I’m currently reading “The Last Lecture”…loving it and
How Starbucks Saved My Life - irritating me…
laxmom–I almost picked up “How Starbucks…” at the library the other day (clever title, appealing cover). Then I read the blurb (son of privilege mingles w/the proletariat or something like that) & it turned me off a bit. Interesting that you didn’t care for it, either.
If you like the strange and unusual, try “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” by Haruki Murakami.
Actually all of his fiction is pretty out there, but strangely addicting.
Read “The Pilot’s Wife” yesterday. It was an interesting read–a little bit of a ‘pot-boiler’ but well-written and engaging.
blankmnd – I read Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, and I would say exactly the same – very out there, but I weirdly couldn’t put it down.
Re Murakami, I read (and greatly enjoyed) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it, too, has this intoxicating, dream-like quality. The term that comes to mind is “magical realism” (and, in googling Murakami’s name along with that phrase, I see that it has come to lots of other minds as well).
By contrast, his recent short memoir about running, writing, etc., which I read a few weeks ago, couldn’t be more down to earth.
[Amazon.com:</a> The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel: Haruki Murakami: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Up-Bird-Chronicle-Novel/dp/0679775439]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Up-Bird-Chronicle-Novel/dp/0679775439)
[Amazon.com:</a> What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: Murakami, Haruki, Porter, Ray (Narrator): Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-about-When-Running/dp/1433243857/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224983474&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-about-When-Running/dp/1433243857/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224983474&sr=1-1)
I just finished Out Stealing Horses by Pers Pettersen; it won a book prize in Norway. It’s about an older man who leaves the city for a rural area (in Norway) and ponders his past and what’s left of his family. It was a book group read and not something I would have picked up to read on my own, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
While I haven’t yet read Out Stealing Horses, it’s been on my “to read” list ever since I saw that novelist Anne Tyler singled it out as the best thing she read last year.
[Writers</a> and other cultural figures choose their favourite books of 2007 | Books | The Observer](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/nov/25/bestbooksoftheyear.bestbooks]Writers”>Writers and other cultural figures choose their favourite books of 2007 | Books | The Observer)
It’s on my list, too, and for the same reason.
I have a long flight today; I am going to look for this book at the airport.
I am waiting for the following holds at my library: the new Julia Glass, I See You Everywhere; the new Anita Shreve, Testimony; and books by two authors new to me that I am eager to read, Lesley Kagen and Sandra Kring.
dbwes–Anita Shreve seems like a skillful writer.
Marilynne Robinson’s “Home”.
At this new pace, a mere two years between Gilead and Home, she may soon be called “prolific”. I hope it would become a trilogy soon. It is so fitting that at a time when the son of an African and white couple maybe elected as our President that Robinson revisited an era and a place where John Ames Boughton may settle and raise a family there with his African American wife. I have little doubt that Gilead and Home have defined a new landscape for American literature by examining our past with compassion and our future with hope.
I LOVED Gilead… One of the most beautiful books I can remember.
An interesting (and very atmospheric) radio interview with Marilynne Robinson:
[Marilynne</a> Robinson, At ‘Home’ In The Heartland : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94799720]Marilynne”>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94799720)
another second for “the art of racing in the rain” i am sure this was mentioned somewhere in this thread. i started this yesterday and i just can’t put it down. surely this would be a favorite of dog lovers everywhere!
I read “The #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” last night (after trick-or-treaters). It was really different and very enjoyable! I can see why it’s been so popular in recent years – the intelligent and caring main character; the evocative depiction of Botswana culture/landscape.
Maybe I’ll read Gilead–those are great recs for it!
just finished the art of racing in the rain. what a great story. i’d recommend it to anyone, but if you’re a dog lover, you shouldn’t miss this one.
My bookclub has selected The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I have just started reading it. Has anyone else read it?
The Glass Castle was a very fine memoir. The author wisely kept her parents’ humanity front and center despite the chaos of her childhood caused by their problems.
Sue Miller’s The Senator’s Wife is my book club read this month. I just started it and I’m not sure I’ll finish it. I read her first book, but this one reads like a soap opera. Has anyone here read it?