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“A book should be an ax for the frozen sea within us.” – Kafka
“A room without books is as a body without a soul.” – Cicero

 

 

There are sooo many wonderful books. One of my favorite things is to pass on excellent book choices to other people. My home is lined with bookshelves because I love owning them, not just reading them.

Keep in mind I love books the way some people love kittens and puppies. The ideas within books helped me survive childhood. I haunt remainder bookstores looking for treasures to pass on to other people (sometimes whether they want them or not).

I would rather buy one to give away, rather than lend one. What follows are a chosen few of my favorite books.


Best Book Discovered in 2023:

Book, books, reading

Sci-Fi by Víctor del Árbol
History of both Fascism & Communism & the profound power of self interest.

Best Book Discovered in 2022:

Book, books, reading

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet is a book where the author, Maggie O’Farrell gorgeously imagines Shakespeare’s life in the 1500’s. Amazing read!

Book, books, reading

The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen
A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults.


Best Book Discovered in 2020:

<Book, books, reading

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Shortlisted For The Booker Prize 2020


 Best Book Discovered in 2019:

little-fires

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The author really captures the complicatedness of love & the damage of indirectness.


Best Books Discovered in 2018:

little-fires

We Are Not Such Things by JUSTINE VAN DER LEUN
The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation. Captures the messiness of truth.


pachinko

PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee
The author follows a Korean family that immigrates to all the prejudices of Japan. Powerful stories of endurance as they survive WW2.


little-fires

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng
Really wonderful writer who captures psychological depths. She understands the dangers of perfection.


Best Book Discovered in 2017:

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The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies
This was a NYT Notable Book in 2016. It is a wonderful novel told by four characters. I’m going to quote this review:
“Davies writes with a rare emotional resonance and a deft sense of structure; it’s hard not to be in awe of the way he’s composed this complex, beautiful novel. The Fortunes is a stunning look at what it means to be Chinese, what it means to be American, and what it means to be a person navigating the strands of identity, the things that made us who we are, whoever that is.”—NPR


Best Book Discovered in 2016:

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The Trespasser: A Novel by Tana French

Blog Post Link


Best Books of 2015:

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Blog Post Link

 


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Preparation For The Next Life by Atticus Lish

Blog Post Link


Best Books Discovered in 2014:


Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

 

Blog post on “Forgiveness, Betrayal & the novel Shantarum”


Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katherine Boo

 

Book review from blog here: Gratitude & the novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers


Best Book Discovered in 2013:

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Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Read review here


Best Book Discovered in 2012:

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A mystery entangled with a marriage based in masterful manipulation. Funny, dark, creepy & intelligent. A remarkable novel.


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Best Books discovered in 2011:
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

is a masterful work. There is so much to learn about the ancient world. She was really a very intelligent leader and Alexandria was an amazing place to rule. Well researched & beautiful prose. “Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history: that of women and power.”

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Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen

Please follow

this link

to read the review on my blog.

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Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

Particularly good for anyone who struggles with shame. Please follow

this link

to read the review on my blog.


Best Books discovered in 2010:

Lark and Termite (Vintage Contemporaries) by Jayne Ann Phillips

Follow this link to read a complete review on my blog:

Real Love is About Paying Attention


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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Follow this link to read a complete review on my blog:

Let the Great World Spin: A Novel


Best Book discovered in 2009:

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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroudt

Follow this link to read a complete review on my blog:

Hope, Loneliness & Olive Kitteridge


Best Book discovered in 2008:

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Pretty Birds: A Novel by Scott Simon.

Powerful story of a young woman of great courage who is a sniper in Bosnia.


Best Book discovered in 2007:

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A novel of endurance and beauty amid rubble. It is gut wrenchingly sad and wise about remembering in the midst of grief and the power of unspoken pain. It is dedicated to the women of Afghanistan.


Best Book discovered in 2006:

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Anna Karenina (Oprah’s Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy

Astonishingly psychologically astute. If only Kitty or Anna would have recognized that Count Uronsky “in his soul he did not respect her (his mother)” which make him emotionally dangerous to both.


Best Book discovered in 2005:

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Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell

A trilogy of connection and disconnection in a most original voice. It is a thrilling read and one of the very few I will read again. Briliant!


Best Book discovered in 2004:

The Known World by Edward Jones

This book is amazing and won the Pulitzer Prize. It tells the remarkable story of a slave who becomes a slave owner. The author’s abilities to convey the moral complexities of that time is truly remarkable and moving.


Best Book discovered in 2003:

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Red Azalea by Anchee Min

The true story of the author who struggled profoundly growing up in communist China. The opportunity to hear her speak is an unforgetable experience. She authenticly has learned how to make unbearable pain bearable. One of the ironies of her life is that she grew up with the dream of becoming a soldier who would go to Vietnam to kill American soldiers and now she is married to a Vietnam vet.


Works of Fiction and Science Fiction That will

Add Richness to your Life

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel

by Sena Jeter Naslund

Historically accurate with a courageous woman character.

American Pastoral

by Philip Roth

This book won a Pulitzer Prize. It is about one of the most painful things that can happen to a parent; a good kid goes wrong – way wrong – and is lost. There is a glorious paragraph on what it means to be human and how impossible it can be to understand each other. This paragraph is quoted at the end of the emotional honesty page under the category WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.

Before and After: A Novel

by Rosellen Brown

She really captures what it means to survive a profound tragedy.

The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty

by Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Insight into aging gracefully.

Blue Diary

by Alice Hoffman

About the true anxiety of living in the larger world and how to cope when fate pulls the rug out from under you. A delightful book that is easy to digest.

Daughter of Fortune: A Novel

by Isabel Allende

I was sorry I waited so long to read this author. On 9/11 of 1973 the American CIA had her uncle, the President of Chile, murdered because he was a “communist” (in truth a socialist). Isabel moved to the US and became a citizen in 2003. This book is a wonderful story about California during the gold rush.

Depthford Trilogy

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by Robertson Davies

He captures the range of humanity in each of his characters — what it is to be three dimensional; strong, fragile, wise, foolish… He is like a grandfather teaching you the depth of life and makes you think hard about values and what really matters. This particular trilogy is of a man in Jungian therapy.


Empire Falls

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by Richard Russo

A treasure of a book that won a Pulitzer and is useful as a literary example of Too Little in the character of Mike Robe, “the human rut” as his wife refers to him. Janine, his soon to be ex-wife is Too Much. Her lack of respect leaps off the pages.

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The Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out

also by Robb Forman Dew

This is an autobiographical account of coming to terms with having a gay child.

Geek Love: A Novel

by Katherine Dunn

This book, though marvelous, is not for everyone. It teaches us about the human condition in a bizarre carnival family.

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The Good Apprentice (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

by Iris Murdoch

About self-forgiveness and the process of growing up-not an easy read; and very rewarding if you do.

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The Great Fire: A Novel

by Shirley Hazzard

She is a true genius of prose.

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The Hours: A Novel

by Michael Cunningham

A masterful book that skillfully weaves together three stories that make you think about how to spend the hours of your life. It deserves the Pulitzer Prize that it won. You might want to follow the book up with the movie that was so well done.

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The Human Stain: A Novel American Trilogy (3)

by Philip Roth

There is a twist that occurs that will genuinely take the reader by surprise. The delight that the twist offers is a complete change in frame of reference.

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The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara

This novel of the fighting in the Civil War won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. Really amazingly well done & memorable.

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The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty

by Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Insight into aging gracefully.

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The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel

by Ursala K. Le Guin

Science Fiction that captures what a slippery grip we have on reality. “There is a bird in a poem by T.S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear.”

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Lucky You

by Carl Hiaasen

A laugh-out-loud book with a wonderful heroine in JoLayne who wins the lottery by betting on a significant number for five years. The “significance of her lotto number was this: each represented an age at which she had jettisoned a burdensome man.” She understands the value of a man who is true to his word.

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Mr. Bridge & Mrs. Bridge

by Evan Connell

This book really captures the distance embedded in WASP culture. The characters are so completely removed from their feelings.

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Mr. Ives’ Christmas

by Oscar Hijuelos

Read to understand forgiveness more deeply.

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The Peppered Moth

by Margaret Drabble

This book is for those of us who have a difficult time of it finding a mother’s day card that doesn’t lie amongst all the sweetness. She so accurately creates a portrait of a mother unable to love because the character is based on her own mother.

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Unless: A Novel (P.S.)

by Carolyn Shields

This is the final book that will be written by her because she died of cancer. She writes of ordinary people like ourselves and makes their struggles into poetry. She won a Pulitzer Prize for The Stone Diaries.


Healing From Trauma

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Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman M.D.

This was a groundbreaking book in 1992 & it is crucial to understanding trauma. Trauma leaves a number of survival conclusions that were self protective in the past & may interfere with trust & connection in the present.


Best Books for Women Who Choose MIA Men

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Disappearing Acts

by Terry McMillan

This is one of her first three books. These were more substantive than the books that followed afterwards. She beautifully captures men who don’t follow through.

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The Wife: A Novel

by Meg Wolitzer

The story of a heroine who allows herself to be overlooked.

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The Rules of Engagement

by Anita Brookner

The story of a friendship of two women who both, in very different ways, manage to compound their bad choices.


Best Books about Vietnam Aftershocks

No one does it better than Tim O’Brien, who was a vet himself.

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The Things They Carried

by Tim O’Brien


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In the Lake of the Woods

by Tim O’Brien


Best Books for Fun

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Talking to the Dead
by Harry Bingham

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A Spy by Nature: A Novel

by Alec Milius
About the consequences of being a spy & lying all the time to everyone who matters.

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Bangkok 8: A Novel

by John Burdett

Wild, funny & a really good time with a Thailand cop.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

Created in either print or film. Follow this link to read review in my blog.

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The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Science fiction & a movie. Follow link to read review on my blog.

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Snow Angels (An Inspector Vaara Novel)

by James M. Thompson

A detective in Finland.

Two Links for Readers