1001 novels you are strongly encouraged to read during your lifetime - Page 8

[samstress]

finally got around to updating the list. thanks so much to all who have posted. please keep those titles coming!

Originally Posted by dentmom

Awesome idea!!! I will add (there are lots more, I read so much)

please do (add, that is)

Originally Posted by Traci mom23boys

I am listing all my favorites, including memoirs and non-fiction.

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland (novel)*
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye (novel)*
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Red Tent by Anita Diamont
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (memoir)
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
The Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport (novel)*
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Wise Child & Juniper both by Monica Furlong (YA fiction)*
The Poisonwood Bible by B. Kingsolver
Small Wonders by B. Kingsolver (essays)
Bean Trees & Pigs in Heaven B. Kingsolver
Angela's Ashes memoir by Frank McCourt
Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benitez (novel)*
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (novel)*
Tales of A Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman (memoir)
The Birth House by Ami McKay (novel)*
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (autobiographical novel)
The Pillars of The Earth
World Without End both by Ken Follett*
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (novel)
Enough for now, I will come back with Classics & non-fiction.

~traci

great picks traci! like i've said before, i am keeping a list of all the non-novel suggestions everyone has made and will be starting another thread (one of these days) with those. for now, i'm just including novels on this list.

hey, where are those classics you promised?

Originally Posted by naturegirl7

Patherine Patterson - jacob have i loved is awesome! so is Bridge to terabithia (sp?)

Marion Zimmer Bradley - the Darkover series is so good. But simple must read Mists of Avalon (and any of the other Avalon books).

Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth Series is also a fabulous read.

Anything by Roald Dahl - BFG, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc

Ann McCaffrey's Pern series - a must have for any dragon lover.

Sylvia Plath (sp?) The Bell Jar


excuse my spelling - insomnia has me up way past my bedtime. LOL

help naturegirl! i'm not familiar with the pern series. i did my darndest to search for the info, but was just confused about which books were included in the series (i found several different lists). can you help me?

Originally Posted by naturegirl7

Jane Yolen's Beauty - wow!
the Sister Light, Sister Dark books are awesome too....

help again! couldn't figure these out either.

Originally Posted by naturegirl7

the phantom tollbooth is another fave - not sure the author though....

ok, this one i do know, norton juster

Originally Posted by russsk

Awesome thread. These are the ones that jump out at me, but there are so, so many more.

Play It as It Lays - Joan Didion
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
White Noise - Don Delilo
Mao II - Don Delilo
A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Already Dead - Denis Johnson
Angels - Denis Johnson
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Despair - JM Coetzee
Third Policeman - Flann Obrien
Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner
Underworld - Don DeLilo
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The Ginger Man - JP Donleavy
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
Omensetter's Luck - William Gass
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunder - Carson McCullers
Housekeeping - Marianne Robinson
Gilead - Marianne Robinson
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michale Chabon

just checking. did you mean disgrace by coetzee?

Originally Posted by lakeruby

I really love all the books by Ellen Gilchrist, but if I had to pick one for this list, it would be The Anna Papers. She's a wonderful storyteller!

feel free to pick others if you'd like (we are trying to get to 1001).

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon

I this thread! especially as I am getting a Kindle and needed a reading list!

oh, how perfect!

Originally Posted by enfpintj

I loved Chiam Potok - My Name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev. The Chosen is the one you normally see recommended. They are all great but the first two are my favs.

i put the chosen on there as well.

Originally Posted by OJazzy1

Hooray! I am so glad I found this! I was just sitting here wondering what I should get to read because I have run out so I am looking forward to trying some of these out!

great! as soon as we reach 1001, i plan to start reading them. we'll see how far i get.

[russsk]

Originally Posted by samstress

finally got around to updating the list. thanks so much to all who have posted. please keep those titles coming!

just checking. did you mean disgrace by coetzee?

Ack! I meant Disgrace by Coetzee and Despair by Nabokov. Sorry!

[samstress]

Originally Posted by russsk

Ack! I meant Disgrace by Coetzee and Despair by Nabokov. Sorry!

ahh, very good. consider them added.

[quest4quiet]

This is a great idea! There are some really fantastic books here.
I'm always at a loss when I go to the library and I'm getting tired of Oprah's suggestions.

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

...maybe Starship Troopers, but I don't know if the MDC audience would generally like it much.)

I was going to suggest it as well and had the same thought. There's really a lot more to this book than people think if they've just seen the film or even looked at the bookjacket. It's pretty rough, but great IMO.

Here's my list....for now, lol.
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (some parts of this you'll read aloud...the writing is too beautiful not so hear spoken)
Crazy Ladies by Michael Lee West
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Thanks for doing this

[Musubi]

What a great thread! I'm excited to try some of these titles.
Here are a few of my favorites:

Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
So Far From God- Ana Castillo
The Milagro Beanfield War- John Nichols
Blu's Hanging- Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Women of the Silk- Gail Tsukiyama
Language of the Threads- Gail Tsukiyama
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- Betty Smith
The Rice Mother- Rani Manicka
Loving Pedro Infante- Denise Chavez
Where The Red Fern Grows- Wilson Rawls
The Bonesetter's Daughter- Amy Tan
Love Medicine- Louise Erdrich
The House on Mango Street- Sandra Cisneros
The Color Purple- Alice Walker
Comfort Woman- Nora Okja Keller


So many to list...so little nap time.

[mustangtbn]

Oh, one I must have read a dozen times as a child:

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

[AustinAmber]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I'm surprised this wasn't on the list already

[samstress]

Originally Posted by AustinAmber 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I'm surprised this wasn't on the list already

it was.

finally got around to updating the list.  was looking for a book to read last night and remembered that i'd started this thread.  was waiting until we came up with our 1001 titles, but thought there's no time like the present to start tackling them.  anyone else care to join me?  at the very least, please continue to add your faves here.  we are now up to 456 books (nearly halfway there).

quickly went through the list and these are the ones i've read so far...

atwood, margaret - the handmaid's tale
blume, judy - are you there god? it's me margaret
camus, albert - the stranger
dickens, charles - great expectations
dostoevsky, fyodor - crime and punishment
gruen, sara - water for elephants
guest, judith - ordinary people
hawthorne, nathaniel - the scarlet letter
hegi, ursula - stones from the river
hemingway, ernest - the old man and the sea

irving, john - a prayer for owen meany
jong, erica - fear of flying
lamb, wally - i know this much is true
lamb, wally - she's come undone
lee, harper - to kill a mockingbird
meyer, stephenie - twilight
miller, henry - tropic of cancer
niffenegger, audrey - the time traveler's wife
saint-exupéry, antoine de - the little prince
salinger, j. d. - the catcher in the rye
sebold, alice - the lovely bones
shelley, mary - frankenstein
steinbeck, john - of mice and men
tolkien, j. r. r. - the hobbit
twain, mark - adventures of huckleberry finn
twain, mark - the adventures of tom sawyer
vonnegut jr., kurt - cat's cradle
zusak, markus - the book thief

currently reading...

kidd, sue monk - the secret life of bees

[Viola]

Well, shoot, since we need a lot more, I'll add my husband's two favorites:

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Silmarillion by Tolkien, although that one might be on there already.  I was trying to do a find in window, but I might not have been spelling it correctly.

Also:

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

The City of Trembling Leaves - Walter van Tilburg Clark

The Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins

Birds without Wings -  Louis de Bernieres

[HikeMama]

This list needs more Bradbury! How about...

The Martian Chronicles

Something Wicked This Way Comes

A Sound of Thunder (which I suppose is technically a short.)

[philomom]

Originally Posted by *Jessica* 




I'm not sure whether this list is for adult fiction only?

If not, I have a couple to add that were favorites of mine when I was younger.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

 

I liked this book so much, I have given away copies to all the young people in my life.

Back to grown-ups...

I liked Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank so much that I had to replace my copy twice because I've nearly memorized it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas,_Babylon

[samstress]

thanks for the adds...keep 'em coming.
 

Originally Posted by HikeMama 

This list needs more Bradbury!

i agree. 

[samstress]

Originally Posted by samstress 

finally got around to updating the list.  was looking for a book to read last night and remembered that i'd started this thread.  was waiting until we came up with our 1001 titles, but thought there's no time like the present to start tackling them.  anyone else care to join me?  at the very least, please continue to add your faves here.  we are now up to 456 books (nearly halfway there).

quickly went through the list and these are the ones i've read so far...

atwood, margaret - the handmaid's tale
blume, judy - are you there god? it's me margaret
camus, albert - the stranger
dickens, charles - great expectations
dostoevsky, fyodor - crime and punishment
gruen, sara - water for elephants
guest, judith - ordinary people
hawthorne, nathaniel - the scarlet letter
hegi, ursula - stones from the river
hemingway, ernest - the old man and the sea

irving, john - a prayer for owen meany
jong, erica - fear of flying
lamb, wally - i know this much is true
lamb, wally - she's come undone
lee, harper - to kill a mockingbird
meyer, stephenie - twilight
miller, henry - tropic of cancer
niffenegger, audrey - the time traveler's wife
saint-exupéry, antoine de - the little prince
salinger, j. d. - the catcher in the rye
sebold, alice - the lovely bones
shelley, mary - frankenstein
steinbeck, john - of mice and men
tolkien, j. r. r. - the hobbit
twain, mark - adventures of huckleberry finn
twain, mark - the adventures of tom sawyer
vonnegut jr., kurt - cat's cradle
zusak, markus - the book thief

currently reading...

kidd, sue monk - the secret life of bees

finished the secret life of bees (liked it ok).

will start the shipping news tonight.

anyone else have anything to add (or would like to start tackling the list)?

[samstress]

anyone?  been a while since this list was added to.  nearly halfway to making it to 1001.  i know there are lots of you out there who haven't added your favorite books yet.

[Daffodil]

I see there a few I suggested that never made it onto the list:

Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

Frannie and Zooey - J.D. Salinger

And how about:

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Ronia the Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgren

[samstress]

Originally Posted by Daffodil 

I see there a few I suggested that never made it onto the list:

Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

Frannie and Zooey - J.D. Salinger

And how about:

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Ronia the Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgren

thanks for the adds.  coraline and ronia the robber's daughter are now on the list.  the reason the first four never made it on the list is because they're story collections and we were limiting the list to novels.  perhaps it's time to reconsider and just include all works of fiction.