Wynette Richards

I thought I'd try to remember some books I've liked enough to recommend to others. I'll add books to this list as I think of them but probably won't be able to remember some of the best. Disclaimer: Some I read at a younger age. Maybe wouldn't like now?

Fiction

• Jane Austen
  • Pride and Prejudice (all-time favorite)
  • Mansfield Park
  • Emma
  • Persuasian
  • Sense and Sensibility

• Willa Cather
  • Death Comes for the Archbishop (a must-read for a New Mexican or newmexicophile)

• Robertson Davies
  • Fifth Business
  • The Manticore
  • World of Wonders
  • The 3 together are called The Deptford Trilogy. Read in order given.

• Helen Fielding
  • Bridget Jones's Diary
  • The Edge of Reason
  • Read in the above order. Hilarious, especially if you've read Pride and Prejudice AND seen the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice, the one with Colin Firth.

• Ken Follett
  • Eye of the Needle

• John Galsworthy
  • The Forsyte Saga (quite a soap opera; actually 3 novels)

• Elizabeth George
  • Her Inspector Lynley mysteries set in England (all over).
    

• Gail Godwin
  • Father Melancholy's Daughter
  • Flora
  • Others (I don't distinctly remember too many of her other books but remember enjoying the ones I read.)

• Herman Hesse
  • All of his books.
    I read nearly all his books when I was in my 20s and 30s and loved them then.

• Anne Hillerman
  • She took over the Leaphorn/Chee series where her dad left off when he died. I enjoy her books as much as her father's books.

  • Tony Hillerman
    • All his Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee (Navajo) mysteries set in New Mexico and Arizona.

  • Nick Hornby
    • About a Boy (one of my favorite books, good movie, too)
    • High Fidelity

  • P. D. James
    • All her mysteries

  • Harry Kemelman
    • All the Rabbi Small mysteries
      Be sure to read them in order, starting with Friday, the Rabbi Slept Late. They'll make you wish you were Jewish if you aren't already.

  • Elinor Lipman
    • The Inn at Lake Devine (my favorite Elinor Lipman book)
    • The Ladies' Man
    • all her other books (I think I've read all her books and liked every one.)

  • William Somerset Maugham
    • The Razor's Edge
    • Of Human Bondage
    • The Moon and Sixpense
    • Others that he's written

  • Louise Penny
    • Her Inspector Gamache mysteries set in Canada.

  • Barbara Pym
    • Any of her books
      They all run together in my mind, but I've read most, maybe all, of them and loved all the ones I read.

  • Peter Robinson
    • His Inspector Banks mysteries set in Yorkshire.

  • Ruth Rendell
    • Her Inspector Wexford mysteries set in Sussex, England.

  • Dodie Smith
    • I Capture the Castle

  • Wallace Stegner
    • Angle of Repose

  • Scott Turow
    • Presumed Innocent (a good mystery)

  • Anne Tyler
    • Ladder of Years
    • A Patchwork Planet
    • Back When We Were Grownups
    • I like her above later books the best (not quite as melancholy as her earlier ones), but all her books are good. She is a wonderful writer.

  Non-Fiction

  • David Allen
    • Getting Things Done

  • Natalie Angier
    • Woman, An Intimate Geography

  • Charlotte Joko Beck
    • Nothing Special: Living Zen
    • Everyday Zen: Love & Work

  • Bill Bryson
    • Neither Here Nor There (travels in Europe, hilarious)
    • The Lost Continent (travels in American, hilarious)
    • In a Sunburned Country (travels in Australia)
    • I'm a Stranger Here Myself (about returning to America)
    • The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got that Way
    • A Short History of Nearly Everything
    • Can you tell I like Bill Bryson?

  • Pema Chodron
    • When Things Fall Apart

  • Barbara Ehrenreich
    • Nickel and Dimed

  • Richard Feynman
    • Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

  • Colin Fletcher
    • The Man Who Walked Through Time

  • Elizabeth Gilbert
    • Eat Pray Love

  • Natalie Goldberg
    • Writing Down the Bones

  • Nick Hornby
    • Songbook

  • Barbara Kingsolver
    • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

  • Jon Krakauer
    • Into Thin Air
    • Into The Wild

  • Anne Lamont
    • Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

  • Mark and Delia Owens
    • Cry of the Kalahari

  • Michael Pollan
    • The Omnivore's Dilemma

  • Scott Rosenberg
    • Dreaming in Code

  • Robert Sapolsky
    • Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals
    • The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament

  • Joe Simpson
    • Touching the Void (as you see, I like survival stories)

  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    • The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

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