Saturday, May 8, 2021

The Books List, Part Seven


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

Ah, spring! Nice enough to get outside for reading on the porch, a hammock, or what-have-you. 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. Stolen Lives: 20 Years in a Desert Jail – Malika Oufkir

  2. Affluenza – John de Graaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor

  3. YOU: The Owner's Manual – Dr. Mark Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz

  4. Shotgun Alley – Andrew Klavan

  5. Damnation Street – Andrew Klavan

  6. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

  7. The Consumers' Guide to Effective Environmental Choices- Michael Brower and Warren Leon

  8. The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean Auel

  9. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

  10. Widdershins – Charles de Lint

  11. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman

  12. Phobias and How to Overcome Them – Gardner and Bell

  13. The Dress Lodger – Sheri Holman

  14. Howard's End – E.M. Forster

  15. London Bridges – James Patterson

  16. Beach Road – James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

  17. Judge and Jury – James Patterson

  18. Someplace to Be Flying – Charles de Lint

  19. Right, Wrong, and Risky – Mark Davidson

  20. Forests of the Heart – Charles de Lint


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.

  1. Everything Bad is Good for You – Steven Johnson

  2. Cell – Stephen King

  3. Lisey's Story – Stephen King

  4. Silent Partner – Stephen Frey

  5. The Deep End of the Ocean – Jacquelyn Mitchard


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. Evil – Lance Morrow

  2. Moon Pies and Movie Stars – Amy Wallen

  3. The Untouchable – John Banville

  4. Killing Time – Linda Howard

  5. Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress – Susan Jane Gilman

  6. Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen

  7. The Painted Veil – W. Somerset Maugham

  8. Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maquire

  9. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed – Alan Alda

  10. The Devil of Nanking – Mo Hayder

  11. Gods in Alabama – Joshilyn Jackson

  12. Early Bird – Rodney Rothman

  13. A Long Way Down – Nick Hornby

  14. Soapsuds – Finola Hughes and Digby Diehl

  15. You Shall Know Our Velocity – Dave Eggers

  16. The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow

  17. American Pastoral – Philip Roth

  18. Apointment in Samarra – John O'Hara

  19. Loving – Henry Green

  20. Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis

  21. Money – Martin Amis

  22. The Assistant – Bernard Malamud

  23. At Swim-Two-Birds – Flann O'Brien

  24. The Berlin Stories – Christopher Isherwood

  25. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler

  26. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood

  27. Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

  28. The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Thornton Wilder

  29. The Movie Goer – Walker Percy

  30. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

  31. The Painted Bird – Jerzy Kosinski

  32. A House for Mr. Biswas – V.S. Naipaul

  33. I, Claudius – Robert Graves

  34. Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace

  35. Ubik – Philip K. Dick

  36. Undre the Net – Iris Murdoch

  37. Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry

  38. Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

  39. White Noise – Dan DeLillo

  40. White Teeth – Zadie Smith

  41. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

  42. Call It Sleep – Henry Roth

  43. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

  44. Play It as It Lays – Joan Didion

  45. A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

  46. Portnoy's Complaint – Philip Roth

  47. The Confessions of Nat Turner – William Styron

  48. The Corrections – Jonathan Frantzen

  49. The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon

  50. A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell


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

In case you missed the prior lists, here and the handy links: 

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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html


Image from Freepik https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/stack-red-green-books-with-dry-flowers-pink-warm-knitted-sweater_13820266.htm#page=1&query=books&position=5

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