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Recommendations
Topic suggested by Ramanan on Wed Aug 26 12:07:27 .
we the people who read a lot will have our favourite ones.
How about listing them irrespective of what category the book falls into and if possible state why you liked the book ? Ofcourse for Science Fiction and Fantasy, we go to the SF & F forum.
The idea is to get to know good books so that the next time we go to a library or bookshop we know what to look for.
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Udhaya (@ 205.*) on: Wed Aug 26 16:55:59
I'm a big fan of Latin American writers.
My favorite short-story writer is Jorges Louis Borges. I cannot explain his writing other than say that he plays with Time and History as we know it. His works are mulitfaceted: science fiction, suspense, irony, history, philosophy, humor all are present in a potent blend.
Other phenomenal Latin American writers:
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez (nobel laureate)
-Mario Vargas Llosa
-Jorge Amado
More later. . .
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Gokul (@ 209.*) on: Thu Aug 27 17:37:42
I always recommend
Catcher In the Rye - J D Salinger
Franny & Zooey - "
East Of Eden - John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath - "
Fountainhead - AynRand
Anthem - "
Roald Dahl's Short Stories
Uncle Dynamite - P G Wodehouse
[Also psmith (p silent) stories:-) ]
The Word - Irwing Wallace
God Of Small Things - Arundathi Roy
More Later..
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Ravi (@ envy*) on: Thu Aug 27 18:33:59
I second Gokul's recommendation of Roald Dahl's short stories. Presently I am reading a collection of essays by J. B. Priestly, fifty years of essays. I just coudln't help grinning throughout some of the pieces. I recommend it for days you aren't in the mood for a long read. :-).
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S.Krishnan (@ m52.*) on: Wed Sep 2 03:17:18
My recommendations:
The Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - I can't describe the impact this book made on me. It's too personal. Read it and u will know.
The Second Lady - Irving Wallace - For sheer entertainment and u will get a lot of lowdown on cloak-and-dagger stuff.
Foundation - Isaac Asimov - Seminal work . I loved the lead character Hari Seldon. u will get to know about pshchohistory.
The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth. To paraphrase the blurb, it's unputdownable ! Thriller of the highest order.
More to follow........
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NOV (@ 202.*) on: Wed Sep 2 03:33:57
Krishnan - Second Lady? :-)))))))))))))))))))
Glad you enjoyed the book as much as I did. But it's full of coincidences, cliches and a worn-out ending. But I enjoyed it all the same, wondering whether Kamal was going to make it a Tamil movie. It certainly has the basics - the double act, I mean. :-))
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Krishnan (@ m32.*) on: Wed Sep 2 07:22:37
NOV - The Second Lady was one of the first novels I read. Probably it might be the reason why I chose it. Of course, Irving Wallace's The Prize, The Almighty, The Word were equally good.
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Ramanan (@ fara*) on: Wed Sep 2 10:59:32
My Recommendations.
Roots by Alex Haley
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance & Lila
both by Robert.M.Pirsig.
Short stories/stories by Jack London.
The fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
J.Livingston Seagull & Illusions by Richard Bach.
To Kill a Mocking bird by Harper.J.Lee
The spy who came in from the cold by John Le carre. His novels are a refreshing change from the usual run of the mill spy novels.
In the above mentioned, Zen and the... and J.L.Seagull are more like a bible to me.
More to come............
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S.Krishnan (@ m39.*) on: Thu Sep 3 01:33:43
Ramanan: I was moved by Alex Haley's Roots. The way he traces his roots to a obscure village in Gambia,Africa ...and the agony suffered by the African slaves.....immensely moving experience.
Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is another fine work.
I will also suggest books by Stanislaw Lem. He's a great Polish SF writer. His works has been described as a kind of cross between Jorge Luis Borges and Douglas Adams. Try his "The Fururological Congress". Incidentally, the great master Tarkovsky's film "Solaris" was based on a work by Lem.
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S.Krishnan (@ m39.*) on: Thu Sep 3 01:35:04
Sorry for the typos :
It should be Futurological Congress .
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Kanchana (@ spid*) on: Fri Sep 4 16:56:17
The Upanishads [in English]
Shashi Tharoor--The Great Indian Novel
Shashi Tharoor--From Midnight to Millenium
Gita Mehta--Snakes & Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India
Arundhati Roy--The God of Small Things
R.K.Narayan--My Malgudi Days
R.K.Narayan--Painter of Signs & other stories
Ayn Rand--Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand--Fountainhead
Fyodor Dostoevsky--Brothers Karamazov (Vol 1 & 2) [quite depressing!]
Erich Fromm--Escape from Freedom
Anthony Burgess--The Clockwork Orange
Albert Camus--Resistance, Rebellion & Death
Frederik Nietzsche--Thus Spake Zarathustra
Franz Kafka--The Castle
O'Henry--Short Stories
Gore Vidal--Live from Golgotha
Isaac Isimov--The Foundation Trilogy [SF]
Alduous Huxley--The Brave New World
Ray Bradbury--Fahrenheit 451 [SF]
Arthur C. Clarke--Childhood's End [SF]
Arthur C. Clarke--2001: Space Odyssey, 2010, 2064 series [SF]
Arthur C. Clarke--Fountains of Paradise [SF]
Carl Sagan--Cosmos [SF]
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S.Krishnan (@ 202.*) on: Mon Sep 7 05:40:29
Here are my recommendations on travelogues :
Paul Theroux's The Great Patagonian Express
Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster
Peter Mathiessen's The Snow Leopard ....lots of Buddhist philosophy..riveting..
Dervla Murphy's On a Shoestring to Coorg .This Irish woman has also written about her adventures in the Andes,Ethiopia.
Norman Lewis's The Goddess in the Stones
Geoffrey Moorhouse's OM - An Indian Pilgrimage ....writes about our own Madras,Pondicherry..
Other great travelogue writers are Bruce Chatwin,Jonathan Raban,Eric Newby.
Rushdie has written about his travels in the Central American country of Nicaragua. I think it's titled "Jaguar's Smile".
Check them out.
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Radha Akkoor (@ 2cus*) on: Mon Sep 21 16:12:05
Hello
Those are excellent reco's,to add a few more
Strongly recommend
KMMunshi's Krishnaavatara(Vol 1 to Vol 7) available at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan bookstores and several big bookstores all over india.It's an amazing narration of Lord Krishna's life and the life and times of all others in a really human point of view.I have learnt a lot about diplomacy and decision-making from these volumes.
2."magnificient obsession" by Lloyd C Douglas
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Udhaya (@ 205.*) on: Fri Oct 2 20:21:58
More recommendations:
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of the best literary stylists)
-Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (a collection of short stories that prove one doesn't need a narcotic to travel unknown territory)
-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (a mindblowing tour-de-force in magical realism)
-A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (never been a big fan of his for all the bad writers he influenced, but this novel is one of the best romances I have read. What I most like about Hemingway is what he doesn't tell the reader. His short stories set the trend that everybody apes today)
-The Stranger by Albert Camus (I came onto Camus after having read many existential imitators, so his subject matter was nothing new, but his precisive language and spare style were hypnotic)
-Exile and The Kingdom and other stories by Albert Camus (I almost prefer his short stories more than his novels since his style suits shorts much better)
-As I lay Dying by William Faulkner (Considered the father of the now bastardized magical realism movement, Faulkner lyrically portrays the glory and curse of the American South and life itself. This novel hooked me and influenced my own novel's structure in that each chapter in the book assumes a character's voice which propels the story on. A phenomenal read)
-Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Doestoyevski (Empathy thy name is Russian)
-Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (Just when I thought Doestoyevski was the best Russian writer...)
-The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (brought honor to pulp crime novels, great in characterization. His other popular works are "After Dark My Sweet" and "Grifters", both made excellent movies)
more later
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suresh (@ bowe*) on: Fri Nov 6 03:39:50
Udhaya, great selection!
Krishnan/ Kanchana:
I remember seeing a famed Kubrick film titled "Clockwork Orange"? Is it based on the same story?
Anyone for Thurber? or Somerset Maugham?
Travelogues: Have u read William Darlymple's "City of Djinns"? a quite amusing view of how Delhi does (or does not) work!
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vijay (@ opah*) on: Sat Nov 21 19:24:25
hi
looking at the amount of talk on magic realism, the most magic realism i have seen is in gabriel's
"The Autumn of the Patriarch"
Highly recommended
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Dev Mannemela (@ hydr*) on: Wed Nov 25 14:06:13
Hi all,
Glad to see there are other Roald Dahl fans
around !!
I love his works; so imaginative !
I was very thrilled when I got a chance to
work on a movie based on one of his (short) novels...( Ok, so I am a showoff :-) )
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ramesh (@ 57.p*) on: Thu Feb 4 08:14:44
I see kanchana has mentioned carl sagan's Cosmos.
I have read read that book atleast two times - A very good one. A few other carl sagan's work worth reading
Dragons of Eden
Braco's brain
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babu (@ 198.*) on: Thu Feb 4 23:41:37
What about "On Human Bondage - Somerset Maugham ? the title itself deserves credit and none of the novel I have read describes unrequited love and intense obsessions with such passion.
Vikram Seth's novel "The suitable Boy" is the best book I have read, its huge some 1300 pages but I have read it in full four times and in parts a zillion times. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND EVERYBODY TO READ IT.
Arundhati's God of Small Things is brilliant of course ( in spite of certain unacceptable elements in the end ), but compared to vikram she pales. I would like to talk to someone who has read the book.
The Seven Minutes- Irving Wallace
The Three Sirens - Irving Wallace
...
more later
more later ...
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bb (@ schu*) on: Tue Feb 9 06:44:29
babu: i have read god of small things...
and i wouldn't recommend a suitable boy.. humlog or buniyaad is much better:-))
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babu (@ 198.*) on: Wed Feb 10 13:37:25
bb, Thats a good joke, but sadly inaccurate. IMO
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kalyani (@ 1cus*) on: Fri Mar 12 20:21:57
i didn't finish a suitable boy, but in my opinion, its not exactly hum log. it seems to be a sort of middle-class point of view allegory of partition more on the lines of midnight's children.
kalli
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vj (@ stew*) on: Sat Mar 13 17:20:02
my humble recommendations....
(1)Franny and Zooey
-will make you realise that there are people who think like you
(2)Autumn of the Patriarch - Marquez-
if One hundred.... is his tour de force in magic realism what do you call this? Half way through I got so submerged in the intense "magic realism"
that for a week or so i was thinking like the Patriarch...
(3) To Build a Fire and other stories - Jack London, just when I was wondering if any author rather than taking you into his world to explain his ideas , would sit with you and explain the brutality of existence, I read this book.
Extremely short stories, deep impact....
(4) Anna Karenina - this book is life , down-to-earth life and all its forms and emotions
it takes a month to wade through this book....
(5) The Book of Laughter and Forgetting -
In my opinion, Kundera's most intricate book, So many concepts, so many images.... I think this book has least of Kundera's normal self-obsessed rambling....
5 is all I have now.....
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Athavan (@ 202.*) on: Mon Mar 15 12:41:02
though most of you have suggested Arundathi Roy's
GOST (ghost!! heh) I still dont find it amusing cos as far as every asian goes, it is the story of his grandparents or great grand parents in their village!!!
It may have fascinated the Europeans and Americans as this story is something new to them. I personally feel that 'The God of small things' is commendable only for its excellent use of the English language written by a good interpreter of Indian lifestyle!!!
I'm a fan of Ayn Rand too : I suggest 'We the living' by her. It is a pessimistic point of view of life
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Anil Viswanathan (@ 206.*) on: Wed Mar 17 06:07:27
Hi Friends!!
I would also like to add to the list of "must-reads". I am not including those already repeated like Steinbeck, Hemingway, Pirsig, etc.
I would highly recommend these following novels-
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse - amazing portrayal-
very "Indian" - if I might say so..
The good Earth, Come, my beloved - Pearl S. Buck
- again oreintal thought- and hence much more closer to heart.
I saw someone mention R.K Narayan -the book " Waiting for the Mahatma"- on another plane- much unlike his other writings.
Remains of the Day - Ishiguro- the meaning of life- ideals and beliefs.
Wonderful classics-
three men on a boat - Jerome K Jerome
far from the Madding Crowd - Hardy
Wuthering Heights - Bronte - one of the few books that leave you with a feeling of eerie and uneasiness- all about the feelings of evil and jealousy in the otherwise innocent human mind- lovely protrayal.
Catch- 22 - Joseph Hellerr- much unlike the aforementioned novels- amazingly written -every line has so much pun in it that you can sit on every sentence for minutes together.
The Golden Gate _ vikram seth- beautifullywritten book- construction and story is very good.
SO many titles come to my mind now... but I guess I would have bored most by now...
namaskaram,
anil.
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vjk (@ fool*) on: Thu Mar 18 12:23:24
Hi all.
To me the books that affected me pretty deeply are ;
- The Razors Edge - Sommerset Maughman
excuse me fro the spelling
- Unbearbale Lightness of being - Milan Kundera
Damn good book. Must read
- Sidhartha - Herman Hesse....another brilliant stuff....
But for satire and comedy I love Kurt Vonnegut Jr....amazing stories.....Like the Sirens of the Titans for example.....
vk
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ma. Sivagnanam (@ j17.*) on: Mon May 3 10:24:28
Would you give me addresses of suitable english literary magazines? I would like to send my short stories to them.
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bb (@ bern*) on: Mon May 3 23:22:31
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Udhaya (@ 205.*) on: Fri May 14 16:55:08
A look at some major players in African American Literature:
Toni Morrison
Morrison is a must read for any serious fan of literature. This winner of the Nobel prize a few years ago is worth celebrating. Though her writings stem from her background as an African American matriarch, the tales she weaves, the array of characters with which she manages to peel humanity layer by layer and the exquisite language she uses put her on top as the best American writer alive in my esteem.
I have her books,Sula, Song of Solomon and Tar Baby. I have read Sula and am still rejoicing that experience. The other two I'll save to savor when I'm totally out of good stuff to read.
John Edgar Wideman
Wideman is another African American writer who writes blazing, elegiac fiction. I've also read some of his essays and articles. The man is a giant in expressing the indignant frustration of common lives wronged by the machinations of class, culture, race, and government.
Key books of his:
Damballah(a marvelous story-cycle that weaves in the story of a whole neighborhood)
Philadelphia Fire(based on the mysterious bombing of a black ghetto),
Brothers and Keepers(this one is autobiographical, based on John being a celebrated writer and his brother Robbie spending time in prison for murder)
James Baldwin
In many ways the trailblazer of African American fiction. Baldwin was voicing outright hatred for the injustices of society's racism and took to task the white majority with his explosive essays, short stories and fiction. Even in his own black community Baldwin wasn't embraced totally due to his homosexuality. He nevertheless endured as a pioneer in lucid, acrid prose that doesn't let the reader duck the issues being raised.
Key works:
Go Tell It On The Mountain(this is Baldwin first novel which launched him with applause and uproar. For some reason I'm still saving this as a surefire treat in waiting.)
Another Country(a potent mix of gender, race, love, sexuality all dealt with dignity and aplomb in the classic Baldwin style. The novel takes place in New York and France.
Giovanni's Room(set in Paris and dealing with the tug of war between sexuality and convention, but it's a lot more honest and affecting than the average issue-laden work. This was the first casual account of homosexuality I read by an American.)
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bb (@ bern*) on: Fri May 14 17:57:54
udhaya, maya angelou padichchirukkeengaLA?
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Udhaya (@ 205.*) on: Fri May 14 18:31:26
bb,
I've read some of Angelou's poems, they're simple and elegant. I especially remember the one she wrote about a black boxer becoming the first heavy weight champion of the world(Joe Lewis I think) it is memorable. Some of her narrative poems were refreshingly personal and feminine. She has this nourishing quality about her writing that I love.
In the above list I forgot a very important person!
I can't believe I forgot him!
Ralph Ellison
Ellison was a literal unknown when he published his seminal novel Invisible Man in the 50s. The novel eventually won the National Book award and has become the testament to the social irrelevance many blacks feel in America. Even beyond race and class, the novel exquisitely articulates the displacement of man in his search for meaning, relevance and a sense of belonging. Definitely one to reflect upon, the novel makes its point with gentle grace.
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vj (@ ppp-*) on: Sat May 15 16:26:40
Thanks Udhaya....
I'm going to try them
Do you have any recommendations for books of the genre of Salinger (whatever it's called) ...
Does jean Paul sartre fall in this category for I found a striking similarity in their works...?
Vijay
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bb (@ bern*) on: Sat May 15 20:14:48
vj, salingerllaam padikkaadhE, the assassin of john lennon, after killing, sat and read catcher in the rye till police came:))))
another interesting thing about salinger is that he is an ardent devotee of ramakrishna paramahamsar.
what is his genre? hmmm...i guess, close to mark twain, but with a more nihilistic view. he is not as much a philosopher as sartre...
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Nithya (@ mecc*) on: Mon May 17 11:09:05
Another of Toni Morrison's good book is "Beloved" which was recently made as a movie.
Nithya
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vj (@ chme*) on: Mon May 17 20:47:18
that reading "catcher in the rye" story about Mark Chapman is so much hyped up that people associate Chapman with Holdfield (is that is name?) ....
and actually one of Sartre's story called Erostratus comes very close to Salinger's prototype protaganist.... and Salinger I agree was not as much of a philosopher as Sartre but they I believe thought on similar lines....
Mark Twain and Salinger? Clarify bb..
Vijay
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vj (@ chme*) on: Tue May 18 15:18:42
Catcher in the Rye's protagonist is Holden Caulfield.
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bb (@ comp*) on: Fri May 21 10:01:49
Ralph ellison's new book, juneteenth is out!
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bb (@ dial*) on: Thu Jun 10 01:22:22
i recommend "an equal music" by vikram seth. have reviewed it in the book reviews thread.
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Gokul (@ pool*) on: Mon Jun 14 23:57:17
bb: I read the review of "an equal music" in the Newyorker magazine. From the review the book
does not sound to be very promising.
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Nithya (@ mecc*) on: Tue Oct 26 17:14:03
I'd like to recommend "Possession" by A.S.Byatt. Excellent book with complex gripping characters. Supposedly a romance (the title itself says so) but I'd like to call it a literary romance.