“Challenge:I'd like to see how this works. Why not ask your readers to post the names of 10 books we love and see if you can come up with one recommendation off the top of your head from your own font of booklore. You get a point if the commneter we hasn't read it and a big bonus if we subsequently buy your recommendation.”
And fool that I am, I think that I will take that challenge with these changes.
- List five books you love, not ten (I don’t want my head to explode).
- I reserve the right to recommend the same book multiple times (we all have our loves).
- I will answer the challenge as time allows (the last few weeks have been crazy busy, but looking ahead I think I’ll have more time to focus on this blog).
If I think of any other qualifiers, I’ll let you know, but the above or just to keep me from going insane.
P.S. Blogger is being hateful and this is the third time I've tried to post this, so I apologize for the delay/any mistakes.
23 comments:
A challenge! Okay, here are five books that I love:
A Confederacy of Dunces - O'Toole
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - Vargas Llosa
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff - Moore
Decline & Fall - Waugh
Pursuasion - Austen
Knock yerself out!
Ooh, fun! Let's see how varied I can make this...
Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden
Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell
Guns, Germs & Steel - Jared Diamond
Octavia Butler, Kindred
Michael Berube, Life as We Know It
Anna Lanyon, Malinche's Conquest
Lindsay Clarke, The Chymical Wedding
Lisa See, On Gold Mountain
Former bookseller here, longtime lurker- great blog!
Snow Wolf- Glenn Meade
The Sculptress- Minette Walters
Lonely Hearts- John Harvey
lost boy lost girl- Peter Straub
Geek Love- Katherine Dunn
What fun!
1. Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
2. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
3. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
4. An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
5. The Assassin Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Excellent! I just posted a top ten of relative unknowns on my blog, so I'll just pull the top five here:
1. Seen by Moonlight, by Kathleen Eschenburg
2. If I Never Get Back, by Daryl Brock
3. Suspicion, by Barbara Rogan
4. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
5. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper
There's a challenge for ya...
1. Polar Dream, by Helen Thayer
2. Swimming to Antarctica, by Lynne Cox
3. Road Fever, by Tim Cahill
4. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
5. The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
Good luck!
1. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
2. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
3. Nobody's Fool, Richard Russo
4. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
5. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Normally I would say, suprise suprise, Doomsday book by Connie Willis. But under the circumstances, I will push her also wonderful 1) Lincoln's Dreams - Connie Willis
2) Then She Found Me - Elinor Lipman
3) The Easy Way Out - Stephen McCauly
4) I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
5) Joy in the Morning - Betty Smith
Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey
Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Dragonsquest by Anne McCaffrey
Face the Fire by Nora Roberts
Midnight in Ruby Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell
Ok these are older books but see what you can do with them. Thanks
These are keepers and I have read them more than once.
Fun! (And I bet you'll learn a lot about who those of us reading this are, too. :-)
1. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L'Engle
2. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
3. The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman
4. Christopher Fry, The Lady's Not for Burning
5. Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia McKillip
Well,let's see:
1)Northanger Abbey/Jane Austen
2)The Ladies' Auxillary/Tova Mirvis
3)Mammoth Cheese/Sheri Holman
4)Swan Song/Robert McCammon
5)Popco/Scarlet Thomas
Here's five keepers from my bookshelf:
1. The Year the Music Changed by Diane Thomas
2. Come Like Shadows by Welwynn Wilton Katz
3. Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson
4. The Goddess of 5th Avenue by Carol A. Simone
5. The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
Recommendations, terrific! Can the body of one author's work count as one?
1. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway
2. All Didion
3. All Chekhov (the stories, the plays)
4. Always Cheever, but never Updike.
5. My Phantom Husband, Marie Darrieussecq
Thank you. This is fun.
1. Tomcat Murr - ETA Hoffmann
2. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien
3. Master and Margarite - M. Bulgakov
4. Carmichael's Dog - R.M. Koster
5. The Kiss of the Spider Woman - Manuel Puig
ummmmm
1. World's End, T.C. Boyle
2. A Gesture Life, Chang-Rae Lee
3. Ex Libris, Anne Fadiman
4. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
5. The Instance of the Fingerpost, Iaian Pears.
1. Persuasion, Jane Austen
2. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie
4. The Far Pavilions, M.M. Kaye
5. Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri Tepper
Combat in the Erogenous Zone, Ingrid Bengis
The Once and Future King, T. H. White
On Basilisk Station, David Weber
The Pride of Chanur, C. J. Cherryh
And the word verification is: "goxtcexk" -- how Freudian is that?
(Susan Wilbanks, loved seeing your list - I adore the 1st 3 and wouldn't expect to see them on one person's list other than my own, have the last one on my TBR pile, and have never heard of the Cornwell but will be looking it up)
Leaving out the 3 Susan listed, with difficulty I narrow it to:
The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King
Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold, favorities are Memory and The Curse of Chalion.
The Cloister Walk, Kathleen Norris
Pilgrim's Inn, Elizabeth Goudge
Liaden Universe books, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(Susan Wilbanks, loved seeing your list - I adore the 1st 3 and wouldn't expect to see them on one person's list other than my own, have the last one on my TBR pile, and have never heard of the Cornwell but will be looking it up)
Sharpe's Triumph is the second book chronologically in a lengthy series about the adventures of a Napoleonic-era British soldier who gains an officer's commission for saving the future Duke of Wellington's life in battle. I love them, but they're definitely on the gritty, testosteroney end of my reading taste! Sharpe's Tiger is first in the series.
Some of the books were made into made-for-TV movies in the 90's and are being shown this summer on BBC America. They're simplified compared to the books, and due to made-for-TV budget constraints have a cast of dozens where a cast of thousands would be more accurate. But they also star Sean Bean, always a plus for me!
I love this.
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Possession - A.S. Byatt
Use of Weapons - Iain M.Banks
Acid Row - Minette Walters
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Hey is it too late? Stupid blogger wouldn't let me comment before.
Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey
Primary Inversion - Catherine Asaro
Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley
Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman
pretty please?
1. Bartimaeus trilogy (it'll come out as one book some day)
2. Once and Future King TH White
3. Bottom of the Harbor (essays about old NY) Joseph Mitchell
4. October Light John Gardner
5. 100 Years of Solitude. Marquez
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