When I was a kid I kept a list of every book I ever read, because I never wanted to forget the titles. The list started with my favorite picture book, "The Ice Cream Cone Coot". Of course I read the classics like, Ramona and Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary and the Fudge series by Judy Blume. However, my very favorite books were the ones about fashionable young girls who lived with their parents on Park Avenue. I liked obscure little stories set in the fifties anywhere on the East coast, which seemed so exotic at the time. Stories of winter in Vermont, summers on Cape Cod, or running away to the Metropolitan Museum, transported me to another world.
Nowadays I don't have as much time for reading as I would like, but I thought I would share some of my recent favorites. I will try to stay away from the over-saturated realm and mention some lesser known titles. In the last few years I have become smitten with East Asian literature. Perhaps like the stories I adored as a child, these stories are so foreign that I am transported to an almost imaginary world. My introduction began when I took a course in East Asian studies which required that we read a 900 page novel called, "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth. Then I took a course called Post Colonial Literature, which studied the type of literature that emerged from a culture after the oppressing occupier had retreated from places like India, Jamaica, the Dutch West Indies, or the Belgian Congo. The course opened my eyes to the reality of oppression on the cultural fabric of a place. In this course we had to read "Kim" the only novel written by Rudyard Kipling of Jungle Book fame. The story was so laden with cultural anachronisms that the book required a "JST like" interpretation. Every third word caused me to turn to the end notes in the back of the book for explanation.
A short list of favorites:
Vanishing Cornwall by Daphne DuMaurier
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
p.s. If you want some good recommendations check for the Man Booker prize short list and winners. This is the British equivalent of the Pulitzer, and they award prizes to books published through UK publishers. The result is that there are often a very diverse list of books each year from authors living in former British colonies all over the world. I find the nominees on the Man Booker list to be more interesting reading than many of the pulitzer nominees.
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/
2 comments:
Love the Screwtape Letters! Last year we read The Scapegoat by Daphnie DuMaurier and liked it as well...DuMaurier has a uniquely intriguing writing style.
I was a big, Tale of the 4th Grade Nothing fan as a kid so I was glad to see these types make up your childhood list as well.
I have been staring at a copy of The Scapegoat on my shelf. I should read it. The unique thing about Vanishing Cornwall is that it is non-fiction. DuMaurier, known for her suspenseful style, writes very differently here about how the old Cornwall she knows and loves is disappearing before her eyes.
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