Thursday, November 26, 2020

The Books List, Part Six


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

It's Thanksgiving, we're still having a pandemic, and so many of us are staying at home instead of traveling. Clearly it's time for another books list! 

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. Flesh and Blood – Jonathan Kellerman

  2. Twisted – Jonathan Kellerman

  3. The Beach House – James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

  4. Double Homicide – Faye and Jonathan Kellerman

  5. A Year in the Merde – Stephen Clarke

  6. Naked in Baghdad – Anne Garrels

  7. I'm a Stranger Here Myself – Bill Bryson

  8. How Did They Die? - Norman and Betty Donaldson

  9. Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin

  10. Therapy – Jonathan Kellerman

  11. A Separate Peace – John Knowles

  12. Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

  13. Made in America – Bill Bryson

  14. Beloved – Toni Morrison

  15. Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis

  16. The Optimist's Guide to History – Doris Flexner

  17. O. Henry Festival Stories 1991

  18. The Biggest Loser – The Biggest Loser Experts and Cast

  19. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking – Malcolm Gladwell

  20. After Life – John Edward


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. Strange Highways – Dean Koontz

  2. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower – Stephen King

  3. The Beans of Egypt, Maine – Carolyn Chute

  4. The Camel Club – David Baldacci

  5. Fat Land – Greg Critser


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. Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer

  2. Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantes

  3. The Pilgrim's Proress – John Bunyan

  4. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel DeFoe

  5. Moll Flanders – Daniel DeFoe

  6. Tom Jones – Henry Fielding

  7. Candide – Voltaire

  8. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  9. The Tragedy of Faust – Johann von Goethe

  10. The Lady of the Lake – Sir Walter Scott

  11. Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott

  12. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

  13. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

  14. The Red and the Black – Stendhal

  15. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

  16. Carmen – Prosper Merimee

  17. The Thomas Berryman Number – James Patterson

  18. Season of the Machete - James Patterson

  19. Hide and Seek - James Patterson

  20. Miracle on the 17th Green - James Patterson

  21. See How They Run - James Patterson

  22. Black Friday - James Patterson

  23. Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas - James Patterson

  24. Sam's Letters to Jennifer - James Patterson

  25. Santa Kid - James Patterson

  26. High Fidelity – Nick Hornby

  27. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment – James Patterson

  28. Jack and Jill - James Patterson

  29. Pop Goes the Weasel - James Patterson

  30. Roses Are Red - James Patterson

  31. Violets Are Blue - James Patterson

  32. Four Blind Mice - James Patterson

  33. The Big Bad Wolf - James Patterson

  34. Your Life in the Palm of Your Hand – Kathryn Harwig

  35. The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins

  36. Boffo! - Peter Bart

  37. Rejuvenile – Christopher Noxon

  38. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash – Elizabeth Royte

  39. Edwin Mullhouse – Steven Millhauser

  40. The Voyage of the Beagle – Charles Darwin

  41. Relativity: The Special and General Theory – Albert Einstein

  42. One, Two, Three...Infinity – George Gamow

  43. What Is Life? - Erwin Schrodinger

  44. The Cosmic Connection – Carl Sagan

  45. The Feynman Lectures on Physics – Richard Feynman

  46. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male – Alfred Kinsey at al

  47. The Poe Shadow – Matthew Pearl

  48. A Twist at the End – Steven Saylor

  49. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans – Luis Verissimo

  50. The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl


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


Please check out the other books lists, if you haven't already: 

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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

Some reviews I've written: 

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


Image from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/photos/knowledge-book-library-glasses-1052014/


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