My Book List
I am often asked, “What are you reading?” Here is a partial list of books by topics. It is in no way inclusive of everything I’ve read, nor a list of all my books! That would go on forever. This is a very informal list in no particular order!
Send me your recommendations. Contact info in upper right corner. (* = Highly recommend)
Send me your recommendations. Contact info in upper right corner. (* = Highly recommend)
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Novels & Memoirs I Recommend: 2019 The Only Story, Barnes (Such rich writing and he makes the changing POV acceptable.) Save the Plums, Reichl (Again, she knocks it out of the kitchen!) Meet Me in Monaco, Gaynor & Webb Park Avenue Summer, Rosen (It was fun to read two books about the world of magazines 30 years apart.) There, There, Orange (Wonderful storytelling and writing, love the changing POVs, but the guns and bullets don't add up.) Fleishman is in Trouble, Brodesser-Akner Red, White & Royal Blue, McQuiston Gingerbread (Oh lord, no one finished this one!) My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh (Why, why, why?) Washington Black, Edugyan Beyond the Point, Gibson (Note to author/editor: people: who; things: that.) The Age of Light, Scharer The Night Tiger, Choo (An author to keep an eye on. Lovely imagery.) Pachinko, Lee Not Our Kind, Zeldis The Last Book Party, Dukess Tiffany Blues, Rose Luckiest Girl Alive, Knoll (Better than expected.) The Flight Attendant, Bohjalian (What a hot mess!) No Earls Allowed, Galin (Oh, my...) Dockside, Wiggs Lady Derring Takes a Lover, Long The Other Miss Bridgerton, Quinn The Wallflower wager, Dare Swampoodle, St. Claire (Local author set in DC) 2018 *Sing, Unburied Sing, Ward *Ties, Starnone (The forward is as good as the novella.) *The Mothers, Bennett The Gown, Robson French Exit, DeWitt (Shame on whomever put this on the Best of the Year list.) The Bookshop of Yesterday, Meyerson (I'm done with bookstores as the setting.) The Music Shop, Joyce (So I guess record shops are the new bookstore for settings.) The Collectors Apprentice, Shapiro The Perfect Nanny, Slimani *Dear Committee Members, The Shakespeare Requirement, Schumacher (Fun reads. My book club loved both!) The Little Stranger, Waters (Confession: I read 250 pages and didn't care enough to read the next 250 pages...) Etta and Otto and Russel and James, Hooper The Masterpiece, Davis (UGH-Don't change the POV from 3rd person limited to 3rd person multiple in last 30 pages!) Education, Westover The Italian Teacher, Rachman The Stars are Fire, Shreve High Season, Blundell How to Stop Time, Haug (Clever.) Manhattan Beach, Egen Sunburn, Lippman (I read so you don't have to....) Women in Sunlight, Mayes The Woman in the Window, Finn (Quite the thriller.) Letters from Paris, Blackwell Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, Halpren * White Houses, Bloom Mrs. Osmond, Banville (Like Henry James, he leaves the ending for the next author to pick up. Brilliant.) *Give a Girl a Knife, Thielen (Minn. author, great writing & storytelling) The Dark Lady's Mask, Sharratt (One of my fave authors.) The Other Einstein; Carnegie's Maid, Benedict (Enjoyed the first more.) America's First Daughter, Dray & Kamoie Jane Steele, Faye Turtles All the Way Down, Green A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan Women in the Castle, Shattuk (While I'm tired of WWII novels this one is worth the time.) Foreign Tongue, Marsot My Italian Bulldozer, McCall Smith (Ridiculous) The Royal Runaway, Emory A Daring Arrangement, Shupe 2017 Where, or where, were the good books this year?? Trains and Lovers, McCall Smith Smile, Doyle (Really liked this book, but ending was a cop out.) The Little Paris Bookshop (Middle third too long.); & The Little French Bistro, George The Magician's Lie, Macallister *Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure, Bosker (Learned a lot.) Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders (I was so lost for first 80 pages.) The Dollhouse; The Address, Davis Flight Behavior, Kingsolver The Burning Girl, Messud (I had high hopes...) How to Find Love in a Bookshop, Henry The Piano Shop of the Left Bank, Carhart Less, by Greer, (Shame on the reviewer who said it was LOL.) Golden Hill, Spufford (Really, two page sentences?) Modern Lovers, Straub (Forgot about it already.) Men Without Women, Murakami Lighthousekeeping, Winterson (Love her writing.) *Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, LaMott Into the Water, Hawkins (Better than the reviews said.) The Woman in Cabin 10, Ware (Meh.) Commonwealth, Patchett *Chez Moi, Desarthe (Lovely writing) Ordinary Grace, Krueger Unless, Shields (One of my all time fave authors.) To Capture What We Cannot Keep, Colin (100 pages too long.) A Cup of Tea, Ephron A Cup of Tea, Mansfield (Read this short story first, then Ephron's short novel.) A Window Opens, Egan Beautiful Ruins, Walter (Falls apart half way through.) Fasting, Feasting, Desai A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles The Shell Collector, Doerr Rococo, Trigiani I See You Everywhere, Glass The Bookshop on the Corner, Colgan The Trespasser, In the Woods, French All Grown Up, Attenberg The Art Thief, Charney (Still not sure who ended up with which painting...) The House of Mirth, Wharton Ghostwalk, Stott (Gave up half way through.) Sundays at Tiffany's, Patterson & Charbonnet Falling for Trouble; The Undateable: Practice Makes Perfect; Snowed In, Title The Book of Speculation, Swyler 2016 The Last Days of Night, Moore (Great historical fiction.) *My Name is Lucy Barton, Strout *The Stockholm Octavo, Engelmann The Ice Queen, Hoffman Today will be Different, Semple *By Nightfall, Cunningham When the Emperor was Divine, Otsuka The Darkest Secret, Marwood (OMG ending!) *Salt to the Sea, Sepetys In Other Words, Lahiri Four Seasons in Rome, Doerr *The Invitation, Foley *The Muse, Burton Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move, Lanpher The House We Grew Up In, Jewell Jesus Cow, Perry (But only if you are from the Midwest!) The Nightingale, Hannah Nine Women, One Dress, Rosen Rules of Civility, Towles The Last Bookaneer, Pearl *Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen, Sharratt The Other Story, de Rosnay Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote Rare Objects, Tessaro Sweetbitter, Danler A Half Forgotten Song, Webb Frog Music, Donoghue (Read the research notes first!) H is for Hawk, Macdonald (3 books in one) The Nest, Sweeney (Better than the reviews.) The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Bivald Lydia's Party, Hawkins The Last Chinese Chef, Mones Noah's Compass, Tyler How it All Began, Lively *The 6:41 to Paris, Blonde A Little Life, Yanaghara (A very difficult read.) *Queen of the Night, Chee The Diamond Caper, Mayle The Dream Lover, Berg Mademoiselle Chanel, Gortner Fates and Furries, Groff (Not sure what the hype is all about.) Furiously Happy, Lawson (Still LOL.) The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories, Marra Freezing, Evans Bookends, Green A Tenured Professor, Galbraith The Misalliance, Brookner Between the World and Me, Coates Cooking with Fernet Branca, Hamilton-Paterson Mrs. Poe, Cullen Case Histories, Atkinson The Vermeer Conspiracy, Halaban The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Gilman New Uses for Old Boyfriends; Cure for the Common Breakup, Kendrick The Hating Game, Thorne The Gates of Rutherford, Cooke 2015 *Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson (LOL!) The Story of the Lost Child (the Fourth and Final), Ferrante *The Gracekeepers, Logan Pretty Baby, Kubica (please get an editor, cut every third word and create a timeline - it doesn't work) The Invention of Wings, Kidd The Year of Wonders, Brooks The Wife, The Maid and the Mistress, Lawhon Black Chalk, Yates The Happiness Project; Happier at Home, Rubin The Boston Girl, Diamant The Art of Crash Landing, DeCarlo (No way I believe this story would take place in 5 days, please...) Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase, Walters Crossing on the Paris, Gynther The Vacationers, Straub (Was there one redeeming character?) Maybe in Another Life, Reid The Last Days of Dogtown, Diamant Music and Silence, Tremain Arcadia, Groff The Rosie Project, Simsion A Week in Winter, Binchy Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, Buchan Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Prose The Paris Key, Blackwell Telling the Bees, Hesketh The Other Typist, Rindell *The Girl on a Train, Hawkins (Be sure to read a nice, light, fluffy book between this book and Her.) *Her, Lane. (When I say I judge a book by its ending, I mean books like this.) The Last Girl, Evans (One of the best character studies I've ever read: how did a young woman write about such a crotchety old man?) Everything I Never Told You, Ng The Seduction Series, Jennifer McQuiston The Strange Library, Murakami Odd Woman and the City, Gornick Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Cahalan Yes, Please, Poehler The Objects of her Affection, Cobb The Ladies' Lending Library, Keefer 2014 The Neapolitan Novels: My Brilliant Friend; The Story of a New Name; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. Ferrante *All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr (IMHO-Best book of 2014) Searching for Grace Kelly, Callahan The Signature of All Things (First half only, see below), Gilbert *Bitter in the Mouth, Truong (Write more!) Orphan Train, Kline The Kitchen House, Grissom *House in the Sky, Lindhout *The Miniaturist, Burton The Transcriptionist, Rowland The Rise & Fall of Great Powers, Rachman The Perfume Collector, Tessaro The Children Act, McEwan (Pay attention to the coffee cup scene, exquisitely written.) Lucky Us, Bloom *Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Boo (Amazing reporting/writing) The Fever Tree, McVeigh Delicious!, Reichl (Her autobiographies are better than fiction) Riding Lessons; Water for Elephants, Gruen The Snow Queen; The Hours, Cunningham The Aviator’s Wife, Benjamin A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Marra The Map of the Lost Memories, Fay The Glassblower of Murano; The Botticelli Secret, Fiorato The Witch’s Daughter, Brackston Belle Epogue, Ross Born of Illusion, Brown Her Fearful Symmetry, Niffenegger The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman The Woman Upstairs, Messud (Not a cliche in the book.) The Silent Wife, Harrison (WHO DID IT??) The Interestings, Wolitzer Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Fowler The Paris Wife, McLain The Maytrees, Dillard The Lowland, Lahiri Previous Years The Imperfectionists, Rachman Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Riggs The Fault in our Stars, Green Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamotte (My go to meditation/prayer book) People of the Book, Brooks The Secrets of Mary Bowser, Leveen Gone Girl, Flynn *Stoner, Williams Fever, Keane The Dinner, Koch The Orphan Master’s Son, Johnson American Wife, Sittenfeld *Night Circus, Morgenstern (Lovely colorful imagery) That Woman, Sebba The Greater Journey, McCullough Sarah's Key; A Secret Kept, de Rosnay 1Q84, Murakami *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Sklott (Great research/ reporting/writing) Girl in Translation, Kwok Someone, McDermott Creation of Eve; Lit, Karr The Commitment, Gilbert The Uninvited Guest, Jones An Object of Beauty, Martin Summer at Tiffany’s, Hart The Forgery of Venus, Gruber The Shadow of the Wind; The Angel's Game, Ruiz Zafon The Crimson Petal and the White, Faber The Time Traveler’s Wife, Niffenegger *The Things They Carried, O’Brien *The Book of Salt, Truong *The Professor and the Madman; The Man Who Loved China; etc. Winchester Out of the Flames, Goldstones Restoration, Tremain Books I endured, but don't recommend... One Good Turn, Atkinson The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses, Biringham (I wanted historical fiction and got a research paper) The Goldfinch, Tartt (Needed to go to rehab afterwards) How to be Both, Smith The Bookstore, Myler The Signature of All Things, Gilbert (second half can go away; stop reading at the closet scene) Wolf Hall, Mantel NW, Smith |
Non-fiction I Refer to & Learned from:
Mrs. Ambassador: The Life and Politics of Eugenie Anderson (My BFF wrote it!) Maybe You Need to Talk to Someone, Gottlieb Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey Into the Heart of America, the Fallows (For anyone from a "small town.") Art Held Hostage, Anderson Dreyer's English, Dreyer 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Harari The Empath's Survival Guide, Orloff (Explains a lot about myself.) Origin Story, Christian iGen, Twenge Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Junger Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, Warner Being Mortal, Gawande Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of NYC's Greatest Female Detective, Ricca Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, Christensen, etc. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Stevenson Hillbilly Elegy, Vance The Craft of Research, Booth, etc The War of Art, Pressfield The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Sacks Lean In, Sandberg *The Ghost Map, Johnson Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Gilbert The Hidden Brain, Vedantam Real Women, Real Leaders, Hurley & Shumway *The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown, Taylor *Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, Cain Strengthfinder 2.0 (Strategic, Input, Learner, Activator, Maximizer) What to Expect When No One is Expecting, Last Naked Statistics: Stripping the dread from the data, Wheelan Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics, Wheeler The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction, Silver Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight, Hines and Bishop Generations: The History of America's Future, Strauss & Howe Crucial Conversations, Patterson, et al Sixteen Trends; 21 Trends for the 21st Century, Marx Reading Educational Research: How to avoid getting statistically snookered, Bracey How to Lie With Statistics, Huff DIY U, Kamenetz Change.edu, Rosen Disrupting Class, Christensen Leading in a Culture of Change, Fullan Chief Culture Officer, How to create a living, breathing corporation, McCracken The Tipping Point; Blink; Outliers; What the Dog Saw; David and Goliath, etc. Gladwell The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded; etc, Friedman Proofiness, Seife How the Mind Works, Pinker Made to Stick; Switch: How to change things when change is hard; Decisive: How to make better choices in life and work, Chip and Dan Health Where good ideas come from; Everything bad is good for you, Emergence, Steven Johnson The Great Reset; The Rise of the Creative Class; Who’s Your City?, Richard Florida Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; The World until Yesterday, Jared Diamond Futurist author George Friedman The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less, Schwartz Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert Snark: It’s mean, it’s personal, and it’s ruining our conversations, Denby Bowling Alone, Putnam Freakonomics, etc. Levitt and Dubner The Long Tail, Anderson The Whole New Mind; Drive, To Sell is Human; The Wisdom of Crowds, Pink How to be a Brilliant Thinker, Exercise your mind and find creative solutions, Sloane Thinkertoys, Michalko Arm Chair Travel & Books about Food/Eating/Cooking/Wine/Hotels/etc *Give a Girl a Knife, Thielen *Cork Dork, Bosker Kitchens of the Great Midwest, Stradal The Harvest: An Adventure into the Heart of America’s Family Farms, Horan Nose, Conaway Heads in Beds, Tomsky Hotel Babylon: Inside the Extravagance of a Luxury Five-star Hotel, Anonymous Hay Fever, Miller The End of Food, Roberts Cakewalk, Moses Spoon Fed: How eight cooks saved my life, Severson Traveling With Pomegranates, Kidd & Taylor The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Woman's Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth, Steil Blood, Bones & Butter, Hamilton Eat, Pray, Love: One woman’ search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia, Gilbert Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life, Kingsolver Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl, McCorkindale Spiced, Jurgensen The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Wallace Too Much Tuscan Sun, Castagno Last Night at the Lobster, O’Nan My Brother’s Farm: Reflections on life, farming, and the pleasures of food, Jones The Lost Girls, Baggett, Corbett & Pressner Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, McNamee The Best of Food Writing and Travel Writing – annual editions The Best Women’s Travel Writing – annual editions Favorite authors from this genre Barbara Holland Alice Steinbach Laura Fraser Marlena BeBlasi Michael Perry (Wonderful storyteller from small town America) Rita Golden Gelman Peter Mayle Frances Mayes Bill Bryson Calvin Trillion M.F.K. Misher Anthony Bourdain Laurie Colwin Jeffery Steingarten Deborah Madison (My go to cookbook author) James McNair Books about Books or Bookstores, Libraries or Reading The Bookshop on the Corner, Colgan The Bookshop, Fitzgerald The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, Bartlett The Little Bookstore in Big Stone Gap, Welch Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore, Sloan How Reading Changed my Life, Quindlen So Many Books, So Little Time, Nelson The Secret of Lost Things, Hay The trilogy by the Goldstones on how they got into collecting books. Sixpense House: Lost in a town of books, Paul Collins Shelf Life: Romance, mystery, drama, and other page-turning adventures from a year in a bookstore, Shea An Alphabetical Life: Living it up on the world of books, Werris Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Library, Douglas Book Lust, More Book Lust, Pearl Books about art and the art world Provenance, Salisbury & Sujo The Painted Girls, Buchanan The Art Forger, Shapiro Seven Days in the Art World The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art, Thompson Sunflowers, Bundrick My all time favorite fiction authors and their oeuvres; I’ve read them all, well almost all! Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale is the book that changed my reading life) Carol Shields A.S. Byatt Ann Patchett Anna Quindlen Jeanette Winterson Lorrie Moore Sarah Waters Lisa See (Read her Chinese historical novels in order, skip her private investigator books) Tracy Chevalier Susan Vreeland Mary Sharratt Elizabeth Berg Marge Piercy Anita Shreve Ruth Reichl (Read her autobiographical trilogy in order) Anne Tyler Books on Writing and the Process of Writing The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Pressfield The Art of Memoir, Karr Publishing, Godwin Between You and Me, Confessions of a Comma Queen, Norris On Writing, King (I've never read his fiction, but thoroughly enjoyed this book; great reading list!) Writing is my Drink, Nestor On Writing Well, Zinsser bird by bird, Lamott Negotiating with the Dead, Atwood Escaping into the Open, Berg This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Patchett (While not necessarily a book about the craft of writing, I really connected with her personal style of writing.) The Elements of Style, Strunk & White (I re-read every few years, but it needs to be brought into the 21st C. to remain relevant) |
