Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read. It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.
Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time. But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story.
This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button. If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.
ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS BY LORNA LANDVIK
I thought that Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (which I reviewed here) was as enjoyable as a yummy pot luck casserole, even if it was about as predictable.
The best part was the way it was structured around the monthly meetings of a neighborhood book club over a period of 30 years. Each chapter started by listing the title of the book under discussion and the reason the hostess chose that book.
Unfortunately, there was never much discussion of any of the books, but the ladies did come up with some good, or at least attention-grabbing, choices. Sometimes they were classics, sometimes they were popular titles for the time in which the club read them. They clearly did not follow my Book Club's rule against choosing super-long books!
The books highlighted in Angry Housewives are listed below, with my notes in parentheses.
Hotel by Arthur Haley
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
Middlemarch by George Eliot (read it)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (on my TBR shelf)
Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann (read it)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but were Afraid to Ask by Dr. David Reuben
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (read it)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan
Roots by Alex Haley
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
My Home is Far Away by Dawn Powell
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (read it)
Out on a Limb by Shirley McClain
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (read it)
West with the Night by Beryl Markham (read it)
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (read it)
Handling Sin by Michael Malone
The Stand by Stephen King
My Antonia by Willa Cather (read it)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)
The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz
Kristin Lavensdatter by Sigrid Undset (on my TBR shelf)
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (on my TBR shelf)
Eastward Ha! by J. S. Perleman
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy (on my TBR shelf)