Help! Fun help, I think!

[kate]

Hello there dwircle! Apologies for being absent. Life is absolutely bonkers and I shall not get into it right now because I have a task and it is a happy thing for a Saturday and a way to not think about work.

My nephew is turning 17 next Saturday. My older sister got him a poster of 100 books he should read (I think that's just a list and the poster isn't just... a big blob of text? I hope???) and 6 books off the list.

* To Kill a Mockingbird
* Grapes of Wrath
* The Shadow of the Wind
* Lord of the Flies
* The Da Vinci Code
* War and Peace

I also bought 8 books off the list.

* The Phantom Tollbooth
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* Beloved
* Brave New World
* The Color Purple
* 1984
* The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
* The Little Prince

And then thought... you know what? I have books that I thought were worthy and changed my life. Important books to me, books that brought insight or just taught me new ways to look at things or just deeply affected me at different points in my life (as the 8 above had).

* The Lost Language of Cranes (David Leavitt)
* Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)
* Equal Rites (Terry Pratchett)
* Written on the Body (Jeannette Winterson)
* I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
* Nop's Trials (Daniel McCaig)
* Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

I asked my wife, her friends, my friends, and their friends.

* Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)
* Passage (Connie Willis)
* Wicked (Gregory Maguire)
* The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo)
* The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)
* The Folk Keeper (Franny Billingsley)
* The Art of War (Sun Tsu)
* The Dogs of Babel (Carolyn Parkhurst)

And now I am asking you fine folks. What books would you add here? Books that brought you joy, challenged you, taught you something, or made you feel something? He loves to read, so while he might not read everything, he will try, and I want to give him as wide a variety of authors and subjects as possible. Your help is GREATLY appreciated. Also, wax lyrical about your fave books, fam, I want to hear it. <33333

Comments

[jjhunter]

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, in particular 'Memory', which taught me more about how to recover from grave, life-changing mistakes in a way where I can live with myself afterwards than most books more explicitly about ethics and morality that I have encountered

Seconding the strong rec for the Ancillary Justice trilogy, which may have sprouted from a seed of 'but what if Octavian/Augustus didn't have to find a worthy successor but could keep being emperor forever?? IN SPACE' but has far, far surpassed that. (See also bironic's extraordinary Ancillary Justice fan book trailer.)

I'm really surprised not to see anything by Octavia Butler on the list already - I would put her books as having a really strong, lasting impact (with a major resurgence right now, in fact!) in a way that's now eclipsing works like 'Ender's Game'. Hard to pick just one, but I've been thinking about 'Parable of the Sower' a lot lately, as well as 'Kindred'.

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is a fictional mystery series set between WWI and WWII in Britain (and eventually further flung locals) featuring a psychologist and investigator who also happens to be a young woman carrying her share of war trauma who goes about not only solving but helping the community resolve tragedies that are often rooted in past war trauma. The research is impeccable (the author grew up in a family heavily impacted by both world wars), the characters change and grow over time in very compelling ways, and I absolutely adored the voice: the author has the kind of insight into how humans tick and what can heal them that befits a character of Maisie Dobbs' skills, and it's a genuine pleasure to share in that POV and learn from it over the course of the series. There are also fantastic audiobooks available, and the cover art is by an engraver who really knows his craft, so both physical and digital variants are a delight.

ETA: also seconding Le Guin, DWJ, and Dorothy Sayers! I've been meaning to do a full Le Guin reread soon, actually - I read (and reread) all of her works relatively young, and I'm very curious how they'll land for me as an adult. They've been so formative that it feels a little peculiar to think there are people who have never read her works yet?

[kate]

You know I had a bit about Ender's Game in there - it was one of my first sci fi experiences, and so very formative for me, but I am so torn about it now, because Orson Scott Card is a shithead. So I debated whether or not I wanted to make that one of the books I bought. Octavia Butler as a substitution is a great idea, thank you for that!

And all of these sound very excellent, thank you so much! (I've always thought I'd make my way to Vorkosigan and just haven't got there yet. Maybe soon!)