Book Lovers Club
I've been receiving marvelous book suggestions on another thread and it was recommended that I start a Book Lovers thread. This is not for BC or health books -- this is pure escapism!!! I've collated the suggestions (with snippets describing the plots) I've received thus far. Please post your recommendations too!!
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett (In 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, two African-American maids and one white Junior League socialite -- seemingly as different from one another as can be, will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.)
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amorrezvani (a nameless teenager whose life in 17th-century Iran is derailed by misfortune following her father's death. With no means of support, she and her mother move to the city of Isfahan to live as servants with relatives.)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women.)
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (stories of a small gallery of French Parisians and villagers and occupying German officers and soldiers, each with his or her national and personal idiosyncrasies and destinies.)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (The story of a young girl's transformation into a geisha. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.)
Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald (The Piper family is steeped in secrets, lies, and unspoken truths. At the eye of the storm is one secret that threatens to shake their lives even to destroy them. Set on stormy Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia, chronicles the lives of four unforgettable sisters.)
Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (four people trying to survive war-torn Sarajevo. After a mortar attack kills 22 people waiting in line to buy bread, an unnamed cellist vows to play at the point of impact for 22 days.)
Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Readers will travel with Aminata Diallo from a West African village to an indigo plantation in South Carolina, through the tough streets of New York City and the harsh climate of Nova Scotia to the coast of Sierra Leone, and finally to an abolitionist's home in London.)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Walls, who spent years trying to hide her childhood experiences, allows the story to spill out in this remarkable recollection of growing up.)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her.)
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (Casually amoral until he is horribly burned in an accident, a man plans suicide but encounters a beautiful but possibly crazy sculptress of gargoyles who says she has rescued him before--in medieval Germany.)
Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Fifty-year-old Alice Howland, a highly respected linguistics professor, suddenly begins feeling disoriented and confused. Her diagnosis-early-onset Alzheimer's.)
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (a 14-year-old white girl named Lily Owen who is raised by the elderly African American Rosaleen, after the accidental death of Lily's mother, who find shelter with three black bee-keeping sisters.)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (When his parents are killed in a traffic accident, Jacob Jankowski hops a train after walking out on his final exams at Cornell, where he had hoped to earn a veterinary degree. The train turns out to be a circus train.)
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (Abandoned by his radio host father and raised by a strong but luckless mother, the author looked to the neighborhood bar for male role models.)
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live.")
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I think we know this one!)
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Robert Langdon is lured to Washington, D.C., where he believes he is to give a speech. Instead, he finds that an old friend has been abducted. Only Langdon can unlock the hidden mysteries that can save his friend's life.)
Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich (E.g., One for the Money, etc are hysterical!)
Fluke, Or I know why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore (a wild look at interspecies communication, adventure on the high seas, and an eons-old mystery.)
Lamb by Christopher Moore (An angel has resurrected Levi bar Alpheus, known as Biff, to tell this story of his life with Joshua, better known to the modern world as Jesus Christ, in which they set out to find the three magi.)
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee (In 1952 Hong Kong, Claire Pendleton, newly married to a bland postwar British government official, lucks into a job as piano teacher to the untalented young daughter of the powerful and wealthy Chinese family.)
The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (A delightfully dark English mystery set in rural 1950s, featuring precocious young sleuth Flavia de Luce and her eccentric family.)
The War Against Miss Winter by Kathyrn Miller Haines (A down on her luck actress in NYC - 1943 who takes a part time job at a detective agency - she is feisty, mouthy and a lot of fun.)
Thank-you to 3katz, Jelson, Mantra, Mich, OmahaGirl, RobinWendy and Ruthbru for their suggestions -- I hope I didn't leave anyone out! PM me if I did!
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Great start!!! I hope to list some soon, but I like a lot of murder mystery, but also books where I learn something...
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I'm a murder mystery, thriller, gruesome cut-em-up forensic book person -- I'm looking forward to broadening my horizons with this list.
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I have read the Secret Life of Bees it is a good book, I too am a murder mystery fan my next one is Double Cross by James Patterson.
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- Great idea! I am a voracious reader. I just finished The Help and absolutely loved it. I also just reading "Picking Cotton" and "Left to Tell". Left to Tell is written by Immaculee Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Both books are about love and forgiveness are excellent!!
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Elizabeth; Great idea and I like the rules...nothing about BC or health. Thanks for the synopsis of all the books on your list.
I am halfway through Book of Negroes. Absolutely love it and it is so well written that you feel like you're on the journey. The author, Lawrence Hill is the son of American immigrants - a black father and a white mother - who came to Canada the day after they married in 1953 in Washington, D.C. He was born and raised in Don Mills Ontario.
The Lovely Bones is another good book. I think the movie is out now. Has anyone seen it?
The Almost Moon (also by Alice Sebold) is really captivating from the opening line. " When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily" Synopsis: For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When Helen finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. I couldn't put it down.
I read Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza and it is heart wrenching to realize what the Rwandan people went through. Immacullee's spirit is truly amazing.
On the lighter side...I also like anything Jennefer Weiner.
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I also have to add that I love everything by Jennefer Weiner and Lauri Notoro is so funny and real, my favorite is I Love Everybody (and other atrocious lies) there are scenes because I can relate to being chubby and having problems with clothes that made me fall off the chair laughing and made my DH come running in the room to ask "what the hell"?0
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Way to go Elizabeth...thanks for starting this thread. I'm adding it to my favourites and looking forward to getting some ideas. By the way, I'm also a big fan of murdery mystery, cut-em-up psycho thrillers. John Grisham is also a personal favourite.
Pickle141....The Book of Negroes was such an awesome read. I absolutely loved it, and was pleased that a Canadian author had written such a masterpiece.
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I'm a mystery fan too. Recently I really enjoyed Stieg Larsson's books -- The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and The Girl who Played with Fire. He has one more, but unfortunately he died recently so this trilogy is all there will be.0
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Rev, I wasn't aware he had died. I just started The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, after giving up on it a few months ago. My friend encouragted me to try it again,so I will let you know!
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I have to get out a notebook to write these all down!! How fun, thanks for organizing this, Elizabeth!
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If you were first introduced to British actress Helen Mirren through the Brit TV series Prime Suspect (and if you liked the show!) then I think you'll enjoy the mystery novels of Lynda LaPlante, who wrote Prime Suspect. Some titles offhand are Above Suspicion, Red Dahlia, Cold Shoulder, Cold Blood, Royal Flush.
Slightly more serious -- a couple of incredibly interesting and very readable books by Dr. Ronald Wilson: A Brief History of Progress and What Is America. The latter is a very compact history of North America going back to pre-Columbian days right up to the year 2008. If you've ever wondered what really happened to the indigenous populations that were well settled here before the Europeans "invaded" our continent, then this is the book to read.
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Mich -- I'm anxious to read The Book of Negroes. Lawrence Hill comes by his talents naturally -- his brother is Dan Hill, the songwriter (Sometimes When We Touch, and countless others). I think their father was a university prof. I saw Dan interviewed the other night. He said that whenever he or Lawrence (Larry) wanted something from their parents, they had to write them a letter, outlining the reasons why etc. Hey, what a good idea!!!
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It took me a while to get into the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I was eventually hooked. I'm sorry we won't have any more from this author.
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Elizabeth- Thanks for starting this...great idea!
Happy Birthday and Hugs.
Pat
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!! Today is YOUR day!
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An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark. She is a Canadian author. The story is about a lady who deals with mental illness while trying to raise her children.
This thread is a great idea Elizabeth.
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Anyone who loves dogs will likely enjoy Virginia Lanier's Bloodhound series. They don't need to be read in sequence but it's better if you do. She is a mystery writer and the stories are based on the main character Jo Beth Snidden who raises bloodhounds for search and rescue. The books are an easy read and hard to put down.
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Great idea
Suite Francaise was very good. I'm reading John Sandford's Rought Country right now. Third in his Virgil series. They're all mysteries based in MN.
The Good German by Frank Kannon, was part historical fiction part murder mystery. Based on an American Officer occupying Germany just after World War II.
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Thanks for this Elizabeth. I won't have a problem picking out a book ever again!!! After the 2 I'm in the middle of now (one for work lunch hour and the other at home) I'll get crackin' on some of these suggestions.
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I love to read a few light hearted mystery series that mix murder and cooking. Diane Mott Davidson has a series out with Goldy Schulz as a caterer that gets mixed up in murder and mayhem there are also some great recipes the setting is Colorado, I also like Laura Childs Tea Shop Mysteries, they are abut a woman who operates a tea shop in Charleston SC, the setting is great, the charachters are good, you can see the gardens and settings she describes a real nice reality break read. These also have some great recipes and part decorating ideas. For something more challenging The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney is a mixture of mystery, history and love story.
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wow, what a list. I, myself, like autobiographies, biographies or true stories.
Elizabeth, are any of your suggestions true stories?I did read "Secret Life of Bees"..I liked it.
Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!!!
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pickle, I read The Lovely Bones and then saw the movie. The movie was more from the perspective of the living people...how her father dealt with it, mostly. The book was more of her perspective from heaven, meeting people there, figuring out who they were in relation to her, her changing surroundings.0
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Happy, happy, happy birthday, dear Elizabeth! Great thread; thanks for starting it!
It's been around for awhile, but if you haven't read it, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, it has some laugh-out-loud lines, as well as being beautifully introspective. And I also really enjoyed The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan. If you're not familiar with her writing, here are a couple of clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNY8KL_YSlc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRQpmSVV9SA
Deanna
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A great idea!
I too am a voracious reader and start to panic when I am getting to the end of a book if I don't have another one lined up ready to read....
Some of my suggestions :
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
Told by the wife and four daughters of an evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959.This is the story of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
Prodigal Summer (Barbara Kingsolver)
A reclusive wildlife biologist, a young hunter,a farmer and a pair of elderly feuding neighbours ......over the course of one humid Summer,these characters find not only their connections to each other but a sense of the place they share.
Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
'The death of a fisherman on a Pacific island turns into a murder trial for a Japanese-American and a test of passions brewed since Pearl Harbor between two heritages claustrophobically locked on one dot of land.Love and morality are beautifully choreographed into an exceptional novel' (Daily Mail)
Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks)
A story of love and war, set in Flanders in World War One. Very graphic descriptions of life in the trenches.
Charlotte Gray (Sebastian Faulks)
A young woman who is persuaded to become an agent, dropped into France in WWII......another story of love in wartime.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)
Historical fiction set in mid-seventeenth century Netherlands.A naive young girl goes to work for the artist Vermeer and eventually he uses her as his model,to the distress of his wife.
Anything by Anita Shreve or Rose Tremain
There are lots more, but I haven't time to list them now!
Very Happy Birthday Elizabeth!
Sam
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Love this thread! Is anyone here a member of goodreads.com?
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I heard this question discussed on NPR a few days ago--What book have you started and never finished?? What comes to my mind is Red Badge of Courage, which was assigned in hs, and I remember never finishing it--not sure how I passed 10th grade English!
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Love this thread. Thanks Elizabeth for starting it.
I have a few to add: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (last of the Stieg Larsson series). Quite wonderful, but unfortunately his last.
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. A bumpy coming of age story about a young woman learning to deal with loss and grief and the messiness of relationships. Author has a wonderful wit and loves to play word games. Great read and a great pick for discussion groups.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. If you liked Marley and Me, you'll love this book. It's told from the perspective of Enzo, the main character's dog. Touching, sensitive, funny, and insightful.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows. Told in the form of letters, it's the story of a group of people on the isle of Guernsey during World War II who discover reading books initially as a coverup for eating forbidden food after the Germans arrived on the island. It's a great read and the characters are wonderful.
If you like murder mystery, anything by David Balducci is really good.
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. The story begins in 1937 Shanghai, a very cosmopolitan city, under imminent threat of the Japanese. After living a life of privilege and ease two sisters are sold to become wives of two Chinese brothers due to their father's gambling debts. Refusing to accompany their husbands back to Los Angeles, they eventually make the trip, after a harrowing march out of the city, and are then imprisoned at Angel Island (San Francisco) in foreign-internment camps. At last they are freed to meet their stranger husbands in Los Angeles amid the Chinese ghetto and racism that existed at the time. Great story and you learn a lot, as is true of See's previous books.
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Elizabeth - what a fun thread....and happy birthday!!!
Two of my favorites are Imperial Woman by Pearl Buck (The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last Empress in China. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way)
and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don't know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they don't know the gifts that the daughters keep to themselves)
I happen to have a dragon tattoo on my arm and I have been afraid to read the book "the girl with the dragon tattoo" because it sounds scary...LOL!!!!
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Candie1971 ~ The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is Jeannette's memoir about her life, and growing up in the States with her siblings and her very bizarre/crazy parents. Her parents were dreamers, rarely worked, were transients most of Jeanette's childhood (the kids raised themselves), they lived in extreme poverty, and yet the author is able to highlight the good times she had with her family. It's an amazing story of survival and one of those books that you can't put down. I just picked up the author's second book, Half Broke Horses. It's the true story of Jeannette's grandmother....I'll let you know if it's any good.
Lindasa ~ I didn't make the connection between Lawrence Hill and Dan Hill....what a talented family. And yes the author talks a little about his family at the end of the book....very interesting and scolarly family indeed. And Candie1971, although the Book of Negroes is not a true story, it's based on historically accurate events. The author did an amazing amount of research. It's about the people stolen from their African homelands, sold as slaves and shipped over to the States. It's a heartwrenching story, but I have to say, I learned quite a bit about the history of slavery and the abolitionist movement.
Lovemyfamilysomuch ~ Good idea about listing books that you've started and never finished. I can only think of 2. Bill Clinton's autobiography and recently Invictus (I think that's what it's called?)...the story about Nelson Mandela and the soccer team. I read both about half way.
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