stargazer

Book Recommendations

I don’t have a great track record, responding to tags, but I am joining in with the Book Recommendations Tag after being tagged by Literary Elephant, because who doesn’t like a good recommendation?

1. A Book About Friendship: The Fellowship of the Ring

Yes, I am a big LOTR fan and The Fellowship of the Ring has to be one of the ultimate stories about friendship through thick and thin across race, geography and social class. 😉 The Two Towers and The Return of the King may be more epic, but The Fellowship of the Ring is my favourite in the trilogy.

2. A Translated Book: Human Acts

Human Acts is a difficult read, but I found it interesting to learn about the massacre in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980, when students demonstrated against the martial law government. Considering the high death toll, it’s *impressive* that the government managed to cover up events for such a long time. Be prepared for death and brutality.

3. A Diverse Romance: The Vanishing Half

Ok, I don’t read romance, diverse or otherwise. The Vanishing Half is about identity, race and passing. But it includes a lovely relationship between Jude, a young black woman, and her trans boyfriend Reese.

4. A Fast-Paced Book: Coffin Road

Even the crime fiction I read tend to be relatively slow and partly character driven. But I loved Coffin Road and couldn’t put it down! The characters aren’t as strong as in May’s Lewis Trilogy, but the plot is intriguing and the setting at the Outer Hebrides of Scotland is utterly atmospheric.

5. A Nonfiction Other Than a Memoir: Other Minds

Octopuses are amazing. They’ve developed an intelligence, which is completely different from that of humans. Other Minds is a strange mix of evolution theory, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, but my favourite parts were the funny and amazing stories about octopuses.

6. An Underrated Memoir: The Salt Path

The Salt Path is popular, but in my view it can’t be rated highly enough. This memoir about coping with an utterly hopeless situation by going on a crazy long distance hike with insufficient gear and no money is so moving, inspiring, funny, devastating and despite everything: utterly life-affirming.

7. A Book With Fewer Than 10,000 Ratings on Goodreads: The Employees

The Employees is one of the best and most unusual books, I’ve read in a while. Taking place in a spaceship far from earth, it consists of a series of employee statements from humans, humanoids and enhanced humans. The novel questions what it means to be human and I found it poetic, strange and impactful.

8. A Book With An LGBTQ+ Protagonist: Kitchen

Kitchen is another favourite, which managed to bring me into this otherworldly state of mind filled with beauty and melancholy, which Japanese authors seem particularly good at. It also features some great characters including Eriko, who is a trans woman with a colourful personality and insightful views on life.

9. A Book By A Trans or Non-binary Author: The Deep

I doubt, I’ve read any books in this category. How do you check, though? But I recently heard of Rivers Solomon’s The Deep on Booktube about descendants of African slave women, who live in the deep. Fantasy isn’t my usual genre, but this sounds intriguing!

10. A Book With More Than 500 Pages: The Secret History

Normally, I prefer relatively short books, but with the right book, it doesn’t matter. The Secret History is centred around some dark events and their aftermath taking place in a group of classics students. With excellent writing, a thrilling plot and a group of fascinating characters, this dark academia novel kept me spellbound through all 559 pages.

11. A Short Story Collection: The Chekhov Collection of Short Stories

I love Chekhov’s plays and as it turned out, I also love his short stories. This selection chosen and narrated by Richard Armitage is rather depressing even by Russian standards. But with an eclectic mix of philosophical musings, melancholy and symbolism I can’t recommend it enough.

12. A Book You Want Everyone to Read: 84, Charing Cross Road

I don’t want everybody to read one book, since we all have different reading taste. However, I doubt many people will object to 84, Charing Cross Road, which is a letter correspondence over 20 years between Helene Hanff (living in New York) and a bookseller in London. A true story about a lovely friendship based on books. What’s not to like?

Feel free to join in with The Book Recommendations Tag, which is originally created by Ally Writes Things.

55 comments

    • Thanks for the link, that is indeed a very interesting article. I don’t know how I see the role of the translator. Ideally, the translation should give the foreign reader the same experience as the original book gives the domestic reader, but how do you measure that? I am not sure, whether the translator should add stuff even if it enhances the reading experience. I guess it’s difficult to judge unless you can read the same story in two different languages. Anyway, certainly food for thought.

    • Glad you loved it! Yes, 84 Charing Cross Road really is perfect for book lovers, that is why I chose it. 🙂

    • Ooh, I look forward to hear what you think. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

    • Glad you enjoyed it! I did try to add variety, but I am still a bit short in romance, YA fantasy, horror and possibly a few more genres… 😉

    • Good to hear you loved 84, Charing Cross Road as well. It really is perfect for book lovers.

  8. Other Minds (octopuses!) was the most surprising answer! I enjoyed your responses and think you chose well in recommending 84 Charing Cross Road.

    • I tried to think of something with broad appeal. Don’t know if octopuses achieved that? A lot of my nonfiction is quite specialised and probably not that interesting for most people.

      • I’m not sure how widely appealing octopuses are, but your comment about them having intelligence that is different from humans is intriguing!

        • It really is intriguing. They have a lot of neurons based in the arms, hence the arms can think for themselves and don’t necessarily have to coordinate 100% with the main entity.

          • How extraordinary! And sensible. It sounds as if evolution has served octopuses well. I’m trying to connect this with how human bodies work and the best I can come up with is muscle memory.
            I don’t think I want to know any more since I quite like eating calamari and don’t want to be put off…

          • Haha, that makes sense. I’ve stopped eating octopus and squid after learning more about their intelligence, but I weren’t too fond of calamari in the first place.

  10. I completely agree with you about The Salt Path and I like your interpretation of underrated!

    • Haha, yes it isn’t really underrated in the traditional sense, but I want more people to read it. It’s such an amazing book!

  11. I loved this blog. Going to check out some of the recommendations especially 84 Charing Cross Road. The Salt Path also sounds like my sort of book.

    • Oh yes, you do need to check out 84 Charing Cross Road. It is sweet, funny and I even learned a bit about how tough the rationing was back in London in the 50s. The Salt Path is just AMAZING! (sry for shouting 😉 )

  13. I have yet to read Charing Cross Road; it’s still sitting in my shelf and so is Human Acts! I must really really get to them! Oh and Kitchen too in my e-stack LOL And I thought The Secret History was really good. Love this post, Stargazer!

    • Hahaha, since you already own them, you have to read them! 84 Charing Cross Road is the ultimate comfort read. Also I enjoyed reading about the contrast between the outgoing new yorker with big gestures and the quiet, reserved Brit. Very much archetypes in the form of real people. And I just know, you are going to LOVE Kitchen. Both these books are very short by the way. 😉

  14. I have The Little Friend by Donna Tartt but I haven’t read it yet, I’m scared to pick it up for some reason. You make her writing seem quite good though so maybe I should take the plunge… right after reading that wonderful 84, Charing Cross Road! Great post!

    • I’ve heard some people really loving The Little Friend, but I haven’t read yet. I didn’t enjoy The Goldfinch though, so I guess her books are a bit hit-or-miss for me. Thanks Inge. You should read 84, Charing Cross Road, it is such a sweet and fun story.

    • I hope you will enjoy it, if you decide to pick it up. Feel free to join in with the tag, I would love to read your answers.

    • It really is a remarkable story. And a great example of how powerful nonfiction can be.

  17. I love your answers, a fun tag! Since I’ve heard about The Employees I cannot wait to read it and am actually obsessed about it now. I hope it is as good as most people say it is and your praise is very encouraging!

    • Thanks Diana, feel free to join in with the tag, I would love to see your answers. Fingers crossed, you’ll find The Employees as enjoyable as I did. At least I am fairly sure, you will find it unusual! 😀

  18. Thank you for the book recommendations. Those are fascinating books and I am looking forward to reading them. According to me, the most intriguing one is The Secret History.

    • You are welcome! The Secret History really is intriguing and I hope you get to read it, if you haven’t already done so!

  19. That one about a book written by a trans or non-binary had me wondering how anyone even knows that too. 😮 Like… I never pick up a book just because of the author’s “gender identity” hahah And your thoughts on TLOR made me want to pick up the books and read them ASAP! 😀 Great post!

    • Yeah, I know. I guess, some readers are more woke and more aware than me and may have more insight into this. But I agree, I would never pick up a book just because of the author’s gender identity (or colour or sex or ….). I pick up books, because I think I will enjoy them. But I know not everyone agrees with this. Thanks Lashaan!

  20. I loved Coffin Road and plan on reading more by this author.
    I highly recommend also the sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road – and the movie!

    • Did you already read Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy? If not, that would be a good suggestion, if you want to read more by this author. I really enjoyed them. Yes, I definitely need to watch the 84, Charing Cross Road movie sooner rather than later. Perhaps, I’ll look into the sequel as well, but most people say it isn’t as good as the original book.

    • Glad you enjoyed them and sounds like we agree about Reese and Jude!

    • Thanks for creating the tag, I had so much fun doing it and I’ve also enjoyed reading the posts from other bloggers. The Vanishing Half and Other Minds are both excellent books!

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