beer good
Well-Known Member
Right, let's see:
Top 5 old books:
Red Cavalry - Babel, Isaak: War stories from the early days of the Soviet Union, at once brutally realistic and sounding the depths of all the issues of the early 20th century.
Moominpappa At Sea/Moominvalley In November - Jansson, Tove: Two sides of the same coin, fairytale characters growing up and having to deal with the bigger questions in life. Existentialism for beginners.
Hadji Murat - Tolstoy, Leo: Again, a war story, but a very different one. Funnily enough, the best book about the War On Terror was written over 100 years ago.
Brummstein - Adolphsen, Peter: An adventure romp through 20th century Europe, boiled down to the bare essentials, the story of one odd object passing from hand to hand. One of the most curious novels I've read. Read it in an afternoon, still mulling it over.
Dead Souls - Gogol, Nikolai: Why did no one ever tell me this book is hilarious? A clever businessman rides around the Russian countryside buying dead serfs from land owners who don't understand why he needs them.
Top 5 new* books:
My Struggle, Vol 2 - Knausgård, Karl Ove. Vols 3 and 4 aren't bad either, but not THIS good. Knausgård writes a novel about his life, about how you become who you are, about how even the act of remembering changes the past... The man's an asshole, but he's brilliant.
Alone In Berlin - Fallada, Hans: It's really a very simple novel: two old people in 1941 Berlin decide to take down the Führer to avenge their fallen son. All they need to do is rally the peace-loving, freedom-loving Germans. That's gotta be easy, right...?
Underground Time - de Vigan, Delphine: Just two people trying to get through their day at work without screaming. A claustrophobic and painfully realistic little novel.
The Old Garden - Hwang Sok-yong: Big, sprawling, partly autobiographical, the story of a young couple who meet as dissidents in South Korea, get separated when the guy is thrown in prison, and what happens to them apart. The image of a Korean watching the Berlin Wall fall.
The Imperfectionists - Rachman, Tom: The alleged decline of newspaper journalism, mirroring the big events of the post-war era, but told from the perspective of the people working at a failing paper, with all the big events rushing by in the background. If you were disappointed in The Newsroom (as you should have been), read this.
* Including recently translated
Top 5 non-fiction:
The Possessed - Batuman, Elif: The reason why there are so many Russians on my best of list above.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Skloot, Rebecca: One sick woman had her genes used for research and ended up part of medical history. Her family continued living in poverty. What's the cost? Truly brilliant piece of journalism, fair to all sides and massively heartwrenching.
The Elegant Universe - Greene, Brian: I think the greatest praise I can heap on this is that he explains the unexplainable and makes you think you get it. Gave me vertigo.
London: The Biography - Ackroyd, Peter: The life of a city as a living, breathing being.
War's Unwomanly Face - Alexievich, Svetlana: Millions of women fought in the Red Army during WWII. Afterwards, the men got the praise and the women were told to get back in the kitchen. 40 years later, Alexievich looked them up and interviewed them, putting their stories together into one big ghostly choir.
5 fun genre reads:
Boneshaker - Priest, Cherie
Redshirts - Scalzi, John
Hello Kitty Must Die - Choi, Angela
Amatka - Tidbeck, Karin
A Game Of Thrones - Martin, George RR
Top 5 old books:
Red Cavalry - Babel, Isaak: War stories from the early days of the Soviet Union, at once brutally realistic and sounding the depths of all the issues of the early 20th century.
Moominpappa At Sea/Moominvalley In November - Jansson, Tove: Two sides of the same coin, fairytale characters growing up and having to deal with the bigger questions in life. Existentialism for beginners.
Hadji Murat - Tolstoy, Leo: Again, a war story, but a very different one. Funnily enough, the best book about the War On Terror was written over 100 years ago.
Brummstein - Adolphsen, Peter: An adventure romp through 20th century Europe, boiled down to the bare essentials, the story of one odd object passing from hand to hand. One of the most curious novels I've read. Read it in an afternoon, still mulling it over.
Dead Souls - Gogol, Nikolai: Why did no one ever tell me this book is hilarious? A clever businessman rides around the Russian countryside buying dead serfs from land owners who don't understand why he needs them.
Top 5 new* books:
My Struggle, Vol 2 - Knausgård, Karl Ove. Vols 3 and 4 aren't bad either, but not THIS good. Knausgård writes a novel about his life, about how you become who you are, about how even the act of remembering changes the past... The man's an asshole, but he's brilliant.
Alone In Berlin - Fallada, Hans: It's really a very simple novel: two old people in 1941 Berlin decide to take down the Führer to avenge their fallen son. All they need to do is rally the peace-loving, freedom-loving Germans. That's gotta be easy, right...?
Underground Time - de Vigan, Delphine: Just two people trying to get through their day at work without screaming. A claustrophobic and painfully realistic little novel.
The Old Garden - Hwang Sok-yong: Big, sprawling, partly autobiographical, the story of a young couple who meet as dissidents in South Korea, get separated when the guy is thrown in prison, and what happens to them apart. The image of a Korean watching the Berlin Wall fall.
The Imperfectionists - Rachman, Tom: The alleged decline of newspaper journalism, mirroring the big events of the post-war era, but told from the perspective of the people working at a failing paper, with all the big events rushing by in the background. If you were disappointed in The Newsroom (as you should have been), read this.
* Including recently translated
Top 5 non-fiction:
The Possessed - Batuman, Elif: The reason why there are so many Russians on my best of list above.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Skloot, Rebecca: One sick woman had her genes used for research and ended up part of medical history. Her family continued living in poverty. What's the cost? Truly brilliant piece of journalism, fair to all sides and massively heartwrenching.
The Elegant Universe - Greene, Brian: I think the greatest praise I can heap on this is that he explains the unexplainable and makes you think you get it. Gave me vertigo.
London: The Biography - Ackroyd, Peter: The life of a city as a living, breathing being.
War's Unwomanly Face - Alexievich, Svetlana: Millions of women fought in the Red Army during WWII. Afterwards, the men got the praise and the women were told to get back in the kitchen. 40 years later, Alexievich looked them up and interviewed them, putting their stories together into one big ghostly choir.
5 fun genre reads:
Boneshaker - Priest, Cherie
Redshirts - Scalzi, John
Hello Kitty Must Die - Choi, Angela
Amatka - Tidbeck, Karin
A Game Of Thrones - Martin, George RR
