The Books List, Part 12

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

The days are starting to get longer, and there's nothing like sitting in a sunny window to read. 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. Brother Odd – Dean Koontz

2. The Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome – Doreen Virtue

3. Speed – Mark Harris

4. MAD about the Sixties – MAD Magazine

5. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer

6. FU, Penguin – Matthew Gasteier

7. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer

8. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder – Jodi Picoult

9. Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman? - Allan Heinberg/Terry and Rachel Dodson

10. Justice Society, vol. 2 - asstd

11. Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story – Peter Bagge

12. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits – Laila Lalami

13. Eva Luna – Isabel Allende

14. Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race – Debby Irving

15. Hunger – Roxane Gay

16. DC Comics Backstories: Wonder Woman, Amazon Warrior – Steve Korté

17. Locke and Key, vol. 6: Alpha & Omega – Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez

18. The Pushcart Prize, IX: Best of the Small Presses – ed. By Bill Henderson

19. The Innocent Man – John Grisham

20. The Numbers Game – Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot

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. Boston Darkens – Michael Kravitz – I reviewed it https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-review-of-boston-darkens-by-michael.html

2. The Nose – Nikolai Gogol

3. They Who Do Not Grieve – Sia Figiel

4. Tales from a Traveling Couch – Robert Akeret

5. The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words – Anu Garg

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. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K. Dick

2. Doctor Faustus – Thomas Mann

3. Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

4. Dog Soldiers – Robert Stone

5. Don't Move – Margaret Mazzantini

6. Downriver – Iain Sinclair

7. Dracula – Bram Stoker

8. Drop City – T. Coraghessan Boyle

9. Drunkard – Émile Zola

10. Dusklands – J. M. Coetzee

11. Effi Briest – Theodor Fontane

12. Elective Affinities – Johann von Göethe

13. Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq

14. Elizabeth Costello – J. M. Coetzee

15. Embers – Sandor Marai

16. Émile, or On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

17. Empire of the Sun – J. G. Ballard

18. Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

19. England Made Me – Graham Greene

20. Enigma of Arrival – V. S. Naipal

21. Erewhon – Samuel Butler

22. Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

23. Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac

24. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly

25. Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen

26. Evelina – Fanny Burney

27. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Foer

28. Everything You Need – A. L. Kennedy

29. Exercises in Style – Raymond Queneau

30. Extinction – Thomas Bernhard

31. Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley

32. Faces in the Water – Janet Frame

33. Falconer – John Cheever

34. Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry

35. Fanny Hill – John Cleland

36. Fantômas – Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre

37. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

38. Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler

39. Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession – Kulick, Meneley

40. Fateless – Imre Kertesz

41. Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev

42. Fear – L. Ron Hubbard

43. Fear and Trembling – Amelie Nothomb

44. Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

45. Felicia's Journey – William Trevor

46. Ficciones – Jose Luis Borges

47. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters

48. Flaubert's Parrot – Julian Barnes

49. Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives – Helen O'Neill

50. Foe – J. M. Coetzee

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these 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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-books-list-part-11-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-reading-a-book-on-a-couch-5490056/

The Books List, Part 11: 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

 

Time for another Books List post! Curl up by the fire (or the fan, depending on the season) and enjoy (or avoid) these titles:

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. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison

2. The Engish Patient – Michael Ondaatje

3. Making Money – Terry Pratchett

4. The Secrets of Harry Bright – Joseph Wambaugh

5. Bloody Mary – J.A. Konrath – read my review! https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2025/12/book-review-ja-konraths-murder-mystery.html

6. Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? - Peter Walsh

7. Whiskey Sour – J.A. Konrath

8. Not Buying It – Judith Levine

9. It's All Too Much – Peter Walsh

10. Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver

11. A Son of the Circus – John Irving

12. Nightmares and Dreamscapes – Stephen King

13. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas – Tom Robbins – I wrote about how good the writing is, here https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-best-in-writing-half-asleep-in-frog.html

14. The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb

15. Obsession – Jonathan Kellerman

16. Post Mortem – Patricia Cornwell

17. The Target – Catherine Coulter

18. True Detectives – Jonathan Kellerman

19. Hemlock Bay – Catherine Coulter

20. Forever Odd – Dean Koontz

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. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer

2. Life After Death – Elizabeth Hanley

3. The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold

4. The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker

5. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis

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. Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee

2. Cigarettes – Harry Mathews

3. City of God – E.L. Doctorow

4. City Primeval – Elmore Leonard

5. City Sister Silver – Jachym Topol

6. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

7. Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks

8. Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard

9. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

10. Come Back, Dr. Caligari – Donald Barthelme

11. Coming Up for Air – George Orwell

12. Complicity – Iain Banks

13. Concrete – Thomas Bernhard

14. Concrete Island – J.G. Ballard

15. Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

16. Confessions – Jean-Jaques Rousseau

17. Contact – Carl Sagan

18. Correction – Thomas Bernhard

19. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell

20. Crash – J.G. Ballard

21. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

22. Critique of Pure Reason – Immanuel Kant

23. Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley

24. Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton

25. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson

26. Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg

27. DSM-IV Made Easy – James Morrison

28. Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre de Laclos

29. Dangling Man – Saul Bellow

30. Daniel Deronda – George Eliot

31. Dark as the Grave wherein My Friend Is Laid – Malcolm Lowry

32. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

33. Das Kapital – Karl Marx

34. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

35. Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

36. Dead Air – Iain Banks

37. Dead Babies – Martin Amis

38. Death in Venice – Thomas Mann

39. Death Sentence – Maurice Blanchot

40. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh

41. Deliverance – James Dickey

42. Delta of Venus – Anais Nin

43. Diary of a Nobody – George and Weedon Grossmith

44. Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavic

45. Dining on Stones – Iain Sinclair

46. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams

47. Disappearance – David Dabydeen

48. Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee

49. Disobedience – Alberto Moravia

50. Dispatches – Michael Herr

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these 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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/a-book-book-gift-heart-gift-read-1760998/