I Need Books To Read

[Navied]

Hey guys,

I'm new here so hopefully i'm putting this in maybe the right place. It's not quite and Individual Reading Challenge, but, it's close. Basically, my band is going on tour and I want to amass a small library of 20-30 books to bring with me to read. As of late i've been very interested in The Roaring 20's/The Jazz Age/The Lost Generation. F. Scott Fitzgerald has become my favorite author. So, I'm looking for some suggestions as to what to purchase and bring with me.

These are the books I've read in this vein and loved:
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side Of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tender Is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

Here are the books I've already started acquiring for my tour reading list:
The Green Hat - Michael Arlen
Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Love of the Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway
Expatriate Paries - Arlen J. Hansen
Various Hemingway and Fitzgerald Short story collections

So what suggestions do you guys have? I'd like to bring more fiction with me than nonfiction, but still would appreciate a semi-even mix of the two. I'm fascinated with the high life cutler of the 20s. Also, I do like some romance in books. Not "mushy-gushy" romance novels. This Side Of Paradise and Tender Is The Night both had great (even if doomed) love stories in them. I think you guys know what I mean. Can't wait to hear your suggestions! Thanks!

PS - Also, again, sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. If I need to move it somewhere else let me know. Thanks.

[Nigeyb]

Do you just want the 1920s?


To what extent do you want to move into the 1930s (after the party) too? More Spanish Civil War (I notice you have For Whom the Bell Tolls)? World War 1 (you also have A Farewell to Arms)?

Do you just want glamour and wealth? To what extent are you interested in the working class experience?

Your list is very US-centric? What other countries, cultures are you interested in?

Based on your list I would definitely add...

Brideshead Revisited - right up there with Gatsby

Hangover Square (though 1939 London so perhaps too late? Masterpiece though)

Perhaps a couple of books by P.G. Wodehouse for light relief and laugh out loud humour..say...

Leave It to Psmith and some Jeeves, perhaps Very Good, Jeeves!

And one of the finest series in the English language...

A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement this is the first three books in one volume - there's a further nine to enjoy.

And, if there's any WW2 era books then I'd have a few suggestions

I hope that helps.

[Miss M]

The Portable Dorothy Parker is perfect for a road trip.

Also, maybe some Dawn Powell, some of her NY novels are set just after the jazz age heyday, but include characters such as a fictionalized Hemingway and have that hectic Manhattan feel of the era...
A Time to Be Born
The Wicked Pavilion
Turn, Magic Wheel

[Navied]

Thanks for the suggestions.
At this point i'm really intrigued by the glitz and glamour of the postwar generation. Thats not to say I wont read one about working class people, but i'm sort of saving that for latter. So I can read all about high class life that gets romanticized by us, then read about the more "normal" 20's.

Other cultures/countries i'm interested in would definitely by England and France, along with pretty much all of Europe.

Brideshead Revisited is definitely now on my list. As is A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement.

Which Dawn Powell book do you recommend starting with?

[Ally]

You've come to the right place Navied...some fantastic recommendations already. I echo NigeyB's choice of 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh. I also liked 'A Handful of Dust' & 'Decline and Fall' by the same author. Dorothy Parker is also fabulously funny.

Other superstar authors of the era for me are W. Somerset Maugham (try The Painted Veil), Nancy Mitford (The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate) & Katherine Mansfield (Selected Stories).

For non-fiction I'd suggest at least one of George Orwell's gritty investigations into the poverty of the era (The Road to Wigan Pier is great) or perhaps Robert Tressel's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Any of the many books about the Mitford family will entertain you as will Midnight in Peking by Paul French & Thunderstruck by Erik Larson.

I could go on and on....

I hope you find some books here that tickle your fancy & I hope you pop back and tell us what you think of each book you read... Loads of these titles can be found in our group reads archive....or you can start a hot read. Happy reading!

[Miss M]

Re Dawn Powell, I'd recommend Turn, Magic Wheel first.

Couple of good Parisian memoirs of the period:
Memoirs of Montparnasse - John Glassco
Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939 - Janet Flanner

Germany:
The Artificial Silk Girl - Irmgard Keun
The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education - Sybille Bedford

[Jennifer W]

I agree, this group will give you more recommendations than you'll know what to do with! (so let me add to the mix! haha)

I think based on the books you like, you'll really enjoy The Green Hat, though it took me a bit to get into it.

Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties might be one you'd like.

Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 if you're interested in the gangsters of the time.

Our current group read, The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago has been fun.

Though it's more about "the average Joe" than you're current tastes are inclining you, I'd highly recommend The Return of the Soldier. It's short, and that ending just got me.

As I'm looking through my books, I realize that my tastes are more "the average Joe" type, so when you're ready for the comparison, come back and let me know and I'll have a bunch to recommend!

Enjoy!

[Jan C]

If you like mysteries I'd include Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Arthur B. Reeve, E C Bentley.

[Nigeyb]

How did you get on Navied? What did you read? What did you enjoy the most?

[Navied]

Hey Nigeyb! Tour went well, about to start on a new one in a few months. As for books… I read a lot, and a lot of stuff I loved. I'll give you the highlights.

I read all of Fitzgeralds novels and a good portion of his short stories. I read a couple books by Hemingway I enjoyed. I also fell in love with Waugh and have read a bit of his fiction - my two favorites were Vile Bodies and Brideshead Revisited. I also really enjoyed Maugham of his novels I found The Razor's Edge to be absolutely stunning, really one of my favorite books. I stubbled upon Christopher Isherwood and adored both Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin. I went through a Noir phase that ended in reading the highlights of Raymond Chandler's work culminating in The Long Goodbye which blew me away… It's so much more then a noir novel. I also really dug Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara, Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco, and That Summer in Paris by Morley Callaghan.

I still have a lot of great recommendation on my list. I'm looking forward to taking on either A Dance To The Music Of Time by Powell or The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.

[Nigeyb]

Great news - thanks for the update


A Dance To The Music Of Time is wonderful - after a slow start it gets better and better