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A list about books that are un-put-down-able

There are some books you can read in one sitting. The ones you don't feel like putting down and you can't wait to get back to. I'm not including novel series in this, because those are a whole other thing and if I did I'd be forced to fill the list with Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy Novels. I'm going with books published after 1960 as well. I'm only allowing books I managed to finish in a week. Only novels, no short stories and poetry, memoirs, non-fiction etc


in no particular order :

15. Portnoy's Complaint - Phillip Roth - 1969 - USA

Quick Summary: Comedy, sexual frustration and self-consciousness. Portnoy's Complaint is one long monologue to a therapist about different stages of his life. This could get depressing but thankfully his life is hilarious.

14. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - 1989 - UK

Quick Summary: Mostly flashbacks of a butler from the time preceding World War II, in which his master was heavily involved in appeasement. The interactions with the household staff also play a major role.


13. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee -1999- South Africa

Quick Summary : College professor loses his job and reputation. He moves out to the Eastern Cape onto his daughter's farm. Just when he's getting used to it and feeling familiar, events cause further necessary readaptation.

12. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - 1981- UK

Quick Summary: An allegorical novel about India pre and post partition. Set up as a biography and also full of magical realism.


11. White Teeth - Zadie Smith - 2000- UK

Quick Summary : A story about two friends in London and their respective lives as well as a narration about the lives of their families. A humor-filled novel representing the immigrant life in multicultural London

10. Kafka On The Shore - Haruki Murakami - 2002- Japan

Quick Summary: Two separate but related plots, one involving a 15 year old boy who runs away from home and finds shelter in a private library. The other about an old man who can talk to cats and ends up on a road trip.

9. A Man of the People - Chinua Achebe - 1966 - Nigeria

Quick Summary: A novel about a young man who comes to work for the Minister of Culture. Really a satire of the political situation of Nigeria and applicable to the way many post-colonial politicians behave.

8. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez- 1967 - Colombia

Quick Summary: A story about several generations of the Buendia family as well as other residents of the village of Macondo. A magical realism novel where remarkable things happen and no one is surprised.

7.Catch -22 - Joseph Heller - USA -1961

Quick Summary: One of the funniest novels ever and a walk through of bureaucratic idiocy and the way in which logical reasoning can be twisted to make nonsense seem sensible.

6. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates - USA -1961

Quick Summary: Married life in the 1950's. A lot of the story really delves into marital difficulty and failed ambitions stemming from the inability to understand another's perspective.

5.Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger - India - 2008

Quick Summary: A tale of how the poor in India have it and how the narrator made it good by taking risks no one else would, or would even think to take for that matter

4. The Buddha Of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi - 1990- UK

Quick Summary: A story about a teenager eager to leave the suburbs of 1970's London and start living. Said to be highly autobiographical.

3. Snow - Orhan Pamuk - Turkey -2002

Quick Summary: A journalist goes to a town to investigate a spate of suicides. He also hopes to (and meets) a woman from his past. The snow cuts off the city and he ends up in discussions with all the different groups in the city.


2. The Damned Utd - David Peace - UK- 2006

Quick Summary: A retelling of Brian Clough's days in charge of Leeds United. All 44 days of it


1.On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan - 2007 - UK

Quick Summary: The night of their wedding a couple reflect on their differences and how they came to be a couple

Comments

  1. Hola, quizás os interese saber que tenemos una colección que incluye el relato 'Strangers When We Meet' de Hanif Kureishi en versión original conjuntamente con el relato 'NippleJesus' de Nick Hornby.

    El formato de esta colección es innovador porque permite leer directamente la obra en inglés sin necesidad de usar el diccionario al integrarse un glosario en cada página.

    Tenéis más info de este relato y de la colección Read&Listen en http://www.ponsidiomas.com/catalogo/nick-hornby---hanif-kureishi.html

    ReplyDelete

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