Thyroid

Two books

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My sister is abroad and, as always, that means I get to buy books.

 

This time, however, she tells me I get to pick only two.

 

And what I want is something reflective. Something that counts.

 

I thought I'd ask you. Novel, short stories, fiction or non-fiction: if you could recommend only two books, what would they be, and why?

 

(Apologies if this causes gregbrown, Chris Remo or TheArgobot any collective or individual aneurysm.)

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My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard is wonderful, honest, and reflective in the best way. You also can't go wrong with other John Williams (Butcher's Crossing or Augustus), and Warlock by Oakley Hall is an amazing examination of heroes and the American West.

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1) The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk, a meditation on Turkish identity in the face of "Western" influence.

2) The Collected Stories of Paul Bowles, is fun as a kind of counterpoint to that as it is (at times) about Westerners completely out of their depth in Morocco/North Africa.

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NW NW NW NW NW NW!

 

Seriously, NW by Zadie Smith is one of the most important books I read this year, if not ever. It's an examination of different characters who all live NW London and the connections they have to one another. The honest way that Smith writes about female relationships (with their mothers, with each other, with their partners) is what really made this book for me.

 

Flamethrowers, by Rachel Kushner is my second suggestion (to keep up with my theme of important books about being a young woman). Kushner is a fantastic writer and this was just recently nominated for the National Book Award.

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two different choose your own adventure books, 'cause that's like fifty books

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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

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Toni Morrison's Sula and JMG Le Clezio's The Giants. Two very different perspectives. One, on being a woman of colour and how that the dynamics of the 'other', while the other is a take on how material culture does not just corrupt in its practises, but also how the messages of consumerism drown meaningful thought.

 

I went for two books that are very different and could be considered essentially perfect.

 

I was thiiiiis close to putting Flamethrowers on there, because darn it did I enjoy that novel.

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Are "omnibuses" allowed? I'd look into that. Maybe the "Areas of my Expertise", "More" and "All" of John Hodgeman are fun if you can get the collected edition.

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Can she get you only two books because of weight restrictions or something? Can she not just buy you an ereader and load it up with a handful of books you want? Is this suggestion dumb?

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NW NW NW NW NW NW!

 

Seriously, NW by Zadie Smith is one of the most important books I read this year, if not ever. It's an examination of different characters who all live NW London and the connections they have to one another. The honest way that Smith writes about female relationships (with their mothers, with each other, with their partners) is what really made this book for me.

 

Oh wow, this reminds me that i had Wite Teeth on my read list years ago and it just dropped away. i'll have to pick up somthing by her.

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Sorry for the late replies, everyone. Interesting suggestions all around.

 

Can she get you only two books because of weight restrictions or something? Can she not just buy you an ereader and load it up with a handful of books you want? Is this suggestion dumb?

eBooks are not available to people outside of certain countries. I use a trick to buy stuff on occasion, like Infinite Jest, but it's frustrating, generally, and the difficulty does not justify the price of a decent eReader.

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Sorry for the late replies, everyone. Interesting suggestions all around.

 

eBooks are not available to people outside of certain countries. I use a trick to buy stuff on occasion, like Infinite Jest, but it's frustrating, generally, and the difficulty does not justify the price of a decent eReader.

 

I didn't consider the prohibitive cost. That said, I wasn't suggesting buying an eReader and trying to use it overseas to procure books. I was suggesting buying an eReader, making a US account of some kind to buy ebooks with, and then bringing the ereader to where you are where you can use the already purchased ebooks at a later date. I know a few expats who do that - they come back to the US on holiday and buy like 20 books so they have a queue when they get back home.

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NW NW NW NW NW NW!

 

Seriously, NW by Zadie Smith is one of the most important books I read this year, if not ever. It's an examination of different characters who all live NW London and the connections they have to one another. The honest way that Smith writes about female relationships (with their mothers, with each other, with their partners) is what really made this book for me.

Just bought & read it on this recommendation. Fucking hell, this was depressing. Just, ugh. Ugly, broken people with ugly, broken lives.

 

I'd say a good book, but man. Not actually what I was looking for right now.

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I'm sorry that it didn't work for you. The "depressing" parts are what I most enjoyed, because they felt so true to many of my own experiences.

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I don't think I know you well enough to respond to that meaningfully, except to express as much sympathy as you think is appropriate. Everyone in the book struck me as deeply, fundamentally unhappy.

 

e: I wouldn't say it didn't work for me - if anything it worked too well. As a father of two growing daughters I found the book frightening. I'm just a bit tired and stressed lately and wasn't expecting something this harsh.

 

e2: I'm quite happy I read it and I think it's a book that has taught me some lessons, but it wasn't comfortable and I'm not sure I was ready for it. But thanks for the recommendation, and I'm on the whole happy I followed it. Sorry for the poorly-worded first response. I should have let it settle a bit more.

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I'd have to say if I had reccomend two books to anyone I'd definitely say that The Sirens of Titan is a must read and so is Oryx and Crake. 

 

The Sirens of Titan is a sci-fi book by Kurt Vonnegut. As usual it's zany as all fuck, and like a lot of his stuff if almost feels like you're reading two books at once (so there's your bang for your buck). Besides all the weirdness of the book I feel like the second half of the novel is one of the most visually beautiful, impressive and moving pieces of fiction I've ever read. It still gives me butterflies thinking about the latter half of that book. 

 

Oryx and Crake is a fantastic sci-fi novel based on altering DNA in a cosmetic sense so that rich people can essentially manufacture food, organs or living cells to test shit out on. It's Atwood at her finest, and Christ on a bike does she come out swinging on this one. The characters are so interesting and fucked up you're not exactly sure whether you're supposed to like them or not. 

 

I know I've gone at length about these books before on these forums, but I just glanced at my book pile and these are still the ones I feel are most important to me. 

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