OT: good books

[Lise]

Ooooh, one of my favorite topics!
I loved the Phillip Pullman trilogy. I've read it two or three times. The books are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. They are labeled as "young adult fiction". I found them very adult in theme, in that they address the nature of reality, time, heaven, hell, death, the soul...and tell a great story while doing so! The heroine is a young girl, Lyra, and she'd fit right in here on the TE board. I picked them up because I'd heard great things about them from a variety of sources.

I'm currently reading Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund. It's fiction. The first line, "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband, nor my last" captured me. It's the story of a young woman who, among other things, runs away to sea on a whaling boat. It's gorgeously written. I found it quite by accident. My mom had picked it up at a book sale, and I borrowed it from her after reading the first line.

Other favorites: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's the story of a family in South America that spans generations. His style is "fantastic realism". This book amazes me over and over again. I've re-read it every 2 or 3 years for the past two decades. Anything by Isabel Allende, but especially The House of the Spirits. Similar to One Hundred Years.

Non-fiction: I've read every book Karen Armstrong's written. She writes about the history of religions, and their interactions today. I especially enjoyed Jerusalem, One City, Three Faiths, but you can't go wrong with anything of hers.

....just read the other new posts yeah, yeah, Anne of Green Gables! Although it may have helped to have read it first as a 6th grader...

ahhhhh, so many books, so little time! Have fun! Lise