I've
recently been blogging about the two conferences I attended, one in
Seattle, one at Taylor University. Now I'm in the midst of sorting
through an amazing week I spent doing research on Charles Williams at
the Wade Center, Wheaton College. During this nearly 3-week trip, I came
across many recommendations of books
to read soon: from paper presenters, plenary speakers, and friends --
from popular to high fiction to social commentary and beyond.
Those of you with whom I visited, or who attended the conference(s): what other books did I miss? What would you have on your list, from either the Conference on Christianity & Lit, or from the Lewis/Inklings Colloquium?
Here is the gallimaufry of a list:
Those of you with whom I visited, or who attended the conference(s): what other books did I miss? What would you have on your list, from either the Conference on Christianity & Lit, or from the Lewis/Inklings Colloquium?
Here is the gallimaufry of a list:
The
Road (and others) by Cormac
McCarthy
Gilead
and Housekeeping by
Marilyn Robinson
The
Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and
Mockingjay by Suzanne
Collins [read The Hunger Games on the plane from Seattle to Indianapolis, read Catching Fire]
Generation
P by Victor Pelevin
The
Known World by
Edward P. Jones
Song
of Solomon by
Toni Morrison
White
Noise
by Don DeLillo
Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
The
Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge
Luis Borges
all the rest of the Lord
Peter books by Dorothy Sayers
The
Napoleon of Notting Hill,
The
Club of Queer Trades,
and The
Ball and the Cross
by G.K. Chesterton
Infinite Jest by
David Foster Wallace
The Cloister Walk by
Kathleen Norris
There Are No Children
Here by Alex Kotlowitz
A
Taste for Death by P.D. James [just finished this last night]
Postmodern
Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960
by Amy Hungerford
Light
by Charlie W. Starr
Looking for the King by David Downing
The Lady's Not for Burning and A Phoenix Too Frequent by Christopher Fry
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley
The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
The Lady's Not for Burning and A Phoenix Too Frequent by Christopher Fry
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley
The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton
Oh, and I'm in the middle of Doctor Zhivago and The English Patient, too.
Thoughts on any of these are welcome!
OK, also, here's the complete list of novels from which we're allowed to choose for our ENG II course at the community college where I teach.
...some interesting overlaps.
OK, also, here's the complete list of novels from which we're allowed to choose for our ENG II course at the community college where I teach.
1984, Orwell -- read
The Awakening,
Chopin -- read
The Color Purple, Walker
Ethan Frome,
Wharton -- read
The Fifth Child, Lessing
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald -- read
The Heart Is a Lonely
Hunter, McCullers
Monkeys, Minot
Rabbit, Run,
Updike
The Remains of the
Day, Ishiguro
Huckleberry Finn, Twain -- read
A Death in the Family, Agee
Things Fall Apart, Achebe -- read
The Road, McCarthy
White Noise, Delillo
Their Eyes Were
Watching God, Hurston
Of Love and Other
Demons, Marquez
...some interesting overlaps.
...And, for a British Novel survey a homeschool [former] student of mine is doing, I should read:
Rebecca by Daphne du
Maurier
Brideshead Revisited by
Evelyn Waugh
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
10 comments:
You've got a good list going! I would add Leif Enger's Peace like a River and Evelyn Underhill's Mystics of the Church.
Wouldn't you know. I was reading the second Hunger Games book on my flight to Indiana.
The English Patient is one of my favorite books -- one of the few that I actually wept while reading and whose passages I sometimes read again and again. I don't usually re-read books, not even my favorite ones. There are just so many others!
Otherwise, your list reads like a segment of my list(s). I have them scattered about the apartment. Do you know what's terrible? Having so many interesting books awaiting me on the shelf but no time to read them! Such as Chaim Potok's The Chosen.
High on my list now -- but not on my shelves or Kindle -- are Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan, Merle Miller's A Gay and Melancholy Sound, and Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael medieval mystery series. Have you ever read a Brother Cadfael story? I think you'd enjoy them!
p.s. figuring out how to comment on here is taking me some time...this will now be my fourth try. I am not a robot, I swear!
Wow, an overwhelming list. I'm not sure how you remembered all this. I'd also add:
Marilyn Robinson, When I was a Child I Used to Read Books
Madeleine L'Engle popped up frequently
I've ordered Crystal Downing's, Changing Signs of Truth: A Christian Introduction to the Semiotics of Communication and How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith: Questioning Truth in Language, Philosophy and Art
There was also an excellent poetry reading by a young Sorina Higgins from her book Caduceus. Just saying.
And, at dinner we heard of upcoming books on Sheldon Vanauken (an illicit biography) and Alan Jacobs is working on something about the crush of ideas in Winter 1943.
Other books by Kathleen Norris that are also good:
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography
Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
It so happens that I'm at the Glen Workshop right now, in So. Hadley (Mt. Holyoke College), where Kathleen Norris is the keynote speaker and chaplain. She's a treat to listen to.
David: Thanks for the suggestions. Underhill I know, because of the Charles Williams connection, but I hadn't heard of Leif Enger.
Ron: What did you think? I've just borrowed the second one from somebody here and will start it this afternoon. I really hated the first one, and not for the reasons I expected too. Well, those also, but other even more disturbing elements. I suppose I'll have to blog about it
I've never read Brother Cadfael. I'd probably love them!
I've just made the commenting process easier, even though that means I'll have to wade through piles of spam. I'll do it for you guys!
Brenton:
Aw, thanks! Good suggestions. And I didn't remember all of them; I made notes as I went along. :)
Rosie: Enjoy the Glen!!!! We expect a report when you get back. :)
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