Friday, March 14, 2014

Book Recommendations: Help me help her

Sometime early in the year (I think that's when it was) a friend of mine was traveling out of the country and was looking for book recommendations. She figured I do this book blog thing so I probably have some ideas. And I did!
While I think it can be stressful to buy books for people (I don't want them to feel like they HAVE to like the book) I like giving recommendations cos hey, it's up to them if they take the recommendation or not. So I thought about some of the books I'd recently read and liked and picked out which of those I thought my friend would be into.

My book recommendations to her were a success! (obviously). She's getting her PhD in Reading and Literacy but life has a sense of humor so OF COURSE she has barely any time for reading. Because of this she doesn't want to waste time with subpar books and asked for some more recommendations.

I figured I could hive-mind this and ask everyone to help with some recommendations. PLUS this means I can continue to put off my review of NOS4A2 which I VERY MUCH ENJOYED but am being lazy about writing the review itself. It's always hard to write about books I loved.

SO, help me with some book recommendations. As I mentioned, my friend is working on her PhD, so she's super smart. She, another friend of ours, and I tried to start a book club when we all lived up in Boston. We succeeded in starting a "drink wine" club, so still a win. She's a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri, Khaled Hosseini, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She also likes YA lit except I am not so good for those recommendations so I definitely need help with those. She is also the friend that finally made me read the Harry Potter series, so I sort of owe her when it comes to book recommendations. I told her to read Orange is the New Black, Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, and Let's Pretend This Never Happened and that worked out, so let's see what else we can come up with.

Attachments, Fangirl, and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell because of course.
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Fool by Christopher Moore
Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Kings & Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

What else should she read?

YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler
The Book of Beginnings series by John Stephens
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys by Chris Fuhrman
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
In One Person by John Irving
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
Anything Edwidge Danticat
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Winger by Andrew Smith
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara