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| Books #1-20 | Books #21-40 | Books #41-60 | Books #61-80 | Books #81-100 |
41) The Undomestic Goddess, Sophia Kinsella
This English chick lit author has a wicked sense of humor and a good sense of story. Fun.
42) Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
Wonderfully fun chick lit. This acerbic mock diary of Helen's love misadventures is funny and, despite being over the top, authentic.
43) Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
This short, absurdist, existentialist play (available in book form in every bookstore) is a must-read for every truly culturally literate person.
44) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
Light and dark intermingle lyrically in this story of an Irish schoolboy who transcends his parochial upbringing. At one point the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, spends days and days in a dark mood – it goes on for many pages – only to find relief by going to Catholic confession. Suddenly, his mood is light and spring-like. It's almost funny, yet it fully captures the reality of the character's emotions. Also highly readable by Joyce is his collection of short stories, “The Dubliners.”
45) Letters From Earth, Mark Twain
Kept from publication during his life – it would have caused a riot – this caustic and very funny book takes a pair of sharp scissors to Christian orthodoxy. Also supreme by Twain, of course, is “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” a book that will stand for the ages because of how it chronicles the moral growth of Huck as he comes to understand Jim, the runaway slave. Twain is the ultimate American writer.
46) A Medicine for Melancholy, Ray Bradbury,
They call it science fiction but this collection of stories, and most of Bradbury, far transcends the robots and space ship genre. I find his prose style to be surprising and fresh – usually as entertaining as the stories themselves. Other must-read titles by Bradbury are “Fahrenheit 451” and "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Trivia about Bradbury: as a very young man he had no typewriter, so he had to go to the LA County Library and rent one for ten cents an hour. The experience taught him to write quickly.
47) I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!, Al Franken
I love Al Franken. This mock diary of a dysfunctional person who attempts to rally himself with smile-faced platitudes from self-help therapists is laugh-out-loud funny. Also, run don't walk to get Franken's hysterical “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.”
48) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
This is a fabulous, deeply special book – I think of it as a sacred book. Written while the teenaged Frank's family was hiding in an attic from the Nazis, her level of perception is crystalline. I read it as a teen and enjoyed it, and read it again as an adult (a version that included the supposedly racy parts taken out when first published) and was deeply impressed.
49) Den of Thieves, James B. Stewart
It's amazing how interesting Stewart makes this non-fiction account of Wall Street corruption in the 1980s: rapscallions like Ivan Boesky and Michael Milliken come to life.
50) Dreaming of Babylon, Richard Brautigan
A funny spoof of the hard-boiled detective genre, featuring a down-on-his-luck detective with only one bullet in his gun. The detective's problem (or one of them) is that every time he comes close to solving the case, he starts daydreaming of the glorious gardens in the ancient city of Babylon. Unique and very fun.
51) Women, Charles Bukowski
Bukowski's stories of drinking and womanizing have a tossed-off quality, yet they're still compulsively readable. I used to buy his books at a bookstore with a feminist owner, and she always clucked her tongue in disapproval as she took my money.
52) Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
Captures a moment in time in 1980s-era New York City party life: plenty of cocaine, late night clubbing, everything focused on the surface. But the book – which is a ton of fun – ultimately finds something deeper in its protagonist.
53) Captain Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forester
Action adventure books (a multi-volume set) set on the high seas in an English war ship. Along with its exciting battles, Forester creates a nuanced Captain Hornblower, full of self-doubt.
54) The Young Pitcher, Zane Grey
Naive fiction written in the early 1900's, aimed at young male readers. Yet Grey's tale of Peg Ward, a college freshman hoping for glory on the ball field, is far more charming than standard pulp fiction.
55) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins
What happened to Tom Robbins? The master of the wacky, reality-stretching yarn – always chock full of laugh-producing similes – churned out a bunch of great titles, then kind of petered out. "Cowgirls" is one of his best, but he's got others: “Still Life with Woodpecker,” “Jitterbug Perfume,” “Skinny Legs and All.”
56) The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwall
This best-selling detective author churns 'em out as fast as her adoring readers can consume them. If you're stuck on an airplane – or if you want an escape from it all – Cornwall is the ticket.
57) Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
Superb non-fiction book. Intertwines two narratives set in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, with suspense and Larson's top-flight prose style. The book sold about 1.5 billion copies – with good reason.
58) The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
I adore James Thurber. While some of his humor is dated, much of it is timelessly fresh, and his crystal clear prose is the model of style and efficiency. He has a supreme ability to underplay a joke. I've read some of these stories many times. His darkly-shaded short story "One is a Wanderer" is one of my all-time favorites.
59) No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin
This non-fiction account of Franklin Delano Roosevelt grappling with WWII puts you right inside the Oval Office. Goodwin is a great storyteller.
60) Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
A highly enjoyable book. Frazier's novel intertwines two stories: a deserter from the Confederate army making his way across the South, hoping for a reunion with his loved one; and his beloved Ada's struggles to survive on a hard-scrabble farm. The book is a sensuous treat. We see, hear, feel – definitely feel – both these epic struggles.
| Books #1-20 | Books #21-40 | Books #41-60 | Books #61-80 | Books #81-100 |