These are Examiner’s choices for gift-giving to those with eclectic but discriminating tastes in fiction. Click on the title to see what’s been written about them previously. Remember, not all authors can please everyone, and this selection testifies to that fact. The only recommendation is that Examiner liked these novels – period.
If you’re unsure about a book, check it out at Albuquerque’s libraries. The number of available copies is shown in parenthesis (?). If you decide to buy the novel to give someone, most are available in local bookstores and all are available from online sources.
“The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” (Scribner) by John le Carré. (5)
"Mason & Dixon" (Henry Holt and Co.) by Thomas Pynchon. (8)
“The Language of Flowers” (Ballantine) by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. (10)
"The Elephant's Journey" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by José Saramago. (3)
"2666" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Roberto Bolaño. (4) (4 in Spanish)
"The Blood Oranges" (New Directions) by John Hawkes. (1 at UNM Zimmerman Library, 3rd floor)
“Pale Fire” (Lancer Books) by Vladimir Nabokov. (3)
“A Death in the Family” (Penguin) by James Agee. (5)
“The Lost Books of the Odyssey” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Zachary Mason. (1)
“The Grapes of Wrath” (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck. (6)
If you can’t find a novel that suits you or the person you’d give it to in the 10 listed here, then try “Splat!” or “A Light in Polanco” linked to reviews under Examiner’s Novels (below).
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EXAMINER’S BEST: How to write your 1st novel
EXAMINER’S NOVELS: Splat! A Light in Polanco
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