The Books List, Part 14

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

The weather is starting to warm up and Memorial Day is right around the corner! Time for another Books List post, because we are gonna head to the beach and read our little hearts out!

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. Survivor – Chuck Palahniuk

2. Tokyo Travel Sketchbook – Amaia Arrazola

3. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

4. Atonement – Ian McEwan

5. The King in the Tree – Steven Millhauser – read my review: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/08/review-of-king-in-tree-by-steven.html

6. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

7. What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety – Cole Kazdin

8. Marvel 1602 – Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert

9. Bombshells vol. 1: Enlisted – Marguerite Bennett

10. Just After Sunset – Stephen King

11. JLA Earth 2 – Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely

12. The Shifting Tide – Anne Perry

13. The Face of a Stranger – Anne Perry

14. A Dangerous Mourning – Anne Perry

15. Defend and Betray – Anne Perry

16. My Headless Son Fred and His Head Baby Brother Headley: The Curious Tale of Filmon Trout – T. Hudson Roberts

17. Dietland – Sarai Walker

18. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

19. The Mermaid Chair – Sue Monk Kidd

20. All that Remains – Patricia Cornwell

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, Haruki Murakami, 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 Pocket Powter – Susan Powter

2. Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance

3. Lolita -Vladimir Nabokov

4. The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

5. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

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. How We Think – John Dewey

2. Humboldt's Gift – Saul Bellow

3. Humphrey Clinker – Tobias Smollett

4. Hyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin

5. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith

6. I Hate Other People's Kids – Adrianne Frost

7. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

8. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

9. Idyls of the King – Alfred Tennyson

10. If Not Now, When? – Primo Levi

11. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino

12. If This Is a Man – Primo Levi

13. Ignorance – Milan Kundera

14. I'm Not Stiller – Max Frisch

15. Impressions of Africa – Raymond Roussel

16. In a Free State – V.S. Naipaul

17. In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu

18. In a House of Dreams and Glass – Robert Klitzman

19. In Parenthesis – David Jones

20. In Sicily – Elio Vittorini

21. In the Forest – Edna O'Brien

22. In the Heart of the Country – J.M. Coetzee

23. In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan

24. Independent People – Hallidor Laxness

25. Indigo – Marina Warner

26. Inside Mr. Enderby – Anthony Burgess

27. Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi

28. Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino

29. Ironweed – William Kennedy

30. Islands – Dan Sleigh

31. Jack Maggs – Peter Carey

32. Jacob's Room – Virginia Woolf

33. Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot

34. Jahrestage – Uwe Johnson

35. Jazz – Toni Morrison

36. Jealousy – Alain Robbe-Grillet

37. Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding

38. Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne

39. Journey to the End of the Night – Louis Céline

40. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

41. Julie, or The New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

42. July's people – Nadine Gordimer

43. Junkie – William Burroughs

44. Justine – Lawrence Durrell

45. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

46. Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell

47. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

48. King Lear of the Steppes – Ivan Turgenev

49. King Solomon's Mines – H. Rider Haggard

50. Kingdom of this World – Alejo Carpentier

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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-books-list-part-12.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-books-list-part-13-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-dslr-camera-on-white-sand-near-brown-woven-bag-8093191/

The Books List, Part 13: 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

 

Ah, spring! Time for sunshine and rain and flowers and loopy, loopy weather. Nothing will brighten a rainy April shower like curling up with a good book. I bet you'll forget the weather completely! Without further ado, here's another Books List. Maybe you'll find your new favorite below!

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. Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

2. The Great Train Robbery – Michael Crichton

3. The Stories of Eva Luna – Isabel Allende

4. Eat to Live – Dr. Joel Fuhrman

5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – coll. By Alvin Schwartz

6. More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – coll. By Alvin Schwartz

7. Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones – coll. By Alvin Schwartz

8. Draw Your Weapons – Sara Sentilles

9. Sam's Letters to Jennifer – James Patterson

10. How to Learn Any Language – Barry Farber

11. Where the Sidewalk Ends – Shel Silverstein

12. Year of Yes – Shonda Rimes

13. Confessions of a Carb Queen – Susan Blech

14. Cows on Parade in Chicago – Mary Ellen Sullivan

15. Psychology – Carol Wade and Carol Tavris

16. Your Head is a Houseboat – Campbell Walker

17. F*ck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me – Chloé Hilliard

18. The Witches Are Coming – Lindy West

19. Shrill – Lindy West

20. Race Records – Wendy Hayton

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 Elements of Style – William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

2. The Riddle and the Knight – Giles Milton

3. The Story of O – Pauline Réage

4. White Noise – Don deLillo

5. Be More Wonder Woman – Cheryl Rickman

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. Fools of Fortune – William Trevor

2. Forever a Stranger – Hella Haasse

3. Fortunata and Jacinta – Benito Pérez Galdós

4. Foucault's Pendulum – Umberto Eco

5. Foundation – Isaac Asimov

6. Franny and Zooey – J. D. Salinger

7. Fruits of the Earth – André Gide

8. Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels

9. Fury – Salman Rushdie

10. G – John Berger

11. Gabriel's Gift – Hanif Kureishi

12. Gargantua and Pantagruel – François Rabelais

13. Giles Goat-Boy – John Barth

14. Giovanni's Room – James Baldwin

15. Girl with Green Eyes – Edna O'Brien

16. Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis

17. Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner

18. Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick – Peter Handke

19. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater – Kurt Vonnegut

20. Gone – Lisa Gardner

21. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

22. Good Morning, Midnight – Jean Rhys

23. Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood

24. Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake

25. Gösta Berling's Saga – Selma Lagerlöf

26. Great Apes – Will Self

27. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

28. Grimus -Salman Rushdie

29. Group Portrait with Lady – Heinrich Böll

30. Growth of the Soil – Knut Hamsun

31. Hadrian the Seventh – Frederick Rolfe

32. Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Duncker

33. Hangover Square – Patrick Hamilton

34. Hard Times – Charles Dickens

35. Harriet Hume – Rebecca West

36. Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd

37. He Knew He Was Right – Anthony Trollope

38. Hebdomeros – Giorgio di Chirico

39. Henderson the Rain King – Saul Bellow

40. Her Privates We – Frederic Manning

41. Herzog – Saul Bellow

42. Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud

43. High Rise – J. G. Ballard

44. Homo Faber – Max Frisch

45. House Mother Normal – B. S. Johnson

46. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski

47. Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson

48. How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman

49. How It Is – Samuel Beckett

50. How the Dead Live – Will Self

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

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-books-list-part-12.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/book-and-lighted-candle-near-glass-window-13945391/

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/

The Books List, Part Nine

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

As we start to come out of winter, days are getting longer and warmer. Your results may vary, but whether you're reading curled up under a blanket or sitting in the park, it's always 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.

I have written reviews for several of these, for which I will include links within the list, if you are interested in getting more of an in-depth (but spoiler-free) look at the books and my impression of them.

1. The Last Days of Dogtown – Anita Diamant

2. 3^rd Degree – James Patterson and Andrew Gross

3. Step on a Crack – James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

4. Rape: A Love Story – Joyce Carol Oates

5. Uncollected Stories – Kate Chopin

6. You've Been Warned – James Patterson and Howard Roughan

7. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather

8. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living – Trish Riley

9. The Worst Thing I've Done – Ursula Hegi

10. The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene

11. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

12. Duma Key – Stephen King

    Here's my review of Duma Key: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-duma-key-by-stephen-king.html

13. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova

    Here's my review of The Historian: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-historian-by-elizabeth-kostova.html

14. Dali – Paul Moorhouse

15. Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver

    Here's my review of Prodigal Summer: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-prodigal-summer-by-barbara.html

16. Dexter in the Dark – Jeff Lindsay

    Here's my review of Dexter in the Dark: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/01/review-of-dexter-in-dark-by-jeff-lindsay.html

17. Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6^th of a Biliionth of the Planet – James Glave

    Here's my review of Almost Green: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-almost-green-how-i-saved-16th.html

18. Unless – Carol Shields

    Here's my review of Unless: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-unless-novel-by-carol-shields.html

19. Seven Wild Sisters – Charles de Lint

20. Promises to Keep – 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. A Night in Acadie – Kate Chopin

2. A Lost Lady – Willa Cather

3. The Awakening – Kate Chopin

4. The Professor's House – Willa Cather

5. Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

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. Absolute Beginners – Colin MacInnes

2. Ada – Vladimir Nabokov

3. Adam Bede – George Eliot

4. Adjunct: An Undigest – Peter Manson

5. Aesop's Fables – Aesopus

6. After the Death of Don Juan – Sylvia T. Warner

7. After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC - Steven Mithen

8. After the Quake – Haruki Murakami

9. Against the Grain – Joris-Karl Huysmans

10. Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte

11. Aithiopika – Heliodorus

12. Albert Angelo – B.S. Johnson

13. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood

14. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

15. All About H. Hatterr – G.V. Desani

16. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Remarque

17. All Souls Day – Cees Nooteboom

18. Amateurs – Donald Barthelme

19. Amelia – Henry Fielding

20. American Gods – Neil Gaiman

21. Amerika – Franz Kafka

22. Amok – Stefan Zweig

23. Amongst Women – John McGahern

24. Amsterdam – Ian McEwan

25. An Anthropologist on Mars – Oliver Sacks

26. An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro

27. An Obedient Father – Akhil Sharma

28. Anagrams – Lorrie Moore

29. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

30. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City – Nick Flynn

31. Another World – Pat Barker

32. Anthem – Ayn Rand

33. Antic Hay – Aldous Huxley

34. Arcadia – Jim Crace

35. Arcanum 17 – Andre Breton

36. Ariel – Lawrence Block

37. Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne

38. Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe

39. As If I Am Not There – Slavenka Drakulic

40. Asphodel – H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

41. At Swim, Two Boys – Jamie O'Neill

42. August is a Wicked Month – Edna O'Brien

43. Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald

44. Auto-Da-Fe – Elias Canett

45. Autumn of the Patriarch – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

46. Back – Henry Green

47. Battlefield Earth – L. Ron Hubbard

48. Bel-Ami – Guy de Maupassant

49. Belle de Seigneur – Albert Cohen

50. Ben-Hur – Lew Wallace

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 any, here are the other books 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

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

Image from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-plant-on-white-ceramic-pot-4153146/

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

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 17^th 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/