Mixtape

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In my high school days, I dreamt that a boy I liked would give me a mixtape. What was, in those days, the most profound manner of confessing deep feelings for another. It was a curated soundtrack composed to express teenage angst and desires in a one of a kind masterpiece. It could tell a story with songs as it’s chapters, or it could be meticulously built to fit a theme. It was a way to communicate without being face to face. Or to spark memory in the listener when you were not present. So unquestionably, a gift from the heart, and almost always more about the composer than the listener.

To pop a mixtape into a player is to be transported to another time and place. Each song can usher you from extraordinary love to unbearable grief in a span of four minutes or less. A symphony of emotion, as the dramatic teenager still somewhere inside might describe it. When it came to reimagining an equivalent for readers, I knew that the spectrum of feeling was certainly possible, the timeframe not so much.

As I dug through my personal archives, and yes, I have read enough to use the word archive with utter legitimacy, it was no small task to compile these lists for you. I have dabbled in pretty much everything you can imagine, book wise that is. Which either makes me very impressive or a massive nerd. I am okay with either, or better yet, both! I have read all the Agatha Christie’s, JK Rowling’s, John Sandford’s, Harlen Coben’s, Carl Hiaasen’s, Stephen King’s, a ton of the classics, most of the books later made into television series or movies, and so on.

For the purposes of this feature I have put reading recommendations into unique arrangements. While a mixtape is built of beloved pieces of music, these lists are rich with some of my favourite compositions of words.

And should you be intrigued enough to browse through them, remember this, there are worse places to be than between the covers of books and the places those books can take you.

Guilty Pleasures

Escapism at its best…

Hit Man – Lawrence Block

Bad Things Happen – Harry Dolan

Oblivion – Peter Abrahams

I Am Pilgrim – Terry Hayes

Red Rising – Pierce Brown

Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen

Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

Odd Thomas – Dean Koontz

Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

Before I Go To Sleep – S. J. Watson

The 25thHour – David Benioff

The “In” Crowd

Warning! You may appear cool if reading these in public…

Motherless Brooklyn – Jonathan Lethem

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Wonder – R.J. Palacio

Battle Royale – Koushun Takami

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

Winter’s Bone – Daniel Woodrell

Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

Atonement – Ian McEwan

Turtles All the Way Down – John Green

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick

Book Smarts

If you have witnesses to reading them that is…

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

The Stand – Stephen King

The Once and Future King – T. H. White

Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Dracula – Bram Stoker

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

Someday, Maybe

You know the story, but not the whole story…

Princess Bride – William Goldman

The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

A Million Little Pieces – James Frey

Room – Emma Donoghue

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman

Postcards from the Edge – Carrie Fisher

Chocolate – Joanne Harris

The Martian – Andy Weir

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

In The Stacks

You may never have heard of them, hopefully you get a surprise or two…

The Gun Seller – Hugh Laurie

Restless – William Boyd

Bad Monkeys – Matt Ruff

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow

The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood

Every Dead Thing – John Connolly

The Eight – Katherine Neville

See Jane Run – Joy Fielding

World Without End – Chris Mooney

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

Mashup

Something for everyone…

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Where the Sidewalk Ends – Shel Silverstein

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – Dr. Seuss

Heartburn – Nora Ephron

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

The 13 Clocks – James Thurber

Black Dahlia – James Ellroy

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume

The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett