2006 Reading List

Yes, I'm doing it again and I'm already starting to compile a list of books. However, I could always use some input from the sage crowd that populates Rox Populi. If you've got recommendations, leave them in the comments section below. Be sure to check out my 2005 list as well as my "working" 2006 list to get a feel for the subject areas and type of works I'm interested in.

Comments

[mrs mcmuffin]

You probably read this many years ago, but if you haven't then 'The ragged trousered philanthropists' is one I can recommend.

[B.D.]

Orhan Pamuk: "His Name Is Red". He's an amazing writer.

[carla]

If you haven't read The Assassin's Gate, it should be at the top of your list.

[JDC]

Mario Vargas Llosa, The Feast of the Goat

[Manogirl]

On a light note, Palladian Days by Sally Gable is a really interesting account of owning a home in Italy. I found it fresh because the house the Gables bought is a historical Palladian villa. Very interesting.

I also really enjoyed Breakfast with Tiffany (the author escapes me at this moment) about a gay man who basically takes custody of his niece, to try to help his sister clean up her daughter's life. Interesting. Kept me reading.

[Karen]

How come when I click on your "working" 2006 list, I get taken to my own Amazon wish list??

[Randy Paul]

While you're reading Vargas Llosa, read The War of the End of the World.

Also, it's a slog, but Rebellion in the Backlands, the translation of Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões is worth it.

[Rob_in_Hawaii]

I just finished two great works of history by John Barry: 1) "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History," and 2) "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." Not only are they great reads, they also have scary parallels to current happenings. The "Great Influenza" (about the 1918-1919 pandemic) is a great warning about what bird flu could do. And you can't read "Rising Tide" without wincing at the comparisons to Katrina. Seems we've always been cursed with Bush & Brownie type leaders.

[upyernoz]

"middlesex" if you haven't already

and

"towing jehovah" by james morrow because i always say that book when people ask for recommendations

[fletcher]

The ongoing moment by Geoff Dyer, a new book about photography.

[The Commissar]

"And you can't read "Rising Tide" without wincing at the comparisons to Katrina. Seems we've always been cursed with Bush & Brownie type leaders."

May I frame that?

[Karen]

I just finished The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) and now know why everyone's talking about it. It's fascinating, moving, and thought-provoking. Next up for my book group is Dancing with Cuba (Alma Guillermopietro), and then A Changed Man (Francine Prose) -- both might be of interest to you.

[Elisson]

I strongly recommend Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It's a couple of years old by now, but I can't remember a more imaginatively written novel: actually a series of six subtly-interconnected novellas nested into one another like a Matrushka doll.

[Chris R]

My resolution this year is for you to read the following:

Wait Till Next Year, By William Goldman and Mike Lupica (skip the Lupica, go with the Goldman stuff).

The Lincoln book by Goodwin.

If you pick the latter, no way you're getting through 52/52. But her book is so good it will be worth it. And Lincoln is very very important to the WOT in ways the conservatives won't admit.

[jwhook]

Spoon River Anthology
- Edgar Lee Masters