Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, James Welch’s Winter in the Blood, & Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
Sheesh. Only five? OK then. Middlemarch (Mary Ann Evans). Into the Beautiful North (Luis Alberto Urrea). La Gatomaquia (Felix Lope de Vega). Just Us. (Claudia Rankine). Any one of the Ramona books (Beverly Cleary).
I'm realizing I confined my own list to the 20th century — so hurrah for you for reaching outside the 20th century, and also beyond the US and UK. There are two books on this list I not only have never read, I've never heard of them. Thank you so much, Claire!
Ha! Sounds incredible. I had also never heard of "Into the Beautiful North," though I had heard of Urrea's nonfiction book "The Devil's Highway." Sounds like I need to check out his fiction and poetry.
Into the Beautiful North is a Seven Samurai tale. . . word on the internets is that one of the characters from IBN is going to appear in another novel sometime. . . if you read it now you'll be ready!
So, I just finished PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE because nobody sells a book like Christopher Frizzelle, and I’m thinking it requires a t-shirt with something like “Romanticism can be fatal.” on the front.
It is wickedly funny, but it cuts like a knife. I had seen the movie — and wow! It left an impression — but I’m so glad to have read the book. Thank you!
Another t-shirt might be, “Poor Mary Macgregor.” (She doesn’t even get a capital “G”.) Muriel Spark wrote an essay, “Desegregation of Art”, and it/her work is described as “superbly uncuddly”.
Really!?? What a tease. I was just thinking that I shouldn’t laugh because MM was tragic. The running back and forth both in the upper school science room and then in the hotel was horrible. Her irrational fear or phobia of fire. She was like a mouse in a maze. Yes, and a scapegoat. Even that chipped teacup!!
The book has a whole other layer/meaning that the movie lacks. Are you going to be in the club? I can’t wait to get into it. I have so much planned, including a trip though hell with Dante, and some other outside poetry as well. I can’t wait.
Hmmm…yes, there is a randomness to a list of top 5…ANNA KARENINA, MIDDLEMARCH, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (thanks, Christopher!), ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Really? I feel like it lacks the variety and breadth of these other lists. I looked at it and realized that I have a “type”. JANE EYRE and THE SECRET GARDEN (my imprint book) could have been on this list. Do you have a first book that marked you or imprinted its DNA on you like SECRET GARDEN did to me? I feel like I see that book in many other books.
My question is: where’s MADAME BOVARY? I did not love that novel. On the “Barbie” set, Greta Gerwig had everyone wear a name tag with a movie from the canon on it that they did NOT love. Hers was “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. We should do that — what well-loved book did not resonate with us? MADAME BOVARY and THE GREAT GATSBY. There! I said it.
I highly recommend this class/book club, as it was one of my favorite books I’d ever read, too, and I came to it late. Also, “To the Lighthouse” is my favorite book. ❤️
Invisible Man, Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower (possibly the greatest historical novel ever written), Orhan Pamuk's Snow, Don DeLillo's Libra, Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, though I love the gleeful scatology and universal piss-takery of The Freelance Pallbearers.
Thank you for this list, Peter! I remember picking up “Homage to Catalonia” because of you, and now I will be doing the same with several of these titles. What a pleasure getting reading lists from writers and friends.
Also, current favorite 5: Stephen Fry's The Liar, Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, and Les Liaisons dangereuses. This list likely to change at any moment.
"This list likely to change at any moment" — ha, yes, mine too. Well said.
Ray Bradbury gave a reading at a Borders books when I was a kid, and there were only like 20 people there. He was so cool and nice, and his hair was bright white. He talked about how The New Yorker kept rejecting his short story submissions.
I read "The October Country" after that, a book of his stories, but I don't remember it; I read "Farhenheit 451" in school and loved it; but I don't think I've read "Dandelion Wine." Reading its wikipedia page now — I gotta check this out.
Yes! My high school English teacher assigned Dandelion Wine to us but didn't require any work on it. It was a treat for getting through Crime & Punishment!
I feel like a voyeur, returning to the comments on this post to see what books people have added! I will add two, with the caveat that I haven’t re-read either of them recently, and I wonder if they would have the same effect on my heart and soul as they initially did: White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
If He Hollers Let Him Go is new to me. Man, it is so fun asking this question and learning about so many great books! One of these days I want to hear why Dalloway for you is the one; I wouldn't expect it, given the other Woolf books one could choose, books about artists and nature and time and space.
Ok another ten: Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Invisible Man, The Forsyte Saga, The Great Fire, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, White Teeth, War and Peace, Gravity’s Rainbow, Battles in the Desert
What the hell a round 30: Ulysses, To the Lighthouse, As I Lay Dying, No Country for Old Men, The Alexandria Quartet, Jane Eyre, I, Claudius, The Long Night of White Chickens, The Mill on the Floss, Little Women
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, James Welch’s Winter in the Blood, & Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
What a great list. There are two on there I've never read. I need to get on it!
Sheesh. Only five? OK then. Middlemarch (Mary Ann Evans). Into the Beautiful North (Luis Alberto Urrea). La Gatomaquia (Felix Lope de Vega). Just Us. (Claudia Rankine). Any one of the Ramona books (Beverly Cleary).
I'm realizing I confined my own list to the 20th century — so hurrah for you for reaching outside the 20th century, and also beyond the US and UK. There are two books on this list I not only have never read, I've never heard of them. Thank you so much, Claire!
My pleasure! I have two more that I have got to add so my list equals 7. The Rain God by Arturo Islas. Calling All Heroes by Paco Ignacio Taibo II.
Also Leslie Marmon Silko Almanac of the Dead. OK that is my list for now.
Which ones haven't you heard of? I know La Gatomaquia is a stretch! But how often do you get an epic poem about battles between armies of cats?
Ha! Sounds incredible. I had also never heard of "Into the Beautiful North," though I had heard of Urrea's nonfiction book "The Devil's Highway." Sounds like I need to check out his fiction and poetry.
Into the Beautiful North is a Seven Samurai tale. . . word on the internets is that one of the characters from IBN is going to appear in another novel sometime. . . if you read it now you'll be ready!
Garden in the Dunes (Silko) is also a really good story. Really. Good.
So, I just finished PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE because nobody sells a book like Christopher Frizzelle, and I’m thinking it requires a t-shirt with something like “Romanticism can be fatal.” on the front.
It is wickedly funny, but it cuts like a knife. I had seen the movie — and wow! It left an impression — but I’m so glad to have read the book. Thank you!
Another t-shirt might be, “Poor Mary Macgregor.” (She doesn’t even get a capital “G”.) Muriel Spark wrote an essay, “Desegregation of Art”, and it/her work is described as “superbly uncuddly”.
I spend a bizarre amount of my life thinking about Mary Macgregor -- surprising for such a minor character.
THAT is hilarious!
She relates directly to what I think that book is really about — what’s going on between the lines…
Really!?? What a tease. I was just thinking that I shouldn’t laugh because MM was tragic. The running back and forth both in the upper school science room and then in the hotel was horrible. Her irrational fear or phobia of fire. She was like a mouse in a maze. Yes, and a scapegoat. Even that chipped teacup!!
The book has a whole other layer/meaning that the movie lacks. Are you going to be in the club? I can’t wait to get into it. I have so much planned, including a trip though hell with Dante, and some other outside poetry as well. I can’t wait.
Hmmm…yes, there is a randomness to a list of top 5…ANNA KARENINA, MIDDLEMARCH, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (thanks, Christopher!), ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY
(my pleasure!)
What exquisite taste you have; great list...
Really? I feel like it lacks the variety and breadth of these other lists. I looked at it and realized that I have a “type”. JANE EYRE and THE SECRET GARDEN (my imprint book) could have been on this list. Do you have a first book that marked you or imprinted its DNA on you like SECRET GARDEN did to me? I feel like I see that book in many other books.
My question is: where’s MADAME BOVARY? I did not love that novel. On the “Barbie” set, Greta Gerwig had everyone wear a name tag with a movie from the canon on it that they did NOT love. Hers was “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. We should do that — what well-loved book did not resonate with us? MADAME BOVARY and THE GREAT GATSBY. There! I said it.
I highly recommend this class/book club, as it was one of my favorite books I’d ever read, too, and I came to it late. Also, “To the Lighthouse” is my favorite book. ❤️
Yesssss. 💖
Invisible Man, Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower (possibly the greatest historical novel ever written), Orhan Pamuk's Snow, Don DeLillo's Libra, Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, though I love the gleeful scatology and universal piss-takery of The Freelance Pallbearers.
Thank you for this list, Peter! I remember picking up “Homage to Catalonia” because of you, and now I will be doing the same with several of these titles. What a pleasure getting reading lists from writers and friends.
A deep dive of George Orwell is a revelation. I thought DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON was even better!
Saw this: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/win-muriel-sparks-backlist-including-our-book-of-the-month
yesterday and thought of you!
Ooooh, thank you! I just entered the contest.
Also, current favorite 5: Stephen Fry's The Liar, Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, and Les Liaisons dangereuses. This list likely to change at any moment.
"This list likely to change at any moment" — ha, yes, mine too. Well said.
Ray Bradbury gave a reading at a Borders books when I was a kid, and there were only like 20 people there. He was so cool and nice, and his hair was bright white. He talked about how The New Yorker kept rejecting his short story submissions.
I read "The October Country" after that, a book of his stories, but I don't remember it; I read "Farhenheit 451" in school and loved it; but I don't think I've read "Dandelion Wine." Reading its wikipedia page now — I gotta check this out.
I loved DANDELION WINE — required in high school, oddly. And JANE EYRE — formative!!
Yes! My high school English teacher assigned Dandelion Wine to us but didn't require any work on it. It was a treat for getting through Crime & Punishment!
Oh yes
I feel like a voyeur, returning to the comments on this post to see what books people have added! I will add two, with the caveat that I haven’t re-read either of them recently, and I wonder if they would have the same effect on my heart and soul as they initially did: White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Middlemarch; Half of a Yellow Sun; The Road; Mrs. Dalloway; If He Hollers Let Him Go
If He Hollers Let Him Go is new to me. Man, it is so fun asking this question and learning about so many great books! One of these days I want to hear why Dalloway for you is the one; I wouldn't expect it, given the other Woolf books one could choose, books about artists and nature and time and space.
IHHLHG is the great LA novel. Sorry Chandler and Didion (in her fiction) don’t touch it Bret Easton Ellis either
And just as easy - almost - to swap out: Daniel Deronda, The Book of Ebenezer LePage, Riddley Walker, The Crying of Lot 49, Wuthering Heights
It may be (can it be?) I have not read any of these.
Ok another ten: Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Invisible Man, The Forsyte Saga, The Great Fire, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, White Teeth, War and Peace, Gravity’s Rainbow, Battles in the Desert
What the hell a round 30: Ulysses, To the Lighthouse, As I Lay Dying, No Country for Old Men, The Alexandria Quartet, Jane Eyre, I, Claudius, The Long Night of White Chickens, The Mill on the Floss, Little Women
OMG I forgot all about The Long Night of White Chickens. I'm mortified that I forgot it b/c I read it twice. . . I like your lists Grant.
You’re stoked strap in