Recommend Some Literature

[cdef]

IIRC, he didn't start writing until his 40's and I believe those were the only novels he wrote. All are excellent.
...

Actually, Cain did write several more, and two of them are usually ranked with his best work. Serenade is a very fine story, and contains interesting and informed discussions about music (he was an opera buff), not to mention a terrific recipe for iguana stew. The Butterfly has Cain's trademark ear for dialogue, but the plot hinges on a certain hereditary anomaly (a birthmark) and is perhaps not altogether convincing.

 

[funkydjembe]

You might want to check out all of the "foundation" books by Isaac Asimov if you're into well written sci-fi

 

[Ben Lesser]

Speaking of sci-fi, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is an amazing read, and deals strongly with the idea of zealous colonialism, and the appropriate reasons for settling somewhere new.

If you read and like even the idea of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," Timothy Findley's Headhunter is an absolute must-read. Easily one of my favorite books of all time.

 

[funkydjembe]

Yeah, some of that Ray Bradbury stuff is good reading

 

[Adam Barkley]

Check out the Dark Elf trilogy by RA Salvatore. Now theres a summer read. A fantasy novel that deals with racism, ones self and everything good about fantasy. Seriously, these three books are great.

I read those books back in middle school and I didn't think that much of them then. Sorry.

 

[Adam Barkley]

Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop – a fictionalized history of the Catholic church in the southwest of the United States from the 16th through the 19th Century: the good, the bad and the ugly, but in the end a powerful statement for the good that religion can do when practiced by decent people. Strange in some ways as a celebration of the Catholic Church because Cather was a life long Episcopalian, and somewhat in the closet lesbian.

Mario Vargas Llosa – Captain Pantoja and the Special Service – A tremendously funny look at what happens when the Peruvian Army decides that it needs to set up it’s finest logistics officer as a pimp in the Amazon. In some ways similar to Catch-22. Don't laugh too hard, the US has done similar things.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera – A lyrical love story through an entire lifetime of living apart. See my signature at the bottom for the last line and the duration of Florentino's love.

O E Rolvaag – Giants in the Earth – The only best seller in the US not written in English. It was originally published in Norwegian by a professor from St. Olaf College in Minnesota at the beginning of the 20th Century. Life on the plains for an immigrant Norwegian family. This is a broad sprawling novel of 19th Century America…dark and depressing and at the same time exuberant and thrilling.

Jorge Amado – Gabriela – Modernity comes to a small coastal village in northeastern Brasil at the beginning of the 20th Century. Comic, wry and poignant. A great novel of humanity.

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) – Candide – Everybody should read Candide! The outrageously funny story of boundless optimism and how you can end up in boiling water as a result.

Hermann Hesse – Narcissus and Goldmund – One of many of Hesse’s searches for meaning in life. Takes place in medieval Europe during the time of the Black Death. It reminds me of Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge to some extent. That's a pretty good read also.

Laura Esquivel – Like Water for Chocolate – Unacceptable love told through the recipes of a cookbook. Funny and serious at the same time. If you have ever wondered at Post Feminism as a literary movement, this is a good place to begin.

Carlos Fuentes – The Death of Artemio Cruz – the glory and the deterioration of the Mexican Revolution told in vignettes remembered by a man dying from a heart attack as he remembers incidents of his life. This is stream of consciousness, so if you liked the Sound and the Fury, you might like this. I’ve only read it in Spanish and let me tell you, Faulkner was difficult enough in English in high school, but this was a bear in Spanish. On the other hand it is a great novel with tremendous temporal breadth and takes you step by step from the promise of Presidents like Obregón and Cárdenas to the disappointment and corruption of today.

Those are my picks from the past few years. Have fun!

EDIT: Actually, only the original Spanish and Portuguese are from the past few years. The others I tend to read over and over again every few years since high school and college; they are that good.

Candide is a good one. "Let your garden grow."

 

[Adam Barkley]

Tom Robbins--Jitterbug perfume
Douglas Hofstadter--Godel, Escher, Bach
Evelyn Waugh--Decline and fall
Victor Hugo--Hunchback of Notre Dame
F. G. Bailey--Treasons, strategems and spoils
Jared Diamond--Collapse
Anything by Roald Dahl...
Enjoy.

I cut my teeth on Dahl. I don't there is a book of his that I haven't read.

 

[Adam Barkley]

As far as the few people who suggested Fantasy and Sci-Fi, my dad gives me more suggestions in those genres than I'll ever be able to read. That is pretty much all he reads.

I'll see your Asimov and raise you Frank Herbert.

 

[Kosko]

I applaud how well read you guys are.

I actually did just finish a book that probably different than most of the stuff you've read.

The Game by Neil Strauss

Its the story of a nerd transforming himself into a pickup artist. Some people may have their apprehensions about this sort of read, but for what its worth it can be pretty interesting.

 

[cdef]

As far as the few people who suggested Fantasy and Sci-Fi, my dad gives me more suggestions in those genres than I'll ever be able to read. ...

OK, I was just going to post some good sci-fi, but I'll cut it out. Other recommendations:

Graham Greene was a secret agent who wrote a number of excellent novels. Try Our Man in Havana or The Power and the Glory if you're not familiar with him.

Malcolm Lowry is the author of Under the Volcano, set in a small Mexican town where the British consul is drinking himself to death. A tragic tale in high-grade prose.

All About H. Hatterr, by G.V. Desani. This is a one-off. The travails and musings of an innocent Anglo-Indian seeking wisdom. Unique and absolutely uproarious.

American Dreams and Working are two books of reportage compiled and researched by Studs Terkel. They consist simply of interviews with people from all walks of life, and are liable to break your heart.

The New York stories of Damon Runyon are unmissable for their cool jargon and (to say the least) colorful characters. I don't know what collections are in print, but there used to be one called On Broadway.

 

[blipndub]

Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Everything Salinger wrote.
Fantasy: Garth Nix Liriel Trilogy

 

[Kosko]

What would you guys consider essentials? Everything you consider a person should read by virtue of there own right. The pinacles of the English language

 

[Kosko]

I'll add mine to the list: 1984

 

[aesir6]

Lords of the North
Sagas of Iceland
Spearweilders Tale trilogy
Lords of Battle
Icewind Dale trilogy
ect. ect.

 

[Stubb]

What would you guys consider essentials? Everything you consider a person should read by virtue of there own right. The pinacles of the English language

Not necessarily originally in English, but here you go (roughly in chronological order):

Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey
Plato: Symposium and any other Dialogues whose topics interest you
Ovid: The Metamorphoses
The Bible: specifically Genesis, Exodus, Job, the Gospels, Revelation
Beowulf
Dante: The Divine Comedy
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet
Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain
Knut Hamsun: Pan and Growth of the Soil
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Willa Cather: My Antonia
Ernest Hemingway: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Norman Maclean: A River Runs through It

This is a partial list off the top of my head.

 

[funkydjembe]

How about "journey to ixtlan" by Carlos Castaneda. That "don Juan" will have you cracking up (or tripping sideways). That Carlos sure does say and do some dufus stuff in that book.

 

[antiseptic]

If you're really into that LOTR kinda stuff, go read The Gormenghast Novels, also a 'trilogy' (he didn't intend to make it so), by Mervyn Peake. The description of castles, people, etc is unmatched.