Thursday, July 8, 2010

Reading List!

This is the list that I posted on Facebook in March. I've been a bit delinquent about keeping up with it. I'm going to blame that on moving and having most of my books packed up in boxes and milk crates.

The Waves, Virginia Woolf  - finished
Kindred, Octavia Butler - finished
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
What are People For? Wendell Berry - have read bits and pieces (it's a book of essays)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin - finished
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon - finished
The Salt Eaters, Toni Cade Bambara
My Invented Country, Isabelle Allende
The Cure at Troy, Seamus Heaney
Catch-22, Joseph Heller - reading now
Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
That Noble Dream, Peter Novick
Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
Looting Africa, Patrick Bond

Along the way, I've been sidetracked by:
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July - finished
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark - finished
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee - finished

Suggested by friends on FB:
Chasing Shadows, Lucrecia Guerrero
The Rain God, Arturo Islas
George Washington Gomez, Americo Paredes
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Wild Seed, Octavia Butler
Contending Forces, Pauline Hopkins
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson

Catch-22 is my read-at-work book--I've been reading it during my lunch break, so it's taking longer than usual. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was my read-at-home book, and I just finished it, so I'll have to pick up another book.
It looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

9 comments:

  1. Ooh, that's a good idea to have a "read at work" and "read at home" book. I find it difficult to spend time just in one book or style.

    Unfortunately, my work is spread out, so I'd have to be more creative. Right now, I"ve been working my way through Lanark by Alasdair Grey again (HIGHLY recommended to you, dear Sarah!), and through a few theology-type books.

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  2. YAY! for Kavalier and Clay. So much love.

    And seriously: Winterson. Seriously, seriously. Borrow my copy of Oranges, if you like. Seriously.

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  3. @Rachel--Alasdair Grey. Will keep that in mind. I hope Pittsburgh's treating you well.

    @Bronwyn--yes, I'd love to borrow Winterson from you. Seriously. :)

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  4. The Name of the Rose, The Name of the Rose, The Name of the Rose, The Name of the Rose, The Name of the Rose. Was I the one who suggested it? If not, I'm making up for it now. The Name of the Rose. I would pack it up and send you my copy right now except I lent it to someone else and I'm not sure I'll ever get it back (the same thing happened to my copy of Copenhagen.) I take solace in the fact that I am spreading the good words.

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  5. Blogspot's comment system is goofy. I will trust that my comment has in fact gone through and will be appearing shortly (and is, perhaps already appearing to you now.)

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  6. I think you did suggest The Name of the Rose. I've heard it's pretty spectacular. I've read Foucault's Pendulum (and the name confused me for a good minute--when did Foucault create a pendulum? Oh, different Foucault).

    I didn't steal your copy of Copenhagen, did I? Or did you just give me my own copy for my birthday or something?

    And yes, Blogspot's commenting thing is weird. I've had a couple of people tell me that they had trouble with it.

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  7. No, you didn't "steal" my copy of Copenhagen. It's an ex, someone I'll probably never see again ever. But hopefully it was read and enjoyed, and not associated with bad memories (I wasn't nice as I could have been, breaking it off.)

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  8. Also, not to add another book to your overlong list, but have you read "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn? It suffers from being horribly slanted in favor of the poor and oppressed in American history, and it openly acknowledges that fact, offering itself as a counter-balance to the history that is focused on self-aggrandizing American Great Men. It is an utterly necessary book.

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  9. *A People's History* should be on the reading list. I'm ashamed I haven't read it yet...

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