I’ve been meaning to post book recommendations periodically on the website but was feeling obliged to write “reviews.” So procrastination got in the way. At my recent Boston Public Library reading, someone asked me to list some. So I’m going throughmy list and will add to future posts as they come back to me.
In no particular order:
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey
City of Thieves by David Benioff
The Orphan Master’s Son and Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Nabokov’s Speak, Memory
Warlight and The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
Between Them: Remembering my Parents by Richard Ford
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
And maybe some less heavy stuff, more suitable for quarantine reading:
Lilly King: The Pleasing Hour, for beautifully drawn characters, set in France. I also enjoyed her most recent book, Friends and Lovers, a little less, but would still recommend. Her Euphoria is also on my list, but a less easy read.
I just finished Broken Glass, Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farmsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpieec, by Alex Beam, well-written and absorbing.
I’m rereading True Novel by Minae Mizumura, Wuthering Heights set in post-war Japan. Brilliant, beautifully written, and satisfies the urge for something unusual, long yet compelling and readable. Complex and entirely original.
Let me know what you’ve been reading in the comments below!