Reading list

[melreads]

I have a bunch of lists stuck into my reading journal, I'm always copying lists of recommended books from here or there, and they're piling up. Here's one I found recently - I don't remember where it came from ("somewhere online" is not terribly helpful, is it?) - it was titled something to the effect of Books of the Last 50 Years You Should Read at Least Once. I was bored at the time - this is how it always happens! - so I copied down things I hadn't already read (or already own and haven't gotten around to reading yet) - so this is only part of the list I was copying from. But it occurred to me that since I am always doing this, I should really try to consolidate the ones I write down over and over. (Another reading-related "to-do" that I'll completely forget about later, I'm sure!

Anyway, here's what I wrote down (I'll do alpha order by title):

All the Light We Cannot See - Doerr
Amsterdam - McEwan
A Brief HIstory of Seven Killings - James
Crossing to Safety - Stegner
Demon Copperhead - Kingsolver
The Dutch House - Patchett
Exit West - M. Hamid
The Friend - Nunez
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
The God of Small Things - A. Roy
The Goldfinch - Tartt
The Good Lord Bird - McBride
Homegoing - Gyasi
The House on Margo Street - S. Cisneros
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Angelou
Interpreter of Maladies - J.Lahiri
A Lesson Before Dying - Gaines
Let the Great World Spin - McCann
Love in the Time of Cholera - Marquez
The Luminaries - E. Catton
March - G.Brooks ("March" as in the family in Little Women)
Middlesex - Eugenides
Midnight's Children - Rushdie
My Brilliant Friend - Ferrante
The Remains of the Day - Ishiguro (hmm, have I read this?)
The Round House - L. Erdrich
Salvage the Bones - J.Ward
The Sellout - Beatty
Shadow Country - P. Matthiessen
The Signature of All Things - E. Gilbert
A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler
Stone Diaries - Shield
The Sympathizer - Nguyen
Tenth of December
A Thousand Acres - J.Smiley
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Egan
White Noise - DeLillo
White Teeth - Z. Smith
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Murakami


Short story compilations
The Birds of America - L.Moore
Dear Life - A. Munro