4 Books for 40
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Anonymous
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My dear friends 40th is coming up and I've been having a difficult time thinking of a present. She is the person who gives fabulous gift and I'm typically a horrible gifter. She texted today asking for a reading suggestion. She wanted fiction in the psychological thriller genre so I gave her some suggestions. Made me think I could gift her 4 books for 40.
Was thinking 4 different genres - like a self help/finding yourself, maybe a meditation/spiritual, a life changing fiction (probably Love in a Time of Cholera since its my all time favorite) and an amazing psychological thriller. What would you do for genres or books? |
Anonymous
| Maybe Enchantment or Wintering by Katherine May |
Anonymous
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Silent patient
Finding Me Thursday Murder Club These Precious Days |
Anonymous
| Lying In Wait by Liz Nugent is one of the best psychological thrillers I've ever read. |
Anonymous
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The Four Agreenents
Real Self-care by Pooh’s Lakshmin |
Anonymous
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I loved The Silent Patient. Could not put it down.
I’d recommend a Libro.fm or other book related subscription or gift card. It’s too hard to pick a book someone else will like. |
Anonymous
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I would do:
Nonfiction/journalism: Bad Blood by John Carreyou Writing: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Psychological thriller: Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane Russian magical realism: The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov |
Anonymous
| Silent Patient is freaking terrible. All it did was put me to sleep. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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You know your friend best, and if you think she likes those genres, by all means proceed with your plan. However, the only genre you’ve indicated she’s interested in is psychological thriller. Has she been expressing a general dissatisfaction with her life and the desite to make changes? Unless you have additional information, I think the other genres are at best unnecessary and likely to be perceived as somewhat patronizing.
If you gave me that selection, I’d probably roll my eyes and stick the first three books on a shelf or donate them somewhere. It would come across to me as: “Happy Birthday! You need some help finding yourself so you can change your life, adopt my beliefs, and your life will be so much better. Even if you didn’t know there was a problem, trust me, you’re a mess.” I’m an avid reader, but don’t like people to pick out books for me. Generally, I’ve already read them or I’m not interested. If you want to give her four books, why don’t you at least give her four books in the genre she’s indicated she likes. Even better, give her a psychological thriller and a $40 gift certificate so she can pick her own books. Unless there’s some reason you think she wants to change her life and is trying to figure out how, you giving her those books out of the blue seems more about you than her. If her life really is a mess and as her friend, you want her to have life-changing self help and religious books, by all means give them to her, but not for her birthday. Her birthday should be about what she wants, not what you want for her. |
Anonymous
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I love these Judith Viorst's Decades books- She wrote Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Day along with many other books. The decade ones are so fun and on point. I would include the one for Forty https://www.amazon.com/How-Did-Get-Forty-Atrocities/dp/1982122536/ref=monarch_sidesheet |
Anonymous
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I just read The Good Part, as recommended by someone else on here, and I loved it. It's kind of chick lit/beach read, but far better writing than you'd expect. It also hit me as a 40-something - it's about a woman who wishes she could skip to the "good part" of her life when she is 26 and struggling. She wakes up and she's 42, so she's lost the last 16 years. I thought it was thought-provoking. Another thought-provoking book about turning 40 could be The Measure. It's not written as well but it's a fast read and it makes you think about whether you would want to know how much longer you have to live. Not trying to be a downer about turning 40, by the way! To the contrary, these books sort of made me think about where I was and what I had, but I'm also very happy with my life, so I guess I wouldn't suggest them to someone who is turning 40 but is unhappy about it...
Also, Shutter Island is great in the psychological thriller arena. I thought the Silent Patient was fine, but not great. I also liked Dark Places and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (who wrote Gone Girl). I just Googled to find a list and it turns out I have disliked a lot of the ones on here: The Girl on the Train (I hated the main character), The Guest List (I have also read The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley and didn't like it), All Good People Here, We Were Never Here, The Push, Rebecca (just read this for book group and I thought it was SO slow), The It Girl (it was fine, kind of like The Silent Patient, but not as good as I was expecting), The Golden Couple (this was really stupid), The Housemaid, None of This is True (this was kind of ok but overall disappointing), and frankly anything by Karin Slaughter (I have read probably four of her books over the years and I'm always disappointed). Others listed that I did like but wouldn't count as "dark" psychological thrillers (which is where my mind went), were Big Little Lies, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Last Mrs. Parrish, and Room. I also love Stephen King but not all of his books are psychological. The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is a good one for that. Also probably Misery. I loved Holly, a recent one, but I also had background about Holly from other books, although I'm not sure if that's necessary to enjoy it. |
Anonymous
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I don't know that other people love Love in a Time of Cholera.
Here are my votes: self help/finding yourself: Atomic Habits, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals a life changing fiction: I recommend The House of the Spirits if you want magical realism. Demon Copperhead, Remarkably Bright Creatures, the Golem and the Jinni an amazing psychological thriller: Verity, The girl on the train, gone girl, the girl with the dragon tattoo, in cold blood, Rebecca meditation/spiritual: I've only read 10% Happier. Not sure what else would fall into this category. |
Anonymous
| ^^ you could also get her a subscription for a few months to book of the month club |
Anonymous
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What about some book published 40 years ago? There's some classics in this list.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/1984 Add a copy of 1984 by George Orwell. |