I was on my way to work and didn't really have time to stop, but....
At a diner in the Mission, drinking a coffee waiting for breakfast.
Reading Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis. He got it two Christmases ago for airport reading, but didn't read it. He just picked it up now because his roommate made the connection for him that Bret Easton Ellis was the author who wrote The Rules of Attraction.
His favorite book -- City of Night, published in 1962, by John Rechy. It was a cross-over novel that became a bestseller. The review I linked to (on Amazon! ...it's what came up when I was searching) is really interesting--it talks (briefly) about how the book, which is about the gay, sexual underworld, was published in a time when censorship was a threat.
Recently he read Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett and Khaled Hossein's A Thousand Splendid Suns.
When he was a child he remembers liking the Hardy Boys, books by Stephen King, and books by Judy Blume, like Tales of a Fourth
Grade Nothing and, its sequel, Super Fudge, which recalled a "loved that." The books are about a pre-teen growing up in New York City.
Something we bonded over--he ALSO has a twin (identical...I think mine is, too) who lives, like my sister lives, in the same neighborhood. He recommends books to his brother, but his brother is a DJ and more into music. My sister loans me books and tears out articles for me in weekly magazines...my favorite, which was ages and ages ago, was Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Laureate address. He spoke about what writing really means to him and about his father being a writer and how, after his father's death, he felt very conflicted about opening up an old suitcase and reading his father's writing, which hadn't been published and he'd never read before, because he wasn't sure how it would effect his identity as a writer--he didn't know if he wanted his father to be a good writer or a bad writer!
What have you recommended (or ripped out) for kith and kin?
6 Comments:
I've recommended Chuck Palahniuk's latest, "Rant", "I Am Legend", and some other stuff I don't remember.
I read "American Psycho" years ago when, for class, I had to compare the book to the film. Extremely graphic stuff. I've always wanted to revisit Ellis' writing, but I wasn't too sure about "Lunar Park". I wanted to try some of his older stuff first.
He often puts the same characters in all of his books or they are connected. I.E. the main character in "American Psycho" is the brother of a character from "Rules of Attraction" (In the movie, the character was played by James Van Der Beek).
I have introduced my sister to trash reading via Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect, and her husband to Dave Ramsey for financial advice.
My dad depends on me for book recommendations. I read a lot and live in a town with a great library system; he reads by downloading books on tape onto his iPod.
The last two books that were well received were "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami.
In fact, when I was a teenager, I'd ask him to recommend books because he'd read more of them than I had, and this was how I discovered Kurt Vonnegut. When I recommended Murakami to him, I said "He's kind of like my generation's Vonnegut." :)
I always recommend my favorite books to my sister. The latest was The Gathering, by Anne Enright (I loved it, I haven't heard the verdict from her yet!)
Food recipes for my dad! Just a a subtle hint about what we could have for dinner...!
My sister and I are complete opposites in reading; it's our joke.
But, luckily I have friends who share books. I'm reading Eat, Pray and Love (because of People Reading comments, by the way) right now given to me by a fellow teacher. She is reading Nora Jane that I gave her.
In terms of pulling out of magazines, I like articles that make me think or I can use in the classroom. The latest was the end essay from Time, maybe last week's, on comparing the body after death to a winter coat that is no longer needed. Wonderful!
I am trying to get my students to use every day objects to make their writing clearer for the reader. A winter coat explaining the body after death is pretty perfect for that.
For my own daughters, I just recommended The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I just read it, having been told about it from another teacher.The story is told through reading of words and pictures. It's incredible how it does it, and it's about the beginning of movies.
I highly recommend this one hour read, even though it would be considered a children's book. Has anyone read it?
Ps, girl with the mask, if you have any easy recipes, I bet I could use them too!!
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