Our undergrad majors association recently sent out a questionaire, asking for winter break reading suggestions. Being endlessly good at grading procrastination, I suggested Mary Roach's Stiff, which I'd finished over Thanksgiving (that seems inappropriate somehow, but I really needed a good laugh), and Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, which is simply one of the coolest and most challenging books I've ever read.
So now, I'm looking for books, first, for my Most Wonderful in Law. MWL reads a lot, is smart and lots of fun, and I enjoy getting books as presents for (and from) MWL. Any suggestions? MWL reads lots of novels mostly, I think, with an emphasis on more recent ones (you know, books written after 1660).
And I'm looking for some break reading for myself; I enjoy all sorts of fiction and non-fiction, with an emphasis on fun and wit.
So, I ask, whatcha reading? And what should I be reading?
I found Philip Roth's Plot against America to be a terrific read.
ReplyDeleteMiddlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides is very good. Michel Faber's Crimson Petal and the White is too -- so long as you (or the MWL) don't mind reading about a prostitute in Victorian era England. Richard Russo's Empire Falls is wonderful. Ah, here's something I want to ask you: have you read any graphic novels? I was only just introduced to them by a good friend who also happens to be an English adjunct. Is that the right thing to call her? She's completed a Masters in English and she's a Shakespeare nut (the very best kind of nut, really. I was very surprised to find out that she reads what I would consider "comic books." Ultimately, though, she convinced me that there was something worthwhile about comics, and OH LORDY am I glad I listened to her. Here are just a few titles: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (story of a young girl living through the Islamic Revolution in Iran), Blankets, by Craig Thompson(a young boy/young man dealing with a conservative Christian upbringing), Epileptic, by David B. (tells the story of a family's struggle to heal their eldest son's debilitating seizures) -- and V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore (dystopian vision of a totalitarian Great Britain). The storytelling in these is amazing. And they're all about so much more than I've described. I think you should give them a try if you haven't already. Okay, rock on, Bardiac.
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