| Recommend? | Book | Author | Year | Impression |
|---|
| ✓ | Neapolitan Novels | Elena Ferrante | 2011 | One of the most interesting books I've recently read. Storytelling is on fantastic level. I felt like I am in the middle of Naples of the second half of 20 century. I could not stop reading until the very end. The atmosphere, main characters and plot twists are overwhelmingly astonishing. Highly recommend. |
| ✓ | All Quiet on the Western Front | Erich Maria Remarque | 1929 | Very vivid description of the front line and the war through soldier eyes. It leaves a kind of hopeless aftertaste. And a very strong with that something like that won't happen ever again. |
| ✓ | They Would Never Hurt a Fly | Slavenka Drakulić | 2003 | Unusual view on Balkan wars through the eyes of war criminals. An attempt to analyze how they got into situation which led to mass killings. Definitely worth a read. Even though there were a couple of minor moments which seems a bit biased. |
| ✓ | Blindness | José Saramago | 1995 | Amazing story about the world under blindness. After COVID it looks like a very precise description of the possible thing. Surprisingly trustworthy. |
| ✓ | A Little Life | Hanya Yanagihara | 2015 | A book about tough life of a man. I've seen plenty of reviews that it's not an easy story. However I enjoyed it anyway. |
| ✓ | The General of the Dead Army | Ismail Kadare | 1963 | It was a very interesting book. I didn't know there were special missions to find and move bodies of dead soldiers after WWII. This story is about such a thing. |
| ✓ | Hadji Murat | Leo Tolstoy | 1912 | Sometimes a bit too historical, nevertheless still very intersting story of Hadji Murat. Leo Tolstoy made a great text as usual. |
| ✓ |
Story about Hodja Nasreddin
| Leonid Solovyov | 1956 | Very inspirational read. Light. Full of love to life. The book makes much more sense when you learn that second part was written while Leonid Solovyov was doing his sentence in GULAG. |
| × | Utopia | Thomas More | 1516 | That's more a kind of philosophical work rather than a fiction. I had a hard time to read it. |
| ✓ | Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | 1959 | It was a great read. Very vivid description. However closer to the middle of the book following plot was more or less clear. Anyway this book is not about unexpected plot twists, but more about giving a food for thoughts about situation like described one. |
| ✓ | Patria | Fernando Aramburu | 2016 | Author did a great job to create a vibe when you literally live inside the book. As well as to demonstrate how destructive and awful can be ideology and force applied the wrong way. |
| ✓ |
Strange Weather in Tokyo
| Hiromi Kawakami | 2001 | I enjoyed a good slow rhythm of the book. Author did a great job to put a reader in atmosphere of Tokyo and protagonists mood. It was indeed very interesting (and a bit strange sometimes). |
| ✓ | Convenience Store Woman | Sayaka Murata | 2016 | The book demonstrates the world from person view who doesn't meet society standards. It does the demonstration really well. |
| ✓ | The Great Automatic Grammatizator | Roald Dahl | 1953 | I was really surprised by how people in the mid of last century imagined the future. Felt very steampunk. |
| ✓ | Blood music | Greg Bear | 1985 | It was an interesting sci-fi thing. Nothing fancy, but it was interesting. |
| × |
Petrov's Flu and around it
|
Aleksei Salnikov
| 2016 | Very strange book. Just a mind flow without start and finish. With no plot. Sometimes a clear graphomania. After the reading the most important question I had was "Why in the world did I read this?" :) |
| × |
The Salt Path
| Raynor Winn | 2018 | A book how a family couple lost their house and started a trail walk around south west England coast. It's a nice book, but sometimes I had a hard time reading it, either cause of heavy wording, either cause of too many details I didn't find necessary. May be it's just me. |
| ✓ |
The Air You Breathe
|
Frances de Pontes Peebles
| 2018 | It was a bit tough to start the book. Most likely I was still under impression from previous book, even though I finished it a few days before. Anyway, once I got into the book I couldn't stop. The story is not something special, but the characters and their motivation and their environment are showed just excellently. It's a good book, querida. |
| ✓ | A Fine Balance | Rohinton Mistry | 1995 | You have no choice but empathize while main characters are pursuing the balance. You have no choice but be puzzled and angry about historical events during The Emergency of Indira Gandhi in India 1970th. You have no choice but to read this book. |
| ✓ | A Primate's Memoir | Robert Sapolsky | 2002 | One of the most interesting non-fiction books I've read recently. Primatologist tells the reader his story about his field work with baboons in Kenya national parks, local people and their traditions. I literally lived through the entire book together with the author. |
| × | Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | 1856 | After reading some reviews my expectations were set way too high. It reallly spoiled the overall impression. The plot is quite simple, but I have to admit author did a great job describing life details in those time and made characters crystal clear. |
| ✓ | Half of a Yellow Sun | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | 2006 | Novel about life before and during Nigerian civil war around which country got independence from UK. Author did a great job to show local life and traditions in peace time and during the war. The text made me live this through and I just couldn't stop to read until the end. |
| × |
Nomads
|
Ilijas Jessenberlin
| 1969 | Historical trilogy about Kazakh steppe in Middle ages. It's a tough reading: good part of the text is way too slow and not enjoyable. A lot of attention to small details which doesn't help to understand the plot or people's action. |
| × |
The Day the World Collapsed
|
Rollan Seisenbayev
| 2002 | A short story about USSR nuclear experiments in Semipalatinsk area (Kazakhstan) from ordinary local point of view. Frankly saying I expected more detailed description of nuclear trials, local life and the long term effects. |
| × |
The Vox
|
Christina Dalcher
| 2018 | Reddit post and idea of anti-utopian world sold me a book. However it's not exactly what I expected. The first half of the book was quite boring, slow and unnatural. The second half was much better. There started some action, interesting plot twists. I can't say it's "must read" book, but some may enjoy it. |
| ✓ | Children of Gebelawi | Naguib Mahfouz | 1959 | Immersive description of Arabic town. Hint (which I found on the internet): every chapter represents one of Abrahamic religion but the last one. |
| ✓ | The Stranger | Albert Camus | 1942 | The plot is amazing. You can't help yourself but put main character's situation on your life. Unfortunately the story leaves a feeling that it's not finished. Like someone took away a draft in the middle of work and just published it. |
| ✓ | Shantaram | Gregory David Roberts | 2003 | The reader might have an impression that it's autobiography. Well, it's not. It's a fiction novel based on author life stories. The book greatly describes main character experience and his integration in new society. Sometimes I had a feeling that author is graphomanic, but in general it was a tremendous pleasure to read the story. I wanted to visit Mumbai again so bad while reading this. Hopefully will go there one day one more time. |
| ✓ | Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes (ru) | Guzel Yakhina | 2015 | A story of woman went through dekulakization and harsh life in exile. In fact author describes life of her grandmother. I still can't believe that it was possible. |
| ✓ | Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | 1605 | Breathtaking first book. For some reason I expected that plot twists will be primitive, but it's not the case. Second book is less exciting, the author even put an ironic note about it right in the book. I had to force myself to complete the last bit of it. May be if I'd made a longer break between books it'd be better. |
| ✓ | This Is Going to Hurt | Adam Kay | 2017 | A great book. Funny and serious. It shows in details a hard job of emergency gynecologic. |
| ✓ | City of endless night | Milo Hastings | 1920 | I was surprised that it's not a famous book. The world and its society is described in a great way, the ideas of the hierarchy are impressing. I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed to compare ideals and anti-ideals from the beginning of the previous century and from nowadays. |
| ✓ | Shahnameh | Ferdowsi | 1000 | It's an interesting book. However at some point I found myself having a light déjà vu cause plot repeats itself. Especially I enjoyed the legend on how Kurd nation appeared. |
| × | Orphans of the Helix | Dan Simmons | 1999 | It might be not my type of science fiction. There are way too many technical and physical details of the world with close to zero plot development. I didn't enjoy at all. |
| ✓ | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | 1989 | The author managed to create an atmosphere of an old English house with butlers and servants exactly as I would imagine it. I just was taken away and put into this world with all the rules and small details. Amazing. |
| ✓ | Just for fun | Linus Torvalds
,
David Dimond
| 2001 | It's a biography of Finnish student who wrote a Linux kernel. Not sure about you, but I really enjoyed it. |
| ✓ | Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | 1957 | It wasn't easy to get through it. The middle part is quite tiresome. But the last part did it all. I constantly was thinking about the book for a couple more weeks after I finished the reading. A rare book leaves such a strong impression. |
| ✓ | The Wedding of Zein | Tayeb Salih | 1962 | Great description of life in small Sudanese town. I really love such things. It is especially good with "Season of migration to North". |
| ✓ | Season of Migration to the North | Tayeb Salih | 1966 | It's an interesting representation of difference between Arab East and West. It was a very good read. |
| ✓ | Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! | Richard Feynman | 1985 | Normally I'm extra cautious about autobiographies. In this case tones of positive reviews made me to read it. It was a good choice. Sometimes it was a bit boring, but overall very pleasant. |
| ✓ | Ghost in the Wires | Kevin Mitnick | 2011 | One of the world most famous computer crackers tells his story from the childhood to how he ended up caught by FBI. Tremendous thing. |
| ✓ |
The Master and Margarita
| Mikhail Bulgakov | 1940 | That's a great thing. The humor might be a bit Soviet specific. The multiple plots is a thing. Don't try to look for a hidden meaning, just enjoy the book. |
| ✓ | The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1955 | It's a fantasy classic. Just read it. |
| ✓ | A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | 2007 | I've no idea how author does it, but his books I read at a stretch. |
| ✓ | The Twelve Chairs | Ilya Ilf
,
Yevgeny Petrov | 1928 | Ilf and Petrov are just amazing. It has some Soviet related humor, but it absolutely worth to try it. |
| ✓ | The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | 2003 | Even though the author left Afghanistan as a kid, I guess the childhood memories are very strong. A great writing about the life before and during Afghan war doesn't let you go until you finish the book. |
| ✓ | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | 1979 | This book has The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It worth a reading just to know The Answer. |
| × | Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade | Kurt Vonnegut | 1969 | Well, I just didn't understand the book. A weird intersection of reality and unreality made me feel strange and I just lost the meaning. |
| ✓ |
One-storeyed America
| Ilya Ilf
,
Yevgeny Petrov | 1937 | I was going to visit USA and just couldn't skip this book. After so many years the book is still actual. There's a bit of Soviet propaganda, but looks like it was the only way to publish it. Fortunately it's always very clear where it's the truth and where's the propaganda. |
| ✓ | Animal Farm: A Fairy Story | George Orwell | 1945 | The book makes it crystal clear why "all are equal but some are more equal". |
| ✓ |
A Ticket to Tranai
| Robert Sheckley | 1955 | That short story is simply genius. From the first word till the last sentence. Go read it, and I'll go for "Tranai Special". |
| ✓ | 1984 | George Orwell | 1949 | Only the lazy one didn't refer to 1984. Just read it. |
| ✓ | The Little Golden Calf | Ilya Ilf
,
Yevgeny Petrov | 1931 | |
| ✓ | Monday Begins on Saturday | Arkady and Boris Strugatsky | 1964 | |
| ✓ | The Invisible Man | H.G. Wells | 1897 | |
| ✓ | The Gift of the Magi | O. Henry | 1906 | |
| ✓ | The Hobbit, or There and Back Again | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937 | |
| ✓ |
Heart of a Dog
| Mikhail Bulgakov | 1925 | |
| ✓ | White Fang | Jack London | 1906 | |
| ✓ |
Love of Life
| Jack London | 1905 | |
| ✓ | Les trois mousquetaires | Alexandre Dumas | 1844 | |
| ✓ | Le comte de Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | 1845 | |
| ✓ | Drei Kameraden | Erich Maria Remarque | 1936 | |
| ✓ |
We
| Yevgeny Zamyatin | 1920 | |
| ✓ | The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | 1951 | |
| ✓ | Cien años de soledad | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | 1967 | |
| ✓ | Le Petit Prince | Antoine de Saint-Exupery | 1943 | |
| ✓ | The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | 1952 | |