Novels to lose yourself in this summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to hi-Jack your thread OP, but am contemplating reading "The Goldfinch" after seeing all the positive revs in this thread.

Is it a suspenseful/thriller-type read?
Also, what exactly is a "beach read?"

Something light, not too heavy or dark??
I don't imagine a Stephen King or V.C.
Andrews to be categorized as a common beach read.

I absolutely could NOT get into the Goldfinch at all. It's a very polarizing book I think. You either loved it or gave up 55 pages in.

I made it 2/3 of the way through, which is unusual for me. I'm usually either out in 50 pages or very into it.

The parts of Goldfinch I liked, I really liked. But I got so incredibly bored by the last section. Can't believe I quit that far in, but I was just done. YMMV.

glad its not just me. I can;t get past about page 60. I find it so tedious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone read the new novel The Girls-loosely based on the Manson Family? It got a mixed review in the Times, but sounded interesting.

It's on my list! My library doesn't have it yet, I'll wait for it. Report back if you read it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The next two on my list are Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson and Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley.

Good picks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Margaret Atwood's trilogy Oryx and Crake. Sooooo good.

Second Station Eleven.

Loved Book Thief

Jane Smiley's triology (Iowa)

Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and God in Ruins

Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Invention of Wings

Orphan Master's Son

Longbourn

Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies

Just a few of my faves!

We have similar tastes. I couldn't put down Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. Also loved Life After Life. I'm going to try some of the other recommendations on your list.

Cool! What are some of your favorites?

Favorites, both fiction and non-fiction- in addition to Life after Life, Station Eleven, and the Hilary Mantel novels, this is probably my "desert island library":

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, and the rest of the novels in that quartet
Ann Patchett's novels and non-fiction, especially State of Wonder (novel), Truth & Beauty (non-fic), This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (non-fic), Bel Canto (novel)
The Last Policeman Trilogy, by Ben Winters
Some of Margaret Atwood's earlier works - like The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride
Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay (non-fiction essays)
Novels by Donna Tartt, especially The Secret History and The Goldfinch (though I admit the latter takes some commitment and I thought the first half of The Little Friend was brilliant)
Anything by Laurie Colwin, esp. her non-fic cooking essays (Home Cooking, More Home Cooking), A Big Storm Knocked It Over (novel), Happy All the Time (novel)
Anything by Alice Munro, who writes short stories
Anything by Michael Ondaatje, esp. In the Skin of a Lion (novel), Running in the Family (non-fic memoir/travel writing)
A.S. Byatt's novels, esp. Possession, The Children's Book, Still Life, A Whistling Woman
The Peppered Moth, by Margaret Drabble (A.S. Byatt's sister!)
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri (this novel makes me cry but I love it)
Short stories by Edith Pearlman
What's Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies - and for something lighter, The Salterton Trilogy (esp. Tempest-Tost). I love Robertson Davies -he's like a modern-day Dickens. Too bad he's gone.
The Unspeakable, by Megan Daum (non-fic essays)
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald (non-fic memoir)
The Light of the World, by Elizabeth Alexander (read this recently and it blew me away - beautifully written, moving memoir)
Birds of America, by Lorrie Moore (short stories)
The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson (memoir - so smart, complex, and moving I started re-reading it right after I finished to make sure I understood it totally)
The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, a non-fiction book. Also loved his prior non-fic works Complications and Better.
A Family Life, by Akhil Sharma - a novel based on his real life. I thought this was an amazing, devastating piece of writing.
Nobody's Fool, by Richard Russo
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving- by far his greatest novel, in my opinion, though I have a soft spot for The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules too.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Also Home. (Though I couldn't stand her third book in this trilogy, Lila.)
The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx
Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Telegraph Avenue. I've enjoyed some of his other novels but these two are the ones I re-read.
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith - the only one of her novels I've really enjoyed and been moved by, though I did like large stretches of "NW."
And now for something a little different: Fun Home and Are You My Mother? graphic novels by Alison Bechdel - I don't usually read graphic novels but these were really enjoyable and interesting.

And I'm excited for the following books coming out in the next year or so: Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, Ben Winters' Underground Airlines. The final book in the Wolf Hall trilogy - I can hardly wait for this. Moonglow, by Michael Chabon.

Next on my list to read this summer: Little Labors, by Rivka Galchen. The Past, by Tessa Hadley. Something by Curtis Sittenfeld (thanks for the Sittenfeld recommendations, PPs!). Modern Lovers, by Emma Straub (though I'm on the fence about this one because it has been SO heavily promoted over the last few weeks it makes me skeptical - anyone read this or her other stuff before?).

Ugh! Why do I see Ferrante on this list? I found her book do tedious and boring .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? I can't decide if I want to keep reading. Interesting premise, but nothing so far to pull me through.

I read it. I found it a bit confusing even through the end. I thought Bee Ridgway's River of No Return was a better timeline novel. I also read "Touch" by Clare North and found that more absorbing albeit creepy than First Fifteen Lives.

[Anonymous]

I was on a Paul Theroux kick a couple of summers ago. I really enjoyed his novels involving an American diplomat abroad (London, post-colonial Malaysia). I think I'm going to read Jungle Lovers and the Mosquito Coast next.

[Anonymous]

bump! loveeeeeee this thread~

[Anonymous]

btw.....i go into debt reading (eek). credit card had to be cut off.now I'm stuck at the library. keep them coming ladies/gents

[Anonymous]

I love this thread. I have loved many of the books suggested here. But, the better news for me is that I haven't heard of many of the books on here. I've made a long list of books to try this summer! Thanks, all.

I'll add In the Garden of the Beasts, by Erik Larson. I was completely enthralled by it. I also enjoyed Dead Wake by the same author.

I'll also second a previous recommendation for Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. They are all good, but The Likeness, In the Woods, and Broken Harbor are my favorites.

[Anonymous]

I also love this thread. I'm the PP who recommended A Little Life but took forever to read it because I was crying in the office lunchroom too often. Some things I love / have read recently:

How the Light Gets In - MJ Hyland
anything by Alice Munro
Did You Ever Have a Family - Bill Clegg
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
anything by Sarah Waters (but mostly the early stuff)
We Need New Names - Violet Bulawayo
anything by Margaret Atwood
anything by Margaret Laurence
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
HHhH - Laurent Binet
Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
anything by Joseph Boyden
February - Lisa Moore
The Disappeared - Kim Echlin (another one to avoid in the office canteen)
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
Stiff - Mary Roach
Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh
Missoula - John Krakauer
mystery series - Tana French, Maisie Dobbs, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell

[Anonymous]

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing, Mira Jacob -- I nearly passed on this one because dead brother plus dying father with dementia did not seem like an escapist delight, but I am nearly done with it and have really enjoyed it. Messy but loving families, well-intentioned people who screw up . . . it was really sweet.

It did make me want Indian food, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liane Moriarty books are awesome: Big Little Lies, Whag Alice Forgot

Have you read Gone with the Wind? I read that for the first time a couple summers ago and absolutely loved it. I couldn't put it down. Huge book and I carried it with me everywhere.

FFS

What, do you have 200 page limit? Short attention span?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liane Moriarty books are awesome: Big Little Lies, Whag Alice Forgot

Have you read Gone with the Wind? I read that for the first time a couple summers ago and absolutely loved it. I couldn't put it down. Huge book and I carried it with me everywhere.

FFS

What, do you have 200 page limit? Short attention span?

I have a 300 page limit. I find books over that length desperately need editing.

[Anonymous]

Where'd You Go Bernadette?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ugh! Why do I see Ferrante on this list? I found her book do tedious and boring .

Really? Tell me more. Her Friend books seem to be the rage.