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Where would we be without books? I remember sitting on the couch with my Dad as a child, as he read to me from Treasure Island. My parents had a wall of books, including the Funk and Wagner Dictionary, Agatha Christie, Louis Lamour, Enders Game, Clan of the Cave Bear, and much, much more. From books I learned about Greek Mythology and romance; I learned about history and war; I learned about religion and food. Because of books, when a British person says that they are knackered, I know what they mean. I learned about travel and dreamed about going to the worlds shown in the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica that my aunt had at her house. When I went abroad for the first time, I nearly had an entire suitcase full of paper books. I mean, do people in France have books in English? I did not know and did not want to take the risk that they wouldn't!
I guess what I am saying is that I love books. Over the years there have been some good ones and today I have twenty that if you haven't read, you may want to. Below I will give you the "what you can learn about if" you read the following books (FYI: not all are non-fiction!). I also have a Bookshelf Page if you are looking for more recommendations!
Let me know which ones you have read, what you thought and of course, what few books over your life have been your favorites!
1. Early Onset Dementia: Still Alice by Lisa Genova. This book will make you want to hug your loved ones and start working on your list of dreams.
2. Becoming Financially Independent and/or Retiring Early: Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen. If you want to find out an easy way to save, invest and travel, read this.
3. Apartheid / Mixed Race Household: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. A first hand story of growing up in Africa with a Black mother and white father during apartheid.
4. The War on Opiates: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. An interesting insight into big pharma and how the US war on opiates began.
5. Eating Local/Surviving off the Land: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. A family decides to try to live off the land and eat local for one year.
6. Introverts: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. Introverts are not lacking personality; they just recharge differently.
7. The Donner Party (+ Cannibalism): The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. An attempt to get to California in a covered wagon before winter sets in goes horribly wrong.
8. Immortality: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Would you like to be immortal? This book may help you decide.
9. Plagiarism: The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. An author passes off someone else's work as his own. Will he get away with it?
10. The Tudors & Henry VIII: The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory. Henry the Eighth had a lot of wives, but not many of them survived! Learn more here!
11. Native American Oppression in the US: This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. Native American children are ripped from their parents and sent to boarding schools to learn to behave. Will it work?
12. Orthodox Jewish Women: Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman. A woman struggling with the Orthodox community tries to decide whether it's worth staying or not, because if she leaves she may be ostracized.
13: Cancer (From a Neurosurgeon Perspective): When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. A neurosurgeon gets lung cancer and tells his personal story from a doctor's perspective.
14: Vietnam: The Mountains Sing by Phan Quế Mai Nguyễn. A story about multiple generations of a Vietnamese family and their struggles before, during and after the Vietnam war.
15: The Far North of Canada: The River by Peter Heller. Two men go on a canoeing trip in the far north of Canada and a fire breaks out. Will they survive?
And because I particularly love learning about WWII, I have five for this category.
16. Resistance Women in France: The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
17. Women Spies: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (or any book by Kate Quinn!)
18. Japanese Living in the US: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
19. Greece: Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
20. England: The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Have you read any of the above and if so, what did you think? What is the most interesting thing you have learned from a book? What are a few of the best books you have read over the years?
I've read a few of these! My shoutouts are:
ReplyDeleteQuit Like A Millionaire - Love her! Anytime she's on a podcast, it's an auto listen.
Born a Crime - I didn't read this one until years after it came out, and then I was mad at myself for waiting for so long. Soooooo good.
Indifferent Stars - the perfect road trip book
Unorthodox. I saw the TV show first, which kicked off my love of Israeli TV.
There was a room in my childhood home with floor to ceiling book shelves, and I have such fond memories of "traveling" through books. My library card was a passport.
Yes! There is a quote that I can't quite recall perfectly, but it is something like: Life is a book and those who don't travel read only a page. I always liked that one. My library card was also a passport and a wormhole to another dimension where I could be whoever I wanted to be! A curly black haired girl who was outgoing and good at sports! :)
DeleteI added The Indifferent Stars Above and The Mountains Sing to my TBR/Kyria tags in Libby! I have read a lot of these and also loved them. Still Alice is one of my faves of all time but such a heart breaking story. I am terrified of Alzheimer’s and hope and pray it does not strike our family. It’s a big fear since that’s what Phil’s dad died from and it was a very sad and horrible death.
ReplyDeleteWithout Reservations was a book I recommended a lot probably 10 years ago. It’s about a woman who is divorced and realizes her identity was entirely tied up in her roles as a wife and mother so she embarks on a months-long journey around Europe. I should re-read it! Into Thin Air is my favorite adventure story. It reads like a thriller. And my favorite Khalid Houssini book is ‘And the mountains echoed’. Alzheimer’s features prominently in that book too. That author hasn’t released a novel in a long time so he must be due to release something soon. I have loved all of his books and have learned a lot through reading them!
I haven't read Without Reservations! I thought you were talking about the Anthony Bourdain show at first, which then got me remembering that I should have put Kitchen Confidential on this list, as I enjoyed that too! I also enjoyed Into Thin Air (4 stars), and agree that all Houssini books are good! I enjoyed Mountains more than the Kite Runner although I also liked the Kite Runner a lot! I have enjoyed reading about Iran and it is always amazing to think that women had to basically go backwards over the years... I read a good book recently that will be going on my best of list for this year called Mornings In Jenin.
DeleteI've read quite a few of those, and I will say that Still Alice is one of the most beautiful and terrifying books around. I read it when it first came out, so a while ago, and every time I forgot something I would be like "Is that it, am I Alice???" Yeeeeeshhhh what a book! I have read other books by that author but they didn't affect me in the same way, I felt they were a bit too "teachy." But the information in Still Alice is so beautifully woven.
ReplyDeleteI will say though that I tend to not like historical fiction generally, I find it is a bit too "tell" instead of show. Also the way they wrap up is a bit too neat for my liking.
That is interesting, as that is probably one of the things that I do like about historical fiction. I have tried reading factual non-fiction and sometimes it is just a bit too dry for me and so I am not really learning as much as I could if it were made more interesting. I can still get through some of them, but some of them are a snooze fest! You are right though that some HF is just too much drama/romance/fill in the blank in order to make it interesting, but I do think that if it helps people learn *some* history, it it probably better than nothing!
Deletethis is a great list. So many books I want to read, so little time (in my world anyway). It doesn't help my plight that I'm a very slow reader. Hmpf. I want to read When Breath Becomes Air. I heard about it back when it was super popular and I have a gap in my reading list, because our book club doesn't meet again until January. I've read the potato society and on the corner of sweet and bitter. Loved those books so much. I'm trying to think of some of the best books I've read, and I love love Hamnet. I also love Cane River, which I read so long ago. Recently I liked Crow Mary.
ReplyDeleteCrow Mary was a good one! I did not love Hamnet sadly. I did finish it, but it just wasn't my favorite of all time. I know my aunt enjoys her writing too though! You are right; the list is so long, but if I die with 500 books on my TBR, I am okay with that. :)
DeleteYour reading list is great Kyria! I haven’t read any of these books but will pick a few to check out from the library soon. I tend to gravitate towards nonfiction and recently finished an eye opening book called The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an interesting one. I bet you would like Anxious Generation, which is about kids and social media use. I also read another one about the Danish that was good: The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country
DeleteI did start reading Anxious Generation a while ago based on seeing it on one of your previous posts. Although I really liked the ideas in the book, the writing style seemed coarse and so I stopped and returned it to the library. Perhaps I will give it another shot. Thanks for letting me know about the other Danish book!
DeleteInteresting! I can't remember it being coarse, but I did listen to it rather than read it, so I wonder if that made a difference?
DeleteI’ve read a couple of the books you listed, but only a couple. The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society, and The Nightingale. I liked them both a lot, though I didn’t really expect to like Guernsey.
ReplyDeleteI saw Ernie mentioned Cane River, and wow, I remember really loving that one. I didn’t love Hamnet, but I think I may give it another try. I found The Road to be an amazing read, but not one that I would like to revisit. I just finished James, and I thought that was great as well. So many good books out there!
I also really enjoyed James! I have not read The Road; I tried reading another one of his books, the Passenger and could not get into it so I have not tried any of the other ones. I also have not read Cane River! I now have a lot of books to put on my list!
DeleteI've heard of so many of these, but the only one I've read is The Indifferent Stars Above, which I absolutely loved. Because my mother has Alzheimer's, I tend to stay away from books with that as the subject. I live in fear of ending up like her.
ReplyDeleteA few commenters have brought up Hamnet; that is a book I loved every single page of. The writing was gorgeous and immersive, and I was in awe of it. The story was poignant and multi-layered. I usually hate when writers fictionalize historical people, but this was so well-done and respectful. Just a beautiful book.
I like nonfiction as a rule, and I am often disappointed in modern/contemporary fiction. Like you, I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I was so grateful for the library and all those books. I would rather have read than do anything else in the world. I read about so many things! I loved learning while reading for pleasure, and I still do. I learned a whole lot about 12th century cathedral building and engineering while reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, and I ate it up. I have a large collection of books about President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Lincoln, and I just got another one, hoping I'll find some new tidbit or perspective.
After that, I'll read Dark Renaissance by Stephen Greenblatt, a book about one of Shakespeare's rivals, Christopher Marlowe, who is sometimes purported to have written Shakespeare's plays. He was murdered in a tavern and thought to be a spy, a double-agent. Many scholars credit him with being the true catalyst for the Renaissance in Elizabethan England. He's fascinating, and I want to know more about him.
Best Books:
I only buy books, so I have shelves full of Best Books. The rest I donate or give away. However--
*Best Book Ever--To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I also learned a lot from and loved reading The Pillars of the Earth. I liked his other trilogy about the Great Wars too; Although they were very long, they packed in a lot of information! If you loved Indifferent Stars, you must read Facing The Wall (about the Nisei soldiers in WWII) by the same author; it is just as good.
DeleteSadly, I did not love Hamnet; I cannot really remember why, but I didn't love it as much as many other people did! I don't know if you would like By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult, but it is also about someone else writing Shakespeare's plays, but in this case, it is a woman. It is fiction, but I do think that Picoult does a great job of researching different subjects and then writing about them.
I've read 6, 10, 13, 16 and 18. They were all great. I will be putting Still Alice, The mountains Sing and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on my TBR.
ReplyDeleteThose were all good! I actually went through a Tudor kick after reading the Gregory book. I don't know if you read any of her others but she wrote one for each of the wives, and it is fun to see the new perspective as Henry VIII ages! Also if you like England books, as Nance mentioned, Pillars of the Earth was a great book too!
DeleteOoooh! I have read three of these: Quiet, The Plot, and The Other Boelyn Girl. I enjoyed all of them!
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to choose favorites when it comes to books. Favorite what? Plot? Writing? Genre? Main character? Series? TOO HARD. Some of my favorites are The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, Broken Harbor by Tana French, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne, The Push by Ashley Audrain, the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, okay I'm going to stop now. TOO MANY GOOD BOOKS.
For sure! I could never choose a favorite! I have so many that I love. I LOVED Time Travelers Wife; I think that is on my list of all time best books, but you just made me realize that I must have read it before I was tracking on Goodreads! The Goldfinch was great, but WAY too long (30 hour audiobook!), and I loved Station Eleven, but sadly haven't really liked any of her other books! You are totally right; there are too many good books and I will probably die happy with at least 500 books on my TBR list, because it is so, SO long!
DeleteI have read #3, #13, #15
ReplyDeleteAnd #8, #12, #14, #16 are already in my TBR.
And these I have added to my ongoing TBR: #1, #2, #11
Thats a pretty solid overlap, no?
As for favorites: Solitair Mystery – introducing me to Sokrates philosophy, Anne Franks Diary – making life understandable for the tie, also made me write diaries for years. Sword of Truth series – my favorite fantasy.
Solitaire Mystery sounds like a good one, but it's not available at the library (boo), so I have requested it, but we shall see! Anne Frank is a classic; I tried to go to her house in Amsterdam and it is hard to get into! I didn't realize that it was so popular so in the end I could not get tickets.
DeleteThank you for pushing my want-to-read tag on Libby to over 600. Egads. There is not enough time in the world... Goals, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteYou and me both! I have a huge wish list! Just keep on trucking!
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