<p>Books for a young man (recent grad) who likes Jonathan Irving, Michael Chabon, Tracy Kidder.</p>
<p>Anxiously awaiting your learned suggestions!</p>
<p>quirky sensibility plus evocative portrayal of place & time?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey
Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Plot Against America, Philip Roth
Arsonists Guide to Writers Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke.(not entirely successful, but a hilarious premise)</p>
<p>Ok ILove great list! I had considered Sometimes a Great Notion, and think Middlesex is a great idea. Haven’t read the rest but will look at 'em. </p>
<p>More please!</p>
<p>P.S. Quirky sensibility! Love that. This is a kid who stopped reading in middle school and has finally started again upon college gratduation and with gusto. Gonna get him a stack of reads for xmas!</p>
<p>I second ILoveLA’s recommendation of Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Phenomenal book.</p>
<p>Lonesome Dove by Larry Macmurtry is another “great read”.</p>
<p>Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire, the true story of smokejumpers who died in a fire. Amazing. Also, his A River Runs Through It. (Became a beautiful movie with Brad Pitt directed by Bob Redford.)</p>
<p>He might like Erik Larson’s The Devil and the White City because it puts together the story of the Chicago world’s fair (the white city) with what must be the most diabolical serial killer in American history, H.H. Holmes. Also a true story, very readable and has that edge a boy might like.</p>
<p>And I have to recommend for any boy an omnibus collection of Sherlock Holmes. Just plain great stories and characters.</p>
<p>Lonesome Dove! Loved the book and the movies. What a cast!</p>
<p>ILove what else ya got? You’re listing my kinda books. </p>
<p>Thanks TaDah and Lergnom, for the other suggestions, too. I’m gonna give it another half hour then head over to Border’s with a nice list.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m going to be contrarian (and am not a guy, so maybe would have different tastes). But both a Confederacy of Dunces and Middlesex really fell flat for me. I just didn’t enjoy them. And everyone has different tastes, so maybe those would be okay for this young man. Here are a few more suggestions:</p>
<p>If he likes Tracy Kidder, he may like John McPhee.
River of Doubt by Candice Millard (story of Theodore Roosevelt expedition in the Amazon jungle)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (won a Pulitzer many years ago)
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell</p>
<p>One on my reading list that I haven’t gotten to yet:</p>
<p>In the Throne Room of the Gods (Galen Rowell)</p>
<p>And Young Men and Fire (mentioned above) is very good.</p>
<p>You are probably already at Borders, but I’m killing time waiting for novocaine to wear off so here are a few more:
Dog Soldiers, by Robert Stone
Gringos, by Charles Portis
Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt (sp?)
100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux
Book of Common Prayer, Joan Didion
I second the recommendations for Into Thin Air, and John McPhee.</p>
<p>Books by Lewis Thomas and Jared Diamond.</p>
<p>Has he read all of Tracy Kidder? I loved Home Town and you don’t hear too much about it. I also think he has a new one out.</p>
<p>I enjoyed Middlesex but didn’t get the hype about Confederacy of Dunces. I also HATED Bonfire of the Vanities. It made me be in such a bad mood. I had to finish it to figure out what happened but I hated it.</p>
<p>I just had to read *A Man in Full *since I’m a commercial real estate lawyer. By then I had figured out what I hate about Tom Wolfe and just skipped entire chapters.</p>