The Book Recommendations Thread
- Thread starter Bartleby
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Leseratte
Well-known member
That sounds good. It depends so very much on the group you get, not least of all on their economical condition and their social background. Identity matter (including race and gender) should interest most of them. Also sports, (races, maybe as a metaphor for something bigger).
If it´s non fiction can´t it be good journalistic articles for example from NYT about current subjects?
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tiganeasca
Moderator
I wonder if any of John McPhee's books would work. He is particularly easy to read and I've always found him pretty interesting as well. He wrote many relatively smaller books on any number of fascinating subjects.... Even the subjects that are more time-bound are timeless in their way and god knows he wrote on an astonishingly wide variety of topics. Best of all, they all (or at least a very large number of them) still seem to be in print.
Stevie B
Current Member
I never realized I could possibly find the citrus industry interesting until I read Oranges by John McPhee. I still recall reading that entire trees are harvested at the same time. The oranges you miss picking while in the tree, but later see clearly from the ground are called "shiners." I also enjoyed his book about the headmaster of a New England prep school that McPhee attended as a high school student. Tommy, a childhood friend of mine, graduated from that school (Deerfield Academy). I used to be so jealous when I visited Tommy because the campus was beautiful and my parents didn't have the means to send me there. You’d think I’d avoid books and films about private boarding schools, but I’m actually drawn to them. Some of my favorites include Old School by Tobias Wolff as well as the films School Ties and The Dead Poet’s Society.
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Phil D
Well-known member
The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper is an excellent piece of long-form journalism telling the story of the death of Aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee while in police custody in 2004. Highly recommended.
Phil D
Well-known member
This would be good. I think A Girl's Memory, about adolescent sexual initiation and consent, is likely to be interesting to a lot of students.
Phil D
Well-known member
Gabriela Wiener's Undiscovered (longlisted for the Booker International this year) is an interesting contemporary memoir that touches on sexuality, colonialism, racism and migration as well.
Based on what Liam has said, The Argonauts is probably a good bet. As a grad student, I sat in on an LGBT lit course for undergrads, and they all loved that book.
Bartleby
Moderator
I was looking for recommendations of books in which there are constant, abrupt jumps forwards in time; it can be a family saga, or something else, as long as it keeps its attention focused on some character(s) while, from chapter to chapter, a long amount of time has passed. I'm thinking of something like Primeval and Other Times (Tokarczuk) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez). The tone being compassionate, warm, and poignant. Seemingly obvious examples are welcome, for, as much as I may have heard of a given book, classic or otherwise, I may be unfamiliar with its structure.
As another, more popular, example, I can point the House of the Dragon series, in which from one episode to the next dozens of years have passed, characters have aged, others died, and so on and so forth.
Thanks
Edit: I accept short stories recommendations as well. I've just thought of some of Munro's pieces that fit the description, following a whole life in a few dozens of pages.
As another, more popular, example, I can point the House of the Dragon series, in which from one episode to the next dozens of years have passed, characters have aged, others died, and so on and so forth.
Thanks
Edit: I accept short stories recommendations as well. I've just thought of some of Munro's pieces that fit the description, following a whole life in a few dozens of pages.
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Phil D
Well-known member
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is the first example that comes to mind for me. Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra also fits this description from memory. Both highly recommended.I was looking for recommendations of books in which there are constant, abrupt jumps forwards in time; it can be a family saga, or something else, as long as it keeps its attention focused on some character(s) while, from chapter to chapter, a long amount of time has passed. I'm thinking of something like Primeval and Other Times (Tokarczuk) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez). The tone being compassionate, warm, and poignant. Seemingly obvious examples are welcome, for, as much as I may have heard of a given book, classic or otherwise, I may be unfamiliar with its structure.
As another, more popular, example, I can point the House of the Dragon series, in which from one episode to the next dozens of years have passed, characters have aged, others died, and so on and so forth.
Thanks
Edit: I accept short stories recommendations as well. I've just thought of some of Munro's pieces that fit the description, following a whole life in a few dozens of pages.
I'll keep thinking
Edit: The Green House by Vargas Llosa and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner have big leaps, but I wouldn't really describe either as warm or compassionate. Virginia Woolf's Orlando traverses centuries, but I haven't read it so I don't know what the tone is like.
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Bartleby
Moderator
Love the Vonnegut and the Faulkner, both of which I've read kind of a long time ago...Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is the first example that comes to mind for me. Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra also fits this description from memory. Both highly recommended.
I'll keep thinking
Edit: The Green House by Vargas Llosa and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner have big leaps, but I wouldn't really describe either as warm or compassionate. Virginia Woolf's Orlando traverses centuries, but I haven't read it so I don't know what the tone is like.
Zambra is a writer I keep thinking of coming back to - I've only read Bonsai and Private Life of Trees. Really liked them.
I've been meaning to read more Vargas Llosa, so that could be an incentive to finally doing it.
Ditto Woolf, whose works I very much want to read in full, at least her fiction.
Thank you for your recommendations
Phil D
Well-known member
You're welcome!
I just remembered that the novela Los cachorros (The Cubs) and also Conversación en La Catedral (Conversation in the Cathedral), probably my two favourite works by MVLL, both have pretty important leaps in time as well. Los cachorros is only about 50-60 pages long, so you could start there and then attack the 500-700 pages of each of Conversación and La casa verde if you're keen for more.
sibkron
Active member
Mircea Cărtărescu, Solenoid
Vladimir Sharov, The Rehearsals
Vladimir Sharov, Before and During
Leseratte
Well-known member
Maybe "A Whole Life" by Austrian author Robert Seethaler. I loved it and it is only about 150 pages.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seethaler
Just found out that there is also a movie out of the story, Here is the trailer , spoken in German, but with cc in English;
mubi.com
Just found out that there is also a movie out of the story, Here is the trailer , spoken in German, but with cc in English;
TRAILER - A Whole Life (2023)
At the turn of the 20th century, a young orphan named Andreas Egger is sent to a valley where he will spend most of his life. Over eight decades, his life will be marked by poverty, war and violence, but also moments of bliss and love.
Liam
Administrator
Shishkin's Maidenhair is also a good example, covering basically the entire 20th century in Russia's history.
Liam
Administrator
Also, Bartleby, although it is not a work of fiction, but Maria Stepanova's In Memory of Memory fits your description perfectly: it is a long book, with tremendous time shifts between chapters but also within the same chapter, as she tries to piece together her family's history through objects and photographs they left behind. I read it in the original Russian and it left me breathless.
Stevie B
Current Member
The film looks promising, and it has motivated me to move the novel to the top of my to-be-read pile.Maybe "A Whole Life" by Austrian author Robert Seethaler. I loved it and it is only about 150 pages.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seethaler
Just found out that there is also a movie out of the story, Here is the trailer , spoken in German, but with cc in English;
TRAILER - A Whole Life (2023)
At the turn of the 20th century, a young orphan named Andreas Egger is sent to a valley where he will spend most of his life. Over eight decades, his life will be marked by poverty, war and violence, but also moments of bliss and love.
Liam
Administrator
Thank you for introducing me to this writer. His books seem very introspective, which is a quality I prize. Looking at his novel The Field though, it struck me as being eerily similar to the Irish book Cré na Cille, though the tone is apparently very different. The Irish novel is more of a satire and a biting take-down of small village politics and the Austrian one is more introspective and tinged with nostalgia. An interesting parallel though!
Yes. Short interesting novel..Maybe "A Whole Life" by Austrian author Robert Seethaler. I loved it and it is only about 150 pages.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seethaler
Just found out that there is also a movie out of the story, Here is the trailer , spoken in German, but with cc in English;
TRAILER - A Whole Life (2023)
At the turn of the 20th century, a young orphan named Andreas Egger is sent to a valley where he will spend most of his life. Over eight decades, his life will be marked by poverty, war and violence, but also moments of bliss and love.