Book Recommendations

[Valentina3]

Hey guys,

Starting this thread to share what we are reading currently. Keeping it on Off-Topic since I want it to be more generic and not just limited to theater. Feel free to share your theater book recommendations as well. :)

I'm reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize and 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. It's very good, I picked it up after reading the NYTimes review which does a great job of expressing how I feel about the book. I'd love for this to be adopted into a series/stage show.

Very much looking forward to the upcoming Harriet Tubman movie starring Cynthia Erivo.

[ErikJ972]

I'm on the last book of The Three Body Problem triology. Loved the first two books and would highly recommend them to anyone who is a fan of science fiction. Plus they were recommended by Obama. Back when we had a President who could read.

The Underground Railroad is next on my list.

[RippedMan]

The Nix!!! It won a bunch of awards last year, and it was Stephen King's book of the year. It's not a scary book, though. It's just brilliantly written. I'm almost finished it. Then I'm going to try the new book by the "Girl on the Train" writer. 

[Cat Guy]

"The Queen Mother:  The Official Biography" by William Shawcross.  The life story of the "Queen Mum," wife of King George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.  I am a true Anglophile, and she has always been my favorite Royal.  She had a long life, passing at age 101, so the book is also long at 1168 pages.

This brief video highlights the biography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8bArNfKN4

[henrikegerman]

Loved The Underground Railroad.

[hork]

I'm currently reading two books: Alan Moore's mammoth novel Jerusalem, which I've been gradually reading for about a month now and I'm not even halfway done (it's kind of brilliant but also very slow); and What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, which I'm almost done with and which I'm also enjoying.

[AC126748]

I'm currently alternating between Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and Teeth: Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America by Mary Otto.

[SweetLips]

Mine is not as high-brow as all the above.

I just like a well written thriller/mystery/who-done-it and at the moment The Caller by Chris Carter holds my interest, as does all his novels.

Next is Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice. Devoured[?] all her books except this one. She must be REALLY pissed her precious vampires are overshadowed by all these pretty teen fiction creatures out there now.

[Wickedlover56]

I had to read "East of Eden" this year for a class and thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. I found it to be incredibly powerful, relevant, and insightful and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

[Valentina3]

AC126748 - I bought the Mary Otto book just last month as a gift to my boyfriend (who runs a non-profit clinic and is going to dental school this fall).

These are great suggestions guys, let's keep this thread going :)

[AC126748]

Valentina3 said: "AC126748 - I bought the Mary Otto book just last month as a gift to my boyfriend (who runs a non-profit clinic and is going to dental school this fall).

These are great suggestions guys, let's keep this thread going :)

 

"

It's such an interesting book. I imagine even more so for someone in the industry.

[givesmevoice]

Wickedlover56 said: "I had to read "East of Eden" this year for a class and thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. I found it to be incredibly powerful, relevant, and insightful and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone."

I read East of Eden a few years ago on the recommendation of a friend, and I have to agree with you completely. My friend says it's her go-to recommendation for basically everyone, and I kind of have to agree.

 

I'm currently slogging through The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and it's really interesting but quite dense.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Just finished Call Me By Your Name, which I wanted to get to before the movie comes out this fall. Easily one of my favorite books now, even if it is kind of devastating.

Trying to pick up Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler now. I'd started it a few months back and dropped it, but I liked the bits that I read. Next on the list afterward is Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee and The Girls by Emma Cline. 

[newintown]

Re-reading From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun. Very apt for the current climate. Afterwards, aiming for American War by Omar El Akkad.

[hork]

I finished What I Loved, and I think it might be the saddest book I've ever read. Not in a tearjerker way, where you have a quick cry and then you're over it, but in a way that leaves a deep, profound sadness that haunts you.

Now I'm reading Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, though I find it mostly annoying, since it's ostensibly a novel but really it's a pedantic essay/biography.

[newintown]

I think Flaubert's Parrot (like all of Julian Barnes' work) is brilliant, unique, and enormously entertaining.

[AEA AGMA SM]

SweetLips said: "Next is Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice. Devoured[?] all her books except this one. She must be REALLY pissed her precious vampires are overshadowed by all these pretty teen fiction creatures out there now."

 

She did a pretty good job of pushing vampires into that realm herself. From turning Lestat into a rock star adored by millions, focusing on how young and beautiful Armand was (Armand's relationship with his creator was basically pederasty), and so many other examples, she has no leg to stand on if she wanted to be pissed about the turn vampires have taken in young adult fiction.

[hork]

newintown said: "I think Flaubert's Parrot (like all of Julian Barnes' work) is brilliant, unique, and enormously entertaining.

 

I think he tries to be too cute, and I find his writing style a little obnoxious, and not as clever as he seems to think it is.

 

[After Eight]

I'm currently reading --- or more accurately, rereading --- various poetry anthologies. In these coarse and troubled times, we are lucky to have beautiful words and thoughts to turn to as balm for the soul.

[Steve C.]

I'm reading a rather incredible find. "3 For Bedroom C" by Goddard Lieberson. It's a 1947 1st printing and it's puzzlingly dedicated to "Little Hedwig". It's a broad situational comedy set on a transcontinental train.

It's also the basis for a movie from the early 50's which was supposedly starring Gloria Swanson in her only color movie.

It's fun in several ways, the story of course, with rich society ladies, wacky situations...but I'm holding a real old fashioned type book, just maybe like a 5 x 7 small little [bible]?. ahahaha 

[newintown]

hork wrote: "I think he (Julian Barnes) tries to be too cute, and I find his writing style a little obnoxious, and not as clever as he seems to think it is."

Well, it's your opinion, and certainly valid as such, but it should be noted that, seeing the spectacular reputation Barnes has in the literary world, that's a bit like saying "I think Einstein's theories are overrated," or "Michelangelo just didn't know what to do with paint," or "Mozart wrote stupid music."

I mean, no one is saying that you can't say it, or that no one will agree with you, but a lot of people are going to look at you funny and move to a different part of the room, and maybe snicker.

It's also an attitude vaguely reminiscent of the patter section in the song "Telly" from Matilda:

"Who the Dickens is Charles Dickens? Mary Shelley? Cor, she sounds smelly. Charlotte Bronte? Do not want-y! Jane Austin? In the compostin'. James Joyce? He doesn't sound noice. Ewen McEwan? Ugh, I feel like spewin'. William Shakespeare? Schwilliam Schmakespeare. Moby Dick? Easy, Grandma."

[hork]

newintown said: "hork wrote: "I think he (Julian Barnes) tries to be too cute, and I find his writing style a little obnoxious, and not as clever as he seems to think it is."

Well, it's your opinion, and certainly valid as such, but it should be noted that, seeing the spectacular reputation Barnes has in the literary world, that's a bit like saying "I think Einstein's theories are overrated," or "Michelangelo just didn't know what to do with paint," or "Mozart wrote stupid music."
 

I think you're overrating his reputation. He's nowhere near a Mozart or a Michelangelo. I don't think there's any living writer who has that kind of reputation, and certainly not Barnes, whose name I never even hear (not that I circulate much in the literary world). But even if he did, so what? There are lots of "great" writers I don't care for, and that's true of virtually every reader. If someone moved to the other side of the room because I called Flaubert's Parrot obnoxious and patronizing, I wouldn't want to talk to that person anyway.

[artscallion]

AC126748 said: "I'm currently alternating between Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and ..."

I read this recently. Took a bit to get into the unusual structure. But well worth the effort.

[taboo123]

I'm quite the bibliophile. 

 

I loved loved loved The Nix and Underground Railroad as well

recently read and enjoyed

Exit West

Moonglow

Gentleman in Moscow

All the Light We Cannot See

as newer titles

 

as far as revising some 'classics':

IT

Harry Potter 

Valley of the Dolls 

make a good summer read!!

 

[javero]

I'm trying to get through The South Under Siege.  Details at the link below.

The South under siege, 1830-2000: A history of the relations between the North and the South

[Cat Guy]

"The Complete Book of Running" by Jim Fixx.

This book changed my life.  When it was first published in 1977, I was a 30-year-old guy who was "sorta" fit and healthy.  I was a vegetarian, didn't smoke and didn't drink alcohol.  But the book inspired me to begin a walking/running regimen that has stayed with me for the past 40 years.  I have competed in dozens of events (5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon).  I am confident that I survived three heart attacks (heredity) because of my diet and exercise program.  That Fixx sadly died of a heredity-related heart attack while jogging does not deter me.  I have made it to age 70 in large measure due to Jim Fixx and his remarkable book.