Reading List Suggestions Anyone?

[The empressof all]

I will not be working this summer and plan to spend quite a bit of time potted under a tree reading. I need suggestions! Nothing Political please I do that already on my own. I am ashamed to say I haven't read a novel since the DaVinci Code (which I loved). My favorite authors are Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy. I am also not adverse to trash.

So what should I read?

[Robb]

1. Anything by Don Delillo

...my favorite is "White Noise", about a small-town university's Professor of Hitler Studies. Brilliant and funny.

Also in the brilliant section but much, much more funny is "Good Omens". Think the Apocalypse as envisioned by Douglas Adams. :)

[PragMantisT]

2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

It's great reading when it's hot.

Or some Steinbeck. Travels with Charley, Grapes of Wrath, The Moon is Down, East of Eden. I love them all.

[The empressof all]

5. done those

I read through alot of the classics when I was pregnant and home with the child. I'm looking for more current and preferably "happy" reads.---I don't want to have to think too much. :)

[Badger1]

3. Suggestions

Just re-read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Foregot what a great book it was. Also recently read an old Vincent Bugliosi novel, And The Sea Will Tell, also very good read.

[arbusto_baboso]

4. If you're a fan of good fantasy fiction...

Then anything by Dennis Lawhead is good. Good stories, and a real antidote for politics, since they tend to restore your faith in humanity. The Pendragon cycle series is good, as are the Celtic Crusades.

[underpants]

6. David Sedaris has a new book out

I have heard some very good things about it here on DU-all his other books have been hilarious. I will be getting a copy on Friday.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2004-06-14-sedaris_x.htm

[Loki]

7. Read this one last summer

and couldn't put it down

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. The story of Isaac Cline who was the chief weatherman for Texas in 1900 at the beginning of the US Weather Service , and the storm he wasn't able to predict that wiped out Galveston and was the deadliest storm to hit the US in the last century.

[Richardo]

20. Isaac's Storm is one of my favorites...

Good call, Loki! :thumbsup:

[Kid_A]

8. I just finished "The Stand" by Stephen King...

It's a huge, 1000+ page tome, but it's also a quick read considering the size. Highly recommended.

If you liked "Da Vinci Code" then you might like Dan Brown's other stuff, or "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", which is a non-fiction book about the same things in Da Vinci Code.

But my all-time favorite book is "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene.

[skypilot]

9. "The Virgin Suicides"

Skip the movie if you havent' seen it yet. The book is compelling and beautifully written.

[The empressof all]

10. Feminist/Women's Literature?

Is it still out there? What's current?

[tigereye]

43. saw an article in the NYT Sunday

about two books about male/female sex roles written by a married couple.

One is "The Bitch in the House" and the other is "The Bastard on the Couch." Sounded kind of interesting.

Note these are actual book titles.

[punpirate]

11. I would suggest almost anything by Richard Powers...

... and if you can find a copy, A Confederacy of Dunces.

If you'd like a little modern-day horror, you might try Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child.

If you like Marge Piercy, you also might like Eudora Welty. I particularly like The Ponder Heart which is fanciful and full of Southern manners.

Many good books out there. Do enjoy your summer reading.

[The empressof all]

12. I loved Confederacy of the Dunces.

My SO just finished it after years of my prodding. I like Welty as well though I get tired of the southern thing.

[HuckleB]

13. Borges, Cortazar, Fuentes, Italo Calvino, Juan Carlos Onetti...

Bruno Schulz,
Jorge Icaza...

ummmmm....

The Dog Fighter by Marc Bojanowski

[iconoclastic cat]

14. Everything by Hunter S. Thompson!

Support him in any way possible. Start with The Rum Diary. Also, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.

[HuckleB]

18. Definitely Bulgakov, if you haven't read him yet.

Or even reread it, if you haven't read the newer translation. It rocks!

[iconoclastic cat]

26. His novel, "The White Guard" is great, too.

But M&M is mandatory.

[Kellanved]

15. Neal Stephenson: "The Baroque Cycle"

"Quicksilver" and "The Confusion

Granted, Stephenson comes from the geek department, but the books are far better history lessons than the "DaVinci Code".

Always worth reading:
Haffner "Defying Hiter"
Mann: "The Patrioteer"

[RiffRandell]

16. Here's a few

The Secret History--Donna Tartt

The Center of Everything---Laura Moriarty

She's Come Undone--wally Lamb

About the Author---John Colapinto

[HuckleB]

17. Oh, lighter stuff.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
My Name Is Aram by William Saroyan (anything by Saroyan, really)
The Best of Plimpton by George Plimpton

of course there's Nick Hornby, or for a look into the male mind via poetry, check out Tony Hoagland... (these guys are honest. they pound on us men.)

I would still recommend Bruno Schulz' "Street of Crocodiles" and a collection of short stories by Fuentes.

Enjoy.

[Richardo]

19. I just finished "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen. Two thumbs up.

Ostensibly a book for "younger audiences", it holds up for us adult readers as well. It's just as weird, funny, and environmentally-friendly as any other of his books, only no swearing or sex. And a VERY satisfying ending.

And all for $8.95!

I highly recommend it.

[ACK]

21. From my top ten list of novels

Favorite Books

1. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
3. The Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
6. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
7. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
8. Deliverance by James Dickey
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
10. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

[noonwitch]

22. "The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice

You will not be able to put it down while you are reading it. Don't bother with any of the sequels.

[neverborn]

30. Lies. Also read "Lasher" and "Taltos"

[HuckleB]

23. Have you read Mary Stewart, Laura Esquivel, Julia Alvarez, Katherine Dunn

Jeanette Winterson (The Passion is a must read) or Marion Zimmer Bradley?

All great authors, IMHO!

:)

[The empressof all]

27. OOOOOOH

Checked the Passion out on Amazon and it looks right up my alley. Hope it gets here before Bill's book.

Thanks

[methinks2]

24. anything by Laurell Hamilton

[Bridget Burke]

25. "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis

Oxford-based time-traveling scholars are gathering data for the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. They must find the Bishop's Bird Stump. They must return the *** which, impossibly, has been brought to the future. All while fighting Time Lag.

A bit of near-future Oxford, a touch of the Blitz & a long trip through upper-class Victorian England at its most absurd. It's science fiction, mystery, romance & comedy. Very literate & witty.

Willis sent more Oxford time-travelers back in "Doomsday Book" which is also excellent. However, the Black Death was not so amusing a period.

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. The Lovely Bones...Alice Sebold. Heartbreaking but an interesting

twist on the after life. If you have a 14 year oldish daughter it will kill you though.

[The empressof all]

29. I do have a 13 year old

And this one did kill me. My eyes were red for days.

[JVS]

31. Nabakov's Lolita is a good read.

If you have a lot of time on your hands you might want to read Sholokhov's "And quiet flows the Don" and its sequel "The Don flows home to the sea"

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. I'm always up for plugging

my reading website. *g*

http://curvynovels.com/

[The empressof all]

40. extraordinary

This is a wonderful resource and friendly to those of us who are more than ordinary. Thanks

[Beaverhausen]

33. You will probably like Barbara Kingsolver

Hard to pick a favorite of hers but I loved Prodigal Summer and Poisonwood Bible (that one is pretty heavy but amazing)
Rreally great fun ones of hers are Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven.

[2bfree]

34. I second that!

I love Kingsolver. The Bean Trees and Poisenwood Bible are my favorites. I would also add The Secret Life of Bees and Middlesex.

[Beaverhausen]

36. I just finished Secret Life of Bees

it was wonderful! :hi:

[The empressof all]

38. This is on my list

My sister said it was terrific and she popped it in the mail for me.

[indigo32]

35. Have you read any of Erika Lopez's books?

completely irreverent and hilarious.

[The empressof all]

37. She'll be a definite purchase for the summer

Thanks

[Speck Tater]

39. Red Thunder

A funny, suspenseful thriller about a band of misfits who build a ship to be the first people to reach Mars.

by John Varley

From Amazon review: "Seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out of old tanker cars. The plan is to beat the Chinese to Mars--in under four days at three million miles an hour. It would be history in the making if it didn't sound so insane."

[Westegg]

41. My fave women authors include:

Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf.

[Bonhomme Richard]

42. A Walk in the Woods................

written by Bill Bryson. Fun and light reading about hiking the Appalachian Trail. He's a funny writer.