The Great American Read discussion

The GAR list was limited to 100 books, and only one book per author. So many worthy books were excluded. Let's share recommendations, with an eye toward selecting a February 2019 group read.

What OTHER books do you think deserve to be on a list of best loved, or favorite books?

Which books do you recommend to other group members?

Can you fill in the blanks of this sentence? If you liked X (GAR book), you'll like Y (non-GAR book).

Which "GAR author's better books" would you recommend? For example, I love Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, but others prefer Huck Finn.

OMG, too many to list, but I'll try anyway.

Books I'd switch out with ones that were on the list (even though I may like both in some cases:

Life of Pi vs The Alchemist
Fahrenheit 451 vs 1984
People of the Book vs The Da Vinci Code
The Unbearable Lightness of Being vs Fifty Shades of Grey
Housekeeping vs Gilead
The Secret Garden vs Anne of Green Gables
East of Eden vs The Grapes of Wrath

Other books from this century

A Gentleman in Moscow, News of the World, No Country for Old Men, The Shadow of the Wind, A Thousand Splendid Suns, All the Light We Cannot See, Empire Falls

Other books from prior centuries

The Bonfire of the Vanities, Flowers for Algernon, Doctor Zhivago, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Woman in White, The House of Mirth

I, too, loooove The Shadow of the Wind, and its sequel/prequel, . And his young adult novel, is great, as well (and I usually do not read/tolerate YA). Sort of a mashup of Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera.

I like Sue's suggestion of The Secret Garden over Anne of Green Gables. I read the Anne series last summer, but remember enjoying The Secret Garden so much more.

I have The Alchemist, feel like I should read it, because I searched for it in the original for so long......should have known that if the premier foreign language bookstore didn't carry it, it probably wasn't that good. But instead of Life of Pi, I'd go with Moacyr Schliar's --the author of Life of PI was accused of ripping off his story.

I loved

I don't remember loving Steinbeck, other than Travels with Charley, but am willing to admit that I was young when I read him, so would give one of his works that isn't The Grapes of Wrath a chance. Same with Conrad.

One of my all-time favorite books is

Because of my work, I rarely have time to re-read. I have re-read this book about 7 or 8 times. Every time I use it in the classroom, I'm excited to work again.

There are tons more, but am running around between appointments, so will maybe add more later.

I almost put My Cousin Rachel as a change out for Rebecca. I loved it slightly more than Rebecca, but maybe only because I read it first.

Is there an English Translation for the Carol Ruiz Zafon young adult book? I'd love to try that. I also loved the Sequel to The Shadow of the Wind. Maybe even more. I liked the Alchemist a lot (gave it 5 stars) but I don't consider it literary really. Life of Pi is one of my favorite books. It doesn't appeal to everyone though. I added your other two to my tbr list. They sound good!

Sue wrote: "I almost put My Cousin Rachel as a change out for Rebecca. I loved it slightly more than Rebecca, but maybe only because I read it first.

Is there an English Translation for the Carol Ruiz Zafon ..."

Lol, I had to check!
Yes, Marina is available in English, too.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

He has another YA series, (3 books), but I haven't read them yet. If I don't travel at New Year's, the fourth installment of The Cemetery of Lost Books series will be my Christmas/holiday snuggle-down-and-treat-myself book (it's about 1000 pages. Not exactly portable).

Sue wrote: "OMG, too many to list, but I'll try anyway.

"

Sue, I share some of those, and others are on my to read list.

*A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of my favorites. It had a very strong emotional impact on me. (So much so that I'm afraid to read it again.)
*I just read Flowers for Algernon for the first time, and I loved it.
*I only saw the movie, but I'd love to read East of Eden.
*I love the title "Unbearable Lightness of Being" but I haven't read it yet.

Fans of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn might like Angela's Ashes
Pride and Prejudice.. Persuasion

For children's books, I really loved The Little Princess.

Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Sue wrote: "I almost put My Cousin Rachel as a change out for Rebecca. I loved it slightly more than Rebecca, but maybe only because I read it first.

Is there an English Translation for the Carol..."

OMG you are rocking my world Linda. I had no idea there was a 4th book in the series! There was only supposed to be 3. The last one did feel rushed and incomplete. Now I'm going to have to read those three again though because it's been so long!!! Please let me know how the 4th book is.

NancyJ wrote: "Sue wrote: "OMG, too many to list, but I'll try anyway.

"

Sue, I share some of those, and others are on my to read list.

*A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of my favorites. It had a very strong ..."

I agree with A Thousand Splendid Suns having a strong impact and that it would be hard to read again.

I'm not one to say this normally, but with East of Eden, the book is so much better! I did like the film though and got to see a live play version of it a couple years ago that was also really good.

I loved Angel'as ashes and Little Princess too.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a favorite among favorites. It's philosophical and romantic and examines how and why people are different and how differences in personality can make it harder to live in different political systems and relationships. One of the exceptionally great things about it, is that it doesn't demonize different ways of being. Love love love it, and the film too. It's thought-provoking and sexy. In the book, the author breaks the fourth wall and philosophizes about what's happening in the story. That might normally turn me off but I love it here.

Sue wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Sue wrote: "I almost put My Cousin Rachel as a change out for Rebecca. I loved it slightly more than Rebecca, but maybe only because I read it first.

Is the..."

Ikr?!
I was dying to get hold of a copy, in spite of the fact that the 3rd installment was too Dan Brown-esque, with its 3 page chapters, cliffhanger endings........funny, I could tell from the way he set it up that he meant to write a fourth, that he was setting us up for it. After all, it's been his biggest money-maker, as far as I know... I wish he'd allow films, his style makes it so easy to visualize everything.
Anyway, I was going to visit friends in Peru and thought "This'll be easy to get down there." Hm, not so. The airport in Lima was charging $50! I thought, "Maybe it's just because it's the airport, and they're taking advantage of travelers desperate to read something." (I had a few hours' layover before my connection). I held out. Got to my friends' place, saw it in a bookstore for $20, but couldn't buy it there, because even though the cover was the same, I could tell that it was a pirate copy....being 1000 pages, it wouldn't have lasted more than one reading, and I usually re-read (or plan to) these.
Finally, I got one of the last copies when her boys took me shopping at the mall, so they could spend their Christmas money. (And I laughed, because I had taken the youngest "Fantastic Beasts" in English, the screenplay, thinking that it would be a novelty-we came across it-in English-in their equivalent of an FYE!)

Sadly, I was busy with an article revision all summer, and didn't get time to read it.

Well, let me rock your world a little more--the fourth installment came out in English two months ago.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Now you know what you can ask for as a holiday gift! :D

I am going to ask for it! I want the hard cover. I tried to friend you so I can see your review when your read it, but I didn't know your secret code. Do you not like friendship requests unless you know someone really well?

Sue wrote: "I am going to ask for it! I want the hard cover. I tried to friend you so I can see your review when your read it, but I didn't know your secret code. Do you not like friendship requests unless you..."

Hi!
Nope, I used to have "Why do you wanna be my friend?", but had to create a specific answer to avoid the bots. If you expand the "about me" section, you'll find the "secret" answer. :)

But I haven't read it yet, that's why you saw no review! (See above).