I posted a similar thread last year (?) around this time for some suggestions on great stories. I was overwhelmed with the abundance of titles and reviews everyone posted. Thanks to all of you I enjoyed so many stories I certainly never would have known about. The time has come once again to share what you love. What have you read lately that you would recommend to others? I seem to have hit a string of duds....again!
Books, books and more books
- Thread starter tlc93
- Start date
Here's a few that I enjoyed....
All The Old Knives - Olen Steinhauer
Die Again : Rizzoli and Isles Novel - Tess Gerritsen. (This is book 11 in a series that starts with the Surgeon)
Ruth Galloway Series by Elly Griffiths - there are seven out now
Sister:A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
In The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes
Pretty Baby - Mary Kubica
The River Is Dark - Joe Hart
Can't wait to hear from others, there were so many good suggestions last time.
All The Old Knives - Olen Steinhauer
Die Again : Rizzoli and Isles Novel - Tess Gerritsen. (This is book 11 in a series that starts with the Surgeon)
Ruth Galloway Series by Elly Griffiths - there are seven out now
Sister:A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
In The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes
Pretty Baby - Mary Kubica
The River Is Dark - Joe Hart
Can't wait to hear from others, there were so many good suggestions last time.
maddiesmum
Cathlete
I have some! You knew I would!! But I haven't slept for a couple of nights and my brain is getting fatigued and fuzzy around the edges, so I'll make a mental note to come back tomorrow and list them and describe them a bit, OK? I'll start compiling the list in my head as I walk about.....
Clare
Clare
lioness
Cathlete
Running The Rift - Naomi Benaron
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
A Man Called Ove - Fredik Backman
Re Jane - Patricia Park
Montana 1948 - Larry Watson
Tell The Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt
After Her - Joyce Maynard
Wayfaring Stranger - James Lee Burke
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
A Man Called Ove - Fredik Backman
Re Jane - Patricia Park
Montana 1948 - Larry Watson
Tell The Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt
After Her - Joyce Maynard
Wayfaring Stranger - James Lee Burke
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maddiesmum
Cathlete
Peg:
well, I promised but I can't deliver! I read some fabulous things in Jan and Feb, then left for a month for the UK and haven't managed much since I got back and there's so much angst going on with my daughter and husband at the mo, that my brain is narrowly focused on that and I can't remember those titles I read and loved! Sorry! You'd think my library account would keep some kind of shadow list of all I have taken out over the last few months, but it doesn't and so I am trying to remember ... I even went on amazon last night to see what it recalled of my previos and recent interests. but all it prompted for me was the one book, and here it comes ...
1) One book I read and remember adoring is this one: "The Light Between Oceans" by M L Stedman.
http://www.amazon.com/Light-Between...61017109&sr=1-1&keywords=light+between+oceans
The author is Australian and the book is set in Australia and it is haunting and beautiful. It's sad, and at one point as I was reading it, I almost put it down because I thought the sadness would be overwhelming for me. I am glad I persevered however, it is so worth it. It ends up being almost a 'feel-good' by the end, although, of course, not in any kind of cheesy way at all, not like a flimsy, feel-good movie. This is a meaningful book. What it is about is this: take some normal, honest, genuine people, who have the normal hopes and dreams for their lives, nothing out of the ordinary at all, and then dash some of those hopes, and then present them with an unexpected circumstance. How will they react? What choices will they make? And, how will those choices determine the path of both their lives and affect the lives of others? Because this is the point, you see: we don't exist in a vacuum, everything we do might impinge upon others at some point, indirectly. So, as humans, throughout our existence, one of the big questions we have to consider and answer is: what do we owe to ourselves and what do we owe to others? Do we have the right to happiness if potentially it comes to us at someone else's expense?
I hope more people come and find this book. In some ways it is quiet and unassuming. It is not one of those almighty block busters books that announces itself from everywhere around you. It is a book that sits and waits for you to come to it and people to discover it, then pass it on and share it so it can be re-discovered again.
And guess what? In the writing of that last paragraph, my brain suddenly seized on another title that I read in Jan and very much enjoyed. Hooray! Here it is:
2) "Fates & Furies," by Lauren Groff.
http://www.amazon.com/Fates-Furies-...&sr=8-1&keywords=fate+and+furies+lauren+groff
First off, Groff's book received so much more critical praise, notice from award-giving bodies and advertising than Stedman's book, but that doesn't mean it is actually the better book. Don't get me wrong: I very much enjoyed 'Fates and Furies,' but I am just saying that publicity doesn't tell the whole story!
'Fates and Furies' is the story of a marriage. Well, actually, it is two stories of a marriage: the two sides of the same marriage from the dual but contrary perspectives of the husband and the wife in that marriage. His narrative and perspective comes first, hers second. And, it was interesting to me to see, as I re-read reviews left on amazon by ordinary readers such as you and I, that most people --who are not critics for a living-- reacted to the book as I did. While the prose style is brash, sometimes with glaring notes of the bizarre and incongruity, the style at first seems inappropriate for the character of the husband. Lotto, the husband, comes across almost as an unworthy subject for literature. He's a bit bland really, he assumes his wife adores him and he narrates his passage through childhood --he has a strange family, shall we say, verging on the carnivalesque-- through college and the years of the largely unsuccessful, self-doubting twenties, until he hits on what he is supposed to be doing with his life, commits to it and is finally successful, commercially and critically so. He makes it clear to the reader that his wife Mathilde is the reason for his success: she IS the woman who is behind every successful man. And he assumes she is happy in this role.
So, as we read this first section of the book, we do get engrossed in his narrative, we want to see if he will make anything of his life, but we also read on because we have been promised that there will be another version of this marriage and desperately hope it will be more riveting than this one! Dear reader: it IS more riveting and it turns the first half of the book --Lotto's assumptions about himself and his marriage-- on its head! This second half is the reason for reading this book and for persevering through the first half. So, the book takes a while to set itself up, necessarily so in order to create the tables-turning effect it seeks to elicit, but it is worth it. Mathilde is an amazing character: she is a worthy subject for literature!
And here is where the style of the writing, the bizarre, the incongruity and the brashness suddenly make sense because they have been announcing that all is not as it seems. All the passions missing from the first half of the narrative --hatred, resentment, betrayal, the seediness of life, what people do to survive in less than stellar circumstances, sex, money, greed, self-interest, etc-- is all here, informing Mathilde's account of her life growing up, how it formed her character and needs, and her life as wife to Lotto. Does she really subsume herself to Lotto's career as he thinks?!!
I don't want to ruin the pleasure of discovery of these two wonderful books for you, Peg, so I won't give the game away! I read a stack of other books in between, but they always serve the same purpose for me: how to entertain my scattered mind while I search for the next good book that will actually make me think and feel and find myself bereft when I am done with it? So, I don't remember those titles and they don;'t matter to me because these two are the titles I will carry on with me and recommend to people and buy for people and hope that they also will come to derive pleasure from.
Up next for me will be the new novel from Maggie O'Farrell: "This Must be the Place," coming out in the UK in May and published here shortly after. I have a copy coming here courtesy of my sister back home and she is as excited a I am, in fact, she's heading to London to a large books store, Waterstones, to hear Maggie read and chat about her new book and I am beyond jealous!!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_10?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=maggie+o'farrell+books&sprefix=maggie+o'f,stripbooks,163
Everything this woman writes is excellent. All of it. Pick a title and you can't go wrong. You could start with "Instructions for a Heat Wave" (2013) and take it from there.
OK, gotta go, loads of stuff to do today and I've spent enough of it here! Enjoy, and I look forward to reading everybody else's suggestions so that I might discover my next great book among them, please!
Clare
well, I promised but I can't deliver! I read some fabulous things in Jan and Feb, then left for a month for the UK and haven't managed much since I got back and there's so much angst going on with my daughter and husband at the mo, that my brain is narrowly focused on that and I can't remember those titles I read and loved! Sorry! You'd think my library account would keep some kind of shadow list of all I have taken out over the last few months, but it doesn't and so I am trying to remember ... I even went on amazon last night to see what it recalled of my previos and recent interests. but all it prompted for me was the one book, and here it comes ...
1) One book I read and remember adoring is this one: "The Light Between Oceans" by M L Stedman.
http://www.amazon.com/Light-Between...61017109&sr=1-1&keywords=light+between+oceans
The author is Australian and the book is set in Australia and it is haunting and beautiful. It's sad, and at one point as I was reading it, I almost put it down because I thought the sadness would be overwhelming for me. I am glad I persevered however, it is so worth it. It ends up being almost a 'feel-good' by the end, although, of course, not in any kind of cheesy way at all, not like a flimsy, feel-good movie. This is a meaningful book. What it is about is this: take some normal, honest, genuine people, who have the normal hopes and dreams for their lives, nothing out of the ordinary at all, and then dash some of those hopes, and then present them with an unexpected circumstance. How will they react? What choices will they make? And, how will those choices determine the path of both their lives and affect the lives of others? Because this is the point, you see: we don't exist in a vacuum, everything we do might impinge upon others at some point, indirectly. So, as humans, throughout our existence, one of the big questions we have to consider and answer is: what do we owe to ourselves and what do we owe to others? Do we have the right to happiness if potentially it comes to us at someone else's expense?
I hope more people come and find this book. In some ways it is quiet and unassuming. It is not one of those almighty block busters books that announces itself from everywhere around you. It is a book that sits and waits for you to come to it and people to discover it, then pass it on and share it so it can be re-discovered again.
And guess what? In the writing of that last paragraph, my brain suddenly seized on another title that I read in Jan and very much enjoyed. Hooray! Here it is:
2) "Fates & Furies," by Lauren Groff.
http://www.amazon.com/Fates-Furies-...&sr=8-1&keywords=fate+and+furies+lauren+groff
First off, Groff's book received so much more critical praise, notice from award-giving bodies and advertising than Stedman's book, but that doesn't mean it is actually the better book. Don't get me wrong: I very much enjoyed 'Fates and Furies,' but I am just saying that publicity doesn't tell the whole story!
'Fates and Furies' is the story of a marriage. Well, actually, it is two stories of a marriage: the two sides of the same marriage from the dual but contrary perspectives of the husband and the wife in that marriage. His narrative and perspective comes first, hers second. And, it was interesting to me to see, as I re-read reviews left on amazon by ordinary readers such as you and I, that most people --who are not critics for a living-- reacted to the book as I did. While the prose style is brash, sometimes with glaring notes of the bizarre and incongruity, the style at first seems inappropriate for the character of the husband. Lotto, the husband, comes across almost as an unworthy subject for literature. He's a bit bland really, he assumes his wife adores him and he narrates his passage through childhood --he has a strange family, shall we say, verging on the carnivalesque-- through college and the years of the largely unsuccessful, self-doubting twenties, until he hits on what he is supposed to be doing with his life, commits to it and is finally successful, commercially and critically so. He makes it clear to the reader that his wife Mathilde is the reason for his success: she IS the woman who is behind every successful man. And he assumes she is happy in this role.
So, as we read this first section of the book, we do get engrossed in his narrative, we want to see if he will make anything of his life, but we also read on because we have been promised that there will be another version of this marriage and desperately hope it will be more riveting than this one! Dear reader: it IS more riveting and it turns the first half of the book --Lotto's assumptions about himself and his marriage-- on its head! This second half is the reason for reading this book and for persevering through the first half. So, the book takes a while to set itself up, necessarily so in order to create the tables-turning effect it seeks to elicit, but it is worth it. Mathilde is an amazing character: she is a worthy subject for literature!
And here is where the style of the writing, the bizarre, the incongruity and the brashness suddenly make sense because they have been announcing that all is not as it seems. All the passions missing from the first half of the narrative --hatred, resentment, betrayal, the seediness of life, what people do to survive in less than stellar circumstances, sex, money, greed, self-interest, etc-- is all here, informing Mathilde's account of her life growing up, how it formed her character and needs, and her life as wife to Lotto. Does she really subsume herself to Lotto's career as he thinks?!!
I don't want to ruin the pleasure of discovery of these two wonderful books for you, Peg, so I won't give the game away! I read a stack of other books in between, but they always serve the same purpose for me: how to entertain my scattered mind while I search for the next good book that will actually make me think and feel and find myself bereft when I am done with it? So, I don't remember those titles and they don;'t matter to me because these two are the titles I will carry on with me and recommend to people and buy for people and hope that they also will come to derive pleasure from.
Up next for me will be the new novel from Maggie O'Farrell: "This Must be the Place," coming out in the UK in May and published here shortly after. I have a copy coming here courtesy of my sister back home and she is as excited a I am, in fact, she's heading to London to a large books store, Waterstones, to hear Maggie read and chat about her new book and I am beyond jealous!!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_10?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=maggie+o'farrell+books&sprefix=maggie+o'f,stripbooks,163
Everything this woman writes is excellent. All of it. Pick a title and you can't go wrong. You could start with "Instructions for a Heat Wave" (2013) and take it from there.
OK, gotta go, loads of stuff to do today and I've spent enough of it here! Enjoy, and I look forward to reading everybody else's suggestions so that I might discover my next great book among them, please!
Clare
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maddiesmum
Cathlete
maddiesmum
Cathlete
As this thread goes on I feel the need to print it out like I did last time. Clare, have you ever considered working as an editor? Or someone who is actually paid to write reviews? Your reviews are excellent. You give the feeling and content of a book without giving anything away and manage to say enough to make us curious and intrigued. Thorough!! I love it. Thanks for your input.
peg
peg
lioness
Cathlete
I have loved Maggie O'Farrell since I read "After You'd Gone" a long time ago. I did not know that she had a new book coming out. I will have to add it to my Amazon list.
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maddiesmum
Cathlete
Need more suggestions from people! Don't let the thread pass onto the second page!!!!
Clare
Clare
That's right people....please share. Don't be shy. Right now I'm reading a Harlen Coben book called The Woods. It started out creepy enough which I love. 2 camp counselors go missing, their bodies are never found, flash forward 20 years and the brother of the female counselor is now a DA. He's contacted by the police because they found a dead male. In his possessions are newspaper clippings and other things that connect the DA to him. When the DA looks at the body, he realizes THATS the body of the presumed dead male camp counselor that went missing with his sister 20 years prior. I'm also listening to a book on CD by Fannie Flagg. She wrote Fried Green Tomatoes. This one is called I still dream about you. It's about a former Miss Alabama who now works in real estate. It's a cute story with interesting characters. The main character is planning on committing suicide. It's NOT a sad heavy story. Quite the opposite...it's cute, funny, lighthearted and thoughtful. An easy read actually. Other than that....some duds! I thoroughly enjoyed suggestions from last year. Big little lies and others from Liane Moriarty. The Vacationers, Where'd you go Bernadette, Wife 22 (I think), In a dark, dark wood, so many I can't remember.
I seem to get stuck on specific authors and therefore miss other authors who turn out to be fantastic storytellers.
I seem to get stuck on specific authors and therefore miss other authors who turn out to be fantastic storytellers.
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marazoe
Cathlete
My book club just finished this book"
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23602562-our-souls-at-night
It was an easy , quick read. Most people read it in 3 hours. Just 179 pages. I enjoyed it. Most people rated it 3 stars because they didn't like the ending but all books can't have a happy ending.
Our next book is:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16066896-amy-falls-down
I have no idea if it is good.
Jean
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23602562-our-souls-at-night
It was an easy , quick read. Most people read it in 3 hours. Just 179 pages. I enjoyed it. Most people rated it 3 stars because they didn't like the ending but all books can't have a happy ending.
Our next book is:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16066896-amy-falls-down
I have no idea if it is good.
Jean
maddiesmum
Cathlete
yes, I just read an Off the Shelf list which recommended Jincy Willet as an author to look out for, and I went immediately to my library to see what they had. And I picked up exactly this book 'Amy Falls Down,' so it's good to have the recommendation seconded!
I have already started Curtis Sittenfeld's "Eligible," a humorous pastiche/tribute to Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice.' Her writing is very self-assured.I like the first 3 pages a lot!
Clare
maddiesmum
Cathlete
Peg:
sweet lady, thank you! You made my day with these lovely words. They instill confidence at a time when I find myself needing more.
Clare
Nanbo
Cathlete
I've been re-visiting some of my old paperbooks:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Watership Down
The Good Earth
I have a lot of affection for my old books and re-read them whenever I get the chance. When I moved from Michigan to North Carolina 23 years ago, a dear co-worker brought me 2 huge shopping bags filled with classics to take with me. I was overwhelmed and honored. Most of them stand up to the test of time...
My sister gave me "You Before Me" for Christmas and I thought it was pretty good.
I absolutely LOVED "The Martian"! Read it twice before the movie came out, and then again after I saw the movie. Great detail! Superb character development.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Watership Down
The Good Earth
I have a lot of affection for my old books and re-read them whenever I get the chance. When I moved from Michigan to North Carolina 23 years ago, a dear co-worker brought me 2 huge shopping bags filled with classics to take with me. I was overwhelmed and honored. Most of them stand up to the test of time...
My sister gave me "You Before Me" for Christmas and I thought it was pretty good.
I absolutely LOVED "The Martian"! Read it twice before the movie came out, and then again after I saw the movie. Great detail! Superb character development.
Recent books that I've enjoyed:
Fates and Furies - for the same reasons as Clare (and Mathilde is such a badass character!)
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (it reminded me a lot of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, except Harry does remember everything, whereas Ursula always forgot her previous lives)
Lexicon by Max Barry (literary thriller for people who like words)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
And I'm currently rereading one of my all-time favorites, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, for one of my classes. Love his writing!!
Fates and Furies - for the same reasons as Clare (and Mathilde is such a badass character!)
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (it reminded me a lot of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, except Harry does remember everything, whereas Ursula always forgot her previous lives)
Lexicon by Max Barry (literary thriller for people who like words)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
And I'm currently rereading one of my all-time favorites, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, for one of my classes. Love his writing!!
I used to have this problem, too, but then I discovered Goodreads and it's been so incredibly helpful. I can keep track of what I've read, how I rated each book, lists of books I want to read, etc. That's the forum my online book group uses to discuss our books and it's so user-friendly. Highly recommend!