My favourite books

The book I'm currently reading, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is proving to be very disappointing.  It's well-written for the most part but it's also self-indulgent and whiny. To put it bluntly - sometimes I want to slap the author out of her self-obsessed whining, and yell "Snap out of it!" 

On top of things, the last book I read was also tremendously irritating, The  Emperor's Children by Claire Messud.  Bewitched by the promises of critical praise, I dove into Messud's novel with great expectations.  Said hopes were quickly dashed when the book proved to be barely readable with one-dimensional characters and a predictable plot. 

Is it just me or where have all the great books gone?  I'd love to hear some recommendations from you, because clearly my own research is leading me in the wrong direction.  Here are some of my all time faves to give you an idea of my tastes (I love all these books, and they are not listed in any ranking order):

Pride and Prejudice - Austen's classic (first read by yours truly in Grade 7) introduced me to world of 19th century womens' fiction, which I later pursued more rigorously in university.  P&P also introduced me to my first love, Mr. Darcy, whose smoldering repression forever shaped and dictated my taste in men!

Midnight's Children - Rushdie's epic novel chronicling India's moment of fracture captivated me to no   end with its capacity to tell a historical tale while simulataneously pushing my imagination to its outer limits.  In my opinion, this novel, written before the Satanic Verses controversy, is evidence of Rushdie's pure genius.

  Possession: A Romance - A.S. Byatt's tale of simultaneous love stories taking place across time caused me to put my life on hold in 1995 while I immersed myself completely in this novel.  Filled with poetry, letters, and gorgeous description of love in the English countryside, if you haven't read this book- you must go get it NOW!

Love in the Time of Cholera - I just noticed that this novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is now a film  currently playing in theatres.  Fermina Daza's love story told with Marquez' signature magical realism shook my soul and left me sobbing with complete and utter surrender to its beauty - do books like this exist anymore?

A Fine Balance - This tragic story of the down-and-out struggles of Mumbai urchins carries the reader on a roller coaster of emotions.  With his story, Rohinton Mistry gave me a glimpse into an India that I never knew existed.  Shortly after I read this book, I saw Mistry at a movie theatre.  I couldn't even pay attention to the movie because I kept staring at this delicate bearded man - wondering from where in his brilliant mind such a complex story was born.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - of all my favourite books listed, this one is the most  recent. I read Michael Chabon's masterpiece in 2003 during what I refer to as the last time life was "quiet."  I was expecting my first child, and had taken a month off prior to my due date to prepare for the new arrival.  This is a very special time in my memory, and one characerized by the beauty and intensity of this novel, read often while I was eating chocolate banana crepes with vanilla ice cream on Queen St. West in Toronto.  I often don't know how to describe this books magnificence - I just come across sounding nuts, "Umm, it's about these guys who come to New  York from Europe and write comic books, and it's like so cool..."  This book can't be adequately described - just trust me - you have to read it.

I don't want to insult any of my previous reads with this list.  The fact is there are lots of books I've really, really, really liked recently - ones that come to mind are Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, and an unauthorized biography of Anna Wintour, the name of which escapes me right now.  The books listed above simply represent those books that I ADORE.  What books have shaken your earth and moved you to the core of your being? I'd love to hear.

Comments

[LAVENDULA]

oh i am reading Love In The Time Of Cholera right now...my fave books are classics wuthering heights and i have a passion for latina/latino authors ie laura esquivel water for chocolate,issabel allende julia alvarez etc. oh i am waiting for the namesake to come out on dvd so i can watch it...

[haley-o]

Three of my favourite novels of all time Possession, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Pride and Prejudice.... :) NICE! Someone just recommended Eat, Pray, Love to me.... Maybe I'll skip it!

[Jen Maier]

I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and LOVED it. It is a very easy read but not simple...know what I mean? It is raw and real and funny and tragic and inspiring. I highly recommend it.

One of my fave books of all time is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Sometimes I am struck by the fact that she wrote this 20ish years ago and think just utter brilliance.

[Lisa]

Oops the Chris Bohjalian book is "Double Bind", not blind... Typo!

[Lisa]

I would recommend "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen which was AMAZING. And also "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro which is just plain haunting... This year's Giller winner "Late Nights on Air" by Elizabeth May was also enjoyable, if you like reading about Northern Canada... "Double Blind" by Chris Bohjalian was also an intriguing read... Can you tell I read much? lol... I have also enjoyed Wayson Choy's books, like "Jade Peony" and "All That Matters"... Ok. I'll stop here!

[amreen]

Thanks for the all the great recommendations! I'm so excited to get all these books and cosy up with them over the holidays...hopefully with hot cocoa and a crackling fireplace nearby! I have read Fall on your Knees and it affected me deeply. I found it so powerful and disturbing that it penetrated my skin and I couldn't get it out of my thoughts for days...i haven't read any of AMM's other novels though. they're definitely on my list. thanks again for all the great picks! Hopefully i can read some of them and do a follow-up post.

[elizabeth]

I was so excited to recommend Camilla Gibbs' "Sweetness in the Belly" but I see someone has beat me to it. Maybe a double endorsement will push you in the direction even faster. Also, you absolutely have to put Lori Lansens' "The Girls" on your list.

[Katie]

Hi there. When I read the beginning of your post I thought I'd recommend A Fine Balance - my all time best book ever! But since you've already got that on your list, I'll suggest A History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Blindness by Jose Saramago. If you like GGM, you should give Jose Saramago a try as well. And Blindness will be coming out as a movie starring Julianne Moore at some point (filmed somewhere in SW Ontario), so you should read the book first.

[Kath]

Hey Amreen, I think you would really like "Sweetness in the Belly" by Camilla Gibb. I was entranced by it! I soooo have to read "The Namesake": saw the trailer for the movie and soooo have to see that, too!

And I loved, loved, LOVED "A Fine Balance". It was MAGNIFICENT. I ran out and read every other Rohinton Mistry book I could find and was equally entranced. WONDERFUL. And of course, you can't go wrong with Jane Austen. I think I'll pick up "Possession". Sounds like my kinda read.

I'm just starting "Atonement", so glad to hear BFG liked it too!

I hate to contradict Lori, but I *destested* "Fall On Your Knees". Actually, I LOVED it, but felt so betrayed by the way the plot developed. All throughout I felt the tension building, building, building...and just thought "please, don't let this be another book about [terrible thing that I won't mention because it'll ruin the plot in case you decided to read it]" And then the [terrible thing] happened, and the consequences escalated to the point of ridiculousness. I was soooo disappointed; I reall did feel betrayed. But other than that it was great and I LOVE Anne Marie McDonald otherwise, so go figure. If you can handle [terrible thing], then you might enjoy it!

And on that ridiculously ambiguous note, I'll sign out.

[LoriD]

I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction. Some of my favourites include:

Destined to Witness (Hans J. Massaquoi) - a black boy growing up in Nazi Germany.

It's Not about the Bike (Lance Armstrong)

Blind Ambition (John Dean) - about Watergate from the perspective of the counsel to the President at the time.

My favourite novel is Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald, set in Nova Scotia and also The Way the Crow Flies, set in Ontario. Both excellent, riveting reads.

[ali]

love in the time of cholera is one of my all-time faves!

(i so should do post like this. it's GREAT!)

[Barcelona Food Girl]

Ooops...forgot to sign my post. xo BFG

Amreen, I completely agree with you about Midnight's Children: pretentious and without a grain of authenticity about the characters. Eat, Pray, Love resonated with me, but mainly because it reflected some of my own experiences at the time. I also found Elizabeth Gilbert to be a likable writer. In particular, her descriptions of the people she met along the way were lovely. The "spiritual" aspect of the book/her life was a bit much for me, though.

The last book I loved was Saturday--I have a weakness for Ian McEwan and Saturday is, to me, the perfect companion piece to Atonement. Right now I'm reading Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom, which is a historical novel set in WWII Spain. I've just begun, but the plot is engaging. I can't comment about the writing, though, because I've decided to read it in translation (the original is in English) to help me with my fledgling Spanish. My guess is that the writing might irritate me if I were reading it in English. It's just a guess, though.