Your best five reads of the last three years?

[sojourner]

Only five? And in three years??? fucking hell.

Okay, I'm going to cheat a little for the first choice

absolutely everything by Annie Proulx

Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg
My Antonia - Willa Cather
The Good Women of China - Xinran
Auschwitz - Laurence Rees

This is instantly changeable, and this is a nasty NASTY thread

 

[El Jefe]

I think I know which one you mean.

Please find it. I am old and easily defeated by overcomplicated Times website menus

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Only five? And in three years??? fucking hell.

Some people don't even read five books in three years.

 

[sojourner]

Some people don't even read five books in three years.

I know - freaks

Each to their own innit? I love my brother, but he only ever read car manuals

 

[ringo]

The African Trilogy - Chinua Achebe (staggeringly good, it should be a crime not to read this book)
The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Orchard Keeper - Cormac McCarthy (I know everybody raves about The Road but he's my favourite author and although it's good it's success meant this was reprinted for the first time in years. Collection complete.)

 

[El Jefe]

Strong showing for McCarthy and Letham which makes this reader feel like he's surfing the frickin' zeitgeist

 

[Pie 1]

Towering above anything else, The Road - Cormac McCarthy.

Then in no particular order:

Richard Ford - Independence Day
JM Coetzee - Disgrace
Ian McEwan - Saturday

And, although still high from having just finished it, I'm pretty sure it's in the 5 now:
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections

 

[Dillinger4]

Please find it. I am old and easily defeated by overcomplicated Times website menus

I reckon it was this one:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3122712.ece

 

[Dillinger4]

Can I just say as well - I thought The Road one of the most overrated and overhyped books to come out in a long time.

 

[El Jefe]

I reckon it was this one:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3122712.ece

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'll even forgive you your McCarthy heresy

 

[DotCommunist]

See Letham is OK but not as dear to me he clearly is to some of you lot

 

[Dillinger4]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'll even forgive you your McCarthy heresy

AA Gill is a brilliant writer.

 

[sojourner]

Strong showing for McCarthy...which makes this reader feel like he's surfing the frickin' zeitgeist

I'd have chosen All the Pretty Horses over The Road tbh, but the reason he's missing is because...there wasn't enough fucking room

 

[El Jefe]

I'd have chosen All the Pretty Horses over The Road tbh, but the reason he's missing is because...there wasn't enough fucking room

Ah, read that longer than 3 years ago, y'see. But otherwise, yes

 

[sojourner]

Dave Pelzer's books are all just gut wrenching. A Child Called It is probably the most torturous reading.

I read that after a particularly horrible break up - and was strangely soothed by it

 

[Idaho]

See Letham is OK but not as dear to me he clearly is to some of you lot

Of the 4 I have read, 2 are fantastic and 2 were fairly ordinary.

 

[El Jefe]

Of the 4 I have read, 2 are fantastic and 2 were fairly ordinary.

Motherless Brooklyn - untouchable.
Fortress of Solitude - excellent but flawed
Girl In A Landscape - brilliant if you're into his whole Searchers fixation
Disappointment Artist - some good essays, some a bit meh.
You Don't Love Me Yet - enjoyable, but nothing special

 

[ChrisC]

This is instantly changeable, and this is a nasty NASTY thread

LOL.

 

[ChrisC]

Yes I didn't leave enough room did I. Cos:

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds

Would be in there to.

 

[sojourner]

Tough question that! It can include a series. Mine are:

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K.Dick.
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter.
The Algabraist by Iain M. Banks.
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
Complicity by Iain Banks.

I would add more but only five so...

Yes I didn't leave enough room did I. Cos:

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds

Would be in there to.

!! err...hang on!! that would be a magnificent seven then

 

[sojourner]

All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady - Florence King
Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker
Margrave of the Marshes - John and the Pig
Waterland - Graham Swift



*does big fuck off to ChrisC*

 

[Annierak]

All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady - Florence King
Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker
Margrave of the Marshes - John and the Pig
Waterland - Graham Swift



*does big fuck off to ChrisC*

I'm gonna re-read that again this w.end

 

[sojourner]

I'm gonna re-read that again this w.end

You'll cover all that, in one weekend? you sure babe? what with getting superfast internet and all?

 

[Annierak]

You'll cover all that, in one weekend? you sure babe? what with getting superfast internet and all?

Yeh, i don't need much sleep

 

[kerb]

some good hints on this thread as to what i should read next

authors and books i havent heard of

 

[Dillinger4]

some good hints on this thread as to what i should read next

authors and books i havent heard of

Read the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao before any of the others.

 

[El Jefe]

Read the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao before any of the others.

Yeh, THEN read Kavalier & Klay

 

[sojourner]

Read the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao before any of the others.

fuck off, elitist

 

[Dillinger4]

fuck off, elitist

It is just better than all the others mentioned, thats all.

 

[kerb]

Read the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao before any of the others.

cheers. may just to that