After reading Richard's comment about Bridge to Terabithia, I had a brilliant and self-serving idea. I've been trying to locate book titles that I could read this summer--really, really good juvenile fiction is fine (research for the young adult novels I may never write), but I'm looking primarily for accessible, literary kinds of adult fiction. I like books that surprise me.
In theory, I'm looking for pointers about the novel I'm supposed to be writing, even now, this very moment.
I'm in the midst of reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated, and then his other novel. My favorite novelist on most days is Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
So. Read any good books lately?
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I've been on a Augustin Burroughs marathon, myself. I just read "Running with Scissors", "Dry", "Magical Thinking", and "Possible Side Effects", which are all humorously traumatizing memoirs. Before that, I read "Ilium" and "Olympos" by Dan Simmons, which are literary in the sense that it's a scene-by-scene fictional retelling of the Iliad, but with robots shooting each other in the background. So I'm not sure either of those are what you're looking for. Hmm. Ooh! If you haven't read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke, that's awfully good. And literary! In that it's what would have happened if Dickens attempted to write fantasy. Yes, those are all book titles in quotes. I laugh at the MLA format!
Ah, thank you, Steve. I knew you would have ideas. You know how I need a good, traumatizing memoir every now and then.
I suppose it would be fair to make a few recommendations from my recent reading. I just finished Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, which was extraordinarily good. And before that, Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which was one of the better books I've ever read.
I've read some Dan Simmons, but I haven't been into robots lately. Genetic defect, probably.
Does it help that the robots quote Proust extensively? And analyze Shakespearean sonnets as a hobby.
What did you read by Mr. Simmons? Enquiring minds want to know!
Running with Scissors is the best of the bunch. I recommend it heartily. If you wanted, you could also read Neil Gaiman's new one...it's pretty good. Plus there's that book of short stories "Magic for Beginners" by...uh...Kelly Link, I believe. But I already recommended that one.
Yay for turtles!
Wow, what a coincidence! I, too, am just now starting Foer's Everything is Illuminated, and I'll be teaching his new one, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close this Fall in a class on the illustrated novel, so I guess I better read it, too.
You should totally pick up Stephen Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten. They were so good that I rushed right out and bought his latest (Black Swan Green, I think), but am terrified to read it in case it isn't as good.
I can back up Steve's recommendation of Ilium, though it gets weak toward the end. It's an amazingly smart book. Haven't started Olympos yet. Sigh.
Probably the best YA novels I've read lately are these 2: Godless by Pete Hautman and After by Francine Prose. Both are amazing, smart, and well worth your time.
Have fun!
jmj: I think I read Cathedral as an undergrad. Which means, I don't remember it one bit. I should revisit. Let me know if the Myths are good? I haven't been on a big myth kick since second grade. A good year, it was.
Richard: You'll have to let me know what you think about Everything is Illuminated. We can start our own J. S. Foer discussion group. And then you can watch the movie, and tell me what you think about The Changes. It'll be FUN. Thanks also for the other ideas. I trust you implicitly, and will see what the Culpeper Public Library has.
In other news, I think Steve and Richard would be good friends, if they ever met. Lovely chaps, both of them.
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