Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For one under the fun, summer beach read category - Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. Just finished it the other night and couldn't put it down. Fun, easy read.

Not OP, but I'm glad you liked it - I think I'm going to try Eligible this summer!

NP. I haven't read Eligible yet but Sittenfeld is one of my FAVORITE authors. Try her other book American Wife -- fiction based on the life of Laura Bush -- it's a fun, easy, juicy page turner.

She's one of mine too! Any recommendations for similar reads now that I've read all of hers?

I enjoy her books and there is a vibe in them that reminds me of Melissa Bank's books, A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot. She has a great way with words - funny and a bit sad.

I'm the PP who suggested American Wife. I also liked A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing!

Sittendfeld does coming of age stories really well. My other favorites are Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone and The Namesake, although they aren't much like Sittenfeld. Bo Caldwell's The Distand Land of My Father is also excellent. I second Margaret Atwood--- Cats Eye especially.

The Widow by Fiona Barton.

Suspenseful + a nice thriller to boot!

I liked Book Thief much better than All The Light but both were good.
I finished Goldfinch even though I didn't like it. It was overwrought.
I loved Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and And The Mountains Echoed, for novels on the heavy side. Both mesmerized me.

I just finished Brooklyn and really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Anonymous wrote:For one under the fun, summer beach read category - Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. Just finished it the other night and couldn't put it down. Fun, easy read.

I'm reading this now! It's very good.

And I'm a huge fan of Kate Mortons op. I loved all of her books.

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 was into the first part, but then put it aside for months in the middle of the part when he's in Vegas. I picked it up again later and finished it. I think the middle is a tough slog.

I love Tracy Chevalier's books. She wrote The Girl with the Pearl Earring, but I've loved her other books, as well. Her research into the time periods she writes about is amazing, so I find I get so immersed in her books.

Also love Tana French's crime series (Dublin Murder Squad).

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?).

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?

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.

When it first came out, I really wanted to read it due to all the hype.

Then I read a quote from Martha Stewart claiming she gave up on the book and never finished it.

For some odd reason, that made me kinda forget the book since like Oprah, I know Martha is an avid reader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For one under the fun, summer beach read category - Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. Just finished it the other night and couldn't put it down. Fun, easy read.

Not OP, but I'm glad you liked it - I think I'm going to try Eligible this summer!

NP. I haven't read Eligible yet but Sittenfeld is one of my FAVORITE authors. Try her other book American Wife -- fiction based on the life of Laura Bush -- it's a fun, easy, juicy page turner.

She's one of mine too! Any recommendations for similar reads now that I've read all of hers?

I enjoy her books and there is a vibe in them that reminds me of Melissa Bank's books, A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot. She has a great way with words - funny and a bit sad.

You by Caroline Kepnes

Name of the wind. Philip rothfus
I'm rereading it. But I like that sort of light fantasy thing. He writes pretty well.

The night circus

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.

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.