decemberthirty: (Default)
decemberthirty ([personal profile] decemberthirty) wrote2013-01-10 10:54 am

Let's play a game this morning

A book recommending game!

I spent most of 2012 in a reading rut. You know the sort of thing I mean--reading all sorts of books, always hoping that I would fall in love with the next one, but never quite getting there. This year, I'd like to feel passionate about my reading again. And I'd like it if you, dear LJ-friends, would help me break out of my rut.

Here's how it'll work: I'll give a general description of my taste and the sort of things I like (longtime readers probably already know more than enough about my taste in books!), and you tell me about an author you think I might like or describe the last book that knocked you head over heels. BUT! This is not a one-way street! If you'd like to receive recommendations too, post a comment that tells us about you as a reader, and if I've got any good recommendations for you I'll share them. Others can chime in too, and soon (I hope!) we'll all be sharing our favorites with each other and adding lots of titles to our to-read lists. If this sounds like fun to you, feel free to pass it around--the more the merrier!


Favorite authors: E.M. Forster, Marilynne Robinson, Virginia Woolf, Colm Tóibín, Pat Barker, Ursula K. Le Guin, Flannery O'Connor, Alice Munro, Michael Chabon, Sherwood Anderson, etc...
Preferred genres: Fiction. Fiction of all sorts: short stories, novels, novellas. I mostly read fiction of the 'literary' variety, but I am happy break out of those bounds for well-written sci-fi, mysteries, or thrillers. Very occasionally I read memoir and essay collections.
Things I like: historical settings, queer characters, queer characters in historical settings, beautiful prose, believable love stories even (especially?) when the endings aren't happy ones, dark elements, real human emotion, coming-of-age stories, tight plots but also sometimes introspective plotless rambles, books that make me work, stories about families, characters I can love.
Last book that really blew me away: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. You can read my post about here, if that would be useful.


Okay, go!

[identity profile] rachel2205.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, so many books off the top of my head. You may well have read many of these already!

The Sparrow (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/334176.The_Sparrow) - Mary Doria Russell
The Blind Assassin (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78433.The_Blind_Assassin) - Margaret Atwood
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37380.The_Heart_is_a_Lonely_Hunter) - Carson McCullers
The Song of Achilles (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles) - Madeleine Miller
The New York Trilogy (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/431.The_New_York_Trilogy) - Paul Auster
I Capture The Castle (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31122.I_Capture_the_Castle) - Dodie Smith
Human Traces (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7482.Human_Traces) - Sebastian Faulks
The Crystal Cave (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82192.The_Crystal_Cave) - Mary Stewart
Perdido Street Station (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68494.Perdido_Street_Station) - China Mieville
Loitering With Intent (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58680.Loitering_with_Intent) - Peter O'Toole

It would take aaages to write why I like all these/why I think they'd match your tastes but I'm happy to discuss any that might strike your fancy!

[identity profile] mi-er.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh totally seconding The Blind Assasin. What a fantastic book. Other from the top of my head that stayed with me for a while: pretty much everything by Alice Hoffman, The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (currently re-reading). When God was a rabbit. Julia Glass's The Three Junes and the sequel. But there's more for sure!

[identity profile] decemberthirty.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent! I've been meaning to read more Atwood, so I will definitely try The Blind Assassin. And I haven't read any of the others you mention, so I'll check them out!

[identity profile] mi-er.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I really want to re-read the 3 junes next. And like someone else recommended: middlesex. And the poisonwood bible! If you haven't read it already.

[identity profile] mi-er.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
What I like about the Gargoyle which is also what I liked about 'the tiger's wife' is the creation of stories within a story.

[identity profile] rachel2205.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I think the delicate way she has of expressing the ...prosaic nature of suffering, if I can call it that, works so well in that novel. You'll probably see the ending coming a mile off, but I don't think that hurts the novel at all.
pax_athena: (medusa)

[personal profile] pax_athena 2013-01-11 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, "The Blind Assassin" is already waiting next to my bed - definitely one of the next books I want to read.

[identity profile] decemberthirty.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, great! I adored The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and I also really liked The Sparrow although it's been years since I read it and I don't remember it that clearly... And I've been meaning to read more Atwood, so I'll make The Blind Assassin a high priority. Thanks!

[identity profile] ellettra.livejournal.com 2013-01-10 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Seconding China Mieville. LOVE his work.