"Novel Thoughts" books read so far
Earlier this week, in conjunction with the Norfolk Public Library in Norfolk, Nebraska, I did a presentation about my long-running, self-syndicated column, “Novel Thoughts.” The library director and I met in advance and then I compiled and sent her a list of all the books I’ve read and written about for my column — more than 150 books. From that list, she chose 40 to display along with my columns on each, and she and I chose 10 others for me to talk about — 9 that I love and 1 that I very much dislike.
I also shared about my own 5 books, but the presentation was primarily about the column I write, which is about books and book-related topics. It’s meant to encourage people to read older, quality literature. I do include newer books, too, but it’s the quality that I try to focus on.
A couple people asked for the list of books, and I’ve since added the list to my website (on my “columns” page) and will update it monthly. However, I thought that readers of “Tomes and Topics” might be interested in the list as well, so I’m including it here this week — you can refer to my website to see the list as I update it: book list
I’m open to any recommendations you’d care to pass along. Just remember that I’m looking for quality literature. I own all the Pulitzer Prize winners in fiction, so I don’t need those to be recommended. What I haven’t yet covered in the column from those, I either will someday or I’ve decided not to for various reasons. I’ve started covering some of the books of Nobel Prize winners and National Book Award winners, but I haven’t done many yet.
Please look over the list and leave any comments for me here:
Novel Thoughts column – begun on February 3, 2010 Books covered, arranged alphabetically by title Pulitzers marked with a P and favorites of mine marked with ** afterwards A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ** A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain A Cycle of the West by John G. Neihardt A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles ** A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler ** P A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ** A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor P A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford ** A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington P All the Gallant Men by Donald Stratton with Ken Gire All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ** P Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor P Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis P Atonement by Ian McEwan ** Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters Bel Canto by Ann Pachett Beloved by Toni Morrison P Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres ** Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner ** Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather ** Different Seasons by Stephen King Doctor Sleep by Stephen King Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Dracula by Bram Stoker Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield P Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin East of Eden by John Steinbeck Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Empire Falls by Richard Russo P Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Friendship, Hateship, . . . by Alice Munro (short story collection) Ghosts: A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old and New compiled by Marvin Kaye Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell ** P Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ** Guernica by Dave Boling Hard Times by Charles Dickens Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro Heidi by Johanna Spyri Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie His Family by Ernest Poole P I am a Man: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice by Joe Starita Independence Day by Richard Ford P Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell ** Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Kim by Rudyard Kipling Lincoln by David Herbert Donald Loving Frank by Nancy Horan ** Mansfield Park by Jane Austen March by Geraldine Brooks ** P Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser P Meditations by Marcus Aurelius ** Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote Middlemarch by George Eliot ** Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ** Night by Elie Wiesel ** Now in November by Josephine W. Johnson ** P O’ Pioneers by Willa Cather Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ** P Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One of Ours by Willa Cather ** P Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Possession by A. S. Byatt ** Roots by Alex Haley ** Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler September by Rosamund Pilcher Silas Marner by George Eliot ** Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson So Big by Edna Ferber ** P Summerland by Michael Chabon Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener P The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton P The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ** The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon P The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ** The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder P The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk P The Chimes by Charles Dickens The Christmas Train by David Baldacci The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter P The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys: Great Writers on Great Places, Volume One The Constant Gardener by John LeCarre The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas ** The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder P The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery ** The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe ** The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje ** The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer ** P The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt P The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows ** The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb The Hours by Michael Cunningham ** P The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau P The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand P The Library Book by Susan Orlean ** The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingleman-Sundberg The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington P The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith ** The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway ** P The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton ** The Overstory by Richard Powers ** P The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs The Poems of Robert Frost by Robert Frost The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester ** The Professor’s House by Willa Cather ** The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald The Reivers by William Faulkner P The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro The Road by Cormac McCarthy P The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ** The Shipping News by Annie Proulx P The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen P The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor P The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White ** The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish ** The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings P The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman ** Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Tinkers by Paul Harding P To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ** P Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks ** U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen ** Watership Down by Richard Adams ** Wonder by R.J. Palacio ** Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes P Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig As of March 2023, 156 books.
I am hoping to get the column into more newspapers — it’s in 4 right now — and I did submit it to a national syndicator a couple weeks ago, but that can take a while to hear back, if they are even interested in it. If you know of any newspaper that might be interested in running it, let me know, and I will reach out to the editor. It’s a hit-and-miss process that requires a bit of luck to get an editor to even give me the time of day, so any help is greatly appreciated.
I want to get more editing and work done on the 6th book before I share more of it, but I did write a possible Prologue for it this week, and I will share that below for paying subscribers. If you aren’t yet a paying subscriber, consider becoming one, so you can read my works in progress as I share them before publishing them.
Until next time. Happy reading.
Tammy Marshall
A New Ride Tammy Marshall
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