20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List
The
pandemic isn't over, and summer reading season is just getting under
way, so it's definitely time for another Books List post!
My
likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me
things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily
recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in
which I read them.
- The Little Friend – Donna Tartt
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
- Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes – Chris Crutcher
- Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel – Mike Chinn
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
- Gulliver's Travels – Jonathan Swift
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
- Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser
- The Weight of It: A Story of Two Sisters – Amy Wilensky
- Athletic Shorts: 6 Short Stories – Chris Crutcher
- Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road (And Other Lies I Tell My Children) – Susan Konig
- Ironman – Chris Crutcher
- Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
- Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
- Whale Talk – Chris Crutcher
- Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
- Animal Farm – George Orwell
- The Color Purple – Alice Walker
- Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy
- Funny in Farsi – Firoozeh Dumas
My
meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons
– some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do
it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in
some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I
like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret
Atwood, Charles de Lint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those
authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show
up here, as well.
- Childhood's End – Arthur C. Clarke
- The Midnight Club – James Patterson
- The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
- The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles
- The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
My
Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a
reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the
reasons they made it onto my list:
- They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;
- They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or
- I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.
#1
can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for
me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as
it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may
vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks
of stuff by author (apologies).
- Along Came a Spider – James Patterson
- The Waste Land – T.S. Eliot
- Blue Blood – Ed Conlon
- Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch – Hollis Gillespie
- Eats, Shoots, and Leaves – Lynne Truss
- The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
- Red, Red, Robin – Stephen Gallagher
- Paradise Lost – John Milton
- Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
- The Alienist – Caleb Carr
- Mr. Spaceman – Robert Olen Butler
- The Partner – John Grisham
- When the Music's Over: My Journey into Schizophrenia – Ross Burke
- The Book of Dead Birds – Gayle Brandeis
- Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
- A Canticle for Liebowitz – Walter Miller, Jr.
- The Postman – David Brin
- Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
- I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
- Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
- Brown Girl in the Ring – Nalo Hopkinson
- Numbered Accounts – Christopher Reich
- Blackburn – Bradley Denton
- The American Way of Dying – Jessica Mitford
- Him Her Him Again The End of Him – Patricia Marx
- The Spellman Files – Lisa Lutz
- Then We Came to the End – Joshua Ferris
- Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War- Tara McKelvey
- Swim to Me – Betsy Carter
- The Big Turnoff – Ellen Currey-Wilson
- Mystery Walk – Robert McCammon
- The Strangers – Mort Castle
- When Science Goes Wrong – Simon LeVay
- Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever – James Patterson
- Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports - James Patterson
- Maximum Ride: The Final Warning - James Patterson
- Sundays at Tiffany's - James Patterson
- Sail - James Patterson
- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson
- The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God – Carl Sagan
- The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
- Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life – Amy Krouse Rosenthal
- Bee Season – Myla Goldberg
- A Primate's Memoir – Robert Sapolsky
- Almost Human – Shirley C. Strum
- King's Dragon – Kate Elliott
- Prince of Dogs - Kate Elliott
- The Burning Stone - Kate Elliott
- Child of Flame - Kate Elliott
- The Gathering Storm - Kate Elliott
The
other lists:
Some
actual book reviews:
That's
all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about
things you might like to read.
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