Topic Index > Forum > Forum Listeners' Favorite Books

Forum Listeners' Favorite Books

On May 7, 2009, Forum listeners called in and went online to share their favorite books. Below is a list of the books discussed on the show, but you can continue the conversation right here!

The books mentioned on the program:

Telex from Cuba: A Novel -- Rachel Kushner

Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life -- John Adams

Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected -- August Kleinzahler

Possession -- A.S. Byatt

A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess

The March -- E.L. Doctorow

Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade -- Nicole Galland

Foundation -- Isaac Asimov

How Green Was My Valley -- Richard Llewellyn

The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones -- Stanley Booth

Catcher in the Rye -- J.D. Salinger

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life -- Barbara Kingsolver

Hot, Flat, and Crowded (Why We Need A Green Revolution - And How It Can Renew America) -- Thomas Friedman

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War -- Drew Gilpin Faust

The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Moby Dick -- Melville

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) -- Ursula K. Le Guin

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water -- William Reisner

Siddhartha -- Hermann Hesse

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures -- Dan Roam

Replay -- Ken Grimwood

In the Company of Heroes -- Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov

A Far Country -- Daniel Mason

A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy

The Hakawati -- Rabih Alameddine

The People of the Book -- Geraldine Brooks

A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving

To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee

The Snow Leopard -- Peter Matthiessen

How Doctors Think -- Jerome Groopman

The Steel Remains -- Richard Morgan

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- Dave Eggars

The Continental OP -- Dashiel Hammett

Nightmare in Town -- Dashiel Hammett

Oryx and Crake -- Margaret Atwood

The Wisdom of Insecurity -- Alan Watts

One Knight Only -- Julia Latham

Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert A. Heinlein

Travels with Charley: In Search of America -- John Steinbeck

The Conquest of Happiness -- Bertrand Russell

The Bastard of Istanbul -- Elif Shafak

Hallam's War -- Elisabeth Payne Rosen

Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail -- Bill Bryson

Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe

Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot Gerald Ford -- Geri Spieler

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science -- Charles Wheelan

The Measure of a Man -- Sidney Poitier

The Ronin: A Novel Based on a Zen Myth -- Wiliam Dale Jennings

Eucalyptus -- Murray Bail

The Enchantress of Florence -- Salman Rushdie

Songs Without Words -- Ann Packer

The Russian Concubine -- Kate Furnivall

Walden -- Henry David Thoreau

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time -- Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Dalva -- Jim Harrison

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm -- Tad Williams, Deborah Beale, and Greg Swearingen

The Twilight Saga -- Stephenie Meyer

It's Perfectly Normal -- Robie Harris and Michael Emberley

Taxi to Tashkent -- Tom Fleming

The Flying Dutchmen -- Andrew Suhrer

The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil Thing -- Sumbul Ali-Karamali

The Girl on the Fridge -- Etgar Keret

Zen and the the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- Robert Pirsig

If you are interested in buying one of the books mentioned on the show, you can support KQED by clicking on the title, which will take you to that book on Amazon.com. A portion of the profit will go to KQED. These titles are also available from your local independent bookseller. You can find the one nearest you at BookSense.com.

You can also listen to the original broadcast of this episode in the Forum archives.

KQED's Community Guidelines

I've read The Dragons of Ordinary Farm written by local Woodside authors Tad Williams and Deborah Beale. It's geared toward 4th to 7th graders, but the story is so engaging and fun that anyone would get a kick out of it. The story is about a teenage brother and sister who get shipped off to a remote California valley by their mother to stay with a distant relative on a very unusual farm inhabited by mythological creatures and an oddball cast of human characters from every dimension in time. It is a very fun and gripping adventure for a memorable summer read.

Especially important, his chapter, "Surgery and Satisfaction". (wish I'd read
it before allowing a podiatrist to do surgery on my toes...a disaster.)
True Religion | True Religion Jeans

Peter Matthiessen's "The Snow Leopard" influenced me as a kid and fueled my desire for outdoor adventure and buddhism.

The Snow Leopard is slow paced with little plot. But still, the book challenges your mind and has the ability to truly change your perception on certain things. Absolutely recommended indeed.

Mr Solar

The Snow Leopard is a good book and do you have to fight with it at times. Catcher in the Rye is one of my all time favourite books, nice to see it up on that list!

Free PS3 | Free iPod | Free iPhone

customized logo | brochure designing | Custom Logo Design

stationery logo design | website logo design

Thanks for this great post!!! I love reading :-)
Google Sniper Review
How To MIG Weld
Training An Older Dog

My absolute "mustread" is Jerome Groopman's most recent book
"How Doctor's Think"........excellent in understanding what is
going on in a doctor's head as he makes a diagnosis. Especially
important, his chapter, "Surgery and Satisfaction". (wish I'd read
it before allowing a podiatrist to do surgery on my toes...a disaster.)
Ruth

Great post!! Thanks online games

To add to the dialogue about Telex from Cuba, just announced this morning as a Commonwealth winner, I want to tell you that the authhor, Rachel Kushner, was raised in San Francisco. She attended Herbert Hoover Middle School and Washington High School. San Francisco does not appear in Telex, but the multiple characters, the complex view of Cuba on the eve of the Revolution, and the lush writing were certainly influenced by the characters, complexity, and beauty of San Francisco. I should know: I am her mom. Eleanor in San Francisco

Having an 11 year old boy abut to go through puberty, I can highly recommend "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley. It covers every conceivable issue about puberty in an open, engaging and non-judgmental way. A great structure for discussions that most parents find very dificult.

A clockwork orange is a really awesome book. It is about a teenage boy who belongs to a gang.

GoDaddy promo codes
Hostgator promo codes
FatCow promo codes
promo codes

Logo Design | stationery logo design | website logo design

custom logo | brochure design

Hi Michael! My recommendation is SIDDHARTHA, by Hermann Hesse. It was on my AP English reading list in 1971-72 and it was the best book I read in all of my AP English classes. Then at different turning points in my life, I've reread it, and was enlightened in different ways each time. As I approach early retirement, it's getting time to read it again, for a fifth time. Thanks for doing this list!
Pat

I want to try to register. list for free or pay? where I can register?
I'll need it later when I retire. maybe I can be enlightened as you experience.
Buzz and Trends

I highly recommend the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyers. I've read all four books 3 times already. It is marketed as a Young Adult literature, but I am in my mid thirties and still find it very enjoyable. It is just the right combination of romance and adventure. Once you start reading, you cannot put the book down

I also have read the Twilight saga. very interesting story. However, very very curious about the movie that will appear this month. I hope the movie is also good as the book.
daily tips

A book I read fairly recently was Taxi to Tashkent by Tom Fleming.

Tom was in the Peace Corps for a couple of years in Uzbekistan. He had a blog, which I followed frequently. However, he was unable to tell all of what he saw, due to the fear of irritating the powers that be.

The book gives a unique perspective on this country. Tom was 40 when he left for Uzbekistan and was able to give a view of the country that was not one of those idealistic views that a younger volunteer could get.

One thing that really stood out was the role of women in Uzbek society. In the book, they were very much in the background of things which stood out to me. But this really outlines how women are seen in that country.

One of the women he talked about had all sorts of plans of going to university in Tashkent but was expected to get married as soon as possible. She did get married, her plans were stalled.

Highly recommended.

"The Flying Dutchman" by Andrew B. Suhrer (Sur-a) is an historical Civil War Novel based on the real life experiences of the author's great-grandfather. It deals with issues of discrimination against recent immigrants, in this case Germans. The depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg is absolutely harrowing. Although it's the author's first effort I found it to be a real page turner. The historical research included after the story is quite fascinating as well. In this time of great interest in the Civil War this book illuminates an little known aspect of that time. The novel is available on Amazon.com.

Sumbul Ali-Karamali, "The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil Thing"
This is a very timely book that dispels prejudices and builds bridges. It is written in an engaging, straight-forward and knowledgeable manner, but without simplification. It is educating, moving and funny.
And she is a local author, so it is literally 'The Muslim Next Door".

Drew Gilpin Faust, author of "Republlic of Suffering" has another occupation, beyond "writer".

She is Presiden of Harvard University.
+++++++++++++
Myy favorite book: "Bad Money", by Kevin Phhillips...

he explains how we got into the deep doodoo we are in.

Eucalyptus by Murray Bail. A modern fairy tale, set in Australia, elegantly written, basically story telling within story telling. My favorite book ever.

The Enchantress of Florence (Salman Rushdie)

When I tell you that the major characters are Niccolo Machiavelli and the Indian Emperor Akbar (who never meet), and that the minor characters include Queen Elizabeth I, Simonetta Neri (the reputed model for Botticelli's Birth of Venus), Vlad Dracul (the reputed model for the blood-sucking count), Amerigo Vespucci, an Empress who doesn't exist, a hidden princess who does, and two prostitutes named Skeleton and Mattress who exist in both Florence and India at the same time, you'll know that this is Rushdie in top form. The book is notionally about a Florentine adventurer, one of whose secret names is Love (like Puccini's Calaf), and who tells stories (like Scheherazade) to save his life, some of which can't possibly be true but (as in Chinatown) maybe they are. But it's really just Rushdie having a good time. You'll have so much fun reading it you won't even care that there wasn't actually any polenta in 15th C Florence. Or tomatoes either.

It's a historic, histrionic tour de farce.

Now available in paperback.

My new favorite writer is Etgar Keret. His most recent collection of short stories, The Girl on the Fridge succinctly and delightfully describes the absudity of being a young adult in Israel. Within a few short pages, Keret delivers intense joy and sadness and allows for reflection of our modern world.

Two books that had an impression on me growing up:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig This journey really took me on a course of understanding how we think and live and what it means to be happy.

The other which has interesting bearing on economic policy today is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Which companies do we prop up and support and why, versus the companies we try to legislate.

I love Atlas Shrugged. I have often thought of the book in the last 2 years in light of our social of and economic environment.

Icelandic author and Nobel Prize winner, Halldor Laxness spins wonderfully written tales.
The subject is the people, politics, history, weather and land in Iceland, always with several interwoven plots mixed with light jabs of humor. I recommend Independent People, Under the Glacier, and The Atom Station (about US & Icelandic relations after WWII). Anyone interested in how the Icelandic economy and the US economy got to where it is today would benefit from reading these books. Thank you for the opportunity to list this author. - chris in woodside

For people who like science fiction, check out Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. That is a pseudonym for a woman named Alice Sheldon who kept her identity secret for years because women writers of science fiction were not respected at that time. The book is an excellent collection of her short stories. Amazing stories that involve gender and other worlds as well as Earth....

Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia is a wonderful true story of a monk driven out of Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, who returns to find the bones of this master. His story is unforgetable and it reads like an adventure novel.

Bill in Calistoga

The Implosion Conspiracy by L. Nizer - gripping read.

My favorite new read is "A Spy in the Ruins" by Christopher Bernard, who happens to live in San Francisco. It was published in 2005 by Regent Press in Oakland. It is a splendidly complex novel, highly poetic, and, at times, wonderfully challenging!

Sid Grolnic Philadelphia PA

My recommendation is a non-fiction book - Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy by Dev Patnaik and Peter Mortensen. Wired to Care is that rare business book that is interesting not just to people within an industry, but to the general public. It's filled with compelling stories that keep you turning pages, cover to cover. As a reader I particularly enjoyed "peeking behind the curtain" to learn what's driving the success of the best and brightest companies. So many organizations struggle to better understand their customers. Wired to Care reminds us that a little bit of empathy can go a long way in connecting with the people around us; in business, as well as day-to-day life. As a local to the Bay Area, Dev Patnaik is a veteran business strategist and adjunct faculty member at Stanford University, as well as Managing Director of the San Mateo-based Jump Associates. Dev and team draw upon a background in design, social research and business planning to help companies create new businesses and reinvent existing ones.

I just finished reading "The 19th Wife." It's a great historical fiction that follows the origins of plural marriages and the life of one of Brigham Young's wives. There is also a parallel story in the book of a modern day "19th wife", a member of the First Latter Day Saints, accused of murdering her husband. A compelling read.

I recommend "The Year of Fog" by Michelle Richmond. This tale set in and around Ocean Beach gripped me from the first page. A momentary lapse of attention leads to an event which instantaneously changes a woman's life - her direction, her values, her relationships. I could barely put this novel down!

Hello Michael,
My favorite book in the last five years is Mountain beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, who won the Pulitzer for it! It's about an amazing doctor who started a health clinic in the hinterland of Haiti and later influenced the treatment of tb worldwide.
Vreni Rau

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned anything by Rushdie. I've enjoyed all of his books, and am currently reading "The Enchantress of Florence". I love the way he weaves history into fairy tale, and his books often seem to have relevance to the modern day. Women especially might like "The Enchantress..."; Rushdie knows amazing things.

The other author I haven't heard mentioned is Wodehouse, who is *always* my pick for a good, fun read.

And yes, I am American.

elizabeth

Two locally authored books I love to recommend are Isabel Allende's _Daughter of Fortune_ and a guilty pleasure is Jane Juska's _A Round-Heeled Woman_. I've recently rediscovered the joy of reading Dickens. _Martin Chuzzlewit_ was a delight.

A couple of fantasy fictions that I especially liked:

Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine is very fanciful and fun. I very different story about middle eastern culture

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is intense and interesting. Really fascinating and graphic description of burn victims, yet that isn't the major theme of the story

For non fiction, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr is a real eye opener...

Showing comments 1 - 40 of 67

First

Next Last

RSS

Forum Listeners' Favorite Books

Sponsored by

Sponsored by