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 10

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

Hello, friends! We are well into spring, now (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), and the weather is still pretty changeable. Nights are still a bit chilly, so curl up and get cozy with a nice book! 

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. The Known World – Edward P. Jones

2. Book of the Dead – Patricia Cornwell

3. Honeymoon – James Patterson

4. Gone – Jonathan Kellerman

5. A Case of Need – Michael Crichton

6. 4^th of July – James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

7. 5^th Horseman - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

8. Timeline – Michael Crichton

9. 1^st to Die – James Patterson

10. The 6^th Target - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

11. 7^th Heaven - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

12. Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words – Bill Bryson

13. Twilight – Stephenie Meyer

14. Joplin's Ghost – Tananarive Due

15. Um...Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean – Michael Erard

16. Glamour's Big Book of Dos and Don'ts

17. Handling Sin – Michael Malone

18. The King of Torts – John Grisham

19. Hints and Tips to Make Life Easier – Reader's Digest

20. Life Expectancy – 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. 2^nd Chance – James Patterson and Andrew Gross

2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks

   I wrote a review of this one that explains my issues with it: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-of-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for.html

3. An American Tragedy – Theodore Dreiser

4. The Darkest Evening of the Year – Dean Koontz

5. Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul

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. Between the Acts – Virginia Woolf

2. Billiards at Half-Past Nine – Heinrich Boll

3. Billy Bathgate – E.L. Doctorow

4. Billy Budd – Herman Melville

5. Billy Liar – Keith Waterhouse

6. Birds of America – Lorrie Moore

7. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

8. Black Dogs – Ian McEwan

9. Black Like Me – John G. Howard

10. Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates

11. Blind Man with a Pistol – Chester Himes

12. Blindness – Henry Green

13. Blonde – Joyce Carol Oates

14. Blood and Guts in High School – Kathy Acker

15. Blue of Noon – Georges Bataille

16. Bonjour Tristesse – Francoise Sagan

17. Boomsday – Christopher Buckley

18. Born in Exile – George Gissing

19. Born to Rebel – Frank Sullaway

20. Borstal Boy – Brendan Behan

21. Bouvard and Pecuchet – Gustave Flaubert

22. Boy Still Missing – John Searles

23. Breakfast at Tiffany's – Truman Capote

24. Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut

25. Brighton Rock – Graham Greene

26. Broken April – Ismail Kadare

27. Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton

28. Burger's Daughter – Nadine Gordimer

29. Burmese Days – George Orwell

30. By the Open Sea – August Strindberg

31. Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham

32. Camilla – Fanny Burney

33. Camille – Alexandre Dumas

34. Cancer Ward – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

35. Cane – Jean Toomer

36. Cannery Row – John Steinbeck

37. Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres

38. Casino Royale – Ian Fleming

39. Castle Rackrent – Maria Edgeworth

40. Castle Richmond – Anthony Trollope

41. Cat and Mouse – Gunter Grass

42. Cat's Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

43. Caught – Henry Green

44. Cause for Alarm – Eric Ambler

45. Cecilia – Fanny Burney

46. Celestial Harmonies – Peter Esterhazy

47. Chaireas and Kallirhoe – Chariton

48. Chocky – John Wyndham

49. Choke – Chuck Palahniuk

50. Christ Stopped at Eboli – Carlo Levi

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. Here is a link to The Books List, part 9: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

and here are links to 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

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

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 Eight

 

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

The COVID 19 pandemic rages on, as we go into the third weary year. Time to curl up inside and ring in the new year right with 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. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

2. The Onion Girl – Charles de Lint

3. Spiritwalk – Charles de Lint

4. The Wild Wood – Charles de Lint

5. Please Don't Come Back from the Moon – Dean Bakopoulos

6. At Risk – Stella Rimington

7. Waifs and Strays – Charles de Lint

8. Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World – Leah Hager-Cohen

9. Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death – Jessica Sachs

10. YOU on a Diet – Dr. Mark Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz

11. The Rice Diet Report – Jusy Moscovitz

12. The Key to Midnight – Dean Koontz

13. The Husband – Dean Koontz

14. The Good Guy – Dean Koontz

15. At Fault – Kate Chopin

16. Still Summer – Jacquelyn Mitchard

17. The Quickie – James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge - Click here to read my review:  https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-james-pattersons-quickie.html

18. Bayou Folk – Kate Chopin

19. The Working Poor: Invisible in America – David K. Shipler

20. Kim – Rudyard Kipling

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. Lifeguard – James Patterson and Andrew Gross

2. The Vision – Dean Koontz

3. Rage – Jonathan Kellerman

4. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

5. The Turn of the Screw – Henry James

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. The Day of the Locust – Nathanael West

2. Possession – A.S. Byatt

3. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark

4. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

5. Why People Believe Weird Things – Michael Shermer

6. Predator – Patricia Cornwell

7. Blow Fly – Patricia Cornwell

8. Black Notice - Patricia Cornwell

9. Point of Origin- Patricia Cornwell

10. Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell

11. Cause of Death - Patricia Cornwell

12. From Potter's Field - Patricia Cornwell

13. The Body Farm - Patricia Cornwell

14. Body of Evidence - Patricia Cornwell

15. Night – Elie Wiesel

16. Where Are You Now? - Mary Higgins Clark

17. Scarpetta – Patricia Cornwell

18. Your Heart Belongs to Me – Dean Koontz

19. A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul

20. A Boy's Own Story – Edmund White

21. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

22. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court – Mark Twain

23. A Day Off – Storm Jameson

24. A Disaffection – James Kelman

25. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

26. A Ghost at Noon – Alberto Moravia

27. A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh

28. A Heart So White – Javier Marias

29. A High Wind in Jamaica – Richard Hughes

30. A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham

31. A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines

32. A Maggot – John Fowles

33. A Man Asleep – Georges Perec

34. A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro

35. A Patchwork Planet – Anne Tyler

36. A Question of Power – Bessie Head

37. A Room with a View – E.M. Forster

38. A Scot's Lair (Sunset Song) – Lewis Gibbon

39. A Sentimental Journey – Laurence Sterne

40. A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch

41. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

42. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again – D.F. Wallace

43. A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift

44. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

45. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

46. A Void/Avoid – Georges Perec

47. A Woman's Life- Guy de Maupassant

48. A World of Love – Elizabeth Bowen

49. A Year in Japan – Kate T. Williamson

50. Aaron's Rod – D.H. Lawrence

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

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

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/coffee-food-drink-hottest-leaves-3025022/

 

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/

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/

The Books List, Part Four

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

The pandemic isn't over, and summer reading season is just getting under way, so it's definitely 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. The Little Friend – Donna Tartt
2. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
3. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes – Chris Crutcher
4. Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel – Mike Chinn
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
6. Gulliver's Travels – Jonathan Swift
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser
9. The Weight of It: A Story of Two Sisters – Amy Wilensky
10. Athletic Shorts: 6 Short Stories – Chris Crutcher
11. Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road (And Other Lies I Tell My Children) – Susan Konig
12. Ironman – Chris Crutcher
13. Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
14. Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
15. Whale Talk – Chris Crutcher
16. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
17. Animal Farm – George Orwell
18. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
19. Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy
20. Funny in Farsi – Firoozeh Dumas

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. Childhood's End – Arthur C. Clarke
2. The Midnight Club – James Patterson
3. The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
4. The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles
5. The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

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. Along Came a Spider – James Patterson
2. The Waste Land – T.S. Eliot
3. Blue Blood – Ed Conlon
4. Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch – Hollis Gillespie
5. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves – Lynne Truss
6. The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
7. Red, Red, Robin – Stephen Gallagher
8. Paradise Lost – John Milton
9. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
10. The Alienist – Caleb Carr
11. Mr. Spaceman – Robert Olen Butler
12. The Partner – John Grisham
13. When the Music's Over: My Journey into Schizophrenia – Ross Burke
14. The Book of Dead Birds – Gayle Brandeis
15. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
16. A Canticle for Liebowitz – Walter Miller, Jr.
17. The Postman – David Brin
18. Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
19. I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
20. Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
21. Brown Girl in the Ring – Nalo Hopkinson
22. Numbered Accounts – Christopher Reich
23. Blackburn – Bradley Denton
24. The American Way of Dying – Jessica Mitford
25. Him Her Him Again The End of Him – Patricia Marx
26. The Spellman Files – Lisa Lutz
27. Then We Came to the End – Joshua Ferris
28. Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War- Tara McKelvey
29. Swim to Me – Betsy Carter
30. The Big Turnoff – Ellen Currey-Wilson
31. Mystery Walk – Robert McCammon
32. The Strangers – Mort Castle
33. When Science Goes Wrong – Simon LeVay
34. Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever – James Patterson
35. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports - James Patterson
36. Maximum Ride: The Final Warning - James Patterson
37. Sundays at Tiffany's - James Patterson
38. Sail - James Patterson
39. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson
40. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God – Carl Sagan
41. The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
42. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life – Amy Krouse Rosenthal
43. Bee Season – Myla Goldberg
44. A Primate's Memoir – Robert Sapolsky
45. Almost Human – Shirley C. Strum
46. King's Dragon – Kate Elliott
47. Prince of Dogs - Kate Elliott
48. The Burning Stone - Kate Elliott
49. Child of Flame - Kate Elliott
50. The Gathering Storm - Kate Elliott

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

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/illustrations/buckled-book-book-fantasy-photoshop-2180047/