Midnight's Children181 reviews Salman Rushdie Vintage, 1998 Wicked Sense of Humor + A Magic Carpet Ride of Indian History Oh, my goodness. What do I say about this? It's such a rich, excellently written story with lots of interesting action and characters. Bonus: Rushdie has a wicked wicked WICKED sense of humor. And, did I say that the writing is to die for? Envy the size of an elephant inhabited my body as I was ...             Straight Man: A Novel247 reviews Richard Russo Vintage, 1998 Laugh out loud funny + Very funny, very real + Really entertaining, but probably not for everybody + Fantastic novel             One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest359 reviews Ken Kesey Signet, 1963 One Flew East, One Flew West + One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest + Must Have + great quality! + McMurphy as the Metaphor for the Terrorist Suspect             Empire Falls477 reviews Richard Russo Vintage, 2002 Thoughtful On the surface this is a book about an average guy who is stuck in a rut in an average small town. But when you delve deeper, you see that the book is about how pivotal choices and events shape who we are and where we end up in life. The characters in this book are memorable, realistic, and well ...             Chronicle of a Death Foretold121 reviews Gabriel Garcia Marquez Vintage, 2003 Creative, Brilliant Novella - Absolutely Fascinating, Even After Repeated Readings Through the Years + Death foretold; character revealed + Marquez & magic realism---start here Chronicle of a Death Foretold was published in 1981, the year before Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The story begins with sentence: "On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat that the bishop ...             Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science156 reviews Atul Gawande Picador, 2003 Why your Doc says, "I don't know." + A fine, examined look into such a controversial field + Medicine - Mysterious and Uncertain Science + great book for medical and non-medical professionals! + Great book on surgery             Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance82 reviews Atul Gawande Metropolitan Books, 2007 Another Great Look Inside the Medical Profession + Atul Probes Deeply + Fascinating. Must read. Classic. + The progress of medical science + Better: Diligence, Doing Right and Ingenuity             A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments93 reviews David Foster Wallace Back Bay Books, 1998 Literate Gonzo + What a tragedy to have lost such a genius. + Wallace on a Cruise Ship? David Foster Wallace--may he R.I.P.--is one of my very favourite non-fiction writers. I'd categorize his style as a sort-of literate new journalism; while DFW is definately the main character of every essay here (even when he's purportedly talking about, say, David Lynch, DFW's distinctive voice ...             Everything Is Illuminated404 reviews Jonathan Safran Foer Harper Perennial, 2005 One of the best books ever written + everything you could wish and fear life to be This is my second favorite book. The imagination and narration is simply fantastic. I have never experienced imagination as beautiful as the telling of TrachimBrod. Every chapter about this city is glowing with incredible anecdotes and interesting characters. In fact, Brod is by far the best ...             The Corrections: A Novel1013 reviews Jonathan Franzen Picador, 2002 Well worth the investment in time Don't believe the hype about the hype. Brilliantly imagined, extremely well written, and just a pleasure to read.             Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking967 reviews Malcolm Gladwell Back Bay Books, 2007 blink...and then it's gone There's not much substance to this book. Rather than being a resource of information, it is merely a book of examples. There is no broad takeaway you can gather from it after reading except to say perhaps that many of our decisions are based on split-second thoughts. But did you really need to read ...             Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo17 reviews Eric Hansen Vintage, 2000 Easily one of the most absorbing and well-written travelogues ever + Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo + a naive traipse & meander across the island of Borneo + An Adventure to Read About             The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.)1419 reviews Barbara Kingsolver Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005 A Gem of Postcolonial Literature + An Eye Opener + A book for the Colonialists, not the colonised: for Westerners, not Africans + The Poisonwood bible + A Retrospective             Portnoy's Complaint101 reviews Philip Roth Vintage, 1994 Funny, Influential, Modern, Psychological Jewish Novel -- that's well worth your time... + Laugh-out-loud hilarious! + I thought this was a book about gangsters + Great Reflection of 1969 and Jersey Jews [52][T]             Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)854 reviews Jeffrey Eugenides Picador, 2002 You Are Such a Flirt + One of my favorites! + A Wonderfuf Read + From a pediatric Urology Nurse's view point, well done             The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game149 reviews Michael Lewis W. W. Norton, 2007 This is not just a sports book + a flawed but very interesting bio/sports book + Great Read + good sports writing, great human interest story + Fantastic Book, Fantastic Writer             Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything1581 reviews Stephen J. Dubner William Morrow, 2006 A much-appreciated gift + Sociology-flavored econ + Enlightened I purchased this book as a gift for my fiance. He really enjoyed and appreciated it. Now it's my turn to read it!             Beloved87 reviews Toni Morrison Vintage, 2004 Raw & Powerful + Oh My God! Are You Kidding Me? Toni's Morrison's Beloved is a hard, frustrating, and emotionally draining piece of literary art. Saying this, her prose is written like something I've never read. She throws you in the middle of the narrative and does not tell you why her characters are saying or acting like they are. It is a ...             The Shipping News447 reviews E. Annie Proulx Scribner, 1994 Good News + Sequel please + Perfect + Wonderful Writing             Lolita449 reviews Vladimir Nabokov Vintage, 1989 A road movie of the mind + Beautiful writing confronts crude subject matter--A masterpiece + Upends your preconceptions and prejudices + Which book did you read? + The Most Beautiful Novel Ever Written