Reads & Recs

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• July 13, 2016

There’s nothing better than chilling on the beach with a good book. Here’s some good novels I’ve read lately that I highly recommend.  Feel free to leave a comment and recommend a book! I’m always trying to start book clubs with people because I’m a huge nerd.

The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Clair North

“The most it ever seems we know how to do with time, is to waste it.”

Harry August remembers all his past lives.  We live and are born again, in the same body, at the same time.  Most of us don’t recall that we already lived our lives over and over, but there’s a select group that can.  This book is a gem.  Truly original.  Action packed, and full of philosophical thought as well.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

“Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?”

Read the first ten pages, and you’ll probably be hooked.  I was.  A friend lent this to me, and I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. It follows Theo Decker, who survives a bomb attack at the MOMA, but his mother dies.  His life spirals from there.  This New York Times best seller will be a movie soon.  I’d say read the book first so you can be disappointed in the movie.

Yes Please! by Amy Poehler

“You have to care about your work but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look.”

Can we just all agree that Amy Poehler is the best?  I read this book in two days.  It was inspiring and funny and reminded me why I’m pursuing something as impossible as comedy.  This book made me feel good, and made me want to write, and be a better person in general.

Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami

“Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.”

This book is a total mind fuck.  You really have no fucking idea what’s going on for most of the book, but it’s so well written, and so strange, you keep coming back for more.  I really enjoyed this one.  If books were drugs, this one would be acid.  Reality is distorted.  Probably not for every one, but if you like weird, check it out.

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

“The road to creativity passes so close to the madhouse and often detours or ends there.”

This is a book about psychology and philosophy.  It’s not a long read, but definitely a dense one.  I highlighted so much in this book to revisit.  I think this is an important read that should be required in school.  Also, after reading this book, I was thoroughly convinced I was schizophrenic for months.

Hotel Living by Ioannis Pappos

“I’m homeless but in first class.”

Stathis Rakis abandons his home of Greece to become a consultant in the United States, where he makes lots of money, does lots of drugs, has lots of gay sex, and is overwhelmingly unhappy (drugs, sex, and people who are miserable are my genre of books).  Chasing money, highs, and people who don’t love you make this book a maddeningly good read.