Hi everyone. Having a few weeks off from writing my ms so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. In the meantime I'm planning to read as much as I can. I usually read thriller/ chick lit although I do enjoy the classics too, and will read pretty much anything. Does anyone have any book suggestions? In particular anything which might help stretch my critical eye?
Thanks
I've been holding back (honest!) a bit on this subject, because I was taking into consideration those preferences for thrillers and chick-lit, and I'm not an expert on either. (Though I enjoy what *I* consider chick-lit.)
However, if you want to stretch your genre boundaries a bit:
ANYTHING by Marge Piercy (except The Third Child, the only book by her that frankly disappointed me). 'Here is somebody with the guts to go into the deepest core of herself, her time, her history, and risk more than anybody else has so far, just out of a love for the truth and a need to tell it.' - William Styron
Her book Vida is told from the POV of a "terrorist", a totally admirable (and likeable) activist who had to go underground due to an agent-provocateur. An eye-opener about how public opinion is manipulated (among many other qualities.)
ALWAYS feminist, always pro-underdog, Piercy is my favourite living novelist by a wide margin.
ANYTHING by Ursula K. LeGuin, except the first 3 novels, before she got into her stride. Voted #2 fantasy writer of all time (behind Tolkien, whom *I* find grossly over-rated), largely on the basis of her first 3 novels in the Earthsea series (which blows Harry Potter out the window) and #2 sci-fi writer of all time. (Peter Jackson ripped off a lot of his ideas for Avatar from her short novel The Word For World Is Forest without giving her credit.) 2 of her novels won both of the top sci-fi prizes (Hugo and Nebula), a rare feawardst. One of her short stories (not a horror story) had me trembling with paranoia for hours - not WHILE I read it, but after. Another, "The Wife's Story" http://docslide.us/documents/the-wifes-story-by-ursula-kleguin.html, is - in my estimation - the best werewolf story ever.
MOST of Anne Tyler (though I thought The Clock Winder dross), author of Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, and - my favourite - A Patchwork Planet. Chronicler supreme of dysfunctional families.
Kurt Vonnegut jr., John Irving (avoid Setting Free The Bears), Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Graham Greene (his The Human Factor and John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold are the 2 best spy novels ever, unless you count Le Carré's The Constant Gardener as a spy novel... You might consider it a thriller, I suppose. Also - above all - a love story and a tale of integrity in the face of shite.)
Is that enough for you to be getting on with, Clare?
There's also a yet-to-be-published thriller by Clare Williams that I've got my eye on...
Penny's done it again! Excellent book!
"The book was especially well received by musical fans, who noted the accuracy of Seth's descriptions of music.
"Paolo Isotta, one of Italy's most significant music critics, wrote in the influential newspaper Il Corriere della Sera of the Italian translation that no European writer had ever shown such a knowledge of European classical music, nor had any European novel before managed to convey the psychology, the technical abilities, even the human potentialities of those who practise music for a living." - wikipedia
Not to mention the fact that Seth makes you both feel for the hero AND want to throttle him (for how he treats the Love of his life). - Jimmy
Jimmy's comment about music reminds me that An Equal Music by Vikram Seth is a wonderful novel about being a performer of classical music.