Book Lovers- Help!

[ChinaCat]

I decided to expand my horizons a bit and take a creative writing class. We have to bring our "favorite" novel to class.

HELP! If you are anything like me, there is no such thing as any one favorite. It makes my anxious to even think about picking just one!

So maybe if you guys start listing some of your favorites, it might kick-start my brain and help me narrow it down.

Anything goes, no book snobs here, it doesn''t have to be a work of literary genius.

Some of my faves to start us off:

The Sun Also Rises- Hemingway
Middlesex- Jeffrey Euginedes
Evening- Susan Minot
I Know This Much Is True- Wally Lamb
The Corrections- Jonathan Franzen
We The Living- Ayn Rand
The Talisman- Stephen King & Peter Straub
Pride & Prejudice- Jane Austen
The Sound and the Fury- Faulkner
Still Life With Woodpecker- Tom Robbins
My Sister''s Keeper- Jodi Piccoult

Ok, stopping now to let others in, but seriously could go on forever...

Any thoughts?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I love the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I could read those books over and over again and I wouldn''t get tired of them. I''m such a book w*ore though, I''ll ready anything.

 

[ChinaCat]

HH- I haven''t read any, I will pick one up next time I am at the bookstore.

Thanks for the suggestion!!!

Congrats on your recent engagement, btw, your ring is beautiful!

 

[Haven]

I couldn't resist a post with this title! Your list is really interesting, it's a bit liberal arts college required reading, and a bit best-seller. And I've never met anyone else who'd admit to loving Faulkner.

Anyway, my favorite novel is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
Other favorites:
This Side of Paradise Fitzgerald
Breakfast at Tiffany's Capote
Auntie Mame Patrick Dennis (FUN characters)
The Stranger Camus

As far as bringing in your favorite novel goes, I think you should truly stick to a work that you love because the language is beautiful, as I'm guessing that your instructor is going to have you examine the writing for style and language. The books you've listed are all really very different, stylistically, so perhaps you could narrow it down by looking at your favorite passages from each and then select the one that has the most beautiful writing. (In other words, focus on the language and style rather than content.)

Enjoy your creative writing class.

 

[ChinaCat]

Haven-

Yes, my taste is all over the place.

I think your suggestion is right on, content and style can be two very different things. I am also trying to think:
Which book do I wish I had written- which, for me at least, is more about style than plot/content.

Like your list as well, loved The Stranger and Breakfast at Tiffany''s (of course)!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Thanks! It''s at the jeweler''s being sized. We thought it was a 6.5 and it turns out it was mislabeled and is a 7!!! I wondered why it kept sliding around so much.

The books are great, nice and meaty. They average about 800 pages each though so if you tend to get distracted easily this might not be the series for you. The series has 6 books so far, and goes from pre-Jacobite Uprising in Scotland to the Revolutionary War in America. It''s a Fabulous Scottish and American History lesson!

From Publisher''s Weekly-
Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she''s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank''s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders'' daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frnak and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire''s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward.

 

[Selkie]

Date: 9/10/2007 4:57:56 PM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
Thanks! It''s at the jeweler''s being sized. We thought it was a 6.5 and it turns out it was mislabeled and is a 7!!! I wondered why it kept sliding around so much.


The books are great, nice and meaty. They average about 800 pages each though so if you tend to get distracted easily this might not be the series for you. The series has 6 books so far, and goes from pre-Jacobite Uprising in Scotland to the Revolutionary War in America. It''s a Fabulous Scottish and American History lesson!


From Publisher''s Weekly-

Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she''s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank''s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan ''Black Jack'' Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders'' daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frnak and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire''s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward.

oooh...Scotland, time travel, redheaded soldiers...

**rushes to Amazon to add Outlander series to wishlist, posthaste**

 

[CrookedRock]

Jodi Piccoult!!! Isn't she just the most amazing writer! I love her books, espicially My Sister's Keeper. Vanishing Acts was also very good. For a lighter read, that is quick and funny, I adore the Janet Evanovich books. I have read the whole series stating at One for the Money... Another of my favorite authors who is also very entertaining would be Carl Hiaasen. Start with Skinny Dip and you'll be hooked!

 

[zoebartlett]

I love Jodi Picoult too...I''m about 2/3 of the way through her latest one, Nineteen Minutes. I got about 1/2 through The Tenth Circle a while ago but didn''t really care for it so I stopped reading it. I just checked her website and it says that filming for My Sister''s Keeper (with Cameron Diaz) will begin filming next year. I loved the book but I can''t see Cameron Diaz in the movie.

I also love Nicholas Sparks, Anita Shreve, and Sophie Kinsella. Light on Snow by Anita Shreve was really good. I have Body Surfing and Sea Glass but I haven''t read them yet. I''ve read all of Sohphie Kinsella''s books, except her latest one, which I think is written in another name as the author (her real name??).

John Grisham''s good too, although I haven''t read all of his books. Of the ones I have read, The Firm is still my favorite of his.

 

[somethingshiny]

I love books more than diamonds!!

Okay, from childhood, The Neverending Story
Then, from high school, I''d go with The Canterburty Tales and The Odyssey and The Illiad
Also, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. His following novels in that series are also wonderful.

Love The Talisman and also anything from Steven King,Dean Koontz, John Coyne.

Also love Peter Freuchen''s Book of the Eskimos , a historical expedition.

And, Tom Robbins'' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

How is a person in a writing class supposed to be able to pick ONE?

Oh, also The Silver Chalice by Thomas B Costain.

And, I do love Harry Potter (I can''t help it!!)

 

[Julianna]

Date: 9/10/2007 4:17:24 PM
Author:ChinaCat
I decided to expand my horizons a bit and take a creative writing class. We have to bring our ''favorite'' novel to class.

HELP! If you are anything like me, there is no such thing as any one favorite. It makes my anxious to even think about picking just one!

So maybe if you guys start listing some of your favorites, it might kick-start my brain and help me narrow it down.

Anything goes, no book snobs here, it doesn''t have to be a work of literary genius.

Some of my faves to start us off:

The Sun Also Rises- Hemingway
Middlesex- Jeffrey Euginedes
Evening- Susan Minot
I Know This Much Is True- Wally Lamb
The Corrections- Jonathan Franzen
We The Living- Ayn Rand
The Talisman- Stephen King & Peter Straub
Pride & Prejudice- Jane Austen
The Sound and the Fury- Faulkner
Still Life With Woodpecker- Tom Robbins
My Sister''s Keeper- Jodi Piccoult

Ok, stopping now to let others in, but seriously could go on forever...

Any thoughts?

The Talisman is a fantastic book! I''ve read it thrice. Or so. And I loved I Know This Much is True.

ANYway, some more good ones are:

The Handmaid''s Tale - Margaret Atwood (oh so good)
Servant of the Bones - Anne Rice
The Grapes of Wrath - Hemingway (I love Hemingway. Anything by him.

)
The Martian Chronicles OR Dandelion Wine AND Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury (my favorite author)

WOOT I love reading. Lovely thread.

 

[gwendolyn]

Oi...lessee....

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding
The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (the whole series)
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (can you tell I love him?)
A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein

Those are most of the staples...I think.

 

[somethingshiny]

Oh!! I forgot The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy and The Little Prince on my first list. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[KimberlyH]

The Things They Carried - Tim O-Brien
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle
The Mammy - Brendan O''Carroll
Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
The Book Thief - Zusac
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggerin Genius - Dave Eggers
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Animal Husbandry - Laura Zigman
Housekeeping - Marilyn Robinson


Oh, and so many more...

 

[gwendolyn]

Date: 9/10/2007 6:28:25 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Oh!! I forgot The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy and The Little Prince on my first list. Thanks for reminding me!

No problemo!

 

[HollyS]

These are my favorites:

Anything by Jan Karon. I know. A tad schmaltzy; but really funny and touching. They are a feel good read.

Agathie Christie
Susan Whittig Albert
Mary Dahiem
And a whole plethora of mystery writers you may never have heard of. I tend to prefer what the genre refers to as ''cozy mysteries'' rather than the more graphic Patricia Cornwall books.

Ann Rule for true crime stories.

Joe Queenan for laughing out loud at ourselves and society in general.

Niall and Christine Williams for their 4 books about moving from the US to Ireland to set up permanent residence. And, anybody''s travel books that are about the experiences not the places, i.e. Frances Mayes, Ann Barry, etc.

Really, I find I don''t read much fiction except mysteries and Jan Karon. But I love biographies, autobiographies, and social commentary. I really buy books, or read books, based on content rather than the authors. Except for mystery series; then I''ll search out the author''s latest book.

The only thing I never buy or read is romance novels.

 

[monarch64]

Amy Tan...anything from her, including Saving Fish from Drowning

The Memory Keeper''s Daughter by Kim Edwards

Jodi Piccoult...anything!

The Kite Runner by Kholed Hosseini

 

[Clio]

My favorite novels - these are the ones I come back to again and again:

Middlemarch
anything by Anthony Trollope
anything by William Faulkner
Pride and Prejudice
Tess of the D''Urbervilles
Wuthering Heights
The Killer Angels

(I also read a lot of nonfiction, but that''s for another thread

)

 

[AGBF]

Date: 9/10/2007 9:45:24 PM
Author: Clio
anything by William Faulkner

I am just discovering Faulkner. I don't know why I missed him during "my" lifetime. I am encountering him during my daughter's. She was assigned As I Lay Dying and couldn't get into it. I started reading it to help her and found that I could! Now I am reading The Sound and the Fury which I had seen as a movie when I was a teenager. I remember finding Yul Brynner very sexy, but remember absolutely nothing about the plot. I am hoping I like it as much as I did As I Lay Dying (I am just at the very beginning). I did see it was on ChinaCat's list, which led me to hope it will be good!

Deborah, glad to have found this thread

 

[Haven]

Faulkner lovers--I have a recommendation for you:

Read anything by Erskine Caldwell. He is a little known writer from the same era as Faulkner, and his work is very similar to Faulkner''s (well, that is in the As I Lay Dying vein of writing, at least.)

I did my honors thesis in undergrad on Faulkner, and all of my fellow lit majors always responded with "Ugh, Faulkner. How awful." I''m so happy to find Faulkner fans on PS--I knew this was a great place.

 

[Clio]

For someone whose graduate degrees are in southern history, I came pretty late to Faulkner. It''s just the past couple of years that I''ve really been reading him. (I blame overuse of "A Rose for Emily" in my middle/high school English classes)

I''ll have to check out Erskine Caldwell - thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Pandora II]

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively is my all time favourite

Closely followed by ''Rebecca'' by Daphne du Maurier.

 

[AGBF]

Julianna,

Another book I never read and decided to read is The Grapes of Wrath. I think you mistakenly attributed it to Hemingway (whom I have loved since I was a teenager). As I am sure you know (since you read it and I didn''t), it''s by Steinbeck.

Deborah

 

[oobiecoo]

I really loved Angels and Demons by Dan brown and Candide by Voltaire!

 

[ChinaCat]

Great suggestions everyone! I have to go to the bookstore this evening, and now I have a whole list of books (to add to the ones that are already stacked by my bed waiting to be read!)

A few comments-

Zoe- Who in the world is Cameron Diaz playing in A Sister''s Keeper?????? The oldest sister is like 16, right? Could she be playing the mom? That seems weird! I agree about 10th Circle- I did finish it, b/c I think that even a bad Jodi Piccoult book is still better than most books, I just love her writing style- but it definitely was my least favorite. Other faves by her: A Second Glance, Plain Truth, Salem Falls. I just love how she inhabits completely different worlds in each book.

Julianna- Oh I forgot Margaret Atwood- love her. Loved Blind Assassin as well- if you haven''t read it, it''s fantastic.

Kimberly- We have very similar taste in books. I literally just finished Play It As It Lays- wow, she is a powerful writer. I liked On Beauty, and of course, how could I forget To Kill A Mockingbird! Love Dave Eggers as well.

Monarch- And Kite Runner- I put off reading this cause it seemed so "Oprah-ish" to me, but it is just a consuming, touching, and wonderful book. I have his new one, but haven''t gotten to it yet.

And of course Harry Potter- I think she is a pretty brilliant writer. I have been rereading the first one, and it''s amazing the level of detail that she faithfully carried out from book to book.

Faulkner- I know, everybody groans when I mention him. It''s been awhile since I''ve read him, but I was blown away by Sound and The Fury. Though I have a thing for dark Southern tales- like Eudora Welty. If you like this kind of stuff, read her short story "A Good Man is Hard To Find". I will try the other guy as well.

Hmmm, this is getting harder to pick just one!!!!

Here are some books that are on my list to read- chime in and let me know if they are worth it:

The Red and The Black- Stendhal
Anna Karenina- Tolstoy
Catch 22- Hubby is reading now and literally giggles out loud all the time.
Proust
Main Street- Sinclair Lewis
The March- E.L. Doctorow
Don''t Let''s Go To the Dogs Tonight- Alexander Fuller
Thief of Time- John Boyne
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell- Susannah Clarke
Special Topics in Calamity Physics- Marisha Pessl
The Russians- Tolstoy and Dostevesky- any beginner recommendations???? (no this isn''t a book! )

Oh, and for more fun series- how about Jasper Fforde''s Thursday Next series? Fun for book lovers. The first one is The Eyre Affair.

 

[Julianna]

Date: 9/11/2007 10:03:12 AM
Author: AGBF

Julianna,

Another book I never read and decided to read is The Grapes of Wrath. I think you mistakenly attributed it to Hemingway (whom I have loved since I was a teenager). As I am sure you know (since you read it and I didn't), it's by Steinbeck.

Deborah

You are indeed correct! Though I love Hemingway, I also love Steinbeck. Woo. Nice catch.

Now, get to reading it!

China, I have read The Blind Assassin. It was great. I need to get my hands on some more of her stuff.

 

[somethingshiny]

Tolstoy has a lot of Faith based works. I''ve never read much but excerpts of those, though. Indeed, a fine writer. I should pick him up again...

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 9/11/2007 11:12:35 AM
Author: ChinaCat

Zoe- Who in the world is Cameron Diaz playing in A Sister''s Keeper?????? The oldest sister is like 16, right? Could she be playing the mom? That seems weird! I agree about 10th Circle- I did finish it, b/c I think that even a bad Jodi Piccoult book is still better than most books, I just love her writing style- but it definitely was my least favorite. Other faves by her: A Second Glance, Plain Truth, Salem Falls. I just love how she inhabits completely different worlds in each book.

Here''s Jodi Picoult''s website: http://www.jodipicoult.com/

It only mentions that Cameron Diaz will star in the movie but I didn''t notice that it mentioned her role. My coworkers who love Jodi Picoult''s work and I were talking about it today and we didn''t get it either. I don''t see this as a starring role really, but I wonder if she''d be playing the girl''s lawyer or advocate she hired. That was a female right? Wasn''t she one of the characters that narrated the story?

I also read through many of the FAQs on her site and she mentioned that the worst book she''d ever read was The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. What I thought was interesting is that the guy who directed the movie version of Sparks'' book is slated to direct My Sister''s Keeper.

 

[Clio]

ChinaCat,
Anna Karenina is definitely worth a read! I''d recommend anything by Tolstoy, actually. I like Dostoevsky as well, though I haven''t read as much of his work. Anna Karenina has been one of my favorites for years.

I also highly recommend Jonothan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It''s a great story, interesting characters, and the narrative voice is perfect. Plus, made-up footnotes! It''s one of my favorite recent books.