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My dears, I just finished my book, and I’m searching for a new one. Have you guys read anything good lately? Any recommendations? I’d love to hear…. xo
(Photo by Elisabeth Dunker)
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“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak
“Fall on Your Knees” Ann-Marie MacDonald
Both my favourites!! Amazing images that will never leave my mind, both beautiful and disturbing. Amazing character development in both books, that has left me feeling like I have known the characters my whole life!
I’m reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron and it’s very good. I’m getting impatient though, because I want to get to the conclusion of the mystery but in true gothic novel fashion it’s taking a while :)
I’m reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron and it’s very good. I’m getting impatient though, because I want to get to the conclusion of the mystery but in true gothic novel fashion it’s taking a while :)
I second “History of Love” by Nicole Krauss
Audrey Niffenegger (author of “The Time-Traveler’s Wife”) just came out with a new book “Her Fearful Symmetry.” I’m dying to read it.
I just read The Shadow of the Wind and 100 Years of Solitude – both incredible!
Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah.
The Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce is taking bids on a Nantucket Experience Auction that features brunch with Elin Hilderbrand and a weekend filled with fun! Bidding ends in mid-April. For details, visit: http://www.nantucketchamber.org/visitor/nanexperienceauction.html
Fans of Elin Hilderbrand might want to this out — brunch with Elin on beautiful Nantucket Island!
I just read the most incredible book on my honeymoon, that has already been recommended, but again, you will ADORE…
“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer
Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s the sweetest book about an island in the english channel during WWII, and how the love of books brings people together. It’s told through a series of letters. Run, don’t walk to the bookstore!
I recommend Victoria by Knut Hamsun. 2009 is the official year of Hamsun in Norway and Victoria really is one of the greatest love stories you’ve never heard of. It is stunningly heartbreaking but at the same time it really makes you believe in love.
I just finished reading “The Slap”. Fabulous.
Just finished “Vanished” by Joseph Finder. I found parts of it beyond credulity, and by the end I was flipping through quickly just to get to the end, but it was definitely a page-turner. Am about to start the latest Dismas Hardy book, and in the non-fiction category am reading a review copy of a great book on our unconscious and how it influences our lives: What you Don’t Know You Know. It goes into all kinds of interesting topics, including how we come to decisions and the hidden forces behind it.
Oh if you like Jhumpa Lahiri (and I do, too), also read “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. It is about love and growing up and the caste system in India and grief and hilarity. . . it’s brilliantly creative and beautiful, and it will break your heart into a million pieces.
Though it would be easier to recommend books to you if we knew what you already liked, too.
True Notebooks by Mark Salzman … it’s a memoir about the author spending a year teaching writing classes at a juvenile hall, and includes many excerpts from the students. It’s very moving, makes you laugh and breaks your heart in a very engaging read.
EAT PRAY LOVE. Changed my whole attitude toward life.
I suggest you dig into the Man Booker shortlist, it’s meant to be really good this year! Make it a mission, finish all the shortlist :) I tried before but I never get through it, it’s very heavy.
My favourite book of all time is ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel. It’s the most amazing book and no other has changed my mind since I read it four years ago! And I read a lot. Can you recommend me a book? I’m looking for one at the moment too.
Don’t Let’s Let the Dogs Out by Alexandra Fuller! Amazing.
I am in the middle of the Harry Potter series, for my third time.
Ohhh, some wonderful suggestions here …
I highly recommend “The Ginger Tree” by Oswald Wynd. I love love love this book.
Happy reading!
I have a suggestion!
Check out a book I wrote called ‘Knickles and Dimes’. It’s a fun read, with laugh-out-loud characters and a great story. I think you’ll love it!
Thanks for reading!
Jillian
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/KnicklesAndDimes.html
Wow, this was an amazing list to read through!
I’m recommending ‘The Cider House Rules’ by John Irving. It was written forever ago, so should be easy to find in a used bookstore. I loved it much more than I was expecting to.
Murakami & Kenzaburo Oe have been mentioned and are great, I also love Banana Yoshimoto and Yasunari Kawabata from Japan.
‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ by Joan Didion and ‘The Maytrees’ by Annie Dillard might be good books for someone newly married, as they are about love in the real world–love that is imperfect and saddening at times, but still glorious. Happy reading!
This is going to sound ridiculous coming from me, but my friend recommended The Little Bee, so it’s next on my list! She said it’s amazing. I started Mrs. Dalloway over the summer and haven’t finished it yet. Oh, and I really liked The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. Very easy read and very touching.
french women for all seasons by mireille guiliano. or her first book french women don’t get fat. she’s coming out with a new one this month too… she’s amazing!
Well, I suppose you have loads of recommendations by now, but I highly recommend “Me & Emma” by Elizabeth Flock. It was recommended to me this summer, and I thought it was great. The author has a great way with words. Enjoy! :.)
Please read Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick when you have a chance. She’s an amazing author, and this is an amazing story!! Also, would recommend Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Hummingbird’s Daughter…I was not able to put it down!
currently reading :: rejected
great book about creative types + their hilarious accounts of canceled shows, trashed scripts + rejected attempts.
def makes me feel better!
did a quick write up on my blog recently :: http://rubyurl.com/2iNq
Lovely Bones is my all time fave, by Alice Sebold and I am dying to pick up Carrie Fishers new book Wishfully Drinking :)
I’m reading a lot of Michel Foucault.
I just ordered Stieg Larsson 2nd book of the trilogie..definately worth reading
What a fabulous list! Here are some more suggestions, not knowing what you are in the mood for:
from 2009 – The Help by Kathryn Stockett; When you Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (ya book, but so worth it – and fast too); April & Oliver by Tess Callahan; Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
in translation: the Steig Larsson books (2 in the trilogy)
Kate Morton’s books – The House at Riverton & The Forgotten Garden
The Girl with No Shadow – Joann Harris (sequel to Chocolat)
short stories: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth
That should do it for a lil while. :)
I also loved The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
I, too, love all three of Jhumpa Lahiri’s books. The Nakesake is still my favorite, but Unaccustomed Earth is not far behind. :)
Other favorites:
-The Time Traveler’s Wife
-Predictably Irrational
-The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry
Meg
Wow. Not that you need this website..but I’ve become addicted to http://www.goodreads.com
It’s kinda like facebook but for books. You can have a list of books to-read, reading, or have read… and you add friends and see all their reading lists. I’ve come across so many wonderful books as recommended by readers on the site.
For book recommendations, I echo Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, and also The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra by Rusking Bond
The Bronze Horseman series by Paulina Simons, and ANYTHING by Jodi Piccoult….love her
I would recommend “Book of Negroes” by Lawrence Hill. In the US its called “Someone Knows My Name.”
It is a fabulous story, and the characters are captivating. I’ve also read two of his other books “Any Known Blood” and “Some Great Thing” and they are all great. He’s a great author.
Bo’s Cafe-
Incredible story
Easy Read
Life-changing
Makes you laugh
Makes you cry
You’re not ready for it to end
So sweet
ANYONE WOULD LOVE IT!
new world monkeys by nancy mauro
please please read ‘a trip to the stars’ by nicholas christopher. please.
although after over 200 comments…you’ll be reading for awhile!
Book of Negroes
by Laurence Hill
It won the Canada Reads on CBC Radio, a yearly debate about books on the national radio station. I couldn’t put it down while I was reading it (took a little over 4 days) and the two books I attempted to read afterwards I put down as they could not compare. The book also won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
What a great list! (Thank you to Morgan for recommending my Josephine B. Trilogy!)Many of my favorite titles are listed, but of them all, I’d ditto the recommendation for Water for Elephants. I’ve never met a person who wasn’t crazy about that book. In fact, I’ve heard two people, on two different occasions, yell across a dinner table: “I LOVE that book!”
Sandra Gulland
******
Author of the Josephine B. Trilogy and Mistress of the Sun
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland
the glass castle. it was amazing, i can’t think of the author right at this second but i even got my grandmother to read it and she LOVED it too.
I’m currently reading Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon because The Crying of Lot 49 was so much fun. Gilead, as someone mentioned before, is a really good book as well, and I expect that the new Marilynne Robinson novel will be just as good.
I am reading Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
I finally read One Hundred Years of Solitude. Have you read it?
It was amazing. More amazing than anyone promised it would be. And for as long as it seemed at points, I am sad it is over and not going on and on endlessly. I have a plan to pick it up again in 10 years so I can read it anew.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
when I picked it up thought it would be mainstream but needed a book for vacation. I was blown away by the humor and honesty of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir. Her search to find herself in Italy, India and Indonesia. I’m still on the search for something as beautiful and compelling as this book. Nothing so far comes close.
I’m in the middle of reading The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. fantastic
I have a great 900-page history of Berlin I could recommend…:)
Our group just finished “The Memory of Running” and it was our favorite book to date, a little slow to start, but amazing and made my heart ache at times…
I’m re-reading A Room with a View by E.M Forester. Its one of my old favourites that is always just as good every time I read it. its funny and romantic and dramatic all at the same time.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga was great; I just finished that one.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Wasafiri magazine says that this is the book that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years according to a survey of international writers.
or
Memories of my sad bitches by gabriel garcia marquez
an amaizing writer and a great story!!!
so enjoy! :)
Well, you seem to have enough suggestions here, but this one is great too: Vendela Vida “You Can Go Now”. She edits The Believer literary monthly w/ her husband David Eggers.
I certainly have a fabulous suggestion…the title is Rescued by John Bevere and Mark andrew olsen…highly recommend this book!
Join Carrie’s book club @ http://address-the-world.blogspot.com/2009/09/hear-ye-hear-ye.html
The first book is Price and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.
~ Jen
look at all these great books, you’ll never be without a good book. I have to say that The Red Tent is such an amazing book and I think every woman should read it. It’s an amazing fabulous story, such a journey. happy reading!!!!
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is truly amazing.
Also, The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Neffenegger is very good!
Not really a page turner, but Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe is pretty great.
i just finished reading after you by julie buxbaum. it has easily become one of my top five favorite books of all time.
I have loved all of the books from Julia Glass. I just finished I See You Everywhere and loved it.
I’m sure someone’s already mentioned it, if not, The Glass Castle is a good one. Just finished it a week ago.
I am currently reading Kathy Griffin’s “Official Book Club Selection.” It’s great so far!! Not too thought-provoking, but fun nonetheless!
I had to come back to see more recommendations. This is my favorite kind of blog post-sharing info! I had to second some other recommendations
guernsey literary and potato peel pie society is so lovely and wonderful. I loved it to BITS!
Also Pillars of the Earth is fantastic. There is a reason there is such a phenonmenon behind it. It has rich storytelling, and is thoughtful and exciting. I read it last November during my trip to Italy, I couldn’t wait for a travel day so I could read it.
Anything by Marcus Zusak – the Book Thief & I am the Messenger are especially good. I can’t recommend them enough!!!
Saskia x
It’s been great scanning through everyone else’s recommendations. After a summer of (twi)light vacation reading, I’m now wading my way through “Speak Memory” by Nabakov. It’s taken me a attempts to get past the first chapter, but I love a memoir and his descriptions of his childhood memories are so evocative.
A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink
A GREAT book about left/right brain thinking. I borrowed it from the library and just half way through I knew I needed to buy it! Great exercises and inspiring words for people who are in creative career fields (you & me!).
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