I use "suspend" for holidays but never thought of using it because I wasn't ready for a book. Great idea. Thanks.

Destined, I'm sorry--- I knew Unbroken is a biography. I also read Devil at my Heels, Zamperinis autobiography, and did not especially like either. I did not care for Seabiscuit, either. I don't doubt the veracity of Hillebrand's research, but (my opinion) her style is painfully careful.. The story was enslaved to detail and I found it very heavy weather.

Cheen,

I tend to like big, epic stories and historical fiction. So I like to see families and characters evolve over a few decades, and I like a backdrop where I learn something about a time or place.

I liked Verghese's writing style, and I thought he was a great storyteller. I also liked learning a little about Ethiopia and the practice of medicine. When I saw him interviewed, I liked him even more. What a Renaissance guy --- Stanford medicine and Iowa Writers'' Workshop. How many people can do both?

Mtn, Check out the Man Booker prize winners. That's another graeat list pf award winning books...

Thanks, JMC, I have. In fact I just finished one, The Sense of an Ending. It was good but didn't send me.

The reason I didn't go from the Pulitzer list to the Man Booker list is that I am looking for a more international list. Somewhat like KSWL's daughter, my undergrad and grad work was statistics and finance and such, so there is a lot of great lit that others may have read in college that I've not gotten to.

Kswl, I did not know that Zamperini wrote an autobiography. I will have to look for it. Thanks.

I started Madeleine Albright's autobiography called Prague Winter, but talk about detail! I was 100 pages in before she stopped teaching the history of Czechoslovakia. She went back even farther than Good King WENCESLAS. bY THEN i'D HAD IT AND (oops, caps lock), and gave up on that book.

LOL, I didn't know there WAS anything before Wenceslas!! That is really funny, I must remember that! There's a fine line between solid factual writing that clips along at a good pace and the prosaic writing that makes one want to stab oneself with a fork.

Thanks everyone for recommending GoodReads. I need to sign on there. I've also used LibraryThing and can recommend that too as a method of cataloguing books.

mtnrdredux: Thanks for the response and I agree with you about Abraham Verghese's skills both as a writer and physician. I asked because I have recommended "Cutting For Stone" to many people because I think it is an excellent book. He is very acccurate in his descriptions of Ethiopia at that time. He and I were at the same school in Addis Ababa for a few years in the 1960s but not in the same class. Unfortunately, the feedback I have received has all too frequently been that the book is too complicated, not accessible, depressing and rambling. Obviously I disagree with those assessments. :)

Ah, but keeping public libraries afloat is also essential. My state politicians have already begun reducing funding for our libraries, and Milwaukee has already had to reduce its budget for new acquisitions and hours of operation. Unforgivable and unconscionable, imo. I love bookstores, too, but public libraries are essential to the well-being of all communities.

Thank you, Sherrmann. I always get my books from the library. I also use the online feature to reserve them. Our system has so many copies of popular books, it doesn't take long to get one, so I usually don't reserve more than a couple at a time.

Pennsylvania has also severely slashed funding for libraries. It is so sad. Libraries are so much more than a place to borrow books. I won't get on my soapbox now. I just hope that all of you will support your public library and borrow your books there. Funding is based in part on usage!

Cheen,
That is so cool. As I said, it is my favorite book in recent memory. I was on a plane a few months after I read it, and a 5yo girl was next to me. She was so cute, chatting up a storm. I asked her if it was her first flight, and she said, no she had flown here from "Ababa". Her father clarified that she meant Addis Ababa. She was very precocious and she continued talking to me. Then her father said he was sorry if she was bothering me, but that she really liked to use her English because at home they only spoke their native language. When I said "Oh, Amharic?" he nearly fell over.

I like to think I probably would have known where Addis Ababa was before i read Cutting for Stone. But i certainly had never heard of Amharic. My favorite books are good stories but learning opportunities, too.

Very good point about the public libraries. The town we moved from made some significant cuts to libraries.In our new town the library is very well supported.Maybe because our town is so small it is really about the only thing you can support! The PO of our house (who were elderly and without heirs) actually donated a wing to the library. We have been generous financially (though not quite wing-worthy!) as well as volunteering for fundraisers, but we do not really use the library much. My kids are still young and get their books from their school's libraries, and I buy most books that I read. The exception is reference type books (eg gardening).Most of my bookclub friends use kindle, the rest take books from the library, but I make a point of buying them from the independents only. I guess I see them as more vulnerable then libraries.

It seems inevitable that printed books will soon be quaint, like muntins on windows.

On the subject of libraries, so not completely OT, the people in the small English village where my elderly mother lives have their own solution to the problem of easy access to reading matter. Their typically English, red telephone box, which is now redundant for telephone use, is the village library! It works on an honor system. You take a book, you leave a book. Surprisingly it is bursting at the seams! Informal book reviews occur spontaneously outside the telephone box and villagers often leave book recommendations on post-it notes inside the windows.

Sis, I love it!

Our local train station is now a bakery with a small eating area, which also has an honor system library.

BTW, can everyone recomend three favorite books?

Three favorite books?

1. Memoirs of a Geisha (I can't rember the author at the moment)
2. Dr. Zhivago by Pasternak
3. Centennial by Michener

1. Night by Elie Weisel
2. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Dinesovich by Szolshenitzen (or however it's spelled)

1. Rebecca by duMaurier
2. The Girl with the Pearl Earring
3. Sorry about that...I could go on, and on, and on.......

Three, haha, part of it would depend on my mood:

1. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee
2. The Women's War, Dumas, quite profound
3. It is in no way possible for me to decide now.

Oh my FAVORITE topic! Like the rest of you, I'm a voracious, omnivorous and completely addicted reader. It runs in my family; I can so vividly recall my mom sitting engrossed in a book in the evening. For all 5 of us sisters reading is as necessary as breathing. Once when 4 of us gathered at the airport to travel to a family funeral, we discovered that independently we had each done the same thing: checked our luggage and brought a bag of books to take on the plane. We laughed so much about that--hey, you can always buy clean underwear or even go commando but to be caught without something to read, now that's unthinkable :).

As for finding books, I don't use Goodreads but will be checking it out. Like to keep up with the NYT Books section, and just generally surf around looking for ideas. The Amazon book pages are great since once you find something you like you can use their If You Liked This...feature. Although we have somewhat different genre tastes my sisters usually have good suggestions too. One in particular is a gold mine; she is content manager for the website of a South Florida county library system so she not only gets to read everything published, she gets pre-pub copies of stuff. She's given me great suggestions.

I also belong to a book club and also appreciate that it forces me to read books I probably wouldn't otherwise pick up. Included in those are Unbroken and Cutting for Stone, both of which I loved (and hadn't expected to).

I use the library almost exclusively because I could never afford to keep up with my reading addiction if I had to buy books. Not to mention that many are one-read-only experiences and I don't have space in my house for all those. I almost always am close to or at the 50-book limit for our library system (right now I've got 44 out). Our library has a good online interface and I use that about 99% of the time. Rarely do I just browse the shelves, which is probably a shame. I have learned how to game the system; there is a window of time when an upcoming book is on order and the interface opens up to get on the waiting list even though the book itself won't be in for weeks or months. I just keep checking in daily and as soon as I can put myself on, I jump. Otherwise with budget cuts it can take a very long time. Our wait lists for popular books consistently climb to the 200-mark. I keep wondering if I should take the Kindle plunge but so far can't get past my passion for the physical interface of actually reading a book. And besides, I'd then have to pay for them so until my library really cranks up with virtual lending I'm probably going to stay a literary luddite.

I am in the middle of reading The Art of Fielding now. GREAT book! I decided to give it a chance even though it superficially deals with baseball, a topic which carries no interest for me. Happily baseball is mostly a structural device and this book is making me literally LOL as I read. I'm eagerly waiting for the Wolf Hall sequel, Bring up the Bodies, and should be getting that soon. Just finished The Language of Flowers and enjoyed it a lot. Waiting for Gone Girl, as mentioned in another topic. Another book I read recently that was very good was Wild, a memoir by Cheryl Strayed. That one resonated with me particularly; she wrote about a time in her life just after her mother died when she was a young woman--about the same age I was when I lost my own mom.
My summer book club assignment is the Stephen King mammoth 11/22/63. I think King is a helluva writer, but I long ago got very tired of the fantasy/horror schtick. Am hoping this one is just good writing and no ghoulies.

I will close by saying that yet another of the lovely features of this phase of life is that with my kids older/independent I now can read to my heart's content. For so many years, I was too frazzled by balancing the job, the kids, the PTS etc to be able to read anything more demanding than magazines or very easy quick books. It is truly a joy that each and every night I have the time and the mental energy to settle into bed with a good book (or two or three). It is the highlight of my day!

Happy reading,
Ann

For so many years, I was too frazzled by balancing the job, the kids, the PTS

Oops, meant PTA! Although I probably do have PTS from all those busy years :).

Impossible to name just three, so I will copy Sherrmann.

1. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
2. Gone With The Windsors, by Laurie Graham
3. A New Life, by Bernard Malamud

1. Anya, by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
2. Kabul, by M.E. Hirsh
3. Whirlwind, by James Clavell

1. America Day By Day, by Simone de Beauvoir
2. The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright
3. The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing

And, to learn what actually happened in the skies over America on 9-11, Touching History, by Lynn Spencer. A downright astonishing bit of research and writing, I've read it three times.

You have FORTY FOUR books out of the library?!?!? Oh my gosh, I love you, you're my hero, LOL! I always sign at least a dozen out a time and people always look at me like I have two heads! Can never make it out of the parking lot without a sneak peak at a few either...

Oh, the Golden Notebook! I forgot about that one......and so many more.

At this moment, I would say my 3 all-time favorites are:

1. The Known World
2. As I Lay Dying
3. The Good Soldier

I do like James Joyce's Dubliners and Ulysses, anything by Faulkner, and poetry--every day. An obscure book that I loved was A Person of Interest by Susan Choi. I belong to 2 book groups (down from 3) and am a voracious reader. I'm currently reading Catherine the Great by Massie. Fabulous. I am going to buy a copy of Bring Up the Bodies (loved Wolf Hall)... And I did enjoy The Art of Fielding, a terrific first novel. I work full-time, so finding time to read is always the challenge...

kkay, I am also reading Massie's Catherine the Great. I unfortunately received another one of his at the exact same time and it will have to go back before I can read it so I will get back on the waiting list I suppose.

Ann, it looks like we've read a lot of the same books and must be seeing recommendations from similar list. I'm currently reading The Language of Flowers but just started. I had The Art of Fielding and was about 1/3 of the way through when it was due back at the library and I couldn't renew so I need to put that one back on my "hold" list. I also just read somewhere about that book , Wild and added it to my "to read" list. And last, my book club is currently reading that same Stephen King book. I wasn't all that into it when we were making our selection b/c King books are not really my favorite genre but I'm curious about this one. I haven't started it yet.

I'm an avid fan of the library for similar reasons as you - can't afford to keep buying books and I have no room to store them! I occasionally will buy something but not often. Three of my kids have Nooks and they love to use them, but they get a lot of gift cards for B&N so I haven't had to buy them any books. But they still like to go to the library and pick out books as well. Our library does have e-books but their collection doesn't have many of the books I'm usually looking for so not worth it for me to use an e-reader, plus I prefer hard copy books. It would be good to have one for traveling though - less bulk!

I'm also an avid reader. I also go to the Garden Webs reading site for interesting discussions and ideas for books.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reader's Paradise Forum

In re the Art of Fielding ... I didn't want to read it either, and the first chapter was a slog. It did get better, but at the exhumation it lost me again ... even though he foreshadowed it, it was too unbelievable for me.

"I always sign at least a dozen out a time and people always look at me like I have two heads!"

Bestyears, one of the inevitable consequences when I do (rarely) go browsing is I end up with a BIG pile of books to check out. My librarians laugh at me because whenever I come by to pick up my holds if I wander off into the main room I emerge with 5-7-9-10 more than I came in for :).

Loving the recommendations, am going to start searching for some of them. The mention of Anya reminded me of another of Schaeffer's novels that made a DEEP impression on me when I read it many years ago: The Madness of a Seduced Woman. I've linked to the Amazon page below. Dark, but compelling read.

I stayed up far too late last night to finish The Art of Fielding. Mtnredux, I do know what you mean about the ending. I felt the book shifted tone around page 300 and I also got so engrossed in reading for plot, which I refer to as gobbling, that I finished it too quickly to really absorb the full meaning and message the author probably intended. I'm going to recommend it for my book club and if it's chosen I will re-read it for sure.

Just got the message Bring Up the Bodies is on hold for me at the library. Woohoo, I was #2 of what is up to 140 requests for that one. For those who haven't read the first book, Wolf Hall, in what will be a trilogy, it was IMO a superb, incredible book. Won the Booker prize actually. My sister (the web mgr) just finished Bring Up and raved about it. I peeked at the first pages on Amazon and cannot wait to read it. I've got to remind myself to GO SLOW and savor the author's craft; she is a fabulous writer and I am resolved not to gobble. As my sister pointed out, in this case since it is a historical novel, we do know how the story ends :).

Ah books and reading...could ramble on all day about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Madness of a Seduced Woman

sis, I would love to know more about that phone booth/library. Is there a link to a story about it? Can you share any more information, like what is the name of the town?

Oh, just loving this thread. I'm sitting in the library right now with my trusy macbook.... one tab open to the libary's catalog, one open here to this post, and the other to Goodreads, LOL! I'm here to pick up a few holds, and need some more books for my roadtrip!

Ooh, I am jotting all these down ... some great new suggestions.

In re Ulysses, someone in another conversation post was saying reading Pulitzers was too much work. Some of them can be. But Ulysses!

I had a friend whose DH was in a book club. They read Ulysses. Only. Either again and again or very slowly. Or maybe both. Now that book really takes some work!

I also like someone's point about "gobbling" a book rather than, I suppose, savoring it. I need to remember that in my mania about making my way through lists.

judithn there are several towns and villages that have done the same thing. In fact my BIL has a similar one in his village. Here is another one, link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Library in a phone booth

Bestyears, that's awesome! I had a nice surprise when I stopped at the library yesterday to pick up a book my daughter had reserved. Next to it was a book I'd reserved but didn't realize had come in - The Kitchen House. Anyone read it? I need to suspend my hold list - I have too many things coming in right now, things I've been waiting for a while and won't be able to renew if I can't get to it before it's due.

Has anyone read Lost in Shangri-La? That one came in last week but I haven't gotten to it yet. I don't know anyone who read it but I think I must have read a book review for it. True story about three survivors of plane crash in a jungle full of cannibalistic tribes during WWII (it was a sightseeing trip for servicemen). Just curious if anyone here has read it.

I really enjoyed The Kitchen House. I always enjoy well-researched historical fiction, and this book definitely fits into that category.

I also enjoyed the The Kitchen House. I read it quite awhile ago - historical fiction is my favorite genre and from that aspect I thought this book was done really well - - fabulous descriptions of the time and the place. If memory serves me correctly.... I thought the first 2/3 or so was better than the last 1/3 - there are some really horrific issues at play throughout the entire book but more specifically towards the end. Definitely a book I would recommend.

It's hard to choose such a limited number of favorites! Some that I would recommend (in no order other than how they popped into my head, and I had to look up many for their complete titles):

Light Years, by James Salter. One of my very favorites, and I have read it many, many times. I have most of his books, including his memoir, but Light Years is by far my favorite.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Cold Mountain

Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, by Nabokov

A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube, by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Between the Woods and Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Middle Danube to the Iron Gates, by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Journey Into Cyprus, by Colin Thubron

The fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin. Game of Thrones, which many have heard of I'm sure, is the first in the series. I've not yet read the most recent volume, so cannot comment on it.

War and Peace

Remembrance of Things Past (Proust's mega-sized work of course). It took me five years, or more accurately, five summers, to get through vol. 1, Swann's Way. I'd start it, get overwhelmed and bored, put it down...take it up the next summer, get overwhelmed, etc. Finally, the fifth time did the trick, and I couldn't - and didn't - stop reading until I'd gone through every volume. (As you might infer from this and some of the preceding recommendations, I really, really like very long books! Even better are very long books that are part of a long series!)

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman. I've read this at least three times.

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914, by Barbara Tuchman. I've read it twice, maybe even three times.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A Long Desire, by Evan Connell

The White Lantern, by Evan Connell

Anything by M.F.K. Fisher

West with the Night, by Beryl Markham

Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, by Henry Beston

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character), by Richard Feynman

Journey for Myself: Selfish Memories, by Colette

My Mother's House and Sido, by Colette.

Lives of a Cell, Notes of a Biology Watcher, by Lewis Thomas

Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: Tales of Medicine and the Art of Discovery, by Gerald Weissmann

Ali and Nino: A Love Story, by Kurban Said

Embers, by Sandor Marai

A Moveable Feast, by Hemingway

The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald

Memoirs of an Anti-Semite: A Novel in Five Stories, by Gregor von Rezzori

The Snows of Yesteryear, by Gregor von Rezzori

Young Stalin, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Jane Austen; I can't pick just one. Start with Pride and Prejudice if you like.

The Discoverers, by Daniel Boorstin

Frenchman's Creek, by Daphne Du Maurier

Peter the Great: His Life and World, by Roberk K. Massie

The Russian Album, by Michael Ignatieff

I'd better stop now. :) But there are just so many more I could suggest.

Wow, lynxe, thank you!

Lynxe, A Distant Mirror is one of my all-time favorites, too. Thanks for the list--you've given me some good ideas.

I remembered a wonderful series that I"m trying to streeeetch so I don't finish too soon. The Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters have been a delight to me and are well worth checking out.

The series is probably best characterized as historical cozy mystery if you want to categorize, but basically it's a series of books set during 12th century northern England and Wales, about a Benedictine Monk (Cadfael), his monastery and the mysteries he solves. The author did an incredible job of weaving in details of not only the grand historical events-the books are set during a real life conflict between claimants to the British throne-but the many tiny quotidian details of life in medieval England. Wonderful, wonderful books with gentle humor and strong characters. Best of all there are 21 in the series (the author died years ago so it's finished) and the publisher organized them into seven omnibus books, each of which contains 3 of the individual books bound together. So-you get to have this long glorious read whenever you open up an omnibus. I find myself thinking when life gets hectic 'oh, I wish I was in Shrewsbury today'.

Sorry, haven't read all the posts, so someone may have mentioned this already. There is a book prize called the Man Booker prize that is awarded to books from the British Commonwealth. Books that have won and those that have been shortlisted, make up the bulk of my reading. The other portion is now made up of quality young adult fiction now that my 13 has developed a love of reading. If you google the name you can find lists of winners.

A favorites list would be difficult for me to put together, as I seem to choose from the books I have read most recently :-)

Right now I am reading "The Good Opera Guide" by Denis Forman and it is wonderful! It would be interesting IMO even if one did not love opera as I do. He also wrote "My Life So Far," an autobiography that is excellent and was made into a decent movie of the same name starring Colin Firth.

I also would struggle to put together a favorites list as I consume books like I consume food. I enjoy a great dinner, remember it for a while, then look forward to the next great meal!
That said, I actually read Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" twice and enjoyed his "World Without End" and now "Fall of Giants". Also Edward Rutherford's "London" and "New York".

Sorry, haven't read all the posts, so someone may have mentioned this already. There is a book prize called the Man Booker prize that is awarded to books from the British Commonwealth. Books that have won and those that have been shortlisted, make up the bulk of my reading. The other portion is now made up of quality young adult fiction now that my 13 has developed a love of reading. If you google the name you can find lists of winners.

Fellow readers, rejoice with me: the forecast in my area for the next several days is unrelenting rain. Can you imagine a better excu...chance to spend a couple of days ensconced in bed with a few good books??? Right, me either!

Looking forward to a delicious weekend,
Ann

The Booker prize shortlist makes up most of my reading list as well, Daisy. Did you read Freddy and Fredericka? I still laugh out loud when I see the spine of that book in our library!

No, I haven't ksw1. I just got a few bookstore giftcards as end of year gifts from my students and am going to head over to the store right now and pick it up. Thanks!

Another Goodreads fan here. I've always gone in spurts with my reading. A few months of reading whenever I could followed by a few of no book reading at all. With Goodreads I find myself wanting to add books but also looking at my to read list reminds me of all the great (hopefully) books out there.

I tend not to read a lot of popular at the moment books so I don't get on reserve lists at the library often. It's more likely that I'm interested in a book that our library system doesn't even have a copy of. That's frustrating. I picked up a book while perusing the stacks the other day that it turns out has only two ratings on Goodreads. Yet a couple of books I'd like to read, with numerous Goodreads reviews, are nowhere to be found in the county's library system. Probably because they are oldish but still....

Ah well. I just started The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin. I've read a few of his other books and enjoyed them. The "obscure" book I picked up at the library is Louisiana Voyages by Martha Field. It's a collection of stories by the first full-time female news writer at the NO Daily Picayune. Sounds like it will be interesting.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I'm going to look up some of those books.

" I've always gone in spurts with my reading."

Me, too, although there is always an undercurrent of at least one book going on. My Biggest Reading Year was 2009. I read 147 books In the last seven months of that year. Part of that mania was getting my first kindle and being able to get books at any moment. I downloaded books in the middle of the night, just because I could. I was like a drug addict in a full police evidence room. Part of it also is that I was taking classes at Oxford that summer and had to read like a maniac just to keep up. For every sentence spoken in a class, you could tell there had been at least five books read on the subject....that's why I quit my book club for awhile afterwards, I could not bear to hear anyone say pettishly, "Well, I just didn't like it, that's all, no reason I can put my finger on really." That frenetic pace slowed down in 2010 when I went back to work full time (and more). This year I am reading even less as we can finally connect our movie screen directly to Netflix and I am catching up on 20 years of BBC and ITV episodes and shows---Foyle's War, Inspector Lewis (which they filmed at the Randolph when I was in Oxford), Spooks, even Pie in the Sky (hanging head here). We havent had tv since 1998 and never had cable so this is all new to me :-)

My Novel has just been published online, you can download and read it here: http://www.bibliotastic.com/
New book, title " CyberCop" A Love Story, with a few twists. A love story with no trashy sex, and about 50 readers of 3 generations have given it rave reviews, before it went online. Makes my day!!

Here is a link that might be useful: E-books

Thanks for all the great ideas!

I will probably move on to the Man Booker prizes when I finish CCLAP100 --- i really want to read more international titles, alas in translation

I have certain memories about exactly what I was doing while reading specific books. In the 70's, I was up most of the night reading "The French Lieutenant's Woman". The power went out and I just had to go get a flashlight and finish the intriguing ending. I was worth it!

Francypants, I do not necessarily remember what I was doing but, I now have a made a rule that I do not even bother to look at the clock any more. This way, when hubby asks me what time I went to bed I can honestly say, I don't know.

I had forgotten that one book I read that I found quite profound was C.S. Lewis' "Til We Have Faces." It is a retelling of a myth but the themes are definitely mature. I was considering assigning it to my son but was glad I read it first. At 14, I do not think he would be able to appreciate the nuances of the story.

I now have Grapes of Wrath, Bel Ami, and Death Be Not Proud on hold at the library. Hopefully I can start them this weekend as it is rather too hot to do much else than read.