current mood: cozy.
on my reading list:
quiet // Susan Cain
the goldfinch // Donna Tartt
wild // Cheryl Strayed
the big sleep // Raymond Chandler
gone, girl // Gillian Flynn
don't get too comfortable // David Rakoff
the big sleep // Raymond Chandler
gone, girl // Gillian Flynn
don't get too comfortable // David Rakoff
dear readers, what are you reading? any recommendations?
I recently discovered Cheryl Strayed and read "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar" (as well as "Wild"). Put it on the list! If you aren't familiar, it is a collection of advice columns she wrote under the pseudonym Sugar. Sugar is basically the perfect confidante- deeply sympathetic, and never minimizes the person's problems but somehow puts them in perspective and manages to give hope. So good :)
ReplyDeleteso interesting! i read a little bit of Wild so far and i really like her literary voice.
DeleteI started reading The Goldfinch on my plan ride to Denver for a conference my workplace was organizing and kept reading even though I was exhausted and should've slept instead. I'm about a quarter of the way through...definitely recommend it so far!
ReplyDeleteyou're not the first person to relate this while reading the goldfinch! going to start it tonight :)
DeleteI'm 700 pages into The Goldfinch- so good! Next on my list is Independent People, an Icelandic novel.
ReplyDeletei love the descriptor, "an Icelandic novel". :D
DeleteThe Enchanted Life of Adam Hope/ Rhonda Riley
ReplyDeleteThe River of No Return/ Bee Ridgeway
The Interestings/ Meg Wolitzer
thanks helen!
DeleteI'm 150 pages into The Goldfinch. Those book critics and bloggers weren't kidding when they called it Dickensian. Great reading so far. And I loved Quiet; it really spoke to me, personally, being the introvert that I am.
ReplyDeleteSome book recs:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - one of the best books I've read this year. There is even a book trailer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf5rehSHlk4
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - do not be deterred by the fact that this is the same woman who wrote Eat Pray Love - this book is nothing like her memoir! It's pretty epic and features a wonderful female protagonist.
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - great character profiles, great writing
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes - it features a time traveling serial killer and his one surviving victim who hunts him down. Really flippin' good and not as scary as I would have thought. Leo DiCaprio's production company have already purchased film rights, so you'll soon see it at a movie theater near you.
oh god, i mistakenly picked up a copy of Eat Pray Love years ago on a trip and couldn't donate it fast enough to the 'lending library' of the hostel i happened to stop at. :P thanks for the recs! :)
DeleteI second The Signature of All Things. Despite her Eat Pray Love reputation, Elizabeth Gilbert is an excellent writer.
DeleteDetective novels are one of my biggest guilty pleasures, I rip through them constantly, so I have to tell you that Gone, Girl is pretty awesome. I absolutely loved it. I wanted to read some of her other books but honestly they just seemed a little too... dark. Even for me. But Gone, Girl? Amazing.
ReplyDeletemine too! haha. i'm looking forward to getting into GG over the holidays!
DeleteI've recently read The Kite Runner and The Woman in Black - both excellent for very different reasons. I had to read the latter on the bus as it was too scary to read in the house alone!
ReplyDeletekate - i saw the trailer for TWIB when the film came out - scary stuff! i just can't do horror on film or in books :P
DeleteMy favorite book so far this year was Absolution by Patrick Flanery. It's a very literary political thriller about South Africa during apartheid. Other favorites were We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, Arcadia by Lauren Groff, and The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. I just started Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, which is great so far. I'm also looking forward to reading The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. (Yes, I read heaps!) Are you on Goodreads?
ReplyDeleteoooh i love your reading list! i'm not on goodreads...yet. i'm starting to think i should join!
Deletei totally recommend Americanah and Ghana Must Go. GMG is super poetic. but, Americanah is just a brilliant portrayal of the immigrant experience in the US, and the search for identity/struggle to maintain an identity. also an amazing love story. i'm a big fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in general.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll LOVE quiet - I find myself recommending it to people ALL the time. I was nodding along during the entire book, I could relate to everything :)
ReplyDeletei just finished it last week - it's so great! insights to live by for sure.
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