Top Ten Books for Fall Reading

Yesterday (please pardon my lateness) the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish invited us to list  our

Top Ten Books On Your Fall TBR List 

I figured a late post today would be better than none, so I hurriedly (but not without due consideration) made a list that should be accurate for a week or two.  Preparing the list, if not providing sufficient motivation, at least provides a fall back position if I cannot decide among the other books on my TBR pile.  Without further ado, the following are the ten top books I am hoping to read this fall:

Continuing my reading of certain Classic works I will be reading The Enneads by Plotinus:  This is for a discussion course ot the University of Chicago so I will have encouragement in my traversal of this neoplatonic masterpiece.

Dark Star by Alan Furst:  I have begun to read the novels of Alan Furst.  His intelligent historical thrillers are fiction that I can savor and still obtain some historical and intellectual enjoyment.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris:  The first volume of Morris's magisterial biography of the man who was President during the first decade of the twentieth century.  His policies and character resonate to this day in our political culture. *


The Creator's Map by Emilio Calderon:  I read Traveler of the Century by Andres Neumann last month and will continue exploring Spanish authors with this historical thriller.  The presence of a rare text in a forgotten library and a beautiful bibliophile as one of the primary characters should add to my reading pleasure. 

The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal.  A family memoir that evokes Proust, Rilke, Japanese art, the rue de Monceau, and Vienna during the Second World War should be an interesting read.  I started this one last spring and now that it is on the fall list for our Lincoln Park book group I will return to it!*


A Dangerous Friend by Ward Just:  A novel set in Saigon of 1965 that some have compared to  Greene's Quiet American.  If it is even partly as good as that masterpiece I'll be satisfied with this historical tale.*

The Ambassadors by Henry James:  This classic late period novel from the master of the pre-Proustian psychological novel is on my list for the fall.  I will be a reread of a book of which I remember little from my college days.

Towing Jehovah by William Morrow:  This fantastic tale is part of my continuing journey in literature of Science Fiction.  In this case god has died, and a defrocked sea captain is called back to the helm of an oil supertanker to tow his body to its resting place.  William Morrow's prose has been compared to that of Kurt Vonnegut. 

The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor:  This short novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2002.  Trevor is one of my favorite authors as I enjoy both his short stories and his novels.  This is the choice of our Lincoln Park book group.* 

When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession by Irvin D. Yalom: This is another book group read by an author with whom I am familiar.  An intriguing tale that is both a discussion of philosophy and emerging psychotherapy.  It evokes two fascinating characters in Nietzsche and Breuer.*

Other books may intrude on this list as the fall progresses.  I participate in Science Fiction groups both on and off-line so they will add to the list.  Then there are those books by Alan Hollinghurst, Paul Strathern, and Patrick White that are beckoning me from my TBR pile.

What are you planning on reading this fall? 

*These are books I am reading as a participant in a book discussion group.