This is a reading list I made while trying to find memorable, readable books for my friend and I to read. If you have memories of a book you read that really engaged you, let me know the title or author
I, Claudius -Graves - Claudius was not favored by nature. He was physically limited and scorned by the other Roman nobility. But his intelligence, grasp of people's makeup and powers of observation served him well despite his lack of favor and presence.
Staggerford, Simon's Night - Hassler Jon Hassler wrote 8 or so novels. Many of them are excellent and these two have stuck in my memory.
The Scarlet Letter - You may have read this in school but you are older and wiser now. Give the book another chance and you will be glad.
The Screwtape Letters - Screwtape is the undersecretary of Hell and these letters advise his nephew Wormwood on how to corrupt people and harvest souls for our father below.
The Godfather - Mario Puzo's tour of the world of the Mafia
Atlas Shrugged - Any Rand gives a respectful look at leaders in this novel
Freaky Friday - teen girl wakes to find she and Mom have transposed souls in the night. Tough on them both!
Cyrano de Bergerac - read the play. He was France's best swordsman and a knock-out poet but he had a big nose. Movies with Jose Ferrer and Steve Martin ("Roxanne") are good and worthwhile but so is the play.
Walden - Thoreau went to the woods to live deliberately, not wanting to find at his death that he had not lived. Read at least the first chapter.
The Once and Future King - T.H. White put this whimsical version of the story of Arthur and his knights, from boyhood with Merlin through the Round Table.
Maeve Bincy - all her books are very good. I fell into The Lavender Bus. I liked "Quentin's" and "Hearts and Souls" but they are all good.
Jitterbug Perfume - Prepare to have your sides split.
Lucky Jim - one of several good stories by Kingsley Amis. English and all.
David Lodge: Changing Places, Small World, etc. - A writer who slings words well. Look into him.
Jim Harrison: Brown Dog stories - Brown Dog is a man of ill-repute who lives and mis-adventures in a low life way in Michigan's upper peninsula.
The War Between the Tates: Lurie - Allison Lurie nails marital tensions and academic pretensions
Skinwalker - Tony Hillerman's stories of the Navajo Tribal Police and the crimes they work on take you into a different world
Proof - Dick Francis - He died just days ago. A former British jockey, the guy could write and had a ton of books with many different backgrounds that all related to horse racing
Anything Considered - Peter Mayle Mayle retired from London to the south of France. His "A Year in Provence" is a classic but his novels are a delight.
