So no proper post today, but (for no real reason) a Salvador Dali painting by way of a reminder about my old post about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrators...
...and one of those little questions which is a great way to add to my ever-growing list of books to read, and to get your brains working a bit.
I'd like to know a recommendation (so it has to be good!) for a book where the title (not including A/The etc.) and the author's surname begin with the same letter. Because... well, why not? It's trickier than it sounds. I'm going to suggest a few to get you started...
The Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield
Literary Lapses - Stephen Leacock
Howards End is on the Landing - Susan Hill
Have fun!
Oh, Simon, you mad one, another glorious challenge! How about Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries. Confess I haven't reread it in years, and my first read was long before we all had access to wonderful recommendations from like-minded readers via blogs such as yours, but it resonated then... What's more, Carol Shields and her friend Blanche Howard exchanged letters (and a joint writing project) for many years. The letters document the inevitable drift towards old age but they also celebrate two women's bookish lives and the unalloyed pleasure they found in exchanging good reads and the like. The letters are in book form. I found the book by chance and lapped it up. I know how you love collections of letters - and, by the way, The Element of Lavishness is supreme.
ReplyDeleteMust away to help younger daughter in complex and much overdue science fair project. Help me.....
Janey
The Huncback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
ReplyDeleteCat Among The Pigeons - Agatha Christie
Mince Pie - Christopher Morley
Clochemerle - Gabriel Chevallier
ReplyDeleteBack again, after riotous science fair experiment.
ReplyDeleteDoes poetry count? If so, then surely these do:
Ted Hughes: Hawk in the Rain
Seamus Heaney: The Haw Lantern
Seamus Heaney: Human Chain
These poets walk through words like gods....
Janey
Colette: Claudine at School (and all the other Claudines. Tho' I think having only one name might be cheating!)
ReplyDeleteBibliolathas beat me to it! However let me add for Colette "Cheri" and "The Cat" (works in original French too). How about Julie Birchill and "The Boy Looked at Johnny". You said "book rather than "novel" so I'll also offer Anaïs Nin's "The Novel of the Future" for your collection.
ReplyDeleteDombey and Son: Charles Dickens
ReplyDeleteHazard, A Husband for Fanny, Helen - all by Georgette Heyer (OK some of them are short stories... cheat!)
The Hand of Ethelberta; Thomas Hardy
Oh, nothing will get done today!
Like OVW I've been distracted on this for the last hour (while watching the cricket with one eye!). My suggestions
ReplyDeleteAlias Grace: Margaret Atwood
Border Crossing: Pat Barker
Blind to the Bones: Stephen Booth
Daddy: Loup Durand
Buddha Da: Anne Donovan
Matterhorn: Karl Marlantes
and the most alliterative recommendation I can come up with Blacklands by Belinda Bauer!!! ( Though if I'm honest the alliteration in the author and title is better than the book itself which I didn't think was very good, so maybe not a recommendation after all!!!)
Here are four old Penguin titles you might like -
ReplyDeleteAnti Death League by Kingsley Amis
Aphrodite Means Death- John Appleby
Provincial Letters - Blaise Pascal
Southern Gates of Arabia - Freya Stark
Pam
Simon,
ReplyDeleteJust found one hidden in plain view right before my eyes here on your page: Marghanita Laski - Little Boy Lost. Just pretend you haven't read it and enjoy it all over again!
Janey
Queued up for the next Cornflower discussion: The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles :)
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins...a little buzz around her books at the moment. ;) Must stop this now before it consumes the afternoon!
ReplyDeleteAll from my "Books Read" list:
ReplyDeleteSomone already beat me to Alias Grace by Atwood.
Tepper Isn't Going Out by Trillin
The Three Clerks by Trollope
The Small Room by Sarton
Can we count 'omage to Catalonia by Orwell?
Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mendelson
The Ladies Man by Elinor Lipman
The Life and Death of Classical Music by Lebrecht
The Lost Lanuage of Cranes by Leavitt
Jack Gance by Ward Just
A High Wind in Jamaica by Hughes
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Flashman by Fraser
Deliverance by James Dickey
The Bay of Angels by Brookner
Brief Lives by Brookner
Three from the Virago bookshelves:
ReplyDeleteSymposium by Muriel Spark
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
The Camomile by Catherine Carswell
Ooh, this has really got me thinking! A few to begin with:
ReplyDeleteThe Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Mysteries by Robert McGill
The Tin Can Tree by Anne Tyler
Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Biographer's Tale - A.S. Byatt*
ReplyDeleteWhy Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson**
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Waves - Virginia Woolf (although you've probably read this one?)
The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
That's all I've got for now...
*I was going to recommend Babel Tower by Byatt (say that five times fast), but I don't think you'd like it. It gets a little graphic...
**OK, I haven't read this one, but I refuse to believe that it's not good. I'm a faithful fan. :D