<p>Here are some of my recent favorites:
The Pact- Jodi Picoult
Vanishing Act- Jodi Picoult
and
Where the Heart Is- Billie Letts</p>
<p>Four novels that I couldn’t put down once I started them…</p>
<p>Second Glances - Jodi Picoult
Set this House in Order - Matt Ruff
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (Amazing Book)</p>
<p>On Beauty by Zadie Smith It’s funnier than I expected…</p>
<p>Mountains Beyond MOuntains --a CC recommendation</p>
<p>Just finished Obama’s “Dreams of My FAther.” Put away the fact that he’s running for prez; he wrote it way, way before, and it’s just a really well-written book, much more literary than I would’ve realized. The last third, when he meets his family in Africa, is by far the best part.</p>
<p>Also recently read Didion’s “year of Magical Thinking”–heartbreaking and beautiful.</p>
<p>Also recently liked Marisha Pessl–“Special Topics in Calamity Thinking”.</p>
<p>I finally finished “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith recently. It was good, but I wouldn’t classify it amongst my favorites. I like her writing style–I actually laughed out loud at some parts–although it was a very slow read.</p>
<p>I really liked “The World to Come” by Dara Horn. And I just started “Rockville Pike” by Susan Coll(who also wrote “Acceptance”–the new novel dealing college admissions, I recall a thread about it on CC), and so far I’m really enjoying it.</p>
<p>Seiclan–I also loved The Time Traveller’s Wife.</p>
<p>The books I’ve read this year tend to be more “deep” and less “fun” (at least conventionally). I’d feel really silly mentioning them. :)</p>
<p>A book that no one has mentioned yet is Bel Canto. I read it and The Time Traveler’s Wife in a couple of days a year or two ago and couldn’t put either down. Seiclan’s post above reminded me. Bel Canto is a very good book, as I remember it.</p>
<p>Corranged-I loved Bel Canto except for the very end (the aftermath.) That seemed forced and unbelievable to me. I also figured out very accurately who was not going to make it. Despite those caveats, great book.</p>
<p>the other boleyn girl</p>
<p>awesome.</p>
<p>^Agreed! The Other Boleyn Girl hooked me almost literally from page one.</p>
<p>Hey–we can do deep here. This is a college forum after all. Give us a shot.</p>
<p>What is the Pessl book about, g?</p>
<p>btw, I too found White teeth slow going–and too British. So far, On Beauty is more conventionally structured–and easier to read. She doesn’t get the American teenagers right–they are too British. But it still works and it is still good. So far.</p>
<p>Two cups of Tea and Time Traveler’s Wife are two of my favorites. Two cups of tea is an inspiring non-fiction book about a man changing the world, one day at a time. Time traveler’s wife is written in an amazing way- I recommend it all of the time. I liked Cassandra King’s new book, Dorthea Benton Frank’s book wasn’t as good as her early ones, Jodi Picoult’s book was good but maybe the VT shootings were too close to enjoy it.</p>
<p>The Time Traveler’s Wife somehow makes you not question many of the normally questionable things that happen.</p>
<p>cheers–Pessl’s is a novel presented as written by a brilliant but odd HS girl at a strange boarding school (yah, I know, done to death.) This one’s been compared to Tartt’s Secret History, but i thought it was much better. The gimmick is she annotates the whole book with all kinds of literary references which could make one nuts, but I liked it. The referentiality, character of the girl’s father, and references to butterflies are all very Nabokovian.</p>
<p>It’s not to everyone’s taste, but really liked it.</p>
<p>A somewhat similar novel I read recently is The Emperors Children, by, I think Claire Messud (sp?) Erudite and entertaining, but hard to stay with the somewhat unlikeable characters.</p>
<p>I am determined to attack Pynchon’s latest this summer, which I got for Christmas and have been putting off for lack of time.</p>
<p>I read the Pessl book in one day last winter. It was enjoyable, although I think I liked Donna Tartt better. I’ve read a few too many books with the central theme of the Pessl book recently.</p>
<p>And I just re-picked-up the Pynchon book (that I had put down a couple days after starting it last winter).</p>
<p>One book that got reviewed in the NYT Book Review a few weeks ago that I loved when I read it four years ago is The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. It’s not an easy read, but it should appeal to people who like Pynchon – outrageous behavior on the bohemian fringes of known history, with lots of weird, dark conspiracies that may or may not exist. I had never heard of Bolano before I picked up the book (in Spanish) based on a review, and in the following two years I read almost everything he had written to that point. He was a major, major talent, who sadly died suddenly a couple of years ago. Before now, only one of his books had been translated into English, but now several are coming out.</p>
<p>I will have to look for him (am limited, alas, to reading in translation.)</p>
<p>Loved “Time Traveler’s Wife.”</p>
<p>I have never made it through one Pynchon novel…</p>
<p>OK, “going deep” here’s an interesting one: </p>
<p>Jane Smiley: 13 Ways Of Looking At A Novel.</p>
<p>Really well done book about the history of the novel, the forms of the novel, the common elements in all novels, the way novels work, with examples from all through literary history. Some of her references are to classics you’d have read, others are obscure works you’ll WANT to read. </p>
<p>If you have ANY desire to write a novel it is a must read.</p>
<p>^I am 250 pages into my novel because of that book! :)</p>
<p>My other must read for writers: Ann Lamott’s Bird by Bird.</p>
<p>M and S dad: most of the Pynchons I read was back when I was in HS. I had more patience and brain cells then (Crying of Lot 49, V, and Gravity’s Rainbow.) I read Vineland as an adult (actually, one of his more accessible).</p>
<p>I will admit I didn’t get through Mason and Dixon the first time, but I still mean to!</p>
<p>Garland: I also loved Bird by Bird. And I adored Traveling Mercies, also by Anne Lamott.</p>
<p>For something completely different (and often mentioned on these boards) I was transfixed (and sometimes sickened) by Karabel’s The Chosen:The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Most important book I read this year.</p>