Books that Intrigued Me After Reading About Them Online
Submitted by cmonster on Fri, 10/24/2003 - 09:59
Tags:
- The Actor's Guide to Adultery - Rick Copp
- Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
- Holmes on the Range - Steve Hockensmith
- Gentlemen & Players - Joanne Harris
- The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band - Motley Crue
- Legacy of Luna - Julia Butterfly Hill
- The Toilers of the Sea - Victor Hugo
- Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
- Boomsday - Christopher Buckley
- All Will Be Revealed - Robert Anthony Siegel
- Devils in the Sugar Shop - Timothy Schaffert
- Looking for Alaska - John Green
- The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime - William Langeweische
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
- Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls: a mystery - Bennet Madison
- Dark Undertakings - Rebecca Tope
- Southern Fried - Cathy Pickens
- Shakespeare's Secret - Elise Broach
- Foop! - Chris Genoa
- Primitive Death - Susan Turrell Atkinson
- Not a Girl Detective - Susan Kandel - will this be as self referential and wonderous as Carolyn Hart's The Christie Caper? Must know! Must know!
- The Hidden Houses of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell - Vanessa Curtis
- What Do We Do Now? - edited by Dennis Loy Johnston
- Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
- A Factory of Cunning - Philippa Stockley
- The Twilight Man - Mike Ashley, a biography of Algernon Blackwood
- Trash Sex Magic - Jennifer Stevenson
- Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
- Fool's Tavern - Ned Resnikoff
- The Rasp - Philip MacDonald
- Night of the Jabberwock - Frederic Brown
- Death Walks in Eastrepps - Francis Beeding
- the Murder of My Aunt - Richard Hull
- Brimstone - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (I'm almost there. It's the 7th or 8th book in a series, and I'm currently trying to find a copy of #5).
- Outwitting History - Aaron Lansky
- Assassins of Tamvrin -
- The Ghost Writer - John Harwood
- Misdemeanor Man - Dylan Schaeffer
- Brilliant by Marne Davis Kellogg (from Booksense's 2004 Summer Paperback reading list)
- The Heritage of Hastur - Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Wake Up, Sir! - Jonathan Ames (New Jeeves and Wooster? Hmmm. Could be good, could be horrific.)
- The Star Rover - Jack London (via the professor
- The Daisy Kutter series via Goats (Zombie peanut butter: get it before it gets you.)
- The Tummy Trilogy - Calvin Trillin
- Ghost Girl - Amy Gerstler (via Boston Phoenix)
- The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms - Amy Stewart
- All-Night Party: The Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and Harlem, 1913-1930 - Andrea Barnet
- Indulgence: One Man's Search for the Best Chocolate - Paul Richardson (via the Telegraph)
- 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs, and The Election That Changed the Country - James Chace (via Salon, registration required)
- The Master - Colm Toibin (via the London Telegraph)
- Underground London - Stephen Smith (via the London Telegraph)
- The Twilight Before Christmas - Christine Feehan (via Soulswallo)
- Coalescent - Stephen Baxter
- Prarie Nocturne - Ivan Doig
- The Probable Future - Alice Hoffman
- Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris - Sarah Turnbull
- Still Holding - Bruce Wagner
- A Wilderness So Immense - Jon Kukla
- Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera - George Chapell
- On the Path of the Golden Owl - Max Valentin
- Owl of the Desert - Ida Swearingen
- Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
- Lirael - Garth Nix (halfway there--had to read the prequel first)
- In the Stacks: Short Stories About Libraries and Librarians - Michael Cart
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt 3D - Gabriel Brownstein
- What Just Happened - James Gleick
- A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined As a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations - Cintra Wilson
- Water Witches - Tony Steele
- Aberystwyth Mon Amour - Malcolm Pryce
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales - Oliver Sachs
- Coraline - Neil Gaiman
- The Savage Girl - Alex Shakar
- The Lake of Dead Languages - Carole Goodman
- Flinch - Robert Ferrigno
- That Old Ace in the Hole - Annie Proulx
- Behindlings - Nicola Barker
- Sellevision - Augusten Burroughs
- Twilight Hunger - Maggie Shayne
- Death's Jest Book - Reginald Hill
- The Evasion English Dictionary - Maggie Balistreri
- Treachery's Wake - T H Lain
- Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death - DBC Pierre
- Mailman - J Robert Lennon
- The Book on the Book Shelf - Henry Petroski
- Everyone in Silico - Jim Munroe
- Our Nun - Rob Laughner
- The Night Country - Stewart O'Nan
- Captain Blood - Rafael Sabatini
- The Girls in 3-B - Valerie Taylor
- My Less than Secret Life - Jonathan Ames
- Six Walks in the Fictional Woods - Umberto Eco
Author Comments:
I hit a run of bad luck with this list, picking up four stinkers in a row, and kind of ran away screaming. I'm back now.
Books that actually got read now appear here on their own list.
I got Behindlings for the very same reason, and the fact that it was an awfully cheap 'proof' copy (in advance of publication). The synopsis is fascinating, and it is high up on my list of books to read (alas, along with many others).
Titus Groan is amazing, and my particular favourite is the second in the trilogy, Gormenghast. It has also been made into a TV drama by the BBC, and whilst it captures the wierdness and fantasy of the books, it does not capture Peake's captivating storytelling. Steerpike is one of my favourite-ever literary characters.
I'm glad to know it's not just me who will stockpile books to read, if given half a chance. :)
There's an interesting idea for choosing books to read here, where readers evaluate whether they'd read a book based on how well they like its cover. Something we've all done, I'm sure, but nice to see it neatly quantified.
I think I wouldn't allow myself to start a clone of this list because it'd get way too embarassing way too fast :) (ie, too long).
Just wanted to mention it's great to note that someone else likes bookslut.
Luckily this list in no way overlaps with The Pile of Books Next to My Bed, otherwise there would be a serious bandwidth moment. :)
Death's Jest Book - Reginald Hill's characters of Dalziel and Pascoe were made into a
British TV series. I don't know if it ever reached your shores. Try this link also.
Wow, I thought I was a pretty big British tv fan, but I've never even heard of this. So which did you prefer, the TV series or the book?
I cannot really help you on this I'm afraid. I haven't read any of the books, and whilst I began watching the first episode of the TV series, it never held my attention. Thus I never watched any of the other episodes, and I shan't now bother with the books either, partly because the TV series failed me, and partly because mystery novels don't generally appeal to me. Sorry I couldn't help any further.
I must read my copy of Behindlings soon !
It seems like Behindlings is easily the favorite here as far as the popular vote for what to read first from the list.
I've started reading it - fascinating story so far (chapter six out of fifty chapters). Odd writing style (lots of brackets (like what the way I write)), but I have an advance proof copy so the final published version might be further revised.
I am only about half through it, but so far, I highly recommend Drop City. It is quite good.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Good to know! I'll move it onto my next-to-checkout list. There's so many books I'd like to get to, that I've given prioritizing over to what's getting recommendations. It's really the only way to crawl out from under this list.
Btw, I have to say that City of Light, which I read maybe a month ago, is probably the best book I've read in the last 10 years. I'm just saying.