Top Ten Tuesday: Thanks for the Recommendation
10. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: The blogosphere recommended this to me. I was just getting back into reading some YA, and I really loved this book. I picked it up because of all the comparisons being made to Battle Royale, which is my favorite Japanese horror movie.
9. T. R. Reid, The Healing of America: I have been interested in health care for a while, and my husband heard about this book on Book TV. I found it very informative and really enjoyed reading it.
8. Steven Millhauser, Dangerous Laughter: I wouldn't have known about this fabulous collection of short stories if it hadn't been on the New York Times, ten best list. I get a lot of recommendations from the Book Review.
7. Jonathan Tropper, This is Where I Leave You: I got this recommendation from another bookish young lady that works at the coffee shop I always go to. It was a great recommendation and I definitely enjoyed it.
6. Zadie Smith, White Teeth: This was a recommendation from one of my best friends (and former roommate). It's her favorite book and now one of mine as well.
5. Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera: This is a book that ended up on my M.A. exam list that probably wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the recommendation of a colleague and also one of my professors. It ended up being one of the things that I remember the most from that list.
4. Don DeLillo, White Noise: I consider this my favorite book. Originally it was a recommendation from my college roommate who was reading it for a class. I read it and then later read it again for the same class, which I took because I loved the book so much.
3. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: A professor I had in graduate school recommended that I read this for a paper I was writing on Virginia Woolf. I read it and it really influenced my thinking and I still refer to it all the time...plus, it really helped me write that paper.
2. Frank Norris, McTeague: Some of the best recommendations of my reading career come from syllabi in classes I've taken. This is a book I hadn't even heard of when I read it for class, and I'm glad that I did.
1. Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees: One of my dad's friend's wives bought be this as a gift. I have no recollection of why she was buying me a gift (high school graduation, maybe?). All I know is that I loved the book, and it lead me to an author who I still consider one of my favorites.
The blogosphere recommended The Hunger Games to me as well, and I also really enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteWhite teeth and White noise are both waiting to be read by me to read them! If you recommend them, I might have to give them a go soon :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that about Bean Trees. I'm also a Kingsolver fan and that is one of her books I have not yet read.
ReplyDeleteThis is Where I Leave You has been recommended to me as well, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet!! Glad to see it on your list though.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even heard of The Hunger Games before starting to blog, but everyone seemed to be recommending it left, right and centre, so I gave it a try and I love it so far! (Still haven't read the last book)
ReplyDeleteI first heard of Barbara Kingsolver when I was in a bookshop over here in Greece, when I decided to buy The Poisonwood Bible. I still haven't got round to reading it, but I am looking forward to it!
Great list. I struggled slightly through Zadie Smith's On Beauty but glad I got to the end. Would quite like to read her other ones too.
ReplyDeleteI have just returned Bean Trees to the library... unread :( I might have to go back and reissue it!
Loved White Teeth. Lots of great titles on this list. I keep hearing Jonathan Tropper's name.
ReplyDeleteI read White Noise and McTeague in college and loved them both. You are probably the 10th person to have Hunger Games on your list, so I gather it's excellent, and it's going on my tbr list now.
ReplyDeleteI had to read White Teeth for a class - never would have picked it up otherwise, but I liked it a lot. Haven't read The Bean Trees but I loved The Poisonwood Bible/The Lacuna, so I should get on that!
ReplyDeletelovely list! haven't read white noise yet, but its on my piles. must read it!
ReplyDeleteThe blogosphere also recommended The Hunger Games to me, too. And it is excellent, though so violent that I did a lot of crying during the read and cannot say exactly that I liked it.
ReplyDelete...and next time I comment, I'll have to proofread for redundancy. "Also" and "too" were not both necessary in that first sentence. :)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed White Teeth which was assigned in one of my classes. I'll have to try out Dangerous Laughter. I learned about one of my favorites, Vida by Patricia Engel, from New York Times list as well.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of intriguing books. The book blogosphere also recommended the Hunger Games to me and I'm very thankful!
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing White Teeth on lists of great books, I should check it out. Glad your friend recommended a book to you that became one of our favorites!
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Games is a book I'm glad was recommended to me too. I've been wanting to read Zadie Smith, either White Teeth or On Beauty, it just hasn't seemed to happen yet.
ReplyDeleteI've got McTeague sitting in a TBR pile....I may get to it one of these days.
ReplyDeletethanks for stopping by mine!
These are some fantastic recs! I keep seeing Hunger Games listed this week...I'll have to check it out!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my place and commenting.
I like your list. It's really interesting to see who and when books get recommended to people. The only one I've read is The Bean Trees and it was required reading for my high school AP English class but I do remember enjoying it. Haven't read anything else by Kingsolver yet but I guess I should change that. Most of the others are already on my TBR although I just added White Noise.
ReplyDeleteI was assigned The Bean Trees in college and I loved it so uch I went on to read everything else she wrote. Animal Dreams is actually my favorite. I also really liked White Teeth. Someone must have recommended it to me too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog! The only book I know on your list is The Hunger Games. I'll have to check out the other ones. :)
ReplyDeleteMy introduction to Kingsolver was Pigs in Heaven (whoops started with number two first) but I still love her.) Thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeleteI read White Noise it college too. I'm glad I did. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
ReplyDeleteWasn't the Hunger Games amazing!?! Have you read her other series, Gregor the overlander? That's a really good one too! Thanks so much for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteI loved This is Where I Leave You! You should try The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter. They both had similar tones and I related to them in the same way. I can really go for middle-aged white guy angst, as long as its funny.
ReplyDeleteSomeone recommended White Noise to me in college, too, and it has been crammed in my book case for over ten years now. I am going to go dust it off and read it--thanks for reminding me about it.