Tuesday, January 29, 2008
HELP...
I need a book. I currently do not have a book to read and this means that the insomnia could return. The insomnia was banished long ago but I still need the crutch of a really good book to fall asleep with just in case. And I have misplaced my Rilke. Did I lend him to you? Frantic searching of all the usual channels (Amazon/bestseller lists etc) brings up only one option: Harry Potter. I have never made it through a single H.P. book or film so that's no bleedin use to me. Recently I liked This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes and House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. And I re-read the Franny part of Franny and Zooey last night. Random choices, I know. Any ideas?
Bien sur! The Rowing Lesson by Anne Landsman has just been published by Granta. Details.
ReplyDeletexo
You should read A Series of Unfortunate Events. It's one of those very clever childrens' series better enjoyed by adults, and it's particularly hilarious to the literary nerd. I promise you'll love them. I'm a sucker for some good dark humor.
ReplyDeleteEnlightenment by Maureen Freely.
ReplyDeleteyou know Scarlett Thomas, non? LOVE her-- PopCo or The End of Mr. Y. You might also fall in love with John P. Marquand (as a fellow Wharton-phile) the first one to read of his is: oh crap, "Daughter" is in the title-- I am flying between classes and drawing a blank-- just google Marquand and Daughter and it will come up and I know you will love it or I will owe you an English Breakfast.
ReplyDelete~bluepoppy
I'd recommend The hour of the star by Clarice lispector - it's a wonderful sliver of a gem.
ReplyDeleteAlso to let you know that I always love reading your blog, and that I've tagged you with the you make my day blog award that is making the rounds :)
I thoroughly enjoyed Margaret Atwood's Moral Disorder. I am loathe to pass on my Richard & Judy recommended reads BUT I did quite enjoy reading 'Notes from an Exhibition' by David Gale.
ReplyDeleteOh, and 'The House of Sleep' by Jonathan Coe.
I am not very good at this recommendation thing, makes me go all shy about the books I like for some reason! x
Thanks for all your recs, keep them coming! I'll note them all down and may even read them all since I go through books like, um, toilet paper? Teabags? Whatever. I've started "A Confederacy of Dunces" which someone recommended in the comments of the previous post and a friend happened to have at home - and strenuously recommend in that "You mean you ACTUALLY haven't read it?" incredulous way...
ReplyDeleteheadmistress: most honoured, merci!
p.s. popcornstories - I have read White Oleander and was quite obsessed with it at the time...oh to be obsessed with a book is quite the best thing.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteOf stuff that has been recently published, I would recommend A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. Right up your boulevard, I would have thought.
Trust me, I'm a bookseller.
"Driving over Lemons" by Chrsi Stewart (very funny) or my all time favorite "To Kill a Mocking Bird".
ReplyDeletei recently read and LOVED:
ReplyDelete* the namesake.
* the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.
* the history of love. (now my favorite book ever.)
* foreskin's lament. (it sounds weird but it is so insightful and smart and hilarious.)
wait WAIT I screwed up-- the first J.P. Marquand book you want to read (assuming you haven't read any before) is POINT OF NO RETURN-- THAT's the one--
ReplyDeletePoint of No Return. Jeesz-- get me out of the book rec biz. Also, I saw Joanna wrote The History of Love which I read ages ago and can hardly remember but I do know at the time I REALLY loved it
~bp
Hope you like the John Kennedy Toole! If you do The Neon Bible is also extremely good...
ReplyDeletereally good reads:
ReplyDeletethe blind assasin
the poisonwood bible
the history of love
under the tongue
country of my skull
the red tent
maru
and my all time favourite - the little prince :)
Come to my blog and click on the tag "book club." There will be tons of ideas there!
ReplyDeleteI recommend anything by Ann Patchett, starting with Truth & Beauty, a memoir, and Bel Canto, a novel. I'm reading her new one, Run, right now.
ReplyDeleteget "other people's LOVE LETTERS , 150 letters you were never meant to see" I just got it at the bookstore today...it was in the valentines features section....will blog about it soon. Its by Bill Shapiro.
ReplyDeleteJen Ramos
'100% Recycled DESIGNER Cards'
www.madebygirl.com
stevie smith, novel on yellow paper
ReplyDeletealan bennett, the uncommon reader
virginia woolf, between the acts
happy reading!
If you want to cry your heart out get Maggie O'Farrell's After You'd Gone. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is quite gripping too.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I recently enjoyed Kate Atkinson's Case Histories and Behind the Scenes at the Museum is also fab.
And if you want a bit of Frenchness in your life read Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky.
The Little Prince is one of my favourite books too...and I loved Suite Francaise. Apart from that it looks like I have a lot of reading to catch up on ~ thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou MUST go out right away and get The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant; just out, published by Virago, deeply moving and v good on clothes, London, Eastern Europe, refugees and love, which kind of covers it for me.
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