Only ten, but then you only need one you haven’t already read, right? And, unlike some similar lists with more titles, these ten titles are annotated.
Found at The Reading Room; posted on Facebook by The Goodwill Librarian
Supporting avid readers everywhere.
Only ten, but then you only need one you haven’t already read, right? And, unlike some similar lists with more titles, these ten titles are annotated.
Found at The Reading Room; posted on Facebook by The Goodwill Librarian
The website The Toast has posted a sampling of titles from novels published in the 1700s. The lengthy list is alphabetically arranged, so you’ll need to scroll down through it to find some of the best gems. (Personal fave: He’s Always in the Way.)
Also funny: some of the readers’ comments.
Enjoy!
Posted to Facebook by Mitch Gould
Not the first such list, nor particularly authoritative, but a list nontheless.
If you find you need a list of really, really lengthy novels that are (supposedly) worth the time and effort required to read them.
Inevitably, indignant readers cite even more stupendously lengthy novels that were overlooked when this FlavorWire listicle was compiled.
Found via Book Riot
For the fifth consecutive year, largeheartedboy is attempting to compile every list of “the best books of the year” he (or any of his many readers) can find. (Best music lists, too.)
If you’re wondering what book to read next, and decide you’d like to read something somebody (or some publication or website) believes is one of the most significant books published in 2012, you might give largeheartedboy a look-see.
Although November isn’t over quite yet, many “best books of 2012” lists have already been compiled, with a further avalanche to come next month, and another during the first few weeks of 2013. Largeheartedboy will provide links to all of them.
The Browser devotes one of its “Five Books” features to an Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy’s recommendations of his favorite books about math.
If one or more of these titles piques your dormant – or perhaps not-so-dormant – interest in mathematics, you can borrow it/them from the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.
Found via The New Yorker’s Page Turner
Did you know that there’s a website devoted to reviews of woefully neglected books?
For avid readers looking for some recommended titles of non-newish books to read, that site is a great resource.
And occasionally, other websites will post shorter (and, of course, completely different) lists of allegedly underrated books – which, of course, some readers respond to with even more recommended titles. Here are two recent such lists:
This is the second in a continuing series of selective book lists about perennially interesting places. The first list, about Tuscany, is here.
Titles are grouped by topic, in most cases with the most recent titles listed first.
Most of these books are available from the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. If you have a borrower’s card with AFPLS, you can obtain any title AFPLS doesn’t own by submitting, at any library, an Interlibrary Loan form (available on the library system’s website, www.afpls.org). Titles NOT owned by AFPLS are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Please contact us if we’ve inadvertently omitted one of your own favorite books about Provence, or let us know if there are other book lists you’d like to see compiled and posted to the Atlanta Booklover’s Blog.
“…I think life here is a happier thing than in countless other spots on the earth.” – Van Gogh
Just as the American writer Frances Mayes virtually cornered the market for English-language readers interested in what it’s like to live in Tuscany, the many books by British-born Peter Mayle are the titles about Provence that most readers have heard of: A Year in Provence (1989, 1991), Toujours Provence (1992), and Encore Provence (1999).
Other multiple-memoir authors who’ve described their adventures in Provence are Anne-Marie Simons: Taking Root in Provence (2011)* and Ten Years in Provence (2008)*; James Ivey’s trilogy: Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure (2006), Rose en Marche: Running a Market Stall in Provence (2008),* and La Vie en Rose (2008)*; and Carol Drinkwater’s five memoirs: The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil (2001), The Olive Season: Amour, A New Life, and Olives Too (2003), The Olive Harvest (2007),* The Olive Tree: A Personal Journey through Mediterranean Olive Groves (2008),* and Return to the Olive Farm (2010)*
Other recent records of foreigners’ personal adventures in Provence include:
An earlier generation of writers also published memoirs of their time in Provence:
The cultivation, preparation, and enjoyment of food is a major social activity for the people who live in Provence, and the food is a huge draw, both for foreign visitors and for cooks who want to reproduce in their home kitchen some memorable feast they experienced in a trip to Provence. A sampling, both new and old, of Provencal cookery titles:
The well-known Provence-popularizer Peter Mayle (whose memoir series are listed above) also wrote three humorous novels set in this part of the world: Hotel Pastis (1993), A Dog’s Life (1995), and A Good Year (2004) – plus two light-hearted mysteries, Chasing Cezanne (1997) and The Village Caper (2009).
Thirty years ago saw the publication of Lawrence Durrell’s considerably more reader-challenging novels set in Provence, novels collectively referred to as his “Avignon Quintet”: Monsieur (1974), Livia (1978), Constance (1982), Sebastian (1983), and Quinx (1985).
Earlier literary novels set in Provence, now considered classics, include Cyril Connolly’s satire The Rock Pool (1936), and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s semi-autobiographical Tender is the Night (1934).
Of course, there are numerous contemporary novels to choose from as well:
Those who particularly enjoy detective or suspense fiction have many Provence-setting titles to choose from. These include a series by Martin O’Brien – Jacquot and the Angel (2006), Jacquot and the Waterman (2006), and Jacqot and the Master (2007)*; a series by Pierre Magnan: The Messengers of Death (2008, 2010) and Death in the Truffle Wood (2007); and a series by M.L. Longworth: Murder in the Rue Dumas (2012)* and Death in the Chateau Bremont (2011).
Additional mysteries:
These include the feature films Jean de Florette (2007), A Good Year (2006), My Father’s Glory (1992), A Year in Provence (1993), and My Mother’s Castle (La chateau de ma mere) (1999), and the following documentaries:
“There is the first time we go abraod, and the first time we go to Provence. – Cyril Connolly (Enemies of Promise, 1938)
If, after examining some of the previously-listed nonfiction titles, or after reading a novel set in Provence, you find yourself wanting to plan a trip to the area, the library system has a wide selection of travel guides. These include guidebooks devoted to Provence (and/or the Riviera) fromall the main guidebook publishers – Cadogan, DK Eyewitness, Fodor’s, Frommer’s, Globetrotter, Insight, Landmark Visitor, Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, Open Roads, Phaedon, Rick Steves, The Collected Traveler, Thomas Cook, and Time Out).
The following non-series guidebook titles are also available:
Most library copies of these titles are on CD; a few are available only in cassette format: