Happy 4th of July to all US readers out there! I hope you're enjoying the holiday (it's actually cloudy and overcast here in San Diego, which is strange--it's never like this in July!). Clouds aren't fun for fireworks viewings, so Mr. G and I will probably stay in, cook something yummy and continuing reading our book together. When I say "together" I mean that literally. A while back, I read him a passage of a book I was reading at the time and he loved it so much that he convinced me to start again from the beginning, and I ended up reading the entire book that way, from cover to cover (of course it took several weeks to get through, reading for an hour or two most nights). I actually love reading aloud, so it's a fun thing to do together. We have many of the same books on our "to read list" so it's nice to be able to read, pause and discuss and really get the most from the experience. If you're curious what book we're reading right now, it's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (4.2 stars out of 5 with almost 50,000 ratings on goodread.com).
PLEASE no spoilers if you've read it--we're almost done! So far it's been an amazing journey of a book and Murakami's metaphors and imagery are so beautiful they often drive me to tears. But enough about me!
That was an awfully long lead-in for this week's question:
What book(s) have you read lately that you would suggest to other Nouveau Cheap readers?
I love it when friends suggest books to me, and since I consider every single one of you a friend, I would LOVE to know your suggestions for good books to read this summer. So let us hear your recommendations in the comments!
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--it's an awesome, wonderful book that in my opinion everybody should read and especially if you like Haruki Murakami, I think you'll really love 100 Years.
ReplyDeleteThis has been on my to-read list FOREVER! Thanks so much for giving me the extra push to finally read it.
DeleteAnd it's so nice to hear from another Murakami fan. :)
I read that book a year or two ago, and it was one of the best books I've ever read! I absolutely agree that everyone should read it----because they will enjoy it. Speaking of South American literature, another fantastic writer is Isabel Allende. The best book she wrote (IMO)is The House of the Spirits. Also, more North American themed is The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I hope you'll like one of these!
Deletethe Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Series- absolutely laugh out loud hilarious. The books (there are 18 of them so far) are murder mysteries with a ton of humor and a little bit of romance. Some of the best books I've read in a long long time. The first in the series is One For The Money and just this year a movie of One for the Money came out with Katherine Heigl starring in it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of fun! I'm not a big romance fan, so I like that you said there's only ”a little” of it in these books. :) Thanks for the rec, hun!
DeleteWish by Alexandra Bullen is my all-time FAVORITE book! You MUST read it G!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aly! Is this a YA novel? I love fun YAs, especially in the summer because you can zip though them. :)
Deletehaven't finished it but currently reading Joan Rivers I Hate Everyone....Starting With Me. I love her so.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder on that one! I forgot she came out with a new book. I love Joan too. :)
DeleteBlue Asylum. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteJust looked it up on Amazon and it looks really interesting! Thanks so much for the rec. :)
DeleteRight now I'm reading "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) and it's hysterical. I have the same weird & twisted sense of humor she does, so I was laughing like crazy from almost the very first page.
ReplyDeleteI like to read out loud too sometimes, mostly to myself, but sometimes to the cat, just to be silly. I read William Gibson's anthology Burning Chrome and the novels Neuromancer, Count Zero, & almost all of Mona Lisa Overdrive out loud. His writing is like poetry to me, even though I'm much more of a fantasy reader than a sci fi one.
Thanks so much for reminding me about the Jenny Lawsen book! I love her too and totally forgot she had that book! :)
DeleteThe following message has been typed by Mr. G (he wants to respond directly to your comment):
Your choice to read Gibson is simply badass. It takes courage to read him, and a certain kind of mind to accept his work, which I appreciate. Please give Philip K. Dick a try if you haven't already! I wish you and G were friends in ”real life” because I would talk your ear off about this!!
My favorite book is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell! It's so good. It's fantasy, but it's set in a version of Regency England (during the Napoleanic wars) with magic. Clarke constructs a really elaborate Arthurian-style legend to explain the introduction of magic in the footnotes, and it has this kind of wry, Austenian sense of humor. I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who is interested in Jane Austen, Regency England, OR fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been reading as much as I like lately.. I tend to go in phases where I will read a lot, then take a break for a while. My most recent reads have been Stephen Kings 11/22/63 (about halfway through and really good so far- but I'm a huge fan so I may be biased), The hunger games (loved the first book, much better than the movie, the entire trilogy was quite depressing though), and the latest Sookie Stackhouse book (the series has really gotten boring, unfortunately, because it was VERY good in the beginning), and the "Game of Thrones" series (which is amazing, but stalled for several years, so I can't really recommend reading them now, I wish I had waited).. plus several others that I began then lost interest in... so I will be watching these posts with interest, my luck has not been the greatest lately.
ReplyDeleteI liked "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," too! If you like Japanese novels I highly recommend "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa. Warning, though, I cried. A retired professor had a traumatic brain injury and now only has an eighty-minute short-term memory. The young housekeeper hired to care for him is a single mother, and every morning she must introduce herself to him anew and they start each day fresh. Can you imagine living for years this way?
ReplyDeleteI will suggest "Chinese Cinderella" and "Falling Leaves" by Adeline Yeh Mah.
ReplyDeleteoh oh oh! are you on goodreads??? i hope i hope! i would like to friend you. :)
ReplyDeletegah, i wish i had a suggestion! i'm currently immersed in my (3rd? i think?) read through of the Game of Thrones series. it's an epic fantasy, and honestly unless you're okay with devoting at least a year to reading all of them (they're lengthy) and are okay with waiting 6+ years for the next one to come out (ugh) i wouldn't recommend starting! i do love the series so much though.
i love seeing everyone's suggestions here though! i got a kindle maybe a year or so ago and it's seriously been the best purchase i've ever made. i love it and download books for it faster than i can read them! my reading list is like a mile long right now. :D
I just finished reading the second book in the Game of Thrones novels. Even if you don't watch the show, the books are sooooo good!
ReplyDeleteRecently finished bossypants by tina fey (hilarious!) and am currently in the middle of the great gatsby for the nth time. One of my favourites :)
ReplyDeleteThe Help... Or if you want a gory thriller, I would recommend Stirred.
ReplyDeleteI have so many books that I need to read! I buy too much to actually keep up with. The last book I read was The Hunger Games and I loved it. I finished it in a day, I was that hooked. I need to start the sequel, Catching Fire now.
ReplyDeleteThere's so many books that I recommend and Water for Elephants is one of them. It's one of my favorites. It's about a young guy during the depression era who leaves his life and problems behind him and jumps onto a train during the night, only to find out that it's a circus train. He then starts to work for the circus and that's where it gets interesting. I don't want to give it away for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but it's a really good story. I couldn't put it down.
If you are interested in a clever, fantasy-ish, but set in modern-ish times, I recommend Jasper Fforde books. The Big Over Easy is my favorite and I also love The Eyre Affair. They're both the initial in a series. Did I mention they were clever? :) Also very fun.
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ReplyDeleteI really like Haruki Murakami...two of my favorite books are "Kafka on the Shore" and "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World"
ReplyDeleteI also liked "Mudbound" by Hillary Jordan, "Room" by Emma Donoghue"...
The last few books I read were the Oak Knoll Series by Tami Hoag "Deeper than the Dead" (book #1), "Secrets to the Grave" (book #2) and "Down the Darkest Road" (book #3)...Personally, I think the first book was best followed by the third...
Right now I'm in the middle of the Pretties series by Scott Westerfield. I would also recommend Divergent by Veronica Roth. These are both YA futuristic dystopians, which I am really into right now.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading "The Selection" by Kiera Cass. I suppose it's intended for young adults, but I really liked it regardless (I'm 24). It's the story of America in the future (with a different name) ruled by a monarchy and under a caste system. A girl from a low caste gets chosen as one of the few who are eligible to marry the prince. It was definitely interesting, and I was disappointed when I got to the end of the book, the first in a trilogy, and realized the next 2 haven't been written yet.... I guess I'll just have to wait!
ReplyDeleteI just finished Blackout by Mira Grant. I'm currently reading Crush it! by Gary Vaynerchuk and A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
ReplyDeletePhyrra, you have a rather eclectic reading taste. I like your choices!
DeleteWhen She Woke by Hillary Jordan is kind of an update to The Scarlet Letter. I loved it, very good read.
ReplyDeleteI recommend Nora Robert's Bride Quartet series- start with Vision in White. 4 best friends in the wedding business, and their individual love stories. Also, love City of Bones Series by Cassandra Claire- mix of Twlight/ Harry Potterish. I am currently reading the 5th book in that series!
ReplyDeleteI recommend Nora Robert's Bride Quartet series- start with Vision in White. 4 best friends in the wedding business, and their individual love stories. Also, love City of Bones Series by Cassandra Claire- mix of Twlight/ Harry Potterish. I am currently reading the 5th book in that series!
ReplyDeleteWild by Cheryl Strayed...I couldn't put it down.
ReplyDeleteI told my boyfriend how you guys are reading and he thinks it's very cute! :) He says if you like murakami, he really enjoyed Wild Sheep Chase which he says has a similar mood to the wild bird chronicle. I haven't read any murakami but I definitely need to! :)
ReplyDeleteG! So cute that you read aloud to Mr. NC. I do a lot of reading aloud, too, though it's not to the BF, but rather to my students.
ReplyDeleteI've recently enjoyed two books:
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This one is somewhat slow-moving but compelling, and there are some truly heartbreaking parts to it. It's written in almost stream-of-consciousness by the narrator, as she tells you stories of her childhood, adolescence, and parts of her adulthood.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
This is written from the perspective of an autistic/aspergers-type narrator, and is also both fascinating and heartbreaking at times. Although it's been criticized for not being a wholly accurate portrayal of autism or aspergers, it's a peek inside the head of someone who thinks very very differently than the rest of us.
I'll also add a "second!" to a few books mentioned above....
Uglies/Pretties/Specials series by Scott Westerfield
Jasper Fforde series