<p>Patient, I loved the Lost Painting and liked Geisha a lot. Havent got to Magical Thinking yet, but Im a long time Didion fan. </p>
<p>Some other books with art themes that I really liked:
Headlong by Michael Frayn (Bruegel, Fiction) I loved this book, but then again I am a Bruegel fanatic!
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Vermeer, fiction)
M, The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb (50/50 fact/fiction)
Brunelleschis Dome, The Popes Ceiling (Michaelangelo) by Ross King (non-fiction) The author has a new book on the Impressionists too.</p>
<p>For novels with Asian settings (also some great movie tie-ins but the books are better ) –
The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher Koch
Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Quiet American by Graham Greene</p>
<p>And totally unrelated to anything but a very funny book that’s great to travel with, Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.</p>
<p>Im going to print this thread and take it to Barnes and Noble when Im in the States later this month. Some wonderful ideas. Now all I need is a Spring Break.</p>
<p>enjoyingthis–if you mean the most recent one, I already HAVE it in hardback! It is in daughter’s room though. Don’t want to sacrifice your anonymity here though unless you want me to!</p>
<p>and thank you to ALL of you for giving us new books to read! What a wonderful thread! I think I will take Memoirs of a Geisha on our trip; I will go back to the Kite Runner when I get back–in part because that one’s in hardback and pb is easier on the plane…and then gradually add to my collection on return.</p>
<p>If anyone wants a BIG art book, I just bought the Drawings of Vincent Van Gogh. I missed the exhibition but picked up the book at the Metropolitan last week–it is wonderful, with beautiful reproductions, and the drawings are keyed to both his letters to Theo and also paintings that are associated with the drawings. A wonderful affirmation of the artistic process. His letters always bring tears to my eyes, though.</p>
<p>Patient,
I was not as enthralled by “Namesake” as I hoped to be…I think I have a short attention span for some story lines. I am optimistic and eager, as are you, for the next offering. Similarly, have read some books by Allegra Goodman and been awed, others not so…I mention as I hear she has a new one out as well…will wait for the paperback.</p>
<p>I am in a non-fiction phase at the moment, mostly professional- but this weekend I read “You’re Wearing That!” on the messages and meta-messages between women and their mothers and their daughters. My daughter, who read intermittently over my shoulder on the plane, is reading it now, but at 11 she is not yet as meta-aware(we had a funny conversation about ‘meta’, however…wish I had taped it) …This is a time of the year I think often about my mother, and my motherhood- so the book resonates with me…and is pertinent, as are all good books about psycho-linguistics, well beyond the relationships highlighted. It is vacation-readable…</p>
<p>My boys insisted I read it a few years ago…I couldn’t get past the first few pages- less a reflection on the book than my ability to visualize…I have read a lot about the author’s partner and her ‘controversial’ ideas on parenting…I might try again to do a “guided reading” of K and C (commit to someone else I will read with them…it works!)…</p>
<p>I am a good reader and I have started the book 3 times because I tend to drift away and lose the point…I am not comfortable with it so I put it down for a week or read something else in between, see it on my beside table and think, “oh, yeah, I’m not going to let it get me down.” And back I go again. I am intrigued by how the author writes. It is truly amazing but I can’t get a grip on the plot…</p>
<p>Yes, maybe this is one for guided reading. :o</p>
<p>There was an article about the Tannen book in the NY Times I think. I read it right after I had had one of those discussions with one of my own daughters, and it brought back all of the similar ones I had with my own mother…</p>
<p>I remember that the reviews of The Namesake were not as favorable as for Interpreter of Maladies. But I enjoyed the novel quite a bit…some of it may have been the Cambridge setting, though…and I feel that her prose is so effortlessly easy to read. </p>
<p>I would be interested in recs about books set in modern India, especially those related to culture, family life.
WARNING: I have the attention span of a Nematode, and my taste in reading generally runs more toward the 14 year old boy thread than this one.
Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I read “Kavalier and Clay” and had a hard time putting it down. May be the subject matter: I was a huge comic book geek as a kid and knew a fair amount of the history of the golden age of comics. There are some graphic scenes that would make it unsuitable for early teens.</p>
<p>My 13 year old son just finished Chabon’s “Summerland”, another book with a baseball tie in. He loved it. </p>
<p>I have followed Chabon since he signed the megabucks contract for “Mysteries of Pittsburgh”; the news coincided with our arrival in Pittsburgh almost twenty years ago.</p>
<p>I’m with overseas on Kavalier & Clay. I loved the subject matter and thought the first half of the book was brilliant, but went downhill quickly. Put it down with 100 pages or so to go and never picked it back up.</p>
<p>As far as recommendations, I prefer my novels humorous & a little quirky. One of my all time favorites is “Confederacy of Dunces”. Recent reads that I enjoyed include “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” (can be read in a single sitting), “Mailman: a Novel” and “Drop City”.</p>
<p>I was delighted by Kavalier & Clay, thought it was just amazing, one of those books that resonated in my mind after completion. Enjoyed Confederacy of Dunces. Currently reading “In Search of Memory” by Kandel, surprisingly readable autobiographical account of neurobiological/cognitive research.</p>
<p>I did like A fine Balance by Rohintron Minstry- but it isn’t really about “modern” India- but Ghandi’s India of 30 years ago</p>
<p>I also really enjoyed my first graphic novel ( if you don’t count Tintin)
Persepolis- Marjane Satrapi’s wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. But you could read it in one sitting</p>
<p>I didn’t even try to read Dan Browns books- picked them up and put them down
I do enjoy essays- and read yearly the new entries in the Best American Science & Nature writing essays and the Best american Travel writing- essays are about my attention span for vacation.</p>
<p>Did you already read the “god of small things”? by Arundhati Roy?
recommended author even if you aren’t interested in her non fiction political works</p>
<p>The 20th wife has also been highly recommended to me although I haven’t read it yet by Indu Sundaresan but it takes place in 17th century India</p>
<p>The Mistress of Spices takes place in the Indian community but in California by Chitra Divakaruni</p>
<p>wharfrat2, I was happy to learn from your post that Joan Brady is still writing! I read her autobiography, The Unmaking of a Dancer, years ago, and have re-read it several times. I hadn’t known that she kept writing after The Imposter, which I didn’t like. I’m glad she’s found success. She had a very difficult early life.</p>
<p>Cangel,
it is not contemporary India by any stretch of the imagination, but you mention liking the 14 yr boy suggested reading list, so I will lob out the book “Flashman: The Flashman Papers 1839 -1842” by George Macdonald Fraser. Fun series…
Then of course, “The Jewel in the Crown” is the first in the series by Paul Scott…it was on public television years ago…but it is also a great read.</p>
<p>My husband loves all the Flashman books, as do my sons…
Our book group just read a collection of short stories about India…I wasn’t there, but will try to track down the title. Everyone enjoyed them…</p>
<p>If you can do with something lengthier…a lot lengthier////</p>
<p>A Suitable Boy- Vikram Seth- is one of my favorite books, ever…and is one book that after finishing all ?900 pages of I was so sad to put down…it was ‘like butter’ as my mom used to say!</p>
<p>I adore Rohinton Mistry–but soooo need help understanding the Indian political meanings. We need a book club!</p>
<p>I loved Didion’s Year of magical Thinking. Deliberate reference to the magic Mountain, perhpas? In any event, she captured the slowness of time caught short by death. Marvelous.</p>
<p>Also loved Suitable Boy.</p>
<p>Cannot remember anything from Dan Brown’s books though I read them. (Instant memory loss is my brain’s method of sorting the good from the bad).</p>
<p>You all might like </p>
<p>One Man’s Bible by Gao Xingjian</p>
<p>Snow by Orhan Pamuk </p>
<p>The Cairo Trilogy by Nagib Mahfouz</p>
<p>My Invented Country by Isabel Allende </p>
<p>Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez</p>
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