Nancy Pearl

The subtitle says it all - "Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason." The lists are organized alphabetically from "A is for Alice" to "Zero," which just about every genre and topic you can think of in between. Because it's organized topically, there is some overlap in books mentioned that fall into more than one category, with books like The Brothers K, for example, listed in both "Baseball" and "Mothers and Sons." Nancy Pearl, reader and librarian extraordinaire, also offers show more her comments on a book's plot or what she loved about it. I love that she's not afraid to give her opinion, saying upfront which books she loved and which sequels she did not think were as good. I know from listening to her podcasts and reading her blog that her opinions about books do not always coincide with mine, but I love that she doesn't try to sugarcoat her responses to try to appeal to more readers, because reading is personal.

This is not a book I would necessarily recommend reading from cover to cover unless you read widely and you could stand adding several books to your already large list of books to be read. I added about 30, and that was only by being really picky and rushing through some of the lists to get this book back to the library before it did more damage to my ever-growing TBR list. If it's not a book to be read straight through, however, it's an excellent book to own. I want this book. I want to be able to dip into it at random in the rare moments that I'm stuck for something to read. I want to be able to talk back in the margins - "No, The Makioka Sisters is dead boring, NOT like Jane Austen." I want to add books I've read that fall into each list that perhaps were published since Book Lust came out in 2003. The topical lists are also great for display ideas, and I admit to using one in the library soon after I started this book. Should you fail to find enough books to interest you here, there are more: More Book Lust, published in 2005, and Book Crush, similarly recommended books for children and teens. Personally, though, I'm going to wait until I can buy these, too. My TBR list is bloated enough as it is. show less

Warning: Severe Inflation Danger to your TBR
Review of the HarperOne hardcover edition (Sept. 2020)

I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with the previous work of Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager, but any librarian who comes with her own action figure is de facto a force to be reckoned with ;)

Image sourced from library.myunion.edu at https://library.myunion.edu/news-librarians-changed-history/

Pearl and Schwager interview 23 prominent contemporary American authors, mostly novelists, with some show more prepared questions about their childhood reading habits and inspirations through to their most admired books by other authors. As each conversation proceeds, there are tangents taken so that all of the interviews are unique and not boilerplate.

The favourites are too many to list here (probably it is 300 to 400 overall with 23 authors x 15-20 faves each) but several had common favourites.
Ursula K. Le Guin The Earthsea Trilogy (listed by Urrea, Johnson*)
Richard Adams Watership Down (listed by Egan, Miller, Chabon)
Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (listed by Egan, Greer)
Saul Bellow Herzog (listed by Chabon, Eggers, Ford)
Denis Johnson Jesus' Son (listed by Eggers, Nguyen, Vida)
Edward Said Orientalism (listed by Lalami, Nguyen)
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon (listed by Lalami, Hirshfield, Nguyen*)
Edith Wharton The House of Mirth (listed by Egan, Hustvedt)
Joan Didion and William Shakespeare showed up several times as well, but not necessarily the same book or play.

I really can't recommend this highly enough, especially if one of your favourite authors is among the interviewees. I found every single interview to be interesting, and, as mentioned above, a severe danger to my TBR. So be forewarned ;)

Thanks to Liisa, Martin & family for this very thoughtful gift!!

Trivia and Links
Nancy Pearl's website has a selection of writer's quotes from the book here.

* Not the specific book as the others, but recommends the author in general. show less

37. (from 2010) Book Lust To Go : Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Nancy Pearl (2010, 277 pages, read Nov 10 - Dec 24) – an Early Reviewer and an ARC

As I was about to write this, I decided to check out Nancy Pearl’s website (www.nancypearl.com ). She is apparently a famous librarian, something I wasn’t aware was possible. Her own website says she “has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next.” show more That kind of statement, the arrogance really bothers me (really, “a rock star”?), but it also makes me really curious. I had a similar conflicted response to her book.

Book Lust To Go is a book on books that takes us around the world. Each section is themed on a location, or a type of travel or adventure. I found a lot of good stuff here, and wrote down over 30 books or authors to add to my wishlist. I now really want to read Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux; and I discovered titles like How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe and Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists.

But, there was so much that bothered me. For starters, the books lists were really incomplete and there were few classics. There were several great books that I knew of that were missing, and I’m not all that well read (despite my presence here). And there were too many titles I recognized from the NYTimes book review, which I only read from 2006 to early 2010. That is to say, there was a heavy bias on new books.

I’m not sure what to make of this all. I think that if Pearl was on LibraryThing, she would be spectacular reader to follow. And, certainly there is a place for books like hers. But, for me personally, if it’s a conversation, I’m OK with just a list of books someone has read. If it’s a book, I feel like it should go farther, should have some more completeness to it. Obviously, YMMV.

2010
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104839#2496516 show less

As a public librarian, Nancy Pearl is, of course, my hero (yes, I have the Nancy Pearl action figure). Nobody does reader's advisory like Nancy Pearl does reader's advisory! So when I heard she wrote a book, I naturally wanted to read it right away. At the same, I was a little apprehensive, because knowing what goes into a good book doesn't necessarily mean that you can write a good book. I needn't have worried.

Although the book is called George & Lizzie, this is really Lizzie's story. One show more is tempted to say that she was raised by wolves, but of course that's not true. She was really raised by behavioral psychologists, who treated her every action as an idea for further research. Predictably, she acts out by doing some, shall we say, less-than-socially-acceptable things. These things have repercussions, of course, in her later relationships, but we can't help loving Lizzie, even while she does everything possible to sabotage her own life and happiness.

Then comes George. We learn enough about George's childhood and family to make him a believable character, but since the book still focuses more on Lizzie, the real question is whether she can get over herself long enough to actually make a positive long-lasting relationship with George. There were a few plot points that I couldn't quite suss out (including the somewhat important point of why Lizzie agreed to marry George in the first place when she was still obsessed (yes, obsessed) with someone else), but those confusions were easily overcome in the excellent writing that continued to pull me forward.

And pulled forward I was, right up until the very natural and well-done ending. Pearl never takes the easy road with her characters, and the whole book moves along without ever giving the reader the feeling that the whole thing is just one big contrivance. Brava to Mrs. Pearl for making the leap from reader to author. I look forward to reading more. show less