This is the next of several (six?) posts that springs from an article, essentially listing "the most [x] book I've read." Fair warning, I'm approaching it as Free Association, because analyzing everything I've ever read to find the absolute most... whatever... is going to spin me into indecision.
This book was given to me by a high school boyfriend, several years after it was published, when I'd finally expanded my taste well enough to try it. He's the only person who would dare to give me such a thing, though in fact it was one of ten, possibly more, books that he gave to me that day. He knows I adore a challenge, he knows my usual reading taste, and he likes to push my buttons.
I decided to give it a try, wanting more than anything not to disappoint him. It wasn't an hour, though, before I was firmly in the grip of the story. I was reading in spring and summer, and often found myself still awake at three in the morning, telling myself over and over, "Just one more paragraph. Just one more chapter."
The book is daring because it was so far outside what I thought was my realm—and I loved it.
"Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural
event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last
decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is
returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister
forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. To the south,
the king’s powers are failing—his most trusted adviser dead under
mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of
the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a
family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to.
Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king’s new
Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but
the kingdom itself."
And no, I have not watched the television series. That's blasphemy until the final book[s] of the series are published!
The most hip book I read: Janet Evanovich's One for the Money (Scribner's Books, 1994), book 1 of the Stephanie Plum series
I, along with pretty much everyone I knew, read this book when it first came out. I thought it was hysterical, and promptly placed my hold for the second book in the series.
"She’s a product of the 'burg,' a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.
"Out of work and out of money, Stephanie blackmails her bail-bondsman cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, el-primo bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Her first nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli’s the inamorato who charmed Stephanie out of her virginity at age sixteen. There’s still powerful chemistry between them, so the chase should be interesting…and could also be extremely dangerous."
This is, as far as I can recall, the only time I've
ever read a bestseller when it first came out. I went on to read the
next dozen or so books, fresh off the press. At that point, I gave up on
the series. Even my favorite characters failed to progress beyond the immature (but legitimately funny) antics from the first books. There was no tension for me.
Crusie is one of my go-to authors. I've never seen anything from her that's not right up my alley. Her characters are warm, snappy, and real.
"Quinn McKenzie has always lived what she calls a 'beige' life. She's dating the world's nicest guy, she has a good job
as a high school art teacher, she's surrounded by family and friends who
rely on her, and she's bored to the point of insanity. But when Quinn
decides to change her life by adopting a stray dog over everyone's
objections, everything begins to spiral out of control. Now she's coping
with dog-napping, breaking and entering, seduction, sabotage, stalking,
more secrets than she really wants to know, and two men who are
suddenly crazy...for her."
This book is familiar because it feels like a dispatch from a good friend, funny and heartwarming, even upon first reading. I love that there is silliness and moments of pain, appreciation of art and food and music, and a solid support of good female friendships in all of Crusie's stories.
The most incomprehensible book I read: I'm not wild about this prompt, since it's both insulting to a book that somebody else might love, and it's meaningless to me since if I found a book incomprehensible, I wouldn't read it through. Therefore, free space!
I read this book when it was first released and acquired by my library. After three decades of being "a good sleeper," I'd started experiencing insomnia for the first time, or waking mid-night and struggling with getting back to sleep. The book—which is scientific but written in understandable language—helped me immediately. It didn't resolve all my issues, but what on earth could? I reread it now and then, to get good reminders of how to care for my sleep properly.
"Like many of us, journalist David K. Randall never gave sleep much thought. That is, until he began sleepwalking. One midnight crash into a hallway wall sent him on an investigation into the strange science of sleep.
"Like many of us, journalist David K. Randall never gave sleep much thought. That is, until he began sleepwalking. One midnight crash into a hallway wall sent him on an investigation into the strange science of sleep.
In Dreamland,
Randall explores the research that is investigating those dark hours
that make up nearly a third of our lives. Taking readers from military
battlefields to children’s bedrooms, Dreamland
shows that sleep isn't as simple as it seems. Why did the results of
one sleep study change the bookmakers’ odds for certain Monday Night
Football games? Do women sleep differently than men? And if you happen
to kill someone while you are sleepwalking, does that count as murder?
This book is a tour of the often odd, sometimes disturbing, and
always fascinating things that go on in the peculiar world of sleep.
You’ll never look at your pillow the same way again."
I found this one at a terrific bookstore in Bethesda, Maryland. I was on my first of many (8?) trips out there, staying as usual at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, and enjoying my daily wanders around the neighborhood. I would start each morning with tea and croissant at La Madeleine, followed by a walk to wherever caught my eye. That's how I found a great bookstore, and so hauled a heavy pile of books back by plane—including this one.
"Diana Campanella is the owner of a vintage
clothing store in Washington, D.C., teetering on the brink of disaster.
She and her blue-blood lawyer fiancé still have not set a date for their
wedding. And it's becoming more difficult than ever for Diana to keep
the peace in her big, unruly Catholic family. "But just when all hope seems lost, Diana meets a rumpled New Yorker named Harry, who casts a new light on her life and its possibilities. Now all she has to do is decide whether Harry's warmth and great sense of humor is a better bet than the familiar security her fiancé has to offer."
It is smart, very sad, beautiful, and unforgettable.
First read in high school, in my American lit class, it was like nothing else I'd ever seen. I couldn't forget it, so I bought it in my twenties and read it several times.
"In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening
to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of
science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the
study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint
Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance,
violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the
relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness
to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes."
Religion, the power of church v. state, and the theory that life and society does not progress so much as move in cycles; this book covers all that and then some. It is smart, surprising, and considerably ahead of its time.
[based on this post; the title quotation is by Jennifer Crusie, from Maybe This Time]
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