bookfilter

October 25, 2008 1:28 PM

My sweetheart loves, and has read every book by, Anna Quindlen, Jumpha Lahiri, Pat Conroy, Joshua Henkin, and Anne Packer. I need to buy her books to read on our honeymoon. I'm at a loss. Save us from a sad and illiterate start on our new lives! Suggest authors or books to get her.
posted by Sockpuppet The First to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

It doesn't seem to be working at the moment but you might try What Should I Read Next. You enter a list of books that you have read and liked (or rather that she likes) and it will suggest other books that are on the lists of members who like the same books.
posted by metahawk at 1:44 PM on October 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

anytime i can't decide what to read i pick up best american nonrequired reading to try to find something new.

for an actual recommendation, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving
posted by nadawi at 1:48 PM on October 25, 2008

Chris Bohjalian, Jodi Picult, Ann Patchett....
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:52 PM on October 25, 2008

Anything on Oprah's book club list - it sounds like my taste is similar to your fiance's, and I'm pretty much set with anything Oprah tells me to read. :)
posted by tristeza at 1:57 PM on October 25, 2008

- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
- The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
- The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
- The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
posted by jammy at 2:04 PM on October 25, 2008

Chances are she'd enjoy Joan Silber, my favorites are Ideas of Heaven and The Size of the World . Silber is almost certainly among the top half dozen most underrated, overlooked writers in the English language.
posted by dawson at 2:10 PM on October 25, 2008

Anne Tyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
posted by availablelight at 2:39 PM on October 25, 2008

The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

Actually, I think she'd like The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
posted by sonic meat machine at 2:51 PM on October 25, 2008

Has she read any of the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series?
posted by srah at 2:59 PM on October 25, 2008

I read Hanif Kureishi right after Jumpha Lahiri and loved them both in the same way. Check out The Buddha of Suburbia for amazing wit and charm.

Also seconding Zadie Smith.
posted by shamble at 3:56 PM on October 25, 2008

Yeah, try the Time Traveler's Wife.
posted by Windigo at 4:01 PM on October 25, 2008

I'm just going off of Conroy, as he's the only one of those authors I've read:

Empire Falls by Richard Russo.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I think Conroy learned a lot from this book.
posted by marxchivist at 4:27 PM on October 25, 2008

The Time Traveler's Wife.

Especially on a honeymoon. Hauntingly romantic.

The first chapter or so is kind of challenging until you figure out what's going on, but tell her to stick with it. My favorite book of the past few years.
posted by marsha56 at 6:14 PM on October 25, 2008

Michelle Richmond's No One You Know and The Year of Fog were entrancing, and Sarah Dunn's The Big Love is the novel I wish I'd written.
posted by mewithoutyou at 8:55 PM on October 25, 2008

Nicholas Evans, perhaps. That's all I got ~ most of the stuff I read involves forensics and dead bodies.
posted by kattyann at 9:24 PM on October 25, 2008

How about Jane Smiley and Barbara Kingsolver?
posted by exceptinsects at 2:29 AM on October 26, 2008

Mary Gordon
Doris Lessing
If she doesn't mind fantasy/other worlds/science fiction approach, Ursula LeGuin (start with one of the short story collections)
Anais Nin
posted by nax at 4:02 AM on October 26, 2008

Yes, Jodi Picoult - especially Second Glance.

I've heard the Twilight books are good.
posted by Sassyfras at 8:17 AM on October 26, 2008

These come to mind:

John Irving-- The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules, and A Widow For a Year are my favorites.

Ethan Canin -- The Palace Thief, For Kings and Planets, Carry Me Across the Water

Richard Russo -- Straight Man, Empire Falls.

Frank Conroy -- Body & Soul (what happened to this guy?)

Julian Barnes -- Working it Out & Love, etc.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:58 AM on October 31, 2008

Also: Helen DeWitt's incomparable The Last Samurai, although it's not nearly as approachable as the above for most readers.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:00 AM on October 31, 2008

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
I know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
She's Come undone by Wally Lamb
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga
Anything by Anne Tyler
No one Belongs here More than You by Miranda July

All great books. Most are titles that I've recommended to customers at the bookstore where I work, and which they came back to thank me for. :-)
posted by pootler at 1:18 PM on October 31, 2008