The Books List, Part Five

20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

With fall just around the corner, it's time to hit the books! But if you aren't in school, you get to choose yours, at least. Clearly, it's 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.

1. Freakonomics – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

2. Man and Wife – Andrew Klavan

3. Texas Hold 'Em – Kinky Friedman

4. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit – Lawrence Block

5. All the King's Men – Robert Penn Warren

6. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World – A.J. Jacobs

7. Native Son – Richard Wright

8. The Uncanny – Andrew Klavan

9. The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

10. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

11. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom

12. Mary Mary – James Patterson

13. He's Just Not that Into You – Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

14. Monster – Jonathan Kellerman

15. Dr. Death – Jonathan Kellerman

16. All I Did Was Ask – Terry Gross

17. The Jester – James Patterson and Andrew Gross

18. The Lake House – James Patterson

19. Never-Say-Diet Book – Richard Simmons

20. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett

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 deLint 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.

1. The Woman's Book of Questions – Sophia Mark

2. The Worst Noel – ed. by Marjorie Braman

3. Siren's Lullaby – William Kennedy

4. Incredible Facts – Richard Manchester

5. The Devil's Code – John Sandford

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:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. 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).

1. In the Ruins – Kate Elliott (book series – continued from prior list)

2. Crown of Stars – Kate Elliott

3. The Great Deluge – Douglas Brinkley

4. Never Done – Susan Strasser

5. The Foreigner's Gift – Fouad Ajami

6. In a Strange City – Laura Lippman

7. All Families Are Psychotic – Douglas Coupland

8. Bookmark Now – Ed. by Kevin Smokler

9. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing – Melissa Bank

10. The Wonder Spot – Melissa Bank

11. I Hate the Man Who Runs This Bar – Eugene Chadbourne

12. Don't Get Too Comfortable – David Rakoff

13. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs – Ken Jennings

14. Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! - Bob Harris

15. Female Chauvinist Pigs – Ariel Levy

16. To Hell with All That – Caitlin Flanagan

17. This Book Will Save Your Life – A.M. Holmes

18. Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl

19. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield

20. The Devil in the Junior League – Linda Francis Lee

21. Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn

22. Insecure at Last – Eve Ensler

23. Freedom: The Story of My Second Life – Malika Oufkir

24. Last Seen Leaving – Kelly Braffet

25. Mortified – Ed. by David Nadelberg

26. One Good Turn – Kate Atkinson

27. The Worst-Case Scenario History Almanac – Borgenicht, Piven, Marchant

28. The Ten-Minute Activist: Easy Ways to Take Back the Planet – The Mission Collective

29. At Day's Close; Night in Times Past – A. Roger Ekrich

30. A Room of One's Own – Virginia Woolf

31. Skinny Legs and All – Tom Robbins

32. A Wild Sheep Chase – Haruki Murakami

33. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife – Mary Roach

34. Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet – Chris Spence

35. Climate Change Begins at Home – Dave Reay

36. Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life – Allen Shawn

37. The Age of Missing Information – Bill McKibben

38. The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs

39. The Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian

40. I Am the Cheese – Robert Cormier

41. Holes – Louis Sachar

42. Back When We Were Grownups – Anne Tyler

43. If I Ever Return, Pretty Peggy-O – Sharyn McCrumb

44. The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger

45. The Iliad – Homer

46. The Odyssey – Homer

47. The Aeneid – Virgil

48. Beowulf – unknown

49. The Divine Comedy – Dante Alghieri

50. The Travels of Marco Polo – Marco Polo

The other lists:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

Some actual book reviews:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/review-of-honeymooners-cautionary-tale.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-almost-green-how-i-saved-16th.html

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read.

Image from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/leaves-books-color-coffee-cup-1076307/