i adore Shantaram and can’t even begin to express how wonderful it is. i hope more people pick it up based on your recommendation!

i adore Shantaram and can’t even begin to express how wonderful it is. i hope more people pick it up based on your recommendation!

Oooh, I loved Shantaram too! The story is truly epic in scale and really does have “something for every one” in it. Incidentally and ironically, it’s also the book that ruined The White Tiger (by Aravind Adiga) for me! In Shantaram, Roberts sees and writes as a foreigner and picks up all the luscious and exotic and well, *foreign* details of the settings; whereas in The White Tiger, Adiga is an Indian, writing about India, while living in India and there is a lot that gets taken for granted. After listening to Shantaram, I felt like I had gone on the journey with Lin I pretty much dare anyone to read this and not fall in love with it. BTW, It’s narrated by Humphrey Bower, who voice turns me into a puddle I cannot believe I didn’t mention it last year when the audiobook podcast came up!

Oooh, I loved Shantaram too! The story is truly epic in scale and really does have “something for every one” in it. Incidentally and ironically, it’s also the book that ruined The White Tiger (by Aravind Adiga) for me! In Shantaram, Roberts sees and writes as a foreigner and picks up all the luscious and exotic and well, *foreign* details of the settings; whereas in The White Tiger, Adiga is an Indian, writing about India, while living in India and there is a lot that gets taken for granted. After listening to Shantaram, I felt like I had gone on the journey with Lin I pretty much dare anyone to read this and not fall in love with it. BTW, It’s narrated by Humphrey Bower, who voice turns me into a puddle I cannot believe I didn’t mention it last year when the audiobook podcast came up!

I’m really sorry I missed adding my recommendation to this list, but am surprised it never came up, although I don’t think I’d consider it mainstream. “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth clocks in at 1,300+ pages and takes place over 18 months in India in the 1950s. It has everything, history, suspense, politics, love, loss, death, and on occasion is quite funny. Definitely an investment of time, I started in January and finished at the end of March (I read a couple of books in between), but I felt it was well worth the time. Besides, it was taking up valuable real estate on my book shelf for about five years and needed that space! )

Another favorite is “Gone with the Wind.” I tend to like to read my long books from January until springtime. Makes the winter go by quicker it seems!

I’m really sorry I missed adding my recommendation to this list, but am surprised it never came up, although I don’t think I’d consider it mainstream. “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth clocks in at 1,300+ pages and takes place over 18 months in India in the 1950s. It has everything, history, suspense, politics, love, loss, death, and on occasion is quite funny. Definitely an investment of time, I started in January and finished at the end of March (I read a couple of books in between), but I felt it was well worth the time. Besides, it was taking up valuable real estate on my book shelf for about five years and needed that space! )

Another favorite is “Gone with the Wind.” I tend to like to read my long books from January until springtime. Makes the winter go by quicker it seems!

I love “It” and “The Historian” both are amazing reads and though “big books” they are completely worth the time.

I love “It” and “The Historian” both are amazing reads and though “big books” they are completely worth the time.

I’m a little behind in listening to the podcast (obviously), but I was interested to see that the genre (in my unofficial research) that was most represented seemed to be SciFi/Fantasy. I wonder if that genre tends to lend itself more toward that end because the authors have to create a whole new world inside the pages of the book?

I’m a little behind in listening to the podcast (obviously), but I was interested to see that the genre (in my unofficial research) that was most represented seemed to be SciFi/Fantasy. I wonder if that genre tends to lend itself more toward that end because the authors have to create a whole new world inside the pages of the book?

Hello! I just bought Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It looks like a doozy that I can pass off to my husband for summer reading after I make my way through it.

My big book suggestion: The Crimson Petal and the White my Michel Faber (18th century London prostitute, Sugar, climbs the social ranks), and Roses by Leila Meacham (Plantation romance – first novel by a woman in her 70′s published this year. Contains the worst thing I’ve ever read a mother do to her daughter, I gasped on the subway when I read it!).

Hello! I just bought Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It looks like a doozy that I can pass off to my husband for summer reading after I make my way through it.

My big book suggestion: The Crimson Petal and the White my Michel Faber (18th century London prostitute, Sugar, climbs the social ranks), and Roses by Leila Meacham (Plantation romance – first novel by a woman in her 70′s published this year. Contains the worst thing I’ve ever read a mother do to her daughter, I gasped on the subway when I read it!).

I’m with you on “A Suitable Boy.” Another favourite is “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry, mentioned by Canadian Joanne in the comments for the last big books podcast.