| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | AUTHOR | AUTHOR INFO | TITLE | TEXT INFORMATION | ||
2 | Abe, Kobo | Japanese, modern, | The Woman in the Dunes | existential, highly acclaimed, quiet text, authors think you should read it. | ||
3 | Achebe, Chinua | Nigerian, modern, colonialism | Things Fall Apart | Nigerian v. colonial cultures, anti-hero, family, religion, gender | ||
4 | Adichie,Chimamanda | Nigerian/English, modern | Americanah | good on race, America v Africa, very modern, strong female, love story | ||
5 | Adiga, Aravind | Indian, modern, prize winner | The White Tiger | Interesting moral choices, epistolary novel, downtrodden of India | ||
6 | Allende, Isabel | Chilean, modern | House of the Spirits | Magic realism, generational novel, supernatural, strong women | ||
7 | Appanah, Nathacha | French-Mauritian, modern | The Last Brother | lyrical, island life, small tie to Holocaust, two boys connecting | ||
8 | Atwood, Margaret | Canadian, modern, feminist | The Blind Assassin | Memory and delusion, story within a story, family | ||
9 | Cat's Eye | Childhood, past shaping identity, art | ||||
10 | The Handmaid's Tale | Dystopia, religion, sexual traditions, ambiguous | ||||
11 | Oryx and Crake | Post-apocalyptic, unfolding story, not feminist, humanity | ||||
12 | Austen, Jane | Victorian, classic | Pride and Prejudice | Classic girl meets boy, all should know this novel, strong(?) woman | ||
13 | Sense and Sensibility | Same as P and P. Just a little lighter. Good love story | ||||
14 | Auster, Paul | American, modern | The New York Trilogy | Metafiction, detective noir, layers of confusion, no clear answers, 3 short novels | ||
15 | Baldwin, James | African/Am., modern, ex-pat | Go Tell It on the Mountain | Religion, ethnicity, African/American experience, strong writing | ||
16 | Giovanni's Room | American ex-pat, Paris v. Am., struggles with homosexuality/love/honesty | ||||
17 | Barnes, Julian | British, modern, awards | T'he Sense of an Ending | age, memory, easy read, a man rediscovering the truth of past, Booker Prize | ||
18 | 8 other novels | generally literate, slow developing/discovering | ||||
19 | Bellow, Saul | Jewish, urban, Nobel Prize | Herzog | Complex, identity, modern existence, hero(?) | ||
20 | Humboldt's Gift | a comic book about death, contemporary culture | ||||
21 | Berger, John | British, modern | To the Wedding | love, illness, blind omnipotent narrator, choppy and quick, social commentary | ||
22 | Boyle, TC | American, modern, popular | Tortilla Curtain | Accessible, immigration, So Cal, no right or wrong | ||
23 | Bronte, Charlotte | Victorian, classic | Jane Eyre | Strong female, religion, love, Victorian coincidences | ||
24 | Bronte, Emily | Victorian, classic | Wuthering Heights | All damaged, the moors, ghosts, love, "THE love story" | ||
25 | Brooks, Geraldine | Australian, very modern | People of the Book | multi-religious, history, mystery, literary puzzle | ||
26 | Bulgakov, Mikhail | Russian satirist, banned | Master and Margarita | Difficult, three layers, Stalinist Russia, religion, devil as hero, allegory | ||
27 | Burgess, Anthony | English, modern | A Clockwork Orange | Plays with language, evil v. good, anti-hero, violent, free will, freaky movie | ||
28 | Calvino, Italo | Italian and bizarre | If on a winter's night a traveller.. | Meta-fiction, about reading, you love it or you hate it | ||
29 | Carroll, Lewis | late Victorian, classic | Alice in Wonderland (read both) | childhood, Victorian criticism, more Depp than Disney, bildungsroman | ||
30 | Cervantes, Miguel de | Spanish, major classic | Don Quixote | Chivalry, heroism, delusion, seminal text, read the abridged | ||
31 | Chabon, Michael | American, modern, popular | The A.A. of Kavalier and Clay | comic books, Jewish experience, WW 2 and after, a buddy story | ||
32 | Chopin, Kate | American, late 1800s | The Awakening | New Orleans, feminist, bored housewife blossoming, very usable | ||
33 | Coetzee, JM | South African, modern, PRIZES | Disgrace | austere, analytical, post Apartheid, one man's fall, redemption(?) | ||
34 | Life and Times of Michael K | human spirit v. social chaos, intense, uplifting (?) | ||||
35 | Waiting for the Barbarians | allegory, purposefully unclear, introspective, post-Colonialism, rise and fall | ||||
36 | Conroy, Pat | American, modern, popular | Lords of Discipline | Southern, beautiful prose, engaging characters, understands males | ||
37 | Prince of Tides | Southern, beautiful prose, family and history, secrets, heroism, easy read | ||||
38 | De Lilllo, Don | American, modern, pop culture | Falling Man | post-911, multi perspectives, quick and jumpy, engaging plot | ||
39 | White Noise | consumerism, dark humor, a mirror to us, Nat'l Book Award | ||||
40 | Point Omega | modern, short, choppy, kind of surreal, film, subtle effects of war | ||||
41 | Diaz, Junot | Puerto Rican, Am., modern | The BWL of Oscar Wao | quirky, unclear narrator, bildungsroman, pathetic hero, very modern | ||
42 | Dickens, Charles | Victorian, classic | A Tale of Two Cities | French Revolution, great villain, symbolism, a bit heavy handed | ||
43 | READ ANYTHING ELSE | multiple titles, everything connects, quirky characters, social commentary | ||||
44 | Donoghue, Emma | Irish/Canadian, modern, popular | Room | disturbing, abduction, child narrator and view, an Oprah book | ||
45 | Dostoevsky, Fyodor | Russian, classic, INFLUENTIAL | The Brothers Karamazov | thick reading, murder mystery, human condition, faith | ||
46 | Crime and Punishment | thick reading, psychological, philosophical, all should know this book, anti-hero | ||||
47 | Doyle, Roddy | Irish, modern, vernacular | A Star Called Henry | Irish History from personal level, love story, engaging hero | ||
48 | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | witty, ironic, poignant, child narrator, Prize winner, very Irish | ||||
49 | Woman Who Walked Into Doors | gritty, realistic, abused woman, personal power, Irish lower class | ||||
50 | Eco, Umberto | Italian, modern | The Name of the Rose | murder mystery, medieval philosophy and theology, lots of theology | ||
51 | Ellison, Ralph | African/American, classic | The Invisible Man | identity, black experience, classic novel, interior journey | ||
52 | Erdrich, Louise | Native American, modern | The Round House | tribal v. US law, bildungsroman, smooth read, classic Native Am. | ||
53 | Eugenides, Jeffrey | American, modern, popular | Middlesex | quirky, transgender issues, Greek, best seller, even a little incest | ||
54 | Farah, Nuruddin | Somalian, modern, prize-winner | Links | Somalian chaos, murky and conflicted, Somal/Am. man seeking revenge | ||
55 | Faulkner, William | American, classic, Southern | As I Lay Dying | multi narrators, burying Mom, engaging characters, personal agendas | ||
56 | The Sound and the Fury | difficult, mulit narrators, get through first 80 pages, perspectives, family | ||||
57 | Fitch, Janet | American, modern, popular | White Oleander | troubled youth, scary mom, foster homes, great female lead | ||
58 | Foer, Jonathan Safron | American, modern, popular | Everything is Illuminated | semi-auto, interesting narrator, Holocaust history and modern Jewish influence | ||
59 | Extremely Loud and Inc. Close | post 911, loss, fascinating child narrator, pictures, plays with structure and time | ||||
60 | Gaines, Ernest J. | African/American, modern | A Lesson Before Dying | personal identity, educated black v. discriminated black, growth | ||
61 | Galloway, Steven | Canadian, modern | The Cellist of Sarajevo | based on real event, political, humanistic, multi narrator, cool concept | ||
62 | Garcia Marquez, Gab. | Colombian, classic, magic realism | 100 years of Solitude | multi generational, political allegory, social commentary, magical | ||
63 | ANY OTHER TEXT | |||||
64 | Gombrowicz, Witold | Polish, mid-century, Nobel Prize | Cosmos | mind-blowing, avant-garde, insanity, perceptions, difficult, Polish, Nobel Prize | ||
65 | Grossman, David | Israeli, modern, awards | To the End of the Land | Israel, conflict with Palestine, a mother's journey, secrets, a worthy long read | ||
66 | Greene, Graham | American, 20th Cent., religious | End of the Affair | religious overtones, engaging prose, hate/love, very dramatic and intense | ||
67 | Power and the Glory | Whiskey Priest, in Mexico, religion as pure or as real?, uncompromising prose | ||||
68 | Hardy, Thomas | Victorian, English countryside | All texts are usable | 5 novels work, generally rustic, strong central characters, accessible Victorian | ||
69 | Heller, Joseph | American, modern | Catch-22 | war novel, politics, bureaucracy, jumps in time, funny, disturbing, ironic | ||
70 | Hemingway, Ernest | American, classic | Don't do Old Man and the Sea | Read any other novel, mostly war-oriented, sparse prose | ||
71 | Hesse, Hermann | German, classic, Nobel Prize | The Glass Bead Game | enlightenment, intellectual v. living, futuristic, difficult and confusing | ||
72 | Steppenwolf | primeval v. rational, anti-bourgeois, bizarre, auto-bio(?), self-realization | ||||
73 | Homer | Greek, classic | The Iliad | epic poem, Achilles, Paris and Helen, war and ego | ||
74 | The Odyssey | epic poem, ultimate journey, don't mess with the Gods | ||||
75 | Horn, Dara | American, modern | The World to Come | Yiddish folk tales, layers of story, intriguing characters, life v. paradise | ||
76 | Hosseini, Khaled | Afghan, modern, best seller | The Kite Runner | popular, cultural, guilt and redemption, enjoyable read, possibly overused | ||
77 | A Thousand Splendid Suns | popular, cultural, female oriented, enjoyable read, not as overused | ||||
78 | And the Mountains Echoed | popular, cultural, beautiful ambiguity, interwoven stories, emotional intensity | ||||
79 | Hugo, Victor | French, Romantic/Victorian | Les Miserables | classic, love, political unrest, religious redemption, read the abridged | ||
80 | Hurston, Zora Neale | African/American, 20th Cent. | Their Eyes Were Watching God | authentic language of rural south, strong woman, multi marriages, cultural bent | ||
81 | Irving, John | American, modern, quirky | A Prayer for Owen Meany | fascinating characters, social commentary, predestination, religion, irreverent | ||
82 | Hotel New Hampshire | fascinating characters, deviance, family, irreverent, funny and sad | ||||
83 | Ishiguro, Kazuo | Japaneses/British, modern, lyrical | Artist of the Floating World | Post WW 2 Japan, art, culture, tradition v. modernism, social changes | ||
84 | Never Let Me Go | Modern, childhood, clones, what makes us human? | ||||
85 | Remains of the Day | English butler, post WW 2 England, duty v. emotion, beautiful writing | ||||
86 | When We Were Orphans | Shanghai, perversions of memory, mystery, suspenseful and psychological | ||||
87 | James, Henry | American, late Victorian, ex-pat | Daisy Miller | New World v. Old World, psychological, social, thick writing, a novella | ||
88 | Turn of the Screw | Ghost story, ambiguous ending, thick writing, freaky kids, a novella | ||||
89 | Jin, Ha | Chinese, modern | Waiting | understated writing, numbed love, individual v. communal thinking | ||
90 | War Trash | historical writing, POW experience, Chinese v. Korean, brutal | ||||
91 | Johnson, Adam | American, modern, Pulitzer | The Orphan Master's Son | inside N. Korea, flawed intriguing narrator, uncompromising | ||
92 | Johnson, Mat | African/American, modern | Pym | modern take on slavery, allegorical, fantastic | ||
93 | Jones, Edward | African/American, modern | The Known World | sprawling writing, different slant on slavery (blacks owning slaves), historical | ||
94 | Joyce, James | Irish, classic, very influential | Portrait of the Artist as a YM | stream of consciousness, religion, Irish mentality, family, great to know | ||
95 | Ulysses | Very difficult, stream of consciousness, incredibly sprawling, based on Ulysses | ||||
96 | Kadare, Ismail | Albanian, modern, controversial | Broken April | a forgotten society, blood feuds, morality and power of society | ||
97 | Chronicle in Stone | war and society, WW 2, family, occupied culture, Albanian | ||||
98 | Kafka, Franz | German, classic, 1st existentialist | The Trial | vague, confusing (for character, too), individ v. society, morality v meaning | ||
99 | Kawabata, Yasunari | Japanese, classic | Snow Country | loneliness, beauty v ugliness, very Asian writing, restrained | ||
100 | Kazantzakis, Nikos | Greek, classic | Zorba the Greek | living v. LIVING, Greek society, unforgettable protagonist |