Book recommendations for a challenge

Hi LTers,

I am taking an online challenge, in which I am to ask 20 people for 20 book recommendations, then read all of the books that they recommend. Because my friends and I have pretty similar tastes in books, I thought I would take a gamble and ask all the nice people on LT if they would give me a hand! I would really appreciate any recommendation you have to give. Any book will do!

Thanks so much,
(readergir)Liz

The Once and Future King is the book I recommend most.

In that case I'll recommend a book from our mutual "You should borrow..." page and tell you to read Life after life by Kate Atkinson.

Yes, the 'You should borrow' page is a big help.
I would suggest either

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks which is good modern nonfiction,

OR

The Good Earth which is classic fiction set in China, and a book I have loved since I was a teenager. (It wasn't new back then, either.)

I checked out your profile and thought of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Then, like anglemark, I checked our "You should borrow..." page. The first recommendation is The Historian. It's long, but it's excellent.

What a nice idea! I have a conditional recommendation: if you have an ereader, I recommend The steerswoman's road. If you don't you could try to get it in paper, but that can be a bit difficult... (Rosemary Kirstein is underappreciated). So in that case, I recommend The night circus.

Cool challenge!

Based on your library, I would recommend Never Let Me Go.

Here are a few of my favorites read in 2014. I am suggesting more than one in case you have read any of them. Some are from the "You should borrow" page. The others may not be in a genre you typically read (I noticed you like contemporary and historical fiction).

Stoner by John Williams
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Let us know which book(s) you pick from our recommendations.

A short thought-provoking modern classic is Animal Farm.

Howl's moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

Definitely Glass Castle: A Memoir and Travels With Charlie.

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

Also using the "what should you borrow" feature, I'll recommend The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I'm starring this thread. It is quickly becoming another great book list!

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson. Absolutely one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. Don't be put off by the length; it's an easy and compelling read.

https://www.librarything.com/work/10026155/reviews/68373881

Also using the "you should borrow" page, I'll recommend Fahrenheit 451.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. It is historical fiction and a very moving and haunting story.

I think you might like Sabriel & sequels by Garth Nix :)

LibraryThing thinks you should borrow Uglies by Scott Westerfeld from me, and I agree, if you haven't already read it. It was a really good read.

Wow! Thank you everyone who gave me a recommendation, I really cannot thank you all enough! It just goes to show what a great and gracious community I'm a part of here! And I am intrigued by every single recommendation that everyone gave. I would happy to write a review for each book everyone suggested. Just know that I am in graduate school and it may take awhile, but I will absolutely do it.

Many thanks,
Liz

It would be nice to hear how it's going, readergirliz. Perhaps make a 'project thread' here? Or use this one...

Okay! After a long hiatus, I have finally gotten through some of these awesome book recommendations. I have been trying to read them in order of how they are listed, but have more been reading the books as they have become available to me. Here come some quick reviews of what I have read so far!

1) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. This book really drew me in and kept a pretty tight grip on myself until the end, though, according to the book's premise, will there really be an end for the main character, Ursula? The story of the book is told in such a way that, at first, Ursula begins to learn from her mistakes of how she died in previous lives, though she doesn't quite know why she knows something terrible is about to happen. However, in each version of her life, something different happens to another character in the story, which then alters Ursula's story. Another factor in how Ursula lives her lives is the backdrop of World War I and World War II, which come into play in really interesting ways. This book was a neat exercise in the question, "How would you live your life if you knew you had infinite do-overs?". I think that the answer is the nearly the same as how you would live your life knowing you only had one life: make the best decisions you can with the information you have at the time, then learn from your mistakes. A strong 4 out of 5 for an interesting concept that was well written and gave my brain a workout thinking about all of life's possibilities, yet was not a difficult read.

Glad you liked it. I agree, it was an easy read that managed to pose interesting questions.

I just finished Stoner and Station Eleven. I highly recommend both - particularly Stoner!

2) The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I was initially wary of this recommendation, because in my high school, some of my classmates had to read this book and did not give favorable reviews. I actually listened to this book on audio due to a lengthy work commute, and really, really liked it. The narrator of the book was engaging, though I realized that I may not have gotten the same effect reading the book myself. For example, the descriptions and Wang Lung's inner monologues evoked all sorts of imagery, but I may have read it in the book and have groaned to myself, thinking, "He's talking about the land again?!". However, since the land is a central theme in the book. of course it makes sense to emphasize how important it is to Wang Lung again and again. The Good Earth can be examined in several ways. One is a look at the man versus himself. Wang Lung constantly makes decisions about how he acts based on what is expected of him in his culture, but he often surprises himself at his discomfort in making those decisions. There is a disconnect between what he thinks and what he does, but he cannot articulate why this makes him uncomfortable because he has never known anything different. Another way to view this story is the idea of the self-made man, like "The American Dream", except, of course, it takes place in China. Wang Lung works for everything he has, and makes his way in life, for better or for worse. Family, functional and dysfunctional, is certainly a present theme. Between filial piety and raising a family of one's own, Wang Lung has a lot to balance and there are often conflicts between what he expects and what actually happens. And finally, I just love how this book comes full circle. I saw hints of it very early on, and progressing through the book, it was both a triumph and a sadness that I knew how Wang Lung and his family would end up. What I appreciated about this book was that Wang Lung was the protagonist, but an imperfect hero. The book chronicled several decades of his life, and of course I was not going to agree with every decision he made and in retrospect the decisions he could have made to be happier in his late life, but isn't that everyone's challenge? At some times, I really didn't like what Wang Lung did, but he always did something later on that I agreed with. Overall, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. It was written in 1931, but there's a reason why it's still around!

3) The Once and Future King by T. H. White. I really wanted to like The Once and Future King, and at certain points in the story, I really did. My favorite book in the collection was The Sword in the Stone, probably because I got to compare the characters to the Disney movie version with which I am familiar and Merlyn was such an interesting character. I liked thinking about how confusing it would be to age backward, and how I would cope in Merlyn's situation! I think that my biggest disadvantage in reading this story was that I expected it to be the tales of King Arthur and his knights, and it wasn't. There is apparently another book which chronicles the adventures of Arthur, so this ended up being an origin story. This wasn't really a bad thing and I tried to embrace it. I really liked understanding the reasons why Arthur felt the way he did about his life's work; why Lancelot and Guenever continued to have affairs even after they hurt each other so badly; why Mordred hated his father; why King Pellinore continued to hunt for the Questing Beast. However, what bogged me down were the seemingly endless descriptions of landscapes; I was not compelled to pick up this book. I did not know that there was a novel to which this book could be considered a companion, and maybe had I read that story, I would have enjoyed this one more than I did. It felt kind of like a chore to read. However, I would absolutely be willing to engage in a dialogue with a person who really loves this book to see what gets them ticking. Just note, I began this book in February, so the details of the first few hundred pages may be a bit vague. Thank you for the recommendation!! :) 3 out of 5 stars.

4) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This was another book which I mostly listened to on audio, though I also had a physical copy of the book and read it while I was not driving! This has got to be one of the most sumptuous, delicious, extravagant, wonderful books I have had the pleasure of journeying through. I am a complete sucker for adult fairy tales, and this most definitely fit the bill. This book was about two magicians, Marco and Celia, whose lives are bound together when their caregivers, Alexander and Hector Bowen/Prospero the Enchanter, respectively, pit them in a challenge against one another. The challenge takes place in Le Cirque des Reves, a curious circus that opens at dusk and closes at dawn and is not like any circus you've ever heard of before. Some of my favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of the different exhibits at the circus as well as the general ambiance of the circus itself. The colorful characters are plentiful: Isobel, the fortune teller, Tsukiko, the contortionist, Poppet and Widget, the twins, Thiessen, the clock-maker, Lefevre, the man who hosts midnight dinners, and so many others! I loved nearly ever part of this book. The plot was a bit predictable, but only because several of the characters can look into the future, but I was never disappointed when I managed to guess what came next. If I thought really hard, I could probably point out symbolism with the black and white motif and the balance of good and evil within the characters and the circus, and how gray in the book represents the ambiguity of the characters' morals and values. However, I just really enjoyed this book immensely, and will probably go back and read it again. Thank you for the recommendation! (I've also purchased The Steerwoman's Road, and will hopefully get to it soon!) 4.5 out of 5 stars!

5) Animal Farm by George Orwell. This one I listened to on audiobook, and way out of order on the list because it was the next audiobook on the list that was available. I have also previously read Animal Farm in a physical book form a few years ago. It had just as much punch listening to it as it did reading it. Animal Farm was a short enough book that even though I read it a few years ago, I remembered many of the details of the book, and I just felt a knot in my stomach listening to it because I knew all of the terrible things that were going to befall the animals! Now, I do not remember a ton from my high school history class about the politics around the Russian Revolution and the expansion of the Soviet Union, so I am looking at this from more of a literary/ psychological/social perspective. I had a strong reaction each time Squealer tried and succeeded in changing the animals' memories, but this happens all the time: the media that we see and hear is all biased in some way, and people can all too quickly not fact check for themselves but go along with what everyone else thinks. The sheep in the story are an excellent representation of those kinds of people. Boxer's story is one of the most tragic because he does what he thinks is right and good, and though he works his hardest and should by all accounts be rewarded for it, he has a most unhappy ending that he did not deserve! Benjamin the donkey is the reminder throughout the book that the more things change, the more they stay the same ("A donkey lives a long time".); the last line of the story also emphasizes this point. This is a book that makes me feel angry at the injustice the animals received for their work because they did not question what was happening on the farm for fear of death. However, the idea that I cannot always express myself in the way I want for fear of rejection from others as well as shielding myself from their own anger is an idea I can relate to as well. 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you for your recommendation, TheoClarke!

>28 readergirliz: I'm glad you liked it! It is always a bit of a gamble to recommend books to others, but fortunately this was a good one. Personally, I had to get into this book; the first 100-150 pages I could have put it away. Then I really got into it, and I particularly agree with Some of my favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of the different exhibits at the circus as well as the general ambiance of the circus itself..

The steerswoman's road is very different, but I hope you'll enjoy that too!

And I very much like the idea of this thread. Please continue to post your experiences!