What would your Desert Island Reads be, and why? (In the context of the novel, this is a book that has meant something special to you at a particular time in your life.)
This isn’t a Desert Island Read, but when things are tense, I will read a Louise Penney book. They engage my mind, but are not heavy reading. I limit myself to two or three a year. This is similar to Crush reading The Collected Dorothy Parker book when she was stressed. I think I only have four left in the series to read. I will need to find a new series to replace it. Suggestions are welcome.
I thought this was a great question, but as I’ve been trying to think of a response, I’m not coming up with anything! For the life of me, I can’t recall a book I read at exactly the right time, or one I felt correlated to a specific experience. I know I’ve had specific pieces of music that filled that role, and perhaps a TV show or two, but not a book!
Yes, I like this question but am not coming up with a good answer. So many great books have come into my life at different times, but just not coming up with something special at a particular time.
“Ordinary Grace” by William Kent Krueger. I’ve read it three times now–and I rarely read a book twice–but each time I read it I was in a different place in my life & it spoke to me differently each time. I love that book.
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I need a suitcase for these books as I can’t pick just one. However, my list would be: a book by Louise Penny, The Diary of Anne Frank, And the Ladies of the Club, Little Women, Black Out and All Clear by Connie Willis.
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@Janet_H1 have you read The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis? That’s one of my all time favorites.
Your recommendation is so strong and made me pause to do a quick search to read more about the book. Amazingly, my library has this book and I’ll be checking it out on my next visit this month.
Oh, I hope you love it, too! Please let me know what you think after reading it. I did readers advisory when I worked at our local public library for 30 years & always wanted to know what folks thought of the books I suggested, good or bad, so don’t hold back (but hoping you won’t break my heart!)
It’s got my recommendation too, @Jill_Mercier. @Carol_Ann_Robb is right; it’s a great book. Carol, have you read any of his others? I haven’t, and I’ve always wondered how they measure up.
I have really enjoyed books by Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility, and The Lincoln Highway.
I’ve not read Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series (which is odd since I love mysteries) but “The River We Remember” is another of my favorites. It has the same vibe as “Ordinary Grace”. I know many readers who liked “This Tender Land” more than I did. It’s good & introduced many to the horrors of Indian Schools but I had a problem believing the children could have accomplished what they did. But I still recommend both titles.
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I would hope to have some books by Kate Quinn, William Kent Krueger, the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box, a few good mysteries and thrillers. Maybe some nonfiction history books, like The Wager.
My choice would also be Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Over the years since it was published I know I’ve read it at least three times and possibly four. It’s a book that always soothes me and takes me back to a time when life was simpler, people were kinder to each other, and there seemed to be much less hatred in the world.
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Four books came to mind. First was Love, Medicine and Miracles by Bernie Siegel which was written by a surgeon who recognized that medicine can’t fix everything and that sometimes miracles do happen. I’ve reread parts of this book a number of times when family or friends went through prolonged illness. The second book is Death Be Not Proud which I read when a close friend had a brain tumor that metastasized to his lungs. Third is The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry and then Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.
I forgot about Jonathan Livingston Seagull, @Jill_Mercier! I first encountered the book in sixth grade (our teacher had to get special permission for our class to read it). I reread it later in life and found it very meaningful, too.