 48 were 5-Star, 3 were 4 Star
Dr. Suess - One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish
"A Sand County Almanac", Aldo Leopold
An amazing book. Anyone interested in ecology, nature, or history should read it.
Aldo Leopold is described as "both a better writer and a better naturalist than Thoreau", I agree!
I haven't suggested any books for a long time, but I was really impressed with A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. It's made up of connected short stories about Bennie Salazar, who is a music executive, his secretary Sasha, and the people they meet throughout their lives. Each chapter looks at a different person in a different time and place, "in a wild relay race that will end with the same characters with which it begins while dispensing with them for years at a time." (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/books/review/Blythe-t.html)
Egan expertly handles the changes in setting, voice, and perspective. There's even a chapter down in PowerPoint, which some people found too gimmicky, but I was impres by how well she used the charting functionality of PowerPoint to tell a story.
It's a hard book to describe, but Egan's virtuoso handling of a dozen voices over decades, her subtle touch illustrating her themes, and her darkly comic vibe make this one of the best books I've read in the past year.
And it just won the Morning News http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/the-2011-pregame-primer.php, a March Madness style book "award" that I follow every year.
Michigan City Library is offering a new service called NextReads, e-newsletters (or RSS feeds) with reading suggestions in over twenty genres and reading interests. Sign up at http://mclib.org/nextreads.html to get reading lists sent right to your email. Here are the topics available:
For adults:
Audiobooks
Armchair Travel
Christian Fiction
Biography & Memoir
Business and Personal Finance
Fantasy
Fiction A to Z
Historical Fiction
History and Current Events
Home, Garden, and DIY
Horror
Library Events
Mind and Body Fitness
Mystery
Nature and Science
New York Times Fiction Bestsellers
New York Times Nonfiction Bestsellers
Popular Culture
Science Fiction
Spirituality and Religion
Thrillers and Suspense
For Kids & Teens:
Picture Books
Kids' Books
Tween Reads
Teen Scene
Library Events for Kids & Teens
You can choose any newsletters that you like, so you can be sure that the suggestions will match your reading interests.
Also, if you're looking for a good book right now, don't forget about NoveList, the reading database offered by the library. Find the latest books in your favorite series, find authors that are similar to your favorites, or track down a title whose name/author you've forgotten. It's a great resource for anyone looking to expand their reading. Just click the link located at http://mclib.org/reference/internetwordprocessing.html#novelist.
I recommend two children's books by Donald Driver.
"Quickie Makes the Team"
and
"Quickie Handles A Loss"
Just finished a couple of good ones... First was Downfall by Richard Frank. It included some great source materials on the end of WWII with Japan and all of the information leading to the US dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. Instead of just presenting one side of things, they put materials out from both points of view and really offered a broad spectrum on the decision making process, and not just the decision. Great book.
Also Oklahoma City by Andrew Gumbel on the bombing of the Murrah Building. It really outlines the whole plot and trials, as well as a lot of what the federal government potentially left on the table in order to bury McVeigh and Nichols.
Ok, I read Nick Dettman's book A Life Worth Dreaming About
It was a very good story, but I was left hanging at the end. I'm hoping that he has plans to write a sequel. The prologue was way ahead of the story in time and there was no epilogue to match it to, or anything in the story that related the prologue to it. Which leaves me thinking that he is writing a sequel which will relate to the prologue of the first book. I really can't say much more without giving the plot away, but I'm sure Nick will understand what I'm trying to say.
But, again, the story line was very good and I'm anxiously waiting to see if Nick has plans to write a second book.
I finished Keith Richards "auto"biography last weekend. I brought it on a Navy Tiger cruise with me and plowed through 3/4 in a couple of days and then it sat. Then I sat and finished it. Really fun read and the writer he hired did a great job. Tim, have you read it?
I would like to recommend:
The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results by Robert Montgomery Knight
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Negative-Thinking-Unconventional/dp/054402771X
Anyone else watching Vikings on History? I am actually digging the series so far. Better than I thought it would be.
If you are a fan of the Eagles, History of the Eagles on Showtime is killer.
I read this one in two days. I love the traders perspective instead of something by an outsider who only understand the business in hindsight.
http://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Failure-Common-Sense-Collapse/dp/0307588343
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers
Anyone else read Seal Team Geronimo yet? Very interesting read if not. One of the interesting things stated in there is that chemical weapons were in Iraq, and they were used against our troops in IEDs there. They basically stated that Al Qaeda got ahold of them after Saddam fell, which is why the GOP never tried to refute the whole "WMDs in Iraq" thing. Al Qaeda having them is worse than egg on Bush's face for them not being there. The Dems never said anything because they have always been right if there were no WMDs, plus it allowed them to leave Iraq and fulfill their promise to leave.
This looks like it might be a really good book:
Season of Upsets by Matthew A. Werner
http://www.amazon.com/Season-Upsets-Hoosier-basketball-1950s/dp/0692320474
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