What are some of the best books you've read? The most emotional books you've read?
Hello! I'm looking to expand my book collection in the coming months. I have a pretty good supply right now, however, I feel like I've mentally outgrown a lot of the books I have. Most of the novels I own are young adult, however, my taste in books are changing and I'm now beginning to enjoy classics more. They don't necessarily have to be considered "classics," they just have to have an underlying message that is relevant to society today, or to past societies.
Specifically, I'm looking for something that will either make me cry, change my outlook on life, or help me grow as a person. Anything goes, regardless of genre. The only thing I ask is that they have an artistic flow, rather than a bunch of facts that are thrown together. I love history, but I really hate books that have that high-school-history-book flow to them. LOL
In short, I'm looking for books with messages that matter, regardless of the time-period, or genre it's written in.
Thank you!
Anonymous2020-04-25T10:14:45Z
Here are some books I either read as a teenager and was moved by or read and thought I'd have loved to come across sooner:
Restoration by Rose Tremain (Set during Charles II reign)
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Geraldine Brooks (Set in the village of Eyam famous for self-isolating during the 1665 plague.)
Gunnar's Daughter, Sigrid Undset (A novella or short novel set during the very end of the Viking period in Norway. The author leaves the reader to fill in the emotions behind the characters' actions by employing the pared back tone of Icelandic sagas. It packs as much of a punch as you're willing to let it.)
Warrior in Bronze, George Shipway. This was the first novel I ever read where I felt like the author had stepped into an ancient brain and not just used the plot as a vehicle for his own modern agenda. He plays with the origins of Greek myths in a very intelligent way too. Highly recommended.
If you liked the above and wish to balance it was a strong female Bronze Age voice via East Germany, try Cassandra: a novel and three essays by Christa Wolf.
Waiting, Ha Jin (Set in China just as it started to open up. There were a lot of interesting novels that came out of Chins around this time.)
Sky Burial, Xue Xinran (I'll leave you to look this one up. You can't be unmoved by it.)
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides (The other neighborhood kids try to make sense of what happened to 5 sisters.)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingfisher (A family of missionaries in Africa tell their individual versions of events. A long read and rightfully a modern classic.)
Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor (a classic for disaffected/disconnected young adults, as in actual adults. It's a strange story, one that you can only read around the right age, much like Catcher in the Rye, it's just annoying when you get too old for it, but if you catch it at just the right age it stays with you forever.)
The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz (the 1st is Palace Walk) Follows a Cairo family from the beginning of the C20th century. You look out from the eyes of the family patriarch and his sons who are variously repelled by him and want to emulate him. These are the books that earned Mahfouz the Nobel Prize for literature.
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley. This was a generation's King Arthur, or rather, the women surrounding him. Being given this book by one of my parents' female friends felt like being inducted, or maybe trusted, with the secrets of womanhood. I'm sure the author felt the book itself was a kind of rite of passage. Marion Zimmer Bradley was a huge deal in fantasy for decades. She championed a whole generation of authors and was a well beloved and respected mentor. Her influence is still huge. It's therefore only fair to warn you that after she died it was reveal that she was also an abuser. The novel remains epic, but I wouldn't want you to feel that you've been deceived.
The Quiet American by Graeme Green (any Graeme Green novel, really). It's set just before the US official got involved in the Vietnam War seen through the eyes of an extremely jaded and flawed English correspondent.
Embers, Sándor Márai. Two frienemies meet up after decades apart. I guess it's overarching theme is whether relations can be sustained through class differences and a sense of beholdeness. It's very atmospheric.
The Luneberg Variation, Paolo Maurensig. Death, chess and the Holocaust
A non-fiction book? The Mighty Dead: why Homer matters by Adam Nicholson. This is the most moving book I read in the 2010s. It goes all over the place with so many twists and turns you never saw coming from the library of Alexandria, to the Ukrainian Steppe, to Chicago gang warfare, to resistance fighters during WWII in Cyprus, the Scottish Highlands, 1980s Palmyra, 1880s Parisian restaurants, Spanish caves, and the whole messy process of being human all through the lens of Homer. It's rare that I read a book I slow down just because I don't want it to. I've been plying everyone with copies since I read it.
I gotcha covered on the well-written emotional books that have some meaning as well...
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers - true story during hurricane Katrina - emotional ups and downs
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - just a beautiful book, I love Irving's writing, there is some serious religious undertones in this book, but not in a bad or interpretive way. Probably my favorite book and definitely the one book I can recommend to anyone at anytime
The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle - it has been forever since I read this (it came out in 1995) but it centers around Mexican illegal immigrants and liberal homeowners.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall - this is beautiful, some very difficult stuff to get through, a flawed but loveable character - but absolutely nothing trite about this
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - fascinating narrative, non-traditional book structure, tears
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - ignore that this is considered Young Adult - just read it
Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden - I can't even explain this - I mean the book is narrated by a town! Really great insight into civil rights, poverty, love, ghosts
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin - I'll start out by saying this falls off at the end, but the rest is so drop-dead gorgeous it doesn't matter. This book is written without quotation marks - once you get the hang of it, it's great.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - poke around Yahoo Answers answers about recommended books (especially ones that make you cry) and this comes up every single time. You have to read this.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby - written by a man with Locked-in Syndrome. The book is short and worth reading, but I'd actually recommend checking out the movie - it's even better than the book
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward - this is a really tough read - about a very poor family that includes violence and abuse - but another really well-written story.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich - another one that comes up all the time on Yahoo Answers - you will really get to understand what it is like to live on minimum wage, You will never look at poverty, homelessness or the working poor the same way again.
If you don't want a bunch of facts thrown together, don't read moby dick. I really love the Song of Ice and Fire books. The author also wrote a short story called the ice dragon that's reallly good and interesting. A Discovery of Withces is a three book adult fnatasy that's really good. Good luck!