Nancy Pearl's book recommendations NPR 22 May 2015

Link to program

The books are

The Revolutions, by Felix Gilman
The Swimmer, by Joakim Zander
Etta and Otto and Russell and James, by Emma Hooper
Unbecoming, by Rebecca Sherm
The Half Brother, by Holly LeCraw
The Strangler Vine, by M.J. Carter

More reading to do soon

A few more titles from the last few pages of the 2010 Indie Bound Book calendar:

• Restless, by William Boyd
• The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu
• The Girls, by Lori Lansen

And some from the 12 December 2010 issue of The Seattle Times,  page H4, "Best Crime Fiction of 2010."

• Rock Paper Tiger, by Lisa Brackmann
• The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag, by Alan Bradley
• Faithful Place, by Tana French
• Spies of the Balkans, by Alan Furst
• This Body of Death, by Elizabeth George
• The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, by Tarquin Hall
• Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane
• I'd Know You Anywhere, by Laura Lippman
• Still Midnight, by Denise Mina
• The Devil's Star, by Jo Nesbø

Also, we went to the movies today to see True Grit,  a remake of the old John Wayne western. This one, directed and produced by the illustrious Coen Brothers, stars Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. I'm not going to try to start reviewing movies, don't know enough for that, but I mention this because one of the previews we saw was for an upcoming movie of Lincoln Lawyer,  made from the novel by the same name, by Michael Connelly. I instantly remembered reading Lincoln Lawyer,  and looked forward to finding it in this journal. It's not here, which means either I read it before I started keeping this (October 2005), or (likely) I forgot to enter it. In any event, Mrs. L. thinks she and I both read this book and at least one other my Connelly. I retrieved a book list from Connelly's web site and expect to pursue some reading in that direction as well.

Indie Bound Daily Book Calendar

Last Christmas my sister-in-law Diane gave me a daily tear-off calendar from IndieBound.org,  which represents the American Booksellers Association, an organization of independent book stores.

Each page of the calendar contains something about a work of literature, often in the form of a question with the answer printed upside-down in tiny print at the bottom of the page.

I've had daily tear-off calendars before, often with cartoons on each page, but I've never had one that kept my attention as this one has. As it nears the end of 2010 and the pad has grown very thin indeed, it seems I've begun to notice books that I want to read much more often on its pages. In the last week these books have come to my attention:

• Ghostwalk, by Rebecca Stott
• Travels With My Aunt, by Graham Greene
• The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, by Barry Udall
• Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald

I look forward to reading every one of these. I haven't picked up a book by Graham Greene in a long time; the other authors are all new to me.

Picks by Donald Knuth

How often do you get a reading list from a certified genius?
This is from Donald Knuth's website, the page called "Retirement"

[quote]
Of course I like to read nontechnical books, although I read very slowly. Here are some that I recently read and heartily recommend:

Life A Users Manual,

by Georges Perec (perhaps the greatest 20th century novel)
Gaudy Night

by Dorothy L Sayers (captures Oxford high-table small-talk wonderfully)
An Instance of the Fingerpost

by Iain Pears (also Oxford but in the 1660s)
Death of a Salesperson

by Robert Barnard (who is at his best in short stories like these)
The Haj

by Leon Uris (great to read on a trip to Israel)
Marjorie Morningstar

by Herman Wouk (in-depth characters plus a whole philosophy)
On Food and Cooking

by Harold McGee (applied biochemistry in the kitchen)
Food

by Waverley Root (his magnum opus, a wonderful history of everything delicious)
The Golden Gate

by Vikram Seth (the Great California Novel, entirely in 14-line sonnets)
The Age of Faith

by Will Durant (volume 4 of his series, covers the years 325--1300)
Efronia

by Stina Katchadourian (diaries and letters of a remarkable Armenian woman)
The Man Who Knew Infinity

by Robert Kanigel (biographies of Ramanujan and Hardy)
Hackers

by Steven Levy (incredibly well written tale of our times)
The Abominable Man

by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (one of their brilliantly Swedish detective novels)
[end quote]

I had quite forgotten Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. I just requested two of their books from the library. More on that soon, I expect.