Thursday, July 26, 2007

Summer Reading

Real Live Preacher has had a wonderful conversation going about movies (read it here) and someone asked him about novels. He may pick up the request but it got me thinking about what I'd recommend so here is my first go at it.

I'm taking John Irving's Until I Find You, Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, and Vikram Seth's Two Lives with me on holidays.

Novels I'd recommend:

Anything by Barbara Kingsolver
A.S. Byatt, Possession
Sheri Reynolds, The Rapture of Canaan
Anything by Chaim Potok, but especially The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev, and The Book of Lights
Anything by Graham Greene but especially Monsignor Quixote
Iris Murdoch's Henry and Cato
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Maryanne Robinson, Gilead
Sue Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Mark Salzman, Lying Awake
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Anita Rau Badami, Tamarind Mem
Shusaku Endo, Silence

Work calls so I'll leave this for now. All you lurkers out there who don't comment - I know that you read so please suggest some novels for what is left of our summer reading!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Elmore Leonard's Pagan Babies

kgp

Erin said...

Don't know it. Thanks for the recommendation.

Hjördís said...

Consumption by Kevin Patterson, a Canadian doctor, for anyone who wants to read a good story set in the North. Neat little murder mystery subplot too - betcha won't be able to guess whodunit!

Independent People by Halldór Laxness - probably the best book I've ever read.

The Tree of Life Trilogy by Chava Rosenfarb - the Globe and Mail said they were Dickensian but I think they are more Dostoevskian. I wish more people I knew read those books - I'm dying to talk about them.

fyi - my favourite Barbara Kingsolver book is The Bean Trees.

Erin said...

Thanks Sarah!

Tim Chesterton said...

I'm a George Eliot fan - I love 'Middlemarch', 'Adam Bede', 'Scenes of Clerical Life', and 'Felix Holt the Radical'. Also Jane Austen - 'Emma' is my favourite, but of course I like 'Pride and Prejudice' too. I really like Rudy Wiebe, especially 'Peace Shall Destroy Many', 'The Scorched-Wood People', 'The Temptations of Big Bear' and 'Sweeter than All the World'.

Erin said...

Thanks Tim,
I've never read any Eliot I'm embarrassed to admit. I read Austen years ago and of course have seen the movies. I read Wiebe years ago too I think but my memories is vague. I've noticed he shows up on your blog a lot and have thought of picking him up again. Of the prairie writers Margaret Laurence has always been my favourite. I devoured her when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I should re-read her now that I'm considerably older. One of my other favourites I need to add to my list is David Lodge. I loved Small World and Nice Work and really enjoyed Paradise News which I read a couple of weeks ago.