fangirljen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fangirljen) wrote2008-01-03 07:35 pm
fangirljen) wrote2008-01-03 07:35 pm
Entry tags:
Book and Music Love
I'm looking for recommendations for both books and music to fill 2008 with. Tomorrow I'm going to make a list at work of the books that I've noticed that seem interesting. The thing I really like about handling fiction is that I get to see books that I otherwise would have missed. I was more familiar with the Science Fiction section. Unless I was going after something in particular, I hardly made a point to go into Literature. I've seen all of the literature books my store sells. A few days before the New Year, I finally was able to alphabetize everything. :D
While I'm composing my list, I'd like to know what are some of your favorite books? Have you read anything recently that just blows your mind? (Thanks for the pic, Katie! *chuckle*) And any music? If it has a beat that one can move to, I'm happy. Also a big fan of piano work, but that's optional. I know less about music and groups than I know about books, so any help with music is even more appreciated! :D
Some books that I remember that are currently on my list are:
1. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
2. The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
3. Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson
4. Lover of Unreason: Assia Wevill, Sylvia Plath's Rival and Ted Hughes' Doomed Love by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev
5. City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
6. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
7. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
8. Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write by Gayle Brandeis
9. Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis
And returning to a few of my old favorites:
10. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
11. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
While I'm composing my list, I'd like to know what are some of your favorite books? Have you read anything recently that just blows your mind? (Thanks for the pic, Katie! *chuckle*) And any music? If it has a beat that one can move to, I'm happy. Also a big fan of piano work, but that's optional. I know less about music and groups than I know about books, so any help with music is even more appreciated! :D
Some books that I remember that are currently on my list are:
1. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
2. The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
3. Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson
4. Lover of Unreason: Assia Wevill, Sylvia Plath's Rival and Ted Hughes' Doomed Love by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev
5. City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
6. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
7. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
8. Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write by Gayle Brandeis
9. Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis
And returning to a few of my old favorites:
10. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
11. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
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Books: I loved The Gun Seller, actually. But my desert island book is, hands down, Stephen King's The Stand. Guh. Floored me time and time again.
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Book recommendations I posted elsewhere
"Rudolf Hefting of Amsterdam thought he was engaged in an experiment that would take him back to the Middle Ages to a tournament of knights. But by a miscalculation of the computer, he arrives in the Rhineland at the exact time that the Children's Crusade is passing through. A stranded traveler in time, Rudolf joins the immense children's army -- almost 10,000 strong.
With Rudolf, the reader struggles to understand how it was possible that children between the ages of 6 and 15 thought they could travel across Europe, then cross the sea to drive away the Saracens from the Holy Land. They had no weapons, transportation, or money; they experienced hunger, epidemics, and death. The dreadful conditions he encounters compel him to use his 20th-century knowledge to try to create order out of chaos. In spite of himself, he becomes a leader and organizer. And along the way he also experiences loyal friendships, courage, and devotion to God.
This wonderfully rich story is a winner of the Golden Pen, the most prestigious Dutch national award for children's books."
[read excerpt]
• Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder [YA - 1991, Norway]
"Sophie Amundsen is a fourteen year old girl living in Norway in 1990. She lives with her cat Sherekan and her mother. Her father is a captain of an oil tanker, and is away for most of the year.
Sophie's life is rattled as the book begins, when she receives two anonymous messages in her mailbox (Who are you? Where does the world come from?), as well as a post card addressed to 'Hilde Møller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen'. Shortly afterwards she receives a packet of papers, part of a correspondence course in philosophy.
With these mysterious communications, Sophie becomes the student of a fifty-year-old philosopher, Alberto Knox. He starts out as totally anonymous, but as the story unfolds he reveals more and more about himself. The papers and the packet both turn out to be from him, although the post card is not; it is addressed from someone called Albert Knag, who is in a United Nations peacekeeping unit stationed in Lebanon.
Alberto teaches her about the history of philosophy. She gets a substantive and understandable review from the Pre-Socratic Greeks through Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with the philosophy lessons, Sophie and Alberto try and outwit the mysterious Albert Knag, who appears to have God-like powers, which Alberto finds quite troubling.
As Albert Knag continues to meddle with Sophie's life, Alberto helps her fight back by teaching her everything he knows about philosophy. This, he explains, is the only way to understand her world.
This is laced with events which appear scientifically impossible, such as Sophie seeing her reflection in a mirror wink with both eyes, or actually seeing Socrates and Plato. Being a book based on philosophy, however, it promises—and delivers—an explanation for everything in the end."
[read excerpt]
• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown [Adult - 1998, USA]
[read excerpt]
Because my previous comment was too long:
"Published in the Netherlands in 1984, this devastating exercise in psychological horror was the basis for an acclaimed Dutch film and a recent American remake that may have prompted the novel's long-overdue publication in English. Veteran Dutch author Krabbe works with an economy that only reinforces the terror inspired by his scarifying tale.
En route from Holland to a vacation in the South of France, freelance writer Rex Hofman and his girlfriend Saskia Ehlvest bicker, make up and stop at a gas station, where Saskia goes to get soft drinks and never returns.
Years later, a stranger approaches him. The stranger admits to kidnapping her; he promises to show what happened to her if the young man puts himself in the stranger's hand. The evolution of the kidnapper from normality to madness is skillfully depicted; family and neighbors detect no hint of the monster he has become. This is a cunningly efficient tale of obsession, told in a flat, disinterested tone that makes the horror it narrates all the more chilling."
Re: Book recommendations I posted elsewhere
Re: Book recommendations I posted elsewhere
Dorks rule
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Two of my favorite books are:
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris—an essay book that alternately makes me laugh hysterically and blows my mind. Some of the topics discussed are language barriers ("Jesus Shaves" is awesome) and living in France.
The Undertaking by Thomas Lynch—another essay book. This one deals with being a mortician and dealing with the dead and the grieving. Also hilarious, one of the essays is about doing useful things with people's ashes like, if you mother liked ceramics, turn her into a decorative pot.
I also recommend pretty much anything by Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five is a classic and I'm quite partial to Cat's Cradle and Timequake.
If you'd like something easy but good and feel like playing in manga, you should check out Death Note. It's complex with complicated characters and I think you'd really get into the world. The best part about it is that it's actually finished, so you won't be waiting for the next volume to come out.
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Music wise, I highly recommend A Fine Frenzy, she has amazing piano work and a beautiful voice. My favorite is Almost Lover.
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Also a book called Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. (I can see Adrian Pasdar in the role of Randy Bragg.)
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I can't imagine you aren't doing so already, but if you haven't read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, I suggest you do so. The man is a genius. (For the uninitiated, the first book is fairly standard fantasy, but then they just get better and better.) I also love A Wind In Cairo by Judith Tarr - a very special love story.