The Next Best Book Club discussion

I looked over this list, put out by Entropy, and realized that I have read exactly zero of them.

Suddenly I feel like I am doing this reading thing wrong:

http://entropymag.org/the-books-that-...

Me too!

Although The Elegance of the Hedgehog has been on my radar for a long time.

I look for books that give me the feeling I had at the end of Gone With the Wind: Nooooooo!

And we'll never get Margaret Mitchell's answer to what happened. I am too much of a purist to read Scarlett!, Alexandra Ripley's not very well received sequel.

Or that gut-wrenching ending to On the Beach, Nevil Shute's story about the last humans on Earth.

The other feeling I look for is a book in which, at the end of a long hard haul (Dorothy Sayers took 4 novels to get Harriet Vane to accept Peter Wimsey), feels as if things are finally right. But the battle has to be worth it.

Sorry to quote only old favorites.

How about Tess of the D'Urbervilles or The House of Mirth?

Or if you want a more contemporary book ...The Story of Edgar Sawtelle or Serena

Totally agree with Alicia re Nevil Shute's On the Beach ... I was dreaming about that book when I was reading it. It will stay with me a long time.

Book Concierge wrote: "How about Tess of the D'Urbervilles or The House of Mirth?

Or if you want a more contemporary book ...The Story of Edgar Sawtelle or Serena
..."

May I recommend Trustee from the Toolroom, my other huge Nevil Shute favorite?

Hi. I was just passing by and noticed this thread so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

When the book first came out, I refused to read it. But then I forgot the premise and read it. And cried and threw things and all around vented in a big way.

I read The Year of Magical Thinking. I sat on my couch with the book in my lap surrounded by used and waiting tissues wondering which of the two of us will be left.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles will always be one of my favorite books and I cry every single time!

Anything by Lucia St. Clair Robson is a heart breaker. Maybe more so because she writes historical fiction largely based on facts.

You guys, this is great that this thread became a place to recommend books that devastate, but I was really just looking to see who's read the books from actual list I linked to in the first comment box : )

Because that list was called Books That Devastate and I hadn't read any.

Lori wrote: "I looked over this list, put out by Entropy, and realized that I have read exactly zero of them.

Suddenly I feel like I am doing this reading thing wrong:

http://entropymag.org/the-books-that-hav..."

Lori, thanks for posting this list. I haven't read any of these books either, so my TBR is even longer!

I've read three
A Farewell to Arms
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Elegance of the Hedgehog

It is an interesting list and one difficult to see objectively because each reader reacts differently to books. Yes, I have read The Elegance of the Hedgehog and liked it (3 stars) but devastate? No.

I can see being devastated by A Farewell to Armsbut I probably would never use that term for a book that reads so realistically about war. Perhaps its the term that I have problems with but I also have a hard time with the list because the titles seem to be very obscure....

I'm surprised that The Kite Runner didn't make the list; it's one of the few books that made tears stream down my face.

I would also throw Stolen: A Letter to My Captor into the list. It's devastating in a beautifully sad, mess-with-your-mind way.

The Year of Magical Thinkingwas good, too.