Spike's Likes (Books read/recommended by SDZ)

For the readers in the group here, this is the list of books that have shown up on Twitter, in interviews, etc.

Books mentioned on Twitter

Michael Chabon "The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh"

Ron Chernow "Washington, A Life"

Erik Larson "In The Garden Of Beasts"

Jimmy Bremner "Crack In The Armor" ( http://bremnerassociates.com/ )

Yann Martel "Beatrice and Virgil"

William Faulkner "The Sound And The Fury" (read for his role in Dying City)

Romeo Dallaire "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children"

Peter C. Newman "When The Gods Changed: The Death Of Liberal Canada"

Carlos Ruiz Zafon "The Shadow Of The Wind"

Christie Blatchford "Fifteen Days"

E.B. White "Here Is New York"

Andre Pratt "Extraordinary Canadians: Wilfred Laurier"

Julian Barnes "Sense Of An Ending"

Esi Edugyan "Half-Blood Blues"

Barbara Deutsch "Open Up or Shut Up: How to talk your way into or out of Anything"

James Joyce "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

Nicole Krauss "The History of Love"

Simon Winchester "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary"

Neil LaBute "In a Dark Dark House"

Don Delillo "White Noise"

Kamal Al-Solaylee "Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes"

Christopher Isherwood "The Berlin Stories"

Jonah Lehrer "Imagine: How Creativity Works"

Jennifer Egan "A Visit From the Goon Squad"

Kevin Powers "The Yellow Birds"

Julia Cameron "The Artist's Way"

Phil Stutz & Barry Michaels "The Tools: Transform your problems into courage, confidence, and creativity"

Favorites:

John Steinbeck "East Of Eden"

J.D. Salinger "Franny and Zooey"

Joseph Conrad "Heart Of Darkness"

Recommendations to specific inquiries:

John Ralston Saul "A Fair Country"

Rohinton Mistry "A Fine Balance"

Gregory David Roberts "Shantaram"

In the box at Dying City:

Kurt Vonnegut "Breakfast Of Champions"

William Faulkner "As I Lay Dying"

(there were more, couldn't read the title/remember them from the pile on stage)

As more show up, they will be added to the list! Read what you want, we can all discuss here...

And, from the creators of Flashpoint (from 2010):

When you're writing flat-out on a TV series, you're left with little time at the end of the day. And as married writing partners, our work tends to follow us home. So we've carved out a sanctuary – a place where scripts aren't allowed. There's an alcove off the bedroom. A vintage chesterfield. Cushions. A pile of books. The company of our daughter. Escape.

We're fans of Lee Child's action-thriller series starring Jack Reacher, a lone-wolf hero with relentless integrity who lives by his wits and only kicks butt when absolutely necessary.

We recently enjoyed Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips, for its raunchy, over-the-top humour steeped in classical references.

In another vein, we're drawn to books that touch on the emotional effects of combat, war and police work, such as On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by Dave Grossman, James Clavell's King Rat and, most recently, Khaled Hosseini's kick to the soul, The Kite Runner.

Franny and Zooey was amazing. I loved that too.

Some really excellent books on that list! Some I've read, some I've got in a pile to read and now I've added some new ones to my must read list! Thanks :)

Thanks heaps Mary Catherine Headley.

Anybody reading/read any (or all) of the books? Any comments or recommendations???

I love practically anything by Salinger!

If you want to try Franny and Zooey, it's fine. But I think you should start with Nine Stories.

I'm supposed to read A Portriat of the Artist as a Young Man for English Lit this year :) Haven't read it yet, but now that Segio's reading it, it's next on my list!

English Major info slam down to follow:

James Joyce is intense, Ulysses his other novel is the book most English majors pick up and then put right back down. The Dubliner's (which I believe is a woven together troop of short stories among the likes of Franny and Zooey) I believe is Joyce's easiest work and it's still intensely hard. This is coming from a modernism lover.

East of Eden is amazing. Only leafed through it, but there's an amazing amount of biblical references. The whole Cain vs Abel thing is brought up again and again I believe.

Heart of Darkness is boring as heck. Then again anything by Conrad is boring as heck. It's very Hemingway-esque without the inner turmoil. It's just boats and jungles. But if that's your thing go for it. Very ambiguous too from what I remember (I TRY to forget)

Kurt Vonnegut is a freaking genius and he needs to be studied in every single classroom ever. Just forever, for any reason possible. Shakespeare and Vonnegut. Those are the staples. However, Breakfast of Champions is a so-so book. Not A+ material (even Vonnegut didn't grade it so himself) but for some odd reason his most popular. Go for Slaughterhouse Five. Short and poignant. Gives life real meaning and nothing is forever.

I'm currently reading As I Lay Dying. It's from a multi-POV and set up around the death of a character. It's an amazing piece from a patriot American modernist. How characters can unwind while dealing with internal problems. Some are so selfish in the lapse of a death of a family member. It's truly an awe inspiring piece (I'm glad I saved it for last because it's helping me with my Fanfiction haha)

Not really a recommendation, really more of a fun fact: Wordy states in 'Backwards Day' that Sam was late for 'choir practice', well this sparked debate between me and a fellow reader/FP watcher. So after some research i found the book Wordy made reference too. It's called Choir Boys by Joseph Waumbaugh, who I think is an actual cop. It's a fictitious tale of 10+ cops on the night division in downtown L.A. in the 1970s. HOWEVER, it is so politically incorrect. Problems of racism, sexism, lude acts and what they do off duty, oh boy. So you should probably be an adult reading it haha. I'm almost done it. I'll never look at gentile Wordy the same again.

"As I Lay Dying" is such a sad book. I had to read it in college. Majorly depressing, but a brilliantly written piece of work. I agree Kayleigh, it is amazing how people change after something tragic happens, like the death of family member. Everyone copes in their own way, but man, some of those characters were hard to read.

Simon Winchester "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" NO WAY!! I saw this in a small bookstore at the coast and wanted to buy it, but didn't. Sounds like it would be an interesting read.

Hey You!!! Dont know which one to start

Start with "The Professor and the Madman". Very interesting book.