Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
There is so much to love about this book. The characters are vibrant, the language is rich and there are good life's lessons throughout--but it's not preachy. This is a story told with lots of humor although it does have it's tear-jerker moments. Young Will Tweedy is 14 at the turn of the century and is living in the town of Cold Sassy, Georgia. His grandfather causes an uproar in this sleepy little town by eloping with the beautiful young employee in his store. That's bad enough but what really sets the tongues to wagging is that Grandpa's first wife just passed three weeks ago and is barely cold in the grave. The events subsequent to this scandalous event changes Will's outlook on life forever. He has an "old" grandpa who is made young again by the pretty young wife and he himself begins to grow up as he romanticizes about women, kisses someone for the first time, and drives around town in his grandfather's new automobile. Thumbs both up!


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Gump and Company by Winston Groom

Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved the movie "Forrest Gump" so when I saw this book at a library sale, I had to have it. It picks up where the movie left off but I have to say that the first book and the movie must have been quite different. For instance, Forrest's shrimp company apparently went bankrupt and he was left flat broke. His true love Jenny didn't die as she did in the movie although she was pretty quickly dispatched in this sequel. Forrest got into plenty of adventures in this book as well, including Iran-Contra, the first Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin War, and other historical events from the 1980s. Forrest even met Tom Hanks who suggested that a movie should be made from Forrest's life. Heh. It was an amusing book, very light and easy to read.


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Duma Key by Stephen King

Duma Key by Stephen King

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just finished reading the book and while I liked it, I don't consider it to be one of his best. My favorite is and always will be The Stand, I guess. T



Edgar Freemantle was a happily married, middle aged owner of a construction firm when a horrible accident severely injured him physically and mentally. In the aftermath of such traumatic injuries, he's changed and as a result, his life takes some dramatic changes. His therapist suggests a change of scenery and Edgar chooses to relocate from Minnesota to Duma Key, FL.



Edgar had already begun sketching by the time he moves to the house he renames "Big Pink". Suddenly, he is a prolific artist, moving on from pencil drawings to oils.



There is a chilling mystery on Duma Island. Why is the southern part overgrown with trees and plants not really native to the area? Why does no one live on that part of the island? Edgar's only neighbors are an elderly patron of the arts struggling with Alzheimer's and her caretaker. As Edgar becomes friends with them and learns more about them, his artwork takes a dark turn.



I don't want to go any further and include spoilers. I enjoyed the book but felt it was too long. That's been an issue with some King books I've read, particularly the ones since his accident. His writing has changed and while I haven't read everything he's written since then, I haven't been a big fan of the stuff I have read. The story could have ended a lot sooner. Part of the ending reminded me of something that happened in one of his other stories and I didn't think it was necessary to have it happen in this book.



I love Stephen King and will continue to read whatever he writes, including going back and re-reading the old stuff.


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Two Mysteries

I've finally managed to finish not one but two books! I'd switched to large print books because I'm having such trouble focusing on regular print. It's really driving me crazy because I have hundreds of books I want to read but am not able to do so. I have an appointment to see my eye doctor tomorrow and if there's nothing wrong with my eyes, the next step is to isolate the medicinal culprit--and I'm pretty sure I know which one(s) it is!

First I read Black Ice by Michael Connelly. Another blogger recommended him to me and I'm glad he did. The only drawback is that my blogger friend said it didn't matter in which order I read the books but I believe it does. There were references in this book made to an earlier story. It didn't detract except that I was then curious to know what the earlier book was about. Luckily, I missed only the first in the series and I now have a list of the books in chronological order.

Harry Bosch is a troubled maverick detective who becomes involved in what originally appeared to be the suicide of a cop gone bad. Although his superiors would like to cover the whole thing up, Harry just can't stay out of it especially when the autopsy results come back "inconclusive". His investigation takes him down into Mexico and involves him in the seedy dealings of drug dealers introducing a new form of dope to this country--"black ice": a mix of heroin, cocaine, and PCP.

I won't go into all the particulars and will just say that it was an enjoyable book. It's not great literature but I did get hooked and was unable to put the book down for a while. The only down side was that it seemed to drag a little in some places but that's okay.

I was very disappointed with The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. He wrote the book especially for "Hard Case Crime", a series of books by classic mystery writers and new ones that were supposed to have a 1940s/1950s old time mystery feel to them. I was expecting a hard boiled crime story and what I got was two old geezers in Maine telling their wide-eyed intern about some guy from Colorado who may or may not have choked to death on a steak sandwich. I kept waiting for the book to get better and it was charming but that is about all. Waste of time.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

This is the story of the last empress of China, Tzu Hsi. In this book she's known as Orchid, fourth wife (or concubine) of the emperor of China. Orchid sells herself to raise enough money for her mother, brother and sister to live on. At first, she's excited about being in the Forbidden City but soon loneliness and doubt make her life miserable. The emperor, who is supposed to visit different wives every night, is not inclined to do that and Orchid spends months alone and ignored until she finds a way to attract his majesty's attention. There is jealousy and intrigue within and without the courts and this is actually the first book of two. It's very interesting and a good book but I must admit I found it moved slowly. It's great for those who enjoy historical fiction and who are curious about other countries and cultures.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

I enjoyed this book even though it creeped me out quite a bit. It's creepy in the way the true Grimm's Fairy Tales are creepy.

David is a 12 year old English boy during WWII who loses his mother to a debilitating illness--cancer, I think. She'd infused him with a love of books, telling him that they were alive and he takes great solace in them especially when his father eventually remarries.

Not only does his father remarry, the new little family relocates to Rose (the stepmother)'s home outside of London. Rose tries her best to be friends with the resentful David, who rebuffs her at every turn. Then, to add insult to injury, Rose has a baby and David feels even more isolated and alienated.

It's in that spirit that strange things begin to happen. He begins to have episodes where he passes out. Books "speak" to him. He begins to see a crooked man. After a particularly unpleasantly argument with Rose and his father, he runs out to the garden and a portal opens up into another world. He thinks he hears his mother calling to him and he feels compelled to go to her.

David enters an alternate world that is more nightmare than dream. There are all manners of evil creatures and weird beasts inhabiting the place as well as a few good guys sprinkled here and there. Worst of all is the crooked man, who has some really foul and evil plan for David.

So what happens to David? Read the book and find out! It's a great story!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

As Harry Potter has gotten older, I've liked his character less and less. Maybe it's just me, but I think Rowling made a mistake by having her books become so dark. Harry became a whinier, more bitter sort of kid -- with good reason, I suppose -- and an almost thoroughly unlikeable sort of hero. He's moody, doubts his friends, and nurses this big rage against his mentor, Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore, who originally seemed to be a kindly caring teacher-man, was portrayed as a manipulative, calculating and power hungry old man who withheld important information from people and used them without feeling much guilt about it. I didn't like him in this book either.

A character I did enjoy wondering about, Severus Snape, made only brief appearances in the book and I was very disappointed about that. I'd wondered throughout the previous book whether he was a truly bad guy or a truly good guy in disguise. I found out but not until the end and he was so shockingly killed even before the secret came out I was totally turned off.

That brings me to the killings and the darkness of the book. So many of the deaths seemed designed just to shock. Voldemort is evil, soulless and remorseless. Let's kill some Weaseleys, house elves, and other popular characters just to make that point. That's what happened to Snape and so Harry had to find out after the fact that his old enemy was actually a sort of hero.

It all worked out in the end. Harry realized that Dumbledore wasn't so bad, just human, and that Snape also wasn't so bad, just human. The man had been in love with Harry's mother, how awful could he be?

I think I would have liked the books better if Rowling had kept to a lighter tone but that's just me.

On the other hand, the 19 years later afterward was just too smarmy for me.

I guess you just can't win.

The Medium by Noelle Sickels

I enjoy historical fiction and the fact that the main character is a medium, channelling the spirits of dead soldiers and sailors, added a level of fascination and interest. The only thing is, I think the book should have ended 100 pages sooner...with the death of the fiancee, Billy.

The book begins when Helen Schneider, the young medium in training, is just 13. Her grandmother is her mentor and the elder woman is also a medium, although not always a very honest one. Helen, though, has natural and true abilities. She is a strong medium.

In the years before the war, the author weaves in real events to add to the story. She's got the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio program scare that sent people into the streets in a panic because they thought the Martians were landing! I'm surprised, though, that there was no mention of the Hindenburg.

Helen has always been in love with Billy Mackey. That was the other plot line in the book. Sometimes there'd be mention of Billy's younger brother Lloyd but it was just to show what a wild young man he was.

After the war begins, Helen is visited by soldier after soldier. She also has a visual materialization involving the deaths of many Jewish people. The Army gets wind of all this and warns her about using her power. That puts a damper on Helen's abilities.

Billy starts out working for a defense plant but as he and Helen decide to get married, he feels compelled to join the service.

Up until this point, my only complaint was that the characters seemed superficial. For instance, there is anti-German-American sentiment but the feelings of the family isn't explored much about that. Even Helen's grief about Billy seemed sort of detached to me. I felt that the story really ended at that point and yet it went on.

It wasn't a bad story. It was pretty entertaining. It just ran a little too long and the last hundred pages or so were too melodramatic (Helen is arrested as a posible spy by the army)for me. Try it, you might like it a lot better than I did.

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter was written by Carson McCullers when she was only 22 or 23 years old. What a perceptive person she was at such a young age!

The central character has to be John Singer, although he is not a major player in the story. All the other characters revolve around him, however, and without him there would be no coherence in the story. John Singer is deaf, isolated by that fact and by the fact that his only friend--another deaf man--is taken away to an insane asylum. Singer is desperately lonely and while he had his friend, Antonapoulous, with him, he'd sign and sign and sign and tell everything in his soul. It didn't matter that his friend didn't respond in kind.

Once his friend is taken away, Singer can't stand the loneliness of his apartment and so he rents a room in a boardhouse run by the Kelly family. Not long after that, he has four frequent visitors who proceed to talk and talk and talk to him and it doesn't matter that he doesn't respond often. Ironic, eh?

The first visitor is Jake Blount, an alcoholic rabble rouser. Blount tries to stir up the emotions of the people, frequently ranting about their rights and the oppressive nature of the bosses and so on. No one listens to him and many times, people laugh at him. However, he believes Singer understands him and so he visits.

Another visitor is young Mick Kelly, a tomboy sort of girl with music in her head and a desire to compose. She wanders around the town at night, restless, looking for radios playing music she wants to hear.

There is Dr. Copeland, a bitter black physician who is disappointed in his children and in his people.

Finally, there's the owner of the diner/bar that Singer frequents, Biff Brannon, a timid sort of man.

Each person believes that Singer belongs to him or her, their "special" friend. One time when they all show up at the same time, Singer mistakenly believes that they'll all enjoy a good time. Instead, everyone is uncomfortable and Singer doesn't understand it. He's a very kind mind and so if he doesn't always understand what his guest is going on about he keeps it to himself.

Singer has his own secret--a yearning for his old friend. He disappears a couple of times to go and visit his friend and doesn't share where he's gone. He also keeps his hands shoved deeply in his pockets, hiding them. And then he learns that Antonapolous has died of an illness and it sets off a shocking act of violence that stuns the small group of visitors.

The book was made into a movie starring Alan Arkin. I remember going to see it with my parents and some friends of theirs. All the deaf adults hated it. They felt that Antonoupolous portrayed deaf people as fools and Arkin's Singer was the "perfect" deaf person. No deaf person could read lips so well, they declared. No hearing person would hang around the deaf.

In one way, I disagree with that. I think, in Singer, each ot those people found a captive audience...someone who would listen but not have a capability of questioning or criticizing. This was a really good book!

Daniel Isn't Talking by Marti Leimbach

I am not surprised to read that Marti Leimbach has an autistic son. Anyone who could write characters as well as she either must have a lot of personal experience or is a genius. I liked the book a lot and it's a good one to read to learn about the impact autism has on family members, particularly the mother.

Melanie Marsh is an American married to a veddy proper Englishman named Stephen. His family is la-dee-dah and since Melanie is so much an individual, the first thing I wondered is how she and Stephen even got together in the first place. He turns out to be an insensitive idiot and his family is not much better, except for sister Cath.

When we first meet Melanie, she's the somewhat hysterical mother to two small but perfect (or so it seemed) children, Emily and Daniel. The thing is, Daniel's almost 3 and not talking. He's also withdrawn, seems deaf, doesn't interact with other people, doesn't play creatively...and Melanie's red flags are waving everywhere. Stephen thinks she's overreacting but it turns out she's not.

Daniel reminded me so much of our Little T in so many mannerisms and I just knew that Leimbach had to have some kind of personal experience with this.

A savior in the form of an offbeat Irish early education teacher named Andrew appears to work with Daniel and help bring him to the world.

By then the family is shattered and it's up to Melanie to keep what's left of them together. Good, informative read!

Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir by Marina Nemat

When I was a teenager, reading The Diary of Anne Frank and Exodus made me realize how blessed I was to be born in this country. I got the same feeling after reading Prisoner of Tehran and I think any teenager who read this would feel the same way. When you are sixteen years old, you are trying to break away from parents, traditions and rules to become your own person. In the United States, teens are free to speak their minds and write what they feeling. While I realize that schools can censor what the kids write, those kids aren't then placed on an arrest-to-be-tortured list.

Yet this is what happened to young Marina. When she was born, the shah was still in power and while there were abuses by the government there was also a lot more freedom and independence for women. Under the Ayatollah Kohmeini, all of that changed. Marina and several of her high school friends were arrested for "striking" against the school and for writing a protest newspaper. The strike involved a protest against teachers who chose to lecture on fundamentalist religion rather than on the topics they were supposed to teach (like calculus).

Marina was tortured in an attempt to force her to reveal the names of more friends involved in the protest. She suffered a great deal before being placed in a cell with some of her friends. Some survived; some did not. The ultimate horror--in my opinion anyway--was when Marina's interrogator fell in love with her. I recommend the book to anyone. Read it to find out what happens to Marina.

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

After posting a poll about whether I should finish the book, I thought about the pros and ons of each side. TThe advice I got was very similar to what I was thinking. The first half of it had interested and engaged me--maybe I would get interested again. I don't like to spend $15 on a book and then not finish it. At the same time, though, I'd struggled through 100 pages and was hopelessly bored. I didn't think I'd want to pick up the book again, not later, not no how.

Since I did read almost all of the book I thought I would write about it anyway. Edwsard Rutherfurd's been called this age's James Michener. That's not necessarily a good thing as Michener's books can drag on and be excessively wordy. Another problem is when you want to cover centuries in a book, you lose a lot of the characterization.

Early on, I found Rutherford's characters interesting and engaging. I think he spent more time fleshing them out and it probably would have been better if his Dublin Saga had been split into 2 or 3 books to give equal time to everyone. The story starts in mythic Ireland, covering a tale I'd become somewhat familiar with: Deirdre escaping with the nephew of the king and incurring the king's wrath, the great cattle raid of Cú Chulainn. Rutherford moved smoothly from mythology to the arrival of St. Patrick and Catholicism with many characters carrying over from one age to the next. The sections about the Vikings and Brian Boru were also fascinating although by then new characters were introduced. I began to get bored during the Strongbow section and struggled at the end. I struggled for 100 pages and then tried skpping around. It didn't work.

By this time, the characters weren't so rich or interesting anymore. They just seemed like incarnations of people already introduced. I lost interest, did the poll, put the book down and moved on to something else. I'm glad I did!

My book became boring! What would YOU do?

I'm reading Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd, supposedly the modern James Michener. Actually, I enjoyed the first 570-odd pages of the book. Suddenly, though, the story ground to an abrupt halt. It's become so boring my eyes blur and glaze over as I struggle to continue. I struggled through 50 pages and then decided to try skipping to the next section. It's not engaging my interest, though, and I keep putting it down. There's another 200 pages to go. What would you do if this happened to you?

Booking Through Thursday

It's been a long time since I got to participate in this meme and I've missed it! I'm answering the last two questions because they go together.

Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

My favorite male character is Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird. He is someone that I could look up to as a real hero although his children didn't appreciate the fact--he was too "old" for them. He's a man of decency and integrity and his courage is the spiritual kind, not physical. He is chosen to defend a black man accused of rape in a sleepy southern town in the 1930s. He could choose the easy way out, hang with the good old boys and just allow nature to take its course. No--he truly defends the man and even though he loses the case and the man loses his life, Atticus Finch is a real winner.

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why?

My favorite female character is Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. She is a child growing up in extreme poverty. Her mother is the sole support of the family and her beloved father is a drunkard chronically unemployed. Yet, she loves him. She reminds me very much of me, growing up in an environment where there was lots of drinking and tension. She's a bookworm and something of a loner--like me when I was a child. She grows up doing what she has to do to help her family and I just admire her so much!

Candide by Voltaire

This was the best book for me to read at this moment in time! Right now, things have gone wrong with us financially, physically, emotionally and in just about every way. The last time this happened, I picked up Why Bad Things Happen To Good People and it felt "right". This time around, the satire and black humor was just right for me!

One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most people suffer and some more so than others. Why? Well, one theory is that everything happens for a reason so look for the silver lining in the cloud. It was meant to be. It's all for the best. Sometimes I find that idea comforting.

It's pretty clear that Voltaire didn't and, in fact, it angered him to the point he wrote a really funny book about it all.

Candide is a priviliged young man living at the estate of a very wealthy man. His tutor is Dr. Pangloss whose teachings revolve around turning Candide into the eternal optimist, no matter what awful things occur. Candide is ejected forcibly from his comfortable home for making a move on the baron's attractive daughter.

He then goes through some of the worst stuff that could possibly happen to a person. Just one of these calamaties alone would cause a person to fall into despair, but not Candide. I won't go into all of his experience here except for one example. As he, his tutor Dr. Pangloss (who's fallen into ruin himself), and their benefactor sail into Lisbon, there's a huge storm that wrecks the ship and drowns the friend who was caring for them. Dr. Pangloss explains it all away: the harbor was placed there just so that this storm could come and wreck the ship and kill almost everyone on board. Then they are hit by an earthquake, but that was as it's supposed to be, too. Earthquakes happen in Lisbon. It's the best that could happen and was meant to be.

I was just rolling on the floor laughing so hard I almost cried.

The reason this is a timeless book is that you could substitute what happened in Lisbon for what happened during the Christmas tsunami of two years ago. Try telling the survivors it was all for the best and meant to be because tsunamis happen in that part of the world.

The book isn't long at all and it's very easy to read, something that is rare in a classic (for me, anyway). I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know others would too!

What Is The What by Dave Eggers

Wow.

In the preface to What Is The What, Valentino Achak Deng says that he told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, over a period of years. Eggers captured Achak's tone and spirit so closely that I kept forgetting that the author was not the man who experienced the horrors of what happened in the Sudan. Some of the passages are fictional out of some necessity and that's why I guess the book can't be classified as a true memoir. Still, it is one of the most chilling and inspiring books I've ever read.

I am one of those people almost completely ignorant of what was going on in the world in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s. My kids were being born and I was busy raising them, working and coping with other unfortunate complications like my first husband's failing health. When I saw Hotel Rwanda I thought, how could I not know about this? This is like what Hitler did.

I feel the same way after reading this book. Achak was a small boy in a poor village in southern Sudan when war and terror arrived in the form of mhraleen, invaders from Khartoum. There was always unease between the Arabs of northern Sudan and the Africans of the south although in Achak's village, they traded freely and were friendly with each other. Achak's village was burned to the ground and he had to run for his life, not knowing if any member of his family survived.

He became one of the "Lost Boys" who walked in a group what became hundreds of refugee children across the Sudan and into Ethiopia first, then Kenya. Along the way, boys died from starvation, exposure and disease. The boy Achak saw other little ones carried off by lions. They were chased and strafed by the Sudanese army. Sanctuary consisted of poor, mean little settlements and it took a long time for Achak to learn what happened to his family and make his way to the United States.

Ironically (although after everything that happens to him I shouldn't have been surprised) the plane taking him to New York was scheduled to depart September 11, 2001. We all know what happened then.

He did make it to Atlanta at last...and after going through all the suffering and misery of his young years, he opens the door one day and his home is invaded. He is beaten and robbed.

That's not even half of it.

If I ever feel too sorry for myself and complain about my woes, I'm going to go back and read this post and remember what this man experienced.

I think everyone should read his story.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

When I saw this title first offered by one of my book clubs, I decided to pass. Do I really need to be further depressed by being reminded of how much we've damaged the earth? I read a few reviews of it, was intrigued and decided to give it a try. This is not a feel-good book, not by a long shot, although it does offer some hope for the earth if all us human destroyers were suddenly raptured or plagued or kidnapped away. I learned a lot from the book.

For one thing, I didn't know there was a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey near the mouth of the Mississippi. So much for the theory that there's so much ocean polluting it won't matter. :P I knew about the acid rain, dead fresh water lakes, blooming algae, the strangulation of the Chesapeake Bay and a few other places but not about that. I didn't know about a theory that the reason there's no mammoths left in America is because early man killed them all off ala the buffalo. Maybe the reason there are still elephants and giraffes in Africa is because man and animal evolved alongside each other. Those animals learned to be cautious around us lethal bipeds. In North America, the animals were here long before humans and when we appeared they didn't know to hide.

On the up side, life would go on and adapt even though the world would be poisoned for millions of years by heavy metals left in the soil and in the air when nuclear reactors go. It seems the world would be a better place without us. So sad...but would this book bring about change? I wish, but I'm not holding my breath.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

It's atypical for me to read a book if I can't identify with at least one of the characters. When I started The Thirteenth Tale, I found myself unable to make any kind of connection with the narrator, Margaret Lea, or with the elusive writer Vida Winter. What drew me in and kept me reading for more than half the book was the very strange tale the elderly Winter was spinning for Margaret. By the end of the book, although I still felt nothing for Margaret I most definitely developed a liking and affinity for Vida Winter.

I am not a twin and so I will never understand what it's like to be one. I guess that's why I couldn't connect to Margaret who just seemed to be unnecessarily self-isolating. She has no life other than books and her father's bookstore. She's fascinated with fairly obscure people who lived years ago and has written a couple of biographical essays. It comes as a great surprise when she receives a letter from the very mysterious Vida Winter, inviting Margaret to write her biography, her true story. Over the years, the writer has told a number of different tales to various resporters and interviewers and Margaret is suspicious and reluctant. Still, she goes to meet the writer.

One of Vida's many books was supposed to have 13 stories in it but apparently was a misprinted title--no copy has more than 12. People have wondered and speculated just what that thirteenth tale was supposed to be...could it be Miss Winter's life story? Margaret is mesmerized and eventually obsessed with it.

It's a very gothic tale that Miss Winter tells and includes ghosts and governesses, a very dysfunctional family and well meaning servants. There are so many salutes to Jane Eyre throughout the book and I found myself staying up later and later to read just another page more. I think people who love Jane Eyre and Rebecca will also enjoy this story.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I just joined this groupon Good Reads thinking it was one of those online book reading lists and discovered it's the title of an actual book. I'm glad that the list of titles is also available online so that I could see what's on it without buying it. Gotta love the internet.

Of all the books, I've highlighted the ones I've read already. The italicized ones I own but haven't read yet.

2000s

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Saturday, Ian McEwan
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Slow Man, J.M. Coetzee
Adjunct: An Undigest, Peter Manson
The Sea, John Banville
The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
The Master, Colm Tóibín
Vanishing Point, David Markson
The Lambs Of London, Peter Ackroyd
Dining On Stones, Iain Sinclair
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Drop City, T. Coraghessan Boyle
The Colour, Rose Tremain
Thursbitch, Alan Garner
The Light Of Day, Graham Swift
What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Islands, Dan Sleigh
Elizabeth Costello, J.M. Coetzee
London Orbital, Iain Sinclair
Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
The Double, José Saramago
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Unless, Carol Shields
Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami
The Story Of Lucy Gault, William Trevor
That They May Face the Rising Sun, John McGahern
In The Forest, Edna O’Brien
Shroud, John Banville
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Youth, J.M. Coetzee
Dead Air, Iain Banks
Nowhere Man, Aleksandar Hemon
The Book Of Illusions, Paul Auster
Gabriel’s Gift, Hanif Kureishi
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald
Platform, Michael Houellebecq
Schooling, Heather McGowan
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
Don’t Move, Margaret Mazzantini
The Body Artist, Don DeLillo
Fury, Salman Rushdie
At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O’Neill
Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
The Feast Of The Goat, Mario Vargos Llosa
An Obedient Father, Akhil Sharma
The Devil And Miss Prym, Paulo Coelho
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, Ismail Kadare
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The Heart Of Redness, Zakes Mda
Under The Skin, Michel Faber
Ignorance, Milan Kundera
Nineteen Seventy Seven, David Peace
Celestial Harmonies, Péter Esterházy
City Of God, E.L. Doctorow
How The Dead Live, Will Self
The Human Stain, Philip Roth
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
After The Quake, Haruki Murakami
Small Remedies, Shashi Deshpande
Super-Cannes, J.G. Ballard
House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates
Pastoralia, George Saunders

1900s

Timbuktu, Paul Auster
The Romantics, Pankaj Mishra
Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
As If I Am Not There, Slavenka Drakulic
Everything You Need, A.L. Kennedy
Fear And Trembling, Amélie Nothomb
The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruki Murakami
Atomised, Michel Houellebecq
Intimacy, Hanif Kureishi
Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks
All Souls Day, Cees Nooteboom
The Talk Of The Town, Ardal O’Hanlon
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis
Another World, Pat Barker
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
Veronika Decides To Die, Paulo Coelho
Mason & Dixon, Thomas Pynchon
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
Great Apes, Will Self
Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
Underworld, Don DeLillo
Jack Maggs, Peter Carey
The Life Of Insects, Victor Pelevin
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
The Untouchable, John Banville
Silk, Alessandro Baricco
Cocaine Nights, J.G. Ballard
Hallucinating Foucault, Patricia Duncker
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The Ghost Road, Pat Barker
Forever a Stranger, Hella Haasse
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
The Clay Machine-Gun, Victor Pelevin
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
The Unconsoled, Kazuo Ishiguro
Morvern Callar, Alan Warner
The Information, Martin Amis
The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth
The Rings Of Saturn, W.G. Sebald
The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Love’s Work, Gillian Rose
The End Of The Story, Lydia Davis
Mr. Vertigo, Paul Auster
The Folding Star, Alan Hollinghurst
Whatever, Michel Houellebecq
Land, Park Kyong-ni
The Master Of Petersburg, J.M. Coetzee
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Pereira Declares: A Testimony, Antonio Tabucchi
City Sister Silve, Jàchym Topol
How Late It Was, How Late, James Kelman
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Felicia’s Journey, William Trevor
Disappearance, David Dabydeen
The Invention Of Curried Sausage, Uwe Timm
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Looking For The Possible Dance, A.L. Kennedy
Operation Shylock, Philip Roth
Complicity, Iain Banks
On Love, Alain de Botton
What A Carve Up!, Jonathan Coe
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
The House Of Doctor Dee, Peter Ackroyd
The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood
The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Life Is A Caravanserai, Emine Özdamar
The Discovery Of Heaven, Harry Mulisch
A Heart So White, Javier Marias
Possessing The Secret Of Joy, Alice Walker
Indigo, Marina Warner
The Crow Road, Iain Banks
Written On The Body, Jeanette Winterson
Jazz, Toni Morrison
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow, Peter Høeg
The Butcher Boy, Patrick McCabe
Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
The Heather Blazing, Colm Tóibín
Asphodel, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud
Arcadia, Jim Crace
Wild Swans, Jung Chang
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis
Mao II, Don DeLillo
Typical, Padgett Powell
Regeneration, Pat Barker
Downriver, Iain Sinclair
Señor Vivo And The Coca Lord, Louis de Bernieres
Wise Children, Angela Carter
Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
Amongst Women, John McGahern
Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
Vertigo, W.G. Sebald
Stone Junction, Jim Dodge
The Music Of Chance, Paul Auster
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
A Home At The End Of The World, Michael Cunningham
Like Life, Lorrie Moore
Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Buddha Of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi
The Midnight Examiner, William Kotzwinkle
A Disaffection, James Kelman
Sexing The Cherry, Jeanette Winterson
Moon Palace, Paul Auster
Billy Bathgate – E.L. Doctorow
The Remains Of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Melancholy Of Resistance, László Krasznahorkai
The Temple Of My Familiar, Alice Walker
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, Janice Galloway
The History Of The Siege Of Lisbon, José Saramago
Like Water For Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
London Fields, Martin Amis
The Book Of Evidence, John Banville
Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
The Beautiful Room Is Empty, Edmund White
Wittgenstein’s Mistress, David Markson
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
The Swimming-Pool Library, Alan Hollinghurst
Oscar And Lucinda, Peter Carey
Libra, Don DeLillo
The Player Of Games, Iain M. Banks
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul, Douglas Adams
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
The Radiant Way, Margaret Drabble
The Afternoon Of A Writer, Peter Handke
The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
The Pigeon, Patrick Süskind
The Child In Time, Ian McEwan
Cigarettes, Harry Mathews
The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Tom Wolfe
The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
World’s End, T. Coraghessan Boyle
Enigma Of Arrival, V.S. Naipaul
The Taebek Mountains, Jo Jung-rae
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Anagrams, Lorrie Moore
Matigari, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Marya, Joyce Carol Oates
Watchmen, Alan Moore & David Gibbons
The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis
Lost Language Of Cranes, David Leavitt
An Artist Of The Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro
Extinction, Thomas Bernhard
Foe, J.M. Coetzee
The Drowned And The Saved, Primo Levi
Reasons To Live, Amy Hempel
The Parable Of The Blind, Gert Hofmann
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
The Cider House Rules, John Irving
A Maggot, John Fowles
Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis
Contact, Carl Sagan
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
Old Masters, Thomas Bernhard
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Queer, William Burroughs
Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd
Legend, David Gemmell
Dictionary Of The Khazars, Milorad Pavic
The Bus Conductor Hines, James Kelman
The Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis, José Saramago
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
Empire Of The Sun, J.G. Ballard
The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
Nights At The Circus, Angela Carter
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Milan Kundera
Blood And Guts In High School, Kathy Acker
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes
Money: A Suicide Note, Martin Amis
Shame, Salman Rushdie
Worstward Ho, Samuel Beckett
Fools Of Fortune, William Trevor
La Brava, Elmore Leonard
Waterland, Graham Swift
The Life And Times Of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee
The Diary Of Jane Somers, Doris Lessing
The Piano Teacher, Elfriede Jelinek
The Sorrow Of Belgium, Hugo Claus
If Not Now, When?, Primo Levi
A Boy’s Own Story, Edmund White
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Wittgenstein’s Nephew, Thomas Bernhard
A Pale View Of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro
Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally
The House Of The Spirits, Isabel Allende
The Newton Letter, John Banville
On The Black Hill, Bruce Chatwin
Concrete, Thomas Bernhard
The Names, Don DeLillo
Rabbit Is Rich, John Updike
Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Alasdair Gray
The Comfort Of Strangers, Ian McEwan
July’s People, Nadine Gordimer
Summer In Baden-Baden, Leonid Tsypkin
Broken April, Ismail Kadare
Waiting For The Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee
Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Rites Of Passage, William Golding
Rituals, Cees Nooteboom
A Confederacy Of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
City Primeval, Elmore Leonard
The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting, Milan Kundera
Smiley’s People, John Le Carré
Shikasta, Doris Lessing
A Bend In The River, V.S. Naipaul
Burger’s Daughter, Nadine Gordimer
The Safety Net, Heinrich Böll
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, Italo Calvino
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan
The World According To Garp, John Irving
Life: A User’s Manual, Georges Perec
The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell
Yes, Thomas Bernhard
The Virgin In The Garden, A.S. Byatt
In The Heart Of The Country, J.M. Coetzee
The Passion Of New Eve, Angela Carter
Delta Of Venus, Anaïs Nin
The Shining, Stephen King
Dispatches, Michael Herr
Petals Of Blood, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Song Of Solomon, Toni Morrison
The Hour Of The Star, Clarice Lispector
The Left-Handed Woman, Peter Handke
Ratner’s Star, Don DeLillo
The Public Burning, Robert Coover
Interview With The Vampire, Anne Rice
Cutter and Bone, Newton Thornburg
Amateurs, Donald Barthelme
Patterns Of Childhood, Christa Wolf
The Autumn Of The Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez
W, Or The Memory Of Childhood, Georges Perec
A Dance To The Music of Time, Anthony Powell
Grimus, Salman Rushdie
The Dead Father, Donald Barthelme
Fateless, Imre Kertész
Willard And His Bowling Trophies, Richard Brautigan
High Rise, J.G. Ballard
Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow
Dead Babies, Martin Amis
Correction, Thomas Bernhard
Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
The Fan Man, William Kotzwinkle
Dusklands, J.M. Coetzee
The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum, Heinrich Böll
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John Le Carré
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Fear Of Flying, Erica Jong
A Question Of Power, Bessie Head
The Siege Of Krishnapur, J.G. Farrell
The Castle Of Crossed Destinies, Italo Calvino
Crash, J.G. Ballard
The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
Sula, Toni Morrison
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
The Breast, Philip Roth
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
G, John Berger
Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
House Mother Normal, B.S. Johnson
In A Free State, V.S. Naipaul
The Book Of Daniel, E.L. Doctorow
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Group Portrait With Lady, Heinrich Böll
The Wild Boys, William Burroughs
Rabbit Redux, John Updike
The Sea Of Fertility, Yukio Mishima
The Driver’s Seat, Muriel Spark
The Ogre, Michael Tournier
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick, Peter Handke
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Mercier Et Camier, Samuel Beckett
Troubles, J.G. Farrell
Jahrestage, Uwe Johnson
The Atrocity Exhibition, J.G. Ballard
Tent Of Miracles, Jorge Amado
Pricksongs And Descants, Robert Coover
Blind Man With A Pistolm, Chester Hines
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles
The Green Man, Kingsley Amis
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Ada Or Ardor, Vladimir Nabokov
Them, Joyce Carol Oates
A Void, Georges Perec
Eva Trout, Elizabeth Bowen
Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal
The Nice And The Good, Iris Murdoch
Belle Du Seigneur, Albert Cohen
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The First Circle, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, Malcolm Lowry
The German Lesson, Siegfried Lenz
In Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan
A Kestrel For A Knave, Barry Hines
The Quest For Christa T., Christa Wolf
Chocky, John Wyndham
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
The Cubs And Other Stories, Mario Vargas Llosa
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson
The Joke, Milan Kundera
No Laughing Matter, Angus Wilson
The Third Policeman, Flann O’Brien
A Man Asleep, Georges Perec
The Birds Fall Down, Rebecca West
Trawl, B.S. Johnson
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Magus, John Fowles
The Vice-Consul, Marguerite Duras
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth
The Crying Of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Things, Georges Perec
The River Between, Ngugi wa Thiong’o
August Is A Wicked Month, Edna O’Brien
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut
Everything That Rises Must Converge, Flannery O’Connor
The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector
Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey
Come Back, Dr. Caligari, Donald Bartholme
Albert Angelo, B.S. Johnson
Arrow Of God, Chinua Achebe
The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein, Marguerite Duras
Herzog, Saul Bellow
V., Thomas Pynchon
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
The Graduate, Charles Webb
Manon Des Sources, Marcel Pagnol
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, John Le Carré
The Girls Of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
Inside Mr. Enderby, Anthony Burgess
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Collector, John Fowles
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Labyrinths, Jorg Luis Borges
Girl With Green Eyes, Edna O’Brien
The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis, Giorgio Bassani
Stranger In A Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
Franny And Zooey, J.D. Salinger
A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch
Faces In The Water, Janet Frame
Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
Cat And Mouse, Günter Grass
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor
How It Is, Samuel Beckett
Our Ancestors, Italo Calvino
The Country Girls, Edna O’Brien
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Rabbit, Run, John Updike
Promise At Dawn, Romain Gary
Cider With Rosie, Laurie Lee
Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass
Absolute Beginners, Colin MacInnes
Henderson The Rain King, Saul Bellow
Memento Mori, Muriel Spark
Billiards At Half-Past Nine, Heinrich Böll
Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Pluck The Bud And Destroy The Offspring, Kenzaburo Oe
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
The Bitter Glass, Eilís Dillon
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe
Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, Paul Gallico
Borstal Boy, Brendan Behan
The End Of The Road, John Barth
The Once And Future King, T.H. White
The Bell, Iris Murdoch
Jealousy, Alain Robbe-Grillet
Voss, Patrick White
The Midwich Cuckoos, John Wyndham
Blue Noon, Georges Bataille
Homo Faber, Max Frisch
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
The Wonderful “O”, James Thurber
Justine, Lawrence Durrell
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon
The Roots of Heaven, Romain Gary
Seize The Day, Saul Bellow
The Floating Opera, John Barth
The Lord Of The Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
A World Of Love, Elizabeth Bowen
The Trusting And The Maimed, James Plunkett
The Quiet American, Graham Greene
The Last Temptation Of Christ, Nikos Kazantzákis
The Recognitions, William Gaddis
The Ragazzi, Pier Paulo Pasolini
Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan
I’m Not Stiller, Max Frisch
Self Condemned, Wyndham Lewis
The Story Of O, Pauline Réage
A Ghost At Noon, Alberto Moravia
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
Under The Net, Iris Murdoch
The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett
Watt, Samuel Beckett
Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
Junkie, William Burroughs
The Adventures Of Augie March, Saul Bellow
Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin
Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
The Judge And His Hangman, Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson
Memoirs Of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
Malone Dies, Samuel Beckett
The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
The Opposing Shore, Julien Gracq
The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Rebel, Albert Camus
Molloy, Samuel Beckett
The End Of The Affair, Graham Greene
The Abbot C, Georges Bataille
The Labyrinth Of Solitude, Octavio Paz
The Third Man, Graham Greene
The 13 Clocks, James Thurber
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
The Grass Is Singing, Doris Lessing
I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
The Moon And The Bonfires, Cesare Pavese
The Garden Where The Brass Band Played, Simon Vestdijk
Love In A Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
The Case Of Comrade Tulayev, Victor Serge
The Heat Of The Day, Elizabeth Bowen
Kingdom Of This World, Alejo Carpentier
The Man With The Golden Arm, Nelson Algren
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
All About H. Hatterr, G.V. Desani
Disobedience, Alberto Moravia
Death Sentence, Maurice Blanchot
The Heart Of The Matter, Graham Greene
Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Doctor Faustus, Thomas Mann
The Victim, Saul Bellow
Exercises In Style, Raymond Queneau
If This Is A Man, Primo Levi
Under The Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
The Path To The Spider’s Nest, Italo Calvino
The Plague, Albert Camus
Back, Henry Green
Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake
The Bridge On The Drina, Ivo Andric
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
The Pursuit Of Love, Nancy Mitford
Loving, Henry Green
Arcanum 17, André Breton
Christ Stopped At Eboli, Carlo Levi
The Razor’s Edge, William Somerset Maugham
Transit, Anna Seghers
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
Dangling Man, Saul Bellow
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Caught, Henry Green
The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse
Embers, Sandor Marai
Go Down, Moses, William Faulkner
The Outsider, Albert Camus
In Sicily, Elio Vittorini
The Poor Mouth, Flann O’Brien
The Living And The Dead, Patrick White
Hangover Square, Patrick Hamilton
Between The Acts, Virginia Woolf
The Hamlet, William Faulkner
Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler
For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Native Son, Richard Wright
The Power And The Glory, Graham Greene
The Tartar Steppe, Dino Buzzati
Party Going, Henry Green
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien
Coming Up For Air, George Orwell
Goodbye To Berlin, Christopher Isherwood
Tropic Of Capricorn, Henry Miller
Good Morning, Midnight, Jean Rhys
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
After The Death Of Don Juan, Sylvie Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Winifred Watson
Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Cause For Alarm, Eric Ambler
Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
U.S.A., John Dos Passos
Murphy, Samuel Beckett
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Years, Virginia Woolf
In Parenthesis, David Jones
The Revenge For Love, Wyndham Lewis
Out of Africa, Isak Dineson
To Have And Have Not, Ernest Hemingway
Summer Will Show, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Eyeless In Gaza, Aldous Huxley
The Thinking Reed, Rebecca West
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Keep The Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell
Wild Harbour, Ian MacPherson
Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
At The Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
Independent People, Halldór Laxness
Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti
The Last Of Mr. Norris, Christopher Isherwood
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Horace McCoy
The House In Paris, Elizabeth Bowen
England Made Me, Graham Greene
Burmese Days, George Orwell
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers
Threepenny Novel, Bertolt Brecht
Novel With Cocaine, M. Ageyev
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
Tropic Of Cancer, Henry Miller
A Handful Of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
Tender Is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thank You, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
Call It Sleep, Henry Roth
Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy L. Sayers
The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein
Testament Of Youth, Vera Brittain
A Day Off, Storm Jameson
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Journey To The End Of The Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
To The North, Elizabeth Bowen
The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett
The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
The Waves, Virginia Woolf
The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett
Cakes And Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
The Apes Of God, Wyndham Lewis
Her Privates We, Frederic Manning
Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Hebdomeros, Giorgio de Chirico
Passing, Nella Larsen
A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
Living, Henry Green
The Time Of Indifference, Alberto Moravia
All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin
The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
Harriet Hume, Rebecca West
The Sound And The Fury, William Faulkner
Les Enfants Terribles, Jean Cocteau
Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
Story Of The Eye, Georges Bataille
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence
The Well Of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall
The Childermass, Wyndham Lewis
Quartet, Jean Rhys
Decline And Fall, Evelyn Waugh
Quicksand, Nella Larsen
Parade’s End, Ford Madox Ford
Nadja, André Breton
Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse
Remembrance Of Things Past, Marcel Proust
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Tarka The Otter, Henry Williamson
Amerika, Franz Kafka
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Blindness, Henry Green
The Castle, Franz Kafka
The Good Soldier Švejk, Jaroslav Hašek
The Plumed Serpent, D.H. Lawrence
One, None And A Hundred Thousand, Luigi Pirandello
The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
The Making Of Americans, Gertrude Stein
Manhattan Transfer, John Dos Passos
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Counterfeiters, André Gide
The Trial, Franz Kafka
The Artamonov Business, Maxim Gorky
The Professor’s House, Willa Cather
Billy Budd, Foretopman, Herman Melville
The Green Hat, Michael Arlen
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
A Passage To India, E.M. Forster
The Devil In The Flesh, Raymond Radiguet
Zeno’s Conscience, Italo Svevo
Cane, Jean Toomer
Antic Hay, Aldous Huxley
Amok, Stefan Zweig
The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield
The Enormous Room, E.E. Cummings
Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
The Glimpses Of The Moon, Edith Wharton
Life And Death Of Harriett Frean, May Sinclair
The Last Days Of Humanity, Karl Kraus
Aaron’s Rod, D.H. Lawrence
Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Fox, D.H. Lawrence
Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley
The Age Of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
Women In Love, D.H. Lawrence
Night And Day, Virginia Woolf
Tarr, Wyndham Lewis
The Return Of The Soldier, Rebecca West
The Shadow Line, Joseph Conrad
Summer, Edith Wharton
Growth Of The Soil, Knut Hamsen
Bunner Sisters, Edith Wharton
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, James Joyce
Under Fire, Henri Barbusse
Rashōmon, Akutagawa Ryunosuke
The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf
Of Human Bondage, William Somerset Maugham
The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
Kokoro, Natsume Soseki
Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel
Rosshalde, Herman Hesse
Tarzan Of The Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
Sons And Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
Death In Venice, Thomas Mann
The Charwoman’s Daughter, James Stephens
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
Fantômas, Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
Howards End, E.M. Forster
Impressions Of Africa, Raymond Roussel
Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
Martin Eden, Jack London
Strait Is The Gate, André Gide
Tono-Bungay, H.G. Wells
The Inferno, Henri Barbusse
A Room With A View, E.M. Forster
The Iron Heel, Jack London
The Old Wives’ Tale, Arnold Bennett
The House On The Borderland, William Hope Hodgson
Mother, Maxim Gorky
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Young Törless, Robert Musil
The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
The House Of Mirth, Edith Wharton
Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
Where Angels Fear To Tread, E.M. Forster
Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
Hadrian The Seventh, Frederick Rolfe
The Golden Bowl, Henry James
The Ambassadors, Henry James
The Riddle Of The Sands, Erskine Childers
The Immoralist, André Gide
The Wings Of The Dove, Henry James
Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
1800s

Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M., Somerville and Ross
The Stechlin, Theodore Fontane
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Turn Of The Screw, Henry James
The War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
What Maisie Knew, Henry James
Fruits Of The Earth, André Gide
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Island Of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
Effi Briest, Theodore Fontane
Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
The Real Charlotte, Somerville and Ross
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Born In Exile, George Gissing
Diary Of A Nobody, George & Weedon Grossmith
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
News From Nowhere, William Morris
New Grub Street, George Gissing
Gösta Berling’s Saga, Selma Lagerlöf
Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Kreutzer Sonata, Leo Tolstoy
La Bête Humaine, Émile Zola
By the Open Sea, August Strindberg
Hunger, Knut Hamsun
The Master Of Ballantrae, Robert Louis Stevenson
Pierre And Jean, Guy de Maupassant
Fortunata And Jacinta, Benito Pérez Galdés
The People Of Hemsö, August Strindberg
The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy
She, H. Rider Haggard
The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard
Germinal, Émile Zola
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant
Marius The Epicurean, Walter Pater
Against The Grain, Joris-Karl Huysmans
The Death Of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
A Woman’s Life, Guy de Maupassant
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The House By The Medlar Tree, Giovanni Verga
The Portrait Of A Lady, Henry James
Bouvard And Pécuchet, Gustave Flaubert
Ben-Hur, Lew Wallace
Nana, Émile Zola
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Red Room, August Strindberg
Return Of The Native, Thomas Hardy
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Drunkard, Émile Zola
Virgin Soil, Ivan Turgenev
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
The Hand Of Ethelberta, Thomas Hardy
The Temptation Of Saint Anthony, Gustave Flaubert
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
The Enchanted Wanderer, Nicolai Leskov
Around The World In Eighty Days, Jules Verne
In A Glass Darkly, Sheridan Le Fanu
The Devils, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Erewhon, Samuel Butler
Spring Torrents, Ivan Turgenev
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Through The Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll
King Lear Of The Steppes, Ivan Turgenev
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope
Maldoror, Comte de Lautréaumont
The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola
The Last Chronicle Of Barset, Anthony Trollope
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Jules Verne
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Uncle Silas, Sheridan Le Fanu
Notes From The Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Fathers And Sons, Ivan Turgenev
Silas Marner, George Eliot
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
On The Eve, Ivan Turgenev
Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope
The Mill On The Floss, George Eliot
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
The Marble Faun, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Max Havelaar, Multatuli
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Oblomovka, Ivan Goncharov
Adam Bede, George Eliot
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
North And South, Elizabeth Gaskell
Hard Times, Charles Dickens
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Villette, Charlotte Brontë
Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among The Lonely, Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Shirley, Charlotte Brontë
Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
The Count Of Monte-Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
La Reine Margot, Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
The Purloined Letter, Edgar Allan Poe
Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens
The Pit And The Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe
Lost Illusions, Honoré de Balzac
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Dead Souls, Nikolay Gogol
The Charterhouse Of Parma, Stendhal
The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
The Nose, Nikolay Gogol
Le Père Goriot, Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet, Honoré de Balzac
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
The Red And The Black, Stendhal
The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni
Last Of The Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner, James Hogg
The Albigenses, Charles Robert Maturin
Melmoth The Wanderer, Charles Robert Maturin
The Monastery, Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Ormond, Maria Edgeworth
Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
Emma, Jane Austen
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Absentee, Maria Edgeworth
Sense And Sensibility, Jane Austen
Elective Affinities, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Castle Rackrent, Maria Edgeworth
1700s

Hyperion, Friedrich Hölderlin
The Nun, Denis Diderot
Camilla, Fanny Burney
The Monk, M.G. Lewis
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano
The Adventures Of Caleb Williams, William Godwin
Justine, Marquis de Sade
Vathek, William Beckford
The 120 Days Of Sodom, Marquis de Sade
Cecilia, Fanny Burney
Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Dangerous Liaisons, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Reveries Of A Solitary Walker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Evelina, Fanny Burney
The Sorrows Of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Humphrey Clinker, Tobias George Smollett
The Man Of Feeling, Henry Mackenzie
A Sentimental Journey, Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne
The Vicar Of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
The Castle Of Otranto, Horace Walpole
Émile; Or, On Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rameau’s Nephew, Denis Diderot
Julie; Or, the New Eloise, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rasselas, Samuel Johnson
Candide, Voltaire
The Female Quixote, Charlotte Lennox
Amelia, Henry Fielding
Peregrine Pickle, Tobias George Smollett
Fanny Hill, John Cleland
Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
Roderick Random, Tobias George Smollett
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
Pamela, Samuel Richardson
Jacques The Fatalist, Denis Diderot
Memoirs Of Martinus Scriblerus, J. Arbuthnot, J. Gay, T. Parnell, A. Pope, J. Swift
Joseph Andrews, Henry Fielding
A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
Roxana, Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
Love In Excess, Eliza Haywood
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
A Tale Of A Tub, Jonathan Swift
Pre-1700

Oroonoko, Aphra Behn
The Princess Of Clèves, Comtesse de La Fayette
The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
The Unfortunate Traveller, Thomas Nashe
Euphues: The Anatomy Of Wit, John Lyly
Gargantua And Pantagruel, Françoise Rabelais
The Thousand And One Nights, Anonymous
The Golden Ass, Lucius Apuleius
Aithiopika, Heliodorus
Chaireas And Kallirhoe, Chariton
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Aesop’s Fables, Aesopus

I can understand how many of these got onto the list but am really surprised by others. I'm surprised that a lot of books I considered "classic" aren't on the list like The Good Earth by Pearl Buck or Catch-22 by Joseph Heller(unless I missed it somewhere) and how some others (like Myra Breckinridge or Portnoy's Complaint) made it to the list.

How I'll approach the list: the books I have already I will definitely read. Once I get through the almost 250 I have on my TBR, maybe I'll get around to this list.

Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon

I enoyed reading this book very much! I got hooked almost immediately because it's got so many elements I love about reading: strong, realistic characters, a bit of mystery, a bit of horror, and themes I can relate to. There are actually two stories: Kate Cypher then and now, 1971 and 2002. In 1971, she was a lonely little 10 year old, new in school and wanting to be friends with people but an outcast from the start because she was "different"--she lived on a commune with her mother and a group of hippies. On a farm nearby, there was another outcast named Del Griswold--cruelly nicknamed "The Potato Girl". I remember how it was in school to want a friend and feel so lonely about it that even being friends with the class goat was preferable to no one at all. Being connected to people your own age...that's a real need, no doubt about it. Yet, when push comes to shove, Kate can't admit that she is best friends with "The Potato Girl" and Del is brutally murdered. In 2002, Kate returns to the commune to care for her mother who seems to be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. On the night Kate returns, another little girl is murdered in much the same way Del was. Who dunnit? Was it Kate? Or the ghost of Del? Or ... ?