Looking for Book Love
Saturday, February 21, 2009
a note of quest,
and a request...
(for names of books you love)
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I am the award-winning author of 22 books, editorial director of the PBS arts and culture show "Articulate with Jim Cotter," an adjunct teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, a co-founder of Juncture Workshops, an essayist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a book reviewer for the Chicago Tribune. I take photographs. I hope for peace. All blog text and photographs copyrighted.
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GOING OVER is a 2014 Booklist Editors' Choice, the Gold Medal Winner/Historical Fiction/Parents' Choice Awards, an ABA Best Books for Children & Teens, 2015 TAYSHAS Reading List, YALSA BFYA selection, a Junior Library Guild selection,voted as a 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime, a Booklist Top Ten Historical Novel for Youth, a School Library Journal Pick of the Day, an Amazon Big Spring Book, an iBooks Spring's Biggest Book, and has received starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Shelf Awareness.. Click on the image for more information.
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Small Damages
2013 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book/Pennsylvania Library Association. Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year List. New York Times Book Review feature, BookPage feature, LA Times Summer Reading Guide Selection, Starred Review, Publishers Weekly. Starred Review, Kirkus. Starred Review, Shelf Awareness. "Stunning."— Ruta Sepetys Click the image for more information and reviews.
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30 comments:
The book that I read most recently that I could neither put down nor could bear when it was over was The Book Thief bye Mark Zusak. It's teen literature, I think.
A few of my all time favorites (you may have read these!) The Great Gatsby, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Namesake!
A few I read last year I really enjoyed are Off The Menu, Testimony, and American Wife!
Oh, the pressure!
Okay, three all-time faves:
EARLY BIRD by Rodney Rothman (narrative nonfiction)
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - by John Kennedy Toole
THE PLEASURE OF MY COMPANY - by Steve Martin
Kind of all over the map, but dear to my heart...and ones that I return to again and again.
Hope that helps...
XO
A.
Oh, and A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving.
This book was derided in my company not long ago as "middle brow," which irked me. I just can't do that kind of snobbishness. Reading joy is reading joy, IMHO.
Uh-oh. Maybe I'm middlebrow. Whatev!
XO
A.
Okay, well I confess to LOVING the Twilight series, but mostly because of the last two of the four books. My faves are Dean Koontz's Intensity, Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides. I do like Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series. Those are all excellent.
Right now I'm halfway through a book which I absolutely love, Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark, which is what the HBO series, True Blood, is based on. I don't have HBO so settled for the book, which is so much better anyway. The voice of the narrator is totally fascinating, the story engrossing.
Good luck with your search.
Lisa: One of my FAVORITE books, The Book Thief. Absolutely. Why aren't there more books like that? And Alea, Yes! I've read your first tier, but none, zero, of your second (I'm a little afraid of Curtis S., to be frank). Anna, I have CONFEDERACY here, but unread (hey, that would save me a trip the bookstore!) And as for middlebrow. Um. Have you read the comments on your interview? You're roundly considered to be a genius. Take that, and keep it! :)
All right, FL. True Blood. We have to have a blog discussion about this. Is it the Chris Offut series? The vampire series? I've been fascinated by that, but how this literary guy has become involved in TV, and in that show in particular!
This Present Darkness rocked my world when it needed rocking.
Other favorites are Nancy Geary's mysteries, Patricia Cornwall's, Sue Grafton's, and of course, Grisham's. I love page-turners.
I thought American Wife was very different from Prep. Prep was a little more on the strange side (haven't decided if it was good or bad strange).
Bridge of Sighs...Richard Russo, or, if you haven't read him before, start with "Empire Falls"
Three of my all time favorites; books that pulled me right in and encompassed me in their world and story:
(adult fiction)
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Songs Without Words by Ann Packer
(YA/middle grade)
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
Drowned Maiden's Tale by Laura Amy Schlitz
I could easily list many more, but I'm restraining myself.
Oh, and don't be afraid of Curtis S.! At least as far as Prep goes; I haven't read her latest. But I thought Prep was compelling and well done. Highly absorbing, at least in my opinion. (Guess I snuck another title onto my list there, didn't I? So much for my restraint.)
I'm a bookworm, and favourite authors range from Salman Rushdie to Jodi Picoult and everything inbetween. One that I for some reason keep returning to and have probably read twenty times over, is a true story (and I wouldn't really put biographies amongst my favourite genres), is And I Don't Want To Live This Life by Deborah Spungen. It's a mother's story about her daughters difficult life and death, her daughter being Nancy Spungen, who is more known as Sid Vicious' girlfriend. In the media portrayed as a "crack whore" and punk, but in actual fact a schizophrenic young woman who endured endless pain. I can't put my finger on what gripped me so, but it's one that I keep coming back to.
Aside from that, I'd stick The God of Small Things on my list of must reads!
Anna
x
Well, okay. First: I am staggered by the quality and depth of the responses here. So many of you have listed books that I love so deeply (oh, The Great Gatsby, oh, The Book Thief, and oh, Prayer for Owen Meany, The Optimist's Daughter, The God of Small Things. And then the new-to-me books listed here.
I have been away from the computer most of the day, preparing to teach a class of aspiring high school writers on Tuesday. You've just inspired me. Thank you.
Books that have stuck with me are A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly and Fortune's Rocks (the most evocative of Anita Shreve's novels, for me)...
Perfume by Patrick Sueskind is incredible, and as clever is The Time Traveler's Wife. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell is one in which the main protagonists stick with the reader for quite some time... Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong is cinematographic and haunting. The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time by Mark Haddon, written from the perspective of a boy with Autistic Spectrum Disorders is amazing and very enjoyable.
My all-time comfort book is Jane Eyre!
Always a pleasure to recommend reads to authors...almost sound like a contradiction in terms...enjoy...I m going to read one of yours now while I finish mine!
Beth you have a beautiful voice and you are a beautiful woman.
Okay to books.....
I belong to a bookclub and I haven't really liked any of the books we have read.
I'm still thinking.....
Years and years ago I read 'The Once And Future King' about Merlin and King Author, otherwise I can only recommend Salman Rushdie, I like anything he writes.
I just thought of another entitled 'Blindness' I think it is by a Portugese writer.
Hope that helps and by the way congratulations on all your books and awards.
Renee
Beth, some ideas for you to consider:
I cannot put down the book I'm currently reading. It's THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY by Tiffany Baker and it is wonderfully written.
I'm also enjoying Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. I'm listening to it during my commute to work.
Finally, I've also recently enjoyed (and reviewed on my blog) THE 19TH WIFE by David Ebershoff. I would highly recommend any of these.
So I feel your pain. I've been going thru a dry spell where I have zero desire to reread any of my favoritss (which is wierd), and when I went to Borders I couldn't find anything (super strange). I visited some of my favorite used books stores and got a few 1920's/30's novels instead.
It's such an adventure b/c most don't have dust jackets or blurbs, so you read a random page or two and say "yeah" or "nay."
But those are books that I often love because the voice and language are so authentic and truly of another period of time. I am absorbed by these stories because they demand more of me, a 21st century reader, than a new period novel. These books were written for a different time for the audience of that day and certain mental gymnastics are required to (try) an put myself in the right place.
So I've no titles for you - unless you want a lot of novels that would take copious amounts of internet time to find - but a suggestion to go breath in the musty smell of a used book store and dig around!
the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
the secret life of bees
the rapture of cannan
a year of wonder
everything by jilly Cooper
It's terribly hard to pick a favorite book - but Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo simply knocked me off my feet this year. The writing, the message - stops the heart.
I also loved Unaccustomed Earth, even though I'm not a huge fan of the short story form, but these are exquisite. And perhaps short stories would be good for you since your attention is so heavily invested in your own novel.
oh my goodness—
I swim in your collective richness. I read and liked very much Unaccustomed Earth, The Secret Life of Bees, The Year of Wonder. I loved Birdsong and The Curious Incident. I've got to get The Vanishing Act, and Blindness is sitting right here; thank you for reminding me to pull it out from my triple-stacked shelves. Sierra, what an interesting journey you are taking through older books these days.
But more than any of this (which is important, please know that it is, else I would not have asked), is all of you and the community you've formed around this question today.
Thank you.
And Renee: Gosh. I'm blushing. I can't help it; I am. I'm going to have to confess, though, that I saved that video at a low resolution. A technique that has the secondary benefit of obliterating most of the many noticeable flaws that I do (wouldn't it be great if I were Demi Moore and had a million plus a year to fix this?) have.
the power of one - bryce courtenay
A few books I wish I could read again for the first time:
Trap for Cinderella by Sebastian Japrisot
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
The Likeness by Tana French
First off let me say I love reading. Even then, there are times when I find it hard to get into any book. When those times come, I usually read or re-read a classic that I've always wanted to read. That usually helps me get back into things. That said - 3 books I love:
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
and Gone by Michael Grant. They are all YA and different from each other. What they have in common is the smart writing. I hope you find something soon! Two weeks without a book! ARGH!
If you're having a difficult time getting into fiction, how about an artfully crafted memoir? One of the best memoirs I've read is Where Is the Mango Princess? by Cathy Crimmins. (The link will take you to my blog post.)
These are some books that I've absolutely loved--I avoided the ones that have been mentioned. Hope you enjoy everyone's reading list!
The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
YA Books:
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart
The Harry Potter Books
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Incantation by Alice Hoffman
MG Books:
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Shug by Jenny Han
Besides the fabulous books written by members of the Kephart family (!!), THE GREAT DIVORCE by C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite books. Thought provoking, honest...all that I like in a book.
Such good great taste reflected here on the blog. Thank you, Lenore, Keris, Vivian, Lib, KB, B&BM, and Jena. Many of your favorites sit here on my shelves, but some very important titles do not.
Wow, so many good recommendations!
I have to second Jennifer B. and suggest Blackbringer by Laini Taylor. I'm reading it now and it's fabulous. (and I'm not just saying that because she was a Cybils panelist with me.) I think it's the type of book that you would like, Beth, because you can tell that she has considered every word, every sentence. Reminds me of your writing, only this is fantasy. Takes you so completely into another version of the world, much like Harry Potter.
One of my favorites from a while back is The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. I swear, I had to sit down with a pencil and add punctuation for the first 10 pages but then I just fell into the voice and it was an amazing experience. Teaches you a lot about rhythm in prose.
Have fun with all the suggestions! :)
Couldn't resist posting here, even though you've probably got enough wondrous recommendations by now! (Loved reading all the comments - I've read many of the books mentioned, but have still garnered a few titles to add to my wish list!)
I won't ramble on - I could, because I devour books! - but will just say that the book I'm currently reading is Rachel Cusk's 'The Last Supper'. Inspired by DH Lawrence - “I want to roam, like writers and artists of an earlier age with their fashionable selfishness” - Rachel writes about a summer spent in Italy with her family. She manages to make it feel like a perfectly lit series of paintings. I find that she can be a bit too intense because everything is so minutely, richly and precisely observed. However, it is a different 'take' on Italy....and one which I am enjoying. Perhaps you will too - I hope so!
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