Completely OT: reading/author suggestions

Connie1

Connie1

Cathlete
After a hard day, slightly sore from a weight workout, I often snuggle under a warm blanket and read before retiring.

I have read about everything C.S. Lewis has written, same for Kipling, and have read 4 or 5 fitness books this year. I would really like some meaningful fiction or anything (I also have enjoyed A Pilgrim's Progress by J. Bunyan) worth reading. Lately I read some funny stories by Roald Dahl.

Anyone know some author who I might find readworthy? I think I'm getting a gift certif. to Amazon for Christmas.

Also anyone who would like to trade w/me, I have a list I'd love to trade...

Since this is Cathe's fitness board, I promise not to ask any more OT q's till 2003!
 
Connie:

aha! a post that's right up my street. Fave books, just right for snuggling under a blanket:
1. Divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood
(Rebecca Wells, laugh out loud, poignant, feel good book: all my female friends and relatives love it!)
2. The Bone People
(Booker prize winner, Keri Hulme. I recommend this bbook to all my friends, more than any other. Given it as present to loads!)
3. Rosie, Crooked Little Heart
(both by Anne Lamott: Lamott is very generous with her characters)
4. The Lovely Bones
(Alice Sebold: runaway best seller of 2002)
5. Surfacing, The Blind Assassin
(Margaret Atwood: Atwood is always good)
6. Walk in the Woods
(Bill Bryson, funny, funny man)
7. Anything by Angela Carter, especially Wise Children
(down to earth writer, touch of "up yours vulgarity" as the blurb says, feminist re-writings of old fairy tales with adult twist)
8. I know why the caged bird sings
(Maya Angelou, read whole series of her autobiographies, they are captivating)

Also, rummage through your local library catalogues and get out the following excellent books on tape:
1. Smilla's Sense of Snow
(read by Alyssa Besnehan, a thriller, hooks you in real quick, you will find excuses not to get up from the couch!)
2. About a Boy
(read by Alan Cumming, absolutely hystrical, just listened to it twice!)
3. Girls' guide to hunting and Fishing
(read by author, Melissa banks, I think: funny and poignant)

That should do for now! ENJOY!!!!!!

Clare
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-09-02 AT 01:08AM (Est)[/font][p]Whoo! I'm writing them all down!
And I love Ann Lamott!
Are those last two by Dahl?
 
Hi Connie,

May I also add some favourite books of mine too, to recommend:

My first author is Helen Forrester, she is English and now resides in Canada. She has written four excellent social-history autobiographies of her families appalling struggles to survive the Liverpool slums in the 1930s, and through the Second World War (Liverpool was badly blitzed in WW2). Her books are, in order:

1.Twopence To Cross The Mersey
2.Liverpool Miss
3.By The Waters of Liverpool
4.Lime Street At Two (this is the final book)

Helen Forrester's fiction is very good too.

Another English author to look out for is Barbara Erskine, who's stories are fiction, interweaved with British/Scottish/Welsh/Irish factual Medieval History, and scorcery/witchcraft/psychic undertones. These are the ones I have read, in fact re-read:

1.Lady Of Hay
2.Child of the Phoenix (this follows Lady of Hay)
3.Kingdom of Shadows
4.Midnight Is A Lonely Place (My FAVOURITE - scared the pants off me !)
5.House Of Echoes
6.On The Edge of Darkness

Great post, Connie - I LOVE reading !

Can I also recommend Noel Barber's books too - great factual fiction set all over the world, mainly through the second world war ?

1.Tanamera (set in Singapore)
2.Daughters of the Prince (set in Italy)
3.Woman of Cairo (set in Egypt)
4.A Farewell To France (set in France)
5.The Other Side of Paradise (set in the South Pacific)
6.The Weeping and the Laughter (starts off in Russia, and then into France)

I have no favourites of Noel Barber, they are all my favourites.

Others, I recommend, are:
1. Bluebirds by Margaret Mayhew
2. Chief Of Staff by William Coyle (Hard going, but a brilliant book actually based on a true story)

Phew, there we go 1
Enjoy !

Anna :)

Are American libraries as good as the UK ones ?
 
Well, I can't let this post slip by without adding a few of my favorites.

Anything by Toni Morrison (American), especially Song of Solomon.

Anything by Alice Thomas Ellis (English)
 
Anna-
I don't know how good UK libraries are! I only know the ones here. Usually I don't find the book I want. But, I have written down everything you wrote and I'm sure I'll be able to find something on the list! Also, Clare's list and Wutherhi's (I'm about to read it)!

Wow, I should have posted this earlier in the year! Definite reason to go to the library. It's open today!
 
I have already read 3 or 4 Morrison books, including Song of Solomon! I agree that she is a gifted writer! I'll write down Alice Thomas Ellis and look for books by her>
Thanks so much, Wutherhi!
-Connie
 
The best fiction I've read in years was The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. Her first novel, about first contact, but the "science-fiction" aspects are minimal and it takes place in the very near future, like in 10 or 15 years.

I also like anything by Octavia Butler, an African-American sci-fi author. I like Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, but hate most everything else he's written.

I also really liked the Autobiography of a Geisha which was a big hit some time ago. I forgot the author's name, but it was a white guy. Amazing story.
 
Okay I am printing this thread tomorrow (in case there are more replies). I just got back from the library with 3 books. A lot of books they did not have, but I just got 3 that they did have!

Lady of Hay, Tanamara, and A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing!
 
Wow ! :-wow Connie, you are going to LOVE Tanamara ! I can not put a Noel Barber book down once I start reading them !

Anna :)
 
Connie:

I forgot this one when I wrote yesterday:

Anil's Ghost, The English patient
(Michael Ondaatje)

He's an excellent author. Low on volume, high on poetics and exploration of human emotions, traumas.
The novel of English Patient is so much better than the film version which only focused on the love affair bit.

You asked in your response whether the last two were by Dahl, which two did you mean? I'm a bit confused!

Clare
 
Hey Connie,

I also love to read. Thought I'd add a few of my all time favorites to those you've already received:

Alice Walker - The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy - two absolutely incredible books about women.

Marge Piercy - Gone To Soldiers

John Irving - The Hotel New Hampshire

Elinor Lipman - And Then She Found Me

Anything written by Stephen McCauley

I also cast my vote for The English Patient, Surfacing, and Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing which were already mentioned. Enjoy, Linda
 
I'm printing this list too! I love to read also. I usually read a fitness book during the day at work, listen to a book on tape in the car driving to and from work, then at night I read another book or more fitness related books/magazines. Some nights before I fall asleep I listen to another book on tape. Yes, I read/listen to 3-4 books/magazines per day. There are just too many books and not enough hours in the day for me nor enough days inthe week! :)

One book I'm still plowing through is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. And you guys might find me quite bizarre but I love reading true crime novels!

Thanks for the reading ideas! :) This can be my 2003 reading list although I may start sooner than January! :)
 
Oh, you sound just like me! I have a book in every room in the house, and I listen to books on tape when I ride my bike. And the better the book, the longer the ride! Sometimes, I think I'll never want to come home.
 
I know one of the other posters mentioned ``A Walk in the Woods,'' by Bill Bryson. I'd just add that ANYTHING by Bryson is wonderful. I consistently laugh out loud until I'm crying while reading his books.
 
When I'm ready for the next batch I'll put Bill Bryson at the top of the list. Books on tape while bike riding is such a clever idea! I'll have to try that!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top