I’m trying to pick some to read, and I’m having a hard time deciding which ones to go for. Are there any duds I should avoid? Any Pulitzer winners that are a must read for you?
I tend to gravitate towards fiction, but I’m open to recs from the history, biography, or nonfiction categories too (poetry, not so much).
by awkward_blah56
19 Comments
“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doer. Beautiful book.
There is a Netflix limited series but the book is much better. But go ahead and watch the series after reading, it’s not that bad with some great acting.
Lonesome Dove, The Color Purple and Demon Copperhead were all very good and I would recommend them. The Nickel Boys was good as well.
Just looked over the list. I’m surprised by how many of them I haven’t read. A few favorites on that list that I have read: Middlesex; The Shipping News; The Color Purple. My test of how much I love a book is whether or not I would re-read it. I have re-read those three books multiple times.
Goldfinch and Lonesome Dove were pretty good as well. (But I haven’t re-read them!)
Edit: Just read more of the list. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Old Man and the Sea are excellent as well.
As others have said, Lonesome Dove. For non-fiction I really like “An Army At Dawn” by Rick Atkinson
Charles Simic
He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn’t End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems.
I love some of the others mentioned but also:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Chabon, excellent and fun read
The Guns of August – Tuchman, compelling read about the first part of WWI, really surprisingly good
I have a lot of favorites from the Pulitzer fiction list (Demon Copperhead, Trust, The Night Watchman, Less, The Underground Railroad, The Goldfinch, A Visit From the Goon Squad, Gilead, Middlesex, Empire Falls, A Thousand Acres, A Confederacy of Dunces…). It would help to know a little bit more about what kind of books you enjoy and what you’re looking for, since the prize winners cover a big range, even in the fiction category. Someone’s favorite could be your “dud” and vice versa.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Overstory by Richard Powers. Both books which have changed my life.
The Caine Mutiny
I loved The Color Purple.
I hated Advise and Consent.
American Pastoral by Philip Roth – about a family torn apart when their daughter is radicalized during the Vietnam war, and the deconstruction of the American dream. It’s heavy and melodramatic but I think it’s excellent
I loved Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Pulitzer winner I couldn’t finish was [Trust by Hernan Diaz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58210933-trust?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_5). I found it confusing and also think it’s worth another try.
From my list (in addition to some of the great recommendations here):
[Middlesex](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2187.Middlesex)
[Interpreter of Maladies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5439.Interpreter_of_Maladies)
[A Thousand Acres](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41193.A_Thousand_Acres)
Beloved
The Color Purple
Demon Copperhead
The Road
Gilead
The Hours
Lonesome Dove
The Shipping News
I am currently reading “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro. Long book but a great read. The 99% Invisible podcast just started an entertaining monthly “book club” episode covering about 100 pages of the book each month – I highly recommend it!
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is a must read for me.
The story follows a father and his young son as they journey through this ravaged landscape, trying to survive while clinging to whatever shreds of humanity they have left. It’s a tale of love, resilience, and the lengths a parent will go to protect their child, even in the face of unimaginable horror.
won’t lie, this book is not for the faint of heart. It’s dark, it’s brutal, and it will leave you feeling emotionally drained by the end. But it’s also incredibly moving and thought-provoking. It makes you question what it means to be human and what you would do to survive in a world devoid of hope.
So if you’re looking for a gripping, gut-wrenching read that will make you ponder the fragility of life and the resilience of the human spirit, give this book a shot.
Hope you enjoy this one!✨
The Goldfinch, The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad, All the Light We Cannot See, Olive Kitteridge, The Road, Kavalier and Clay, Lonesome Dove, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Old Man and the Sea, The Caine Mutiny, Tales of the South Pacific
Strongly recommend *Lonesome Dove*, *A Visit from the Goon Squad*, and *The Sympathizer*. Recommend that you skip *Trust*, *The Goldfinch*, *The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao*, *The Road*, and, if you go back that far, *A Fable.*
Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain