Heather in Neverland Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 So part of my "turning 40" resolution is to read one really incredible book per month for the entire year until I turn 41. I read more than that per month but I want to pick 12 books, have a list, and purposefully read one per month instead of just randomly picking up books at the store and reading them. So I need your suggestions. What books should I put on my list? qualifiers- I read Pride and Prejudice...not all that impressed so I will skip the Jane Austen suggestions. I have read the LOTR books, Pillars of the Earth and the sequel, Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Three cups of Tea, The Help and the Book Theif this past year and loved them all (those are the most often suggested books). So I need some new ideas.... HELP!!!! I am already 3 days in to the year and no list. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachaheart Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck Silence by Shusaku Endo Dante's Divine Comedy The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Sun Also Rises To Kill A Mockingbird She's Come Undone The Name of the Rose Lolita American Pastoral Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belacqua Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Makioka Sisters (Tanizaki) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 One comes to mind-- The Hiding Place. It is about faith and forgiveness--really radical forgiveness. Bessie Ten Boom will always be the sweetest spirit I've ever encountered, even if it was just in a book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Food4Thought Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn Fruits Basket - the manga series. It's 23 volumes (but comic book style, so you can get through one in an hour or two). I learned so much about love and forgiveness and grief and friendship in that series. Plus, it'll introduce you to a different style of reading. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. One of the books I read this year (along with Catch-22 - similar themes) that altered my soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Still Alice (Genova) Cry, the Beloved Country (Paton) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMamaBird Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 My favorite book ever is "My Antonia" by Willa Cather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 One comes to mind--The Hiding Place. It is about faith and forgiveness--really radical forgiveness. Bessie Ten Boom will always be the sweetest spirit I've ever encountered, even if it was just in a book. Seconding this. Excellent. It will leave a lasting mark on your spirit. I also love Knowledge of the Holy by AW Tozer. And for fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey Mom Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Circle Trilogy: Black, Red, White - Tedd Dekker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphabetika Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gratefulmother Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I second the suggestion of Silence, and I will add All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot or something by Wodehouse for humor. Happy reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Good Earth (Pearl Buck) Eat, Pray, Love My Year of Meats Girl Meets God (Lauren Winner) And the Ladies of the Club The Help The Ladies' Auxiliary And the Skylark Sings With Me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tiffany Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I just read a book call Little Bee. I can not remember the author, and I've already let a friend borrow it. I bought my copy at Wal-Mart. It is a touching story about a Nigirian immigrant. It's sad, but a very good read.:thumbup: It opened my eyes to the different backgrouds of many people in our country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Still Alice (Genova) Still Alice is one of the best books I've read this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 So part of my "turning 40" resolution is to read one really incredible book per month for the entire year until I turn 41. I read more than that per month but I want to pick 12 books, have a list, and purposefully read one per month instead of just randomly picking up books at the store and reading them. So I need your suggestions. What books should I put on my list? qualifiers- I read Pride and Prejudice...not all that impressed so I will skip the Jane Austen suggestions. I have read the LOTR books, Pillars of the Earth and the sequel, Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Three cups of Tea, The Help and the Book Theif this past year and loved them all (those are the most often suggested books). So I need some new ideas.... HELP!!!! I am already 3 days in to the year and no list. :glare: Dorothy Sayers' Peter Whimsey books. I actually started with Gaudy Night, which is one of the last in the series. I really liked it and have searched out the others. It is a little better if you know the story of Peter and Harriet, but it is also very good on its own. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk QB 19 The Shadow of the Moon by M. M. Kaye (author of The Far Pavilions, but I prefer this book). World War Z by Max Brooks (seriously) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Since you liked A Thousand Splendid Sons, try Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I think All Quiet on The Western Front is one of those under-appreciated classics. I'm still working my way through Moby Dick. One Day, I plan to be able to recommend for or against it. It is tough and I had thought I was widely read and had a good vocabulary. If you've never read Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities was so much better when I read it as an adult. It still comprises almost everything I know truly understand about the French Revolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele B Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Man on a Donkey by H M Prescott The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole The Space Trilogy CS Lewis Wives and Daughters Elizabeth Gaskell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in Austin Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down The Last Town on Earth People of the Book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3littlekeets Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 For a different take, how about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PygmyShrew Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Let's see...(i can't resist this thread)... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Larsson) The Girl who played with fire (Larsson) The Girl who kicked the hornet’s nest (Larsson….this is the best of the trilogy, but I’d read the others first) A Secret History (by Donna Tartt) (you'll read it in a day or 2 -- it's that hard to put down) The Heretic's Daughter Middlemarch Brothers Karamazov Anna Karenina To Kill a Mockingbird The Tao of the Loving Couple One Day (Nicholls) Hudson Taylor and Maria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Cry, The Beloved Country..... I read this in high school. What an eye opener. I wrote the author, Alan Paton. He was too ill to write back but his wife did, which was really cool. I still have the letter. She shared with me why he wrote it (his sense of justice and equality), and thanked me for caring, as she thought American high schoolers didn't care about important things, and she was glad to hear from one who did (early 1980s). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daughterofsarah77 Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Things They Carried (O'Brien) Ethan Frome (Wharton) The Hiding Place, as previously suggested. Great book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsfamily Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 There are so many great books on the list already! Jurassic Park (seriously!) Crime and Punishment The Three Musketeers Ivanhoe And fourth The Hiding Place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jugglin'5 Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick_Mom Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Power of the Powerless, by Christopher deVinck -- reflections on how his severely disabled brother changed the lives of those around him. What Now?, by Ann Patchett -- quick read based on Patchett's commencement address at her alma mater, but oh, the wisdom in this little volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 What a great list. . . . . I have loved Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels by Kenneth E. Bailey. It has radically enriched the way I read the New Testament. If you're looking for fiction, I'd second CS Lewis Space Trilogy (rereading this myself), or Across Five Aprils (Civil War) or Baking Cakes in Kigali. Have fun! Are you going to share what you choose??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 With two exceptions, I've kept to the 20th and 21st centuries. The Good Earth (save the rest of the trilogy for next year) The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear and Volokhonsky translation) The Sea, The Sea The Baron in the Trees Three Men in a Boat Kristin Lavransdotter (Nunnally translation) Never Let Me Go The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Lillith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler Gravity's Rainbow In Cold Blood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achristean Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Six Wives of Henry VIII - is a great book. Also, I like to preview the books my kids read and I find some that I quite enjoy. One series that I really liked was The Guardians of Ga'Hoole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen_pad Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Five People You Meet in Heaven Anything by Charles Martin especially the Maggie books Of Mice and Men The Outsiders I don't really care for Sci fi but love historical fiction. The ones I listed were just ones that hadn't been mentioned. My hubby and dd loved the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. Hubby is reading the Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis now and says it's good! :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee The Awakening - Kate Chopin Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (seriously love this more as an adult) All of Barbara Kingsolver's novels Wild Swans - Jung Chang Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole The Road - Cormac McCarthy A Passage to India - E M Forster Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell Little Women - Louisa May Alcott The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd And if you need something light and fun, you can't go wrong with Sophie Kinsella (who also writes under the name Madeleine Wickham) or Adriana Trigiani. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Five People You Meet in Heaven :iagree: That is a good one! Paulo Cohelo's books can be interesting too. Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Quincunx: The Inheritance of John Huffam by Charles Palliser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Seconding:A Tale of Two Cities, Kundera's Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Good Earth. Also: I'm on a Malcolm Gladwell tear-very eye-opening books, anything by Agatha Christie you haven't read, HP (huge guilty pleasure of mine). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delaney Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Okay totally not a classic but I just read this book and loved it: The Help I really loved Pillars of the Earth, Hunt For Red October, and Watership Down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2a&z Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Grapes of Wrath To Kill a Mockingbird A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I second The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The Sparrow The Poisonwood Bible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanyanTreeMama Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 So part of my "turning 40" resolution is to read one really incredible book per month for the entire year until I turn 41. I read more than that per month but I want to pick 12 books, have a list, and purposefully read one per month instead of just randomly picking up books at the store and reading them. So I need your suggestions. What books should I put on my list? qualifiers- I read Pride and Prejudice...not all that impressed so I will skip the Jane Austen suggestions. I have read the LOTR books, Pillars of the Earth and the sequel, Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Three cups of Tea, The Help and the Book Theif this past year and loved them all (those are the most often suggested books). So I need some new ideas.... HELP!!!! I am already 3 days in to the year and no list. :glare: WHHHHHAAAAAT, you did not like P&P? There must be something in your water. Ok, since I can't recommend that, I'll recommend this young adult novel....ok ok so why am I recommended kiddy lit? Because it's the one book I remember from my younger years. It's really good and bittersweet. In Lane Three,Alex Archer by Tessa Duderhttp://www.amazon.com/Lane-Three-Alex-Archer/dp/0553290207 Pan by Knut Hamsun I think this one is available online for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekmom Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freethinkermama Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I have several books I read every several years; a couple I saw listed here. One I didn't of those, I suggest: 1. Watership Down. Wonderful, brillinant story of rabbits and politics :) Not political, though. Just brilliant. I can't wait for my kids to read it. (I saw this one mentioned.) 2. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. I do not care for Arthurian legend At All. Almost everything I've read I find, dry, tedious, and completely made-of-meh. This, however, is freaking brilliant! The characters are meaningful. The stories are touching and funny! If you only ever read one thing on Arthur. . .and Merlin, and Guinevere and and Knights of the Round Table, I'm begging you, read this. It will stay with you. I look forward to every read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 2. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. I do not care for Arthurian legend At All. Almost everything I've read I find, dry, tedious, and completely made-of-meh. This, however, is freaking brilliant! The characters are meaningful. The stories are touching and funny! If you only ever read one thing on Arthur. . .and Merlin, and Guinevere and and Knights of the Round Table, I'm begging you, read this. It will stay with you. I look forward to every read. You've read my mind! I've read that book 3 times now.... Additionally: Poisonwood Bible Life of Pi The Histories - Herodotus (really - it's good and he has a rather witty sense of humor) One Hundred Years of Solitude The September of Shiraz A Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur's Court In case you missed them in school... 1984 Animal Farm To Kill a Mockingbird Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry A Seperate Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wulfbourne Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the whole series) The Handmaids Tale (I haven't read it yet, but I always hear it recommended) A Brave New World- Adolous Huxley The Mists of Avalon- Marion Zimmer Bradley The Beekeeper's Apprentice- Laurie R. King (first of a series) Game of Thrones- George R. R. Martin (also first of a series) The last three aren't quite classics, but they are some of my favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne@welltrainedmind Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Welcome to 40! It is GREAT! Lost Women of the Bible, by Carolyn Custis James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 A Prayer for Owen Meany Shelby Foote's The Civil War Narrative :lol: just funnin' ya! Foote's 3 volumes are about 3000 pages! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikeBookBread Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz - there are several translations from the Polish. Try to get one that is in the more poetic, older style rather than modernized English. Several are helpfully annotated as well. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liza Q Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I have a few life-changing books that I recommend to everyone! In my teens it was Jane Eyre. In my 20s it was The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In my 30s it was Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I am 44 now and I haven't found a new one yet.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Gone With The Wind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I am seconding The Poisonwood Bible and A Prayer for Owen Meany, both of which I saw on others' lists. Both incredible reads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in SWVA Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lillias Trotter. Incredible woman! Susie in SWVA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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