A starting list of my favorite fiction published in the last 60 years

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Send your suggestions...these are some of mine:

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird
  2. Catch-22--Joseph Heller
  3. Cloudsplitter--Russell Banks--you think your father was strict?  Try living up to this one!
  4. Sometimes a Great Notion--Ken Kesey
  5. A Prayer for Owen Meaney--John Irving.   For pure humor in the face of dire pain, it's almost impossible to match Irving-- Garp still stands up there in the thin atmosphere of heroic laughter too)
  6. Sacred Hunger--Barry Unsworth
  7. Fall on Your Knees--Ann-Marie MacDonald--you don't get multi-generational drama richer than this--even better than Sometimes a Great Notion)
  8. The Shipping News--Annie Proulx (and don't miss Wyoming Stories)
  9. Middlesex--Jeffrey Eugenides
  10. Mother Night--Kurt Vonnegut
  11. Richard Ford--both the four novels of the Frank Bascombe series, and Rock Springs
  12. The Life Before Us--Romain Gary (in translation from the French--also called "Madame Rosa" in literature and film)
  13. Corelli's Mandolin (1994)--‎Louis de Bernières' personal view of the atrocities as Italy lost their part of the war and Germany moved in with even more devastation.   A testament to the hope that any of us can survive.   Great movie too...
  14. Ann Patchett--Bel Canto
  15. George Saunders--CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
  16. Life of Pi--Jan Martel (I love his 2015 High Mountains of Portugal as well)
  17. Angle of Repose--Wallace Stegner (and Crossing to Safety is close)
  18. My Name is Lucy Barton--Liz Strout (I've loved every one of Liz' books, but I think this one is the purest voice)
  19. Mating--Norman Rush
  20. Possession--AS Byatt
  21. We Need to Talk About Kevin--Lionel Shriver (I also loved Post Birthday World)


Non-fiction thoughts:

  1. Refuge Terry Tempest Williams
  2. Into Thin Air--Jon Krakauer
  3. Imperial Cruise
  4. Cod--not well written, but a great perspective on North Atlantic history

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