Ginevra Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 I’ve read avidly my whole life, but I have skewed heavily towards Non-Fiction. Truthfully, I didn’t read novels at all, pretty much, until I was in my early 30s, excepting assigned novels and a couple books given or lent to me by others. So I think when I make up my 52 book bingo card for next year, I am going to require of myself ALL FICTION. I want to fill my tank with more stories. So, recommendations welcomed. Help me make my book list for 2021. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeachyDoodle Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Aw... I love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I'll add: The Great Gatsby Rebecca Something by Lee Smith (my favorites are The Devil's Dream and The Last Girls) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 6 minutes ago, Dreamergal said: First of all, western fiction or around the world ? I did not grow up with a list of books to read, I had to come up with one myself. So mine is heavy with vintage British authors as that was what I had access to most. Jane Austen, my favorites are Pride and Prejudice and Emma are essential reading. Bronte - Not every Bronte can write equally though all of them wrote including a brother. I would say Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily and to a lesser extent Agnes Grey by Anne Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist, Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Pickwick Papers, Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and to a lesser extent Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House and Little Dorrit. Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Ubervilles and Far from the Maddening Crowd Arthur Conan Doyle - Every single thing as it Sherlock Holmes Mary Shelley - Frankenstein George Elliot - Silent Mariner and Mill on the Floss Oscar Wilde - Dorian Grey Rudyard Kipling - Jungle Book Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde Emma Orczy - Scarlett Pimpernel Will update more... I guess around the world is fine so long as it is translated to English. 😊 I do love Jane Austin and read all of her novels one year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 59 minutes ago, Quill said: I’ve read avidly my whole life, but I have skewed heavily towards Non-Fiction. Truthfully, I didn’t read novels at all, pretty much, until I was in my early 30s, excepting assigned novels and a couple books given or lent to me by others. So I think when I make up my 52 book bingo card for next year, I am going to require of myself ALL FICTION. I want to fill my tank with more stories. So, recommendations welcomed. Help me make my book list for 2021. Do you have any particular narrower focus? Like "all classics" or "all non-white authors" or "all women" or "anything but fantasy" or "a wide variety of authors, viewpoints, genres, including children's, YA, classics for adults, international fiction, etc."? Edited August 20, 2020 by Tanaqui Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 1 minute ago, Tanaqui said: Do you have any particular narrower focus? Like "all classics" or "all non-white authors" or "all women" or "anything but fantasy" or "a wide variety of authors, viewpoints, genres, including children's, YA, classics for adults, international fiction, etc."? Wide variety. Probably the only thing I can’t stomach is child abuse. But I do enjoy finding a great book that’s not something I usually pick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Have you read any Theodore Dreiser? Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, and An American Tragedy are all gut-wrenching novels. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, Spy Car said: Have you read any Theodore Dreiser? Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, and An American Tragedy are all gut-wrenching novels. Bill Nope. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Night Circus The Scent Keeper two I’ve enjoyed this year 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Song of Achilles 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 My favorite novels generally include elements of current events or history (or both!). They also show relationships between people of different cultural backgrounds. (Here a few that popped into my head in no particular order): Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese): includes details of medical surgery, familial relationship, twin brothers, adoption, cross-cultures (Indian and American) Anything by Barbara Kingsolver -- The Poisonwood Bible: cross-cultural (American and African, "Christian" and "heathen"), familial relationships, missionaries, twins, mental illness Anything by Jodi Picoult - The Storyteller: cross-cultural (American and German), past/present, multi-generational, forgiveness, holocaust, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford): cross-cultural (Japanese and American), familial relationships, Japanese Internment during WWII Anything by Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop: shows life in the Southwestern U.S. (specifically Santa Fe, NM) during the Spanish mission times. I love anything by Willa Cather because of her sweeping descriptions of landscapes, people, times. Her writing is transportive. Anything by Annie Dillard - The Living: tells the epic story of the settling of the Pacific Northwest, through several generations. So descriptive, and the portrays a full sweep of emotions. Classics like Les Miserables (Victor Hugo), Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), Anna Karena (Tolstoy), If you like Bible stories brought to life, the Dahveed series, by Terri Favish, is excellent. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Quill said: Nope. Thanks! These come with a caveat. The writing is powerful and naturalistic. Dreiser is a brilliant stylist and storyteller and sensitive readers (which I assume includes you) will likely connect with his heroines very strongly. The ups and downs of their lives can be pretty heavy. But top notch American fiction if one can bear tales of downward social mobility. Bill Edited August 20, 2020 by Spy Car 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Luminaries won the Mann Booker prize a few years ago. It is a wonderful (but long) story about the gold rush in NZ in the 1860s. What made it win the Mann Booker prize was that Eleanor Catton set herself an unusual task of having structure dictate plot and characterization. She created 12 characters to represent the star signs and 6 characters to represent the planets. Then took the star alignment of the year the book was set, and wrote the book based on what she was told to do. So if Mars was in Capricorn in that month, those two characters would have to meet in that chapter and the Mars character would influence how how Capricorn's character interacted, so more warlike. Each chapter has the star sign wheel rotate to the next month, and then Catton wrote the plot plot and characterization based on this. Added to this, she required each chapter to be half of the length of the other, starting with 300 pages and ending with 1 page. So once again, forcing external structure on her creativity to see what was possible. My older boy and I had so much fun thinking about how the star signs were impacting the characterization. We learned a lot about star signs! It was wonderfully clever, plus it is a murder mystery set in gold rush times in NZ's South Island and is reasonably historic. Super awesome. But it is long. 🙂 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Enjoying all the booklists.. I'd say yes to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and several others already mentioned. I'll add: The Martian The Bear and the Nightingale Rage Against Dying (First in the Briget Quinn series) Code Name Verity Cloud Atlas True Grit - so, so good. The Coroner's Lunch Prodigal Summer by Kinsglover - i loved this one so much more than Poisonwood Bible Talking to the Dead (first in the Fiona Griffith's series - love it) I think something by Woodhouse, Sayers (Lord Peter Whimsey), and Christie because they are classic and not too hard to get through. If you aren't normally drawn to fiction you may need to change it up a bit with lighter fare and more serious stuff just to get through the year. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoraBora Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Book of Lost Names is a powerful read about Jews in France during WWII. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake is also one of my all time favorites. It has The Most Beautiful Language of any book, ever. Here is the first sentence to whet your appetite! Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its Outer Walls. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Do you enjoy stories about whales? LOL. If not, might I suggest one of Melville's short stories? Bartleby, the Scrivener. So hysterically funny (in its own way). Bill 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 6 minutes ago, lewelma said: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake is also one of my all time favorites. It has The Most Beautiful Language of any book, ever. Here is the first sentence to whet your appetite! Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its Outer Walls. I have wanted to read that series for years. Thanks for the reminder. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Some more that were favorites Out of My Mind Small Great Things The Giver of Stars (similar setting as Book Woman of Troublesome Creek but different story line) The Coddling of the American Mind non fiction but very good and thought provoking Becoming The Nightingale Other favorites: Don't Make me Pull Over A Beautiful Terrible Thing Before I let you Go Secret Life of Ce Ce Wilks Such a Fun Age Things We can not say In Shock 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 A few from our shelves: Cry, the Beloved Country My Antonia Snow Falling on Cedars The Dark is Rising (start on Dec. 20th--right before solstice) The Remains of the Day The Book Thief The Secret Life of Bees 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 30 minutes ago, Spy Car said: Do you enjoy stories about whales? LOL. If not, might I suggest one of Melville's short stories? Bartleby, the Scrivener. So hysterically funny (in its own way). Bill Yeah I’m not sure I’m a Moby Dick gal. But I could try a short. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Nightingale The Lost Girls of Paris Year of wonders Empire of lies 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 1 hour ago, lewelma said: The Luminaries won the Mann Booker prize a few years ago. It is a wonderful (but long) story about the gold rush in NZ in the 1860s. What made it win the Mann Booker prize was that Eleanor Catton set herself an unusual task of having structure dictate plot and characterization. She created 12 characters to represent the star signs and 6 characters to represent the planets. Then took the star alignment of the year the book was set, and wrote the book based on what she was told to do. So if Mars was in Capricorn in that month, those two characters would have to meet in that chapter and the Mars character would influence how how Capricorn's character interacted, so more warlike. Each chapter has the star sign wheel rotate to the next month, and then Catton wrote the plot plot and characterization based on this. Added to this, she required each chapter to be half of the length of the other, starting with 300 pages and ending with 1 page. So once again, forcing external structure on her creativity to see what was possible. My older boy and I had so much fun thinking about how the star signs were impacting the characterization. We learned a lot about star signs! It was wonderfully clever, plus it is a murder mystery set in gold rush times in NZ's South Island and is reasonably historic. Super awesome. But it is long. 🙂 That book has been sitting on my shelf unread for ages... I should pick it up! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 21 minutes ago, Quill said: Yeah I’m not sure I’m a Moby Dick gal. But I could try a short. Moby Dick - don't read it, listen to it. Specifically the William Hootkins narration - it is fantastic. I really expected it to be a slog, but his narration makes it enjoyable! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paige Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 In no order- Americanah The Housekeeper and the Professor Night and Day Vanity Fair Life of Pi Station Eleven Blackout (Connie Willis) 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 You might find some appealing suggestions in this thread ~ What one book have you so enjoyed that you'd like everyone to read, because you want them to share the pleasure? Regards, Kareni 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Just now, Matryoshka said: Moby Dick - don't read it, listen to it. Specifically the William Hootkins narration - it is fantastic. I really expected it to be a slog, but his narration makes it enjoyable! I found this with other audiobooks, too, most notably The Hobbit, which I could never cope with while reading (all those darned songs...) but with a great narrator, it was excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen A Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 I will recommend one of my favorite authors-Wallace Stegner. I can't decide which work is my favorite: Crossing to Safety- story of friendship between two couples, and how they handle what life throws at them. Love, loyalty, ambition, disappointment. Angle of Repose- a retired professor is writing a biography of his grandparents and their experience settling in the West in the 1800s. Both these books are so well written, the characters wonderful but flawed, settings wonderfully contribute to the stories. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 19 minutes ago, Quill said: Yeah I’m not sure I’m a Moby Dick gal. But I could try a short. I have reflected on my initial post recommending Bartleby, the Scrivener, and have come to think that in the phrase "so hysterically funny (in its own way)" that the emphasis should be placed squarely on in its own way. Not purely a comedy. Bill 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: Moby Dick - don't read it, listen to it. Specifically the William Hootkins narration - it is fantastic. I really expected it to be a slog, but his narration makes it enjoyable! There are brief clips of Orson Wells reading from the opening to Moby Dick. If I were as rich as rich as Croesus--and had the advantage of time travel--a portion of my wealth would certainly go toward hiring Wells to read the entire thing. A marvel. Must search for William Hootkins. The books on tape versions I've previewed have not pleased me in the slightest. Bill ETA: Here is how Moby Dick ought to be read aloud: Edited August 20, 2020 by Spy Car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 3 minutes ago, Spy Car said: There are brief clips of Orson Wells reading from the opening to Moby Dick. If I were as rich as rich as Croesus--and had the advantage of time travel--a portion of my wealth would certainly go toward hiring Wells to read the entire thing. A marvel. Must search for William Hootkins. The books on tape versions I've previewed have not pleased me in the slightest. You must, Bill. His delivery and timing are excellent - I really never expected to find myself smiling through so much of it - and it did convince me that Melville indeed has a sly and wicked sense of humor, so I'm looking forward to trying Bartleby! My only complaint is that he somehow doesn't know how to pronounce quahog! A minor quibble, overall... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: You must, Bill. His delivery and timing are excellent - I really never expected to find myself smiling through so much of it - and it did convince me that Melville indeed has a sly and wicked sense of humor, so I'm looking forward to trying Bartleby! My only complaint is that he somehow doesn't know how to pronounce quahog! A minor quibble, overall... I think Melville's fantastically funny sense of humor (sly and wicked is a good characterization on your part) is grossly underappreciated. Bartleby does have its non-comedic side to be sure. I don't want to mislead. And I literally laughed out loud while reading Melville's sea-adventure novel White-Jacket (which also has its very serious side). Perhaps I have a thing for tragicomedies? Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 31 minutes ago, Karen A said: I will recommend one of my favorite authors-Wallace Stegner. I can't decide which work is my favorite: Crossing to Safety- story of friendship between two couples, and how they handle what life throws at them. Love, loyalty, ambition, disappointment. Angle of Repose- a retired professor is writing a biography of his grandparents and their experience settling in the West in the 1800s. Both these books are so well written, the characters wonderful but flawed, settings wonderfully contribute to the stories. I've only read Angle of Repose, but it is excellent. Bill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The master and margaritas has been my most recent fun can’t put down read. mr penumbras 24 hour bookstore is another one from way back that was pretty good. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) Oh Quill, have you read Robert Pen Warren's All the King's Men? Written in the 40's about a populist demagogue (based loosely on Huey Long) but it feels like it could have been written about the politics of our time. To call the novel prescient would be an understatement. Bill Edited August 20, 2020 by Spy Car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 8 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said: The master and margaritas has been my most recent fun can’t put down read. mr penumbras 24 hour bookstore is another one from way back that was pretty good. I must re-read this. The Master and Margarita is one of those novels I read for fun in college that I literally could not put down--forgoing sleep to finish. The novel inspired Mick Jagger to write Sympathy for the Devil. Bit of trivia. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 7 minutes ago, Spy Car said: I must re-read this. The Master and Margarita is one of those novels I read for fun in college that I literally could not put down--forgoing sleep to finish. The novel inspired Mick Jagger to write Sympathy for the Devil. Bit of trivia. Bill I feel like that's one I should re-read at some point. I read it back in college at the suggestion of a friend, and did not really appreciate it - didn't hate it, but didn't feel the love so many others seem to have for it. But I suspect I likely missed something and I should give it another go... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Anything by Edna Ferber. Great American novels. I think So Big is my favorite Hawaii by James Mitchener. This is the first of the Really Long Living Books style studies of a single locale from many points of view over several generations. My Year of Meats. This is one of my modern picks. Just outstanding in every way. As is The Overstory. Pearl Buck is reliably readable and culturally accurate and interesting. My faves are The Good Earth and Imperial Woman. Leon Uris is amazing. Great, exciting novels mostly about the Cold War or Jewish people in Europe and Israel. My absolute favorite of his is Exodus, which is the background, founding, and early history of the modern state of Israel from the perspective of representative fictional characters. My favorite of his Cold War novels is Topaz. There is a series of books about politics and the media that is fairly prescient by Allan Drury, starting with Advise and Consent. Highly recommended for right now. Highly. They were mostly written in the 1960s and 70s I believe, despite the publication dates in Amazon which are of new republished editions. Weirdly enough, I like just about everything that Liane Moriarty has ever written. Not my usual style at all, but very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Matryoshka said: Moby Dick - don't read it, listen to it. Specifically the William Hootkins narration - it is fantastic. I really expected it to be a slog, but his narration makes it enjoyable! Don't hate me--nor do I wish to dissuade anyone--but I've yet to find a book on tape that I could endure, and William Hootkins' Moby Dick is no exception. I don't feel that Hootkins understands how to deliver the lines along the meter that Meville intended. I love hearing works read aloud, my wife is a wonderful reader and I have some talents myself, but listening to what I consider to be awkwardly delivered lines makes me insane. I did run across a Moby Dick audio project where a bunch of great actors divided up the work. Tilda Swinton--who is an actress I deeply admire is so-so (in my admittedly harsh judgement), but Benedict Cumberbatch does a rather good job. If I disappear for a week or so, i've gone to sea. LOL. Bill Edited August 20, 2020 by Spy Car 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Spy Car said: Don't hate me--nor do I wish to dissuade anyone--but I've yet to find a book on tape that I could endure, and William Hootkins' Moby Dick is no exception. I don't feel that Hootkins understands how to deliver the lines along the meter that Meville intended. I love hearing works read aloud, my wife is a wonderful reader and I have some talents myself, but listening to what I consider to be awkwardly delivered lines makes me insane. I did run across a Moby Dick audio project where a bunch of great actors divided up the work. Tilda Swinton--who is an actress I deeply admire is so-so (in my admittedly harsh judgement), but Benedict Cumberbatch does a rather good job. If I disappear for a week or so, i've gone to sea. LOL. Bill LOL, to each their own. I generally love Benedict Cumberbatch, but it sounds very odd to my ear to have a Brit narrating one of the great American novels... Here's a Hootkins sample - I like his delivery, and where he times things; I can hear the snark. Ishmael is snarky. And American. https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks/moby-dick-11.aspx# (You have to click on "Extended Audio Sample" once you get to that link - I couldn't figure out how to embed it like Fancy Bill... 😉 ) Edited August 20, 2020 by Matryoshka 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: LOL, to each their own. I generally love Benedict Cumberbatch, but it sounds very odd to my ear to have a Brit narrating one of the great American novels... Here's a Hootkins sample - I like his delivery, and where he times things; I can hear the snark. Ishmael is snarky. And American. https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks/moby-dick-11.aspx# (You have to click on "Extended Audio Sample" once you get to that link - I couldn't figure out how to embed it like Fancy Bill... 😉 ) My "fancy" link was purely accidental. LOL. I did listen to this sample of William Hootkins--out a sense of due diligence (it was a different sample than I'd heard)--but I found myself "growing grim about the mouth." LOL. I don't think he has a clue as to how these lines ought to be read. All the majesty of the language--some of the greatest lines in the English language--are reduced to sounding like common parlance. Please don't let my opinionated "opininating" (LOL) upset you. Moby Dick is dear to me and I can be a PITA. Bill Edited August 20, 2020 by Spy Car 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 If you enjoy audio books, Enders Shadow (Shadow, not Game) on Audible with several cast members reading was excellent imo. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happi duck Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 A ya novel I loved was Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. My absolute favorite novel is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I also appreciate the "sequel" Go Set a Watchman which is actually more of a lost rough draft. My favorite nonfiction reads like a novel so I'm including it here: Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On forgotten roads with an Indian Elder by Kent Nerburn. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 6 minutes ago, Spy Car said: My "fancy" link was purely accidental. LOL. I did listen to this sample of William Hootkins--out a sense of due diligence (it was a different sample than I'd heard)--but I found myself "growing grim about the mouth." LOL. I don't think he has a clue as to how these lines ought to be read. All the majesty of the language--some of the greatest lines in the English language--are reduced to sounding like common parlance. Please don't let my opinionated "opininating" (LOL) upset you. Moby Dick is dear to me and I can be a PITA. I think part of what I like about it is that he does make it sound like a normal guy telling you a story - but all the beautiful language is still there, it just doesn't sound stuffy. I still found myself often amazed at turns of phrase or some of the poetics used, but at the same time really enjoying being told a tale! I did try to read the text a few times and didn't get past the first couple of chapters because I somehow got bogged down. I'm not sure reading the lines as a British thespian vs an American sailor telling a whale of a tale is necessarily the 'right' way. But this is a work that can obviously be appreciated in many different ways. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 15 minutes ago, happi duck said: A ya novel I loved was Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. My absolute favorite novel is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I also appreciate the "sequel" Go Set a Watchman which is actually more of a lost rough draft. My favorite nonfiction reads like a novel so I'm including it here: Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On forgotten roads with an Indian Elder by Kent Nerburn. Is it true that Atticus Finch is a lout in Go Set a Watchman? I've avoided it on those grounds. Bill 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 David Copperfield Little Women To Kill A Mockingbird Cry, The Beloved Country The Poisonwood Bible The Palace Walk (Those are a few that quickly came to mind!) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 My Antonia, Til We Have Faces, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Read Little, Big by John Crowley, or The Translator by the same author. Selfishly, it's just because I don't KNOW anyone else who has read them and I wanted to have a conversation. If you decide to dip your toe into Romance, we'll talk. 😉 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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