Good books

[Gardenarian]

I thought we could start a thread of some of our favorite books - especially ones that others may not have heard of. I'm always looking for something to read. Goodreads helps, but I like to get some personal recommendations.

Here's a start - kind of heavy on YA and fantasy, but I thoroughly enjoyed the following:

Into the Forest: A Novel by Jean Hegland
Song of the Lioness series by Tamara Pierce
The Blue Sword (and many others) by Robin McKinley
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George
High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

"My Side of the Mountain", read when I was 9 or 10, was one of the most influential books in my life. Still a winner.

[catherine]

Gardenarian,
This is a great idea, but could you please pick your top three and tell us why you think we should read them? Why were you so heavily influenced by "My Side of the Mountain" for instance?

Inquiring minds want to know! :)

[Gardenarian]

"My Side of the Mountain" is about a 12 year old boy who leaves home and lives in the wilderness alone. This seemed to me to be the greatest life ever! I wished I had the guts to do it (the boy did it with the support of his parents.) There were lots of specific details in the book that made it all seem very possible. (And I think it was a partly true story.) The only times I was really happy as a kid was when we went on camping trips, so this was the ultimate fantasy to me. I didn't have the guts to do it - but I could dream (still do.)

"The Woodlanders" by Thomas Hardy is, to me, the most vibrant of all his novels. It clearly portrays the people living a traditional lifestyle side-by-side with the industrial revolution. They are still pagans at heart, living what seems to be an honest and unaffected existence. Again, it's the details - how thatch is made, the way they cook, and dress, and make their way through the mud on pattens that hooks me. Like most of Hardy's novels, it is a tragic romance and the plot is very intense.

"The Diamond Age: : Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson - hard to describe! From Wikipedia: "is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence." This is a book that worked its way into my subconscious - the images from the book come into my mind and dreams all the time.

[razz]

I had to think about this.

It seems that I go in cycles of fiction and non-fiction.

Non-fiction must teach me something new to me or generally unknown:
1491 exploring the time before Columbus
History of Knowledge by Charles Van Doren which covers world history's events and achievements
Stolen Continents by Ronald Wright

I love fiction that deals with and explores a challenging time:
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (French revolution)
Gone with the Wind.
Ivanhoe
Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters
Murder mysteries by Donna Leon writing about Detective Brunnetti in today's Venice with a unique slant in each book
Catherine Cookson books (in small doses describing life in earlier times in Britain)
Maisie Dobbs series by Jacquiline Winspear
Murder mysteries by Louise Penny writing about a neat little village and the provincial police in Quebec

[catherine]

"My Side of the Mountain" is about a 12 year old boy who leaves home and lives in the wilderness alone. This seemed to me to be the greatest life ever! I wished I had the guts to do it (the boy did it with the support of his parents.) There were lots of specific details in the book that made it all seem very possible. (And I think it was a partly true story.) The only times I was really happy as a kid was when we went on camping trips, so this was the ultimate fantasy to me. I didn't have the guts to do it - but I could dream (still do.)

"The Woodlanders" by Thomas Hardy is, to me, the most vibrant of all his novels. It clearly portrays the people living a traditional lifestyle side-by-side with the industrial revolution. They are still pagans at heart, living what seems to be an honest and unaffected existence. Again, it's the details - how thatch is made, the way they cook, and dress, and make their way through the mud on pattens that hooks me. Like most of Hardy's novels, it is a tragic romance and the plot is very intense.

"The Diamond Age: : Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson - hard to describe! From Wikipedia: "is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence." This is a book that worked its way into my subconscious - the images from the book come into my mind and dreams all the time.

Thank you! That helps illuminate the books for me.. I love Thomas Hardy--Far from the Madding Crowd was one of my favorites. My Side of the Mountain sounds great--I really liked the book Into the Wild by Krakaeur, kind of an extreme version of My Side of the Mountain, I guess.

My favorite books (life-changing) were:
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Narnia Chronicles
Walden by Thoreau
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

Not life-changing but awesome nonetheless:
Gone with the Wind
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Ragtime
The Invisible Man

Oh, gosh, I'm sure there are so many more. That's what's top-of-mind.

[Gardenarian]

Razz - I almost put down "The Scarlet Pimpernel" - loved that book.
I was disappointed when I saw the blossom of a real scarlet pimpernel - about the size of a lentil.

[Tiam]

I thought we could start a thread of some of our favorite books - especially ones that others may not have heard of. I'm always looking for something to read. Goodreads helps, but I like to get some personal recommendations.

Here's a start - kind of heavy on YA and fantasy, but I thoroughly enjoyed the following:

Into the Forest: A Novel by Jean Hegland
Song of the Lioness series by Tamara Pierce
The Blue Sword (and many others) by Robin McKinley
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George
High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

"My Side of the Mountain", read when I was 9 or 10, was one of the most influential books in my life. Still a winner.


Of your list, I've read: Rebecca, The wolves of willoughby chase, (which I have trouble remembering) and more recently The Woodcutter. Which I listened to on a mp3 file and quite enjoyed.
Recently I enjoyed "Sarah's Key" which is sad, but I liked. I think my faves are pretty standard. Tolkien. Gone with the Wind. To kill a mockingbird. I enjoyed What's eating Gilbert Grape and still keep a copy of that. I enjoyed Chaim Potoks "The Chosen" a lot also.

[Gardenarian]

My favorites are probably also what everyone else has read - Jane Austen, Henry James, George Eliot - the basic canon (oh, and Tolkien, of course.)
I'm hoping people will come up with some authors that are maybe less familiar?
I'm reduced to reading all the YA books at the library...

[iris lilies]

I think that I Capture the Castle was the last of those "popular classics", the ones I had always wanted to get around to read, that I did finally read! I found it to be a somewhat interesting, but dated, piece of fiction. I used to read heavily and that's how these popular classics always came to light--they would be mentioned by authors and readers.

Now OP that is interesting about The Woodlanders. I've not read it! Back in the day I was a huge Hardy fan, I like the melancholy. I recently double fisted Tess in dvd --2 different editions. The Justine Waddell edition is sublime.

I've tried Into the Forest several times, just can get into it.

Now I'm off to start my own post.

[iris lilies]

I have two favorite series, one as a child, and one as an adult. They are

The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Nothing will ever capture the magic of fantasy like these books. These are classics and most people know that the borrowers are a race of tiny human-like members who live in large houses and who subsist on leavings from humans. They are not magical in any way, they are flesh and blood, just tiny.

The Lucia series by E.F. Benson: I didn't read these until later in life but I had always heard about the series. Finally one day I started the first Lucia novel and--I was hooked. I am sad that I didn't find these until I was in my 40's. They will always be in the top ten of my favorite books.

So here's why: they are an ironic comedy of manners centering on Lucia, an upper -middle class women in a small town in England, and her small society. Oh, they are so wry! Such tongue-in-cheek observations on village life and humans. Lucia is bossy and is the leader of her set, and some go along willingly with her ideas while otehrs--sepcially her mortal enemy Miss Mapp--work to best her.

the first in th is series is Queen Lucia. My favorite is Lucia in London.

[Gardenarian]

Thanks Iris Lilies - I haven't read the Lucia books!