As a nonfiction author, I’ve always been mystified by fictional character development. What qualities make one character fascinating and another a dud? How do great writers make us fall in love with their creations? If I had one wish as an author, it would be to create one truly beloved character. I particularly like quirky nonconformists who forge their own paths, making mistakes along the way, yet they remain sympathetic. When I finish reading the story, I miss their company. My five recommended books include some of my favorite characters in modern literature.
I wrote
Efficient Linux at the Command Line: Boost Your Command-Line Skills
This book is absolutely worth the hype. The main character, Elizabeth Zott, won my heart by the way she endures the trials of 1960s American sexism, never gives up, and never betrays her moral compass. A triumphant story—I could not put this book down, which was a problem because I was under a big deadline at the time. (Don’t tell my manager.)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book Review).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads
"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." —Seattle Times…
I found Count Alexander Rostov to be a fascinating character with real depth. Sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life, he outwits his opponents at every turn. I love how he changes the lives of everyone around him, whether they are his friends or his jailers, and ultimately how he is changed by them.
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and…
It is 1948 in Berlin. The economy is broken, the currency worthless, and the Russian bear is preparing to swallow its next victim. In the ruins of Hitler's capital, former RAF officers and a woman pilot start an air ambulance company that offers a glimmer of hope. Yet when a…
At first, the main character, Ove, seemed like a curmudgeon whose odd behavior infuriated and confused people around him (in humorous ways).
As I read further, I learned that his every quirk had a deep and satisfying reason. I also loved how the story was filled with kindness. The author, Fredrik Backman, is the king of quirky character development. I’ve read this book four times.
'A JOY FROM START TO FINISH' - Gavin Extence, author of THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS
There is something about Ove.
At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.
I thought this book (another by the king of quirk, Backman) was hysterical. The relationship between the precocious seven-year-old main character, Elsa, and her nutty grandmother is laugh-out-loud funny yet poignant.
I also liked that the story included a bit of magical realism, so I was never quite sure what would happen next.
A must-read for fans of Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, BernadetteHeartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, by the author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon A Man Called Ove will charm and delight anyone who has ever had a grandmother. Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house. Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother told them.But does everyone remember their grandmother flirting with policemen? Driving illegally?Breaking into a zoo in the middle of the night? Firing a paintball gun from a balcony in her dressing gown?Seven-year-old Elsa does.Some might call…
Olivia Thrift, a.k.a. the superheroine Captain Fantastic, is excited to be meeting fellow Canadian superheroines for the first time. However, when their gathering is violently interrupted, it quickly becomes a savage fight against evil.
And, when Olivia suddenly loses her powers, will she be able to set things right when…
This book drew me in from the first sentence: “It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.” I was amazed that in just eleven words, Wolfe conjured three time periods (the present moment, the future, and a later future while looking back).
The incredible adventures of the narrator, Severian, span five books, and I’ve read them all several times. Shadow is also one of the most challenging science fiction books I’ve read because the author leaves mysteries behind for me to figure out myself.
“A major work of twentieth-century American literature...Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within...once into it, there is no stopping.” ―The New York Times on The Book of the New Sun
Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by the Washington Post.
THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is unanimously acclaimed as Wolfe’s most remarkable work, hailed as “a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis” by Publishers Weekly and “one of the most ambitious works of…
This book will improve your Linux command-line skills so you can work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. Think of it as a second book on Linux. It’s based on my 40 years of command-line experience.
If you’re like most Linux users, you learned your early command-line skills on the job, by reading an intro book, or by installing Linux at home and just trying things out. I’ve written this book to help you take the next step—to build intermediate to advanced skills at the Linux command line. It’s filled with techniques and concepts that I hope will transform how you interact with Linux and boost your productivity.
A mother daughter sister story set in Southern California in the 1990's. It starts on the night of the O.J. Simpson slow speed freeway chase. The Simpson case provides background noise for the novel, but the story is not about Simpson. It's about a woman whose life is falling apart.…
“A beautiful thinking-novel.”—Eileen MacDougall, host of WCTV’s Book Stew
“Funny, poignant, original, and memorable…”—The Midwest Book Review
A compulsive overachiever, Madeline lives by the credo that easy is synonymous with mediocre—which is why, at forty-nine, she’s a senior vice president at a…
