CURRENT BOOK:
VONNEGUT-Cat’s Cradle
Coming next:
Geektopia (Short story collection)
Richard Milward–Apples
David Waltner-Toews–Food Sex and Salmonella
Maggie Helwig–Girls Fell Down
Julian Barnes–Nothing to Be Frightened Of
Heidi Julavitz–The Uses of Enchantment
Irvine Welsh–The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs
Rick Moody–The Diviners
Bathsheba Monk–Now You See It
Roberto Bolano–Savage Detectives
McSweeney’s back issues
Various titles I just bought from the McSweeney’s store.
You’ve seen what I’ve read, and what I plan to read. If you have any suggestions, please send them along, I’m always game for new fiction.
Authors who I may want to read all of their work:
A.M. HOMES
Jack
In the Country of Mothers
The End of Alice
Music for Torching
This Book Will Save Your Life
The safety of Objects (SS)
Things You Should Know (SS)
HARUKI MURAKAMI
HEar the Wind Sing
Pinball 1973
Wild Sheep Chase
hard Boiled Wonderland
nowegain wood
dance dance dance
south of th eborder
wind up bird
sputnik sweetheart
kafka on the shore
after dark
CHRISTOPHER MOORE:
Practical Demonkeeping
Coyote Blue
Bloodsucking Fiends
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Lamb
Fluke
The Stupidest Angel
The Stupidest Angel 2.0
A Dirty Job
You Suck
Fool
KURT VONNEGUT:
Player Piano
Sirens of Titan
Mother Night
Canary in a Cathouse (SS)
Cat’s Cradle
God Bless You Mr Rosewater
Welcome to the Monkey House (SS)
Slaughterhouse 5
Breakfast of Champions
Wampeters (SS)
Slapstick
Jailbird
Palm Sunday (SS)
Deadeye Dick
Nothing is Lost Save Honor (SS)
Galapagos
Bluebeard
Hocus Pocus
Fates Worse Than Death (SS)
Timequake
Bagombo Snuff Box (SS)
God Bless You (SS)
A Man Without a Country (SS)
Armageddon in Retrospect (posthumous)
VLADIMIR NABOKOV:
Written In Russian:
Mary
King Queen Knave
The Defense
The Eye
Glory
Laughter in the Dark
Despair
Invitation to a Beheading
The Gift
The Enchanter
Written In English:
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
Bend Sinister
Lolita,
Pnin
Pale Fire
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Transparent Things
Look at the Harlequins!
The Original of Laura (Unfinished/Unpublished)
Short story collections
Vozvrashchenie Chorba (“The Return of Chorb”). Fifteen short stories and twenty-four poems, in Russian, by “V. Sirin”.
Sogliadatai (“The Eye”). Thirteen short stories, in Russian, by “V. Sirin”.
Nine Stories
Vesna v Fial’te i drugie rasskazy (“Spring in Fialta and other stories”)
Nabokov’s Dozen: A Collection of Thirteen Stories (Also reprinted as Spring in Fialta and First Love and Other Stories)
Nabokov’s Quartet
Nabokov’s Congeries; reprinted as The Portable Nabokov
A Russian Beauty and Other Stories
Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories
Details of a Sunset and Other Stories
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov(alternative title The Collected Stories — complete collection of all short stories
Cloud, Castle, Lake
McSweeney’s remaining:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Unthinkable Thoughts of Joshua Green was very good-though I sort of forget what happens in it. But I did really like it and I bet you will too!
Hey, I had no idea Mark Haddon had another book out. Aren’t I a great librarian?! I can’t wait to read what you think of it.
I’m such a poor librarian, I never even realized it was that Incident of Dogs guy. Whoops!
I have been a John Irving fan (The one who wrote Cider House Rules) for a long time now. Have you read ‘A prayer for Owen Meany’ its a classic.
His other books like ‘The fourth hand’, ‘Setting Free The Bears’, ‘The Hotel New Hampshire’…I have read these till now. I can’t seem to get my hands on the rest.
I have not read any John Irving. He’s one of those authors that I’ve always heard of, but never read. I’ll have to check out Owen Meany.
As for the rest of his books…your local library can get you pretty much anything!
Depending on what type of fiction you like, Earl Emerson is a great author. He’s a Seattle firefighter who writes about firefighting in Seattle. Since he knows all about his subjects, it turns out to be some great books.
Into the Inferno was the best, and I recommend starting there.
Thank you. I’ll have to check him out.
Consider adding Drawers & Booths to your “I will read” list.
Such blatant salesmanship! I looked it up on Amazon, and the book looks good. I’ll see if I can get a copy.
Hi- I found you randomly when I searched for Solzhenitsyn and when I read you had heard of him first for the same reason I had to keep reading!
Recommended Reads:
Tom Robbins: I recommend “Stilllife with Woodpecker” or “Invalids Home from Hot Climates” A daring, bizarre, creative, lol writer whose every sentence is poetic but when combined form drug-trip-like descriptions.
also
Joanne Harris: “Gentlemen and Players” or “Blackberry Wine”
Books infused with food, a touch of magic, and plots like animal paths; earthy, careful and yet carefree, but that can be twisty.
Thanks so much for the suggestions. I’ve not read either author, but I shall definitely add them to my list!
And thanks for checking out my site.
Paul,
You are right to want to read Haruki Murakami, I have read all his novels and they are wonderful. The Wind-Up Bird Chronical made me need glasses! Norwegian Wood is divine.
As for John Irving, please read him, too, although some of his work is not so great (imho). His early work (Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, etc. is great, Owen Meany is fantastic.
If you could recommend one book to your audience, what would it be?
Thank you.
Linda
Thanks for the suggestions Linda. Let me give some thought into the ONE BOOK I would recommend!
This answer will probably change on any given day, but scanning back through the books I’ve read recently I’m going to go with Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. It covers a lot of terrain and a lot of topics. It is beautifully written and packs an emotional wallop. I tend to read somewhat lighter fair, but I do like a heavy book from time to time and this one has left a lasting impact with me.
Paul,
Thanks much for the suggestion, but I already read this book. Can’t say I am as thrilled about it as you, found it somewhat trite, although I do think it is a good book. But anything by Milan Kundera, Haruki Murakami, and most of John Irving has it beat. I have become a Cormac McCarthy fan, although some of his work was too dense for me–The Road, The Border Trilogy were excellent. OK, well, do you have a second favorite book?
Linda
Hi Linda,
I got lost in life before getting a chance to write back. I loved Unbearable Lightness of Being, and have enjoyed what little of Murakami I have read. John Irving I’ve not read, so I’ll add him to my consideration.
A book I am planning to re-read in the near future which is light and fast and yet not light and insubstantial is Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. It’s a sardonic look at religion, and is quite funny. Again, nothing hair-raisingly difficult, but fun nonetheless.
OK, well, thanks, I will certainly give it a go after I finish “Infinite Jest,” which may be some time next year
!