Where've You Been, Biblioracle?
From 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET today, tell the Biblioracle the last five books you’ve read, and he'll recommend your next favorite novel.
Where’ve I been? Good question.
We had our wonderful Tournament of Books, and then Mrs. Biblioracle and I made our second move in the last eight months (only seven miles this time), and then we had all kinds of unpacking to do, and then…and then…and then…
The “thens” can get away from you if you’re not careful. The new home is a great blessing, as it is abundant with bookshelves, including those of the “built-in” variety, which have been a lifelong, and previously unrequited dream. One of my favorite things is to just stand and look at them, at the array of books before me, a good 50 percent of the books I own all in one place.
For the first time in…ever…none of my books are stored away in boxes. Not a single one. Now, this is partially because I gave away/consigned/sold a good 350 books over the last several months, but even this was not a bad thing, as I rid myself of quite a few items that I was keeping simply because I’d bought them for one reason or another.
The other thing that has kept me away is that the Biblioracle has gone big time, baby. We’re talking printed matter, we’re talking weekly, we’re talking the Chicago Tribune and its stand-alone book section, Printers Row. Some of you have been featured in the column, but even weekly I can only dispense four recommendations at most, and they are backing up inside me, these books that people should be reading.
So we’re going to spend some time together today. Not too long, because the parade of “thens” never stops, but hopefully enough to touch base, reconnect, hear what each other have been reading, and go forth with some fresh suggestions.
That’s the idea anyway. And if you don’t get your request in on time, I’m always looking for more people to write in with their five most recent reads (plus their city of residence) to biblioracle@gmail.com, and if chosen, you could find your name in lights (print). If you follow me on Twitter @biblioracle, you’ll hear about some other interesting and relevant book-related things, as well as my (spoiler-free) thoughts on Mad Men because the whole world needs to comment on Mad Men.
Just a refresher: In the comments, post your five most recently read books, and I will tell you what you should read next.
I’ll be open for recommendations from 3:00 to 3:30 Eastern Time. As long as you get your request in during that window, you will get a recommendation, or my name isn’t the Biblioracle.
List the last five books you’ve read, and the Biblioracle tells you what to read next.
These comments are now closed.
215 comments
Hi!
Young Miles (Lois McMaster Bujold)Magician King (Lev Grossman)Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)Insurgent (Victoria Roth)American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
Thanks!
Got a hunch you've maybe read him already, but if not, The City and The City, China Mieville
I have not! Thanks!
The Sense of an Ending (Barnes)
Sunset Park (Auster)
Coming into the Country (McPhee)
Where I Was From (Didion)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
The Circus on Winter by Cathy Day
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Salvage The Bones - Jessmyn Ward
Man and Camel - Mark Strand
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church - Mark DeYmaz
I recommend this to someone every time: Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
Thank you kindly, Biblioracle.
The Third Reich – Bolaño
The Beautiful and Damned – Fitzgerald
From Manassas to Appomattox – Longstreet
The War of the End of the World – Llosa
How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne – Bakewell
Thanks!
Another frequent recommendation: Stoner by John Williams
Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Céline
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
Troubles - J.G. Farrell
But Beautiful - Geoff Dyer
A Naked Singularity - Sergio De La Pava
Thanks in advance!
I re-read the Celine about once a year. You seem to be drawn to books that have a kind of joyful despair and for me, that says The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Excellent.
1. By Blood, by Ellen Ullman
2. In One Person, John Irving
3. A Naked Singularity, Sergio De La Pava
4. Threats, Emily Gray
5. Crimes in Southern Indiana, Frank Bill
Lots of De La Pava love early on. I'll have to check it out. Next by James Hynes
Thanks, but I've read it. Loved it. Got another by chance?
Try The Company by Max Barry
Thanks!
Hi and thank you!
Dragon Haven by Robin HobbThe Game of Thrones by George R R MartinConsider the Lobster by David Foster WallaceThe White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Is this a Clemson person? "Cat bus?" The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard.
Ooh, exciting. Can't wait to read this! Thanks! But no, not Clemson. It's an animated character from My Neighbor Totoro.
Drown by Junot Diaz
Ancestors and Others by Fred Chappell
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Thanks, Biblioracle!
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be - Farley MowatCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de BernieresSkippy Dies - Paul MurrayBodily Harm - Margaret AtwoodThe Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway(oh, and #6 would be We Need to Talk About Kevin - thanks to you for that recommendation!)
Have you read Geek Love by Katherine Dunn yet? You should
I have not, but I certainly will. Thanks! (And sorry for the unintentionally icky formatting of my list).
Blindness (Saramago)
The Night Circus (Morganstern)
Lolita (Nabakov)
Watership Down (adams)
11/22/63 (King)
Loved them all for so many different reasons.
Greetings northern neighbor! The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. This is feast or famine for a lot of readers, but I think it's up your alley.
Thanks ... and by the way, I can get Printers Row through Amazon on my Kindle. I won't have to be without great writing on books.
I loved this one, too.
So excited to see you back! Here are my five:
The Billionaire's Vinegar - Benjamin Wallace
The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - Rosecrans Something-Er-Other
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Crooked Little Vein - Warren Ellis
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John LeCarre
(I realize that is six - obv. no math books for me...)
The Cove by Ron Rash
Sweet! Thanks, Biblioracle.
Great Jones Street - Don DeLillo
A Naked Singularity - Sergio De La Pava
We the Animals - Justin Torres
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Whites - Norman Rush
Thanks!
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Thanks Biblioracle. I'm already a big fan of Remainder. Maybe I'll give it a re-read.
Hello!
All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy)
An Economist Gets Lunch (Cowen)
Room (Donoghue)
With Liberty and Justice for Some (Greenwald)
The Savage Detectives (Bolano)
Thanks!
A Disorder Particular to the Country by Ken Kalfus
Thanks!
Accelerando, Charlie Stross
The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammet
Before the Lights Go Out, Maggie Koerth-Baker
Equations of Life, Simon Morden
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Thank you!
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (it's actually three books, but once you start, you won't stop).
Canada by Richard Ford, Carpathia by Matt Forbeck, Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig, Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper, and Brave Dragons:
A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing by Jim Yardley.
Have you tried Dennis Lehane? Check out Darkness Take My Hand.
I've not, but have meant to. Sounds like a good place to start. Cheers, oh mighty Biblioracle!
Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcenar
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - Heidi Durrow
Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol
The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson
The Hand That Once Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Picked it for my book club this year and loved it (enjoyed her first book too). Would love another if you have time. Otherwise thanks!
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Literally just ordered this book and am very excited about it. You are good. Thanks so much.
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out (Mo Yan)
Gentlemen of the Road (Michael Chabon)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Charles Yu)
English Passengers (Matthew Kneale)
The Curtain (Milan Kundera)
thanks!
You've probably read Calvino, which is my first instinct (Invisible Cities). As a backup, I'll offer Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman.
Hello!
40 Stories by Donald Barthelme
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
ohhh looks interesting, thanks for recommendation!
So excited for another rec!
Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, Rosencrans Baldwin
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
Omega Point, Don DeLillo
The Island of the Day Before, Umberto Eco
Glad to see that Baldwin guy getting some attention. The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
Hello! Here are my 5...
You're Not Doing It Right by Michael Ian Black
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman
Ozzie's School of Management (Rick Morrissey), Wichita (Thad Ziolkowski), Twenty-Seventh City (Jonathan Franzen), Gods Without Men (Hari Kunzru), Crisis of Zionism (Peter Beinart)
Hope you're well, John.
This is cheating, I know too much about your tastes, but you should check out Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Thanks so much!
1. Play it as it lays by Joan Didion
2. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
3. Oranges are not The only fruit by Jeanette Winterson
4. If on a winter's night a traveller by Mital Calvino
5. Silas by Toni Morrison
Thank you so much!
The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
These were the last 5 books for our book group:
Middlemarch by George Eliot
As I Lay Dying by Faulknger
Shipping News by Annie Proulx
John Crow's Devil by Marlon James
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
Thanks!
Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Terrific, thanks!
Men in Space, Tom McCarthy
The Long Ships, Frans G. Bengtsson
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids, Victor Pelevin
Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan
Threats, Amelia Gray
Go, Biblioracle!
The Curfew by Jesse Ball
Starting with the most recent:
THE GOOD SOLDIER (Ford Madox Ford)
THE SPARROW (Mary Doria Russell)
THE POWER BROKER (Robert Caro)
ALIEN VS PREDATOR (Michael Robbins)
THE MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE (James Renner)
Thank you, Biblioracle!
Since you're open to some poetry, I'm going with The Complete Book of Kong by William Trowbridge.
Cool! I feel I know more than the average reader about contemporary poetry, but I've never heard of this one. I'll check it out!
Hi! Not typical for me, but here are the most recent five:
Diary of a wimpy kid : Greg Heffley's journal by Jeff Kinney (2007),
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve : Poems, 2007-2010 by Adrienne Rich (2011),
The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman (2010),
Eat, pray, love : one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert (2006),
A human eye : essays on art in society, 1997-2008 by Adrienne Cecile Rich (2009)
Have fun!
The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
Tehanu, Ursula LeGuin
The Map of Love, Ahdaf Soueif
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Faithful Place, Tana French
I've been looking for a reading recommendation for the two weeks before my summer class starts, so this comes at a good time for me. Thanks!
Staggerford by Jon Hassler
OK, thanks! I work in a library and we just happen to have that on our shelves. I will go check it out right now.
So wonderful to have your fine service back again! You've never steered me wrong...
Here goes:
Frances Johnson by Stacey Levine
Cherry by Mary Karr
Ava by Carole Maso
Flickerbook by Leila Burg
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke (which is really, truly the best book I have read in a good long time.)
Thank you in advance for your advice!
It's rare that I can recommend this book with full confidence, but here it is: Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson
We have always lived in the castle, Shirley Jackson
Swamplandia! Karen Russell
Accordion Crimes, Annie Proulx
Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
The Passage, Justin Cronin
thank you!
Don't know why this is coming to me, but I can't deny it: The Magus by John Fowles
Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - Rosecrans Baldwin (TMN, Represent)
Vaclav & Lena - Haley Tanner
When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
Thanks!
Carter Beat the Devil by Glen David Gold
"Cloud Atlas", David Mitchell
"Disgrace", JM Coetzee
"After Dark", Haruki Murakami
"Lightning Rods", Helen deWitt
"Richard Yates", Tao Lin
For you, Journey to the End of the Night by Celine
Great book, but I read it a couple years ago in college.
Welcome back and thank you in advance!
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Enchantress by Michael Scott
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Scumble by Ingrid Law
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King
I'm out of my element with YA, though I do know some of these books. Not YA, but I think you'll dig it: Cruddy by Lynda Barry.
Great! Thank you!
Mortals (Norman Rush)
Mother's Milk (Edward St. Aubyn)
The Bad Girl (Mario Vargas Llosa)
The Literary Conference (Cesar Aira)
The Leftovers (Tom Perrotta)
Thanks for sharing your excellent recommendations here again!
Anya's Ghost by Vera BrosgolReady Player One by Ernest Cline
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
Among Others by Jo Walton
Endless Love by Scott Spencer. (Nothing like the movie.)
Thanks!
Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub
The Scientists: A Family Romance by Marco Roth
Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin
House of Holes by Nicholson Baker
A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Being Dead by Jim Crace
Howdy, Biblioracle!
Here are my last five:
1. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
2. A Heart So White, Javier Marías
3. The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem
4. Senselessness, Horacio Castellanos Moya
5. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
Thank you!
Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
Ooh - nice suggestion! Thank you!
Thank you very much for offering to do this! My last five are The Pale King by David Foster Wallace, Life, a Users Manual by Georges Perec, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Looking forward to your suggestion!
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Most recent at top:
Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow
Pastoralia - George Saunders
The Pale King - David Foster Wallace
A sport and a Pastime - James Salter
Seize the Day - Saul Bellow
I live the deep, dirty south (rural MS gulf
coast) so I worked my way through a host of popular southern authors after I
transplanted. I don’t count Faulkner, Welty, etc as pleasure reading anymore,
more like cultural studies.
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
why be happy when you could be normal - jeanette winterson
are you my mother? - alison bechdel
writing a woman's life - carolyn heilbrun
oranges are not the only fruit - jeanette winterson
bonjour tristesse - françoise sagan
The Professor by Terry Castle
The Fault in Our Stars (Green)
The Sisters Brothers (deWitt)
Skippy Dies (Murray)
Nefertiti (Moran)
When Will There be Good News? (Atkinson)
Please and thank you!
Some of these didn't stick in the system, so I'm working back. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Please,
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh
Winesburg, OH by Sherwood Anderson
Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy
Shit, I posted the perfect one and it didn't take and now I can't remember it. This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
A Savage War of Peace – Alistair
Horne
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
Jayber Crow – Wendell Berry
The Death and Life of Great American
Cities – Jane Jacobs
Thanks Biblioracle!
Another one that didn't stick. The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle
Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," Karen Russel's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," Aryn Kyle's "Boys and Girls Like You and Me," Kelly Link's "Pretty Little Monsters," Kate Bernheimer's anthology "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me"
The Adults by Allison Espach
Thanks so much! Can't wait to read!
Here's my five:
Outliers-Malcolm GladwellDawn Patrol-Don WinslowJohn Dies at the End-David WongWhy We Do What We Do-Edward DeciFreedom-Jonathan FranzenThanks.
Wolf Point by Edward Falco
Tremendous! The oracle has spoken!
Thanks for the recommendation, sorry about the lack of spacing.
1. Rules of Civility (Amor Towles)
2. The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes)
3. 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami)
4. Chronic City (Jonathan Letham)
5. Sisters Brothers (Patrick deWitt)
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
Thanks!
[bowing reverently]
How to Sharpen Pencils: David Rees
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack: Mark Leyner
Zone One (got bored 2/3 of the way through and abandoned it)
Factoring Humanity: Robert J. Sawyer
A Drink Before the War: Dennis Lehane
Thanks!
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Excellent, an author I haven't discovered yet. From the description I just ready this could be an incredibly insightful choice on your part. Either that, or you are completely and utterly wrong. I'm guessing the former.
The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton
The End of Everything, Meg Abbot
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Thank you!
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Looking for a book club suggestion for the summer ...
The Camel Bookmobile, The Handmaid's Tale, The English Patient, The Last Station, and The Moonstone
Book clubs. Always tough. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
I'm not sure that I've actually finished any fiction books since last summer, but I think these were the last five:
Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
Herself Surprised by Joyce Cary
Liver by Will Self
Our Tragic Universe by Scarlet Thomas
For future reference, doesn't have to be fiction. What Was She Thinking by Zoe Heller
Thanks! Non-fiction would have included Rachel Maddow's Drift, and Tracy Daugherty's bio of Donald Barthelme, Hiding Man.
Lush Life by Price
The Curfew by Ball
Train Dreams by Johnson
The Final Solution by Chabon
Ella Minnow Pea by Dunn
Of these, I liked The Curfew best.
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
Thank you! Ordering it now.
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
Jaguar Under the Sun - Italo Calvino
Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me - Richard Farina
Sobredios - Alberto Fuguet
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson
Open City by Teju Cole
Hey, Biblioracle. Here’s my last five:
Home – Marilynne Robinson
The Night Strangers – Chris Bohjalian
Delicate Edible Birds & other stories – Lauren Groff
Are You My Mother? – Alison Bechdel
The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst
Thanks!
Moira
Someone upthread has read this recently. Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin
Hello! Looking forward to my next read.
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Lolita by Nabokov
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
Hello! My last five novels are Rum Diaries (Hunter S Thompson), Rules of Civility (Amor Towles), The Paris Wife (Paula McLain), The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach), and The Tiger's Wife (Téa Obreht). Looking forward to your suggestions + thanks so much!
The Funnies by J. Robert Lennon
John Irving - In One Person
Ellen Ullman - By Blood
Alan Bennett - Smut
Shirley Marr - Fury
Benjamin Wood - The Bellwether Revivals
Thanks!
Hmm. I already recommended this today, and I try not to repeat, but I can't get past The Magus by John Fowles
Sounds fascinating, so I don't mind!
Gob’s Grief by Chris Adrian
Tree of Codes by Johnathan Safran Foer
Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
Open City by Teju Cole
Hot Pink by Adam Levin
You're three for three in recommendation successes so far! Edit: four for four
Pressure is on. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
It's like you knew it was sitting unread on my bookshelf.
Caribou Island (David Vann), Skippy Dies, Divisadero (Ondaatje), Light Years (Salter), Dog Soldiers (R. Stone).
You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon
Epitaph of a Small Winner - Machado de Assis
Pulphead - John Jerimiah Sullivan
Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
Devil Sent the Rain - Tom Piazza
Thanks Biblioracle!!!
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
The
Love Wife, Gish Jen; Remainder, Tom McCarthy; The Risk of Darkness: A Simon
Serailler Mystery, by Susan Hill; The Paris Wife, Paula McClain; So Much for
That, Lionel Shriver.
Thank you!
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Thank you; that is indeed a book I chose and read. No need to make another recommendation: I just appreciate that you're here! Carry on, and thank you again for your time.
Housekeeping by Marilynn Robinson
BLESS YOUR HEART. I read that, too. I only write this to validate your awesomeness.
Game of Thrones (George R.R.Martin)
This is a Book (Dimitri Martin)
The Mongoliad: Book One (Bear, Stephenson, Teppo, Bear ...)
11/22/63: a Novel (Stephen King)
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
East of the West - Miroslav Penkov
The Train - Georges Simenon
At the Point of a .38 - Brett Halliday
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Cathedral, Raymond Carver
Bright's Passage, Josh Ritter
What are People For?, Wendell Berry
The Dart League King by my old friend Keith Lee Morris
Thanks! Just looked it up and it sounds like a winner.
The Fault in Our Stars - John GreenCity of Masks - Daniel HechtFacless Killers - Henning Mankell*Mr. Toppit - Charles EltonThe Dead Lie Down - Sophie Hannah*
* I really didn't enjoy either of these, if that helps?
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Everything Matters! (Currie)
Two Hunger Games books
Wyoming Stories (Proulx)
Mr. Fox (Oyeyemi)
And in case the Hunger Games books don't count, I've been reading, and enjoying, In the Skin of a Lion (Ondaatje) and We the Animals (Torres).
I should mention that the Currie was maybe the best book I've read in quite a long while.
All books count! Sleepless by Charlie Huston
Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
Zone One, Colson Whitehead
The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell
The Magician King, Lev Grossman
Thanks!
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Thanks!
Hi John.
1. West With the Night, Beryl Markham
2. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
3. The Troubled Man, Henning Mankell
4. Close to the Machine, Ellen Ullman
5. My Heart Is an Idiot, Davy Rothbart
We have a famous author in our midst. I always like to go obscure classic for you. I think I already recommended Spackman in the past. Have I dropped The Collected Fictions of Louis Zukofsky on you yet?
I ordered a book called "Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" recently that looks good, can't remember the author.... have you read that yet?
Code Name Verity by Elisabeth Wein. Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin. Dare Me by Megan Abbott. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. The Expats by Chris Pavone.
Thank you!
Heft by Liz Morre
The Chemistry of Tears-Peter Carey
Character-Ferdinand Bordewijk
The Man in the Wooden Hat-Jane Gardam
Embers-Sandor Marai
The Sense of an Ending-Julian Barnes
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. Not for everybody, but you seem to like a challenge.
Pigeon, Karen Solie (poetry)
Degrees of Nakedness, Lisa Moore (short stories)
The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty
The Easter Parade, Richard Yates
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
lots of thanks in advance!
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Island Beneath the Sea: Isabel Allende. The Brothers K: David James Duncan. East of Eden: John Steinbeck. Pale Horse Coming: Stephen Hunter. Game Change: Heileman and Halperin.
Have you tried ToB champion, The Sisters Brothers?
1.The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
2. Jewball by Neil Pollack3. Devil in the White City by Erik Larso4.All Star Superman by Grant Morrison5.. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Do you have negative feelings about LeBron James? If so, The Whore of Akron by Scott Raab. If no, or you're indifferent, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
Letters from Hawaii, Mark Twain
The Twin, Gerbrand Bakker
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My Antonia—Willa Cather
On Agate Hill—Lee Smith
Home—Marilyn Robinson
A Room With a View—EM Forster (sad to say, didn't enjoy it)
Aaaaand Hunger Games
From someone else's list upthread, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Hello!
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThe Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers
A Lover's Discours by Roland Barthes
At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
Whoops, I meant A Lover's Discourse*
Well, you should probably go ahead and read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. You've done the prep work.
Haha I thought you might recommend that. That's what lead me to the Barthes. But great book and great suggestion, thanks!
1. "Remember Ben Clayton" Stephen Harrigan
2. "The Fragrance of Grass" Guy de la Valdene
3. "The Great Leader" Jim Harrison
4. "Art of Fielding" Chad Harbach
5. "Billy Lynn's Long Half Time Walk" Ben Fountain
Thanks, Biblioracle!
Aren't we all loving Billy Lynn...? Blew me away.Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
1. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
2. I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck
3. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
4. The Witches by Roald Dahl
5. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Thanks so much!
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Lovers
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Art of Fielding
Crossing to Safety
Bridge of Sighs
Thanks!
Ceilidh
Oops forgot: (Vendala Vida, Michael Chabon, Chad Harbach, Wallace Stegner, and Richard Russo) Thanks again (under the wire!)
You should try Rosecrans Baldwin's You Lost Me There.
Born to Run, The Bell Jar, Hunger Games Trilogy, Rowing to Latitude, Monster of Florence
Homicide by David Simon
The Paris Wife (McLain)
Caleb's Crossing (Brooks)
The Psychopath Test (Ronson)
The Hunger Games Trilogy (Collins)
Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words (Whouley)
Thank you!
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Okay, wow. Quite a blitz of requests. Got to not wait so long next time. I'll get to everyone who posted above this message before I sign off. If I missed you, feel free to email me biblioracle (at) gmail.com, and I'll try to make you a priority for the Printers Row column.
Back to work for me!
Kraken (Mieville), House of Leaves (Danielewski), On Writing (Stephen King) , Shadow of the Wind (Zafon), Street of Crocodiles (Schulz)
Sloppy Dies by Paul Murray
IQ84 by Murakami
How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Yu
Nobody Move by Johnson
Mockingjay by Collins
Skippy dies. (dang autocorrect)
I have a pre-teen son who got me reading The Hunger Games and The Boook Thief, but I was pleasantly surprised by both. Regardless, here is my life...
I Love You Paris but You're Bringing Me Down (Rosecrans Baldwin)
The Hunger Games Trilogy (Suzanne Collins)
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
We, the Drowned (Carsten Jensen) - inspired to read this by a family trip to Denmark, but didn't necessarily 'enjoy' the book, could be the translation
Atonement (Ian McEwan)
Thanks!
Thinking Fast and Slow
The Fault in Our Stars
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Bringing Up Bebe
1q84
This is How by Augusten Burroughs, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes of New England by Brock Clarke, Employee of the Month and Other Big Deals by Mary Jo Pehl, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, Astronauts and Heretics by Thomas Marcinko
Oh, dang it. Eastern time...
I say as long as comments are still open, we might get an answer. Eastern Time. Bah!
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsaka
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
Thanks!
Familiar by J. Robert Lennon
Warlock by Oakley Hall
Threats by Amelia Gray
Drop City by TC Boyle
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
I realize that I'm probably too late... Central Time!