hsmom3tn Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I have a list of "Must-Read" books for myself. I have only read a few of them so far, but here's my list: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn A Separate Peace To Kill a Mockingbird Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights The Grapes of Wrath Night The Screwtape Letters Mere Christianity The Jungle The Giver Brave New World The House of Seven Gables ... and after reading this thread, I'll have to add The Hiding Place to my list. :D I have read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Night, and loved all of those. I've read a few of Steinbeck's books and hated them, so I am hesitant to read The Grapes of Wrath but I will make myself get to it eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi @ Mt Hope Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Fahrenheit 451 To Kill a Mockingbird Watership Down A Tale of Two Cities Jane Eyre The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (particularly Perelandra) Quo Vadis North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee_Garretson Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) Wow, great ideas on here. I'm going to check out some of the ones I haven't read. One of my all-time favorite books is called A Short History of a Small Place by T.R. Pearson. It's one of those books you both laugh and cry through. I'd also add: I, Claudius Catch 22 All the King's Men Edited August 23, 2010 by Dee_Garretson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Exodus by Leon Uris Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) 1. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner 2. Collected Stories of Eudora Welty 3. (this was where I had Pride and Prejudice until I reread the orginal post, so I'll sub:) Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott 4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 5. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 6. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren 7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 9. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 10. Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats (cheating?) 11. Selected Poems of Robert Penn Warren 12. Sigh. I guess you really should read Moby Dick, too. My list has an Americanist, Southern US bias. But, then, so do I. ETA: hmm....heavy on the modernism, too. Edited August 23, 2010 by kokotg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) Ok, here's my list. I tried not to repeat pps. Also assumed you want fiction. One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch Altas Shrugged The Prince The Killer Angels The Great Divorce The Chosen Macbeth/King Lear/Hamlet/Othello - pick one The Silmarillion The Pilgrim's Progress Beowulf Paradise Lost The Winds of War From the pps my faves are: The Hiding Place, To Kill A Mockingbird and Jane Eyre. Edited August 24, 2010 by ScoutTN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 Some of my favorites that aren't already listed The Red Tent Enders Game Flowers for Algernon The Fountainhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I suggest adding in "The Moon is Down" by John Steinbeck. It's one of his lesser known works, but it demonstrates the value and strength of democracy compared with totalitarianism extremely well. Also, have you ever heard the injunction to new fiction writers--"Show, don't tell!"? This novel epitomizes that, to the extent that I would use it to demonstrate and teach it. I suggest not reading "The Poisonwood Bible." I love Barbara Kingsolver, but that is, IMO, the worst of her novels, and very poorly edited. I think it's about 40% too long for one thing. And it exemplifies and develops her one real flaw in writing fiction, which is to present distasteful characters as caricatures. In most of her fiction, these caricatures are merely introduced, and then disappear fairly quickly; but in this novel they are developed and significant characters but still only caricatures. Unfortunately, some of them are missionaries, so the caricature is of that field as well as of the people. I found that aspect of this book borderline offensive. An intriguing book that I recommend, although it's pretty significantly pagan in outlook, is "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk. It's a funny pick for me. It's well-written with a great deal of food for thought. If you have ever wondered what "Visualize Peace" really means, this book plays that out quite well. It does have pagan and s*xual aspects that could be offensive, but although I would not assign this to my DD, I am not offended by it and do recommend it to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted August 24, 2010 Author Share Posted August 24, 2010 really fabulous ideas.... gosh, how will I ever choose just 12???? A lot of them I have read...several I have not. I am so excited about this challenge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 I fully understand you regarding Jane Austen, I'm almost physically allergic to her works. :D 1. Dante - The Divine Comedy No comment needed. :) One of the pillars of not only Italian literature, but Western literature on the whole. It can also count for three books if you read verse slowly. 2. Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov / something else Personally I find BK to be the most brilliant of his novels, though other good choices include Crime and Punishment, Idiot and, in case you're looking for something shorter, Writings from the Underground.3. Proust - Combray (the first part of the series) Another classic that fits well with your age, and poorly with the ages in which they usually make it a compulsory read at schools. :D 4. Goethe - Faust No explanation needed. It's in the similar position as the latter work, it really does better fit if you (re)read it a few decades after high school. I also really recommend it if you intend to read #9. 5. Baricco - Novecento Short and sweet. 6. Bassani - The Garden of the Finzi-Continis I personally find it beautiful, it was even turned into a film so you can watch that as well. It's one of the more "obscure" Italian readings, but that are definitely worth it. 7. Meyrink - The Golem One of the best adaptations of the Prague legend and the most famous literary one. A very entertaining, quick read. 8. Mann - a shorter work (Death in Venice; Tonio Kroger; or The Holy Sinner) I'm more fond of his longer works, but these are very good for the first encounter with Mann, quick reads, yet beautiful, particularly the first one. 9. Bulgakov - Master and Margarita Brilliant. Definitely not to miss. 10. Balzac - Father Goriot It took me a couple of decades to really "click" with me why is it so phenomenal (same as for Stendhal, I was a late bloomer with regards to finding greatness in some things in classical French literature ;)), but now I often find myself recommending it. 11. Yourcenar - Hadrian's Memoirs Probably the only historical fiction that deals with that time period that I truly like. Written by a great erudite as well, and it has several beautiful passages. 12. Kundera - anything I'm more fond of his Czech phase than of his French phase, though, so I like his earliest works the best. I resisted the temptation to include classical antiquity and plays of all epochs. :lol: Though there is a looot more to suggest - from Kafka's classics which capture human anxiety; to Baudelaire's poetry which you really understand many years after you read it, but which even at first reading hits you with its beauty of the language; to Borges' short stories, which are often as amusing as genial; to Tolstoy, who requires patience but rewards it immensely; to a selected few of Sartre's and Chekhov's short stories; to a work or two by Rushdie :D, etc., but the above would still capture some of my literary taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 I don't think I could get through Brothers Karamazov in a month and get the meaning out of it. It took me a lot longer than that, and I still don't think I figured it out. Maybe count it as 2 books. I thought The Poisonwood Bible was the best of Kingsolver's books. It's more allegory than realistic fiction. Once one realizes that, it becomes more understandable. I've never found the rest of her books to be really worth reading, although I know they're really popular. Grapes of Wrath is a good book, but I found, myself, that I was just sick of the Joads by the end of it. The alternate chapters (inserted between the chapters about the Joads) kept me reading, though. I just finished Cannery Row. It has even more of those random, here's a story that has nothing to do with the plot chapters. It's shorter. It doesn't have the same epic feel to it. Were you not looking for non-fiction? Here's a few off the top of my head ideas: Next of Kin (the one by Fouts about chimpanzees) Guns, Germs, and Steel In Defense of Food Plagues and Peoples Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years Out of Africa (or is this fiction?) West With the Night My Family and Other Animals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckabell Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 Thanks for a great thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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