Favorite Books -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Favorite Books

Here are two dozen of my favorite books. Think of this as a sort of Meet the Book Blogger post. I pulled these favorite fiction and favorite nonfiction books off my shelves to illustrate the types of books I like to read. They aren't my favorite books of all times, but they are favorites that I've kept around. All have survived several shelf purges, proving they really are favorite books. 

One thing you can tell from these favorites is I don't run out to read the latest book. My TBR shelves overflow with dated popular fiction, "modern" classics from the 20th Century, and books that were never popular but caught my eye. I read a lot of crime fiction and dabble with a few romance novels now and again, but there are several genres I rarely, if ever, read, like sci-fi, fantasy, erotica, and horror. 

As for nonfiction, I love food writing, travel writing of the expat memoir variety, biographies of Midcentury socialites (there's a sub-genre for you!), style guides (as in writing style, not clothes), coffee table books about home decorating, and books about books.   

Do we share any tastes in books? Here are some of my favorites.

 FAVORITE FICTION

📗 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

📗 Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

📗 The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

📗 Independence Day by Richard Ford

📗 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

📗 Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

📗 Mating by Norman Rush

📗 Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

📗 Transcription by Kate Atkinson

📗 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

📗 Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

📗 American Tabloid by James Ellroy

FAVORITE NONFICTION

📘 Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols

📘 The Library Book by Susan Orlean

📘 Wait for Me! By Deborah Mitford

📘 The King’s English: A Guide to Modern Usage by Kingsley Amis

📘 Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor

📘 Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell

📘 My Life in France by Julia Child

📘 The Food of France by Waverley Root

📘 Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

📘 The Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell

📘 Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O’Rourke

Have you read any of these? Would you?

Frances Parkinson Keyes -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Frances Parkinson Keyes

I have a stack of unread (by me) Frances Parkinson Keyes books, which reminded me of how much I used to enjoy her books. Now, looking at this stack makes me want to dive in and read more of them! (Ignore the Mildred Jordan book that snuck into this stack.)

Frances Parkinson Keyes was a prolific American author with an interesting life. She was married to a US Senator between World War I and II and wrote memoirs about her life as a Senator’s wife, as well as several other books. After he died in 1938, she wrote over 40 more books before her death in 1970. Although she grew up in New England, she spent the last 20 years of her life living in New Orleans and many of her novels are set in Louisiana and the Deep South. Several explore Creole history and culture.

Keyes (pronounced like “eyes” instead of “keys” although I’ve never heard anyone say it that way), wrote short stories, novels, memoirs, history books, travelogue, children’s books, inspirational fiction, poetry, and even a cookbook. Her novels are mostly family sagas, romance novels, historical fiction, and the like. Most, like Dinner at Antoine’s, are excellent entertainment. A few, like Blue Camelia about the history of rice farming in Louisiana, would bore your socks off. It was hitting the Blue Camelia wall that put a stop to my FPK jag a while back. But seeing this stack on my TBR shelf makes me want to take it up again.

She's fallen off the radar, although she was enormously poplar during her lifetime. Fans of mid-century female authors would love Keyes. I always think that, if Dean Street Press included American authors in its Furrowed Middlebrow series, Keyes would be a perfect fit.

Here is a list of FPK's novels. I will never find and read all of her many books, but I plan to at least try to read her novels. Some may be too hard to find, although I'm sure they will turn up at library sales if I keep looking. 

• The Old Gray Homestead (aka Sylvia Carey) (1919)

• The Career of David Noble (1924)

• Queen Anne's Lace (1930)

• Lady Blanche Farm: A Romance of the Commonplace (1931)

• Senator Marlowe's Daughter (1933) 

• The Safe Bridge (1934)

• Honor Bright (1936)

• Parts Unknown (1938)

• The Great Tradition (1939)

• Fielding's Folly (1940)

• All That Glitters (1941)

• Crescent Carnival (1942)

• Also the Hills (1943)

• The River Road (1945)

• Came a Cavalier (1947)

• Dinner at Antoine's (1948) FINISHED

• Joy Street (1950) TBR SHELF

• Steamboat Gothic (1952) TBR SHELF

• The Ambassadress (1953)

• The Royal Box (1954) TBR SHELF

• Blue Camellia (1957) FINISHED

• The Golden Slippers (aka Victorine) (1958) TBR SHELF

• Station Wagon In Spain (aka The Letter from Spain) (1959) FINISHED

• The Explorer (1964) FINISHED

• The Chess Players: A Novel of New Orleans and Paris (1960)

• The Heritage (1960) TBR SHELF

• Shelter (1961)

• Madame Castel's Lodger (1962) TBR SHELF

• I, the King (1966) TBR SHELF

Margery Allingham -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Margery Allingham

Marjory Allingham was one of the four Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of mystery fiction, reigning alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh. Born in 1904, Allingham wrote dozens of mysteries and other books before her death in 1966. Her most famous body of work is a series featuring Albert Campion, gentleman sleuth.

ALBERT CAMPION BOOKS IN ORDER

• The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) TBR SHELF

• Mystery Mile (1930) TBR SHELF

• Look to the Lady (1931) TBR SHELF

• Police at the Funeral (1931) TBR SHELF

• Sweet Danger (1933) TBR SHELF

• Death of a Ghost (1934) TBR SHELF

• Flowers for the Judge (1936) TBR SHELF

• The Case of the Late Pig (1937) TBR SHELF

• Dancers in Mourning (1937) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion: Criminologist (1937) (short stories)

• The Fashion in Shrouds (1938) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion and Others (1939) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• Traitor's Purse (1941) TBR SHELF

• Coroner's Pidgin (1945) TBR SHELF

• The Casebook of Mr. Campion (1947) (short stories; I can't find on line)

• More Work for the Undertaker (1948) TBR SHELF

• The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) TBR SHELF

• The Beckoning Lady (1955) TBR SHELF

• Hide My Eyes (1958) TBR SHELF

• The China Governess (1962)

• The Mind Readers (1965) TBR SHELF

• Cargo of Eagles (1968) (completed by her husband)

• The Allingham Casebook (1969) (short stories)

• The Allingham Minibus (1973) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• The Return of Mr. Campion (1989) (short stories)

Allingham's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, finished her last Campion novel, Cargo of Eagles, after her death. He went on to write three more Campion novels under his own name. The last of these was completed after Carter's death by Mike Ripley, who continued the series under his own name. 

Allingham also wrote plays for stage and radio, nonfiction, mysteries without Campion, and other fiction. The mystery and fiction books are:

• Blackkerchief Dick (1923) (historical fiction)

• The White Cottage Mystery (1928)

• Rogues' Holiday (1933) (as Maxwell March)

• The Shadow in the House, aka The Devil and Her Son (1935) (as Maxwell March)

• Black Plumes (1940) TBR SHELF

• The Oaken Heart (1941) (autobiographical fiction) ON LIBBY & SPOTIFY

• Dance of the Years (1943) (autobiographical, historical fiction)

• Wanted: Someone Innocent (1946) (novella and short stories)

• Take Two at Bedtime (1950) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• No Love Lost (1954) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• The Darings of the Red Rose (1995) (serialized anonymously in 1930)

• Other Man's Danger, aka The Man of Dangerous Secrets (1931) (as Maxwell March)

My goal is to read all of the Albert Campion novels and short stories. I'm not going to try to read all of her books, although I will read the non-Campion short stories included in the collections I read and the two non-Campion books I already own. 

NOTES

Created on March 19, 2025. 

The e-book editions are available and are usually not very expensive.

Most of the Allingham books I have are part of my collection of vintage, green triband, Penguin Books. I plan to read all my Penguin books and hers come first alphabetically. A good place to start!

Anthony Trollope -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

 

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Anthony Trollope

Thanks to Arches Bookhouse, I’m the happy new owner of a complete set of Anthony Trollope fiction. Plus some.

As you see, this isn’t a fancy set. It’s not even a matching set. These are all reader copies in mismatched paperback editions. I might call this a “collection,” but it’s not a collectible collection. Maybe calling it a "grouping" would be more accurate. Whatever you call it, I love it!

I had to rearrange a several of my paperback book shelves and even cull some books to make room for all of these. The result is a miracle of horizontal and double-deep organization. A common bookworm problem.

Anthony Trollope was a prolific Victorian author who wrote 47 novels, dozens of short stories, travel books, two plays, nonfiction, and several collections of correspondence. He died in 1882. The Trollope Society and the Trollope Society USA are excellent resources for Trollope fans. Both host in-person and online events for members and provide a trove of Trollope information.

The books I got at Arches include all the novels, short stories, and travel writing, plus a book of letters, his autobiography, two “companion” books, and a biography by Victoria Glendinning.

Trollope is best known for his two six-novel series, the Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser Novels. I've read those books, although I'd like to read the Barsetshire novels again. But there are so many others that I haven't read for the first time, so it will be a while before I get to rereads. 

Are you an Anthony Trollope fan? Do you have any favorites or suggestions about which books to prioritize?

Here is Anthony Trollope's bibliography, which are novels unless noted:

The Macdermots of Ballycloran (1847) TBR SHELF

The Kellys and the O’Kellys (1848) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

La Vendee (1850) TBR SHELF

The Warden (1855) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 1) FINISHED

Barchester Towers (1857) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 2) FINISHED

Doctor Thorne (1858) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 3) FINISHED

The Three Clerks (1858) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

The Bertrams (1859) TBR SHELF

The West Indies and the Spanish Main (1859) (travel) TBR SHELF

Castle Richmond (1860) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Tales of All Countries, 1st Series (1861) (short stories) TBR SHELF

Framley Parsonage (1861) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 4) FINISHED

North America, Volume 1 (1861) (travel) TBR SHELF

Orley Farm (1862) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE/ON SPOTIFY

The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, by One of the Firm (1862) TBR SHELF

North America, Volume 2 (1862) (travel) TBR SHELF

Rachel Ray (1863) TBR SHELF

Tales of All Countries, 2nd Series (1863) (short stories) TBR SHELF

North America, Volume 3 (1863) (travel) TBR SHELF
 
The Small House at Allington (1864) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 5) FINISHED

Can You Forgive Her? (1865) (Palliser Novels, Book 1) FINISHED

Miss Mackenzie (1865) TBR SHELF

The Belton Estate (1865) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Hunting Sketches (1865) (nonfiction)

Traveling Sketches (1866) (nonfiction)

Clergymen of the Church of England (1866) (nonfiction)

The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867) (Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 6) FINISHED

The Golden Lion of Granpere (1867) TBR SHELF

The Claverings (1867) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Nina Balatka (1867) TBR SHELF

Lotta Schmidt and Other Stories (1867) (short stories) TBR SHELF

Linda Tressel (1868) TBR SHELF

Phineas Finn (1869) (Palliser Novels, Book 2)

He Knew He Was Right (1869) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE/ON SPOTIFY

Did He Steal It? (1896) (play)

On English Prose Fiction as a Rational Amusement (1869) (lectures)

The Vicar of Bullhampton (1870) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE/ON SPOTIFY

An Editor's Tales (1870) (short stories) TBR SHELF

The Commentaries of Caesar (1870 (nonfiction)

Ralph the Heir (1871) TBR SHELF

Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite (1871) TBR SHELF/ON LIBBY

The Eustace Diamonds (1872) (Palliser Novels, Book 3) FINISHED

Australia and New Zealand, Volume 1 (1873) (travel) TBR SHELF

Australia and New Zealand, Volume 2 (1873) (travel) TBR SHELF

Phineas Redux (1874) (Palliser Novels, Book 4) FINISHED

Lady Anna (1874) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil (1874) TBR SHELF/ON LIBBY

The Way We Live Now (1875) TBR SHELF/ON LIBBY

The Prime Minister (1876) (Palliser Novels, Book 5) FINISHED

The American Senator (1877) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

South Africa, Volume 1 (1877) (travel) TBR SHELF

South Africa, Volume 2 (1877) (travel) TBR SHELF

The Lady of Launay (1878) TBR SHELF

Is He Popenjoy? (1878) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Cousin Henry (1879) TBR SHELF

An Eye for an Eye (1879) TBR SHELF

John Caldigate (1879) TBR SHELF/ON SPOTIFY

Thackeray (1879) (nonfiction)

The Duke’s Children (1880) (Palliser Novels, Book 6) FINISHED

The Life of Cicero, Vol. 1 (1880) (nonfiction)

The Life of Cicero, Vol. 2 (1880) (nonfiction)

Ayala’s Angel (1881) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Dr. Wortle’s School (1881) TBR SHELF/ON LIBBY

Marion Fay (1882) TBR SHELF

The Fixed Period (1882) TBR SHELF

Kept in the Dark (1882) TBR SHELF/ON AUDIBLE

Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices and Other Stories (1882) (short stories)

Lord Palmerston (1882) (nonfiction)

Mr. Scarborough’s Family (1883) TBR SHELF

The Landleaguers (1883) TBR SHELF

An Autobiography (1883) (nonfiction) TBR SHELF

An Old Man’s Love (1884) TBR SHELF/ON LIBBY

The Noble Jilt (1923) (play)

London Tradesmen (1927) (nonfiction)

The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury (1941) TBR SHELF

The New Zealander (1972) (nonfiction)

The Letters of Anthony Trollope (1983)

NOTES

I cobbled together this list from wikipedia and other sources. It may not be 100% accurate, especially about publication dates. If anything is missing or in error, please let me know.

I linked to bookshop.org when I could, just to provide an easy source of information about the books. (Although I do have an account, so I probably get a few pennies if you order any of them.) If bookshop.org didn't have it, I cited to what I could find. 

Because the books are old and out of copyright, you can find many of the texts on line, in generic paperbacks, and very inexpensive "complete works" ebook editions. These last contain almost everything Anthony Trollope wrote, including the hard-to-find books, like his plays and lectures. I can't vouch for their completeness, especially as to posthumously published works. For instance, I could not find a "complete works" that contained his letters, which were published well after his death.  

Many of Trollope's books are available as audiobooks from the library (Libby), Audible, Spotify, LibreVox, and others. Most of them are available for free from LibreVox, but the quality varies. 

Jane Austen's 250th Birthday -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR/BOOK LIST

Jane Austen's 250th Birthday

Did someone say bandwagon? Yes, I’ll jump on!

As we’ve all noticed, 2025 is Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. Or, technically, it is the 250th anniversary of her birth, because she isn't celebrating anymore. But we can! Like others, I plan to reread her six major novels in celebration of this milestone. I may get to some of her other works as well.

I’m going to read them in publication order. I’m too Teutonic in my reading habits to do it any other way. There are readalong groups reading by popularity and other criteria, but chronologically is my preference. Because she stopped and started her writing of some of the books, there is uncertainty about the precise order in which she wrote them, particularly the last two. So I'm going with publication order, not the order in which they were necessarily written. 

Jane Austen is a favorite of mine, ever since I first encountered her as an English Lit major in college. I’ve read the six major novels before, most of them two or three times. This time around, I plan to read them with my ears because I haven’t experienced them as audiobooks. 

My set, shown in the picture above, is a Book of the Month Club special edition issued 25 years ago for the anniversary of her 225th birthday. My then sweetheart, soon to be husband, gave it to me for my birthday that year. 

I read Sense and Sensibility in January. I’m happy to be back in Austenland!

Are you reading any Jane Austen books this year? What’s your favorite?

WRITINGS OF JANE AUSTEN

Austen wrote six major novels, another novel that she never submitted for publication, two unfinished novels, a play, poems, letters, prayers, and a large collection of juvenilia published in three volumes. 

Here is the list of Jane Austen's six main novels, in publication order. These are the books I plan to reread this year: 

• Sense and Sensibility (1811)
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• Mansfield Park (1814)
• Emma (1816)
• Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous)
• Persuasion (1818, posthumous)

Austen's other writings, which I may get to someday, but probably not this year, are:

• Lady Susan (the novel she never submitted for publication; published in 1871)
• The Watsons (novel begun in 1803 and abandoned in 1805; fragment published in 1871)
• Sanditon (novel begun in 1817 and left unfinished at her death in July of that year; fragment published in 1925)
• Sir Charles Grandison (a play adapted around 1800 from a novel by Samuel Richardson; published in 1980)
• Plan of a Novel (satire written in 1815; first published in 1926)
• Poems (written 1796–1817; perhaps published at her death in 1817, but I can't pin that down)
• Prayers (written 1796–1817; same as poems)
• Letters (written 1796–1817; same as poems)
• Juvenilia in Three Volumes (written 1787 to 1793, when she was 11 to 17 years old; organized by Austen into three volumes; perhaps first published in 1954, since updated) 

There is a Kindle omnibus edition of that includes Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon, Plan of a Novel, Sir Charles Grandison, and the three volumes of Juvenilia. This is all the minor works except the poems, prayers, and letters. At the time I wrote this post, the Kindle omnibus was $.99. 

 

Kingsley Amis, Favorite Author -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Kingsley Amis, Favorite Author

"If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing."
~ Kingsley Amis in Lucky Jim

Kingsley Amis was born on this day in 1922. He is in my pantheon of favorite authors, right up there with Graham Greene, Jim Harrison, Iris Murdoch, Philip Roth, Muriel Spark, and Evelyn Waugh.

But Amis holds a special place in my reader’s heart. His Lucky Jim book, which I first read in a college lit class, opened my eyes to the idea that “literature” could be funny. Until then – after books in school like The Grapes of Wrath, A Separate Peace, and Othello – I assumed all “good” writing was stone cold serious. I even missed the funny bits in books like Huckleberry Finn and Oliver Twist because I was sure anything I thought was funny must be a mistake on my part, not intentional. 

Then a professor assigned Lucky Jim and I couldn’t help laughing. Here was poor Jim Dixon, bumbling his way through college (as a new professor) just like me and my friends: Jim trying to go to class hungover, struggling through a lecture while drunk, getting rejected in love, wanting to impress the adults, and making embarrassing gaffes. I was laughing and my professor was explaining how the novel was a turning point in English literature. Turn away, I thought. I want more of this.

Because of Amis, I learned to read "good books" for pleasure, not just because I should. So I’ve been an Amis fan going on 40 years. I’m still less than halfway through all his books because he was prolific. He was fortunate to live in a time when the publishing industry tolerated popular authors writing anything they wanted, as long as they turned out a new book on a regular basis. Along with the comic novels of which he was the master, he turned his hand to mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, alternate history, poetry, biography, and essays. He was also a prodigious letter writer, especially with his buddy Philip Larkin.

The picture above is my collection of Amis books. Those I’ve read are on the left. This includes four volumes of Lucky Jim, which even I recognize is excessive, but I love the Penguin triband and the later Penguin with the Edward Gorey cover. Those in the stack on the right are the ones on my TBR shelf, including two biographies.

Have you read anything by Kingsley Amis? What’s your favorite? 

I keep a bibliography of Kingsley Amis books here on Rose City Reader, noting those I've finished, those on my TBR shelf, and those I have yet to track down. 

Evelyn Waugh Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

 

EVELYN WAUGH

Evelyn Waugh (October 28, 1903 - April 10, 1966) was an English author who wrote novels, short stories, travel books, biographies, and other nonfiction. He is probably best known for his novel, Brideshead Revisited, in part because it was made into an extremely popular tv miniseries in the 1980s, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. 

I first read Brideshead in college and have reread it twice since. I came much later to Waugh's other books, starting with Scoop, a hilarious satire of newspaper life. Just thinking of the premise of sending the gardening columnist to be a war correspondent makes me laugh. I've since read several others, which are darkly funny and much different than Brideshead. I hope to read all his book eventually.

Below is a list of Waugh's published books, with notes about whether I've read them, they are on my TBR shelf, or if they are available as an audiobook from my library. Unless noted, the book is a novel. This list does not include juvenilia or short pieces not published in book form.

• 1980 The Letters of Evelyn Waugh: 1914-1966

• 1976 The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh: 1919-1965

• 1964 A Little Learning: the First Volume of an Autobiography (autobiography)

• 1961 Unconditional Surrender (aka End of the Battle; Sword of Honor trilogy, Book Three) TBR SHELF

• 1960 A Tourist in Africa (travel writing)

• 1959 The Life of the Right Reverend Ronald Knox (biography)

• 1957 The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold TBR SHELF

• 1955 Officers and Gentlemen (Sword of Honor trilogy, Book Two) TBR SHELF

• 1953 Love Among the Ruins (novella)

• 1952 The Holy Places (travel writing)

• 1952 Men at Arms (Sword of Honor trilogy, Book One) TBR SHELF

• 1950 Helena TBR SHELF

• 1949 Work Suspended and Other Stories (short stories) TBR SHELF (The Complete Stories)

• 1948 The Loved One TBR SHELF

• 1946 When the Going Was Good (an anthology from earlier books; travel writing) TBR SHELF

• 1945 Brideshead Revisited FINISHED

• 1942 Put Out More Flags TBR SHELF

• 1939 Robbery Under Law (aka Mexico: an Object-Lesson; travel writing)

• 1938 Scoop FINISHED

• 1936 Waugh in Abyssinia 

• 1935 Edmund Campion: Jesuit and Martyr (biography)

• 1934 Ninety-two Days: The Account of a Tropical Journey Through British Guiana and Part of Brazil (travel writing)

• 1934 A Handful of Dust FINISHED

• 1932 Black Mischief TBR SHELF

• 1931 Remote People (aka They Were Still Dancing; travel writing)

• 1930 Labels: A Mediterranean Journal (aka A Bachelor Abroad; travel writing) 

• 1930 Vile Bodies FINISHED

• 1928 Rossetti: His Life and Works (biography)

• 1928 Decline and Fall FINISHED

NOTES

Waugh's travel writing was published in a 2003 omnibus collection by Everyman's Library called 

Waugh Abroad: The Collected Travel Writing. Many of the individual volumes are out of print and hard to find, so I linked to this omnibus. 

There is a book of Complete Short Stories in Work Suspended; the hard to find novella, Love Among the Ruins; and other short fiction. 

There are several biographies of Evelyn Waugh. The one I have and intend to read is Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited by Philip Eade.

Saul Bellow Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

 

SAUL BELLOW

Saul Bellow (1915 to 2005) may have been born in Canada, but he was an American treasure. He won the Pulitzer Prize once and the National Book Award three times. In 1976, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Nobel Committee described his work:

The structure is apparently loose-jointed, but for this very reason gives the author ample opportunity for descriptions of different societies; they have a rare vigour and stringency, and a swarm of colourful, clearly-defined characters against a background of carefully observed and depicted settings, whether it is the magnificent façades of Manhattan in front of the backyards of the slums and semi-slums, Chicago’s impenetrable jungle of unscrupulous businessmen intimately intertwined with efficient criminal gangs, or the more literal jungle in the depths of Africa, where the novel, Henderson the Rain King, the writer’s most imaginative expedition takes place. In a nutshell, they are all stories on the move, and, like the first book, are about a man with no foothold. But (and it is important to add this) a man who keeps on trying to find a foothold during his wanderings in our tottering world, one who can never relinquish his faith that the value of life depends on its dignity, not on its success, and that the truth must triumph at last, simply because it demands everything except – triumphs. That is the way of thinking in which Saul Bellow’s “anti-heroes” have their foundation and acquire their lasting stature.

Bellow is a real favorite of mine. Henderson the Rain King didn't do anything for me, but I think Hertzog and Humbolt's Gift are wonderful.

Here is a list of Bellow's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read it, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available from my library as an audiobook. 

There is Simply Too Much to Think About (2015) (essays and criticism) FINISHED

Saul Bellow: Letters, edited by Benjamin Taylor, (2010) (correspondence)

Collected Stories (2001) (short stories)

Ravelstein (2000) FINISHED

The Actual (1997) (novella) TBR SHELF

It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future (1994) (essays) TBR SHELF

Something to Remember Me By: Three Tales (1991) (short stories) TBR SHELF

The Bellarosa Connection (1989)

A Theft (1989) (novella) TBR SHELF

More Die of Heartbreak (1987) TBR SHELF/AUDIOBOOK

Him with His Foot in His Mouth (1984) (short stories)

The Dean's December (1982) FINISHED

To Jerusalem and Back (1976) (memoir) TBR SHELF

Humboldt's Gift (1975) (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED
 
Mosby's Memoirs (1968) (short stories)

The Last Analysis (1965) (play)

Herzog (1964) (National winner) FINISHED

Henderson the Rain King (1959) FINISHED

Seize the Day (1956) FINISHED

The Adventures of Augie March (1953) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

The Victim (1947) FINISHED

Dangling Man (1944) FINISHED

NOTES

This is a redo of a list I first posted back in 2010.

I also have a biography of Bellow on my TBR shelf by Ruth Miller called Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination. I have a lot of biographies of my favorite authors on my TBR shelves. I sledom read authors' biographies, thinking I want to read all, or more of their books before I read their biographies. This is silly. 

Kate Atkinson Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

KATE ATKINSON

I came to love Kate Atkinson (b. 1951) because of her Jackson Brodie mystery series, which I gobbled up and hope she continues writing. But I enjoy all of her books. She is a wide-ranging and talented English author, who has won many awards and honors for her work. For instance, she was awarded an MBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I look forward to reading all of her books and rereading the Brodie books.

Here is a list of Kate Atkinson's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or it is available as an audiobook from my library.

Are you a Kate Atkinson fan? What are your favorites?

2022 Shrines of Gaiety AUDIOBOOK

2019 Big Sky (Jackson Brodie) FINISHED

2018 Transcription TBR SHELF

2015 A God in Ruins (Todd Family) FINISHED

2013 Life After Life (Todd Family) FINISHED

2010 Started Early, Took My Dog (Brodie) (reviewed here) FINISHED

2008 When Will There Be Good News? (Brodie) FINISHED

2006 One Good Turn (Brodie) FINISHED

2004 Case Histories (Brodie) FINISHED

2002 Not the End of the World (short stories) TBR SHELF

2000 Emotionally Weird TBR SHELF

2000 Abandonment (play) TBR SHELF

1997 Human Croquet TBR SHELF

1995 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Costa Book of the Year Award) (reviewed here) FINISHED

NOTES

I hope to read Transcription this year (2023). It sounds like a terrific yarn about a former WWII espionage agent whose wartime spy work is coming back to haunt her in the Cold War years. 

The first Kate Atkinson book I read was Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which I read because I'm working my way through the winners of the Costa Book of the Year Award. But after that, I dove into the Jackson Brodie books, have tried to keep up with her new releases, and have never gone back to her earlier books. They all look very good, so I want to make an effort. Of course, I say that about so many of the authors whose books are languishing on my TBR shelves! 

Kingsley Amis Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

KINGLSEY AMIS

Kingsley Amis (1922 - 1995) was an English novelist, poet, and critic, known off the page for his hard drinking and philandering. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and literary criticism. His son is the author Martin Amis. 

Amis is a favorite of mine because his novel, Lucky Jim, taught me (and thousands of others) that literature can be funny. Because of Amis, I learned to read "good books" for pleasure, not just because I should. He was fortunate to live in a time when the publishing industry tolerated popular authors writing anything they wanted, as long as they turned out a new book on a regular basis. Along with the comic novels of which he was the master, he turned his hand to mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, alternate history, poetry, biography, and essays.

Here is a list of Kingsley Amis's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read the book or it is on my TBR shelf. Some I can't find links to because they are so out of print. You can bet I'd like to get my hands on those! 

• 2001 The Letters of Kingsley Amis, Edited by Zachary Leader TBR SHELF

• 1997 The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage FINISHED

• 1995 The Biographer's Moustache FINISHED

• 1994 You Can't Do Both TBR SHELF

• 1992 The Russian Girl TBR SHELF

• 1991 We Are All Guilty TBR SHELF

• 1991 Mr. Barrett's Secret and Other Stories

• 1991 Memoirs TBR SHELF

• 1990 The Amis Collection TBR SHELF

• 1990 The Folks That Live on the Hill FINISHED

• 1988 Difficulties With Girls FINISHED

• 1986 The Great British Songbook (songs; with James Cochrane)

• 1986 The Old Devils FINISHED

• 1984 Stanley and the Women TBR SHELF

• 1984 How's Your Glass? (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1983 Every Day Drinking (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1980 Dear Illusion: Collected Short Stories TBR SHELF

• 1980 Russian Hide-and-Seek TBR SHELF

• 1979 An Arts Policy (essay)

• 1979 Collected Poems 1944-78 FINISHED

• 1978 Jake's Thing FINISHED

• 1977 Harold's Years: Impressions of the Harold Wilson Era (nonfiction)

• 1976 The Alteration FINISHED

• 1975 The Crime of the Century FINISHED

• 1974 Rudyard Kipling and his World TBR SHELF

• 1974 Ending Up TBR SHELF

• 1973 The Riverside Villas Murders TBR SHELF

• 1972 On Drink (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1971 Girl, 20 FINISHED

• 1970 What Became of Jane Austen? and Other Questions

• 1969 The Green Man FINISHED 

• 1968 Lucky Jim's Politics (essay)

• 1968 A Look Round the Estate: Poems, 1957-1967 FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1968 I Want It Now TBR SHELF

• 1968 Colonel Sun: A James Bond Adventure (as Robert Markham)

• 1966 The Anti-Death League (Burgess favorite) FINISHED 

• 1965 The Book of Bond, or Every Man His Own 007 (as Lt. Col. William "Bill" Tanner)

• 1965 The James Bond Dossier

• 1965 The Egyptologists (with Robert Conquest) FINISHED 

• 1963 One Fat Englishman (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1962 The Evans County (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1962 My Enemy's Enemy (short stories) TBR SHELF

• 1960 New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction

• 1960 Take A Girl Like You TBR SHELF

• 1958 I Like it Here TBR SHELF

• 1957 Socialism and the Intellectuals (a Fabian Society pamphlet)

• 1956 A Case of Samples: Poems 1946-1956 FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1955 That Uncertain Feeling TBR SHELF

• 1954 Lucky Jim FINISHED (twice)

• 1954 Fantasy Portraits (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1953 A Frame of Mind (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1947 Bright November (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

Dorothy L. Sayers -- FAVORITE AUTHOR

 

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 – 1957) was one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of detective fiction, along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh. Sayers wrote a series of mystery novels and short stories featuring amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Four of the novels also feature Lord Peter's love interest Harriet Vane.

Sayers went to Oxford University where she studied modern languages and medieval literature. She graduated in 1915 with first class honors in modern languages. He received a masters degree from Oxford in 1920. Sayers also wrote plays and poetry. After the success of her mystery novels, she turned to more nonfiction work, writing articles and essays, mostly exploring theological subjects. She also translated classic works, including Dante's Divine Comedy. 

I started reading Sayers's Peter Wimsey series a few years back and am almost finished with it. Wimsey has a lot of Bertie Wooster in him and Sayers can be very funny. My favorites are Clouds of Witness and The Nine Tailors. I have yet to read the short stories but will read them all as soon as I finish the last two novels.

Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Whose Body? (1923)

Clouds of Witness (1926) (reviewed here)

Unnatural Death (1927).

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) (reviewed here)

Lord Peter Views the Body (1928) (short stories)

Strong Poison (1930)

Five Red Herrings (1931)

Have His Carcase (1932)

Hangman's Holiday (1933) (short stories, 4 with Lord Peter)

Murder Must Advertise (1933)

The Nine Tailors (1934)

Gaudy Night (1935)

Busman's Honeymoon (1937)

In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) (short stories, only two with Lord Peter)

Striding Folly (1972) (short stories)

NOTES

Read my interview here of Carole Vanderhoof, the editor of The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers: Selections from Her Novels, Plays, Letters, and Essays, an anthology from Plough Publishing House.

Updated on March 30, 2021.

Lee Child: Favorite Author

Author Lee Child writes the perennially popular Jack Reacher books. His loyal fans -- often known as "Reacher Creatures" -- gobble them up year after year. I've been hooked from the get go and still count Killing Floor as one of the best thrillers ever. If I ever get my act together and make a Top 10 list of favorite thriller books, it would be on it for sure. 

Jack Reacher is the archetype hero. I once saw Lee Child speak at a mystery writers workshop and he said just that -- he wrote Reacher as the hero archetype, like Beowulf or Sir Gawain. He's the outsider who rides into town to save it from the monster. He is big and strong and smart and he drifts around solving unsolvable problems. He can calculate the trajectory of a bullet. He can kill a man with his thumb. He can live on coffee and a catnap. He is cool.

I have read all of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books through Make Me. But I found that one so disturbing that I stopped. The books seemed to me to be getting darker and more violent and that one was pretty awful for me. I have the others on my TBR shelf, but they aren't calling to me. I'll get to them, but not soon. I'm not as enthusiastic as I was about the series.

Are any of you Reacher fans? How do you think the series is holding up? Have you stuck with it from the beginning and will you keep going? Please share these or other thoughts in a comment. If you have Lee Child or Jack Reacher posts, please leave a link in your comment. 

The Lee Child Jack Reacher books in publication order are:

Killing Floor

Die Trying

Tripwire

Running Blind

Echo Burning

Persuader

Without Fail

The Enemy

One Shot

The Hard Way

Bad Luck and Trouble 

Nothing to Lose

Gone Tomorrow

61 Hours

Worth Dying For (my short review here)

The Affair

A Wanted Man

Never Go Back

Personal

Make Me

Night School

The Midnight Line

Past Tense

Blue Moon