Book suggestions?

January 28, 2007

Read any good fiction lately? I’m looking for books for the plane… so much more enjoyable than reading journal articles.

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  1. If you like your books poetic, funny, and sad, I would recommend “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai, which won the Booker Prize this year.

    Comment by Kristin — January 28, 2007 @ 6:50 am

  2. Middlesex. I’m in the middle of it; it’s utterly engrossing. Also, for something totally light and fun, The Bear Went Over the Mountain.

    Comment by yami — January 28, 2007 @ 9:11 am

  3. I just read Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, on a plane as it happens. It’s very good, but very sad.

    Comment by Bill — January 28, 2007 @ 8:24 pm

  4. I liked Never Let Me Go, and also on a related theme, My Sister’s Keeper. Both very sad. And Middlesex was interesting too.

    Comment by drshellie — January 29, 2007 @ 12:25 am

  5. If you have a broader cultural knowledge plus a dark sense of humor, I can recommend Under the Frog and The Thought Gang, both by Tibor Fischer. I also have enjoyed all three collections of short stories by the ever-wryly observant and witty George Saunders.

    Have you read the short stories Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett? She left graduate school in biology, I think it was, to become a writer. And some of her stories are about the scientific world, in different eras.

    Comment by Kristin — January 29, 2007 @ 1:55 am

  6. Of course, you may wish to consider some nonfiction, too! I loved 1491 by Charles C. Mann—you may have thought you knew all about what happened when Columbus and his minions came to the New World, but you don’t.

    And, I’m sorry, but I can’t resist plugging the anthology to which I contributed, She’s Such a Geek. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’s better than “Cats”!

    Comment by Kristin — January 29, 2007 @ 2:00 am

  7. Have you read Special Topics in Calamity Physics? It is not the most flattering picture of academics, but it’s entertaining.

    Comment by FSP — January 29, 2007 @ 3:24 am

  8. Ever read My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki? It’s one of my favorites.

    Comment by trillwing (Leslie) — January 29, 2007 @ 5:36 am

  9. If you’re looking for short fiction, how about Nature, or Science?

    The new Carl Hiaasen book is OK, but not a good as his mid-90’s stuff

    Comment by Lab Lemming — January 29, 2007 @ 12:37 pm

  10. If you have a broader cultural knowledge plus a dark sense of humor

    Kristin– you doubt me on this? ;) Thanks for the suggestions.

    Comment by drshellie — January 29, 2007 @ 6:11 pm

  11. “Good” or “Entertaining and brainless” because that’s the only thing I can read on a plane. Something about the lack of oxygen.

    This was a pretty book: The Fourth Treasure by Tom Shimodo. It’s about japanese calligraphy, 16th century Japan, San Francisco, immigration, graduate school at Berkeley, and neuroscience all in one. The marginalia is great, with all kinds of japanese poetry.

    Comment by FemaleCSGradStudent — February 3, 2007 @ 11:29 pm

  12. A good - and quick - read is WALDEN by Michael T. Dolan. An easy, entertaining and yet prodding read.

    Comment by Skip J. — May 3, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

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