Donna Tartt - Donna Tartt Questions

Question: Good book to read... suggestions(advanced taste)?

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Answer #1:

20.000 leagues under the sea its a great classic

Answer #2:

the great gatsby- fitzgerald
as i lay dying- faulkner
catch 22- heller
snow falling on cedars- guterson
choke- palahniuk
the historian- kostova (can get a little boring during historic passages, but i loved it)

Answer #3:

One of the best books of all time, Plato's Republic. My personal opinion. A little lengthy, but worth the effort.

Answer #4:

Do you wanna deviate to .. some Pearl S. Buck? The Good Earth and many others by her. You must have heard of it (if you haven't already read it)? It really is a good book.

Answer #5:

William Trevor is a fine contemporary writer of depth.

J. M. Coetze (Disgrace, for example) and Nadine Gordimer (The Pickup): in grappling with South Aftrican experiences of race and gender, these novels ultimately deal with characters' confrontations with themselves.

Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen -- classic and beautiful.

Old School, by Tobias Wolfe, will remind you of the Donna Tartt book you mention (but, in my opinion, it's better)

Tolstoi wrote fine and provocative short stories -- The Kreutzer Sonata is a good choice.

Since you like Jane Eyre, try Villette by the same author. If Middlemarch was too long, try Silas Marner. (It is far better than you might think based on the complaints of several generations of 9th graders!)

The classic that had me laughing out loud was Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, which has a lot of gentle satire in it as well as knightly adventure.

And, for a fan of Death in Venice, I should mention Henry James's The Aspern Papers (a novella set in Venice).

Finally, I hope you find some kindred souls to talk with about the books you read -- that doubles the enjoyment, while perhaps expanding your appreciation for the works read.

Answer #6:

Finn - Jon Clinch (recommended because you listed Cormac McCarthy)

Clinch's debut novel is exceedingly brilliant. He reconstructs the entire life of Pap Finn (Huck's father) from the vague clues left by Twain in two of the chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book is flawless, airtight, so well written that it does Twain proud (make sure to read the author's note at the end). I can't think of a gutsier move for a debut than standing on the back of such a literary giant. And the result is the best book I've read in 10 years. I've recommended this book to everyone I know who reads, and I'm running out of adjectives. I want to extract every bit of minutiae from this novel for discussion, and my obsession with this book won't be satisfied until then.

Judging by your list, you don't have a weak stomach, but I should forewarn you anyway, it's brutal in the tradition of Lord of the Flies.

also:
Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Anything by Ray Bradbury

Nonfiction:
How Soccer Explains the World - Franklin Foer
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber - Julian Rubenstein
Paddy Whacked, The Untold History of the Irish-American Gangster - T.J. English
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

Answer #7:

How about

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Answer #8:

Here are a few that you might want to check into:

A Confederacy Of Dunces ~ John Kennedy Toole
Going To the Sun ~ James McManus
The Milagro Beanfield War ~ John Nichols
Clockers ~ Richard Price
Nobody's Fool ~ Richard Russo
A Bonfire Of the Vanities ~ Tom Wolfe
Ship Of Fools ~ Katherine Anne Porter
Bel Canto ~ Ann Patchett
Gentleman and Players ~ Joanne Harris
Sometimes A Great Notion ~ Ken Kesey
The Sparrow ~ Mary Doria Russell
A Keeper of Sheep ~ William Carpenter
Fathers and Sons ~ Larry Brown
Cold Mountain ~ Charles Frazier
Neverwhere ~ Neil Gaiman
The House Of Sand and Fog ~ Andre Dubus III
Going After Cacciato ~ Tim O'Brien
White Noise ~ Don DeLillo
Less Than Zero ~ Bret Easton Ellis
The Beach ~ Alex Garland
Crossing Safety ~ Wallace Stegner
Ironweed ~ William Kennedy
Lonesome Dove ~ Larry McMurtry
Barn Blind ~ Jane Smiley
A Map Of the World ~ Jane Hamilton
The Rainbow Stories ~ William T. Vollmann
All We Need Of Hell ~ Harry Crews
The Deptford Trilogy ~ Robertson Davies
Mona Lisa Overdrive ~ William Gibson
The Wayward Bus ~ John Steinbeck
The Memoirs Of a Shy Pornographer ~ Kenneth Patchen
Ask the Dust ~ John Fante

With the exception of the first two, all of these people have other wonderful titles too. I just picked a favorite from each. I hope you find some things here to interest you.

Answer #9:

dracula is a good classic
man in the iron mask
Count of monte christo
All classics i really enjoyed!

Answer #10:

Hi !
The Ghormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake ;
Click Here ...
TitusGroan
Gormenghast
TitusAlone
Click Here ...

Plot introduction
The book is set in the huge castle of Gormenghast, a vast landscape of crumbling towers and ivy-filled quadrangles that has for centuries been the hereditary residence of the Groan family and with them a legion of servants.
At the beginning of the novel, two agents of change are introduced into the stagnant society of Gormenghast.
The first, more obvious agent of change is Titus Groan, the heir to Lord Sepulchrave, the seventy-sixth Earl of Groan. His birth interrupts the daily rituals which are practiced at all levels of the castle society, from the kitchens to the Hall of Bright Carvings in Gormenghast's upper reaches. However, the novel only covers the first two years of Titus' life, and he plays a minor role.
The second is Steerpike, a ruthlessly ambitious kitchen boy, who is the driving force for the plot of Titus Groan. His entry into Gormenghast society, at the same time as Lord Titus is born, introduces a steady rate of change into a stagnant world.

Click Here ...
Plot summary
The second book follows the story of Titus from the age of seven to seventeen. As the novel opens Titus, as the 77th earl and lord of Gormenghast, dreads the life of pre-ordained ritual that stretches before him. Barquentine as Master of Ritual, and Steerpike his apprentice, are seen by Titus as the embodiment of all he wants to rebel against.

Click Here
Plot summary
The story follows Titus' journey in the world outside Gormenghast Castle, having left his home at the end of the second book.
Finding himself lost, he suddenly discovers exactly how outdated his home really was, as he stumbles into a city of strange technological marvels, of shimmering metal and glass buildings, whose inhabitants travel by motorcar and airplane — and yet which also houses an entire culture of outcasts beneath the city itself in the "Under-River". The book also includes themes more usual to dystopian science fiction, such as marked inequality of wealth and involuntary euthanasia, and in many ways anticipates the steampunk genre.

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