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Post Info TOPIC: 2005 reading list


Dooney & Bourke

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2005 reading list
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i'm trying to create my 2005 reading list and so far i've only got about 10 books on there, so i am looking for recommendations of books to read in the coming year. i usually like to have about 25 on my list - just enough to give me a good starting point, but still leaving room for new additions or off-list selections throughout the year.


i just bought I Am Charlotte Simmons which will probably be my first book of the year.


anyone recently read anything great or have anything good on their reading lists (or am i the only dork who makes a yearly reading list?)


** ps, i'm not sure if book threads go in this forum or not - i didn't really see another place where it fit...



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Gucci

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iirc, you're into non-fiction? the best book i read last year was random family by adrian nicole leblanc. i'm not the biggest non-fiction person, but it was really good. it reads like a novel and the author does an excellent job of telling the stories without inserting her opinion and moralizing.  granted, i'm kind of big on the social issues that affect lower class families, but just the amount of research/work that went into the book makes it worthwhile b/c the author spent appx. 10+ years following the lives of the characters.


here's the amazon link:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684863871/qid=1102952364/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-9321451-1657706


eta: the amazon review is a tad cheesy b/c it makes it seem as though the book has a distinctive political slant (which it doesn't) and that it's some sort of "gangsta" tale (which it's not) so take the review with a grain of salt.

-- Edited by honey at 10:48, 2004-12-13



-- Edited by honey at 10:52, 2004-12-13

-- Edited by honey at 14:44, 2004-12-13

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Coach

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I just read the best book ever.  It's called Running the Amazon by Joe Kane.  Non-fiction about these guys kayaking the Amazon from it's source to the ocean.  I remember you went to Brazil awhile ago so it might be particularly interesting. 

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Marc Jacobs

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smash, have you heard about this book? it sounds like it might be up your alley. it's mainly a book of photos, but it seems really cool.
-Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Corinne May Botz
This fascinating and macabre volume offers readers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a master criminal investigator. Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy grandmother, founded the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936 and was later appointed captain in the New Hampshire police. In the 1940s she built dollhouse crime scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual evidence....Botz's introductory essay, which draws on archival research and interviews with Lee's family and police colleagues, present a captivating portrait of the creator of these amazing miniatures.

Here are some of the books on my list.

-Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds by Bernd Heinrich. My parents both read this and it sounds really interesting.

-The New York Triology by Paul Auster. I usually steer clear of post 50s fiction but I'm trying to branch out a bit. The excerpt that I read on Amazon was pretty good.

-Anna Karenina. I've been wanting to read this for ages but I was waiting for a particular translation to come out in paperback. Now I can finally try to commit to reading it.

-In Ruins by Christopher Woodward. It's a discussion of ruins and of people's fascination with ruins, interspersed with personal reflections by Woodward. It seems like something light that will help me keep up with my interest in art history and archaeology.

-I want to read something by Paul Theroux, probably Pillars of Hercules.

-either A Handful of Dust or Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.

And I have my shelf of books that I always try to read and eventually abandon. which includes: The Brothers Karamazov which my ex-bf gave me for my h.s. graduation and which I've started about 10 times and never finished, Moby-Dick, a few Faulkner books (I can never get into him)


I've got a long list of books to read on my computer at home; I'll look over it tonight.

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Marc Jacobs

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two ideas: today i bought "the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay" by michael chabon over my lunch hour.  i've heard really wonderful things about it from many people.  another suggestion is "the time traveler's wife" by audrey niffenegger, which i read because of a recommendation on FH.  i loved it. 

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Dooney & Bourke

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smash, you're not the only dork.  last spring i made a list of "summer reading" and let's just say, i came about 5 pages short of finishing the list.  and i do not mean 5 pages of a book, i mean my list is 5 1/2 pages long.  so it's sort of an ongoing project.  very fiction heavy though...let me see if there's anything on there to suggest...



  • Siddhartha (Hesse)

  • 1984 / Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Orwell)

  • The Awakening (Chopin)

  • Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger)

  • Lexus and the Olive Tree (Friedman)

  • Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi)

  • Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Putnam)

okay, well there's a few from my list of thousands...



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Kate Spade

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ok so I read Time Traveler's Wife - it was pretty good but for some reason I though the sexual parts of it were completely unnecessary and really detracted from the book.


I read alot, but the most recent one I've kept telling people about is the Dante Club - it's really excellent.



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Hermes

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quote:

Originally posted by: cc

"A Handful of Dust or Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.


Handful of Dust is freakin' hilarious. I Evelyn Waugh.


Smash, have you read Devil In the White City? Also, I really liked The Dante Club and The Rule of Four -- both are mysteries, but for Enlglish nerds. I need to talk to someone else who's read The Rule of Four - I need to know if it's possible.



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Gucci

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Smash, I'm *totally* behind on reading--if I live to be a thousand years old, I will never read everything I want to--but I just finished The Lovely Bones, by Alice...Sebold, I think, and Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (I've been an Atwood fan since 8th grade), and really enjoyed them both, though they are totally different.


FWIW



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Dooney & Bourke

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thanks for the suggestions everyone!


i've already read a lot of what was suggested (lovely bones, all of m. atwood, handful of dust, time traveler's wife, kavalier & clay, siddhartha, 1984...), but there are lots of other things for me to add to my list. yay! honey, i actually remember reading a review of that book you recommended and writing it down somewhere as something i want to read, but i totally forgot about it. thanks for reminding me.


 


 



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Dooney & Bourke

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quote:

Originally posted by: halleybird

I need to talk to someone else who's read The Rule of Four - I need to know if it's possible."


I've read it...but I'm not really an English nerd.  Well that is, I didn't major in English or anything.  But I do enjoy the academic nerdy books from time to time.  I felt like something was missing from The Rule of Four though.  I don't know what it was...



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Dooney & Bourke

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i really liked The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart--it's fun and i think i've recommended it before--it won some awards but it seems like not a lot of people have heard of it.  it's a novel.  The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen) is great also, if you haven't already read it. 


i would also recommend The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.  it's a dreamy/meditative kind of mystery, mixed with partly (i think?) fictionalized history.  i want to read more of his books because i liked this one so much. 


i finally finished Anna Karenina and i liked it very much.  i'm going to check out some of the suggestions here so that i can get going on a new book. 



-- Edited by bumblebee at 14:16, 2004-12-14

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Dooney & Bourke

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quote:

Originally posted by: bumblebee

i would also recommend The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.  it's a dreamy/meditative kind of mystery, mixed with partly (i think?) fictionalized history.  i want to read more of his books because i liked this one so much. 


if you are looking for another of his books to read, i definitely recommend Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - it's one of the best, in my opinion.


 



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Gucci

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quote:


Originally posted by: bumblebee
"i really liked The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart--it's fun and i think i've recommended it before--it won some awards but it seems like not a lot of people have heard of it.  it's a novel. 


i really liked this too. forgot about it until bumblebee brought it up. it's really fun to read and is a good option if you're looking for something light that's not "chic lit."  also i *believe* they're making a movie out of it...or maybe i'm thinking of everything is illuminated which is a great read) so if you're at all interested you might want to buy it now, before they re-print it with his face on the cover. (sorry one of my random pet peeves is how they change the cover of a book after it's been turned into a movie and put star's face on it.) 


 



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Hermes

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quote:

Originally posted by: valenciana

" I've read it...but I'm not really an English nerd.  Well that is, I didn't major in English or anything.  But I do enjoy the academic nerdy books from time to time.  I felt like something was missing from The Rule of Four though.  I don't know what it was..."


I think it was a plot that is within the realm of possibility


That book makes me want to be a nerdy academic. How fun would it be to spend your life studying stuff like that!



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Kenneth Cole

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Smash - I don't know if you have read any David Sedaris - Hilarious and a pretty quick read.  I've read Naked and am reading Me Talk Pretty One Day.  Either or is fantastic!


~Memoirs of a Geisha


 



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Dooney & Bourke

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Hard-Bolied Wonderland was actually the next Murakami book on my list--thanks for the rec, smash--i think i will buy it now. 


honey--who wrote Everything is Illuminated? i remember some posts about that before and it sounds like something i'd like...



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Gucci

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bumblebee -- everything is illuminated is by jonathan safran foer, and it's very, very good.



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Dooney & Bourke

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This is going to be brief....let me know if you want more details or more recommendations....I tend to read ~1 book at week (at least)....I am a dork.....


Stuff I have read in the past year and really enjoyed:


The Good Earth - Pearl Buck (this made me cry)


Blindness - Jose Saramago (probably my fav book)


The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossseini (extremely powerful and moving)


The Namesake: A Novel - Jhumpa Lahiri (surprisingly good)


Life of Pi - Yann Martel (breathtaking.....honestly)


Middlesex: A Novel - Jeffrey Eugenides (same author as The Virgin Suicides.....need I say more?)


 



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Dooney & Bourke

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wow, after reading all of these posts, i think i've read a lot! i never realize how many books i actually burn through each year, even though i only put like 30 on my reading list.


tara, i've read (and loved!) everything you listed except Blindness - i will definitely add that because it seems like we have similar taste in books.


bumblebee - definitely read Everything Is Illuminated - it's fabulous. i actually just picked up The Russian Debutante's Handbook, on your recommendation, at barnes & noble yesterday to read on my trip down to DC this weekend. it sounds really good.


pepper - i love david sedaris! i've read the two that you recommended, but i have Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim already on my list for next year since i haven't had a chance to read that yet. oh, and Memoirs of a Geisha is one of my favorite books - so beautifully written - did i imagine it or did i read that they are making that into a movie?



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