Every New Year, I make a resolution to read more. Not that I don’t read, clearly. I read every single day, all the time, non-fucking-stop. Newspapers, magazines, books, The Internets. But I don’t always read the best writing. And I don’t always read as many really great books as I’d like to. So this New Year, once again, I’m making a pledge to be good to myself and my brain and pick up some excellent books. They say print is dead, but you’ll never look as sexy holding a Kindle as you do a book – trust me.Christina Ricci
Audrey Hepburn
Emily Haines
Marilyn Monroe
Evangeline Lilly
Marion Cotillard
Jessica Stam
Kate Winslet
Winona Ryder
Alyson Hannigan
Willow is my favorite book nerd, period.
So ladies, let me have it, what should I be reading this year?
Audrey Hepburn
Emily Haines
Marilyn Monroe
Evangeline Lilly
Marion Cotillard
Jessica Stam
Kate Winslet
Winona Ryder
Alyson Hannigan
Willow is my favorite book nerd, period.So ladies, let me have it, what should I be reading this year?
My kind of post.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to discover some great books you should join goodreads.com
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321
ReplyDeletethis one! really a book that make you think, smile, cry, laugh...
How about Virginia Woolf? I just discovered her and love her writing!
ReplyDeleteRead novels and poetry and everything you can get your hands on. Explore with books like Eat Pray Love (usually not my cup of tea, but I loved it) to Walt Whitman and e e cummings. Learn about slam poetry and discover Andrea Gibson and Taylor Mali. (Trust me, you won't regret it if you discover Andrea. Lesbian poet, simply fabulous.)
ReplyDeleteFor novellists, try Ayn Rand and Ken Follett and Jodi Picoult.
Read the book "waiting for snow in havana" by carlos erie. Trust me- after the first page you won't put it down.
ReplyDeleteThe "A Great and Terrible Beauty" trilogy. Great Victorian era adventure about young ladies with magical powers and a lot of spunk. Will make you laugh and cry.
ReplyDelete"Fall on your knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald. It's a very dark, desolate, mirthless book. If those adjectives are not enough to compel you, there are actual lesbian characters in the book ;)
ReplyDelete"Maybe a miracle" by Brian Strause, a very hilarious novel! :D
ReplyDeleteAnd "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving.
Best collection of pics you've had in a while- not just because I too love books. Natalie Portman, Audrey Hepburn, Evangeline Lilly, Marion Cotillard; what a wonderful way to start the day!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, there are a few books I can't recommend enough: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (MY FAVORITE), The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, and anything by Cormac McCarthy. :)
A Prayer for Owen Meany - hands down. Dalva is in my top five as well. Anything by David Sedaris...
ReplyDeleteThe sexy, there is so much!
ReplyDeleteReading: I've got a copy of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom but am having trouble getting into it; I wanted to like Emma Donoghue's Room, but didn't. Suggestions: this year I enjoyed Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (set mainly on a single day in NY in August 1974, when Philipe Petit took his high-wire walk between the WTC towers); Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (families in India in the 1970s); and two of Colm Toibin's novels, The Master (fictionalized bio of Henry James) and Brooklyn (about a young woman who emigrates from Ireland to NY in the 1950s). I'm looking forward to Dear John, I love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Head trip and a half of a book, and most definitely needs to be read in real book-form.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics!
ReplyDeleteI discovered great English authors this year, you can't be wrong with any of their books: Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Coe, and David Mitchell...Oh my God, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is so beautiful !!
You know what book you should read! Oh! Oh! The one..with the title...
ReplyDelete*googles*
Yes! Landing by Emma Donoghue! She's the author of last years very popular novel "Room" which was dark and awesome and after reading that one of my friends lent me Landing and it was anything but dark but totally mostly awesome! It's about the love affair of two ladies (I know, right?) one older and one younger and both from different Irelands. It was brilliant. Kind of like you, Ms Snarker.
"Impulse" by Ellen Hopkins is really good. I just got done reading, "It's Kind of a Funny Story," which was also really fantastic. (So much better than the movie). I'd list more, but I'm just thinking of the few I just got done with myself.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps some!
Any of Charlotte Mendelson's three books. They are fantastic.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am reading Star Island by Carl Hiaasen about an oversexed drugged-out starlet.
ReplyDeleteI also run a challenge every January to read as many books as you can. I call it NaJuReMoNoMo
"One Day" by David Nicholls. I thought the story structure was quite clever. The dialogue was wonderful, with a lot of entertaining one-liners. The characters made me laugh, cry, get angry. I really felt like I was a part of their world.
ReplyDeleteI guess you might have read one or another of the following:
ReplyDelete- Pride and Prejudice (always worth a re-read)
- The Pillars of the Earth (haven't read but on my to-read list and been recommended to me several times)
- The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
- Rubyfruit Jungle
- Wicked: The Lives and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (maybe borrow it first?)
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
- Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda
- Books in the (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)series by Lindsey Davis
- The Cat Came Back by Hillary Mullins
hey, did you really read Ayn Rand?
ReplyDeletelike 'Atlas Shrugged' ? because that is one of the example book when I talk with people about capitalism. Not about the contents of book ( I didn't read it yet, but I know she wrote some books and there is kind of interview book about that book), the way people make the thick less likely popular book alive, when I saw first time their way, I thought that's totally smart. I don't exactly know how many people actually buy the book for the challenge, though.
my current interesting book is 127 hours, I read
about the accident on paper long time ago but
didn't know they made movie about it.
I'm kind of very indoor person although good at
athlete, like breathing, somewhat what makes me
interesting,maybe I'm not doing that, and will not
climb like people interest about something generally
they don't? I guess it could be cool go up to mountain, just not for me though.
anyway, then my thought goes to my early memory
about a woman climber, this is not about climb anyway. My question related with this issue is that
how human brain knows when something happened
although there is no clear evidence about it?
this story seems getting longer, I should do it
on my place.
happy new year!!
My favorite book of all time is The Raw Shark Texts. My second favorite is A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood
ReplyDeleteHm.. after taking a wonderful class in magical realism with my favorite english professor last semester, I'd have to say Jorge Luis Borges's genius short stories changed the way I read fiction, watch movies, and think about life. I suggest "Labyrinths," his collection of short stories. Gabriel Garcia Marquez directly credits Borges for his inspiration and influence, along with many other popular fiction authors. Borges's story "The Secret Miracle" was the inspiration for Christopher Nolan in directing the movie "Inception" last year. His stories are philosophical, fiercely intellectual, and breathtaking in their implications.
ReplyDeleteAmanda
Dear, if you want great books, go to Tolstoi. Never fails.
ReplyDelete"The Partly Cloudy Patriot" by Sarah Vowell. Funny, clever, and slightly nerdy. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Books are the sexiest thing ever... Yes, yes, I am that big of a nerd.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as long as I am... If you're into fantasy, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series is AWESOME. Of course, if you were looking for classic literature stuffs, I suggest any and all Hemingway, but ESPECIALLY Garden of Eden because it is super f-ed up and pretty awesome.
Definitely Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, A Prayer for Owen Meany (or even better, Life According to Garp) by John Irving. Also The Secret Life of Bees and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
ReplyDeleteReading is so sexy.
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm reading a book called "The flavour of apple seed". Such titles hook me all the time!
http://www.katharinahagena.de/buecher_katharina_hagena.php?bid=4
OH My Stam!
ReplyDeleteLol I legit freaked out seeing her in your spam. Good work Snarker! That is my favorite model of the last 3 years.
Her eyes = UNF!
John Greens "Looking For Alaska" or "An Abundance of Katherines".
ReplyDeleteCosmos and Psyche by R. Tarnas, it will blow your mind!
ReplyDeleteThe Wind-Up Girl.
ReplyDeleteDream of Perpetual Motion
Boneshaker
Fires of the Faithful/Turning the Storm. (magic, violins, aramaic and a happy lesbian ending)
Total Oblivion, More or Less: A Novel
Seriously though, read Dream of Perpetual Motion and the last one I mentioned. Both are very enjoyable reads. You'll be missing out by not reading them.
Recently I've read
ReplyDelete'Like Me' by Chely Wright
and absolutely loved it...
Right now I'm getting lost in
'Unbearable Lightness' by Portia de Rossi
and
'The Nightwatch' by Sarah Waters
Best book I read in 2010 was The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery. Tea ceremonies and lesbian angst in 19th century Japan...totally brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI also second Lindsey's suggestion of Charlotte Mendelson, especially When We Were Bad. That was the best book I read in 2008!
I highly recommend "The Kind of Girl I Am" by Julia Watts. It's a Canadian book so it may be a little harder to find in smaller communities in the US.
ReplyDeleteYou should read 'Olive Kitteridge' by Elizabeth Strout. It isn't a lesbian story, or a mystery novel, or a period piece. What it is is a beautiful portrait of people and how their lives entwine. It is the most vivid and touching story you will ever read. It will reaffirm your faith in books (and if it doesn't then you're dead on the inside!)
ReplyDeleteReading is very important and I wish you luck in that endeavor. You got a lot of great suggestions out there. Me, I'm going to take more photographs. I wish I snapped that shot of Marilyn - it is an outstanding photograph. The other are pretty nice too.
ReplyDeleteto keep with the theme, read "Tipping the Velvet" and "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters -- great lesbian novels... i know there's a mini-series there somewhere but I read Tipping the Velvet before I saw it... its a lot better.
ReplyDeleteAlso read the Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield)for some gothic/mystery drama.
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is really good (i'm in love with its main character Dagny Tagggart)
for poetry, Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou...
One book you have to read atleast once in you life is House of Leaves.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing and be sure to get the colour edition.
Well, if you really want a booky sort of book (a booky wook, perhaps? Sorry), I cannot recommend the entire Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde enough. Imagine an alternate universe where the Crimean War lasted into the 80s, popular culture revolves around literature (major crime syndicates include Shakespeare forgery), and your heroine--Thursday Next--is a Literary Detective. Add in an evil corporation and the kidnapping of Jane Eyre herself (well, in the first book), and you are a very happy reader.
ReplyDeleteThe books are also very, very funny. Endorsed by Terry Pratchett. What more could you want?
On the off chance that you haven't read it yet, THE HUNGER GAMES THE HUNGER GAMES THE HUNGER GAMES. Everyone in the whole world should read those books.